Want to Win? Be Smart and Clever

Millions of people are smart. To truly excel, you need to kick it up a notch.

We've all seen smart people lose to clever people. I know I have. (Not that I'm smart. Work with me for a bit.)

Years ago I raced motorcycles. I was a decent rider in a slightly-above-average-fish in a small pond kind of way. I won my share of races. But there was one rider I could never beat.

Objectively you would think I was better: I had better equipment, tended to set better lap times, and was bold in an, "I've broken some bones and since I didn't get my collarbone fixed right one shoulder hangs a little lower than the other but hey everybody knows chicks dig guys with lots of scars" kind of way (note to younger self: No they don't). Yet he still beat me four races in a row.

I was a smart and experienced rider. He was just as smart--but he was also clever.
Sparing you (and my ego) too much detail, here's what happened:

First race: I rode a textbook ride. On the last lap he out-braked me and passed where I was strongest, killed my drive off that turn, and used a couple lapped riders to scrape me off my line in the next turn.
He won. Lessons learned: 1) Sometimes you are weakest where you think you are strongest, and 2) Throwing your helmet greatly reduces its cosmetic appeal.

Next race:  He took the lead early and I let him go, thinking he would wear down his tires on an unusually abrasive track. Textbook, conventional wisdom call--but he took advantage of clear sailing to ride perfect lines.
He won by .012 seconds. Lessons learned: 1) Conventional wisdom usually produces conventional results, and 2) Tossing a few insulting gestures at a slower rider before he takes off his helmet to reveal a small, teardrop tattoo below his eye shows a serious disregard for personal safety. (True story.)

Next race: I jumped out to a fast start and clicked off extremely consistent lap times... until I worked too hard in too many corners to pass too many lapped riders and made my back tire look like it ran into a cheese grater with an attitude.
He knew the track and the competition better than I did and purposely hung back to avoid lapping erratic riders too soon.
He won (two words I'm tired of writing.) Lessons learned: 1) Your biggest competition is sometimes not the competition you imagine, and 2) You can love your tires but they will never love you back.

Fourth race: He was totally inside my head. All I remember is finishing second. Lesson learned: Sometimes the best memories are the memories you manage to forget.
Biggest lesson learned? Clever often beats smart.

The Difference Between Smart & Clever
For the sake of argument let's define smart as educated, trained, experienced, and seasoned. Smart people can evaluate a situation and determine the right thing to do.
Clever takes smart a step farther, adding insight and a dash of the unexpected. Clever people evaluate a situation, determine the smart thing to do, and then go a step farther to determine an often-surprising way to capitalize on an opportunity.
In business terms, smart is the guy down the hall with the MBA who analyzes and optimizes your supply chain because you asked him to. Clever is the gal on the shop floor who shows how productivity can be increased by 15% simply by sequencing jobs differently. (Another true story.)
The key to making clever decisions and finding clever strategies is to view problems from a different perspective. Necessity is the mother of cleverness, so creating a little artificial necessity automatically stimulates cleverness.
Here are five easy ways:

1. Think of the worst that could happen.
What if you lose your biggest customer? What if you lose your job? What if your industry tanks?
The answers could indicate a great change in overall strategy or uncover unexpected opportunities.

2. Pretend you're out of money.
Solid cash flow is great, but a steady stream of revenue can also hide opportunities to save money or optimize processes. If you ran out of money, what would you do?
Think through as many scenarios as possible, then implement the best ideas.

3. Pretend you can't follow the rules.
Every business has rules, both written and unwritten. As individuals we all follow external and self-imposed rules. But what would you do if you couldn't follow company or personal guidelines to solve a problem? What if you couldn't ask your boss for permission? What if you couldn't ask your partner for help? What if your policy manual suddenly went missing?
Tap your inner Captain Kidd, play pirate, and mentally break a few rules. You will probably find that some of the "rules" you follow aren't rules at all; they're just conventional wisdom in disguise.

4. Pretend you only have five minutes to solve a problem.
Speed is also the mother of cleverness. Pick a problem and give yourself five minutes to reach a decision. Pretend, say, you only have five minutes to decide what type of business to start. If you had to decide right now what would you choose?
Most of us play out too many "What if?" scenarios for our own good. Often a snap decision is the right decision because it cuts through the clutter.

