I am fairly liberal and open to providing my opinion about how I view situations, circumstances, opinions and propositions and how I respond to them to anyone who genuinely seeks it! Life has seen me in different circumstances at work and play - good, bad, memorable, rewarding and downright ugly! Some, I have responded to well while others have been not much to write home about. Irrespective of the outcome, I have tried hard to learn from them, to reflect upon them and to promise myself to deal with them better if I were to face them again in the future, especially the not so rosy ones!
No one is in doubt that we live in a complex world, a complex society within very complex relationships. People I know, that is me included, fervently believe that by sharing our collective successes and the hard knocks that we have taken, will benefit others and save them time, pain recovery and missed opportunities! So we venture out and ‘seemingly’ sermonize when solicited!
Look at the flip side though! Just try expressing your views in any forum … everything we say or write is examined and inspected under a microscope! The more visible you are the deeper the inspection! In a world were bad news and negativity sells more than the good stuff, I am not even a bit surprised! Then there is the human ego that internally belittles the individual himself if he agrees to another’s opinion without punching one or more holes in it and then heroically filling that hole with another view that reflects his intellect to the audience around! The more ‘knowledgeable the circle the more sensitive you need to be with your every statement else the arrows will come hurtling down on you!
Having debated with myself on my position regarding this going forward, I have chosen to stay my course and continue to voice my learning for people to benefit from. There have been a few downsides even ‘debacles’, but the upside where people appreciate, joyfully receive and even benefit from these shared learning purely outweigh the not so memorable outcomes. Most importantly, doing this gives me joy which I think I deserve, more so if it makes the other person happy as well! I have just learnt to build some caution and tact in my style instead of the good ol’ cavalier run!
I have also learnt to be absolutely candid! To give a balanced view and to put my point of view purely as my opinion – merely my perspective, not the absolute truth! But see, when people seek my opinion, it is because they expect me to know! Well since I am but a mere mortal, far removed from a Da Vinci or a Nostradamus, I do not know it all nor have I ever seen the future! I candidly say so upfront and sometimes see their faces fall – naturally so but it sets me up with them on the right foot and sets their expectations exactly where it should be. I also set the tone at the onset that anything I say is my opinion, my finding, my perspective. Purely put together on the basis of my experiences which are in no way complete nor are they absolute references to the subject. It is for the individual to take it, rephrase it, re- orient it and use it as she deems fit.
Finally, I have learnt to dwell on balance! People who approach me want to hear me say all the bright and positive things about what they want to talk to me about. See this is how the mind works! Your mind expects to seek out agreement and reinforce what it already knows from others. Especially those individuals they have confidence in and categorize as ‘knowledgable’ in the area that they need advice. I have learnt to be more useful by going exactly against that current. I try and talk about all the things that I do not expect the individual to have thought about regarding that proposition. I give them the bad news first – not exactly what they want to hear but heck, at least I am giving them an alternate perspective rather than echoing their inner thoughts and just making them happily biased! The good news is already in there, the bad news helps these folks objectively weigh in on the pros and cons before deciding whether the option is worth pursuing! I like the honesty of this approach and also the fact that it indemnifies me from any backlashes about ‘Deb did not tell me so when he spoke about this…’ when undesired results occasionally but predictably show up, very contrary to some people’s expectations!
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
You have read the driver’s manual – now take the keys and drive the car!
It is an early week of a wet August in 2009 as I board a flight to Manila. As the Singapore Airline flight taxies down the rain soaked Ninoy Aquino International airport’s tarmac, I look around into the gathering dusk at the hazy silhouette of the adequately lit airport terminal – nothing much has changed since the ten years I have been travelling to this country! As I disembark, I literally zip thru immigration and customs, I thank my lucky stars that it is early week or is it that the efficiency of the airport has just got better! I had to find out. Frankly, I have had my trysts with destiny while trudging through the crowd at this airport during previous visits and they have indeed been a challenge! My last visit was a year ago - I half expectedly start peering out of the window of the hotel car that whisks me from the kerbside lounge as I am chauffeured down the well lit streets by a chauffer whose infectious exuberance that characterizes every Filipino has thankfully not altered one bit!
Manila did surprise me! The streets are cleaner, the traffic more orderly and as I discovered in the two days I spent there - a tremendous focus on urbanization, infrastructure development and employment. Singapore has always been an influence on the ASEAN. A visit to the Fort Bonifacio, an office, entertainment and residential district a stone’s throw from Makati Manila is a great example of this influence. I was at the Fort to meet a business contact ten years ago and all there was at that time was rolling, dusty & barren land left behind by an army garrison! What I see today is a spanking metropolis, tree lined boulevards, commercial and residential city scrapers with glittering glass facades and enough dining & wining options to keep a social animal spoilt for choice and occupied for a year! The place does reflect the orderliness, completeness and structure of a very modern metropolis! Well done Philippines!
During the couple days in Manila, my agenda was peppered with speaking assignments with customers and business partners and in getting seduced by the lucrative infrastructure development opportunities that the country presents that our organization with its technology can address. I took the time to meet some business associates who I have learned to trust as friends over the ten years that I have known them. It is great to be humbled by their progress and more importantly it was great to see them and share a drink or a meal with them and take a moment to talk about the nostalgic past and the exciting future. Absolutely fantastic!
Manuel Bobiles, Chairman & CEO of NetConnect Technologies (not the real names to retain privacy), a leading network system integrator is a man I have known and respected for long. Manuel came to Philippines years ago as a student, started NetConnect and grew it over the years into a multi million dollar technology corporation. One of the corner stones of Manuel and his organization’s progress is the way the organization hires, trains, grooms and evolves employees while preparing them to take on the challenges and opportunities that the ‘ever changing’ contemporary world presents. What Manuel does within his organization is also a subject very close to my heart!
I have been lately preaching the need to bring our workforce up to speed on workplace readiness and leadership development. I do believe that this is the single largest impediment that we face as a society to tackle the challenges that an increasingly complex workplace is incessantly throwing at us! As I travel around and ask any business leader what their primary challenge at work is, they do not blink an eyelash before saying – ‘people’. Well Asia has no problem with ‘quantity’ – it is the ‘quality’ that is the major concern! I am not downplaying the credentials or the capabilities of our educational institutions – there are many good ones and a few outstanding establishments in Asia. It is just that there is a very large divide between the environment that the typical Asian educational institution provides that an average student grows up in and the ‘work world’ environment that they face the first day they start at work. While the specialized tertiary institutes arm the employee with the hard skills to pursue the careers that they seek, the real gaps are in the soft skills department. Unfortunately, these soft skills or the lack of it within the new employees become glaringly visible as they start work and get them off on the wrong foot in the workplace. Many never recover from this less than desirable start while others pick up some steam as they go along but never attain their full potential!
The trick to get the best out of the people we hire is to choose the ones with the best hard skills needed for the roles that they are hired for - academic accomplishment and documented grades are good measures of these skills. In addition to these ‘hard’ attributes look out for at least some soft skills. Attitude, passion and communication are some that I rate very highly. I will double down and take on an outsider with unproven skill set in my team as long as they come with a ‘first class’ attitude – trust me, everything else builds from there. I have seen many a relative ‘outsider’ make it big despite multiple shortcomings riding on that priceless attribute – their Attitude! On the contrary show me one single achiever with a lousy attitude towards her trade and I will show you polar ice caps in the midst of sub terrain Sahara!
Besides practicing the concept within my own organization, I am recommending the business leadership community to spend time and effort in getting their people workplace ready as quickly as possible and reduce their time to productivity! The exercise routine that is needed to accomplish this is split into two logical parts. One, provide every employee with an opportunity to master the soft skills that they need to excel in their chosen profession. These could be interpersonal skills, operating in a crisis, managing and delivering on expectations, communicating upward, leveraging executives, goal setting – you know there are many! I prefer an analysis on the individual based on feedback from the supervisor, coworkers and the individual herself to determine the areas that need the most development rather than taking very broad swipes and not optimally utilizing the limited time outside of the job function that the employee will normally have to hone these skills! This analysis can be followed by a courseware routine – instruction set, group activities followed by an evaluation process to determine sequential progress. The courseware and its implementation can be developed and implemented within the organization (not the best choice unless you have the breadth, total commitment and the bandwidth to do so) or help from external providers with first class content and delivery consultants can be solicited. This done, most organizations stop at this stage and conclude that they have done a great job. Hardly!
Analysis and follow up development exercises may be great buildup activities to skill building but it is like taking a budding driver thru a well documented driving manual and then throwing the car keys at them and expecting them to drive effortlessly on the rain soaked streets of Manila! Hardly the right expectation! The missing link that most organizations overlook is a stint of ‘Mentorship’. Having an experienced campaigner who has all the battle scars sitting next to the newly minted, instruction manual trained rookie driver, showing the tricks while pointing out the pitfalls seems to me what makes the real difference and effectively closes out the learning process for life. The more sincere the mentor and the mutual engagement he drives with the student, more complete the education and the skill development of the student. Mentorship is not about a single session or even one involving days and weeks – it is an ongoing commitment that the student and the teacher need to sign off on to be able to see real results – fabulously fulfilling!
Manuel and his leadership team at NetConnect are committed to the development of the people they hire. They take away elementary employee concerns around healthcare for the employee and his family, basic amenities of life, small interest free loans for life’s little joys etc. Employees free of these little concerns and consumed by the care that the organization showers on them show up for work with absolute commitment towards their roles and responsibilities. What follows is high quality projects and services for NetConnect’s customers that naturally leads to revenue and profitability! An incredible formula! As we slug our last drinks for the night, Manuel does emphasize that asking his people to read a manual and drive a car would never deliver the results that his team is producing if it was not for the ‘mentors’ in his executive team who are jumping in the car besides the drivers and passionately sharing and helping elevate the ‘young turks’ to the next level!
I am hoping that more Asian organizations are doing something similar. If so our businesses and the people within will very soon start to look as slick as the glittering business districts of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore or even Fort Bonifacio!
.
Manila did surprise me! The streets are cleaner, the traffic more orderly and as I discovered in the two days I spent there - a tremendous focus on urbanization, infrastructure development and employment. Singapore has always been an influence on the ASEAN. A visit to the Fort Bonifacio, an office, entertainment and residential district a stone’s throw from Makati Manila is a great example of this influence. I was at the Fort to meet a business contact ten years ago and all there was at that time was rolling, dusty & barren land left behind by an army garrison! What I see today is a spanking metropolis, tree lined boulevards, commercial and residential city scrapers with glittering glass facades and enough dining & wining options to keep a social animal spoilt for choice and occupied for a year! The place does reflect the orderliness, completeness and structure of a very modern metropolis! Well done Philippines!
During the couple days in Manila, my agenda was peppered with speaking assignments with customers and business partners and in getting seduced by the lucrative infrastructure development opportunities that the country presents that our organization with its technology can address. I took the time to meet some business associates who I have learned to trust as friends over the ten years that I have known them. It is great to be humbled by their progress and more importantly it was great to see them and share a drink or a meal with them and take a moment to talk about the nostalgic past and the exciting future. Absolutely fantastic!
Manuel Bobiles, Chairman & CEO of NetConnect Technologies (not the real names to retain privacy), a leading network system integrator is a man I have known and respected for long. Manuel came to Philippines years ago as a student, started NetConnect and grew it over the years into a multi million dollar technology corporation. One of the corner stones of Manuel and his organization’s progress is the way the organization hires, trains, grooms and evolves employees while preparing them to take on the challenges and opportunities that the ‘ever changing’ contemporary world presents. What Manuel does within his organization is also a subject very close to my heart!
I have been lately preaching the need to bring our workforce up to speed on workplace readiness and leadership development. I do believe that this is the single largest impediment that we face as a society to tackle the challenges that an increasingly complex workplace is incessantly throwing at us! As I travel around and ask any business leader what their primary challenge at work is, they do not blink an eyelash before saying – ‘people’. Well Asia has no problem with ‘quantity’ – it is the ‘quality’ that is the major concern! I am not downplaying the credentials or the capabilities of our educational institutions – there are many good ones and a few outstanding establishments in Asia. It is just that there is a very large divide between the environment that the typical Asian educational institution provides that an average student grows up in and the ‘work world’ environment that they face the first day they start at work. While the specialized tertiary institutes arm the employee with the hard skills to pursue the careers that they seek, the real gaps are in the soft skills department. Unfortunately, these soft skills or the lack of it within the new employees become glaringly visible as they start work and get them off on the wrong foot in the workplace. Many never recover from this less than desirable start while others pick up some steam as they go along but never attain their full potential!
