How to Create a 100 Year Company

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How to Create a 100 Year Company
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Overview

• There are some timeless principles to building a
  great company. Apply these principles and youll
  get greatness.
• Greatness does not lie in accounting, cost
  cutting, or the pure profit motive. It lies in
  building a companys sense of purpose around core
  values that give work meaning.
• There are principles that will guide you into
  building something bigger and more lasting than
  yourself. If you want to leave a legacy, this is
  what you must do.
• All this information is rooted in rigorous
  research.
• Why on earth settle for creating something
  mediocre that just makes money when you could
  create something that makes a lasting
  contribution as well. It takes the same amount of
  time and is more fun and rewarding. Those who
  create a lasting contribution make more money in
  the end as well!

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Note These Points

• The Silicon Valley Paradigm of getting a good
  idea, raising venture capital, growing rapidly,
  and then selling out or going public fosters
  impatience and a rise in social instability. Many
  of those high tech companies which were built
  to flip are dead.
• Success based on a great idea is like telling
  perfect time without a watch, whereas putting
  together and maintaining a company that succeeds
  over time is like building a clock that runs
  forever.
• A great company does not need charismatic leaders
  or fantastic product ideas. It needs a commitment
  to greatness and a process to get there. Thats
  what Im trying to teach you.
• Do you build a product or a company? The constant
  stream of great products and services from highly
  visionary companies stems from them being
  outstanding organizations, not the other way
  around.

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You Can Do It

• You can improve your organizations position,
  stature, performance and perhaps even become
  GREAT if you consciously apply the framework
  of ideas I show you. These are the secrets to
  success of the 100-year companies.

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Characteristics of Great Companies

• Premier company in its industry
• Widely acknowledged as the Best by
  knowledgeable business people
• Makes a lasting impression on the world
• Lasts several generations
• Goes through multiple products and life cycles

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Common Misconceptions

• You do not need a celebrity leader
• Executive pay does not correlate with going from
  being good to being great
• Strategy does not separate the good from great
• You must focus on what NOT TO DO as well as what
  TO DO
• Technology accelerates change but it does not
  cause a transformation of the company
• MA play no role in igniting a companys
  transformation to greatness
• Good-to-Great companies are not necessarily in
  great industries

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10 Myths of Great Companies

• You need a great idea to start
• You need a charismatic leader
• Their first objective is to maximize profits
• You need a particular certain set of core values
• Change is the only constant thing
• You must play it safe and be risk adverse
• They are a great place to work for everyone
• Their best moves are made through brilliant
  planning
• They should hire outside CEOs to bring about
  fundamental change
• They focus on beating the competition

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The Myth of Needing a Great Idea

• Be a Builder of a Clock (organization) that keeps
  running, rather than a genius perfect Time Teller
• Just Get started ... and find your way
• Business school teaches great idea, great
  marketing plan, window of opportunity - nope!
• The ultimate creation is the company, not the
  product or idea - so put your energies into
  trying to create an organization and design an
  environment conducive to great product creation
  (leaders die but great companies last)

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Examples ...

• HP urinal flusher, telescope clock drive, fat
  reduction shock machine, anything
• Sony rice cooker, tape recorder (failed),
  heating pads
• HPs creation wasnt the calculator or
  oscilloscope but the company and HP way
• Masaru Ibukas greatest product was not the
  Walkman or Triniton but the Sony company and what
  it stands for
• Walt Disneys greatest creation was not any one
  movie but the ability to make people happy
• etc.

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The Myth of the Charismatic Leader

• The great leader theory does not explain the
  difference between good and great companies
• 3M, PG, Sony, Boeing, HP, Merck,
• The continuity of great leadership comes from
  great organizations
• Great leaders are architects and clock builders,
  and give their associates a chance to make a name
  for themselves and show what they can do -
  fanatically driven to produce sustained results
  and workmanlike diligence
• American Constitution - Thomas Jefferson, James
  Madison and John Adams were organizational
  visionaries same for the lawgivers of Athens and
  Sparta

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Great Leaders Professional Will Personal
Humility

