My brother and I once took a college course together with a professor who knew our father. After a couple of weeks of class, he tracked us down after class and told us to tell our dad that he had raised thoughtful, intelligent, and honorable young men. We of course looked at him like he was nuts. He said that he had made a commitment to himself that when he saw something good in a person, he would tell them. That happened roughly 18 years ago. And it still stands very clearly in my memory.
How much better would things be for leaders if we all did the same thing? Went to a dolphin show the other day and the trainers made two points about training dolphins. Number one: all behaviors in the show are natural behaviors that the dolphins are prone to do anyway, the trainers just tie them to hand signals. The second thing: they focus exclusively on rewarding the behavior they like and give nothing for the behavior they don't like. And I have to tell you, the dolphins put on a heck of a show.
I am not suggesting that we are trained animals. Not at all. But I still vividly remember that college professor's compliment. And there are a few other times in my working life where people who I respect have commented in a positive way about me, my performance, or my team. Those comments stick with you. Those comments inspire you. Those comments can change you.
One General Manager once told me I was the best operator with whom he had ever worked. That was a huge compliment AND a huge challenge. I now had to live up to that expectation. And I worked my butt off to do just that. I pushed harder, learned more, and listened more following that conversation. I was also open to critism from that leader more so than I had ever been before. This guy was not critizing me because he thought I couldn't cut it or because he needed an ego boost by being cruel to a subordinate. This person was trying to help the BEST OPERATOR HE HAD EVER WORKED WITH get better. Everything he says or does to help me get better has been filtered through that moment ever since.
In a previous post I pointed out that when individuals on a team are doing something wrong, the leader has to address the issue one on one with the person doing the wrong thing. A leader can't just hit the group with it, the message gets lost in the crowd. And the funny thing about every team on which I have been a part - the leader(s) always find things that are being done wrong. The exceptions jump out at us very easily.
You ever listen to someone playing the piano and they hit the wrong key? It actually causes a bit of discomfort, doesn't it? Same thing happens if you are leading a team and one or two members are not on the same page as the rest of the team. Its natural to notice the out of place.
But what of everyone else that is doing it right? What about the rare few that are doing it better than everyone else? What do they get? A lot of people will say "paycheck" at this point. But so do the folks who are doing the wrong thing. The time and effort we spend in training folks to do the things that we need done, causes us to be reluctant to just fire people for being average. But how do we get the average to be above average? And it is hugely important that we get them to be above. Because they won't stay average. They will either move up to above or down to below.
I have seen leaders generate tremendous results in a team with very few changes of the team members. They focus on accountability and then on recognition to get more and more team members out of the below average camp to just the average camp. The leaders who excel, continue that team movement to get more and more of the team into the above average camp. How do you get that to happen?
Well, moving folks from below average to average is primarily a function of accountability. There needs to be an escalating series of feedback if negative behavior continues. Most of the time, folks will change their behaviors after the process is consistently applied. Most of the time this process doesn't even require ending anyone's employment - sometimes it does. But a good leader understands that good cannot be if BAD is never defined. You can say something is bad all you want, but until there are consequences for it, how bad could it be?
To get people to go the extra mile to above average, you have to offer some form of recognition for behavior that goes above and beyond. Some may ask, why don't you just set the series of consequences at the above average level and let accountability take care of it all? Would you want to work at such a place? My wife and I recently left jobs that were great paying jobs with great opportunities for advancement. But we were working 65 hour weeks to measure up. We did that for over 2 years waiting for the time when the demands of the job would ease off - and they never did. We left. And we were valued contributors at those jobs - we have the performance evaluations and the added compensation to prove it. But in the end, what was being demanded of us was more than we were willing to give, mainly because it felt like everything we were giving was just making the team average. Our reward for fixing problem areas was to be placed in charge of another problem area.
Heard about a study done at a college one time. The Psych department put an ad in the student newspaper for workers who would be paid minimum wage. Folks showed up and were taken to a field, issued shovels, and told to dig a ditch. At the half way point of the day, they were stopped for lunch. When they came back from lunch they were asked to fill the ditch back in for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, nothing had been accomplished. The workers asked why they were doing this and were told it was not their place to ask, they were paid, they were told that their wage would be doubled the next day, and told to report at the same field at the same time the next morning.
The next day 40% of the workers did not show up. The day followed the same pattern as yesterday. Half day digging a ditch, half day filling in a ditch, told to not ask questions about the purpose of the work, pay would double the next day, and report to the same field at the same time the next day. On the third day, another 40% of the remaining workers did not show up. Money is not everything. Purpose and accomplishment are major driving forces.
Part of a sense of accomplishment can be provided to your team by making sure they know why we do the things we do. We have to be able to explain what the goal is and some leaders feel that they are being challenged when people are asking why we are doing the things we do.
People generally want to be successful and more importantly want to be seen to be successful. Even folks who like to say they don't care what other people think betray themselves by taking the time to make sure that we know that they don't care what we think of them. People who truly don't care what you think, don't take enough of an interest in you to waste their breathe telling you anything. If you will invest the time to identify specific things that your team members do to help the team, you can gain credibility and loyalty from the team with a few well chosen, honest comments about their value to you and to the team as a whole. At least that is my thought on the issue.
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