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What Do Learners Really Want to Know? Transforming Leadership Capacity into Capability AFROSAI-E and The Swedish National Audit Office are building stronger leaders in Africa’s Supreme Audit Institutions. 2016 Vol. 14, No. 1 Great Organizations. Great Leaders. DDI Announces Alliance with EY A High-Resolution View of Leadership INSIDE:

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Page 1: GO Magazine 2016 Issue 1

What Do Learners Really Want to Know?

Transforming Leadership Capacity into CapabilityAFROSAI-E and The Swedish National Audit Office are building stronger leaders in Africa’s Supreme Audit Institutions.

2016 Vol. 14, No. 1Great Organizations. Great Leaders.

DDI Announces Alliance with EY

A High-Resolution View of Leadership

INSIDE:

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Every leader is a work in progress. None is ever really done growing, devel-oping, or learning his or her craft.

This fact is one of the things I love most about my job—helping leaders to become better at what they do and realize their true capability, even if they don’t ever attain a perfect end state. It’s the journey that matters more than the destination, after all.

In this issue of GO, you can read about leaders who are on their own journey to become better. In English-speaking Africa, AFROSAI-E and its partner, The Swedish National Audit Office, are employing a development and men-toring program, shaped through assessment insights, to help Supreme Audit Institution executives transform their leadership capacity into capability.

Leading learners on a journey toward improvement is what skilled facilitators do best. We asked some of DDI’s best facilitators to share the questions they hear asked most frequently in the classroom. You can read the questions and their responses in the article on page 18.

Also, here you can see a sampling of findings from DDI’s groundbreaking new study, High-Resolution Leadership, learn how to assess your entire pipeline from Eric Hanson, and get author Danny Kalman’s take on the importance of building your people before building your products.

You will find all this and more is in this issue.

Enjoy the journey!

Barry Stern, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, Accelerated Development Solutions, DDI

Volume 14 • Number 1 • 2016

PUBLISHER Richard S. Wellins, Ph.D.MANAGING EDITOR Craig IronsCREATIVE DIRECTOR Susan RyanCONTRIBUTING WRITER Terri SotaSENIOR GRAPHIC ARTIST Mike Lawley

EDITORIAL AND CIRCULATION: GO c/o Development Dimensions Intl. 1225 Washington Pike Bridgeville, PA 15017-2838 Telephone: 412-257-0600

ABOUT DDI

DDI is one of the top talent manage-ment consultancies. Forty-five years ago, we pioneered the field; today we remain its chief innovator. We help companies transform the way they hire, promote, and develop their leaders and workforce. The outcome? People ready to instigate, understand, and execute business strategy, and address challenges head-on. Our clients are some of the most successful companies on earth. They’re Fortune 500s and multina-tionals, doing business across a vast array of industries. We serve clients from 42 DDI-owned or closely affiliated offices. The principles and skills we teach don’t just make people better em-ployees, they are at the heart of what makes for happier and more fulfilled human beings—better family mem-bers, better neighbors, better friends.© Development Dimensions

International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

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ContentsGO Volume 14 • Number 1 • 2016

FEATURES4 A Stick in a Bundle Is Unbreakable

Building leadership skill proficiency in English-speak-ing Africa’s Supreme Audit Institutions begins with an international partnership—and an assessment.

9 Leadership in Sharp Focus A DDI research study of assessment data from more than 15,000 leaders delivers a wealth of insights.

18 Questions from the Classroom What training participants really want to know.

22 Wired for Success To assess your whole pipeline effectively, you need to have the right assessment architecture.

26 What to Read This Summer Suggestions from leadership thought leaders.

DEPARTMENTS13 TrendTracker

A new sub-report from the most recent Global Lead-ership Forecast explores the unique challenges multinational companies face.

14 What’s GOing On Market analyst Kennedy ranks DDI #1 leadership development provider, a new alliance with EY, and for the seventh straight year DDI is a Top 20 Leadership Training Company.

16 Coffee on the GO with Danny Kalman The co-author of Make Your People Before You Make Your Products believes people management is more complicated than rocket science.

27 Information You Can Use! New DDI research and thought leadership to spark your thinking about talent management.

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5© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

WHEN Nancy Guthungo, director of audit in the Office of the Auditor General, Kenya, moved into a new role and began leading a new team in late 2015, she faced many of the same challenges typical of leaders making transitions. Leaving a team she knew well, she now led a group she was unfamiliar with and had to determine their perspectives, motivations, and expectations of her as their manager.

But Guthungo recognized the importance of approaching her new role methodically instead of rushing to impose changes right away.

“When you are moved to a new department you immedi-ately start working and moving things very fast. But this time, I stepped back and took time to think about the im-pact on my team of having a new person leading them. I also thought about the impact on myself of leaving a job where I was comfortable and knew I was capable.”

Guthungo attributes her approach to insights she gained as a participant in an executive leadership development and mentoring program. The program is a joint partner-ship between the African Organization of English-Speak-ing Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E), and The Swedish National Audit Office (NAO), which serves as a strategic partner to AFROSAI-E. The program is designed to strengthen executive teams in English-speaking Afri-can Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) and help individual executives like Guthungo grow leadership proficiency.

One defining factor of the program is that Guthungo and her 23 co-participants, all of whom are senior leaders in their respective country’s SAI, were selected into the pro-gram upon completion of an assessment. Including an as-sessment as part of the selection process not only helped to determine who was the best fit for the program but also provided data and insights that informed the program con-tent and guided each individual executive’s development.

A Need for StrengthThe role of a SAI is to act independently to provide as-surance that government activities are properly carried out and accounted for (the U.S. federal government equivalent is the Government Accountability Office). The regulatory, performance, information systems, and environmental audits that SAIs conduct are crucial to uncovering and preventing corruption and ensuring transparency. These are especially important priorities for developing nations seeking to build credibility in the international communi-ty. AFROSAI-E aids its member SAIs in enhancing their institutional capacity to fulfill their audit mandate mission successfully by promoting innovation, cooperation, and adherence to international auditing standards.

While the interventions AFROSAI-E and its institutional partners implemented have helped to increase audit skills in English-speaking African nations, the member SAIs recognized a need for stronger strategic and interpersonal leadership skills in the upper ranks of the SAIs.

A Stick in a Bundle Is Unbreakable

Building leadership skill proficiency in English-speaking Africa’s Supreme Audit Institutions begins with an international

partnership—and an assessment.

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6© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

Gorden Kandoro, senior manager, institutional strength-ening and capacity building, AFROSAI-E, says that while efforts to develop managers within the SAIs have been underway since 2009 the development of executives was a critical missing link.

