Others: Developing People

By Mike Hawkins

Focus on supporting and coaching employees with the third book in the “most comprehensive treatment of leadership I’ve ever seen by one author” (Jim Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge).

Others: Developing People guides you in building the skills of others and developing top performers. Great leaders build teams of competent people who are able and willing to take ownership for the work that needs to be performed. By learning the competencies of coaching, enabling, and holding people accountable, you multiply your abilities, transfer your knowledge, and leave an enduring legacy.

The SCOPE of Leadership book series teaches the principles of a coaching approach to leadership and how to achieve exceptional results by working through people. You will learn a straightforward framework to guide you in developing, enabling, exhorting, inspiring, managing, and assimilating people. Benefit from the wisdom of many years of leadership, consulting, and executive coaching experience. Discover how to develop the competencies that align consistently with great leadership.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781612541228

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.

—Jack Welch

Developing People: Utilizing and improving the capabilities, attitudes, and performance of people.

If we were to meet and I asked you what you do for a living, what would you say? Without looking at your job description or thinking about the question too long, write down what comes to mind. You have sixty seconds.

If you are like the majority of leaders I work with, you said something about producing quality products, gaining market share, increasing revenue and profit, or producing some result related to the domain area for which you are responsible. If you are a leader, however, this isn’t your job. This is the job of your employees. You want them to own this responsibility. Your job is to coach your employees so they perform the work required to deliver these results. As the leader, your job is to ensure people have the skills and resources required to perform the organization’s work. Your job is to develop and enable people.

Studies find that fewer than half of all managers are formally held accountable for developing their people, fewer than half of employees feel strongly that their supervisor cares about them as a person, and fewer than one-third of employees feel strongly that anyone in their organization encourages their development. No wonder there are significant skills shortages in most organizations.

When prioritizing their responsibilities, many managers put operational execution far ahead of people development. Managers expect employees to give their time, effort, and commitment to performing their work with little consideration for their professional development. Ironically, managers then complain that their employees lack the necessary skills to perform their work adequately. Rather than take responsibility and coach their employees, managers blame their organization’s poor performance on their employees and the inability to hire more skilled people at higher salaries.

Part of the problem is a misconception by managers that their own direct contributions are more important than those of their employees. Managers think that the more work they do, the more successful their organization will be. The reality is that the more work their people do, the more successful their organization will be. If managers would redirect their time and resources into coaching and transferring their skills to their team, their team would more than make up for the manager’s reduced level of direct contribution.

Developing others is about turning your attention from your contributions to others’ contributions. It is transferring your skills and knowledge to your team. It is focusing on developing your employees and seeing them as the goal, not the means to the goal. It is seeing people and their development as an investment rather than an expense.

Great leaders make others better. They make developing their people’s skills a top priority. They work through their employees and hold them accountable for doing the organization’s work. They continuously raise the bar of performance and help their employees continuously reach it. As a result, the leader is the head coach and chief enabler, not the chief doer—who so often becomes the chief bottleneck.

There are few activities a manager performs that provide more impact than developing people. A study conducted by Laurie Bassi, co-author of Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era, found that investments in employee skill development had the single largest positive impact on public company stock valuations. Many other studies have also found that developing employee skills is the most value-adding activity a manager can perform, even surpassing the value of hiring people with great skills to begin with.

These results are not the outcome of employees attending mandatory compliance training programs. High-impact employee skill development comes from making investments in learning and coaching that support employees’ self-directed and manager-led developmental initiatives. While there is nothing wrong with most employer-mandated training programs, they don’t fulfill employees’ needs for individualized professional development.

Fortunately, developing others is also one of the most rewarding activities you can perform as a leader. You are not only improving your organization’s performance but also improving people. You are improving people’s careers, lives, and families. You are impacting the individual performance of your employees and the people they will coach in the future. You are making your workplace a better place for future generations, just as those before you did for you.

Another benefit for you when leading as a coach is the learning you receive while developing others. Like a good teacher, you learn as much as your students do. You develop as much as your employees do. Your capabilities and confidence also increase. As your team becomes more successful, you become more successful.

In this level of the SCOPE of Leadership, the focus turns to seven competencies great leaders use in developing, coaching, and enabling others. Great leaders who develop people

Attract top talent.

Know the individual.

Coach.

Exhort and praise.

Enable performance.

Manage performance.

Impart ownership.

If you are like most managers, skill shortcomings hold your organization back. You don’t have enough A performers. You need more top talent that can deliver results. You also need to retain the top talent you already have. If this is your situation, why wouldn’t you make investing in and developing your employees your top priority?

