How DO You Manage AND Develop Individuals?

Here's the Deal... Are you up for it?

1. Set clear, mutual, expectations

• on roles, goals and standards of and attendance, behaviour & performance 
  
• on what they can – and should - expect from you
  
• make it clear that, while you can and will help, they are responsible for meeting expectations fully and consistently 

2. Check that they're willing to deliver on expectations

• Make it clear they are in the driver’s seat – it’s their choice

3. RESOURCE the expectations

• If you're not willing or able to provide the resources necessary for success, your expectations are unrealistic and you're setting them up to fail
  

HOW CAN I HELP?

3. Create an environment for success: 

• Build transparency, trust, action, accountability & appreciation
• Talk straight, walk your talk & keep your commitments
• Listen, show respect & loyalty - to their faces & behind their backs
• Make decisions based on evidence, ethics & empathy
• Make assessments based on explicit, valid & fair measures
• Tackle unethical, unfair behaviour & poor performance
• Don’t harass, discriminate, bully or victimise

GREAT JOB! THANKS!

4. Work your guts out to make sure they can and want to perform:

• CAN PERFORM 
• Make sure they get what they need, when they need it, so they can do the job right, first time, every time

 instruction, training and coaching
 equipment & materials
 real-time factual feedback/metrics on how they’re doing
 practical help to solve problems, deal with obstacles & interference

• WANT TO PERFORM 
  

 Select carefully & fairly, discipline carefully & fairly 

 Deliver on your end of the deal: keep a public scorecard on YOUR attendance, behaviour & performance as well as theirs

 Get to you know your people: find out 

*what they’re trying to achieve

*what interests & excites them – help them get that

  *what they’re thinking and feeling about work   

 Make sure they get a fair deal & act on the things that drain,  

    frustrate & demotivate them
 Show that you notice, consider & appreciate them & their performance 
• say thanks, nice job, well done, great effort!
• let your bosses know who’s doing a great job
 Find ways to make work & performance rewarding & worth their while

 Make sure rewards & promotions go to real leaders & performers

I'VE GOT A PROBLEM & I NEED YOUR HELP TO SOLVE IT

5. Turn Problems into Action

Coach when people do badly

Hold people to account: by using

• fair, valid and explicit measures
• reminders rather than reprimands
• decision-making leave rather than leave without pay
• courageous action to do right and right wrongs rather than covering your own behind! 

The Myth of 'Someone's Gotta take Charge!'

Whenever I talk to managers about leadership, management and GenYs, I hear ideas such as:

• Someone's gotta take charge
• You have to have a leader
• You've gotta have managers
• GenY's don't understand that they've gotta work...they can't just surf the web, listen to their iPods or message their friends - they've gotta work!
• They (Gen Y's) don't think they need to be managed
• Someone's gotta be the boss

Pointing out that there are MANY 'self-organising systems' in nature... and that there's real value for 'knowledge orgnisations' in the intelligence gathering & exchange in social networking... asking the basis for this belief... sharing my musings on the possibility that maybe we could do work differently...  

I occasionally see some eyes opening in relieved surprise and recognition...amongst the sea of faces clouded with confusion... the heads shaking, telling me I have no idea about the real world... (not sure where they think I live and work :-)

Anyway... this link is for the the relieved, the confused and the headshakers all: Deborah Gordon, talks about 

How Ants Know What to Do....all without a boss or bosses! 

The link is: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/145

 

What is a leaderful organisation®?

The leaderful organisation® is an alternative to the traditional 'leader-led' or leader'dependent model of organisations.

In a leaderful organisation®, every employee is developed to recognise their own and others' strengths and limitations, and prepared technically and psychologically, to step up to lead, or step back and support as needed, in support of organisation's mission, vision and values.

Ric Charlesworth, Australian representative hockey player, former politician and coach of the Australian women’s hockey team, talked about creating “leaderful teams”  - hearing him talk then following the success of the captain-less, leaderful, world dominating Ozzie women's hockey team; reading the academic literature/research on 'distributed leadership'; noticing Katzenbach & Smith's observation of the evolution of high performance teams from leader-led to shared leadership; conversations with officers in the Singapore military, and my own experiences and observations with teams in high performance mode... have contributed to my thinking on the importance of leadership and the risks of dependency on THE leaders.

PLEASE NOTE THAT:
The term leaderful organisation(s) is the registered trademark of The Corporate Soul P/L (Trademark #866318; 15 February 2001).

It may not be used without the explicit permission of the trademark owner.