• They transform personal ambition into ambition
  for the company
• They are ordinary people producing extraordinary,
  superb results have a dedication to making
  anything they touch the best it can be yet are
  humble and modest, never boastful
• Demonstrate unwavering resolve to do whatever
  must be done, no matter how difficult, to produce
  best long term results but act with quiet, calm
  determination and motivate through inspired
  standards rather than charisma
• Their goal is to build an enduring great company
  they channel ambition into the company not
  the self, and set up the next generation to
  succeed even more than they did
• They look in the mirror for blame (never others
  or bad luck or the environment) and give the
  credit for success to others

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Having the Right People

• Great Leader
• First WHO - get the right people, build the right
  team
• (the right people do the right things and best
  results regardless of the incentive system)
• Then WHAT - with the right people, figure out the
  path to greatness
• Genius with 1,000 Helpers
• First WHAT - set a vision and road map
• Then WHO - enlist a crew of helpers to make it
  happen

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The Genius with 1000 Helpers

• The myth of individual genius is destructive we
  think we have to do all the hard work ourselves
• The most successful people rely on the help of
  other people
• Surveys show partnerships do better than single
  ownership (2X survival rate, grow faster, higher
  profits/person, last longer)
• If 2 heads are better than one, 3 heads
• A partnership is like a marriage without sex, so
  choose your partners as you would evaluate a wife

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Selecting People - get the Gene Pool Right

• Rule 1 when in doubt , dont hire but keep
  looking
• you cannot grow revenues faster than your ability
  to get good people to implement that growth and
  maintain company greatness
• Rule 2 when you need to make a people change, do
  it !
• If you feel you need to tightly manage someone,
  you know you hired the wrong person!
• If it were a hiring decision, would you hire them
  again?
• If they tell you they are leaving, would you feel
  disappointed or relieved?
• Rule 3 put your best people on your best
  opportunities, not your biggest problems
• Rule 4 people are not your most important asset,
  the right people are your most important asset,
  and right often has to do with character

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You Can Balance Opposites

• Purpose beyond profits
• Fixed core ideology
• Conservatism around the core
• Clear vision/sense of direction
• BIG GOALS
• Managers steeped in the core
• Ideological control
• Tight culture (cult-like)
• Long term investment
• Visionary, futuristic
• Organization aligned with a core ideology

• Pragmatic pursuit of profits
• Vigorous change and movement
• Bold, risky moves
• Groping and experimentation
• Incremental evolutionary progress
• Managers that induce change
• Operational autonomy
• Ability to change and adapt
• Short term performance demands
• Super daily execution
• Organization adapted to its environment

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Hedgehog Concept

• The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows
  one big thing.
• Dont be scattered, diffused, moving on many
  levels
• Those making the biggest impact (Freud, Einstein,
  Marx, Adam Smith) concentrated on one thing and
  simplified it
• 3 Things
• Best in the world at I feel I was born to be
  doing this
• Economic Engine I get paid to do this? I am
  dreaming!
• Passion I look forward to getting up and going
  to work and really believe in what Im doing

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The Hedgehog Concept

• What can you be the best in the world at?
  (otherwise you can be successful but not great)
  Stick to it. Doing what you are good at will only
  make you good but focusing on what you can
  potentially do better than any others --gt youll
  become great.
• What drives your economic engine? Profit-per-x,
  cash flow and profitability ... What one ratio do
  you systematically want to increase over time to
  have the greatest impact on your economics? Find
  a metric.
• What are you deeply passionate about?

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Nucor Steel is an Example of the Hedgehog Concept

• Economic denominator - profit per ton of steel
• Become the best in the world at harnessing
  culture and technology to produce low cost steel
• Passion for eliminating class distinctions and
  aligning management and workers

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Examples of Economic Denominators

• Abbott profit/product --gt profit/employee
• Fannie Mae profit/mortgage -gt profit/mortgage
  risk level
• Gillette profit/division -gt profit/customer
• Nucor Steel profit/division -gt profit/ton of
  steel
• Philip Morris profit/sales region -gt
  profit/brand
• Walgreens profit/store -gt profit/customer visit
• Wells Fargo profit/loan -gt profit/employee

