Building Business Value | Corporate Management Strategies

The Courage to Communicate

Courage is not a word we often banty about in conference rooms and cubicles.  Websters defines courage as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.  But taken in the context of business leadership, courage can also be defined as the ability to talk to employees about what matters to them – and to tell it like it is.

Facing the economic challenges of shifting market conditions can be a drain for most leaders.  But consider the emotional toll on the workforce.  Leadership holds most of the cards.  They generally have a feel for the challenges ahead and certainly understand their current financial position.  Employees, on the other hand, are generally left wondering.  Is the company doing well?  Will there be layoffs and other cost cutting measures?

This is when courageous leaders really shine.  Courage dictates that you tell it like it is.  Holding open, honest and transparent conversations on current market conditions and the need for change separates the weak from the courageous.  Courage also means having the confidence to not only talk about the challenges, but the need for action in order to turn things around.  Courageous leaders face the facts, clearly describe the plan to meet the pressing challenges and then reengage employees to become part of the solution.

Are you feeling courageous today?

Stick Figures and Epiphanies

I just got a new hammer and now everything looks like a nail!

Has this ever happened to you?  You made a discovery and you can't wait to share it with everyone you know!  My discovery was Dan Roam and Epipheo Studios.

I've had extended conversations with two friends over the last few weeks on the challenges we all face in communicating complex concepts.  How can we solve problems and sell the ideas we have if we can't even set up the problem.  By the time you've given your elevator pitch, half the people in the elevator have fallen asleep and the other half voluntarily jumped to their death!

Enter Dan Roam and Epipheo Studios.  Dan Roam wrote "The Back of the Napkin" in 2008 and it's one of those books that was on my shelf for a year before I cracked it.  But I'm so happy I finally broke the seal.

Roam makes a very compelling case for the use of simple pictures for solving problems or selling an idea.  He even cleared up the healthcare debate for me.  In the last week alone, I've used his constructs in three different meetings to get my point across.

Epipheo Studios, on the other hand, are storytellers.  They believe the best thing you can do for your brand, idea, or business is to educate and enlighten.  When people see the world the way you see it, then your brand will come alive.  The idea is that if you create a great story in a new media, it will go viral.  It will become an epiphany!

I've lived by the mantra during most of my business life that "if you don't go home sick and tired of communicating, you haven't done it enough."  That's still true ... but at least now you have two more tools in your toolkit.

5 Things We Know About How Your Workforce Learns

Could the last meeting you attended be characterized as "death by Powerpoint?"  Did the leader of the meeting preach or speak "at" you?  Did you zone out or worse yet, fall asleep during the presentation?  Many executives run meetings as if the room were filled with children.  They end up preaching or presenting in a tone that has little emotion and almost no interaction.

Successful leaders know that for any change initiative to be effective, they are going to have to be good communicators.  Knowing how your team, audience or workforce learns is the first step to getting them to take action.

The following "5 Tips" are an aggregate of past experience, a classic paper by Zemke and Zemke, as well as a recent article by Chris Clarke-Epstein.  See if it helps as you strive to shape your workforce into a change leadership machine!

   1. Your workforce has expectations, and it's important to take time early on to clarify and articulate all expectations before getting into content.  There is an old saying that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.  Take the time to find out their expectations before drilling into stats and spreadsheets.

   2. Your workforce will appreciate focus on one thing at a time and a direct connection to the application of the idea or concept. Remember the rule of three.  Only have three initiatives going on at one time.  Focus on a small number of things, accomplish those, celebrate and move on.  In our book "Act Like an Owner", Bob Bloncheck and I coined a term "Line of Sight" which meant you should be able to tie everyone's day to day work to the performance of the company.

   3. Your workforce has existing beliefs.  They bring a variety of experiences to your meetings.  This is especially true for new leaders or new executives to appreciate and get an early handle on.  Take into consideration the existing norms and behaviors in the workplace as well as the cultural and socio-economic backgrounds of the workforce before rolling out something new and radical.

   4. Your workforce doesn't appreciate being talked down to.  Sure, mistakes were made in the past (and they'll be made in the future) but don't create an environment where mistakes are so toxic they keep you from trying new things. Keep trust high and encourage innovation (even at the expense of making mistakes).

   5. Your workforce could be doing other things rather than listening to you. Show them the value of participating in the change effort early.  Give them exciting reasons to join the team.  Create an esprit de corps among the team and reward those that volunteered.


