The Unpopular Boss E-Book

Markus Jotzo

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 314

Beschreibung

Giving your employees goals, motivating them, providing feedback, and supporting them, whilst also remaining aware of all the conventional tasks of leadership, is of course correct and good - but it is not excellent. Excellent leaders are not the friendly boss who wants to be the employee's pal. Experience shows that it is the uncomfortable and challenging bosses who can't be beaten when it comes to results and employee development. In this book, Markus Jotzo outlines the path from mediocre management to excellent leadership. As a self-employed leadership expert since 2005 and a previous manager himself, he knows what he is talking about. In this book you will find numerous concrete examples, tangible tools, and tips that you can directly implement in your daily leadership activities. MARKUS JOTZO has eight years of experience as a manager at Unilever. Today, he is active as an international speaker and trainer and is the founder of the institute Markus Jotzo Leadership. His credo: An excellent leader is not the one who fosters a great mood in the team, but the one who supports and further develops the team - and thereby ensures the success of the organization. The author lives in Hamburg and has two amazing children. www.markus-jotzo.com

Leseprobe

Markus Jotzo

The Unpopular Boss

Markus Jotzo

The Unpopular Boss

Why Excellent Leaders Are Not Nice

© 2019 Markus Jotzo

Cover design: Martin Zech Design, Bremen/www.martinzech.de; english version: Olga Egorova

Layout: Adina Cucicov

Translation + editing: Laura Davies

Publisher & Print: tredition GmbH,

Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Germany

ISBN

Hardcover

978-3-7482-8649-3

eBook

978-3-7482-8650-9

All rights reserved

For all leaders who taught me so many valuable lessons.

Above all my grandmother, my mother and my father.

Table of Contents

Why I Wrote this Book

How the Unpopular Boss Was Once Almost Entirely on his Own

Chapter 1: Passion

How to make your people do more than their job

Jests, quirks, and manias

First: Talk so I can see you – know your employees

Second: Solve the obstacles to success

Third: In your own element

Chapter 2: Corporate Lawyer

Why the true friends of people are tough

First: Maintain motivational environments

Second: Channel conversation waterfalls

Third: Clearly determine the position

Fourth: Do not leave your employees standing in the rain

Chapter 3: The Winger

What makes your team really independent?

First: Hand over responsibility responsibly

Second: The boss as a coach

Third: Consult colleagues

Fourth: Handle employee mistakes confidently

Chapter 4: Bonus Plus

Why idea competitions never work

Where it hurts – bonuses as compensation

Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation

First: Do as you please – promoting intrinsic motivation

Second: All in one boat – team bonuses

Third: Is it possible to abolish it?

Chapter 5: Moving Mountains

Why overwork is sometimes the best way to go

First: The decision – to do or not to do?

Second: The framework conditions – make the impossible possible Third: The spark – get your employees involved with your enthusiasm!

Fourth: Persevere – stay on the ball, even when it gets difficult Fifth: Pay the price if things go wrong

Chapter 6. Goodbye Silo Thinking!

How together you can achieve much more than the departmental goals

First: The boss as a networker

Second: Real cooperation

Third: Challenge your employees to network

Fourth: Leading employees to real cooperation

Chapter 7: Naysayers

Why you do not need employees who give their everything

Take care of your employees

First: Enough is enough! Limit working hours

Second: Yes to the goal means no to the detour

Third: Be a role model

Chapter 8: Sumo Rings

Why bosses need the most feedback

Blinders

The Respect Trap

First: Show confidence and self-critical feedback culture

Second: Trustful feedback dialogues at all levels

Chapter 9: Starry Skies

Why mediocre projects are not for you

First: Sifting for big projects

Second: Launch an innovation factory

Chapter 10: Back-up

How every day can be a holiday

First: It’s your turn – stay away from routine business

Second: Everyone is a leader

Thlrd: Dreams of the future – building a deputy

How the Unpopular Boss Got Full Support in the End

Further Reading

About the Author

Why I Wrote this Book

The reason is quite simple: Because I still come across too many good leaders – and very few excellent ones.

The leaders in my trainings are often shaped in the way that the management literature is currently propagating. There are many bosses who consider themselves as a friendly coach to their people and who try to always find laudable details – no matter how great the damage their employees have done. Overall, the trend is clearly moving in the direction of the “Motivating Sunny Boy” or the “Understanding Father of the Family”. I’m afraid that’s a mistake.

