9 ways to energize, empower and engage your employees

By: Garold (Gary) Markle

Dedicated to Energizing and Engaging the Human Spirit at Work

9 Ways To

Energize, Engage & Empower Your Employeesrit

1 9 Ways to Energize, Empower and Engage Your Employees

Contents3

5

6

8

10

12

13

15

18

20

21

24

26

29

30

Introduction

Section 1 – Energize

Principle #1 – Honor the Employee Iceberg

Principle #2 – Study a Sample of One

Principle #3 – Identify Salmon Syndrome

Section 2 – Empower

Principal #4 – Harness the Power of Praise

Principal #5 – Avoid the Weakness Trip

Principal #6 – Make People Development Management’s Job (Not HR’s Job)

Section 3 – Engage

Principal #7 – Career vs Job

Principal #8 – Putting Your Super Power to Work

Principal #9 – Balanced by Design

Conclusion

About the Author

9 Ways to Energize, Empower and Engage Your Employees

2

Introductiont’s been said that employees typically don't leave companies, but rather they leave

bosses. (http://fortune.com/2015/04/02/quit-reasons). It stands to reason then, therelationship between manager and employee could very well be the lynchpin when itcomes to improving productivity and building high performing teams. Yet, mounds ofresearch also exist to suggest we’re not very good at building this relationship.

Meanwhile, performance management systems have been put in place purportedlyto inspire and enroll or to persuade and motivate employees. The results tell a differentstory. Ninety percent of executives believe they don't work. Gallup reports as recently as May 2015 suggests that a whopping 68 percent of American workers are not engaged or are actively disengaged. Moreover, this number has hardly changed over time and it’s even worse outside the US. Employees hate them and managers view them as a waste of time. In fact, for roughly two decades around 70 percent of companies have either justchanged their performance evaluation system or have plans in place to. Why?

Presumably because they do not work and people don't like them. Why, then, doesthis statistic hold steady year after year despite all the revisions and edits to appraisalsystems? Why are the same companies who just made massive changes back in line tomake changes again? It is because the new systems still don't work and people stilldon't like them. The changes are only making things different, not better. As long asyou are evaluating employees, the statistics will remain the same.

Changes look like this: we go from assigning ratings on a classic 1 through 5(Likert) scale to using phrases instead. Surprisingly, people don't like being reduced to anumber. As it turns out, being summed up as “meets expectations”, “average” or even“outstanding” generally feels about the same. Next we try letters, like we did withgrades in school, because that’s familiar. Nope, people don’t like that either. So, we goback to numbers. After all, we need to quantify this stuff, but we’ll use 1 through 3instead, so it’s “simplified.” Round and round we go… making things different, notbetter.

I


Organizational Truism:People Hate Performance Evaluations. Those on the receiving side often find

them demeaning, while those tasked with delivering them view them as a profound waste of time.

IntroductionBy the way, in HR we have a little trick we like to use when people complain. We

make the process longer. Don’t like being graded by your boss? Let’s try a self-evaluation. Still dislike that process? We’ll do a 360. Still complaining? Let’s get yourspouse involved. It’s ridiculous. While the process is still widely practiced, employeesare demanding something – anything - better. The savviest companies are listeningand are shifting to a new way of thinking by replacing evaluating for coaching.

So how do you fortify the bond between the individual worker and a directsupervisor in a way that helps the company grow, while also Energizing, Empoweringand Engaging the human spirit at work? Stop evaluating and coach instead. Start byhaving a conversation with the person about their future. Better yet, teach your entireorganization to do it. Join the revolution to rid the business world of performancereviews by implementing these Nine Coaching Principles to Energize, Empower andEngage your team.


Section I - ENERGIZEObjective: Use Coaching to institutionalize listening in your organization and

watch it energize your people.

“Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.ʺ‐ Dr. Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

an you imagine a better way to energize someone, than by having a conversationwith them about the future? Their future? Managers often overlook this simple techniqueand brush off the advice by saying, “I already talk to my people all the time. We see eachother regularly. I have an open door policy. I conduct One-on-One meetings…” What’susually missing from the conversation, however, is to make the conversation about theindividual. Sure we talk to our people, but mostly it’s about the business, what thecompany needs, what the manager wants to talk about. Rarely, even in those one-to-onemeetings, does the manager flip roles and let the individual do most of the talking whiletaking time (and interest) to truly listen. Moreover, rarely do we ask them about and listento them talk about themselves, their needs, their aspirations, their frustrations.

The big fear in doing this is oftenthat we will get too “personal”. Those ofus classically trained in HR have beentaught to keep our companies “safe” byavoiding those topics and focusing on theworker, not the person. But more oftenthan not, we find we’ve hired more thanjust a brain and a set of hands. There is alot more under the surface that wouldbenefit us to acknowledge. If you ignorewhat lies below the surface, good lucktrying to get to know the person in frontof you in a way that truly engages andretains them. Rather than keeping yousafer, failing to acknowledge thosepersonal issues can actually put you atgreater risk. Ironically, risk is increased byusing performance evaluations (allegedly thereto protect the company against litigation),which more often than not, are actually used incourt against the company they are meant todefend.“In my 25-plus years of employment law practice, performance reviews have surfaced on numerous occasions. Every once in a while, they help the defense. Usually, however, it’s the plaintiff who benefits. That’s because performance reviews are frequently untimely

and inaccurate.”-Janove, Jathan. “Reviews Good For Anything?” HR Magazine June 2011: 121.

In Section I, we’ll discuss the first three Coaching Principles which center on energizing team members by listening to them and treating individuals as just that.

Energize:To Give Vitality

AndEnthusiasm

5

C


6

As an HR generalist in a series of Fortune 500 corporations, I was instructed to treatemployees more like “resources” than “humans.”

