Talent Management - October 2008 - (Page 49)

An advocate for success during transition periods, London Business School staff member David Morris joined the team as a business development manager. When the team embarked on the ExecOnBoard experience, Morris began to assess his future at the organization. “The previous six months had seen a huge transition within the team and morale was low. The team just wasn’t cohesive, and I wasn’t sure where we were going as a business, or who we were as a brand,” said Morris. In initial phone interviews with DiVittis, the Career Services team suggested effective processes and outcomes. With the arrival of three new members, Morris’ focus became to redeﬁne his role within the organization. One way to evaluate and assess HR staff and departmental effectiveness is to facilitate a questionnaire. During the ﬁrst team day in August 2007, DeVittis introduced the group to the Social Style Self-Perception Questionnaire, designed to show individuals how they can help develop skills to improve productivity in the workplace via the context of social styles. Morris learned he had an “expressive driving” style, typically driven by a fast-paced attitude and an impulse to work in the future time frame. Morris was forced to reconsider where he wanted to take his role and how he could develop his talent within the team. Working with DiVittis during a 30-day phone check-up, Morris was able to commit to developing his position by bringing in new recruiters to his sector. “The use of an on-boarding coach for check-ins allowed each team member to mark their progress and also provided a sounding board to reﬂect upon their individual commitments,” said DiVittis. “Once a team member makes a commitment to refocus their energies in a new direction, that refocusing must be reinforced if the transition is to take hold.” The Career Services team worked to fulﬁll individual commitments as the second team day approached. Although happier with the direction his role had taken, Morris still felt a lack of communication in Career Services indicated members were unsure of the group’s principal goal. Thus, the threat of low staff retention remained. In response, DiVittis employed the DMI assessment, an online survey to assess and harness team effectiveness One great way to evaluate and assess HR staff and departmental effectiveness is to facilitate a questionnaire. and talent management efforts. By completing the survey, individuals were able to compare and understand their individual views and goals in the context of the overall team and organization. “The survey was a clear example of how, if we individually examined our roles and what we wanted to achieve — and then looked at what we were achieving as a team — we could learn to work towards a common goal and build up motivation at the same time,” Morris said. With this common goal in mind, Morris took the lead on developing the Career Services business development plan, devising a timeline by which he could motivate the team to discuss key performance indicators aligned with London Business School’s vision. By October 2008 APPLICATION continued on page 56 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com 49 http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - October 2008

Talent Management - October 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Foundations The Three Pillars of Executive On-Boarding Role-Based Assessment: Thinking Inside the Box Who's Going to Speak Up for Health Care? Obey the Push to Automate Managing the Star Performer No One Wants to Work With Adopting a Mutual-Funds Model for Talent Management Hewlett-Packard: Simple Talent Management in a Technical World Team Effort Pays in Talent at London Business School The Employee Survey: What’s in It for Me? Why Most Managers Are Stuck Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - October 2008

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