Maximizing the Human Potential

Performance Reviews

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andrew shaffer consulting performance reviewsSince I started working on my own, I can say without any hesitation that I DO NOT MISS DOING ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS! Don’t misunderstand me, I think feedback is important. But the end of the year is extremely hectic anyway with holidays, kids’ events, end of the year push to meet deadlines and goals. And then on top of all of that, I have to remember what someone did 10 months ago? Nope, I don’t miss it at all! This week I want to explore how you can make performance reviews less painful, and meaningful.

Performance Reviews

The performance reviews that most companies I’ve seen have been ineffective. Annual reviews are slow. They don’t provide any actionable feedback. They may be written by someone not directly involved with the day to day work of the employee. Have you ever seen a GM or HR manager write reviews for the entire company? Plus, with so much going on this time of year, do you really have time to make the process meaningful?  Probably not. It is not because you don’t want to, but because you can only dedicate so much time to it.  Today I am going to suggest ways that you can improve the performance reviews and use it to develop talent and engage employees.  Sound fair?

Timely Feedback

We’ve all heard the stereotypical fight between a couple where someone brings up something the other said three years ago. Well, it’s not fair in love and war, nor is it fair in a performance review. Feedback should be timely. Address issues when they happen. Encourage positive actions when they occur. Waiting until the end of the year to bring up feedback from earlier in the year does a disservice to you (the manager) and the employee. Many times, employees are willing to make changes, they just need help knowing what they need to improve. Do yourself and your team a favor and provide timely feedback. Productivity will improve.

Change Behaviors

The whole purpose of providing feedback is to change behaviors. You may want someone to perform better and change a non-productive habit. Or you might simply want to encourage productive behaviors. Either way the feedback you provide throughout the year will help develop the behaviors you want to see in your team members.

This is analogous to a new year’s resolution. On January 1, I’ll say that I want to lose 20 pounds. I may or may not change some behaviors, and I may or may not lose 20 pounds. But if I wait to step on the scale until December 31, I shouldn’t be shocked when I didn’t lose 20 pounds. If I want to lose 20 pounds, I need the feedback of looking at the scale on a regular basis.

Annual Review

But your company or HR department requires an annual review. Fine. It’s easy now, right? I mean you’ve been doing reviews on a regular basis (and documenting them). You can show how your team has improved over the year, and how they now have adopted the behaviors needed to be more productive, effective and efficient in their job functions.

Now the annual review is just a collection of the conversations and feedback you’ve been having the entire year. Sound simple right? I know you’re thinking, “Andrew, I don’t have time to do a review every week or even every month.” We’re not taking a long drawn out review. I am talking about a 5 to 10 minute conversation to provide feedback about performance. As a leader your job is to lead. How can you lead without giving feedback?

This Week’s Challenge

Are you still doing an annual performance review? Are you looking for ways to make it better and elevate performance?  Contact us, we can help!

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to retain your top performers,  please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Decision Making

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andrew shaffer consulting decision makingMany business leaders I speak to express frustrations with their team’s inability to change behaviors. The executive team will make decisions or create a new strategy only to have the employees resist. This can be extremely frustrating at best, and kill your business at worse. There are many things that go into good decision making, and ensuring that decisions are actually followed through. Today I am going to challenge you to review your decision making process. Could your process be impeding your ability to get things done?

Decision Making

One of the fundamental duties of leaders and managers in any organization is decision-making. Leaders and managers make decisions every day from prioritizing and assigning tasks to how to implement a new strategy. The decision-making process in every company is different and unique to its own culture. Decisions could be made by the owner/CEO, or by a board or committee.

It doesn’t matter how decisions are made in your company there are real consequences to your employees with each decision, although some decisions have a bigger impact than others. In my experience your decision making process can have the greatest impact on employee retention and productivity. Here are some things you can do to make sure your decisions don’t have a negative effect on your company.

Communicate

I was in a meeting with a dozen or so employees at a company as they were learning about a new corporate policy regarding their benefits. The Human Resources department put together a detailed Power Point presentation to clearly explain the changes and the impacts to the employees. Human Resources representatives were at each presentation to answer any questions that the employees might have. They were well versed on the details of the new program, however they never adequately communicated why the decision to change the benefits was made. What was the rationale behind the decision? As a result, the employees assumed that it was made to appease shareholders at the extent of the employees. Was that the case? I don’t know. Does it matter? No, that was the perception and perception rules. I can tell you that the employees did not feel VALUED after that meeting.

