Leadership Catalyst Blog
CNBC reports that 67% of Vistage CEOs Predict Revenue Growth for their Companies
All Blog Posts, Vistage Peer Groups / 23.10.2010
Rafael Pastor appeared as a guest on CNBCon Monday afternoon wherein he released a new economic survey of Vistage CEOs outlook on the economy. In this 5 minute CNBC video clip (Please endure the 20 second lead ad), Pastor relates that the Vistage CEOs surveyed (representing over 14,000 member companies worldwide, with 10,000 member companies in the USA) are experiencing a modest lift in this economy, and are forecasting growth two quarters out, and a better economic forecast in 2011 than the market specialists are forecasting. (Note: Vistage CEOs may not be a representative sample of small businesses because independent research shows that Vistage member companies consistently outperform their non-participating peers.) Despite not being a totally representative sample, the Vistage CEO Confidence Index is a reliable leading indicator of GPD growth two quarters out. Pastor goes on to say that Vistage member companies do not forecast significant job growth in 2011. Rather, Vistage CEOs are focused on doing more with less, focusing on international markets, technology productivity enhancements to reduce costs, and operating their companies more profitably with little intention of rehiring many of those that were laid off earlier in the recession.
Other interesting survey highlights include:
- 92% expect health care costs to go up
- 67% say their business will be hurt if the Bush tax cuts are not extended
- 62% expect Republicans to control the November elections
- 52% say they would not start a new business in the current economic climate
CEOs, like HIPPOs, at times need to avoid trampling others.
All Blog Posts, Vistage Peer Groups / 08.08.2010
Walking into my client’s building, I noticed a large crew of maintenance workers feverishly manicuring the company grounds. When I asked the new CEO what had prompted such frenzied activity, he shook his head and said that earlier that morning, he had commented to the receptionist that he was having a hard time keeping up with his lawn, with all of the rain they had been having. His comment had been misunderstood by a bystander as criticism of how the grounds were being maintained, and reinforcements had been dispatched to manage the “grounds keeping crisis”. This was my first introduction to the “HIPPO” effect, which is an acronym for how the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion can ripple through an organization.
The effect is even greater when a CEO has strong views about an issue. For example, Steve Jobs pushed through the introduction of the new iPhone, even though problems about the antenna design had been known for months.
Suzanne Lucas (a.k.a. Evil HR Lady) suggests 5 tips for how employees can avoid being trampled by a HIPPO. I think they are pretty good, and I recommend that CEO’s not only read them, but distribute them and discuss them at a team meeting to assure their opinions are being constructively challenged.
CEOs, like HIPPOs, at times need to avoid trampling others.
Read More >>What can CEOs learn from a twenty-something college dropout?
All Blog Posts, Vistage Peer Groups / 29.07.2010
Zuckerberg
I often talk to fellow CEOs about their development, and who they would like to have in a CEO peer group with them. Like most of us, they want someone who has already been down the road that they are traveling, and can point out the opportunities and landmines they may encounter on their journey. They typically think of someone who is more experienced (and older) than themselves who can challenge them and hold them accountable.
However, Joe Frontiera wrote an article in this week’s Washington Post entitled “Facebook’s leadership: Dissecting Mark Zuckerberg “ that challenges this notion that lessons must be learned from someone more experienced. In this one page article, he identifies lessons that can be learned from this 26 year old’s brief tenure as the co-founder and CEO of face book. Given Facebook has been estimated to be worth as much as $35B, these are lessons worth heeding. The one page article is worth a 5 minute read to learn more about the lessons highlighted below.
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The key lessons learned in observing a 26 year old, highlighted by Frontiera are:
- “Believe in the vision.”
- “Execution can trump innovation.”
- “Mistakes become mistakes when you let them.”
- “The Devil is in the details.”
- “Ownership matters.”
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Read More >>
Watching the Watchdogs
This blog post was inspired by a Stephen Colbert bit called “Who’s watching the Watchdogs” that aired on TV a couple of nights ago. In this spoof, Colbert attempts to hold Consumer Reports accountable for holding corporations accountable for product quality and safety. It is a brilliant parody of someone not knowing much about what an organization does, trying to be tough in holding them accountable for what they do. After you have read this post and have about 7 minutes, watch the video to see the tie in and have a good laugh.
