*This is a guest post authored by Rob Field, Learning and Development Director at Advanced People Strategies.
Every business I know is working to measure engagement. After all, the difference between good and great lies in discretionary effort. Drive higher engagement and get better results. What could be simpler?
How to make it happen and where the responsibility lies is an interesting question. Often measured, evaluated, and benchmarked each year by HR through surveys – real ownership belongs to the line manager who can create a working climate where people enjoy contributing and feel valued. You can put anything you like on the walls about the corporate culture and ‘how we work around here’, however, it only becomes a reality through interactions managers have with their teams and how individual team members treat each other. That sets the culture, which determines the level of engagement.
We become engaged by what is important to us. Our values and motives, the things that drive us to act in particular ways. All of this can be measured, accurately. Supporting managers to understand their motives and values as part of their ongoing development is critical to their effectiveness as leaders.
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Does a Computer Know Your Personality Better Than Your Friends?
A few years ago, as I was standing in the bookstore, I heard someone on the radio talk about a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing that a computer algorithm, relying only on the things you "like" on Facebook, makes more accurate judgments of your personality than your friends. If you heard about this study, it might have made you feel a bit squeamish. Maybe it even made you want to delete your Facebook account. In the wake of Cambridge Analytica, it is certainly reasonable to wonder just how much big data companies (like Facebook, Google, Verizon, or Visa) know about you. Having personally reviewed this study before it was published, I was not quite so concerned. Let me explain.
The study itself showed that aggregated Facebook likes (i.e., the things that you like on Facebook) can be used to predict self-reports on a personality test. Further, when the total number of likes is large enough, the aggregated likes show a stronger relationship with self-reported personality than reports from your friends, family, spouse, or colleagues. This was widely reported to indicate that computers make better personality judgments than humans. I have three problems with this conclusion.
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Forget Charisma, Look for Humility in a Leader
The existing paradigm in the business world holds that successful CEOs are ambitious, result-oriented, individualistic, and, above all, charismatic. The rise of agency theory, or the notion that incentivizing managers should improve shareholder returns, put greater emphasis on the need to hire leaders that appear leader-like. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom of what a leader looks like is, quite simply, incorrect.
Charisma is a very attractive characteristic in a leader. Yet, when promoted, these individuals create chaos and ruin for their organizations. Humility, rather, is a much better indicator of leadership success. Jim Collins, renowned author of Good to Great, conducted extensive research on organizational success. His work clearly demonstrated that companies led by modest managers consistently outperformed their competitors, and tended to be the dominant players in their sectors. Moreover, humble leaders tend to stay at their organizations longer than their arrogant counterparts, and their companies continue to perform well even after they leave because humble leaders often ensure a succession plan before they depart.
The Problem with Charisma
Organizations tend to be good at identifying people who “look” like leaders. Individuals who seem confident, bright, charismatic, interesting, and politically savvy tend to get earmarked for promotion. Personality assessments show that charismatic leaders rank highly on measurements of self-confidence (Bold), dramatic flair (Colorful), readiness to test the limits (Mischievous), and expansive visionary thinking (Imaginative). These leaders know what it takes to get ahead and get noticed, and they strategically cater to individuals and audiences who can offer them power, influence, status, or access to resources. While these individuals are highly interpersonally savvy and excellent self-promoters, they lack basic leadership and management skills.
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WEBINAR—Team Effectiveness: Moving Target or Continuous Journey?
The demanding nature of today’s globalized markets has forced organizations to be ever reliant on teams for breakthrough solutions that keep them ahead of the competition. While effective teamwork is still necessary for success, today’s teams face far bigger obstacles than teams of the past.
Stumbling blocks of late include the modern team’s makeup, which is usually arranged to flex with the continuously evolving business landscape: they tend to be more diverse, operate in a digital environment, and are increasingly dynamic. Perhaps these challenges are behind the alarming statistic that only 1 in 5 teams are considered high performing!
Dr. Gordon Curphy, famed author of The Rocket Model, will guest-host this upcoming webinar, brought to you by Hogan’s Solutions Partner Team. Dr. Curphy will be discussing the elements of team effectiveness, pitfalls to avoid, and how a consultant can use the Team Assessment Survey in conjunction with individuals’ Hogan results to help struggling teams of the Fortune 500 get back on track. More specifically, we review how to effectively deploy and utilize these metrics in the following talent management initiatives:
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Hogan Announces RELEVANT Management Consulting as New Distributor
Hogan is proud to officially announce the addition of RELEVANT Management Consulting to the Hogan International Distributor Network. Hogan has an intense focus for helping individuals, teams, and companies across the globe be the best they can be, and we are so happy to have RELEVANT improving our reach throughout Europe and beyond.
Leading this charge is RELEVANT owner, Dr.René Kusch, a renowned psychologist that is known for being a go-to Hogan Expert in German-speaking countries. Dr. Kusch has been working with Hogan Assessments since 2008 and is also a member of the global Hogan Coaching Network. He exemplifies the hardworking, but still hedonistic spirit of Hogan with his workplace mantra of “Relevance arises where goal-orientation, effectiveness, and fun come together.”
