Rewarding Your Team

This post provides ideas, tips, techniques and processes on how to really show your appreciation and reward your Teamers with these topics:

The Performance Review – Perhaps you might be wondering “How can a performance review be thought of as a reward to a person?” The simple truth is that people want to know how they are doing on their jobs. Helping your Teamers understand and agree with their performance and perhaps more importantly, how to improve is viewed as a “reward” to most folks. As I said earlier on Job Description, most people know what a Performance Review is, but few know what a Performance Review can be. I’ve had good, great and really bad reviews over my years and once you’ve had a great one you will recognize the difference it can make for you as a reward. It is critical for you to involve each of your Teamers in the process of doing an interactive Performance Review.

A really good Performance Review process has these six steps:

1. The Performance Review Form – You need to develop a form or document that defines the areas to include in the review. I suggest that you cover at least these topics - job knowledge, quality of work, quantity of work, timeliness of work completed, performance on objectives, interpersonal relations and development of subordinates.

I also encourage you to define each of these topics to include the appropriate Job Success Talents described earlier to help to fine tune the review and agree upon the desired skills, performance and improvements. For example, under Job Knowledge you could include written communications, oral communications and decision making.

2. The Summary of Accomplishments – The first step in the Performance Review process is to have your Teamer collect and write down their accomplishments for the period being reviewed, that is projects completed, projects in progress, training completed and ideas and suggestions made. Once the two of you agree on this Summary of Accomplishments it serves as the basis for the review of their performance. I encouraged my Teamers to keep a log to record their accomplishments during the period instead of having a “panic” effort in trying to recall them.

3. Do “Drafts” of the Performance Review Form – After agreeing on the overall content of the Summary of Accomplishments, ask your Teamer to do a “draft” of the Performance Review Form based upon their feelings on their overall performance. You also need to do a “draft” and then share and compare the two. You will be surprised at how frequently their ratings match yours.

4. The Performance Review Meeting – Set aside a special time for this meeting with your Teamer to review and compare the two “drafts” of the Performance Review Form. The overall goal of this meeting is to reach agreement and consensus on the review ratings. Focus on the differences in your “draft” ratings. Ask your Teamer for examples of performance for ratings that don’t agree. Also spend time discussing what they feel that they did very well and what they really liked doing during the period and also what they would like to do more of and less of in the upcoming period. You may not be able to meet their requests but it is important to understand their wants and try to help.

5. Define Goals for the Next Review Period – Now it is time to set goals for the upcoming period and address any areas for improvement and training needs. Make sure that your Teamer participates in setting all of these goals for their next review.

6. Performance Review Agreements – Once you have reached agreement on all of the review categories and set goals for the next period make copies of the paperwork for everyone. I always tried to do a review for each Teamer every year. It is a lot of work but I think Teamers appreciate the effort!

 “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

 - Albert Einstein

Keep Performance and Salary Separate!! - Never mix performance and dollars together in the same meeting. Performance will dictate dollars and you must agree upon performance first. Set up a monthly schedule to do performance reviews at least two months before each Teamer’s salary review time.

 “Before you can learn a new way of doing things, you have to unlearn the old way. So beginnings depend on endings.”

 - Rick Maurer

Training - Dollars spent on training for your Teamers is a wise investment and is viewed as a “reward” by most, especially when they “found” the training opportunity themselves. I always tried to target about 10 percent of the salary budget for each Teamer’s training. Make sure it is a two way process. Have them bring possible training to you and you should look for training for them. I always had training opportunities as one of the agenda items during One-on-One sessions.

 “Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.”

 - Jim Roth

Manage by Walking Around - I was never a Middle that liked to stay in my office/cube. There was too much going on “out there” and I often would “sign-off” from my desk, telephone, email and computer and seek the first person I could find that would talk with me. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve found a “problem” or a “solution” while cruising around among my Teamers.

 “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

 - Maya Angelou

Thank Them!!! - While you are out there cruising and problem solving always take the time to thank your Teamers for something well done. If you thank them you encourage them to do it again and you also encourage other Teamers too – it can become contagious!

