C-Suite Tip Number 1 – Focus on Middle Management Leadership

Engage your middle management to secure your strategic success.

We all know about the pyramid structure. It’s a generic way to think about an enterprise and how most are organizationally design. Divided into three layers, the top layer of the pyramid is comprised of the senior-most leaders. These are the people responsible for setting strategic direction and guiding the enterprise towards its future. While certainly concerned with quarterly performance, the leaders at the top of the pyramid must also have a forward-thinking, “Where will we be in 5 years?” kind of mindset.

The middle layer of the pyramid is comprised of the middle management of the organization. These people must be able to interpret the strategic direction set forth by the senior leaders and translate it into actions that the units that report into them can understand and act upon. While these managers certainly care about strategy, their primary focus is this year. Can we do what we need to day this year to reach our goals and objectives?

The lower layer of the pyramid is comprised of supervisors and rank and file. This layer is responsible for execution. Their time frame is much different from the managers and senior leaders. Their point of reference is today. Can we do the work that must be done today, on-time and on-budget? And, they inherently understand, that they will suffer the consequences of poor performance, if they don’t.

So, when it comes time to roll-out your next key strategy, where do you begin? In the middle, of course!

The middle management team makes or breaks strategic execution! As mentioned, they’re the ones that must interpret the strategies and translate them into something that is actionable by the rank and file. If they fail to do this well, the organization falters, resources are squandered and, unfortunately, many times heads roll.

Here are 3 essential tips to get them on-board (and, by doing so, improve your chances for success in the launching your firm’s next strategic initiative):

• Tell and Teach: Think about it, you’re asking your mid-tier managers to act as teachers. And, to teach well, they must first understand. So, commit to establishing the understanding that they’ll need to help the rest of your organization grasp and commit to your vision and strategic plan. Do all that you can to help them comprehend all of the content and nuances of those strategic elements so that they can do a bang up job of translating them for your people.
• Jump-Start The Messaging: Don’t leave it up to your middle management to determine how they will go about the work of interpretation and translation for their teams. Instead, take the time to think about all of the implications and likely actions that you would want them and their people to tackle in helping the organization execute its strategies. Craft a template for them to use to deliver the message.
• Orchestrate The Cascading: Once you equip your managers with the requisite know knowledge and messaging content they can begin to cascade the message throughout the rest of the organization. However, they may not do this in an disciplined and rigorous way. So, be sure to orchestrate cascading of the information by establishing a roll-out schedule that details when the managers will will do the work of strategic messaging.

After all, you want to make certain that all of your organization understands the company vision, strategies and, most importantly, their roles in the subsequent execution and achievement of your goals and objectives. If you can do this, you will have done your job.

To close, senior leaders need to focus on the middle of their organizations in order to achieve their strategic intentions. If you can engage the middle management, they will do the rest. If you don’t, your strategic execution will fall flat. It’s really as simple as that!

Note: If you like this article, which was published by Inc.com on October 31, 2016, please subscribe to my Inc. column.

Next Practices: How to Get to What Happens Next

Every organization flaunts their Best Practices. But, outstanding Companies define Next Practices – those things that set them apart in the short-term and define the standard of excellence for the long-term.

All of my strategy, culture and organizational design work over the years comes down to one thing – enabling my clients to differentiate themselves from their competitors so to dominate the markets that they serve. Consequently, the topic of industry best practices always comes up. Most leaders want to be sure that their organizations are remaining competitive within their industry. While the desire appears sound in principle, it’s flawed by design.

The fact is the adoption of industry best practices will only let you run with the pack. But, defining and adopting Next Practices will enable the breakthrough thinking needed to disrupt and redefine your markets. My firm has developed a framework for doing this. Let’s take a look at the 5 principles that makes up the framework needed to define your Next Practices.

1. Drop the de-facto culture and develop a Culture By Design: Don’t copy; create. Culture is a strategic imperative that must be created and transformed by design not by default. Be deliberate in creating a work environment that enables and empowers your team to achieve and exceed your firm’s vision.

2. Embrace your difference and focus more on offense than defense: Think opportunity management, not risk management. Think strategic investment, not cost containment. Know what you do better than the rest and use those leverage points to redefine the game.