We went to great lengths to focus on “the worker” while avoiding, as much as possible,anything personal. What I soon discovered, however, is that when you go to the marketlooking for employees, people show up. They bring with them their families, their health,their financial challenges, their hobbies, and even their pets. When you try to draw a linebetween “the worker” and the rest of the human being that comes with them, you inevitablyhit the employee iceberg. Awareness of that messy stuff below the waterline is essential tounderstanding why people do some of the silly things they do.

Take the highly seasoned Field Office Manager who was hitting all her numbers butacting out in group settings. She was being highly disrespectful to both peers and her newlyappointed General Manager. The direct line of attack was to require her to cease and desistfrom all immature behavior. On the other hand, after engaging in a coaching process thatforced her to show her cards first, we identified that an underlying issue at the root of heranger was having been bypassed a third time for promotion without any real explanation as towhy. By addressing both issues – the surface level display of disrespect and the subsurfacehuman need to know why advancement has been curtailed – the organization stands the bestchance of getting rapid response to the requested behavior change and salvaging this long-time high performing worker. And who knows, if she wants it bad enough and has thewherewithal to make some fundamental improvements, she may one day become a GMherself.

Principal #1 – Honor the Employee Iceberg


7

In addition to explaining otherwise illogical actions,treating people as three dimensional human beings bygoing below the water mark also helps with engagementand retention. The default position for most kind-hearted managers is to treat direct reports like theywanted to be treated when they held a similar post. Thisstrategy may work with many, but seldom with all.

Take the high potential 38-year old engineer whowas tactfully avoiding her manager’s encouragement toseek promotion. She clearly had the skillset to take onmore responsibility and had held her current job longenough to move on. Any longer in her current role andshe’d likely be bypassed by less stellar peers. Her bosswas pushing her (as he had been pushed himself) to helpher achieve her true career potential. Why the illogicalfailure to launch?

The real reason is that she was trying very hard tohave a baby. She was fearful her window was closingand she’d struggled for years with conception. She andher partner were now thinking of adopting. Herassumption was that it would be easier for theorganization to allow her to take temporary leave fromher current position than from the more elevatedpost. She hadn’t talked with her manager about itbecause it was literally none of his business, and henever asked. When we introduced a coaching systemwhich requested her to talk about hopes and dreams forthe future, however, she quickly volunteered theheartfelt and pragmatic reasoning that explained hermysterious reluctance to take on moreresponsibility. She literally cried in relief that she couldtalk openly with her manager about her most significantlife goals. He responded almost immediately with a planthat would successfully accommodate both her personaland the organization’s business needs.

Over the last three decades I’ve accumulatedhundreds of stories that underscore the importance ofknowing the whole human being behind the worker. Irealize that this goes against the grain of what many,like me, are taught in the finest of HR schools. We’recautioned to be objective and dispassionate; we’retrained to take out “rater bias” and focus on how eachindividual compares to an ideal norm. However, I don’tthink that approach works to encourage behaviorchange, retention, motivation or promotion in the realworld and it almost never keeps you safe.

The quest for objectivity inevitably fails. Ratingsand evaluations are always subjective and we arerequired by law to avoid both “discriminant intent” aswell as “discriminant impact.” That means we’ve got tonormalize ratings for race, sex, age, Vietnam Veteranstatus, religion, medical needs, etc. You couldn’t beobjective if you wanted to. It’s quite literally illegal.


Notes:

8

As I’ve written elsewhere, I think the key to minimizing legal exposure has little to dowith remaining objectively above the water mark and stuffing the files with documentation ofnormal violations. The best strategy for legal protection is to curb righteousindignation. The people who sue you are angry. They’re hurt, embarrassed, andsurprised. They don’t feel understood, appreciated or acknowledged as a whole humanbeing. Because they hurt, they want you to hurt. And they’ll use everything you’ve put downin writing to extort pain from those who gave pain to them.

By honoring the employee iceberg – treating our human resources as human beings – wemay not end every conversation with a hug or a high-five. In fact, some people mayultimately need to be let go, and they probably won’t send you a Christmas card after youwalk them out the door. But if you acknowledge their humanity while confronting them aboutperformance gaps, they won’t send you a lawsuit either. You’ll understand and optimizemore and ruin less. Going below the waterline is both a better and safer way to run abusiness that runs on people.

So, how can you best deal with the employee iceberg?


Notes:

9

How many employees do you have to talk to in order to figure out how best to energizeand engage a whole company? To phrase the root question in more scholarly terms, whatsample size is optimum to make statistically valid logical inferences about a largerpopulation? For example, if you’ve got a thousand employees, collecting data from ten wouldseem too small, but sampling 500 would clearly be too many. Larger sample sizes are said toincrease precision, although they also greatly escalate costs of the query.

In graduate school, I remember spending a good deal of time studying samplingtechniques. There was even a mathematical formula for calculating the proper proportion tosample for an empirical study. While it is not my intent to bore you with such details, here itis without explanation:

Principal #2 – Study a Sample of One


2 0.25 ,⁄ 2 0.25⁄

The good news is that most of us in business are not really doing empirical studies with thepurpose of publication in an academic journal. More importantly, I think the answer to the questionposed above is optimally determined without a refresher in advanced mathematics.

If your goal is to energize and engage individuals in any population, the correct sample size is one. Furthermore, the correct generalization pool is also one.

Just because I was born a “Baby Boomer” does not mean I think in lock step with everyone elsewho arrived on this planet between 1946 and 1964. In fact, the whole idea of generationalgeneralizations is almost comical, if you really think about it.

In a recent cover story in HR Executive, columnist Will Bunch discussed popular strategies for“engaging Generation Y.” Also called “Millennials,” Gen Yers are normally considered people bornbetween 1980 and 1995. That’s a fifteen year time span.

In the same article where he shared bestpractices for dealing with this new and growingsegment of our workforce, Bunch also noted that aTowers Watson survey of more than 3 millionemployees showed that “in many key measures –including their interest in corporate socialresponsibility and desire for more trainingopportunities – the difference between Gen Yers andtheir older co-workers is minimal.” In other words,lumping fifteen years of people into a single poolmakes observations about the class relativelymeaningless.

