senior executive team conversation starters
DESCRIPTION
What if everyone is not on the same page? What if there are doubts, upsets, withholds? To solidify your team’s performance basics, discuss one topic each week, quarter after quarter. These timeless, essential, generative questions are never tired or tiring. You can rely on them to keep your uppermost priorities fresh and top of mind. Like leafy green vegetables replenish our bodies, these questions will nourish your team’s performance.TRANSCRIPT
eBook for Senior Executive Teams by Pamela Stambaugh, MBA
Conversation Starters Quick yet Powerful Questions for
Senior Executive Team Weekly Meetings Back to Basics
13 Questions, One per Week (13 weeks X 4 quarters = one year, 52 weeks)
What if everyone is not on the same page? What if there are doubts, upsets, withholds? To solidify your team’s performance basics, discuss one topic each week, quarter after quarter. These timeless, essential, generative questions are never tired or tiring. You can rely on them to keep your uppermost priorities fresh and top of mind. Like leafy green vegetables replenish our bodies, these questions will nourish your team’s performance.
© 2013 Pamela Stambaugh -‐ Accountability Pays. All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
#1. ExecuBve Excellence = conscious leadership #2. CommunicaBon = business communicaBon #3. Accountability = commitment, truth, outcomes #4. Transparency = a culture of candor #5. Leaders Leading Leaders = principles, laws, consequences #6. About Trust = invisible yet powerful link between people
#7. Employee Engagement = discreBonary effort #8. Hire “A” Players = select wisely #9. Right People in the Right Seats on the Bus = good to great #10. Assess and Develop Team = beyond talent opBmal performance of the team
#11. Breakaway Success = beaBng the odds #12. Truth Exploring and ConstrucBve Debate = measure what maYers #13. Ge[ng to GeneraBve, Inspired, Focused Performance = discovering and working with leverage points, the culminaBon of thinking completely and though^ully through #1-‐#12.
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4 ApplicaBon
Get Accountable
Get Proactive
Get Results
What you Measure Improves
Defini1on: Conscious leadership that gives room for and encourages employees, customers, vendors and any other stakeholders to speak their truth to power, even when — in fact especially when — it is bad news.
Excellence at the top of the organizaBon requires rigorous review, congruence and applicaBon of accountability standards, two-‐way communicaBons (internal and external) and transparency in guiding the organizaBon and receiving feedback from all levels in the organizaBon. ExecuBve Excellence includes values-‐based decision-‐making and authenBcity. Mutual respect is a key value and building block of execuBve excellence. These qualiBes foster trust.
“The leaders who work most effec2vely, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we’; they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team func2on. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” – Peter F. Drucker
Q #1 How do I, and our team, measure our effec2veness as leaders? Do we do this on a regular basis? How oHen?
Execu1ve Excellence
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Q #2 How can I, and our team, open up free flowing communica2on with our subordinates? Our peers? For instance, do we allow failure, express vulnerability and learn from these moments?
Communica1on
Defini1on: Excellent verbal and wriYen communicaBons allow you to improve the performance of your employees, to improve the performance of the teams, and to improve the performance of your organizaBon with the common purpose to execute the organizaBon’s strategy, reach its vision, and fulfill its mission. Focus and clarity are the master keys to communicaBon excellence. Focus and clarity are parBcularly important for generaBng employee effecBveness.
“Great places to work show a strong commitment from CEO and senior management, a genuine belief that people are indispensable for the business, acBve communicaBon throughout the organizaBon, percepBon of a unique culture and idenBty (‘we are not like the others’), an arBculated vision and values that are lived and experienced at all levels of the organizaBon. And, most importantly, the CEO and the members of the execuBve team are role models of integrity and honesty.” Manfred Kets de Vries, ReflecBons on Character and Leadership.
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Q #3 How well do I, and our team keep my/our commitments to employees? To stakeholders? Do we quickly communicate when a commitment will be missed?
Accountability
Defini1on: At the surface accountability is doing what you said you would do, when you said you would do it and if you cannot, acknowledging that to the expectant parBes with a re-‐commitment to a new outcome Bme and date. A deeper meaning would include core, perhaps immeasurable commitments that live like values, and rigorous adherence to their intenBon and meaning. For example, accountability to tell the truth even if it hurts means telling the truth even when the truth has adverse impacts on profitability or other measurable outcomes for which one is accountable. Historically one could say that the sooner the truth is told, the beYer the outcome for all.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that maOer.“ – MarBn Luther King.
“Policies are many, Principles are few, Policies will change, Principles never do.” – John C. Maxwell
“I am not bound to win but I am bound to be true; I am not bound to succeed but am bound to live up to what light I have.” – Abraham Lincoln
“There is only one real failure in life that is possible, and that is, not to be true to the best one knows.” – Farrar
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Q #4 How open am I, and our team, to acknowledge when I/we have made an error? Do I and our team keep our associates fully informed about our agendas and plans?