When you retire, you won’t be remembered for the profit margins, budgets, and quotas you achieved. You’ll be remembered for your leadership and the people you developed. Those who go on to have great careers because of your leadership will be your most prized memories. Developing people is what produces lasting legacies. Focus on developing people for everyone’s benefit, now and later.

OTHERS:

DEVELOPING PEOPLE

Competency 19: Attracting Top Talent

People Focus

Competence

Opportunity

Need

Fit

Advancement

Respect

Offer

Competency 20: Knowing the Individual

Competency 21: Coaching

Competency 22: Exhorting and Praising

Competency 23: Enabling Performance

Competency 24: Managing Performance

Competency 25: Imparting Ownership

COMPETENCY NINETEEN

ATTRACTING TOP TALENT

If you think hiring professionals is expensive, try hiring amateurs.

—Unknown

Attracting Top Talent: Drawing in, recruiting, selecting, and hiring top performers.

Leading and developing top talent starts with attracting and hiring top talent. Great leaders who develop high performers start by winning the recruiting battle and hiring the best people available. Like a fine restaurant, they start with the best ingredients. They hand-select their raw materials.

There is a battle in the labor market for top performers. Organizations that don’t compete well end up with the leftovers. Leaders who don’t attract and hire top talent end up with the B players instead of the A players. Like a sports coach who doesn’t do well in the draft, leaders who don’t hire well have a lot more work to do than those who recruit the top picks. Instead of starting their season with a strong roster and competitive advantage, they start their season at a disadvantage.

The cost of not getting the right employees onboard is significant. Studies find that one in three new hires fails to meet performance expectations. Studies also find that average performers perform at less than half the level of their top-performing counterparts. In other words, you receive two employees for the price of one when you have a top performer.

Hiring top talent starts by attracting top talent. Great leaders manifest attributes and create environments that make the most talented people aspire to work for them.

Jeff was my neighbor who became a client and great friend. He is the CEO of a small insurance company. Everyone wants to spend time with him or work for him. He has acquaintances in the community, industry, and numerous social circles. I can’t count the times I’ve seen him in a newspaper photo with a celebrity or while on a vacation toasting a glass of wine to someone famous.

Jeff attracts talented and successful people because he has an endearing way about him. He is friendly, humble, competent, and likable. He makes people his top priority. He genuinely cares for others as evidenced by his frequent involvement in community affairs and nonprofit organizations.

When you spend time with Jeff, you have fun regardless of what you do. There is no pretentiousness. There is no arrogance. There is just enjoyable and engaging conversation. You experience an honest sharing of opinions, his great listening skills, and his genuineness.

Because Jeff frequently ventures out and puts himself in new situations, he meets many new people. Because of his giving nature, he finds opportunities to help people. As a result, he is highly respected by everyone and is someone others want to work with.

How well do you attract top performers? Do you create an environment that attracts people to you? Here is a simple test to see how well you are doing. Pull out a notepad and make a list of your direct-reporting employees. Rate them in terms of how well they perform. Make another list of your five closest peers or business partners. Rate their performance in their respective roles. List your five closest friends and rate their qualities as friends. When you’re done, look at the quality of the people on your lists. Those who currently surround you are a good indication of the type of people you attract.

Great leaders create a performance advantage by attracting and hiring the best people possible. They take advantage of recruiting opportunities at industry events and college job fairs. They attract people by leveraging advertising, speaking engagements, publishing, online job postings, and their organization’s online presence. Most importantly, though, they personally attract people and build organizations that people want to join. They attract top talent through these core attributes:

People Focus

Competence

Opportunity

Need

Fit

Advancement

Respect

Offer

For information on leveraging events and networking for potential new hires, refer to competency 26 in book 5 of this series.

PEOPLE FOCUS

Great leaders surround themselves with high-performing people. You hardly ever see them alone. At any given moment, they are encouraging, enabling, coaching, or working with someone. They see their goals through the lens of people rather than tasks. When they have an issue or an opportunity, they turn to people. They are people-focused.

TASK-CENTERED

LEADERS LEAD

THROUGH SPREADSHEETS,

REPORTS, AND

PROJECT PLANS.

In contrast, managers who are not people-centric emphasize tasks, processes, and measurements. Task-centered leaders lead through spreadsheets, reports, and project plans. They spend time creating charts and managing budgets rather than working with people. When they see an issue or opportunity, they focus on the issue or opportunity, not the people they need to engage. They see their goals through the accomplishment of work rather than through the engagement of people.

