The 360-degree feedback – or multi-source assessment – is often used by corporations to plan and map specific paths in leaders’ development as they provide them with empirical data highlighting strengths and weaknesses (or ‘areas for improvement’).
If it dates back to the 1950s, it is even more relevant today as we realise that effective leaders need to have a positive self-awareness but also an appropriate dose of humility, knowing what they are good at, acknowledging they are not great at everything, and realising they can improve, too.
Zenger Folkman have defined a list of 11 components characterising a best-in-class 360° assessment. Some of those really caught my attention:
Use response scale like “Outstanding Strength, Strength, Competent, Needs Some Improvement, or Needs Significant Improvement” that avoids a false positive. Indeed, classical scales going from « Strongly agree » to « Strongly disagree » often let average performers believe they do well when items such as « Innovates », « Takes initiatives » or « Champions change » are rated « Agree » while they are just OK… and OK being not enough.
Compare scores to a high standard and not to the average of respondents, as leaders who are the best performers make an enormous difference in the performance of the company. This induces what I call the « look up » attitude.
Identify the most important competencies, especially if the survey includes many items to rate. This will help people define priorities.
Emphasize building on strengths, not only on weaknesses. It makes the experience positive, ensuring leaders identify their greatest skills. This includes the need to provide insights on how build strengths.
Focus written comments on fixing fatal flaws, not minor improvements. Asking « Is there anything this person does that might be considered a significant weakness or fatal flaw? » instead of describing areas for improvement gives a straightforward output and not a long vague list of suggestions.
Make it an efficient process, i.e. make the survey short, especially when respondents have to supply feedback for many people.
That being said, let’s keep in mind that 360-degree assessments are 100%… subjective per se. The way people evaluate a colleague is implicitely a way to say how they perform or an expression of their own competences. The scores they give reflect their perception, they are not an evaluation made by a sample of experts or by a representative sample of the population. Somehow, I consider a 360-degree evaluation as both a portrait (of the leader) and a self-portrait (of the organisation).
In this context, the coaching which should necessarily be included in the process will link measurement and emotions. Considering scores, statements and reactions from both assessed and assessing parties, it will be used as a springboard to proceed to a honest self-reflection, whatever the scores observed in the assessment could be, whatever the discrepancy between what people think about themselves and what others do.
Les gens sous-estiment systématiquement le nombre d’idées créatives qu’ils peuvent générer, comme ont pu le démontrer Brian J. Lucas (the Booth School of Business) et Loran Nordgren (the Kellogg School of Management).
Dans une de leurs études, vingt-quatre étudiants avaient dix minutes pour songer aux plats à servir lors de Thanksgiving. Ensuite, ces étudiants devaient prédire le nombre de nouvelles idées qu’ils pourraient générer s’ils continuaient à chercher durant dix minutes de plus. Il leur était alors demandé de générer de nouvelles idées durant dix autres minutes. En moyenne, les étudiants prévoyaient qu’ils pouvaient générer environ dix nouvelles idées en continuant l’exercice alors qu’en fait ils étaient capables d’en produire environ quinze.
Plusieurs études complémentaires ont produit les mêmes résultats. Les chercheurs ont aussi découvert que les idées produites dans la continuation de l’exercice étaient généralement considérées comme étant plus créatives que les idées initiales. Les auteurs concluent que nous sous-estimons les bénéfices de la persévérance parce que les challenges de type créatif nous paraissent particulièrement difficiles.
Retenons donc que persévérer n’est pas toujours – ou seulement – un comportement-réponse inconscient à un adulte référent et à son message « Fais des efforts » mais aussi un outil que nous pouvons nous approprier pour atteindre nos propres objectifs.
People consistently underestimate the number of creative ideas they can come up with, found Brian J. Lucas of the Booth School of Business and Loran Nordgren of the Kellogg School of Management.
In a study they conducted, 24 students were given 10 minutes to think of dishes to serve at Thanksgiving. Next, the students had to predict how many more ideas they could generate if they kept going for 10 more minutes. Then they were asked to try to generate ideas for another 10 minutes. On average, they predicted they could generate around 10 new ideas if they persisted — but they were actually able to come up with around 15.
