Find out what works for corporate leaders. And learn how to put it to work for you.

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Leadership Issue

Some Highlights from this issue:

• A CEO’s Solution to Leveraging Diversity by Tom Kadala
• Leading Through The Fog by Charmon Parker Williams
• Innovations in Constraints – Key to Emerging Economies

Read the Leadership Issue Now! Click the Magazine —->

The lack of diversity in the IT workforce isn’t just a matter of filling jobs by numbers; we are blunting a key national differentiator if we don’t fully involve our diverse population in the invention of new technology. There is a strong return on investment to companies that diversify their IT workforce, including better decision-making, higher return to shareholders, and technological design more applicable to a wide range of customer needs. And yet IT professionals are still culled from a very narrow segment of our population.

Why should we care about information technology? Information technology is the language and toolbox of our modern lives. We use it to communicate and to innovate, in our work and in our play. It is the means for our individual well-being and our collective progress. Simply put, we live in a global information-age economy, one in which increasing knowledge drives our society.

According to the OECD Science, Technology, and Industry (STI) Scoreboard, IT continues to be a key contributor to economic growth, accounting for approximately one-quarter of all productivity gains in the U.S. economy.

In his opening remarks at the Town Hall, Microsoft Research Senior Vice President and NCWIT Executive Advisory Council member Rick Rashid called innovation the key driver of the U.S. economy, and addressed the need for more students to pursue careers in the innovative world of information technology. The Town Hall also featured remarks by Motorola Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior, who noted that “IT is a vital component in everything today, from national security and homeland security to commerce and other scientific disciplines.”  Town Hall participants included U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.); National Academy of Engineering president Dr. William A. Wulf; National Science Foundation (NSF) deputy director and chief operating officer Dr. Kathie L. Olsen; NSF Broadening Participation in Computing program director Jan Cuny; Computing Research Association director of government affairs Peter Harsha, and other representatives from the executive branch and Congress. At the NCWIT reception following the Town Hall, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) cited the need to reverse “long historic discrimination in the area of gender” saying that locking women out of IT is “like having one hand tied behind our competitive backs.”

He mentioned his own daughters while hailing the importance of opening doors for members of underrepresented groups to participate in whatever field they choose. Ilene H. Lang, president of Catalyst, also spoke at the reception, citing her organization’s recent research on women in leadership positions. Catalyst is an active member of NCWIT’s Workforce Alliance, which leads efforts in corporate institutional reform and helps NCWIT gauge its success in achieving workforce gender parity. Lang said that the number of Fortune 500 company boards with 25 percent or more women has increased almost six-fold—from 11 in 1995 to 64 in 2005. Yet women still hold only a small number of all Fortune 500 board seats. The dialogue at the Town Hall covered extensive ground, with conversations ranging from passionate appeals for reform to specific suggestions and solutions.

Some of the recommendations included:

For educators: Use novel methods of working computing concepts into other core courses at the K-12 level; emphasize computing’s more relevant, social, and creative elements; reach out to guidance counselors with respect to IT careers – explain what “real” IT jobs are like and why they should be recommended; and look to minority-serving institutions as a graduate school pipeline.

For corporations and business owners: Support re-training of retirees as IT teachers and as resources for classroom teachers; commit to better representation of women and minorities in technical leadership positions; create bridge programs for people wanting to re-enter the IT workforce, providing them with training and mentoring.

For government: Pass and implement innovation legislation; and support sustaining infrastructures to ensure that progress continues over the long term.

For not-for-profits: Work together and share resources; commit to practices that have been shown, through evaluative evidence, to work; and use distribution lists and member bases to build awareness and activism.

For the media: Foster a more accurate representation of IT and its practitioners; realize that diversity has a critical role to play in maintaining U.S. leadership in IT innovation; seek out and report stories that support diversity in IT.

