Use Your Strengths to Strengthen Others

Use Your Strengths to Strengthen Others

Found this very interesting article while browsing through Workforce.
Source from http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/25/45/14/index.html


The real impact of human resources comes when HR professionals turn their knowledge and skills into productivity for others, author and consultant Dave Ulrich contends.
By Dave Ulrich

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You can’t walk into a conference these days without bumping into a speaker who is trumpeting the value of building on your strengths. It’s easy to understand why this message resonates. From the time we start school, we are evaluated on our weaknesses. Most of us dread this. "Build on your strengths" sounds like one of those alternative schools where people played sports, painted or sang and danced all day instead of memorizing dates in history or taking pre-algebra. Who wouldn’t rather sing and dance or play sports?

The logic of "build on your strengths" comes from outstanding work by Martin Seligman, who with his colleagues defined and shaped the field of positive psychology. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with individuals, they emphasize what is right. Instead of overcoming depression, they offer clients ways to find authentic happiness. Instead of diagnosing pathologies and overcoming them, they want to identify strengths and build on them. In Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, a 2004 book written with Christopher Peterson, Seligman and colleagues identified 24 generic strengths that individuals might possess in six domains:

Wisdom and knowledge: the ability to acquire and use knowledge (creativity, curiosity, love of learning)

Courage: the ability to accomplish goals in the face of opposition (persistence, vitality, integrity, bravery)

Humanity: the ability to tend to and befriend others (kindness, social intelligence)

Justice: the ability to experience a healthy community life (fairness, teamwork, social responsibility)

Temperance: the ability to protect against excess (forgiveness, humility, self-control)

Transcendence: the ability to connect to a larger universe and provide meaning (gratitude, hope, playfulness)

A simple definition of a strength is that it’s something that we find easy, energizing and enjoyable. The authors’ premise is that when you do well in what you identify as a strength and capitalize on it—rather than trying to shore up your weaknesses—you will have more success and more positive experiences. You’ll find happiness. (You can take some of Seligman’s strengths tests here.)

It is very hard to disagree with this logic. Marcus Buckingham and others have argued that discovering what we do well is a first step to lasting success. Leaders whose strengths are around creativity will be more successful in innovative organizations and work environments, for example.

But building only on your strengths is not enough if those strengths do not create value for those you lead. In college, I majored in English. I developed a knack for reading novels. I could read two or three novels a week and found this easy, energizing and enjoyable. But what I have since found is that few people care about my strength of reading novels. What they really care about is my ability to analyze a situation in ways that help them reach their goals. Reading and interpreting good writing is a sustainable strength when it informs my ability to diagnose and help others work through their problems.

According to the recent movie The Bucket List, the Egyptians believed that the gatekeepers of heaven ask new arrivals two questions about their lives on Earth: Did you find joy? Did you bring joy to others? The first question is about building on your strengths to find joy. It is necessary, but not sufficient. It is about the self, not others. The second question shifts the focus of joy to helping others find it. Put in terms of our strengths discussion, this means that we should build on our strengths that strengthen others.

"Building on strengths that in turn strengthen others does not mean pandering. It does not mean you will say and do anything someone wants. it means having a clear sense of self."

Leaders may strive to acquire strengths of authenticity, judgment, emotional intelligence, credibility and other noble attributes, but unless and until they apply these strengths in ways that create value for others, they have not been totally successful. Some in the strengths movement have missed the conclusion Seligman reached in his 2004 book, Authentic Happiness: "The meaningful life: using your signature strengths and virtues in the service of something much larger than you are."

For leaders, this means that it is not enough to do our work well. We must also use our strengths to deliver value to others. HR professionals who want to build on their strengths in order to strengthen others should consider the following:

Focus on outcomes, not activities. It is tempting to focus on what HR does without fully considering what HR delivers, but it’s an incomplete goal. The outcomes of an HR activity might include employee morale, but could also be expanded to customers, investors and communities outside the organization. We have asked HR professionals to answer the query "so that …" to turn an activity into an outcome. For example: "We are investing in a performance appraisal (training, 360, communication or other HR process) so that … ." The answer to the "so that" query focuses on an outcome, not an activity. Outcomes are what we should be measuring.

