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The Leading

from the Heart Workshop

SSOE

[5]

values-based leaders: Recognize the Best

in

Others

vital integrities

Values-based leaders recognize that each persons talents are unique and that a persons best opportunity for growth is in exploiting those strengths.

Learning your ABCs

Vitality Curve 20-70-10

Some think it s cruel or brutal to remove the bottom 10% of our people. It s just the opposite. What is brutal is keeping people around who aren t going to grow and prosper. There s no cruelty like waiting and telling people late in their careers that they don t belong just when their job options are limited and they re putting their children through college or paying off big mortgages.
Jack Welch
Jack: Straight From the Gut

WARNING

Without specific, measurable, and wellcommunicated ranking criteria, employees will assume the worst about how differentiation decisions are determined.

Sales Company-Wide
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Name Watkins Garcia Young Soriano Sanchez Jenson Johnson Green Sierra Morris Flaherty Rivers Williams DeWitt Wiley Mondale Boone Ritter Gamby Ellis 000's $324 305 297 290 289 287 284 281 276 272 267 266 263 263 260 258 254 251 250 248 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. Name Klassen Monroe Munson Higgins Davis Saunders Peters Walters Anders Halter Zeller Kingsdale Brandon Hinch Trammell McDonald Wilson Rogers Palmer Pride 000's 247 240 240 235 230 225 225 222 220 217 210 208 203 203 200 176 174 152 140 83

Top 20%

Botto m 10%

Sales by Department
East Coast Name Watkins Garcia Young Sanchez Johnson Sierra Flaherty Williams Wiley Ellis Klassen Munson Davis Peters Anders Zeller Brandon Trammell McDonald Palmer 000's $324 305 297 289 284 276 267 263 260 248 247 240 230 225 220 210 203 200 176 140 Name Soriano Jenson Green Morris Rivers DeWitt Mondale Boone Ritter Gamby Monroe Higgins Saunders Walters Halter Kingsdale Hinch Wilson Rogers Pride West Coast 000's 290 287 281 272 266 263 258 254 251 250 240 235 225 222 217 208 203 174 152 83

make way for younger and


more culturally diverse workers. Ford paid $10.5 million to settle the suits.

Two class action lawsuits charged Ford with using the ranking system to force older, white employees out of the company in order to

Minority and female employees sued Microsoft


Corporation, alleging the companys predominantly white male managers based forced ranking decisions on their own biases

rather than merit.

Conoco employees asserted the company s ranking methods discriminated against American citizens and older workers when it laid off geophysicists and other scientists.

themost dangerousconsequence
of differentiation is that we take for granted our so-called B players while management glorifies superstars, and fires and replaces the weak, it ignores the majority in the middle

What really matters in organizational success is how the company utilizes the vast bulk of ordinary people, since that is what it will always have in greatest abundance.
Adrian W. Savage

Its not about the top; its about finding the right combination of people to accomplish the mission.
Dana Beth Ardi
Human Capital Partner, JP Morgan Partners

Some of the under performers may be the jewels in the rock that you have to mine and develop. Some of those people who fall in the middle ranges of topgrading can turn out to be your breakaway A players once you put them in the right seats. Dana Beth Ardi

What prevents our employees from doing what they do best? Usually, our emphasis on what they do worst.

When striving for improvement, most of us do the same thing: we take our strengths for granted, and concentrate all our efforts on conquering our weaknesses.

The vast majority of organizations appear to believe that the best way for individuals to grow is to eliminate their weaknesses. So they instruct workers to recognize and focus on their deficiencies.

Gallop survey question:


At work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

 Strongly Agree (20 percent)

 Strongly Agree
38 percent more likely to work in business units with higher productivity 50 percent more likely to work in business units with lower turnover 44 percent more likely to work in business units with high customer satisfaction scores
Source: Now, Discover Your Strengths Marcus
Buckingham and Donald Clifton

When we force our employees to strive for proficiency in everything, we miss the opportunity for them to

achieve greatness
or mastery in something in the one area where they may, indeed, achieve just that.

Geeks are different from other people. If this comes as a shocking statement to you, youre either oblivious to others or unusually charitable with your opinion about others. Paul Glen, Leading Geeks: How to
Manage and Lead People Who Deliver Technology

GEEKSPEAK
Just when you understand the difference between a megahertz and a megapixel, geeks start talking about link rot and packet jams.

Geeks resist mainstream or official authority structures. They respect technical knowledge far more than where a person resides on the organizational chart.

As leaders, we would prefer that geeks behave like the rest of us. But our geeks personalities, even if grating to some, are immaterial to their productivity.

to great

GOOD

master
Noun. An artist or performer of great and exemplary skill; a worker qualified to teach apprentices and carry on the craft independently.

Identifying each person s strongest talents permits everyone the opportunity to contribute what they do

BEST.

In business, we tend to attribute competenceor lack thereof to an employees learning capacity. We further presume that what separates proficiency from competence is individual attitude and aptitude.

But we tend to
consider mastery out of
reach, a level of attainment
reserved for those few who possess
natural intelligence, good fortune, or a head start.

TEACHINGMASTERY

Most business organizations still use the intelligence theory approach to learning.

Using a clock to measure individual progress places all responsibility for learning on the employee.

George Leonard, Mastery

Mastery is not really a goal or a destination but rather a process, a journey. It s available to anyone who is willing to get on the path and stay on it regardless of age, sex, or previous experience.

vital

SIX
integrities

 Accept challenges and take risks  Master both listening and speaking  Live by the values they profess  Freely give away their authority  Recognize the best in others  Have a vision and convince others to share it

values-based leadership

The Leading

from the Heart Workshop

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