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5 Key Traits to Consider When Assessing Leaders

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For many leaders, the pandemic has been a trial by fire. New challenges have put the strengths and weaknesses of their leadership style under the spotlight. It’s no secret that the working world has changed drastically in the last year and a half. The pandemic has forced leaders and employees to adapt to new ways of working, often stepping outside of their comfort zones.

For better or worse, a lot of the changes are here to stay. What started as two weeks out of the office turned into a completely virtual work environment. Now, with offices reopening, leaders at all levels will need to adapt to a new hybrid workplace model.

To thrive in the future, leaders need to face new challenges head-on. To do that, they will need support. As businesses recover, leadership development needs to be prioritized. Leadership assessments are one of the most valuable tools in the development toolbox. Companies will need to rethink what they are assessing and explore new ways to build up their leaders for success. Here are five traits you should consider when assessing leaders in the post-pandemic world.

Empathy

Empathetic leadership is more important than ever. Leaders who are focused on supporting and empathizing with their employees can form better connections and understand the needs of their team. This means they are more likely to have engaged teams, making it easier to retain talent.

The pandemic had a huge impact on workplaces around the globe. We are now seeing a turnover tsunami. Part of the reason for this is employee burnout. Uncertainty, transitioning to new ways of working, and changing expectations all factor into burnout. Proactive, empathetic leadership can make all the difference in ensuring that employees want to stay with your company. When assessing leaders, measure emotional intelligence. Look at their ability to listen actively, understand employee needs, and engage in an empathetic way.

Adaptability and Flexibility

The way we work has changed and leaders need to be able to adapt quickly. The sudden move to remote work was jarring for many organizations. This is especially true for companies with a strong in-office culture.

A lot of the changes came with new technology as many companies’ digital transformation strategies kicked into high gear last year. The ability to adapt to new technologies is important, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Leaders also need to adapt and be flexible with the needs of their employees.

As of December 2020, 71 percent of employees that could do their jobs remotely were choosing to work from home. More than half of those employees would like to continue to work from home post-pandemic. As more workplaces move to a hybrid model, leaders need to balance the needs of employees with performance. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. Evaluate leaders and potential leaders for their ability to navigate change.

Trustworthiness

When planning leadership development, measuring employee trust in leadership is a key metric for success. Leaders and employees both thrive in high-trust environments. Employees need to know that leadership has their backs. Leaders need to know that their employees are doing great work and driving results.

During the pandemic, leaders likely struggled with trust during the shift to remote work. In many cases, that trust was rewarded as productivity increased by 47 percent in 2020, according to a report by Prodoscore. As a leadership trait, trustworthiness is critical for helping employees feel empowered to do their best work.

Potential for Development

When assessing leaders, it’s important to know what your company needs and who is best suited to meet those needs. Knowing who can successfully lead in your company and setting them up for success is crucial. When succession planning, companies need to evaluate who will drive the company culture. They also need to determine who has the potential to lead at a higher level.

Tools like a 9-box performance matrix are useful when assessing candidates for leadership positions. Often, you’ll need to determine who does their best work as an individual contributor and who can be further developed. Know what works in your company and give your best candidates the coaching, tools, and training to be even better.

Proactive Thinking

The pandemic put a lot of organizations on their back foot. Nobody knew what to expect, or how long the pandemic would last. Many businesses had to react quickly to keep everything running. Collectively, we all learned the value of thinking pragmatically and proactively.

Leadership assessment, development, and succession planning need to be proactive. It’s no longer about what and who you need right now, today. Businesses need to evaluate how their priorities are shifting and who can help them meet their goals in years to come. When looking at leadership candidates and evaluating current leaders, determine if they are forward thinkers. Find out if their vision of the future matches the business’s long-term outlook.

I led the development of new succession planning and leadership development procedures last year at the start of the pandemic that really helped guide our company through the worst of it. By assessing leaders’ strengths and weaknesses, we filled in the gaps and made the transition to remote work less painful and more productive.

We learned that building a sustainable leadership group will get your company through trying times. We were able to find comfort in the uncomfortable by focusing on building the traits that drive our culture. As a result, we ended up with stronger leaders, more engaged employees, and increased productivity.

Navigating Your HR Career Across Multiple Industries [Podcast]

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The landscape of HR is rapidly changing, especially due to the pandemic. With WFH culture escalating and employee needs constantly shifting, HR professionals need to be ready to adapt to the times at a moment’s notice.

