________

What are the secrets to a #highperforming #team?

There really is no secret to building a high performing team.

At the risk of making this sound too simplistic, here are 3 things that you may wish to look at when you want to build a high performing team:

1. #Clarity – Clarity of purpose, direction, instructions.

2. #Communication – Effective communication is the bedrock of psychological safety and inclusiveness. Everyone needs to be able to voice their thoughts, concerns, and their opinions. I often hear that communications need to be a 2-way street. But I beg to differ. Communication is multi-directional – everyone needs to be communicating with everyone else – to learn from one another, and to support one another.

3. #Cognitive #diversity The term “Diversity ” has become a cliche these days. Most think that diversity is about education, race or nationality. And I beg to differ here again. It is much MORE than just education, race, nationality. It is about embracing people with different backgrounds, beliefs, experiences AND Thinking Styles.

And here’s the catch: All the above 3 Cs are interconnected. You can’t have one without the other for a high performing team.

And I ended the post with this question:

There’s one more C. Do you know what it is?

__________

And I received a number of responses. Here are some of the answers I received:

• Culture,
• Connection
• Compassion
• Collaboration
• Character
• Competency
• Customer
• Caring
• Coordination
• Co-operation

All very good answers, however they weren’t the answer I had in mind.

So here’s the fourth “C”:

#Civility

If you want to build a high performance team, then you will need to ensure discussions, arguments and disagreements remain civil.

Being Civil means respect – even if you do not agree with what is being said.

It doesn’t mean a high performing team is one that has no disagreements or arguments. Far from it.

In fact, a high performing team would be expected to have more disagreements.

However once a decision has been made, the entire team will align itself behind that decision to make it work – putting differences aside.

Civility creates a certain #climate around the team – one that is respectful, authentic, and candid.

About the Author

Steven Lock is the Founder of FutureTHINK! Training & Consultancy LLP.

He is an Author, Facilitator, Consultant and a Coach. Steven has more than 20 years of corporate experience.

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

Steven is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. The model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach.

Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been interviewed twice on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital, LinkedIn and other publications.

His comment on Team Collaboration has been quoted in the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven is a Certified Solution-Focused Coach (CSFC), Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF), and MBTI® (Step I & II) certified practitioner.

Culture is also one of the things I always talk about in my workshops and talks.

The fact is, I too, sometimes struggle to fully explain what Culture really means.

Is it the collective behaviour of the people within the organisation?
Is it the values espoused by the people within?
Is it the artifacts you find in the organisation?

Recently I came across an article by Dr. Cameron Sepah, titled “Your Company’s Culture is Who You Hire, Fire, & Promote”.

And I was completely blown away by his article.

I couldn’t have described Culture better than he did in his article.

Here’s an extract of what he said in his article:

“Your company’s employees practice the behaviors that are valued, not the values you believe.”

Dr Sepah also sets out to talk about the “No Assholes” rule.

Read about what he has to say about these people in your company.
I’m confident you will find his article very enlightening.

Happy reading.

Click here for article

But how much of this will actually come true? Will artificial intelligence and robots really take over EVERYTHING – including our lives, our thoughts and our world?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. And here’s what I think:

The rise of artificial intelligence & robots is inevitable. Look around us and you will realise that we are already surrounded by technology. Our devices are getting smaller and they are also getting smarter.

What used to fill an entire room (full of vacuum tubes) can now fit snugly in our pockets and on our wrists. In fact, the devices we have now in our pockets and on our wrists have processing and computing power that far exceeds those vacuum tube machines back in the 1950’s.

And these technologies will continue to revolutionise. Processing power will continue to increase and eventually computers and machines will replace many of the processes we now do and many jobs will be replaced. Some folks have gone as far as to predict a world run by machines and humans being subjugated as pawns on a human chessboard.

I can’t predict what will happen in 100 years from now. But what I can tell you is this: artificial intelligence and robots will not be able to completely replace the “human” in Human Beings. As far as I can see, human emotions cannot be encoded – at least not just yet. Human relationships cannot be reduced to a string of computer code.

human emotions cannot be encoded

A machine could replace an accountant – because accounts are based on fixed rules. A machine could replace an IT Programmer – because programming is also based on fixed rules. However a machine cannot replace human emotions, because human emotions cannot be encoded. Feelings cannot be encoded. Machines can’t feel. Machines do not have a conscience (well, some may argue that some humans too have no conscience, but that is beyond the scope of this article!).

Machines may be able to replicate the REACTIONS to emotions, but they can never ever feel the emotions that humans can. The range of emotions that a human being can experience is so complex that no machines will be able to replicate them.

What Can We Do?

So what am I alluding to?

If you are a HR Practitioner, it would do well for you to go back to BASICS – and put the “Human” back into Human Resources. Learn to engage your colleagues on a “human” level. Put the emotions and relationships back into your interactions with your colleagues. Step beyond the policies, rules and guidelines that plague our organisations today. In other words, put the HUMAN back into Human Resources.

Put the emotions and relationships back into your interactions with your colleagues. Step beyond the policies, rules and guidelines that plague our organisations today.

The same applies to the rest of us homo-sapiens. Put the human back into all our relationships and all our interactions. Whether you are in sales, marketing or education, we should all work at putting the human back into all our relationships and interactions.

Because if we don’t, we may one day run the risk of permanently losing the “human” side of our being.

NOTE: This is an opinion piece. You are free to agree or disagree with what I have written. And if you disagree, my only request is that you disagree like a human – with sensitivity.

About Steven Lock

Steven Lock is the Founder of FutureTHINK! Training & Consultancy LLP. He is a Facilitator, Trainer, Author and a Leadership Coach. Steven brings with him 20 years of corporate experience.

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

Steven is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. The model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach.

Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been interviewed twice on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital, LinkedIn and other publications.

His comment on Team Collaboration has been quoted in the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven is certified in MBTI® (Step I & II) & DiSC® Personality instruments.

If you are, then you know you have to really stretch your hiring dollar and ensure you hire the right people for your organisation. It’s clearly a buyer’s market these days.

As a hiring manager, there is a whole host of confusing advice out there about who you should be hiring and what you should not be hiring for.

there is a whole host of confusing advice out there about who you should be hiring and what you should not be hiring for

I’m sure you have heard some consultants and professional recruiters say that you should hire for Culture Fit. I’m sure you have also heard of calls to hire for Attitude (in fact there is an entire book written on why you should hire for attitude). Some have even said that you should just hire for Personality.

More recently some consulting professionals have come out to preach that you should look for people with potential. In other words, hire people with the Growth Mindset.

So who is right and who is wrong?

So who is right and who is wrong?

What exactly should you be hiring for?

Should you hire for Culture Fit? Or should you hire for Attitude?

What about hiring for Potential or Growth Mindset?

And why would you not hire for Personality?

What Would You Consider When Buying a New Home?

I’d like you to imagine with me for a moment.

You are contemplating buying a new home. What would you look for in your new home? What would you consider before putting down the deposit for your new home?

Would you consider the location?
What about the environment?
Accessibility to and from public transport?
Your new neighbours?
What about carpark facilities?
Would you also consider the growth potential of this new asset you’re about to purchase?
How about the built-in floor area and space?
The internal layout and built quality?

I bet that as a potential home buyer, you would probably consider most, if not all of the above! (and perhaps even more!)

Would you make your purchase decision simply based on just one of the above criteria – say, carpark facilities?

Hiring is like buying a new home

Hiring is just like buying a new home – an asset with the potential of future growth and appreciation in value. It is not a trivial matter that you base your decision to hire on just one criterion. For instance, you cannot simply base your hiring decision just on attitude alone. Similarly, you cannot base your hiring decision just on growth mindset alone.

Hiring is just like buying a new home – an asset with the potential of future growth and appreciation in value

In order to minimise your chances of hiring the wrong person, you will need to consider a combination of factors.

So what is the correct combination that will maximise your chances of hiring the right person for the job?

Here are four areas that I always consider when I hire someone.

This approach has worked wonders for me. It has helped me hire a regional team that achieved 0% attrition and almost 100% KPIs for 10 years straight.

This approach has worked wonders for me. It has helped me hire a regional team that achieved 0% attrition and almost 100% KPIs for 10 years straight

The secret to my success: The CAAP® Model

Culture
Culture refers to Cultural Fit. It is important to select a candidate who is able to fit in with the prevailing culture of the organization or team. Selecting a candidate with the incorrect cultural fit could potentially spell trouble for both the candidate and the organization or team.

