|
|
Help Wanted -New Business Leadership required to jumpstart the American Economy
Help Wanted -New Business Leadership Styles and Practices Needed To Build Confidence and Jump-Start the Economy. By: Denis Orme ______________________________________________________________________________ America's help wanted ad should read,...
How to Grow Your Business in the Marketplace of the New Millennium ©
The "old ways" of doing business have been on the way out for years. Yet, training programs and consultants continue to do things the way they've always been done. Maybe they're stuck in the past. Maybe they're blind to the facts. Or maybe they...
Leadership Development: Turn On Your Employees
The concept of leadership
development is not new. Over the last few decades, many
scholars and business leaders have written books, articles, and
curriculum on this topic. So, why another article? Simply put,
the message isn't getting to front...
Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk. (Part Three)
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to...
Zero-based budgeting - start fresh, achieve more!
Every year, good business executives develop a budget. Peek into the planning sessions and operating mode of any well-run company and you will find a strong budgetary process at work. Simply put, a budget is a financial tool -- sort of a...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Leadership Screw Driver: The 90 Day Improvement Plan
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com
Word count: 648
Summary: All leaders must eventually deal with poor performers. The author describes a method to help poor performers become good performers. It is based on developing and executing a 90-Day Improvement Plan.
A Leadership Screw Driver: The 90 Day Improvement Plan by Brent Filson
I was talking with first-line supervisors in a utility company about how to deal with poor performing employees.
"You've gotta put the screws to him!" suggested one supervisor to his colleague who was having trouble managing one particular poor performer.
"I've put so many screws to him he's dead weight!" the supervisor replied.
We all knew what "putting the screws to him" meant -- using rewards and punishments to force change in behavior.
The trouble is, rewards and punishments are the least effective ways of dealing with poor performers. That's because poor performers are usually smart, motivated, and tenacious -- when it comes to poor performing.
To change the behavior of poor performers, avoid the outside-in approach of rewards and punishments and cultivate an inside-out approach.
Aesop understood that. There is the Aesop's fable of the wind and sun competing to see who can remove a coat from a man. The wind tries to blow the coat off, but the man clutches it tightly to his body. Then the sun grows hotter, and the man, perspiring heavily and getting hotter and hotter, gladly rips the coat off.
The leadership lesson is clear: You can bluster and blow to get somebody to accomplish a task, but that's not as effective as setting up a situation in which the person gladly does it.
Here is a way to deal with poor performers using Aesop's lesson: the 90-Day Improvement Plan. A business leader tells me that he uses such plans as tools for change. Each plan is comprised of two pages: the first page pointing out that the individual must improve and the second page detailing the precise ways that improvement must take place.
"Be specific about improvement," he says. "For instance,
one leader I gave an Improvement Plan to was very bright but was not getting results. He tended to deal with future, strategic issues; whereas our business wants results now, preferably yesterday. We identified specific ways he could improve his performance in getting results, such as precise calls to make and exact, quick-closing targets to pursue."
The objective of 90-Day Improvement Plans should not be to get rid of people. "Their objective is to improve performance," he says. "Though I do write on the first page, ‘If the objectives are not met, further actions, including dismissal, can be taken.'"
He sometimes combines Improvement Plans with the force-ranking of all his leaders into a 20/60/20 continuum. The bottom 20 percent get the Plan. He says, "My objective is to have the bottom 20 percent be indispensable leaders."
Mind you, in developing a 90-day Improvement Plan, keep Aesop's fable in mind and seek not compliance but commitment. The Improvement Plan must not be imposed from without but agreed upon. Here is a four-step process to do that.
First, all parties must agree to develop a 90-Day Improvement Plan. If people are forced to do it, it won't work as it should.
Second, ask the poor performers to describe what should be in it. Remember, you can veto any suggestions. However, it is best if its key components come from the other people. Only after they have run out of suggestions do you incorporate yours.
Third, develop the Plan together, and agree on its action steps.
Fourth, implement it. Have weekly or bi-weekly meetings to insure the Plan is being carried out.
