Best Practice Management: Managing for Peak Performance

Best Practice Management:Managing for

Peak Performance

Jess C. Jamieson, Ph.D. Senior ConsultantOPEN MINDS

November 28, 2007Atlanta, Georgia

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Outline

The Role and Duties of Supervisors What Makes an Effective Manager and Supervisor What Really Works: the Necessary Primary and

Secondary Management Practices Managing for Peak Performance

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Light travels faster than sound.

That is why some people appear bright

until you hear them speak.

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The Role and Duties of Supervisors

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New Environment Demands Both Leadership & Management Skills. . .

Management Is About Coping With Complexity -- Purpose Of Management Is To Keep Current System Functioning & Improve Current System

Leadership Is About Coping With Change -- Purpose Of Leadership Is To Produce Useful, Non-Incremental Change

Issue Is Not Leadership Vs. Management – Complementary Systems Of Action

More Change Demands More Leadership Activities of The Executive Team. . .

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"I Cannot Say Whether Things Will Get Better

If We Change. . .

What I Can Say Is They Must Change

If They Are to Get Better" -G. C. Lichtenberg

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What Makes an Effective Manager and Supervisor

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A Quote from Peter Drucker

“Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their

strengths effective & their weaknesses irrelevant.”

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“If we want to be the best company for our customers & investors,

We must first be the best company for our employees”

- Harry Kraemer, Baxter Career Development

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Questions Managers Grapple With How do you deal with individuals or groups at different

motivation levels that vary in different ways? How can you influence the behavior of a single

individual, let alone a department or an entire organization?

How can you help people feel enthusiastic & committed, especially in difficult times?

How do we lead but remain open to criticism? How do we follow but still challenge superiors? How do we depend on others we don’t control?

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Traditional Boss vs. Servant Leader

Motivated to achieve Competitive Independent Gives orders Personal power

Motivated to serve Collaborative Interdependent Listens deeply Power of the group

Ann McGee Cooper & Associates

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What Makes an Effective Executive

Great managers may be charismatic or dull, generous or tightfisted, visionary or numbers oriented. But very effective executives follow eight simple practices

1. They ask “what needs to be done?” – identifying tasks, setting priorities, focusing on & accomplishing the tasks at hand

2. They ask “what is right for the enterprise?” – focus is on the whole of the enterprise, not any “special” part

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What Makes an Effective Executive (cont.)

3. They develop action plans

• What contributions should the enterprise expect from me over the next 18 months to two years?

• What results will I commit to?

• With what deadlines?

• What are the restraints on action? Is it ethical? Is it acceptable within the organization? Is it legal? Is it compatible with the vision, mission, values of

the organization?

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What Makes an Effective Executive (cont.)

4. They take responsibility for decisions

5. They take responsibility for communicating

6. They focus on opportunities rather than problems

7. They run productive meetings

8. They think & say “we” rather than “I”

Bonus practice – really a rule! Listen first, speak last

What Makes an Effective ExecutivePeter Drucker

Harvard Business Review, June 2004

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Incompetence:

When you earnestly believe you can compensate

for a lack of skill by doubling your efforts,

there is no end to what you can’t do.

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What Leaders Do

Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, & build self-confidence

Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live & breath it

Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy & optimism

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What Leaders Do (cont.)

Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, & credit

Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions & gut calls

Leaders probe & push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action

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What Leaders Do (cont.)

Leaders inspire risk taking & learning by setting the example

Leaders celebrate

Winning, Jack Welch with Suzy Welch (2005)

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Effective Leaders

Truly effective leaders don’t get that way by accident, coincidence, or luck. They consciously decide to do right things – regardless of the path that others take

They possess & demonstrate the courage to: Accept responsibility Create positive change Hire & promote the best Keep the main thing the main thing Communicate to build understanding, support, & acceptance Become effective coaches Address interpersonal conflicts Confront performance problems Be optimistic Become the best they can be Create cultures of ethics & integrity

David Cottrell & Eric HarveyLeadership Courage

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Responsibility Is…

A commitment you make & a risk you take Often an act of change A willingness to make a difference in something Something you have more power over than someone

else A function of self-motivation

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Accountability Is….

Accountability is a function of your title or your slot in the organizational chart

Authority is an agreement or contract that you may take certain actions or direct the actions of others

When you are responsible, you push your authority & accountability to their limits

Often people have to get things done for which they do not have “authority

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Leaders assume responsibility;

they are assigned accountability.

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If managers want to free up people…they must overcome people’s view of responsibility as a

burden. For most people, “responsibility” means “I’m the one who’s going to get blamed if the job

doesn’t get done.”

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THE BAD LEADERSHIP TEST Lauren Keller Johnson, “How Bad a Leader Are You?” Harvard Management Update, February 2005

Do you. . . Yes No

Lack the practical skills, knowledge, or emotional intelligence abilities needed in a leadership role?

Get easily distracted & overwhelmed by uncertainty & stress?

Resist change, new ideas, or new information that contradicts your current understanding?

