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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
A WALL STREET JOURNAL AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER
An actionable strategy guide for busy professionals who want to level up their management game
In The Manager's Handbook, Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty member, serial entrepreneur, and investor in over 100 companies, David Dodson, delivers an insightful work that describes, in highly practical detail, five skills every great manager needs to know if they want to get things done.
Managers desperately want a crisp, how-to book that will show them—in one single title—the way to master the most important skills necessary to run an organization. The Manager's Handbook organizes the five essential skills of effective implementation into one, simple-to-read, easy-to-use, book. The Manager's Handbook is an essential playbook for managers, executives, board members, and other business leaders interested in dramatically improving their ability to lead people and inspire loyalty.
In the book, you’ll learn how to get better at running any kind of organization by breaking down each essential skill into bite-sized sub-skills you can easily and quickly learn. You'll also find:
- Digestible tips and tactics for hiring the best people, onboarding, performance feedback, and improving the performance of underachievers
- A model script for how to begin an exit interview
- Ways to let people go from your organization gracefully, quickly, and with compassion
The Manager's Handbook is an essential playbook for managers, executives, board members, and other business leaders interested in dramatically improving their ability to lead people and inspire loyalty.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Five Must‐Have Skills from People Who Get Things Doneintroduction
Skill 1: Commitment to Building a Team
Skill 2: Fanatical Custodian of Time
Skill 3: Willingness to Seek and Take Advice
Skill 4: Setting and Adhering to Priorities
Skill 5: An Obsession with Quality
Note
PART I: Commitment to Building a Team
1 Hire for Outcomes
Focus on Outcomes, Not Intuition
Create a Hiring Scorecard
Use a Team Approach
Systematic Interviewing
Step 2: Deepening and Narrowing
Further Interviews
Reference Checks
Be Nice
A Final Thought …
Hire for Outcomes
Ten Initial Interview Questions to Ask
Ten Questions to Give the Candidate in Advance*
Ten Questions to Ask a Reference
Notes
2 The 100‐Day Window
The 100‐Day Window
Strategies for the 100‐Day Window
Clarity with Support
Build a Vigilance Process
A Final Thought …
The 100‐Day Window
Notes
3 Instant Performance Feedback
Instant Performance Feedback over Annual Reviews
Radical Candor
A Six‐Part Framework for IPF
A Final Thought …
Instant Performance Feedback
Notes
4 The 360 Review
Start Slow to Go Fast
Collecting the Information
The Three Cs
A Final Thought …
The 360 Review
Ten Examples of 360 Review Questions
Notes
5 Coaching Underperformance
Four‐Step Process
Coachable or Not?
Development Plan
Set‐Up‐to‐Fail Syndrome
The “No Asshole” Rule
A Final Thought …
Coaching Underperformance
Development Plan (DP)
Notes
6 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Making the Decision
Preparation Is Compassion
Transition Agreement
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Logistics
Communication to Employees
A Final Thought …
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Model Transition Agreement
Notes
7 Never Waste a Last Goodbye
A Competitive Weapon
The Interviewer
The Interview
The Three Cs
A Final Thought …
Never Waste a Last Goodbye
Ten Exit Interview Questions
Notes
PART II: Fanatical Custodian of Time
8 Activity Is Not Progress
Start by Creating Quantity
Then Create Quality
Change Your Environment
A Final Thought …
Activity Is Not Progress
Notes
9 Make Your Day to Make Your Month
General Eisenhower's Matrix
The Planning Ritual
Eat the Frog First
The Power of Immersion
Done Is Better than Perfect
Remember to Think
A Final Thought …
Make Your Day to Make Your Month
Notes
10 Curing the Digital Disaster
Dopamine and Continuous Partial Attention
Gaining 80 Additional Minutes Each Day
A Final Thought …
Curing the Digital Disaster
Notes
11 Seven Steps to Running a Great Meeting
1. Require a Purpose
2. Choose Your Attendees Intentionally
3. Prepare a Background Memo in Advance
4. Choose a Moderator
5. Clarifying Questions
6. Move to Thoughts and Opinions
7. Summarize the Meeting
A Final Thought …
Seven Steps to Running a Great Meeting
Notes
12 Delegating
Managing Managers
Skills, Capacity, and Capability
Using “SCS”
Bring In IPF
Yours, Mine, Ours
A Final Thought …
Delegating
Note
PART III: Willingness to Seek and Take Advice
13 Five Questions
Begin with Your Team
Next, Your Customers and Clients
Then Suppliers and Vendors
Last, the Competition
A Final Thought …
Five Questions to Ask Employees, Customers, Suppliers, and Competitors
Notes
14 Finding and Using Mentors
A Scorecard for Mentors and Advisors
Six Steps to Access Mentors
Show Respect
A Final Thought …
Finding and Using Mentors
Notes
15 Executive Coaching
What Is a Coach?
