Firing a well-liked but underperforming leader is not always a straightforward matter. Even if you know with certainty that you need to fire the leader for the overall good of your company, doing so can come across like a betrayal. You may fear followers leaving with the leader, or you may fear the impact to company morale. Here's how you can make the change while minimizing negative impact to everyone involved.
Congratulations! You are transitioning into a new company and a new role as a C-Suite executive. For the first few days, you’re likely to be swamped in a flurry of welcomes and introductions, mandatory trainings, and IT set-up.
But after that, then comes the real action. Time to get down to business.
...right?
Maybe not quite as much. Companies are finding that their onboarding processes fail to set up their new CxOs for success. Why? Onboarding almost never addresses intangibles like culture, politics, and relationships. If you aren’t given clear knowledge on these items, you may struggle to effectively manage your team, make successful decisions, or garner buy-in for your decisions. For example:
Will your firm stick to tradiition, despite the appearance of a promising but novel business idea? (This might be good to know before you pitch your promising but novel business.)
Your firm might provide you with a company card, but what if the CFO looks down on you for flying first class instead of economy? (And what if the CFO is one of the first people you need to ask for clearance on a high-investment project? This specific scenario may not happen, but other similar faux pas happen frequently.)
How do you address conflict? The plaque on the wall says your firm values “open honesty”, but your team historically has addressed conflict passively.
Who in the firm has real decision-making power? The director? Or the administrative assistant who stands behind the director?
Without knowing the answer to questions like these, new CxOs quickly find themselves tangled in an invisible web of red tape, maneuvering, and strategic and operational mishaps. Nearly half of new CxOs fail within their first 18 months. The reason? “A poor grasp of how the organization works,” said 70% of respondents in a global survey of 500+ chief executives. Another 65% said, “Cultural misfit.” The third reason listed by 57% of respondents said, “Difficulty forging alliances with peers.”
The question then is: how do you successfully transition into a new team and a new culture as a CxO? How do you manage, communicate to, and incentivize your new team? How do you adjust to the micro-culture within your department? How do you know what key stakeholders really value? Here are 7 actionable tips to get you started.
Set relational goals.
Frankly, the only way to learn about a company’s intangibles is to immerse yourself in them. That means connecting with your firm’s people. (If you’re an introvert, this also means going slowly and steadily and scheduling plenty of re-charge time for yourself. If you’re an extrovert, this means evaluating who talks more in the meeting: you or them? You can’t learn without listening!)
You may be set up for some mandatory meetings within the first couple weeks. But create your own goals for the first 90 days of employment. While you yourself may not need the full 90 days to feel situated, others might. Keep in mind those who are naturally reserved or shy. And remember that you are about as high in the company as you can go. Unfortunately, unless your company’s culture is truly unique, those around you will likely feel a power differential which can only be overcome by boosting familiarity, predictability, and mutual trust.
Organize in the way that works best for you:
Consider organizing by type of interaction: informal and formal, spontaneous and planned. For example, every week, plan to have:
3 lunches
10 hallway conversations
1 team meeting
3 one-on-one’s
Consider organizing by role. If you have an organization chart, use that to guide you. For example, every week, plan to have:
5 meetings with direct reports
2 meetings with other C-Suite executives
2 meetings with Board members
1 meeting with someone from HR, finance/accounting, IT, R&D, and Supply Chain each
Consider organizing by time. For example, plan to interact with people for:
30 minutes each Monday
1 hour each Tuesday
3 hours each Wednesday
30 minutes each Thursday
3 hours each Friday
Lastly, remember that you cannot only gravitate towards those who are like you or those who make you feel welcomed. In order to effectively grasp your firm’s culture and politics, you need to talk especially to the marginalized, underrepresented, and introverted to see their view of the company as well. Otherwise, you may find yourself in an unhelpful echo-chamber.
Plan your meeting content.
What do you actually discuss in meetings? Asking questions around someone’s family and recreations is a great place to start for casual conversations. Learning about someone’s life - both outside of work and before you met them - helps build trusting relationships authentically.
You may also want to target your conversations for your transition. Consider these questions:
With your direct reports:
“Where did you work before here? How well did you like those jobs and companies? What did you like and dislike about them? What led you to work here?”
“What are your career aspirations? Why do you come to work every day?”
“Describe for me the ideal manager.” (Then incorporate what you hear into your leadership! You should ask repeatedly and specifically for constructive feedback, giving spaces to hash out awkwardness and miscommunications. But many employees, especially direct reports, will not initially feel comfortable enough to respond honestly. Use this question for feedback that won’t put your direct reports on the spot.)
“What kind of support do you need? How can I help you succeed?”
“Can you describe for me your personality? How would friends and family describe your personality?”
“What is ‘normal protocol’ in the company? Are there specific ‘correct procedures’ that need to be followed? What is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’?”
With other CxOs and Board members:
“How will success in my new role be defined? How will you know when I’ve adjusted?”
“What is most needed of me in the first quarter, the first year, and the first 5 years?”
“Are there other key stakeholders who may not be obvious? If so, who?”
“What information do I need from you to be able to do the best job I can?”
“Here is what kind of behavior on the board’s part that would best enable me to have a trusting relationship at board meetings, between us, and in one-on-one conversations.”
Create an organization plan.
Before you set off on the above, decide how you are going to track and organize the sudden influx of information. Take a look at the following questions and have an answer prepared for each of them.
