Take a lesson from the USC Trojans

People don’t really self-develop. To illustrate, my son and I went to the USC football practice awhile back and were struck by something at the practice field.

At every practice there are four cameras set up on stilts that are recording the action. The players are improving by constantly looking at film afterwards with the coaches. Together they look at what they did in a situation and discuss what they should have done differently. In addition there are also coaches at the practice giving the players ongoing feedback on how to improve. If the team doesn’t provide that kind of coaching, players won’t know what to change, and they won’t be inspired to do it.

USC has won the national championship several times in the last few years. So the question is: “Why are they practicing? They know how to play football.” The answer of course is that there is so much at stake they want to rehearse and go over the plays. Likewise, there is so much at stake for these derailed executives. They need to run the plays when it’s not in a game situation. Where else can they do that but with a coach who can give them feedback?

There is a common idea in the business world that you should stick with what works. There are a number of old sayings that reinforce this, from “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” to “Don’t change horses mid-stream.”

The reality for executives is that when you rise through the ranks of an organization, you’ll find that each individual level has a different set of rules because you have a different function. So what works at a director level is not going to work at a vice president level. The issue is that no one ever sits down and tells you the rules and then tells you how those rules change.

For example, when you’re not doing the work, but rather being the strategist to get the work done, the unwritten rules and expectations are different.

To use another sports analogy, when you’re in single-A, minor league baseball, the game expectations are one thing. But when you start to get to triple-A or the major leagues, it’s a whole different ballgame (pardon the pun). And if you don’t make those adjustments, you don’t survive.

Some derailed executives say they can’t change and reject coaching. But why?

First, let’s tackle that word can’t. To my thinking here’s no such thing as “can’t.” There’s either “I won’t do it” or “I don’t know how to do it.”

In my experience as an executive coach, “can’t” means the person is afraid and just doesn’t know how to change. But even if somebody knows how to change, for them to self-develop and make the change on their own is very difficult. We all need feedback, and we all need support and encouragement. Unless we know what we did and what we need to do and somebody teaches us how to do it, we can’t improve.

For derailed executives there is a useful theory called the Stages of Change Model about the mind/body stages we go through when we do change. The Stages of Change Model was originally developed in the late 1970s by James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente at the University of Rhode Island when they were studying how smokers were able to give up their habits. According to the model there are a number of steps: precontemplation to contemplation to determination.

The idea behind the change model is that behavior change does not happen in one step. Rather, people tend to progress through different stages on their way to successful change. You first say to yourself, “Well, I don’t have a problem. And if I don’t have a problem, I don’t need a solution.” Then you get information feedback and data, such as complaints, and you begin to say, “Maybe there is a problem.” So you start to contemplate that there is a problem. If you get even more strong data and a coach comes in, then you have to go from contemplation to determination and decide, “I need to do something about this.”

On one hand it is easy to understand why some derailed executives would reject coaching. Many derailed executives don’t understand why they should change because the company has promoted them three or four times for being the way they are. Why is someone coming in now and telling them that what got them to that spot is not going to keep them there? Naturally there is a resistance to change an approach that has been so successful for so long. It is a very legitimate concern to wonder why you should take the leap of faith and change. Will this new behavior prove equally successful?

Three Tips to Avoid Bad Executive Hires

Of course, nobody likes to terminate an executive. So here are my three tips for avoiding the problem from my book The Prodigal Executive.

Tip # 1 -- Hire Great in the First Place.

By screening potential employees for past behaviors and attitudes, you can dramatically reduce the costs of hiring bad people, and make your workplace more productive, happier, safer, and more profitable. Combine an efficient prescreening assessment with an effective pre-employment background check, and you can cut your risk by half or more.

Tip # 2--Hire and Promote for Job Fit.

