My Team Concept … for High Performance

This blog is a continuation of my last blog on “My Team Concept” and the three simple principles of What, Why, and How. Now we delve into what is the glue that melds these three principles together.

Performance oriented people like to win. That’s a fairly safe statement and assumption. Most all of us like to win. However, I have learned that the truly high-performance teams usually have a silver bullet the others lack. That silver bullet is Clarity … clarity around “What” they are doing and “Why” they are doing it.

As simple as that statement is, it’s amazing how often in an organization if you ask 15 people “What is the organization doing?” you’ll get 15 different answers. But the key to performing well and being involved in an energetic team oriented company requires addressing the What and Why whether it is stated or not.

Find an organization that is doing extremely well and you’re going to get the same answers from the team members when you ask the “What” question. There will be extraordinary clarity around “What and Why.” Not some long-winded explanation with fancy buzzwords … but a compelling action oriented statement that says what the organization exist to do. What the “Win” is. Performing teams like to win. So you don’t want it to be fuzzy, unclear or complicated. When we set a goal and reach the goal, you’ve “accomplished” a goal. A WIN is something you celebrate. When there is clarity about “what” we have come together to do … what we exist for. We know when we have a WIN … and we celebrate a win.

Easier Decisions

Clarity develops efficiency in decision-making. Clarity around “What” decentralizes the decision making process. When people have clarity around “what,” they are not indecisive or afraid to make decisions. Clarity around “what” provides a filter for making decisions. When there is clarity your team is not wondering what the Boss would want them to do, they know because we have all agreed and communicated on what the WIN is in the organization. Furthermore, clarity allows a team to make quick course corrections or adjustments. When there is clarity around “what,” mistakes are more easily recognized, more quickly corrected, and there’s less of a tendency to blame somebody … and there’s more of an effort to make a quick course correction for the team.

WHY

Why answers What’s at stake. Whether there’s a current answer or the Founder’s answer, there’s a reason we do what we do. If “what” goes undone, we know we’ve failed. On high-performance teams, they will be inspired by “what” has gone undone or “why” we’re doing what we’re doing. High performance teams always have clarity around What and Why which also adds clarity to organizational change. How do we get people to be open to change? With a What and Why you will know. What and Why organizations are nimble, they’re passionate about what it is they want to do … they’re passionate to want to change about anything in order to accomplish the “what” … in light of the “why.”

Clarity around What and Why establishes the groundwork around change and makes it much easier for an organization to change. Moreover, the future of an organization depends on the clarity of What and Why to avoid resistance to addressing important issues.

Get your organization to buy-in to supporting What and Why with Clarity and you will gain synergy and energy of a high performance team. Organize to the What … establish job descriptions to the What. Become structured or designed to the What. Does the reason we exist as a company support the What? If over 50% of each team members’ focus, duties, and incentives are directed at the What, things will be impactful and giant strides will be made. Build synergy around What … which may be difficult but well worth the commitment and efforts.

Within different divisions or departments start with these questions:

1. What is the problem your team has come together to solve?
2. What is the task your team has come together to accomplish?
3. What is the opportunity your team has come together to leverage?
4. What is the What that everything should be organized around … the one thing that will drive and focus the energy of the entire organization (Div/Dept).

Note: Pushback will usually come from statements like, “Our organization is too complex.” But you can if you commit and focus. You just haven’t found it or identified it yet … you aren’t committed yet. When you find it, it is going to be so compelling, it is going to generate so much energy you will be excited about how to harness it. Now you have something to generate the synergy and energy you need that is worthwhile to drive the company. May take time. Start with What is What … then Why do we do What. You are on your way to developing a high performance team.

Fact … a leader cannot over emphasize Clarity in an organization.

Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

© Phil Hoffman 2013. All rights reserved

Energetic Leadership Thoughts

It all begins with energy. Leaders must have other strengths, such as intelligence and decision-making ability, but it is the energy that converts good ideas into measurable performance. How do we do this?

First, we will start with getting high-energy people into the organization … which is the equivalent of setting the table. Now this doesn’t mean getting animated extroverts that like to motivate and encourage everyone about everything. No, this means professionals who are laser focused on their assignments and bring stamina for seeing things through to completion with a positive attentive attitude based on the reality of the facts. In other words … leaders who are doers and achievers.

The next step – even bigger, is the task to create an organization that converts energy into results. In other words, leaders who execute and get the troops involved. This includes top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top communication that shares and has focus.

Simplify and Engage

A good place to start may be to simplify the organization chart. Delayer or remove barriers that cause communication issues … and keep it simple and brief. Furthermore, be sure your key leaders are setting strategy and not delegating it to others. NOTE: The strategy to accomplish the vision and goals of the company is where the rubber hits the road. This is your power-field to success … don’t water it down or let it not be proactively managed by delegating it down line.

Require of yourself and your key team leaders to get the good ideas out of the organization. They are there … and if you don’t know what or where they are you have some work to do. But they are there. You need to get them found and identified … and put them into the strategy-and-results arena. Search the entire workforce for good ideas … all levels, up and down. Then get management to deal with the new good ideas. Start with at least three goals:

1. Make the organization more productive
2. Weave a higher level of self-confidence in the structure of the firm
3. Kill any bureaucracy that exist

Peter Drucker was a big advocate of killing bureaucracy … as he said, “Bureaucracy kills passion and divests energy from the critical tasks to be accomplished for success.”

Keep in mind that the higher up an executive is in an organization, the larger will be the proportion of time that is not under his control and yet not spent on contribution. The larger the organization, the more time needed to just keep the organization together and running, rather than make it function or produce. At the same time you have to know that the goal is to make the company the best it can be. Therefore, simplify rather than keeping things complex and difficult.

Set Key Metrics|

Per Peter Drucker: What gets measured; gets managed.

Make sure the Doer’s and the Manager’s are exposed to new ideas – and are given ample opportunity to soak up those new ideas when identified. Figure out how to measure the really good ones and they will get managed, therefore, adding to the success of the company.

It’s important for managers and top management to have a forum or system for sharing experiences, aspirations, and even frustrations of identifying, qualifying, choosing, implementing, executing, and measuring of the good ideas. A viable forum will ensure the camaraderie or teamwork necessary to stay focused on results that will help the company be successful. This has to be a priority and challenging to be useful, let alone successful.

In closing, it should be noted that company politics or playing games within an organization can stifle productivity and muck things up. And it takes real guts and commitment to correct such a situation. A good leader understands that the organization should be structured to harness – and amplify – the collective energy of the organization so that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. And this takes energy.

Please share your thoughts or comments.

© Phil Hoffman 2013. All rights reserved

A GoodStuff Leader Profile

A good friend of mine who I have always thought is a strong leader in his own right recently shared with me a personality evaluation test he took and asked for my input. He seemed perplexed and unsure whether he should share this information and wanted to keep it confidential. He had been sitting on this evaluation for over six months and wasn’t sure what he should do with it.

In reviewing the evaluation, I became perplexed as to why he was so hesitant. I felt it was accurate and awesome. I thought the evaluation was on target with many of my feelings about him. In fact I thought it was complimentary and he should be proud of it. In order to protect the innocent, I will refer to this evaluation as “GoodStuff” to avoid possibly giving away my agreed confidence. Here’s a recap of the evaluation …

• Those rated as GoodStuffs represent between 1% and 3% of the U. S. Population.
• GoodStuffs inhabit a world of creative ideas.
• They are independent, original thinkers who are driven by their strong feelings, and personal integrity.
• They are sensitive, committed, hardworking, and perceptive. GoodStuffs are often excellent listeners, skilled at generating enlightened and creative solutions to other’s problems.
• They are thoughtful and careful decision makers,
• GoodStuffs prefer to have plenty of time to let ideas “percolate” before taking action to ensure they have thought things through thoroughly.
• Because they value harmony and agreement in building teams, GoodStuffs like to listen to others perspectives first but if there is misalignment, they like to persuade others of the validity of their viewpoint. They normally win the cooperation of others by using approval and praise, rather than argument or intimidation. At the same time if it comes down to making a tough decision they do not hesitate in doing what they feel is best for the organization or team.
• GoodStuffs go to great lengths to promote fellowship and avoid conflict, but should conflict result they are swift, precise, and firm in their action.
• They are often perfectionist highly focused, and driven to accomplish their goals. Their unspoken mission is continuous improvement.
• They are rather formal and reserved … always respectful of others.
• GoodStuffs are difficult to read, but it is very important to them that their values, needs and concerns be understood and respected.

Wow, to me that sounds like a strong leader.

