Category Archives: Leadership

How Do You Rebuild Company Morale? Six Suggestions

Leave a reply

Situation: A CEO has regular lunches with staff to foster communications and sharing of information. In recent months, few employees have been attending these lunches. Also, she has noticed a negative tone beginning to pervade the office, though the situation seems to improve when the CEO is present. How would you address this situation? How do you rebuild company morale?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The immediate priority is to correctly diagnose the problem. Is this a question of the CEO’s energy or the team’s awareness of plans for the company? Or is there something else going on of which the CEO is unaware?
  • Meet with employees. Have open and frank discussions with them about the future of the company.
  • Meet with the most valuable employees first. Share hopes and vision for the business. Express appreciation for their contributions and discuss plans for their continued growth. Next, ask open-ended questions about the company and seek their input on how to improve it. Listen to what they have to say.
  • Next are borderline employees. Again, share the vision and appreciate their past and current contributions, but be honest about expectations for performance. Then ask the same open-ended questions that you asked the first group and listen.
  • For underperforming employees, again appreciate past and current contributions, but be clear that unless they substantially improve performance, future employment isn’t guaranteed. Ask the same open-ended questions that you asked the other groups and listen.
  • Be patient. Don’t try to develop all the answers immediately. Listen and learn what drives employees – particularly keepers. Involve them in developing programs to drive the future.

[like]

How Do You Maintain Focus on Your Core While Growing? Six Considerations

Situation: A company has established a strong core business and it is time to diversity. The most promising opportunity for growth is complimentary to but a different business model from the company’s core. What are best practices for maintaining focus on the core business while developing a new opportunity? How do you maintain focus on your core while growing?

Advice:

  • Most importantly, be emotionally and strategically ready to make the bet and commit to action. In doing so you must “know thyself.” Specifically, take a long look to determine whether you tend to overanalyze or are too quick to pull the trigger. Understanding your tendencies will help in the steps below. 
  • Establish the prerequisites for pulling the trigger. This means determining:  the level of operating stability for the core business that will allow you to split focus; the level of financial stability and predictability that will support both core and expansion efforts; and the level of organizational and process stability that will allow you to take on the new opportunity.
  • Understand and define the differences between the old game and the new game. What are the financials of the growth opportunity? How do they differ from your core business? Are there conflicts that must be resolved? Can you launch an innovative solution to differentiate the new offering?
  • Gather enough understanding of market need that will satisfy you with the new opportunity so as to be able to address it effectively.
  • Establish a sound execution strategy and timeframe for launching the new business. Some of your decisions will be wrong. You need the resources to tolerate a learning curve while running fast towards your goal.
  • Draft a leadership development plan for both the core and new business before you start. This plan must define the skill sets and growth needs of each business.

Thanks to Clark Avery for his contribution to this article.

  [like]

What are Best Methods to Develop Your Staff? Three Thoughts

Situation:  A CEO wants to build her team, identify leaders within the company, and develop managers. How have others done this? What are best methods to develop your staff?

Advice of the CEOs:

  • A valuable resource is “First Break All the Rules” by Marcus Buckingham. Among Buckingham’s findings are that great leaders are different from great managers. Good leaders are outgoing and goal-oriented whereas good managers are people-oriented. Expecting good leaders to be good managers and vice versa is not effective. Only the exceptional individual exhibits both sets of talents. The traditional business structure assumes that talented people will want to “move up” the organizational chart. The reality is that some people are very good at a particular level of responsibility, and are happiest with this responsibility.
  • How do to enhance your team’s leadership and management capabilities? Evaluate your team for candidates who possess the qualities of leadership or management. Tailor your training to enhance the natural strengths of your candidates. Draft agreed upon written responsibilities and performance objectives with each of your candidates. Regularly follow up and provide feedback. Establish trial projects for new candidates that will allow them to experience additional responsibility, and allow you to see how well they perform. Make small steps at first. If the individual demonstrates talent, make successive steps more challenging.
  • Look at your organizational chart. Does it provide room for both leaders and managers? Does it provide room for the skilled role player who thrives in a particular role? If not, how will you fix it?

