Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

DEVELOPING OTHERS TOOLS AND STRATEGIES 191
In The One Thing You Need to Know, Marcus Buckingham
states that great managers make a point of discovering the uniqueness
in each of their workers and then capitalize their fi ndings. He
identified the three things that great managers need to know about
their people:
• What are their strengths?
• What are their motivators or triggers?
• What is their particular style of learning?
As noted, the average manager views his or her employees like
generic checkers on a black-and-red board—all basically the same
and able to move only one space at a time in only one direction.
Stars see their employees as “chess players,” each with unique skills
and talent who can move in different ways and cover more territory
than one space at a time. The challenge is to discover your “chessplaying”
employees’ uniqueness and then learn how to implement
their strengths for the sake of the organization as well as the development
of the individual.
Are You a Star Performer in developing others or just average?
Do you regularly and consistently (at least 80% of the time) give
timely and constructive feedback and mentor others?
STAR PROFILE: MARK FRENCH, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SANTA
BARBARA (UCSB) RETIRED HEAD COACH, WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM
Why a basketball coach as the Star Profile? Most leaders have a
difficult time focusing on developing others. They are juggling their
own meetings, deliverables, as well as administrative and operational
tasks. Depending on their role, they may spend as little as 25% of
their time on development, some possibly a tad more. A college
coach’s success is totally dependent on his team’s performance. It
makes sense that a smart coach would devote a great deal of time
to developing others. Approximately 75-80% of French’s workload
is built around nurturing the talents of each person, in practice or