team development

It's a buyer's market out there.

Hiring people who want to work, who are committed to your organization’s goals, and who work well within your culture is today’s challenge for lots of reasons. So focusing on tools that cause the hiring process to be more thoughtful and exact, cause people to understand each other quickly as they are onboarded and assigned to various teams, and building fast and effective teamwork will make you and employer of choice. Call me to learn more about these tools.

Create an engaged team culture with Everything DiSC on Catalyst now with Your Groups

Even the brightest teams struggle with different workstyles. What if you had the power to replace disjointed communication with cohesive teams and growing bottom lines? Now you do with Everything DiSC on Catalyst – now with Your Groups! It's the same content you know from Everything DiSC but on a platform that works with our hybrid work environments. Call me for more info or a demo.

Hire, manage and retain your best associates.

The PXT Select suite of solutions provides you with accurate, objective, and reliable data so you can confidently hire, manage, and retain productive employees. With the right people in the right roles, developed to their full potential, you can build a high-performing culture where people thrive.

With PXT Select™, we specialize in a comprehensive suite of talent management solutions designed to help you hire smarter and engage your workforce to drive business results.

PXT Select at a Glance

• Over 20 years of experience

• Over 42K organizations assisted

• Presence in 93+ countries worldwide

Whether you’re filling an open role, designing effective teams, identifying talent gaps, or developing your leaders, the PXT Select suite of assessments helps you fuel the growth of your people and your business.

Data from our assessments helps you understand:

• How people think and solve problems

• How they work and interact with their coworkers, managers, and customers

• What motivates and interests them

• Attitudes toward important performance-related issues.

By understanding your employees at a deeper level, you understand how to help them thrive. And when your employees thrive, they experience a greater sense of engagement and interest in their work. In the end, that leads to a healthier work environment, greater productivity, and an increase in your organization’s bottom line.

Make Teamwork your Strategic Focus

Many people see team building as a touchy-feely activity away from work. Actually, it is a critical strategy to achieve results. The Five Behaviors Suite of tools helps your organization introduce Patrick Lencioni’s model and relate it to their work, their personalities and their teams. You will see results almost immediately.

Build Agility. Develop Emotional Intelligence.

The more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous our working environments become, the more critical a truly agile workforce is to success. Each day, we’re called to make progress faster, while pivoting on short notice. To stand firm in our ideas while remaining open to new perspectives. Staying agile demands that we develop and use our emotional intelligence (EQ)—a level of sophistication that we’ve never demanded before. Sound daunting? It doesn’t have to be.

Everything DiSC® Agile EQ™ is a classroom training and personalized learning experience that teaches your teammates to read the emotional and interpersonal needs of a situation and respond accordingly. By combining the personalized insights of DiSC® with active emotional intelligence development, they discover an agile approach to workplace interactions and learn to navigate outside their comfort zone, empowering them meet the demands of any situation.

Pairing their personalized, 26-page Everything DiSC Agile EQ Profile with a half-day facilitation session, your learners will:

1. Discover the instinctive mindsets that shape their responses and interactions

2. Recognize opportunities to stretch beyond what comes naturally to them

3. Take action to become more agile in their approach to social and emotional situations

The result is an emotionally intelligent workforce that can support your thriving agile culture.

We are now on multiple teams, we are working differently due to advances in technology and globalization, and we need to create cohesive teams quickly to enable results. This tool uses Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions model and applies it to each individual, who can then disperse the key takeaways throughout their organization.

The Five Behaviors Personal Development profile was designed specifically to work for individuals; participants do not all need to be part of the same team. Rather, participants can carry the takeaways of this program from one team to the next, enabling a culture of teamwork. Learners at all levels of an organization can benefit from this program and adopt its powerful principles, shape behaviors, and create a common language that empowers people to rewrite what it means to work together.

It can be delivered virtually or in person and each person's profile is personalized to them and how they show up on any team they are on. Call me for a demo or for more information.

Build your Impact Portfolio in 2023!

Build your professional portfolio in 2023 - earn your certification in The Five Behaviors®.  This prepares you to deliver engaging and impactful Five Behaviors® learning experiences that help build cohesive teams. In this two-week immersive experience that combines live, instructor-led sessions with self-guided online learning, you will: 

  -Deepen your understanding of The Five Behaviors model and key principles.

