Want to Develop Your People? Think Like a Coach. Here’s How

Developing your people is one of your most important jobs as a manager. Here's how to do it.

As a strategic leadership coach, one of my key jobs is to help increase the leadership capacity of the organization so we can grow and scale the business. The easiest way to do that is to level up the current executives and managers to handle bigger and more challenging responsibilities.

Developing the capacity of existing team members is easier and cheaper than bringing in new people from the outside. While it may be necessary at times to bring in specialized skills or solve pressing demands in high-growth situations, it's expensive to recruit and it quickly waters down the culture. Instead, smart businesses focus on professional development and training to scale their executive and management capacity.

To do this you need to dedicate time and resources. Every senior executive and manager needs to carve out time to focus on developing their direct reports and helping them grow with focus and intention. Here are seven steps you can use to work with your direct reports and help them step up their game.

1. Understand their goals

Before you give them a list of things that you want them to focus on, take the time to understand their goals and ambitions. While some of these might not fit your business objectives, it's important to really know what is driving your direct and what they want to achieve. In many cases, you'll find solid alignment with your objectives. In either case, taking the time and listening to them will make them feel heard and feel like an equal partner in the process. This drives commitment and dedication.

2. Establish desired outcomes

One of the key things I learned as a manager is to stop focusing on the "how" to do things and instead focus on "what" I wanted to achieve. Getting clear and agreeing on the desired outcome and definition of success gets everyone on the same page. Letting them figure out the process and steps will give them control and commitment to the process. Let them lead and give them feedback as needed and only when they ask for it.

3. Clarify success metrics

Along with the desired outcomes, it's helpful to add some key metrics and targets. If they are working on improving their public speaking, counting "ums" and "likes" is a great way to set objective measures about performance. While it's impossible to define everything, having a handful of measures will give you and your direct focus and the ability to review progress.

4. Identify work to be done

Once the end goal is defined, you can then brainstorm the work that has to get done. The trick here is to let your direct drive the process. Have them brainstorm what they feel needs to happen and don't interrupt. If you need to, you can then give some suggestions and feedback, but make sure you're offering ideas, not telling them what to do. Keep them in the driver's seat and let them own the process.

5. Explore potential blockers

Once you have a plan in place, start to poke holes in it and identify what might be missing or where you might run into challenges. Focus on the elements that are higher likelihood and impact. For each one, identify ways to avoid them or ways to handle them quickly if they come up.

6. Commit to an action plan

Make sure you clarify next steps, dates, and commitments. If you want to hold people accountable, you need to have clearly articulated and agreed-to action items. Make sure you also include milestones and check-in points that you need to ensure things are getting done on-time and accurately.

7. Provide support and resources

Once you have your plans in place, your job is to smother your direct in love and support. Commit yourself to doing everything you can to make them confident and successful. That doesn't mean doing the work for them: just support them in their efforts. A coach never steps on the field, but they can run up and down the sidelines cheering.

Stepping out of the player role and into a management role can be a difficult transition for many people. If you let your ego get tied to "doing" the work you'll struggle. But if you focus on coaching and training the people who work for you, you'll find an even greater sense of accomplishment and joy.

It's Pretty Easy to Set Company Goals, But It's Much Harder to Finish Them (Unless You Follow These 3 Steps)

A good goal-setting process is critical for business success, focus on these three criteria for driving results.

Setting good company goals is one of the most important--and one of the most challenging--things a leader must do in his or her company. Without goals, it's impossible to drive strategic change and significant innovation on your products and services. Without goals, you are lost at sea and at the whim of the currents so to speak.

There are many strategies and acronyms for goal setting in companies. Many of them are good, some are less so. While some teams have used the classic SMART goals (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) to get good results, I have found these to be overly complicated. I've seen too many teams spend hours contorting themselves to make their goals fit this model with little to no benefit after doing so.

Many times I see teams develop elaborate and complex goal-setting systems and processes, only to find out later that they haven't followed through with the implementation and they have abandoned their plans altogether. This goal neglect leaves employees feeling frustrated and disappointed.

Instead, the best leadership teams I've worked with have made sure their goals include these three simple things to drive results consistently:

1. Make your company goals measurable.

Overly-general goals do not work well; specificity is the name of the goal game. The best way to make a goal specific is to define how you'll measure success to determine whether it is completed or not. Without specificity, you create confusion: your people will be working towards different outcomes based on their own interpretations.

When setting goals I have people create a definition of done. I ask, "if we pull some random person off the street, what instructions would I give them to confirm that a goal is achieved or missed?" Define the tool they would use to measure success. The point is to leave no doubt whether a goal is reached or not. Often this exercise will drastically change a goal for the better.

2. Make your company goals compelling to everyone on the team.

One of the biggest deficiencies of SMART goals is that a goal can be each of those letters and still be utterly boring. Goals need to be exciting, fun, and maybe a little scary to drive engagement.

People want to find meaning in their work. Goals that are not compelling will not get the investment and the attention they need to be achieved.

One of the best ways to make your goals more compelling is to add "so that" to the end of the goal. Articulate the benefit of achieving the goal. For example, you can turn "hire a full time marketing person" to "hire a full time marketing person so that we can increase leads and grow the business." Articulating the why creates motivation.

3. Align your company goals with your strategic priorities.

Finally, great goals need to be aligned with a company's strategic priorities. This ensures that your goals are stacking up to move the needle on the growth and the development of the business. Without considering alignment, goals can end up working against each other and competing for resources. Don't create goals that pull in different directions.

Making goals measurable, compelling, and aligned with your strategic objectives greatly increases the chance that these goals are realized and accomplished.

Want To Create Better Ideas In Your Company? Look At Who’s Sitting Round Table

While increasing diversity will fuel innovation and increase the competitiveness of your company, it's not as easy to accomplish as you might think.

Recently, I had the honor of moderating a panel of senior executives speaking about diversity and innovation at a leadership conference in New York City. The main thesis of the panel topic was that companies can increase the quality and volume of insights and ideas by increasing their level of diversity, an idea that seems simple at the surface but complex after digging in.

I learned a lot from the panelist over the ninety minutes we had together. It turns out that while increasing diversity does increase innovation--thus making a company more competitive--there are still two big challenges associated with actually changing the makeup of an organization that must be addressed.

The first challenge is that like attracts like. An organization will naturally find and attract people similar to itself. People tend to interact, gravitate, and gel with people like themselves. Without conscious and concerted effort to seek and recruit different, things won't change.

The second one is that the biases that influence diversity in our companies are primarily unconscious, not conscious, so it's not enough to just say to ourselves, don't be biased. Moreover, we've generally moved past the days of overt segregation and discrimination. Therefore the biases we need to grapple with now are the unconscious biases. And by definition, we can't think our way out of this problem. Instead, we need to find outside systems, techniques, processes, and guidelines that structurally prevent or offset these unconscious biases.

Below are five strategies you can use to counteract the natural like attracts like phenomena and unconscious biases we have which will increase the level of diversity in your organization.

1. Increase the diversity of your recruiting team

Because like attracts like, consciously making your recruiting team more diverse will tend to attract candidates who are more diverse. Different members from diverse teams will still tend to seek out people like themselves, but that also perpetuates the diversity. Candidates in turn will feel more engaged and willing to consider a company with a more diverse recruiting team which will also carry on the value of diversity in these teams.

2. Fish in different pools

Einstein was the one who said that doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. So if you want different people, you need start by looking in different places. Search for candidate sources that have a high concentration of your target demographic and diversity makeup. When you find them, disproportionately push job openings and attend recruiting events in these new pools.

3. Use objective criteria for evaluation

Develop and weigh interviewing criteria that use objective measures and exclude bias. Don't use questions such as "does it feel like a good fit" or "would you put them on your team?" to evaluate candidates. A better approach is to have one group do the interviews and collect the data, and then another group make the hiring decisions only after being scrubbed of information that contains bias. For example, remove and/or replace names that suggest sex, race, religion, orientation or age.

4. Make hiring decisions as a group

Collective discussion and debate will be more likely to uncover and challenge biases. Because candidates are discussed based on rational discussion, it's less likely that they will be hired on a hunch or a feeling. Train hiring decision makers to bring up bias-thinking traps and how to confront each other constructively.

5. Give extra credit for diverse candidates

Before you scream "quota" or "affirmative action," my point here is that candidates who have been a minority in a given environment and have achieved a high level of success have had to over perform relative to non-minority candidates. Basically, they have to be better than the other to overcome that bias. They also have had the persistence, resilience, and fortitude to not just survive, but excel in their positions. This often means that hiring the minority means you're getting a better candidate.

Changing the diversity profile of your company is not easy, but tackling the challenge using processes and techniques that counter natural tendencies and unconscious biases can begin to make progress. As with many change efforts, slow and steady wins the race.

