 I moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas http://www.savordallas.com |
 I found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom, CEO CoachWorks International, Inc. http://www.coachworks.com |
 I now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company Author The Field Guide to Sales http://www.the-sales-company.com |
Archive for March, 2009
By Ian D Smith 
This is a challenging time to be in business but there lies the opportunity. I’ve listed 10 specific characteristics of downtimes and 10 positive strategies that embrace and capitalize on them.
- More time to create a focused business: Use this slower paced market to revisit the business you are in – what defines you. This is the perfect time for repositioning, selling off non-core subsidiaries, sharpening up product road maps and value propositions.
- Flight to price and quality: Now is the time to revisit your product mix and pricing strategies. Buying behavior changes dramatically in a recession. Lower priced versions of your product or subscription based business models may be relevant to ease customer cash flow pain.
- Measuring the signals is vital:> Mistakes made in downtimes can prove fatal.
Convert your Accounts Department into a Metrics Center. Trap and visualize your key performance indicators. Audit the signals and constantly interpret the significance to your strategies. - Acquisitions just got cheap: PE ratios of the majority of public companies are in single digits and the valuations of private companies are low. Consider a proactive approach to acquisitions by building a robust acquisition process that is proven to work.
- The “C” level suite just got a free pass to visit their customers: Never has there been a better time for the inner cabinet to visit their customers to understand the specific issues challenging them. It’s not only productive, it’s essential for shaping strategy. Define your engagement strategy and get on site.
- Value Propositions must improve a customer’s performance: Receiving a purchase order, confirming a big deal is very satisfying but it’s not enough. You need to be invested in the improved performance that will be achieved because your customer uses your product. Does your sales process achieve this?
- Curiosity & Urgency of managers dramatically increased: Well it certainly should have. This new level of alertness (perhaps it’s fear) needs to be channeled to produce results. Difficult projects shelved in better times are prime candidates for this energy. Staff want to be effective and busy to get things moving again. Tap into this momentum.
- People and tasks are mis-aligned: Now is the time to think like a start-up. The key –Define Performance Profiles that your company needs to be executed, not job specs but tasks that need to be done well. This will cause old jobs to be merged and new jobs to be created.
- Silo Management is broken: Urgent initiatives will fail without cross-functional support. Company visions need to inspire and flow across functions. Build cross functional teams to execute top priorities.
- Competition thins out: It might be difficult to create double digit growth but you can grab market share. The best companies don’t just survive bad times; they grow and develop into more robust and valuable businesses.
As an experienced business leader, Ian Smith is passionate about maximizing the potential of fast-growing companies. The Portfolio Partnership offers Corporate Development Services on an advisory, operational or investment model. Specifically we execute growth strategies by repositioning companies organically and/or by acquisition.
Ian was educated in Scotland, earning a BA degree from the University of Strathclyde and qualified as a Chartered Accountant of Scotland with Grant Thornton. Post qualification he joined Thomson the publishing giant and became one of their youngest divisional Finance Directors at 26 and was awarded the prestigious, UK Accountant of the Year ahead of many experienced FDs. From 1988 to 2000 he successfully built up two major boutique M&A advisory firms, Livingstone Guarantee and Capita Corporate Finance. During this period he completed over 40 acquisition, disposal or finance transactions, many cross border, many in the technology sector. He assisted dozens of entrepreneurs execute their vision.
In late 2001 he moved to the states to successfully reposition and grow Teamstudio, an IBM business partner with HQ in Beverly, MA and offices in the UK and Japan. During the next 5 years the top line was grown by over 45% and losses were turned into EBITDA of over $10m. high achiever, Ian expects the highest performance from his staff but always mixed with a Glaswegian sense of humor!
Ian lives in Wenham, Massachusetts with his wife and two teenage daughters. http://portfoliopartnership.com/index.html
By Ian D Smith
Acquisitions just don’t work. Research over the last 20 years has concluded that somewhere between 50% to 85% of acquisitions fail in the eyes of the acquirer! Do you have a process map for buying companies? Here is a six phase process that will improve the odds in favor of successful acquisitions — The Acquisitions Approvals Model.
Phase 1: Strategy: An acquisition is only one type of method to execute your strategy. If the strategy is flawed, the acquisition is flawed. What expertise do you bring to the party? Laidlaw, the largest school-bus operator in North America bought heavily into the ambulance business in the 1990s. Ambulances are not transport businesses they are medical businesses. Big mistake. The failure doesn’t start at the completion of the deal. It starts with weak strategic thinking. Output to this phase, is a description of the poster child target list –The Acquisition Profile. Not names, characteristics of attractive targets.
