Growing Great Employees Quotes

“Achieving mastery requires breaking through the shell of your own limitations—both actual and imagined—and struggling up to the freedom and enjoyment of real skill.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“Unfortunately the few employees who are consistently poor at keeping agreements often have the ability to convince you that it’s somehow your fault they’re not succeeding.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“Effective delegation is the single most powerful way for you to build trust in your employees' abilities.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“The only real measure of the effectiveness of my teaching is what happens in the mind of the person learning.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“MOVING TOWARD MASTERY Don’t Stop Yourself Honor How You Learn Practice”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“It seems to me there is always pain—or at least discomfort—involved in getting really good at something.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“When you’re ready to have the conversation, pick the time and place very carefully. Most people choose to terminate people at the end of the day; the most common day is Thursday. The rationale behind these choices is that if you do it at the end of the day, the person is less likely to run into colleagues on the way out, and doing it on a Thursday (and asking that he or she not come to work on Friday) gives the person a long weekend to begin to go though his or her emotional reaction. Out of common courtesy, I suggest you not fire people within a couple of weeks of Christmas, Thanksgiving, or their birthday.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“Omit any language that’s blameful or accusatory: you’re not trying to make the person see the error of his/her ways, or feel bad—you’re simply making it clear that they no longer have a job with the company, and telling them what will happen next.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“So, what’s the key difference between a good citizen of a group and a poor one? I find that the most useful place to draw the line is at the issue of others’ rights. Employees who respect others’ rights are aware of where they stop and the other person starts; they don’t habitually do things that undermine, inconvenience, or intrude upon others.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“Employees who consistently behave as though it is your responsibility to “make them successful”; who blame you or others for their lack of success; who don’t take the initiative to learn and grow—these employees are not fulfilling a key part of their role. It’s easy to get pulled into their worldview; that is, that their role is to be a passive observer of your efforts to “grow” them, and that it’s your fault if it doesn’t work.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“we don’t see any examples of her taking independent thought or action to advance her career or to grow professionally.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“Responsible: (1) Liable to be held to account for discharging one’s duty; (2) Able to make moral or rational decisions on one’s own and therefore answerable for one’s behavior; (3) Able to be trusted or depended upon; reliable.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“Someone who’s responsive to feedback would listen without interrupting, blaming, or accusing; ask questions for clarity; engage in discussions about next steps; and make efforts to change the behavior.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“manager’s bill of rights,” those basic things that you have a right to expect from your employees. Responsible employees: Are responsive to feedback Keep their agreements Manage their own growth Are “Good Company Citizens”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

“good summary: to hire people who are a good fit for your vision, your organization, and the job itself; to listen to them, challenge your limiting assumptions about them, and deal with them as individuals; to create clear agreements with them, provide balanced behavioral feedback, and delegate appropriately and well; to coach them to develop in areas where they have potential and interest.”
― Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers