Best Fit Model – PeopleFit’s Capability Assessment Triangle

I will propose adding a third qualifier to the two most common sets of qualifiers:

Can
1.? Knowledge, skills, experience, education – what can I do because I’ve done it before?

Will
2.? Values, preferences?- what will I do because I find it appealing?

The Missing Link
Area number three, problem solving capability, answers the question that behavioral based interviewing misses – what could I do if I had aforementioned items number 1 and 2?? It has to do with one’s potential capability.

Could
3.? Problem solving capability (information processing)?- what could I do because my mental bandwidth can contain it?

Coming Next?
What does problem solving capability look like by level and how does that align with work levels?

I’m?OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Systems Drive Behavior
However, in the end, their righting single incidents or donating toward a personal financial burden of an employee simply perpetuates the idea that good intentions with a handful of feel-good outcomes makes everything right.? Systems drive behavior!? If you don’t tend to the dysfunctional systems, the dysfunctional behaviors will continue.

Managers Are Accountable for the Output of Their Employees
In the show, when these CEOs come upon a manager who is failing in his/her managerial leadership duties, the CEO usurps the authority of their accountable manager by taking action directly with the manager.? To add to that, the action takes the form of “be nice now”, and as the camera fades over grateful smiles and joyful tears, everyone appears to live happily ever after.??

Creating an Accountability Leadership Culture
A clear, requisite framework of accountabilities and authorities would do more for these workplaces than all the good intentions and fatherly advice we see.

Managers-Once-Removed Should Be Accountable to Identify Talent
The CEOs often identify promising young talent, and at least once, a Training Future Leaders program is set up, but it begs the question, who is accountable for identifying talent and what is it that we are looking for?? And is it all about training?

A System for Talent Assessment and Management
An understanding of work levels could create a science-based foundation for fair and consistent talent assessment and management system.

Call Me!
So I’m sending a shout out to Larry O’Donnell of Waste Management, Coby Brooks of Hooters, Joe DePinto of 7-Eleven, and Dave Rife of White Castle:?? You’re OK.? Your employees are OK.? Let’s fix the system!? It’s clear you have both a head and a heart.? Let’s put them to use toward designing systems!

Executive Leadership Defined
Creating and tending to the system is executive level work.? Through this, you ensure your operational organization is designed correctly and a leadership system is in place to ensure employees have what they need.? PeopleFit can provide you a framework from which you can make informed and intentional decisions in the areas of organizational structure, talent management and managerial leadership systems.

Three Areas of Influence over Employee Performance

1. The first is the person’s capability profile which is composed of
a) knowledge, skills and experience,
b) values, temperament and inhibitors, as well as
c) current cognitive capacity.

2. The second is the employee’s manager’s capability profile, composed of the aforementioned items.

3. The third is the system!? i.e. Organizational processes, policies, structure or lack thereof.

Measuring Performance Only Tells a Piece of the Story
This is why we must judge employee effectiveness in light of circumstances.? Measuring performance only is patently unfair, as it never tells the whole story.? When you measure performance, you are also measuring the system within which the employee is working.? Designing the system is executive level work.?

Engage the System to Engage the Employees
Don’t forget.? Without fairness, you will not have engagement.? If you want engagement, stop trying fix your employees and take a look at your system.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Because of this, when you are interviewing for a job you must take as much care to learn about your prospective manager as you do the prospective job.

Here are some quotes from First, Break All the Rules:

“We had discovered that the manager ? not pay, benefits, perks or a charismatic corporate leader ? was the critical player in building a strong workplace. ?The manager was the key.”

“But it is her relationship with her immediate manager that will determine how long she stays and how productive she is while she is there.?

Time Span Again
Just as I suggested you feature time spans on your resume to signal the level of work for which you are capable, you can use time span as a tool for interviewing your prospective boss.

How to Interview Your Prospective Boss
First, think about the length of projects that feel comfortable to you.? Would you feel comfortable accepting an 18 month deliverable?? How about three years?