Phase 2: Identify Targets: Create deal flow. Ensure you are only reviewing targets that fit your Acquisition Profile. Buy companies you want to buy whether they are on the market or not! Draw up your short list of target companies and prepare your one page summary on each on how you would integrate them.
Phase 3: Assessment of Target & Value: Test your assumptions in the real world. Doing your homework, preparing thoroughly for your initial contact is crucial. Don’t offend people. Approach targets with knowledge. It involves carefully gathering facts and figures that will allow you to perceive value and build a case for a potential bid.
Phase 4: Negotiate Price & Structure: Preparation invested in phases 1 to 3, ensures the stressful phase of negotiating a deal becomes much more enjoyable and relaxed. Establish the target’s aspiration on price and have a clear business case on the perceived value of owning the target. Fine tune the post-acquisition plan as facts are uncovered. Draw up a document that summarizes the deal. Craft it in sufficient detail to allow lawyers to produce a comprehensive sale and purchase document. Don’t allow the lawyers to bottom the tricky issues!
Phase 5: Legal Completion: Due diligence and contract negotiation is key. Due diligence has many heads and although legal and accounting are standard, each deal will require additional expertise depending on the industry. Concentrate on issues key to the success of your post acquisition plan.
Phase 6: Post Completion: Recent research has confirmed what practiced successful acquirers have known for years: Learn from your mistakes. It’s the post-mortems you do after every deal that builds knowledge. (Research conducted 2008 by Heimeriks, Gates, Zollo, study of 101 companies worldwide). Of course the key is also to execute your post acquisition plan with skill ensuring that milestones are met.
Summary: Remember to ask at the end of each phase, do I want to continue? It is better to exit gracefully early in the process than complete a deal you regret for years to come. Good luck.
Ian Smith
As an experienced business leader, Ian Smith is passionate about maximizing the potential of fast-growing companies. Over the years, he has come face to face with the wide range of operational and strategic issues, and relishes the challenge of transforming sluggish or outmoded business models into robust product road maps, effective marketing campaigns and successful sales programs. He has been described as “the glue between an organization’s founding vision and its marketing and sales.”
Strategic business advisor, a Scot and world class masters athlete, Smith has covered a lot of ground in his nearly three decades in global business. Originally trained as an accountant in Glasgow, he has logged many miles as a finance director, a venture capitalist, an investment banker and successful CEO of a US based software group.
He has witnessed the life-cycle of a wide variety of companies, both large and small. Says Smith, “ambitious companies start life with passion and big ideas but often fail to realize their full potential”. This lack of success is often avoidable but it takes innovative thinking and impeccable execution. Using his unique portfolio of operational and executive experience; Smith partners with leadership teams to execute their vision. Each case is different. Support can take many forms but usually draws on his portfolio of experiences covering restructuring, acquisitions and sales leadership.
By Ian D Smith
Whether you are a CEO of a start-up driving towards your first order or a regional sales manager striving to hit your 2009 sales target – sales are everything in today’s tough markets. My recent gig, leading the turnaround and double digit growth of the software group, Teamstudio over the last 7 years has many lessons worth sharing.
Sales growth starts with a compelling story. A vision to believe in! This story flows with passion through every aspect of a company, creating powerful marketing campaigns and effective sales scripts that encourage prospects to take action. Given this mindset, let me shine the spotlight on the work of David Sandler and more recently Jeff Thull to help you create a world class sales organization that will deliver consistent results. My take on their work was that Jeff’s processes were inspired by David’s tactical genius for closing deals. The essence of Jeff’s process – there are four main pillars to execute remarkable conversations with your prospects, close deals and add huge value: Discovery, Diagnosis, Design and Delivery.
Discovery Discovery is about research and preparation. It encompasses how sales professionals get ready to engage and serve clients. The discovery process is aimed at the identification of a specific client who has the highest probability of change. No desire to change – no Purchase Orders. It allows a team of professionals, outside sales, inside sales, engineers, and marketing staff to sign off on an Engagement Strategy for each priority prospect/customer. (Clearly these are constantly evolving).
Diagnosis Diagnosis stage encompasses how salespeople help their prospects and clients fully comprehend the inefficiencies and performance gaps. It is a process of “hyperqualification” during which we pursue an in-depth determination of the extent and financial impact of their problems. It is important to deal with each manager, one at a time. Generic value propositions will not compel action. This is a very personal and focused conversation with your prospect.
Design
Design encompasses how salespeople help the client create and understand the solution. It is a collaborative and highly interactive effort to help clients sort through their expectations and alternatives to arrive at an optimal solution. This also takes the drama and confrontation out of proposals.
Delivery
In the final phase of the sales process, the previous phases come to fruition. It allows the salesperson to execute the desired solution and deliver real results for their clients.
This approach ensures that sales conversations are set in the context of “trusted advisor”. The sales professional’s objective is to ensure that the client achieves better results. By investing in your client’s success, great things happen, such as: repeat business, testimonials, deeper long term relationships!
By embracing a diagnostic approach to selling, constantly exploring the consequences of customers ignoring priority issues and relentlessly pursuing improved performance for your customers, your sales team can become a world class organization. They will be seen, over time, as a source of great competitive advantage to their customer base.
World Class Sales Organizations Contain:
• A Specific compelling value proposition
• Engagement Strategies
• Diagnostic Questions
• ROI spreadsheets
• Costs of problems
• Harmony between sales and marketing
• War Rooms
• Deployment of White Papers
• Great cookbook metrics
• A passion for delivering improved client performance
• A relentless follow through
• The smart deployment of technology
• Mentoring of sales professionals
As an experienced business leader, Ian Smith is passionate about maximizing the potential of fast-growing companies. Over the years, he has come face to face with the wide range of operational and strategic issues, and relishes the challenge of transforming sluggish or outmoded business models into robust product road maps, effective marketing campaigns and successful sales programs. He has been described as “the glue between an organization’s founding vision and its marketing and sales.”
Interim CEO/COO, a Scot and world class masters athlete, Smith has covered a lot of ground in his nearly three decades in global business. Originally trained as an accountant in Glasgow, he has logged many miles as a finance director, a venture capitalist, an investment banker and successful CEO of a US based software group.
He has witnessed the life-cycle of a wide variety of companies, both large and small. Says Smith, “ambitious companies start life with passion and big ideas but often fail to realize their full potential”. This lack of success is often avoidable but it takes innovative thinking and impeccable execution. Using his unique portfolio of operational and executive experience; Smith partners with leadership teams to execute their vision. Each case is different. Support can take many forms but usually draws on his portfolio of experiences covering restructuring, acquisitions and sales leadership.
By Jay Forte 
We are in a period of massive change as our economy moves from the skill-focused industrial age to today’s talent-focused intellectual age. Yesterday’s manufactured products have moved offshore and have been replaced by today’s networked and thinking service economy. We made things; we now collaborate to make ideas. Everything about this process is new; everything about this process is in transition. How we hire, the future of work, how we build relationships, collaborate and manage a business are all changing. We are truly in a period of massive change. As we struggled in the move from the agrarian economy to the industrial economy (we reinvented work from farms to cities and manufacturing centers), we now struggle to move our economy from manpower to brainpower.
Many of today’s business support systems are failing because they support our previous and now outdated industrial-age structure. The new technology and intellectual age requires organizations to be more fluid, nimble and responsive. Structured, military-inspired, command-and-control industrial-age systems are now too slow and too cumbersome to respond in our speed-of-the-click world. Their structure inhibits easy and open communication, innovation and collaboration. Stuck in outdated structures, the high-tech world continues to zoom past industrial-age organizations making them more and more out of date and ineffective today. To survive in today’s period of massive change to an intellectual and networked age, build these ten must-do things into your workplace.
1. Create and maintain the best and most employee-focused workplace. Employee-focused workplaces openly value their employees and by result, attract the best candidates and retain the best employees. Employee-focused workplaces create opportunities for employees to fully develop their talents and abilities, while driving results and owning their performance. These workplaces solicit information from employees about the things that will activate their passionate performance and build as many in as they can to address employee needs, so employees can stay focused on customers and performance.
2. Hire for talent – invest in the right people. In an intellectual workplace, talents are the driving force behind each employee’s success; skills and experience were more valuable in an industrial-age economy. To succeed, organizations must be adept at defining talents (natural thinking and strengths) needed by responsibility and role, assessing candidates for good fit, and hiring the right employees. This process is more time consuming but it realizes that since your people are your profits, a commitment must be made to understand how to hire the right employee for the right role/responsibility in an intellectual age.