Now more than ever, organizations are turning to HR to create a culture of flexibility and adaptability. They recognize that company culture needs to not just welcome change, but thrive in it. Thus, employers need HR departments with individuals who seek to fully understand the industries they work in and make them shine.

Because of the recognition of HR’s value, especially over the past year, more roles are popping up for HR professionals. Many are seriously considering seizing an HR career, but aren’t sure where to start. Turns out, a key aspect of breaking into the HR profession is a desire to know the industry you want to work in, and a willingness to adapt to whatever challenges that industry presents.

Our Guest: Alex Smith, Chief HR Officer for the City of Memphis

It was a delight to talk to Alex Smith, CHRO to the City of Memphis, on this week’s episode of #WorkTrends. Reporting directly to Mayor Jim Strickland, Alex is known for architecting and updating the city’s labor relations. Also, she’s known for being adept at talent management, training, employee engagement, compensation, managing diversity and safety initiatives, and more. She was named the 2021 Leadership Memphis Changemaker and was a nominee for HRO Today magazine’s CHRO of the Year 2020 Award.

The unique aspect of Alex’s career is that she’s worked across multiple industries–working for organizations like Microsoft, Brightstar, Target, and more. I was dying to know what advice she has for anyone trying to break into an HR career, and what she recommends people do to be successful in HR roles.

“Whether it’s starting off in recruiting, manufacturing, government, or any industry, I think just getting into a function and seeing how HR works is a very important step. And ultimately all of the experience that you gain over the years, it all builds up,” Alex says.

Once you land the job, to truly stand out over the course of your HR career, you have to have an open mind. Be flexible in the face of difficult decisions and shifting employee needs.

“Most of the time, and truly the pandemic has shown this, the issues you face in HR are not black and white. They’re usually very gray,” says Alex. “So having multiple experiences from different industries helps you to have a comprehensive view and approach to solving certain problems for the organizations that you work for.”

If You Want to Work in HR, You Must Seek to Understand

As you grow in your HR career and attain new roles across industries, Alex says it’s vital to show an interest in the ins-and-outs of each industry you pursue. Recognizing that employee needs vary and that HR decisions will fluctuate based on context is crucial to success.

“‘Seek to understand’ is a phrase that I learned really early in my career. And I’ve found it to be true in a number of different circumstances. When you’re transitioning into a new industry, seek to understand the historical perspective of how the industry has evolved. Also, learn why certain rules, policies, and procedures are in place,” Alex says. “Not rushing to judgment, and not rushing to change things, I think is important.”

Basically, seeking to understand will help any HR professional adapt to what’s coming. The changes incited by the pandemic are just one example of how HR roles and responsibilities change. It’s a never-ending process, and it requires flexibility.

“I think the name of the game for every organization in the future is going to be flexibility. For instance, they can be flexible with their work environments, with their working arrangements. With how they think about who’s going to be doing work. Whether it’s full-time, part-time, flexible around work hours,” Alex explains. “The pandemic showed us that people can be very effective working remotely, working from different places, and using different technology.”

I hope you enjoy this episode of #WorkTrends. If you’re thinking about an HR career or want to level up the one you have, consider Alex’s perspective. Are you flexible? Do you seek to understand? Also, how can you make changes to do so? Learn more about this topic by connecting with our guest, Alex Smith, on LinkedIn.

Image by Olivier Le Moal

The Resilient Workforce: How Psychometric Testing Predicts Adaptability

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When building a resilient workforce, adaptability isn’t a nice-to-have quality in employees; it’s an essential component of a workforce capable of accepting and overcoming unexpected challenges. Resilient companies have long shown a higher likelihood of surviving and even thriving through crises — a theme that the pandemic has underscored. Success is related to how quickly and effectively workforces pivot to address change.

Human resources leaders who recognize the power of building a resilient workforce need to seek out adaptable employees. But how can they tell whether a job applicant possesses a high degree of adaptability?

Résumés might give an inkling of potential resilience and under-pressure responses. However, they don’t tell the whole story of how someone will react and adapt in the face of the unexpected and unprecedented. That’s where the power of psychometric testing can come into play for employee recruitment strategies.

