Beyond The Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation By Phil Mckinney

 

Beyond The Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation By Phil Mckinney List Price: $27.99 Price: $17.03 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Ships from and sold by Amazon.com 55 new or used available from $14.00 Average customer review: (9 customer reviews)

Product Description

"An empowering new voice for business readers, Phil McKinney will change your Monday with his rule-breaking approach to harnessing the power of innovation. This book is a killer read for anyone who hopes to triumphantly succeed and not just survive."
--Peter Guber, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Tell to Win

"Human beings are creatures of habit, so getting ourselves and our teams to think beyond the obvious is a challenge we face all the time. Phil McKinney is an innovation expert, and his killer questions and hit-the-spot anecdotes provide a great way to get out in front of opportunities we otherwise won't see."
--Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and Escape Velocity

"Many assumptions about our business ultimately turn out to be wrong, which is why it's so important to ask the right questions at the right time. In Beyond The Obvious, Phil McKinney arms readers with the skills to ask razor-sharp questions that lead to better ideas and more effective innovations."
-- Wendell P. Weeks, chairman and CEO, Corning

"Product Innovation is a prerequisite to building great brands. Phil's questions are a prerequisite to building innovative products."
-- Satjiv S. Chahil, former global marketing chief, Apple

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11606 in Books
• Published on: 2012-02-07
• Released on: 2012-02-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.42 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review

" ... practical guide to consistently generating innovation."

"... an invaluable guide to extracting ideas from the book and applying them within an organization."

"McKinney gives organizations the tools they need to generate ideas and know that they're moving in the right direction."

Publisher Weekly  12/16/2011

"In this bright, informative debut, McKinney ... writes that anyone can become an "idea person" "

"Offering vivid examples of how his approach has worked at HP and elsewhere ... "

"Valuable and ready for immediate use."

Kirkus Reviews 12/28/2011

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Enlightening
By Curtis Brown
I find Beyond the Obvious to be an interesting in-depth look at Innovation within large corporations. As someone who has experienced a SIGNIFICANT amount of corporate chaos, McKinney's anecdotes and recommendations throughout the book have given me a lot more perspective on how things can go sideways if done improperly and how companies can stagnate if they don't embrace change in smart ways. It's a lot to think about.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent, practical guide to applied innovation
By Allen A. Proithis
Excellent book full of real life examples of how to apply innovation at every level of an organization. Many books on innovation are great in theory but do not cover how to implement anything. Beyond the Obvious is a great read for anyone who wants to get into the real details of making a difference. I personally saw a number of the examples in the book as they occurred at HP. Read it as soon as you can!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Innovations can survive corporate antibodies
By R. Hensley
This is a must-read for CTO's as well as anyone that not only wants a fast method for drilling down to the most critical areas for innovation but also practical advice on how to "sell" the innovation to upper management. Legions of innovative ideas are consumed by corporate antibodies. Phil deals with this issue up front and gives sound advice, and a process, to make sure your innovations see the light of day. My copy is completely marked-up and dog-eared for on-going reference.

http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/1401324460

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Table For Three?: Bringing Your Smart Phone To Lunch & 50 Dumb Mistakes Smart Managers Don't Make! By Darryl Rosen

Table For Three?: Bringing Your Smart Phone To Lunch & 50 Dumb Mistakes Smart Managers Don't Make! By Darryl Rosen Price: $19.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Ships from and sold by Amazon.com 13 new or used available from $14.38 Average customer review: (2 customer reviews)

