According to some Fortune 500 diversity executives, the answer is a resounding YES!  In a 2012 Forbes article, the author Glenn Llopis interviewed executives from Walgreens, EMC, Abercrombie & Fitch, and McKesson seeking answers to the question.  He asked questions seeking insight into how the companies assure that their diversity and inclusion efforts are directly tied to driving bottom line business results.  The article followed a 2011 Forbes Insight survey of 300 multi-national executives in which 41% identified the ‘failure to perceive the connection between diversity and business drivers’ as a barrier to developing and implementing an effective diversity strategy. 

Abercrombie & Fitch and EMC

In the article, Abercrombie & Fitch described driving what the executive called “diversity champion behavior” by in-store employees to drive ROI.  EMC shares details about their diversity best practices with their clients to help develop relationships that support their business goals.  They also use diversity talent retention metrics and their employer brand’s ability to attract diverse talent to measure D&I Return on Investment.  Walgreens and McKesson also agreed that Diversity and Inclusion is treated as a profit center for their enterprise to flourish.

Want more?  Check out these resources:

Deloitte: Re-examining the Business Case for Diversity

This point of view report from Deloitte Consulting shares survey results of 506 U.S. organizations that showed that companies with greater racial and gender diversity performed better in terms of sales revenues, number of customers and market share.  For example, a one unit increase in racial diversity increased the number of customers by more than 400 and 200 for gender diversity; and a one unit increase in racial diversity increased sales revenue by 9% and 3% for gender diversity. 

McKinsey: Is there a payoff from top team diversity?

McKinsey conducted a survey of 180 publicly traded companies in France, Germany, The United Kingdom and The United States, focusing objectively on two diversity categories (women and foreign nationals) on senior teams. The results of this study released in 2012 showed a consistent link between diversity and financial performance.  For companies in the top quartile of executive-board diversity, returns on equity (ROE) were on average 53% higher, and the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were an average of 14% higher.

Looking to introduce, troubleshoot, or optimize a diversity and inclusion program?  This information can get you started in the right direction.

AT&T faced a significant financial crisis in the midst of the recent recession, and needed a way to develop employees at a lower cost. They had identified their high-potentials at several management levels, but they needed

a way to expand and scale the development of these Hi-Pos at minimal costs.  A formal classroom leadership training course or university business school executive education program would be too costly.  AT&T selected Mentoring as the development solution.

However, not the traditional series of “face to face” meetings where an experienced leader (the mentor) assists another (the mentee) to build critical skills and knowledge for career development.  The company wanted to take advantage of the learning potential of their social networks which were actively being used by employees.  After a thorough evaluation of their enterprise Facebook site, other internal collaborative software, and external providers of mentoring technology, AT&T chose Open Mentoring® from Triple Creek as the best solution to meet their needs. 

Enterprise Social Networking vs. Open Mentoring

They concluded that social networking provided mostly unstructured or accidental learning and their Hi-Po mentoring objectives required more than that.  The program needed to build diverse and flexible knowledge sharing networks across the organization that emphasized critical AT&T business competencies.   They also had to have the ability to measure the outcomes of the initiative.  The company concluded that the Open Networking® solution provided the structure and guided learning they were seeking:

Open Mentoring allows mentees to take part in multiple mentor relationships to meet their specific career, topical or situational development needs.  It provides the organization the ability to track and measure outcomes better than traditional mentoring.  

AT&T’s Results

AT&T leveraged one-to-one career mentoring and group mentoring in the software. Over the first year, they saw expanded collaboration via 28 new mentoring groups that they established among different sets of managers, ranging from entry-level to mid-career management.  The company reports publicly that the program was cost-effective, has met their leadership development goals, and strongly recommends the Open Mentoring® platform to other organizations.

Open Mentoring was recognized by Brandon Hall Research in 2012 for Coaching and Mentoring Excellence.    

For an overview of the features and benefits, check out Open Mentoring® and let me know what you think about it! 

“Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.” -  Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club

We know that executives, especially CEOs, are responsible for selling the company’s vision.  Passionately driving the organizational strategy; creating a clear view of the future state by helping others understand and feel how things will be different when the future vision is achieved.

The late Steve Jobs was considered an exemplary visionary leader as CEO of Apple in the 1980’s and again after returning to head up the firm in 1996 to lead them to over a decade of extraordinary growth.  Barron’s current list of top CEOs includes Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com, Jeffrey Boyd, Priceline.com, Carlos Brito, Anheuser-Busch and Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire-Hathaway at the top of their annual Top 30 CEO list.  What do these executives have in common besides a high-performing company?  They all have a strong ability to sell their vision to others.  

