The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome
By Jean-François Manzoni and
Jean-Louis Barsoux Harvard Business Press, 2002 320 pages List Price: $26.95 ISBN: 0-87584-949-0

Whose fault is it when employees fail? Typically, blame goes to the employees themselves: They didn’t try hard enough, they didn’t follow instructions or they lacked the necessary skills. However, in The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome, Jean-François Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux of the European Institute of Business Administration (also known as INSEAD) say that supervisors can be to blame for their workers’ poor performance.

Managers may assume that, without their guidance, employees would fail. This sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy in which “capable employees who are mistaken for mediocre or weak performers live down to low expectations.”

The problem arises when a boss suspects an employee is an under-performer—perhaps because the worker has missed a deadline or received a poor appraisal from a previous supervisor.

As a result, the boss supervises the worker too closely. “Subordinates often interpret that heightened supervision as a lack of trust and confidence,” write Manzoni and Barsoux. “Deprived of elbow room, they start to doubt their own thinking and ability, and they lose the ability to make autonomous decisions.”

That confirms the boss’s inclination to continue or even intensify oversight, which can increase tension and further weaken the employee’s performance.

“The sad reality is that once people are miscast as weaker performers, they tend to live down to that image, regardless of their capabilities.” It takes very little time to establish this set-up-to-fail dynamic, which is a difficult cycle to break.

Difficult, but not impossible. Bosses can take steps to reverse set-up-to-fail syndrome:

• Meet with the employee, focusing not only on performance, but also on communication and teamwork.

• Identify the “symptoms” of weak performance. Both supervisor and subordinate must agree on the problems they should address. Bosses should provide fair and consistent feedback and let employees respond to performance issues.

• Agree on what’s causing weak performance. There may be a number of problems, including lack of training, insufficient resources and poor prioritization. Bosses must also acknowledge that their supervisory style may be a factor.

• Come up with a cure. The authors suggest that boss and subordinate create a contract that outlines performance objectives, steps both will take toward these goals and ways to mend the relationship.

• Commit to ongoing, open communication.

Breaking the cycle requires a significant effort, but such an investment is needed to help workers reach their potential.

This book can be purchased through the SHRMStore online. Members receive a discount off the list price. Visit SHRMStore and search for item number 48.13047.

The GE Work-Out
By Dave Ulrich, Steve Kerr and Ron Ashkenas
McGraw Hill, 2002
326 pages
List Price: $29.95
ISBN: 0-07-138416-2

As CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch earned a stellar reputation for pruning the company’s bureaucracy and involving employees at all levels in organizational planning. In The GE Work-Out, Dave Ulrich, Steve Kerr and Ron Ashkenas (consultants who helped Welch remake GE’s corporate culture) describe how the company created a “deeply engrained and internalized process for addressing and solving its problems—quickly, simply and with the involvement of people who will ultimately carry out the decision.”

The authors call the process GE undertook a “work-out” because “it gets work out of the system.”

How is it done? “Small groups of managers and employees, cross-functional or cross-level or both, address critical business issues, develop recommendations and present them to a senior leader at a town meeting,” the authors write. “They can address continuing bureaucratic irritations as readily as critical problems that require dramatic leaps of the imagination to resolve.”

The executive decides on the spot whether to pursue the recommendation and assigns the task. “When the ideas of those people, irrespective of their functions and places in the hierarchy, are solicited and turned into action ... an unstoppable wave of energy, creativity and productivity is unleashed,” the writers say.

The work-out method can help organizations grow along five key dimensions:

• Creating organizational challenges, establishing performance goals that exceed the company’s capabilities.

• Developing “systems thinking,” helping participants understand how the different organizational functions are related.

• Encouraging lateral thinking, coming up with ideas and quickly analyzing which are worth pursuing.

• Empowering both line employees and managers to suggest ideas to executives.

• Speeding decision-making and other processes, allowing participants to immediately see results.

The book includes worksheets and tools that companies can use to implement a work-out, which requires a willingness to think big, act small, fail fast and learn rapidly.

This book can be purchased through the SHRMStore online. Members receive a discount off the list price. Visit SHRMStore and search for item number 48.36513.

Secrets of an Executive Coach
By Alan Downs
Amacom, 2002
244 pages
List Price: $24.95
ISBN: 0-8144-0697-1

Business leaders often turn to executive coaches to help them through corporate crises. In Secrets of an Executive Coach, Alan Downs describes such crises and the techniques coaches use to help clients “excel under pressure.”

Executive coaching became popular in the early 1990s, although, “you can be certain it has been practiced ever since the invention of the modern corporation,” writes Downs, an executive coach and management consultant.

Coaches help executives:

• Understand how their personal and professional lives intertwine. “The executive who believes his business decisions have nothing to do with his personal feelings is engaging in the defense mechanism of disassociation,” writes Downs.

• Assume responsibility for problems at their organizations. Early in their careers, executives learn to claim victories and distance themselves from failures, but that can keep a business leader from effectively confronting problems. “A person can’t fix what he doesn’t acknowledge is broken,” says Downs.

• Deal with a crisis before it harms the executive or the organization. The coach helps the executive identify latent problems and work toward a resolution.

In addition to case studies, Secrets of an Executive Coach includes templates for creating coaching plans and executive crises questionnaires. Downs also provides tips on running a coaching practice, including advice on starting a business, finding clients and pricing services.

This book can be purchased through the SHRMStore online. Members receive a discount off the list price. Visit SHRMStore and search for item number 48.23501.

Making Horses Drink
By Alex Hiam
Entrepreneur Press, 2002
244 pages
List Price: $19.95
ISBN: 1-891984-50-0

Of today’s work environment, people often say, “It’s a jungle out there.” But in Making Horses Drink, Alexander Hiam, owner of a San Francisco-based training firm, invites readers to think of the workplace as a stable full of horses. Without proper training and guidance, horses won’t pull a cart or win a race, he notes. “A stable represents a lot of potential energy that isn’t much use to anyone until it’s harnessed ... and encouraged to work under good leadership.”

The problem, as the title acknowledges, is that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. “A controlling, directive style might get you obedience, discipline and compliance,” Hiam writes. But to succeed, organizations need employees who can take initiative, collaborate well, display enthusiasm and use creativity to solve problems.

Through case studies of companies with innovative management practices, Hiam identifies the “horse sense” managers can use to encourage such behavior. These broad objectives include:

• Gaining commitment. The best managers make employees feel like they are doing meaningful work and their contributions are valued.

• Improving communication. Managers must make themselves accessible to employees and provide open and honest communication.

• Encouraging innovation. Suggestion systems and idea contests can encourage creativity, as can providing employees with the time needed to think creatively.

• Fostering development. Expanding workers’ skills benefits both employees and the organization.

Making Horses Drink also emphasizes that a manager’s key role is inspiring workers to achieve.

This book can be purchased through the SHRMStore online. Members receive a discount off the list price. Visit SHRMStore and search for item number 48.13575.