1 career conversations: executive masterclass may – september 2013 alison bourne, annie mccallum,...
TRANSCRIPT
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Career Conversations: Executive Masterclass
MAY – SEPTEMBER 2013
ALISON BOURNE, ANNIE MCCALLUM, KATE TAYLOR
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The only thing that will stop us reaching our ambitious growth goals
will be the lack of leadership talent
Charles Sinclair
Chairman
Associated British Foods
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Understanding the context
•Importance at ABF
•Fit with executive development as a whole
•Link to diversity best practice – unconscious bias
Deploying knowledge, tools and skills in deploying career
conversations
•Preparation
•Conducting the conversation
•Following up
Becoming a role model
•What role modelling looks like – to you
The purpose of this programme is to build capability in conducting honest and productive career conversations through:
Purpose and aims of programme
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Individual Executive
•Ownership of own development and career
•‘Leading partner‘ in career development at ABF
Line Manager
•Manages and supports the individual to develop
•Provides honest feedback
•Inputs to development planning and review
•Responsibility for succession planning
•Responsibility to make connections to help individual grow
Roles in career development
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Route map
Why
Preparing for a career conversation•As an individual •As a line manager
Context• Having the conversation
• Unconscious bias
• Managing expectations
• Follow-up
• Role-modelling
Skills pause
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Why have career conversations?
Why
Preparing for a career conversation•As an Individual •As a line manager
Context
• Follow-up
• Role-modelling
Skills pause
• Having the conversation
• Unconscious bias
• Managing expectations
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Why have career conversations?
Your best boss• What did they do?• How did they make you feel?• How did this impact your behaviour?
Your worst boss• What did they do?• How did they make you feel?• How did this impact your behaviour?
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Environment for careers at ABF
Enablers/barriers to honest career conversations at ABF• With your individual hat on: what is your current
experience of honest career conversations at ABF?– What have been the barriers that have got in the way? – What have been the enablers for having honest career
conversations at ABF?• What is the impact of this ’force field’ on career
development at ABF?• What’s needed to overcome the barriers going forward?
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Context
Why
Preparing for a career conversation•As an Individual •As a manager
Context
• Follow-up
• Role-modelling
Skills pause
• Having the conversation
• Unconscious bias
• Managing expectations
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Target population from an ABF perspective
Senior executive positions
GW – 1
GW – 2
GW – 3
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Focus of this work
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ABFI GWF ABS AGRI TWO ACH MAU UKG ABF
Using the full scope of ABF to navigate a career
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Career framework at ABF
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What is career development at ABF?Career development at ABF is about how you choose to fulfil your potential through your work
Relevant factors include your own aspirations, talent and potential and the scale and scope of work opportunities that exist in ABF
Careers translate into different things for different people
For some it might mean deepening knowledge and expertise within their current role or developing by virtue of evolving business challenges
For others it might mean moving functions, businesses or geographies, undertaking projects or moving into new roles
What is it to you?
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What’s driving you?
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Executive development – the focus gradually changes over time in role
Focus on performance in
current roleTools – appraisals,
development plans, feedback and coaching to
build capability in current role
Focus on performance in current role and future development
and/or roles.Tools – performance
appraisals, development plans, career conversations
Transition plan to support
move into new role
Time
New to role/ Some development Fulfilling current Beyond scopeSignificant needed to perform role of role development well in rolestill needed
Expand and
develop in role
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Why
Preparing for a career conversation•As an individual •As a line manager
Context
• Follow-up
• Role modelling
Skills pause
• Having the conversation
• Unconscious bias
• Managing expectations
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Preparing for a career conversation
- As a line manager- As an individual
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Career conversation matrix
Context of career conversations• Fit within wider development (conversations around
performance vs development vs careers)• Stage in development and type of conversation• See stages in career as a continuum e.g. entry to beyond
scope of current role
Activity 1:• Using the blank career conversations matrix (Tool 1) map out
each of your team members• Where is the focus of the conversation with each individual?