Building a Resilient Workforce: Leverage Psychometric Testing

Psychometric testing isn’t a new concept, to be sure. Many businesses have used psychometric assessments for recruitment and selection for decades. In fact, these types of tests — sometimes referred to as personality tests — gained popularity more than a half-century ago with the creation of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Today, many other psychometric test vehicles are available on the marketplace in addition to Myers-Briggs. Many of them share a general purpose: Identify a person’s key strengths and weaknesses. Once identified, those aptitudes, skills, and abilities can form a picture of what the person will be like in everyday life. And, most important to those involved in corporate human capital, how they will be while at work.

The problem, of course, is that psychometric personality tests can be simultaneously accurate and flawed. Why? They’re usually a good measurement of the test taker’s self-perception. But without deeper interpretation, they may not fully indicate how others perceive the test taker. Case in point: It’s possible for someone to self-assess as a leader. But it is also possible not to be seen as a leader by colleagues.

This doesn’t mean that HR leaders should do away with psychometric tools for recruitment. What it does mean is that the tools require thoughtful planning and implementation. When handled correctly, they help a company build a team of vibrant, versatile performers who can adapt to changing needs.

3 Strategies of Psychometric Testing

If you’re not convinced you’re getting the most out of the psychometric testing you’re doing right now, apply the following strategies. These steps can help you improve the results of psychometric tests and avoid common pitfalls:

1. Look for proof points

Valid and effective psychometric tests will likely be backed by historical research. Look for third-party and proprietary studies from the organization that created the test or outside case studies from companies that have used it. Without data and proof points, it’s difficult to predict whether a test will produce accurate and valuable results for your organization.

As you’re researching options, also be wary of any tests that seem to oversimplify results. Personalities are complex and multidimensional. A test that simply places users into predetermined categories with little additional context in the report likely won’t give you the insights you need to determine true adaptability.

2. Make the test a collaborative effort

Far too many companies adopt a “set it and forget it” mentality when it comes to psychometric tests. They ask candidates or workers to undergo assessments. They then receive a compilation of the outcomes and allow everything to continue as usual. The best testing methodologies, however, go a step further. They incorporate trained interpreters to work with test-takers.

The interpreter can go over the data and co-create results with the test taker. They’ll talk through the data and may even relate results to the individual’s past experiences. Often, this process produces profound self-discoveries. At this point, the interpreter and test taker can use the data to help the employee set goals, such as improving resilience and innovative thinking.

3. Go beyond initial data

Generally, hiring teams should not use psychometric tests as a pass-fail assessment for job candidates or current employees. They are excellent tools to integrate as one element of a comprehensive interview, selection, and training process, but they’re not meant to stand alone. Think of the tests in terms of the insights they can offer to give you a jumping-off point for diving deeper. For example, if a test shows that working under pressure may be a top skill for a candidate, ask the candidate to describe a time they have experienced such a situation and how they adapted to overcome it.

Psychometric Testing: The Goal is Awareness

Remember that the goal is awareness — you want to get the fullest picture of a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses so that you know what to leverage and where to compensate. So when building resiliency in a workforce, use these tests to identify potential areas for training and development. 

For example, If a candidate shows a high aptitude for communication — a great fit for a specific role. But the test also shows their ability to be flexible could use some work. You can then focus on developing the skill of adaptability in their first few months on the job to make them a great asset within for building a resilient workforce.

Working with a team of adaptable employees means you don’t have to worry as much about people digging into their comfort zones and resisting change. Use thoughtful psychometric testing as part of your employee recruitment strategies, onboarding, and continuous improvement processes. The tests can help you create a workforce that’s eager, ambitious, and flexible — even in the face of the unknown.

 

Photo: Joshua Coleman

Going Agile: Beyond the Buzz

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“Agile” has been a buzzword thrown around Silicon Valley, startup conferences, town halls and HR department meetings for years now. Additionally, in the past several weeks we’ve heard “agile” again in large volume as companies rapidly try to adjust to remote work and the new realities we’re all living in due to COVID-19. While it’s true that adopting an agile mindset may be more valuable to companies than ever, it’s much more than successfully managing a quick transition from in-office to work from home. 

Though the idea originated way back in 2001, there still is not a widespread understanding about what agility really is, and how it can benefit organizations of all sizes — especially now. From addressing internal dysfunction to helping a business overcome competitive challenges, to coping in a world filled with VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity), embracing agility can give businesses the edge they’re looking for, ultimately transforming the way they work. 