Diversity is an opportunity, not an obstacle. Many avenues exist through which to increase the number of women and minorities participating in every aspect of information technology — if we just work together. As a society, we must recognize and mobilize:

Recognize that this is an issue we must address, and mobilize for rapid change. We must form alliances including but not limited to industry representatives, public and private school teachers, university faculty and administrators and others who can be change agents. We need to focus on institutional reform, based on practices that have been proven to be effective by solid research. We need to reform curriculum at K-12, ensuring that computer science is taught in high schools as well as at higher education levels. We need to improve the public image of computing so young people understand that, far from a narrow technical field suited only to white male hackers, computing is socially valuable work that can be a good career choice for a diverse cross-section of America.

In short, we need to broaden the appeal of IT to people who previously may have considered themselves merely its consumers and not its creators. When we do, the face of IT will begin to change and to better reflect the face of the nation.

Lucinda Sanders is the CEO of the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

First impressions are often lasting impressions, so it’s important to get a winning start in your new job. This means starting to produce useful results quickly while being helpful to co-workers. It also means adapting fast to the workplace culture.

A study by Leadership IQ, a Washington, D.C., employment consulting firm, indicates that a startling 46 percent of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months. A similar study of newly hired managers by Right Management Consultants, a Philadelphia-based leadership development firm, is only slightly less alarming in its finding that more than one-third quit or are asked to leave within 18 months.

“Starting a new job is a time of great opportunity,” says Milo Sindell, co-author of “Sink or Swim: New Job. New Boss. 12 Weeks to Get It Right,” and co-founder of the employee consulting firm Hit the Ground Running. Continue Reading

Great organizations, large and small know that the key to survival and marketplace competitiveness is anchored in their ability to be visionary, strategic, and agile. Status quo, while operative today, can easily become an organization’s bane tomorrow. This strategic mindset applies to the development and replacement of leadership as well. However an alarming number of organizations do not have structured succession management processes in place.

Succession management is a holistic system that targets in on mission critical positions ensuring that talent is identified, available, and ready to step into leadership roles when the need arises. Given today’s labor landscape, it is even more imperative that sound and dynamic succession management processes are in place. In short, the demand of leaders is outstripping the supply and major companies are ill prepared to address this.

This impending scarcity at the C-Suite and other leadership levels is being driven by a couple of forces. One, an estimated 75 million U.S. baby boomers will be eligible to retire by 2010. The average age of the chief executive is 50 and, not surprisingly, filled predominantly by baby boomers. The talent to replace these boomers will come from the next generation of only 45 million available workers. This transition places at risk, institutional knowledge transfer and the overall performance and sustainability of organizations. Secondly, the profile for those in the C-Suite has changed in the last 20 years and is continuing to change. For example, turnover of CEOs of major corporations has increased by 53 percent (influences include merger driven, performance related, and regular transitions like retirement). Consequently, the average tenure of CEOs has declined (from 9.5 years to 7.3 years).

It may be less convoluted to replace a CEO you know will be leaving, however, in a significant number of cases, the CEO’s departure catches an organization by surprise. This translates into a perceived and real crisis to internal and external stakeholders. It leads to remaining leaders and board members trying to make decisions that are in the best interest of the organization at a time when emotions are running high – not an optimal time.

Due to the combination of influences and impacts, it is probably apparent why succession management would be important for the organization at large. Business continuity is at the top of the list. Development and, consequently, retention of key talent is a first cousin. Organizations that are known for growing and advancing leadership talent from within create a powerful differentiator. This becomes part of the employer’s brand and is a significant attraction lever for new talent as well as a compelling retention lever for internal talent. The top companies for leadership development show significant bottom-line advantages including reduced costs associated with turnover and executive recruitment. As an example, companies pay their chief executives nearly three times more when they hire them from outside the company than if they promote from within.

At the individual level, succession planning may not be top of mind for the incumbent leader, particularly if the leader is the CEO or founder of the organization who has nowhere else to advance within the organization, and is not planning on retiring soon. Many entrepreneurs and business leaders so closely identify with their ventures that they think of their involvement as life-long; and no one wants to think about their mortality. Other leaders believe they’re too busy.  However, the individual business case for succession planning is just as important and impactful as the organizational business case, irrespective of the size and structure of one’s business.