Seek Input

In today’s social media driven world of comments and likes people express their opinions on almost everything. This culture of sharing opinions flows over into the workplace as well. Employees like to have some say in the decision-making process. They like to have their voices heard. In large organizations it is challenging or unreasonable to expect that everyone has their opinions heard.

However, their voices usually can and should be represented in the decision making process. Employees and management alike could have a “seat at the table” for decision making. This does NOT mean that you have to implement every decision from all stakeholders. It does mean that all viewpoints are considered in the process. Then when decisions are made the concerns expressed by all decision makers should be addressed when communicating the decision. Letting people know that they were heard and part of the process increases engagement, and helps improve retention and productivity among your teams.

Executing

I have observed meetings where senior executives (or even front-line managers) have made decisions, but never executed the decision. What a waste of time and energy! Why were they not executed? It could be a wide variety of things from feeling excluded the process, not understanding why or how to implement the decision or just thinking the decision was stupid (managers don’t understand how work gets done). Whenever a decision is made, someone has to implement or execute the decision. Allowing everyone to be represented in the process, communicating the why behind the decision, and adding accountability helps ensure that your decisions are executed and you get the results you are looking for.

This Week’s Challenge

How are decisions made in your company? Are your decisions having the impact you want them to have?  Do you need help setting up a decision-making process that is inclusive, and achieves the desired outcomes?  We can help.

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to retain your top performers,  please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Employee All-Stars

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andrew shaffer consulting employee all-starsHappy Veterans day to all veterans.  Thank you for your service. Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a lunch sponsored by What’s Up Media and the Crofton Chamber of Commerce. I talked about elevating performance and how building a team of high performers can help your company beat 80% of the competition. The challenge for many small businesses is that they often can’t pay the highest salaries or provide the best benefits.  So how do you attract and retain employees that give you a competitive advantage?

Employee All-Stars

When it comes to working with employees, business leaders KNOW that about 20% of their team takes most of their time. Typically, what happens is the highest performers get ignored. Why? Well, because are doing a good job, and really don’t require much attention. They work hard, get the job done and are always dependable. Karie Willyerd points out in her article “What High Performers Want at Work”, that “A high performer can deliver 400% more productivity than the average performer”. (Karie Willyerd – NOVEMBER 18, 2014).  So, the questions aren’t about being able to afford your All-Stars, but can you afford to lose your All-Stars?

Provide a challenge

All-Stars don’t become all-stars on accident. They challenge themselves to improve, and do things better, faster, and cheaper than others. They enjoy the challenge of performing at a high level. Without that challenge, high performers will get bored, and look to fill that need elsewhere (like your competition). There are always new challenges and problems you are facing as a business owner. Ask your All-Stars to help you find new and challenging problems to solve. Include them on strategic initiatives, new projects, or process improvements. Your business will be able to separate from the competition, and your star employees will remain challenged and engaged.

Create a game

Creating games in your business is always fun. It brings out the competitive nature in people, and boosts morale (if the game is fair). I’m not talking about going bowling or having a bocce tournament in the lawn at work. I am talking about a game that affects business outcomes.

Ideas would be to challenge each shift in a manufacturing facility to see who can produce more on a single shift or have the fewest quality defects. You could challenge salespeople to see who can land the biggest contract. Create a game that promotes desired business outcomes, make it challenging and achievable, and again you’ll see morale improve. Not only will your all-stars benefit, but you may create some more all-star employees!

Performance based pay

As I stated earlier that “A high performer can deliver 400% more productivity than the average performer”. If you truly have a high performer, and they are that productive, you will get a competitive advantage.  Share in some of the reward with the employee.  Pay could be based on commission, based on overall company performance, or even equity. This gives the employee a feeling that he/she had skin in the game. They are recognized and rewarded for their hard work and incentivized to continue to improve. This is another win-win for you and the employee.

This Week’s Challenge

Don’t forget your employee All-Stars. If you take them for granted, your competition may not. Find ways to incentivize and recognize your all-stars to make sure they continue to give you the competitive advantage you need!

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to retain your top performers,  please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Finding and Keeping the Best Employees

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best employees andrew shaffer consultingOne challenge many business leaders are sharing with me is a frustration with finding and keeping high performing employees. Some companies are struggling with retention, others with finding qualified candidates, and still others are dealing with a lack of productivity or innovation. No matter what the issues is, business leaders are always looking ways to help their employees improve. Today I am going to talk about how to help you attract, retain, develop your employees to give you a competitive edge.