Once you have a comfort target in mind, ask your prospective manager about his/her work.? Ask about the longer term goals and projects that s/he is working on.? If the work is not of longer time spans than that which you feel comfortable, this can point to disaster!? Either you are not interviewing for the right level role or your manager is not working at a high enough level or both.

The Experience Fallacy
Remember, more years experience does not automatically qualify someone to be a thought leader for you, and you want your manager to be a thought leader!? One of the most basic needs we have from our manager is the ability for him/her to build context for us.? When your manager does not have more raw mental bandwidth than you do, s/he will not provide you satisfying leadership.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Did you ever know?during the interviewing stage?that the hiring manager would not be a leader for you?

From the Carter Home Laboratory
One time a confident, gregarious little girl who had visited with her mother once before, visited my home a second time.? My daughter who leans toward the bashful side, hid from the girl.??Confused, the little girl asked me, Why is she mad at me??

This little girl, who was not the least bit intimidated or at a loss for words in social situations, could not conceive of what shyness was.? Her only explanation of why someone would hide from someone else was that they must be mad.

I wonder how much of life’s tension and anxiety stems from placing our interpretive grid over top of others actions based upon our own temperament?

Executives Should Take a Page from Farmers
Executive leadership?should be concerned about creating the conditions necessary for employees to flourish.? People are wired to work.? They want to produce and produce bountifully.

Farmers don’t spend their days tending to individual plants.? They prepare the soil, monitor water levels, and keep the pests away.? When they do this, the plants do the “work”.

What Causes Poor Engagement? Not Poor Employees
I daresay that lack of engagement stems from lack of collective understanding of executive level work – designing and tending to the system, the environment, within which their employees work.

Looking for?a Leadership Design Blueprint?
Elliott Jaques’ Requisite Organization is a managerial leadership system that creates conditions under which all but the most disturbed employees can be successful.? Employees and managers don’t have to spend their days compensating for poor system design, instead,?they can do what they were naturally designed to do – to work and use their gifts for both the good of the organization and for a personal sense of satisfaction.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

What will you spend your days this year doing – creating or coping?

Throwing The Baby Out with the Bathwater – Egalitarianism
We are kidding ourselves to believe?managerial hierarchies can be?egalitarian.? Power must be exercised.? We can “nice up” the word power by calling?it leadership or authority, but?it is power just the same.

So then the question becomes,?if power must be?excised, how can we set up a managerial leadership system to channel power to every one’s advantage??

Designing for Good Power
Elliott Jaques’ Requisite Organization Model outlines just a system.? Here is how it addresses power to create an environment of trust and fairness.? Without trust and fairness, employees disengage.

Operationalizing Good Power

• Granting managers the authority they need to hire their people, refuse unacceptable candidates and remove non-performing employees.
• Pairing the aforementioned authority with managerial accountability for the output of their employees.? No more scapegoating.? Employees are accountable to do their best.??
• Employees are?judged by their EFFECTIVENESS, not solely their output so no employee has to resort to cheating or short sightedness to “make their goals”.
• Offering a science-based means to ensure that employees have managers who are cognitively more capable than themselves.
• Offering a science-based means to ensure that employees are hired and/or promoted into roles that suit their capability.

Starving Bad Power

• Clearly defining accountabilities, authorities and escalations procedures so no employee has to resort to manipulation to get his work done.
• Making sure there are not redundant layers in the organization that bog down work or leadership vacuums (too few layers.)

Making sure that at least two sets of eyes are on each employee by:

• Making managers-once-removed accountable for the fair treatment of their subordinates-once-removed.
• Making managers-once-removed accountable for the career development of subordinate-once-removed.

Disallowing No Power

• Making all managers accountable to exercise managerial leadership, not just to contribute on the technical part of their role.
• Making all employees accountable to give their best advice and speak their minds.??When managers are accountable for the output of their employees,?managers actually want to hear the truth?so they can make changes.? Scapegoating is no longer an option.
• Making all managers accountable to listen to the advice of employees, but pairing this with the ultimate authority to decide.

What kind of power do you experience in your organization?

