“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.”
—STEPHEN R. COVEY
REMEMBER THE EQUATION. Being a great Leader plus a great Manager equals Accountability (L + M = A). Also, remember there is a distinct difference between the two.
To start this discussion on management, let’s admit the truth: you can’t “manage someone.” Management is not what you do to someone; it’s what you provide for someone. If you’re feeling like you have to manipulate or overly manage someone, you have a people issue. As Jim Collins states in his book Good to Great, “The moment you feel like you have to manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.” Management boils down to five basic practices. To the degree you do them well, “accountability” will be the byproduct. You’ll get everything you want out of your people without their feeling “managed.”
PRACTICE 1. KEEPING EXPECTATIONS CLEAR
A boss will often ask us, “How do I hold my people accountable?” The answer is that without clear expectations, you can’t. Therefore, you must begin by setting clear expectations. Great managers communicate to their direct reports in crystal-clear terms what role they are to play. Yet this practice does not work only from the top down. Just as your direct reports must understand your expectations of them, you must understand their expectations of you. It’s a two-way street.
If you’re honest with yourself, you probably aren’t being that clear about your expectations of your people. Here are the four areas in which you must have clear expectations:
1. Roles. Let’s return to the five major roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities for the Right Seat that we covered in chapter three. You owe it to each of your people to clearly articulate at a high level the work and outcomes for which they’re being held accountable. Our recommendation is to boil it down to five major roles. If necessary, you can provide specifics with a detailed job description. But start at a high level.
2. Core Values. As we shared in chapter four, these are the inherent qualities that ultimately define your culture and the soul of your organization. You must teach your people the company’s Core Values so they know exactly how you expect them to act and make good decisions in your absence that align with the organization’s culture.
3. Rocks. These are quarterly key priorities (often referred to as goals, objectives, or initiatives). We prefer to call them “Rocks,” a term made popular by Stephen R. Covey and Verne Harnish. It is vital that you and your direct reports agree on the one to seven most important priorities that they must complete in the next ninety days. When your direct reports are completing Rocks that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART), they are more engaged in moving your organization forward. To be clear, set them with your people, not for your people. Here’s how:
Diagram 14
4. Measurables. These are also known as metrics or key performance indicators. When each person has one or more numbers to measure their performance, it gives them a clear picture of whether or not they’re winning. When each of your people has numbers to hit, it is the essence of pure accountability and clear expectations. There is nothing clearer than a number. Numbers give you data, the facts. And, as John Adams stated so eloquently, “Facts are stubborn things.” When we expect people to achieve a certain level of productivity, supervising them becomes much easier because the measurement adds a level of objectivity. We’re able to cut through assumptions, egos, opinions, and emotions—and focus on deliverables.
While creating a scorecard for his transportation company, P.B. Industries, Andrew Park challenged his team to think carefully about which numbers could predict success or failure. The head of safety felt that “accidents” (a trailing indicator) would be a good number to track weekly. Andrew asked him what activities would be good predictors (leading indicators) of when an accident might occur. The head of safety cited three poor behaviors by drivers: failure to take their legally required thirty-minute breaks, hard braking, and speeding. Onboard units were monitoring each of these things, so they became the measurables that Andy reviewed weekly with his direct reports. This brought tremendous focus to safety in general and helped identify drivers who were clearly below The Bar.
Given the concept of “measuring,” you might feel a little uncomfortable or believe that your people might feel uncomfortable being measured. Please know that collaboration and competition are not mutually exclusive. We didn’t survive as a species without competing for food and collaborating together to find it, kill it, and eat it. They’re both ingrained deeply in our DNA. That’s why knowing whether we’re winning or losing keeps us focused.
Think about any sporting event that you enjoy either as a participant or as a spectator. What keeps you focused? It’s measurement. It’s the numbers! In golf, the leader board summarizes each individual golfer’s scorecard and tells you where every player stands versus par for the course. In football, hockey, and basketball, it’s the scoreboard. Imagine for a moment watching your favorite sport without a scoreboard. How engaged would you be? How engaged would the players be? You want to know whether your team is winning or losing—and by how much. That’s what keeps everyone fully engaged. You measure the game by those results.