Take for instance, the corporate culture at General Electric Co. (GE). GE is well-known for its intensely competitive culture. When Jack Welch was the CEO, he was known to have categorized the employees into three categories: the top 20%, the middle 70% and the bottom 10%. The bottom 10% is the result of a process known as “Forced Ranking”. The top 20% will be showered with praises and financial rewards. The middle 70% would be managed differently and given stretch goals. The bottom 10% will be purged from the organization. As a result of this practice of “bottom slicing”, it created an intensely competitive environment within GE.

Therefore for a new hire to be successful in this case, the candidate needs to be able to fit in and adapt to the highly competitive GE environment.

Attitude
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, candidates with the right cultural fit are no longer sufficient. The candidates should also possess the right work attitudes. For instance, a candidate with a positive attitude will not give up easily when faced with a challenge or a seemingly daunting task. Some examples of positive attitude include:

– Willingness to take on new challenges
– Willingness to take responsibility for things that go wrong
– Willingness to admit mistakes and learn from the mistakes
– Find ways to overcome obstacles

In contrast, bad attitude may include:

– Blaming others when things go wrong
– Criticising others behind their backs
– Self-centred
– Arrogant

Aptitude
Aptitude is the ability and capacity to learn. The aptitude to learn should not be confined to just learning new skills or knowledge. It includes the ability to connect with people; to establish strong relationships with co-workers and peers; and the ability to learn and function as a team.

People who possess the aptitude to learn are continually in a learning mode. They usually possess a high level of personal mastery. They are inquisitive and feel they are part of the team or organization.

Personality
Personality is important because it governs how a person behaves towards others and how the person reacts to others. It governs how a person works within a team, how he/she communicates with others, and how that person makes decisions and manages change.

Conclusion

So what am I saying? Am I saying that my approach is the right one for you?

If you thought so that way, you could not have been more wrong.

What I’m saying here is this: this CAAP(R) hiring approach has worked wonders for me. But it may not be suitable for you – because it all depends on your situation and your current organisational context. However you will not know if it will work for you until you give it a try.

If it works for you, great and continue using this approach for your hiring!
And I would love to hear from you why and how it has worked for you.

If it doesn’t work for you, then it simply means you have to continue looking for a formula that works for you – perhaps even tweaking the CAAP(R) model to suit your environment and context.

Whatever the outcome, the bottom-line is that in this age and time when the economy is so uncertain and the business landscape changing at break-neck speed; and when automation and robotics threaten to take away our jobs, you can’t afford to hire the wrong people for your organisation.

Finally, none of these will work for you if you’re not even clear about what you are looking for in your new hire in the first place.

If you would like to find out how you can apply the CAAP® hiring approach in your organisation to maximise your chances of hiring the right people, check out my book:

The Right Talent – The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.

Get your copy here: https://www.futurethink.com.sg/the-right-talent-book/

Or if you prefer the e-version, it is now available on Amazon Kindle and Kobo.

About the Author

Steven Lock is the Founder of FutureTHINK! Training & Consultancy LLP. He is a Trainer, Author and a Leadership Coach. Steven brings with him 20 years of corporate experience.

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

Steven is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. The model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach.

Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been interviewed twice on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital, LinkedIn and other publications.

His comment on Team Collaboration has been quoted in the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven is certified in MBTI® (Step I & II) & DiSC® Personality instruments.

Over the last decade, this company has grown by leaps and bounds and have established bases as far as the United States of America. Its entity here in Singapore is a small but rapidly growing one, and it has plans to grow and expand here in South East Asia over the next several months.

As part of its aggressive plans for expansion here in S.E.A, the Managing Director of the Singapore office realised that it was important for them to build and establish a strong culture here in Singapore and within the South East Asian region, that includes offices in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

When I met with the M.D. to discuss the details of the workshop, he made it clear that he wanted to the leaders in this region to be effective leaders leading the growth of the organisation over the next several months.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

So based on the information gathered from the M.D. during the meeting, I decided to discuss Leadership Styles with the leadership team for the workshop. As this is a growing team, the leaders needed to understand how their leadership styles would affect the organisation at different stages of organisational growth and maturity.

We all know that we can’t use the same leadership style for all people in different circumstances. But the challenge is that most of us are not aware of which styles we use most often and how to switch between styles in different situations and when dealing with different people.

The Power of the Team View

So the workshop focused on the six leadership styles by Dr. Daniel Goleman but we discussed only the Consolidated Group Style Report as shown in the picture above.

From this report, it is very obvious which style the leadership team tend to gravitate towards. For those who are familiar with the six leadership styles, the Democratic Style has a strong correlation to positive performance. However, we all know that too much of a good thing can be bad. And it is no difference in this case.