The trick to get the best out of the people we hire is to choose the ones with the best hard skills needed for the roles that they are hired for - academic accomplishment and documented grades are good measures of these skills. In addition to these ‘hard’ attributes look out for at least some soft skills. Attitude, passion and communication are some that I rate very highly. I will double down and take on an outsider with unproven skill set in my team as long as they come with a ‘first class’ attitude – trust me, everything else builds from there. I have seen many a relative ‘outsider’ make it big despite multiple shortcomings riding on that priceless attribute – their Attitude! On the contrary show me one single achiever with a lousy attitude towards her trade and I will show you polar ice caps in the midst of sub terrain Sahara!
Besides practicing the concept within my own organization, I am recommending the business leadership community to spend time and effort in getting their people workplace ready as quickly as possible and reduce their time to productivity! The exercise routine that is needed to accomplish this is split into two logical parts. One, provide every employee with an opportunity to master the soft skills that they need to excel in their chosen profession. These could be interpersonal skills, operating in a crisis, managing and delivering on expectations, communicating upward, leveraging executives, goal setting – you know there are many! I prefer an analysis on the individual based on feedback from the supervisor, coworkers and the individual herself to determine the areas that need the most development rather than taking very broad swipes and not optimally utilizing the limited time outside of the job function that the employee will normally have to hone these skills! This analysis can be followed by a courseware routine – instruction set, group activities followed by an evaluation process to determine sequential progress. The courseware and its implementation can be developed and implemented within the organization (not the best choice unless you have the breadth, total commitment and the bandwidth to do so) or help from external providers with first class content and delivery consultants can be solicited. This done, most organizations stop at this stage and conclude that they have done a great job. Hardly!
Analysis and follow up development exercises may be great buildup activities to skill building but it is like taking a budding driver thru a well documented driving manual and then throwing the car keys at them and expecting them to drive effortlessly on the rain soaked streets of Manila! Hardly the right expectation! The missing link that most organizations overlook is a stint of ‘Mentorship’. Having an experienced campaigner who has all the battle scars sitting next to the newly minted, instruction manual trained rookie driver, showing the tricks while pointing out the pitfalls seems to me what makes the real difference and effectively closes out the learning process for life. The more sincere the mentor and the mutual engagement he drives with the student, more complete the education and the skill development of the student. Mentorship is not about a single session or even one involving days and weeks – it is an ongoing commitment that the student and the teacher need to sign off on to be able to see real results – fabulously fulfilling!
Manuel and his leadership team at NetConnect are committed to the development of the people they hire. They take away elementary employee concerns around healthcare for the employee and his family, basic amenities of life, small interest free loans for life’s little joys etc. Employees free of these little concerns and consumed by the care that the organization showers on them show up for work with absolute commitment towards their roles and responsibilities. What follows is high quality projects and services for NetConnect’s customers that naturally leads to revenue and profitability! An incredible formula! As we slug our last drinks for the night, Manuel does emphasize that asking his people to read a manual and drive a car would never deliver the results that his team is producing if it was not for the ‘mentors’ in his executive team who are jumping in the car besides the drivers and passionately sharing and helping elevate the ‘young turks’ to the next level!
I am hoping that more Asian organizations are doing something similar. If so our businesses and the people within will very soon start to look as slick as the glittering business districts of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore or even Fort Bonifacio!
.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Who Bombed my Company - Preparing for the Inevitable!
Some years ago I started my ‘stock market investment’ initiative as a part of my Investment Portfolio. The ‘analyst’ in me demanded that I learn the game from the masters before putting in my hard earned money. I picked up a Warren Buffet book at the airport on my next business trip and read it from cover to cover understanding most of Mr. Buffet’s philosophy if not all! As my awareness grew, I learnt of Benjamin Graham (the man Buffet attributes his financial market education to) and his famous narrative - The Intelligent Advisor
(Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor).
These masters taught me the fundamentals of value investing and the art of profiting from market follies and disruptions rather than by participating in it! How to identify and buy into ‘value’ companies and invest in them for the long haul. How to stay away from speculating in organizations and businesses I was not familiar with irrespective of how lucrative their valuation and potential seemed to be! Many other anecdotes and advise that I have come to understand and appreciate. I actually followed up by reviewing Berkshire Hathaway’s famed Letter to the Shareholders that Mr. Buffet writes every year. (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html). I also got insight into the Mr. Buffet’s own stock picks and other well regarded recommendations and then feeling fairly well ‘covered’ I put in my money in the market. Despite this attention, all my famed and well researched ‘blue chips’ are significantly down today!!! Mr. Buffet and Berkshire were not spared either! In the 2008 Letter to Shareholders he wrote – “Our decrease in net worth during 2008 was $11.5 billion, which reduced the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 9.6%. Over the last 44 years book value has grown from $19 to $70,530, a rate of 20.3% compounded annually. As the year progressed, a series of life-threatening problems within many of the world’s great financial institutions was unveiled. This led to a dysfunctional credit market that in important respects soon turned non-functional. The watchword throughout the country became the creed I saw on restaurant walls when I was young: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.”
While I trust in God, Mr. Graham and Mr. Buffet like the rest of the investor planet, I begin to wonder why these famed organizations that I trusted my money with are actually failing to perform as the financial markets go sour and what other established and upcoming organizations can learn from them! Once you think about it …there is plenty!
All organizations are destined to face ‘market disruptions’, ‘conflicting and negative internal forces’ at some stage of their evolution that will force them to take dramatic measures to survive and hold on to their positions of leadership. When this situation is coupled with a larger macro economic slowdown that we are in the middle of now, the impact obviously is further amplified! Unlike what is usually the norm, I do not blame the management team for the organization’s fall though this is easiest to do! The lackluster results are hardly because of a single wrong strategy that the leadership has implemented or a specific move of the competitor that the leaders failed to see. Rather, the root cause often is a sum of many different reasons – inability to see a prominent market shift early enough (normally called a ‘disruption), unwillingness to change the way of doing things, inability of hiring the right skills into the company and surprisingly the inability to see an emerging competitor who leverages the disruption and changes the game for the incumbent market leader!
Lets be realistic though, this is a natural consequence and will happen to every organization – not just once, but many times in the history of the organization. It will happen despite the skill, diligence and track record of the management team – no exceptions! The forces that make these happen are far more diabolical than the people who are impacted by it! So the end game is not about prevention but about how to respond to these circumstances.
Very often I see organizations and their leadership going straight in with knee jerk reflexes trying hard to do things that make them look good in the short term to their boards and shareholders. Sometimes they do not really have a choice either, as the larger forces start to lean on them! However, given the choice here is my pick of pointed actions by the leadership team when the going gets really tough…
Stay the course, show that you know what you are doing – Demonstration of confidence is critical in troubled times. It is natural for the leadership team to be concerned and worried but they need to be able to face their troops, stakeholders and customers with demonstrated confidence. Demonstrate ability to face the situation however bad it might be and lead through the crisis riding on the plan that they have built with their leadership teams! While doing so they can be vocal about what is unknown to them – taking this position does not weaken them, on the contrary, this makes them more credible and human!
Ensure complete consensus amongst the leadership team; commit to consistent & extensive communication, both internal and external – A classic fall out of a crisis is a flurry of misguided activities by executives who make a valiant attempt to demonstrate that they are doing ‘something’. These actions are not products of collaboration, consensus and in many instances are conflicting and counter productive. Hard times call for complete consensus amongst the leadership. Resources are usually scarce in today’s competitive environment, more so in troubled time. It is absolutely ridiculous to squander this rare asset due to irresponsible and unsynchronized planning by management. Once leadership gets around the table and determines a common set of actions, consistent and regular internal and external communication is a must – over-communicate rather than go soft on it! Communication gives people the belief that things are progressing and will hopefully be in control, positive data if available, heightens this optimism!
Focus on your customers more than ever before – Customers either make or break organizations. During the tough times, it is great to have your customers along with you. Do not just be happy satisfying them, wow them off their shoes! Knowing the situation that your organization is, they will admire your gesture even more than they did during the sweet times!
Focus on the areas of strength, in parallel fix your gaps – As I have mentioned earlier, it is common for crisis to bring in a flurry of activities that are neither properly orchestrated nor necessarily good for the organization. The leadership team has to agree on some key areas to focus the limited resources on and they better be areas of visible strength! These done, use the ‘downturn’ to let the bottom open out – discard wrong products, processes and people! Fix the engine that will propel the organization forward. This is as a good an opportunity as any that will come along!
Find every opportunity to differentiate – Leadership in revenue, margins and share has to be driven by differentiation. In today’s world of readily available information, it is hard to do anything that someone else has not already done or is not in the process of doing. Yet, a Yahoo happened despite an Alta Vista, a Google happened despite an Yahoo and an ipod despite a whole array of portable mp3 players that preceded it. You get the plot – great examples of differentiation and value creation. Do it better, faster, cheaper and easier than anything anybody has ever done before and you have a chance to win! Differentiation comes out of innovation and innovation is a product of attitude! Good times or bad, this attitude and commitment at every level of the organization is an absolute must for any organization to turn the corner. If you are in any doubt, ask a certain company in Cupertino and they will clarify your doubts!
I am confident Mr Buffet’s handpicked stocks (and the organizations that stand behind them) are staffed by executives who share my beliefs in one way or the other and are actually implementing them! I feel this way, not only in protection of my investments but the millions who are dependent on how these organizations will do, going forward. If they do, Mr. Buffet’s next letter to the Berkshire’s shareholders will be a lot more optimistic!
(Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor).
These masters taught me the fundamentals of value investing and the art of profiting from market follies and disruptions rather than by participating in it! How to identify and buy into ‘value’ companies and invest in them for the long haul. How to stay away from speculating in organizations and businesses I was not familiar with irrespective of how lucrative their valuation and potential seemed to be! Many other anecdotes and advise that I have come to understand and appreciate. I actually followed up by reviewing Berkshire Hathaway’s famed Letter to the Shareholders that Mr. Buffet writes every year. (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html). I also got insight into the Mr. Buffet’s own stock picks and other well regarded recommendations and then feeling fairly well ‘covered’ I put in my money in the market. Despite this attention, all my famed and well researched ‘blue chips’ are significantly down today!!! Mr. Buffet and Berkshire were not spared either! In the 2008 Letter to Shareholders he wrote – “Our decrease in net worth during 2008 was $11.5 billion, which reduced the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 9.6%. Over the last 44 years book value has grown from $19 to $70,530, a rate of 20.3% compounded annually. As the year progressed, a series of life-threatening problems within many of the world’s great financial institutions was unveiled. This led to a dysfunctional credit market that in important respects soon turned non-functional. The watchword throughout the country became the creed I saw on restaurant walls when I was young: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.”
While I trust in God, Mr. Graham and Mr. Buffet like the rest of the investor planet, I begin to wonder why these famed organizations that I trusted my money with are actually failing to perform as the financial markets go sour and what other established and upcoming organizations can learn from them! Once you think about it …there is plenty!
All organizations are destined to face ‘market disruptions’, ‘conflicting and negative internal forces’ at some stage of their evolution that will force them to take dramatic measures to survive and hold on to their positions of leadership. When this situation is coupled with a larger macro economic slowdown that we are in the middle of now, the impact obviously is further amplified! Unlike what is usually the norm, I do not blame the management team for the organization’s fall though this is easiest to do! The lackluster results are hardly because of a single wrong strategy that the leadership has implemented or a specific move of the competitor that the leaders failed to see. Rather, the root cause often is a sum of many different reasons – inability to see a prominent market shift early enough (normally called a ‘disruption), unwillingness to change the way of doing things, inability of hiring the right skills into the company and surprisingly the inability to see an emerging competitor who leverages the disruption and changes the game for the incumbent market leader!