Product Description

Welcome to the start of what I'm sure will be a successful journey eliminating the mistakes that smart managers don't make. Is this book for you? I think so. Do you manage employees, associates, sales professionals or anyone else on a regular basis? Do you rely on others to pay your bills – to put food on the table? And now the tough question: Do you make the occasional mistake as you navigate the treacherous waters of management? Then this book is for you! I am delighted to share my lessons from running a successful business and my recent interactions with so many intelligent, thought-provoking, hard working management professionals. My thoughts are based, in part, on literally hundreds of coaching sessions with management professionals all over the country. In these pages, I've tried to share a sense of how managers operate and I've identified 50 avoidable mistakes that smart managers don't make. Your efforts, should you take this endeavor seriously, will leave you better than before. Better able to handle what a manager handles on a daily basis. You'll be more professional, confident and proactive and you may even develop an associate or professional along the way. All good things in my book. So, if you have the courage to start the process, then you will be well on your way towards achieving stronger management practices and the results will follow. You will be more successful. Why? Because… …That's just the way it works.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #240053 in Books
• Published on: 2011-12-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .36" h x 5.98" w x 9.02" l, .51 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Everyone talks effective sales and management practices, but Darryl Rosen has lived them his entire career. He served as President and owner of Sam's Wines & Spirits, a family business started by his grandfather in the 1940's. Under his leadership and unwavering commitment to superior customer service and top-notch sales and management practices, Sam's grew from a small single operation to a multi-unit retailer with nearly $70 million in sales. Sam's reputation earned Darryl and his team an unrivaled national and international reputation. Since selling Sam's in 2007, Darryl has taken his decades of experience from running a successful business and his interaction with thousands of hardworking, intelligent sales professionals and managers and currently consults and trains professionals who seek to strengthen their sales and management practices. His unique consulting and training practice provides sales and management training, retailer and consumer focus group research and analysis and retailer education and events. Darryl's practice also conducts extensive research to measure the critical dynamic between managers and sales professionals and designs custom programs to improve working relationships and create better sales coaches. Before joining Sam's, Darryl received a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Indiana University and became a certified CPA. He earned his MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1997. Darryl enjoys spending time with his wife (Jill) and three boys (Josh, Danny and Ben), and is always hoping that this year will be the year for the Cubbies! It rarely ever is… If you would like more information on Darryl Rosen's speeches, seminars and consulting services, please use the following contact information. darryl@darrylrosen.com

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Management Wisdom for 2012
By Amy Boeckholt Wilt
Table for Three is written for both the newly promoted manager or a seasoned retail executive. It was great mental floss for me and I've been in retail for a few years. I found myself highlighting and re-reading many of the sections. It takes a modern, creative and personal approach to managing and creating better relationships with employees and customers. I enjoyed the format with 50 short chapters, each one of them insightful and self-contained. I appreciate the real lfe examples that the author uses to illustrate his comments.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Informative, fun and quick read!
By smartypants127
Table for Three is a great quick read with useful information that managers and salespeople often forget about..some of the info is just "matter of fact", however,often overlooked or skipped as we sometimes become routine in a management or sales role.....its written in a casual and personable style, packed with professional tips on how to become a more effective manager.
This book makes a great gift for friends, co-workers, or staff!

http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/0615575544

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Dangers Of Open-Ended Questions To Participants In 360-Degree Feedback

"The other day I got out my can-opener and was opening a can of worms when I thought, What am I doing?!" ~~~ Jack Handey

The usefulness of having qualitative comments in 360-degree feedback interventions is not widely debated. In fact, before online administration of 360-degree feedback assessments was even possible, most coaches and consultants relied on summarizing interviews with key stakeholders to share feedback themes with participants. Typically in either vendor developed 360 assessments or customized ones designed in-house, open-ended questions are typically included voluntarily and confidentially answered by raters.

Of course, narrative comments can possibly be evaluative, overly critical, or negative, having an adverse impact on acceptability. For example, Smither and Walker (2004) analyzed the impact of upward feedback ratings, as well as narrative comments, over a one-year period for 176 managers. They found that those who received a small number of unfavorable, behaviorally-based comments improved more than other managers, but those who received a large number relative to positive comments significantly declined in performance more than other managers. Like quantitative results, open-ended comments can create strong emotional reactions that can interfere with the acceptance of feedback and lead to diminished engagement and productivity.

In most 360-degree feedback interventions, invited raters are often not given any type of training of guidance to maximize the usefulness of their written comments. Ideally, invited raters should be communicated with early on to describe the purpose of the 360-degree feedback intervention, how their ratings will be used, who will have access to them, and how to make them as behavioral, constructive, and useful for the participant as they can possibly be. This type of communication and training can be helpful to reduce both the leniency and strictness errors and other forms of rating biases.

Coach's Critique:

One would think that qualitative data would be more beneficial than quantitative data. However, there are pros and significant cons to the outcome of qualitative data. Receiving too much information can have some major pitfalls!

