All types of industries and professions have trade networks and peer groups, and human resources is no exception. Joining HR network groups is an excellent way to share ideas, learn about new tools and methods, and meet people who have similar experience. By interacting with people in similar roles outside your own organization, you can gain insights about common challenges and learn from the successes and failures of others. Read on to learn more about the types of networks you can join, the benefits of joining them, and some specific groups to consider.

Types of HR Network Groups

There is a wide variety of peer groups and trade networks for HR professionals, including those that require membership fees or dues and free options. Some groups have a narrow focus such as healthcare, training, or compensation, while others cover a broader range of topics. Some of the types of HR networks you might join include:

• Professional accreditation organizations
• Local chapters of national networks
• Social networks for HR professionals
• LinkedIn, Facebook, or other online groups

You can join as many networks as your budget allows to gain access to the many resources and benefits they offer.

Benefits of Joining HR Network Groups

The main purpose of joining a human resources network is to gain benefits such as learning something new, tapping into the crowd for more information, and networking.

Learn New Ideas

HR professionals are involved in many aspects of the business, including skills training, benefit administration, software selection, vendor selection, and much more. Participating in a network gives you the opportunity to learn about new ways to improve processes, training approaches that are more effective, and software solutions that can help you be more efficient.

Crowdsource Knowledge

Although internet searches are useful for learning some new information, the best way to get answers to important HR questions is to ask people with experience. Having a group of knowledgeable professionals at your fingertips allows you to hear different perspectives about the challenges you face every day and to find tested solutions that could work for you.

Network with Peers

The only people who truly understand what you do are the others who do the same jobs. You might have access to only a few people in similar roles at your own organization, but an HR group gives you countless opportunities to network with your peers both in person and digitally. Whether you are trying to solve a problem or just venting about your day, being able to do it with like-minded individuals can make your job easier.

10 HR Network Groups to Consider

If you are exploring HR networks to join, start with this list:

1. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) – As the world’s largest HR professional society with 285,000 members in more than 165 countries, this organization offers learning opportunities, professional certification, events, and resources.
2. Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA) – With more than 4,000 individual members in Southern California, this organization is the largest affiliate of the SHRM.
3. HR Training & Development (LinkedIn) – With almost 35,000 members, this subgroup of HR.com has been developed specifically for HR training and development specialists to network and share information.
4. Human Resources (HR) Professionals (LinkedIn) – This informal networking group of more than 200,000 HR professionals discusses trends and issues such as talent management, employee development, and compensation and benefits.
5. Human Resources Management & Executive Network (LinkedIn) – More than 70,000 HR leaders in management-level roles connect with peers to discuss HR trends and initiatives that can help foster or inspire your own career growth in your organization.
6. HR Jobs and Ideas (LinkedIn) – This human resources, talent management, and hiring networking group with more than 200,000 members is dedicated to sharing the latest information about HR ideas, jobs, and technology.
7. National Association of African Americans in HR (NAAAHR) – This association has over 25 chapters and a social media community of over 15,000 members who benefit from shared learning, professional development, and personal growth opportunities.
8. Human Resources Management Association of Chicago (HRMAC) – A group that began with seven people in 1915 has blossomed into a network of nearly 750 Chicago-area organizations and over 7,000 professionals focused on the HR strategies that support business success.
9. HR Professionals – CANADA Chapter (LinkedIn) – This group of over 4,000 professionals discusses recruitment, training and development, performance evaluation, competence assessment, and succession management.
10. HealthCare HR (LinkedIn) – Over 10,000 HR professionals in the healthcare industry participate in discussions aimed at solving common challenges.

No matter what type of industry you are in or what challenges you face, chances are there is an HR network group that is a good fit. Choose one (or more) of these 10, or do some research to find and join networks in your area and take professional development into your own hands.

One of the leaders’ top priorities – whether they manage a small team or an entire organization – is to find ways to improve performance. Technology upgrades and improved processes certainly lead to productivity and quality improvements. However, we cannot underestimate the value of simple and easy-to-implement leadership activities that bring the team together and teach important and necessary skills in the workplace.

Use these three leadership activities to improve performance.

Communication: coaching of builders

Effective communication is essential to maintain high productivity and generate results that meet expectations. Executive leaders, supervisors and employees can benefit from better communication skills. This exercise highlights the importance of listening to and using succinct and clear language to avoid misunderstandings and errors. Follow these steps:

1. Divide participants into groups of 4 to 7 people. Offer each group two sets that have at least 10 mounting blocks (Lego, for example). Before the exercise, you must assemble a simple object (such as a house) with one of the sets of blocks.
2. Assign a leader, a dwellee, a builder, and a person responsible for taking notes. The latter should observe and document how people behaved during the activity, what seemed to work and when participants made mistakes.
3. Give the leader the item you’ve assembled, taking care that only he can see the object. Mark 10 minutes on the clock. When the activity begins, the leader will pass instructions to the delegante on how the constructor should mount an exact replica of the object. Remember that the delegante should not see the object and the constructor should not hear this conversation.
4. The delegante hears what has been said and then goes to the builder and repeats the leader’s instructions. The delegante can return to talk to the leader as many times as he deems necessary during the 10-minute period.
5. The constructor uses the other block sets to construct exactly the same object that the leader can see, using only the delegante statements as guidance. The delegante should not see the object during construction.
6. After 10 minutes, compare the leader object with the constructor’s to confirm that they look alike. Discuss what was frustrating or easy during the process and discuss what each person would do differently to get better results next time.

