The Metiss Group's Blog

There is a legend that is told of a French Monastery known throughout Europe for the exceptional leadership of a man known only as Brother Leo. Several monks took a pilgrimage to visit this extraordinary leader to learn from him. Starting out on the pilgrimage they almost immediately begin to argue over who should do certain chores.

On the third day of their journey they met another monk also going to the monastery; he joined them. This monk never bickered about doing chores and did them dutifully. And when the others would fight about which chores to do, he would simply volunteer to do them himself. On the last day of their journey, others began to follow his example and the bickering stopped.

When the monks reached the monastery they asked to see Brother Leo. The man who greeted them laughed. “But our brother is among you!” And he pointed to the fellow that had joined them.

Many seek positions in leadership to serve their own interests and not that of others. There are many self serving reasons why a person may want to lead such as power, status, networking and money. But the best leaders lead because they care about people. And those are the types of leaders that lead like Brother Leo. They teach through their actions, not by words alone. They are servants, not commanders.

Reprint: Teamwork and Leadership Bloggings with Mike Rogers

Success: (noun) the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, – The New Oxford American Dictionary

How do we know success when we see it?  In athletics we look at the scoreboard or standings.  In school we look at the report card.  Businesses use the balance sheet or income statement to determine success.  The pursuit of success inspires hard work, sacrifice, and a commitment to improve.  How do your direct reports measure success?

We suggest using a job accountability matrix to define a job’s accountabilities and corresponding success factors.  Without measurable success factors, how do your direct reports know if they have accomplished their aim or purpose?  How can they be driven to work hard, sacrifice, and improve, if they don’t have a means by which to determine their successes?

Some common success factors are:

• Zero voluntary turnover of ‘A’ players
• Continued reduction of processing errors
• Attend meetings on-time, prepared, and contribute
• On-going increase in add-on sales
• Weekly status reports submitted on-time and accurate
• Positive (lack of negative) customer feedback

Empower you direct reports by establishing and updating success factors, and the accomplishments will soon follow.

In all likelihood your employees will be impacted in some way in the next year by all the new health care reforms being rolled out.  Your employees may be surprised their take home pay will be affected.  After feeling the hit, your superstars may be inclined to see how your competitors are handling their employee’s health care and you risk losing them.

It has been proven over and over again employees leave because they are unhappy with their boss or the organization.  Rarely do employees begin looking because of compensation or benefits.  Ultimately, they may leave for a job with better pay but that’s not what caused them to look in the first place.  However, the major changes to health care may prompt the more marketable superstars to look for other opportunities who may not have otherwise considered looking.

The best approach to keeping your stars is by taking care of them now.  High performers seek defined accountabilities, meaningful feedback, development opportunities, and insight to the organization’s goals.  If you don’t have these easy practices in place now, begin implementing them before the impact of the health care laws prompt superstars to consider other opportunities.

Empower your team with healthy leadership practices and you’ll experience more success regardless of health care reform.

The United States Navel Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) is an elite team of Navy SEALs that hunted and killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Navy SEALs represent the best of the Navy and DEVGRU represents the best of the SEALs.  To graduate to DEVGRU the SEALs must pass a nine month long grueling training and testing program called Green Team. Only the best of the best survive Green Team and are challenged constantly by the Navy’s best leaders.

Mark Owen author of “No Easy Day: The First Hand Account Of The Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden,” recounts his Green Team experience where he and other team members were asked regularly to make an anonymous list of the five best and worst performers in the class. The instructors compared these lists to their own lists when evaluating talent and deciding who would be promoted or removed.  The instructors know to create high-performing teams capable of accomplishing difficult feats, all aspects of the team members’ performance must be considered including how they are viewed by their teammates.

Though you may not be developing a team capable of hunting and killing al Qaeda fighters, receiving feedback from team members about each other can help you make better decisions.  The common approach in business to getting this feedback is from 360 degree tools.  A well designed 360 degree questionnaire, one that does NOT use Likert scale questions, is a great way for you to learn more about your direct reports and for them to create personal development plans.

Empower your direct reports with 360 degree tools and your organization will experience much success.

If you’ve ever embarked on an exercise program, you know how difficult it is to stay committed.  Unless you have health issues, it’s one of those “important, not urgent” activities that frequently doesn’t get the proper attention.  Personal and professional development is another “important, not urgent” activity.  Like exercise, you know you are supposed to do personal development, but often don’t get around to it.  Similar to exercise, some are better at it than others and everyone feels better when they have finished.

