Good dental health is an important part of overall wellness. For some people, it is also important to their careers.
The Screen Actors Guild, a labor union representing more than 90,000 actors, recognizes the value of dental care and makes comprehensive dental coverage available to its members. “Dental benefits are a critical part of a health care package, especially for actors, whose appearance can be almost as important to their careers as their health,” explains Bruce Dow, chief executive officer of the Screen Actors Guild Health Plan.
With members in all 50 states, the Screen Actors Guild needed a nationwide dental plan administrator with a strong presence in California, where half of its members reside. Finding a carrier that could serve members equally well in all states was a challenge, according to Dow. The Guild also required a dental carrier with a strong national dentist network and stellar reputation for quality.
The Guild chose DeltaPreferred Option USA through DeltaUSA, the national accounts program for Delta Dental Plans Association.
“Quality was a critical component for us. We chose Delta Dental because they are a very visible, high-quality system with a high level of acceptance that can deliver in all 50 states,” Dow said.
Delta Dental–which contracts with 92 percent of the dentists in California and nearly 75 percent of dentists across the United States–was a perfect match for the Screen Actors Guild. Delta Dental’s dentist network in New York, another key area for the Guild, exceeds 6,000 dentists.
Nationwide, DeltaUSA contracts with dentists at more than 137,000 practice locations. The DeltaPreferred Option USA program has more than 11,000 practice locations in California and more than 62,000 dentists nationwide.
The Screen Actors Guild also wanted an economical dental insurance program. “Costs were lower than projected for claims paid during the first few years of the contract,” said Scott Syring of Delta Dental of California, which employs DeltaUSA to administer the DeltaPreferred Option USA national dental benefits program for Guild members nationwide.
“DeltaUSA provides convenience and access to quality dental care across the country, and that’s what promoting oral health from a benefits standpoint is all about,” Syring said.
“We like that our participants don’t have to fill out claim forms or pay out-of-pocket for the covered portion of services while they wait to be reimbursed,” Dow said. “And Delta Dental has a really good web site, which makes it easy for our members to find and do research on dentists before selecting one.”
Yet another reason DeltaUSA has been able to serve the Screen Actors Guild so well is the strong relationships between Delta Dental of California and the Screen Actors Guild Health Plan representatives.
“We’re on the same wavelength and really understand each other. That means we can give them superior service,” said Syring.
DeltaUSA is a separately incorporated affiliate of Delta Dental Plans Association that enables Delta Dental Plans to administer and deliver its national dental program. Based in Oak Brook, IL, Delta Dental Plans Association is a national network of independently operated not-for-profit dental service corporations specializing in providing dental benefits programs to 43 million Americans in more than 75,000 employer groups throughout the country.
Workforce Management, December 2003, p. 65 — Subscribe Now!
Opportunity. Creativity. Innovation. These concepts combine to embody what’s best about successful workforce management–an unstoppable attitude that won’t let obstacles get in the way of excellence. In the following pages you’ll read four such success stories.
It wasn’t always easy. Each company faced their own unique hurdles and challenges. But collectively they identified their needs, investigated their options and considered the outcome of each decision. Ultimately, a choice was made and a strategy was developed. Even though each company was dealing with separate issues, they all came to the same conclusion–to enlist the help of a partner who understands their business needs.
All of these firms found solutions with vendor companies that understand there’s more to business than selling a product or marketing a service. Their results are tangible and measurable. In striving for excellence, these 4 organizations have found ways to work better, smarter and faster. They made a commitment and worked towards achieving excellence.
Workforce Management, December 2003, p. 58 — Subscribe Now!
For businesses with a decentralized workforce, creating a united company culture and communicating with employees can be a challenge. Add to that continual government reporting obligations such as equal employment opportunity (EEO) reports, and it’s a recipe for potential communications havoc.
