Key People: Unlocking the Mysteries - part #3

Every company I know wants to retain it’s key people and multiple their potential. The best CEOs recognize that these individuals are valuable and critical to short and long term success. But when I visit with key young people, as I often do, they privately will ask me a very good question, “Why should I grow old with this company?”

Now, there are certain generations who have assumed that once you get a “good job” you are done. You become a company man or woman and follow the company line. Key people do not always walk this path. They seek challenge and transformation. Ruts do not suit them at all.

What I have come to realize from my meetings with these individuals is that they seek out excellent coaching but they also seek out superb mentors. Their coaches help them with their work based performance. Their mentors help them with their life and career management.

Next, key people do not want to be cuddled or babied. They want sound and thoughtful feedback. They want to know where to get better and do not flinch from honest appraisal.

I met one for lunch recently. It was a three way meeting between them, their boss and myself. Once we were seated, I wanted to reach across the table and give this young person the proverbial 1950’s dope slap across the back of the head. First, they were chewing gum and, second, they did not bring paper to take notes. This individual has lots of potential but was still a bit rough around the edges when it comes to such a meeting.

Afterwards, I took them aside and pointed out how their lack of awareness could have sent the wrong message. They thanked me and got the point instantly. Since then, they have done much better in being prepared. It was a small thing but for key people this level of feedback is a valuable thing. Loyalty to a company begins with thoughtful support, encouragement and respect from a supervisor.

This week, I encourage all senior executive to answer the question, “Why grow old with this company?” Career management with key people is just as important as job performance. Mentoring the best takes time, but the ROI is time well spent.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates # 319 - 643 - 2257

Key People: Unlocking the Mysteries - part #2

Project management sounds simple. Develop a strategy. Agree on a goal. Create a plan. Define roles, dates, metrics and responsibilities. Then, execute the plan, and review progress on a regular basis. Once completed, evaluate the plan and define the lessons learned.

For most senior executives, project management is like the instructions on a shampoo bottle, namely “wash, rinse, repeat.” They do it every day with multiple projects. After a while, it becomes an unconscious habit.

But key people do something that is most unique and often missed or misunderstood by average or mediocre players in the midst of project management. The key players know how to delegate well. The others do not.

When it comes to delegation, we need to remember that it is the transferring of authority and responsibility from one person to another in order to carry out a specific activity. Furthermore, the best understand that there are three levels to delegation when they do it. Level-One Delegation allows direct control to do whatever needs to be done as long as it is in full alignment with the strategic nexus of the organization. Level-Two Delegation includes the ability to change certain factors to achieve the desired results but the individual or team has limited choices which have been discussed at the time of delegation. In essence, Level Two is delegation with defined parameters to action. Finally, Level-Three Delegation includes the opportunity to generate ideas about how to achieve the desired results but no control over how the work gets done.

Key people recognize and understand these differences but what sets them apart is that they regularly help those who have received the responsibility to achieve these goals by taking very specific steps. First, they make sure those who are being delegated to understand the problem that needs to be solved. This sounds simple but it is not. Key people remember that awareness is not understanding.

Second, key people know what needs to get done, i.e. the desired outcome, and can often state it in a concise and specific manner, usually in 35 words or less.

Third, key people check to make sure those who will do the work have the authority to do it successfully. They know that commitment without understanding is a problem. They also know that responsibility without choice is still a problem.

Fourth, key people check to make sure that all involved have the knowledge and skills to be successful. As Ken Blanchard shared years ago, it is not worth training a fish to climb a tree and act like a squirrel or to train a squirrel to swim and act like a fish. Having the right knowledge and skills make a huge difference.

Fifth, key people also make sure all involved know how to measure progress and/or success. Key people recognize that being able to gauge your progress builds confidence amongst the followers and the leaders.

Sixth, key people help all involved realize the difference a project will make once it is completed and completed well. Knowing how our work will impact others makes us feel needed and in this economy it is good to know our work matters to someone else.

