4 Things Every Team Needs

Extracted from HBR - Management Tip of the Day

No matter how big or small your team or what its goal is, there are four things it needs to succeed. As a leader, it's your job to help your group create and adhere to each of these:

• A meaningful common purpose. Most teams are responding to a mandate. But to be successful, your team must "own" this purpose by developing its own spin on it.

• Specific performance goals. Develop measurable goals to inspire your team and inject a sense of urgency. Shared goals require everyone to focus on their collective effort, rather than on differences in titles or status.

• Commitment to how the work gets done. At the onset, agree on who will do what jobs, how you will establish and honor schedules, and how you will make and modify decisions.

• Mutual accountability. You can't force trust and commitment. By agreeing upon purpose and goals, your team members forge their accountability to one another — not just to the leader.

Connecting People by being Fully Present

Extracted from What Losing My Job Taught Me About Leading

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First, I learned the power of connecting with people by being fully present — in every moment. Neil's first words to me were "How can I help?" During every one of our meetings, he listened so intently and earnestly. He wasn't trying to guide the conversation and he was not at all judgmental. His interest clearly came from a genuine desire to understand and to help. Neil was fully present in every moment, in a sincere and earnest way.

Too many leaders are so caught up in the momentum of work that they lose sight of the opportunity to connect with people. I discovered that the more fully present I was with other people, the more fully present they were with me, and the more productive our relationship became over time.

This is easier said than done (it takes a lot of mindfulness to keep your mind from wandering, or your gaze from flicking to your watch or your phone) but it's essential to honoring people — another lesson I learned from Neil.

He "honored" me with his time, his attention, his insight and his energy. He also proposed that I honor all the people who crossed my path. More specifically, he had me think about the people who had honored me along my life journey and challenged me to become more like them with the people with whom I lived and worked.

I have found that the more I honored others, the more they honored me and the more fulfilling my career became. In the business arena, I have been surrounded by people with awesome skills. The difference between good and great is determined by the mindset you choose to bring to the work. The concept of honor should be part of that mindset.

And when someone does help you, acknowledge it. Get the name of every single person with whom you interact, from the head of the company to the receptionist. Find a way to connect with them, use their first name and look for something unique about them. When I would leave the building after a job interview, I'd walk next door to the coffee shop and hand-write notes to each person I met and mail them within 24 hours. You can write something as simple as, "Thank you for your help today. I was a little bit confused and really appreciate your help." Personally acknowledging their work sets you apart as a candidate — and later on, as a leader. If you cultivate a relationship in a genuine, thoughtful way, people will be more inclined to want to help you even though they don't have to help you.

When you're connecting with people, honoring them, and thanking them for their contributions, you'll naturally find yourself with a larger network — something you need not only to find a job, but to lead effectively once you have a new job.

Before I was fired, I had kept my head down and on my work. As a result, I was sadly disconnected to the business world beyond the company. I felt remarkably alone.

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Strategy vs Planning

The following is extracted from Don't Let Strategy Become Planning by Roger Martin at HBR Blog.

"Strategy is not planning — it is the making of an integrated set of choices that collectively position the firm in its industry so as to create sustainable advantage relative to competition and deliver superior financial returns. I find that once this is made clear to line managers they recognize that strategy is not just fancily-worded budgeting and they get much more interested in it."

"That strategy is a singular thing; there is one strategy for a given business — not a set of strategies. It is one integrated set of choices: what is our winning aspiration; where will we play; how will we win; what capabilities need to be in place; and what management systems must be instituted?"

"This conception of strategy also helps define the length of your strategic plan. The five questions can easily be answered on one page and if they take more than five pages (i.e. one page per question) then your strategy is probably morphing unhelpfully into a more classical strategic plan."

The important five questions to ask:

1. What is our winning aspiration?

2. Where will we play?

3. How will we win?

4. What capabilities need to be in place?

5. What management system must be instituted?

2 ways to tell if you are a 'Best Boss'

The following is extracted form Ignite! Newsletter—February 2013 Article.