Colbert’s story line struck me as similar to the challenge of holding a CEO accountable for holding the rest of the organization accountable for doing the right things. In public corporations, this task falls to the board and shareholders, assuming they are close enough to what is happening in the organization to know what really has to be done. But who holds the CEO accountable in family or privately owned businesses, where there is little or no board involvement?
CEOs are human with strengths and weaknesses, just like the rest of us. And just like the rest of us, they tend to shy away from things that are outside of their comfort zone, and gravitate towards those things that they enjoy doing and are good at. There also can be a difference between knowing what to do, and doing it.
Many small business executives are turning to CEO peer accountability groups to meet this need. These are groups of 10 to 20 CEOs committed to growing and improving their businesses. The groups attend monthly meetings chaired by a former CEO and skilled facilitator, to help each other address their key business challenges and hold one another accountable. To assure that members are totally open in discussing their issues and challenging one another, no competitors or companies doing business with one another are allowed in the same group.
The other day, a member of such a group told me how peer accountability dramatically improved his business. Like many entrepreneurs, he had a marketing background and loved to sell, but had little interest or experience with operations. For years he had tried to coach and develop a plant manager that he felt wasn’t effectively leading his team or operating his plant to its full potential. He was reluctant to make a change, however, because he didn’t know much about operations, the plant was in a remote city, and there just never seemed to be a “convenient” time to take on the headaches of replacing him.
When it was his turn to host a meeting, this CEO presented his strategy and challenges for the next year, among them being to get his plant manager on board. His peers, having heard about his problems with this guy for a couple of years, confronted him. They asked him if he had been successful at personality transplants before and whether he really thought he was going to change this guy. When he said probably not, they asked if he felt he needed to replace the guy. When he answered yes, they asked him if there was any reason the guy would still be working for him when the group met the following month. He laughed and said, apparently not.
This CEO said that while he knew it was the right thing to do, it took the group to get him to bite the bullet and make it happen—he didn’t want to have to face them again having taken no action. In hindsight, he says it was one of the best decisions he has ever made. The plant has performed much better under new leadership, and one of his biggest stressors has gone away.
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Increase your CEO effectiveness by finding an objective source of accountability.
- Network with other CEOs to find someone that can provide a useful sounding board and informally hold you accountable for making tough decisions.
- Hire an executive coach to challenge your thinking and hold you accountable. (see case study)
- Join a monthly CEO accountability group to get the “unvarnished truth” and be challenged by objective peer CEOs who are committed to your success.
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Read More >>“Immeasurement”: The Third sign of a Miserable Career Transition
All Blog Posts, Change, Motivation / 29.05.2010
This is the final post in a three part series summarizing a presentation I recently gave to the CPI Executive Forum on how to keep yourself motivated, engaged and positive as your job search extends from weeks, to several months, to over a year. I have been applying Lencioni’s “Three signs of a Miserable Job” paradigm to career transition, because people often describe transition as one of the most miserable jobs they have ever had.
Avoid being miserable like Toby durring your career transition!
Having covered how to avoid “Anonymity” and “Irrelevance” in my previous two posts, I will now focus on “Immeasurement”, a term Lencioni coined for jobs in which:
- Clear means of assessing progress are lacking
- Measures are outside of your control
- Measures don’t tie directly to purpose
One key to avoiding “immeasurement” in a career transition is effective individual time management. Unfortunately, for many executives, this skill has atrophied with the reliance on executive assistants to schedule their time and when Franklin Planners were replaced by Microsoft Outlook. They need to get back to having their daily activities and calendar being driven by their meaningful objectives and placing a weekly planning and review session on their calendars to “count” their successes and plan their next week’s priorities. Otherwise, it is far too easy to drift and waste time on low yield activities.