What are your thoughts on the GoodStuff evaluation profile?

© Phil Hoffman 2013. All rights reserved

Skills for Young People to become a Successful Leader

In today’s competitive business world if you’re not judged to be management material, you may never get a shot at the C-level positions. All successful leaders had to learn how to be a great manager as part of their career path. Old school phrasing referred to this as “earning your stripes” … today it’s more about developing attributes or skillsets.

Unfortunately, sometimes if you are not judged as management material at some point along your career path, you may never get a shot at the C-suite. You have to glean those skills through either education, on-the-job-training, a good mentor, self-teach yourself, or a combination of these. But in the long run the earlier in your career that you learn some of the attributes and skills you need to succeed the better. Plus if you plan to be an entrepreneur these are a must. It can also be sobering to learn that a lot of people who might have turned out well never get the chance to find out or show their stuff. It may be just bad luck, poor mentoring, a Catch-22, etc. But it happens, therefore, you need to develop a personal plan to help yourself grow and succeed.

Here’s a list of what I feel is some of the skills and attributes that executives and business leaders look for today in their management candidates. Take a look and see which ones you are strong in and what areas you might want to work on to be sure you are good management material … and you are giving yourself a chance.

Looking at the Big Picture – organizations want someone who understands the overall view of business, what makes markets work, how companies operate, how business gets done – who “gets it” – someone who makes management and recruiters think, “that guy’s got potential.” On the other hand, if all you know or are interested in is what’s happening in your own department, then most likely you are not going to be considered leadership material.

Desire to achieve – if you show a desire to accomplish things … to make things happen so you can look back and say, “I did that or I was part of that” … then  managers and recruiters will see that desire to achieve. Leaders look for that sort of thing in trainees and up-and-comers along with ability, dedication, and discipline.

Confidence – few of us possess strong self-confidence when we’re young for the simple reason that we haven’t had enough experience through successes and failures to develop the confidence needed. But often if you have the courage to show self-confidence that is often enough to get folks to believe in you and give you a shot.

Field of Expertise – whatever your area of interest or competence is most likely the area leaders or recruiters are going to envision you being successful. Sales producers are looked to run sales, bright finance minds become controllers, CFOs, etc. So be aware of what fields interest you, but always be willing to expand you knowledgebase … remember to be Big Picture conscious to become a leader.

Be able to prioritization and adjust – the real world isn’t like the theory taught in school. Nothing is ever black and white or cut and dried. That’s why so much of management competency is your ability to effectively prioritize and make adjustments. Understand zero-based budgeting. Be able (and willing) to determine what’s critical and what needs to sidestepped. Most every management interview will have questions along those lines.

Be able to motivate – some folks just have an ability to get people working together to accomplish a goal. They can explain things in ways that people understand, that resonates with them, that gets them excited. I always liked to get people involved, engaged, and in attendance so I could build a team. They have executive presence. This can be a learned skill so don’t always believe that all leaders are born … they actually develop along the way. But they work at it and look for good examples to follow.

Be willing to be a decision-maker – when you ask 10 people what decision-making is all about, you’ll usually get 10 different answers. And what you mostly get are unclear ideas about indecisiveness and leadership. Leadership isn’t just about being decisive … it’s about learning to make the right decisions. That comes down to probing, listening, reasoning, and knowing when to trust your gut or others you’ve learned to understand. Making right decisions well is one of the most important aspects of management and leadership.

Be adaptable – in today’s fast-paced world managers have to be flexible, capable of adapting on the fly to changing conditions. So you need to learn to adapt to the hurdles that competitive markets throw at you. You will be working with many different people and personalities in your career and it is important to be able to adapt to their personalities, mores, styles, tactics, etc. That’s what leaders do well.

Self-starter – many became a supervisor early in their career, then a manager as they move up, then a senior executive, etc. How does this happen? Sometimes it’s pure luck or timing, but more often than not, it’s due to initiative. My experience is that most senior executives and leaders love to see and hear success stories of their people showing initiative during their career development. It’s part of the foundation.

Leadership from the top – micromanaging is not popular these days. Whatever you call it, you want to get things done that are best for the organization. The simple formula for this is setting the right goals, determining how best to achieve them, and getting everyone executing as if their lives depend on it. I call that visionary leadership from the top down and back up with understanding and commitment. When you’re young, we want to see you making good things happen. There will be some rough areas but you will have time to smooth out your rough edges later.

