 
THE

### SUPERVISION SOLUTION:

Manage Performance–Not People

JOHN ROULET

Copyright 2015

John Roulet

Smashwords Edition

### TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

SECTION 1: THE CONCEPT OF LEADERSHIP

Chapter 1: The Myth and the Truth of Leadership

Chapter 2: The Measures of Leadership

SECTION 2: THE LEADERSHIP SYSTEM

Chapter 3: Leadership as a System

Chapter 4: The Organization's Leadership System

SECTION 3: APPLIED LEADERSHIP

Chapter 5: Business Leaders Manage Performance

Chapter 6: Great Leadership Changes and Maintains Situations

Chapter 7: The Universe's Problem-solving Method: GIADA

SECTION 4: THE SKILLS, TOOLS AND METHODS OF SUPERVISION

Chapter 8: The Best Possible Performance Appraisal

Chapter 9: The Value of Job Performance

Chapter 10: Providing Employees with What They Need to Perform

Chapter 11: Documenting Performance

Chapter 12: Motivated Employees Do not have to be Motivated

Chapter 13: Analyzing Job Performance Problems

Chapter 14: Resolving Job Performance Problems

Chapter 15: Punishment

Chapter 16: Hiring Great Employees

Final Thoughts

Definitions

Suggested Resources

About the Author

### Introduction

It is disheartening to see talent and opportunity squandered. Yet, throughout my career, that is exactly what I have seen over and over again. I've seen thousands of individuals who've gone from having the ability and desire to make great contributions to merely trying to appease their leaders. It is a refrain that is played many times every day and one that has been played throughout history. I wrote this book to do my part to stop it.

This book is about how to supervise. No matter what kind of business leader you are—whether a CEO of a multinational corporation or a front-line supervisor—if people are assigned to follow you, you are a supervisor. And if you are like most supervisors, you've never had a resource that provides you with what you need to master the challenges of supervision. This book is that much-needed resource. It is for business leaders who want more than just ideas. It is for those who want the solutions, once and for all.

It's popular nowadays to think of leadership in terms of individual personality traits and social behaviors. We won't buy into that zeitgeist. A leader can be compassionate, understanding, dynamic, or even charismatic, but without real leadership knowledge, skills, and tools, he will never demonstrate truly great leadership. Never!

All of the principles of being a great supervisor are ready to be discovered. This book will guide you in identifying, learning and applying these principles. Acquiring and applying the knowledge and skills in this book will help you become the kind of supervisor you want you to be—and the kind your organization needs.

The book unfolds through five sections. The first three sections will provide you with what you need to quickly develop the fundamental knowledge and skills required for every single business leader. Front-line supervisors to CEOs must have this powerful foundation upon which to build all their leadership skills. The fourth section is a how to guide to supervision. It provides you with the information and tools you'll need to efficiently and effectively manage employee performance issues that routinely confound others. The fifth section provides a visual roadmap to becoming a truly great supervisor.

Being truly great at supervision will come quickly to you with reasonable focus and diligence. Since leading people is one of the most important responsibilities any us can have, it is certainly worth the effort. I hope this book provides you with indispensable guidance and support as you and your organization discover _The Supervision Solution_.
SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION

THE CONCEPT OF LEADERSHIP

If you are in business and you supervise others, you are a business leader. And regardless of the leadership position you hold in your organization, there are some fundamental principles that you must understand. This understanding gives context to the work of leaders so that they can lead much more efficiently and effectively.

This section of the book defines leadership; you can't be great at it unless you know what it is. Amazingly, despite how popular a topic it is, what leadership is remains a mystery to most leaders. Even many of the world's most renowned academic and leadership development institutions operate without clearly defining the concept. You deserve better. After you finish the two chapters in this section you will have a clear definition of leadership and the criteria by which to measure it.

CHAPTER 1

### The Myth and the Truth of Leadership

At times, it seems that truly great leadership is a mythical concept. Leadership is, however, a very real concept that can be both defined and measured. While the popular view of leadership as an array of personality traits and social behaviors that inspire others has charm, it is wrong.

We tend to associate strong leadership with individuals who are effective communicators, visionary and inspirational. Our view of leadership becomes hopelessly distorted when it is based on such personal characteristics. Leadership is about work, not personality and social behaviors. As in any work endeavor, an individual's personal traits are an entirely different issue from his performance. This mistake, which is made over and over again, results in the poor leadership we have become so accustomed to in business, government and the military.

THE MYTH OF LEADERSHIP

Compassion is a proud and important human trait. But some leaders, due to the carnage they leave in their wake, deserve little or no compassion. Whether it was due to their lack of skills or values, leaders who betrayed the trust of their followers deserve only an objective view of their work as leaders. That is all I'll offer such leaders throughout this text. Perhaps capturing lessons from their incompetent leadership is one way to salvage some value to their legacies.

There were a number of business and political leaders who were contributing authors of the great recession that began in 2007. While so many of us experienced great financial hardship, many of those leaders, such as AIG's Ken Thompson, Citigroup's Charles Prince and Merrill Lynch's Stanley O'Neal, benefited handsomely from their astonishing failures. Unfortunately history gives us countless examples of leaders who benefited despite their incompetence, while so many others suffered because of it. Perhaps this century's first and still most notable example of destructive business leadership can be found in the record of Ken Lay, the former chairman and CEO of Enron. His leadership provides a classic example of the folly associated with viewing leadership as an array of personal characteristics.

A former Enron president described Ken Lay as follows: a straight arrow, a Boy Scout, one who lived by Judeo-Christian principles. These are admirable personality traits and ones that are often equated with great leadership. The many leadership awards Mr. Lay won would seem to validate that view: _The Super Hero Honoree Award, The Torch of Liberty Award_ , _Houston Business Man of the Year, Texas Navy Admiral, Chief Executive Officer Award, Father of the Year_ , and honorary doctorates in law and the social sciences. Given his awards and his $42,000,000 annual compensation package, one could hardly be faulted for believing that Mr. Lay was the stuff of great leadership. He was, however, a horrible leader - one of the worst. His leadership resulted in the collapse of Enron and with it the jobs and savings of more than 22,000 employees. The financial and collateral psychological damage is incalculable. When we consider the true requirements of leadership, as we soon will, it is easy to see that Mr. Lay perpetrated the myth rather than the truth of leadership.

THE TRUTH OF LEADERSHIP

Amazingly, it is the 21st Century and we still have nothing close to a universal understanding of this concept called leadership. Without such an understanding, virtually anything can be considered leadership, and, sadly, it often is. The first step in bringing truly great leadership to any organization is obliterating the confusion surrounding the concept. A simple, powerful and consistent definition of leadership provides the needed foundation:

Leader and Leadership Defined

A leader is someone people follow and leadership is the quality of the leader's performance. It is that simple. We've all known what a leader is from the first time we played Follow the Leader, or watched a flock of ducks follow their mom. The person or duck being followed is the leader. Don't let anyone make it more complicated than that.

Leadership is how well the leader leads. If the leader in Follow the Leader leads everyone into a swamp, or if the mother duck leads her flock into fox's den, that's bad leadership. Just as workmanship is the quality of the worker's performance, leadership is the quality of the leader's performance.

The definitions are simple, powerful and correct. Some folks will struggle with these definitions because they'll have to wade through the confusion sown by so many pop-management writers, consultants and leaders. Just dig down into what you originally and naturally knew and all will be cool.

Measuring Leadership

Three criteria are used to determine the quality of leadership:

  * **Accomplishment** : The leader's performance must result in the achievement of something of value.

  * **Cost-effective use of resources** : The leader must use resources wisely.

  * **Adherence to values** : Whatever the leader accomplishes must be in line with those things that are most important to the group being led.

The Mahatma

Nowadays, we are often presented with examples of leadership that, quite frankly, dramatically miss the point. The common models are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, military generals and political figures, all of whom command tremendous amounts of resources. Despite the resources they command, their accomplishments often fall far short of what their followers should expect. Their ability to promote themselves often masks less-than-stellar leadership. To cut through the fog of confusion surrounding great leadership, let's consider one of the 20th Century's truly great leaders. Although he was the antithesis of the larger-than-life character associated with so many leaders, he was, in fact, the real deal.

Born in 1869, Mohandas Gandhi is widely credited with freeing India from colonial rule. When we consider the three criteria of great leadership, Gandhi receives straight A's.

**Accomplishment** : Gandhi's greatest accomplishment was freeing India from foreign domination. It is for this reason that in India he is accorded the honor of Father of the Nation. His work to the alleviate poverty and liberate women inspired civil rights progress throughout the world.

**Cost-effective use of resources** : This is perhaps what is most impressive about Gandhi. Unlike many leaders, who are allocated massive amounts of money, manpower and technology, Gandhi had virtually no resources in his quest to free India. Amazingly, he even made his own clothes. He led millions of Indians, but these people were not assigned to him. He won them over and they willingly followed him. Gandhi didn't have weapons and technologies at his disposal. Instead, his weapon of choice, which he used with great effectiveness, was civil disobedience. Civil disobedience was not free, however. Many were imprisoned, hurt and even killed for employing this tactic. Still, it is universally acknowledged that, by all measures, the costs associated with freeing India were incredibly low. Arguably, Gandhi was the only person on the planet who could have achieved so much with so little.

**Values** : Gandhi and his followers, undoubtedly influenced by Hindu philosophy, valued non-violence and truth. It's true that other historical figures founded nations and even did so with minimal resources; however, many fell short when it came to respecting values. What sets Gandhi apart from most other leaders is that his leadership adhered to and even transcended the values of the group he led. Even those outside of his group, including his adversaries, admired those values.

Gandhi's accomplishments, the relatively scant resources he used to achieve them, and the values to which he adhered make him one of history's preeminent examples of great leadership.

THE CRITICAL CONTEXT OF LEADERSHIP

The focus of this book is on the supervisory aspects of leadership. Our definition of leadership, the quality of the leader's work, does not mean that leadership is an individual responsibility. It is not. Leadership is a group responsibility. Even our example of great leadership, Gandhi, needed millions of individuals to make his leadership successful.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * **A leader is someone others follow.**

  * **Leadership is the quality of the leader's performance.**

  * **The quality of that performance is measured by accomplishment, cost-effective use of resources and adherence to group values.**

  * **Whether you hold the job of CEO, front-line supervisor, or any other leadership position, this definition and these criteria must always guide your performance.**

Chapter 1 Exercise
CHAPTER 2

The Measures of Leadership

In the previous chapter, we defined leadership and introduced the criteria by which it is measured. This chapter will strengthen the concept by further explaining the three criteria.

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Goals and objectives are critical terms in the language of leadership. However, most business leaders understand these terms about as well as they understand Sanskrit.

Goals and objectives establish direction. When well structured, they drive great performance. When poorly structured, they create an over-reliance on hope and chance. It seems there is a belief that leaders will develop the skills to properly structure organizational goals and objectives through some sort of osmosis—an unspoken presumption that when people become leaders they somehow start providing the organization with well-structured goals and objectives. This common misconception has a costly impact on virtually all organizations.

Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives are often considered synonymous. They are not. A goal designates the end of the journey, while objectives are checkpoints showing progress toward a goal. Objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-framed. Goals do not have to meet these criteria.

Lost in Translation

Interestingly, in our personal lives, we often demonstrate our ability to structure goals and objectives properly. Yet these same skills are often checked at the door in the workplace. Let's use the example of remodeling a house to see how well we structure goals and objectives outside the workplace. We'll listen in on two discussions between homeowners and their general contractors. The first demonstrates great leadership; the second . . . well, you judge for yourself.

**Homeowner A** : _My house is not in great shape. My goal is to have a great house._

**General Contractor A** : _Well then your goal is my goal. What does a great house look like?_

**Homeowner A** : _Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, dining room, electrical systems meet standards, etc. I took one of your own home designs and made some modifications. It's all written down, including the dimensions. So our goal is clear. Do you agree?_

**General Contractor A** : _Absolutely! Here are our objectives: We'll have the house gutted in one week and the frames up in two weeks. The house will be finished in seven weeks. We'll go through a punch list and fix any problems fixed by the end of the eight week. In eight weeks your goal of a great house will be accomplished. How is that?_

**Homeowner A** : _That sounds great. Let's create accountabilities based upon those objectives._

In terms of goals and objectives these folks have it right. The goal is strong and clear, and there are performance objectives to ensure that everything is done as and when they should be. Let's now consider Homeowner F and General Contractor F. The discussion below is going to seem absurd; indeed, it is. But what really makes it absurd is that it mirrors what is so common in modern organizations.

**Homeowner F** : _My house is not in great shape. My goal is to improve it._

**General Contractor F** : _We can do that._

**Homeowner F** : _How?_

**General Contractor F** : _We'll fix a lot of things by doing a lot of hammering, sawing and rewiring._

**Homeowner F** : _I guess that sounds good. Can you give me some timeframes?_

**General Contractor F:** _Sure! We'll begin hammering and sawing right away. We'll rewire in a few weeks. There is usually high turnover with our workers, so to reduce the turnover we'll be sending some of them to an off-site seminar. So you can see we are going to be very busy._

**Homeowner F** : _I guess you know what you are doing. When will the work be done?_

**General Contractor F** : _The work is never done, but don't worry you can count on me to stay for years struggling with process and employee problems._

In this last exchange between Contractor F and his customer, you can probably feel a good deal of uncertainty about what will be accomplished. Perhaps you have experienced that same kind of uncertainty in your workplace. It's quite common when direction is unclear. When, however, leaders set goals and objectives that reflect vision and expertise, the stage is set for greatness.

