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The Booth Company Launches Two New Surveys For Individual Contributors

The Booth Company, an international provider of leadership development surveys, announces the release of two new surveys Aspiring to Leadership and the Technical Professional that address the growing importance of individual contributors (IC's).

Boulder, Colorado (PRWEB) March 12, 2008 -- The Booth Company, an international provider of 360 feedback surveys, announces the release of two new surveys Aspiring to Leadership and the Technical Professional that address the growing importance of individual contributors (IC's).

With the flattening of organizations becoming more prevalent, IC's are fast becoming the backbone of an organization. However these front-line employees are typically a neglected group when it comes to training and development. Not surprisingly, IC's face significant challenges in that they're often expected to complete their work with the help of others, but without the authority. They depend heavily on cooperation across departments, especially with peers, and need to have effective communication and persuasion skills to be successful in their role.

The Aspiring to Leadership and the Technical Professional surveys not only help sharpen communication & teamwork skills, but they are designed to stretch the skill development and goals into early stages of leadership competencies. The research suggests that successful companies will learn to better value and leverage their IC's starting with earlier training. Utilizing proven tools like 360 surveys for IC's will help spot and develop tomorrow's leaders. This kind of succession planning is of vital interest to companies as today's baby-boomers retire. Retaining young talent by giving them tools like 360's that hone their "soft' skills and help avoid "career derailers" will boost morale, lower turnover costs, and improve a company's competitiveness.

TBC's individual contributor surveys in more detail

• Aspiring to Leadership survey provides feedback on skills that are essential for future managerial success. High performance on these competencies identifies an employee who is prepared to make the transition from individual contributor to a formalized leadership role. Amongst peers, they are often viewed as a role model. The ATL measures the leadership potential of these exceptional individual contributors
• Technical Professional survey provides feedback on skills essential for success as a technical/professional contributor. Technical/professional contributors are considered to be specialists with in-depth knowledge in their field. These individuals model quality performance and consistently make significant contributions. The TPS measures how well these individuals utilize their unique skill set to impact the organization.

The Aspiring to Leadership and Technical Professional surveys are copyrighted by The Booth Company.

About The Booth Company
The Booth Company publishes and administers 360 degree feedback surveys based on the Task Cycle®, a validated theory of leadership and management roles. Its comprehensive set of surveys measure the fundamental skills of mission-critical organizational roles, including executives, first-line and middle managers. The survey results are compared to continuously updated industry and country norms. Since 1972 The Booth Company has distributed its surveys and feedback workshops internationally through corporate universities and an exclusive network of certified senior executive coaches.

PROMOTING WITHIN: HOW CRUCIAL IS IT?

We all know that growing our future leaders has always been a critical component to an
organization's success, and this is more important now than ever. The past several years
we've been bombarded with headlines warning us of the looming talent war and inevitable
labor shortage. Everything from the mass exodus of Boomers from the marketplace to off-shoring of jobs due to global competition. Now, regardless of whether you buy into this line of thinking, or believe these concepts to be overblown, hopefully we can agree that it's generally a good idea to pay attention to our top performers and high potentials. After all, if we don't someone else will. And that someone could be your fiercest competitor.

It's with this in mind that we focus our attention on the issues we can control, or at least have influence over. Research has shown the benefits of promoting from within, citing specific advantages such as appreciation of company culture and a better grasp of the organization's competitive offerings. However, consistently monitoring the talent pool is no easy task, requiring diligence and discipline -- to always keep an eye out for that proverbial needle in the corporate haystack. To effectively meet this challenge companies need to identify and transition individual performers into the management role. The transition needs to help the new manager become comfortable and confident in supervising direct reports who were formerly peers. In addition, they need to transition their focus from maintaining their own specific technical skill, goals, and deadlines to managing these aspects for others.

Receiving candid feedback on one's management competencies is an important aspect of the transitioning process. 360 feedback gives the new manager clarification on their role, as well as what behaviors need to continue, be stopped, or be changed. Identifying areas for improvement, and communicating their developmental goals to their team, will help the manager be viewed as effective and credible.

In short, continuous improvement requires constant measurement.

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