Accountability: clarity on objectives and expectations

When expectations and deadlines are not met, we sometimes attribute these results to lack of accountability. Often, however, this is not because the individual responsible for the task did not try hard enough, but because the expectations of this individual were unclear. If team members start work without actually understanding the purpose or objectives of a task and also the desired outcome, they will make mistakes that can be costly and cause delays.

This leadership activity teaches employees how important it is to clarify the issues before starting a task to increase accountability. Here are some scenarios in which this activity can be useful:

• Meeting with managers organized by an executive.
• Daily quick meetings conducted by supervisors with their direct subordinates.
• Teambuilding session with all employees.

Here’s what to do:

At the beginning of the meeting, tell the group, “You are sitting the wrong way for today’s meeting. You have 60 seconds to improve this organization.” If team members ask for more information, repeat the instructions. Perhaps some of them will keep insisting, while the others will already start moving the seats. Note what they do, but don’t give other information, feedback, or instructions. After a minute, ask them to stop and ask these questions:

1. “Have you achieved the goals? How do you get it?” Talk about how the team might not have achieved the goals because they weren’t clear.
2. “Who asked for an explanation? How did you feel when I refused to give you more details?” Explain that when participants do not ask for an explanation and when the person responsible for the project does not clarify the doubts, everyone runs the risk of making mistakes and not being able to complete the task.
3. “How has the pressure of time changed your behavior?” Tell them that when people are stressed or under pressure, they usually start work in a hurry, without confirming if they understand what was requested, which often causes problems.

Finally, this activity will show how employees should handle a task that generates questions. It will also show the leader how to set clearer expectations and create a culture in which communication is clear and accountability is the rule.

Ability to solve problems: team collaboration

When facing a new challenge or dealing with an idea or project, teams need to know whether to organize on their own, create an action plan, solve problems, and work together to achieve a common goal. With this exercise, you’ll encourage participants to test their creativity and ability to solve a team problem:

1. Offer a variety of materials such as paper, cardboard, wooden blocks, pencils, paper clips, canudos, and more.
2. Divide participants into teams of four to eight members. If the group is smaller, teams of two or three members are sufficient.
3. Explain that the goal is to build the tallest tower in 20 minutes using any of the materials offered.
4. Then talk about each group’s strategy and ask:

○ Who planned before it started and who started the task in a hurry? What were the results of these two approaches?

○ How did the groups define who would do what?

○ Was there a leader? Or did everyone do their part?

○ What was the hardest part of the task? And the easiest?

○ How can you apply these learnings to the projects you are currently participating in?

Depending on the type of group that participated in the activity, the following questions may be different. For instance:

• For individuals of any hierarchical level: based on this activity, which communication strategies of the leader were most useful?
• For supervisors: in this activity, when did communication failures occur? How have they harmed the creation process?
• For executives: As a builder, what would you need to receive from the leader but didn’t? As a leader, have your instructions been followed accurately? How could you improve accuracy and understanding?

These three activities help develop some of the most important leadership skills: communication, accountability and problem solving skills. They are important for individuals of any hierarchical level in the organization, from the executive team to the employees. With each exercise, they learn to work more efficiently,both individually and as a team. With this, the performances improve throughout the organization.

“Putting the customer first” sounds like a selfless, lofty goal for businesses. But organizations wouldn’t be so focused on providing top-notch customer service if it didn’t make sound business sense. In fact, Deloitte and Touche reports that customer centric companies are 60 percent more profitable than companies not focused on the customer. But let’s back up for a moment—what is the art of customer centricity, and how exactly does it lead to business growth and success?

Why Customer Centricity Is an Art (Not a Science)

The shape that customer centricity takes in your organization depends on whom you serve—there’s no one-size-fits-all customer centric formula you can simply plug yourself into. In fact, that’s the opposite of customer centricity! This is much more than a “customer first” motto. Customer centricity is an organizing principle, with the customer at the center.

Think of customer centricity as a painting. You paint the customer into the foreground, and everything else in the painting exists to keep the focus on the customer. Taken individually, the elements of the painting that enhance the customer—all of those background techniques—don’t seem to make much of a difference. But if you take them all away, your painting becomes dull and lifeless—the color seems to drain out of your painting’s central figure (the customer). For example, designing an office that feels inviting to your customer (think comfy chairs, a coffee station, and offices full of natural light) may seem superfluous, but it can have an outsized impact on the customer’s first impressions of your organization. Furthermore, the elements that don’t serve to enhance the customer can be reworked, painted over, and redesigned. Customer centricity, like painting, is a process that takes time, trial and error, and practice to perfect!

