Maverick Mastery®

Every executive and business owner has one key objective and that is to improve performance. Behind every business objective, (whether it is, for example, to grow your business by 10%, increase ROI by 5% or become a better leader), is the innate desire to improve performance. It is this aspiration that makes us successful in our labours.  I recommend adopting seven simple goal setting steps to ensure optimum business performance is achievable.

Performance Improvement can be defined in many ways. For example, the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (2003) defines it as the process of designing or selecting interventions which may include training directed toward a change in behaviour, typically on the job.

I believe that performance improvement is any positive change that can be measured after you have actively decided to make a change in your current circumstances. This is why defining the improvement requirement and measurement method is so critical.

If we assume therefore, that a key success factor in business is to improve performance, where would you start? A logical approach would be to decide which area of performance needs improving and look for experts in this field to enable you to achieve the appropriate improvement. For example, you may need to improve your sales so you engage a marketing consultant to enable you to achieve this.

In reality, the first step towards performance improvement is defining your goal. Following a goal setting process will ensure that performance enhancement is made.

Goal Setting Process

There are seven steps to setting the goals that will achieve your objectives and improve your performance. Using the above example of improving sales to explain the goal setting process, the seven steps are as follows:

1. Define what you wish to achieve

To begin the process, consider what it is that you broadly want to achieve. For example, you wish to improve your performance by increasing sales.

2. Make sure that your goal is specific and time bound

Once you have determined the broad area of improvement you will need to define your goal more specifically. What is it that you wish to achieve and how will you measure the change? What is the appropriate timeframe for the improvement? These are the first questions that you need to ask yourself. If you are not specific in your goals then it will be difficult to achieve it, especially if you have not set a timeframe for achievement. Many of us work best when we have deadlines to work towards. Setting realistic timeframes and measurements enables us to assess our progress.

3. State your goals appropriately

It is very easy to sabotage yourself when you are setting yourself improvement targets. You may consciously wish to improve your sales but subconsciously believe that improving your sales will increase your profits. Increasing your profits may make you believe that you will be wealthy and wealthy people are never happy. You therefore sabotage your attempts to improve your sales. The annoying thing is you may have set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) objectives perfectly, but are not able to achieve them because you are unknowingly working against your core values. For example – I want to be happy and being wealthy means I will not be happy.

To ensure that you achieve your goals you need to understand fully why you wish to achieve them and what has been stopping you from achieving them. It can take time to discover your subconscious motivations and realities but once this has been achieved you will be able to achieve your goals because you are not working against yourself. You are now ready to state your goals in a positive fashion. Goals should never be stated negatively, for example, ‘I will not fail to improve my sales’.

The reason for this is because the subconscious mind cannot process negativity. It will look for the command in the statements that it ‘hears’. So in the above statement it ‘hears’ the command ‘I will fail to improve my sales, not’. This is another example of you sabotaging your ability to achieve. Your goal could be stated ‘I will improve my sales by 10% within 3 months’. To support this goal you could also assert the statement ‘I have improved my sales in July’. By believing that change is possible enables you to draw towards yourself opportunities to exploit positively.

4. Record your goal and have leverage

To ensure that you become fully committed to your goal you should record it. This will give the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the more clarity the final outcome has. Once you have recorded the goal you will need to write down the factors that will motivate you to achieve the goal. It helps to know whether you are motivated towards or away from things. For example, if you improve sales you will be able to retire early (positive motivation), if you improve sales you will not be bankrupt (negative motivation). If you are aware of how you are motivated you will be able to record a number of reasons why you must achieve the goal based on your motivation bias. You will have established leverage on yourself and make performance improvement more likely.

5. Check your priorities and resources

If you have more than one goal, you will need to prioritise them to ensure that they do not conflict with each other in terms of deadlines and values. For example, ‘I will improve my sales by 10% in 3 months’, and I will reduce production costs by 1 month’ when you have already decided that the only way to reduce production costs is by increasing sales. The increase in sales would take 3 months. Only set the number of goals that you can fully focus on. If that is not possible, then I recommend that you revisit the goal definition stage. This will ensure that you only tackle the key things that will improve performance in the timescale that you believe is appropriate. You must ensure that you have the right resources available to achieve your goal. Without this vital check you will not be able to realise your desired outcome.

