Top Takeaways from i4cp's Annual Conference

On the tail end of a record-cold winter that has been blamed for everything from missed earnings in retail, to lower than expected starts in new housing construction, decreased manufacturing, and a general lack of business productivity due to travel disruptions, spending three days in sunny, 80-degree weather while learning the people-practices that drive high market performance sounds pretty darn good, eh?

For the nearly 250 business executives--predominately from the Human Resources functions at large employers--who gathered earlier this month at i4cp's annual conference at the beautiful Fairmont Princess Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, both the weather and agenda delivered.

For those who were unable to join us in-person, we invite you to join us for our post-conference webinar (March 26th at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT) during which my colleague Lorrie Lykins and I will share key takeaways from the myriad industry thought leaders and executive practitioners who helped make the i4cp 2014 Conference our largest and highest-rated to date, including:

1. Marshall Goldsmith - ranked #1 on the Coaching Gurus 2014 list of the top global professional executive coaches
2. Tom Rath - best-selling author on the role of human behavior in health, well-being, business, and economics
3. Tamar Elkeles - Chief Learning Officer at Qualcomm (ranked #149 on the Fortune 500)
4. Skip Spriggs - CHRO of TIAA-CREF (ranked #98 on the Fortune 500)
5. Patricia Nazemetz - former CHRO at Xerox (who oversaw the succession of the company's last two CEOs)
6. Dr. David Rock - who coined the term neuroleadership
7. Rick Hamada and MaryAnn Miller - the CEO and CHRO of Avnet (ranked #117 on the Fortune 500)
8. Elliott Masie - Tony-award winning producer and the person who coined the term "e-Learning"

Here are a few appetizers for those craving some instant insights:

Healthy organizations require healthy leaders

"What's best for an individual's health and well-being is rarely at odds with an organization's objectives," said author Tom Rath, whose latest book, "Eat, Move, Sleep" was a New York Times Best-Seller. Rath opened the conference with a challenge to everyone who is a leader: "Start with your own health first," and continued with his message that if you eat, move, and sleep well today, you will have more energy tomorrow, treat your co-workers and family better, achieve more at work, and give more to your community.

Interestingly, the topic of well-being was echoed by several speakers at our conference, including Marshall Goldsmith, who was recently rated one of the top ten most influential business thinkers in the world at the bi-annual Thinkers50 Award ceremony in London, England. With regard to individual well-being, Goldsmith noted, "It's good for customers and it's good for the company. But it's even better for you." Not surprisingly, the practice of creating a physical environment that supports creative-thinking and wellness was recently discovered by i4cp research as one of six talent practices that boost engagement and market performance.

Connect with what and who matters most

"We are all mobile," said the very passionate chief learning officer of Qualcomm, Tamar Elkeles. In fact, her advice with regard to mobile learning was to "launch, then learn." Elkeles also challenged the barriers that most organizations erect with regard to permitting and encouraging user-generated content as well as making useful content truly mobile. With regard to the latter, she shared and endorsed data from an i4cp/ASTD study on mobile learning that identified performance-support and reference materials as the two types of content that all organizations should make accessible from mobile devices.

Taking a different twist on connecting, the chief HR and chief information officers (Mindy Geisser and Veresh Sita) at Colliers International shared how they are building a culture of collaboration with the goal to enhance recruiting, innovation, client engagement, as well as support and enhance 'the Colliers way.' As part of this, Colliers--the fastest-growing commercial real estate firm in the world--is developing software that allows its workers to find and participate in formal activities that allow them to give back to their communities in ways that have a personal meaning to each employee. Following a year, according to i4cp research, in which large employers noted a 40% decrease in their ability to effectively manage their employer brand, Collier's efforts will no doubt pay off.

Trust as the foundation of leadership

i4cp's study on the Top 10 Critical Human Capital Issues of 2014 highlighted the need for high-performance organizations to develop leaders who can effectively communicate and interact with others across the organization. The importance of this was trumpeted by Rob Reindl, former Corporate VP of HR at Edwards Lifesciences and author of "The HOW of Leadership." Reindl questioned the executives about their ability to ask good questions of their employees. "Great leaders never take 'yes' for an answer. They push back and ask 'are you sure we can't do things better or differently?'" He also pressed the audience on whether leaders are trying to be more interested or more interesting--the latter speaks to a self-centered view of the world.

Building on the themes of connecting and trust, Rick Hamada, CEO of Avnet, shared a business philosophy rooted in the belief that to connect to your customers, you must connect with the hearts and minds of your employees. To this end, Hamada and his chief HR officer, MaryAnn Miller, shared how employee engagement at Avnet, a $25 billion electronic components distribution company, is essential to creating long-term customer value--in fact, they track their engagement scores against their company's earnings per share.

And taking a neuroscience approach to organizational performance management, Dr. David Rock challenged the audience of large employers to "cross the line of courage" - the line between individual performance scores and no performance scores. According to Dr. Rock, the key to crossing the line is the ability to have better communications and interactions. Why? As Dr. Rock stated "everything in the brain is about threat or reward." He continued that in most instances, the performance management process creates an overwhelming threat response in ones brain and that "feeling that your status is under attack is the most defensive you can feel."

These executives and organizations were among many featured at i4cp's annual conference who are strengthening their employer brands and increasing their organizations' performance by implementing the people practices that drive high market performance. If you missed this year's event, start planning now to join us next year--i4cp's 2015 conference will return to the Fairmont Princess in Scottsdale, Arizona on March 16-19, 2015 (early registration will open soon). In the meantime, register now for our webinar on March 26th during which we will elaborate on many more key findings and takeaways from the i4cp 2014 Conference.