How will you track to-do’s?
How will you prioritize them?
How will you track your meetings?
Which meetings have you already had?
Which ones do you still need to have?
How will you know the agenda of each meeting?
How will you track the information you receive in each meeting?
How will you remember everyone’s names the first time and connect key information about them to them?
Work with a Coach.
One of the greatest obstacles new C-Suite executives face is their own eagerness. After all, you were hired for a reason. In the selection process, you likely asked insightful questions and challenged inefficiencies. Now you’re ready to get your hands dirty.
But the intangibles take time. No one can adequately describe the extent of their company’s culture in a day. No one can build high-performing teams in a week. As discussed earlier, taking drastic action before you know your firm’s intangibles can easily result in failure.
You need patience, but you also need to prove that you can take action and make progress on your goals. A good coach will help you nail that balance.
Other benefits? A coach will be key to helping you apply your individual goals to your new role. A coach will also help you navigate any tricky politics you may immediately encounter. And a coach can help level up your team.
Work alongside your predecessor.
Tie up any loose strings with your predecessor and gain some insightful info at the same time. Questions to ask include:
“What worked well? What worked poorly?”
“What were you working on before I came? How will those tasks be completed? Will we be viewed as true partners by the Board? Will we collaborate? Will the tasks be dropped?”
“What is the company accustomed to experiencing from you?” (If possible, take a look at their personality.)
“Who did you normally talk to for issues with [fill-in-the-blank]?”
“What is ‘normal protocol’ in the company? Are there specific ‘correct procedures’ that need to be followed? What is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’?”
You may not be able to fully work alongside your predecessor, but a coffee or lunch is still extremely valuable. If you unfortunately cannot contact your predecessor at all, a mentor or sponsor is your next best bet.
Work with a mentor or sponsor.
Some companies have begun to provide mentors or sponsors to help you learn the intangibles. If you were not given one, ask your hiring team to point you to a long-standing employee, someone who can and is eager to help you understand the answers to any of your questions. (Make sure to thank your mentor or sponsor properly!)
Talk to the CHRO.
The CHRO (assuming that is not you) will be one of your greatest assets in transitioning successfully. (If you are the CHRO, talk to the team that hired you.) Ask your CHRO questions like:
“What attributes do I possess that resulted in me being selected for this new role?”
“What attributes do I still need to develop or enhance?”
“Do you have a clear job description that has buy-in from key stakeholders?” Get as much clarity on areas of responsibility, authority, and decision rights as possible.
“Can I have...
Key information (mission, values, history)
Financial information
An organization chart and contacts list
A list of key acronyms
The resumes of my direct reports?”
“What is ‘normal protocol’ in the company? Are there specific ‘correct procedures’ that need to be followed? What is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’?”
Starting a new job anywhere is exciting! I hope these tips help you succeed as a new CxO. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out at megan@ryancbailey.com. Always happy to help.
Megan Koh is a Career Development Coach, with over 7 years of experience in helping others find and achieve their dream jobs. She lives south of Atlanta and is married to her sweetheart Danny.
At long last! Several months after COVID-19 first hit the United States, businesses are beginning to reopen. Strict quarantine rules are slowly being phased back as more people venture out for dining, personal care services, and recreation.
What does this mean for you? As your company redesigns for social distancing and cleaning requirements, you may need to figure out how to re-staff.
But here’s the crux of the problem. State unemployment benefits have risen dramatically in light of COVID-19 ($978 on average this year, compared to $378 on average last year). And the federal CARES Act has been supplying all unemployed workers with an additional $600 per week, provided they are unemployed as a direct result of COVID-19. As a result, around half of all workers in the United States are more financially incentivized to stay unemployed than to return to work.
If you run a company or have a hand in your firm’s HR strategy, you may struggle to get old or new staff members to fill positions. So the purpose of this blog post is to give you 4 ways to encourage your eligible workforce to come back to work.
1. Create non-monetary incentives.
Let’s start off with some hope-giving statistics:
89% of bosses believe employees quit because they want more money. But reality says that only 12% of employees switch jobs for a pay raise.
American workers said they would be willing to give up 23% of their entire future lifetime earnings for a job that was always meaningful in a survey of 2,000+ participants.
In a study conducted by Glassdoor, the top predictor of workplace satisfaction was not pay across all income levels.
In other words, money may not be the primary reason why employees are staying away from work. Especially when you factor in the perilous effects of quarantine boredom (i.e. a high correlation with depression, anxiety, and drug and alcohol abuse), your eligible workforce may be more ready to return than you’d expect. Thinking strategically, you can create some truly compelling non-monetary incentives, which may work even better than upping wages. Here are a few suggestions:
Of course, let your eligible workforce know that you care about their health. Follow OSHA guidelines. But then also hold open conversations with previous staff members about what safety concerns they might have around returning. What else can you do to give your team peace of mind? Do they want frequent breaks to wash their hands? Do they want you to provide high-quality masks? Create a workplace that ensures your staff members don’t feel threatened to return.