3. Redefine how work is done. In an industrial age, it was important to have defined roles with standard job descriptions. Employees were required to show up to a specific location (plant, factory, facility) in order to work. Today’s intellectual workplace changes this model. Today, employees’ contributions do not necessarily need to be in a specific location or in even in a defined role. Today’s workplace allows employees to work (intellectual contribution) remotely. It also encourages managers to redefine staffing into a small fixed component of workers and a larger variable component, hired by task or responsibility. This introduces the concept of “just in time and just long enough” workers – workers hired for particular responsibilities or tasks and then released. This allows an organization to acquire the best talent in a particular area without the requirement of hiring those talents in a full time role; these new roles now require limited overhead, office space and other industrial-age systems, systems that in today’s world cost money and add little value. This allows employees to step in and out of organizations, doing the things in which they are the most talented, gifted and interested. This builds a new workplace model, limits spending, space and fixed manpower in favor of greater talent matching, variable contributions and higher productivity.
4. Constantly recruit the best. With a new focus on a fixed and variable workplace, build a sustainable and robust fixed and variable sourcing and recruiting plan. Define the expectations of each role and responsibility to clearly define the talents needed in each to be successful. Network with others. Create a solid pipeline, particularly of variable, flexible employees, who can be called for specific projects or responsibilities and then released. Share the expectations and talents needed with all fixed employees to engage them in the sourcing talent process for the organization.
5. Clearly define role and responsibility performance expectations. All fixed and variable employees/contributors must be held fully accountable for performance; each role and responsibility must have clear performance expectations from which they are reviewed, compensated and retained. All employees must now have a greater sense of performance ownership and this starts will clearly defined performance expectations that define performance outcomes but allow employees (fixed or variable) to develop achievement plans. These expectations can be used to pay for performance, attract top talent and hold employees (fixed and variable) accountable for performance and results.
6. Understand your world – become a strategic thinker. Stay connected to the world around you and your business. Know the impact of the economy, regulations, demographics, social trends, technology and others factors affecting your industry and business. Know trends, facts and key indicators. Include employees in the review of business challenges, innovation and opportunities. Base your responses on the world in which you find yourself – stay current.
7. Communicate effectively, move information around, and use it to be great. In an intellectual workplace, information is both power and capital. Organizations that stay connected to their world use information to share what they know, what they hear, and what they think; they use information to activate new ideas and solutions and move ahead of the competition. Develop ways to openly share news, suggestions, ideas and concerns. Ensure information moves clearly and effectively both down and up the organizational chain.
8. Commit to an unwavering standard of excellence. Define, live and assess all performance by its ability to support and provide your defined standard of excellence. Be the best at what you do, without exception. Be the most responsive, the most innovative and the most professional in customer contact, ideas brought to market and quality at every level. Customers and employees commit to organizations that commit to excellence. As the workplace and products/services change, a guiding commitment to excellence will always insure the organization stays ahead.
9. Constantly recruit, educate and develop customers and employees. Commit to knowing the most. In an intellectual workplace, performance power is in knowledge. Successful organizations constantly educate both their customers and employees – in good times and in bad. They focus on education, thinking and developing raises the bar for all involved. Customers are as important to educate as employees because in their education, they become a greater part of your collaborative approach to products and services. Gone are the days of organizations creating products/services for customers without their input, guidance and suggestions. Raise the bar for everyone – it encourages greater performance.
10. Applaud successes with wild enthusiasm. We are in tough period as we usher in a massive change and economic transition. Successes are difficult when so much change is present. Activate your employees and customers by applauding successes in an extraordinary way. See each success as one step forward on the road to redefining business success. “What gets rewarded, gets repeated.” Applaud, celebrate and praise successes, innovation and performance; it activates the performance and encourages more. Word gets out quickly about organizations that value, honor and celebrate their employees and customers. These are the organizations that great employees (fixed or variable) want to work with.
We are truly in a period of massive change as our industrial age gives way to a new more networked, collaborative and thinking intellectual age. This requires us to be more involved in actively ushering in our new age, understanding how to succeed as we change and staying focused on value of and for our employees and customers. Now is no time for timidity. Leaders and managers need to step up or step out. Provide the clear voice, a solid strategy and an understandable view of how to impact results in this changing world. Massive change is on our agenda; learn how to use it and respond to it. And when the new age is fully ushered in, watch the horizon for the next age approaching and reinvent your plan to stay successful.
Jay Forte is a powerful performance speaker, consultant, author and founder of Humanetrics, LLC. He works with managers who want to be more successful in activating and inspiring exceptional employee performance, to significantly drive customer loyalty and improve company profitability. Jay, a CPA/financial executive turned educator, turned consultant, is renowned for producing significant results. He is a highly engaging speaker and author of the new book “Fire Up Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition; How to Invite, Incite and Ignite Employee Performance.” He has developed a new talent assessment process to help organizations attract and hire the right employees. For more information on talent-focused hiring and ways to fire up your employees, visit his new site http://www.FireUpYourEmployees.com For great business tips and information on speaking, programs and keynotes, visit http://www.Humanetricsllc.com or call: 401-338-3505.
