The Halpinion

Making Meetings Meaningful

2010-12-14T06:58:00.001-08:00

Want to free up hours and hours for productive, strategic, proactive work activities?

Studies show that for every 20-minutes we spend planning and preparing for meetings, we save 60-minutes in rework down the line.

Why don't we consistently spend this critical 20-minutes?

So many people spend their days reacting to the intensity of their calendars. By rushing from meeting to meeting we tend to show up in meetings with very little clarity. Do we even know the purpose of every meeting scheduled on our calendar this week?

Without clarity about the purpose of a meeting, participants have little clarity about how decisions will evolve and resources will be allocated as a result of a meeting.

Worse, we have little understanding of our individual role in the context of this meeting.

To make meetings meaningful (and thereby much more productive) take 20-minutes prior to each meeting to get clear on these important issues:

1. What is the purpose of this meeting? Is it a standing committee, a team meeting or an ad hoc meeting for one purpose? Will decisions actually be made in this meeting? Will resources be allocated as a result of this meeting? Do I need additional data in order to be prepared to discuss issues from a strategic perspective.

2. What is my objective for this meeting? How might I move my related priorities forward during this meeting?

3. What is my role in this meeting? Am I the sole decision-maker? Am I there to add context or be briefed? Am I a member of a team that will drive solutions as a result of this meeting?

4. Do we have an official scribe for this meeting? Do we have a track record of documenting action items in a meaningful way that produce effective follow-up and real results?

5. Have I received an agenda for this meeting? Do the agenda items make sense, given the purpose of the meeting?

With only 20-minutes of preparation time, your meetings can be exponentially more effective. More importantly, meetings can be a key structure for building a corporate culture of transparency, alignment and accountability.

If you aren't strategic and proactive in preparing for meetings, you guarantee frustration and wasted resources in your very next meeting.

Your colleagues who have least amount of transparency about themselves will be disruptive by dominating the meeting and will drive the few, off-strategy outcomes.

It's your choice.

More Important Thoughts on Delegation

2010-11-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

I wrote on delegation a few weeks ago. Here are blog posts from two thought leaders in the field of leadership development, Dr. Lois Zachary and Paula Singer. The Harvard Business Review wrote about this critical leadership skill for new managers on September 21, 2010. This is a hot topic for all of us.

Delegation That Works for Everyone

2010-10-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

In my 35 year career, I've never met a leader who did not complain about the amount of time required and their own general lack of effectiveness in delegating. While I always empathize with their perception, I also encourage leaders to take the time, master this important skill, develop structures and create extraordinary results through others. Everyone benefits when this occurs; your customers, your engaged and empowered team and your growing organization.

When you, as a leader, choose to perform tasks by yourself instead of delegating to the appropriate person, you actually rob your own people of their potential. How can they grow professionally and aspire to greater roles of responsibility and accountability if you do not give them opportunities to experiment, learn and develop?

Further, if you do not delegate you become mired in details. These details distract you from adopting a more strategic perspective that is required to be an effective leader of a growth oriented company.

The key to delivering extraordinary results through others is transparency. If you can take the time to become clear on your desired outcomes and expectations in advance, delegation can be exponentially more successful. Specific metrics must be transparent, easily understood and shared among the entire team. You must define in advance how success will be measured. This ensures that the results can be delivered on time and on budget. While the results will meet your expectations, the method to drive to those results may differ greatly from your own, proven approach. This is key to growth. We must be open to new ideas and approaches in order to continually refine our processes.

Once you have gained a level of transparency, you must now be clear in your communication. Clear, complete and authentic communication requires setting aside time to share ideas, address concerns and mitigate the risk of misunderstandings. It requires a focused time when you and your people brainstorm potential solutions. It requires a 'safe to say' atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable voicing their concerns and ideas.

This kind of kick-off conversation is the first structure required to ensure successful delegation in a transparent environment. Other requirements could be periodic check-in conversations. If someone is not on a path to success wouldn't you want to discover that sooner rather than later?

