What is your leadership credo? How do you define for yourself and for others what you believe in and then how do you act on your belief system?
What comes first? Is it a vision of leadership that set you apart as a great leader? Is it your communication style? Is it how you collaborate with others?
What is your credo?
I have come to the conclusion after all these years in human resources that no matter what we call it or how sophisticated our process may be or how much technology we have it wrapped in, performance management does not work. It does not make a difference to the organization, the business results and the individuals we are evaluating. So who is kidding whom? Stop the madness!!!
If you are thinking that performance management is working, you might as well check all the boxes and file the form wherever it is stored and call it a day. Your employees only care about getting it processed and signed off so they can get their raise (what little there may be) and the manager is only ticking off the boxes so the HR department will stop harassing them to get the evaluations done.
Where is the proof that this process makes a difference to anyone or anything? Stop the madness!!!
So what will make a difference? How about spending two minutes a week with each individual employee, having a conversation about what they are doing, how they are doing it and what ideas they have for improving the process or interface with the customer. Add all those two minutes per week up and you will have spent more than an hour and a half interacting with each and every employee, providing them real time feedback, getting their input in real time about how to make the business more successful, addressing issues that are important to them and solving problems before they get out of control.
The attention paid to individual employees will result in a more highly engaged and competent workforce. You, the manager, will have a finger on the pulse of your workforce and will have a better connection to your employees, allowing you to give immediate feedback and recognition. If HR insists you have to have a performance document, make it about the weekly conversations, the coaching for success or coaching for improvement you have had and the goals you set with each person. Make it about the person and not about a checklist. Make it relevant to the individual who is working for you, interacting with your customer. Connect these conversations to the business results you are trying to achieve.
What are your experiences with performance management? Let me know your thoughts.
Almost from the day we are born, someone is asking us to do something or believe in something, very often through conniving means, attempting to gather as many people to their side of the argument as possible. Remember Ring Around the Rosie? Kind of like that. When we are young we go along because it is always an adult that is telling us what to do or what to believe in and who would argue with someone older and wiser. Eventually, we realize that the years and the life experiences have resulted in a developing human being that actually has their own point of view.
We may wake up one day and realize that somewhere along the way we have formulated a set of values and beliefs that it would take an act of God to change. I think for me that happened around the age of thirteen. Ah, those teenage years. I’m sure we can all remember when we voiced an opinion for the first time and were rewarded with head nods or a “very astute of you” remark. We can also remember how empowering that was. We then try to recreate that feeling at every opportunity by voicing our opinions as often as possible. Some learn to be better at it than others. You can think pushy versus convincing. Sometimes we try to foist those opinion and beliefs on others in a way that is not ennobling in an effort to get that “top of the world” feeling back. Think aggressive.
I read today the blog post of Marshall Goldsmith regarding leadership values and how influential individual’s values are in creating organizational cultures no matter what Mission or Vision Statement may be on the wall. He cites Enron and others as having beautifully crafted statements that were not in sync with the leaders actions. What are you supposed to believe, the plaque on the wall or what the leaders are saying and doing?
In my opinion, more damage has been done to people in organizations by forcing those plaques on the wall. Put your beliefs where your mouth is and act your credo, don’t chisel it on the wall. Leaders will be followed when their words are followed by their actions and each are admired for what they contribute, not what they take away.
We tend to make too much of the terms leader and manager and very often use the terms interchangeably. So what is the difference and what difference does it really make?
Here are some criteria that can mean the most to your team and your organization whether you call yourself leader or manager.
Leader Manager
|
Use long term planning to anticipate what the customer will want before they know they want it |
Y | Y |
| Seek feedback of own performance and use what you learn to improve, constantly |
Y |
Y |
| Build up everyone who works for you to be a leader and potentially, someday take your job |
Y |
Y |
| Set concrete expectations for staff so there are no surprises |
Y |
Y |
| Create a simple and compelling vision for where you want the team or group to go |
Y |
Y |
| Be constantly vigilant for ways to improve process, products, systems and ask everyone else to do the same |
Y |
Y |
| Be open to new ideas no matter where they come from |
Y |
Y |
| Reward and recognize everyday in every way. Find someone and something to praise. |
Y |
Y |
| Look for ways to collaborate across boundaries. The boundaries we make in organizations are barriers to moving forward. |
Y |
Y |
| Create opportunities for people and for the organization by connecting ideas and the people who have them and giving them all a chance to grow. |
Y |
Y |
| The list goes on……………… |
Y |
Y |
Leader or manager is only a word on an org chart. It should not define you and how you relate to the customer or your employees. How do you see yourself?
Find out. Attend a seven-week series of virtual classes with others like you who are working hard to make your way in leadership and want to be the best you can be.
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Friday, May 07, 2010 11:00 AM -Friday, June 18, 2010 12:30 PM (Eastern Time) https://www.regonline.com/real_management_in_a_virtual_world_series_2
…if you’ve ever had a bad manager Go on. Put it in the air for the Boss From Hell who derailed your work, made arbitrary decisions, sent mixed messages, withheld information, micromanaged, sandbagged your process, put up roadblocks, put you down, took your credit, took your confidence, made you frightened, made you crazy, made you cry. Words so well said from Kelley Eskridge. So why do we continue to expect great things from terrible managers? It doesn’t have to be this way. We can make a difference. Yes, “we” can make a difference by setting basic management behavior standards and holding each other accountable. Good management is everyone’s responsibility and I call on each of you to be a part of the leadership manifesto and join the revolution! Here is Kelley Eskridge’s manifesto:
I want a world where managing people is an expertise, not a necessary evil.
