In the series on the Leadership Loop, I last discussed that the first step to becoming a more effective leader is to set expectations which I discussed in a previous article. After you’ve taken time to think through what the right expectations are for the people on your team, the next part of the leadership loop is to provide the skills necessary for them to meet your expectations. You may have read the 5 Ws of expectations and wondered what about the ‘H’ as in How? The next 2 parts of the leadership loop have to do with the how, skills and feedback.
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. – Prov 22:29
Skills is the area that I find so many leaders struggle with. They often take for granted that the people they work with should know how to do the job they’re given. Perhaps once I tell them what to do and give them a handout with the steps, they should be good to go, right? Well, not always.
Skills consist of the tools, mindset, training and support that someone needs to succeed. If you provide a program for developing these areas in all of your people, you’ll give yourself a higher chance to have a successful team. And if someone is just not able to develop the skills needed, you’ll be able to identify them as being a wrong fit for your organization.
Tools – What Stuff Do I Need to Get the Job Done
Tools are what things are needed for a person to get the job done. For an administrative job, it may be a computer, access to the company calendar, a login to the project management system, a file cabinet, a desk, pens, etc. For a sales job, perhaps it’s a company mobile phone, a list of clients to manage, the sales scripts, a company car, etc.
Whatever the case, there are some physical and possibly virtual or electronic tools needed to get the job done. Just like you can’t expect a carpenter to work without a hammer, you can’t expect someone on your team to perform well without the necessary tools.
Do A Running Inventory of What You Use
How do you know what you need to give someone? Often when you’re hiring someone, they’re taking over an existing job you or someone else is doing. For a week or two, write down all of the items you use to get your job done. For extra credit, write down step by step how you use them. It would even help to write down the areas where you make mistakes when using them. Apps like Clarify help make instructions for computer related tools with images.
Once you hire someone and they ask for items that weren’t on your list or as you add new tools, add those items to your inventory to have ready for the next person who may fill that role. If you keep that list fresh along with instructions for how to use those tools, on boarding and the initial training for someone will be much smoother.
Mindset – Get Their Minds Right
Mindset is a skills area that I’ve been talking to leaders, entrepreneurs and business people more and more. The changing economy means that no matter the position, more is expected of every employee or volunteer than ever before. The skills needed are not just physical or technical, but they include softer social and mental skills.
The aspects of mindset that need development that I hear about most often include proactivity, work ethic, excellence, attention to detail, good attitude, coachability (teachability), and perseverance through adversity.
There is a sense in which successful leaders have many of these characteristics in themselves. In that case, when they see it missing from people on their team, they just can’t relate.
I’ve had several employees whose writing had so many spelling errors it was unbelievable, especially with spell check in almost every text application known to man. Maybe texting is ruining spelling. Why won’t he/she double check emails to clients so they don’t have so many spelling errors?
The Best Want to Get Better
The best employees would have a positive reaction when we spoke about improving spelling. They’d send me emails for correction before sending them out or they’d put them in Word to run a spelling and grammar check first. They’d do it because I’d explain that attention to detail is a skill that must be developed in order to produce excellent work.
The ones who knew better would get mad at me for pointing the issue out and keep producing poorly spelled, grammatically incorrect writing. Not only did they have a poor attention to detail, but all of those trophies they got for participation growing up fooled them into thinking showing up was good enough and performance didn’t matter.
They never learned that you could always improve your skills no matter how good you were. The best performers always work on improving their skills. They either had to learn it or they didn’t last long.
You have to determine what areas of mindset are important to success in your industry or company and make it part of the ongoing process of developing the skills of the folks on your team.
One powerful way to highlight the mindset you want your team to have is to create, publicize and talk about your core values. Google any company you admire with the word core values. You’ll see what they believe and what you can be sure their culture is and consequently the mindset they expect their employees should have.
Training – Show Them What They Need to Know
When you’ve gathered a full list of the tools you need and thought through the mindset needed for success, you have to dedicate time to training these principles into your people. Don’t assume they know. And if they do seem to know, don’t assume they will consistently perform the skills to your desired level of quality and effectiveness.
Have I mentioned that I’m a sports fanatic? My favorite sport is basketball. Actually, my wife and I play hoops for dates. Anyway, Stephen “Chef” Curry makes the game look Stephortless. The reality is that the way he does crazy things on the court so well so consistently is practice and relentless preparation.
But if you watch any videos about his skill development, you’ll notice that he’s not in the gym by himself. He’s got a trainer or two or three watching his every move and giving him tips as to how to train according to the plan and make corrections as necessary.
Do you just hand your employees a manual, say go for it, and hope for the best? If so, they better be extremely talented and motivated. Unfortunately, most people are not that. If they were, there would be no need for leaders. Your job as a leader is to walk alongside the people you work with to understand their job well along with what it takes for them to perform at their highest level. Then train them to ensure they can.
Support – Please Baby Don’t Leave Me Lonely
Many people make manuals, some even have a great first day or week of training, but what happens after that? Too often as leaders, we leave our people alone to succeed, hope for the best and get frustrated when it doesn’t happen.
Support means you MUST follow up to make sure they’re catching on to the training. Their success largely, although not totally, depends on you. Sit with them while they file documents and watch to see if they do it right without the cheat sheet or handbook. Listen in on a sales call to see if they use the scripts well or know the product well.
Quiz them randomly about details or processes important to the business. And quizzes can be verbal and action oriented. Have them show you how to properly prepare an order form or teach you how to do one. Make it light and nonthreatening when they’re new, but gradually increase the pressure, intensity and seriousness as time passes if they’re not making adequate progress.
What’s Your Struggle
You can also just simply ask them what they’re struggling or having a hard time with. I used to lead in a way that made employees scared to let me know that they don’t have it all together. They think it will make them look bad in front of the boss. Perfection seemed to be the goal. But as I grew, I began to let them know that I ask for help when I struggle with something. I shared that it’s better to ask and get it right with help rather than struggle in silence and make avoidable mistakes. If you do that too, you’re on your way to creating a high performance environment.
If your people feel supported while they’re out there working hard for you, the good ones will work even harder. Take responsibility for the environment you’re creating. Does it inspire hard work and excellence or do you let people struggle on their own hoping they’ll “figure it out?” You can do what it takes now to turn it around.
Everything you do requires specific skill development. And we see now that those skills are physical and mental. If you want to see your employees perform at the highest level, first set that high level as an expectation then give them the skills to meet the expectation. Provide the tools, mindset, training, and support to help them get there.
Share some areas where you could help improve the skills of your team to achieve the goals you have for them in the comments. I’d also love to hear what you’re already doing well so we can all learn from your example.
