Archive for June, 2009

We have all probably been in situations where a team was formed and before it even got to work, there were others who had doubts whether it would achieve anything.  Often these teams do not just achieve what was expected but they go on to exceed expectations.  So how can teams not just achieve results but exceed expectations of others?

1. Goal clarity

Team members need to understand what they are trying to achieve and why it is important to achieve.  This combination removes any fuzziness and also gets the team connected to the downsides and upsides of achievement or non achievement.  For example, a goal might be to reduce the time it takes from taking an order to receiving payment from a customer by 5 days.  This might be important because it allows the company to reduce borrowing to finance day to day working capital and allow the opportunity to borrow to finance new investments.

2. Create team buy-in

Teams will only really strive to deliver results if they are totally bought into the benefits of the results.  Take for example people who work on development projects in third world countries.  These people are totally bought into the benefits of say providing safe drinking water or building a new medical facility.  If you want to exceed expectations, make sure you create buy-in.

3. Value contributions

Every member of a team brings something special to a team.  You don’t want to miss out on that contribution do you?  When the team brings the full range of potential and contribution it achieves more.  It might take a bit of time and training to get people to the stage where they are taking and building on different perspectives but when they reach that stage the possibilities are endless.

4. Aim high

A team can aim to deliver what is required and this will provide benefits.  Chances are the team will identify other opportunities to create what might be an even better result.  Encourage teams to aim high and provide the best possible outcome.

5. Keep focus on the results

Obstacles, objections, cynicism and other barriers will appear.  It is all too easy to get sucked into a position where you are trying to defend the rights and wrongs of what you are trying to achieve.  Resist this and keep the focus on the results.

Bottom line – Teams have the potential not just to deliver results but to exceed expectations.  So what will you do differently on your team?

On 10 June 2009, I held my first ever Leadership and Management Cafe. The event was delivered by phone and webcast using Instant Teleseminar.

The basic idea behind the cafe is that you submit a question related to either leadership, management or team working and I answer it on the call.  In the first cafe we had a number of questions including starting a new job as a leader, encouraging others to lead and why organisations fail to deliver strategies.

A replay of the call is available below

I am hoping that in the future each cafe can be related to a specific theme or topic, so if you have a theme or question, I would really appreciate it if you took a moment to leave a comment.

A team exists to deliver results.  We have all seen or experienced the benefits of being part of a team.  We can recall that it was challenging but there was a real determination to get the right result.  It can often seem like results just happen.  While there will be situations or opportunities that arise by chance, success in a teams does not happen by chance.  What three ingredients must teams have to achieve success?

Skills

It is hard to imagine achieving anything without skills.  Successful teams recognise that achieving results is not just about mastering one area.  To prosper they need a range of complimentary skills.

Firstly they need the right technical skills.  Having technical skills across a wide range of disciplines is highly unlikely.  For example, how confident would you be if you were introduced to a surgeon who was the technical expert in hip replacements and then being told that same surgeon was the hospital’s technical expert in IT, Accounting and Human Resources?   The challenge is to find those with the complimentary technical skills and blend them together.

Secondly, teams need to have the skills to problem solve otherwise they will just become stuck when faced with the inevitable and sometimes unexpected obstacles they will face.

The third area of skill is interpersonal skills.  This includes areas like communicating, influencing, getting others on board with the team’s ideas and dealing with conflict to name just a few.

Commitment

Teams are generally faced with one or more performance challenges.  These for example, could be related to delays in discharging patients from a hospital, high error rates in a production process, problems with staff retention or delivery delays.  Commitment in a team is about:

• Agreeing a specific set of goals

• Agreeing an approach to achieving those goals

• Having a clear purpose

Accountability

We are all familiar with the concept of being accountable for what we deliver individually.  In teams this personal accountability still exists but mutual accountability is another vital addition in successful teams.  Mutual accountability brings with it risk and requires high levels of trust, respect and commitment.  This presents a challenge for many teams and requires new ways of thinking and behaving.

At the end of the day teams focusing on a particular performance challenge can achieve more than one individual on their own.  The challenge is how to develop and embrace these three essential ingredients and incorporate them into the way the team works.

1. Setting vague goals
2. Imposing own ideas
3. Poor decision making processes
4. Not securing the resources needed
5. Ignoring skills gaps
6. Not building relationships
7. Not setting agreements

Well we reached the finale of The Apprentice Series 5 last night.  Going head to head were Yasmina and Kate to land the job as Sir Alan’s Apprentice.

