From HRD Managers to CEO

At the same time, reports from Heidrick and Struggles indicate that competition for the CPO’s chair will increase, with a ripple effect to be felt down through the ranks. Ambitious, young college graduates will choose personnel or HRD as a path to the top, the company predicts, and more line managers will transfer into staff functions for “broadening experiences” in the quest for the mantle of president. Continue reading

Salary for Training Managers and Trainers

A new figure of power is moving into the corporate circle of strategic decision makers, report Korn/Ferry and Heidrick and Struggles, the nation’s two largest executive search firms. The trend has profound implications for trainers and human resources development (HRD) managers seeking to move up the company ladder, says David Brinkerhoff, president of Abbott-Smith Associates, the leading executive recruiter in the training field.

You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR management, business strategy and personal development HERE.

The new executive goes by several names, from Vice President/Human Resources to Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). Brinkerhoff predicts trainers and HRD managers will be strongly represented among the new CPOs of this decade. As such, they’ll enjoy unprecedented clout: a vice-president’s title, an officer’s chair and a voice in strategic planning. But they’ll also have to abandon a long-cherished fan¬tasy— that of an HRD empire that’s a corporate power unto itself. Continue reading

Building High Performance and Effective Team

High-performance team leaders must be experts in the unit’s activity and prepared to function as pacesetters and mentors.

The leadership of a high-performance unit presents a unique challenge. Members of such a unit generally function best under leadership which supports risk-taking, provides feedback, honors goal clarity, rewards initiative, encourages growth and demands excellence. Leaders of high-performance units sometimes become quasi-mythical figures. Vince Lombardi is an example. Continue reading

Developing High Performance Culture and Training

Training is continuous and related to assignments. A high-performance spirit and raw confidence are cut from the same cloth. Confidence can be defined as the inner security that comes from knowing and knowing that you know.

The role of continuous training is to promote inner security by maintaining preparedness. With the business world changing so rapidly, the high-performance unit must be perpetually updated to remain current, responsive and effective. The training must be related to the task performed. This not only ensures cost effectiveness by being immediately applicable, it adds to the elite feeling by increasing the likelihood of unit success. Continue reading

Training Lessons from Navy Seal Training

Individuals in the unit are constantly tested to ensure that they measure up to the elite standards of the unit. High-performance teams rarely allow team members to rest on past laurels— the quest to achieve is constant and relentless.

The player with a poor batting average is traded, despite his contributions in past seasons. Performance expected is frequently compared to performance achieve; too wide a gap on the negative side without obvious extenuating circumstances is unacceptable. The period of time a unit member is allowed to stay “in the red” and remain in the unit is short. Feedback on performance is frequent and specific. Continue reading

NAVY Training and Military Training

Completion of individual training is followed by team training. As individual training buys one eligibility, team training becomes an investment in effectiveness. It has been repeatedly shown that most companies, organizations or teams fail more frequently because of the lack of unit interdependence when individual skills are present than the reverse.

Even in units requiring highly individual actions (e.g., a scientist in a research lab), the quantity and quality of resource sharing becomes a crucial factor in determining the overall results achieved. Continue reading