[like]

How Do You Effectively Manage Your To-Do List? Five Recommendations

Situation: A company recently downsized. The CEO and sales staff are overburdened by administrative and business development tasks. What’s the best way to bring to add resources to support sales and infrastructure? How do you effectively manage your to-do list?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Look at what hats you and others are wearing. Wear the hats that fit best and take off the others. If an activity is not core to company success, off-load it. For example: look at your bookkeeping, shipping and receiving, records and basic correspondence. These are necessary, but don’t generate revenue.
  • If your core businesses are sales and service, is one more profitable than the other? Can you outsource pieces of the less profitable activity short-term?
  • Where do you want to be personally in the next two years? On what roles do you want to focus? Build a plan to transition yourself into these roles. The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber is a quick read that outlines the process.
  • You may not need to bring in a high level operations manager. Consider hiring an office manager to help organize both you and your business development staff. For a smaller operation, this person can take care of phones, bookkeeping, shipping and receiving and routine correspondence. This will allow executive staff and sales to focus on growing and servicing customer demand.
  • During the summer months hire high school or college summer interns. They provide an inexpensive source of labor, high levels of energy and creativity, and are eager for work experience. Some of these individuals may become future employees.

[like]

How Do You Respond to Market Uncertainty? Five Suggestions

Situation: Many industries face uncertainty due to potential changes in reimbursement and shifts in regulation. How does this impact strategy for an early stage company or the introduction of a new product? How do you respond to market uncertainty?

Advice of the CEOs:

  • First and foremost put a premium on focus, particularly in markets dominated by large incumbents. Past practice we would have blanketed the market to maximize early market share. Current practice focuses on being much more selective in terms of where to compete and putting more effort into targeting geographies.
  • This focus is accompanied by more caution and control of spending. Only hire a new sales rep, for example, if there is assurance that there is a significant customer base in the market that the new rep will serve.
  • Similarly, be more cautious in capital equipment decisions. In parallel, if an employee leaves do not automatically replace that individual unless there is market potential in the market served by that employee.
  • In terms of price planning, where in the past it was possible to count on annual price increases, plan for the potential of prices decreasing over time to reflect new pressure on reimbursement and cost containment. As another example, if there is a pending tax change on the products produced assume that this will reduce margins where in the past the additional cost might have been passed it on to the buyer. Reduced margins will also impact new product selection and investment strategy.
  • The big change in long-range planning is that many companies are focused on slow, sustainable growth – maintaining both gross and net margins and profitability. This is a major change from several years ago when the focus was on maximizing rapid market penetration for new products. Focus on being self-sufficient financially and thus avoid having to rely upon future fund-raising rounds.

Our thanks to Ken Purfey for his contribution to this article.

[like]

How do you Maintain Morale in the Face of Uncertainty? Four Guidelines

Situation: Industry is changing and the CEO must adapt both the structure and focus of her company. Adaptation will include a 10% layoff of staff not aligned with the new focus. It is critical that this adaptation be executed in a way that is not disruptive to the remaining employees. How do you maintain morale in the face of uncertainty?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Ask for employee input as to industry trends and what possible directions for the company. Employees are closer to the customer than the CEO and have valuable insights. Gather input in small group meetings to prompt discussion and ideas. Make this a research talk. Leverage the “wisdom of the crowd”.
  • Research other industries that have undergone similar changes. What strategies did the most successful companies pursue? Could these work for you? When faced with protracted uncertainty, what did others do while waiting for market clarity?
  • Conduct the layoffs in one day. Monday is better than Friday. The benefit of a Monday layoff is that you will see everyone on Tuesday and the team can continue to address their concerns. Do it early in the day. Give final checks the day of the layoff. Provide instructions for filing for unemployment assistance via the Internet. Hold a company meeting for remaining staff immediately after the layoffs. Focus your message on the future and positioning the company for the future. Prepare a brief summary of your message. Distribute it as a take-away from the meeting.
  • Be prepared for a grieving process following the layoff. Consider utilizing an expert on grieving to overview the process. Following the company meeting, have key employees conduct smaller group meetings to lead discussions and allay fears about the layoff. Fully prep these individuals about the situation with written responses to likely questions.

[like]

Are Your Employees Living the Company’s Values? Four Recommendations

Advice from the CEOs:

Situation: An important tenet of a company’s CEO is that all decisions are made consistent with company values. However, some of the managers are asking for guidance on how to do this. How have other CEOs encouraged managers to make decisions consistent with company values? Are your employees living the company’s values?

