Dando Advisors

9 Reasons Growth-Hungry Leaders Use a Strategic Plan

Strategic Planning does not deal with future decisions. It defines the future of present decisions. As a leader your job is to have a blind date with destiny!

 An active, articulate, well-communicated direction for a corporation, division, or business unit is evidence of game changing leadership. Effective strategic plans encompass organizational discipline, accountability and direction.


Does it follow that an organization that lacks a strategic plan also lacks leadership? Perhaps.  The leader who claims, “Of course I know where we are going.  With this market it is obvious what we have to do. Besides we cannot afford the money or the time right now to get away and plan. I will let the others in on the direction on a need-to-know basis” is at least several shingles short of a full roof when it comes to leadership.

 As leaders, we often forget…we get what we set ourselves up for!

A strategic plan provides: 

1. A unified direction for your company: A strategic plan is a valuable leadership device. Employees sense when the organization is focused and when it is diffused.
2. More effective communication: A consistent means of expressing the company’s direction improves communications with employees, customers, and creditors.
3. Better anticipation of changing conditions: Effective planning means that most possibilities for change are considered and discussed. When high probability of change exists, contingent plans are built.
4. Heightened sense of order and discipline: Clear targets, frequent measurement, and positive feedback create accountability and focus energy.
5. Improved skills in group problem-solving and decision-making techniques: Planning is educational for both senior managers and new managers.
6. Improved leadership and management skills for participants: An effective strategic facilitator will help Planning Team members understand what to do and why they are doing it.
7. Enhanced teamwork: Planning Team members undergo a teambuilding experience through mutual problem-solving.
8. Strengthened sense of commitment: As a Planning Team member, key managers gain a high sense of commitment to making the results happen. This commitment is much stronger than when a plan is developed by others and handed to the manager for execution.
9. Greater focus for the efforts of key managers: Continuous reinforcement of goals and strategies builds focus for management.

KEY QUESTION: What has your experience been with strategic planning?  What was most valuable, the “plan” or the “process?”

How to Avoid the Pain of Hiring or Promoting the Wrong Person

As your company grows, the need for new/better talent becomes apparent. You are fully aware of the pain and destruction that can be caused by hiring/promoting the wrong person. However, due to your unknowingly flawed hiring and promoting practices, you now have friends, family members, partners, “pedigreed” executives hired from other companies or long-term loyal employees (who are not qualified for the job) in key positions. This is what I call HIRING AND PROMOTING FOR EXTINCTION.

No one ever disagrees; it takes the right person to get the job done.  Letting the tyranny of the urgent force you into hiring/promoting the wrong person blindly marches the company towards mediocrity and dumbs down the culture … or worse.  There is no other area in business where such poor results are so consistently tolerated than the area of promoting and hiring the right people.  As leaders we often forget; we get what we set ourselves up for!   

As the saying goes, we hire for expertise and we fire for behavior.  In short, if you want to improve your organizations growth and profitability, then improve the expertise and behaviors by doing a better job of promoting and hiring. 

3 Steps to get you started: (The temptation to water this down is great, do not do it!)

1.       GO BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL JOB DESCRIPTION: Huddle with several key stakeholders to not only discuss the job description, but talk about:
           a.       What are the MUSTS vs. WANTS?
           b.      What are the non-negotiable personal characteristics and behaviors?
           c.       If this person is wildly successful, one year from now what specific measureable and non-measurable differences will you see?
           d.      What would the person accomplish the first 90 days?
           e.      How do you expect this person to approach getting the results? (e.g. work with the team they have, command and control, collaborative, etc.)

2.       MARKETING AND SOURCING THE CANDITATE: Source candidates directly within the industry or related industries; utilize your network of contacts; and appropriate advertising. Be patient but very persistent … it is worth it!

3.       TRY DATING BEFORE MARRYING: Once you have narrowed the selection of candidates to two or three, ask them to prepare a plan of what they would do the first 90 days.  They will present this plan to key stakeholders, usually the management team. 
            a.       Tell them they have two or three weeks to prepare their presentation.  It is best to be vague;  this way you find out if you have someone that is resourceful, creative and can think on their feet.  This will speak volumes of how they will perform if you decide to hire them.  If they are any good and they have questions … they will ask!
            b.      Give them the numbers/emails of key people so they can contact them to ask questions.

I’ve seen profound results in companies that used this method. For example, a high-tech company I worked with, whose leaders admittedly had a history of hiring/promoting the wrong people into key positions, used this process in their search for VP of Operations.  Although it took the candidates a significant amount of time to prepare  their “90 Day” presentation, they said the process gave them great insight into the company and the people they would be working with. They even said they wished they had been required to do it with past employers.

A year later, the company  reported that the VP of Operations had far exceeded original expectations. Overall profitability was up 1 full percent and the key productivity metric (gross profit/person) increased $9.73/person.

