Does Growth Have to be so Hard for Midsize Companies
The 2 Keys to More Progress for Midsize Companies The 3 Basic Elements of a Successful Strategy How to Build an A-Player Leadership Team The 3 Disciplines to Drama-Free Execution The 3 Ingredients to Get Out of the Weeds The Key Mindset to Grow and Thrive Why a DIY Approach Slows Growth 8 Types of External Guidance Why Doesn’t Leadership Training Stick Do You Have What It Takes? The 5 Criteria to Pick an Executive Team Coach In the previous 5 Minute Growth Tip article, I shared how companies need to implement structures, processes and systems in order to grow. Without this, they either won’t grow beyond the limits of their current structures, or they will grow inefficiently and increasingly unprofitable.
But as an owner or CEO tries to grow their company to 50, 100 or 200 employees, they may feel like the company is no longer making real progress with those kinds of improvements. Any changes they want to make in their company don’t seem to get done, or don’t get done right. So, how can CEOs increase their momentum? We know that, as a company grows, the CEO increasingly has to get things done through their top team. I covered this also in this previous article. The members of their top team are the ones who need to lead improvement projects within each of their departments and between and across departments. The two keys to making this happen are 1) efficient leadership team buyin, and 2) accountability for execution. Why progress slows with growth When a company is small, less than 10 or 15 employees, it’s more straightforward to get improvement projects done. Often, as CEOs, we just do these projects ourselves. As we begin to delegate these improvement projects, we simply ask a supervisor or front-line employee to get them done. If they are a strong employee, they will usually make it happen. When we have 25, 50 or 100 employees, it gets harder. The reason is what’s called “the power differential”: the difference between the influence of the CEO and the influence of others. In a smaller company, the owner is a strong voice that is heard more easily among the small group of employees. There are often no other voices that are similarly strong (unless of course there is one or more partners involved). It’s also easy to see when someone in a small group is not following through on a project. So each employee has a strong motivation to follow through on the owner’s direction. In a smaller company, there is a large power differential. As the company gets larger, the power differential decreases. As some departments get larger (eg. a production department), the leaders of those departments gain influence. They have now become critical people for the productivity and profitability of the company. The owner no longer has that same strong singular voice. One or more other leaders have strong voices as well. They tend to have more influence about decisions made for the company, and certainly their own department. As well, the owner becomes more detached from the front-line and may feel less confident about what is the right thing to do. The other influential leaders now often have a better perspective on what needs to be done in the operations. This also increases their influence. The owner may therefore feel less influence to be able to simply ask others to take on and carry out improvement projects they dream up. They know they need these high-influence leaders to make things happen. And they may recognize that they lose their leaders' commitment and initiative when they just tell them what to do. The result is that getting leaders to make changes and improvements in and across a mid-size company becomes more challenging than getting front-line employees and supervisors to do so in a smaller company. The trick is in the two keys: 1) efficient leadership team buy-in, and 2) team-based accountability. Efficient Leadership Team Buyin Rather than a CEO figuring out on their own what needs improving and changing for the company, and simply delegating those projects to others, they need to shift to making decisions for the company in collaboration with the members of their top team. This will enable them and their top team members to make company decisions that they’re all committed to. In short, as the saying goes, “people support what they help to create”. This doesn’t mean the CEO doesn’t get the final say. It’s how they get to a final decision that needs to be adjusted. Patrick Lencioni, in his best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a team, called this approach “disagree and commit”. The top team discusses the problem or opportunity and gets all the information out on the table for consideration. Options are discussed and weighed. All members of the top team have the opportunity to share their perspectives and concerns. If an agreement is easily made, then great. If not, the CEO makes the final decision with everyone knowing their perspective has been heard and considered, and agreeing that now is the time to commit to the final decision. This approach allows for effective leadership team participation, while keeping it efficient. This can be a game-changer for CEOs who have already shifted to involving their top team in decision-making, but have gone too far. Their decision-making may have slowed to a crawl, or decisions simply don’t get made, because they and their leadership team members don’t always agree on what’s best. And the CEO isn’t willing to make a final decision for fear that their leaders won’t buy in at all. “Disagree and commit” solves this problem. Accountability for Execution Once there is top team buyin to a decision, how do we ensure accountability for its execution? Buyin is certainly important for accountability. But it’s not enough. Accountability ensures that leaders assigned with taking on certain improvement projects follow through as best as humanly possible. Accountability also means being open and transparent when a project or special effort doesn’t go as planned, so all possible action can be taken to get it back on track. Accountability, also, is more difficult as a company grows. And it’s also due to the changing power differentials. Simply following up one-on-one with individual leaders no longer works as well. Leaders of larger departments have more influence, and their performance is more hidden in a larger company. So there is less pressure to follow through. The solution is again a team approach. Mark Green, a colleague of mine in Virginia, and a peer member of Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches, captured the key ingredients for accountability in his recent monograph titled “Creating a Culture of Accountability”. There are three ingredients for accountability:
Self-accountability is where the CEO, as the leader of the team, leads by example by acting accountably themselves, ensuring they have the right people in the right seats on their leadership team, and raising their expectations of their leaders. Role accountability is about ensuring each leader is clear about their own and each others’ accountabilities. This includes defining the specific results expected for each role and the metrics that make those expectations clear. Note that it’s just as important for leaders to be clear on each others’ roles as their own. This ensures only one person is accountable for each function and everyone is clear on what to expect from others. Process accountability includes communicating about decisions they’ve made in a way that maintains leaders’ natural motivation to execute. This includes believing in their ability to succeed, reminding them why it matters and paying attention to their progress. Process accountability also involves: - ensuring planning happens before action, and on a consistent basis, - having a rhythm of effective and efficient meetings that ensures regular follow-up on progress and results, - and regular one-on-one coaching between the CEO and each leadership team member to develop and support performance. From leading individuals to leading the top team Efficient leadership team buy-in and team-based accountability for execution are the two keys for CEOs to enable continual improvement to grow their mid-size companies. And we can see a common thread for the CEO: shifting from directing individuals to leading and building the top team. This shift can be challenging for CEOs who have become comfortable with a directive style. Yet shifting to leading the top team is critical to getting their leaders bought in, executing, and making more progress. But is it really progress if you’re not going in the right direction? And how do you know if you are? More on that in my next 5 Minute Growth Tip article. How can you increase your momentum? To find out how to make more progress to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete sections 1 and 4 to check your company’s leadership team and execution processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. As you work with your leadership team on building your business and organization to grow more easily, profitably and sustainably, it helps to have a methodology or set of tools to use, rather than figuring out on your own what best practices to implement.