Adapted from: Zemke, R., Zemke, S. 30 THINGS WE KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT ADULT LEARNING Innovation Abstracts Vol VI, No 8, March 9, 1984 http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/adults-3.htm Accessed February 2003

4 Ways to Create a Sense of Urgency

John Kotter published The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations with Harvard Business School Press in 2002 in which he talked about the need to create a sense of urgency to:

   1. develop a team to guide change,
   2. clearly communicate the vision,
   3. knock down obstacles, and to
   4. create and publicize short-term wins.

Kotter followed that up in 2008 with another book on organizational change titled A Sense of Urgency.  Kotter reminds us how critically important it is to be clear and concise about our current situation.  Keeping a happy face for too long during challenging times leaves you with few options when you really have to rally your leadership team.  But although you have to create that sense of urgency to give your change efforts purpose and momentum, beware of the false urgency. Crying wolf might work once or twice, but it will never sustain your organization over the long run.  Look for ways to increase your overall levels of urgency.  Build urgency into your culture!

As you are dialing up the urgency in the workplace, celebrate every chance you get.  Short-term wins get people excited.  If your staff knows that good things are happening, that you've just won a big contract, that revenue is up, or whatever the short-term win might be, they'll be happy.

If they don't know about those positive results, if leadership is doing a poor job of telling the team about short-term wins, then many employees will be looking for jobs.  I just met with a company yesterday where the executive made on flippant remark about the paltry business development pipeline, and you would have thought Chicken Little had a bullhorn.

It's up to you to fill in the cracks of ambiguity that result from inaccurate information that somehow leaks into the water cooler conversation at your company. So, as the little victories occur, make sure that they are communicated - and celebrated - because many of your most important assets ride the elevator to the lobby every evening, and you want to keep them engaged.

The Two Critical Elements of Strategy

You've come up with a new strategy as a result of your most recent off-site meeting. Great!

Now how are you going to get the word out to your one thousand employees? Are you getting posters designed to illustrate your new mission, vision, or purpose? Are you stuffing paycheck envelopes with a document listing the five new goals of the organization?  Are you creating FAQs for your mid level leaders so they can play an active part in rolling out your new strategy?

Well, the sad truth is, most midmarket companies don't take these actions. If they establish a new strategy,  it's often rather complicated and the CEO fails to share it with others; for some reason, they keep it a secret!  Other times, a CEO does try to get the word out but does so in a way that the Reverend Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church calls the "Mt. Sinai approach." He came up with this phrase because Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the two tablets denoting the Ten Commandments and demanded that they be followed. That top-down approach might have worked for Moses, but it doesn't work in today's business climate!

Well-defined

Your strategy needs to be well-defined; crystal clear.  The CEO and everyone down the line has to be able to talk about the strategy with clarity.  Ambiguous strategies have cracks and these cracks lead to a diversity of opinion when it comes to execution.  Many midmarket companies that are top heavy in their leadership fall into this trap.  A CEO may think she is clearly outlining the strategy, but when it comes to implementation, the next generation of leaders are filling in these cracks of ambiguity with their own answers.  This rarely leads to a cohesive strategy implementation.

Clearly Communicated - Persistent and Consistent

If you don't go home sick and tired of communicating, you haven't done it enough!

That has to be your mantra when rolling out a new or varied strategy.  You've heard all the numbers on how long it takes to break a habit.  It's either 21 days or 17 times or something like that.  The point to remember is that you have to be both persistent and consistent.  Find as many ways as possible to talk about your new direction, your new strategy.  Make sure your senior leaders and next generation leaders really understand the strategy and its implications.  Use emails, tweets, facebook, posters in the cafeteria, ads, video clips from the CEO, newsletters, face to face meetings.  Use every old and new communications device at your disposal.

Executives in midrange companies often don't take the time to excite, coach, cajole, and mentor their stakeholders and their employees with regard to new strategies. They fail to do so at their peril.

The Dreaded All-Hands Meeting - 5 Reasons Your Meetings are Lousy

The first in a two part series on All-Hands Meetings.

There it is!  That email you've been waiting for.  That one piece of corporate communications that gets you all excited!  That tidbit of company propaganda that gives you goose bumps.  The All-Hands Meeting Announcement!  Eee-haa!  Delete!

So where did this term, 'all-hands', come from and why are these meetings generally so awful?  Well, the best I can tell is that all-hands is primarily a nautical term; you know, "all hands on deck."  But since I grew up on a farm, I'm guessing it could also be a reference to farm-hands as well.  It‘s generally something you say when everyone's help is needed, especially to do a lot of work in a short amount of time.

