first break all the rules

Alex GrechWeek #19 Alt-MBAwww.Alt-MBA.com

Measuring strength of Work PlaceHow do you measure the core elements needed to attract, focus and keep the most talented employees?

“Business Units were measurably more productive when employees answered positively on a scale of 1 to 5 to the following 12 questions.”

Gallup

Analysis of performance data from over 2,500 business units and over 105,000 employees

12 Questions1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the materials & equipment I need to do my work right?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

4. In the last 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?

5. Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?

12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

Mos

t pow

erfu

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SummitH

ow can we all grow?

Do I belong here?

What do I give?

What do I get?

Mountain ClimbingGetting great at what you do

Questions 1 & 2

Questions 3 to 6

Questions 7 to 10

Questions 11 to 12

Yes to all 12

Questions

A great manager is a CATALYST

Catalyst:Ability to do four key activities REALLY well

1. Select the Person2. Set Expectations3. Motivate the

Person4. Develop the

Person

4 Keys of Great Managers

•Select for TALENT•Not simply experience, intelligence or determination1. Select the Person

•Define the right OUTCOMES•Not the right steps2. Set Expectations

•Focus on STRENGTHS•Not on weaknesses

3. Motivate the Person

•Find the RIGHT FIT•Not simply the next rung on the ladder

4. Develop the Person

A characteristic way of responding to the world around us. It tells you which stimuli to notice and which to ignore; which to love and which to hate. It is UNIQUE to you. Your filter and your recurring patterns of behaviour are enduring.Your filter more than your race, sex, age or nationality is YOU.

TALENT

A recurring pattern of THOUGHT, FEELING or BEHAVIOUR that can be productively applied.

FILTER

Key 1: Select for Talent

“People don’t change that much. Don’t waste your time trying to put in what can be left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.”

WHAT GREAT MANAGERS KNOW


• Cannot be taught• 4-line highways of your mind• Recurrent patterns of thought, feeling or

behavioural• Difficult to transfer

Talents• Can be taught by breaking total performance

into steps• “How to do” of a role• Transferable

Skills• Can be taught• What you are aware of• Factual knowledge – things you know• Experiential knowledge – understandings picked

up along the way• Transferable

Knowledge

Elements of Performance


There are 3 Basic Categories of Talent

1. Striving – the ‘WHY’ of a person

2. Thinking – the ‘HOW’ of a person

3. Relating – the ‘WHO’ of a person


“The implication is not that people cannot change. Everyone can change. Everyone can learn. Everyone can get a little better. The language of skills, knowledge and talents simply helps a manager identify where radical change is possible, and where it is not.”


How managers find great talent

Study your best people

Know what talents you are looking for


How to manage by remote controlManager’s dilemma: how do you retain control and focus people on performance – when you know that you cannot force people to behave in the same way?

Define the right outcomes and then let each person find his own route toward those outcomes

Key 2: Define the right outcomes

Some outcomes defy definition

the temptation to Control!!

Trust is precious: it must be earned

My people don’t have enough talent

I want perfect people


“Forcing your employees to follow required steps only prevents customer dissatisfaction. If your goal is truly to satisfy, to create advocates, then the step-by-step approach alone cannot get you there. Instead, you must select employees who have the talent to listen and to teach, and then you must focus them towards simple emotional outcomes like partnership and advice. If you manage to do this, it is something that is very hard to steal.”


How do you know if the outcomes are right?


What is right for your customers?

What is right for your company?

What is right forthe individual?

Let them become more of who they already are

Focus on each person’s strength and manage around his weaknesses.

Don’t try to fix the weaknesses.

Don’t try to perfect each person.

Focus on each person’s strength and manage around his weaknesses.

Do everything you can to help each person cultivate his talents.

Help each person become more of who he already is.

Key 3: Focus on strengths


Casting is everything

If you want to turn talent into performance, you have to position each person so that you are paying her to do what she is naturally wired to do. You have to cast her in the right role. Everyone has the talent to be exceptional at something. The trick is to find that ‘something.’ The trick is in the casting.


Spend the most time with your best people

‘No news’ kills behaviour

It’s the fairest thing to do

It’s the best way to learn

It’s the only way to reach excellence

And the best way to break through the ceiling


Managing around a weakness

Determine if poor performance is not due to you as manager tripping the wrong trigger!!

Determine if poor performance is trainable

Determine if it’s a weakness or a non-talent

Devise a support system

Find a complementary partner

Find an alterative role

Key 4: Find the right fit

A rung too far

Most employees are promoted to their level of incompetence. It’s inevitable. It’s built into the system.