The CARES Act ends July 31st. At that point, millions of Americans will be swarming back to work, unable to support themselves entirely on state unemployment benefits. Let your old team know that you want them to have a secure job with you when that time comes. Let them know that you want them specifically and give them reasons why. For example, “Ian, no matter how busy and chaotic work is, your humor and optimism always make the day better for everyone,” or, “Sally, you work tirelessly and quietly, ensuring everything goes off without a hitch from the background. Without you, we would never be able to run as smoothly as we do.” Recognition is the #1 motivator of work productivity, whereas a pay raise ranks at only #5. (And this goes without saying, but make sure your praise is genuine. Flattery is unethical, easily detected, and ineffective.)
Use reopening as an opportunity to clean out your culture. No one’s work culture is perfect, and values are alive and ever-changing. Core values may not have stuck and need to be analyzed and reconsidered. Aspirational values may need to be updated. Overtime, organizations collect accidental values: values that arise without intentionality from leadership and represent the commonalities of the majority. In what ways has your workplace culture become tacky, exclusive, or just plain dull? If you want some help in finding the answer, talk and listen to your front-line and most entry-level workers. How can you make your company’s workplace the best place to be?
Create meaningful work. Do you know the long-term goals of your previous team members? Do you know their passions? If not, be willing to ask! And let your old team know that, moving forward, you want more now than ever to help them achieve their goals and experience their passions every day at work.This may mean that you have to do some organizational shuffling. (For example, Shelly likes making people happy but has been in data analytics; she should be moved to a customer-facing role.) This may also mean that you have to give your employees more autonomy or change up accountability. (For example, Ryan and Perry are competitive, but their work output is not easily measurable; you should come up with ways to quantify and track their work.) How can you help your workers live fulfilling and satisfying lives?(As a disclaimer, this strategy can be extensive and challenging. What do you do with an employee whose only passion is video games? How do you thoughtfully hold these kinds of conversations with a staff of 30? Reach out in the contact form below if you get stumped!)
Lastly, foster opportunities to develop your people. Everyone, even those who flip burgers unnoticed in the back of your store, wants to feel like they are growing, learning, and improving. And every role develops what are called transferable skills, or skills that hold across industries and jobs. (Some transferable skills include communication, problem solving, emotional self-awareness, etc.) Unfortunately, development of transferable skills often goes unnoticed and un-praised, in contrast to the often hyper-focus placed on bottom-line results. What skills does a burger chef develop that may be helpful to her in future jobs? If you want to invest in your people, you need to know in what ways you are investing in them and get creative. For example, a burger chef might develop attention-to-detail, an awareness of work flow, organization, and/or cooperation.If you want to attract talent back to your business, give them reasons to come that go beyond their immediate circumstances and last into the rest of their life. This can be as simple as attaching a list of transferable skills to each role and creating accountability and rewards around those skills.
These suggestions can seem daunting because they are (and should be) fairly time-consuming. Doubting the fiscal return of your efforts is reasonable. But these suggestions aren’t just “nice” ways to “smooth-talk” your staff back into work. Holding these types of conversations not only creates personal impact, but also increased revenue. Since we started with statistics, let’s end with one more:
This study generated estimations that a highly meaningful job will produce an additional $9,078 per worker, per year, given established job satisfaction-to-productivity ratios.
Is the effort worth it to you?
2. Report an “Offer of Work.”
In some states, a refusal to return back to work (when given a fair offer) leads to disqualification from unemployment benefits.
For example, if you offer employment to Bob who used to work for you, Bob might reject your offer because he’s earning more unemployed than he would returning to your company. You can counter his rejection by reporting a copy of your job offer to your state’s Department of Labor. Bob will then lose his unemployment benefits. At that point, you could then re-offer the position to Bob under his new conditions.
Some important notes for using this option:
Clearly, the nature of this option is harsh. Essentially, employers can use leverage to “force” employees back to work.In order to use this option honorably and effectively, be proactive in your communication. If you can, build trust by hosting an open dialogue around a return to work before you extend offers; listen to fears and objections and see what you can do to help your team return to work with ease and eagerness. If you can’t hold that kind of conversation, at least proactively let candidates know that they may be in danger of losing unemployment benefits if they reject your offer. (This also eliminates the necessity of a re-offer.) Above all, if you use this option, strive to be fair. If you can’t compensate your employees financially, again, how else can you compensate them with non-monetary incentives?
Unfortunately, each state’s process is different and developed in real-time. Some states are not yet even offering this option. You may have to do a bit of hunting on your state’s Department of Labor website to find the details that apply to you.
The offer you give must be more or less similar to the offer you first gave. In other words, you can’t slash wages or significantly alter the role’s responsibilities. (Again, details vary per state.)
3. Try employing workshare.
In some states, a workshare program allows you to employ your workforce for a percentage of their normal hours (e.g. 40%). Those employees would then collect (1) 40% of their normal wages, (2) partial unemployment benefits from the state, and (3) $600 in benefits from the federal CARES Act. In some cases, the combined total of the 3 sources of income would be greater than either full employment or full unemployment.
Again, each state varies on specifics. Check out your state’s Department of Labor and see if you can create a plan that works for you and your employees.
4. Use the intermittent furlough strategy.
If you haven’t yet closed your business entirely, you may be able to immediately implement the intermittent furlough strategy. This strategy avoids the mistake of reducing 10 staff members to 50% of their normal hours, an act that would disqualify them from unemployment benefits. Instead, try employing 5 staff members for 100% of their normal hours in one week, and then employing the other 5 staff members for 100% of their normal hours in the next week. Continuously alternate between the two subteams.