If the Plan is forced upon someone, it becomes just another screw, another imposed reward/ punishment. However, if it is put together with mutual consent, indeed with mutual enthusiasm, it becomes the screw driver by which poor performers may very well gladly put the screws into themselves.
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at www.actionleadership.com
|
|
|
|
|
The Art and Science of Leadership |
The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. ... Leadership Development Outline - contains the leadership guide listed to the right, ... |
www.skagit.com |
  |
LeadershipJournal.net | Church Leaders & Leadership Training |
Leadership's award-winning and relevent editorial provides timely insights on critical issues facing today's pastors and church leaders. |
www.christianitytoday.com |
  |
Leadership - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Leadership can come from an individual, a collective group of leaders, ... Though advocates of the "big man" school of visionary leadership would have us ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Leadership - Forbes.com. |
Careers, Jobs, Management, Money, Compensation, Salary, Bonuses, Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Responsibility, Corporate Social Responsibility, ... |
www.forbes.com |
  |
LeadershipNow - Leadership Development - Main Page |
A source for free articles and shopping for leadership resources. |
www.leadershipnow.com |
  |
Leadership University |
Collection of articles in PDF format for distribution to classes, leadership teams, or outreach audiences. Sponsored by Campus Crusade. |
www.leaderu.com |
  |
Center for Creative leadership: leadership at CCL.org, leadership ... |
leadership at CCL.org. Specializing in leadership development, leadership training, executive coaching at CCL. |
www.ccl.org |
  |
U.S. Senate: Senators Home > Senate Leadership |
It shows the Senate's relationship to other branches of the Federal government and provides a quick view of Senate leadership, officers, and committee ... |
www.senate.gov |
  |
Leadership |
Quick Search This Journal:. Leadership. Sign up for SAGE Email Alerts today! Select an Issue from the Archive February 2005—November 2006 ... |
lea.sagepub.com |
  |
Leadership |
Describes programs, products, and services of the Covey Leadership Center, The goal of which is to help solve personal, professional, and organizational ... |
www.ncrel.org |
  |
Academic Leadership |
Articles and Essays for those in academic leadership roles - from unit coordinators to university presidents. |
www.academicleadership.org |
  |
United States House of Representatives, 109th Congress, 2nd ... |
Leadership Offices. Office of the Speaker · Office of the Majority Leader · Office of the Democratic Leader · House Majority Whip · Democratic Whip ... |
www.house.gov |
  |
Amazon.com: Leadership: Books: Rudolph W. Giuliani,Ken Kurson |
Amazon.com: Leadership: Books: Rudolph W. Giuliani,Ken Kurson by Rudolph W. Giuliani,Ken Kurson. |
www.amazon.com |
  |
Leadership.com |
Welcome to Leadership.com: Shaping the leaders of the Internet era ... Leadership.com offers several modules that empower leaders to build more effective ... |
www.leadership.com |
  |
Leadership Network |
Identifies and connects innovative senior pastors in the US and Canada through Leadership Communities and other events. |
www.leadnet.org |
  |
Educational Leadership |
Selected responses will be included in either the print or online versions of Educational Leadership. The deadline for this special section is December 8, ... |
www.ascd.org |
  |
The Leadership Trust - Excellence in Leadership Development |
The Leadership Trust has launched a new leadership development programme specifically ... The Leadership Trust recently welcomed The John Smith Fellowship ... |
www.leadership.co.uk |
  |
Progressive Policy Institute: Defining the Third Way |
Progressive Policy Institute, Democratic Leadership Council Home ... It is time for progressives to fill the leadership void on energy policy by offering a ... |
www.ppionline.org |
  |
Business Leadership Skills - Leadership Development Training ... |
Inc.com's Leadership Resource Center covering topics such as leadership development training, business leadership training, and business leadership skills. |
www.inc.com |
  |
Leadership |
These pages aim to expand the readers knowledge and understanding of the continuing debate in management studies about the role of leadership in the ... |
www.ee.ed.ac.uk |
  |
|