Do you know your derailed executive through and through

In coaching a derailing manager, before you can prescribe exercises to change behaviors, you need to make a diagnosis identifying the nature or cause of the real malady. Here the term truly means “knowledge through and through.” The more information you get the better.

In my book, The Prodigal Executive, I discuss that before embarking on turning around one of your derailing managers, you need to know what you are dealing with. Without a clear idea of the person’s strengths and weaknesses, you are only guessing what is needed. This is no time to guess. Take the time to assess the true situation before you recommend a fix.

This is a lesson I learned from a derailed executive named John (real case, but not his real name). The telephone call from John’s manager was intense and anxious. The manager described John’s behavior as being hostile.

John would speak to people in critical ways. He would call people “stupid” and raise his voice when speaking with a peer on the phone in another part of the country. When I met John, he was somewhat distant, intense, and had that “big city” pushiness. John could not understand why he was being asked to work with a coach.

Furthermore, John could not understand why the others had so much of a problem with him. After a few coaching sessions, John seemed to become more positive. Suddenly, however, he refused to have me interview his peers. John could not handle the truth. He did not want to know what others really thought of him, and it was in fact difficult to make a diagnosis and develop a coaching plan.

His opposition regarding the 360-degree feedback assessment continued. This passive-aggressive style defended against truly making a diagnosis and engaging him to make meaningful change. Not only was John derailing, he made sure he derailed the coaching during the assessment phase.

Can't vs. I Don't Know How

Some derailed executives say they can’t change and reject coaching from an outside coach or their manager. 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.

Can a Scrooge or Darth Vader boss be changed?

Films and television shows often have a character that can only be called a toxic boss. For a mental picture, think of Scrooge in “The Christmas Carol” or Darth Vader in “Star Wars.”

Obviously, audiences can relate to this portrait of the boss as ogre. As an executive coach, I have been called in to detoxify many a boss.

The good news I have to share is that although their plight is the extreme, my experience is that with proper coaching at least 8 out of 10 toxic bosses can make a comeback. Which is good news for all those Scrooges and Darth Vaders out there and the companies who employ them. .

So, why can 80 percent of toxic bosses be saved?

Because these are individuals who are extremely successful. Many of these executives could be compared to an elite athlete. They are highly skilled, talented, and energetic. They have passion for what they do and love the companies they're working for. They feel a sense pride in their work, have an insatiable curiosity, and want to learn more.

Unfortunately, many of them have never had coaching or any sort of leadership development. They were put into a leadership role because they were good at a technical task, and they've always wanted someone to sit down with them and mentor them. As a result, many of them are ripe to learn some of these skills.


The point is this: We should not think of toxic bosses as incompetents. Rather, think of them as star athletes who need to rehab and make a comeback. What is needed is a radical intervention (coaching, not surgery) to rehabilitate the derailed executive. The productivity gains for the company make it well worth the effort.

Lazy hazy approach does not work with derailed executives

Ah, those lazy, hazy days of summer. Maybe if we just give a derailed executive some time, it will all work itself out.

Wrong. Time won't solve the problem.

That was the case with Larry, a big guy with a gruff, gruff exterior. Larry was good at alienating people and creating the impression they knew nothing he knew everything about his area of specialization. Despite repeated warnings from senior executives, Larry was not changing.

In organizations, there are many ways to communicate symbolically. There are ceremonies, awards, logos, icons, contests and oft-told stories. And there are real-life leadership behaviors that “speak” volumes.

My showing up, an executive coach, created two pieces of symbolic communications for Larry. One, he didn’t believe his job was threatened until an outsider showed up. I was not afraid to confront him and tell him that he was inches away from being shown the door. The other message he got from my presence was the company was willing to make investment in him to be a more effective leader, so he had better pay attention. Happily, in Larry’s case, he did pay attention and lost the negativity.

Why high level execs receive sanitized feedback

Feedback helps us find our way.

In the words of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the author of 19 books on leadership, “All other things being equal, your people skills (or lack thereof) become more pronounced the higher up you go. In fact, even when things are not equal, your people skills often make the difference in determining how high you go” (“behave Yourself,” Talent Management Magazine, July 2007).