-Familiarize yourself with the full Five Behaviors® solution portfolio: Team Development and Personal Development.

-Explore how to build, customize, and deliver impactful Five Behaviors learning experiences to address unique team development training needs.

-Practice facilitation techniques while receiving feedback from peers in a supportive environment.

-Gain access to Wiley’s online training center, connecting you to course content that you can continue to access as a resource after the course concludes.

Upon successful completion of the exam, you will earn the credential of The Five Behaviors Certified Practitioner, signaling proven competence in shaping engaged, cohesive, and high-performing teams—and knowledgeable in the language of The Five Behaviors.

Courses begin in February and here are the first few:

  1. Opens February 23, 2023. Live sessions 2/27, 3/1, 3/6 and 3/8 from 3 to 5pm EST.

2. Opens March 10, 2023. Live sessions 3/14, 3/16, 3/21 and 3/26 from 10am to 12pm EST.

3. Opens April 7, 2023. Live sessions 4/11, 4/13, 4/18 and 4/20 from 2 to 4pm EST.

#certification #teamwork

Register now at The Five Behaviors® Certification — Karen Geiger & Associates, inc.!

The Five Behaviors model as a tool to develop your organization's teamwork

What Is The Five Behaviors®? Developed in Partnership with Patrick Lencioni, based on his international bestseller, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Five Behaviors® transforms teams through a powerful and approachable model that drive team effectiveness and productivity. 89% of The Five Behaviors learners say it improved their team’s effectiveness.

Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is the definitive guide for building healthy teams. The Five Behaviors model focuses on building skills and understanding in the areas of Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results which provides a common language for your teams as they navigate the ever-changing world of work. Simple, sound, and straightforward— this model challenges teams to rethink their approach when working together.

The Five Behaviors® solutions can help you activate your team’s ability to drive results through cohesive teamwork, whether it is with our Personal Development solution which helps individuals learn the skills they need to “team” effectively on any team and build a culture of teamwork, or our Team Development solution which helps intact teams gain the know-how to work better together.

Deliver Effective Onboarding in a Fast-Changing Work Environment

Companies today are in the midst of transforming their business models, restructuring their teams, and rethinking how they service their customers. Many have also permanently integrated hybrid or remote work arrangements, moving away from an office-only structure. Employees who work in these environments, where there is constant change and poor communication, are experiencing high stress levels and burnout. Many are reacting by Quiet Quitting or pulling back from collaborating and communicating with their colleagues. 

What would it be like as a new hire starting out in this kind of environment, when more than ever, job seekers are demanding a great deal from potential employers as far as culture, work/life balance, and support from their managers? This scenario is happening to millions of new hires all over the world. What's clear is this: Coming off the pandemic and The Great Resignation, the number of new hires, as well as the stress associated with starting a new job, has skyrocketed. How are HR teams dealing with this unprecedented number of new hires and how can they adjust their processes so that people don’t fall through the cracks?

The struggle to keep new hires is real: almost 30% of people will quit a new job within 90 days. According to Gallup, the estimated cost to replace an employee ranges between one-half to two times their annual salary. That’s a huge and recurring hit to the bottom line. 


In this time of uncertainty, we wanted to know if HR teams were able to deliver an impactful and effective onboarding experience to new hires, one that makes them want to stay well beyond the onboarding period.
 

Reality of the New Hire Experience

We surveyed 6,000 people through Wiley Workplace Research, of which 1,266 were new hires, to learn more about what people experienced when they started a new job. What we found is that the job market continues to be highly competitive. Given that nearly 25% of those we surveyed said they started with a new company in the last year, HR professionals and managers have been busy.
 
According to our findings, 75% of respondents said that some form of onboarding happened at their new company. For more than half of new employees, this experience lasted a week or less.  The process varied greatly, too. Some received zero direction or guidance while others received a highly structured and planned experience. Critically, although almost all felt welcomed and accepted, only 38% finished their onboarding experience with an understanding of what was expected of them.