The key to successful delegation is to build in transparency at every phase of the process. The results will be a higher quality product, more engaged employees who take ownership, and satisfied customers who are willing to pay a premium for your services and products.

Stay in this important conversation with your people. Don't let yourself be distracted. Everything works out in the end. If it hasn't worked out, you are not yet at the end!

Unique Perspective

2010-04-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Pete Walsh, my colleague for almost 15 years, I had a big shift last week. Pete presented at the Phoenix Chapter of the International Coach Federation. His presentation and facilitation were of great value to all of us. He pushed us to identify our Unique Perspective and incorporate that even more into our persona and presence. He especially emphasized our electronic presence.

I've been reflecting on this since last week's event when I read a beautiful quote from Eleanor Roosevelt today. "Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: "A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others."

Our Unique Perspective is based on our ability to first be honest with ourselves and then honest with those around us. The famous Arlene Rosenberg said to me on Friday "You've done a beautiful job of not being a victim of your past". I was very grateful for Arlene's words of wisdom. While I'm proud to have not been a victim, I am certainly informed by and a product of my childhood experiences in Mississippi and my, what felt like 150-year, career as a CPA. I'm grateful for all of those tough experiences because they made me who I am today. These experiences give me my unique perspective. My goal now is to incorporate even more of those experiences in my writing and speaking.

As I work on my 15th iteration of my book proposal today, it's great to remember that I need to share my experiences and my unique perspective in addition to the 15 years of success stories.

Thanks to Pete and Arlene and, of course, Eleanor Roosevelt for inspiring me!

My question for each of you: How might you share more of your own Unique Perspective today with your colleauges?

Resolve or Dissolve Conflict? You Choose

2010-02-21T13:29:00.000-08:00

Want to stimulate your own economic conditions? Dissolve conflict today!

Even when we theoretically resolve conflict we still have the economic and energy drain. Income and revenue will also go down the drain.

Dissolving conflict actually energizes all parties and strengthens connections. How does dissolving conflict actually work? It's not rocket science, I assure you.

First, let's focus on the conventional wisdom which is to resolve conflict. When you attempt to resolve conflict at least one party (either me or you) is most often left with a feeling of resignation. A sense that I was the one to give in. This results in a tiny chink in my connection with my colleague, my customer or my employee. That chink can fester for the rest of my life!

If you dissolve the conflict, the resignation never occurs. No energy drains. No chinks in your connections. When we can dissolve the conflict we can actually energize our connections with our colleagues, our customers and our employees. Out of these connections synergy occurs. Out of the synergy, creativity, innovation and profits flow. Not only can we positively impact the bottom line, we can help everybody sleep better at night.

So...how does this actually work? Pretty simple. Just look for 2 things: Where is the other person adding value to your organization, situation or bottom line. Once you are clear on this value, share this with the other party. It has to be genuine or the conflict or competing agendas will only get worse. People, like animals, can read our energy and if we are disingenuous, it will get sniffed out quickly and it won't be pretty.

After that, the key is to take 150% responsibility for the conflict. How do we do that? When it's so easy to rationalize, justify, explain, blame and defend, this can be tough. However, it's the key. Look for your role in the mis-communication, the breakdown, the frustrating situation.

To learn more about this amazing process that The Halpin Companies has used with clients all over the globe for 15 years, follow this blog.

Excerpt from Book Proposal

2010-02-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

Original Title: Step Up or Step Out: Let Your People Choose!
Current Title: Accelerate Your Success Today
Proposed Title with voting ongoing on Facebook: Profits and Peace of Mind Today

Executive Summary

In 1969 Howard started a professional services firm with a typewriter in his apartment. By 1997, the firm had grown to over 80 employees. This growth occurred because of Howard’s ability to build connections with prospective clients and sell them services. He then ensured that every client had an extremely high degree of satisfaction with the services they received. By 1997, when he met Katharine Halpin, Howard had paid a very high personal cost for his firm’s success.