The PROBLEM with climbing the ladder

One rung does not necessarily lead to another.

The conventional career path is condemned to create competition and conflict. Why not create heroes in every role?

Conventional ‘wisdom’ programmes employees to hunt for marketable skills and experience to climb to the next rung. This thinking is often flawed.


“BEFORE you promote someone, look closely at the striving, thinking and relating talents needed to excel in the role. After scrutinising the PERSON and the ROLE, you may still choose promotion. Since each person is highly complex, you may still end up promoting someone into a position where he struggles. No manager finds the perfect fit every time. But at least you will have taken the TIME to weigh the FIT between the DEMANDS of the role and the TALENT of the person”.


Create heroes in EVERY role

Set up levels of achievement for EVERY role

For every role, define pay in broad ranges, with top-end of lower-level role overlapping bottom end of role above

Set up ‘creative acts of revolt’ (special projects)

What Great managers do


Level the PLAYING FIELD

Hold up the MIRROR

Create a SAFETY NET


The art of tough love“Tough love is a mind-set. An uncompromising focus on excellence with a genuine need to care. It focuses great managers to confront poor performance early and directly. It allows them to keep their relationship with the employee intact. Even if the employee has to be ‘let go’. Understanding that each person possesses enduring patterns of thought, feelings and behaviour liberates managers who have to confront poor performance. Because it frees the manager from blaming the employee.”

The art of interviewing for talent

Ensure talent interview stands alone

Ask a few open-ended questions and then try and stay quiet

Listen for specifics

Talent clues: rapid learning

Talent clues: personal satisfactions

Know what to listen for

The art of performance management

Keep the routine SIMPLE

Meet FREQUENTLY: minimum once a quarter

Focus on the FUTURE

Ask employee to keep track of HIS OWN performance and learnings

What great managers expect of every talented employee

Look in the mirror any chance you get

Muse

Discover yourself

Build your constituency

Keep track

Catch your peers doing something right

How to operate if your manager is not quite ‘perfect’

If she’s too ‘busy’, schedule a performance planning meeting

If you are forced to do things ‘her way’, tell her you want to define your role more by outcome, than by steps

If you receive inappropriate praise, suggest alternative ways

If she constantly intrudes, ask if ‘OK to check in less frequently than current practice’

If your ‘problems’ are of an entirely different nature, if your manager consistently ignores you, distrusts you, takes credit for your work, blames you for her mistakes or disrespects you… then get out from under her. You deserve better.

What companies can do to create friendly climate for great managers

Keep the focus on outcomes

Value world-class performance in every role

Study your best

Teach the language of great managers

Master keys that senior management of a company can use to break through ‘conventional wisdom’s’ barricades

“Great managers make it all seem so simple.Just select for talent, define the right outcomes, focus on strengths and then, as each person grows, encourage him or her to find the right fit. Completing these few steps with every single employee, your department, division or company will yield perennial excellence.”

End thoughts

NOBODY said all this is EASY!

A great manager sometimes has to STRUGGLE to BALANCE the competing interests of the company, the customers, the employees and even her own.

End thoughts

End thoughts “The needs of the COMPANY and the needs of the EMPLOYEE, misaligned since the birth of the corporation over 150 years ago, are CONVERGING.

The intersection of the company’s search for VALUE and each individual’s search for IDENTITY are forces of change that have seeded into the corporate landscape for over 10 years.

The best managers are those who know how to be CATALYSTS and speed up these forces of change.”

AcknowledgementsAll images from Flickr under Creative Commons licences

http://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/3469322016http://www.flickr.com/photos/alele/2293155601

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28031327@N05/2615751976http://www.flickr.com/photos/foreby/2785429894http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragesoss/2374914189http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenore-m/359188253

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lincolnian/2266798033http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/233228813

http://www.flickr.com/photos/splityarn/3428570139

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnandketurah/2886955130http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/1154746963

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazy_jenius/2268675201

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23912576@N05/2962194797http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelsk/3450497836

http://www.flickr.com/photos/e3000/256560692/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugopan/72708544http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpsfender182/3006123707

http://www.flickr.com/photos/splorp/63656900

http://twitter.com/alexgrech

http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/3437441877http://www.flickr.com/photos/mendelsohn/532213817

first break all the rules

Education

great managers

poor performance

persons strength

great manager

end thoughts

behaviour

talents

performance