Metcalf & Associates Blog

Prioritizing Business Success Through Organizational Transformation

 MM:  You know, Belinda, I have been a change management consultant for about 20 years now.  From what I am seeing now, in this time of huge transition both economically and in the philosophy of business, I'm thinking that the most effective way to support companies is to offer a targeted package to help senior leaders deal more effectively with complexity. 

Here's what seems to address the greatest need.

·         Invest in leadership development to enable leaders to change the way they lead in a changing business climate
·         Set the vision for the company in this dynamic business environment
·         Implement the changes necessary to thrive
·         Build resilience in people and the organization to enable them to integrate an ever increasing volume of change
 
And yet, given the pace most people are trying to maintain, how do they make time to invest in personal and organizational transformation?
 
BG:  Finding time for everything is an issue for everyone, including me!  We all have the same 24/7 and daily have to prioritize so that we are making decisions to do the important things first.  Remember Covey's model comparing tasks that are urgent and those that are important?  Too many times the important things get set aside for what is considered urgent, but isn't really important. 
 
When you think about it, nothing is more important than making sure your organization is aligned for success, and that we as leaders are keeping pace with that transformation.  We can waste a lot of time on things that don't matter if we neglect the basics for understanding how to change.
 
MM:  So, Belinda, it is clear that we both face time constraints and we also appreciate the urgency in being proactive about transforming companies and leadership teams.  We are following our own advice in designing offerings to meet business needs in an efficient way to make the greatest impact.

To support leadership teams in running a business along with focusing on good stewardship of people and resources, we have packaged our leadership and transformation services into an offering tailored to client needs that ranges from twelve months to 24 months.  Each one day session is designed to build on prior sessions with practical homework in applying learning to your organization. This year, our blog will focus on a client who has made significant progress in leadership development and strategy, and is now introducing the changes to the broader company using the twelve month offering.  We will join them on their journey with about one post per month that generally mirrors their development so you can see how our method might apply to you.

Photo credit: aforero  

Thanksgiving and Gratefulness

 

I am making this post on Thanksgiving Day 2009 so I want to talk about gratefulness and the role it plays in my professional life. It is an important part of my personal and leadership practice (practice - something I continue to do because it is never complete), By thinking about what I am grateful for when I wake in the morning, when I go to sleep in the evening, and during the day; I improve my ability to put the daily challenges in perspective. I can not remove challenges from my life but I can meet them with grace. By showing grace during the difficult times, I improve my emotional intelligence and improve ability to lead others effectively.

As a leader, people look to me to set the tone for how we work. I often struggle to manage all of the tasks at hand and still make time to take care of my self. This simple practice allows me to quickly "reboot" when I face a challenging situation. “Gratefulness enables us to find peace in all circumstances by freeing us from resentment. As long as we are merely thankful, we give thanks for what we perceive to be beneficial, yet we retain the lurking fear that something harmful may come our way instead. To be grateful is more. It is our courageous trust that life itself – kind or harsh, happy or sad – is good, if only we receive it as gift. The gift is the opportunity either to fully accept or to change what the moment brings. The moment we trust in this truth, we are at peace.” From http://www.gratefulness.org/. Consider subscribing to the daily gratefulness email. We believe the act of being grateful is one powerful and simple practice associated with later stages of leadership development. It provides the individual an opportunity to reflect on the good in their lives even when what is happening in the moment may be very challenging. A few basic recommendations:

• At the end of each day take 5 minutes to review what you are grateful for,
• Take 5 minutes to write what you are grateful at the beginning or end of the day,
• Take a minute to think about what you appreciate about a person before you enter a challenging conversation with him/her,
• Tell your family and friends what you appreciate when they do something you like - be very specific. An example from my life this week: Carlene, when you walked my dog on last minute notice I was so grateful. My plans changed at the last minute and I found myself distracted and thinking about my dogs sitting at home. Your letting them out allowed me to focus on my work and stop feeling guilty.