Crave excessive power, money, or success, or find it difficult to control your impulses & appetites?

Sharply criticize your subordinates or sense that they’re afraid of you?

Bend the rules or cut corners to get what you want when you want it?

Believe that the needs of constituents who have no connection to your organization—especially the community at large—matter far less than the immediate needs of your company?

View employees primarily as tools for ensuring that your company reaches its goals?

Believe that “cooking the books” or cutting corners is okay, as long as you don’t get caught & don’t directly hurt anybody?

Consider that the ends justify the means?

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What Really Works: the Necessary Primary and Secondary Management Practices

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What Really Works: Primary Management Practices

Strategy – whatever your strategy, whether it is low prices or innovative products, it will work if it is sharply defined, clearly communicated, & well understood by employees, customers, partners & investors

Execution – develop & maintain flawless operational execution. You might not always delight your customers, but make sure never to disappoint them

Culture – corporate culture advocates sometimes argue that if you can make the work fun, all else will follow. Our results suggest that holding high expectations about performance matters a lot more

Structure – managers spend hours agonizing over how to structure their organizations. Winners show that what really counts is whether structure reduces bureaucracy & simplifies work

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Strategy Build a strategy around a clear value proposition for the

customer Develop strategy from the outside in, based on what your

customers, partners, & investors have to say – & how they behave – not on gut feeling or instinct

Continually fine-tune your strategy based on changes in the marketplace – for example, a new technology, a social trend, a government regulation, or a competitor’s breakaway product

Clearly communicate your strategy within the organization & to customers & other external stakeholders.

Keep focused – grow your core business & beware of the unfamiliar

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Execution

Deliver products & services that consistently meet customers’ expectations

Put decision-making authority close to the front lines so employees can react quickly to changing market conditions

Constantly strive to eliminate all forms of excess & waste; improve productivity at a rate that is roughly twice the industry average

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Culture

Inspire all managers & employees to do their best Empower employees & managers to make

independent decisions & to find ways to improve operations – including their own

Reward achievement with pay based on performance, but keep raising the performance bar

Pay psychological rewards in addition to financial ones

Create a challenging, satisfying work environment Establish & abide by clear company values

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Structure

Simplify. Make your organization easy to work in & work with

Promote cooperation & the exchange of information across the whole company

Put your best people closest to the action Establish systems for the seamless sharing of

knowledge

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What Really Works: Secondary Management Practices

Talent – winners hold on to talented employees & develop more

Innovation – an agile company turns out innovative products & services & anticipates disruptive events in an industry rather than reacting when it may already be too late

Leadership – choosing great chief executives can raise performance significantly

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Talent

Fill mid- & high-level jobs with outstanding internal talent whenever possible

Create & maintain top-of-the-line training & development programs

Design jobs that will intrigue & challenge your best performers

Keep senior management actively involved in the selection & development of people

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Innovation

Relentlessly pursue disruptive technologies to develop innovative new products & services

Don’t hesitate to cannibalize existing products Apply new technologies to enhance all operating

processes, not just those dedicated to designing new products & service

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Leadership

Closely link the leadership team’s pay to it’s performance

Encourage management to strengthen its connections with people at all levels of the company

Inspire management to hone its capacity to spot opportunities & problems early

Appoint a board of directors whose members have a substantial stake in the company’s success

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Mistakes:

It could be that the purpose of your life is

only to serve as a warning to others.

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Talent Management Must Haves In order to cultivate managerial talent at all levels of the company,

leaders should adhere to the following five imperatives, which distinguish high-performing companies from average ones:

1. Embrace a talent mind-set & make talent management a critical part of every manager’s job

2. Create a winning “employee value proposition” that provides a compelling reason for a highly talented person to join & stay with your company

3. Rebuild your recruiting strategies to inject talent at all levels, from many sources, & to respond to the ebbs & flows in the talent market

4. Weave development into the organization by deliberately using stretch jobs, candid feedback, coaching, & mentoring to grow every manager’s talents

5. Differentiate the performance of your people & affirm their unique contributions to the organization

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“The Adage ‘People Are Your Most Important Asset’ Turns Out To Be Wrong. People Aren’t Your Most Important Asset; The Right People

Are.”

Jim Collins, Good to Great

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Managing for Peak Performance

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The New Loyalty

The life-time contract between the employer & the employee expired long ago

Your people—especially your best people—are more likely to display loyalty to their careers than to you, their employer

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The New Loyalty (cont.)

Employees don’t expect to work for decades on end for the same company. And, they don’t want to

Also, they don’t really want to shift employers every two to three years for their entire careers

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The New Loyalty (cont.)

Similarly, companies would grind to a halt if they had to replace large portions of the work force on a similar schedule

So, is there a way for both employers & employees to strike a brand new balance when it comes to loyalty?

One that gives organizations the focus & expertise they need to compete & employees the career development opportunities they demand?

