Don’t Shoot the Managers

Ron Ashkenas recently posted an interesting blog on Harvard Business Review positing two common failures of high potential development programs: (1) employers are uncomfortable tapping some employees for development over others, and (2) managers are uncomfortable maintaining the complex coaching dialogue needed to develop these high potential employees. Ashkenas writes:

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Awareness Coaching

  The modern economy is changing more and more rapidly than ever before. Companies depend on their leaders to guide them through this turbulent marketplace, making the availability of savvy, well-developed leaders a crucial part of business suc­cess. However, a recent survey found that although the majority of HR directors identified high-potential leader development as their most important focus, more than 80% of those surveyed expected their HR budget either to shrink or stay the same. Read More »

The Secret of Narcissism

Narcissists don’t just think they are better than everyone else, they actually ARE better – at least when it comes to interviewing. In his recent study, Dr. Peter Harms (a Hogan academic partner) found that narcissistic behaviors such as self-promotion and self-confidence make narcissists more desirable during job interviews. Ultimately, narcissists better communicate why they’re able to do the job.

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BIRGing and CORFing: From the Hardcourt to the Boardroom

  On Monday night the University of Kentucky beat the University of Kansas to claim the 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Didn’t watch it? That’s okay; I wasn’t that interested either. However, this sporting event has given us an opportunity to observe some basic social psychological phenomena in action that have implications not only for sports fanaticism but for the workplace as well. Read More »

Hogan Announces Independent Consultancies Team

As a world leader in personality assessment and consulting, Hogan strives to provide the highest level of service to our customers. Practitioners, stand-alone consultants, coaches, and other domestic independent users are one of the fastest-growing segments of Hogan’s business.

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Meet the Outsider

Meet the outsider. You’ve caught an occasional glimpse of him around the office. Capable and resilient, what he lacks in social grace he makes up in cold rationality. Sure, it gets lonely at the top, but that’s the way he prefers it. He is the lone wolf, the recluse, the strong, silent type.

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From Potential to Performance

Competent leadership is crucial for a company’s success. Recent studies indicate that businesses with strong leadership are 13 times more likely to outperform their competition, and three times more likely to retain their most talented employees.

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5 Essentials of Execution

Companies invest countless man hours and billions of dollars every year in pursuit of one thing – the next big idea. However, what separates the most successful companies from their competitors often isn’t a better product, service, or business plan, but their ability to move quickly and efficiently from idea to implementation. Read More »

ABCs of Derailment

Over the course of several feedback sessions, I’ve noticed that the vast majority of individuals prefer the euphemism over-used strengths to derailers when speaking about results on the Hogan Development Survey. I hadn’t really put much thought to this phenomenon until I came across an article in Talent Management magazine by Anthony Gigliotti. He presents the literal analogy of over-used strengths to weight lifting; further, too much lifting or over-exercise can be detrimental to our muscles which are the mechanism to achieving performance. Gigliotti argues that a break-even point occurs when using strengths that, when exceeded, quickly become unfavorable. Achieving a balance between maximizing strengths while mitigating the harmful effects is the obvious challenge. This article continues with several coaching techniques for talent managers to support strong leaders, which I have adapted into a model closely resembling behavior analysis:

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