Tag Archives: Picture

How Do You Focus Your Team? Six Points

Situation: Several CEOs asked how others have had success improving company performance and is interested in how they focused their teams. How do you focus your team?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Important tasks for any company are to validate the value proposition, technology, target customer, and the rate of market expansion, and minimize risk and liability. This should be a regular company exercise – not a one-time event.
  • Assuming that a company has goals and people who can align with and achieve them, a company needs a vision – the broader strategic picture of where they are going. Often some of the best ideas come from line staff who are enabled by their company’s culture.
  • It is critical that companies are able to quickly identify problems and have systems in place to drive problem resolution. The minigame technique is very useful in these cases.
  • Companies should have a plan for transitioning employees into new roles as the company grows. The key is clear identification of the individual’s role within the company, and how that role compliments achievement of company objectives.
  • If a company wants to grow sales from, say, $20 to $60 million, it will need a professional sales leader. In addition, growth may require a change in company culture from engineering and development centric to sales centric.
  • A significant challenge is determining how to define corporate success. Much depends upon the questions asked. The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack provides guidelines and tools for assessing options. Anyone starting or growing a business should look at this book.

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How Do You Position a Company for Value and Growth? Six Points

Situation: A CEO wants to set up her company for long-term growth in value. The business has favorable margins relative to competitors and high cash flow. It is currently single-site but has a good model that could be expanded to multiple sites. How do you position a company for value and growth?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Paint a picture of growth and cash flow. Use this picture to inspire both the home site and remote sites as they are developed.
  • Develop and demonstrate a Growth Model. It is important to demonstrate the success of the model so that it can be replicated in remote locations.
  • Get multiple sites up and running as proof of a profitable growth model.
  • As the company moves to a multi-site model, assure that each site manager has a financial interest in the success of the site. Develop a compensation system that rewards the manager for both growth and profitability. Develop a complimentary system that rewards key site personnel.
  • Develop additional products and accompanying services. These can be sold to current customers as well as new customers at the home and remote sites to boost growth.
  • As the model grows use the improved cash flow to buy other companies that are complimentary or expand the capacity of the existing company.

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How Do You Improve Communication with Your Team? Six Thoughts

Situation: A CEO is concerned that communications with her team regarding tasks, goals and operational objectives are insufficiently clear. Members of her team sometimes express confusion with her directions and what has been assigned to them. What have others done to better communicate with their teams? How do you improve communication with your team?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Write down what you plan to say and how you will say it before meeting with member(s) of the team. Once direction has been given, ask them to restate the directions or instructions. Ask whether these were clear and whether more detail is needed.
  • Assume that it will take team members 3-4 times the time that it may take you to do the same thing. This will improve over time as they approach your level of skill performing specific tasks.
  • Heartily congratulate achievement – be a cheerleader!
  • If the individual brings up other thoughts that are off point to the planned or immediate objective thank them for the input. Respond – let’s note this separately for the time being and come back to it later once when we address the immediate challenge.
  • Set deadlines for accomplishing objectives and ask where there will be conflicts. Negotiate mutually acceptable adjustments if these are necessary.
  • Communicate the bigger picture. Help them to understand how the assigned task or objective will further company objectives and improve or augment operations or functions. Share the larger vision and their role in achieving it.

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