business coaching

Leading the Executive Team Post-Crisis

August 12, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

The immediate crisis is over. And although you are still rapidly recovering revenue and rebuilding operations, you now need to bring greater stability to the organization.

Your team’s quick response to meet the crisis is to be celebrated. But the approach will not work well in this next stage of change.

This means your team needs to change the way they operate. And given the different business landscape, the way we used to operate will no longer work.

It’s a different world – and we must work differently together.

So, if you are expecting your team will simply “fall back into place and get back to work,” think again. A lack of intentional rebuilding on your part will result in confusion, misalignment, conflict and a great potential to lose top talent.

Your team must reinvent itself at this point in order to perform effectively.

Where do you begin?

1. Look back to move forward.

Bring closure to this period by celebrating the successes of the team in having moved through the immediate crisis. Set some thoughtful time aside for this and make sure you invite the team to give their input. Talk about what the experience was like for them, what they needed to shift or change in order to get the work done. What did they learn?

2. Chart a purposeful path forward.

Recognize that as a team and organization, you cannot pull back. Much change occurred during the immediate crisis. People were asked to stretch, do differently, products and services were delivered in different ways, much more. As you chart a purposeful path forward, what needs to be examined? Incorporated? Altered?

3. Set the operational pace.

Restate the organizational vision to shift the team lens to the long-term. Then, roll back to the short term, asking what this means – what the focus should be – for the next 3-6-12 months, How can the learnings you discussed be incorporated?

4. Charter how you will operate together from this point.

Articulate who you are as a team. What do you know about your abilities and potential? How can you put this to use, and how will you align and coordinate your decision-making as you set out onto the new landscape together? How will you measure success? Handle critical communications? Accountability?

5. Lead with resolve.

Because uncertainty is now part of the norm, keep your eyes on vision, knowing that strategies and initiatives may change in order to reach it. Consider how you as a team will adopt an explorer’s mindset as part of your culture. Remember how, together, you weathered the last storm and weave this into your group narrative. Use this as a tether in future tough times as a reminder that as a team, you faced the seeming insurmountable and rose victorious.

If you are intentional with these steps as part of your organizational transition, you will reap the benefit of stronger commitment and engagement on the part of your team. Once you do this, encourage each of the team members to replicate this process through the organization with their own teams.

To your success!

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© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Does Your Leadership Need More Social Capital?

July 1, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Do you, as a leader, have the social capital you need to get the job done? Influence with others is paramount to leading.

How can you tell if you have enough? And if not, how do you go about building it?

Sarah, chief operating officer of a hospital, was the newest member of the C-suite. The board had highly recommended her, thinking that her previous experience with change management at another healthcare system would support their vision for growth.

Several months later, however, Sarah had not been able to meet her short-term goals. The rest of the executive team blocked her efforts with every move she made.

Mark, the CEO called me. “It’s as though they are out to get her,” he said. “She has a great plan, and I support that, but the rest of them are stalling her. What do I do?”

“Mark,” I said, “It sounds like she hasn’t taken the time to build up social capital.”

“Social capital?”

“Yes,” I said. “The influence to bring them along. Building relationships with them, developing trust, sharing norms and values so that when she needs something done and you support it, they work with her to accomplish it.”

“Well, great,” Mark said. “I don’t know how she is going to do it, now. One of the board members mentioned this morning that he had supported her candidacy. Evidently, he saw her last week and she updated him. He now thinks the board may have made a mistake in recommending her. Yet she is doing what I’ve asked her to do. Short of pulling power and demanding that everyone comply, what do I do?”

“Here’s the deal, Mark,” I responded. “Power is not as straightforward as you think. If you approach it in that way, Sandra loses all credibility as she hides behind you. And you create resentment on the part of the others – a slippery slope for a team’s commitment to the business.

“Power is complex, Mark. And in this case, it is relational. How Sandra builds her relationships will be key to her success – and to your retaining top talent across the team.”

“Please help, Patti. I can’t afford to lose credibility with my board and my executive team. And I certainly can’t afford to lose top talent. Sandra’s good. I think we just need a leg up.”

Mark then had me attend an executive team meeting, then later introduced me to Sandra, who quietly shared that she felt defeated and ready to quit.

“I guess I jumped in with big plans and didn’t take the time to build relationships, first,” she said.

“You are pretty astute,” I answered. “Watching the dynamics in the executive team meeting was like witnessing a shark frenzy. And you were the bait.”

“In my last position, all I had to do was to video call one of the satellite offices and talk with the director for a few minutes. Their workload might be almost impossible, but we worked well together to shoulder through. It was that way throughout the system.

“I guess I haven’t taken the time to get to know the others. The board gave us a pretty aggressive plan and a tight timeline. I thought the way was paved. But I thought wrong.”