Lets be realistic though, this is a natural consequence and will happen to every organization – not just once, but many times in the history of the organization. It will happen despite the skill, diligence and track record of the management team – no exceptions! The forces that make these happen are far more diabolical than the people who are impacted by it! So the end game is not about prevention but about how to respond to these circumstances.
Very often I see organizations and their leadership going straight in with knee jerk reflexes trying hard to do things that make them look good in the short term to their boards and shareholders. Sometimes they do not really have a choice either, as the larger forces start to lean on them! However, given the choice here is my pick of pointed actions by the leadership team when the going gets really tough…
Stay the course, show that you know what you are doing – Demonstration of confidence is critical in troubled times. It is natural for the leadership team to be concerned and worried but they need to be able to face their troops, stakeholders and customers with demonstrated confidence. Demonstrate ability to face the situation however bad it might be and lead through the crisis riding on the plan that they have built with their leadership teams! While doing so they can be vocal about what is unknown to them – taking this position does not weaken them, on the contrary, this makes them more credible and human!
Ensure complete consensus amongst the leadership team; commit to consistent & extensive communication, both internal and external – A classic fall out of a crisis is a flurry of misguided activities by executives who make a valiant attempt to demonstrate that they are doing ‘something’. These actions are not products of collaboration, consensus and in many instances are conflicting and counter productive. Hard times call for complete consensus amongst the leadership. Resources are usually scarce in today’s competitive environment, more so in troubled time. It is absolutely ridiculous to squander this rare asset due to irresponsible and unsynchronized planning by management. Once leadership gets around the table and determines a common set of actions, consistent and regular internal and external communication is a must – over-communicate rather than go soft on it! Communication gives people the belief that things are progressing and will hopefully be in control, positive data if available, heightens this optimism!
Focus on your customers more than ever before – Customers either make or break organizations. During the tough times, it is great to have your customers along with you. Do not just be happy satisfying them, wow them off their shoes! Knowing the situation that your organization is, they will admire your gesture even more than they did during the sweet times!
Focus on the areas of strength, in parallel fix your gaps – As I have mentioned earlier, it is common for crisis to bring in a flurry of activities that are neither properly orchestrated nor necessarily good for the organization. The leadership team has to agree on some key areas to focus the limited resources on and they better be areas of visible strength! These done, use the ‘downturn’ to let the bottom open out – discard wrong products, processes and people! Fix the engine that will propel the organization forward. This is as a good an opportunity as any that will come along!
Find every opportunity to differentiate – Leadership in revenue, margins and share has to be driven by differentiation. In today’s world of readily available information, it is hard to do anything that someone else has not already done or is not in the process of doing. Yet, a Yahoo happened despite an Alta Vista, a Google happened despite an Yahoo and an ipod despite a whole array of portable mp3 players that preceded it. You get the plot – great examples of differentiation and value creation. Do it better, faster, cheaper and easier than anything anybody has ever done before and you have a chance to win! Differentiation comes out of innovation and innovation is a product of attitude! Good times or bad, this attitude and commitment at every level of the organization is an absolute must for any organization to turn the corner. If you are in any doubt, ask a certain company in Cupertino and they will clarify your doubts!
I am confident Mr Buffet’s handpicked stocks (and the organizations that stand behind them) are staffed by executives who share my beliefs in one way or the other and are actually implementing them! I feel this way, not only in protection of my investments but the millions who are dependent on how these organizations will do, going forward. If they do, Mr. Buffet’s next letter to the Berkshire’s shareholders will be a lot more optimistic!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Leadership Models – What is relevant today?
Leadership Models – What is relevant today?
I had to go ‘off-line’ from this blog for about 6 months or so! While I felt guilty every day for being away, I was busy doing something very meaningful at Brocade. After stamping our leadership in the Fibre Channel based Storage Area Network (SAN) space for 12 years we at Brocade needed to expand our total addressable market beyond the datacenter into the broader Ethernet LAN/WAN space. On 22 December we completed the acquisition of Foundry Networks for $2.5Billion, a staggering sum in the difficult money market of today! Having made such a big bet, it is critical for us to ensure that the integration between the two organizations concludes satisfactorily and communicates comfort and confidence to the customer and partners that enables us to bring our end goal (revenue and non-revenue) behind this acquisition to fruition! Pleased to say that things are on track and I am happy as a leader with the progress we have made. Enough said … for more details, please visit http://www.brocade.com/
Starting June, I am also playing ‘Judge’ at the MBA Challenge – Asia’s First Online Reality Show (use this search string on the Facebook search field) i.e. aired EXCLUSIVELY over the WEB with 2 MBA seats worth $25,000 up for grabs (http://www.mbachallenge.tv/). This is the first season of MBA Challenge and from the interest that is quite visible, I am quite certain subsequent seasons are in the offing! The organizers are already putting plans to export the show beyond Singapore. The elimination process has commenced and we are down to the ‘last 8’. The contestants are young, energetic and bubbling with ideas, energy and perspective – very eager to learn. It’s a pleasure and joy to be amongst these young folks and my interesting co-judges. I do confess that I come out of each session (definitely not a walk in the park!) having learnt more than what I have contributed besides having a lot of fun! Go take a look at the website and you will know what I mean! Better still vote for the remaining contestants and aim to compete in the next season if you are one of those who are after an MBA!
In one of the episodes of the MBA Challenge (The Active Channel biz plan – Episode 3), the judges me included came down on the contestants hard for not demonstrating ‘leadership’ in a group situation which goes without saying, is a key attribute of a business leader and for what an MBA stands for. Leadership need not just be linked to a position – a person does not need to be a designated team leader to demonstrate leadership qualities. Leadership can be demonstrated by an individual contributor as well. This core trait shows up because of some specific skills – subject matter expertise, communication skills or just the innate ability of an individual to get people in the team to participate, collaborate and contribute irrespective of their competencies. While doing so a ‘leader’ demonstrates the ability to guide the discussion to its intended conclusion rather than have everyone rambling on endlessly!
Talking about rambling endlessly brings me to the common sight of certain people hogging air-time and not really communicating meaningful substance. Their belief is in equating visibility to importance. This is hardly so! The audience in every possible forum is intelligent and educated to decipher substance from baloney! In today’s connected world, where news travels fast the results can be catastrophic!
In some of the elimination related discussions and deliberations at the show and the Facebook entries, I chanced upon selfless leadership – the ‘servant-leader’ model. The willingness of the leader to set aside personal needs and wants in seeking the greatest good for others, in accomplishing through others rather than seeking personal wins. I have also read about beliefs where the model ‘super leader’ is expected to know where he needs to go and how to get there! They should then be able to communicate with and convince their teams with adequate passion and conviction. Both these concepts could be real and there could be individuals who successfully live out these roles. However like in other instances, I will advise reader discretion and will recommend that these concepts be viewed in the right perspective keeping ‘real world’ workplaces, businesses and circumstances in mind!
The real world has an incredible scarcity of leaders who ‘do-not’ have any personal ‘needs and wants’. These need not be financial or even material! I just find it hard to perceive a leader being successful in leading a team across the line without any personal skin in the game at all! On the contrary, I would call it a risk in hiring or nominating a leader who has no motivation of a personal gain at all and is purely ‘serving’ the team by leading them! To me the servant leader is a relevant philosophy with a specific place in the leadership doctrine but not wholly relevant on a practical plane at least in today’s world gone crazy!
Next, the leader who knows where to go and how to get there… concept wise okay but I question how realistic this is in today’s context?? At work I mostly face management challenges that are mostly multi dimensional in nature. Solving or even addressing these situations by a ‘generalist’ leader or one with a single core skill is virtually impossible! Yes, the leader should be able to set directions towards a ‘landing zone’ in terms of outcome expectations but can hardly do every thing else to take the team to the desired outcome by himself!
Good leader’s build their teams with great people! When faced with a situation, they get these smart guys who ‘get it’ & posses different core competencies and expertise around a table, define the situation, the end goal and then pretend to be the dumbest person in the room! Almost without exceptions, the leader asks great questions, solicits involvement and opinions from everyone on the table (the broader the skills mix the more rounded the discussion & the cumulative opinion) and ensures that the discussion stays on track. These leaders are great at timing their own entry and exit from the group discussion. They do not hog air time, prefer to be great listeners instead! In almost every instance they demonstrate immaculate timing in closing the meeting. They successfully consolidate, summarize and direct the actions that evolve from the ‘session’ that will likely address the required end goal. So you see – the savvy leader of today did not exactly know where to go and definitely did not know how to get there, but leveraged his team members to determine the possible answers.
I had to go ‘off-line’ from this blog for about 6 months or so! While I felt guilty every day for being away, I was busy doing something very meaningful at Brocade. After stamping our leadership in the Fibre Channel based Storage Area Network (SAN) space for 12 years we at Brocade needed to expand our total addressable market beyond the datacenter into the broader Ethernet LAN/WAN space. On 22 December we completed the acquisition of Foundry Networks for $2.5Billion, a staggering sum in the difficult money market of today! Having made such a big bet, it is critical for us to ensure that the integration between the two organizations concludes satisfactorily and communicates comfort and confidence to the customer and partners that enables us to bring our end goal (revenue and non-revenue) behind this acquisition to fruition! Pleased to say that things are on track and I am happy as a leader with the progress we have made. Enough said … for more details, please visit http://www.brocade.com/
Starting June, I am also playing ‘Judge’ at the MBA Challenge – Asia’s First Online Reality Show (use this search string on the Facebook search field) i.e. aired EXCLUSIVELY over the WEB with 2 MBA seats worth $25,000 up for grabs (http://www.mbachallenge.tv/). This is the first season of MBA Challenge and from the interest that is quite visible, I am quite certain subsequent seasons are in the offing! The organizers are already putting plans to export the show beyond Singapore. The elimination process has commenced and we are down to the ‘last 8’. The contestants are young, energetic and bubbling with ideas, energy and perspective – very eager to learn. It’s a pleasure and joy to be amongst these young folks and my interesting co-judges. I do confess that I come out of each session (definitely not a walk in the park!) having learnt more than what I have contributed besides having a lot of fun! Go take a look at the website and you will know what I mean! Better still vote for the remaining contestants and aim to compete in the next season if you are one of those who are after an MBA!
In one of the episodes of the MBA Challenge (The Active Channel biz plan – Episode 3), the judges me included came down on the contestants hard for not demonstrating ‘leadership’ in a group situation which goes without saying, is a key attribute of a business leader and for what an MBA stands for. Leadership need not just be linked to a position – a person does not need to be a designated team leader to demonstrate leadership qualities. Leadership can be demonstrated by an individual contributor as well. This core trait shows up because of some specific skills – subject matter expertise, communication skills or just the innate ability of an individual to get people in the team to participate, collaborate and contribute irrespective of their competencies. While doing so a ‘leader’ demonstrates the ability to guide the discussion to its intended conclusion rather than have everyone rambling on endlessly!
Talking about rambling endlessly brings me to the common sight of certain people hogging air-time and not really communicating meaningful substance. Their belief is in equating visibility to importance. This is hardly so! The audience in every possible forum is intelligent and educated to decipher substance from baloney! In today’s connected world, where news travels fast the results can be catastrophic!
In some of the elimination related discussions and deliberations at the show and the Facebook entries, I chanced upon selfless leadership – the ‘servant-leader’ model. The willingness of the leader to set aside personal needs and wants in seeking the greatest good for others, in accomplishing through others rather than seeking personal wins. I have also read about beliefs where the model ‘super leader’ is expected to know where he needs to go and how to get there! They should then be able to communicate with and convince their teams with adequate passion and conviction. Both these concepts could be real and there could be individuals who successfully live out these roles. However like in other instances, I will advise reader discretion and will recommend that these concepts be viewed in the right perspective keeping ‘real world’ workplaces, businesses and circumstances in mind!
The real world has an incredible scarcity of leaders who ‘do-not’ have any personal ‘needs and wants’. These need not be financial or even material! I just find it hard to perceive a leader being successful in leading a team across the line without any personal skin in the game at all! On the contrary, I would call it a risk in hiring or nominating a leader who has no motivation of a personal gain at all and is purely ‘serving’ the team by leading them! To me the servant leader is a relevant philosophy with a specific place in the leadership doctrine but not wholly relevant on a practical plane at least in today’s world gone crazy!