Five Secrets Of Great Teams From Coach Jimmy Johnson

Valuable insights on what makes great teams successful from legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson.

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of listening to the venerable football coach Jimmy Johnson while at a conference in Miami with the Entrepreneurs' Organization. He shared some insightful and valuable lessons regarding creating great teams illustrated with colorful stories from his career.

My impression of Johnson up to that point was that of a hard-nosed, short-tempered athletic coach who liked to blow up at players when they made mistakes. I learned that while he is a demanding and often dramatic coach, I gained a deeper appreciation for his compassion and behavior on and off the field.

Johnson's mission is to win. And he achieves that by getting the most out of his people and his teams. He accepts nothing less than an athlete's best performance on and off the field. Here are five key takeaways that every team leader and business executive should consider.

1. You get the level of performance you tolerate.

It's human nature to find the easiest path. If you accept subpar results than you shouldn't be surprised to get more performance at that same level. If you want to raise the bar, then you need to make it very clear that underperforming is unacceptable. In order to motivate you need to make the current situation uncomfortable in some way to spur change.

2. Put the team interests before your personal interests.

Johnson told the story of a previous super bowl champion staying out late to party before a key playoff game. He went around the room and asked all of the new players how badly they wanted to win, and they all responded that they've always dreamed of a Super Bowl win.

Then, he turned to the seasoned player, who was suffering from his night out, and asked him, "was your night out good enough to risk your teammates dreams?" It was a sobering story that illustrated why members of great teams put the team's interest before their own.

3. Skill will not compensate for poor conditioning.

Football, like most sports, is physically demanding. And without the right conditioning you won't be able to last a full game. At the beginning of each season, Johnson would test the players to see who had done their conditioning work and who hadn't.

Regardless of skill, he made sure that all of his players started with a strong base before working on developing their skills and plays. Without a solid base, all of the skill in the world would fade by game's end.

This is just as true in business. If you don't get the blocking and tackling right, it doesn't matter how brilliant you are, your team will suffer.

4. Compete with yourselves, not other teams.

While Johnson was very focused on winning, he made a point to have the team focus on competing against themselves rather than competing with other teams. If they lost, they acknowledged that they had been out-played and focused on finding ways to improve. Bemoaning and fixating on a loss was not helpful.

Likewise, after a win, they would review the game and find areas they didn't perform their best, even though they won. They focused on how to improve for the next game. This passion and dedication allowed the team to keep a positive attitude and work on getting better rather than moping or getting soft while celebrating.

5. You coach the whole person for success.

One of the more poignant stories was how Johnson would host a late dinner once a week for all of his college players on the one night of the week that most kids would go out and party. He would have dinner and just talk about anything except football.

He asked them about their family, post college plans, and life goals and he would coach them and push them to make big plans outside sports. Taking an honest interest in their wellbeing and helping them with real issues made them come back again and again. Of course his real strategy was to keep them busy and not out parting so they were more successful as athletes and as young men.

Like most ex-coaches, Johnson has a larger than life personality with an ego and stage presence to match. He also has a big heart and has big dreams for not just himself, but also for the players and the other coaches he works with.

Top Teams Avoid These Common Problems That Can Lead To Failure

Creating a successful team is not easy. Here are 5 of the top reasons they fail and what you can do to avoid them.

Recent research by Deloitte Consulting shows that organizations are moving from rigid hierarchies of individuals to ones based on teams of teams models. This change in structure has been a function of the change in the nature of work itself. As we've moved from simple routine tasks to to solving complicated problems in creative ways, teams have allowed us to combine the experience, skills, insights, and capacities of several individuals. However, teams come with many challenges.

Certainly, this is what I've seen in my work as a coach. Over the last decade, I've worked with dozens of different kinds of teams: software teams, marketing teams, operational teams, and, most recently, management and leadership teams. And while every team is unique and face different challenges, there are a handful of reasons that teams struggle and then potentially fail. By knowing these typical fault lines and staying vigilant to avoid these pitfalls, you can increase your odds of success and scope of your impact.

1. Lack of purpose

First and foremost, teams without a clear and well communicated definition of purpose will typically not align themselves for success. Not knowing why you're all working together or not having a clear definition of success results in most people pulling in different directions. Everyone one makes different assumptions and works off piecemeal information, drawing erratic conclusions on what needs to be done.

A great team clarifies its core customer, the product/service it provides to them, and how its customers use the product or service once it is delivered. This allows each member of the team to focus on making sure each and every part of their individual processes and effort contributes to creating value for the team's customer.