6. Chunk your goals and make yourself accountable

It can be difficult to improve performance when you have provided yourself with a stretch target. Sometimes the sheer size of a goal can make it unachievable. In circumstances like this you need to chunk your goals into small more obtainable ones. For example, the goal to improve sales by 10% in 3 months can seem difficult to achieve. To achieve this goal you can chunk it down to smaller goals (ie increase the number of sales conversions. This can be done by increasing the number of targeted cold calls by 15%). This process will enable you to set manageable smaller goals that work towards the larger goal. Make yourself accountable, by telling someone of your goals. This will help focus you on achievement. You are more likely to achieve your goal if you have to explain to a third party why you have not completed your goal. If you feel that you cannot, find a third person who will be objective in this process, like a mentor or coach, then write your goal in a place where you will see it regularly.

7. Check and review progress

This is the final step. It is important to ensure that everything that you do is working towards the performance improvement. By checking and reviewing progress you will be able to adjust your performance accordingly.

Mavericks are often described by Judith Germain as being wilfully independent, a trait which companies need to utilise if they want to remain competitive and successful. This wilfulness, however, needs to be harnessed because, left unchecked; it can bring down a company with dramatic consequences. Here I advise on the delicate process of balancing the need to encourage a Maverick, whilst restricting their independence to ensure that they can be successful and their employees remain productive, effective and engaged.

When considering some of the true maverick leaders of our time; JFK, Martin Luther King, Richard Branson and Bill Gates, it was their innate sense of leadership and their ability to maintain their vision and belief despite ridicule and criticism that enabled them to succeed where others had failed. In business life, the same challenges occur with many organisations struggling to nurture their ‘mavericks’; people who with the right guidance could probably become the company’s most crucial asset.

Sadly, mavericks tend to be 20 per cent of the most talented employees, causing 80 percent of the company’s problems (also known as Pareto’s 80/20 Rule). Mavericks are naturally impulsive and often don’t think through the consequences of their actions. As a result, organisations often write off mavericks from any kind of talent management programme; deeming them too unpredictable to be considered for promotion. But it is precisely these maverick tendencies which are needed by organisations to survive in the 21^st century and when mavericks see themselves missing out time and time again on promotions and not being recognised for their skill, they can become disruptive and damaging to the organisation.

21^st Century Talent Management

It is clear that the old ways of doing things just aren’t relevant anymore. With more graduates lacking the skills and ability of their predecessors, more mergers, downsizing and de-skilling, combined with more demanding customers, organisations need to be much more flexible and autonomous than ever before if they are to succeed.

Poor performing companies tend to have what I call 20^th Century management thinking, imposing strict command, control and conformity measures on its employees. And the major misinterpretation of European law has results in a one-size fits all approach to management, which lacks the flexibility needed to successfully manage rising talent in an organisation.

Recognising Troublesome Talent

The shortage of highly skilled, talented employees has created a seller’s market, where prime candidates can demand high salaries, ultimate flexibility, but are prepared to give very little in return. They command respect and recognition for their expertise, getting bored quickly when they are not stretched or challenged, resulting in them finding destructive outlets for their talents.

Troublesome Talent are often criticised for their arrogance and negative influence on their peers and often take a defensive or entrenched position. Typically, this situation will lead to higher employee turnover, increased claims of bullying and a drop in team performance.

The first step to regaining the natural balance is to realise that an individualistic approach to managing the team is required. Often, a maverick will need to be treated differently to everyone else and the trick is to find a way of treating them which is specifically tailored for their maverick tendencies, whilst ensuring it remains consistent with the wider employee programme.

Helping harness Maverick Talent

Ironically, mavericks are much more sensitive to being ‘micro-managed’ than other employees, challenging even the simplest of tasks if they think they are being managed rather than led. Often, they refuse to accept instructions that the rest of the team abide by, enjoying their independence and feeling of being in control of their own destiny. As a result they will fight hard to maintain this independence, even if it is likely to go against them in the long run, making it impossible to follow most standard all embracing management approaches.

Mavericks are extremely confident by nature and need to be certain of their success before completing their tasks. This behaviour can manifest itself in a number of ways, most commonly through insisting they have access to the manager whenever they have a query. Mavericks won’t admit they have fears about succeeding and so it is crucial that you give them the time they need to understand the task completely and are confident that it is within their abilities. This does not mean the tasks shouldn’t be challenging as mavericks need to be stretched to stay motivated.

The most important thing to a maverick is recognition and ignoring them is not an option! Failure to recognise their achievements will only result in the engagement of more and more unproductive activities designed to force you to notice them for their ability to cause trouble!

Mavericks like to work to their own timetable and to achieve best performance you should try to find ways to accommodate their creativity, even if it is at odd times of the day! Typically, companies are concerned about the productivity of unsupervised employees, but if you have the respect of your maverick, they will work tirelessly to ensure that your vision is a success.