3. Invigorate velocity by working past implementation concepts and focus on delivery strategies: Implementation is process, delivery is advantage. Establish a business mindset that believes in agility, velocity, and high impact delivery – impeccable product and service delivery has the power to differentiate your firm from all the rest.

4. Don’t just play the game, keep scoring: Move from long implementations to quick wins. Put points on the board and then look to score again. Velocity and momentum matter. Beat your competition on the future by setting the pace of play and exceeding your customer’s expectations.

5. Drive direction-setting and change through omnipresent leadership: Strategic success depends on critical mass commitment not forced compliance. Setting expectations is gamesmanship – aligning them is leadership. Be sure that your leaders understand your direction and are aligned with it. When leaders are aligned, they can be counted on to make the “right” decisions most of the time.

To close, this framework is only the beginning of doing the work that is needed to differentiate your firm from your competitors so you can dominate the markets that you serve. However, understanding and embracing this framework is essential to driving deep the changes that make a difference into your organization. Businesses that strive to do this are the ones that set the standard of excellence for everyone else. I hope that you consider leveraging this model when working to redefine how you do what you do.

NOTE: This piece was originally published by INC. on August 15, 2016.

Work Performance and the Perils of Comparison

Let me take you back in time.  You’re in 8th grade.  You’ve signed up for your first guitar lesson and the teacher plays Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”   She offers it up as an example of a great song that you can learn to play.  You’re motivated to learn, right?  Wrong!  She no sooner finishes her sentence about “you can learn how to play,” when you hear Jimmy Page rips into his classic solo and you decide then and there that it’s time to take up sports – “because there ain’t no way you’re going to be able to do what Jimmy’s doing in that song!”  You leave the lesson discouraged.

I share this because there is new evidence uncovered by researchers Avi Feller and Todd Rogers that suggests “that exposure to exemplary peer performances can undermine motivation and success by causing people to perceive that they cannot attain their peers’ high levels of performance.”  This finding has some huge implications for businesses – especially as it pertains to individual and team performance in the workplace.

But, managers, don’t despair!  You and you’re team are not doomed to a work life of less than stellar achievement.  There are some things that you can do to avoid falling into this trap.  Here are 5 suggestions:

1.      Show that you’re into it!  Passion and enthusiasm are contagious.  If you demonstrate that you’re into the work at hand, your team can’t help but follow.

2.      Set goals that can be attained.  Don’t set the Led Zeppelin as the goal.  Rather, choose goals that can be achieved.  The team will hang in there and work to get better, if they can gain a sense of accomplishment as they work.

3.      Stop comparing your team to others.  As the research suggests, there are other ways to motivate.  Challenge the team to work towards improving their performance every day, every week and every month – Jimmy Page wasn’t born a virtuoso.  He grew his talent over time through practice and dedication.

4.      Provide air cover.  If you have someone else to answer to, as most managers do, you may not be able to control how you and your team are measured from above.  So, it’s essential that you have your teams back as they progress.  By providing some air cover you’ll give your team the chance to mature and evolve into meeting and exceeding all expectations.

5.      Make it about the journey and not about the destination.  It’s OK to have some fun at work.  Make performance achievement about the “this is how we get better” and, not about the consequences of not meeting goals.

To close, comparison can be a perilous path to take when working to motivate.  Like the guitar teacher, you can intimidate those that you’re trying to inspire.  Instead of falling into the comparison trap, try some of these tips and you just might lead your team to outstanding performance.

NOTE: This piece, Work Performance and the Perils of Comparison,  was originally published in Inc. on July 18, 2016.

On Leadership: 10 Principles That Make Leading Easier

Here are 10 ideas that today’s busy leaders can embrace to enhance their ability to set direction and manage change.

How did you come up with 10 Principles That Make Leading Easier?  I have dedicated my career to working with senior leadership teams and helping them to devise the strategies, organizational designs and operating models needed to better set direction and manage change. From all of this work, regardless of industry, staff size or revenue, these 10 leadership principles have proven to be the common denominators that can separate winning organizations from the “also ran’s” with whom they compete:

1. The best leaders lead and let others manage: There’s a difference between leadership and management. Leaders look forward and imagine the possibilities that the future may bring in order to set direction. Managers monitor and adjust today’s work, regularly looking backward to ensure that current goals and objectives are being met. The best leaders lead and let their management teams manage the work at hand.
2. The best leaders inspire: Once the direction is set, the best leaders socialize their visions for tomorrow and work to inspire their colleagues to work with them to achieve it. This is done by both words and action–inspiring confidence and commitment among the people of whom they are entrusted to lead.
3. The best leaders promote “In it together” as way of life: They understand that “us versus them” can be a powerful motivator. The best leaders leverage this by promoting the concept that they and their staff members are “all in it together” in defeating the competition and delighting our customers.
4. The best leaders never work alone: Instead, camaraderie and trust is purposely forged by working with others on their management team to drive change and deliver outcomes. Stated another way, they’re not above getting their hands dirty to get the job done.
5. The best leaders build and leverage leaders from within: Regardless of reporting lines,the best leaders are constantly in search of other leaders from within their organizations to develop and cultivate. They want to establish network of that they can collaborate with and engage in active direction-setting.
6. The best leaders tackle the “tough” stuff: They’re not afraid to address the least pleasant aspects of setting direction and managing change. They inherently understand that there is a possibility that not everyone is prepared to make the journey to wherever they are leading, and consequently, they are willing to address the implications that come with that reality–whatever they may be.
7. The best leaders take educated risks: Risk-taking is an often overlooked part of leading. But, with it comes immense responsibility. Take the wrong risks and it could mean lost jobs and livelihoods. So, “educated” risk-taking (ones based on experiences and training) becomes an art form among the best leaders among us.
8. The best leaders enable success: They knock-down roadblocks and empower people to do whatever it takes to deliver results–paving the way for success and accomplishment among the people of whom they lead.
9. The best leaders shift their cultures from ones of Entitlement to ones of Mutual Accountability: The “buck stops here” for among the best leaders. They are accountable and expect the same among their people. Gone are the days where seniority and title are rewarded. Rather, a commitment to upholding commitments is what the best leaders seek in their team members.
10. The best leaders reward success, not effort: Working diligently without achievement is worth little when compared to any level of effort that yields demonstrative results. Thus, the best leaders pursue and reward results–paying little attention to effort or aspiration.

To close, it is my hope that you use this checklist, referring to it often over time, as you go about your personal leadership journey. It can serve to ensure you that you’re doing all that you can to be the kind of leader that inspires the best effort in your people, while driving the desired results that consistently keeps your organization in the winner’s circle.

This piece was originally published in inc.com on August 3, 2015.

Leadership Is All About Character

Often punctuated by bombast and complicated jargon, most leadership discussions make something simple seem so complex. This piece boils leadership down to its essence.

Norman Schwarzkopf once said, “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” I couldn’t agree more. Titles, pedigree or organization charts do not a leader make! Rather, leaders must possess the necessary character to inspire others to follow.

What does this mean? An exceptional leader must have the right combination of characteristics necessary to exude the confidence, radiate the passion and convey the trustworthiness required to motivate others to follow them.

Here’s why leadership is all about character:

1. We want to be believe: People will follow someone in which they genuinely believe. That said, it is a leader’s perceived character that we subconsciously evaluate while deciding whether to follow or ignore them.
2. Confidence demands attention: Confidence is an attractive quality as long as it doesn’t evolve into arrogance. A leader that projects confidence captures their people’s attention and demands their respect. It is part of the “secret sauce” that makes-up the character of most impressive leaders (think Steve Jobs, Jack Welch and Henry Ford).
3. Passion is a turn-on: The most remarkable leaders possess, within their character, an ability to maintain a singular focus–even when confronted by realities that would serve to distract most others. This trait serves as quite a turn-on for many aspiring leaders and can encourage the self-sacrifice among them that leads to unparalleled achievement within a business.
4. Consistency inspires trust: A leader that has the character necessary to repeatedly set a high standard for fairness, honesty and reliability will build trust with the people that they are charged with leading–making that leader indispensable within any organization of which they are part.
5. It takes courage to curate a “Big Idea”: People look to their leaders for direction. They want their leaders to give them the “Big Idea” which will stir them to take action. But, this is no easy task. It takes tremendous courage and self-assurance to curate an idea strong enough for people to rally around. It is here where a great leader’s personal character separates them from the rest.

In a nutshell, extraordinary leaders possess the character to set direction and manage change. They have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them distinctive and impossible to ignore. Indeed, they hold the necessary allure that inspires others to follow. Do you think that you have what it takes to be a special leader?

