Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Avoiding Behavioral Bottlenecks

What Goes Wrong? (By Bill Wagner)

Great employees are almost impossible to identify during the traditional selection and screening process. It’s a sobering fact that most terminated Fortune 500 CEOs lasted less than five years in their jobs. Yet these same corporate failures were once touted as the best fit for the firm. What went wrong? This is not an academic question, but a matter of real dollars and cents to growing companies.

According to the Saratoga Institute, the costs associated with executive/employee turnover are significant, sometimes double or even quadruple an executive’s annual salary. The soft costs – lost productivity, additional recruiting, interviewing, training, and acclimating new hires to the corporate culture – are bad enough. The hard costs of lost sales, poor customer relations, expensive relocation bills, and missed opportunities can negatively affect the company’s bottom line. It gets worse. Without behavioral expectations in place, hidden costs mount, especially when new employees may not become fully productive for six or more months.

How can companies reduce or eliminate the mistakes of selecting or promoting the wrong people for the job? The response is deceptively simple. It is to identify, recognize, and measure the behavioral requirements of the position and then compare those requirements with the behavioral attributes of the applicant or incumbent.

Once companies buy into this straightforward, simple, proven process, they are armed with valuable information that affects future productivity. They’ll learn that leaders are often born, not made, and that each position has specific behavioral requirements that are equally (if not more) important than certain skills, education, and experience. This discovery leads to stronger behavioral alignment inside the company, and incorporating behavioral assessments in the recruiting process significantly improves the bottom line.

(2003 Handbook of Business Strategy)

Bill Wagner is CEO of Accord Management Systems, located in Thousand Oaks, CA. The firm assists companies with the implementation of behavioral assessment techniques. www.AccordSyst.com / www.TheEntrepreneurNextDoor.com

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Organizational and Leadership Development

CEO and Co-founder of Accord Management Systems, Inc.
Thousand Oaks, California


When not speaking, Bill owns and operates a behavioral consultancy - providing organizations and clients with ongoing research and findings that are both objective and intuitive. Accord Management Systems specializes in various forms of online assessments and surveys. Bill's team of experts provides clients with meaningful data and insights that are implemented to improve employee retention, succession and organization.

Bill is an engaging, passionate and humorous speaker who assists audiences and clients in identifying, analyzing, and developing solutions for a wide range of problems in today's business world. Each year, he presents to thousands of CEOs and leaders in hundreds of seminars and workshops internationally. His expertise and straight-forward approach sets him apart from other industry specialists and allows participants to become their own organizational experts. Bill is fond of rocking the boat and telling the truth - questioning answers when answering questions. His research is supported by metrics used strategically to maximize results and consequently guide audiences to the behavioral light at the end of the tunnel. Bill's areas of expertise include:
  • Managing the Gap
  • Employee Engagement
  • Organization Alignment
  • Leadership Development
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Succession Planning
  • Team Building
  • Selection to Succession
Bill's presentations are customized to meet individual client needs. Many presentations allow attendees to complete online assessments prior to the event. The assessments are designed to drive attendance, engagement and take-home value. Some of Bill's most popular programs include:

Managing the Gap: Rarely are we the perfect fit for our positions. Learn to manage the difference between who are and who we are and who we need to be.

It's All About Metrics: Measure, manage and motivate your employees to drive productivity and profits. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

Create and All-Star Team: Focus on the best step-by-step suggestions for smart team selection, succession and retention.

The Art of Behavioral Communication: Identify which of the 8 personality types you are (from Bill's book, The Entrepreneur Next Door). www.TheEntrepreneurNextDoor.com. Determine the communication and problem-solving characteristics you need to take your management to the next level.


Developing an Engaged Workforce: Engaged employees are 3 to 4 times more profitable than their disengaged colleagues. Attendees learn how to measure engagement and drive results.

www.AccordSyst.com