Over the 17 years I’ve been working with CEOs and their leadership teams, I’ve learned to implement a half dozen methodologies, including the Scaling Up method and the 7 Attributes of Growth tools. Traction, a book written by Gino Wickman, summarizes another such methodology: EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System). Like Scaling Up and the 7 Attributes of Growth, it goes beyond setting mere mission, vision, values and priorities to also address people and execution. This isn’t coincidental. Gino was a coach in our network several years ago and used our tools. He then founded his own network of coaches and wrote Traction to capture his approach. Scaling Up and the 7 Attributes of Growth were written since that time and included many best practices that Gino did not, like the daily huddle and cash flow optimization tools. That said, Gino includes a couple of unique tools I have found useful, for example, the People Analyser and the Visionary-Integrator model, which I sometimes implement with the CEOs and leadership teams I work with. The People Analyser is a simple form to quickly evaluate each employee against the company’s core values. The companies I work with use this as input to our talent assessment where leadership team members assess each of their direct reports and then hold each other accountable to coach them up or out. The Visionary-Integrator model is a way for dynamic, creative owners and CEOs to pick and effectively work with a co-CEO who is stronger in the disciplined, structured and organizational aspects of running the company that are needed to enable predictable, profitable and sustainable growth. It enables the owners to do what they do best while also having someone with the other critical skills needed to truly move the business forward. Gino packages the best practices he selected into the six areas of EOS: Vision (including high level strategy and execution planning), People, Data (metrics), Issues, Process and Traction (meeting rhythms). EOS and Traction is a solid, simple approach with easy-to-use tools. In my experience, it works best for smaller companies up to about 25 employees. Beyond that, there tend to be certain challenges that come up that EOS doesn’t address, for example: leadership team cohesiveness, team member productivity, effective hiring, leadership mindset, cascading metrics, planning priorities, clear competitive strategy and financial optimization, planning and forecasting. By contrast, Scaling Up and the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth include most of the best practices found in EOS, and also address these additional challenges as they come up. The 7 Attributes of Agile Growth then go beyond to tackle some of the more nuanced challenges of growth like customer experience, systems and change and leaders’ health. See last month’s Book of the Month for more information. If you’re looking for a simplified methodology with user-friendly terminology and a detailed how-to playbook to get started implementing a set of best practices, Traction may do the trick. Book: 251 pgs, 6h56m audio. How can you get more traction? To find out how to make more progress to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. You work 80 hours a week for your company. However, you still don't get around to taking care of the big, important issues such as sales development, process optimization or talent management? In short, your efficiency is very low? Welcome to the club!
Many successful entrepreneurs feel the same way as you. Every day you are overwhelmed by 100 pressing issues that demand your immediate attention. And yet another day when you couldn't take care of your actual, important tasks. Urgent does not mean important You guessed it: the urgent issues are not always the most important. And the big, important issues are rarely urgent - and that is precisely why they are so often postponed. This is a risky maneuver: 1. You fail to continually develop your company and set the course for future growth. 2. You risk burning out too quickly due to the persistently high workload. Every second manager worldwide regularly feels exhausted at the end of their working day - a sure warning sign of burnout. That's just how it is as an entrepreneur, don't you think? But it doesn't have to. I would like to show you seven ways to increase your personal effectiveness. This creates time to tackle the major levers in your company. And you suddenly have time for your family and private life again. Finally time for your big topics Increasing efficiency Way No. 1: Say no more often! Everyone wants something from you, and everything seems urgent. Don't let others dictate your priorities. Decide for yourself which tasks you want to tackle - and which you don't. For each task, ask yourself: Does the task really advance your company? Are you really the one person who can do this job best, or would you be better off somewhere else? What bad thing would happen if you don't complete this task? Don't fill your day with busy tasks. These always seem urgent, but they don't get you anywhere. It's better to say no again and use the freed up time to tackle the big levers in your company. Increase efficiency Way No. 2: Do unpleasant things according to the “first in – first out” principle. Are you one of those people who initially cleaned the apartment or went to sports during your studies in order to avoid unpleasant tasks (study for an exam, start your master's thesis)? Even as an entrepreneur, there are always tasks that are at the bottom of your popularity scale. Just the thought of it makes you uncomfortable. The same mechanism is triggered here as it was during our studies: our brain tries by all means to avoid unpleasant feelings. Therefore, it will reliably provide you with all sorts of rational justifications why you cannot do this unpleasant task now, but instead a completely urgent other task. The result: you push unpleasant topics to the back of your mind. Important tasks remain unfinished. And because you know that this avoidance behavior is wrong, the hole in the pit of your stomach grows deeper every time you think about the task. A real vicious circle. What has helped me to tackle unpleasant tasks consistently is an uncompromising “first in – first out” principle. I work through my tasks in order from bottom to top - either as emails in my inbox or as a to-do list. The order of these tasks is not prioritized and is therefore negotiable. This is how I managed to complete unpleasant tasks one after the other, like a machine. Pro tip: If you have experience with mindfulness meditation , direct your focus specifically on the negative feelings that an unpleasant task triggers in you. If you're like me, you may notice that these feelings are nothing more than physical symptoms (fast pulse, queasy stomach, heat, tingling fingers, etc.). And these often become weaker just by specifically feeling them. Increase efficiency Way No. 3: Only work through your inbox once a day. Are you proud of how quickly and reliably you answer emails? Many people confuse this speed of response with professionalism, reliability and quality of their work. But with every email you answer in between, you allow yourself to be distracted from your actual tasks and impose other priorities. Here's how to spend as little time as possible in your inbox: Set a block the day you work on your inbox. Inquiries that you can answer within two minutes can be dealt with immediately. Leave the remaining emails in your inbox and deal with them chronologically when you get to them. (You should communicate this procedure to your team beforehand.) Increase efficiency Way No. 4: Set yourself fixed blocks for important tasks. You cannot work on any topic that lasts longer than two hours according to the “first in – first out” principle. Because you hardly have time blocks lasting several hours, and these tasks would otherwise clog up your system. Set aside fixed 30-minute blocks each day for longer tasks like this. I like to set blocks like this in the early morning when I have a lot of energy and no meeting requests can get in the way. This way you work slowly but steadily on larger tasks. The constant progress you make will motivate you day after day. Increase efficiency Way No. 5: Only take on as much as you can do in a week. Nothing is more demotivating than long to-do lists. And nothing seems more unprofessional than making team members wait weeks for your response. Therefore, only take on as many tasks as you can safely complete in a week. Plan 80% of your time and leave 20% free for unforeseeable things. This 20% will be filled quickly. For example, I keep Friday free to work through my to-do list, so that the oldest item on my list comes from Monday at most. Increase efficiency Way No. 6: Keep your team up to date. Nothing makes people more uneasy than the feeling of not being up to date. Therefore, give your team an update on the status of all projects, tasks and topics at least once a week. For each task, give a rough estimate of when you will take care of it. But don't get pinned down and say straight away that it could take longer. In this way, you relieve yourself and your team of unnecessary pressure of expectations. If you don't complete a task by the estimated date, don't let the deadline pass silently, but inform the other person as quickly as possible. People don't mind if appointments are postponed. But they want to feel like you're in control of your tasks. Increase efficiency Way No. 7: Don't get tied down to deadlines. Deadlines are poison for your to-do list. Because they act like an accelerant for urgent to-dos that you have to do because they promised. However, these deadlines often distract you from your actually important tasks (e.g. the daily 30-minute blocks). Something will always fly in with a shorter deadline. Don't give in to this activism and take back control of your to-do list. Instead, give your team rough time estimates and update them weekly. This means you can work on your own issues calmly and with concentration and find time every day to take care of the really important tasks. Conclusion The important tasks are never the most urgent. And the urgent tasks are rarely important. Once you have recognized this, you can restructure your calendar so that your work achieves more impact in less time. https://justgrow.eu/blog/ If you're interested in reading more of Olaf articles please visit the website link above. (Please note that Olaf's site is in German but Google translate does an excellent job of instantly translating it to English.) How can you elevate your people to the next level? To find out what you can improve in your leadership team to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist*. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Complete section 1 and 4 to check your leadership team* and accountability processes*. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. There are many keys to successful execution…priorities, alignment, measurement, lean principles, and more. However, the most critical element is having the right high-performing leadership team around the CEO/President of the company. Bar none. In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches webinar, Sean Knutsen, CEO & Co-Founder of Boveda in Minnesota, talks about his experience successfully building High Performance Leadership Teams. Boveda Inc. is the leading producer of 2-way humidity control solutions for a variety of moisture-sensitive products, including cigars and cannabis. Becoming the global leader in any category doesn’t happen overnight. Becoming the global leader in a category that didn’t even exist is even harder. But that’s what Boveda did and continues to do since 1997. How can you build a high performance leadership team?