Well-structured Goals

It is not surprising that leaders struggle with structuring goals. The information available through management texts, classes and seminars is often contradictory and confusing. Let's consider what goals should and should not do.

Goals should:

  * **Establish broad direction** : "There is no needless destruction of dogs and cats in our state" is an example of a fine goal. Any model suggesting that this is not a goal is wrong. As this is an important and often misunderstood concept it warrants further discussion. Many consultants will say that goals need to specific, measurable, achievable and time-framed. Buying into such a model requires accepting that a parent can't have a goal of their children living healthy, happy and productive lives.

  * **Provide value** : A goal should result in value. Most of us would agree that the goal above has societal value.

  * **Later be clarified** : Our "no destruction of dogs and cats" goal sounds good, but it's not particularly clear. So it's open to lots of different interpretations. We'll need to clarify it. The sub-section titled "Putting it All Together," which comes later in this chapter, does just that. You may find it useful to take a quick look at that example now.

Goals should not be:

  * **Based on improvement** : "Improve company performance" is a bad goal. Improved performance may still result in less than desirable performance. Improved performance is often just doing things less poorly. Improvement goals look backward to past and undesirable performance. They tend to tweak the status quo. Great leadership sets goals that look forward to a vision of greatness.

  * **Constrained by descriptions of activities** : Activities are the way goals are achieved—they are not goals themselves. Including activities in a goal needlessly restricts the path to the goal.

  * **Constrained by timeframes** : In the goal-setting process, there is no value to being needlessly constrained. When it comes time to identify the work necessary to achieve your goal, you'll create objectives with all the timeframes you need.

Well-structured Objectives

With a goal established and clarified, how to achieve the goal takes center stage. That's when you set objectives. Objectives outline the progression toward a goal and provide the milestones on the path to reaching it. The key to structuring objectives is to make them SMART:

  * **Specific** : They must be specific, well-defined and clear.

  * **Measurable** : They must be measurable.

  * **Achievable** : Since they outline the path to a goal, they must be achievable.

  * **Relevant** : They must be relevant to the goal.

  * **Time-framed** : It must be clear when they will be achieved.

Putting it All Together

To better understand how goals and objectives relate to one another consider the following.

**Goal**

There is no needless destruction of dogs and cats in our state

  * unless it is terminally ill or critically injured, no dog or cat will be euthanized

  * unless a professional certifies a dog or cat as a danger to humans and domesticated animals, it won't be destroyed.

You may disagree with this goal, but the point is that it's clear. The desired outcome is uniformly understood. It's likely we can't achieve our goal right now, so we need to take incremental steps to get there. Those incremental steps and when they'll be achieved are the objectives. They are outcomes, so we do not use activities in our objectives. Typically achieving the last objective coincides with achieving the goal. This is how great leadership creates the focus and drives the progression necessary to accomplish great things.

**Objectives**

  1. By 12/31/15 the number of dogs and cats needlessly destroyed in the state will be under 45,000 (current level is 50,000).

  2. By 12/31/16 the number of dogs and cats needlessly destroyed will be under 35,000.

  3. By 12/31/17 the number of dogs and cats needless destroyed will be under 10,000.

  4. By 12/31/18 the number of dogs and cats needless destroyed will be zero.

This subsection focused on the first of the three criteria of leadership: accomplishment. We'll now proceed to the second measure of leadership: the cost-effective use of resources.

THE COST-EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES

Management requires cost-effectively using resources, and great management is the fuel that drives great leadership. To inspire others or to get elected, leaders will often express their visions of the future. But visions without effective management are not visions at all—they are fantasies.

Management Defined

Management is the cost-effective use of resources. This requires minimizing costs and maximizing effectiveness. With unfettered access to abundant resources, anything can be accomplished. But that is not management. Management requires balancing achievement with costs. When something is well managed, resources are not used or sacrificed in excess of what is needed to achieve desired performance.

Costs and Effectiveness

To more easily understand the concepts, it is useful to uncouple costs and effectiveness. Costs include time, money spent, increased risk, lost lives, etc. Costs are incurred with the intent of achieving some level of effectiveness. Effectiveness includes revenue, decreased risk, saved lives, etc.

Management requires balancing costs with effectiveness. Merely cutting costs, a common management theme, as opposed to properly managing costs, works only one side of the equation: the cost side. A hypothetical business example illustrates this point. Domino's Pizza is a company that many of us know. It would take no management expertise whatsoever to dramatically cut costs at Domino's. All you'd have to do is turn off the electricity and stop buying gasoline for the delivery vehicles, and Domino's operating costs would drop dramatically. Of course, the result of those cost reductions would be no pizzas and no way to deliver those nonexistent pizzas! The company would go out of business quite quickly. So much for effectiveness—but nobody could say that we hadn't cut costs.

On the other side of the coin are achievements under "blank check" conditions. This is where managers consider only achievement, regardless of the cost. Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953, is largely credited with leading the USSR to becoming the second-largest nation in the world in terms of industry by 1937. When viewed in the absence of costs, that is quite an achievement. But, when we consider that Stalin's crash programs of industrialization and collectivization cost the lives of more than 10,000,000 Soviet citizens, the accomplishment loses its luster. Stalin's "blank check" was in human lives. His notorious statement—"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic"—sums up his attitude toward the human currency he spent so freely. His management skills and, therefore, his leadership skills were deplorable.

Merely cutting costs or spending without limit requires no management skills. When, however, costs and effectiveness must be balanced, good management skills are required.

**McClellan and Lee**

During the first year of the United State Civil War (1861–1865) the commanding general of the Union Army was a man named George McClellan. By all accounts he was inspirational, organized and compassionate; he was indeed loved by the men in his army. Given these characteristics and the feelings his men had towards him it would seem that he must have been a great leader. He was not. As a leader he was an abject failure. Great leadership also requires great management (the cost-effective use of resources) and it was in this requirement where McClellan most notably failed. He was hesitant and clumsy in using the vast resources he had at his disposal. His boss, an exasperated President Abraham Lincoln, once quipped: "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it."

McClellan's counterpart, General Robert E. Lee, was the antithesis of McClellan. Lee, like McClellan, was loved by his army. But unlike McClellan, Lee was an excellent manager. He understood that as a leader his job was to use his resources responsibly. He usually performed this aspect of his job brilliantly, winning a number of overwhelming victories for The South when he had far fewer men and materials than his adversaries.

The contrasting management performance of these two commanders was aptly demonstrated in September 1862 at the Battle of Antietam. McClellan started the battle with superior firepower and almost twice as many troops. On top of that Lee's battle plans had fallen into McClellan's hands. Yet, despite all these advantages, the best McClellan could achieve was a draw in the battle. Without question, if Lee had been in McClellan's shoes, the outcome of the battle and the duration of the war would have been entirely different. Instead, the battle, which was the single bloodiest day in American history, resulted in a stalemate. The war would continue two and a half more years, needlessly costing hundreds of thousands of lives.

Although the Confederacy lost the war, to this day, General Lee is an iconic figure. In large part due to his ability to do so much with so little: a classic example of great management. McClellan in comparison is relatively obscure.

Now that we've considered the first two measures of leadership, accomplishment and the cost-effective use of resources, we'll look at the third measure: adherence to values.

ADHERENCE TO VALUES

We know that great leadership requires great accomplishments and using resources wisely, but that's not enough. Great leaders respect the values of their followers.

Values Defined

Value—or values—is related to worth or importance: What we value reflects what we care most about. When value is made plural (i.e., values), to some this connotes a more ethical concept than the singular implies. We will not make that distinction. Value and values will be used interchangeably.

Consider the following questions: How would you like to turn a $5000 investment into $50,000 in two months? Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, what if the investment involved fronting money for a number of illegal drug deals? Would you still do it even if there was no chance you would get caught?

The Value of Value

Whether in business, government, the military, or any aspect of life, it is impossible to overstate the importance of the concept of value. Value is the reason why individuals, groups and all species do the things they do, sometimes even without understanding why. Political careers, for example, are often won and lost based on the perceived congruence of a politician's values with those of the electorate. A lesson former senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards learned in 2008.

During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Edwards was positioning himself as the man for the working poor. But his $400 haircut, which was disclosed in his financial report to the Federal Election Commission, seemed to belie that value. No one can be certain if this derailed his campaign, but it is certain that his failure to adhere to the values of the group he wanted to lead severely damaged it. Of course, an expensive haircut has nothing to do with one's ability to lead the United States, but it does make the electorate question your values. That is something even someone with enough money to buy a $400 haircut cannot afford. Amazingly, shortly after that fiasco Mr. Edwards did permanently derail his political career when it was learned that during his campaign he cheated on his beautiful Elizabeth, who bravely campaigned for him while publically battling cancer.

On a global scale, there are numerous value-laden issues. The use of torture on captives in the "War on Terror" raises the question: Is the information that might be gained through torture worth becoming a country that tortures people? Air pollution and universal healthcare coverage are both issues of values. Religions and societies fracture due to discrepant values. Relationships begin and end because of similar and incompatible values. Whether you are a front-line supervisor or the CEO of a multinational corporation, unless you understand and adhere to the values of your group, you will have to retain your position as leader through fear rather than through respect.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * There are three criteria by which leadership is measured: accomplishment, cost-effective use of resources and adherence to values.

  * Accomplishment is measured by setting and achieving goals and objectives.

  * A well-structured goal is forward-looking to a desired outcome. It is not constrained by the inclusion of activities and time-frames, nor should it be based upon improvement.

  * To create focus and shared understanding, a goal needs to be clarified.

  * Objectives are checkpoints of progress toward a goal. Unlike goals, they need to be SMART.

  * Management is the cost-effective use of resources, so management is a component of leadership.

  * Value is the importance we give to something.

Chapter 2 Exercise

SECTION 2 INTRODUCTION

THE LEADERSHIP SYSTEM

The first section of this book provided a foundational view of leadership. In this section, we consider how to best apply the concept of leadership. In so doing, you'll learn that great leadership skills have limited value unless they are a part of a great leadership system. The chapters will provide you with an overview of the concept of a leadership system and the best leadership system for your organization.
CHAPTER 3

### Leadership as a System

Having great leadership skills and good intentions are not enough to succeed as a leader; a dysfunctional system of leadership can quickly and completely render such talents virtually meaningless.

Leadership development is a popular topic in many organizations. Managers attend seminars, training classes and off-site retreats, always with the intention of becoming better leaders. And senior-level business leaders often engage in succession-planning discussions and exercises in which the organization's future leaders are identified and anointed. Even when the quality of such activities is high, the return on these investments tends to be low. New insights and excitement are created, but typically little or no meaningful and lasting change occurs. Why?

ORGANIZATIONS AND SYSTEMS

The approach described above is fundamentally flawed in that it ignores the critical concepts of organizations and systems.

The word "organization" is used throughout this book, so let's take a closer look at it. "Organization" is derived from the word "organism." From a biological perspective, an organism is a system of elements that influence each other in such a way that they function as a stable whole. The key concept is that the organism is a system of elements, not merely a "pile" of elements. A system brings structure to discrete elements so that they can perform cohesively and productively. The elements themselves often have little usefulness in the absence of this synergistic structure. The effectiveness of systems is why are organizations are created.

The purpose of systems is to provide desired and predictable performance. Systems are all around us. In fact we depend on them for our survival. The human body is an example of a system that is composed of a number of interrelated sub-systems. If we consider a single human body as a whole system, we see that there are a number of interrelated sub-systems that enable the whole to function effectively (e.g., the circulatory system, the neural system, etc.). A malfunction or weakness in a subsystem will often cause diminished performance or even failure in the larger system. For example, the chronic elevation of blood glucose in the circulatory system can lead to damage of the blood vessels (angiopathy). Consequently and predictably, damage to other systems within the body will occur.

LEADERSHIP AS A SYSTEM

When we appreciate the value of leadership and of systems, it only makes sense to marry these two concepts in the organizational setting. When this marriage takes place, thereby forming a leadership system, organizations can realize a synergy and consistency that drives performance to higher and more sustainable levels than can be achieved through the more common individualized perspective of leadership.

Those Dreaded Committees

It should be noted that a leadership system is not exemplified by committees. My opinion is that committees are the antithesis of trusting and empowering talented individuals. Committees are, instead, the quintessential pile of people where the costs, in terms of time and effort, never seem to justify the meager outcomes achieved.

The Founding Fathers of the United States

Although not the first group to systematize leadership, the United States' Founding Fathers understood the value of a system of leadership. Contrary to their era's common model of kingdoms and empires, the Founding Fathers did not leave the future of the United States to a succession of leaders. They knew that to protect the country's future interests, relying on the character and power of individual leaders was not a practical leadership model. What these brilliant men did was to entrust the future of their country to a system of leadership, which is outlined in The Constitution. Despite some flaws in the document, their vision of systematic leadership has stood the test of time. The number of failed dictatorships, kingdoms and empires throughout history that have relied on the omnipotence of leaders instead of a system of leadership further validates the work of the Founding Fathers.