Since questions on the quantitative portion of the 360 are posed in a positive way, participants vulnerability to negative feedback is minimized. As it is, with the quantitative part of the 360, participants often feel overwhelmed by the feedback despite the fact that data is posed in a controlled and somewhat of a positive way (e.g. based on strengths and improvement opportunities). Rather, qualitative data can "open up a can of worms". Feedback can be negative and harsh. As a result, participant's esteem to make behavioral changes can actually be shattered!

On the other hand, there may be specific feedback suggestions within the qualitative data that is not covered in the quantitative portion of the 360. Therefore, eliminating qualitative data probably wouldn't be the best solution. So, if you are a coach or consultant, you play an important role in moderating the effects of the feedback. Here is a suggestion to keep in mind…

You may want to emphasize the themes surrounding the qualitative comments, rather than, focusing on a single comment that might represent a single individual's experience, perception, or reaction.

What have been your experiences with the effects of qualitative feedback in 360s? How have you balanced between quantitative and qualitative feedback? Any suggestions?

Thanks to Sandra Mashihi / Result Envisia Learning
http://results.envisialearning.com/dangers-of-open-ended-questions-to-participants-in-360-degree-feedback/

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

10 Ways To Improve Your Credibility

To build on the "trust" theme from my last post, here's a guest post from performance coach Darryl Rosen:

Leaders and managers spend a lot of time and effort figuring out how to develop their people's talent, shape their performance, and motivate them to improve.

But when was the last time you focused on yourself? Specifically, how's your credibility? Does it need some attention? Here are 10 ways to boost your credibility with associates, customers, and everyone else within your sphere of influence.

1. Demonstrate ownership and a sense of urgency. Your associates and customers want a quick turnaround when they have a problem or concern. Show them they matter.

2. Be clear on when you will respond. When a problem or concern arises, quickly communicate details on how you will fix the issue, and ensure it doesn't happen again.

3. Return calls and emails promptly. Don't let emails sit in your inbox unanswered, and don't hide behind your voicemail—especially if you've made a mistake. Be reachable.

4. Meet face-to-face when possible. Email is handy, but it isn't the right mode of communication for resolving conflicts, having discussions, or expressing feelings.

5. Be open, candid, and transparent. Don't withhold information that you should be sharing. Don't force others to ask for the truth; volunteer it. Being open instills trust.

6. Earn trust—don't ask for it. The worst thing a manager can say is "Trust me!" Build credibility with your actions and you'll never have to ask for it.

7. Follow through with agreements. If you say you're going to do something, do it. Never make others beg for information that you said you would provide.

8. Admit your mistakes. Be accountable for your actions. Nothing destroys credibility more than blaming everyone else and refusing to point your finger at yourself.

9. Restate commitments. If a customer or associate agrees to anything, restate back to them what they've just agreed to. That way there will be surprises—from you or from them.

10. Set a good example. If you blame others, worry, get hysterical, do things in a mediocre way, have disorganized methods, or fail to see others' potential, so will your associates.

* * * * *
Darryl Rosen has many years of experience running an internationally renowned company and is now a leading performance coach for managers and sales professionals. His newest book is Table for Three? Bringing Your Smart Phone to Lunch and 50 Dumb Mistakes Smart Managers Don't Make!

 

Thanks to Dan McCarthy / Leadership By Dan
http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2012/04/10-ways-to-improve-your-credibility.html

 

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

The Seven C’s Of Success By Brian Tracy

Clarity: Eighty percent of success comes from being clear on who you are, what you believe in, and what you want.

Competence: You cannot climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are excellent at what you do now.

Constraints: Eighty percent of all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what is constraining in you or your company and deal with it.

Concentration: The ability to focus on one thing single-mindedly and see it through until it is done takes more character than anything else does.

Creativity: Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to be exercised like a muscle; if you do not use it you'll lose it.

Courage: Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to do the things you know are right.

Continuous Learning: Read, at the very least, one book a week on business to keep you miles ahead of the competition. In addition, just as you eat and bathe, organize your time so you spend 30 minutes a day exploring email, sending messages, going through websites, because like exercise, it is the only way you can keep on top of technology. If you get away from it, you will lose your edge...

