Brad Smart helped create talent processes at General Electric when it was the most respected company in the world. CEO Jack Welch drove talent to amazing heights and has written books about his methods, but he never revealed one of his “secret weapons ”that helped propel his success. Now you can learn it and begin using it today.

During my many years of consulting with General Electric, it was the most respected company — and Jack Welch the most respected CEO in the world. Welch continues to be tapped by the press about his secrets to running a successful business. He often implores leaders to raise the talent bar and hold their managers more accountable for maintaining teams of all high performers. But he rarely discloses one of his “secret weapons,” perhaps the most important lever he had for improving talent at G.E. Not only can you learn it, you can use it, starting today.

WHY DO MANAGERS PROTECT CHRONIC UNDERPERFORMERS?
Welch says that he spent 50% of his time on talent issues. Why so much time? Because so many leaders would hide their low performers. And even still today, every day, in millions of companies, managers hold operations reviews, performance appraisals, and talent reviews where they:

1. Cleverly try to hype their own performance in operations reviews;
2. Hide mediocre performers in talent reviews, figuring that replacing low performers is too risky – they too often turn out to be low performers;
3. Wimp out in performance appraisals, tolerating mediocre performance because they are afraid the tough truth would de-motivate someone;
4. “Game the system,” figuring that they’ll get a promotion next year if they work extra hard to offset a mediocre performer — because any replacement would be even less productive than the low performer for most of a year.

Implicit in “protecting” low performers is the correct assumption that most of the time, replacements turn out to be underperformers. Welch’s frequently articulated, recommended approach is to be a tough leader — to sit in on those meetings and when you see managers covering for mediocre performers, not tolerate it. Welch would encourage you to NOT wimp out, but instead insist that chronic low performers be replaced, because these tough steps are necessary in order to maintain an A Player standard.

JACK WELCH’S SECRET WEAPON: TOPGRADING
Managers who had the guts to push back against Welch’s admonitions might have said, “I know Pat is not up to par, but replacing her would be distracting and time consuming, and generally a replacement is no better.” Is this a legitimate reason to keep low performers, or a feeble excuse? For four decades Topgrading research has indicated that throughout the world companies large and small find that when they promote or hire someone:

• 25% of the replacements turn out to be the expected high performers;
• 50% are no better; and
• 25% are worse.

So, for managers who do not Topgrade, a very good reason for not replacing low performers is that, indeed, replacements usually are no better than the person replaced 75% of the time. As such, I was brought into GE as a consultant to help improve its success promoting and hiring people – in a sense, to remove that reason for living with marginal performers and make it a feeble excuse.

I helped Welch and other A Player leaders at G.E. challenge excuses and cover-ups by offering a very practical solution – methods we now refer to as Topgrading. When 8 or 9 out of 10 replacements turn out to be an A Player, it really eliminates all the feeble excuses for keeping poor performers. So since embracing the Topgrading methods, Welch’s huge advantage in those tough interviews was that if a manager complained that replacing someone was too risky, Welch could say, “Nonsense!” Topgrading would ensure a higher success rate in building teams.

In the 3rd edition of my book Topgrading are 40 named case studies where CEOs express their confidence that our Topgrading methods made their company more successful, with the average improvement an increase from 26% to 85% high performers hired. It includes an updated G.E. case study prepared by long-term head of HR, Bill Conaty, who estimates that during the Welch years G.E. enjoyed a 80%+ success rate picking managers.

SUMMARY: Perhaps the biggest reason that leaders wimp out and don’t require everyone to be a high performer is that replacing people is too risky — only 1 in 4 replacements is an improvement. Jack Welch as CEO could “get away” with demanding that managers either coach people into the high performer category or replace them because the Topgrading methods — still used at G.E. today — assured that replacements would almost all be high performers.

To start building a team of A Players at your company today, visit us at www.topgrading.com.

Recommended Resources:

Quarterly Topgrading Workshop. Learn first hand how Topgrading can help your organization avoid the cost of mis-hires. Attend or send key managers to our June 12-13 Topgrading Workshop in the Chicago area. Brad and two other Topgrading professionals will not only teach Topgrading methods but for about half of the workshop, observe and personally coach attendees in how to conduct the Topgrading Interview, analyze the information, arrive at valid conclusions, and provide feedback and coaching to the "new hire." Workshop ratings have exceeded 9 (on a 10-point scale) for years. Click here for information.

