Presentation to Congresswoman Jane Harmon

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Nine Characteristics of Successful Managers
Wake Forest University Health Sciences Research
Managers Meeting April 8, 2004
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Characteristics of Great Managers
1. Recognize that people are unique
We are a blend of skills, knowledge, experience
and talents!
Evaluating an applicant/employees skill,
knowledge and experience is relatively
straight-forward. Evaluating for talent is much
more challenging!
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What Do We Mean By Talent?
Conventional wisdom rare ability pertaining to
sports or the arts!
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What Do We Mean By Talent?
Myth with enough hard work, we can accomplish
anything!
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What We Have Learned From Neuro-Science

• Born with 100 billion neurons
• synaptic connections form by age 3
• strong ones grow/weak ones wither away
• may be genetics or Darwinian pruning
• by mid-teens unique set of synapses (about half
  the number as at age 3)
• these synapses define our talents!

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Talents Can Be Defined As
A Recurring Pattern Of Thought, Feeling Or
Behavior That Can Be Productively
Applied. Marcus Buckingham Curt Coffman First,
Break All The Rules
Simply put the behaviors you find yourself
doing most often are your talents.
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No Matter How You Total Success In The Coaching
Profession, It All Comes Down To A Single Factor
Talent Although Not Every Coach Can Win
Consistently With Talent, No Coach Can Win
Without It. John Wooden, UCLA Coach
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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success

• Every role, performed at excellence, requires
  talent
• Determine what talents are associated with
  excellence in every role
• Key find match between persons talents and role

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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success

• Study your best
• Conventional wisdom good is opposite of bad, so
  if you want excellence, investigate failure and
  invert it.
• Excellence and failure are often surprisingly
  similar
• Danger of Averages

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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success
3. Treat people differently

Break The Golden Rule Dont Treat People As You
Would Like To Be Treated. This Presupposes That
Everyone Breathes The Same Psychological Oxygen
As You Buckingham Coffman First, Break All The
Rules
Figure out what motivates each person and devise
a system of appropriate rewards
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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success
3. Treat people differently
4. Focus on desired outcomes, not process

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Characteristics of Great Managers
DANGER One Best Way Approach

• Frederic Taylor time-and-motion studies
• Madelaine Hunter seven basic components of an
  effective lesson plan
• Expert Systems

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Remember, unique people with different
combinations of knowledge, skill, experience and
talent will determine their own way to achieve
the desired outcomes!
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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success
3. Treat people differently
4. Focus on desired outcomes, not process
5. Foster an environment that allows people to fail
   intelligently

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• Failure Is The Opportunity To Begin Again, More
  Intelligently.
• Henry Ford

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I Have Not Failed. Ive Just Found 10,000 Ways
That Wont Work. Thomas Alva Edison
The Only Man Who Makes A Mistake Is The Man That
Never Does Anything. Theodore Roosevelt
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FailureTolerant Organizations

• Encourage Intelligent Risk Taking
• View Failure As A Pre-Requisite For Invention
• View Failures As Outcomes To Be Examined,
  Understood, And Built Upon
• Focus On Increasing Their Organizations
  Intellectual Capital
• Create A Culture Of Collaboration Rather Than
  Competition.

Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes The
Failure-Tolerant Leader
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• Spencer Silvers Failure Imperfect Adhesive
  resulted In 3Ms Post-It Notes

• Jack Welch, Former Head Of GE
• We Reward Failure.
• Charles Kettering, Former Head Of GM
• A Good Researcher Failed Every Time But The
  Last One.
• Failing Is One Of The Greatest Arts In The
  World. One Fails Forward Toward Success.
• Thomas Watson, Sr., Former Head Of IBM
• The Fastest Way To Succeed Is To Double Your
  Failure Rate.

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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success
3. Treat people differently
4. Focus on the desired outcomes, not the process
5. Foster an environment that allows people to fail
   intelligently
6. Encourage development of effective teams

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Individual Commitment To A Group Effort That
Is What Makes A Team Work, A
Company Work, A Society
Work, A Civilization Work.
Vince Lombardi
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• Teamwork A Worthy Goal!

• But Not All Groups Become Teams
• What Makes A Group Become A Team?

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A Team Is A Small Number Of People With
Complementary Skills Who Are Committed To A
Common Purpose, Set Of Performance Goals, And
Approach For Which They Hold Themselves Mutually
Accountable. Jon R. Katzenbach And Douglas K.
Smith The Discipline Of Teams
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A Team Is A Small Number Of People With
Complementary Skills Who Are Committed To A
Common Purpose, Set Of Performance Goals, And
Approach For Which They Hold Themselves Mutually
Accountable. Jon R. Katzenbach And Douglas K.
Smith The Discipline Of Teams
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A Team Is A Small Number Of People With
Complementary Skills Who Are Committed To A
Common Purpose, Set Of Performance Goals, And
Approach For Which They Hold Themselves Mutually
Accountable. Jon R. Katzenbach And Douglas K.
Smith The Discipline Of Teams
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A Team Is A Small Number Of People With
Complementary Skills Who Are Committed To A
Common Purpose, Set Of Performance Goals, And
Approach For Which They Hold Themselves Mutually
Accountable. Jon R. Katzenbach And Douglas K.
Smith The Discipline Of Teams
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A Team Is A Small Number Of People With
Complementary Skills Who Are Committed To A
Common Purpose, Set Of Performance Goals, And
Approach For Which They Hold Themselves Mutually
Accountable. Jon R. Katzenbach And Douglas K.
Smith The Discipline Of Teams
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A Team Is A Small Number Of People With
Complementary Skills Who Are Committed To A
Common Purpose, Set Of Performance Goals, And
Approach For Which They Hold Themselves Mutually
Accountable. Jon R. Katzenbach And Douglas K.
Smith The Discipline Of Teams
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Reward People For Solving Problems Without Coming
To See You First!
Harvard Business Review Case Study MacGregor

• Unconventional Weekly Staff Meetings
• Agenda The Problems You Faced And The
  Decisions You Made And, If You Got Help, Who
  Helped You.
• Builds A Team That Works Together!

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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success
3. Treat people differently
4. Focus on desired outcomes, not process
5. Foster an environment that allows people to fail
   intelligently
6. Encourage development of effective teams
7. Have a clear, unambiguous approach to supervision

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Key Elements of Supervision

1. Set clear performance expectations

1. Motivate performance
2. Evaluate performance

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Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success
3. Treat people differently
4. Focus on desired outcomes, not process
5. Foster an environment that allows people to fail
   intelligently
6. Encourage development of effective teams
7. Have a clear, unambiguous approach to supervision
8. Understand components of human motivation

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• Employee Motivation is Based Upon
• MOTIVATION

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9 Characteristics of Great Managers

1. Recognize that people are unique
2. Identify talent and reposition for success
3. Treat people differently
4. Focus on desired outcomes, not process
5. Foster an environment that allows people to fail
   intelligently
6. Encourage development of effective teams
7. Have a clear, unambiguous approach to supervision
8. Understand components of human motivation
9. Have a clear sense of organizational mission

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Harvard Parking Story
Understanding Mission

• 1950s 2 UNC Grads To Harvard
  One in Wheel Chair
• Arrived In Boston One Evening
• No Parking By Dorm
• Parked By Front Door To Unload
• Campus Police Came
• Returned With Workman Painted Yellow Line

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As Long As You And Your Roommate Are Students In
Good-Standing At Harvard, This Parking Place Is
For You!
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Key To Success in Management

• Integrate these insights/approaches into your own
  style
• There is no one size fits all model of
  management
• But if there was, I believe that at its core we
  would find

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Drucker Says
The Key To Greatness Is To Look For Peoples
Potential And Spend Time Developing It