Recently, my wife and I took a vacation to Zion’s National Park, a park located in Southern, Utah, USA. We decided to attempt the Angels Landing hike (also known as the Temple of Aeolus). While the hike is not technically difficult, it is a very exposed hike along a narrow sandstone ridge which offers an indescribable view from the high ground. In this case, the high ground is approximately 1,200-1,500 feet above the valley floor and has sheer cliffs on each side. The trail head offers plenty of opportunities to gather strategic intelligence, as there are multiple warnings of what you might encounter or expect.
After 90 minutes of hiking, you step out onto a sandstone ridge that is reminiscent of a dorsal fin of a shark. The last half mile/kilometer is fully exposed on both sides. As we approached the very last incline before reaching the “landing” we began to encounter patches of snow and ice, increasing the level of danger we were in.
Another couple had stopped for a rest in this very last section prior to reaching the summit. They were enjoying their lunch and were planning to head back down the trail. After a short discussion we learned they were not continuing on due to the ice and their concern about safety. My wife studied the icy section and said, “I only see about 10-feet of ice and beyond that it looks ice free, I think we can do it.” I suggested that although we were close, it was better to be safe than sorry. There have been six deaths on the Angels Landing hike over the years and the trail head warns of the varying conditions. While this icy section looked reasonably feasible to climb up, we could not see the perspective of coming back down this section. Coming down can often be more challenging in extreme terrain and ice. As disappointment set in at being only a few-hundred yards from the summit, I suggested to my wife that we gather some strategic intelligence by waiting 15-20 minutes to see if anyone was coming down the summit who we could ask about the conditions up top. She smiled and chuckled at my attempt to always bring leadership and management skills into our daily life, but agreed that waiting for more information was a good idea. This would also give us a chance to relax, enjoy the scenery, and if anyone was returning from up higher, decide whether we want to make the final climb. At the very least, another hiker could offer us a different perspective.
Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, two people appeared on the ledge and began hiking down. As they reached the icy section, we (and the couple that had stopped for lunch) watched as they navigated the icy section. Once past it, we enthusiastically asked about the conditions and gathered some intelligence to determine whether or not we would continue, and if we chose to, how we might approach the icy section. The few tips and learning points the other hikers offered helped us in making our strategic choice to weigh the risks and ultimately safely navigate the ice.
On our hike down, my wife and I chatted casually about intelligent strategy and the good idea I had to wait until we had more information. My wife quickly pointed out that with strategy in business, at times, it may not be wise to wait. Leading the pack may be risky, but may also lead to great rewards. I agree completely and responded that strategy is all about gathering intelligence, assimilating the information, and making smart choices. Deciding what to do is just as important as deciding what not to do. Intelligent strategy is about adapting to the environment that you operate within to ensure you are not just alive, but that you thrive in business or in life.
On May 11th, the Wall Street Journal published an article about JP Morgan’s $2 Billion dollar trading loss that occurred over the previous six weeks. To the average investor, this may look like a series of bad moves and investments for the company, but the CEO of JP Morgan Chase made a very direct statement about the whole debacle. His statement should cause every organization to pause and think about their strategic initiatives.
On a conference call with investors, CEO James Dixon made the following comment regarding the bank’s strategy. It was “flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored.” This statement is a huge pill to swallow for any leader, for any organization, let alone one that just lost $2 billion.
Everyone, at some point in their career will be hit by a rogue wave, bad decision, or bad strategy that will catch you off guard and knock you off your feet. It is not a matter of IF it will happen, but WHEN it will happen. The key here is to be vigilant, aware of your environment, and anticipate future scenarios.
As we look at this example, forget about your personal opinion about company or government policies in the financial sector. Rather than criticizing Mr. Dimon, the Government, or the people involved, take time to hold up the mirror and evaluate your own strategy. As you do, consider the following:
Do key leaders in the organization truly understand the organization’s strategic vision? Ask them if they can articulate it. If not, watch out for the unexpected wave of pain.