A company that truly embraces customer centricity organizes the corporate culture around its customers and ensures that departments don’t operate in silos when it comes to interpreting customer data and the customer experience. In fact, “customer service” isn’t limited to just one department—every individual at the company becomes a customer centric artist, striving to see things from the customer’s perspective, taking ownership of the ways that his or her work can directly or indirectly impact customers, and pulling out his or her paintbrush to take action to improve the customer experience.

Discover Potential Areas for Growth

Creating a customer centric culture isn’t easy, as the description above entails. So, why do companies do it? What’s in it for them?

Customer centricity can be a major boon for business, in part because it allows companies to discover and identify potential areas for growth, where new products or services can be created to meet customer needs. When you put yourself in your customers’ shoes, you can more easily see what may be lacking for them—and that spells business opportunity. Relatedly, customer centricity also helps companies develop the right products and services, the kind that are actually going to be used. When you truly understand your customers’ needs, you won’t waste time developing and marketing services that aren’t going to help them.

Create Long-Term Partnerships with Customers

Customers are going to be appreciative of the care that customer centric companies put forth in meeting their needs. When you consistently deliver solutions that are customized to the customer, that gives them an incentive to work with you further. That’s good news for your business’s bottom line, because the statistics show that it’s far more cost-effective to retain current customers than acquire new ones.

However, the reality is that customers aren’t going to stick with you if you ever stray from the customer centric model. Customer loyalty is eroding; today’s customers aren’t afraid to switch companies at the drop of a hat, and they certainly don’t feel beholden to a company due to past good service. What matters is how you treat customers now. A customer centric organization approaches customer retention as a way to create long-term partnerships with customers. Partnerships that will be mutually beneficial and rewarding to both customer and company for years to come.

Sell More with a Customer Centric Approach

Customer centricity can even inspire business growth by reviving a company’s lackluster sales results. Putting the potential customer at the center of the sales process—by researching the customer’s current reality and the climate of the customer’s industry and by identifying the customer’s real and perceived needs—can lead to more (and bigger) sales. Today’s customers want complex, custom-fit solutions, which companies can only sell to a customer when they put themselves in the customer’s shoes. That’s how a salesperson can determine what solution would truly fit best.

Does your organization possess a customer centric culture? If so, how has that contributed—directly or indirectly—to your organization’s growth?

Introduction

Organizational changes come in all stripes and many flavors. Some changes are small, such as moving your office, which ranks at about a two on a scale of one to ten. Implementing a new accounting system ranks about a five. The changes encountered during the merger and acquisition process are, on a scale of one to ten, hovering right up there near the double digits. With the merger and acquisition comes a culture transformation and the overall sense of identity within the organization. Individuals may even be worried about their job status. A merger or acquisition is a time of uncertainty and adjustment. Clearly, it’s a time that calls for not just good leaders to guide your organization through merger and acquisition, you need a great leader.

Here are seven things great leaders do to shepherd organizations through the unique changes organizations undergo during the merger and acquisition process.

1.  Decide on Your Approach to the Culture

Most M&A teams are great at thinking through the legal, financial, and operational components of a transition but what can be missed is the people who are undergoing this change asking: Will I fit? How do I fit? Do I want to fit?

These question will always be in reference to their previous experience of the culture they worked in before the merger or acquisition. As a senior leadership team you must have one of the 3 basic approaches clear in your mind.

1. Transform one of the cultures to align with the other.
2. Amalgamate the two cultures leveraging the strengths of each
3. Create a new culture free of the stigma of either of the previous cultures

2. Create a Compelling Vision

A compelling vision will be the North Star and set the direction for the majority of actions to be taken. A vision is broad sweeping and encompasses dreams and hopes. A vision is a motivating force, though action steps must be drafted to move toward that vision. Your vision will most likely encompass the mission and the culture of your organization following the merger and acquisition.

Once the vision is clear, ensure the articulation paints a clear distinction between current reality and desired future state, especially in regards to the culture you will ask people to fit into. This will help people fill in the blanks required to answer the “fit questions” they are asking. It will also clarify the expectation of the type of things that must be different.

3. Set a Series of Goals

Goals translate the vision into reality. Reach your vision by setting, then executing, a series of sequential goals that will result in the overall vision for your company, following the merger and acquisition. When goal setting, keep in mind each goal must be:

• Specific: Goals should have a specific, deadly-accurate deadline–not a fuzzy or flexible one.
• Measurable: A well-thought out goal is one in which there is some way to measure the outcome.
• Crystal Clear: Goals should be expressed so simply and so clearly they are truly “crystal clear” to everyone. Any questions should be addressed and the goal statement clarified.
• Action-oriented: Goals describe what is to be done; they should not be expressions of intent or desire.

4. Manage the Project

Managing this transition is a lot like managing any other project. Think of it, in fact, as project management. Working back from how the merger and acquisition will look and function when fully implemented, create incremental goal steps—and a timeline for completing them—that will get your organization there.

