DMS Blog

By: Dr. Robert P. Hewes and Dr. Alan M. Patterson

Take the best workers in any field. What do they do that makes them so successful? They understand what it takes to execute effectively, and then they do it. When a product is delivered on time, the putt drops in the hole, the system boots up without a hitch, or the curtain drops on a brilliant performance-we marvel at how easy it looks. The reality is that effective execution is anything but easy. Behind the scenes is a means for delivering results that is both dynamic and pragmatic.

Alignment: The Bridge Between Strategy and Execution

The key to profitable performance is largely dependent on the extent to which four business elements are aligned:

• The leadership-responsible for developing and deploying the strategy and monitoring results
• The organization-the structure, processes, and operations by which the strategy is deployed
• The jobs-the necessary roles and responsibilities
• The people-the experience, skills, and competencies needed to execute the strategy

Adaptability and Perspective Are Essential

What is essential for success in the “high performance organization” is an understanding of the interdependencies and the ability to adapt quickly and strategically to change. When these four elements are in sync (i.e., aligned-when it all looks so “easy”-the likelihood for outstanding performance is increased.

A hallmark of an organization that aligns well is the ability to adapt and realign when there is a change. For example, a new technology introduction could change a business process. A change in the process could change job responsibilities and skill requirements. Therefore, the leadership must realign the organization not only at a process level, but at both job, people and skill levels as well.

Take the economic downturn in the past 24 months. Some organizations hunkered down, choosing to cut all nonessential spending as a way to at least maintain a current profitability. Others, however, have used this time to reevaluate the way in which they do business to increase their overall efficiencies, and improve both performance and profitability. Take, for example, a civil engineering firm closely tied to the home construction business. Rather than slashing their professional staff with the loss of revenue, leadership engaged the workforce in lean initiatives to reduce waste, customer-focused activities to improve the relationships, and new business opportunities to increase their visibility. These three initiatives when coupled have potential impact on both top and bottom line results. In essence, this organization aligned the four elements to the economic situation.

Many organizations, however, fall victim to some common alignment-performance pitfalls, particularly in periods of high stress or rapid change.

Major Alignment-Performance Pitfalls

1. Developing the strategy and throwing it over the wall for implementation. There is too often a tendency to think that once the strategy is developed the only requirement for implementation is one of communication. Implementation is the “real work”-the continuous alignment and monitoring of the four key business elements.

2. Heads-down focus. Performance at an individual level is based on executing a series of critical tasks. However, without the bigger picture-a more strategic perspective-it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand how what you do impacts other elements in the system. A heads-down perspective also limits the extent to which an individual will offer to improve a process since there is little appreciation beyond “just doing my job.”

3. Blaming the hired help. It is easy to blame people for poor execution. After all, they are the ones doing the work. Sometimes there are clear situations in which an individual is not a fit for the job or in which individuals need more training and development to be effective. However, what about situations when you have dedicated, hardworking people working with inefficient, bloated, or cumbersome processes? This is a process problem, not a people problem. Or, what is the root cause when three individuals are responsible for the same task or balls are dropped because it is not clear who is responsible for what? This is a job definition issue, not a people issue.

4. Perpetuating the silo perspective. All too often leadership teams at both functional and business levels tend to represent their own interests as opposed to those of the larger organization. In high performance organizations, the role of the leadership team is clearly defined along with clear accountabilities for overall execution and profitability, not just each person’s piece.

5. Micromanagement. When the spotlight is on improving performance, too many managers move in to “tell” how. Perhaps these managers’ hearts are in the right place- they want to make sure that things are done correctly-but their tendency is to direct as opposed to engage others. This is a great way to (a) encourage people to withhold effort or take the slightest risk to solve problems or improve performance on their own and (b) build resentment among the staff, particularly the best and brightest who will flee when they find a “better” opportunity.

