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June 29 Finding the Sweet Spot in OthersIf you have played golf at all, you may have heard of "the sweet spot". Did you ever just hit the ball and everything seemed to fall into place. You just hit the ball perfectly and it felt almost effortless? If you did, that means that you hit the ball on its sweet spot. I don't know the science of it, but there are actually devices (you probably have seen them in the airline magazines) that will spin your golf balls to determine the location of the sweet spot that you can mark.
However, just identifying the mark isn't enough. It will improve your chance of hitting the ball better, but you still have to hit a good shot. That requires a combination of balance, momentum and timing to go through the mechanics of a good swing in order to hit the ball at the right angle, speed and direction. If you have played golf, you know this is much easier said than done. It takes a lot of discipline, training or coaching, and practice to get to the point of consistency. Then, it requires constant maintenance and tweaking to keep it consistent.
So, what does this have to do with leadership you ask? As a manager, it should be your responsibility to develop people around you in a way that they hit their individual sweet spots and that they hit it consistently. If you do that, you will see success at the department level and will have an impact to the success of the company. There are plenty of theories out there on how to accomplish this (just like the sweet spot identifier device), but it's not enough to know and understand them, you must execute those ideas on a regular basis. This is why many companies struggle with productivity of their people (including myself). It takes a lot of time, patience, and plain hard work to get it right. But, just like those (what seem as rare) times when things just fall together and you hit a fantastic shot and it motivates you to continue playing, same goes with leadership. When you see a person hitting their peak, it is a great thing to witness and you want to continue to see them in that position.
If you have read my other posts, you already know that I am a big fan of Jim Collins and his book Good to Great. There are so many great concepts to learn from that book if you are interesting in making your organization great. He describes one of those concepts:
The essential strategic difference between the good-to-great and comparison companies lay in two fundamental distinctions. First, the good-to-great-companies founded their strategies on deep understanding along three key dimensions. Second, the good-to-great companies translated that understanding into a simple, cystalline concept that guided all their efforts -- hence the term Hedgehog Concept. A Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the folllowing three circles (to read more and see a graphical representation, go here):
This concept shows us the sweet spot for an organization. If an organization focuses are the things that are going to make them money, and that they are capable of being good at, and that can motivate people through their passion -- they will be a great company. As with golf, these are easier said than done otherwise many more companies would be great. It takes the execution and patience through that execution to make it happen.
As leaders of an organization, Jim Collins provides the guidelines to help you focus your initiatives on that sweet spot. But, the same principles can be applied to managers of people. As managers, you want to make sure that every one of your people can hit their peak. You can apply these same three principles to get those results:
Unfortunately, there is no standard answers that will apply to everybody. Each person is unique and you will have different challenges trying to find their sweet spot. For some, they may end up not being right for your department or even the company based on these answers. If so, let them transfer or encourage them to find other opportunities. This is the "hard part" of the manager's job much like the great golfer, yet the rewards are well worth the work. Not only will you have more motivated employees, but you will see great productivity and quality results once you find their "sweet spots" and making sure that they hit that ball consistently! TrackbacksWeblogs that reference this entry
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