Change the People or Change the People
“Change the People or Change the People” is one of my Top Ten Common Sense Laws of Leadership and one of the most popular tips I share in my workshops. It helps my attendees more clearly understand their roles and responsibilities as managers, supervisors, and executives, as well as the roles and responsibilities of their employees.
“Change the People or Change the People” is the first thing we must do as the employers, supervisors and executives. We must put the right people in the right seats. With so many powerful and effective hiring tools available today this should not be difficult but often times we end up with poorly placed individuals within our organizations. Then to create assets and not just expenses, we must train, encourage, develop and support these people so that they will perform successfully and achieve our desired results. And all this should be based on our clearly defined, communicated and agreed upon expectations and level of accountability. Like I said: Change the People or Change the People.
Numerous studies support the Pareto Rule of 80-20 that says, no matter how hard we work with employees to create a new and positive direction, about 20 percent of the people won’t change. For a myriad of reasons they simply don’t want to learn new skills or change the way things are currently being done.
This doesn’t mean that the 80 percent are an easy fix. They are not. Many of them will have less than stellar attitudes or behaviors regarding the changes or the skill building we are expecting. Initially, they will want to stay safely in the “but we’ve always done it like this” bubble and moving them forward can be difficult. To create positive change we must address attitude and behavior and build trust.
Behavior and attitude are two sides of the same coin; attitude is the mental side and behavior is the physical side. Behavior is attitude acted out and it becomes ingrained in all of us by experiences reinforced over time. If we want to make changes in behavior and attitude then we must give our staff new experiences and consistently reinforce those experiences over time. Sorry, but this isn’t a quick fix. It took time to establish these patterns and it will take time to change them.
To help attitude, behavior and eventually improve performance, our employees must feel safe enough in their environment to try new ideas and to fail. They must feel, at the very least, that when they acknowledge a weakness or the lack of a particular skill set it will be met with a supportive solution or direction and not with demeaning or sarcastic responses from managers. Building trust is the first key to building better people.
One of the best trust builders when we are trying to correct or improve performance is to focus on the solution to a problem and look to improving results by working on the problem, not attacking the person. “Can’t you tell time?” is not the most effective way to address tardiness. This kind of behavior change issue can be addressed with a simple use of “need language”. That is a short statement saying what it is we need from the poor performer. For example, “I need you here on time.”
Another idea that provides feedback and builds trust is to watch the first pronoun we use, is it “you” or is it “I”. Using “You” immediately puts the other person on the defensive and almost completely shuts down their receptivity. Using “I” helps keep the person actively involved in the conversation and allows them the objectivity to help with a plan for the solution.
Another performance enhancer is being sure both parties can see the issue being addressed, as a problem. Sometimes that can be cleared right up by simply asking a yes or no question. “I am concerned because ______. Can you see why this would be a problem?” Getting the employee to agree there is a problem is crucial to creating buy-in and finding the “right” solution.
After we have asked the yes or no question(s), it’s now time to get some solution input and that will come from asking open ended questions. These are questions that start with; who, when, where, what, and why, (yeah, that’s right, just like 7th grade English class). “When do you think we can resolve this issue? Where would we find the budget to spend on that idea? Who do you think would want to work on that project with you?” Opened ended questions are a powerful growth tool because they address the issues and require the people being coached to think of a solution(s). And we all know that their solution is going to be a lot more palatable than our solution, (even if it is the same).
If the solution requires training or additional coaching, it is made easier by the fact that the employee has already acknowledged that; (1) there is a problem, (2) they agree it is a problem, and (3) they are willing to be a part of the solution.
How we are very close to setting people on the right track, but we need a strong finish; a series of directed question(s) that end eventually with “yes” and a commitment. A directed question is one where we know the answer we want and we are directing the questions toward that answer. After assigning a task or addressing an issue that needs work or anything else that requires a final “buy-in” always ask: Does that seem fair? Do you have enough time? Does that seem reasonable? Use questions that will result in a positive response and the commitment to move forward.
This is a simple plan to help us work through negative issues toward a positive resolution. But what do we do when people don’t respond to our help, support, encouragement, and nurturing? That’s a good question, because we all know that what we should do is; “help them find somewhere else to become successful”. Every manager I talk with has someone who is performing below acceptable levels and yet, is still employed. Why? When I finally get to the truth, I usually find it’s guilt. The manager feels guilty because he or she has not taken the necessary steps to help improve the performance of the employee. This is why it is so important to find out the needs of our employees, involve them in the solutions, encourage them to learn new skills, and help them become more successful. Then we will know if they are in the 80% that wants to learn or the 20% that doesn’t.
Once we realize that we have done everything we can to help make this person develop more successfully and they are just not going along with the plan, the guilt goes away. The need to remove this person becomes clear and it becomes much easier to implement the necessary change.
So that’s why I maintain, “Change the People or Change the People”.