To find out how to develop a great top team to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your leadership team is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Want to listen to the tip? Use the play button below. What systems can you improve to grow a thriving company? To find out what systems you and can improve to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. I’ve found that a growing number of CEOs and executive teams are becoming familiar with leadership operating systems for midsize companies; systems like The Rockefeller Habits, Scaling Up or the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), that are summarized in books by the same names.
These systems have been built on each others’ shoulders: the Rockefeller Habits compiling best practices from a variety of thought leaders, EOS expanding on the habits and making them more accessible to small businesses, and Scaling Up adding more best practices to strengthen strategy, profitability and cash flow. When CEOs and their teams successfully implement these methods, then growth, and even profitable growth becomes easier, especially if they're working with a leadership team coach. However, as companies grow, the journey becomes more complex and some gaps can become apparent in these systems. I’ve also found that some companies struggle to implement these methods because certain elements aren’t covered in much depth; things like accountability, how to set metrics, targets and rocks, and how to get executive team alignment. While I use the Scaling Up method and the Rockefeller Habits with the companies I work with, as well as some of the tools that are unique to EOS, I also rely on a system that builds on their shoulders to fill the gaps and address some of the more subtle challenges of growth: The 7 Attributes of Agile Growth. The book, again by the same name, was written by Keith Cupp, CEO of Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches, the global community of executive team coaches I am a part of. The 7 Attributes of Agile Growth is a monograph, a relatively new format of book, being made popular by certain thought leaders, like Jim Collins with his Flywheel monograph. Monographs are relatively short, at 40 to 80 pages, designed to cover a narrow topic or provide a high level overview, and be read in one sitting, like on a short-haul flight. The book outlines the attributes of companies that are successful at not only growing, but also overcoming the new challenges that come with growth and adapting to a constantly changing environment in order to keep growing sustainably and profitably over time. These 7 Attributes include Leadership, Talent, Strategy, Execution, Profit, Customer and Systems. The leadership attribute is where the executive leadership team has done the work to become authentic, healthy, and aligned. Talent is about leaders and managers pursuing a culture of trust, results, and accountability with their people. The strategy attribute is where the executive team has defined and evolved a unique and valuable position in the market, and it can be easily recalled and stated by all employees in one phrase. Execution includes having annual, quarterly, and personal targets and priorities that are visible, measured, and activated successfully with a 13-week sprint. The profit attribute is where cash flow has been optimized, and the executive team understands the forces and levers in their control to increase profit and cash. The customer attribute is where the core customer has been defined, a compelling promise has been crafted, and the customer lifecycle has been systematized. Systems is where the organization has defined methods to optimize core processes, change management, decision-making, and technology use. The 7 Attributes of Agile Growth is an introductory monograph to the overall operating system. Separate monographs are being developed for each attribute. So far, four monographs have been released, going into some depth on: accountability, profit and cash flow optimization, A player talent, and competitive strategy. Monograph: 56 pages. How can you grow an agile company? To find out how to implement a leadership operating system to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. You don't have to be a natural speaker to tell good stories. With this simple 7-step guide to storytelling, you can formulate your next pitch, presentation, lecture or speech as an exciting story - and make your customers the main character.
Customers and investors become convinced with good stories Everyone knows them: gifted storytellers. You come into a group of people, start talking, and in no time a bunch of listeners are hanging on their every word. Well, who do you think of from your circle of friends? What seems innate to some people pushes many entrepreneurs to the edge of their comfort zone even after years: investor pitches, customer presentations, speeches in front of the entire team. And what sounded so clear and convincing in your head simply doesn't come across correctly in front of an audience. The good news: You don't have to be a natural speaker to tell good stories and master the art of storytelling. Today I'll show you a simple 7-step guide with which you can quickly wrap your product presentation, your investor pitch or your next all-hands speech into an exciting story. Your listeners will be hanging on your every word – bet!? The framework I would like to introduce to you is called StoryBrand and was developed by US bestselling author Donald Miller. With this simple 7-step guide, you can package any product or company message into a story that is guaranteed to stay in the person's mind. From message to story in 7 steps What do the films Star Wars, The Hunger Games and Dirty Dancing have in common? Nothing? But! They all work according to the same structure: The main character (1) has a big goal that she really wants to achieve. She comes across a seemingly insoluble problem (2) . When her problem seems greatest, she meets a wise mentor (3) . He gives her a plan (4) and then gives her a push to put this plan into action (5) . In the end, the main character manages to prevent the impending defeat (6) and to be successful (7) . What Donald Miller is doing with his StoryBrand framework is not new. He uses the elements of the classic hero story and transfers them into the business context. Because why shouldn't a narrative structure that captivates millions of people in books and films also work in business communication?! So use this guide to structure your next talk, pitch or presentation as a story and make your customers the main character. Storytelling Step 1: The hero and his goal You, your company or your product are not the heroes of the story: your customers are. So before crafting your story, ask yourself:
This way you think about your customer's needs and avoid writing pages and pages just about yourself. Storytelling Step 2: The Problem Good stories thrive on conflict. What problems does your customer have? What keeps him awake at night? Where does he urgently need support? Such problems exist on three levels:
Storytelling Step 3: The Mentor Now you finally appear. As a wise mentor, you show your client that you understand them and their dilemma and can help them achieve their goal. To do this you need two things:
So ask yourself:
Storytelling Step 4: The Plan You have shown your customer that you understand him and his problem and have demonstrated your authority. Now describe exactly what happens next and give him a clear, simple plan:
No matter how many steps your plan actually has, boil it down to three steps. What you want your customer to remember is: Oh, how wonderfully easy it is to work with you. Storytelling step 5: The call to action Your customer now knows the next steps and knows what happens next. Now it's his turn. Tell your customer clearly what he should do next. What do you want to achieve with your presentation, lecture, conversation? This is the call to action that your story is coming to a head! Storytelling Step 6: Imminent failure What to do if your customer doesn't want to? Movement means expenditure of energy. That's why people only move if they can either get something positive in return (the goal) or avoid something negative (defeat). Gently remind your client what's at stake if they don't work with you. (problems as before) Such failures are common in the B2B sector:
Storytelling Step 7: Success At the end of your story, paint a clear picture of the bright future where your customer has achieved their goal. Describe clearly:
Conclusion No other communication approach focuses on its audience more consistently than StoryBrand's 7-step plan. Make your listeners the main characters in your story. As a mentor, help them achieve their goal and successfully eliminate problems along the way. Give them a plan on how to get there and get them moving in a targeted manner. You do this by carefully reminding them of what is at stake if they do not work with you and by painting a clear picture of the bright future in which your listeners have successfully achieved their goal. Follow this simple 7-step plan and structure your next pitch, lecture or conversation as a hero story. Do you notice how much more attentive your listeners are to you? Take advantage of this attention and bring your message home. https://justgrow.eu/blog/ If you're interested in reading more of Olaf articles please visit the website link above. (Please note that Olaf's site is in German but Google translate does an excellent job of instantly translating it to English.) How can you elevate your people to the next level? To find out what you can improve in your leadership team to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist*. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Complete section 1 and 4 to check your leadership team* and accountability processes*. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This February, Growth Faculty presents a special virtual livestream event with #1 New York Times best-selling author, Adam Grant LIVE | Work Life Reimagined Growth Faculty has partnered with Wellspring to offer clients $100 discount on the virtual livestream. Be part of an inspiring conversation led by Adam Grant, the trailblazing organisational psychologist, the mastermind behind global bestsellers Originals and Think Again and host of the wildly popular Work Life and Re-Thinking podcasts as he shares his revolutionary approach to building thriving teams and transforming workplace culture. In this 3-hour virtual livestream, Adam will help you:
Sign up your team along and align on what it means to have a thriving work culture and transform your workplace into a hub of creativity, collaboration, and getting stuff done! BOOK YOUR SPOT TODAY! "“When you procrastinate you’re not avoiding effort. You’re avoiding the unpleasant feeling that the activity stirs up.”" – Hidden Potential Wednesday, Febuary 21, 2024 - 4pm in MB and SK NON-MEMBER: $295* | OUR NETWORK: $195* *Prices quoted in USD What can you do to grow your mid-size company?
To find out what you and your leadership team could do to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Whenever I start working with a CEO and their executive team, they realize very quickly that most of their efforts to strengthen their company ultimately hinge on people. Their efforts to manage things, to move things forward, to change things, to improve things… these all need more than things. They need great people. They’ve known this. They believe this. But somehow, they’ve never put it at the top list. And yet, it gets in the way of progress every time. In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches podcast, Jay Niblick, founder and CEO of Innermetrix and co-founder of WizeHire, walks through the key elements of the People Problem, and how to address it successfully within your business. Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android How can you solve your people problem?
To find out how to strengthen your people to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your company’s people processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Scaling Up, written by Gazelles’ founder, Verne Harnish, and contributing coaches in 2014, is a summary of the leadership and management system I use as a foundation for my work with CEOs and executive teams. It builds on Verne’s 2001 book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.
It’s a compilation of countless best practices, tools and stories that help CEOs and their leadership teams focus, align and grow their companies. It organizes these best practices into a fairly holistic system set up to meet the needs of midsize companies. The book, and management system, address four critical decision areas: People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. The People section is about ensuring that all our employees are happy and engaged, that we would enthusiastically rehire them all, and that we’re creating a harmonious culture of accountability. Strategy tackles building strong, sustainable topline revenue growth by creating a unique offering in the market that is valuable to our most profitable type of customers. Execution is about reducing drama and converting revenue efficiently into industry-leading profitability. The Cash section helps ensure companies have consistent sources of cash to have options, make wise decisions, and fuel growth. The Scaling Up system is flexible and scalable. It includes a number of simple, practical & actionable tools, like the popular One Page Strategic Plan. One reaction I often hear from CEOs is “there are so many tools and best practices crammed into this book…it’s like drinking from a firehouse”. And it’s true, as a summary of hundreds of best practices, most pages refers to several other well known - and lesser known - thought leader books. And there’s no real roadmap in the book for how to implement them all, or where to start. Without an executive team coach to guide the process, the book can feel a bit overwhelming. Maybe surprisingly, from an Executive Team Coach’s perspective, there are some important areas that aren’t addressed in the book… areas that have come to light since the book’s launch in 2014. I’ll address these other areas in my next book introduction, on The 7 Attributes of Agile Growth, another methodology I use with CEOs and executive teams to build on Scaling Up. Book: 245 pgs, 8h50m audio. Get-Abstract summary: 5 pgs, 10m audio How can you scale up your company? To find out how to implement an integrated system to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. If you think you’re a fit for business, growth and executive team coaching, you may be ready to look for a coach that’s a fit for you.