What are your ideas for young up and coming leaders?

© Phil Hoffman 2013. All rights reserved

Principles for a Successful Leader

As a Leader, it is important to periodically take a look back at the principles that have proven to be successful in business and pass them on to others. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Keep fit … physically, mentally, and spiritually … be as strong as you can be in each while seeking a balanced life
2. Watch your habits … bad ones will destroy you
3. Learn to pray – faith will take you beyond reason
4. Find and follow core values and professional management principles you agree with and apply them logically and practically to your organization and everyday life
5. It’s the Who; not the What … people are No. 1 – their development, loyalty, interest, team spirit, and culture … develop managers with a work ethic in every area … this is your primary responsibility as a leader (and will become a key asset)
6. Decision: good leaders grow by making decisions and assuming responsibilities for them – two important ones are:
   1. Make very clear what decisions each manager is responsible for and what decisions you reserve for yourself
   2. Learn to have or learn all the facts and advice as necessary – then when you make a decision, stick with it
7. Criticism: DON’T … don’t criticize people … but make a fair and firm appraisal of their credentials and skills … remember, anything you say about someone may (and usually does) get back to them (there are few secrets)
8. Always look for the good in people and try to develop those qualities first
9. Ineffective managers: if a manager cannot perform their responsibilities and the employee is incapable of performing their duties; find a position whereby they can contribute, or terminate them immediately
10.  Manage your time wisely:
    1. Short meetings and conversations to the point
    2. Make every minute on the job count
    3. Work fewer hours by being more intentionally productive
11.  Be excellent at delegating and hold those responsible to high standards of accountability
12.  Daily details:
    1. Have your staff take care of daily duties … make sure they know that it is their duty and what your expectations are
    2. Utilize your energy for productive planning, thinking, working with department heads, promoting new ideas, making decisions to make the company more successful and of greater value
    3. Only do what someone else cannot do for you
13.  Ideas and competition:
    1. Strategy, vision, and ideas are what keep the business alive; therefore, you must be engaged, involved in all areas
    2. Be sure to know your competitors and what they are doing and planning
    3. Challenge and encourage all management to think about better ways to improve the company and give suggestions on anything that will improve the business
    4. It is important to spend time and money on training, research, and development
14.  Make it a point not to try and do an employee’s job for them – give counsel and suggestions (be a proactive mentor – coach – teacher)
15.  Be objective … think big – keep a sense of humor – make business and work fun for you and others

What would you suggest a Leader share with their managers?

© Phil Hoffman 2013. All rights reserved

What is a good strategy in a prolonged down economy?

Simple question … tough to answer. First, you develop a short-term goal of Survive to Thrive. From the Big Picture perspective, you intentionally decide to make “right decisions” based on today’s data on the economy for next 3 – 5 years based on five key sectors of the economy:

1. What’s happening with the Money Supply (the Federal Reserve … printing more money is not a good answer)
2. The consuming demographics of the economy (…is our economy able to consume enough to enable growth)
3. The real estate market (… are mortgages being properly valued or kept overvalued on the books)
4. Are the true unemployment numbers coming down to a reasonable level (5% – 6%)
5. Are you factoring in for inflation in your business planning

Make Profit Your Bedrock

If you have good cash reserves, you have a strong advantage over most of your competition. The proper plan of attack, in my opinion, is not to demand revenue growth … not to demand increased market share … your primary objective should be to make Profit your bedrock. The Top-line is not the goal … Profit is the only indicator to focus on in order to meet your Survive to Thrive goal.

My proposed strategy is clear. It is a strategy of Profitable growth. Focused to:

• Build a value driven brand
• Industry savvy to deliver trend-right products/services
• Outstanding service
• A lean company with a competitive cost structure
• High responsiveness
• A people company where the key people grow and contribute
• A company you can be proud of and respect

A New Chapter

We all expect a good leader will bring results. A great leader will write a new story for their company during difficult times … a different story within the new directions of the evolving economy and business climate. Obviously, the new story has to have results. But a story is a chapter in the life of a company that people want to be a part of and want to remember. You should take the responsibility to “lean down” whereby you position your company to Thrive … and pick the best people with whom you will build the founding future of your company.

A time for tough decisions by leaders.

What would you suggest as a strategy in a down economy?

© Phil Hoffman 2012. All rights reserved