Together with Sarah Asskamp, Head of Operations, and their 10 consultants, RELEVANT consults global German organizations, but also supports consultancies, coaches, and trainers to develop, offer, and implement solutions for their own customers. Additionally, RELEVANT has already been working with other Hogan partners, distributors, and clients from all over the world for many years.
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There Must Always Be a Leader, and It Matters Who That Is – Interview with Dr. Robert Hogan
*This interview was originally published in Business Class Magazin - this is the translation of the Hungarian text. The original version can be found here.
We met Dr. Robert Hogan at the Four Seasons Budapest. He is an American psychologist and the founder of Hogan Assessments who has institutionalized the use of personality assessments for the enhancement of work performance, and whose organization serves more than half of the Fortune 500 companies. He visited Budapest for the “Future of Coaching in Organisations” international conference organized in April, and he took some time to meet us for a glass of Chardonnay.
Please summarize briefly the principles and main elements of the personality test which you have developed, and which is used so widely in the business world.
People who have power make decisions every day that affect those who have less power. They hire, promote or fire them. These decisions are usually based on work interviews with them, but this is the worst possible way to make a decision that has such an effect on a person’s life. My aim was to make employee evaluations - firings, promotions, hiring interviews - that is, the whole decision-making process – rational and empirical. So, I based it on defensible, scientific foundations. Over the years, we have built up a serious database - based on this we can demonstrate that if business leaders listen to us, they will make better decisions regarding their employees. And why is this important? The keys to success in business are money and people. Managers generally make rational decisions when comes to money, so why wouldn’t they want to make rational decisions when it comes to people?
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What’s Worse Than a Tyrannical Leader? One Who Isn’t There
*This article was written by Danielle King and published in Human Resource Executive on June 1, 2018.
How to Recognize Absentee Leaders.
A high-performing salesperson knocks his sales goals out of the park every month and consistently brings in new clients while maintaining great internal and external relationships. When a new sales-leadership position opens, his boss suggests that this star performer fill the role. Following a stellar interview, the star performer is now a sales leader. Is this happily ever after?
Not always, says Scott Gregory, CEO of Hogan Assessments. Too often these top performers are promoted into leadership positions for which they aren’t suited, he says.
“What it takes to be a successful salesperson versus a successful sales leader is different,” says Gregory. “Companies fail to recognize that and fail to measure the characteristics required for leadership roles appropriately. These star contributors get promoted but not on the basis that they have talent for a leadership role.”
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The Personality of Donald Trump
The fate of any organization is largely a function of that organization's leadership. The organization of the United States is no exception to this rule. As such, it is appropriate to understand Donald Trump’s personality and its impact on the function of the United States.
I do not personally know Mr. Trump and I have never had the opportunity to professionally assess his personality (though I'd be happy to do so if he were willing). Thus, my views are based purely on watching his behavior.1 His personality is captured by his reputation, which is the sum of his behavior, and organized by a standard set of themes as follows.
We can look at two sides of the Personality of Donald Trump. His Bright Side (how he typically behaves when he's at his best) and his Dark Side (how he behaves when he lets down his guard).
Read More »Launching New Teams and Improving Team Performance
*This post was authored by Dr. Gordon Curphy, Managing Partner of Curphy Leadership Solutions.
Teams are fundamental structures for getting work done, and tens to thousands of teams can be found in organizations. Despite the prevalence of teams, research shows that only 10-20 percent are high-performing, which means most have room for improvement. There are four basic ingredients needed to properly launch new teams or improve team performance. First, teams need a roadmap for performance. They need to understand the key factors associated with high-performing teams, which factors are the most important, and how they are interrelated. The Rocket Model fills this need, as it is a well-researched yet practical roadmap for building high-performing teams.
Second, teams need both “how” and “why” feedback. The Team Assessment Survey provides benchmarking feedback on how a team is doing in each of the eight Rocket Model components. The Hogan suite of assessments can be used to provide “why” feedback, and the particular assessments used depends on which questions teams need answered. The Team Assessment Survey works best when team membershave been working together for a month or two, but the MVPI and HPI can be used when launching new teams. The third ingredient is a team improvement toolkit, which can be found in The Rocket Model: Practical Advice for Building High Performing Teams (Curphy & Hogan, 2012). This book describes different effective team improvement tools and techniques for improving team performance.
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Successful Teams: The New Blueprint
Building the perfect team isn’t about assembling an all-star squad of archetypes. It’s about find- ing contributors who are generous and respectful, but confident and charismatic, too— and picking the right leader who can pull them all together.
IF CLASSIC CARTOONS like Scooby Doo, Captain Planet, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have taught us anything, it’s that only a team has the capacity and resourcefulness to solve a mystery or save the universe.
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