Let's Talk LEADERSHIP

More accolades for Ninth House

  At the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame last night, Ninth House was recognized as one of the fastest growing software & information companies in the Silicon Valley by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50.

We ranked number 22 and want to express our thanks to the dedication of our employees and loyal customers.

Fast Growing Company Sees Need for Leadership Development

Enventure Global Technology, a world’s leading provider of solid expandable tubular (SET®) solutions for the energy industry, is a fast growing, global company.

Wanting a more scaleable and efficient program compared to off-sites, workshops or outside consultants, Enventure is using Ninth House’s leadership development solutions to help develop and grow its employees in preparation for continued growth.

Ninth House’s computer-based development solutions will enable us to develop our employees quickly, consistently and cost-effectively regardless of location. – Roger Blake

Ninth House Ranked on Deloitte's Fast 500!

Ninth House was ranked on Deloitte’s 2006 Technology Fast 500 list which lists the fastest growing companies in North America. Selected companies are from the media, telecommunications or life sciences industries and are based according to percentage revenue growth from 2001-2005.

Check out our press release and the rankings.

Plethora of Leadership and Training Email Newsletters

Looking at my in-box, I realized that I receive at least 1-2 newsletters a day. Each provides articles and perspectives on a wide variety of topics encompassing work management, work performance, leadership development, talent management, etc.

After sifting through the plethora of newsletters in my inbox, akin to a pile of newspapers on my front door stoop, here are a few that provide great insight into leadership development and related topics. In alphabetical order:

ASTD’S The Buzz provides quick synopsis of training related news that appears in national newspapers, business publications, and industry media. States it’s for members only.

Chief Learning Officer Executive Briefings is a weekly newsletter that reports on more timely news that the print publication is unable to cover. CLO also has a newsletter titled “In the News”, but Executive Briefings provides a more in-depth look at current news and trends.

HRWeek from SHRM provides highlights on a variety of topics and news relevant to HR professionals. In order to read the full articles, you have to be a SHRM member.

Online Learning News and Reviews is published every two weeks. The newsletter provides peer-based responses to questions about e-learning implementations or concerns.

Training Directors’ Forum e-net (TDF e-net) is a weekly discussion newsletter with career-related questions posed by and answered by fellow training management peers. Training Magazine produces both TDF e-net and Online Learning News and Reviews.

Workforce Management focuses on workforce management issues, such as benefits, discrimination, and diversity. Though ancillary to leadership development, these issues do impact how managers and companies react and lead an organization. This newsletter includes polls, readers’ questions, and news blurbs.

Have fun reading!

Retaining Talent from Ninth House Receives Four Stars!

Ninth House's newest course, Retaining Talent, received the highest rating from Training Media Review (TM Review), an independent reviewer of media based training! The four stars were bestowed for the course's interactivity, high-quality production quality, and content.

Check out the full press release issued today.  For the full review, go to the TM Review website and sign up for a free 24 hour trial.

Clifton Taulbert speaks on Eight Habits of the Heart

On Wednesday, September 20th, over 100 of Atlanta's technology companies attended a Women in Technology (WIT) event sponsored by Ninth House. The guest speaker was Clifton Taulbert (photo on left), a Pulitzer-prize nominated author and faculty member of Ninth House.

Clifton first opened up the meeting by having attendees rip up their business cards – a symbol of breaking down barriers to authentic leadership.

Clifton introduced the “Eight Habits of the Heart” as tools to understand, embrace and use in building community within the workplace. These leadership principles include: nurturing attitude, responsibility, dependability, friendship, brotherhood, high expectations, courage and hope.

He espoused that “leaders become these habits through multiple micro-acts of workplace selflessness.”  Through time, there will be visible results emerging from these principles. This helps organizations to have effective fellowship while empowering teams to exceed.

October 3, 2006 Update: Go to the Ninth House Events Archive for a copy of the presentation slides.

2006 Leadership Development Summit Has Concluded

From September 13-14, 2006, over 40 learning and performance management colleagues attended the Ninth House 2006 Leadership Development Summit to share solutions for their biggest challenges of developing leaders in their organizations.

Representatives from such top organizations as the American Express, CIA, Citigroup, CompUSA, Cox Communications, National Science Foundation, Seagate Technology, and more attended this two-day, intimate forum.

This intimate setting enabled all participants to react, play devil’s advocate, analyze and interpret the viability of a particular approach, and collectively discuss how to move leadership application to the next level.

A variety of leadership development topics were presented by some of today’s most forward-thinking organizations:

• Instilling a Culture of Adaptability and Learning - Mr. Jeremy Seligman, Director, IT Strategy and Organizational Development, Ford Motor Company
• Centralized Leadership Development for a Decentralized Global Organization - Ms. Katharine Nisbet, Director, Global Talent & Management, American Express
• Leadership Development is not Leadership Training: An Organizational Maturity Model for Leadership Development – Ms. Kim Lamoureux, Sr. Leadership Analyst, Bersin & Associates
• Creating a Global Culture of Shared Values and Responsibilities - Ms. ScotlandKing, Director of Learning & Development, Citigroup Inc.
• Customized Blended Learning Development for a Global Organization - Mr. Steve Leech, Vice President and Chief Learning Officer, Global Learning and Development, Gap Inc. and Ms. Katy Sharon, Director, Leadership and Development, IT, Gap Inc.
• Flexible Leadership for High-Growth Mid-Market Organizations - Ms. Deidrea Booher, Director of Learning & Development, Equifirst Corporation
• New Manager Trifecta: Retention, Performance, and Leadership Development - Mr. Garrett Stokes, WW Employee and Career Development, Amazon.com
• Best Practices in Blended Leadership Development Panel with Mr. Paul Leone, Ph.D, Manager of Leadership Effectiveness, American Express; Mr. Kent Barnett, CEO, Knowledge Advisors; Mr. Josh Bersin, CEO, Bersin & Associates; and Mr. Jeff Snipes, CEO and co-founder, Ninth House, Inc.
• Leadership Development for Individual Contributors: Microsoft’s Talent Management Strategy - Ms. Irada Sadykhova, Director of Learning and Performance Strategies, Engineering Excellence, Microsoft

Over the next few days, we will be posting summaries and insights from the summit. We look forward to continuing the discussion over the next few weeks and months and welcome all perspectives.

