How one CEO doubled business with aligned execs

Does getting your executive team aligned seem daunting? We see it all the time with companies we work with. In this article, I’ll share the story of one of those clients.

In my previous articles “Is Your Executive Team Aligned?” and “The Alignment Playbook: Scaling Up”, we talked about the four critical elements for achieving and maintaining executive team alignment: the One Page Strategic Plan (OPSP), Annual and Quarterly Planning, Clear Individual Roles and Expectations, and Efficient Executive Team Buy-in.

I worked for several years with a national seed retailer here in the Canadian prairies.

When I first met the CEO, he had purchased the company from two partners who he still had working in the business and playing leadership roles. He knew he needed to bring some structure to the organization to grow sustainably. But he also knew he needed to involve these two leaders to get aligned on what needed to change.

The CEO wasn’t entirely sure who was or should be on his leadership team, given there was no formal organizational structure in place.

I counselled the CEO to simply start with the people he knew reported to him, being the other two leaders, and others they would clearly recognize as being on the leadership team. It ended up being only the three of them. This is a common starting point for companies we work with. We start with what we’ve got, and evolve the leadership team from there.

I facilitated their first two-day annual planning session and, together, they built their initial one page strategic plan. They got aligned on their basic philosophy, their 1 year plan and what they were going to change in the first 90 days.

Then I got them into a rhythm of one day quarterly planning sessions to continue biting off parts of their one year plan and adjusting course as needed. Once a year, we also got the team together for a two day annual planning session to assess the environment, adjust their one page strategic plan and plan for the coming year.

They were concerned at first because they didn't fill out the whole one-page plan in that first session. But I reassured them that most companies don't. They work through what they can and then add to it over time. Over the four years I worked with them, they did complete their one-page plan, which gave them more and more clarity about the company’s direction to guide aligned execution. 

The CEO and his team had some difficulty in the first year keeping to the quarterly planning rhythm. Being a seed retailer, they had a very busy winter and spring production, sales and delivery season. The CEO wondered if they needed to do quarterly planning during that period given they didn’t have time to execute much change work. 

I clarified that quarterlies are not just to plan for change, but, more importantly,  to plan for results. If this was their busiest time of year - the season that made their year - was it not critical to have a solid plan for those two quarters?

Instead of skipping those quarterly planning sessions, I suggested making them shorter during the busy half of the year and longer during the slow half. 

During the busy season, we focused the quarterly planning mostly on what results they needed to achieve through sales, production and delivery, as well as to identify and resolve issues that could get in the way of success. 

For quarterly planning during the slow season, we invested more time planning the larger changes and improvements they could make during those quarters to move the business forward and be in a better position for the next busy season.

In the initial annual planning session, we also started clarifying their respective roles, using the Functional Accountability Chart exercise, so they were aligned about what each of them was accountable for. This also allowed them to easily agree on who would lead each company quarterly priority.

​Over time, it also became clear that one of the original leaders was actually playing a role that reported to the other leader, and he didn’t need to be on the leadership team. This role clarification work also revealed that they needed someone to take over HR and Accounting from the CEO. This new leader was brought on quickly, made a part of the leadership team and attended their planning sessions going forward.

Later, they created their Key Function Flow Map to get really clear on how business flowed through the company and who on the leadership team was accountable to produce what and for which other department. This ensured they were aligned in terms of how each of their areas needed to support each other.

In facilitating their planning, I shared the “Disagree and Commit” approach to achieving efficient team buy-in. This helped to get the leaders sharing and respecting each others’ perspectives and being part of the conversation to be able to buy into decisions. But it also gave the CEO the freedom to still make the final decision when needed, while maintaining that team buy-in.

This was a particularly helpful ground rule for the CEO to challenge one of the leaders who was not engaging in the conversations, but rather than being indirect and then not committing to plans afterwards. While the leader improved at times, it became clear they weren’t a fit, and the CEO confidently replaced them with a leader who fit the culture and could contribute to an aligned leadership team.

Aided by the alignment they sustained through a one page strategic plan, annual and quarterly planning, clear roles and expectations, and efficient team buy-in, the company restructured the organization, smoothed out their operations and improved their customer service to double in size through and after the pandemic, all while maintaining their profit margin. 

So where can you get started to get your executive team aligned? First, get familiar with the one page strategic plan. We’ll cover that in the next 5 Minute Growth Tip.

Watch / Listen to the Video

If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company, team and life more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.