Finding and Keeping the Best Employees

Business leaders spend countless hours developing and executing strategies. Much of that strategy is centered around two things, developing new business and executing on existing business.

In a recent client meeting I asked the management team some simple questions about who their customers were. They nailed it! They knew exactly who their customers were, what they wanted and how they provide that. Companies often come up with an “avatar” or ideal client so they can market to them.  But how many people do the same thing for the employees they want to attract? Here are some basic questions you should be asking about your current employees as well as those you hire in the future.

Who are your employees?

Just like companies identify who their target market is for their customers, business leaders should have a target market for their employees. If you look through any job search site, most (not all) employers describe who they are looking for by a set of skills and experience. Skills and experience don’t mean that someone will be effective in your company.

Look at your current employees. List some of the characteristics of your top performers. Those that have been there a while, what do they all have in common? You might even want to do the same exercise with those that haven’t worked out. What went wrong there?

What do they need?

This is something that is often overlooked or minimized. I mean they need a paycheck, right? I’ll tell you with 100% certainty, if that is the only need you are filling, you will have a hard time keeping employees. No matter how big that paycheck is, there is always someone willing to write a bigger check.

Everyone has different needs, and each generation has different needs as well.  Baby boomers needed job security. Millennials need flexible work arrangements. Employees at non-profits and charity organizations feel the need to serve (and usually don’t get paid well). When I work with companies I typically use an assessment to determine the employee needs, and how well those needs are being filled. This is almost always eye-opening for leadership!

How is the need satisfied?

Knowing is half the battle, so understanding the need is only the beginning of the solution. How do you fill that need? Learning opportunities is one of the common motivators, and motivational gaps, I find in my assessment. Employees are interested in professional development and expect the company to support that in some way.

It won’t be uncommon for business leaders to provide a laundry list of things they offer with respect to learning opportunities.  What they often don’t realize is their employees find the process to take advantage might be too cumbersome (needs too much approval), or they don’t feel like they are able to balance learning with their current workload. After you determine what need you serve for your employee, do you have a way to satisfy that need, that the employees are taking advantage of?

When do you satisfy the need?

Flexible work hours are becoming common place in todays workforce. From flexible hours to work from home options.  But not all businesses can accommodate these types of arrangements. And even those businesses that can, it isn’t feasible to do it all the time.  If you are a tax accountant, chances are you will have very little flexibility during “tax season”.

Every business cycle is different, and every need is different. As a leader you must determine the best way to satisfy employee needs without compromising business needs. What is ultra-important here, is to effectively communicate expectations, and when you will be able to satisfy certain needs.

Who provides that need?

Once you learn who your employees are, what their needs are, how and when it will be provided, someone must be responsible for providing it. Who will fill those needs? Often it is a combination of leadership, employees, and maybe HR. So, as a complete picture it is important to decide who is responsible for providing what.

For example: the need is career advancement. HR would be responsible for determining pay and promotion criteria. Leadership would be responsible for giving guidance and assignments to meet those criteria, and the employee is responsible for execute.

This Week’s Challenge

Take action to decide who your employees are and what they need. You will soon find that you will have higher productivity and retention (yes even with millennials)! If you need help, or would like to learn more about our assessments,  please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Corporate Growing Pains

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andrew shaffer consulting corporate growing painsI once heard someone explain life as a series of challenges.  Life tends to throw a problem your way and continue to throw that problem at you until you figure out how to solve it. Once you solve the problem you never have to solve it again, BUT you will be presented with a new problem. For example, at one point in my kids’ lives, they wanted to learn to ride a bike. When they were learning they would often fall or run into a tree. I don’t know why they’d run into the tree it didn’t move, but they did. Eventually they learned to ride a bike – problem solved. The next problem was learning to do a wheelie or jump off a ramp. Then the falling started all over again.  As you can see life is never without problems.  Just like in life, your business has a series of problems to solve, like corporate growing pains. Today I am going to share some of these problems so you can look forward to what comes next!

Corporate Growing Pains

Most of what I am going to talk about today is my takeaways from the book Managing Corporate Lifecycles by Ichak Adizes. This book is eye opening and I highly recommend it.  In this book, Adizes highlights the fact that at each growth stage of a company there are normal and abnormal problems. Understanding and overcoming the normal problems helps you advance to the next stage of development. When you don’t solve the problems of any given stage as you advance, the problem then becomes abnormal and can and will threaten the survival of the business. On your way to becoming a prime company, here are some of the stages you must survive.

