by Adam L Stanley | May 18, 2012 | Leadership, Teamwork
Top Traits: Defining the perfect employees
Yikes – It has been a while since I blogged and I have an excuse. We are working on some amazing things at Aviva and as part of that I have spent the past few weeks in meetings. Yes, being in meetings can sometimes be a royal P.I.T.A., especially if they are pointless. HOWEVER, I have been in FANTASTIC meetings. About dreaming, creatively thinking of new ways of engaging with clients, driving change, building new systems and tools, and SHARING. So, its been tiring but GOOD. Enough with the CAPITALIZ(S)ATION, right? Smile.
So, while I’ve been “away” from the blogosphere, I’ve been observing teams, learning about my new teams here and observing vendors, consultants, baristas at my favorite coffee spots, bartenders and servers at nice restaurants, my dry cleaner, the folks that work for London Transport, and the owner of the flat I lease. And, as I observe, I’ve noted things I like about these various employees and team members. As importantly, I’m refocusing on what I as a leader can do to enable the behaviours I like and discourage other behaviors. In my next series of blog posts, I will share my OPINIONS. I am NOT speaking for any company, nor am I speaking for Cafe Nero, Fino, etc. Just me.
… Trait # 1 – Hard working AND talented
Maybe you’ve had this guy on your team: The fact is he is simply brilliant. He knows so much about every relevant topic and can think beyond any analyst you have ever hired. Give him any problem to solve and, with focus, he can solve the most complex of them within minutes. Yet, when you compare his output and the value created from his efforts to the rest of your team, he falls short. Why? Because he is LAZY. In some ways, there is nothing worse than a LAZY smart person. Like a perfectly grilled prime rib being placed in front of a vegan, a USELESS waste. Offensive even!
Or perhaps you’ve seen more of this guy: Every night as you leave the office you say goodnight to this guy. He is in every meeting, takes copious notes, has severe frown lines from constantly working, thinking and pushing himself. He rarely takes vacations and always goes that extra mile. And yet, again, output is severely lacking. Deadlines are missed and errors are made. This person, while in my humble opinion much more acceptable than the lazy genius, still falls short. These guys are great to have on the team and can be highly valuable. They have the passion but not all of the skills… Which brings me to my first trait of the perfect employee…
Hard Working AND Talented
What I like
People who work hard and think hard are the foundation of a good team. And it is these people with whom I most like working. I don’t need geniuses actually, though the occasional rocket scientist does bring a uniquely different perspective to the team. I need people who are clear about what they know, comfortable researching or asking elsewhere about things of which they know little, and passionate about continuing to improve their knowledge base. But I also need them to want to work hard, push themselves, and execute. Brilliant strategy without effective delivery is … well, what many consultants produce. (And before I get the hate mail, I can say that because I am a former consultant. And of course not all consultants produce paperweights….)
I’m looking for people who have a strong base of talent on which to build, and the industriousness to see their base as a foundation and not a ceiling. Vision to dream about going further, learning more, and gaining even more knowledge as they execute and deliver. I had an architect at a prior company (confession: I hired/poached him from a consulting firm) that was not only the most knowledgeable person about Notes to Exchange migrations, he was also truly hard working. And he was humble; which I will discuss in a future blog. I could get more out of this one person than five others more polished, more educated, and higher paid. But he had a passion for solving problems and thinking harder about ways of working. And he never stopped learning.
I need people who think and push. Who work hard and study hard. Who bring a unique skillset to the table, share it with others, and in so doing make the entire team better.
What I need to do as a manager to enable
EMPLOY. ENGAGE. EMPOWER.
- EMPLOY. I need to find these people and bring them in to my teams. Typical HR processes seem to focus on assessing skills or fit. I need to assess ability to work hard, continue to learn and dream big. My goal will always be to find people smarter than I am, that work as hard or harder than I do, and give them the opportunity to shine.
- ENGAGE. I must actively seek to connect with these high performing high value generating team members, making clear how much they are valued. Too often, the smartest guy that does little work but knows when to speak up is rewarded first. As a leader, I must continuously look to find the hard working and talented and ensure they get the recognition they deserve.
