Tuesday Buzz: How to Pick Better Leaders

There’s no shortage of leadership-development programs among nonprofit and for-profit organizations. But when looking at the employee satisfaction data and the failure rate of CEOs, there’s reason to think that leadership development may not be working.

Forbes argues that organizations should rely less on “intuitive” talent-acquisition practices  (opens in a new tab) and look to industrial-organizational psychology principles when making hires.

Start with making sure that your leadership hires have coachable personalities, “higher curiosity, ambition, interpersonal sensitivity, and openness to experience; as well as lower narcissism, volatility, and impulsivity, are all associated with better development outcomes,” writes Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.

Any leadership-development program in your organization should result in a boost of self-awareness, which is why 360-degree feedback is an important resource. “However, while 360s describe performance, personality-based feedback can complement 360s with a thorough picture of leaders’ potential, in the sense of capturing their default habits, preferred tendencies, and natural strengths and weaknesses,” says Chamorro-Premuzic. And while it’s hard to change one’s personality, “when people are effectively coached (or self-coached), they learn how to go against their nature.”

Correcting Your Data

You need to know the 7 ways Google Analytics can twist the truth (by @CrazyEgg  (opens in a new tab)) https://t.co/oJuwdra13n  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab)

— AssociationAnalytics (@AssocAnalytics) June 13, 2017  (opens in a new tab)

Google Analytics is an invaluable tool for analyzing your website data. But a few implementation errors or an incorrect reading can leave you with faulty information.

For instance, are you seeing a lot of mysterious “direct traffic” in your metrics reports? A recent post from the Crazy Egg blog  (opens in a new tab) says that traffic could be coming from a variety of sources, including email, social media, and organic search. One way to shed some light on this dark traffic is by making sure that you’re using Google’s UTM builder to tag your links properly.

Also consider if you’re falling victim to “last touch bias.” You may be focusing only on channels that drive conversions while “neglecting everything else leading up to that point,” writes Brad Smith. That includes  “the other channels and tactics that commonly ‘assist’ conversions.”

Other Links of Note

Strike while the fire is hot. The GrowthZone blog shares a few ways to engage with new members  (opens in a new tab).

Twitter is making it easier to find events. According to Recode, the social platform is testing a new way to showcase popular events in users’ timelines  (opens in a new tab).

Do you have photos on your group’s Instagram account that you’d like to hide? Now you can hide those photos without deleting them  (opens in a new tab), says The Verge.

(Palto/Thinkstock)