team members

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.

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.

Why Your Talented Team Member Won’t Speak Up

May 6, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Do you have a team member who has great talent but won’t speak up to contribute? There are several possible reasons why.

And the bottom line is if your team member won’t speak up, you are losing revenue and momentum – simply because he isn’t adding the value he could.

What can you do?

Let’s take a look at five different executive teams in the following scenarios. Each had at least one team member who wasn’t speaking up. Do any of these cases sound familiar to your own team’s situation?

Jim and the So-Called Expert

Jim has been CMO for a year, now. He has an impressive track record and an uncanny sense of what to anticipate in order to serve customers. In his one-on-one meetings, Jim shows great strength in strategizing. But when he gets into the executive team meetings, he simply shuts down. His CEO is frustrated. If Jim keeps quiet, the team isn’t able to benefit from his expertise and perspective.

“Sandra’s the self-proclaimed expert on our team,” Jim explains wryly. “As CFO, she has decided she’s the person with the organizational ‘eye.’ Whether she knows what she’s talking about or not, she will weigh in and do it first. Others may jump in and play – but I’m just not willing to do that. If someone wants my opinion, I guess they will ask me.”

Samantha’s Intolerance for Poor Arguments

The executive team wonders if Samantha is really happy at the company. She starts to speak up but shuts down quickly when the team wants to move toward a solution. Samantha is becoming disengaged and it shows. Her CEO is worried. “I need a CIO who can wrap her arms around problems and run with the solutions,” she says.

Samantha has another view on this. She says, “Quite simply, the executive team is lazy. They always settle for less – the path of least resistance. Every time I suggest doing some outside research to see what others are doing, they snuff me out. I’m tired of contributing to inferior arguments for poor solutions. Why doesn’t our CEO take Samantha aside and give her some coaching on this?”

Bill and His Need for a Business Case

Bill speaks up at times and shuts down at others. His team members wonder which Bill is going to show up today – the one who contributes, or the one who seems to mentally check out at odd points in meeting discussions. Bill’s CEO wonders why Bill dips in and out of discussions.

Bill himself says he gets quiet when he can’t figure out how certain decisions impact the larger picture. “Sometimes the team seems to get into discussing pet projects that don’t really support the business imperative we set for this year,” he says. “I have a hard time hanging in there when it doesn’t make sense to the larger picture. Why doesn’t our CEO stop it and get us back on track? He lets this stuff go on forever and our meetings become pretty ineffective.”

Dani the Divergent Thinker

“Dani’s a bright leader whose best days are yet to come,” said her CEO. “But I can’t figure out why the rest of the team gets frustrated with her when discussing certain topics. I’ve been waiting for her to figure it out. Or for them to all work it out. But it’s not happening.”

Dani has additional light to shed on this. “My team is very structured in its conversations,” she begins. “The members seem to be ‘convergent thinkers,’ and they follow a very tight process to arrive at solutions. Don’t get me wrong – we need to come to some quick decisions in this current environment. But I’m a ‘divergent thinker’ and need to free-flow a bit to come up with best solutions. I’m pretty frustrated that when we are looking to innovate, my contributions seem to be perceived as getting us off course. I simply shut down when that happens. I wish my CEO would check in with me – surely he sees that I’m not participating?”

Jan Wants Better Decision-Making

Jan is perceived as “dead weight” on the executive team. Her credentials and expertise are impressive, but she doesn’t contribute her wealth of knowledge to the team’s benefit. She used to speak up, but took what seemed to be an argumentative tone which deterred others from entering into conversation. She now defers to others on the team without really contributing. Her CEO wonders if she simply doesn’t know how to get along with others.

“I have become tired of being perceived as contrary,” Jan shares. “In my last position with another company, we prized bantering back and forth with different perspectives on things. No one took it as arguing; rather, they enjoyed turning issues on their proverbial heads to examine all sides. The result was a rich outcome. We enjoyed it. Here, it appears I’m just arguing. I wish someone would be real enough to talk with me about it – and to entertain another possibility besides seeing me as antagonistic. Perhaps it’s my tone. I wish my CEO would give me feedback, but she acts like she doesn’t see it.”

And what about the talented, but quiet team member on your own team? What’s his or her side of the story? If you are in charge, it’s time for you to work on how your team can work together to resolve this. The loss is too great to let this go – and the ROI once you bring this to resolution too great to leave on the table.

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.

Three Things Your Team Needs from You Right Now

April 15, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

As you confront change, the most critical thing you must do as leader is to support the cohesiveness of your executive team.

This means that they must be aligned and coordinated in their thinking and actions.

Having a plan of action is the rally cry to move forward together, but it isn’t the answer.

During the current COVID crisis, I’ve reached out to several of my former clients to see how they are faring. Most report what is probably familiar to you: shock and paralysis, replaced by a scrambling to redirect resources and keep business going.

I talked to Bob, CEO of a software tech company, about three weeks ago. He expressed great frustration around being stuck in place.

“We are so busy putting out fires,” he said. “And they all need extinguishing. But how do we move forward?”

“That’s the question, Bob,” I said. “Most of the world is caught up in a mode of urgency and this is their current way of operating. But they are missing the boat entirely.”

“I hear you, Patti,” he answered. “But how do I get my team to move forward? We have an interim plan – you taught me the value of plotting a short-term direction in times like these. But I’m not seeing the action of which I know they are capable.”