So when The Paradies Shops, the country’s leading airport retailer with 330 stores throughout the United States and Canada, began searching for a new system that would ease regulatory compliance, reduce expenditures, and complement its employee-focused company culture, it found UltiPro, Ultimate Software’s Web-based payroll and workforce management solution. With UltiPro, The Paradies Shops discovered a way to speak to all its audiences–employees, managers, and the government–using one in-house system that provided a secure, central Web site and robust business intelligence tools.
“Because The Paradies Shops is a decentralized retail chain with locations throughout the United States, we needed a Web-based HR/payroll solution to bridge the gap of distance, yet still be able to save us time and money. UltiPro’s incredible functionality and flexibility have been wonderful additions to our company and will yield us a cost savings of almost $100,000 per year,” said Lauren Gabbidon, compensation and benefits manager for The Paradies Shops.
Once the company implemented UltiPro’s workforce portal in April 2000, after an on-budget, 10-week implementation, it immediately began encouraging managers to check the Web for information regarding their employees. As that became a popular feature, The Paradies Shops took the next step and gave employees the opportunity to view their own data online. Now they can make changes to their important documents, benefits information, and pay stubs at their convenience, at a place of their choosing.
“UltiPro’s Web self-service is one of the largest benefits of the system for us,” said Gabbidon. “It allows us to maintain contact with our expansive workforce and provide our employees with instant access to their employment information. As an employee-centric organization, we believe that the UltiPro portal aligns well with The Paradies Shops’ desire to maintain a positive, fulfilling work environment for all of our employees.”
Another benefit The Paradies Shops has realized since switching to UltiPro is a time savings for the payroll and benefits team of a minimum of 260 hours per year (13 percent of the time it used to spend) on reporting alone. Because The Paradies Shops is located in airports, the company is required to provide EEO reports for each location every month to six months, depending on the state. Prior to UltiPro, The Paradies Shops struggled to remain compliant and meet the government deadlines. In addition, there are other compliance guidelines the company must follow, and the airport retailer relies on UltiPro to help it fulfill regulatory requirements for all of its locations. Nearly 100 percent of the compliance reports required by The Paradies Shops are delivered standard with UltiPro.
The Paradies Shops states confidently that these powerful and flexible business reporting tools, coupled with UltiPro’s functionality and ease of use, have made Ultimate Software’s workforce management solution a communications dream for both the company and its workforce.
Workforce Management, December 2003, p. 59 — Subscribe Now!
The U.S. economy has shown consistent improvement throughout the last half of 2003, after a sluggish first half. Corporate profits are strong, and many companies report beating financial analysts’ expectations. As of mid-November 2003, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 15 percent for the year, while the Nasdaq Composite Index is up about 40 percent.
Thus far, however, broad consumer confidence in the economic recovery has been tempered by the perception that it has been largely a jobless recovery. While the number and frequency of layoff announcements were down sharply in 2003 compared with 2002, companies remain hesitant in committing to new hiring. Despite strong new-job creation in August, September and October, unemployment still hovers around 6 percent, though it appears to have turned the corner and to be on the road to recovery.
The unemployment rate paints a deceptive picture of the job situation, though. With a sizable demographic group entering the workforce, the U.S. economy has to create more than 50,000 jobs each month for unemployment to remain unchanged. Recent months have seen both new-job creation and a rise in temporary-help services, trends that indicate a job-market recovery is under way. In fact, more than one-quarter of a million new jobs were created in September and October. Even so, it will take a while for these trends to affect consumer and corporate confidence. Thus, companies will remain cautious when hiring in 2004 and will seek to get the most value from the hiring they do.
This new economic reality is shaping how recruiting and staffing is managed by companies in a dramatic way. Look for this to become most evident in several key trends during 2004 and beyond.
1. A modest return to new-job creation. A conservative approach to adding new staff will persist in 2004, especially as companies explore the potential for outsourcing and/or moving jobs offshore in manufacturing and segments of the services industry. However, most industries expect a moderate revival in new-job creation in 2004. This will start slowly, but as consecutive quarters of strong business and economic indicators accumulate, there will be less perceived risk associated with staff increases. A growing concern, though, is a shortage of talent in nursing and education.
