Your most valuable asset: your employees.
Most of us went to a school that had a system of grading papers with the letter A representing a great paper and the letter F meaning that the work was in need of great improvement. The system worked (for some of us), but many of us probably could have done much better in school if we had teachers that simply focused on helping us to get an A. That is the premise of a unique business philosophy in the book, Helping People Win at Work, by Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge. In this quick read of a gem, Blanchard and Ridge (who is the CEO of the company WD-40), discuss a new way of motivating employees, reviewing and appraising performances, and getting every employee engaged in their work in a new, meaningful way. In this review of the book, we’ll uncover three key points that you can begin implementing in your business today.
The authors Blanchard and Ridge, decided to collaborate on the book after Ridge took one of Blanchard’s leadership courses where he teaches at theUniversityofSan Diego. That is where he heard Blanchard comment that most performance evaluation systems ranked people as high, medium or low performers. Blanchard said he has learned that many company leaders and managers fill in all three slots in order to justify the review. “Some people have to be ranked as low performers and that is just the way it is,” Blanchard has heard. He responds with, “How many of you go out and hire losers so that you can fill the low evaluation slots?”
Blanchard discusses that as his years as a college professor, he would give students a copy of the final exam during the first week of class. He would then spend the entire course helping them develop answers for those questions, thus ensuring every student earned an “A” grade. That is when Ridge approached Blanchard about applying the same concept to business. Ridge attributes the successful adoption of these principles to the WD-40 Company’s impressive sales growth from $100 million to $339 million since the program’s inception.
Here are three takeaways that can be used for positive change in your company:
Establish a tribe
Ridge began the dramatic change in his company by changing the concept of teams to tribes. He felt that teams do work and do create winning performances--- but only while at work. Ridge sees the concept of a team as a group of people who show up to win on game day. A tribe offered the WD-40 Company a much richer concept and set the tone for the open communication that the company needed. Ridge says that in order to understand how a tribal culture impacts open communication, we should think about trial leaders: They sit around a fire and share their knowledge with younger tribe members.
Ridge says that tribes have an identity and that people feel a sense of belonging to a group for a better good. People long to belong to something whether it is a poker club, yoga group, or book club. Tribes provide the following benefits:
Key Point: Change company mindset of employees or teams to a tribe.
Catch people doing something right
A lot of businesses react to business mishaps like a fireman going around putting out flames. Blanchard suggests we be more proactive in running our business. He challenges business leaders to catch people doing something right and then build upon that moment. He says that, “People who produce good results feel good about themselves.” Help them to feel good about themselves by making a big deal when they perform well. In other words, “Don’t mark my paper, help me get an A.”
To do this effectively, begin with performance planning for your tribe members. Establish goals, objectives, and performance standards up front. Be sure that every member of the tribe knows and understands what is required, what represents good performance, and what goals they should be reaching for.
Then, establish a system of day-to-day coaching, or what WD-40 Company calls execution: observing and monitoring the performance of members, praising progress and redirecting where necessary. This is all about teaching people the answers on the test.
Key Point: Set performance parameters for tribal members and teach them how to succeed every step of the way.
Become a Servant Leader
In order to effectively implement the “Don’t mark my paper, help me get an A,” philosophy, the leader must become a servant leader which involves vision, direction, and implementation. The servant leader must set a vision and purpose for the tribal member’s position. The servant leader must then set values because they drive the behavior of people who are working on your vision and your purpose of the future. As a servant leader, you are there to help all tribal members succeed individually. This helps in numerous areas, but one critical one is to eliminate the “I just work here” mentality. It helps tribal members to also take ownership of the outcome of the actions of the company.
Key Point: Begin today becoming a servant leader. (Check out Servant Leadership, by Robert Greenleaf).
Helping People Win at Work is a good book to keep at the office and refer to every six months or so. It reminds us that our business runs better, and is more productive and profitable if we have content, engaged employees.
Johnny Duncan, President of Duncan Consulting, Inc., is a business writer and consultant partnering with business owners to provide workforce management solutions including customer service training, job analysis, people-to-job matches, and conflict resolution. He can be reached at johnny@duncanconsult.com or by calling 407-739-0718.