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Leaders face an unprecedented talent challenge with no immediately obvious solution. Most companies have record-high voluntary employee turnover rates, and more than half of employees only do the minimum required at work. Recently economists have connected what is now labeled Quiet Quitting to a fall in US labor productivity output. Looking ahead to the new year, futurists point to an accelerated digital transformation trend that will force leaders to overcome increasing employee skill gaps. Without challenges, there aren't opportunities. And without opportunities, businesses cannot experience growth. It is easy to logically think of the talent challenge as attracting and retaining the right people. But inevitably, there is also a creative thinking aspect. Edward de Bono, an international authority on thinking, suggests the challenge is to avoid simply reacting to a problem. Let's take a closer look at what he calls lateral thinking and a German concept behind one of the world's most innovative supply chain. Creative thinking makes a big difference No organization is looking to stay the same. Driving creativity within an organization's culture is increasingly vital for leaders. A study by McKinsey revealed that companies with creative leaders outperformed peers by 67% in revenue growth, 70% in total returns to shareholders, and 74% in net enterprise value. Likewise, a lack of imagination constrains organizations. Kodak, Blockbuster, and Sears are well-known for the devastating consequences of innovation failure. "Creativity is decided by what you choose to do or refuse to do." Michalko Identifying worthwhile ideas requires the ability and will to see new patterns in the same data everyone else is seeing. As simple as this appears, the challenge is that individual expectations shape perceptions. To break these perceptions, leaders need a new way of thinking. When faced with a problem or obstacle, do not dig deeper. Dig elsewhere. Edward de Bono presented that vertical and lateral thinking are the two fundamental approaches to thinking. He described lateral thinking as the capability to solve problems by imagining solutions not possible with logic. Metaphorically, digging a hole somewhere else. Lateral thinking is dependent on rejecting assumptions by shifting perspectives and suspending judgment. It is helpful to test assumptions, adopt a different point of view, challenge habits, and search for ideas outside your industry or function. One of the world's most innovative supply chains BASF is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Like me, you may have first learned about this company from their marketing campaign: "We don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better." Verbund (/fɐɐˈbʊnt/) – to combine or to cooperate. At BASF, chemical production sites are highly interlinked product flows resulting in efficient uses of resources. At these verbund sites, production, energy, logistics, and site infrastructure are integrated. BASF reports that the results are higher product yields and resource conservation. Beyond raw material, energy, and logistics savings and reduced emissions, this integrated concept generates a competitive advantage through enormous amounts of data. The BASF Global Know-How Verbund supports the interlinked product flows. It is an alliance of strategic process and systems research, universities, industry partners, innovative startups, and operating divisions. These closely bundled partnerships each have a specific focus and competency to support the supply chain. How is the talent challenge like a supply chain challenge? You get what you plan for when it comes to supply chain management. For too long, organizations have approached talent management with ad-hoc talent strategies. As companies struggle to answer questions like, how do you build talent pools for the future? How do we help employees learn quickly to close increasing skill gaps? How do we engage employees feeling burned out? It is increasingly evident that companies need to change how they plan regarding talent. What if you developed a verbund talent strategy? Creating highly interlinked talent flows and collecting enormous amounts of data to improve your talent management processes and systems. Your company could create mutually beneficial partnerships between universities and industry research associations to help: faculty develop programs for students with job-ready skills job-ready students to find careers in your company aligned with their passions industry associations discuss relevant issues and set standards for best practices Don't waste time trying to solve challenges with only vertical thinking. What is the real creative thinking challenge for you? Our creative thinking development solutions equip leaders — and, in turn, your organization as a whole — to become “creative thinkers.” We do this by helping leaders work collectively to develop the capacity, skills, and culture needed for innovation in service of organizational goals. Whether you’re looking for a facilitated brainstorming session, customized executive coaching, top-to-bottom solution tailored to uplift and transform your entire organization, or scalable programs designed to strengthen your individual leaders’ creative thinking effectiveness, we offer a variety of research-based leadership solutions both virtually and in-person. References Banker, S. (2018). One of the world's most innovative supply chains. Forbes. BASF. (2022). BASF at a glance. BLS. (2022). Productivity and costs: Third quarter 2022, revised. US Bureau of Labor Statistics Broderson, M., Heller, J., Perrey, J. & Remley, D. (2017). Creativity's bottom line: How winning companies turn creativity into business value and growth. McKinsey & Co. Michalko, M. (2006). Thinkertoys: A handbook of business creativity. Berkeley, Calif: Ten Speed Press. Runco, M. (2014). Enhancement and the fulfillment of potential. Creativity. Shavinina. (2003). The international handbook on innovation (1st ed.). Elsevier Science. Sloane. (2006). The leader's guide to lateral thinking skills unlocking the creativity and innovation in you and your team (2nd ed.). Kogan Page.

"You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run." The message in the lyrics popularized by Kenny Rogers is clear: There is a secret to knowing when enough is enough. This classic card game advice highlights the growing tension in the minds of employees fueling the great resignation. A recent Gallup survey revealed an alarming trend. More than 50% of US employees are quietly quitting, and 18% are actively disengaged. You hate the lack of clear expectations and feedback. You think finding a work-life balance is out of reach. You believe career growth opportunities are woefully inadequate. No leader or company culture is perfect, but when do you take action or walk away? Here are a few tips for wisely choosing when to take action, three battles worth having, and giving critical feedback you won't regret. How to wisely choose your workplace battles It's normal to experience difficult situations in life and at work. But you can't fight every battle. There is a fine line between being a problem solver and being the problem. Here are three points to discern the difference. Control vs. Concern: It helps to understand the difference between your circle of control and your circle of concern. The circle of control includes things you care about and can actually control, and your circle of concern contains stuff you care about but have very limited to no control over. If the challenge is with something outside your circle of control, the first step you take needs to build your influence over the situation. You will be more likely to be successful with battles in your circle of control. Solution vs. Problem: Next, you want to ensure a constructive solution. Awareness of the challenge is the beginning of taking action, but awareness alone isn't all that helpful. You can build political capital by being seen as someone with a solution vs. someone with a problem. Who wants to be around someone that always has a problem? Small Scale vs. Large Scale: Adopt a mindset of experimentation. Large-scale fixes are slow and more difficult. Identify experiments that can be tested and modified based on what you learn. Also, find early adopters. It is not essential to have everyone on board initially, so start small, where there is the least resistance to the change. 3 Workplace battles worth having Notice I am not implying three reasons you should quit. Let me be very clear; it is important in difficult situations to keep your focus on why. You want to look for reasons to do something difficult rather than look for reasons to avoid a challenge. Battle #1: Toxic Culture Company culture is the one thing that influences every aspect of a business. It directly impacts organizational success, employees, customers, and communities. An organization's underlying cultural values affect employees' behaviors and decisions. A recent study by MIT Sloan identified that a toxic organizational culture is more than ten times stronger of an influence on employee attrition than pay. Sadly, the effects of a toxic culture extend beyond the workplace. Employees working in a toxic workplace report experiencing decreased well-being and increased work-family conflict. Detoxing the company culture begins with being the change you want to see in the world. Often bad leadership habits trickle down and become acceptable ways of behaving. Model good behavior and ask for feedback from followers about what you do that bothers them. Second, actively architect and manage the workplace culture. Hire and fire employees to create and reinforce the desired company culture. Teach leaders and employees through stories about how they should respond in different situations and the costs of tolerating toxicity. Reinforce and communicate the importance of trust and teamwork. Reward employees that live the desired culture. Measure company results and the preferred company culture. Battle #2: Leadership & Organizational Entropy