The act of gratefulness seems so simple yet many of us do not make it a daily practice. It is free, quick, easy and available to absolutely everyone who wishes to practice it. So, as we enter the holiday season and bring 2009 to a close, I encourage you to consider what you are grateful for, especially if this was a challenging year.

I want to share a partial list of what I am grateful for today:

• faith that sustains me and helps me keep all of life in perspective - successes and challenges,
• friends who support, challenge and encourage me,
• family who has always believed in me no matter how silly I was (and continue to be),
• clients- I am really fortunate to work with amazing clients who are using leadership development programs to make a major impact on the world,
• graduate students who work diligently to become more effective transformational leaders,
• pets, Sabina and Beau the dogs and Boone the cat,
• challenging and rewarding work - I really love what I do,
• amazing colleagues - I am really fortunate to work with very talented change management consultants and alliance partners,
  
• physical and emotional health,
• non-profit board work - I am very fortunate to have the resources, skills and energy to give back to the community,
• network of talented people across the globe who shape my perspective and make me a better person,
• great neighbors - I live in a community of caring people who support and encourage one another,
• earth and natural resources - that gives us what we need to survive including: food, shelter, and beauty,
• artists - they make our world more beautiful and meaningful,
• philosophers, researchers, and scientists who make our lives richer, more productive, and philosophically deeper.

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we at Metcalf & Associates would like to express our gratitude to all of our clients, colleagues, and friends for all you have done to make us successful. We trust this holiday season and coming year will find your lives filled with reasons to be filled with gratefulness. Photocredit: alicepopkorn

By Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc.

 

Leading in Uncharted Territory - Rule #9 - Measure, Learn and Refine

In our exploration of Leading in Uncharted Territory, rule 9 is: Measure results, learn and refine approaches (also called dynamic steering). As we think about our current environment, good measurement systems and processes are critical. We find our environment changing on a regular basis and one of the most valuable elements of success is awareness that the situation has changed and what about the current situation has changed. Once we are aware, we can formulate a response which may include a new plan or direction.

Part of the value of our measures is they tell us what has changed. The next step is for us to interpret the measures and determine what to do with them. What meaning do we make of the data? Thorough analysis is critical as it leads us to appropriate action. Just like riding a bike, as the leader of the organization, I watch the road ahead of me, position of other bikers, cars, and potholes and adjust accordingly. I carry tools to tune and fix my bike if I am going on a long trip. Measuring and adjusting is for business what steering is for bicycling. I would not consider riding blindfolded in traffic.

The final element is action. Action can mean refining our approach or creating a new plan or direction. In changing times the idea that we "plan the work and work the plan" still applies as long as the plan still makes sense. If we execute an obsolete plan with absolute precision, we still end up at a destination that does not work for us.

I worked with a client implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP). As with all major software implementations, this one required changes in how people did their jobs. Continuing the old process would lead to serious business disruption . We started measuring the new behavior well before the system went live and reported it weekly in the leadership team meetings (there would be a very high impact for failure hence high level meeting discussions). we began to see behavior changes rather quickly when the business unit President was in the review meetings. As we monitored the changes over about a month we began to see significant variation. The statistics were telling us that the lead people had changed behavior but the people who performed this key role as back-ups had not been trained properly. We were able to quickly take corrective action in the form of training and the numbers reflected the improved results. The final outcome was the new behavior took hold before the implementation and there were no disruptions.

Measures can range from looking at what has happened like our performance against plan or anticipating what needs to change and measuring and monitoring tests or pilots of new solutions.

 

What are you measuring? Does your analysis drive to quick and appropriate action? Is there an opportunity to improve your dynamic steering?

 

Photo credit by: blank2industrial

By Maureen Metcalf of Metcalf & Associates, Inc.