“Let’s talk about what we can do from this point,” I said. “If you are willing, I would like to work with you to turn this around.”

Sandra agreed to give it her all. Then, we got to work.

Six months later, Sandra was on a much different and better footing with her colleagues. And they were on their way to expanding the hospital’s reach as they had needed to do.

What did Sandra do? She learned to apply five things that all leaders must incorporate into their way of leading:

1. Recognize that power is dictated by your interactions with others.

The relationships and alliances you create can be of major support to you when you encounter potential points of resistance. The resources, information, and help you need should be within the circle you forge over time. Important to note is that before people will commit to a stretch demand, they need to trust and know you, and to feel that you have their interests in mind and that you will support them when they need your help. To come to this point, you need to cultivate the relationships carefully, hearing of their interests and needs, and seeing how you can help them.

2. Assess the landscape before you dive in to make big changes.

Look at your long-term goals and objectives, your short-term wins, and any other priorities you have been handed. Who are key stakeholders in the areas that will be touched by the changes you need to make? Who is likely to resist? And why? If you can map out the web of those potentially affected by your efforts, you can then put together a plan to start bringing them along. And it’s true that we “don’t know what we don’t know.” As you begin speaking with those you feel will be affected, as them who else you should include in conversation around the topic. You can quickly build your networks in this way.

3. Gather insights from your stakeholders and invite them to help you co-create solutions.

Respect the history and perspective that others bring and remember that co-creation means that the parties involved will have more buy-in and support you to much greater extent. This will also help you to leverage relationships with others, as you will have advocates “in the field.”

4. Build your power network with intention.

Map out your network, identifying your dependencies both inside and outside the organization. Decide to systematically strengthen these relationships according to those upon whom you rely, those who rely upon you, and who controls various resources and support.

5. Take time for reciprocity.

How can you create value for those who are in your network? Can you connect them with others to help them realize their goals? Can you serve as a co-creator, even if you don’t have a stake in the initiative, but can lend brain trust? Decide what you can do to bring value to your relationships and do this systematically. As transactional as it seems, a spreadsheet to track your power network and the touches that you make with them to build social capital can serve extremely well.

How can you begin to build your own social capital to get things done? Or to strengthen one that has served you to this point? Personal power – influence – is key to leading effectively. Take time to fortify your power network to help you move effectively into the future.

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Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Why You are Responsible for Your Team’s Performance

June 17, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Many is a time when I have heard a leader say, “I just can’t get that executive to do the job I hired them to do!”

If you find you continue to complain about the performance of one or more of your own executive team members, it’s time to look in the mirror for the answer.

Because the key lies in one of three areas that you own.

You are responsible for setting the direction.

Jim, president of a large financial services organization, was frustrated.

“We are a tired company, Patti,” Jim told me. “And it really shows up in the executive team.”

“Tell me more, Jim,” I said. “What are you seeing on the team that tells you they are tired?”

“Samantha isn’t staying on top of the performance of her department. She keeps telling me that they are doing the best they can. Marc doesn’t meet deadlines anymore. He says his workload is heavy and that we need to reevaluate – or get him an assistant. I don’t know. It seems like people are distracted and disengaged.”

“So, when was the last time that you called a meeting to review your vision and direction?”

“Patti, we do strategic planning with the board every year,” Jim answered. “It’s not like we aren’t on top of where we need to be in 3-5 years.”

“That’s a great start,” I said. “But what do you do from there? I’m thinking your team may have lost their sense of purpose. By what you describe, the direction is either not exciting enough, or they don’t see how it relates to their work.”

“I don’t understand,” said Jim.

“Well, you may have a strategic plan, but your team needs to understand how this will make impact on your community, on the world. And then, they need to understand how their part in this plan will contribute to that success. Otherwise, you will have a group of people who will not recognize the relevance of their work to the bigger picture. You’ll wind up with a bunch of executives that have lost their purpose.”

Jim and I met with the team for some discussions and it did indeed become clear that they needed to reanimate their sense of purpose. Over the following days, we worked to do this and came away with a stellar action plan for the next 12 months that excited and inspired the team.

Some months later it was good to see that this had helped reignite the team. The organization went on to capture additional market share, which motivated the team to author an aggressive growth plan.

As a leader, be sure you are setting direction for your team and helping them to see the relevancy of their roles and responsibilities to this larger picture.

You are responsible for determining the norms.

Team norms are the rules or operating principles that shape team members’ interaction. It’s the agreed-upon way that team relates, gets the work done, and what team members can expect of one another.

Doug called me after their company had just lost a huge government contract.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with this team,” he said. “We are making poor decisions because we get into the weed so quickly. I get cut off at the pass when I mention a new idea. These are talented people – but we need to do something different or we will keep losing contracts with this kind of mess.”

