The Dependability Quotient (DQ)
Sometimes the best mentors are your peers.
While cutting my teeth at my first ‘real job,’ I had a friend who constantly dwelled upon his Dependability Quotient (DQ). His take was that he was only as good an employee as his word. He was a freelance consultant so the need for a high DQ was more obvious than for all of us securely employed at Big Co., USA.
But, the need for a high DQ is the same regardless.
Work is all about trust.
Every interaction, even those with people with whom you are (supposedly) on the same team, is about trust.
In his case, the more people trusted him the more work he would get, the more money he would make and the more often he’d be recommended to others.
Even so, it holds true for all of us corporate monkeys as well. The more often we successfully follow through on our word the more access to big opportunities we get. The more we can be leaned upon to help senior executives. And the more we are entrusted to do what’s right for the organization and we don’t waste as much time being mired in office ‘politics.’
While my friend and I never explicitly talked about how to quantify DQ, I’d guess his mental equation went something like this:
DQ = 0.75*(# of completed commitments) – 1,000*(# of failed commitments)
While that’s likely overstating it, you’ve heard the old pearls of wisdom that say it takes 10 happy customers to make up for one pissed off one. Or ten positive remarks to cover the sting on one negative. DQ would follow an amplified form of those.
We work interdependently these days. There are very few things that one person accomplishes solo. So in order for you to look good you need your manager, peers or subordinates to follow through on the items they committed to do for you. And vice versa.
To get ahead, take the long view. Worry less about the petty politics and work on establishing your DQ. Only one of those will follow you for your entire career.
Think about who you’d love to work with again. My guess is that they were the ones you trusted implicitly after hundreds of repeated actions where they followed through and made you look good.
Thanks for reading. I’m off to tackle something I’ve promised to do for our team. Chalk another 3/4 of a point up to my DQ.
What is RoundPegg?
At RoundPegg we recognize that ‘A’ players are largely situational. That is, people perform more effectively and efficiently when they fit the work environment. When they share values, work style and have a personality that jives with the team.
RoundPegg’s mission is to help companies find the right person to hire based not upon what people have accomplished, but how they’ve accomplished it. And similarly, to help job seekers understand the environments in which they work best and help them identify the companies where they’ll have the best chance of succeeding.
To learn more download our ‘one page’ PDF.
The Worst of Times
photo by photomish dan
A sobering article from the Economist illustrates how unhappy people currently are with their jobs. When the economy turns expect to see a massive surge in voluntary turnover. The article included some alarming numbers from the US-based Center for Work-Life Policy:
Between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%.
Employers have the upper hand these days, but what good is that if nobody is willing to bring their best? Quality work doesn’t flow from mistrust.
The employment process is a two-way street. Employers need to get quality ideas and execution. The employees, however, are trickier. They all need something different. Each is motivated differently, has different goals and needs to be communicated with in a certain manner.
There is no magic bullet to engaging people except by taking the time to know what makes them tick. Clearly, these economic times are tough. And companies are taking the opportunity to pare back and let loose the dead wood.
This requires doubling down on the efforts to learn about the others in order to make sure they don’t all check out as well.
Better yet, build this into your process. Don’t wait for dire economic times to trim the workforce. Frankly, people who aren’t engaged and aren’t fitting in with the culture are a drag on your time and bring others down with them.
Start with who you hire and remember it.
- Take the time to ensure those you hire fit your culture and are likely to remain engaged. RoundPegg can help you do this
- Learn about what your new employees need during those first few weeks (they typically aren’t working on meaty projects yet anyhow)
- Check back in regularly (aka re-interview)
- Communicate your needs and how the employee helps solve them
- Be quick to release those who aren’t working out. Easier said than done, but failing to do so will cost you a helluva lot more than their salary
Times are dire. Not just for the unemployed, but for the employers as well.
The job market is far more fluid these days and once companies start hiring again we’re guaranteed to see that fluidity in action. Protect your most valuable assets and get the most out of them as you can.
Re-Interviewing
photo by phineas h
Interviewing is hard enough.
But, last week I had a great meeting with a forward-thinking, culturally aware Corporate Development officer. He was touting the benefits of re-interviewing.
Put simply, it’s the company taking an active interest in the employee’s career development.
It’s something he does every 4-6 months. And its purpose is to probe into whether people are getting what they need out of their job. Whether they are heading in the right direction. Whether there is anything that is preventing them from fully engaging in their job.
The cynic will say that it’s the company trying to extract more blood from the turnip. And there is some of that. But ultimately, the employment relationship is just that…a relationship. You have to give in order to get.
By inserting himself into the individual’s career management process, he learns what they want out of the job and can help deliver upon that. How else does the company know what buttons to push in order to properly motivate? (Hint: money isn’t usually it.)
To illustrate he told me the story of someone in the Corporate Development realm (aka HR) who really wanted to be an accountant. She had been taking classes at night and had recently completed her certification. While there wasn’t a position open, he was able to get her involved in projects with the AP/AR groups.
She was still expected to fulfill her duties in the HR space, but she eagerly took on the additional work because it was what she really wanted to do and because the company (and one individual in particular) was willing to take the time to understand what she needed to get.
A role may not open up and she may have to leave in six-months in order to find full-time accounting work. But the alternative was losing her outright now and getting less out of her while she ‘secretly’ sought a new job.
It was an important arrow in his quiver to be able to better understand his team. And a practice that motivates and engages his team. If people are a good fit with your company’s values then moving them to a different seat on the bus is a no-brainer. It builds goodwill and the sense of reciprocity fiercely kicks in. These people become far more likely to go the extra mile that will make a difference to your business.
He made a few additional points that are worth sharing:
- Don’t expect miracles the first time out. You need to build trust with the employees that enables them to be candid. Because without candor it’s a wasted exercise
- Set the expectation that both sides come fully prepared. Give the questions/topics you want to cover and expect them to have thought deeply about them
- Honor these as you would executive meetings. Don’t move them, don’t miss them and don’t show up expecting not to be an active participant
- Be honest about what the company’s needs too. If you foresee needing to do things differently bring them up now. Better to understand if doing things differently is going to motivate the person who has to do the things differently
Do you do something similar? What works/doesn’t?
Rethinking Diversity
photo by laffy4k
After reading another comment by a seasoned HR professional on a LinkedIn group that blindly valued ‘diversity,’ I felt the need to explore the topic.
Too often our discussions on diversity in the workplace are rooted in the obvious. Our analysis is literally skin deep and from there we draw conclusions that because one is [select a color] and/or [select a gender] they must have different life experiences and think about things differently. Our teams would, therefore, be better if they were a part of them.
Stereotyping isn’t the best way to improve team performance.
While I’m a big believer in bringing together people with different expertise, I also believe you need to have a foundation upon which everyone implicitly agrees to build. People must have enough in common so that they’re willing to explore their differences.
Being able to productively dissent requires one to a) listen, b) be able to communicate in a way that gets considered and c) have the trust of the majority that you’re still working toward the greater goal.
It’s imperative then that we assemble people who have similar values and who communicate in a similar fashion.
What to accomplish and how to accomplish it are grounded in values. If we don’t share similar values then we’ll fail to agree on these fundamental starting point for any team. Likewise, you and I aren’t suddenly going to have a “you got chocolate in my peanut butter” moment if what you’re saying has no chance of getting heard because of the way it’s being said.
Evolving an idea requires both sides to be willing to move off their original position (this is different than compromising). You have to be willing to consider that you’re not 100% right. But if you don’t trust the person with the alternative approach then you’re likelihood to move from your position is slim. Sharing some common values makes it easier for us to trust one another because we can relate to what motivates the thinking. We disassociate ourselves from the conversation and begin implicitly agreeing that the ‘best answer’ revolves around satisfying the values we share.
America’s current health care debate is an unfortunate illustration of this. For the most part, both sides are a bunch of entitled white guys. About as homogeneous a group as you’ll ever find. Surely, they’d be highly susceptible to group think, right? Instead they’re guilty of not thinking. There is no willingness to move the ball down the field because their value systems are so incredibly divergent and the way they talk past each other fails to find the ears of those on the ‘opposing’ side.
I’m not advocating that we hire and assemble homogeneous teams by any means. But I am pushing for us to consider each person individually in terms of how they think and how they communicate to establish whether they have enough in common with our existing team to make a difference.
We have a long way to go to establish equality in the workplace, but valuing diversity simply by trying to assemble the 64-pack of Crayolas isn’t going to do anyone any favors.
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This is a can of worms. Please feel free to disagree in the comments, but do so respectfully (that’s one of my values).