A leadership team that is too democratic tends to breed mediocrity in the long-term. The team will most likely end up in endless meetings and discussions. Coming to concrete decisions may be an extremely long drawn-out process.

And herein lies the power of the consolidated leadership styles report.

The report avoids highlighting the individual styles of each individual, but instead highlights the leadership style of the entire leadership team.

I have conducted this same exercise for different leadership teams and the conclusion is always the same – the leadership team knew exactly why they have been ineffective just by looking at this chart, and instantly knew what they needed to do in order to be more effective going forward.

What about YOUR leadership team?

Do you feel that your leadership team is ineffective in leading your organisation, but don’t know exactly where the problem is?

Do you feel that your leadership team can do better leading your organisation, but don’t know how to go about improving?

If the above questions resonate with you, then the Leadership Style Questionnaire is just the tool for you. It will show you exactly why your team is ineffective and what you should do to improve.

Discover your own Leadership Styles here

Author Bio

Steven Lock is the Founder of FutureTHINK! Training & Consultancy LLP. He is a Trainer, Author and a Leadership Coach. Steven brings with him 20 years of corporate experience.

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

Steven is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. The model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach.

Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been interviewed twice on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital, LinkedIn and other publications.

His comment on Team Collaboration has been quoted in the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven is certified in MBTI® (Step I & II) & DiSC® Personality instruments.

So who should be leading a organisational culture change?

https://hbr.org/2016/11/hr-cant-change-company-culture-by-itself

The author of this Harvard Business Review article says it should be the busniess leaders’ responsibility. HR should be a “resource” for helping them achieve it.

Do you agree?

“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.” ~ Hesoid, 700 BC

Strawberry Generation.

Millennials.

Generation Y.

These terms are commonly used to describe the generation born between 1980 and 2000.

We’ve heard lots of horror stories about these Gen Ys and Millennials and the Internet is full of articles and stories about them. In fact, I have heard first-hand horror stories about Gen Y workers in our workforce.

But seriously, are they any different from the rest of us? If yes, then what and how are they different from the rest of us Gen Xers and Baby Boomers?

Comparing Gen Xers with Millennials

To begin with, I belong to Generation X. So you probably can guess my age.

As far as I can recall, when I was in my twenties, I had very similar experiences as today’s Millennials. Unkind and disparaging comments were made against my generation. It was not uncommon to hear comments about how my generation was a useless generation compared to my parent’s generation and the one before.

Some of the comments passed by the previous generation included remarks such as “These youngsters are so useless” or “These youngsters don’t know what they want in life” or “Life is too good for these young people”. Or worse, we were just “good-for-nothings”.

The problem I see with these comparisons of people of my Generation with those of the previous generation is that it is not a fair comparison at all. It is not an apple-to-apple comparison.

Comparisons of people of my Generation with those of the previous generation is that it is not a fair comparison at all. It is not an apple-to-apple comparison.

What I Really Cared About When I Was in my 20s

Truth be told, when I was in my twenties, I had no clue what I wanted to be. I had no clue what I was good at. And I had no clue what I should do for the rest of my life.

But after I started working, I wanted to climb the corporate ladder. I wanted to achieve more than what my parents achieved. I wanted to be promoted as quickly as possible, and I wanted to earn higher salaries every year. I too, wanted that dream job, that dream home and that dream car.

I would think of different ways to climb the corporate ladder and achieve what I wanted. And if I couldn’t get what I wanted in the current organisation, I would look for opportunities in other organisations that would give me the chance of moving up the corporate ladder faster. I was always on the look-out for a short-cut to success.

So I never stayed in one job for more than 3 years. It wasn’t until I was in my early thirties that I started to mellow down and stayed on a job for 13 years.

So how is this so different from the current Generation Y?
They too want to get promoted. They too want higher salaries. They too want to be recognised.

The fact is, inter-generational comparisons are not doing all of us any favours. It only highlights the biasness we have against the Millennials.

The fact is, inter-generational comparisons are not doing all of us any favours. It only highlights the biasness we have against the Millennials.

It isn’t a Fair Comparison

In most cases, when we compare ourselves with the younger generation, we are not doing justice to them and to ourselves. How do we compare a 40+ year old Generation Xer with a 20+ year old Millennial? How do we reconcile values of a 40+ year old with that of a 20+ Millennial?

