The Single Biggest Factor in Long-Term Organizational Success
“What ultimately constrains the performance of your organization is not its business model, nor its operating model, but its management model.” (The Future of Management, Gary Hamel)
Factors of organizational success:
Jim Collins says the key factors for success include:
- Getting the right people on the bus
- Getting the right people in the right seats.
- Getting the wrong people off the bus.
- Level 5 leadership – Humble leaders with indomitable will. (Good to Great)
Managers:
“Gallup finds that the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success.” (It’s the Manager)
Organizations ask, “How do managers get more out of people?”
“Ironically, the management model encapsulated in this question virtually guarantees that a company will never get the best out of its people. Vassals and conscripts may work hard, but they don’t work willingly.” Gary Hamel
Boss to coach:
The BEST managers are coaches, not bosses. Jim Clifton and Jim Harter say there are three requirements of coaching.
- Establish expectations.
- Continually coach.
- Create accountability.
3 tips for shifting from boss to coach:
#1. Understand the dance between freedom and intervention.
Give high performers freedom. Intervene when performance lags.
Intervention isn’t oppression or punishment. It might mean weekly one-on-ones, instead of monthly.
#2. Overcome the most difficult shift.
Solving problems for talented people devalues their talent. Over-helpfulness sucks the life out of talented people. Stop giving quick answers.
Coaches help people find their own answers. The old style of management, when people were tools, is to give them answers and expect conformity.
#3. Practice accountability that energizes people.
Accountability that energizes is self-imposed. We need to rise above the false notion that we can force people into high performance.
Noticing is healthy accountability. Walk around noticing performance as it relates to expectation.
Work that isn’t noticed goes down in value.
What factors enhance long-term organizational success?
How might managers bring out the best in people?
Added material: Coaching as a Management Style, by Zenger and Stinnett
Thanks Dan!
This is a good one. Nicely done. I appreciated the coach vs. boss comparison of management styles, and especially appreciated the three keys to successful coaching. Something I knew, but had never had it put in words.
I like the extension connecting leadership to alignment. Extends the value of the coach if the performance being enhanced aligns to the strategy of the organisation.
Thanks Rob. It seems important that actions and attitudes are aligned with organizational strategy.
Thanks Justin. It’s a pleasure to be of service.
So many good nuggets in this post Thanks Dan
Three big factors that impact long-term organizational success. are
1. Finding the right balance between stability and change. (too much change can be as bad as too little change.) And selecting the right changes to pursue. Not an easy task.
2. A senior team that focuses on alignment–are the strategy, structure, and systems fully aligned. Do you have the right people to implement the strategy?
3. Working to make sure all the people in the org have
-shared goals
-shared plans
-shared values
-shared commitment
Thanks Paul. Great addition! I couldn’t help but think of the importance of getting the right people both in leadership and on the front lines to make coaching work.
Your use of “shared” is so powerful. After all, in order to have a team we must share stuff.
This is a pretty powerful blog today! Thanks.
Thanks Sara.
Good reminders, Dan!. Most of us got to where we are by showing we could solve problems, but soon learned we couldn’t/shouldn’t do it all ourselves – so had to change. We’re obligated to provide successors who are capable of doing that too.
Thanks Mary Ellen. One of the hardest transitions leaders make is from giving answers to asking questions.
Dan, your #1 tip above is spot-on. I spend a lot of my time as a supervisor deciding what to communicate, with whom, and how.
Thanks Sam. I think we learn the balance between freedom and intervention is through trial and error. I like to err on the side of freedom whenever possible.
Great one, Dan! We all need autonomy, mastery, and purpose (Dan Pink, Drive). “What do you think we should do?” is a powerful question from a manager. That takes humility. Everyone should have to prove their reasoning for doing things, even the manager.
I’m really liking ‘Brave New Work’ by Aaron Dignan. He talks about the organization Operating System and has some great principles for change. Check it out Brave New Work.
Thanks Rex. Pink’s book is very helpful. Stay tuned. Sometime soon I’m having Susan Fowler on here again. Her book about motivation is also very helpful.
Thanks for the recommendation. I hadn’t heard of Brave New Work. Looks good.
I like the quote from Gary Hamel you provided. The question of how managers can get more out of people is, in and of itself, the problem. The environment or framework in which this question exists hinges on Herzberg’s hygiene factors of dissatisfaction. Maybe if I reward with a bonus or promise more job security these guys will worker harder. The coach does not pay the NFL players, the organization does. With that said, the organization does not motivate the players to play to their max potential, only the coach can do that, either directly through establishing expectations or indirectly by creating an environment where his teammates are focused on continuous improvement. Setting expectations and creating accountability are important as you mention. The coach can set an expectation and create accountability by assigning players to positions and telling them which routes to run. However, consider this: micro-managing and solving every problem of your talented people is like the coach not only giving his running back a play call but also telling him how to hold the ball and how to run his route. This guy is a professional football player. Are you that arrogant to think that you can teach him how to the basics of his job better than he knows how to do them? Point is, give your talent freedom and then they falter then you can step in with advice.