10

While it is intuitively obvious that people born atdifferent times think differently, it is also true thatpeople born at the same time do as well. The ideathat you can motivate a very large population bytreating everyone the same is bad advice. We wouldsuggest quite the opposite. Treat everyone differently.

From a global HR strategy standpoint, perhapsthis sounds scary and dangerous. My experience overthe course of several decades, however, is that treatingindividuals as unique human beings is actually lessrisky than treating them as amorphous “humanresources.”

While clearly HR cannot expect to get to know allindividuals on a personal level, we can teach ourmanagers how to do so. We can also help create andstructure conversations between manager/direct reportdyads that will greatly increase the likelihood thatbonding will take place.

I’ve been using a system called “CatalyticCoaching” for nearly 25 years now. It is designed as areplacement for traditional performance evaluations. Itinvolves the use of three short forms in four kinds ofmeetings that take about five hours per person peryear. No labels. No grades. Just a highlyindividualized, structured two-way dialogue between adirect report and an immediate manager/supervisor.

Catalytic Coaching is an employee development and engagement program that helps “speedthe pace of significant change” when there is a performance gap. The goal is to workperformance problems faster and spend less time with bad employees so you can spend moretime with good ones. The system is scalable to organizations of any size and easily auditable byHR and senior management.

Programs like Catalytic Coaching don’t rely on generational stereotyping. They motivatepeople by engaging with them as individuals. Each person is treated as one of a kind. Harshrealities and disconnects are quickly dealt with. Talented people are coached and challengedharder than their less ambitious but well-functioning peers. They need this to rise to theirultimate potential. Job assignments are distributed based on individual passion and strengths.The whole organization performs on a higher plane when each individual is energized andengaged on a personal level.

So, how can you best leverage the many benefits of a sample of one?


Notes:

11

It goes something like this: When these hard charging executives were muchyounger and just starting out in their careers, someone came along and offered thema promotion that involved 50% more work for a 10% increase in pay. Those withSalmon Syndrome responded immediately by pumping their fists in the air andshouting enthusiastically, “Yahoo! My ship has come in!” Someone with commonsense would have, quite logically, asked for the weekend to think it over. They’dmutter something about “having a life” as they considered turning it down.

Salmon are genetically programmed to swim upstream, spawn and die. In muchthe same way, some people are wired to climb the organization ladder simply becauseit is there. Their sole objective is to reach the top, no matter what obstacles must beovercome; and they won’t be happy unless they are maximally challenged on a steepupward path, regardless of the cost or consequences.

As with Alcoholics Anonymous, realizing that you have the disease is the firststep toward living a healthy and productive life. When I’m able to say: “My name isGary and I have Salmon Syndrome,” a peer group responds in unison, “Hi, Gary!” andthe healing process begins.

Principal #3 – Identify Salmon Syndrome


12

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that SalmonSyndrome is all bad. Frankly, this professionalimbalance is an almost essential requirement to startor run most companies. The real problem comeswhen someone struck with SS attempts to coach ormotivate a “normal” person. If we treat them the waywe would like to be treated ourselves, we’re going toquickly experience problems. Normal people withbalanced lives (or for whom work is not the TOPpriority) do not want to trade places with a salmon,even if it means missing out on the nice paycheckand perks.

You can test for Salmon Syndrome using theyellow (Employee Input) sheet in the CatalyticCoaching process. The answer to the question “Whatdo you want to be when you grow up?” normallygives you the first big insight. Probe further ifsomeone you believe has high potential does notexpress interest in advancement, alwaysremembering that the first selection criteria foradvancement should be that the person beingpromoted actually wants the job.

“Mini-Me” is a character in the Austin Powersseries, not your direct report. Learn to tell thedifference.

Notes:


How can you leverage salmon syndrome where it exists and avoid assuming your people have it when they don't?

Section II - EmpowerObjective: Trade Coaching for evaluating to turn performance feedback into a

message that empowers.

“The job canʹt be finished only improved to please the customer.” ‐W. Edwards Deming

ne of the problems with performance evaluations is the focus on scoring historyrather than clarifying how to improve the future. Sure, the past is important and we canlearn from it, but we can’t change it. Great managers know what great sports coachesknow: behavior change happens in the future. Win or lose, ask any great coach what’s ontheir mind and they will undoubtedly tell you it’s the next game. What if we flipped theperformance conversation and focused that dialogue more on the future and less on thepast? Research tells us the best managers already do. Like great sport coaches, they aremuch more concerned with what’s in the windshield than the review mirror.

A second problem with performanceevaluations is the focus on fixing weaknesses ratherthan building strengths. Hard-wired into theconversation is the fallacy of telling the recipient,“you’re good at these things, but bad at thosethings, so fix what you’re bad at.” Somewhere alongthe way, the term “improvement" picked up aderogatory meaning because for many it hasbecome synonymous with deficiency. Nothing couldbe further from the truth. Perhaps it’s the idea thatthe lowest grade one can achieve on a traditionalappraisal is categorized or defined as “needsimprovement”. How ridiculous! Who among us cansay they have even one thing that cannot beimproved? No one, of course. We learned from thequality movement that all work is done by processand all process can be improved. So it should not bea surprise to anyone that areas for improvementexist, especially if those areas can be strengths to expand or even new things to add toexisting responsibilities. What should be more surprising is that your coach can pick frominfinity to identify the top four areas that should be prioritized and receive the mostattention in the year ahead.

Managers who standout instinctively know how to get the best out of their people byavoiding these two traps. The savviest managers break from the mold and start recognizingwhat their team members do well. “You’re strong in these things, keep going.” They alsoidentify future areas for improvement (which are not necessarily weaknesses) and rank themby priority. Great coaches carefully select these areas of focus not to harp on imperfectionsor to try to fix a weakness, but instead to stretch the individual and paint a picture of what’spossible or required down the road. “Stop doing those things and start doing these otherthings,” they coach. The tone is very different and much more effective than, “Last year, youwere a 4 in this area and a 3 in that area.” Instead, great coaches design their teams aroundweaknesses, build on strengths, and focus the team members specifically on the areas thatcan lead to improvement in the future.