“Doug, it sounds like you could benefit from determining a better process for making decisions – an agreement on the way you go about this. We would call that a team norm around decision-making.”

“I don’t care what you call it,” Doug shot back. “I just need for them to be open-minded about new ideas.”

“Go on,” I responded. “What else?”

“Well, I’d like for them to stay in the conversation at a strategic level until we agree on a direction. We can get into the tactics and details after that.”

“You just described two team norms around decision-making,” I answered. “Sounds like we need to have a meeting with your executives.”

We actually worked with the executives all morning to identify several key team norms. Decision-making was first, and it seemed to be welcome. But we then hit a major nerve around trust. We spent a couple of hours on this, determining what the team members needed in order to trust each other at a greater level. Not surprising – this is where I spend a lot of my time when rebuilding or reigniting team. We dealt with things like holding confidences, listening to understand, managing conflict, and more.

The morning was emotional but rewarding. The task was then to incorporate these norms or behaviors, which was something we worked on over the ensuing months.

Doug called me the year following to report that they had increased their revenue significantly due to the team’s new ability to innovate and their heightened trust.

“I didn’t know trust had an ROI,” he joked. “But I am a believer, now!”

As a leader, it’s your job to lead identifying and integrating norms for your team.

You are responsible for holding your team members accountable.

Diane reached out to me when she was ready to terminate two executives.

“I’ve had it, Patti,” she said. “They are at each other all the time. It’s not always apparent, because they are passive-aggressive. But they undermine each other in subtle ways, and actively try to downplay each other’s part in our success. The problem is, they are both so talented. And it’s hard to retain great talent.”

“You are right, Diane,” I said. “Finding and retaining top talent is challenging. And you are looking at many costs – overt and hidden – to the company, if you have to terminate them.”

“They wear me out,” said Diane. “I’m embarrassed to tell you that I’ve lately begun to tune them out whenever one of them begins to speak. I’m sure it shows.”

“Well, let’s talk about what we can do,” I responded. “When was the last time you held them accountable for their actions?”

“I met with them separately about 6 months ago and told them flat out that I expected them to get along.”

“Did that work?” I asked.

“No,” Diane answered. “It calmed down for a bit, then began to flare back up about 6 weeks ago.”

“So what did you do when that happened?” I asked.

“Frankly, I ignored it. I was so frustrated that I just didn’t want to think about it.”

“Diane, I know it’s frustrating. In fact, you must be pretty upset by now. If you think about it, their misconduct requiring your focused attention has cost the team an inordinate amount of revenue.”

“What?” she queried.

“Well, yes,” I answered. “Think about the cost of their conflict – of not doing their jobs properly, of having their teams feel the effects of this, and of your having to devote energy to the problem. Conflict has already cost your company wasted time, motivation, and I’m guessing that turnover in their respective areas might be headed upward.”

“So what do I do, Patti?” she asked.

“You own this, Diane. You confront it. The cost of allowing their misconduct has already decreased your company’s productivity and revenue. You hold them accountable.”

Diane admitted that she didn’t like confrontation, but she also realized that it was time to take things in hand.

The result was that one executive decided to leave. The other stayed on and Diane worked with him until he had shifted his behaviors to be supportive and positive of team contributions.

As a leader, you are responsible for holding your people accountable.

Is your team under-performing?

If your team is under-performing, it is probably due to one of these three areas. I invite you to make these areas part of your team discussions to discover your own growth opportunities.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Keeping Your Team Energized in a Fast-Changing Environment

June 10, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

You don’t know how powerful your executive team truly is until they are put to the test in extreme conditions.

It doesn’t take a single event to create this kind of scenario. We are in now in a fast-changing environment full of twists and turns that keeps conditions extreme.

How do you keep your team energized and engaged so that you can flex and pivot with ease?

Help normalize fear.

“My CFO has checked out,” Sam said. “As hard as it is to think about, I feel it’s time to replace him.”

“Mark has been with you for years,” I said. “What are you experiencing that makes you think you need to replace him now?”

“He doesn’t speak up in meetings. He holes up in his office. The other execs are asking if something is wrong with him,” said Sam. “The last thing I need is to drag him around by my ankle.”

“Sam, Mark has shouldered many changes with you in this business,” I offered. “Don’t you owe it to him to have a deeper, thoughtful conversation about what you are seeing, rather than to just chalk it up to disengagement?”

Sam did talk with Mark. And here’s what he found: Mark was afraid. He admitted that in light of the pandemic and its effect on the marketplace, he felt “frozen in place.” It was hard to think, to make decisions. Mark was feeling alone and paralyzed.

Later, Sam recounted, “And here is what I told Mark: Mark, I’m here. Yes, this is crazy and we don’t have a roadmap. I’m so sorry you have felt alone with this. Why don’t we meet for the next few mornings and talk through where we think we need to pick up in your area of responsibility?”

