Reflections from a first time Operator

  • A tough performance situation

    One of the most challenging performance management situations occurs when you have an employee who is genuinely putting forth their best effort but still can’t meet the expectations of the role. These ones hurt. When someone isn’t capable and doesn’t care to put any effort in, it’s easy to act. But when the engagement and caring is high, it’s natural to feel a strong desire and obligation to help.

    Unfortunately, if you’ve exhausted all your training strategies and the capabilities simply aren’t there, at some point you need to accept that allowing an individual to strive for success and not succeed inhibits them from finding an alternative role where they can truly thrive. While true in all challenging employee performance situations, it’s particularly important in these cases to remind yourself of this point.

  • First week of September

    The first week of September, following Labour Day weekend, is one of my favourite weeks of the year. When you’re younger, it’s the first week back to school. You see all your friends and catch up on how the summer went. When you’re in high school you come back and can tell who went through puberty, who changed their look. All very exciting.

    Even as an adult, there seems to be a buzz in the workplace. People have mostly wrapped up vacations and summer travel and are serious about getting back to business. The out of office notifications drop off. The pace and hustle pick up. That type of energy is contagious and has always been a motivator for me. Only one calendar quarter remains in the year and there’s a push to complete any projects or transactions ahead of year end.

    I once made the mistake of booking vacation that extended into the first week of September and learned never to repeat that. It felt like I was missing out on the return, and coming back mid-September felt like I was playing catch up. I missed being around the first week back and have been ever since.

    I thoroughly enjoyed my summer this year and am looking forward to the September return and transition to fall. I hope you are too.

  • Receiving feedback well

    Hopefully, you’re already bought into the concept that feedback makes you a better professional, and you’ve made a practice of seeking it regularly. If so, it’s important to intentionally receive feedback well. If you identify as a strong performer and take pride in your work, even if you genuinely want feedback and believe it will make you better, receiving it well can be challenging and require practice.

    Receiving feedback well means receiving the information without attempting to defend yourself or justify your behavior. If you start to experience the temptation to disagree, try to resist acting on it, particularly when someone first communicates it. It’s important to actively listen and digest (sometimes easier said than done). Acknowledge the feedback and be grateful for it. Importantly, if any part of it resonates with you, make an effort to action it quickly. Demonstrating action is an important part of receiving feedback well.

    I have found receiving feedback regarding something you’re already self-aware about can be particularly difficult. You might already be working on it and receiving known information can be frustrating. But receiving it well pays off. Many managers, particularly junior managers, will struggle to provide explicit feedback regularly. The better you receive it, the more likely and more often you will get it.

    The more senior you are, the more important it is to receive feedback well. If someone has worked up the courage to share with you, the boss, an opportunity and suggestion to improve, make damn sure you receive it well.

  • Staying Grateful

    In May, I flew with two friends from Vancouver to Cancun for a Bachelor party. It was an empty flight – the Dreamliner – and we were fortunate to be e-upgraded to Business and sit in pods. After I sat down, a husband-and-wife couple and two kids got on and sat next to us. Clearly, the father had kept the news that they were flying Business a surprise. The whole family was ecstatic. “Dad!!! Are you kidding me!? I don’t have to sit in the middle seat! You tricked us!” The excitement persisted. This kid crushed about six sodas and was jumping up and down the whole flight with a huge smile on his face. “Dad, do we get to keep the headphones?!” His enthusiasm was contagious. I found myself grinning on the dad’s behalf. It was awesome.

    A close friend came out to visit in the Winter and we went for dinner at one of Calgary’s oldest steakhouses, Caesar’s. He had never tried a tableside Caesar salad, so we ordered one. He was mind blown. “Wow. Best Caesar salad I’ve ever had. Hands down.”. His enthusiasm pumped me up too. It was awesome.

    It’s easy to take things we enjoy for granted when they become a regular experience. Sharing something you enjoy with someone and seeing them experience it for the first time is a great way to re-ignite that feeling of gratitude. I can’t wait to share lots of “firsts” with Henry.

  • Quantifying qualitative questions

    Recently, I heard a podcast tip on the power of quantifying question responses to draw out unreserved opinions. I’ve been selectively testing it out with success.

    Most people at work will gauge feedback using qualitative questions. Something like:

    • How did you like the presentation?
    • Did you find the Q&A helpful?
    • How aligned are you with this objective?
    • Did you have a good 1-2-1 conversation with your new boss?
    • I heard you had a tough client conversation. How did it go?

