How Do Leaders Build Cultural Clarity And Alignment? - Part #2

Some days we get so busy solving problems as leaders and managers that we forget that most people will shift their thinking only after new behaviors have led to results that matter to them and have been validated by others. The best leaders understand this and recognize that building cultural clarity and alignment is playing the long game. As Jon Katzenbach, Ilona Steffen and Caroline Kronley in their article,“Cultural Change That Sticks,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 2012, note “deeply embedded cultures change slowly over time.” We have to be patient then with this level of work.

Still, I have seen alignment take place over the course of my career. In these organizations, leaders make some unique choices. First, results matter within these organizations, i.e. qualitatively and quantitatively at all levels of the organization, not just at the senior team level. You can visit with front line staff or the senior most people and all of them are talking about outcomes and results. 

Second, there is “line of sight” within these organizations. My daily actions and my quarterly goals all connect with the current strategic plan and with the overall mission. Here, alignment is defined as shared beliefs and shared behaviors which achieve a collective goal, outcome, or result. It is not a vague  idea but instead is an executable reality and choice.

Next, the leaders of these companies agree with John Doerr in his book, Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs (Portfolio, 2018) when he writes: “Healthy culture and structured goal setting are interdependent. They’re natural partners in the quest for operating excellence.”

From my perspective, there also is one more small but important difference in these organizations, namely there is a clear difference by all involved about what are committed goals, i.e. ones tied to metrics and well defined action plans, and aspirational goals, which reflect big picture, higher-risk, more future-tilting ideas and efforts.

This week, I encourage you to sit down with your team and discuss the following two questions: Do we know the difference between committed goals and aspirational goals as a group? Are we clear about who is working on which ones? This level of dialogue and the resulting clarity will make a big difference this coming summer.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

What Is The Connection Between Excellence, Culture And Strategy? - Part #1

I have enjoyed a lot of wonderful breakfast, lunches and dinners with many different people over the last six months. These times together include some deep listening and very good sharing. Our visits have been interesting and insightful. Now is the time for me to share what I have learned with all of you.

We were at a really good burger place a couple of months ago. The food was good and the conversation was lively when I asked the following question: “What are your expectations of your direct reports?”

He paused in between bites and said, “Good question. My expectations for my direct reports are to drive performance metrics, and to keep me informed of what I should know.”

I thought for a moment and then said, “Metrics are an outcome. They are the result of people making the right choices. The challenge for someone in a leadership position is to recognize that behavior problems almost always precedes quantitative results, according to Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012). Furthermore, behavioral problems occur long before any decrease in measurable results is apparent.

So, what is the culture or behaviors that would produce those desired results?What is the mindset where everyone makes the right choices?”

You could just see the wheels turning inside his head as he explored the question. After a couple of moments, he responded, “I want everyone focused, doing the right things at the right time and for the right reasons.”

“Good answer,” I commented. “Now, let’s talk about that ….”

Our challenge as leaders is to recognize that organizational culture reflects a set of behavioral norms. Sometimes we agree to them, and sometimes we are not aware of them. For us here today, we need to remember that about 80% of the staff report to a front line supervisor, and about 80% of the staff work side by side with a small group of co-workers. For these particular staff, their front line supervisor and their co-workers, not you as a senior leader, are their world. For them, these relationships are “the company culture”

I believe there are four levels of organizational culture. The first is interpersonal culture which reflects peer to peer relationships. The second is operational culture which reflects the health of the employee to supervisor relationship. The third is strategic culture which reflects the relationship between the supervisor and the senior team. The fourth level is organizational culture which is the sum of all the relationships, i.e. the company as a whole.

What I have learned over the last six months is that we need to focus on improving the interpersonal culture level and the operational culture level. When people think and act clearly at these two levels, then people do the right things for the right reasons at the right time.

This week, reflect on what you are and are not doing to improve interpersonal and operational culture. It is time more people are making better choices and creating better outcomes.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How do leaders improve team performance? - part #2

There is an interesting thing about the best teams, they just keep getting better. When I am with them, I am constantly trying to figure what it is that makes the difference. For awhile I thought it was something to do with who was in the leadership positions. While I think this clearly does make a difference, I have also noticed something else, namely the whole team holds people accountable, not just the person in the leadership position.

The subject of accountability continues to be a popular topic. Everyone is talking about it and few are clear about what it means and how to do it. Most people focus this subject on the supervisor and direct report relationship, as in holding a person accountable for getting something done. However, few recognize that holding people accountable is supervisor to direct report, but even more so on successful teams it happens at the peer to peer level. It is interesting to note we often do the former and skip the later.

