Why Socrates Drank the Hemlock

About 2500 years ago, Socrates lamented the work ethic of the younger generation.  Apparently, on the way to his day-job as a stand-up philosopher, he’d stop at the Athens Starbucks and wait in line far too long, while the kid working the La Marzucco machine (who looks like he fell down the stairs with a tackle-box given the number of piercings and jewelry he’s wearing) would casually froth one latte at time.  No wonder he drank the hemlock – he was thirsty.

Fast forward in time a couple of millennia, and not much has changed.  Anyone over 40 has at least a mild annoyance with those under 30 and how they work.  The problem is, the bulk of the population is hurling towards retirement faster than Lindsay Lohan is to rehab, and there aren’t many people in their 30s and 40s to replace them.  This means the 20-somethings will be taking over the world in short order – probably well before they are equipped to do so.

Unless organizations get their heads around this, and act soon, our whole society will be immersed in the whims and fancies of people who think popcorn was actually meant to be cooked in a microwave.  Here’s what you can expect:

  • Recognition certificates for anyone who shows up on time for work five consecutive times.
  • Job title inflation – the barista I mentioned above will hence be called the Vice-President of Local Product Production and Distribution.
  • Not wanting to work on sunny days will be classified as a disability.
  • If you ask someone for the 2nd time to get something done, you will be subject to a harassment suit.

Of course, I might be the wrong guy to comment on this – I spent my whole first day at my first real job walking around with my fly open.

Decoding Interview Questions

Many years ago when I was working inside a Fortune 100 company (that shall remain nameless, but it’s a major grocery retailer that starts with ‘S’), I was applying internally for a job for which I thought I was well suited.  One of the well-intentioned, but tragically naïve HR people advised me to “be myself, and be honest and truthful” in the interview.

“Being yourself” at a job interview is about as smart as making toast in the bathtub, and could produce similar results.  Being honest is always a good rule, but you need to tailor the truth to your situation.  In a job interview, they don’t want to hear your honest responses – they want to hear the responses they have pre-written.

With the benefit of a couple of decades of hindsight, and having now sat on the opposite side of the interview table, I offer a deconstruction of that interview many years ago:

Question:  “Are you willing to relocate?”

My Answer: “Right now, I’m ready, willing, and able to relocate anywhere.  At some point, if I have a spouse’s career, or children to consider, then I’ll have to consider all the factors at that time to make the decision.”

The Required Answer:  “I’ll move any time, any place, for any reason, and will do so on one day’s notice.”

 

Question:  “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

My Answer:  “I’d like to be a Facility Manager who is active and involved in his community, and making a positive contribution to society.”

The Required Answer:  “I’ll be working morning, day and night in order to scramble my way up the corporate food chain, and any other considerations are secondary.  I’ll be an empty hollow shell of a man because I will not have taken a day off in the past five years.”

 

Question:  “What do you think your weaknesses are?”

My Answer:  “I sometimes have difficulty towing the line when given certain direction.  For example, our parent company sent us directive X last month that is a clear violation of the local labor code, so I could not legally implement it.”

The Required Answer:  “I work too hard” or “I’m impatient for results” or any other lie I could have trot out to confirm that I was as dysfunctional as the organization.

 

Question:  “Tell us about a time when you became angry at work.”

My Answer:  “My nature is not really that of someone who becomes angry.  Sometimes a bit frustrated maybe, but there are so many important issues in the world that are worthy of my anger, that I find it hard to get angry about things that happen in the workplace.”

The Required Answer:  “I become inconsolably irate when I see employees not pulling their weight.  We pay them a good wage, and they need to earn it.”

I honestly thought these were the responses that were going to separate me from the herd.  Nobody has botched an interaction this badly since the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer.  Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.

Is She ‘The One’? – Conducting a Job Interview

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Conducting a Job Interview is a key managerial function, yet one that few take the time to do well.  Below we discuss the following aspects of Conducting a Job Interview:

  • The difference between great interviews, and bad interviews
  • The interview format
  • Assessing the candidate
  • Interview questions
  • Analyzing responses

Great Interviews

Conducting a Job Interview well means that you have mutually respectful conversation that determines the quality of the match between a candidate’s skills and the competencies required for a specific position.

Bad Interviews

Conducting a Job Interview poorly means it becomes an inquisition that provides the illusion of power to the interviewer and a high level of anxiety to the candidate.

