Blog Articles about Business Strategy
April 29, 2010
Your pillows can be almost any colour of blue
I was in a meeting with a client and we were discussing his plans to make some changes in his organization. He knew exactly the steps that needed to be taken and he had been working through his plan. He was stalled. His boss had just said “no” to a key part of his plan. He was angry. He was discouraged. He looked at me and asked for my thoughts. I said “blue pillows”. He sat back in his chair and pushed away from the desk. “Blue pillows?!” He said.
I said, “Yes. I like to decorate. I know from years of decorating that if you need blue pillows, there are many, many different colors and patterns of blue that will work. If you can’t get your favorite, you will eventually find another one that works. It is like that with work. If one approach isn’t available to you, there are many, many other approaches that will also work. Your job is to pick another color of blue.”
My client had just finished a renovation and he completely got it. He went back to the drawing board and started looking for other options for his plan. It took some work but he eventually found that other option and he learned something. The war is far more important than each individual battle. You can lose a lot of battles over blue pillows before your run out of different colors of blue.
February 06, 2010
Beware the Second Wave
This week I spoke with four people who have lost faith in their organizations. All four are successful. All four have very valuable and difficult to replace skill sets and business contacts. All four are feeling disaffected and not supported. All four are in different organizations.
These four people weathered the recession quite successfully. They came out of the other side of that recession tunnel, looked around and were disappointed. People they cared about had left their organization. There are new leaders and they don’t like them all. There is a new strategy and they are not at all sure it is right.
These four people may be part of the second wave. The first wave of change happened last year as most organizations restructured in response to the recession. For most organizations these changes resulted in planned terminations.
The second wave is when you lose your best people. They stuck it out and they are not sure they like what they see. Beware.
December 09, 2009
Smaller is Better Sometimes
I am currently working with three leaders who are in the midst of restructuring in some way. Two of these leaders ended up with smaller senior teams. They went from a large span of control (10 or more team members) to a small but powerful team of 3 or 4.
I got to see one of those teams in action in the past few days. What I saw was a team that was nimble and able to make decisions quickly. There was deep trust within the team as some team members made decisions that the team supported without needing major detail. Discussions were strategic and remained on track without major diversions. There was an “evenness” to the quality of the input from the individual team members – there were no weak links in terms of talent.
The leader of this team turned to me yesterday and said the following. “It is easier to lead a smaller team.” Indeed it is. Simply, things happen much more quickly with a smaller number of people.
The trend lately has been to “delayer” organizations and expand spans of control as wide as 15 people. The lesson here for me is clear. One size does not fit all. Sometimes large spans of control make sense. They fit the leader’s style. They fit the organization’s needs. Sometimes they cost more in terms of strategic decision making than the payroll costs they save.
As another client said recently, “I added a layer of VPs. I added payroll costs but I increased the efficiency of the group and reduced the overall cost to the organization.” If you want to drive change, consider adding a layer sometimes.
January 18, 2009
Making Values Stick
As I discussed in my last blog, great leaders show an unwavering commitment to a clear set of values. It is relatively easy to have a set of values. We all do. The trick is to be clear on those values and to use those values as a means to mobilize others.
I hope you tried the exercise that I suggested to better clarify your own values or "leadership voice". If you didn’t click through to my last blog and try it.
Here is the next step--another short exercise that will help you determine if you are making your values stick. If you do this exercise you will be making your values exceptionally clear to all around you. Before the exercise, you’ll need a little background.
January 05, 2009
A Return to Values
If you have been reading my blogs, you'll already know that I am an optimist. I have always believed that change is good. As I have said previously, even this current change in the economy is good. See my blogs for my thinking on this, "Change is Good. Even When it is Bad." and A Bad Economy is Good. In these blogs I talked about the reasons I think change is good:
- a greater focus on personal values and less focus on consumption
- a "clearing of the market" where marginal service providers will leave and great service providers will survive
- the economy as a "burning platform" to drive change
There is an additional reason this current economic change is good. It will change how leaders lead. You will see that that this happening already.