Alongside business continuity and sustainability of the business, planned succession gives the incumbent leader a chance to leave behind a legacy. The leader can take time to share his or her vision, philosophy, values, lessons learned, and experiences with potential successors. It gives leaders a chance to reflect on and deliberately shape how they want to be remembered, what role they will play in developing and influencing potential successors, what is next for them, and how they will transition out of their role. A planned succession and smooth transition positively impacts the leader’s internal and external brand.

Senior leaders often view succession planning as another Human Resources exercise, but the truth of the matter is that it should be owned by the leaders within the business. While HR may take responsibility for coordinating the effort – e.g., helping identify positions, facilitating talent reviews and development plans, and measuring and reporting results; an accurate and complete snapshot of talent within the organization cannot manifest unless business leaders are engaged in the process. Business leaders, too, own and underwrite the on-going development of potential successors. Development is an essential ingredient in succession management and one that often dies on the vine. There are so many ways in which incumbent leaders can champion succession management and many areas that hinge upon their input including:

• Providing a vision for and knowledge of the strategic direction of the business and an understanding of the type of talent that will be needed (e.g., functional skills, knowledge, experiences, and traits).
• Sharing an assessment of the performance and potential of likely successors based on direct observations and feedback from others.
• Sponsoring and/or creating relevant development opportunities (e.g., rotations) for identified successors.
• Devoting time for one-on-one coaching and mentoring of potential successors.

Incumbent leaders can leverage their position and power within the organization to champion succession management as an inclusive process. This can be accomplished by recognizing and articulating that excellence comes in all shapes, sizes and colors and by stressing the need for leaders who can connect to the business’ target markets or who embody the strategy that will improve business performance. Just as recruiters insist upon a diverse slate of candidates from executive search firms, leaders can insist that diversity be reflected in the successor pool. The inability for the organization to do so points to a more systemic problem (e.g., no diverse candidates in the feeder roles) and will require more deliberate and programmatic efforts to reconcile.

At any point in time, business leaders should be able to confidently speak to who is ready now and who would be ready with development for specific mission critical roles in their units. Corporate and non-profit boards of directors are becoming increasingly requiring of this information. Best practices used by companies like Exelon include continual use of quarterly business-unit reviews to guide succession planning and development, and provide an updated snapshot of the leadership bench. This allows for timely feedback and coaching, and identification of credible “ready-now” successors for all senior-level positions.

The incumbent leader’s involvement in succession management is ongoing. The handing over of the baton is a process, not a single event. It is a recurring cycle of events that is “refreshed” prior to new players entering and exiting the game. The stakes are high. Consequently, the commitment requirement is high; and for well executed plans this translates into an ROI to boast about for the organization and individual leaders involved. ________________________________________________________________________

Charmon Parker Williams, Ph.D., an industrial psychologist, is a career and talent management consultant, coach, and contributing writer for Diversity MBA Magazine.

Talented candidates, especially those with coveted skill sets, are often able to pick and choose from multiple offers. Companies that don’t sell themselves effectively or have long, drawn-out processes will ultimately lose out.

So, you have identified the candidate you absolutely want to hire and you are about to make an offer. But you are up against a problem: Another company, or companies, are looking to land the same prospect. What should you do, especially when the job offers are indistinguishable in title, compensation, and benefits? How do you position and sell your organization’s offer – and your organization itself – to a candidate with multiple offers? The way your company recruits and manages the hiring process can impress a candidate and encourage that individual to choose your company over the competition.

Speeding Up the Interviewing Process

How can you speed up the interviewing process without sacrificing due diligence?

• Since most of the candidates you are interviewing are already employed, try to schedule interviews before or after typical business hours whenever possible. The simple gesture of scheduling the interview for the candidate’s convenience can speak volumes.