Selling the vision is also the responsibility of operational line executives in Finance, Research & Development, Marketing, Sales and shared services such as IT and HR.

Key action steps for accomplishing this mission include:

5 Key Steps for Selling the Vision

1.   Develop a clear vision for the company or organization – through external and internal analyses, creating a shared vision, and understanding your role as a “vision seller.”

2.   Convey a clear sense of the organization’s purpose and mission that captures the imagination of others – communicate and manage the vision, develop consistent messages, use formal communication channels and make every effort to “walk the talk.”

3.   Maintain a long-term big-picture view of the business - focus on the future, create alternative scenarios and commit to necessary long-term investments.

4.   Recognize when it is time to shift strategic direction within the vision - look for opportunities in the marketplace, identify the risks to missing the need to change.

5.   Come up with fresh ideas and innovative breakthrough ideas to drive the vision - expand your awareness and perspectives, pursue state-of-the art information and “next practices.”

These tips are just a few of the recommendations for creating and selling the corporate vision from PDI Ninth House’s Successful Executive’s Handbook.  I have the book on my shelf and regularly refer to it for development suggestions when coaching executives and managers

Do you work in a non-financial department or function?  Does you educational background lack courses in accounting and corporate finance?  Understanding “the numbers” as a non-financial manager will be invaluable throughout your career, in analyzing business opportunities, assessing financial risks, and communicating your ideas to others.  After reviewing educational solutions and speaking with colleagues who are finance and accounting experts, here is my take on the seven most critical financial skills for those of us without financial backgrounds.  I selected these from a larger list, so if you come up with others, please let me know:

7 Most Critical Financial Skills 

1.   Discuss and report financial data in the appropriate terminology.

2.   Ability to read and assess financial statements such as the Balance Sheet and Income Statement.

3.   Understand how the numbers reflected in financial statements are generated and manipulated.

4.   Use proven accounting methods to forecast revenue and plan for growth.

5.   Understand how financial data is used to make business decisions and evaluate performance.

6.   Ability to discuss your own company’s annual and quarterly financial results with your team and senior management.

7.   Know precisely how your department contributes to enterprise value through; revenue growth, expense reduction and/or increasing asset efficiency.

Access to formal learning on finance for non-financial managers is available everywhere; from local community college continuing education, to top university business school executive education programs.  If you are looking to get started and build a foundation, try conducting  an internet and You Tube search for; “How to Read Financial Statements,” “Basic Accounting and Financial Terms,” and “How to Create Enterprise Value.”  You will gain access to a wealth of free informal learning regarding these critical financial skills.

If you work at a public company, you know those announcements to investors about the quarterly financial results conference call webcasts that are promoted on your firm’s website?  Don’t ignore the next one!  Listen in and hear directly from your CEO and CFO about the company’s financial performance.  If you listen to the quarterly webcasts regularly, either live or archived, you will gradually build your knowledge and become an expert in no time at all.  At some point consider completing an executive education course or training program on the topic to bolster your finance education.  It will have a positive impact on your performance and career!

Uncertainty, Change, Failure, Crisis, all situations which bring on adversity and stress.  How do people deal with personal and work challenges that change their lives?  Many people react to such difficulties with anxiety and a sense of uncertainty.  Others adapt well to life-changing situations and stressful circumstances.  What enables them to do so?  It involves resilience, an ongoing process that requires time and effort and engages people in taking a number of steps.

In the workplace, resilience takes the form of several observable behaviors:

A Resilient Person:

1.   Is patient, tenacious, and resourceful when seeking information to satisfy a request or complete a project.

2.   Projects credibility and poise under difficult or adverse conditions.

3.   Finds ways to overcome or eliminate barriers that are hindering achievement of his or her goals.

4.   Views failures and mistakes as an opportunity to learn.

5.   Sees issues and problems through to completion.

A Resilient Leader:

1.   Quickly responds to unforeseen changes in the business.

2.   Treats all people with respect and fairness, even when under pressure.

3.   Handles contacts with subordinates with a high degree of professionalism (e.g., maintains a calm disposition even when others are upset, without conveying impatience or annoyance).

4.   Keeps team members calm and focused in uncertain or complicated situations.

5.   Maintains progress (while maintaining quality) when handling multiple tasks and projects, even under stressful situations or when faced with competing deadlines.

Resilience is Developed

Learning to be resilient is a continuous process.  I’ve used different approaches for my clients over the years including:

• Self-Assessments:  to build awareness of personal strengths and limitations.
• Workshops and Action learning: to go beyond awareness and build emotional intelligence and personal mastery through education and experience.
• Coaching: to transform the way people think, feel, and act through a relationship and achieve their fullest potential for resilience.

