Start by growing great employees
Interview by Nettie Hartsock
This interview features Erika Andersen, Founder of Proteus International -- www.proteus-international.com and author of the much-lauded "Growing Great Employees."
Since 1980, Erika Andersen has become known for her ability to create learning solutions uniquely tailored to her clients' challenges, goals, and culture. Some of the clients for whom she has designed programs include PepsiCo, MTV Networks, Simon and Schuster, Reader's Digest, Taco Bell, and Lifetime Television.
Much of Erika's recent work has focused on organizational visioning and development, executive coaching, and collaborative change and learning. In these capacities, she has served as consultant and advisor to the CEOs and top executives of a number of corporations, including Coors Brewing Company, Regeneration Technologies, Inc., the French Culinary Institute, Bravo Networks, Union Square Hospitality Group, Emerson College, and Comedy Central.
It Starts by Growing Great Employees:
Nettie: Tell us about your work briefly and what inspires you in terms of "growing great employees."
Erika: I'm the founding partner of a company called Proteus International. We focus on helping our clients -- organizations and individuals -- clarify and then move toward their hoped-for future. We work in three ways to do that: the first is through "strengthening leaders," which includes doing one-on-one executive coaching, as well as working with senior teams to support them in being as effective as possible. Our second practice area is "clarifying vision and strategy" -- we help our client organizations create an accurate picture of their current state, then envision the future they want to create for themselves as an organization, look at what's in their way, and then craft strategies and tactics for getting there. In our third area -- "building skills and knowledge" -- we offer learning programs to support our clients in making sure that their employees are capable of creating the kind of organization they envision.
Through the years, in working with many different organizations -- different sizes, industries, places in their growth cycles -- I've noticed over and over that, while companies say things like "our people are critical to our success," they don't actually behave like that. I've seen especially that managers -- even senior managers -- are most often not provided with the skills and understanding to manage well; and that they, their employees, and the organization all suffer as a result. I've realized that helping our clients to "grow great employees," by offering needed skills and understanding to managers and leaders, could yield enormous benefit -- both in terms of better business results and more enjoyment and satisfaction in the workplace.
Nettie: Why is it so vital for companies to learn how to grow great employees, and can you give an example of a company that has done this well and the resultant benefits?
Erika: People really are critical to a company's success -- it's not just the politically correct sentiment. Think about it: if your company is in an industry where success depends on service, who delivers that service? If your company's success depends on product, who makes, markets and sells that product? And if your company's success depends on having the latest technology or the best creative ideas -- whose thinking is going to keep you on the cutting edge? It always comes down to people. And so, if you don't have managers who are capable of finding, hiring, and developing the great employees, who will be the heart of your competitive advantage, you're in trouble!
One of our client companies, Union Square Hospitality Group, is a wonderful example of what happens when you do this well. They have a set of core principles called Enlightened Hospitality, and they focus on finding and developing managers who work according to these principles -- and then supporting them to hire, train and develop staff to do so, as well.
The results are quite impressive: USHG has grown from 1 to 15 food-related businesses over the past decade (including Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern, two of New York's favorite restaurants); they have the lowest staff turnover of any restaurant company in New York; and they have been invited by numerous partners to expand their restaurant and hospitality concepts around the world.
On Building Your Environment:
Nettie: What steps can a company take to create an environment that supports trust, engagement, and growth? Where does listening fit in?
Erika: Listening is the foundation of great management. I've never known a truly great manager and leader who was not also a skilled listener. In my experience, there's no better way to demonstrate respect and openness than by sincere and reasonably skillful listening.
For example, let's say an employee comes to you, the manager, with a problem. You can tell him you respect his point of view, and that you want to create an environment that supports trust, engagement, and growth. Lots of managers do this, and it's generally well-intended. And, most of the time, it has no impact whatsoever. The employee doesn't feel respected and trusted as a result of you telling him that you respect and trust him.
Contrast this with what happens if, instead, you simply listen carefully: suspend your judgments and advice for the moment, and really seek to understand the employee's situation, what she thinks and feels about it, how she's tried to resolve it. Right then, that employee is going to feel trusted and respected.
Of course, you need to follow listening with clear agreements, good delegation, consistent follow-through, etc. But listening well is almost always the best place to start if you're sincere about wanting to create a positive environment.
