Category: Managing Talent

By Scott

Start: Performance Conversations Stop: Performance Evaluations Here is a template.

Evaluations too often end in a grade. The grade overshadows the richer part of the discussions like:

  • What does the next year look like?
  • What problems do I need your help to solve?
  • What things do you want to do more of?
  • What priorities would you set for our team?

trU Tips 13 is based on the feeling held by many that their performance evaluation is not working. In some cases it is just not being done because their is no raise to be given. Want to hear more? Interested in comparing your solution to a template I have successfully used with a client?  Read trU Tips 13.

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By Scott

Can You Hire and Lead the Ignorant?

In a meeting recently I was with a group of people deliberating the hiring of a leader for a not for profit organization.  One observation was a lack of experience in a fairly important area.  A wise member of our group pointed out that it could be a good thing because ignorance = fresh eyes.  We all agreed that it was a good choice, but only if we all committed to supporting this new leader and connected her with a mentor.  We committed.

I like the word ignorance.  I like using it in front of groups because people snicker, almost like it is some sort of soft cussing word.  I have to remind people that it just means I don’t know.  Not I can’t know or I will never know . . . just I don’t know.

Here are some rules for hiring ignorance:

  1. DO IT if you see passion and gifts that get you excited about having this person thinking with you AND you are committed to #2.
  2. DO IT if you are ready to actively support (mentor/coach) for 6-12 months and forgive some mistakes.
  3. DON’T DO IT if your industry is too complex/specialized, you are too busy, and your team is too talented to be patient with a learner.  You might read this as sarcasm – but I really mean don’t do it.  If any of these three things are true or perceived to be true it is not a good place to shed ignorance.
  4. DON’T DO IT if you sense a comfort with the ignorance – if there is not hunger to leave that state.  Look somewhere else.

Ignorance is actually the basis of a good development question for leaders and followers alike. 

  • What do you feel ignorant about right now? 
  • What would it mean to have that feeling go away?
  • What is one thing I could do to help make it go away?

Carry that word around with you for a couple days and see what you notice.

By Scott

Written a note lately?

Yesterday I received a letter in the mail that said ‘thank you’ for something I had done.  I read it once, then a second time later in the evening, and started to throw it away when I realized I needed to keep it.  So I put it with some other letters I had received previously.  As I looked at the stack I realized some had been in my possession for over 10 years.  The written word has something special about it.  I read a statistic one time that said 3% of thank yous were written and over 80% of those notes were still being saved 12 months later. 

Written one of these lately?

A staple in any leadership development program is to write a note to someone thanking them for something they did that had real value.  A habit for any leader should be to have a stack of cards in their office and write 2 per month.  Here is the card I have used for 5+ years and having them ready removes the excuse of I will do it tomorrow when I have something to write on.

I always look at writing a thank you as making a deposit into a trust account.  There will be a point in time when I will have to say I am sorry for doing something that hurts a relationship.  My mental goal is thank you notes >= sorry statements.  If I am sorry > thank you then withdrawals are greater than deposits, and it is a bad trend. 

If you control this equation by never saying I am sorry as a leader then you win, but there will be a price to pay.

In my house there is a standing joke that anything Dad has that is older than the kids is special.  So far that list includes my marriage, some tools, some sporting equipment, a few t-shirts, underwear, and thank-you notes.  I know – too much information. 🙂

Watch yourself this week – How often did you say thank you?  How often did you say I am sorry?  . . . . and write just one note!

By Scott

Friday Fun – An example of making a transition fun AND special

People like to hear their own name.  This is a bit of wisdom that a mentor once shared with me and I have never forgotten it.  Nothing irritates me more than a quiet or non introduction of a new person.  Assuming all people will find their way misses an opportunity to provide a great start to someone who is looking for a way to connect with their team.