Please do not misunderstand me: I do not advocate a relapse to an authoritarian leadership style. But what everyone who knows the economy from the inside also knows is this: The consensus-oriented leadership style helps neither companies nor employees. This is because they run the risk of settling down in the comfort zone and being satisfied with the sheer striving for harmony with mediocrity. And that is certainly not what you want, is it?

So, what can be done? Stay calm and simply set goals, delegate everything you can delegate, give all the feedback, and promote an open error culture – is that enough?

My conviction is this: The boss who does all this is a good boss. Maybe even a very good boss, but he is not excellent. An outstanding one does more: He empowers his employees to run the business all by themselves. And this is the quantum leap in leadership culture:

• Away from striving for harmony, towards a demanding, sometimes uncomfortable leadership style

• Away from human-despising performance pressures that managers of previous generations have practiced, towards personal growth in which each employee unfolds his potential

• Away from trying to motivate employees to “only” unleash their enthusiasm

In other words, not every buddy boss is also a good leader. For excellent results consistent, situational and individual guidance is needed, even when this can sometimes seem so uncomfortable that no employee likes it, at least for a while anyway. But the results will prove that this is the right way.

In this book, I will show you how to do exactly that: Move from the good to the excellent leader.

Markus Jotzo

How the Unpopular Boss Was Once Almost Entirely on his Own

“Cappuccino or espresso?“

“Hmm, I just don’t know. Which takes the least effort?“

Tom looks around at Mike’s apartment. Fancy. The leather armchair in particular has a welcoming effect. Tom sits down next to Yasmin, Petra and Benny, who are already gathered around the glass coffee table. Mike is struggling with the coffee machine – of course it is the very latest model from the company for which they all work.

But.

Each of the five has been called at home by Ralph Sunn in the last few days. The former sales manager has offered them jobs in his new company, a Japanese manufacturer of intelligent home and office control systems, which is currently building a new headquarters in Europe. When Mike heard that several of his colleagues had also received such an offer, he invited them to his home for the meeting. The question is: What to do?

And here they are. Petra fiddles around her blouse collar. Benny stirs his cappuccino. But no one looks at the other directly.

“Would be a pity if the team is torn apart,” Yasmin breaks the silence and spoons sugar into her coffee. Mike and Benny mutter agreement.

The fact that Ralph Sunn’s team holds together like glue has been enough for Tom. At each company party, they sit together. Their table is always the loudest and happiest. Tom’s direct colleagues from marketing, on the other hand, usually spend the celebrations with people they don’t meet every day. That’s how it always works.

For Tom…not that he has anything against his colleagues, but he also doesn’t feel the need to spend every single minute with them.

“You have to leave that to them,” thinks Tom. “You have a great atmosphere with the team. What is the good thing about it? It’s safe for everyone, as they are all on the same wavelength. But certainly, the same goes for Sunn. He’s in a good mood wherever he goes. This will certainly be the case with the Japanese company. Maybe that’s what they’re doing. Would not be bad to be part of it.”

Tom stares into his coffee cup. Actually, this is a decision that he doesn’t need to consider for long. Such a unique opportunity cannot be missed. But something makes Tom hesitate, in fact is giving him a stomachache, but what is it?

While the others are discussing, Tom mechanically stirs his coffee. Even though he did not take sugar or milk. And his thoughts continue to circle.

“What does the work actually entail?” shoots through his mind. “Regarding its mood? What about the colleagues? What am I enjoying the most?”

The other day, for example, when he submitted his concept for the latest promotion, it was very successful. That was a great moment! He felt like a racing car with a jet engine. All day he ran beaming through the company. Although, he had not received any feedback from the boss…but something like that doesn’t happen every day. However, what happens every day is the following feedback from his boss: “Not good enough. I expect more from you.” Of course, that’s not so much fun.

He finally laughs – he now remembers when his gaze crosses Yasmin’s – in the coffee break last Tuesday, when Yasmin did that pretty awesome imitation of Michael Mayor. If such moments did not exist, he would probably be desperate by now. Unfortunately, they are far too rare in the marketing field. Always at the most inopportune moment his boss, Alfred Grey, will be standing in the door with a sour expression on his face, asking about a project that is not even on your radar anymore. He asks what’s not working and what you can do to make it work…He can really get on your nerves with his incessant questioning. But if you ask him for help, he usually just answers gruffly: “What do you suggest?” Then the urge to ask passes.

