The Oft Unheralded Challenge Of Change

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

Leading change in an organization is full of challenges. Most of these challenges are associated with creating a vision, inspiring action, achieving buy-in, and sustaining the change. John Kotter, noted for his work on this topic, offers an 8 step process that offers an excellent roadmap.

I am noticing a 1/2 step challenge of change, that while banal, can derail a change initiative when ignored. This oft unheralded challenge is simply that everyone hears through their own filter, and therefore the actions we see are not the actions we expected. Obvious perhaps, and yet when leading change, we sometimes think that things are not happening the way we want because people are resisting.

  • Sometimes, they simply didn’t hear
  • or what they heard is different from what I thought I said
  • or they need to hear it more than once; 7 times I have been told is the magic number
  • or they need to do it more than once, or even twice, to “get it”
  • or we simply need to allow time for the change to settle in

So, next time, before calling out a “resister”, first pause and ask them what they heard.

 

 

Elisa K. Spain

Another View On Co-Accountability?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2014-11-07

Last week, one of the members of my CEO group sent this Facebook post to the group. And, much like the comments on the actual post, there was a mix of “isn’t this cool?” to the cynical, “what if the person has never done anything positive?”

The discussion caused me to pause. Vistage speaker, Michel Allosso, talks about giving a person TSP: Truthful, Specific, Positive feedback. Do it enough, he says, to earn the right to give constructive feedback. While Vistage Speaker, Balaji Krishnamurthy, teaches us co-accountability: The key to a successful organization is when members of our team have expectations of each other and hold each other accountable for meeting them.

What this Facebook post says to me is, perhaps the answer is to combine the two. I wonder if in the story I told last week, the reason Southwest Airlines has both a collegial and a co-accountable culture is because they combine both TSP and co-accountability…

  • Imagine what would happen in your organization if you had both?
  • What one action step might you take today to begin a journey down this path?

Elisa K. Spain

 

 

Can Co-Accountability Happen In Your Culture?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

In Vistage, and amongst leaders in general, we talk a lot about accountability. We use terms like “we need to hold them accountable”, or “we need to hold ourselves accountable”.

One of our speakers, Balaji Krishnamurthy, often talks instead about co-accountability and how this practice is directly tied to producing results. The concept is simple. Members of a team, an organization, or even a Vistage group, are accountable to each other, to respect the values and agreements they have with each other. And, they call each other out for non-compliance. In short, the members of the team, take full responsibility for governance.

The concept is simple, everyone nods their head in agreement and… the execution is hard.

This co-accountability can happen in two ways:

  • Balaji says the most effective way is in the moment, in the meeting.
  • Option 2 is for members of the team to have a conversation outside the meeting, again, soon after the event.

Yikes, some say, ….

  • Is anyone really going to step up and call someone out in a meeting?
  • Isn’t it the leader’s responsibility to deal with issues?
  • Is this a practice that only works in certain types of cultures?

And, in a co-accountable culture, what is the leader’s role?

  • Is it to open up space for the feedback?
  • Is it to give the feedback first?
  • Is it to encourage those who are willing to speak up and ensure positive consequences for taking this risk?

Finally, can this work in all cultures?

I will leave you with a story I heard recently from a friend about how this works at Southwest Airlines, an organization where results are legendary in a collegial culture that is also legendary.

My friend who told me this story is retired from a 20+ year career in the airline industry. At the time, she was an airport manager for one of the large airlines. Someone on her team discovered and reported to her that a Southwest employee was using, and reusing, a meal voucher for this large airline. My friend handled it the normal way, she reported it to the Southwest manager. A few days later, a couple of the employees from Southwest, not the manager, came over to my friend and said “We heard about what happened with the meal voucher. We want you to know this is not acceptable behavior for a Southwest employee. We have dealt with the situation and we sincerely apologize. You can rest assured it will not happen again and the money will be repaid”. Wow, my friend said, I can’t imagine this happening at any other airline, not then, not now.

I wonder, what results we would see if each of us as leaders began to foster co-accountability in a manner consistent with the other tenets of our culture.

Elisa K. Spain

 

The Other Side Of Success

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Opt 3 Sept 21

When does confidence become hubris?

So much is written about the importance of confidence and yet, there is a dark ugly side too. We see it every day in the press – rock stars, sports stars, politicians and others, who have so much confidence that they begin to make choices out of hubris.