Most importantly, the CEO and leadership team said that the peace of mind they gained by making the right hire was more valuable than the numbers. They felt relieved and hopeful for the future.  

If you have the courage to follow these steps, you will not only avoid the trap of HIRING AND PROMOTING FOR EXTINCTION, you will set your company up to stop growing though trial and error and to start scaling — by predicting problems before they show up in the results.

KEY QUESTIONS: Have you ever seen a wrong person in a key position? In your estimation, what did it cost the organization?

HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY: 3 Steps to Making 2012 Your Best Year Ever!

Have you ever encountered people who say they desperately want to change their circumstances, but do not want to change themselves? They unconsciously choose the “hard way” over “hard work” and simply hope things will turn out for the best.

Dr. Woodrow Kroll recently reported in his radio broadcast that 3% of people have written goals, 10%  have goals but haven’t written them down,, and the other 87% simply do not have any specific goals at all.  Dr. Kroll noted that people with written goals are 50%-100% more likely to achieve them than those who haven’t written them down.   As Zig Ziglar says, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

Why do people avoid writing down their goals? What story do they tell themselves that makes not writing them down OK? Why is hope so attractive, even though it doesn’t work?

With the New Year upon us, it’s a great time to check your systems, people, strategies and resolutions to make sure you and your company don’t rely on HOPE as a strategy.  As leaders, we often forget…we get what we set ourselves up for.

Three overly obvious and embarrassingly simple steps to making 2012 your best year yet:

1. Write down your goals.

• Be specific.
• Be measurable.
• Be non-negotiable…if it’s not important, do not bother.
• Keep them simple.
• Share them with a SAFE person.

Then ruthlessly prioritize the following to align with your goals:

2. Examine how you spend your time.

• Most growth-hungry companies are worried about the competition. But the truth is, knowing how to spend your time will give you the biggest strategic advantage.  Everyone has 24 hours in a day…what you do with them determines if you win or if your competition wins.  You better be focused and you better have the right people on your team!

3. Evaluate how you spend your money.

• As Dave Ramsey says (and I agree): Either your money works for you or you work for your money.

So what, now what? Remember Dr. Kroll’s study.  You are faced with a choice. What are you going to do?  Will you improve your circumstances or let another year slip through your fingers HOPING that you meet your goals?

What methods have you used to get focused and meet your goals?

Why Most Successful Executives Don’t Scale

It’s So Simple, You Just Missed It!

The moral of this story: Executives often are too busy trying to look smart; by doing so, they dismiss the solutions that are in plain sight. As leaders, we often forget, we get what we set oursleves up for.

Many executives are worried about how competition might kill their company, when in reality, they are doing a more than adequate job on their own of committing corporate suicide.

I recently gave a talk to a room full of Fortune 500 C-level executives about the Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™.  One of the executives commented that these warning signs were very elementary compared to their “real” issues, such as figuring out their global go-to-market strategy.  What she didn’t know was that I gave the exact same talk to 75 of the top managers and leaders in her company just a month earlier.  She was perplexed to learn that these 75 people, many of whom report directly to her, said the top 3 issues facing their company were (click on for full explanation):

 Warning Sign #2 – NOTHING KILLS FASTER THAN SUCCESS

Warning Sign #7 – HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY

Warning Sign #12 – THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH ‘GOOD’ SYSTEMS

 They said if the executives would address these Warning Signs head on, they could actually start doing what they were hired to do, and the issues around figuring out the global go-to-market strategy would not be so difficult.

If this high-powered, highly educated, well-traveled, overly confident executive really knew exactly what her company needed to go to the next level, then why did those 75 people state something very different? 

 Too many times, we dismiss the overly obvious and embarrassingly simple repairs we and our company need to tackle in order to scale.  My advice: Get out of your chair and go ask your people what they think are the top 3 “things” your company needs to start, stop or change in order to increase productivity and profitability.  Better yet, show your team The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™ and see if they think any of them are present in your company.

If these leaders knew what to do, why did their direct reports say something different?

Only 1% Have What It Takes to Lead … Do You?

Dando’s definition of lead.er.ship \ lēd-ər-ship\ n : Leadership is a walk on the wild side. If we did not have to deal with people or problems, leadership would be a piece of cake. Instead, leading is all about aggressively moving toward a clear goal while predicting the “train wrecks.” Mix in limited resources, uncertainty and people who may, or may not, come through in a pinch. Leadership is about growing in the face of crisis. Crisis is the eruption of chaos … it takes leaders to the edge, where some do not survive.

I’ve talked with more than 2,000 executives and their teams at growth-hungry companies around the world. In my experience, only about 1% of people have what it takes to be a Game-Changer. By gathering information and observing behavior – and its consequences – I’ve gained perspective on the traits I believe these leaders possess.