Career or development or both?• Work alone for 10-15 mins, then a paired debrief (only
feedback what you are comfortable sharing) for 10-15 mins
2020
End of day 1
1. Prepare profile of individual, Handout 2
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Why
Preparing for a career conversation•As an Individual •As a line manager
Context
• Follow-up
• Role-modelling
Skills pause
• Having the conversation
• Unconscious bias
• Managing expectations
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Preparation – in the shoes of the individual
• Given philosophy of individual as ’leading partner’, tool devised to help employees prepare for career conversation with their manager
• Tool 2 is structured around looking inward, outward, forward • New ABF Career Conversations website has been launched to
help employees research ABF businesses and roles (looking outward)
PREPARING FOR YOUR CAREER CONVERSATION
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Upward connections•Sponsors, mentors and coaches in this group for challenge and support.•Visibility to the right people who may be instrumental in progressing your career.
Downward connections•Build team capability and develop successors.
External connections
•Access to innovation and a fresh perspective through external connections.
Lateral connections•Sharing and creation of fresh ideas•Broad networks (e.g. cross functional) fill gaps in skill and knowledge.
Is your network well balanced and fit for purpose to support your career development?Where does the greatest scope for improvement lie?
Looking inward – Question 3 assessing your network
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Looking inward: Question 4 – what’s driving you?
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62% of employees do not know how to navigate their careers at ABF
Executive Engagement Survey 2011
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Preparation – in the shoes of the line manager
Activity • Using a variety of tools, plan a conversation with someone in your
own team (please anonymise the name)• Do you have a high potential with whom you need to have a career
conversation?• Spend 15 minutes on your own, then pair up with someone else to
debrief on the process
• Prompts: – Tool 4: Discussion planner will help you think through your
discussion outcomes– Tool 5: Career conversation matrix may help to identify and plan
for issues which may arise in career conversations– What would really help these conversations?
LINE MANAGEMENT TOOLS
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Why
Preparation for a career conversation•As an individual •As a manager
Context
• Follow-up
• Role-modelling
Skills pause
• Having the conversation
• Unconscious bias
• Managing expectations
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Skills pause
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Some suggested skills (see Tool 3)
• GROW and good questioning• Push/pull and exercise• Listening and inner dialogue
– What does good look like?
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GROW coaching model GOALGOALWhat would you like to achieve?By when do you want to achieve it?What would success look like?What would you like to get out of this discussion?
What is the situation at present?
What have you done about this so far?
What’s working well? What’s working less well?
What are the main barriers to finding a way forward?
Which of the options will you do? What else?
What are the immediate steps? What steps might you take later?
Rate on a scale of 1-10 your willingness to take on this action.
What support do you need?
What could you do?What else?What if you had the time, power, money etc)Which is most attractive?Would you like another suggestion?
WILL
OPTIONS
REALITYREALITY
Explore situation
Avoid problem solving at this
stage
Pros and cons
Generate
Specific and time-phased steps
Commit to action
Time-phased
Specific Measurable Realistic
Agreed
REALITY
GOAL
WILL
OPTIONS
INNER DIALOGUE
Activity (Listening and Inner Dialogue)• In pairs one of you talk for 1 minute about something
that happened to you in the past 24 hours• The other should ‘listen’ but voice their thoughts out
loud/write them down• Group debrief
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Listening
“I do not know if you have ever examined how you listen, it doesn’t matter to what, whether to a bird, to the wind in the leaves, to the rushing waters, or how you listen in a dialogue with yourself, to your conversation in various relationships with your intimate friends, your wife or husband...
If we try to listen we find it extraordinarily difficult, because we are always projecting our opinions and ideas, our prejudices, our background, our inclinations, our impulses; when they dominate we hardly listen at all to what is being said...
In that state there is no value at all. One listens and therefore learns, only in a state of attention, a state of silence, in which this whole background is in abeyance, is quiet; then, it seems to me, it is possible to communicate.
...real communication can only take place where there is silence.”
Krishnamurti
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Why
Preparing for a career conversation•As an Individual •As a manager
Context
• Follow-up
• Role-modelling
Skills pause
• Having the conversation• Unconscious bias• Managing expectations
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Having the conversationUnconscious biasManaging expectations
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Having the conversationActivity
• Based on an individual from your own team, run a career conversation skills practice
• Roles: line manager, individual, observer(s)
• Activity:
a) preparation
b) interaction
c) feedback
• Switch roles after each skills practice
• Observer feedback sheet (Handout 3) and next slide
• Timing:
• Take 5 mins to brief your individual
• 10 minute role play
• 5 minute observer feedback and group debrief
Creating profile for individual Handout 2
•What is my background?•What do I want to happen in my career?•Am I fulfilling the scope of my role?•Are our expectations for me aligned?