When I was in my 20s, ALL that mattered to me were status, salary and a lifestyle that others would envy. I wanted a nice home. I wanted to drive the coolest car. I wanted to go on long holidays. And I wanted that senior job title.

Now that I’m in my 40s, my values are entirely different from what they were when I was in my 20s. I no longer crave for recognition. I no longer care what type of homes others live in or what cars they drive. And I don’t give a hoot about what others think of me.

What matters to me now are a happy home and family; to spend quality time with good friends over a meal or a great conversation; to enjoy life’s journey for whatever its worth.

When I was in my 20s, ALL that mattered to me were status, salary and a lifestyle that others would envy. I wanted a nice home.

What Your Parent’s Generation Said about YOU

Now if you are a Generation Xer, think back to your younger days — when you were in your 20s.
What were your priorities back then?

What were those years like? What were your values? What was your aim in life? What did you really care about? What did you really want to do?

And most of all, what did your parent’s generation say about you and your generation?

I would go out on a limb to say that they said very similar things about you and your generation, as we do the younger generation today. I’m sure they experienced similar frustrations as you do now with the younger generation.

I would go out on a limb to say that they said very similar things about you and your generation, as we do the younger generation today.

Are There Any Differences At All?

Now I wouldn’t say that we were exactly the same as the Millennials when we were in our 20s. There are definitely differences between a 20-something Millennial and the 20-something you years back.

The good old 1970’s are not the same as the rolling 1990’s.

So what are the differences?

For starters, we never had iPhones and iPads back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And we sure didn’t have WhatsApp and Telegram. The 20-somethings today prefer to text their friends than to have a face-to-face conversation. They prefer to “Google” than to go to the library to do research. And they prefer to shop online than to make their way to a bricks-and-mortar store in Orchard Road.

In addition, economic life cycles are getting shorter and shorter. And so are the expectations of the younger generation. Gen Xers may have expected a promotion every couple of years, but a Millennial today would expect a promotion every year or so. (Yes, I know some who expect to be promoted just 2 months into their new jobs, but these are more the exception than the norm. And I would venture to say that these are the ones who stick out like a sore thumb attracting the unkind comments levied against the entire generation of Millennials.)

The Secret to Engaging Millennials

The fact is most Millennials are still quite sensible. They know what is realistic and what isn’t. I have hired and worked with 20-somethings before and they were a fantastic bunch of people. They gave me no problems and we all enjoyed a great working relationship for many years.

And the secret to that great working relationship was because I took care of their career paths. I took pains to plan their career paths and to help them move forward in their careers. I gave them opportunities to discover their strengths and to shine. I gave them the space to make mistakes and to grow in their jobs. And I gave them the opportunity to learn new things on the job.

Now ask yourself: When you were in your 20s, did you wish your boss would do all of these things for you? To look out for you? To help you progress in your career? To take care of your professional development?

If your answer is yes to any of the above, then what is so different about you and the 20-something Millennials of today?

When you were in your 20s, did you wish your boss would do all of these things for you? To look out for you? To help you progress in your career? To take care of your professional development?

What the Research Shows

Research after research have shown that generational differences are greatly over-hyped. As Bruce N. Pfau said in a recent Harvard Business Review article: “Part of the reason is the proliferation of poor ‘research’ or overreaching and invalid conclusions based on otherwise valid facts. The most glaring examples of faulty research are ‘studies’ of Millennials that lack comparisons to any control groups of other workers or young people of other generations… in addition, it is also more attention-grabbing to talk about differences among groups and changes in the workplace than it is to report on how alike they are.” (Harvard Business Review, April 2016, “What Do Millennials Really Want at Work? The Same Things the Rest of Us Do”)

And in a paper by Profs Brent Roberts, Grant Edmonds and Emily Grijalva, they concluded that the differences between generations is “an aging phenomenon, and not a historical phenomenon”. In other words, we are unconsciously comparing two generations of completely different age groups, and completely different values. And that leads to a seriously flawed conclusion about the two generations.

In the words of Roberts, Edmonds and Grijalva, “The fact that one can find complaints about the younger generation being more narcissistic going back to Hesiod helps make the point that every generation is Generation Me. That is, until they grow up.”

Conclusion

So perhaps the next time you are tempted to point your finger at a Millennial and accuse them of being frivolous, shallow, and irresponsible, it might do well for you to remember that you are probably looking at them through your own pair of coloured lenses.