Help leaders define their results. Many leadership programs are filled with exercises and seminars meant to help leaders learn and grow as individuals. They can identify their strengths and build them. But unless and until those strengths help others, they are incomplete. My colleagues at the RBL Group and I have adapted a fantastic exercise from Marshall Goldsmith. In a workshop, we ask leaders to think about their personal strengths and what they want to improve to be better as leaders and as people. Then, we ask them to stand and talk to five to seven other people who can coach them about using those strengths to strengthen others. Suddenly the focus is not just on what they want to do better, but on how their personal improvements will help others do their own work better. HR professionals who coach leaders about behavioral change can direct those improved behaviors to improved results.

Build a positive culture from the outside in. Most people acknowledge that companies have a culture, or way of doing things. This culture filters who joins the firm and how people act once they are in the firm. But often this culture is an inside-out view. It is defined as how we do things, our norms, our values, our expectations and our behaviors. By focusing on strengthening others, HR professionals can diagnose a culture against the standard of how it reflects desired outcomes by those outside the organization—customers and investors, for instance. HR professionals can ask leadership teams questions like: "What do we want to be known for by our best customers (or investors)?" By focusing on the strengths that others want to see in us, then translating those expectations into internal leadership and organization actions, we can make a culture an enduring source of value. Strengthening others affects not only the individual but the organization.

Be a contributor by working with business leaders on their issues. HR competency models that focus exclusively on what the HR professional should know and do are insufficient. The real impact of HR professionalism comes when HR professionals turn their knowledge and skills into productivity for others. HR professionals should know the business so that they help their business leaders achieve financial and customer results. HR professionals should build innovative and integrated HR practices so that strategies turn from aspirations to actions. HR professionals should be credible activists so that they can help those they coach reach the results they desire.

Develop HR professionals who are curious. In doing HR work, HR professionals should start by identifying their audience and what they want and need. This requires HR professionals who desire to learn first, then act. HR professionals should ask questions about what the business requires, about what leaders are accountable for, about what employees need, and about why customers select one provider over another. By asking these questions, HR professionals spend less time on what they are good at, and more time on what they can do to help others succeed. Curiosity means HR professionals begin their work by learning what others want rather than what they know. Strengthening others means good HR is less about what HR knows and more about how that knowledge affects others.

Building on strengths that in turn strengthen others does not mean pandering. It does not mean you will say and do anything someone wants. It means having a clear sense of self. It means identifying, developing and investing in personal strengths without arrogance or compromise. But, it also means applying those strengths to the service of others.

As the strength logic evolves and applies to HR, successful HR professionals might quietly say to themselves, "I am able to help someone accomplish what they need to do." And that happened because they used their strengths to strengthen others.

Workforce Management, March 17, 2008, p. 28-29

Corporate Leadership Council (CLC)

Another HR resource: Corporate Leadership Council (CLC)

“The Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) provides best practices and quantitative research and executive education to the largest global network of HR executives. The Council focuses on topics that are most critical for senior HR executives: employee engagement, performance management, leadership development and succession management, diversity, HR service delivery, and executive compensation.”

“Members have unlimited access to the Council's proprietary quantitative databases, best practices case studies, on-demand customized research, interactive member networking events, and online benchmarking data, issue-specific decision support centers, and diagnostic tools and templates.”

Just know I have membership access for free (if your company is one of memberships already)and I like their research and tools.
Also, another two related websites under Corporate Executive Board
HR Leadership Academy & China HR Executive Board

HOW TO BE A STAR AT WORK

HOW TO BE A STAR AT WORK
_Nine breakthrough strategies you need to succeed
by Robert E. Kelley

Be frankly, I didn’t expect much from this book in the beginning. It has been in my shelf for over half year since I bought it. Recently, I finally got the chance to read and I was really surprised with its profound.
I thought it was like the books we normally see in the book store: a quick fix guide or self-help, feel-good ones. However, what sets it apart is its solid research base: with more than one decade involvement in the intensive study of star performers. Even though this book is more focused on the Bell Lab workplace study (well, this has been well-known when it comes to organizational/workplace behavior study). The goal is to unveil the secret of star performer: what exactly set them apart from the rest of average performer?

An “astounding” answer: the data shows no appreciable cognitive, personal-psychological, social, or environmental difference between starts and average performers. Those are all factors that people believe in contributing to the difference. This really intrigues me to going forward …So, what exactly is it all about?