Thanks Gary. Your distinction between pay and motivation is important. Even if the leader sets the pay, and sometimes they do, we must realize that pay isn’t a lasting factor in motivation. Real motivation comes from within.
Some external motivation is useful. But, in the end, it’s transitory. It seems we find our way back to people, relationships. and finding ways to bring out the best in others. Research shows that younger people want and respond well to coaching-managers.
I hope your schooling is going well.
“Work that isn’t noticed goes down in value.” That get’s me thinking … sometimes my work is recognized but what happens when the insignificant work is recognized and the meaningful work/experience is ignored/not recognized? I’ve moved to several different jobs over the past 8 years. Now I’m a trained project manager. A couple of jobs, my skill set as a project manager was barely or not taken advantage of even though my experience could have helped get better results on the project. This is especially true in my current position.
Thanks Michael. You remind me that there are several aspects to helping people bring their best. One of them is challenge. Is the work interesting and challenging. Does the work leverage the talent and experience of the person doing it.
We can do a few jobs that are below our capabilities, but we start to feel underutilized and bored if this happens too often. I also think respect is a factor here. We feel disrespected when we’re underutilized.
This is right on target, Dan. I love the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. After I read it, it changed my leadership perspective. It ignited a spark in me and I have been striving for greatness and pulling it out of other people, as well. Thanks for this information, I like the point regarding high performers and giving them the freedom. This is so true. Often I have felt like a ceiling was placed over me, as I do strive to perform high, but with that, I have fought to remove that ceiling and advocate for the people I now lead. I notice performance and like to give feedback all along the way. I am learning and evolving and I am grateful to be walking this journey out with great communicators and leaders like you.
Thanks Blessed…. I feel the passion in your comment and wish you continued growth and success. How we respond to feeling the ceiling is important. Sometimes it’s a real challenge to keep going when you feel that you’re being treated unfairly.
Solving problems for people, in general, is a problem. It not only devalues them, but they also don’t learn the lessons needed to prevent or fix the problem in the future. This is funny. I had a very controversial conversation with an invested social worker yesterday. They were trying to fix a problem that a teenager got himself into. He basically broke in the social worker’s facility, and she wanted to drop the charges because she thought he had potential. Not to say the kid wasn’t talented or had potential but what lesson is he learning from being free of the charges? I say that to say that when people are held accountable which I believe is the most important part of being a leader and a manager. Being consistent with expectations and hold everyone accountable for their contribution and mistakes is the best way to have long term success and getting the best out of your employees. You get the best out of them because you provide your expectations and hold them accountable. They, in turn, know how you operate which is something that many employees don’t know so it hinders their success too.
Thanks Sterling. Your real-life example brings to mind the tension between compassion and accountability. I think you could hold someone accountable and then stick with them all along the way to help them come out on the other side better for it.
Some might think accountability is cruel, but not if we stick with people after they screw up. Giving a second chance has the most meaning when people take responsibility for their actions.
It’s very easy to shift from boss to coach. You stop telling people what you think they should do and you start asking questions to let them come to their own conclusion. The formula:
1. Active Listening
2. Curious Questioning
3. Encouragement
This post really resonates with me. I don’t have too much experience being the manager, but I have seen several great depictions of bosses and coaches, as you have mentioned here. I worked a data entry job for a short while where the majority of my responsibilities was looking for mistakes in paperwork and releasing product. By all accounts, this is a tedious and boring task that it can be hard to stay motivated on throughout the day, let alone months of seeing the same paperwork time and again. My boss at this job was most certainly a coach. She would often take time out of her day to assist me in managing problems I was unsure about and helping me find the right person to take accountability for the mistake. Sometimes, that was me. But it never felt like punishment. She made her expectations very clear and did her best to help me reach them. We can’t succeed all the times, and if I did a poor job it was clear that I should take responsibility and grow from there. On the flip side, I had a job that I loved. I got to work outside for the majority of the days and generally had control over what I did during the day. The managed I had would constantly tell us she wanted something done one day and then berate us for doing it the next. We were constantly confused about how to please her and how to do our jobs well. Blame was often shifted from one person to another and created a very stressful situation overall. I enjoyed this post, as I really believe we should stop looking at it as “how to get more out of people” and how to get the right person for the seat on the bus, per say. As a last note, I would like to say that every poor manager I have had has also been wildly disorganized. Perhaps these two impact one another!