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!
Champion Leadership Tip #31 - The 3 Critical Conversations Leaders Use to Manage Performance
Business leaders must become more like athletic coaches in terms of performance management.
With two new clients and two prospective clients this week my discussions with all four evolved into a serious discussion around performance management.
In my 9 years of helping business leaders improve the motivation and performance of their employees I have found few that do it well enough to get results and build a high-morale, high-trust and highly-motivated work environment.
My clients have found great success in transitioning away from their annual performance review process.
A more effective performance management process is to begin tracking the three distinct types of discussions they have with their individual team members:
- Issue Based Discussions
- Performance Based Discussions
- Career/Future Based Discussions
- Issue Based Discussions
These are discussions that only take place as specific issues arise in the general work environment or between individuals in the work environment. They are usually related to problems or decisions that have to be made, or have been made in the very recent past that are impacting the work environment or the team or company results.
- Performance Based Discussions
These are discussions that are primarily centered around the actual job performance of an individual, including the results they help achieve in relation to the expectations, how they contribute to the overall company results and the results of the teams they work on. These discussions, in most organizations are the annual or bi-annual performance appraisal/review.
Sometimes, in high-performing organizations, these discussions also occur as debriefing sessions after projects for evaluation purposes.
- Career/Future Based Discussions
These are the frank discussions between the leader and their team member, during which future aspirations and opportunities are discussed along with the professional and personal development needs the individual needs to focus on to move towards those aspirations. These should be taking place at different levels no less than once per year and ideally, twice per year.
LEADERSHIP EXERCISE:
This week, do this self-evaluation:
- Take a look at how effective your performance appraisal/review process is functioning in doing two things, 1) consistently improving individual and organizational performance, and 2) developing your people for career evolution and succession planning.
- Identify the percentage of time you invest in each of the three type of employee performance discussions. If you are like most leaders, you spend a significant amount of time in "Issue Based," a limited time, like 1-2 times per year in "Performance Based," and virtually no time in "Career Based" discussions.
- Commit to investing more time in Performance Based and Career/Future Based discussions.
Providing frequent feedback, and how to do it more effectively to improve overall individual and organizational performance, is just one of six steps in the "Secret Formula for Creating a High-Performing Business Team that Gets Champion Level Results." At this link you will learn more about, and be able to download, a free white paper report that outlines the "Secret Formula."
Champion Leadership Tip #24 - Do Not Treat Everyone Equally
One summer during my stint at baseball camp in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the
home of Little League Baseball, the coach of our team developed a complicated spreadsheet on a legal pad on which he calculated every kids playing time over our two weeks at the camp. He used that spreadsheet to ensure each player received equal playing time.
This made sense as all kids were at the camp to learn and play to improve their skills, plus all had paid similar fees to attend. Not only did he treat all players equally, but in this situation it was also fairly.
The approach was both equal and fair, but also sacrificed overall team performance. Our team did not do well in the camp tournament the second week of the session. Likewise, if business and organization leaders treat their team members both equal and fair, it too will likely negatively impact the performance of the organization.
This baseball camp example may be the only time in my life when equal and fair made sense. On most teams and in most organizations individuals contribute at different levels of value and to treat everyone equally would be unfair.
In business, organization leaders need to be careful if they believe that treating everyone on their team equally is also fair. I've found this approach usually creates an atmosphere counter to what the leader desires. The approach builds animosity and resentment, not motivation and employee engagement.
Equal and fair are not necessarily two sides of the same coin.
Those that have more experience, skill and talent who apply it to contribute at a high level should be rewarded and compensated accordingly. This includes salary, bonuses, time off, schedule flexibility, etc.
It is fair to compensate individuals based on their value and contribution to the organization. I doubt that many leaders would say everyone in their organization contributes at an equal level. Therefore, it would not be fair to treat them equally with regard to the time, attention provided to them and their compensation and benefits package.
The challenge in most organizations is that leaders do not have effective tools to adequately measure a team member's contribution. So, they fall back on trying to treat everyone equally, but this too fails achieve desired results.
This and many other strategies is what is included in my May 14th workshop, "How to Create and Lead a Championship Team." If you are considering attending this program, register today at the early registration discount -
'Til next time, make it a great week,
Business Leaders, Stop Searching for New Ideas!
Just got off the phone with a recent participant in one of my workshops who expressed interest in attending a follow up program but couldn't due to a schedule conflict.
When I asked if he would prefer to have me meet he and his business partner privately he said, "ya know, I've found we get better ideas when we participate in group sessions like the last workshop we attended. If we just do something with us and another individual, we don't seem to get that much out of the session."