Infancy

Infancy is that stage when the business is born. As an entrepreneur, you decided to take a risk and start a business. You are full of optimism, hope and the future is looking good through your rose-colored glasses. In this stage of development, cash is king.  It is all about making sales and brining in cash. Cash is the life blood of your business and without it the business will go under. There are investors to pay back, there is likely bank loans and the entrepreneur needs cash to feed his/her family as well. During infancy the business owner’s commitment will be challenged. Negative cash flow is the norm, and the investors are always asking questions to protect their interests.  In this stage the business owner is focused on product development and brining in revenue!

Toddler

Once you as the business owner finally makes it past the infancy stage and is generating cash, you enter the toddler stage, or “Go-Go”, as the author puts it.  In this stage you want to try everything they can get your hands on.  Expand into this market or buy this other business. You are chasing just about every shiny object that catches your eye. And why not? After all you have survived infancy and have proven your business can generate cash.

This creates a problem where the company can become spread too thin. Perhaps you lose focus a little on what the company’s core competencies are. Your energy is too widely dispersed, and you lack appropriate controls to aid in decision making and process improvement. Often you are reluctant to instill the discipline necessary to manage all the new aspects of the business and resist any attempts by anyone to exert those controls.

Adolescence

Those owners that finally do recognize that they need to have controls, discipline and processes in place are ready to move into adolescence. Just like your teenage years, adolescence is a turbulent time. This is when your business moves from the wild, “let’s try everything” to “now I have to create structure so I can execute effectively.”  This is frequently when you, or your business’ board begins to hire professional managers. And, if you’ve ever read the book The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber you’ll know that a manager and an entrepreneur are at odds with each other.  The manager likes to create order and the entrepreneur is always looking for the next thing to go do.

In this stage there will be conflict throughout the organization. The founders will resist the manager, and the manager will resist the founder. The workforce will be divided with some people wanting and needing the structure that the administrator needs, while others will desire the freedom they had before “there were all these rules.” However, whenever a company can successfully pass through each of these stages, they will enter their prime, where there is the right mix of entrepreneurship, administration, controls, and processes for the company to reach its full potential.

This Week’s Challenge

I must caution you that I just summarized about 400 pages if information into less than 900 words. My intention was to highlight some of the normal problems have on their way to prime.  This week’s challenge is to understand the problems your company has, and if they are normal or abnormal for whatever phase your business is in.  Identify and solve those problems and your company can begin to thrive!

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Creating Innovation

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andrew shaffer consulting creating innovationAre you continually frustrated by repeatedly dealing with the same problems? Are you tired of running into the same problems on every project? Does the inability to see new solutions to existing problems frustrated you? Are you fed up with “This is the way we’ve always done it?” If your employees are not as innovative as your competition, your destined to mediocrity or worse! You might go out of business! So, how do you go about creating innovation in your business?

Creating Innovation

Your business is will either grow or die.  I’ve said that several times in my writing, and it is true. In order to grow, your company must innovate. I have worked with companies that were stuck in the “This is the way we’ve always done it?” mentality. Because of that the competition was growing in market share, and customer satisfaction was plummeting. When this started having severe impacts on the business, we were able to turn it around by focusing on leadership and engagement. Here are some simple things you can do to help improve your company’s innovation and market domination.

Proactive Leadership

Proactive leadership means looking forward and not backwards. Leaders cannot spend their time dealing with fires all day and never take time to prevent fires. A proactive leader anticipates future struggles and is prepared when they come.

Performance Management

Performance management is one of the fundamental responsibilities of a leader. Teach leaders how to do this on a continuous basis. And, show leaders how that actually benefits the employee, the company, and customers.

Talent Development

When your team isn’t growing, your company isn’t growing. When your company isn’t growing, the gap between you and your competition closes. Investing in developing the talent already on your team will sharpen your competitive edge.

Employee Engagement

A 360° approach to employee development creates positive and meaningful interactions between leadership and employees drives employee engagement. Engaged employees are more loyal, productive, and provide a better customer experience. In short, engaged employees help you stand out from your competition.

