Dan Schneider

Business Performance and Succession Success: Let’s Be Real Clear About What’s Supposed to Happen
March 13, 2008

Business Performance is one of the 10 integrated blocks associated with succession success. This week we’ve been working on the Golden Goose analogy. Everybody in the organization has to have a constancy of purpose towards succession success – the transfer of a business through the next generation.

Building that constancy of purpose requires working hard with every employee, one person at a time. It means developing a discipline and a work regimen that would make Tiger Woods jealous. That begins with the notion that the business – substitute either the Golden Goose (the Brothers Grimm) or the goose that laid the golden eggs (AESOP) – is made up of the employees.

The probability that the employees will deliver golden eggs increases dramatically when they – the employees – know what’s expected. Kelly Allan and Lara Lebeiko believe that this is the first step in performance management, and they have developed a model that is so simple most won’t use it. 

Let’s focus on just one aspect of the model: Tasking. 

In its simplest terms, that is nothing more than a manager or leader telling people what he or she wants. What makes this so darned hard is that most of us do not communicate well. 

Oh, sure. All the mechanical aspects of the communications process work. The lips move, the tongue curls, the voice box creates the sounds, words come out, and we think we’ve done a masterful job of explaining the task at hand. After all, the other person’s head is nodding. 

In real life, however, most of this communication is hurried, incomplete, and unclear. In effect, we’re just talking to ourselves; and we assume that because we know the desired outcome, so does everyone else. Was it Shakespeare who talked about the vanity of vanities?

Here’s an approach that will help you clarify your expectations. If you follow these steps, you’ll begin to see more of what you want and less of what you don’t. Ready?

• Admit that you may not be very good at giving directions. Develop mental or physical check lists to review before you give instructions and then stay with the script.
• Provide specifics about why the person was chosen for the task, the importance of the task, and the steps you expect to be followed.
• Choose only those who can actually do the job, unless there is time to teach someone else how to do it. This reduces frustration for you and resentment for the employee.
• Confirm that the entrusted employee understands the expectations.

Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to having a company full of golden geese.

Posted by Dan Schneider on March 13, 2008 | Comments (0)