Take a Combination Approach to Become a "Best Boss"

“You can learn a lot about your own development as a leader by looking into some of the common characteristics people identify with a ‘best boss’ from their past,” says David Witt, Program Director with The Ken Blanchard Companies^®. In listening to the responses of hundreds of people to the question, “Who was your best boss, and what was it about him or her that made them so special?” Witt has learned that the answers, though wide-ranging, consistently fall into two main categories.
The first common characteristic is the relationship aspect. “People say that their best boss cared about them, gave them opportunities, created a great working environment, made work fun, and was flexible and supportive.”
Second, there is the performance aspect. “People will share that their work was important, their boss expected a lot from them, and that their best boss saw qualities in them that they didn’t necessarily see in themselves.”
It’s the combination approach that makes everything work, explains Witt. One without the other doesn’t get nearly the results that a dual focus does.
“The Gallup organization discovered this initially as a part of a second round of their engagement research. In comparing engagement levels with bottom-line impact, Gallup found that engagement didn’t always translate into financial results. It was only when another component was added that the impact was evident.
"That other component was clear performance expectations. When clear expectations were combined with high levels of support organizations achieved the consistently high levels of financial performance that the researchers were looking for. This is the place where today’s top companies operate. The dual focus of high support combined with high expectations is what drives results.”

Some well-known examples

As Witt explains, “I had a chance to meet Colleen Barrett, president emeritus of Southwest Airlines, when she teamed up with Ken Blanchard to write the book, Lead with LUV: A Different Way to Create Real Success (Southwest’s stock symbol is LUV). While I knew that Southwest had a reputation for hiring fun-loving people and had a famous fun-loving culture, what I didn’t realize until I met Colleen face-to-face was that the company also had a very deeply ingrained high-expectations work ethic. As Colleen revealed, ‘We are very clear in telling our people what our expectations are. We hold them and ourselves accountable for meeting those expectations every day. Sometimes this means having a real heart-to-heart with people and reminding them what our values are. If we have been intentional and firm in explaining what our expectations are, it gives us the opportunity to point to specific examples where they haven’t exhibited the required behaviors.’”
Garry Ridge, President and CEO of household goods manufacturer WD-40 Company, also subscribes to this combination approach. Ridge calls it “caring candor” and it is a part of the “Helping People Win At Work” philosophy that Ridge developed together with Ken Blanchard and later detailed in their book of the same name.
For Ridge and Blanchard, the focus is on setting clear goals, checking in on a regular basis to monitor progress against those goals, and then ensuring that managers are doing their part in providing frontline employees with the support and direction they need to succeed.
“At WD-40, the results have been phenomenal,” elaborates Witt. “They have some of the highest engagement scores I’ve ever seen and they have been setting sales records the past few years in the midst of a very soft economy. It obviously works!”

Three strategies for leaders

Interested in learning more about what managers in your organization—or you, yourself—can do to take some first steps in becoming a best boss? Here are Witt’s suggestions.

1. Set challenging goals. Expect the best from people by setting goals that stretch their abilities. Look beyond what people can currently do and set a stake in the ground at the next level of achievement. Hard goals encourage growth, demonstrate trust, and develop competence. Be sure to set these goals as a partnership—it conveys respect and garners buy-in.
2. Meet regularly. Conduct brief, focused meetings on a weekly basis to discuss progress against goals, identify roadblocks, and brainstorm solutions. Demonstrate your commitment to an employee’s success by sharing one of your most precious resources—your time and attention.
3. Provide feedback. Celebrate and recognize achievements. Provide redirection when necessary. Feedback shows that you are paying attention as a leader, consider the work important, and are invested in the employee’s development.

Witt reminds aspiring managers that leaders become “best bosses” by demonstrating skills and behaviors which can be learned. “Look back at your own experience and you’ll probably discover that your best boss brought out the best in you because he or she expected a lot and also supported your growth and development. That’s the one-two punch that creates high levels of engagement and performance!”