In my experience working with executive teams over the last 17 years, I’ve found there are five key criteria to consider in an executive team coach:
Knowledge Whether you’re looking to more easily grow your company, get more profitable, or have more time or quality of life, you’ll want an executive team coach who knows the right best practices to help you and your top team get there. The easiest and best way to figure this out is by looking at what methodologies they use and whether those align with what you want to achieve. There are several reputable, holistic methodologies developed for senior leadership teams of midsize companies. These include: Scaling Up, the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth, EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System), the 7 Stages of Growth, among others. A coach that uses a reputable methodology will help ensure your team learns and implements best practices that are tried, tested and true, not simply based on the latest business fad or one person’s opinion. The creators of these methodologies haven’t developed their own best practices. They’ve only curated and compiled best practices that have already been researched and developed by the world’s best thought leaders and applied in the most successful companies. A holistic methodology will help ensure that all the critical aspects of a management team and company are addressed and supported. For example, not only is it important to develop a great competitive strategy, but also to develop an efficient plan to execute it. Great strategy and execution can only be enabled through great people. And great people will only contribute their best with great leadership and a highly cohesive team. And all of this leads to bottom line results only by aligning them with a focus on optimizing profit and cashflow. A holistic methodology addresses all the legs of the stool so the business is built sturdy and strong. Note that some of the methodologies above are more holistic than others. Generally, the larger the company or the more you want to grow, the more holistic a methodology you will want your coach to know. While a simpler methodology like EOS is a great starting point for smaller companies (say 5 to 20 employees), a more holistic methodology like Scaling Up, and then the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth, will enable you and your executive team to learn and implement the same basic best practices and then learn the others needed to get to the next level. Also, all of these methodologies have simplified the best practices to fit mid-sized companies. This is critical. A CEO and their senior team need to address a number of things, as discussed above. But your mid-size company likely only has so much capacity. You don’t have large departments to handle extra complexity. So, you and your team need to do just enough in each aspect to move the needle, while not doing so much in one of them that there’s no time to work on another. This means the best practices need to be simple and easy to implement. One sign that a coach has the knowledge to help you and your leadership team achieve your goals is when they know and use more than one of these methodologies. This means they can pull in whatever best practice is needed for the situation. No methodology includes all the best practices needed for every type of decision a CEO and their top team will need to make. So, being able to pull in the right tool for the right situation is key. While it’s important to pick an executive team coach who does use A reputable, holistic methodology of simplified best practices, which specific methodology (or methodologies) they use is less important. The coach themselves is more important: their experience, abilities, results and your chemistry with them. You can pick a coach who uses a methodology that resonates with you. But this doesn’t guarantee they’ll be great at teaching and facilitating those tools, or at guiding the process to help your team get results. You could also pick a coach who uses a methodology that’s not your first choice. But they may be an exceptional coach, teaching and facilitating best practices in very effective ways that truly move your business forward. Experience The most important experience you’ll want to look for in a business, growth & executive team coach is how much they’ve worked with and supported both CEOs and executive teams. This will affect how much they understand the challenges CEOs and their teams face, the dynamics often at play on such teams, and how to address them successfully. Unfortunately, there are low barriers to entry in the coaching field, so you’re best to look for a coach who has lots of experience. Broad business experience working with many different kinds of companies is also important. Having experience leading or working in different functions of a business, such as marketing, sales, operations, HR, IT and finance can also be a great asset. All this will allow your coach to share experiences from different sectors and relate them to all the members of your senior team. Now, you may be wondering if you should get someone who specializes in your industry. My guess is that industry experience is something that’s important to you when you’re hiring leaders and employees. So, you likely have a whole company full of industry experts. And yet, are you growing as fast, as profitably or as easily as you know you could? In my experience, having the right executive team coach is not so much about industry expertise. It’s about knowing how to consistently scale over time as a leadership team, and that’s where they bring their expertise. They’re never going to know as much as you will in your domain, and you’re never going to know as much as they do about getting management teams to scale companies. So, if you’re looking for a like-minded industry expert who’ll reinforce what you already know, and echo everything you say, then look for someone with lots of experience in your industry. But if you’re looking for someone to push, challenge and hold you and your executive team accountable, help clarify your goals and priorities, help clarify your thinking, an executive team coach with a broad base of experience will be a good fit. You may also be wondering if you should get a coach who has been a CEO. This is a valid question as it’s common to believe that someone who has done our job will be best able to coach us. But that’s not necessarily true. Consider Usain Boldt, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He’s an eight-time Olympic gold medallist and eleven-time world champion. He’s the world-record holder of the 100 meter, 200 meter and four by 100 meter relay. His coach, Glen Mills, never ran in the Olympics. In fact, he dropped out of sprinting at the age of 14 because he wasn’t very fast. He then became an amazing coach to many olympians. Although Glen never ran the kind of races that Usain did, Usain would be the first to admit he wouldn’t run as fast if it weren’t for Glen’s great coaching. On the other hand, we’ve all heard stories of hockey or football greats who made poor coaches. While it’s possible for a great CEO to become a great coach. It’s not necessarily the case, nor is it a requirement. Ability Coaching and team facilitation are skills that take years to develop and hone. They are each combinations of technical, behavioural and relationship skills that are best developed alongside keen self-awareness and attention to self-improvement. This doesn’t happen overnight. One way to get a sense of someone’s coaching and facilitation skills is to look for how many years they’ve been practicing each of them, and how much. Another way is to notice their coaching skills in your initial conversations with them, and to ask them to do a brief facilitated trial session with your team. Someone with good coaching skills will cause you to think more deeply about your team, your business and your life. They will inspire you to a new level of openness. They will challenge you by asking tough questions. They may share some principles, but they will avoid trying to tell you what you should do. They will facilitate your thinking so that you have the realizations, you come to the conclusions, and you make the decisions that are right for you in that moment… because you came to them yourself (albeit with some support and guidance) and therefore you believe in those decisions. Yet, they will also teach, share experiences, observations and opinions when needed. A coach’s team facilitation skills are related to, but different from, their coaching skills. Great coaching skills enhance a coach’s facilitation skills. But group facilitation is also a skill in itself. To get a sense of these, ask the coach if they’d be willing to do a brief session with you and your top team for you to see them in action. A coach with strong facilitation skills will help your team stay focused, explore the issues from all angles, and come to clear decisions with the strong support and commitment from the whole team. Results At the end of the day, what you want from engaging a business, growth & executive team coach are results. That said, the coach won’t create those results. You and your team will. But the coach will help you and your team 1) set goals that are important to you, 2) determine how to get there, 3) solve problems along the way, and 4) achieve those results over time. Their support and guidance needs to be focused and purposeful. One good sign that a coach is results-focused is to notice what they ask you in your initial conversation. Do they try to understand what you want for your company, your work life and your personal life in the future? Do they get you thinking deeply about the biggest challenges to getting there? And do they demonstrate a clear understanding of the path to tackle those challenges and get to where you want to be. Another way to gain confidence that you’ll get results is by asking about the work they’ve done with other CEOs and executive teams. They should be able to share clear examples of challenges they’ve helped them overcome and results they’ve helped them produce. In the end, the results a coach has helped produce with other companies won’t guarantee you’ll get great results with them yourself. But you’ll have some level of confidence that they can help you get there. The rest will depend on how well you work together. Chemistry Chemistry is important in an ongoing relationship like you will have with an executive team coach. You’ll work closely together and for some time, so you might as well also enjoy it. This largely comes down to being aligned on what drives each of you. What’s their Why, as Simon Sinek says, and does that connect with yours? Do they want to make a difference in the world that’s compatible with the difference you want to make? If so, you’re more likely to work well together. You’ll also want to look for clues that you have compatible values… that similar things are important to you in life. Your coach will be more emotionally invested in your efforts when they believe in what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. And lastly, you just get along. There will be ease in interacting with the coach. You’ll feel comfortable and accepted, but also kindly challenged to do better. Picking a business, growth & executive team coach that fits you, your team and company takes a bit of thought… about their knowledge, experience, ability, results and chemistry. But the results will be well worth the effort, especially if you’re also a good fit for coaching. How can a great business, growth & executive team coach help you grow a thriving company? To find out what areas a qualified executive team coach can help you improve in to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. In my experience, CEOs are often leery of hiring a leader to take over sales, even though it will free up the CEO to work more on building the business. The issue they state is often that they’re concerned the lifeblood of the company will slow down or go sideways. The root issue is that they don’t really know how they’ll keep tabs on the sales leader, ie. what metrics to track. In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches podcast, Mike Carroll, founder and managing partner of Intelligent Conversations, shares his insights into how best to measure your sales team’s success. Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android How can you grow your company’s sales?