“To change the SAIs and lead the organization to a new level that will get the organization the results that we want—improved audit services that provide greater trans-parency—we need the top managers to lead their organi-zations to a new level. We know we have the capacity, but we need to turn that capacity into capability.”

In fact, “turning leadership from capacity to capability” was identified as one of the organization’s strategic im-peratives in its five-year corporate plan spanning 2015 to 2019. The result was the launch in 2015 of a development and mentoring program that targets teams of executives.

As the program brochure explains, “The aim is to get par-ticipants from a cross section of disciplines, enabling the SAIs to create ambitious top executive teams to lead their organizations in attaining higher levels of proficiency and effectiveness.” Additionally, the program is intended to “support the establishment of professional, relevant, and competent executive teams … to lead their organizations towards full compliance with international standards for public sector auditing.”

A document describing the program powerfully summa-rizes this focus on teams by invoking a Kenyan proverb: “A stick in a bundle is unbreakable.”

“Focus on Me, As a Leader”The program targets teams of three to five participants from the same SAI who hold the rank of deputy auditor general or director. It runs about nine months and includes five workshops, with one workshop held in Sweden and rest in South Africa.

The 24 executives participating in the first year of the pro-gram hail from Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Sudan.

The program content aligns with the Institutional Capa-bility Building Framework spelled out in AFROSAI-E’s five-year corporate plan. The framework identifies five domains across which the participants need to develop

capability—Independence and Legal Framework, Or-ganization and Management, Human Resources, Audit Standards and Methodology, and Communication and Stakeholder Management. Participants develop through an action learning approach that covers the five domains through lectures, assignments, and mentoring.

“In the past we have had formal training on things like how to organize and build a SAI, and around structure and process, but not where the focus was on me, as a leader, focusing on interpersonal skills,” says Ingela Ekblom, in-ternational senior advisor, The Swedish NAO. “This was a new approach which attracted leaders to apply for this program.”

One of the program’s most important features is the opportunity for participants to develop their skills by working on a strategic project. They also get to draw on knowledge, expertise, and best practices from the interna-tional audit community, as each team is provided with a highly qualified mentor with recognized leadership skills. These mentors include auditors general or deputy audi-tors general from the Netherlands, Estonia, Lithuania, and Sweden.

The Swedish NAO not only partnered on the program de-sign, but also is taking the lead in delivering the content together with a South African consultancy group special-izing in emotional intelligence. The Swedish NAO has worked closely with AFROSAI-E for a decade, as part

Participants in the first year of the development and mentoring program.

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7© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

of a 20-year initiative to support development work in other countries.

“We have been their closest partner when it comes to human resources and communication,” says Ekblom, pointing out that The Swedish NAO is well-positioned to help AFROSAI-E, given its international reputation as one of the pioneers in performance auditing and its long-term experience and willingness to support other countries.

Impartially Evaluating CandidatesEach SAI could nominate up to eight executives at the deputy auditor general level or equivalent. A maximum of five executives from each SAI are admitted to each pro-gram cohort. Those nominated needed to be at least six years away from retirement, as the program is intended to make an immediate impact on the leadership capability within each SAI (as opposed to addressing the leadership capability of the next generation of executives).

To be selected for the program, each executive had to write a letter of application, complete a self-assessment, and also have his or her country’s auditor general (their supervisor), assess the executive’s skills and ability. While the multifaceted process provided a significant amount of data on each executive, Ekblom says much of it “was maybe a bit on the positive side.” What was needed was a way to impartially evaluate each executive. DDI’s Manager Ready® assessment proved to be the right tool.

Manager Ready® is a half-day assessment that provides opportunities to observe participants in real-world situa-tions. The online assessment consists of a series of mana-gerial tasks, such as coaching a direct report on handling a new project or asking people questions to uncover a problem. The participants’ performance in the assess-ment provides data on their strengths and development needs relative to nine competencies: Coaching for Suc-cess, Coaching for Improvement, Managing Relation-ships, Guiding Interactions, Problem Analysis, Judgment, Delegation & Empowerment, Gaining Commitment, and Planning & Organizing. The data is evaluated by a DDI assessor and the results are provided in detailed feed-back reports within days. A DDI assessor also conducts a follow-up discussion with the individual to explain the results and answer questions.

The competencies measured by Manager Ready® are typi-cally those needed for success in a frontline leadership role. While many of the program participants had benefited from past training aimed at developing their proficiency in audit-ing procedures and processes, for many this was the first time they had taken part in a program that developed their own proficiency as leaders.

Ekblom also points out that the Manager Ready assess-ment proved valuable because it provided an efficient and uniform way to assess people in different countries.

AFROSAI-E and The Swedish NAO used the assessment results to help select the program participants. The Man-ager Ready assessment data also served as an individual and team baseline and provided a scorecard for enhance-ment of management/leadership skills. Among the group strengths the assessment identified were delegation and empowerment, problem/opportunity analysis, and judg-ment. It also identified development opportunities in the areas of managing relationships, influencing, and coaching for success.

“Through the assessment we identified the gaps and the program responded

to those gaps.”

Sibongile Lubambo, an executive in the Auditor Gener-al of South Africa and a participant in the program, was impressed with how the Manager Ready results helped inform the program content. “It’s tailor-made from the assessment that we did initially,” she says. “Through the assessment we identified the gaps and the program responded to those gaps.”

A “Very Valuable” ProgramNancy Guthungo’s positive view of the program is echoed by others, who have benefited from both the greater self-awareness and insights provided by the assessment and the leadership skills gained through the development and mentoring program.

Abdalla Hamid, deputy auditor general, Sudan, says the program has been especially valuable to his development.

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HOW TO: Attain Buy-in for DevelopmentThe development and mentoring program that AFROSAI-E and The Swedish NAO launched for executives in English-speaking African SAIs required a major time commit-ment for participants, as they had to be away from their jobs for a significant amount of time during the program’s duration.

“There is a lot of time in the program,” says Ingela Ekblom. “The first session was 10 days, and the others are five days. For those at the very, very top of their organizations, that’s a long time to be away from the office.”

To attain the buy-in and support of the exec-utives and their SAIs, AFROSAI-E and The Swedish NAO recognized that the program needed to be seen as an exclusive develop-ment opportunity that wouldn’t be available to all.

Using Manager Ready® as part of the selection process underscored the program’s exclusivity. Fifty-eight executives applied and went through the Manager Ready assess-ment, but fewer than half—24 executives—were accepted into the program.

“Because of the time involved, at first people were reluctant and then they think, ‘Wow, due to assessment I can say that I got into this program through a very hard qualifying process,’” says Ekblom. “I think that was really something for all of us.”

“The program was extremely useful as it afforded me the opportunity to critically look into my own behaviors as a leader and at the way I interact with my peers, subordi-nates, and superiors. It gave me valuable insight and guid-ance as to how I can adjust my behavior to become more effective.”

