If random managers were asked to name their employees that make up their top 20 percent with regards to performance – how many could do so? Or, how many managers would know which employees make up their bottom 10 percent? Unfortunately not many. And if you don’t know who your top and bottom performers are, you more than likely don’t know who makes up your middle. I have been aware of this concept which many of you know is what made GE so successful under Jack Welch’s helm. Jack believed that his company differentiated itself from others by differentiating people within his organization. He would assess and separate employees into three categories in terms of performance: top 20 percent, middle 70, and bottom 10. So why is this so important?
Having this information on paper (or computer screen) will immediately help guide your decisions regarding your department, business, or organization because it makes it real. And when something is real it allows you to act on it. All of us differentiate our teams to some degree in our heads – but what do we do with that information? Does having this information in our heads help us make management decisions that improve our operations? Speaking for myself I know it didn’t. I always felt that I knew who my stars were and who my weak links were – but I didn’t do anything extra with this knowledge. I continued to manage my team and deal with the issues that arose from the weak links knowing that one day they probably won’t be with me any longer. For the employees who were my top performers I did my best to thank them for their hard work and recognized them as great assets to our team. To be truly candid, until just a few days ago, I thought I was doing pretty good managing this team dynamic. I thanked those who did great consistently, I held accountable those that broke the rules or failed to perform. But I learned that there is so much more opportunity to improve my operations by taking the time to clearly define my stars, middle work horses, and those at the bottom slowing us down. Here is the process I went through.
I came to a point within my operations where I began to feel like I had too many people working in areas that didn’t need it and not enough people in areas that did. For me to correct this would require adjusting schedules and responsibilities which naturally impacts people. It would impact some for the better and some for the worse. So the question I was faced with is – who do I reward with better shifts and responsibilities and who do I negatively impact with less desired shifts and responsibilities? Simple – I need to rate each employee from top to bottom.
Rating a large number of employees can become a daunting task so I began with baby steps. I quickly went down my list and rated each employee from 1 to 5. In my case 5 being the best and 1 being the worst. I now had a list of employees with a rating next to their name. I then segregated each employee into three distinct functions. You may have more or less, the point being you identify how many there are and fit each employee into their respective category or function. Having each employee in smaller groups with a rating made it much easier for me to rate them from top to bottom within each category. Now I was able to look at my three top employees from each category and identify who my overall top performer is. Then out of my final two top performers from their respective function I was able to select my second overall best performer and so on. Before you knew it, I had the department rated from 1 to 29. At this point, I simply determined how many employees constituted 20 percent and filled them in. In my case 20 percent of 29 employees are 5.8 so I rounded up to 6 employees. The top 6 rated employees were my top 20 percent. I then followed this process to identify the 70 percent that made up my core work force and eventually my bottom 10 percent.
It was amazing, with regards to my top performers half of them I anticipated, the other half I was pleasantly surprised. Within my core 70 percent, I was amazed to learn how some of the employees I did not expect were towards the top of the 70 while others found themselves towards the bottom. And as you can imagine, seeing on paper the employees that made up my bottom 10 percent was a true eye opener. Having this data it immediately began to change how I managed this department. I was energized to know who my top stars are. These are the people I need to involve in helping improve our operations. These are the folks I need to empower to identify new and better ways of doing things. I don’t just need to thank them for their great work – I need to take advantage of their great work and give them the opportunity to do even greater things. These are the individuals I need to invest in and develop them for promotional opportunities.
Looking at my core 70 percent, it became so clear who my dependable group was. This is the team that is not very flashy or steps out of their comfort zone, but they are the group that I would be lost without. This is the group that is handling the bulk of our workload. It also became apparent who was at the top of this group and had potential to move up. And on the other hand I learned that who I thought was at the top of the list was actually towards the bottom. This made me realize I had individuals in leadership roles that should not be in them, and other employees who should. We quickly made changes to reflect what we learned from this exercise. Making these changes immediately rewarded those employees who have been working hard and performing which improved their morale and simultaneously improved the operations of this department.