• If your candidate needs to meet with multiple representatives of your organization, try to combine some interviewers into groups to shorten the number of meetings. This scenario works well for senior executives interviewing with boards or for staff that will support multiple supervisors.

• Instead of asking the candidate back multiple times, arrange the interview schedule so all meetings can be held in one day or a half-day. This will allow the candidate to minimize the time away from the current job.

• Take your show on the road. Not all meetings need to be held at your office, especially first-round interviews. Although it’s very important for the candidate to see your facilities and staff first-hand, an initial screening interview can be held almost anywhere – at a local coffee shop, restaurant or hotel lobby.

Most candidates understand and even welcome the fact that they must meet several people at a company. Employed candidates, however, usually cannot come to your office for four separate interviews without arousing suspicion, or stay for four hours when they were told to allow two.  Candidates who are concerned about being missed at their current place of employment may be too distracted to put their best foot forward or to hear why they should work for you.

It’s important to be prompt when meeting a potential employee and, if there are multiple people on an interview schedule, to make sure that things are coordinated effectively. One of my candidates was kept waiting for 50 minutes by a senior executive because of scheduling confusion. As he had spent the better part of the morning at the potential employer and was due back at work, he was only able to give the interviewer 10 minutes. While the employer offered to reschedule, the candidate was so turned off that he turned down a second interview. By being flexible with interviews and considerate of your candidates’ time, you allow them to reduce the potential for raising red flags with their present employers. Candidates genuinely appreciate this consideration and will feel more positive about your company.

Positioning Your Organization: Setting the Groundwork for a Future Offer

Even if your role isn’t sales-oriented, you have to be a salesperson when it comes to wooing future employees! It is imperative to ensure that everyone on your internal interview team is on the same page and realizes the importance of selling the company and presenting a positive environment to potential candidates. They should be enthusiastic, timely, and prepared for the interview. All it takes is one interviewer who is disorganized, having a bad day, or imparts a conflicting message to leave a bad taste in a candidate’s mouth. Candidates want to hear honest answers to questions, but if someone in the group is known to be negative or comes across in a less-than-compelling fashion, consider whether that person can be left out of the process or coached to present more effectively. Everyone in the interview process must be able to speak knowledgeably, passionately and consistently about the company.

Because your ideal candidate may already be employed, it’s also important to know up-front why he or she is looking for a new position. In the initial stages of communication and interviews, ask questions to get a clear understanding of why the individual is choosing to leave his or her current position, and carefully document the reasons. This way you will know in particular how to position your organization in regard to the candidate’s likes and dislikes. After the official job offer is made, if your candidate seems hesitant to leave a current position or you learn that a counteroffer has been made, these reasons will be useful in reminding the candidate why he or she began looking for a new job in the first place and how your company can fulfill those needs.

Make sure that, in addition to going over the particulars of the candidate’s role, time is spent discussing the organization itself – its selling points, values, history and community involvement. As important as responsibilities, management style and opportunity for advancement are, it’s the intangibles of an organization’s culture that can be the deciding factor when a candidate is weighing options. Make sure informal benefits are known, too: reduced office hours during the summer months, telecommuting options for working parents, or morale-boosting social events, such as golf tournaments or company parties.

Negotiation Time

Once an offer is extended, speak openly to the candidate about the timing of negotiations and decision-making. If your interview process has had open, two-way communication, you should have a good idea whether your prospective employee has multiple suitors. When dealing with that situation, you want to achieve a balance of putting some positive pressure on the candidate while being understanding about the decision-making process he or she is experiencing. It’s reasonable to give a bit more time to a candidate who asks for it. During that period, however, the hiring manager and/or Human Resources should reach out to the candidate, offering to answer any questions and conveying how much the candidate is wanted.

