The most frustrating experience in leadership is making poor people-decisions. You had such high hopes.
People-decisions make or break leaders.
You’re fortunate if you get people-decisions right 50% of the time. Jack Welch said he got people-decisions right about 50% of the time when he became a manager at GE.
The better you are at people-decisions, the better leader you are.
You spend too much time making decisions about projects and programs and too little on people.
Three essential people-tasks:
- Align with their aspirations.
- Leverage their strengths.
- Compensate for their weaknesses.
Successful leaders take others higher. But, it’s easy to hinder the success of others by losing sight of who they are.
12 questions for good gossips:
Talk about people with lots of people. Engage in good gossip all the time.
- Who is creating energy in your department? Who is draining it?
- How does Bob respond to new challenges?
- What are Mary’s strengths?
- How might Ann’s strengths become destructive?
- What questions does Jim ask?
- When is Joe at his best?
- How does Mark talk about failure? People who hide failures are more likely to fail in the future. Those who are never wrong grow worse over time.
- What specifically do you see in Barry that makes you believe he’ll succeed?
- How does Linda respond to surprises, disappointment, or success?
- When was the last time Cindy asked for help?
- How does Henry see his impact on others?
- What discourages Laura?
3 warnings for good gossips:
- Beware the halo effect. Take a long-term view of people.
- Release people from pressure to be like you.
- Forgetting the positive and focusing on the negative. Bad is magnetic.
Bring more people into your people-decisions.
How can leaders make good people-decisions?
What factors contribute to poor people-decisions?