1. Get buy-in from managers and teams affected by the changes.
2. Based on your goals, assign tasks to managers, departments, and teams.
3. Keep managers, teams, and yourself, accountable. Hold weekly check-in meetings with managers to assess progress.
4. Continue to gather feedback. Make changes to tasks or timelines if necessary.
5. Take responsibility to ensure your managers and their teams meet their assigned goals.

5. Collaborate

The secret to collaboration is the willingness to listen and seek input, making sure those on the journey with you feel heard and esteemed. For clear collaboration, follow these steps:

1. Listen to others’ opinions and even frustrations. The most effective solutions come out of overcoming the criticisms of those who haven’t yet bought in.
2. Be willing to change tactics after getting feedback early in the process.
3. Provide opportunities for team members to contribute to the discussion.
4. Ensure effective dialogue around new assignments prior to them being finalized so that people work on outcomes they feel they can be successful in delivering. Nothing will erode trust more than people perceiving they are being set up to fail.
5. When working with managers and team members, be willing to voice your thoughts and opinions in a proactive way.
6. You become a great leader by being willing to listen to others, to give them their chance to lead the discussion while you listen quietly and incorporate feedback.

6. Engage Every Function and Level

During massive change, a significant percentage of people will default into a “victim of change” mentality and not proactively seek to do what is needed to succeed and bring the new culture to life. Skilled M&A teams intentionally build events into the transition period that create conviction around the new behaviors that must be adopted. The best initiatives deputize every employee as soldiers in the battle for the new culture as opposed to people who must be converted.

Engagement is accelerated when the achievable benefit is experience. Smart leads are diligent at ensuring early, visible wins that are relevant to front line employees, middle managers and support staff.

7. Develop Change Leadership Capacity

Feeling overwhelmed by the task? The majority of executive teams are, which is why smart leaders ensure that they and their teams are developing themselves both individually and collectively. This investment helps accelerate the adjustment period of the merger but also serves as an organizational asset post-integration. Winning companies in today’s market place are increasingly agile and able to rapidly adjust to change and effective leaders are the lynch pin of this agility. Nothing transforms a company culture quite like a merger or acquisition. The question is whether the new entity is transformed into a stronger organization delivering on the improved synergies and profits promised pre-M&A or whether it is transformed into a less productive bureaucracy that underperforms relative to what your team envisioned when you started this process. Where you end up is largely a function of your team’s ability to enhance the collective leadership skill to cause others to positively and rapidly adapt to change from the C-suite right down to the front line manager. This doesn’t happen by accident but requires a well-structured approach.

A term first used in military environments, VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), describes the kind of environment in which today’s organizations are increasingly operating. New technology and competitors, evolving customer demands, and changes in the regulatory landscape, among other factors, all result in four distinct types of challenges that company leaders must face:

• Volatility – Challenges are unexpected, unstable, and may last for an unknown duration
• Uncertainty – Causes and effects are unknown and the future is unpredictable
• Complexity – Information and variables are plentiful and overwhelming
• Ambiguity – Situations are vague and hard to interpret

Every organization is subject to varying degrees of VUCA, both internally and externally, and some of these factors will be beyond company leaders’ control. However, strong leadership can have a positive impact on a company’s ability to navigate and overcome VUCA challenges. Here are four ways leaders can make all the difference in successfully guiding the organization through change in times of VUCA.

Provide an Inspiring Vision

When times are uncertain and ambiguous, people need to understand why certain changes are happening in the first place, and then they need a line of sight to the end goal. Leaders can provide the vision and direction that helps employees to be less fearful and resentful of the changes and uncertainties happening around them. A strong vision not only helps individuals see what the organization will look like in the future, but it also explains how certain processes will be improved over time. With a clear, compelling vision, leaders can inspire employees, answer their questions, and allay their concerns, putting them in a better position to embrace change and navigate it successfully.

Define the Strategic Plan

Once employees see the vision for change, they will naturally want to understand how all the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity will impact them day to day. A strategic plan brings the vision for change alive by detailing the timetable for shifts in certain processes and explaining how individual and team responsibilities will change. With a clearer understanding of how the vision for change will be implemented, employees will be more likely to connect the dots between their evolving work environment and what they can do to be successful.

Communicate Effectively

Communication is at the heart of every organizational change effort, and leaders play an important role not just in communicating the vision and strategy to their teams but also in listening and creating opportunities for healthy dialogue. Leaders who communicate early, often, and consistently help others remain focused and build a common understanding across the whole team. Some examples of effective communication leaders can incorporate into daily activities include:

• Virtual focus groups and chat rooms that enable all employees, including those who work remotely, to share their experiences and provide feedback
• Team meetings that focus on a particular process that is changing and how employees can approach it
• One-on-one discussions that provide individuals with advice and coaching for how to navigate specific challenges

Provide Consistent Support and Reinforcement

Because there is always likely to be an element of VUCA in the workplace, employees will benefit from leader support that helps them navigate change on an ongoing, day-to-day basis. Company leaders can sustain the energy around change and support employees through it by:

• Providing ongoing coaching and mentoring to help employees adjust their mindset and behaviors
• Modelling desired behaviors for embracing change
• Supporting employee learning and development, including periodic reinforcement to keep new skills fresh and top of mind
• Celebrating successes and milestones

All companies face times of VUCA, and those that pursue and embrace change will be better able to evolve and grow than those that do not. Strong leadership not only helps individuals understand change but also positions them to embrace it and thrive in an ever-evolving work environment. By taking clear steps to communicate and support employees through change, leaders can guide the organization to success in times of VUCA.