Finding the Right Coach
The Coaching Process
Group or Peer Coaching
A Final Thought …
Executive Coaching
Ten Questions to Ask a Prospective Coach
Notes
16 A Board of Advisors
Selecting Board Members
One‐Quarter Rule
Running the Meeting
A Final Thought …
A Board of Advisors
PART IV: Setting and Adhering to Priorities
17 Key Performance Indicators
Finding the Right Altitude
Material. Actionable. Measurable.
Duplication. Simplicity. Frequency. Format.
A Final Thought …
Key Performance Indicators
Notes
18 The Operating Plan
Generating Opportunities
Now,
Cross Almost Everything Off the List
Seek and Take Advice
The Power of 10
A Final Thought …
The Operating Plan
Notes
19 Alignment Through Compensation
Variable Compensation
Compensation, KPIs, and the Operating Plan
SMART Goals
Qualitative Targets: The 90‐Day Plan
Pay Graciously
Transition from Legacy Plans
A Final Thought …
Alignment Through Compensation
Notes
PART V: An Obsession with Quality
20 Quality Drives Profit
Moments of Truth
Quality Drives Sales
Quality Drives Pricing
Quality Reduces Cost
A Final Thought …
Quality Drives Profit
Notes
21 Walk Behind the Tractor
The Lake Wobegon Effect
Follow Them Home
The Power of Verbatim
Predictive and Diagnostic Measurements
A Final Thought …
Walk Behind the Tractor
Notes
22 A Vow to Wow
Find a Corner of the Market
Wowing Your Customers
Service Recovery Paradox
Quality as a Process (Three Ss)
More About Simple
A Final Thought …
A Vow to Wow
Notes
Implementing the Five Must‐Have Skills from the Manager’s Handbook
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Hiring Scorecard—Outcomes
Figure 1.2 Hiring Scorecard—Outcomes
Figure 1.3 Hiring Scorecard—Attributes
Figure 1.4 Touching the Elephant
Figure 1.5 Attributes Versus Experience
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Radical Candor
Figure 3.2 Framework for Feedback
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Framework for a Growth Plan
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Framework for a Growth Plan
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 The Eisenhower Matrix
Figure 9.2 Daily Planning Tool
Figure 9.3 Daily Planning Tool
Figure 9.4 Daily Planning Tool
Figure 9.5 Daily Planning Tool
Figure 9.6 Daily Planning Tool
Figure 9.7 Done Versus Perfect Curve
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Time in Meetings
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Framework for Feedback
Chapter 16
Figure 16.1 Board Scorecard
Figure 16.2 The Eisenhower Matrix
Figure 16.3 Strategic Board Schedule
Chapter 18
Figure 18.1 Operating Plan Initiative Matrix
Chapter 19
Figure 19.1 Example Bonus Plan
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 The Ansoff Matrix
Figure 20.2 Impact of Pricing
Figure 20.3 The Cost of Quality
Chapter 21
Figure 21.1 Diagnostic Measurement
Figure 21.2 Diagnostic and Predictive Correlation
Chapter 22
Figure 22.1 Service Recovery Paradox
Figure 22.2 The Better Shot?
Guide
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Implementing the Five Must‐Have Skills from the Manager’s Handbook
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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The MANAGER'S HANDBOOK
FIVE SIMPLE STEPS TO BUILD A TEAM, STAY FOCUSED, MAKE BETTER DECISIONS, AND CRUSH YOUR COMPETITION
DAVID DODSON
Copyright © 2023 by David Dodson. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Author note: Nothing in this book is intended to suggest legal advice for any situation or specific course of action. I am not a lawyer and am only conveying what I have come to understand through my own experience. The content in this book offers only general information and does not address how you might handle your specific situation, nor does it offer any guidance involving a particular set of facts or provide advice on how you might proceed, including any matters or situations involving legal matters or workplace violence. Nothing in this book implies an attorney–client relationship. The sample documents provide examples of my own experience, not legal advice, and are not a substitute for speaking with an attorney.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 750‐4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data:
Names: Dodson, David M., author.
Title: The manager’s handbook : five simple steps to build a team, stay focused, make better decisions, and crush your competition / David M. Dodson.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2023] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023007774 (print) | LCCN 2023007775 (ebook) | ISBN 9781394174072 (cloth) | ISBN 9781394174096 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781394174089 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Management. | Leadership.
Classification: LCC HD31.2 .D637 2023 (print) | LCC HD31.2 (ebook) | DDC 658—dc23/eng/20230421
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023007774
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023007775
Cover Design: PAUL MCCARTHY
Cover Art: © SHUTTERSTOCK | IMAGEFLOW
Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.
—Vince Lombardi
FOREWORD
by H. Irving Grousbeck
We drink from wells we did not dig; we are warmed by fires we did not kindle.
—H. Irving Grousbeck, paraphrasing Deuteronomy 6:11
President John F. Kennedy, in an address shortly before his death in 1963, was discussing the then‐current debate among scientists, and in Washington, about the feasibility of sending a human being to the moon. Kennedy cited a short story, written by the Irish author Frank O'Connor, one of his favorites. In that story, a young boy passed a high wall every afternoon on his way back from school. He gazed up at it each day, wishing he had the courage to climb it, so he could take a shortcut home. The afternoons, and the seasons, passed. Finally, one spring day as he neared the wall, he threw his cap over it. That commitment having been made, with great effort he succeeded in climbing the wall. Only with that mindset, concluded President Kennedy, would our country be able to reach the moon.
You've made the commitment to manage and lead, but that alone does not make you successful. That is what this book is for; to help you learn the necessary skills to succeed at managing. It is one thing to have the will to climb a wall, another to know how to do so.
As a professor, I'm often asked the following question: “Are entrepreneurs born, like .300 hitters in baseball are said to be, or can they be made?” My observation is that while the desire to lead may come from elsewhere, the skills required to lead are within one's ability to acquire. To be a successful manager you don't need to be impulsive, headstrong, bombastic, or flamboyant. If your life takes you down the path of leadership, there are no external barriers to success, only those you internally impose. If you want to master the skills of management quickly, the best shortcut is to follow the learnings and experiences of those who have come before you; what we often refer to as “best practices.” If you learn only one thing from this book, it should be to not waste your precious and creative talents re‐inventing what has already been discovered.
And as you master the management skills described in this book, also know that what you are doing is important. Leaders not only move an organization forward, they also affect individuals. Few from the next generation will remember the names of today's most prominent leaders. But the lives they touched are real. The most significant footprints that you leave will not be in the form of broad strategies, sweeping policies, or eloquent slide presentations at conventions. The grains of sand that matter are the instances you uplifted another. The times you served their career. It will be when you demonstrated morality and integrity, when doing so was inconvenient or expensive. Put more simply, where you manage well, you positively impact lives.
I say it's time to throw your cap over the wall, if you will. And in your journey toward mastering leadership, have a soft heart to go with your sharp mind, steadfastness of purpose, and Godspeed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Manager's Handbook began almost five years ago as a single “whitepaper” on what to do during the first 100 days after buying a company. From there Susan Pohlmeyer and Hannah Dodson helped me write one whitepaper after another, until one day I thought we'd accidentally written a book. But I was wildly naïve. The Manager's Handbook only became possible after hundreds of hours on my part (I am so glad I did not track my time) and the wisdom and guidance from many people—so much so that there is no way I can remember them all, but let me try my best ….
I owe a debt to the community of chief executive officers and entrepreneurs I know who are running companies, who read various chapters of this book and provided me with invaluable insights, and to the tens of former students who were also kind enough to read early drafts and provide feedback for a final version. So many that I must thank them as one terrific group …thank you, all!
Jeff Stevens, Phil Rosenbloom, Jon Herzog, Kevin Taweel, Karen Liesching, and Graham Weihmiller each contributed generously and directly to the content of the work.