(highlights from the books: the nine strategies)

1. INITIATIVE: blazing trails in the organization’s while spaces

· Getting beyond: Seek out responsibility above and beyond the expected job description
· Helping out: Undertake extra efforts for the benefits of coworkers or the larger group
· Following through: Stick tenaciously to an idea or project and follow it through to successful implementation
· Risk taking: Willingly assume some personal risk in taking on new responsibility

Choosing the right initiatives: steps
1. Do you current assignment well
2. Follow the initiative value trail: who benefit? need to have payoff for someone other than you. (if there is nothing in it for someone besides you, don’t call it an initiative)
3. Stay close to the critical path (e.g. reduce the cost, increase the revenue; get the bottom line)
4. Choose high level initiatives: moving from “horizontal” to “vertical” initiatives’ solves whole set of similar problems not only in the same category, but throughout the entire system; capturing the high-level systems perspectives by going from local to corporate-wide optimization
5. Determine the probability of success and the cost of failure: start out from smaller more private setting and seek support from others; also know when to cut the losses

Final word
· Have a keen sense of how initiative is defined in workplace/by manger and peers
· CHOOSE WISELY
· Work efficiently in their own jobs to have more time pursue initiatives

2. KNOWING WHO KNOWS: plugging into knowledge network
· The knowledge deficit: knowing what you don’t know matters!
· Networking: the critical path goes from mule trail to autobahn; work a network, not just do it by yourself
· Networks of the stars: mutual benefit; one-to-one interactions
· Networking fundamentals: stars have the networks with better quality and operate faster through the connection of knowledge itself, organizational support and technical/physical environment

Skills of the stars: the eight network nodes
1. Mental models of networking:
o Knowledge is not a public resources and access to it is not a basic right; it’s privilege that must be earned (or traded)
o It is a critical personal and community infrastructure that must be carefully maintained
o The first skill the star performer demonstrates early is the ability to establish some kind of expertise – a specialty area that will be of value to others by reducing their knowledge deficits exist in the department and which ones they can help fill
o Trades with a shrewd sense of cost and benefit
2. Weed and Seed
o Shrewd ability to choose their trading partners – identifying qualified knowledge givers and making them part of their network
o taking the opportunity to observe/searchà identify and seeking out/ask
3. Proactive One-Way Trading:
o Give first; build it before you need it
o Laying the connection groundwork from work related issues to personal
4. Networking etiquette on the critical path (courtesies and considerations in the networking process): earn your place by acting as solid vouchers and reference pointers (help all parties involved)
5. Do your homework (make a good impression and set the stage for a long-term networking relationship): link their problems to a discipline or an area of interest that intrigues the expert.
6. Credit lavishly
7. The benefit of newness
8. Be a good network citizen: taking and giving

Final word
· Social networking (benefit your organizational savvy) vs. Knowledge networking (more central and critical to your success and productivity)
· Choosier in what types of networks and in the extent to which they will be involved: settle into the networks and recruit experts with an eye toward getting the best job done on the critical path!

3. MANAGING YOUR WHOLE LIFE AT WORK: self management
· First step to star-quality self-management: managing to work only on activities directly tied to the critical path (evaluate “important vs. unimportant” first and then “urgent vs. not urgent” on important tasks). Their success in doing this depends on a deep understanding of what the critical path is in their organization and where they should be positioned on it to contribute in most productive way.
· Cannot depend on traditional management structure to put them on the critical path. “I realized just because they wanted me to do something, it didn’t mean it was on critical path. I had to be responsible to getting myself on the critical path. So, finally I took control of my to-do list”
Proactively getting on the critical path
· Understand the company’s goals and bottom line
· Tie your efforts to the firm’s bottom line, self-manage your way and transfer your skills to a more value-directed job, form reactively problem solving to proactively drive the business
Self-knowledge in self-management
· Stars who develop good self-management techniques have incorporated them into the mix of traits and quirks that define them as individuals in the workplace. There is no single personality trait that will make you a star performer
Self-managing and job satisfaction
· Know yourself wellà know the kind of work you do best and that you want to doà take control of your career path by developing a plan to connect yourself to the work you enjoy most and to connect that work to the company’s critical path
Managing flow: the productive state of mind
· Find meaning and enjoyment in the workà create a work environment that gives you the mental space to get into your work
· Organized self-management: getting the job done
· What star performer do differently: they have evaluations come earlier in the process; have a early warning system and a fallback plan in the event of crisis; tend to build a lot of forward-thinking behavior into their self-management system. (the constant weighting and analysis of the work has implications down the road for both short-term and long-term career choices)à The stars, in effect, take controls of both daily work routines and career choices, knowing the days when a paternal hand would reach down from upper management to guide the way are long gone
Organizing self-management: Company and career
· Stars do proactively be involved in managing their work flow and career paths. Care what project they do? Who would be great to work with? How the project fits well into critical path? By sculpting a piece at one time. [Foundation of work relationship: increased productivity and value added to organization]