Topgrading Snapshot. Ready to implement Topgrading in your company? We want you to try this new tool absolutely free as our guest. We'll set you or a designated person in your organization up as the administrator and give you two free Topgrading Snapshots to try out with real applicants. Rather than trying to tell you any more about this great new tool that is changing the lives of hiring managers around the world who are using it every day to streamline their hiring practices, just visit our website at www.TopgradingSnapshot.com to learn more and get your organization setup to use your two free trial snapshots. There's no obligation, no credit card required and you have nothing to lose except all of the time you've wasted in the past screening applicants who didn't tell you the truth. To try the Topgrading Snapshot for free just visit us at: www.TopgradingSnapshot.com

You can avoid costly mis-hires by alerting candidates that they must arrange reference calls with former managers…and as a final step in hiring, ask them to arrange those calls and then make those calls.

As the founder of Topgrading, I have used this powerful “truth serum” to motivate almost 7,000 candidates I’ve interviewed to tell me the truth. They did. And for the past 15 years, since General Electric adopted Topgrading hiring methods, tens of thousands of managers have injected this “truth serum” — and they, too, got the truth. There is no doubt about this, because hiring managers eventually talk with the candidates’ former managers and verify interview conclusions.

After you have motivated candidates to be honest, use the Topgrading Interview to get the most complete information from the candidate.

After reviewing the thousands of case studies I’ve compiled during my Topgrading history, I’ve found that when coaching managers, my single most common recommendation, other than to become a Topgrader, is to use active listening a LOT more. In this article, I’ll explain active listening and spell out the most successful techniques managers have used to dramatically improve their reputation and effectiveness as leaders.

HOW SERIOUS IS THE NEED TO IMPROVE AT ACTIVE LISTENING?

If anyone should know the easiest, best way for managers to improve, I should. As many of you know, I’ve assessed more than 6,500 senior managers. Using my Topgrading approach, I ask candidates 16 basic questions plus follow-up questions in order to understand every success, failure, key decision, and key relationship, as well as how their bosses appraised them. That’s 6,500 interviews X 10 jobs = 65,000 oral case studies that reveal ways leaders improved. No skill turbocharges career success more than Topgrading, but after that there is one skill, an Uber-skill, that is the most powerful lever for improving their effectiveness: active listening. Hundreds of managers I’ve coached had stalled out in their careers because they were told, “You’re not considered promotable at this time, because you fall short on the interpersonal aspects of leadership.” Some failed to improve and, despite good operating results, they were fired. Why? It wasn’t so much because they were lazy, dishonest, disorganized, or dumb; these managers were typically getting good results, but experiencing a career plateau or getting fired. The pattern I discovered was often a manager was described as:

• A mediocre team player
• Disrespectful to colleagues or staff
• Weak at achieving buy-in to organizational changes
• A “know-it-all”
• Excessively impatient
• A poor listener
• Low in emotional intelligence
• Autocratic
• Stubborn
• Insufficiently participative
• Publically berating or making fun of people
• Acting like “the smartest person in the room”
• Stingy with praise
• Excessive with criticism
• A mediocre coach

Do some of these characterizations fit you…or any of your managers? To make this article more personal, let’s suppose it’s you who have a lot to gain if you can become a significantly better leader.

THE GOOD NEWS

Improve at listening, or more specifically active listening, and you’ll be perceived as improving in all of these areas. I’ve helped hundreds of very good leaders scale up to excellent, and frankly, have helped many leaders keep their jobs by teaching them to use active listening. When leaders progress from mediocre to very good listeners, their team considers them much improved as leaders overall, and specifically as motivators, team players, coaches, developers of talent, and yes, even better Topgraders, because their more positive leadership style attracts more A Players.

ACTIVE LISTENING: THE LEADERSHIP PANACEA

If there is a panacea for leadership development, something akin to parabolic skills or large-head tennis rackets, this is it: Most leaders need to improve at not just listening, but active listening. Listening is just grasping what the other person is saying. Active listening is playing back to the person what you heard, engaging in a dialog to really understand not just the words, but what the meaning behind them, and the feelings, emotions, and passion underlying what is said.

LISTENING:

Subordinate: "I need a vacation."
Leader: "You need a break — so do I!"

