The ABC's Of A Great People Strategy
What makes a great team? Why is it that some teams consistently outperform others? It starts with People Strategy. Every organization has one. But some are better than others. What are the hallmarks that makes one better than others? Today, we'll look at three crucial answers to that question.
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The ABC's Of A Great People Strategy
Regardless of the business, purpose, or mission of an organization, there's one universal thread that binds them all. First and foremost, organizations serve people. Accordingly, every organization has a people strategy. It may be spelled out with precision or may be quite informal, a function of the mindsets of the people who comprise the team.
Whatever the form, the pertinent question is, how effective is that strategy? For every organization, the answer is the same, it could be better. The question for leaders, who I may humbly suggest is everyone in an organization now shifts to this, how do we make our people strategy better? We'll explore some of the issues involved in answering that important question. In so doing, we will see some of the ways we can build our personal power by increasing the potential value we bring to any team of which we may be a part.
To do so, we'll use a mnemonic device. Remember the three ABCs. Before we get to them, just a word about what we mean by people strategy. It is the precise intention, plan, and execution of four dimensions of how the organization attracts, selects, develops, and retains its talent. Did you see what we did there? We shifted. We took people out and put talent in. What's the difference? Organizations are organisms. They have life. What's the prime directive to borrow a phrase from Star Trek for all living things? To survive and persist.
In that way, organizations are no different. Like living things, the prime directive is the impulse that transcends all. It must survive. It doesn't care about our personal priorities. If our child or parent is sick, if we are hurting, if our dog is missing, or if our basement floods, it matters not a whit to the organization. It doesn't care at all about us as a person. It only cares about what we can do to contribute to its health. Therefore, the salient currency for organizational health is not the people it employs. It's what they can do.
The salient currency for organizational health is not the people it employs. It's what they can do.
Talent is the money. Maybe that sounds cold and maybe it is, but it has advantages. This reality is a great equalizer because it creates a currency that anyone, regardless of their demographic makeup, can build and deliver. It creates the justice of a meritocracy. A quick word about talent. Talent is a function of fit. Everybody has capacities in which they're better and worse than most others. We say someone is talented when their capacities match their role, and this results in a remarkable ability to contribute to organizational health.
The more someone can contribute, the more they are valuable to the organization. Let me ask you this, how many organizations in your experience operate as a pure meritocracy? In mine and in my line of work, I encounter organizations of all shapes and sizes in a wide variety of fields and industries. It's zero. Why is that? People and all of our biases and limitations. This is why we need a well-defined people strategy.
If we leave it in the heads of the people in leadership roles, which remember, we can regard as everyone on the team, we are vulnerable to those universal human biases and limitations. Effective systems minimize this effect. We create standards and apply them as judiciously and equitably as we can, but a system is a tool. Tools are no more powerful than the skill of their users. Because of this, we must also have foundational values. The first value, and in today’s world of accelerating change, I don't know of an organization to which this doesn't apply. Tomorrow will be better than we are today.
People Strategy: Tools are no more powerful than the skills of their users.
I have a few phrases I commonly use when I speak with leaders on this topic, “Status quo has got to go.” In other words, we expect and require change in growth. Another is, “You have two choices. You can change your people or you can change your people. One is up to them. The other is up to you,” which brings us to the three ABCs. The first ABC in a great people strategy is this, always be recruiting.
That's a bit of a cheat. As the C, I'm using the third letter in the word recruiting, but there isn't a suitable synonym, so it's the best I can do. What this means for leaders is the organization must have a constant influx of talent. We need at least our fair share, if not more, of superstars. You may be familiar with the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule.
What it means here is that 20% of the people on a team deliver 80% of the results. It may be hard to believe, I know, but the measurement comes out this way so often that it's almost an axiom. This means that to thrive, organizations must attract, select, develop, and retain those 20% people, the superstars. It's not that those in the 80% category aren't needed and valuable. Individual people may fluctuate in and out of the 20% category.
To have a great people strategy, we must pay attention to this and always be on the lookout for those people who can come aboard and crush it on the job. The next ABC is another direct result of those same conditions. It's always be coaching. We must continually elevate performance. We need to learn new skills. We need to feel like there's a future where we can build our value and increase our level of service and contribution to the world.
We must continually elevate performance. We need to learn new skills.
All of this is best accomplished when we have somebody helping us. For this reason, managers can't afford to pay attention only to the KPIs, key performance indicators du jour. They must additionally create, implement, and monitor professional development plans for their people. They must increase their own coaching skills on top of the other performance and develop objectives of their own.
This seems awfully cold and calculating for a great people strategy, doesn't it? People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. That's where the third ABC of a great people strategy comes into the picture. Always be connecting. Organizations may not care about the personal details of our lives but we do.
Our talent and our contribution to organizational health may not require us to feel personally connected to teammates. Do you know what the number one reason people move on from organizations is? It's not more money. It's not a better opportunity. It's because of the quality or lack thereof of the relationships they have with their supervisor and peers. The highest-performing teams don't have to be close friends, but they do require the connection that comes from respect, honesty, and trust.
People Strategy: The highest-performing teams don't have to be close friends, but they do require the connection that comes from respect, honesty, and trust.
We could have called this particular ABC Always Be Communicating, but connecting is better because it tells us what we should be communicating. We need to acknowledge the contribution of team members and do so systematically and publicly. We need to give them the resources and support necessary to improve. We need to share with them sufficiently so that they have a chance to make the highest quality decisions.
We must give them sufficient space so they can try new things. As they do, they stumble and fail, and thus, learn and improve. There are more ABCs we could explore but let's leave it there for now. Remember, talent and performance are largely a function of fit, expectation, and support. No matter your industry, you're in the people business. It pays to get great at it. Greatness means a commitment to systematic excellence. It begins as a mindset, expands to tools, standards, and approaches, and ends with a focus on never-ending improvement. That always begins in the same place. A look in the mirror. Let's go.