Would you prefer to be on a team that makes you feel inspired to give all you got, or a team where you will be treated the same whether you give your best or your worst performance? Most of us think we prefer the former, but as it turns out, the latter is also important for a high performance team. We may think that treating people the same is unacceptable and tantamount to accepting sub-par performance, but think of it more like a “we are in this together” mantra of a team that is on the brink of breaking new ground, reaching new heights. When conditions are risky, or call for new ways of thinking and acting, it is important for the team to be held together by glue, which is another way of saying, team members need to encourage one another when they fall down. They need to say “get up, keep going, stay focused!” High performance teams recognize outstanding performance without altering respect for every team member.

When we set the conditions for high performance, whether it is in our own lives, or our workplaces, we can only achieve high aims when we allow for variation in performance. When people think of Steve Jobs, they may think of someone who could not tolerate failure and yet, his life not only revealed great variation in performance, more importantly his life exemplified the way in which failure can lead to the next big success. Likewise, high performance teams must examine their own best and worst performance in order to discern what works and doesn’t work.

One way we can frame the performance challenge in 2012 is to first think about creating the conditions to help others feel inspired about the future and a goal big enough to necessitate a “we are in this together” mantra. If we set the conditions, we can expect the best but tolerate less, if we can use it to learn together.

Today the U.S. emerged from its 2^nd game in the World Cup Championship with a 2-2 tie against Slovenia. While this is not a bad showing, no one is likely to soon forget the spectacular goal made by the U.S. near the end of the game, which was never counted because a referee called a foul against the U.S. when by all accounts it appeared as if a U.S. player had been fouled and a penalty kick should have been awarded.

It is moments like these that test leaders and champions. When the stakes are high and the subjective nature of referee calls introduce a level of uncertainty, players and coaches must keep both focus and intensity. While we, the viewers, bemoan the unfairness of it all, champions understand that this is part of the game and play on.

Rafael Nadal, the Spaniard who won the French Open recently, spoke in an interview about how he developed his professional demeanor during big matches. He said he once had an uncle who purposely introduced every kind of injustice into his practices, to test his tolerance, endurance and focus through all types of trials, whether just or unjust.  While unconventional, the tactic made sense in a real world context.

Today, both coaches, Matjaz Kek of Slovenia, and Bob Bradley of the U.S., exhibited contained excitement when their teams scored and reserved aplomb when the calls went the other way. They appeared to be more concerned about what they were going to do next. Therein is a grain of wisdom we can embrace for our leadership strategies as well as our own personal development.  In order to rise to the heights of our potential, we must accept uncertainties we cannot predict and rather than waste energy fighting perceived injustices, we can call up the champion in us, keep our eye on the horizon and play on.

In memory of my father who taught me all I know about playing on through adversity. This Father’s Day, may we  remember great fathers everywhere; those who are here with us, as well as those who have gone but remain with us in spirit and those we hold in our hearts as father; may their light keep on shining brightly in our life.

David McClelland’s early work in competency development led to large scale efforts in the 1990’s toward developing competency models for various employee groups. I was a part of that movement and worked with a number of organizations to develop competency models from the ground up to energize and engage employees around what is most critical for success. One of the underlying premises of competency modeling can be found in the now accepted adage that identifies the problem: we hire based on qualifications, we fire based on competencies. 

A person may have knowledge, aptitude and skill, but successful job performance requires a much broader range of characteristics, motives, traits and other aspects of self that are brought to bear in a job. The movement brought about many changes in the field of HR as professionals learned how to investigate what a person actually does rather than what they look like on paper or would do “hypothetically”.  Organization development professionals developed organic models to help organizations uncover what distinguished successful performance for that particular organization.

Today, competency modeling lends itself well to the field of management and leadership coaching. As organizations are faced with the need to re-direct resources and change course, leaders must be the key to guiding change. Middle managers are challenged with keeping employees engaged and positive in the workplace and must possess the necessary competencies to manage up as well as to manage down during this time of unprecedented change.

So, a focus on coaching is relevant and important today, and the added dimension of competency development will provide vital links between personal strengths and organization goals. Here is a brief overview of the particular way in which I have brought coaching and competency development together. I am excited by the possibilities and look forward to learning what other ideas are out there.

Create an individual competency profile

To begin the process, I use an assessment tool that is quick, easy to understand, and allows the employee to select competencies that are best self descriptors. The self profile does not provide a complete picture, but by all accounts in research, it is more reliable than observer profiles. It also reduces resistance that one ordinarily encounters when a supervisor or manager provides the sole source of data.