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Shadow Trapunto Quilts: Simple Steps, Remarkable Results, 30 Elegant Projects By Geta Grama

Shadow Trapunto Quilts: Simple Steps, Remarkable Results, 30 Elegant Projects By Geta Grama List Price: $27.95 Price: $18.45 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Ships from and sold by Amazon.com 31 new or used available from $16.77 Average customer review: (3 customer reviews)

Product Description

Author Geta Grama's passion for fabrics, color and patterns is contagious! You'll be captivated by the elegance and grace of these intricate-looking shadow Trapunto quilts—especially once you discover how simple they are to make. The book features 30 projects (postcards, pillows, table runners, and wall-hanging quilts) with whole cloth, pieced, or appliqué backgrounds, and a variety of shapes, squares, circles, hexagons, octagons, and 12-sided (dodecagon). Patterns to enlarge are given in the book and full-size patterns are on the CD.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29410 in Books
• Published on: 2012-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 88 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Geta Grama discovered quilting purely by chance while she was surfing the web in 2000. She now devotes herself entirely to her passion.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Can't wait to try this
By Deborah L. Fox DDS
This is a beautiful book! I initially bought it thinking I would just enjoy looking at all of Geta's beautiful quilts. But I have to say now that I have read it I could do this no problem. Everything is explained very well and it really is a simple but effective technique. I can't wait to get started.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Great Book
By Deborah Duncan
This is a great book. It is easy to read and easy to understand. It has lots of ideas. Great for beginners as well as very experienced quilters

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Review Shadow Trapunto
By Margaret R Lerner
Just received this book ... WOW!
The detail in these designs is absolutely amazing ... even though I read through the technique, I am still super impressed and wondering, how did she cut all those tiny openings and how did she do all that tiny detailed quilting?
So many fabulous designs to choose from! The book also includes the full-size patterns on CD in pdf format.
Absolutely worth the price!
Thank-you so much!

http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/1607052695

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

Ask The Right Questions, Hire The Best People By Ron Fry

Ask The Right Questions, Hire The Best People By Ron Fry List Price: $14.99 Price: $11.24 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Ships from and sold by Amazon.com 35 new or used available from $5.77 Average customer review: (6 customer reviews)

Product Description

In this completely updated new edition, the best-selling author of 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions and 101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview takes you step-by-step through the hiring process. Whether you re replacing an employee who s leaving or creating a new position in your organization, Ron Fry shows you how to write a concise and accurate job description, identify key competencies, and how to translate them into a realistic set of search criteria.

Ask the Right Questions, Hire the Best People also shows you:

How to attract the best applicants.

What to look for when you re screening resumes, in your office or online.

What questions you should ask in the interview...and when to ask them.

How to listen more effectively to what the applicant is really telling you.

How to probe for information the applicant doesn t want to reveal.

What questions the law permits and forbids.

Whether you re an interviewing novice or a seasoned pro, you ll find all the answers you need in Ask the Right Questions, Hire the Best People!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244552 in Books
• Published on: 2010-02-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .47" h x 5.26" w x 8.30" l, .53 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Ron Fry has written more than 40 books, including the best-selling 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions and 101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview. He is a frequent speaker and seminar leader on a variety of job-search and hiring topics.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A Good Read!
By Rolf Dobelli
This book is exactly what it says it is: A list of questions designed to make your interviews with prospective job candidates more effective in weeding out the pretenders and uncovering that dream hire. There's not a lot of strategic content here, but this book is rich in tactical detail. For example, most of author Ron Fry's theoretical advice amounts to two points: probe for specifics and keep the applicant talking. The repetition of this self-evident advice is the book's biggest flaw. But in the end, such shortcomings are irrelevant, because the book's real value is in its list of interview questions, with accompanying comments on what answers you should be looking for. It seems impossible that you could read this book and not stumble over one question that makes you smile and tuck it away to spring later on some unsuspecting interviewee. We at getAbstract.com recommend this book to human resource professionals or any manager charged with hiring. If nothing else, it will add an arrow or two to your quiver.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Basic HR, good for non-HR interviewers
By Roger E. Herman
Interviewing job candidates is not as easy as it looks. And in today's world, with legal constraints and applicants driving interviews, the process is certainly different than in the past. This book offers some good practical tactical advice for interviewers, presenting the information in a way that's easy to grasp. This ease of understanding is vitally important for department heads and other people who now participate in sequential or shared interview experiences. If you don't interview applicants every day, you just don't know this information.

