By Jim Harter and Marcus Buckiingham
Most of the comments included in the following text are taken word for word for the book
Introduction
This book is based on results from two massive research projects undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The Gallup Organization set out to measure how to create strong workplaces (defined as ones which attract and retain the more productive employees and “scare way the ROAD warriors)”. (pg 30). Gallup interviewed over one million employees and eighty thousand managers. The most powerful finding from the employee interviews is that “Talented employees need great managers” (page 11). The key finding from the survey of great managers is that they are focused, disciplined and most importantly possess a willingness to individualize how they treat each employee. (pg 12). One great manager asked “how can you manage people if you don’t know them, their style, their motivation, their personal situation.” (pg 14)
Chapter 1: “The Measuring Stick”
The authors dig into the Gallup data looking for patterns, and what they found were 12 questions that capture the most important information about the strength of the workplace. Interestingly, none of the questions dealt with pay, which the authors explain by saying things like pay, benefits, organization structure are “equally important to every employee, good, bad and mediocre” so they don’t help distinguish a strong workplace from a not so strong one.
1. “Do I know what is expected of me at work “(from the employee perspective) **
2. “Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work correctly?” **
3. “At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?” **
4. “In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise from doing good work?” **
5. “Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?” **
6. “Is there someone at work who encourages my development?” **
7. “At work, do my opinions seem to count?”
8. “Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?”
9. “Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?”
10. “Do I have a best friend at work?”
11. “In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?”
12. “This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?”
** denote the 6 most important questions. “If you want to know what you should do to build a strong and productive workplace, securing 5’s. on a scale of 1-5 to these six questions would be an excellent place to start.” (pg 34)
“These twelve questions are the simplest and more accurate way to measure the strength of a workplace.” (pg 29). Gallup asked 105,000 employees to rate the company they worked for on a scale of 1 (“strongly disagree) to 5 (“strongly agree) using these 12 questions.
Gallup found that “those employees who responded most positively to the twelve questions also worked in business units with higher levels of productivity, profit, retention and customer satisfaction.” (pg 32)
Secondly Gallup found that “the manager – not pay, benefits, perks, or a charismatic corporate leader – was the critical player in building a strong workplace. The manager was the key.” (pg 32). The manager is the make or break. If you’re hired by a great company but a poor manager you probably won’t stay long. “Managers trump companies.” (pg 36)
To describe the order of the 12 questions the authors use a mountain climbing metaphor. (pgs 43-46)
“Base Camp: ‘What do I get?’”
“When you first start a new role, your needs are pretty basic. You want to know what’s expected of you.” The two questions that measure Base Camp are:
“Camp 1: ‘What do I give’”?
As you gain experience (climbing higher in metaphor) your perspective changes. You’re interested in knowing how you are doing in your role. These are Camp 1 questions:
” Camp 2: ‘Do I belong here?’”
As you continue climbing the mountain (becoming much more experience) you begin wondering if you belong in your current role and you want to know that you fit:
“Camp 3: How can we all grow?”
You are in the advanced stage of the climb. Camp 3 is measured by these questions:
“Summit”
If you answer each question with a “5”, then you have reached the summit.
The authors state that the longer your lower level needs (Base Camp and Camp 1) remain unmet “the more likely it is that you will burn out, become unproductive, and leave.” (pg 46) “The key to building a strong vibrant workplace lies in meeting employees’ needs at Base Camp and Camp 1. This is where you should focus your time”. “Great managers take aim at Base Camp and Camp 1.
“To secure 5’s to all of these questions you have to reconcile responsibility that, at first sight, appear contradictory. You have to be able to set consistent expectations for all your people yet at the same time treat each person differently. You have to be able to make each person feel as though he is in a role that uses his talents, while simultaneously challenging him to grow. You have to care about each person, praise each person, and, if necessary, terminate a person you have cared about and praised.” (pg 49)
Chapter 2: “The Wisdom of Great Managers”
“Conventional wisdom encourages you to think like the frog. People’s natures do change, it whispers. Anyone can be anything they want to be if they just try hard enough. Indeed, as a manager it is your duty to direct those changes…Great managers reject his out of hand. They remember what the frog forgot: that each individual, like the scorpion, if true to his unique nature. They recognize that each person is motivated differently, that each person has his own way of thinking and his own style or relating to others. They know that there is a limit to how much remolding they can do to someone…They try to help each person become more and more of who he already is.” (pg 56&57)
“Great managers do not believe that everyone has unlimited potential; why they do not help people fix their weaknesses.”
