Business Skils For Technical Profession

June 13, 2007

Outside the Box:
Business Skills for Technical
Professionals
June 13, 2007

June 13, 2007

Outside the Box: Business Skills for
Technical Professionals

Brian Summerfield
Senior Editor
Talent Management magazine

June 13, 2007

Outside the Box: Business Skills for
Raed S. Haddad
Senior Vice President of Client Programs
ESI International

Julie Zinn
Program Director
ESI International

Outside the Box:
Business Skills for
Webinar
2007 June 13

Presented by:

Raed Haddad & Julie Zinn
Senior Vice President Program Director

Sponsored by:
Questions? Email ESI at ESIWebinarInfo@esi-intl.com
© ESI International, 2007. All rights reserved

Key “cross cutting” Market Tracking
Market
Trends: What clients told us Trends

Global expansion
Cut expenses
Faster time-to-market
Increased competition
Search for the “right” talent
More sophisticated clients w/
more complex requirements

Sponsored by:

Tracking
Market Trends Market
Trends

Clients want employees who are
– Innovative
– Business Savvy
– Critical thinkers
– Decision makers
– Excel at client relationship
management

Sponsored by:

Agenda 2007 June 13

The Business Case for
What are Business Skills? Improving Business Skills
Business Skills

Sponsored by:

What are Business
Skills?

Sponsored by:

What are
What are Business Skills? Business
Skills?

Business Skills
Business Acumen

Management Skills

“Soft” Skills

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Business Skills Leverage What are
Business
Technical Expertise Skills?

Business
Performance Skills

Business Analysis

Program Mgmt.

Project Mgmt.
Engineering
Standard

Science

Other
Technical

IT
Knowledge/
Ability

Job Functions

Sponsored by:

What are
What was “wanted” Business
Skills?

Sponsored by:

What are
What was “needed” Business
Skills?

Sponsored by:

What are
What was “specified” Business
Skills?

Sponsored by:

What are
What was “delivered” Business
Skills?

Sponsored by:

What are
What If … ? Business
Skills?

Your Technical Professionals Could –
Link their projects and work to company
strategy
Effectively communicate
Think critical thinking skills
Solve the right problems
Develop capability in others
Understand how financial information is used
within their organization
Be a change agent

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What are
Six Critical Business Skills Business
Skills?

1. Business acumen
2. Financial acumen
3. Communication and interpersonal skills
4. Ability to manage change
5. Critical thinking and problem solving skills
6. Ability to develop others and delegate

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Polling Question #1

Question:
In general, do technical professionals in your organization have
these skills?

Answers (Choose One):

They have all or almost all of these skills
(We’re in good shape)

They have some of these skills
(We could do better)

They have none of these skills
(We need help)

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The Business Case
for Business Skills

Sponsored by:

The
We Heard Our Customers Business Case
for Business
Saying… Skills

Our technical professionals cannot communicate well
We’re not so good at managing the constant change in our organization
Our new managers are “thrown to the wolves”
Biggest challenge of all is to help technical people understand that it’s not just
about the deliverable
Missed opportunities due to lack of collaboration
Question to stakeholders: were your expectations set and met?
35% said yes, 65% said no

Sponsored by:

The
Validating the Trends: Business Case
for Business
Independent Research Results Skills

More than 1,000 individuals surveyed and interviewed
– Online surveys
– Focus groups
Across all industry sectors
At multiple levels in the organization
ESI customers and non-customers

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The
Business Case
Reality Validated for Business
Skills

“What are the areas in which it is important for people in your
organization to improve?” (ranked in priority order)

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The
Business Case
The Impact on Business for Business
Skills

Disparate projects that may be redundant or may not integrate
Lack of awareness about
Projects that miss the mark – with final deliverables that are
organizational and strategic unusable or need to be reworked
goals/objectives
Silo mentality
Ambiguous requirements
Lack of interpersonal and Misinterpreted expectations and results
communication skills Unnecessary conflict
Low productivity
Lack of proper problem diagnosis
Problems that won’t go away Solving the wrong problem
or continually resurface Too much focus on solution and creativity of solution vs. its
application and benefits

Technical or specialized staff Low morale
are not prepared for Poor decision making
responsibilities when Lack of respect
promoted to management Lack of direction, structure and discipline
High risk because of dependency on few individuals
Expertise lies with only a few
Lack of perspective
individuals
Missed opportunity and benefit that comes with more collaboration

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The Business
Case for
The New Reality Business
Skills

According to 2004 Standish CHAOS
Chronicles:
Only 34% of software projects were
expected to finish on time and on budget
Projects had only 52% of proposed
functionality
Time Cost
82% of projects had time overruns
Average cost overrun was 43% of project
budget
Quality

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The Business
Case for
Skills

Of the Top 10 Knowledge and Skills Expected to
Increase in Importance Over the Next five Years

#1 – Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
(77.8%)

