Lean and Clean

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company. -- George Washington

Not too long ago I asked several effective CEOs to name the single most important key to their success. I expected the responses to relate to either their visions or strategies to accomplish either. I was surprised by the actual answers.

Independent of one another, the CEOs said: Recognize destructive no-win people inside and outside your company early. Then cut your losses and move on.

Makes sense. Past experience has taught me that negative situations with difficult people can bring a potentially great company to its knees.

According to the successful chief executives surveyed, it's more important to be "lean and clean" than "lean and mean." CEOs and COOs can accomplish this by cleaning corporate house every six months.

Inventory Your People

First, evaluate your staff by placing them in one of four categories:

• Destructive
• Difficult
• Good
• Great

Destructive people contaminate your company and keep you up at night. They’re rebels without a clue. They're the "know-it-alls" who don't know what they're talking about. Cross them and they become verbally combative or abusive. You dread having to see or deal with them. You appease or avoid them because they infuriate you -- a turnoff to the worthy and conscientious employees, who think you're "greasing the squeaky wheels."

Difficult people don't keep you up at night. They keep other people in your company awake. They're arrogant and talk down to others. But as contrary as they are, your company keeps them because it needs their talents or abilities. You have to weigh their value against the problems they create.

Good people are your foot soldiers. They're cooperative, "salt of the earth," and great team players. They do their job without creating problems. Regardless of any company chaos, they do a good job because they're responsible and grown up.

Great people -- with their talent and commitment -- are your stars and your company's future. They'll stay awake nights trying to figure out a better way to build your company. Meanwhile, they're helping you and your executives get a good night's sleep, because you know your company's safe with them.

An effective way to figure out who goes in which box is to utilize a simple tool called the "Self-Other Inventory." On a sheet of paper, write down an individual's name up top and draw four vertical columns. From left to right, label each column top as follows: What I Can Rely on Them For; What I Can't Rely on Them For; What They Can Rely on Me For; What They Can't Rely on Me For.

Along the left side of the page, list areas including competence, accountability, attitude, and team-playing.

Regarding attitude, you might write: "I can rely on this person to do the bare necessities if he's not annoyed about something." Or, "I can't rely on him to do a job without making mistakes, then blaming others or making excuses."

Other options include: "He can rely on me to give him a warning and a chance to improve his work," and "He can't rely on me to endlessly tolerate his sloppy work and negative attitude."

This tool will help you make explicit to both your employee and yourself what needs to improve in order for him to keep his job.

Difficult people may be arrogant, but they're not necessarily stupid. They want to get results, but they have big egos. Their intimidating, condescending attitudes frequently make people afraid to tell them when things go wrong. If they don't find out about problems, they can't correct them -- which means they'll get poor results. Then the scared employee will be the one in the embarrassing position of having to explain what went wrong. If you can't find a way to keep employees from upsetting people around them, give them their own space and skilled, thick-skinned assistants to run interference between them and the rest of the company.