5. Pretend perfect is achievable.
This is my favorite. Most of us tend to view improvement from a percentage-gain perspective: Increase productivity by 5%, reduce cost by 4%. We look for incremental gains rather than perfection. That's what we're trained to do.

But what if you aimed for perfect? What would be required in order to achieve perfection?
A machine operator and I took this approach with surprising results. While discussing an upcoming budget cycle, I didn't ask him the tried and true, "Do you have any ideas for how we can raise productivity by 3% next year?" Instead, I asked, "What if you had to make sure your machine never went down? What would we need to do?"

Over the course of an hour he listed every conceivable reason his equipment jammed, timed out, shut down because of mechanical and electrical failures. We figured out concrete ways to avoid every item on the list. Then we implemented those ideas.

Was it easy? Heck no. We changed a number of processes, put one employee on a different lunch schedule so he could perform preventive maintenance while the line was idle, increased usage of a number of component parts... the list goes on and on.

We never hit perfection, but in three months productivity was up 32% and the ROI on cost added to the process was over 800%.

Smart? Sure. Clever too.

Anyone can be smart. Take your business to the next level by adding clever to your skill set.

http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/why-you-need-to-be-smart-and-clever.html

Make Results Matter More than Face Time

Every smart employer knows that results matter more than face time. Judging employees chiefly on the number of hours they log in at work is not only demoralizing but does little for company performance. In fact, sixty-nine percent of employers report that supervisors at their organizations are encouraged to assess employees' performance by what they accomplish and not just by the hours they work.
This statistic — from the 2012 National Study of Employers conducted by Families and Work Institute (FWI) — indicates there is movement in the right direction. After all, it's obvious why employers encourage supervisors to focus on results. In this competitive, 24-7 economy stretches across the world's time zones, adhering to the notion that presence equals productivity is simply out of date.
But there are two problems: One, employees don't fully buy it. And two, many managers don't really know how to do it. About two in five workers think that if they focus on achieving results instead of punching the clock, their careers will suffer, according to FWI's Workplace Flexibility in the United States. Moreover, managers don't have the tools they need to accurately measure results.
So what can companies do to prove to skeptical employees that results really matter more than time worked and give managers the data they need? Here's what one company did.
Ryan, LLC - Getting rid of a sweatshop culture
Ryan, a global tax firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas, had a business problem. CEO G. Brint Ryan started the company in 1991, growing it from a two-person organization to a 1000-person one. He was proud of the business's track record, helping Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies solve complex tax problems. But in 2007, a disturbing trend developed. "We started experiencing a rapid loss of talent. And I'm not talking about just general talent — I'm talking about the stars," Ryan says.
He realized his firm had developed a "sweatshop reputation". People felt they were working long hours even if it wasn't necessary to get the job done. Ryan and his leadership team decided to experiment with re-focusing the company on results. He describes what they were aiming for:

We wanted a results-based work environment where if you meet financial results and you meet client service scores, you can work whenever you want, wherever you want . . . work when you're most productive, when you're most engaged. And we'll change the culture so that what really matters are results.

This was a radical change for the company. And required they rethink how they measure performance. Managers were skeptical. "The biggest concern was the fuzziness of flexibility. They simply didn't know how to manage teams when traditional boundaries were removed," says Delta Emerson, the company's executive vice president and chief of staff. Even Brint Ryan himself was concerned. He admits that he and his partners were "scared to death" the organization would fall apart.
Still he felt it was a bet they had to make. So they spent considerable time creating a system to support the new culture. The tool, called Success Measures, allows employees to easily track their own performance through an online dashboard that aggregates client service scores, revenues, leadership, core competencies and other firm-wide initiatives.
Each functional team has its own team page in the dashboard that displays the team's "scores" based on performance in key areas such as meeting financial goals and client service. Each employee's overall score in these key areas contributes to their team performance, similar to a baseball team's individual averages and statistics.
The employee's overall score is a weighted average of his or her scores in the areas of client service scores and financial goals (which account for 80% of the score), and firm-wide initiatives, leadership management and core competencies (20% of the score). Employees are only scored in categories that are relevant to their position.
This system worked. Since 2008, when the initial tool was introduced, voluntary turnover dropped from an average of 18.5% to less than 10%, compared with the industry average of 21%. At the same time, client service scores increased — 97% of clients rated them as good or excellent in the performance of their service.
"Probably the most remarkable statistic — the one that I think I would share if I had one thing to share with any CEO," says Ryan, "is this: in 2009, in arguably the worst economic conditions in my generation, we posted record profits and revenue. And then in 2010, we beat it again."
There are four things any company looking to change its culture of face time can learn from Ryan's experience:

1. Base it on a real organizational need. In this case, it was the loss of top performers. Brint Ryan knew he had to do something to stop the turnover or the company would be in trouble.
2. Create a way to measure individual and team performance. This is the crux of their success to date. As described above, instead of tracking hours spent at work, employees are held responsible for their performance.
3. Don't adopt a results-focused initiative off the shelf. Although the company shopped around for programs that could plug and play, it settled on a customized approach, recognizing it needed something to fit its unique needs and culture.
4. Fine-tune the process. In addition to employee surveys, Brint Ryan and Delta Emerson, hosted town hall meetings to hear directly from employees and gauge how the new system is working. After a town hall, leadership posted the problems employees raised on the company's intranet site along with action steps to resolve them.

What does your company value more: the hours you work or the results you produce? If you work in a company with a results-focus, please share your story of how it is working.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/11/make_results_matter_more_than.html

How to Handle a Manipulative Employee

Most employees really do want to do a good job, but sometimes you run into a few who would rather not bother.

Here are five phrases that serve as "warning signs" that an employee is trying to manipulate you, along with advice on how to turn the tables.

1. "I cannot do my job until you do...."
There are situations where an employee shouldn't take action before the manager makes a decision. However, some employees are masters of the art of "upward delegation." Under the guise of trying to do a good job, they subtly add action items onto your to do list. That way, when you don't handle that item immediately, they can blame their lack of progress on you.

Fix: When an employee moves an action item from his or her to-do list to yours, simply hand the item back with the words: "No, you figure out how to do it." If the employee really does seen unable to perform, offer to coach rather than assist.

2. "I already told you about this... "
Employees sometimes feel the need hide an unpleasant or inconvenient fact while still "covering their butts." The easiest way to do this is to insert the fact in the next-to-last page of a long and boring report which was emailed to you with a subject line that you'll likely ignore, such as "Background Data." They're hoping, of course, you'll skim the first page (at most) and then move on.

Fix: Demand a one-page summary of every long document and make it clear that the writer will be held responsible if that summary excludes something that is obviously important.

3. "I'm so overworked..."
Some employees are experts at looking busy. They're always in a rush to go to a meeting and always holding a stack of documents. Ask how things are going and they're "stressed to the max," with a pained expression and a huge sigh. However, despite all their complaints about overwork, they don't seem to accomplish anything.

Fix: Tell the employee to stop doing whatever he or she is doing and instead complete a specific, discrete, measurable project. Say something like: "Do this by next Monday. No excuses." Repeat as needed.

4. "That won't work because..."
There are people in this world who only see the obstacles and never the possibilities.  Whenever you give them advice or direction, they'll come up with a reason why your ideas aren't practical. These types can be useful when you actually need to look at risks, but when they use negativity to avoid work, they a huge productivity drag.

Fix: Say something like "Stop telling me what won't work and tell me what WILL work." If the employee doesn't come up with anything, say: "Fine. Since you can't think of a better plan, we'll follow mine. Make it work for you." End of discussion.

5. "Here are three alternatives...."
Employees can sometimes manipulate a manager into adopting a certain plan of action by creating the illusion of choice. You're presented with three possible approaches, two of which (while marginally plausible) are clearly out of the question. The employee is hoping, of course, that you'll choose the third approach.

Fix: Pick the worst alternative. When the employee is still in shock, say: "No, seriously, I want three viable alternatives, not two that are ridiculous and one that you clearly favor. I expect to see them on my desk tomorrow."

The nice thing about these fixes is that, once you've actually used them a few times, your employees will realize that you can't be manipulated and the funny business will immediately stop.

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-handle-a-manipulative-employee.html