Phillip Van Hooser - Transformational Leadership

One of my favorite grade school activities was “Show and Tell.” You remember the drill. Students were asked to bring something of interest to them to class to share with their fellow classmates. When called upon, each student would both “show” some manifestation of their chosen topic and then “tell” or explain its relevance. Teachers have long known that many students learn more effectively when they both see and hear. Adult life-long learners still do.

Several months ago, I was asked to participate in creating interactive training programs, delivered via the internet that would allow interested supervisors and managers to get a better handle on the difficult and often troubling tasks of employee interviewing and performance evaluations. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to revisit the many lessons I learned in my former professional life as a Human Resources manager to create the content for the two sessions described below. I encourage you to take a look for yourself.

The Art of Interviewing and Selection

Effective interviewing and selection is one of the key activities for all corporations that value employees as their most valuable asset. Unfortunately, most organizations treat interviewing as an afterthought. Companies don’t spend the time, attention, and effort required to identify and define the characteristics and attributes that make a valuable employee – generally resulting in poor hiring decisions.

Interviewing and Selection features leadership speaker Phillip Van Hooser with an effective blueprint to the employee selection decision and interview process. Business leaders and HR personnel can use his selection blueprint to find the “best suited” candidate for each and every job to be filled, greatly raising the chances of finding and retaining the best employees for their organization.

After taking Interviewing and Selection, users will be able to clearly identify which interviewees will be best suited for the organization, who can contribute to the overall effectiveness of the team.

The Art of Employee Appraisals: Keeping Staff at High Performance

Employee evaluations and appraisals are an important tool for keeping staff at high performance - even for the best, most highly motivated employees. They help provide direction regarding their past and current performance levels, and help them manage their future performance. Evaluations and appraisals are even more critical for marginal or under-performing employees. Supervisors, managers, and HR personnel must be well prepared in order to effectively evaluate, and set goals during the appraisal process.

When business leaders use feedback as a performance setting tool, it is critical to instill a fair and effective process of appraising and evaluating employees. Honest and open feedback can be difficult for employees to deal with unless the right culture and appraisal structure has been established. Without these structures, performance will usually suffer. The Art of Employee Appraisals offers ideas with impact and recommends structures for effectively evaluating and communicating feedback to employees within your organization.

These employee evaluation and appraisal techniques have been tested and proven by speaker Phillip Van Hooser in various organizations throughout North America, and will work for your organization as well.

And For Those Looking for a Customer Service Booster Shot…

Those of you who have read my books, newsletters and articles for years know that I am sold on the importance of serving customers professionally. Well, I’m pleased to report that I have a new tool to recommend for your customer service tool box.

My dear friend and professional speaking colleague, Shep Hyken, has just release his new book, “The Cult of the Customer: Create an Amazing Customer Experience That Turns Satisfied Customers into Customer Evangelists.”  This book shows you how to design a strategy that leads both customers and employees through five distinct cultural phases – from “uncertainty” to “amazement.”  It includes dozens of case studies that show how great companies made this journey; the critical changes that allowed these companies to build a Cult of the Customer.

By the way, there’s even a special opportunity of which you should be aware. Buy the book on Tuesday, April 7 at Amazon.com and you will receive several bonuses that will make this book even more valuable to you. Go to Cult Of The Customer to learn more.

Phillip Van Hooser
Leadership Expert, Author & Keynote Speaker
phil@vanhooser.com

We all know that times are tough. Bad economic news bombards us 24/7.
I graduated college in 1979 with a business degree. I was an enthusiastic, though still wet-behind-the-ears, future manager. I pranced out of the hallowed halls of academia and plunged chest deep into the murky waters of recession: circa 1980. Not since the early 1930s had America experienced such economic woe, evidenced by lost homes and businesses, plant closings, layoffs, high unemployment and double digit interest rates.
Fast forward to the 21st Century. As Yogi Berra so famously said, “It’s déjà vu all over again,” with the exception of the high interest rates, anyway.
So what strategic counter measures did I (and those of my generation) learn from our bosses of decades and recessions past? What tricks of the trade did our managers teach us?
Unfortunately, they must have taught us the bad tricks of balancing a budget. I’m sorry to say, they were too busy foolishly doing what too many of their modern day contemporaries are tempted to do today. They focused on indiscriminately slashing all “unnecessary” costs, including leadership training programs, in an effort to “right the ship.” In budget meetings they screamed, “Look at what those training programs are costing us!” in an attempt to justify their shortsighted views. Few stopped to consider or calculate the future peril-and heavy cost-that a lack of trained leaders might ultimately yield.
Now, back to the future. We find ourselves at that critical juncture again.
In a recent Wall Street Journal article by Dana Mattioli (“Despite Cutbacks, Firms Invest in Developing Leaders: Companies Renew Focus on Employee Training, Betting That Strong Managers Will Help Through the Recovery,” we’re told:
…a December (2008) survey of 117 large U.S. companies by Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc. found 23% of respondents had recently cut training programs, and another 18% planned to do so this year.

