Early Fall 2006
Human Resources Measurement News

New Research on the Old Problem of Balance

As long as people have dreamed of reaching their peak, they've encountered the old problem of balance. The search for excellence seems to push us towards imbalance. Yet we know that optimal results are more often gained through balance, a state in which we hold contradictory goals, desires and directions in mind, while functioning effectively on all fronts.

Performance Programs has recently had the privilege of working with two firms who address the problem of balance with research and provide a disciplined approach to acquiring it. This month, read news about their products and services:

Introducing the Leadership Versatility Index

Right-sizing leadership

We have all seen leaders go to counterproductive extremes, overdoing the behaviors that, in smaller doses, might be their greatest strengths. The Versatile Leader is a new book (Pfeiffer/Wiley, 2006) that guides readers down the sometimes confusing road to balance in leadership skills. Written by subject experts Bob Kaplan and Rob Kaiser of Kaplan DeVries, Inc., the book has received positive reviews from several major sources, including the New York Times and Robert Hogan, Ph.D., author of the widely respected Hogan Personality Inventory.

Performance Programs, Inc. had the privilege of helping the Kaplan and Kaiser introduce the Leadership Versatility Index, a new online version of the 360-feedback instrument used in their validation research. (Visit the free trial.) The Leadership Versatility Index is matched with the book —the book explains the conceptual model of leadership and development, while the LVI is the vehicle for applying it.

Current thinking on leadership generally acknowledges the need for qualities and skills that are seemingly in opposition. Sometimes leadership calls for forcefulness, sometimes for enabling others. In their research, Kaplan and Kaiser assessed scores of senior managers. Most managers, they found, when presented with two opposing approaches, lean strongly toward one and are biased against the other -- and their bias is counterproductive. For instance, people who are skilled at forcefulness may call upon it too quickly, and reject as "soft" the equally useful skill of enabling others to lead themselves in productive ways. The challenge for the versatile leader, they say, is to hold contradictory directions in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function at a high level.

There are two ways to learn about this new, validated 360-degree feedback instrument:

1. Take the Leadership Versatility Index trial.

2. Contact us for a sample report (PDF)

Fortune Magazine Reporter Asks: Does Employee Wellness Lead to Employee Productivity?

Does wellness lead to productivity? Cait Murphy  of Fortune Magazine asked that question as she participated recently in the full engagement training for executives at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, FL. (Performance Programs operates the Full Engagement Self Profile for the Institute.) Murphy’s independent report, titled “The CEO Workout,” appears in the July 10, 2006 edition of Fortune. Murphy spent two-and-one-half days immersed in this mind-body approach to energy management for business people, during which she reports a number of perspective-shifting insights:

1. Embrace stress and learn to manage it
2. Eat every two or three hours
3. Incorporate rituals for rest and recovery
4. For optimal sustained performance, manage energy, not time.

To answer the question of employee productivity, she solicited the observations of executives Steve Altmiller, CEO of the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington, NM, Kirk Perry, a VP at Procter and Gamble, and Brent Hayward, a participant from Starbucks. Each discusses his experiences with the techniques taught in the program and gives his perspective on the positive impact of energy management training on the employees who participate.

To learn of their reactions, see the story online.

New Research on Employee Job Satisfaction

Hint: It may be less about what employers do and more about what employers enable employees to do for themselves.

Since March, 2003, over 100,000 people have taken the Full Engagement Self Profile, an instrument that profiles an individual's energy management and helps them improve energy for sustained peak performance. (PPI operates this survey on behalf of the Human Performance Institute.) Periodically we analyze the data to learn what people are telling us about their successes and shortcomings.

We recently identified individuals who score in the top 10 percent on the statement: “I am happy and satisfied in my job” and saw that job satisfaction may depend as much on the positive mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional resources the employee brings to the workplace as it does on the actions of the employer.

“The people in the top 10 percent of job satisfaction also show they take good care of themselves in the other realms,” says Dr. Jim Loehr, CEO of the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, FL. “Furthermore, people who report the highest job satisfaction are also highly self-confident individuals.” Loehr notes 85% correlation between high job satisfaction and self-confidence. “They are not only satisfied with their jobs; they also feel competent in work and life. These two are mutually reinforcing.”

In addition to self-confidence, people who reported high job satisfaction also excel in five other motivational and energy-sustaining habits. Here is the complete list.

1. High levels of self-confidence
2. An appetite for thoughtful risk-taking
3. Consistency between their values and their work
4. Emotional resilience
5. The ability to “take a break” through fun, friends and rest
6. Good relations with bosses and coworkers.

Read on for ways to improve the work environment.

Five Ways Employers Can Create a More Satisfying Work Environment

Jim Loehr offers the following tips for encouraging job satisfaction, based on research findings:

1. Build employees' competence and self-confidence through training, feedback and recognition. “There is a very close relationship between high job satisfaction and feelings of effectiveness on the job,” says Dr. Loehr. “Encouragement of genuine self-confidence is probably the number one way to achieve higher job satisfaction.”

2. Communicate the value of the organization's products and services, and the role the organization plays in the marketplaces where it operates. “People with high job satisfaction also report an extraordinarily high sense of mission, vision and passion for their work,” says Loehr. “They feel their work is consistent with their values. They couldn't achieve that feeling if their employers didn't enable them to get meaningful insight about the value they provide to customers,” says Loehr.

3. Encourage and reward thoughtful risk-taking. “People with high job satisfaction also score high on the desire to try novel approaches, face challenges and perform problem-solving both individually and in groups,” says Loehr. “They appear to have an appetite for mission-driven change. They also rate themselves very high on perseverance.”

4. Encourage positive workplace relations. “People who are highly satisfied in their jobs report good feelings about their bosses, peers and coworkers,” says Loehr. “Their feelings of opportunity are elevated, and they perceive a low hassle-factor.”

5. Encourage meaningful rest breaks and light diversion. “High job satisfaction correlates strongly with the feeling of having fun at work,” says Dr. Loehr. “Highly satisfied individuals also report that they find it easy to wake in the morning, and that their sleep is deep and restful.” He adds, “This is consistent with our thirty years of research on world-class athletes. Top performers in every field know how to enhance performance through rest and recovery.”

Hogan Assessment Certification Seminars

Become certified on the popular Hogan Personality Inventory and other Hogan instruments in Old Saybrook, CT on Thursday, November 9. For more information on the agenda, visit the Hogan Certification Seminar link.

Clark Wilson Group Certification Seminars

During 2006, PPI will offer the following Clark Wilson 360 Feedback Certification Workshops in Old Saybrook, CT: Thursday, October 12 and Friday, November 10.

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Best wishes,

The Performance Programs Staff