“Take Back Your Life!” by Sally McGhee and John Wittry is a great book that shows how to implement David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” approach to time management using Microsoft Outlook. The authors walk you step by step on how to configure MS Outlook into a single dashboard that organizes your tasks, your calendar, and your files around your objectives, and provides a control panel on one screen that enables you to track your progress. One of the tips I find particularly helpful is the use of categories by which you can color- code tasks and appointments according to objectives. (For example, use green for networking meetings, teal for networking calls, blue for interviews, and red for on-line marketing activities.) In addition to meetings, also schedule time blocks for completing specific tasks on your calendar. (E.g. Outbound calls and emails to set up networking meetings, LinkedIn search engine optimization (SEO), Internet research , blog posts and tweets.) By scheduling and color-coding all of your tasks as well as your meetings on your calendar, you provide a graphic visual on how you have spent your time this week and what you have planned for next week. If you see too much white space next week or not enough networking time (green), start making some calls!
The second key to avoiding immeasurability in your career transition is knowing what to count and setting daily and weekly goals for those metrics. You are much more likely to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day if you achieve daily goals you can control, rather than simply chaining yourself to your desk all day to “work on your job search”. (E.g. set up 3 networking meetings for next week, submit resume with strong cover memo to job posting, connect with hiring manager through LinkedIn connections, complete talking points for next week’s interview, obtain 3 additional contacts and 2 introductions from this afternoon’s meeting, register for next month’s networking event, schedule self for 2 hour shift at Feed My Starving Children.) Set reasonable goals, but don’t stop until you achieve them. If you need to make 5 more phone calls to set up one more meeting, do it. If you have to work after dinner to finish your blog post, do so. You will find that you will be working harder and enjoying it more! Make sure to include personal goals regarding family, fitness, fulfillment and fun to avoid burnout.
Finally, put a recurring weekly planning and review session on your calendar to celebrate your successes, evaluate your progress and time allocation, and plan next week’s priorities. If you find it difficult to hold yourself accountable, schedule it with a friend in transition, and hold each other accountable.
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To avoid “immeasurement” during your career transition, assess your progress weekly (if not daily) with relevant measures that are under your control.
- Use Sally McGhee’s approach to configure MS Outlook to align and manage your time and tasks against your career transition meaningful objectives.
- Manage by results, setting and achieving reasonable daily and weekly quantifiable objectives.
- Set a recurring weekly appointment with yourself or a partner to review your progress, time allocation against priorities, plans for next week and hold yourself accountable.
- Ultimately, avoiding a miserable career transition is about learning to count—Why you count and add value as a person, how what you do counts, and what to count on a daily basis.
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Read More >>Irrelevance: The Second Sign of a Miserable Career Transition
All Blog Posts, Change, Motivation / 20.05.2010
In my May 13th post, I talked about how Lencioni’s three signs of a miserable Job are often present during career transition, and addressed how to avoid his first sign: anonymity. Today I am focusing on how to avoid the second sign–irrelevance. Before doing so, however, I want to broaden the context of career transition to include not only job search, but also transitions such as retirement, staying home to raise a family or be a caregiver, or even making a transition from college to your first professional job. All of these transitions require a recalibration of why you count, how you count, and what you count. For simplicity, in this post I’ll continue to illustrate my points with job transition examples.
Irrelevance occurs when you have trouble seeing how what you are doing really makes a difference. For example, after months of networking with no job offers, it is easy to become discouraged and question whether you are just wasting your time. As my friend Kari once quipped, “at the end of the day, how do you know if it was a good day, or just a waste of make-up?”
The key to avoiding irrelevance is to break your goal of finding a job down into a handful of meaningful objectives, driven by supporting projects, which in turn, help you prioritize and balance your daily activities. If you don’t, you run the risk of getting lost in an endless sea of tasks–networking, searching the internet, completing on-line applications, perfecting your resume, and trying to develop an online presence through LinkedIn, twitter, or blogging. All of these things are important, but without seeing a direct connection between your daily activities and your intermediate objectives and your ultimate goal, it is easy to become disengaged, and well, miserable.
