HI-PERFORMANCE TEAM: IN WAITING?

The CEO, who I have been coaching over the past four years, called and said, “I think it’s time that we expand our coaching arrangement!” “So, what do you have in mind?” I asked. My client responded, “Well we’ve been engaged in a series of strategic planning events where frankly the rubber has been hitting the sky. Now it’s time for the rubber to hit the ground? We need to make those organizational changes that will assure our strategic success, starting with our Executive Leadership Team!”

My client continued by stating, “A primary objective that we need to quickly address is how we operate at the Executive Leadership Team level. To me Bob, our ELT is the number one team in the organization. All of our other line and staff teams, although very important, are secondary to the ELT. For us to achieve our strategy, the ELT needs to be high-performing. My direct reports don’t appear to get this concept, and if this situation continues, we’ll never achieve our current strategy! We appear to be a high-performance team in waiting!”

Together, the CEO and I co-designed an approach that would support the ELT in accelerating their growth and development. We co-designed a diagnostic method that would produce critical baseline of data and information on the ELT’s effectiveness. We did the same for presenting the foregoing results in a positive, non-threatening, supportive, and motivating way.

Because the CEO is a very big picture, strategically oriented individual and the balance of the ELT members are very here and now, data driven individuals (which spoke volumes in and of itself), the data and information collected was presented in a way that fully met their need for facts and numbers that would allow them to move forward as quickly as possible in order to strenghten the ELT’s ability to work more productively together and produce the necessary results.

Our design and process incorporated in part the key concepts developed by Pat Lencioni with a focus on further strengthening the ELT’s ability to:

1. Create Confidence in Each Other – this included the ELT’s comfort level with each other at a profoundly emotional level, a deeper knowledge of each other beyond what they thought they knew, including their personalities and preferences, levels of openness, and the ability to safely be authentic, open and candid with each other.
2. Manage Differences Between Members – the ELT’s capability to be frank with each other in a non-threatening way, call a spade a spade, not take things personally, and to integrate each other’s needs in the development of strategic business plans and actions that would powerfully move the organization forward.
3. Take Full Responsibility For Making Agreements Happen – out of an integrative approach to managing differences between each other, ELT members became individually and collectively much more able to step up and take full responsibility for commitments, these being recapped at the beginning and end of each and every ELT strategic and operational meeting.
4. Hold Each Other’s Feet to the Fire – each and every ELT member understands that they are fully accountable for delivering on their commitments as well as collectively tracking each others’ progress. This means not just being accountable to the CEO, but more importantly holding each other accountable. To this end they do not hesitate to challenge each other when commitments are not being met, acknowledging and championing each other, all in service of each other’s success and ultimately that of the organization.
5. Focus On Both Top and Bottom Lines – the ELT exclusively focuses on achieving specific strategic and operational top- and bottom-line results that have been fully committed to. They place their departments, career aspirations, or ego-driven status completely behind the agreed to collective results that define the ELT’s and the organization’s strategic advantage and success.

The journey with the ELT still continues. Momentum being built is truly wonderful to observe. Authenticity between the ELT members continues to expand and deepen. The connection between the organization’s bottom line and top lines is being much more clearly and concretely realized, and at times with amazement by ELT members. The motivation to move forward with each ELT coaching meeting continues to escalate (and quite frankly was a real concern for me at the beginning of this particular intervention). Oh, the places they’re now going!

If you have had similar experiences, I would love to hear about them. If you’re interested in exploring possibilities with your leadership/management team or project group, let’s talk. In the meantime, let me leave you with this inquiry: “What are the possibilities for team/group coaching from your perspective?” Your comments and observations would be most appreciated. Take care.

Tags: accelerating, acceleration, baseline, Bob Benwick, ceo, chief executive officer, client, co-design, co-designed, coaching, corporate coaching, data, development, direct reports, effectiveness, ELT, Executive Coaching, executive leadership team, group coaching, growth, high-performance, high-performance team, information, motivating, motivation, non-threatening, positive, rubber hitting the sky, rubber to hitting the ground, strategic planning, strategy, supportive, team, team coaching

Posted in: 360 Coaching, Business Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, Organization Development, Personal Coaching, Team & Group Coaching

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DERAILMENT: RERAILING LEADERS!

We received a call the other day from Tony, a CEO of a major oil and gas company, who shared with us that he was quite concerned about one of his key executives. He said that Frank  had been recently promoted to replace a key member of the ELT (executive leadership team) who had retired about nine months ago. He bluntly stated, “Frank doesn’t appear to be working out the way I had hoped and is quite frankly derailing! Can we explore the situation and help me better understand why some leaders derail and and some don’t? What can I do about it?”