Written By Stephen Billing
The great insight from social constructionism is that we are not independent isolates, our reality is constructed with others as a social phenomenon.
It can be very helpful to keep this in mind when you are dealing with people who are (or seem to be) resistant to change. In order to dissolve the resistance, it is necessary not for the other person to change, but for the relationship between you and the resistant person (or people) to change. In our socially constructed world, if you change your relationship with that person, their resistant attitude will also change. As you’ll appreciate, this is quite different from the standard change rhetoric which advocates persuasive communication to change the other person’s point of view.
Here’s what to do. Invite the person to talk with you on neutral ground. Over a coffee away from the workplace is a good start. The purpose is to enter into what I call a ‘joint enquiry’ with the other person.
‘Joint enquiry’ means that you have a perspective on the situation, and you recognise that so does the other person. By hearing the other person’s perspective and by expressing your own, and being open to changing your own views, you will reach a new understanding of the situation, and with this shift in understanding comes a shift in the resistance.
Here is a four-point action plan for a ‘joint enquiry’ into the situation that will change the resistance of the other person.
1. Ask what their point of view is. Then summarize it back to them. If you have already heard their point of view previously, summarize your understanding of their point of view.
Lawyers and debaters often do this when they are rehearsing their arguments. The powerful key here for dissolving resistance to change is to express it in non-judgmental and non-personal terms. Don’t say “You did not support the improvement to the quality system because you are not a team player,” Instead say either “You did not support the improvement to the quality system because you were concerned about the impact on overtime,” or “You did not support the improvement to the quality system and I do not understand why not. Can you please tell me?” Then summarize back to them what they have said to you.
2. Ask the other person if you have understood the situation accurately from their point of view. Allow them to make any corrections they think are needed.
3. Given what you have heard, explain your (amended) point of view, again using non-judgmental language. Keep your explanations free of value judgments as much as possible. Point out aspects of how your viewpoint has similarities as well as differences.
4. Agree next steps – some specific actions that you will each take, or something you are each committed to change in relation to each other. For example, “I will tell you if you do something that I don’t agree with.”
You may not need to go to step three, as steps one and two are so powerful.
Stephen Billing works with organizations to create dramatic change for competitive advantage. Areas of expertise include organization design, restructuring, changing company culture, introducing new technology or new ways of working, developing leaders and sales and sales management capability and human resources
With over 20 years of experience, he holds a Doctor of Management from University of Hertfordshire – his research investigated the role of consultants in organizational change. He has spoken at conferences in New Zealand, Denmark and Holland, and has published articles and book chapters
Written By Stephen Billing
I really think that sponsors of change projects, project managers of change projects, those involved in change project teams, business unit managers, and consultants like me all have a big problem on our hands.
Even though you may plan the project well, sign off on the risk and issues registers, conduct steering group meetings that are efficient and get through everything on the agenda, deliver the deliverables on time and within budget, and give progress reports to senior and line managers, these are all inputs, not outcomes.
Of most importance to you as a sponsor of a change project are the outcomes. Line managers are most concerned about the impact of the project on their operations and what they will have to do to make it work (i.e. outcomes for their business unit). Project managers and their teams, by contrast, become more concerned about deliverables, which are inputs. Project management structure and planning drives them in this direction – to have all the papers ready for a steering group meeting, for example.
Immediately you can see the dilemma of inputs versus outcomes. Deliverables (this concept was invented as a way of measuring progress towards the goal, i.e. to measure progress of inputs, especially useful for long term projects) include things like project plans, reports on progress, strategy documents, databases, people recruited, leases secured, and equipment purchased. The problem is that success in these things is then taken to equate to the success of the project overall.
Project sponsors, through their close alliances with project managers and their teams, also run the risk of being seduced into prioritizing deliverables at the expense of outcomes. By contrast, line managers seldom are seduced this way, perhaps because they often don’t develop the same close associations with these project teams.
From a project sponsor’s point of view however, outcomes can only be measured after the change project is implemented. At the same time, project sponsors play a pivotal part in whether the outcomes of the project are achieved or not. They are the ones with relationships with their senior level peers, who secure and commit resources and who provide real world guidance to their project and program managers.
Your project management effectiveness is one component of the solution. And you surely do need good project management, make no mistake. You also need the right mix of technical skills on the team. But good project management and good technical skills are only part of the mix. In order to achieve the outcomes you desire, you also need to make sure that the right range of views have been incorporated into the decision making, that the shadow conversations have been taken into account.