- EMPOWER. The worst thing a manager can do with any top talent is to relegate them to worker bee status when they should be empowered to make decisions. These are your leaders and should be allowed to lead. These folks should be encouraged to ask forgiveness rather than permission.
For those interested, I found another blogger that commented on this topic and grouped people into four blocks instead of three. Where I cover smart and lazy, smart and hard working, and not so smart but hard working, this person also addresses stupid and lazy. I of course ignored that group because I would not even consider keeping someone in that bucket on my team. As Donald Trump says, “you’re fired!” Here is the other blog.
I also found a humorous take on choosing one or the other when you only have smart/lazy or dumb/hard working as your options.
From a “real world” perspective, it is FAR better to be smart and lazy than dumb and hardworking. You see, if a dumb person does a lot of work, chances are they’re going to do a lot of it wrong since they don’t know what they’re doing. Then the smart people are the ones who have to fix everything; and they spend all their time cleaning things up instead of being productive with their smartness.
I guess that is certainly one way of looking at things. As for me, I will continue to seek out the perfect ones, while also recognizing it takes all kinds to make a great team. Most importantly, I will continue to strive to find balance in life and work toward doing the right thing. I like what Teddy says on this topic.
Let me know what you think. What do you view as top employee traits? How do you build the best teams around different types of team members? Are you working hard on something worth doing?
Be sure to view all of the Top Traits:
Trait 1: Hard working AND talented
Trait 2: Pride in work product
Trait 3: Fun to work with
Be well. Lead On.
Adam
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog
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by Adam L Stanley | Feb 7, 2012 | Relationships, Teamwork, Technology, Vendors and Partners
This week, I had a very unique opportunity to be “on-boarded” twice. My new role is based in the UK however I have a base in Chicago and, at the end of the day, a US contract. Thus, my first day was in Chicago and my second day was here in London. As I reflected on my first two days, something struck me that I thought was worthy of mentioning here. Both days, my first significant contact was with Technology team members. Not the strategy or planning sessions, or beginning the challenging work with which I have been tasked. Those start tomorrow. Specifically, I am referring to the service desk and support guys that actually helped get me setup with my “kit”.
Think about it: the last job you started likely involved use of some end user technology, be it a phone, laptop, iPad, or otherwise. Before you began to work your first deal, draft your first work plan, or respond to your first company email, you were likely setup by someone in Technology at your company. And that experience may very well have established your impression of technology at your firm overall. Regardless of how small a portion of the technology budget is actually spent on end user support, this is sometimes the only part of IT to which the majority of your teams are exposed. And I have seen AWFUL on-boarding and support processes, including from large outsourcing vendors that claim to have expertise.
And as I reflected on this fact, I also considered the age old question of whether business and technology have an effective relationship and whether technology can actually drive and influence decision making. And I say “absolutely”. And, frankly, it starts Day 1. And thus, service desk and support teams everywhere must take note: you matter much more than you may ever think. Yes, you deal with some of THOSE clients whose major problem is that shortly after they learned to pose their thumbs they were given a computer with a plug and no instructions. But you also deal with the closet techies that yearned to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs before becoming actuaries. The one that built a program in DOS years ago before she decided to go back to law school. She was so proud of that program! The HR leader who admits to not knowing much about technology that simply begs for it to be as easy and user friendly as possible so she can help her clients recruit, train and retain talent so critical for the success of the firm. And yes, also that Finance major and banking strategist that spent 10 years in consulting before taking technology leadership roles and finding out how much he loved working with tech teams. For all of these users, you have the opportunity to frame their experience from day 1. And what a difference you can make!
Every five minutes you have with a CFO, you have the opportunity to represent your technology organization to an extent few others will ever have with that leader. You can listen to complaints and offer solutions. You can share their excitement talking about a new technology then work with the rest of the Tech org in finding ways to leverage that excitement for new solutions and services. You can make executives “happy” enough that perhaps the day we have a major sev 1 outage, they are stressed and concerned but not on the warpath. Because they know we care and that we realize the roll technology plays in generating revenue and sustaining profitability. You might just get them smiling right before they go to that special funding review meeting!
