Before You Make That Resolution...

As the year draws to a close, you are hopefully thinking about some resolutions for the new year. While most are of a personal nature, also consider some that may impact your professional life. But before you go too far down that road, consider the fact that many of us are not very self-aware. The things we resolve to work on might not be perceived by others to be an issue. Likewise, we may not be fully aware of the critical areas where we don't have the needed skills and where problems might be brewing. In other words, we all have blind spots that need to be addressed.

So first, make sure that you are self-aware and that the things you are choosing to work on really are areas where some skill improvement is both needed and adds value to the work you do. Of course, the best way to improve your self-awareness is to get some feedback from others. More on that in my next blog.

In the meantime, have a Happy New Year!

Looking Back, Looking Forward

This time of year inevitably sparks the inner need for reflection. Not only have we reached the end of another year, but also the end of a decade. While I have seen many year-end lists start to pop up just about everywhere, fewer decade-end lists seem to have appeared. Perhaps it is a bit too soon to put an entire decade into perspective. Nonetheless, I encourage you to think about the 00's in terms of the events and trends that we have seen in talent management and the impact they have had on your business. What rises to the top? Emotional intelligence? Engagement? The search for high potentials? ROI? Also, what are the new ideas just starting to take root today that might have an impact leading into the next decade? Share your thoughts. I look forward to the dialogue.

I've been visiting quite a few clients recently to discuss their talent needs and gain some better insight into their current practices. In a few cases, I have encountered clients that have managed to develop a very robust process in a particular area. To some extent, this process, whether it was talent acquisition or performance management or any other component, came to define their approach to talent. Like an exceptionally tall tree in the forest that blocks out the light for the other trees to grow, these areas of towering HR strength had led to other aspects of the talent system wanting for more development. So while there was exceptional strength in one regard, the entire system as a whole was not performing anywhere near its potential.

So, does your company have a current practice that it invests in and has grown to the extent that other equally important and vital practices might have become overlooked and are now in need of more development?

My publications

My publications:

• The Seven Saving Graces for Managers http://bit.ly/463TTF
• Interviewing Right: How Science Can Sharpen Your Interviewing Accuracy http://bit.ly/2QprFM
• Global Talent Management: Using Learning Agility to Identify High Potentials Around the World http://bit.ly/3mafKu
• Ready. Set. Recovery! Are you ready for the hiring realities of 2010? http://bit.ly/22UnvN
• How Adding Factors, Clusters, and Stallers and Stoppers Leads to Better Interview Results: Interview Architect® Usage Guide http://bit.ly/QjEnp
• Business India interview http://twitpic.com/rze5l
• Human Resource Online http://humanresourcesonline.net/news/16565
• Economic Times interview http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Fighting-blind-spots-in-leadership-George-Hallenbeck/articleshow/5298553.cms
• Unlocking Potential: Understanding and Applying Tools to Identify and Develop Learning Agility http://www.lominger.com/pdf/LrningAglty_UsgGde.pdf
• Getting Started with Assignmentology http://www.lominger.com/pdf/Assmntlgy.pdf