THE LEADER AS A PERFORMANCE COACH
[Jesus] said to [Simon and Andrew], “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 4:19 ESV
An effective Jesus-like leader acts as a performance coach. An essential duty of servant leaders is their ongoing investment in the lives of their followers.
Jesus was the preeminent performance coach, and He changed His leadership style appropriately as His disciples developed individually and as a group. When Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, He pledged them His full support and guidance as they became fishers of men. Jesus also empowered His followers to carry on the work of sharing the salvation message after He was gone. Through His hands—His effectiveness as a Servant Leader—Jesus was able to communicate to His disciples what was in His heart and His head about servant leadership.
So what does being a performance coach involve? These are the three basic components: performance planning, day-to-day coaching, and performance evaluation. Performance planning is the leadership aspect of servant leadership: providing direction and setting goals. Day-to-day coaching focuses on the servant aspect of servant leadership. That involves helping people win—accomplish their goals—by observing their performance, praising their progress, and redirecting their efforts when necessary. The third part of performance coaching is performance evaluation: servant leaders sit down with people and evaluate their performance over time.
Which of these three leadership activities do you think gets most of a manager’s attention? Most people guess performance evaluation—and, sadly, that is the truth.
Yet performance evaluation is often a flawed practice. If leaders rate all their people high, they would be accused of being too easy, and they themselves would be rated low. As a result, the normal distribution curve is alive and well. Managers are expected to rate only a few people high, a few people low, and the rest as average performers. When we ask managers, “How many of you go out and hire losers so you can fill the low spots?” everyone laughs. Of course leaders hire either winners—people who already have a good track record in what the managers want them to do—or potential winners—people who the managers think can become winners with proper coaching. Managers don’t hire losers. Why, then, do leaders have to give a certain number of people low ratings?
In Ken’s teaching example, performance planning means giving people the final exam ahead of time. In this goal-setting stage of performance coaching, the traditional hierarchical pyramid can stay upright: if there is a disagreement over goals, the leader wins because he or she represents the organizational goals.
When Moses went to the top of the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, he didn’t take a committee with him. Otherwise, he would have come down with three commandments and seven suggestions. Similarly, Jesus didn’t involve His disciples much in formulating the goals He came to accomplish. He had received those from the top of the organizational hierarchy—from His Father.
These two examples, however, do not mean that in our work in the home, community, and office we shouldn’t involve others in setting goals. You certainly can collaborate at work, with experienced people, and at home when the kids get older. When goals are established, though, the organizational or life role leader is responsible for making sure the direction is clear. In their life role leadership in a family, parents have to take responsibility for setting goals and objectives. We all remember times when we would say to our mothers, “All the other kids are doing it.” If your mother was like Ken’s, her response was always quick: “That’s because their name isn’t Blanchard.” Our parents were in charge of performance planning for us, their kids.
We can’t emphasize enough the importance of clarity of purpose in the performance planning role of a servant leader. If there is not clear communication of what a good job will look like when it is accomplished, somebody will end up frustrated—the leader, the follower, or both.
Some organizations do a good job of performance planning. Unfortunately, after goals are set and distributed, they often are filed away and forgotten until it’s time for managers to evaluate their people’s performances. Then everyone runs around frantically, trying to find the goals. To avoid this situation, leaders must engage in the most important element of servant leadership—day-to-day coaching—in which servant leaders help people reach their goals.
PAUSE AND REFLECT
Think back to a time when you were involved in a failure in communication resulting in a vast difference between what was expected and what was delivered. Recall the frustration and wasted energy that could have been avoided by initially testing for understanding.
When it comes to day-to-day coaching, the pyramidal hierarchy turns upside down, and servant leaders begin to work for their people. Now that the goals are clear, this aspect of being a performance coach is about teaching people the right answers—in other words, helping them accomplish their goals—so that when they get their performance review, it really will be a review. This principle also holds true in the family: after family goals are established and communicated, parents can serve their kids by being their cheerleaders, encouragers, and supporters as they work to accomplish their goals.
Whether organizational or life role leaders, servant leaders are all about helping people get As. Servant leaders aren’t threatened by people around them who perform well, because their confidence is secure in the unconditional love of God. Being rooted in God’s love permits servant leaders to see and respond to the success of others in a different way: they celebrate it rather than fear it.
A perfect example of someone who helps people get As is Garry Ridge, president and CEO of WD-40 Company. After Garry heard about Ken giving his students the final exam questions at the beginning of the semester, he decided to implement the “Don’t Mark My Paper; Help Me Get an A” philosophy for his company’s performance review system, because that philosophy aligned with Garry’s beliefs about leading and motivating people.
At WD-40, every manager meets with each direct report annually to discuss the essential responsibilities set forth in that person’s job description. Their discussion begins with the question “Is this still what you understand your job to be?” Once both parties are clear on the essential functions of the job, they work together to establish three to five observable, measurable goals for the coming year. This partnership aligns and clarifies expectations for both parties. Next comes day-to-day coaching—a key step in the process. The leaders continually diagnose their direct reports’ development level for each goal and adjust their leadership styles to ensure they are giving the direct reports the appropriate amount of direction and support. If people attain their goals at the end of the year and live the company values as they do so, they will get an A.
When managers have come to Garry to tell him someone isn’t working out and needs to be fired, Garry’s first question is “What did you do to help that person get an A?” If the manager can’t document the “Don’t Mark My Paper” process, it’s likely that Garry will fire the manager rather than the direct report. He has had to do that only a few times. Now managers all understand that their major role at WD-40 is to help people get As. Not only do the direct reports win, but so do the managers and the company.
Has this kind of performance planning and day-to-day coaching made a difference? In the last several years, WD-40 has had the highest stock price in company history. In its most recent employee satisfaction survey, filled out by 98 percent of the employees, the highest-rated statement was “I am proud to tell people I work for WD-40.” Do you think the employees respond that way just because of their job responsibilities, or is it because they are in a work environment that makes people feel good about being involved? What a great example of how to achieve both great results and human satisfaction!
PAUSE AND REFLECT
In this chapter, the emphasis has been on helping people become high performers. But leading like Jesus is much more than that. To Jesus, getting an A is beyond doing or performing. It is about being a person who models His character by serving others from a loving heart yielded to Him.
Read 1 Corinthians 13 and reflect on doing without being. The math is pretty simple: Everything – Love = Nothing!