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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

What is the importance of trust when building a high performing team?

05 Jun

Trust is the corporate lubricant of success. Trust is the foundation of any relationship and every high performing team or organization. If there is no trust, the rest is much harder to accomplish. Yet, at the same time trust often feels as something that is not tangible and it is nothing you can do something with.

There are two lenses to approach trust. First there is trust as an assessment. It implies that you start with little or no trust, and you assess based on the other’s performance or behavior if they are worthy of your trust. When we look at trust as an assessment, you assess the other’s performance and behavior at four levels:

  1. Are they competent to fulfill their promise? Are they knowledgeable and do they have the skills, can they assess their capacity and not overload themselves, and can they assess duration by accurately timing how long it will take? These are all questions that you can check to see if the other person is competetent.

  2. Have they been reliable in fulfilling their promises in the past?

  3. Do they make sincere promises?

  4. Are we aligned in our ethics and values?

This view will allow you to always trace back where a particular breakdown happens and point out to the other person why you don’t trust their actions in a certain area. However, if you only build trust via assessment, it will always make you wonder, and the moment one of you breaks one promise you often have to start building up trust again from square one. This by itself is no way to build up a high performing team.

That is why if you are interested in building a high performing team, you have to build authentic trust, the second lens to look at trust. For example, just look at a relation you have with a significant other. You don’t constantly look at that person to rebuild trust every time they miss fulfilling a promise. And yes, we all break promises, even you. Why do these instances not break trust with the significant other? Because you know that this person has your best interest at heart, and you trust that they did everything possible to make it happen. In other words you have authentic trust with that person.

This is trust that you give, and you can build it in every relation. This happens in your ability to have authentic conversations, which will allow you to rebuild and recalibrate trust when a promise is broken. In an authentic conversation you create a shared understanding about the concerns and commitments you are pursuing and how current behaviors and broken promises are preventing you from achieving your shared commitment. The basic premise is that trust ultimately lives in our spoken and unspoken conversations. Our ability to break through the unspoken conversations, will allow you to build authentic trust.

There are several blogs on this site that will show you how you can build trust through conversations. The key point is that trust is a major driver for a high performing organization, and it is something that you can create, nurture and maintain.

 

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Posted in Conversational Dynamics, Creating Breakthroughs, General, Leadership, Trust

 

What to do when your management team does not have the capacity to meet new business demands?

08 May

This is a question I deal with on a regular basis in our consulting practice. Either it is about the executive team, the marketing team, engineering team or any other team. You see this question often in organization with stronger silos. There is a lot of danger in those broad statements that need to be further clarified for the sake of the organization.

When you are in an organization where this happens, we make these broad statements about other teams often times without fully grounding these statements. Most likely, something happened in the past, and you made a story up about it, and then what happened and the story collapsed and you start living out of that story as it is the truth with a capital T. Once that happens, you most likely start defending that story, and even worse, amongst your team members you all agree on the story, and now this is the foundation for any future action in relation to that team. Do you recognize this happening?

What else has not happened? Chances are is that you, or anyone on your team, have never shared that story with anyone of the team that you are characterizing as not capable. Nobody on that team was able to explore it with you, even more, there is a good chance they are not even aware that this is what you think of them.

It still serves us though! When something goes wrong you can blame the other team for the problems, and because you never checked it out, you get to be right about it too! Let’s explore this for the management team.

This story is only an interpretation! When you are in this situation, what do you think the answers will be to the following questions?

  • Would the people on the management team agree with this interpretation?
  • Is this something that the management team has realized?
  • Does it really apply to every person in the management team?

 

In general, it is highly unlikely that every single executive on such a team does not have the capacity to meet the new business demands. What I could believe, if there are facts, that they are not appreciating the new business reality, and that they are still taking the same actions that worked in their old environment, that no longer work in their new environment. You especially see this with organizations that have been very successful in the past but their environment has changed dramatically in recent times.

This does not mean they don’t have the capacity, it only tells me that certain conversations within the management team are not happening. Although it sounds simple, as seen by many failing companies, it is not. In such situations you are often dealing with blindness, the notion of what they don’t know, they don’t know.

Also, now you also see how quickly I came up with a different interpretation, but similar to the first statement, not a story that I have checked out with anyone yet.

It is part of your leadership skills in the organization, to initiate an authentic conversation based on your concern and your commitment to mutual success. From that perspective you should then mutually explore the facts of what is really happening and all the different interpretations that are possible. From there you can then agree on new actions that will lead to different and better results.

In my next blog, I will describe how you can start this conversation.

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Posted in Authentic Speaking, Conversational Dynamics, Creating Breakthroughs, General, HR, Leadership, Teamwork

 

Creating Breakthroughs

22 Aug

What is a breakthrough?  A breakthrough is an extraordinary and unprecedented result.  Most people believe that breakthroughs are accidental.  This is conventional wisdom.  We believe breakthroughs can be created intentionally, if you know how to do it.  What stops you from creating a breakthrough?  YOU!

