First, Break All The Rules - Marcus Buckingham

What the world's greatest managers do differently

Time Date 01-Jan-9999 Venue Speaker Seat Available: N/A

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What the world's greatest managers do differently

Marcus Buckinghamand Curt Coffman
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0684852861

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

How do you measure and grow your human capital?

Financial statements do a poor job of measuring the true value of a company.  A great deal of your company value is tied up in your human capital – the hearts and minds of your people. 

The Gallup Q 12

Extensive research by Gallup has discovered 12 statements that are be the most powerful predictors of employee engagement.

The teams with highest engagement scores had:

• increased sales growth
• increased productivity
• increased customer satisfaction
• fewer accidents
• lower staff turnover
• less staff absenteeism

Each question is rated on a scale of 1 - 5

(1= strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral / no opinion, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree)

1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission/purpose of the company makes me feel my job is important.
9. My co-workers are committed to doing quality work.
10. I have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
12. In the last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Research shows, it is the employee’s immediate manager who is the critical player in building an engaged, productive workplace – not pay, benefits, conditions, or even charismatic leadership

The best thing the business leader can do create a great company is to hold each line manager accountable for what their employees say to each of these 12 statements. 

The Difference between Leaders and Managers

The difference between managers and leaders is more profound than most people think

A leader is not a more advanced form of manager. Both roles are vitally important – they require 2 very different strengths. 

Great leaders look outward:

Key role = rally people to a better future

Great managers look inward:

Key role = find out what each individual’s strengths are and capitalise on them

The 4 Core Management Activities:

1. Select for Talent

Selecting for talent is the manager’s first and most important responsibility

Understand the 3 categories of talents / strengths:

1. Striving = the “why” of a person (what motivates them)
2. Thinking = the “how” of a person (how they make decisions)
3. Relating = the “who” of a person (how they relate to people)

• Study / interview your current top performers in each position - how they strive, think and relate
• For each role Identify at least 1 critical talent from each of the 3 talent categories
• Use this as the basis for recruiting and interviewing for each role
• Do not compromise on these talents – no matter how persuasive the candidate’s resume or personality  
• Talent trumps experience, intelligence & determination
• Ask questions that elicit past examples of specific behaviours
• Clues to talents / strengths = SIGN
  • S – Success – you are good at it
  • I – Instincts – you have the urge to do it
  • G – Growth – you love learning about it
  • N – Needs – it meets your needs - you feel a sense of fulfillment 
• Use profiling tools to provide objective measurement

2. Define the Right Outcomes

• Standardise the “ends” rather than the “means”
• Enforce only those steps that correlate with prescribed standards of performance
• The customer is the ultimate judge of what is a valuable outcome – ask them!
• Realise that employees will not do things exactly the way you would do them.
• Let employees leverage their own unique styles to meet measurable outcomes
• Select for talent / strengths in the 1st place and you will need fewer rules
• Create measures for all outcomes
• Hold people accountable for achieving measurable outcomes

3. Focus on Strengths

• Cultivate each individual’s strengths and manage around their weaknesses
• Manage around weaknesses by providing a support system, a complementary partnership, or change their role to match their strengths
• Don’t try to fix their weaknesses
• Everyone is different – and their strengths / talents are resistant to change
• Help them become more of who they already are
• Confront poor performance immediately
• Check - Is it a talent issue or a training issue?
• Check - Is the manager pushing the right buttons?
• Terminate the staff member early if you have made a hiring error

4. Find the Right Fit

• Help each person find roles that enable them to do more and more of what they are naturally wired to do
• Encourage world class performance in each role
• Promoting people can lead them to failure. Traditional career paths are traps
• Management / Leadership require specific core strengths
• Instead, create “heroes in every role” – i.e. alternative career paths
• Make every role, when performed excellently – a profession with associated prestige, pay and perks
• Create levels of achievement (ala lawyers – junior associate – associate – senior associate – junior partner – partner – senior partner)
• Broadband (overlapping) pay rates – i.e. senior salespeople earn more than junior sales managers
• Make specialization and excellence in a role more attractive in terms of pay, perks and prestige than seeking promotion 
• Celebrate individual successes

Customer Research – What customers really want:

The 4 Step Hierarchy to increase Customer Satisfaction

1. Accuracy 
   Did I get what I expected?
    
2. Availability
   Are you there when I need you?
    
3. Partnership
   Are you on my side?
    
4. Advice
   Can you help me to learn?

4 Keys for Effective Performance Appraisals

1. Simple   
2. Frequent
   • One on one manager meetings with direct reports
   • Minimum of 1 hour performance appraisal per employee per quarter 
   
    
3. Future focused
   • What “could be”, rather than focus on past mistakes 
    
    
4. Self Measurement  

• Staff track their own performance and learnings = self discovery
• Get them to prepare answers to the following questions prior to the meetingWhat results have you achieved? 
  • What have you learned?
  • What relationships have you built?
  • What do you think you are good at?  Why?
  • What parts of your current role do you enjoy?  Why?
  • What parts of your current role are you struggling with?  Why?
  • How can we manage around this?
  • What would be the perfect role for you?
  • What would you be doing?
  • Why would you like it so much?
  • What will be your main focus for the next 3 months?
  • What do you want to learn?
  • What relationships do you want to build? 
• During the appraisal, honestly tell them what you think about each of their answers to each question and add your comments to each of their answers.

Interviewing for Strengths:

• What made you want to apply for this role?
• What do you think you are good at?  Why?
• What parts of your current / previous role(s) do you enjoy?  Why?
• What parts of your current / previous role(s) do you struggle with?  Why?
• What would be the perfect role for you?
• What would you be doing?
• Why would you like it so much?
• How often do you like to meet with your manager to discuss progress?
• Do you tell people how you are feeling, or do they have to ask?
• What is the best praise you ever received?  What made it so good?
• Who was the best manager you’ve had & what made this relationship work well?
• Have you had any really productive work partnerships?
• What made these relationships work well for you?
• What are your future personal development goals?
• What skills would you like to learn
• What challenges would you like to experience?
• Is there anything else you want to talk about that might help us work well together?

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