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To avoid irrelevance during your career transition:
- In addition to career transition goals, set meaningful personal goals in areas such as: Family/friends, finances, fitness, fulfillment and fun. Setting and achieving measurable goals in each of these areas enables you to maintain balance and a positive attitude, which is critical to a successful job search. For example:
- Fulfillment: Give back. Engage in 2 community activities per month that help you feel productive, engaged, and self-confident. Each of these components can be missing when going through career transition, so creating opportunities to fill that gap will help you achieve greater success in the job search process.
- Set an overarching career transition goal with several quantifiable supporting objectives. For example, “Generate a cumulative 3 year income of $300,000, doing what I love and providing enough flexibility to achieve my personal goals.” Examples of supporting objectives for this goal include:
- Generate at least 2 interesting job offers by 12/31.
- Discover 5 relevant openings within 1 week of their initial posting by 12/31
- Schedule 12 face to face meetings per month with target companies through personal networking by 12/31.
- Attend at least 4 networking events per month.
- Generate 4 job leads per month through my on-line presence on LinkedIn, a blog, and twitter. Possible supporting projects might be:
- Optimize LinkedIn so I am among the top 3 people identified when searching on key words by which I want to be found and so I appear in 50 searches a day.
- Blog at least weekly and increase the number of views to 25 a day.
- Use this hierarchy to drive your weekly calendar and significant next actions, and you will be able to measure your progress on a weekly basis, and avoid “immeasurability”, the third sign of a miserable career transition, and the subject of my next blog post.
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Read More >>A few weeks ago I was asked to speak to a group of executives in career transition about how to keep themselves engaged and on top of their game throughout their job searches. While transition is described by many as a “real growth experience” once they have landed, during the search the majority say that “looking for a job is the most miserable job they have ever had”. At some point, almost everyone finds themselves “miserable” and feeling stuck or unmotivated.
One of my favorite leadership books is by Patrick Lencioni and is entitled “Three Signs of a Miserable Job”. It is a parable about a CEO who retires earlier than expected after abruptly selling his company. Retirement is not an easy transition for him, and after moving to the mountains to pursue his passion for skiing, he goes back to work managing a local, rundown pizza parlor. Along the way, he learns a number of lessons about how to engage and motivate people to dramatically improve business results.
In his book, Lencioni summarizes the three signs of a miserable job on pages 221-222 as follows:
“Anonymity: People who see themselves as invisible, generic, or anonymous cannot love their jobs, no matter what they are doing.”
“Irrelevance: Everyone needs to know that their work matters to someone. Anyone. “
“Immeasurement: Without a tangible means of assessing success or failure, motivation eventually deteriorates as people see themselves unable to control their own fate.”
Lencioni’s lessons are equally valuable in preventing you from becoming miserable and disengaged during your career transition. This is the first of a three part series with tips on what to do when you see each of these signs during your job search, and how to avoid becoming the people in the above picture.
Avoiding Anonymity: There is an old saying that “If you are what you do, who are you when you don’t?” 
Most executives have put a disproportionate share of their eggs in the career basket, and it is easy to feel invisible when they no longer have a job. Networking and social situations in general can be uncomfortable for people feeling embarrassed about being unemployed. Also, executives are not used to people not immediately returning their calls or emails. Finally, many of their friends were work-related, and they have lost a primary source of community. A natural reaction is to focus on home improvement projects or individual hobbies, and further inadvertently make themselves more invisible, and ultimately more miserable.
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To avoid anonymity as a source of misery during your career transition, do the following:
- Develop a concise career brand or identity statement. When people ask you what you do, don’t lead with ”I am unemployed” or “I am in transition” or “I used to work for…”. Lead with your identity statement and then mention you are in transition and the specific type of opportunity you are seeking. For practical help on this, go to http://www.careerdistinction.com/
- Get involved in groups that will provide a sense of community (e.g. church groups, exercise classes, clubs, volunteer organizations, non-profit boards, transition support groups, your kids activities). The key is to find a group of people who value you for who you are (not for what you do) and miss you when you are not there.