My colleagues at Stanford, to whom I owe so much learning about the best practices of management: Coley Andrews, Jennifer Dulski, Jim Ellis, Peter Kelly, Joel Peterson, and Gerald Risk. Graham Weaver was especially helpful in developing concepts of hiring and onboarding, frameworks for coachability, and the best way to use a hiring scorecard. There was also my mentor in writing and in discovering the balance between strategy and implementation, Michael Porter of Harvard Business School.
Simon Collins, Malcolm Collins, Chandos Mahon, Will Colt, and Laura Franklin provided detailed valuable feedback from the perspective of a new leader of an organization, and without their guidance we'd have missed the mark on how to present the learnings from The Manager's Handbook. Stephanie Cornell, Jamie Cornell, Linda Henry, and Dave Maney read early chapters and guided me with how best to position and structure the book.
Many great experts guided me on the key subskills. Lou Adler, the author of Hire with Your Head, was transformative in my development of a standardized hiring process that focused on hiring for outcomes. Stanford's former faculty member and author, Jim Collins, identified key data, and frameworks, for thinking about what makes for a great leader. Kim Scott's work on providing feedback was an excellent framework for my own development, and Cal Newport's development of Deep Work shaped much of my time‐management practices that are described in the book. Much of what I learned regarding setting and adhering to priorities, especially KPIs, can be credited to my business partner John O'Connell.
Cam Lehman helped turn ideas into a readable book, as did Jan Alexander, my editor, and the guidance from Rick Wolff; and Richard Jacobs and David Aretha’s copy edits. Kirstin Siegrist was the glue keeping the book, and my life, together. The folks at Wiley were sent from God: Sally Baker, Sheryl Nelson, Zach Schisgal, Deborah Schindlar, and Kezia Endsley came together as a team to transform a manuscript into a book. Tom Barbash was patient enough to teach me how to write, and while his work with me is unfinished, I owe any progress to him. This would not be a book if not for my agent Alice Martell, who first believed in this project, and then pushed me hard at every turn, and gratefully never let up on her commitment to excellence.
In my development as a manager, I want to thank my former board members: Jon Abbott, Jeff Bradach, Stephanie Cornell, Bill Egan, Gary Kusin, Bob Oster, Patty Ribakoff, Mitt Romney, Jim Southern, Richard Tadler, and Will Thorndike. In my development as a person, I owe the most to my three daughters: Rachel, Hannah, and Caroline.
To my wife Wendy, thank you for believing in me for things well beyond a single book and putting up with the dozen times I declared the book was complete.
And for everything else, Irv Grousbeck.
Introduction: Five Must‐Have Skills from People Who Get Things Done
Vision without execution is daydreaming.
—Bill Gates
Despite earning an economics degree, working at McKinsey & Company, and then receiving an MBA from Stanford's elite business school, no one taught me the basic skills necessary to lead an organization. I had assumed that all of that prior experience had given me the tools to lead, but when I started my first company, I faced the not‐so‐pleasant reality that I'd never actually hired anyone, run a management meeting, or designed a compensation plan. Despite all the expensive business training, no one had taught me how to delegate effectively, let someone go, provide useful feedback, or create an annual operating plan—let alone how to do any of those things well. This was the work that now mattered. I discovered that credentials are not skills.
Instead, I learned on the job. Slowly and expensively. I made horrendous hiring mistakes, wasted cash, misused my team's time as well as my own. Along the way I lost great employees and valuable customers. Those missteps are the inspiration for this book.
Having now backed more than 100 entrepreneurs and taught several thousand MBA candidates, I know those early experiences of mine were not unique. There needed to be a better way to prepare people for leadership, and I became obsessed with the realization that the answer to great management lies not with the talent to see around corners, or by inventing the next big thing, but instead by learning to execute—put more simply, the ability to get things done.
My research also led to the rejection of the widespread theory that great leaders are born a certain way or can be defined by a distinctive set of personality traits. At the time of this writing, a Google search for “characteristics of entrepreneurs” generates well over 350 million results, most of which are platitudinous: creative, passionate, motivated, resourceful, or dedicated. These lists suggest that when it comes to leadership, you either are the right variety or you're not.
What we know is that there are enormous personality variations within the body of skilled entrepreneurs and leaders. Some are terrible public speakers, while others earn standing ovations. I know as many who present as introverts as extroverts. There are highly effective leaders who are bipolar. This increasingly diverse set of successful role models should forever bury any antiquated notion that management success should be limited to those who look a certain way.