Fry has written other books on this topic---from the applicant's perspective. He's the author of the strong-selling "101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions." It's interesting to watch him play both sides of the table like this whole hiring process is like a grand game of chess.

But, hiring people is not a game. It's serious business. To hire the right people, you have to ask the right questions. It's important to understand what the answers are telling you and how your questions and the applicant's answers guide your hiring decisions.

The Table of Contents is sparse. It really doesn't help the reader determine where to find things in the book. Fortunately, there is a somewhat helpful index that can assist, but that's going backward. The book begins with some preliminary information about job advertising and resume screening. Chapter 2 explores interview styles including telephone interviews, team interviews, behavioral interviews, and stress interviews. Next, the reader is instructed about what to look for in the interview, then comes the interview process itself. Various categories of questions are presented, with suggestions of good answers (represented by the green light graphic) and not-so-good answers (represented by the red light graphic). This pattern begins on page 72 and continues through the balance of the book. I felt a sense of too much of a pattern, like an assembly line process, in the presentation of the information, though there is value in the advice that is shared.

Chapter 11, Staying Out of the Legal Cauldron, may be one of the most valuable chapters of the book. It contains several pages of questions that interviewers are NOT allowed to ask by law. In those organizations (most?) that have supervisors and potential co-workers interview applicants, this information is vital to impart.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Simple but thorough guide
By A Customer
Hiring new employees is a painful process especially if you have to fire them afterwards. Bad hiring will result in deterioration of business performance. The author with his nice and simplisitic approach divides the book into eleven chapters that covers in a successive way starting from the basics of advertising to defining the job to asking the proper questions. It emphasizes principles of asking questions and interpretting them. Mr Fry did his best to provide examples and simplify interviewing techniques in easy to use format. Actually, I read it twice because it takes time to digest all the information and decide which sequence of questions to use. I like it and I do recommend it. If you are busy person and need quick reference book, this is the book you need.

http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/1601631081

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions To Find The Right Person For Every Job By Victoria A. Hoevemeyer

High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions To Find The Right Person For Every Job By Victoria A. Hoevemeyer List Price: $17.95 Price: $10.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Ships from and sold by Amazon.com 85 new or used available from $3.22 Average customer review: (11 customer reviews)

Product Description

"Tell me about a time..." The words evoke a child's fairy-tale innocence. Yet when used by an interviewer, they can help to determine the suitability of a job candidate by eliciting real-world examples of behaviors and experience that can save you and your organization from making a bad hiring decision. High-Impact Interview Questions shows you how to use competency-based behavioral interviewing methods that will uncover truly relevant and useful information. By having applicants describe specific situations from their own experience during previous jobs (rather than asking them hypothetical questions about "what would you do if..."), you'll be able to identify specific strengths and weaknesses that will tell you if you've found the right person for the job. But developing such behavior-based questions can be time-consuming and difficult. High-Impact Interview Questions saves you both time and effort. The book contains 701 questions you'll be able to use or adapt for your own needs, matched to 62 in-demand skills such as customer focus, motivation, initiative, adaptability, teamwork, and more. It allows you to move immediately to the particular skills you want to measure, and quickly find just the right tough but necessary questions to ask during an interview. Asking behavior-based questions is by far the best way to discover crucial details about job candidates. High-Impact Interview Questions gives you the tools and guidance you need to gather this important information before you hire."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84131 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .56" h x 6.09" w x 9.06" l, .62 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Like many of the offerings from Amacom, the publishing arm of the American Management Association, High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job has a no-nonsense, practical bent. Focused on both the art and the science of effective job interviews, it's clearly intended as a manual for everyday use by hiring managers and human-resource professionals across a wide range of organizations. Author Victoria Hoevemeyer has worked for over 20 years in organizational development and leadership coaching from her home base of Illinois, and her expertise shows through in the direct, straightforward tone suffusing this book.

