For a Competitive Edge, Train Your IT Professionals on Business Initiatives

By Drew Cather, Vice President of Innovation for Trace3

Professional development events are common for business professionals in most industries. In fact, there are more than 10,000 trade shows held in the U.S. annually. With a well-planned personal schedule, one can certainly learn a lot at a trade show; but occasionally, you can return from a week of attending various sessions wishing you’d learned a bit more and, frankly, realized better ROI for your time away from the office.

It’s a fairly common epiphany, and I recently had one of those experiences in the tech industry. It got me thinking: How can IT leadership conferences and professional development programs be taken to the next level? What are the most important aspects on which we should be focusing for the future?

Technology is a major business differentiator and something that has the power to shape the future of an organization. Companies should want their IT professionals to be more ingrained in understanding the mechanics of their business, so development programs should help IT professionals become more aligned with—and aware of—the business initiatives within their organizations. In many regards, the CIO of today is tomorrow’s CEO.

In speaking with many tech industry CIOs and vice presidents I found that the majority agreed, with most providing valuable feedback for what they would look for in a development program like this. The ideal program would be geared toward helping attendees go out and learn about business. IT is a necessary service supporting the business of any company, so they go hand-in-hand.

Armed with this feedback, the lightbulb went off for me while I was attending a CIO-focused event at University of California, Irvine’s Center for Digital Transformation. The center offers educational programs that help organizations leverage the possibilities enabled by emerging digital technologies. This is done by conducting innovative research and offering an exciting outreach program including workshops, conferences and lectures. It dawned on me that this would be the ideal resource and host to facilitate the creation of a program.

I met with Dr. Vijay Gurbaxani, the director of the UCI Center for Digital Transformation, and his associate Ed Trainor to discuss my concept. The first question Gurbaxani and Trainor posed to me was, “What’s the value in a program like this?” It’s a great question.

Here are some reasons why a program like this is so important:

1. The people we work with in IT leadership are actively searching for tools to nurture and grow their best and brightest team members to get them focused on understanding the business and ultimately aligning technology innovation to drive the business.
2. From the research I conducted, it appears no such program exists with respect to the curriculum and focus being put together. With the support of Gurbaxani, Trainor and my organization, we set out to bring the program to life. I foresee the development of more programs like this as HR and the C-suite continue to see the value in IT professional development.
3. Recent disasters like the Equifax data breach (along with other major security meltdowns) show that cybersecurity and IT are serious concerns for the C-suite. With budgets being devoted to preventing cyberattacks that devastate the bottom line, it makes sense for IT staff to learn about business strategy.

The UCI Paul Merage School of Business has just launched the program, offering a Certificate in Business Leadership for IT Executives with participants from such diverse organizations as AIG, NetApp, Sutter Health and Yamaha Motors USA. For me, the go-ahead from UCI to join in the development of the program was absolute validation that a need existed for the program, and acted as a call to action for so many tech companies that understand the value in shaping tech executives to look for new ways to drive business outcomes.

In an ideal world, no one would finish a leadership program questioning its value. Leadership programs should be purposefully designed to educate and enable their participants to understand the business side of things in order to better align innovation to the objectives of their organization.

To remain competitive, organizations must embrace digital transformation while staying focused on traditional objectives. By learning about business initiatives to complement their existing knowledge base, today’s IT professionals are in the perfect position to help guide their organizations and advise the C-suite on the evolving tech landscape.

Drew Cather is vice president of Innovation at Trace3, where he focuses on turning technology innovation into business value. He holds an economics degree from UC-Berkeley and lives in Orange County, California, with his wife and young son.

Identifying and Developing High Potential Leaders

by Stephen Hrop, Ph.D., Vice President of Organizational Development Services at Caliper 

In recent years, numerous articles and conferences have addressed the topic of identifying high potential (Hipo) leaders. For example, the “9-Box” model has become a nearly universal standard for identifying Hipos over the past 20 years because of its highly publicized usage at GE under CEO Jack Welch in the 1990s. However, that model provides absolutely no guidance on how to define “high potential". 