- In social gatherings with friends, give a quick update of your status and move on. People want to know but are uncomfortable asking. On the other hand, they don’t want to feel that your primary purpose for coming is to “network”.
- Maintain a healthy balance between social and job search activities. Career transitions currently are averaging 13 months–They are a marathon and not a sprint. If you focus all of your energy on your job search, you may burn out. If you don’t spend enough time on it, you won’t make any progress.
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Read More >>Driving Business Results through Employee Engagement
All Blog Posts, Business, Coaching, Motivation, Strategy, Team Building / 08.05.2010
A couple of months ago, I highlighted Daniel Pink’s work on intrinsic motivation in my February 24th blog post entitled “When Traditional Motivation Doesn’t Work”. I concluded that post with the following tips.
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In several turnaround situations, I have found the key to motivating and engaging employees is to:
- Make them feel valued as people and that they belong
- Help them see how what they do makes a difference, and
- Find a way for them to monitor their own contributions on an ongoing basis.
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- Employee Engagement
I recently stumbled upon a research study which validates these principles, shows how employee engagement and customer loyalty drive financial results, and illustrates how to execute these principles in a grocery store environment. The study was sponsored by the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council and is entitled “Getting to Great: Mapping Management Practices that Drive Great Store Performance”.
The article is about 30 pages long, but well worth the time, even if you aren’t in the grocery business. Historically, the key to success in store operations has been seen as execution, and “command and control” has been a dominant leadership approach. Seeing how the above principles of employee engagement work in this situation should increase our confidence that they will work in situations involving more ambiguous and complex challenges. Below is a quick recap of their findings.
First, how do we know a great performer when we see one?
- “Great performers are those that overachieve relative to their market potential, not just those with the highest financial results.” Store results are a function not only of the leader’s performance, they are tremendously impacted by the store’s location, customer potential, competitive intensity, and store specific factors. The researchers devised a clever way of controlling for these external factors to show which store managers are executing most effectively against the strategic hand they have been dealt. (pp. 4-6)
- “Great Performers generate intense customer loyalty”.
- “Great performers produce strong employee loyalty and commitment.”
Second, what are the key management practices that great performers use to get these results?
- “Get clarity and commitment to goals. The great performers focused on the one or two most vital goals for improving their store’s performance and put their full focus behind them. By contrast, the more goals there were, the fewer were achieved with excellence.
- Get everyone to focus on the key drivers. Enlist each team member daily to take actions that have the greatest impact on achieving the main goals.
- Implement simple mechanisms to propel goal achievement. Post visible, compelling scorecards in accessible workplace locations.
- Establish a constant cadence of engagement and accountability around the key measures and goals.”
While this is a good recap, go to the report for the specifics of how to measure great performance results and the specific leadership behaviors that lead to it. It is sure to be a catalyst for ideas on how to do the same in your business!
Read More >>Algebraic Proof that Tubby Smith’s Gophers became the Best Team in the Country after working with a Leadership Catalyst!
All Blog Posts, Change, Coaching, Motivation, Team Building / 02.04.2010
Tubby Smith
On March 1st, I posted a blog about Tubby Smith bringing in a Leadership Catalyst (sports psychologist) after winning only 3 of 10 Big Ten games. On the eve of the final four, it’s time to assess whether the team really improved after that.
The gophers showed dramatic improvement, winning 7 of their last 10 conference games. They ended up beating every Big Ten team making the NCAA tournament, including impressive wins in the Big Ten Tournament against #11 MSU and #6 Purdue, which won the gophers their own invitation to the “Big Dance”. They were the only team in the nation to beat two of the Final Four teams (Butler and MSU) and beat teams that beat Duke (Wisconsin) and beat West Virginia (Purdue). According to the Algebraic Transitive Property of Inequalities (see proof below), that makes the Gophers the best team in the nation.
There you have it – mathematical (and tongue in cheek) proof that the Gophers are #1.
Congratulations Tubby, on your 17th consecutive 20 win season (21W – 14L)!