Enter my friend, who missed an opportunity to be a circus clown, trading it for a career as a Marketing Director.  Time has taught him to bring his unique brand of humor to his job.  He gave me his approval to share an email on how his team  announces new team members / changes in roles:

I am happy to announce that James Greene will be moving from part-time intern to a 3-4 month long full-time internship with our company.  While you may know James as the squishy orb guy or the resident ladies man; he actually has been working as our Pay-per-click (PPC) specialist, which is a critical component of our Marketing team that spends around 20% of each division’s budget.  James will continue to manage our PPC working for Kathy, he will also be adding the second phase of the call center trial.  Expect to see him on a shifted schedule up to midnight in the office during the week and potentially weekends.  Please welcome James to his new role. 

A few little known facts about James:

  • Attended THE Michigan State University, received a degree in Marketing (Sales emphasis)
  • Grew up in Marquette, MI
  • There is an “e” at the end of his last name.  Oddly, at age 12, he dropped the extra “e” in Jamese.
  • Has one younger brother
  • He can guess any ladies age with an accuracy +/- one year. 
  • Enjoys playing most sports, but especially Golf, Tennis, Jarts, and Basketball
  • His Dad loves big campfires. 
  • He can’t get enough music in his life and is an avid guitar player (a wanna be hipster)
  • He is Butler Bulldog Brad Stephens’ evil twin – separated at birth?  (after this he showed a picture of the new team member next to Brad Stephens – striking resemblance!)

Of course there are limits in what to say and how sarcastic or inventive to get.  The key point – there is a chance to make someone feel special and make a job change an event to celebrate!  The best part of this story is the IT department did an announcment using this format the next week.  Good ideas have a way of being adopted by others.

Here is another method I have used to speed up the get to know each other process. 

Have any other ideas?  Comments to this post are welcome.

By Scott

Leadership and Followership: A simple habit around Building Trust

I teach a class that brings leaders and followers into a room and they learn about great leadership and followership together.  During a class a couple of weeks ago, when we were talking about Building Trust, I asked the following questions:

Followers:  What do you think the leaders need from you to Build Trust?

Leaders:  What do you need from your followers in the area of Build Trust?

The general answers from the followers (on what leaders needed from them to Build Trust) leaned towards work getting done.  Statements were made like “Doing what you say you will do” and “Following through on your work”.

When I asked the leaders a similar question, the first answer was from someone new to leadership.  He raised his hand and said “Telling me that I am doing things well, along with letting me know what I am doing wrong.”

It is in moments like these that both sides of the performance equation realize they do not always understand each other. 

It is in these moments that just a little sharing helps us understand what we need to provide to others to help them be successful.

Followers:  What if you committed once a week to seek out your leader and ask them “What do you need from me this week?

Leaders:  What if you did the same, and said thank you when you saw your people looking out for you.

Initiatives become necessary because we forget about simple habits that help create success for people and teams.  Commit to this simple habit.

By Scott

The truth can hurt, and it can inspire

At the retirement celebration of a pastor who had served a congregation for 30 years, he shared this story.

Halfway through seminary two professors pulled him aside with the same message “Based on your effort, you don’t deserve to be here”.  Instead of stopping there, they went on to say “But we know you belong here, so if you want to stay here this is what you need to do . . .  and we will help you.”  He made the changes, went on to a wonderful career, and touched many lives.

Too often accountability starts and stops with getting skilled at having the tough conversations.  Of telling people what they are not doing.

What about challenging them to an unseen, yet imagined, potential?

How much time do we take to see the value of the person beyond the task?

What is the cost of asking – What do you need to be successful?  Then providing it.  Imagine the potential impact!

Leadership is about asking the question, painting the picture, and assisting in the journey.  Great followership is about listening, accepting, working, and appreciating.

How many people will be including you in their story 30 years from now?

By Scott

Knowing Someone Changes How We Treat Them

I joined the board of a great organization that cares for seniors and at my orientation they shared this story.