A couple of great resources for self-study include Kindle and audio versions of The Power of Resilience by Dr. Robert Brooks and the paperback book The Resiliency Advantage by Al Siebert.

Uncertainty, Change, Failure, Crisis, all situations which bring on adversity and stress.  How do people deal with personal and work challenges that change their lives?  Many people react to such difficulties with anxiety and a sense of uncertainty.  Others adapt well to life-changing situations and stressful circumstances.  What enables them to do so?  It involves resilience, an ongoing process that requires time and effort and engages people in taking a number of steps.

In the workplace, resilience takes the form of several observable behaviors:

 A Resilient Person:

1.   Is patient, tenacious, and resourceful when seeking information to satisfy a request or complete a project.

2.   Projects credibility and poise under difficult or adverse conditions.

3.   Finds ways to overcome or eliminate barriers that are hindering achievement of his or her goals.

4.   Views failures and mistakes as an opportunity to learn.

5.   Sees issues and problems through to completion.

A Resilient Leader:

1.   Quickly responds to unforeseen changes in the business.

2.   Treats all people with respect and fairness, even when under pressure.

3.   Handles contacts with subordinates with a high degree of professionalism (e.g., maintains a calm disposition even when others are upset, without conveying impatience or annoyance).

4.   Keeps team members calm and focused in uncertain or complicated situations.

5.   Maintains progress (while maintaining quality) when handling multiple tasks and projects, even under stressful situations or when faced with competing deadlines.

Resilience is Developed

Learning to be resilient is a continuous process.  I’ve used different approaches for my clients over the years including:

• Self-Assessments: to build awareness of personal strengths and limitations.
• Workshops and Action learning: to go beyond awareness and build emotional intelligence and personal mastery through education and experience.
• Coaching: to transform the way people think, feel, and act through a relationship and achieve their fullest potential for resilience.

A couple of great resources for self-study include Kindle and audio versions of The Power of Resilience by Dr. Robert Brooks and the paperback book The Resiliency Advantage by Al Siebert.

As an employee of a company that sells products in over 175 countries around the world, I am always interested in the ups and downs of the global economy.  One of the several resources I regularly refer to on the topic is McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm that is an advisor to many of the world’s leading businesses, governments, and institutions.  Their RSS feed, podcasts, digital media articles, widgets and social networks are full of information and microlearning opportunities for leaders.

Several weeks ago McKinsey released the results of their December 2012: Global Survey which revealed that corporate executives report a more positive outlook for the global economy and their own companies in 2013.  The online survey was in the field from December 3 to December 7, 2012, and received responses from 1,575 executives representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, tenures, and functional specialties. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data is weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

What Executives Are Saying About the Global Economy in 2013

• Executives have an outlook that’s more positive than negative, though they remain concerned that overall poor consumer demand will threaten growth.
• Across regions, executives in developed economies are much more likely than they were in September 2012,  to cite insufficient support from government (that is, a lack of fiscal or monetary policies that support economic and business activity) as a risk to domestic growth.
• Executives broadly believe that demand for their companies’ products or services—as well as their companies’ profits—will increase in the next six months, despite their concern about sluggish global and domestic demand.
• They also predict that emerging markets will continue to drive global growth and are less likely to expect a sharp slowdown in China’s growth over the next year and the next decade than they were in September.
• Executives in India have a positive view for 2013, their counterparts in Europe are not as optimistic.
• Despite their optimism, most executives don’t see a significant growth in the size of their workforce.

Interested in the survey findings by; global region, country, developed countries and emerging markets?  Check out this article on McKinsey & Company’s December 2012: Global Economy Survey. 

Hey, I’m not the biggest football fan in the country, but with the college football national championship game last month, and the NFL Super Bowl Game last week, I understand why some teams succeed and others fail.  The mistakes that draw a whistle and penalty flag, and what successful plays lead to the referee raising both arms upwards to confirm a successful field goal or touchdown are clear to me.  I even know that a “safety” is worth 2 points to the team that performs it!

What about the causes of success or failure of organizational senior leaders?

Top 10 Factors That Contribute Most to the Failure of Senior Leaders

• Failure to build relations and a team culture
• Leader is a mismatch for the culture
• Failure to deliver acceptable results
• Unable to win support
• Lack of effective training
• Leader is overly egotistical
• Lack of vision
• Inflexible
• Poor management skills
• Poor communication

These results came from a recent joint survey of 1400 CEOs and HR professionals by Right Management and Chally Group.

In conversations with relatives and friends far more knowledgeable about football than me, I’ve learned that these factors apply to the coaches and player leaders on sports teams as well!  Both Alabama in college football and the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL had what it takes this past season.

For those of us responsible for leadership development and talent management, football fans or not, we need to keep our eyes on these leadership competencies when selecting and developing our senior leaders.