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Culture of Discipline

• The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for
  incompetence and lack of discipline, but these
  problems go away if you have the right people in
  the first place
• Most companies build bureaucratic rules to manage
  the small percentage of wrong people, which drive
  away the good people
• REMEDY create a culture of discipline
• responsibility accounting
• freedom and responsibility within a framework
• fill that culture with self-disciplined people
  willing to go extreme lengths to fulfill their
  responsibilities
• dont confuse discipline with tyrannical
  disciplinarianism
• adhere with consistency to the Hedgehog Concept
• a culture of discipline, not discipline through
  sheer force

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You Cant Fix Whats Broken With Good Policies

• Fixing problems with policies sometimes works,
  and sometimes creates lots of conflicting
  policies
• When a problem arises, instead of a new policy
  try this
• Contact the source of the reported problem and
  get some idea of the evidence there is a problem
• If the evidence is legitimate, contact the person
  responsible for solving the problem and ask them
  if they know about it, and how much they know
• Then ask them to copy you their solution
  (resist the urge to suggest a solution or create
  a new policy) which ensures that the problem gets
  solved, the solution makes sense, and it makes
  sense in the context of the whole business and
  its operations
• This approach recognizes that good employees
  dont need policies to do good work, and bad
  employees will waste time and screw things up no
  matter what policies you write

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Culture of Discipline

• You want to create a culture full of
  self-disciplined people who take consistent
  action consistent with the 3 Hedgehog principles
• If you get the right people --gt you dont need
  bureaucracy
• People adhere to a consistent system people have
  freedom and responsibility within that system
• Its Not about Action -- Get disciplined people
  who engage in disciplined thought and then take
  disciplined action
• Great companies appear boring from the outside,
  but inside theyre full of people with intensity
  and diligence
• The more you stay within the 3 principles, the
  more will be your opportunities for growth
• Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are irrelevant
  unless they fit within the perimeter of the three
  principles
• Stop doing lists are more important than To Do
  lists

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You Need a Council

• Purpose Understand issues facing an organization
• Meeting every week or two (ex. meet for lunch
  twice a week), thisCouncil provides a small team
  of people in the firm sufficient "jawbone" or
  talk time to dialogue about the direction,
  priorities, and challenges of moving the business
  forward.  Without this informal talk time, it's
  hard to figure out the important stuff.
• Argue, debate in search of understanding, not ego
• Members must have different perspectives
• The council is a standing body
• Mentors and the Board of Directors are similar
  but not the same
• Final responsibility rests with leader, not
  consensus (since consensus decisions are often
  not intelligent)

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Great Companies Focus on More than Just Profits

• Merck - free river blindness medicine,
  streptomycin after WWI to Japan to eliminate
  tuberculosis We try never to forget that
  medicine is for the people. It is not for the
  profits. The profits follow, and if we have
  remembered that, they have never failed to
  appear. The better we have remembered it, the
  larger they have been.
• Ford - criticized for injecting spiritual
  principles into business (go after reasonable
  profit, enable lots of people to enjoy a car,
  twice industry pay rate)
• Profitability is necessary, but only a means to a
  more important end oxygen is important for life,
  but not the point of life, but without it there
  is no life.
• Like-minded people come together for the same
  core ideology
• HP - bigger was better only if it made a
  contribution
• JohnsonJohnson - to alleviate pain and disease
• Boeing - to pioneer aviation
• Find the RIGHT PRAGMATIC SOLUTION in line with
  their CORE IDEALS

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Core Ideologies - There is No Right One

• Customers - JohnsonJohnson and Wal-Mart (Sony
  and Ford - no)
• Concern for Employees - HP and Marriott (Disney
  and Nordstrom - no)
• Products and Services - Disney and Ford (IBM,
  Citibank - no)
• Risk Taking - Sony and Boeing (HP and Nordstrom -
  no)
• Innovation - 3M and Motorola (PG, American
  Express - no)
• The critical issue is not whether a company has
  the right core ideology, but whether it has a
  core ideology that gives guidance and inspiration
  to people inside that company!

