With the current economic pressures mounting, more companies are asking their executives to change roles or positions, move to new locations, or leave their organizations entirely. We've all been startled by the daily newspaper headlines regarding wave after wave of layoffs. Given these tumultuous times, it's not surprising that feelings of job security are waning fast. However, the truth is that, in the U.S., any notion of job security really disappeared back in the 50s and 60s.

The ever-quickening pace of business and the speed and complexity of corporate change has necessitated an adaptable and flexible workforce. In fact, a healthy paranoia about one's job security, even in good times, has served an individual well, as the ability to adapt to change has become a core competency for career success.

On the positive side, job loss is not the personal stigma it once was. Being fired, terminated, laid off, or let go does not have the negative connotation it once did. Today, many top and mid-level executives wear job loss as a badge of courage as they refine their careers and re-define their positions.

What is a must during these times is a solid career management plan. Now, more than ever, executives need to see themselves as businesses onto themselves. Accordingly, they need a powerful business plan that spells out a vision for long term career success to serve as a both a touchstone in good times, and a guiding beacon during the current "bad weather".

WJM Associates is an executive development consultancy. We have built a strong reputation for our world-class Executive Coaching services, which provides a flexible and highly personalized approach for refining one's behaviors and skills so that executives alway stay relevant and sought-after in the job market.

In the current economic environment, we are increasingly being called upon by top corporations to also deliver a service called WJM Executive Transition™. Unlike most cookie cutter "outplacement" services, WJM Executive Transition ™ is delivered much in the same manner as an Executive Coaching engagement. We place an emphasis on personal development and long-term career success, rather than just finding the next gig. The executive is assigned a personal career transition coach, or team of coaches depending on the need, who collaborate on a highly personalized transition campaign.

Executive Transition begins with assessment of the individual's managerial and leadership competencies, which leads to the development of a strategy for self-marketing in order to manage career transition most effectively. WJM's key differentiator is that our Executive Transition ™ service doesn't end once a job is landed. WJM stays with the newly hired executive to ensure their success in the new company and position. We emphasize assimilation into the culture, building winning relationships with other executives and direct reports, identifying critical objectives, and clearly defining expectations.

While "job security" is tough to come by in today's market, it is possible to attain "career security" through increased self-awareness, a proactive developmental strategy and a thoughtful career plan. These are the primary objectives of the WJM Executive Transition™ service.

New leaders have a special opportunity to engage their team during their first months in a new role. Psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote that "unfreezing" someone's thought processes could lead to new behaviors, and new leaders can improve their effectiveness by applying this insight through the "Power of Surprise". The following are four examples of this principle and questions to stimulate your thinking about next steps you can take to increase your impact within your organization.

Connect the Dots

I vividly recall my first day of employment at American Express, which was also was my first job after college. The branch manager came to my office within my first thirty minutes. He expressed confidence in me (although we had never met), told me that the purpose of my job was to help him build the best office in the company by hiring talented people, and that he would stop by from time-to-time to give me feedback on how I was doing.

He "connected the dots" from my entry-level role to his personal mission and belief that I had a critical and accountable role to make it a reality. He only invested ten minutes of time, but his return was a positive effect on my performance and that of hundreds of colleagues as I modeled his behavior during my career.

Show the Gloves

John Kotter, noted Harvard professor and author of such books as The Heart of Change and What Managers Really Do, writes that there are eight steps to leading organizational change: increasing urgency, building Guiding Teams, getting the vision right, communicating for Buy-In, enabling action, creating short-term wins, no letting up, and making it stick.

The principle that best applies to the "Power or Surprise" is "Increasing Urgency". Kotter believes that there is a greater acceptance of the need to change when people see, touch, or feel the problem. He illustrates this principle with an example of a manager who researched a large company's use of gloves in their manufacturing process. He found that each plant ordered 200 varieties of gloves from multiple vendors for prices that ranged from $3 to $20. Rather than prepare a long report, he gathered samples from each plant with the price tags in place, and brought 200 pairs of gloves to his next staff meeting and placed them on the table. The team's response was, "This is crazy! We need to change it!" And the manager had a solution in mind, needless to say.

Aim for the Heart

I worked with a senior manager in the early 80's that thought fanny patting was a sign of team spirit. Needless to say, eventually an employee filed in internal grievance.

I was ready to quote company policy, legal liability, societal norms, and disciplinary consequences to him, which probably would have brought a reluctant apology and begrudging compliance. My associate, though, took the path of surprise by asking, "Would you approve of someone patting your daughter's fanny at her office? The first response was anger, but after a long moment he said, "I never looked at it that way and I'll never tolerate it being done again."