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According to the Transitive Property of Inequalities,
If a < b and b < c, then a < c
Likewise:
If a > b and b > c, then a > c
If Minnesota > Wisconsin and Wisconsin > Duke, then Minnesota > Duke
If Minnesota > Purdue, and Purdue > West Virginia, then Minnesota > West Virginia
Minnesota > Butler
Minnesota > Michigan State
Therefore,
Minnesota > All Final Four Teams
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How to talk to people about their potential for advancement.
All Blog Posts, Assessment, Coaching, High Potential Programs, Leadership Development, Motivation, Performance Management, Succession Planning, Talent Management / 31.03.2010
- Discussing Leadership Potential
Several organizations go through great lengths to identify their high potential leaders (HIPOs), and then seem to operate on a “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy. They fear that informing the HIPOs will cause them to coast or develop a sense of entitlement. Furthermore, they worry that those that are not deemed as HIPOs may feel they have no future and decide to leave or slack off. On the other hand, if you don’t inform the HIPOs, your brightest stars may assume their advancement opportunities with you are limited, and take that next headhunter call. Other organizations wanting to upgrade their talent are more than willing to tell them how bright their future will be with them, even if you are not.
One of the things that gets in the way of these discussions are the assumptions some organizations are making as they communicate potential including:
- Potential is a single trait—it’s not. It varies by management level and is multi-dimensional.
- You have it or you don’t. Not true, it is a continuum.
- It doesn’t change. Again, not true. A key component of potential is the person’s aspirations and interests, which can change with life circumstances and experience.
- Performance and potential are treated as independent measures (e.g.” 9 box grids”). From a motivational and retention perspective, there is tremendous power in letting performance “trump” potential, especially at lower management levels.
Thinking about potential as a dynamic, continuous, multi dimensional construct dramatically improves the quality of these discussions, particularly when done within the context of performance discussions. If you assume that performance trumps potential, the key message to everyone is that before you can be promoted to the next level, you need to become a top performer (e.g. top 20%) in your current role. That means the discussion for 70-80% of your people is focused on the “what’ and “how” of this year’s performance, celebrating their successes and figuring out how to fill their gaps. The main message for people who are not yet top performers but are seeking advancement is that they need to master their current role before focusing on the next one. While you can discuss their aspirations, interests, and career possibilities, the focus of the discussion with this group is on helping them achieve the level of performance required to be considered a top performer in your organization.
The discussion with top performers who are also seen as having high potential is the kind most bosses love to have. In this discussion you are celebrating their strong performance and signaling to them that they are highly valued and are seen by senior management as having the potential to move up in the organization. You are also exploring their aspirations (not everybody wants to move up these days) and talking about some of the most likely next roles and what they need to do to prepare for them.
The discussion with top performers who are not seen as having the potential to move up is the one that is most dreaded. Keep in mind, a large percentage of these people love what they are doing and have no interest in moving up. For these folks, the focus of the discussion is on celebrating their contributions, letting them know how much they are valued, and communicating that they have a bright future with the organization.
For those in this group with their hearts set on advancement, however, the conversation is a bit more delicate. After hearing more about the roles to which they aspire, the discussion needs to focus on how the success factors for those roles are different, and where they are likely to have some gaps. (E.g. Just because you are a great sales person doesn’t mean you will be a great sales manager.) For openers, you can talk about aspects of potential that are important in successfully advancing to all management levels such as conceptual problem solving, self-confidence, emotional control, and willingness to accept responsibility. As you move to senior leadership roles, other facets of potential such as vision, adaptability, willingness to take risks, and stress tolerance come into play. For additional ideas, there is an excellent book by Marshall Goldsmith entitled “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” in which he lays out the 20 most frequent career derailers.
Why Can’t Executives Agree on their High Potential Talent?
Assessment, High Potential Programs, Succession Planning, Talent Management / 21.03.2010
Heated Talent Review
In many of the talent review discussions I have facilitated at the top of organizations, I have been struck by how difficult it is for leadership teams to agree on who at one or two levels level below them are their best bets for the future. Often times it is because they are all using their own definitions of potential. Some are touting the results their candidates achieve, while others focus on the leadership behaviors theirs exhibit. Some highlight their candidate’s ability to see the big picture and handle complexity while others emphasize the experiences their candidates have had to prepare them for the next role. So who is right? All of them! But until they start making “apples to apples” comparisons, little progress will be made in these discussions.
