Performance Enablers

Here is a piece on:

Significance of executive team for the growth of an organization, and

A #generalist , a #specialist or a generalist specialist? A point of view for service providers. Love to hear your thoughts.

#clientservicing #valueaddition #discovery #design #delivery

A strategy for exponential and sustained growth

Culture of leadership can be an exponential and sustainable growth strategy, as the evidence suggests. However, we seem to have a long way to get there. In this article, I share my perspective based on experience and published work, the challenges and the opportunities along the way

In my latest series of articles, I've been exploring the power of executive teams in accelerating growth. In the third piece here, I delve into the importance of leadership mindset and how to cultivate trust within these teams. Check it out! #executiveteams #leadership #trustbuilding https://www.linkedin.com/posts/drpramodsolanki-growthcatalyst_executiveteams-leadership-trustbuilding-activity-7151080044801515520-s8Ei?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

I have earlier written about why executive team of an organization is the first place to look at, when we are looking for levers to accelerate growth.

How do we go about developing an executive team to the next level? I share the initial steps here:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/drpramodsolanki-growthcatalyst_executiveteam-ceo-cxo-activity-7148545763575341056-Crxj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

As we get set to enjoy the year end break, here is something radical to mull over.

(The last week is usually a vacation or at least an easy week. And a few minutes of reflection -call it work if you like😊, can be refreshing when you have a long break).

If you are prioritizing which lever of growth to focus on, do look at your executive team first.

Why do I say this?

Not because executive team members are not as competent as others in the organization. They are naturally among the most competent. That’s why they are there at the top. (And I never forget that it is this group that gives work to people like me😊)

Yet, I say this for two reasons.

One is more in the form of an analogy that you have probably heard.

It was our first Prime Minister who had famously remarked: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual. However, if you educate a woman, you educate a whole family”.

My view is that when you enhance the effectiveness of an executive team member, you enhance the effectiveness of his whole team.

When an executive team member is at her best i.e. she can engage and inspire his team; excels in leading execution; can think long term and strategize etc., her entire team / division benefits from this, in terms of performance, engagement and inspiration.

If he faces any challenge in aligning his team, keeping it in the best shape, that’s when the help of others- internal or external to the organization, will produce real value as the team can see the leader as a role model and his keenness to raise their effectiveness.

Now take the executive team as a collective, an entity by itself.

When the whole team is truly aligned on the mission of the organization, it’s vision, the strategy and the core value it wants to live by, the spirit gradually percolates down to the rest of the organization. Over a period of time, the whole organization mirrors the way the executive team is functioning (#SteveJobs). And the results are spectacular.

Lest you should think that I am only sharing a personal view point, take a look at some of the studies.

First, the impact of an executive team member when he/she operates as an effective leader.

Besides what we see around, here is the excerpt from the research by Heidrick & Struggles on 3000 leaders drawn from diverse industries and functions, worldwide:

“ …Furthermore, leaders’ ability to inspire meaning and purpose in others not only affects their own effectiveness and the effectiveness of the organization but also has a notable positive effect on their team members’ effectiveness and ability to think about the future, which also builds organizational capacity.” (Karen R. West & Megan Herbst, April 2020).

Gallup ‘s research over 25 years has brought out that 50-70% of the employee’s perception of the work environment is driven by the actions of their managers. And organizations that take care to provide positive work environment, see improvements in customer satisfaction, greater innovation, and generate 25% higher profits than organizations that do not provide a positive employee experience.

The research by Vantage Leadership Consulting g ( Jacqueline Ackerman , 2023) on 50 executive teams found team performance to be highly correlated to the leader performance i.e. when team leaders are more effective, their teams are more effective.

And there are more.

Now look at the executive team as a unit.

New York Times best-selling author and an acclaimed management consultant Patrick Lencioni had remarked way back in 2002 “Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and rare.”

Again, Jacqueline Ackermanof Vantage Leadership Consulting avers “…In over 45 years of consulting, we have found that high-performing teams are indeed rare.  Many teams underperform or are average (at best), and while there are myriad of reasons for this, the role of the team leader in creating high-performing teams is worth exploring.

The leadership team has a significant impact on an organization's performance. Effective leadership styles that align with organizational culture and values can foster a positive workplace environment and enhance organizational performance (Gomathy, Karthikeya, Sirkar and Sai, @International Journal of Scientific Research on Engineering and Management, May 2023).

And there are more.

Hope this is enough to establish that the top team needs to be right on the top when it comes to the growth levers for an organization.

The top team members being small in no., organizations can afford to pay personalized attention to them, as individuals and as a team.

Organizations can craft learning journeys that best cater to their learning needs – be it mentoring and coaching, on-the-job learning / action learning projects, workshops and courses to build right perspectives etc.

Learning activity has always been challenged for its #ROI. This approach may well have some of the answers.