In Section II, we’ll discuss three more Coaching Principles which focus on empoweringpeople by building teams and developing individuals around strengths.

Empower: To give

Authority,Make

Stronger

13

O


14

During a performance review, it’s quite common for a direct report to ask you to skip thegood stuff and go right to the things they need to change. This is particularly common withhigh performers who request you to forget the perfunctory preamble about Strengths andjump directly to the Areas for Improvement.

If your goal is to influence future behavior and not simply document the file, however,my counsel is to do exactly the opposite. Not only do I suggest that you talk about the goodstuff, I want you to do so with gusto.

Never underestimate the power of praise, especially when it is personal. Detailed formalrecognition of extra effort and superior contribution is perhaps the most direct route toobtaining a repeat performance. You’re not delaying the topic of behavior change when youstart a coaching session with praise; you’re locking in good behavior. Positive reinforcement,we learned in psychology, helps to avoid “extinction” – where a good behavior simply withersup and dies due to lack of attention.

In addition to reinforcing positive behavior, praise used in a career coaching session hasvalue on several other levels. First, it helps calibrate your credibility as a coach. Most peopleknow what they’re good at and recognize the truth in positive statements that others makeabout them. Hence, once they accept a compliment as legitimate, it makes it harder todiscount the messenger. If you go four for four with Strengths, it’s hard for them to argue,even with themselves, that you suddenly can’t hit the broad side of a barn with an Area forImprovement. The silent observation that “You don’t know me” doesn’t work very well onceyou’ve done an artful job of demonstrating the contrary.

Principal #4 – Harness the Power of Praise


15

Another reason that it’s important to conscientiously review Strengths before asking forimprovements is that it is inherently fair. This has even more meaning if you are reviewingyour observations with a layer of management above the person being coached and you‘resubmitting them in writing to the formal record. To be of ultimate value, praise must bepersonal. It must be replete with detailed examples.

I once observed a young MBA conduct a coaching session with a senior statesman whoheld two PhDs and three decades of seniority. It was the first time they’d formally talked sinceshe got the job of Vice President, a position for which he’d also interviewed. She did such athorough job of detailing his amazing impact as a “Thought Leader” that it literally broughthim to tears. After telling her that “No one has ever thanked me for those things,” herecanted his earlier declaration to retire. “I can work for you,” he concluded.

I witnessed another senior staff member receive praise for a strength his boss called“Ownership.” He defined that as “Acting like a family member and doing the right thing forour customers without fear of negative consequences.” In defending his assertion, he retold astory of how this gentleman stopped the assembly line in the middle of a production runbecause he sensed a quality issue. Another supporting story was about how this empoweredstaff member had gone against protocol to give a customer an immediate refund on anexpensive item even though he didn’t have a receipt. The customer was so impressed hecalled the General Manager to praise this uncommon act of faith and to pledge ongoingpatronage. Once again the coaching session ended in tears with the plaintive chorus of “I loveyou, man” stated in unison between these two long term work associates. The practice ofOwnership will undoubtedly be cemented for the duration of this employee’s career.

A final thought about praise comes from an old family adage: “If you can’t say somethingnice, don’t say anything at all.” If you can find nothing positive to say about someone, simplyfire him. You aren’t fooling anyone by keeping him around longer so that you can documentthe file. You’re more likely to make a big hole deeper by dumping on him and then keepinghim around to document failure.

How can you best harness the power of praise?

Notes:


16

What is the best thing to do with a weakness? According to the Gallup Poll data, the mostsuccessful managers don’t normally try to fix an employee’s weakness. Instead, they workaround it. Ignore it, if possible. While this sounds counter-intuitive to some, it actually agreeswith what most of us have noticed in life. Consider coaching.

What would a football coach do with a short but fast player who has quick hands? Try tofatten him up and make him stronger? Of course not. The coach would place him in thedefensive backfield where speed and agility are key. He would charge the small, fast guy withgetting faster. Meanwhile, he’d take his biggest, strongest player and challenge him tobecome bigger and stronger.

“Markle! Don’t put the ball on the floor!!” That’s what my basketball coach used toscream at me. Forty years later, the words still echo in my ears. At six foot seven inches tall, Iwas not a very adept dribbler. When I tried to dribble, the ball would hit one of my feet almostas often as it hit the floor. On the other hand, I could rebound with the best of them. So whatdid the coach do with me? He asked me to stand under the basket and retrieve missedshots. Did he ask me to work on my dribbling? Are you kidding? He actually forbade me fromdoing it. I got benched if I dribbled the ball, even if I did it successfully. The coach made itclear that my playing time would be determined by my ability to rebound. If I wanted tomaximize my contribution to the team, I would not attempt to become some kind of well-rounded version of Michael Jordan. I would emulate Dennis Rodman – the ultimate reboundingspecialist.

Principal #5 – Avoid the Weakness Trap


In Catalytic Coaching, we ask managers to selectfour “Areas for Improvement” that they want a directreport to focus on for the upcoming year. Since wecompel them to do this immediately after discussing“Strengths”, it‘s quite natural that people draw thewrong conclusions.

Their mind thinks in parallel structure. Theyselect four things that form the person’s competitiveadvantage and call those Strengths. They assume thenthat the next section is where they “write him up” forhis shortcomings. If they follow this instinctual path,however, they will greatly reduce the effectiveness ofthe coaching process. They’ll fall quickly into TheWeakness Trap spending good energy on a bad idea.

