Champion Leadership Tip #41 - A Strong Bench Is Characteristic of Champion Teams & Vital for Business, Too!
I n athletics its called bench strength. It's managed via something called the depth chart. You've heard the terminology, first team, second team, third team, etc.
The "first team" are the players in the starting lineup, the second team are the "understudies" who give the first team a rest on certain strategic days during the season, or they come in to games at certain strategic times like for defense when a more conservative approach is desired. And, the third team is there to protect against serious injury and unexpected situations that may present themselves, (e.g., a player getting suspended for substance or steroid abuse or getting in trouble with the law, etc. where the second team player has to step up to the first team to fill that void.)
Well, the suprising resignation of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd last week has caught the high-tech bohemoth with its depth chart a little light.
According to a recent Wall St. Journal article there is no clear succession plan in place and no clear successor to the CEO role at H-P. This is surprising for such a large, multi-national firm.
It's not a surprise to me in dealing with the small-to-medium sized firm's I work with. But, it is no less important, and maybe even more important, for the smaller companies and not-for-profit agencies with whom I work to have a succession plan in place.
Few do.
I call it the "Mack Truck" scenario. What happens to your organization should the owner/CEO walk down the street for lunch and get hit by a Mack Truck crossing the street?
Hmmm, something to think about! Yet, too many organizations fail to plan effectively for this possibility.
That's why I was excited to get a call from a former client this week who asked me to help train their middle-level managers on leadership and high-performance management skills last winter asking me to take their younger executives, who are the next level on their depth chart, through the same training. This is a firm obviously looking to the future and wants to be ready for it.
I also have another client, a not-for-profit organization, that to this point has not invested time, energy and resources on its Mack Truck scenario. But, I've been moving them in that direction since I started working with them because I believe the health and vitality of its current executive director is vital to the long-term viability and sustainability (not just the success) of the agency. And, at this stage the agency lacks the depth chart to have a viable succession plan.
What about you? Too many company's and not-for-profit organizations procrastinate on this 'fundamental' of long-term success (it's no coincidence that the word 'success' is the core of the word 'succession' as in 'succession planning.')
That's why I have included 'succession planning' and 'depth chart' creation as a strategy within my program on "The 3 Leadership Strategies Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted."
If you haven't downloaded that free white paper report you should do that now at this link.
You also may want to register for my upcoming Free TeleSeminar on September 9th as well, on which I will be discussing the strategies outlined in that report.
The Tele-Seminar on September 9th is titled ""The 3 Leadership Strategies Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted."Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted."
Grab your seat today before the call fills up. I've been amazed at the number of registrations already and I haven't promoted much beyond last week's mention in my ezine that goes out to my list of 4,000 subscribers.
'til next time, make it a great week!
Steinbrenner's Legacy Reinforces the 3 Leadership Strategies of Champion Organizations
As a lifelong New York Mets fan I never thought I'd be writing a tribute to New York Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner, but my priorities and focus have changed since the 1970s & 80s when Steinbrenner's Yankees were my most hated nemesis.
In looking at how Steinbrenner transformed a run down franchise in 1973 valued at $10 million into a multi-billion dollar empire, the argument could be made that he did it by applying "The 3 Leadership Strategies Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted."
Here's how Steinbrenner applied each of the "3 Strategies:"
Creating a Powerful Vision & Strategy
From the very beginning Steinbrenner focused the team, the media and the fans on one vision and that was to bring the Yankees back to prominence and to become World Series Champions again.
Steinbrenner purchased the team on January 3, 1973 and within four seasons the Yankees were back in the World Series. In his fifth and sixth seasons his Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in back-to-back World Series.
His strategy of finding the right team members, paying them above market wages t attract them, and then demanding high-levels of performance brought the team high-levels of success.
Personnel & Performance Management Systems With Accountability
S teinbrenner's focus on managing personnel and their performance is legendary.
His reputation for pushing his personnel beyond their comfort zone is well-documented. Some would even say it was over the top and detrimental to achieving his desired results.
Yet, despite not being perfect and having a lull in the middle years of his rein, it got results. Because even when the team was not winning championships in the 80s the value of the franchise continued to climb.