Tamba Momoh, deputy auditor general for Audit Service Sierra Leone, says that he and the two colleagues from his country’s SAI who have gone through the program togeth-er have benefited from the program’s focus on managing others.

“We have learned how to adapt to the situations we are man-aging. Also, there’s been a focus on developing emotional intelligence, which really helps in staff management.”

“Most of the topics that have been covered have been things that we needed,” says Sibongile Lubambo. “I’ve been in my role for three years and I’ve been doing okay, but there were leadership areas where I needed to develop, in terms of people management and finding a more effective way to get people to deliver results at the right quality and more efficiently.

“It’s not just a generic program for SAIs. It’s things that you need to know as a leader.”To learn more about Manager Ready®, visit www.ddiworld.com/ products/manager-ready.

© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

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9© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

THROUGH years of working with leading organi-zations around the world, DDI has amassed a large pro-prietary database of assessment data from thousands of leaders. Recently, we undertook the task of analyzing this huge trove of data with the aim of creating insights to help raise the bar on the quality of leadership around the globe.

Our motivation for undertaking this research is that, while intelligence derived from assessment has been in-valuable at the individual and company levels, little has been done to dive into the collective data across leaders and the organization, until now!

This research drew on assessment data from over 15,000 candidates for five leadership levels: frontline,

mid-level, operational, strategic executive, and C-suite executive. The full dataset includes more than 300 organizations and spans more than 20 industries and 18 countries.

We captured our findings in the recently published study report, High-Resolution Leadership: A Synthesis of 15,000 Assessments into How Leaders Shape the Busi-ness Landscape.

You can download the full study and also explore the individual study findings at www.ddiworld.com/ hirezleadership.

What follows are summaries of three of the study’s 18 findings.

LEADERSHIP IN SHARP FOCUS

A DDI research study of assessment data from more than 15,000 leaders delivers a wealth of insights.

By Evan Sinar, Ph.D., and Rich Wellins, Ph.D.

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The Money Skills: Senior Executive Competencies that Drive Profitable Growth When it comes to driving organizational growth and prof-it, there are business leadership competencies that add up to a leader who drives revenue growth and profit. These are the Money Skills.

We conducted two studies—one aimed at revenue growth, the other at profit. Both studies included assessment center data from senior-level executives with titles such as EVP, CFO, and CEO. They represented large organizations from the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Australia. While each or-ganization had its own list of competencies, skill domains measured across all organizations were:

+ Business Management + Leadership of People + Communicating a Compelling Vision + Influencing Stakeholders

We looked at 1,028 senior executives from 33 large orga-nizations (on average, 26 per company). The results were compelling: When all four skill domains were combined

into a composite index of leadership competence, there was a strong relationship to revenue growth over a six-year period (see “Overall Competence” graphic below).

But as shareholders will tell you, the top line doesn’t mat-ter if there’s nothing left at the bottom line. Our profit anal-ysis, focusing on net profit and return on assets (ROA), included assessment data from 2,077 senior-level execu-tives from 44 organizations (on average, 47 per company). These findings identified a smaller set of skills associated with driving margin. Five skills in particular (see “Specif-ic Business and Leadership Competencies Drive Profit” graphic) were dominant in their links to bottom-line re-turns, both net profit and ROA. When an organization cul-tivates top-level leaders who combine judgment with the ability to execute, the impact shows up in financial gains.

Taken together, these studies suggest that you’ll need se-nior executives with the full range of skills to generate growth, but to make it profitable, they will need to have laser-sharp business minds and be capable of engaging people and mobilizing them behind their ideas.

10© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

Leadership Competencies Drive Organizational Growth and Profit

Revenue growth from 2009 - 2014 Competencies most predictive of four-year profit average

Overall Competence DrivesRevenue Growth

Highly Competent ExecutivesLess Competent

Executives

CompetentExecutives

45%

20%

- 4%Average Company Performance

Specific Business and Leadership Competencies Drive Profit

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©Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved.

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Execution and Engagement: Can Leaders Be Ambidextrous? Whether it’s completing a major project or setting the stra-tegic course for an entire organization, leaders must rely on two essential clusters of behaviors: engagement and execution. Execution is about getting something done or driving a course of action; engagement concerns ensuring that people are fully absorbed in their work and inherently committed to the organization’s purpose and values.

The question we set out to answer is this: Do leaders have the skills to do either and/or both well? Answer: It depends.

We started by comparing leadership indexes for both en-gagement and execution that were based on a subset of competencies and actions included in our assessment pro-cess. We designated the leaders who had high assessment scores in execution or engagement.

The results are startlingly disappointing. Of the leaders we sampled, 17 percent were highly capable in the execution composite, and only 1 in 10 in the engagement composite. Worse, few leaders were truly ambidextrous at both.

Is there a difference by level? The “Shifting Balance” fig-ure below shows a clear trend. At the lowest leader level, 31 percent scored higher on the engagement composite, while 21 percent were higher on the execution side. They had equal scores 48 percent of the time. At the more senior levels, the majority of leaders scored higher on execution and lower on engagement; furthermore, balance almost disappears. For instance, at the strategic/executive leader levels, two out of three leaders scored higher in the ability to execute, while not even one in five scored equally.

How Education Both Informs and Misleads About Leader Skills

Our research answers two questions about the educational background of leaders:

+ How do skill profiles vary by highest educational degree?

+ What skill advantages do MBA graduates exhibit?

The trends in the “Top- and Bottom-Ranked” graphic illustrate skill gaps and untapped potential in many pools. Among the largest skill discrepancies are leaders with engineering degrees who face a heavy disadvantage: they

© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved. 11

Strategic

18%

23%

28%

31%

65%

46%

36%

21%

17%

31%

36%

48%

C-suite

Operational

Mid-level

[Higher] Engagement [Higher] ExecutionAbout the same

©Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved.

The Shifting Balance of Execution vs. Engagement as Leaders Ascend

Percentage of leaders higher in engagement, higher in execution, or equal

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Those with law degrees, nearly all with advanced degrees, showed strong financial acumen and business savvy. How-ever, they were weaker than the other graduates in three skills reflecting a passionate pursuit of outcomes: driving for execution, driving for results, and inspiring excellence.

Natural science, social science, and IT graduates were near average in most leadership skills, though in a different pattern from each other. Notably, IT was top among all degrees for driving execution.To explore all 18 findings from the High-Resolution Leadership study, or download the entire report, visit www.ddiworld.com/hirezleadership.

Evan Sinar, Ph.D., is chief scientist and vice president, research/CABER, for DDI.

Rich Wellins, Ph.D., is senior vice president, DDI.

were near the bottom in proficiency for six of the eight assessed competencies.

