Category: Effective Leadership

What is a Multiplier? In brief, it’s someone who multiplies the efforts of those around them–the effect of which is to, at least, double the productivity of a group. They are in contrast to Diminishers who have a negative effect on the productivity of a group.

Chances are good that you have experienced both a Multiplier and a Diminisher in your career, even if you did not label him/her as such.

The book Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman, contrasts Multipliers and Diminishers using the following matrix:

Dimension/Discipline	Multiplier	Diminisher
Attract and Optimize Talent	Talent Magnet–attracts talent that wants to work for him/her.	Empire Builder–hoards talent and maintains control at the expense of developing others.
Create Intensity that Requires Best Thinking	Liberator–produces a climate focused on results that is both comfortable and intense.	Tyrant–to get results, introduces a fear of judgment that stifles thinking.
Extend Challenges	Challenger–challenges themselves and others to push beyond what they know and have done before.	Know-It-All–gives directions to showcase their knowledge and competence.
Debate Decisions	Debate Maker–drives decisions through rigorous debate from all constituents.	Decision Maker–makes decisions in relative isolation and without meaningful debate.
Instill Ownership and Accountability	Investor–provides resources and expectations that stimulate commitment and high performance.	Micromanager–holds on to ownership including attention to details and directly managing for results.

So, what’s the point?

Simply that you should use the Multiplier/Diminisher concept when you next hire or promote someone. It is another lens to view someone’s career through.

For a long time, we’ve preached paying attention to a person’s values and traits when hiring–along with their competencies, of course. We added the Multiplier/Diminisher “lens” this past Fall to great effect. A few questions during an interview can distinguish between the two–definitely verified by talking to past supervisors and other references.

As an aside, the website for the book Multipliers has an assessment for free to determine whether you are an Accidental Diminisher–for the brave at heart.

As always, please let us know if you would like some help with this topic or any of our newsletter topics from the past…

Wow, not much of a contest, was it?  What can we learn as business people from Seattle’s victory?

First thing that came to my partner’s mind was that we witnessed a simple plan well executed.  There wasn’t a lot of flash.  The Seattle defense got after Denver.  Their offense moved the ball.  Yes, there were a couple of misdirection plays, but for the most part it was straight forward smash mouth football.

Offense is sexy.  Sales is sexy.  Manning had set records in passing yardage and touchdowns.  So what?  His offense was ineffective all night.

Same thing can happen with sales.  We can set records, yet not get the right product or service shipped.  How often has your top line exceeded budget while the bottom line was under water?

We need to execute in all areas; offense, defense, special teams, coaching to win the big games.  Sales, production, development, finance, leadership must all be at the top of their game and work as a team.  A season of excellence in one area will not mask issues in the others with big opportunities on the line.

Keep the plan simple and execute it.  Don’t try to get fancy.  Do what you do very well and success will more often be yours.

From our newsletter (please subscribe to receive these posts directly–see column on right):

Cash Supply

One challenge faced by all but a few organizations is Cash Supply. Cash is analogous to oxygen for an organization–when it is plentiful, it’s easy to breathe and move about freely (explore new opportunities). When it’s in short supply, both basic movement (standard operations) and new movement (growth) are hard, if not prohibited.

One way to face the challenge of Cash Supply is to examine and improve the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC). The CCC measures how long it takes from the time you spend a dollar (on sales, marketing, proposals, rent, inventory, wages, etc.) to when you get that dollar back.

In the early days of Dell, their CCC was running 63 days and caused them to almost run out of cash. By focusing on decreasing the cycle, Dell got it down to minus 35 days. This, in effect, meant the faster they grew, the more cash they generated–an enviable position for any business.

We believe all growth firms can significantly improve their CCC like Dell or at least lower it to the point where they give themselves sufficient internal cash to fuel growth. Like most things, improving the CCC does not happen by accident or without hard work.

At a minimum, we suggest company leaders read Neil Churchill’s famous Harvard Business Review article entitled “How Fast Can Your Company Afford to Grow” which provides the formulas for calculating your Cash Conversion Cycle.

Give us a call if you would like to discuss further exploring your cash conversion cycle… Mention this post to receive a free review of your Cash Conversion Cycle (certain restrictions apply).

 

The following slide show discusses how to identify and develop leaders at all levels of your organization.

Please use the following link for accessing the self-awareness scale mentioned in the presentation: Link.