For a fully functioning employee, Areas forImprovement are more productively focusedon Strengths that a coach would like to see more of. Ican recall several years ago praising an executiveassistant for her “Organization Skills” underthe Strengths section only to request that she usethese abilities more aggressively as an Area forImprovement. Rather than smile with bemusement athow I muddled my complicated travel plans, Ichallenged her to take them on as one of herresponsibilities. Was she deficient in travelplanning? Absolutely not. She had never been askedto do it. It was, however, a wonderful way for her toenhance her contribution.

17

No matter what I say to managers and supervisorsin coaching training sessions, people seem to miss thispoint. When I work with them one on one (in a ritualwe call “In-Flight Training”) it is often their biggestrevelation. “I didn’t know we could ask her to do moreof what she’s good at,” they’ll say, despite the fact thatI made this point several times in class. Once theyhave this experience, however, the light comes on andthey advance to a different level of coachingeffectiveness.

When people tell me that coaching becomesredundant over the years, often the reason is thatthey’ve fallen into a rut of treating Areas forImprovement like Weaknesses. Here’s what someonetold me recently. “I’ve written Thomas up as needingto work on his Analytical Skills for the last threeyears. I can do it again, but I don’t really think he’sgoing to improve.” When I asked if Thomas was worthkeeping, the answer was both quick andunequivocal. “Absolutely! He produces a high volumeof work.” The only thing needed here was for thecoach to refocus his employee’s improvement effortson things that were more realistic andvaluable. Challenge Thomas to do more heavy lifting,just don’t assign him tasks that require heavy analysis.

Notes:


18

The same ideas apply at home. When a child walks through the door with a report cardshowing five A’s, two B’s and one D, what do we always talk to her about? The low grade, ofcourse. We tell her how the subpar subject matter is critical to proper growth anddevelopment and force her to spend more time focused on areas in which she’s potentially illequipped to excel. Instead of lecturing our mathematically-inclined daughter on the meritsof mastering English and Geography, if that’s where she’s behind, perhaps we’d be betterserved to encourage her to focus the bulk of her attention on Physics and Calculus, whereshe sits at the head of her class. After all, who cares whether the nuclear physicist thatdesigns the first truly viable electric car can write creatively or explain haiku? And hercomputer or secretary can clean up her misspelled words.

How should you avoid The Weakness Trap?


19

Jim Collins says that it’s leadership’s responsibility to “get the right people on the bus,the wrong people off the bus, and everybody in the right seats.” Interestingly, he doesn’t saythat it’s HR’s job. It’s management’s responsibility to make this happen.

My question to Mr. Collins is simple. How do you suggest we do that, Jim? My answer isequally simple: coaching. Not evaluating. Not grading. Coaching.

In sports, a coach is responsible for picking who is on her team, who plays whatposition, who is a starter, who is disciplined, and who is off the team. In professional sports,an owner gives a coach money and people with a mandate to get them to play together in away that allows them to win. When they fail to win, owners typically want to know whatchanges are pending. When a coach fails to get her team to win and runs out of ideas forchange, it is time for a new coach.

In business, we’ve come to use the term coaching to represent the advice and counselgiven by a consultant hired by a top executive. Since it is the executive being advised whonormally makes the employment decision, however, this appears to be a poor use for themetaphor. A more accurate label for this value exchange might be executive counseling. It’snot the same.

Principal #6 – Make People Development Management’s Job (Not

HR’s Job)


20

Coaching is more than giving advice and counsel. It’s also more than completing aperformance review — evaluating a direct report’s individual performance againstcompetencies derived from cultural values and a job description. The Individual’s Ability isimportant to both assess and discuss, but so are the Individual’s Interest andthe Organization’s Need. A coach needs to soberly examine the intersection of these threecritical variables if they expect to create a high performing team and ultimately a winningorganization.

How many times have you encountered an individual in a job who simply lacks the desireto perform? Perhaps they had interest at one point in time, but now it’s gone. They could doa good job, they just no longer care to make the effort. The coaching challenge is todetermine what happened to their interest. Can it be rekindled or is it gone for good?

In some situations evolving interest can still be accommodated within the sameorganization. It all depends on need. If an individual has become bored with a work routinehe’s done a thousand times, perhaps you can change it up. Alternatively, perhaps you canfind another need that would be a good match for his interest and ability. If so, can you movehim over, up or down? This is what Collins calls finding the right seats. If not, despitepresence of both ability and need, it’s off the bus he goes.

An organization with need but lacking resources with interest or ability should berecruiting, either internally or externally. Take the CEO whose son was his obvious heirapparent. Despite having everything needed to do the job, including brainpower, formaleducation, work experience and a last name that rhymes with “owner”, he was reluctant tostep up and accept the full weight of responsibility of the top office. In short, he didn’t wantto replicate his father’s workaholic lifestyle. When faced with the option of working forsomeone other than his father, however, the young man quickly decided to quitequivocating. He accepted the CEO role and took his chances on life balance.

Sports coaches have a roster to fill. They need a full bus with the best possible playersready and eager to give all they’ve got to succeed. The whole organization will rise or fall as afunction of their decisions. Sounds a lot like business to me.

How do you best fill your bus?

Notes:


Section III - EngageObjective ‐ Convert Coaching guidance into personal development plans and

follow‐through in a way that perpetually engages the individual.

“If you are not in the process of becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don’t want to be.”

‐ Dale Carnegie

ave you ever worked in an environment where your developmental goals weresimply thrust upon you from a manager rather than resulting from at least somecollaboration with, and input from, you? How engaging was that? Too often thetraditional performance management systems miss this vital step of involving theindividual in a process that generates a sound plan for the year ahead. Instead, theoutcome is frequently a development plan or set of goals that may not be relevantfor the individual, may be unrealistic, or even may be boring to someone seekingmore challenge.

The fatal flaw is aconversation that is one-sided andmakes requests of the individualsimply for the betterment of theorganization. Coaching ensures amore interactive dialogue thatsuccessfully results in positivebehavior change because both theindividual and organization’sobjectives are being considered.Development plans represent theoverlap between personal growthand professional needs. Put anotherway, you are far more likely to getanother individual to do somethingyou want when they see that it alsohelps them get something theyneed.

