Diamonds to You

“No problem can be solved
from the same consciousness that created it.”
Albert Einstein

Hi,

I had some friends to brunch today and we were talking about the recession and the fact that the quality of “training, coaching, counseling, consulting, mentoring” is so variable that it is hard to sell any of those “cold”, but only by referral from those who have experienced the expert’s style and quality of delivery.  I’m finding that training budgets seem to be evaporating and more is being done in house.

My question, how do I convince those who have not worked with me before that what I offer is qualitatively different from what most trainers, coaches, etc. offer?

As those of you who have used my services know, I don’t work from someone else’s recipe, and don’t resort to power point presentations.  Instead, I develop all my own material, based on my assessment of the client’s needs, and my delivery of coaching, training, etc., is highly personalized and interactive.  I’ve also been told repeatedly that it’s interesting as well as effective.

So, I ask you all – how do I get new business?  How do I differentiate myself from the average “talking head” or person who just attended a coaching course when she lost her job in marketing?

I am really really seeking your help here!

Also:  Please sign up for “The Business of Your Profession” being presented on either Thursday May 29th or Saturday May 31st.  If you haven’t received our flyer about this workshop, please let me know.  There is still room.  We will be meeting in a large conference room on McCarthy Blvd.  Please sign up now.

New Workshops for You and Your Company

John P. Kotter introduces his book Power and Influence by stating:

“Important changes that are shaping the nature of work in today’s complex organizations demand that we become more sophisticated with respect to issues of leadership, power, and influence.  With that increased sophistication, we can make our corporations more competitive.  We can make rigid bureaucracies more flexible, innovative and adaptive.  We can even make the world of work more exciting and personally satisfying for people.”

I’m Springing Ahead and developing some new courses and workshops to offer my clients.  Here are some ideas for you to consider for your firm – or your own professional development: 

Remember too, if you are far away and want individual consulting/mentoring or coaching, the phone and e-mail work for pre-arranged sessions.

• The Business of Your Profession – A Highly interactive workshop for small business owners and those running Professional Practices.  This is not one of those get rich quick schemes, but a practical and positive approach to giving your best and getting the best from those you serve as well as those who serve you.

• Coming to America as an Executive – This is for those from other countries in Asia and Europe who want to learn how to lead and manage here in America.  As many of you know, I’ve been consulting to C-level executives, including CEOs for many years.  I’ve also worked with individuals and management groups helping them socialize to our American way of doing business and have taught diversity and working in a global economy to both business groups and university students.

• Manager in the Middle – We talk about leadership all the time, but the people responsible for seeing to it that the job gets done are the managers in the middle.  They have to take deliverables from the executives above them, , answer to these executives, and make sure staff delivers the deliverables.  How do they do this and still foster individual growth and creativity?

• Public-Professional Image – In addition to my on-going work with individuals, I am available to offer workshops on how to enhance your professional image – and your believability.  I am also working with a few people running for public office – helping them with image and presentation.

• Persuasion/Negotiation – The whip doesn’t work. We manage people with their permission.  Therefore, we need to have their trust, loyalty and commitment.  This is accomplished by positive persuasion and negotiation.

• Internal and External Customer Service/Satisfaction.  This workshop is designed to change the focus and attitude of those who think the task is more important than the outcome.

• Compliance issues Training:  This includes interviewing, hiring, record keeping, firing, exit interviewing, workplace safety, drug free workplace, harassment, discrimination, diversity, and understanding the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and how to work with physical, emotional and psychological disabilities.  (I am on the ADA Compliance Guide’s Advisory Board.) 

I really thrive on your referrals to me.  Keep them coming!

I invite you to forward copies of my newsletters
to your friends and colleagues.  Thanks.

Talent Management and Development

How do you assess, encourage and deploy the talent in your organization?  Do you assign people to projects because of their availability and job-title, or do you have a process by which you learn about their skills, strengths and weaknesses – as well as their desires for creativity and growth?  Do you assign them based only on your corporate needs, or on their growth potential and desires?

It is the responsibility of HR and all management to create an environment in which the best and the brightest are motivated to stay and grow professionally within the company.

As we struggle with our need for skilled employees, and recognize (at least I hope we recognize) that salary alone is not the motivator to acquire and retain the most desirable employees, talent management becomes increasingly more important.  .  Bright and talented people are motivated by the challenge of the work, which interestingly enough is often linked to successful business results.

We’ve talked in the past about career development and succession planning, and I’ve often stated the importance of marrying these two functions.  Talent management strategies are the attempt to do this – and I (low tech person that I am) understand that there are now computer programs that help track skills and ambitions of employees so that they can be deployed to the best projects for their talent.

My interest of course is helping them develop their soft skills – necessary to their professional growth into positions of management and above. 

My work on managing for creativity ties into this notion of talent management.  How do managers encourage or stifle the best of their staff?  Is it true, as is so often stated that “A” players hire “A” players, and “B” managers hire “C” employees?

Mr. Kawaguchi, (Mr. K to those of us who knew and loved him), my Kung Fu instructor and an international champion black belt,  said, “It takes level to see level.”  I believe he was absolutely correct.  How can you accurately calibrate the skill of someone whose skill level is so far above your own?

Performance Appraisals

This leads me to my next topic.  Is your company’s performance appraisal form like a kindergarten report card?  (“Plays well with others”)  Do you use the same form for everyone in your company, or are there different measurements for different types of functions and different levels in the organization?

Do you routinely appraise employees or is it the pro-forma (groan aloud!) once a year nightmare managers and their managees are subjected to?  I’ve written before that I think the once a year performance appraisal is worthless.  People need and want feedback about their performance and their expected goals on a much more regular basis.