Also, please contact us if you have questions or would like help with developing the leaders within your organization (including yourself).

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

Core values are integral to your company Strategy.  How, you ask?  Good question.  Core values provide the foundation for a team to work within and they inform organizational culture.  They comprise the rules of engagement, the social contract, how we expect to interact with each other.

“Who” decisions, not “what” decisions are often the most important decisions that leaders of organizations have to make.  Many organizations claim, and we agree, that their people are their most important asset.  People devise and execute an organization’s strategy.  The better they work together, the better the strategy and execution will be.

As Jim Collins writes in Good to Great, “…to build a successful organization you must get the right people on the bus.”  Core values help organizations determine who those right people are.  When people share values, they work better together as a team.  They have the same understanding of what is important and how to deal effectively with each other.  We work with our clients to interview for core value fit with every new hire.

Since core values inform organizational culture, they impact strategy on a deeper level, too.  We believe that culture is the only thing the competition can’t copy.   Culture provides the way a team works together and interacts with the marketplace.  From vendors to partners to customers, an organization’s culture is both evident and impactful.

Core values also provide the direction and help in everyday decision making, so important to execution of any strategy.  When they become an integral part of an organization’s culture, core values also help to improve teamwork.  As Pat Lencioni writes in his business classic, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, teamwork is a strategic choice.  Core values provide both the structure and the gearing in which teamwork operates effectively.

Strategy itself, without execution, is just so many words, an empty vessel.  Execution requires commitment from a team that works well together.  The team is determined then strengthened and guided by their core values.  Without those accepted norms of behavior, teamwork and execution both suffer.

Core values are at the very foundation of a solid and sustainable strategy.  As Steven Covey wrote in First Things First, values clarification helps determine the “true north” when determining what is most important.  We suggest that is at the core of all successful strategies.  To that end, first work on making your core values alive and exercised daily within your organization.

By Dr. Donald N. Sweet

We believe your brand promise is at the core of your strategy.   We define brand promise as our business commitment to the marketplace.  We promise that every client, every customer can expect the same specific high level of service or product from us.  In doing so, a brand promise:

•    Brings clarity and focus both internally and externally
•    Defines our uncommon offering
•    Demands we know our core customer well
•    Require metrics to measure delivery of our promise

Bob Bloom in his book, The Inside Advantage, talks about identifying what he calls your “uncommon offering”.  It’s what our business uniquely offers the marketplace and separates us from competitors.  Our uncommon offering is important to our core customer and brings them unique value.

Bloom then suggests that we identify our core customer in great specificity.  Bloom suggests using both demographic and psychographic descriptors when we identify our best (core) customers.  He points out there may be several.  Bloom takes it a bit further in that he suggests giving each one a name to further emphasize their characteristics.

When we better identify our core customers we are freed up to focus specifically on them.  Our business, and therefore our brand promise, also:
•    Provides focus on the core customer(s)
•    Brings targeted messaging to attract more (core) customers
•    Helps free up resources from non-core customers for redeployment

It is just as important that a business know which set of potential customers will never be core customers.  They won’t pay for value.  They are hard to work with.  They take more resources than they are worth.  A focused brand promise with a well identified core set of customers allows us to profitably redeploy resources.

We suggest a lead promise and two supporting promises.  Southwest Airlines (before they started charging for bags) brand promise was, Lower Fares, More Flights, More Fun.  Low fares are the lead promise supported by the other two.  Just as importantly two of those promises could be measured, low fares and more flights.

We believe that the best brand promises can be measured.  We need to be able to objectively determine if we are meeting our promises or not.  Measurement is key.

Our brand promise also informs how we organize our business to best deliver our uncommon value.  To ensure that we are meeting our promises we need to have an organization that:

•    Is committed and understands their roles to effectively deliver on promises
•    Frequently measures results and is quick to take corrective action as needed
•    Has the right people on the bus, as Jim Collins would say

Finally our brand promises must be constructed with an eye toward execution.   We must be able to meet our promises to the marketplace.  We should always build in the execution steps when developing any type of plan or program.  Making promises we are unable to keep is silly and often leads to commercial suicide.

When you consider all the aspects of constructing a solid brand promise you can see why we believe it is central to any company’s strategy.  At its very core, strategy is about delivering value to the core customer while being different from the competition.