In our ever-changing world, there are many theories but few laws. Entropy is a fundamental concept governing life and work. Entropy is defined as disorder and randomness in a natural system - the second law in thermodynamics states that, left unchecked, entropy increases with time in closed systems. Leaders with closed minds and organizations closed to new ideas quickly fall behind and become obsolete. One proven way to battle against workplace entropy is for leaders and organizations to continually develop and evolve at a pace consistent with the change in our exacting world. The bad habits of leadership that we have all witnessed or engaged in are not destiny. One of the greatest myths I encounter in coaching leaders and business owners is that their current reality reflects a permanent reality. We don't stay the same. Even passions and proficiency can change. You can learn how to apply proven solutions to create life-changing leadership habits. Battle #3: Transactional Leadership Leadership is a relationship, and people are the most significant resources within an organization. Transactional leadership is centered around a paradigm in which leaders give employees something they want in exchange for getting something in return. Transactional leaders approach the workplace with the belief that most workers are not self-motivated and require structure, instruction, and monitoring to achieve organizational goals correctly and on time. Compelling evidence indicates that leadership moderates company performance and results. Controlled studies involving leaders across different markets have found a positive correlation between the leader's effectiveness and employee retention, sales, margin, labor costs, and net profit. Contemporary employees are looking for leaders that possess the following characteristics: listening to self and others empathy healing self and others awareness persuasion conceptual thinking foresight stewardship of other's needs commitment to development building community As the adage goes, what got us here will not get us there, and it is vital for today's leaders to learn more about new emerging leadership styles and theories. Servant leadership, transformational leadership, authentic leadership, and spiritual leadership are four new emerging leadership styles and theories gaining increased attention globally and stand in stark contrast to transactional leadership. Have you ever wondered if you are a servant leader? Maybe you already understand the basic concepts but are unclear on how servant leadership differs from other contemporary leadership styles. This Servant Leadership Style Checker answers these questions and provides your Servant Leadership Style Score. The benefits of a servant leadership style are evident to followers, teams, and organizations. Giving critical feedback, you won't regret Masters of critical feedback create a gap between action and response to choose what conversation matters most. Like a ship approaching an iceberg, what alerts a leader of a potential problem is often what is seen, but what lies below the surface presents the most incredible opportunity to be addressed. "Don't let the truth run faster than love." Erwin McManus Regardless of leadership level or amount of experience, all leaders struggle with the tension of being vulnerable or not. When receiving critical feedback, followers want to know their leader cares about them. But, concerns about managing perceptions can keep leaders from showing vulnerability. And when leaders are guarded, it promotes distrust. To identify your tendency—to be vulnerable in difficult conversations —take the following free five-question quiz and learn your vulnerability leadership score. Fail to plan and plan to fail. To avoid regret, your communication plan should include checking personal motivation, vision, and perspective (MVP) before giving critical feedback. Motivation. Is your motivation about caring for others first? Or is your motivation to be right? Reasons for a conversation matter. It is less likely that the conversation will lead to positive changes without a positive reason. Vision. How do you see the result of the conversation going? Is it the best of what might? Or is what you see a list of all the things that could go wrong? When you anticipate a positive step in the journey, it provides a sense of purpose and direction to inspire your best and achieve success. Perspective. When the lens through which you perceive the difficult conversation is off, your results will turn out poorly. Is your paradigm for the difficult conversation that real transparent conversation will provide the best foundation for a healthy culture and your relationship? Or is your perspective that it is best to avoid difficult conversations because you need to manage your image? The truth is there is a lot you can learn when you don't walk away. It is in these difficult conversations that you can grow, and good things can happen. Where are you tempted to walk away or run? Why are you going to take action? What is at stake if you do or don't? References Bartell, R. (2011). Before the call: The communication playbook. Hudson House. Brown, B. (2022). The power of vulnerability: Teachings of authenticity, connection, and courage. Grenny, J., Patterson, K., McMillan, R., Switzler, A., & Gregory, E. (2021). Crucial conversations. McGraw-Hill Education. Harter, J. (2022). Is quiet quitting real? Gallup. Hayes, J. (2008). Workplace conflict and how businesses can harness it to thrive. CPP Global Human Capital Report. Spears, L. C. (1998). Servant-leadership. Executive Excellence, 15(7), 11.

Organizations desire certainty, success, and efficiency, and it is uncertainty, failure, and inefficiency that are sources of innovation. Leaders fail as much as they succeed. However, the pervasive positive gaslighting that dominates social media feeds and company communications hides this reality. An inaccurate widely held assumption is that successful leaders succeed in spite of their failures. But failure, although uncomfortable, is not always bad, and an unhealthy fear of failure puts results at risk. Leaders and organizations that are not improving are falling behind. Many organizational cultures are designed to keep employees from taking risks. But it is embracing failure that creates space for innovation. Here are three practical ways leaders can support interesting failure and realize surprising success. Why would you want to do something that could lead to failure for you or your business? The word "failure" has different meanings to different people at different times. What constitutes a failure is not always clear and is usually personal. For example, walking across the finish line of a marathon can be viewed as success and failure, depending on your perspective. A leader's perception and response to failure determine and shape success for followers in any given situation. Typically, failure is considered a lack of success in some effort or a situation in which something does not work as expected. Using this definition, it is counterintuitive to think that a business leader should support failure. However, the inability to change leads to business failure, and an unhealthy fear of failure threatens success. According to the bureau of labor statistics, approximately 75% of all ventures fail in ten years. Avoiding failure in the workplace reinforces continuous improvements over innovation. While this approach results in high-quality and low-cost products and services, the hidden financial and non-financial costs of avoiding failure are severe. Beyond the obvious competitive threats from a lack of innovation, a failure to learn and grow leads to repeat errors and avoidable mistakes. Failure creates the space to reconsider the task and envision a more successful outcome. Healthy vs. unhealthy fear of failure Fear of failure is characterized by feelings of embarrassment, a perceived threat to a leader's value, future uncertainty, or others' perceptions of the leader. The fear of failure causes anxiety, avoidance, loss of control, helplessness, and powerlessness at a personal level. Leaders with a dominant fear of failure avoid opportunities to develop and grow. At an organizational level, the complications that arise from that culture are increased repeatable errors and a lack of necessary experimentation and risk-taking for innovation. Businesses that do not innovate and change fall behind and ultimately fail. Fear of failing can be a rational and irrational response to a real or perceived consequence of a leader's actions. Without a rational fear of failing, leaders lack the desire to evaluate the potential pros and cons associated with a new idea. A healthy fear of failure improves a leader's success. An irrational and persistent fear of failing is referred to as atychiphobia. It can range from mild to all-consuming daily life. Individuals that also struggle with perfectionism can struggle with this persistent fear of failure. Three practical ways leaders can support interesting failure Supporting failure does not imply that leaders ignore the fear of failure. Instead, leaders need to recognize the negative influence of fear and turn it into an advantage. Leadership Support 1: Clarify excusable vs. inexcusable failure It is relatively easy to differentiate between achieving or missing a goal. However, embracing failure requires keen awareness and the ability to distinguish between excusable mistakes and those resulting from carelessness. Reinforcing differentiation encourages risk-taking to achieve stretch goals. Leaders reward risk avoidance when well-thought-out and executed plans that fail are punished. Positive risk-taking behaviors need to be recognized and rewarded even when not directly resulting in achieving the desired goal. Training is an effective tool leaders can use to set expectations and reinforce desired behaviors by removing the negative consequences associated with taking risks. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill Leadership Support 2: Be vulnerable When leaders practice vulnerability, it creates safety where followers are more willing to be open to failures. Leaders that support failure are transparent about their failures and don't blame others when they occur. Although leaders are expected to convey an image of competence, confidence, and power, followers already know you are not perfect. In addition to being transparent, vulnerable leaders are good active listeners. Actively listening is your ability to hear and improve mutual understanding. Hearing is not a synonym for active listening. When you actively listen, you pay attention, show interest, suspend judgment, reflect, clarify, summarize, and share to gain clarity and understanding. When practicing active listening, you are available to the other person. “The great leaders are not the strongest, they are the ones who are honest about their weaknesses." - Simon Sinek Leadership Support 3: Create a culture of collaboration Leaders that are supportive of failure create a collaborative culture where risks can be analyzed, and good ideas utilized no matter where the idea originates. Collaboration builds confidence and courage to express thoughts and take risks. Leaders who embrace failure encourage a growth mindset and empower risk-taking behaviors to achieve personal and professional success and significance. Establish team operating agreements that encourage collaboration, such as: Commitment to putting the company first Value one another's contributions Practice patience Strive for consensus and a willingness to use disagreement as a tool for stronger decisions Seek first to understand Silence is not golden - everyone can speak up and constructively challenge one another and the status quo “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”. African Proverb How Nelson Mandela responded to failure Most consider Nelson Mandela, a successful leader. He spent much of his life ending a system of legislation upholding segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa, becoming the first democratically elected president of South Africa, and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and many more honors. Mandela is also known for being sentenced to life in jail for conspiring to overthrow the government. Amidst what most would consider a devastating defeat, he spent his time in prison focusing on things within his control. He studied and served as a leader for improving prison conditions. During this time, he also inspired others by reciting the following line from William Ernest Hensley's poem Invictus, "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul." To find surprising success, like Mandela, leaders must overcome an unhealthy fear of failure and focus on what they control to support interesting failure. What is your real challenge in supporting failure? References: Berkun, S. (2010). The myths of innovation. O'Reilly Media, Inc. Farson, R., & Keyes, R. (2002). The failure-tolerant leader. Harvard Business Review, 80(8), 64-148. Kollmann, T., Stöckmann, C., & Kensbock, J. (2017). Fear of failure as a mediator of the relationship between obstacles and nascent entrepreneurial activity—An experimental approach. Journal of Business Venturing, 32(3), 280-301. Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The leadership challenge. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Luhn, A. (2016). The learning organization. Creative and Knowledge Society, 6(1), 1-13.

All you need to do is hustle harder and work longer hours. But the work harder and longer hours leadership style comes with a risk of burnout and severe consequences. According to a study by the Mayo Clinic, the personal and organizational side-effects of executive leadership burnout include: broken relationships, substance abuse, depression, decreased customer satisfaction, reduced productivity, and increased employee turnover. Leaders are always connected to their operations in a crisis-driven digital workplace, ready to fight the next fire. This reality amplifies the risk of sacrificing success and significance for less important tasks. CEOs, managers, and decision-makers need a creative productivity hack for improving decision-making and avoiding physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. Is your performance suffering from the Urgency Effect? Most leaders and entrepreneurs are metaphorically running on a treadmill at a speed that makes casual conversation difficult. They live in a world where it is impossible to respond to every email or accept every meeting invitation. Like corporate athletes, these executives have trained themselves to become highly efficient and effective to survive. “What is urgent is seldom important and what is important is seldom urgent.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower Author Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, popularized the time management matrix first described by President Eisenhower. This two-by-two grid helps leaders account that in life, we face decisions between what is urgent and important. The following video is a more humorous discussion if you are unfamiliar with this tool. Numerous studies have demonstrated that most of us prefer to work on urgent tasks that can be completed quickly. This likely does not come as a surprise. However, compelling recent cognitive psychology studies revealed that we are also more likely to perform unimportant tasks over important tasks when perceived to be more urgent. Psychologists have described this as the Mere Urgency Effect. If asked, what should you work on, more important or less important tasks? You likely would become annoyed with the obvious line of questioning. Studies on the Urgency Effect revealed that it is more pronounced among individuals who perceive themselves as busy. This is alarming for entrepreneurs and leaders, given the crisis-driven workplace. Leaders can anticipate that they are more likely to sacrifice personal and professional goals for less critical tasks when they are busy—for example, choosing to interrupt a conversation with your family to answer a routine email. Today's leaders need a creative productivity hack for performance improvement to moderate an amplified Urgency Effect. Creative productivity hack for performance improvement The following productivity hack is not new. It comes from the study of contingency management in the behavioral sciences in the 1980s. You have likely experienced the principle without knowing the scientific name. It is called the Premack Principle, also known as the differential probability hypothesis. The Premack Principle is a reinforcement view that the opportunity to engage in a relatively high probability behavior will reinforce the lower probability behavior. Aubrey Daniels This principle has been studied and used to motivate desired behaviors. Simply described, it is waiting to eat our dessert until after eating our vegetables or holding off on shopping for new clothes until we lose the extra weight. This short video provides more information on the Premack Principle. How to apply the Premack Principle productivity hack The following questions can help you apply the Premack Principle productivity hack in the context of the Urgency Effect. Do you know what tasks are more important than others? If you cannot identify what tasks are more important than others with absolute clarity, try using the time management matrix and clarifying your purpose. Are you busier than usual? If you perceive you are busy, you are at risk of working on less important tasks. Urgent and important tasks require immediate action. Ask yourself, is the task more important than the current task you are working on completing? If no, purposely delay working on it ahead of the more important task and identify a way to reward yourself if you follow through. Working on urgent and important tasks is stressful. If you find yourself constantly working on these types of jobs, you should consider trying one of these tips to break the cycle: Tip 1: Invest more time in thinking strategically to anticipate the future. Applying strategic foresight tools, such as scenario planning or the futures wheel, can help you see around corners and anticipate multiple potential future realities. Tip 2: Invest more time in planning: schedule weekly or monthly planning sessions on goals and deadlines with your team. Reflect on how well your new plans work and adjust as needed. Tip 3: Consider if you are delegating effectively. The following article breaks down how to improve your delegating skills. Key Summary Points: Choosing to hustle harder and work longer hours increases your risk of burnout and severe consequences. The contemporary workplace is crisis-driven, and in an always-on digital world, leaders live on the edge connected to the operations anticipating the next crisis. We are more likely to perform unimportant tasks over important tasks when perceived to be more urgent. Today's leaders need a creative productivity hack for performance improvement. You can apply the Premack Principle productivity hack to moderate the Urgency Effect. Visit our executive coaching page to learn more about how we help you achieve your personal or professional goals or partner with you to craft a solution specific to your organization's context and challenges. Getting started is as easy as visiting www.organizationaltalent.com or contacting us via email info@organizationaltalent.com. Organizational Talent Consulting utilizes proven, simple, and transformational personal and organizational development solutions to help our clients learn, change, and apply tools in ways that benefit their unique needs and corporate culture. References: Covey, S. R. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic. Simon and Schuster. Daniels, A. C. (2016). Bringing out the best in people. McGraw-Hill Education. Shanafelt, T. D., & Noseworthy, J. H. (2017). Executive leadership and physician well-being: Nine organizational strategies to promote engagement and reduce burnout. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 92(1), 129-146. Zhu, M., Yang, Y., & Hsee, C. K. (2018). The mere urgency effect. The Journal of Consumer Research, 45(3), 673.