Onboarding in a Rapidly Changing Workplace

Consistency is key to delivering on expectations and ensuring that every new hire has a meaningful first experience that makes them want to stay. In fast-changing environments, this can be more challenging. To be successful, today’s onboarding process must be agile but well planned. So how can HR professionals adapt? 

One thing we know for certain is that employees want a positive work culture and an impactful employee experience. Your responsibility for this starts the minute you extend an offer to a candidate and continues throughout the employee’s tenure. 

Make sure there is a hiring and onboarding process in place that is more than a simple orientation and communicate it to everyone who will be involved. Hiring managers, for example, might need training on how to conduct interviews. Frontline managers should also know how to assess the candidate to identify skills gaps and recommend individual training so that the new arrival feels confident and prepared for their role. This will ensure a seamless experience that gets the new hire ready for what’s next. 

HR should also be clear to hiring teams and frontline managers about what the new hire was offered so that expectations are met, and promises are delivered. In a hectic or fast-paced workplace, this information can be missed. Misunderstandings will leave a bad impression and can lead to the new hire feeling misled or duped about their new job or company. People want to work in a role where expectations meet reality, and this is one way to make certain that happens.

Ultimately, your goal is to deliver a meaningful and individualized onboarding experience that not only helps new employees acclimate to the company, but also lays the groundwork for a positive work experience long term.

Pre-Boarding: Take this opportunity to connect with your new employees before they start to create a sense of belonging. This can include sending a care package, proposing a meet and greet, and keeping them updated via emails or video calls. This is also the perfect time to assign a buddy so that they have someone to reach out to who’s not in HR.

Orientation: This phase starts on their first official day on the job and should focus on logistical and administrative processes and procedures. Employee handbooks, paperwork, and mandatory training should help with acclimation. Let the new employee know how to give feedback and ask for help or support as they navigate their onboarding experience.

Foundation Building: This is the time to set the new hire up for success in their role by communicating about the company culture, brand values, opportunities for personal and professional development, and most importantly, how their role impacts the organization. Ensure your new hires know how to engage with their team effectively to jumpstart collaboration. Tools like Everything DiSC and The Five Behaviors can help set the foundation and continuously reinforce your culture. 

Community Building: The key here is to help the new arrival feel welcomed, supported, and included within their team and the company. Providing opportunities to socialize with colleagues, build relationships, and take part in team bonding will help them connect on a deeper level, fostering better team collaboration and communication. For remote or hybrid employees, virtual activities will increase a sense of comradery and prevent a feeling of isolation or disconnectedness.

Post-Boarding: This phase is particularly important if your company is going through major changes or where employees feel burnt out and have high stress. While the onboarding process is officially over, HR teams should seek feedback on the new hire’s experience to confirm you delivered what was promised. Stay in touch to provide any additional support, information, training, or guidance if necessary. HR can also ask for feedback from hiring teams and frontline managers to continually improve and refine the process.

As you can see, this multi-prong approach requires more time and a detailed plan to successfully implement, but it is critical to go the extra mile in an environment of burnout and rapidly shifting priorities. Ideally, the onboarding process should be a month or longer, starting before the first day of work. This should be expanded in a workplace where significant changes are happening, or employee morale is low.

Whatever the environment, HR professionals and hiring managers should always focus on giving new arrivals a memorable and lasting experience that feels tailored to their individual needs. New hires are seeking an onboarding process that focuses on building connections and aligning with the culture, all while learning about how their role affects the company and contributes to outcomes.

Make Learning part of your Everyday Organizational Culture

Everything DiSC® offers a suite of personal development learning experiences that measure our preferences and tendencies based on the DiSC® model. This simple yet powerful model describes four basic styles: D, i, S, and C, and serves as the foundation for the Everything DiSC® Application Suite.

Every Application: Participants receive personalized insights that deepen their understanding of self and others, making workplace interactions more enjoyable and effective. The result is a more engaged and collaborative workforce that can spark meaningful culture improvement in your organization. Each profile is powered by 40+ years of research, uses adaptive testing and sophisticated algorithms to generate precise and personalized insights for each participant. Participants receive this personalized content using the DiSC model and gain insights on their personal preferences and tendencies as well as relating to and working with others. They leave with actionable strategies for improving interactions and, ultimately, performance.