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Employees Crave True Leadership

Management Myth Busted
Simply having?more experience does not automatically qualify someone to be a thought leader for anyone with less experience.

Danger, Danger – Promotions by Tenure
Many a mistake has been made promoting by tenure (aka experience) when the decision should be based first upon the promotion candidate’s cognitive capability for higher level work.? Knowledge, skills and experience play a part, but they mean nothing if the?candidate cannot handle the complexity associated with the higher level work.

Even leaders have leaders so how do we sort out who leads whom?
Fortunately, outside of organizations, no forced sorting is needed.? People naturally find and align themselves with those who can offer them leadership.? Within organizations, if we subordinate employees to a manager who is not more cognitively capable, the employees will suffer.?

Let the Disengagement Begin
When their manager “feels” like a peer, they will feel the inherent unfairness of the situation.? The may feel micromanaged.? They will ask for the big picture view and not receive it.? They will resent that their manager has the right to assess their performance, and they will be incredulous that their manager is paid more than they.??Their whole work?experience lacks integrity for them.

It’s Time to Create a Collective Understanding – Work Levels
Understanding requisite work levels has a partner reality – understanding the requisite cognitive level necessary to be successful in a given role.? When someone is not yet?cognitively capable of the work in a role, no amount of experience can fill the gap.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

Have you experienced being asked to submit to the leadership of someone who could not be your thought leader?? How did it go?

Mismatch to Role

What to Do?
We all mature in cognitive, problem solving capability over our lifetimes. Eventually this employee might mature into being capable of a higher level role, but it will not be training that gets him there.? In the meantime, when this situation is encountered, it is in every one’s best interest to reassign the person to a role that matches their current capability.

This post is number three in a series of four. The series titles and links are listed below.

1. Possible Negative Manifest Behaviors of an Underutilized Employee
2. Possible Positive Manifest Behaviors of an Underutilized Employee
3. Today’s Post – Possible Negative Manifest Behaviors of an Over committed Employee (not yet cognitively capable of the work level required of the role)
4. Possible Positive Manifest Behaviors of an Over committed Employee

No Need to Fire, No Need to Label
When a employee is over committed, it does not mean they cannot contribute.? It means they cannot contribute as needed in their current role.? When managers see this type of behavior, it’s time to consider redeploying the employee into a position where they can shine.

• Doesn?t get started on assignments in due time
• Needs excessive hand holding or detailed assignments
• Doesn?t connect the dots like peers
• Relies on peers to get work done
• Doesn?t take into consideration everything you would like him to
• Doesn?t understand what you want from him
• Spends time on less important tasks; ignores or procrastinates on more complex tasks
• Focuses too closely upon detail
• Turns in sub-standard work believing it to be acceptable
• Gets less work done than peers (despite long hours and commitment)
• Takes more time than peers
• Is in a different class than peers?(they ridicule/reject or pity and protect him)
• Doesn?t respond to training

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.

May God bless those who have been put on this earth to teach and to those who generously impart their gifts without concern toward personal gain or status. I live in the prosperous shadow of such people and am honored to be counted among their students. Thank you.

Now, on to my Thanksgiving Post…

What Are Your Employees Thankful For?? Keeping Employees Engaged is Simple
Organizations diligently work to keep their employees engaged and productive.? Gifts and perks are great, but my list of the minimum criteria for engagement is short and clear.? If your employees cannot be thankful for the following items, skip the fruit basket this year and get to work on your making managerial leadership system requisite.

-A clear picture of their role, and clear assignments.

-A role matched to their current cognitive capability level.

-Accountability matched with requisite authority.

-A manager who adds value to their thinking. (aka has cognitive capacity one level higher than the employee)

-Explicitly defined role relationships with others as arranged by their manager. Employees shouldn’t be left to beg or manipulate others to get their work done. (For example, if A and B disagree, who decides? If A needs services from B, what is B’s obligation to A? If A recommends something to B, must B do it or can B choose to decline idea?)

-Felt fair pay.

I’m OK. You’re OK. Let’s fix the system.