6. Ill-defined roles and responsibilities. The lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities is often a major obstacle to profitable performance. This is particularly true when there are major organizational changes. Letting people figure this out for themselves can be counter-productive and is too important to leave to chance.

Recommendations
Want to improve profitable performance? Here are some things to consider:

• Communicate and engage. Alignment is the bridge between strategy and execution, and communication is the mechanism by which alignment takes place. Communicate about the strategy. Communicate about changes and their potential impact on the elements of the organization. Engage employees in a discussion of their responsibilities, critical tasks, and priorities. When there are changes, engage employees in a dialogue. You cannot over-communicate in these situations.
• Sharpen the organization’s capability to listen, observe, learn, and act. Seek input and recommendations from everyone in terms of what they see with customers, processes, and inefficiencies. Think of this as the equivalent for what professional teams do when it comes to watching the films of their last game. They chart a course of action and execute it.
• Look up and out as well as down. A strategic perspective is critical to improving performance and impacting profitability. Encourage people to think “how” and “why” as well as “what” when it comes to performance.

By staying away from the pitfalls and focusing on these recommendations, an organization can increase its alignment and therefore its performance and ultimately its profitability

Dr. Robert P. Hewes and Dr. Alan M. Patterson are both with Camden Consulting Group. Hewes is a senior partner with Camden Consulting Group, with oversight for leadership development and management training. A skilled strategist, facilitator, and coach, he designs and delivers executive coaching and leadership development services for Camden clients. Patterson is an executive coach and consultant with Camden Consulting Group. He has extensive experience in engineering and delivering talent management initiatives in areas like change management, leadership development, and executive coaching services to senior executives in a wide range of industries. A published author, Patterson brings over 24 years of international consulting experience to his executive coaching engagements, and has been a featured speaker and workshop leader for several national associations.

By: Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy

What is a leader?
Leadership is the most important requirement for business success. In simplest terms, leadership is the willingness to be accountable for results, and then to fulfill that responsibility, no matter what the external situation or pressure.A leader is someone who is willing to do what it takes to get great things done. It doesn’t happen on the first or second try. Leaders expect to fail over and over. They don’t like it, but they don’t quit when things don’t work out. In fact, it is during difficult economic times and major crises that your character as a leader really stands out.

Why? In tough times, your competitors run for safety and survival instead of focusing on their customers. They pay less attention to quality. They slash back service and invest less in innovation. They cut back on staff at all levels. As a result, there are more great people actually available to work with you.

It is usually in a crisis that organizations reconnect with what made them great in the first place. In a crisis, leaders must make bolder decisions that will make them great in the future. It was said that “the North wind made the Vikings.” In times of crisis, you have an opportunity to reignite your spirit and find better ways to delight your customers.

Your leadership matters Today, more than ever, your leadership is needed. It is now time for you to step up in a new way. It is time for you to counterattack, to move forward, to innovate, to find better, faster, easier, cheaper ways to get results.

What you choose to do today-right now, in this market-can have more of an impact on your company and career than at any other time. Epictetus wrote: “Circumstances do not make the man; they only reveal him to himself.”

Your ability to take charge, make hard decisions, accept responsibility, and lead effectively can have a greater impact on the success of your team or your organization than any other single factor. Everything that you do to become a more effective leader has a multiplication effect on your entire organization.

The best and the worst of times People often complain about the economy or the competition being tough, but many of the best leaders started their organizations at the worst possible time or steered them through the most difficult circumstances.

The 1970s plunged America into an era of “stagflation,” with a combination of high interest rates, inflated gas prices, and miserable stock and real estate markets. It was considered a lost decade, much like the recent one we just endured.

Yet the 1970s were a time when great entrepreneurs did the unthinkable. Amid terrorist threats, massive bankruptcies, long gas lines, deregulation, and market bubbles, entrepreneurs like Charles Schwab, Steve Jobs, and Herb Kelleher each came to an extraordinary conclusion.

They decided: This is a great time to build a company!

