Turning Ordinary People Into Extraordinary Performers
Do you often feel like your employees make your life harder, not easier?
"If you’re like many highly-skilled executives and entrepreneurs, you may simply not know how to develop employees who support your success-rather than get in your way," says Erika Andersen, author of the new book Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers (January 2, 2007, Portfolio, Hardcover).
‘You get taught how to be a lawyer or a doctor-you go to law school or medical school. But most managers simply get promoted or launch their own company-and are magically expected to know how to manage people,’ Andersen says, adding, ‘That’s why bosses often end up wasting time on management missteps-and making themselves and their employees less happy and productive in the process. Until they learn how to find, hire, and develop great employees, it’s hard for them to free up time to build the business or even enjoy their own lives.’
For the past twenty-five years as an organizational development consultant and executive coach, Andersen has helped CEOs and top professionals develop their employees at some of the best-managed companies in the world, including MTV Networks, Bank of America, Comcast, Union Square Hospitality Group, and Molson Coors Brewing.
Covering the whole cycle of employment-from recruiting, to hiring and orientation, through career development and transitions-Andersen uses the core image of gardening as an apt metaphor for successful management as she helps readers understand why becoming a skilled people manager is worth the investment of effort and resources, what is involved in becoming that kind of a manager, and how to go about doing it.
Don’t sneeze at the metaphor. Andersen says that even tough executives she has coached over the years relate to the gardening analogy because of this simple truth: ‘You can’t make employees grow any more than you can make plants grow. What you can do: make sure to get the right people, ‘plant’ them in the right job, and create the optimal conditions for them to grow.’
Real life examples, along with practical instructions and self-directed activities, assure readers learn such easier-said-than-done skills as: influencing by really listening; interviewing to get the right person for each job; getting employees started well and contributing quickly; providing corrective feedback that improves performance without discouragement; and letting employees go without damaging them, yourself, or the company.
So, as a manager, how do you make your garden grow? Andersen offers these five essential strategies:
1. Remember that there is no such thing as a successful one-minute gardener. If you garden consistently, your garden will thrive. Going away for months at a time or trying to do it all at once simply doesn’t work. Just as gardens need a consistent cycle of support, employees thrive with skillful and consistent attention and wither without it. As a manager, regular maintenance is critical, from making clear agreements about employee responsibilities to giving feedback. Remember even high-performing employees need maintenance to continue thriving.
2. Prepare the soil by listening. The secret of good gardening, lies in adequate soil preparation. No matter how good your plants, and no matter how well you care for them later on, unless you start by creating a rich base for growth, you are doomed to failure. For a manager, listening is preparing the soil. It establishes an open, nourishing environment that allows ideas and people to flourish. Unfortunately, when people become managers, they too often let go of their listening skills; they think they’re supposed to talk and the employees are supposed to listen! But listening is essential to a manager’s success. It gives you the chance to find out what people know and don’t know, what has and hasn’t been done, and where there may be concerns or misunderstandings. Most importantly, it creates an atmosphere of mutual respect-and that’s when employees put down roots and grow.
3. Maintain the right mindset. Just as a successful gardener approaches the garden with confidence and care, believing in the power of nature and his or her own skill, a good manager needs to think like a coach-to believe in employees’ potential and want to help them succeed. Without cultivating this attitude, it’s nearly impossible to create a ‘garden’ of thriving and productive employees.
4. Don’t be afraid to prune. Gardeners prune plants to encourage them in the right direction and for more frequent blooms. Similarly, managers need to urge their employees in the right direction by providing both positive and corrective feedback. The key is to offer examples that focus on an employee’s specific behavior, so that he or she will actually hear and understand your input and be able to act on it.
5. Re-evaluate when it’s not working. Some plants are invasive and impede their neighbors’ growth. Others simply don’t thrive where you put them, despite your best efforts. Sometimes even excellent leaders have employees that don’t succeed and need to be moved for a better fit, either within the company or out. Skillful managers minimize damage to the rest of the team and the organization by firing employees in a way that’s fair and respectful.
The Answer to Generation Y: Managing the Multigenerational Workforce
The minds of Generation Y members have been molded by the instant message. Raised with the Internet and cellular technology, they’re used to constant communication and immediate responses to their questions. This culture of instant gratification has made Generation Y a group of quick, independent and creative thinkers, but it also has made them impatient, demanding and intolerant of institutional bulk. And or better or worse, they now work for you.
Synthesizing the needs of the younger generation with the performance patterns of more experienced workers can create difficult challenges for managers, said Jacques Gaumond, vice president of Technomedia Training Inc., a talent management solutions provider. Yet, if those challenges are managed appropriately, they can be transformed into advantages, he said.
"A diverse workforce is richer because you get different viewpoints, different learning styles and different attitudes toward work," Gaumond said. "Also, if an organization is dealing with a multigenerational market, they may as well try to understand it from an internal perspective as opposed to only an external one."
One of the biggest challenges discussed in Technomedia’s white paper, "The Multidimensional Manager of Tomorrow," is the younger generation’s expectation of better work-life balance. The study says work is a means to an end for these employees and having adequate personal time is not negotiable.
"The new generations will not adapt to the company," the study reports. "It’s the company that will have to adapt to them."
Managers can best deal with this paradigm shift by leaning on their older workers, Gaumond said. Although this is only a temporary fix, companies can use the more time-intensive work habits of baby boomers to keep up their service hours while they find a way to achieve maximum productivity with fewer hours worked.
Creating strong intergenerational teams also allows a business to take advantage of all its resources and focus on the strengths of each group, Gaumond said.
"Assembling a team of younger and older workers to contribute to a given task takes advantage of the younger workers’ capabilities with technology, as well as the older workers’ increased sensitivity to a customer service and client expectations," he said. "Putting the two types of workers together contributes to the creation of better ideas."
Managers also face increased expectations from the younger generations. Both Generations X and Y have an innate distrust for authority and want their managers to be transparent and trustworthy. These groups expect their leaders to be open and accessible, available to listen and provide thoughtful feedback at all times, the study says.
Because this can create a strain on a manager’s already limited resources, Gaumond suggests companies use coaching and mentoring programs to relieve some of this burden. "The role of the manager is now much more complex than it has been – expectations are higher, and managers have to deliver in a shorter time frame," he said. "So, complementary means such as coaching or mentoring can help managers do their jobs and find ways to assist the younger generation with their careers."
While managers shoulder much of the burden of adaptation, the HR department has a responsibility to help, as well, Gaumond said. By developing learning solutions and performance management tools that address the needs of this diverse workforce, HR can proactively help managers succeed.
"HR has to provide tools, systems and processes that are simpler but still allow good time to communicate," he said. "The technology is there to free up time, allow processes to be executed properly and create room for the human connection, which is required more than ever, given these new complexities."
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