Let’s apply this to business. How can we expect to get the most from our people if we don’t provide them with a number or numbers that they are held accountable for delivering each week? There is an often-heard quote, “Employees respect what management inspects.” Without a number, people expend energy on staying (or appearing to be) busy instead of focusing their energy on activities that truly generate results. Great bosses appreciate effort, but they focus on results.
Anna Saville of JA Frate, shared this story about the value of everyone having a number: “Years ago, as a member of the Operations Team for a local trash hauler, we were challenged to increase driver productivity. With input from the drivers and information about their coverage area, we set daily targets with them for average pick-up time, number of containers, and the number of stops that they could complete. With these measurements in place, we were able to challenge the drivers to increase their productivity. We posted their results daily, and at the end of each week, the drivers that made their goals had their name placed in a hat for a drawing for a $500 fuel card. We were able to watch the productivity numbers skyrocket as the stops per day increased and the time at each stop decreased.”
Numbers don’t lie. As with facts, they also are stubborn things. You delivered the numbers or you didn’t.
If you’re struggling to identify measurables to establish with your direct reports, here’s a short list of examples from many industries to get your gears turning:
• Sales appointments scheduled
• Proposals submitted
• New deals closed
• Errors made
• Customer complaints
• Defective parts
• Product returns
• A/R greater than forty-five days
• Service times
• Utilization rate
• Customer satisfaction rating
• Overtime hours
• Billable hours
• Ancillary sales
Now that we have you thinking about measurables that may apply to your department, let’s get back to our earlier point. Expectations are a combination of all four areas: Roles, Core Values, Rocks, and Measurables. When you keep your expectations clear, you will rarely have to fire anyone that does not meet them. They will usually quit because they realize they can’t live up to your expectations. This is the healthiest and fairest approach.
Paul Ruby, general manager of the Herrington Inn in Geneva, Illinois, keeps his expectations clear through “The Herrington Rules—Creating Guests for Life,” which he emphasizes with all employees. We’ve summarized them here:
1. Let guests know what you can do, not what you can’t do.
2. Turn a problem into an opportunity to create a guest for life.
3. Believe that to serve others is to serve oneself.
4. Never allow guests to do something for themselves that you can do for them.
5. Make each guest feel special, as if they were our only guest.
6. The guest is not always right, but what matters is that they are still our guest and need to stay that way.
7. Be consistent—remember that you’re “on stage” all of the time.
8. 15–10–5: Focus your attention on any guest within 15 feet; smile and make eye contact with any guest within 10 feet; and greet any guest within 5 feet—never turn your back to a guest.
9. Anticipate, follow up, and be proactive.
10. Assume that anyone who walks in the door is a VIP and treat them as such.
11. Take responsibility and use your best judgment.
12. Do it right the first time. Make a positive first impression.
Similarly, Eric Ersher of Zoup! has “14 Zoupisms” for the employees at every one of his 150 franchises to make sure they are clear on the Zoup! expectations and that the company maintains consistency in every location no matter where it is in the country.
Now let’s go back to the idea that setting clear expectations is a two-way street. Once you’ve made your expectations clear to your direct reports, you must now ensure that you understand their expectations of you. You can accomplish this by asking, “Now that I’ve shared my expectations of you, what do you expect of me that will help you win?” You need to take their response to this question very seriously and deliver on their expectations. Otherwise, you can’t expect them to deliver on yours.
As an example, your direct reports may request certain technology (hardware or software), they may need more of your time than they are currently receiving, or they may need to hire a person to get the job done. It’s important that you hear them out and are honest regarding what you can provide them to succeed. That’s precisely why this is a two-way street.
Once you know what your direct reports expect of you and they know your expectations of them, you can answer yes to this first management-practice question: “Am I keeping expectations clear with every one of my direct reports?” Yes or no?
PRACTICE 2. COMMUNICATING WELL
Now that expectations are clear, communication is vital. This is also a two-way street. Regard it as an opportunity to make sure you’re in sync. Unfortunately, bosses often assume they’re in sync with their direct reports because their people don’t openly challenge or disagree with them. They also assume that their direct reports are dissatisfied or upset, when in fact they’ve simply misread them.
