I just finished reading Ken Blanchard’s most recent book, “Helping People Win at Work – A Business Philosophy called Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” that he co-wrote with Garry Ridge, the president and CEO of WD-40 Company.
The book is a simplified illustration of a good performance management system. The idea being to achieve business objectives, there needs to be SMART goals set for employees. The manager’s job is to help the employee accomplish agreed upon goals (get an “A” on the final exam). By managing the process, helping them achieve their employee goals and holding them accountable at performance appraisal time, there are many benefits for both the employee and the organization. The employee feels valued that they contributed to the vision of the organization and the organization achieves its business objectives.
The performance management system helps in identifying strengths and weaknesses in employees and managers. This is supported by the culture at WD-40 which focuses on all employees achieving an A (or B) on the final exam (accomplishing goals) or they are helped to find a better fit either in another department in the company or as they say “shared with a competitor”.
The book described leadership as being a partnership with the employee that involves mutual trust and respect. A great quote in the book was “are you partnering for performance with your people, or is your performance review system an alarm bell?”
WD- 40 doesn’t use the typical team concept. They use the term “tribe”, defined as: “A tribe is a place you belong; a team is something you play on once in a while.”
Other great quotes from the book:
“A compelling vision tells people who they are, where they are going, and what will guide their journey.”
“All good performance starts with clear goals”
“Tribal leaders help younger and future leaders develop. To understand how a tribal culture impacts open communication, think about tribal leaders: They sit around a fire and share their knowledge with younger tribe members.”
“It is important to remember that you should not wait until people do something perfectly right to praise them. Praise progress, because it’s a moving target.”
“The purpose of redirection is to set up, as soon as possible, an opportunity for praising to occur.”
This is a fast, simple read that is a great reminder for the experienced manager and a great learning tool for new leaders. This would be a great book for any business owner or manager to add to their leadership library.