A world where, no matter where we work, we find consistent standards of behavior for managers applied equally to the front line managers and the CEO.
A world where managers communicate clearly, consistently and respectfully about everything: information, expectations, process, decisions, conflict, concerns, money, and change.
A world where managers understand the proper use of delegated, collaborative, consultative, and directive decision-making.
A world where managers help people learn, grow, and get work done.
A world where managers have the bandwidth to treat everyone as an individual human being with a life, heart, hopes, fears and dreams, not just a cookie-shaped worker in a cookie-cutter job.
A world where managers have the courage and the will to be human at work. All the time. Even when it’s inconvenient. Even when it’s hard.
So if you want to join the revolution, visit www.credomc.com and take part in our virtual management program and learn what it takes to be a great manager.
Much has been written about companies transforming themselves from good to great, including the leadership qualities and characteristics of the CEO, the organizational dynamics of the leadership team and the culture of achievement and success they create.
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins instructs us that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance; but largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.
But choice is an individual action. Individuals, faced with certain facts, circumstances and led by their own values and personal goals, make choices that influence teams, companies and whole economies. Reading the headlines over the last year describing the downfall of what we believed to be “great” companies, you may be asking: if greatness can be lost, what is it really about? It would seem that standards of greatness can be chased but once attained may actually be a corrupting factor.
If the choices of one leader can bring down a company, is the drive of individual leaders to grow faster, be the first, be great actually overwhelming their pride in product and service? The drive to surpass our competitors starts with innovating products, processes and services and hiring the best people. We connect with our customer’s needs, seeking feedback at every turn. We research our competition and strive to exceed their accomplishments. We chase greatness and the process of doing so energizes and connects everyone to the ultimate dream….of being the best, working for the best, buying from the best, partnering with the best.
But every company or institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline and, as history proves, most eventually do fail. The choice of getting to great can blind and deafen us to what greatness really means to our customers. Once attained, greatness can become a place of complacence as illustrated in the tale of Toyota’s recent problems. Decline is largely selfinflicted.
Recovery, however, is equally in our own hands…a matter of choice. As long as we never get entirely knocked out of the game, the dream always remains. The mighty can fall, but they can often rise again. What we can learn from the chase to greatness is that leaders cannot see greatness as the goal. Greatness is not a place but an on-going process requiring vigilance, listening for cues from customers and employees about how to be
better, staying in touch with the processes of creating product, delivering product, improving product .
Ask yourself the following three questions about your organization and the leadership team in your quest to be the best. In answering these questions, you can assess how open you are to honest feedback, listening to cues from employees and customers, in not being complacent and never stopping on your quest for the best. In the end, maybe “best” is not a place to aspire to after all. Staying on the journey to be the best may be the wiser course.
1) How do I know if my employees believe in the mission of the organization?
2) How do I put myself in the customer’s shoes every day?
3) How can I know if my employees are telling me the truth about what is working or what
could be improved?
This article is reprinted from the Nashville Chamber HR Notes Newsletter. If you want a more thorough analysis of your organization’s culture on your quest to be the best, contact Donna Yurdin with Credo Management Consulting at 615-579-0607 or
donna@credomc.com. Visit Credo Management Consulting at www.credomc.com
Check out the press release from the Hay Group and Bloomberg Business Week announcing the best companies for leadership. Even in this recession, it’s good to see companies still investing in their greatest assets- people. What do you think of this list? Are any of these companies your clients?
In those early days when you were just getting started in your first job…even before you knew for certain whether that job was leading to a career…when you were floating in the innocent haze of being new to the world of work…did you feel like Alice, a child thrown into a world filled with characters totally foreign to your past experiences? Were you like so many of us in that position assuming everyone was your friend and had your best interest at heart? Were you, like Alice, unafraid to question the status quo, unafraid to question the motives of others?
If you were smart and perceptive beyond your years, you found a mentor. Or, if you were very fortunate, a mentor found you. The mentor, the golden key to unlock the doors to the questions, the rules, the behaviors, the political maneuverings necessary to survive.
As Alice says, “What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?” How can anyone survive without the good counsel of others? Did you have a mentor? If so, what was the best piece of advice you got? If you did not have a mentor, what difference would a mentor have made for you? Submit your answer to the poll below.
Then she comes upon a little three-legged table on which a little golden key lies. The key fits in a little door behind a curtain and when she opens it she sees that it leads into a small passage. At the end of the passage Alice sees a beautiful garden. She really wants to get into the garden, but she is too big to fit through the door.
I googled “leadership” and found 153,000,000 articles. Is it really that complicated? I was thinking about how we continue to make the simple complex and couldn’t help but think of the Golden Rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
If we can simply lead others like we would expect to be led, then we would all be happier. Make the pledge to live by the Golden Rule today.
A recent article in CLO Magazine featured the following statistics from a study done by OI Partners. ( http://www.clomedia.com/industry_news/2010/January/5110/index.php)
• 54% of companies in the survey said they do not have enough qualified successors now working for them to succeed their executives and managers.
• Only 32% of companies report currently having enough management successors in place.
• 14% of companies are not sure whether they have enough future leaders already in their organizations.
This highlights the daunting task that every successful company is faced with and will have to resolve. Who will run that department when I promote Chris? Who will run that division if I lose Evan to the competition? Who can be prepared in six months to take over the region when Jo retires?
Companies and their boards may be focused on executives, as well they should be. But who is focused on preparing that great individual contributor to be that next great supervisor? What do they need to know, who will teach them, mentor them, coach them? Or, will they be promoted and given just in time direction……like all the rest of us have been.
I think we can do better by them. I know we can do better by them. We know how. We have the time if we start now.
Do you have a plan?
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