Keys To Great Management

What great managers do? How do they do it? How do great managers release the potential energy of their people? How do they select a person, set expectations, motivate and develop each and every one of their employees? When you look through the eyes of great managers you realize that each element ever so slightly, but so significantly, misses the mark. Conventional wisdom encourages you to:

• Select a person based on his experience, intelligence and determination.
• Set expectations by defining the right steps.
• Motivate the person by helping him identify and overcome his weaknesses.
• Develop the person by helping him learn and get promoted.

From the outside it seems to be nothing wrong with this advice. Indeed, many managers and many companies follow it seriously. But all of it misses. You cannot build a great team simply by selecting people based on their experience, intelligence and determination. Defining the right steps and fixing people's weaknesses are not the most effective ways to generate sustained performance. And preparing someone for the next rung on the ladder completely misses the essence of "development."

Remember the revolutionary insight, common to great managers:

• People don't change that much.
• Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out.
• Try to draw out what was left in.
• That is hard enough.

If you apply their insight to the core activities of the catalyst role, this is what you see:

• When selecting someone, they select for talent, but not simply experience, intelligence, or determination.
• When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes but not the right steps.
• When motivating someone, they focus on strengths but not on his weaknesses.
• When developing someone, they help him find the right fit but not simply the next rung on the ladder.