Opportunity in a crisis Walt Disney, Bill Hewlett and David Packard, Tom Watson (of IBM), and Thomas Edison (when he created his vision for General Electric)-all launched their dreams in miserable markets. FedEx, Sports Illustrated, Hyatt, Wikipedia, MTV, and Trader Joe’s opened their doors just in time for awful recessions that defeated many other organizations. Even Google incorporated just in time for the tech bubble to burst at the end of the last century.

Leon Charney bought his first building the night Jimmy Carter lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Interest rates were in the double digits, and real estate was a bust. He plowed his rental income into 12 surrounding buildings, investing in 1.4 million square feet in Times Square. It never occurred to him that he’d become a billionaire and, today, one of the newer members of the Forbes 400 list, despite the current epic real estate slump.

Wang Chuanfu started BYD (Build Your Dream) after the dot-com crash to make advanced battery products when no one cared about the ex-professor’s fantasy of a green, emission-free, battery-powered electric car. Warren Buffett bought 10% of BYD in 2008, making Chuanfu a billionaire and China’s richest person.

Level 5 leadership Management guru Jim Collins uses the phrase “level 5 leadership” to describe the characteristic of the best leaders, those who build great companies. The most fascinating and distinguishing characteristic of level 5 is an often misunderstood trait: humility.

As it happens, humility doesn’t actually mean being humble. People who are crazy enough to launch businesses as the economy is falling apart and then fight Goliath-size adversaries, are not exactly humble. Humility simply means you have a “burning, driving, relentless ambition to serve and to win,” Collins told me, “without the arrogance to delude yourself into believing that you are all knowing or always right.”

As a level 5 leader, you don’t believe you are perfect. You’re just convinced that you have what it takes to succeed and that you can get better. You are always looking for new ways to take your game to the next level.

You can always get better Jeff Bezos’s belief that he could create a new type of “virtual” retail store with a mission so massive as to justify the wildly optimistic metaphor of “Amazon” as his company’s name was anything but humble! Yet he had the humility to craft a business plan that focused on the fundamentals of leadership in customer service at a time when it was unpopular and at odds with his dot-com era competitors.

While other Internet companies expanded at the speed of light, Amazon’s obsession with organizing its products and getting its services working better than anyone else’s ironically resulted in complaints about “slower” growth and unprofitability. When the dot-com bubble burst, Amazon survived and prospered while others imploded. After five years of losses, Bezos produced his first profit. This type of humility, combined with the discipline to commit yourself to continuous personal and organizational improvement, is what gives you the “winning edge” in your position and enables your company to outperform your competition.

The key to winning customers and building businesses has to do with exceeding expectations in comparison with the other alternatives out there. This requires leadership at all levels. Amazon knows how to compete for consumers, and even during the Great Recession, Amazon’s net sales soared 28% to more than $24 billion in 2009, and net profits jumped 40% to nearly a billion dollars.

Finding your leadership style Since every person is different in some way (often in many ways), the very best leaders have the greatest flexibility in their styles of working with other people. Some people respond best to praise; others need different incentives to get things done. Your ability to get the very best out of the people who report to you is a key measure of your effectiveness as a leader.

You perform at your best when you align your personal passions with your purpose at work. Think about it: There are many different things you could do for others, and you have many personal interests. The key is to find where your favorite cause intersects with your favorite passion. When you do that, you won’t have a problem converting that experience into great performance. Moreover, when you can find other people for your team whose purpose, passion, and performance match the job, they become unstoppable.

© 2011 Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy. Adapted and excerpted by permission of the publisher from Now…Build a Great Business! 7 Ways to Maximize Your Profits in Any Market, by Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy. Published by AMACOM, a division of American Management Association.

Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy are coauthors of Now…Build a Great Business! 7 Ways to Maximize Your Profits in Any Market. Thompson is author of the best-seller Success Built to Last and is a serial entrepreneur who sold his last company for $100 million and today coaches executives on how to grow their companies. Tracy is one of the world’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness.