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When it comes to managing people, conventional wisdom … doesn’t always apply.
One of the most powerful books on management is “First Break All The Rules” by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. In this book, they (and Gallup) interviewed more than 80,000 managers in 400 companies to discover what the world’s greatest managers do differently.
If you’re looking to level up your team, here’s some things you can do differently.
When hiring for ANY role, if you expect performance, you need to hire for talent.
What’s different is how they define talent. Instead of looking at Michael Jordan’s performance on the court (although that’s major talent), they look for the patterns and behaviors that people consistently display.
It’s those behaviors that truly show talent. The ability to accomplish things over and over again, across multiple workplaces, is talent. Those are the people who can perform in any environment.
Hint: Defined this way, talented people aren’t a unicorn. LOTS of people are talented. At the same time, we ONLY want talented people on our team.
Discovering these patterns is at the core of the Topgrading hiring methodology, which we highly recommend.
As managers, we often spend a lot of time focusing on the C-Players on our team, trying to help level them up. In doing so, we don’t spend as much time on our B and A-Players.
This is a HUGE mistake.
Let’s look at some basic truths:
You might slightly improve the performance of a C-Player, but it’s very unlikely to improve their cultural fit. Yet, we spend so much time trying to help C-Players.
We’re not saying NOT to help them. Just to focus less time on them.
The process with C-Players is simple:
Many managers focus on responsibilities and controlling their teams to “ensure results”. Doing this leads to everything, including the thinking, being on the manager, not the team.
If you want your dream team, one of the most important things is to engage everyone’s strengths and genius and push accountability to every level.
To do this, you start by defining the right outcomes for each role.
Defining outcomes creates clarity for team members. They know how success is measured.
Business Coach Mike Knapp explains this simply:
“Clearly lay out what outcomes they need to produce. Let them determine HOW they’ll accomplish it (within any needed guardrails). This engages their genius and makes them think for themselves.”
People want to be appreciated when they do a great job. However, people don’t all want to be appreciated the same way.
Learn what motivates your staff. One of the best tools for accomplishing this is Dr. Gary Chapman’s Appreciation at Work.
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace applies the love language concept to the workplace. This book helps supervisors and managers effectively communicate appreciation and encouragement to their employees, resulting in higher levels of job satisfaction, healthier relationships between managers and employees, and decreased cases of burnout.
We’ve all been there… an employee comes to you to say “I have an issue/complaint with Employee X and I need you to deal with it”
While there are instances that are serious enough that you should get involved such as fraud, discrimination, harassment, etc., for the most part don’t get involved!
Instead, teach your staff how to deal with conflict directly. Here are the steps to coach your staff on how to deal with interpersonal conflict:
Bob, the office manager, comes into your office with a folder in his hand and asks for a minute of your time. He says that he has a problem with employees showing up late for their shifts and needs help. He tries to hand the folder to you…
Option #1: YOU TAKE THE FOLDER
You read over Bob’s folder and immediately know that he hasn’t even spoken to the employees and is just providing a list of names and dates of late shifts. You know how to deal with the employees so you tell Bob that you will handle it and speak with the employees directly.
You are now doing Bob’s job
You now has less time to do your job
Bob has learned that you will deal with the difficult stuff and he will be back again and again
You have become the answer dispenser
Option #2: SIT ON YOUR HANDS – LITERALLY!
We all want to be helpful and assist our staff when they need help… RESIST the urge. Instead, literally sit on your hands to help resist the urge to take the folder from Bob (it really works!). Instead, ask questions and be a coach.
Sit on your hands.
What is the problem Bob?
What solutions have you come up with to solve the problem?
Go take some time and return when you have come up with a solution or two
Bob returns some time later with his solutions. You ask him which would he pick and why?
Offer suggestions to him to coach him with the correct course of action.
Send him on his way to complete the job.
Give him praise for completing the job. (See above on how to appreciate staff)
You are NOT doing Bob’s job
You now have time to do your job
Bob has learned confidence in his own abilities and has increased self esteem
The next time Bob needs help, he will bring solutions to the problem (may take a few times for Bob to get the hang of it)
You are NOT the “answer dispenser”
Bob is happy and feels empowered = lower turnover
If you’re ready to make the shift to being a great manager, it’s time to do some things differently. We’ve provided some great behaviors to model.
What’s your unconventional wisdom? Let us know!