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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

Four Sources of Talent

In Leadership, Strategy on May 21, 2012 at 7:32 am

In a recent conversation with a prominent venture capitalist, I asked him, “What is your portfolio companies’ greatest challenge?”

His answer: “Finding good people.”

Top performers are, by definition, very rare. Obviously, every organization wants them.

To find them, leaders should consider the four sources of talent:

  • Hiring entry-level people and developing them yourself. Entry level people are a blank slate and thus have little or no baggage. However, it can take a long time (and a lot of training) to develop people into fully productive contributors.
  • Hiring seasoned professionals from your direct competitors. This can be a double win, since you gain talent and your competitor loses talent. However, these people come with baggage, and will need to be “reprogrammed.” Obviously, your competitors will try to steal your best people right back.
  • Hiring seasoned professionals from “adjacent industries.” For example, a construction company could hire someone from an architecture firm and retrain them to be a project manager. However, these people will require significant retraining, and many won’t be able to make the transition.
  • Hiring seasoned professionals from totally unrelated industries. For example, in 1983, Apple hired John Sculley to be their CEO. Sculley was from Pepsi, and had no experience in the computer industry. This case did not work out so well, but there are many success stories as well.

Each of these four talent strategies has pros and cons. Given the scarcity of top talent, leaders would be wise to consider using all four.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Give Them Saturday Off

In Leadership, Performance Management on May 14, 2012 at 7:58 am

A few weeks ago, on April 25, 2012, the International Association of Administrative Professionals marked the 60th anniversary of Administrative Professionals Day®.

This recognition has gone through several name changes during the past 60 years. It began as National Secretaries Week in 1952. The name was changed to Professional Secretaries Week in 1981, and became Administrative Professionals Week in 2000.

Regardless of what you call it, celebrating and recognizing the contributions of the administrative professionals in your organization is important.

Awhile back, I was in a meeting where an executive team was discussing what the organization should do for their administrative team on Administrative Professionals Day. The senior executive said something I’ll never forget:

“Give them Saturday off.”

Of course, they already got Saturday off. So, this leader was sending a clear message.

This organization had the most talented and committed team of administrative professionals I had ever seen. Virtually all of them had college degrees. Some had master’s degrees. They routinely went above and beyond the call of duty, often refusing to record their overtime.

Just don’t ask me why.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Goodwill Write-Down

In Employee Engagement, Leadership, Performance Management on April 30, 2012 at 8:21 am

In today’s economy, many organizations have taken the perspective that “Our employees should stop complaining. They are lucky to even have a job.”

These organizations have used the bad economy as an excuse for lots of misguided management actions, such as:

  • Reducing management communications, especially when it comes to discussing poor financial results or layoffs.
  • Throwing temper tantrums, such as AN E-MAIL RANT IN ALL CAPS SENT BY THE CEO WHO IS PISSED-OFF.
  • Eliminating recognition, even though their people are often doing two or three jobs because of layoffs.

When the economy recovers, these organizations will discover a new meaning of the accounting term, “goodwill write-down.”

In accounting, firms write-down goodwill for the reduced value of “impaired assets.”

In organizations, many leaders will say that their people are their “most important asset.” However, many have behaved so poorly that they have destroyed the goodwill of their people.

Their write-down will come in the form of reduced employee engagement, reduced retentions, difficulty in attracting new talent, etc.

Accountants have difficulty reporting these kinds of things on the income statement.

But trust us, it shows up on the bottom line.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Et tu, Brute?

In Leadership, Teamwork on April 23, 2012 at 7:55 am

“Et tu, Brute?” is the line supposedly uttered by Julius Caesar to his friend Marcus Brutus at the moment of his assassination.

Immortalized by Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1599), this Latin phrase is still used to depict the ultimate betrayal.

In organizations, betrayal comes in all shapes and sizes:

  • Your best customer steals your staff and brings the work in-house.
  • Your top salesperson jumps ship and takes their clients with them.
  • A key member of your inner circle “pulls a Judas” and stabs you in the back.
  • Your partner plots a coup d’état to throw you out of the business.
  • The person you were recruiting joins a competitor instead.

These acts, and countless others, can have devastating impacts. The betrayed can suffer deep wounds. Friendships can be permanently terminated. Cultures can be dramatically altered.

If you were the betrayer, it is time to ask for forgiveness. If you were the betrayed, you must learn to forgive.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

A Follower Worth Leading

In Employee Engagement, Leadership, Teamwork on April 16, 2012 at 7:56 am

Last week, we challenged leaders to take a hard look at themselves to see if they are “a leader worth following.”

But, it is equally important to challenge followers with a similar question:

Are you “a follower worth leading?”

In our work, we see all kinds of organizational pathologies.

One of the most damaging is employees who undermine their boss and “throw them under the bus.” This kind of behavior kills organizational performance, and must not be tolerated.

So, what makes someone a follower worth leading?