This will reinforce your trust in the Maverick’s ability to reach peak performance and successful managers are those who have taught the maverick how to gain their trust. Mavericks work well with those they respect and find credible and it is these people who are more likely to enable the maverick to control their behaviour if needed. In fact, managers should enlist the help of anyone they believe has more sway over the maverick than they do!

Keeping control

It is clear that the only way to satisfy the maverick’s specific needs whilst providing the consistency required by the rest of the company is to adopt a leadership style which steers the maverick towards the desired outcome, whilst allowing the maverick to have an agreed, defined amount of autonomy. This will be tricky as mavericks tend to be completely oblivious to the effect that their bluntness has on the morale of others and it can be tempting to revert back to tradition management techniques to bring them back into line – but this must be resisted and replaced with sound, tailored leadership techniques.

Remember, mavericks need boundaries and they will respect you if you enforce them in the right way. Troublesome mavericks need to be given a compelling reason to change their current behaviour and if you manage them correctly, you can unleash their creativity and insight to the benefit of the entire organisation.

One of the overriding problems faced by companies is that they struggle to effectively develop talent. Either preferring a one size fits all management style or employee reward package. In this blog I discuss whether employees should be groomed for management responsibilities.

Despite McKinsey’s War on Talent report 10 years ago – talent management in all its guises are still a strategic priority for many companies across numerous industries even now!

One of the dilemmas facing HR Directors today is whether they should groom employees from the beginning or whether they should allow the employee to feel their own way into management positions. The company’s talent management/succession plan will be decided based on the conclusion they reach. It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of the company can depend on the position that the HR Director takes.

Where do leadership competences come from?

Are leaders born or are they made? Dynamic Transitions believes that leadership skills and techniques can be learnt, transforming a poor manager into a good leader. Great leaders have been exposed to leadership concepts that they practice and demonstrate from early childhood. This early experience enables them to become great leaders in the workplace years later. HR Directors can design their performance reviews and training interventions to nurture or further develop these ‘early learnt’ competencies.

Dynamic Transitions believes that leadership is ‘trusted influence’ that has its basis in the credibility and reputation of the leader. The leader requires the trust and goodwill of his team to function well and that can only be secured if he has integrity and a flexible range of leadership styles which can be effectively implemented.

On the basis that employees remain loyal to individuals not the company it’s imperative that good leadership is demonstrated throughout the organisation. Talent management demands that talent is nurtured so that the company is able to fulfil its objectives and that talent is dispersed throughout the company. Both these concepts require the employee to have a persona that has high reputational value and a character that is ‘trusted’.

Grooming for management responsibilities?

In this changeable climate there is a requirement for workforces to be flexible and companies to be agile to survive. Therefore companies should be encouraging leadership competences in all its employees. The ability to think for themselves, make decisions that are perhaps beyond ‘their pay level’, developing into lateral thinkers with the confidence to challenge the status quo soon becomes a survival imperative. Demonstrating ‘traditional’ leadership competences then becomes the norm within the company with performance reviews and reward systems based, on some level, around leadership.

All employees should be provided with plenty of opportunities to develop leadership competencies in their normal day to day work. Talent Management strategies should groom all employees for management responsibilities, self leadership and self determination can bring depth to job roles and pride in one’s abilities. This is particularly important in environments where flat structures can inhibit upwards movement and economic climate can depress salary increments.

By establishing an environment where (self) leadership development is the norm it is easier and cost effective to identify those with management potential. It has the additional benefit of continuously improving the agility and competence of the company as a whole making it more likely for it to reach growth and financial targets.

Real leaders seem to possess inherent knowledge of people and it is this knowledge demonstrated as social intelligence, reputation (character and intent) and credibility (competence and track record) that can distinguish leaders from managers. Performance reviews and reward structures should be designed to nurture and develop these competencies, thus allowing those with management potential to be easily seen by management (for further development) and enable them to identify themselves as future managers. This is more effective than just following a strategy that requires individuals to feel their own way into management.

How can HR directors spot and develop potential managers without alienating the other members of the workforce?

If the company’s strategy is to nurture talent within its workforce by encouraging all employees to develop self leadership competencies, amongst other task specific skills, employees are less likely to resent the company developing others. This is especially true where reward strategies are transparent and fair to all.

Employees that demonstrate the ability to influence and motivate others, and knowledge of human behaviour to effect better performance, should be identified for potential management. This can be done by one-to-ones with their managers, performance reviews and succession plans.

Development can include coaching, mentoring and bespoke leadership courses designed specifically to fulfil the leadership deficit of the individuals. This should not be at the detriment to more general training interventions for the rest of the workforce.

HR Directors should ensure that all employees are encouraged to develop leadership competencies, thus creating a richer pool of talent, allowing the identification of those that have management potential to be simpler and more effective.