As reported in HRI, task-focused coaching can be an effective way to ensure a team’s success. Professors J. Richard Hackman of Harvard University and Ruth Wageman of Dartmouth College suggest their approach to leading a team is similar to that of a basketball coach. Just as a basketball coach prepares his team, makes adjustments at half-time, and uses previous games as lessons, a business team leader must also make sure his team is prepared, review progress at regular intervals and make adjustments, and approach new tasks using the lessons learned from previous tasks. According to the professors, focusing on the processes and performance of the team is far more important than time spent on relationships within the team. (Harvard Management Update [Ross], November 2005, pp. 6-8)

As reported in HRI, ascertaining what investments in its employees will produce the greatest support for the company’s business objectives will achieve the best return on the organization’s investment in talent management. The strategy-first approach is advocated in Return on Investment in Talent Management: Measures You Can Put to Work Right Now, a research report from the nonprofit Human Capital Institute. While businesses need traditional metrics that capture data on engagement, turnover, and other fundamental employee practices, companies that base their talent investments on developing the capabilities that fuel their competitive advantage will achieve greater gains. Instead of a strict statistical focus, the report suggests businesses "try to get a handle on some key impacts in a quantitative way to support qualitative evidence." The full report is available through the organization’s Web site: www.humancapitalinstitute.org. (HRfocus, December 2004, pp. 3-4)

As reported in HRI, building expertise in a particular field or business function can be a helpful strategy for some women who want to rise to line-management positions that give them responsibility for revenue and increased appeal as candidates for senior leadership. In an October 2005 article on CareerJournal.com, senior correspondent Perri Capell presents additional advice from female line managers, who recommend that aspiring women build networks of colleagues who can help them advance, make a point of moving beyond their "comfort zones," work above and beyond their job duties, and gain a broad perspective of their organizations and how they operate. (CareerJournal.com [Capell], October 28, 2005)

As reported in HRI, “If women shy away from competition and men compete too much, this … decreases the chance of women succeeding in competition for promotions and more lucrative jobs," says Muriel Niederle. The Stanford University economist, along with fellow economist Lise Vesterlund of the University of Pittsburgh, conducted a study in which men and women were asked to perform tasks within settings that did or did not involve competition. Using strict control methods, the two set up experiments that required 80 participants (equally representing both genders and divided into 20 groups) to perform timed addition problems. Four scenarios enabled the researchers to gauge participants’ willingness to place themselves in competitive situations. Niederle’s and Vesterlund’s conclusions - as reported by Knowledge@Wharton - were that, despite their ability to perform the tasks as well as the male participants, women were "less likely to choose a competitive setting, more likely to underrate their performance … , and perhaps even more likely to shy away from receiving feedback." (Knowledge@Wharton. Obtained November 16, 2005)

As reported in HRI, some companies are discovering that previously outsourced HR functions need to be brought back in-house. Citing reasons such as poor performance, cost overruns, lack of communication and lack of strategic alignment, Human Resource Executive magazine noted in its November 2005 issue that several companies are reexamining their HR outsourcing. Functions like recruiting are being "reinsourced" because vendors don’t understand a company’s particular industry and therefore can’t execute workforce planning. Better technology is also allowing organizations to do previously outsourced work in-house. (Human Resource Executive [Patton], November 2005, pp. 81-83)

As reported in HRI, nearly nine out of 10 executives worldwide (88%) foresee making a "major career change" before they retire, according to a 2005 survey by the global staffing firm Korn/Ferry International. Korn/Ferry polled more than 1,700 international executives and found that 51% said they’d choose a different career if they had the option of starting over. However, one in four respondents told researchers that it was "unlikely" or "highly unlikely" that they would opt for a different field of work if given the opportunity to begin again. ("More than Half of Executives Would Start Career Over in Different Industry, Korn/Ferry Survey Finds" [Korn/Ferry International], press release, October 10, 2005)

Set realistic expectations. Learning goals should be established based on needed areas of knowledge and skills. The needs should reflect strategic goals, competency lists, job descriptions and so forth.

As reported in HRI, a paper by three business professors published in the Academy of Management Executive compared a merger or acquisition between two corporations to the creation of a stepfamily. This analogy was used to decipher the questions of why so many mergers and acquisitions fail and what can be done to avoid that failure. When people with children remarry, the children’s needs are usually overshadowed by the needs of the parents. The children feel stress, they are unfamiliar with their new roles, and they don’t share a history with their new stepparent and stepsiblings. These same aspects are true of a merger or acquisition, in that each group of employees feels these same uncertainties toward the other company. Other parallels can be drawn when viewing the way parents treat their biological children versus how they treat their new stepchildren. The emotional bond just isn’t the same, and the biological children tend to get favored, leaving the stepchildren with feelings of resentment and neglect. The same is true of merged or acquired companies. Employees will feel loyalty to their original boss and be wary of directives from any new superiors.

Using lessons learned from stepfamily literature, companies can help ease the integration both prior to and after the transaction. The key is to identify a common "middle ground" on which to build the new relationship. This is easier to find and foster when both companies already share similarities such as size and strategy. Prior to the deal, human resources must be ready to identify "problem children" and address any of the issues likely to pop up. HR must also be prepared to act quickly to resolve unseen issues after the deal takes place. Overall, a commitment must be made to new employees that they will not be neglected and left without resources. (Academy of Management Executive [Allred, Boal and Holstein], August 2005, pp. 27-28, 34)

As reported in HRI, human resource professionals need to be able to address the effect a merger or acquisition has on the individuals in a company in order for the transaction to be fully successful. According to Jim Andrews, a Ph.D. and senior consultant for M&A specialists Hagberg Consulting Group, employees have a need to know and understand the reasoning behind an M&A deal, how it fits with the corporate strategy and how it affects them. When workers know what the keys to the success of the deal are and the behaviors that lead to success, they will feel more a part of the event and help drive that success. What employees desire most is information. Lines of communication must be open during an M&A event, or else the workers feel shut out. HR professionals also need to identify situations where employees might feel they are losing their identity, whether it is due to a team being dismantled or a job description evolving. It is important to focus on key people and explore attrition risks and methods to boost retention. ("Worker’s Identity Issues Influence the Success of Integration Efforts in Mergers and Acquisitions" [Andrews - SHRM], December 2005)

As reported in HRI, dashboards and scorecards have been heralded as a useful development in business intelligence software, providing a layered analytical tool for managing business performance, according to Wayne W. Eckerson, author of Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring and Managing Your Business. Timely access to key data allows users to see progress toward targeted goals and respond when directional changes are called for. An organization’s technical architecture should allow for data to be integrated from several sources and should provide data on both an overview and a detailed level.

The top layer of a performance dashboard is the monitoring level, which alerts executives to performance changes. Beneath that is the analysis layer, in which users can discover the causes of problems. Next is the reporting level, which provides supporting details. Then comes the planning level, which allows managers to develop models to create new targets that roll back into the monitoring layer. (Intelligent Enterprise [Eckerson], February 1, 2006, pp. 24+)