What makes some employees better than others? The Manager Newsletter
Cultivated Management
Newsletter
Edition 17 - What makes some employees better than others?
Hi,
Hope you've had a great weekend and last week was great for you.
It's been hectic at Cultivated Management this week. Lots of writing, a webinar on hiring technical talent, podcasting, continued setting up of my business and a swift talk to a load of junior tech consultants. Crazy, but amazing fun.
I got asked a question this week by a reader and I wanted to dwell on a little. The question was "Why are some employees more effective than others?"
So this week's topic is all about why some employees are better than others.
Enjoy. Have a great week.
Rob
What makes some employees better than others?
The question "why are some employees better than others?" is a hard question to answer, but it should really be an essential question for managers.
"Better" is subjective - you need to understand what you're benchmarking people against - and this could consume your whole career trying to work that out. People are also in different seasons of life and driven by different motivators. People are also on different paths in their careers - no two people will tread the same path, so it's to be expected that they will have differing abilities at different times in life.
However, saying that, it should be a question you keep coming back to.
"Why are some of my employees better than others?".
By asking the question you may be led to studying what your people do. And when you study what people do you'll observe behaviours and this will likely give you the answers you seek. I did this very studying and wrote a book about my finding - the 10 Behaviours of Effective Employees - it's still as relevant today as when I first published it - I'm not hurrying to update it. But those behaviours may not be the right ones for your company and culture.
I worked with a sales manager once who never stopped to question why some of his sales team were 300 x better at sales than others. Surely, if you have somebody who is really great at sales there is something to be learned from them? But many managers don't think that way. Instead they say it's natural ability, or even worse, they just have the charm. I don't believe this. In this particular team the top sales people were the ones with the least amount of charm - so what were they saying and doing that led to sales? And what could other people learn from them? And could this be bundled in to some training?
It's the same in any team. There are coders who will develop great code 10 x faster than others. Why?
Going back to the sale team. There were 2 or 3 sales people bringing in over a million each in sales. The next nearest was at around £400k. Then the majority were at £20k in sales a year. Why?
What did the top sales people do that the others didn't? And why, as a manager, was this not being explored? If there are behaviours that lead to success, then others should be encouraged to explore these behaviours and hiring teams mobilised to hire people who demonstrate them - that's what the top managers do.
If you're a manager, or thinking of becoming one, one of the first activities you do should be to understand what behaviours lead to success (as you define it) and contribute to a positive culture (culture is nothing more than group habit - it's what people do every day).
Behaviours really are where to focus your attention. The best managers focus on behaviours - the average managers puts it all down to natural skill and charm.
Go forth and observe behaviours!
Rob..
Book of the Week
I'm afraid there's no book this week again - I'm busy writing my upcoming book Zero To Keynote so I don't tend to read whilst writing a book - I like to keep my head full of my own thoughts.
I am nearly there though - it goes off to the editors this week and will be published on Leanpub initially in a few weeks. It will be followed by a workshop late Feb hopefully!
Interesting Finds from the web
This week's articles are:
Are you a first time manager?
Good article on how to interview your interviewer.
How to manage the 4 strong personalities in a meeting.
This week on Cultivated Management
This week on the blog:
Annual performance reviews hide weak management.
How to work with recruiters.
How to create great job adverts.
Throw candidates at the hiring process.
Thank you for reading The Manager.
If you have any questions you want answered hit reply to the email - I respond to all emails.
Until Next Time
Rob..
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