Interpersonal skills and leadership development
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A news release just came across my screen with the following headline: "TRACOM Group Releases Interpersonal Skills Survey Data in New White Paper." The white paper is titled "Creating More Effective Managers Through Interpersonal Skills Training." Here's the money quote.
"Most managers become managers because they have mastered the hard skills needed for a specific job. Unfortunately, most haven’t mastered the soft skills of interpersonal relations."
This white paper is definitely worth your time. There are of interesting bits of data and two key findings.
Key Finding 1: Interpersonal skills get more important the higher you rise in an organization.
Key Finding 2: "A study in March 2008 by Colorado State University and Regis Learning Solutions compared the three leading training programs in interpersonal skills: DiSC model from Inscape Publishing; the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI, model from CPP Inc.; and Social Style. Study participants said that the Social Style model is easier to understand and use than the other two programs, and it outperforms them in terms of workplace training."
This study comes up with the same conclusion as my research except for some small differences. I found that the "social styles" type instruments were easier to use in class and much easier to use for a supervisor in the field than MBTI. Since all the systems are based on the same underlying Jungian psychology, it seems that ease of use in application was a good basis to make a choice.
But I also evaluated another social styles system, The Platinum Rule. That was the system we wound up using. The reason was the well-written book about the system that people could use as a guide to their own improved use of skills or to deepen understanding.
Interpersonal skills are vitally important to leader effectiveness. The social styles tools offer leaders a simple, easy-to-apply framework for improving those skills.
Include them in your leadership development program. And use the same system for all your leaders. That will give them a common language and facilitate peer support when the training is over.
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Absolutely agree with this posting. We tend to combine our interpersonal leadership skills training alongside 360-degree feedback which makes the development interventions more relevant to need, more efficient and more effective.
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Are online pre and post employment assessments worth the silicon they're digitized on?
Even in a secure, proctored environment, can we reasonably expect online assessments to be accurate when we know the answers are hovering just beyond a firewall?
Brian Wilkerson, who heads up the talent management practice at Washington-based HR consultancy Watson Wyatt Worldwide, says yes, these tests can generally be trusted--as long as employers don't rely to much on them. Psychologists, test designers and industry observers interviewed agree that online assessments can play a valuable role in the selection process, as long as certain precautions are taken.
All tests are not created equal.
Interestingly, psychologist Jeff Weekley found incumbents are less likely to embellish responses in behavioral assessments (where there are no right or wrong answers) than candidates. "Research suggests that we all give ourselves the benefit of the doubt," says Weekley, a senior research director for recruitment and retention specialists Kenexa, in Wayne, PA. "The majority don't go crazy with it, but we find differences between applicants and incumbents. Applicants are likely to pump the answers," he says, "because they want the job." Weekley recommends using online assessments as first screens and using other methods to confirm initial results. According to him, when a test that assesses cognitive skills is administered in an un-proctored environment, test takers "must be asked to re-demonstrate those cognitive skills" in front of an interviewer.
Watson Wyatt's Wilkerson believes in validating assessment results during behavioral interviews--and by completing more effective reference checking and background screening. He recommends using social and business networking sites. "Linkedin has a reference request tool. You can check references other than what the candidate gave you." As for online assessments, Wilkerson says, "don't rely on just the testing. It's a great part of the process, but not the process itself."
Source: Screening, HR Executive, June 16, 2008
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For a directory of self assessments, go to www.SelfAssessmentCenter.com
The Wonderlic CPP, the Platinium Rule, Social Style and Inscape's Classic DiSC 2.0 are all "DISC-type" instruments.
Click for DISC self assessments at:
http://home.att.net/~personalassessments/online_assessments/disc.html
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I totally agree that leaders must have strong interpersonal skills the higher they ascend in any organization. Leaders can positively or negatively influence subordinates while not realizing what impact they have on their subjects – especially over the long term regarding time.
A few weeks ago, I encountered a former Private of mine who was in my Field Artillery Battery five years ago. This individual was now a First Lieutenant, recently graduated from the U.S. Army’s Officer Candidate School. When he saw me, he stopped me in a hallway and asked if I remembered him. I did. He immediately thanked me for signing his application for Officer Candidate School when I was his battery commander some five years ago. He said that I had given him the opportunity to further himself when I signed his paperwork. I asked him if he was still in touch with some of the other Soldiers from the battery, and he replied that he was.
In fact, he told me that several had gotten out of the Army and were finishing up their degrees in four year colleges. He again thanked me on behalf of the other soldiers who were finishing up their degrees. I asked why he was thanking me and he confided that I had influenced a lot of young Soldiers when I was in command. He reminded me that whenever I signed a Soldier’s pass for a long weekend or leave, that I always had the Soldier formally report to my office. I would have the Soldier shut the door and sit across from my desk. I would start off with small talk, asking where the Soldiers were from, where they were going on pass, how they liked their jobs and what their future plans were….etcetera.
I always enjoyed these moments in command because this was one of the few times I could talk to Soldiers when they were away from their Sergeants. When asked about their future plans, most Soldiers told me that they planned on getting out of the Army when their service obligation was complete. I always reinforced that it was OK to get out of the Army as long as they had a plan for life outside the Army. I always encouraged them to take full advantage of their GI Bill benefits and go to college. I never really thought many of them were listening to me when I offered this advice… but I wanted them to believe they could someday attend college. As it turns out, many did.
In the military, or any other profession, leaders do have a profound impact on their subordinates whether they realize it or not. Subordinates are always watching their superiors and they do listen and act on sound advice. Bumping into my old Private turned Lieutenant a few weeks ago really drove this home.
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