The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
From Mountain Interval, 1920.
Sylvia Allen is the Director of global organizational leadership, diversity and inclusion for International Game Technology (IGT), a global company specializing in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and sales of computerized gaming machines and systems products. Based in Reno, Nevada, the company also operates a facility in Las Vegas, has branch offices around the United States, and also has offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Africa.
• In a recent Diversity/Careers article, you were quoted as saying that IGT relies on an inclusive culture “because of our commitment to customers, employees and communities worldwide.” What steps do you take in order to foster this type of working culture?
We really take a great deal of that direction from our CEO, who has said continuously that we need to take very good care of our customers, our employees, and ourselves. We realize that for this whole industry, diversity is a critical platform for how we do business. Because the industry is going through such enormous change, the whole focus on leadership skills and capabilities is increasingly more of a critical priority for us.
So at IGT, we are much more focused on leadership development for our employees. Also, we are increasingly looking at ways in which we can partner with our customers, not just by the way in which we sell them product, but by the way we partner in the community with them. We’ve worked with a number of educational non-profits in terms of scholarships and board memberships; several of our leaders sit on boards that do some really important work around education, health and underserved communities. IGT is also a member of a subcommittee of the AGA (American Gaming Association), which focuses on human resources and diversity initiatives.
Our industry is a very inclusive one, and we care about our involvement in those kinds of programs, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to them. That becomes extremely important as the growth of the international markets continues to be very aggressive.
In an effort to increase the frequency of posts here at Leadership Training Skills, I’m starting a new regular segment where I post a quote from a famous leader (present or past) to help inspire and motivate us all in our day-to-day lives.
The first quote comes from one of my favorite political leaders in history…
“I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and this trial.”
“I was sure I should not fail.”
- Winston Churchill (written in his memoirs), regarding his election as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1940
Time for another oldie but goodie here at the Leadership Training recommended book list! First published in 1981, ‘The One Minute Manager’ has gone on to sell over 7 million copies worldwide. Written by Kenneth Blanchard and Spenser Johnson, it’s an extremely quick read (just over 100 pages in large print), but it makes some essential and fundamental points about being an effective and positive manager of people.
The book chronicles the journey of a “bright young man who was looking for an effective manager.” He hears of a ’special manager’ who lives nearby, and asks for an appointment to see him…
As he sat down, he asked, “We’ll you’ve already said that you’re not a participative manager. Just how would you describe yourself?”
“That’s easy,” he {the manager} responded without hesitation. “I’m a One Minute Manager.”
The young man’s face showed surprise. He’d never heard of a One Minute Manager. “You’re a what?”
The manager laughed and said, “I’m a One Minute Manager. I call myself that because it takes very little time for me to get very big results from people.”
…likewise, it will take you very little time to read this excellent book, and get your own very big results from it! Enjoy.
Book List, The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard, Spenser Johnson, Reading to Lead
Wayne Davis is the Manager of Organizational Development for Sierra Pacific Resources, a holding company whose principal subsidiaries are Nevada Power Company, the electric utility for most of southern Nevada, and Sierra Pacific Power Company, the electric utility for most of northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California. Sierra Pacific Power Company also distributes natural gas in the Reno-Sparks area of northern Nevada.
• Please give us some background on your career and how you came to work for Sierra Pacific.
Initially, it was purely by accident that I came to Sierra Pacific! I had spent the early part of my career in Salt Lake City, and then I moved to Southeast Michigan, where I resided for six years. For that move, my wife followed me, but when we made the decision to come back west, I was following her! She had a job opportunity in Las Vegas, and I started up my own human resources development company, working for small to mid-sized companies.
I was contacted by a headhunter about an opportunity with Sierra Pacific. At the time my business was just picking up, so I basically ignored the call. They called back a week later, so I figured, oh what the heck? This might be a great way to get a new client in the utilities industry! But as the conversations began and went on with Sierra Pacific, I realized that for the first time I was going to have the opportunity to work with an organization where, for lack of a better term, the senior leadership “got it” when it came to organizational and leadership development. It really excited me, and I was very impressed with the different leaders I met within HR, operations and support. Then when I visited with Steve Wood, the Senior Vice President for Administration, he started using terminology that I had believed in all along, and the two key phrases that hit me the strongest were, (1) one of the company’s values was stewardship, and that’s a principal that I’ve been teaching in leadership development for years, and (2) Steve is a retired captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, and one of the key guiding principals in the Marine Corps is servant leadership. Those two points were key driving points for me realizing that I had discovered an organization where I can truly provide value because we were already on the same fundamental page regarding organizational and learning development.