When it comes to accountability, we also don’t differentiate between results based accountability and behavioral based accountability. As Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012), wrote: “Even well-intentioned members of a team need to be held accountable if a team is going to stick to its decisions and accomplish its goals…. The reason that behavioral accountability is more important than the quantitative, results-related kind has nothing to do with the fact that it is harder. It is due to the fact that behavioral problems almost always precede - and cause - a downturn in performance and results.” As he continues, “The ultimate point of building greater trust, conflict, commitment, and accountability is one thing: the achievement of results.”

In order to successfully hold people accountable, and to get them to hold each other accountable, i.e. peer-to-peer, all involved have to know their personal SMART goals, and their team’s SMART goals. You would be surprised with how many do not know the later and only focus on the former. Furthermore, people have to know what is expected of them at the individual level and at the team level. Finally, leaders need to create an environment where people feel safe enough to be coached, to receive feedback and to give it.

When it comes to continual improvement and effective accountability on all levels, I believe the leaders and the teams need to understand the individual and group “why”. As Simon Sinek writes, “What I’m interested in is what gets people up every single day to do something, maybe pay a premium, maybe suffer inconvenience, maybe sacrifice because they’re driven by something else. What is that thing? What I’ve learned is it’s that question, why. It has a biological imperative, it drives us, it inspires us.”

This week, think about and discuss with others the difference between results based accountability and behavioral based accountability. Then check to make sure you know the team’s why and the individuals on the team’s why. This will make a difference in how you move forward and prepare for the new year.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How do leaders build successful teams? - part #2

Picking up where I left off last week, leaders often make two other mistakes when building their teams.

First, they forget to focus on the factors that create high-performance behaviors. We already know that effective leaders clarify purpose and direction with the team. To get everyone aligned and moving in the right direction, the team must agree on the answers to the following four questions:

- What are we suppose to accomplish?

- Why should we do it?

- How will we do it?

- Who will do what?

By clarifying these performance expectations, we, as leaders, need to be very thoughtful in our choice of who is on the team. I recognize the importance of performance focus and expectations, but, when most leaders tell me their expectations in reality all they have done is to define specific steps to achieving a goal. The problem is that by defining specific steps we as leaders think we have control of the team. The reality is that we as leaders have less control than the people who report to us. 

Furthermore, the people who create high-performance behaviors know the difference between what are required steps, e.g. ones related to health, safety or accuracy, and the optional steps, i.e. different ways to achieve the desired outcome. The problem is that most leaders think they are the one who is accountable for the team’s performance. They believe that if they retain control and focus people on performance then everyone will behave and get things done. The reality is that people are messy and all of them do not think or behave the same.

Therefore, the best leaders define results and outcomes during the expectations discussion. This means figuring out what is the right result and the right outcome. They do this by discussing the following questions:

- If the SMART goal is achieved, what is the result? The outcome?

- What difference will achieving the goal make?

By clarifying the results and the outcomes, we are letting people take responsibility for the route they take to the outcome. Please note that this requires of us as leaders to trust people.

One interesting I have noted about successful teams during the last 2 years is that they have a very defined schedule for team meetings. They fall into the categories of strategic, operational, and learning. And these subjects are not all covered in the same meeting.

Furthermore, during these different meetings all involved are clear about the decision architecture, i.e. how to make a decision, and the decision rights, i.e. who actually gets to make the decision.  Richard Hackman in his book, Leading Teams: Setting The Stage For Great Performances (Harvard Business School Press, 2002) says that this degree of clarity “prevents the danger of the team overstepping the actual bounds of their authority.”

The second big problem in building teams is that many leaders do not focus on continually creating clarity. Many think of it as a one and done, and that clarity created at the launch meeting is suppose to sustain people through out the entire time of team execution. 

To help avoid this being the problem, I often ask leaders to tell me their on-going message to the team.  In essence, what are they focusing on with their team. Most give me a generic answer, but I have observed that the best are constantly on-message and share it in the written and spoken forms of communication. Plus they are very specific in their role modeling.