Engage-To Occupy,

Attract, Participate, or

Become Involved

21

H


In Section III, we’ll discuss the final three Coaching Principles which aim toengage your talent in personal development initiatives that also deliver bottom-lineresults for the organization.

22

Principal #7 – Career vs. JobOne of my favorite questions to ask an

auditorium full of employees is, “How many of you havea career?” The hands usually go up rather slowly.Audience members glance around the room atcolleagues to determine whether or not they shouldself-identify. Isn’t it a bit ironic, however, that anyonewho works has a career, even those who don’t activelypursue them?

A career is a job with time-based context. It hasa sense of both history and direction. A good career isone that has depth, meaning, and purpose as well as acompelling future. It features work that aids in yourgrowth and development and helps you become abetter human being. It defines you more than burdensyou. A successful career personifies not just the wayyou make your living, but rather who you really are.

In a recent HBO Special, comedian Chris Rockspoke about the difference between a career and a job.“With a career,” he said, “there is never enough time.

The Oxford EnglishDictionary defines career asan individualʹs ʺcourse orprogress through life.” Theetymology of the term comesfrom the 16th century Frenchword carriere which meantʺroad” or “racecourse.ʺ Incontrast, Wikipedia defines ajob more simply as “a regularactivity performed inexchange for payment.”


With a job, there is always too much time.” How true. Andhow unfortunate for those stuck in what they considerjobs.

Rock’s observation certainly makes sense, but I’mnot sure it goes far enough to fully differentiate these twolife experiences. More importantly, those of us involved ingetting work done through others might want to explorethe dichotomy a bit further. On first, and I think finalblush, business owners, managers and supervisors benefitfrom attracting, retaining and developing career-focusedemployees.

I realize that many reading this column think thatyou’re at a decided disadvantage in the career-creationcontest. Your business may not be particularlyglamorous. A great portion of the work you need donefeatures activity that appears far from intrinsicallyrewarding. It may involve repetition, manual labor, dirtand grime. I think it’s possible to elevate almost anyconversation about job to one focused on career, if wegain a more accurate understanding of the twoperspectives and learn to connect with the human spirit ofthe people doing the work.

Take Hector, our window washer. It’s hard to believein this day and age that a man in his sixties could work sixto seven days a week, eight to ten hours a day cleaningwindows, but he does. Rain or shine, summer or winter,Hector climbs up and down ladders all day long. It’s hard,physical work. It’s also more than a little dangerous. Andyet the thing about Hector is that he is always smiling. Heloves to talk to his customers and get to know theirstories. He has serviced many families in ourneighborhood for more than two decades and knows allabout their ups and downs, successes and failures. Andwe’re only one of several large communities that Hectorserves.

Hector has an interesting business model. Hedoesn’t advertise. He doesn’t even ask for referrals. Hesimply gets them. It’s hard not to tell others about hisexcellent work, positive outlook, and fair prices. Hereturns year after year to the same houses and has awaiting list several weeks in advance.

I talked with Hector about his feelings toward thefuture and he admits that he’ll have to one day quit. He’snot looking forward to it, however. He loves hiscustomers and likes staying busy. He takes great pride ineach and every window he cleans and knows that hisquality of work will be all but impossible to replicate.Hector’s job is to wash windows. His career is to treat hiscustomers to a fresh perspective on the outside world.

“A job is not a career. I think Istarted out with a job. Itturned into a career andchanged my life.”

‐ Barbara Walters

23

“Whether we call it a jobor a career, work is morethan just something wedo. It is a part of who weare.”

‐Anita Hill


24

My father had more than a 30-year career in the automotive industry. For the firsttwenty or so, it was a pretty awesome experience. His work as a business manager withGeneral Motors defined him, fulfilled him, and gave him sustenance well beyond the market-competitive pay and benefits provided. In the last seven to ten years, however, it became ajob. A shift in leadership and corporate culture left him in an endurance contest with only oneoverriding objective – retirement.

I’m extremely grateful that my father realized his dream of fully funding his pensionplan. I’m even more grateful that the series of jobs he endured paved the way for him tofocus on his ultimate career objective – to read every important book ever written. He’sworked full time on this quixotic quest steadily for more than twenty years now. Happily forhim, he still has a few publications to go.

In one key respect, I’ve never aspired to be like my father. I don’t yearn for retirement.Just as importantly, as I watched him go through those final years of torture, I made a vowthat I’d never remain in a position that depleted my soul. So when my nine year career atExxon began to display characteristics of a job, I made a break. I did it again four years laterand then twice more before settling into a situation where I have experienced almostunlimited opportunity for growth.

Don’t get me wrong. The last thing in the world I’m suggesting is that you should followmy personal path – leave a comfortable executive level position and start your own company.Rather, my suggestion is that you find your own. If that involves starting your own business,so be it. For most, it means making sure that the work you do in the job you currently holdsomehow fits in context of a larger life plan. If you’re in a future audience where I ask myfavorite question, I want you to be able to raise your hand quickly and high.

So, how do you make sure that your career doesn’t dead end in a job?

Notes:


25

Superman can fly. The Flash can run really fast. Wonder Woman is not only superstrong, she’s got bulletproof jewelry. So, what’s your super power? What skill or ability doyou possess that is out of the ordinary and how have you harnessed that super power in yourwork? What special gift have you been given to make this world a better place?

Perhaps the first person I ever observed with a super power is my mother. She has theuncanny ability to make friends with anyone almost instantly. You could trap my mother on acrowded elevator with a group of complete strangers in a foreign city and before they couldpry the doors open, she’d have heard at least three life stories. At least one would havecried. Total strangers tell my mother things they wouldn’t tell a licensed therapist. Sheshares this special prowess with at least a couple of bank presidents that I know who’ve builtvery successful careers around their uncanny ability to make friends.