A well-documented study, published in Harvard Business Review concludes that "Job Match" is by far the most reliable predictor of effectiveness on the job (Greenberg and Greenberg, "Job Matching for Better Sales Performance." Harvard Business Review, Volume 58, No. 5, Sept 1, 1980). The study considered many factors including the age, sex, race, education and experience of approximately 300,000 subjects. It evaluated their job performance and found no significant statistical differences, except in the area of "Job Match." The conclusion was this: "It's not experience that counts or college degrees or other accepted factors; success hinges on a fit with the job."

If success is determined by job fit, your challenge is to predict that fit. This requires that you measure thinking style, behavioral traits, and occupational interests, and that you do so in a cost-effective way. Assessments are an efficient way to predict job fit. With an assessment, an employer can assure that the people hired fit their new jobs; that the people promoted can succeed in the new position; that employees can identify a career path likely to work; and that newly opened jobs can be filled from within, with a high probability of success.

Tip # 3--Improve Managers and Keep Your Best People.

People quit people, they don’t quit jobs. Guess which people they are most likely to quit? Hint: Managers have the most significant impact on a worker’s daily activities, the mood of the work setting, and the reward structure on the job.

Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your managers, and improving their most critical skills, is a key component of keeping your best people. In this economy, budgets for training have been curtailed, making it difficult to find the money to improve management skills. Many companies are concerned about wasting money on training employees that will leave. As author, salesperson and speaker Zig Ziglar said, though, “If you think it’s expensive to train people and lose them, try not training them and keeping them!”

Unfortunately there will always be know-it-alls, bullies, prima donnas, and passive aggressors. But don’t tolerate them for one day. If they were exceptional once, then coach these prodigal executives to return to greatness.

Prodigal Executive Now Available on Amazon.com

Some derailed executives create toxic workplaces that cause good employees to flee. Other former star employees cause customers and peers to complain in ever increasing numbers. So why not just fire them?

Ah, that is the dilemma. Often these prima donnas are extremely valuable employees. Some bring in millions of dollars to the company. Others have an irreplaceable specialized skill or body of knowledge.

So what is a company to do? According to new research, 8 out of 10 of these derailed executives can be coached to get back on track.

“Before you as a manager get involved in any kind of coaching of a derailed executive or employee, you should ask if this particular person has been given feedback about their obnoxious behavior" says Bruce Heller, Ph.D., author of “The Prodigal Executive: How to Coach Executives Too Painful to Keep, Too Valuable to Fire” (Author House, July 2009)

Dr. Heller reports that in two decades of experience throughout corporate America helping toxic bosses and star employees whose star has fallen, only about half have been given feedback on their errant behavior. He advocates these four ironclad coaching rules:

Ironclad Rule 1. When you do give feedback, make sure that it is data based, and behavioral based. Make sure it is not hearsay. For instance, what is the exact behavior the individual is showing that causes concern?

Ironclad Rule 2. Always use the sandwich technique. Open with positive feedback, then give the negative feedback, and then close with positive feedback. Work toward salvaging some of the self esteem of the individual, by saying :"You're quite a valuable component of our company. You're highly successful and we want to do everything we can to salvage our relationship. However, we have some concerns, and our concerns are: A B, C, D, and E."

Ironclad Rule 3. Your goal should be to gain some buy in from the individual. One of the mistakes supervisors make after giving some coaching feedback is that they don't schedule the next meeting. Before both of you leave after the feedback, say "Let's you and I meet next Friday morning at 8:30 am and let's continue this conversation."

Ironclad Rule 4. There needs to be some consequence so the person doesn't just blow off the feedback session. So you put the idea of separation out there. They need to know their behavior could lead to termination. If employees don’t have a consequence, they don’t take the coaching seriously.

In his book Dr. Heller explains how eight out of 10 derailed executives can be saved; six myths that hold many companies back from coaching; when to keep 'em and when to fire 'em; how to give feedback to toxic bosses and derailed executives; three keys to an executive comeback, and how to help derailed executives out the door if they really need to go.