Are key leaders empowered to plot and execute strategy within their own area of responsibility – business units, departments, or functional areas? Is it linked and does it support the grand corporate strategy?
Do leaders, as well as individual contributors understand how their competitive strategies create value and growth for the organization? Is there a culture of strategy, execution and implementation?
Are you conducting periodic reviews of the strategy within your own area of responsibility?
What issues will shape your future and should be acted upon?
By taking a little time each week to formulate, critique, and adjust your strategy, you will be consciously setting a future that enables you to add value to the products and solutions you offer to customers, shareholders, or stakeholders.
For over 35 years, CMOE has been helping organizations create a competitive advantage through strategy creation and measurement of strategic actions. To learn more, visit our website at www.cmoe.com
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in several comprehensive sales-leadership assessments. During this time, there have also been a number of widely published research papers regarding “best-in-class” sales-coaching practices. The data from these two efforts send some important messages regarding where sales managers should be spending their precious time on their coaching efforts.
The first has to do with the type of sales coaching that is being conducted. Two specific areas stood out
Skills Coaching
Strategy Coaching
And which one do you think gets the most attention? You guessed it: Strategy Coaching. It’s all about getting “the deal,” and because Strategy Coaching feels more urgent and the results of it are more tangible, Skills Coaching tends to get neglected.
Data from the assessments show that sales managers spend up to 70% of their coaching time and effort on deals. In contrast, best-in-class managers spend more like 55% of their time in this area and place almost equal importance on Skills Coaching, which means that it also gets more of their attention.
The best sales managers determine early on which skills are most needed, and they hold off on Strategy Coaching until the deal is better understood. They focus on building qualifying and discovery skills in their reps, saving Strategy Coaching until “the deal” is more developed and the insights they had gained could be leveraged to greater advantage.
Recent assessments and best-in-class research also show that other critical sales-coaching practices need more attention:
Focus on a small number of performance issues: Covering fewer topics actually results in more positive behavioral change.
Provide concrete examples of what kinds of changes need to be made: Fuzzy coaching topics don’t help much and lead to both parties becoming frustrated.
Coach the middle performers: When coached, low performers stay longer and still don’t improve much, while average performers lose out on professional-development opportunities. And yet, these middle performers have the most potential to positively affect business results.
Prepare for coaching conversations and allocate enough time for them: Coaching takes time, energy, and creativity. Preparing for these conversations beforehand makes a big difference in how your time is used.
Engage the person in the coaching conversation: Sales coaching is a “contact sport”—it takes good, two-way communication to work the way it should.
Commit to following through: Sales manager’s following through was the most-forgotten step in the process. If you’re going to make the effort to coach, you really need to see it all the way through.
Lastly, best-in-class sales organizations have agreed-upon performance standards that they share and use to gauge the areas in which to coach their sales reps, taking all of the guesswork out of the process.
Imagine you are one of the fortunate who has a strategy, or is involved in a strategy that is thrilling, motivating, and truly revolutionary? Exhilarating strategic plans do exist in various organizations today. What makes strategic work stimulating for me is being involved with helping leaders create strategies that are out of this world. Recently I worked with an organization whose strategy is sending highly sophisticated machinery with the most innovative technology of its kind to places not on earth. This organization can give us a great look at strategic thinking in action.
There is a reason many people use the term rocket scientist to describe the very intelligent or complex. The strategy, innovation, planning, and the execution of a plan to send anything into space is no small feat, and yet basic principles of strategic action are ever present in space exploration missions. Below is a picture of NASA’s new Mars Rover named Curiosity. The Curiosity Rover, launched recently, is traveling at a clip of 1.8 million miles every day. Curiosity’s final destination on Mars is 352 million miles away from Earth, which means Curiosity will reach Mars sometime in August 2012.