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A Core Ideology Must Permeate the Company

• To create a great company, you need a core
  ideology
• Indoctrinate employees around the core ideology
  -- you want to create a cult like following
• Select the companys senior management based on
  their skill and their fit with that core ideology
• Align your goals, strategy, tactics and
  organizational design around that ideology

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Core Ideology Core Values Purpose

• Core Values a small set of enduring guiding
  principles you never compromise for financial
  gain or short term expediency
• Purpose a fundamental reason for existence
  beyond just making money that always guides the
  firm

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Examples of Core Purposes

• Israel - to provide a secure place on Earth for
  the Jewish people
• Walt Disney - to make people happy
• Sony - to experience the joy of advancing and
  applying technology for the benefit of the public
• Merck - to preserve and improve human life
• HP (Hewlett-Packard) - to make technical
  contributions for the advancement and welfare of
  humanity
• Cargill - to improve the standard of living
  around the world
• 3M - to solve unsolved problems innovatively

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Preserve the Core But Go for Progress
Core Big Goals
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Preserve the Core But Push for Progress

• A company must be willing to change everything
  about itself (tactics, strategies, costs,
  products) except its basic beliefs or philosophy
  of doing business
• Ex. IBM - blue suits, white shirts, IBM360 all
  gone
• 5 Strategies
• BIG goals challenging, visionary projects that
  stimulate progress
• Cult-like Cultures great to work there if you
  fit in
• Try a lot of stuff and Keep what works
  experiment/failure OK
• Home grown management promote from within
• Constant self-improvement its never good enough

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6 Big Factors

• Special Leadership - quiet, unassuming, no
  self-importance, humility but intense
  professional will
• First Who Then What - get the right people, get
  rid of the wrong people, put the right people in
  the right spots
• Confront the Brutal Facts But Never Lose Faith -
  Stockdale Paradox
• The Hedgehog Concept - what you can be the best
  in the world at what you are deeply passionate
  about what drives your economic engine
• A Culture of Discipline - with disciplined
  people, you dont need a bureaucracy

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Confront the Brutal Facts

• People will filter the brutal facts from you --
  Yes men
• You need to Create a climate where people can be
  heard and the truth is heard
• 1) Lead with Questions, not answers
• 2) Argue, Debate, Dialogue over strategy and
  whats best for the company - evolve over
  agonizing arguments
• 3) Conduct autopsies without blame, dont hide
  errors
• 4) Build red flag mechanisms
• Victims - either permanently dispirited, get
  their life back to normal, use it to define
  themselves
• Stockdale Paradox - not optimism

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BIG Goals

• A goal that grabs people in the gut and gets
  juices flowing, a big finish line so clear that
  it doesnt need to be explained Kennedy go to
  the moon
• This is unreasonable but we think we can do it
  a goal outside the comfort zone
• Self-confidence bordering on arrogance
• The goal is important, not the leader (otherwise
  after the leader there is a stall), and it should
  be bold and exciting by itself
• The goal should be consistent with the core
  ideology
• Have follow-up BIG goals (so no weve arrived)

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Cult-like Cultures

• If youre not willing to enthusiastically adopt
  the HP way, you dont belong there if dont
  believe in wholesomeness, arent clean cut and
  believe in magic, you dont belong at Disney if
  you dont want to join the quality push at
  Motorola, you dont belong there if you question
  the right of individuals to make their own
  decision, then you dont belong at Philip Morris.

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Characteristics of Cults

• Fervently held ideology
• Indoctrination
• Tightness of fit
• Elitism
• Companies screen out those who dont fit in
  with their ideology and create heroic mythologies
  about individuals who exemplify the corporate
  ideology

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How to Establish the Cult-Like Mentality

• Training programs with company values
• internal universities and training centers
• on-the-job socialization
• exposure to persuasive mythology of heroic
  deeds
• constant emphasis on corporate values
• tight screening process
• incentive/advancement programs that fit in with
  the core
• awards, contests, public recognition to reward
  those who display great effort consistent with
  the core
• tolerance for honest mistakes that dont breach
  the core
• celebrations that enforce success

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Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works