The Follow-Up Tools: Each profile has follow-up tools to allow participants to go deeper into their DiSC style, provide real-world tips for connecting with colleagues, and help them gain insight into their team or department’s DiSC culture. This makes learning ongoing and useful, and not just a training session.

The Everything DiSC® Application Suite:

  • WORKPLACE: Engage every individual in building more effective relationships at work

  • AGILE EQ™: Develop the emotional intelligence necessary to build a thriving agile culture

  • MANAGEMENT: Teach managers to successfully engage, motivate, and develop their people

  • PRODUCTIVE CONFLICT: Harness the power of conflict by transforming destructive behavior into productive responses

  • WORK OF LEADERS® Create impactful leaders through the process of Vision, Alignment, and Execution

  • SALES Provide salespeople with the skills to adapt to customers’ preferences and expectations.

Interested in building an engaged culture with high retention? Get DiSC Certified!

Everything DiSC® Certification offers you a proven way to create a lasting impact on individual and organizational performance.

In this two-week course combining live, instructor-led sessions with self-guided online learning, you will build your confidence and expertise in delivering impactful DiSC learning experiences that help people work better together. Upon successful completion of the course work (including a score of 80% or above on the final Certification exam), you will earn the credential of Everything DiSC Certified Practitioner—signaling proven competence in shaping a high-performing, collaborative culture, knowledgeable in the language of DiSC.

Just click on “Certifications for You” at the top of this site, then “New! Everything DiSC Certification” and you will see the dates in 2022-23 that are still available. Spots go fast so let me know asap. Then after I confirm a spot is available you can purchase your registration by clicking on Products, then Facilitator Certification and choose the one led by Wiley. If you have 5+ people wanting to get certified, I can lead it at a time convenient to you, so just let me know that.

The water we are swimming in and how we can adapt

Based on Deloitte, Gallup and McKinsey analyses, here is what we are facing now in our organizations:

  • •77% of managers don’t believe in their talent acquisition strategy

  • •77% of managers don’t believe in their talent acquisition strategy

    •73% of employees aren’t engaged

    •70% of team members don’t feel considered

    •Organizations need help finding and engaging their people.

    •Gig economy: by 2020 40% of all workers will be contract

    •Skill sets needed in 2030: decrease in basic cognitive, small increase in higher cognitive, large increase in social/emotional

    •Continuous learning needed

    •Shifting organizational structure – matrixed organizations

    •Agile systems, processes needed

    • Rapid pace of change

    •Disruptive forces

    •Globalization

    •Demographics diverse in country of origin, age, ethnicity, culture, gender, language

    •Technology advancing rapidly

This results in things people in organizations have to do differently now:

•Change direction quickly

•Communicate effectively

•Accept and work well with differences of perspective

•Form effective teams quickly

•Create teamwork with nontraditional arrangements

•Define selves by effectiveness not by title

•Create psychological safety so good ideas can surface

•Create personal connection amid increased technology

•Hire using more than resume – fit now more important

•Share power and information

We have tools to enable you and your organization to adapt and be successful! See our products on this site for more information and call me with your questions or to order!

Accepting difference in identity can start with accepting differences in personality

A good start to see where you are more or less flexible about working across differences is to take the Everything DiSC Workplace profile and see where your comfort zone is. The report will also give you tips on how to set the stage to adapt to other styles to cause greater understanding, buy-in, and improved working relationships. Take advantage of my Holiday Sale of $57 each (retails at $74)! Just go to Products, then select Everything DiSC Profiles, then purchase the number of Everything DiSC Workplace (English) profiles you want. They make great holiday gifts!!

The State of Teams

The current pandemic has put a spotlight on the importance of teaming and collaboration in a fluid environment. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. conducted a survey in February and early March 2020 to investigate how employees and employers are responding to the dynamic nature of teams in the workplace. Based on the responses of 20,000+ employees from individual contributors to C-suite executives across a wide range of industries, they found that teams suffer from a critical interpersonal skills gap that impedes their potential to achieve. Here are some highlights of their results:

  1. People are on several teams (76% of respondents) and the higher up one goes in an organization, the more teams they are on (Directors and Execs reported 5+ teams).

