Scott C. Whiteford Talks Vision and Collaboration

In this episode of Let’s Talk Talent, host Mark Epp chats with Scott C. Whiteford, Ph.D., Director of Leadership Analytics at Talent Plus.

Talent Plus recognizes, engages, accelerates, and leads talent, talent strategies, and talent planning across organizations.

The two dialogue about:

• How relationships are central to the development of leaders and those who report to those leaders.
• Why a shared vision and the collaborative process of understanding it are the foundation of a great team.
• How TeamView, a Talent Plus Development Solution, can help leaders understand the gaps between their current team and their ideal state, and define team benchmarks.

Click here to learn more about our TeamView Solution.

Click here to learn more about Career Investment Discussions (CID's) and how they help leaders better invest in the growth and development of their team members.

Contact us today to learn more about how we predict performance and maximize human potentiality. Let’s Talk Talent!

Transcript

Mark Epp:

It's a pleasure to welcome to our podcast, Let's Talk Talent, my guest, Scott Whiteford, Director of Leadership Analytics at Talent Plus. Delighted you could be with us today. Scott, thank you so much.

Scott Whiteford:

Thank you, Mark. I'm happy to be here.

Mark Epp:

Scott, how long have you worked at Talent Plus?

Scott Whiteford:

Well, Mark, I've worked at Talent Plus for 17 years. A little shorter than you. I think between the two of us, we have 35 years. So, a lot of experience working with talented leaders.

Mark Epp:

And you know Scott, as we kind of get into our dialogue today, just from my experience with you, you have and continue to contribute a heck of a lot to our company, to our science, and to our client successes every single day. 

And additionally, there's one thing that I really also like about you and that's that you’re a funny guy. So, as we get started here, to kind of kick us off on a humorous note, is there a story you might share with us?

Scott Whiteford:

Sure. I appreciate the question mark. I was thinking about this this morning. This happened recently. This is a Talent Plus story. And so for the listeners out there that know Talent Plus one of our favorite exercises is the Focus on You® activity. And in the Focus on You activity, we ask our participants about their hot buttons. And you and I have been working at Talent Plus a long time, and of course we know that when Talent Plus talks about hot buttons, they're talking about things that really energize you or hobbies or things that you really like to do. 

And I explain that to the client. And they’re all writing down their Focus on You’s and we're going around and there are eight of them. And we start and the first leader is talking about his hot buttons, and he is talking about his family and his dogs and his kids and where he likes to hike and travel. And another guy raises his hand and he's like, “You don't like any of those things?” And we say, “Well, hot buns are things that really energize you, hobbies, things that really excite you.” And he's like, “Oh, I was writing down things that really annoy me!” 

So he’s thinking this guy is talking about all these people he doesn't like, so as a facilitator, and because we do that at Talent Plus so often I forget that in society, lots of times that's associated with things you don't like. 

Mark Epp:

Yeah, I can imagine that happening, Scott, Hey and as you brought up, Focus on You, tell us a little bit more about that exercise. We do use that at Talent Plus a lot and explain to our listeners what that exercise is and maybe they could even incorporate something like that into the work they do every day.

Scott Whiteford:

Yes, it is one of the best relationship building exercises that I can think of. In fact, I use it with our clients, I use it with the classes I teach. and of course internally we use it quite frequently. And the Focus on You activity is in groups of five to probably ten. Each individual fills out information about themselves and we give enough room on a piece of paper so they can actually fill in information about others as the others talk, which is a really important piece. 

Usually in the Focus on You, it begins with the name you'd like to be called. Of course, we know that probably 10 to 15 percent of individuals are called by names that they don't like to be called. We ask about your hot buttons and of course, as we just talked about, those hot buttons are things that really energize you or hobbies.

We talk about successes and because we are so into relationships and understand the importance of relationships, these successes are both work and personally related. And then we usually finish with what's one personal goal and one professional goal. And so each person fills out their top line and then as each individual shares, they fill out the next line on that person with an opportunity to ask questions at the end. 

