Business Insight Zone

You’ve enjoyed a good run: maybe you’ve built a good team, or completed all your certifications, or reached a certain revenue figure. Take a bow.

You done?

Now, up the ante.

Jack Welch used to tell the story of what it was like when he instituted new evaluation practices at General Electric, back in the 1980s. The new math: cut the bottom 10% of your workforce, every year. He said that feedback from managers was predictable:

• In year one, they were grateful for the cover of the new plan, because invariably there would be someone on each team who, despite being long-tenured or hard-working or a nice person, simply didn’t produce. It was a relief, in terms of the work demands placed on the manager and team, to cut this kind of D-grade player, even when it was painful for the manager to carry out on a personal basis.
• In year two, managers would complain that they had good teams already . . . “But, okay, if we have to cut somebody, the truth is that John is a borderline B/C-grade performer. We can do that.”
• In year three, managers would hit the roof: “What do you mean, I still have to cut someone? We’ve cut to the bone! It’s only top performers around here!”

It was Welch’s job, at that point, to re-sell them on the larger vision, which was that GE wanted to upgrade its staff all the time. After it weeded out all the D players, it wanted to get rid of all the C players . . . and then the B’s, B-minuses, B-pluses, and so on. The bar kept moving up.

When’s the last time you raised the bar on yourself?

• If you’re a seller and you’ve hit your Number for umpteen months in a row . . . could you start hitting 1.3x the Number? Every month? And then 1.5x?
• If you’ve achieved a certain level of results with the team you have, can you figure out ways to beat those results even after you lose someone from your team? Can you do it without burning anyone out? (I’m describing the dream manager of a company facing tough times.)
• Could you make your product better AND faster AND more ecologically sound? (Talk about a marketing coup waiting to happen!)
• Could you personally do your job better, but also do it more efficiently so you’re always home in time to play with the kids / the dog / your significant other / your garage band?
• If you’re a 10k runner, could you become a marathoner?

Examples abound, but the point is the same: the best performers — whether we’re talking about Tiger Woods or Toyota — constantly ask more of themselves, not to put themselves in a panic but because they believe they can get better every . . . single . . . day.

They’re not content to play for low stakes forever. Are you?

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Photo by Jam Adams, used under a CC-Share Alike license.

Category: Management, The working life