The feedback a high level executive receives is so sanitized because of the politics it is of scant value. So many times executives, when they do finally get this level of feedback that they're potentially derailing, they're very surprised. And some of the comments are, "Well why wasn't I told this before?" And part of that is the fear of telling the boss there's a problem.

One of the cardinal mistakes for the manager is canceling a feedback meeting. Do not cancel the session. If you have to, make sure you reschedule it for the same day. Here’s why. The first time you cancel, the person says, "See they didn't really believe in this stuff anyways." This is also called symbolic communication. By saying one thing (scheduling a meeting), but then doing another thing (canceling the meeting) you've conveyed that the meeting is not really important.

Of course, it is human nature that people don’t want to give other people bad news. That is why there are expressions like, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Deep down people want to be seen as likable, the nice guy or gal. Because they want to be nice, giving people negative, but necessary, feedback is the hardest thing for them to do.

The classic example I talk about in my book The Prodigal Executive is the senior executive who gave performance appraisals in the restroom. This manager would see the employee in the restroom and hand the person a folder with things they're doing well and not well.

Regardless of the reason, if you are a manager and you don't give somebody in your organization negative feedback, it borders on being unethical. You're carrying information the employee needs to know for their career survival. If that person doesn't succeed but could have if they had the information, then you as their manager have set them up for failure.

The problem for executives is that the higher up the organizational ladder you climb, the less feedback you get.

Executive Coaching Lessons from the World Cup

Coaches have been in the headlines during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. British newspapers have ridiculed England's World Cup squad and called upon coach Fabio Capello to quit after elimination by a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Germany.

The loss was marked by a refereeing mistake that denied England a goal. But the papers' anger was mainly directed at the coach, Capello.

Meanwhile France, a world soccer powerhouse, was eliminated from the World Cup this year in the first round, scoring only one goal in three games. The French ejection from a tournament they won in 1998 followed an apparent collapse in relations between coach Raymond Domenech and his players. Domenech left team captain Patrice Evra out of the final match and the team refused to practice just days before it.

Like the French players, some derailed executives, 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.

As I mention in my book, The Prodigal Executive, people don’t really self-develop. To illustrate, every World Cup soccer team practices. 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.

Teams like Brazil and Germany have won many World Cups. So the question is: “Why are they practicing? They know how to play soccer.” 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?

The cause of toxic workplaces

Maybe you are familiar with derailed executives. Some create toxic workplaces that cause good employees to flee.

Others are causing customers to complain in ever increasing numbers. The executive’s peers have become alienated too. Their fellow executives don’t want to speak to this ticking time bomb of a person because they are always abrasive. So they avoid them. This creates a serious lack of communication all over the organization. And for whatever reason their behavior is deteriorating fast.

So why not just fire them?

Ah, that is the dilemma. These are extremely valuable employees. Some bring in millions of dollars to the corporation. If they go, the revenue goes with them. Others have a specialized skill or body of knowledge. They are the best in business and there is no way to replace that kind of expertise.

So what do you do? In my book, The Prodigal Executive, I explained that there are basically two ways to get a derailed executive back on track.

One approach is that a company can internally coach the executive back on track. This involves the HR executive or the CEO sitting down with the executive and providing very clear, crisp, and firm feedback using observational data. He or she gives the individual very clear behavioral expectations, a timeline for them to use, and works with the individual to create a plan of action for how the individual is going to turn around every area.

The second approach is to have an coach from outside the company work with the derailed executive.

If they are creating a toxic workplace, then doing nothing is not an option.

Thoughts on baseball players and derailed executives

April is of course the start of baseball season, and it made me consider a question: how far would a baseball player advance if they rejected coaching?

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?

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.

Oscar Night and Toxic Bosses

Oscars night is always a big night in Southern California where I live. In my book, The Prodigal Executive, I mention many movies.

One chapter looked at General George S. Patton III, one of the most colorful American military leaders of World War II, who is regarded as one of the most successful United States field commanders of any war. The general was the focus of the epic 1970 Academy Award-winning movie Patton, with the title role played by George C. Scott in a brilliant, profane Academy Award winning performance.