Having rejected the “attribute theory” of entrepreneurial success, I became consumed with the nagging question that remained: Why are some people better than others at getting things done? After three years of observation and study, I discovered that what united all great managers was their mastery of a set of five common skills. Their personality attributes varied, but their command of these skills did not. It is universal. There are no exceptions. This was true for Dwight Eisenhower, Martin Luther King, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates. This discovery excited me, principally because if the key to effective management is a set of skills, instead of attributes awarded at birth, the option of becoming an effective leader was open to almost anyone.
Whether it was sending rockets into space or drilling wells under the sea, exceptional managers shared five common skill characteristics that can be learned and applied by anyone—including you. These are the five skills universally shared by people who know how to get things done:
Skill 1: Commitment to Building a Team
Creating a great team is the reason why people with the same number of hours in the day, and days in the week, can manage organizations with thousands of employees. Former Stanford faculty member Jim Collins meticulously investigated the importance of building a team. Following five years of research he concluded:
Those who build great organizations make sure they have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive the bus. They always think first about who and then about what.1
Building such a team does not require superhuman abilities. It is about implementing a process that is nothing more complicated than implementing a series of well‐established skills, all of which are described in this book and are virtually the same whether you are managing a single bookstore or building electric cars.
Skill 2: Fanatical Custodian of Time
Most of us waste much of our day, needlessly giving up valuable hours to pursuits that add little to no value to our organization. But freeing up more quantity of time alone is not enough. The creativity and insights that transform an organization seldom happen in slivers between answering emails and responding to routine requests. They require uninterrupted blocks of time, free from low‐value transactional work. Managers who get things done never allow the priorities of others to interfere with what is important to them.
What we know, though, is that most time‐management solutions require an extensive re‐engineering of our habits and preferences, which is why they almost never stick. We understand that we need to change, and we make promises to do so, but always revert back to the prior bad habits. What is needed is a handful of modest adjustments that don't require any significant change to our existing routines, yet materially increase the quantity and quality of time we have.
Skill 3: Willingness to Seek and Take Advice
Management is not only about getting to the answer quickly; it's also about getting to the right answer. Making consistently good decisions outweighs any ego gratification that comes from being the source of all knowledge.
While most of the issues we face as managers have already been successfully met by others many times over, too many let their egos interfere with maximizing their potential. They worry that asking for counsel shows weakness. They may also fear being told that they might be wrong.
Yet the most confident leaders view things differently. To them, seeking and taking advice is a strategic weapon. They surround themselves with skillful advisors who have the experience, pattern recognition, and time to provide frank and direct advice—and they understand how best to utilize those advisors.
Skill 4: Setting and Adhering to Priorities
The temptation to overload the organization with competing priorities is titanic, leaving your team zigzagging among shifting initiatives while making little forward progress. Less experienced leaders get frustrated, wondering why those around them “can't move fast enough,” forgetting that implementing those great ideas of yours requires hiring people, buying equipment, designing marketing material, building control systems, and leasing space—all of which takes time.
Steve Jobs once told an audience at the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference, “You've got to say ‘no, no, no’ and when you say ‘no,’ you piss off people.” He understood that ideation is faster than implementation. To be successful, even in a company with resources as vast as Apple's, one can only accomplish a small list of things very well.
Skill 5: An Obsession with Quality
Ask yourself this simple question: Which do you fear more, a competitor that has a better sales team or one that has a better product? Of course, it's a superior product or service that you worry most about. In today's world of instant communication, customers know who the most reliable person is to mow their lawn, which big‐screen TV is the best on the market, and which software solution is most reliable. Organizations can't hide from today's information vortex—and those that provide great quality don't want to.
Quality is not about virtue but about making money. It's the easiest and most sustainable way to increase profit because quality drives revenue, improves your pricing power, and lowers your expenses. Providing terrific quality, though, is not about slogans or mission statements. It requires a set of skills to accurately assess what your customer wants and needs, knowing how to implement those features throughout your organization, and then using leading indicators to make the right operational decisions.
_________________
Having identified these five skills shared among people who know how to get things done, I had no interest in writing yet another business book that strafed at 10,000 feet, dropping soundbites and theories, leaving the reader momentarily inspired but without knowing what to do next. I wanted to write a how‐to manual that would help the tens of thousands of everyday leaders and managers who want to be better at getting things done.
This challenge led me to consider how our minds master other skills, such as playing the piano, artistic painting, or golf. I realized that we master these skills by learning a set of subskills that combine to master the primary skill. For instance, in learning to play the piano, you need to know how to read music, how to position your fingers across the keyboard while navigating 88 black and white keys, and the difference between a sharp and a flat. It is the mastery of these subskills, each within most people's ability, that represent the difference between playing “Chopsticks” and Paul McCartney's “Let It Be.” In the same way, this book breaks each of the five skills into a set of easily accessible subskills. Learn the subskills, and you master the primary skill.
My last challenge was how to present material in a way that a busy reader could quickly, easily, and effectively master. Not so long ago, the Harvard Business Review sent me a 241‐page piece on the subskill of running a good management meeting. My bookcase has dozens of books discussing just the subskill of hiring. All of this material is good, but few of us have the time to read thousands of pages to get a few dozen pages of actionable content. I should know—I remember in my early days as an entrepreneur when I barely had time for meals.
My aim was not to fill pages in a book for you to slog through, but to get you the vital information in the most efficient way possible. Which is why I explain each subskill in as few words as possible, as plainly as possible, and end each chapter with a short summary of the material, which becomes your battle plan for implementation. This explains why some chapters are longer than others. I had no desire to create cookie cutter chapters to fit into a book, because I know that you don't have time for that. The Manager's Handbook is a book to use, not just to read. It is the book I wished someone had handed me when I first became a manager.
This is the unique insight of The Manager's Handbook: identify the primary skills necessary to run something; break them down into a combined set of subskills that can be mastered by just about anyone; and present them in a format designed for busy people.
At that point I thought my work was complete. That was until the afternoon I was talking with my friend, Professor Michael Porter, who had completed reading a draft. He said in a certain way that I was thinking about it all wrong. Michael Porter is the author of 19 books on leadership, including the seminal piece on strategy, Competitive Strategy. Fortune magazine said of Professor Porter, “He has influenced more executives than any other business professor on earth,” so I knew to pay attention.
Michael told me that I had incorrectly reduced the five skills to a checklist. To have a chance at greatness, one has to recognize that they function as a set of united subskills. To make his point he listed off a handful of subskills from the book, and how they interrelate: that in order to create an effective operating plan, one needs to have identified the key performance indicators that drive the business. And to do that, an effective manager would have built a team, which would require mastering the skills of hiring, onboarding, and delegation. That same leader would need to manage against that operating plan implemented through effective meetings, and vetted with their mentors and advisors.
His point was that the five skills of people who know how to get things done represent a unifying principle for execution. He told me, “Understanding the competitive landscape is essential, but simply the desire to do things is not enough. The best strategy won't lead to success if a leader can't implement it effectively.” Which is why he then said to me that these five skills should not serve as options to be selectively ordered off a menu, but instead were most powerful when implemented in combination with one another. The risk was that my readers would pick and choose the easiest skills and look past the others. Professor Porter saw that I'd created not a list of things, but a unifying theory of execution.
Whether you are an entrepreneur leading your own show, a manager running a department within an established organization, or a middle‐school principal, this is a how‐to manual for people serious about getting things done.
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I want to now leave you with the story of Roy Halladay and the day he pitched a perfect game on May 29, 2010. A perfect game means no batters made it to base during all nine innings: 27 batters up, and 27 sent to the dugout. A perfect game is no small achievement. Since 1880, only 23 perfect games have been pitched, and no major league pitcher has been able to do it more than once in his career.
What struck me about the story I read was not what Halladay accomplished that day on the pitcher's mound, but what his coach said to him as the two of them walked across the outfield before the game. Rich Dubee told Halladay, “Go out there and try to be good. If you go out there and try to be good, you’ve got a chance to be great.”
Note
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Collins, J. (2001).
First Who, Then What
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PART ICommitment to Building a Team
1Hire for Outcomes
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
—African proverb
Apple, Inc. didn't invent the mouse, the graphic interface, or even the personal computer, but it turned these technologies into one of the most valuable companies in the world because Steve Jobs was ruthless about surrounding himself with top talent. His leadership is one of the best examples of “First Who, Then What,” the expression coined by the business expert Jim Collins, in Good to Great.1 Jobs understood that inventing the next big thing wouldn't make a lick of difference if he didn't have the right team in place to pull it off. “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it,” as Halford E. Luccock, the early twentieth‐century Methodist minister, once said.