Business majors—the most common degree across all senior leaders assessed—outperformed other degrees on five of eight skill areas. However, a follow-up analysis comparing undergraduate and graduate (e.g., MBA) business degree holders showed that they diverged on sev-eral leader skills.

Humanities graduates struggled with business savvy and financial acumen but outperformed other degrees in many skills, and did so through strengths not only in interper-sonal competencies (such as influence), but also in strong performance in results orientation and entrepreneurship. Many humanities programs incorporate debating, commu-nicating, and critical thinking, which would contribute to well-rounded graduates in these fields.

12© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

Finan

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Engineering

Law

Humanities

Education

Business

Information Technology (IT)

Natural Sciences

Social Sciences

Strength WeaknessMid-range

©Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved.

Top- and Bottom-Ranked Educational Degrees Across Leader Skills

Skill profiles, comparing educational degrees (based on highest degrees completed) and 8 leader skills.

@RichWellins

@EvanSinar

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are highly confidentleveraging technology toimprove their workforce

view social network-baseddevelopment as mosteffective

5 in10

feel technologymakes it easier to

develop as a leader

12%view self-study onlinelearning as most effective

5% view mobile-baseddevelopment asmost effective

66%are highly confidentusing data to guidebusiness decisions

60%11%

Leadership development initiatives that aretoo diverse and inconsistent across the organization 40%

Lack of skills/experience with the HR/talentmanagement leadership team to operate globally 27%

Leadership development initiatives that are toocontrolled by corporate 13%

Poor understanding of cultural differences in theimplementation of global leadership development programs 11%

Poor understanding of cultural differences in thedesign of global leadership development programs 9%

TRENDTRACKER

Multinational Companies Face Their Own ChallengesAs part of our most recent Global Leadership Forecast study, we produced a sub-report highlighting findings on the current state of leadership and leadership practices in multinational companies (MNCs). The findings are based on responses from 2,972 leaders and 383 human resource executives in multinational organizations. Take a deeper dive into the Global Leadership Forecast 2014|2015 Multinational Sub-report.

Telling Number:

18Percent of MNCs reporting a strong bench of capable leaders to fill critical leadership roles. Source: Global Leadership Forecast 2014|2015 Multinational Sub-report

We asked 370 MNC HR profes-sionals to pick the single barrier that most damages the success of their organization’s leadership development programs. The top reason? Leadership devel-opment initiatives that are too diverse and inconsistent across the organization.

Multinational corporations see technology as a critical enabler for extending global connectivity and for generating operational scalability. But, when it comes to technology supporting leadership development and workforce im-provement, MNC leaders aren’t seeing the full benefits. Only 60 percent of MNC leaders are highly confident leveraging technology to improve their workforce.

MNC leaders struggle more than most with technology.

Why aren’t MNC leadership development programs more effective?

© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved. 13

MNC Leader views on technology

Most damaging barriers to leadership development success for MNCs

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14© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

DDI Announces Alliance with EYDDI and EY have announced a strategic alliance to offer professional services for building a stron-ger cadre of business leaders.

The alliance combines DDI’s deep knowledge and experience in leadership consulting, assess-ment, and development solutions with EY’s focus on business and organizational performance and leadership effectiveness. As a result, the two organizations will be able to create a differentiated set of services and solutions helping a company’s leaders to drive their business strategy in a rapidly changing work environment.

“The combination of DDI’s solid portfolio of intel-lectual property and thought leadership with EY’s People Advisory Services creates a fully inte-grated service offering that addresses all stages and requirements of the leadership development continuum, said Liz DeVito, associate director and lead for HR consulting research, ALM Intelligence. “With this alliance, EY and DDI join the handful of consultancies capable of delivering truly global leadership development consulting services.”Learn more about the DDI/EY alliance

For 7th Year Running DDI Named Top 20 Leadership Training CompanyTrainingIndustry.com has named the Top 20 Leadership Training Companies for 2016 and once again DDI is among them. This marks the seventh consecutive year DDI has made the list.

Selection of the Top 20 list was based on several criteria, including thought leadership and influence, industry recognition and innovation, breadth of programs and range of audiences served, delivery methods offered, company size and growth potential, strength of clients, geographic reach, and experience serving the market.Learn more about the TrainingIndustry.com Top 20 Leadership Training Companies list

WHAT’S GOING ON

DDI Malaysia Named Best Succession Planning ConsultantDDI was awarded the Gold award for The Best Succession Planning Consultant at Human Resources magazine’s inau-gural Malaysia Vendors of the Year awards. DDI’s leadership development expertise was also recognized by the Malaysia market with a Silver award as The Best Leadership Develop-ment Consultant.

The ranking was based on a two-tiered selection process. Category finalists were identified through an extensive online survey of HR managers in Malaysia, which queried them on their vendor preferences. These finalists were validated by a panel of HR leaders from some of Malaysia’s largest employers including Astro, CIMB Bank, Citibank, Hewlett-Packard, and Volvo.To see the full list of winners, visit www.ddiworld.com/GOmagazine

+

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15© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

Market Analyst Kennedy Ranks DDI #1 Leadership Development Provider

Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory, the world’s leading source of consulting market analysis, gave DDI top ranking as the number one leadership development provider on its The Kennedy VanguardTM

Matrix based on the breadth and depth of DDI’s solutions.

In its analysis of companies that are focused on leader-ship acceleration, Kennedy determined placement on the Matrix using a comprehensive evaluation process. It included in-depth reviews of materials, business models, and services of DDI and its competitors, interviews with clients, and an objective rating across seven major capa-bilities where DDI ranked very strong in six of the seven reviewed including: Leadership Assessment, Leadership Competency Modeling, Leadership Learning Design, Leadership Capability Development, Leadership Perfor-

mance Management, and Change Management.

Detailed results and commentary on industry trends were reported in Kennedy’s Leadership Development Consult-ing competitive landscape analysis (released December 2015). The report identifies a number of additional DDI strengths that include:

• Always continually challenges itself to deepen its understanding of leadership with a rigorous, scientific approach to research.

• Extensive thought leadership that translates the sci-ence of leadership development into a management strategy for driving organizational effectiveness.

• An alliance with EY [that] will strengthen its consulting capabilities and fuel further innovations through bun-dled service delivery and data analytics.

DDI was also identified as having the ability to serve ma-jor markets globally with strong positions across all four of the major geographic business regions identified in the report including: Asia Pacific, EMEA, Latin America, and North America.Learn more about DDI’s #1 ranking by Kennedy.

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16© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

COFFEEON THE GO WITH

DANNY KALMANThe co-author of Make Your People Before You Make Your Products believes people management is more complicated than rocket science.

