January 2005 Make It Clear

Something predictable happens as a new year begins. Everyone is challenged to do more than they did last year. In some parts of the business, those increased goals can quite easily be quantified, like hitting a specific monetary target, such as $1 billion in revenue for example, or increasing sales or profits by some percentage. As ambitious or even unreasonable as they might seem, people are at least clear on what they are supposed to deliver.

However, there is another side of peoples' work where the new goals are not quite as clearly delineated. Many times the target is defined more as a cliché than a tangible outcome. You've heard them. In some form or fashion, they are statements that sound something like:

We need to take it up a notch.

We need to perform at a whole new level.

We have to raise the bar in order to be competitive

Those are not necessarily bad, providing people understand what it means to "go up a notch" or "be at a whole new level," etc. Unfortunately, that definition is too frequently not clarified.

More often than not, these less clearly defined aspirations apply toward desired actions or behaviors, such as coaching, leadership, development, communications and the like, vs. outcomes or results. In two decades of working with developing leaders.  In two decades of working with developing leaders, I cannot ever remember hearing anyone say that his or her goal for the year was to be a 10% better coach or to communicate 'X' number of messages per week. But I have heard them mention that they are expected to dramatically improve their communications ability or be much better at leading.

Those kinds of goals are indeed worthy. It is just difficult for many of us to figure out what dramatically improve or much better exactly means, and more importantly, how to determine if we are, in fact, achieving it.

You are no doubt familiar with the two most commonly cited reasons for poor performance: an individual is either unable or unwilling to do the work. Simply stated, the person literally does not have the capabilities to accomplish what is expected, or for some other reason, is just not doing it. Makes logical sense, doesn't it? Performance issues arise when a person either cannot or will not do the work.

There is another reason that contributes as much or more to performance problems than these two. We regularly see people who are able to do their work, are very willing and committed to doing it, and in fact, are working very hard to meet their goals. The trouble is, the work they are doing is based on a different set of expectations than their bosses have for them, so they end up working on the wrong things. "Taking it up a notch," for example, does not look like the same thing to the boss as it does to the associate.

Think about your own circumstances for a minute. What if you were asked to raise your leadership to a brand new level? What would be your plan for taking action on this goal? What exactly would you start doing differently?

You could likely come up with several reasonable approaches to tackle this challenge. But just how certain would you be that those actions you decided to take would be concentrated on the right things and therefore, move you in the expected direction? That is, would you know exactly what "raising to a new level" means, and understand precisely how you are supposed to be better or different a year from now?

As a leader, you must be clear on the expectations you have for your people as they continue to develop themselves to reach new heights in performance. "Just Do It" might be a terrific marketing slogan, but it is not very helpful guidance if people don't know what you mean by "It." For those harder to quantify areas, you will have to spend some time thinking about what you will specifically need to see in order to know that your people are in fact getting better. You will also need to determine appropriate ways to measure progress along the way. Keep in mind that just because a manager doubles the time she spends in coaching her people does not unconditionally mean that she is improving a notch as a coach. She might actually be merely "micromanaging" more than ever.

One of the catchy differences you might hear between leading and managing is that leaders provide the "What" and the "Why," while managers tend to offer the "What" and the "How." Whether that is fair or accurate is a debate for another time. What is without question is that both include the "What." People have both a right to know and a need to know, as clearly as possible, what is expected of them. How tragic it is to have a group of wonderfully talented and willing people unintentionally devoting their hearts and minds to the wrong things!

Reflection Questions:

1. In what areas are you asking your people (or are you being asked) to take it up a notch?
2. At the end of the year, what will be visibly and measurably different, if this area is up a notch? (What will you see or get more of? What will you see or have to tend with less often?)
3. Would your people answer those questions the same as you did?