Successful leaders look for a competitive advantage. In today's turbulent and digital marketplace, personal and organizational development is not an option you want to ignore if you want to get ahead. Using a fresh food metaphor, you are either ripe and rotting or green and growing. Executive coaching is a relatively new approach for many leaders and is often not well understood. It comes out of the disciplines of consulting, management, organizational development, and psychology. Executive coaching is a highly individualized and impactful results-based development approach. Coaching is a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires clients to maximize their personal and professional potential. When done right, executive coaching is a confidential trust-based relationship between the qualified coach and client. Over the past twenty-five-plus years working in the field of leadership development with hundreds of high potential professionals to c-suite leaders, I have witnessed first-hand the significant benefits of coaching. Compared with other development approaches, executive coaching achieves lasting results in a relatively short period of time. Coaching is Not Mentoring or Counseling Coaching is often confused with mentoring and counseling but differs in many ways. Unlike counseling, coaching does not deal with overcoming past or current trauma, painful events, or relieving emotional pain but instead focuses on the future. Unlike a coach, a mentor typically sets the mentee's agenda, using their experiences to guide the relationship. In a mentoring relationship, the mentor typically does most of the directing by offering advice. A coach draws out the client's desire and collaborates with the client to cocreate options to achieve client-generated goals. Simply stated, coaching facilitates forward progress toward accomplishing the client’s desired future. Typical Executive Coaching Process There are many variations of the coaching processes and reasons why you might want to hire an executive coach. A typical coaching process starts with an inquiry and a welcome meeting to get acquainted, establish the coaching process, direction, relationship, and begin moving the client toward the coaching outcome. Based on the goal, the coach and client begin assessing and exploring the current reality, potential options, and obstacles. The learnings gained from these steps lead to co-creating specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound action plans. An executive coaching program typically lasts for 6 to 12 months, depending on the client’s goal(s). According to Sherman and Freas (2004), no one has yet demonstrated conclusively what makes an executive coach qualified or what makes one approach to executive coaching better than another. However, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) is the leading global organization dedicated to professional coaching standards and ethics. The ICF identifies the following eight core competencies updated as of 2019 based on empirical data collected over two years and from job analyses of 1,300 coaches globally: Demonstrates Ethical Practice Embodies a Coaching Mindset Establishes and Maintains Agreements Cultivates Trust and Safety Maintains Presence Listens Actively Evokes Awareness Facilitates Client Growth Benefits of Executive Coaching The benefits of engaging clients in customized ways through executive coaching creates both personal and organizational results. 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence. Over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. 86% of companies report that they recouped their investment in coaching and more (Source: ICF 2009). Personal Benefits: Establish and take action towards achieving both career and life goals Become more confident Gain more personal satisfaction Contribute more effectively to the team and the organization Take greater responsibility and accountability for actions and commitments Work more efficiently and productively with others (leader, followers, peers, customers) Communicate more effectively ​Organizational Benefits: Empowers employees Increases engagement Improves performance Improves employee retention Supports identification and development of high potential employees Supports identification of both organizational and individual strengths and development opportunities Shows organizational commitment to employee development When Executive Coaching Fails Why would executive coaching ever fail? The truth is that no development approach always works with all people in all situations. The following are some examples that might surprise you based on my experience of situations when executive coaching does not deliver the desired results: When the coach is asked to provide a message that the client's leader does not want to give. When coaching is either implied or stated as required. When the client has a goal better aligned with mentoring or counseling. When the coach and client fail to establish a trust-based relationship. When the client is not open to self-discovery or unable to experiment. Executive Coaching Online Coaching does not have to be face to face to be effective. Online coaching is a technology-facilitated coaching relationship. Research by Berry et al. (2011) demonstrated that virtual coaching and face-to-face coaching are equally effective when using a skilled coach. Virtual coaching offers added convenience, service, and support benefits over traditional face-to-face coaching: Accessibility is likely one of the most significant benefits of virtual coaching, especially during a pandemic. Technology enables the coach and client to connect, whether in different places within the same building or worldwide. Availability improves, enabling the coach to be brought into just-in-time and rapid response needs or unique situations like cross-cultural needs. Virtual coaching allows the coach to increase the number of clients they can support at one time. Also, both the coach and client benefit from the flexibility and administrative ease in scheduling. Affordability improves through reduced travel and associated time out of the office. Access to resources improves through digital access to tools supporting goal setting, coaching preparation, and progress tracking. The coaching relationship's evaluation improves through the ease of tracking commitments, satisfaction, strengths, opportunities, and trends both on an individual client level and at an aggregate organizational level. Getting started with executive coaching is as simple as clicking the following link to schedule your initial (no cost) inquiry consultation or learn more about our coaching solutions: Schedule a Conversation Executive Coaching Services References: Berry, R. M., Ashby, J. S., Gnilka, P. B., & Matheny, K. B. (2011). A comparison of face-to-face and distance coaching practices: Coaches’ perceptions of the role of working alliance in problem resolution. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 63, 243–253. Glaser, J. (2014). Conversational Intelligence: How great leaders build trust and get extraordinary results. Bibliomotion, Inc. New York Goldsmith, M., Lyons, L., & Freas, A. (2000). Coaching for leadership: How the world’s greatest coaches help leaders learn. Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. San Francisco. Kimsey-House, H., Kimsey-House, K., Sandahl, P., & Whitworth, L. (2018). Co-active coaching: The proven framework for transformative conversations at work and in life. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Boston. Sherman, S. & Freas, A. (2004). The wild west of executive coaching. Harvard Business Review Online. Upcoming Webinar Series We know you are going to love these complementary leadership and professional development events! Organizational Talent Consulting’s webinar content is developed to help leaders meet today's complex workforce and digital challenges. Our free live webinars deliver superior leadership development based on the latest research with no travel costs. Participants interact directly in question-and-answer discussions with subject matter experts and authors on crucial topics to enhance expertise. Webinars are recorded and shared with participants for convenient on-demand access after the live event. Topics include leadership, strategic planning, coaching, change management, and more (register and learn more).