• Test, test, test, test, test - fail and fail FAST
  - give it a try and fast
• Accept that mistakes will be made Darwin
  multiply, let the weak die and the strongest
  survive
• Corporations are evolving species, no one gets
  100 on every test - species evolve (no final
  blueprint) - use evolution to get to the top
• Try lots of different approaches and stumble upon
  something that works
• Small opportunities, incremental mutations grow
  into major unanticipated strategic shifts
• No decision is sacred
• Give people the room they need allow people to
  be persistent
• Build the ticking clock

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Home Grown Management

• It is not the quality of leadership that
  separates the visionary companies from the
  comparison companies. It is the continuity of
  quality leadership that matters--continuity that
  preserves the core.
• The key is to develop and promote insiders who
  are highly capable of stimulating healthy change
  and progress while preserving the core. Give them
  responsibility and training.

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Good is Never Enough

• How can we do better tomorrow than we did today?
• Great companies dont achieve their position
  because they have superior insight or special
  secrets, but because they are so DEMANDING of
  themselves
• Continuous improvement is an institutionalized
  habit, a disciplined way of life
• Self-improvement includes process improvement,
  long term investments for the future, investing
  in employee training, adopting new technologies
• PG method - to make sure the company didnt
  become fat, happy and complacent, it created a
  system of internal competition of brand
  management - it instituted discomfort mechanisms

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• Merck consciously yield market share as products
  became low-margin commodities, forcing it to
  create new products to grow and prosper
• Motorola innovate or die mechanism similar to
  Merck
• GE internal discomfort instituted through
  special employee meetings where managers cannot
  participate but must make decisions on the spot
• Boeing eyes of the enemy - managers assigned
  to develop strategy as if they worked for a
  competing company
• Wal-Mart beat yesterday strategy
• Nordstrom sales per hour rankings that rate you
  against your peers no absolute standards that
  allow you to relax
• HP refused to take on long term debt forces
  company to learn how to internally fund its
  growth rate

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Alignment to the Total Picture

• Theres no one single program, strategy or tactic
  -- its a complete system of everything
  interpenetrating
• Focus on small stuff, not just the big picture
  day-to-day is the small stuff
• Cluster your mechanisms Ford quality control
  employee involvement programs mgmt training
  programs promotion based on management skills
  Merck hires top scientists allow them to
  publish allow them to collaborate with
  outsiders dual track
• Get rid of mis-alignments your incentive system
  should reward behaviors in line with your core
  values, goals and strategies should align with
  your core values
• Keep the core while inventing new methods

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Core Ideology

• Leaders die, products become obsolete, markets
  change, new technologies emerge, management fads
  come and go, but core ideology endures as a
  source of guidance and of inspiration
• Core ideology is the bonding glue that holds an
  organization together as it grows, decentralizes,
  diversifies, expands

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Core Values

• The organizations enduring guiding tenets--a
  small set of timeless guiding principles that
  require no external justification they have
  intrinsic value and importance to those inside
  the organization
• Finding core values
• If the circumstances changed and penalized us for
  holding this core value, would we change it?
• Imagine you have to duplicate the best attributes
  of your organization on another planet but can
  only send 5 people--who are the best exemplars of
  your companys core values (your genetic
  code)--ask them to elucidate it
• A clear ideology attracts people to the company
  whose personal values are compatible with company
  core values

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Great Managers
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Test Yourself Against the Best Managers

• 1. As a manager, would you rather have an
  independent aggressive person who produced 1
  million in sales, or a a congenial team player
  who produced half as much. Explain your
  reasoning.
• 2. You have an extremely productive employee who
  consistently fouls up the paperwork. How would
  you work with this person to help him/her become
  more productive?
• 3. You have two managers. One has the best talent
  for management you have ever seen. The other is
  mediocre. There are two openings available. The
  first is a high-performing territory and the
  second is a territory that is struggling.Neither
  territory has reached its potential. Where would
  you recommend the excellent manager be placed?
  Why?

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Ask the Employees These 12 Questions Measure the
Fundamental Strength of the Workplace

• 1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
• 2. Do I have the right materials and equipment I
  need to do my work right?
• 3. At work,do I have the opportunity to do what I
  do best every day?
• 4. In the last 7 days, have I received
  recognition or praise for doing good work?
• 5. Does my supervisor,or someone at work, seem to
  care about me as a person?
• 6. Is there someone at work who cares about my
  development?