Barack Obama is a super human orator. Whatever you think about his ability to run thecountry, you have to hand him that. Ronald Reagan was a great actor. Again, forget yourpolitical persuasion for a minute and just remember how perfectly he acted the part ofpresident. And think for a minute how each of them leveraged their super powers as afoundation for their entire careers.

You can question his morals and values, but Tiger Woods’ super power is the ability toget a little white ball to fly long distances and land precisely where he wants it. Michael Vickcan scramble. Like Tiger, he’s made some very poor life decisions, but on a football field hecan turn a busted play into a golden opportunity like no one before or since.

Principal #8 – Putting Your Super Power to Work


26

Marcus Buckingham writes extensively about the importance of finding and leveragingyour strengths. According to his research, however, he says we do it much too rarely. Hecontends that less than twenty percent of the working population hold jobs that allow them todo what they do best with the majority of their time. These “twenty percenters,” aredisproportionately successful and happy.

Please understand that I realize that your super power, like mine, is probably not on parwith those from some of the individuals I mentioned above. For example, the other day I tolda class that I think my super power is “Words.” By that, I mean I can describe feelings andobservations in a way that is interesting, useful and instructive to others. It’s a similar superpower, perhaps, to that of Shakespeare, Martin Luther King, or Bob Dylan. They just havemore of it. Nonetheless, and on whatever scale, it is probably the best I’ve got.

I feel very fortunate and a bit proud that I’ve come to find myself as an author, speaker,consultant, and teacher in a role that calls upon me to use my super power on a regular androutine basis. I also find that much of my energy in professional development and careercounseling centers around the quest of helping individuals identify their special gifts in orderto capitalize on them and find work that enriches their psyches as well as their bank accounts.

Another important thing to remember about a super power is that it usually comes witha price tag. In fact, the larger the gift, the more obligation one normally feels to put it togood use. It’s not a coincidence that Superman felt a need to help humanity. Bruce Wayne(aka Batman) was not comfortable enriching only himself. Because of their special abilities,both of them felt obliged to pitch in and fight the crime lords that were laying siege to theircities.

Likewise, Ted Turner has used his super power of vision to not only redefine television,but to save our western frontier from unrestrained development. Bill Gates has used his superpower for software to not just amass billions of dollars in personal fortune, but now tosystematically give it all away.

On a smaller scale, I’ve worked with countless highly successful entrepreneurs andsenior business leaders who are blessed with super powers of all shapes and sizes. Whenthey identify and harness these gifts properly, they create meaningful and life sustaining workfor not just themselves, but for countless others. To me, these are the heroes who will leadus out of difficult and troubling times. Yes, vote for the politicians you think will best serveyour interest and then hope for the best. But, for everyone’s sake, dear citizens of Gotham,let’s help those with potential to create and sustain meaningful work find and utilize theirspecial talents. And by all means, on whatever scale you register your own super power, let’sstart with you!

How do you get your employees to put their super powers to work?

Notes:


27

“Work-Life Balance” is an area for improvement that comes up a lot in executivecoaching conversations, especially with hard chargers in search of advancement. Notingperceived imbalance on an evaluation or coaching form and sharing your concern with a directreport though seldom yields either insight or behavior change. You’ve got to dig a littledeeper to make a difference. Here are three questions that should assist you in doing that.

Out of balance for whom? Another way of saying this is, “Are they happy?” What’s out ofwhack for one may be a walk in the park for another. Different people have different interestsand capacities. Sometimes someone works incessantly because they enjoy thechallenge. Sixty hours in the office for Sally may make her feel important and provide a muchneeded sense of contribution. Meanwhile, Bill may struggle to maintain the thirty-two hoursrequired to qualify him for benefits. Be sure not to overly impose your world view on a goodperforming direct report who hasn’t asked for that kind of counsel.

I’ve written previously about what I call Salmon Syndrome (SS). It’s a genetic disorderthat causes entrepreneurs and other true believers to swim upstream, spawn and die. Workdefines them. Work is the central focus of their lives. All else fits in the smallcracks. Fortunately or unfortunately, we normally have only a small percentage of ouremployee population who suffer from Salmon Syndrome.

The point here is to be careful. If you have SS, try not to impose those values on yourdirect report unless the job absolutely requires it. If it’s your employee who suffers from SS,just remember that comfortable stasis for her might be horribly unbalanced to you. Use thejob as a reference point. If she’s going to inevitably burn out and fail, help her understandthat the only way she’ll benefit in the long run is if she properly paces herself.

Principal #9 – Balanced By Design


28

Is the job designed for success? If the QualityMovement has taught us anything, it’s that the roots ofmost problems lie in systems. Much more often thannot, individual failure is a function of the system orprocess that they’ve been asked to work within. It’s asetup. No one can be successful, if they have animpossible quest. Hence, when you see someone whoappears unhappy with his work-life balance, your firstinstinct should be to question job design. Whether heasked for the job to be this way or he inherited it assuch, the challenge is to determine if someone else(that you could attract and afford) could do better. Ifnot, and you’re not going to replace him, a good coachshould do more than preach about the virtues of lifebalance. She should assist in the process of designingthe job so that it makes balance possible.

In special cases where imbalance is a function of ashort term surge, measures can be taken that aretemporary. When the source of imbalance ispermanent, it likely calls for restructuring. Workpressure can often be relieved through delegation, butonly if there is someone capable of being delegated towith the capacity to accept extra responsibility.

If you drive any vehicle long enough and hardenough, it will eventually show you its weakness. Forone that may be the cooling system, for anothertires. A late model Ferrari can be driven pretty fast fora long time, but eventually even it will comeapart. Overstressing people can result in depression,substance abuse, damaged relationships, divorce oreven suicide. While all of those symptoms may notmanifest at work, I trust that you wouldn’t want toknowingly contribute to harming a co-worker whosecareer you manage.

Is this person really a good match for the job? Ifthey’re not happy and the job is well-designed, wecome to the only other logical source of theproblem. The imbalanced role player is playing out ofposition. As Jim Collins has advised, it ismanagement’s responsibility to get “the right peopleon the bus, the wrong people off the bus andeverybody in the right seats.”