A great litmus test to prove you are communicating well is that you know what is on each other’s mind. There are no assumptions in the relationship. Don’t ever assume that people are upset or mad at you. Ask! Too many managers are just afraid to ask. They see the odd look on someone’s face and they fail to ask, “What’s up?” They make assumptions rather than trying to understand what that odd look truly means. When you think about it, most of the conversations you hear around the office concern assumptions that people make of each other. Don’t assume. Ask! Here are four methods that have helped bosses eliminate assumptions and greatly improve their communication:
1. Two Emotions
A discipline that will help you avoid making assumptions about how someone is feeling and instead better understand them is called “two emotions.” Here’s how it works. When you’re unsure what someone is thinking, ask, “If you could share two emotions about how you are feeling right now, one positive and one negative, what would they be? You share your two emotions and I’ll share mine.” This is an excellent way to open a dialogue and find out exactly what’s going on with them. You are encouraging them to share their range of emotion from the highest to the lowest so that you have a clear perspective of how they are feeling.
For instance, while presenting your marketing plan, you notice one of your direct reports taking a deep breath, folding his arms, and frowning. You assume that he’s not on board and might undermine your hard work. You decide to engage him by asking him to share two emotions. Here’s how: “Frank, I had a tough time reading you during the meeting this morning, and I would love to know how you are feeling about it. What is the most positive and the most negative emotion that would describe how you’re feeling about what you heard me say? You share yours and I’ll share mine.” Listen carefully to Frank’s reply. He might surprise you by saying, “I’m excited about the possibilities but very concerned about whether or not we’ll have the resources needed to make it happen. I didn’t hear you talk about how we’re going to pull it off.” You now realize that your assumption was wrong.
After listening to your direct report, it’s now time for you to share your two emotions. The power of each of you sharing one positive emotion and one negative emotion is that it helps you understand the range of how you both feel. And because this conversation requires both of you to be completely open and honest, it will help you build a stronger relationship.
2. Question-to-Statement Ratio
A great communication discipline is to monitor your question-to-statement ratio when having a conversation with your direct reports. If you’re like most managers, you do most of the talking. Frankly, this one-way-street behavior needs to change. Your job is to ensure that the dialogue is 80/20, where your direct report is doing 80 percent of the talking and you’re doing 20 percent. The only way to make that happen is to ask questions instead of making statements.
Ask “why, who, what, where, and when” questions. The typical manager, when presented with a problem, makes statements such as, “You should have done this . . .” or “Don’t do that . . .” You’ll be amazed what happens when an issue is brought to you, and instead of making a “You should have . . .” statement, you ask the person a question along the lines of, “Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently next time? Or, “What would you do?” Get them to answer the question. They’ll become more independent. The more they talk, the more they will convince themselves they can handle their own issues. You’ll have fewer monkeys to deal with and you’ll get more things done.
For instance, imagine yourself as a boss dealing with someone who is repeatedly late for work. It’s negatively affecting your entire department because other people have to fill in for him by taking incoming calls. When you meet with him, begin the dialogue by asking him what is causing him to be late. He tells you that there are mornings when he, not his spouse, is responsible for getting their kids off to school. You ask him what he would be able to do to get his kids off early enough for him to get to work on time. By asking him what he would do, you are in effect asking him to commit to his own plan for being on time.
Think about it. Who has the monkey? That’s right—he does. He’s taking responsibility and holding himself accountable. Asking him to solve his problem is more effective than repeatedly telling him to be on time.
One great boss who mastered this communication method had it validated when her direct report said out of the blue, “I just want to say thank you for never dictating or telling me what to do.”
3. Echoing
Another discipline to help you become a great communicator is “echoing.” Here’s how it works. When you’re in a situation where you told your direct report something and you’re not entirely certain that they understood you, ask the following question: “Just to make sure that I am communicating well, could you please tell me what I just told you?” Or, if you’re not sure you understood something they just told you, ask, “Here’s what I just heard you say. Did I hear you correctly?” Don’t be surprised or depressed by the response, because most of the time the message is not clearly received the first time. It then becomes a great opportunity for both of you to restate your message until you’ve eliminated any miscommunication and have gotten yourselves in sync.