Yet most managers are really bad at hiring. A study involving 7,000 hiring managers found that 46% of all new hires fail within the first 18 months, and a mere 19% achieved “unequivocal success.”2 Can you imagine accepting those results in any other aspect of your business? Instead of hiring for outcomes—or put more bluntly, hiring “to get things done”—most of us hire the person whom we personally click with, cross the chore off our to‐do list, and willingly accept a 50/50 shot at having gotten it right.
Fortunately, hiring for outcomes doesn't require special instincts or talents. Better hiring begins with committing to a standardized approach across your organization. Standardizing your process eliminates the risk that someone will follow an incorrect approach, anchors the team to best practices, and allows for process improvement—which can take place only by iterating on a common process.3
The conventional objection to standardization is that it takes away the hiring manager's flexibility. But a process of hiring for outcomes does not impact anyone's role in exercising their judgment in making a final decision; it increases the quality of the data collected in order to improve the eventual decision.
Hiring for outcomes works. When an international nonprofit I cofounded, Sanku LLC, hired three country directors in a row who did not last, I pressed the organization to implement the steps outlined in this chapter. All seven of their next country directors were successes. Today, Sanku is providing fortified foods to millions of at‐risk families, but only because of their top‐notch team.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Intuition
In the book Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell describes a world leader who flew to meet with a foreign counterpart in order to size him up. Similar to how most of us interview candidates for a job, the prime minister wanted to look into the other person's eyes, watch his body language, and decide whether he could be trusted in an important global matter.4 Upon returning from his meeting, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin said of the German chancellor:
He gave me the double handshake that he reserves for special friendly demonstrations … I had established a certain confidence which was my aim … I saw in his face the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word.
Chamberlin recklessly relied on gut feel and likeability over data. “The people who were wrong about Hitler were the ones who had talked with him for hours,” writes Gladwell, describing Hitler's ability to connect to others personally. Because many of the people who should be experts at evaluating others substitute gut feel for data and process, “We have … CIA officers who cannot make sense of their spies,” Gladwell writes, “judges who cannot make sense of their defendants, and prime ministers who cannot make sense of their adversaries.” Winston Churchill, who never met Hitler, drew the correct conclusion, in large part because his judgment was based on observations of the chancellor's actions, and not influenced by his demeanor. Based on the data, Churchill correctly pronounced him “a monster of wickedness, insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder.”
You need not look beyond your own hiring record to see the case for a process that focuses on outcomes. We never hear someone saying they want to promote an internal candidate because they “like” the person or because the person graduated from Princeton—certainly not because of the way they shake your hand. Which is why hiring internal candidates, versus those less known to the organization, has a 20% greater success rate than hiring from outside the organization.5 The disparity happens because we promote internal candidates based on their past performance, recognizing that past performance is the best single indicator of future performance—what the hiring expert Lou Adler calls “hiring with your head.” Internal candidates are promoted because we believe they will produce desired outcomes.
Create a Hiring Scorecard
I was once asked to assist in hiring an operations manager for a trucking and transportation business. In one resume, a candidate spelled the word referral with only one “r.” A member of the team suggested that we not interview the person. The misspelling was evidence of poor attention to detail. But we weren't hiring a copy editor or English teacher. We were looking for someone who could direct a fleet of trucks, improve gross margin by 5%, and lead a blue‐collar workforce. I challenged the team on whether we'd be okay with an awful speller if the operations manager could do those three things exceedingly well. As you can guess, we hired the bad speller. He brought a seven‐point gross margin improvement to the bottom line within a year—and with those results, no one ever complained that he continued to be a lousy speller.
Hiring without a scorecard is like shooting an arrow, then justifying your decision by drawing the bullseye around wherever the arrow lands. Instead, begin by defining the desired outcomes without regard to the person's prior experience. In hiring a vice president of sales, you're not looking for someone with an MBA or 10 years of sales experience. You're looking for a person who can increase revenue. That's the difference between experience and outcomes. Experience is what they did in the past; outcomes are what they will do for you if you hire them. When my friend Paul English, a founder of several successful companies, including the travel business Kayak, wanted to disrupt the travel industry he specifically avoided hiring anyone with travel experience because that experience had nothing in common with the outcomes he sought.