There are key principles to breakthrough creation that you can apply to your life and work. You can actually learn how to create breakthroughs through a specific, tested breakthrough creation process. You can learn how to overcome breakdowns on the way to your breakthrough.

This is such an important concept that I decided to bring a special event to the attention of my readers.  I learned the power of breakthrough years ago.  Understanding how to create breakthroughs served me well as an engineering executive and a turnaround CEO.  I decided to share this experience given my commitment to help organizations create the breakthroughs they need to distance themselves from their competitors.

You can read about the process.

Or, you can see it in action.  While reading is good, seeing is better.

If you want to learn how to create a breakthrough in your life and/or your company, Eric Best and I are demonstrating the power of the breakthrough distinction at a free event sponsored by the Positive Energy Summit. Believe it or not, once you embody the distinction breakthrough, you will enable breakthroughs to occur.

The free event will be held this Wednesday, August 25, 2010 from 7:00PM to 9:00PM.

You can sign up by clicking here

At this event, you will be given the opportunity to actually experience your own power to create a breakthrough.  You will be given the opportunity to overcome your self-limiting beliefs by learning to project energy in such a way as to influence material objects such as ‘commanding spoons to bend’ and moving objects without touching them.

What does this have to do with accelerating my business performance?  Everything!  To create a breakthrough in business requires a belief in the possibility, and a commitment to, what James Collins calls, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, a BHAG.   Out of your commitment, you plan from the future back to the present to bring the breakthrough into existence.  The hardest part is to overcome your own limiting beliefs.  IBM did research on breakthrough creation and improved project performance up two times better than the status quo process.

You will learn what is possible if you overcome your limiting beliefs.  You will also learn what happens if you cannot overcome them.  Either way the learning will be very insightful.

If you want to play and experience your own power, you will need to sign-up and bring some materials with you to the Positive Energy Summit.

  • Ordinary string, strong enough such that you could use it for say securely wrapping a package to be mailed. Bring At least 3 yards of such string and a pair of small scissors to cut it.

 

  • Also bring three (3) nuts & bolts from your local hardware store.  You need to make these be small to moderately sized nuts & bolts:  for example a 1/4 to 3/8 inch diameter bolt that is about 2 inches long and a nut to go on each bolt.

 

  • Bring at least 3 regular forks and 3 teaspoons for each person.  Do not bring knives.  If you have some old silver plate silverware (the sort of stuff used back in the 1940′s before stainless steel was around) which you can be okay with “bending”, bring it.  But don’t worry if you don’t have it.  Stainless steel will work okay. 

 

Bring an open mind, a child’s curiosity, and be willing to have fun

If you could use a breakthrough at this time in your life, come to this Positive Energy Summit.  It will be rewarding and fun.  What a combination.  Once you learn how to use the breakthrough tool you can use it throughout your life. This is a tool that gets sharper and stronger with each use.

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Posted in Creating Breakthroughs, General

 

The BIG WHY

27 Jul

A colleague, and fast becoming a friend, challenged me with a great question – Why do I do what I do? What resonates with me, defines me uniquely, drives me, and fulfills me.

She suggested I read the book “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek before I jumped into developing an answer to the BIG WHY!

I downloaded the book immediately and started reading it intently. I want to share the results of my reflections.  I consider this a work in progress so this may change, but right now it feels right.  It resonates in me.  I am enlivened by my inquiry.  I am fully self expressed in this post.

Sinek’s book suggests you cannot invent your WHY.  You have to access your WHY by reflecting on your pass and seeing the themes in your life.  From these themes, you can access the WHY of what you do and how you do it.

In reflecting on my past, I saw the following themes playing out in my professional life.

  • Challenge and accomplishment – Creating and playing games worth playing.

 

  • Self development – Commitment to continually enhancing my leadership and management competency.

 

  • The development of others – Commitment to empowering others to act powerfully.

 

  • Creating extraordinary accomplishments/results through extraordinary teamwork.

 

Over time, I have come to believe, at the core of my being, that everything that happens in business, the invention of business models, strategies and processes, happens by people working with people.  The business system is designed by and maintained through the conversations people have or don’t have with other people.  While this is true at every level of the organization, it is especially impactful at the executive level. 

Assuming the executive team and other teams within the organization have the intellectual capacity to effectively run their business and respond to environmental changes, I believe what gets in the way of fully accessing the totality of their intellectual capacity is their fear of full self expression.  To be fully self expressed means, I am not withholding how I feel and think about issues, real time, face to face.  This full self expression releases the creative genius of the team because of the free interplay of ideas and concerns and keeps everyone in the conversation, authentically, until the AHAH is reached. 