Conducting a Job Interview:  Interview Format

  • Introduction – ensure the candidate knows everyone else in the room, and provide any context that may be relevant to Conducting the Job Interview
  • Explain the process – remind the candidate what to expect.  You should have set these expectations prior to the interview, but it is always good to review it again.
  • Ask your questions – use a mix of Situational and Behavioral based interview questions.  It is also suggested you prepare in advance 3 – 5 “Killer Questions” that you ask each of the candidates, and score them on their response.  The rest of your questions can vary slightly from candidate to candidate.
  • Describe the job – A key part of Conducting a Job Interview well is giving the candidate enough information to determine the appropriate fit for themselves.  It can also act as a catalyst for the candidate to ask questions.
  • Let them ask questions – Make sure you allow time for the candidate to ask as many questions as s/he likes.  Given that you have likely spent a great deal of time asking them questions, it is only fair to reciprocate.
  • Indication of timeline – Tell the candidate what will happen after the interview, and in what time frame s/he can expect to hear from you.
  • Close – always thank the candidate for coming to see you, and escort them out of the building if need be. 

Conducting a Job Interview: Assessing a Candidate

  • What skills are nice to have, and what can be taught?
  • Where are you comfortable to compromise?
  • What is not up for negotiation?
  • Try to involve at least one other person to assist you in the interview, and the interview debrief.
  • Debrief right after the interview whenever possible
  • Score and rank interview performance.  Use the Wily Manager scoring tool to do so.
  • Your intuition is a powerful tool in the interviewing process, but it is not the only one.  By scoring each interview, it doesn’t necessarily mean we hire the person with the highest score, but rather encourages you to ask critical questions if you are not hiring the person with the highest score.

Conducting a Job Interview: Interview Questions 

  • Create questions that are based on the key needs identified in the job description
  • Design questions that build understanding
  • Use open and closed questions
  • Use situational and behavioral questions

Examples of Situational Questions

  • “What would you do if……?”
  • “What would you do if you were given a project timeline that you knew you could not meet?”
  • “What would you do if you had a direct conflict with another employee?” 

Examples of Behavioral Questions

  • “Tell me about a specific time when….?”
  • “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer.  How did you handle it and what was the outcome?”
  • “Describe a time when you had to sacrifice your own goals for the good of the team”
  • Make sure you challenge the role they actually played and how much they were responsible as opposed to being part of a team’s success. 

Conducting a Job Interview: Analyzing the Responses

  • Write down what themes you would like to see in their responses
  • Answer the questions yourself – how would you successfully answer the question?
  • Do you believe them?
  • Are they simply saying what they think you want to hear?
  • Challenge the candidate if you are not convinced.

Conducting a Job Interview: Bring to a Close

  • Provide a realistic view on how long it will take to make a decision and stick to it
  • If you are keen on them ask them to let you know if their circumstances change in the interim.
  • Don’t promise anything until you have seen all candidates.
  • Call unsuccessful candidates later out of courtesy.

3 Things to Remember About Conducting a Job Interview

  1. Don’t underestimate the importance of interviews, and the risk of doing it badly
  2. Think of it as establishing a good match between competencies required, and the profile of a candidate.
  3. Take the time to do them well.

Free Extras for Wily Manager Members – get them here

  • Examples of Interview Questions:
    • Good questions
    • Bad questions
    • Behavioral based questions
    • Situational based questions
  • Common Interview Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
  • Resume and Interview Scoring Tool

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Conducting a Job Interview (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Quick Interview Preparation: Don’t Waste Their Time…Or Yours

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Job interviewer questions are numerous when managers need to hire.  Hopefully there is good HR support to assist, but this is not always the case.  Below we talk about the job interviewer questions that occur prior to the interview.  Specifically, we talk about:

  • Why worry about interview preparation
  • Job Interviewer Questions and human rights in the workplace
  • Job Interviewer Questions about knowing what you’re interviewing for
  • Assessing before the interview
  • Preparing yourself and the candidate

Why Worry About Interview Preparation

  • The most important things happen in advance.  It is not possible to conduct a great interview without great preparation.
  • Managers need to ensure they are compliant with local employment laws, and good preparation minimizes any legal risk.
  • It is a corporate reputation issue.  Organizations are being assessed during an interview, and it is important that all candidates leave with a favorable impression of the organization.
  • You “win it in the draft” — good interview process greatly improves the chances of landing the best possible hire.
  • Turnover is expensive.  The cost of interviewing poorly can be very costly to an organization.