With regards to the employees who made up the bottom 10 percent. It was interesting to me how even though I anticipated that some of them would be in this group – it was not clear to me that I should be acting on this reality. As clear as it now became, I knew that if I wanted to be a strong leader, I now had the information to act and I better act. I could no longer be in a position with assumptions and no action. By not putting a plan in place to eliminate this weight on the department, I would be directly responsible for slowing this department down.
Having utilized Jack Welch’s 20/70/10 concept from his book Winning allowed me to have a much clearer perspective of this department. It gave me the information needed to make better managerial decisions which in turn will improve our operations. This process made it extremely clear who my stars are and who I should be investing time in so that they can grow and develop and as a result, our overall department can grow and develop. I cannot urge you enough to conduct this exercise with your team no matter what the size. Jack Welch closes the chapter in his book Winning with the following:
"If you want the best people on your team, you need to face up to differentiation. I don’t know of any people management system that does it better – with more transparency, fairness, and speed. It isn’t perfect. But differentiation, like candor, clarifies business and makes it run better in every way."
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Motivate Your Team!
We are all familiar with how important motivating your team is. Motivation is critical to creativity and productivity. When your team is demoralized they will not be excited to find new ways of doing business. Your team will be going through the motions and performing under their capacity and ability. So how do you motivate your team? We know the most common ways – empower your team, value them, care for each individual, treat each employee with respect to name a few. These are common to most managers, but unfortunately a high number of managers fall short of these. Before I move on to share with you the most successful method of motivating your team, I do want to highlight that these areas are important to successful leadership. Find out how to tap into them and practice them daily. But is there something that naturally and without much effort motivates a team?
To answer this question, I want to start by asking a question. What’s it like to work with someone who is negative? What is like to work with someone who starts the day off complaining about their work and others? What is like to work with someone who is always expecting something bad to happen to them? What is like to work with someone who is always sick or in pain? This type of individual is not very fun to be around right? And it’s probably also safe to say that you don’t gravitate towards this individual. You may even intentionally avoid them knowing that if you run into them you’ll be forced to listen to how bad something is. As you can see, this type of behavior is very demoralizing. As a result, a leader who wants to motivate his team has to be the very opposite!
A leader who wants to and needs to motivate his team has to exude positive energy! By simply being enthusiastic and optimistic people will gravitate towards to you. They will want to work on projects with you. They will want to be a part of your team because they know that working with you will bring them joy and excitement through the course of the day. Jack Welch in his book Winning says that positive energy people “start the day with enthusiasm and usually end it that way too, rarely seeming to tire in the middle.” He adds that “people with positive energy just love life.” Have you ever worked for or with someone like this? How did this person make you feel? Positive energy individuals have the ability to motivate others because they have the energy to motivate themselves. You will never be able to energize others, if you can’t energize yourself. Positive energy stems from your inner core. Its how you look at life, how you view your role in your job, in your family, or even on earth. Are you excited to be living the life you have or are you constantly depressed about who you are and what you have to do? You have to take a moment and honestly evaluate yourself and determine if you exude positive or negative energy. If you already exude positive energy then great, keep it up. You will notice your team will be more and more motivated to accomplish what is needed. People simply want to be around and work for individuals who have a great outlook on life.
Once you have a positive outlook and exude positive energy, you can begin to energize others. In Winning Jack Welch states that “people who energize can inspire their team to take on the impossible – and enjoy the hell out of doing it.” This doesn’t mean giving fancy speeches or giving out mugs for rewards – it’s a combination of skills that vary from person to person. But they are derived from one common source – positive energy. If you have a desire to motivate others or you have a team that you have recently taken on and you know they need to be motivated – then lead by example. People who are motivated are energized. So lead that way. Arrive to work excited and ready to go. Don’t just slowly stroll into the office – walk with a purpose. Have passion for what you are about to do. Jack describes passion as a “heartfelt, deep, and authentic excitement about work.” He continues to say that people with passion “love to learn and grow, and they get a huge kick when the people around them do the same.” Involve your team, point out the great aspects of your work or project. Praise people in your organization and those working directly for you. Have fun and laugh at yourself. By doing so, you will create an environment with positive energy which will energize your team. And when your team is energized, I guarantee they will be motivated to create and produce more than you could ever imagine!