 “The possibility for rich relationships exists all around you – you simply have to open your eyes, open your mouth and most importantly, open your heart.”

 - Cheryl Richardson

Coaching - Coaching can be a key ingredient in helping your Teamers work in the “flow” on projects that they love. Coaching should be a daily even hourly event. If you see a problem take time now to work with your Teamer.

 “If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”

 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Flex Time and Flex Benefits - Not every Teamer wants the same things. Each person has different work related needs and wants. Be flexible in work hours. I offered a 4-day work week and a varied start time schedule and they both worked great! Be flexible with your benefit program if you can. Some Teamers may want dental insurance and some may not. It’s that special touch that Teamers love.

 “Never assume that what motivates you is what motivates others. It is also important to recognize that sources of happiness may vary widely between people.”

 - Confucius

Reward Them - I’ve seen reward systems work time and again from the most simple to the most elaborate. I always tried to have a reward ceremony with all of my Teamers each month. People appreciate being thanked in public. I had a simple “employee of the month” reward program that awarded two tickets to the movies to the selected Teamer. The key is to involve all of your Teamers in the nominating process.

 “Giving credit where credit is due is a very rewarding habit to form. Its rewards are inestimable.”

 - Loretta Young

Empowering Your Team

This post presents some ideas, tips, techniques and processes on how to empower your talent. But first, let’s define “empowerment.” To me “empowerment” means that your Teamers are really getting into what they are doing and wanting to do more and better work. They can make decisions on their own and help directly influence quality control and customer satisfaction. You need to do everything possible to help them to work in the “zone” or in the “flow” which is the state of mind that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a renowned expert on creativity, describes in his book Creativity as a “feeling of engagement and focus that time seems to pass unnoticed.” If you have participated in any sports most likely you have experienced being in the “zone.” It was the best game, match, set or round of your life! Everything went perfectly and you can have this same experience at work if you empower your team.

You need to consider and initiate these ideas, tips, techniques and processes to help you empower your Teamers:

The One-on-One Meeting - You need to have meetings with all of your Teamers on a regular basis to encourage understanding and bonding between the two of you. This is the next step or phase in developing trust between you and each of your Teamers.

The first thing that you need to do is understand and know each of your Teamers. What are their goals, values, skills, wants, needs and potential contributions to the success of your team and the Organization?

Start having regular meetings with all of your Teamers. The frequency is up to your working relationship with each Teamer. Once a week is best to start out with, but some folks will only need to get with you every other week or even once a month. But make sure that these meetings are habitual for example “every Tuesday at 10:00 o’clock.”

You should have only two goals for the One-on-One meeting:Help your Teamer feel better about you, themselves and the Organization.

• Help your Teamer feel better about you, themselves and the Organization.
• Help you understand them and their needs, wants, dreams and concerns so that you can help them work in the "flow" as much as possible.

Some suggested agenda items for One-on-One meetings include at least these topics:

• Accomplishments during the past time period
• Goals for the next time period
• Problems or concerns
• Training opportunities
• Other general "stuff"

Your goal must also be for your Teamers to walk away with a positive feeling about your meeting, including the following:

• They are in a comfort zone and can freely express themselves. There is trust and honesty present in each meeting.
• You work on what needs to be done - direction!
• Make needed decisions.
• Have them feel that you really care about them, their work and their overall success.
• Address any problems or concerns they have.

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”

- Abraham Lincoln

Team Building - You need to have regular and constructive team meetings to encourage team understanding and bonding between each member of your team. This is another “trust building” program to encourage your Teamers to trust one another.

Have regular team building sessions where you encourage your team to:

• Look at work as a team as it flows from on Teamer to another. How could they work together better and transfer work between them better?
• Look for ways to improve handoffs to other teams or groups.
• Look for process changes and improvements that need to be made.
• Look for policy changes that need to be made. 

“The people that get on in this world are the people that get up and look for the circumstances that they want; and if they can’t find them, they make them.”

- George Bernard Shaw

Let Them Fail - This is a tough one. Most managers won’t let their Teamers fail since it may be a reflection on their performance.

