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6 Building Blocks Of A Strategy

Posted by on July 14, 2017

One of the best books I have read on developing a strategic plan and all that is involved in the execution of that plan was written by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan called Execution. It is a must read for any organization that uses teams to accomplish planning and execution.

A strategy is the key steps or methodology that you are going to use to accomplish your goals or mission. Many times the goal seems to be clear and necessary but the breakdown occurs at the point of determining how we are going to accomplish what we want to do.

In this book he lists several critical questions that should be answered during the development of your strategy to ensure a high probability of success:

How good are the assumptions upon which the plan hinges?
What are the pluses and minuses of the alternatives?
Do you have the organizational capability to execute the plan?
Are the short term and long term balanced?
What are the important milestones for executing the plan?
Can you adapt the plan to rapid changes in your environment?

The two most important questions are do you have the organizational capability to execute the plan? Just because it is the right thing to do may not mean we have the right people in place and this is the right time for implementation. If we add something major to our process without additional manpower it must be assumed that something else needs to go.

The last question is even more important in the culture we live in today. Just because something looks great as a strategy today and even works for awhile does not mean that it will be viable in the next twelve months. This means that nothing must become so sacred that it cannot be changed if necessary when a better plan is discovered.

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The Changing Role Of Leadership In The 21st Century

Posted by on July 11, 2017

The days of all decisions being made solely at the top with a few people involved are fading fast. Throughout the Industrial Age of leadership during the last half of 20^th century this was the only model of leadership. The overwhelming percentage of the workforce was for the most part simply telling time based on the clear instructions that were given for them to follow.

Today we are leading from an Information and Idea Age model of leadership. The entire development process has been delegated to various teams so that everyone who can contribute will be involved. In essence people are now being asked to help build the clock.

Most people think the changing role of the top executives is by far the most dramatic shift that has occurred. In a sense of scope that may be true. Key leaders today do not have to know all the answers to all the questions, they only need to know what are the right questions to ask?

There primary responsibility today is to make sure they have the best possible people on their team because the quality and success of the clocks they are making will determine the future success of the entire organization.

The most dramatic shift in leadership today certainly from a standpoint of scale is not at the top but in the middle of organizations. There is a big difference in telling time compared to building clocks. Today people are daily being asked what do you think and what would you recommend?

Many organizations are caught in the middle of this transition and seem to be stuck. The problem could be that you are asking people who only know how to tell time to build clocks and they are not capable of making that change. Don’t give up on clock building just find the right people who know how to build great clocks and you will be fine.

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The Problem Of Leaders Adding Too Much Value

Posted by on July 7, 2017

Every day we have conversations with people who are trying to tell us something we already know. Most of the time we interrupt them in mid sentence and complete their thought so we can move on to something else that we think is more important.

There are sometimes when this is very appropriate, especially where timing is extremely important and we must make decisions quickly. However, the vast majority of times our stopping them is totally inappropriate for a variety of reasons.

First of all, we really do not know for sure all that they were going to say. Many times they do know something we need to hear but we are too impatient to wait and listen. Also, we have this need to impress people with our knowledge and experience to the point we come across as rude and insensitive.

In a business environment we feel justified in cutting to the bottom line for productivity sake but we fail as leaders to see the value in allowing other people to participate in the process. If you only see your team as a means to your predetermined end, then in reality they are only attending this meeting for their information and not for their involvement.

The willingness to listen to someone regardless of the value of the information communicated is an investment in them as a person. The agenda is no longer what can they do for me but how can I help them develop.

There is a time to add value and genuinely help someone by what you know but only after they have had their opportunity to shape the conversation first. Nobody likes someone who always thinks they know it all. Let’s be sure we are not that someone.

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Changing Company Culture Requires A Movement

Posted by on July 5, 2017

Every organization will encounter change in their markets and they will adjust with innovation. Sometimes, the change is so dramatic in scale that it qualifies as a disruption and that requires a total transformation. One of the major issues that must be at the top of the list is the changing of the company culture. This HBR post is very helpful :

“Culture is like the wind. It is invisible, yet its effect can be seen and felt. When it is blowing in your direction, it makes for smooth sailing. When it is blowing against you, everything is more difficult.

For organizations seeking to become more adaptive and innovative, culture change is often the most challenging part of the transformation. Innovation demands new behaviors from leaders and employees that are often antithetical to corporate cultures, which are historically focused on operational excellence and efficiency.”

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4 Critical Factors In Communicating A New Vision

Posted by on June 28, 2017

After you know that you have top down buy in to the new vision for your organization, you need to create a team that can develop a strategic plan that will allow you to move into the future. I cannot tell you the number of times I have reached this point in the process with great new ideas and the approval to implement the necessary changes only to fail.

The next step is extremely important is communicating the changed vision. In all my years of doing this, I think this is the beginning point of where the process starts to break down. We all have served on teams and worked for months on change initiatives and come out of the process totally together and passionate only to meet one year later trying to decide why the plan died.

What we simply fail to remember is that we have thought, discussed, and even hotly debated these ideas for literally hundreds of hours and the people who are on the front lines for execution have had no exposure whatsoever. We always undervalue the process of bringing everyone else up to speed and wonder why in the end they simply don’t get it.