ACTIVE LISTENING:

Subordinate: "I need a vacation."
Leader: "You've been working 70+ hours per week for weeks, and you deserve a vacation!"
Subordinate: "I know you appreciate my hard work."
Leader: "I sure do! Not only your dedication, but your great ideas are saving the Acme account! You seem to thrive on hard work.”
Subordinate: “I love hard work … but a vacation is … needed.”
A Player Leader: “Sounds like something else is going on.”
Subordinate: "It's not me so much as some family obligations; I need some time...off."
A Player Leader: (sits down, with full attention) "I'm not going to pry, but when you say you need some time off, you got it."
Subordinate: "I don't mean to be secretive. Jeannie (wife) just found out she has breast cancer, and these international trips we're scheduling will leave her feeling abandoned just when ..." You get the point.

Active listening involves what is sometimes called "listening with the third ear," which means paying attention to more than the words. When the subordinate said she loves hard work, but still needs a vacation, active listening prompted more of an explanation. It's being sensitive to body language, inflections, pauses, and eye contact, so that your responses show some understanding of what is not being said, what the feelings are beyond the words.

HOW YOU CAN USE ACTIVE LISTENING TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL

1. Conduct an email 360º survey. There are hundreds of free or inexpensive examples available, such as Google email surveys. Pick one that is short, but has items that ask about listening, leadership, collaboration, and acknowledging successes, etc. If the results confirm the common perception that you are excessively negative, try some additional methods.
2. Use active listening all day, every day. Patiently “play back" to the person what you think you heard. "Pat, let me check if I understand : You want to personally make the presentation next week because you did the study, you can best field any questions, and after a year with the company you'd like some visibility, is that correct?" If Pat has a fourth reason, she'll say it, but at a minimum she'll know you were a good listener.
3. Measure your frequency of using active listening. Use the "10 Dime Technique." Put 10 dimes in your pocket and every time you are really proud of yourself for using active listening, transfer a dime to another pocket. When you end up with most dimes transferred ... you're improving!

SUMMARY: Active listening is the turbo-booster of leadership effectiveness. It's also a vital skill for successful Topgrading!

Recommended Resources:
Quarterly Topgrading Workshop. How about attending or sending key managers to our June 12-13 Topgrading Workshop in the Chicago area? Brad and two other Topgrading professionals will not only teach Topgrading methods but for about half of the workshop, observe and personally coach attendees in how to conduct the Topgrading Interview, analyze the information, arrive at valid conclusions, and provide feedback and coaching to the "new hire." Workshop ratings have exceeded 9 (on a 10-point scale) for years. Click here for information.

I’ve never seen so many sharp people, A Players in their careers, unemployed. Since 2008, as you well know, terrific companies have chopped head count (and they still are doing it), and a lot of smaller companies – the ones that create most jobs – have scaled back or gone out of business. A Players are out of work because:

1. they don’t know how to get a job…because former co-workers have come to them with job offers, and
2. they are too humble in their resume and interviews.

What to do: If you’re an “out of work” A Player:

1. Get meetings with sharp people. Go through your Contacts to identify sharp people – not just people who might employ you. Go back 10 years and think of additional people who were sharp, who didn’t make into your Contacts, and add them. Then email and phone people hours every day to get face-to-face meetings with people who can put you in touch with people who might employ you.
2. Don’t be so humble. When former associates recruited you, you could be humble (“The team deserves the credit,” “I was lucky.”) and the former associates would sing you praises. Spend hours refining your accomplishments in every job.
3. Admit mistakes/failures. You’re an A Player, so you’ve learned from mistakes and don’t repeat them, right? So, #3 does not contradict #2.

After reviewing the thousands of case studies I’ve compiled during my Topgrading tenure, I’ve found that when coaching managers, my single most common recommendation — other than to become a Topgrader — is to use active listening a lot more. Are you regarded by your team as even one of the following — a mediocre team player, disrespectful, a “know-it –all,” excessively impatient, a poor listener, low in emotional intelligence, autocratic, publically berating people, stingy with praise, or excessive with criticism? If so, use Active Listening 20 times per day and within months you will be perceived as a much more effective leader. Listening is simply grasping what the other person is saying. Active listening is playing back to the person what you heard, engaging in a dialog to really understand not just the words, but the meaning behind them, and the feelings, emotions, and passion underlying what is said.

Want more leadership tips from Brad Smart? Download his free eBook and subscribe to the Topgrading Tips newsletter.