Men Mentoring Men

“I actually believe that the best way I can help people is by managing them.  I don’t build houses or grow corn or design aqueducts.  I help people in their jobs.”  So says the main protagonist in Patrick Lencioni’s management fable.  Yes, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job is the unlikely title of a remarkably simple and powerful book on management and leadership.

The book deals with accountability, both individual and team; teamwork; shared incentives and rewards; developing and running systems relevant to all types of organizations; although you may not realize it while reading it.

The author’s characters and universal narrative are compelling enough for the reader to become invested in their success and in the story’s outcome.  The people resonate with us because we recognize them as our colleagues and ourselves; each of us understands both their thinking and their behavior because we have been there before.

53 year old Brian Bailey encounters real life experiences that have affected many of us; company mergers, an unexpected early retirement and other significant life changes that at their best lead to self-discovery.  The reader follows him as he first tests his management theories with his “experiment” at Joe’s Pizza.

In order to be successful the protagonist must venture into uncharted territory on a lot of fronts; he must look within himself to determine what he wants to offer the world.  At differing points in the story Brian faces his wife’s disbelief and consternation at decisions he has made, he must persuade her to back his choices, deal with the implications they have for them both, and rely on her encouragement, understanding and belief in him and what he is trying to accomplish in order to keep going.

This is as much of a story of exploration and self-discovery as it is about holding onto one’s core values and facing the fears that accompany fully pursuing one’s purpose.  In order to be an effective manager, Lencioni makes clear that one must have a true heart felt interest in helping others achieve their best.

Through the storyline the author makes the case for the validity, effectiveness and power of the application of his fundamental management principles.  He taps into universal truths that each of us knows from our own experience but may not readily apply in our interaction with others.

The three signs of a miserable job, as revealed in the story, include anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurement (a made-up word that describes the uncomplicated process of making business metrics personal and highly visible; thereby meaningful and impactful).  These are the three foundations for generating peak performance from individuals and teams.

Lencioni makes a strong case that the keys to effectively managing one’s associates lie in measuring their performance; more accurately providing them with a way to readily measure their own performance; making sure they fully understand how their work impacts others; those they work with as well as customers; and getting to know them, both their life situations and their aspirations.

The critical connection between measurement and relevance is that people need to measure specifically the things that affect the people they serve.  The important component of getting to know your people is so that they do not have to pretend to be somebody different at work.  Pretending to be someone they are not makes people miserable.

He suggests that if managers are primarily responsible for the work of their employees; the fundamental method should be to remove the unhappiness inherent in most jobs, whether routine or complex.  By doing this the manager taps into the inner desire of all people to make a difference and to win; everyone wants to be significant and everyone wants to be a winner.

The benefits of managing for job “fulfillment” include increased productivity, lower turnover and lower costs, and sustainable competitive advantage by creating a “cultural advantage.”   Fulfilled employees tend to attract other good employees which significantly lowers costs related to recruiting, hiring, retraining, and termination.

Obstacles include companies not having adequate mechanisms to determine why employees leave or what makes them consider leaving in the first place and manager’s not having the personal confidence and emotional vulnerability to successfully do this kind of management work.

Lencioni provides a host of examples of how to apply these three fundamental principles to different roles in a variety of work settings and situations.

The best part of this book is that it all seems so obvious (and it is!), yet people rarely do it.  Because it is so obvious, the principles and techniques are available for use by any manager and any manager can achieve the successes described in the book.

When people loose site of the impact they have on other’s lives, trouble is not far behind.

“If a manager has any job in the world, it’s to help their people understand why their work matters.”

January 2009