The more personal contact you extend, the better – from delivering the job offer over the phone, to following up by making sure the candidate has received and understands the particulars of the written material. One client of mine sealed the deal by sending an offer letter to the candidate in a package with a company polo shirt; it immediately made the candidate feel she was a part of the team.

Candidates truly value open, direct communication and an appropriately timed process. As important as it is to expedite the hiring process, it should never move so fast as to overwhelm the potential employee or undermine an organization’s thoroughness. Conversely, taking too much time puts you at jeopardy for losing the ideal candidate to your competition. By putting forethought into the hiring process, you can ensure candidates will think well of your company, your organization will not be put at risk — and you’ll successfully hire the people you want!

Interviewing is akin to marketing and is a blend of art and science. Potential buyers will be looking for what you can contribute, what you cost, and whether or not there is chemistry. You are marketing a product which is you, and negotiating for the right price, location, and timing. There are a lot of parallels to marketing that apply in the job search and interview process including research, sales, packaging and promotion, and negotiation. You will need to draw on the skills you have in these areas to master the interview and get your ideal offer.

Preparation and Research

The job search process is 90% preparation and 10% perspiration. There is a lot you can do before your appointment to increase the probability of a successful interview. Find out as much as you can about the company and the industry you are interested in. Top 50 lists will help you understand the strengths of the company. For public companies, you can read the annual report. For just about any company, you can go on their web-site and find out valuable information including statements of their mission, vision, and values; their products and services, descriptions of each major line of business; employee size; and their various office locations. Find out who the company’s competitors are and what the company believes differentiates it from its competitors. Know the names of key officers. Interviewers will often casually mention the names of the CEO, COO and other senior officers during the interview, assuming you know who they are talking about. Without this understanding you may lose some of the context for what they are sharing or asking you to respond to. You should know all of these are data points prior to going into the interview; so that your questions are related to the position at hand.

Sales Pitch

Review your resume and think through your strengths, experiences, and transferable skills. How do these address a need or challenge within the company or industry you are interested in? Connect with someone who can help you prepare for the interview (e.g., career coach, trusted colleague in Human Resources, friend, or family member). Leverage these individuals as a sounding board and to rehearse how you will respond to various questions. Their feedback will help you identify where you may need to provide more detail or less, or adjust your body language and your expression. This is key! Any presentation may go well inside of your head, but you need to hear the words and ensure you are conveying confidence and a sense of authenticity when you speak with others who do not know you. If no one is available for you to practice with, rehearse in front of the mirror. Outplacement firms suggest you might even want to tape your voice so that you can hear how you sound or you can check out or buy a video on Effective Interviewing and observe as others role-model effective techniques.

Packaging

Packaging includes what’s inside the box (your personality and demeanor), how the product is wrapped or packaged (your appearance and body language) and what is around the product (your resume and other collateral pieces). At a basic level, you will want to ensure that your resume is error free, easy to scan, does not raise a lot of questions, e.g., gaps in employment dates. Packaging extends to your attire. Make sure your dress is parallel to what is considered interview apparel for the company. This may be slightly different that the standard dress code for the company. For example, the dress code may be business casual, but there may be an unwritten expectation that anyone interviewing is suited up or dresses a bit more conservatively. Know the “uniform” for the industry. In other words, you would not walk into an interview for a manufacturing company with the same level of flair you might suit up for to interview with a public relations or advertising concern.

Arrive to your interview, leaving enough time for you to find the appropriate building or office, stop in the restroom, examine your appearance, and gain composure – about 15 minutes early. Make sure you bring extra copies of your resume, a pad to take notes on, and a pen – that works! Enclose these neatly in a portfolio, so that you are not struggling to find these during the interview.

From Concept to Promotion

During the interview, you will be painting a picture so that the interviewer can get to know you. Your interviewer has some concept of you based on the accomplishments you have cited on your resume. In the interview they will be looking for validation of your experiences, interpersonal skills, and to test if you would be a good match for the company and role.