Leading in Uncharted Territory - Rule #8 - Create Flexible Responsive Organizations

In our exploration of Leading in Uncharted Territory, rule 8 is: Create flexible responsive organizations.   As I think of leading during times of uncertainty one thing that comes to mind is selecting people who will be able to navigate the transitions we will likely face. This means having a selection process that helps to determine a person’s ability to manage change. Ask questions such as: Tell me about a change that happened in your organization in the past.

• What was your role?
• How did you support the success?
• Did you do anything to resist the change implementation What did you learn from the process? How will this knowledge impact your action in the future?
• What would you like to see from the new organizations leaders to be comfortable with change in the future?

For the company, it is also important to make sure the organizational structure has flexibility. What this can mean is:

• Using a contingent work force to navigate fluctuations in work load to minimize risk of hiring and firing;
• Outsource non-core work and leaving the staff building and management to outsource providers allows you to focus on building skills in your core areas.. An example of this includes managing facilities, data centers, web development and many others. This concept seems to be generally accepted in several fields like law and accounting and may be extended to other areas;
• Structure can also support flexibility. An example of this might be a client service team where all employees on the team support one another in meeting the client needs. In some cases this will break down silos and reduce staffing needs. Any structure must be carefully considered and aligned to the organizations specific needs;
• Transparency supports flexibility. The more employees know about the overall business and the environment, the more likely they are to take responsibility for their own growth and success. If we assume people are reasonable, more information will enable them to make better decisions, thus supporting organizational ability to respond to market conditions;
• Identify key behavioral changes that need to happen to support the new organization. Make a competition out of employees developing those skills where they compete with one another for recognition. Behavioral change can be fun and promote organizational success.

A practical example: I was working with a client who was implementing a great deal of change in their organization. We created something that looked like a comedian top 10 behavioral changes. Each week, leaders of the organization reported their success against key performance measures to the leadership team. Making the change became a source of pride. They created not only new behaviors but a system that supported ongoing behavioral change and an enjoyable culture.

A note about the photo - being flexible is a team activity - it is not only the job of the leader. Everyone's contribution is important. While my example talked about leaders, anyone can disrupt process and resistance can come from interesting and unexpected places.

Photocredit by Ash-rly

By Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc

Six Critical Steps to Preventing Failure During Organizational Transformation

For anyone who has led an organizational change, we know it can be complicated at best and at worst; it can limit your career and have a significant adverse impact on your business. In 2008, a McKinsey survey of 3,199 executives around the world found, as Kotter did in 1998, that only one transformation in three succeeds. Other studies over the past ten years reveal remarkably similar results. So, in times of profound change, where business success hinges on the leader and the organization being able to change quickly and effectively, what should we be doing to increase our likelihood of success? I focus on the impact of leadership as well as the systems and processes being used to implement the change. From Jim Collins book Good to Great and others, we have learned that Level 5 Leaders are more likely to successfully create long term sustainable change that moves the company to “greatness.”   The balance of this post is located at the blog of our good friend and strategic partner - thoughtLEADERS, LLC. Click here to read further.   Photocredit: by lepiaf.geo By Maureen Metcalf of Metcalf & Associates, Inc

Managing in Uncharted Territory - Rule #3 - Identify Your Best People the "Top Dogs"

In our exploration of Leading in Uncharted Territory, Rule #3 is Identify your top people as they are the ones who will help you navigate the transition. The research tells us that Level 5 Leaders are the most effective at leading transformation. If you have people in your organization who fit this criteria, you may want to include them in your transformation decisions. Their involvement in decision processes will depend on their level in the organization and business expertise.  With funds for development becoming more scarce, understanding the critical investments becomes more important. Additionally, knowing where you have skills and behavior gaps will be critical to taking advantage of key opportunities that emerge.  What criteria do I use to determine "best"?