Job Interviewer Questions About Human Rights in the Workplace

Local laws may vary, and it is important to have a basic understanding of local employment law.  However in almost all jurisdictions in Western Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand, job interviewer questions that pertain to the following would be off limits:

  • Race
  • Religious beliefs
  • Skin Colour
  • Gender
  • Physical/Mental disability
  • Age
  • Ancestry
  • Place of origin
  • Marital status
  • Source of income
  • Family status
  • Sexual Orientation

People generally understand the most obvious implications of this.  The subtleties are sometimes missed, however.  For example, asking someone what year they graduated from High School or University can be construed as probing about age, which is discriminatory.

Job Interviewer Questions About Knowing What You’re Interviewing For:

You need to articulate clearly what skills, competencies and attitudes you are hiring for.  It is not acceptable to interview without having considered these job interviewer questions in advance.

  • Start with an up-to-date job description.  If one doesn’t exist – write it.
  • Who do you want in this position?
    • What skills?
    • What knowledge?
    • What experience?
  • What corporate fit?
    • What attitudes?
    • What outlooks?
  • Do you have realistic expectations?  It is fine to sketch out a description of your perfect candidate as long as you are aware that such a candidate probably does not exist.

Assessing Before the Interview

Typically, you will receive applications or resumes in advance of conducting any interviews.  Interviews are time consuming, so you need to narrow down your field.  Here is how you can do so:

  • Score and rank* all resumes and choose a limited number to telephone interview (no more than 10)
  • Conduct a telephone “mini-interview” to wean the list down further.  Ensure you score and rank* each candidates performance on the phone interview.
  • Remember cultural fit and what makes people in your team successful.
  • Look for the clues to the person’s fit.
    • Job history – does the candidate move every year, or are they more stable?
    • Cover letters – are they written with care, and indicate some knowledge of your business, or do they appear to be automatically generated?
    • Relevant experience – look beyond direct experience, and see if you can spot some other relevant experience that may be useful to you.

*Tools for the scoring and ranking of resumes and interviews are available free to Wily Manager members – Become a Member Today

Prepare the Candidate for the interview

  • Let them know in advance who they are going to see.
  • Let them know in advance what the process will be.
  • Consider providing some or all of the questions to the candidate in advance.
  • Remember that the interview starts from the moment they walk in the door.

Prepare Yourself for the interview

  • Remember you and the company are being assessed in this process as well.
  • Be respectful and professional.
  • Read the resume in advance – preferably immediately before the interview.
  • Come with a list of questions.
  • Turn off your smartphone.
  • Book an appropriate location for the interview.
  • Attempt to keep the interview informal but professional.

3 things to Remember About Job Interviewer Questions:

  1. A great interview is a result of great preparation.
  2. Don’t wing-it.  Prepare in advance, and follow up afterwards.
  3. Interviewing is time consuming – wean your list in advance.

Free Extras for Wily Manager Members – get them here

  • Examples of Interview Questions:
    • Good questions
    • Bad questions
    • Behavioral based questions
    • Situational based questions
  • Common Interview Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
  • Resume and Interview Scoring Tool

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Preparing to Interview (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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How to Hire Your Next Leader

Some kids grow up wanting to be a fire-fighter, a police officer, teacher or doctor.  I wanted to be Mr. Rogers (the children’s entertainer).  No eight-year-old will tell you she wants to be a manager when she grows up (and if she does, get her into therapy top speed).  Yet there are more managers than there are fire-fighters, police officers, teachers and doctors combined by a factor of ten or more.

So how does this happen?

If management were a profession like others, someone would go to school to study the vocation of management, apprentice for some period of time, and then be deemed fully capable of executing as a manager.  MBA schools have failed to do this effectively, and the vast majority of companies develop their managers in a haphazard fashion.

Most people end up as managers by going into to some line of work for which they show some aptitude, and then are promoted to oversee others doing similar work.  Somewhere along the line, they might take a course or two, and some companies may even send their high potential new managers to business school.

Most organizations make the critical mistake of assuming that because someone is a proficient practitioner of a certain trade that she will be a good manager.  Organizations need to change their focus away from the technical aspects of a particular function (or group of functions), and instead focus on what skills a manager will need to be successful in that environment.

If more than half that list of competencies is focused on technical aspects of the industry or job, then it has been done wrong.