    Qualitative answers to these questions usually suffice. But the potential for miscommunication exists. Perhaps Raj responds, “he really liked the presentation” and that’s his way of saying it was fine, nothing special. While Carmina responds, “she thought it was solid” and that reflects her highest praise.

    Quantification can help you more accurately uncover their feelings. And everyone is familiar with a 10-point scale. Like this:

    • On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the presentation?
    • On a scale of 1-10, how aligned are you with this objective?
    • I heard you had a tough conversation. On a scale of 1-10, how challenging was it?
    • Etc…

    It’s a simple and effective trick. I find it particularly useful when you’re asking for feedback in a group setting, where there tends to be peer pressure to respond in alignment with the group and to limit verbal explanation. If I ask everyone “are you aligned with this?” I’m likely to get a “yes, I’m aligned” type of response. If I ask everyone to rate their alignment on a scale of 1-10 privately and then share it afterwards, I’ll receive more clarity on their individual feelings. And if you try it out and every response is a 7 or 7.5, follow-on by asking for a new rating out of 10, but 7s and 8s aren’t allowed.

  • M(34) seeking long-form content

    I have a long drive (10+ hours) coming up in the next few weeks and am seeking recommendations for a) podcasts (particularly long-form, 1+ hour format) and b) audio-books.

    Please forward any recommendations to daveowencord@gmail.com! You can’t reply directly to this mailing (for now).

    Thank you!

  • Dump the pleasantries

    Last week I had two people share some pleasantries with me. Words matter and inauthentic pleasantries get thrown around more than they need to. And I am absolutely guilty of having said these phrases myself. They can easily become a habit and take some intention to avoid.

    • “Let’s catch up soon!”

    I bumped into someone unexpectedly in a professional setting (virtual meeting). Someone I have a loose personal relationship with. At the end of the call, as we were wrapping up, they said “Let’s catch up soon”! I’m certain this person doesn’t really have an interest in catching up soon, nor do I really have an interest in finding a new, separate time to catch up with them. So we both smiled and hopped off the call, and I’m sure there will be no related follow up. It was simply a pleasantry… and a bad habit.

    If you aren’t planning to follow through, don’t suggest it. This situation happens often; a common example is bumping into someone on the street or at an event, and they say “So nice to see you! Let’s get together for a catch-up! Bye!” and that is where things end. Worse is when you bump into that same person for the second, third, and fourth times and the same inauthentic offer is repeated.

    You don’t have an obligation to schedule catch up time with someone just because you happen to bump into them. It’s ok to have a nice exchange and leave it there. And if you really, truly, do want to see that person and catch up, that’s great! Follow through.

    • “I don’t want to take up too much of your time.”

    Someone requested a 30 minute conversation with me to help them out with something and I happily obliged. After 11 minutes, we had covered all the questions they had. So they said, “Well, I really don’t want to take up too much of your time. Have a great day. Bye.” I couldn’t help but think, actually, you asked for 30 minutes and I accepted and already committed the time to chat with you, so you did in fact want to take up some time. I know he was simply sharing a pleasantry and probably intended to be polite. But it’s also just as easy to say “Alright, I think we’ve covered everything we need to. Have a great day. Bye.”.

    …And maybe noticing both comments is a small step toward becoming a curmudgeon. I hope not!

  • Stew in awkward silence

    Historically, I have felt a strong urge to fill conversational pauses and awkward silences by speaking. I’m not sure if that’s personality specific or human nature in general, but it’s certainly a tendency I’ve had. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate doing so is a sure-fire way to inhibit shy or more reflective individuals from surfacing their thoughts. A common example most people have experienced is having a presentation host pause for Q&A and say “Ok, does anyone have any questions?” and then almost immediately move on, to the detriment of those who were coming around to ask their question.

    It’s even more important to allow for long pauses in one-on-one conversations, where the individual you’re speaking with likely needs even more time before verbalizing their thoughts. The more sensitive or delicate the topic (e.g., compensation, an error, poor performance, etc.), the more important it is to allow for a long enough pause. Ideally, you want to allow for a pause that is long enough it would be genuinely awkward in normal discourse. If it is, you’re probably waiting long enough. The more you practice sitting through these long pauses, the easier it becomes. Through repetition, I now find I have an awareness of a long pause without feeling an urge to fill it.

    If you can make it a habit, you’ll quickly see how powerful it can be. People tend to share a more vulnerable perspective if you create the space for it. And the best part is while it may feel like an eternity, we are probably talking about five to ten seconds. Try to be deliberate about stewing in the awkward silence.

  • Leave Well

    It’s almost certain you will work for multiple companies throughout your career. All roles have a start and end date; that’s not a bad thing. And so, it’s likely that on multiple occasions you will have to quit your job. When you do, it’s in your best interest to Leave Well. While you will work for multiple companies, you only have one professional reputation.

    Here are a few elements of “Leaving Well”.

    • Provide generous notice. The amount of notice needs to be calibrated based on the seniority of your role and the scope of your responsibility. The more senior and more scope, the longer the notice period. For most junior, individual contributor roles, two weeks is the standard. I would recommend offering three, when possible. If you are in a Director/VP role or Head of a function, I would recommend a minimum of three, ideally four. If you are in the C-suite, you should offer four and be open to more as necessary as part of a transition discussion. What I’m referring to is what I would offer; in some cases, the company will prefer a shorter timeframe and that’s ok. If you can treat it as a conversation and start with a generous offer, you will immediately build goodwill. You’re signaling your intent to be supportive and helpful as you leave.
    • Transition your work. Do your best to set your future ex-colleagues and clients (if applicable) up for success. Leaving without any hidden skeletons or future fires is a good way to enhance the positive sentiment folks will have about you when you’re gone.
    • Work hard after you give notice. I know from personal experience this can be really challenging. After giving notice, your mind naturally shifts to what’s next, which makes it difficult to remain engaged or frankly care much about the work you’re doing for a company you’re leaving. That’s why you need to make a conscious effort to work hard, maybe even harder than you’ve worked the past six months, to garner a positive impression on the way out. Remind yourself it’s only a few weeks.
    • Maintain professionalism and express gratitude. Try to be gracious. Focus on the good and leave the bad. Express gratitude to those you can. Even if you don’t quite feel as positive as you show up, try to focus on the best parts of your experience. Never trash talk or speak negatively about people or the company as you leave.

    It’s common knowledge that first impressions are critical. Much less consideration is directed at last impressions, and they are almost as important as first ones. They represent the memory your former colleagues, boss, and leadership team will carry of you.

    Ideally, you want to leave a company and have your colleagues, your boss, and the leadership team all have a strong positive impression of you. It’s hard to predict when or how this will be important, but it is. It might be a blind reference for a future role you’re interested in; it might be how your name ends up as a recommendation for a future role at an entirely different company. Many folks you work with today will leave their roles at some point, and work for other companies, and so the “world is a small place” is particularly true within any given industry and geography. To leave with a positive perception will aid you in your career. And relative to the length of your career, the effort required to Leave Well is low.

    This advice is true regardless of whether you’re already positively perceived in the organization or not. If you’ve built a really strong reputation the past few years, don’t dilute it in the last few weeks. If you’ve had some bumps leading up to your resignation, try and enhance people’s perception of you as you exit.

    If you’re reading this and thinking, I am so sick of my company. That’s why I’m quitting. I can’t wait to be gone. They suck, the leadership sucks, most of my colleagues suck, why would I ever do THEM a favour on the way out, then I will re-iterate: this is about benefitting you. Take the high road out of self-interest. Like all principles, there are exceptions, and in particularly brutal work situations, maybe this doesn’t make sense. But those are rare. Generally, try your best to Leave Well.

    I was a bit hesitant to write this post. I have an inherent and conscious bias towards folks leaving well, given my role. But this advice is exactly what I would share with my wife, sister, or any of my closest friends. In my relatively short career, I have already seen how leaving well (or not) can impact someone and I genuinely believe it’s a relatively easy, often overlooked action that’s worth taking.

  • To finish the book or not

    I like to see things through. If I start something, I want to finish it.  Commitment, perseverance, and determination are all important values to me. And that applies to activities outside of work, such as reading; I feel I have to finish a book once I start it. Over the past five years, I can recall not finishing a book I’ve started only twice*.

    A few months ago, I read this quote by Adam Grant:

    “Public service announcement: You don’t have a moral obligation to finish every book you start. Stopping doesn’t mean you lack grit. It means you have the wisdom to let go of sunk costs. Reading is for entertainment and education. If it doesn’t bring joy or insight, move on.”

    In 2024, I’ve read several lengthy (700+ page) novels that have felt like ‘work’ to get through. And so, I’ve been thinking about his quote and considering whether I need to change my approach. But when I review my list of finished books that have felt like hard slogs, I’m happy to have finished almost all of them.** I also have a concern about loosening my commitment, which is that it introduces a new decision with every book: to finish or not? And there are many books I’ve really enjoyed that took a while to get into, but ultimately were great. If I had moved on too early, I may have missed out.  

    So, despite reflecting on my position, I plan to stick with my current approach and intent of starting a book to finish it. The one adjustment I plan to make is to increasingly be more diligent about what books I choose to start. There are so many fantastic, well reviewed and regarded books, I should be able to minimize the number of hard slog reads by being more selective upfront. Maybe that will satisfy my dilemma over time. We will see.

    If anyone has good insights or thoughts on this topic, please do share!

    *For those curious, one was “Why we sleep” by Matthew Walker. I felt the book sleeve sufficiently captured the takeaways and I was reading a novel that could have been a short article. The other was “The Mythical Man-Month” by Fred Brooks. Published in 1975 and focused on software development, a lot of the examples and references were so old it was a bit painful to read so I jumped around to a few chapters I was interested in and left it at that.

    **Ironically, I’m currently reading “mistakes were made (but not by me)” by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, which discusses people’s proclivity towards self-justification. If it was hard to get through the book, but I was able to, I’m naturally more inclined to believe it was worth it.

  • Healthcare and Advocacy

    A few months ago, Julia made a comment to me about advocating on her behalf during labour. I was confused. Don’t we heed the advice of the physicians in the room and do what they tell us? They are the experts, after all. Afterwards, and mostly thanks to our participation in a “birth and babies” class run by Alberta Health, I was educated on the various decisions that typically occur during labour and how a partner’s advocacy on behalf of the birthing parent is critical. The birthing parent is so consumed by labour they may not be able to advocate for themselves.

    Our own labour experience involved a few decisions, which served as an important reminder that despite best intentions, deep expertise, and a desire to help, medical practitioners are no different than those in any other profession: they have their own biases, preferences, and opinions. Not to suggest that is a bad thing, but to acknowledge it as a reality. And decisions in healthcare can certainly be judgement based, involving a degree of subjectivity.

    If I reflect on my own interactions with healthcare professionals over the years, I believe I’ve generally taken a “passenger” approach and deferred to the authority of the professional I’ve seen. And I’m not sure that’s always been the best approach. I intend to take a more assertive approach in the future. No one is as incentivized or motivated to advocate on your behalf than yourself, including your physician, which is why it’s critical to advocate for yourself.

  • Henry

    On Wednesday, June 19, Julia and I welcomed our son, Henry Jack Owen Cord to this world. Fifteen days early! I had a long list of to-do’s I was hoping to work through before his due date and going on leave, including pre-writing some Blog content, which clearly didn’t happen! So that’s all I’ve got this week. It was a good week.

  • Admit it when you’re wrong. Be Accountable.

    There’s a consistent theme among the strongest performers and leaders I’ve worked with. And that is a complete willingness to both admit being wrong, and to take accountability for errors, mistakes, and poor performance. Even when those mistakes might only be partially the individual’s fault. Doing so indicates humility, self-awareness and confidence, and an accountability mindset.

    In contrast, when I work with a leader who often skirts accountability, or who is always ready with an explanation as to why they’ve been unsuccessful due to factors outside of their control, it can be a major red flag. And cultivating an accountability mindset becomes harder the more senior and the later someone is in their career. If a team member struggles to take accountability at age 50, I doubt they are going to get it by 60.

    Let’s use an example. You’re overseeing a large project to install and operate a new piece of manufacturing equipment in your plant. The equipment is delayed. Once it arrives, the installation representative from the manufacturer comes down with a flu and you lose two weeks while the equipment sits idle. Finally, it’s installed but the quality calibration is much more challenging than expected and you lose two months. Eventually, it’s installed, operating efficiently, and ready to produce parts. But the whole process has taken 8 months when the objective was to have it operational in 4.

    Here’s how a weak Operations manager might respond.  “We really did our best, but a series of unfortunate events happened. It’s really too bad, but sometimes, that’s the way it goes. Shelly in Procurement should have given us better information on the delivery date. I told Remy in Quality that we would need more time, but he didn’t listen. I did my best.”