Nettie: Your work with Proteus is so diverse and wide in its reach. What do most successful companies have in common in terms of leadership?
Erika: We've found the core characteristics of good leaders are much the same across industries, from small companies to large, and even -- for the most part -- in different cultures. In fact, we've developed a leadership model, based on archetypes from folk tale themes found the world over. The six characteristics in our "chieftains" model are: Far-sighted, Passionate, Courageous, Wise, Generous and Trustworthy.
Here's a brief definition for each one. Far-sighted means being able to envision and articulate a positive and compelling future for the organization, and to do it in a way that invites others to work together with you to make it happen. Passionate is about depth of commitment: behaving so that others see and feel your unwavering commitment to the success of the endeavor and focus on the greater good (vs. being primarily focused on your own success). Courageous means not only courage in the traditional sense -- making tough decisions for the good of the organization -- but also having the courage to stretch; to do things that are personally difficult for you. Wise means reflecting on and learning from your experience, and sharing it with others in a way that strengthens them and helps them to grow. Generous means freely sharing important resources: time, knowledge, authority, credit, reward, praise, and opportunity. And Trustworthy means delivering on your commitments and being honorable -- telling the truth, admitting your mistakes, keeping confidences.
We've noticed that when leaders demonstrate all or most of these characteristics, people naturally give them permission to lead: it feels both safe and exciting to allow someone like this to be your leader.
Nettie: Why is it valuable for employers to be clear about what the company wants to achieve?
Erika: It's valuable for a lot of reasons. For one thing, most people like to feel that they're a part of something that's important to them and that's greater than them: they like to be part of a team, or group, or tribe. When this need isn't met at work, people tend to disengage -- they'll come to work, and do what's asked of them, but their hearts and minds are elsewhere. However, if an organization is clear about what it's trying to achieve and why, and lets people know that from day one, they can start to feel that "tribal" association, "This is MY company, and we're here to do ___."
Also, that clear statement becomes a powerful selection mechanism: people who are interested in achieving the stated goals of the organization are attracted to join, to stay, and to excel -- while those who don't resonate with those goals either won't want to work there, or, if they're already there, will eventually "select themselves out."
It's also important because people are better able to contribute to a result they understand. If employees know what the company is trying to achieve, and why, they're much more likely to be able to respond appropriately to changing circumstances; to come up with good and realistic new approaches; or to question efforts that don't move the company toward its stated goals.
On Changing Culture:
Nettie: How does a company go about changing its culture?
Erika: Wow, that's a big question. We have a process that we use, based on the tenets of a discipline called Social Marketing, to help companies shift their cultures. Here's the essence of it: Corporate culture consists of accepted behaviors and the beliefs and values that underlie and promote those behaviors. It's almost impossible to change values, and it's difficult to change beliefs. However, you can change people's behaviors, as long as behaving in the new ways isn't in conflict with their values and core beliefs, and if you can make the new behaviors easier, more rewarding and more "normal" than the old behaviors.
Here's an example of that. Let's say a company has just articulated a new vision for itself, one that will require that people perform at a much higher level of excellence than they've done in the past. Now, let's further say that an element of this current culture is that people really value their relationships, and they believe it's important to be nice to each other. One behavior that's resulted from this value and this belief is that managers don't give people tough feedback.
So, the senior leaders decide that it's essential to change this behavior in order to establish the high performance organization they envision: they realize it's essential for managers to be honest and direct with people about whether or not they're performing well.
First they need to check if this new behavior is in conflict with the existing values and beliefs. Is giving accurate performance feedback incompatible with having good relationships, or with being nice to each other? No. In fact, it could be argued that being honest with people about their strengths and weaknesses is, ultimately, a better basis for good relationships!
So, how would the company make that new behavior -- giving balanced performance feedback -- easier, more rewarding, and more normal for people? Well, they could make it easier by providing skill training to managers so that they actually knew how to do it reasonably well. They could make it more rewarding by, for instance, connecting managers' bonuses to their effectiveness in managing people's performance. And they could make it more "normal" by publicizing examples of respected people in the organization giving and receiving feedback and benefiting from it.
It's a simplistic example, but it gives you the "shape" of culture change: identifying key behaviors that need to be altered in order to shift the culture; making sure they're not in conflict with existing core values and beliefs in the culture; making those new behaviors easy, rewarding, and normal.
