OTHERS:
DEVELOPING PEOPLE
© 2013 Mike Hawkins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
The SCOPE of Leadership Book Series
A Guide to Coaching Leaders to Lead as Coaches
Others: Developing People
Brown Books Publishing Group
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ABOUT THIS SERIES
Welcome to the SCOPE of Leadership book series. The six books in this series are designed to build your knowledge of the thirty-eight competencies of great leaders who lead as coaches. These books provide the insights and principles great leaders as coaches use to practice great leadership—the ability to achieve a desired result through the influence of people who follow and perform by choice.
By reading the SCOPE of Leadership book series, you will learn how to set the example you expect others to follow. You will learn how to coach and develop others, build trust and high-performance teams, and foster collaboration and innovation. You will understand what it takes to motivate and inspire others and discover how to impart ownership and stimulate engagement. You will learn how to develop engaging presentations and speak with confidence. You will understand how to craft win-win partnerships and manage conflict. Most importantly, you will learn how to shape organizational culture, operate with excellence, and deliver exceptional results.
The SCOPE of Leadership is for anyone who aspires to be a great leader. It is for business professionals who want to advance in their career as well as community leaders who want to make a positive impact on society. It is for parents and grandparents who want to be better examples to their children and raise them to be great leaders. It is for athletic coaches who want to help athletes become their best. It is for teachers, principals, church leaders, and others in positions of influence who aspire to influence people positively in order to reach a desired result.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Competency 19: Attracting Top Talent
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
Appendix:
The SCOPE of Leadership Scorecard for Book 4
About the Author
Books by Mike Hawkins
FIGURES
Figure 4.1: Coaching Approach Flowchart
Figure 4.2: Skill Versus Will Model
Figure 4.3: Levels of Candor
TABLES
Table 4.1: Qualities That Attract Top Performers
Table 4.2: Hiring Profile Attributes
Table 4.3: Interviewing Best Practices
Table 4.4: Elements to Include in a Hiring Interview Guide
Table 4.5: People Characteristics You Should Know
Table 4.6: Characteristics of Competent Coaches
Table 4.7: Benefits Missed When Telling People What to Do
Table 4.8: Thought-Provoking Coaching Questions
Table 4.9: Coaching Best Practices
Table 4.10: Employee Development Activities and Assignments
Table 4.11: Three Levels of Contributions Leaders Should Recognize
Table 4.12: Employee Recognition Best Practices
Table 4.13: Problem-Solving Best Practices
Table 4.14: Performance-Enabling Resource Checklist
Table 4.15: Levels of Enabling Assistance
Table 4.16: Levels of Outsider Assistance
Table 4.17: Measurement and Compensation Plan Elements
Table 4.18: Business and Team Review Meeting Agenda
Table 4.19: Options for Dealing with Poor Performers
Table 4.20: Checklist for Confronting Poor Performers
Table 4.21: Consequences of Performance
Table 4.22: Justifications for Increasing Compensation
Table 4.23: Six Levels of Delegation
Table 4.24: The SCOPE of Leadership Scorecard for Book 4
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
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
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