Tag Archives: Responsibility

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.

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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.

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How Do You Redefine the Top Executive’s Role in the Business? Four Points

Situation: The President of a family-owned business that has been in operation for over 30 years wishes to change her role by increasing delegation of responsibility and accountability within the business in preparation for her eventual retirement. Other family members in the business are happy with their current responsibilities and are resistant to taking on more responsibility. What advice does the group have for this member?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Given that you are preparing for retirement, it is important to let others know about your plans and your desire to increasingly hand off your responsibilities to others. Ideally, one or more of the others will express a desire to take on more leadership, particularly if it includes a boost in pay.
• It is important to clarify responsibilities and prioritize which ones you wish to hand off. Once this is done build and execute a hand-off plan.
• Transition current managers who are misplaced in their position to other roles. Work with them to identify alternate roles where their talents can better benefit the company. They may be aware of their current discomfort and welcome the opportunity to take on a different role more suited to their abilities.
• Focus on removing barriers to delegation that may be in place. For example, bring others into the discussion and review the projects that they are overseeing. Identify the challenges underlying those projects and ask for their suggestions on how to address these. Don’t provide the answers. Ask questions and push them to develop appropriate solutions.

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How Do You Interview for New Hires and Promotions? Part 2, Eight Points

Situation: A CEO seeks advice on interviewing both for new hires and promotions. What advice and guidelines do others suggest to improve interviews? How do you interview for new hires and promotions?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Use an interview process that is consistent with the company’s plan and culture.
    • Start with the company’s mission statement.
    • Next develop the value system.
    • Draft a hiring plan that is consistent with the company’s mission and values and develop a process to support this.
  • Monitor the process over time and improve it through experience.
  • Assure that position descriptions reflect the individual(s) that the company wants to hire.
  • Before starting the hiring process, ask “What problem am I solving?” The answer will help to define the talents and attitudes desired in candidates.
  • Utilize “listening with a plan”.
    • Be clear on how the person being interviewed is delivering their message. Is their language positive, proactive, energized, or lethargic? Do they take responsibility for their own actions? Do they look at positive aspects of the company they work for and the people they work with? The objective is to make sure that the individuals sought for the job display these characteristics.
  • Hire for growth potential, not just to fill the current slot.
  • Hire consistent with the values and culture that the company wants to create and foster.
  • Hire to skills needed rather than value to yourself and the firm.
    • Don’t just hire on cultural aspects. Evaluate and check the skill set against what this person is supposed to accomplish. Getting the skills set right is just as important as getting the culture right.

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How Do You Maintain the Chain of Command? Three Suggestions

Situation: A CEO finds that some employees are going directly to her to address issues or suggestions rather than working with their managers to develop solutions. She is concerned on two fronts. First, these matters should be handled between the employee and their manager. Second, this distracts her from higher priorities facing the company. How should the CEO convey this to both the manager and the employee. How do maintain the chain of command?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Concerning the situation where a manager’s direct report is going to the CEO, what is the follow-up with both the manager and the employee?
  • The message to the manager:
    • You are in your role for a reason.
    • You are accountable, and your responsibility is for your team to deliver against company strategy and plans.
    • If this situation is repeated I will send these questions back to you, and will count on you to keep me in the loop as appropriate to assure that the solutions are consistent with company policy and objectives.
  • The message team member
    • It’s okay to share your thoughts with me.
    • But in the case of new ideas or suggestions, you need to bring these to your manager so that your manager understands what is going on and can coordinate your suggestions with the activities and priorities of the team.
  • How do you set boundaries so as not to step on the toes of managers?
    • Set deliverables for the managers, but leave them the authority and latitude to manage those who report to them.
    • If an employee comes to the CEO rather than their manager, refer them back to their manager.
    • After the fact, follow-up with the manager to assure that the issue or suggestion has been addressed.
    • HR issues are handled through the HR process, not by the CEO.