Between 1997 and 2001, Howard grew this firm to over 120 employees and doubled the firm’s revenues. In 2010 this firm, based in the 5th largest city in the US, remains the largest locally owned firm in their field, two years after Howard’s retirement. Howard now spends his time traveling the globe and moving between his three homes, depending on the seasons.

How did Howard do this? He accelerated his own success, the success of his people, and the success of their clients by:

Communicating clearly, concisely and consistently: the vision for each client engagement,
the desired outcomes for each project and his expectations of each person on the team.

Managing himself with care so that he was able to respond instead of react when challenges occurred.

Learning to relate to each team member as if they were his best client while creating non-punitive, timely consequences for poor or mediocre performance.

Negotiating expectations by over-communicating specific details.

Asking questions continually to support others’ success in every detail of a client engagement.
Modeling a high degree of professional behavior and a mindset of curiosity that fostered strong connections among the team.

Supporting those team members who self-selected off his team to transition out with dignity, grace and ease.

Leading the remaining team members with care by building an environment where everyone felt encouraged, empowered and engaged.

Howard invented the essence of the Accelerate Your Success Today method. This method has now been used by hundreds of leaders in start-ups, family owned businesses, professional services firms, middle-market companies, and the Fortune 500. Leaders at all levels from Board Chairs to front-line supervisors have replicated Howard’s success.

As a direct result of the methods in Accelerate Your Success Today, revenues and profits have accelerated sometimes by a factor of 200%-300%.

More importantly, people have peace of mind. Leaders, professionals and front-line staff no longer wake up in the night with worry about tomorrow or their future. These people feel confident that alignment has been reached and projects are moving forward. They rest assured knowing that their company’s revenues, profit and their own financial situation are secure and growing.

Some companies have not been exposed to the powerful methods of Accelerate Your Success Today. In some companies, lack of alignment in values, vision, mission, and expectations shows up every day. Unless a leader builds alignment and fully negotiates expectations, conflict occurs. This conflict in the workplace is the single greatest cause of stress, lost productivity, and diminished profits in the world today. Left unaddressed, this conflict erodes relationships and the execution of goals becomes an afterthought. Soon the vision is forgotten, and profits become losses.

Leaders have it in their power to stem the tide of this conflict by fully communicating and negotiating their expectations. By applying the 7 Steps of Accelerate Your Success Today, leaders can turn chaos and frustration into a productive work environment where people are encouraged, empowered, and truly engaged.

Accelerate Your Success Today provides simple and practical solutions for leaders at all levels to successfully communicate and negotiate their expectations. Leaders and professionals alike will use these methods to consistently create win/win/win scenarios for their teams with grace and ease. Everyone in the company benefits - from the Board of Directors and Chief Executives to managers, administrators, and front-line staff will feel encouraged and empowered.

The results? Leaders in organizations of all sizes have created environments where 90% of poor performers Stepped Up and took personal responsibility for delivering results. The remaining 10% consistently self-selected out of the organization quickly - without blame, drama, or a severance package. Even top performers benefit from Accelerate Your Success Today. The increased clarity they gain further aligns their roles with their unique strengths, unlocking their deepest potential for success. As a result, top performers can become superstars.
The Book

Halpin says, “Accelerating your success and the success of others is not rocket science. It simply requires basic life and time management practices as well as old-fashioned communication and common sense.”

With the intensity of today’s work environment, the need for generating results and simultaneously maintaining positive work relationships has expanded exponentially. Yet, hardly anyone possesses natural talent for negotiating expectations. 90% of the population avoids speaking directly about what is not working, and the other 10% bombastically asserts their needs upon others. Both approaches create conflicts that waste billions of dollars daily – in all industries and in companies all sizes.

How can leaders accelerate everyone’s success today? What is required to articulate, communicate, and negotiate their expectations in advance? How can leaders take personal responsibility for the alignment of their people with their processes and their vision?