There are many reasons why small businesses need to keep current on future trends, and the following are just a few to consider: Turbulence and complexity Change is accelerating Technological revolution Stress, new requirements, and new relationships Avoid becoming obsolete Modern small businesses operate in a turbulent mix of societal, technological, and commercial issues. Changes in the world and the marketplace continue to accelerate. Technology is contributing to a significant transformation comparative to the prior agricultural and industrial revolutions. Chaos in the market brings stress and new requirements. Unfortunately, the reality of 2020 proved that many small businesses didn't have the capability to change fast enough to avoid becoming obsolete. No company sets out to become obsolete, and there are many benefits to becoming future smart beyond avoiding obsolescence. Small businesses benefit from being better prepared, having the right tools and resources at the right time, and improved decision-making. Being future smart leads to enhanced change management and positions companies to move from reacting to change to architecting trends. Being the first to market and leading new trends fuels revenue growth. Megatrends Impacting Business Beyond 2021 The future decades are anticipated to be very challenging for businesses, and the most impactful transformative global forces driving the future world are expected to be: Speed of Technological Advancement: the rapid progress of speed to market leads to better information and ideas, resulting in improved performance and efficiency. Flexible Employment: increasing variety in work and the workplace. Workforce Composition: an aging workforce that is also working longer. Sustainable Employment: work and a workplace that motivates employees. Environmental Issues: a changing world climate and its consequences. Globalization: businesses, people, processes, services, and products are operating on an international scale. Based on the impact of these megatrends facing every business , the following small business trends should be leveraged for future growth. Top 10 Small Business Trends Beyond 2021 Social Purpose. There is an increasing market for innovative, socially responsible, and affordable solutions. Customers are looking for businesses to address society's significant issues, such as social equity and climate change. It is not enough for your small business to be green or promote social justice internally. Companies need to be transparent with potential customers about their social purpose and how they run their business. According to Brand Watch , in March 2020, online posts about purchases made for ethical reasons increased 132% , and posts about purchases made locally increased by 440%. Virtual Services. Virtual services will grow in demand as an increasing number of tech-savvy consumers look for convenient experiences. According to a recent consumer trends survey, nearly half of consumers say they would be fine never shopping in a brick-and-mortar store again. Already, over half of the products sold on Amazon come from small and medium-sized businesses. Amazon is projected to continue being a revenue juggernaut for small businesses. Virtual Assistants. Small businesses are challenged by flexible staffing to respond to fluctuating customer demand. Being responsive to customer requests is essential. Virtual assistants help customers get an immediate response and free up small business owners from responding to repetitive inquiries. Trend research for virtual assistant usage projects an increase of 25% by 2023. User Reviews. 92% of consumers are less likely to purchase if no user review exists. User reviews and ratings are essential to buying decisions and will continue to grow in importance as digital commerce increases and millennials make more of the purchasing decisions. Non-Traditional Employee Benefits. Employees today are seeking an experience and not just a job. Traditional forms of benefits are not projected to be as compelling, which can be advantageous for small businesses. Employees want flexibility with work hours, job sharing, leave options, and more. Small businesses have more flexibility to be creative than larger, more regulated companies. Social Media Marketing. According to research, 8 out of 10 Americans are shopping for something at any given moment. Additionally, 32% of shoppers change purchasing decisions based on mobile product information within brick-and-mortar stores. It is important to deliver relevant marketing messages, but they need to be delivered through consumer touchpoints. Social media marketing will not stop changing and rapidly disrupting business, so small businesses need to keep learning to stay relevant. Gig Economy. The gig economy gives employees and small businesses flexibility. Flexibility is a significant competitive advantage in a complex market. According to a recent Gallup poll , many businesses and almost 40% of US employees embrace the gig economy. Small businesses typically are not able to afford to hire a permanent expert to address their technical issues. Using a temporary employee becomes a strategic advantage, especially for a small business. Remote Work. Work from home is likely not going away. 57% of small to medium-sized business owners recently indicated they would continue to offer flexible work options for the long-term. Real-estate is not cheap. Infrastructure and space can be a high cost for small businesses. Also, as work schedules move away from 9 to 5 and more workers participate in the gig economy, it doesn't make sense to bring all the positions within a physical office space. Alternative Payments. As brick-and-mortar storefronts move, online e-commerce is anticipated to grow to $5 trillion before 2025. Customers are looking for touchless and easy payment options that leverage mobile technology. Alternative options, such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet, will continue to increase in popularity. Mobile First. Adopting a mobile-first mindset for customers and employees is increasingly important. According to Deloitte , 75% of the workforce is projected to be made up of millennials in 2025. Millennials are leaders in the technology business transformation and are mobile-driven. Additionally, advances in 5G networks create speeds as fast as WIFI creating internet availability in everyone's lives. Becoming Future Smart The goal is not to predict the future but enable better decision-making and preparedness. Becoming future smart can be assisted by leveraging practices and concepts from the field of strategic foresight . Strategic foresight is a way of thinking, engaging, discovering, and acting. Strategic foresight is intended to help let go of old beliefs. Traditional strategic planning is heavily focused on the internal organization, and strategic foresight links the organization to the external environment recognizing the business will operate within a larger world rather than be the only change in the world. Contact us if you are a small to medium-size business owner interested in arranging a complimentary interactive 90-minute webinar to learn about strategic foresight principles and how to apply a tool that will help you be future smart. References: Canton, J. (2016). Future smart: Managing the game-changing trends that will transform your world (First Da Capo Press Paperback ed.). Da Capo Press. Chermack, T. (2011). Scenario planning in organizations: How to create, use, and assess scenarios. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Cornish, E. (2005). Futuring: The exploration of the future (First Paperback ed.). World Future Society. Hines, A. (2006). Strategic foresight: The state of the art. The Futurist, 40 (5), 18. Linthorst, J., and de Waal, A. (2020) Megatrends and disruptors and their postulated impact on organizations. Sustainability. 12, 20: 8740. McGonigal, M. (2020). What’s a futures wheel [video] . Coursera. Ralston, B., and Wilson, I. (2006). Scan™: Radar for signals of change. In The scenario-planning handbook (pp. 245-257). South-Western. Van Duijne, F., and Bishop, P. (2018). Introduction to strategic foresight [PDF]. Future Motions . About the Author: Jeff's knowledge and expertise include executive coaching, strategy design, driving change, and workforce strategies to influence and grow organizations. Jeff Doolittle is the founder of Organizational Talent Consulting in Grand Rapids, MI. He can be reached at info@organizationaltalent.com or by calling (616) 803-9020. Visit https://www.organizationaltalent.com/strategic-planning-solutions to learn more about strategic planning services provided.