Patton’s derailment was the notorious "slapping incident" in 1943 that nearly ended his career. According to witnesses and portrayed in the film, the general was visiting patients at a military hospital in Sicily, and came upon a 24-year old soldier who was crying. Patton asked "What's the matter with you?" and the weeping soldier replied, "It's my nerves, I guess. I can't stand shelling." Patton thereupon burst into a rage and with much cursing called the soldier a coward, ordering him back to the front. As a crowd gathered, Patton then struck the young soldier in the rear of the head with the back of his hand.

Actually Patton had a pattern of reckless, abusive behavior and this was not the first slapping occurrence. He was too good to fire, too bad to keep.

His superior, General Dwight Eisenhower, thought of sending Patton home in disgrace, as many newspapers demanded. However Eisenhower decided to keep Patton, but on several conditions. First he must eat humble pie and deliver a public apology. Furthermore Patton would be without a major command. This was a trick to mislead the Germans as to where the next attack would be, since they assumed Patton would lead the assault because he was the general they feared the most.

Why did the Patton’s prodigal story have a different outcome? Patton responded to the need to change. First, he gave his apology to the slapped soldier, the medical personnel and the thousands of soldiers under his command. Next, he redeemed himself with the decoy assignment. Instead of balking at the demotion, Patton was supportive of Eisenhower’s and the allies’ goals. Patton decided if he was to be a decoy, he was going to be the best expletive deleted decoy in the history of war.

In the months before the June 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy, Patton gave public talks as commander of the fictional First U.S. Army Group, which was supposedly intending to invade France by way of Calais. The Germans misallocated their forces as a result, and were slow to respond to the actual landings at Normandy.
Following the Normandy invasion, Eisenhower gave Patton another chance. Patton was placed in command of the U.S. Third Army and used Germany's own blitzkrieg tactics against them to hasten the Allied victory and secure is place in military history.
Eisenhower did not accept the myths that people cannot change

Of course, it is unlikely you will be in a position to hire and fire generals. But you do have your own chain of command to look after.

How to Save 8 of 10 Toxic Bosses

Are you watching the new TV show "Undercover Boss?" It will be interesting to find how many toxic bosses are uncovered.

You know they are out there. During the last 15 years I've coached almost 1,000 examples of derailed executives. Well over 100 would fall into the highest category of derailed executive, the worst case scenario known as the toxic boss.

The good news I have to share is that although their plight is the extreme, my experience is that with proper coaching at least 8 out of 10 toxic bosses can make a comeback. Which is good news for all managers who want to recover executives too painful to keep but too valuable to let go.

So, why can 80 percent of toxic bosses be saved?

Because these are individuals who are extremely successful. Many of these executives could be compared to an elite athlete. They are highly skilled, talented, and energetic. They have passion for what they do and love the companies they're working for. They feel a sense pride in their work, have an insatiable curiosity, and want to learn more.

Unfortunately, many of them have never had coaching or any sort of leadership development. They were put into a leadership role because they were good at a technical task, and they've always wanted someone to sit down with them and mentor them. As a result, many of them are ripe to learn some of these skills.

There are many parallels between executive coaching and sports coaching, just as there are many parallels between business and sports in general. One of these metaphors is when we look at elite athletes.

To illustrate my point let me share an example from my book, The Prodigal Executive. This is the tale of two derailed baseball pitchers that played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sandy Koufax and Tommy John.

Sandy Koufax put together one of the most dominating stretches of pitching in baseball history. Over a five-year span, he threw four no-hitters, led the National League in earned run average five times and compiled a 111-34 record. However, elbow problems forced him to retire at age 30 after the 1966 World Series, one of the saddest days in history for Dodgers fans like me. Inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1972, Koufax became the youngest person ever to receive the honor.

In 1974, Tommy John was having one of his best seasons as a pitcher for the Dodgers with a 13-3 record when a ligament was torn in his pitching arm. John learned from his surgeon, Dr. Frank Jobe, that if he wanted to pitch again he would have to undergo a revolutionary surgical operation that no pitcher had ever undergone.

The operation, widely known today as Tommy John surgery, replaced the ligament in the elbow of his pitching arm with a tendon from his right forearm. The surgery was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe on Sept. 25, 1974. John spent the entire 1975 season recovering from the surgery, and surprised fans and players alike by returning to the Dodgers rotation in 1976.

John went on to pitch until 1989 and earned 164 of his 288 victories after his surgery.

