Tag Archives: Goals

How Do You Find and Keep Good People? Seven Suggestions

Situation: A company needs to both find and retain good people to continue its profitable growth. What experience can the group share to assist the CEO in his efforts to address these needs? How do you find and keep good people?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Before starting the recruitment process create specific position profiles including desired skill sets, qualifications, and functional responsibilities.
• Set up a recruiting team to develop current and future employees and candidates. Offer scholarships to new and existing associates to continue their education.
• Once a new person is hired, create a first 90 day skill set plan. Include challenges that they have to pass, as well as scheduled training and support.
• The first 90 days is critical. If someone slips up during the first 90 days it is taken very seriously as a sign or more to come.
• Profile and hire attitudes as well as focusing on skill sets. Lots of people have skills. It is those employees who possess both the right attitude and right skills who make great hires and who will stay with the company.
• Share the company’s culture and goals. Let candidates and new hires know how they fit into both.
• To boost retention, focus on charities that employees care about. Encourage employees to participate in worthy causes and give them time to support these charities.

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How Are You Preparing for Next Year? Two Approaches

Situation: A CEO and his team are preparing for next year. There is a lot of uncertainty as to how the year will unfold and what the economic and financial environment will look like. What are others doing to plan for next year and beyond? How are you preparing for next year?

Advice from the CEOs:

One company built a 5 year plan to 2028 about a year ago.

    • They are now reviewing the plan. Their core has been growing faster than anticipated as a result of the new sales effort. For next year and beyond they are revisiting the plan and revising it both to take advantage of the new sales effort and to leverage this success into other areas.
    • Within the plan, priorities for growth have been identified, and the company is on target to double the size of the company in 5 years.

Another company established a Strategic Priority Team a few months ago.

    • They started by setting goals for 2025 to 2030. They followed this with a plan for what they need to do year by year until 2030 to realize this plan. They recognize that there may be speed bumps along the way but have established the internal discipline and capacity to address these.
    • Within the plan, they are looking at expanding ther facilities in 2nd half of 2026, and plan to double both their space and staff over the planning period.
    • An additional area where they will focus is their current and new business development effort.

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How Well Do You Know Your Target Audience? Five Points

Situation: A CEO and her team manage a growing and profitable company. She is interested in what others have done to expand their market presence and penetration. In discussion, other CEOs have been curious about her company’s marketing capabilities, and how well her team knows their customer base. The essential question that they ask is “How well do you know your target audience?”

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Become a thought leader:
    • This is Inexpensive because the company is already a leader in its field.
    • Marketing through thought leadership allows the company to get its message out with fewer resources than push marketing efforts.
    • Thought leadership adds credibility and educates the customer.
  • Qualify the need and/or the perception of the need. If there is no need, there is no sale.
    • It’s perfectly acceptable to ask clients about their challenges and needs.
    • Ask them to measure the need on a 1-10 scale.
    • Ask the client to play out the scenario without an adequate solution.
    • Ask the prospect how they have worked with others offering similar services to your company’s and how did that go?
  • Ask your customers to help.
    • Develop a Customer Advisory Board to test a new product or concept – a “Blue Ribbon Panel”.
    • Write a paper together with them to highlight the findings.
  • Use common sense, but:
    • Set measurable goals and listen to enough people to get more directed feedback.
  • The company’s internal staff is also a target audience.
    • Integrate departmental cultures to assure that they don’t clash.
    • Conduct collaborative off-sites to encourage cooperation and support.
    • Create processes for all departments and staff.

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How Do You Navigate Communication Style Differences? Four Points