The best would be both: Good mood and good results. That must be possible, Tom thinks. And if not, then what would be more important to me?

“It’s a shame he’s leaving,” Tom hears Mike say aloud. The initial murmur has turned into a conversation.

“Yeah, and I don’t quite understand it,“ Yasmin says. “We are such a well-rehearsed team. Works great with us! Why does he want to leave?”

“Hmm,“ Tom says. That’s a bit weird. Especially the fact that it became known so late, not until he was almost gone. And in the explanation from the management only the usual stock phrases. “By mutual agreement.” And so on. Hard to say what that means, and you can reinterpret pretty much anything. And then there was even some clamor behind the scenes. What exactly was going on there?

“Well, maybe he has not seen any development opportunities with us,” Benny speculates. “Or he finds intelligent home and office control simply more exciting than coffee machines.”

“Yeah, that would suit him,” Mike says. “He always has the latest apps on his smartphone and…”

“The company is really cool,” Yasmin interrupts. “I saw their booth. Twice as big as ours, at least. Top of the range!”

“Yes, but what about the numbers? Has anyone looked at the annual report?” asks Petra.

“Not directly,”’ says Mike, leaning back. “But the stock price has increased by a third in the last year.”

“stock price…” Tom mumbles softly to himself. “Ours only rises slightly,” he thinks. Although sales have also grown in recent years.

Too bad we don’t have any numbers on the Japanese company. Which company is actually better off?

But Tom can’t keep thinking about this question, because Benny suddenly waves his tablet in his face.

“Look, the website from the Japanese company. They’ve got a simulation of what intelligent home and office control can do. Cool, right?“

“Looks like fun to work with these products. Imagine building a whole new market! If that‘s not an exciting job…” Yasmin says and then corrects herself at the same time. “On the other hand, everybody needs a coffeemaker, the market potential is bigger.” Now she moves her head back and forth, gazing at the pretzel sticks that nobody has touched yet.

“She has raised an important point,” Tom thinks. “The effect that I can achieve with my work, that‘s important to me. Only, where is it bigger?”

“Does anyone know what kind of company car you get there?” Mike asks. “It would be nice to drive to the customers in a cooler car than a Passat.”

“You and your company car,” laughs Petra. “As if that‘s the most important thing. Men!”

“Excuse me,“ Mike says. “On average, I‘m at the wheel for three or four hours every day. The car is my workplace. You may not care what office chair you‘re sitting on and which screen you‘re staring at for eight hours every day!“ He crosses his arms and puts on his usual offended face.

“Well, I don’t know which car the regular distributors get there,“ Benny interjects. “But Ralf told me he has a BMW 5 Series.”

Mike nods appreciatively. That sounds good.

“Sure, the car is important to a field worker,” Tom thinks. “Not only for the feel-good factor, but also for the impression one leaves on the customer. But it cannot be the only thing that matters to sellers. I can’t imagine that Mike doesn’t care which product he sells, or how his customers feel about it, and certainly not how much sales he makes. Well, anyway. What Mike thinks is ultimately Mike‘s thing. The question is, what do I think? What do I want to achieve? Bigger salary? Nicer car? I would be happy, of course, but the reason why I work hard here is not just the money. Otherwise I would work somewhere else. No, otherwise I would have studied something else…”

“Well!” Mike says firmly. “I think we should either all go or all stay. Otherwise it seems weird. What do you all think?”

The others around the table nod silently. But nobody wants to start by committing themselves. Yasmin looks at Tom. Benny gets up and gets another coffee. Petra also turns in the direction of the leather armchair on which Tom has made himself comfortable.

“Hey, tell me something. Why are you so quiet today?“ Petra asks him with a piercing gaze.

As if in an oral exam, Tom slips back in his chair. His colleagues look like an examining board.

“Sorry, what, Petra?“ he asks, holding a hand to his ear as if he had not heard her properly.

“You could certainly become a department head there, at least. Would not that entice you?”

Normally, he is fast thinker, but today Tom seems to take longer than anyone else to even think of the simplest of things. He looks at the expectant faces and finally says:

“Sorry, I just don’t know.”

Yasmin nervously plays with her hands. “Of course, it would be pretty harsh if four or five employees were to go at once. They can’t close the gap that fast, not until the successors have been trained.”