One of our clients calls miscommunication between two people “thump-thump.” He coined this term after he shared a study conducted by Stanford University psychology graduate student Elizabeth Newton, in which pairs of students faced each other. One student had a list of well-known songs such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “Happy Birthday,” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and so on. That student would tap out a song on the table while the other student tried to guess the song. Of 120 songs tapped out, the listeners guessed only 3 correctly, a success rate of just 2.5 percent. The lesson here is that when a person is tapping a song on a table, they hear the song perfectly in their head, but that’s not what the listener is hearing. They are hearing monotone thumps on a table.
When we share a verbal message with direct reports, the same thing often happens. We assume that we’re doing a great job communicating—it’s pitch-perfect in our heads. But the reality is that the other person is hearing monotone thumps—hence, “thump-thump.” So next time, don’t assume the message was clearly received. Ask, “Could you tell me what you heard me say?” You’ll be a more effective communicator.
The objective when using any of these four methods is to become a great communicator and avoid making assumptions. After reflecting on each one, you may realize that you are already using one or more of them. Use them all and you will definitely make your communication more effective.
With the four methods clear, it is time for your answer: Are you communicating well with every one of your direct reports? Yes or no?
PRACTICE 3. MAINTAINING THE RIGHT MEETING PULSE™
You can leverage effective communication by instituting a rock-solid Meeting Pulse. We recommend that you have a consistent meeting cadence. Pull your team of direct reports together every week for sixty to ninety minutes. What gives weekly meetings a great pulse is that they are on the same day every week, start at the same time, have the same agenda, and they begin and end on time. Ensure that there is an even exchange of dialogue in these meetings. Each person should report measurables and results. In the process, you should identify, discuss, and solve the issues. For the perfect agenda, go to www.eosworldwide.com/level-10 to watch a short video on how to run an effective meeting.
Look at the three examples of circles in Diagram 15 and picture them as the possible relationships between you and a direct report. Your job as a manager is always to keep your circles connected. The weekly Meeting Pulse is a great way to do that.
Diagram 15
The first example illustrates what it looks like when you don’t spend any time with your direct report. You’re disconnected. In this scenario, it’s inevitable that something bad will happen. Not because either of you are bad or deceitful. You’re just not on the same wavelength about the company’s objective or each other’s expectations.
The second example is also ineffective. This shows you smothering them. They are under your thumb. You are micromanaging and not letting go. You are not letting them run with an assignment. Someday, especially if they’re good at what they do, they will get frustrated and leave. Conversely, if they aren’t good at what they do, you will be destined to carry their load forever.
The third example, where you’ve established just the right touch points, is the ideal. You are “keeping the circles connected,” spending enough time with each other at regular intervals. You have this dynamic when you have a weekly Meeting Pulse.
It surprises us, when prescribing a weekly Meeting Pulse for teams, when a boss reacts negatively. She says, “I don’t have time for a weekly meeting.” That’s like a salesperson saying “I don’t have time for selling.” A weekly meeting with your team is how you stay in steady contact with your team. We could share hundreds of stories where a boss resisted at first, finally caved, started holding weekly meetings, and loved them. They ultimately realized that communicating on a consistent basis saved them time and helped them get more things done.
Here’s a sample from the hundreds of excuses that we hear from bosses before they finally commit to a weekly Meeting Pulse:
• I don’t have time for meetings.
• Meetings are a waste of time.
• Meetings are boring.
• We don’t have that many issues every week.
• It’s impossible to get everyone together for a meeting every week.
• I have an open-door policy, so we talk all the time.
• If they need to talk to me, they know where they can find me.
• I meet with my people when necessary.
Now let’s turn to what we hear from those same bosses just a few weeks later, after they begin a weekly Meeting Pulse with their direct reports:
• We’re communicating better.
• We’re coming together as a team, being more open.
• We are finally solving issues that have lingered for months.
• We’re better at doing what we say we will do.
• In total, I’m actually spending less time in meetings.
• We’re getting more things done.
• We’re beginning to hold each other accountable.
• Everyone is being heard.
• I have a better feel for what’s happening and why.
• We’re having more fun.
• The team is more energized.
• My direct reports have a better understanding of our overall goals.
If you are resisting a weekly Meeting Pulse, we urge you to try it for ninety days and see for yourself.