Almost 40% have made, or are preparing to make the same mistakes, as their predecessors? Incredible!
Hold on, not so fast. Happily, there’s more to this story. There seems to be at least a glimmer of hope that 21st Century decision makers may be a bit more prescient than we initially give them credit for being. This WSJ article goes on to report:
…Despite layoffs and recession-starved budgets, many employers are investing in leadership-development programs, hoping not to be caught short of strong managers when the economy recovers…”Identifying and grooming leaders is important in good times,” says Bret Furio, senior vice president of consumer lifestyle for Philips Electronics North America. “In times of crisis when the economy is struggling,” he adds, “it’s imperative.”

And Yaarit Silverstone, global managing director for the organizational-effectiveness practice at consulting firm Accenture Ltd., reiterated in the article what many forward-thinking decision makers already knew:
…companies historically cut leadership-development programs during downturns, but the moves backfired, prompting midlevel managers and top performers to leave when the economy recovered. Now, she says, executives believe that without capable managers, “their ability to come through [the recession] in a healthy fashion is diminished.”

So what’s a manager to do in tough times such as these? To train or not to train, is no longer the question. Hopefully, we’re well past that. We surely know better.
Tough minded decision makers today will resist doing what weak minded decision makers of times past did too readily. They will resist jeopardizing the future of their organization by depriving it of its very lifeblood-effective, well-trained leaders. They will now and forever see the preparation of leaders through focused training exactly for what it is-an investment in the future, not a simply an easy cost to be eliminated.

Phillip Van Hooser
Leadership Expert, Author & Keynote Speaker
phil@vanhooser.com

5 Truths Impacting Change

Truth # 1:  Too often, by the time the need for change is obvious to everyone—it’s too late.

Let’s face facts.  Most of us don’t really like change all that much.  We like status quo. We like predictability.  We like our comfort zones.  We like to know exactly what will happen next and exactly how we will be affected by it.  So when someone comes along preaching the gospel of change, we are tempted to add our voice to the “amen chorus”…as long as someone else is willing to go first.

Truth # 2:  Ultimately, most change occurs as a result of force, not choice.

The best leaders are not content to wait for a line of volunteer change agents to suddenly materialize.  Instead, the most effective change leaders are the ones who construct and communicate a compelling message that addresses specifically why change is already  necessary and that no other option to change exists.   Change must begin immediately, they proclaim, in order to assure economic growth, national security, financial prosperity…or on the local level more orders, enhanced quality, competitive relevance.

Truth # 3:  Change is most challenging for those who are most comfortable.

If things are going well, it is hard to convince ourselves, much less others, that now is the time to change and that there is an undeniable reason to do so.  We remember the words that have echoed down through the years: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  We are just too comfortable to be motivated to act.  However, let our retirement portfolios fall by 25-30% in a matter of hours and people tend to become much less comfortable with how things are and much more motivated to make necessary changes.

Truth # 4:  The initial changes are always the most difficult.

Getting started with change can be tough.  Where do we start?  How do we start?  Will you go first?  Some of the best leaders I have known are not necessarily the smartest, the most experienced or the most visionary.  No, rather they possess the one attribute that many other aspiring leaders lack.  They are willing to simply stand up and step out, while the majority of others sit, wringing their hands and moaning “Oh, woe is me.”  Leaders that take action seem to intuitively know that the sooner we are able to get through the uncomfortable, often unpleasant first stages of change, the smoother the path ahead becomes.

Truth # 5:  When change does occur, there will always be new problems to be dealt with and new opportunities to be taken advantage of.

Contrary to the dismay of those who have wasted far too much time hoping that every change they encounter would result in a fairy tale world totally void of problems, I say simply remind you that it doesn’t work that way.  Every change will yield new problems.  Count on it.  Expect it.  But they are problems that can be managed and learned from.  But, get ready, the opportunities are lurking as well.  They are always there for those willing and prescient enough to look for and maximize them.

Let’s face it, change is as much a part of our life as death and taxes.  Those leaders who accept the inevitability of change and who learn to benefit from the opportunities change presents are the ones for whom opportunities will be never ending.  So, who’s willing to change?  Will you go first?

Phillip Van Hooser
Leadership Expert, Author & Keynote Speaker
phil@vanhooser.com