To answer this question, I want to start by asking a question. What’s it like to work with someone who is negative? What is like to work with someone who starts the day off complaining about their work and others? What is like to work with someone who is always expecting something bad to happen to them? What is like to work with someone who is always sick or in pain? This type of individual is not very fun to be around right? And it’s probably also safe to say that you don’t gravitate towards this individual. You may even intentionally avoid them knowing that if you run into them you’ll be forced to listen to how bad something is. As you can see, this type of behavior is very demoralizing. As a result, a leader who wants to motivate his team has to be the very opposite!
A leader who wants to and needs to motivate his team has to exude positive energy! By simply being enthusiastic and optimistic people will gravitate towards to you. They will want to work on projects with you. They will want to be a part of your team because they know that working with you will bring them joy and excitement through the course of the day. Jack Welch in his book Winning says that positive energy people “start the day with enthusiasm and usually end it that way too, rarely seeming to tire in the middle.” He adds that “people with positive energy just love life.” Have you ever worked for or with someone like this? How did this person make you feel? Positive energy individuals have the ability to motivate others because they have the energy to motivate themselves. You will never be able to energize others, if you can’t energize yourself. Positive energy stems from your inner core. Its how you look at life, how you view your role in your job, in your family, or even on earth. Are you excited to be living the life you have or are you constantly depressed about who you are and what you have to do? You have to take a moment and honestly evaluate yourself and determine if you exude positive or negative energy. If you already exude positive energy then great, keep it up. You will notice your team will be more and more motivated to accomplish what is needed. People simply want to be around and work for individuals who have a great outlook on life.
Once you have a positive outlook and exude positive energy, you can begin to energize others. In Winning Jack Welch states that “people who energize can inspire their team to take on the impossible – and enjoy the hell out of doing it.” This doesn’t mean giving fancy speeches or giving out mugs for rewards – it’s a combination of skills that vary from person to person. But they are derived from one common source – positive energy. If you have a desire to motivate others or you have a team that you have recently taken on and you know they need to be motivated – then lead by example. People who are motivated are energized. So lead that way. Arrive to work excited and ready to go. Don’t just slowly stroll into the office – walk with a purpose. Have passion for what you are about to do. Jack describes passion as a “heartfelt, deep, and authentic excitement about work.” He continues to say that people with passion “love to learn and grow, and they get a huge kick when the people around them do the same.” Involve your team, point out the great aspects of your work or project. Praise people in your organization and those working directly for you. Have fun and laugh at yourself. By doing so, you will create an environment with positive energy which will energize your team. And when your team is energized, I guarantee they will be motivated to create and produce more than you could ever imagine!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Difficult Decisions
This is a topic that is not discussed often, yet, every leader will be faced with having to make difficult decisions. Difficult decisions can vary widely. They may include whether you give someone a straightforward performance evaluation or tell them what they want to hear, selecting who you promote out of a group of qualified employees, do you go to your bosses boss regarding something about your boss, holding your employees accountable when they don’t perform or misbehave, or whether you terminate an employee. The list of difficult decisions that leaders are faced with on a daily basis could go on for many pages. The reality is that difficult decisions have to be made regularly. There is no way that if you are in a leadership position now, or plan on being in one soon – you will not be faced with difficult decisions. So the questions is – are you in or out?