4. GETTING THE BIG PICTURE: learning how to build perspective

· Sat performer seeks out learning experiences that pushes the limits of their knowledge and make sure they learn from it by internalizing patterns and forms
· Star performer develops a deeper more well-rounded understanding of their field, which in turn leads to pattern recognition skills that form the foundation of perspective
· Pattern recognition is the essential foundation for star perspective and it can only be attained through experience
· But what makes a difference is whether they incorporate their pattern recognition ability into the kind of perspective and strategic thinking that leads to expert judgment!

Getting outside the box with the five Cs’ perspectives
· Colleague
· Customer
· Competitor
· Company-management
· Creative dissonance

With the ability to recognize patterns, to think creatively outside the box, to exercise expert judgment, and to discern the changing games and their changing rules, you have the essential perspectives keys to gain entry to star performer ranks.

5. FOLLOWERSHIP: checking your ego at the door to lead in assists

“Brainpowered Followership” means
· …being actively engaged in helping organization succeed while exercising independent, critical judgment of goals, tasks, potential problems, and methods
· …having the ability to work cooperatively with a leader to accomplish the organization’s goals even when there are personality or workplace differences
· …being key players both in planning the courses of actions and implementing in the field
· …use other productivity-model skills to choose the matter and timing

Work strategies of the star follower:
1. Self-leadership: know how to lead themselves, and demonstrate personal reliance
2. Focus/Commitment/Incentive: a passion that engages their hearts as well as focusing their minds, emotionally fueling their everyday work activities
3. Competence that leads to credibility: always have higher standards for themselves; sharp observers of new technology and societal trends, working to stay up to date; first to take advantage to improve their performance
4. Courageous conscience
5. Disagreeing agreeably: steps to control your ego to work cooperatively with the leader: be proactive
o be a fact finder
o be an advice seeker
o be a system player
o be persuasive: speak in the language of the organization; frame the message in consistent with the values and vision of the organization and back up by solid and objective information
o be courageous: go over heads when absolutely necessary; work on the confrontation and courage-building skills on a daily basis, practicing insightful, positive challenges to small directives in order to establish both a reputation and an experience level that prepare them for the heavy crisis that will eventually present themselves
o be a collective follower to plan well to stand alone

6. SMALL-L LEADERSHIP IN A BIG-L WORLD
To be an effective small-l leader, a team member must secure the respect of coworkers in at least one of three areas covered by the critical skills of Knowledge Quotient, People-Skills Quotient, or Momentum Quotient.

7. TEAMWORK: getting real about teams
· The culture of teamwork: see if the people at the top act as a team
· Choose team wisely: learn to be selective (How close it is to critical path? Benefit you? Don’t just be one person in the team, make sure it would add value to your company as well as your development)
· Contributing to the team: making sure the team knows its purpose
· Getting the team’s job done
· Paying attention and contributing to group dynamics

8. Organizational Savvy: street smart in the corporate comfort zone
· The ability to manage competing workplace interests to promote an idea, resolve conflicts, and most important, to achieve a goal
· The savvy surveyor: getting the lay of the land à organizational chart vs. real power
· The savvy insider: culture, attitude, symbol, quirk, etc.
· The savvy apprentice: finding a mentor; you need to surround yourself with people who are going to be really direct with you, not fawning “yes people”; seek out assignments where you can work closely with potential mentors
· The savvy explorer: experiencing the land you’ve map; the star lobbies to get the assignment, find ways to get experience in different parts of the company, seeing from different perspectives, ground themselves indentified knowledgeable colleagues to gain the valuable insights and build working relationships.
· The heart of organizational savvy: it’s all about relationship buildingà do understand the organizational etiquette and create an environment of conflict
· Create a niche: find an expertise niche that adds value to the organization, not only in their position, but in the rest of the workplace à take advantage of daily opportunity to publicize your niche area
· Advertise your expertise in different ways: bottom line is to advertise to the critical path and paying attention to organizational protocol; respect the niche-area boundaries of colleagues
· Developing the credibility: combined with other rules to build the reputation of integrity and credibility