This year the two finalists were asked to create a brand new box of chocolates and the supporting marketing campaign.  It was a tough task as you would expect. Some of the past contestants returned to help out the two finalists.

This year was always going to be a close run thing as we had two highly capable individuals.  In my view either of them would have been worthy winners based on the task and their performances over the course of the last two weeks.

So what were the key learning points from the final of The Apprentice 2009?

1. Research really matters when it comes to something like a product launch.  Yasmina chose to go to a small focus group and a specialist shop.  From what we saw, it looked like Kate relied on checking out the competition in a supermarket.

2. You need to be able and willing to change track if the market is telling you that they have doubts about what you are offering, which Yasmina did.

3. Margin will always be a key consideration.  Yasmina’s background running her own restaurant meant that she had more focus on cost and selling price.

4. Creativity, especially when it comes to packaging really matters.  It is not always the smartest or brightest of people who are the most creative.

5. Communicating your ideas to third parties like a designer is important.  Yasmina and her team really got the essence of what their product was about and this was reflected in a slightly more exciting box.

6. Preparation is the foundation of a good presentation and both candidates did well on this aspect.

7. Perseverance and self belief can carry you through.  Yasmina was clearly struggling in the presentation rehearsal but kept going and delivered a highly credible presentation when it mattered.

8. You need to anticipate the questions that will arise from any presentation.  It was not clear that either of the candidates had given this much thought based on the footage we saw.

Back in the boardroom it was clear that Sir Alan was finding it hard to make the call.  In the end he hired Yasmina.  From my own perspective, it was probably down to the fact that Yasmina just had that little edge in terms of commercial awareness and business sense.  She was just that little bit more rounded.

So what was your take on the choice of the winner of The Apprentice 2009?

If you aspire to be a leader, you might notice that sometimes you continually move forward.  At other times you continually struggle.  The career ladder, unlike a normal ladder is not the same width at the top as it is at the bottom.  In many ways it is similar to a pyramid.  The higher you climb the narrower it gets.  As you try to take the next step in your career you might be finding it a struggle for one of the following 5 reasons.

Reason 1: Your resume or CV does not sell you

Make no mistake you resume or CV has one primary purpose: to get you to the next stage in the selection process.  Too often, people create resumes or CVs that list what they do rather than mentioning what they have achieved.  Remember you have to influence the recruiter that you are worth going forward to the next stage so highlight clearly and concisely your achievements.

Reason 2: You don’t know yourself

For anyone who aspires to be a leader, self awareness is an important quality to have.  Everybody, no matter who they are has areas in which they excel and areas where they are not so strong.  If you cannot articulate clearly what your areas of excellence are and where you need to develop, make the time to do a self assessment.

Reason 3: You don’t have the qualifications

In many fields, particularly professions, there is going to be a ceiling on how far you can go without the recognised professional qualification.  If you are in this situation you have two choices.  Either do what it takes to get the qualification or accept that their will be limits on how far you progress.  If it is the latter, look at ways of gaining new experience at the level you can reach.

Reason 4: You don’t have the right mindset

Believe it or not many people fail to get to the level they desire because they don’t believe that they are capable or good enough.  If this is you, take the time to separate fact from fiction when it comes to your limiting beliefs.

Reason 5: You are not willing to make the sacrifices

No long term success is achieved as a leader without some element of sacrifice.  Every time you say yes to something you are saying no to something else.  Make sure that you are willing to make the sacrifices before you seek to pursue a role as a leader.

Bottom Line – It is not always the most capable that achieve success in their leadership career.  So what action could you take to achieve success in progressing your leadership career?

So we reached the semi-final stage of The Apprentice in the UK last night.  5 candidates remained James, Debra, Yasmina, Lorraine and Kate.

They all had to endure a day of being interviewed by 4 highly successful people known as Sir Alan’s trusted advisors.  It is always interesting to see this part of the process as for the first time in the process it comes down to individual performance rather than team effort.

So what were the key learning points from this week?

You need to be self confident

The candidates could be split into two camps.  Those that had high degrees of self confidence (Debra, Yasmina and Kate) and those who demonstrated self doubt (James and Lorraine).

You need to be extremely careful what you write in a CV

One of the things James said he would bring to the table in his CV was a degree of ignorance.  He said that he wanted to stand out and it was clearly picked up by the interviewers.  I got the essence of what James was saying essentially he would bring a fresh perspective but the words he used were not the greatest.