Leaders can be both agents of good and bad within companies. Too often, we see news reports of leadership failures, and those involved are not only those impacted by those failures. Consider the VW decision to hide problems with emissions that resulted in a 2015 recall of 8.5 million cars in Europe, including 2.4 million in Germany and 1.2 million in the UK, and 500,000 in the US. Leadership failures are leadership failure. According to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, most people no longer trust leaders, and a growing sense of inequity is undermining trust. Justice and Fairness in the Workplace In ancient discussions of how humans should live, Aristotle, Plato, and Aquinas first identified four cardinal virtues: justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude. The virtue of justice includes many different concepts, including truthfulness, honesty, and fairness. Aristotle defined virtue as a habit for behaving in the right manner, neither in excess nor deficiency. According to Northouse (2018), “ethical leaders are concerned about issues of fairness and justice” (p.344). Leaders can demonstrate fairness through adhering to policies; however, how they relate with followers is essential in influencing moral opinions in the work context. Ethical leadership (doing the right thing, at the right time, and for the right reason) has a positive correlation with increased job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Bias in the Workplace Leadership ethics transcends any specific leadership theory. The topic of justice spurs many heated discussions in society. An associated current topic of discussion in many company boardrooms is the concept of bias in the hiring process. Bias and the resulting cognitive errors in talent selection is the failure of justice. Bias in the hiring process is the absence of virtue and a moral shortcoming or corruption. According to Bendick and Nunes (2012), “discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, disability, gender orientation, and other characteristics” continues to negatively impact employment opportunities for traditionally omitted groups (p.238). In American federal and state laws, highly structured interview processes, and training are used to control the negative impacts of biases. However, serious issues still exist in hiring, including pay inequity, and other acts of discrimination. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received claims that totaled over 72,000 in 2019. Figure 1: Number of charges per 10,000 population by State for FY2019. Source: eeoc.gov Mitigating Leadership Bias Increasing leadership awareness on cognitive errors associated with bias is proven to be a useful tool to help selection teams avoid making errors in selection. Provide the hiring team with just-in-time training on bias and cognitive errors in decision making before interviews begin. Also, technology can potentially support leaders in their application of fairness and justice in hiring decisions. Utilize predictive analytics and big data to help identify where bias exists within the organization as well as to identify ideal candidate attributes. I would enjoy hearing from you. Where and how have you observed or experienced fairness and justice success stories or failures? References Bendick, M., & Nunes, A. P. (2012). Developing the Research Basis for Controlling Bias in Hiring. Journal of Social Issues, 68(2), 238–262. Hipps, C. (2017). The secrets to tapping into data to automate and streamline hiring of future leaders. Strategic HR Review, 16(2), 93-95. Lewis, C.S. (2001). Mere Christianity. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. Vice. 2019. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved January 30, 2019

The COVID-19 global pandemic prompted many organizations to respond quickly with furloughs and layoffs to reduce labor costs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020), in April 2020, unemployment rates in 43 states reached their highest levels since unemployment data began being collected in 1976. However, organizations may have been better off to consider other options than layoffs and furloughs of large numbers of employees because of the hidden impact these changes can have on organizational performance and effectiveness. This is especially true for organizations with large percentages of knowledge workers. Figure 1. State Unemployment rates, April 2020 seasonally adjusted. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hidden Drivers The congruent and sequential alignment of strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people drives organizational performance and effectiveness. Typically, organizational misalignment occurs due to “three sources: external to the organization, internal from managerial actions, or jointly – from a combination of external and internal sources” (Burton et al.) An internal leadership decision to layoff or furlough employees can create organizational misalignment. The question that leadership needs to be asked is if the short-term cost-benefit associated with labor savings is higher than the organizational misalignment performance cost. Failing to consider this question can result in significant marketplace losses. Options and Building Resiliency Leaders have many different drivers to create or fix organizational misalignments such as creating new strategies, new product lines, different approaches to incentives, new ways of designing work tasks, mergers, strategic alliances, and new technology solutions. While no one approach works well in every possible situation, it is worth considering if the organization's design itself contributes to being unprepared for an uncertain future. Utilizing a regular time-based schedule for optimizing the organizational design is one way to creatively build agility toward ideal organizational performance and resiliency for an uncertain future. References: Alberts, D. S. (2012). Rethinking organizational design for complex endeavors. Journal of Organization Design (Aarhus), 1(1), 14-17. doi:10.7146/jod.6338 Burton, R. M., Obel, B., & Håkonsson, D. D. (2015). Organizational design: A step-by-step approach (Third ed.). Cambridge University Press. Galbraith, J. R. (2011). Designing the customer-centric organization: A guide to strategy, structure, and process (1st; ed.). Jossey-Bass. Guthrie, J. P., & Datta, D. K. (2008). Dumb and dumber: The impact of downsizing on firm performance as moderated by industry conditions. Organization Science (Providence, R.I.), 19(1), 108-123. doi:10.1287/orsc.1070.0298 Hardcopf, R., Gonçalves, P., Linderman, K., & Bendoly, E. (2017). Short-term bias and strategic misalignment in operational solutions: Perceptions, tendencies, and traps. European Journal of Operational Research, 258(3), 1004-1021. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2016.09.036 Heracleous, L., & Werres, K. (2015). On the Road to Disaster: Strategic Misalignments and Corporate Failure, Long Range Planning, doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2015.08.006 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020). Home. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020). TED. The economics daily.

If you have not seen the musical, Hamilton, you need to add it to your list of future shows to stream or visit once Broadway reopens. Throughout the play, one very entertaining song repeats a quote from Aaron Burr to Hamilton that he needs to "talk less and smile more." Surprisingly, this is excellent advice for those with ideas to create lasting change in their organization. Most organizational changes, up to 70%, do not succeed because of a lack of buy-in (Kotter and Whitehead). Utilizing questions to help others gain new perspectives, is a high-impact method for change, regardless of the topic. Productive conversations to help others transition involve talking less by asking more questions and smiling more instead of convincing your audience with your suggestions. Setting the Stage for Your Change Idea Until a need for change is established, leaders will not likely consider a solution. So, after presenting data supporting the need for change, you should begin the conversation with a question. Merely starting a conversation with the question "I am curious, what is on your mind?" and following that question up with, "And what else?" to learn more is a powerful opening (Stainer). How to Talk Less and Smile More There are two basic types of questions to influence positive change. There are solutions-focused and problem-focused questions. Both types of questions are useful, although solutions-focused questions are more effective at increasing understanding and eliciting a positive response. Solutions-focused questions are "how-to" questions rather than questions that explore the causality or "why" types of questions. The reality is that no conversation is ultimately solutions or problem-focused, and coaches need to move between the two approaches to meet the leader's needs. The basic theory behind the finding is that focus on solutions to work toward change is more positive and energizing for those engaged in the conversation than focusing only on the problem. References: Grant, A. M., & O'Connor, S. A. (2010). The differential effects of solution‐focused and problem‐focused coaching questions: A pilot study with implications for practice. Industrial and Commercial Training, 42(2), 102-111. doi:10.1108/00197851011026090 Kotter, J. P., & Whitehead, L. A. (2010). Buy-in: Saving your good idea from getting shot down. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press. Miranda, L. (2015). Hamilton: an American Musical [MP3]. New York: Atlantic Records. Stanier, M. B. (2016). The coaching habit: Say less, ask more and change the way you lead forever. Page Two.

