First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

by Gallup Press

Q01. I know what is expected of me at work. Q02. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right. Q03. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day. Q04. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.

Q05. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person. Q06. There is someone at work who encourages my development. Q07. At work, my opinions seem to count. Q08. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important. Q09. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. Q10. I have a best friend at work. Q11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress. Q12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

It’s not that these employee-focused initiatives are unimportant. It’s just that your immediate manager is more important. She defines and pervades your work environment.

It is better to work for a great manager in an old-fashioned company than for a terrible manager in a company offering an enlightened, employee-focused culture.

Of the 12, these two fundamental items measure Base Camp: Q01. I know what is expected of me at work. Q02. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.

These four items measure Camp 1: Q03. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day. Q04. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. Q05. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person. Q06. There is someone at work who encourages my development.

your individual self-esteem and worth.

You look around and ask, “Do I belong here?”

Q07. At work, my opinions seem to count. Q08. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important. Q09. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. Q10. I have a best friend at work.

At this stage, you are impatient for everyone to improve, asking, “How can we all grow?”

These two items measure Camp 3: Q11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress. Q12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Great managers take aim at Base Camp and Camp 1. They know that the core of a strong and vibrant workplace can be found in the first six items:

It explains why great managers do not believe that everyone has unlimited potential, why they do not help people fix their weaknesses, why they insist on breaking the Golden Rule with every single employee and why they play favorites. It explains why great managers break all the rules of conventional wisdom.

Great managers look inward. They look inside the company; into each individual; into differences in the style, goals, needs and motivation of each person.

Great managers are not miniexecutives waiting for leadership to be thrust upon them. Great leaders are not simply managers who have developed sophistication. The core activities of a manager and a leader are simply different.

But the best managers have the solution. Ask. Ask your employee about her goals.

For great managers, the core of their role is the catalyst role: turning talent into performance. So when they spend time with an employee, they are not fixing or correcting or instructing.

They strive to carve out a unique set of expectations that will stretch and focus each particular individual.

They try to highlight and perfect each person’s unique style. They draw his attention to it. They help him understand why it works for him and how to perfect it.

They plot how they, as managers, can run interference for each employee, so that each can exercise his or her talents even more freely.

spend the most time with your top performers. Pay attention to them. Be fair to the right people.

he kept climbing the ladder until, one day, he climbed one rung too far. Sadly, this happens all the time. To gain money, title and respect, teachers must become administrators. Managers must reach for leadership. Nurses must aspire to be nurse supervisors. Craftsmen must yearn to be managers of other craftsmen. And reporters must yearn to be bureau chiefs. In most companies, Marc’s fate awaits us all.

Most employees are promoted to their level of incompetence. It’s inevitable. It’s built into the system.

Great managers have a better idea. Why not resolve the conflict by making prestige more available? Why not carve out alternative career paths by conveying meaningful prestige on every role performed at excellence? Why not create heroes in every role?

We know that the talents needed to sell and the talents needed to manage, while not mutually exclusive, are different. If you excel at one, it does not tell us very much about whether you will excel at the other.

Before you promote someone, look closely at the talents needed to excel in the role — the striving, thinking and relating talents necessary for success. After scrutinizing the person and the role, you may still choose promotion.

No matter what conclusion you come to, the employee will invariably want to move up. The employee will want to be promoted.

Create heroes in every role. Make every role performed at excellence a respected profession.

If a company wants some employees in every role to approach world-class performance, it must find ways to encourage them to stay focused on developing their expertise. Defining graded levels of achievement for every role is an extremely effective way of doing just that.

These are just a few examples of managers guiding employees with a series of levels that lead to world-class performance. Levels of achievement like these are invaluable for a manager. When confronted by that thorny question “Where do I go from here?” the manager can now offer a specific and respected alternative to the blind, breathless climb up.

Simple and effective, it is called broadbanding. For each role, you define pay in broad bands, or ranges, with the top end of the lower-level role overlapping the bottom end of the role above.

each session began with a brief review of past performance. The purpose of this was not to evaluate — “You should do less of that. You should fix this.” Rather, the purpose was to help the employee think in detail about her style and to spark a conversation about the talents and nontalents that created this style. After this review, the focus always shifted to the future and how the employee could use her style to be productive.

great managers made a point of giving their feedback in private, one on one. The purpose of feedback is to help each individual understand and build on his natural talents. You cannot do this in a group setting.

Let him know that the interview will be a little different from other interviews. It will be more structured and more focused; less banter, more questions.

in the interview, ask open-ended questions that offer many potential directions, and do not telegraph the “right” direction — questions such as “How closely do you think people should be supervised?” or “What do you enjoy most about selling?” The direction he spontaneously takes will be most predictive of his future behaviors.

After you ask a question, pause and remain silent. If he asks you to explain what you mean, deflect his question. Tell him that you are really more interested in what he means. Say that it is his interpretation that is important.

A person’s unaided response to an open-ended question is powerfully predictive. Trust it, no matter how much you might want to hear something else.

the candidate gave you a nice little description of why she thought it was important to be candid and then claimed that it happens all the time. There is nothing wrong with this answer. But, lacking any specifics, there is nothing predictive about it either.

When you ask “Tell me about a time” questions, don’t judge the response on the quality of its detail. If you do, you will end up evaluating whether the person is articulate or whether the person has a good memory, rather than whether he or she has the particular recurring talent you want. Instead, judge the response on whether it was specific and top of mind.

A person’s sources of satisfaction are clues to his talent. So ask him what his greatest personal satisfaction is.

First, the routine is simple. Great managers dislike the complexity of most company-sponsored performance appraisal schemes.

Second, the routine forces frequent interaction between the manager and the employee.

Furthermore, frequent performance meetings make it much easier to raise the always-sensitive subject of the employee’s areas of poor performance. If you meet only once a year, you are forced to drop your criticisms on the employee all at once, like a bomb.

Third, the routine is focused on the future.

Therefore, while the first 10 minutes of the meeting may be used for review, the rest of the time is devoted to the truly creative work:

The Basic Routine The Strengths Interview At the beginning of each year, or a week or two after the person has been hired, spend about an hour with him asking the following 10 questions: 1. What did you enjoy most about your previous work experience? What brought you here? (If an existing employee) What keeps you here? 2. What do you think your strengths are? (skills, knowledge, talent) 3. What about your weaknesses? 4. What are your goals for your current role? (Ask for scores and timelines) 5. How often would you like to meet with me to discuss your progress? Are you the kind of person who will tell me how you are feeling, or will I have to ask?

6. Do you have any personal goals or commitments you would like to tell me about? 7. What is the best praise you have ever received? What made it so good? 8. Have you had any really productive partnerships or mentors? Why do you think these relationships worked so well for you? 9. What are your future growth and career goals? Are there any particular skills you want to learn? Are there some specific challenges you want to experience? How can I help? 10. Is there anything else you want to talk about that might help us work well together?

You can use these five career discovery questions at different times to prompt his thinking: 1. How would you describe success in your current role? Can you measure it? Here is what I think. (Add your own comments.) 2. What do you do that makes you as good as you are? What does this tell you about your skills, knowledge and talents? Here is what I think. (Add your own comments.)

3. Which part of your current role do you enjoy the most? Why? 4. Which part of your current role are you struggling with? What does this tell you about your skills, knowledge and talents? What can we do to manage around this? Training? Positioning? Support system? Partnering? 5. What would be the perfect role for you? Imagine you are in that role. It’s 3 p.m. on a Thursday. What are you doing? Why would you like it so much? Here is what I think. (Add your own comments.)