If the interactions between job seekers and job interviewers can resemble a cat-and-mouse game, with each group trying to outwit and to stay one step ahead of the other, High-Impact Interview Questions serves as recruiters' foil to the books popular with candidates, such as How Would You Move Mt. Fuji? and Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions . It opens by describing three different kinds of questions which dominate most modern job interviews: conventional questions ("What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?"), situational questions ("How would you handle a crisis in which your boss asked you to do something that you considered unethical?"), and brainteaser questions ("Why are manhole covers round?"), and analyzes the shortcomings of each approach. These techniques for sorting good job candidates from bad are fundamentally flawed, according to Hoevemeyer, because they are far too predictable and artificial, and don't illuminate the qualities that actually make a difference to new employees' success.

Instead, Hoevemeyer advances a philosophy which she terms "Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing" (CBBI). Her basic premise is that past performance is the best predictor of future performance, and that the more recent a particular behavior, the stronger of a predictor it will be. If you accept those assumptions, then much of what follows in the book's explanations of CBBI are highly logical.

The most valuable part of High-Impact Interview Questions is its extensive catalog of sample interview questions, grouped according to the underlying quality which they're meant to uncover. After introducing CBBI and showing how it ties specific and precise interview questions back to the functional competencies job seekers will need in a particular position, the book provides a very handy guide to sample questions which any interviewer can use. Interested in a candidate's decision-making ability? Try "Describe a time you had to make a quick decision with incomplete information?" How about attention to detail? For that, the book prescribes queries like, "Tell me about a time when you caught an error that others had missed."

Esoteric philosophical tome, this isn't. But for those job interviewers who believe in competency-based questions and want an efficient guide to learning about interviewees' true potential, this book is a worthwhile read. --Peter Han

Review

"... a good book to look over when preparing for interviews or to stimulate your thinking."

-Career Opportunities News

"An excellent resource." --Los Angeles Times, nationally syndicated columnist Mark Goulston

Review

"The concept of behavior-based interviewing has been around for some time now, but nowhere is the art and technique developed as well as in Victoria A. Hoevemeyer's High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job." -- from the Foreword by Paul Falcone, author of The Hiring and Firing Question and Answer Book and 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Revealing interview questions...and how to use them
By Rolf Dobelli
Selecting the right person for a job is both an art and a science. To help you improve your chances of finding the right person, author Victoria A. Hoevemeyer proposes that human resource departments and hiring managers should ask applicants explicit questions about their skills and behavior. This approach, known as "Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing" (CBBI), provides a clear picture of what candidates actually did in their previous jobs. Hoevemeyer's sensible idea is that if candidates succeeded at certain tasks before, they'll repeat their success in their new jobs. She provides a very long list of detailed questions that hiring managers can use to learn the specifics of candidates' skills and past performance. However, the book lacks proof that the CBBI process actually results in recruiting new hires who perform well and have better retention rates. Still, since Hoevemeyer's approach clearly elicits rich information, we believe that managers and even experienced HR professionals may find her interviewing tactics useful.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Not Only Great for the Interviewer but also for the Interviewee
By Lori
This book is easy to pick up and understand what behavioral interviewing is all about. For someone that is at the other end of the interview process (the interviewee) this book helped to better prepare me for the interview process in this day and age. Interviews no longer entail just talking about your experience. A potential employer needs more information about a person in a short period of time. By reading "High-Impact Interview Questions" I feel more confident knowing what a potential employer could be looking for and what kind of quetions they may be asking. For the price, this book is well worth it!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Resource with Hundreds of Interview Questions
By Deborah
"High-Impact Interview Questions" will save you both time and effort in the interview process. It provides hundreds of interview questions that you can tailor to your organization. By asking questions that focus on the candidate's actual performance, you will increase the likelihood that the people you hire will be a good fit for the position and the organization. This book is a great resource for the new interviewer as well as the seasoned HR professional.

http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/0814473016

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products

 

 

The State Of HR Measurement

With the conference season just ending, I have had a lot of time to think about what I have learned and heard over the last few months about measurement and Human Resources.  I have focused on HR Measurement for the last 10 years, and the journey has been an interesting one.

I believe that analytics for HR can be the strategic weapon HR needs to bring value and insight to the business.  Michael Echols, EVP of Strategic Initiatives at the Human Capital Lab, said it best at The Conference Board a few weeks ago, "The opportunity is for HR to create FUTURE value from current human capital investments."  That one statement for me solidified my theory.  HR must move past activity-based measures like time to fill, cost per hire, and turnover in order to get to investments that add value and create impact.