We twisted Samantha’s arm into taking a SalesDirector position because we needed to fill a criticalvacancy. Even though we knew she wasn’t a perfect fit,she was the best we had available at thetime. Alternatively, Harry begged to be promoted toCFO and, even though we had our concerns, we wentahead and gave him what he requested. Now, becauseof their poor fit, they each struggle daily to keep upwith job demands. However we created the mismatch,there are only two logical ways to move forward.


Notes:

29

If the root of the problem is lack of experience or training, the struggling direct reportmay be able to eventually get this from doing the job. We can help him or her “powerthrough” the adjustment period. Perhaps there are courses that could also acceleratenarrowing the skill gap, or you could consider assigning a mentor.

If the root, though, is hard-wired into the person, the path to resolution is moredisruptive. It seldom makes sense to ask an All-Star catcher to pitch or your best high diverto swim a relay. More seasoning or training isn’t going to change that. If we’ve made amistake, let’s fix it expeditiously while there is still a chance of win-win.

I had a recent experience with an executive workshop where nearly a third of theparticipants described their lives as supremely out of balance. Now, these were no run-of-the-mill random sample of employees. They were highly valued top tier managers that theirorganizations saw fit to send to an expensive week-long training course in hopes that they’dcome back and lead their organizations to greater prosperity.

In relating their personal dilemmas to their classmates several were brought totears. Because of the way they’ve allowed their roles to evolve, they are being stressed to thelimit and personally short-changed, along with their spouses, their children, their families,and their friends.

To return home from an introspective retreat and say “I need to improve my Work-LifeBalance” is not enough. They need to take action and make changes or they will inevitablyfall. These overtaxed leaders will either leave physically or emotionally. If nothing changes,it’s a clean sweep — everyone loses, including their employers. They left knowing that theirfirst step in helping others is to help themselves. Let’s hope that their coaches are smartenough to work with them to help them get better balanced by design.


How can you help your own employees get more balanced by design?

Conclusion

30

A great deal of work has gone into the study of Employee Engagement, which led tocountless innovative ways to improve the problem of disengaged workers. Many of theseideas are quite interesting and effective. Most, however, fail to address one of the potentialroot causes of that disengagement - the damage done to people in performance reviews. It isakin to taking multiple medications to help you feel better after eating harmful food, ratherthan changing to a healthier diet. But what if your performance management system was alsoan employee engagement tool at the same time?

Instead of continuing the poorly performing practice of annual reviews and scratchingyour head to come up with ways to improve engagement, try coaching instead of evaluating.Start with the Nine Coaching Principles shared here. Watch performance managementconversations become more effective and witness the buy-in and participation of your teamincrease. While you endeavor to make this change, be aware of two truths about performancemanagement systems. If your approach does either of these two things, it is doing moreharm than good:

1. Summarize performance with a label or grade2. Attempt to justify next year’s salary increase with last year’s performance

The thing is, a lot of people are talking about this topic these days…that it’s time tostop doing performance reviews. The question is what to do instead and there are manyinteresting ideas being tested. Catalytic Coaching is different because it is well beyond thetesting phase. It has worked for several hundred companies and it has worked for over twodecades. Unlike performance appraisals, our clients actually look forward to the annualcoaching session. Imagine your people saying that about your performance review system!

Catalytic Coaching is a future-focused, two-way conversation between manager andemployee with the employee’s development as the focal point. Employees on the receivingside have called it life-changing. Managers have said they wish they had this tool years ago.Senior leaders often refer to the process as a game changer. Hopefully by implementing theseNine Coaching Principles you will find the same to be true as you aim to strengthen thatcritical connection between boss and employee, and to Energize, Empower and Engage yourteam.

We invite you to visit us at energage.com to see how simple the process is, how easy itis to scale, and what others are saying about it. Buy the book, try our software for free, andcheck out the tools, training and services we offer to help support Catalytic Coaching. Eitherway, come by energage.com and help us put the human back in human resources.


31

Garold (Gary) MarkleEnergage Founder and CEO

Garold Markle is author of Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review and No More Performance Evaluations! Gary is also founder and CEO of Energage, Inc. For more of his teachings go to Energage.com.


Energage is a management consulting firm uniquely dedicated to Energizing and Engaging thehuman spirit at work.

Inspired by Dr. W. Edwards Deming and the Total Quality Management movement, we are on aquest to rid the world of performance evaluations. Research confirms what many haveinstinctively believed for years – the Draconian practice of rating and ranking employees is, atbest, a waste of time and, at worst, an enormous legal liability. Worse yet, they are frequentlycited as the number one killer of teamwork, innovation, motivation and results. We believe thereis a better way!

Energage, Inc. founder and CEO, Gary Markle, knew something was wrong nearly 30 years ago.After six hours of sweating it out in a small, unventilated Baton Rouge office where he had todeliver bad feedback to a good performer to justify management’s forced rankings, he realizedthere had to be a better way. Gary left the organization and began working on an altogetherdifferent tool for employee development, which led him to write the book “Catalytic Coaching: TheEnd of the Performance Review.” He founded Energage in 1999 and built the team that now trainsorganizations to implement a more evolved approach to performance management.

We give our clients a competitive advantage in the war for talent by helping them implementcutting edge strategies for performance management, talent identification and leadershipdevelopment through Catalytic Coaching, Transformational Teambuilding and RetainedConsulting. We help them win by creating cultures where champions are inevitable, whereemployees are both energized and engaged at work.

While our offices are located in North Georgia just outside of Atlanta, our clients operate aroundthe globe, stretching from coast to coast in the U.S. and Canada all the way to Asia and the U.K.

Dedicated to Energizing and Engaging the Human Spirit at Work

32 9 Ways to Energize, Empowerand Engage Your Employees

9 ways to energize, empower and engage your employees

Documents