Next, the leader who knows where to go and how to get there… concept wise okay but I question how realistic this is in today’s context?? At work I mostly face management challenges that are mostly multi dimensional in nature. Solving or even addressing these situations by a ‘generalist’ leader or one with a single core skill is virtually impossible! Yes, the leader should be able to set directions towards a ‘landing zone’ in terms of outcome expectations but can hardly do every thing else to take the team to the desired outcome by himself!
Good leader’s build their teams with great people! When faced with a situation, they get these smart guys who ‘get it’ & posses different core competencies and expertise around a table, define the situation, the end goal and then pretend to be the dumbest person in the room! Almost without exceptions, the leader asks great questions, solicits involvement and opinions from everyone on the table (the broader the skills mix the more rounded the discussion & the cumulative opinion) and ensures that the discussion stays on track. These leaders are great at timing their own entry and exit from the group discussion. They do not hog air time, prefer to be great listeners instead! In almost every instance they demonstrate immaculate timing in closing the meeting. They successfully consolidate, summarize and direct the actions that evolve from the ‘session’ that will likely address the required end goal. So you see – the savvy leader of today did not exactly know where to go and definitely did not know how to get there, but leveraged his team members to determine the possible answers.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Leadership when the Chips are Down!
- The economic abyss that we are all in will eventually level off just like the 18 recessions and the 3 depressions that have come and gone in the last 100 years!! It will take some time though! As organizations face persistent uncertainty and the necessity to adapt to rapidly fluctuating fiscal and monetary situations, leaders are facing some truly exciting time to demonstrate their core abilities or the lack of it!!! Organizations that are used to regular home runs will also not be spared not to mention the big names which have already sunk in the dark choppy waters in 2008!.
This ‘negative’ shift in paradigm will impact employees, customer loyalty, security, budgets and everyday organizational decisions. As strange as it may sound, it is far easier to find leaders who know how to cope with success rather than those who can cope with success AND failure alike and still triumph!! Knowing how to lead during these extended times of uncertainty can help organizations maintain their leadership advantage, weather the immediate storms, and emerge stronger in the process.
Make ‘Caring’ People Decisions
Downturns normally herald missed revenue, margin and productivity goals. As organizations review their performance and ability to perform given these circumstances, leaders are often tempted to scale down or eliminate employees and employee development initiatives.
While this may be necessary (not that I absolutely subscribe to them outside of sheer practicality), utmost care must be taken to communicate and implement the decision in a way that will still reinforce the organization’s commitment to its workforce. If done poorly, it may seem like a “panic attack” to the workforce and create a self-reinforcing cycle that loosens the bonds of loyalty across the business.
Poor or un-weighed decisions at this stage can very adversely impact immediate priorities and have larger long term ramifications that the immediate gratifications that these actions were intended to serve not to mention the dent to the organization’s credo that these actions often deliver.
It is crucial to bear in mind that these dark clouds will ultimately go away – the way in which the organizations and its leaders have dealt with this period will largely determine how strongly the organization shines when the sun comes out!!!
Lead Well in Tough Times
As I have repeatedly said, leadership is about rallying people behind shared vision, mission, and goals through awareness, collaboration, accountability and empowerment. It is about connecting human action with specific objectives and aligning people and groups to work together toward those ends.
In the midst of circumstances that spell fear, uncertainty and doubt leaders are responsible to ensure calmness while providing clear guidance and directions to the teams that they lead. They are responsible for keeping the team focused on its immediate short-medium, term objectives while making them aware of the changing circumstances which might need them to re-evaluate the mode of attaining the goals that they seek and flag any associated risks.
The leader’s ability to generate a collective feeling of existence and accomplishment within the team is crucial!
Align Talent base to Business Strategy
Organizations need to strengthen the link between its business strategy and its talent pools. The commander of the ship needs to consider: are short-term commitments vulnerable due to lack of talent to help achieve core strategies? Are the right people in the critical roles, how are they being retained?
Leaders need to focus their teams to address the short-mid term exigencies. The status quo questioned, reviewed while a new set of behaviors need to be cultured, monitored, and reinforced. All of this is best done through collaboration rather than a autocratic mandate. Collaboration drives broader buy-in, larger ownership and better execution
The resurrection might call for attainment of multiple targets. This will demand a sense of balance. People will need to be explained the ‘Why’ and encouraged to find ways to determine how their goals can be connected without the need for a binary choice. Most leader5s and teams struggle with this balance. While there is no perfect solution, but the desire to question status quo, adopting a change in how things are while aiming for the best possible solution for the current situation sounds pretty darn good to me!
If a restructure or a reduction in force is absolutely needed, set progressive expectations and ensure that the remaining workforce is re-engaged. Cutbacks create a sense of helplessness in the organization. Leaders need to acknowledge the associated pain and frustration and ask teams what they believe are the top priorities at this time. Effective leaders will always take steps to ensure that the newly created groups become effective teams in the new setting and do not just consider themselves as “survivors.”
Treat your Employees and Customers right
Know your people very well! Tough times (as goes the adage) bring out the best in many people. High-potential staffers and teams may be ready to step up sooner than expected. This is a time to help people learn from experience, to let the capable ones soar! This is the time to share the best practices that demonstrate the depth of the talent already on board!
Ensure that top performers are retained at all cost. Besides providing the results, they are also capable of setting and driving the right attitude, mood and tone across the whole organization. Get closer to these people and show your ‘love and support’ for what they are doing.
Take customer loyalty very seriously! Don’t just respond to customer expectations; find out proactive ways to anticipate what the customer wants as the environment, industry and markets change. Make these changes faster than anyone else. Accelerate the implementation by leveraging technology. Reinvent the depth and breadth of relationship with top customers before your competitor does it!
Overdo the Communication bit
There is a reason why we have two ears and one mouth. Spend twice the time listening rather than talking. By the way do not do both at the same time! These times require leaders to listen to their teams and provide them the right guidance, advice, directions or inspiration. Leaders need to use every tool in the bag to accomplish this.
Communicate business challenges, the gaps and the associated risks with absolute candor. It is crucial to communicate even when there is nothing to communicate. This helps employees realize that communication channels have stayed open.
Create timely forums to host collaborative discussions regarding the organization your company wants to be in say three years from now and what needs to be done right now to attain that. An exercise of this nature helps disperse hope, a sense of belonging and a shared future within the employees. Use these forums to share demonstrated best practices regarding employee collaboration, customer satisfaction, employee driven initiatives, skills development, workplace and work force efficiencies etc.
State the key takeaways, the individual accountabilities and the follow up actions. Rally support for the initiative. Ask people what assistance they need to deliver what is expected of them.
Set a GPS for the Future
An organization becomes what its people and the leaders guide it to be. When there is proper alignment between the business strategy that the organization wants to drive and the internal or outsourced
Talent that it has access to, when the organization and its leaders relate well to employees and customers and when the leader practices honest, clear and open communication, the organizations can take on uncertain circumstances, weather the macro economic storms and consequently create a brighter and fundamentally stronger future as the dust begins to settle!t.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Organizational IQ
What is your organization's IQ (intelligence quotient) ? By this I do not mean how smart it is, but how aware it is and how it operates in its own, unique environment. Do customers find it easy or difficult to do business with your organization? What type of feedback does your company receive from its business partners? What about you? Do you find it easy to get things done within your organization or does everything simply seem more difficult than it needs to be?
This blog is posted by: Dennis Rose
This blog is posted by: Dennis Rose
What is your organization's IQ (intelligence quotient) ? By this I do not mean how smart it is, but how aware it is and how it operates in its own, unique environment. Do customers find it easy or difficult to do business with your organization? What type of feedback does your company receive from its business partners? What about you? Do you find it easy to get things done within your organization or does everything simply seem more difficult than it needs to be?
The concept¹ of organizational IQ traces back to research work done at Stanford University and is defined as a measure of how organizations assimilate information and put together their decision and information architectures. Much like a personal psychological IQ, an organizational IQ relates to how an organization can take in information, process it, makes decisions based upon that and then put those decisions into action. However, a company therefore regarded as smart or dominant in their particular market segment does not necessarily have a high organizational IQ.
I once worked for a small start-up that focused on optical character recognition technology based scanners. Their one and only product scanned typed paper pages, converted the words into text streams that were then fed into word processing software or databases. The productivity savings for law firms, hospitals, government agencies and just about anyone who had to re-type a lot of paper documents into computer systems was significant and made the product very successful. The company had a gifted technical leader and generally the core technology of the firm was considered leading edge at the time I joined them. The management style of this company, however, was very centralized and a bit parochial. People outside of the headquarters location were treated as “doers” (e.g. go get the order, go do the repair) rather than as team members. It was surprising, even after factoring in that it was a start-up, that the product marketing manager was also the marketing communications manager and the events manager and the technical publications manager. Even if she had wanted to, she didn’t have enough time left in her schedule to seek out any input from the field or to review what we voluntarily chose to send her. There was little to no collaboration between HQ and the field. The executive team rarely met with customers, analysts or the trade media, as they were more concerned with the engineering road map. Most of their external relationships went no further than a few professors at the renowned engineering university that the chief technology officer had graduated from.
These factors led to a near absence of being in touch with what the market wanted and market shift in packaging of OCR scanners that would soon have a large impact on our business. Two competitors introduced smaller desktop scanners with the ability to easily support more type styles at a lower price, as they standardized their scanning engines on commodity PC class chip sets. All at once, we had competitive offerings that were more easily connected to the rapidly growing base of PCs being adopted for the first time by customers, while also being less expensive and more versatile than our company’s product. To make matters worse, our company failed to react to the new competition, refusing to supply the field sales and SE personnel with competitive analyses for these new products or to suggest selling strategies designed to protect our market share until we could respond. The engineering leadership of the firm even dismissed the competitive desktop models as a “passing fad”. In the end, my employer lost significant market share and ran out of cash before they were able to bring a new product to market. They subsequently went out of business.
In this situation, the company had no functioning process in place to ensure sufficient awareness of external information such as changing market preferences, the shift of word processing from mini-computers to desktop PCs and threatening competitive movements. Having external information awareness is a critical element of an organization’s IQ. A company cannot possibly expect to be able to react to changing events if they do not know that events are indeed changing. Yet, we see numerous examples of companies with stove-piped or blocked communication channels lose growth momentum and market share – or sometimes go out of business altogether – because their internal structure, process or culture prevented them from seeing “the big picture” in their market.
In addition to external information awareness, it is critical for an organization to then disseminate or share that information. Information has no value unless it is shared with the people who need it. Many of us have encountered at least one person in our careers that initially seemed to be the smart “go-to” person that knew everything. Unfortunately these people sometimes turn out to be information hoarders that hurt the organization more by holding back useful knowledge instead of proactively sharing it with others that could benefit from it. I worked with an IT manager many years ago that was the proverbial “keeper of the keys” in terms of any knowledge about IT systems, processes, operations, forthcoming IT initiatives, etc. He bathed in the glory of being the only one who knew what was going on with our IT systems. Finding out the most basic information about scheduled down times, desktop rollouts, application fixes and even printer network path names was difficult. As a result, line managers invested time and budget into systems that were inexplicably taken offline or retired, costs were duplicated when the field offices bought low-value assets like laptops not knowing the IT manager had a room full of them that he had told no one about. As the company grew (I sometimes wondered how!) the “drag effect” he created became intolerable and his behaviour was called into question and he was eventually fired. The region I worked in, however, had a lot of catching up to do as compared to the other international regions where the IT leadership had been open, sharing and highly collaborative at both a strategic planning and tactical execution level to help drive the business forward.
