10 Reasons for Executive Failure

A derailed executive is an previously-named high-potential employee who has reached the middle management level, only to find that there is little chance of future advancement (as previously thought) due to a misfit between job requirements and personal skills. Thus, the executive either plateaus or leaves the organization altogether. That is the original CCL studies definition. Sometimes the term also refers to leaders who experience big failures after reaching the executive spot and, more recently, those involved in ethical scandals.

Whatever your definition of a bad leader is, most have several of the following 10 leadership shortcomings:

Lack of energy/enthusiasm: OK so some people are less visibly enthusiastic than others, thanks to a personality trait called introversion. But there’s an effort to be made, no matter what your personality style, to covey and inspire energy and enthusiasm in your team. And there is NEVER an excuse for complaining. Either do it, change it, or leave it.

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 Sourced from: HRM Today Featured Posts

The effect of mentoring on the job performance and social status of mentors in China

In this study, we examine how mentoring benefits mentors as well as how team cohesiveness affects mentoring relationships and resulting benefits. We followed 512 formal mentors in a Chinese manufacturing firm for six months and collected data in three phases and from three sources. The findings reveal that the amount of mentoring provided is positively related to mentors’ in-role job performance and social status. These relationships were fully mediated by mentors’ personal learning and social interaction quality, respectively. Team cohesiveness, however, did not moderate these relationships. Our empirical findings have implications for understanding how mentors’ careers can benefit from being a mentor.

 Sourced from: Latest Issue of Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

Performance Reviews are not just about meeting goals

There is much emphasis placed on organizations being able to adequately assess the individual performance of employees so as to ensure that organizational goals have been achieved. This has been commonly done through periodic reviews conducted with employees to assess whether they have met their goals for that period. There is more to performance reviews than to just assess whether their goals have been met; there is additional potential for organizations to assess how the goals were met, what were the barriers to achieving those goals, as well as whether improvements could be made.

Performance reviews also provide the opportunity for management to assess the process that was undertaken by the employees to see whether the course of action taken to achieve the goal was effective. This can be very enlightening as management gets a clearer perspective regarding the operational concerns involved while obtaining feedback from employees regarding any potential barriers that are present or even suggestions about how things can be improved.

For the employees, this is an additional forum where they are able to provide relevant input for the organization and it can be motivating when they see that management is interested in what they have to say as well as implementing some of the suggestions that they have provided. This ensures greater buy-in and commitment among employees as they are able to contribute to the process.

Why do Performance Reviews at Work?

Performance reviews are critical to the overall welfare of the organization and should be viewed as a highly valuable and positive experience for both the organization and the employee. This is not always the case as most people have a negative perspective when considering performance reviews. Nevertheless, when conducted in the proper manner, performance reviews have the potential to be valuable tools for organizations to improve its performance and effectiveness as well as for providing a forum to develop employees.

Performance reviews can motivate employees to do better and raises their self-esteem. They can act as forums to build upon the employer/employee relationship and to strengthen it so as to foster improved commitment between both parties. It has been demonstrated that there is a strong desire among employees to know how they are performing as well as hot their supervisor perceives them. Performance reviews provide the opportunity to give the appropriate recognition and praise to the employee’s work contributions, allows the organization to further develop the employee, provide on-going feedback to reward good performance and also to resolve any performance issues.

Therefore, it is important for organizations to recognize the utility of conducting performance reviews and promote it as a critical management activity. Time and effort should be spent on developing, implementing and maintaining properly designed performance reviews. The benefits for the organization and the employees will far outweigh the investment in time, cost and effort. For organizations without the time or expertise to design their own appraisal systems, or those wishing to ensure they use a highly validated performance framework, we suggest the Saville Consulting Performance 360 System.