Putting HR at the Executive Table

Overall participants felt that their HR departments have a “seat at the strategic corporate table”. This is a drastic change from HR department’s positions only five years ago. This is extremely important to progress and value within organizations. HR is an active participant in driving the business toward its goals and contributing to the competitive advantage of the organization. The webinar focuses on a case study in Universal Weather and Aviation and specifically how their HR department is a key party in driving strategic direction. To link to the recorded webinare click here.

Self-Control Instantly Replenished by Self-Affirmation

Self-Control Instantly Replenished by Self-Affirmation

Get Yourself Out There

How many times have you been asked “so how are things going?” and you give a general response like “good”? This could be a bigger mistake than you think. In the current economy getting your ideas and accomplishments out there may be your ticket upward. Take the time while brushing your teeth, driving into work/school and think about you elevator pitch. Practice what you would tell someone you just met about your current research, findings, projects or accomplishments to catch their attention. Most importantly you need to let them know why your work is important. Focus on how your work/research is going to solve some problem. Know where you want your work/research to go. Be clear about your interest in using your research to find a job, work with a new client or get a grant. Be excited about your own work but try not to use too much “smart jargon”. Be clear and concise. Go sell it!

New Opportunities In Psychology

The need for assessment psychologists is growing. Psychological assessments were originally popular in clinical settings but today they can be found in many areas of psychology including organizational psychology. Organizational psychologists use psychological assessments for pre-employment screening, development and selection. Getting the right talent on the bus shouldn’t be left up to intuition. When you bring in the precise measurements, then at least you’re resting the data you’re getting on something that is reliable and trustworthy. Psychological assessments can also be used in career planning helping guide individuals toward or award from specific career paths. Helping individuals identify these paths can save them time and money in the long run. Without an accurate assessment, it’s impossible to establish appropriate goals for executive development.

Assessment Psychology Resources:
APA Div. 5 (Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics)
Society for Personality Assessment: www.personality.org

Just a thought about education...In the current economy more and more people are turning back to education to get a step ahead in the work force. After meeting with the Senior Associate Dean & Director of Executive Programs at one of the top ten universities in the nation I learned that MBA enrollment has doubled as well as EMBA enrollment.

So what do you think? Will more education get you promoted? If too many people have advanced degrees will it widen the economic gap?

Another trend that we see is an increase in certificate programs. Do you think Leadership or Human Resource certificates will help individuals in organizations?

Coaching Plateaued Salespeople in a Flat Economy

Dr. Beane and Mr. Lena provide insight into the management and improvement of your sales force in today's struggling economy. They provide several tips of how to increase your sales force efficiency by teaching them how to respond and interact with clients.

To view a replay of the webinar click here.
To view the pdf of the power points click here.

A Challenge for Lent

How often do you set a New Years goal or give up something for Lent but after a couple of days you just can’t commit? I for one have tried some goals that were more difficult than I had imagined at the time. One year I gave up eating after 8pm so I could (lose weight) and be reminded of what God’s sacrificed for us. Another year I attempted to stop biting my nails. I used several techniques for both such as setting small goals, rewarding behaviors after a set time and even tried adverse conditioning methods. In this post I would like to cover some techniques that I believe are the most effectively for shaping behavior. I’ll use ‘nail biting’ as the example throughout.

Small Goals: Work on not performing the behavior for a couple hours. If the behavior is already less frequent (ex. Snapping at a spouse) work on staying calm for three days or a week at a time.

Rewards: Before you start trying to change any behavior determine how you will reward yourself. When I was working on not biting my nails I would set a reward schedule (ex. After week 1 I would get a manicure, after week 2 a new shirt, etc.). You need to pick rewards that matter to YOU, if they aren’t really reinforcing your behavior they will not motivate you to change.

Adverse Conditioning: AC involves the pairing of painful or adverse stimuli with the behavior. I used to put bitter (NO BIT) nail polish on my finger. Whenever I would forget and bit them there would be this really bitter taste that would immediately make me stop biting. When training my dog not to bark at the door I would shack a tin can full of pennies. Pairing the loud noise with his bark quickly stopped the behavior.

I hope you find these helpful as you work toward you New Years or Lent Goals.

Do you really know yourself?

Why does it so often seem that your spouse, mother or friend seem to know you better than you know yourself? In hindsight do you feel that your parents really did know what was right for you? Well recent psychological research indicates they just might know some things about you better than you do.

Simine Vazire, a PhD at Washington University in St. Louis recently illustrated that individual are more accurate in assessing one’s own internal traits, such as anxiety, while friends, spouses and parents are better gauges of intellect-related traits, such as intelligence and creativity. He even found that strangers are equally adept as our friends and ourselves at spotting the extrovert in us all, a psychology domain known as “extroversion.”

We may not be the best experts of our own behavior as researchers originally thought.
Vazire says, “Personality is not who you think you are, it’s who you are. Some people think by definition that we are the experts on our personality because we get to write the story, but personality is not the story – it’s the reality. So, you do get to write your own story about how you think you are, and what you tell people about yourself, but there still is reality out there, and, guess what? Other people are going to see the reality, regardless of what story you believe.”

Vazire’s results could have drastic implications for self report assessments used for selection, development and promotion. To date many of the assessments used in assessment centers ask individuals to rate how they believe they would perform on a task, behave in a given situation or perferr to act at a party/meeting/conference. Although psychologists are well aware of the issues of self-report measures Vazire’s study makes a case for other rated assessments and possibly the increases use of 360 degree surveys that can illustrate the differences between self and other perceptions.

Vazire’s study is published in the February 2010 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

For more information on this study click here.