Tag Archives: leadership

Influencing Corporate Culture

Posted on August 24, 2011 | 3 Comments

I’ve spoken to a number of executives lately who are concerned about their corporate culture and who want to know the key areas for leveraging change. Here are four areas that influence culture directly and are in your control as an executive team:

  1. What behaviours we allow (we teach people what okay and not okay)
  2. What we reward (monetarily or through praise, promotion, and recognition)
  3. Who we hire, what we look for when we hire, and who we help “exit” the business
  4. The visible behaviours of the executive team we demonstrate to the rest of the company

→ 3 Comments

Posted in human resources, leadership

Tagged ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: How to make better decisions faster

Posted on August 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

[read time: 5 mins]

Very rarely do I hear from CEO’s and executives who are worried they will not be able to plot a strategy that makes sense for their company. More often than not, their greatest challenge lies in execution of the plan. One of the core issues in execution that holds back progress is ineffective decision making systems that result from a limited understanding of how decisions are made, who has the ability and responsibility to make decisions and what criterion is being used to make those decisions.

The ability to make clear, definite decisions in a timely fashion can be the difference between leading and lagging the competition. If key people in your organization are in decision paralysis what effect is that having on overall progress? Can you afford the extra time it’s taking to make decisions in your competitive industry?

So what can you do about it? Take a good look at how your decision-making culture might be slowing down the execution of your strategic plan by starting to understand which of these common blocks may be holding you back from making timely decisions:

Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, leadership, strategy

Tagged , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Fix your meetings. Now.

Posted on July 6, 2011 | 2 Comments

[read time: 4 mins]

Let me paint the scene: you have a group of executives and senior managers, all well-paid, spending most of their weeks in meetings pretending to be paying attention to mind-numbing updates being read from the document they have sitting in front of them while doing the “Blackberry/iPhone Prayer”: holding their smartphone under the table, replying to email, texting, or furiously working to beat their high score on Angry Birds.

One of the most common complaints I hear from CEOs, Executives, and Senior Managers is that they spend most of their time in meetings, unclear what the purpose is other than the fact that the meeting is supposed to happen once a week, leaving them with little one-on-one time with their teams, desperate to clear out an overflowing inbox, and dreaming about having some whitespace in their calendar so they can actually be innovative and think creatively about the strategic direction of the business, organization, or even simply their division or team. Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, leadership

Tagged ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Adopt the right behaviours to help execute your strategy

Posted on June 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

[read time: 3 mins]

Your behaviour as a leader has an enormous impact on your team and your organizational culture. Understanding the effect of your leadership behaviours on the execution of your strategy is the first step in guiding your team in the right direction.

As a leader, the best way to harness momentum and motivation around your strategy is by consistently behaving in ways that you want to see others behave, and exhibit the behaviours that you want to ingrain into your culture and ultimately pass down to everyone in your organization.

Here are a few things you can do to sustain momentum and support the execution of your strategy by being intentional with your leadership behaviours:

Be decisive and take action, however small, towards your goal. When temptation to postpone, cancel or move deadlines presents itself, let people see you take one small step toward the goal – when you can’t do it all, something is better than nothing; if you can’t do all of it, do some of it. When you put a visible emphasis on forward motion in the execution of your plan, chances are others will follow your lead. Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, leadership, strategy

Tagged , , , ,

Leadership Minute: Clearing Conflicts as They Arise

Posted on May 6, 2011 | 1 Comment

→ 1 Comment

Posted in human resources, leadership

Tagged ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: How to build a corporate culture that effectively executes strategic plans

Posted on May 3, 2011 | 4 Comments

[read time: 3-4 mins]

Over the years, I’ve become convinced that the “10/90 rule” is the best guide for dividing your time and energy between strategy and execution: 10% of the value of strategic planning is in the creation of a plan that outlines direction and priorities for the coming year; 90% of the plan’s value comes from an organization’s ability to effectively execute that plan.

If your organization is like many, once the executive team leaves the room after strategic planning, the daily grind takes over, the months start to tick away and before you know it you’re partway through the year and have made virtually no headway in executing on your strategy.

The reality is, there can be a giant gap between what needs to be done to execute a plan successfully and the potential of the organization to make it happen; it’s about more than resources and capabilities. It’s about culture.

The truth is that cultural norms can make execution far more challenging than it needs to be. Execution takes buy-in, emotional commitment to the plan and discipline. But the one element that has the greatest impact on successful implementation is your organizational culture.

Here are a few ways you can begin to shift the culture of your organization toward one that’s focused on execution. Continue reading →

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, leadership, strategy

Tagged , , ,

Leadership Minute: Annual Performance Reviews

Posted on March 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

→ Leave a comment

Posted in human resources, leadership

Tagged , ,

Road to Respect: Path to Profit by Erica Pinsky

Posted on November 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

It is no secret that the world we work in has changed dramatically in the last few decades – the way we work, the type of people we want to work with and the type of work culture that drives positive results.

With all of these changes, Erica Pinsky points out in her book Road to Respect: Path to Profit that the one thing that hasn’t changed is that employers still hold the ultimate power in the workplace; with that power comes an even greater responsibility to build a culture based on respect as the key to sustainable profitability. Studies show that money is not the main factor keeping employees in a job any more; people stay because of workplace culture and relationships.  Therefore, with the shifting demographic and opportunities available in the new millennium it is imperative that organizations are aware of the dramatic effect their workplace culture has on the bottom line.