Hitler, Stalin and Gaddafi, for example could never view leadership in the progressive and systematic way of The Founding Fathers. Yet, amazingly, even today organizations and the pop management culture still promote developing leaders with little or no consideration to first and most importantly developing the organization's system of leadership. The result, virtually by design, is not a synchronistic and progressive practice of organizational leadership, but rather a "pile" of leaders; conflicting talents and agendas and the lack of synergy result in far-from-optimal organizational performance. Just as a bunch of discrete organs does not constitute a well-functioning human body, a bunch of great leaders does not constitute a well-functioning organization.

The development and implementation of an organization's system of leadership must come before the selection and development of its leaders. Thus, the first and most important responsibility of business leaders is to build and maintain a system of leadership for their organizations.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * An individual leader's talents are rendered irrelevant if the organization's system of suppresses those talents.

  * As a leader you must create and maintain a workplace where talent can thrive. If you don't do that it doesn't make sense to hire talented people.

Chapter 3 Exercise

CHAPTER 4

### The Organization's Leadership System

In Chapter 3, we discussed the need for a leadership system. The leadership system, which comprises the skills, tools and methods to effectively run the organization, is essential to achieving optimal and sustainable performance. The question now is: What should that leadership system look like? After all, it does an organization little good to recognize the value of a leadership system if it doesn't know what the best system actually is. In this chapter, we'll identify that leadership system. Before we do, let's consider the biggest obstruction to developing and maintaining an effective system of leadership.

THOSE HUMANS!

The leadership structure in most organizations is more reflective of medieval fiefdoms than of an enlightened and powerful system of leadership. Instead of managers behaving as modern business leaders, their actions more closely resemble those of feudal lords. Organizational relationships and structures are fractured due to jealousy, incompetence and distrust among leaders. These fractures and the consequent loss of synergy increase costs and diminish effectiveness. Few organizations would try to create fiefdoms. So, the reasonable question is: "Why do they occur?"

Fiefdoms are exactly what we should expect when we put humans together. Since the beginning of our existence, we've lived and worked in clans, tribes, gangs, communities, congregations, fiefdoms, kingdoms, towns, states and countries. In our own lives, we form families, teams, groups, cliques, clubs, etc. That's what we humans do. We are genetically hardwired to create groups. We always have and we always will.

Even our closest genetic relative, the chimpanzee, forms communities. Like us, they tend to establish territorial boundaries and share resources within the community. Interestingly, one of the notable social characteristics of chimpanzees is that the males tend to be hostile toward the males of outside communities. Does that sound like human male behavior, or what!

Status, power and security are things we humans value, and we can attain them more easily by creating groups and subgroups. Just because humans are predisposed to create groups and exhibit territorial behaviors does not mean that we should merely accept those behaviors. They have a detrimental effect on 21st-century performance, so the issue must be addressed. But any approach that attempts to directly suppress millions of years of evolution is doomed to failure. Instead, what is needed is a leadership system that continually accesses our productive nature, rather than our territorial nature.

THE ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP SYSTEM

In the early 1990s, David Norton and Robert Kaplan introduced The Balanced Scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard is not just a way to manage organizational performance—it is the way to manage organizational performance. The underlying performance concepts in The Balanced Scorecard direct attention to the behaviors and outcomes that are most beneficial to organizational performance.

It is unlikely that Norton and Kaplan began their work with the intent of controlling our more disruptive prehistoric instincts. But by discovering the most powerful approach to managing organizational performance, they did just that. A schematic of the model, with modifications to the original, is provided below. We'll soon discuss each aspect of the model and how it drives the other parts of the model.

The Organizational Leadership System

The Term "Performance Management" Hasn't Caught On

The term "performance management" is an abstract concept to most business leaders; they tend to ignore it or shelve it for another day. I experienced this first-hand when the CEO of a major corporation I was working for stopped by my office one day. I was introduced to him as the director who was developing the organization's performance management process. He offered me a genuine smile and nod of appreciation as he said, "great, that's what we need." But I could tell that he had no idea what a performance management process was or why it was important to the success of the company. After a few more supportive words, he was gone.

But what if he'd been told that I was developing the organization's system of leadership? That certainly would have captured his attention. He may have even wanted to be involved.

The Balanced Scorecard is a leadership system, and building a Balanced Scorecard is the ideal way for leaders to work with their team to develop a shared vision of the organization. The feedback/review process is an opportunity for the leader to teach and reinforce direction, the cost-effective use of resources and values. This, as we have discussed, is what leadership is all about. An effective leadership system is one that enables leaders to mobilize people in a focused process of change.

Since Norton and Kaplan first introduced The Balanced Scorecard, a number of researchers and practitioners, including myself, have made modifications to the model. The model described in this book reflects the modifications I have made. Regardless of the changes, the basic tenets of the Balanced Scorecard remain intact. Norton and Kaplan's work is brilliant in the power and relative simplicity it brings to driving optimal and sustainable organizational performance.

Henceforth, I'll use the term leadership system rather than The Balanced Scorecard. I'll do so in deference to Norton and Kaplan's work.

The Four Parts of the Leadership System

One of the real benefits of a leadership system in an organization is that it moves leadership from a theoretical construct to a real, practical and workable one.

Historically organizations have relied almost exclusively on financial measures to manage performance. Whether it is our bank accounts, portfolios, or credit card debt, such measures of financial performance provide us with information about our past decisions and actions. The same holds true for the financial measures organizations use. These measures provide insight into the quality of past decisions and actions. Therefore, additional measures are needed to understand, predict and capture the future. These additional measures are customer performance, business process performance and employee performance.

These are the four components of an organization's leadership system. Performance in each component of the process is driven by the ones that precede it:

  * Financial performance is of value because money enables the organization to survive and thrive and satisfy its shareholders.

  * Customer performance provides value to the organization based on the sales realized from customers purchasing its products and services.

  * Business process performance provides value to customers by providing the products and services they want.

  * Employee performance is of value because it makes the business process work.

The performance/value relationships described above are the heart and soul of the leadership system. Effective leadership aligns and drives each component of the process. The purpose of this book is to provide organizations and their supervisors with what they need to develop the employee performance component of the leadership system.

Management Jobs

In a great leadership system, job titles have meaning beyond symbols of power and status. Job titles designate the primary focus of each leader's work.

If you have ever seen preschoolers play soccer, you've seen all chase and kick the ball at once. The coach has little chance of keeping them in their assigned positions. It's adorable! Many managers perform in much the same way. It's not uncommon to see vice presidents, directors and managers join together to spend hours fumbling over a personnel problem that a single supervisor could have handled in a few minutes. It's not adorable! It's part of the committee mentality.

Job titles will vary from organization to organization, but in the model below, the most common management job titles are used to show the distinctions in required leadership performance.

  * Vice Presidents through CEOs make decisions that directly impact strategy and the company's financial performance.

  * Directors are responsible for strategy. This requires making decisions and taking the actions necessary to position the organization in the minds of customers or other key stakeholders.

  * Managers are responsible for developing, transforming and continually improving the organization's business processes to ensure optimal cost-effectiveness.

  * Supervisors are responsible for ensuring optimal and sustainable employee performance.

Leadership jobs will often carry responsibilities that require performance across several dimensions of the leadership system. It is common, for example, for a director to be responsible for strategy, building a business process and supervising staff. The focus of this book is on supervision, so our focus will remain on the staff performance component of the leadership system.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * A great leadership system obliterates inefficient and ineffective fiefdoms. It is the infrastructure of a healthy and productive organization. Success is achieved by effectively managing performance in the following domains: people, business process, customers and financial.

  * Categories of management jobs must have distinct performance requirements that are directly related to one or more of the four components of the leadership system.

Chapter 4 Exercise
SECTION 3 INTRODUCTION

APPLIED LEADERSHIP

The first two sections of the book took us from a foundational view of leadership to how organizations systematize leadership. We now look at how business leaders actually lead within the leadership system.

It's popular and even a little charming to view business leaders as great motivators. In reality, such individuals are rare and not necessarily effective leaders. To be a truly great business leader, one must have real leadership knowledge and skills and, of course—as discussed in the previous section of the book—work within a great leadership system.

In the next three chapters you'll learn some of the most valuable lessons of business leadership. They will enable to you to develop the skills you'll need for all levels of business leadership.
CHAPTER 5

### Business Leaders Manage Performance

All members of management are responsible for managing performance. Supervision, the focus of this book, is how the performance of people is managed. Regardless of their position in management, leaders who do not know what performance is will never be optimally effective. Never!

PERFORMANCE DEFINED (THIS IS ABSOLUTE MUST KNOW CONCEPT)

Performance is two things and two things only: behaviors and outcomes. Employees are hired to exhibit specified behaviors and/or to achieve specified outcomes.

Some management teachings identify performance outputs and outcomes. My experience has been that "output" is an additional performance category that creates unneeded complexity. It is easier to combine outputs and outcomes into one category: outcomes. Employees can often achieve outcomes through a multitude of behaviors. Thus, a business leader may allow an employee a choice of behaviors and measure the employee's performance solely on the outcome achieved.

MANAGE PERFORMANCE, NOT PEOPLE (THIS IS ALSO AN ABSOLUTE MUST KNOW CONCEPT)

Leadership books and articles frequently suggest ways to manage people. This is patently incorrect. Cult leaders manage people; business leaders manage performance. Skilled business leaders do not try to manage personalities and emotions because they know they do not have the time or psychotherapeutic skills to do so. Their job, instead, is to ensure that necessary organizational behaviors and outcomes occur.

Personality and Emotion

Research shows that certain personality characteristics, such as conscientiousness, are associated with higher levels of performance. That, however, does not mean that supervisors have the time or skills to develop such traits in employees. They don't! Supervisors' attempts to increase organizational performance through pseudo-psychological interventions are not only flights of fantasy, but they also are ethically questionable.

Certainly, people in some jobs, such as office receptionist, are required to offer friendly greetings and to be polite. It seems reasonable to expect individuals in such jobs to be cheerful. Cheerful, however, is an emotion or a personality trait; it is not a performance. Regardless of a receptionist's emotional state, the job requirement to offer friendly greetings and to be polite does not change. Many of us at any given time will be dealing with issues such as divorce, death, financial problems, etc. Consequently, we may not feel the positive emotions a manager wants us to feel. That, however, does not mean that we won't perform our jobs with great effectiveness. We humans are very adept at performing well in spite of our emotions.

VALUE

Delivering great performance in terms of behaviors and outcomes is all fine and good, but those behaviors and outcomes should also be of value. All of us have experienced doing great work, work in which we took great pride, and then nothing was done with it – perhaps someone dropped the ball and didn't follow through as they said they would. It doesn't change that our performance was great, but the sad truth is that it didn't have value.

It's probably impossible to overstate the importance of understanding embracing the concept of value in business. I'm currently working with a group of folks who are struggling mightily with the concept. When asked about the value their clients get from their work, they typically cite their own knowledge, experience and dedication. None of these things, however, are value. You don't find value by looking in the mirror. Value is not associated with inputs, such as you are or what you do. Rather, relative to your work as a leader, value is the worth of your performance. Interestingly, in Capital, Karl Marx made this fundamental error in his own work with the labor theory of value.

Leadership requires aligning costs, performance and consequent value. If you do this effectively and protect the values of those you lead and you will be a great leader.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * Performance is behaviors and outcomes, not personality or emotions.

  * What makes performance important is the value it provides.

Chapter 5 Exercise
CHAPTER 6

Great Leadership Changes and Maintains Situations

Change is inevitable. As a leader you should be driving change. You will not, however, accomplish it wasting time trying to change people. You will achieve it by changing the situations in which people work.

Many CEOs are frustrated by their management teams' inability to embrace needed change. Needed changes are often compromised or abandoned because of the employees will obstruct those activities that threaten the status quo. Common ways to deal with obstructions to change include cajoling, speeches and attitudinal training. These approaches never result in desired and sustained performance changes, because they focus on people instead of the situation.

THE CONCEPT OF CHANGE

Attempts to get employees to embrace change are rarely necessary. It's a waste of time to try to alter employees' attitudes about change—it doesn't work, and, even if it did, such attitudinal changes do not directly result in better performance. The reason for this is simple: attitude is a cognitive and emotional state. It's not performance!

When necessary organizational change fails, the problem is not within the collective minds of employees. The problem is the situations in which they work. When employees obstruct change, it is because the work environment is weak and not conducive to success. In the past 80 years, the human relations school of management has dominated discussions about business leadership. Its approach encourages leaders to understand followers' feelings and perceptions. The approach sounds somewhat sensible, but it is naïve; it fails to appreciate the proven strengths of humans.

Humans are Terrific at Adapting to Change

Throughout history, people have adapted and even thrived in difficult and unexpected situations. The story of our species is one of adaptation. Some extraordinary and less extraordinary examples are useful to drive this point home.

Immaculee Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s, tells a remarkable story of how she and six other women were huddled in a bathroom, measuring three feet by four feet, for 91 days while they hid, sometimes only a few feet from rampaging mass murderers. They were forced to take turns standing and stretching during their ordeal. Food was extremely scarce. They survived.

Members of the military have always had to adapt to extreme situations. Refugees and the hundreds of millions of citizens who toiled and starved under the regimes of Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin are examples of mass populations that adapted to ungodly situations. Pioneers and explorers endured hardships most of us can hardly envision.

Examples abound of people surviving under the harshest conditions, but survival is only one factor in humans' ability to adapt and thrive. Among the many other reasons people adapt are religion, love and loyalty.

Even many of us pampered souls of the 21st century are quite adept at adapting and thriving in the midst of change. How about mothers? Talk about adapting to change! They adapt to having a human being growing in their body for nine months and then to being responsible for their baby's survival. Every day people adapt to changes brought about by death, divorce, sickness, job loss, etc. Parents respond to continual changes in family life as their children grow and move out of the house. Whether our ability to adapt to change was a creation of God, evolution, or both, modern organizations are left with nothing meaningful to teach employees about how to adapt to change. So don't waste their time or yours.

The Status Quo Bias

People tend to resist change. There is no question about that. Our tendency to resist change, however, does not imply that we're anything less than great at adapting to it. On the contrary, our ability to overcome fear and apprehension to adapt and thrive in the midst of change is incredibly impressive. Unfortunately, business leaders too often botch change efforts because of misguided attempts to do battle with our natural tendencies.

Our tendency to resist change is known as the status quo bias. Insights from the field of evolutionary psychology provide a rational explanation for this bias: embracing the status quo was for our prehistoric human ancestors a requirement for survival. We modern humans are the products of our cave-dwelling ancestors. These early humans faced incredibly harsh conditions; weather, geography and predators presented challenges to their survival each and every day. Those who would venture into unknown environments, particularly alone, would almost certainly be killed by the elements. Yet those who remained in the relatively safe confines of a cave surrounded by fellow clan members were more likely to pass on their "stay put" genes than those with a proclivity to venture into the elements. Consequently, those traits associated with accepting the status quo would be passed on, while those rejecting it were systematically eliminated from our gene pool.

Like virtually all other higher-order species, we humans have a particularly strong desire not to lose what we already have. In the case of our species, it is a cognitive phenomenon that is aptly called loss aversion. Loss aversion is the tendency for people to put greater importance on losses than on gains. Before taking actions that could result in gains, we first tend to weigh the risks of loss very heavily. The fierce desire to avoid losing what we already have has been essential to the survival of our species. We protect what we consider to be ours, most notably our food, our shelter and our families. Some of the common behaviors associated with loss aversion are hiding, hoarding, threatening and fighting. Although these may seem like primitive behaviors, almost all 21st-century organizations regularly provide numerous examples of hiding, hoarding, threatening and fighting behaviors in humans. Although it can be a severe obstacle in our modern world, the desire to resist change is still very much a part of our genetic make-up.

GREAT LEADERSHIP CREATES AND MAINTAINS NEEDED CHANGES

It is, as we just discussed, fruitless to try to change the way people feel about change. What the successful leader will do instead is to create and maintain a work environment in which talented individuals see that performance associated with needed change is more rewarding than performance that maintains the status quo. It is therefore paramount for business leaders to destroy the shackles that bind employees to the status quo. The first step in doing this is to set a well-structured goal that establishes a vision of greatness.

Creating Change is One Thing, Maintaining Change is Quite Another

Rather than stopping at merely creating change, the responsibility to maintain needed change adds a substantially different dimension to the leader's work. Change can be created very quickly and very dramatically—bombs and tornados, for example, create dramatic changes. But bombs and tornados, unlike humans, can neither decide what changes to make nor maintain those changes. An event on May 1, 2003 provides a striking example of a leader failing to understand the distinction between creating change and maintaining it. It was on that day that President George W. Bush flew onto the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared the end of major military actions in Iraq. He announced this as he stood beneath a sign that read "Mission Accomplished." As we know now, contrary to those proclamations, major military actions did not end and the mission had not been accomplished.

Still, by May 2003, Iraq had changed, and it had changed dramatically: Saddam Hussein was no longer in power; his military was crushed; and many Iraqis experienced a sense of freedom and exuberance as they had never before. This situation did not last, though. The reason: those who planned the war failed to plan for peace. For the President, as the leader of the free world, accomplishment should have been peace and freedom in Iraq. This required recognizing that the goal was a peaceful and free Iraq, not just the overthrow of Hussein's dictatorship. For the business leader, the lesson is that creating change is typically much easier than maintaining it. Great leadership requires being prepared to maintain change before creating it. Without this level of analysis and preparation, leaders are likely to lose control of situations that could have been effectively managed. Many times analysis and preparation can lead to avoiding situations that are deemed unmanageable.

A Work Situation a Business Leader Might Create and Maintain

It is, as we discussed, fruitless to try to change the way people feel about change. What the successful leader will do instead is create and maintain a work environment in which talented individuals will thrive. In keeping with that theme, let's take look at a supervisor who doesn't try to change or develop people, but rather structures a quality work environment. She shares with list below with each new employee and asks every employee to rate her performance on each item on a regular basis and to send their ratings directly to her boss. I don't know about you, but she sounds like a pretty progressive, cool and dynamic supervisor.

  * You'll know exactly what required performance looks like for your position and the value your work brings to the organization.

  * You'll have all the information, resources and support to perform your job effectively.

  * You'll never be treated disrespectfully.

  * You won't ever have to pick-up the slack for a colleague not doing their job, as the talented folks here always perform as needed or they are on a plan to get them quickly up to speed.

  * As I know you and all our staff are talented and motivated, so I'll always being doing all I can to ensure the workplace does not obstruct your talents or de-motivate you from performing at a high level.

The fourth section of this book, The Skills, Tools and Methods of Supervision, will give supervisors what they need to systematically create and maintain such a work environment.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * People tend not to like change. Cajoling folks has little impact on most people when it comes to embracing change. It's when the situation or environment requires us to change, that's what we do.

  * Supervisors need to change the situation or environment for needed changes to occur.

Chapter 6 Exercise
CHAPTER 7

### The Universe's Problem-solving Method: GIADA

Great leadership requires disciplined thinking. Leaders must be organized and fast in their thinking so that they can make timely and correct decisions and then take relentless action. Great leadership requires using the five-step problem-solving model with which higher-order species appear to be born. That problem-solving model is GIADA: goal, information, analysis, decision and action.

**Goal** : identify how you want the world to look after you have effectively addressed the current issue.

**Information** : collect the information that could be relevant to understanding the issue.

**Analysis** : now that you have information, it's time to analyze it so you can understand if you have a problem, how big of a problem you have, what's causing it and how to cost-effectively resolve it.

**Decision** : this is where you use the knowledge you have acquired through a quality analysis to make what you believe to be the best decision to address the issue.

**Action** : a decision doesn't mean much until you take action, so that's what you need to do. It's usually important to follow-up to see if the decisions and actions you took resulted in achieving your goal. If not, you may have to reset your goal, or collect more information, or reanalyze the situation.

Unfortunately, rather than embracing GIADA, a "shoot from the hip" mentality is common approach managers take to problem-solving. It's a small wonder that so many problems in organizations go on for years and years and even become an excepted part of the business. When business leaders are asked to outline their approach to problem solving, their responses more often than not reflect an overreliance on intuition. Intuition is very important, but as foundations for quality problem solving it is more appropriate for the reactionary responsibilities of gunslingers and the metaphysical responsibilities of shamans.

GIADA AND TWO OF THE WORLD'S GREAT COMPETITORS

The First in the Wild

Imagine a tiger in the wild. She needs to eat. Therefore at this moment food is her goal. GIADA is how she will ultimately achieve that goal. She's surrounded by information, some of which she collects and some of which she ignores. There is a field mouse about ten feet away; a large deer grazes 100 yards away in a clearing; and a smaller deer grazes 50 yards away near some high grass. She analyzes the situation. She could catch the mouse, but that wouldn't be much of a meal; she'd expend more energy catching the mouse than it is worth, and she'd alert the deer to her presence. The large deer would be a great catch, but there's a good chance it would escape before she could get to it. The smaller deer, however, is near some high grass that she could use for cover, and she doesn't have to traverse as much ground to get to it. She makes her decision. She's going after the smaller deer. She takes action. She stalks her prey through the high grass. The moment she sees the deer alert to her presence, she pounces. In about 10 seconds the hunt is over. She has achieved her goal and she will eat today. GIADA at work!

The Second on Ice

Some may argue that leaders in the modern business world simply don't have time to structure goals, collect information, analyze the information, make the right decisions and then take the appropriate actions. Time, they would argue, sometimes does not allow for GIADA. This, however, is utter nonsense.

The process of setting a goal, collecting information, analyzing it, making a decision and taking appropriate action can less than a few seconds. Wayne Gretzky is a perfect example of a leader who understood and embraced GIADA.

It is generally acknowledged that Wayne Gretzky was a highly-skilled ice hockey player. He did not have the best shot, wasn't the fastest skater, nor was he the strongest person on the ice. He was, however, the greatest at GIADA. Gretzky was aware that when he was on the ice, his team's goal was to score. At any moment, he was collecting all the relevant information on the ice. Much of this information would change numerous times within a matter of seconds. He analyzed the information in microseconds and made decisions that no one else even saw as options. His decisions led to the quick actions that often resulted in his team scoring a goal. Gretzky had the best mind the game of hockey has ever known. Relative to hockey, despite his astonishing physical abilities, GIADA was likely Wayne Gretzky's greatest strength.

GIADA is what we've been given as the most effective way to think and act. There are no shortcuts! The process is not entirely linear—it requires looping back to prior steps, as information will change as decisions are made and actions taken; assumptions upon which decisions were made will sometimes be wrong; and the goal may change as new opportunities emerge and disappear. Such changes are common and are a part of GIADA.

The following section of the book, _The Skills, Tools and Methods of Supervision_ , provides the information, tools and methods you need to work through GIADA in creating and maintaining a high-performance work environment.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * GIADA stands for goal, information, analysis, decision and action. It is and always will be the most efficient and effective way to solve problems.

Chapter 7 Exercise
SECTION 4 INTRODUCTION

THE SKILLS, TOOLS AND METHODS OF SUPERVISION

Most of us become supervisors because we performed well in non-managerial jobs. We may have been good technicians, analysts, nurses, etc. And, most all of us, whether we want to admit it or not, realize that the skills that made us successful in non-managerial jobs are of little help in the managing the performance of others. What is needed is an entirely new set of knowledge, skills and tools—one that equates to supervisory expertise. In this section of the book, you'll learn what supervisory expertise is and how to use it to be a great supervisor.

The first three sections of this book discussed leadership concepts. This section continues to narrow our focus on leadership. Here, we will address the "nuts and bolts" of supervision. Since supervision is managing people's performance, it has a prominent place in the organization's leadership system model.

The Organizational Leadership System

  Supervision

Supervision requires understanding what it takes for humans to perform effectively. That understanding begins with the seven-step task or job performance model outlined below—it is the foundation for managing the performance of people.

**Information × Knowledge × Skills × Resources × Motivation × Effort = Performance**

As you look at your own job, or any job you supervise, you should see the natural flow of these steps. The model, like much of the material in this book, is somewhat intuitive. This model is supervision! In the upcoming chapters, you will learn how to create and maintain a work environment in which a smooth flow through this model is the norm for the group you lead.

**Information** : Individuals need information to understand the job to be performed.

**Knowledge** : Information is transformed into the knowledge of how a job is supposed to be performed.

**Skill** **:** Knowledge, often through practice, is used to develop the skill to perform a job.

**Resources** : The resources acted upon with knowledge and skill to perform.

**Motivation** : The desire to use information, knowledge, skill and resources to perform.

**Effort** : The energy one puts into performing a task.

**Performance** : The behaviors and outcomes that occur as a function of information, knowledge, skills, resources, motivation and effort.
CHAPTER 8

### The Best Possible Performance Appraisal

Many business leaders question the value of performance appraisals. They see them done inconsistently, and the process does not appear to deliver any significant return on their organization's investment. The only reason performance appraisals will not work is if they are done wrong.

The necessity of performance appraisals is widely accepted—even by those who publicly dispute their validity. We see performance appraisals every day in the sports pages of every major newspaper. The performance measures used include batting average, points per game, rushing yardage, etc. The bathroom scale is a performance appraisal. The same folks who dispute the usefulness of the performance appraisals are often the same ones who reviewed the business pages to see how the Dow Jones performed the previous day. That's performance appraisal. It's indisputable, performance appraisals are necessary because they measure performance. A great performance appraisal, which you will learn to develop in this chapter, is the foundation for great supervisory performance.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS MEASURE JOB PERFORMANCE

Performance appraisal isn't about the employee; it is about the employee's performance. Telling employees the sort of people they are (e.g., "Sally is highly motivated") does not constitute a valid appraisal of their performance.

Accurately measuring employee job performance is as important to organizational success as measuring financial performance. A CEO would never collect and use information about the company's financial performance in the sloppy manner that employee performance information is typically collected and used. When done correctly, measuring employee job performance is easy to do, requires little time, is very accurate and can be used to drive overall organizational performance.

Why We Struggle to Assess the Performance of People

People categorize people. It's a natural thing for us to do, and it's as much a matter of survival as of convenience. Humans assess individuals and situations in microseconds to determine whether or not they are a threat. This is made possible by the way our brains collect, code and categorize information. This occurs in a part of our brain called the amygdala, which is located in the limbic system, the most primitive part of the human brain. If we take a moment to describe our boss or some other associate, we quickly see the natural tendency to categorize people. Our description will likely include one or more traits (e.g., smart, talented, arrogant) rather than a list of behaviors and outcomes. This is how our brain saves us time and effort. Instead of considering thousands of observations before determining what kind of benefit or threat a person is, a relevant category immediately comes to our conscious mind, summarizing most of what we know and feel about that person. To do anything other than categorize people requires suppressing our natural tendencies.

Categorizations

Although categorization is an efficient way to process information, it has severe limitations in today's business environment.