No matter its business, to have a business an organization must make its people a priority. That’s one of the main points of the book Make Your People Before You Make Your Products: Using Talent Management to Achieve Competitive Advantage in Global Organizations by Paul Turner and Danny Kalman. Kalman, formerly director of global talent at Panasonic, spoke with GO about why organizations need to be both exclusive and inclusive when it comes to talent, the evolution of Talent 4.0, and what it takes to recognize talent everywhere.

GO: How did you and Paul Turner come to title the book Make Your People Before You Make Your Products?

Kalman: Paul and I were sitting at a pub somewhere in West London. We’d gotten the publishing contract and I was telling this story about the founder of Panasonic, Ko-nosuke Matsushita. In Japan, he’s known as a leadership guru. He was visiting one of the company’s many factories and asked the general manager, “What do you make in your factory?” Surprised, the general manager answered, “We make radios, Mr. Matsushita.” The founder shook his head and said, “No, no, no. What do you make in your factory?” The general manager thought that maybe he hadn’t heard him over the noise in the room. He respond-ed again, “We make radios, Mr. Matsushita.” The found-er asked him a third time and was starting to get a little angry. “No, no, no! What do you make in your factory?” Of course, the general manager couldn’t say radios again so he replied, “I’m not sure what we make in our factory.” And the founder said, “You make people because without people, you have no product.” So I told Paul that story and he immediately had a lightbulb moment. He said, “Well, Danny, that’s the title of our book.”

GO: A great line in the book is, “People management is more complicated than rocket science.” Can you explain that?

Kalman: We all have unique characters, with individual talents and needs—especially in terms of what we’re look-ing for in a job and the kind of support we require. So, when we’re managing people, it’s the furthest thing from a one-size-fits-all proposition. This presents a terribly com-plex challenge that many organizations face when consid-ering how to bring out the best in their people. That’s why managing people is so difficult.

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GO: In the book you talk about organizations having to be both inclusive and exclusive in their approaches to talent. What do you mean by that?

Kalman: A lot of organizations have taken quite an exclu-sive approach to talent. Typically, they create a high-po-tential pool, consisting of maybe two to five percent of their workforce. That pool receives all of their focus and development investment. That’s where the exclusivity comes into it. The danger, and what many organizations have found, is that what they’ve done is to somehow dis-enfranchise and demotivate the other 95 to 98 percent of their workforce. They’re almost sending a message as if to say, “The people in this pool are the ones that are key to our organization.” Of course, they’re not overtly saying to others that they aren’t important, but that’s the inference.

In the book, we advocate for a more inclusive approach to talent—making everyone feeling valued, making people feel appreciated for their contributions, and recognizing that not everybody wants to be fast-tracked or become a future VP. It’s recognizing that unique talents exist every-where within an organization, at different levels and ex-pressed in different ways.

GO: You framed this duality of exclusivity and inclusiv-ity as “Talent 4.0.” Can you describe its evolution from Talent 1.0?

Kalman: We wanted to show some kind of progression of the talent story over the years. Our starting point, Tal-ent 1.0, was always looking at how future presidents and CEOs could be identified. The whole focus of succession planning was just on the very top. Then, the discussion broadened to looking at succession planning not just for the very top but for other key roles. That led into what we call Talent 2.0. Next, there was a greater recognition that we really ought to look at a broader range of roles or key levels within the company, so there was more of a focus on graduate intake and developing high potentials throughout the organization. This was paired with the realization that we better have tracks in addition to our leadership track. That’s what we call Talent 3.0. This has now shifted to what we call Talent 4.0. It’s an inclusive strategy, looking at all the different generations, cultures, and roles across the organization. At the same time, we’re not saying that some kind of talent pool for those VP and managing di-rector roles isn’t still necessary. This is why we advocate for a talent approach that is both inclusive and exclusive, instead of the typical exclusive-only strategy.

GO: One other phrase from the book that resonates is “Good management is good talent management.” Can you elaborate on that?

Kalman: Something I’ve often said at conferences is that people don’t leave organizations, they leave their manag-ers. No one has a greater impact on an employee than his or her direct-line boss. If we look back on when we’ve had long tenures with employers, the reason we stayed was because we had bosses who encouraged us, motivated us, gave us opportunities, and took a genuine, authentic interest in us. Leaders are the stewards of the talent that exists in the organization. They have to recognize that they have this incredibly important responsibility in the tal-ent space.

GO: What do leaders need to do to become better talent stewards?

Kalman: In the book, we talk about the age of transparency. One of the Japanese words that we use quite a lot is “sun-ao,” meaning uncluttered. I talk a lot about the sunao mind and being open-minded. One of the points we wanted to get across in the book and something I feel strongly about is that when you’re looking at talent, you need a new lens—an un-biased way of seeing. You need to look at people as people, irrespective of age or gender or ethnicity or whatever. We tend to pigeonhole people into various boxes based on our own prejudices or our own experiences. When, instead, you look at the talent around you with a sunao mind, you recog-nize that talent is everywhere. You won’t get distracted by the table-bangers who draw attention to themselves and you’ll glimpse the wonderful, unassuming quiet talents, who get on with their jobs, head down, not shouting from the rooftops about how good they are. By keeping an open mind you’ll appreciate the richness of your entire workforce, which I think is vital when it comes to talent issues. Danny Kalman’s book, Make Your People Before You Make Your Prod-ucts: Using Talent Management to Achieve Competitive Advantage in Global Organizations, co-authored with Paul Turner, is available through bookstores and major online booksellers. His second book, Inclusive Talent Management: How Business Can Thrive in an Age of Diversity, will be published in July.

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18© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

THE difference between a facilitator and a lecturer? Answer: Interaction with the audience, especially fielding questions. Facilitators welcome and encourage learner questions—and the more the merrier. A high level of par-ticipant engagement is critical for a successful facilitation.

While some of the most commonly asked questions are client- or course-specific, many are independent of leader level, training content, or geography; these are the “uni-versals.” Sure, some are not worth discussing—What time is lunch? Can I take a conference call later this after-noon? Would it be okay if I continue to check my emails? Others, however, offer insight into what participants care most about, and reveal how skillfully crafted facilitators’ responses must be.

So what are the learning-relevant questions facilitators hear most? And what are the best ways to address them? To get answers, we interviewed expert DDI facilitators from around the world. Here’s what they had to say:

“Will this be worth my time?”All we interviewed agree that this is THE biggie—the num-ber one question preoccupying the minds of participants. It may remain the unacknowledged elephant in the room, but it crowds the classroom nonetheless.

“I can picture little talk bubbles floating around their heads,” says Diana Powell, senior consultant, DDI learn-ing systems. “They’re thinking, ‘Why am I here? What value does this bring to my job? How is this going to make my life easier?’”