Many interviewers will use a situational or behavioral interview approach to validate your work experience in which they will ask you to describe in detail a situation or challenge that demonstrates a specific skill. As you describe your experiences, use the STAR technique. Describe the Situation or Task you were presented with, the Action you took, and the Results. Spend the most time describing the action and results – how you made a difference. Remember not to speak negatively of your employers or co-workers even if the situation was negative or challenging. Focus on how you were able to turn a negative into a positive either for yourself or others.

Depending on the job level you are at, you may have several interviews. There may be a screening interview with someone from HR. Leverage this time to ask logistical questions, For example – questions about the interview team composition, questions about the prior incumbent in the role, how long it has been vacant, and the timeframe in which they are looking to fill the position.

Each subsequent interviewer may be interviewing you to assess specific skill sets or competencies. Try to understand the perspective of each interviewer by asking them to explain their role in the organization and the working relationship they would have with the person in the position you are applying for. This team of interviewers will later convene to compare observations and provide their recommendation on whether or not you are a viable candidate.

Given there may be several interviewees competing and bringing a comparable level of value to the table, the interviewer’s decision may be based on their connection with you. You may establish a connection by sharing aspects about your experience that you know will resonate with your interviewer’s interests or background, or by coming across in a way that conveys authenticity, and engenders trust and comfort. This is the part of the interview that is clearly “art” versus “science.” To this end, pay attention to your non-verbal behavior. Appear interested, by sitting up straight and/or leaning slightly forward. Appear engaged by keeping eye contact and providing affirming gestures. Even if you are nervous, appear composed by controlling any nervous habits you may have such as fidgeting, tapping your feet, or clenching. Take a deep breath and smile inwardly so that you appear confident. Make sure you are talking at a pace that the interviewer can follow. Don’t be afraid to use brief silence to think through a question or pause to check for understanding.

Remember, during the interview you are promoting yourself, but it is also a mutual exchange. You are trying to find the best “buyer.” Make sure you have prepared some questions ahead of time so that you can gain a better understanding of the current and future direction of the role and company, the value of the role within the company, the work environment, any inherent challenges, and specific results you will be expected to deliver early on.

At the close of your interview, be sure to thank the interviewer for his or her time, ask about next steps, and get a sense of timing of when you will hear back from the company. A memorable and nice touch to keep you top of mind is to send a follow-up thank you note to each interviewer.

Having a certain title, an army of underlings, or a fat salary doesn’t make you a leader. It’s a bit more complicated than those external markers. “Leaders take people where they ordinarily wouldn’t go by themselves,” says Lynda Ford, president of The Ford Group, a management and human resources consulting firm in Rome, N.Y.

Furthermore, leaders are able to meet people where they are, instead of where they think they should be, adds Trudy Bourgeois, founder of the Center for Workforce Excellence in Dallas, and author of  The Hybrid Leader: Blending the Best of the Male & Female Leadership Styles.

True leaders have patience, flexibility, vision; they inspire, listen, teach, coach, mentor, build relationships. And that’s just for starters. What it takes to lead, particularly in this global, diverse economy, is not for the faint of heart. Continue Reading

The lives of women have changed dramatically over the past three decades. Women are no longer the stay-at-home mothers of the 1950s sitcom “The Donna Reed Show” or even the popular 1970s sitcom “The Brady Bunch.” Today, women are more like Clair Huxtable of “The Cosby Show”—college-educated with professional jobs and sharing in the family’s financial decision-making.

“Our families don’t look like the ‘60s anymore,” says Susan W. Sweetser, who heads the Women’s Markets department at MassMutual Financial Group, a Fortune 100 company. “Women really are the drivers in their households.”

According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 60 percent of women are in the labor force today compared with only 43 percent in 1970. In fact, half of all management and professional positions are held by women, and they make up 38 percent of all entrepreneurs.

But women are still more likely than men to live in poverty despite women’s advancement in the labor force and their growing financial power. Black and Hispanic women are twice as likely to live in poverty as their White counterparts. Why? Continue Reading