So one thing that you can do as sponsor of a change project is to keep in touch (perhaps informally, and definitely with an open mind) with the line managers. Project managers would also do well to adopt the same approach.
The grave danger I am warning you of, is that initiatives live or die in the shadow conversations – over the coffee machines, in the smoking rooms, in the cafeteria, in the corridors, at staff drinks, around the water cooler. And project sponsors, project managers, project teams, and human resources people, typically do not spend their time in those places. Blinding flash of the obvious – if informal communications are so critical to the success of change initiatives, why are all the communications efforts concentrated solely on the formal communications channels?
No wonder the standard statistic is that 75% of change projects are reputed to fail.
Stephen Billing works with organizations to create dramatic change for business improvement. Areas of expertise include organization design, restructuring, changing company culture, introducing new technology or new ways of working, developing leaders and sales and sales management capability and human resources
With over 20 years of experience, he holds a Doctor of Management from University of Hertfordshire – his research investigated the role of consultants in organizational change. He has spoken at conferences in New Zealand, Denmark and Holland, and has published articles and book chapters
Written By Tom Philp
In December 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced that the U.S. economy is officially in a recession. No doubt you felt the effects long before the economists stated the obvious, and by now those effects have penetrated deep into your organization. And while the experts indicate the recession will last well throughout 2009, we know that eventually our economy will stabilize and start growing again. The good news in all of this is that there are steps that can be taken now to help your organization emerge stronger and healthier once the recession is over.
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to encourage its readers to review their organizations’ strategies, structures, and people processes. First we will identify an appropriate model of effectiveness, followed by a Gap Analysis that will allow us to determine your organization’s current condition versus its desired state. Additionally, we provide many low-cost solutions that will enable your organization to continue building a strong infrastructure for emerging healthier from a recession economy.
Defining Organization Effectiveness
Let us begin with the end in mind by identifying what effectiveness looks like in your organization. According to Cameron (1980), there are four models of effectiveness. The four models are:
The Goal Model – Organizational effectiveness is defined in terms of the extent to which the organization accomplishes its goal.
The Systems Resource Model – Effectiveness is equated with the ability to acquire needed resources.
The Process Model – Effectiveness is defined in terms of how smoothly the organization functions, especially the degree of absence of internal strain in the organization.
The Strategic Constituencies Model – Effectiveness is determined by the extent to which the organization satisfies all of its strategic constituencies, such as special interest groups.
Based on the above definitions, your organization might encompass one or more of these models, depending on the type of organization (i.e., for-profit, not-for-profit, or government) and the market it serves (i.e., shareholders, community, or special interest groups). If you are unsure as to the best fit, start by asking the following questions: When are we most effective? Is our culture more collaborative or competitive? Do we use metaphors of winning the war or eliciting supporters? Do we define success by percentage of growth, dollars raised, or resources procured? To provide a brief example, if your organization is a privately owned, for-profit manufacturing firm, then the goal model will probably best apply. Your effectiveness determines the ability by which you meet your production goals, continue to grow your sales and market share, and manage your people by identifying, developing, and retaining top performers. If, however, you are a not-for-profit, then you might identify with the systems resource model instead. With this model your effectiveness depends on securing vital resources, such as donations through programs and fund raisers, on keeping your employees engaged in the mission and values of the organization, and on remaining fiscally responsible with the funds available in any given year. With a clear definition of organizational effectiveness in mind, we can now turn our attention to the Gap Analysis.
Applying a Gap Analysis
One of the most common techniques used to assess an organization’s performance is the Gap Analysis. According to Harvey and Brown (2001) this tool is typically used to assess an organization’s response to opportunities in its environment. For the purposes of this paper, we are going to adapt this model and use it to determine the internal performance of the organization. Answer the strategy, structure, and people process questions that follow, using your definition of effectiveness as your level of desired performance. If you find that your organization is not achieving its desired outcomes, then the difference between its current state and future state is the gap in performance for which you will apply the low-cost solutions found later in this article. I have provided a few questions to get you started, but I encourage you to add your own questions relevant to your organization’s type and the market it serves.
Strategy Questions:
• Is your strategy up-to-date and relevant?
• Do you know what effectiveness looks like in your organization?
• Is your organization able to compete for its resources?
• Do you have contingency plans for various scenarios that may occur in the environment?
Structure Questions:
• Is your organization’s structure tied to its strategy?
• Is your organization structured to achieve its goals and/or meet its constituents’ needs?
• Are your teams aligned with your organization’s strategy?
People Process Questions:
• Are you currently investing in your people?
• Do you have successors lined up for key positions?