Heaven knows the world doesn’t need another article on the characteristics of a leader. The reason I am sharing my thoughts is to provide you with a tool you can use to 1) measure against your own perceptions and 2) let your team express how they believe you perform as a leader.

I am not going to name the usual identifiers, such as “visionary,” “risk taker,” etc. The following 10 characteristics collectively tell me whether I am working with a Game-Changer or a poser…

1.   Game-Changers know how to adapt their BEHAVIOR to meet the needs of other people and particular situations.

2.   Game-Changers have incredible DISCERNMENT and WISDOM when it comes to people. They are ruthless about getting the right people into the right spots.

3.   Game-Changers do not hesitate to DISCIPLINE inappropriate behavior. They do not look the other way because they know it will only get worse.

4.   CONFLICT and PAIN make Game-Changers come alive. Game-Changers pray for discomfort, anger, tears and foolishness. 

 THE LEADERS PRAYER:
May God bless me with DISCOMFORT
with easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
so that I may live deep within my heart.
May God bless me with ANGER
with injustice, oppression and exploitation of people,
so that I may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless me with TEARS
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
so that I may reach out my hand to comfort them
and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless me with enough FOOLISHNESS
to believe that I can make a difference in the world,
so that I can do what others claim cannot be done
to bring justice to all.
Amen”

5.    Game-Changers are problem-predictors vs. problem-solvers.

6.    Game-Changers are ruthless about selecting and communicating PRIORITIES and are willing to rearrange priorities in order to accomplish the goals.

7.   Game-Changers know how to MAXIMIZE on what they do well and spend time with their BEST people.

8.   Game-Changers WIN or LEAVE. They are NOT WHINERS…they win or they get out of the way.

9.   Game-Changers are SECURE in WHO they are so they see things AS they are. They don’t view everything through a filter of feeling like they do not have what it takes, they are not worthy, or that everyone is out to take advantage of them. When leaders believe these lies, they somehow twist everything they see and hear to fit that belief instead of what is true. Game-Changers do not do this!

10.   Game-Changers create SAFE environments, which builds TRUST and RESPECT, the jet fuel for teams that win.

We all need the help of others to broaden our vision and deepen our perspective. Which areas do you feel you need to focus on for improvement? Are you willing to hand this to your team and get feedback about yourself as a leader?

KEY QUESTION: What do you think is the biggest stumbling block for leaders?

A Tiger By the Tail: How Growth-Hungry Companies Get and Stay on Top

I have always been fascinated about what makes certain leaders and their companies get and stay on top. Why are some businesses wildly successful and stable, while others in the same industry, with the same opportunities, who fight the same battles day after day, level out in their growth and never reach their full potential? What, exactly, do successful companies and their leaders do and focus on that’s different?

After helping build a business to $1 billion, selling and subsequently interviewing and coaching over 2,000 executives in growth-hungry companies, I have been very surprised by the answers I’ve found. I thought I would find very complex and difficult-to-implement strategies; but I discovered just the opposite. It’s all about predicting and preparing for what turn out to be overly obvious and embarrassingly simple root cause problems (see The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™). I have come to recognize significant, predictable patterns that are true for every business. Although the way your business grows is unique to your situation, the challenges that growth itself presents are common to all.

Experience has taught me that by focusing on the right things, depending where your company is on The Business Lifecycle™, you will be able to stop “growing” your business through trial and error and start building a business that can “scale” — and there is a difference!  The subtle but real difference is how normal growing pains are approached. Growing a business uses “see & solve” strategies; building a business that can scale uses “predict & prepare” strategies. Growing a business gets you on top; building a business that can scale gets you on top and keeps you there. The problem is, normal growing pains are often masked as successes, so they are invisible to the naked eye. This is what sets up The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™. 

Making the shift from being a problem-solver to a problem-predictor ultimately leaves every visionary leader feeling energized, inspired and hopeful that they have what it takes to scale their business to a size and complexity far beyond anything they have ever been a part of before. 

Although I cannot condense every possible solution and strategy for a growth-hungry company into one article, I’ve provided a simple guide that explains what visionary business leaders should be focusing on, depending at which level their company is performing.

Click to read the guide: Growth Strategies for Companies at Levels I, II and III

KEY QUESTION:

What style does your leadership team use — “see & solve” or “predict & prepare?”

10 Steps to Make Your Meetings Suck Less

 A couple of years ago I was talking to my friend John Day, who was complaining about how much time he was spending in meetings and how bad they sucked. He had to get to the office super early and stay super late just to get “real” work done. 

I asked John why he and his company were having so many meetings.  He said most of them were regularly scheduled meetings to share information and give and get updates.  I asked him the obvious question: “John, if these meetings are not a good use of time or suck so bad, why do you and everyone else keep going to them?”  He sheepishly said… “They were ‘mandatory’ and no one ever questions them?” 

