HCC PublicationsCopyright © 2018 by Dan Coughlin and Lee Renz

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the authors.

Cover design by Scott HermanISBN: 978-1-54392-476-3 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-54392-477-0 (ebook)

DEDICATION

From Dan

To Barb, Sarah, and Ben, the inspirations in my life.

And to my sister, Cathy, who embodied The Any Person Mindset as

well as anyone I’ve ever known.

I love you and I miss you.

From Lee

To my wife, Clare, and our three children, Patrick, Allison, and Leo. Without

their unwavering support of my career including my travel and 4 relocations, I

would not have been able to gain the experiences that contribute to this book.

They are perfect examples of The Any Person Mindset, totally controlling what

they could control over the years. You are the best part of my life. I love you all.

CONTENTS

Introduction ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������vii

Part One - Think About Yourself ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 1

What do you want to accomplish? ����������������������������������������������������������� 2

How do you use your assets to achieve what you want? �������������������������12

How are you thinking about what you need to think about? ����������������46

Part Two - Think About Other People ��������������������������������������������������������������79

Now, how are you bringing others along with you? �������������������������������80

How are you leading toward a solution? ���������������������������������������������� 103

What are you doing to build teamwork that works to win? ����������������� 128

Part Three - Think About What You Need to Do ������������������������������������������� 161

So where do you go from here? ������������������������������������������������������������� 162

Appendix A - Recommended Book Chapters ������������������������������������������������� 170

Appendix B - The Coach’s Card ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 173

Acknowledgments ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 181

About the Authors ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 183

Introduction • vii

INTRODUCTION

This book is for people who want to make a difference.

To us, making a difference means improving your performance to improve

the results of your team, which in turn contributes to the results of the organiza-

tion. We’ve designed the processes in this book to produce long-term sustainable

results that provide ongoing success versus, so to speak, a “good run” followed by

a “rebuilding year” or two.

For you, those results might include improving your focus on critically import-

ant tasks, building more effective relationships with different kinds of people, and

advancing your career in the direction you want it to go. They might also mean

shifting your sustained negative emotions to positive emotions, broadening your

imagination, and leading with greater influence.

In terms of the work groups of which you are a part, those results might include

building teamwork where people support one another toward improving quality

and productivity.

For your organization, those results might include generating sustainable prof-

itable growth, focusing on fewer projects, sacrificing activities that no longer add

much value, and developing difference-makers throughout the company.

Generally speaking, we’ve written this book for people who want to be both

effective and significant. We define “effective” as improving a desired outcome, and

“significant” as making a tremendously positive and lasting impact on a meaning-

ful outcome for an organization.

Specifically speaking, we’ve written this book for people who want to be effec-

tive and significant business managers and executives. That is the territory we

know the best. Any person who wants to make a difference by being effective and

significant, however, can apply these ideas.

viii • The Any Person Mindset

If you are looking to really improve your effectiveness and make a noticeable

difference, then we urge you to seriously apply the contents of this book. We’ve

written it in a way that will guide you through practical steps or processes that you

can use right away. We’ve seen them work over and over again and literally change

results for the better.

Now, imagine this situation.

You’re in charge, and you have a decision to make.

You’re responsible for the results of an entire organization or a part of an orga-

nization, and you have to decide how you are going to manage people to achieve

the desired results. Some people think managing means getting the most out of

what exists now, taking care of what you’ve been given, and sticking with the exist-

ing processes. We think managing means leading the organization or your part

of the organization to achieve the desired results. The starting point for you is to

decide how to optimize the performance and results your group can achieve.

Frequently, managers believe they need to build their group around a few

star performers to be successful. This management approach has developed over

the past 35 years and has swept around the world. We call it The Star Performers

Mindset. The idea here is that if you work really hard to recruit, hire, and retain a

group of stars, they will make your organization extremely successful and you will

look like a great manager.

Many times these managers ignore insights from the non-stars as though these

other people are not capable of providing valuable ideas. They often divide the

organization into the thinkers and the doers. In certain instances these manag-

ers write off the non-stars as not being able to make a significant difference in

the organization while they wait for the star performers to save the day over and

over again.