Like police officers in many urban centers, you don’t always get the glory. You are typically understaffed and insufficiently empowered. You get yelled at more than you get praised, and sometimes it may just seem that you have the most thankless job in Technology. But, goodness, YOU MATTER! And for me personally, you mattered this week. To Carey, Neel and Tom, a hearty thanks. You made my two days of on boarding easy and I can be productive from day 1 thanks to your help. You may never know just what that added productivity enabled for me, or for others. But you should know that it made a difference. You made a difference. And every call you take, every desk you visit, whether your clients say it or not, you continue to make a difference. And for those who do not, I say thanks.
Be Well. Lead On.
Adam
Adam L. Stanley | ALSWharton Connections
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by Adam L Stanley | Jul 28, 2011 | Leadership, Relationships, Teamwork
People aren’t picking up new skills fast enough? It might be your fault. Six questions to ask yourself
Today, I wanted to repress a blog from Blanchard LeaderChat. This is one of my favorite leadership blogs and the folks at Blanchard know their stuff. It resonates with me. I encourage you to follow them on Twitter at @LeaderChat or visit leaderchat.org to connect to their blog, newsletter or RSS feed.
Read this Blog - People aren’t picking up new skills fast enough? It might be your fault. Six questions to ask yourself. by David Witt, July 25, 2011 via Blanchard LeaderChat
Extract of blog – See if you you’ve covered these six basics to maximize learning and application.
- Energize learners. Set the context for learning before anyone steps into the classroom. What can people do to get up-to-speed on this subject? What can they read, or who can they talk with, to become as excited about this topic as you are?
- Navigating the content. Is the presentation learner friendly? Have you put together a good structure that includes breaking the content down into bite-sized chunks that people can easily digest? Or have you designed this as a lecture type presentation where you will be doing all the talking and it will be a challenge just getting through the content—let alone actually retaining anything?
- Generate meaning. Have you connected the dots so people see why learning this new content is important? People need to see why they should take the time to invest in learning new skills. Your job as a leader is to provide that meaning.
- Apply the learning. What does this new skill look like in the real world? Have you included some opportunities to practice the real life application of this new skill—or is that something you are leaving up to individual learners to figure out for themselves?
- Gauge and celebrate. How will you measure if people are really doing something different with the content? Don’t be vague on this point. What is the business metric you are looking to impact? ROI is something you need address at the beginning of a new initiative—not after the fact.
- Extend the learning. How will you keep the initiative alive beyond the initial rollout? New habits take time to develop and a lot of support in the early days. What is your follow-up plan? How will you ensure that skills learned in the classroom are applied back on the job?
So often, leaders get frustrated with their teams if they do not immediately pick up on new skills. Maybe it’s YOUR fault. What do you think?
In relationship,
Adam
by Adam L Stanley | Jul 3, 2011 | Leadership, Relationships, Teamwork
Today I shared a series of tweets on relationships, the primary unit underlying ALL leadership and teamwork constructs. I used quotes from one of my favorite books, The Shack by William Young.
In my various leadership roles throughout the years, I have developed relationships with hundreds of leaders. Some worked with me, many worked for me, and of course there were those in positions of authority over me. I have discussed leadership so many times over the years and have typically thought of this as one of my key strengths. Recent conversations and events have truly forced me to rethink my focus and ideas on leadership. Is being a good leader truly enough?
In The Shack, Young uses a fictional account of a meeting with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to emphasize the role of relationship as the single building block of life. And the more I read, the more I realized how true this really is. I have been blessed to have amazing relationships with most people who have ever worked for me and do consider myself a strong leader. However, what really makes my life fulfilling (or not) is the energy I draw from unique and valuable relationships with my teams, peers and superiors, with my family and friends, people at church, business relationships, and even random people on the street or in stores! Life is full of relationship and the more you embrace people for both who they are and what they uniquely bring to you (and you to them), the richer you will be.
Here are the relationship quotes I tweeted from The Shack today.
1 “You cannot produce trust just like you cannot ‘do’ humility. It either is or is not.”
2 “Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe & powerful.”
3 “You don’t play a game or color a picture with a child to show your superiority.”
4 “Each relationship between two persons is absolutely unique. That is why you cannot love two people the same.”
5 “Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect.”
6 “Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive.”
7 “Life takes a bit of time and a lot of relationship.”
I am especially fond of YOU and our relationship.
Best, Adam