Assuming an organization does have external information awareness and also shares the information that it gathers, it still needs to be able to process that information to make meaningful and effective decisions to run the business. The decision architecture of a company has a lot to do with its culture. Organizational culture will often determine whether decision-making authority or empowerment is highly centralized, entrusted to the people with the best first-hand knowledge to make the decisions or whether it lands somewhere between these two scenarios. An effective decision architecture allows people who have the relevant information to act on it without having to waste time relaying information up and down the hierarchy². If executive management is involved in deciding tactical issues such as product names, launch dates, where the 100% Club trip will be held and the like, then they are not doing their jobs. Their primary role is to develop a vision and strategy for the company and to develop the organization’s overall ability to execute to that plan. Micromanaging disempowers people and eventually leads to a breakdown in accountability within middle management and their teams and devalues the roles of people who really ought to be making those decisions. In many cases, good people leave under these conditions. Companies with poor decision making structures and practices tend to then suffer from not only attrition and the costs that go with it, but also an inability to react quickly to changing market conditions. As the second half of 2008 has shown us, things can change rapidly – very rapidly.
If an organization is able to remain aware of what is happening externally, share that information with all relevant team members and then make decisions efficiently, then they are likely to be in a position to focus on their core business objectives. Without any of the preceding three conditions being achieved, focusing becomes difficult as an organization struggles with incomplete information, the inability to collaborate across teams and uncertainty over who should make decisions in reaction to changes or better yet, in anticipation of them. With the conditions set for increased organizational focus, it becomes easier for teams to prioritize, to avoid distractions driven by process ambiguity and to become more decisive in the face of changing market conditions.
The final principle of organizational IQ is continuous innovation. The ability to constantly examine and reinvent products, services and processes is a hallmark of successful companies. McDonald’s expansion into breakfast foods, Nike’s success in expanding their market share with teens, tweens and Generation Y consumers through their “design-your-own shoe” NikeID offering and Toyota’s similar “design-your-own-car” Scion product line are examples of established companies that seek to listen to the market and reinvent themselves. These types of companies tend to proactively disrupt their established markets to either expand them or reinvigorate growth and profitability within them.
A company that is able to orchestrate external information awareness, information sharing, effective decision making , organizational focus and continuous innovation is likely to achieve a high organizational IQ. Research studies at Stanford University³ have shown that organizational IQ is a key success factor for businesses. This research, which studied hundreds of companies during the 1980s and 1990s showed that organizations which exhibited high organizational IQ had higher, sustained growth rates than those who did not. Many of the firms which were measured to have low organizational IQ and did nothing about it went out of business or were eventually acquired by stronger companies.
Clearly, all of us would like to work in an environment where there is high organizational IQ. Organizations with these characteristics tend to be market leaders that succeed in reinvesting in their operations and people, thereby creating broader career opportunities for their team members. All of us have an opportunity to contribute to the five principles of external information awareness, information sharing, decision-making, focus and continuous innovation. We can approach this through shaping the culture of our organizations and through building and using systems and processes that help to facilitate it. A lot of it starts with basic communication skills....becoming an effective listener and then sharing information in a collaborative sense to make the team more effective. Unlike an individual’s psychological IQ, which experts say can only be increased to a limited extent in adulthood, an organizational IQ can be increased to a great extent and more quickly. As you think about your own employer, or perhaps a prospective one, assessing and contributing to their organizational IQ is perhaps one of the greatest opportunities you will have with them. Doing your own assessment of your organization’s IQ, or perhaps leading one with your team, is a good place to start.
¹ = Haim Mendelson and Johannes Ziegler in their book Survival of the Smartest
² = Ibid
³ = Ibid
Sunday, November 30, 2008
WYSIWYG – The Art of Perfect Execution!
Those of you who like me saw the early days of the Personal Computer age would recollect the phrase WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) - when the computer monitor screen started supporting serious graphics display capabilities. When the image on the monitor was close enough to the quality of the printout that the printer spewed out when you hit the print button! Wow! Still considered a milestone in the history of personal computing!
Technically speaking ‘WYSIWYG’ actually symbolizes all innovations, inventions, progressions and discoveries that have radically impacted our world, our civilization, our lives and everything it holds! It also represents an intrinsic character that every successful individual represents. It is called the power of Visualization – What you SEE is What you GET!
From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King to Barrack Obama is an incredible journey that was based on rights, equality, freedom and change. It started with someone visualizing about what the world ought to be rather than accept it as it is – a small step was taken. Over the years the vision broadened taking into its fold other aspirations, hopes and dreams of many more people. The visual grew in scale and the impact feeding off the millions of people whose lives it touched finally peaked on an early November day when history was rewritten as America elected its new President!
I enjoy many sports and do so because participating or even just watching top class sportspeople fires me up physically and emotionally! I have often read and observed these greats – seen them focus on the incredible power of Visualization. I have seen what their coaches take them through as they help them stay relevant in the highest levels of the game!
Whether it is golf, tennis or other categories (especially individual sports), watch the intense gaze of these top pros between strokes, as they go though their motions or during a game break. Their eyes are focused but the gaze seems to be far away – looking at nothing, totally insulated from whatever surrounds them! They are actually mentally playing out their next moves on a high res mental video screen over and over! Seeing exactly what they are going to do next, soaking in it, visualizing it – then they take every conscious thought off their minds and execute that mental video! Sure enough the result is quite close to what they visualized if not better! I have tried this myself when playing and depending on my preparedness and commitment, I sometimes do get the result!
Why sometimes? Why not always? The key to successful visual results is “Preparedness”. Quite obvious, right? Trust me, I have come across many instances where I have seen trained professionals going out into execution mode without adequate preparedness … now that does not work, regardless of your caliber!
So, here is how I see the buildup whether at the workplace or in the playing field. Dare to dream in the area of your interest and set some personal goals that you are totally committed to (the more audacious, the better as long as they are practical). Next, know the rules of the game (a.k.a the Standard Operating Procedure within organizations), employee handbooks and functional operating guidelines are the normal sources – check! This is crucial but most people ignore it or do not spend enough time on. Being an absolute master of the rules will allow you to take advantage of the rules or lack of it while being fully aware of the downside.
Next totally absorb the Core Base skills required to be successful in the position that you are in and then seek out the Incremental Skills that will make a difference to your performance in – this is where you start to get ahead of the pack. While the Core Skills are usually documented and relatively easy to build, the Incremental Skills are not! Reason why most people are quite weak in this department! Seeking internal and external mentors, wide networking and constant referencing – a healthy reading habit is a wonderful tool are some options available to you. Most often I have noticed that top performers are very comfortable in discussing and expressing their views in topics way outside of their principal areas of competency! On the contrary the average player is quite limited even in what should be supposedly their zone of competency.
Follow this with very hard work (no shortcuts here!) regardless of your talent and thoroughly practice the skills you have acquired. Pitch it in every conceivable situation and see how you do, socializing this learning with like minded friends, colleagues and family is one way to get it done. I can literally hear you say – “Easily said … where is the time or the opportunity?” Totally agree, but you need to make both available if you win at this game!
The Power of Visualization will only work when your inner self is totally confident that you can faultlessly deliver what you have learnt. The only way to make this possible is when you physically repeat the action over and over again – be it presenting to a customer, writing a document, driving a golf ball down the fairway or executing a slick cross court volley. Relentless practice will make your mind and body absolutely rehearsed and comfortable in delivering the desired outcome. Practicing over and over will also convince your inner being that you can do it! It gives the power to the mind to play the video of perfect execution picking up pieces from the hard work it saw you do while you were building and rehearsing the skill.
What unfolds next is brilliant – you are there preparing to do what you are supposed to, eyes (customers, colleagues, friends, adversaries) watching you. You know your stuff and are fully prepared with countless hours of learning and practice. Now play the mental video .. visualize the end result clearly – you have delivered a brilliant performance, everyone is blown away by what you have done, profusely congratulating or applauding you... Next, take every other restraining thought off your head and execute. You have done it…..
I am doing the same here, visualizing that you will have benefited from the perspective of this post. I am sure you have!
Technically speaking ‘WYSIWYG’ actually symbolizes all innovations, inventions, progressions and discoveries that have radically impacted our world, our civilization, our lives and everything it holds! It also represents an intrinsic character that every successful individual represents. It is called the power of Visualization – What you SEE is What you GET!
From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King to Barrack Obama is an incredible journey that was based on rights, equality, freedom and change. It started with someone visualizing about what the world ought to be rather than accept it as it is – a small step was taken. Over the years the vision broadened taking into its fold other aspirations, hopes and dreams of many more people. The visual grew in scale and the impact feeding off the millions of people whose lives it touched finally peaked on an early November day when history was rewritten as America elected its new President!
I enjoy many sports and do so because participating or even just watching top class sportspeople fires me up physically and emotionally! I have often read and observed these greats – seen them focus on the incredible power of Visualization. I have seen what their coaches take them through as they help them stay relevant in the highest levels of the game!
Whether it is golf, tennis or other categories (especially individual sports), watch the intense gaze of these top pros between strokes, as they go though their motions or during a game break. Their eyes are focused but the gaze seems to be far away – looking at nothing, totally insulated from whatever surrounds them! They are actually mentally playing out their next moves on a high res mental video screen over and over! Seeing exactly what they are going to do next, soaking in it, visualizing it – then they take every conscious thought off their minds and execute that mental video! Sure enough the result is quite close to what they visualized if not better! I have tried this myself when playing and depending on my preparedness and commitment, I sometimes do get the result!
Why sometimes? Why not always? The key to successful visual results is “Preparedness”. Quite obvious, right? Trust me, I have come across many instances where I have seen trained professionals going out into execution mode without adequate preparedness … now that does not work, regardless of your caliber!
So, here is how I see the buildup whether at the workplace or in the playing field. Dare to dream in the area of your interest and set some personal goals that you are totally committed to (the more audacious, the better as long as they are practical). Next, know the rules of the game (a.k.a the Standard Operating Procedure within organizations), employee handbooks and functional operating guidelines are the normal sources – check! This is crucial but most people ignore it or do not spend enough time on. Being an absolute master of the rules will allow you to take advantage of the rules or lack of it while being fully aware of the downside.
Next totally absorb the Core Base skills required to be successful in the position that you are in and then seek out the Incremental Skills that will make a difference to your performance in – this is where you start to get ahead of the pack. While the Core Skills are usually documented and relatively easy to build, the Incremental Skills are not! Reason why most people are quite weak in this department! Seeking internal and external mentors, wide networking and constant referencing – a healthy reading habit is a wonderful tool are some options available to you. Most often I have noticed that top performers are very comfortable in discussing and expressing their views in topics way outside of their principal areas of competency! On the contrary the average player is quite limited even in what should be supposedly their zone of competency.
Follow this with very hard work (no shortcuts here!) regardless of your talent and thoroughly practice the skills you have acquired. Pitch it in every conceivable situation and see how you do, socializing this learning with like minded friends, colleagues and family is one way to get it done. I can literally hear you say – “Easily said … where is the time or the opportunity?” Totally agree, but you need to make both available if you win at this game!
The Power of Visualization will only work when your inner self is totally confident that you can faultlessly deliver what you have learnt. The only way to make this possible is when you physically repeat the action over and over again – be it presenting to a customer, writing a document, driving a golf ball down the fairway or executing a slick cross court volley. Relentless practice will make your mind and body absolutely rehearsed and comfortable in delivering the desired outcome. Practicing over and over will also convince your inner being that you can do it! It gives the power to the mind to play the video of perfect execution picking up pieces from the hard work it saw you do while you were building and rehearsing the skill.
What unfolds next is brilliant – you are there preparing to do what you are supposed to, eyes (customers, colleagues, friends, adversaries) watching you. You know your stuff and are fully prepared with countless hours of learning and practice. Now play the mental video .. visualize the end result clearly – you have delivered a brilliant performance, everyone is blown away by what you have done, profusely congratulating or applauding you... Next, take every other restraining thought off your head and execute. You have done it…..
I am doing the same here, visualizing that you will have benefited from the perspective of this post. I am sure you have!
Monday, November 3, 2008
The End Game of Leadership – Who owns it?
I was chatting with a friend recently who is treading a new path through a set of interesting initiatives, challenging the conventions of ‘How things can be?’ rather than ‘How things are’.
· I was chatting with a friend recently who is treading a new path through a set of interesting initiatives, challenging the conventions of ‘How things can be?’ rather than ‘How things are’. One thought led to another and he gave me his belief on how he views the actions of a leader to evolve
· He says, that the leader is responsible for defining the vision. In doing so he challenges conventions, thinks outside of the box, morphs past success ‘methodologies’ to suit the present circumstances and most of all, knows how to dream!
· Defining the vision is quite easy, what follows is way difficult …. structuring and articulating the vision! Giving it shape and spell it out in words that are understood by all involved. Every successful vision ever put into action has had a very common thread .. simplicity! If a vision starts off by being hard to understand, the articulation, the planning and the implementation that will follow will be hard to understand as well. The result, you guessed it right .. hard to understand!!!
· Articulation of the vision calls for ‘empathy’ – seeking other people’s perspective, their views, their circumstances and their relevance to the vision. Irrespective of the skills and abilities of the leader, he or she does not know it all! Even if she does, her thoughts & experience represent her ‘nuclear’ perspective based on her personality and her surroundings.
· I have seen good leaders consider the result of their contribution (and the efficacy of their vision) by ‘impact’ and ‘scale’ they deliver to their team’s results over the long term. ‘Impact’ created by examining and consolidating as many variable attributes to a vision in a logical manner as possible and ‘Scale’ created by broadening of the scope of the vision so that the vision touches as large a macrocosm as possible over extended time periods.
· Next comes implementation and execution and this is where my friend laid out a very different view that he subscribes to – and I see his point. He believes that very often leaders spend too little time in conceiving the vision and articulating it. They are way to keen to get into executing the vision!! Eager to close off the campaign, roll out the score card on the table as quickly as possible and start congratulating all involved. In the process they garner short term tactical results and fail to milk the ‘Impact’ and ‘Scale’ of the vision.
· Instead how would it be if the leader patiently carves the vision, articulates it expertly to his team making it as simple as possible. He then empathizes with and openly solicits his people’s feedback selectively but ensuring that as many conceivable variables are covered. The leader then constructs the unique nuances that are identified through the ‘empathy & feedback’ process into the fabric of the vision, making it optimal, powerful and relevant.
· Every member of his team now understands the vision, knows that it has been examined and tested as robustly as practical, believes in it and supports it from their mental core. The leader then steps away and watches his team (led by the next tier leaders) drive the execution rather than leading the execution himself! He takes in the bigger picture, stays on top of the results and makes modifications and tweaks where needed
· So why will the leader be confident that his team will pull it off? It is because he himself believes in the vision, he believes in the process through which the vision was crafted and he believes in his people. He believes that by trusting the implementation to them, the true impact and scale of the vision will be realized!
· What about the people? They trust their leader’s ability, his candor, his fairness, credibility and integrity. In the back of their minds, they know that there is an outside chance that their leader’s and their own collective wisdom might prove incorrect and the desired results might fall thru. These thoughts are however far out weighed by the belief that the direction their leader has shown will deliver the desired results on a sustainable basis and represents their collective best interest. They execute in earnest and most often good results follow…
· It is not surprising that good leaders without fail attribute the success of a campaign to their teams while carrying the heat of failure on their able shoulders…
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Matrix Organization Reporting Lines - Why Suffer in Silence??
Today’s organization has become diverse and complex even compared to what it was five years ago. Multiple business units, product lines, functional groups and territories require separate reporting lines to ensure that the required checks and balances are in place. These checks and balances then ensure that the objectives and goals of each of the constituencies are met.
. Organization structure wise this means the need to create multiple reporting lines within an operating unit or what is loosely termed the ‘matrix-organization’
. Individually this means that a particular position might be required to report into two supervisors – one via a ‘Solid-line’ and to the other via a ‘Dotted line’. The primary difference between the two is that the Solid Line Manager is responsible for investing on the headcount, the operation expenses related to the headcount and has a larger say in defining the goals of the position, the performance evaluation and the development of the individual. The Dotted Line Manager provides functional or knowledge cover, aligns the other critical functional groups to the individual and helps the individual generally succeed in the role
. I have often noted within the organizations that I have worked for (all of which implemented the matrix organization) that positions which fall within these environments are more aligned to the supervisor that the position interacts with on a more frequent basis irrespective of the nature of the reporting lines. This observation obviously assumes that the leader is capable, well respected and adds value to the sub-ordinate
. Enough on the reporting models, what does this mean to the individuals. Well, I have realized that the work life for the individual with two or more reporting lines is not rosy at all. Especially so if the two managers are not aligned in the goals and priorities related to the position. Even if they thankfully are aligned, it does not mean that the directions provided to the sub-ordinate are precise. Very often one expects the other to make these essential communication and both end up not doing it.
. The employee on the other hand fails to realize the priorities associated with his role, is confused regarding the measurements of her success and does not know who to reach out to seek guidance or advise when needed
. If you are ever in this situation ….. STOP! Bear in mind that YOU and only you are accountable for your success or the lack of it! No one understands you or your problems better than YOU! No one wants to fix your problems more than YOU .. so who needs to make the first move when you are faced with this confusion amongst ranks .. of course YOU!
. In our periodic Organizational boot-camp events, I get the opportunity to address our new hires as a part of the New Hire induction process. Its great to meet these folks and admire their passion for the organization that they have just joined and the roles that they have begun to play … super! What I always tell these enthusiastic lots is Never Suffer in Silence and Never Do Anything Without Understanding Why You Are Doing What You are Doing (more about the second one in a separate post)
. So how do you stop suffering in silence? Well, start off by defining exactly what you need clarity on and/or what area you exactly seek assistance for? Poorly defining what assistance or guidance you need leads to your supervisor questioning whether ‘you need help with the solution or are you a part of the problem?’
. Then communicate it frankly. Be honest in your approach – do not claim to know stuff that you do not know! And make sure that you are heard … your supervisor may have other priorities but remember what you owe to yourself. So make sure that you are heard!
. Assuming that this goes well and your supervisor hears you and then provides you with the needed recommendation and guidance. Make sure that you have understood him. Do not be embarrassed to ask questions and clarifications at this stage (many unfortunately do!).
As a leader, I am far more willing to re-clarify and re-explain till people are sure that they understand. Once they confirm that they do understand, I expect them to do so, right? What disappoints most supervisors is when people say they understand (when they do not) and go off and make the same mistakes that they would have without the guidance!!! Defeats the entire purpose and effort behind the coaching.
. Once you are successfully past this stage commence implementation. Keep your supervisor informed and seek inspection, guidance or just check notes on the progress on a periodic basis The frequency and intensity of this step depends on the complexity of the task.
. Finally on the successful completion of the task, inform the supervisor and thank him for his advice and guidance (again, many forget to do this)! Your supervisor will definitely be more accommodative to guide you the next time around!
. Organization structure wise this means the need to create multiple reporting lines within an operating unit or what is loosely termed the ‘matrix-organization’
. Individually this means that a particular position might be required to report into two supervisors – one via a ‘Solid-line’ and to the other via a ‘Dotted line’. The primary difference between the two is that the Solid Line Manager is responsible for investing on the headcount, the operation expenses related to the headcount and has a larger say in defining the goals of the position, the performance evaluation and the development of the individual. The Dotted Line Manager provides functional or knowledge cover, aligns the other critical functional groups to the individual and helps the individual generally succeed in the role
. I have often noted within the organizations that I have worked for (all of which implemented the matrix organization) that positions which fall within these environments are more aligned to the supervisor that the position interacts with on a more frequent basis irrespective of the nature of the reporting lines. This observation obviously assumes that the leader is capable, well respected and adds value to the sub-ordinate
. Enough on the reporting models, what does this mean to the individuals. Well, I have realized that the work life for the individual with two or more reporting lines is not rosy at all. Especially so if the two managers are not aligned in the goals and priorities related to the position. Even if they thankfully are aligned, it does not mean that the directions provided to the sub-ordinate are precise. Very often one expects the other to make these essential communication and both end up not doing it.
. The employee on the other hand fails to realize the priorities associated with his role, is confused regarding the measurements of her success and does not know who to reach out to seek guidance or advise when needed
. If you are ever in this situation ….. STOP! Bear in mind that YOU and only you are accountable for your success or the lack of it! No one understands you or your problems better than YOU! No one wants to fix your problems more than YOU .. so who needs to make the first move when you are faced with this confusion amongst ranks .. of course YOU!
. In our periodic Organizational boot-camp events, I get the opportunity to address our new hires as a part of the New Hire induction process. Its great to meet these folks and admire their passion for the organization that they have just joined and the roles that they have begun to play … super! What I always tell these enthusiastic lots is Never Suffer in Silence and Never Do Anything Without Understanding Why You Are Doing What You are Doing (more about the second one in a separate post)
. So how do you stop suffering in silence? Well, start off by defining exactly what you need clarity on and/or what area you exactly seek assistance for? Poorly defining what assistance or guidance you need leads to your supervisor questioning whether ‘you need help with the solution or are you a part of the problem?’
. Then communicate it frankly. Be honest in your approach – do not claim to know stuff that you do not know! And make sure that you are heard … your supervisor may have other priorities but remember what you owe to yourself. So make sure that you are heard!
. Assuming that this goes well and your supervisor hears you and then provides you with the needed recommendation and guidance. Make sure that you have understood him. Do not be embarrassed to ask questions and clarifications at this stage (many unfortunately do!).
As a leader, I am far more willing to re-clarify and re-explain till people are sure that they understand. Once they confirm that they do understand, I expect them to do so, right? What disappoints most supervisors is when people say they understand (when they do not) and go off and make the same mistakes that they would have without the guidance!!! Defeats the entire purpose and effort behind the coaching.
. Once you are successfully past this stage commence implementation. Keep your supervisor informed and seek inspection, guidance or just check notes on the progress on a periodic basis The frequency and intensity of this step depends on the complexity of the task.
. Finally on the successful completion of the task, inform the supervisor and thank him for his advice and guidance (again, many forget to do this)! Your supervisor will definitely be more accommodative to guide you the next time around!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Goal Setting - Does Stakeholder Participation make sense?
Like most people in my job description, things begin to really hot up as the year end approaches … the feeling of accomplishment in the past year, the excitement of the coming year, the rum laden fruit cakes and the wine and chocolate hampers that do the circuit to be shared with friends and family .. the year end is a simply wonderful time for all!
. Closing the year with all business revenue, margin, share, productivity and utilization goals accomplished is always a must do. However the intellect focused on closing the quarter and the year is constantly bombarded by the incessant flow of data requests for setting the goal for the next year
. In my early days as a people manager, I would be grossly offended by this ‘distraction’ related to next year planning when closing the financial year seemed like the most important thing on the planet to me. Over the years I admittedly wizened up as I began to appreciate the ‘other’ activity
. As we approach the year end we are typically in quarter four – i.e. three quarters have come and gone by and unfortunately the results will not change. Even the fourth quarter is mostly done and depending the nature of your position and your business you might have minor to meager influence on the final results at that point
. The following year on the other hand lies ahead like the proverbial ‘fresh sheet of snow’. You can (based on your position) at least partly determine what your individual, team or organization’s footprint will look like on that brand new surface. Does that not warrant some time, reflection and attention… easy choice, right?
. The Planning exercise for the following year usually has a Quantitative (revenue, margin, share, opex etc.) and a Qualitative (initiatives, go to market, coverage gaps, partnerships, resources, skills and infrastructure) component – make no mistake, both are equally crucial! Most organizations focus unduly on the Quantitative element while the smart outfits get the operating teams to focus on the Quantitative planning and goals to determine the ‘What’ while the Qualitative planning provides the ‘How’.
. It is unfortunate and alarming that most organizations spend very little time planning and more specifically socializing the next year goals with the broader set of people who are expected to deliver those goals
. That said, it is within every leader’s prerogative to socialize Quantitative and Qualitative objectives for the following year with some relevant people within her team after familiarizing them thoroughly with the overall organizational strategy framework.