Every month, Yahoo! HotJobs provides a round table discussion that collects career and job-seeking advice from a group of recruiting experts throughout the country. The question posed to them this month was the following; “What is the most common mistake candidates make in discussing or negotiating salary, and how can they avoid it?”
Click here for the entire article, but here’s one response care of Jill Davis, a recruiter with Wells Fargo’s operations team:
Look at the Big Picture
Candidates forget about the total compensation package and focus exclusively on base salary as the sole determining factor when deciding to accept or reject an offer. There are many other items to consider, such as benefits, short- and long-term career growth, personal satisfaction, company philosophy, reputation and size of the organization, and work/life balance. Many of these items can’t be quantified, but often they can make or break a team member’s long-term satisfaction with a company.
Here’s my own 2 cents on this question; above all else, an employee should have their reasons and justifications for an salary increase written out and ready to discuss in detail. Think of it as an extension of your resume. Outline all the successes and deliverables you accomplished, along with concrete numbers (i.e. - under my management of the customer service team, 95% of all calls were answered within 30 seconds, and 250 out of 300 customers were satisfied with the service they received, an increase of 58%, according to our surveys).
Also, if there were any mistakes or issues that came up during the year, be pro-active and bring them up. More importantly, talk about how you handled and resolved those issues, and what you learned from the process.
By doing this, you’re showing your supervisor just how much value you add to the company, and how important it is for them to compensate you appropriately.
If you’re looking to join an organization that provides a wide array of resources and publications for learning and development professionals, as well as professional development programs and certification standards, then look no further than the American Society for Training & Development, or ASTD.
Here’s some additional information, care of their website:
ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. ASTD’s members come from more than 100 countries and connect locally in 140 U.S. chapters and 24 Global Networks. Members work in thousands of organizations of all sizes, in government, as independent consultants, and suppliers.
ASTD started in 1944 when the organization held its first annual conference. ASTD has widened the profession’s focus to link learning and performance to individual and organizational results, and is a sought-after voice on critical public policy issues.
Among the numerous services provided by ASTD is the publication T+D Magazine. The July issue features the article “Who Says CEOs Don’t Value Learning?”, which puts the spotlight on McCormick & Company, a global leader in the manufacture, marketing and distribution of spices, seasonings and flavors to the entire food industry. CEO Bob Lawless talks about just how important it is to develop his company’s talent, and does so by example, as he heads the list of executives who teach at McCormick.
“We have committed to our employees that provided they get the appropriate training and development, they can become successors to all the leaders in this company.” McCormick stands out in the length of its commitment to leadership development. Its “multiple management boards”—extended opportunities for action learning—have been available to top talent for 75 years! Here managers learn to innovate, take risks, and make tough decisions while working on actual company products and services. Could that help explain why, after 100 years in business, the spice and flavoring company is still innovating?
Membership in ASTD is an invaluable asset for anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge base and connections when it comes to professional learning and development. I should know; I’m a member of the Los Angeles chapter!
ASTD, American Society for Training & Development, Professional, Learning, Development
We’ve recently highlighted business books that profile leaders and successful business traits. But if you want some great insight on what NOT to do in a corporate environment, look no further than “The Smartest Guys in the Room” by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind.
McLean and Elkind provide an extensive account of what went wrong with the former Fortune 500 energy company, and how they took out accounting powerhouse Arthur Andersen in the process. They look at the biographies of all the major players as well, such as:
- CEO Kenneth Lay, whose ‘weakness allowed [his] greedy lieutenants to run amok’.
- Jeff Skilling, the Chief Operating Officer who fatefully introduced the mark-to-market accounting practices that eventually lead to Enron’s demise.
- Andy Fastow, who was named CFO at age 36 by Skilling. He is described by various colleagues and acquaintances as “unstable emotionally”, a “take-no-prisoners political animal”, and one boss was even quoted as saying, “I don’t know that he [Fastow] ever had a moral compass.“ Just the kind of guy that should have complete control over a company’s finances!
It’s a simply fascinating in-depth look at how greed and pride drove a corporation to completely fabricate it’s books and eventually destroy itself. Of course, if you don’t have time this summer to read a 400+ page book on the beach, you can always see the documentary film that was made a couple of years ago. Here’s the trailer:
Enron: the poster child for what not to do in business.
Book List, Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room, corporate corruption
A business website dedicated to giving you an inside look at exactly what's happening on a day-to-day basis at some of the most respected companies in Corporate America.
Among the resources we'll be providing:
- Profiles of leaders and managers in a variety of industries to see what methods they have used to succeed, and gain their insights to today's challenges in the workplace.
- Valuable training and communication resources for both companies and employers looking for that advantage that will separate them from the competition.
…and we'll have some fun along the way as well!
Leadership Training Author(s)