For this mission to be a success, it takes the most elaborate technology and equipment made on earth to propel a one-ton mobile science lab to Mars, but that is only part of the strategy. Another is landing Curiosity on Mars safely, meaning two distinct strategic efforts are at play here. One is to get Curiosity to the vicinity of Mars, and another is to land Curiosity safely on Mars.
This highly advanced mobile science laboratory is one-of-a-kind. Curiosity has several features that are totally new and innovative. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said “we are very excited about sending the world’s most advanced scientific laboratory to Mars. MSL will tell us critical things we need to know about Mars, and while it advances science, we’ll be working on the capabilities for a human mission to the Red Planet and to other destinations where we’ve never been.”
Now that you’ve been exposed to some basic elements of a really cool mission, how does this relate to your strategy? What are the lessons learned? For one, strategy is all about intelligence gathering. The amount of intelligence gathering for a mission like this is likely overwhelming to people like you and me. Yet every piece of data collected by the Curiosity Mission Team is completely thought through. Mission decisions are made based on facts from all the data collected.
Curiosity’s whole reason for being is to gather intelligence, not only while on Mars but also along the journey to the red planet. Therefore, as Curiosity travels to Mars, one of its many tasks is to analyze radiation levels in space in order to assess how astronauts on future missions would be affected.
In my experience, I find that great strategic thinkers have an intelligence gathering formula. The formula is: collect, analyze, and conclude. Strategic thinking excellence comes from being able to look for actionable data that is leveraged to advance strategic efforts. Those leaders who have developed their intelligence gathering skills are more effective at creating strategic direction and plans that matter to an organization.
Strategic thinkers should ask:
What forces will play a critical role in the success of the strategy?
What are the patterns or trends telling you?
Where must you go for actionable information?
Using these three questions and others like them will help you to interpret the data and draw conclusions about your strategic path. Effective intelligence gathering will also be the key that helps you decide if you should learn more, slow down, or proceed with your strategy.
The second part of this article will provide will cover more about strategy lessons learned from this mission.
One key attribute of an effective leader is being an effective coach. When leaders are effective at coaching and offering feedback they can influence and develop skills, attitude, success, motivation, ability to perform, and a willingness to contribute to the goals of an organization in others.
As important as coaching is in a conventional environment, it becomes even more important in the virtual world. During an in-person coaching session you have the luxury of seeing body language, facial expressions, and attitude, all of these help you understand the coachee, their feelings and perspective better. In the world of virtual coaching, you will have to learn how to read through the lines in an email, watch for small subtle clues like email or voicemail response time, and learn each individual’s voice and tone in order to gather how they are feeling.
Many aspects of coaching will remain the same whether it is done in person or virtually. These aspects require:
On-going coaching and feedback.
Gaining the respect and trust of the team members.
Taking time to listen to the coach.
Using both formal and informal coaching opportunities.
Coaching for both performance and development.
Accepting that coaching may be uncomfortable.
When you add the dynamic of virtual leadership, the following are some keys to remember:
Virtual coaching can be done via phone, email, video conference, instant messages, project management software, and a myriad of other virtual mediums. Don’t limit yourself.
You may need to spend extra time working on building a good relationship with the coachee before diving into difficult coaching conversations.
Virtual coaching is a two-way conversation, not a one-way email.
Make time to coach regularly. You may want to consider creating a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule.
Make sure you allow ample time to discuss how the coachee views the situation.
Create an environment void of background noise so they know they have your attention.
Even though they can’t see you, do not multi-task during the coaching session.
Schedule a specific check-in date and time for follow up.
As more and more organizations move to virtual teams, being able to be an effective virtual coach is going to become a topic for much discussion. A virtual leader is going to have to rely on different tactics in order to be effective at coaching. They will have some unique obstacles and challenges but the level of coaching can mean the difference between failure and success. As you plan work on becoming a world class virtual coach, keep these tips in mind to help you become an even more effective and efficient coach.