Project management is a daily process. But for key people, it is a thoughtful one done with great care and discernment. This week pay attention to delegation. Strive to do it better than ever before.

Geery Howe, M.A., Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change - Morning Star Associates # 319 - 643 - 2257

Key People: Unlocking the Mysteries - part #1

Within every organization, there are important people and key people. Those who are important make many things happen. Yet, it is the key people who are foundational to the overall success of the company. As I have mentioned earlier this month, we need to be retaining and recruiting both groups.

For the coming weeks, let’s focus on the key people. I use the term “key people” and think instantly of the term “keystone.” As the Merriam-Webster Dictionary explains, a keystone is “the wedge-shaped piece at the crown of an arch that locks the other pieces in place.” Over the course of my career, I have met these people and I have worked with these people. Position is not as important to them as much as purpose and passion. They are phenomenal and impressive. They make things happen like many others do within the company but what sets them apart is that they also are a catalyst for strategic action. While some would call them rainmakers, I like to think of them as key players because they help lock strategy and people into place.

First, we need to realize that these people can move to a new organization in a heart beat even in the midst of these wacky economic times. I have seen them do it during the last three years. Second, jobs and opportunities find them more than they go looking for them. Third, when they begin to move, others want to follow them to their new place of employment. The arch does not just collapse; it is collapses and then is quickly rebuilt because this individual is such a keystone.

This makes coaching key people a very delicate and thoughtful process. Here are a couple of tips from years of experience and observation. First, review the core material in the following book: Buckingham, Marcus & Curt Coffman, First, Break All The Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. (Simon & Schuster, 1999). You will need to understand it because talented people need great management. As Buckingham and Coffman point out, “How long he stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor.” Whether they are a man or a woman, the supervisory relationship is mission critical.

Second, focus them on the desired outcomes, not the steps. If they are good enough to be a key person in your eyes, then they can figure out the right steps and/or know when to check in if they are in new or uncharted territory. Over managing key people can cause them to disengage or worse, disembark from the organization.

Third, they need coaching and value it when it is done well. Having visited with these people over the years, I have learned that they do not tolerate fools or stupidity, especially if they report to them. More times than not, talented people disengage or quit a company because of the lack of quality coaching they receive. As one key person told me last summer, “I left because my boss started every statement with ‘I’ rather than ‘we.’ Too much ego and not enough leadership. It didn’t work for me.” I hear this more and more each day from the best and the brightest.

Fourth, along with thoughtful talent management, key people need real challenges and the support to tackle them with quality players. Take an A player and put them on a B team and one does not instantly have an A team. While we, as leader, might like to think this, in reality it does not happen. As Tom Peters many years ago shared, “Two mating dinosaurs do not produce a gazelle.” Key people can make a difference but they can not change poor performers into top talent overnight. As Buckingham and Coffman pointed out in the aforementioned book, “ 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.”

During the first quarter of 2011, we need all the important people and the key people to be firing on all cylinders. We need top performance and sustainable performance. While we often spend hours and hours of our time as leaders on poor performance, do not neglect your key people. They literally can make or break this coming year.

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257

Retaining Key People

Tuesday morning: November 9, 2010

Dear friends,

“When push comes to shove, we’ll deal with that problem.”

I hear this nearly every week now when working with executives regarding strategic planning. The phase when “push comes to shove” means that a problem will be confronted when it reaches a certain level or crucial point. Originally the term came from rugby in the 1950’s, where, after an infraction of rules, forwards from each team face off and push against one another until one player can kick the ball to a teammate and resume the game.

Today, we have a problem that has reached a crucial point. We must retain key people in key positions or the pressures of this economy could cause an organization to enter into a very difficult and extended period of decline.

Weekly now, I talk with these key individuals and discover that they are very frustrated with their organizations. The reasons vary from place to place, but they report to me that they are frustrated by the lack of leadership, effective communications, operational excellence, or strategic vision within their organization. But what ever the problem, these key people all end up at the same place, a feeling of dissatisfaction and disengagement.

