I’ll get to that question in a minute, but first let me share a personal story.  I continue to be surprised by some of the misconceptions that people have about flying.  This past weekend I was in a conversation with a man who had a friend that was a pilot of a small plane.  This man’s friend took off on a trip cross country and not too far along he had an instrument failure.  The plane did not crash, but the man who told me about it obviously felt some dire anxiety for his friend and his “close call”.  I mentioned to the man that I was a pilot and that about half of all pilots do not have an instrument rating.  Even those who do don’t always choose to file an instrument flight plan, especially if they don’t plan to fly through clouds or in bad weather.

The majority of flying in small planes takes place under what are called visual flight rules:  the pilot is responsible to stay clear of clouds and to see and avoid other traffic–any other planes, helicopters, gliders or balloons that share the skies.  In fact, a competent, well-trained pilot of small planes should be able to fly their plane safely without ever having to look at the instruments.

If that’s the case, why do planes have instruments?  In a word: options.  Instruments (or other measurement systems) give us more options, and usually they offer greater accuracy.

Let’s continue our lesson from flying planes.  When a pilot receives flight training in flying by instruments, one of the first things an instructor will do is demonstrate how easy it is to trick or disorient a pilot once you remove visual cues.  Every pilot must face the humbling lesson that they are not the exception to the rule: disorientation can happen pretty easily, and if you fly in clouds or fog or at night in the mountains in a fairly short amount of time you will lose your way and get yourself in a position you don’t want to be in.  Flying by the seat of your pants, or gut instinct may sound macho or reasonable, but it’s not going to keep you alive in bad weather or when visual references are gone.

When you’re responsible for running an organization (or even a division or large team), the same rules apply.  Through years of experience you may have developed pretty good instincts or a seat-of-the-pants intuitive feel for making decisions and exercising leadership.  But what happens when the external environment suddenly changes, or a new generation with different expectations joins the workforce (and your organization), or a game-changing technology threatens your market space?  The old familiar references are gone or obscured, and if you don’t have instruments, measures or a backup system…a happy outcome is NOT very likely.

Let’s deal with another misconception here.  Any non-pilot who has looked in on a cockpit has probably been overwhelmed by the amount of instruments, dials, levers and buttons they see there.  An airliner is the extreme case, but even a small plane cockpit is daunting or mysterious to the non-pilot.  The truth is, even inexperienced pilots get overwhelmed or transfixed by the instruments in the cockpit until they develop some discipline.  There are a few primary instruments that you must use, and the rest give you additional information or other options if you need them.  The most basic–and essential, or useful–flight instruments are a compass, a clock, and your engine gauges.  A compass tells you direction and warns of drift; it is an underrated instrument.  A clock allows you to keep from running out of fuel (more predictably than fuel gauges!), make time/distance/fuel calculations, and time turns (which is important if you get into bad weather).  Engine gauges indicate engine health and performance; they give you warnings of when your plane is about to become a glider (an extremely useful piece of information).

Think about your business.  What metric/measurement helps you stay oriented the right direction?  Which metric/measurement gives the most useful information about performance, telling you you’re making good progress or warning you that you’re running out of gas?  How do you measure and keep time in your business?  Every good manager knows their three critical numbers and the other numbers that give more accuracy and specialized information.

Leaders also have a backup system for when the game suddenly changes.  Being clear on your own vision and values is the essential first step.  A well-considered strategic plan is the next step.  If these are clear, your judgment and decision making in stressful situations will be much better.  Backup systems anticipate contingencies or emergencies:  scenario planning, disaster recovery plans, succession planning, risk management plans and systems, leadership development and employee training are some of the best examples of ways to be prepared when the ground shifts underneath you and taking the right action is critical.

Flying an airplane and running a business or leading a team are not overly complex, though we can certainly make the task more complicated than it needs to be.  With the right orientation, measures and backup systems in place, these can be enjoyable and fulfilling endeavors.

Do you know how hard your online employees are working?  Did you say you don’t have any employees?  If you have a website, blog, Facebook page, eBay store or any other kind of online commercial presence, I suggest you do have online employees, and it would be in your interest to think of them that way.

I was coaching another consultant today who does not have a website but who said she wanted one and knew she needed one.  She’s not super-savvy on web technology, nor does she care to be.  I suggested that she think of building a website/blog as if she were hiring an employee.  Here’s how the logic works…Most businesses of a certain size have a website already.  Larger businesses also employ one or more full-time people to maintain the website and other forms of online presence.  Several years ago I coached a manager who was on the web team for Avaya, the telephone equipment maker.  They had multiple people on the web team, spending multi-millions every year, using all kinds of outside vendors to run analytics on their site and to implement specific projects.  For large enterprises, it makes sense to think of their web team as a business in its own right.