"People with a torn ligament were sent back to the farm or wherever they came from," Jobe told USA Today. "But Tommy didn't want to go."

According to The New York Times, “the surgery has become so reliable, with a success rate of 80 to 85 percent, that it has prolonged the careers of hundreds of major leaguers. About one in seven pitchers in the major leagues this season has had the surgery.”

So how does this relate to derailed executives?

The moral of the story is this: We should not think of toxic bosses as incompetents. Rather, think of them as star athletes who need to rehab and make a comeback. What is needed is a radical intervention (coaching, not surgery) to rehabilitate the derailed executive. The productivity gains for the company make it well worth the effort.

How to make your executives better leaders

Do you suffer from The White Binder Syndrome?

My first encounter with The White Binder Syndrome came through Marvin, an executive coaching client. Marvin (true story, but not the true name) was one of the smartest people I've ever met. He was a scientist and was energetic, focused, and hard working. When I first walked into his office, he was the VP of a technology company at the time. I asked him how I could help him.

"I really need to become a better leader," Marvin said.

"What have you done previously?" I asked.

So he opened up his cabinet. Inside were 11 white binders from the finest business schools and leadership development programs in the country. At first I was intimidated.

"Well what do you need me for?" I said, "You've been to some very good and reputable leadership programs."

"I know," he replied, "But nobody has taken all of that data and all these reports and sat down with me and said 'Here are the steps you need to take to make the improvement.' And no one has ever kept me accountable."

So the WBS is something I see all the time and that is when a company says "Oh, just make a beautiful evaluation and the person will self develop."

And I say, "No, you won't be happy with my coaching because I'll make a beautiful white binder for you, and it's just going to be put on the shelf."

What's going to happen is the person who gets the feedback says: "Tomorrow I'm going to start self developing."

They wake up in the morning, they put their white binder on the table and they get their first phone call. The first phone call is the first crisis. So they say to themselves:

"You know, right after lunch I'm going to work on my development."

By the time after lunch comes they already have a list of return phone calls and return e-mails, a separate crisis each. So they say:

"Well at the end of the day I'm going to work on my development."

At the end of the day, they're tired and they need to go home. This process occurs for about three days until finally they get so frustrated that they put the white binder up on a shelf, never to be seen again.

So that's The White Binder Syndrome has taken another victim.

the solution is to use a coach and hold the executive accountable. According to a study of 55 large companies (95% with annual revenues of more than $1 billion), organization that address derailment risks through the greater use of internal coaches report positive outcomes.

While almost all the companies use external coaches, especially for the C-level suite like CEO and CFO, about 60% were now using internal coaches. “External coaches often are used to ‘save’ an executive from failure when it's too late: like closing the barn door after the horse has already gone.” (McDermott, Levinson and Newton: “What Coaching Can and Cannot Do for Your Organization,” Human Resource Planning, June 2007).

The study went on to conclude that “using internal coaches in derailment cases, in contrast, may signal that the company takes performance issues seriously and is willing to invest the time of its own people, not just dollars, in supporting an employee's efforts to improve.” Never sell yourself short as an internal coach, because you may be better positioned to leverage other company resources and people to help solve the issues that led to derailment.

How to coach a comeback story

Is your company ready for a great comeback story? Then you as a manager are going to need to coach a comeback player of the year. In essence, you need to help them to reinvent their career. To do that, you need some specialized tools in your reinventor’s toolkit.

When I advise the CEO of a company about a derailed executive, I warn him or her that comebacks don’t happen overnight. But with persistent actions on the part of the manager/coach and the executive, it can happen. I have seen it time and again.


Meet Bill, Comeback Executive of the Year

Take Bill for example. In my book The Prodigal Executive I talk about Bill (real story, but not his real name) who was president of a marketing entertainment business that is a subsidiary of an international company. The skills that enabled him to succeed early on in his career backfired on him, derailing him from his career track.

Bill was a driver. He was very achievement-driven and wanted the best for the company. He was willing to do whatever it would take for the team to be successful. Bill believed that the only thing in business is getting the job done. He believed that emotions do not belong in business and if someone can’t get the job done they need to be replaced.