In building a new facility display cases were placed by each room.  Filled with pictures and items for residents of adjacent rooms, they were meant as landmarks to make finding rooms easier.  This practice had proven effective even with dimentia cases.  They received a surprise.  Employees and others observed a higher quality of care because these residents became people with an 80+ year history that was known to all those around them.  In one case, it explained why a resident veteran who had been a POW tried to crawl out a window because of loud noises.  Instead of medicating the resident they provided comfort. 

History gives us context for current decisions we see people make.

When a friend acts irrational we know the history – and work through it.

What a stranger acts irrational we judge the action – and walk away or around it.

When we ask and listen it sends a powerful signal – we care.

Under stress, we too often forget to stop and listen to stories.  We see ourselve as busy.  Others see us as cold and uncaring.

Here is a tool I use to jumpstart the work relationship building process.  Instead waiting to hear the question “Tell me about yourself”, I give this info and ask for the same in return.  It is just a start, but it is a good start.

One last story . . . I used this tool to kickoff a planning session for a leadership team.  The next day the CEO called the HR leader and quietly asked for a list of names of all family members for each executive on his team.

Some things are important no matter how old we are.  Knowing someone changes how we treat them – and how they treat us.

By Scott

4 Habits to Build, 1 Initiative to Avoid (#Retention)

In organizations, initiaves around people and talent happen because we allow good habits to go away.  Keep the key habits and you avoid most initiatives.  Let me give an example:

I am hearing lots about the latest Initiative —>  EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Big initiative: Employee Engagement

Great focus, but did anyone ever ask Why are we refocusing on this? Layoffs?  Maybe.  But let me offer you another perspective.

Have any of these HABITS left your organization in the last few years?

  1. Performance evaluations (if we can’t give raises why do them?)
  2. One on ones with staff (too busy?)
  3. Monthly check-ins with your most valuable people – how are they doing? what do they need? what do they want to be doing next year? (they know they are valuable – they still have a job don’t they?)
  4. Development plans for people – investing time in their areas of interest and preparing them for the future. (we cannot afford development right now

One more conversation that has stuck with me.  A CEO shared that they cannot afford leadership development right now, but it is in the list for next year.  Sounds like a great initiative.  

Of course there are some free habits laying around . .

A few more blogs around this:

By Scott

Stay Interviews

Two clear messages from people I respect yesterday.

  1. From a person making sure they keep their best people – They have instituted a process called Stay Interviews where leaders interview people to ask them the simple questions How is your job going? and What are the things that would make you stay here for 5 years?  Leaders talk with people from areas that are not underneath them and their goal is to listen.  The next step is to put all of the information together and decide What is next? based on what they hear. 
  2. From someone needing to recruit to fuel growth of his company – Made the statement that All of the best people are now back working – People can now move if they want to.  Retention of talent has to be at the top of the list.  This is from a high achiever who looks for high achievers. 

Myth – Developing great leaders, engaged workforces, and keeping your best people costs money.

Truth – Talking with people, listening to what is on their mind, sharing what you are thinking/feeling, and following up on action plans is essentially free.  What costs money is hiring the Director of Talent Management to act as a policeman for you/your organization.

Make Stay Interviews a habit (ie.  always ask people How they are doing?/What they need?) and retention will happen.

By Scott

Friday Fun on Monday – Any other ideas?

I have a friend who is very skilled at creative play.  I always like to see how he translates that skill into the workplace without getting into trouble.  He is successful at that most of the time.

His team likes to laugh so they came up with a game that allowed words or phrases to be banned by the team and then use of those words/phrases cost the individual a one dollar fine.  The process is pretty simple – individuals present the word/phrase  and the team votes.  New words are added an others are taken off the list.  As he told me the stories the joy was overflowing.  I was laughing uncontrollably. 

So far, here are a sample of the words that have been banned: brutal, very nice, baby, and whatever.

Any other simple ways to create a little laughter in the workplace?