Let me be very clear. I do not prefer to be in a position where I have to make a difficult decision. I manage with all my ability to be pro-active and thorough so that I can avoid difficult decisions as often as possible. Unfortunately, the reality is that no matter how hard you try, you will be faced with them. Asking yourself now whether you have the ability or even desire to be in situations where hard decisions have to be made is critical. The answer to this question will impact your success. Giving this question serious thought may determine that you should not be in a leadership role and as a result you may have a long successful career in the position you are in now. On the other hand, if you don’t give this serious consideration and you eagerly accept a promotion into a leadership role and you find yourself not being able to execute difficult decisions, you may find yourself out of a job. I have seen examples where managers allowed inappropriate behavior to impact their department and ultimately them by not making the tough decision to act and hold the employee accountable. I have seen managers not terminate an employee when it clearly constituted termination which resulted in additional problems and reduced production - eventually leading to their termination. There is example after example like this. So if you are hoping to be a leader or are one now you have to ask yourself - will I be able to make these decisions? So why is it that we as leaders shy away from making these difficult decisions?
We shy away from making difficult decisions because difficult decisions are exactly that – difficult. I can speak for myself; there have been times where a decision has kept me up at night. A decision has caused me to consider the variables in my mind over and over again searching for the right outcome. Decisions have overwhelmed me with emotion from sadness to compassion. There are times we shy away from making those difficult decisions because we realize the decision will not only impact someone directly, but it will also impact their family. It is not easy to have to make these types of decisions. Unfortunately, making these types of decisions is what leaders are in position to do. They will never be easy, and they will never get easier. But there are things you can do.
For starters, you have to be consistent. You have to be consistent with your decisions knowing that each decision you make will be precedent for the next. You have to be consistent with your core principles. It is imperative that your core principles are not compromised. Standing on your core principles no matter how difficult the decision may be is what equates to integrity and character of a leader. Once you have mastered being consistent you have to have compassion. There is no situation where arrogance or simple lack of compassion is acceptable. As leaders we have to understand that we are dealing with people who deserve your support even in the worst of times. Just because as leaders we were put into a situation where a tough decision has to be made because of a mistake, lapse of judgment, burst of misbehavior, etc., does not provide an opportunity for us to act inappropriately. We have to extend ourselves to help those individuals grow and learn from their mistakes. As leaders we have to do our best to exude compassion knowing that our decision can extend to the individuals family and may impact their lives as well.
It is not easy being a leader. Difficult decisions will be made. People will be hurt. But with love and compassion through the difficult times, lessons will be learned, opportunities will arise, and improvements will be made personally and operationally. And when this type of improvement occurs, you realize, that as difficult as being a leader is - it is also as equally rewarding.
Let me be very clear. I do not prefer to be in a position where I have to make a difficult decision. I manage with all my ability to be pro-active and thorough so that I can avoid difficult decisions as often as possible. Unfortunately, the reality is that no matter how hard you try, you will be faced with them. Asking yourself now whether you have the ability or even desire to be in situations where hard decisions have to be made is critical. The answer to this question will impact your success. Giving this question serious thought may determine that you should not be in a leadership role and as a result you may have a long successful career in the position you are in now. On the other hand, if you don’t give this serious consideration and you eagerly accept a promotion into a leadership role and you find yourself not being able to execute difficult decisions, you may find yourself out of a job. I have seen examples where managers allowed inappropriate behavior to impact their department and ultimately them by not making the tough decision to act and hold the employee accountable. I have seen managers not terminate an employee when it clearly constituted termination which resulted in additional problems and reduced production - eventually leading to their termination. There is example after example like this. So if you are hoping to be a leader or are one now you have to ask yourself - will I be able to make these decisions? So why is it that we as leaders shy away from making these difficult decisions?
We shy away from making difficult decisions because difficult decisions are exactly that – difficult. I can speak for myself; there have been times where a decision has kept me up at night. A decision has caused me to consider the variables in my mind over and over again searching for the right outcome. Decisions have overwhelmed me with emotion from sadness to compassion. There are times we shy away from making those difficult decisions because we realize the decision will not only impact someone directly, but it will also impact their family. It is not easy to have to make these types of decisions. Unfortunately, making these types of decisions is what leaders are in position to do. They will never be easy, and they will never get easier. But there are things you can do.