Due to new stipulations in the CARES Act, these employees can collect wages during their week on and unemployment benefits in their week off.
I hope that this article has helped! Navigating through available solutions can be daunting and confusing, and we all are experiencing this for the first time. If you have any questions on anything discussed above, please reach out to me at megan@ryancbailey.com. Wishing you the best!
Megan Koh is a Career Development Coach, with over 7 years of experience in helping others find and achieve their dream jobs. She lives south of Atlanta and is engaged to her sweetheart Danny.
Embarking on a coaching engagement can be both a liberating and intimidating thing. It gives us the safety to process difficult interactions and freedom to pursue ideas; it also can be one of those things that our pesky persistent human nature tells us we “need to do right.” And while there is no exact right or wrong way to go about a session or entire engagement, there are a few things you can do in preparation of a coaching session to ensure you get the most out of your time with your coach.
Prepare a topic (or topics) that you’d like to work through that day.
Identifying a few things you might want to address with your coach before the session begins can help you get focused during the actual session faster. Spending less time trying to figure out what you want to talk about leaves more time for insights, which ultimately result in development. (See here for a list of what to talk about during a coaching session.)
Before you walk in the door, take note of how you are feeling.
Are you feeling restless? Relieved? Overwhelmed? Joyful? Empty? Frustrated? While feelings are not facts, they are always data. Positive or negative, sharing how you are feeling with your coach gives both of you the opportunity to explore where those feelings might come from and how they might be working into your life and work currently. Identifying your feeling and its origins is the first step to foreseeing and overcoming barriers that might arise.
Remind yourself that you may feel challenged.
The blessing and burden of participating in a coaching engagement is that while you will be validated, you will also be challenged. Good coaches will not hold back in their observations of you – both in the session itself and what they are hearing through a story you’re telling – because they know those observations are crucial to your development. Growth is a hard journey because it requires us to confront the parts of ourselves we are uncomfortable with, but it is because of our courageous confrontations that we are able to see ourselves more clearly and thus behave in a way that is more aligned with who we desire to be.
Prepare yourself at a heart level to explore any insights that arrive.
The narrative we create of ourselves, even in the workplace, is consistently validated through our experiences in the world – whether or not they are true. Our human tendency towards confirmation bias means that we often don’t see the full picture of what is happening; we only see the pieces that make sense to us based on our story. Coaching sessions have the magical ability to bring insight into the story we tell ourselves about ourselves in ways that validate and well as ways that challenge. The willingness to explore all those areas deeper will only serve you well as you continue to pursue your goals.
Be gentle with yourself when it comes to perceived progress.
Other people often see us better than ourselves, especially when that other person is someone whose job it is to help you see yourself more clearly. Because we spend all day with ourselves, it can often feel like we are stuck or not making any progress. Be gentle with yourself when you feel this way, and speak up to your coach if this is the feeling you are experiencing. Your coach may be able to help you identify areas in which you are growing without you noticing, or you can draft a different plan forward together.
Coaching sessions, whether you are a people leader or not, are intended to help people identify their strengths, set goals, address the barriers to those goals, and grow to the next level. By taking just a few minutes to prepare your brain and your heart for an upcoming session, you expedite the amount of time it takes to get to the focus during the session and give yourself the advantage of gaining more insights during the hour with your coach. In this way, you maximize your growth opportunities over the course of the engagement and will realize a greater impact in your life overall.
Chew on this:
How has past preparation helped you get further in an area of your life?
How can you better prepare for your development in the future?
One of the first questions I usually get from a prospective client or somebody interested in coaching but not quite ready to take the leap yet is, “What would I even talk about?” While the question is a legitimate one, it is typically rooted in that familiar hesitant reaction we have when confronted with the anticipated opportunity to be vulnerable. And thus the simple answer addressing what to talk about during a coaching session turns out to be a little more involved than just content.
The short answer to what to talk about during a coaching session is: anything and everything. Coaching serves a variety of purposes, including (but not limited to) brainstorming, processing, problem solving, self-examination, personal development, gap analysis, skills assessment, and leadership development. Coaching can also help leaders work through and identify where their team is performing well and where they could be doing better.
Examples of good topics to prepare and bring up during a coaching session are:
An area in which you want to grow
A strategic initiative that feels incomplete for reasons you can’t quite pinpoint
A team member that you may be struggling with
A big win that you’d like to celebrate and process
A problem you want to think through
An event or situation that hasn’t been sitting well with you
A direct report who is not performing to the level you’d hoped
An idea you’d like to explore
A relationship you would like to improve
A circumstance or environment you are unsure about navigating
A pattern you’ve noticed and would like to examine
Ways your team is doing well
Areas in which you’d like your team to develop
The promotion you’re hoping to get
The promotion you’re upset you didn’t get
Question(s) you want addressed from a previous session or assessment result
The more important thing to consider when it comes to a coaching session is not the content itself, but the way you talk about the content. Your general attitude and openness during a session will predict how successful the outcome is, even if the outcomes ends up being one that takes you by surprise. Our personal ability to either recognize how we are feeling and reacting in the moment coupled with our willingness to accept observations made by a coach (whether positive or critical) will be the key to capitalizing on our personal and professional growth.