“As facilitators, we understand that they’re staffed lean and busy as heck,” says John Verdone, manager, global facilitation excellence. “We understand that what they’re thinking is ‘I’ve got a million other things to do, so why is this guy stealing my time?’”

More often than not facilitators are greeted by a “cap-tive” audience, but not the hanging-on-every-word kind of crowd. Instead, it’s a somewhat skeptical group that is attending training because it’s mandatory.

Michael Rafferty, general manager, DDI Australia sales, muses that, “Leadership development events are like a trip to the dentist; even if everyone understands the im-

What Participants Really Want to KnowBy Terri Sota

Questions from the

Classroom

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portance, still, no one wants to go. I think early on the questions are not really questions but statements to let the facilitator know who’s really in charge.”

So how do facilitators captivate their captives and combat their palpable impatience?

“I think it’s the way we facilitate that answers the why am I here question,” says Powell. “We take before-class time to make the content specific to their jobs, and we bring in-dustry- and organization-specific examples to share, while also asking them to share what’s going on—that’s a real icebreaker. Another really good thing is that participants are usually given pre-work for almost all of our courses. This helps them start thinking about how they are going to be able to apply what they’ll be learning.”

“Is my manager receiving this training?”“This is a perennial favorite that is inevitably asked early on,” says Rafferty. “And, it’s usually raised after one of two ‘aha’ moments,” adds Bill Akins, senior consultant, DDI learning systems. “The first is when they grasp the power of what I’m teaching. They’re thinking ‘Oh, man, this is great!’ They are really excited to share the knowl-edge with their managers and arm them with the same skills. The second happens when they grasp that the cul-ture they work in really stinks. Once they get a glimpse of what could be, they suddenly realize how far from ideal their leadership really is.”

In raising this question, participants are also inquiring—and expressing concern—about support. They want to know if their managers, as well as senior management, will truly get behind their organization’s investment in de-velopment. They want reassurance that their newly learned behaviors will be recognized (favorably) when applied, and that they will receive additional, constructive coach-ing so they can continue to hone their behaviors over time.

This is why DDI facilitators always advocate for partici-pant-manager meetings both before and after training. The initial get-together is a chance for both parties to begin thinking about application opportunities. The follow-up discussion converts the theoretical into the practical. The pair jointly creates a plan for executing the participant’s newly acquired skills.

“Participants routinely ask for suggestions about how to talk to their managers after they have finished a course. When they anticipate being ignored (or worse) for break-

ing with the status quo, my response is real simple,” says Akins. “You can’t hold people accountable for something they don’t know they’re being held accountable for. So you’re making an assumption that they’re going to blow you off, even though you can’t know that until you talk to them. I also guide them through sample conversations. I show them how to use a discussion planner to prepare.”

“How can I make a difference?”This question is closely related to the one above; its subtext is also about learning in isolation, but extends beyond the participant-manager relationship to the corporate culture.

“When I hear ‘My manager doesn’t do these things,’” says Meagan Aaron, senior consultant, DDI learning systems, “I talk a lot about becoming agents of change. I say to partic-ipants that you can either think about where you have in-fluence or just continue to do things the same way. And, by the way, how’s that working for you? I tell them, you’re in a leadership position, so lean in and start to make changes. And, when they ask me why their managers never do any of the things I’m teaching them, I will say something like, ‘Maybe that’s why you’re here. You’re the future culture.’”

Many of our facilitators speak of taking a similar tack. They take what participants see as overwhelming—trans-formational culture change—and break it down into bite-size, individual improvement efforts.

“Quite honestly,” says Akins, “if you look at every major organization—civic organizations, churches, manufactur-ing—where there are more than 30 or 40 employees, you have to ask yourself, ‘How many people are in my direct level of influence?’ And the truth is that that number does not change a lot. Generally it is somewhere between 12 and 20. So I look at these folks and acknowledge that they can’t change the entire organization but what they can do is change the culture for their own realm of influence.”

“Our participants are so overwhelmed with so many things and they don’t initially understand that the tools and the development provide the way to get what they want ac-complished,” says Aaron. “I spend a lot of time knocking down that wall. I think a lot of facilitators realize the key is just to ensure learners continue to think about how they’re getting things done, who they’re getting it done through, and the really important pieces around involvement and accountability.”

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“How do I find time to implement what I’ve learned?”

Time on the back end is also an issue. Facilitators receive a variety of questions related to scheduling concerns: “I’m already working a zillion hours, how can I meet more regular-ly with my reports?” “How will I have time to plan coaching conversations or apply the Key Principles?

“Most of my clients, regardless of industry―healthcare, fi-nancial services, manufacturing, etc.―are incredibly over-whelmed when it comes to managing their time and focusing on multiple priorities,” says Powell. “I can understand how they feel when we bring in a new skill and want to apply it. When you think about it, the real difficulty with coaching is finding the time to do it; likewise, the difficulty with executing strategy is finding the time to sit down and plan. When we fill out a discussion planner in class, it’s not only a preparatory step for having a quality conversation, it’s also a practice ses-sion with the planner that demonstrates how little time it really takes to improve the effectiveness of an important interaction.”

Lessons LearnedWhile they know to expect these questions, expert facilitators never rely on canned answers. Experience, yes, but one-size-fits-all responses? No.

And, when they can’t give a knowledgeable answer, they say so. Bluffing isn’t an option and participants are eager, when prompted, to offer more detail about what and why they’re asking.

What’s more, good facilitators convey the passion they possess for the training. “Probably the most difficult question and the one that gets the facilitator going is ‘Do you really be-lieve all this development makes a difference?’ I want to say, ‘Heck yeah!’” says Rafferty. “I tell them there are countless case studies, research reports, and examples of measurable shifts in behavior. The jury is full-in on this one. But, then I say, to put the onus back on them, ‘It only works if you…’”

At the end of the day (or days), all of the facilitators we spoke with agree it’s about impact—facilitating those “aha” moments for participants, generating growth through insight, and building better leaders.

View a video on the value that trainers and facilitators provide. Learn more about DDI’s Development Accelerators for reinforcing leadership development with sustainability tools.

? FOLLOW @DDIworld on TWITTER Thought Leadership Delivered Daily

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22© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

A few years ago when I was shopping for a house, I sought the assistance of a professional home inspector. I was looking at an older home that had been added on to over the years. When the inspector pulled off the electrical panel he found a jumbled mess of wires going every which way, like a pile of spaghetti. It was clear that the workmanship was questionable, which raised some serious concerns about the quality and safety of the wir-ing throughout the house. Needless to say, armed with this information, I opted not to move forward with buying the house.

