5.5″ x 8.5″ (13.97 x 21.59 cm) • Black & White on White paper • 134 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1481961264 • ISBN-10: 1481961268
BISAC: Business & Economics / Human Resources & Personnel Management

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Sample the Book:

Forward

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank all of my clients over the years for contributing to the research that made this book possible. It was only with their trust and confidence that we were able to provide the leadership assessment, measure the performance of their leaders, and survey the opinions and work values of their employees.

To all of the consultants and staff of my old firm, Management Science Associates, Inc. (MSA), and my current firm, Work Dynamics, Inc., I convey my respect, admiration, and gratitude. Without their hard work, loyalty, and dedication, none of this work would have been possible. I also would like to express my gratitude to my friend and colleague, Rita Tripp, RN, MBA, JD, who has worked with the leadership assessment for more than twenty-five years and assisted me in writing this book. A special note of thanks goes to Ed Hume, who, along with his colleagues at Hume, Mansfield, and Silber, developed the original leadership assessment.

Finally I want to thank Dr. Vincent Flowers and Debra Heflich, who graciously helped me at a critical time to refocus and refine my knowledge of work value analysis. It was their intimate knowledge and application of Graves’s levels of psychological existence theory—combined with Dr. Flowers’s tireless passion for truth and knowledge—that inspired me to continue my own work. Their knowledge of Dr. Graves’s theory, levels of psychological existence, and work value analysis is beyond measure.

Introduction

Looking back over the long history of our management consulting experience, we have been blessed to have worked with some of the most successful and complex corporations in the United States. At one point we were retained by more than one thousand of these corporations, most of which were in the healthcare industry. With all of this experience, we have learned that no decision is more critical than leadership selection, and the higher the position of responsibility, the more critical the decision.

From our work in these corporations, we learned a great deal about senior leadership, through our own personal interactions and through the consulting tools and methodologies we used to diagnose management issues and assess leadership effectiveness. The following three consulting methodologies proved to be the most reliable and effective tools to evaluate leadership talent, enhance leadership effectiveness, and measure leadership success.

Leadership Assessment

In the mid-1970s, we first began to use a specialized personality assessment tool based on the trait theory of leadership to identify potential leaders and develop existing leaders. We used this assessment tool in hundreds of client organizations to select and develop thousands of leaders. Over the course of time, this assessment has proven consistently accurate and reliable. It has been extensively field-tested to say the least.

Work Value Analysis

Early in our consulting practice we developed an employee opinion survey to measure both job satisfaction and work values. More than 1.5 million employees were surveyed, and more than 800,000 work values were measured. Unlike the leadership assessment, which measures personality characteristics and traits, the work value analysis measures levels of psychological existence, and from this what a person values in work. Work value analysis has proven to be an invaluable tool in enabling leaders to meet the psychological work-related needs of their employees and helping them reach their full leadership potential.

Leadership Performance Measurement

If you want to measure a leader’s success you must measure his or her actual job performance. Over the years, in our consulting practice, having observed the ineffective use of subjective performance measures, we developed and refined a quantifiable results-oriented methodology to measure leadership performance. We installed this methodology in hundreds of corporations for use by governing boards and CEOs as a means to objectively determine appropriate annual salary increases and bonus incentives based upon both corporate and individual executive performance. Although the methodology was the same for each client corporation, the application was unique to each client based on internal and industry benchmarks. Measurable objectives were set each fiscal year with acceptable ranges of performance, and at the end of the year, each executive was evaluated based upon his or her performance results. We learned a great deal about how an individual’s personality characteristics and work value influence his or her ability to lead others and achieve results.

What to Expect

Whether you’re a seasoned CEO, experienced corporate executive, aspiring leader, or budding entrepreneur, you will find the information in this book valuable and insightful. It is deliberately short on theory and long on practicality.

After reading this book you should have a sharper eye to size up potential leaders as well as a keener sense of what’s behind the leadership behavior of both yourself and others. Hopefully you will be able to understand, relate to, and engage your colleagues and employees with greater insight, clarity, and precision.