. Socializing goals bottom-up leads to three specific values – firstly, it creates a sense of belonging, individual value and pride within the team, a feeling that their judgment and opinion matters in the organizational context; second, it brings up feedback and outlook from the trenches which lead to creation of potentially new initiatives, strategies and mindset to tackle the upcoming annual objectives; thirdly, planning Quantitative goals provides an avenue to do the necessary check and balance to determine whether the Quantitative goal is within the practical ‘zone’ and can be attained with a stretch
. In setting Quantitative goals, I have always preached a bottom-up and a top-down approach. A bottom up approach is fair because it provides the downstream participation and perspective based on several influencing factors. Both are welcome in considering and determining what goals need to be set, which needless to say needs to be top-down
. While seeking bottom-up feedback, it is crucial that the right set of expectations are set with the contributors – think like a shareholder of the company, size the opportunity correctly – if the final results differ significantly from your outlook you obviously will not look good, be aware that the Quantitative goals that you will be ultimately expected to work on will be determined with the consideration of many data-points including the ones you provide. The goals therefore might differ significantly from your recommendation. The right expectations upfront allow people to go through the exercise with the right mindset and prevent any potential heart burn downstream
. Try these out and see how you go. All I am preaching is commitment for ‘involvement with reason’ in lieu of ‘coercion’, ‘collaboration’ in lieu of ‘conflict’ and ‘participation’ in lieu of ‘alienation‘ in every stage of the next year Planning process ….. whatever the state of quarter four may be!!!!!
. Closing the year with all business revenue, margin, share, productivity and utilization goals accomplished is always a must do. However the intellect focused on closing the quarter and the year is constantly bombarded by the incessant flow of data requests for setting the goal for the next year
. In my early days as a people manager, I would be grossly offended by this ‘distraction’ related to next year planning when closing the financial year seemed like the most important thing on the planet to me. Over the years I admittedly wizened up as I began to appreciate the ‘other’ activity
. As we approach the year end we are typically in quarter four – i.e. three quarters have come and gone by and unfortunately the results will not change. Even the fourth quarter is mostly done and depending the nature of your position and your business you might have minor to meager influence on the final results at that point
. The following year on the other hand lies ahead like the proverbial ‘fresh sheet of snow’. You can (based on your position) at least partly determine what your individual, team or organization’s footprint will look like on that brand new surface. Does that not warrant some time, reflection and attention… easy choice, right?
. The Planning exercise for the following year usually has a Quantitative (revenue, margin, share, opex etc.) and a Qualitative (initiatives, go to market, coverage gaps, partnerships, resources, skills and infrastructure) component – make no mistake, both are equally crucial! Most organizations focus unduly on the Quantitative element while the smart outfits get the operating teams to focus on the Quantitative planning and goals to determine the ‘What’ while the Qualitative planning provides the ‘How’.
. It is unfortunate and alarming that most organizations spend very little time planning and more specifically socializing the next year goals with the broader set of people who are expected to deliver those goals
. That said, it is within every leader’s prerogative to socialize Quantitative and Qualitative objectives for the following year with some relevant people within her team after familiarizing them thoroughly with the overall organizational strategy framework.
. Socializing goals bottom-up leads to three specific values – firstly, it creates a sense of belonging, individual value and pride within the team, a feeling that their judgment and opinion matters in the organizational context; second, it brings up feedback and outlook from the trenches which lead to creation of potentially new initiatives, strategies and mindset to tackle the upcoming annual objectives; thirdly, planning Quantitative goals provides an avenue to do the necessary check and balance to determine whether the Quantitative goal is within the practical ‘zone’ and can be attained with a stretch
. In setting Quantitative goals, I have always preached a bottom-up and a top-down approach. A bottom up approach is fair because it provides the downstream participation and perspective based on several influencing factors. Both are welcome in considering and determining what goals need to be set, which needless to say needs to be top-down
. While seeking bottom-up feedback, it is crucial that the right set of expectations are set with the contributors – think like a shareholder of the company, size the opportunity correctly – if the final results differ significantly from your outlook you obviously will not look good, be aware that the Quantitative goals that you will be ultimately expected to work on will be determined with the consideration of many data-points including the ones you provide. The goals therefore might differ significantly from your recommendation. The right expectations upfront allow people to go through the exercise with the right mindset and prevent any potential heart burn downstream
. Try these out and see how you go. All I am preaching is commitment for ‘involvement with reason’ in lieu of ‘coercion’, ‘collaboration’ in lieu of ‘conflict’ and ‘participation’ in lieu of ‘alienation‘ in every stage of the next year Planning process ….. whatever the state of quarter four may be!!!!!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Driving Organization Vision – Keep Visors & Shades on!!
- Organization, department and even team Visions are hugely instrumental in providing guidance and momentum, even passion and excitement to operating teams!
- A Vision can range from a GRAND organization wide shift to a FOCUSED department initiative for revenue growth, expense optimization or new business development. The principle of unfolding the Vision will be the same - the scale will vary
- If many chefs in a kitchen or many surgeons in a surgery concern you – then you get a good feel of what too many Visionaries or Visions can be for a smaller team or even for an organization
- Ability to conceive and build a Vision is a specific capability, not a general skill and does not even need to be one! Translating the Vision into specific short term measurable goals and actions, then laying out the implementation path is another competency. Thereafter, leading and participating in the implementation of the Vision & delivering predictable results is the third mutually exclusive competency
- I have realistically seen these skills demonstrated by three very different profiles of people. However, I have seen exceptional circumstances within small groups where the same individual demonstrates two or all of these three competencies
- I am laying this out upfront because for the successful implementation of a Vision all these 3 roles need to be understood, differentiated and used. Related ownerships and accountabilities need to be set for each of the roles – do this and see the Vision unfold into real world results!
- The Vision is conceived by the proverbial "Visionary" (lets call this individual or group A), normally the head of the operating group - this is a very 'macro view' that lays out the broad based direction the leader(s) wishes the group to take based on individual or collective judgment. The 'Vision' at this stage is usually skeletal, possibly over simplified and can be usually understood by a selective few who are either closely associated with the working and thinking process of the leader(s) or involved with the core functions of the group (lets call them Team B).
- It is very risky to spill this 'unbaked' Vision outside of Team B. The unbaked Vision can very likely send wrong signals to the rest of the fraternity, de-focus people from their immediate job functions or simply confuse them regarding the relationship of the new Vision to their current way of doing things. So do ensure that the broader team has their visors and shades on at this time
- Having people with competencies around "translating the Vision into specific short term measurable objectives and laying out the implementation path" come in handy at this time. This is usually contributed by Team B. Team B articulates the "Why?" behind the Vision and provides meat to the initial skeletal structure. They also lay down short term goals and metrics that will be implemented by usually more than one functional group. While doing this, Team B should explain the rational of each goal and metrics in a manner that the downstream teams will understand. They also prepare plans and methodologies on how these function specific goals and metrics will be sold to the downstream functional leaders first who will then communicate this to their teams (Team C).
- This stage requires over-communication between A and B as well as B and C-Team Leaders as the Vision starts to settle in. New Visions also introduce ‘change’ that Team C members normally resist – the intensity for resistance grows as you go down the hierarchy. Complement this by reinforced top down communication, document & broadcast best practices demonstrated by the early adopters while highlighting & rewarding the early wins or proof points. In parallel also take in feedback from rank and file, especially on ‘what is NOT working’. These often prove more valuable than they apparently seem and ensure that the vision gets further fine-tuned to deal with the real world!
- The ‘Rolling out the Vision’ to Team C Plan also includes relating the new activities that emerge out of the implementation of the Vision to the current roles, responsibilities and compensation of those involved. If changes are needed, this is the time to do so rather than leave it till later
- Very often the Vision does not have a bearing on Team C's immediate objectives - this can be a potential melting point that needs diplomacy, communication skills, tact and most importantly courage from Team B and Team C leaders to help align. Exceptions regarding compensation (where absolutely needed) should be considered for specific pivotal roles who are critical for the success of the implementation especially within Team C
- Once Team C has bought into the Vision, implementation commences. Team B and Team C leaders need to be very vigilant during this phase and ensure that the goal completion and related metrics are on track – constant feedback to leadership and the participants is recommended. More importantly, they should continually do the checks and balances to ensure that A's Vision or Team B's implementation path are realistic and achievable based on feedback from the trenches. I recommend periodic, structured communication between teams A, B, C to accomplish this
- Often adjustments and modifications early in the implementation process based on internal, adjustment or even competitive circumstances results in a more impactful realization of the Vision. Conversely, I have seen many an implementation turn lackluster because the teams did not consider changing external circumstances while implementing the Vision that was originally conceived in a different time and place
- Assuming the implementation is going fine, constant periodic feedback to the team is still recommended till the goals that the Vision aspired start showing (the Vision might be more of a continuum). At this time the leader ought to announce the accomplishment of the immediate goal to everyone involved, lay out the learning and formally conclude the (shorter term) exercise. Do not forget to celebrate success thereafter and reward or recognize the high achievers
- For longer term organizational level Visions – short to mid term goal-setting, performance measurement, feedback, adjustment of the Vision, communication of progress and reinforcement of the Vision to all involved are crucial ingredients that keep the Vision alive and fired up!
- Try this out in your own roles but make sure that the people are wearing the right visors and shades based on their roles as the Vision unfolds…..
- I got some feedback regarding opportunities for Team C to contribute to corporate vision. My answer ... ABSOLUTELY! I see many organizations reaching out and rewarding people at every level for creating and contributing to innovation and new initiatives within the organization. I support and applaud such practices.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Making TeamWork Work!
- Organizational productivity starts to crawl and competitive advantage goes out of the window if organizations fail to accomplish 'Teamwork' or more appropriately 'Cross-functional Teamwork'. Building effective teams is hardly a walk in the park for most business leaders and operational managers!
- The way around is to determine the kind of team-work methodology the organization currently practices that does not measure up, seek alternate methodologies & models needed to perform optimally, then re-start the process.
- Be aware of some basic guidelines though …Get the team mentally prepared to work together – different people need different levels of preparation to do this. Some even need specific handholding and assurances to be able to work with others
- Teams and teamwork go through several stages of evolution before beginning to function cohesively. Guidance, counseling and open communication is key in these stages
- Next, do ensure that the team has a ‘What’ and a ‘Why’ of their goals clearly defined – people (especially individual achievers) do not necessarily enjoy being in a group situation of compromise and consensus unless there is a clear understanding of the goals and the reasoning (read individual benefits) behind the goal
- Right after laying down the broad objectives, do ensure a precise team objective with quantifiable and measurable outcomes. Ideally, its best to set milestones along the path of the ‘What’ so that the team can measure progress and success as granularly as possible and make changes as appropriate along the way
- That said, leaders should not rush to assess team performance too early in the cycle – it generally preferable to let the unit mature before any assessment on the productivity of the team is done
- It is natural for teams to experience ‘teething problems’ as they come together – I begin to worry if all team members continually put on their game face and pretend that all is well and overtly anxious to demonstrate how well things are working
- Different teams need different levels of hand-holding and guidance depending on the team’s composition and the complexity of the task
- Leaders need to be able to determine which teams need guidance and which ones need to be left alone.
- Quantifiable goals and metrics that I mentioned earlier facilitate the process and serve as tools for teams to determine if they need guidance or need to modify and adjust their strategy
- Successful teams leverage individual strengths and competencies while merging these competencies across a broader ‘team fabric’ that lends a larger value to the combined competencies than the sum of individual parts.
- Finally, do not forget to encourage the team to celebrate success when the mission is accomplished! Celebrating leaves pleasant memories for the team members to feed on even when they have disbanded! It also creates a strong foundation of future engagement amongst two or more members should a suitable opportunity present itself!
Ten ways to drive a successful Teambuilding Exercise
1. The nature of the initiative determines the character of the team that is being built.
2. The event should include variety in content.
3. Watch the agenda. Link the activities in the exercise as close to the work life circumstances
and instances as possible. People are smart & seek personal wins – they tune off if the task
is irrelevant to their actual roles and responsibilities
4. Planned milestones should be preset, quantifiable and measureable. They should be
reviewed with diligence on pre set dates
5. Stay clear of conflicts – maximum alignment is key! Conflicts though healthy (if managed
appropriately) still delay the processes and prevent alignment
6. Frequent team meals are welcome – a team that eats together; stays together!
7. Build in ‘recall’ – humorous conversations, quips & actions with funny tasks and
challenging, innovative outcomes make the session memorable and impactful
8. Introduce multiple instructors – beside livening up content, they bring a more balanced and
varied perspective.