As a leader, it is always important to be present and accessible to the individuals who report to you, and it is more important than ever during a transition in the company. When not handled well, change can be distressing and potentially damaging to morale. On the other hand, if you implement a well thoughtout change management plan, with accompanying activities, you can successfully undergo a transition that leads to long-lasting, positive change.

Leaders are especially important in the success of any change initiative. Regardless of whether the change is small such as a physical modification of the office space, or as large as an organizational culture transformation, individuals will look to leadership for cues. If you exhibit poise and grace under pressure, your team is likely to follow suit. However, if you express concern about the transition, or even worse, seem oblivious to the worries of those around you, others in the company are more likely to feel anxious. Approach the transition with intention and incorporate these change management activities for leaders and you will be well on your way to success.

1. Build Effective Communication Throughout the Process

Effective communication is essential for successful change management. Start an open dialogue as early as possible in the process and continue to provide updates and ask for feedback. Do not assume that people will come to you if they have questions; make it clear that they are not only welcome to do so, but encouraged to actively participate in the process. By communicating the reasons for the change, the projected timeline, how it will impact each individual, and any other relevant details, you not only minimize the disruption, but you also get the buy-in you need for everybody in the company to embrace the new systems or change behavior.

For your change management plan, consider face-to-face communication sessions that start with executive leaders, move down to management teams, and then to individuals. You can:

• Conduct one-on-one meetings with each of the senior leaders in your organization that foster an honest and straight-forward discussion of the changes.
• Form small group meetings, led by these senior leaders, throughout the organization. These meetings should share the same information, brainstorm solutions, and implement the new processes.

Remember, individuals will be more likely to embrace change if it’s discussed on a personal level rather than by reading it.

Recommended Change Management Activity

If you’re finding that communication is breaking down, try starting your meetings with a communication-focused team-building activity, based on the improv comedy tenet, “Always say yes.” Take ten minutes to do an improv exercise that helps build communication skills.

1. Have individuals break into pairs.
2. One member of the pair starts with a statement and the second person responds with, “Yes and…” The first person continues with another statement and the “Yes and…” cycle continues for five minutes.
3. After five minutes, the partners switch and do the same exercise starting with a different statement.

This kind of activity works in two ways: first, individuals benefit from practicing communication skills. Second, when leaders are involved, they get insight into the kinds of communication improvements that individuals respond the best to. You strengthen communication and leadership skills – all in one.

2. Create an Environment of Accessibility

Your team should always feel that they can come to you and any other leaders with questions, suggestions, or concerns, particularly when the company is undergoing a transition. Make it easy for them to communicate with you by eliminating the obstacles that make it logistically challenging or intimidating. For example, if you have a busy schedule that leaves limited time for one-on-one conversations with individuals on your team, try these strategies:

• Set aside a couple hours a week when you have an open door policy so they know they can reach you without disrupting your schedule. Put it in the calendar as “non-touchable” time.
• Schedule a regular meeting time with team members, giving them the opportunity to speak up when they otherwise might not. Also put it in the calendar as “non-touchable” time.
• Allow team members to participate in decision making by scheduling a brainstorming meeting where each individual will have an opportunity to voice their ideas or feedback.

Recommended Change Management Activity

If you feel that team members aren’t comfortable coming to you and may be holding back questions about the process, try an activity that both opens you up as a leader and encourages questions from the team.

Use a physical activity to demonstrate the importance of open communication.

1. Start with everybody in the group blindfolded and have them pass a ball around the room without speaking. The process is slow and the ball can only go to people who are adjacent to each other.
2. Next, allow them to speak while passing the ball, but still with blindfolds on. Speed increases, but where the ball can be passed is still limited by proximity.
3. Finally, remove the blindfolds and allow them to pass the ball around the room to anybody they want to.

This exercise demonstrates that when all of the obstacles to communication are removed, the flow of information is dramatically improved.

3. Practice Empathy

Remember: just because the reasons for the change and the process to get there might be crystal clear in your mind, they are not necessarily so obvious to others in the company. Take the time to put yourself in other’s shoes (which will mean stepping out of yours) by using active listening:

• Prior to implementing the changes, conduct interviews with employees from various levels and functions.
• Repeat back how you interpret their ideas or feedback by saying: “Please tell me if I’ve got this right. You feel that…”.
• Avoid weighing in with your opinion during these meetings in order to truly see the changes from their perspective.

Once you have clarity on how the changes will affect others in the company, adjust the change management game plan accordingly. Clearly outline the process and make your communications– whether they are email memos or announcements at staff meetings–concise and and organized. This is especially true if the change involves multiple steps or different categories of activities.