    Here’s how an average Operations manager might respond. “We messed up on this one. We should have added more contingency time into the plan for all these unforeseen events. We won’t make that mistake again.”

    Here’s how an excellent Operations manager might respond. “We made a series of serious mistakes on this one. I take full accountability for the delay. First, we should have reviewed past data on actual vs. estimated delivery date for this manufacturer. Second, we should have had a planned, local backup for the installation. I’m not sure what happened on the calibration, but I’m going to work closely with Remy in Quality to learn what we can so I can plan better for next time.”

    Ultimately, the more you can embrace an ownership mindset and take accountability, the better you will become as a leader. Did someone on your team let you down? Your first thought might be “they suck”. But more importantly, could you have trained them better? Could you have hired better? Could you have set better expectations? It’s challenging but ultimately highly rewarding to take accountability, and your peers, direct reports, and boss will notice.

  • Clean desk, clean mind

    In anticipation of our baby arriving in four weeks, I moved from what was formerly my office and now baby room to Julia’s office. It happened quickly one morning to accommodate some carpentry work being done in my office, so Julia didn’t have time to vacate before I moved in. It was an amusing office change because Julia’s desk was a total shit show. It was covered in papers, sticky notes, half-burnt candles, and random unused electronics. Not a great environment to begin the working day.

    To rewind a few years, Onex underwent a major office renovation while I was working there. About two years in, the renovation was completed, and I moved into a gorgeous new private office at the top of Brookfield Place overlooking Toronto Island and the CN tower. It was a fantastic perk of working there. When we moved into the new offices, we were informed that Gerry (the founder) had one hard rule he expected everyone in a private office to follow: nothing was to be left out or be visible on the desks when you went home at night. This was met with eye rolling and frustration from most employees, myself included. A lot of my day was spent reading research, presentations, and taking written notes. I generally worked with a lot of hard copy paper and prior to moving into the new office most of my desktop real estate was occupied by stacks of it. If the expectation is I’m working into all hours of the evening then why should the senior team care how much stuff is on my desk?

    Despite my grumbling, I complied with the request to clear my desk each night. At first, I did the bare minimum: I would re-locate stacks of paper into a filing cabinet at night and pull them all out again and spread them across my desk every morning. This became tedious. So over time, I started to sort, dispose, and recycle contents more frequently so the volume of ‘stuff’ on my desk was more manageable.

    And then over the course of a few months, I began to really appreciate coming in and starting my day with a clean desk every morning. It turned into a habit I’ve maintained since. Having a clean and organized desk helps the mind feel clean and organized. At least it does for me. I’m grateful for being forced into the habit. If your desk looks like Julia’s, give it a try for a week and see how you feel.

  • The Joy of Movies & Golf

    Over the past few years, I have become increasingly drawn to the Movie theater and Golf. In our always connected world, I am more and more grateful and ascribe a bigger premium to activities where I’m able to be entirely present and undistracted. With Movies and Golf, I’m easily able to be present in a way that otherwise requires effort and intent. Even when the movie isn’t particularly good, I find it easy to be present. The same is true on the golf course, even though I’ll be lucky to break 100 this year.

    Recently, I ate at a restaurant that included a phone cubby at the table. I am curious and interested to see whether hospitality experiences increasingly optimize for presence in more deliberate ways. Certainly, with ever shrinking attention spans, I see the opportunity and need.

  • The value of hard constraints

    Hard constraints can be an incredibly powerful force and incentive. Though uncomfortable, putting them in place can force you to innovate and accelerate learning. Despite the benefits, we tend to avoid hard constraints. It’s generally easier to have more flexibility in our lives. This principle applies in work and personal settings.

    Here are a few personal examples to help illustrate.

    1. Learning and speaking a foreign language. When I moved to Dusseldorf in 2016, I was determined to learn German. I started using Duolingo daily and signed up for weekly 1-on-1 private tutoring with a local language instructor. I shared an office with an Austrian woman who spoke multiple languages comfortably. During the first few months, she would start each morning speaking to me in German; nothing work related, just simple questions (“how is your morning going? How was your drive?” etc.). I sort of stumbled through and was generally embarrassed about my lack of competency. I would routinely default back to English and after a while she gave up on the German. If I went out to a restaurant or café, I would start by speaking in German. I’m clearly a native English speaker and nine times out of ten, whoever I was speaking to would start responding in English. To ease my discomfort, I’d then continue in English. As a result, I really didn’t build any proficiency in German and the limited bit I learned has mostly been forgotten. I’m confident if I had imposed a hard constraint on myself, such as demanding my colleague exclusively speak to me in German, I would have vastly improved my skill despite it being uncomfortable. In this case, I relaxed any constraints and chose convenience and comfort at the expense of learning.

