Have you ever wondered why some leaders are able to lead their team more efficiently than others?

Is there a secret formula to lead people?

Yes! It's all about understanding people.

You can never be a good leader/manager if you can’t understand your people well.

But, understanding the people is hard. Each individual is different. Their skill set is different. Their motives are different.

So, to become a great leader you must manage them well, and it is only possible if you can understand people well enough.

Here is a simple framework that equips you to understand the most complex job, “understanding people”

Skill — Attitude matrix

Four Quadrants of Performance

Quadrant model helps to evaluate the peoples’ skill-sets and motivations — leaders can effectively use this to build and manage an amazing team.

Quadrant 1 (Green): Can and Will

• The ideal team member
• Someone you want to motivate and continue to inspire. If you have somebody who ‘can and will’, you want to celebrate that person. This person needs motivation and gratification to keep growing.

Quadrant 2 (Yellow): Can’t but Will

• The most intriguing type
• The ones you really need to coach, but once you do, the reward can be immense
• Train them, be hands-on, strengthen weaknesses and develop a relationship that’s beneficial to both parties for years to come. This learner will stay loyal to you and the team, since you have dedicated a lot to them. They will acknowledge it.

Quadrant 3 (Red): Can’t and Won’t

• The least valuable
• The ones to whom you have to quickly say this isn’t working and need action. In the worst case, removal.
• Demote or lose sooner rather than later. Others in the group will question your leadership if you keep giving them equal chance as the other members who are working harder.

Quadrant 4 (Orange): Can but Won’t

• The frustrating one
• Someone is just way better than what he/she is showing but is choosing not to bring it
• Will never reach his/her full potential with current habits, and it gets to a point where it’s not worth continuing to push.

The first two quadrants (Green and Orange) refer to technical abilities. The bottom two (Red and Yellow) refer to their overall willingness. Ultimately, we all want those we lead to fall into Quadrant 1 (Green), but most won’t — and our true effectiveness will be determined by what we can do with people who fall into other quadrants.

Beyond just saying they’re “not where we want them to be” or dismissing our team members as ineffective, we want to consider the quadrant system and cater our strategies to our team members based on it.

The ability to move them from quadrant to quadrant ultimately defines the truest reflection of our leadership.

Here is a brief on strategies to lead people in every quadrant:

High Skill High Will (Green) — High Performers and leaders.

CAN + WILL = Celebrate them. Your Flowers, water them.

High Skill Low Will (Orange) — Lazy ? Drive them ;

CAN + WON’T = Challenge them but have a short window to test

Low Skill Low Will (Red) — Work on them . The Leader of the Unit has to personally handhold them

CAN’T + WON’T = Keep a short window to test for improvement. They spread a culture of not trying

Low Skill High Will (Yellow) — Hard workers, Train them — Training team has to work on them after proper Training Need Identification

CAN’T but WILL = Coach and push them. If they have the proper attitude, they will be LOYAL and productive

It's extremely important for you to understand your team to drive them effectively & efficiently.

• Yellow and Orange has to move to Green, and Red has to move to Yellow
• This Activity needs to be done at a periodic interval, say every month

Have Action Point (start point) + Time-frame (how long to work on this?)

Thanks for reading, would appreciate your feedback :)