With this goal, you won't be afraid to hire someone who is making a stretch in responsibility just because they have not done the same job before. Actually, you'll tend to favor those with less conventional experience. To again quote from Lou Adler:
To me, the worst is to hire people with the same type of experience in the same type of job in the same industry. While this is easy to do and logically comfortable, you'll continually under‐hire. People who are willing to do the same old things repeatedly are just cruising along. They aren't top performers.6
While the concept of a hiring scorecard is not new, I like the framework that my colleague Graham Weaver developed, which begins with a list of desired outcomes. Let's use the example of a vice president of sales. Such a scorecard might begin like this (Figure 1.1):
Figure 1.1Hiring Scorecard—Outcomes
Next, you'll need to answer the question: “How will I know?” This becomes your hiring action plan, allowing you to target the data you need to collect (Figure 1.2).
Figure 1.2Hiring Scorecard—Outcomes
But outcomes per se are not enough. To finish your scorecard, you need to identify the right attributes, which are the reason someone is likely to achieve the outcome (Figure 1.3). Attributes are not proficiencies like using PowerPoint or operating a backhoe. They are the qualities, characteristics, and traits of a person. To build a correct set of these attributes, use this simple trick. Identify people who have succeeded at your company in similar positions. Then list the attributes that are common among them.
Figure 1.3Hiring Scorecard—Attributes
The reason to emphasize attributes over skills is the simple reason: attributes tend to be hardwired into our nature, skills can be taught. Ray Dalio, who built one of the greatest investment teams in history, says, “Weigh values and abilities [aka, “attributes”] more heavily than skills in determining whom to hire.”
There is no magic number, but generally avoid listing more than five attributes or outcomes. While we often find comfort in long lists, a process that evaluates dozens of attributes and outcomes is impractical to manage, and inevitably we drift away from testing for the “must‐have” qualities and retreat back to substituting gut feel and instinct over an accurate hiring process.
Use a Team Approach
In the ancient Eastern fable, a group of blind villagers comes across a strange animal. Each of them touches a different part of the animal (Figure 1.4). Because they have their own set of facts, they arrive at different conclusions. Touching the trunk, one suggests the animal is like a snake; another who touches the leg believes the animal resembles a tree.
Figure 1.4Touching the Elephant
The same is true when people conduct interviews by themselves and meet afterward to discuss what they learned. Since the interviewers each asked their own questions and heard a unique set of responses, like the villagers in the fable, the interpretation of that information is shared through the prism of their individual data sets.
This way of interviewing also commonly gives an outsized voice to the most senior person, or whoever is the most persuasive or forceful. Candice might say, “I found Larry showed a lack of humility when he talked about the department's achievements,” and Sauda then accepts the judgment of her senior colleague even though she'd come to a different conclusion, which she drew from a different set of data. Sauda must defer to Candice as there is no way to reconcile Candice's and Sauda's differing views because they are based on each having touched a different part of the elephant.
Team interviewing also allows for better listening. When we interview one‐on‐one, a portion of our attention has to be focused on crafting the next question or managing the candidate's response. That inevitably impacts the degree to which we can listen and observe. But during a team interview, while one team member asks questions, the others can study the person without those distractions.
Yet conducted improperly, team interviewing can resemble an out‐of‐control press conference—with everyone firing off questions at the candidate—limiting the quality of the data collected and, in parallel, overwhelming the person being interviewed with unrelated questions being thrown at them. To avoid this, designate one person as the primary, who will do most of the questioning on behalf of the team. Then, before moving to the next line of questioning, the primary should invite others to ask any questions so that everyone has a chance to ask any questions they may have. In this way, no one feels the need to interrupt or prematurely shift the line of questioning in a new direction.
The team approach also allows for a faster process. Instead of asking the candidate an identical question three times, when you interview the candidate as a team, you truncate the process in about half the time. In today's market, this is a recruiting weapon as speed can often be the deciding factor in landing a great hire.
Finally, make clear that while everyone on the team gets a voice, not everyone necessarily receives a vote. Establish up front how the final decision will be made so that all of those participating understand their role, and they don't mistake their participation and influence for having hiring authority.
Systematic Interviewing
Early in my career, I had a favorite interview question: How do you know if the light goes out when you close the refrigerator door