This week, do not underestimate the importance of face to face meetings and analog based communication. Focus more on forming and norming stages than on performing and improving stages in your team building. And remember Robyn Benincas’ Four P’s of Commitment from her book, How Winning Works: 8 Essential Leadership Lessons From The Toughest Teams On Earth (Harlequin, 2012): preparation, planning, purpose and perseverance.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How do leaders create an understanding of a problem and buy-in for the solution? - part #2

One of the biggest challenges to creating buy-in for the solution to a problem starts with creating the environment for understanding and ultimately ownership of the problem. This means we have to help employees feel that they are technically competent to deal with the problem but also committed and motivated to deal with it. This is why more leaders need to read or routinely review the following book: Lencioni, Patrick. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and their employees), Jossey-Bass 2007. This is a great resource for building the right environment for ownership.

Second, John P.  Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead in their book, Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea From Getting Shot Down, Harvard Business Review Press, 2010, write that the elements that work together to achieve buy-in happen when we capture peoples’ attention, and then “with people paying attention, winning over the minds and their hearts.” From my experience and observations, people only do this when they feel safe and cared for by their managers and supervisors.

Finally, while this may seem immensely simplistic, the best leaders at helping people buy-in to a solution show how the solution and it’s related new behaviors and practices will lead to improved results. While this may not be a latest and greatest, hot-off-the-press, best-seller, new idea, it is nevertheless a practical one. When people see improved results, they support and advocate for the solution to continue.

This week, keep building the right environment for ownership, and keep helping people to see improved results. It will make a world of difference for all involved.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How Do Leaders Increase Effective Collaboration? Part #1

This spring companies from coast to coast are continuing to centralize and standardize many different systems and processes.  As a result, lots and lots of people are having to collaborate to solve problems. Some are even calling these new people “their partners.”

First, what is collaboration? According to the dictionary, it means “to work with another person to achieve or do something.” But from experience, I think of collaboration first as a mindset, i.e. a way of thinking. If it is a mindset, then we need to know WHY we need to collaborate. What are the risks of collaboration vs. not collaborating? 

Next, if it is a mindset, then we need to know WHAT to do.This would assume that there is an end goal and that there is some way to measure progress toward this end goal. 

Furthermore, if it is a mindset, then we also need to know HOW to do it. This, to a degree, assumes we are competent is doing the behaviors related to collaboration. Yet underneath all of this collaboration is a recognition that being collaborative means you have to give up control. In specific, you may not be able to control all the details, other people, and even the outcome in certain situations.

Second, collaboration is a set of behaviors, i.e. a way of working with others. Here are the behaviors that make up collaboration: 

- teamwork behaviors as in people who work well together. The key element is to build personal and strategic trust.

- communication behaviors as in people who can communicate clearly and create clarity. The key element is to have have clarity first before communicating.

- problem solving behaviors as in people who can diagnosis the problem and then solve it. The key element is to know the difference between technical, adaptive and crisis based problems.

- decision-making behaviors as in people who can think through impact and precedent. The key element is to not suffer from either strategic or contextual blindness.

- goal setting behaviors as in people who can create SMART goals. The key element here is to understand alignment with the strategic nexus.

- working with data or metrics to monitor progress as in people who can measure their progress. The key element is to understand the difference between operational excellence and organizational success.

In short, collaboration is a complex set of behaviors. And the best leaders focus people on making sure OUR results do not get trumped by MY results. For in the world of collaboration, WE is more important than I.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Expanding Your Network

Many people, who have never been to a From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable, ask me the following question: “When I am so busy, why should I take time to participate in the Fall Roundtable?”

My answer recently has been the following: “Because you will expand your network.”

All of us have a network at work, and all of us routinely network with people outside of work. But the real question is: What kind of network do we have?  When I look at it from this perspective, I always think back to something Herminia Ibarra wrote in her book, Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader. Harvard Business Review Press, 2015. As she notes, there are three different networks one has a leader, namely operations, personal and strategic. “The first helps you manage current internal responsibilities, the second boosts personal development, and the third focuses on new business directions and the stakeholders you must get on board to pursue these directions.”

The key from my perspective is that participants in our twice a year From Vision to Action Executive Roundtables expand all three networks by expanding their perspective and thinking on a variety of different topics. But the one I continually hear executives share with me during coaching sessions is how a Roundtable expands their strategic network. By routine participation, they develop relationships with other leaders which helps them envision a better future, explore new ideas, and get access to new information and resources to further utilize these ideas.  As Ibarra writes, “A good strategic network gives you connective advantage: the ability to marshal information, support, or other resources from one of your networks to obtain results in another.”

