Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Managing & Developing Your Employees -- Pt. 1

Don’t Settle When Hiring Employees

First, don’t settle when hiring employees. Great employees can and do overcome poor relationships. Great employees can and do overcome bad processes. Great employees can and do overcome lousy managers. Great employees can and do pull along mediocre teams. Great employees can and do turn around underperforming teams and organizations. Which is to say: If you want a team or organization that works – you’ll get more leverage from hiring great employees than from any other single effort you can undertake. But this begs the question: What makes a great employee?

The phrase “great employee” flows easily off the tongue. Unfortunately, it is easier to say you want a great employee than actually knowing what characteristics make up a great employee when interviewing job applicants. Amongst the many characteristics, here are five characteristics that I suggest that you seek out when rating job applicants:

1. Habit of Success
More than any other single trait, look for employees who know what success looks like and are accustomed to seeing it. Those who have this habit will usually figure out a way to get done what needs to get done. Those who don’t will often mistake obstacles for impenetrable barriers.

Many prefer to list character traits that someone with a “habit of success” encompasses separately – such as maturity, persistence, confidence, a willingness to take responsibility, and/or a sense of pride in achievement. I would argue that they go together. Look for a “habit of success” and you’ll find all of these character traits present.

Before I move on to the second characteristic to consider when rating job applicants, I think it is fair to answer this question: What does a habit of success look like?

While the answer to that question may depend somewhat upon the one performing the evaluation, here are just a few examples of someone with a habit of success:
o They possess numerous degrees
o They have won numerous awards
o They have been given numerous promotions
o They can list numerous real accomplishments
o They have “sterling” references
o They can demonstrate a pattern of increasing responsibility

2. Competence
Second, look for employees who are competent. A competent employee is one who has the:
o knowledge to do the job,
o skills to put that knowledge into practice, and
o commitment to apply the knowledge and skills in the appropriate way.

When measuring competence, focus on the “how” of performance not the “what.” For example, do not be enamored by “what” results somebody delivered but focus on “how” he/she managed to deliver such outstanding results (with a clear emphasis on achieving results underlying Company goals).

Why is competence so important (it is not as obvious as you think)?
o Competence is really an inherent characteristic that predisposes an individual (not a company) toward certain skills and behaviors that achieve exemplary performance.
o Competence is a standard of behavior that is demonstrated consistently over time. It is not a “one time” measure of success. Can anyone name “one hit wonders” or “one season superstars”? (e.g., The Penguins – “Earth Angel” in 1955; Blue Swede – “Hooked on a Feeling” in 1974; Lucy Pearl – “Dance Tonight” in 2000)
o Competence is future-oriented. It does not measure only past successes but it provides its owner with the ability to quickly adapt to new environments and new challenges.
o Competence continually strives for improvement. Competent employees do not rely upon the Company (or others) to provide them with the means to improve. They constantly assess their own results and look for ways to better those results in the future – whether it is additional education, additional training, or additional study.
o Competence always demands a higher standard for himself/herself than does his/her employer.

The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, “What are you doing?” The first replied, “I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day.” The next answered, “I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job.” But the third said, “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.” That is a competent employee!

3. Craves Responsibility [2]
Third, look for employees who crave responsibility. When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, he found that the United States was unprepared for war. The country had an insufficient, poorly trained, and poorly equipped army of only 16,000 men under the command of 75-year-old Gen. Winfield Scott. Scott was old, physically unable to command in the field, and his theories and strategies of warfare were outdated.

What would you do if confronted with a situation as severe as this? Sit back? Wait and see if someone came forward to handle the problem? Not so with Lincoln. Lincoln believed that if one’s chief subordinates do not move and get the job going, then you should act, decisively and without hesitation.

Contemporary leaders who experience difficulties finding the right employees can take comfort in the knowledge that Lincoln spent more than two and a half years searching for an aggressive general who could do the job. Over that period of time, Lincoln went through general after general (ten generals in all) seeking a chief subordinate who craved responsibility, was a risk-taker, and, most importantly, made things happen. It wasn’t until March, 1864, that Lincoln finally found his man when he officially promoted Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of lieutenant general and consolidated all the armies of the United States under him. The rest is history.

