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Personal Directions
Ever feel
that tings are out of balance in your life? Is your work
devouring all of your time producing dissatisfaction in both
your professional and personal growth? Are you trying to
figure out what you want out of your work and personal life
going forward?
“Today’s
demand for increased productivity and growth place more and
more pressure on individuals. Technology provides more
information for us to process at increasingly faster rates.
A common goal for many professionals, life balance, becomes
harder to achieve”, states Kevin Pallardy, partner with SSP
in St. Louis, Missouri. “People want to do their best in
all phases of their lives and they have only so much time
and energy to work with. In our coaching projects, we find
that tools such as our Q5 Framework and Personal
Directions® assessment aid individuals in understanding
and evaluating where they are directing energy, where they
want or need to direct it and how they can take positive
action to accomplish personal and professional goals.”
Developed by
the Portland, Maine-based Management Research Group (MRG),
Personal Directions® is targeted toward career and
life planning, executive development, career development,
retention and pre-retirement planning. MRG was founded in
1983 with the mission of helping organizations strategically
increase performance effectiveness through assessment-based
human resource development systems. In addition to
Personal Directions® MRG is also know for its
Leadership Effectiveness Analysis (LEA), a leadership
development tool (including a 360° component) also offered
by SSP in its coaching and development practice.
For more information about Personal
Directions® or other assessments we offer, contact Kevin
Pallardy by phone at (314) 523-2201, e-mail at
kpallardy@sspcorp.net
or click here.
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KEZK Radio Interview Transcript
Close-Up
with Jim Cox, March 21, 2004 - KEZK
J: Our guest this morning is Kevin Pallardy, who is with a
company called SSP, a human resources consulting firm. I
guess about a couple of months ago I received a commentary
entitled Retooling the Regional Workforce that
addresses the question of how the St. Louis region can
better position itself to take advantage of the economic
recovery that appears imminent. I like positive thinking.
Kevin, welcome to the program.
K: Thank you Jim, it is great being here.
J: Now what does SSP stand for?
K: Well SSP really is the initials of the three partners in
the firm and the company’s focus is really on helping
organizations hire, develop, retain and transition talent.
So we work with companies and the people they hire
throughout the cycle of employment.
J: Has the company been around long?
K: The company has been around since 1997. We have five
locations in Chicago and Northern Illinois. We opened our
St. Louis location at the beginning of 2003.
J: Doing well and continuing to expand, you hope?
K: Continuing to expand and the expansion is really just
working with more companies and helping them solve their
problems or address their challenges in getting the right
people, developing them, keeping them and, when
circumstances warrant, helping those people move onto new
employment, new careers.
J: Would you
call yourself a headhunting company?
K: No, not really. In classic terms a headhunter or a
recruiting firm or search firm will take on an assignment
from a company, get paid to find people and place those
people in open positions. That’s part of how people find
jobs but that’s not the biggest source for people
finding jobs. What employers tell us and what the people we
work with tell us is that the best way they have found to
hire people and the best way candidates have found jobs is
really through networking and through working contacts and
being referred into companies. The Internet certainly is a
source to find out about jobs. There still are some jobs
published in the newspaper and search firms have positions
as well. What we have found historically is that people
have the greatest success in landing a new position by
making contacts, by expanding the network of people they
know and by being referred into organizations by people who
know people in those organizations. That’s what we call the
networking process.
J: So do you work mostly with companies or with individuals?
K: Well, it’s an interesting relationship because we’re
really retained by a company to work with individuals,
whether that is on a development or performance coaching
assignment while those people are employed by the company.
Or, let’s say there is a merger or acquisition with some
type of downsizing that takes place. What we do there is we
are retained by the company but we will work directly with
those people and they are our clients. We call them our
clients or our customers.
J: Well the economy overall was hit very hard by what
happened September 11th. How did this region fare
as compared to the rest of the nation?
K: I think this region was hit very hard with September 11th;
I don’t know that there is a region that wasn’t hit hard.
But I think this region was hit hard and I think again there
was sort of a lag with it. So I think as other areas in the
economy rebounded, other areas in the nation, I think that
the Midwest and St. Louis probably was a little bit slower
in picking up. We do see some signs that it’s improving but
again it’s certainly not a rapidly developing job market.
J: The American Airlines downsizing certainly didn’t help our
area.
K: What you’ve had, and 9/11 is certainly a factor, what
you’ve also seen in St. Louis is a real migration of
corporate headquarters take place moving from St. Louis to
other areas over the past ten to fifteen years. Some of
that is taking place because of acquisitions. So a
Mallinckrodt that used to be headquartered here is now part
of Tyco Healthcare as a result of an acquisition. We know
that Southwestern Bell, while it still has a major presence
here, moved its corporate headquarters out of here back in
the ‘90’s. Those of us who traveled on business or pleasure
and were used to going to the airport and seeing the
McDonnell Douglas sign know that it is now a Boeing sign.
