golf galaxy

People - You Can't Make Them What They're Not
By Alan Fairweather, Sat Dec 10th

Many business people and managers are spending too much timetrying to change the underperforming people who work for them.They seem to believe that if they train people - tell them whatto do or even threaten them with the sack - then the performancelevel will go up.

The successful manager concentrates on developing the strengthsof his team members - not trying to correct their weaknesses.Sometimes you have to manage around a weakness, but you can'tmake people what they're not.

Some years ago I decided to improve my golf by taking somelessons. A friend and I spent some hours with a professionalgolfer and coach at a local country club. This was really usefulto me and I did get better. However my friend Robin hadn't aclue. No matter what the pro told him to do, how to change hisstance and his grip, he could hardly hit the ball.

If you'd given Robin a hundred lessons and threatened him with agun, I doubt if he'd ever have completed a round of golf in lessthan two days. Robin is a successful lawyer and makes a lot ofmoney, however a golfer - he is not.

So if you have a sales person on your team who isn't bringing inthe sales or a production engineer who isn't making his quota,then you have to make a decision. Is this person not producingbecause they don't have the ability - because they need moretraining or - because there's another reason?

You can read more about coaching and other reasons for nonperformance in my book - "How to get more Sales by Motivatingyour Team" but for the moment it's important to understand thatthe individual may not be able to do the job.

They may tell you they can do the job because they're unwillingto accept defeat; however I've known people in sales jobs whoshouldn't be in sales and doctors, plumbers, lawyers andengineers who were also in the wrong job.

What you need to do is get people who can't do the job into ajob that they can do or get

them out of your team.

I joined three companies as a manager and in each case Iinherited team members who didn't have what it takes to do thejob. I'd usually find three categories of people in the teams -The first group were the 'good guys,' the ones I knew could dothe job and wouldn't give me any hassle.

The second group consisted of people who needed a bit of lookingafter, watching closely and definitely some coaching.

The third group were the ones didn't have either the skills orthe characteristics to do the job and no amount of training, oranything I could do, would change that. I would often find thatthese people, due to their lack of success, weren't exactlyhappy in the job anyway and were sometimes only too pleased tobe transferred to another position.

I hear you saying - "easier said than done Alan" and you'reright. But the successful manager needs to address these issuesfor the good of the team and the business.

The successful manager concentrates on strengths not weaknesses.It's vital to give your people feedback on their strengths andalso on their weaknesses. However these should only beweaknesses that you know the individual can do something about.

It's a waste of your time and effort trying to sort weaknessesthat can't be sorted. Some people just can't build relationshipswith customers; others can't work as fast as you need them toand others can't write a report to save their life.

Your most productive time as a manager will be spent givingfeedback on strengths and how to develop these even further.Many managers spend the majority of their time with team memberstrying to resolve weaknesses. They then don't have the time orsometimes the capability to give feedback on strengths.