Don’t get me wrong:  I’m not a big fan of pulling people with no industry experience, and placing them in key management positions.  I don’t think this approach has worked very often.  If organizations are serious about having great management, then they need to select people for management positions with the core competencies required to manage in that environment, and then continually develop them.

Either that, or select tall guys with brown hair, who wear blue shirts.  That works too.

 

Living in the Post-Politically Correct Era

Recently, I was meeting an old friend for lunch.  When I got to the restaurant, I wasn’t sure if he was already there, or if I had arrived first, so I asked the hostess if there was anyone waiting.  “There’s a woman waiting on a party of four”, she explained, “and another man wearing a grey suit.”

I had absolutely no idea what my friend was wearing, so I said, “The man I’m looking for is a tall, bald, black man.”  The reply I got was quite telling.  The hostess looked quite uncomfortable, and replied, “I didn’t know I could identify him as ‘black’”.

“It’s OK”, I said, “he knows he’s black.”

I’m happy we’ve moved beyond Amos and Andy jokes, but the story above illustrates a hyper-sensitivity to cultural diversity that does no one any good

For this reason, I am self-proclaiming myself to be living in the post-politically correct era.  This means the cultural differences between people have such little consequence for me, that it is entirely appropriate for me to comment on such differences.

Just the other day, I was saying to my Irish friend, Alexis Theodropoulos, that this politically correct garbage has gotten way out of hand.  It seems that every Tom, Dick and Xianlong in town feels comfortable critiquing your tolerance simply because you mention in passing that you don’t like curried food.

I live in a city where the WASP population is significantly less than half the population.  I live in a country where there are no majorities – not white males, not English speakers, and not people of Protestant faith.  It’s a community of communities (with proper credit to Joe Clark).

These diverse groups do not integrate, but they do coexist, and do so nicely.  So next time you see an Italian on the street – ask him the best place to eat schnitzel.  You just might be surprised at the response.

 

 

Dealing with Employee Dishonesty (and a Bright Red Firebird)

Sooner or later it’s going to happen – you’re going to have to fire someone for dishonesty.  Of course, all the management gurus will tell you that you need to trust your people absolutely, and because you’ve heeded this advice, you’ll feel betrayed and stupid.

On the opposite side of the trust spectrum, I was once told a manager must assume that every one of his people is trying to rip him off at all times.  In this case, when you do have to deal with dishonesty, it’s not a shock or a surprise, but you live the rest of your work life in a perpetual state of jaded negativity.

Both mindsets are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Organizations’ inability to manage this dynamic is why employee orientations often suck so badly.  There’s really nothing more welcoming in an organization, than when they spend an hour or so reviewing all the possible contingencies under which you will be fired.  You can bet the HR and legal teams worked overtime on this stuff.

But I’ll bet you Jim Rockford’s bright red Firebird (if you were born after 1975, look it up) there’s a way for managers to negotiate this grey area.

You absolutely need to trust your people – much like you trust your children.  You must also open your mind to the possibility that some employees are going to betray this trust every now and again – much like your children.

However, the parallel with children ends here.  In most cases, you’re stuck with your kids, and all their mistakes.  You have no such obligation with employees.  If an employee breaches your trust by acting dishonestly, you have a responsibility to act quickly, decisively, and severely.

There are very few circumstances of employee dishonesty that I can think of that should not end in the termination of an employment contract.  Failure to do so treats shareholders, and all the honest employees you have with great disrespect.

And don’t try to weasel out of this managerial burden by having the HR and Legal teams get together to put 400 pages of policy in place.  You can’t legislate honesty… but you can fire the dishonest.  Quickly.

I was unable to embed the video clip I wanted this week, so go look it up on YouTube yourself:  “SNL Sexual Harassment and You”

 

Employee Investigations

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Employee Investigations are one of those burdens of leadership that every manager must deal with.  Below we discuss the following aspects of Employee Investigations:

  • What is at stake if Managers don’t deal well with Employee Investigations
  • Employee Investigation Steps:
  1. Assess the Complaint
  2. Determine who should be involved in an Employee Investigation
  3. Interim steps in an Employee Investigation
  4. Conducting an Employee Investigation Interview
  5. Finalize the Employee Investigation
  6. Take Action

Disclaimer: The Wily Manager guys are not lawyers, and as such, you need to use the information here as guidelines, but be well aware of applicable legislation in the jurisdiction you are working in.