If your Teamers fail, help them to learn the lessons they need to improve and not make the same mistakes on the next project or task. A cause analysis and team problem-solving session can help identify the problem(s) made by your Teamer(s) and the reason(s) why.

“Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.”

- Roger von Oech

Tell Them What You Want To Achieve, But Not How - You need to have your Teamers do at least the planning, scope definition, resource allocation and quality control on the projects assigned to them.

Meet with your Teamer and give them the assignment, but don’t do it for them! Be as specific as you can on what you want them to do. Then ask them to prepare their ideas and plans on how to do the project and get back to you. Have your Teamers present their ideas and plans and listen and make suggestions and modifications to their ideas and then go!

“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

- Walt Disney

Trust Them - Most of the folks that I’ve worked with over the years wanted to do good work and feel good about their contribution to the success of the Organization, so work to trust them.

Trust is a critical ingredient in being a good Middle. Trust is a two-way relationship; you must trust your Teamers in order for them to trust in you.

Once you give your Teamer the assignment, let them make mistakes. You must trust them to do the project. That’s part of the motivation for the project!

Work with them often so that they don’t go too far from what you want them to accomplish and give them immediate feedback on their performance.

Mutual trust may be the most critical ingredient in empowering you and your Teamers.

“Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.”

-  Carl Jung

It’s The Work That Motivates Them - In my opinion one of the major myths of management is that a person can motivate another team member. The only two things that motivate people are the work itself and the “environment” or working conditions that they work with each day.

But what makes the work a motivator? Doing work in the “zone” or the “flow” as often as possible and you need to accept that you must be the focal point and the initiator to help your Teamers get to work in the “flow.” That’s true empowerment! There are key ingredients for projects that empower your Teamers to work in the “flow” including:

• Clear goals
• Immediate feedback on their progress and performance
• Good balance between the challenges of the project and the skills of the Teamer

“If an egg is broken by outside force, Life ends. If broken by inside force, Life begins. Great things always begin from inside.”

- Jim Kwik

Recruiting the Best Talent for Your Team

Okay, let’s get this straight from the get go, as a Middle the only real tools that you have (other than your attitude) to accomplish what you want to do is your team (from now on known as Teamers). You must make every effort to find, recruit, hire and keep the best talent possible. As coaches in all sports often point out “you are only as good as your players.”

Recruiting must be your first step in improving the overall performance of you and your team. You can’t improve your quality, productivity, planning or communications without having the best possible talent on your team. But you must understand that recruiting is a process, not an event, and must include the following ideas, tips, techniques and processes to help you find the best talent possible.

Job Success Talents - First off, you need to identify and define exactly what you want to find, that is the skills and strengths that you need for each of your Teamers. How can you effectively recruit if you don’t know the talents that you need for each of your Teamers to have?

Job Success Talents are the skills and strengths that a person needs to have or develop to do a job well. Perhaps you are wondering, “What’s the difference between skills and strengths?” It is really fairly simple. I think that the best description of the difference is provided in the book Don't Retire, REWIRE! written by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners where they offer "strengths are innate and skills are learned. Strengths are what you have to work with; skills are what you develop."

“Innate” means talents that you have from birth or that are native to you. You can’t learn them, but you can improve them with training and practice. Some examples of strengths are being self-motivated, ambitious or determined while some examples of skills are listening, mediating or written communications.

During your recruiting interviews, don’t waste valuable time asking generic and meaningless questions such as “Why are you interested in joining our organization?” or “What do you feel that you can provide to help our organization?” During candidate interviews, always ask targeted questions to determine if the candidate really has the Job Success Talents that you need. For example, if you need a person with great oral presentation skills, ask candidates “What’s the best (or worst) presentation you’ve ever done, and why?” If you need someone who can handle stress, ask “How do you deal with stress?” If the person you need must be able to solve problems, ask “What’s the biggest problem that you’ve solved and how?” Get the idea? A resume tells you what the candidate wants you to know about them, but you need to ask the right questions during the interview to get a better idea if they really have the necessary Job Success Talents.

“In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; a grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak.”

