Mark Hortsman’s first critical behavior that he discusses in the book The Effective Manager is getting to know your people. The manager that know his or her team members better than average are also better than average at getting results.
Makes a lot of sense right! Every person that we work with is an individual and should be handled like one. There was a podcast that I listened to recently with John Maxwell and Marcus Buckingham (co-author of Strength Finders!) where they talk about manager’s who embrace the complexity of individuals and their strengths and weaknesses are able to get better results. The best leaders see variety! Be careful about assuming that everyone should be managed the same, grow the same, and respond the same to stimulus. This podcast is worth a listen here!
Mark Hortsman’s litmus test on this strength is knowing the first names of all the children of the people who report directly to you. Do you know the people that are most important to the people you manage? This builds trust in that relationship. Because like we mentioned before: “If you’re going to create trust and trusting relationships with your directs then, you’re going to have to talk to them frequently about things that are important to them.” And trust makes your team work quicker and more efficiently. We are willing to forgive our team members for mistakes and assume that they will forgive us for our mistakes. Less time and emotional energy in “covering your ass” activities which equal more productive time. We don’t just believe, we KNOW that everyone has the best of intentions and we KNOW that everyone else has the best of intentions as well.
As Hortsman emphasizes “Getting to know your directs accounts for 40 percent of the total value created by engaging in the four critical behaviors.”
So, a question for all of us (present company included). Do you know all the names of the children of the people that you manage?
Pigs and People 