Tag Archives: Level

Should You View a Competitor’s Illegally Published Code on the Internet? Four Points

Situation: A CEO recently learned that the proprietary code for both his company’s and his principal competitor’s products have been published on an international web site. He is conflicted about whether he should look at his competitor’s code, knowing that this would potentially be illegal in the US. Lawyers have offered conflicting and vague advice. Should you view a competitor’s illegally published code on the Internet?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Consider the status of IP protection outside the United States.
    • In some countries there do not appear to be clear legal guidelines. One of these countries is likely where this situation originated. The country in question either lacks rules governing IP or the ability to enforce rules that exist.
    • The frustrating thing is that the playing field is not level between US and non-US companies. US companies are held to a high ethical standard by US law, whereas competitors in other countries that are not held to the same standard are free to review the illegal source code and learn from it as they can.
  • How complicated and expensive would it be to change the code? If this is feasible and not prohibitively expensive this may be the best option. Updated code can be provided to users through a software update.
  • Any company has to assess their own ethics as they craft a response to this situation. Make sure that the solution is consistent with the company’s ethical standards.
  • Could this have been an act of economic terrorism and/or theft?
    • If so, it is possible that the U.S. Justice Department could step in if one can make a case for national or economic security (unfair trade) based on violation of software copyright laws.
    • An action like this would, at a minimum, discourage similar future events. It could also help reduce the likelihood that competitors would try to profit from this situation at the company’s expense.

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How Do You Create a Professional Development Plan for Employees? Four Points

Situation: A CEO wants to develop employment growth/professional development plans to help individual employees reach their next level of skill and/or responsibility. This includes determining company needs, skill sets requirements, etc., and a plan to fulfill these.  How do you create a professional development plan for employees?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Start by defining company needs and the skills required to meet these needs. Ask:
    • Do we currently have staff in place with the requisite skills? How deep is our resource base?
    • Do we have individuals who desire to acquire skills where we are not deep?
    • Do we need to be looking outside for these skills?
  • Create a mechanism to enable employees to express their expectations and aspirations.
    • Ask about individual employee’s aspirations during quarterly manager / employee 1-on-1s.
    • Look for alignment between employee aspirations and company needs. If there is alignment draft a training plan to meet both the employee’s and the company’s needs.
    • Explore alternative options for them available within company. List skill sets needed. Develop a growth plan.
    • Ask employees to set three objectives for next 12 months. This is best done with a standard self-evaluation and aspiration form.
  • How often is the plan reviewed with each employee?
    • For specific action items – track follow-up to milestone dates.
    • Manager one-on-ones – monthly.
    • Quarterly or semi-annual evaluations.
    • Annual formal performance reviews.
  • How does the company, demonstrate that they are paying staff more than fairly?
    • Research salary surveys to determine how the company’s salaries measure up to typical local or regional salaries for comparable companies in the industry. Plan adjustments if necessary.
    • On the company level, produce data that shows overall company salary levels vs. industry averages in the company’s locale.
    • In individual salary discussions, let the employee know how their salary measures up against area averages for their position.

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How Do You Grow Knowledge Workers into Servant Leaders? Three Methods

Situation: A company’s staff is made up primarily of knowledge workers. These are highly skilled individuals who excel in their roles. The CEO wishes to shift their focus to servant leadership – where the focus is the growth and development of the company. How do you grow knowledge workers into servant leaders?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • One option is to create a different set of incentives. Offering key managers the option to invest in and hold shares in the company will change their perspective. This, in turn, can change their behavior because servant leadership will improve company performance and the value of their shares.
  • Another option, used by Accenture and many Fortune 500s, is to hire a lot of the best and brightest individuals that they can find out of college and see who rises to the top.
    • The ratio in large firms is generally 15 hires to produce 1 high performer. Another CEO at the table is now shifting to this model at his company.
    • Create an entry level position for recent graduates that will allow for this sifting without disrupting the company’s culture.
    • Speed identification and retention of the best talent through annual evaluations of the company’s talent. This includes ratings by employees’ supervisors of both how the individual is doing and their ultimate potential within the company.
    • Be aware of the downsides to this model. One is that the two groups that tend to leave of their own accord are the best and the worst employees.
  • A third option is to create two career tracks within the Company.
    • One track is upwardly mobile. This is the track that identifies, develops and grooms future servant leaders.
    • The other track is a specialty track, which can produce servant leaders along a different dimension – breadth of experience and expertise in key skills of value to the firm.
    • This second track also allows for growth, characterized by levels of title, salary and recognition that reward the acquisition and perfection of skills in key disciplines.
    • Several “kinder, gentler” environments such as 3M have used parallel tracks with great success.

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How Do You Improve Sales Skills? Four Points

Situation: A company is staffed by a team that is not made up of salespeople, per se, but individuals who have grown with the business and who understand the customer. The staff is divided into teams who serve the company’s customers but with differences in effectiveness. The CEO seeks advice as to how they can best increase their selling level. How do you improve sales skills?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Comparing the teams, what are the differences in effectiveness in sales?
    • The individual with the most classic “sales” personality struggles with sales.
    • An individual with an HR background who knows the customer well is more comfortable with sales and is the highest producer.
    • There are instances of hoarding of information which could improve sales, but this is more frequent within teams than between the teams.
  • Dale Carnegie Sales Courses are a wonderful resource that can improve the skills of individuals both with and without a formal background in sales.
  • Engage in customer research to understand and know the customer.
    • Ask the sales leads in each team head up this research.
    • Their task will be to share their observations about customers and develop new strategies for approaching and meeting the needs of different customers.
    • This sharing should be both within the teams and between the teams.
  • Consider a sales coach.
    • Ask colleagues and search the Internet for a local resource.
    • Look for a consultant who specializes in working with individuals to overcome sales blocks, as well as to develop individualized sales styles that are effective for each person.