In fact, many organizations have great difficulty differentiating genuine Hipos from those who have a track record of strong performance. As noted in a Harvard Business Review article (“How to Keep Your Top Talent”; May 2010), only about 30 percent of high performing leaders have significant advancement potential. Put another way, 70 percent of high performing leaders do not qualify as “high potential”! What this suggests is that a track record of high performance is a necessary, but not sufficient, factor in determining advancement potential. Nor does the 9-Box model shed any light on how to develop Hipos once they’re identified. The rest of this article will focus on these topics.

As a former head of talent management for a major corporation and now an executive coach and succession planning consultant, I’ve observed three factors that consistently differentiate Hipos from others who are strong performers, but not genuine Hipos. The first factor is resourcefulness. This is the ability to quickly overcome non-routine obstacles to the achievement of objectives. Hipos are able to find a way forward in these situations and rarely get “stuck”.

The second factor is what I call “Leader GPS”. Hipos are able to navigate a much larger landscape in their approach to work. They have an intense outside-in perspective (e.g., an awareness of external best practices and major trends in their industry) and think cross-functionally. In contrast, many top performers who are not Hipos are more internally focused and think mostly within their functional silo.

The third factor is being future-focused. Hipos think beyond their immediate circumstances by anticipating potential issues and opportunities much farther into the future than top performers who are not Hipos. To paraphrase the late Stephen Covey, they focus on both the urgent and the important.

While Hipos possess many of the same attributes as top performers who are not Hipos (e.g., communication skills and teamwork), the three factors outlined above can help you differentiate between genuine Hipos and top performers with limited advancement potential.

So once you’ve identified your organization’s Hipos, what’s the best way to develop them? There is substantial evidence that on-the-job (OTJ) experiences that get leaders outside of their comfort zone provide far superior development to other approaches such as workshops, training programs, and executive education programs. However, these OJT experiences need to be planned and the leader needs to internalize “lessons learned” by objectively reflecting on his/her actions and actively seeking feedback during and after these OJT experiences.

Some of the best methods for doing this are keeping a personal journal (ideally the Hipo will discuss key journal entries with an internal mentor or external coach), participating in a 360-degree feedback assessment every 1-2 years and identifying specific OTJ developmental experiences based on that feedback, and working with an executive coach who deeply understands these principles of individual “action learning”. These methods achieve proven results in an accelerated timeframe, so are the ideal vehicle for Hipo development.

How To Show Candidates What You Really Have To Offer

The perks your company offers are plastered all over your career site. Your job postings go on and on about how your office is a great place to work. You might even give candidates a lengthy overview of all the benefits that will be available to them.

But those are just words.

Job seekers don’t experience your generous vacation time during the interview process, so how can they really judge if it’ll make them happy?

Of course, it’s impossible to give candidates a true look at all you have to offer. After all, no one’s expecting you to make a 401k contribution to someone who may not end up working for you. But there are some perks that can easily become part of the interview process and candidate experience.

Here are three benefits job seekers can get a real taste for before you even hire them:

1. The company culture

When it comes to company culture, job seekers are looking for signs that they’ll fit in and be satisfied working there. A 2015 Staples Advantage survey took a look at differences in company culture when it came to employee happiness. The characteristic that showed the biggest difference was having a culture built on shared vision, goals, and values. For happy employees, 31 percent described a “good” company culture this way, while only 17 percent of unhappy employees did.

That means satisfied employees feel like they have a lot in common with their coworkers. They see what aspects of the workplace unite the team and see those qualities in themselves.

In order to get employees who feel like they fit in with your organization, an honest representation of the culture needs to be part of the candidate experience. They need to get an idea for the personality of the office and decide if that’s an environment in which they’ll be happy.

But how do you do that in the interview process? One big way is by not asking generic questions. If you’re asking candidates the same things as every other organization, there’s nothing different for them to identify with. Think about what defines your workplace and have interview questions reflect those characteristics.

Is your office known for its creativity and shared love of comic books? Ask candidates what superpower they’d choose if they could. Are you focused on charity and giving back to the community? Inquire about what types of organizations they volunteer for. That way you not only get to know the candidate, but they get to know the company.