Author Bio

Steven Lock is the Founder of FutureTHINK! Training & Consultancy LLP. He is a Trainer, Author and a Leadership Coach. Steven brings with him 20 years of corporate experience.

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

Steven is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. The model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach.

Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”

• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been interviewed twice on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital, LinkedIn and other publications.

His comment on Team Collaboration has been quoted in the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven is certified in MBTI® (Step I & II) & DiSC® Personality instruments.

Our conventional wisdom about teams are about to change radically because everything we previously knew, or thought we knew, about team work have all been quite incomplete.

What would you say makes a cohesive, effective and high performing team?

I’m sure most of us would start to think about the following:

– Clearly defined goals
– Strong, charismatic leader
– Competent team members
– Personality types
– Skills
– Educational background

But are these the be-all and end-all for a high performing team?

Project Aristotle

In 2012, Google embarked on an initiative – code-named Aristotle – to study hundreds of Google’s teams and figure out why some teams stumbled while others soared.

As we all know, Google loves data. And that is exactly what they did. They combed through half a century of academic studies on how teams worked. They also studied 180 different teams within Google and collected a huge amount of data. Amongst some of the data they collected include insights into the following questions:

– Did team mates socialise outside of office hours?
– Were the best teams made up of people with the same interests?
– Did they have the same hobbies?
– Were they of similar educational backgrounds?
– Was it better for all teammates to be outgoing or for all of them to be shy?

They also wanted to know why teams stuck together and if gender balance had any influence on the success of a team.

But no matter how they arranged the data, they were not able to identify any useful patterns that would indicate why a team did really well.

However in their research, they kept coming across research by psychologists and sociologists that focused on “Group Norms”. Norms are the traditions, behavioural standards, and unwritten rules that govern how we function when we gather. One team may be comfortable with being more confrontational. While others may be comfortable with giving every team member equal airtime for them to voice their comments, concerns and feedback.

Group Norms

After studying over a 100 groups for over a year, Project Aristotle’s researchers concluded that understanding and influencing group norms were the keys to improving Google’s teams.

Group norms include unwritten rules about how each team member should behave and how each team member disagreed with one another. Some groups may be comfortable with a more confrontational style while others may thrive on a more civilised and polite way of disagreeing with another team member.

This is sometimes known as Team Culture. It is the way each member on the team interacts with each other, and how each member treats other members on the team. At this juncture, I would like to point out that there is a difference between Organisational Culture and Team Culture.

Organisational Culture refers to the over-arching culture within the organisation at large. Team Culture refers to the team norms and culture within the team (or function or department).

Psychological Safety

As the researchers continued their studies, they noticed TWO behaviours that all good teams had in common.

1. Equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking

First, is the “equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking”. This gobbledygook simply means whether each team member is given more or less equal airtime to talk and voice their opinions. They found that as long as everyone got a chance to talk, the team did well.

2. High average social sensitivity

Second, all good teams had high “average social sensitivity”. What this simply means is that team members were skilled at intuiting how others felt based on their tone of voice, their expressions and other non-verbal cues. Research shows that the more successful teams seemed to know when someone was feeling upset or left out.

Psychologists sometimes call these two behaviours “psychological safety”. Harvard Business School professor, Amy Edmondson, defines psychological safety as “shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”

In other words, it is a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. Such a climate is underscored by a strong sense of interpersonal trust and mutual respect, and this in turn, encourages everyone on the team to be themselves.

Were there other important behaviours or norms that would encourage good teamwork? The answer is yes. Things like setting clear goals and creating a culture of dependability were important.

However Google’s study indicated that psychological safety, more than anything else, was critical to making a team work.

Workplace FEAR

Clearly, the primary reason for under-performance in teams everywhere is this thing called FEAR.

All you have to do is look around you in your office. Are people comfortable speaking up in-front of the boss? Do most people keep quiet during meetings when the big boss is present? Is the office generally very quiet all day, with very few people talking and interacting – because they are afraid of who might hear what they are saying? And when you conduct team meetings, and you invite feedback, suggestions and comments, do most of your team members say they have no comments and just keep quiet?

Well, these may be signs and symptoms that FEAR has a strangle-hold on your team.

And this directly contributes to sub-par team performance.

Conclusion

If you want your teams to reach their full potential, you need to foster a High Trust–Low Fear environment because people communicate and perform best when they feel safe and trusted around their leaders. Create a “psychologically safe” environment for everyone on the team.

It is only with a psychologically safe environment that you can foster the meeting of minds, incubate great ideas, and establish a crucible of performance excellence.