Everyone thinks about the future—some intentionally, some wistfully. Occasionally, our thoughts evaporate as fast as we notice them. Sometimes these thoughts turn into something meaningful, like new hopes, dreams, or even fears about the future. If we are motivated to make a difference, these hopes and dreams develop into plans and actions. Little hopes and dreams can become bigger, and all the while, they started from one little word, if.
When used with the words had or would, the word if is meaningless (e.g. if I had money; if I had time; if he/she would have—). When paired with an action word, the word if to becomes a glimmer or something more (e.g. What if I make time? What if I were to—? What if I change—? What if I spend my time doing—?) Not all if questions will be developed or even answered. However, some of these if questions will become successful endeavors when your thinking becomes strategic. Have your if-questions moved you towards strategic thinking? Look at the criteria below to determine if your if needs to be developed strategically.
A key aspect of CMOE’s Applied Strategic Thinking® Model involves determining strengths and using those strengths to create a solid strategic approach to work and life. Recent research by the Gallup Management Journal supports this step. While CMOE’s Applied Strategic Thinking Model is geared towards the individual contributor, its principles can be applied at the team, department, region, and organization level just as easily. At any level, individual or organization,
‘One of the most important foundations of performance is determining what you’re good at, what you have the potential to be great at, and bringing that [knowledge] to the work that you do,’ says Nicole Helprin, director of internal and employee engagement communications for Hewlett-Packard. ‘When people feel like they’re bringing their gifts to the workplace, they’re more productive, they’re more engaged, and they’re going to be more successful in meeting their expectations.’
A lack of clearly defined expectations is detrimental to the productivity of an organization. Worse, it’s almost impossible for the organization to be credible in the eyes of its employees if it cannot clearly articulate what employees should be doing at work.[1]
There are many definitions for the word strength, but the one I am concerned with is this: “something that is regarded as being beneficial or a source of power.”[2] So, when you identify strengths, either as an individual, a team, or as an organization, you discover and identify your sources of power. Creating a strategic approach to your responsibilities that uses these sources of power keeps your strategic plan in a place where success is not only possible but is also more probable.
Before declaring your strategic intentions, identify as many different strengths as possible.[3] Divide the list into two categories: soft strengths and hard strengths. Soft strengths include knowledge, experience, education, ideas, etc. (intangibles). Hard strengths include money, materials, tools, equipment, etc. (tangibles).
After creating an exhaustive list of strengths, analyze the list to find the ones you lack in relation to your strategic intent and write them down next to the list of strengths. This is your list of weaknesses. This list identifies the areas that you, your team, your organization, etc. need to improve in. Until improvements are made and the weaknesses are converted into either hard or soft strengths, avoid ventures that may expose those weaknesses. Exposed weaknesses spawn problems and will likely cause you to deviate from your strategic map in order to correct the problems. When you know where your weaknesses lie, they are more easily avoided.
Creating functional strategy that is founded on your strengths will not guarantee success, but but if your strategic approach comes from areas of strength rather than those of weakness, success is more likely. The key is to have the courage to identify areas of weakness so they can be avoided. Understanding weaknesses is actually, in and of itself, a great strength. Use the knowledge as such.
Although good coaching can happen “in the moment,” to get the best results, it’s recommended that managers prepare for their coaching conversations. World-class sales managers start by creating a short list of skills or behaviors associated with successful sales situations and helping their reps determine what needs improvement.
These same sales managers are selective in determining which customer interactions to observe based on the skills or behaviors their reps are working on. For example, if a rep is struggling with qualifying sales opportunities, it doesn’t make sense to go along with a representative to a product presentation.
Better yet, truly good sales managers help their reps line-up a series of sales calls that require the very skills and behaviors the representative needs to improve. The manager also spends time with the representative preparing for the calls to increase their confidence.
Finally, good sales managers prepare to position themselves at the beginning of each sales call to ensure the representative stays in control of the customer interaction – if the sales manager is going to do any selling, its selling his or her company – letting the representative build the relationship and work the sales opportunity.
Sales managers strategically let customers know they are joining their representatives to listen and better understand what’s important to their customers. This strategy tends to keep the representative in control and makes the customer feel better at the same time.
