Razban Golden Rule 1: The 10% that Changes 90% in Empowering Managers

After thirty years as a Senior Management and Technology Consultant, I realized that there are ten golden rules in coaching first time managers as well as executives. These golden rules have served me extremely well in my career as well as they have been successfully tried by many colleagues.

Let us start with Razban Golden Rule 1:

If a person is doing only 10% of things right, and 90% wrong, a coaches focus, encouragement, and empowerment on those 10% right things, eventually will help the person do things 90% right! The opposite is also true. If a person is doing 90% of things right, and only 10% wrong, management and/or coach focus, criticism, and micro-management/control will eventually convince the person that he/she cannot do better than 10% right, and they will do only 10% right.

This is similar to well-known, and well respected 20%, 80% rule that says only 20% of data, etc. contains 80% of the information.

Coaching requires proactively finding ways to empower the individuals that trust us, and respect us as coaches. Positive thinking is powerful. It is also just powerful to accentuate the positive, and provide positive leadership that builds self-confidence, self-reliance, and empowerment that helps the fallen employee to stand on their feet. It requires patience. It requires steady and firm roadmap, strategy, and detailed tactical baby steps to bring up the diminished self esteem. Self esteem that helps individuals find energies that they had forgotten they had as a result of typical negative reinforcements practiced by incompetent, non-communicating managers who were supposed to develop their employees.

As part of the eight year research that went into writing of "Layoffs & Hope" and my volunteer work with colleagues who were victims of layoffs, I discovered the power of 10% that can overcome the 90%. In one case, an outstanding colleague was so depressed that he would not socialize, or look for a job. He had internalized the false assumption of being affected by layoffs as being a fault of his own. He considered himself "damaged goods". His broken ego would prevent his job search by asking him, "Who would Hire Him?"

Our first meeting in a coffee shop in Silicon Valley was positive and convincing enough to emphasize that it could not have been his fault since the entire group got laid off. It took several weeks for him to mark up his resume. Then, in another "Let us do coffee" occasion, he was gently put through a friendly and supportive interview. "Hell, I could do this!" was his triumphant declaration at the end of the fifth or sixth cup of coffee that day. There were also tell-tell signs. For example, unlike the first "Let us Do Coffee" that he had showed up unshaven and in a faded blue jeans, he was back into his "Interview Suit". It was somewhat funny that this suit after about one year of unemployment, and the ensued belt tightening, was about three sizes too big for him.

And with broad smile he told me that he had registered for two classes to follow my suggestion of "Constant refinement and improvement of our marketable and certifiable skill set" as the fundamental job security in this insecure work life.

It was my duty as a highly paid management consultant to take care of my fallen colleague to the best of my abilities. Somewhere Around a 70% recovery, he hit a bad interview with a hiring manager who should have been fired.  My coaching quickly changed to a serious practice of the best bed-side manners that I know. Yet the rejection was so severe that it took several weeks for my colleague to go to his next interview.

He was hired on the spot! Almost three years later, he is still working there and he is considered one of the best employees. He even made a joke about this. He told me that he was the best damaged goods employee in the entire Silicon Valley!