2. Increased use of temporary and project-based labor. Given the cautious approach to hiring, companies will make greater use of temporary and project-based labor in 2004 as a means of adding much-needed staff while maintaining flexibility in adjusting staffing levels quickly. Growth in temp hiring midway through 2003 has already been a leading indicator anticipating recent new-job creation.
Several of the newer technologies for managing temp workers will be a big bonus to companies. Ideally, workforce-management professionals should manage temp staffing as part of their larger system of workforce planning and management. This should make it easier to connect permanent staffing and contingent staffing with a company’s business goals.
3. Greater investment in internal mobility. One of the looming fears for human resources professionals is that a strong U.S. economy and job market could result in disruptive job-hopping among their workforce. There is concern about “survivor syndrome,” a backlash among employees who have survived layoffs only to face double the workload with little increased compensation and few advancement opportunities. The fear is that many of these survivors have mentally checked out, and remain on the job only because of a lack of other prospects. A strong job market would provide them with those sought-for options.
To address this, organizations are investing in new internal-mobility policies and programs to provide opportunities for employees to remain with the company in new roles while minimizing the disruption of such internal moves. With new-job creation already starting to heat up, this could soon become a priority in the new year.
4. Broadening use of workforce-management measurement and analytics. A major challenge facing human resources is the need to quantify the alignment between the objectives of the business and the results of the workforce’s efforts. This requires the ability to apply financial discipline and models to the measurement of a company’s return on investment from spending on talent and human resources-related processes. This is being driven by COOs and CFOs in an effort to understand how value is being created within the organization. At the same time, this data helps human resources in its effort to evolve from a cost center to a value creator.
Performance measurement, analytics and reporting will be one of the most important challenges facing the human resources profession in the coming 18 months. Forward-thinking organizations are already taking steps to deploy the systems, tools and processes to gather this vital data to establish performance baselines and enable more informed decision-making around talent acquisition, deployment and management. In short order, all human resources departments will be called on to demonstrate their ability to measure the impact of their processes and manage human resources as a business.
5. Integration of staffing with performance management and learning. An evolution in recruiting management is under way. This change builds on the growing need to better measure and communicate the results of workforce-management efforts, to explicitly link individual and group performance to organizational goals, and to better retain and use talent. Recruiting and staffing is responding to this by integrating external hiring with internal mobility and career management, by integrating staffing with performance management, and by connecting workforce management with learning and development.
This final trend is only now beginning to emerge. The coming 18 months will see significant change in the capabilities of recruiting providers and, more dramatically, in the scope of these capabilities. Vendors are already announcing new capabilities, and alliances and acquisitions are changing the solutions being offered by recruiting and staffing providers.
A year to remember
Overall, 2004 will be a transitional year in recruiting and staffing. There is moderate optimism for a recovery in the job market in general. More important, the interest in new processes, measurement systems, services and technologies represents a growing commitment to a better infrastructure for workforce management. Many of the trends unfolding in 2004 are central to the realization of a more strategic role for human resources and staffing.
Grappling with Wi-Fi security isn’t just an IT issue; individual employees have the power to use wireless wisely in the office, at home or on the road–or not. Here are some pointers for making every Wi-Fi-enabled worker a guardian of your company’s vital assets:
Implement a wireless communications policy that makes employees personally responsible for Wi-Fi security. Back it up with severe penalties for violations, and statements from senior management emphasizing the importance of safeguarding company data.
Train remote Wi-Fi users in the fundamentals of cautious computing–coining complex passwords, updating anti-virus software regularly and encrypting e-mails and file transfers. Take into account your company’s culture and the target audience’s level of computer knowledge in arranging either formal classes or online tutorials.
Forbid under any circumstances unauthorized access points–Wi-Fi routers, in tech parlance. Make it known that somebody in IT will scan the network regularly for rogue routers (using software that “sniffs” out Wi-Fi transmissions), and remove them immediately.
Require home-office workers to shield their Wi-Fi networks with a firewall gateway system. This piece of hardware sits between the router and the wired Internet, making it tougher for a hacker to break into a connected desktop or notebook PC.
Insist that employees actually turn on their data encryption software, whatever it is. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is fatally flawed, but it does provide protection against casual hackers. Newer standards such as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) are considered more secure, while a virtual private network (VPN) offers the ultimate protection against hack attacks.
Encourage employees to report security problems. A log-in glitch, compromised password, or lost network adapter (the card that allows computers to receive wireless signals) can open a gaping hole in your company’s Wi-Fi defenses.
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The China Puzzle
By Patrick J. Kiger |
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| Global companies face a gargantuan task in the 21st century: managing employees worldwide. How well organizations handle talent wars, the shift to localized management and cultural issues will make–or break–them. |
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What’s in store for 2004
By Samuel Greengard |
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| The issues for the new year include a changing labor market, dwindling talent, knowledge drains and heightened demand for workforce-management metrics. “Any organization that isn’t worried about the state of the workplace should be,” one expert says | |||
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Get in line
By Joe Mullich |
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| People talk about aligning corporate, departmental and employee goals, but not many actually do it. There are companies, however, that have concrete methods to manage and measure the performance that makes lofty goals a reality. | |||
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| They don’t retire them. They hire them by Joe Mullich |
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| Faced with business-busting demographic shifts and skills shortages, some organizations have decided the smart move is to recruit and retain workers over 50. Experts say this new older workforce will make it necessary for companies to rethink their approach on everything from recruitment and training to benefits and providing new challenges. |
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| High scores in the leadership game by Maryann Hammers |
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| In an industry with no precedent and few opportunities for formal training, a video-game developer trains its own leaders, and wins the Optimas Award for Vision. | ||
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| 2003 Data Bank Annual Research and commentary by Fay Hansen |
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| With sections on economic context, workforce management, labor markets, benefits, wages and salaries and global workforce management, this inaugural special report gathers information from dozens of the premier sources. Its 55 pages present a detailed picture of the year in workforce issues. | ||
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Between the Lines
The Grinch reading list Tinsel, gingerbread and management books just don’t mix. |
Reactions From Readers Letters on CEO compensation and drug testing. |
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In This Corner
The car wreck you can stop Employees leave, but no one is complaining, so there’s no problem, right? Wrong. An ear attuned to unspoken workplace issues can save millions in lawsuits. |
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Legal Briefings |
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Bad driving drives up health costs
There’s something about doctors, attorneys, architects and real estate agents. They have lost of accidents. Also: Problems with paternity leaves, mutual-fund scandal fallout for (401)k plan sponsors and pension-plan participation takes a tumble. |
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Health Benefits
Flexible spending accounts flex their muscle The IRS rule allows employees to use pre-tax dollars for over-the-counter medications. But it won’t let them write off dandruff shampoo or mouthwash. Employers hope the relaxed rules will pump up participation in the plans, which deliver tax savings to companies and employees. |
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Technology
Wi-Fi worries Laptops have been freed from their wired connections, but they now carry a heightened risk of hacking and eavesdropping. Making employees take Wi-Fi policies seriously requires marketing–and maybe even a threat of consequences. |
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Recruiting & Staffing
Happy birthday, Myers-Briggs Even after 60 years, demand for the venerable personality test remains strong, even though the world has changed. Believers praise it for career development and team building, but its publishers continually have to fend off companies’ efforts to use it for hiring decisions. |
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Absence Management
Transitional duty pays off for everyone Companies find that giving workers modified duty beats a long stay on workers compensation, even if it means having injured employees take on less-taxing duties working for nonprofit organizations. |
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October 2003
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September 2003 |
August 2003
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This policy was reprinted with permission of Stephen Northcutt, The SANS Institute.