Several similar follow-up studies produced the same result. The researchers also found that the ideas generated while persisting were, on average, rated more creative than those generated initially. The authors say that we underestimate the benefits of persistence because creative challenges feel difficult.
Hence let’s keep in mind that persevering is not always – or only – an unconscious behaviour-answer to an adult serving as a reference and his ‘Try hard’ injunction. It is also a tool which we can appropriate to reach our own objectives.
Leonor FINI – Yoyageurs au repos, 1978 – Huile sur toile, 73 x 92 cm
Personal growth is more than a right, it is a priority. However, considering private and professional lives as concepts between which everyone should find their own balance is not as sustainable as finding a way to integrate them with a holistic view. In such a context, coaches have a key role to play.
While the first mention of the term workaholic dates back to the 1940s, it wasn’t until the seventies that related terms began to be heard, such as burnout and work-life balance.
This balance between ones professional and private lives is still often portrayed as the manifestation of a serene, “economically stable” lifestyle where the individual is able to assign the appropriate importance and thus, the true value to each of these two fundamentally distinct entities: career and the sphere of private life. The Hudson Agency designed a typology of companies based on their wish to encourage a harmonious balance between professional and private life, demonstrating how employees who are able to attain this balance in their lives in turn add great value to their company. An illustration of this can be found in the Gallup study that reveals how an employee’s satisfaction level increases by 50% when they have a close friendship with a colleague at work.
Times are changing
For several years however, the relevance of this very concept of balance has been thrown into question, owing as much to socio-evolutionary reasons as to a progressively different and more philosophical vision of what we still call “work”.
For instance, let us begin simply with the way in which more and more people are practicing, envisaging, or even dreaming of exercising their chosen profession. We are far removed from the époque when one could, without any hesitation, establish an unequivocal connection with a type of work – a trade – a company – a workplace – a career. At present there is a progressive blurring of the line between work and private life due primarily to the necessity of moonlighting, less time-consuming and more ecologically sensible home working and home based businesses.
It is well-known that, much more than mentality, it is new technology that is sustaining this evolution. It annihilates distance and, one day, holograms may even create the perfect illusion of a physical presence in the office. Little by little, robots replace humans (one recent study suggests that 47% of all jobs in the United States will be threatened by this phenomenon within the next two decades – another states that 40% of Australian jobs are at risk of being automated within ten to fifteen years). Relationships between colleagues, clients and suppliers exist in a dimension where contact is virtual and professional activity is not linked to any specific location. And while social network is already a welcome guest at the dinner table as much as in the office, while companies have their “page” and we “like” our colleagues, the multiplication of these platforms will undoubtedly lead to a future fusion if not replacement by a dynamic mega-cloud. Sustaining personal growth in such an instable environment is no longer only a right but a priority.
It is not about nuance
Elsewhere, beyond this evolution, there is clear evidence of an inappropriate discordance between private and professional life. Wanting to establish a balance between two worlds implies they are exclusive and in competition with one another. Speaking of balance leads unavoidably to the idea of imbalance. Keeping one’s balance then, becomes a means, a tactic, rather than an end in itself. Moreover, failing to maintain this balance, or losing it altogether provokes evident stress, a devaluation of the self and, potentially dysfunction, illness, frustration, burnout, death and suicide. The Japanese actually use the term karoshi which means “death caused by an excess of work”.
If the balance between private and professional life is no longer of interest to us, what then is the contemporary approach we should consider? As emphasised by Lisa Earle McLeod and Stew Friedman, we should not henceforth view things from the perspective of a dichotomy; it is neither a question of choice nor opportunity. As much as possible, life and work should complement each other, should be sparked by the same passion, by the same values. Life and work should be congruous. The key is not a tactic then but a holistic vision. The solution is not, then, knowing how to prioritise but how to combine pleasure with raison d’être, essence and activity, fulfilment and professional endeavour. In this way development at work, at home, in the midst of one’s community and within one’s most intimate self becomes accessible and lasting.