What about 360 degree evaluations?  Are these conducted regularly?  Are they designed so that they are not considered popularity contests, but meaningful data that holds a mirror up to managers and staff alike about how they are perceived by others?

Are you willing to look at your talent management, succession planning, career development and performance appraisals as all part of a very necessary package to encourage, guide, and retain employees so that your bottom line is significantly enhanced?  If so, will you let me help you develop these programs?

It’s not hatred that kills people,
It’s indifference.
Eli Weizel

Tech Academy of Silicon Valley – Summer Program

The Tech Academy of Silicon Valley is a partnership of the Silicon Valley Engineering Council (SVEC), Santa Clara County Office of Education, San Jose State and Santa Clara Universities and the 2010 International Science and Engineering Fair.

It is a fabulous summer school program for high school teens interested in math and science.  Last summer 277 students took part in the academy.  It is rapidly growing to be able to serve more youth.  The sessions are three hours a day for three weeks.  For more information visit:  www.techacademysv.com. 

My Blog

www.DiamondAssociates.net/blog - Visit ME!

Speeches Past and Recent Future

• Be Powerfully Persuasive  for the Civic Society Institute (CSI) at Santa Clara Univeristy on April 9th.

• Coaching:  Keys to Improved Results  for the German American Business Association (GABA) on March 6th.

• How to handle a Whistleblower…Understanding HR’s role in an Internal Investigation for the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), February 6th.

Prior Newsletters

Other articles in prior newsletters can be found here:
 http://diamondassociates.net/articles/Newsletters.shtml

Recent Publications

Several more of my articles have been published in dozens of e-magazines and newsletters.  These articles are being published so frequently that I can’t list all of the references.  Instead, I suggest you Google:  ArLyne Diamond.

Here are some though:

• Workforce Strategies:  Effective Exit Interviews:  Confirming a Company’s Strengths, Screening for Potential Problems.–  in BNA, (The Bureau of National Affairs), by Cathleen O’Connor Schoultz – April 2008, Vol. 26, #4 – I’m quoted extensively.
• Most hated:  HR People – Representatives strive for respect in a tech-driven valley.  In Outsourcing, February-March, 2008.
• Setting Your Performance Management Agenda, in CareerSmart Advisor, January 2008, by Marji McClure – I’m quoted extensively.

• Workforce Strategies:  Sarbanes-Oxley and Whistleblowers:  Tips for Staying Compliant And Avoiding Retaliation Claims, in BNA, (The Bureau of National Affairs), December, 2007, by Cathleen O’Connor Schoultz – I’m quoted here as well.

• Workplace Discord:  What’s creating conflict and ways to resolve it.  In Outsourcing, December 2007-January 2008.  I’m the author, although they forgot to put my name on it.

• Cultural Differences in Group Decisions, in Outsourcing, October-November, 2007

• Change Management Strategies, in Outsourcing, August-September, 2007.

• Board Service is an Honor, Echo Journal, August 2007

• Real World Solutions: Hiding Disability Facts Leads To Misunderstandings, in Thompson’s ADA Compliance Guide, August 2007, Col. 18, #8.
• Team Buidling Strategies, in Outsourcing, WORDlabs MEDIA, Kuala Lumpur., June-July 2007.
  
  
• Building Trust in Distant Teams, in Management Issues Feb. 20, 2007.

• Workplace Conflict Resolution:  What’s Creating Workplace Conflict and 9 Easy Ways to Resolve it appeared in Impact Articles:  The Business and Coaching Network on January 26, 2007   With my permission, this article will also appear in a series of newsletters created and marketed by Haley Marketing Group to their staffing industry clients.

My two published books are available at www.ProductivePublications.com.

• Training Your Board of Directors:
  A Manual for the CEOs, Board Members, Administrators and Executives of Corporations, Associations, Non-Profit and Religious Organizations
• The “Please” and “Thank You” of Fundraising for Non-Profits:
  Fifteen Essential Ingredients for Success

So, how can I help you?

Beginning in early 2001, we engaged the services of Dr. ArLyne Diamond to help the San Mateo County Transit District effect a cultural change through leadership training and coaching.  Simply stated, her performance was exceptional.  Her coaching produced demonstrable differences in the leadership qualities exhibited by our managers and key staff members and resulted in significantly improved relationships throughout the organization. 

I strongly recommend ArLyne’s services to any organization particularly one that wants to confront its performance objectives head-on.  Her approach is direct and unequivocal.  Most of our staff members found her style refreshing and provocative, but individuals must be willing to face sometimes difficult realities in order to implement her suggestions.  An example is the “360 degree management evaluations” in which performance assessments are generated both up and down the chain of command.  In the process, our supervisors and managers were exposed to some candid appraisals by subordinates.  While initial reactions were sometimes unsettling, there was general agreement that the outcome led to a stronger, more competent team.

ArLyne is an extremely well trained, highly motivated individual who draws upon years of experience and a superb educational background.  Despite her direct approach, she presents her programs in a casual and warm manner and is able to relate well to people of all persuasions.

Michael Scanlon
CEO, Samtrans.

“I wanted you to know that I find your diamonds to be the brightest in my collection of gems.  If I were still active in business (mid-level org. manager) I would have a daily use for the reflections they throw off. As it is, they do me great service in my personal life as in both B&P [Business and Personal]  involvement, we remain people.”

Dave LaRoche
President, South Bay Writer’s Group

 

Let me be your Aufin—your advisor to Kings.

 

ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D
ArLyne@DiamondAssociates.net