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There are a few leadership guidelines I’ve learned over the years that I go back to repeatedly as I interact within my own teams and across teams and in my dealing with customers. Below are 4 of them.
The rule of 3’s
When I see the 3rd occurrence of something, it’s a pattern. It’s a simple rule. Kid left the toilet seat up 3 times? Pattern. Witnessed a leader be rude to a subordinate in 3 situations? Pattern. Process broke because of human error 3 times? Pattern. Situation required heroic efforts to save 3 times? Pattern.
Once you start to see these patterns, it is more important what you do in response.
Three nasty emails? Pick up the phone. Three times missing your quarterly number? Review your goals, pipeline generation, opportunity management, team, and incentives. Three process failures? Conduct a process review to determine if it is because of the process, disincentives to adherence, or the people performing the process.
Three times observing that heroic efforts are required? There is a process that needs to be created. Three times being lied to? Move to exit the person. Three times having a vendor fail to provide their service properly? Look to end the relationship.
Intelligence does not equal emotional maturity or character
I cannot emphasize enough that a person’s communication skills, ability to reason, or presentation skills should not be confused with emotional maturity or an ability to actually get things done. I have seen time and again people across a department or even across a sizable company get fooled into thinking that somebody who is a good presenter is productive and/or a good leader. We are easily fooled by good presenters. Make no mistake, however, that if somebody is not performing, the people who work with him or her or under their leadership are aware. It is demotivating. Vetting somebody’s accomplishments and making sure that goals are clear and reporting is in place before giving them leadership positions or ownership of key projects is critical.
The best indicator of future performance is past performance
I believe that people and organizations can change. But those changes aren’t easy. (This is part of the reason why I consider 3 to be a magic number.) Want to know what is likely to happen? Look at what has happened. If a person has not been performing, they will continue to not perform. I’ve had managers working for me who wanted to promote somebody because they thought a promotion was just the challenge the person would need to motivate them. No! An under-performer will continue to under-perform.
Similarly, if you want to know what a team or department or an entire company is going to do, look at their past performance. Inertia is hard — so very hard — to break. An under-performing company that changes executive leadership will likely continue to under-perform. The inertia of people, technology, and processes can take years to turn around even under a strong leader. It takes a significant amount of time for the strongest leader to even figure out what is going on and then a longer amount of time for new strategic intent to be filtered throughout the organization and the inertia of bad processes and negative people to be overcome.
The lesson? Invest in strengths and opportunity, not in trying to turn around weakness.
Just because you like somebody doesn’t mean they can do the job
I see so many situations where somebody that is obviously incompetent retains his job because the requirements are undefined and somebody likes him. Being in this situation risks your respect from your team members.
In hiring situations, follow what recruiting expert Lou Adler does to make sure the person can do the job:
- Write the job description as if you were hiring a contractor with specific deliverables
- Interview to determine that the person has the experience to provide those deliverables
In leadership situations with your team, it’s not much different.
- Make sure that your team’s work, processes, goals, and measures are aligned with the company’s strategic intent
- Write out what you are delivering with specific deliverables
- When you assign work, make sure that each team member knows what is expected of them both to do their day-to-day work and for special initiatives
- Prioritize the special initiatives and discuss conflicts openly