That’s a result of an acquisition. So as that takes place,
corporate positions which typically are among the highest
paying…Vice President, Senior Vice President and Director
level positions…many of those positions move away because
the corporate headquarters moves away, and as a result you
have more Divisional and Regional offices here in St.
Louis. There has certainly been a decline in major
corporate headquarters here in St. Louis.
J: In this commentary that your office sent, the sentence
says “Compounding the challenge, the regional workforce is
aging, reflecting a national trend.” You want to expand on
that?
K: One of RCGA’s statistics here in St. Louis that’s
interesting is that the over fifty population is really the
largest component in the St. Louis market place. So that
means…when you take out the under 17 or 18 year olds…the
over 50’s are really a major part of the work force in St.
Louis. St. Louis has a reputation for a well-educated,
mature, productive work force, but certainly one of the
challenges that the St. Louis economy faces is getting in
more entrepreneurial businesses, getting in more new
businesses to start up, and really being an attractive place
for young people to start their careers and continue their
careers. So that will be a challenge that we face going
forward.
J: OK, entrepreneurship, that suggests the creation of small
businesses.
K: It does suggest the creation of small businesses which is
taking place here and across the country. For example in
2002 in Missouri, small business accounted for almost all of
the job growth that took place. That doesn’t mean that a
major corporation didn’t have new jobs, but they also had
jobs that they were eliminating. But the real growth that
was taking place…and we’ve seen this certainly over the past
five years…we’ve seen real growth taking place in small- to
medium-sized business. When we talk about retooling the
work force and we take it to the level of what can an
individual do, it is no longer the type of world of work
where an individual can just look at the big
employers, the big corporations. They really need to
be more educated about all employers in the St. Louis
market. They need to be able to identify who are some of
the small firms that are growing, some of the medium sized
firms that are about to really take off. And one of the
things we do in working with our clients is help them
identify that. A great tool that people can access for
example is the St. Louis Business Journal Book of Lists.
It is published at the beginning of each year and is
typically found at libraries and major book stores and it
will break down the employment market, the different
employers by industry and by type of company, publicly held
company, privately held company. Is it a fast-growing
privately held company or is it a small business that’s
emerging? They do a wonderful job of breaking employers
down into different categories and giving a sense of their
size and growth. That’s a great tool for people to find
out, beyond the top 10 names that you can typically mention
as major employers in St. Louis, who are some of the other
companies that really should be on somebody’s radar screen.
So The Book of Lists is a great tool. Sorkins
has a business directory that people can go to, spend a
couple of hours…sometimes it is online, sometimes in book
form…and really get a great sense of the overall picture of
the St. Louis market. They can do some research on smaller
companies and make some contacts and really expand their
horizons on what companies they should be looking at for
future employment.
J: We don’t hear this a lot but when there is some sort of a
large lay off…that’s generally what we hear, all the bad
news, but recently I found out that two, three or four years
later, many of the folks…I don’t know how many…a lot of
people who were laid off from McDonnell Douglas or Boeing
found another job and created their own business. Maybe
they are not making as much money with all the benefits they
had with the big company, but are so much happier with their
lifestyle.
K: We definitely see that and you know, Jim, when we start
our careers we are not really coached or well-prepared for
making lifelong career decisions when we’re 18, 19, 20 years
old in college choosing a major. The good news about that
is in today’s world for many people I don’t know that there
is one career. If I look at my own experience, I started my
career in Human Resources, I moved into more sales and
marketing management types of roles and then I moved into
consulting and just with that you can say over 25 years I’ve
had 3 careers. I don’t think that that is going to be
unusual or uncommon for people going forward. My advice to
people looking at their careers and looking at their future
in work is to look at continuing to build skills. Be what
we call “always learning.” Be always learning, always
picking up new information, new skills so that you can apply
those skills to different work environments. Skills
transfer. We work with clients from many industries:
energy, distribution, manufacturing, service, healthcare.
When we work with these clients, we sit down and really
identify what are the skills that they use in their jobs and
then how can those skills transfer across different
industries and different employers. And how can they then
market or position themselves best for the opportunities
that are out there.
J: One very quick question because we’re out of time. Do you
feel optimistic for the nation?
K: I am an optimistic guy so I definitely feel optimistic for
the nation. I recognize that these are cycles, right? This
one may have lasted a little bit longer and may have been a
little bit harder than others but we will see good days for
the economy and employment ahead and somewhere downstream
we’ll also see it turn south. But that’s the nature of the
business world and for people in their careers. Be
resilient, be always learning and you will be able to
weather those cycles and find employment if you do some of
the things we talked about today.
