Welcome to the June 1, 2005 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

Stepping Onto The Correct Career Path

Ira Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions and editor of The Total View, recently talked with BusinessWeek Online reporter Francesca Di Meglio about how MBAs can better shape their future career. The column was posted on the Business Week Online website this past Monday (May 23, 2005). Follow the link below to rad the full column.

Searching for the Right Career? Visit the SPS Career Test Center.

What's Inside:

1. Overcoming The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Does any of this sound familiar? Despite stagnant sales, falling productivity, low morale sucks, and a shrinking bottom line, management meetings are not only dreaded but non-productive; nothing ever seems to get done. "At least we didn't get in another one of those shouting matches" is considered a sign of success, even if nothing was accomplished.

The lack of results frustrates you to no end. You've hired and promoted a group of managers of undeniable intelligence, experience and education. Individually they all seem competent, reasonable and motivated. But collectively they drain all your energy and consume all your time.

These talented managers blame their lack of results on too much to do, too many meetings and too many incompetent employees. Direct reports and colleagues complain about these same managers lacking a few key social graces and leadership skills.

A typical management meeting goes like this. Every time Mikey disagrees with a recommendation or report made by a fellow manager, she rolls her eyes in apparent disgust or mumbles something under breath. When asked "what's that all about?", Mikey retorts with "What?", like she has no idea what anyone is talking about.

And then there's Martin, a brilliant engineer, rarely participates in meetings. Instead he sits at the table pounding on his laptop keyboard, checking emails, and reading articles. When he does chime in, it's usually to find fault with another manager. Even when he's right - and he usually is - his sarcasm just flames the tension in the room.

Of course, every management team has a Carlos, too. He works long hours with no complaints and doesn't expect additional recognition or compensation. Carlos just sits back and listens. Carlos is just happy when the team isn't fighting so he goes out of his way to help in any way he can.

Mikey, Martin, and Carlos are just a few of the managers Patrick Lencioni describes in his book, Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Unfortunately, one or more of these managers may have the uncanny (and unhealthy) resemblance to managers on your own team.

Effective teams are focused on achieving results. Individual members trust one another. They are unafraid of debate and encourage constructive conflict. They are willing to put aside individual feelings to commit to decisions and plans of actions because they have an opportunity to be heard without repudiation or retaliation. They are willing to hold one another accountable for delivering results and all energies are focused on the achievement of collective results.

Dysfunctional teams aren't teams at all but collections of individuals, like Mikey, Martin and Carlos, forced to work together under one roof or other similar circumstances. So much time is spent guarding individual positions and looking out for career advancement that individual status and ego overwhelm the goals of the organization.

A meaningful and collective focus on specific objectives and a willingness to put aside individual status for the good of the organizations is what drives teamwork….and that can't come without trust among team members.

Trust, or the absence of it, is the first of the five dysfunctions identified by Lencioni "Essentially, absence of trust stems from an unwillingness to be vulnerable with the group," he writes. "Trust is the confidence among team members that their peers' intentions are good"…..and are "confident that …..vulnerabilities will not be used against them."

Lack of trust results in team members holding back, fearing conflict. Discussions are filled with veiled truths and guarded comments.

This lack of healthy conflict, the second dysfunction, is a problem. Without having a venue to air opinions, team members rarely, if ever, buy in to decisions resulting in a lack of commitment, the third dysfunction.

Without commitment and buy-in, team members hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team. Avoidance of accountability is the fourth dysfunction.

Without accountability, desired results won't happen. When team members are more concerned with protecting their own hide and put their personal achievements ahead of the collection goals of the team, inattention to results occurs, the fifth dysfunction.

Building an effective and cohesive team begins with overcoming dysfunction #1, the absence of trust. Lencioni offers solutions for each of the dysfunctions and identifies personality and behavioral preference profiles as among "the most effective and lasting tools for building trust on a team." He continues, "these help break down barriers by allowing people to better understand and empathize with one another."

(Lencioni also encourages 360-degree feedback, although he admits (and I agree) that these programs are a bit riskier and should be divorced from compensation and formal performance evaluation.)

Build Trust, Build Effective Teams with CriteriaOne Behavioral Assessments

Order your copy of Five Dysfunctions of a Team here.

2. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #408

Don't miss day-to-day updates on Perfect Labor Storm. Save the Perfect Labor Storm blog to your favorites.