When facilitating talent discussions, it is much easier to come to agreement if you clearly define the four aspects of talent that need to be assessed and discussed (see below). Then compare your candidates on each of these aspects so you can agree on both the strengths and the gaps of each candidate. Otherwise, it is like trying to agree on which person is bigger, when one is measuring height and another is measuring weight.
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To foster more productive talent review discussions, install a common language for assessing and discussing talent using the following four definitions:
- Performance—The extent to which the person achieved their objectives (“The What”) and demonstrated the appropriate leadership behaviors. (“The How”). Most agree that both are important and neither is sufficient for sustainable performance.
- Potential—A person’s capacity to be a top performer in a more senior role. Do they have the mental horsepower to handle the greater complexity, the emotional intelligence to lead and influence others, the adaptability to manage change and handle stress, and the learning agility to learn from experience?
- Readiness—The extent to which a person has had the experiences necessary to mold their raw potential into the capabilities required to handle the additional challenges and responsibilities at the next level.
- Fit—The extent to which a person is a good fit for the organization’s culture, leadership team, and current business situation.
Next Monday: How do you communicate to your High Potentials?
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Read More >>Is your high potential leadership program on the “Fast Track to Failure”?
All Blog Posts, High Potential Programs, Leadership Development, Succession Planning, Talent Management / 14.03.20102 comments
Short-track Skater Bradbury Wins as 3 ahead of him fall
Most corporations are worrying about how to accelerate the development of successors for the expected exodus of “baby boomer” executives. While the impact of the financial crisis on most 401k plans may have delayed this exodus, the demographics haven’t changed, and within 5 to 10 years, a huge number of senior leaders will need to be replaced.
In working with dozens of companies on succession management and leadership acceleration programs, I have found that most are focusing almost exclusively on the organizational side of the equation—How to identify leaders with high potential (HIPOs) and then accelerate their readiness to step into the next role. Seldom, however, is enough attention paid to the individual side of the equation. The underlying assumption is that being tapped as a high potential is a huge benefit to the individual, and the individual’s aspirations as well as the significant downsides of being labeled a “HIPO” often are ignored.
Bottger and Barsoux of INSEAD spell out some of these potential hazards to HIPOs in their brief article entitled “Fast Track to Failure” in last month’s Conference Board Review. It is an open letter to newly anointed HIPOs, warning them of 4 inherent traps that can derail the most promising of careers, and well worth a quick read.
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To make sure your high potential leadership program is on the fast track to success:
- Clearly define what is meant by “potential” vs. “performance” or “readiness”
- Accurately measure potential
- Make high performance a requisite for becoming and remaining a “HIPO”
- Avoid labeling people as “High Potential” too early
- Make sure you are having the right conversations with HIPOs so they know they are valued and to assure your expectations are in line with their aspirations.
- Accelerate their readiness through feedback, coaching, and action learning teams
I will expand on each of these in my future Monday morning blog posts.
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Read More >>Toyota and GM: Getting Bigger at the Expense of Getting Better?
All Blog Posts, Business, Strategy / 05.03.2010
The February 24th edition of Economist Magazine ran an article entitled “The Machine that ran too hot: The woes of Toyota, the world’s biggest car company, are a warning to rivals.” In the article, James Womack, one of the authors of “The Machine that Changed the World”, a book about Toyota’s innovations in manufacturing, dates the origin of its present woes to 2002, when it set itself the goal of raising its global market share from 11% to 15%. Mr. Womack says that the 15% target was “totally irrelevant to any customer” and was “just driven by ego”. In other words,, Toyota got itself in trouble when quality became subordinate to another goal: Selling more cars than GM.
