Tag Archives: Responsible

How Do You Evaluate Management Team Performance? Four Points

Situation: As the end of the year approaches, a CEO is evaluating management performance over the year. An area of focus during the year have been evaluating new business opportunities and the impact of these on the company. The CEO has been uncomfortable with disagreements between departments which have slowed opportunity evaluations. How do you evaluate management team performance?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Breaking down issues of concern, there are two areas of focus.
    • Problems that should have been resolved by two people have required a referee (the CEO) to mediate the solution because the two parties could not work things out themselves.
    • Individuals who are otherwise highly skilled have become overly sensitive about minor issues that have prevented them from developing their own solutions
  • The most important step is to have the management team agree on a protocol for dealing with new business opportunities and the impact of new sales opportunities on development and support. A protocol will help to avoid the two issues of concern that have been identified.
    • Direct the team to come up with a protocol that they all agree to, subject to CEO review.
    • Once it is finalized, announce it with great fanfare as the new process that will guide the company. Make it mandatory.
    • Support this process with daily (short – 10-15 minute) or weekly (longer but 1 hour or less) team meetings to anticipate and remove blocks to execution.
  • Tension between sales, service and engineering are natural and healthy. This is because each is driven by different priorities, all of which are necessary to serve the customer.
    • Resolution of this tension requires a turnkey handoff protocol, involving checklists and flow charts.
    • The best protocols are not imposed on people but are developed by the people involved. This gives them ownership, and a stake in implementing and maintaining the protocol.
  • If, despite everyone’s best efforts there is ongoing dysfunction, it may be necessary to replace difficult people. As challenging as this seems, those who report to difficult top managers likely experience similar difficulties with them. Organizations often respond with relief after leadership eliminates a difficult manager.

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How Do You Manage Family in a Business? Three Approaches

Situation: The CEO of a family-owned business finds it difficult to hold family-member managers accountable. They are responsible for significant portions of the business; however, family dynamics make it hard to supervise them. How do you communicate that their responsibilities affect both the business and the family? How to you manage family in a business?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The first issue: Why have they not been asked for accountability to date? If you don’t ask for accountability, then don’t expect them to take this on by themselves.
  • Assign one family member responsibility for developing the marketing and sales strategy for the company.
    • Change the compensation from salary to salary plus commission. Over a 6-month period, reduce the base salary to half of what this individual currently earns and tie the rest to success increasing sales.
    • Assign this person responsibility for analyzing the markets that you serve. Are there areas that the company has not tapped into yet? What can you do to make your web site up more effective at driving sales? How can you use exclusivity on select products to your advantage?
  • When was the last time that the principals of the business met to figure out what to do?
    • Set the stage: we have split the business into two divisions and have separated the financials. This gives us more flexibility as we develop the business.
    • Show them the trends of each business.
    • Show them that if the current trend continues the business will be unsustainable in X years.
    • Facilitate a discussion that will start to generate solutions.
    • If the others do not respond:
      • Tell them that you appreciate their attendance at today’s meeting.
      • Tell them that you will meet in another two days as a team. Until then you expect them to think things over and to come ready to share their ideas.
    • Do not hold the meeting in your office or conference room. Secure an off-site neutral location with a white board.
    • If you are uncomfortable facilitating this meeting hire an outside facilitator. Ask for the input of the others in selecting a facilitator and follow their recommendation. If you work with a facilitator, start with your own dilemmas to set the tone.

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