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Skills practice – observer feedback
Observer uses Handout 4 to capture feedback.
Then, once the role play is complete…
• First, the ‘manager’ shares one thing he or she did effectively and one thing he or she could do more effectively next time (briefly!)
• Then, the observer provides feedback on one thing the manager did effectively and one thing he or she could do more effectively (bulk of the time)
• Then, the ‘employee’ shares how he or she felt about the discussion and adds any observations (briefly)
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We need the best men and women if we are to make the best of our talent,
achieve better balanced teams, better understand our customers, and meet
our ambitious growth goals. In fact, it is vital to our business, and our future
growth across the globe, that we act upon this
George Weston
Chief Executive
Associated British Foods
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It would be neglectful if we failed to ensure that women had the same
opportunities as their male counterparts to flourish, generate value,
and contribute to the success of the group
Mark Carr
Group Chief Executive
AB Sugar
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Unconscious bias?
• Annie and Kate will demo a career conversation scenario, with Annie taking the role of the line manager
• Observe as a group and we’ll debrief afterwards on what you noticed and the implications for you as a leader supporting women’s careers
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In general, women can limit their career progression by:
1. Relying on performance alone to deliver career success
2. Appearing to lack confidence or ambition
3. Making risk-averse career decisions
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Additional considerations for career conversations with women
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Relying on performance alone to deliver career success…
• Women can become buried in the conscientious completion of the job in hand
• Women are not visible enough and don’t self-promote
• Women view networking as additional to the job, rather than central to it
• Some of these behaviours are also driven by pressures on life outside work
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Factors that make a difference to career success:Performance, Impact, Exposure (PIE)
P
I
E
Performance 10%
Impact 30%
Exposure 60%
Performance • What you do and how well you do it
Impact • The impression you create to others
Exposure • Who knows you, or knows about you
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Relying on performance alone to deliver career success…
• Women can become buried in the conscientious completion of the job in hand
• Women are not visible enough and don’t self-promote
• Women view networking as additional to the job, rather than central to it
• Some of these behaviours are also driven by pressures on life outside work
• Career conversation tip: encourage women to increase their profile and visibility within ABF by:
• Spending more time networking• Finding themselves a mentor• Over time securing a sponsor• Concentrating on impact and exposure
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Appearing to lack confidence or ambition…• Within the female culture:
• More tentative language patterns which can be misread as uncertainty e.g. tendency to consider options out loud/ask for opinions
• Effective use of ‘involving’ language which cements relationship building
• A more collaborative style of leadership downplays individual achievement and success, with overuse of the word ‘we’
• Under-represented groups more aware of their difference and isolation. (Subconscious questioning “Is the way I do things wrong, or just different?”)
• Career conversation tips:
• Be prepared to explore the +/- of next move• Don’t read this as lack of ambition. Act as a sounding board• Recognise the personal achievements which women might
attribute to others
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Making career decisions which appear risk averse…• Men consciously decide to
disengage; women consciously decide to engage
• Companies that declare they want women at the top are more likely to create the climate for women to say “why not?” rather than “why?”
Career conversation tips:
• Encourage women to focus on the aspects of a next role which they can do, not those which they can’t
• Sell to them why ABF needs them to throw their hat in the ring
© A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom - The Roadmap: Thomson Gaham and Lloyd© A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom - The Roadmap: Thomson Gaham and Lloyd
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Other misperceptions about women’s career potential• Women aren’t tough enough: not evidenced by capability, only
perception (Catalyst Report on stereotyping)
• Women ‘opt out’ after childbirth: tend not to leave companies, but may opt to stay at certain level
• Women are less internationally mobile than men: not necessarily true but decisions can be made without asking women (best intentions, paternalistic)
• Damaging effect of the ‘double bind’ on women’s potential: judged against feminine norms in society women can come across as aggressive/pushy or, if they exhibit more feminine behaviours at work, they are deemed to be too soft!
