MANAGERS ROUNDTABLE9/25/2013

“FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES”

WHAT THE WORLD’S GREATEST MANAGERS DO DIFFERENTLY

MARCUS BUCKINGHAMCURT COFFMAN

• The ability to find and keep talented employees is vital to sustained organizational success

• The only way to generate enduring profits is to begin by building the kind of work environment that attracts, focuses and keeps talented employees

• Most managers realize that their competitiveness and their success is dependent upon finding and keeping top talent in every role

KEY CONCEPTS

• How do organizations determine whether or not they are effective at doing this?

• How do you measure something that is so critically important?

• How do you develop a measuring stick that is simple and accurate and can tell us how our managers are doing in terms of finding and keeping talented people?

• How do you build highly engaged, productive teams?

KEY CONCEPTS

Reviewing more than a million employee surveys, Gallup identified a few questions that when

answered positively by employees served as a predictor of outstanding performance and financial

results.

KEY CONCEPTS

• Interviewed over a million employees• Took mountains of data and searched for

patterns• Pried apart strong workplaces to reveal the core• Searched for those special questions where the

most engaged employees – loyal and productive – answered positively, and everyone else answered neutrally or negatively

KEY CONCEPTS

• Discovered “The Big 12”– Don’t measure everything you may want to know

about your workplace– Do measure the strength of a workplace– Do measure the core elements needed to attract,

focus and keep the most talented employees

KEY CONCEPTS

“Talented employees need great managers.”

KEY CONCEPTS

Measure the Strength of your Company and its Managers

The Big 12

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the right materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

THE BIG 12

• Gallup worked to establish the link between employee satisfaction and business performance (1998)

• 24 companies representing over 2500 business units provided data regarding productivity, profitability, employee retention, and customer satisfaction

• Correlating this data with employee responses to the 12 questions, the Gallup team made several observations

PUTTING THE 12 TO TEST

• Employees who responded positively to the 12 questions worked in business units with higher levels of productivity, profit, employee retention, and customer satisfaction.

• An employee’s immediate manager (not the pay, benefits, perks, or a charismatic corporate leader) plays the critical role in building a strong workplace.

• People join companies, but leave managers – and no HR gimmick will overcome the negative impact of an ineffective manager. In that sense, managers trump companies.

PUTTING THE 12 TO TEST

Great managers take aim at the first 6 questions – these form the foundation of an extraordinary work

environment…

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Great managers take aim at the first 6 questions – these form the foundation of an extraordinary work

environment…

…the psychological climb.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Base Camp: “What do I get?” 1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the right materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

…meeting basic needs.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Camp 1: “What do I give?”4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

…self esteem and self worth.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Camp 2: “Do I belong here?”7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

…am I part of a meaningful social system?

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Camp 3: “How can we all grow?”11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

…do I have the opportunity to develop?

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Reaching the Summit• Positive answers to all 12 questions• Have achieved clear focus• Recurring sense of achievement• Shared purpose

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

Four Business Outcomes Correlate to the Big 12

1. Productivity2. Profitability3. Employee retention4. Customer satisfaction

FOUR OUTCOMES