Smaller businesses, and even solo professionals, don’t have the same kind of resources as a large corporation, but if their business has any reason to be online I recommend that they think of their website, blog, online store, Facebook page, or Twitter account as if they are employees.  Adopting that kind of mindset allows them to make better decisions about their online presence.

First, what’s the job to be done?  Employees are usually hired to perform a job–or several jobs if it’s a small business.  I find that far too many employers don’t think enough about defining the job.  Even written job descriptions are usually inadequate at communicating what the job is; they usually are a listing of tasks and basic qualifications.   For an online presence, what is the job that needs to be done?  Is it essentially marketing, or is there also some selling (e-commerce or online store)?  Do you need your website to perform customer service by giving customers an avenue to communicate with you, ask questions, make complaints, get answers or additional information?  Some websites actually deliver a product or service online via training, webinars, surveys or assessments.  What job do you need your online presence to do for you now and in the next year or two?  Define the job first.

Second, conduct a talent search.  Think of a website or blog as an employee.  You could start with an infant (a blank page in an editor), then by using html, css and php you could create the personality and behavior of your kid-employee.  You could dress up your growing teenager with the right colors, design and site structure.  Then you could train your entry-level employee in the basic courtesies of answering questions (through forms) and check their performance monthly through an analytics package.  Do you get the picture?  This is an apparently “cheap” way to go, but it requires massive work and training on your part and lots of hands-on maintenance.

Maybe you’d like to rent-an-employee.  You can do that through Yahoo, GoDaddy, 1and1, Sitebuilder, or any number of online services that promise an easy website within hours for merely $10-20 a month.  You use their templates, and besides the content (words you provide) it all belongs to the webhost.  If you decide their rent-an-employee doesn’t represent your company well or you outgrow them, there’s not much that you can carry with you except your content (if you kept a good backup copy).  You could also get a smart, self-sustaining employee who will easily assume your look, feel, personality and do lots of small mindless but essential chores in the background (because a smart designer wrote it into their code) and pay a lot, if you want lots of interaction and handholding by a human web designer, or pay a little, if you pick one of the newer platforms with a customized theme or design that you manage and fill in with content.

Third and finally, be willing to state your expectations and to make a reasonable up-front investment in your new employee.  You’re going to have to do some amount of work on the front end getting this employee up to speed, providing content, making decisions about how your online presence will work.  Do you want a one page, long copy sales page?  You have to write (or hire someone to write) the copy.  Do you want an interactive, information rich blog/website?  You still have to provide the content and the decisions about what a typical viewer will do on your site (yes, provide links and instructions that show people where to go next or what to do).  Personally, I want a smart, efficient employee who looks like me and who needs a minimum of supervision.  This ultra-low maintenance online employee still needs me to show up occasionally, to provide some new content for the store, to handle those few difficult customers whose needs are not the routine and predictable ones that I’ve anticipated already.  I also want an employee who provides a minimum 5X ROI (return on investment) within the first six months.  If I’m going to spend $500 on this employee, they need to help generate at least $2500 in additional revenue in the first six months.  I don’t consider that unreasonable.  Some people may expect more, some are willing to settle for less, but I suggest you do consider what ROI you are expecting.  It will help you in your decision-making process.

If you’ll think of your online presence as an asset, or better, as an employee, I think you’ll be more realistic and also happier with the results from your online efforts.  And remember, don’t settle for just any employee; aim to attract, hire and develop top talent!

Every day we size up talent by observation, through conversation and based on our own personal experience.  Imagine that you are hiring someone for a job.  When a person is sloppy, cocky or self-centered, it tends to diminish our assessment of them.  When they are confident, open to learning and focused on others, we tend to give them higher marks.  We have just measured talent.  It may not be the best way to do it or the most accurate or fair, but it is a rough and ready tactic that most everyone adopts.

Can we get beyond the gut instinct?  It is the subjective judgments that get in the way of good talent assessment.  Humans have a lot of predictable biases.   We have terms for them like “the halo effect”,”ingroup bias”, “projection” bias, “herd instinct”, the illusion of transparency, the illusion of superiority, the “self-fulfilling prophecy”–there are over 20 social biases.  Even when we’re aware of them, which isn’t often, biases still affect our sound judgment.

The fact is that talent can be measured objectively and we can override the prevailing bias that skews our judgment.  However, it takes effort, and it helps if you have some good tools.  One such tool is a well-designed process to follow so that you don’t develop tunnel vision and become trapped in one or several of the predictable biases.  Another tool that can work well in some contexts is the wisdom of crowds, or crowd-sourcing.  A well-known example of this is the American Idol series where millions of people get to vote on the top talent.  The crowd can often be better than the “expert” panel.  When you can get true experts, some variation of the Delphi method can be useful.  There needs to be some rigor in the process, and Delphi experts tend to be better at prediction and problem-solving than talent-related issues.  Another effective tool  is well-designed objective assessments or tests that demonstrates ability, tendencies or judgment patterns.   When these are correlated to the task that needs to be done, they can have a real objective value at separating the talented from those less-so.