Recommended Change Management Activity

Active listening not cutting it? If you’re not feeling like it’s easy to put yourself in your team members’ shoes, try one of the activities listed above–but you should be a participant, not the leader. Instead of leading through a communication breakdown, you’re experiencing it firsthand. Later, you can better lead through these breakdowns because you’ve recently been on the receiving end.

Even the smallest of changes will inevitably be disruptive to some degree, especially if the stage has not been set properly in advance. Therefore, by employing change management activities like effective communication, being accessible to your team, and looking at the transition from their perspective, you can successfully lead change.

High potential employees can shape and lead an organization into the future, but identifying and retaining high potentials goes beyond assigning a label or offering frequent promotions. Rather, it requires careful examination of who your high potentials are, what they are motivated by, and the optimal development path that unleashes their full potential. As you set out to develop your high potential employees or build a comprehensive HiPo program, it will be beneficial to adhere to the following best practices.

Cultivate an Understanding of What Motivates a High Potential

High potentials are often looking for their next big achievement and want to exceed expectations. To retain them, you will need to provide the tools, resources, opportunities, and knowledge that will keep them challenged and enable their continued high performance. Without addressing those needs, you run the risk of your high potentials becoming disengaged and leaving your company for one that will meet them. In fact, one study found that nearly 60 percent of highly engaged high potentials planned to stay with their company, but only 23 percent of low-engaged high potentials intended to stay.

Some of the important motivators that can help to retain high potentials include:

• Providing frequent challenges that keep them engaged in their job and with the work your organization is doing
• Freedom to act without feeling micromanaged
• Resources that are readily available, which include tools, technology, and even other people
• Mentorship opportunities with other successful high potentials or company leaders
• Cross-functional opportunities that allow them to learn more about how the greater organization works

Experiential training that is interactive is an ideal way to learn new skills, practice them, and then confidently apply them back on the job, as it is a methodology that can be used both in-class and virtually.

Recognize Those Identified as High Potentials

Many organizations are unsure of whether to tell high potentials that they’ve been identified as such. They should be told, but recognize that doing so requires that the company be prepared for the questions and expectations that are likely to follow. Those who have been identified as high potential employees will have expectations of training and increased opportunities. Those who have not been identified as high potentials may feel left out and undervalued, which will have to be addressed, usually with a robust career development program. Despite these concerns, telling individuals they are considered high potentials brings transparency to the organization’s commitment to developing talent, and can also go a long way in retaining them long-term.

Create a HiPo Program That Caters to Their Unique Development Needs

Every individual in the organization must be valued for their potential and developed so that they can perform to their best. However, high potentials have unique development needs because they’ve already shown their potential for breakthrough performance, but may not have yet shown their full potential to lead. Therefore, they will need to be taught how to see the world through the eyes of those who possess a different range of talents and needs.

High potentials also possess a unique motivation and capability to succeed that others might not have to the same degree, which can sometimes lead them to become frustrated or dissatisfied with their progress. High potentials do not need to be led as much as they need a line of sight to the end goal, which is not true of all people. Therefore, the HiPo program you create should show them how to provide the motivation, coaching, reinforcement, and recognition that they will require throughout their entire career to be successful.

Conclusion

Cultivating and developing high potential employees is a long-term investment. It is worthwhile, though, as it ensures organizational success down the road, aids in the retention of top talent, and builds the skills employees and leaders will need to navigate the world of tomorrow. By following the three listed best practices you will be well on your way to creating a HiPo program that is experiential, practical, utilizes virtual learning, and aids in retention and attraction of top talent.

Attending team meetings are an everyday occurrence for many of us. Gathering people together to discuss a topic or decide a course of action can help to maintain and improve workflow. However, not all meetings make good use of employees’ time.

A team of researchers surveyed senior managers across a range of industries, and 71 percent of them said meetings were unproductive and inefficient. One key reason meetings can be unproductive is because only an estimated 20 percent of leaders receive training on how to run them effectively, according to research by Steven Rogelberg, author of “The Surprising Science of Meetings.”

Meetings don’t have to waste anyone’s time. With targeted training, leaders can learn to take the following eight steps to ensure every team meeting is effective and relevant.

Know the Meeting Objective

Team meetings can have all sorts of objectives, from informing to providing an update to getting input from others to solve problems. Unfortunately, many meetings don’t have a stated objective. They may simply be called based on an assumption that participants understand and agree on the purpose of the meeting. To ensure that everyone involved understands the objective of the meeting and the intended outcome, it’s necessary to establish what the meeting will accomplish before or at the beginning of every meeting. Before the meeting, send out an agenda that outlines the goal of the meeting, along with any items you want people to prepare or provide updates on. Once everyone understands the meeting objective, you can start the meeting off on the right foot.