2. Unclear roles

The only thing worse than not knowing what someone else is doing is not knowing what you're doing. When roles are unclear, it leaves people struggling to decide what to do and what to do next. Team members typically get stuck focusing on some small, locally-optimized task so they can feel productive, only to find out later they are wasting their time or duplicating their efforts.

Productive teams have clear role definitions and regular discussion regarding who's responsible for what and making sure there are no big overlaps or gaps between each person on the team. They develop role scorecards with key responsibilities, key performance indicators, and specific performance targets. Then they merge their individual scorecards to create a role matrix which ensures that there are no holes or duplicates and that handoffs are tightly coordinated.

3. Fixed mindset

I've seen many teams fail because they assumed they couldn't improve, change, or re-frame their situation. Often times, the smartest and most technical of teams are the ones that get stuck in this way. These teams' intelligence and prior success lull them into thinking that if they can't solve it quickly using their standard approach, then there is no solution.

The best teams I've worked with have a growth mindset. They are willing to try things that seem impossible at first and are willing to risk failure. They tend to learn more quickly, discover new information and approaches, and pick up new skills and techniques along the way.

4. Poor decision-making

Teams that haven't figured out a good approach to decision-making fail in two modes. First, they over-think decisions and waste a lot of time in the decision-making process. Sometimes they get so stuck that they can't even make a decision. The second mode is when they don't spend enough time making decisions and they get into implementation and thrash mode until they either give up or make it through but badly bruised and wounded.

Smart teams decide how they are going to decide in different cases. They understand the decision-making stages--input, consult, make, approve, inform--and have clearly decided who's involved in which stage. They put as few people in the middle phases as possible in order to streamline the process. Once in implementation mode, they can move quickly because the right people have been included in the right way.

5. Lack of resources

The one thing that will kill a team faster than anything is the lack of resources. Sometimes this is the team's fault, but more often it is the organization who chartered the team in the first place. Team morale and commitment wanes quickly when team members don't have the right tools, equipment, and authority to do their job. In most situations, companies are penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to creating the right environment and workspace the teams need to be successful.

Teams that perform well are supported by the right sponsors and executives and these teams are given everything they need to work quickly and with purpose. Experienced managers know that on-the-ground needs and decisions are best left to the people doing the work and these managers should instead focus on removing obstacles, procuring right resources, and getting the information the team needs to do its job.

While avoiding all of these won't guarantee a stellar team, failing to avoid them will certainly mean your team will deliver subpar results.

The Best Teams Build Up Accountability With Each Other (But Not in the Way You Think)

Accountability is critical on all teams--especially leadership teams--however, it's easy to get wrong. Here's why and what you can do to avoid mistakes.

Practicing accountability while working on teams is critical to any team's success. Team experts like Patrick Lencioni, Thomas Kayser, and John Maxwell all list accountability as one of the top traits of high-performance teams. Making sure that people are delivering on their commitments is essential to making sure a team is effective. Members who make commitments but then don't deliver will quickly bring a team to its knees.

Having worked with and coached dozens teams of all different types over the last two decades, I've learned that building a culture of accountability is one of the single most important interventions I can make. However, I've noticed there are different approaches to accountability and that some are more successful than others. As I've honed my approach to team development, I've found a few key steps to the accountability conversation that work well. The trick is to shift the mindset from one of punishment to one of support.

Many teams start raising the accountability level by calling people out publicly when they fall short. While this raises the awareness about commitments and gets people to think twice before signing up--and once they do, can get them to double down on effort--it ultimately undermines a team's success. Focusing on punishment motivates people to engage in two counterproductive tendencies.

First, when faced with possible punishment, people tend to play it safe. They hesitate to stretch themselves to try new things. This shuts down learning and development since most growth occurs outside of a person's comfort zone, when they are stretching themselves. If someone is afraid of punishment, they have little incentive to learn.

Second, people will stick with the tried and true rather than experimenting with new, possibly better, approaches to their work. If people are afraid that they'll be called out if they fail, they won't experiment. Unfortunately, this shuts down innovation and creativity; creativity is ultimately how a team, and a company, makes future improvements.

To avoid creating a culture of accountability based on blame and punishment, focus on creating one of support and accomplishment instead. Here are five simple steps to structuring these conversations--what I call the five R's--so that accountability becomes a positive aspect of your culture and productive outcome for your team.

1. Reinforce the relationship.

Always start by reinforcing the importance and commitment to the personal relationship. Our worst psychological fear is that we'll be exiled by our tribe and naturally we want to avoid this result. The goal here to create a psychological safety net by assuring your people that they are not being singled out or punished.