As to the second question, why are these meeting so awful, I'm afraid you'll just have to blame yourself.

An all-hands meeting in today's business jargon is basically a town meeting.  According to Wikipedia, "A town meeting is a meeting where the population of an entire geographic area is invited to participate in a gathering."  Today's all-hands meetings gather the workforce and are generally trying to accomplish something.  Normally better communications of some form or another but often times they leave us wanting.

Your meetings are probably lousy for one or more of the following reasons:

1. You're killing everyone with a death by PowerPoint march.  I once had an executive at Boeing show 57 slides in 60 minutes and not once did he mention our business unit. Talk about a snooze!

2. Your attempt at transparency is transparent.  If you are going to share information, then share it.  If it's not the secret to Coke or Pepsi, or personal information, then share it.  John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods was quoted recently in and interview with Charles Fishman of Fast Company as saying "The world is getting more and more transparent. You're in a fishbowl these days. You can't hide in the boardrooms anymore. With the speed with which information can be sent around and the way activists and journalists dig and dig and dig, it's very difficult to hide things. I think that is an irresistible trend. And it's a healthy trend."

3. You're making the meeting about you and not about them.  You already know what is going on (hopefully), your job now is to tell as many people as you can and engage them to join you in this noble battle of competition.

4. People are no better off for attending.  I recently asked a CEO why people should come to his all-hands meetings and he said "because they are mandatory."  Bad reason!  Leadership is about creating the ‘want' in people.  They should look forward to the all-hands meetings.  They should be better informed, more skilled, more productive, more engaged as a result of attending the meeting.

5. No one sees their face in the company's success.  By their very name, all-hands meeting should be about the people attending.  What can the staff do to help?  Remember "all hands on deck?" The staff doesn't know how they contribute to the success of the company and so they have no line of sight between their everyday experiences and the successes or failures of the company.

I'd rather not leave this topic on such a negative note but for the sake of brevity (and editing), we'll stop here and pick up next time with a few really good ideas to make All-Hands meetings sing!

Closing an Interview with the FlipVideo

Not every company is fortunate enough to be doing a lot of interviewing these days but there are a couple of midmarket companies that have decided to set themselves apart when closing a candidate.

Image you're a candidate for a key position in an attractive company.  You've just gone through the interview gauntlet and on your way home you notice an email on your Blackberry or iPhone and you decide to check it out.  To your surprise, it's a video email from the CEO of the company you just left.  She addresses you by name, references the staff you interviewed with and lets you know they plan on making a hiring decision right away.  How would you feel?  Would you be a bit more inclined to accept an offer from that company?

It is actually a relatively simple addition to any recruiting and interviewing process.  Just prepare a short script for the CEO and set your FlipVideo for a 10-20 second snippet.

    - Make it personal ... add the names of the candidate and whom they saw in the interview.
    - Make it relevant ... talk about the position and the candidates background.
    - Make it quick ... post the video before the buzz of the interview wears off.

Don't get carried away with production.  We're all used to YouTube quality these days and the idea, like most things on the web, is to be personal and relevant.

 

4 Tips on Managing Your Banking Relationship

A company's finances are only as strong as its banking relationships. A great banking relationship increases business value by giving a company the flexibility to use cash when it most needs it. The worst time to ask for money, of course, is when you need it. You should sit down with your bankers monthly to tell them how great you're doing. You probably learned somewhere along the line that it is never a good idea to surprise your boss. Bankers are similar - they don't like surprises either. If they feel they understand the rhythm of your business, bankers are enticed to come to you with better deals, increase your credit line, and give you banking covenants you can work with.

Midmarket execs must have a good understanding of exactly what covenants your bank has imposed on you, how they work and what they cost.  Armed with this knowledge, execs can keep their part of the deal and find mistakes, oversights and any changes the bank might drop in overnight.

We've recently heard of a string of debt and revolving credit line covenant changes when smaller, regional banks were acquired by larger banks.  Many times, the local banker's hands are tied, but these changes do happen and can cost you money and misery.

A few things to keep in mind as you manage your banking relationship.

   1. Read any agreements you have with the bank.

   2. Meet with the bank (work on developing a personal relationship) and discuss all your current covenants, their meaning, how they are calculated and ramifications should you default on a covenant.

   3. Establish a meeting schedule to keep the bank fully informed on the company's position.  Think of it as "lunch with the lender."