These are not uncommon questions that are raised by our corporate clients from time to time. In our executive coaching conversation with Tony, it was noted that The Centre for Creative Leadership found that approximately 50% of high potential managers and executives derail. Contributing to this is the fact that the initial technical and problem solving skills that had fomerly served a number of these derailed leaders well now can’t be relied on to address the increased complexity of operating at a more strategic leve, nor the resulting demands placed on their leadership that are typically changing from day to day, never mind month to month, or year to year.

Further, research has indicated that those leaders who are in fact successful in their leadership roles exhibit some of the following characteristics:

1. They tend to be highly flexible and responsive to change
2. They have a powerful ability to navigate through ambiguity and complexity
3. They pick things up very quickly and in a variety of circumstances
4. They are able to coach, facilitate, coordinate and develop their teams in a variety of circumstances with many different types of people
5.  They are highly grounded, self-manage themselves and work with others well under highly stressful circumstances
6. One of their mottos is ‘Feedback is the breakfast of Champions’ and thus constantly seek it out from those all around them
7.  They are quite aware that their strengths when overused in fact become their weaknesses, and those identified become their primary focus of professional/personal development
8. They readily acknowledge and champion their people, no matter how small the contribution or how challenging the initiative(s)
9. They are able to authentically share their thoughts, feelings and wants in equal amounts with their staff, colleagues, boss(s) and customers/clients, encouraging reciprocation, and do so with a strong sense of empathy and compassion toward others

Leaders having the potential for derailment include: the overly ambitious, the perfectionist, those who go it alone, over-managing, over-loyal to the organization, those who are over-controlling and 0ver-results oriented, single minded, too focused on technical detail, unduly personable and relying solely on relationships to get things done, having excessive fire in the belly, having too many things on the go, overly dependent on others, won’t be pushed off the mark, caught up with escalating-commitment, the constant need to be right, and loves to scrap with others beyond having constructive differences. 

To avoid derailment or to rerail, the leader needs to learn thoughtfully and constructively how to develop the team; strengthen strategic thinking and decision making; clarify specific expectations around deliverables and follow up; be self-aware and self manage under stress while at the same time being empathetic towards others; creating the right balance between collaboration, independent action and delegation; manage strategic alliances, assure functional strategic alignment and effectively manage differences vertically and horizontally. 

What’s been your experience? What have you learned as result and what did you do with it? What have you done with these insights? We would love to hear your thoughts and feelings on the subject. Take care.

Tags: acknowledge, action, balance, Bev Benwick, Bob Benwick, boss(s), Centre for Creative Leadership, ceo, champion, change, changing, client, clients, coach, collaboration, colleagues, compassion, competencies, competency, complexity, conflict, contribution, coordinate, corporate clients, customers, decision making, delegation, demand, demands, derail, derailment, development, differences, empathy, executive, executives, expectations, facilitate, feedback, feels, flexible, group, high-potential, initiative, lead, leader, leadership, leading, learning, manager, oil and gas industry, operating, people, personal, problem solving, professional, relationships, rerail, research, roles, self-aware, self-manage, skills, staff, strategic, strategic alignments, strategic thinking, strategy, strengths, stress, stressful, success, successful, team, teams, technical, thoughts, wants, weaknesss

Posted in: 360 Coaching, Business Coaching, Career Transitions, Emotional Intelligence, Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, Leadership Transition, Organization Development, Personal Coaching, Team & Group Coaching

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STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE: ASSURING SURVIVAL & SUCCESS!

 ”Bob, I can’t tell you how scary the future is!” stated Jim, CEO of a leading oil and gas process equipment engineering firm. This was said with a strong sense of anxiety. “I thought that we would have already started to come out of this economic mess. From the latest I’ve been hearing, the upcoming year is forecasted to be as challenging, if not more, given the global economy. We’ve kept outselves out of the red so far, but have an ever pressing need to assure that we come through this upcoming year with minimal damage to our ability to be on top of the recovery curve when it actually arrives! That’s my mandate from our Board!”

“Given that, what’s in survival and readiness for your organization?” I asked. “Quite frankly I’m running out of options and that’s what I would like to explore with you. Are there any other ways I might approach this?” Jim replied.