J: Kevin Pallardy with SSP, thank you so much for sharing
this information with us.
K: Thank you for having me here today.
J: And thank you for listening. |
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SSP is growing!
On June 15,
2004, SSP finalized the acquisition of Joseph Bucolo and
Associates. This new division of SSP will provide human
resources consulting, outplacement and career development
work focused in the hospital/association market.
SSP is proud
of the fact that this acquisition in conjunction with our
existing healthcare practice makes us the largest in the
Midwest with on-going plans to expand our presence in the
healthcare consulting area.
Branding
Should you
be a brand? Over the last year, this topic has taken on new
importance as both employers and employees have found
themselves asking, “What does my company stand for? What do
I stand for? Are company values in sync with employee
values?”
Branding is
not about cute slogans, advertising or logos; instead,
branding is about perceptions and relationships.
Essentially, a brand, your personal brand, is value-driven
and is determined by what you think of yourself and more
importantly, what others think and say about you.
It’s no
secret that employees today want to stand out and be
recognized; however, a strong personal brand is not just
about standing out from the crowd. It’s what others think
and say about you that ultimately defines your “brand”.
Like author,
Karl Speak says in the article Human Resources: The
Inside Brand Manager, while recruitment and employee
retention programs are valuable, “the brand on the outside
is only as strong as the brand on the inside.”
Human Resources: The Inside Brand Manager
Human
resources executives have a new leadership role in
developing brand loyalty with customers. The brand on the
outside (with customers) is only as strong as the brand on
the inside (of the organization). This is the new mantra of
the most marketing-savvy executives. The foundation for
this new belief is based on two pillars: sustainable growth
requires customers that admire the company’s products and
value system and employees are the first important link in
the brand-building effort.
These
“new-school” business leaders are all proclaiming the
virtues of building their brands from the inside-out. In
fact, some of these avante garde CEO’s are proclaiming that
if a strong brand exists on the inside of the organization,
the outside brand with customers will take care of itself!
Many human resources executives are now being enlisted to
become an important member of the organization’s marketing
team. Management gurus are talking about the human
resources executive as the “chief inside marketing officer”
or “inside branding manager”.
Why Brand, Why Now?
Let’s start
out on the same page about brand. Brand is not a logo,
slogan, advertising campaign or a product name. Brand is a
relationship-a very special relationship with special
qualities. Strong brands are trusted, admired and rewarded
with loyalty. Products can be strong brands. Companies can
be strong brands. People can be strong brands.
For
businesses, brand management is the discipline of creating,
managing and fostering customer relationships. It is not
advertising and logos. It is not a marketing strategy that
requires large marketing budgets. It is not just for
packaged goods. Brand management is the creation of a
special customer relationship that is based upon an
organization’s unique strengths. It doesn’t matter what you
sell, what you do, or who you are. It doesn’t matter how
big or small or young or old your organization is. It
doesn’t matter if you sell products for a profit or offer
services as a non-profit. Brand is not a specialty
management discipline. What does matter is that every
company relies on strong customer relationships and their
reputation to grow faster than their competitors. And
brands are relationships.
Companies
with strong brands win more often than their competitors.
Brand’s popularity has reached mass-market status as a
business management topic. The status of brand is not
likely to fade away for some time, if ever. There are two
reasons for this staying power: one is cultural and the
other is based on proven business rationale. We can thank
the proliferation of the MBA degree over the past twenty
years for the popularity of brand in the business culture.
It’s cool to work for a company that has a strong brand,
either consumer or industrial.
This “MBA
cool factor” does have a strong and proven business
rationale. Brands are real and so are the benefits
businesses derive from having a strong brand. Managing a
brand has become the new discipline for managing and growing
customer relationships. This new approach to customer
relationships is firmly rooted in common sense.
After all,
the additional transactions that result in growth can be
generated far more efficiently from existing relationships
than from non-existent-at-the-moment variety. On-going
relationships have equity and value. Being the brand of
choice has far-reaching advantages and built in potential.
Consumers often become so loyal to a brand-they come to
value their relationship with an organization so much-that
they’re willing to pay a premium price for it. Knowingly.
Although
brand management is not a new topic, two things make it
different today and going forward. Companies of all types
and sizes are embracing brand-it’s not a niche strategy and
the experts have discovered that building brands is no
longer solely a marketing activity. The human resources
executive is now being asked to become a partner in the
brand-building process. Remember, the brand on the outside
is only as strong as the brand on the inside.