Transparency
Defini1on: A culture of candor.
“When we speak of “transparency,” we mean much more than the standard business definiBon of the term—full disclosure of financial informaBon to investors. While such honesty is obviously necessary, that narrow interpretaBon produces an unhealthy focus on legal compliance to the exclusion of equally important ethical concerns, and on the needs of shareholders to the exclusion of the needs of other consBtuencies. Worse, it’s predicated on the blinkered assumpBon that a company can be transparent to shareholders without first being transparent to the people who work inside it. Because no organizaBon can be honest with the public if it’s not honest with itself, we define transparency broadly, as the degree to which informaBon flows freely within an organizaBon, among managers and employees, and outward to stakeholders.
“Companies can’t innovate, respond to changing stakeholder needs, or funcBon efficiently unless people have access to relevant, Bmely, and valid informaBon. It’s thus the leader’s job to create systems and norms that lead to a culture of candor.” Transparency, James O’Toole and Warren Bennis
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Q #5 How clearly do we communicate who is responsible for what? Am I, and is our team, gran2ng the corresponding and sufficient authority to get those things done? Do people feel empowered?
Leaders Leading Leaders
Defini1on: Anyone who is leading even one other person is a leader leading another leader, because we are all leaders in our own lives. Acknowledging this is a place to stand, a place to come from, an acknowledgment of the other person’s importance in the dialog.
Department heads, even individuals who are leading themselves can create accountability by having a conversaBon to clearly define how people will work together. First, include consequences in that conversaBon.
There are two kinds of consequences – natural and negoBated. If you put your hand on a hot stove, it will burn. That is a natural consequence. NegoBated consequences require gaining AGREEMENT first, then behavioral alignment. Second, keep all lines of communicaBon open. Third, listen with an open mind and a humble heart. There are many ways to accomplish the goal. If you have an ‘A’ player, he or she will be moBvated by producing results and will not respond well to being micro-‐managed. At every level of an organizaBon principles and laws are at work, whether we know it or not. Understanding these principles and these laws provides mastery over the things that make the most difference. For instance, the law of leverage is always present.
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Q #6 Am I, and is our team, an example of trustworthiness as well as trus2ng others? Do we walk our talk? Where trust is an issue, how do we go about re-‐establishing trust?
Trust
Defini1on: The invisible yet powerful unspoken link that either exists or does not exist between two people. Without it, barriers are erected to protect one’s self. When it is present, openness and all possibility exists in the relaBonship. Distrust is the absence of trust. For a sense of how leaders damage trust, download The Seven Costly Mistakes Senior Execu7ves Make that Cause Performance, Produc7vity and People to Suffer on accountabilitypays.com.
“To improve trust levels among their employees, companies can, first and foremost, pay aYenBon to the red flags — key warning signs of broken or eroded trust. Are people disengaged? Are teams missing targets or deadlines? Are groups operaBng in silos? Also, leadership should get curious. Ask employees what’s happening for them and acknowledge their experience. Allow feelings to surface, share informaBon and show the larger context for business decisions.” Dennis and Michelle Reina, the Reina Trust Building InsBtute.
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Q #7 Do our employees engage with their work in the way that demonstrates they have something at stake in the future success of the organiza2on? Do we represent the vision and mission of the organiza2on as something that is worthy of our associates connec2ng to?
Employee Engagement
Defini1on: Employees working in an organizaBon in a way that an owner would work, with something at stake in the future success of the organizaBon, and a sense of worth that comes from contribuBng to something greater than their own self-‐interest.
According to Daniel Goleman, Primal Leadership, for every 1% improvement in employee service climate, there is a 2% improvement in revenue. The service climate refers to the environment a company creates – does it foster enthusiasm, engagement with employees? If your employees feel valued, they will be more producBve.
“Ge[ng on the path to outstanding performance as an organizaBon requires at least a criBcal mass of people who are no longer children — people who have assumed an adequate level of responsibility for themselves and for how well they perform the role they are in.” Lee Thayer, Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing
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Q #8 Are we tolera2ng less than ‘A’ player performance, perhaps by not clearly defining ‘A’ performance? Or by leVng ‘B’ performers slide even with clear performance objec2ves? Or by allowing personali2es/outside of work rela2onships to result in tolerance of under performance?
