Want more out of your team?

There’s a peculiar reason your team can work hard and still produce less than you want.

And it’s not a lack of motivation or accountability.

It may be the targets they’re given.

You see we’ve been taught a funny idea of what great leadership looks like.

Setting targets is one seemingly good plan.

Being Charismatic. Driven. A Steve Jobs work ethic are others.

And apparently, tall.

There’s actual research suggesting taller people are better leaders.

Which presumably means this conversation is happening somewhere:

“Jeremy, this chap looks perfect for the CEO job. Turned around 100 companies.”

“Height, Alan?”

“Five foot nine and three quarters.”

“Ooooff. Won’t cut it here. Quarter of an inch short.”

“ Try TallBosses.com. See what they’ve got.”

As someone of exactly average height, I find this upsetting.

But 27 years working with leaders has taught me something different.

The best are curious.

The best leader I ever worked with was Laurence Barrett.

Laurence is incredibly kind. His people would have walked over broken glass for him.

Unlike some leaders who couldn’t coax a puppy across a shag-pile carpet with a pork sausage.

But I digress.

Laurence had a superpower.

Tell him something that contradicted what he’d been taught about management and he’d say:

“Hmm. That’s interesting. Tell me more.”

No defensiveness.

Just curiosity.

Which is useful when you get to one of management’s deepest assumptions.

Targets.

They seem sensible.

Athletes have them. F1 teams, and Businesses too.

And if yours isn’t working?

Make it bigger. Bolder. More audacious.

Possibly hairy.

I’ve never understood what the hair contributes.

But the psychology is more interesting.

Research shows challenging goals can improve performance.

But there’s a wrinkle.

When work requires people to think, solve problems and improve methods, focusing on an a target can actually impair performance.

Learning goals work better.

Your people aren’t running swimming 100m.

They’re making judgements.

Put a number over someone’s head and something interesting happens.

The number becomes the job.

People learn how to hit it.

Mostly it merely improves the number.

So what instead?

John Seddon gives us a clue.

Start with purpose.

Housing repairs?

Fix my repair properly, quickly.

Then measure performance against that purpose.

Try a different method. See what happens.

Better? Learn.

Worse? Learn.

Go again.

Leadership changes from:

“Here’s your number. Hit it.”

to:

“Here’s what we’re trying to achieve. How can we make it better?”

Which brings me to Laurence.

Perhaps his greatest skill wasn’t knowing the answer.

It was being secure enough not to need to.

“Hmm. That’s interesting. Tell me more.”

Your people will perform better.

They’ll enjoy their jobs more.

It probably won’t get them into the Commonwealth Games butterfly final.

But I suspect that was one target they weren’t upset about missing.

Get this Sunday:

https://lnkd.in/eHMQXuve