    * Identify the key behaviors I want my leaders to have that will allow them to excel in uncertain times (how I act while getting results)? This would include characteristics like: flexibility, ability to identify opportunities and respond with proactive approaches, results focus, ability to inspire confidence and calm. These sound like the same qualities I would always want and they are and some standard qualities become more important during uncertainty - specifically the ability to inspire confidence and calm.
    * Identify skills and results my organization needs (what results I generate). The new skills should be connected to the plan referenced in Rule #2. I think about skills and results as different than key behaviors. This is do I have the technical or management skills to accomplish the work to meet our customer needs. Do we see opportunities for the organization that we can take advantage of IF we build specific skills?
    * Identify the glue that allows us to move forward and maintain a balance between honoring the legacy and building for the future. We may need to reevaluate a promote from within policy if we want to make a strategic hire to promote a new service line. This can be an unpopular decision if key individuals are expecting promotion and may also important to building our brand and position in the market.

Once I know the key criteria, how will I measure people?

    * I use assessment tools to provide objective feedback on behaviors such as 360 degree feedback or competency based behavioral assessment. Do you use similar tools?
    * I tend to build performance evaluation processes the link individual performance to business results where possible. Do you have an evaluation process in place now that measures business results by person? If not, how do you measure results and give feedback?
    * I build performance management systems that balance both behavior and results. How do you weight results against behavioral performance? How do you weight them? Do people who get results get to behave how ever they choose? What is the impact on others in the organization? Do you want to use this time of change to change how people are evaluated and how they behave?

What action do I take with the information I have gathered?

    * One you verify your top people going forward, what do you do to keep your "top dogs" inspired? How do you include your key people (even if they are junior in the organization) in activities that will support your success? Do you budget and monitor investment in developing your key people? How do you identify the highest impact opportunities for their development? Do you track the impact of your investment in development - things like retention and promotion rates?

    * Do I have anyone who is not meeting performance standards? If so, what action do I take? During good times it is easier to shine - during tough times mediocrity becomes more obvious. Cleaning house also becomes more important - many top dogs do not want to cover for others and see the whole organization impacted. Confronting poor performers takes courage and is critical to success during downturn.

Sample Story of CIO and his IT Organization

I worked with a client to identify their key people during a significant organization transformation project. I met with the leadership team to identify the people they needed to retain to succeed in their transformation. After we know who these people were - at multiple levels within the organization, part of my job was to stay connected with these people and check their satisfaction periodically. I understood who felt they needed to be promoted, who was looking for alternate work, and who was excited about their jobs. This allowed the business to balance individual satisfaction and growth with transformation success. While we had one key surprise, we had planned and developed back ups for each role and structured the project as much as possible to help key people meet their development goals.

One thing that I did not mention is by identifying our key players, we also knew which individuals were not key players and could take corrective action. If we had to make tough decisions about who got a key role, we wanted to make the best decision for the long term health of the organization.

One of the most interesting elements of this project was the group of business unit leaders developing a common set of expectations about their staff and also deciding who they wanted to invest in. It was important to move beyond the "territorial" behavior that each leader wanted their people to be ranked highest and toward a shared set of resources that would be developed. This happened when the top executive decided to rotate people across the group after each leader "fought for their people". It was an interesting learning experience for several leaders to help move from taking care of "my guys" to taking care of "our people" after their guys got moved to another group.

- Maureen Metcalf of Metcalf Associates, Inc

Photo credit: Top Dog by Krossbow

Rule 2: Anticipate and Plan

It is still important to have a vision and mission as the serve as the deep anchoring mechanism that informs our decisions. Additionally, it is important to balance current plan with responding to signals from the environment that may suggest a change in direction. Some of the direction changes will require significant systemic changes and others will be taking advantage of short term opportunities presented because of the turmoil. I will use Metcalf & Associates as an example - we have an organizational vision and mission that guides all of our decisions. This is the why we are in business and what we hope to create in the world. Our mission is: to develop excellence in leaders by developing their full selves – body, mind, and spirit. During our complex times, these leaders develop innovative, sustainable solutions that serve their teams, organizations, and communities. We are committed to developing long term client relationships working with people who make an impact. We have annual goals and track progress toward these goals. These are what are most subject to change as we watch what is emerging in our world and respond to both opportunities and threats.