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

When we ask that question we get several different responses.  Sometimes it’s the deer in the headlights look.  “Our strategy said in one sentence?”  Other times the CEO will launch into a rather long, convoluted sentence.  When our follow up question is, “Will your management team say the same thing?”  The responses differ from the deer above, to “I hope so” to “I don’t know”.

We have been accused of using that as a trick question.  Is it really?  What happens when the entire management team can express their strategy in a single sentence?  Please spend a moment to ponder that before reading on.

When your entire team can express the company strategy succinctly, they better understand that guiding light.  Many of you will remember GE’s strategy under Jack Welch.  “We will be number one or number two in the markets we serve.”  How powerful that was.  Every executive, every employee knew if they weren’t one or two they really needed to get bigger or they would probably be spun off or tossed out.

Southwest Air took it a step further to a one phrase strategy, “Wheels Up”.  Southwest realized they only made money when the planes were in the air taking people to their destinations.  Everything Southwest did was aimed at getting “wheels up”.  They moved people in and out of the plane quickly.  They didn’t have meals to put on the plane or clean up as a result upon landing.

Furthermore they standardized on one type of plane in their fleet, the Boeing 737.  That allowed spare parts to be interchangeable.  Mechanics were all trained to work on the same plane.  They got really good at understanding their equipment.  In a pinch they could move parts and mechanics from one airport to another easily.  It was the same situation with pilots.   The flexibility and concentrated expertise they gained was enormous.

Strategy should inform all our decisions.  “Wheels Up” clearly did that for Southwest.  How many of us when faced with day to day decisions can look to our strategy for guidance?  How powerful would it be if we could?  We’re not talking about just the management team either.  Everyone at Southwest could see why many decisions were made as they furthered the company strategy.

We at Vital Growth are passionate about total company alignment.  When your entire team, from CEO to sweeper is pulling in the same direction, it’s powerful.  That is enhanced when the entire team understands the company’s strategy.  Keep it simple, straightforward, and meaningful.  What is your company strategy in a sentence?

by Dr. Donald N. Sweet

Do you have a “management” system?  When I ask most CEOs this question they usually respond regarding an accounting or ERP system.  Those are both management information systems.  While they are important to keep track of things, they are not what we mean by a management system.

A good management system keeps track of important things, too.  Items like core values, purpose, long term goals, current strategy, brand promises, target market(s), three year goals, quarterly priorities, key performance indicators, etc.   These are many of the critical pieces of information a well-run and successful business needs to communicate to the entire team.

We believe a key competitive advantage can be had by making sure that every person in the organization understands at least those nine items listed above.  Core values are the social contract we live and operate with.  They help us make better interpersonal, hiring, vendor, and customer decisions.  They inform our communications with all stakeholders.  When the entire team adheres to core values things run smoother.

When the entire team understands the strategy, purpose, and long term goals, we find people are more likely to pull in the same direction.  Too often we find organizations where the right hand doesn’t know what the left one is doing.  That’s no way to run a railroad or a business. 

When the team understands the company’s target market and brand promises we empower them to make better customer and commercial decisions.  At the end of the day, we need more people in our organization understanding that the customer is our reason for being in business.  It is up to us to educate them about those issues.

Priorities are key to get the right things done.  We all have long “to do” lists but it’s usually impossible to get them all done.  Focus on the important few is critical to making the progress we desire.  Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help us keep score of our progress.  Data reduces subjectivity.

A good management system will help you accomplish all of these and more in your business with less effort.  We help our clients implement the Gazelles One Page Strategic Plan to this end.  It’s simple, straightforward and elegant.  It helps to get the entire team on the proverbial same page.  Communication is critical to get everyone understanding the most important aspects of your business.  A good management system will help you do that effectively.

by Dr. Donald Sweet

We often ask prospects to name their top five priorities.  They struggle to do that.  Setting clear priorities is critical to getting the most important things done.  If your priorities are not clear, then your team doesn’t know where to focus its energy.

Priorities, along with data and communications, are the fundamental building blocks of a growing business.   If it is not clear what the most important things are, lots of effort will be spent on less important ones.  Priorities must be clear.

We ask clients to determine their five most important priorities are for the quarter.  This is where the heavy lifting is done.  Determining the top five priorities requires spirited debate by the leadership team.  They must adhere to the overall strategy and move the organization toward its BHAG (long term goal).

Spirited examination about what is best for the business is key.  There is no room for protecting turf or pet projects in this debate.  In determining the five most important goals for the quarter, a number of others are left on the sideline.