1.0 Purpose
This policy prohibits access to
2.0 Scope
This policy covers all wireless data communication devices (e.g., personal computers, cellular phones, PDAs, etc.) connected to any of
3.0 Policy
3.1 Register Access Points and Cards
All wireless Access Points / Base Stations connected to the corporate network must be registered and approved by InfoSec. These Access Points / Base Stations are subject to periodic penetration tests and audits. All wireless Network Interface Cards (i.e., PC cards) used in corporate laptop or desktop computers must be registered with InfoSec
3.2 Approved Technology
All wireless LAN access must use corporate-approved vendor products and security configurations.
3.3 VPN Encryption and Authentication
All computers with wireless LAN devices must utilize a corporate-approved Virtual Private Network (VPN) configured to drop all unauthenticated and unencrypted traffic. To comply with this policy, wireless implementations must maintain point to point hardware encryption of at least 56 bits. All implementations must support a hardware address that can be registered and tracked, i.e., a MAC address. All implementations must support and employ strong user authentication which checks against an external database such as TACACS+, RADIUS or something similar.
3.4 Setting the SSID
The SSID shall be configured so that it does not contain any identifying information about the organization, such as the company name, division title, employee name, or product identifier.
4.0 Enforcement
Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.
5.0 Definitions Terms
User Authentication: A method by which the user of a wireless system can be verified as a legitimate user independent of the computer or operating system being used.
In their quest for ever-higher productivity, organizations have seized on wireless fidelity as the great enabler of mobile workforces. Wireless computer networks based on the ubiquitous 802.11 standard are relatively inexpensive to deploy and are a convenient way to provide salespeople, technicians, nurses and other employees on the go with remote access to corporate networks. In theory, 24/7 wireless connections translate into better customer service, faster time to market and greater flexibility for employees trying to juggle work and family obligations.
Wi-Fi deployments at U.S. companies have surged over the past two years as the price of 802.11 systems has dropped and public “hotspots”–locations such as airports, cafés, hotels and gas stations where peripatetic workers can tap into the Internet–have proliferated. The market research firm Gartner Inc. predicts that 60 percent of midsize companies in North America will have wireless networks by the end of this year. But freedom from wires carries a price–a heightened risk that somebody will hack into your network or eavesdrop on data flowing through the ether. At their present stage of evolution, Wi-Fi networks simply aren’t as secure as wired, broadband systems such as cable or DSL.
The trouble begins with Wi-Fi cryptography, a confusing array of standards and protocols that includes Wired Equivalent Privacy, Wi-Fi Protected Access and various proprietary solutions pushed by vendors such as Cisco and Microsoft. WEP can be cracked quickly with hacker tools readily available on the Web, and its successors have yet to prove themselves in the market. In October, Cisco reiterated an earlier warning that its authentication algorithm was vulnerable to “dictionary attacks” aimed at discovering user passwords.
“There’s a general perception that encryption is unsafe and doesn’t work,” says Andy Maxwell, a senior technology consultant with Watson Wyatt. As a result, employees tend to throw up their hands and ignore encryption altogether, making them easy meat for unscrupulous “wardrivers” equipped with software that sniffs out and captures open Wi-Fi transmissions. Unauthorized access points pose another security hazard. It’s standard corporate practice to install firewalls on the routers that beam radio signals to Wi-Fi–equipped desktops, laptops and handhelds, but access points installed by geeky employees for their own use go unshielded. Hackers intent on planting productivity-sapping viruses, relaying spam or plundering customer files scan for these secret back doors into a company’s network.
“The ramifications of [security breaches] are profound, of the most devastating kind in terms of risk to your reputation, risk of direct financial loss and in many cases compliance risk,” says Erik Petersen, chief technology officer of Polar Cove, an information security consulting firm based in Providence, Rhode Island. Figures on the financial impact of Wi-Fi security breaches are hard to come by, but in a general computer-crime survey conducted this year by the FBI and Computer Security Institute of San Francisco, 251 organizations reported more than $70 million in losses from theft of proprietary information. On the compliance side, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and other federal and state laws mete out steep fines and/or jail time for failing to protect privileged data.