2. Restate the team and individual commitment.

Great teams attack issues, not people. Instead of focusing the person's actions, or lack thereof, focus on the commitments that were made. I suggest starting with the team commitment and then moving onto the individual commitment. More often than not, this is where the issue lies; people often don't realize that a formal commitment and deadline were made and set. Once you start recording your commitments, many of your accountability issues will improve.

3. Reflect on the situation.

Be open to new information and learning by getting curious. Ask open-ended questions to pull the key information out that is needed to fix the situation. Avoid blaming or critical questions. Keep it neutral and stay open-minded to new insights and possibilities. Sometimes not meeting a commitment is not a bad thing if it would have risked a higher-level goal.

4. Redouble your support.

Strong teams know they all succeed or fail to

gether. And even if someone has to put in extra time or effort to help someone else get his or her task done, she does so without a second thought. Team members know that everyone is working hard and pushing themselves.

5. Resolve to take action.

Make sure you conclude with specific actions and new commitments. Just because something was missed doesn't mean it can be put aside. Either re-commit to it with new deadlines and actions, or agree that it's no longer a task and strike it from the list.

By shifting your culture from one of blame and punishment to one of support and accomplishment, your team will be more successful and improve more quickly. It will also be a lot more enjoyable.

The Demand For Unique Talent Is Creating A Surge In New Types Of Team And New Ways Of Working Together

Teams that don't sit side-by-side every day have challenges, but they also have some advantages. Here are 5 ways to thrive as a distributed team.

Over the last two decades, I've seen outsourced development come and go. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, many companies looked to outsourcing technical services to drive down costs by finding highly-skilled talent at a fraction of the cost. As it turns out, people dramatically underestimated the complexities of managing distributed teams at that point in time, and these complexities led to inefficiencies, quality issues, and schedule delays.

Over the last decade, however, distributed teams have seen a resurgence. Not in hopes of financial savings, but rather to access unique and hard-to-find talent such as technology, design, and data analytics.

Having been a team coach during much of that time period, I've seen many of these distributed teams struggle, but I've also witnessed many of these teams excel, too. The best ones do not achieve this success by overcoming their challenges, rather, they turn their challenges into advantages. If you're on a distributed team or your company is building a distributed team, here are a few key considerations to keep in mind.

1. Create multi-channel meeting environments

Technology has evolved in so many ways. One of the most useful advances has been in the development of collaborative documents and video streams. I encourage my distributed teams to have two screens on during our meetings. One with the video feed and one for a collaborative document. Sharing a screen for these two functions limits interaction. Instead, fire up an online document and let everyone type at the same time while still being able to look everyone in the eye.

2. Formalize informal conversation

One of the biggest things distributed teams miss is the water cooler banter and chit-chat before a meeting starts. For my distributed teams, this is built into the meeting agenda. We spend 5-10 minutes at the start of each meeting with a conversational opener that has nothing to do with the meeting topic. Pick a question that gets people talking and learning about each other before you switch into work mode.

3. Leverage "always-on" technology

Technology and connections are so ubiquitous now that I suggest teams ditch the scheduled video call and move to always-on devices. Having a tablet next to you with a continuous video stream takes some getting used to. However, it's great (and worth it!) when you want to have a short conversation to ask a question. I've seen people spin their wheels for hours because they didn't pick up the phone to ask a simple question.

4. DJ rather than facilitate

Facilitation skills are key for distributed teams. I make sure everyone is trained as a facilitator. But I like to take it one step further. I suggest to whoever is running the meeting that he or she DJ the experience. This usually involves music and rituals at the start and stop of the meeting; this could even include cheers, chants, and call-and-repeats that create energy and focus. I've been in more than one meeting that has had a dance party at some point.

5. Master asynchrony thinking

The most advanced distributed teams I've worked with have mastered asynchronous thinking. Whereas co-located teams thrive on gathering in a meeting room to hash out ideas in heated, often quick-paced debate, well-distributed teams evolve ideas and build concepts over time using different communication channels. To use the Daniel Kahneman term, distributed teams are better at slow thinking, which is a much better mode to be in for finding solutions to complicated, multifaceted problems.

While co-located teams have many advantages, the fact is they are not always possible. Distributed teams are here to stay and will most likely become even more popular has technology continues to develop. And while it's no secret that distributed teams create some unique challenges, following these suggestions can help turn them from a liability into an asset.