So it is not a question of semantics. The concept of integration of private and professional lives, if not a reality, is at the very least a necessity, whether it be reactive (a concession in respect to a current professional situation) or proactive (the conception, implementation or re-orientation of a career plan).
The role of the coach
What is the role of a coach in this context? How can a coach facilitate this transition, specifically where the coach suggests a dichotomous structure in which work and pleasure are perceived as conceptually contradictory? To be precise, it is in suggesting that the structure go beyond an approach centred on time-management, task-prioritisation (or delegation) or even development of assertiveness. In effect, as useful as the teachings gleaned from sessions on these objectives may be, they can but reinforce a black and white vision, deprived of any nuance. With the client’s consent, the coach will first of all initiate an exploration of the self, followed by awareness and finally the full expression of their raison d’être.
The questions available to the coach while accompanying the client on their journey are numerous. From the classic “What is important to you?” to the more subtle “What were your childhood dreams?” and to the playful “What absorbs you to the point of forgetting to eat?” the coach is spoilt for choice in helping the coachee to find what excites them in a context involving others and to explore it calmly.
It matters little whether this raison d’être becomes a motto or a mood-board, but rather that the coachee finds a method that they will make their own, that they will take charge of and deploy in order to join the dots – around whichever sphere they may gravitate – of the things that provide a source of pleasure, that evoke enthusiasm, that represent imagined and desired development. In other words, the coach must aid the coachee to feel on an abstract level, what their true essence is. By embedding this feeling in advancement and action, the coach will enable the client to observe their own actions and points through a prism to which only they have access. The coach thus invites the client to calibrate the tool, intensifying the most useful aspects while moderating or ceasing the rest where possible, guiding them to calmly accept that which they cannot or will not throw away, becoming conscious of the tiniest contribution towards self-realisation.
For the coachee, it is not about resignation or capitulation but, acceptance, progress and self-development.
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This article has been published in International Coaching News Issue 12 (pp 50-52) on personal coaching. It was originally published here in this blog, in French.
De nos jours où la concurrence fait rage, les recruteurs recherchent non seulement les candidats les plus intelligents et les plus créatifs mais aussi ceux dont la culture épouse le mieux celle de l’entreprise. Cela dit, les interviews les plus difficiles mènent-elles aux meilleurs postes? Selon une étude menée par Glassdoor, il semble bien que oui.
Eléments clés à retenir :
Les interviews jugées plus difficiles sont statistiquement liées à davantage de satisfaction des employés, et ceci dans les six pays étudiés: Etats-Unis, Royaume-Uni, Canada, Australie, Allemagne et France.
Globalement, un processus de recrutement jugé 10% plus difficile sera associé a posteriori à une satisfaction supérieure de 2.6 points.
Ce lien a été observé dans chacun des pays étudiés: Australie (3.6 points), Canada (3.0 points), Royaume-Uni (2.9 points), Etats-Unis (2.5 points), Allemagne (2.4 points) et France (1.5 points).
Sur une échelle à cinq niveaux allant de 1=très facile à 5=très difficile, la difficulté d’interview jugée optimale à savoir celle menant à la satisfaction des employés la plus élevée se situe entre 4 et 5.
Pour conclure: de bons processus de recrutement encouragent une bonne adéquation du candidat au poste, gonflant la satisfaction des employés et, en fin de compte, la productivité. A l’inverse, les processus de recrutement mal conçus — soit trop faciles, soit trop difficiles — sont associés avec des sociétés dont la culture paraît à terme la moins saine.
Alors, candidats, tenez bon !
Source : Glassdoor.com
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Not only are hiring managers looking for the smartest and most creative candidate, but in today’s competitive hiring landscape, they are also looking for the best cultural fit. But do harder job interviews lead to better job matches? According to a study carried out by Glassdoor, it turns out, yes.
Key Findings:
More difficult job interviews are statistically linked to higher employee satisfaction across six countries they examined: U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and France.
Overall, a 10 percent more difficult job interview process is associated with 2.6 percent higher employee satisfaction later on.