Fact #408:
Job Outlook 2005-  The top in-demand bachelor's degrees are:
1. Accounting
2. Electrical Engineering
3. Mechanical Engineering
4. Business administrator/management
5. Economics/finance
6. Computer Science
7. Computer Engineering
8. Marketing/Marketing Management
9. Chemical Engineering
10. Information Sciences and Systems

Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers

Don't be caught in storm without all the facts. "The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is a must-read leading edge forecast that predicts workforce trends for decades to come. Order your copy today - Only $7.95.

3.  On The Tube and In Person

Marilyn Walker will be the keynote speaker at the 37th Annual PA Therapeutic Recreation Institute. Her topic is "Defining Your Dream". Marilyn is the Director of the SPS Employee Assessment Center and Right-Turn-on-Red Career Test Center.

Ira S. Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions, joined Business2Business managing editor Ted Byrne and contributing columnist Stan Telson on the May 12 broadcast of Journalists Roundtable, broadcast on PA Cable Network. To receive a copy of the broadcast, contact Success Performance Solutions. Please provide your mailing address.

4.  NEW! Order DISCstyles™ Today and receive a PeopleSmart book FREE.

(We are very pleased to announce the addition of our newest DISC report, DISCstyles to our library of online personality tests, including our CriteriaOne DISC and Business Motivators reports.)

An indisputable fact is that people prefer to interact with people they like. The ability to create rapport with people is a fundamental skill in sales, management, personal relationships, and everyday life. The goal of DISCstyles is to create personal chemistry and productive relationships. You do not have to change your personality. You simply have to understand what drives people and recognize your options for effectively dealing with them. DISCstyles teaches you powerful life-skills that will serve you well in all your relationships: business, social and family.

Completing the DISCstyles™ online assessment, you receive:

1. Your personalized in-depth 29-page DISCstyles Report;

2. You can Invite an unlimited number of observers to complete the Observer Assessment FREE...for 30-days;

3. View and print your Graphs I, II and III;

4. View and print your Observer Composite Report;

5. View and print the FREE PeopleSmart eBook:

6. Access your home page for 60 days;

7. And Access an interactive online component on how to effectively deal with others.

To fully experience the magic of DISCstyles, order your DISCstyles Online Assessment today and receive your FREE PeopleSmart eBook (294 pages) by Tony Alessandra and Michael O'Connor.

5.  How to Interview and Hire High Motivation Employees

CriteriaOne® Train-the-Trainer:
Competency Identification, Personality Testing and Behavioral Interviewing.

Learn how to:

1.  Identify the competencies that drive top performers .
2.  Create a reliable and predictable top performer profile.
3.  Build a screening and interview process, including structured interview guides that qualify competence and job fit in candidates and employees.
4.  ........and More.

Special Fee for The Total View readers - save an $500 off our registration fee of $1695. Your fee of only $1195 from each company plus 3 days of training, workbooks, free assessments valued at $1300. Learn to identify competencies, complete a job analysis and interpret behavioral, values and personality assessments and build a structured behavioral interview.

The next Train-the-Trainer will be held from August 3-5, 2005 in Lancaster PA.    

Register before June 15, 2005 and save $500. Register a 2nd person** from your company at no additional cost.   Register for CriteriaOne online or call 717.291.4640.

(**The fee for consultants includes registration for 1 participant. Each consultant must register individually.)

6. Learn How to Qualify Dozens of Candidates in Under 7 Minutes.

The Resu-mess is back! If piles of resumes and crowded e-mail in-boxes have got you frustrated, you NEED Total APS' Rapid Screening Data (RSD).

What is Total APS? It is an applicant tracking and assessment system that puts your recruiting and selection efforts on auto pilot. Total APS even provides you accesss to unlimited usage of the TotalView assessment for 30 days or more.

Total APS frees up your time to communicate with only QUALIFIED candidates and helps you ensure a good job fit between a person and the job. Experience Total APS and RSD in action. View our online -seven-minute, no-obligation video demonstration of the Total APS system at:

At 211 degrees, water is hot.
At 212 degrees, water boils.
With boiling water, comes steam.
With steam, you can power a train.

As with sports, close is not good enough in customer service.
Professional golf tournaments are comprised of four rounds of 18 holes played over a four-day period. There are four major tournaments each year - The U.S. Open, The British Open, The PGA Championship, and the Masters.

Do you have a story about a manager, customer, employee, vendor, or supplier going the extra degree?   Email us your 212 story by replying to this email. Readers who submit a story that is accepted for publication will receive a free 212 book.

Source: (212: The Extra Degree, S. L. Parker)

Order your 212: The Extra Degree book for only $14.95.

Syndication available - call us.