“Well, as you know in our coaching relationship I don’t provide advice, counseling, consulting or therapy. However, that doesn’t stop us from brainstorming some creative approaches and cherry-picking those ideas you think and feel will work for you. I’m never attached to what it is I share with you. Choose what will work for you.” I stated. “Hey, that’s just what I want!” Jim quickly responded.

In our following coaching exchange, a key piece discussed was to encourage Jim to step back and look at his oganization in it’s entirety. Support him in breaking it down into sub-components that could be viewed individually, but with the full understanding that each component still has a significant effect on the whole organization. A powerful framework shared with him  in our coaching conversation was McKinsey & Company’s 7-S Model used to diagnose organizations and establish a base from which to make necessary organization design changes that would help Jim deliberately work toward assuring his firm’s strategic success.

Although there’s really no best approach, Jim did confide that this particular model was most helpful in ensuring the organization is in an ideal position to positively respond to the business world around it. From our conversation he learned that there are seven key aspects to his organization that are critical, maximizing his organization’s effectiveness at the individual, groups/team and system wide levels. Again, McKinsey & Company referred to this model as the 7-S Framework that was reviewed with Jim as follows.

1.  STRATEGY:   “ What are the sources of sustainable competitive advantage (e.g. cost, quality, service, technical leadership) Jim’s firm has? “ What are the key strategic priorities (e.g. penetrating new markets, new product, development, speed-to-market, improving customer service) Jim’s firm has?

2.  STRUCTURE:   “ What’s the basic structural form of Jim’s firm? “ How centralized or decentralized is Jim’s organization? “ What is the relative status and power of each of the sub-units of Jim’s organization?

3.  SYSTEMS:   ” Does Jim’s firm have the systems it really needs to run its business (e.g., does it have a system for monitoring staff and customer satisfaction?) “ What are the management systems that Jim and his executive leadership team use to run his organization? What ones do they pay the closest attention to?  Need to pay the closest attention to?

4.  STAFFING:   ” How does Jim’s organization recruit and develop its people? (e.g. formal training, coaching programs/services, stretch programs, developmental assignments, etc.) “ What are the demographic characteristics of Jim’s executive leadership and lower management teams? (e.g. background, education, age, gender, nationality, professional identity, experience outside the firm, etc.) “ Where are the strongest leaders found in Jim’s organization (e.g., in which functions)? The weakest? 

5.  SKILLS:   ” What business activities are Jim’s organization distinctly good at performing? “ What new capabilities does Jim’s organization need to develop, and which ones does it need to “unlearn,” to achieve strategic advantage and compete in the future?

6.  STYLE:   ” How does  the top leadership team make decisions? (e.g. in formal meetings, informal conversations, in the field, with staff, with customers, in product development, etc.) “ What are the demographic characteristics of his leadership team? (e.g. background, education, age, gender, nationality, professional identity, experience outside of his firm, etc.) “ Where are the strongest leaders found in his organization (e.g. in which functions)? The weakest?

7.  SHARED VALUES/GUIDING PRINCIPLES:   ” Do people in Jim’s organization have a shared understanding of why the firm exists? “ Do people in Jim’s organization have a shared understanding of the mission/vision of the firm? “ What types of issues receive the most and least attention by Jim and his executive leadership team? (e.g. short run versus long run, internal versus external, etc.) “ How do people in Jim’s organization describe the ways in which his firm is distinctive? (e.g. focus on quality, emphasis on people, importance of customer satisfaction, etc .)

“This is exactly what I was hoping to get our of today’s coaching conversation. You don’t even have to ask me if I’m up to answering these questions and submitting them to you by our next coaching meeting.” Jim enthusiastically offered.

“I’m quite excited for you my friend, and frankly I can’t wait to hear what you come up with and how you think and feel you ‘need to be‘ as CEO in supporting where your organization needs to go from here!”

I invite you, the reader, to let us know what your key ‘take aways’  are from this discussion with Jim. What piece(s) would you like to personally cherry-pick and run with. As always, I’d love to hear your reactions and contributions to this coaching discussion. Take care!

Posted in: Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Organization Development

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TRANSITIONING NEW ROLE SENIOR LEADERS: HOW CAN WE DO IT BETTER?

 

Any transition to a new role, while exciting and an acknowledgement of what the organization thinks of you, is a time of anxiety for every newly transitioning leader.
A few of the common errors of a new role leader include trying to do too much too soon, failure to understand the de facto culture/sub-culture, and/or misinterpreting the expectations of their superior. Danger lurks ahead….. in the form of mistrust by others, leader fatigue, compounding anxiety with over preparation, and possibly the creation of an unsafe environment for employees.