Hire ‘A’ Players
“AnyBme you have the opportunity to hire someone to join a team, you have the possibility of either adding to the strength of the team or disrupBng it. Select wisely.” William C. Sproule, Top Box Leadership
Research has shown that only 46% of senior execuBves hired will last longer than 2 years in their job, because they were not a fit in some way, according to Barry Deutsch. These odds are worse than a coin toss! Eligibility PLUS suitability need to be considered for a great hire to occur, and having ‘A’ players makes a significant difference to the opportunity for breakaway success.
“Great people – the ‘A Players’ – are a very different breed from the good (B Players) and mediocre (C Players). Great people are more likely to be employed with a company since a great person is oven over 3 Bmes as producBve as a good person. Joel Spolsky argues in Smart & Gets Things Done that an A Player is anywhere from 5-‐10 Bmes as producBve...” Auren Hoffman, CEO of Rapleaf and an investor in over 30 technology companies.
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Q #9 Do we have the right organiza2on chart based on our business needs? Then, do we have the right people in the right seats on the bus based upon their eligibility and suitability (fit for the job)? Do our associates enjoy at least 75% of their work? “Research has shown that people who enjoy at least 75% of their work are 3 2mes more produc2ve.” Dr. Dan Harrison, Harrison Assessments Talent Solu2ons
Right People in the Right Seats on the Bus
“When we began the research project, we expected to find that the first step in taking a company from good to great would be to set a new direcBon, a new vision and strategy for the company, and then to get people commiYed and aligned behind that new direcBon. We found something quite the opposite. The execuBves who ignited the transformaBons from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. They said, in essence, ‘Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.’” Jim Collins, Good to Great.
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Q #10 Are we crea2ng structures and having conversa2ons that inspire ‘A’ performance from our associates? Are we structured for team performance? Are we recognizing and rewarding performance such that people are recognized for genera2ng personal and team achievement?
Assess and Develop ‘A’ Teams
“The Harrison Assessments system reveals deeply rooted insights that determine essenBal high performance traits and those that will accelerate or hinder performance related to specific posiBons.
“In today’s specialized work environment, talent is not enough. Talented people must effecBvely work together in order for the organizaBon to succeed. Harrison Assessments Paradox Theory reveals team dynamics in a way that has never before been possible, enabling individual team members to easily idenBfy how their own behaviors contribute or obstruct the team objecBves. It also provides a step-‐by-‐step plan in which each team member can make adjustments to facilitate opBmal team performance. A team building tool to create teams with effecBve interacBons; discover the strengths and challenges of a team including team decision-‐making potenBal, idenBfy the best roles for each team member, assess the potenBal for cooperaBon or conflict, establish clear guidelines for effecBve interacBons.” Harrison Assessments Talent SoluBons, Dan Harrison 12
Q #11 How do I, and our team, use key performance indices and other measures for performance? Have I, and has our team, done a good job of defining those measures that drive success in our business? Do we know what our leverage points are? (A leverage point is a place in the organiza2on where a small change can make a significant difference in producing the desired results).
Measuring Performance for Breakaway Success
Defini1on: BeaBng the Odds by Measuring what MaVers.
Breakaway Success requires leveraging ‘A’ players and their ‘A’ teams to produce results beyond the “average, acceptable” range of possibiliBes, including but not limited to revenues and profits.
“Breakaway Success empowers employees to be their best and rewards excepBonal performance. ‘A’ players want to be measured. They want to surround themselves with other ‘A’ players (whereas ‘B’ players tend to hire ‘C’ players). In an organizaBon commiYed to Breakaway Success, people, performance and results are measured with an eye to conBnuous improvement and in a culture of excellence and transparency. Mistakes are encouraged because everyone knows that the sooner they are idenBfied the sooner they can be corrected.” Pamela Stambaugh
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Q #12 Do I, and our team, allow open discussion of every aspect of our business? Do we listen to customer and outside feedback and consider it as important to our success? Do I, and our team, create openings for truth exploring and openings for challenge to anything that we do or believe?
Truth Exploring and Construc1ve Debate for
Breakaway Success
Defini1on: What you measure is a significant part of truth exploring. Lagging indicators are found in accounBng records, and it is astounding how much weight is put on those indicators. They are not predicBve of anything. The problem is, by the Bme the P&L and balance sheet have been run the damage is already done. Leading indicators are required to predict success, which are derived from making assumpBons about what causes results, then tesBng those assumpBons by measuring acBons that are assumed to lead to results. If, aver some Bme of measuring, there is a correlaBon between acBons taken and results, congratulaBons. You have proven your assumpBon right. Keep doing what you know works.
If, aver some Bme of measuring indices, there is no correlaBon, try again. Determining the cause of results is an iteraBve process that may take several tries. However, if you are wrong or you don’t try, you hardly have a system for predicBng your success, in which case you are as likely to not succeed as you are to succeed. If you were lucky and succeeded and you wanted to replicate your success without knowing how you achieved it, you couldn’t.