I told him not to worry about it;  it is very normal for a successful, growth-hungry company to experience what I call “Fieldtrip Meetings,” where people show up to meetings and take “mental fieldtrips” until they’re over.  Then when the “fieldtrip” meeting is over, the “real” meetings (sidebar meetings) begin in the hallways and offices of everyone who was supposed to be a productive part of the “fieldtrip” meeting.   If I have to explain what happens in these sidebar meetings, then you probably do not need to keep reading.

The next question I asked John was: “If I give you an overly obvious and embarrassingly simple idea of how you can make your meetings suck less, where people actually want to show up and provide you and your company with a measurable MEETING ROI (Return on Investment)… would you have the guts to implement it?”  John said he was willing try anything within reason.

Fast forward one year. John called me and said he “had just been promoted to VP of Operations and his company just had the most profitable year in its 35-year-history, despite the bad economy.” I congratulated him and asked what were one or two things he thought attributed to his promotion and the company’s financial success?  I was surprised to hear him say that one of the biggest things everyone attributed his promotion and the company’s success to was the simple, but not easy, strategy I shared with him a year earlier of how to maximize their MEETING ROI. 

John went onto to say that they were no longer having “fieldtrip meetings” or unproductive sidebar meetings. The communications, and thus the productivity, in the company had significantly improved. All of their meetings were scoring an 8.8 out of 10 or above and they were getting very positive response from their un-written “No Mental Fieldtrip” policy, which stated if someone feels a regularly scheduled meeting is not a good use of their time, they do not have to show up.” He said the “No Mental Fieldtrips policy was great and created instant word-of-mouth feedback highlighting unproductive meetings.”

Do you want to know the overly obvious and embarrassingly simple strategy I shared with John?  If so, keep reading.

 
WARNING: I know it is highly unusual for a business strategy to come with a WARNING label but, once again experience has taught me that if I do not warn you about this business strategy you are likely to keep doing the same things the same way you did the day before, month after month, year after year until finally, although the business does not explode, the people do, often at each other. 

So here is your WARNING… this strategy does not cost you any money, it is overly obvious and embarrassingly simple and will likely provide you and your company with one of the highest ROI’s of any investment you make this year.  The temptation to ignore this strategy due to its simplicity and/or not keep up with it because it reeks of positive (versus punitive) accountability is significant.

 I get that this will not work for every single meeting.  Instead of thinking about the instances where this strategy will not work, think about the instances where it will work. Do not be a coward, be a leader and give this a try; it will be transformative!

 Also, if you have created or are part of a culture where people are not allowed to tell the truth, be transparent and help in a shared journey to scale the business and avoid the train wrecks then this strategy will not work. You have bigger problems…

 WHAT IS MEETING ROI?

 Meeting ROI is an non-scientific way to measure the return on investment (ROI) you are getting from the time, money and talent you are investing each week, month or year on internal meetings.

Beyond the increased financial performance, productivity and improved company communications, when you grade your meetings based on a pertinent set of criteria (e.g. start on time, good use of time, end on time, agenda, the right people are in the meeting, action items are documented and followed up on, etc.) you cause real, authentic conversations to occur in your company. 

This is something that is desperately missing in most corporate cultures.  A couple of key things that happen when meetings are graded is:

• The meeting leader becomes highly sensitive to making sure the meeting is a good use of everyone’s time and the selected grading criteria are adhered to,
• The company leadership can get a report card for all internal meetings so they will know which meetings need their attention and which ones are running well.

The goal is betterment, not punitive harassment!

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS (the sequence of activities is important):

You need to figure out a) generally (do not try to make this harder than it needs to be) what hard costs you are investing as a company annually on internal meetings and b) the criteria you will use to grade your meetings.

1)      Have your team figure out how much time they spend in internal meetings in a week, take that times (X) 52 weeks to get how much time is spent in internal meetings in a year,

2)      Then have each of them figure out their hourly salary (if they are salaried, have them take their annual salary plus payroll taxes, etc. and divide by 2080 hours for a year) and take that times the total hours spent in meetings in a year,

3)      Then add up everyone’s time and salary amount to come up with the $$ spent in internal meetings in a year (this does not take into account lost opportunity costs from sitting in a meeting versus being out selling, building customer relations, etc.)

4)      Have your team come up with a list of what makes a meeting extremely successful, (e.g. agenda, people come prepared, starts and ends on time, is a good use of time, etc.)

5)      Have them select what they think are the 2 or 3 most important items from the list in #4 that if done very well would make your meetings a great use of time and talent,

6)      To create a baseline or starting point, have your team grade your meetings based on the 2 or 3 criteria selected in #5. Now take the average of everyone’s score and let that be your starting point. If you want, you can score different types of meetings, (e.g. staff meeting, strategic planning meetings, weekly marketing meeting, etc.)   

7)      Now look at your annual investment from time spent in meetings from #3 versus the average grade you just came up with in #6.  Are you satisfied with this grade?