Accelerate Your Success Today provides simple yet profound solutions to building this critical alignment. It empowers leaders at all levels to get out of ‘maniac mode’ and ‘connect the dots’ for themselves, their people, and their organizations.

Using dozens of real-world success stories from her 15-year Executive Coaching career, author Katharine Halpin at last brings her highly effective methodology to a national audience. Accelerate Your Success Today creates a strengths-based culture where jobs align with the unique capabilities of the people in those roles. This book provides leaders with simple and easy to use tools. These tools are necessary to articulate, communicate, and fully negotiate their expectations – and to create a win/win/win with grace and graciousness. Leaders at all levels can use these powerful tools to create an environment for their colleagues to either step up - increasing productivity, innovation, and engagement - or step out.

The Audience

Halpin says, “Regardless of your years of experience or place on the org chart, if you interact with others you can benefit from the 7 simple methods of Accelerate Your Success Today. Anyone who deals with colleagues, customers or vendors will gain a tremendous edge in accomplishing their results. These methods are easy to understand and, more importantly, easy to implement.”

The bad news: Less than 25% of senior teams in corporations realize their potential for team effectiveness. This dismal statistic comes from a recent study by the Hay Group examining more than 120 senior teams in 11 countries. According to Ruth Wageman, Director of Research for Hay Group, “Most CEOs typically find the teams to be a source of frustration and alienation rather than a place where real leadership happens.”

The good news? More than 75% of corporate senior teams need this book! Accelerate Your Success Today instructs leaders and professionals from all walks of life to share the successes described in dozens of stories, from Fortune 500 corporations down to 3-person professional services firms.

Every business leader wants to:
· unleash innovation and creativity,
· significantly increase productivity, and
· gain much greater market share.

While Accelerate Your Success Today expressly targets CEOs, their C-Suite team members, and Boards of Directors, every human being - regardless of culture, education, or ethnicity - needs positive interactions with others. Accelerate Your Success Today systematically provides the keys to unlocking positive professional relationships through encouragement, communication, and negotiation. This book will be read throughout the company, from the board room to the front lines.

copyright 2010 The Halpin Companies, Inc.

Gratitude

2009-12-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

When I think about my final preparations for the holiday season I am reminded of all that I have received. We all have much to be grateful for.

Over the past year so many people have contributed to me. I'm pleased to report that three of my four newest clients all came to me as referrals from my colleagues who have not actually been in a coaching relationship with me. For the past 15 years all of our clients came from other clients. This breakthrough in 2009 expands the potential for our client base exponentially.

In addition to our families and communities we have our health, our intelligence, our faith. With all of this it's easy to ignore the bad economy, the cold weather (55 today in Phoenix, brrrrrr), and the stress of the holidays.

It's so corny but gratitude does equal a 'great attitude'. My wish for all of my family, friends and colleagues is that we can keep our focus and mindset on our many blessings and connections with each other and look for opportunities to celebrate these connections over the next few weeks.

I am confident that 2010 will be a banner year for all of us at The Halpin Companies.

Do you sabotage yourself?

2009-11-18T14:52:00.000-08:00

On Saturday the Phoenix Chapter of the National Speakers Association celebrated Cavett Robert Day. It was Cavett's birthday and as the founder of NSA, we all love to plug into his energy in any way that we can. We watched a video of one of Cavett's speeches and he told the story of a hobo lying on a park bench. When he looked up he saw a gentleman, wearing a silk top hat, riding in the back seat of a limo. The hobo looked up and said: "There but for me go I". We all laughed out loud and as I've repeated this story over the past few days everyone has continued to have a great chuckle. Why do we make poor choices that then limit our success? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. For me there are a few key, non-negotiable, practices. I find that if I keep these practices in place on a regular basis, the quality of my decisions is far greater. My personal practices include aerobic exercise, writing time and think time. I'll look forward to hearing about what support structures you have in place to limit the times that you sabotage yourself and your organization.

Slow Down!