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Strategies for Balancing Career & Company Loyalty

Align career growth with company goalsWhen a company helps its employees develop

expertise that furthers their professional development & enables the company to address its thorniest challenges, both types of loyalty align powerfully

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Strategies for Balancing Career & Company Loyalty (cont.)

Design work with variety & autonomyJobs that provide variety & the freedom to make

decisions & mistakes engender extensive loyalty. Encouraging people to take ownership of projects gives them the opportunity to develop new skills & a chance to show what they can do

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Focus on relationshipsFor many employees, loyalty is cemented through

relationships with supervisors & colleagues. For the most part, people leave the organization or stay based on their relationship with their immediate supervisor.

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Highlight the link between employees’ values & your company’s missionEmphasizing a company’s purpose—why we

create wealth—engenders loyalty, especially when employees see the connection between their values & the company’s mission.

Lauren Keller Johnson

“The New Loyalty: Make It Work for Your Company

“Harvard Management Update,” March 2005

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Employee Engagement

The extent to which workers commit to something or someone in their organizations – influences performance & retentionIncreased commitment can lead to a 57%

improvement in discretionary effort – that is, employees’ willingness to exceed duty’s call

That greater effort produces, on average, a 20% individual performance improvement & an 87% reduction in the desire to pull up stakes

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“Oh you hate your job? Why didn’t you say so?

There’s a support group for that.

It’s called EVERYBODY,

and they meet at the bar.”--Drew Carey

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Employee Engagement (cont.)

Two types of employee engagementRational commitment – results when a job serves

employees’ financial, developmental or professional self-interest

Emotional commitment – arises when workers value, enjoy & believe in what they do. (This has four times the power to affect performance than rational commitment.)

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Companies can attain higher levels of employee performance not because they pay more or provide better benefits

Higher performance is achieved because:They let each employee know how important they are to

the success of the businessGive them lots of opportunities to contributeHelp them believe in the worth & credibility of the

organization Employee engagement is crucial to building a high-

performing workforce & an essential defense against attribution Corporate Leadership Council

Leigh BuchananHarvard Business Review, December 2004

Employee Engagement (cont.)

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Seven Needs That Motivate Employees1. Need for achievement – satisfaction of accomplishing projects

successfully

2. Need for power – satisfaction from influencing & controlling others

3. Need for affiliation – satisfaction from interacting with others

4. Need for autonomy – want freedom & independence

5. Need for esteem – need recognition & praise

6. Need for safety & security – crave job security, steady income, health insurance, & hazard-free work environment

7. Need for equity – want to be treated fairly

Supervisors Legal UpdateNovember 2004

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How to Inspire Ordinary People to do Extraordinary Things

Start with the truth Appeal to greatness Make them proud Stick to your values Be a broken record Build trust Work quickly through

pain

Encourage risk Care for the “little guy” Ground without

“grinding” Leap first, ask later Set different incentive

levels

Harvard Business ReviewJanuary 2003

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Logic:

That thing which is superseded by

Company Policy.

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Aligning People Effectively

Keeps people moving in the same direction Ensures that all employees know & understand the

vision & core values Creates energy & enthusiasm in employees Staff members’ vision & values should be aligned

with the organization’s vision & values

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Aligning People Effectively (cont.)

All employees know their roles in accomplishing the vision

An ongoing process Manager must be the “number one believer”

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Motivating Employees To Go Above & Beyond

You know when you’ve built an engage workforce when you see a critical mass of employees doing three things:Giving more than their job description requiresDelivering this extra effort precisely when it’s

neededFocusing their extra mile on top-priority actions

Behavior that doesn’t get reinforced, get’s extinguished!

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Generating Engagement & Initiative In Your Employees

#1 Identify required new behaviorsWhat are the pressing challenge & actions that

must be taken to overcome them?

#2 Communicate required behaviorsOnce you figure out what’s needed, communicate

it clearly to your direct reports“These are the changes we need to make in order

to be successful . . .

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#3 Identify other’s preferred reinforcementsEveryone has their own preferred ways of

receiving thanks – personal versus public praise, an invitation to join some committee or group, an afternoon off, etc.

#4 Leverage peer pressureMany people find invitations to share success

stories positively reinforcing & they can motivate them to deliver successes themselves

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#5 Follow-up on your directionsWhen people know that you’re going to follow-up

on the goals you’ve communicated, they’ll be more likely to deliver

#6 Use intermittent rewardsStudies show that these are more reinforcing than

constant rewards. Start with frequent positive reinforcement as folks are getting up to speed. As soon as they are giving their best – shift to intermittent – it makes it more of a treat

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#7 Help your employees relive successesWhen you can’t give positive reinforcement as

soon as you’d like, help the employee relive it. “How did you solve that problem?”

Lauren Keller Johnson, Motivating Employees to Go Above & Beyond, HBR August 2006

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Despair:

It’s always darkest before it goes pitch black.

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Questions & Discussion

Bringing The Management of Behavioral Health &

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Best Practice Management: Managing for Peak Performance