Category: Assessment

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Different Rules for Different Employees? Expect Different Behaviors

In the land (perhaps) of no surprises, it turns out the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has one set of ethics guidelines for rank and file and a different set for the 24 executive directors who oversee the organization. As in the rules for the rank and file don’t apply to the senior execs.

If the IMF moniker doesn’t ring bells, last week IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested for alleged rape of a hotel maid.… Read the rest

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The Talent Secret: The 4H Club

Tech valuations are popping (frothy is the well-used word) in the San Francisco Bay area. And the requirement to have high performing talent to quickly scale and produce a winning product may drive it all.

The scalp price for hiring or retaining top engineers was recently tabbed at $500,000 and the talent acquisition strategies of firms like Facebook includes the purchase of small start-ups only to shut them down and employ the newly acquired talent.… Read the rest

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The Return of the Regular Gal and Guy?

With ample help from the media, we are obsessed with the rockstar somethings – whether it be a CEO of a company, the new head at your kid’s school, or the coach of your favorite men’s National Basketball League team.

Good is not good enough; great is the order of the day. And in the hoax that is an assessment and selection myth like “topgrading and “A” players,” it means the person has to have gone to the right school, have the right degree, have the right look (preferably taller, thinner than heavier, and whiter or at least lighter) and run in the right circles.… Read the rest

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Sorry? Say So Effectively!

Last Friday the 13th (somehow fitting) was “sorry” day at  Back West’s world headquarters; three occasions that someone said to me “I’m sorry.”

How effectively those apologies were tells you the things that make a sorry work, and how saying you’re sorry can also make the situation even worse.

Here’s the three:

  • Stephanie Smith, the person who cuts my hair was a no-show (as in the lights were off, the door locked, and no one in her shop) for my appointment late Thursday afternoon.
… Read the rest