What is at Stake in Employee Investigations

  • Dollars – Mismanagement of Employee Investigations can lead to very expensive litigation.
  • Company Reputation – a poorly handled Employee Investigation can make your organization famous in an unflattering way.
  • Brand Health – Poor publicity or reputation management can badly damage an organizations’ brand.
  • Employee Relations/Morale – An Employee Investigation impacts many more people than simply those involved in the investigation.  Poor Employee Relations can cause higher turnover and lower employee productivity – both of which are costly.
  • Organized Labor Risk – if you are not currently unionized, and wish to remain so, it is imperative that Employee Investigations be handled well.
  • Careers are at Stake – Someone’s career and reputation may be at question in an Employee Investigation, so it critical that they be handled in such a way that is fair and equitable to all concerned.

Employee Investigation Steps

1. Assess the Complaint. Your first step is to assess the scope and seriousness of what you’re dealing with:

  • Law – Were any laws broken?  Do law enforcement agencies need to become involved?
  • Policies – Were organizational policies breached?  If so, to what degree?
  • Does it involve people external to the company – Are customers, suppliers, regulators or some other stakeholders involved?  If so, how does this change the seriousness or scope of your investigation?
  • Formal or informal response required – can this adequately be handled with an informal discussion, or are documented interventions required?
  • What does the complainant want – ask the complainant what s/he would like to see as an outcome.  You need to be careful not to promise that outcome before completing your investigation, but it helps to determine the scope and seriousness if you know what the complainant wants.

2. Determine who should be involved in the Employee Investigation:

  • Independent – can you, as the manager, handle this on your own?
  • HR – a good HR person can assist with assessing the risk, and providing investigation tools.
  • Legal – similar to HR, if you have a legal department, you may have access to expertise to assist in the investigation
  • Management – do you need to reach out to peers, or to your boss to properly conduct the investigation
  • The Police – if you believe local laws have been broken, then you have a responsibility to alert law enforcement officials whether you want to or not.
  • Health and Wellness/Safety – if there are potential health and safety issues, you should alert the appropriate people in your organization.  Remember than many forms of harassment are covered in “violence in the workplace” legislation, and as such would require the involvement of your Health and Safety people.

3. Interim Steps in an Employee Investigation:

In many circumstances you will have to make decisions before concluding your investigation.  In these cases, advice from HR and/or legal is particularly helpful.

  • Reporting to work – does an employee continue to report to work as normal, or is there another accommodation put in place.
  • Reporting relationships – Should an employee temporarily report to someone else during the investigation?
  • Short term disability – are there provisions for employees during the interim period of the investigation?

4. Conducting the Employee Investigation interview

  • Quickly – you need to interview all concerned as soon as possible after a complaint is made.
  • Where – think about where you will conduct the interviews.  They must be in private, but it may be good to find a place that is not conspicuous.  Remember that someone accused of something should be treated as innocent until evidence presents itself as otherwise.
  • Who/how many interviewers – as a manager, it is highly advised that you have support and a witness in any interview.  This can be a peer, a boss, or someone from HR or legal.
  • Complainant and suggested witnesses – you will want to interview the complainant again, after you have gathered information from others, and have refined your questions.  You should also ask the complainant who s/he thinks you should speak with.
  • Respondent and suggested witnesses.  The respondent should also be interviewed, and asked who s/he thinks should be interviews.
  • Provide information carefully – do not betray confidences, and do not ask leading questions.  Approach every interview with the intention of learning more about the situation.
  • Be thorough, and ask each person you interview if there anything you haven’t asked that they think would be helpful?

5. Finalize the investigation
There are three possibilities from your investigation, and you need to articulate this:

  • The complaint is substantiated
  • The complaint is not substantiated
  • The investigation of the complaint is inconclusive

6. Take Action
Finally, you need to do something about the complaint.  If you choose to do nothing, you need to communicate to all concerned that you are not going to act, and why you aren’t going to act.

  • Determine appropriate outcomes.  What should happen, and in what time frame.
  • Inform complainant and respondent of the outcome and why.
  • Witnesses should be informed the matter is closed, but need not be informed of outcome.  In sensitive matters, it is particularly important to maintain confidentiality.  As such, it is appropriate to tell people the matter is closed, but without revealing the outcome.