Petra leans forward. “So, you think we should stay?“

Yasmin gestures defensively. “I mean, that‘s one of the things we have to think about. After all, we do owe a lot to the company.”

“But Ralf deserves our loyalty at least as much,“ Benny blurts out. “Do you remember the leasing project?”

Mike‘s loud laugh breaks through the silence.

“Yeah, he did a great job!”

“What’s the matter? Petra asks.

Benny launches into his explanation. “Well, you can certainly remember that our latest leasing concept was declared a priority project last year.”

“Um, sure, that thing was legendary. It does not happen every day that sales gets through something like that,” smiles Petra.

“Well, that was Sunn’ work,” Benny continues. “Ralf showed all of his salesmanship, all his charisma, and his most brilliant arguments to the CEO to convince him that the profitability would be better than with any of the others.”

“I remember,” says Petra. “The head of development was angry for weeks because he felt he had gone above his project.”

“Perhaps. But we distributors were finally able to show what’s in us. We won over 10,000 new customers with the campaign. At the company summer party, Sunn proudly presented the results and even called the project managers to see. It was just so awesome how we celebrated the success.”

“Respect! It’s great how Sunn puts his people in the limelight,” Tom says. “The man is a real motivator for his department.”

On the other hand, since this promotion the sales department has lost its strong image with most other departments. Sunn seems to be advancing his department while at the same time clouding the relationship with the other divisions.

Tom is playing with his shoelace now, spinning it as if spinning a woolen thread.

Of course, there are trench battles in many companies, he thinks. But is there one in every company? Now he has pulled on his shoelace so much that the loop has loosened.

“Red or white?” Mike asks.

He sets out some wine glasses and pours the wine. He turns the bottle slightly, so that the last drop rolls back into the neck of the bottle.

While Tom is still thinking, Petra is already holding her glass and giving Mike a charming smile.

“It looks really good when you pour in wine,” she says, looking him in the eye.

Tom frowns. Really? And Petra is married… But then Tom noticed this earlier: Sunn’s people never miss an opportunity to give each other positive feedback. Apparently, they have copied this from their boss.

Even Tom, who does not have as much to do with Sunn as the others do, has already noticed this particular trick: Even if a lot of things go wrong, he always finds some sort of success to get started with the feedback. No wonder his people are always in such a good mood. Sunn succeeds in rhetorically packing even the most negative feedback in cotton wool so that the employees remain motivated. Tom thinks it is sometimes a bit too much. But that may still be better than Gray, from whom one seldom hears anything positive.

Normal good services are barely remarked upon. Only if something is really outstanding does he find it worth mentioning. He can be quite harsh with his criticism. Especially in his early days, it happened to Tom several times that Gray only briefly looked over his carefully elaborated concept and then said: “This begins at the completely wrong starting point. I‘m not going to take a closer look, you have to go back to that. And think about what you want to do with the target group.”

That was savage. At that moment, Tom would have liked to have thrown his concept folder at Gray’s head, but fortunately the other was already out the door.

Then again, Tom knew what the boss was after. Gray eventually nodded at the revised concept. Meanwhile, Tom himself knows exactly what to look for next time. So, such stupid mistakes as he made in the beginning have not happened to him since.

Petra twirls her wineglass in her fingers and says, “They‘ll have to fill a whole bunch of positions if they start building their branch. From various sales positions and Internet presence to developers adapting their systems to the European office and home situation. I would be interested to see the organizational structure.”

It seems she is trying to find out who got what position, Tom interprets.

Of course, changing jobs is a great opportunity to advance a career. There is not much movement in Sunn‘s department, people tend to come and stay. By now, Yasmin, Benny and Mike are already qualified for higher positions, what with all the training that Sunn has given them. There is always someone attending a seminar for a few days. Sunn has even won a fixed budget for training from the management and makes sure that it is always used. Benny has praised him a few times when he returned with euphoria from some of the training that Sunn had recommended.

“I have not done much training,” Tom now thinks, a bit self-critical. “And even the few sessions I did I had to organize myself. But gradually I have taken on new tasks, more demanding projects. Partly, Gray has entrusted me with things that were really at my limit. The overall coordination of the Easter campaign last year, for example. That was hard. For nights, I pondered on how to bring everything to the series. But I did learn a lot from it. Would I have learned more if Gray had pushed for more training? And what about the new company? What development possibilities are there? How much care is taken of the employees and how much do they expect the staff to take care of themselves?”

