The
Third Element of Great Managing
Mom
was right: You're one of a kind. The business
implications of her wisdom are startling.
Personnel
managers often ignore a truth about human nature known
to any mother who's had more than one kid: People are
not the same.
Children of the same parents, raised in the same home,
with the same rules and routines, emerge with dramatically
different personalities. One is her own attorney, able
to perfectly construct compelling arguments for buying
a cell phone or going to a friend's party. Her brother
is off the charts in math and able to retain everything
in history class without taking a single note. Their younger
brother is athletic and ambidextrous.
Parents
scratch their heads at the variety within their own offspring
and conclude that each is "his own person" or
"one of a kind." Most moms and dads trace their
children's talents and interests to unique hints that
first appeared in the child's earliest years.
Contrast these common observations with a strange piece
of audio left on the CD "Yanni Live at the Acropolis."
Standing at the center of the Herodian Amphitheater, surrounded
by a full orchestra that had just finished playing one
of his songs, John Yanni Christopher philosophizes: "Everything
great that has ever happened to humanity has begun as
a single thought in someone's mind. And if any one of
us is capable of such a great thought, then all of us
have the same capability, because we're all the same."
The audience applauds loudly.
Choosing the right side of the argument is crucial for
managers. If Yanni is right, companies shouldn't worry
about matching the right person with the right job. Instead,
they can invest heavily in molding people into the kinds
of employees they need in specific roles. If Mom is right,
all the re-education and incentives in the world won't
make a numbers person into a wordsmith or convert an introvert
into someone who excels in making cold calls.
A wealth of research says that Mom is right, and Yanni
is wrong.
Doing what you do best
The ramifications of matching a person to what he or she
naturally does best are so profound that this aspect of
work life emerged as the Third Element of Great Managing,
one of 12 elements that best predict the performance of
an employee or team. This element is measured by one's
intensity of agreeing with the statement, "At work,
I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day."
In many circles today, the idea that a person has a unique
combination of talents may seem like common sense. But
for many decades, the opposite view held sway in psychology,
and vestiges of these discredited theories lie at the
heart of human resources strategies in some companies.
Although he may not realize it, Yanni's opinion of human
potential has its roots in a psychological approach called
behaviorism, which was accepted wisdom from the early
to mid 1900s. Its chief proponents argued that an individual's
personality is simply the sum of adaptations he made to
match his environment. Under this theory, people are infinitely
malleable, each a collection of Pavlovian drooling responses
to the world's dinner bells. "Give me a dozen healthy
infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring
them up in, and I'll guarantee to take any one at random
and train him to become any type of specialist I might
select -- doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes, even
beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors,"
wrote American psychologist John B. Watson.
More
frequently than one might imagine, companies hesitate
to put too much emphasis on any one person's abilities
or accomplishments for fear others will feel hurt or left
out. "There's a lot of 'Harrison Bergeron' thinking
around here," one personnel executive confides, referring
to the 1961 short story by Kurt Vonnegut that begins:
"The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal."
The story describes a future in which government "handicappers"
snuff out all forms of exceptional performance. "Nobody
was any smarter than anyone else," it says. "Nobody
was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger
or quicker than anybody else."
Please
click here
to continue reading The Third Element of Great
Managing.
Reprinted
from Gallup Press |
Note
from Kevin
 Greetings!
Just
when you thought you’ve heard enough! Just when
you thought all of the conversations about right person/right
job had been exhausted…we’re back for more!
In his article, "The Third Element of Great Managing,"
Marcus Buckingham pushes the conversation to a whole other
level and makes it clear that this subject is the most
important factor in determining employee engagement, productivity,
and get this: the performance of teams.
I
encourage all the companies I work with to envision the
concept of right person/right job as a significant competitive
advantage because most companies still believe that people
can do anything if they just try harder. Send the introverted,
detail specialist we have struggling at the reception
desk to customer service training…brilliant! Pound
the extroverted, social animal who loves talking to people
with hours and hours of systems training…great idea!
Get
this: when we work hard to push people to be something
they just aren’t wired to be, there are two very
predictable results: poor performance and a stressed,
often sick employee.
It’s
time to shift our thinking, to develop a new "map"
when it comes to understanding the importance of knowing
the talent who has opted to work with us. It’s time
to find new and better ways to get them into positions
that allow them to exercise the strengths that come naturally
to them. When we do the right thing, when we do our due
diligence in getting people in the right jobs, there are
two very different but predictable results: superior performance
and engaged employees.
LeadersWay
has been in the planning stages for a high level Talent
Management Conference for quite some time. It’s
with great excitement that I announce the dates of our
conference, The Hidden Secrets of Talent Management,
which will be held October 4 through 6, 2007, in Charleston,
South Carolina. This three-day program is specifically
designed for people who have already been exposed to the
Talent Management process and want to learn how to drive
that process to the next level.
Most
of you will receive an official invitation in the next
several days, but if you want to reserve your seat (limited
to 30 people), I would encourage you to contact Charlotte
Locey at 253-851-1954 as soon as possible.The
venue for this conference is the historic district of
Charleston, so it’s a great opportunity to combine
a powerful learning experience with some downtime in one
of the most beautiful places in the country.
We’ll
look forward to seeing you in Charleston!
Life
is good...
KW
|
