ESSENTIALS MANAGEMENT had tangible outcomes on the backend. We reduced our times or maybe even got to the podium,’” says Laraway. “It became really clear through that story, and others like it throughout her life, that she deeply valued hard work leading to tangible outcomes. It was so clear to both of us because of the story.” Look for the patterns over the course of your people’s lives that give you strong signal and just write them down. “In this case of the cheerleader-turned-swimmer, I wrote, ‘Hard work leads to tangible outcomes.’ Then I wrote down the story, ‘Cheerleader to swimmer,’” Laraway says. “It’s not rocket science. I had pages of notes that yielded a list of 5-10 values and motivators that helped us have a shared, textured understanding of what she cared about and what brought her to this point.” 2. Spot their lighthouse and bring it into focus. Articulating a clear vision for an employee’s future is the most important step. Ask your employee about their dreams. “Maybe we’re a little skeptical that a lot of our millennials, for example, will know what they want to be when they grow up. In fact, some of you are thinking that you don’t even know what you want to be when you grow up. That’s common skepticism,” Laraway concedes, but he continues, “I’ve run this process hundreds of times, and never had a person who couldn’t tell me about their dreams.” “The idea is to try to get employees to start to talk to you about their dreams, or three to ifve of them if they don’t really want to commit to one idea. None of it should be time- bound — no 10-year plans. Ask what this person would be doing at the pinnacle of his or her career — when they’re feeling challenged, engaged and not wanting anything else.” “What we have now is a blurry, fuzzy lighthouse out in the distance. The goal is to try to bring that lighthouse into focus. We want to see the paint chips. We want to see the red tiles on top. We want to see the seagull perched on it. We’ve got to ask a few more questions,” Laraway says. He suggests the following three questions for focusing the vision only atfer you both understand the dream: What size company do you imagine working for? What industry do you want to be in? Do you want to be in a very senior individual contributor type role or very senior management type role? 114