Therefore, I invite you to join me and others at the Fall 2015 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable.  Here is the agenda for your review:

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

8:30 am - Registration

9:00 am - 10:15 am - How do leaders get all the different parts of an organization to work together as one unified whole rather than a collection of fragmented silos and turf battles?

10:15 am - 10:30 am - Break

10:30 am - 12:00 pm - What is the role of the leader when everything is constantly changing?

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - Lunch and Networking 

1:30 pm - 2:45 pm - How do leaders improve their decision-making?

2:45 pm - 3:00 pm - Break

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm - How do leaders help others improve their performance?

4:30 pm- Adjourn

Thursday, September 24, 2015

9:00 am - 10:15 am - How do leaders keep operating successfully when their time is constantly being interrupted by everyone else?

10:15 am - 10:30 am - Break 

10:30 am - 12:00 pm - Integration and Application

12:00 pm - Adjourn

Location: Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville, Iowa

Here is the link to the registration form:

http://www.chartyourpath.com/pdf/2015-From-Vision-To-Action-Exec-Roundtable-Regist.pdf

I hope you can come and continue to expand and further develop your operational, personal and strategic networks.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Holding People Accountable - part #1

Accountability is the new buzz word. Just like excellence in the late 80’s and empowerment in the 90’s, everyone is talking about it and few comprehend how to actually do it.

First, we need to recognize that most people’s definition of accountability is typically a reaction to something happening or not happening rather than a proactive choice. The former happens when something or someone upsets status quo. The later happens when we as leaders are willing to take responsibility for our actions, to do what we said we were going to do, and to ask for support before we need it. In short, accountability from a leadership perspective is the willingness of a person to call their peers or direct reports on performance or behaviors that might hurt the team or the company. 

Even though it is a buzz word, accountability is still important. Without it, we can not achieve our strategic goals. Our change process will break down without it. Accountability plays a role in building ownership and it creates enhanced teamwork and trust 

After listening to many leaders talk about accountability this year, and discussing it with them, it has come clear to me that accountability in the realm of leadership is all about results. In particular, it is about driving for results through others. It starts with setting clear expectations, having well defined goals and giving feedback routinely.

Proactive accountability helps the organization reach it’s collective goals. The success of accountability reflects the depth of ownership and understanding about what are our individual and collective results. Thus, line of sight and ownership are connected. In short, the purpose of holding someone accountable is to improve their performance, to help them become a better employee, and to achieve our collective results.

The main problem with accountability right now is ambiguity. Poorly defined goals, low or unclear expectations, and irregular progress reviews or coaching sessions cause many problems. Most people being held accountable end up feeling defensive, loose their self-confidence, become more confused than clear and feel wounded rather than competent.

To successfully be held accountable and to accept it in a positive manner, people have to know their SMART goals before accountability works. But more important, they need to be clear about the results or desired outcomes we are seeking. In short, they have to know what is expected of them.

This week, gather your team together and discuss what is the difference between reactive vs. proactive accountability. It will make a world of difference.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Navigating Through Continued Uncertainty

Over warm cups of coffee, we discussed the many challenges before the nation as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other major changes and redesigns were taking place. The three of us agreed that in order to be successful given these changes, organizations would need to be more integrated, accountable and have a higher degree of transparency. Furthermore, there would need to be greater cooperation and coordination among key stakeholders from many different systems.

However, during a pause in the conversation, one of the people stated that “the master is the one who pays the bills.” We all just sat there for a moment and realized that this was true. Whomever controlled the flow of the money, controlled the whole system. 

While this may be a “blinding flash of the obvious,” referencing a Tom Peter’s term from long ago, it was, at the time, a valuable insight. For if the “master” is focused on outcomes and results, then everyone will move in one specific direction. However, if on the other hand, the “master” is focused on compliance, then everyone will move in a different direction.

Our challenge as leaders is to clarify our intent when communicating about organizational change, and to remember that people think their way through the world of change and feel their way through the world of change. If compliance is the major focus and it is based on fear, then creativity will rarely arise. As Margaret Wheatley pointed out in her extremely thought-provoking book,  So Far From Home: lost and found in our brave new world, Berrett-Koehler, 2012, “... compliance-enforcing behaviors only lead in one direction - to demotivated, demoralized, disaffected, and disappearing workers and colleagues.”

With continued uncertainty on the horizon in 2014, now is the time to focus on constant and compassionate communication. We must let people know we are listening to them as they think and feel their way through the world of change. This will require a tremendous effort on our part as leaders and yet it will make a significant difference as we move together through the rest of 2014.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257