2009-11-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

I received an email from a close professional colleague on a Sunday. It was about an event that had not yet occurred. When I wrote back she realized that she was off by a week and she was AHEAD. How many of us are working ahead these days? With multi-tasking provided by our 24/7 smart phones, many of us are literally out of control. We have to step back, get some oxygen to the brain, get ourselves grounded through exercise and think time, remember what our purpose is and look at our calendar and commitments from a more balanced perspective. I have a variety of daily practices that I've developed over the years that keep me from having to be institutionalized. These include calendaring in a reflective manner, journaling and my think time. Let me know what your practices look like.

Risk Tolerance - A Gender Difference?

2009-05-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Check out Jason Zweig's Mother's Day article in his regular column, The Intelligent Investor from the Wall Street Journals' Money & Investing section on Saturday, May 9. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124181915279001967.html

Whether it’s Wall Street, or Main Street, or pillow talk, it doesn’t matter. The author references Dr. Jennifer Lerner, a a Harvard Psychologist, but he doesn’t realize that this is not a gender issue. Gender is only a piece of this risk tolerance issue.

Women do bring a more balanced perspective about risk and risk tolerance than men - for all the reasons the author states (men tend to be more competitive than women and thus their desire to 'win', men are more likely to take action based on anger where women tend to take action based on fear)

But it’s more than that. It’s not so much about men and women as it is the balance of our masculine and feminine energies. That balanced perspective is what has been missing from our investments and our businesses, both large and small.

It's more than gender. It's a requirement every day to balance our masculine and feminine energies. This goes beyond gender. Both men and women have reserves of each kind of energy. The opportunity for all of us is to do whatever it takes to maintain a balanced perspective, especially about the important issues like our personal investments.

Get Paid What You are Worth

2009-05-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

Do you resent that the CEOs on Wall Street, your male colleagues in your company, even your spouse’s compensation?

What is missing that, if it were in place, would make your compensation higher, with more zeros attached?

Do you value yourself enough to figure out how to help the decision maker value you more?

Who are you being that has given them permission to disrespect you in this way?

The Importance of Being Strategic

2009-03-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

There is a reason I call myself a Leadership Strategist. Leaders cannot afford to NOT be strategic. Too much is riding on your decisions. Your customers, employees and the world at large can all be affected by a Chief Executive Officer’s decisions. In a perfect world these decisions are based on data, “the facts,” and a thorough analysis that has been vetted by your management team and Board of Directors.

If we find ourselves making decisions in a reactionary mode, it is fair to assume that these decisions will not be consistent with our personal and our corporate values. If this occurs, it is safe to predict that the decision comes with risk that has not been properly assessed. In addition, the probability of having significant, negative, unintended consequences is high.

In order to be Strategic Leaders, we must know our own values. We must continually look for ways to align our personal values with our corporate values and our decisions. When we make the daily effort to build in “think time,” we can remember what is most important. This provides the opportunity to take responsibility for driving thoughtful decision making. Chaos and confusion can be eliminated, and risks can be mitigated. Over time we will find that our people are most often on-strategy with their plans and goals. Our companies will be more profitable, have a greater market share and retain the best and brightest in talent. In addition, we will sleep better at night.

Reflection

Strategic Leaders are always strategic. Here are three questions for your 'think time.'

1. How often do I find my team members to be “off-strategy?”
2. What direct or indirect responsibility do I own when they are allowed to be “off-strategy?”
3. What processes do we have in place to support my team and me in making well thought out, strategic decisions?

The Halpin Step Up or Step Out Program

2009-02-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

For the past year I’ve shared my thoughts with you via The Halpinion. I have focused my thoughts primarily on how you, as a strategic leader, can help others quickly gain clarity about their strengths, their roles, their motivations, and your expectations. This increased clarity very often results in people stepping up, feeling encouraged, feeling empowered and engaging in new ways in the workplace - or self-selecting out by having wonderful job opportunities in Toledo, Ohio.