We often see teams and individuals with “to do” lists that take up a whole page.  When you have twenty seven different things to do it’s almost impossible to get the most important ones completed.  As Pat Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, says, “If everything is important, nothing’s important.”

Pareto famously stated 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.  This is also known as the Vital Few.  When we focus on the vital few priorities we improve our probabilities of getting the most important tasks accomplished.

We also ask our Gazelles clients to name their number one priority for the quarter.  We call that the Top One of Five.  By agreeing and communicating the most important priority for the quarter we leverage the efforts of the entire organization.  When the goal is clear, people respond.

Once this process is in place, it is important to spend the time and effort moving toward the top priorities.  We see too many organizations that set priorities and then discard them when the next shiny penny appears.  This is one of the vital reasons a vigorous debate is required up front.  If we have used a solid process to determine the priorities, we must have the discipline to see them through for the quarter.

So much energy is wasted tacking back and forth, switching priorities during a quarter.  Believe in the process, stick to your decisions and work on your top priorities.  This is the best way to ensure you and your team get the most important things done.

Wherever there is an effective organization, there is a high performing leadership team. They go together.

What distinguishes high performing leadership teams from average teams is an intense focus on results, a norm of holding each other accountable, and the habit of responding quickly and effectively to challenges.

Patrick Lencioni (see The Five Dysfunctions of a Team below) knows that high performing teams are only possible when there is a high level of INTERPERSONAL TRUST. As Lencioni points out, this is not just any kind of trust, however. He distinguishes between PREDICTIVE TRUST and VULNERABILITY TRUST.

PREDICTIVE TRUST is the kind that allows you to be confident people will do what they say they are going to do. VULNERABILITY TRUST, on the other hand, is the type you have when you are confident others will accept you as you are—warts and all.

In a team setting, VULNERABILITY TRUST means being able to say, “I need help” or “I screwed up” without fear that other team members will react with criticism, overt or covert ridicule, shaming tactics or other demoralizing behaviors.

It also means people are “real” with each other and genuine in their expression of their thoughts and emotions. We all have limitations and hopefully have learned to have compassion for our own limitations as well as the limitations of others. After all, it is limitations that high performing teams overcome…together.

VULNERABILITY TRUST further entails people being able to lower the “mask” they wear to protect themselves from criticism and fear of rejection. We all wear this mask and it serves us well because the world is full of people who will criticize and otherwise try to exploit weakness. But in a team environment, to optimize performance, we must be able to drop the mask and feel we belong and are appreciated despite any limitations.

This is the case because it takes a lot of energy and time to maintain a mask. Excuses, blaming others, ignoring deadlines, sweeping things under the rug, and white-lies all help maintain the mask but cost both energy and time that would be better spent working toward the organization’s goals.

There is no faking being “mask-free” or “genuine,” either. We all know the difference between someone who is being genuine and someone who is being phony. It’s easy to discern the real message when the words are “I’m sorry” but the tone is “I’m not sorry.”

The team without VULNERABILITY TRUST is rife with workplace politics, has minimal fun, exhibits poor engagement and has little claim on positive results. The team with VULNERABILITY TRUST, in contrast, has fun, lacks ambiguity and asserts their ownership of positive results without dispute. People who are members of such a team FEEL the difference—which is often the greatest reward.

It is not easy to establish VULNERABILITY TRUST. Like most trust, it builds slowly and needs constant nurturing if it is to grow. It’s hard but rewarding work…kind of like gardening or farming.

You can accelerate the build-up of VULNERABILITY TRUST by being intentional about it and vigilant when the inevitable lapses occur. Tone of voice and sideways glances alone can send the wrong message and erode hard-earned gains. Shaming and other demoralizing behavior are even more devastating to VULNERABILITY TRUST.

Leaders can leverage their position and model trust-building, mask-free behaviors. The only leadership behavior more important than modeling genuineness is “crushing” anyone who acts in a demoralizing way toward others. The saying “one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel” is very apt when it comes to demoralizing behavior within teams.

This is not to say teams need to walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting anyone. Quite the opposite. But until proven otherwise, problems are shared among team members and individual limitations are seen as an opportunity to pitch in or contribute extra attention in those areas for the sake of the organization. What’s best for the team and the organization trumps everything and team members contribute to the best of their ability to everyone’s gain.

Start to build VULNERABILITY TRUST today.