Accountability

Accountability means having people do what they say they will do. People have to be accountable to themselves, to their leaders, to their direct reports and to their peers. Leaders cannot tolerate a culture without accountability. It is a morale killer. An employee development system has to incorporate aspects of accountability for it to work. ASC brings metrics for accountability that ensures your success.

This Week’s Challenge

How does your company foster innovation and creativity? Are your employees fully engaged? Or, are they just checking boxes? Do you have a culture to help you succeed?

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Business Core Values

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core values andrew shaffer consultingIn preparation for our upcoming seminar, Ben Kimbrell (see blog, A Better Way) and I were discussing the importance of core values with respect to business success. I’ve been to many companies where they might talk about core values, and you may see them on posters as you walk through the hallways. Core values are often posted on websites for everyone to know what a company stands for.  But how many times are these business core values just hollow words?  Do your core values impact the way you do business?

Business Core Values

Almost every company I come across has a set of business core values. Why? Because a company’s core values dictate the culture. However, there is often a disconnect between the core values posted in the break room and on the company website, and the behaviors of the workforce. When was the last time you looked at your core values and did an assessment of how well they are reflected in your culture? Here are some reasons why having a consistent set of core values will help you create a culture that helps your business thrive.

Standard of Behavior

Core values set a standard of behavior of what is important, and what is not tolerated. I discussed my core values in my blog Four Rules for Winning. In a nutshell, they are:

  • Listen to those who are trying to help you.
  • Give 100% effort to everything you do.
  • Show respect to EVERYONE – ALWAYS
  • Have Fun

On more than one occasion I have found myself doing business or working with someone that doesn’t adhere to these same values. These things are non-negotiable on my opinion. When these “rules” or standards of behavior are violated, there is either a change in behavior or I terminate the relationship. This applies to clients, partners, or employees. As a result, I have confronted bosses, clients, and even quit jobs over a lack of adherence to these principles.  That is how important core values should be.

Customers

Company core values are becoming increasingly important to consumers these days. Customers want to know what a company stands for.  In fact, evidence points to trends that if a company is involved in a social cause that consumers identify with, then they are more likely to purchase from those companies. Chick-Fil-A, as an example, has core values centered around family and Christian beliefs. They are unwilling to open their stores on Sunday, even though they have a store in the Atlanta Falcons football stadium. This loyalty to their core values attracts customers, as well as protests. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream also promotes a social mission for everyone involved in their business, helping them maintain brand loyalty.

Leadership

Leaders in an organization are responsible for the culture. You must lead by example. Core values cannot be just a slogan on a website, or posters on a wall. Integrate core values into everything your business does. Your core values must be evident in everything you do, in and out of the workplace, otherwise they are not really core values. It is incumbent upon leadership to hold people accountable for adhering to core values. Remember that these are your values, as a leader, and if you cannot enforce them it reflects poorly on you.

Your employees will appreciate consistency in your leadership style. It sets clear expectations for behavior. Your core values will impact your customer and client experience. And if your values align with those of your customers and potential customers your business will thrive!

This Week’s Challenge

Identify your core values. Does each member of your team know what your core values are? How are they evident in everything you do?

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Business Slumps

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andrew shaffer consulting business slumpsMy boys are full swing into fall sports.  I have one boy that plays baseball, and another that plays soccer. My baseball player found himself in the middle of a hitting slump. It started late in the spring season and lasted through the summer. We worked on a few things to get him out of the slump so he can start hitting again. Last week, was the first game of the fall season.  At this first at bat, he broke out of his slump with a solid double to right field. He looked at me from second base, with a huge smile and said, “I’m back!”. This week I am going to talk about some strategies we used to get out of the slump and rejuvenate a ball player.

Business Slumps

It doesn’t matter if you are a professional baseball player, a professional salesperson, or a CEO, we can all get into a slump from time to time – a period when we just can’t get anything right. No matter how hard we try we just come up short. This can be frustrating! We feel like we’re doing everything right, yet we just can’t seem to get the same results.  First, relax. It happens. Second, there are a few things that you can do to get out of that slump and start hitting home runs again.

Back to Basics

I like to golf. During the spring, I’ll get my clubs out of the basement and head out to the driving range to get back into form.  Generally, the more I play, the better I hit the ball. This makes sense, because of the practice.  Inevitably in the middle of the summer I start feeling confident with my shot and really try to hit the ball hard.  I mean like the pros do. Well, I am far from being a pro, so the harder I try to hit the ball, the worse my shots become. Even when I decide to back off and not hit so hard, I still can’t hit a decent shot. I eventually must go back to the range and focus on the basics until I figure out what I was doing wrong.