For starters, you have to be consistent. You have to be consistent with your decisions knowing that each decision you make will be precedent for the next. You have to be consistent with your core principles. It is imperative that your core principles are not compromised. Standing on your core principles no matter how difficult the decision may be is what equates to integrity and character of a leader. Once you have mastered being consistent you have to have compassion. There is no situation where arrogance or simple lack of compassion is acceptable. As leaders we have to understand that we are dealing with people who deserve your support even in the worst of times. Just because as leaders we were put into a situation where a tough decision has to be made because of a mistake, lapse of judgment, burst of misbehavior, etc., does not provide an opportunity for us to act inappropriately. We have to extend ourselves to help those individuals grow and learn from their mistakes. As leaders we have to do our best to exude compassion knowing that our decision can extend to the individuals family and may impact their lives as well.
It is not easy being a leader. Difficult decisions will be made. People will be hurt. But with love and compassion through the difficult times, lessons will be learned, opportunities will arise, and improvements will be made personally and operationally. And when this type of improvement occurs, you realize, that as difficult as being a leader is - it is also as equally rewarding.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Ethics and Leadership
It is very common to hear the words ethics and leadership in the same sentence or at least in the same conversation. We have heard many news stories in the recent years about unethical acts by key leaders in key organizations like WorldCom, Enron, Fannie Mae and Tyco to name just a few. If you do a Google search you will find hundreds. As a result a tremendous amount of focus and money has gone into increasing the education and training on proper ethical behavior. Unfortunately, I can sum up all of this expensive training for you in one sentence - do what is right, and don't do what is wrong.
As you can see, this level of training may not solve all of our problems since what is right and what is wrong is still not defined. But what would happen if we ignore this aspect of leadership and continue to do the best we can in other areas? Is being an ethical leader even important? The answer to these questions is that it is extremely critical to focus on this subject and if you are not an ethical leader - you will not be a leader for long. The reasons being an ethical leader are so critical is because if you are not you create an environment that is unfair, authoritative, controlling, insincere, and ultimately demoralizing to the point that your team, department, division, business, or corporation fails. It can fail because it was exposed for illegal practices or it can fail because you have lost your most critical asset - your employees. If your department or company experiences high level of turnover due to unethical leadership you are never able to move forward since you have to train and retrain new staff. Creativity cannot flow. Productivity is stagnant since the people that are there are going through the motions and more than likely spending most of their time looking for other jobs.
So let's define ethics. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ethics as “discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty." As I first read this definition I automatically wondered how is "discipline" defined as well as "moral." Discipline is defined as "field of study or subject." Moral is defined as "conforming to standard of right behavior." Okay, now that we have defined ethics, discipline, and moral - do we know what ethical leadership looks like? If you're anything like me, then you probably still do not. So let’s look at the definition of ethics one more time. “Discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty.” I finally saw the most critical components of the definition and underlined them for you. Most of us do know what good and evil looks like since it is very intrinsic and does not require much training. When something bad is happening to you - you feel it in your gut, you feel uncomfortable, and you question what is going on. When something good is happening to you - it is clear as day because you have a big smile on your face. You feel peace and joy, and you want to feel like that again. Ethical behavior is nothing more than how you make people feel! How do you think the people at Enron felt when they were asked to produce financial books that they knew were not accurate? Do you think they felt peace and joy and asked for more? I would venture to say no. More than likely they felt very uneasy, they questioned what was happening, and they probably felt very uncomfortable knowing they might lose their jobs. Focus on how your actions are making people feel and you will be able to determine if you are an ethical leader.