In this issue of The Halpinion, I would like to focus on the benefits of putting ourselves on the Step Up or Step Out Program. During these tumultuous times, each one of us can benefit from a more assertive and more effective approach to business continuation. I am confident that all of us can arrive at the other end of this recession with a greater market share, increased revenues and a stronger, more cohesive team. In order to achieve this we must grow ourselves to grow our market share, our companies, our portfolios, our cash flow and our profitability.

1.) Take full responsibility for your current level of results.

a.) Remove any regret or resentment about team members’ impact on your results, the current economic conditions, your company’s financial condition, etc.

b.) Continually ask yourself, “What is the growth opportunity for me at this time? What life lessons am I not getting?”

2.) Ask yourself: “Am I currently in a role that is in alignment with my strengths?”
3.) Who on my team is not currently in a role that is in alignment with their strengths?

a.) Is there another role for each of these team members that would be in greater alignment with their strengths where they would add more value?

4.) Where as a team have we not been successful?

a.) What role have I played in this current situation?

b.) Have I unintentionally sabotaged our team efforts by holding on to a sacred cow, sending mixed messages or not communicating fully?

c.) What have been the consequences for individual team members for this lack of success?

In order to grow ourselves, we must continually put ourselves into a state of introspection so that we can ‘connect the dots.’ This could be a walk, a hike, some airplane time or even some think time in your study at home or in your office behind closed doors. When you can create this experience, here are some questions to ask yourself.

Reflection

Strategic Leaders will utilize the Halpin Step Up or Step Out Program for themselves. Here are two questions for your 'think time.'

1. What beliefs, attitudes, judgments or perspectives do I hold that I will be required to shift in order to grow myself and thereby grow my team and my company?

2. What support structures will I need to sustain these shifts?

Create Win/Win/Win in Tough Times

2009-02-10T19:24:00.000-08:00

Everywhere you look you see bad news. Our economy is the worst it has been in a very long time. Major companies are already laying-off employees. A layoff is a no-win situation. Customers lose, families lose, and the company’s brand and goodwill are significantly diminished.

There is a better way. By putting everyone - vendors, employees, colleagues, and even customers - on the Halpin Step Up or Step Out System™ you can immediately improve productivity, innovation, connections, and enthusiasm. Increased revenues and greater profitability will occur. In a very short time you can increase attrition so that the risk of layoffs disappears.

What’s the magical approach? This takes commitment from you, the leader, investing the time getting clarity about what is important to you and creating crystal clear expectations. This usually requires some high-quality down time followed by think time with a blank legal pad.
Once you have this clarity the next step is putting in a systematic, structured approach to both communicate your expectations and to gather input as to why the expectations are not currently being met. This provides an immediate opportunity to better explain and provide context for your expectations. Once this authentic dialogue occurs, you and your colleagues are in a position to negotiate these expectations. You can build support structures & interim check points to ensure that the negotiated expectations are fully met in the required time frame. This creates a win/win/win.

When you shift your mindset from being the victim of others’ lack of responsiveness, you become the driver of the results you want. This creates the opportunity for your colleagues to Step Up and bring their own passion, enthusiasm, and innovation to the situation. If they choose to Step Out of your organization rather than Step Up, that’s fine too. You now have the vacancy savings which give you more options in these tough times.

My clients' successes with this approach indicate that 90% of your colleagues will step up and your company will benefit from the creativity and energy with increased productivity, enhanced communication, and greater connections between you and your colleagues. The win/win/win can then be replicated with all your stakeholders, vendors, customers, and employees. Your company will gain greater market share, increased revenue, enhanced profitability, and more loyal stakeholders.

Reflection

Strategic Leaders create win/win/win in tough times. Here are three questions for your 'think time.'

1.) Would greater market share, increased revenue, enhanced profitability, and more loyal stakeholders be useful at this time?
2.) Who is currently “missing the mark” in your organization?
3.) Who have you been “being” that has allowed this to occur?