Provide coaching feedback

A coach will typically be given enough information to understand basic areas of development that are mutually understood to be a priority.  With a profile in hand, the coach can now begin to dialogue around competencies with the client using descriptors which are defined and lend themselves to shared understanding. The initial coaching session is ordinarily about gathering information from the client about what “fits” in the profile, and what does “not fit”. 

The same skills used in developing competency models can be applied over time with clients to build an understanding of how they actually behave in various situations and then looked at through the lens of the initial profile.  Eventually, additional feedback from other sources helps to shape a more realistic profile and deeper understanding of when a client might operate with a new set of competencies, and when he or she might have a tendency to fall back to a “default mode” of behavior.

Development of personal strategies

As soon as the client has a good understanding of how his or her actual behavior falls on the competency scales, and most importantly, the coach has gathered enough information to know which competencies are most critical for success for the client, the next step is to develop personal strategies. I like to remind clients that this is about expanding one’s professional repertoire and also bringing success strategies from life outside work, inside the workplace.  When a client talks about the exhilaration and confidence he feels while coaching his son’s softball team, I get him to talk about what he does to make the experience successful and challenge him to turn this into a strategy he can employ at work. I encourage clients to experiment, and remind them it is like action science, we test and measure as we go.

I have only scratched the surface here, but hope to generate more posts in the future about the ways in which coaching can bring great new rewards to your workplace, and with relatively modest investments.

You can find out more information about my approach here.

Not that it makes us feel any better, but according to the Towers Watson 2010 Global Workforce Study, we in the U.S. are not the only ones to be faced with an anxious, stressed out workforce.  According to the study findings, “From the global recession, to financial defaults, to changes in business models, both employers and employees are being forced to revisit some fundamental assumptions about their implicit and explicit ‘compact’ with one another.”

More than ever, events happening outside the workplace, such as financial woes and job losses for other family members, are impacting life inside the workplace.  We do not need to look far in the world around us to see how fear translates into anger, withdrawal and mistrust. Our workplaces are easy targets for misplaced fears and as a result leaders have an even greater challenge in getting people focused on organization goals.

Three Key strategies that you can employ now …

1. Focus on leadership coaching; start at the top and make sure your leaders have what they need to lead in these times. Assess competencies and give them strategies to build on their strengths, give them follow up with a coach or mentor, teach them the skills to coach others.
2. Embark on process improvement to keep employees engaged and actively involved in contributing to positive changes in the work environment. Give them a task/challenge that is urgent and important, ask them what they think is important about the work, what they would do differently and let them participate in setting goals and measuring progress around budget, quality, timeliness and customer service.
3. Recognize the need for encouragement and support; this is the time to reach out and build bridges and mend fences. Make a special effort to reach across the divide where acrimonious relationships have taken hold. Now is the time to think about bringing in motivational speakers or adopting wellness programs. One innovative program I recently learned about is mPRW10 which helps employees develop healthy habits with a 10 minute a day program.

The Towers Watson Study offers the firm’s insights about the unfolding employment relationship in this new age. The study cites the need for organizations to foster self-reliance in employees, align people’s work with what really matters to allow them to contribute more value, and strengthen agility and flexibility in structures, processes and styles of work.

But the bottom-line is that employees first need to experience a readiness to change and an awareness of why change is necessary.  When they see the importance and the urgency, as well as a willing leader, they will be more likely to take the necessary steps.

What is critical for success?

Does anyone wonder if my friend Dylan is going to forget this time in his life when he mastered what was critical for success? Performance management involves coaching, discipline and also inspiration.  When we take the first step out, others will follow. We set the tone, show the way, model courage in the face of change. Many of you today are thinking about what lies ahead with ever tightening budgets.  My clients are talking about strategies to re-structure jobs and reward performance, in essence, to work smarter and maximize potential and capabilities in the work force.  Performance management provides a framework for accomplishing change, but it cannot work unless a leader is willing to talk the helm.

Leaders change the way we think and act. Performance management is part of the skill set of a leader. When we talk about a system, as in performance management system, we are talking about a perspective that takes in the whole of the organization. It is not just something you do once in a year, it is a way to thinking about how to build success into the organization.

The first step in building a performance management system is identifying critical job competencies. When I worked with the County of Lancaster on this, the management team came up with what they thought was a comprehensive list of critical core competencies. Timi Kirchner, then the County Administrator, recently recalled to me how she remembers that a focus group took a look and came back with something much more complete, descriptive and even more challenging then the management team. I have seen this in many other organizations too, which is why I recommend engaging your employees in this question:

What is critical for success?

Great questions

Next, profile your high performers using the list of critical competencies. Gather stories and examples of behaviors that demonstrate these competencies.  You can also use these questions to gather information from employees during an annual performance review, or ask these questions during an employment interview to see if the candidate fits in with your organization.

¨  Tell me about three challenges you faced in this past year. How did you deal with these challenges?

¨  What competencies do you think were critical to the outcomes?

¨  What did you learn about your strengths and what competency are you most interested in developing in the future?

Develop a dictionary

You can also develop a dictionary of critical competencies for your organization. You may want to start with an existing dictionary (one is available at www. njhessassociates.com on the resource page) and then customize it using data from your own organization.

Job Descriptions

You also want to develop job descriptions to document actual work duties and a list of competencies, including knowledge skills and abilities required for the job. Use a methodology that is structured and systematic so you can defend your job descriptions if need be. For instance, be sure to

¨  Use structured questionnaires

¨  Interview to confirm and gather additional data

¨  Allow for comments from supervisor and employee.

Create Clear Performance Goals

Two types of goals are common and important in the performance evaluation process:

¨  Job goals relate to organization mission, goals and strategies.

¨  Development goals relate to competencies.

 Lucca is my neighbor’s dog, and she also reminds me of what it means to be a natural performer. But she does not perform without clear direction. The minute I change my focus away from her, she begins to lose interest as well. So, focused and intentional direction, and communication of clear expectations is imperative!

Do’s and Don’ts

Finally, a few do’s and don’ts

¨  DO create a policy and procedure that outlines the process for an annual review. It can be…

¨  Short and sweet with a focus on review of job and development goals(an example can be found at www.njhessassociates.com)

¨  Or , it can be more extensive with a focus on competency development where employee and supervisor review job performance from the context of a  competency profile created for their job.

¨  DON’T confuse your performance program with your disciplinary policy.

¨  DO include an appeals policy.

¨  DO practice documentation of reviews.

¨  DO have someone review all evaluations for consistency and integrity.

What does a WWII movie made in 1957 have to do with leadership challenges today? Grab the DVD and a few friends, and discover (or more probably re-discover) the amazing lessons of this paradoxical drama, based on historical events, that shine through time and cross many boundaries of conventional thought.

If you haven’t seen the movie the basic premise is a British outfit is captured and taken to a Japanese prison camp in southern Burma. Their fearless leader, the British Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guiness) is pitted against Japanese Camp Commander, Colonel Saito.  The movie opens with the captured men marching into camp whistling the Colonel Bogey march.  The tune has come to be synonymous with courage and esprit de corps and if you were at a pops concert this past July 4^th (as was I) you probably whistled it.

From the first encounter, Colonel Nicholson and Colonel Saito face off in a clash of culture. Colonel Saito views the other Commander as a coward for allowing his troops to surrender, but he quickly learns he underestimated the mental toughness of his opposition when the British commander refuses the order for his officers to engage in manual work alongside the other men in a bridge construction project.

Colonel Nicholson cites the Geneva Convention rules and refuses to compromise even at great risk to his own life and that of his officers. When Colonel Saito capitulates in toto, Colonel Nicholson embarks on an ingenious plan to motivate his men by employing his officers to direct his men in building the finest bridge their Japanese counterparts could possibly imagine.

First lesson; the Geneva Convention rules were created to set boundaries for ethical behavior in war time situations. They gave Colonel Nicholson credibility and authority and established him as a leader while the ignorance or disregard for the rules diminished the leadership capacity of Colonel Saito. What relevance do these rules have today given recent events in Guantanamo and can analogies be made to other global concerns where ethical guidelines are absent?

 Second lesson; Colonel Nicholson began with a clear mission and vision for his troops, but also conveyed strong values to undergird his leadership. As the project unfolded, he became over identified with the project to the point that he lost sight of strategic advantages or disadvantages of the bridge in a wartime operation. In essence, like a lover, he fell so in love with his project, he lost his head, the consequences of which define the ending of the movie.  What were the signs that he lost his way and how might this development have had different outcomes?

Third lesson:  Colonel Saito portrays a ruthless commander at the outset, but when he relinquishes power to his opposition, in order to get his bridge completed, he falls under a spell of malaise fueled with jealousy of his opponent’s success and especially the loyalty and respect he receives from his men.  Did Colonel Saito demonstrate leadership in a) relinquishing power and b) bolstering Colonel Nicholson’s efforts? What cultural differences in understanding about leadership existed between the men?

This movie is littered with great characters and insights into human nature which can be discussed and debated from numerous perspectives.

What lessons and insights can be added to this list?