Whether it is golfing, selling, or running a company, we can all lose touch with the fundamentals. It’s not that we forget about them, or ignore them, but we get blinded by our own confidence. It isn’t until our performance is impacted that we pay attention to fundamentals. When you find yourself in a slump, find yourself a coach, mentor or a friend. Have them observe you on the proverbial driving range. Getting back to basics is a sure-fire way to get out of that slump.

Keep Shooting

I had a basketball coach tell me that when a shooter is in a slump, he keeps giving him the ball. That seemed counterintuitive, I mean the ball player isn’t scoring, shouldn’t he give the ball to someone else. His rational was all about averages. He might be in a slump now, but he’ll be on fire later.

This is another way of saying, don’t give up. How many stories do you now about  an exceptional leader taking a new assignment only to struggle to find any success? Maybe that story is about a point in your career. Often the leader will decide they “can’t do this” and they regress to a previous position. However, when that leader decides to keep moving on, and adapting skills, or even developing new skills, then that leader once again begins to excel. Don’t give up and keep shooting.

Get out of your Head

In my intro, I talked about my son’s batting slump. We tried to get him out of his slump. We worked on his fundamentals, we went to the batting cages, and we watched videos. I tried everything I could think of to help him get out of the slump. But no matter what we did, or even how he did in practice, he just lost it during a game.

It seemed that he forgot everything we worked on when he was up to bat during the game. What happened? The last thing we had to deal with was getting him out of his own head. When he was up to bat, he lost his confidence. He kept thinking of his failures and not his successes.  This is so easy to do.

When you are in a slump, the worst thing you can do is focus on the lack of results. Change your mindset and think of your past successes. The big deals that got you in the position you are in anyway. Gaining your confidence back will be that added element needed to excel you out of the slump and back to your old productive self.

This Week’s Challenge

Next time your business or a leader in your business is in a slump, remind them of the fundamentals. Encourage them not to quit. Don’t let them lose confidence. All slumps eventually pass when you diligently work to get through them.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Dealing with Change

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andrew shaffer consulting dealing with changeBy now the kids are back in school.  This has an impact in my family.  We have new morning routines. As the kids are starting in their schools, they are meeting new classmates and teachers.  Although it is familiar, it is different. It is a change, and for anyone that has or has had kids, they know that there is an adjustment period.  Even if you don’t have kids, you will notice that there are new traffic patterns as parents with kids are adjusting their schedules and commutes around bus schedules and school drop offs. There is no avoiding it, change happens, and we have to adjust. Today’s post is all about dealing with change.

Dealing with Change

“No plan survives first contact with the enemy. What matters is how quickly the leader is able to adapt.”

– Tim Harford

Every business is constantly dealing with change. Change ranges from problems encountered in new product development, responding to the competition, or it could be a radical shift in your business model. When you think about it, your business has to be in a constant state of change (or evolution) otherwise you’ll soon find yourself obsolete. Competitive landscapes and consumer needs all change and your business needs to change to keep up with a changing landscape. Successful leaders, and businesses become quite effective in dealing with these changes and evolutions. Here are some common characteristics of change, and how to navigate them successfully.

Conflict

When there is change, there is almost always conflict. Conflict can be constructive or destructive. What is the difference?

Destructive conflict is just that, destructive. If allowed destructive conflict will kill careers and if destructive conflict has become part of the culture, it will kill your company. Destructive conflict looks a lot like finger pointing, passing blame, and avoiding blame. It is not a pretty road, and nobody wins in the end, well maybe a consultant when you finally hire one to help save your company.

Constructive conflict is very helpful. I learned early in my management career to welcome constructive conflict. I had one engineer on my team that would “argue” with me about almost everything.  It wasn’t a hostile argument, but he challenged almost every decision I would make. I would ask him to come to my office whenever I was trying to work out any challenging issue. And together, through his challenging questions, and my responses almost always came up with a stronger solution than either one of us would have on our own. Through this “conflict” we were able to improve the productivity of our team by up to 50% in some areas.

Communication

The key success when dealing with change in conflict is communication. I don’t know how many times a company was going through changes (restructure, mergers, buy out etc.) and there is absolutely no communication, or worse poor communication!  No communication and poor communication just lead to rumors and assumptions on the part of your employees.  I can tell you firsthand, that the rumors and assumptions are almost ALWAYS worse than reality. It causes fear and distrust among the employees and leads to destructive conflict, even when it isn’t necessary.