We believe The Star Performers Mindset is an old-school management

approach. It started in the 1980s and is known for catch phrases like the 80/20

Rule, the 20/70/10 ranking of employees, top grading, and reengineering. It really

does work well…for a while.

The problem, and this is a really big problem, is that it short-circuits the suc-

cess of the organization over the long term. One of the primary problems is the

Introduction • ix

incredible lack of engagement that the non-stars develop over time. They are

ignored, and they feel ignored. Their ideas are not considered, and consequently

they stop offering their perspective. The non-stars begin to believe they are not

responsible for results, and therefore are accountable to nothing. With The Star

Performers Mindset, a lot of strategic leaders believe they have to keep the think-

ing within the leadership inner circle. Our experience has shown that including

front-line and middle managers in the strategic planning process keeps the con-

versations more connected to reality and execution improves.

Another problem is that more and more is piled on the star performers to the

point of them feeling entitled. They start to expect every important project and

decision has to go through them. The stars tend to get burned out or bored. They

sometimes hoard information and even keep it from their boss as a way of main-

taining power in the group. By having more knowledge than the boss, they feel

even more empowered to make demands. They develop a strong desire to con-

trol everything that happens. They want bigger projects and bigger compensation

packages to stay motivated and energized. They feel entitled to all these things and

threaten to walk away if they don’t get them, which becomes a distraction to the

business because the manager has to worry about finding ways to keep the star. If

a star leaves, the manager feels compelled to go out and recruit another star. This

further disengages the non-star employees.

Talk about unhealthy. And it happens over and over again in organizations in

every industry.

The number one reason to permanently leave The Star Performers Mindset

behind is because it is counterproductive to fulfilling the purpose of your busi-

ness. Your business exists to continually improve performance and the results it

generates by creating appropriate value for customers that can be sold at a profit.

The goal is to win as an organization on an on-going basis. Its purpose is not to

have a few stars.

What if there were a better way to manage than The Star Performers Mindset?

Well, there is a better way. It’s called The Any Person Mindset.

It’s a management approach where each person is moving toward delivering his

or her full potential and where people support one another toward achieving great

x • The Any Person Mindset

results. Too often managers see their job as categorizing people and treating them

accordingly, but that’s not the purpose of a manager. The purpose of a manager is

to improve business performance and results every year for the organization. So

what’s the best way to do that?

The Any Person Mindset consists of two primary thoughts. First, you can make

a significant difference in your organization, and you are accountable to the differ-

ence you can make. Second, any person can make a significant difference in your

organization, and each person is accountable to the difference he or she can make.

These two thoughts provide the foundation to this approach to management.

Specifically, you are accountable to your results, your relationships at work,

and your behaviors. At the end of a year, you will be evaluated on the results you

helped to generate for your organization, on your ability to work effectively with

other people both inside and outside of your organization, and on your individ-

ual behaviors.

Imagine it’s time for your annual performance review. You go into your boss’s

office and you sit on your side of the desk, but your boss is not on the other side.

Instead, you’re facing your results, relationships, and behaviors from the past year.

You are accountable to these three areas. You’re not accountable to your boss, but

your boss will hold you accountable to your results, relationships, and behaviors,

and will give you positive or negative feedback based on how well you did in each

of these three areas.

You are also accountable to one more factor on the other side of the desk. You

are accountable to the difference you could have made over the past year. You can

have a very successful year in business if your behaviors were good, your rela-

tionships were strong, and the results you helped to generate for your organiza-

tion were great; however, did you make the kind of significant difference that you

were capable of making? What results could you have achieved, what relationships

could you have built, and what behaviors could you have displayed? This is an

intangible question and often you are the only one who will know the answer.

Not every person can make the same difference, but any person can make the

difference he or she is capable of making. When you build an entire organization

of people who think and act with accountability to their results, relationships, and

Introduction • xi

behaviors, you have an organization that is moving toward generating sustain-

able success.

Your mindset is the starting point for treating yourself and other people in a

way that brings out the best in every person. You can choose whether you believe

any person can make a significant difference or not. Your choice will have great

implications on how you behave as a manager, and the decisions you will make.