• John’s company originally had an average grade of 5.9 on a $1.3 million annual meeting investment. That is a failing grade and a very poor ROI in anyone’s grading book.

8)      Now set your goals, prepare your culture to start grading meetings, set up the system to capture and track each meetings grade and watch your meetings and culture start sucking less.

• John’s company set a goal to have meetings that were 9′s (it seems hardly anyone ever gives a grade of 10)

9)      Once you are achieving your goals, go back to the criteria you came up with in #4 and see if there are any other criteria you want to start using to grade your meetings to continue the improvement process.

10)  MOST IMPORTANTLY.  Do what works for you and your company.  Remember the WARNING label…do not water this down so far that is just causes people to roll their eyes at the hypocrisy.

 EXAMPLE OF HOW TO GRADE YOUR MEETINGS

 1)      At the end of each meeting QUICKLY (no more than 5 to 8 minutes) go around the table and get everyone’s grade, average the grade and keep it on a report card for that particular meeting.  Post scores for all of your company’s different meetings as a fun way to create accountability and a healthy competition.

2)      Once in a while, ask each person in the meeting what would have made the meeting a 10, assuming they did not grade the meeting a 10.  This will give you specific feedback on what needs to be done to improve the meeting.  BE AUTHENTIC AND ALLOW TRANSPARANECY. DO NOT BE DEFENSIVE!

If you are ready to have your meetings and communications significantly improve, then try this OVERLY OBVIOUS and EMABARRASSINGLY SIMPLE strategy!

I would like to thank Brett Hurt, CEO of Bazaarvoice, for the title idea of this blog/article. Brett is a great friend, client and an amazing leader!  He is writing a book with a working title of How to Make Your Company Suck Less!  He will be giving all the proceeds from the book to charity, which speaks volumes about Brett!

Key Questions: If your meetings were all 10s, what would be different in your company? What other strategies have you seen that make meetings a great use of time?

Are Core Values Overrated?

I recently had the privilege of working with a company that is wildly successful by anyone’s standard. Even in this economy, it’s growing rapidly, has a culture that attracts the best talent, is winning award after award in its industry, and has a CEO who was named local business leader of the year. 

This company is clearly on its way up The Business Lifecycle™ (an approximation of how successful businesses scale and some of the problems — The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™ — they encounter).

However, after meeting with several of the company’s key leaders and employees, it occurred to me that although they had some very clear short-term objectives and were driving the company toward iconic levels of short-term success, the core values, or what I call the  SOUL, and ultimately the long-term success, of the company was in danger of being compromised, due, ironically, to its hyper-growth.

When I say SOUL, I’m not talking about the “soul” that is drenched in marketing jargon and marched out to the employees and the public as a feel-good statement, then hung around the office.  Did Enron have a soul or a feel-good mission?  Did Bernard Madoff’s company have a soul or a feel-good mission? Enron’s 4 values (Integrity, Communication, Respect, Excellence) were chiseled in marble in the main lobby but had very little to do with the real values of the organization.

 Most companies have 3 basic components: 1) a skeleton, 2) a central nervous system and 3) a SOUL. 

• The skeleton is the organizational structure of the company and tells the story of how the organization functions.  It is very difficult for a company to have the skeleton of a starfish yet perform like a cheetah.  Sadly, many companies think they have the skeleton of a cheetah but in reality, they have the skeleton of a rake (one dominant leader with a bunch of people reporting to that individual). 
• The central nervous system includes the systems that create consistent and predictable outcomes for a company.  As the saying goes, if you do not design the systems, they will design themselves, often very poorly. 
• The SOUL of a company includes the invisible but very real NON-NEGOTIABLE vision, core values, and goals put upon it daily by the actions, behaviors and passions of the people who created and work at the company. The SOUL of a company is both the most significant way for leaders and their team to positively influence the bottom line AND truly make a significant contribution toward making the world a better place…if done authentically. 

 Simply put, the SOUL of a company is what happens when no one is looking.

 WHY DOES YOUR COMPANY NEED A SOUL?

 Having been an athlete (some would say “competitive junkie”) my entire life, I have come to recognize one thing that makes a sports team uniquely focused and ultimately prepared to win…no matter what, is the same thing that makes companies uniquely focused and ultimately prepared to win…no matter what. 

 That “thing” is the NON-NEGOTIABLE shared vision, values and goals.  The SOUL consistently inspires you and your team toward the right behaviors and anchors you and your team during challenging times. When “corporate tsunamis” strike and they will, you need that anchor to be REAL, to be CLEAR and most importantly, to reflect the DNA of you and your team.

 If you pull an “Enron” and have what I call a ”SOUL HOLE” (meaning you say one thing and do another) you and your team will no doubt be measured by your actions, and the next stop on that journey is hypocrisy, doubt, fear and cynicism overtaking the corporate culture.