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Q #12 Con1nued
Other significant measure are what customers, team members, sales people have to say. What you do not know about your organizaBon can and does make a difference to outcomes. Providing an opening for feedback can be as formal as rouBne feedback mechanisms (suggesBon boxes, surveys) or as subtle as listening in conversaBons to not only what is being said, but the body language that accompanies the message. When these are incongruent, there is undelivered communicaBon. The potenBal for contribuBon oven lies in the subtle clues.
“In the past decade and a half, hundreds of billions of dollars of market value have migrated from old business designs to new. The highest valuaBons now go to those who have the most effecBve business design.” Skywotzky and Morrison, Profit PaYerns
“Most people think that profit is paramount in business, and it certainly is important, but cash is king. I’m talking here about the stuff you use to pay your bills every month. I don’t think anyone really understands what it takes to succeed in business unBl you’ve tried to operate without cash.” Jack Stack, A Stake in the Outcome
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Q #13
Do we have a culture of success? Are our people (suppliers, employees, customers, other stakeholders) having genera2ve conversa2ons as full par2cipants in the success of the organiza2on, or are they just going along to get along? Are people inspired? Do we have a culture where any associate can suggest and make improvements to our organiza2on? Are they appropriately recognized and rewarded for making a difference?
Genera1ve, Inspired, Focused Performance for Breakaway Success
Once you have an ‘A’ Player, he or she is sBll a human being who can be developed to their highest potenBal, and perhaps set on a succession path.
“Strategic criBcal thinking is not about having all the answers, but about being totally immersed in the quesBons. The cold, hard fact is that there is seldom much credible informaBon about the future, the terrain of strategy. If one waits to act unBl complete or perfect informaBon is available, the Bme to act will have passed.” Mardig Sheridan, Mardig and Company
I believe in the “Systems Thinking” approach to strategic planning, which involves, among many other things, idenBfying leverage points, which are places where a small change can make a significant improvement in results.
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Q #13 The following excerpt references ways to look for leverage points and how to go about that. If you want to know more about Systems Thinking approach, a famous resource is The Fivh Discipline: The Art and PracBce of the Learning OrganizaBon by Peter Senge. This book re-‐launched the concept of Systems Thinking which began in biology many, many years ago. Another source of Systems Thinking books and experBse is the Haines Centre for Strategic Management.
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Discovering and Working with Leverage Points
To get to the cause, never look where the problem is — it is almost never in the same Bme or space as the effect.
Leverage points are almost always found in the “balancing loop” and will generally take the form of a thermostat se[ng. They tend to be quite subtle in nature. They should always address the quesBon, “What does it take to maintain balance and achieve opBmum growth?”
IdenBfy leverage points. Ask, “What will remove the source of upset condiBons and limits to growth?”
Examine the underlying structure of the organizaBon that you have mapped out and discover the true source of upset condiBons (hint: look for the source or cause of any imbalances).
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Q #13 Most leverage points tend to be developmental in nature and are based on becoming a competency-‐development organizaBon.
Author’s Notes, “The GeneraBve OrganizaBon, from ReacBve Behavior to Inspired Performance.” William J. Schwarz
GeneraBve, inspired, focused performance is the result of execuBve excellence, hiring ‘A’ players, measuring the right things, assessing and then developing ‘A’ teams, employee engagement, having the right people in the right seats on the bus, and effecBve planning and execuBon. The result of generaBve, inspired, focused performance is Breakaway Success and the financial rewards that come from having focused energy in the appropriate channels producing the desired results. If that describes your organizaBon, please accept this acknowledging High Five!
If not, the next page of this e-‐book is for your tracking benefit as you put these ques2ons into ac2on in your organiza2on.
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Pamela Stambaugh, President and Founder of Accountability Pays for 27 years, has guided senior execuBves to unleash the power of their people and their own potenBal since 1999 with the addiBon of the Harrison Assessments. She will lead you to opBmize the performance of your execuBve team as an ‘A-‐Team’. With ‘A’ performers, all work is easier and more fun. Hiring? She can advance your organizaBon to predictably hire ‘A’ Players using a powerful system for candidate evaluaBon.
To learn more about Harrison Assessments Talent SoluBons, Team Building, Performance Management, or holding people accountable for results, contact Pamela Stambaugh at AccountabilityPays.com.
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About the Author
These Senior ExecuBve Team ConversaBon Starters are also available as three half-‐page four-‐color cards in an envelope. If you would like them in this physical form, or you have other quesBons, call 619-‐231-‐0195 or e-‐mail [email protected] for more informaBon.
© 2013 Pamela Stambaugh — Accountability Pays. All Rights Reserved.