People Management: The Right People In the Right Place
It’s a given: for better business results, you have to put the right people in the right place.
Achieving this goal is not just a case of finding the most qualified employee and giving them the power to make key decisions. A top-down approach where the key stakeholder calls all the shots is not going to work. No, effective people management requires a new way of thinking about performance, accountability and teamwork. Your business will only be successful if everyone looks to improve every aspect of their work. And a vital part of this system of working comes down to commitment.
Competence, Confidence and Commitment
There’s a misconception that your most successful employees are the most competent. That’s why a lot of managers focus on experience as the most critical hiring factor. There’s a belief that the most qualified people will naturally have the competence to properly drive for continuous improvement. That these hires will lead by example. The reality is that for success in the workplace to happen, you can’t rely on competence alone. Think of it this way: someone may be capable but if they don’t have the drive to make high performance happen, they’re not actually competent.
True competence requires confidence, and in turn, confidence requires commitment. It follows therefore that lack of confidence is often down to a lack of commitment.
For example, a committed employee knows that it's their job to get things done. That they need to be ready to attack the opportunities around them, to face any obstacles as they pop up. They need to be willing and able to challenge themselves and their coworkers (in a respectful way) to make a measurable difference. They’re the type to ask for support when necessary but only after they’ve set out to find solutions on their own initiative.
This commitment creates courage - they go after any of the big problems holding the productivity back, or chase the left-field opportunities that many of their colleagues would be too insecure to consider. By way of comparison, it’s the same in relationships - if you’re truly committed, then you don’t let any obstacles get in the way, you won't let any difficulties shake your faith in the future that you envision.
That’s because having commitment can be boiled down to a simple question: whether you want something or not? If you truly want something, then you make it happen, nothing gets in the way and there’s no room for a lack of confidence. Employees who want to achieve are the most disciplined, and become the most competent.
Yes, the most successful employees are the most committed. In fact, a lot of employees with the most experience can easily be complacent. Whereas it’s the committed staff member that needs to be rewarded with growth opportunities and greater responsibility.
As the most engaged, the committed employees retain their jobs. Engaged employees are those who find passion and purpose at work, those who are more than three times as likely to stay with their employer than those who don’t. It makes sense that the most engaged, committed employee shows up every day: engagement reduces absenteeism. In fact, a Gallup study shows that highly engaged workplaces saw 41% fewer absentees.
It’s these committed individuals who will shape the teams that they work in. Who will make the most of existing opportunities, create new ones, and unite their teams with a positive mindset. It’s these individuals who will spearhead a new mindset for their organisation and contribute to ongoing operational excellence.
The saying goes that a bad apple spoils the bunch. Well, the reverse is also true.
Put the Right People in the Right Place for Better Cadence
Having the right people in the right place also impacts team-wide discipline. By rewarding the most committed employees, you allow them to set the standards by which the rest of the team performs by. Their discipline will in turn affect group-wide commitment. It will impact the existing workplace routines in place, and encourage the workforce to make improvements. Teams will be united around a common goal, with clear measures and accountabilities.
This is because having the right people in the right place creates better Cadence.
The idea of Cadence comes from running, long distance running to be exact. The premise is to get your Cadence (rate of step count) higher by taking shorter steps, taken more frequently. It reduces stress in the muscles so your legs can carry you further. The same principle can be applied to businesses. If you're all making small improvements and challenging yourselves with more frequency, the net effect is more dramatic. With the right people in the right place, Cadence is encouraged. And through their examples, it’s reinforced.
Better Cadence will help teams conduct routines with seamless precision. It will create a sense of morale where individuals will turn up and show up. If you let uncommitted people coast by, then Cadence will drop and the team will seek individual liberties over discipline. They’ll be doing the bare minimum to get the job done and continuous improvements will never happen. With better Cadence, your team will have the confidence to make everyday experiments to test improvements. They will have the commitment to embrace change (and any challenges that they bring) as part of their job.
The Right Place: Cadence Meets Mindset
Most companies struggle with leadership, management and operating systems. Lack of transparency means key people don’t get to see where the real issues are. Lack of accountability means issues don’t get dealt with in a timely manner or to the standard expected. Opportunities to develop people within their normal work gets missed. Many put structures in place to combat this, however most are too rigid, compliance orientated and more talk than action.
Cadence ensures that the right people are in the right place by defining an operating system built on a series of high frequency simple routines rather than rigid structures - this ensures that the right people are dealing with the right information and issues at the right time. When a workplace has better Cadence, individual members will naturally find their ‘right place.’ Now this doesn’t just mean a physical place - having staff members stationed in the correct areas is a given.. The fast pace keeps the positive tension and momentum of action. Getting things done when they should drives simplicity which creates greater clarity on what to focus on.
Cadence provides a faster feedback and support cycle. Issues get resolved at a better pace. People learn and develop faster. Overall the organisation performs at a higher level.
It’s important to note that workers are motivated by three main desires:
Autonomy - the desire to direct their own work.
Mastery - the desire to get better at something that matters to them.
Purpose - the desire to work in service of something larger than themselves.
With better Cadence, an employee has room to let those desires influence a better mindset, putting them in the optimal ‘place’. And with better Cadence, an employee can alter the type, scope, sequence, and number of tasks that make up their job more effectively. They are able to tweak their practices to make their overall work more engaging and meaningful to them. This makes for a more engaged and productive employee. They can modify the way they interpret tasks to be more productive but also craft their job by altering who they interact with at work, putting them in a position to receive essential feedback.
Feedback generates the appropriate support. Issues can get escalated and actions can be process confirmed. Variations in performance can be dealt with and positive tension/energy can be applied to things that matter most.
Listening Breeds Candid Feedback
Putting the right people in the right place is also reliant on strong people management skills. And there’s no such thing as effective people management without effective listening.
A Harvard Business Review survey reveals 58% of people say that they trust strangers more than their own boss. A huge part of management comes down to listening. If you can recognise a worker’s concerns and attentively listen to their frustrations, you’re going to encourage honesty and help avoid future resentments. You can also identify which workers are creating problems to justify a bad attitude or work ethic. Which employees are quick to make excuses. It’ll become crystal clear that these are not the employees who should be trusted with the most impactful job roles.
We tend to think that good listening is something that happens at the end of a conversation. That if someone has listened well, then they'll be able to relay the information back to you once you’ve finished speaking. Effective listening is actually active listening. Management strategies need to take this into account.
91% of employees say that their management lacks communication skills, with 1 in 3 employees stating that they do not actually trust their employers.
Management should show that they’re attentive to an employee's concerns. They should make eye contact, take notes, and wait for the other person to finish before talking.
It makes sense that 70% of employees say that motivation would improve if they were thanked more often. It’s also important to deliver regular feedback: 43% of engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week.
This also allows for candour. When employees are able to receive feedback, they’re encouraged to give it in a constructive, honest way. In turn, they’re able to work towards continuous improvement without fear of consequence. It also shows that they consider the need to find a solution to a workplace problem as more important than their own insecurities and fears. That they realise team success is more important than Burt.
When applied to the wider team, employees who give candid feedback allow their colleagues to share their insights, realising their value. They are able to challenge one another with good intent. These people are willing to collaborate around ideas, transform them into actions and seek out solutions.
With commitment comes better Cadence. With candid feedback comes solution-led thinking. With all things in place, comes operational excellence.
By having a united workforce, grouped behind a unified vision, and led by the right people in the right place, you are ready to become a high performance workplace.