So, what do great managers do? “The manager role is to reach inside each employee and release his unique talents into performance. The role is best played one employee at a time; one manager asking questions of, listening to, and working with one employee…the manager creates performance in each employee by speeding up the reaction between an employee’s talents and the company’s goals, and between the employee’s talents and the customers’ needs. (pg 58 & 59)
Managers must be able to do the following 4 things:
- You must know how much a person can change. You must know the difference between talent, skill and knowledge
- You must be able to set accurate performance expectations
- You must help employee identify and overcome his weaknesses
- You must help the employee learn and get promoted.
Chapter 3 “The First Key: Select for Talent”
The authors define talent as “a recurring pattern of thoughts, feelings, or behavior that can be productively applied.” (pg 71) The key work in this definition is “recurring”. “Any recurring patterns of behavior that can be productively applied are talents. The key to excellent performance, of course, is finding the match between your talents and your role. Every role, performed at excellence, requires talent.” (pg 71)
“Great managers know that excellence is impossible without talent.” Traditionally people are hiring based on experience and intelligence. Rarely are hires made based on talent. “It’s not that experience, brainpower, and willpower are unimportant. It’s just that an employee’s full complement of talents – what drives her, how she thinks, how she builds relationships – is more important.” (pg 73) Multiple people can look at the same stimuli/event but react very differently because each of us filter stimuli differently…our talents influence how we see things.
“So, if you can’t carve out new talents for members of your team, what can you change about them?
1. Help them discover their hidden talents.
2. Teach them new skills and new knowledge
a. Skills can be taught – the best way to teach a skill is to break down into steps
b. Knowledge can be taught – it’s “what you’re aware of” – consists of factual and experiential knowledge
Talent can’t be taught. There are 3 kinds of talent
1. Striving talent – this talent explains the “why” of the person. Is she highly competitive? Is she driven to standout? What motivates her?
2. Thinking talent – explains the “how” of a person – how he thinks, how he prioritizes, how he arrives at his decision.
3. Relating talent – explains the “who” of a person – whom she trusts, whom she builds relationships with, whom she confronts
Skills and knowledge are transferrable to other people but are often situation-specific. The power of talent is that it is transferable from situation to situation, but the limitation is that it very hard to transfer talent from one person to another. (pg 88)
Habits and Attitudes are talents. Attitudes are created by how we’re wired, and managers who think that can change a person’s prevailing attitude will be disappointed.
Drive is the same. “A person’s drive is not changeable. What drives him is decided by his mental filter, by the relative strength of weakness of the highways in his mind. Drive is a striving talent.” (pg 91)
Be careful when talking about talents and thinking you can work with someone to change their talents. Everyone can change a little, especially skills and knowledge, but it’s difficult to change talents.
Myth #1: “Talents are rare and special.” Nothing special about a talent. “The best way to help an employee cultivate his talents is to find him a role that plays to those talents. Employees who find such roles are special. The talent alone isn’t special; it’s the matching the talent to the role that’s special” (pg 93-94) “To do this well, like all great managers, you have to pay close attention to the subtle but significant differences between roles.” (pg 95)
Myth #2: “Some roles are so easy; they don’t require talent.” “The world you see is seen by you along. What entices you and what repels you, what strengthens you and what weakens you, is part of a pattern that no one else shares.” Therefore, you can’t assume that just because something is easy for you it’s easy for others. “Great managers do not believe that their filter is common to everyone. Instead, when they select for a role, they are guided by the belief that some people are probably wired to excel at this role and to derive enduring satisfaction from doing it well.” (pg 96) We often think of “lower-level” jobs, like a housekeeper as a job nobody would want. “In the mind of great managers, every role performed at excellence deserves respect. Every role has its own nobility.”
As a hiring manager you need to know exactly what talents you want. Think about the company’s culture, your expectations, the responsibilities of the role etc. To simplify, identify 1 talent from each of the 3 talent categories (striving, thinking, and relating). “Do not compromise on them, no matter how alluring a candidate’s resume might appear. (pg 102)
“Selecting for talent is the manager’s first and most important responsibility” (pg 105) “What made John Wooden so successful was not just the talents on his teams, but also his own ability to create the right kinds of environment to allow those talents to flourish. After all, talent is only potential.”