To find out how to increase your sales to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. I’ve met many CEOs and business owners who’ve said they need to get their business processes down on paper to make the business less person-dependent. Yet, too often, the effort gets put off. In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches recorded webinar, David Jenyns, serial entrepreneur and author of Systemology, discusses the simple methods he discovered to get employees to turn their knowledge into processes in order to create consistency, efficiency and scalability across a company. David shares the Systemology approach and dispels the following common myths that cause leaders to put off documenting processes:
How can you develop systems in your company?
To find out how to develop systems to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 7 to check your systems. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. In our work with CEOs and their leadership teams, we often find business owners’ expectations of their returns from their business are too low… too low for the health and sustainability of their business, too low to support their growth aspirations and too low relative to what they’ve invested in the business. In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches podcast, Greg Crabtree, speaker, entrepreneur, financial expert and author of Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!, outlines what returns entrepreneurs should expect from their investment capital, and how they can increase their return on that investment. Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android
How can you improve your company’s profitability? To find out how to increase your bottom line to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profit processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Happy holidays from my wife Janelle and I! We wish you, your employees, and your families, a restful, joyous and safe holiday season.
And for 2024, we wish you all the success in growing a thriving top team, company and life! I’ve long been interested in strengths-based development. So I was glad when I finally dug into Strengthsfinder 2.0 from Gallup, and written by Tom Rath.
Tom worked with the late Donald O. Clifton, father of strengths-based psychology, and author of Now, Discover Your Strengths with Marcus Buckingham. This book, Tom’s sequel to Donald and Marcus’, coincided with the release of version 2.0 of the Strengthsfinder assessment. Tom reiterates the message from the first book: we are better off focussing on roles and activities where we can further develop our strengths, rather than trying to become strong in areas we simply are not. The storyline of the underdog is a common one in our culture. The unlikely candidate for greatness in a certain sphere overcomes their weaknesses and beats the odds. However, it’s also the path of most resistance and rarely works. The reality is that someone who has always struggled in a certain area is unlikely to become great at it. Rather, our best opportunity for growth, and greater productivity and impact, lies in our areas of strength. Here, we improve easily and quickly, achieve and refine excellence, and can take our impact to new heights. The rest of the book describes the 34 strengths using the same language as the original book. For each strength, it adds “ideas for action” to capitalize on it. If you’ve read the first book, you may find this one light on added insights. New readers will get big value from it and the assessment. Used by a leadership team, they can help team members be more productive, enjoy their work more, and collaborate with each other more effectively. Book: 192 pages; Audio Book: 4 hours 9 minutes. How can you develop talent in your company? To find out how to develop your leaders and talent to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your talent processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. If there is a problem in the growth of a company, it may be due to the filling of important key positions. A problem that is often overlooked. Who likes to admit that their loyal colleagues in their management team are not the right ones for a position? If you also have a personal relationship with each other, that doesn't make it any easier. The fact is: the longer you let such bad appointments go on, the longer your company will run with the handbrake on. Keep – develop – let go How do you find out which of your managers are particularly helpful to you, which you should develop, and which are hindering rather than helping your company's growth goals? I sit down with my clients and together we evaluate each individual in their leadership team. These seven questions will help: Six questions to evaluate your managers
A simple matrix has proven successful for evaluating management teams. They define the central criteria that an optimal manager should fulfill in their role. These can be the criteria from the seven questions, but also others that are suitable for your company. Then evaluate each manager individually according to strong (green), weak (red) and neutral (gray). You can also assign points and then add them up. You rate strengths with 1, weaknesses with -1 and neutral characteristics with 0. This gives you a nice graphical representation of how the desired leadership skills are distributed in your leadership team, where there is development potential and where you should perhaps also critically question whether a person really fits into your leadership team. You can find a template of this evaluation matrix here . This way you can measure and track the development of your managers.
An effective tool for quickly and sustainably increasing the performance of your managers is the Manager Feedback Survey from Google . Managers are evaluated by their employees every three months based on 13 leadership traits that Google has identified as key through studies. The answers range from one to five – strongly disagree to completely agree. Not only can you quickly and reliably determine the development needs of individual managers, you also have a tool to track the actual development curve of the managers over the course of the year. Each manager picks a development topic from the survey results that they would like to work on and discusses this topic with their team. This creates commitment and increases the chances of success. Google Manager Feedback Survey
How to find and hire the right managers. Maybe you had to part ways with a few managers and are now looking for suitable successors. Or you have additional need for managers thanks to your company's growth. No matter what scenario you find yourself in, you want to ensure that the new leaders will move your company forward and make it better. How can you find out whether candidates will not only perform in the interviews, but also be successful in their jobs later on? In his bestseller “Work Rules!” Ex-Google CHRO Laszlo Bock describes which hiring methods are particularly meaningful with regard to later performance in the job - and which are more like a game of chance. The most important tip in advance: When recruiting for executives, don't just use one instrument, but combine several instruments with each other - ideally ones that very reliably predict the future performance of your candidates. According to extensive Google analysis, the most reliable methods for predicting the subsequent performance of candidates are, in % probability:
Ask for work samples. Give your applicants a task to solve that they would also find in their future position. Then evaluate your candidates’ performance together in a personal conversation. Test general cognitive abilities. This method is a good indicator of people's later performance because general cognitive abilities also include the ability to learn. This combination of intelligence and learning ability is what makes people successful in their jobs. This makes these tests particularly meaningful. Conduct structured interviews. In structured interviews, job interviews follow a predetermined schedule. The questions are of course tailored to your job profile. This way you can test competencies that are important for the respective position. Use behavioral and situational questions. For behavioral questions, ask applicants to describe previous achievements and compare them to the requirements of the current position (“Tell me about a time when…?”). In situational interviews, you ask questions about hypothetical situations relevant to the open position (“What would you do if…?”). The advantages of structured interviews: You can evaluate candidates particularly objectively and compare them with each other. The disadvantages: Structured interviews do not produce a natural conversation. In addition, the effort required for preparation and follow-up is significantly higher than with unstructured interviews. The US Office of Personnel Management uses structured interviews when hiring and offers a number of free materials . Always make decisions by committee. Don’t let your managers decide who to hire on their own. Create a hiring committee that is as diverse as possible and consists of the applicants' future managers, colleagues and employees. In this way, you prevent unconscious biases from influencing the decision to fill a position. Do reference checks. If you still have doubts about a candidate, call two former superiors or work colleagues and ask them for their opinion. Important: Ask specifically five times about the candidate’s weaknesses. Most people in Canada are simply too polite to tell you the blunt truth right away. Tool tip: 3 providers that can help you choose the right manager are the assessments from Thomas , Topgrading and Hogan . Conclusion Growth is a leadership task. That's why, if your company's growth is stagnating, you should start researching the causes. Why or who is responsible for not achieving your growth goals? The questions from the Google Manager Survey will help you gain clarity. But only if you are mercilessly honest with yourself and in your assessment of your managers. Think carefully about what behavior, what characteristics, what strengths you expect from your managers - in the respective situation in which your company currently finds itself. If you know your expectations and have a clear picture of who on your leadership team is already meeting, partially meeting, or not meeting those expectations, you can make informed decisions about how you want to develop and change your leadership team. https://justgrow.eu/blog/ If you're interested in reading more of Olaf articles please visit the website link above. (Please note that Olaf's site is in German but Google translate does an excellent job of instantly translating it to English.) How can you elevate your people to the next level? To find out what you can improve in your leadership team to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Complete section 1 and 4 to check your leadership team* and accountability processes*. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. Why is it that some leaders can be counted on in critical situations and others can’t? What are the key characteristics of these A-players and what makes them different from their peers? In working with CEOs and business owners, this is one of the early conversations we have: “Who are your A-players and how can you tell they’re performing at that level? And what are the behaviors to look for and cultivate in your other leaders to get them to that same level (or decide to part ways)?” In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches recorded webinar, Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers, discusses her key findings on these questions in her new best-selling book Impact Players. Based on a study of 170 top contributors, Wiseman identifies the mindsets that prevent otherwise smart, capable people from contributing to their full potential and the five practices that differentiate Impact Players: • While others do their job, Impact Players figure out the real job to be done. • While others wait for direction, Impact Players step up and lead. • While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line. • While others attempt to minimize change, Impact Players are learning and adapting to change. • While others add to the load, Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter. Wiseman makes clear that these practices—and the right mindset—can help any employee contribute at their fullest and shows leaders how they can raise the level of play for everyone on the team. How can you develop Impact Players in your company?
