First Break All The Rules

Alex Grech Week #19 Alt-MBA www.Alt-MBA.com

Measuring strength of Work Place How 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 Questions 1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? Most powerful Questions 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?

Mountain Climbing Getting great at what you do Yes to all 12 Questions Summit How can we Questions 11 to 12 all grow? Questions Do I belong here? 7 to 10 Questions What do I give? 3 to 6 Questions What do I get? 1&2

A great manager is a CATALYST 1. Select the Person 2. Set Expectations Catalyst: 3. Motivate the Ability to do four Person key activities 4. Develop the REALLY well Person

4 Keys of Great Managers 1. Select the • Select for TALENT Person • Not simply experience, intelligence or determination • Define the right OUTCOMES 2. Set Expectations • Not the right steps 3. Motivate the • Focus on STRENGTHS Person • Not on weaknesses 4. Develop the • Find the RIGHT FIT Person • Not simply the next rung on the ladder

TALENT A recurring pattern of THOUGHT, FEELING or BEHAVIOUR that can be productively applied. FILTER 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. Key 1: Select for Talent

WHAT GREAT MANAGERS KNOW “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.” Key 1: Select for Talent

Elements of Performance • Cannot be taught • 4-line highways of your mind Talents • Recurrent patterns of thought, feeling or behavioural • Difficult to transfer • Can be taught by breaking total performance into steps Skills • “How to do” of a role • Transferable • Can be taught • What you are aware of Knowledge • • Factual knowledge – things you know Experiential knowledge – understandings picked up along the way • Transferable Key 1: Select for Talent

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 Key 1: Select for Talent

“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.” Key 1: Select for Talent

How managers find great talent Know what talents you are looking for Study your best people Key 1: Select for Talent

How to manage by remote control Manager’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

I want perfect people My people don’t have enough talent Some outcomes defy definition Trust is precious: it must be earned the temptation to Control!! Key 2: Define the right outcomes

“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.” Key 2: Define the right outcomes

How do you know if the outcomes are right? What is right for your customers? What is right for What is right for your company? the individual? Key 2: Define the right outcomes

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. Key 3: Focus on strengths

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 Key 3: Focus on strengths

Managing around a weakness Devise a support system Find a complementary partner Find an alterative role Determine if poor performance is trainable Determine if poor performance is not due to you as manager tripping the wrong trigger!! Determine if it’s a weakness or a non-talent Key 3: Focus on strengths

A rung too far Most employees are promoted to their level of incompetence. It’s inevitable. It’s built into the system. Key 4: Find the right fit

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. Key 4: Find the right fit

“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”. Key 4: Find the right fit

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) Key 4: Find the right fit

What Great managers do Level the PLAYING FIELD Hold up the MIRROR Create a SAFETY NET Key 4: Find the right fit

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.” Key 4: Find the right fit

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 Master keys that senior management of a company can use to break through ‘conventional wisdom’s’ barricades Study your best Teach the language of great managers

End thoughts “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 “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.”

Acknowledgements All images from Flickr under Creative Commons licences http://twitter.com/alexgrech http://www.flickr.com/photos/mendelsohn/532213817 http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/3437441877 http://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/3469322016 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugopan/72708544 http://www.flickr.com/photos/alele/2293155601 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mpsfender182/3006123707 http://www.flickr.com/photos/28031327@N05/2615751976 http://www.flickr.com/photos/splorp/63656900 http://www.flickr.com/photos/foreby/2785429894 http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnandketurah/2886955130 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragesoss/2374914189 http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/1154746963 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenore-m/359188253 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazy_jenius/2268675201 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lincolnian/2266798033 http://www.flickr.com/photos/23912576@N05/2962194797 http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/233228813 http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelsk/3450497836 http://www.flickr.com/photos/splityarn/3428570139 http://www.flickr.com/photos/e3000/256560692/

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First Break All The Rules

by Alex Grech on May 24, 2009

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First Break All The Rules — Presentation Transcript