“Sam, you gave Mark a great gift,” I responded. “These are unprecedented times. Having you recognize where he is, that it’s okay to feel that way, and that you will be on hand to work through this with him.”

“Well, Patti, thank you,” Sam said. “Truthfully, I should have thought to talk with him much sooner. Guess I was wrapped up in my own stuff. And really, to replace Mark would have been challenging for so many reasons – and evidently, unnecessary.”

Ferret out denial.

Cindy recognized that Jim had been making excuses for many weeks, now. He was missing key deadlines and behind on other projects. Each time she confronted him, he chalked it up to the pandemic and unforeseen developments. I urged Cindy to inquire as to what he was working on since he was held up in these areas.

“Patti, I found out that Jim has been focusing on a couple of initiatives that are really back-burner for us,” she reported later. “And when I asked him how he thought this might help us get ahead, he couldn’t answer me. Seems he has been keeping himself busy on things that really don’t matter. And I have just discovered that there are several things he could have been working on that would have helped us at this time. Now what?”

“Cindy, it’s not unusual to go into denial about things when the going gets tough,” I answered. “Jim appears more comfortable focusing on easier initiatives.”

Cindy went back to Jim and had a pointed, but supportive conversation about priorities. She asked him if he had what he needed in order to move forward. After reviewing things with her, Jim sheepishly admitted that he did.

“We’ve agreed to meet a couple of times weekly until we feel things are firmly on track,” Cindy shared. “I’m not sure why this happened.”

“Cindy, when crisis occurs, the stress can be great. Going into denial by carrying on ‘business as usual’ feels comfortable. Unfortunately, it doesn’t meet the company needs. At the same time, when events such as this pandemic take place, it’s important to huddle a bit more closely and offer support – more than usual. You have a good executive in Jim. And it sounds like you have figured out how to get him moving.”

Identify roadblocks to learning.

“I can’t wait till things get back to normal,” the CEO said. “I’m having a tough time making decisions that work for the current crisis.”

“May I suggest that you may have to acquire some flex in the way you are making decisions,” I countered. “I promise you that we are headed into new territory and that we are not turning back.”

When Harrah’s Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman talks about the difficulty successful executives face in learning, he often quotes from a 1991 Harvard Business Review article by Chris Argyris: “Because many professionals are almost always successful at what they do, they rarely experience failure. And because they have rarely failed, they have never learned how to learn from failure.”

Learning new ways to do business in order to respond to changing conditions is necessary. Yet many top executives feel that “once we get over this hump,” that things will fall back to normal. Untrue.

We are already seeing changing customer demands, rapid transitions in the workforce and how it operates, shifting regulations, and more. All this requires that we learn how to do business differently.

The question is not therefore, “When will things get back to normal so that we can breathe easily?” Instead, it is, “What are we learning from this and what skills and abilities do we need to acquire in order to meet the ‘next normal’?”

Where do you need to grow in order to meet the next normal and thrive?

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.

Are You Playing Favorites on the Executive Team?

May 27, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

It’s natural for us to favor some personalities more than others. When we feel a comfortable energy and alignment, it makes conversations and common experiences flow. No doubt, you have one team member with whom you hit it off more easily than others.

Then, there’s “that other one” on the team with whom things seem a bit more stilted. You feel a small undercurrent of resistance or tension when they bring forth ideas. You don’t enjoy conversations with them, and you find yourself dismissing their contributions.

These relational dynamics can give the impression that you are playing favorites (and maybe you are!). And this damages your team’s ability to work best together. Because if you are noticing your bias, so are they.

What do you do?

1. Get perspective.

Talk to a mentor or colleague outside of the team and check your intolerance. Allowing someone you trust to give you some outside perspective might help you to flush out hidden biases that need reconciling on your part.

2. Shift your focus.

Find things you appreciate about the person. Begin to look for ways you appreciate this team member on a personal and professional basis. Notice unique qualities she contributes. Ferret out ways he lends positively to the team or outcomes. This will help you rebalance your view of the team member.

3. Build bridges.

Begin to call on your “unfavored” team member first when asking for opinions in meetings. Chances are, if they have not been speaking up, you haven’t been encouraging it. Think about instituting individual coffees or breakfasts with your team members, and be sure to start with this particular team member. Seek to identify projects and other discussions which will allow you more face time with them so that you can practice engaging differently with them.

Finally, remember that as leader, you are the role model for the team and, in turn, the rest of the organization. Making the conscious decision to turn a problem into an opportunity can only be a great learning lesson, and a win for all of you.

Patti Cotton

Patti Cotton reenergizes talented leaders and their teams to achieve fulfillment and extraordinary results. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.