Most regular exercisers will tell you that having workout buddies is what keeps them going and that is the key to effective personal development. Encourage your team to commit to working on similar developmental opportunities.  Group accountability is a great motivator.

One of the easiest development approaches is for the group to all read the same book.  The synergies and sharing coming out of the group as they recount parts of the book are amazing.  One leader we work with had his whole team read/reread Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” then as a group talked how to apply the principles to their business.  The individuals benefited from personal growth, the team developed a greater bond, and the organization became more efficient – win-win-win.

Empower your team to grow together and you, your direct reports, and the organization will all experience more success.

We’ve all seen it several times: the emerging superstar or long-time warrior who’s excelled at all the challenges the organization has given them.  Their career path was impressive and the organization has benefited handsomely from the high-performer’s contributions.  The next logical step up the ladder is a managerial role.  This is where the superstar fails and the organization has not only lost one of it’s most valued contributors, they now have a leadership issue.

Not every superstar makes a great leader and great leaders were not always superstar contributors.  Though leadership skills can and should be developed, a high-performer’s leadership potential must be evaluated before they are promoted.  Delegation tendencies, strategic focus, situational control, humility, and people awareness can all be assessed BEFORE someone is promoted.  Understanding a superstar’s limitations before setting them up for failure can prevent the loss of a great asset and a managerial headache.  In fact, many organizations have two high potential career tracks: one for high performers with leadership potential and one for strong individual contributors.

Empower yourself to assess a superstar’s leadership potential before promoting them to a leadership role and you’ll both be more successful.

Many years ago we worked with a leader who had an office manager whose husband was tragically killed in a car accident.  The office manager, not only distraught over the loss of her husband, was deeply upset she would not be able to return to work after the company’s one week bereavement period.  She was in no condition to work and the stress over losing her job because she could not adhere to company policy only deepened her mourning.  Her leader, to his credit, on behalf of his office manager approached the company’s senior leadership to plead her case for more bereavement time.  Senior leadership, persuaded by the leader, gave the office manager one month paid bereavement time before returning to work.

It’s your job as a leader to advocate on behalf of your direct reports.  If your organization’s policies do not treat your direct reports fairly, you must battle for them.  Whether it’s more pay, time off, or policy exceptions, you need to take up the fight – not your direct reports.  Whether you win or lose the crusade, your direct reports will be deeply grateful and perform at greater levels for you.

Empower yourself to advocate for your direct reports, and you’ll experience more success from them.

If you’ve ever experienced flight delays while traveling, you know how frustrating it is when the airline withholds or sugar-coats bad news.  We’d all like to know our flight is delayed or cancelled when the airline knows about it.  But airlines, concerned they might disappoint their customers, often conceal or soften the bad news.  As travelers, even though it’s unpleasant, we’d much prefer to know what’s happening and want the airline to be honest with us.

This is how direct reports feel when leaders aren’t completely forthright with them.  Leaders need to be completely honest when delivering feedback and conducting performance reviews.  Like airline customers, employees want to know when there are issues impacting the company sooner rather than later.  Though it may feel uncomfortable, employees have much more respect for the leader who is forthright and direct.

Empower yourself to be honest and prompt when delivering tough messages and you and your direct reports will be more successful.

Eventually your organization will reach a common barrier to growth whereby the employees who got your organization to its current level will not be able to grow the organization to the next level.

According to Wikipedia, the Peter Principle is a belief that, in an organization where promotion is based on achievement, success, and merit, that organization’s members will eventually be promoted beyond their level of ability. The principle is commonly phrased, “employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence.” Essentially employees tend to be given more authority until they cannot continue to work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle.

The best way to manage this inevitable dilemma is to establish job accountabilities and measure quarterly whether or not the job’s success factors are being achieved.  Eventually both you and your direct report will realize the Peter Principle has been reached and a change is needed.  Furthermore, setting accountabilities and success factors for future positions, helps the individual prepare for success in that position as they work their development plans so the promotion doesn’t rely on “hope” as the strategy for success.

Empower your direct reports with job accountability success factors, review them regularly, and you’ll successfully mange the Peter Principle.