A phone rings. Petra fishes it out of her bag, looks briefly at the caller number and rejects the call.

“That‘s just my husband. Our conversation here is just more important.”

Priorities. That‘s another point. Tom remembers well how he presented his concept for the Easter campaign to his critical boss. He wanted to go the whole hog: TV commercials, billboard advertising, print advertisements, social media campaigns, commercial promotions, competitions, product placement in films, and merchandising items such as cups and sachets with their brand name. Gray looked at it briefly and then asked him:

“Which measures do you think have the biggest impact? Which are priority B and which ones are just nice?”

The A priorities were clear: Billboard advertising and television commercials. For the rest of the elements, Tom had to think for a moment, then decided that the social media campaign and trading actions were priority B and everything else was priority C. Gray nodded and said, “Then get rid of the C stuff.”

Tom was stunned, and also a bit offended.

“Do you think I can’t do it all?”

“I do not want you to waste your time on C priorities,” Gray said shortly, and disappeared into his office.

Another moment that left Tom with mixed feelings. Nevertheless, he then focused on the A and B priorities, and indeed, the campaign was a complete success.

How will the performance in the home and office control company be measured? Based on the results that someone delivers? On the number of tasks he does? On the hours he spends in the office?

“The Japanese company has a day nursery,” says Petra. “And they would help find a flat. Ralph told me he‘s making sure of it.”

Yes, that‘s what he has said to Tom. And he has also promised to him all possible support in relocating. Sunn really cares about his people. Tom is just not sure what to make of it. It reminds him a bit of his mother, who still cannot help giving him a food package after every visit.

“Do I really want that from my boss?” Tom asks himself.

Mike makes the rounds with the two bottles of wine again. He no longer asks Tom, who seems lost in the leather chair, whether he wants red or white, after he has twice not been able to decide. But now Tom is fully present again. He straightens, picks up his glass and says to Mike:

“Red for me, please!”

Everybody raises their glasses in a toast. Yasmin looks at everyone and says with a complacent look, “Well, I get the impression we‘re in agreement.”

Mike smiles at her, Benny nods, and Petra takes a deep breath.

Only Tom seems frozen. His face is empty. Yasmin puts her hand on his shoulder.

“All right, Tom?”

“Yes, yes, all right.”

“What do you think about it?” She asks him directly.

Tom takes a breath, puts his glass on the coffee table, looks at everyone in the round, and then says:

“I’ll stay with Gray.”

Suddenly, there is silence. The room temperature has dropped by a few degrees in one go. Yasmin stares at him in astonishment. Petra swallows her wine and has to cough. The only one who can say anything is Benny. He lowers his glass and looks at Tom with incomprehension.

“Why is that?”

Chapter 1: Passion

How to make your people do more than their job

What would have happened to the Dresden Frauenkirche if the Third Reich and the subsequent bombardment had not existed? Nobody can say for sure, but there is reason to suppose that it would not have lasted much longer.

Since the construction of the church in 1726, the inner pillars of the dome had been forced outwards a few millimeters each year because they could not carry the huge load. The architect George Bähr, who designed the Frauenkirche in the 18 th century, had miscalculated the data. The construction did not, as he thought, divert some of the forces across the outer walls. The eight inner pillars had to carry the entire dome weight because a much too soft type of sandstone and bad grouting had been used. The result: The first cracks occurred during construction. Again and again, individual stones crumbled and were replaced with makeshift replacements. Every few decades, the pillars had to be reinforced with additional metal brackets. Only in 1942 was the dome stabilized with steel arches and ring anchors – almost three years before the Dresdner Frauenkirche went down in a rain of bombs.

Any monumental building may look just as splendid, but it is only stable if the structural engineer has calculated correctly and the right building material has been used in the right place. For the supporting pillars, a more stable type of rock is needed than for the facade facing. The outer facade needs a weather-resistant veneer – in contrast to the interior facade, where appearance is more important. A good builder takes care of that. However, the best builders examine the texture of each stone: The layering, grain, irregularities, cracks, etc. Accordingly, they select their orientation and the surrounding structure, so that these properties are optimally used. Furthermore, they instruct the stonemason to carve this stone exactly as its characteristics and its planned position in the building require.

How much does this have to do with your role as a leader? Some. Because you find yourself in the role of a builder – your employees are the building blocks, the company is the building.