Some companies, such as Wells Fargo, have put Wi-Fi rollouts on hold until security improves. “Our fiduciary responsibility to protect our customers’ data takes precedence over our desire to leverage new technologies,” says a spokesman for the San Francisco-based financial institution. Other firms contacted for this article declined to discuss their Wi-Fi systems and policies for fear of becoming targets.
In sync with IT
Security experts say that the risks posed by Wi-Fi can be managed with the latest information technology, coupled with hands-on involvement by departments outside IT, human resources in particular. After all, people, not machines, commit egregious security sins such as installing rogue access points and neglecting to encrypt e-mails at Starbucks. Marcia Wilson, CEO of Wilson Secure, a network security company in Pleasanton, California, urges workforce managers to collaborate with IT in teaching employees the basics of wireless security and adopting policies that spell out the security procedures that Wi-Fi users must observe. “The employees . . . need to understand that they have an individual responsibility,” Wilson says. “HR is the group that trains employees, that gives them the information. That doesn’t mean that HR people have to be very technically savvy, but they need to understand the implications of IT deployment, and work very closely with IT.”
Petersen adds that Wi-Fi policies must be backed up by severe penalties for violators, including termination. “IT does the policing, but HR is responsible for making sure that the penalties are understood and communicated,” he says. “The HR department has to sign off on how important [the policies] are in terms of keeping your job.”
Few organizations have adopted comprehensive, collaborative Wi-Fi security policies. Most human resources execs still view Wi-Fi–along with e-mail, instant messaging and other communications technologies–as the exclusive domain of IT. Often, wireless security gets no more than a couple of paragraphs in a generic acceptable-use policy. But awareness of the role that HR has to play in Wi-Fi security is slowly dawning at wireless-savvy companies such as Intel Corp. and Sharp HealthCare of San Diego.
| “The ramifications of [security breaches] are profound, of the most devastating kind in terms of risk to your reputation, risk of direct financial loss and in many cases compliance risk.” |
Intel, the mega computer-chip maker, has embraced 802.11 as a productivity enhancer and integrator of work and home life. “Campus warriors” rely on their wireless notebooks and BlackBerry handhelds to stay connected as they flit from building to building (about half of Intel’s facilities worldwide boast Wi-Fi), and many employees qualify for company-paid home Wi-Fi networks.
Much of the responsibility for Wi-Fi education–clueing in workers on technology’s risks as well as its rewards–falls to human resources. Through employee intranet sites and the electronic newsletter Circuit News, managers promote Wi-Fi as an employee benefit (subscribers to T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi service get a discount) and hammer home the central message of a new company wireless-security policy: be careful out there. All employees must use an Intel virtual private network to encrypt messages, whether they’re on campus, at home or in a coffee shop. And setting up your personal Wi-Fi transmitter in an office cube or conference room is definitely verboten.
When employees stray from the Wi-Fi way, human resources helps them get back on course–or steers them out the door. “If someone is not following certain policies, there are going to be consequences,” says Tamar Matzkevich, product manager for small-office hotspot and telecommuting solutions, and IT’s liaison to a group responsible for promoting work/life balance at Intel.
Human resources also stands behind Wi-Fi security at Sharp HealthCare, where nurses and clerks in seven hospitals and six urgent-care centers access patient records from PCs mounted on rolling carts. A wireless-communication policy being developed bans unauthorized access points and mandates the use of strong encryption and up-to-date virus software. “Like many policies, it requires a lot of marketing,” says Bill Spooner, chief information officer. That’s where human resources comes in, working with a company-wide information-security committee to spread the word in hospital newsletters, various intranet sites and webinars–online seminars on computer security and other topics.
Just deal with it
Widespread adoption of wireless fidelity in the workplace seems inevitable; analysts say that the technology makes too good a business case in a mobile society for organizations to ignore. So workforce managers will have to deal with security and other issues raised by Wi-Fi, just as they dealt with earlier, now established office technologies such as the telephone, e-mail and Web browsers.