All leaders should realize that they can’t do everything on their own. They simply must have people below them who will do what is necessary to insure success. Those employees who will take risks, act without waiting for direction, and ask for responsibility rather than reject it, should be treated as your most prized possessions. Such individuals are exceedingly rare and worth their weight in gold. And when you finally find one – as Lincoln found Grant – they tend to multiply. The “Grants” of the world will choose others in their own image, just as Lincoln’s Grant chose aggressive generals such as Sheridan and Sherman rather than procrastinators like McClellan and Hooker.

4. Team Orientation [3]
Fourth, look for employees who are “team” oriented. Too often individuals champion their individuality as an excuse to do whatever they want, whenever they want. That is no formula for success in sports, in battle, or in business. As Benjamin Franklin put it when he defied the British and signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1976: “We must indeed all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

The need for employees who are “team” oriented can be shown by look back at the 1996 Washington Redskins. This team fielded a team of highly talented (and overpaid individuals) who looked like Super Bowl champions only to win a handful of games. Four years later, that same group of players made up the highest paid team in the NFL but still could not make it to the playoffs. (I wonder what is going to happen to the 2010-11 Miami Heat?)

It’s perfectly fine for an employee to take personal pride in personal achievement -- and in fact you want this. But this can’t come at the expense of the health of the team as a whole. If you work with other people you are part of a team. On teams individuals may be very different from each other and each unique member may have a different level of contribution to make. But everyone is valuable because each member adds to the overall success of the team. You want (and need) employees to support each other – just make sure that they don’t compete with each other.

This reminds me of a story about a very team-oriented volunteer:

When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. “Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?” “Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.” “But I’m starved,” the governor said. “Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.” Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.” “Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.” [4]

5. Intellectual Honesty
Fifth, look for employees who are “intellectually” honest. What do I mean? You want employees that are willing to:
o Base their decisions on objective evidence.
o Not allow their personal beliefs to interfere with the pursuit of truth.
o Present facts in an unbiased manner.
o Acknowledge their dependence upon the ideas of others and do not claim it for themselves.
o Show a willingness to acknowledge that reasonable alternative viewpoints exist.
o Acknowledge and question one’s own assumptions and biases.
o Acknowledge when their argument is weak (or when they are wrong).
o Address an argument instead of attacking the person making the argument.
o Show a commitment to critical thinking.
o Be open to criticism.

How does one foster such intellectual honesty? It is by building a culture of honest inquiry. To do so, there are several things you need to do. You need to:
o ask questions,
o acknowledge errors of your own,
o accept the ideas of others as being superior to your own,
o avoid blaming others, and
o avoid encouraging biased instead of rational thinking.

Your criteria for a “great employee” might be different from this list. That’s fine. The employees you select and retain will be working for you, not me. But whatever your criteria, here’s a piece of advice: Don’t settle!

Bob Lewis writes: “My personal experience, the experience of others, virtually every study on the subject leads to an inescapable conclusion -- Great employees produce 5-20X more value than average employees. Since you’re unlikely to pay your best employees more than double what you pay average ones, they are quite cost effective. In fact, they are cheaper at even twice the price!” [1]

In addition to delivering disproportionate value themselves, great performers also raise the bar for everyone around them. They help everyone around them excel. Simply put, their performance is contagious. On the other hand, poor employees achieve the opposite. They bring negative productivity to the team. Beyond their own limitations, they drag down everyone they interact with. No matter how little you pay them, they are unacceptably expensive.


Endnotes
[1] Adapted from “A Manifesto for 21st Century Information Technology” by Bob Lewis
[2] Adapted from “Lincoln on Leadership” by Donald T. Phillips
[3] Adapted from “It’s Your Ship” by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff
[4] Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, Page 5-6
[5] Adapted from “The Mark of a Leader” by Doug Keeley
[6] Adapted from “The Ten Rules of Good Followership” by Colonel Phillip S. Meilinger
[7] Adapted from “Leadership Gold” by John Maxwell