Get Input from Everyone

A meeting is not effective if only a handful of participants are actively involved in the discussion. All participants in a meeting should be contributing, whether by offering new ideas, asking questions of others, or volunteering to take responsibility for follow-up action. Some ways to get input from meeting participants include:

• Regularly asking for input during the meeting, including from those who have not yet spoken up
• Having the team engage in brainstorming or brainwriting exercises that encourage idea generation
• Asking a select number of individuals to perform follow-up work and present their findings at the next meeting

Ensure Clarity Between Fact and Opinion

Although an effective meeting benefits from participant viewpoints and opinions, it must also include facts and data that help the team make progress. After all, a team project is not likely to find success if activities are guided by individual guesses or conjecture. Instead, reports, trend analyses, and other data will be more effective guides for team discussion and action. One good way to ensure clarity between fact and opinion in a meeting is to include a presentation of key data, and then offer each person the chance to weigh in on their interpretation of the data.

Recap Periodically

It’s not uncommon for a meeting discussion to stray from the agenda. Team leaders can ensure agenda items aren’t overlooked by adding periodic recaps of what’s been discussed and agreed upon. Periodic recaps ensure that each agenda item gets its necessary attention and discussion. Recaps also help to focus the team and keep off-topic discussion to a minimum.

Make Decisions

An effective meeting doesn’t dance around issues but brings them to closure through definitive decision-making. A decision outcome can be as small as an agreement to revisit a specific topic once more information has been gathered. It can also be as large as a decision to change some part of the team strategy. Making a decision ensures the team doesn’t stagnate and keeps the agenda moving forward to action.

Assign Tasks to Individuals

An effective meeting specifies deliverables and who will be accountable for achieving them. As one Inc. article describes, “Great meetings result in decisions, but a decision isn’t really a decision if it’s never carried out.” When you carefully assign follow-up tasks along with deadlines, there’s a greater likelihood of ensuring that nothing is forgotten and that team members aren’t duplicating efforts. Producing meeting minutes and using project management software are examples of ways you can ensure efficient task assignment and keep track of deliverables.

Keep the Meeting Engaging

Meetings shouldn’t be tedious or boring. Instead, they should be designed to hold participants’ attention and use everyone’s time efficiently. Some ideas for keeping meetings engaging include:

• Limiting the duration of the meeting
• Adding an experiential activity that encourages participants to interact and communicate on a deeper level
• Using video conference tools to involve remote employees

Commit to Follow Up

An effective meeting requires follow-up so that each member of the team knows what to expect and what they need to do after each meeting. Following up after a meeting also ensures that important information isn’t lost and helps to memorialize what was discussed and agreed upon. Whether the meeting follow-up is in the form of an email to the team or a discussion in a subsequent meeting, it keeps the meeting agenda and deliverables top of mind for meeting participants.

Conclusion: Start Running Effective Team Meetings Today

Running an effective team meeting is a critical skill for leaders to master because it helps to move projects forward in an efficient manner. Because leading meetings effectively doesn’t come naturally for many individuals, it makes sense to include opportunities to learn and master that skill as part of a robust leadership development program. From there, individuals will be equipped to get broad participation, regular follow-up, and clear decision-making in each of the meetings they lead.

The way a manager leads a team is a driving factor behind what their team accomplishes and produces. It can impact the productivity of their staff and the overall output of the organization. Organizational efficiency is a byproduct of each department, which can be significantly influenced by the different forms that management can take.

Unfortunately, there’s no universal standard or approach, when it comes to management styles. The most appropriate approach ultimately depends on the structure of your team, including your people—their experience and expectations—and situational factors such as short- or long-term growth and organizational goals.

While there is no definite way that managers can apply every organizational style to their management technique, it’s best for leaders to at least be aware of a range of leadership characteristics so that they can appropriately apply facets of the techniques to specific situations.

Directive

Also known as the coercive style, the directive management technique has a primary objective of obtaining compliance from employees. This authoritarian approach closely monitors employees, motivates employees through discipline, and generally positions the manager at the center of the organizational structure. While this management technique is effective when there is a crisis or potentially perilous situation in the mix, it is not effective as a long-term management strategy if you wish to further develop employees.

Ultimately, this managerial style is useful when deviation from the norm is a risky decision. In highly litigious industries or situations, the directive manager drives their team to success. However, if employees are highly skilled, or you’re looking to develop certain skill sets, this management preference can stifle growth. Little to no learning happens within this style, and employees often become frustrated and unresponsive to the micromanagement that occurs.

Authoritative

Authoritative managers lead with the idea of implementing long-term direction and foresight across their teams. Also referred to as visionary leaders, these managers embody the “firm but fair” mentality. While they provide employees with clear explanation and direction, they may choose to motivate by persuasion. These leaders include a large amount of feedback on their employees’ performance.

Authoritative leaders are effective when clear direction and standards are needed. These leaders lead by example and manage with a high level of conviction. When leaders are credible, employees are apt to follow their guidance. While this leadership technique works in some situations, like directive management, it does not develop employees to their fullest ability. Because management provides guidance, employee insight and opinions often take a backseat, which can limit collaboration.

Affiliative

Affiliative leaders work to develop strong teams. This style of management is concerned with creating harmony between employees, management, and departments. These leaders promote open communication and place an emphasis on building cross-departmental, interpersonal relationships. Often, managers work hard to avoid conflict and motivate their employees by keeping them happy.