Career conversations tips:
• Be aware of these pitfalls when you are having conversations with women about their career potential and making judgements
• Don’t make any assumptions about mobility, be prepared to explore flexibility (and assess performance outputs not inputs), avoid stereotyping
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How would greater gender diversity benefit ABF?Customer perspective
• Women make up over 50% of our customers so we need to understand their viewpoint
• As a result, we would have a better understanding of the female shopper, our markets and be more responsive to our customers e.g. marketing and sales approaches
Better balanced teams
• More diversity of style, missing out on the ‘emotional intelligence’
• Better decision making, more risk aware through a richness of perspective, ideas and opinions
• A more open culture with better dialogue with more collaboration
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How would greater gender diversity benefit ABF?Widening our talent pool• Missing out on benefit of a larger talent pool
• Lots of talented women in the external market
• Reduce the cost of losing talent
External image
• Seen as a more forward-looking company by shareholders and customers
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• Men are a crucial and valued stakeholder group in gender equality
• Men are not responsible for inequality – but have a responsibility for being active in supporting and sponsoring women’s careers
• Moral agreement combined with passive action is not enough
• ‘Fixing the women’ won’t create sustained change; we need to effect change in organisational culture
© A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom-The Roadmap: Thomson Graham and Lloyd
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The role of leaders in supporting women’s careers
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Your role (continued)
• Being aware of gender culture is important in providing career support to women and having career conversations which are effective in a female culture
• Men and women come from different cultures which can create issues if not understood
• Need to develop a shared set of values and beliefs, not common ways of behaving towards men and women that have disappeared into unconsciousness
Generalisation: “typically women will…”
Stereotype: “all women….”
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Managing expectations Activity• As one group, prepare for Handout 1, case Study 7. Annie is the
individual you will be coaching (10 mins for you to prepare) • Identify who will take the lead as the first line manager – a volunteer
maybe? (Rest assured, you can hand the baton over subsequently to a colleague of your choice!)
• The remainder of group will be in 3 teams and each team will hold some potential ’sins’ when managing expectations as a line manager, for example:
– Neglecting to maintain their self esteem– Over promising– Using too much pushing– Failing to address the issue/sugar coating/not
challenging• If that line manager is ’buzzed’ as a result of a potential ’sin’ the team in
question will hold up the relevant card, a new line manager is chosen, and on we go again...
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MANAGING EXPECTATIONS 1
A HIGHLY AMBITIOUS INDIVIDUAL. BEEN IN SALES DIRECTOR ROLE FOR 1 YEAR. HAS SOME GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE. IN YOUR
VIEW HAS ANOTHER 3 YEARS IN THE ROLE.
HAS INDICATED THAT THEY FEEL READY FOR THE NEXT LEVEL AND WOULD EXPECT TO BE MOVING UP WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR. HAS MADE IT CLEAR
THAT THEY WOULD FEEL DISSATISFIED AND UNDERVALUED IF THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN.
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MANAGING EXPECTATIONS 2
INDIVIDUAL IS IN A HIGHLY TECHNICAL ROLE AND IS PERFORMING WELL AND FULFILLING
THE SCOPE OF THE CURRENT ROLE. IS KEEN TO PROGRESS UPWARDS EVEN IF THIS MEANS MOVING TO ANOTHER BUSINESS OR DIVISION. YOU BELIEVE THE INDIVIDUAL HAS REACHED
THE TOP OF THEIR POTENTIAL IN THEIR SPECIALISATION AND IS MOST VALUABLE TO
THE ORGANISATION IN THEIR CURRENT ROLE.
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Follow up/role modellingWhy
Preparation for a career conversation•As an individual •As a line manager
Context
• Follow-up• Role-modelling
Skills pause
• Having the conversation
• Unconscious bias• Managing expectations
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Career framework at ABF
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Principles – using the network
• Identify and manage all stakeholders well
• Work ‘in the light’ so there are no surprises for any line managers, HR directors or individuals
• Exercise good judgement
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The network game
OK Partially OK Not OK
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Becoming a role model
Visualise the moment when you realise you are now truly excellent at helping others build fulfilling careers
Where are you? What has just happened? What can you see? What can you hear? How are you feeling?
Looking back – how did you reach this moment? What were the steps along the way?
What’s the single most important piece of advice your successful future self would give to you right now?
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Summary and close
THANK YOU!