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Great management cultures are built slowly over time through consistent discipline on focus with accountability. They are quickly destroyed by companies that allow short term outcomes to overtake the goal.
Great management cultures are built slowly over time through consistent discipline on focus with accountability. They are quickly destroyed by companies that allow short term outcomes to overtake the goal.
Structure
Structure
Organize your team nimbly, in a way that reduces complexity and redundancy but creates accountability and profitability.
Organization Chart
Organization Chart
Organize your business by area of functional responsibility, starting with the three primary components of any organization, marketing/sales, operations and finance. This group of leaders is your executive team. Each leader and department must have strength and fit: the right people in the right seats doing the job they are best suited for, the authority to do the job working toward the Mission, with full accountability for its outcome.
Complete your org chart to ensure that it is the correct organization for the future, that you have the right people who fit your Core Values, who can perform each role, and whom you have provided the authority to deliver their goals. That way you trust the positive outcome ("management to objectives") and deal only with exceptions ("management by exception).
Fit
Fit
Sometime we have the right people but in the wrong seats. Other times the right seat, but the wrong people (for our core values). My experience, all my research, and the main takeaway of Mission, People and Management is this: the right people are first, they are your foundation. Find the right seats for them, or hire again. You MUST dismiss some high performers when they don't match your core values. Otherwise they will disrupt your progress, wreak havoc on your team and degrade brand and profitability over time.
Role
Role
In our Team Section, we have already discussed how to ensure we have the people who fit our core values. For more info, watch Gino Wickman, Author of Traction, explain how to build and perpetuate core values into a culture.
Now we put them "in the right seats" or in a job that matches their abilities, that they understand requirements and accountabilities, and that they really want to do. They must first understand and agree that they will be accountable for the outcome, that this will be measured against agreed on goals and that they will work as part of a team to achieve the overall company Mission. Click this link to make your own copy this job description template.
Authority
Authority
Do your people have authority that matches their accountabilities? Do they have the opportunity to succeed, meaning the authority to create their own paths to success within the Mission and Strategic Plan? Do they have opportunity to fail? They should. And when they do, what are the terms of failure? At XIKAR, my terms were this: fail to the benefit of the customer and we'll all get educated on improving process. Fail to the detriment of the customer and we have a problem to solve.
Forecast
Forecast
Forecasting isn't about knowing the future, it's directing your team efforts so that you know how you got there or why you didn't.
Goals
Goals
SMART goals must come from your strategic plan, pointing in the future toward the milestons that lead to the strategic outcome. Eash manager must take on the goals specific to his / her team and then cascade the goals among them. They must be specific and measurable on at least a yes / no, if not a numeric basis, and on a timeline, so that leadership can track their delivery. And of course they must be achievable for success. If management presents unachievable goals, these cannot be broken into achievable parts.
Accountability
Accountability
"Everyone in your organization has a number, meaningful, manageable and measurable" according to Wickman's Traction. Managing this number on a weekly basis keeps everyone on track and accountable for their goals, and also identifies potential issues before they develop into problems. Therefore this weekly "scorecard" or flash report will be different for each manager and must focus on the activities that lead to accomplishment of quarterly and annual goals. Read Wickman's chapters on the People and the Data components to gain a deep understanding of implementation of and management by these objectives, and the suprising advantages of giving a number to everyone.
Systematize
Systematize
They key to a growing business is to act with consistency in all things, through processes designed to adhere to the Core Values and achieve the Strategic Focus. Once you have a process, you can delegate and trust it will get done the right way or have a basis for discussion when it doesn't. Your team will trust the safe boundaries of a process that has a foundation for acting with authority and flexibility to improve as needed. And most importantly, your processes will make your behavior consistent, so that your customers can trust what you say and do. Identify every core process, write them down and publish them for your team to follow and develop as time goes by.
Two-Page Strategic Plan
Two-Page Strategic Plan
Keep your 2-page plan with you at all times for quick reference. It should include a list of your Core Values and Strategic Plan, your 3-year Marketing Plan, and your 3-year Outcomes (realized goals). Page two includes your one-year Targets, your expected quarterly milestones, and any issues that you expect or may come up.
Monthly and Quarterly Updates
Monthly and Quarterly Updates
Update your 2-page plan every month, including especially any issues that will last through the quarter. At the beginning of each quarter, update your milestones to accommodate market changes. Keep your annual goals intact, in order to measure against them at the end of the year.
The Weekly Agenda
The Weekly Agenda
Your weekly managers agenda should be fixed, the meeting kept to a tight timeline. It simply includes a status of the important company metrics, a short recap of agreements from the previous meeting, a quick reminder of the milestones to be achieved, with an estimate of percentage complete. Next, any customer or employee headlines should be announced (only). Finally, the majority of time should be spent identifying, discussing and solving issues that have arisen from the past or at the headline stage.
Your most important process as a leader are your weekly, quarterly and annual accountability meetings. Use these to get agreement on deliverables and then to manage their outcomes through the year.
Your most important process as a leader are your weekly, quarterly and annual accountability meetings. Use these to get agreement on deliverables and then to manage their outcomes through the year.
"What's measured is improved."
"What's measured is improved."
― Peter Drucker, Essential Drucker
Solve
Solve
An issue is an important topic for debate or discussion. A problem is a problem. Don't confuse the two. And when it comes to it, the stated problem is "a symptom of the real issue, so you must find the root of the matter. By batting the issue back and forth, you will reach the true cause.” Traction is a great resource for the entrepreneur / small business manager. The Amazon link is below:
― Gino Wickman, Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
If you have a personnel problem, a person who doesn't conform to the Core Values or whose actions cause a mistake with a customer, fellow teammate, error in reporting or judgement, then analyze and resolve the problem outlined in the steps below behavioral issues.
Strategic Issues
Strategic Issues
Strategic issues are events, impediments and unexpected outcomes that get in the way of achieving strategic goals. In a way, these are the easiest to solve in that they don't involve personnel / behavior problems. Yet they may still be difficult in that team compensation can be on the line, even for things outside of their control. Do not waver from your Core Values or your long-term strategy. The right team recognizes the goal and should be on board for the long term. Each department should identify these issues for the leadership team's weekly meetings, to be discussed and then solved right away or at the latest in the monthly, quarterly and annual meetings.
Behavioral Issues
Behavioral Issues
Here you must not hesitate, as doing so puts your culture at risk. Meet with the employee and their manager, identify the problem, convey its ramifications, agree on solutions and then decide a course of change action. Revisit 30 days later, and if it isn't resolved you must initiate your termination plan (usually with a 30 day rectification period).
Other People's Issues
Other People's Issues
"Don't give me that monkey on your back ( steal my time)!" This old phrase refers to the correct managerial problem: "don't bring me your problem, bring me solutions. I'll help you decide among them." And a great manager will add her coaching and training, to make sure her people have the ability to make the decision on their own. She will also review the cause of the situation to ensure her people have the authority to do so. If your people keep coming to you for decisions, perhaps you haven't done this work.
Issues must be dealt with in an atmosphere consistent with the Core Values and safe from repercussions outside a desire to achieve the Mission. Communications must be open and honest, with the issue addressed and resolved quickly. Address the issue quickly but also take the time to define it carefully and fully in order to come to the right solution. Don't hesitate once you know.
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