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• 7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
• 8. Does the mission (purpose) of my company make
  me feel my job is important?
• 9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality
  work?
• 10. Do I have a best friend at work?
• 11. In the last 6 months, has someone at work
  talked to me about my progress?
• 12. This last year, have I had opportunities at
  work to learn and grow?
• People join companies for various reasons, but
  1 how long they stay and 2 their productivity
  (how productive they are) is determined by their
  relationship with their immediate supervisor.
  Its better to work for a great manager in a
  lousy company than a terrible manager in a great
  company.

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Great Managers Know the Following Secret
Story of the frog and the scorpion crossing the
river. I cant help it its my nature.

• People do not change very much. They resist
  change.
• So dont waste time trying to put into them
  whats left out of their character.
• Try to draw out of them what is already inside
  them.
• Thats a hard enough job just by itself.

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A Great Manager Should Do 4 Activities Extremely
Well
A managers function is to act as a catalyst that
speeds up the reaction that creates the desired
end product. The catalyst role has 4 main
activities

• (1) select a person
• (2) set expectations
• (3) motivate the person
• (4) develop the person

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Heres how Great Managers do those 4 Things

• (1) Selecting a person - they select for TALENT,
  not simply experience, intelligence, or
  determination
• (2) Setting expectations - they define the RIGHT
  OUTCOMES but not the right steps
• (3) Motivating people - they focus on STRENGTHS,
  not weaknesses
• (4) Developing people - they help him find the
  RIGHT FIT, not the next rung on the ladder

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The Difference Between Managers and Leaders

• The difference is focus
• Great managers look inward - inside the company,
  individuals, notice differences that guide them
  into how to release each persons talents into
  performance
• Great leaders look outward - at the competition,
  future, alternative routes forward. They focus on
  broad patterns, and press their advantage where
  others are weakest. But it doesnt have to do
  with turning an individuals talents into
  performance.

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The 12 questions ...

• 1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? --gt
  You must set accurate performance expectations.
  Not just goal setting. Know how to keep employees
  focused, what parts of the jobs require
  conformity or creativity on their part.
• 2. Do I have the right materials and equipment I
  need to do my work right? --gt Give them to the
  person. Dont expect them to do well without the
  right tools.
• 3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what
  I do best every day? --gt You must know how to
  select a person, and know how much of a person
  you can change. You must know the difference
  between talents, skills and knowledge.
• 4. In the last 7 days, have I received
  recognition or praise for doing good work? --gt As
  a manager, you have only one thing to invest,
  your time. Who do you spend it with?
• 5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem
  to care about me as a person? --gt When an
  employee comes to you and asks where do I go
  from here? you should have a ready answer.
• 6. Is there someone at work who cares about my
  development? --gt When an employee comes to you
  and asks where do I go from here? you should
  have a ready answer.

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Human Beings are Messy

• People dont change that much. You cannot force
  everyone into a particular role to do the job
  the exact same way (McDonalds). There is a limit
  as to how much a persons style, needs and
  motivation can be changed. You can standardize
  them only so much. Thats why casting is
  important.
• An organization exists for the purpose of
  performance, and performance is any valued
  defined by an internal/external customer. You
  have to focus people on performance. The problem
  is that you cannot force everyone to perform in
  the same way. In some cases, you cannot force
  them to follow the same path toward performance.
  (Great managers spend the most time with their
  best, most productive people).

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The Solution

• The solution -- Define the right outcomes and let
  each person find the way to achieve it. Now the
  fact that (1) people are different and (2) they
  need to focus on performance are in harmony.
• This encourages risk taking, growth and
  development.
• This solution is extremely efficient. The most
  efficient way to turn a persons talent into
  performance is to let them find the path of least
  resistance.
• This solution encourages employees to take
  responsibility. Employees need to feel a certain
  tension to achieve. Defining the right outcomes
  creates that tension. It nurtures self-awareness
  and self-reliance.