  2. People are working on more types of teams. (73% of respondents). These types include departmental, project, cross-functional, management and matrix.

  3. Teams are more dispersed. (28% of people reported working on a team with someone based in another country and 51% reported working on a team where at least 1 member collaborated virtually).

  4. Individuals are often unaware or unable to consistently practice the behaviors that will ensure team success. 99% of people agreed with the statement “I am a good team member” BUT..

    • 79% reported that their teammates don’t acknowledge their weaknesses to each other, lowering trust.

    • 55% leave meetings without collective commitment to agreed-upon decisions, lowering the collective commitment level.

    • 59% say their team members don’t take personal responsibility to improve team performance moving forward, bringing down accountability.

  5. Time and money are wasted dealing with ineffective teamwork. Employees reported spending 7 hours/week with the effects of poor teamwork which equates to 2 months a year and in financial terms, that’s $1 Trillion dollars per year in the US.

  6. High stress leads to high turnover. 42% have left jobs due to bad team experiences.

  7. Nearly everyone agreed that it would be worth their time to develop and improve their teamwork skills. 98% of managers, directors and executives believed skill development is absolutely worth their team’s time and 86% said effective teamwork is more important to their organization’s success now than it was 5 years ago.

And the repercussions of COVID-19 make teamwork more important. 22% stated they were not confident that their teams could maintain the same performance levels virtually and 29% said they are not confident that they will feel personally connected as they work remotely. As many more teams have now become physically separated, the need for a strong foundation of teamwork and communication among colleagues is more important than ever before.

We have tools to help you make the most of your virtual teamwork during this time of change. Look on this website for more on the Five Behaviors products and call me at 704-372-9842 to learn how to put them in place on your teams.

Teamwork in a Virtual Workplace

The coronavirus pandemic has caused many workplaces to issue a work-at-home policy, which may need to become a smooth transition in future pandemics given our global environment. I’ve been thinking about the implications for the basics of teamwork, beginning with Trust. Here are some thoughts I have gathered about how to focus on building trust while teammates are remote:

  • Pro-actively build personal connections. Don’t assume that people will mainly be interested in what their fellow team members can do, as opposed to who they are as individuals. Keith Ferrazzi suggests that managers can help encourage personal connections by starting meetings with a “Take 5” for people to talk about what’s been happening in their lives, both personally and professionally. This builds empathy which then paves the way for trust.

  • Communicate conscientiously. On high-trust teams, communications are regular and predictable, and team members let others know when they receive emails or requests, and when they will be unavailable or when they will be able to respond. This saves wondering which usually erodes trust.

  • Share and rotate power. In a traditional workplace, managers often use a command-and-control approach where in a virtual environment, studies show that when managers use a “monitor and mentor” approach, the team works better.

I’m sure there are more tips and I encourage you to think of what builds trust of others in you, and what others around you consider to be trustworthy in a virtual environment. There is a recent topic emerging in my field called “swift trust” which consists of methods that build trust virtually.

How Having a Talent Management Strategy Helps Employer/Employee Breakups

Employer/Employee Breakups are the Worst

“I’m so sorry, but it’s just not working out.”

Those breakup words are nothing anyone wants to hear in their dating lives. But, in a professional setting, they can be equally—and in some cases more—concerning and frustrating. Each time an organization drops this phrase in a discussion with one of its employees or has one of their team members break things off with them, it leads to a loss in productivity, time, and, most of all, money. That hurts. No matter how you spin it, employer/employee breakups are the worst.

No one wants to receive this news. And, no one wants to deliver it either. But the fact is, without an effective talent management strategy, organizations will likely continue to deliver this news to employees who fail to meet expectations. Or, worse yet, they’ll have to hear it themselves from talented but disengaged employees who decide to leave after feeling unnurtured and unsupported in their roles.

The good news? It doesn’t have to be this way. With a talent management strategy in place, office breakups (and their repercussions) don’t have to happen nearly as often as they might otherwise.

Developing and implementing a robust talent management strategy—that’s the key to avoiding them.
So, What Do We Mean by “Talent Management Strategy?”