Think for a moment about how you evaluate leader-ship talent in your organization. What assessment tools do you use, and for what purposes? Chances are you use tests and assessments to evaluate candidates for selection into the organization. You may also use as-sessments for evaluating internal promotion candidates

and participants in succession management programs, and as components of your learning and development programs. When you multiply these tools and combi-nations of tools by the number of organizational levels, divisions, and geographic locations, you begin to see a potentially complex picture.

Ideally, these assessments will be part of a larger, formu-lated strategy to assess talent across your entire pipeline, in which each tool is employed in a purposeful way to gather the data and insights you need about each popula-tion—from candidates for entry-level positions to senior executives who need highly targeted development.

What does your assessment architecture look like? Is it an efficient, well-organized system or does it resemble the spaghetti-wire electrical panel I encountered in that home inspection? In my experience working with a variety of organizations, I’ve found talent management profession-

To assess your whole pipeline effectively, you need to have the right assessment architecture.

By Eric Hanson, Ph.D.

WIRED FOR SUCCESS

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23© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

WIRED FOR SUCCESS

23© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

als often struggle to make sense of their assessment ar-chitecture. Due to misaligned targets, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies, the complexity they face is accompanied by a nagging uncertainty about whether the investment in assessment is paying off for the business in terms of data insights for making the best talent decisions.

Considering Business ImpactLet’s first examine the issue of business impact. In most cases, assessments need to help us make better decisions about talent. These decisions may involve selecting some-one for a new assignment, moving a leader into a more se-nior-level role, or identifying high-payoff development pri-orities and actions. Gathering objective high-quality data is vital for making these decisions as wisely as possible.

To attain high-quality data, it’s critical to have the right as-sessment targets—the right criteria upon which the assess-ment is based (e.g., competencies, attributes). Too often, the assessment targets are widely varied (even for similar roles) and they may or may not align with what the busi-ness really needs from its talent. A critical consideration: If you are not assessing the capabilities that are most relevant to business needs, you are taking big risks with the deci-sions that rely on the assessments.

When you think about your assessment strategy, do you have an image of “spaghetti wires” forming in your mind? Ask yourself these questions: What is the cumulative impact of all of these assessments? How does the orga-nization’s HR/generalist community feel about the com-plexity? And, what about the perceptions of your internal customers (managers, assessment participants) and senior stakeholders? Are they confused, or can they see a clear picture of how each assessment is delivering value (and consistently providing the information they need to make better talent decisions)?

What you are likely to find if your assessment architecture is chaotic or overly complex is that it is marked by in-efficiencies and inconsistencies. These challenges will, in turn, generate push-back from stakeholders. For instance, think about the time people need to spend getting re-fa-miliarized with a range of assessment tools that they only encounter on an occasional basis. Or, consider the admin-istrative time needed to keep track of which assessments are used where, and the time needed to manage a wide

range of vendor relationships, billing, etc. Inefficiencies can breed discontent and a lack of buy-in for your assess-ment initiatives.

This is where the need for a whole-pipeline assessment strategy becomes critical. When you have such a strategy, not only does your assessment architecture become logical and orderly, but, more importantly, assessment becomes a critical organizational function that helps support the di-rection of the business, its strategic priorities, and its need for the right talent—at all levels—with the right skills.

Here’s some advice for creating both a strategy and an ar-chitecture for better assessment across your whole pipeline.

Ensure that assessment targets are relevant both to the role and to the broader business context.

A fundamental requirement for assessment is determining what exactly you are assessing. If you are assessing irrele-vant or less-important criteria, the assessments will not de-liver sufficient returns for the business. Say, for example, that your company is expanding rapidly into new global markets. You would probably want to know how strong your senior leadership candidates are when it comes to having market insight and operating in a global environ-ment. If the assessment does not deliver data related to these critical business priorities, its value to the business will be minimal, regardless of how “cool” the assessment tool is or the amount of other data it provides.

Impact becomes an even thornier issue if you take inven-tory of all the assessment processes you use across your whole organization. When you do, you may find that the picture becomes very complex very quickly—different as-sessments used for different purposes, across different lev-els, across different functions, and across different regions. If these assessments and their outputs are not aligned to business requirements, there may be some serious con-cerns about the ROI on your assessment spend, and ques-tions about how the organization can make accurate deci-sions quickly and consistently with so much variation in the decision-making inputs.

Strive to create alignment of assessment targets across functions, locations, and business areas. Aside from unique technical and functional skill requirements, there are common competencies and capabilities that transcend functional areas, especially for leadership roles. For ex-

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ample, most first-level leaders need to plan, make good decisions, influence others, collaborate, and communicate. Leaders at higher organizational levels, meanwhile, will have their own sets of capability requirements that will be shared across business functional areas. Creating common competency frameworks that represent current and future business needs, and identifying consistent assessment pro-cesses by leader level, will create efficiency and simplifi-cation in your assessment architecture.

Establish and manage assessment tools and processes by organizational level and purpose.

Once you have created competency frameworks by orga-nizational level that can effectively be leveraged across functions and business areas, you can begin to build a sim-plified assessment architecture. Such an architecture can guard against the aforementioned chaos and inefficiency that often arise when assessment tools run amok.

It’s been my experience that a growing number of orga-nizations are moving toward aligned global assessment strategies and “toolkits” to create efficiency and simplifi-cation. This is a smart move because it catalogues the go-to assessment solutions for specific purposes and for each

organizational level. The graphic below helps to illustrate this concept.

Each cell represents a placeholder for the assessment tools and solutions appropriate for the purpose and level. Hav-ing a consistent toolkit helps talent management centers of excellence to manage a simplified and efficient frame-work, as well as leverage analytics built on consistent tools. Likewise, HR business partners and business areas can become more time-efficient and compare results more easily across the organization.

Nevertheless, some organizations struggle to implement common assessment platforms. The reasons vary but one common challenge is achieving buy-in from regional/glob-al or business unit stakeholders who may have entrenched legacy processes they want to preserve and continue using. Resistance to change can be strong, and it takes a well-formed influence strategy to gain the buy-in needed to implement common processes. It’s important that the as-sessment strategy balances scalability with an eye toward how the assessments address or accommodate regional and cultural considerations. Involvement from global partners in the design process is critical for success in this area.

24© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

ALIGNED GLOBALASSESSMENT STRATEGY TOOLKIT Each square represents the assessment tools and solu-tions needed for the purpose and leader level.

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Create a consistent assessment strategy— not only for efficiency, but also for quality.

A challenge related to the efficiency and complexity is-sues that arise with fragmented assessment processes is the “apples to oranges” comparison of assessment results. To illustrate this point, consider the following example: Imagine you need to support filling a senior global oper-ations role. Through your succession planning tools, you have been able to identify five strong internal candidates. However, because regional offices utilize different assess-ment processes and vendors, it is difficult to compare can-didates adequately and objectively. (What’s more, even in situations where similar competencies are evaluated, as-sessment processes and rigor can vary dramatically.)