Unfortunately, there are leaders that do not know how they are making people feel. There are other leaders that may want to know and are wondering how can I find out how my employees feel? Ask them! It would be a safe practice if you are looking to improve your leadership ability to start asking your employees on a frequent basis - what do you think of this plan? Please provide me your feedback on what we discussed here today. Please know that I value your opinion and want to know what you think and how you feel. You may be amazed at what you find out if you just ask. I have to pre-warn you. What you hear you may not always like - but that's what separates leaders from non-leaders. If you truly want to improve your ethical behavior and as result your department, company, etc., then you have to start paying attention to how you are making people feel. And if ever in doubt, start asking. One of the best leadership books out there with a tremendous focus on good and evil and with moral duty is the bible. If you are already reading it regularly, then begin to see the teachings from a leadership perspective. If you are not reading the bible, then I strongly suggest you begin. The greatest leader of all time is Jesus Christ. Being a leader is getting people to willingly follow you no matter where you go - Jesus did that. His following has extended beyond his time on earth and thousands of years. To this day, millions of people are still following Jesus.
As you can see, this level of training may not solve all of our problems since what is right and what is wrong is still not defined. But what would happen if we ignore this aspect of leadership and continue to do the best we can in other areas? Is being an ethical leader even important? The answer to these questions is that it is extremely critical to focus on this subject and if you are not an ethical leader - you will not be a leader for long. The reasons being an ethical leader are so critical is because if you are not you create an environment that is unfair, authoritative, controlling, insincere, and ultimately demoralizing to the point that your team, department, division, business, or corporation fails. It can fail because it was exposed for illegal practices or it can fail because you have lost your most critical asset - your employees. If your department or company experiences high level of turnover due to unethical leadership you are never able to move forward since you have to train and retrain new staff. Creativity cannot flow. Productivity is stagnant since the people that are there are going through the motions and more than likely spending most of their time looking for other jobs.
So let's define ethics. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ethics as “discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty." As I first read this definition I automatically wondered how is "discipline" defined as well as "moral." Discipline is defined as "field of study or subject." Moral is defined as "conforming to standard of right behavior." Okay, now that we have defined ethics, discipline, and moral - do we know what ethical leadership looks like? If you're anything like me, then you probably still do not. So let’s look at the definition of ethics one more time. “Discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty.” I finally saw the most critical components of the definition and underlined them for you. Most of us do know what good and evil looks like since it is very intrinsic and does not require much training. When something bad is happening to you - you feel it in your gut, you feel uncomfortable, and you question what is going on. When something good is happening to you - it is clear as day because you have a big smile on your face. You feel peace and joy, and you want to feel like that again. Ethical behavior is nothing more than how you make people feel! How do you think the people at Enron felt when they were asked to produce financial books that they knew were not accurate? Do you think they felt peace and joy and asked for more? I would venture to say no. More than likely they felt very uneasy, they questioned what was happening, and they probably felt very uncomfortable knowing they might lose their jobs. Focus on how your actions are making people feel and you will be able to determine if you are an ethical leader.
Unfortunately, there are leaders that do not know how they are making people feel. There are other leaders that may want to know and are wondering how can I find out how my employees feel? Ask them! It would be a safe practice if you are looking to improve your leadership ability to start asking your employees on a frequent basis - what do you think of this plan? Please provide me your feedback on what we discussed here today. Please know that I value your opinion and want to know what you think and how you feel. You may be amazed at what you find out if you just ask. I have to pre-warn you. What you hear you may not always like - but that's what separates leaders from non-leaders. If you truly want to improve your ethical behavior and as result your department, company, etc., then you have to start paying attention to how you are making people feel. And if ever in doubt, start asking. One of the best leadership books out there with a tremendous focus on good and evil and with moral duty is the bible. If you are already reading it regularly, then begin to see the teachings from a leadership perspective. If you are not reading the bible, then I strongly suggest you begin. The greatest leader of all time is Jesus Christ. Being a leader is getting people to willingly follow you no matter where you go - Jesus did that. His following has extended beyond his time on earth and thousands of years. To this day, millions of people are still following Jesus.
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