We found this statistical link in all six countries we examined: Australia (3.6 percent); Canada (3.0 percent); U.K. (2.9 percent); U.S. (2.5 percent); Germany (2.4 percent); and France (1.5 percent).
On a five-point scale, the optimal or “best” interview difficulty that leads to the highest employee satisfaction is 4 out of 5. Interview difficulty ratings based on a five-point scale: 1.0=very easy, 3.0=average, 5.0=very difficult.
To conclude: good hiring processes encourage quality job matches, boosting employee satisfaction and, ultimately, worker productivity. By contrast, poorly designed interview processes—either too easy or too difficult—both are associated with less healthy company cultures over time.
Voici six astuces pour garantir votre efficacité dans le confort du home working (ou télétravail) :
Habillez-vous – Cela pourrait paraître évident mais la tentation de travailler tout en restant en pyjama est grande… et ne prédispose pas au travail, à tout le moins d’un point-de-vue mental.
Définissez votre horaire, quel qu’il soit – Le fait de délimiter des barrières temporelles durant lesquelles vous vous consacrerez à votre activité professionnelle et de vous y tenir en veillant à votre productivité contribuera à votre efficacité.
Soyez discipliné – Définissez le cadre de vos activités ainsi que vos objectifs mais, surtout, tenez-vous y. Travailler seul à domicile implique l’absence de garde-fou avec toutes les conséquences négatives pouvant y être associées. De la liberté à la perte de soi, il n’y a qu’un pas facilement franchis.
Exploitez la technologie – Veillez à disposer de toutes les ressources dont vous disposeriez dans un bureau traditionnel, de l’imprimante aux différents outils de communication afin de pouvoir vous adapter aux besoins de vos clients.
Créez votre espace de travail – Si travailler toute la journée au lit peut paraître séduisant, il est contre-intuitif d’espérer être productif dans un lieu normalement destiné au repos.
Protégez votre temps libre – Intégrer harmonieusement vie professionnelle et vie privée s’inscrit dans le développement personnel pour autant que chacune de ces sphères – aussi complémentaires soient-elles – est préservée. En fin de journée, déconnectez-vous du travail, au propre comme au figuré.
Cette parabole (ou koan) zen écrite par Hara Tanzan (1819–1892) illustre parfaitement la non-disposition du mental à lâcher le passé et ses souffrances.
Tanzan et Ekido marchaient un jour sur une route de campagne boueuse. Il pleuvait à verse. Près d’un village, ils croisèrent une jeune femme en kimono de soie, incapable de traverser la route.
« Venez, jeune demoiselle » dit Tanzan. Et il la porta dans ses bras, au-delà de l’étendue boueuse.
Ekido ne dit rien jusqu’à la nuit tombée, moment où ils approchèrent du temple où ils allaient loger. A ce moment il ne put se contenir davantage. « Nous sommes des moines, nous ne portons pas les femmes, en particulier celles qui sont jeunes et jolies. C’est dangereux. Pourquoi as-tu fait cela ? » demanda-t-il.
« Je me suis délesté de la femme en question il y a des heures », lui répondit Tanzan. « La portes-tu encore ? »
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This zen parable (koan) written by Hara Tanzan (1819–1892) is a good example of the non-tendency of our mind to let past and its pains go.
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. As they came around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross at an intersection.
« Come on, girl, » said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. « We monks don’t go near females, » he told Tanzan, « especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that? »
« I left the girl there, » said Tanzan. « Are you still carrying her? »
En opposition à une négociation formelle et purement rationnelle au nom de son entreprise, comment gérer pour son propre compte une négociation informelle, sensible et potentiellement impactée par nos émotions?
Dans un article venant de paraître dans Harvard Business Review, Deborah Kolb nous présente avec quelques exemples à l’appui une approche en quatre étapes, positive pour les différentes parties impliquées:
Reconnaître l’opportunité de la situation: un contexte apparemment défavorable peut ouvrir la porte à une discussion souhaitée mais maintes fois reportée, une demande reçue peut amener à en formuler une soi-même.
Se préparer et préparer le terrain en collectant de l’information, en se positionnant comme un atout et en envisageant les différentes options et alternatives.