    2. Mastering excel and powerpoint shortcuts. A key competency in Investment Banking is mastering excel and powerpoint. To be most efficient requires you to use keyboard shortcuts instead of your mouse. Once you’ve mastered all the keyboard shortcuts, you’re able to produce work at a significantly faster pace. When I first started in banking in 2011, I was familiar with excel and powerpoint but mostly reliant on my mouse. I started to learn some shortcuts but was progressing slowly. Then one day, a more senior Analyst in my office unplugged my mouse and told me he would return it in a week. Suddenly, I had no other option but to use shortcuts for everything. At first, it was painful. Simple tasks took forever. But after a week, I was able to operate entirely using shortcuts. The fixed constraint (no mouse) dramatically accelerated my pace of learning and forced me to master a skill I’m confident otherwise would have taken many months.

    Having hard constraints imposed is uncomfortable. It’s also often necessary to unlock improvement. Generally, if you ask someone to create something in three weeks, they will take three weeks. If you ask someone to create something in one week, they will take one week. Imposing hard constraints is often a balance between uncomfortable and unreasonable and setting those lines is an art in of itself.

  • Avoid speaking negatively about others (even when it’s deserved)

    When you speak down about a person to a third party (i.e., someone who doesn’t know them), it will often reflect negatively on yourself. The weaker the relationship between you and the third party, the truer this is. If the person you’re speaking with hasn’t formed their own opinion, they are unlikely to believe you with certainty. And if they hear you speaking poorly about someone they haven’t informed an opinion on, they might wonder, will this person speak poorly about me to others?

    Here are some common examples.

    1. Speaking poorly about another colleague. Let’s say you work on the sales team, and Dan is an ineffective salesperson. He’s sloppy. He doesn’t close deals. If you’re Dan’s colleague, there might be a temptation to speak negatively about Dan to other team members. Either the person will know Dan and already have formed their own negative opinion of him, at which point hearing it from you will only make you seem like a bully. Or they won’t know Dan, and they’ll wonder why you’re speaking negatively about your colleague, regardless of whether it’s true.

    2. Speaking poorly about a former colleague. Let’s say you start a new job in customer support. During your onboarding, you’re paired with a colleague James who is consistently talking about how terrible a former team member – Taryn – was. Because you never met Taryn, and don’t have your own opinion about her, you’re likely to be skeptical and wonder why it’s a topic of discussion. Even if Taryn was really bad at her job, James is likely to seem gossipy or rude by making it a point of discussion.

    3. Speaking poorly about a former boss or employer in an interview. If you’re interviewing for a new job, it’s likely you’re dissatisfied with your current boss or company. But spending a lot of time in the interview speaking negatively about it isn’t likely to win any favours. That doesn’t mean you need to pretend a bad situation is great. But it does mean to avoid making the topic a focus of the interview.

    P.s., I’m making some domain and hosting changes to the blog. For the next few weeks, you won’t be able to reply directly to this email. If you want to send me a note, you’ll need to send it to daveowencord@gmail.com directly. Thanks for your patience.

  • The Three T’s model for struggling employees

    Every people leader will be faced with the challenge of managing a chronically underperforming employee at some point. A lot of time and energy can be absorbed by underperformers. It can be tough to determine WHY someone is struggling. A myriad of reasons exists. Generally, it’s worth spending the time to try and identify the cause. If we understand the root cause, we can create a plan to address it. But sometimes it’s impossible to determine the why and we’re stuck struggling with what to do.

    Several years ago, I learned about a simple framework to help define a path forward for underperforming employees called the Three T’s, which stands for Train-Transfer-Terminate. The concept being, if someone is persistently underperforming in their role, in most cases you can pursue one of three options:

    1. Train them. Perhaps they are underperforming due to a lack of training and knowledge, which is preventing them from doing their job well, despite their best efforts. Investing time and energy in training is always worth the time; it’s a high return activity. Sometimes an employee won’t realize where their knowledge gap is and you’ll have to suss this out yourself. If you can tell someone is engaged and working hard, but continues to underperform, it may be a sign additional training is required.