For the transformation to be successful, however, agile has to be more than a buzzword. If it’s just showing up in memos, on Slack channels and PowerPoints or mentioned in passing at meetings, you are doing it wrong. To go from just saying or writing agile to actually being agile, you need to know where to start and what to watch out for. 

Here are four of the most common barriers experienced when trying to implement the agile mindset, and how to overcome them to become a truly adaptive organization — and thrive in these uncertain times:

If Agile Is the Answer, What’s the Question?

In my work as a Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Coach and Certified LeSS Trainer, I occasionally come across teams that want to be agile just so they can say that they are agile. I call this “agile for agile’s sake,” and it’s a big warning sign. Too often teams haven’t sharpened their focus enough before attempting to embrace adaptive practices. This can lead to confusion, frustration, and ironically, the opposite of agility. Another large warning sign is if you see heavy slide decks and best practices books popping up all over about how you’re going to become agile. They often mean that DDT (Deck Driven Transformations) is underway, as it is usually instituted by a large consultancy. When employees are still tasked to work through the controlled process of long development and feedback cycles for a project, then they are using up their valued time and resources, and a growth in documents contradicts what agile is all about!

Instead, figure out what agile will fix for your organization. It’s imperative to understand your own organization’s priorities – to know the why behind implementing agile – if you want your transformation to succeed. Otherwise, you’re just using a new buzzword, without any true meaning behind it.

Agile is an OS, Not an App

Another common pitfall I see are teams looking to jump on the “agile bandwagon” and expect it to be a quick and easy process. These are organizations looking to put a check mark next to “agile” and cross it off on its to-do list. We often see organizations “buying, unwrapping and installing” a popular, commercially available heavy framework or producing an internal over-engineered operating model that resembles a traditional model, spiced up with agile buzzwords.

But that’s not how it works. It’s not an app that you can simply download, install and be up and running on within moments. Agile is an Operating System – it will impact how everything is done (remember, the goal is transformation), and it can take some getting used to. 

Setting realistic expectations about what the agile framework is and is not, and how long it will take to transform into an adaptive organization is extremely important. Without this mindset, team members’ commitment to the transformation may wane, undercutting everyone’s efforts to evolve, as full, company-wide buy-in is necessary for success. 

Swim a Lake, Don’t Boil the Ocean

Another problem I’ve seen when working with companies looking to embrace agile is starting off too broad and shallow – looking to overhaul everything at once. Instead, I recommend focusing narrowly but going deep in specific areas, and then expanding, for example, like in Large Scale Scrum, where the idea is to descale an organization, in order to scale agility. The bigger the organization, the more important this is. 

To do this, identify a product or function where impact can be felt in real terms quickly. This is your best bet about where to start. Oftentimes, HR is a great department to include in an agile transformation. This is because HR policies are incredibly important, as it involves changing the way employees are treated.

It is interesting, however although maybe not surprising, lean companies are having a less painful experience adjusting to the unprecedented conditions we’re currently in, because being lean helps with adaptive-ness (agility), and it is based on the degree of organizational “descaling.”

Urgency as the Catalyst to Change 

Finally, in my experience, there needs to be a sense of urgency for an agile model to really take hold and thrive within an organization. The team must know and feel that something is fundamentally broken, and that embracing new practices and methods is essential to survival. Without the understanding that something must be fixed, the likelihood of a successful transformation is significantly lower. This is because those without a sense of urgency are resistant to change.

This is true from the top to the bottom of an organization. Without buy-in from the entire team, creating real change, real transformation is impossible. When it comes to senior leaders, getting them engaged and invested can make all the difference. 

Contrary to how you may have heard the word “agile” used previously, it’s not about cutting costs. That has never been the primary goal of being an agile company. Agile is about moving beyond the buzzword to become more adaptive and nimbler. This allows a company to transform the way it works fundamentally, innovate quickly and ultimately become more competitive. This ability to adapt and innovate has never been more important than it is today, where the entire fabric of work is changing with unprecedented unemployment and entire industries turned upside down by the pandemic. The businesses that can adapt fast will have an edge on those that are moving slowly: ultimately, the faster you can adapt, the more economically feasible your business is in our rapidly changing world.