Initier la démarche, entamer la négociation sous l’angle désiré
Naviguer, explorer, tester les hypothèses et considérer les options satisfaisant les deux parties – soit avoir une attitude coach ouverte permettant lors de la négociation de collecter l’information et de supporter l’interlocuteur.
Une telle dynamique implique forcément de sortir de sa zone de confort mais témoigne aussi bien du leadership que d’un esprit collaboratif et constructif.
Voici un résumé de l’exposé donné par Lori Shook lors de ICF On Tour le 20 septembre 2015 en Belgique.
Les gens aiment le changement, car tout est nouveau et ce qui est nouveau motive (dopamine!). Néanmoins, face au changement, les gens résistent et se sentent mal, car le cerveau perçoit le changement comme une menace par rapport aux habitudes, c’est une sorte de peur de survie (adrénaline et cortisol). Quand nous voulons changer, le cerveau doit changer et sortir de sa zone de confort et il n’aime pas cela. Voilà pourquoi nous devons d’abord comprendre le système limbique qui est la source des émotions humaines.
L’être humain doit se sentir en sécurité, appartenir à un groupe, avoir un certain statut, de l’autonomie, un sentiment de justice, des attentes et des certitudes, le « to BE SAFE and Certain », en anglais BElong, Status, Autonomie, Fairness, Expectations and Certainty. Et, en plus, il doit pouvoir puiser dans la sagesse même, le ABC : Awareness (être conscient), Breathe (respirer) et Choose (choisir). Mais cela ne suffit pas parce que le changement exige aussi de la cohérence. Il faut de la motivation pour se mettre en route, de l’engagement pour continuer, de la discipline pour passer les mauvais passes et des structures pour nous soutenir, parce que le changement n’est possible que s’il est devenu une habitude, quand il est suffisamment répété.
How the Brain Resists to Change … and What to Do about It
Here is a summary of a conference given by Lori Shook during ICF On Tour on 20th September 2015 in Belgium.
People love change as it is new and new is motivating (dopamine!), but when faced with change, people resist and become uncomfortable. Our brains perceive change as a threat because of habits, a kind of survival fear (adrenalin and cortisol). When we want to change, the brain has to get out of its comfort zone and it doesn’t like it. That is why we first have to understand the limbic system, the source of human emotions.
People have to BElong, to have a certain Status, Autonomy, Fairness, Expectations and Certainty, in other words they have to “BE SAFE and Certain”. So we should try to understand the limbic system first and then tap into wisdom self, the ABC = Awareness, Breathe and Choose. But this is not enough as change requires consistency. Motivation gets us started, commitment keeps us going, discipline gets us through difficult moments and structures support us, because change only sticks when it is a habit, when it is repeated enough.
La taille du corps diminue tout au long de la journée suite à une diminution de la quantité de liquide intervertébral, le corps reprenant sa taille initiale au cours de la nuit.
Une étude ambulatoire menée par Ivana Igic, Samuel Ryser et Achim Elfering de l’Université de Berne a porté sur le lien entre cette manifestation et le fait de travailler ou non ou, plus exactement, sur l’éventuelle observation chez une même personne d’une différence entre les jours où elle travaille et ceux où elle ne travaille pas.
Les analyses ont montré que le tassement des disques vertébraux était plus important les jours de travail. Elles ont aussi mis en évidence qu’une diminution d’un point sur une échelle à cinq niveaux de la perception du niveau de contrôle du travail (c’est-à-dire le degré de liberté que le travailleur pense avoir de son rythme de travail et de l’organisation de celui-ci) est associée à un millimètre supplémentaire de tassement vertébral, un phénomène lié aux douleurs lombaires.
Au-delà des implications médicales ou des préoccupations d’organisation et de santé publique associées au rythme du travail, se trouve là un argument de plus pour la promotion des techniques de relaxation, de stretching et de yoga mais aussi de la méditation et de la pleine conscience qui permettent de relativiser certains des facteurs liés au stress, ces facteurs qui contribuent au repli sur soi, au propre – ainsi que le montre cette étude – comme au figuré.
