Integrity Matters Broadcasts

June 1, 2004

Attribute #6: PERFORMANCE:accountability throughout the organization*

When individuals, including senior executives, under-perform repeatedly, are they given due process and then, if necessary, replaced?

*from Bracher Center's Eight Attributes for Building an Integrity-Centered Company by James F. Bracher ©April 2, 2004; Integrity Matters, Bracher and Halloran, pp. 32-33; Torchlight, 2004

Step 1:  Have a plan when it’s time to pass on your company

Dear Friends:

It is time for me to pass the senior management role of my company to a high-potential colleague.  She has been with me for 20 years, doing a good job.  I like and trust her and have confidence that she will take the new position seriously.  Her integrity is not in question.  Her ability and her drive are way above average.  However, my concern is this:  how can I minimize the risk of either disruption to long-term business relationships or loss of revenue when she takes over the firm?

Click here for the response

Step 2:  Find ways to assess talent effectively (internal and external)

Performance appraisals, reference checks and resume materials can be instructive.  However, there is no substitute for a careful, personal and clear review of the observable behaviors of the individual being considered.  People make mistakes.  They forget to be the best they can be all of the time.  However, when considering expanding authority for others, make sure that what you have seen and felt – about the person – are what you and your organization need, not simply what might work if some of the individual’s flaws miraculously disappeared.  Most people don’t change much and habits (especially the bad ones) almost never go away.

Before any final hiring or appointing decisions are made, please consider this.  Go to our website and find our Succession article (a direct link is provided below).  Print the page, write the name of the individual on the page and then underline or circle one of the descriptors under each column all the way down the three columns that reflect the behaviors of the candidate(s) that distinguish between and among these three categories that differentiate leaders, managers and pretenders.  By forcing the choice into one category only, you will raise your own awareness of how the individual tends to operate.  My example shows an underline in the Pretender definition column.  The person I was assessing too often finds reasons to justify not delivering top performance. This is neither a management nor leadership characteristic.

Succession

Leaders
Managers
Pretenders
People Love Leaders.
People Respect Managers.
People Reject Pretenders.
A Leader Makes Mistakes.
A Manager Makes Adjustments.
A Pretender Makes Excuses.

Click here to discover our listing of leadership comparison characteristics

If you are considering someone for promotion to the top spot (or a position with increased responsibilities) and he or she does not currently exhibit a majority of the behaviors listed under the Leaders category, then you are putting your company and your finances at higher risk than prudent advisors would suggest.

Step 3:  Leverage the "Eight Attributes"© to Assess Organizational Leadership

Employee loses confidence with boss, is it time move on?

Dear Jim:

My current boss asked me to move from the East Coast to the West Coast so that I could be mentored by him in order to accelerate my career in our company.  I was clear that such a move was disruptive for me, financially and personally.  However, I accepted the opportunity with the commitment that my mentoring would be personally conducted by the same hiring executive with whom I had wanted to work.  After only a few weeks into the new and exciting position, my mentor broke his promise.  The “boss” has decided to relocate to Asia, asking me to move yet again. He knows my fiancée and I agreed to a 3000 mile separation for a year or even 18 months, but half way around the world was and is out of the question.  It is now obvious that he knew before my move West that his own location change was “in the works” even when I directly asked the question about the longer-term commitment to our “mentoring” relationship, specifically, on the West Coast. 

What does this say about integrity?

Sign me as dislocated, abandoned and frustrated.  So, now, what do I do?

Click here for the response

Our July Broadcast will address Attribute # 7:  Charity:  generous community stewardship.

Remember:  each of us is expanding the integrity conversation - in what we say and how we live.

Thank you again, for helping to constructively communicate that, yes, it is true: Integrity Matters.

Sincerely,
Jim

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