This management style generates positive results across companies that rely on structured teams. When combined with other management styles, affiliative leadership can help coach employees. Leaders manage and mitigate conflict, which ultimately fosters a collaborative work environment that produces results. While this management technique does build harmony, it does not create much accountability. Therefore, this style is most effective in work environments in which tasks are routine and performance is reliable.

Participative

Commonly recognized as democratic leadership, participative management has an overarching objective of fostering commitment and consensus across a team. In this style, management actively encourages every employee to voice their opinions in the decision-making process. As opposed to directive and authoritative leadership—in which management emphasizes individual performance—participative managers motivate by rewarding team effort.

This honest, transparent work environment can inspire employees to feel involved and part of their organization. It’s especially effective when an organization has a structure in which experienced, credible employees work together in a steady, stable environment. Participative managers can foster collaboration and drive creative solutions. However, much like affiliative management, this style does not work well in environments that need to be closely monitored.

Coaching

The coaching technique is a self-explanatory style that centers on learning. Much like the authoritative leadership, this management style has a primary objective of fostering long-term professional growth and development. Managers spend significant time training, evaluating, and coaching employees. By encouraging employees to develop specific skill sets and strengths, managers can positively influence the performance and output of their team members.

While this style doesn’t directly contradict team-driven approaches such as participative and affiliative management, it does tend to drive a one-on-one mindset. Taken to an extreme, managers that deploy coaching techniques can be misinterpreted as micromanagers. In this regard, it’s important for managers to offer coaching opportunities to every employee, which, in some situations, may be time-consuming.

While each of these leadership traits has something different to offer, not every management style will suit your organization. How would you describe your own management style?

Organizational change is happening all the time, especially during times such as these. It can bring about a range of emotions in people, including fear, resistance, frustration, and confusion. Leading change successfully in the midst of those emotions requires the ability to define and communicate a vision that inspires others. It also requires helping others to adjust their thinking and behavior in the workplace so that they can successfully navigate change.

One powerful tool that helps leaders guide their teams through change of any kind is emotional intelligence—the ability to identify and manage one’s emotions and to handle interpersonal relationships with empathy and good judgment. Not only is emotional intelligence a strong predictor of overall job success (research has found that it accounts for 58 percent of success at work), but it also influences individuals’ ability to successfully navigate the emotions and behavior of others during times of change. Here are four ways emotional intelligence helps leaders guide their employees through changing times.

Helps to Overcome Resistance

Resistance to organizational change is common for many reasons. Some individuals may want to avoid certain changes to their responsibilities and work processes, and others may simply resist being pushed outside of their comfort zones. Because emotional intelligence involves understanding others’ emotions, it requires listening and asking questions rather than simply telling employees what they should and should not do.

Leaders can leverage emotional intelligence to hone in on the source of employee resistance to change and can offer ideas, strategies, and coaching that will help to overcome feelings of resistance. Some key activities that can support getting at the heart of resistance to change include:

• Q&A sessions that allow employees to air their frustrations and fears about change
• One-on-one discussions that provide opportunities to talk about specific employee experiences with change
• Employee surveys that ask individuals to describe their experiences and share feedback on company change initiatives

Encourages Continuous Learning

Change implies that there will be an ongoing requirement to think and behave differently in order to be successful in the future. Change in the workplace requires the same—that individuals will acquire new knowledge and skills to help them navigate the waters of change. Research points to emotional intelligence as a key factor that drives the willingness and desire to learn because it helps to encourage both curiosity and an openness to learning lessons from successes and failures.

Leaders who possess emotional intelligence and model behaviors that demonstrate their support for continuous learning can encourage those behaviors in others. Leaders can further instill a dedication to continuous learning by encouraging employees to participate in training that helps them develop healthy attitudes toward change.

Improves Decision-Making

When navigating organizational change, individuals must be equipped to use their judgment and make decisions in the midst of uncertainty and shifting circumstances. Because those with high levels of emotional intelligence are more self-aware and also more socially aware of others’ feelings and emotions, they are better equipped to make well-informed decisions when solving problems or determining a course of action.

Leaders who employ emotional intelligence can help themselves and others become better decision makers during times of change. Instead of making a decision based solely on assumptions or a single person’s interpretation of the facts, emotional intelligence helps leaders consider the emotional needs of others when leading their team through important decisions.

Supports Healthy Relationship-Building and Trust

During times of change, individuals need support from leaders and need to feel like they’re not alone. Emotional intelligence allows leaders to provide the understanding and empathy that builds confidence and trust in others. Through active listening, patient conflict resolution, and mentorship, emotionally intelligent leaders build healthy relationships with others and allow employees to trust them as they lead the team through change successfully.

Emotional intelligence is a valuable tool in all aspects of working life, but it is particularly important when leading in times of change because it helps individuals take the emotions and feelings of others into account. When leaders take the time to provide support, training, and coaching to help individuals manage their emotions during the uncertainties of organizational change, there is less chance for resistance, fear, and distrust to derail organizational change efforts. With a combination of leading by example, providing opportunities for employee learning, and establishing forums for communication and feedback, it’s possible to fully leverage emotional intelligence to successfully lead others through change.