CLO e-Seminar Summary: The REAL ROI of Leadership Development - American Express Case Study

In a Chief Learning Officer e-Seminar that just concluded, Katharine Nisbet (Director, Global Talent and Development, American Express), Paul Leone (Manager of Leadership Effectiveness, American Express), and Jeff Snipes, CEO and co-founder, Ninth House, Inc., looked at the business impact of different leadership development training methods, as well as the behaviors needed from managers to make this successful.

American Express looked at the business impact and ROI of leadership development delivered online, instructor-led training and in a blended learning approach (combination of online and instructor-led training).  Furthermore, AMEX  looked at what type of environment and manager support is needed for a sustainable learning environment.

There were quite a few questions with regards to sustainability and the business impact. Over the next few months, AMEX plans to revisit these questions.  A white paper is also currently being prepared. To request your copy when it's available, go to American Express Case Study request. 

In the meantime, here are some reports that discuss the impact of leadership development:

• Center for Naval Analysis (CNAC) - summary of a 2004 study completed by the CNAC on behalf of the U.S. Navy.
• Bersin & Associates: Blended Learning that Works - This  study examines how companies are using blended learning to extend the reach of their leadership development programs. This is a Ninth House sponsored study.
• ASTD 2005 State of the Industry Report  - An executive summary is free, while the full report is only available to members. This is a more general report highlighting workplace learning and performance trends.

Update: The audio archive and presentations have been posted to the Ninth House events archive.

Coaching as way to engage and retain talent

In the September 12, 2006 article written by Cari McLean for Workplace Performance Solutions, Charles Orlando of Ninth House discussed how coaching can provide middle managers with the key skills and techniques to boost performance and engage direct reports.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005, the average U.S. worker will only stay with a company for four years, with that tenure dropping to 1.8 years for 18-25 year olds.  Orlando elaborates how these short tenures are impacting corporations:

“There is really no way to get somebody up to speed and get 18 months of full productivity. It usually takes four to six months to get them up to speed, on the job and ramped. As a result, organizations get maybe six months of productivity, and as they start to look for another job, organizations will start to lose productivity during the next four to six months, as they start searching. It changes the paradigm — organizations are observing these trends of generations under 45 having much shorter tenures, and they are tired of making investments in people because they are basically training other organization’s staff members, so to speak. That’s where the big push for coaching stems from.”

And with the baby boomer generation planning to leave the workplace in the next 5 - 10 years, a corporation's ability to engage and retain employees becomes even more important for companies. Consequently, middle managers are in an unique position to directly impact an employee's motivation and productivity.

Regardless of the type of coaching or training program a company undertakes for new or existing managers, sustainability and executive buy in are also key components for a successful program.

What is a leader?

lead‧er  [lee-der] –noun:  1) a person or thing that leads; 2) a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group. That's the definition, but is that your organization's posture towards leadership?

Leaders are more than the top 2% of an organization--the "C-level"; Mahogany Row; Senior Management. They are at all levels, and in all departments. Whether a manager or individual contributor, sales rep. or VP of Product Development, all employees are leaders. More importantly, when it comes to managers, all are leaders by default (according to their title), but not necessarily by skill set. Managers run the business-side of an organization. They manage staff, budgets, timelines, and projects--all critical to the success of any business. But a leader inspires. A leader motivates. A leader is in touch with her team, and their challenges and successes.

Most middle managers in an organization have come up through the ranks--so to speak--and may be experts in their respective fields, but that doesn't necessarily make them leaders. Effective leaders are driven by personality traits--Innovation, Inspiration, Character, Charisma, and Determination. Can these traits be learned? In the right environment--and with the right training--any employee can begin the journey from "manager" to effective leader. But how? Aren't these "born-with" traits? No. These are the traits the US Navy is working to instill in their Chief Petty Officers--the first line manager in the Navy.

The Navy has spent an large amount of time building a learning curriculum specifically for their Chief Petty Officers (CPOs). Part of the effort was focused on more cost effective ways of effective learning, but of equal (if not greater) importance was the effectiveness of the curriculum to create better sailors and leaders--during their Naval careers as well as after their tour-of-duty was complete. (The results were astounding and you can read about them here or you can download the Summary of Findings from the Center for Naval Analysis here. warning-PDF link)

Other organizations are also looking at their leaders in a different way--and looking to retain them. According to a recent study issued by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), “83% of employees polled said it was somewhat or extremely likely they would seek new employment once the job market and economy improves.” Additionally, a recent Accenture study on job satisfaction states that “48% of US middle managers surveyed said they were either looking for different job or planned to do so when the economy recovered” (both reports available to members-only at http://www.shrm.org/). Forward-thinking companies recognize that losing key leaders at all levels of the organization will reduce the success of the company as well as the productivity of other leaders in other areas.

There isn't one single way to develop effective leaders. Different skills must be learned and applied at different levels, in different environments and at different times. Neither is there one curriculum to magically elevate employees from new hire to the executive ranks. Curricula must grow with organizations as their needs change.  A well-implemented leadership development program aligns with the needs of each individual.

What is your organization's posture towards leadership? Does your organization engage leaders at all levels for training, retaining, growth, and success? Are your managers leading, or just managing? Please share your thoughts and concerns in the comments.