9. SHOW-AND-TELL: persuading the right audience with the right message
· Know your audience
· Craft your message to that audience
· Make your message relevant and interesting to your audience.
· Put it in human terms, not purely technical ones: telling a story, not transmitting the factsà a good story engages the listener with something worth listening to: an intriguing plot, a human drama with twists and turns, fascinating characters, tension and conflict that get resolved, humor, and crisp visual images that capture the imagination; then the imaginative process kicks in
· Use props to enhance your story, not to steal the show

HR Career Development

This information is provided by SHRM’s HR Knowledge Center on the topic of "HR Career Development", including Online Career Resources/Articles, Education Resources, and Certification.

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SHRM Online Career Guide

Interactive Tool: SHRM HR Career Guide
http://www.shrm.org/hrcareerguide/
SHRM Launches Online Career Guide
http://www.shrm.org/hrnews_published/CMS_017665.asp#P-8_0

HR Career Resources & Articles

SHRM HR Job Board
http://jobs.shrm.org/jobseekerx/
SHRM HR Career Articles
http://www.shrm.org/jobs/articles/
SHRM Career Ladder (multiple articles)
http://www.shrm.org/jobs/careerladder/
SHRM Student Member Career Center
http://www.shrm.org/students/careers/
Webcast: Advancing Your HR Career
http://www.shrm.org/webcast/06march/losey.asp
Coaching HR
http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0207/pophal.asp

SHRM Makes Connections for HR Internships
http://www.shrm.org/hrnews_published/CMS_023994.asp#P-8_0

Higher Performance: How to Become a High Potential HR Employee
http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0606/0606agenda_careerdev.asp

Finding the Right Job Fit
http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0306/0306daniel.asp
Temporary Connections
http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0206/0206agenda_career.asp
Advancing Your Career in Human Resources
http://www.shrm.org/hrresources/whitepapers_published/CMS_000291asp

HR Professional Development Toolkit (Personal Career Development/Exploration Tools)
http://www.shrm.org/hrtools/toolkits_published/CMS_007364.asp#TopOfPage

Get Hired in '08: Workplace Trends to Put You Ahead
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/PersonalBest/story?id=4073923&page=1
Career Development for the HR Professional
http://humanresources.about.com/od/hrbasicsfaq/l/bl_career_indexhtm
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook
Human Resources, Training, and Labor Relations Managers and Specialists
http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos021.htm

HR Education Resources

Resources for HR Educators
http://www.shrm.org/hreducation/
Undergraduate Programs
http://www.shrm.org/foundation/undergrad/
Graduate Programs
http://www.shrm.org/foundation/directory/
SHRM eLearning
http://www.elearning.shrm.org/
Finding online degree programs and eLearning courses
http://www.elearners.com/
Guide to Online Schools
http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com

Certifications

Human Resources Certification Institute: PHR, - CA; SPHR, - CA; GPHR
http://www.hrci.org/
National Association of Personnel Services: CPC; CTS
http://www.recruitinglife.com/EduCert/index.cfm
International Public Management Association for Human Resources – Public Sector: IPMA-CP; IPMA-CS
http://www.ipma-hr.org/content.cfm?pageid=35
International Federation of Employee Benefit Programs: CEBS; GPA; RPA; CMS
http://www.ifebp.org/
World at Work: CCP; CBP; GRP; WLCP
http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/home/html/home.jsp
American Society for Training & Development: CPLP
http://www.astd.org/ASTD
Board of Certified Safety Professionals: CSP
http://www.bcsp.org/bcsp/index.php
American Payroll Association: CPP; FPC
http://www.americanpayroll.org/certi.html
Employee Assistance Professionals Association: CEAP
http://www.eapassn.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

The 48 Laws of Power

The 48 Laws of Power

(check it out at wiki; btw, Sun-Tzu's The Art of War is a very good one too. Worth reading!)

For me, it is a good book about the human being. Why? Because understanding the nature of human being is the first step to learn how to master the game of power.

“Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the world, a shifting of perspectives. It takes effort and years of practice, for much of the game ma not come naturally. Certain skills are required, and once you masters these skills you will be able to apply the laws of power easily…”

“The laws are based on the writings of men and women who have studies and mastered the game of power. These writings span a period of more than three thousand years … ”

(quoted from “The 48 Laws of Power”)

The book is thick with lots words. If you don’t have time, you could go browsing these 48 laws and I am pretty sure you would sort of getting some connections to your experiences also.

Ready For Anything

Ready For Anything
_52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life

The author has done very good job by giving many principles about how to make your daily life more productive. Don’t ignore the little stuff. Through daily accumulation, you would be surprised how much time and effort you might have wasted on the unproductive things.

These principles are pretty practical, but I think it is also the same important as to develop and integrate them into your own ways to efficiently and effectively manage the life based on your personal needs and goals.

Make these principles work for you, not work for “principle” itself.

SINK or SWIM

Sink or Swim
_New job. New Boss. 12 weeks to get it right.

This book is pretty hands-on and easy to follow with its clear structure and layout.

I have searched and looked for good guide books for new hires for a while. “The First 90 Days “is good, but it's better for people in “management/leader position”. This is totally suitable for very new hire. It provides the weekly planning and suggestions focused on 5 main sink-and-swim skills: Goals, Time, Knowledge, Team, and Image.

Even through it's designed for facing the new job or new work situations, I would say it is also helpful as a guideline to periodically check our progress and performance up. : )

The First 90 Days

The First 90 Days
_ critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels

This book provides very comprehensive knowledge and researches about leadership transition and development with hands-on models. If you are interested in this area, this is the book you would love to read. I have heard a lot about it since I start my HR career, it is highly recommended especially for professionals who work in Learning and Development, or doing the leadership succession planning.

In addition to these professionals, it is also good for everyone who wants to become a leader to get it. But it might be a little bit “too HR” book for you. So I made some summaries from the content as presentation slides (let me know if you're interested in). If you have gotten several years working experiences as a background , I think it should be enough to go through the slides and catch the main ideas about how “The First 90 Days” matters, and how to make it work.

Leadership

Empathy Matters Most for Effective Leadership

(cited from WorldatWork Newsline)

Dec. 27, 2007—While senior executives are rated highest in business competence, it is their empathy and trustworthiness that are the best predictors of overall effective leadership, according to a study of 1,405 leaders in 47 organizations.

The six-year study by global consultants BlessingWhite analyzed feedback on the executives from nearly 8,000 colleagues including direct reports, peers and superiors. Respondents were asked to rate the individuals in 54 areas, which were combined into eight categories spanning both business and personal characteristics.

Not surprisingly, the executives were generally rated highest in the core competencies of business aptitude, responsibility, clarity and internal attunement/self-confidence. Nevertheless, it was high scores in empathy and trustworthiness, followed by business aptitude, that were found to be most predictive of high ratings for leadership effectiveness.

What are leaders good at? (ratings highest-to-lowest)

business aptitude
responsibility
clarity
internal attunement
trustworthiness
empathy
external attunement
depth

What matters most? (correlation with effectiveness)

empathy
trustworthiness
business aptitude
depth
external attunement
clarity
responsibility
internal attunement

“It’s revealing that although leaders advance within the organization by mastering the core business skills,” observed BlessingWhite CEO Christopher Rice, “once they’re on top they don’t necessarily demonstrate the personal characteristics that are needed to connect with colleagues and employees or build loyal relationships, and as a result they fail as leaders.”

According to Rice, the leadership gap may not become an issue when times are good. “People will usually follow their superiors who, after all, have the title, credentials or charisma. BuPublish Postt getting employees to stay engaged in difficult times amid turmoil and many unknowns…that’s when empathy becomes crucial. An effective leader has to be able to understand others’ feelings and needs, and to generate trust. It’s personal qualities such as empathy and trustworthiness that can make all the difference.”

Of the study subjects, 37% were vice president or above and 45% were directors or managers. 40% were between 31-40, 39% 41-50, and 15% more than 50. Two-thirds were men and 43% earned an advanced degree. Feedback was provided by 7,924 individuals.

BlessingWhite is a global consulting firm dedicated to creating sustainable high-performance organizations.

[www.blessingwhite.com]