As stress intensifies for the new role leader, can you really be making the best decisions for the organization as a whole, your team and yourself?

Stress has a tremendous effect on performance levels, particularly at a time when a leader is under the magnifying glass. Stress studies have demonstrated that it’s effect alters the ability to learn, to remain agile, and to make effective decisions.

I have worked with leaders who admitted that they have hardly slept in three months and leaders who existed on a pop and pizza diet. It is rewarding as an executive coach to support leaders in these circumstances and be part of the process that allows them to gain back a feeling of balance and control, rewarding them with restful nights rather than a continuum of midnight note taking sessions.

With invested and targeted support, these leaders can bring about greater contribution to the organization in a shortened time frame as they learn to manage their stress, embrace the transition, garner early credibility and move powerfully forward with their leadership.

What is the cost to an organization of not readily investing in the transitioning new role leader?  This is not just about the leader’s transition. You have to take into consideration the transitional impact on those who surround the leader and the cost to the organization when their performance falters as a result of how the new role leader shows up for others.

Some thoughts for effectively supporting senior leader new role transitions in your organization:

• Identify communication gaps and improve communication of support and development programs
• Appoint an “ambassador of programs” who can effectively inform, steer, co-design, and co-manage a transitioning individual’s action plan
• Gain commitment of senior leaders to provide face-to-face time with newly promoted leaders, ensuring relationship building, clarity of expectations, and constructive feedback sessions 
• Provide senior leadership networking opportunities 
• Encourage formal and/or informal mentorship 
• Ensure strategic alignment to the overall succession strategy of your organization 
• Utilize psychometric assessments in the early stages to increase leader’s self awareness 
• Design or contract for an accelerated leadership transitioning program that can be self-directed and facilitated by an executive/leadership coach 
• Implement usage of a senior leadership 360° assessment for a transitioning leader at an 18-month interval, with a smaller version of the assessment redone at 24 months.

Can your organization afford to falter in its role to more effectively support transitioning leaders? Is there an opportunity to step back from the status quo and examine the question: How could we transition our new role leaders better and assure their and our organization’s success? Let me know how you feel and what you think. Take care.

Posted in: Business Coaching

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BIG OR SMALL?: THE LEADER’S CHOICE!

It’s not unusual in our executive coaching to come across comments such as “I’m fed up with his micromanaging!”, “I want to make sure they do it right!”, “I need to make sure my group doesn’t make any mistakes!”, “I’m tired of solving everyone else’s problems!”, “I have to stay on top of them!”, “As the head of this organization, I’m getting exhausted working 24/7!”. The litany of comments like this are endless.

We find that leaders often don’t hold their people ‘Big’. Allowing their staff to tackle the concerns they own and to learn from the consequences of their decisions, using this learning to grow, become even stronger performers and contributors, and as a result more satisfied.

What happens more often than not is that the leaders not only holds themselves ‘Small’, unfortunately they also hold their people ‘Small’. Meaning, they interfere by giving them ‘solutions’ to their presenting problems, not allowing them to stumble, fall, get up and try it again until they successfully work it out, allowing them to mature as individuals and professionals.

It’s similar to raising a child. If you insist on ensuring they not run, fall, eat a little dirt, bump their heads, experience life . . . what normal kids do . . . this will only contribute to retarding their growth and development. We’re not talking about letting them get into serious trouble. That’s a given.

Rather, it’s about letting them experience normal day-to-day challenges and allowing them to learn from the consequences of their choices. From these life experiences they mature and grow into healthy, reasonably well balanced adults (god willing).

The same is true for leaders working with their staff. The choice is about either holding people ‘Big’ or holding them ‘Small’. The benefits of the former are clearly obvious once we think about leadership in this way.

Recently a good friend and colleague, Jake Jacobs, and I had a discussion on this very topic. Jake is a leader in the field of organization development, a noted author of cutting edge books on large-scale real-time strategic change and the Principal of The Winds of Change Group out of Marina del Rey, California. We continue having very rich conversations around potential synergies between Jake’s large-scale work and our executive/corporate coaching. You’re invited to listen to our most recent conversation on the subject of leaders holding their people ‘Big’ or ‘Small’. Enjoy!

    Click here to listen to our discussion!

 What’s been your experience on this? What are your insights? How might you leverage your learning? What is it you would like to do with this? We always enjoy getting your thought and feelings. Take care!

Posted in: 360 Coaching, Business Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, Leadership Transition, Organization Development, Personal Coaching, Team & Group Coaching

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