Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in their seminal work, First, Break All The Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. (Simon & Schuster, 1999), write that “Talented employees need great managers. How long he stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor.” They continue by pointing out that “the only way to generate enduring profits is to begin by building the kind of work environment that attracts, focuses, and keeps talented employees.”
In order to create the aforementioned environment, Buckingham and Coffman came up with 12 questions, which are often called the Q12. Today, I want to focus on the first question: “Do I know what is expected of me?” While many leaders and managers need to answer this for themselves, they also need to check whether or not their direct reports are clear about their expectations of them.
Over the course of the last six months, numerous people have visited with me about this subject. Most start with clarifying expectations for their direct reports, and then are wondering if they are having communication issues when they are not met. And to a degree that might be true. However, I believe the problem is that most leaders and managers do not grasp the framework related to setting expectations.
In the beginning, Buckingham and Coffman define a manager’s key activities as the following: “select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, develop the person.” Thus, after the hiring process has been completed, most leaders and managers go straight to the expectations clarification process.
However, we need to zoom out before we zoom into this step. Buckingham and Coffman make two key points that impact the clarifying of expectations that most people skipped over in their rush to communicate their expectations. First, “healthy companies need strong bonds to develop between each manager and each employee.” The goal of clarifying expectations is to strengthen the bond between the manager and the employee, not to control the employee or to set them up for failure.
Second, as they note, “a company should not force every manager to manage his people in exactly the same way. Each manager will, and should, employ his own style.” I think the challenge here is that very few, if any, managers are clear about “their own style.” They didn’t do this level of work and thus their engagement process with employees is wishy-washy at best.
Once we grasp these two key points, it is time to look at the aforementioned key activities. Clarifying expectations is part of a larger framework. And if you do not grasp the framework, then the singular action of clarifying expectations can be problematic.
In the book, First, Break All The Rules, the authors expand this framework in greater detail. As they write, “select for talent... Not simply experience, intelligence, or determination; define the right outcomes ... Not the right steps; focus on strengths ... Not on weaknesses; find the right fit ... Not the next rung on the ladder.”
The critical element in my coaching people on this subject is to not start by clarifying expectations, but to instead focus on defining on the “right outcomes.” As Brene Brown in her book, Dare To Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts (Random House, 2018), writes, “What does done look like?” I would modify this excellent question to “What do the right outcomes look like when people are successful?” Often what happens in this discussion is that there is not a line of sight from the expectations that have been clarified to the right outcomes that people are held accountable for over time.
Finally, Buckingham and Coffman offer one more nugget of gold in their book, namely “People don’t change that much. Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.” This is a philosophical framework to the whole performance and expectations framework. Even if you can create alignment between expectations and outcomes, one must ultimately develop the person and build on their strengths.
This week, reflect on the above perspective, and consider rereading this book as you prepare for 2025. There is always more to learn and relearn when it comes to helping people be more successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment