Our political process is a mess. I don’t think we’ve been this divided since the Civil War. Compromise has become a dirty word. Many are unwilling to read or listen to opinions unlike their own. Healthy debate seems a thing of the past. And it’s all because politicians, the parties, and people in general have staked their identities to alternatives, not to objectives. Let me explain what I mean. Alternatives are choices. Options. Routes to a destination. Means of achieving an end. Here are some examples: No new taxes Tax the rich Defund Planned Parenthood Medicare for all Small government Big government My right to arm myself as I desire is sacrosanct You all know people wedded to these alternatives. As a matter of fact, these have all become objectives in the minds of many. But they aren’t objectives. They are all alternatives.
In case you missed my viral posts on Forbes in the past month: 8 Secrets Smart People Know About Time Management 10 Reasons Your Employee Engagement Program Is Hurting Your Company 9 Reasons You And Your Employees Can’t Do 40 Hours Of Work In 40 Hours – And What To Do About It The first one has collected over 45,000 views. Don’t miss it!
The Power of Clarity that galvanizes commitment and drives high performance is built on three pillars. Clarity of Purpose If you want to maximize productivity, commitment, and results, everyone needs to know what they are trying to accomplish and why. You may think you’ve got this covered once you’ve established goals and priorities. You haven’t. First, you need to avoid the trap of too many priorities, which is a super common problem. Too many priorities means no priorities. If you have 2-3 priorities, you will accomplish 2-3 things. If you have 4-10 priorities, you will accomplish 1-2 things. If you have more than 10 priorities, you will accomplish nothing. I read this somewhere, don’t remember where, but I know it is true because it applies to me and everyone I know. At any given moment, you need to focus on one task. As your list grows, you spend more and more time looking at the list, shuffling items, trying to decide which to do next, playing games with yourself like adding things you’ve already accomplished so you can check them off, and not accomplishing anything that counts. Focus is absolutely critical. You and your employees must pare those lists down.
If any of the following sound like your performance management system, you aren’t improving performance. You may think you are, but you aren’t. 1. Employees are crushed if they aren’t “Truly Outstanding” or at least “Exceptional.” In an era where “all the children are above average,” especially in companies with outstanding employees, how do you accomplish anything by putting people in boxes that do nothing but confirm their preconceptions or shatter their illusions? And why do you want to put managers in a position where those are their choices? 2. The main take away is a rating and a salary change.
I used to think I could do most everything best by myself. I was faster, smarter, more vested, and more familiar with the issue at hand. I knew exactly what needed to be done. Working with others just slowed me down. When I was a software engineer decades ago, there was no doubt this was true. I asked questions until I had the requirements nailed down in detail. I knew my code inside and out. I kept track of hundreds of details and test scenarios in my head and on scraps of paper. When I went it alone, I produced bug-free code. To the best of my knowledge, I never left a bug for the customer to find. When I became a manager, I continued to do “what got me there.” I asked questions and I learned. Then, just as I did with software, I thought things through with great care and wrote up the definitive solution or explanation that I knew would end all related problems and discussions. It didn’t work. And it took me quite a while to figure out why. The reason it didn’t work all boils down to one thing: You can’t control the behavior of others.
Stacking firewood this weekend brought out a bit of the craftsmen in me. Stability was somewhat important, of course. We didn’t want it to topple over. Finishing was most important. Beauty and consistency were nowhere on the list. Nonetheless, I faced ample temptation to build a fabulous wood pile! It must be human nature – pride in workmanship, a little aesthetic compulsion, the intrinsic reward of learning how to do something better, finding a challenge to combat the tedium, … Who hasn’t done a better job than necessary on some task at some point? And who hasn’t been proud of delivering a better than expected result? Don’t we applaud excellence at every turn? Well, yes, until we decide it is eroding profits! Companies everywhere struggle with gold-plating tendencies – producing quality and features the exceed the requirements. Whether your employees are:
“How will we know when we are done?” When I meet prospective clients, this question immediately follows those focused on objectives. I want to know exactly what my clients hope to accomplish and then I need to be sure we are in complete agreement as to what we would see if we were making progress and how we would know we were finished. Since I don’t simply deliver prepackaged content and since I am totally outcome focused, I can’t operate any other way. What I don’t understand is why anyone would want to operate any other way. When you launch a big employee engagement program, how will you know when you are done? And don’t tell me you will survey all employees, scrutinize the results, and identify needed changes. Those are tasks and inputs, not outcomes. Will attrition decrease? Will employees volunteer for greater responsibility or encourage their friends to join the company? Will you be called in to fewer low level decisions? What would constitute real evidence that you have engaged your employees?
This New York Post article made me shiver. As extreme as this seems, let’s see what lessons might apply to your business! For this school, the goal is clearly to graduate, not to learn. Do you have objectives that have morphed into “check-it-off” milestones that add no real value to the organization’s real priorities? Do you strive for 100% procedural compliance instead of results? Forms filled out properly? On time submissions? Signed forms? Perfect attendance? Meetings that end on time? Whatever you are measuring, are you sure it contributes to your most critical goals such as revenue, profits, and customer loyalty? Do you reward “seat time” by paying people for sticking around instead of producing? How is that any different from graduating students just because they watch enough videos? Does your performance management system rate most everyone as “above average,” if not “exceptional”? Sounds a lot like this student who earned an 85 in chemistry: the program “made it less challenging and more understandable. We watched a video, answer a few questions, and took an online quiz/test. It was simple, and reasonable.”
I’m frequently asked about the difference between objectives and goals. My response: Who cares! This is not a distinction worthy of discussion. Here is why: Do you know what you are trying to accomplish? Is your definition of success sufficiently clear and specific so it will be obvious when you have achieved it? Do you have a reasonable deadline from which to work backward in scheduling your work? Are you committed to success, including knowing what is of lesser importance and may need to be put aside in order to succeed? If yes to all four, you are in good shape whether you think you have goals, objectives, both, or neither. If not, you won’t get anywhere regardless of whether you think you have goals, objectives, both, or neither. Debating the difference between goals and objectives is as useless as most goals and objectives because most goals and objectives don’t meet these four criteria.
A distress call from my daughter involved a strange situation at work. Naturally, I wanted to help but it was tough to get a word in edgewise. When I finally found an opening to ask a few questions, they were clearly unwelcome. For about the ten thousandth time, I had confused venting with a request for help. I wish she would just tell me up front what role she wants me to take! This is a common occurrence with children, partners, and friends and it usually leads to frustration, if not hard feelings. A similar scenario plays out in the working world every single minute of every single day. The flavor is a little different, the root cause the same, and the cost potentially far higher.