GM apparently is not heeding the warning. WSJ reported on March 3rd “Feeling Heat From Ford, GM Reshuffles Managers“. Ford’s February monthly U.S. sales surpassed GM’s for the first time in 50 years. Hours after the sales results were released, GM announced its second executive shuffle in three months. It appears as though GM is falling into the same trap as Toyota did when it shifted it’s priority from safety and customer satisfaction to surpassing its rival in sales. As Toyota and others (Merck, Motorola, HP) have shown, doing so can lead to their downfall.
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Don’t focus on getting bigger at the expense of getting better.
- Increasing scale should not be seen as the end goal, but rather as an outcome of pursuing your core purpose.
- Great leaders pursue growth in performance, distinctive difference, creativity and people, knowing sales growth will follow.
- Focusing on a noble core purpose and growth in this way will engage the hearts and minds of your people in a way that financial BHAGs never will.
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Read More >>Tubby Smith, U of MN BB Coach, Hires Catalyst
All Blog Posts, Change, Coaching, Motivation, Team Building / 01.03.2010
Tubby Smith, the University of Minnesota men’s basketball coach has 16 consecutive 20 win seasons for a reason. He is a great coach, and he recognizes when it is time to find a catalyst to help unlock the potential of his team. This year’s 17-11 team is likely not performing up to its true potential because 7 of their 11 losses were decided by less than 5 points. They have had major leads over ranked teams such as Michigan State and Purdue, only to see them erased in the final seconds. In fact, they have only won 4 of 11 close games this season.
In an effort to find a remedy to the mental breakdowns his team was having with the game on the line, coach Smith brought in a sports psychologist according to Myron Medcalf of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Players report that he taught them to use “positive affirmations” and envision good outcomes in tough stretches. They further claim that the approach helped them survive a late game surge by the fighting Illini in a 62-60 victory on Saturday.
For many, “positive affirmation” conjures up images of SNL’s Stuart Smally (aka Senator Al Franken) looking into the mirror and saying “…and darn it, people like me”. However, there is a lot more science to them than that, and no doubt you have recently observed Olympians mentally rehearsing flawless performances on the slopes and on the ice before they compete. This same technique works in coaching executives before tough board meetings or critical or contentious negotiations.
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To increase the odds of success for executives in these critical situations, help them:
- Imagine themselves in the situation
- Anticipate the tough questions and challenges they likely will encounter
- Visualize themselves calmly and effectively responding to those challenges
- Practice responding to those challenges with someone playing an adversarial role.
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The bottom line is that effective coaches and business leaders recognize when their teams are not performing up to potential, and do not hesitate to find a catalyst to help them get back on track.
Read More >>The HBR IdeaCast on “What Motivates Us” will be very relevant to people struggling with how to motivate their employees, their kids, or themselves. In this 16 minute audio session, Daniel Pink (Author of the new book Drive) explains why much of what we know about motivation doesn’t work. Some of his key points include:
1) Strong emphasis on carrot and stick motivators are good for simple tasks, but not good for complex cognitive tasks or tasks that require creativity
2) More powerful motivators for complex or creative tasks include assuring people feel that they have a sense of purpose, are making a contribution, are seeing progress, and are growing and getting better at something.
3) De-motivators include doing the same thing over and over without a sense of purpose or progress.
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In several turnaround situations, I have found the key to motivating and engaging employees is to:
- Make them feel valued as people and that they belong
- Help them see how what they do makes a difference, and
- Find a way for them to monitor their own contributions on an ongoing basis.
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This is especially true now as companies try to re-engage their people after multiple rounds of layoffs, furloughs, and salary cuts. If they don’t, they risk losing their best people when the economy and job market improve.
Read More >>Welcome To My Blog!
All Blog Posts / 24.02.2010
I am a Leadership Catalyst, and will be posting observations and tips about how to unleash the potential of leaders and organizations. More specifically, I will be focusing on how to help leaders build strong teams and engage the hearts and minds of their people. Observations will be taken from my 25+ years of consulting and leadership experience as well as from other publications and posts in the blogosphere. I welcome your comments and appreciate your stopping by!
Brian L. Davis, Ph.D.
Leadership Catalyst