December 02, 2008
Change is good. Even when it is bad.
Some would call me "the eternal optimist". In fact, I think I am.
I wake up early every morning, sit and read the paper look on the bright side. I love what I do. IMPACT is an organization of coaches who do really great work. I am really proud of the work we do. We have a diverse set of clients who seem to appreciate our work. I think about these things and I think, "We will be fine. Just keep focusing on quality work and stay in the market."
This morning I woke up and felt tired and frankly almost battered. The current Canadian political situation (there is a crisis of confidence in our current minority government) has tipped me over the edge. It is very difficult to remain an optimist in the face of relentless, negative press on the front page of the paper.
I am happy to report my exhaustion and pessimism was short lived. By the afternoon today, the optimist is back.
I read an article this afternoon from McKinsey and it helped me move back to the "bright side". This article reminded me of something I already knew but really needed to reminded of. Change is an opportunity even when it is bad. How is it an opportunity? Change "unfreezes the status quo" and is an opportunity to do what you've always wanted to do and fix what you've always wanted to fix. (See Kotter's 8 step change model for more on this)
November 20, 2008
Silence
My blog on performance management got a lot of positive energy and comments. My last blog was met with a thud of silence.
When I reached out, not everyone liked what I was proposing for compensation. Open systems are scary. Agreeing on salaries could take forever particularly with “some” people. I am not going to defend my suggestions because, truth be known, I’m not sure I’ve nailed it yet. But I will re-enforce a few things that I don’t think should be lost in the debate.
Remember my first blog? Performance management really doesn’t work very well. Everyone (almost) agreed with that. There was a feeling of “finally, someone said this” to your comments. Well, since performance management doesn’t work very well, we can’t link it tightly to other things. We should not link it to salaries.
November 16, 2008
Compensation is always a trade-off.
Once you come to terms with the fact that compensation is always a trade-off and never perfect, you are released from trying to justify compensation decisions. Wouldn't it be wonderful not to have to justify? I have coached many people on how to handle tough compensation discussions. It is rarely rewarding for either party.
In my last blog, "Performance Management is so Yesterday", I talked about how current performance management systems sap motivation and are often "widely inaccurate". I suggested changing to a true "coaching and development model". In this model conversations are frequent and focused on support and problem solving and not on assessment and ratings.
This blog resulted in lots of comments -- the vast majority of comments were supportive. Here's a sample.
"People are tired of the way we do performance management. It is cumbersome and the conversations are difficult." "It is unheard-of for the hockey coach to play his team for half the season and then sit down and spend an hour telling each player what he or she did right and what needs to be improved. He needs to be talking to his whole team and each of his players continuously."
I share this hockey analogy comment because it highlights how ludicrous our current approach is. I'll continue with this analogy as I move into the next question to be answered-- "if we can't rate them, how do we pay them?"
October 28, 2008
A Bad Economy is Good
Why? A down economy drives a lot of really good decisions. We are all tightening our belts. Our priorities shift. Things we thought were so important a month ago suddenly seem unimportant. For many, the shift is towards things that have lasting value and away from things that provide fleeting satisfaction. We take more time to enjoy that great glass of wine. Suddenly it seems more important to savour every sip. We delay purchases to focus on what we already have. A good wash and tune up and that old car still gets us to where we want to go in style. We spend more time having family dinners and less time in fancy restaurants.
These shifts are good for us personally and professionally.
September 17, 2008
Don’t Give Your Strategy a Haircut.
The front page of every newspaper is full of doom and gloom today and almost every client I know is the midst of business planning.
What is their temptation in this environment? Give your strategy a haircut. Cut back on everything. No new initiatives. No new hires. No business travel. No external consultants. No big pay increases.
What is the impact? Mediocrity.