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However, Be Careful

• Dont let employees risk everything and break
  the bank -- thats what people tend to do when
  its not their own money and they feel no
  personal pain at loss
• Employees must follow certain required steps when
  they are part of a company or industry standard
  (ex. Computer communication standards)
• Required steps are useful only if they do not
  obscure the desired outcome -- people follow the
  literal rules rather than the meaning of the
  rules so they dont know when to break them
• Required steps only prevent customer
  dissatisfaction but do not insure customer
  satisfaction. You must go the extra mile for
  that.
• Customers want accuracy (quality) -gt availability
  -gt partnership -gt advice.

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Casting People Correctly - the Best 1st Solution

• Your job is not to teach talent but help people
  earn the title talented by matching their
  talents tot he role and giving them development
  opportunities
• To find talents, know the talents you are looking
  for
• To help them improve their skills have them
  study the best performers, model their
  excellence, learn NLP to see how they move and
  think, and tape record what they say to make
  scripts
• STRIVING talents - why they are motivated to
  push, stand out, be competitive or charitable,
  do they just want to be liked to be known a
  technically competent, ...
• THINKING talents - how he thinks, weighs
  solutions, considers alternatives, ...
• RELATING talents - who he trusts, fights with,
  builds relationships with, whom they are at ease
  with, who perform best with, ...

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Spend the Right Amount of Time with Your People

• Write down on the left, in descending order, who
  is most productive. Write down on the right, in
  descending order, who you spend the most time
  with. Connect the two lists with lines.
• Yes, spend time with strugglers, but best
  managers spend most time with their most
  productive employees. If you think your role as a
  manager is to CONTROL people or INSTRUCT others
  youll spend the most time with strugglers. If
  you think your job is a CATALYST, you are not
  fixing or correcting or instructing. You just
  spend time trying to figure out the best way to
  unleash peoples talents.
• Set expectations
• perfect each persons unique style
• run interference for them and get out of the way

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Spend the Right Amount of Time with Your People
...

• As a manager you are always on stage. People
  watch what you do and copy it or respond to it.
• Human beings crave attention. If you pay less
  attention to the productive behavior of your
  superstars, youll get less of it. Because of
  indifference, your stars will start to do less of
  what made them stars in the first place.
• Investing in your best
• the fairest thing to do
• the best way to learn
• the only way to stay focused on excellence
• I am going to be consistent with every one of
  you because Ill treat each of you differently.
  The harder you work, the more you perform, the
  more you meet my guidelines, the more leeway Ill
  give you. If not, you wont work here for long.

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How to Manage Around a Weakness
60
Remember this Test?

• 1. As a manager, would you rather have an
  independent aggressive person who produced 1
  million in sales, or a a congenial team player
  who produced half as much. Explain your
  reasoning.
• Pick the independent aggressive guy, even though
  they are harder to manage. Great managers arent
  looking for people easy to manage. They are
  looking for the talent to be world class.
  Therefore, take on the challenge of focusing a
  talented individual into performance instead of
  the challenge of turning nonproductive people
  into productivity.

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• 2. You have an extremely productive employee who
  consistently fouls up the paperwork. How would
  you work with this person to help him/her become
  more productive?
• Find out why this employee is having trouble.
  Maybe they lack training and if so, supply it. If
  they just dont have the skill for it, find a
  solution that enables them to turn around their
  weakness for administration and focus on their
  productivity instead.

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• 3. You have 2 managers. One has the best talent
  for management you have ever seen. The other is
  mediocre. There are two openings available one
  is a high-performing territory and the second is
  a territory that is struggling. Neither territory
  has reached its potential. Where would you
  recommend the excellent manager be placed? Why?
• Great managers always place the most talented
  manager in the higher performing territory. If
  the territory has not yet reached its potential,
  great managers will push for excellence as their
  measure and try to make that territory reach its
  full potential. Taking that territory to top
  excellence is just as challenging to them as
  moving a struggling territory above average.
  Then, take a turn-around expert and put them in
  the poor performing territory. If you put the
  less talented in the top territory, they will
  never make it the best and the poor territory may
  defeat your top manager, which sets up both
  people to fail.