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How Do You Develop the Next Level of Leadership? Two Points

Situation: A CEO finds that it is time to develop the next level of management and leadership to support the company’s planned growth. She has received input from several sources but is curious as to how other CEOs have taken their staff to the next level. How do you develop the next level of leadership?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Consider as an example how a law firm typically grooms and grows new partners:
    • Give them an area of responsibility.
    • Provide targets (expectations and metrics) and give them the opportunity to produce results.
    • Put the highest performers on track for promotion.
    • As is the case in a law firm, the candidates for management and leadership for will be a combination of rainmakers and the best talent in critical performance areas.
  • What should be budgeted for professional growth and development?
    • One example – provide up to 10% of hours per week for an individual who shows a true desire to improve their skills. Watch how the individual performs, but make sure that there is a measurable return before continuing this beyond a certain point.
    • Another alternative: let the candidate decide by matching 50% of what they are willing to spend on training and education. Require proof of completion of the course and likely an acceptable grade average if the training is academic and reimburse after the fact.
    • Ask the candidate to demonstrate the ROI for the training for which was reimbursed 50% before agreeing to continue to support additional education. Let them develop the calculation but insist on final review and approval of their analysis before continuing to fund additional education.

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Does it Pay to Share an Employee? Four Points

Situation: A company has an excellent bookkeeper. However, during slow seasons cash is tight and the bookkeeper is not occupied full time. The CEO contacted a friend at another company, and that company has hired the bookkeeper for 10 hours / week. This is working well for both for both companies. Are there downsides to doing this? Does it pay to share an employee?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • If you share an employee, share at your cost – your fully burdened cost per hour. For the company using a piece of your employee, this may be a significant hourly cost, but is much less expensive than a consultant and lower risk than bringing on an unknown individual.
  • Keep a short term perspective – once the economy improves you will want the individual back full-time. Make sure that this is well understood by the other company.
  • Make sure that this is not a burden on your bookkeeper. Ask whether the individual can handle two bosses. It helps to fully segregate the individual’s time with time rules – for example, by day or half-day with clean break points in time worked for Company A vs. Company B.
  • Overall, the apparent benefits of this situation outweigh the challenges.

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Are You Planning Salary Increases This Year? Five Thoughts

Situation: A company’s staff is highly paid. Historically, annual raises have been 4-5%; however some individuals are above industry salary ranges. The CEO doesn’t want to lose key individuals who would be expensive to replace. The company is planning salary increases for the end of this year. If the level is lower than historic averages they are concerned about the impact. Are planning for salary increases this year? How will you communicate your decision to employees?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • What’s the problem? Even in an improving economy your employees are lucky to be making what they do! On top of this, you need to consider profitability compared to last year as well as historic levels. Selectively share financial data with your employees as well as financial realities – your and their top priority are to keep the company healthy.
  • Gather data on salary ranges for roles in your industry. Good sources are Salary.com for national data (it may be dated) or Assets Unlimited’s Silicon Valley Survey for up-to-date salary information by industry and position. This will help you to prepare for conversations with employees who are currently paid above the range for their positions.
  • If you have employees above the range and do not want to give them raises, give them bonuses or spot bonuses for work well done.
  • Formalize your bonus system – base bonuses on performance metrics. Consider tying bonuses to net margin performance for the company or for departments that can impact new margin.
  • Whatever you decide, make announcements about salary levels a positive event.

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How Do You Delegate Yet Stay Informed? Seven Suggestions

Situation: A CEO wants to push project ownership down to lower levels of the company. This is not happening unless the CEO pushes. How do you delegate yet stay informed as you push authority down the organization chart?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The company needs systems and guidelines to clarify on what and when the CEO wants to either have input or hear back, and what can happen without the CEO’s knowledge.
    • Set levels of approval – dollar impact or decision type – and clarify what decisions can made at what level, what decisions need higher level approval and at what level, where they must inform you, and where you must sign off.
    • Similarly, establish regular reporting and meeting schedules, along with guidelines as to what is to be reported – again by budgetary impact or decision type – and assure that this reporting takes place.
  • “The Great Game of Business” by Jack Stack describes a company which has implemented these systems with astounding results. It provides a template and describes in detail how the system is implemented and what bumps they encountered along the way.
  • Invest more time in setting roles and responsibilities for your direct reports.
  • Keep reporting systems aligned across the company.
  • Expect over time to adjust levels of authority as individuals grow in responsibility and accountability.
  • Most importantly, lead by example. If a team member comes to the CEO for guidance on a project, refer them back to the proper manager for advice.
  • 2015 Top ranked software systems to manage projects and processes from selected searches:
    • Capterra: Microsoft Project, Basecamp, Atlassian, Wrike, Podio
    • Insider.com: Smartsheet, Mavenlink, Wrike, Posoda, Metier
    • PC Magazine: Zoho Projects, Teamwork Projects, LiquidPlanner, Workfront, Wrike

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