Source: Creativity and Innovation, 2007

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The Business
Case for
Skills

In a recent survey, 1,400 CIOs were asked:
“If two candidates interviewing for an IT position had
similar skills, which one of the following additional
qualifications would you find most valuable?”
- industry-specific experience 43%
- soft skills 32%

Source: Robert Half Technology

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The Business
Case for
What the Experts Say Business
Skills

75% of IT decision makers Instruction in business, “Soft skills round out the
described communication skills management and technical work and give the
are “very important” to their communication can greatly individual sharper competitive
hiring decisions in 2007. enhance the team’s productivity advantage.”
- Forrester, 2007 as well as their ability to - Information Technology
collaborate on solving everyday Association of America
challenges such as improving
efficiency and competitiveness.
- Katherine Spencer Lee, Robert
Half Technology

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The Business
Case for
Skills

5% 5%
FurtherEarly Career
Career Progression
Career Progression

50% 50%

s 95%
95% T ech
nical ss Skill
Bu sine
Technical Business Skills
B u si
al n ess
Tec hn i c Skills

Source: PMI’s Career Track, 2006

Sponsored by:

The Business
Case for
Skills

Strategic

Maturity

Tactical

Skill

Sponsored by:

Polling Question #2

Question:
Do you include business skills as part of hiring requirements for
technical professional candidates?

Answers (Choose One):

Yes

No

I don’t know

Sponsored by:

Improving Business
Skills

Sponsored by:

Critical Skill #1. Developing Business Improving
Business
Acumen: ESI’s Mindset Model Skills

Strategic Perspective –
strategy, goals and objectives

Interpersonal Perspective –
one-to-one and one-to-many
communication and interaction

Personal Perspective –
personal goals,
style and capabilities

Operational Perspective –
processes, systems, procedures
and structures

Sponsored by:

Improving
Critical Skill #2. Financial Acumen Business
Skills

Understanding the financial implications of
business decisions (and vice versa)
Knowing what the key indicators are and how to
identify variance
Uncovering assumptions and asking smart
questions
Communicating financial information in an
understandable manner – including the impacts

Sponsored by:

Critical Skill #3. Communication and Improving
Business
Interpersonal Skills Skills

Communication is the transfer of information between people and
the attachment of meaning.

= Shared meaning
and desired
outcome

High-impact communication is clear communication
directed at a target audience that achieves its purpose
by producing desired outcomes.
Sponsored by:

Critical Skill #3. Communication and Improving
Business
Interpersonal Skills Skills

High Assertiveness
High Assertiveness

Tells
Spirited
Spirited

High Expressiveness
Direct
Low Expressiveness

Direct

Controls Emotions Displays Emotions

Systematic
Systematic Asks Considerate
Considerate

Low Assertiveness
Low Assertiveness

Sponsored by:

Improving
Critical Skill #4. Managing Change: ESI’s Business
Organizational Change Model Skills

Sponsored by:

Critical Skill #5. Improving
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Business
Skills
ESI’s Critical Thinking Model

Strategic
(Where are we
trying to get to?)

Use different types of thinking
to yield different results
Analytical Tactical
(Why is it the (What could we
way it is?) do about it?)

Creative
(What new ideas
do we have?)

Sponsored by:

Critical Skill #6. Developing Others: Improving
Business
ESI’s Coaching & Mentoring Model Skills

Determine
Determine Delegate the
Delegate the Guiding
Guiding Evaluating
Evaluating
Current
Current Work
Work Progress
Progress Results
Results
Performance
Performance

Sponsored by:

Career Path for Technical Professionals

Role Business Skills
Business acumen
Developing Technical
Professionals Intro-
& Team Members ductory Financial acumen

Technical Professional 1 Intermediate Communication and
interpersonal skills

Technical Professional 2 Ability to manage change
Advanced

Critical thinking and
problem solving skills
Technical Professional 3 MGT Development

Ability to develop others
Technical Professional 4 Technical Curriculum and delegate

Sponsored by:

Improving
In Summary Business
Skills

Research tells us that business skills are Define Business Skills in your organization
critical in today’s business environment
Develop competencies
Strong business skills will leverage
technical knowledge to improve Gain buy-in
performance
Align with career paths
Business skills can mean the difference
between good and great, as well as
success and failure Establish a measurement plan

Sponsored by:

Questions?

Presented by:
Raed Haddad Julie Zinn
Senior Vice President & Program Director
rhaddad@esi-intl.com jzinn@esi-intl.com

Sponsored by:

To submit for PDU credit,
please visit PMI’s Web site.
PDU Credits: 1 credit
Category: 3
Option: 1
Provider ID: 1038
Program ID: PGM430

Thank you for your attention!

Sponsored by:

June 13, 2007

Questions and Answers

Raed S. Haddad
Senior Vice President of Client Programs
ESI International

Julie Zinn
Program Director
ESI International

June 13, 2007

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Optimizing Your Return on People

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