Once we categorize an individual, whether that category is a positive or negative one, we tend to more easily process information that is congruous with our categorization. Conversely, when presented with information that is incongruous with our categorizations, processing that information is more problematic. This effect is so strong that we don't even recognize the existence of information that conflicts with our categorizations. This information-processing bias became abundantly clear to me a number of years ago when I used to play softball on an excellent team. Carl was a teammate who I considered to be a poor outfielder. I would view any good play he made as an anomaly, if I recognized it all. In my young and arrogant point of view, he was a selfish person even playing outfield. "Selfish" was the category where my brain had filed Carl. One day my girlfriend told me that every time I came to bat, Carl would cheer loudly for me. I told her that was utter nonsense because that's not the kind of person Carl is; selfish people do not do such things. She told me to listen next time I went to the plate. So I did. She was right! Carl was cheering loudly for me, perhaps more loudly than anyone on the team. Not only that—I realized that I had heard that same encouraging voice many times throughout the years. Yet I failed to connect those cheers to Carl because they were incongruous with my categorization of him. It was only after I consciously discarded my negative categorization of him that I was able to collect and analyze relevant performance information accurately. The result was that I was finally able to see that he was actually performing well in the outfield and was a great teammate. It was a lesson I hope to never forget and one that I hope you will also remember.

Once supervisors accept their natural tendency to categorize people, they can largely overcome it – probably never entirely, as we're stuck being humans. The best way to do this is to use a performance appraisal process that measures performance, and only performance.

HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

To assess performance correctly, you'll likely need to forget much of what you've learned. A performance appraisal does not measure personality, potential or anything other than past performance. The right performance appraisal is job-specific; it is not a generic form. It makes little sense, for example, to assess the performance of a person who cleans our car by such generic measures as teamwork, leadership and initiative. Instead, we would use performance measures such as how clean the body, carpet and windows are. This same rule of measuring job performance based upon required behaviors and outcomes applies to every job.

It's also worth noting that a performance appraisal has nothing to do with employee development plans or future objectives. It is a performance appraisal! That's it. It is a tool to measure how effectively someone performed his or her job. All that other stuff is entirely separate. The appraisal can help you to craft future performance and development plans, but such plans are not performance appraisals. Don't buy into the popular and incorrect notion to make the performance appraisal process convoluted and confusing.

The Ideal Performance Appraisal

The performance appraisal above is an example of what might be created for a family physician job. The structure of this performance appraisal is ideal. It clearly outlines expected performance and the relative importance of each component of overall performance. It is certainly possible to create levels of performance in addition to the three listed here. My experience, however, is that this is typically unnecessary. By putting the appraisal in a spreadsheet or a database, with some relatively simple calculations, the process can be fully automated to score each appraisal and to combine performance information across many jobs in the organization. It takes about three minutes to complete an appraisal, so doing it on a quarterly basis is actually very easy.

**The Process**

Step 1: Choose a job for which to develop a performance appraisal.

Step 2: Generate a list of performances (behaviors and outcomes) that must occur for the job to be performed as required. Most jobs include five to seven key performance requirements.

Step 3: For each performance requirement, determine what the range of acceptable performance is. This range is based on value; how to do this is addressed in the following chapter.

Step 4: Determine the relative importance of each performance requirement. When they are all added together they must equal 100%.

Step 5: Make sure that all staff members have a copy of their performance appraisal, as each one will want to know what required performance looks like.

Step 6: Use the appraisal regularly to assess the performance of each staff member.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * There is such a thing as the ideal performance appraisal and it's easy to use. It identifies the behaviors and/or outcomes required of an employee, how well they must be performed and the weighted importance of each.

  * Performance appraisals should be done on a regular basis, as we humans benefit from ongoing and meaningful feedback.

Chapter 8 Exercise
CHAPTER 9

### The Value of Job Performance

Why does a given job exist? What is the impact on the organization when the job is performed great as opposed to poorly? What would happen to the organization if the job were to go away? Organizations that capture and effectively use such valuable information are rare. It is only with this knowledge that an organization can determine whether a job should exist and, if so, what levels of performance are required.

BALANCING PERFORMANCE AND VALUE

The performance appraisal describes desired performance. But, as we've discussed, performance is not enough. It is necessary to understand the value of performance.

The Value of Varying Levels of Performance

Does great performance really matter in a job? The answer is a solid maybe. It requires supervisory expertise to make that determination. For example, it is quite possible that an employee performing 10% better than another employee could be worth $100,000 or more per year to their organization. In highly technical and management-level jobs, the value difference associated with varying levels of performance can increase exponentially.

The Return on the Organization's Investment

Organizations invest their resources in jobs in a number of ways, employee compensation typically being the most costly. Although compensation tends to be driven by what the labor market is paying, knowing what a job will return on an organization's investment enables the organization to determine how aggressively it wants to compete for employees in the labor market. Understanding the value of performance is critical to enabling an organization to establish appropriate salaries and make quality hires.

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE VALUE OF A JOB

The purpose of this process is to identify the range of acceptable performance for each component of a job. This range is based upon what the supervisor determines to be acceptable differences in the value of the high end of required performance and the low end.

**The Process**

Step 1: Start with the performance appraisal.

Step 2: For each job responsibility determine whether performance is measured based on employee behaviors or outcomes.

Step 3: Identify the highest level of performance that has ever been observed. The highest level may be unattainable to all but a few gifted individuals. Still, this step is designed to direct attention toward greatness. It is probable that this level is too high to serve even as the high end of required performance, but it creates a better frame of mind for setting that standard.

Step 4: Use your expertise to identify required performance and the value associated with that level of performance. The value will often be in terms of money, reduced risk, and/or legal compliance. You'll have to ask the question "why" a number of times to get to the real value of work.

Step 5: Identify the low end of acceptable performance and the value associated with that level of performance. Once again, the value will likely be in terms of money, reduced risk, and/or legal compliance.

Step 6: Compare the difference in the value between the high end of performance and the low end.

Step 7: If the range is too big, make the range smaller. This is usually done by increasing the level of the low end of performance, not decreasing the high end.

Step 8: Document for the organization why you set the performance ranges as you did. Let's say, for example, that you identified the difference between the value of the low end and the high end to be about $5000 per year. Briefly explain why that difference is acceptable to the organization.

Step 9: Share this information with members of your staff. It's important that each understands the value of his/her job and why performance levels are set as they are. I would even suggest involving some in the process outlined here.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * Varying levels of performance typically have associated levels of value. Supervisors need to understand these associations and set required performance levels accordingly.

  * Often required performance will be a range, rather than a single point.

  * A supervisor determines the range of required performance based upon the differential value of the low and high ends of that range. The range should be relatively high and relatively small to best ensure high and consistent value.

Chapter 9 Exercise
CHAPTER 10

### Provide Employees with What They Need to Perform

It is all too common for employees to be hired into jobs and then left to figure it out for themselves. That's not empowerment, it is supervisory negligence. Talented employees need information, knowledge, skills and resources to perform. Surprisingly, business leaders often either overlook or ignore these critical components of the job performance model. The result is always diminished organizational performance.

TAKING CHARGE OF THE SITUATION

People rarely start their jobs with all the information, knowledge, skills and resources they need to be successful. While a high-quality selection process results in new hires being productive faster, employees still need help acquiring the essentials to succeed.

General George Patton was a great supervisor who ensured that his troops had the information, knowledge, skills and resources required for success. After the Americans' disastrous WWII defeat in March 1943 at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in North Africa, Patton was given command of the Army's II Corps. When Patton took over, the II Corps was in physical and emotional tatters. Within weeks, as a result of intense training and discipline, the II Corps was on the offensive and pushing German and Italian troops out of North Africa. Due to the immense size of an army corps, Patton could not personally train and equip his troops. But he made sure that it was done—and done right. His example provides two critical leadership lessons: 1) the leader must take responsibility for ensuring that those she leads have what they need to succeed and 2) regardless of the size of the group, this responsibility must be met.

When a supervisor does not take charge of the learning process, employees may learn needed skills too slowly, not at all, or even the wrong skills.

HOW TO IDENTIFY WHAT EMPLOYEES NEED TO PERFORM

To best understand the information, knowledge, skills and resources an employee needs to perform her job, we first develop a picture of the job. This is done through a technique called task analysis.

**The Process**

Step 1: The easiest way to start a task analysis is to sketch a simple flow chart. The following is a task analysis for a performance requirement for a physician. The item is taken directly from the performance appraisal in Chapter 8. The task begins when the doctor first meets the patient.

**Takes complete patient history, including events leading to current visit, prior illnesses and other relevant information.**

Step 2: Next to each step, identify the information, knowledge, skills and resources that the employee needs to perform that aspect of the job (see flowchart above).

Step 3: Clarify the knowledge and skills identified in the task analysis. For example, able to speak English might be clarified as able to speak English at a U.S. high school graduate level. Able to use database might be defined as able to retrieve and print all patient information from the patient database. It is essential to clarify exactly what the required skill is.

Step 4: From the task analysis, determine the knowledge and skills employees do not have. These will be the basis for training, job aides, etc. you'll develop to enable employees to develop needed knowledge and skills quickly.

Step 5: Once again, go to the task analysis and make sure all the resources employees need to perform as required are available. If you cannot provide these resources, lower the performance expectations accordingly. Do not hold an employee accountable for performance if he/she does not have the proper resources.

Step 6: Provide the needed resources, training, job aides, guidance, etc.

Step 7: Use the performance appraisal to monitor and measure performance.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * Supervisors must ensure that staff members have the information, knowledge, skills and resources to perform their jobs.

  * The performance appraisal and task analysis are the tools the supervisor uses to identify the information, knowledge, skills and resources staff need to perform as required.

 Chapter 10 Exercise
CHAPTER 11

### Documenting Performance

Once members of your staff start performing, you'll need to monitor their performance to see how each is doing and to intervene when needed. As time goes by, you are not going to remember all your observations, so you'll need to maintain some documentation. Most supervisors realize that they should keep some documentation, but few do. The primary reason for not doing so is because it's probably the most boring of all supervisory tasks. Nevertheless it does have to be done. The good news is that when done correctly, it should only take a few minutes of your time each week.

OUR COGNITIVE LIMITATIONS

The human brain cannot accurately store and recall the information needed to assess the performance of a single employee during a normal rating period, let alone many. Failing to properly store and recall performance information has resulted in countless poor performers retaining important jobs they had no business keeping. In such cases, leaders are likely influenced by information that is unrelated to performance. This happens when memories, instead of brief written performance notations, are used to store, code and retrieve performance information. These memories, as we discussed in the performance appraisal chapter, will be skewed due to the categorizations our brains devise. Taking a few moments per week to document subordinates' job performance helps maintain a much-needed focus on performance.

HOW TO DOCUMENT PERFORMANCE

Fact files are logs of performance and assessments of that performance. Rely on the performance appraisal to easily maintain up-to-date fact files. Whenever performance is below requirements, you should make notations and initiate a brief discussion to determine the reason for the performance discrepancy. You should also note performance that meets and exceeds requirements and give at least a quick nod now and then to the folks performing well – we humans like stuff like that. The following should be included in each note: the date, the situation, the performance and an evaluation of the observed performance. The evaluations must be about the performance, not about the employee. The key is to imagine being in a court of law: Nothing in a fact file should be anything less than a fact. Let's consider two sample fact files, one good and one not.

  * **Good:** _January 5, 2014: Dr. Snow was twice observed skipping the second intake, during which she is required to ask for the patient's history, events leading to visit, etc. She has to do the intake with every patient, so her performance is unacceptable._

  * **Not good** : _January 5, 2014: Dr. Snow was twice observed skipping the second intake, during which she is required to ask for the patient's history, events leading to visit, etc. She doesn't care about the patients and/or she is lazy._

The good fact file entry describes and assesses the employee's performance. The one that is not good also describes performance, but then goes on to make an assessment of the employee instead of her performance.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * We humans forget and distort information. Documenting performance helps us to avoid that, so we can make more accurate assessments of performance and have meaningful performance related discussions.

  * Documentation must include the date, the situation, the performance and an evaluation of that performance.

 Chapter 11 Exercise
CHAPTER 12

### Motivated Employees Do Not Have To Be Motivated

Nowadays, there is so much discussion about motivating employees. Granted, motivation is a critical component of the job performance model. But what business leaders often fail to recognize is that employees should already be motivated.

IT'S THE ENVIRONMENT

It is a myth that supervisors need to motivate employees. The cause of motivational deficits will typically not be found within the minds of your staff. Instead of looking at them, supervisors must have the courage to look at themselves as the cause of most all problems with employee motivation. The common truth is that a good number of motivated employees find their work environments de-motivating. Instead of the opportunity to achieve great things, the workplace for many employees becomes more about survival. In such environments, behaviors that could improve organizational performance are often subordinated to those that cause minimal disruption to the status quo. The work environment becomes permeated by the need to conform rather than the need to perform. Supervisors can't let that happen.

Conformity

Groupthink, a concept whereby disagreement with the leader is punished and conformity is rewarded, is a common and destructive example of this get along mentality. In many organizations, the negative consequences associated with failing to conform include the loss of promotion opportunities, being accused of not being a team player and even job termination. The effect of groupthink is so strong that many social psychologists blame it for the escalation of the Viet Nam War. When important decisions were being made about the United States' involvement in Viet Nam, most of the men on President Johnson's staff withheld expert opinions that conflicted with the president's views. These conflicting opinions would have been of great value to the country. Unfortunately, the desires of these influential men to be viewed favorably by the president and to retain their positions of power had tragic consequences. Conformity at the expense of performance is always detrimental to optimal success.