There are several key criteria for effective communication:

Keep It Simple
Use Multiple Forums and Methods
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
Environments That Allow Give and Take

The only way I have found to know that people have got it, is to let them hear everything they need over time and then let them ask questions and give back to me in their own words what we want them to understand.

Another very important aspect of communicating vision is that the leaders must be prepared to immediately walk their talk. John Kotter writes based on his research, “Nothing undermines the communication of a change vision more than behavior on the part of key players that seems inconsistent with the vision.” If the vision is empowering teams and the top leaders of the company are still micromanaging everything you can be sure the plan is dead.

Categories: Leadership Development Leading Change | Comments Off on 4 Critical Factors In Communicating A New Vision

Improve Team Collaboration With These Skills

Posted by on June 26, 2017

Collaboration is a very hot topic in team world but a very misunderstood concept. What is should never mean is that everyone needs to be in the room and everyone should have an equal amount of time to express themselves. This leadership strategy has to produce more effective results or you should not use it at all. This post by Melinda Fouts is excellent:

“What is collaborative teaming in an organization? When we look at this concept, a good analogy is to think of the word “team” like playing on a soccer team, for instance. Continual communication is critical to the team’s success, requiring frequent collaboration between team members to deliver a winning solution or service.”

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Developing Leaders For Life

Posted by on June 23, 2017

The whole idea behind The Convergence Point my leadership development company is that people will be able to sort through all the noise and activity that is out there and find real meaning and purpose in life. This means that we really need to know what we want and make sure we are willing to pay the price to get it.

I want to erase the artificial lines that exist between the personal and professional. The cost is too high to succeed in one only to fail in the other. It’s not really work-life balance we are looking for but life work integration.

For most of us this means that we will have to be willing to buy into the whole concept of Less is More. The overwhelming majority of us have full calendars but empty hearts. To create the margin we need for meaningful relationships something has to go.

It may be something as simple as less entertainment and more conversations. It may be something as complex as changing careers and downsizing to create the emotional space we need to move the people we care about to the top of the list.

Life is a journey and we only get to do this once. I can think of nothing more important than the merging of your values and your voice into the everyday Business of Life.

Categories: Leadership Development Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Developing Leaders For Life

Why Leaders Are Hired For Talent But Fired For Chemistry

Posted by on June 21, 2017

The two primary things you used to look for in hiring new leaders for your team were character and competency in that order. However, with the increasing need for collaboration, I believe there is now a third “C” and that is chemistry. The ability for the new person to fit into the existing culture and work well with both our process and our people is critical. This HBR post is helpful:

“Over and over again, organizations are unable to appoint the right leaders. According to academic estimates, the baseline for effective corporate leadership is merely 30%, while in politics, approval ratings oscillate between 25% and 40%.”

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How To Know What's Important: Calendars and Checkbooks

Posted by on June 18, 2017

We all want to accomplish the things that are really important in life and learn the discipline to walk away from everything else. Most of us have not taken the time to write down specific goals in a life plan that involves everything personal, family, faith, friends and our professional lives. Best practice Living Forward by Michael Hyatt.

So how do we know if we are just filling our schedules with things to do without any serious evaluation or if those are the things that should even be done at all? We don’t want to get to the end of our lives and look back realizing that a lot of our time was totally wasted on things that don’t really matter.

A great place to start is to evaluate how we are spending our time and our money. Calendars can tell us a lot about our core values and priorities because they reflect the choices we are making. No doubt some of our time is not our own to schedule but how we are spending a large percentage of it reflects what is really a priority and what is not.

Are you making time for the people and relationships that you care about the most or are they getting the leftovers at best? If you really want to know, take the time to track how you are spending your time for at least a month. You will be amazed how much of it is scheduled based on what appears to be urgent at the time but in the end is not really important at all.

The next big indicator of what is a priority in our lives is to look at how we are spending our finances. If we are living beyond our means and accumulating unnecessary debt then we have a major character problem that must be addressed.

More stress is brought into marriage by this one area than almost anything else. The only solution is again to write down a budget that includes all of your expenses and then have the discipline to post all your transactions and make necessary adjustments to live within your income.

You may think this sounds like way too much work to me and I am already busy enough. Trust me you are already using calendars and checkbooks anyway but you may not be gaining any of the benefits of leading your life instead of just letting it happen.

Categories: Core Values Life Plan Marriage Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on How To Know What's Important: Calendars and Checkbooks

How To Stop Taking Work Stress Out On Your Family

Posted by on June 14, 2017

By the very nature of our work we have to be on almost all of the time. We put up with a lot of drama and the productivity demands alone build up tremendous stress. If we don’t develop habits that allow us to come home with some emotional margin, we will take all of that frustration out on the people who matter most. Amy Morin has two great proven strategies:

“Do you ever come home irritable because you had a rough day at the office? Do you take out your frustrations from work on your family? If so, you’re not alone. It’s an issue I address in my therapy office often. I hear from parents who are disappointed in themselves for yelling at their children. I also hear from spouses who are tired of walking on eggshells in an effort to avoid becoming the undeserving target of an entire days’ worth of frustration and anger.”

Categories: Church Scattered Marriage Parenting Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on How To Stop Taking Work Stress Out On Your Family