Feedback is a Gift

2009-02-10T19:20:00.000-08:00

In our most recent issue we addressed number two of the three aspects of growing leaders from within:

1) Reflect and articulate the critical success factors on which the company is built,

2) Communicate and operationalize these critical success factors,

3) Provide continuous feedback and input for those who are not consistently ‘walking the talk’.

In this issue I want to address number 3.

Lastly, and this is where most of us get into trouble, we must continuously and consistently provide feedback and input for those who are not consistently "walking the talk."
If a leader wants to develop his people, but doesn’t invest the time to involve them, then he is saying one thing and doing another. Quantum Leap results only occur when we don’t step over these individual instances but instead give the gift of feedback consistently. As soon as possible the situation must be addressed with the individual.

In talking with the individual, you, the leader must take personal responsibility for their miss-step. Perhaps you were not clear in explaining your expectations. Maybe you did not give a deadline for the project. Were the necessary resources available? When you own part of the responsibility for the breakdown, you create the space for them also to own the role they played in this situation.

This becomes a coaching moment where you, as the leader, get to re-affirm the organization’s values, success factors and your expectations. With these kinds of consistent conversations, the other party often gets clarity in a very short time frame as to whether they want to step up or self-select out of the organization. Over time new leaders will emerge. Others will self select out of the organization. You have provided the groundwork that creates a win-win-win-win situation for everyone involved.

I have briefly summarized above a part of the process called the Halpin Step-Up or Step-Out Program which was originally inspired by Herman Orcutt, founder of The OrcuttWinslow Partnership. OWP is the largest locally owned architectural firm in Phoenix that has utilized these same success factors for over the past 35 years.

Conflict in the workplace is the greatest single cause of stress, lost productivity, and diminished profits in the world today. When conflict is not addressed, relationships deteriorate, visions are forgotten, and execution of goals and plans becomes an afterthought. Much of this conflict comes from the failure of leaders to fully communicate and negotiate their expectations.

For leaders to create a productive work environment where people are encouraged, empowered, and truly engaged, all expectations must be communicated and fully negotiated in a simple, timely manner.

Reflection

Here are two questions for your 'think time.'
1. When did you step over an opportunity to provide authentic feedback and ask questions of a colleague?
2. What would it take for you to get back in conversation today with that same colleague about this issue?

Articulating, Communicating & Operationalizing our Success Factors

2009-02-10T19:17:00.000-08:00

In our most recent issue we addressed number one of the three aspects of growing leaders from within:

1) Reflect and articulate the critical success factors on which the company is built,

2) Communicate and operationalize these critical success factors,

3) Provide continuous feedback and input for those who are not consistently ‘walking the talk’.

In this issue I want to address thought number two: How do we communicate and operationalize these success factors?

Starting with communicating, keep in mind that people don’t remember the impressive power point presentations that are made every day in every situation. The company values and success factors must be personalized so that they can be internalized by your employees. The messages that we really get are those that are told in the form of storytelling. This is because a story provides for an emotional response that helps the message metabolize in our brains and thus be understood and retained. As leaders our job is to tell a lot of stories every day that communicate our organization’s values and success factors. These stories help others see how we can be even more profitable and productive and thus make a difference for our clients, customers, employees and the world. Telling your stories also reminds you to walk your talk and to reflect daily on your values. I have not worked with a leader yet that didn’t enjoy sharing a few of their own successes periodically. Given that I’m from the South, I know many leaders there that never got around to any actual work. They just told one story after another.

To operationalize these success factors requires a variety of systems and processes. These systems and processes are best developed by the key employees closest to the function.

I have always said that the front-line employees are your best productivity consultants because they know exactly what is needed to be more productive. Cross-functional teams made up of these front line employees assigned the task of developing checklists to ensure that quality standards are consistently met is a simple but profound approach to operationalizing your values and success factors. Review the checklists for alignment to the company values and success factors. Fine tune it. Then communicate your findings to the company. This ensures that every employee uses the company’s winning approach or another uniquely valuable approach that generates these same results.

Reflection

Strategic Leaders empower their colleagues to work smarter not harder. Here are two questions for your 'think time'.