If sales managers take a few of these sales coaching tips, they will experience a more productive relationship with their representatives and see an increase in performance numbers.
As I travel around the country meeting with clients to talk about their leadership development plans and initiatives, I spend hundreds of hours on a plane. I go through a routine of arriving early enough to have time to make it through security, make my way to the gate, and wait to board the plane. After boarding and finding my seat, but before take-off, the flight attendants always go through their initial safety instructions. It is interesting to see how little attention flight attendants receive as they go through these instructions. It is clear they are ignored by a large majority of the passengers. They recommend you going through the tri-fold pamphlet in the seat-back in-front of you to understand what to do in case of emergency. If you look at that pamphlet it give clear instructions to exiting the plane in case of fire or water “landing”.
So, what would you do in case of emergency? Would you say, “I wish I paid more attention to the flight attendants?” Let’s look at an example of how flight attendants acted during a recent water landing. Do you remember the US Airways plane that crash landed on the Hudson River. The pilot, Chesley Sullenberger (known as Sully), has been hailed as a hero for successfully landing the plane without any major injuries or fatalities. But when Captain Sully was asked about the crash, he gave credit to his entire team, especially the flight attendants. He stated they stayed calm during the emergency and their calm demeanor and quick response to get all passengers off the plane helped ensure that there were no casualties. One of the flight attendants, Sheila Dail, later talked about the experience and said, “The evacuation was orderly because we all had a common goal – to survive.” “It all comes down to awareness. Relax, but don’t be complacent, be prepared, be ready to act and use all of the tools at hand that you have.” She added that passengers should be aware of personal safety equipment; be familiar with seat belts and locate life vests; find the closest exits; and imagine different situations and potential responses.
I would imagine the passengers aboard this flight were like the passengers I see on a regular basis during the initial safety instructions. Some were probably asleep as the important information was shared. Many were probably thinking this was just another one of a hundred flights they’ve been on. I’m sure no one expected they would soon be on the wings of the plane floating on the Hudson River.
Are we like these passengers as we go through our daily routine at work, thinking it’s just another day like hundreds or thousands we’ve been through before; not expecting any emergencies. Have we ignored the “safety instructions” for what we need to do if an emergency arises? Or, are we like Captain Sully and the flight attendants, trained and fully prepared, having thought through contingency plans and alternatives in order to be calm during an emergency. Do you understand what probable threats and dangers you could face?
Strategic people must include planning for emergencies and threats. We must be prepared to face potential obstacles and have clear plans in place for surviving the obstacles without major injuries or casualties.
The problem is, we prefer to plan for is a clear, turbulent free day of flying; so we ignore the safety instructions, sit back, and close our eyes, expecting to make it to our destination with the pilot and flight attendants guiding the trip.
Even though “landing on the Hudson” type of emergencies is rare, the better prepared we are, with clear plans on how to navigate through the crisis, the calmer we’ll be when confronted and will make better decisions.
Are you prepared? Do you ignore the safety instructions? Have you have contingency plans or are relying on other strategic people -the pilot and flight attendants? What will you do in an emergency?
Many would argue that leading a virtual team requires the same leadership skills and attributes as leading a traditional team. While the key fundamentals of leadership hold true in both cases, virtual leadership scenarios offer unique and significant challenges. Following are five areas where virtual leaders need to focus energy in order to lead effectively.
Communication– Although leaders and team members are not in the same geographic location and cannot have a face-to-face conversation, effective communication is a key to success. The virtual world offers many different means of communication. These can include phone calls, emails, text messages, instant messaging, and video conferencing.
Communication guidelines should be set before communicating with a team virtually. These guidelines could consist of regularly scheduled calls, which mode of communication is used based upon the importance of the issue at hand, and how to handle time zone differences.
Consistent, prompt, and timely communication will help a virtual leader guide their team and create synergy among its members.