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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 Delegate on a Team Basis? Four Options

Situation: A CEO wants to develop a collection of skills within her team as an alternative to just having individuals with skills. For example, her role means that she must travel frequently, often for over a week at a time. How can she develop a system to temporarily reallocate the time of the team to cover her responsibilities while she’s away. How do you delegate on a team basis?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • If the team functions on a high level, this is not really a problem. They will step up.
    • Plan for the time frame during which the CEO will be away.
    • List all responsibilities to be covered and set priorities for response. Focus on the highest priorities first. Delegate them or use them as cross-training opportunities for team members.
    • Meet with team ahead of time. Go over what has to be covered. Ask who can cover this, and delegate first, second and third responders – not just a single individual. This is important so that they know that they are backed up as well. Ask: What concerns or questions do you have? Have the team develop solutions.
    • Where processes are involved, break down the process. Create a decision tree and work with the team on how to make decisions with resources available.
    • Set priorities for the time away before leaving. Ask the team how they would handle situations and coach them if they are not sure. Identify resources for them to use if needed.
  • Use the model that a special forces team uses to train and prepare for missions:
    • Know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
    • Know how to back each other up.
    • Set up situations that are likely to arise and rehearse.
  • Another good model is engineering decision trees.
    • Create decision trees for how frequently occurring situations are handled to help team members determine the proper course of action and how to utilize which resources to respond to these situations.
  • Note the difference between reactive and proactive responsibilities.
    • Train the team to respond to reactive situations.
    • Schedule proactive responsibilities around planned time away to facilitate involvement in these as necessary.
    • Flexibility is critical.

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How Do You Get the Best from Your People? Six Solutions

Situation: A CEO is concerned that employees are not taking enough initiative. They keep coming back to him for assistance solving each step in a process rather than solving it on their own or with the assistance of other team members. This takes time away from his primarily role developing and guiding the present and future of the company. What can he do help employees become more self-sufficient? How do you get the best from your people?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Don’t offer to help employees solve the problem or take over the task to save time and effort. Use the “answer a question with a question” technique to let them know that it is their responsibility to develop and complete the solutions and processes on their own.
  • Tailor the coaching approach to the particular individual and situation that he or she faces.
  • Just let go. Allow them to fly without depending on the CEO.
  • Classify frequent problems and solutions into types, and have the team develop solution templates for each type. Provide training on the solution templates so that everyone is familiar with them.
  • Select top performers to act as peer-mentors to train and cross-train staff. There are three rewards for their taking on this role: added recognition for their talents, accelerated promotion opportunity, and additional pay or bonuses for their efforts.
  • An excellent resource is The One-Minute Manager. It is short, to the point, and offers valuable techniques to encourage initiative and both independent and team problem-solving among employees.

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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 Many Direct Reports is Too Many? Five Thoughts

Situation: A young company has been growing rapidly but hasn’t been growing its infrastructure to support its growth. The CEO now has fifteen direct reports. Things are getting hectic and the CEO wonders whether it’s time to make a change. How many direct reports is too many?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • It is generally accepted that the largest number of direct reports that an individual can successfully manage is ten. Beyond this and even at this number, if the reports require significant supervision it is difficult to meet the needs of the individuals and to effectively direct their multiple activities.
  • The maximum number of individuals that you can manage depends upon what you are managing.
    • If the individuals are very independent, then perhaps ten can be managed.
    • If the individuals require any significant levels of supervision and/or training, the number goes down rapidly.
  • This is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is determining the right number of reports for the CEO to manage. The benefit is the opportunity to start building a management team.
  • The benefit will be that by adding managers reporting to the CEO, there is the opportunity to train individuals who can take on additional managerial responsibilities in the future. As the company continues to expand this will become critical to future growth.
  • Another benefit is the ability to divide responsibilities among the teams.
    • For example, one team becomes the sales team, a second the Client Services team, and a third becomes the back-office operations team.
    • As the company expands, there is the opportunity to add additional subgroups to the sales and client service teams. simultaneously serviced by the existing back-office operations team.

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