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 #3 - To Become a Better Leader, Lead Yourself First
Monday, November 16, 2009
I was attending a regular weekly employee meeting of a new client my first day on the project when the entire group of 15, including the company's owner, recited in unison the company values. Within 10-minutes of that exercise the company owner, in responding to an issue brought up by a team member, violated about three of the values just proclaimed as being important to the organization.
It was a perfect example of why low employee morale was rampant throughout the organization, and a great thing for me to witness to start my coaching and consulting intervention.
In the realm of leadership and developing an organization with high morale and motivation the strategy of "do as I say, not as I do" is a loser.
The highest value a leader can bring to an organization is "congruency." Congruency is "walking the talk," "doing what is expected of others," and being an examplary role model for the espoused values and behaviors that build the foundation of championship organizations.
My mentor, Alan Weiss, The Million Dollar Consultant, said in a workshop once that people "follow what they see in the halls, not what is written on the walls."
People follow people they respect. People respect people with integrity. Leaders gain integrity by being the role model and modelling the behavior they expect from those they lead. Its virtually impossible for leaders to hold others accountable to expected values and behaviors when they themselves blatantly violate those values.
Therefore, its time to do a self-assessment. As a leader are you showing up consistently as you expect others to show up? Are you fulfilling the values and behaviors t which the organization proclaims its commitment?
How could you be better at leading yourself first? If you were, what message would it send to the rest of your team?
One area I've found in which leaders fall short of leading themselves first is procrastination. Two of my present clients came to me to help them fix the challenges they were facing in their business because they themselves had procrastinated on key issues. Their inability to stop procrastinating caused low morale, and low employee engagement throughout their organizations. As simple as it sounds they needed help to end procrastination.
If this is a challenge for you and others in your company, you may want to download a couple of free chapters and an exercise from my End Procrastination NOW! System, available free at this link.