Situation: A CEO seeks advice on how other CEOs work with employees who have significantly different styles of communication. He suspects that this is a source of conflict between employees and wants to reduce that conflict. How do you encourage employees to be more open and receptive to other employees? How do you navigate communication style differences?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Conduct regular personnel reviews. In reviews work with the individual to develop personal growth plans in addition to professional development objectives.
    • It may be necessary to create enough stress in an interview situation to prompt the real personality to show.
    • Recognize that sometimes an employee who meets professional goals can still be a poor fit for the team. This can impact other, productive team members. Don’t be afraid to fire a bad hire.
  • How much can you expect to mold another person’s communication style?
    • There must be personal motivation to change – the impetus must come from within.
    • To prompt the conversation acknowledge that something isn’t working – or isn’t as effective as expected.
    • Communicate to the individual that the consequences of not changing are potentially worse than the effort to change.
  • Breed adaptive communication skills throughout the organization.
    • Use an assessment tool to start the conversation and align tasks.
    • In dealing with an individual who is confrontational, probe to determine what is motivating the individual’s question or position on an issue. Does the individual genuinely need additional information or are they using a wall of questions as a roadblock to moving on?
    • Work with the individual to organize their answers or input into a plan.
  • Communicate values and goals as they pertain to individual contribution and appreciate the impact of different departments’ actions on each other.
    • Be flexible – some people need more definition and reinforcement than others.
    • Understand that changes and transitions in the company’s focus can shift roles.
    • Review each individual’s role periodically to insure that it fits the company vision. This can increase the individual’s understanding of how they are contributing to moving the company forward.

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How Do You Maximize Company Value & Strategic Positioning? Five Points

Situation: A CEO has a young company in a very favorable strategic position. The Founders have bootstrapped the company and it is currently on the “blade” of the growth hockey stick. How can the Founders maximize the value of the company as they grow it? How do you maximize company value and strategic positioning?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • What are company’s principal challenges and goals?
    • Over time, as the market begins to mature, there will be more competition and margins will drop.
    • Before this happens organize the company for maximum value, and build additional products and/or services that will maximize company value.
  • Hire managers to manage on-going business while devoting top management time to strategic market expansion and building new products and/or accompanying services.
  • Perform a strategic analysis focused on the long-term plan and building equity value. Plan a future that will optimize the company’s strategic position while increasing cash flow and equity value.
  • Anticipate, plan and organize for the he most likely coming changes to the market.
  • Consider starting a second company to compliment the value and products of the current company. For example, if he company is best at a key technology, start a second company to provide accompanying services that will enhance the value of the technology. Having done this, future options open up to either combine the two companies or to let them grow on complimentary paths.

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How Do You Improve Your Time Management Skills? Four Recommendations

Situation: A CEO is finding that reduction in staff over the last two years combined with expansion of business have left her in a quandary trying to manage too much. While the prospects of bring in new staff are improving, she wants to improve her time management skills to support company growth. How do you improve your time management skills?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Delegation and communication around delegation is about “monkey” management – getting the monkeys off you back and onto the backs of others. In addition, it’s about not letting others put inappropriate monkeys on your back.
  • Think about the difference between:
    • Empowerment versus involving yourself in all aspects of the business.
    • Empowerment is more effective and frees up time to focus on new opportunities and growth.
    • Involving yourself everywhere quickly leads to a time crunch and is less effective.
  • Set quarterly goals for yourself, just as you set quarterly goals for the company. This drives achievement and growth. It helps you to:
    • Clarify your role – where you should be focusing your time, and to
    • Let go.
  • Think of your staff as your customers. Like customers, the more you give and recognize them, the more they love you. Effectively, this is serving your staff just as you serve customers. This is called Servant Leadership and builds both empowered employees and great employee loyalty.

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How Do You Improve Delegation? Three Solutions

Situation: A company is growing rapidly. As it grows it is important to build the management team needed to support this growth. A few talented potential managers have a tough time letting go of previous responsibilities. How does the CEO help them to let go of previous responsibilities. How do you improve delegation?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Don’t teach method. The individuals to whom responsibilities are to be delegated may feel like trained monkeys, not the bright creative people that they are.
    • Set goals. Give them the information that they need to get there. Let them know that there is a procedure, and they are welcomed to use or adapt this as they wish. If they can find a better way that is more efficient – Wonderful!
    • Empower them. This is an investment. Like many investments, it may take time to generate a return, but be patient and wait for this return.
  • Look at the required roles and prioritize them as most to least critical to the company.
    • Start delegating the less critical roles, as well as the roles that are less time sensitive.
    • This will make it easier to maintain patience.
    • Also, delegate roles that play to the strengths of those to whom new responsibilities are being delegated. Those taking these roles will be happier and will do a better job.
  • Create an organizational chart for each department and responsibilities.
    • Make sure that all of the roles for which a department is responsible are included, but group these into similar roles so that there are, for example, 3-5 role delegations.
    • Prioritize each role for importance and urgency.
    • Take the least urgent and significant role and delegate it. Either assign it to an existing individual, or hire someone to take it on.
    • Once this has been done this and those to whom roles are delegated are used to them, do the same with the next least important or urgent role.
    • Do this over time until all the needed roles have been delegated, and managers are comfortable managing the individuals now responsible for them.
    • A valuable resource is the EMyth Revisited by Michael Gerber. It is a quick read and provides guidelines for how to delegate and let go of responsibilities the organization grows.