Mark, there was a team retreat I did about two years before Covid, and the leader came up to me at the break after the Focus on You, and she said, “If this is the only activity we did today, I would have found today to be successful.”

Mark Epp:

Incredible. Yeah, it's an amazing exercise and I just want you to clarify something for us. You talked about relationships, and I hear from managers all the time, leaders all the time, “Wait a minute, I need to keep a professional distance from my people, or they'll take advantage of me. They'll take advantage of that relationship.” When you talk about relationships at Talent Plus, what are you inferring?

Scott Whiteford:

Well, you know it’s interesting because at Talent Plus, of course internally we say that that plus stands for relationships. We understand through our research that relationships are central to the development of well leaders, but also the people who report to those leaders. When examining leaders, as I've had an opportunity to do as a Leadership Consultant, I often wonder, if a leader doesn't understand the team, their people that report to them, how can they individualize their development to each of the people on their teams? 

I think in our society we have put up a false wall that doesn't need to exist about not knowing your team members because it's easier to hire and fire them when in fact we would argue it's much more difficult to hire and fire them. And we know that investment is so important and although you may have people on your team that are all doing essentially the same job, the investment that you put into them should be vastly different. 

And the only way you're going to know how to do any of that is if you have a strong understanding of each individual. And that that relationship is indeed two ways. It's not just me knowing more about you and asking all the questions as your leader, it's you knowing about me and asking those questions as well.

Mark Epp:

Absolutely. Scott, I know something really dear to your heart and the work that you do with clients is working with client teams. And tell us a little bit about your experience in working with teams and maybe some stories around that.

Scott Whiteford:

Absolutely. Working with teams has been an exceptionally rewarding piece of my career. And one of the things that we routinely utilize is the TeamView®. And the TeamView is a series of questions that asks the participants where they are now and asks the question again, but where they think they ought to be. 

And so this is on a scale of one to seven. And across those 42 items, you see gaps of anywhere between zero and maybe three or four points. And because the questions are being asked of the team, they're establishing the benchmark. So when we ask where should your team be or where may the team ought to be, we are asking them to define the benchmark. And so when we see a three point gap, say it's something like, “Our team communicates well”, well the team's average is a three and they say we should be a six.

Okay, that's a three-point gap. We then can help them; we can work with them on initiatives to close those gaps. And so there’s been several times over my career where we've walked into an organization and we've seen some of these gaps. And you know with those 42 questions, an average team's going to have ten to fourteen gaps, even the strong teams. And we are going to put in place initiatives to close those gaps. What can we do to so that the next time we measure this, we see different results? 

And indeed, the times that we've had an opportunity to reassess that team, we've seen those different results, we've seen those gaps closed. We've seen trust evolve or trust increase. And so knowing that, knowing that those impacts about bringing those teams together can have such an outstanding outcome on revenue, on engagement, and eventually of course, customer satisfaction. I just find that part very rewarding, partly because it has to do with my degree and partly because I think it has such an impact.

Mark Epp:

You know, what you said and what you shared with us is essential. Cause I think our leaders listen to our podcast because they want to see different results. It's what it's all about. It's what we're all about, is helping our listeners close that gap. That's how I know you and I gain our greatest sense of satisfaction is when we seek clients, be more successful to move toward where they want to go. And it's exciting to do that. 

So, with these experiences then, Scott, what are some of the dynamics that make up a great team in your experience?

Scott Whiteford:

So a shared vision is I think the first place to start. Strong communication, desire on accomplishing projects that reach that vision. Having at least some of the folks be intellectually curious and really want to see how to evolve and having leaders genuinely interested in the development of their team members. 

