Every Business Problem Is a People Problem
If every business problem is a people problem, as has been proposed, then the only effective path to business success is the development of people. This can be done in two ways.
First, attract and hire good quality people. Put every person in the right seat, doing the right work. This sounds easy and sounds like an end in itself, but hiring one good person is a significant challenge. Hiring two good people who have the necessary skills and who work well together is another challenge altogether—something like winning the lottery every time it occurs.
The Myth of Easy Replacement
Some managers continuously recite quotations from business gurus who recommend such things as: “If they can’t do the job, find someone who can” or “Turn your people over at least once a year. It’s good for business.”
The reality is that managers who tend to function under these kinds of assumptions are themselves generally ineffective. This is not to say that clear business objectives do not need to be set and met, or that some employees are simply not productive or are not good team members. Some are disruptive or choose to be blocks to necessary changes.
We have found that less than 15% of the employees in most companies are truly poor workers. Most are simply in the wrong job.
The Power of Repositioning
We have had great success moving people across the hall, out of a position in which they are poor performers and into a position in which their Core Values Nature is very similar to the top performers in that position. Most become A or B performers very rapidly.
It is important to realize that we spend a significant amount of time and money building and nurturing good customer relations, good banking relations, and good vendor relations. It seems appropriate to invest an equal if not greater energy and resource allocation toward the development of the individuals in our business organization.
This, after all, is the way we increase our capacity to build all of the other necessary relations with the economic world outside our offices.
Beyond Credentials and Experience
Many business leaders have attempted to become better business people by getting more business education. And to some degree this has been helpful. But an MBA is simply a piece of paper that affirms a certain level of classical knowledge in several subjects. It does not certify power, wisdom, or love, or the thirst for being the knowledge in the room.
Nor does it equate with innate capability, management acumen, team building abilities, or anything else directly related to running a successful business. An MBA illustrates best that a person has the basic intelligence to learn from books and lectures.
History has taught us that hiring people based upon previous experience and self-attested skills, even proven or tested skills, still results in the performance bell curve: 10% A performers, 15% B performers, 50% C performers, and 25% D performers in almost every position in every company.
Inner Nature First, Then Experience
When you want an employee to perform a certain task, be most concerned about whether he or she has the innate characteristics which are most suited toward the job you want to get done. Your second concern should be: “To what degree has this been demonstrated by successful experiences?”
Many people have been hired who had the right experience and a good resume but when hired demonstrated that their capabilities were misaligned to the job. The sales person you hired really should have been an accountant. The manager you hired should never have been taken off the production line.
Aligning Development with Nature
In all coaching, mentoring, and management situations it is important to accommodate the individual’s core values learning style. It is equally important to set aside one’s own learning and leadership style to serve the individual’s learning style.
It is the responsibility of the coach, mentor, and manager to make all communication effective and to serve the employee or client in their effort to optimize personal performance. This can only happen when the coached person is provided learning experiences in alignment with their core values.
By using the person’s Core Values Index and core values learning style assessment scores, a manager can quickly temper their approach to the individual so communication and learning are optimized.
Development That Sticks
Abraham Maslow called the innate self the unchanging real self, which contains your natural tendencies—your preferred ways of seeing, feeling, reasoning, deciding, and participating in your society. He proposed that your inner nature is unchanging from childhood until death.
Development that works with this inner nature sticks. Development that works against it fails. When you develop people in alignment with their core values, they engage fully with the development process and apply what they learn naturally.
Development by Core Value Type
Developing Builders
Focus on results, efficiency, and action. Builders learn by doing. Give them challenges with clear objectives and the autonomy to achieve them their way.
Developing Merchants
Focus on relationships, communication, and vision. Merchants learn through interaction. Provide mentoring, collaborative projects, and connection to purpose.
Developing Innovators
Focus on problem-solving, strategy, and systems. Innovators learn through observation and analysis. Give them complex challenges and space to find solutions.
Developing Bankers
Focus on knowledge, accuracy, and mastery. Bankers learn through study and research. Provide structured learning, documentation, and time for thorough understanding.
The Investment That Pays
Rafer Johnson, the 1962 Olympic Decathlon Gold Medal Winner, said it best: “Employees should be all they can be. Because if they are, the company can be all it can be.”
Development of personnel aligned with their inner nature is not a cost—it’s an investment with extraordinary returns. When people work where they fit, doing work aligned with their core values, they engage fully, perform at higher levels, and stay longer.
This leads to working with a sense of purpose, being fully engaged in work, doing work that uses each person’s most important personal talents and skills. The result is the kind of corporate success that cannot be achieved through any other means.
Develop Your Team’s Potential
Ready to unlock the full potential of your team through development aligned with core values? Learn how the CVI can transform your approach to personnel development and corporate success.