Would Your Employees Pick the Same Team You’ve Put Together?

The other day while providing free consulting (read: shooting off my mouth) I remembered something I wanted to post about but never did.  That would be:  As a manager you may think you know what performance looks like on your team – but you don’t.  You need additional data points before you can make decisions on people’s performance.

Here’s what makes me say that...

The Draft

My son plays High School baseball (c’mon little buddy – daddy needs a pro contract in order to retire with the lifestyle my wife’s grown accustomed too....)  He’s been a starter most of his sporting life but he’s been starting behind one kid for the past year.  I’ve had other parents tell us they think our son is good enough to start and they don’t understand why the other kid is getting the nod each game.  I’m a good parent – I assume the coach has plan and knows what he’s doing.  I’m not there to question the coach.  I’m not “that parent” just so you know.

But this is where it gets interesting...

Last fall the coach set up an inter-squad tournament – two teams headed by two senior players.  He allowed the two “captains” to choose the teams through a “draft” not unlike what the pros go through (no money, dang it.)  They went through the draft and created the two teams and then played a 5 game tournament.

Now the draft was supposed to be secret.  You can understand why – you don’t want the draft order to be a point of contention and it eliminates the “friend” issue to a degree.  But you know how that goes (kinda like salary information in a company – secret but not secret.)  What we (some of the parents) found out – the draft didn’t look like the coach’s starting lineup.  

There were a lot of variations between who the coach thought was a starter and who the two senior players thought would be best to have on their team.  My kid was drafted a bit higher than the kid he normally plays behind.  In other words – the players thought there was something special, something better in the way my kid played than what the coach thought.

The coach used that information as a way to double check himself and the assistant coaches.  He didn’t take it as Gospel – but he did use it as another data point to determine player value.  He crowd-sourced the lineup to use techo-buzzword-consultant-speak.

This was smart on his part and it made me think that companies could use a similar process to help them identify the “players” on the team.  

Create a Recognition Draft

Managers always have their view of employee performance but they are not immune to ass kissing and brown nosing.  All of us – managers or not – have blind spots.

When was the last time you had a draft in your department?  Would the teams your employees pick look different than the ones you’ve assembled?  Who would be the #1 draft?  Who would be last?  There might be something really interesting in that dynamic.  Now it might be impossible to do a real “draft” in your department or in your company.  But I’m pretty sure you have a mechanism that can provide the insight a draft would provide.  

Your recognition program/strategy.

Recognition Isn’t A Top Down Only Model

Recognition has come a long way from the old days of employee of the month.  Probably the most notable change is the addition of peer-to-peer (P2P) program options.  P2P programs allow the employees to recommend other peers for recognition.   However, my experience with these programs is that they typically are pretty softball.  The company might put all the P2P recommendations into a hat and then pull a few out sweepstakes-style for some small monthly awards (points or ipads.)  That’s great – but because the awards are typically small and ultimately based on random draw the real value is lost.  In other words you get some real non-recognition stuff in there (ie:  Suzy stayed late to help me load my car with leftover donuts from the HR benefits meeting.)

Most recognition programs that have any substantial awards are still controlled by “management.”  

Put Some Meat on Employee Awards

I’m suggesting you split your budget for the big awards into two buckets – Management and Employee.  

Use your recognition program as an analog for your draft.  Put some value and tome teeth into the employee recommendations.  By adding value to employee-nominated awards elevates their importance and will help eliminate the trivial recommendations.

And... you get a bird’s-eye-view into the employees’ world.  

By comparing and contrasting what “management” thinks with what the rank and file think you might just get a completely different view of your employees.  If those outcomes are similar  – great.  If not – you got some work to do to find out why.

 

Comments

[Drew Hawkins]

My HS cross country coach did the same thing. He was a hall of fame coach (National Coach of the Year my senior year) but made a much similar move going into our state meet. The state championship race only allowed for a seven person roster but we had about 11 guys that could easily slide in there. He had a private one-on-one convo with the seniors/top guys on the team asking who should fill in the gaps. Even with his credentials, his decision was made in conjunction of who we felt most comfortable with on race morning. It must have worked because we won our third straight title that year.

Both my story and yours show success using this model...in high schools. Would love to see more of this in a corporate situation. I think it could really change how some managers think and delegate responsibilities.

[Tracytran]

I like an idea of an internal draft. Is there going to be a prize for the last pick like they do in the NHL All-Star Game?

I think this might be a great idea for the team and potentially the individual who was picked last, but must have a strong mindset or it could fall apart.

[Coricurtis]

Building teams through a draft certainly adds an interesting perspective and gives credibility to peer-to-peer recognition programs. It reinforces the fact that employees see a lot more than managers, and managers should empower and utilize those insights. A P2P program is a great way to highlight employee talent and "wins" that may otherwise go unnoticed. Thanks for sharing these thoughts, Paul!

[Paul Hebert]

Sounds like a smart guy. I know for a fact that some folks never get their due because they either can't or won't play the game. I understand that sometimes you should - but managers should focus on getting the best for the org and for individuals - and that can mean overriding your gut feelings. Thanks Drew for the comments.

[Paul Hebert]

One of the rules of the draft was it was supposed to be anonymous - as much as it could be. I don't think I'd want any rankings made public - but I do think managers should look at the bottom and see what they can do to raise that person up a bit.

[Paul Hebert]

And why are you using my High School Yearbook Picture as your avatar?

[Paul Hebert]

Appreciate you engaging here. Too often however, I see managers ignore or just plain miss the opportunity to analyze the results from P2P programs. As you mention - there is a wealth of data in there!

[Ken]

I have always valued getting another point of view. Some creative stuff has come from soliciting information from others that I would have never thought of on my own. As far as employee recognition programs, my company has the hourly employees select an MVP amongst their peers. Some great employees have been selected that I wouldn't have considered. It would be interesting to go the other direction and see who senior management would select. Their point of view would be telling.

[Paul Hebert]

Thanks for commenting. Glad to hear that your MVP raised some names that needed to raised. It's amazing how different results can be when you change the perspective and the audience doing the measuring.

[Brad Stewart]

Input from the team is invaluable. When pushed to make a tough decision this is a great way to get buy in from the team. Be careful how you pose it, the last draft pick might get a little disgruntled and start to make waves before they're on the sidelines.