How do we track trends?

    * Read Futuredition published by Arlington Institute - examines trends in multiple industries
    * Watch Arlington Institute TAI presents videos updated periodically by John Peterson, a futurist - looks at the overall economic direction
    * Read trends in my industry through industry publications, blogs, and Wall Street Journal

Some of these trends are rather dire. While we do not advocate for a specific position, we do like to look at a best case scenario, a most likely scenario, and a worst case scenario. We use these to inform our thinking. We then put measures in place to monitor which scenario is unfolding so we can respond proactively. Much of what we are trying to do is steer our business from a concrete planning perspective. Additionally, we need to steer the organization emotionally in that we remain balanced and project confidence that we will successfully navigate the transition. It is critical to continually adopt talking points that indicate that we will successfully navigate the change. In addition to looking at scenarios and making changes in goals and structure, we also come across opportunities because of the economic down turn. An example of an organization that took advantage of an opportunity is Lindsay Gallery. They sell outsider and folk art and were invited to participate in a very prestigious art show, the Outsider Art Fair. Conventional wisdom would say that this would be a bad time to participate in new events. Duff Lindsay took this opportunity to make a strategic investment and use this opportunity to build relationships that will likely turn into long term customers. Additionally, part of the health of the overall art business is built on the art show infrastructure. This is an opportunity to support the health of the foundation of the business. This strategic investment will allow the Lindsay Gallery to develop the foundation for greater success during the downturn and the turnaround. This is an example of making a strategic investment in the business. The converse of investing in new opportunities is to decide where the business is spending money that will endanger their long term success. If there are areas that do not support the business either because they can not maintain the cost structure or they impact the ability to respond to opportunities, the business overall will be well served in considering other ways to allocate those resources. This could include asking people to take on different roles as well as re-evaluating capital investments and projects.

Questions for reflection

Do you have a clear mission and vision that you use to guide your daily decisions?

    * Do you have clearly defined goals for the year?
    * Have you created scenarios for your organization?
    * Do you measure key indicators to let you know which scenario is playing out? Do I have any strategic opportunities? Do I have any expenses that do not support long term health of the business?

Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf Associates, Inc

photo credit: telescope - Ny156uk, Question - Alexanderdrachmann

Rule 1: Build Emotional Intelligence

According to Daniel Goleman, "Emotional competence made the crucial difference between mediocre leaders and the best. On average, close to 90 percent of their success in leadership was attributable to emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is often defined as, "the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions" by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer (1990).   To enhance your emotional intelligence you may consider investing time doing the following:

   1. Quiet reflection which can range from traditional meditation, prayer, chanting through a walk in the woods.
   2. Self care including being mindful of healthy eating and getting sufficient sleep as often as possible.
   3. Exercising regularly is a great way to maintain our energy level and also "burn off" the negative chemicals that are released into our bodies when we feel stressed
   4. Cultivating friendships with people who offer support and kindness and give us an opportunity to give back. Friendship with pets counts - walk a dog or pet a cat until it purrs.
   5. Being grateful. Remember 5 things we are grateful for every day. This seems so simple yet this simple act can shift our perspective. When we feel bad - remember those who have less.
   6. Taking the perspective of the other when in conflict with another person, imagine what they may feel. I find that when I look through their eyes, the world may look different than I imagined from my vantage point.
   7. Serving others often makes us feel our best - even if very small for someone else. Some days I may only have time to give a smile and that may be enough to improve my day and theirs.

Please share recommendations that work for you and your success stories.

Please visit our website for information about our coaching services and case studies that show how our clients have succeeded using our leadership practices.

-Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc

How can you use your knowledge of Level 5 Leadership

After reading the articles on Level 5 Leadership or attending a class, how will you use this information to increase your effectiveness at work or at home?