The experience, expertise, performance, and behavior of each of your direct reports may vary greatly. For most, the weekly Meeting Pulse should keep them on track. However, some direct reports may also require one-on-ones, especially if they are new to your organization or their function. Some require that you meet with them once a month; others, each week. Determine the appropriate Meeting Pulse to ensure that each person receives enough of your time and that your circles stay connected.
One boss said this regarding weekly one-on-ones: “I really like them. I like the opportunity to touch base with each of my people one on one each week. I want them to feel in the loop, give them my ear, and let them know they have my attention.”
At first you might consider one-on-one meetings to be micromanaging or think holding them weekly is over the top. Before you judge, decide on a case-by-case basis what works best for you and your people to keep the circles connected. For the boss we just quoted, holding a weekly one-on-one with everybody worked. As we pointed out in chapter five, your style doesn’t have to change. This boss’s style was more hands-on. It’s very possible that you may decide you prefer these weekly one-on-ones, too, but most bosses we know don’t do them. Instead, they use a weekly Meeting Pulse with their entire team of direct reports.
However, you may need a more frequent Meeting Pulse with someone who is newly hired or is new to your department. Think about all the things going through the mind of a new member of your team in their first ninety days. What do they think about all day? Think about their questions. Put yourself in their shoes. By ramping them up fast and investing more time up front, you will actually save time in the long run. The old adage is so true: “What starts well, ends well.”
Giving your time and attention to new employees during their first ninety days will quickly pay dividends. You will discover whether they truly exhibit your Core Values. You will learn whether they get it, want it, and have the capacity to do what you’ve hired them to do. This will give you the opportunity to address any issues quickly, nipping them in the bud before they become bigger. And you will get them up to speed faster.
So, ask yourself, “Do I have the right Meeting Pulse, and are the circles connected with every one of my direct reports?” Yes or no?
PRACTICE 4. HAVING “QUARTERLY CONVERSATIONS”
To truly manage and continue to improve your relationship with each of your direct reports, you need to connect at a higher level in addition to the weekly Meeting Pulse. To accomplish this, you must have a face-to-face Quarterly Conversation™ with each direct report. This is an informal conversation to talk about what’s working and what’s not. It’s not a performance review, and it’s different from a one-on-one meeting, where you’re focusing on immediate issues. This conversation should be held off site, over coffee or lunch, but never at your desk—that’s too formal. It’s also important to hold the Quarterly Conversation where you won’t be interrupted, where you can speak openly, and where you’ll be free from distractions.
The Quarterly Conversation should focus around what we call “The 5-5-5™,” as illustrated by Diagram 16:
Diagram 16
This diagram serves as a visual reminder, when you are looking at your direct report, to keep the conversation focused on why you are together. Ninety percent of what you expect of your people falls into the categories of Core Values, Rocks, or Roles. The objective is to discuss what’s working and what’s not working in these three areas. By openly discussing these opportunities for improvement in the Quarterly Conversation, you will be able to make wonderful little course corrections in your relationship, which as a result will keep getting better and better. We call it the 5-5-5 because there are usually three to seven Core Values, one to seven Rocks, and four to six Roles (the average for each is about five). And it’s easier to remember the numbers “5-5-5” than “6-3-4.”
Conduct the conversation on a quarterly basis because, in our experience, relationships begin to fray and goals tend to get off track about every ninety days. It’s human nature: at the beginning of the period you’re both feeling 100 percent clear about your objectives and the plans that you’ve made. Then life happens.
Consider this: A few weeks after you are both 100 percent on the same page, you find yourself unexpectedly assigned to a task force. Then your dog gets sick, your basement floods, and to top things off, you volunteered to help out at the school’s big fundraising event. Meanwhile, your direct report reads a business book and starts experimenting with what they’ve read. Then they get pulled into multiple issues in their department. They end up needing to help care for an elderly parent after work. Their cat has kittens. Five months go by before both of you finally come up for air. You realize that your objectives and well-crafted plans are way off track. With all that has happened, how could you possibly remember what you agreed to five months ago? That’s the fray we’re talking about.
As the boss, you must take the first step to keep the relationship from fraying. You have to catch it just before the fray begins, usually around the ninetieth day—hence, a Quarterly Conversation.