As talent management becomes more global, and with tal-ent increasingly moving across organizational boundaries (e.g., regions, functions, business units), the need for com-mon assessment metrics grows. You’ll also need to make sure you align your assessments so that HR and line lead-ers can evaluate the health of your talent pipeline without having to apply different “measuring sticks” for each pop-ulation you assess.

Depending upon what assessment approach is utilized, variability in quality and calibration can cause problems when interpreting and using the results. Assessments like tests and inventories are based on norms, which can min-imize problems, but global and cultural factors can still influence interpretation. Assessments that rely on gather-ing data on, observing, and evaluating behaviors or per-formance (e.g., interviews, assessment centers) should be designed and managed to ensure calibration and reliabil-ity. Even though the same type of process is used across different parts or regions of the organization, evaluators may not necessarily be delivering reliable and valid rat-ings. This can be true for organizations that use internal processes as well as those that rely on external providers for assessment.

You should strive to achieve an equivalent measurement discipline across all of your assessments, whether you rely on an internal process or if you utilize external as-sessment providers. You also need to be mindful of the fact that assessments that rely on evaluators’ observations and judgments inherently can, over time, fall prey to drift and idiosyncratic variations. Ongoing due diligence and quality control in evaluator education and calibration can result in a sustainable level of high quality and consistency in your assessments.

Putting It All Together The graphic on the previous page describes a straightfor-ward architecture for assessment. It depicts a prescription for unifying competency models within levels, and utiliz-ing a standard, consistent set of assessment tools across different talent management purposes. You can use this model as a starting point to bring order, alignment, and greater efficiency and effectiveness to your assessments.

Remember, simplifying your assessment architecture and toolbox will help to create consistency, but only active management of assessment practices, including calibration across regions, business areas, and so forth, will ensure consistent quality and confidence that you are measuring according to the same metrics.

Do these things and you can avoid the equivalent of a con-fusing pile of “spaghetti wires.” You’ll also get the infor-mation you need to make your critical talent decisions.Learn more about DDI’s solutions for predicting readiness to execute strategy.

Eric Hanson, Ph.D., is director, assessment and succession solutions, for DDI.

25© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2016. All rights reserved.

Make a Difference with Your Favorite Nonprofit Organization Through DDI Training! Learn More about DDI’s U-Spark! program and Apply for a Grant.

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Beverly Kaye, author of Hello Stay Interviews, Goodbye Talent Loss The Whole Brain Business Book by Ned Herrmann and Ann Herrmann-Nehdi. “Ann has been teaching and consulting in the power of Whole Brain Thinking for decades. She makes the area easy to understand and put to use!”

Danny Rubin, author of Wait! How Do I Write This Email? How to Win Friends & Influence

People by Dale Carnegie. “It’s an essential guide to understanding the power of interpersonal skills and what it takes to build lasting business relationships.”

Julie Winkle-Giuliani, author of Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. “In today’s sound- bitten, answer-oriented world, questioning is under-valued and rarely taught. Berger provides a framework and countless (indexed!) questions to drive dialogue deeper and cultivate the kinds of conversa-tions that can contribute to powerful outcomes.”

Richard Fagerlin, author of Trustology Essentialism by Greg McKeown.

“This book outlines the mindset and impact of an essentialist. Instead of the undisciplined pursuit of more, McKeown teaches how to have more impact by living the disciplined pursuit of less but better.”

Jennifer Kahnweiler, author of The Genius of Opposites The Originals by Adam Grant.

“This is such a compelling read. It gets at the root of creative thinking by drawing compelling examples of disrupters from the arts, history, and technology. Research comes alive when Adam Grant teaches it!”

Janice Kobelsky, FCPA, FCMA | Think Anew! Series | Millennial Minds Inc. O Great One! A Little Story

about the Awesome Power of Recognition by David Novak and Christa Bourg. “It’s a wonderfully told story to address head-on the business challenges of energizing engagement and high performance. It’s a powerful take-away of 10 in-terwoven Guiding Principles to hone the skill of giving recognition where recognition is due—and needed. The outcome? Performance and potential: rewarded, rekindled, and unleashed.”

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Know About Executive Success, by Scott Elbin. “While geared to leaders on the brink of bigger posi-tions (i.e., C-suite), the concepts in this book can also be very helpful for leaders at any level, whether they are planning on moving up or not. I personally have made many changes in my style, schedule, and priorities because of this book, and have rec-ommended it to many others.”

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Burkus. “Burkus highlights 13 ways some organizations are changing practices to become more effective, including outlawing email and ditching performance appraisals. This well- researched and thoughtful book will challenge your thinking and create new ideas and energy for your work.”

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What to do About It by Heidi Grant Halvorson. “This book distills years of psychology and behavioral sci-ences research to help leaders bet-ter understand why sometimes what we’re saying is not leading to the outcomes we’re after. A fascinating read that will help you better under-stand those you lead—and yourself.”

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of Creative Collaboration by Warren Bennis. “My all-time favorite leadership book. Bennis chronicles the amazing stories and critical collaborations of six ad-hoc teams, growing great under unlikely circum-stances, pulling together to make the world both better and smarter, just in time.”

See recommendations from DDI leadership experts.

WHAT TO READ THIS SUMMERSuggestions for Your Summer Reading from Leadership Thought Leaders.

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High-Resolution Leadership High-Resolution Leadership is a landmark report that examines how leaders drive business performance and what makes leaders excel in their roles. In the most powerful synthesis of data of its kind, this landmark report includes 15,000 DDI leadership assessment partici-pants ranging from frontline to the C-suite.

Leading Forward in Health Insurance: The New Mandate for Industry Leaders With the introduction of public and private exchanges, healthcare lead-ership is challenged to manage many new industry imperatives. This article explores what health care insurance leaders must do differently to manage the new industry imperatives and achieve organizational goals.

Stop Wasting Potential: Build Your Future Leadership Pool Learn what you need in a robust high-potential program. In this record-ed webinar, you’ll learn what insights you need about your future leaders and how to create a program that accelerates future leaders for your organization.

3 Keys to a Manufacturing 4.0 Workforce As this article explores, automation, digitization, new technologies, and new customer requirements stem-ming from Manufacturing 4.0 are changing not just the pace, but the very nature of work on the plant floor. As the focus shifts in the industry, manufacturers must rethink the skill sets they require of production employees and their plant leaders.

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Page 28: GO Magazine 2016 Issue 1

NEW BOOK FROM DDI

Strategies to Accelerate the Growth of Your Leaders

Learn More www.ddiworld.com/leaders-ready-now

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