I believe a couple of definitions need to be cleared up before I discuss what is happening in the world of HR measurement. Metrics and analytics are used almost interchangeably, but there is a definite difference.

Metrics are simply measurements. For example "Our average engagement level is 80%," "Our annual turnover is 50%," "Our average performance score is 60%."

Metrics track activity, but don't necessarily show a causal relationship. Metrics alone do not show what affects engagement, what causes turnover and what drives performance.

Human capital analytics examine the effect of HR metrics on organizational performance. In more general terms, analytics look for patterns of similarity between metrics. For example, do high performers leave at a higher rate than low performers and if so, what is driving that turnover?   Statistical tests are necessary to get to those answers through analytics.

The journey to HR Analytics has been a long one for HR, with most companies just starting.  Below are the phases of a typical analytics journey: (adapted from Steve Woolwine, Chief of Staff Talent and Human Capital Services, Sears Holding Group)

1)  Justification-In this initial phase, HR metrics are tracked and have limited reporting.  No actions is taken at this stage and data is still quite dispersed.

2)  Measurement-In this phase, metrics are better defined.  Reporting is now in the form of a dashboard/scorecard, and leadership may have some accountability to the metrics.

3)  Effectiveness-At this stage, HR has more sophisticated technology and leadership is widely held accountable for results.  Actions are beginning to take place because of the data, and KPI's are tied to results.  Analytics are now being discussed.

4)  Value Creation-At this stage, decisions are being made based on analytics, and genuine insights are created.  Predictive modeling begins here with an eye on future value creation from HR investments.

5)  Impact-This is where the strategic HR professionals really want to inspire the company to be.  At the impact phase, change is being created as a result of a predictive mindset, strategic goals are being achieved, and the culture has shifted from being performance based to analytics driven.

In my experience, when asked where most companies are in their metrics journey, phase 1 and 2 are the most common answers. Of course, there are pockets of analytics excellence from companies like Google, Sears, Well Fargo and others, but HR seems to be "stuck" in the early phases of the journey.

I think now is the time for HR to get themselves "unstuck" as HR tasks are still being outsourced and non-HR professionals are making their way into HR departments in companies both large and small. It's all about supply and demand.  The CEO and other C-Suite Executives are currently risk-adverse due to our economic situation.

It's not that companies don't have money on their respective balance sheets as we know the money is there waiting to be invested. The issue is the C-Suite want DATA to back up their decisions. With service companies spending at least 60-80% of their operational budgets on Human Capital related expenses, the investment is significant. All CEO's want to know is this:  Should I make this investment and if yes, did my investment pay off?

HR, here is how to get unstuck. Start by understanding your organizational strategy and what the drivers are for your desired results. Make sure you have a team that understands the business and has a curious mind to start asking the right questions. Some questions to consider when moving towards impact:

q How can I use analytics to move the organizational strategy forward?

q What business problem can I solve using analytics?

q Which investments in people should be made in the next 2-3 years?

Next, start small by solving a business problem with data.  Make sure you tell a compelling story and not just report rows and columns and data. Tell your leadership team something they didn't already know and you will have their undivided attention.

HR has been wanting to be strategic, to add value, and to have a seat at the "you know where."  Show impact and your presence will be requested at every single strategic meeting, as they won't be able to have the discussion without HR.

Please welcome Cathy Missildine-Martin to the HRExaminer Editorial Advisory Board. Cathy is Co-Founder and SVP of Sales & Marketing at Intellectual Capital Consulting and a nationally recognized speaker on "metrics that matter." Cathy also serves as an adjunct Professor at Kennesaw State University and Emory University.

Thanks to Cathy Missildine-Martin / HR Examiner
http://www.hrexaminer.com/the-state-of-hr-measurement

To Get Uninterrupted Daily Article(s) / Review(s) Updates; Kindly Subscribe To This BlogSpot:- http://ZiaullahKhan.Blogspot.com/ Via "RSS Feed" Or " Email Subscription" Or "Knowledge Center Yahoo Group".
Amazon Magazine Subscriptions	Amazon Books	Amazon Kindle Store
Amazon Everyday Low Prices, Sales, Deals, Bargains, Discounts, Best-Sellers, Gifts, Household Consumer Products