Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 65:

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Patrick Casseday, Manager of Training & Development for Schneider Electric describes how they leveraged 360 surveys to increase sales performance among independent distributors. Schneider Electric was faced with the challenge of relying on the sales performance of individuals who are not formally part of the company. To address this challenge they created a set of tools that allowed distributors to assess and develop the capabilities of individual sales people. Although the solution initially met resistance, the clear impact it has on the bottom line led several distribution companies to now make its use mandatory.

Gain insight into how to improve the performance of the people who sell your products, even if you do not formally manage them – this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 64:

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Kevin Wheeler, Chairman of the Future of Talent Institute provides an overview of demographic, technological, and cultural shifts impacting workforce productivity and performance. Drawing on extensive experience working with companies around the globe, Kevin discusses how companies are adapting to a workforce that is becoming more creative, autonomous, and heterogeneous.

What is the key to building and sustaining a highly adaptive, creative organization? What role does peer-pressure play in organizational productivity? What can leaders learn from honey bees about structuring an organization? Hear answers to these questions and much more by listening to Kevin Wheeler - this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 63:

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Jacqueline Moyse, Head of Organisational Development for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group discusses challenges of maintaining a distinctive and common brand of customer across hotels operating in multiple countries and cultures. Focusing on a key theme of “humility”, Mandarin Oriental invests considerable resources into ensuring leaders fully understand and embrace the unique nature of service that drives Mandarin Oriental’s successful reputation within the hospitality industry.

Learn how Mandarin Oriental has applied concepts rooted in Asian leadership and service practices across diverse cultures ranging from London to Las Vegas – this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 62:

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Vince Racioppo, Talent Management expert for Aldridge Electric discusses methods for identifying and developing critical competencies that drive success in pivotal organizational roles. Faced with a growing shortage of highly influential project managers, Aldridge Electric analyzed these pivotal jobs to determine what differentiated the successful performers. This information was used to create a development program to systematically build competencies of less experienced staff to accelerate their ability to take on high impact project manager responsibilities.

Learn how to polish those talent “diamonds in the rough” and turn them into precious high performers – this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 61:

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Robert (Bob) Lewis, Director of APT Inc. discusses the role job descriptions play for guiding employee performance and ensuring effective and legally compliant staffing and compensation practices. As jobs increasingly focus on intangible concepts like “service” and “knowledge work”, it can be difficult to capture and define specific job requirements. This ambiguity creates confusion and legal risk within companies. But there are ways to address this through appropriate job analytics methods.

Job descriptions can be a critical tool for ensuring employees are doing what is expected of them and are being treated appropriately. If knowing what your workforce is supposed to be doing is important to you, then you will enjoy hearing Dr. Bob Lewis – this week no People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 59:

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Scott Powers, Managing Director of Alvarez & Marsal discusses the role of talent management in corporate turn-arounds. Specializing in stabilizing and improving company performance, Alvarez & Marsal helps firms manage promising but underperforming organizations. Scott often acts as interim CEO for newly acquired company and has been instrumental in several major corporate turn-arounds. Scott discusses the role of talent management in his work, with an emphasis on the importance of goal management in ensuring companies stay focused when they are fighting for their very survival.

Find out what it takes to recapture momentum and rebuild the “winning attitude” that is often lost when companies run into financial crises. If you work with companies facing financial strain then you will definitely want to listen to Scott Powers – this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 58:

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John Ambrose, Senior Vice President of Strategy for Skillsoft discusses how technology is facilitating knowledge sharing among employees both within and across organizations. John discusses the difference between effective knowledge management search engines versus more common “Google” type internet search tools. He also provides insights into leveraging social networking tools such as “Twitter” to rapidly locate the information you need when you need it.

Whether you are a “twitter master” or don’t know a tweet from a twerp, learn from John Ambrose about how to more effectively manage your knowledge – this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 57:

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Thomas Britt, psychology professor at Clemson University shares insights from research studying potential limitations and downsides of employee engagement. Thomas explains that highly engaged employees tend to have much more demanding expectations from employers in terms of the resources they expect from employers. The more employees care about performance the less they tolerate work conditions that do not allow them to perform at an optimal level. Highly engaged employees even become physically more stressed when companies set them up for what they perceive to be failure.

Documents referenced in this episode:

• Self-Engagement, Stressors, and Health: A Longitudinal Study
• Self-Engagement at Work

Learn about the caring, nurturing and feeding of highly engaged employees: this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 56:

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Susan Burns, Chief Talent Strategist at Talent Synchronicity explains how staffing and recruiting functions are changing to create more adaptive and sustainable workforce strategies. The rate of change in business is rendering more static, position based workforce planning and staffing models obsolete. Susan discusses how this is changing the nature of recruiting from “filling positions” to “maintaining candidate relationships”. This includes relationships with both external candidates and existing employees who are looking to advance their careers.

Learn what someone who has long been on the forefront of employment branding and staffing is forecasting for the coming years. Start building your relationship with the future of talent management: this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 55:

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Nigel Bristow, President and Founder of Targeted Learning shares insights gained from his 20+ year career helping companies maximize the performance of knowledge workers. Nigel shares five key stages of knowledge work: acquiring, applying, creating, sharing, and leveraging knowledge. He discusses the role each stage plays in workforce productivity and the challenges and unique issues associated with moving from one stage to another.

Whether you are a knowledge worker, manage knowledge workers, or just wish you had more knowledge, you will benefit from Nigel’s insights on knowledge work: this week on People Performance Radio.