We believe the fastest way to ruin excellence in an organization is to mentally

write off people who are still working in your organization as not having what it

takes to make a significant difference. Whenever you think that way about yourself

or any other employee, you have reduced the capacity for greatness throughout

the organization.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a trait as a distinguishing characteristic

that makes one person different from another. Thinking traits are how a person

consistently thinks. The Any Person Mindset says any person can make a signif-

icant difference in an organization, but no one is born with the thinking traits

necessary to make a significant difference. These are learned thinking traits.

Because these traits are learnable and can be improved through effort is the

primary reason why any person can get to a point where he or she is making a

significant difference in an organization. Recruit the most appropriate people you

can to your organization, and then focus on improving the thinking traits in all of

them, not just the top performers. This is when your primary role as a manager

begins, not ends.

We believe it’s time to move from the 80/20 Rule to the 80 + 20 Rule.

Managers with The Star Performers Mindset obsess over the 80/20 Rule. The

80/20 Rule states that 20% of your employees generate 80% of the results. There

is some truth in that. Top performers do outperform the other performers. That’s

how they got the name “top performers.” There is also some truth in the idea, how-

ever, that no person in an organization achieves any result all by himself or herself.

The problems with the 80/20 Rule occur when executives and managers start

to think the top 20% are the only people who can get things done. These problems

become even worse when managers assume that people with certain labels such

as industry experience, charisma, degrees, or salary levels are better prepared to

xii • The Any Person Mindset

step in and be in the Top 20% right away. Consequently, every project and every

decision is funneled through the top 20%. They become stronger at what they do

and they get paid better for doing their work at a higher level. Still no problem with

this situation. People deserve to be paid better for doing better work.

The main problem is what is happening with the other 80%. Without realizing

it, bosses are sending messages to those employees that say, “I can’t count on you

to take charge of a project, and I don’t have the time to listen to your ideas because

they probably aren’t that great anyway.” You end up either developing employees

who feel helpless or hopeless, or you end up losing those employees who go some-

where else where they can make a positive difference. This is how organizations

end up with high turnover, low employee engagement, and inconsistent results.

If you are an executive or manager who always turns to the same people to

lead projects or to make decisions or to give you input, then we can pretty well

guarantee you that you are disengaging a large percentage of your workers. You’re

creating an atmosphere where a lot of people don’t feel valued.

Over time these people who originally wanted to make a positive difference

start to give up any hope of doing anything meaningful in their work. They become

mired in the 80% of the 80/20 Rule thinking of “tell me what to do and I’ll go do it.”

They think, “I won’t rock the boat. I won’t offer any new insights because I know

they won’t be listened to anyway.” Or they think, “I’ll leave. No point in staying.”

And then they leave as soon as they find a position that pays close to what they are

making now. Or if they are really courageous, they just leave.

Rather than obsessing on the 80/20 Rule, the manager’s attention using The

Any Person Mindset is on the 80 + 20 Rule, which says that 100% of the employ-

ees are generating 100% of the results. This is where 100% of the employees are

using their best strengths and their greatest passions on a regular basis to help the

organization improve and achieve the desired results. The top performers still will

perform better than the other people, but the key is to focus on getting the best

performance out of all the employees, not only the top 20%.

If you want a quick visual of the 80 + 20 rule, watch a championship game in

any team sport. Watch the whole game, not just the highlights on ESPN. Over the

course of the game the top 20% of the players usually do make many important

Introduction • xiii

contributions. The winning team, however, almost always has many important

contributions from people who are not in the top 20%. You will notice over and

over again how players who are not considered stars by the media make key con-

tributions to the success of the team.

The sports organizations that obsess over star players continue to lose to orga-

nizations that focus on a total team concept where any player can step up and

make a significant contribution on any given night. In other words, the result was

achieved by 100% of the team members, the top 20% and the bottom 80%. You

need all of the members of the organization contributing. Don’t rob your organi-

zation of its potential by focusing solely on the top 20% of the employees.