- James Russell Lowell

The Job Description - A complete, formal, written and up-to-date definition of what you want each of your Teamers to do, including the talents needed, special training required, supervision exercised and overall responsibilities. Simply, the Job Description is the “pillar” of all that you do with your team. Most people know what a Job Description is but few know what a Job Description can be.

Think of the Job Description as the following tools to address these critical needs:

• It’s an agreement between you and each of your Teamers on what you want them to do, what responsibilities they will have, what qualifications they must have or develop and how they are to work with other Teamers and the overall Organization.
• It’s a tool to help you measure each Teamer’s performance.
• It provides information to determine the appropriate salary for each position.
• It provides information for advertisements and Internet postings for hiring.
• It provides standard expectations to feed your reward, empowerment and performance review processes for your Teamers.

A good Job Description is the “vision” of the person that you want to work with and have as a member of your team.

Ask your Teamers for help in writing and updating Job Descriptions on a regular basis, but you should be the one to start the process of writing new and updating existing Job Descriptions. Have them reviewed by your Teamers. They are doing the work. They know what it takes to do their job. Trust them and always include their changes and comments!

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”

- Lawrence J. Peter

Ask Your Team For Help! - Ask and encourage your Teamers to help you interview and hire the talents you and they need. Don’t try to do all the interviewing and hiring as a “management thing.”

I’ve worked with lots of Middles and Seniors that think that asking for help in recruiting new talent is a sign of “weakness.” I think that is completely wrong. Asking your team to help interview and select new talent and perhaps future coworkers makes perfect sense to me.

I would always select a variety of Teamers from different disciplines to do the interviews. You get different ideas and opinions from a true cross section of your team. I kept the interviews to no more than four Teamers and myself. Make sure that everyone uses your Job Success Talents and appropriate targeted interview questions.

I always had a meeting with everyone as soon as possible after the interview. Doing a group debrief meeting immediately after the interview keeps everything fresh and you’ll make better decisions. During group debrief meetings make sure that everyone shares their opinions freely and openly. Make a group decision on hiring. If you’re not comfortable doing this, don’t! I always have, and it has always worked well for me.

“When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I really would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream.”

- John Lennon

Recruiting Is A PROCESS Not an EVENT - Now that you know what you want to find and your Teamers are ready to help, how do you get the word out? Again, recruiting is not an “event driven” process that you do when you want to hire someone. Recruiting needs to be an ongoing process of “getting the word out” on you, your team and your organization. You must consistently communicate your “talent needs” and “opportunities offered” to the world in as many ways as possible. These are critical components that you should consider:

• Networking - Become a member of local groups that do the same kind of work that you do, go to the meetings and help them out if you can by speaking at a meeting or just supply information on the work discipline as appropriate. Encourage your Teamers to also join and be active in these organizations. These folks love to hear from others in their field. Always ask your friends, neighbors, Coworkers and Teamers if they know someone who might match your needs and if they do always talk with their referral.
• College and Trade School Recruiting – Some of the most fun that I ever had as a Middle was doing on-site recruiting at the local colleges, trade schools and universities that offered students with real skills that I could use now. During campus interview sessions, I often had the chance to talk with seven or eight really talented people in a single day. Think about it: you are doing what they hope to do, so the match is already made!
• Co-op Programs – Work with your Senior to gain approval for a co-op program with the local colleges, trade schools and universities. These hires are typically a part-time or temporary position, and it’s often easier to get budget approval for a student for just a quarter or two. But these folks can really help you immediately!

“Ability is of little account without opportunity.”

- Napoleon

Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me A Match! - Okay, NOW you have an opening to fill. What do you do?

Letting potential candidates know that you have an open position is usually done through newspaper and trade journal print and online advertising for job positions on various websites and search engines.

With print advertising, you have a limited amount of space to describe your position, while with Internet postings you can pretty much provide as much information about the open position as you like.

Lastly, as the following quote suggests, don’t let your Human Resources group write or edit the advertising for you. You must write the ad and give them the copy, and don’t let them change a thing without your approval!

“Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.”