Through case studies and stories about what the top Employers of Choice are doing right, Pinsky encourages us to evaluate the current state of our work environment and empowers leaders to be proactive in building the kind of respectful work culture where the link between culture, job performance and profit is appreciated.  The Road-to-Respect: Path to Profit offers key insights and calls to action that change the way we view respect in the workplace.

Part 1 takes us through what respect is and what it looks like as a core competency in the workplace.  Part 2 dives into how to create a value-based culture where respect is one of the most important core values.  Pairing examples of how some of the most well-respected and successful organizations in Canada are doing this with impressive statistics, we are shown how things like embracing diversity, aligning people and processes with core values, having respectful collective leadership and promoting coaching throughout the organization can transform an organization into an Employer of Choice that attracts and retains the top talent. Part 3 is where the course is really charted. While every organization will find its own path, Pinsky, provides tools on how to assess and evaluate respect in your current culture starting with questioning and information gathering as the foundation.

This easy to read book paints a clear and vivid picture of what the many facets of respect looks like in a thriving organization.  Through numerous ‘respectful practices’ we are not just told, but shown how to move toward a culture where respect is a living a core value and success and profitability are the outcomes.  It is the “roadmap” to respect and path to profit.

Definitely worth the read.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in leadership

Tagged , , , , , , ,

BIV Boardroom Strategy: Contemplation and reflection are key to strategic corporate planning

Posted on November 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

[read time: 4 mins]

In preparing for your annual strategic planning session your role as CEO is to take some time to contemplate where your organization is today, what challenges and opportunities it is facing, where you see the future of the organization, and roughly what the path forward looks like. A key portion of your time should be spent in what can best be described as day dreaming: scheming and dreaming about the near-term and long term future of your business.

 Now that you have your thoughts in order, let’s think about your team. A great deal of time is usually wasted in strategic planning experiences in drawn-out group discussions simply due to inadequate preparation. By spending time preparing in advance of the session there is considerably more time available for clarification, discussion and active debate in the actual planning.

 Mindstorm. The key to leveraging the collective brainpower of your senior team during the planning experience is to have them mindstorm in advance. Mindstorming is similar to brainstorming except that it’s done on your own. Mindstorming helps reduce the effects of groupthink and allow the participants to truly clarify their own thoughts prior to the experience.

 Gain insight. Here is a list of insightful questions for you and each member of your team to consider before stepping into a strategic planning experience: What changes in competition, the industry, key customers, the market, or the economy have the biggest potential for harm to our organization? What is the likelihood that each will occur?  Considering this past year in general and our last strategic plan: What worked well? What needs improvement? What’s missing? What resources or situations are holding me back from being most effective in my role? What are the critical issues that we’re ignoring that are getting in the way of our success? What issues do we complain the most about in our organization that never seem to get fixed? What am I hoping to accomplish in the strategic planning that no one knows about? What does success look like for me in this business or organization this year? What are our organization’s biggest strengths, weaknesses opportunities, and threats (SWOT)? What will our business or organization will look like in 5-10 years?

 Engage your direct reports. In order to get an even wider and more robust view of the current situation have your team poll their direct reports for their answers to the questions above. This not only prepares your executive team for strategic planning, it also engages their teams in providing critical raw data to the experience, helps illuminate potential blind spots and missed opportunities, and reduces the “black box” effect that teams sometimes feel when their leaders return from strategic sessions.

 Choose one big question. After contemplating these questions, ask your team to help identify the right question overall: the strategic question your organization most needs to be asking at this time. One of the key success factors for strategic planning is identifying the right questions to ask so that strategic planning can be focused and relevant.

 Leverage collective brainpower. You may have noticed that as part of the prep work we have not yet requested people to come forward with solutions to the challenges they see the organization facing today. When executives leap directly to solutions instead of bringing a blend of meaningful raw data and questions, the result can be a discussion focused on comparing myopic solutions, skewed by each executive’s perspective within the organization. The value of bringing together the team in a strategic session is to leverage the collective brainpower in the room on a common set of agreed upon inputs, towards creative well thought out solutions and strategies.

 A thoughtful, consistent approach to your team preparing for a strategic planning experience, combined with quarterly reviews of the plan throughout the year, helps raise the level of accountability, connection to reality, and engagement in the overall strategic direction that you choose to take.

PDF of original column in BIV Nov 2010 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Business in Vancouver: Boardroom Strategy, leadership, strategy

Tagged , , ,

Leading up

Posted on November 8, 2010 | 1 Comment

One of the challenges of being a good leader is understanding how to lead up and provide appropriate feedback to your leader while at the same time finding ways for your team to provide you feedback.

Here are three questions you can answer for your leader and ask of your direct reports:

  1. What am I doing too much off?
  2. What am I not doing enough of?
  3. What am I doing that is just right for you?

Whether in an annual review setting, quarterly check-ins, or more frequently, asking and answering these three simple questions is a quick and easy way to provide and receive feedback.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in human resources, leadership

Tagged , , , ,