Nettie: If you could give one piece of advice to a company that's trying to clarify its vision and strategy, what would it be?
Erika: Make sure that the senior people have the will to follow through. There's nothing more demoralizing for people than spending the time and energy to create a common vision of the future, and agree on a path to get there, and then have the senior people drop the ball. Because when a company does this process, which we call Strategic Visioning, the senior leaders -- and especially the CEO or President -- have to be the "keepers of the flame." That is, they need to consistently support the effort needed to move toward the hoped-for future -- not only in their words, but also in their actions.
It takes far-sightedness, passion, courage, wisdom, generosity and trustworthiness to both support and require the members of an organization to behave in ways that will make that envisioned future a reality. In other words: strong leadership.
Nettie: What is the first question you ask any potential client in order to decide whether they'll be able to take advantage of what you have to offer?
Erika: The literal first question I almost invariably ask a potential client is, "What are you trying to accomplish?" In asking this question, then really listening deeply to whatever the person wants to say in response to it, I learn a lot about how the person thinks; how they're looking at their company's or department's current state; how strategically or tactically they're approaching their business; their attitude toward employees; what they think of as their key challenges; their curiosity and openness to new ideas and information; and how they view their job. And that allows me to know whether or not we could be helpful to them.
Nettie: And finally, what do you most wish companies would do differently relative to their employees?
Erika: I wish companies would make more of a distinction between good performers and poor performers. In too many companies, if you're doing a fantastic job, you don't get treated or rewarded that much differently from someone who's doing a lousy job. Especially at junior levels: the compensation tends to be exactly the same; and poor performers tend not to get fired, or even reprimanded, unless they do something really egregious. The result is that great performers get disheartened and stop trying, or go someplace else -- and poor performers just keep on being poor performers.
If companies would teach their managers to set clear parameters of success and hold people accountable for achieving them, and if performance management systems were better set up to truly reward individual success, it would be very different. Excellent employees would get appreciation, challenge, promotions, money, and autonomy (the things that most people find valuable), and would continue to benefit the company as they continued to develop and contribute their skills and talents. Poor performers would be given a clear understanding of how they were expected to improve, and, if they continued to perform poorly, they would be terminated.
Not only would it create much better business results, but it would go a long way to creating that environment of trust, engagement, and growth you asked about earlier.
Sometimes, people talk as though businesses have to make a choice: that they can either go for great results, or be supportive of the human beings that work for them. My strong belief -- as I'm sure you can tell by now -- is that businesses need to do both in order to succeed. Great businesses set the bar high -- envisioning and requiring great results -- and they support their good people by giving them the tools, the skills, the understanding and the trust they need in order to clear that bar with room to spare.
Nettie Hartsock helps individuals, authors, and companies focus on creating, conveying, and connecting their message to the world and creates actionable how-to-programs that establish a powerful base for attracting both blogger and journalists attention.
Nettie is a veteran e-business journalist and PR Marathoner. Her name can even be Googled with some notable results. Nettie has lived many more than nine lives as a journalist contributing regularly to leading online and offline publications including eWeek, PC Magazine, Software CEO, Publish, PDFZone, PlanetPDF and others.
She is highly regarded for her interviews with some of the most respected e-business and Internet visionaries including Dr. Peter Sealey, Andrew Goodman, Jon Nordmark, Zach Nelson, Dr. Larry Ponemon, Steve Rubel and Royal P. Farros.
Her e-book, Start the Press! has helped countless companies increase their media and customer exposure. Her PR seminars are highly lauded for both their content and humor.
Nettie is the Business Advisor for all things PR with her Professional PR blog for allbusiness.com, and she is also a very active and devoted business book journalist and publishing commentator as the Senior Blog Editor for Must Read Business Books blog with allbusiness.com.
Nettie is a highly recognized case study writer focusing on "storytelling" inclusive in the case studies and has written case studies for companies including NetSuite, Digital Railroad, NavTrak, Software CEO, and others.
She hails near Austin, Texas in the Hill Country where folks still wear larger-than-life hats, and some are still hunting for the elusive jackalope.
Nettie is also a nationally published essayist and short-story writer. In her years of interviewing, Nettie has been to the moon with Buzz Aldrin, visited "FutureNet" with Sally Richards, felt unbelievably under-designed interviewing usability guru Dr. Jakob Nielsen and even paddled down " Whiskey River " with Willie Nelson.
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