- David Ogilvy

Middle Management 101 – Zen in the Art of Middle Management

This website presents a methodology of “events and steps” that you need to develop, adopt and implement to become a better and happier middle manager and improve your team’s contribution and their overall happiness. This website will offer you hundreds of practical ideas, tips, techniques and processes presented in a structured methodology to help transform managers that are “stuck in the middle” to be a happier, more effective leader working with a truly empowered them that really enjoys what they do!   

Step 1 - Recruiting the Best Talent for Your Team – If you don’t start finding better talent for your team nothing gets better! You must find the best talent possible consistently to make your team better. I will cover these topics in upcoming postings:

• Job Success Talents
• The Job Description
• Ask Your Team For Help!
• Recruiting Is a PROCESS Not an EVENT
  • Networking
  • College and Trade School Recruiting
  • Co-op Programs
•  Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me A Match!

Step 2 - Empowering Your Team - Once you find the best possible talent you need to empower them to get the most for your team. I will cover these topics in upcoming postings:

• The One-on-One Meeting
• Team Building
• Let Them Fail
• Tell Them What You Want to Achieve, But Not How
• Trust Them
• It’s the Work That Motivates Them

Step 3 - Rewarding Your Team – Once you have empowered your team you need to understand how to keep them. I will cover these topics in upcoming postings:

• The Performance Review
  • The Performance Review Form
  • The Summary of Accomplishments
  • Do “Drafts” of the Performance Review Form
  • The Performance Review Meeting
  • Define the Goals for the Next Review Period
  • Performance Review Agreements
• Keep Performance and Salary Separate!!
• Training
• Manage By Walking Around
• Thank Them!!!
• Coaching
• Flex Time and Flex Benefits
• Reward Them

Step 4 - Communication Is Key to Everything - You’ve found talent for your team and you’ve started empowering and rewarding them, now what? I will cover these topics in upcoming postings:

• Meetings
• The Rumor Round-Up Agenda Item
• The Walk-Thru Session
• Listen First and Watch What You Say
• Internal Communications
• External Communications
• Reports for Your “Clients”
• Tell Them What You Heard Them Tell You

Step 5 - Managing Projects - You and your Teamers must also manage your projects well, that is getting from “Point A” to “Point B” and really knowing where you are every step along the way. I will cover these topics in upcoming postings:

• “Visualize” What You Want to Build or Do
• The Life Cycle
• Monitor Planned Versus Actual
• Timekeeping
• Move, Monitor and Modify
• Adding Staff Won’t Give You the Results You Want
• Getting More Done With Less – It Can Be Done!
• Technology Stuff

Step 6 - Quality - “To Be, or Not to Be?” – I feel that quality is the most misunderstood “buzzword” ever in the world of work (Productivity would be in second place, just in case you might be wondering). I will cover these topics in the upcoming postings:

• What is Quality?
• Tell Me If You Measure Up – This Is NOT Easy!
• How to Improve Your Quality
• The Post-Mortem Meeting
• How to “Prove” Quality? Ask Your “Clients!”
• Have Patience; They’ve Never Done This
• Most Quality Programs Are Started by Middles

Step 7 - Key Core Values to Display Daily – These are your daily Ten Commandments to live by while you are at work. I will cover these key core values that I suggest you adopt and display daily in all that you say, do and think in upcoming postings.

• Do unto Others
• Working in the “Flow” – The Only Way To Go!
• The “Client” Is Always First
• Run It Like Your Own Business
• Provide Vision, Direction and Leadership Daily
• Don’t Worship Control Over Others or Technology
• Always Move Quickly
• Always Look Them in the Eye with Total Honesty
• Your Attitude
• Friends and Family

Step 8 - Things NOT to Worry About – I will provide some ideas on things that I seriously suggest you never worry about or spend time on since you really can’t do anything about them in upcoming postings.

• What You Can’t Control
• Money and Budget
• Your Senior’s Attitudes
• Egos
• Office Politics, Rumors and Gossip
• The FUD Factor
• Fear of Failure
• Resources Wars

 “It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.”

 - Wendell Berry