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Performance Breakthrough: Chapter 10

Fri, 4 May 2007 07:24:01 PST

Another week has passed and it was time for our next brainstorming session.

“I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking over the last week about what we need to do to start attacking our problems” I began. “You all know that my son Bobby has Asperger’s Syndrome, right?” There were confused nods around the table as they wondered where I was going with this. “Well, I think his new therapist may have given me an idea that may help us”.

Joe was perplexed. “You talked to your therapist about our issues at work?”

“Are you gonna take away our Nintendo time”? Rich whined.

“Very funny guys. It’s actually something he recommended for us to help the situation with Bobby, and believe it or not, I think it just might be a great first step for us. It’s a concept he called Acceptance. It means accepting someone for who they are instead of who you want them to be. Let me ask you all a question; you’ve all heard of the “Golden Rule”, right?” They nodded. “Well do you agree with it?”

“Of course” Kim answered. “Treat others the way you would want to be treated; who wouldn’t agree with that?”

“Really?” I responded sarcastically. “Then you believe we’re all exactly the same?”

“Well…no” Kim hesitated, realizing where I was going.

“If we’re all different, why do we think everyone wants to be treated the way we’d want to be treated? Shouldn’t we treat them the way they want to be treated?

“Fair point Andy, but how does this impact our business” Linda asked, still a bit confused.

“Each one of our employees has goals, motivations, values and learning styles. By understanding and acting on these differences, we should be able to get a lot more out of our team.

“For example, some of us are motivated by money, some by status and others by free-time and flexibility. Should we offer the same types of incentives to all of them? Of course not.

Seeing slow agreement with my point, I added another example. “How about learning? Some employees learn best by studying everything there is to know about a task before trying it. Forcing them to begin a task before they’re ready would result in poor execution and diminished confidence. Other employees like to learn by doing. They like to understand the basics of the task and then be ‘let loose’ to learn from their mistakes. Studying the details of a task for too long would only bore them and de-motivate them. Would you train these different types of employees the same way? I hope not.”

“It seems to me the key is knowing our employees well enough to act on their differences” added Kim with a hint of excitement in her voice.

“Exactly” I agreed. “The sad thing is that most of us don’t know our teams’ well enough to understand these differences…and that includes me!”

“So how do we get to know these things about our employees?” Rich asked, sounding eager to put this into action.

“I could think of a few ways” I answered. “First, ask them. Ask them what they like and dislike about the job. Ask them what motivates them and how they like to learn best. Not only will you find out an incredible amount of useful information, you’ll also show them how much you care. Second, watch them. How do they act in meetings? Do they take the lead or do they sit back and play devils advocate? How do they seem to learn best? What type of recognition seems to motivate them most?”

“I would also think personality assessments could help” Kim chimed in.

“I was on a team once where the manager made sure they had a ‘personal history’ discussion with each employee. I think this really helped her understand what made people tick” added Joe.”

“Those are great suggestions guys.” I offered, feeling great about their input and enthusiasm.

“But what do we do differently once we know these things” Joe asked.

“Great question, Joe. If we get to know our employees better but still do things the same old ways, we haven’t achieved anything.” I added. “Any thoughts?”

“I think we should look at our training programs and make sure we can adapt them to better support different learning styles” Kim offered.

“We should also look at our compensation structure to make sure our incentives can be flexed to motivate people in different ways.” Rich added, “That ought to help us with recruiting as well. We may even want to look at some flex-time ideas for our employees at different stages of their lives. This might help us with working mom’s or our more senior employees.”

“What about giving some of our folks the option of getting involved in some community service projects? I know I’ve got some people on my team that are real into that sort of thing.”

“This is a terrific start guys” I complimented the group. “I’ll put together a summary of these thoughts with some division of responsibilities for diving into these ideas in more detail. This is only the first step and I’m sure we have a lot more brainstorming to do before we come up with ways to solve all of our problems. We’ll get back together next week to review how we’re doing and brainstorm some additional ideas. In the meantime, you should be using the ideas we discussed to speak with your individual team members to get to know them better. As a first step, I’ll be scheduling meetings with all of you to do the same.”

I was excited about our future for the first time in a long time. I knew we had a long way to go, but I felt we were finally starting to make some progress.

Acceptance

Summary:

The first step is to accept that we’re all different.

Do you adhere to the adage that all employees should be treated equally? If so, your employees will never achieve their true potential, and never be truly happy in their work.

Each one of your employees has different strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, goals, motivations, values and learning styles. By understanding and acting on these differences you will be able to bring the best out of your team.

Forget the golden rule which states, “Treat others as you would want to be treated”, and replace it with the performance breakthrough rule which states “Treat others as they would want to be treated”.