Connecting the Outside and the Inside Brand
Brand
management viewed in its newer, broader context boils down
to two organizational competencies. One is effective brand
management by the marketing communications and marketing
management departments, also referred to as keeping the
brand. Think of this as managing the outside brand. The
other is a company focus on aligning and motivating the
organization to embrace a set of beliefs that support the
values of the brand. This is known as managing the inside
brand. It demands commitment and a diligent effort from the
whole organization.
Managing the
inside brand takes brand management beyond its traditional
realm of corporate identity, product design, and
communicating a singular, poignant brand voice. Simply
stated, managing the inside brand engages the entire
organization in the brand-building process. It’s about
adding a new dimension to brand building-creating brand
loyalty inside the organization. Brand enthusiasts
throughout the organization become the strongest advocates
for upholding the brand’s values, thereby extending the
power of the organization’s brand stewardship efforts. An
organization that is engaged and passionate about its brand
creates brand-building resources made more potent through
its collective power. Managing the inside brand is the
result of infusing the organization with a rich
understanding of the brand’s values and encouraging
behaviors that are consistent with the brand’s values.
An
interesting way to understand the role of managing the
inside brand in the overall brand management effort is by
doing a little brand arithmetic. I’ll start by defining
some terms:
WV=Working
Values
CBV=Core
Brand Values
PBV=Preferred
Brand Values
Working
values describe the cultural values in an organization that
ultimately govern its behaviors. In simple terms, working
values provide a context for the way in which employees
treat each other. A culture that values open, honest
communication will foster relationships between employees
that are based on sharing information and valuing other
people’s opinions.
Core brand
values are the values that customers, and other people
outside the organization, associate with the brand. In
essence, core brand values are the basis for a brand’s
equity.
Preferred
brand values are the values that customers would say are the
most important attributes for a brand to have in a given
category. In a nutshell, the preferred brand values
describe what it takes to create a loyal customer. The
preferred brand values describe the position of the most
valuable brand in a given category.
Here we
go-brand arithmetic:
(1)
WV=CBV
(2)
CBV=PBV
(3)
WV=PBV
Equation 1
is based upon human relations common sense. The way in
which people treat each other as fellow employees has a
direct, inevitable impact on how customers will be treated.
Said in a more colloquial fashion: You can’t fake it for
very long; true feelings will find their way to the surface.
Equation 2
is a brand management axiom. Simply stated: to create brand
loyalty, the customer must perceive (believe) that the
company (product) consistently delivers an experience that
meets their expectations or standards of excellence in that
category. Now we get to test our memory of 8th
grade algebra:
WV= CBV
CBV=PBV
WV=PBV
By
mathematically relating the first two equations, we find
that consistent brand building requires that the culture of
the organization must be aligned and support the most
important customer requirements. The organizational
development requirement in brand building is an axiom of the
new brand building formula. Brand building is everybody’s
job! A brand on the inside that is not connected to the
brand on the outside creates a big disconnect with the
customer!
Stepping Up to the Challenges of the Inside
Brand Manager
Don’t be
intimidated and don’t be too quick to rush off to look for
those old marketing textbooks. The initial interest in
inside brand building started with human resources
executives embracing the concept of employer brand. The
focus of employer brand ran the gamut of developing more
creative recruitment advertisements to a broader context of
“branding” the employment experience to become an employer
of choice to compete in the tight employment market
associated with the recent economic rally.
Employee
recruitment efforts require a certain level of representing
the company’s brand to acquire the right talent for the
organization. In fact, we know that companies with strong
outside brands are much more productive in their recruitment
efforts. At the same time, effective employee retention
requires using the organizations inside brand to breed
loyalty with employees. So certainly on an unconscious
level, brand has been an integral part of the human
resources management discipline to attract and retain
employees.
For many
organizations, the so-called inside brand management
activities surrounding recruitment, retention, or cultural
alignment programs exist at some level, but in most cases
are hit or miss and are more likely not in-sync with a
customer focus. A small number of companies have been
successful, but more likely in an unconsciously competent
manner.
Of course,
there are a very small minority of organizations that manage
an inside brand in concert with their outside brand. A
brand on the outside that is earnestly synchronized with the
brand on the inside produces perpetual energy for the
organization to grow at speeds much faster than their
competitors.
Stepping up
to the challenge of managing the inside brand requires a
conscious effort based upon clearly defined processes and a
set of “brand-management” skills. The efforts focused on
connecting the outside brand with the inside brand will have
the effect of more directly connecting the activities of the
human resources team with the bottom line. Being perceived
as providing more value to the organization means the human
resources team will develop an even stronger brand for
themselves.
Karl D.
Speak is a consultant who delivers powerful insight and
practical advice on brand management issues. Karl has
trained hundreds of marketing professionals in the
discipline of brand management in corporate training
seminars, in addition to his teaching at University of
Minnesota, College of St. Thomas and University of
Westminster. |
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