Does your employer brand strategy target audience include Generation Z, commonly defined as “people born between the mid 1990’s and 2010?”  It may seem absurd to focus on this group, most of who are still years away from college and being legally able to hold a job.  However the key to building a strong employer brand to attract and retain talent is long-term planning.

Behavioral Traits – Generation Z is:

• Comfortable with and even dependent on technology, having grown up in a digital world where technology was ever-present
• Constantly multitasking with a variety of online products and sophisticated electronic devices, and appreciates simple and interactive designs
• More socially responsible, due to greater access to a large online information pool
• Always connected, communicating through various social networking channels, often across countries and cultures which significantly influences their decision process

Marketing Implications – Companies targeting Generation Z will want to:

• Adopt technology-based marketing and sales channels
• Aim to ‘catch them young’
• Enhance their virtual world presence
• Develop and market high value-for-money products and services
• Be Green

Don’t confuse Gen Z with their predecessors Gen Y, check out the source of these findings; Consumers of Tomorrow – Insights and Observations About Generation Z from Grant Research.  

Generation Zers are also called Digital Natives because of their lifelong use of communications technologies such as the worldwide web, text messaging, instant messaging, MP3 players, smartphones and YouTube.  According to Australian consumer marketing and social researcher Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research, there are other characteristics that differentiate Gen Z from other generations:

What Makes Gen Z Unique

• First generation to be born into a digital world
• Growing up faster
• In education earlier
• Exposed to marketing faster
• Access to a wealth of diverse information at their fingertips

I learned quite a bit about Gen Z from Mark’s blog and whitepaper entitled; Generation Z Defined: Global, Visual, Digital.

By 2020 Gen Z will make up 36% of the workforce. Reflecting on the consumer marketing research about Gen Z and applying my knowledge of attracting and retaining talent, here are some of my tips for employer branding and Gen Z:

5 Tips for Employer Branding and Gen Z

1. Create an Employer Brand online Strategy – review the strategy frequently, at least quarterly and adjust/realign as needed.  Become an early adopter of new communication tactics and technologies.

2. Fine tune your employee value propositions to influence the way Gen Z views the employment experience you offer – focus on their behavioral traits and the corresponding marketing implications.

3. Highlight the company’s technology focus and strengths – research shows that over 70% of Gen Z want a career working with or involving “cutting edge technology” as most believe it offers better long-term career growth.

4. Invest in a website and other marketing vehicles that are simpler and more highly interactive than your current ones – Gen Z is more discriminating and less patient than Gen Y, Gen X and Boomers.  Utilize blogs, podcasts, online video sharing, RSS feeds, micro blogging, and storytelling.

5. Emphasize social responsibility, sustainability and diversity.

Are you already working towards being an Employer of Choice for Gen Z?   Let me know what tactics you are planning for when it is time to attract the Digital Natives!

Helping employees to perform their jobs more effectively and increase their engagement is every leader’s objective.  Sometimes the traditional approaches of a 3-day instructor led class, an 8-hour eLearning course or even a 1-hour “lunch and learn” session just won’t cut it.  What is required involves fast tips for improving efficiency and effectiveness, reminders about critical technical information, and sharing knowledge and behavioral adjustments to quickly improve the employee’s productivity.

Behavior Change and Boosting Productivity

I’m not referring to the mere communication of information, but rather ensuring the receipt of learning content that can be assessed for comprehension and behavioral change.   I’m referring to learning that improves productivity and helps achieve operational and business goals.  Microlearning, or small chunks of learning, has been a buzzword for at least 5 years, but is becoming more and more a mainstay in the learning and development field.

Microlearning deals with relatively small learning units and short-term learning activities.  Generally, it refers to micro-perspectives in the context of learning, education and training.  More frequently, the term is used in the domain of eLearning, mLearning and related fields as a relatively new paradigm shift in the way we learn.

Changes in the workplace and workforce over the last few years require less time for the development and delivery of learning content.   We may just need to provide a new customer service policy, sales process change, or compliance program in just 15-20 minutes.  The format could involve text, audio, video or multimedia.  Employees’ tablets and smartphones replace the classroom and the webinar with microlearning. 

Is Microlearning Right for You?

The growth of cloud computing and mobile devices is redefining microlearning in significant ways.  The development of the content is the responsibility of the learning function, members of a community of practice and even business units themselves.  The universities, companies and learning solution providers that are performing microlearning successfully have formally incorporated it within their learning architecture.  A learning architecture is a design or framework for a system of developmental activities and interventions.  Its purpose is to help organizations use learning and development as levers to accomplish their business goals.          

Is microlearning a part of your enterprise learning and development architecture?