Trust– Developing trust in a virtual environment is not as easy as walking down the hallway or going out to lunch to chat, with your team. When building virtual relationships with team members, relationships are built at the individual level. Remember the special needs of each person. It will be vitally important to have an open and honest relationship with a lot of feedback. A virtual leader must be willing to make themselves accessible and available to their team members.
Another great way to develop trust uses personal attention: acknowledge birthdays, anniversaries, successes, and other achievements important to the individual.
Clarity– Team members must have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. When a virtual team is working on a project, there are questions you can ask yourself as the leader to ensure clarity. These include:
Is there a clear division of tasks?
Does each team member clearly understand what their specific task is?
Does each team member know the process for reporting results?
Are deadlines understood?
Support – Virtual leaders need to understand that working in a virtual environment can be “lonely” at times for team members. They do not have the energy and excitement that is created from working in an office with other team members. As a virtual leader it will be very important to know how team members are doing emotionally. Share your support.
Another type of support that will be necessary involves the work that team members perform. Team members must know that just because they are not geographically located in the same area as their peers and leader, help is readily available from the leader or other team members if they need it.
Empowerment – Team members must feel they have the ability to exercise authority to ensure they can complete their assigned responsibilities. There could be quick decisions to be made without time to go through the communication challenges that virtual teams inherently face. Leaders must allow team members to make decisions and support the decisions that are made.
As virtual teams become more and more prevalent, focus on effective virtual leadership will also grow. As leaders transition from traditional teams to virtual teams, many of their attributes and skills that made them effective leaders will transfer over, but it is important to look at how the miles separating leaders and team members will cause some adjustments to their leadership style. The more effective leaders are at leading a virtual teams, the more they can take advantage of the many benefits virtual teams bring to an organization.
And which one do you think gets the most attention? You guessed it: Strategy Coaching. It’s all about getting “the deal,” and because Strategy Coaching feels more urgent and the results of it are more tangible, Skills Coaching tends to get neglected.
One key attribute of an effective leader is being an effective coach. When leaders are effective at coaching and offering feedback they can influence and develop skills, attitude, success, motivation, ability to perform, and a willingness to contribute to the goals of an organization in others.
Everyone thinks about the future—some intentionally, some wistfully. Occasionally, our thoughts evaporate as fast as we notice them. Sometimes these thoughts turn into something meaningful, like new hopes, dreams, or even fears about the future. If we are motivated to make a difference, these hopes and dreams develop into plans and actions. Little hopes and dreams can become bigger, and all the while, they started from one little word, if.
A key aspect of CMOE’s Applied Strategic Thinking® Model involves determining strengths and using those strengths to create a solid strategic approach to work and life. Recent research by the Gallup Management Journal supports this step. While CMOE’s Applied Strategic Thinking Model is geared towards the individual contributor, its principles can be applied at the team, department, region, and organization level just as easily. At any level, individual or organization,
Although good coaching can happen “in the moment,” to get the best results, it’s recommended that managers prepare for their coaching conversations. World-class sales managers start by creating a short list of skills or behaviors associated with successful sales situations and helping their reps determine what needs improvement.
As I travel around the country meeting with clients to talk about their leadership development plans and initiatives, I spend hundreds of hours on a plane. I go through a routine of arriving early enough to have time to make it through security, make my way to the gate, and wait to board the plane. After boarding and finding my seat, but before take-off, the flight attendants always go through their initial safety instructions. It is interesting to see how little attention flight attendants receive as they go through these instructions. It is clear they are ignored by a large majority of the passengers. They recommend you going through the tri-fold pamphlet in the seat-back in-front of you to understand what to do in case of emergency. If you look at that pamphlet it give clear instructions to exiting the plane in case of fire or water “landing”.
Many would argue that leading a virtual team requires the same leadership skills and attributes as leading a traditional team. While the key fundamentals of leadership hold true in both cases, virtual leadership scenarios offer unique and significant challenges. Following are five areas where virtual leaders need to focus energy in order to lead effectively.