Joel Kurtzman in his book, Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve The Extraordinary, Jossey-Bass 2010, shares six different ways to retain leaders. He recommends that we “identify them early, and make sure they know it,” “celebrate their accomplishments,” “educate them about the organization and its capabilities,” “give them access to the team at the top,” “respond quickly with a counteroffer if they plan to leave,” and “reward them with new challenges, not just more money.”

But as I review this well thought out list, I always think about the subject of coaching. In a chapter called “Recruiting Supportive Coaches: A Key to Achieving Positive Behavioral Change” from the book, The Many Facets of Leadership by Marshall Goldsmith, Vijay Govindarajan, Beverly Kaye, Albert A. Vicere, Marshall Goldsmith presents the results of an extensive literature review about the effective strategies involved in helping successful people get even better. As he writes, “Successful people are much more likely to accept coaching from those whom they respect and whom they see as successful.” Furthermore, “successful people are less likely to value coaching from those whom they do not see as successful.” As he continues, “This phenomenon tends to occur even if the content of the coaching from the less successful people is very similar.... This made us realize that when dealing with successful people, the source of the coaching can be as important as the content of the coaching.”

At the same time, Goldsmith explains, “Another clear finding of our literature search is that positive behavioral change is much more likely to last if the individual who is trying to change has a "support group" (or at least "support person") who is assisting in the change process.” As he continues, “Your best coaches may often be people whom you respect and who impact your life on a daily basis.”

With the above in mind, we as executives must come to understand that the degree of commitment in the work force reflects the degree of respect within the work place and the degree to which people believe they are part of the team. But in a business world that is focused on pursuing growth, promoting innovation, maximizing efficiency and getting things done using procedures, systems and process discipline, the concepts of respect and team spirit seem pretty old school, if not ancient history.

Nevertheless, these softer skill sets, from my perspective, have a great impact on retaining key people. For in the beginning, middle, and end of organizational change, we at times forget that people bond with people before they commit to plans or great ideas. And right now key people are experiencing a high level of dissatisfaction with the lack of respect and team work within the work place.

One solution is to teach people to become better leaders. By educating them about how to take the long view or bigger picture perspective along with how to successfully manage the details related to strategic implementation, we help them to build a work environment based on respect and team work where employees want to contribute. This kind of education is unique and very effective.

In the late 90’s, I created just such a training in order to help key people become better leaders and to help key leaders retain their best people. It was called The From Vision to Action Leadership Training. This in-depth, year long training course encompasses four quarterly sessions, and helps participants gain valuable skills, knowledge and perspective about leadership, strategic planning and execution, and implementing organizational change.

For more information about how to register for this unique opportunity which starts in March 2011, including cost, dates and location, I encourage you to click on the following link: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html.

From experience and the extensive amount of well-written books on the topic, we know that retaining leaders is vital to short and long term success. Before push comes to shove in your organization, now is the time to invest in those individuals who can create a work environment where we retain and attract the talent for today’s challenges and tomorrow's opportunity.

I hope you can join this level of learning in 2011.

My best,

Geery

P.S. For those of you who are wanting to improve employee engagement throughout your organization, look no further than this recently posted article (11/2/10) at the on-line Gallup Management Journal web site called “Leading Engagement From the Top” by Jennifer Robison: http://gmj.gallup.com/content/144140/Leading-Engagement-Top.aspx

The article reports about the recently conducted research by Sangeeta Agrawal, a Gallup Consultant and Jim Harter, Ph.D., Gallup’s chief scientist of workplace management and well being, about the impact of executive engagement on managers. In a well written two page article, the researchers discover through detailed analysis what are the specific ways senior executives can improve managers’ engagement. Without copying the entire article word for word, the first thing is to concentrate on mission or purpose.

From my perspective, the best have known this for years. It also is exciting to see Gallup confirm this through their research. As we look to 2011, we must education more managers and help them become leaders who can understand this research and make similar choices in their circle of influence. This is, where I believe, the 2011 From Vision to Action Leadership Training can make a profound difference.

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257