Lorraine similarly made the classic mistake of getting some employment dates wrong.

You need to be willing to show a bit of you

Kate was by far the most controlled and calm in the interview situation but as a result she did not really show her personality.  She was even described by one of the interviewers as a bit robotic.

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot with references

We had seen the bullish side of Debra during the previous 10 weeks and sadly her references seem just to confirm this from what we saw.  Maybe there was a learning point about choosing a balance of people to act as referees so that you get a more rounded picture.

You can never do too much planning for an interview

You could tell those who had spent significant time planning for an interview (Kate in particular) and those who were just winging it (James most noticeably).
Sadly, this lack of planning is all too familiar not just in The Apprentice but in real life in my experience.  You need to spend time anticipating questions that will be asked.

Back in the Boardroom it was no surprise that James followed by Lorraine were the first two to be eliminated. James was seen as more of a corporate man by Sir Alan and this is why he was fired.  Lorraine (like Lucinda last year in some ways) was a bit different so was always going to struggle to make the final as a result.

That left Sir Alan with two to choose for the final from Debra, Yasmina and Kate.  The first to make the final was Kate.  The second final place went to Yasmina with Debra being fired.  Maybe Debra was just too much of a risk for Sir Alan.

However, putting personalities aside, if you look at the times when they were Project Managers, both Yasmina and Kate performed well so maybe they were the logical choices for the final.

Communication is important whether you are a leader in an organisation or someone who is running a small business.  As part of my ongoing learning and development I like to listen to teleseminars and other virtual learning events.  One of the key things that I have noticed from listening to many of these virtual trainings is that the best presenters always focus on one thing.  Keeping the audience at the forefront of their mind all of the time. 

When you keep the audience at the forefront of your mind when communicating, there are a number of real benefits.  These include:

Benefit 1:  You respect their time

Imagine you turned up to a presentation which was billed as a 60 minute talk and it was 30 minutes before you offered any worthwhile tangible content.  What do you think the feedback would be like?  Remember that people have a lot of competing demands on their time, so respect this and focus on giving them as much as you can in the time available.

Benefit 2:  Your build credibility

People listening to a presentation live or virtually want value.  If you are delivering value you are building your credibility as someone they can trust to provide them with tools, strategies and ideas to help them achieve better results.

Benefit 3: You fully focus

When you remember your audience and what you wanted to create for them at the end of the communication, you keep your focus on them and the results that they desired from attending.  What this means at a practical level is that you respond to what the audience really needs rather than promoting yourself.

Benefit 4: You get more buy-in

If you are responding to the issues that are important to your audience, you create more buy-in.  For example, if you are a leader or manager, specifically responding to the burning issues that your people are worrying about, you are more likely to get their support in implanting solutions.

Benefit 5: You are open to ideas

Many businesses are having to make tough choices right now.  If you are remembering your audience, chances are that you will build in sufficient time in your communication process to listen to ideas and suggestions that people closest to the point of delivery have.

Bottom Line- Communication is a great opportunity to get your message across and to get input from others.  So what steps can you take to focus more on your audience?

Every organisation wants to achieve success.  While many achieve short term success, creating long term sustained success is a different challenge.  So what are the components that contribute to a high performing organisation?

Component 1: Open communication

Communication is a core component in any high performing organisations.  Those working in the organisation need to be clear on where the organisation is heading, the challenges it faces and how these are to be addressed.  Leaders and managers need to be skilled at getting all of these points to those that they are leading and managing.  They also need to be actively listening to the ideas, suggestions, as well as the concerns of people.

Component 2: Clear vision

Where is the organisation going in the next 5-10 years?  What is it going to build a reputation for?  How is it going to stand out in the marketplace?  What is going to be different?  These are just some of the questions the high performing organisation needs to be answering in creating a clear and compelling vision that all stakeholders buy into.

Component 3: Continual learning

High performing organisations have a strong desire to stay ahead of the pack.  To do that they recognise that they must continually learn about better ways of getting results and getting the best from people and other resources that they have at their disposal.

Component 4: Results focus

When an organisation is results focussed, it is continually looking for ways in serving customers and delivering better results for them.  After all, without customers, there is no income and without income there is no business.

Component 5: High involvement

High performing organisations have high levels of involvement at all levels in the organisation.  The reason for this is that it provides the drive and motivation to continually deliver great results.

Bottom Line- If you want to create a sustainable successful organisation, you need to focus on some key components.  So what components do you need to develop to take your organisation to the next level?