That was one objection I honestly hadn't heard before to which I wasn't prepared to respond. I did my colleague a disservice. Lesson learned, I'll be ready the next time I hear it.
But, that brought up another key point for me to address to all business leaders.
It is vital that business leaders stop looking for the next great idea. Instead they should immerse themselves in evaluating all the stuff they know but aren't implementing (this is called procrastination!).
Now, I know there is great value in getting new best practice ideas and getting reminded of other ideas in group workshops, as I did earlier this week.
But, I also know there were some fundamentals I wasn't fully applying. And I also know there are many fundamentals you are not applying to your business.
I always ask my clients and workshop attendees this question, "What are you not doing that you should be doing?"
There has never been anyone who does not have an answer to that question, and usually there is more than one answer.
Here are some that last week's workshop attendees shared in their pre-work, some may look familiar:
Group 1
- increasing sales in a down market
- better financial forecasting
- centralized hiring
- expanding practice areas
- more marketing
- spend more time motivating my staff
- efficiency
- getting my name out there
- marketing as a team effort
Group 2
- acquiring testimonials
- more networking
- identifying various business sectors we can best serve and specific strategies to market to them
- enforcing break time
- sending out weekly updates to my branches
- planning and strategizing more
Do you recognize a difference between Group 1 & Group 2?
It may be difficult for you to see a difference. Group 1 is a list of ambiguous and amorphous platitudes that make it difficult to move forward. No wonder people are stuck. Group 2 I can work with better as they are more specific and direct thoughts towards real actions or activities.
So, forget about new ideas, dust off the old ones sitting on your shelf that you know work, if you would just implement. Get specific and get going!
Something to think about? What do you think?
p.s. - next week I'll share a diagram showing how implementation is the differentiating factor between losing organizations and winners, and how it transforms winners into champions.
A Client's Employee "Performance Problems," NOT! What About You?
I recently completed a six-month "Champion Organization" development program with a growing non-profit agency that serves an international community.
Among the things we insitituted was a comprehensive team and individual performance management and feedback system. I had received tremendous positive feedback from the agency's executive director and from those with whom I had worked on the senior leadership team.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the agency's office early one night last week to prepare for a presentation to its Board of Directors, and saw this book sitting on the executive director's desk:
I was almost afraid to ask my client, but I had to know so I said, "hey, what's this about?"
He laughed and said, "oh, it's something I found on my bookshelf from year's ago and was thinking this afternoon about how far we've come."
I said, "Phew, I was worried that we were having a relapse."
We spent a lot of time instituting a performance feedback process that he and his direct reports would be applying to engage employees and each other.
The system I've installed in at least a half-dozen organizations in recent years encourages and recommends consistent performance discussions that should alleviate 98% of "performance problems," and few if any should ever get to the point of needing a book like this.
As a matter of fact, if an organization (business or non-profit) has its performance management system focused on "performance problems" and "progressive discipline" guess what type of employee relationships they'll be fostering?
Yes, that organization will probably see way more than its fair share of employee discipline problems.
It's much better to create and implement a consistent process performance feedback model that includes an open two-way dialogue. Few organizations know how to do it properly and default to the one-time a year performance evaluation process at salary adjustment or hiring anniversary time. This often causes resentments, fear, uncertainty and doubt throughout the organization.
It rarely improves employee performance which is supposed to be the purpose of the evaluation isn't it?
What do you think?
What's your performance management, review, evaluation system like?
Is it improving the actual performance of your team members?
Note: sometimes its not necessarily the forms and process that gets in the way but the individuals delivering the performance management process, like managers, supervisors, organizational leaders who have built through their communication style, personality, ego, etc. that create a low trust environment negatively impacting the process.
To learn more about "The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication" that may be getting in the way, download my latest Free White Paper report here!
Champion Leadership Tip #18 - Hire Great People, Even If They're Smarter Than You
Great organizations are made up of great people.
Some organizational leaders forget this and hire so as not to feel threatened by someone's aspirations.
Great leaders surround themselves with intelligent team members with strengths in areas where they are not. As a Clint Eastwood character once said in one of his movies, I can't remember which, "a man's got to know his limitations."
Building on Champion Leadership Tip #11 regarding leaders leading with humility, this will allow for the hiring with a keen eye to bring strong team members onboard.
Great leaders know that if the organization does well the rewards will be there, including themselves. But, they never worry about who gets the credit, so everyone wins. If organizational leaders take this approach their biggest fear should be losing those high quality people to other organizations. Which is another issue we'll deal with next week.
For a comprehensive strategy to build a "high performing championship quality team" download this free report "The 6 Keys to Creating & Leading a High Performance Team That Gets Champion Level Results."