Great followers:

  • Accept (and implement) decisions that they were not included in making
  • Highlight their boss’s strengths, rather than criticize their weaknesses
  • Express concerns privately and directly, rather than at the water cooler
  • Demonstrate loyalty and respect
  • Give the boss’s initiatives their very best, even if they don’t fully agree with them
  • Keep their word, meet their deadlines, and make their numbers … not one-time, but every time

Great leaders are rare. But perhaps great followers are even rarer.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

A Leader Worth Following

In Leadership on April 9, 2012 at 8:08 am

Yesterday, millions of people celebrated Easter.  They went to church to worship Jesus and celebrate the good news of His resurrection.  They proclaimed Him as Lord and pledged their allegiance as followers.

To millions, He is a leader worth following.

So, how about you?  Are you a leader worth following?

Leaders, by definition, have followers.  The question for you to consider is why they are following.

Are they following because they have to?  After all, you’re the boss.  Or, are they following because they want to.  Because they believe in you, in your vision, and in your strategy.

What makes someone a leader worth following?  There are hundreds of lists about leadership, but here are a few of our favorites.  Great leaders:

  • Communicate with clarity, especially in turbulent times.
  • Identify and maximize the strengths of every person on the team.
  • Model the organization’s values and behaviors.
  • Have a broad range of leadership styles, and use the right style and the right time.
  • Create environments where people contribute because they want to, not because they have to.
  • Take the blame when something goes wrong and give away the credit when something goes right.

All leaders should examine themselves and ponder another question: “Why should people follow me?”  And the answer needs to be something more compelling than, “because I’m the boss.”

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Triumphal Entries

In Leadership on April 2, 2012 at 6:58 am

Last week, we explained that the actions a new leader takes in first 90 days are essential to success.

In many cases, new leaders are initially welcomed with fanfare and great expectation.

Jesus was welcomed with palm branches and shouts of hosanna.  It was His triumphal entry.

Too often, triumphal entries end with tragic exits.

The average tenure of a new C-level executive is less than 18 months.  Of course, all new leaders enter their new positions with great expectations.  Many left great jobs with great companies, and even relocated their families to take the new role.  They negotiated signing bonuses, compensation packages, and golden parachutes.  They did their due diligence, and concluded that the grass was indeed greener.

And too often, just a few weeks or months later, they are packing their bags.

Scorned.  Rejected.  Crucified.

There are many reasons why new leaders fail.  Sometimes, they misread the situation.  Or misunderstood the expectations.  Or miscalculated the expectations.  Or misplayed the politics.  Or all of the above.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

The First 90 Days

In Leadership, Strategy on March 26, 2012 at 7:56 am

According to research done by the Harvard Business School, the actions you take during the first 90 days of your new assignment essentially determine your long term success in the job.

Make the right calls, and you’ll succeed.  Make the wrong calls, and you’ll be updating your resume in no time.

To succeed in a C-level transition, you must successfully complete five critical tasks.

  1. You must correctly assess the situation.  This sounds easy, but many executives kick into their default management style, only to find that it was inappropriate for the situation.
  2. You must correctly set expectations.  How does your boss define success?  Exactly what must you accomplish in order to retain their confidence?
  3. You must quickly assess your people and make decisions about the team.  You need to build bridges, form alliances, eliminate under-performers, and terminate under-miners.  Some will cheer your arrival and sign up right away.  Others will declare loyalty but stab you in the back.
  4. You must perform at least one miracle.  Jesus turned water into wine to establish His credibility and earn the allegiance of His followers.  Likewise, you must deliver results to earn the allegiance of yours
  5. You must be extremely clear.  Clear about the strategy, clear about your values, clear about your expectations, and clear about the challenges ahead.   Clarity is the anecdote for anxiety.

Accomplish these five things, and your chances for success go up exponentially.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Debate, Decide and Align

In Alignment, Leadership, Teamwork on March 5, 2012 at 7:52 am

One of the most dysfunctional and destructive organizational pathologies is undermining, especially at executive levels.

Unfortunately, we see this all the time.

Issues are discussed at the executive meeting.  Alternatives are debated.  And eventually, a decision about the best course of action is made.

Far too often, what happens next is that executives who did not get their way undermine the decision.  Sometimes, their undermining is overt, blatant, and public such as when executives say, “They made a dumb decision.”

Most of the time, however, the undermining is much more covert.  Whispering at the watercooler.  Backstabbing in the bathroom.  Sniping at Starbucks.

This kind of behavior, especially at executive levels, must never be tolerated.

In contrast, high-performance executive teams debate, decide, and align.  Once a decision is made, everyone aligns behind it, even it if wasn’t their preferred course of action.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Accelerating Clarity – Part Two

In Execution, Leadership, Strategy on February 27, 2012 at 7:54 am

Awhile back, I worked with a sales executive who cut his teeth in a hard core door-to-door sales organization.  The company sold coupons for automotive repair services.  Each rep would knock on hundreds of doors every day, facing mind-boggling levels of rejection.

Although I have had hundreds of hours of sales training, he taught me something I had never heard before:

“The confused mind always says no.”

He is exactly right.  And the corollary for leaders is, “The confused organization always shifts into neutral.”

This is why we place so much emphasis on the clarity and precision of executive communications.  Too often, executives send mixed messages.  Too often, their actions don’t match their words.  Too often, the members of the executive team contradict each other.

So, if you want to shift your organization’s performance into top gear, pay extra attention to the clarity and consistency of your executive communications.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

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