Can it be this simple?  Yes, I think it is this simple, at the core.  If I am fully self expressed then you have access to my mind and creativity.  Anything I withhold is due to fear.  Drive out fear of self expression and the possibility of extraordinary creativity and innovation arises.  If I am in an environment where I am fully self expressed, then I will naturally become fully engaged and empowered.  Why? Because I am part of the system and I have a direct contribution to make to the system design and outcome.  I will make a big difference when I am fully self expressed compared to when I let myself be shut down.

Out of this reflection, I was able to access the essence of what gives purpose and meaning to my work and my life.

MY BIG WHY

  • I am passionate about seeing people in their full self expression.  My facilitation provides a roadmap for my clients to access their creative genius, increase innovation, productivity and business results.

 

  • I love working with clients who are enthusiastic and inspired about creating corporate excellence.  My contribution enhances their competitive strength with their people fully aligned, engaged and empowered. This alignment and cohesion bring a synergistic advantage in creating a thriving organization.

 

  • I enjoy enhancing the leadership capacity of individuals and teams to achieve their specific outcomes.

 

  • I am energized when I help clients create and realize their extraordinary future.
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Posted in General, Teamwork

 

Every organization is perfectly designed to produce the results it is producing!

17 Jun

Every organization is a system, and as a system it is perfectly designed to produce the results it is producing! Is this true? We have been in front of executives who will disagree with this, at least initially. Often it is because they trip over the fact that it is perfectly designed. As a leader, this can be a hard message to hear, as the buck stops with you!

Can you see that this sometimes is a hard message to deliver to executives? If you are not getting the results that you are looking for, and yet you have been working hard, does that mean that you have been doing it wrong?

Now, let’s look at the good news. The good news is that once you accept this premise, and you see that it is a design, now you can start looking for what it is you can change in your design to significantly improve your results.

As discussed at several topics here on our blog, you design your company system through the conversations that you are actively having as well as those that you have codified in employee manuals, procedures, plans. However, your design is also stuck in unspoken conversations that you should be having but you are not having. The classic example is of a company that wants to be innovative but does not reward risk taking.

Once you recognize that, you can now also see that if you want to change your results, and therefore the design of your team or company, you just have to change your conversations.

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Posted in Change, Conversational Dynamics, General, Leadership, Strategy, Videos

 

Is HR more than administration? Or can they play a role in Innovation?

17 May

In many companies HR is not considered a strategic player.  They play an administrative and compliance role, but they do not sit at the strategic table.  They are not invited to participate with the operational executives when it comes to issues dealing with the business.  They are invited to work in the business, but they are not invited to work on the business.

Traditionally, HR’s role has been seen as an administrative function focused on recruiting, compensation, benefits and compliance. Unfortunately, that is HR’s public identity. In an increasingly complex environment, the status quo for people is no longer good enough as highlighted in the Future of HR.

If an HR professional wants to be a strategic player within their organization they have to expand their competencies to include developing an understanding of the business, its strategic objectives and the depth and breadth of competencies necessary to fulfill the strategic objectives.  Also, the HR executive and manager has to be able to develop and guide the change process, build and develop an appropriate culture, and put in place the strategies and initiatives to develop high-performance teams at all levels of the organization.

Is HR willing to step up to that plate? Or are they comfortable in their current role? If HR is not participating in the strategic conversation, it will help if they can define the following questions:

  • What does it mean to think strategically from an HR perspective?
  • What strategic competencies does the HR professional need to develop?
  • What should HR professionals be focused on strategically?
  • How should the strategic focus fit and support the corporate mission?



Defining the answers to these questions will allow HR, and any other executive that wants to be involved in the strategic conversation, to build their strategic muscle and claim their place as a strategic player. More importantly, it will define their role in the innovation success of the company they work at.

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Posted in Change, General, HR, Leadership, Teamwork

 

Welcome to The Executive Perspective

07 Mar

It Doesn’t Have To Be Lonely At The Top!

 

The Executive Perspective Roundtable provides a unique peer group for top-level business executives to meet, share experiences and resolve business challenges in a confidential setting.  This dynamic convergence of people and ideas results in each member gaining a broader perspective from the experiences and insights of other business leaders. Members also gain a sounding board for issues that cannot be easily discussed.  Like a board of directors, the roundtables are completely confidential. Participants openlyexpress their concerns, and discuss alternatives, in a setting that would be difficult to duplicate anywhere else.

As a CEO, President, General Manager or company owner, you are responsible for many of the top-line and bottom-line decisions made within your company.  How are these decisions vetted?  Who can you confide in?  With challenging or delicate decisions, it may be difficult to confide in your board or your staff while you are thinking through the issues.  Yet wouldn’t it be great to have the opportunity to get a broader executive perspective from people, like you, who have been through similar situations and be able to use their experience as a guide?

As an operating executive, what do you think?

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Posted in General

 
 
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