 PASSION…YOUR SOUL HAS GOTTA HAVE IT!

 There are a dizzying amount of books, articles, blogs etc. about how to come up with your vision and values statement.  Quite simply, your vision and values have got to reflect the passion of you and your team.  Each word has got to have personal significance to you and your team.  NOT what you want it to be, not what you think will feel good to the customers and your employees but what you ARE NOT willing to negotiate on, EVER!  Write your vision, values and goals so they reflect who you and your team really are, sprinkle your personalities on top and serve it up for your employees, customers, partners, etc to enjoy!

 The SOUL of your company should be simple, should be memorable and should drive the right behavior.

 KEEPING THE SOUL ALIVE

If your vision and values are not in some form or fashion at the forefront of everything you do, every meeting you have, every new employee interview you conduct, every decision you make, then you run the very real risk during growth or simply with the passing of time of having the SOUL of your company fade and in extreme cases (e.g. Enron) die.

DO NOT BE A COWARD, BE A LEADER

If your vision and values are REAL, AUTHENTIC and drive your team’s DAILY behaviors, congratulations, you are one of the elite.  My guess is, although you may experience difficulties from time to time, your organization thrives amidst any crisis they may encounter. 

If your vision and values statements are feel good statements that rarely get discussed and do not reflect the REAL values of you, your team and your company then do not be afraid to ask for forgiveness from your team and employees and embark on a journey to develop the values and mission that inspire you and your team.

Or if your vision and values have lost their meaning and significance during rapid growth or over time, do not beat yourself up; this is actually a warning sign of your SUCCESS!  Instead, use this opportunity to pull your team back together and breathe life back into your vision and values or maybe adjust accordingly to reflect what is REAL and AUTHENTIC about you, your team and your company. 

I HOPE YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO MAKE YOUR COMPANY AND THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE… HAPPY SOUL SEARCHING!

KEY QUESTIONS:

What do you think? Are core values overrated, or are they a must-have to scale a business? Please comment below.

Will Any of The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™ Kill Your Growth?

As a company matures, it often experiences subtle but very troubling growing pains (The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™). As you might expect, these growth tremors are amplified in a depressed market. Compounding the situation, management, in its haste to maintain growth, often fixes its gaze outward on the environment and toward the future, hoping perhaps that more precise market projections and better ‘relational selling’ tactics will provide the organization with the impetus it needs to go to the next level of performance.

All the while, the company may overlook the Overly Obvious and Embarrassingly Simple repairs it needs to mature and stabilize.

The current market dynamics offer the perfect time to refocus and redefine you and your company’s success strategies. Generally, companies tend to pass through a series of developmental phases (The Business Lifecycle™) as they mature. Transitions between these phases do not always occur naturally or smoothly, regardless of the strength or expertise of top management.

Unfortunately, as a company reaches the point where it needs to move into the next phase of development, it can become vulnerable and operations can become rather chaotic. Morale is down and management feels as if it is losing control.

Also, at this crucial time, some decision-making processes are skewed awkwardly and access to helpful information may be inadequate. In short — a variety of factors combine to prevent opportunities from being seized.

The irony is only successful companies get to experience these Warning Signs.

Below are The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™ that block a company’s transition to a higher level of performance. When these characteristics present themselves in an organization, they often push it to become what I call a “treadmill” company.  A “treadmill” company fights the same battles in precisely the same way, churning on and on, year after year, until ultimately, although the business does not explode, the owners and employees do, often at each other.

What a company does when these crises emerge determines if it moves on and becomes a mature, financially stable, professionally managed and led organization, or simply moves on aimlessly — or worse.

Check Your System
To be prepared for these changes, check DANDO’S Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™.   Are any of these Top Warning Signs of Success™ holding your company back? It only takes one to hold back an entire company from meeting its goals.