Your Greatest Strength May Be Your Greatest Weakness

A person's greatest blind spot may be relying on an overdeveloped strength when they enter a new role. For example, a person with strong knowledge of employee relations law may view the answer to rising employee complaints as retaining more lawyers. I met Anne, who had exactly this background, at a large global company. She prepared a business case to retain more lawyers based on the ratio of second stage grievances and lawsuits to existing staff. However, her expertise in handling complaints (her greatest strength) blinded her to the option of addressing the root causes of the complaints and reducing the amount rather than just handling increasing complaint volumes more efficiently.

Finally, the "Power of Surprise" is only another tool in your toolbox. Here are a few questions to ponder as you think of applying it as a new leader:

• How can you connect the dots between individuals and team responsibilities and organizational goals in your own workplace?
• Where are the gloves in your organization? What can you show, illustrate, or monitor regarding your version of the "gloves" to build the case for individual and organizational change?
• How will you creatively use language to aim for the heart?
• How will you know if your greatest strength is your greatest weakness?

The first months in a new role are an opportunity for leaders to create learning opportunities for their team. The "Power of Surprise" offers a unique way to influence people and accelerate organizational change.

In a past newsletters we described WJM Associates' Leadership Point-of-View by highlighting seven characteristics of effective leadership. To see the full article, as well as best practices for developing effective leaders within an organization, please click here.

The next several issues of the WJManagement Advisor will each include an article focusing on one of these characteristics. In this issue we address the fifth of these seven: Humility.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
-Gandhi

The battle to the White House was fought hard between Barack Obama and John McCain. Voters were faced with a tough decision to choose between two formidable candidates. Surely, the candidates' plans to respond to our current economic crisis and international and domestic needs were all important criteria voters used to determine their pick. However, one could argue that the characteristic that all voters responded to was each candidate's personal humility.

Humility, which is the acknowledgment of the truth about who we are in relationship to others, is absolutely essential to effective leadership. A leader secure enough to admit that he or she doesn't have, or need to have, all the answers is rewarded with the contributions of talented followers committed to the success of the whole organization. Jim Collin's research, which became the basis for his watershed book Good to Great, is full of examples of organizations that have consistently outperformed their peers over time when led by an individual with the qualities of deep personal humility and unwavering perseverance towards stated goals.

Leaders often demonstrate humility by shifting the focus away from themselves and continually recognizing the contributions of others. Take for example, Patrick Daniel, CEO of North American energy and pipeline company Enbridge. He espouses two leadership attributes: determination to create results and humility."I have learned through the lives of great leaders," he said, "that greatness comes from humility and being at times, self-effacing."

Leaders can practice humility by:

• Allowing others to be in the limelight.
• Learning that trying to be perfect will often fail.
• Avoiding over preaching without permission.
• Seeking others' input on how you are doing.
• Encouraging the practice of humility in your company through your own example: every time you share credit for successes with others, you reinforce the culture of humility for your team.

In conclusion, there are many benefits to organizations when their leaders practice humility. These include improved relationships across all levels, reduced anxiety, increased openness and interestingly enough, enhanced self-confidence.

Tracy Duberman, a seasoned organizational development consultant, has been named Senior Vice President for WJM's Organizational Effectiveness practice area. Tracy will manage the design and delivery of WJM Associates' organizational effectiveness services, including Talent Management, Team Effectiveness, Change Management, and Succession Planning.

"We are thrilled to welcome Tracy to WJM as she brings with her a proven track record in organizational performance improvement across a broad range of industry sectors, says Tim Morin, President and CEO of WJM Associates. "Tracy's organizational effectiveness expertise strongly complements our existing executive development services and will enable us to continue to develop and deliver services that our clients are seeking."

Before coming to WJM Associates, Tracy was a Senior Consultant at HayGroup, a global human resource management consultancy. Her work there focused on the development of leadership and talent within the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry groups. Tracy received her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from New York University, focusing her research on assessing the critical behavioral competencies of successful primary care physicians.

Scott Litchfield, formerly Vice President within WJM Associates has been named Senior Vice President of Sales for the company. Scott has been part of the WJM team for over four years and has extensive experience as a consultative sales professional. He will continue to work with corporate clients and now lead the strategic sales efforts of the company.

"Scott brings a disciplined approach to the sales process and his experience in selling and managing large scale OE solutions for our clients will greatly assist WJM as we continue to build upon our services", says Tim Morin, President and CEO of WJM Associates.

Before coming to WJM Associates, Scott worked for a compensation and consulting firm, Compensation Resources, Inc., as well as Goodrich & Sherwood Associates, Inc., a career transition, coaching and executive search firm. In each organization Scott's primary role was sales and business development. Scott has also worked for PSEG and a consumer packaged goods company. Scott is a graduate of Gettysburg College with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History and completed his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) studies at Long Island University.