Your coach will hear things and find meaning and ask questions, and while a good coach will skillfully ask good questions to get you thinking more broadly, it is equally important that you be open to receiving not only these questions but the challenging thinking that may come with them. We gain significant insights that can lead to breakthrough developments when we are willing to challenge ourselves and our own thinking to entertain the idea that there might be a bigger world out there.
Chew on this:
What did you talk about the last time you had a breakthrough?
What attitude do you generally have when approached with challenging thinking?
In what areas can a coach help you grow?
Public Speaking.
Did you just feel a little queasy even reading those two words above? If so, you are not alone. According to this online study, 75% of people feel some level of fear about public speaking. Let’s say you are asked to give a toast, tell a part of your story, lead a meeting, give a presentation, or do some other form of public speaking: here are ten tips that can help you overcome your nerves.
Decide ahead of time you are going to be you.
There is nothing that works up the nerves more than believing you have to be amazing in whatever public speaking event you are participating in. Instead, focus on accomplishing the end goal behind why you are engaging in your public speaking event. What is the goal of the toast you are giving? The story you are telling? The PowerPoint deck you are presenting? Just focus on that.
Relive a time when you were confident, really enjoying yourself and/or cracking up, especially if it was while you were speaking in public.
Let’s take the cracking up one. Stop right now and describe a time when you were really cracking up. I mean laughing hysterically. Really get into the details. Look what just happened. You started cracking up. Emotional recall is a tool you can use to bring emotions from the past into the present. You can do the same with confidence, relaxation, or enjoyment. Just give enough details for your body to start producing the emotion in the present.
Using confident body language helps bring up confidence.
Assuming a confident posture (like the Superwoman pose) leverages your physical body to trick your mind into feeling more confident. This resource explains this point well particularly well.
If you have the option to arrange the chairs in a circle, try to do that!
Sometimes someone feels a lack of confidence just because they are standing in front of everyone. If you have to be standing in front of everyone, then try to get to the room early and practice standing in front of where everyone will be. If you have the option to rearrange chairs, arrange them so that everyone is in a circle and you are sitting in the circle with them. Use the real estate of your environment to your advantage.
Remember to breathe.
Sometimes when we are feeling anxious we don’t breathe well. So if there is a lull or if you’ve just asked the audience a question, take that time to breathe in a little more deeply. It makes a difference.
Hold eye contact with the safest people in the room.
Usually there are people in an audience who seem more engaged than others and are giving you more positive body language. Focus more on them. They will help you get through the talk.
Worry less if people are yawning or seem distracted.
By contrast, don’t focus on people who are yawning or seem distracted. You may not be failing at all. Sometimes by the end of a four-hour training it is just natural for people to be yawning, especially if they’ve been getting a lot of information to digest. Yawning is natural. The same applies with those looking on their phones or who seem distracted in some other way. It may not have as much to do with you as with the fact that they need a mental break, or that something urgent is going on that requires their response. We do anonymous feedback surveys after each training. When I see people yawning or showing distraction in some other way, I expect to receive lower scores on the feedback survey, but that has yet to be the case.
Follow your method of rehearsing.
Some people need to go through what they are going to say over and over again until it is natural. Some people just need to do it a couple of times, knowing they will improvise some. Still others barely create an outline (usually in their heads) and when called on, they still do a great job!
There is not one right way to rehearse. If you are in the first two examples, rehearse until you are comfortable by yourself (with a mirror or film yourself) and with others. For those in the third category, man I envy you!
Watch clips of tips for public speaking and apply the ones that fit you and your personality type.
This resource is full of great tips and tricks to improve your public speaking. Use the ones that best fit you for the present occasion.
Increase the energy level of the room by telling a story.
Sometimes if I sense that I am wearing people down with heavy content, I share a quick 30-second story to amplify one of the points. It can bring a breath of fresh air to the room.
Controversial bonus tip: announce to the group that you fear speaking in public.
Sometimes just being real about what you feel helps you to get through your nerves. If you decide to share that one, pay attention to who in the audience connects with you and subtly encourages you. After all, 75% of the room probably has some form of fear about public speaking as well!
While I’ve included 10 tips to help you succeed in your next public speaking engagement, there are many more you can utilize! Click here for a more extensive list of tips.
Chew On This:
Which of the tips above would be the most helpful to you?
Which of these tips will you try next time you are called to present publicly?
I am coaching a group of directors who all want to become vice presidents in their companies.
These men and women are sharp, gifted individuals. Already they are making a significant impact where they are. They are master tacticians, skilled at executing the strategic initiatives set by those over them.
There used to be a day when vice presidents could be either tactical or strategic. However, those days are gone. More and more companies are wanting to see that prospective VP’s can do both.
The group I'm coaching already shows great signs of being able to flex their strategic muscles, but they've been in roles that are heavily tactical.
Moreover, they are so busy implementing what they are tasked to do that they have little room for what it takes to practice the art of strategy.
In this multi-part blog series we are going to discuss:
As a leader, you may already be identifying in your mind who on your team is more strategic and who is more tactical.
To advance excellence in your team, all members of the team need to understand and implement principles of both--what it takes to be a Master Tactician and what it takes to be a Master Strategist.
The higher up they move in the company, the more they will be working through others, so they will need a strategic mindset to succeed.
However, those who are closest to the front lines, who require a tactical mindset, will also need to understand what you as the leader need in order to make effective decisions for the good of all.
