The question for managers to answer

“What do you want your people to do?”.

That’s the question I often ask when I’m helping managers with their accountability to lead their people (not optional by the way):

I usually get pretty good answers of the activity variety – the various things that solid employees would be seen doing as they go about their work.  Things like “liaise with customers, build relationships, deliver sales, plan projects”, and the old chestnuts of “deliver a framework” or “develop a strategy”.  Which is why I then ask this question:

“And if they do a fantastic job, what does the company get?”.

This one isn’t so easy, as we’ve now entered the world of outcomes rather than activities.  As Elliott Jaques says, of ‘what-by-when‘.  And we’re not trained to do this, because school and then later education, particular of the managerial variety, does not emphasise imagination.

Leadership is about getting people to move together in a common direction toward the goal.  And because that goal is in the future, the only way it can be described is by imagining it.

Think about any education or training you’ve received in strategic planning.  You went through things like SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, two different colours of oceans, scenario planning – all of which are about following a process and applying it well.  These tools are very useful, but as an input into your intuition so you can then imagine  some futures and select the one which will be better.  And how do you do that?  Judgement.

Which is what you’re really paid for.

So here are the questions I ask managers of the different levels to help them better lead their people:

• For those managing the frontline: “If they do well, what will they have produced by the end of the month?“.
• For those managing managers of the frontline: “If you return after a 9-month sabbatical, what do you expect them to have completed?“.
• For general managers: “What will each of your areas be producing in 18 months, to what standard, and why“?
• And for those managing general managers: “What is the overall intent and beliefs you expect your general managers to have used as the basis for their decisions that you will see the results of in three years?“.

Then we discuss until we reach clarity, at the end of which I say:

“Go and tell them“.