1. Right Idea, Wrong Person: As your company matures, you see the need for new/different talent. You may know what you want for a key position; perhaps you even have a very detailed job description along with specific expectations. But due to unknowingly flawed hiring and promoting practices, friends, family members, partners, “pedigreed” executives hired from the outside or long-term loyal employees – who are not qualified for the job – are in key positions. Also, it becomes apparent that some members of the senior management team are not developing into skilled leaders. Leadership finds itself asking who can and cannot scale, often without any clear answers…until there is a train wreck and it becomes painfully obvious. Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2.
2. Drinking the Chaos Kool Aid: Your company has added too many products/services, or has diversified into new businesses that do not fit its expertise and market experience — probably before the structures/systems are in place to integrate them. Leadership knows this needs to be remedied but may be tempted to sustain rapid growth indefinitely without the necessary systems and appropriate management team in place. This is a classic example of success breeding failure. Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2.
3. Open Door, Closed Mind: Although your company’s leadership team may say they are open to hearing new and innovative ideas, as well as concerns, due to an unknowing lack of true leadership skills, they may have closed their minds and let their actions speak louder than their words. The reality is, great ideas rarely get heard and people who complain become part of the “bad egg network.”  Once that situation develops, people start to “play it safe.” Leadership realizes they are now working with a team of passive-aggressives who enjoy watching their leaders and their company fail. You are now dealing with an “I told you sooooo network.”  The irony is that this may have started with leadership setting up employees to fail by having an unspoken attitude of ‘I know more than you, therefore’:
   – “If it is going to get done right I will have to do it myself” or
   – “I want you to fix everything, but you can’t change anything.” (This amplifies Right Idea, Wrong Person and highlights little or no true leadership is in the business.)  Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2. 
4. “Look the Other Way” Deals: Your corporate culture has come under attack by frustrated managers and employees who feel like what was once considered an absolute and non-negotiable set of values and way of “doing things” is now being compromised due to “look the other way” deals for special people or brilliant jerks. This unintentionally sets up the start of an underground culture called “Us vs. Them.” Also, employees probably don’t understand that there is a difference between non-negotiable core values and a company culture that matures (like a teenager into adult), along with the company’s success and growth. Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2.
5. Communication Vacuum (aka: It Sucks): If asked, several people in your company say one of the biggest problems is poor communication, despite the fact there are countless emails, newsletters, voice mails, meetings, etc. During growth, senior managers often lack direct contact with day-to-day operations and feel themselves losing control. Also, meetings (strategic and tactical) become awkward, time consuming and, at times, ineffective. The perception is that there is less communication from the top.  Picture a cell tower without any signal strength. Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2.
6. Convenient Accountability: Accountability at your company is confused and sporadic because there is a lack of clarity about how to go about creating a culture of accountability that is real and transparent. The only thing clear is that everyone sees the problem and is tired of being fooled by individuals who say one thing and do something else … or never do it at all. It’s also easy for those very individuals to blame the culture for their behavior because they are benefitting from it. Sound familiar? Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2.
7. Hope Is Not a Strategy: Your company lacks a strategic plan or robust problem-predicting process that gets and keeps the proper focus and/or, the plan never really gets implemented. What is called a “strategic plan” is actually a short-term operational plan on how to solve problems.  Everyone gets a “strategic planning” notebook full of great ideas and then hopes they will get implemented.  Little time is ever spent unlocking the missed opportunities. Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2.
8. Incentivizing Failure: Your middle and senior management compensation process is not tied to accountability, results or the “right” metrics. The incentives/rewards do not motivate, drive the right behaviors, or produce the desired outcomes. Leadership starts to give up the hope or belief that incentives actually work, or at least they feel they are not capable of designing incentives that work. Some key employees become disenchanted and leave … to the competition or to become the competition. Most often birthed in Level 1 and 2, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2.
9. SUCKS-ESS GAP:  Revenues are growing and are what your company is most focused on. However, subtly and unknowingly, expenses are growing at a faster rate than revenues. There’s a train wreck on the horizon. Also, financial and other key performance data needed to make critical decisions are not available, not appropriately gathered, not easily accessible or not properly analyzed. The absence of a sophisticated process AND proper analysis to predict and prevent crises before they get out of hand causes the executive leadership team to unknowingly be slow to react to and/or understand changing market conditions and increasing competition. Most often birthed in Level 2, with the consequences experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2 while trying to get to Level 3.
10. Scattered Focus:  As your company grew, an Executive Leadership Team was put into place. However, if that team isn’t functioning as a truly aligned team (with maniacal focus), whose members trust and respect one another, it becomes painfully obvious to everyone – especially those depending on them to function as a unified team. “Private” bitch sessions begin and slowly, but surely, paralyze the team’s ability to focus and execute game-changing strategies. Also, it’s often the case that too many people are reporting to the CEO, creating an organizational structure that looks like, and unfortunately performs like, a rake. If the CEO gets worn down, he/she may move the rake under someone else, such as a president or COO, which is not a sustainable solution. Most often birthed in Level 2; if not corrected, you and your company will not get to Level 3.
11. Accidental Management: When a company is growing rapidly, and/or the path of least resistance has been chosen, your company’s top individual contributors have teams grow up around them.  Eventually these best performers get the title of Manager and collectively become The Management Team. However, some individuals in this group are most comfortable in their technical comfort zones and lack the personal experience and behaviors to truly lead. They are unable to develop other people and the processes your company needs to scale. Therefore, they go back to their comfort zone, which is usually “working in the business” instead of “working on the business.” Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2; if not corrected, you and your company will not get to Level 3.
12. Sowing the Seeds of Decay:  Systems and processes (accounting, financial performance reporting, work processes, and Information Technology) have become obsolete for the size and complexity of your company. While the systems may have been “very good” during the rapid growth stage, they now have started to sow the seeds of decay, which is not obvious to the naked eye. Leadership, in its haste to maintain growth, overlooks the fact that some results that look like success (rapid growth) ultimately breed failure (outdated systems that cannot support the weight of more growth). Most often birthed in Level 1, but the consequences are often experienced in the Rapid Growth of Level 2; if not corrected, you and your company will not get to Level 3.