“Bob, having your interim plan is the first of three things your team needs to move, and move quickly,” I said. And I outlined the following for him.

1. Clarity.

Your team needs a short-term, interim plan that plots a clear direction. Centering the plan around a particular theme will serve as a galvanizing rally cry to bring the team together and help them to coordinate more easily. Remember to ask yourself what will best serve your customers at this time and position your business to meet the undefined future.

2. Trust.

How well do team members trust each other? Revisit your trust charter and facilitate discussion around what the team needs more or less of from each other in order to trust and be able to count implicitly on each other in this critical time.

3. Replacing effectiveness with efficiency.

In times of transition or change, people seek comfort in the familiar. This means that you and your team members may find you are focusing on being efficient instead of being effective, because being busy feels like you are moving ahead when you really may not be. Once you have determined your interim plan, be sure to identify those other projects, tasks and activities that lie outside the plan parameters. Decide how you want to handle these in light of the current clime and be ruthless about holding each other accountable.

Bob called back a few days ago to report that moving through these steps did the trick. He first worked with the team to revisit the trust charter to discuss what everyone needed from each other in order to take action. The team then performed a quick audit of activities and identified some of those that needed to be placed on pause. And finally, Bob and the team communicated the interim plan to the entire employee base and have pledged to bring weekly updates on progress to the organization.

Which of these three things does your team need to focus on in order to move forward more effectively? Providing a unified direction and deeper conversations around what is needed to trust more will open doors to a much richer future.

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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.

Do You Have a People Pleaser on the Executive Team?

March 11, 2020 By Patti Cotton Leave a Comment

Do you have a people pleaser on the executive team? Someone who might change opinions depending on which way the wind blows?

If so, you have a major trust leak in the team.

How can you tell if you have a people pleaser? And what can you do if you identify one?

Your people pleaser means well. In fact, this is his or her main driving force in life. But because they are busy making sure they fit in, people pleasers can’t support a particular idea or direction with integrity.

Sandy was a newly appointed executive in a large software tech company. One of the chief reasons she had interviewed well was that she exhibited a great deal of empathy.

“We needed more empathy on the executive team,” said Anna, the CEO. “In our world, tech can tend to come before people, and we were making an effort to infuse leadership with more human connection and understanding.”

“You are right to keep that in mind,” I answered. “We are losing human connection in the workplace. And empathy as one of the emotional intelligence traits is key in leadership.”

“She also brought a wealth of technical knowledge, so I felt it was a great combo,” Anna continued. “But I’m noticing that she can’t tether to a decision she makes. And she actually looks at other people to see what they are going to say before she offers an opinion.”

“This is serious,” I said. “It sounds like you have someone on the team who is stuck in what we call ‘the socialized mind.’”

“Well, whatever you call it, the team has started to distrust her. They don’t know how to take what she says or presents with any kind of certainty. She pretends to agree with everyone and seems to try to act like the people around her. A real chameleon. And she is constantly asking for feedback – seems to need praise to feel good. It’s exhausting.”

“Those are hallmarks of a socialized mind,” I responded. “This means she relies on the external world to tell her who she is and what value she brings.”

“It’s just not working,” Anna said. “I need someone who can contribute by bringing her own perspective and expertise to the mix. Someone who isn’t afraid to counter an opinion, but who can also negotiate to a great solution. When I tried to talk with her about this the other day, she just kept apologizing and started crying. I need your help.”

I met with Sandy, who was, of course, eager to please. It was clear she needed to show me that she understood and agreed with me, no matter what I shared. Not surprising, as we are all creatures of comfort who need to feel that we are accepted and safe. We took some time to become acquainted so that I could develop trust with her. I asked her what she felt was the challenge from her perspective.

“I just want to do the right thing,” she said. “Hearing what is needed is important to me. And I want to make sure I align with others’ thinking so I get it right.”

This showed me clearly that she was ready for growth. There were several things we did over the course of eight months that helped Sandy move from this people-pleasing state to one that was more tethered to her values and beliefs, even in the face of conflict.

A first phase in coaching Sandy was to help her recognize where she was trying to please others instead of standing true to herself as she negotiated solutions with the team. We began by doing some personal values work to solidify her sense of self and to use as a litmus when forming opinions.

At the same time, we identified her fears around carrying different opinions than her team members and tested out of this mindset trap in small ways so that she could become accustomed to disagreeing with others as it felt comfortable.

As her confidence grew, we explored key issues in her company and identifying multiple perspectives on how to solve these. Becoming comfortable with the complex and various ways to resolve such can be threatening to someone who needs to be right in others’ eyes. Working with real-time challenges with which she was familiar helped her to become more comfortable with weighing various options and seeing that more than one might be right.

Later, developing Sandy’s comfort and lens on seeing things as systems was important. The world is complex, and this can be overwhelming for anyone. A person of socialized mind can feel threatened by such complexity. Learning to first see complexity as a system and to become comfortable with the pieces in order to make decisions is key for today’s leadership.

Sandy’s team members rallied, seeing integrity in how she showed up and contributed. She felt the positive results and worked on developing closer relationships with each to strengthen her credibility.

The end result of our coaching? Sandy became a trusted contributor at the leadership level and the company benefited greatly, as well.

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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.