Trust and Respect

I had the unfortunate position of being in a job where we lost a significant amount of our workload. Suddenly I was faced with having not enough work for the number of people I had on my team. Uncertainty was everywhere, and there was the constant threat of layoffs.  People came to work everyday not knowing if it would be there last day. Ironically, during this same time, my team’s morale actually improved. How? I was constantly communicating, openly and honestly with my team. And, prior to that I had a developed a relationship based on mutual trust and respect.

To ensure you have effective communication there has to be a level of mutual trust and respect. When you think about this, your best relationships with a spouse, best friend, children, whomever is based on mutual trust and respect. When that trust is broken what happens to the relationship? It deteriorates and eventually disintegrates.  Why would companies treat their employees any different? Companies often demand or expect loyalty from their employees on one hand, and then hide information or poorly communicate company strategies on the other. The rationale for this is because “we don’t want people to panic.”

This Week’s Challenge

How is your company culture structured? Are there silos and finger pointing, or communication based on mutual trust and respect? Are all stakeholders brought in for decisions or are people just told to live with decisions being made?  Creating the right culture, and integrated culture, will dramatically improve your bottom line!

Give us a call for an assessment and consultation and see how you can start improving your bottom line.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Corporate Silos

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Seandrew shaffer consulting corporate silosOver the last few weeks I have had several individuals express frustration about how their business was siloed or stove piped.  This basically means that everyone works within their specific function and ignores everyone else. In fact, in one specific case, it had an employee considering leaving the company. Well integrated, high performing teams and companies cannot operate with this model. Today I am going to talk about the dangers of corporate silos to your business and offer a suggestion for a solution.

Corporate Silos

A few weeks back I talked about Team Integration.  In that post, I discussed the importance of teams working towards a common goal.  I feel this is important to keep everyone focused on the results, and helps people work together better. However, even when everyone in the company and the team is working toward a common goal there can still be corporate silos.  This is evident with statements like:

  • Don’t tell me how to do my job!
  • What do you know about …
  • Stay in your lane!

These are not a sign of a well-integrated, high performing team.

Communication

Companies operating in silos inevitably do not communicate well.  Marketing isn’t communicating with sales. Design working independent of manufacturing. Accounting isn’t communicating with anyone. When communication breaks down, there is a lack of mutual trust and respect. Poor communication will cost your business money.

I have seen where a lack of communication has caused projects to overrun budgets by up to 200% or more. On a project I was working on, one engineer worked strictly in his own silo.  He’d communicate weekly about what he accomplished. But the other engineers, who were using this design, would regularly find things that didn’t work.  Why? Because they didn’t communicate effectively up front so that everyone understood the path forward. They all went about their tasks, and when the two were integrated, it didn’t work and there was a ton of expensive re-work.

Complexity

Siloed companies are plagued with complexity. Why? Because they must add processes and procedures to everything to compensate for a lack of communication.  Does this sound familiar? In these types of organizations, when something goes wrong like supply chain didn’t order the right parts slowing down manufacturing. Suddenly there is a new process for ordering parts requiring four or five signatures inevitably from people too busy and layers away from the actual work. Time is added to the process, and there are more questions which mean a longer process.  Eliminate this with effective communication.

To add to the complexity, managers and leaders will start protecting themselves so they aren’t blamed for the delays. Infighting backstabbing and more bureaucracy can also enter in the picture.

Solution

Change your decision-making process. Include more communication. Develop decision making teams, at the appropriate level, that include a cross function of support. Any and all stakeholders should be included, and if they are not the meeting should be put on hold. Work all scenarios up front. Set expectations and make plans. Many times, especially on time sensitive projects, people just dive in and get started. While initiative is something that is admirable, jumping in without proper preparation is a formula for rework, exceeding budgets and missing deadlines.  Create a culture where people work together, communicate with mutual trust and respect.

This Week’s Challenge

How is your company culture structured? Are there corporate silos and finger pointing, or communication based on mutual trust and respect? Are all stakeholders brought in for decisions or are people just told to live with decisions being made?  Creating the right culture, and integrated culture, will dramatically improve your bottom line!

Give us a call for an assessment and consultation and see how you can start improving your bottom line.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.