With the tanking global economy and shrinking revenues and budgets, hiring the right people becomes even more critical for organisations. It is imperative that those you hire into your organisation are able to cope with the additional workload, adapt to constantly changing and unpredictable environments, and be agile enough to handle unfamiliar and new challenges.

Most of us know the WHATs and the WHYs of hiring right. However most of us fall short when it comes to the HOWs. 

• How do you know if a candidate is the right one for you?
• How can you ensure the candidate actually possesses all the competencies you are looking for? 
• How do you craft effective interview questions so that you are able to find out more about your candidate? 
• How do you ask effective follow-up questions so that you dig deep into the candidate’s given answers? 
• How do you tell if a candidate is lying to you?

The Right Talent is precisely written for recruiters who are determined to weed out bad hires through effective hiring. Based on the CAAP® High Performance Model, the book addresses common mistakes and difficulties faced by interviewers and help them understand the interview process, prepare for the interview, and craft the ultimate interview questions using the Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach.

Click here to find out more

“Hiring someone, whether it is for a junior or senior position has always felt like a gamble. Some of the best hires I have come across hinged heavily on the hiring managers’ seemingly well-honed instincts. Their ability to read a person correctly and ‘listen to their gut’ is not as spontaneous or as random as they appear. It comes from years of experience in interacting with people and knowing what to look out for. Steven Lock’s Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach, empiricalises the interviewing process, making it possible for one to fast-track through the learning curve and achieve competence in the hiring process.”

Shirley Go
Global Marketing Manager, Cytec Industries

“A company is only as good as its people. For a start, you need to hire the best people. Steven Lock captured the essence of what is required to accomplish that. When I was a new manager, I used to follow my instincts when I was interviewing and hiring. As you may have guessed, the quality of people I hired was inconsistent. Over the years, I have learnt from my experiences and developed some tactics for successful hiring. Steven’s book reinforced these best practices and elevated my knowledge in this area to the next level. It is truly enlightening. He has converted hiring from an art to a science. He maps out the process in easy-to-follow steps to achieve the results you aspire. This book is a must-read for new managers and those who are serious in building the best teams for their company.”

Bernadette Ho
Regional Services Sales Director, Agilent Technologies

Click here to find out more

Over the last decade, a lot of things have been said about employee engagement, motivation and passion, and most leader know the “Whats” and the “Whys”. However, most are still in the dark about HOW to actually engage, motivate and inspire your employees.

For instance, HR professionals talk about replacing “Exit Interviews” with “Stay Interviews” and Leadership gurus talk about leading teams with a purpose and vision, and communicating effectively.

However I would like to boil all of these down into 10 simple strategies that will enable you to motivate, engage and retain your best employees.

So here are 10 things I did with my team that kept my attrition rate at 0% and employee engagement at 100% and achieving 100% annual objectives for 10 years straight:

• I had regular personal conversations with each and every team member
• I genuinely cared for their professional career development and growth
• I genuinely cared for their personal growth
• I took pains to plan their career paths
• I regularly asked for their feedback, suggestions and comments
• I delegated important tasks and projects to them
• I encouraged them to run their own race
• I always gave credit where credit was due
• We celebrated every success
• We solved problems as a team

I did all of the above with each of my team members, and they rewarded me with loyal service, 100% engagement levels and achieving 100% of all our annual objectives – for 10 years straight.

It’s important to keep in mind that employee engagement is a two-way street, and to be successful, you as the manager or the leader need to be available, genuine and authentic. The fastest and surest way to kill employee engagement is to be arrogant, fake and ungenuine.

Do you need to do all of the above. The answer is YES.

However doing all 10 would be overwhelming for most people. So for a start, identify 2-3 strategies that you can implement immediately and then put them into action. When you experience positive results from the actions you took, identify another 2-3 strategies and put them into action.

If you do all of the above diligently, I can assure you that your employee motivation, engagement and retention will go through the roof.

About the Author

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

He is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. This model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach. Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the Author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is also the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been featured on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital and other publications. His comments on Team Collaboration was quoted in the Spring 2014 Edition of the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven holds a Master of Business (Information Technology) from Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. He is a certified DISC & MBTI® (Step I & II) practitioner.

Recently Steven was invited as a guest speaker to share about his CAAP(R) High Performance Model with over 600 delegates at the Vietnam HR Summit 2016 in Ho Chi Minh City.