I’ve had lots of jobs, either as line manager or the senior HR person, in technical organisations. Where most of the people are engineers and/or scientists. And I am very aware of the difficulties involved in the identification of high-potential people (‘hipos’) in...
My current Russian client, a large and very successful petrochemicals company, has had many reorganisations in the last couple of years. One of these that they are implementing in all their production locations, is a systematic delayering. I recently designed...
When I was head of the Corporate University in Kazakhstan, one of our ‘best sellers’ was Teambuilding. And my people were pretty damn good at it. Which I guess is the reason that we had so many companies as clients and return as clients. I have always had mixed...
Recently with a new client in Russia I’ve found myself in executive coaching sessions talking about brand. And previously in Kazakhstan, we built the concept of brand into the new senior leadership development course we introduced. Brand is a concept I embraced many...
Two recent events have reminded me about work I did almost twenty years ago about the differences between teams and groups (and even bigger ‘teams’ like communities and networks). I was coaching a young lady recently promoted to manager in one of my new clients in...
In the last few years I’ve been involved with setting up high-potential identification programmes in a number of companies, both in ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ countries. Recently we held a workshop in Paris for a client who wanted to review best practices, to help...
I seem to have been involved with job grading, job evaluation, job promotion, whatever you want to call it, on and off for most of my professional life. And it keeps returning! I was lucky enough to be taught job evaluation at Shell (a version of the Hay Group system)...
I do not normally read lists in HR, management or leadership blogs. Which is ironic given that some of my blogs here appear to contain lists. However one caught my eye recently and I ended up reading it. It was ’21 executives share the daily routines that help them...
We have recently developed and used the concept of Learning Agility in the HR Consulting group, which reports to me in my current role, possibly for the first time in Kazakhstan in a Kazakh company. I had used Learning Agility a couple of times in previous companies,...
The HR Consulting group within my current organization has a range of expertise including carrying out online engagement surveys for all of the National Companies. When we report the results it is often to the CEO of the company and their top leadership teams. This...
Effective non-financial motivation appeals more to the emotions of employees than pay, bonuses and status symbols. It helps people feel appreciated and valued. It increases loyalty and engagement. They send a message to staff and work positively in terms of retention,...
It is only recently, in my new company, that I realised how often I have been involved with the introduction of 360⁰ feedback. From the first time, more than 25 years ago, with a short paper version, a handful of questions and very little expertise. Supporting...
I have been reminded recently in my current company, about the problems there can sometimes be setting up teams to work on small projects. Or rather not the setting up, but in ensuring they deliver what they were supposed to do and on time. Here they were started for...
For the last couple of months I have been working for Allianz Global Investors in Frankfurt and Munich helping with their talent management processes. I’ve been made very welcome and enjoyed it there. One of the aspects of HR management of which I have been reminded...
One of my favourite exercises with new teams is ‘Lifelines’. I’ve used it a lot through the years, especially when the team is almost all new. It has never let me down and it never fails to surprise. It sounds simple but seems to generate amazing, personal, in-depth...
I have recently been helping with a talent management project, as part of the Organisational Renewal Programme at the European Space Agency (ESA). One of the discussions has been about benchmarking and what other similar technological companies do, in regards to...
Last week I ran a half-day interactive session for high-potentials at NIS, the Siberian National Oil Company in Belgrade, Serbia. They wanted to hear how corporate values can drive culture and result-oriented performance management. My case studies were three...
Whenever I have been involved in a change process, whether a major reorganization, a reduction round or the introduction of new processes, I learned very early on that "communication" will always be an issue. However much you think you are communicating, it will never...
It is never nice to lose a job, especially through no fault of your own, but the chances are it will happen to most of us at some stage in our career. There are plenty of articles about what you should do then to improve your chances of re-employment. Unfortunately...