    2. Transfer them. A very capable and engaged employee can struggle or fail when placed in the wrong role. Sometimes the problem isn’t the person, it’s the role they are in. If you can tell the person has the right attitude and capabilities, transitioning them into an alternative role can allow them to thrive. That could be a different role and accountabilities on the same team or a new role in an entirely different function within the organization.

    3. Terminate them. If training won’t solve the problem and you believe the person is in the right role, but they persistently underperform, then you must terminate them. Leaving someone who is failing in a role is unfair to them, unfair to their colleagues, and unfair to the company. Obviously, these are difficult decisions. They are not made easier by inaction.

    Because we are talking about people, situational context is critical and nuance exists. The “three T’s” model isn’t perfect. But it’s a relatively simple and easy to remember mental model to help diagnose the problem.

  • A Life Worth Living

    I like to alternate between reading fiction and non-fiction. Lately, I’ve been on a big biography kick for non-fiction. Mostly, I’ve been reading about successful entrepreneurs. I’ve always enjoyed stories about people’s lives and combined with my interest in learning about what makes certain businesses and operators successful, it’s a fitting combination. I recently finished “The Snowball” by Alice Schroeder, which is a biography of Warren Buffet. I really enjoyed it. She provides a more complete picture of his life than the carefully curated public image.

    In the book, a direct quote is included from Warren’s response to a student group asking about his greatest success and greatest failure. The quote really stuck out to me. I’ve included it here:

    “Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

    I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them. If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

    That’s the ultimate test of how you have lived your life. The trouble with love is that you can’t buy it. You can buy sex. You can buy testimonial dinners. You can buy pamphlets that say how wonderful you are. But the only way to get love is to be lovable. It’s very irritating if you have a lot of money. You’d like to think you could write a check: I’ll buy a million dollars’ worth of love. But it doesn’t work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.”

    There’s some irony in reading that quote from someone who spent their life relentlessly accumulating wealth. Regardless, the spirit of the message certainly resonated with me, and in some ways, because of Buffet’s relentless and successful pursuit of wealth, he’s uniquely well positioned to make such a statement. You can never have too many reminders to prioritize those you love and the quality of your personal relationships above all else.

  • Getting feedback when you’re the Boss

    Receiving feedback when you’re the boss can be challenging. If you’re responsible for performance, compensation, and have the authority to fire someone, then you’re in a position of power. And if you’re in a position of power, you’re unlikely to get candid feedback from direct reports by asking them outright. Even if you’re not someone’s direct boss, but are in a leadership position, it can be challenging to get candid feedback by asking. And the bigger the gap in position, the more pronounced this is likely to be (e.g., the CEO can’t simply ask a junior employee for feedback and expect an authentic response).

    You can always pick up on implicit feedback indirectly through your interactions, but that’s less valuable than receiving explicit feedback. Some organizations have formalized processes in place to facilitate upwards feedback (e.g., ‘360 degree’ reviews), which can be valuable tools but are insufficient in totality. Whether you have a formalized 360 review process or not, there are some tactics I’ve found useful in facilitating a feedback conversation as the boss.

    1. Ask the question “what would you do differently in my shoes?”

      This feels safer to respond to than “what could I be doing better?”, even though you might receive a similar response. It can be asked generally and in reference to a specific topic or decision.

    2. If your direct report previously had a boss in a similar position, try “what are 1 to 3 things you admired about your previous boss that I might be able to learn from?”

      I’ve found this to be highly effective, albeit there’s some nuance in that your direct report might admire something you already do well or isn’t as relevant for you.

    3. If your direct report hasn’t had a boss in a similar position, you can try “Is there a previous leader you’ve particularly admired? If someone comes to mind, is there anything I could learn from their leadership qualities?”

      Similar but less useful than #2, as it becomes more general.

    4. Ask your direct report “What advice would you have for me on this topic?”

      This works well in drawing candour but is likely only in reference to a specific topic.

    5. Ask your direct report for 1-3 things you should ‘stop, start, and continue’.

      Phrasing it in a simple and common performance framework can make the question more approachable but I’ve had limited success with this one, likely because of the explicit nature.

    6. Ask them outright. “I’m keen to learn and improve. What are some areas for improvement you can share with me?”

      Due to the power imbalance and dynamic this may not uncover much. Even with folks you have a high degree of psychological safety and trust with. It may work better with more direct personalities.

    If you read this and have any other good suggestions to share, I’d love to hear them.

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