Another reason to meet every quarter is that time flies by and, before you realize it, after six months of solving tough issues you may learn that you no longer have a strong and healthy relationship with your direct report. Here’s what one boss had to say about catching the fray just before it begins: “I had given an Annual Review to a team member, and before I knew it, the entire year had gone by and it was time for another review. Although we were meeting weekly to review projects, we weren’t really talking about the expectations that I had communicated in the Annual Review and, as I discovered, our relationship was a little strained—my expectations were not as clear as they once were, nor were they being met.”
Due to the importance of this practice, we will do a much deeper dive in chapter eight to help you master it. We have a complete set of practical suggestions to help you make your Quarterly Conversations with each of your direct reports highly productive and constantly improving.
So ask yourself, “Am I having Quarterly Conversations with every one of my direct reports?” Yes or No?
PRACTICE 5. REWARDING AND RECOGNIZING
Whether they give a pat on the back or a kick in the butt, great managers reward and recognize their people quickly. Napoleon Bonaparte observed, “A solider will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” Studies show that people work harder for recognition than they do for money. Although the money is important and you must pay your people fairly, acknowledgment counts for a lot. Don’t underestimate the power of recognition and the effectiveness of feedback, both positive and negative. Here are three recognition disciplines that will help.
1. The 24-Hour Rule
Always give positive or negative feedback quickly, ideally within twenty-four hours. Waiting any longer than that to give positive feedback reduces its impact. It won’t seem genuine and could be perceived as an afterthought. And waiting to give negative feedback until you have a laundry list is ineffective and puts people on the defensive. They’ll shut down and often miss your message. It leads to resentment and failure to change behavior. So, giving feedback within a day will change the behavior that you want.
2. Public and Private Recognition
As you give positive and negative feedback, you should always criticize in private and praise in public. Never mix either of these up. Criticizing people in public will destroy whatever level of trust that you have built with them and damage your relationship. On the other hand, recognizing and celebrating someone’s achievements in private misses the opportunity for someone to shine in front of their peers. To expand a little on this topic, whenever you have constructive criticism for one of your direct reports, always give it in private, as most can handle it behind closed doors. And when you have praise, always give it within earshot of as many people as possible. A great idea is using companywide meetings as a platform to recognize people in front of their peers. This fills most people up. It’s like fuel. You’re energizing them to work harder for everybody around them.
3. Boss versus Buddy
It’s also important to always be their boss, not their buddy. It’s okay to have a friendly relationship with direct reports, but you must understand the fine line between being in charge and being in the trenches. Don’t cross the line. If you do, you’ll never be a great manager. When the line is blurred and you consider them more of a friend, you can never fully apply these practices due to potential hurt feelings, or having to tiptoe around tough issues and dilute the real message.
Here’s a poignant story about what happened to a boss when she allowed the line between boss and buddy to become blurred: “One of my employees and I were good friends and we worked very well together. We had an agreement that in the office I would be the boss. It worked great for many years. On day-to-day supervision, performance evaluations, and constructive criticism our interactions worked smoothly. However, when the recession arrived and business declined, never-before layoffs were required. During this layoff process, I had to lay off my good friend. As a result, this employee never forgave me and we were estranged. I was heartbroken. Following that experience, I never became buddies with my employees. I only had great business relationships with them. However, after I retired, I began to socialize with some of them and we became good friends.”
If you have difficulty patting your people on the back, as many managers do, put a monthly reminder on your calendar to do so. This may sound terrible to have to be so calculated, but if that’s not a natural instinct for you, make yourself remember. This practice has such a huge effect on your people. One great boss followed this monthly calendar discipline for two years until praise became a habit. Now he naturally gives recognition; it’s become second nature to him.
Whether by reminder or habit, you may also be one of those people who are not good at coming up with ways to praise others. If this is your problem, try one of the following:
• Simply say, “You’re doing a great job!”
• Or, “I really appreciate what you did.”
• “Thanks for speaking up!”
• “I’m glad you’re on our team.”
• Give them a personally written thank-you note.
• Give them a gift card.
• After they’ve put in long hours to complete a difficult assignment, send their spouse a thank-you note with a dinner certificate.