This article was originally published by Inc.com, February 1, 2016

5 Leadership Secrets For The Newly Minted Manager

These 5 simple management tips (or Leadership Secrets) are often overlooked and underutilized, especially among those new to leadership positions.

Business life certainly has gotten a lot faster than it ever was before. The evolution of the Internet and the widespread use of smart phones and other hand-held devices contribute to the need for speed. Consequently, leaders feel compelled to move fast, too. Sometimes, however, this can hurt more than help. So, allow me to offer these very specific and nuanced leadership techniques for managing the onslaught of demands that come your way as a senior leader.

Here are 5 simple tips, or “secrets of the trade“, which any leader can be put to use immediately:

1. Sometimes you need to go slow in order to go fast: An oxymoron, perhaps, this bit of advice is invaluable when in the midst of setting direction and managing change. Inevitably, once your course of direction is set, the thirst for change and eagerness to achieve the desired state can become too much to handle. Indeed, you and your team can come to be so impatient that you fail to put the infrastructures in place that are essential to bring the rest of your organization with you.

So, slow down and recognize that it takes time to do it right.

2. Just because “they” asked, you don’t have to answer: Bombarded with questions and issues from every direction, every day, many leaders become extremely reactionary–feeling compelled to immediately answer every question and address every issue that comes their way. It doesn’t have to be that way! You’re not always going to have the answers, nor can every question be answered. Instead, work to surround yourself with the best possible and competent team to help you address what needs to be done, then be sure to institute appropriate problem escalation and triage practices that enable your business to respond to issues and challenges in the most expedient ways.

3. Silence is a tool: As the saying goes, silence is golden! Think of this tip as a corollary to the one offered above. Sometimes a request doesn’t deserve a response. In fact, by not responding to some requests, you are sending a message. Just be sure that your use of silence is used deliberately and you’ll be on your way to using it as a tool to manage your messaging.

4. Less is often more: Another oxymoron for your consideration, this tip is intended to be a reminder that information is a valuable commodity. Give too much, and it can be used against you. So, be careful and thoughtful in your messaging. Yes, it is important to be clear and concise when giving direction and addressing issues. But, don’t be in a hurry to explain every nuance or implication of what you just said. Your community of stakeholders will ask another question is they don’t understand your response.

5. Time can be your friend: You want to be sure to give you and your team the time to think, to collaborate and to decide how to address issues and questions as they arise. Similarly, some of the challenges that you may ordinarily go about tackling, may work themselves out without much intervention on your part, if you just give the situation the time needed for the dynamics to change.

Indeed, time can be a friend if you use it wisely and not be in a crazy rush to immediately “fix” every trial and tribulation that springs up.

In closing, whether you’re new to the leadership ranks or a salty veteran, I hope that these 5 tips resonate with you. Just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean that you have to have all of the answers all of the time. However, it does mean that you need to manage expectations and control the messaging as appropriate to ensure the continued success of your organization. So, be sure to put these 5 secrets into your leadership quiver. You’ll surely need them as you continue to fight the good fight!

This article was originally published by inc.com on October 12, 2016

Hire Ambition: Because You Can’t Teach Desire

When it comes to ambition, most people fall somewhere in the middle of the Bell Curve. If you want a team of super achievers, hire for ambition.

Read my latest in Inc:

Hire Ambition: Because You Can’t Teach Desire

Be sure to Read! Think! Share!

Thanks.

Challenge Coins, and, How They Help Rebuild Morale

This piece is about Challenge Coins, and, How They Help Rebuild Morale.  It was published in Management Issues.

Be sure to check it out and share it often!

Thanks, in advance, for getting it around for me…

The City of the Future Series Runs on Management-Issues

How can we make our cities better places to live, work and play, a little bit easier to navigate and to flourish within? The ideas presented here are intended to help cities to manage the changes that come with life re-imagined.

Here is a series of articles written by my team that I curated:

City of the Future Series Runs on Management-Issues

I truly hope that you read these and pass them on to your city and town officials.

6 Leadership Lessons Learned While Riding My Motorcycle

Read my latest piece just out in Inc.

6 Leadership Lessons Learned While Riding My Motorcycle

It is about how leadership, like motorcycle riding, comes with inherent risks.
Here are 6 tips to make your ride, and dealing with your leadership challenges a little easier.

Enjoy the ride!