To find out how to develop A-player talent to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your talent processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. Underpinning the Scaling Up system and 7 Attributes of Agile Growth framework I use with my clients are methods developed by many great business thought leaders.
One of these methods is the Where to Play choices in A.G.Lafley and Roger L. Martin’s 2013 book Playing To Win: How Strategy Really Works. The book draws on their experience working together on the strategy transformation of Proctor & Gamble from 2000 to 2009, and distills strategy down to its essence so it’s useful and effective for any size company. They underline first that strategy is about choices. Making trade-offs to focus a company on the higher opportunities for success, rather than spreading a company thin. Their strategy framework includes choosing: 1) how you define winning, 2) where you will play in the market, 3) how you’ll win/compete, 4) what capabilities must be in place and 5) what management systems are needed. Playing to Win helps make better sense of strategic terms like vision, target market, value proposition, core competencies, etc., and helps tie it all together in a logical way. However, it offers few practical tools or specific processes. And some of the long P&G stories seem to miss the point. That said, it’s a great book for those who’ve been exposed to strategic thinking tools and want to deepen their understanding. Book: 272 pgs, 7h9m audio. How can you develop a winning strategy? To find out how you can strengthen your strategy and grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete sections 3 and 6 to check your competitive strategy. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. As Jim Collins outlined in the book Good To Great, we know that great companies start with having great people. And yet, finding and selecting great people remains elusive to many growing companies, their CEOs and leaders. In our work with these folks, we recommend the Top Grading process to drastically increase the odds of hiring A-players, which we define as being both highly productive and a great fit with our values. In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches podcast, Michelle LaVallee, Gravitas Impact Alumni and Topgrading Champion, who has conducted over a thousand Topgrading Interviews across multiple industries worldwide, shares the top 6 ways in which to increase your chances of hiring an A-Player and decrease the risk of hiring other candidates. During this Topgrading overview, Michelle reviews best practices that include:
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How can you improve the people element in your company? To find out how to get your people right to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your people processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. If you’ve been following this 5 Minute Growth Tips article series, you are now clearer on:
But you may be thinking, I’ve never worked with a coach before, let alone a leadership team coach. It sounds helpful, but also intense. So you may be wondering, can I do it? What’s going to be involved? And am I willing to do the work? These are all important questions to ask yourself before you engage a coach. Over my 17 years working with CEOs and business owners, and their leadership, management and executive teams, I’ve seen CEOs make some common mistakes and I’ve also seen some of the attributes of CEOs who get the most return from leadership team coaching. The CEOs who really crush it and get the highest and fastest return on investment of time, energy and effort, are the one who are: - Willing to invest - Curious and open learners - Team players - Courageous Willing to invest Certainly, there’s a significant financial investment to engaging a leadership team coach. Make no bones about it. The bad news is that the money is the least expensive part of it. Beyond the money, the bigger investment is going to be you and your leadership team’s commitment and follow through to do the hard work of making and acting on decisions. So, the money is part of it. But equally, maybe even more important, is the commitment and effort you put into it to see things through. A good leadership team coach is going to push you, and you need to make sure you’re ready for that. The good news is, if you decide to go down that path, and you decide to work with a leadership team coach, a good one will be with you every step of the way, leading you through the tough choices ahead to get clarity and focus to get your company on the path you want. I’m emphasizing the time commitment because a good leadership team coach is going to pull your whole leadership team together for one or more days at a time through the course of the year. What our clients tell us is they get a great return on that time. Because everyone walks out of the room more focused, there’s more clarity and crisper execution, and you actually get that time back and more. But you and your team have to get through the initial process of getting some foundational best practices put in place. And you’re not going to realize that time gain immediately. And it would be a shame if you gave up early. Also, through all the planning and execution you and your leadership team will do, the changes and improvements you make to the business, in order to grow, are going to take investments as well. Certainly there will be time investment. And you and your team will get that time through the efficiencies I mentioned above. But there will also be financial investments, as I’m sure you can appreciate: in systems, equipment, facilities, people, etc. And, as we know, sometimes they’ll be harder to swallow than others. Some will be “stepped investments”, where your profitability might take a short term hit to get to the profitability you want “tomorrow”. Curious and open learners We’ve found that the CEOs and business owners who get the best results working with leadership team coaches are open to learning and following a proven process, which any good leadership coach will use. A good leadership team coach will also share observations and feedback with the CEO from time to time. And the CEOs and business owners that are open to that feedback, willing to look at themselves, and commit to personal development, are the ones who become better leaders and see their peoples’ performance improve, as well as the company’s. Team players Similar to the notion of openness, you’ll need to be comfortable collaborating with your leadership team coach and be willing to work collaboratively with your leadership team. A good leadership team coach will facilitate key leadership team meetings, namely annual and quarterly planning sessions and potentially monthly check-in meetings. Their facilitation role will allow you to be fully present as a participant in the discussion, and not have to also play the role of meeting facilitator, which rarely works very well. Having a dedicated facilitator, who also teaches and coaches the team, enables the team AND the CEO to bring their best ideas and greatest condor to the conversation to achieve more clarity, focus and alignment. This works the best when the CEO takes a truly collaborative stance, rather than a directive one, with their team. For you, this may feel like letting go of control. In a way, it’s like putting your CEO role on pause for the day as you participate in the conversations. Of course, a good leadership team coach shouldn’t leave you out of the loop about what they’re going to lead you and your team through in your meetings. They should be consulting with you on what to cover and what needs discussing. But you’ll need to be receptive to what they recommend. So, rather than giving them direction, you’ll need to work collaboratively, sharing with them what is happening, and being curious and open to their suggestions for what to work on next. Courageous We also find CEOs get great results if they are willing to do everything it takes to apply what they learn, make decisions, execute, and grow. This includes holding people accountable by insisting that their people learn from their mistakes, having tough conversations with team members when needed and removing people who ultimately aren’t a fit. It also includes CEOs having the courage to hold themselves accountable for their part and to be vulnerable with their team on the journey. You need roughly 80% of all this for the relationship to work well and for you and your leadership team to make real progress and get real results. So, one should ask themselves, out of these four attributes, what will be easiest for me? And, what will be most difficult and why? Knowing what area will be more of a struggle for you, a good leadership team coach will challenge you to grow in that area. This is what it takes to get great results assuming you’re working with a good leadership team coach. So, how do you choose a good one? What should you look for? And how do you choose one who’s right for you? I’ll cover that in my next 5 Minute Growth Tip article. How can you be successful growing a thriving company? To find out how to get things right to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. At the core of growing a thriving company is growing the people within it. In fact, one of the main constraints to growth is new and existing leaders, managers and employees not learning fast enough to get the work done right to delight customers and keep them coming back. However, in our work with CEOs and their leadership teams, we often find that they struggle with how to coach their people to learn and grow. One of the most common mistakes is being the chief problem solver. They solve the problems employees bring them and therefore encourage employees to not think for themselves or grow their skills and abilities. This also causes employees to lack confidence and be less engaged, productive and effective. Ultimately, it also exhausts the leader and prevents them from working on the business. In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches podcast, Michael Bungay Stanier, best-selling author of the Coaching Habit shares the key points from his latest book, The Advice Trap, to help CEOs, owners and leaders grow their people to grow their companies by addressing their own urge to give advice. Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android
How can you improve people development in your company? To find out how to develop people to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your talent development processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. It’s hard to find a business leader who has not read Jim Collins’ Good to Great. Released 20 years ago, it might just be the most referenced business book of all time (think “get the right people on the bus”).