When I met Bill there were quite a few negative comments coming from his direct reports. His boss at the parent company was being briefed on a weekly basis on what a horrible leader he was, and there was starting to be some turnover. So the boss called me and said, “What can you do?”

So I went in to see him and went over the entire process as an overview with Bill. We found during an initial assessment stage that Bill had no idea what leadership was about. He thought that leadership was nothing but results, and his results were outstanding. So his belief system was that as long as he got the numbers to work, he was okay.

What Bill came to realize is that he could get better numbers, and he didn’t have to be seen as a cold, distant, aggressive leader to do it. Truth was, Bill actually wanted to be seen as a personable, likable, engaging leader. He just never had a higher-up sit down with him and tell him how to do it. So Bill and I worked together for about six months and did a lot of work around him spending more time with each of his staff on a regular basis, asking about their career and really showing an ongoing interest in the welfare of each individual.

I shared with Bill a couple strategies for a comeback. One, you’re going to have to act for a while. The second thing is that I started off small. In psychology there is a model for behavior change called Successive Approximation. What that means is that if you want to change your behavior, you break the larger behavior up into smaller segments. You get the person to have some successes in small ways so that when they get to the big ways they’re feeling more comfortable.

So Bill and I started off about five minutes a day with just one of his direct reports, and that went well. So we added another one. Then we added team meeting, which he had never done. He learned how to make them more sociable, like by having food at the meeting. Bill did these steps on faith and then just started noticing that it was working. He was getting more positive feedback, and people were more productive.

Bill is a classic example of a derailed executive getting back on track with the help of a coach. He was such a great contributor, the management of his company just assumed he would make a great leader too. Wrong assumption. But with guidance, Bill made it back.

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.

Scientists Are Prodigal Executives Too

One of my interests is working with scientists and people who have advanced degrees with a strong analytical bent (possibly because of my own background). One reason why I like coaching these technical executives is that these individuals make such a meaningful contribution. The common reality is that these individuals who are technical professionals are promoted because they were so good at what they did. One of my missions is to help them transition from the technical professional to a leader.

Many of them go into the science because they want to build things not work with people. Management was probably something they did not study in college or grad school. For instance, there was Bill (real story, not his real name). Bill was a senior scientist who went through a coaching program after it discovered he did not have a calling for managing people. His request was to return to be a senior scientist and not continue to pursue a role of manager.

Bill ended up being very successful as a scientist and his experiment with managing people was a good experience. He now had clarity about his true career calling, and that management was not surely for him. His curiosity had been satisfied. Bill learned his course as a scientist he had his calling and he could focus on being the scientist possible.

The moral of the story is, technical competence does not always yield managerial competence.

All companies hunger for superstar employees. They hunger for superstar employees leads to promoting them into managers. Companies also hunger for superstar managers and leaders. In order to help a superstar successful transition from employee to manager without derailing they need to be coached.

But be careful. Many times superstars have a strong ego and are not aware of their need for help. So, one convincing strategy is to tell them the best get better by ongoing coaching and development. You need to sell them on the idea that to truly be set up to succeed they could benefit from coaching.

How to Create A Culture That Prevents Executive Derailment

When you conduct objective benchmark meetings, your company creates a culture that prevents executive derailment instead of trying to correct the derailment. I'm a firm believer that companies should have a 360 process on an annual basis for all of their managers and executives to make sure how they're doing. A 360 degree assessment is like going to your doctor for an annual checkup. The old adage is true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If a manager can see that an executive is derailing and get help to them early, then there is a higher probability that the behavior without can be corrected without significant damage to the organization, the culture or the individual's executive’s brand. Benchmarking with 360 degree management surveys and Web surveys is not that expensive to do. A company can begin with an outside source and after a while the managers can be trained to give the feedback.

Another pet peeve. Companies have a tendency to change their 360 degree feedback survey test on an ongoing basis. Typically a new HR person comes in or the manager hears of a new 360 and changes it. I'm not a big believer in changing which test you use, but I am a big believer in finding one that really works for the company and using it at least two or three times. Every time you change the 360 degree feedback survey you're starting off with a new baseline. If the managers keep switching the survey tools then the company won’t be getting any longitudinal data.