Leadership & Teamwork Developed Throughout
Despite "The Bronx Zoo" era of the late 70s the Yankees under Steinbrenner always had great leaders. As a matter of fact it was Steinbrenner who resurrected the idea of a "team captain." In 1976 he named catcher Thurman Munson the first team captain since Lou Gehrig in 1941.
Subsequent team captains were Graig Nettles (1982-84), Willie Randolph (1986-89), Ron Guidry (1986-89), Don Mattingly (1991-95), and Derek Jeter (2003-present).
Now, despite the team captains and the consistent focus on personnel and performance management, the team wasn't always a cohesive unit off the field. But, there was never a waiver about the commitment to win when they crossed the white lines.
One of the quotes that resurfaced yesterday in the retrospectives on Steinbrenner's life and career was, "winning is the second most important thing next to breathing, its breathing first, winning second."
Many would think that a little over the top and his priorities a little out of sync. But, he was passionate about his teams performing at a high-level and providing his customers with a quality product on the field. That quote was meant to emphasize his commitment to the objective.
A key leadership trait many espouse is compassion. Compassion for those you lead. In public it seems Steinbrenner showed little compassion for those that worked for him. All we saw and heard about was his demanding and overbearing style. The softer, private side of Steinbrenner's personality was also being shared last night in the reports of his life and it seems he gave significantly to causes important to him and his family as well as those individuals closest to him in the game he loved.
If there is one thing we, as organizational leaders can take from Steinbrenner's legacy, I would offer his passion for what he did, his passion for excellence and offering customers a high-quality product that would return high-value for all investing in that product.
Three years ago I wrote a white paper report detailing how these three strategies create champion organizations titled, "The 3 Leadership Strategies Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted."
This month I am in the process of updating it and making it even more relevant for organizational leaders to apply.
It is going to include an exercise for strategic evaluation, and access to additional resources to manage performance and develop leadership and teamwork in any organization.
If you'd like to order this report while I'm still offering it as a free download, which I guarantee will be available before the end of this month click here to get on the list to receive it as soon as it is released.
Champion Leadership Tip #33 - Two Resources to Help Leaders Develop the Habit of Humility
Those of you who have followed these Champion Leadership Tips over the past 33 weeks know I believe that one of the 5 Traits of a Champion Leader is "humility." (see Champion Leaderships Tip #11).
When I coach business leaders this is one of the most challenging transformations I have to help them make, as it is initiailly mis-understood. They often see it as being soft. But as I argue in Tip #11 it is actually a sign of strength.
Because I believe it is so important for leaders to develop and nurture the habit of humility I thought I would take this week's post to offer two resources to help.
The resources are two excellent books I've recently read that are outstanding at reinforcing the fact that leaders often are the cause of their team members failing to meet performance, behavior and attitude expectations.
The two books are:
"What Got You Here, Won't Get You There" by Marshall Goldsmith - this book provides case studies of Goldsmith's work with his high-level CEO clients as well as personal anecdotes of how he has applied the strategies to improve his own business and family relationships. In the book Goldsmith offers specific communication exercises that leaders can practice to improve the relationships with those they work with to transform the results they get through other people.
"Leadership & Self-Deception" by The Arbinger Institute -I was very impressed with this book. It offers tremendous insight into how our own internal thought process and communication style often times creates a belief system that causes us to see others through a filter. It is this filter which gets in the way of our perception of others to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of how we expect them to be.
The premise of the book is that leaders often times decieve themselves because of this filtered perception and communicate with people as if they are objects and not "people." In failing to see people as "people" with thoughts, feelings, and desires much like ourselves we dehmanize them, and then communicate at them in a way that causes them to behave in a way that supports our perception of them. This creates a downward and recurring spiral of behavior that reinforces our belief and destroys a relationship and a potentially high quality contributor to our life and business.
Read and apply the strategies in both books and you will significantly improve the results and satisfaction you get from both your personal and professional relationships.
These two books are great resources for leaders who are ready to embrace humility and look inside themselves so they can elevate their approach to truly become a Champion Leader.
'Til next time, make it a great week!
Teamwork never breaks down.
Teamwork never fails.
This again was proved in Saturday's U.S. vs. England World Cup tournament opener.
Despite outstanding teamwork that allowed the stronger team from England to control the ball for 57 percent of the game, they left their opening game with a disappointing 1-1 tie.
The reason? A misplay by England goalkeeper Robert Green on a shot by Clint Dempsey of the U.S. allowed the tying goal late in the first half.