1.) How clearly can you articulate your company's critical success factor? 2.) How many stories have you shared with your people this week?

Growing Leaders from Within

2009-02-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

In the most recent issue of The Halpinion, I shared my opinion about how to grow leaders from within. In this issue I want to share my thoughts about one specific and very important aspect of this approach. If you recall from the previous issue, I have strong opinions about the importance of growing leaders from within. I think bringing in a key leader from the outside is typically a distraction for an organization. I have seen it take 12-18 months to assimilate a new addition into a leadership team.
What does it take to grow leaders from within? It takes some simple but not so easy steps and it requires you to take the time to:

1) Reflect and articulate the critical success factors on which the company is built.

2) Communicate and operationalize those success factors and lastly.

3) Provide continuous feedback and input for those who are not 'walking the talk' consistently.

How do you articulate these success factors in the first place? Well…you can't do it while you are running around with your hair on fire. As you know, all of my work with leaders is based on the leader taking time away to reflect and be introspective. If you take some 'think time' to reflect, you'll be amazed at the clarity that you will gain. This first step gives you the opportunity to review what your own values are, what drives you and why you've been so successful. This values clarification work will uncover your success factors. As Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman states in his books, Authentic Happiness, "our strengths are our core values in action."

My experience as a Leadership Strategist for the past 13 years and a business consultant and CPA for 150 years prior to that, has trained me to understand the huge disruption that occurs when an outsider comes into a key leadership role. In my next few issues of The Halpinion I will discuss numbers 2 and 3 where I will share my insights about how to both communicate and operationalize these factors and create an empowering, growth oriented culture where people step up and utilize these same success factors to take your organization to the next level.

Reflection

Strategic Leaders empower their colleagues to work smarter not harder. Here are two questions for your 'think time.' How strategic are you being? How hard are your colleagues working?

Developing Leaders from Within

2009-02-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

Whether you are a Board Chair or Lead Director who understands the high cost and loss of focus from hiring an outside CEO or a Chief Executive who is currently grooming the next generation, please read this, the first edition of The Halpinion. * Halpinion is a word originally coined by Dr. Pierre Tariot of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix to label 'Katharine's opinion about something important'. Thus, the name for my new email newsletter.

In McKinesy's global survey of over 10,000 executives in 2006, business leaders said the single most important managerial preoccupation for the rest of this decade is finding and retaining talented people at all levels for their organizations.

I do not want you to be preoccupied! If you want to drive a thoughtful strategic succession planning process based on developing leaders from within, these are the kinds of questions you could consider asking of yourself and your current leadership team:

1. Is there alignment around a common vision and do we all speak with one voice? How could this be validated and tested? If you feel that there is an opportunity to improve in this area, see my white paper.

2. Do you see discipline and structure around both planning and execution such that accountability and results are almost routine and predictable? My experience working with CEOs tells me that discipline and structure are the foundation that management uses to drive results for themselves, their people and their organization. With discipline and structure we have consistency and transparency in decision making and our decisions are typically based on the facts, rather than relationships, egos, or limited perspectives.

3. Are there systems and processes in place and are they properly staffed and resourced such that the infrastructure of your organization is like a well-oiled machine that provides for long term, sustainable growth? I believe that the infrastructure of an organization, while not very exciting, is the key to long-term, sustainable, strategic growth. Think of your organization being like a vehicle. Whether it is a Volkswagen Bug or a Hummer, it cannot function without wheels. The infrastructure of an organization is like the wheels that drive a vehicle. Without proper wheels, the vehicle cannot drive growth and, most importantly, cannot drive long-term value.

Reflection

If you can sit with a blank legal pad and ask yourself these questions, you will be better prepared to inquire with your current team of executives as to their ability to grow themselves and their people into strategic leaders. By putting this discipline, think time, in place for yourself, you will naturally and intuitively ask the right questions of the right people at the right time. Over time, the next generation of leaders and your succession plan will become apparent to all.