If those prompts are not enough to get you started, or if you’re looking for more ideas, check out a great book by Bob Nelson, PhD, titled 1501 Ways to Reward Employees. There you will find hundreds more.
THE THREE-STRIKE RULE
Sometimes, however, despite your best efforts to create clear expectations, communicate effectively, have Quarterly Conversations, and provide positive or negative feedback quickly, things don’t work out. Your direct report fails to deliver and doesn’t see or admit they are not delivering. Here’s how to handle performance issues when you’re thinking of firing somebody. It’s called the Three-Strike Rule:
Strike One: Meet with the person, identify the issue(s), and agree on the course correction that must be made. The People Analyzer from chapter four is a great tool to show them a black-and-white picture of the issue, clarify your expectations, and determine how best to solve the issue. Put this feedback in writing to eliminate any misunderstanding. If you think it’s necessary, have a third party sit in and witness the conversation. Give the employee one month to resolve the issue and set a time to meet again.
Strike Two: Meet with the person again and review the prior thirty days’ performance. If the performance was at or above The Bar in The People Analyzer, the employee is meeting your expectations. Things are back to normal and you’ve solved the issue. However, if they are not meeting expectations once again, identify any remaining issues and agree on the plan to address them. Put your feedback in writing and, if necessary, have a third party witness the conversation. Give them another thirty days and set a time to meet again.
Strike Three: If the issue isn’t resolved by the third meeting, terminate them. As a practical matter, when you apply the Three-Strike Rule effectively, most will quit before the third-strike meeting. This is why you will rarely have to fire anyone. They will leave because they can’t live up to expectations that you’ve made clear to them.
Important: You should have at least three data points (specific examples) for each issue that you raise during each meeting in the Three-Strike process. The person will typically dismiss the first data point as a coincidence, and they can talk their way out of the second data point, but by the third data point, they’ll say, “You got me”—it’s clear that the problem is not an isolated one. Make sure that the person acknowledges and agrees that they’re below The Bar before determining an appropriate action plan.
Hopefully, we’ve convinced you how important giving positive and negative feedback is to being a great boss. If so, ask yourself, “Am I rewarding and recognizing every one of my direct reports—both a pat on the back and a kick in the butt?” Yes or no?
MANAGEMENT SELF-ASSESSMENT
Now that you have a clear understanding of the recommended Five Management Practices, we’ve created a one-page assessment so you can do a quick checkup on yourself. Thinking of the people that report directly to you, complete the self-assessment in Diagram 17. Answer each statement either yes or no. Remember, it’s an all-or-nothing answer.
Diagram 17
Next Steps for Management Practices Self-Assessment
1. If you’ve answered honestly, you probably have one or more no’s. This exercise is not intended to make you feel guilty or inadequate, but to show you the areas that need improvement to become a great boss. Just as with the Five Leadership Practices, put a stake in the ground for when you will be great. Schedule a date on your calendar when you will be able to answer yes to all of the questions in Diagram 17. The norm is six months from today.
If you answered no to any of the Five Management Practices and you are feeling stuck or unclear about how to transform your response to a yes, go back to that practice, reread it, and apply exactly what we taught.
2. Review this management self-assessment one on one with each direct report immediately. Ask them how you are doing with each of the five practices. This will help you hear the truth, lead to a great dialogue, and make you a better manager.
To summarize chapters six and seven, you are a great leader when you provide your people with clear direction, give them the necessary tools, let go of the vine, act with the greater good in mind, and take Clarity Breaks. You are a great manager when you keep expectations clear with your direct reports, communicate well, have the right Meeting Pulse, have Quarterly Conversations, and reward and recognize. The byproduct of being a great leader and a great manager are personal accountability and therefore a highly accountable organization that you, the great boss, created. Keep working until you can answer yes to both the Five Leadership Practices and the Five Management Practices, hopefully with the next six months.
When you reach the point that you can answer yes to all of the Five Leadership Practices and Five Management Practices, you will eliminate any chance of hallucination. That’s because you have a crystal-clear vison that everyone shares and knows how to carry out with superior execution.
Please come back to chapters six and seven once or twice a year. This review will serve as a great refresher and tune-up. Make it part of your lifelong journey as a great boss.