Well, we say, they are stars, this doesn’t happen amongst “regular leaders”. And, while we may want this to be true, my experience is, it happens in every arena where leaders are successful.

We all know the leader that made it big and acts as though s/he has the “Midas touch”. After the one success they believe everything they try, everything they touch will be the same. Or, they feel the need to tell everyone about their accomplishments, and they don’t feel the need to listen. After all, they already know it all; they accomplished what others have not.

We also know the leader who despite success after success is humble. Who, when asked how they accomplished what they did, points to the people s/he has learned from, rather than their own brilliance. The leader who is on a lifetime journey of learning, who believes no matter what their accomplishments, they can always accomplish more by listening to others.

Which of these describes you?

Which do you want to be?

If your choice is the humble leader, what are you doing to stay curious and continue to learn?

If You Don't Watch the Numbers, You Don't Have Governance

by Elisa Spain1 Comment

Opt 4 Aug 3

Publicly held  U.S. company governance dictates the requirements for financial reporting and many of these companies give “guidance” as frequently as quarterly. While this approach is sometime criticized as being short-term focused, the important upside is all stakeholders know, at any given time, how the company is performing and can respond accordingly.

Privately held companies, on the other hand, have a choice. There aren’t any governance mandates.

  • They can choose to focus on the numbers, or not
  • They can choose to report performance to all stakeholders, or not, and
  • They can choose to forecast and adjust accordingly or not

Owners sometimes question the need for forecasts and state that sales focus is primary.  After all they say, isn’t it all about growth, i.e. how much we sell this year compared to last year?

While most awards for privately held companies focus on top line (Inc. 500/5000, Crain’s Fast Fifty, etc.),  in my experience the businesses that follow the following five tenets, are the ones that achieve sustainable growth.  And for my Vistage CEO’s it is the reason members voluntarily report their financials quarterly, are accountable to each other for providing guidance, and adjust their actions accordingly.

Five Truths of Profitable GrowthTM

  • If you don’t know how you make money, you won’t make money.
  • If you don’t set goals for wealth creation, you won’t accumulate wealth.
  • Operating budgets and capital budgets are not the same; if you use debt to finance operating expense rather than for growth, you will not grow.
  • Top line growth does not equal bottom line growth.
  • Without a culture of accountability and measurement, you will underperform.

Elisa K. Spain

In Good Governance, When Does Culture Come Ahead Of Revenue?

In Good Governance, When Does Culture Come Ahead Of Revenue?

by Elisa Spain1 Comment

Opt 4 July 20

A few weeks ago in my blog about Leading Isn’t Easy, I talked about the hard choices we sometimes must make as leaders. Especially those choices where neither outcome is a good one.

As we continue this series on Governance Design, I am reminded of my 2014 theme for my Vistage groups, “All That Matters Is Culture”.

For this reason, once we define our business objective, for me the most important question is, “What are the cultural implications of our goals?”. If we are intentional about our culture, and ruthless about enforcing it, everything else will follow. And it isn’t easy.

Sometimes we have high performing employees who don’t fit the culture. So hard, to say goodbye to someone who is getting the job done, sometimes, doing it better than anyone else, brings in the big deals but just doesn’t fit. She may be a bully, or he may cut corners or spread negative energy.

When it is an employee, we can often rationalize to ourselves that the performance of the team will improve when the person who doesn’t fit is gone. The net result will be higher performance overall.

But, what if it is a customer who doesn’t fit the culture? Here we are talking a real dollar impact if we separate. This brings us back to Leading Isn’t Easy.

Recently, I had to make this hard decision. It became clear to me that a long time member of one of my groups didn’t fit the core values of the group. This member contributed in many positive ways and yet, I knew that to take the group to the next level, it was time for this member to go. After a few sleepless nights, we had the Fierce Conversation, and I have already begun to see the change. What I realized was, to achieve the business objectives and the long term growth, the temporary dip in revenue was worth it.

 

Elisa K. Spain

Is Governance Leadership?

Is Governance Leadership?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Opt 3 July 13

This week begins a new series on the topic of governance in growing businesses.

Governance is not a term typically used by business owners and business leaders. Rather, we hear this term most often in the context of corporate boards, both public and private.

Yet, Wikipedia defines corporate governance as, “the system of structures, rights, duties, and obligations by which corporations are directed and controlled.

  • Governance provides the structure through which corporations set and pursue their objectives, while reflecting the context of the social, regulatory and market environment.
  • Governance is a mechanism for monitoring the actions, policies and decisions of corporations in alignment with the interests among the stakeholders.”

In short, governance is the DIME method that I have talked about previously. Design, Implement, Monitor and Evaluate.

Beginning with “D – Design”.  In my experience, businesses initially develop without much regard to design. And as Vistage speaker Jim Alampi reminds us, while bootstrapping works up to a point, as businesses reach critical milestones of growth, what we were doing up to now, doesn’t work anymore. At this point it is time to pause and ask two sets of questions:

First, the 5 key internally focused questions:

  1. What are our business objectives?
  2. What are the cultural implications of these goals?
  3. What are the financial implications of these goals, revenue, expense, cash and capital needs?
  4. What structure and infrastructure, i.e. key functions and processes are needed to achieve our objectives?
  5. Who on our team is qualified to fill the key roles? Who may not fit? Who will we add?

And, equally important are the 5 key externally focused questions:

  1. What is happening in our industry? Competition, innovation, regulation?
  2. What is happening amongst our customers? Growth, consolidation, innovation?
  3. What are the gaps that provide opportunities for us?
  4. What are the threats to our continued growth?
  5. What diversification opportunities exist?

 

Elisa K. Spain

Leading Isn't Easy

Leading Isn't Easy

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Opt 8 Jun 22

I can hear the response now, “Well of course it isn’t easy, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it”. Yes I know, and when those difficult moments arise, and we are in the midst of, “not easy”, this is an important reminder.

Recently I was reminded of a personal leadership moment, several years ago, that I am hoping by sharing, will inspire you.

I was in a multi-vehicle car accident last week. Fortunately everyone involved walked away. Minor whiplash and vehicle damage were the only consequences. And, this accident should never have happened…

Two of us were sitting in traffic, in two separate lanes. The driver that caused the accident was an elderly gentleman, who was on oxygen, and could barely stand up, much less drive. My guess is he was either disoriented or passed out. Not easy to rear end one car, and then rear end another car in another lane!

One of the hardest things my sister and I did was take away my Mother’s car keys. She didn’t speak to me for a year; and this situation reminded me to pat myself on my back for doing it. I remember the deciding moment was when a friend of mine said, “How are you going to feel when she runs over a 5 year old?”

So what is the leadership lesson in this?

Sometimes, we have to make decisions where no option is a good one. Either choice we make has negative consequences, and yet we have to choose. And when we choose the more strategic option, the short term pain may be higher. Easy to say, hard to do.

 

Elisa K. Spain

Leadership Quote: It Is Only As We Develop Others…

Leadership Quote: It Is Only As We Develop Others…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Opt 6 Mar 30 2014This month’s leadership quote:

“It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.”

-Harvey S. Firestone

As leaders, we truly have only one job: to develop others. The success of our organizations rests entirely in the hands of the people who build our products and deliver the service to our customers. So, we have two choices, we build the products and deliver the service ourselves or… we develop the leaders who work for us, and they, in turn, develop their teams.  

When we choose the latter, we permanently succeed because we have built a sustainable enterprise.

Elisa K. Spain

Did I Delegate Or Did I Abdicate?

Did I Delegate Or Did I Abdicate?

by Elisa Spain1 Comment

Opt 1 Mar 23

 

Here’s a simple test to know if you have delegated or abdicated.

At what point in the process will I know if my expectations were met?

Hmm… guess that means if my intention is to delegate, I must take the following 5 actions:

  1. Clearly outline my expectations
  2. Check-in to see if my expectations were understood
  3. Agree how both progress and outcome will be monitored and measured
  4. Agree when and how progress will be reported
  5. Agree when and how progress will evaluated and adjustments made

You might be asking yourself at this point, “seems a lot of process; do I have to do this every time I ask someone to do something for me?”

This decision of course, is yours to make.

Meanwhile I will share a personal story that happened years ago and reminded me of the value of following these five steps, and following the DIME Method, whenever I assign work to someone else. 

I emailed a document to my virtual assistant, asking simply, “please clean up this document and send it to FedEx to make into a poster.”  What I had in my head was a black and white, 24×36 printed document that I could roll up and take with me to a meeting and then throw away at the end of the day. The cost of this type of document is about $5.

When I arrived at FedEx, my bill was $100 and what they had ready for me was a full color, 24×36 printed document, mounted on a board and laminated.

Which do you want? And, have you made that clear?

 

Elisa K. Spain