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Al Watts

September 2012 - TD Magazine

Learning professionals can model integrity by standing up for and helping organizations get clear on what identity, authenticity, alignment, and accountability mean for their organizations.

Navigating the Four Dimensions of Integrity

In the United States, the phrase “barrier-free” immediately calls to mind the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It includes guidance on making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of disabled employees by eliminating barriers that would hamper their ability to succeed at work. In fact, the ADA has been so successful that the wheelchair icon is nearly a universal symbol around the world, indicating unnecessary barriers have been removed.Unfortunately, what we have found in our work with many Fortune 100 companies is that most organizations don’t put sufficient effort into eliminating unintended barriers to employee performance—disabled or not. These barriers include convoluted processes, poor ergonomics, misaligned rewards and incentives, and dozens of other unintended performance roadblocks that, when rolled up together, create a bottom line burden no organization can afford to shoulder.As a leader, a primary accountability is to be an architect who integrates and aligns work systems in order to enable high performance. To state this in another way, your primary accomplishment is to produce a powerful team of high-performing direct reports operating in a barrier-free work environment. One of our goals at Exemplary Performance, LLC, is to help organizations tear down these unintended barriers and enable individual performers to achieve greater business results for their organization. That is what shifting the performance curve is about. Unintended barriersUnintended barriers typically fall into three categories. Let’s look at each one so you can intentionally eliminate them from your organization!Work design. This includes organizational design, job design, and process design.Organizational design: The organization is the sum total of both informal and formal arrangements that support the interaction of the people, processes and systems of the enterprise. Organizational design is intended to enhance the interface between humans and the work that the enterprise wants to accomplish.Process design: A business process is a series of steps designed to produce a product or service. Most processes are cross-functional and include handoffs between various functions of the organization. Effective processes are absolutely essential to achieving higher levels of performance and shifting the performance curve.Job design: To achieve optimal job design you need to take the same systems view we discussed at the organizational and process level. You cannot optimize the performance of people in a vacuum.Physical conditions. Listing all possible options under this category is not possible. However, Chapter 12 in Exemplary Performance – Driving Business Results by Benchmarking Your Star Performers, provides a list of specific question for each of the following areas that will help you assess if there are unintentional barriers in your organization: resources, ergonomics, and safety.Motivational conditions. The following questions will help you assess the current work environment to discover if motivational conditions are having unintended negative consequences.Are the employees in your organization provided with clear criteria for judging their own performance?Do employees understand the ‘worth of their work’?Do employees receive timely feedback on their performance?Is the workload manageable and are goals achievable?Are high performers ‘punished’ by regularly being assigned additional work on top of their completed assignments?These questions simply represent a range of potential issues that stand in the way of high performance. As you develop your own high performance systems, you’ll identify the specific issues and questions appropriate for your own organization and the industry in which it operates.For more on how to shift the performance curve, check out Al’s previous blog article or browse the full series.

Creating Barrier-Free Work Systems

Great client relationships are the cornerstone of all successful businesses. It’s no secret that people do business with people they know, like, and trust. Building quality client relationships ensures customer loyalty and long-term profitability.As Al Ritter, a friend and an exceptional management consultant, asserts: “When it comes to success in business, the results we get come from our actions and the quality of our relationships.”The same philosophy holds true for both our external relationships and internal relationships. If you’re a leader dedicated to sustainable success, you must keep in mind that internal relationships are as important as external relationships. Just as we treat clients with special care by asking them what they expect, need, and want from us, we must also do the same for each and every one our colleagues. We most certainly must do so with our team members.When engaging in conversations, here are three steps that will go a long way toward building respect and loyalty in your business relationships.Treat people as teammates rather than just employeesRemembering names, establishing comfortable eye contact, thanking individuals for their hard work, and recognizing their successes no matter how big or small, will make a difference. According to recent survey of people who had left their companies for new jobs, two-thirds of respondents stated the principal reason they left was because they did not feel appreciated.When practicing these actions, it’s important to be genuine and show people that you truly care. Touch base often. Leverage your soft skills by being accessible and easy to work and talk with. Here’s an example of why this matters:Find the time for conversationsAs busy as we may be, make one-on-one conversations with team members a priority. It’s okay that on some days you may have only a few minutes. Just be sure to come out of your office and go speak with people in their offices. When out on the road, call your teammates, even if it’s just to say you’re about to catch a plane and you’re simply checking in to see how things are going. Ask them if there is anything they need from you. A short conversation is better than no conversation at all.I promise you such conversations will make a difference. For instance, last week, a regional vice president of a successful company shared with me that he was thrilled when his CEO called to talk and ask for his ideas. That really impressed him, and he feels great about his personal connection with his boss.Keep a positive attitudeAttitude is everything! Hold firm to the assumption that everyone wants to do well and succeed. As bosses, we must engage in conversations to provide our people with the encouragement and help they need in order to do great work. It’s our job as their leader to help them. And be positive, always reinforcing the positive attributes of your team and the company. A positive and caring attitude will help to build strong relationships with teammates that will lead to outstanding service and results.Through conversations, we must ask questions about our teammates’ ideas and goals, listen to understand and learn, and most importantly we must realize that each team member may have different needs. For example, some may need to be challenged while others will need to be encouraged. If they know you are rooting for them, they will try to live up to your expectations.Bottom lineWhile there is always more one can do to develop and maintain strong, loyal relationships with teammates, mastering these three steps is an essential starting point. Remember that your interactions and relationships with customers and with your team are equally important to achieving sustainable outstanding results. By implementing these simple leadership practices, you can expect to meet and exceed goals year after year.

Al Watts

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