One of the things that I think is understated is when I talk to leaders about what career investment have they placed in their team members? A lot of them will talk about, “I've had a conversation with them to show them how they can improve to reach the next level.” And my first question to them is, “How do you know that they want to reach the next level? How do you know that that method of improvement is really going to work for them?” I encourage my leaders when they have those Career Investment Discussions (CIDs) that the street actually goes the other way.

What do they want out of that work? What do they want out of the career? What are their long-term goals? And then being able to take that information and leader help synthesize the vision of the organization or the vision of the team with the vision of the individual. So, when we look at great teams, one of the baseline pieces is has the leader set that team up to be great? Okay, after they've done that, then do they have the strong communication? Do they have the strong shared vision, the desire to learn, the focus to reach those outcomes? And then of course, ultimately a strong trust on the team. That's what I've seen with great teams.

Mark Epp:

Talking about shared vision and communication. One of the things that comes to mind when you talk about that, and what the last point that you made here is this figuring out what do the individuals on your team want and how does that align to the shared vision and the goals of that team or that organization? 

Well, it sounds to me, Scott, when you put those two together, it's a collaborative process between the leader and the individual. Rather than saying to the leader, “You have to figure out what this person needs and tell them what to do.” It's much more collaborative. That sounds to me like it's a much more satisfying and valuable process.

Scott Whiteford:

It absolutely is. That collaboration is so important. When we look leaders that think that they are driving the Iditarod dog sled, if the top dog is driving the dog sled, what we would see from a Talent Plus perspective is that leader just happens to be the one out in front but pulling the dog sled with the rest of the team. And that’s the collaboration that we like to see, and I think creates strong teams.

Mark Epp:

So Scott, toward the end of our discussion, I always like to ask what three actions would you want our listeners to take after hearing this podcast today? 

Scott Whiteford:

The three things that I would want our listeners to take away from this podcast is one, what does their Career Investment Discussion look like with each of their team members? Are they really seeking to understand what those team members want out of their job, out of their career, their long-term vision, and how can they help align them with the organization's vision? That's number one. 

Number two is really understanding the team as a whole. What do those team dynamics look like? How can the leader help create a stronger team? Doesn't have to necessarily be through something like TeamView, but it can be through appreciative inquiry or discussions with the team as a whole. How can they help that team continue to evolve? That would be the second thing that I would want our listeners to walk away with. 

And the third thing that I'd want them to walk away with is not to limit the people on their team by knowledge, skills and experience. Don't overemphasize those pieces of the decision because if you do, you're likely going to run into adverse impact. But even worse for just from a production standpoint, you're going to be selecting from a much smaller group of individuals than if you're focusing on the talent side. So, if I had three things I'd want my listeners to walk away with, it'd be those three things.

Mark Epp:

Tell us a little bit more. You said a Career Investment Discussion. Explain that a little bit more for our leaders. What is that and how can we help them benefit from that?

Scott Whiteford:

Yes. So a Career Investment Discussion is, I've seen them as often as monthly updates anyway but at least annually an in-depth discussion with each of the individuals on the team, not about their performance from last year. It's fine if you touch on that, that's great. Not about something that they did six months ago, and they need to correct that should be done in real time. But in understanding what that individual wants out of their careers and how then to best motivate them, how to best help them, how to best clear hurdles out of the way. 

One of the things I often use with my leaders is what's called a Career Investment Discussion guide. And the beauty of that guide is that it is easily individualized to each of the team members on the team. So even though it's one guide, the leader can approach each of those team members using the guide, but in very different methods to get very different outcomes as they should. They're all different people out there. And so that's one of the things that I see is really helpful is, is that Career Investment Discussion guide. 

Mark Epp:

Scott Whiteford, thank you so very much. It's been an absolute privilege for me to be able to have this time with you. As always, I am inspired by the things you say and am privileged to know you, not only as a colleague, but also as a friend. Scott, thank you so very much.

Scott Whiteford:

Thank you for having me, Mark. It was my pleasure and I'm so glad that you're doing this, and I'm glad that you're a friend of 17 years as well.