Getting the Prodigal Executive Back On Track

While almost all the companies use external coaches, especially for the C-level suite like CEO and CFO, about 60% were now using internal coaches. “External coaches often are used to ‘save’ an executive from failure when it's too late: like closing the barn door after the horse has already gone.” (McDermott, Levinson and Newton: “What Coaching Can and Cannot Do for Your Organization,” Human Resource Planning, June 2007).

According to a study of 55 large companies (95% with annual revenues of more than $1 billion), organization that address derailment risks through the greater use of internal coaches report positive outcomes.

The study went on to conclude that “using internal coaches in derailment cases, in contrast, may signal that the company takes performance issues seriously and is willing to invest the time of its own people, not just dollars, in supporting an employee's efforts to improve.” Never sell yourself short as an internal coach, because you may be better positioned to leverage other company resources and people to help solve the issues that led to derailment.

Waiting for Time to Heal The Prodigal Executive

"Someday this bitter ache will pass, my sweet. Time wounds all heels."

This Groucho Marx line, from the 1940 film "Go West", is more than the ingenious reversal of the popular cliche "Time heals all wounds.” This is a myth that trips up many companies who have an executive who is too good to fire and too bad to keep.

(By the way, Ann Landers, the most widely syndicated columnist in the world, is also credited with coining this phrase. In 1955, Eppie Lederer was a 37-year-old well-to-do housewife and mother who had never published a word when she entered a contest to write an advice column under the pseudonym Ann Landers in the Chicago Times. She beat out 27 other entrants, many of them professional journalists, with a column that began “Time wounds all heels” and went on writing for nearly 50 years.)

In my book The Prodigal Executive, I discuss the misguided belief that time will work it out. The organizational hope is that the executive will eventually quit causing the pain, suffering and havoc.

So the leaders do nothing. Typically the board of directors or the CEO doesn’t want to confront the pain-in-the-assets executive. This inaction does more harm than good, because silence is reinforcing the executive’s negative behavior (“If they aren’t saying anything, then what I am doing must be okay” they reason).

Typically I am called in when the company can’t wait any longer for time to wound the heel. They feel they have run out of options and the situation has reached a crisis because of problems like high turnover, customer defections and even lawsuits for misconduct like sexual harassment and hostile work environment.

Nope, time isn’t going to be the answer.

That was the case with Larry, a big guy with a gruff, gruff exterior. Larry was good at alienating people and creating the impression they knew nothing he knew everything about his area of specialization. Despite repeated warnings from senior executives, Larry was not changing.

In organizations, there are many ways to communicate symbolically. There are ceremonies, awards, logos, icons, contests and oft-told stories. And there are real-life leadership behaviors that “speak” volumes.

My showing up created two pieces of symbolic communications for Larry. One, he didn’t believe his job was threatened until an outsider showed up. I was not afraid to confront him and tell him that he was inches away from being shown the door. The other message he got from my presence was the company was willing to make investment in him to be a more effective leader, so he had better pay attention. Happily, in Larry’s case, he did pay attention and lost the negativity.

Tell The Prodigal Executive The Bad News

Of course, it is human nature that people don’t want to give other people bad news. That is why there are expressions like, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Deep down people want to be seen as likable, the nice guy or gal. Because they want to be nice, giving people negative, but necessary, feedback is the hardest thing for them to do.

The classic example is the senior executive who gave performance appraisals in the restroom. This manager would see the employee in the restroom and hand the person a folder with things they're doing well and not well.

Regardless of the reason, if you are a manager and you don't give somebody in your organization negative feedback, it borders on being unethical. You're carrying information the employee needs to know for their career survival. If that person doesn't succeed but could have if they had the information, then you as their manager have set them up for failure.

The other problem that happens in executive organizations is that the higher up you go, the less feedback you get.

In the words of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the author of 19 books on leadership, “All other things being equal, your people skills (or lack thereof) become more pronounced the higher up you go. In fact, even when things are not equal, your people skills often make the difference in determining how high you go” (“behave Yourself,” Talent Management Magazine, July 2007).

The feedback a high level executive receives is so sanitized because of the politics it is of scant value. So many times executives, when they do finally get this level of feedback that they're potentially derailing, they're very surprised. And some of the comments are, "Well why wasn't I told this before?" And part of that is the fear of telling the boss there's a problem.