2. Work/life balance

Freedom and flexibility are side effects of the technological advances that have benefited workers immensely. It’s now not only easy for employees to work when they want and from where they want, but also an expected perk for many of them.

A 2015 survey from Indeed found that 51 percent of job seekers want flexible hours that allow them to achieve better work/life balance. But as anyone who has been through a job application process knows, the timeline is out of job seekers’ hands. They have no control over how long the process takes and few options when it comes to scheduling traditional interviews. Basically, there is no respect for their time.

Give candidates a sneak peak at the work/life balance they’ll be able to enjoy after being hired by making the process more flexible for them. For example, by incorporating video interviews into your process, talent can choose when and where they want to answer your questions, creating a better candidate experience.

If their schedule doesn’t give them a free moment until after 8 p.m., no problem. If they’re currently chaperoning their child’s school trip, there’s no need to choose between that responsibility and the job opportunity.

3. Career development

If you want employees to stick around for the long-haul, you need to show them you care about their professional future. And if you want a job seeker to become an employee, you need to show your dedication to career development during the interview process. The best way to do that is to offer feedback about their performance before they are even hired.

A 2015 LinkedIn report found that a staggering 94 percent of job seekers want feedback after they interview with a company, yet just 41 percent have ever received it. You have the opportunity to not only meet candidates’ expectations, but also show them how you’d offer guidance once they are hired.

Make time after the interview to discuss how each person did. Talk with them about what strengths impressed you, as well as areas for improvement. Then give some suggestions on ways they can improve.

For example, if a candidate gives a particularly good example of their customer service experience, let them know. That way, even if they don’t end up working for you, they can highlight those skills more and be more successful as their job search continues.

If you want talent to know how great it is to work for your company, you need to allow them to experience all the perks during the interview process. That will improve your candidate experience by taking all you have to offer from a list on your career site to part of their reality.

Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video interview solution used by more than 2,000 companies across the globe. Connect with Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.

The Three ‘U’s of Building a Career Development Program

By Lindsay Moroney, Chief of Staff for The Muse

When it comes to creating a career development program, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Employees today expect different programs at different types of companies and stages in their career. Each team member is also unique and has distinct needs and wants. But if you want to grow and nurture your team the right way, there’s one consistent truth: U make the difference.

Here are the three Us I recommend when contemplating building your career development program:

1. Understand what makes your team different

Researching other companies’ policies is tempting and can help to generate ideas, but remember that what works at one workplace won’t necessarily address the challenges at yours. Also keep in mind that what you implement must be specific to not only the team you have, but also to the team you seek to grow. Here at The Muse, we regularly survey the team to see what their growth goals are and which opportunities, if given the choice, they’d want us to spend our money and time on. It’s simple, but it ensures that we’re constantly learning from our team and building programs that will impact them most.

2. Build programs unique to your team

Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of GE, increased the company’s value with management programs like his “up or out” model—if employees aren’t improving and being promoted, they must eventually be let go. While Welch’s style worked wonders for GE, this specific idea wouldn’t work at a rapidly growing startup like The Muse: We need individual contributors as we scale; the institutional knowledge each team member holds is priceless for us; plus, as we’ve learned from our people, not everyone wants to become a manager! So our programs aim to support all types of employees—which leads me to the third U:

3. Uncover the power in each team member

Programs that support career development can come from anyone on the team. Google’s Laszlo Bock wrote in Work Rules! about a spontaneous program where one Googler set up office hours for anyone who wanted to talk about his or her career path. It was filling a need the company hadn’t thought to ask about or to create a program for. But when it became popular, it was formalized into a program now called Career Gurus. The lesson? Good ideas can come from anywhere. Make sure your team knows they are welcome to share their ideas or even create their own career development opportunities.

If you’re strapped for resources, consider starting small with a specific group that needs your support—like new managers or rising stars—to build a program that satisfies their unique needs. However you choose to do it, though, make an effort to understand what your employees want and need, build unique programs for them, and uncover the power in each team member to act when they see a need. You’ll develop your employees’ careers for their benefit and your company’s benefit.