Three Things to Remember About Employee Investigations:

  1. Stay objective.  Do your best to minimize any biases you may have.
  2. Stick to the relevant facts.  There will be many externalities brought into the investigation.  Make sure you stick to the matter at hand.
  3. Move quickly but don’t rush.  You need to begin your investigation as soon as possible after the complaint, but don’t be pressured into making a decision before gathering the appropriate information

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Employee Investigations (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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The Retention Interview

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Many organizations do exit interviews, but that’s a lot like closing the barn door after the horse has left.  Below we discuss retention interviews.  Specifically, we discuss:

  • Why Bother Doing a Retention Interview
  • The Basics of a Retention Interview
  • Sample Questions for a Retention Interview
  • Taking Action
  • Three Things to Remember About Retention Interviews

Why Bother Doing a Retention Interview?

The costs of employee turnover are well documented.  By regularly conducting Retention Interviews, unwanted turnover can be reduced.

  • Unlike an exit interview, the Retention Interview allows the opportunity to still do something to make them stay.  There are several advantages to this, for a leader:
    • Finding new people is both time-consuming and costly.
    • Your life as a leader is much easier without constantly replacing people.
    • Your results will be better if you aren’t constantly replacing people.
  • Retention interviews can help you keep a finger on the pulse of your organization, and give your information and ideas to address emergent issues as they come up.

The Basics of the Retention Interview

If you’ve decided that Retention Interviews are something you want to consider, then, here’s how to begin:

  • Start now.  The sooner you know about a problem, the easier it usually is to fix it.
  • Do Retention Interviews regularly.
  • This does not have to be extra work.  If you are already doing regular one on one meetings with you people, you can easily adjust those meetings to include elements of a Retention Interview.
  • Use broad questions about the company, then narrow down to the work, teamwork, and eventually your leadership.

Sample Questions for a Retention Interview

  • With high potential talent:
    • Tell me what you like about your work here in the last few months.
    • Tell me what has been concerning for you in the last few months.
    • What would you really like to be involved in over the next few months.
  • If you’re having retention issues:
    • “Why do you think some people are choosing to leave our organization?”
    • “If you owned the company what would you do or change to make more people want to stay?”

Taking Action

  • Finding out that you have problems is only a good thing if you’re prepared to do something about it.  If you don’t intend to listen, then you shouldn’t ask.
  • Use the information you gathered to sell your ideas for change.
  • When you implement organizational change, tell people it’s because of the feedback they provided.

3 Things to Remember About the Retention Interview

  1. You need to start now.  Every week that goes by is a missed opportunity
  2. Use existing forums.  You should be able to gather retention interview information without creating a bunch of extra work.
  3. Take action.  Act on the suggestions that people give you.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about The Retention Interview (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Forget Your Superstars — Focus on Middle Performers

In just about any work group or organization, you’ll find a normal distribution of performance quality.  In other words, your employees will fall into the normal bell curve with a few superstars, a handful of laggards, with most of your employee population falling in the middle.

The management books and the HR folks will tell you reach out to all employees to create a high performing environment.  The fundamental flaw with this advice comes from its source:  most of the authors of management books have never actually been managers; and, HR… well, it’s HR.  If you’re one of the few companies out there with a high performing HR department, then you probably should heed their advice.  For all the other organizations, tell HR that once it manages itself to be a high performing group, they will win the privilege of advising you to do likewise.

Here’s what you actually need to do:  forget about the front and back of your bell curve.  Yep, that’s right, ignore your superstars and your laggards.

Your superstars are often your most high-maintenance people.  They often do great work, but leave a trail of broken relationships behind them. When you look at their overall impact on the organization, as opposed to their proficiency in what you’ve asked them to do, the net effect is often much less positive than you might be lead to believe.  They also tend to jump ship quicker than others.

Your laggards are a bit more tricky.  You can’t ignore critically poor performance, or it will drag others’ performance down.  You need to minimize the influence your laggards have on others, but you don’t want to put a whole bunch of energy into trying to improve the poor performer if there’s little chance it will substantially improve.

Leaders need to focus on the middle of their curve.  If you can push those good performers a bit further along the curve, then the overall impact to the organization can be substantial.  Those in the middle are lower maintenance, they probably have a higher ability to improve than the laggards, and they are more stable than the superstars.

The success of an organization rarely depends on the retention of a few superstars.  More likely it depends on the retention of the middle majority of good performers – the same group that likely gets the least attention in most organizations.

I guess irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.

 

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