03 Sep 10 top tips in Leadership and Management
This is my 10 top tips in Leadership and Management. Do you agree and what tips can you add?
Performance Management
1. Use the Performance Formula (P=E+A+A+O) to diagnose performance (both good and bad). Performance is a function of clarity in your expectations of your direct reports, their ability to deliver on these expectations, their attitude (commitment and confidence) and being provided with the opportunity to perform. 99% of the reasons for star performance and under-performance are contained within this formula.
2. Reverse the ‘rewarding of under-performance and punishment of high performance’ paradigm. We tend to overload the good performers and back off holding accountable those that don’t deliver on expectations. Instead we should promote high achievers and put the under-performers under pressure and get rid of their avoidance strategy.
Strategy
3. Help employees understand your strategy and how they contribute to its execution. The CEOs and senior teams that take the time to personally explain the strategy to employees are much more successful at execution.
4. Horizontal alignment of goals is just as important as vertical alignment. Before signing off on goals, ensure that your direct reports consult with peers, cross-functional colleagues and other internal and external stakeholders to gain alignment. Not alone will this increase the quality of execution it helps to break down silos and enhances partnership
Communication and Change
5. Follow the William Bridges 4P guidelines:
- Purpose – why your message is important,
- Paint a picture of the future – what it looks like and feels like,
- Plan – how we are going to get there,
- Participation – how your audience can contribute to delivering on your vision
6. Dump email and the slide deck. Use a flip-chart, a YouTube clip, Twitter, write a blog or tell a story, pick up the phone or simply go around to their desk and talk to them instead.
Coaching and Mentoring
7. Trust in the relationship is crucial. You can gauge the level of trust in your coaching relationship by using the Trust formula T = (R+C+I)/SO, where R = Reliability in what I say, C = Credibility in what I do, I = Intimacy or the level of engagement in the face of difficult conversations and SO = Self Orientation. Here’s a video that elaborates further.
People Development
8. Spending time on employee development works.There is some evidence that dollar spend on corporate training is increasing but is it enough? Evidence suggests that if organisations spend 4 hours a week on employee development, productivity and results increase by a minimum of 20%
9. Don’t forget the Forgetful Curve. We forget 70% of what we learn within 24 hours of a training event. If you don’t use it or boost it you lose it!
10. You get a far greater bang for your buck by leveraging strengths.According to Peter Drucker: “One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence, it takes far more energy … to improve from incompetency to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence”.