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How Do You Raise the Bar on Personal Performance? Five Suggestions

Situation: A CEO is constantly striving to increase her skills, both personal and professional. She has sought and participated in a number of workshops to facilitate ongoing improvement. Some have been helpful but others less so. What have others done to sharpen their professional skills? What about their personal skills – the human side? How do you raise the bar on personal performance?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Focus on improving and sharpening your strengths, not on overcoming or improving areas that are not so strong. Look for ways that existing strengths complement each other and build on these combinations. This will naturally yield two benefits: raising performance and bringing greater satisfaction.
  • Create personal objectives that will help to sharpen existing strengths.
  • Conversely, develop workarounds for those areas which are not as strong. Look for talents among the others within the company that address the areas which are not as strong. Have them assist in work pertaining to these areas. They will enjoy this work because it complements their strengths, and you and the company will gain the desired results.
  • Take time to reflect and to recharge the batteries. Check current objectives and assure that these objectives compliment your long-term goals. Assure that you are focusing on the right priorities for YOU.
  • Find a mentor – in or outside of your industry. This will be an individual with experience who can provide you with guidance and clarity as you address both day-to-day and long-term challenges.

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How Do You Continually Raise the Bar on Personal Performance? Five Points

Situation: A CEO is continually focusing on company performance to improve results and efficiency. At the same time, she wants to assure that she is always raising the bar on her own performance as an example to both management and employees. What advice do you have for this CEO? How do you continually raise the bar on personal performance?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Take a lesson from Marcus Buckingham’s book – Now Discover Your Strengths. The Gallup Organization is a leader in social science research on performance. Rule #1 is to focus on improving and sharpening strengths, not on overcoming or improving areas that are not so strong.
    • Look for ways that your strengths complement each other and build on these combinations. This will naturally raise performance and will also bring greater satisfaction.
  • Build personal objectives that will help to sharpen your strengths.
  • Conversely, develop work-arounds for those areas which are not as strong. Look for talent among the others in the organization that address areas where you are not as strong.
    • Have them assist you in work pertaining to these areas.
    • They will enjoy this work because it complements their strengths, and the company will gain the results that are needed. It also allows them to excel in areas where they are the strongest.
  • Take time to reflect and to recharge your batteries. Check your direction and make sure that you are heading in a direction that compliments your long-term goals.
    • Make sure that you are focusing on the right priorities for YOU.
  • Find a mentor – in or outside of your industry. Someone with experience who can provide you with guidance and clarity as you address both day-to-day and long-term challenges.

How Do You Shift the Sales Mix? Five Suggestions

Situation: The CEO of a professional services company wants to shift the focus of the company from emphasis on service of existing customers to new customer development. Historically they have counted on repeat sales, but these have lagged. The CEO wants to develop new customers to build current and future revenue. This is a mentality shift. How do you shift the sales mix?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The objective is to move the current customer to new customer mix from 80/20 toward 40/60.
    • As an example, the CEO has shifted her focus day to day management to long-term planning and strategy over the last two years.
    • Now it’s time to motivate others to make a similar shift in customer development.
  • Make the shift to sales – to rain-maker – a requirement for Partner Track. Let those who want to pursue Partner Track know that this is a key part of their qualification for Partner.
  • Make cash flow analysis an integral part of new project proposals and current project tracking. Have project managers devise their project analyses to show return but review these to assure that their analyses are accurate. Require them to sell their analyses to the Partners. This will help them to see the value of correctly bidding new projects up-front.
  • Ask them – what do you want to be doing in 10 years? How will you be contributing to the goals of the firm? What are you doing to get there? Communicate the critical metrics that will be evaluated: sales, new account development, profitable bids and project cost control. Focus cost control on keeping options presented under control and minimizing rework.
  • Reserve Partner Track for those who can produce both sales and effective delivery of services. In employee reviews make this distinction clear.

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