For example, suppose your frontline had a basic training on how to spot trends not yet revealed by the data you are seeing. Imagine what a difference that would make to you and to the company.
If a team were to take this basic training, what might they draw out about what it means to be tactical? Basically, it is “work done below the shoulders.”
Those who are strong at being tactical are strong at executing. So tactical people are operational.
Tactical people’s line of vision is focused on the shorter term. Sometimes it means being focused in the moment. As such, they can be reactionary, but must definitely be adaptable and flexible.
Let’s look at what the work life of a master tactician entails:
1. They achieve the strategy for their small part of the business.
While they may have some awareness of the overall strategy for the company, tacticians usually don’t have overall details, but they do have details for their part of the business.
Once they receive the strategy, master tacticians know who on their team needs to do what in order to accomplish the goals. They put together solid plans and work the plan. This gives them a great deal of control in the day-to-day operations, as long as higher ups trust them to execute.
2. They are resource management oriented.
Master tacticians directly use the resources of the company to accomplish the strategy. As such, masterful ones are wise with how they allocate the resources, and they are accountable for how they use them.
3. They are project-oriented.
Tacticians go from project to project, often working a few different ones at the same time. They get the benefit of seeing the fruit of their labors in shorter term bursts than the strategists do. This can be incredibly rewarding.
4. They are fast-moving and always busy.
There is never a break. There is always a ton of work. There are always decisions to be made as to what gets dropped. There is a constant need to filter all that they have through Julie Morgenstern’s 4 D’s - Delegate, Delete, Delay, and Diminish.
Many have at least double digit unread messages -- if not triple. Their work is such that they can’t stop. There are always more meetings, or stakeholder calls to make, in addition to the projects they are on.
However, those who are master tacticians thrive in that type of fast-paced environment. If they are in the right tactical role, they are never bored. There is always something to do.
5. Typically, the only time they think about the business is when they are on vacation, or about to fall asleep.
As you can infer from above, the thought of being able to stop and really think about the business seems like a luxury to them. Many say that the only time they do is when they are on vacation or about to fall asleep.
For some personality types, that could be a gift. Yes, it could be frustrating not to have more of a say in the strategy, but those who love to execute thrive here.
It is easy to see why some people would never want to leave the tactical realm. If they are wired for it, they can get into their comfort zone and never leave.
However, as I said earlier, the days are now here that in order to move to higher levels in a company, there has to be a strategic mindset as well as a tactical one.
Chew On This:
Ryan C. Bailey is President and CEO of a company that equips leaders to develop the teams that everyone wants to work for. *This blog is an amalgamation of a few different clients. No one single client is being singled out.
When I was younger, I trained to be a professional tennis player. I had a competitive drive back then, and it served me well. But as I became established in a helping profession, and being an ENFJ, I found myself working more towards harmony than competition. I allowed myself to get out of balance and worked an insane number of hours. I stopped tennis and most other forms of exercise, and gained a lot of weight.
Now I’m committed to getting back in shape. I joined WeightWatchers, got a weight-loss coach, and got a Fitbit. I posted on FaceBook that I wanted accountability and competition, and I asked FaceBook friends to connect to me on Fitbit.
I’d barely gotten the post out when a friend invited me to compete on his WorkWeek Hustle Challenge.
I know I must be behind the times a bit, but I had no idea what that was.
So then I read that it was a competition to see who takes the most steps between Monday at 12:00am and Friday at 11:59pm. The winner is the one with the most steps.
Until I was invited to join the WorkWeek Challenge, I had no idea how much of a competitive spirit was still in me.
When the WorkWeek Hustle started, I pushed myself hard and spent the first two weeks physically sore. Like, so sore that my wife laughed when she heard how slowly I was walking down the stairs.
However, by the end of the second week, I could see that the number of steps I took had increased by a huge percentage over the first week. My friends encouraged me and even gave me some tips as to how to improve.
At the end of each week, we “Cheered” the winner of that WorkWeek Hustle.
That got me thinking.... Is there a way to create a similar type of healthy peer-to-peer competition in the business world? I believe that there is.
Here is what I learned from Fitbit WorkWeek Challenges and how it can apply to competition among peers who want the best for each other:
1. Healthy competition ends excuse making.
As implied above, when I was invited to compete, I felt an incredible drive to start. No hesitation, no resistance. I did not care about having to wake up a little earlier, and I found I could workout when I would otherwise be somewhat brain dead. Even going to the gym after a long day was suddenly doable. In other words, excuses went away.
How many times have we let excuses get in the way of what we know we need to accomplish?
What do you need to improve?
What if you got a small group of peers who were willing to compete with you in that area? Make sure it is an area that is tangible. For example, a tangible area could be a specific sales number or percentage, the number of calls made, number of minutes spent thinking and brainstorming, number of ways you can encourage team members to excel, etc. Also, make sure it is something that can be done in a short amount of time (a week or so). The idea is to push yourself, and one another, to really grow.
2. You can play to win even when you really like your competitors and want their good.
When I trained to be a professional tennis player, unless I was playing my tennis partner or someone from my team, I viewed my competitors as neutral “other” figures. I did not hate them, but neither did I really want their good. I just wanted to win.
When my doubles partner and I played matches against each other, it was different. Even during the match we would share how each other could improve. The result was that it would make the matches even better. We loved the challenge of beating each other at our best. It was exhilarating.
During the Fitbit challenges, some of my friends have given me tips on how to take more steps. It has been so encouraging and helpful.
Could you imagine what it would be like if your small competitive group wanted to make the improvements so badly that they pushed each other to improve and grow, even risking losing just to gain mastery in an area?
3. Increased fun.
It has been so much fun busting out a bunch of steps--only to see one of my Fitbit friends blow me out of the water. I can’t help but laugh and realize how much further I have to grow. What is even more fun is when I outdo them the next time :-)
The same could be true for you and your small group. Think of how much fun you will have as you each outdo each other.
4. Increased creativity.
When I first started these challenges, I was using strictly the elliptical. I love the elliptical, but then I discovered I can take more steps per minute on the treadmill, and now the elliptical is a weekend thing, or a short alternative when my left shin feels like it is going to explode.
Being a creature of habit, I never would have come to enjoy the treadmill the way I do, had it not been for the Fitbit WorkWeek Hustle Challenge.
Anticipate that you will get creative in order to beat your peers. Think of how much productivity that will bring to you.
5. Push myself above what I perceived was a limit.
I work long hours, having back-to-back sessions (face-to-face, Skype, FaceTime, or phone), so the thought of getting to 10k steps per day seemed like a fantasy.
Then I saw that most of my Fitbit friends were nailing their 10k steps, and I knew some of them worked long hours in back-to-back meetings as well. In fact, some of them were consistently over 15k steps per day.
So I looked for ways to increase it. Every little bit counted.
Then it happened. I passed 10k.
So I went for 15k steps per day. Nailed it the next day when I realized that if I pace during phone calls, it actually helps me to focus and coach better.
Then I wanted to see how far I can go.... I figured I could reach 18k if I went to the gym twice per day and went for a walk with my wife when I got home from work. I was completely wrong. I hit 21k steps in a day.
This would not have happened had I not seen Fitbit friends hit 18k-20k steps in a day.
So just think of how you will reach new limits through competing with your peers. It is incredibly encouraging when you see your peers reach limits that you did not think you would reach. And it is exhilarating when you blaze the trail by hitting the new limit first.
6. Chance to compete again next time.
With the WorkWeek Hustle lasting only 5 days, you have the chance to compete again next week. This is a great opportunity to see how you can refine and improve your strategy.
If you are competing against your peers, make sure that the time of each competition is short, to give you plenty of opportunities to refine and implement a new strategy for the next time.
7. Competitors can celebrate together.
What has also been encouraging is to have fellow competitors “Cheer” each other on. The winner of the week often gets showered with “Cheers.” Yet, as much as we can be happy for one another, there is naturally a deep desire to beat them next week.
How often do peers cheer you on when you accomplish something? How often do you cheer peers on? I am not talking the short bravos that may take place on a team call. I mean a heartfelt cheer.
Your small group of peers can do that for one another.
Developing a peer group to compete with will create a team of people who want one another’s best, who give each other tips to improve, who cheer one another on, and want to maximize their own abilities.
Chew On This:
Ryan C. Bailey is an Executive Coach who helps business leaders develop in-demand high performing teams.
I recently did a "Getting Things Done" workshop where the first exercise I had the team do was to list on a piece of paper all the things that were on their mind at that moment.... I asked them to be thorough. Then I asked them to think not just about work, but also what was going through their minds about home, family, hobbies, entertainment, etc. If it was on their mind, they needed to get it down on paper.
They had only 10mins to do this brain dump.
The number of items each team member listed was between 13-28.
That’s a lot swirling in the head. But these people were not unusual. I bet if you took 10mins right now to do the same exercise, you would be in the same range.
How do you think all of those things swirling in the head impacts your ability to be fully present with a direct report, or fully present in a meeting?
Being fully present is an easy way to show someone, or a group, that you value them. It is also a fantastic way to create impact.
But how can you be present when you have 13-28 big things on your mind? How can you push them aside for a bit and focus on what is before you?
1. Brain dump.
Try the brain dump exercise I described above. Just dump everything in your head onto a piece of paper.
Next to each item, quickly jot down the ideal outcome you want for that item. Then write down the next action step that needs to be taken to achieve that outcome.
For more on this, check out Productivity Made Simple.
2. Schedule time to worry.
Maybe you don’t have time to list everything. An impromptu meeting is about to happen and you need to be fully present. A technique that has helped some people is to schedule a time to worry about the things that are on your mind. Literally, put it on the calendar. (You can create a code phrase for it in case others look at your calendar.) Don’t be surprised if, after you set the appointment, you find you can fully focus.
3. All distractions out of sight.
What distracts you when you are in a meeting? Often it is a smartphone alerting you to a text or email. Sometimes it is a call, or someone knocking on the door.
Make a list of the things that have prevented you from being fully present, then find a way to radically deal with them.
So for example, if your phone is the culprit, turn it off and put it in a desk drawer. Don’t let the smartphone run you.
Look at the other things that distract you. What do you need to do to radically deal with them?
4. Set an alarm for the end of the meeting, or ask someone to knock on the door when five minutes are left.
Since your smartphone is away, have some sort of alarm that can go off 5mins before the meeting is scheduled to be over.
Another way to do that is to ask your assistant, or the next person who is meeting with you, to knock on the door five minutes before the meeting is scheduled to wrap up.
Five minutes should be sufficient time to capture the action steps from that meeting and close things up.
If you need more time and you choose to run late, let those who need to know how much time you think you’ll need, with some small buffer.
5. Deep breathing.
Now it’s time to take five deep breaths. Get some oxygen to your brain. Let yourself be present to your own breathing on the way in, and out. This type of focusing will help you get into the right mind-space so that you can be fully present.
6. Look them in the eye.
When you get in front of the stakeholder or group, really focus on their eyes. Make a connection with those who are before you. See if you can pick up their emotions. Allow yourself to mirror it for a moment. Let yourself be with the person/group you are with.
7. Active listening.
Active listening techniques help you to be fully present.
Those who are masters at being present are those whom you want to spend more time with. They lead you to feel motivated, engaged, and liked. Learning to be fully present is also a great way to make sure you are communicating clearly with the person meeting with you, which can be a huge time saver. Being fully present is a gift, but by using these seven tips, you will find it is also a skill that can be developed.
Chew On This:
Ryan C. Bailey is an Executive Coach who helps business leaders develop in-demand high performing teams.
If you are going to present to senior leaders, you need to understand that it is different from doing a presentation to your team or to peers.
Senior leaders are focused on high-level decision making. Consequently, your presentation needs to support them as they make these decisions.
Below are some tips that can be useful when presenting to senior leadership:
1. Over-Prepare.
When presenting to senior leaders, it is really important that you over-prepare. Make sure you know not only the materials pertaining to the stated topic, but be prepared with any insights you have gained from looking at all the materials.
Make sure you anticipate their questions. Think in terms of how the material they are presenting will help them make good high-level decisions.
Develop some thought leadership on the topic. This can come in the form of insights that may not show up in the data you are presenting (personal insights you have gained from being closer to the front lines). These are insights that they would not otherwise be exposed to. A key insight would be what you foresee may be coming, based on the data and your connection to those closest to the front line.
2. Have one key message that you want to make sure they walk away with, and start with that message.
This can be the thought leadership point that we discussed above, especially if it answers the central question that senior leaders are asking.
If your presentation is based more on something you want from them, then the key message could be your request, tailored to what they value, so they can see the benefit of saying yes to your request.
Be sure to repeat this key message directly, or in a paraphrased version, during the presentation, and end with it.
3. Assume you have only half the time you were allotted. Oftentimes, presentations run long. If you can do your presentation in half the time and still leave a lot of room for engagement, you will be seen as a winner. You will notice senior leaders breathe a sigh of relief as you helped them get back on track.
Higher ups will look forward to your future presentations because they know you will be efficient with your words, and be able to convey a message in a fraction of the time. This is a skill to be practiced and developed.
Be sure to have supplemental slides that you can access quickly in case they want more details from your shortened presentation.
4. Own the process.
How do the content, engagement format, and your co-presenters help move the discussion to simple, practical actions that won’t add to senior leaders’ workload?
You are responsible for all parts of your presentation. You are responsible to move engagement towards action. Just be certain the actions you want are simple and practical. Senior leaders are highly busy.
You will need to be prepared for senior leaders to interrupt you and ask questions. At other times, they will patiently hear all the details, and even ask for more. You may not know ahead of time which way they will lean, so be prepared for either.
5. Start with a summary of the key points you have developed to meet their particular request for help.
This first slide could contain the key message you want them to walk away with, then short phrases to capture the bullet points.
Since I cannot share data about a specific company, I will give you the summary slide that I use when I do a workshop on Greg McKeown’s Essentialism. You can adjust it for your presentations.
Some senior leaders like pithy or catchy quotes like the above; others will not. It is really important that you tailor your deck to your audience.
Let the rest of the PowerPoint slides support this first key slide. If your first slide is good, you may find that most of the time will be spent discussing the key points of this slide. Take that as a positive sign.
Make sure that you lead with what is most important to senior leaders. Since many of them will be Sensors on the MBTI, they typically will get heavily into the details of the first item and thus spend a considerably less time with the rest. (So in the example slide above, senior leaders typically spend 40% of the time on the first quote.)
6. Focus on simple practical actions that don’t add to their already-heavy workload.
If the primary purpose of your presentation is to encourage senior leaders to take the specific actions you want them to take, then please lead with those simple action items. You can then build the rest of the presentation around those actions.
If your presentation is about relaying data and providing thought leadership from your perspective, then facilitate discussion around the simple action items they need to take to achieve the best results. If you think about how much money is spent in everyone’s compensation package per presentation, the amount is staggering. Senior leaders are often very busy, so it is hard to have them all in the room at one time. Your presentation time will be their time to brainstorm and make decisions.
7. Include a buffer of time for the unexpected 10%-25%, depending on your history for going over with that audience. If it is a new audience, then focus on the overall time.
8. Once you complete the PowerPoint deck, prepare for the presentation by going through the slides with objective outsiders, not just with your co-presenters.
Have them not only give you feedback, but also ask you the toughest questions they can think of to help you prepare.
Presenting to senior leaders is different from presenting to peers and your team. The focus for senior leaders is on high-level decision making. The key is to orient the presentation so that it is efficient and facilitates brainstorming which will lead to simple action items.
Chew On This:
Ryan C. Bailey is an Executive Coach who helps business leaders develop in-demand high performing teams.
*This blog is an amalgamation of a few different clients. No one single client is being singled out.