Treating the Symptoms Does Not Work

In recent years, there have been a number of popular and questionable approaches to motivating employees. Such approaches seem to assume that employees are in a collectively depressed emotional state that can be resolved through interventions such as training, off-site meetings, and parties. A proper diagnosis will inevitably identify the problem as being in work environment, not the collective psyche of employees. Thus, any intervention should aim to fix the work environment, not try to fix the employees.

Most people come equipped with the motivation to do good work. Self-esteem, survival, family security, social acceptance and status are among the many factors that make us naturally motivated to perform. When supervisors believe that they need to motivate employees, they fail to appreciate and, perhaps, even respect the people who report to them.

HOW TO STRUCTURE THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

There is no textbook way to create a great work environment. But you'll keep moving toward "True North," by continually evaluating and modifying the work environment based upon four simple principles of motivation: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment and extinction.

**Positive reinforcement** : A behavior is increased based on the expectation that a reward will follow. If an employee receives recognition for getting a report in on time, we can expect that the behaviors associated with getting a report in on time will increase.

**Negative reinforcement** : This is also a rewarding experience. However, instead of getting something good for demonstrating a behavior, something bad is avoided or taken away. If, for example, an employee can avoid the wrath of his supervisor by getting a report completed on time, the behavior of getting the report completed on time is negatively reinforced.

**Punishment** : Punishment is not a rewarding experience. Its purpose is to decrease or eliminate an undesired behavior. If an employee actually experiences the wrath of his supervisor for submitting a report after deadline, the behavior of turning reports in late will likely decrease or be eliminated in the future.

**Extinction** : Extinction is also not a rewarding experience, and, like punishment, it results in a decrease in a certain behavior. A behavior is extinguished when nothing happens after its occurrence. If a weekly report is generated and nothing happens with the report, we can expect that the behavior of generating that report to cease in time.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * Rather than trying to motivate staff members, supervisors must first ensure they structure and maintain a work environment that does not de-motivate talented folks.

  * There are four key principles of motivation that a leader must understand and use to structure and maintain a great work environment: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment and extinction.

 Chapter 12 Exercise
CHAPTER 13

### Analyzing Job Performance Problems

The process of resolving job performance problems requires a systematic approach to defining problems, determining their impact, diagnosing causes, choosing and implementing cost-effective solutions. That systematic approach is GIADA. You may want to go back to Chapter 7 for a quick review of GIADA.

The importance of truly understanding a problem before trying to solve it cannot be overstated. Albert Einstein once said that if he had 60 minutes to change the world he'd spend the first 59 minutes defining the problem. This dramatically contrasts with the approach of most managers, who often start addressing an issue before they even know if it actually is a problem. The inevitable result is confusion, wasted time, increased costs and decreased effectiveness. We would never trust a physician who started a treatment regimen without the benefit of a diagnosis. As business leaders we must hold ourselves to the same standard.

LEADERS PROVIDE SOLUTIONS, NOT IDEAS

Let's continue to use the analogy of a physician. If someone you cared about deeply was suffering from an illness, which doctor would you choose: one who told you she had lots of ideas for treatment, or one who said she knew the cause of the problem and the correct solution? Of course it would be the one who understood the problem and had the proper solution. Ideas have little value unless they are turned into a solution. GIADA is how we find and implement those solutions.

To solve a job performance problem the successful supervisor starts with the performance appraisal and the job performance model. The cause of any performance problem identified through the appraisal will always be found in one or more of the components of the model. As a reminder, the following is the job performance model: Information - Knowledge - Skills - Resources - Motivation - Effort - Performance

HOW TO ANALYZE PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS

The need to analyze and resolve a performance problem begins when performance dips below the required level. The performance appraisal will provide that measure. Due to the associated loss of value, performance problems should be addressed immediately. The performance analysis process is outlined below. You can also download a useful performance analysis worksheet and an example of a performance analysis from the www.supervisionsolution.com website.

**The Process**

Step 1: What is current performance?

Step 2: What should it be?

Step 3: Is there a performance gap?

Step 4: If so, what is the impact of the gap on the organization in terms of wasted resources, lost opportunities, safety and legal compliance?

Step 5: Is the problem worth fixing?

Step 6: Does the employee have needed information?

Step 7: Does the employee have the knowledge to perform as required?

Step 8: Does the employee have the skills to perform as required?

Step 9: Does the employee have the resources to perform as required?

Step 10: Are the consequences for performing as desired actually somewhat punishing (e.g., more work, greater frustrations)?

Step 11: What happens when an employee doesn't perform as required? Is it actually somewhat rewarding (e.g., more relaxing, more time to socialize, less accountability).

Step 12: Dig really deep to understand the cause of the problem. In manufacturing this process is called "The 5 Whys." The question "why" is asked five times to identify the root cause of a problem. This is an extraordinarily very valuable exercise, one in which every supervisor should engage. For illustration, let's take the issue of an employee not having the resources she needs to perform as required. It's great when we identify that as a problem, but if we stop there we may an opportunity to uncover and solve a deeper and more costly problem. Perhaps, for example, the reason for needed resources not available is a flawed purchasing process. Resolving those real problems will have a much bigger and lasting impact on the organization.

Step 13: Given the impact of the current performance problem, how and when must the problem be resolved?

Step 14: What are the solutions that could resolve problem?

Step 15: Decide on the best solution.

Step 16: Take action to implement it.

Step 17: Monitor performance to ensure it is back where it needs to be. If it isn't, run through GIADA again.

These questions enable you to analyze the problem and identify cost-effective solutions to resolve it. Sometimes your performance analysis will show that to resolve the current problem you will need to develop and implement a performance achievement plan (PAP) for an employee. We'll address how to do that in the next chapter.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * When an employee's performance does not meet requirements, before taking any action a supervisor must understand the root cause of the problem. The GIA in GIADA is how this is done.

  * The immediate cause of the problem will always be found within the task performance model. It is, however, almost always possible to dig even deeper by asking "why" about five times to find the root causes of job performance problems.

 Chapter 13 Exercise
CHAPTER 14

### Resolving Job Performance Problems

Supervisors often resign themselves to having some employees on staff that do not carry their weight. Despite numerous discussions about performance, little seems to change. Although performance that continually fails to meet the requirements is disruptive and frustrating, in many organizations this is considered an unavoidable workplace reality.

That is utter nonsense!!! We're not going to buy into such resignations of helplessness.

PROPERLY FRAME THE PROBLEM

Few people like interpersonal conflict. It can cause feelings of distress for all parties involved and can result in the initiator being ostracized from a relationship or a group. Except for a small minority of us, avoiding interpersonal conflict is negatively reinforcing. The human desire to avoid interpersonal conflicts is the very reason why many performance problems are not addressed until they become absolutely intolerable.

No Conflict is Necessary

The good news about resolving job performance problems is that when done correctly confrontation is not necessary. Working with an employee whose performance is not meeting standards is relatively easy when the issue is properly framed: the employee's performance is not where it needs to be - there is an associated loss of value - you'll do what is reasonable to fix the problem.

If your performance analysis revealed that the performance discrepancy is the result of a shortage of information or resources, the problem would reside with you, the supervisor. In such a case there is no need for a performance achievement plan (PAP). If, however, the employee has been provided with everything he needs to perform and the problem is worth fixing, it's time to develop and implement a PAP.

HOW TO DEVELOP A PERFORMANCE ACHIEVEMENT PLAN (PAP)

After a performance analysis reveals that a performance discrepancy must be resolved through the efforts of an employee, it's time to formulate a PAP. The plan is not punitive. It is the organization's sincere attempt to assist an employee in getting his performance where it needs to be so that termination can be avoided.

There is a lot of science and a little art to developing the plan. Sometimes, supervisors will find that a few well-chosen words can make the plan feel a little threatening, and at other times they may want to keep it soft. This is entirely a matter of feel and will change from plan to plan. Regardless of the tone, a PAP must be structured to achieve the required level of performance and must be relatively short in duration. Consequently a PAP should never result in the following:

  * improvement gains that fall short of desired levels (that's why it's a PAP instead of a PIP)

  * timeframes for improvement that are too long and costly

  * reduced performance expectations to accommodate an underperforming employee.

You'll see that much of the PAP is developed from the performance analysis, which we covered in the last chapter. A PAP is a fair and systematic approach that is for the benefit of the employee and the organization. Use the process below to formulate, document and communicate your plan. There is a sample PAP for our underperforming physician at www.thesupervisionsolution.com.

**The Process**

Step 1: What should current performance be?

Step 2: What is current performance?

Step 3: Is there a performance gap?

Step 4: What is the impact of the gap on the organization in terms of wasted resources, lost opportunities, safety and legal compliance?

Step 5: What additional steps will be taken to ensure that the employee will be successful from this point forward? In many cases you won't be able to do anything more, as everything reasonable may have already been done.

Step 6: Given the impact of the current performance problem, when must the employee's performance reach requirement? The greater impact, the faster the employee must reach the required performance level.

Step 7: What will be the consequences to the employee for not reaching acceptable performance within the timeframe given? The consequences must be aimed at getting performance back on track, not punishing the employee. This is true even if the consequences are termination from the job. In such a case, termination is not an act of punishment; it is the action needed to remove an employee from a job for which he is not a good fit.

Step 8: What are the costs to the company of the chosen resolution and the timeframe?

Step 9: How will performance be sustained at the new level?

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * The PAP is designed to get performance to the required level. It adds the decisions and actions to be taken to the analysis the supervisor conducted to determine the cause of the problem.

  * It is not a punishment. It's a supportive intervention.

 Chapter 14 Exercise
CHAPTER 15

### Punishment

Organizations do punish employees. It sounds awful, but at times it's necessary. Unfortunately, instead of a systematic and mature process, many organizations use an undisciplined and unsophisticated approach. Supervisors are often exasperated with what it takes to remove a problem employee from the organization. Even with records of poor attendance, insubordination and misconduct, some employees are still allowed to keep their jobs. As a consequence, the work place is diminished, and supervisors feel helpless rather than empowered.

PUNISHMENT PROTECTS WHAT THE ORGANIZATION VALUES

"Progressive discipline" is the common term organizations use when they want to punish an employee. It is, however, a misnomer because discipline is desirable, while punishment is not. Being disciplined means that we follow a rule of conduct. Most of us would like a little more discipline in our lives. If we had such discipline, we might exercise more, eat better and be more patient. Employees who are disciplined thinkers are critical to the success of an organization. We all strive to be more disciplined, but we don't strive to be punished.

Punishment is used in organizations and always will be so long as they are staffed by people. People misbehave. In response to human transgressions, The Bible and The Koran prescribe pretty severe punishments. Needless to say, no one would suggest that an employee be stoned for committing an infraction of company policy. Still, we cannot ignore the fact that appropriate punishment does stop undesirable behaviors and does have a place in business.

Punishment is Only for Violations of Policy

Punishment is never appropriate to fix performance problems. It is only to address policy violations. Policies reflect what the company values. When an employee violates policy, we want that behavior to stop and to never occur again. Therefore, punishment, in the form of an oral warning, a written warning, or termination, may be appropriate. Such actions protect the organization's values. An organization's response to policy violations provides insight into just how fiercely it protects its values and its employees. Show me an organization that allows troublesome employees to stack-up a multitude of policy violations and I'll show you and organization that has weak values.

Punishment and Shame

Although punishment is an organizational reality, good leaders understand its emotional impact on employees and their productivity. There is the very real possibility of causing a punished employee to feel some degree of shame. And shame is a very powerful feeling. Countless people have chosen death over living in shame. Even today, there are societies that endorse the killing of women for acts considered shameful. Even under the best of circumstances, employees who feel shamed by organizational punishment may withdraw from the organization or demonstrate a drop in productivity.

Theory of the Mind

To gauge our standing in relationships, we reflect on what others are thinking. This is called theory of mind. Such reflections benefit us in that they guide us toward behaviors that maintain or improve our standing in a social structure and away from those that would threaten it.

Talented and well-meaning employees are likely to be stigmatized by punishments such as written warnings or job suspensions. Although such punishments are rarely public, they are still likely to be interpreted as organizational badges of shame. Like a "scarlet letter" they mark employees as transgressors of organizational values. Employees with written warnings or job suspensions on their records are commonly marginalized by the organization; they are often unable to apply for other jobs until a certain amount of time has passed since their punishment. The strong desire not to be a marginal member of the organization can drive the shamed employee to seek other opportunities where he can start anew. Withdrawal from a community or a society is a very human response to condemnations for violations of accepted norms.

There is neurological research that shows that the neurons in our brains reconfigure to better retain memory of events that are both atypical and traumatic. Such events, therefore, achieve greater prominence in the human brain. For many employees, punishment and its associated shame is such an event. Clearly, because employees will reflect painfully on the event, leaders must use punishment carefully and with expertise.

Punishment in Well Managed Organizations

The talented people who are on the payroll in well-managed organizations will have no desire to violate policies. Thus, policy violations will likely be minor and can be addressed by a quick discussion; written warnings and suspensions tend to be unnecessary overreactions in such environments. Still such organizations have little tolerance for wanton policy violations. So to protect their values, their employees and their reputations, punishment in the rare circumstances it is needed can be aggressive.

HOW TO PUNISH EMPLOYEES

Great supervisors recognize that punishment is an after-the-fact remedy, as the problem has already occurred. For this reason, supervisors must create a work environment in which there is no need or desire to violate policies. But when violations do occur, to address them effectively a systematic process is required.

**Guidelines**

  * Any time an employee is punished, identify the consequences for further violations of policy.

  * Punishment must be progressive. Never go backwards (written warning to oral warning) or sideways (written warning to another written warning).

  * Combine policy violations when considering an appropriate level of discipline. For example, you can combine excessive absenteeism and insubordination. They both come under the category of disrupting the work environment.

  * Don't create a statute of limitations whereby after a given period of time a policy violation will no longer be considered when making personnel decisions.

  * Don't use suspensions. If an employee has done something bad enough to warrant a suspension, he shouldn't be on the payroll. It would be best to terminate employment.

  * Be consistent.

  * Violating policies is entirely separate from performance. How well a person performs is irrelevant to organizational punishment. If, for example, an outstanding performer sexually harasses a co-worker, this is no less serious than a mediocre performer engaging in the same conduct.

  * Never use compromise punishments. They only assure that the wrong level of punishment will be administered.

  * The entire situation must always be considered. The exact same violation can be rewarded in one circumstance and result in termination in another. If an employee falls asleep at his desk because a crisis required him to work 24 hours straight, that probably does not violate the organization's values. Someone who sneaks way from his job in the middle of a crisis to grab a nap, however, is another case entirely.

  * Use the word "punishment" because that's what it is.

**The Process**

Step 1: Identify the behaviors that occurred.

Step 2: Identify the policy violation (e.g., insubordination, misconduct)

Step 3: Determine what the maximum level of punishment could be for that policy violation. It is usually termination.

Step 4: Collect background information (reasons, history, etc.).

Step 5: Determine the impact or potential impact to the organization if the policy violation happens again.

Step 6: Determine whether punishment needs to occur to prevent the violation from happening again. If so, decide on the level of punishment. You'll work your way back from the maximum level identified in Step 3.

Step 7: Write it up and take action.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * Organizational punishment is designed to immediately stop violations of policy.

  * Punishment has an extraordinarily powerful impact on talented and well-meaning employees. It should therefore be used with care and expertise.

 Chapter 15 Exercise
CHAPTER 16

### Hiring Great Employees

To the detriment of creating real value, the approaches of most organizations to hiring and promoting employees reflect art much more than they do science. In making hiring decisions, supervisors and HR representatives will frequently rely far too heavily on their belief in their ability to read people. But relying on such primitive skills is a desperately outdated way to assess qualifications for 21st-century work.

HIRING THE RIGHT PERSON IS CRITICAL

A powerful 1990 study by Hunter, Schmidt and Judiesch validated the importance of hiring the right people. Some of their more potent results were that in medium-complexity jobs (e.g. clerical jobs with some decision-making responsibilities) the top one percent of performers were 85 more productive than average performers. That means it takes almost two average performers to equal the work of one top performer. The performance variability between the top 1% of employees in medium-complexity jobs and those in the bottom 1% is a startling 12 to 1 difference. Sales jobs and high-complexity jobs showed even greater variations. If there were ever any doubt, their data clearly illustrate the value to organizations of hiring the right employees.

"RIGHT" IS NOT REALLY ABOUT COMPATIBILITY WITH YOU

An interviewer may believe that he has the ability to choose the right candidate based on a gut-level feeling. That belief, however, is erroneous. The basis and the impact of this misunderstanding have received substantial attention in organizational psychology. What has been found is that gut-level feelings do not reliably lead to good hiring decisions. Instead, such feelings are more likely to result in selections that are based on applicants' compatibility with the interviewer.

We humans are hardwired to choose individuals with whom we are compatible. While our feelings and instincts serve us relatively well in choosing companions, they can interfere with our ability to select qualified employees. Substantial research shows that our personal feelings about applicants' physical appearance, gender, race, age, college attended, etc. impair our ability to objectively assess their qualifications. We can all cite numerous examples of individuals who were hired and promoted for reasons clearly not based on their skills. In many of those cases, the hiring managers' subjective perceptions guided the selection process.

Since leaders tend to pride themselves on their instincts, it has always been nearly impossible to convince them that their gut-level feelings are far less effective than a well-structured employee selection process. Employee selection based on compatibility and affiliation has a long and tragic history in business, government and the military. Unfortunately, due to our strong desire for compatibility, the legacy will continue. However, organizations that can overcome this natural tendency will be well positioned to dominate those that can't.

HOW TO HIRE EMPLOYEES WHO CAN AND WILL PERFORM

Typically we want to determine an individual's ability, knowledge and skills relative to being able to perform the job for which they are applying. It's therefore useful to define each of these terms.

  * Ability is the capability to do something. People may not yet have the knowledge or skill, but they have the ability to learn and develop them.

  * Knowledge is the understanding of how something is supposed to be performed. Knowing how to do something does not necessarily translate into being able to do it.

  * Skill is having the technical skills to actually perform. A skill is not performance. A person can have skills, yet choose not to perform.

**The Process**

Step 1: Start with the performance appraisal. The appraisal outlines the job requirements and their relative importance.

Step 2: Use the task analyses you created to identify the knowledge, skills and resources employees need to perform this job with optimal effectiveness (see Chapter 11).

Step 3: Identify which knowledge and skills the new hire must have to perform as required. You will be testing to make sure that applicants have these skills.

Step 4: Since you may not be able to assess each applicant on all the knowledge and skills required to perform the job, select the ones that are most important for success and the ones that are hardest to teach.

Step 5: Identify how an applicant can best demonstrate that he has the knowledge and skills to perform as required.

Step 6: Develop the kind of test and/or questions that will enable you to determine that each applicant has the requisite knowledge and skills. Three methods will help you do this: behavioral interview questions, situational interview questions, and skills tests.

**Behavioral Interview Questions**

These questions require applicants to reference past challenges they've faced, how they addressed those challenges and the results achieved. It's often referred to as a CBO model: challenges, behaviors and outcomes. Behavioral interview questions are structured so that you can compare the requirements of the current job to the challenges the applicant faced and the behaviors he exhibited and the outcomes he achieved in his work history.

**Patterns, Patterns, Patterns**

A common type of interview question begins with, "tell me about a time when . . ." The question is often not a strong one because it requires applicants to identify only a one-time example of great performance. Even the most incompetent employees can point to a time when they performed well. Single events are virtually meaningless in determining knowledge, skills and abilities. I can remember a few years ago to a time when I just felt the rhythm of a great song and did a really cool dance step. The person who observed this as impressed and commented that she didn't realize I was such a good dancer. Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth. I am a horrible dancer (that's even an understatement) and just about never dance. I had a moment in time, but it was nothing more than that. If I danced another minute the illusion would have completely disappeared. The lesson is that patterns of performance must be identified before concluding that an applicant is qualified for the job, or that a person can dance.

Imagine that you're hiring a physician for the job we outlined in Chapter 8. The behavioral interview questions below are designed to assess applicants' ability to fulfill the following job requirement:

**Takes complete patient history, including events leading to current visit, prior illnesses and other relevant information.**

  * Describe the process you and your organization used in your last job to ensure that you received all the information you needed to successfully treat each patient.

  * Did you use a computer in the process? Describe the tasks you had to perform with the computer.

  * What information did you collect from every patient? Did you write the information down or did you use other methods?

  * For each item on this list, please describe the method you would normally use to collect the information.

  * What kinds of patients created the biggest challenges to getting correct information?

  * Outline the approach you took to address these challenges.

  * Did you ever have to collect information from patients who did not speak English? How did you do this? Please provide me specific examples.

  * In the course of your career, what has been some of the damage you saw created by not having complete, accurate and timely information?

  * What are some of the things that you have done to avoid such occurrences?

The preceding questions are just a sample of what could be asked. There are, of course, many more possible questions. An applicant's answers to a series of questions such as these provide robust and diverse information for making good hiring decisions. You will find significant variation in the quality of responses to a battery of questions such as these and that is just what you want.

**Situational Interview Questions**

These questions are similar to behavioral interview questions. They do not, however, reference past performance. Instead, they ask applicants to describe how they would handle specific situations that are likely to occur. Situational interview questions are valuable when applicants are unlikely to have experienced what they will experience on the job for which they are applying. The strength of situational interview questions is that they allow us to see if applicants have the knowledge to handle situations that are likely to arise. Therefore, they are not as powerful as behavioral interview questions.

I'll once again use my own experience to illustrate the limitations of situational interview questions. A number of years ago, in my younger days, I applied for a supervisory position in an organization that provided behavioral interventions for adults with psychological challenges such as autism. In my interview I was asked a question as to what I would do if I saw a resident banging his head on the concrete floor. Never having experienced this before, as I'd never worked field, I took a moment to think and provided what appeared to be a really good answer - one that showed I'd be in command of the situation. However, the reality if I would have been faced with the situation was that I would have run out the room screaming in the hopes of someone competent taking over. Fortunately for all, the job went to a woman with experience and expertise who had handled such situations before. Unlike me, she didn't have to speculate as to how she'd do.

The following battery of situational questions is for the same performance requirement assessed through behavioral questions in the last section. You should see the limitations of situational questions when compared to behavioral ones; they don't have the advantage of being able to dig into experience. Once again, the performance requirement is:

**Takes complete patient history, including events leading to current visit, prior illnesses and other relevant information.**

  * Can you describe what you believe to be the ideal process for collecting all the information needed to successfully treat a patient?

  * If you had to use a computer, would you be able to do so?

  * What information needs to be collected from every patient? What is the best way capture this information?

  * I'm going to give you a list of the kinds of information we collect. For each item, describe the method you would use to collect the information.

  * Describe how you would collect information from patients who are in too much pain to speak. How about from patients who can't speak English? How about from very young children?

  * What damage do you think can be done by not having complete, accurate and timely information?

  * What are some of the things that you believe you can do to avoid such occurrences?

**Skills Tests**

A skills test requires applicants to demonstrate their job skills. Like good interview questions, a skills test should closely reflect the skills required for the job. For our physician job, we might give the applicant a neurological reflex hammer and ask him to demonstrate his skills in using this diagnostic instrument.

Questions and tests should be difficult enough so that you can differentiate among great, good and mediocre qualifications. If a job requirement can be learned in a day or two on the job, it usually does not make sense to test for that knowledge or skill.

**Process (continued)**

Step 7: It's time to use the selection process you developed. Take the first five or ten minutes to describe the organization, the work environment, and then the job itself.

Step 8: Really dig into each applicant's resume. Get as much information about his or her background as you possibly can. You are entitled to know why an applicant left prior jobs. Don't hesitate to ask what "personal reasons" means when it is indicated as the reason for leaving a job. Use probing questions throughout the interview, especially when going through the resume. There is a wealth of information to be had about what applicants did and how well they did it.

Step 9: Look for indicators of motivation. There is a lot of information that will provide insight into how motivated applicants are: Have they worked long hours regularly? Did they ever work full-time and also go to school? Did they have good grades? Did they travel far for a job? Will this job pay more than their last job? Those are just a few of many indicators that can help you determine if an applicant is motivated to perform well.

Step 10: Take good notes, but keep them short and descriptive. You don't want to make applicants feel unnecessarily uncomfortable by keeping your head down, writing away. Summarize your notes after the interview. It's sometimes a good idea to wait a day before doing this. It gives you more time to think about the applicant's answers. After you summarize your notes, destroy them. Once you have turned those notes into summaries, they have no more use. You or others may misinterpret them in the future.

Step 11: Compare the strengths and weaknesses of each applicant. Have reference/background checks done on the applicants that you are seriously considering.

Step 12: Hire the right candidate for the job. Pay the new employee based on market value. Do not structure a starting salary based on the applicant's prior wages. Such an approach seems logical, but it has a disparate impact on females and minorities.

Advanced Techniques

**Intelligence Testing**

Research has shown that intelligence is the best predictor of job success. There are a number of tests on the market that provide measures of intelligence, some of which are useful in making hiring decisions. Although organizations may find intelligence testing useful, there are psychometric and legal issues to consider. Validity and reliability are two of the most prominent psychometric issues. Legal issues are, perhaps, of even greater concern in employment testing. The use of intelligence tests could unfairly, even illegally, discriminate against some groups.

**Personality Testing**

Despite the appeal of gaining insight into applicants' personalities, the value of personality tests is limited in the employee selection process. Personality is important to job success, but defining and measuring personality is very difficult. Another issue is that the constraints of some jobs and work environments can severely limit the impact of personality.

If your organization does choose to use cognitive ability or personality tests, you should consult Tests in Print and The EEOC Uniform Guidelines to Employee Selection as you begin your search for the right test. It would then be wise to engage someone with an advanced degree in organizational or industrial psychology to conduct research and make recommendations.

**Job and Organization Fit**

Regardless of applicants' knowledge, skills, talents and personality, they still need to be a good fit for the job and the organization. Job fit is a comparison of the characteristics of the job with the characteristics of each applicant. Organizational fit compares the characteristics of each applicant with the organization's personality.

Identifying the characteristics of a job and, even more so, the personality of the organization are important and revealing exercises. They require systematic, honest and tenacious approaches to ensure that honest views, rather than wishful thinking, drive the exploration. The information derived from such exercises can help organizations identify applicants who will thrive and those who will not.

CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

  * Humans have potent instincts for selecting companions, but must overcome these instincts when it comes to hiring employees. A powerful and practical employee selection process that uses behavioral interview questions, situational interview questions and skills assessments is the best way for an organization to do this.

 Chapter 16 Exercise

### FINAL THOUGHTS

As the examples in this book have shown, merely looking like a leader does not a leader make. We have gone far too long on the assumption that leaders are qualified for the job merely because they happen to be in a leadership position. There is little evidence to support this assumption. On the contrary, both history and current events suggest that the opposite is true.

One of the lesser known, but most successful of all 20th-century CEOs was Darwin Smith, Chairman and CEO of Kimberly Clark Corporation from 1971 to 1991. When reflecting upon the key to his great success, he said, "I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job." This humble perspective is, perhaps, the most useful one that all modern leaders can hold. Jim Collins provides additional insight into this great business leader and many others in Good to Great, one this text's recommended resources.

REAL SUPERVISION

The solutions outlined in this book are based on universal principles of performance that have been around for as long as humans have inhabited this planet. They also have been avoided and ignored by far too many for far too long. If you want to be truly great at supervision, you will achieve that goal by learning and applying what is outlined in this book. Just like being a good person, it takes ongoing practice to be a good supervisor. You'll have bad days and you'll make lots of mistakes. Just stay focused and you'll keep getting stronger and wiser. What makes for great supervision will not change next year, next century, or ever. So I urge you to avoid "flavor of the month" approaches and, instead, learn and apply the knowledge, skills and methods of real supervision. Those who you lead deserve nothing less.

The remainder of this book will provide you with practical definitions of management terms, recommended readings and, of course, an index. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of journey. I wish you all the best as you and your organization learn and apply _The Supervision Solution_.

###

I hope you'll continue your journey by visiting thesupervisionsolution.com. There you'll find more information, resources and a place to have your questions answered. And, as usual, it's all free. So bring your colleagues, friends and family along and perhaps together we'll transform the practice of supervision.

Feel free to email me at john@realsupervision.com.

### DEFINITIONS

**Ability** : the capability to perform.

**Balanced Scorecard** : an organizational leadership system that manages performance along four dimensions: financial performance, customer performance, business process performance and employee performance.

**Behavior** : the observable actions of a living organism.

**Behavioral interview questions** : questions that test applicants on how they have applied their knowledge and skills in past situations.

**Cost-effectiveness** : the balance between using resources and the value of performance..

**Costs** : resources that are used to achieve something of value.

**Effectiveness** : performance that is of value.

**Emotion** : a feeling, often in response to environmental stimuli.

**Extinction** : a decrease in the frequency of behavior because there is no associated consequence.

**Fact file** : a log created by a supervisor to remember employee performances. That information is used to generate a performance appraisal.

**GIADA** : the universal problem-solving method: goal, information, analysis, decision and action.

**Goal** : a desired outcome.

**Groupthink** : when members of a group avoid conflict by withholding viewpoints that are contrary to that of the group.

**Knowledge** : the understanding of how something is supposed to be performed.

**Leader** : someone that people follow.

**Leadership** : the quality of a leader's work.

**Leadership system** : a uniform set of skills, tools and methods by which the leaders of an organization drive performance.

**Manage** : the cost-effective use of resources.

**Manager** : a person who works in management. It is also a job title.

**Negative reinforcement** : an increase in the frequency of behavior due to the avoidance of something undesirable.

**Objective** : a milestone on the road to the goal. It must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-framed.

**Operations** : the internal workings of the organization that drive strategy.

**Organization** : a social entity that is designed to achieve goals, cost-effectively use resources and provide value to its stakeholders.

**Outcome** : the result of something. It often follows an action or set of actions.

**Performance achievement plan (PAP)** : a written plan to move a component of required job performance from an unacceptable level to an acceptable one.

**Performance analysis** : an investigatory process to determine the cause of performance problems, their impact and the most cost-effective solution.

**Performance** : work behaviors and outcomes.

**Performance appraisal** : a measure of past behaviors and outcomes.

**Personality** : the psychological character and traits of a person.

**Policies** : the rules by which members of the organization are required to abide.

**Positive reinforcement** : an increase in the frequency of behavior due receiving something of value.

**Punishment** : a decrease in the frequency of behavior due to its association with something undesirable.

**Situational interview questions** : questions that test applicants based upon situations that may occur on the job.

**Skill** : the actual ability to perform an activity or task.

**Stakeholders** : those who have a vested interest in the performance of an organization. They include shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees, the community, etc.

**Strategy** : the competitive decisions and actions to achieve a desired position.

**Supervision** : the management of employee performance.

**Supervisor** : a person charged with the responsibility of managing the performance of others.

**Task analysis** : a diagram that shows the sequence of steps necessary to perform a task. It typically also includes the knowledge, skills and resources needed for each step.

**Trait** : a psychological or physical characteristic.

**Value** : the worth or importance of something.

### SUGGESTED RESOURCES

Although the value of each resource provided here is directly relevant to the chapter under which it is listed, most all of the resources have applicability to a number of concepts discussed in this book.
Chapter 1: The Myth and the Truth of Leadership

Bossidy, L., Charan, R. (2002). _Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done_. New York: Crown Business.

Collins, J. (2001). _Good to Great_. New York: HarperCollins.

Collins, J., Porras, J. (1994). _Built to Last_. New York: HarperBusiness.

Drucker, P. (1973). _Management: Tasks, Responsibilities_ , Practices. New York: HarperCollins.

Holton, B. (1999). _Leadership Lessons of Robert E. Lee_. New York: Gramercy.
Chapter 2: The Measures of Leadership

,,,,,,,

Chapter 3: Leadership as a System

Drucker, P. (1998). _On the Profession of Management._ Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Books.

Ragone, N. (2005). _Essential American Government:_ Massachusetts: F+W Publications.

Roberts, J. (1993). _History of the World_. New York: Oxford University Press.
Chapter 4: The Organization's Leadership System

Kaplan, R., Norton, D. (2005). "The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance." _Harvard Business Review, Jul, 172-180_.

Kaplan, R., Norton, D. (2000). _The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment_ _: Massachusetts_ : Harvard Business School Press.

Kaplan, R., Norton, D. (1996). _Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action_. Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press.
Chapter 5: Business Leaders Manage Performance

Anthony J. Rucci, Steven P. Kirn, and Richard T. Quinn. (1998). "The Employee-Customer-Profit Chain at Sears." _Harvard Business Review Jan, 82-97_.

Goden, S. (1999). Permission Marketing. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Dolan, R., Dobscha, S., Fournier, S., Moon, Y., Mick, D., Rangan, V. (2002). _Marketing Strategy: Business Fundamentals from Harvard School Publishing_. Massachusetts: Harvard School Publishing.

Porter, M. (1998). _On Competition_. Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press Book.
Chapter 6: Great Leadership Changes Situations

Immaculee, I. (2006). _Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust_. California: Hay House.

Kotter, J. (2007). "Leading Change: Why Transformational Efforts Fail." _Harvard Business Review. Jan, 96-102._

Beer, M., Eisenstat, R., Spector, B. (1990). "Why Change Programs Don't Produce Change." _Harvard Business Review, 68(6), 158-166._

Pascale, R., Sternin, J. (2005). "Your Company's Secret Change Agents." _Harvard Business Review. May, 72-81._

Samuelson, R. (1988). "Status Quo Bias in Decision Making." _Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Mar, 7-59._

Zimbardo, P., (2007). _The Lucifer Effect_. New York: Random House Publishing.
Chapter 7: The Universe's Problem-solving Method: GIADA

Chet Richards, C. (2004). _Certain to Win_. Pennsylvania: Xlibris Corporation.

Locke, E., Latham, G. (1984). _Goal Setting: A Motivational Technique That Works!_ New York: Prentice Hall.

Chapter 8: The Best Possible Performance Appraisal

Campbell, J. Dunnette, M., Arvey, R., Hellerviork, L. (1973). "The Development and Evaluation of Behaviorally Based Rating Scales." _Journal of Applied Psychology_ , 57, 15-22.

Feldman, J. (1981). "Beyond Attribution Theory: Cognitive Processes in Performance Appraisal." _Journal of Applied Psychology, 55, 127-148._

Flanagan, J. (1954). "The Critical Incident Technique." _Psychological Bulletin, 51, 327-358_.

Heilman, M. and Stopeck, M. (1985). "Being Attractive, Advantage Or Disadvantage? Performance Based Evaluations and Recommended Personnel Actions as a Function of Appearance, Sex and Job Type." _Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35, 202-215_.

Howard, P., Howard, J. (2001). _The Owners Manual for Personality at Work_. Texas: Bard Press.

Latham, G., Wexley, K. (1977). "Behavioral observation scales for performance appraisal purposes." _Personnel Psychology, 30, 255-268_.

Mager, R. (1997). _Making Instruction Work._ Georgia: The Center for Effective Performance.

Morrow, P., McElroy J., Stamper B., Wilson, M. (1990). "The Effects of Physical Attractiveness and Other. Demographic Characteristics on Promotion Decisions." _Journal of Management, 16, 723-736._
Chapter 9: The Value of Job Performance

Huselid, M., Beatty, R., Becker, B. (2005). "A Players or A Positions? The Strategic Logic of Workforce Management." _Harvard Business Review, Dec, 110-117._

Brockbank, W., Ulrich, D. (2005). _The HR Value Proposition. Massachusetts_ : Harvard Business School Publishing.

Chapter 10: Providing Employees with What They Need to Perform

Alexrod, A. (1999). _Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Warfare_. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

May, G., Kahnweiler, W. (2000). "The Effect of a Mastery Practice Design on Learning and Transfer in Behavior Modeling Training." _Personnel Psychology, 53(2), 353-373_.

Wagner, S., Parker, C., and Christiansen, N. (2003). "Employees That Think and Act Like Owners: Effects of Ownership Beliefs and Behaviors on Organizational Effectiveness." _Personnel Psychology, 56(4), 847-871._
Chapter 11: Documenting Performance

Howard, P. (2000). _The Owner's Manual for the Brain._ Texas: Bard Press.

Chapter 12: Motivated Employees Do Not Have To Be Motivated

Asch, S. (1955). "Opinions and Social Pressure." _Scientific American, 193(5), 31-35_.

Komaki J, Waddell W., Pierce, M. (1977). "The Applied Behavior Analysis approach and individual employee: Improving performance in two small businesses." _Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 19, 337-352._

Latham, G. (2001). "The importance of understanding and changing employee outcome expectancies for gaining commitment to an organizational goal." _Personnel Psychology, 54(3), 707-716._

Luthans F, Stajkovic A. (2000). "Provide recognition for performance improvement." _Academy of Management Executive, 13, 40-57._

Milgram, S. (1963). "Behavioral Study of Obedience." _Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371–378._

Organ, D., Bateman, T. (1991). _Organizational Behavior_. Illinois: Richard Irwin.
Chapter 13: Analyzing Job Performance Problems

Mager, R., Pipe, P. (1997). _Analyzing Performance Problems_. Georgia: Center for Effective Performance.

Chapter 14: Resolving Job Performance Problems

Solso, R. (1995). _Cognitive Psychology_. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.
Chapter 15: Punishment

Baron-Cohen, S. (1991). "Precursors to a theory of mind: Understanding attention in others." _In A. Whiten, Ed., Natural Theories of Mind: Evolution, Development, and Simulation of Everyday Mind-reading (233-251)._ Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell.

Scheff, T. "Shame in Self and Society." _http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/scheff/3.html_.

Chapter 16: Hiring Employees that Provide Needed Value

Huffcutt, A., Weekley, J., Wiesner, W., Degroot, T., Jones, C. (2001). "Comparison of Situational and Behavior Description Interview Questions for Higher-Level Positions" _Personnel Psychology 54(3), 619–644._

Hunter, J., Schmidt, F., Judiesch, M. (1990). "Individual Differences in Output Variability as a Function of Job Complexity." _Journal of Applied Psychology, 75(1), 28-42._

Kristof-Brown, A., Zimmerman, R., Johnson, E. (2005). "Consequences of Individuals' Fit at Work: A Meta-Analysis of Person-Job, Person-Organization, Person-Group, and Person-Supervisor Fit." _Personnel Psychology, 58(2), 281-342._

Tziner, A., Joanis, C., Murphy, K. (2000). "A Comparison of Three Methods of Performance Appraisal with Regard to Goal Properties, Goal Perception, and Ratee Satisfaction." _Group & Organization Management, 25(2), 175-190._

Additional Resources

Bolman, L., Deal, T. (1997). _Reframing Organizations_. California: Jossey-Bass.

Coram, R. (2002). _The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War_. New York: Little Brown.

Latham, G. (2007). "A speculative perspective on the transfer of behavioral science findings to the workplace: 'The times they are a-changin'." _Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1027-1032._

Rynes, S. (2007) "Let's create a tipping point: What academics and practitioners can do, alone and together." _Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1046-1054._

Stalk, G, Lachenauer, R. (2004). _Hardball: Are you Playing to Win?_ Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press.

Zhisui, L. (1994). _The Private Life of Chairman Mao._ New York, Random House.

### ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John is the Executive Director of The U.S. Executive Service Corp. He has been an innovative leader in the field of Human Resources for 25 years. He has written numerous articles on leadership and is the developer of an integrated system of leadership based on the Balanced Scorecard. His undergraduate degree in Psychology is from SUNY Stony Brook and his Master's Degree is in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. John works and lives in North Carolina.

You can email John at john@realsupervision.com.