Simply put, businesses with a talent management strategy make strategically planning and envisioning talent needs a top priority rather than shunting those needs off as a secondary (and reactionary) thought. Talent management means preventing turnover and addressing lack of engagement. It means acting to achieve consistency in executional excellence. It requires managing speed and flexibility rather than letting the pace of work pull the rug out from underneath you. For organizations looking to drive results, putting in the effort to hire and engage the right people makes all the difference.
Here’s Where to Start—Answer the “What” Piece of the Puzzle

It’s no secret—companies that embrace strategies to hire and retain talent find themselves better suited to drive results and deliver on expectations. Creating those strategies begin by taking the first step—designing the right organizational structure.

Start by asking questions like:

  1. What are the goals the organization is trying to achieve?

  2. What roles need to be created or filled based on those goals?

  3. What traits does the perfect employee need in order to fulfill the role?

  4. What tools does the organization have for identifying top performers?

  5. What cognitive and behavioral traits do we need to find in candidates here?


When mapping out how to build and design an optimal workforce that can get the job done, organizational leaders need to consider these questions first.

While HR departments, like Recruiting, Organizational Development, and Training support these aspects of hiring and developing an organization’s workforce, the “people strategy” component of the equation requires leaders to map out.


Diving into the “Who” Component of the Equation

Once leaders design their organization’s structure and map out what roles are needed, they need to figure out the “who” piece by asking questions like:

  1. Who is the right person for the job based on the specific job requirements?

  2. Who can do this job while finding it interesting and engaging?

  3. Who will enjoy growing and challenging themselves in this position?

  4. Who might have the skills or potential to succeed even if they don’t have the obvious experience in their background?

  5. Who could move within this organization and provide a good fit in future roles that arise?

  6. Who are the right team players for highly visible projects?

  7. Who is ready for their next career move, promotion, or stretch assignment on a new team?

  8. Who needs training or additional resources to do their job well?

  9. Who needs supplementary support in order to stay engaged?

Getting the “who” component down from day one sets a company up for short-term success. Long-term success, however, requires long-term thinking and planning.

Even after organizations hire the right individual for a role they know is a good fit, the work doesn’t end. In fact, it only begins. Nurturing and developing an employee—even a seasoned veteran—plays a critical role in empowering them to perform their job successfully throughout their entire time within your organization.
Over time, talent needs change. And, your company needs a way figure out how to move their talent to meet these shifting needs. New teams, new special projects, opportunities for promotions, or lateral moves all require the ongoing attention of your organization. Optimizing your talent management strategy to account for change and considering how candidates or existing employees match to new opportunities helps your organization adapt to shifts in circumstances, business strategies, and talent needs.

Here’s the Bottom-line

Without a proactive talent management strategy, tools to measure and decide which candidate best fits a role, and methods for keeping employees engaged, business leaders and companies tend to make talent decisions on an as-needed basis. Doing so is natural, but it can create gaps within a workplace and increase room for error, not to mention cost an organization time and money. Lack of planning upfront increases stress, extra workloads, and internal conflict as existing employees buckle under the weight of an enlarged workload assumed from vacant positions.

How PXT Select™ Offers a Proven Talent Management Solution

Serious challenges, like talent acquisition and retention, require equally serious solutions. That’s why we developed PXT Select™. With over 20+ years of research behind it, PXT Select starts from the very beginning by helping you identify the “who” and “what” aspects of the puzzle.

After helping to create a model of the perfect candidate, the PXT Select assessment utilizes psychometric data to help organizations understand how individual candidates or existing employees think and work. From there, a company can place individuals into positions they’re more likely to engage with, succeed in, and stick around for.

To us, that’s a much better alternative than repeating those uncomfortable workplace breakups over and over. They’re possible to avoid. It just takes a little planning and the right information to get there.

I am a PXT Select Authorized Partner and can help you put this in place so you win the competition for talent.

How to Keep your Top Talent

A 2010 HBR article by Jean Martin and Conrad Schmidt lists 6 mistakes organizations make in focusing on their top talent which has the most impact on results:

  1. Assuming that high potentials are highly engaged. The Corporate Executive Board's research revealed that 1 in 4 intends to leave their organization within a year, 1 in 3 admits to not putting all their effort into their job, 1 in 5 believes their personal aspirations are quite different from what the organization has planned for them, and 4 out of 10 have little confidence in their coworkers and even less confidence in the senior team.

  2. Equating current high performance with future potential. The "high potential" designation is often used as a reward for an associate's contribution in a current role, but most people on the leadership track will be asked to deliver future results in much bigger jobs. Knowing their aspirations is critical.

  3. Delegating down the management of top talent. High potential employees are a long-term corporate asset and should be managed accordingly, not hidden in functional areas managed by line managers.

  4. Shielding rising stars from early derailment. The very best programs place emerging leaders in "live fire" roles where new capabilities can and must be acquired.

  5. Expecting star employees to share the plan. Under normal circumstances, higher potentials put in 20% more effort than other employees in the same role. Sweetening the bonus pool or differentiating compensation for them makes their rewards in line with their contributions.

  6. Failing to link your starts to your corporate strategy. Confidence in their managers and in their firms' strategic capabilities is one of the strongest factors in top employees' engagement. Develop ways to share your future strategies on a privileged basis with your high potential leers and emphasize their role in making that future real.

Tools to engage your stars

Everything DiSC® solutions provide rich, versatile learning programs that offer personal insight for learners at every level of an organization, using a consistent language of DiSC®. Using a research-validated learning model, each solution provides in-depth information including tips, strategies, and action plans to help learners become more effective in the workplace. All Everything DiSC solutions include unlimited access to complimentary follow-up reports and MyEverythingDiSC®, the interactive learning portal exclusive to Everything DiSC.

Tools to discuss future potential

Use the PXT Select assessment for selection, onboarding, development and future potential assessment.

*Get a clear picture of candidate’s thinking style, behaviors, and interests, giving you a meaningful edge in making the right hiring decision.

*Start the selection process on the right foot. Explore an expanding library of job functions to which you can compare candidates.

*Interview with confidence by asking tailored questions and keeping an open ear for “what to listen for” based on a candidate’s assessment results.

*Identify ways to enhance performance and maximize an individual’s contribution to an organization.

*Match people with positions in which they’ll perform well and enjoy what they do.

*Reduce critical turnover and boost employee engagement. 

Tools to engage high potentials with their teams

The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team is an assessment-based learning experience that helps individuals and organizations reveal what it takes to build a truly cohesive and effective team in the most approachable, competent, and effective way possible.Powered by Everything DiSC®, the profiles help participants understand their own DiSC® styles. Bringing together everyone’s personalities and preferences to form a cohesive, productive team takes work, but the payoff can be huge—for individuals, the team, and the organization.

Practice Random Acts of Kindness

Last fall, Chuck Wall, a Bakersfield College professor assigned his students to commit one random act of senseless kindness. He was listening to a radio report of yet another act of senseless violence and decided to change the wording a little. This assignment was taken seriously and has turned into a movement, applicable to all of our institutions. These are an effective add-on to formal "cultural improvement" efforts and here are some examples - feel free to add some and do them!

Neighborhoods: Neighborhood meetings, free little libraries, and art projects, helping an ill neighbor with yard maintenance
Government: Community policing, addressing homelessness, human rights, access to libraries, and community gardens. 
Schools: Offer opportunities to students, teachers and families to perform acts of kindness to fellow students, teachers, and family.
Workplace: Buy coffee for someone at work, treat a colleague to lunch, use humor with a colleague who’s having a rough morning, make a promise not to speak negatively about a colleague. Resist the urge to gossip, write a thank-you note to a coworker, let selected colleagues know how much you appreciate them, clean up a common area at your workplace, re-engage with a coworker, get to know someone at work you have not talked to in a while, introduce yourself to a new person at your organization, eat lunch with someone new and take this opportunity to learn about what they are like outside of the workplace.

Here are the benefits if we do one act of kindness every day:

  • Building community among colleagues

  • Helping colleagues work together

  • Eliminating negativity in the workplace

  • Improving attitudes and overall communication

  • Improving morale

  • Assisting associates in taking pride in their work

  • Encouraging other positive habits

  • Improving the quality and output of work