Fostering innovation within an organization is an increasingly important leadership behavior for every organization. No leader today is happy with the status quo and desires for their organization to stay exactly the same year over year. Leaders who want to foster innovation and be creative must be self-aware of their high degree of influence on the organization's innovation and be willing to take ownership of and action on new ideas when identified. Senior leaders too often fail to recognize that both their stated communication and their time allocation ultimately determine organizational innovation success. A Failure to Endorse Innovation The following are too often missing organizational signals for senior leadership's endorsement of innovation: "personal example, resource allocation, hiring and promotion practices, internal/external communications, company-wide metrics, strategy alignment, and organizational structure development" (Gary Oster). A Failure to Strive for Excellence Senior leaders need to be inspirational to influence employees to create new ideas and collaborate to listen to their ideas. Research has proven that a transformational leadership style can encourage innovation. When the climate for excellence is high, team innovation is enhanced. Transformational leadership is made up of four components: (1) influence, (2) inspiration, (3) intellectually challenging, and (4) individualized focus. In today's world of asking employees to do more with less senior leaders can fail to adjust strategy and begin tolerating less than an employee's best. "We will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence" (Vince Lombardi). A Failure of Focus When senior leaders fail to focus, it is costly and wastes time. Identifying worthwhile ideas requires seeing new patterns in the data everyone else in the organization is evaluating. As simple as this may appear, the challenge is that expectations shape perceptions. To break free from these perceptions, senior leaders need to avoid distractions and stay focused on the business. An extremely effective strategy for senior leaders is to "start keeping a journal of problems that you find to be personally interesting" (Michalko). Modern senior leaders too often are caught up in schedules that have them rushing from meeting to meeting, and they experience role overload. Innovation-related "recency bias" is a cognitive error to emphasize the most recent issue raised or the most often discussed problem instead of focusing on the most important. Using a journal helps the leader combat this bias in judgment by allowing for equal consideration of all the potential issues identified. Writing in a journal may prompt the senior leader to ask questions that will help expand and contract the problem's scope, and rewriting the challenge can help identify new patterns leading to innovation. References: Eisenbeiss, S. A., van Knippenberg, D., & Boerner, S. (2008). Transformational leadership and team innovation: Integrating team climate principles. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 1438-1446. doi:10.1037/a0012716 Gliddon, D. G., & Rothwell, W. J. (2018). Innovation leadership (1st ed.). Milton: Taylor & Francis Group. Michalko, M. (2006). Thinkertoys: A handbook of business creativity. Berkeley, Calif: Ten Speed Press. Oster, G. W. (2011). The light prize: Perspectives on Christian innovation. Virginia Beach, Va: Positive Signs Media.

Why it Matters: Employee Retention = Customer Retention Ask any MBA graduate or newly promoted supervisor, What’s the company's greatest resource? Moreover, you will likely hear it is our people. It is widely accepted that behind every organizational outcome is an employee's actions. Employee retention is a measure of organizational health and can be a leading indicator of future company performance. I have observed key customer engagement metrics having strong statistical relationships (R Squared 0.736 to 0.833 and p<0.001) with employee retention metrics. One caution though is that just like with our temperature where 98.6 is considered healthy, 101 or 95 is not regarded as healthy (for most people) and the same is valid for employee retention. The symptoms companies and teams can experience are similar across industries and companies, but different types of issues exist when employee retention rates are both too low or too high. And unfortunately, unlike our temperature, there is not a single standard across all functions and industries that is considered ideal or “healthy.” In fact, I have read some to suggest a benchmark, but I would suggest only for general guidance because many other factors play into your company's specific “healthy” target. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. ~ Peter Drucker One of the most significant negative impacts of low employee retention rates is how it impacts company culture. An organization's culture exists within shared experiences and learnings of its employees. As employee retention decreases the ability of the organization to pass on learnings increases significantly due to lack of experience, fractured relationships and limited employee time due to a lesser skilled workforce. As retention rates drop considerably below healthy levels, the negative impacts are amplified, and companies can find themselves in a retention death spiral. In light of record low unemployment, a shrinking labor force participation rate, and growing economy in the US, there is a perfect storm forming for traditionally high retention companies. In these companies, often culture has and continues to be the single most important competitive advantage for the company, and the impact of this storm can be significant because they have not had to think about these issues before. And unlike with most storm warnings the very last thing these leaders need to do is take shelter. One of the often silent but deadly negative impacts of high employee retention rates is the existence of organizational blockers. Organizational blockers are employees that hold a position that another qualified individual in the organization could fill as a part of their career path. While having good to high performing employees in the same roles on your team for many years may sound like an excellent thing it comes with some of its own serious drawbacks. Most notably is keeping an "up and coming" high performer in another position from gaining the critical experiences needed or preventing someone who could do the job better from getting a chance. In today's world of constant change and need for innovation, organizations must continually be developing and growing their employees and evolving their businesses to stay relevant. A Perfect Storm is Making Landfall in the US - Environmental Factors Many different environmental factors such as, population shifts, societal and generational changes in views on work, and technology are aligning to create the perfect storm for employee retention challenges in the US. One of these environmental factors is today's emerging gig economy: gig e·con·o·my noun 1. a labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. The 2017 Freelancing in America study by the Freelancers Union and Upwork estimated that nearly 57.3 million Americans – or 36 percent of the nation's workforce – are now freelancing, most of whom do so by choice (63 percent). This makes retaining a growing part of the economy a challenging proposition. Another one of these environmental factors is that baby boomers are exiting organizations at a faster rate with a smaller population of generation x to fill the gaps. If you have not already, you will want to check out the TedTalk by Rainer Strack: The surprising workforce crisis of 2030 — and how to start solving it now. Another environmental factor is that unemployment has remained at 4.1% for the past 5 months the lowest since late 2000 and is projected to remain under 5% through 2020 according to the Wall Street Journal. The new normal low unemployment is leading to increased opportunities for US employees. Another environmental factor is that American workers with jobs or looking for work has stood at 62.7% for the past year. In context, ten years ago in December 2007, the job participation rate was 66% (Bureau of Labor Statistics). While retiring baby boomers account for much of the weakness in participation, millions of working-age Americans are choosing to not participate in the workforce. Lastly, artificial intelligence and machine learning will create significant churn in the marketplace that is bound to increase turnover as employees reskill for the new jobs created. In a recent white paper from PWC titled Workforce of the Future: The competing forces shaping 2030 it’s predicted that employees will have to become more comfortable learning new skills and making career transitions. "Typical" careers, in which a person advances through the ranks of a particular field, will increasingly "cease to exist" as artificial intelligence and robots replace more human workers over the next few decades. Humans, it says, will have to become more comfortable learning new skills and making career transitions. Measuring Employee Retention Value and not just Cost Many measures should be tracked to help you understand the cost of employee retention. In addition to most visible replacement costs, there are others, such as productivity loss, workplace safety issues, and morale issues. Josh Bersin of Deloitte builds on this understanding and explains that employees are appreciating assets that produce more and more value to the organization over time, which helps to explain why losing them can be so costly. Employee Retention Now a Big Issue: Why the Tide has Turned In support of the point Josh was making, I want to highlight