• Are your managers spending adequate time coaching others?
• Are you communicating your mission, vision, and values to keep your workforce engaged?
Low-Cost Solutions
Now that you have identified what effectiveness looks like in your organization and you understand the gap in performance as it relates to your strategies, structures, and people processes, consider these low-cost solutions that can help your organization emerge stronger from a recession economy. Most of the solutions provided below are low-cost in that they only require the time of the organization’s members.
Strategic Solutions:
Strategic Planning. If it has been a while since you have had a strategy meeting, now may be a good time to do so. Assemble your board members or executive team and talk through what is working, what is not working, and what may need to be changed. You can apply a Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis yourself. Consider what products or services are succeeding right now and which ones are not. This is not the time to bury your head in the sand about your organization’s strategic performance.
Scenario Planning. If your current strategies are still viable, then consider scenario planning. With this approach, your executive team or board members consider all possible changes in the environment and develop responses to each condition based on the organization’s mission, vision, and values.
Future Search. This approach allows an organization to bring a cross-section of its members together in a large group planning meeting to explore the past, present, and future of a specific task or strategy. The outcome is a commitment to an action plan based on the organization’s values.
Structural Solutions:
Team Alignment. If your teams are not aligned with the organization’s strategic goals, production and/or customer service may suffer as a result. Make sure your teams clearly understand their purposes, roles, and expected outcomes. Remove any obstacles that may prevent them from working interdependently and achieving the highest results.
People Processes Solutions:
Coaching. Coaching should already be a part of every leader’s job, and now is the time to put coaching into over-drive and accelerate everyone’s development. Stress coaching to your leaders and managers, make sure they have the skills necessary to coach others, and hold them accountable for doing so. Influence your leaders to spend extra time with their top performers. This may seem counter-intuitive when low performers need most of the attention and help, but research shows that top performers are the first to leave. Ensuring that your company survives the recession is mission number one; ensuring that you have a high performance workforce when your company emerges is mission number two.
Mentoring. Pairing a senior and junior staff member to facilitate the transfer of learning is one of the hallmarks of development. Make sure to match up individuals who are complimentary in personality, and outline the frequency of contact initiated by the senior member.
Benchmarking/Best Practices. Many organizations like to compare themselves with other organizations as a means of determining how they are doing. Most industries have an organization that monitors trends, metrics, and benchmarks for their particular industry, such as Kennedy Information for management consulting, or People Report for the restaurant industry. Tap into these valuable resources and learn more about their products and services. There may be a small fee to join, but the information in return far outweighs the cost.
Communication. Finally, encourage all of your leaders to continue to communicate the organization’s mission, vision, and values. During difficult times, those employees who tend to stay are the ones who identify most with the organization’s vision and values and feel they contribute to its success.
Summary
Despite the current economy, now is the time to look internally for necessary changes to your organization’s infrastructure. With very little monetary investment, you can position your strategies, structures, and people processes to emerge healthier and stronger from a recession economy.
References
Cameron, K. 1980. “Critical Questions in Assessing Organizational Effectiveness.” Organizational Dynamics 9(2): 66-80.
Harvey, D., & Brown, D.R. (1991). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (6th ed). Prentice Hall: New Jersey.
Company Overview
Tom P. Philp is President of Philp Consulting Group, an organization development firm that assists its clients in creating sustainable solutions that drive individual, team, and organizational success
For more information contact Tom Philp at http://philpconsulting.com or 918.794.6999
Most of us start at the bottom of the career ladder and work our way up. We become so proficient at our job, earning respect of the management and becoming a valued member of our team. Eventually promotion is offered, usually within the same team and we can find ourselves leader of the team we were once part of. This does have its advantages, however, doesn’t come without its problems.
There is nothing that can gain respect more than people knowing that you have been there and done the job for yourself. You know the systems and procedures, what is expected and the problems that your team may encounter. You can see things from their point of view. This can be a great advantage when leading a team. You know when to cut the slack because of genuine difficulties, but you also know an excuse when you hear one.
The problems arise though when some of the team members may have been there much longer than you, may be older with more experience, or may feel that they were the ones that deserved the promotion. You may find it difficult to be assertive and to feel that you are taken seriously as a manager. Since you were once in their position, you will know how hard the job is and may feel guilty for enforcing deadlines.
So how can you gain respect from your team and get them to do what you need them to without them thinking that power has gone to your head?
Firstly, stop beating yourself up and congratulate yourself on your promotion. It is quite normal to feel this way when you have been used to working on the other side of the fence, as it were. The dynamics of your team have now changed so now you need to embrace this change and take control.