Leaders who are people-focused value relationships. They don’t merely pursue relationships for their benefit. They are not like self-centered salespeople who show up only when they want to make a sale or friends who call only when they need help.

This is not to say that people-focused leaders don’t care about numbers, goals, projects, plans, processes, systems, and tasks. They do, but they put people first. They see their organization as a team that in turn takes care of the processes, systems, controls, and results. People-focused leaders are like thoughtful salespeople who show up between orders to check on their customers.

When you start planning your day, do you first think about tasks to accomplish, or do you think about your people and what you need to do to enable, encourage, assist, and lead them? If there is any doubt, look at your to-do list. Does it contain more people-enabling activities or more domain-related tasks?

If you are going to be a great leader of people and attract top talent, turn your focus to people. Give your attention to people activity first and tasks second. Focus on what you can do for your employees that will enable them to take care of the tasks.

People know when you are focused on them or something else. You can’t hide it. How you fundamentally view people either repels or attracts them. When you are a people-focused leader, you spend your time recruiting, helping, and facilitating rather than doing. You regularly conduct one-on-one meetings, new-hire interviews, new-hire orientations, and human resource reviews. You coach and mentor. You maintain accountability. You walk the halls and job sites, talking to people frequently. You view your employees as the end, not the means to the end.

When you focus on people, you go to places where you meet people. You build relationships, causing others to invite you to attend professional and community events. You regularly attend conferences and association gatherings. You become involved in community affairs and volunteer work. You engage in a variety of activities that allow you to meet new people and build your network as described in competency 26 in book 5.

One of the primary issues preventing managers from focusing on their people is their busyness. Most managers try to do too much themselves. They take on more than they can reasonably handle. They fill every minute of their calendar. They get into such a habit of busyness that they repeat it even at home. They pack in as much into their evenings and weekends as they do in their workdays. In the few minutes they have left that aren’t scheduled, they squeeze in only brief interactions with their colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors. They leave virtually no time for the people in their lives—personally or professionally.

Great leaders make time to build and nurture relationships. They find a healthy balance between the needs of the business and the needs of their employees. They see work and life through people. They accomplish work by helping, coaching, enabling, and leading people. They know that their true value to the organization, and their ensuing legacy is based on the service, support, encouragement, and development of the people they lead.

If your to-do list is more about completing tasks than working with people, start replacing your tasks with people interactions. Make people and working through them your first priority.

COMPETENCE

Competence attracts competence. Incompetence attracts incompetence. The principle of attraction is no more noticeable than in the recruiting process. Like attracts like. If you expect to attract competent people, you must be competent yourself.

If you want to attract a certain quality, manifest it yourself. If you want to attract fearless people, exude courage and boldness. If you expect to attract conscientious sales candidates, exhibit conscientiousness yourself. If you frequently catch the wrong type of candidates in your recruiting funnel, don’t just put your hiring process under the microscope—look in the mirror. It may be that you or others in your hiring process are not manifesting the qualities you are looking for.

Top performers like to work with leaders and teammates who are confident and competent. They respect those who are experts in their domain. They like to associate with positive people who have can-do attitudes. If these are the qualities you are looking for, ensure you and your hiring managers possess them. Don’t put your least talented or most pessimistic employees in the position of making a positive impression on your new-hire candidates. The positive impression won’t come through.

In a new-hire interview setting, your hiring managers become the manifestation of your brand image. They are the face of your organization. The qualities and competence they display are the filters through which your new-hire candidates see your organization. You might have a high-energy culture that promotes bold decision making, but if your hiring manager is timid and talks in a monotone, your hiring candidates won’t know your true culture.

As a new hire’s manager, you are the most important aspect of the hiring process. Your competence, attitude, values, and style are what a candidate sees and therefore what matters most. Candidates base how well they expect to work in your organization on how well they interact with you during the interviewing process. Take your interviewing meetings and interactions very seriously. Be at the top of your game. Manifest the top-performer qualities you are looking for in others. You more than anything else determine whom you attract. For additional information on building competence and being a leader for whom people want to work, see book 2 of this series—Self: Setting the Example.

OPPORTUNITY

In the interviewing process, there are two interviews taking place. You are interviewing candidates, and they are interviewing you. From your perspective as the hiring manager, you want to get to know them and evaluate their ability to perform. You assess how well they fit into the positions you need to fill. You ask questions to understand how they respond to certain situations. You ask for past examples of the desired behaviors and