Chapter 4 “The Second Key: Define the Right Outcomes”:
“Define the right outcomes and then let each person find his own route towards those outcomes.” (pg 110) “Great managers want each employee to feel a certain tension, a tension to achieve. Defining the right outcomes creates that tension. By defining, and more often than not measuring, the required outcomes, great managers create an environment where each employee feels that little thrill of pressure, that sense of being out there by oneself with a definite target.” (pg 111)
“Temptations – ‘Why do so many managers try to control their people?’” “Many managers can frequently be seduced by the idea that there is ‘one best way’ and that it can be taught. Thus, they dispatch the sales-person to learn the ten secrets of effective negotiation and then evaluate him based upon how closely he followed the required steps.”
Any attempt to impose the ‘one best way’ is doomed to fail. First, it is inefficient – the ‘one best way’ has to fight against the unique, talents possessed by each individual. Second, it is demeaning – by providing all the answers, it prevents each individual from perfecting and taking responsibility for her own style. Third, it kills learning – every time you make a rule you take away a choice and choice, with all of its illuminating repercussions, is the fuel for learning…In your attempts to get people to perform, never try to perfect people. The temptation may be captivatingly strong.” (pgs 112 & 115)
“Manager’s challenge is not to perfect people, but to capitalize on each person’s uniqueness. They select for talent, no matter how simple the role.” The authors acknowledge that all roles require employees to execute some standardized steps, and great managers know that they are responsible for ensuring that their employees follow those necessary steps and execute them perfectly.
Chapter 5 “The Third Key: Focus on Strengths”
The authors suggest focusing on each person’s strength and “manage around his weaknesses. Don’t try to fix the weaknesses. Don’t try to perfect each person. Instead do everything you can to help each person cultivate his talents.” (pg 141)
Great managers know that the uniqueness of each person on their team lies not in what they do but in how they do it – his style.
It’s said that persistence pays off in the end. The authors disagree - “persistence directed primarily toward your nontalents is self-destructive – no amount of determination or good intentions will ever enable you to carve out a brand-new talent. They acknowledge that managers must deal with those areas employees struggle with, but without persistence. “They [great managers] believe that casting is everything. They manage by exception. And they spend the most time with their best people.” (pg147)
“If you want to turn talent into production, you have to position each person so that you are paying her to do what she is naturally wired to do. You have to cast her in the right role.” (pg 148)
The surest way to ID a person’s talent is to watch them over time. “Everyone has the talent to be exceptional at something. The trick is to find that ‘something.’” (pg 150)
Most managers spend most of their time with their least productive people thinking that they can improve their production. Great managers do just the opposite. They are constantly looking for ways to turn their productive people’s talents into performance by:
They are continually observing their best team members. They paint a picture of excellence for their most talented employees and keep everyone pushing towards that picture.
“How to Manage Around a Weakness” – “The most straightforward causes of an employee’s poor performance are the ‘mechanical’ causes – perhaps the company is not providing him with the tools or the information he needs; and the ‘personal’ causes – perhaps she is still grieving from a recent death in the family. As a manager, if you are confronted with poor performance, look first to these two causes.
In dealing with poor performance, great managers ask; 1) “is the poor performance trainable, and 2) is the nonperformance caused by the manager himself tripping the wrong trigger.” (pg 164-165) If the “genuine” answer to both these questions is “NO” “then by default the nonperformance is probably a talent issue. The person is struggling because she doesn’t have the specific talents need to perform. In this case, training is not option.” (pg 167) There only 3 options to help weak performers; 1) “devise a support system”, 2) ”find a complementary partner”, and 3) find an alternative role.” (pg 168)
“The manager’s first responsibility is to make sure each person is positioned in the right role. Her second responsibility is to balance the strengths and weaknesses of each individual so that they complement one another. Then, and only then, should she turn her attention to broader issues like ‘camaraderie’ or ‘team spirit.’” (pg 173).
Chapter 6 “The Fourth Key: Find the Right Fit”
Traditionally people get good at a job and are promoted. This process repeats itself until a person gets promoted into a role they’re not good at. Example, a very good sales person gets promoted to sales manager. The talents of a good sales person are typically not the same talents needed to be a good manager.
