No, I’m not talking about color schemes and font styles.
I’m talking about not tolerating bullshit.
A “management brand” is the way you manage performance issues as a company. Every company has a brand, though it is usually subtle and discussed behind closed doors so that people only know what it is if something goes wrong. It is traditionally not transparent, but instead quiet and wrapped in awkwardness and reluctance.
I’m here to say it’s fine just to openly declare what the performance management brand is AND what you want it to be. It is important to define HOW you manage people as a company so that you can hold each other to what that looks like.
Management consists of two primary things:
#1 Motivating and inspiring your team to achieve outcomes
#2 Holding your team accountable to outcomes and FULL UTILIZATION….without drama
I see a lot of blogs written about motivating and inspiring others, and to me — that is the easy part, at least at Sample Supports. It is easy to set goals and a vision and get everyone to get on the train with you. If you genuinely like what you do and have a great mission, then #1 is effortless.
Things generally go wrong in point #2.
Let’s talk about utilization for a second: Human Capital is the MOST important resource we have in our companies. Because of this, it is critical that we make sure everyone on our team is doing their role and doing it completely. I will drop everything else I am doing to manage a performance issue in real time. I will restructure entire projects if I have to in order to address a performance issue that is running interference. Yes, it is THAT important. Why? The company cannot operate without an effective team.
As the CEO of a rather large operation, I still spend 50% of my time discussing performance issues, utilization issues and action plans. It is not a waste of my time. It is time well spent seeing as I know that the quality of my workforce is the most important thing in my company. I am in charge of defining our brand and culture, and I accept that this takes time and energy and effort. Without an effective and high-performing team, we can’t accomplish anything.
Effective team performance and utilization are ALWAYS my top priorities.
So, what happens when someone is simply not doing what you hired them to do? When they are working at a % of the utilization you hired them for? When they are creating a tornado of drama? What happens when you have to take a break from your natural state of “inspiring people” and do a corrective action? Then what?
The way things are handled when it gets tough defines your identity as a company and ultimately answers the question: What does your company stand behind and stand for?
Just as it is important to make sure your team is handling recruitment and onboarding in the same way, it is just as important to make sure that they are handling things consistently when things go wrong. This is a brand defining philosophical approach to what it means to “manage” in your company. This is more than a “policy”, but instead it is a way of being with your team. It is the expectation that managers hold each other to. It is also the response people can expect to receive and witness when someone in your workforce goes rogue, for better or worse.
At Sample Supports, we are working in a company that is growing a compounding 60% every year and that growth rate is no joke. What that means for us is that we don’t have the time or the luxury to stay in a dysfunctional place with a team member. The ONLY way to operate as a company when you are growing this fast is to have a high-performing team.
We have two choices in our company: Be Awesome or Fail.
I’ll choose option number one, please.
Because we know that we must be effective to stay in business AND we know our workforce is our #1 asset, we decided to establish “Leadership Values” that we all hold and commit to with each other as a management team. Here are a few:
- We identify and eradicate liabilities and toxic situations with a sense of urgency.
- We hold a firm line of expecting our teams to functionally engage in the work or to leave the team.
- We provide all feedback that serves in improving our team’s professional development.
- We address problematic behaviors with our clients, our teams and ourselves.
- We challenge our team to work hard, take on responsibilities and fully utilize our talents.
Ultimately, we are saying: We have a special thing going here and if you want to be a part of it you have to be a functional and effective part of our team.
People have a choice: Up or Out. No lingering.
Remember that you will always regret letting a dysfunctional situation stay in your team longer than you should have. You won’t regret eradicating it quickly. That doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable and challenging. Talking about performance issues is uncomfortable for people and that has to change for someone to be effective in their leadership role.
Embrace the challenge of discussing performance issues and make it the “norm” in your culture.
What I have learned in running a company of over 300 people is that a performance issue does not go away on it’s own. Time does NOT heal that wound — in fact, it makes it deeper and more pervasive because left unaddressed it can multiply and influence others. This is why when we see a problem we have to focus on it, address it, and create an action plan to change it. We don’t wait for it to happen 3 times — No, no, no — when we see the problem we address it “directly and with a sense of urgency”. We do it the FIRST TIME. We sit down and say “Hey, I see you doing this thing that isn’t working in our team. I need you to fix it…..right now”.
The best part? People can change and improve quickly. It’s true — I’ve seen it.
The other best part? It raises the esteem of your team because they know that their peers are held to being as great as they are. Truth: High performers want to be with other high performers. You actually run the risk of losing high performers when they see that their peer in the same pay grade can get away with under-performing or straight up dysfunction.
Defining your “management brand” depends on what your business needs to be successful. Brands evolve over time based on what the company needs — perhaps I will feel differently (and manage differently) if/when our company slows down it’s growth rate. Maybe I’ll do it differently if/when we have 1000 employees vs. 300. It’s possible you need to manage a paper company differently than a human services company. There are lots of things to consider, but bottom line is that nobody wants a dysfunctional team.
That said, your established “management brand” is something you should shout from the rooftops. Define it. Be clear about it. Train others how to do it. Then all you have to do is hold the line.
You will know you have established your brand effectively when your leaders call out alignment discrepancies in their peers and hold the line for you.
Now back to your job of inspiring people… Unless you work for a paper company. Then that really sucks for you.
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