In order to gain respect, you have to give it. Show your team that you value them and support them by listening to how you can help them. Listen to any ideas that they may have. Think back to when you were in their position. If you had a problem, how would you have liked your leader to have handled it? Remember that the only way to get what you want is to ask for it. Never assume that anyone in your team knows exactly what is expected of them. When enforcing a deadline, explain to them when it has to be done by and why, then ask how they think they can achieve it, what do they need to make this happen, how can you best help them? Once they know that they have your full support, then they will do whatever they can for you.
Yvonne Bleakley is the director of Coach Uk Ltd and creator of The Silent Motivator System and Change your Life Forever System. Yvonne works with business owners and managers showing them an effective way to motivate and communicate with their staff and colleagues
The Silent Motivator System is a 10 step system designed to turn managers and business owners into effective leaders, producing happy passionate staff who are able to think for themselves
To receive a monthly subscription to the monthly Silent Motivator e-zine go to http://www.coachuk.ltd.uk You will receive regular tips on managing and motivating your team as well as access to a number of free resources and articles which can help you in team meetings to get the most out of your staff
Reluctant Leaders
Are you working in a company or law firm where leadership requires certain people to have an executive coach? How do leaders in your company or law firm assess an individual’s motivation to engage in a productive executive coaching relationship?
One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “Does our company leadership properly assess the motivation of people recommended to participate in an executive coaching program?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders are excited about further developing their leadership skills helping their organization become more successful.
A major reason for failure in executive coaching is a lack of commitment on the part of participants. Many organizations do not address this problem. Although executive coaching may sound like a great idea, many people are not open to getting feedback and executive coaching.
The organization can risk a great deal of time and money when there is little real engagement on the part of participants. There cannot be behavioral change without substantial effort.
Effort requires that the individual be motivated. Unless this issue is addressed up front, coaching is wasted. If coaching is set up as a requirement, as in the case of remedial goals, then the outcomes should be behaviorally focused rather than concentrating on mere attendance.
In another example, the individual says they are interested and motivated, but there is a lack of attendance or a lack of participation in action steps. Lack of time is frequently cited. Worse, there is a failure on the part of the executive coach to hold the person accountable.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help motivated leaders improve their leadership skills and helping the organization achieve success. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged and aligned with the vision and mission of your company or law firm.
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Visit Maynard’s Blog at http://www.WorkingResourcesBlog.com
Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams. We provide strategic talent management solutions to select and develop emotionally intelligent leaders and lawyers. The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded two rare Board Approved designations for Dr. Maynard Brusman in the specialties of Executive Leadership Coaching and Trusted Advisor to Attorneys and Law Firms
Dr. Maynard Brusman
Working Resources
P.O. Box 471525 San Francisco, California 94147-1525
Tel: 415-546-1252 Fax: 415-721-7322
E-mail: mbrusman@workingresources.com
Leadership Development
Are you working in a company or law firm where modeling good leadership skills is a high priority of management? Do leaders in your organization have a favorite model of exemplary leadership?
One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “Do our company leaders model excellent leadership qualities?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders are motivated to develop their leadership skills and achieve both personal and business goals.
The Leadership Challenge
Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner wrote Leadership Challenge which is one of the finest books on leadership development. In the book they describe five practices of exemplary leadership. I incorporate the five practices in all of my executive coaching and leadership development work with clients. The authors also developed an enormously popular 360 degree feedback instrument the LPI based on the five practices.
The five practices of exemplary leadership are as follows:
Model the Way
1. Clarify values by finding your voice and affirming shared ideals.
2. Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.
Inspire a Shared Vision
3. Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities.
4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.
Challenge the Process
5. Search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve.
6. Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins an learning from experience.
Enable Others to Act
7. Foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships.
8. Strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence.
Encourage the Heart
9. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence.
10. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who models exemplary leadership. You can become a leader who demonstrates emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged and aligned with the vision and mission of your company or law firm.
Subscribe to Working Resources FREE electronic newsletter at http://www.workingresources.com
Visit Maynard’s Blog at http://www.WorkingResourcesBlog.com
Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams
We provide strategic talent management solutions to select and develop emotionally intelligent leaders and lawyers
The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded two rare Board Approved designations for Dr. Maynard Brusman in the specialties of Executive Leadership Coaching and Trusted Advisor to Attorneys and Law Firms
Dr. Maynard Brusman
Working Resources
P.O. Box 471525 San Francisco, California 94147-1525
Tel: 415-546-1252 Fax: 415-721-7322
E-mail: mbrusman@workingresources.com