Great managers take a different approach. They “carve out alternative career paths by conveying meaningful prestige on every role performed at excellence. Why not create heroes in every role?” (pg 180) Higher pay as the pay grade increases is a natural incentive for employees to seek promotion to the next level (a level for which they may not possess the needed talents). So, to build out excellence at the level best suited for team members you will have to have a pay-scale that is reflected of their work quality.
The Gallup research found that great managers spent approximately 4 hours each year providing performance feedback outside the formal performance review meetings. These meetings typically reviewed the past performance (brief). The purpose of these meetings isn’t to evaluate performance but rather “to help the employee think in detail about her style and to spark a conversation about the talents and nontalents that created this style.” (pg 201)
Great managers get to know their employees. They need to build personal relationships, which isn’t to say that they should become best friends, but it’s OK to socialize with the team.
Gallup asked 80,000 managers this question: “You have a talented employee who consistently shows up late for work. What would you say to this person?” The answers varied widely from authoritarian to “laissez-faire:
According to Gallup, these positions are defensible but aren’t what great managers would say. Great managers would simply ask “Why”. Perhaps he has transportation problems, perhaps he takes his daughter to school before work. Once great managers understand the person’s situation, they can consider solutions. (pg 203)
What do great managers do when they have to let someone go? “They employ tough love…Tough love is a mind-set, one that reconciles an uncompromising focus on excellence with a genuine need to care. So, in answer to the question ‘what level of performance is unacceptable?’ these managers reply, ‘Any level that hovers around average with no trend upward.’ In answer to the question ‘How long at the level is too long?’ Great managers reply, ‘Not very long.’” (pg 207)
“It all springs from the concept of talent. An understanding of talent, an understanding that each person possesses enduring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior; is incredibly liberating when managers have to confront poor performance. Why? Because it frees the manager from blaming the employee.” (pg 208)
Chapter 7 “Turning the Keys: A Practical Guide”
The previous 4 chapters were all about turning employee’s talents into performance. Chapter 7 deals with “The Art of Interviewing” and “Performance Management”.
The authors suggest having a separate interview they call the “talent interview”. The purpose is to discover “whether the candidate’s recurring patterns of thoughts, feeling, or behavior match the job…the exclusive goal is to learn about her talents.”
Use open ended questions and let the candidate talk. Such open-ended questions as “how closely do you think people should be supervised?” or “what do you enjoy most about selling?” are good examples of the types of questions you should ask to uncover their talents. “A person’s unaided response to an open-ended question is powerfully predictive.”
Past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior but only if the behavior is recurring. So, questions such as “tell me about a time when you…” are good. Always be listening for specifics (date, time, person). “Regardless of the detail the candidate eventually provides, if she needed two or three probes to describe a specific example, then the chances are that the behavior in question is not a recurring part of her life. When you ask ‘Tell me about a time’ questions, don’t judge the response on the quality of its detail. If you do, you will end up evaluating whether the person is articulate. Instead, judge the response on whether it was specific and top of mind. (pg. 217 & 218))
The authors provide clues on how to ID talent.
1) “Rapid learning is an important clue to a person’s talent. Ask the candidate what kinds of roles she has been able to learn quickly. Ask her what activities come easily to her. She will give you more clues to her talent. (pg. 219)
2) “A person’s sources of satisfaction are clues to his talent. So, ask him what his greatest personal satisfaction is. Ask him what kinds of situations give him strength. Ask him what he finds fulfilling.” (pg. 219)
Performance Management: The authors found 4 characteristics common to the “performance management” routines of great managers.
1. Their routine is simple. Don’t make the process complex.
2. “The routine forces frequent interaction between the manager and the employee. It is no good meeting once a year, or even twice a year, to discuss an employee’s performance.” (pg. 222) The authors suggest meeting at minimum once a quarter
3. Their routine is focused on the future. The first 10 minutes is focused on past performance (intentionally kept short to avoid recriminations). The remaining time is focused on the future by asking questions such as “What do you want to accomplish in the next few months?” “What measuring sticks will we use?” “What is your most efficient route toward those goals?” “How can I help.” (pg. 223)
4. The routine “asks the employee to keep track of his own performance and learnings.” The purpose of his keeping track is not for evaluation or critiquing purposes but rather to help the employee take responsibility.
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