9. Relate the exercise that you are conducting with the big bad world outside – make sure that
the team understands the relevance
10. Don’t expect the event to fix everything! Treat this as a good start for better things to come
Monday, September 8, 2008
Celebrating Success – A Way of Life!
- I am a huge believer in celebrating success – celebrating accomplishments. After all what is the point of succeeding if we do not have the time, inclination or opportunity to take a moment to celebrate it!
- I love doing it and its rubbed onto my wife and daughters where the whole family finds every opportunity to celebrate accomplishments. After all, these celebrations give a meaning to the hard work that goes in towards achieving virtually anything – nothing worth doing is really easy
- Celebrations also set the platform to launch the next target accomplishment. Its very much like trekking up a mountain peak despite all the adversities. Would it not be wonderful to stand on the pinnacle for a while and enjoy the beautiful sights all around that the summit provides you – soak it in .. after all you have earned it. View it, feel exhilarated by it and then set out for the next goal which will provide you with greater accomplishment and a nicer view.
- In my field sales days I spent years in a software company where the ritual of celebration was taken very seriously. As a rep walked in with a purchase order, he would ring a cow-bell that was suspended in the office lobby – brilliant stroke. All of us reps would ring the bell with joy and pride as we held our purchase orders while everyone around would cheer! This not only made our days but created a deep desire for accomplishment and recognition.
- I have seen smart organizations use celebration of success as a classical non-monetary tool for employee motivation and retention of top talent. Keeping great people is not about just paying them big bucks – simple acknowledgement of people’s efforts and accomplishment goes a long way… The flip side is quite predictable!
- My daughters are growing up very aware that their parents not only love them unconditionally but have a lot of pride and respect for all their successes and accomplishments however insignificant they may seem. This is shaping their character, attitude and their bonding with their parents. Employees within organizations are no different.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Oops! We have Solved the “Wrong” Problem!
- We have become very efficient in living in a world filled with instant gratification where every external stimulus deserves an immediate (almost in a nanosecond) response!!!
- Just look around and see people with their cell phones, blackberries, in discussion sessions – eager to speak, to respond, almost itching to do so..
- I have myself been in sessions where I have coached people to ‘listen between the lines’ and understand others perspective before responding. Its amazing to observe how people instead of ‘listening’ are actually mentally rehearsing their own lines while someone else is talking, just waiting for the other person to conclude
- Some of the North Asian cultures encouraged ‘thinking’ followed by a consensus based response – contemporary business cultures are unfortunately erasing these great habits!
- I have come across many situations where talented, result oriented individuals and groups get together to study a situation and define the underlying problem. Being a part of the instant gratification ‘culture’ & faced with tight deadlines, they often define the problem, well … ‘wrongly’!!!
- They then set about in full steam to solve the ‘wrong’ problem and do a good job at it! All the while there is a lot of visible activity, the reporting hierarchies are happy with the development & in some instances the individuals are also rewarded or publicly recognized
- Strangely though when the initial euphoria settles – the desired results are not visible. Some of the ‘participants’ then own up and confess that they expected better results while some try and sweep the data under the carpet & forget about it…
- The crux here is the value of the ‘thinking exercise’, be it individual or collaborative. The proverbial sharpening of the axe before beginning to chop down the tree
- An imperfect situation that needs to be fixed absolutely demands the time for thinking and analyzing to determine what is causing the imperfection – the problem itself. Often what meets the eye and seems like the obvious cause is not it!
- Matrix organizations & formation of cross functional groups presents opportunities for gathering varied perspectives on the same set of circumstances & data.
- If you are a team member leverage these varied views, contribute yours and encourage the team to take a balanced view based on the consolidated set of opinions.
- If you are a leader and do not necessarily want to make a consensus based decision, ask questions, challenge individual views and take holistic view of the surrounding circumstances or data to define the problem before commencing the “fix”
- While it is mostly a drag to dwell long on the problem instead of setting out in light speed to solve it – you will serve yourself, your team and your organization well in terms of time, effort & investment by choosing to define the problem better
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Fix the 'End Goal' within the Strategy First!
- Strategy seems to be in everyone’s mind these days .. hey you have to ‘strategize’ to build competitive advantage & drive organizational, team or individual success. Is it not the ultimate differentiator against those who do NOT have a strategy, remember Strategic Management at B-School – so we go blah .. blah .. blah
- Seriously speaking, I value strategy for all the above virtues and have used it for attaining leadership positions in many ways myself. That said, I often see strategy taking too much of prominence in time, focus and mindshare where it begins to become a worry. Also remember that for all you may think, your competitors are strategizing too .. against you!
- I view strategy as one of the means to attain the end game rather than the highly involved end game itself – this very often happens without you even realizing it!
- The end game attainment goals needs to be definite – holistic goals like top-line, bottom-line, share growth or specific goals like market-share, productivity growth etc. Simply put, a metric that delivers incremental value to the organization & provides it with a competitive advantage
- Add to that a need for an accurate description of your current status – what is the point of figuring out where you need to go if you are not clear where you stand today
- That done, the ‘strategy’ needs to be taken down to all the functional groups that will drive the determined ‘end game’- sales, marketing, finance, operations, manufacturing with commonly agreed sub-goals that will cumulatively drive the overall end game. Disjointed and often contradictory strategies between functional groups have a history of downing many a honest effort - leadership, teamwork & collaboration are keywords here
- In my leadership career I have practiced a Plan of Record (POR) Methodology for determining & executing strategy collaborating multiple cross geography teams. The POR glues the teams by - documenting specific focus areas, specific action items related to these focus areas, designated primary owners, associated secondary owners (across cross functional teams), target completion dates, actual completion & comments. Quantify these as much as possible and ensure they capture the What, When, Where, Who & How? Watch out for the devil in the details & you will stay on track
- While the POR guides your execution, do not lie back just yet! Milestones along the way are crucial in determining whether the strategy is on track – quantitative milestones embedded in the POR (as recommended above) are very useful in accomplishing this
If the variance between the forecast & actual is significant at consecutive milestones, it is very likely that we have a problem - Socialize within the functional teams involved and do not be afraid to open up the Strategy shell … it is always better to take a step back and fix things rather than continue to make the shortcoming bigger than what it really is
- Your methodology and your quantified pre set goals will provide your team with the confidence in driving towards the end game goals. Assuming that you have set the goals right, you are very likely on the track to deliver incremental value & competitive advantage to your organization .. Congratulations!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Regional Leaders – Global outfits
- As the Asian business grows in size, relevance and complexity I see organizations struggling to choose the right profile for the head of the geography position.
- The early days of Asian business development could well afford the ‘man from the mother-ship’, who had worked at the Headquarters and was a source of comfort to all within – a person who could be trusted to run the business many thousand miles away
- While the corporate comfort associated with this model was obvious, life for the individual (despite the lucrative hardship allowance!) was hardly a privilege. From having to cover a widespread unknown terrain band-aid(ed) by creaky infrastructure that was just about evolving, to struggling with the local business culture that varied radically within the continent itself (not to mention the differences with the west), the social challenges and the local cuisine, seductive but treacherous to the body! Business volumes & expectations were minimal and the Asia presence was largely considered a ‘rounding error’ in the worldwide revenue roll-up. Japan, the second largest economy in the world perhaps was the only exception!
- Then came the Asian revolution. Taiwan, Hong Kong & all of South East Asia started the momentum in the early 90s that continued to ramp despite the slow down of 1996 & 2001 and gathered further momentum as China & India joined the fray. Asia and Asian business would never be the same again! Along with this the model for Managing Asia would also need to change big time…
- So what does it take to develop and put in place not one but a string of successful regional leaders who successfully take the organization through its different stages of evolution? Do not assume that the profile of the leader who sets up the first beachhead is consistent with the one who builds the team & the run-rate business or the one who drives tier 2 & tier 3 growth initiatives while building a real organization. The skill attributes, personalities and individual competencies of these individuals are very different & they thrive in very different worlds. Once in a while, we do come across individuals who scale through all these levels, possess a different mindset and end up building their destinies very differently than most mortals all the way to the corner office!
- An effective Asian leader needs to use the distances and diversities of the geography to his advantage rather than succumb to them! He takes a ‘big picture view’ and determines the unique moving parts, uses them, leverages them (be a great user of Kotler’s 5Ps) and drives competitive advantage, revenue, margin & share for the organization while providing value to customers and partners! Tall order but hardly undoable!
- All initiatives have to start & end with people. Leading more than ten nationalities, speaking different languages, subscribing to different religions & business practices does not help! So how does one get this diverse band together??? Building a powerful vision that stands for success, commitment, value & integrity while clearly explaining the ‘Why’ is a great starting point. Communication therefore is key – regional leaders have to be ‘Great’ communicators with strong abilities to feel the business pulse. They need to be able to keep their troops in the geography motivated and on message while being natural marketeers of their geography with credible business acumen and dependable vision of the future to the home office.
- Building a strong leadership team is the next big step. Thankfully talent is plentiful but finding the right fit can be tricky within a situation of high demand. A leader with a strong track record and effective local network can put together a productive leadership team by quickly earning the trust and respect of his direct reports based on established credentials & reputation from past positions. He can also delve into past trusting relationships and draw talent into the organization. Good leadership teams not only bring in good quality talent who are familiar with each others work style and are capable of quickly producing results. These early movers also effectively sculpt the reputation and the local culture of the organization – so these guys better be good!
- This high quality leadership team consequentially attracts more high quality people. As the team builds the region head needs to ensure that people quality is never compromised. No leader (worth his salt) should be worried about hiring people stronger than them – I understand and appreciate the paradox here. A smart team makes the leader’s position strong and provides the leader with the bandwidth and the platform to further strengthen the geography both externally and internally, especially within the HQ. A weak team leaves the leader scrambling to meet the tactical goals of the business and provides him with minimal options and bandwidth to strategically build the business
- Assuming the leader does have the right team in place, it is very easy to stifle top talent if they are not provided a conducive environment to thrive in! I have personally benefited much by following a simple set of procedures with the talented teams that I have been fortunate to lead: establish a common understanding & agreement regarding ‘why we are doing what we are doing’, setting agreed upon goals, determining & providing what is needed to get the job done, setting the right expectation of what latitude is available (you cannot obviously give everything that you are asked for!), provide adequate authority and hold the person hugely accountable for the results. I firmly believe that authority & accountability go hand in hand. One does not work without the other!
- A leader while supporting and standing by his team also needs to make the tough calls – be fair and equitable. Good leadership does not necessarily mean getting along with everyone and keeping everybody happy. Very often leaders forget that they are being watched, their every action scrutinized by people within and outside the organization. Self awareness therefore is a major attribute of all leaders – they are very aware of the impact of their behavior & actions on others. I have made many wonderful friends through my career. Some of them are part of my team – I share a honest but unwritten code with them – friendship is friendship and business is business, we never mix the two. This simple rule has paid great dividends over the years and has help deepen both relationships.
- Able leaders do not just focus on driving business. These are obvious. They spend time contemplating the Infrastructure that needs to be put into place to sustain & support their growing businesses. Communication skill and internal credibility is key to make his happen. The leader needs to step out of his comfort zone and communicate with non-sales functional groups, market his team’s ideas and garner support for infrastructural investments and support from the headquarter. Failure to do so not only leads to unutilized opportunities but also causes de-motivation and loss of credibility within the team.
- I am sure by now you are looking for the shopping list, the attributes of these successful leaders. Well, its common sense really – impressive and sequentially growing contribution to the organizations top and bottom line (this is a ticket to entry to the Hall of Fame), growing faster than competition, the geography and the rest of the organization garners additional respect. The icing involves doing stuff that would not have happened if the leader did not drive it – new market or segment entry, strategic initiatives, conceptualizing and driving new segments, strategic partnerships change the playing field, methodologies that strengthen the organization and people development activities that create a ‘winning’ workforce and a slew of top quality leaders. Do these and you will surely build your legacy where you are. You will look back with pride at what you have left behind when you choose to walk away.
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