   4. Make sure the banker knows it is their responsibility to keep you abreast of the services (and deals) they offer.

One final note.  Always work on your 'next' banking relationship.  You never know when the regional bank you've worked with for twenty years will become part of a larger entity that has decided not to serve companies in your market.

How's Business?

Well, it's that time of year.  The time of year when those of us in a leadership position attend our fair share of holiday happy hours, client office parties, family gatherings, year-end reviews, tax planning sessions and formal corporate affairs.  The question that normally follows "How ya doin?" is the inevitable "How's business?"  Now perhaps you'll hear close relatives like "Did you have a good year?" or "How are you handling this market?" or even "Are you going to be able to hang on?"  But no matter the words, the tone or the delivery, people just want to know how your business is doing. 

Now some, like your employees, your bank or even your customers, have a real vested interest and deserve an honest, thoughtful answer.  Others may just be nosy or are probing for dirt so feel free to blow them off and have a little fun in the process.  "We had planned to double this year, but since your firm laid off so many people, we were able to hire the cream of the crop and triple our production and earnings!"

The stakeholders you really care about are the ones with whom you should be creating an open and honest dialogue.  If you struggle with sharing information, now is the time to get over it.  If you've had a tough year, share your financial results and ask your team for their support and effort in turning things around.  This is a great opportunity to build long lasting working bonds and loyal allegiances.

If you've had a good year but are nervous about the next year, share that sentiment as well. One company we know is having a very good 2009 because they are completing work they bid on in 2008 while using materials they purchased during a slumping 2009. The company leadership knows 2010 will be a much tougher year because new players have entered their market, and with their entry comes added pressure to lower costs.  Share these market dynamics with your staff so they can also look for ways to drive down  costs while still meeting customer demands.

Take the opportunity to teach your team about your market and your business model.  Share as much information as you can.  If it's not the secret to Coke or personal information, then share the information with your leadership team and perhaps your entire workforce.

If you've created a culture where the performance of the organization is dependent upon just you, now is the time to build a coalition inside your company that will shoulder the burden of leadership.  Now is the time to build a deeper, stronger team that is equipped with the knowledge and tools to move you in the right direction.

So this time next year, your stakeholders won't be asking "How is business?", they'll be telling you the things they are doing to position the company for success!

Three Types of Speeches

This week I had a wonderful opportunity to speak to a group of business people in Pittsburg, PA.  It was a speech I'd given a number of times before, but on this occasion the outcome was a bit different.  I'd made the choice to leave very early in the morning and make the five hour drive to the home of the Steelers rather than head up the night before.  I cut it a bit too close and was let down by my Google map directions (thank God for the Maps App on my iPhone).  I arrived on time, but a bit frazzled.

That leads to the first of three types of speeches ... the one you plan to give.  I'd given this speech plenty of times in the last six months.  It's basically a quick synopsis of my recent book, "Building Business Value."  I normally address the topic for about 90 minutes but for this audience, I had to deliver a similar message in a very tight 20 minute window.  Well, it turns out I was well prepared for a 90 minute presentation, but somewhat unprepared to deliver the content in 20 minutes.

Now we arrive at the second of three types of speeches ... the one you give.  Since I had to squeeze my 90 minutes of content into 20 minutes I missed the mark on my real key points.  Since I toured the bowels of Pittsburg before arriving at the Green Tree Radisson, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to connect to my audience.  And since I followed Pittsburg's version of Tony Robins to the podium, I may have also been trying to be someone I'm not.  Needless to say, I was less than pleased with my delivery.

So what is the third type of speech?  The one you wish you gave!  Most leaders have opportunities to move people to action.  Whether it is a presentation to the board, a company overview to a prospective customer, or a speech during an all-hands meeting, we have our chances to lead change.  When leaders speak, it should be with an objective to not only inform, not just to educate, but to create in your audience, a desire to change.  In my case, the speech I planned to give did not match the speech I gave.

Has it happened to you?  Did you fully understand your audience?  Did you have a specific call to action?  Were you simply trying to inform?  Did you fully prepare?  Where you in the right frame of mind?  Had you had a good night's sleep?  Were you really trying to affect change?

Leaders in the mid market have ample opportunities to communicate their company's direction, private moments where they can align their constituencies and generally public venues when they can motivate and inspire their staff.  The key to delivering speeches that will meet all three of these objectives is to prepare and practice.  The more effort you put into preparation, the better the three types of speeches will merge into one!