Get on the Train: Leaving the Station with More Than What You Had When You Started Out

1.1 The SBSG Story

Joe stands up slowly from his desk, removing his reading glasses from the bridge of his nose. It's nearly time to meet with Tyler, the CEO of SBSG and Joe's boss and long-time friend. Friend, yes, but not without their challenges. Joe is the VP of operations for the company and has been there for five years. With 50 stores in the tristate area, SBSG is trying to figure out how to grow profits without spending more on employee expenses. It hasn't been easy.

He looks up to see Elizabeth knocking on his open door. "Ready, boss?"

He nods. Elizabeth has been with the company for three years and is making headway in leaps and bounds. She is the operations manager for the main fulfillment center for the stores, at least in title. In actuality, she has tried to do much more — from operations, to customer service (where she started with the company and worked for about eight months), to finance (although no one, he thinks, would give her the accounting books any time soon!).

Joe and Elizabeth are going to talk to Tyler about a new concept — talent engagement optimization — that Elizabeth wants to implement within SBSG to help employees go beyond their own job description while contributing more to the company. At a minimum, she wants to lead her own department (HR), but if she gets some interest from other department leaders as "early adopters," perhaps also operations, accounting, and marketing to the project.

Joe thinks it sounds a bit too good to be true, but he has kept his thoughts to himself and agreed to let Elizabeth talk to Tyler about it. He presented it to Tyler as a developmental opportunity for Elizabeth.

Joe has to admit, Elizabeth did her due diligence. She had prepped for the questions that she thought Tyler would ask — as well as others that he doesn't ask. In the 30-minute meeting, Tyler is direct, as he always is. Working only from her notes, Elizabeth had prepared no presentation slides because she knows that Tyler's nature is neither to require nor request them.

After Elizabeth completes the basics of her points, Joe turns to her and nods. Nervously, she launches into her request. Tyler looks at her intensely, asking only occasional questions about the resources requested. She is prepared for some of his questions — but not all of them.

1.2 The Nuts and Bolts

Why are you here? If you read (or at least skimmed) through Section 1, you may have a few ideas based on what I suggested. If you skipped the section, you may want to review it when you get a chance.

Are you here because you want to help your team members or other employees in your organization get more out of their day? Their job? Their career path?

Are you here because you don't have a lot of money to spend on a large-scale transformational consulting project — but you need to make a change?

Are you here simply because you know the status quo just isn't cutting it, and you know that you can make your team better — but may need an outline or framework to do so?

Or something else?

The bottom line: You're here to help someone go beyond the job description. Whether it's a group of two employees, a team, or an entire organization, you believe there's a way to optimize each employee's talent engagement. We call this talent engagement optimization (TEO) — which is a mouthful to say that you are more than just a job — and this book will help you get more out of your team.

First, you need some support.

Getting Executive Buy-In

This is the first of several times you will see this as a header for your to-do list. If you are not at the top of the food chain in your organization (and 95 percent of us are not), you will have to find and convince the people at the top that your TEO project is worth pursuing. You may simply need their support — or you may also need their time, ongoing support (stated in an e-mail or in person to others), and resources (people, places, or money). At the very least, you will need their stamp of approval.

WHERE DO YOU START?

You will find I am a checklist person. Measuring your work is a great way to see that you've accomplished what you set out to do or are making progress. It's also one of three ways to prevent your job from becoming a "miserable job" (Lencioni 2007). Review the following list to help you cover your "executive buy-in" bases:

1. Take a look at Part 1.3 and answer the first three questions. These questions ask where you currently stand and where you want to go. Part 1.3 also contains a table allowing you to perform a gap analysis. This information is what you need to focus on, and you will build your action plan around it. Check out Section 1 on the best way to succeed with this book or Chapter 3 on how to assess to help you decide what areas you are going to measure.

2. Build your goals. Figure out where you'd like to be. Think about how long reaching your goals should take. The focus of this book is built around a 100-day action plan. You will not change the mindset of everyone in a 10,000-person company in that amount of time — but you could impact a department of 50 people who are looking for a transition (if they just don't know how to do it).

3. Define success. Yes, you've picked your goals, but what would success look like? If you were able to meet 50 percent of your goals within 100 days (or the time you choose) — is that success?

4. Prepare your goals for your executive team. The leader (or leaders) has a lot on their plate. What is important to them? What are the goals for the leader or the organization this year? How can you align your goals for this project with their goals?

5. Brief your executive team. At this...