Get more out of the performance reviews

As we set goals for our team mates, we also need to help them- particularly the younger folks, chalk out the input plan to achieve the results. It not only gives us greater predictability of the results but also throws up leads for ‘preventive action’.

Why centeredness is so important for leaders? Some data-based inferences

Talent mindset and culture building are two key levers of sustainable performance. And the boards can help organizations raise their game around these with their (Boards’) oversight. Here is my article on the subject published in @Board Stewardship Inc 

Looking to start up in 2024? Here's what to consider while taking the leap: #LinkedInTopVoices #Entrepreneurship #LinkedInNewsIndia #founders

To say that executive team of an organization drives its success or failure is to state the obvious. After all, it is this team that sets targets, crafts strategy, designs structure and processes and sets the foundation for culture.

Yet, the percentage of top teams that fall in the excellence bracket seems rather small. A recent (2023) survey of senior executives by Centre For Creative Leadership brought out 65% of the respondents saying that their executive teams experienced clash between functional and enterprise accountabilities – one of the key metric for top team effectiveness. Only 1 out of 5 respondents in the survey said that their executive teams were effective.   While there are many issues that the team effectiveness, two of the most important ones are: a)Lack of balance in functional and organizational responsibilities and b)Alignment- on shared goals, strategy and day-to-day working styles.   Think about an average organization, and the reasons for this are not far to seek. Unless they have grown in the same organization, executive team members are likely to have very different mindset and ways of working. After all, they come from different professional backgrounds and have grown in different cultures.

On top of that, the CEOs engage with the members of the top team primarily to review/discuss issues of their respective business verticals/functions. Only occasionally organizational matters are discussed with them.

Not that there are no opportunities for the CEOs / Entrepreneurs to engage with them on organizational goals / matters and set expectations. Here are a few that readily come to my mind:

1. Almost every business opportunity requires more than one vertical / function to deliver the best possible value and experience to the customer. ‘Did we work seamlessly and leverage each other’s strength in the best possible manner?’ Can be a very useful point for reflection and provide direction around cross-functional synergies for the future. 2. When the top team deliberates to craft strategy, are the members driven by protecting their turf or focused equally on the best possible organizational outcome? A useful datapoint for one-on-one discussions with the members to reinforce the balance. 3. Do the members have clear visibility of how their individual vertical/ functional goals and performance are impacting the shared, organizational goals and performance? Clarifying these and reinforcing them at every available opportunity can set the ball rolling.

Yes, that’s what people in leadership roles can prove to be.

Researches (Wiseman & McKeown, HBR , May 2010)  point out that effective leaders gain from their team as much as 2X of what their ineffective counterparts do.

So what are some of the major differences between the two? Please see the attached document.

Which end of the spectrum are you at? Are you working to progress towards the multiplier end?

One of the primary responsibilities of a leader is to enable and see that people work to their potential. After all, it’s a great win-win strategy for organizations and also employees. Not to forget that effective leaders can gain as much as 2X more contribution from their teams compared those who are not (Wiseman & McKeown, HBR , May 2010) .

Is this item on your agenda? Is it receiving due attention? Important questions to reflect.   If you at the top pay attention to it for your direct reports, please be assured that your 2nd rung of the leaders and the rest will start falling in line and It’s a matter of time before it becomes a way of working in the organization.

While there are many ways to enable people to work at their potential, let me share a few ideas based on the work of Glenn Llopis - an entrepreneur, a senior executive, an advisor to Fortune 500 companies, contributor to HBR , Forbes and Entrepreneure on leadership strategy and author of many best-selling books. 1. Encourage them to be themselves: Everyone has a ‘default setting’ i.e. their natural preferences, ways of thinking and acting- their authentic identity. Great leaders embrace that and build off the strengths of their people, rather than expecting them to follow their (leaders’) ways thinking and acting. As people gain confidence in their authentic identities, the roadmap to their advancement starts unfolding and they keep progressing to enhance and realize their potential.

2. Grow their decision-making abilities: It’s at decision points that peoples’ capability is stretched to the limits. Great leaders use these opportunities not only to give ready solutions but also to understand what is limiting the person to take a call – inadequate information/understanding of the situation; ability to anticipate consequences- obvious and not so obvious; in near term and long term and so on. Based on the same, they guide the person, slowly reducing their dependence on the leader.

3. Expand their performance tolerance threshold: Great leaders keenly observe and understand the threshold of their people – to handle volumes, new challenges and adversities. They work with them in these areas to understand the fears and sometimes self-imposed limitations and encourage and guide them to go beyond what they think they can handle. As people gain confidence, their thresholds change.

4. Surround them with high potential people: When a person works with people who handle bigger challenges and risks, his/her own confidence also grows. The people you want to develop, put them on assignments where your high potential people to crack major challenges. As they work with them, their own confidence to take chances/risk also grows.