It's plays like this that continue to reinforce my belief that breakdowns in what many consider "teamwork" rarely are the cause of achieving desired organizational performance results.
Teamwork is a buzzword in corporate america that continues to ask employees to strive for. They strive for ways to breakdown silohs that build up due to competition over resources between divisions and departments.
Yet, these requests, proclamations and teambuilding initiatives continually fail. They fail because the focus is mis-directed.
Teamwork fails in organizations and in athletics not because people do not understand the importance of working together so that "Together Everyone Achieves More."
Teamwork fails for three reasons:
1) The rewards and benefits of giving of oneself for the betterment of the group/team are not strongly enough aligned for the individual to do so;
2) The rewards and benefits of giving of oneself for the betterment of the group/team actually create greater competition for resources between those who are supposed to be working together to share those resources.
3) One individual on o the team "drops the ball" (or fails to perform the necessary task or assignment) as England Goalkeeper Robert Green did in attempting to protect his goal against the U.S. in their opening World Cup match yesterday;
On athletic teams, when team members fail to perform to expectations and make mistakes that cost their teammates there is usually tremendous despair on the part of the teammate who didn't perform.
In today's Wall St. Journal, Robert Green was quoted "It was obviously a horrible mistake, a terrible mistake," said Mr. Green, bobbing his head incredulously after the game. He blamed neither the controversial new ball, the bounciest ever, nor the slickness of the pitch, and said his teammates left him alone after the mishap. "People don't say anything. You know you made a mistake. You've got to deal with it."
Yet, in many business situations, few individuals who fail to support their team members in situations when teamwork is required feel as though they've let anyone down, because many times they are performing in their own self-interests or truly have a blind spot and do not realize the negative impact of their parochialism.
If you would like to learn more about how to truly improve teamwork in your organization I want to know about it.
I'm presently working on a new White Paper titled, "The Myth of Teamwork - Why Teamwork Breaks Down and What Organizational Leaders Can Do About It."
Click this link and order the White Paper and you will receive notification as soon as it is ready for you to download, read and begin applying to improve teamwork in your workplace.
Today is the opening matches for the 2010 World Cup Football (Soccer to us Americans). And, the month long tournament gives us another opportunity to study the traits that create champions in athletics and to look at how we can translate that to our teams in business.
Although I've never been much of a fan until recent years, the 2006 World Cup Tournament did catch my attention. As a matter of fact I believe the Finals Match between Italy and France may have been the first complete soccer match I've ever watched on TV.
That event stands out for the very selfish play by France's star player Zinedane Zidane, who scored France's only goal in the game but subsequently showed a complete lack of self-leadership by head-butting an opponent during an altercation forcing his removal from the final minutes of the game, the overtime and penalty shot phase the determined the Champion.
The Champion Leadership lesson from that World Cup came down to that incident and showed a lack of emotional intelligence and self-leadership. In business emotions play a regular part of our individual and team success as I've seen many leaders show a complete disregard for managing their emotions, to the detriment of their business relationships.
But, today the World Cup starts fresh. All 32-teams will be applying my "3 Strategies of Champion Organizations" as they get started. The team that will come out on top will be the team that most effectively implements and executes those three stratgies most consistently.
The "3 Strategies" are:
- A Compelling Vision & Strategy
- Performance Management Accountability Systems
- Leadership & Teamwork Developed Throughout
To learn what to look for regarding the "3 Strategies of Champion Organizations" as we together watch the World Cup Football Championship unfold over the next few weeks, download the free White Paper here .
Champion Leadership Tip #29 - Leaders Understand the Difference Between Musts & Wants
On Saturday I found myself in the middle of a shoulder-stand towards the end of my yoga class when the instructor said, "if at any time you feel the need to come out of your shoulder-stand, please feel free to go in to a more appropriate pose for you."
It got me thinking. Because in that moment I said to myself, "that's interesting. I don't feel a 'need' to come out of this pose but I sure do 'want' to."
I decided to h
ang in there for a few more breaths, knowing that the instructor would be taking us out of the shoulder-stand in less than a minute. "This too shall pass...breathe...breathe." Done, just a moment later we rolled out of it.
Leaders must be able to differentiate between their 'needs,' or in business I prefer to focus on "musts," and "wants," too. It, often times, can be the difference between success and failure.
Leaders have to make many important decisions, some times with little time to invest, but every key decision must come with a full evaluation of "musts" and "wants."
This is basic negotiation skills.
"Musts" = the non-negotiables, these are things that you are not willing to give up, or not get after making a decision.
"Wants" = the things you'd like to have, but are willing to live without. You are willing to negotiate those away in order to make sure you get your "musts."
A recent client was having challenges making a hiring decision. I took them through this exercise having them identify the "must" traits and their "want" traits. It gave them a greater sense of confidence that they could now evaluate their candidates against their own clear standards.
But, for now think of a decision you need to make and take out a sheet of paper. Draw a line down the center of the page, write "Musts" on top of the left column and "Wants" on the top of the right column.
Then, think about the end result you'd like this decision to bring you and the "musts" you need to achieve to make it successful, and the other things you'd like to have, or the "wants." You are on your way to making a great decision.
More on leadership decision making in next week's Champion Leadership Tip. Decision-making is one of the "3 D's of Leadership" to read more about those, read this article.
How to Easily Create Market Differentiation With an Out-Going Voice Mail Message, In Any Industry or Profession
I get more comments from callers about my out-going voice mail message than anyone I know. I also know it has brought me potential business opportunities. If you get a chance you may want to see what I'm speaking about (the number is 845-463-3838, if you care to give it a try).
The message on your out-going voice mail can be a branding tool for your business and set you apart from your competition. Yet, few people I know use it effectively.
This issue was reinforced in my mind and for my own personal business strategy last week. I had a discussion with a former client about differentiating his business
The challenge we discussed was a call he received from a business prospect that commented that a call to the competition went un-returned for over four weeks.
This prospect had to also leave a message for my former client and even though it was returned in much less than four weeks, it still took a couple of days.
His out-going voice mail was just like 99% of all voice mail messages. It went something like this:
"Hi, thank you for calling XYZ company, your call is very important to us so please leave a message and we'll return your call as soon as possible."
I'm certain this was also a similar message to the competitor that was called first. I told my former client he was lucky to get this new client, for the following reason.
Imagine what kind of expectation was set for the prospect who called my former client. He probably wasn't expecting a call back inside of four weeks.
But, what about this?
What if my former client had an out-going voice mail message more similar to mine:
"Hi, this is Skip Weisman, thank you for calling. Even though I can't take your call right now, I promise to respond within 3-hours either by voice or e-mail. Please leave a message with as much detail as possible so we can limit the game of phone tag. Thank you for calling and I look forward to speaking with you soon."
This type of message does a few important things:
- It is only 15 seconds so it respects the caller's time,
- It promises a return call in a certain time frame that is within less than a 1/2-day,
- It sets a standard few others in any business or industry offer.
When I suggested to my former client he raise the bar on the standard he sets for his business, he told me, "Wow, I'd like to be able to do something like that, and as soon as we add some more personnel to our team so we can have greater resources to serve those that call!
I stopped him in mid-sentence and said,
"No, you can decide to hold yourself and your company to a higher standard now, so that those you bring in to the firm will be indoctrinated to a higher expectation and level of professionalism, instead of trying to change their expectation after the fact.
"Commit first, and your business will become very attractive to prospects looking for a high quality firm to work with. You say you are better and different from your competition, this is one not so small way you can show it early in the relationship."
I've coached dozens of clients over the past few years since I instituted my out-going voice mail and not one of them has picked up on this standard for their out-going voice mail. When I ask "why?" I get poor excuses such as,
"I didn't want to commit to something I couldn't deliver!"
My point is not to make a commitment as mine, a 3-hour turn around. My point is to commit to something, 4-hours, by the end of the day, within 24 hours, 72 hours, etc.
Commit to some higher standard and you will create a market differentiation between your company and the competition.
Let me know what you think of this strategy and what you can commit to.
p.s. - there are few reasons to not return phone calls at the end of your day. You can always call back after hours to leave a voice mail letting the person know you got their message and you are working on getting them what they need, or that you will get back to them by the end of the next day, etc.
The worst emotion in human psychology is "uncertainty." As such as business professionals we should be doing everything in our power and control to provide our business prospects and clients "certainty" in our approach to solving their problems. Is your out-going voice mail message doing that, if not it's an easy to way to get started.