The Magic Question

McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One

"How can I help?"

Isn't that the question every leader longs to hear?

What if every person on your team or in your organization consistently asked you, "How can I help?" What if your team was totally in sync with and committed to achieving your organization's objectives? What if the members on your team were willing to leave their comfort zone and take a risk to help your team win?

Impossible? Unrealistic? Pollyanna?

Maybe it is expecting too much for team members to ask how they can help you achieve your goals. Perhaps it's far-fetched to think they could care that much about what happens at work. Maybe it is "old school" to think that people want to help an organization succeed. After all, people are just in it for the paycheck, right?

Maybe not.

According to a recent study of more than 17,000 people, less than 10 percent cited compensation and advancement opportunities as the most critical aspects of a job. It seems money is only one piece of the puzzle ... and perhaps a small one at that. So what are the other pieces? According to the same study, the top factors that people consider important in a job include stimulating and challenging work, personal accomplishment, a friendly workplace, and belief and involvement in the organization's mission.

Most people do want more than a paycheck—they want to feel good about where they work, whom they work with, and what they accomplish together as a team. Of course, there are some people—and you know who they are—who don't fit this category. A few are in it just for the paycheck, or perhaps they don't have the same agenda that you do. And some people simply are not in the right job for them at this time in their life. But these people are the exception rather than the rule.

One of the most ignored facts of leadership is that the majority of your team really does care about doing a great job. They care, but something may be holding them back ... or pushing them out.

The result of this disconnection is apathy. My observation is that many people on the team are so disenchanted that they would prefer to take a risk and venture into an unknown organization rather than stay in their current situation. That means they must be missing those other, all-important aspects of their job. A popular word used to describe this seemly apathetic and dispirited group of today's workforce is disengaged. It's an interesting way to describe someone—detached, disconnected, cut off. Who wants to spend the majority of their waking hours that way? Why would people consciously choose to be disengaged? Perhaps there is more to the issue of disengagement than that ... maybe people are not given the opportunity to engage.

If the majority of your team are good people doing a good job who want to be rewarded in ways beyond a paycheck, and you, as the leader, are there to guide them in doing a good job, then why are your results often less than what you expected and hoped for?

Perhaps the cause is external factors—marketplace or regulatory changes, economic factors, or a strategic error. However, in most cases, the cause comes from inside the organization. Peter Drucker once said that every business failure was the result of leadership failure. I have found that statement to be true. Whether it is hiring the wrong people, a lack of capital to sustain the business, failure to address marketplace challenges, creating chaos within the organization, or just not paying attention, everything falls at the leader's feet.

The team with the best leader usually wins. But what distinguishes the best leaders is typically not competency; most leaders are competent enough to do the job. The best leaders understand how to lead others toward a common goal. They are competent and also passionate, trustworthy, creative, and humane. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, says: "After analyzing 181 competence models from 121 organizations worldwide, we found that 67% of the abilities deemed essential for effective performance were emotional competencies. Compared to IQ and expertise, emotional competence mattered twice as much."

Likewise, the Gallup organization found that the single most important variable in employee productivity is the quality of the relationship between employees and their direct supervisors. Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman put it this way: "What people want most from their supervisors is the same thing that kids want most from their parents: someone who sets clear and consistent expectations, cares for them, values their unique qualities, and encourages and supports their growth and development."

The best leaders have developed skills that help them understand people and know how to get results through the efforts of other people. That is why leadership is complex—because you are dealing with real people, each of whom has needs and desires. The greatest leaders learn how to turn the complex task of dealing positively with everyone on their team into its simplest form.

In its simplest form, leadership comes down to answering six key questions your team members are always asking (whether you hear them or not). These questions are the same regardless of team members' gender, generation, background, or position:

1. What is REALLY important?

2. How am I doing?

3. How is our team doing?

4. Do you care?

5. What difference do we make?

6. Are you worth following?

People have a deep-rooted need to know what is happening in your organization, how they fit in, and how well they are performing. When you clearly and consistently answer these six questions, your team will work together with energy and enthusiasm. Their talents will be galvanized and directed toward the achievement of a common goal. Morale will improve. Job satisfaction will increase, and turnover will decrease. You will have a lot more fun leading. And, you will earn the right to hear your team ask The Magic Question: "How can I help?"

Some of you may think that this is a book solely about communication. Answering your team's six questions is about more than communicating—it is about connecting. It's about meeting the common need of all people ... to understand and to be understood. Connecting involves people, and when people are involved, they are engaged. When they are engaged, they will give discretionary effort, and that is when you will hear The Magic Question.

You may believe that you are already an expert at communicating and connecting, and, therefore, this book is not for you. Well, you are not alone in thinking that your communication skills are top-notch. In fact, in one study, researchers asked a group of leaders to rate their personal communication skills. The findings revealed that 90 percent thought their communication skills were in the top 10 percent. Do the math ... something doesn't add up! Eighty percent of those leaders believed they were better communicators than they really were. Obviously, their perceptions did not match their reality. I'm not throwing you into that category, but I am saying that most leaders are not meeting their teams' basic communication needs.

The bottom line is this: If you depend on results...