Collin’s most recent full length book, Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, was written with Morten T. Hansen. It’s received less attention, but packs just as much research-based punch. Building on the lessons from Good to Great, the authors share principles discovered from companies that performed ten times better than their industry average amid a highly unstable business environment. These business resilience principles include:
In a world facing more uncertainty than ever, Great by Choice offers timeless advice for any size company to succeed regardless of the economic environment. With Collin’s sound research approach, it’s advice you can take seriously. Book: 256 pages. Audio book: 8 hours, 45 minutes. Book summary found on Soundview: 4 pages, 18 minute audio. How can your company thrive regardless of circumstance? To find out what you can strengthen to thrive and grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. Ths self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. In my last 5 Minute Growth Tips article, I compared the eight options for getting outside support to implement the many structures, systems and processes needed to grow profitably and enjoy the ride.
These options might seem overwhelming. And a CEO or business owner might want to throw up their hands and say “I’ll just send my leadership team members on some leadership training. That’ll do the trick.” But, unfortunately, it won’t. An October 2016 HBR article titled “Why Leadership Training Fails - and What to Do About It” reviews decades worth of studies that show leadership training - on its own - does not change leadership behaviours or improve companies’ performance. It also describes the other critical pieces needed first for leadership training to stick and make a difference. Here, I’ll summarize the key points from the article and share some experience of my own. Although companies pour enormous amounts of money into employee training and development - $160 billion in the US in 2015 alone - the learning largely doesn’t improve performance. This is because people soon revert to their old ways of doing things. Why is that? The more obvious reason is that training is a once and done event. There is no follow-up to reinforce the learning. We’ve all experienced this when we’ve taken training with the best of intentions, but then never revisit the material to implement what we learned. The less obvious reason leadership training doesn’t stick is that, once the training is done, leaders go back to a workplace that still operates the way it used to. That workplace has processes, habits and ways of doing things that don’t encourage what the leaders have learned, and often even discourage it. For example, a leader might learn about how to select and clearly define specific priorities to improve things and get better results within their department. But when the leader goes back to the office, their CEO may have a number of internal projects they want to see happen across the company or in certain departments, with little definition or specificity. New projects might also be added regularly, and others inadvertently fall by the wayside. Best case, the leader will have little incentive to select and clearly define priorities because their boss has yet to see the value of doing so. Worst case, the CEO may discourage choosing priorities and see the leader as uncommitted or lacking entrepreneurial grit. Neither scenario encourages the leader to implement what they learned in the training. As a result, performance doesn’t improve. Also, employees below the leaders become cynical about the leadership training because nothing seems to truly change. So, why do CEOs continue to invest in leadership training? There are two reasons. The first is that many CEOs, and leaders generally, tend to view companies as just groups of people. The thinking goes “if everyone in the company learns and grows, they’ll each get better at what they do, and the company will perform better.” The same view is common for executive and leadership team performance. Develop the individual leaders, and the team and company will do better. But this just isn’t true. A number of studies have shown that company performance results from not just individual skills and abilities, but, more so, from the systems in which people work. Building on the HBR article, my experience has been that these systems fall into five areas:
From this view, leaders’ individual skills and abilities make up less than one fifth of the key ingredients needed to improve a company’s performance. Also, we can imagine how the structures, processes and policies already happening in the company will enable or limit the leaders’ freedom to practice the skills they learn in training. The second reason CEOs continue to invest in pure leadership training is that noone has ever had the courage to challenge them with the uncomfortable truth that the way they lead and manage their team and company, in terms of direction, structure, processes, communication and resources, is the larger reason their company hasn’t gotten to where they want it to be. As the HBR article puts it “those are the things to fix before training can succeed longer-term.” And so, how can CEOs and business owners get these systems working better? I would share similar advice to that given in the HBR article, although slightly adjusted for growth-minded mid-size companies:
This approach will ensure the right systems are in place and working to support the leadership learning that takes place as a part of it all. At this point in the article, a CEO or business owner might be considering simply attending leadership training with their leadership team members. That way, the CEO can learn the same best practices, implement them and create an environment that encourages the behaviours their leaders will have learned. That’s certainly an option. This takes CEOs back to the first problem mentioned with leadership training… there’s no follow up to ensure the best practices are implemented. And that’s made more difficult by some of the features of most leadership training programs:
At the end of the day, leadership training has the CEO back to taking a Do-It-Yourself approach. And we’ve already discussed how a DIY approach slows growth. So, how can a CEO and their leadership team successfully learn and fully implement the systems and skills to grow profitably? This takes us back to the 8 options we covered in my last 5 Minute Growth Tips article. And what we find is that the most effective option to make this happen is a Business Growth Advisor and Leadership Team Coach. If Leadership Team Coaching seems like it might be the right option for you, the next question is are you the right fit for a Leadership Team Coach? We’ll cover that in my next 5 Minute Growth Tip article. How can you implement the systems to grow a thriving company? To find out what systems to strengthen to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation. |
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