Of course, the quality of the results in your department depends on what type of employee you have. But not only this; it is also your job as boss to create the necessary framework conditions that will make your employees work their best.

The best way to live up to this responsibility is to watch your employees and their work results. If someone does not achieve their goals, they will judge how you can develop the employee, or determine whether it is a hopeless case that the company should part with. Those who are capable of development will be able to do their utmost to help – for example, with further education or by providing a more experienced colleague to those with training needs. Also, be sure to provide complete and concrete information on the objectives and decision-making powers of the task at each delegation.

You should be approachable for questions from your employee. This will spur his will to perform by showing him the importance of the task, giving him regular feedback on his performance, and helping him achieve his career goals. You should regularly promote the necessary skills until the results of the employee are perfect. Then you can sit back and relax: Mission fulfilled. The sales target is achieved, the costs are under control, the customers are satisfied. Everything is good to go. Or is it?

This procedure is good. Really good, even. Not all bosses do their job so well. If you do it, then you are one of the positive exceptions. You are like the master builder who thinks hard about which rock he uses. You are a good boss. A very good one. But you are not an excellent one.

Even if you train your employees until they can do everything necessary for their job, indeed even everything that can be done in this area, it is far from guaranteed that they will make the most of their knowhow.

If an employee does not achieve very good results, it makes sense to blame him for his lack of competence. That’s an assumption that may or may not be true, but it is rarely questioned; and so, it may be the case that you commit yourself to a solution that belongs to the wrong problem.

“He can’t do it any better, we have to teach him that,” many bosses think. That’s why the usual way of encouraging employees is focused on one thing: Building skills. From the welding course to the food chemist symposium to the manager seminar, from communication training to training in intercultural competence: All these training measures are about knowledge and ability. That’s essential, there’s no doubt about that, but it is not enough.

Whether an employee achieves excellent results depends on other factors. In many cases, the real problem lies not in competence, or a lack thereof, at all, but rather in the peculiarities and polished habits of the employee.

Jests, quirks, and manlas

No matter how competent an employee is, if they show their personal weaknesses or peculiarities in their working lives too clearly, they will never get as far as they could.

Harry Rodman could be an even more gifted salesman, but if he always uses twice as many words as necessary and dominates every conversation, then his customers will eventually feel overwhelmed and misunderstood and will rarely buy from him.

Susan Harrow could the most sensitive to current issues, but if she sits quietly in the corner at the editorial meeting and does not dare to bring up ideas, then the magazine will lose valuable opportunities.

Sebastian Dorne could be a consultant with the most profound knowledge and the exact answer to every customer question, but if he pushes unpleasant tasks ahead of him and would rather clear his desk for the third time than call the customer, one who complained so bitterly last week, then his encyclopedic knowledge will bring him absolutely nothing.

Professional training would not help in any of these cases. Sure, there are communication trainings that teach clear articulation and listening. There are also trainings for presentations or for appropriate appearance. But they usually pay little attention to the personal quirks and weaknesses of each participant. There are twelve people sitting there and there is a whole bouquet of content – which one is important for which participant? And when?

Often, the employee only realizes the problem too late: “Damn, I didn’t say anything in the meeting again. Well, next time I’ll get stuck in…” That he recognizes it in retrospect is still a stroke of luck. Most do not even do that. In cases of weaknesses, those ingrained into our habits, we humans have our “blind spots”.

It is human to think that one’s behavior is normal and therefore not recognize what might disturb others. On the other hand, even the best expertise does not necessarily help.

The problematic behavior of these employees is not based on their abilities, but on their personal behaviors to which they have been accustomed over the years. That’s why an excellent boss not only develops the skills of his employees, but also develops people.

An excellent boss looks at his employees precisely – just as an excellent master builder looks at every single stone to determine its individual peculiarities. The boss not only pays attention to the results of his employees, which can be proven in figures, data and facts. He is not only interested in their qualifications and professional skills. No, he also looks at how the employees come to their conclusions, he observes how they work, how they handle their colleagues, how they deal with conflicts, challenges and stress. He even identifies – together with his employees – their personal strengths and weaknesses. Then he promotes and demands, both specifically and personally. He does not only train, he also coaches. He supports the employees in becoming more mature people.

That’s what I mean by developing – detangle what was entagled.

