Skills required change, as you move up the management ladder

In London last week, training with SHL as we’re increasing the range of psychometric test instruments that we offer to our clients. A very interesting and intense course. We covered a wide range of instruments from different ability tests, to personality, to interests to motivation. We had to use each of these instruments on ourselves, so I feel very over analysed! We were then rated on how well we used these assessment tools with paid volunteers. (Most reputable test developers won’t allow you to use their tests, until they they are satisfied you can use these tests correctly and sensitively).

One of the topics we covered was Lominger’s 6 Q’s of Leadership. This has the following elements or quotients.


IQ – Intelligence Quotient – how “bright” you are.

TQ – Technical or Operational Quotient – how well you are able to get
things done.

MQ – Motivational Quotient – how driven you are to achieve
and grow.

XQ – eXperience Quotient – how many of the required kinds of work
experiences you have had.

PQ – People Quotient – how well you handle yourself and work
with others (sometimes referred to as Emotional Quotient).

LQ – Learning Quotient – how deftly you adopt new skills,
behaviours and beliefs


Depending on what stage of your career you are at, the relative importance of these quotients vary. So when you start off in your management career, the IQ quotient is really important, but at senior management level this is the least important quotient and the PQ (People quotient) becomes the most important. Makes sense when you think about it. At junior management level you are likely to be more “hands on” completing jobs directly yourself. At senior management levels, you are more likely to be trying to get other people to perform the actual work, so you need to be good with people.

Many people seem to think that once they achieve a certain level in their careers they can stop learning. How ever, Lominger’s research (backed up by many other studies) demonstrates the importance of continuous learning. This does not mean simply achieving additional qualifications, but being open to new experiences, beliefs and adopting new behaviours.
Lominger points to the importance of the MQ (motivational) and LQ (Learning) Quotients. Both of these are very important at junior and senior management levels. So according to Lominger, if you want to move up the career ladder, you have to be prepared to (in order of priority)
1. Develop your skills in understanding yourself and working with others (PQ)
2. Consistently learn new skills, behaviours and reassess your beliefs (LQ)
3. Be motivated towards climbing up the career ladder
4. Develop your working experience in your preferred area of interest (XQ)


Other posts which you may find relevant to this area
Getting that promotion
Overlooked for promotion
Why feedback is good for you
Hard work is not enough

Keywords
career builder
career advice Dublin
career training Ireland

How to respond to racist, sexist or anti gay jokes

Despite all the equal opportunity legislation in place today, I’m still hearing frequent complaints about unsavoury jokes in the workplace. It can be very difficult to handle these, laughing implies you support the joke, but it does maintain your relationship with your co-worker(s) Staying silent does not get your distaste across, but saying something against the joke can lead to you being ridiculed as “over sensitive” and contribute to a bad workplace atmosphere.

Carmen Van Kerckhove suggests the best response should accomplish the following

“ 1) Communicate that you find this behaviour unacceptable.
2) Demonstrate that the joke is racist. (or sexist, or ageist, or anti gay etc)
3) Inflict as little damage as possible to your working relationship with the
joker.”

She suggests the best way to handle such jokes is to feign ignorance, pretend not to understand the joke-simply saying “I don’t get it” and asking the “joker” to explain.
She uses this example below.
“Co-worker: Did you hear that Angelina Jolie adopted another kid, this time from Vietnam?
You: Oh really?
Co-worker: Yeah. The poor kid probably doesn’t even know he’s Asian yet. He certainly doesn’t know he’s going to be a horrible driver. Or that he’s going to be amazing at doing nails. He has no idea! [Laughs heartily.]
You: [Look perplexed.] Sorry, I don’t get it.
Co-worker: What do you mean?
You: I guess I’m missing something. Why is that funny?
Co-worker: [Looks embarrassed.] Um, well you know how people say that Asians are bad drivers. And a lot of people who work at nail salons are Asian.
You: But those are just stereotypes, aren’t they?
Co-worker: Well, all stereotypes have some truth to them.
You: So you actually believe that all Asians are bad drivers and are good at doing nails?
Co-worker: No, no, it’s just… Never mind.”

The full blog entry is well worth reading and can be seen by clicking here.


I think Carmen’s approach could be very effective, but if the joke stereotype is really blatant, I think I’d find maintaining an air of complete ignorance difficult.
I’d be interested in hearing from readers whether they think this approach would work or any other approaches you find has worked for you. You can use the comments button below or email me directly at blog(at)quovadis.ie. (Sorry no direct link, because of spamming problems)

Other possibly related posts

Ageism
Mental Health in the Workplace
What should I do if I work for a jerk

Key words
racist workplace jokes
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Women in the majority in business ?

Plenty of interesting material in the latest ESRI forecast on labour trends. As usual they qualify their findings, saying it’s only a forecast not 100% accurate.

One very interesting finding is that if current trends continue, then by 2012 women will form the majority of the “Business, Legal and other Professional” occupations category. That is men will be in a minority in these occupations. I find this fascinating.

I remember starting work as a trainee accountant in 1980 and being a bit of a novelty, as for the first time ever, my employer had taken on female trainees. By some very strange coincidence, all four trainees taken on by the firm that year were female and this helped as it meant we had some peer support in a very male orientated world. Hard to take part in coffee break discussions when you did not know what sport a winger played in (Rugby) let alone the scoring system. Most of the men were very helpful, but there was some resentment from certain individuals as they’d been asked to take down their female pin up’s pictures from the office walls!

A key lesson I learned in that office was firstly , peer support is invaluable is most situations, so always take time to identify people in your job or industry that you like, can trust and talk to about job related details.

Secondly, it helps job satisfaction if you have something in common with your team mates. A skillsoft survey states that good social relationships is one of the biggest factors in job satisfaction. Having a shared interest with your colleagues supports enjoyable conversations. So if you join a new office or employer, and your colleagues are fanatical GAA supporters and you hate sports, don’t shut your self out of those conversations. Try to learn a little about the sport so at least you can participate rather than sit mutely. You might even learn to enjoy it.

You can download the ESRI report Here

Key Words
career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
women in business