MAKING YOURSELF INDISPENSABLE

John Zenger, Joseph Folkman, and Scott Edinger

BY Manish Manghnani

Will be addressing following issues 1. Tom who was a sales executive after many years of thriving-- was well liked, made numbers, got positive reviews.His track record was solid, made no stupid mistakes, had no run-ins with upper management, a seemingly perfect fit for skills and ambitions.He was good at problem solving, strategic thinking and inspiring to top performance.

What was the matter than that a colleague with less experience got promoted instead him?Tom was at loss….

Should he think more strategically?Does he need to focus on his weakness or look for strength?Does he need to build one strength or develop many in number?Should he just take one strength at an outstanding level?How a leader can be exceptionally better?What skills will magnify his strength?

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2. Organizations complain that they don’t have good leaders…is it a challenge to

replace good/bad once or turn people into outstanding leaders with distinctive strength?

3. What Peter Drucker, a management guru had to say on a business case --“The

Effective Executive”?

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Key areas…• Complementary skills/Non linear

Development/Cross training skills• 360-degree evaluation• Differentiating competencies falling into 5

categories• Conducting cross-training for leadership skills• Tom’s case• Effects of 360 degree evaluation• Developing linear way and whether to overdo it• Closing with Peter Ducker's view

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Cross training skills• To appreciate better than a good leader one needs to

enhance complementary skills that enables to make full use of strength.

• It is wise to improve a persons strength to a peak than working hard to eradicate weakness.

• In Cross training, combination of two activities produces an improvement.

Example: Diet+ Exercise= losing weight.Both combination is more effective than either diet or exercise

alone.Later, will look for combinations of two positive strengths in

management perspective.

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360 degree evaluation• Asking team members, colleagues and boss questions

either in writing or in person• Making clear it as seeking self improvement• Inform that am explicitly open to negative feedback• Absorb it professionally and appropriately without

retribution.• Work on simple questions like:

What outstanding impact I have on productivity, efficiency, communication skills and relationships

Fatal flaws to be considered if any• Lastly to evaluate in quantitative term to measure the

progress.

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Differentiating competencies..Character Personal Getting focuses

on resultsInter personal skills

Leading change

Display honesty and integrity

Professional expertise

Establishes stretch goals

Communicates powerfully and broadly

Develops strategic perspective

Solves problems and analyze issues

Takes initiative Inspire and motivates others

Champions change

innovates Builds relationships

Connects group with the outside world

Practices self development

Develop others

Collaborates and fosters teamwork

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Fetching examples from differentiating competences..

• Assertiveness + honesty If a highly principled leader learned to become

assertive, he might more likely to speak up and act with courage of his convictions, thus becoming more effective.(applying strength more widely)

• Technical expert + communication skill A technical leader learns the ability to communicate

more positively might improve profitability to the main competency.

• Innovativeness + champion change An innovative leader learn to champion change, thus

encouraging his team can lead to achieve results in new and more creative ways.

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Conducting Cross Training Skills

1. Identify your strength2. Choose a strength to focus on according to its

importance to the organization and how passionately you feel about it.

3. Select a complementary behavior one like to enhance

4. Develop it in a linear way

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Tom’s case

Strength Weakness

Strategic perspective Building relationships

Inspiring and motivating others innovativeness

• Listed top 5- competencies 5- passions 5- organizations top priority

• Narrowed down options to suit both organizations and tom was next expected step.

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• People who excel at motivating others are good at persuading them to take actions and go extra mile so tom screened list of competency companions out of:

1. Connects emotionally with others2. Establish stretch goals3. Communicates powerfully and direction4. Communicates powerfully and broadly5. Develop others6 Collaborate and fosters teamwork7 Nurtures innovation8 Takes initiative9 Champions change10 Is a strong role model

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Tom’s Execution• Tom decided to work on communication skills, which

were high enough that raising them a little could make a significant difference.

• Strong communicators speak concisely and deliver effective presentations. Their instructions are clear. They write well. Can explain new concepts clearly. Tom saw lots of room for improvement here as he was not concise and writing was a challenge.

• Tom considered practicing more in person or over the phone than going in writing practice. Started addressing people in person or phone instead of mails.

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Changes traced in 5/6 months…

• Able to read mates tone of voice and body language

• Absorbed more information• More attentive to views• Balance Instructions vs. questions• Balance criticism vs. encouragement• Allowing team to express views• Need not repeat as understanding level between

team mates increased

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Effects of 360 degree evaluation

• Viewing on 360 degree evaluation in terms of measure Tom stepped from 72 to 82 percentile in his ability to inspire.

• Tom repeated the entire process with another strength and its compliments, and another- at which point he will be making a uniquely valuable contributions to his company.

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Developing linear way and whether to overdo it

• Many people argue against the wisdom of improving leadership effectiveness by strengthening your strengths but the research of author focuses on balancing which is very vital.

• People having many strength should focus on distributing in all areas of work and work on underrepresented ones.

• Weakness should not be ignored completely.• Spreading in mass is the prime purpose of the

research.

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Peter Ducker's view• 40 yrs. Back sir Peter had the same view -of not being

good at many things but being uniquely outstanding at a few things. A body of work has supported and advocated his approach.

• It is distressing to find that fewer than 10% of the executives have any plan to do so.

• We are convinced that the problem is less of conviction than of execution. Executives need a path to enhancing their strength that is as clear as the one to fixing their weakness.

• The challenge is to turn hard working, capable executives who are reasonably good at their jobs- into outstanding leaders with distinctive strengths.

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