Interview:
Wally Bock's Book, Performance Talk
I: There are thousands of business leadership books published every year. What's different about Performance Talk?
WB: Well, the first thing that you'll notice is right there when you open up the book. I've used a story as the way to teach one-on-one leadership principles in the same natural way that people have learned all kinds of things for centuries.
I: That's not unique, is it? What about "The One Minute Manager"?
WB: One Minute Manager is a great little book, but it's a one-chapter, fable book. The pages are few, the type is big and there's lots of white space. In Performance Talk, the story takes up about 70 of 130 pages. It's like a business novella.
There's one more thing. One Minute Manager doesn't offer a lot of resources. Performance Talk has sixty pages of reminders and resources, so you can move beyond what's in the book.
I: Why did you write this book?
WB: I wrote it because there wasn't anything else like it. There wasn't when I was starting out in business and there isn't today. And managers need it.
I: I've heard that before. Just why do you think they "need" this book?
WB: They need this book because the most critical job that a manager has is talking to the people who work for him or her about performance. And most managers get little to no training to help them do it well. Consider this.
In 2003, only about 7 percent of corporate training budgets was spent on training first line supervisors. Most of that was spent on admnisitrivia, and almost nothing on how to talk to people about performance.
I: So?
WB: Let's do this in two parts. For the first one, I want to turn the tables and ask you a couple of questions. OK?
I: OK.
WB: Did you grow up with your father in the household? And did he work in a company someplace?
I: He sure did. He worked at a manufacturing company.
WB: I presume he had good and bad days, right?
I: Yes.
WB: And I'll bet no matter which it was, when he talked about it, he mentioned his boss.
I: Of course...
WB: I just did a mini-version of an exercise I do in training. And if you take a room full of folks, they've all had that experience. I'll tell you something else, too. Most of the folks in that room will tell you that they always knew their parent's immediate boss's name, but they may not have known the name of the company CEO.
Your parent's boss was the most important influence on how work went. Folks at Gallup and many other places have found that the relationship with your immediate boss is the most powerful influence of all on both worker satisfaction and productivity.
That's the first part. That "being a boss" job is the most important job in the organization.
I: OK, what's the second part?
WB: Your behavior, what you say and do as a boss, is the most powerful set of tools you have to influence productivity and worker satisfaction. That behavior is what Performance Talk is about.
I: You said there wasn't any thing else like it. I've seen lots of books on leadership and supervision.
WB: Lots of those books give you advice that sounds helpful until you try to use it.
I: Give me an example.
WB: Almost all of them tell you to "motivate people." Just how do you do that?
I: I'm not sure.
WB: Neither are lots of the authors. Now, in their defense, most of them aren't writing a how-to book for bosses about how to talk about performance. Most of that advice is in more general business or management books. But that doesn't make it more helpful.
That's only one problem with those books. The other problem is that there's a lot of advice in there that's simply wrong.
I: You've definitely got to give me an example of that one.
WB: Well if you read about talking to a subordinate about behavior, you're likely to get the advice that you should set them at ease with small talk.
I: What's wrong with that?
WB: Two things. First, you may not want to set them at ease. Maybe you've been counseling this person for months and if he doesn’t' change behavior, you're going to have to fire him.
You may want him to be uncomfortable because the situation is uncomfortable. If he doesn’t' change, he's headed to the unemployment line. That's not a happy thought.
I: All right, I'll buy that one, what's the other thing that's wrong with putting someone at ease with small talk?
WB: The other problem is that small talk only sets some people at ease. Some people like starting a conversation with their boss with a bit of small talk. But it makes others really uncomfortable.
I: Really? What do they want?
WB: They want to cut to the chase. They want to get right to the reason for the conversation. Small talk makes them antsy.
I: I never really thought about that.
WB: We've had lots of research that tells us this stuff, but most of it hasn't found its way into management books. And since most of us learned about leadership from our parents and our bosses, we keep right on doing it the way they did. Even if it's not the best way.
I: We've got to wrap up here. So tell me, what's different and important about Performance Talk?
WB: OK. One, it's good and proven advice about the most important job in business. Two, the advice is presented as a story and that makes the learning almost effortless. Three, it's got resources that will help you build on what you have and improve.
I'm not aware of any other book on the market that does all three of those things. And I'd like to add a fourth.
Performance Talk can work make any leadership training more effective. But it can also be the basis for a life-long program of leadership learning.
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