When The Any Person Mindset permeates an organization, you have employ-

ees who are always looking for opportunities to make a meaningful contribution

to the success of the organization. They believe they have what it takes to make a

difference and believe they will not be blocked from doing so. This is the kind of

atmosphere in which people want to work. They want to know they matter and

can make a real difference for the success of the whole. This is when work becomes

meaningful, rewarding, and exciting.

No one wants to feel like he or she is just a warm body taking up space and

collecting a check so the real stars can deliver the goods. People don’t go to work

for that feeling. They go to work to do worthwhile work that makes them feel like

they contributed something meaningful.

Your job is to start with yourself. Focus on developing in yourself the thinking

traits necessary to make a significant difference. That’s Part One of this book.

Then focus on developing every person in the organization, or in your part

of the organization, so they have more of the thinking traits necessary to make a

significant difference. That’s Part Two of this book.

Then focus on these five critically important business drivers: reflect, discern,

discuss, decide, and act. Put together a practical plan of action and get going.

That’s Part Three.

When key thinking traits become strong throughout an organization, the

ability to rise together and make a significant difference in the marketplace

becomes extraordinary.

xiv • The Any Person Mindset

The ideas in this book are based on our more than 60 years of combined expe-

rience working inside and with corporations.

My (Lee Renz) research for The Any Person Mindset happened during my

42-year career at McDonald’s USA.

I moved from crew person to division president. Along the way I served as

an area supervisor, regional department head, divisional senior director of oper-

ations, regional vice president/general manager, vice president of McCafe, senior

vice president & chief restaurant officer, and central division president responsible

for the business performance of one-third of the United States including more

than 4,500 McDonald’s restaurants.

McDonald’s is a company that has proven over and over again that any per-

son can make a significant difference in helping the organization sustain success.

Many of its most successful executives and managers were hired as crew mem-

bers working in the restaurants. Many of those crew people went on to become

successful executives and managers in other companies as well. They were given

opportunities to grow and develop and lead, and they became accountable to their

results, relationships, and behaviors.

I co-authored this book and its content with Dan Coughlin, without any col-

laboration from McDonald’s Corporation, and therefore, the views expressed

herein are mine and Dan’s, and not necessarily those of McDonald’s.

My (Dan Coughlin) research for The Any Person Mindset happened in

three ways.

First, I have provided more than 4,000 executive coaching sessions to more

than 250 executives in six countries and in more than 40 industries since 1997. The

average length of these relationships has been approximately 18 months. The range

of our topics has included hiring and firing employees, the emotional challenges

of being an executive, strategy, tactics, planning, execution, leading, teambuilding,

problem-solving, brand-building, innovation, and more. Through this experience,

I have seen what management approaches have been effective for executives to

improve results and which ones have been ineffective.

Second, I’ve read a little more than 500 books since I graduated from college in

1985, most of which had something to do with leadership. In Appendix A, I offer

Introduction • xv

book recommendations for some of the ideas in each of the first six chapters in

this book.

Third, I’ve now given more than 500 keynotes and seminars for more than 200

organizations including McDonald’s, Abbott, Toyota, Shell, Marriott, RE/MAX,

Cisco, Prudential, the St. Louis Cardinals, Coca-Cola, and other large to medi-

um-sized businesses in more than 50 industries. In about 100 of those situations I

went to the company a few weeks before my presentation to observe managers and

employees in action. This enabled me to see the actual cultures of these organiza-

tions in action, and also enabled me to see which management approaches were

effective and which ones were not.

I worked with Lee as an executive coach for a time while Lee was at McDonald’s

USA. “Dan coaching Lee,” however, isn’t the right way to describe our relationship.

It was more like a collaboration of thinking partners as we brainstormed back and

forth on how Lee could become a more effective executive and take on greater

responsibilities within McDonald’s USA. It was during those early collaborations

that the seeds of The Any Person Mindset were planted, and this management

approach grew from there.

The pattern of a successful company has become very clear to both of us. It

includes the mindset of believing that any person in the organization can make

a significant difference. This includes you and every other person in your orga-

nization. You and everyone else in your organization are accountable to your

results, relationships, and behaviors, which is the difference each of you can make.

We hope to provide you with practical ideas on how to bring that concept to life

throughout this book.

Dan Coughlin and Lee Renz