One of the best ways to measure talent is to look at performance over time and in a wide set of circumstances.  How well does a person perform?  How consistently?  What is the trendline–is it improving or deteriorating?  Performance is one of the best indicators of talent, and ultimately talent that is applied is what we are interested in anyway, rather than mere potential or raw talent that has not been or will not be applied and put to the task.

We also have to guard against mistaking our measurements and our models with the whole picture.  There’s always more than what we can see or measure, and we need to avoid wearing self-made blinders.  It’s in the hidden spaces that wild and chaotic forces lurk.

Peter Bernstein was a remarkable example of intellectual humility and having a healthy respect for risk and uncertainty.  He warned us about trying to quantify the unquantifiable. I remember reading his bestseller Against the Gods in 1996 and gaining a deeper grasp of risk, hazard and management in the process.  We lost Peter last week at the age of 90, but he left behind some sound advice for the rest of us.

In my work with companies I urge them to set up measurement systems, or to better use the data and measurements they already have at hand.  These can be remarkably useful for making better decisions and keeping a lively inquiry that challenges lazy thinking or sloppy habits.

And I also see much value in heeding G.K. Chesterton’s advice:

“The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor that it is a reasonable  one.  The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite.  Life is not an illogicality, yet is is a trap for logicians.  It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.”

Why do we dislike them so much?  Common reasons:

• The process feels awkward.
• It doesn’t yield meaningful information.
• Bosses don’t do it well.
• Employees experience great anxiety.
• It seems so subjective or unfair

How can we do a better job?

1. Focus on performance.  Seems obvious, right?  The major problem is that most jobs do not have clear performance expectations that are shared and understood by both management and employees.  We get vague generalities, “areas of responsibility”, or a listing of common tasks, but clear and measurable performance standards are often missing.  You cannot have a meaningful performance review unless there are clear performance standards for a job.  Managers who ignore this are responsible for a majority of the recurring headaches they face in managing people.
2. Create the right context.  This is not the time for counseling, grievances, or unfocused conversations.  The goal is to help the employee be successful and the company/organization to meet or exceed it’s objectives.  Appraisals are time for an honest assessment, for feedback so that people know for sure if they are getting the job done or not.
3. Use a simple format.  I like the one first suggested by Peter Drucker.  Start with a statement of the major contributions expected from the present position, then ask four questions:
   1. What has this person done well?
   2. What, therefore, are they likely to be able to do well?
   3. What does this person have to learn or to acquire to be able to the get the full benefit from their strength?
   4. If I had a son or daughter, would I be willing to have him or her work under this person?  (i)  If yes, why?  (ii) If no, why?

The truth is, most employees are frustrated by the lack of real information that comes out in a performance appraisal and the apparent subjectivity of the judgments made about them.  What they want to know is, “Am I doing a good job?  Where can I improve?”  Good managers that help them answer these questions in a fair and objective way garner a lot of respect.

Here’s why:  they lack data.  Hard measurements and operational data belong to the CFO and the production side of the business.  When it comes to talent, we can’t agree on what we’re talking about because we simply cannot measure it.  The truth is we can, but most people don’t know how. 

There have been experts before who claimed they knew how to measure talent, but the end result seems to be impersonal or even de-humanizing to people, a result that actually detracts from the full talent picture. 

So what we need is good data about talent, a way to measure what we’re talking about.  We also want to have results that aren’t subtracting from the full view of talent; we don’t want talent measurement to be reductionistic.  Today it IS possible to measure talent.

How do you measure talent?  Have you seen (or used) some ways that worked or that you thought were unfair or inaccurate?  Post a comment if you have.

MPG Instrument

I recently bought a new car and it has a sensitive gauge that tells you how many miles-per-gallon you are getting at the present time.  I’m already paying more attention to this gauge and it has helped me in changing my driving habits for the better (to be more fuel-efficient).

Apply this to people in an organization–even a small one–and it becomes obvious that equipping people with a new tool is much more likely to yield change than talking about change, management lectures or internal communication initiatiaves.  These other activities are useful too, but I’ve seen too many leaders and companies rely on them and end up with very little meaningful change.

Like any new tool, you have to learn to use it properly.  When I took training to be a pilot, I initially spent too much time looking at the instruments-I assumed that’s how you fly the plane.  My instructor had to emphasize to get my head up and look outside the airplane.  The great majority of pilots of small planes fly visually by looking out the window 90% of the time.  Only instrument-rated pilots and airline captains fly solely by reference to the instruments, which is a much more mentally taxing activity that requires extra training, practice and licensing.  So here’s my caveat: when you get an instrument for measuring real-time performance, beware the tendency to stare at it and miss the other information and contextual clues about what is going on around you.  If you can learn to do that (and it is possible), you will be much better positioned to build a high-performing organization and drive results and accountability further down to the individuals that actually do the work.