WIIFM for better leadership results

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In order to get the most from your employees, and from your staff you need to learn and communicate WIIFM. (What’s In It For Me). In order for employees to embrace organizational goals they must view them as their own. To do that they must clearly understand how meeting the goals of the organization is tied to achieving their personal goals.

It is much more difficult to separate personal and professional lives than it was even twenty years ago. Money alone is not the primary motivator but a short-term benefit quickly absorbed and forgotten. With the commonality of the two job household, work is a huge part of personal conversation and thought.

Leaders who take the time and make the effort to understand employee wants and needs, and helps the employee set personal goals that complement organizational goals will find better leadership results very achievable.

Goal setting is not a common practice among most of us. It starts by defining what you want in clear and crisp terms. Most of us have great difficulty in understanding or accepting what we want. Needs are easier to define, I need $500 more per month, I need a new car. Once the need is met the problem goes away and along with it the motivation.

Wants are very difficult to define. If you haven’t tried it you may be surprised. One of the exercises in our Leadership Development program is to develop a “dream inventory”. It’s a list of anything and everything you want to achieve or own or whatever your dreams are. We tell the participants to stop at fifty.

I have seen very few got even ten.

We are programmed to take care of needs and forget about most wants. If you can understand your employees wants and tie the achievement into attainment of organizational goals, you have a long term recipe for leadership results.

WIIFM starts with your personal goals and ties into your professional goals why should it be different with your employees?

Leaders need to encourage goal setting on a personal and well as professional level. Most people don’t have a plan for their lives, they just allow life to happen. They give more thought and planning to a two-week vacation than they do for the most important journey of all the journey through life.  If you can help your direct reports understand this and set goals, then have them take it down throughout the organization, how effective do you think that might be?

Explaining your organizational goals so al understand and giving everyone the opportunity to buy-in and develop personal goals that they can achieve through attainment of your goals is a win-win for everyone.

Improved leadership results start with changing culture

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I recently wrote an article on achieving better strategic planning results. It was a look at how Toyota became number one in the auto industry through effective long term strategic thinking and execution. It touched on the subject of culture but didn’t go into any real detail.

Just this week I asked a group of people why they thought Toyota had enjoyed so much success and growth. The answer was of course their Toyota Production System (TPS), lean manufacturing and attention to detail. That is exactly what General Motors came away from the Toyota / GM joint venture at NUMMI. Learn the TPS and we’ve solved our problems. And it’s exactly what most U.S. companies feel, that lean manufacturing, or Six Sigma or some other program will make them world class.

They are all missing the point.

Toyota recognizes that the TPS is an excellent tool but is not a silver bullet. Real excellence comes from developing a culture that engages and empowers employees.

This was further emphasized by conversations with a friend that works for a large Fortune 1000 company. He told me about the repercussions he got from escalating a problem with a major account. The company actually put him on a communications improvement plan to work better with his peers, even after the major account told his VP that the performance of one of his peers was preventing them from doing more business together. The old “shoot the messenger” adage is alive and well.

Toyota has a carefully cultivated culture of employees being expected to report problems. Development of that culture begins with the hiring process and continues through training and constant reinforcement. In Japan it is actually considered shameful not to report a problem when it’s noticed.  However saying you want to have employees report problems and actually being receptive and following up on problem resolution is where most managers and executives fall short.

Toyota’s culture employs a term called “Genchi Genbutsu”, translated as go and see for yourself. Employees are expected and required to report problems and managers and executives are expected to go to the source and see for themselves. They are taught not to rely on hearsay.

That’s as far from “shoot the messenger” as you can get.

If you truly want high quality products, excellent customer service, engaged and empowered employees, leadership has to “walk the talk” every day.

The overall culture of the organization has to clearly and visibly support open communications, and a blameless approach to problem solving.

In my book, “Bottom Line Focus” I talk about my own experience with continuous improvement training and implementation. I worked for a then Fortune 500 computer manufacture and was sent to an expensive training session on Total Quality Improvement. The very first time I tried to implement it back at the plant I was told “ship it, it’s month end and we need the sales”. That attitude prevails in the majority of companies I’ve been associated with.

If you really want to see improved leadership results, be a better leader. Don’t just say something live it.