We humans learn new things every day from the moment we are born. We are taught things and we are trained in certain behaviors. Sometimes in this area, sometimes in that area. We become something in addition to what we already are: School children, little flute players or footballers, trainees, students, working people, spouses, taxpayers… It’s like having a single, simple cable in the beginning. This is then connected to an extension cable with multiple sockets. And that’s when parents, school, friends, and trainers gradually connect all sorts of devices – all with their own adapters, transformers, and cables. Some are useful, some less so.

The usual form of employee promotion adds further multiple sockets and devices to this bundle of cables. The requirements become ever higher and wider – regardless of what the system of that person once look like. In the end, you have a terrible tangle of electronics, whereby it is difficult to see which plug belongs to which device and what serves what. And then if a fuse blows somewhere, it’s hard to identify why that happened.

The accumulation of useful and useless, of educated and learned behaviors must, so to speak, be detangled. This is the only way to get back to the core abilities of the individual, to promote them optimally, and to use them in the company.

An excellent boss is such a detangler or developer. Such a boss can do without the tangle of indiscriminately distributed training – the kind makes the employee a merely functioning exporter of his requirement profile – because he knows that most of the advanced training programs bring less benefits than a targeted level of support, which takes into account the individuality of the employee.

So, ask each employee the question: Where are your personal strengths and weaknesses?

That sounds like a lot of work. In addition to everything that you already do, must you also now observe each employee closely and analyze their personality? What about the talks, coaching, feedback sessions…do you have to do additional psychological training now? Do you have to carry out complex personality tests with your employees?

No, you don’t have to. You do not need to be the superhero who knows everything. Evaluating your employees properly and promoting them in a targeted manner does not require superhuman abilities, but rather good listening skills, a certain degree of intuition, and time for employee appraisals. Have you ever heard something along those lines? With certainty. But do you also implement it? In day-to-day work, personal involvement with employees tends to slip down the priority list. Too bad, because it is an indispensable and powerful tool to develop your employees in their personality and to lead them to a place where they can excel.

Developing your employees regarding their personality works in three steps.

First of all, you need a new attitude: Learn to see the employee as a person with personal habits and idiosyncrasies, not just as a task filler. This allows you to recognize and work with your personal strengths and weaknesses.

Second: Help the employee compensate for the weaknesses that have so far blocked his results.

Thirdly: As far as possible give each employee precisely those tasks in which they can best contribute their strengths.

First: Talk so I can see you – know your employees

“This is our new IT specialist, Mr. Shute,” the boss introduces him to her colleagues. “He studied computer science at the University of Frankfurt and most recently was responsible for network administration at Warren. His focus will be on database administration. I look forward to a good cooperation. Welcome, Mr. Shute!”

The assembled colleagues nod friendly. Already, the first is extending his hand to greet the newcomer, as Norman Shute bursts out:

“Yes, and in addition I moved here with my wife and two daughters from Weytown. I like cross-country biking and I play the trumpet.”

This awakens the interest of colleagues. They crowd around Norman Shute and pester him with questions. The boss stands aside. After five minutes she glances at her wristwatch.

Such a demonstrative disinterest as this boss is showing would probably not be expressed by your employees. They know how important it is to not only see the person responsible for the database in a team member, but also the human being. Because just as no customer likes to be a number, no employee wants to be an interchangeable specialist. Instead, every person – and therefore every employee – desires to be recognized for their individuality and to be employed accordingly. Most executives know and take that into consideration. They at least try to do so.

But be honest: How well do you really know your employees? Do you know the name of the partner, the names of the children and their ages? Do you know what your employee has studied, which hobbies inspire him? If your sales representative tells you that her son has dropped out of his course, do you still recall that at the next personal interview or do you ask again how her son is doing at university?

A genuine interest in a co-worker is not only to occasionally ask for private matters. The important thing is to really perceive the answers, to save them and to consider what idiosyncrasies, hobbies and volunteer work say about an employee.

This attitude opens up new possibilities for the excellent boss: He discovers unimaginable skills among his employees, which are also useful in the job and thus creates a much stronger relationship with his people. Show your interest – and you will become involved in whomsoever are interested in doing their job really well. Because for them it is clear: “I am important to my boss. He cares about me. And I’ll respect him in return.”

Seeing the employee as a person with peculiarities and habits – what does that mean for their behavior?

Make a note of it, especially with a new employee, even before the first interview. Note what he has told you personally about himself up to that point, and address him with this. For example, this is the man who built his own website at the age of 15, or that’s the woman who’s been doing martial arts for years.