  • Create cross-functional teams to address initiatives, solve problems and develop new processes consistent with company values. This builds understanding other departments’ perspectives and awareness of the impact of decisions on the company as a whole. It builds awareness of company values and fights unhealthy competition between functions.
  • One company created an employee task force to encourage living company values. Their solution includes: reviewing the company’s values and revising how they are stated for easy learning; involving employees in discussions of company values and how they are applied in their departments; creating a cross-functional employee task force to address inter-departmental conflicts and to suggest solutions in line with company values; and expecting everyone to know the company’s values, and occasionally testing them on these.
  • Build a vision of what the company looks like as an expression of its values. Make living this vision part of the CEO’s role. Include living and demonstrating company values as a formal responsibility of managers. Reward initiatives that transform company values into company efforts. Regularly review and discuss with your mangers their execution of company values.
  • Create “SMART” objectives around implementation of company values. Hold individuals accountable for achieving their objectives.

[like]

How do you Prioritize Multiple Priorities? Seven Suggestions

Situation: A new CEO has just been promoted from COO. During the transition, this individual is responsible both for past and new duties. There is an extensive list of company priorities. How should the CEO prioritize this action list? How do you prioritize multiple priorities?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Focus on the Executive Committee first – the roles of your leadership team. This is the team that will both manage the organization and oversee the work that is being done.
  • Select your leadership team carefully – the team that will implement your agenda. They will help you make key choices and implement changes and programs. It is essential that this team present a united front as you roll out any changes.
  • As CEO, you are now accountable for the success of the company. Put issues on the table. Gather input and advice from your team. With their input, make your decision on how to move forward. Delegate responsibility and accountability. Rally the team around your decisions. Follow-up to assure that things are getting done.
  • Be focused. If you only had the resources to do three things, what would these be? What will bring the greatest both short and long-term value to the company?
  • Avoid micromanaging assigned responsibilities.
  • Bring in a consultant to assist you in implementing organizational changes that are necessary for the company – defining new roles and responsibilities and correcting behavior of team members that does not benefit the team.
  • As soon as possible, promote or hire someone to take on your old roles. You will have your hands full as CEO.

[like]

What’s The Role as CEO? Four Pieces of Advice

Situation: A CEO questions whether he is the right person to lead the company. The company has solid revenues and profitability, but growth is lower than expected. How can the CEO improve his situation and solidify his leadership? What’s the role as CEO?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The primary functions of the CEO are to assure the maintenance of company values, to provide vision, and to monitor resource allocation within the company.
  • Identify your strengths, and the most important areas where you need help. Create an organizational chart not of positions but of strengths that are needed within the company. Compare these positions with your own strengths, and focus your own activities on your strengths. Promote or hire talent to support you in the latter areas.
  • As you hire or promote and delegate, make sure that you are allowing those with new responsibility the latitude to run their areas of responsibility.
  • Should the CEO consider hiring a new CEO or COO? Possibly. If you do, first identify the key leadership traits that we most want to see in a candidate. If you hire a CEO, this individual should have skin in the game. They must be perceived as a leader, and there must be a clean hand-off. Consider hiring a COO. This can be someone willing to take this role with the understanding that your long-term objective is to replace yourself as CEO. A person unwilling to come on as COO and to develop into the CEO may not be the right candidate.

[like]           

How Do You Work with an Off-Shore Business Partner? Six Recommendations

Situation:  A company has an off-shore business partner. Primary concerns of the CEO involve team performance, process documentation and anticipating sales/marketing problems before they become issues. What have others found effective to monitor these areas? How do you work with an off-shore business partner?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • At the executive level, keep things simple – identifying the major goals and pieces of projects that are make or break.
  • Simplify the high level summary and assure that all aspects of the supporting activity are aligned with and support key project or company goals. Some members manage projects with reviews and updates during weekly or bi-weekly meetings.
  • The benefit of keeping it simple in your own mind is that you can always return to this simplicity when dealing with detail level queries from the partner. It keeps you grounded and on track.
  • One company uses project timelines that clearly show each of the teams where they fit into the project and how important it is for them to complete their portion of the project on time and to spec. Keep everything simple and direct.
  • Sales tracking and management are different from development projects. Monitor forecasts, pipeline, and achievement of metrics that track with the forecasts.
  • In working with an off-shore partner, organize your presentations so that the key points of emphasis are readily visible. Have back-up slides to show detailed aspects of particular projects or initiatives, and be prepared to cover the details if needed. This will help to build confidence between you and your business partner.

[like]