 Build Your Base
Although obvious, you also need to consider the following for a company to mature, grow and stabilize.

• Strong management team. A senior management and leadership team must be staffed with people who are skilled, established managers, as well as being technically savvy. The right people must occupy ALL key positions.
• Systems. Accounting, financial performance reporting, and control systems needed for the company’s size and level of complexity must be in place, and the information produced by those systems used by the management team in decision making and planning. The operating process systems also must be in place and working capably. These systems are necessary to get the day-to-day work done efficiently.
• Market niche. The company must be focused on a well-defined, viable market niche, stay focused on the business in which it has become expert, and produce or sell products and/or services that are compatible with the company’s market niche. Marketing and sales systems appropriate for the company must be in place and effectively working.
• Financial flexibility. The company must consistently meet a set of financial goals balanced among profit, cash flow and equity building.

The equity capitalization of the company must be balanced with the debt the company carries. The objective is to minimize debt capital and maximize equity capital. Companies that are heavily leveraged with debt may grow quickly, but they fall even quicker! This responsible stewardship of resources requires considerable self-awareness on the part of top management.

The critical task for management in each developmental phase is to find a new set of organizational practices that will become the basis for managing the next level of performance.

Leaders at the top must be ready to work with the flow of the tide rather than against it; and they should be watchful because it is easy to diagnose the symptoms and miss the onset of the disease.

We all need the mediation of others to help broaden our vision and deepen our perspective.

KEY QUESTION:

Why is it with all the business experts, business books, business college professors, MBA’s, iconic business gurus, etc. in the world who provide compelling “how to” and “need to” advice that so many companies and leaders grow themselves into predictable and somewhat preventable problems and never really meet their full potential?

Welcome to The Warning Signs of Success™

My hope is this blog will become a must-read guide for you and other business leaders at all levels, from the boardroom to the mailroom.  It is a distillation of more than 20 years of my hands-on experience.

Why you should read The Warning Signs of Success™ : I will help you normalize and predict the journey to creating a scalable business by indentifying the preventable bad habits that eventually lead to “business train wrecks.”

• You will understand why it is critical that you AND your team know exactly where you and your business are on The Business Lifecycle™.
• You will learn what the difference is between building a business that can scale and growing a business by trial and error, or “see and solve.”  Better yet, you will learn how to build your business and your team so they can reach their full potential.
• You will learn how to predict the problems (The Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™ ) before they show up in the results and normalize your journey to scalability.
• You will gain uncommon insight from real-world stories and case studies of others who have faced the same issues.

Are you a C-level executive or team member who feels somewhat frustrated, lonely and tired with trying to grow your business beyond a certain point?  Do you feel you are spending more time wrestling with the ghosts created from growth and success rather than building a business that can scale and meet its full potential?

The problems created from growth and success, or “ghosts”, as I like to call them, often introduce a whole new set of challenges. While most executives and their teams are subject-matter experts in their areas of responsibility (allowing them to operate well in their positions and industry), they often don’t have experience in scaling a business beyond a certain point. This is a subtle but significant oversight, one that can force them to learn by trial and error. This often sets up the company and the team for an unnecessary and unpredictable chaotic ride.

The truth of the matter is we all get what we set ourselves up for!  The real question is what are you and your team setting your company up for?  There is a difference between launching and growing a business haphazardly and building a business that can scale.  In that difference is the real definition of leadership.  You see, in this chaotic business environment, I believe it is the role of the leaders to be able to see around corners and predict the problems before they show up in the results.  In other words, leaders need to be problem-predictors rather than problem-solvers.

To do that, you need be aware of the predictable (and therefore preventable) Top 12 Warning Signs of Success™.

You will see through the confusion to understand the obvious and simple causes behind the challenges you, your team and your business faces (and wonder why you never saw them before!).

• You will understand how you can make the necessary changes to predict and in some cases get through the critical inflection points (those nasty train wrecks) that every business encounters.
• You will learn how to make big changes with honesty, fairness and stability.
• You will learn how to get rid of the US vs. THEM culture that decays so many businesses and careers.
• You will learn from other people’s efforts by reading case studies.
• You will learn how to become a LEADER who is worth following and LIVE the legacy you want to leave.

As a business coach, I’ve worked with — and had the backs of – more than 2,000 executives and their teams who found themselves “wrestling with the ghosts.” What I found when I was a C-level executive in a company we quickly grew to $1 billion, is that the road to heaven does go through hell … and it’s worth it. More importantly, it’s your choice if it is a day trip or a daily trip.

Thank you for visiting, please come again!

KEY QUESTION:

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