“Starter” Ideas:

· Learn about your employees (strengths, weaknesses, motivations, goals, learning styles)

o Discuss during interview

o Observe

o Ask

o Conduct “Personal Histories” meetings/discussions

o Discuss during performance reviews/plans

o Conduct Personality Assessments

o Understand generational differences

· Implement differentiated training

· Create differentiated motivation/compensation (money, time, volunteer work, and other special interests).

· Use a variety of communication mediums

· Implement flexible schedules

· Help support interests outside of work

· Help employees consider a variety of career goals and paths

Performance Breakthrough: Chapter 9 (Revised)

Fri, 4 May 2007 07:18:01 PST

Linda was waiting for me in my office when I got back after the meeting.

I was ready for typical Linda. Gruff, non-nonsense and pissed-off at my overly sensitive attitude towards our staff. I’d had enough and was ready to end it right here. She was a problem that had to be dealt with and a potential cancer within our organization.

I started to speak and Linda interrupted. “Andy, if you want me to resign, I totally understand”. Her voice sounded shaky…like she could cry at any moment. I’d never heard her like this. I was in shock.

“Linda, what’s going on?”

“Andy, I’m not sure I can do this. I’ve spent 30 years of my life doing things one way. People didn’t always love me but that was okay. I got the job done and got it done well. That was always enough.” She stared into space for a few seconds. “Maybe the world has passed me by.”

“Linda you know you were always an important part of our success and I’d love for you to be an important part of our turnaround. I’m not asking you to change who you are; I’m only asking that you do your best to support the changes we’re trying to make around here. I don’t expect you to shift from ruling with an iron fist to being a cheerleader, but I do expect you to work with the team to figure out how to best use your talents to achieve our goals.”

“I don’t know Andy, you guys may be better off without me. You want the truth? I didn’t speak with my team last week because I was afraid of what they’d say. I have no idea if they like working for me because I never thought that stuff was important. I know numbers better than anyone else. It’s what I do; it’s what I’ve always done. Motivating people has never been my strength and that’s what we need right now.”

“Linda, we need a lot of things right now, not just motivational skills. You’ve got analytical abilities like no one else I’ve ever seen. You’ve got more experience in this business than anyone else in the company. And you’ve got an unbelievable work ethic and passion for this company. I’d say those are some critical talents we can’t afford to lose around here.”

“Wow, you make me sound pretty good”. I almost detected a slight smile.

“I can’t say I know where we’re headed on this journey of ours but I know we’ve got some real challenges ahead of us. Our organization may look very different before we’re done so I can’t make any promises. All I can say is that I could really use your support right now. I’ll be honest, though, if you’re going to stay, I need you squarely on the team; not fighting us. Do you think you can do that?”

“Well you know I’ll always challenge the team, but I’ll make sure to do it in a productive way. No more blowing off assignments or walking out of meetings.”

“Welcome back Linda”

Performance Breakthrough: Chapter 9

Mon, 2 Apr 2007 17:02:01 PST

Another week has passed and it was time for our next brainstorming session. This week our group was shy one member. Linda was a problem that had to be dealt with. She was a potential cancer in our organization so, although it would stretch our leadership team even thinner, I decided to let her go. I knew our team needed to be fully behind the changes we needed to make without exception.

Joe was perplexed. “You talked to your therapist about our issues at work?”

“No Joe. It’s actually something he recommended for us to help the situation with Bobby, and believe it or not, I think it just might be a great first step for us. It’s a concept he called Acceptance. It means accepting someone for who they are instead of who you want them to be. Let me ask you all a question; you’ve all heard of the “Golden Rule”, right?” They nodded. “Well do you agree with it?”

“Of course” Kim answered. “Treat others the way you would want to be treated; who wouldn’t agree with that?”

“Really?” I responded sarcastically. “Then you believe we’re all exactly the same?”

“Well…no” Kim hesitated, realizing where I was going.

“If we’re all different, why do we think everyone wants to be treated the way we’d want to be treated? Shouldn’t we treat them the way they want to be treated?

“Fair point Andy, but how does this impact our business” Rich asked, still a bit confused.

“Each one of our employees has different strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, goals, motivations, values and learning styles. By understanding and acting on these differences, we should be able to get a lot more out of our team.

“For example, some of us are motivated by money, some by status and others by free-time and flexibility. Should we offer the same types of incentives to all of them? Of course not.

“Seeing slow agreement with my point, I added another example. “How about learning? Some employees learn best by studying everything there is to know about a task before trying it. Forcing them to begin a task before they’re ready would result in poor execution and diminished confidence. Other employees like to learn by doing. They like to understand the basics of the task and then be ‘let loose’ to learn from their mistakes. Studying the details of a task for too long would only bore them and de-motivate them. Would you train these different types of employees the same way? I hope not.”