Beefed-up wireless security on the horizon won’t relieve human resources of its duty to inform employees of Wi-Fi security policies and to enforce them. Even if the 802.11i hardware standard under development stumps hackers, eliminating the need for virtual private networks to shepherd sensitive information over the Net, employees will still have to install company-approved firewalls on their home wireless networks, guard their passwords in public places and remember to turn on encryption software. Wilson of Wilson Secure sees human resources managers as mediators between the techies and rank-and-file employees who simply need to understand what firewalls and data encryption do, and why that’s important. “IT has to set up the infrastructure,” she says, “but HR has to make employees aware of what the dangers could be if they don’t follow policy.”
Workforce Management, December 2003, pp. 69-71 — Subscribe Now!
Working with an executive means being able to understand his or her work world and psyche as well as being able to speak this leader’s language. With these considerations in mind, here are seven key tips, tactics and things to remember when coaching an executive:
1. Lonely at the Top. Executives often have assistants and consultants as sounding boards and idea people. However, even with insiders, some executives are careful about what data or psychological angst is shared. Having an objective voice–a person that the exec can share with on a more personal, intimate level–is invaluable. In addition, executives often appreciate a coach who can also interact with and discreetly take the pulse of the frontline troops and officers.
2. Having to Preserve a Persona. A related dynamic involves the executive’s feeling that he or she may have to present a very confident and “in control” image. A coach must not just be a good listener, but must also create a level of trust in the relationship that allows the executive to feel it’s safe to open up a Pandora’s box.
3. Arrogance, Narcissism and Denial. Some execs take their successes too much to heart and head; praise and flattery confirm their uncommon stature. While the emperor may have some clothes, he still may need a coach who can empathetically yet strategically dress him down. While big egos don’t take well to being totally undressed, many leaders appreciate the coach who won’t back down in the face of an aggressive manner or self-defeating attitude. A haughty State Department executive once challenged me at a retreat: “What do you call it if you don’t have any stress?” My immediate reply, with a twinkle in my eye: “Denial!” His laughter broke the ice between us.
4. Helping a Leader Ask for Help. For many executives, asking for help connotes weakness or perhaps is seen as a negative reflection on their competency, experience or leadership qualities. Helping a leader understand the toll he or she is taking by not seeking some outside support is critical. Surely, a coach wants to reinforce the areas of expertise of the executive. At the same time, the coach must help an executive understand, for example, that certain kinds of interpersonal tensions or team dynamics or morale (if not productivity) issues after a downsizing or reorganization often require a sophisticated intervention by a coach with expertise in group grieving, team conflict and EAP referral.
5. Seeking the Right Kind of Intervention. Once, a department executive finally admitted that the level of interpersonal dysfunction in his shop was beyond his comprehension. He went to his superior and asked permission to hire a conflict and team-building coach/consultant. The entire organization had recently started classroom “Covey Training.” This superior suggested holding off bringing in a consultant, advising the executive to give the Covey Training a chance. This was a serious mistake, as the level of dysfunction required hands-on organizational-development intervention by a conflict specialist. I was finally brought in after charges of mental abuse and sexual harassment forced top management’s hand.
6. Using Peer Intervention. Sometimes the executive coach also must possess humility; that is, he or she must call on others for help. A coach may have to call on the peers of the executive for a small-group intervention. Some executives have to be supported and/or confronted by fellow executives or friends before they “get it.” Clearly, this high-level intervention method must be used with real discretion. And, of course, a coach who can also ask for assistance is acting as a role model for that rigidly independent executive.
7. Coach as Systems Observer/Player. Unless the relationship must be kept under wraps, a coach should attend at least one executive committee, staff or “all hands” meeting. First, this helps the coach get an up-close look at how the executive interacts with his or her personnel. Second, a coach may also want to share some observations on content issues and, especially, on the group dynamics of the meeting. This gives other group members an opportunity to evaluate the personality and competency of the coach. People want to know that the coach is not a Svengali, manipulating or controlling their leader. Along this line, an executive coach might consider brief one-on-one meetings with management, supervisory and/or department personnel. This step helps folks get to know the coach and may also dispel some concerns regarding mission and motivation.