one addition less common but important measure you need to add to your list to calculate which is the “Cost of Vacancy.” This measure attempts to account for the lost value of not having an employee you need. At a minimum the simple way to calculate the direct impact is outlined below:​ Step 1: Find Annual Revenue Generated per Employee = Annual Company Revenue / Number of Revenue Generating Employees Step 2: Calculate Daily Revenue per Employee = Annual Revenue Generated by Employee / 365 days (or total number of days per year spend generating revenue) Step 3: Determine Revenue Lost per Turnover = Daily Revenue per Employee X Average Days Positions are Unfilled Step 4: Find Total Revenue Lost for All Vacant Jobs = Revenue Lost per Vacancy Job X Number of Vacant Jobs If you want to look even more closely and fully capture the impacts of lower retention, you should look into In Dr. John Sullivan’s article on the Cost of Vacancy Formulas for Recruiting and Retention Managers . Then working with Finance and senior leadership establishes actual costs and/or an acceptable rough estimate based on experience and intuition. The following is a list of the additional factors suggested by Dr. John Sullivan: Product Development and Productivity, Team Impacts, Individual Employee Impacts, Increased Management Time and Effort, Customer Impacts, Competitive Advantage, Your Company Image and Recruiting, and Out of Pocket Costs. Product Development and Productivity Team Impacts Individual Employee Impacts Increased Management Time and Effort Customer Impacts Competitive Advantage Your Company Image and Recruiting Out of Pocket Costs How to Have Immediate Positive Impact on Employee Retention So what can you do right now that can have an immediate impact on the likelihood of one of your employees leaving? Stay Interviews a.k.a. talk to your employees with intent to learn how they are doing and what you can do to help. A stay interview can be administered by anyone, but I prefer the leader because they need to develop trust and both the act of listening and then doing something about what is learned will build trust with their team. However, if you have a leader you do not trust, then you need to change the leader and in the meantime have someone that you do trust speak with them. The following are a few of my favorite questions I include in stay interviews: Positive Aspects of Working Here Why were you initially attracted to this opportunity? Do the same reasons exist today? What recognition have you received lately that makes you feel good? What part of your job do you find rewarding? Company Culture What do you enjoy most about working with your leader and the broader company leadership? Based on your experiences and interactions how would you describe our company culture? Strengths and Opportunities? Positive Improvements If you were granted three wishes and could change your job and/or this company what would you wish to change? Looking five years into the future where everything you ever wanted has come true describe what do you see? For some additional impact and accountability print off pictures of each employee that reports to one of your leaders. Ask the leader without looking at their notes to add the name of the employee, and one fun fact they learned from their stay interviews with their employees. Predicting Voluntary Turnover You may often feel like you are looking in a rearview mirror with most of these lagging metrics that tell you what you likely already know and that is you have a problem and opportunity with employee retention. Today though through the use of organizational diagnostics you do not have to settle for being reactive and can better understand what is creating reduced employee retention. I have used one of these diagnostics to understand better the employee stressors that were hindering employee engagement. Then using this understanding focus retention efforts and help reduce employee flight risk and in return improve employee retention. I want to hear from you with your questions, comments, and employee retention experiences. Also, if you need help getting started with employee retention or would like to learn more about how you can use organizational diagnostics, I would like to help.

Fostering innovation is a critical leadership responsibility. Leading in today's turbulent and digital marketplace requires more than cliché advice about out-of-the-box thinking. Leadership performance expectations are increasingly more complex. Leaders are expected to deliver low cost and high reliability, standardization and personalization, global consistency and local sensitivity, to name a few. Advances in technology are driving this evolution as leaders scramble to provide choices to stakeholders with competing priorities. The challenge leaders face is that our thinking is easily limited by the familiar. A closed mind is a hard thing to open. It is a classic "blind men and an elephant" parable problem where an individual perceives absolute truth based on subjective experiences. The conventional advice for leaders to think outside the box does not go far enough to produce significant positive change. Leaders looking to innovate need data-informed creative thinking. “There’s one thing worse than change and that’s the status quo.” John le Carre Debunking an Innovation Myth Innovation and analytics thrive in a change-based environment. A commonly held myth is that innovation comes from an epiphany versus hard work, personal sacrifice, and taking risks. The story of how Isaac Newton discovered gravity is a commonly used example of the widely held oversimplification of innovation. In reality, Isaac Newton used mathematics to explain how gravity works, rather than an apple falling on his head that lead to the discovery. The epiphany aspect of innovation is like when the last piece of a puzzle fits together. What matters is the ability for leaders to clearly see a problem with the talent to solve it rather than the epiphany moment. What Leaders Really Need Technology is collecting a deluge of information that has the potential to make or break any organization. In a 2019 Gartner survey of HR leaders, only 21% believe their organizations effectively use talent analytics to make better decisions. Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive, and cognitive analytics provides leaders with technology-enabled data-driven models and visualizations within the innovation process. Leaders need the ability to leverage analytics in each of the four phases of innovation: Problem exploration: Answering what are the possible problems? Problem selection: Answering what problems should be solved first? Solution exploration: Answering what are the possible solutions for the selected problem? Solution selection: Answering what are the best solutions to the selected problem? Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a GameChanger Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the world. AI promises to enhance leaders' decision-making speed by making sense of the deluge of data available today, better managing creative complexity and asking and answering questions better throughout the innovation process. Today, AI is already positively impacting each of the four phases of innovation. In one recent case study involving the solution selection phase, a team utilized AI modeling to identify highly-rated features important to 1000 stakeholders from more than 60 countries. The AI model proved to be 23% better at predicting highly-rated features than average community ratings. The case study suggested that AI could indeed help innovation leaders automate solution selection. The volatile marketplace rewards speed and speed creates time for leaders that can be used to generate more significant advantages. We can partner with you to develop a more future smart organization and get the workforce introduction to Artificial Intelligence and data analytics right. Partner with us and build increased organizational creativity and a culture that fits the future of the business you need. Contact us to schedule a conversation. References: Bartlett, R. (2013). A practitioner's guide to data analytics: Using data analysis to improve your organization's decision-making and strategy. McGraw-Hill. New York. BCG Henderson Institute. (2020). In conversation with Yves Morieux about complexity. https://bcghendersoninstitute.com/in-conversation-with-yves-morieux-about-complexity-858c7ccf7b30 Berkun, S. (2010). The myths of innovation (1st ed.). O'Reilly Media, Inc. Kakatkar, C., Bilgram, V., & Füller, J. (2020). Innovation analytics: Leveraging artificial intelligence in the innovation process. Business Horizons, 63(2), 171-181. Kanter, R. (2020). Think outside the building: How advanced leaders can change the world one small innovation at a time. Hachette Book Group, Inc. Ledet, E., McNulty, K., Morales, D., & Shandell, M. (2020). How to be great at people analytics. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/how-to-be-great-at-people-analytics Upcoming Webinar Series We know you are going to love these complementary leadership and professional development events! Organizational Talent Consulting’s webinar content is developed to help leaders meet today's complex workforce and digital challenges. Our free live webinars deliver superior leadership development based on the latest research with no travel costs. Participants interact directly in question-and-answer discussions with subject matter experts and authors on crucial topics to enhance expertise. Webinars are recorded and shared with participants for convenient on-demand access after the live event. Topics include leadership, strategic planning, coaching, change management, and more (register and learn more).