Helping good businesses become extraordinary

Archive for the category: Leadership & Management

Home / Blogs / Leadership & Management

Why We Often Have to Repeat Things Seven Times

October 30th, 2014 Blog, Leadership & Management
Leave a comment
Zennnnn

Photo by Hartwig HKD

Human beings are an interesting lot.  As a young man, I was fairly idealistic, but the older I get, the more realistic I become.  Today, I guess you could say I am more in the realpolitik versus ideologue camp when it comes to human behavior.  The “Rule of Seven” is one of my favorite realpolitik philosophies because it enables me to be at peace with the fact that as leaders, we often have to repeat things seven times before they genuinely sink in.

(Incidentally, Google’s Schmidt and Rosenberg say it takes 20 times according to their great, and very Traction®-like, book How Google Works.)

Truth is, the first time someone hears something — concepts like Core Values or Core Focus™, in particular — it flies in one ear and out the other.  Whoosh!

The second time, they say to themselves, “I think I have heard that before,” and then the brain snaps back to wherever it was.

Third time, they actually hear you because most of us need at least three data points to discern any trend, so naturally, we don’t really take anything seriously until someone says it at least three times.

The fourth time is really the first time they fully engage with the concept because it wasn’t until the third time that they actually listened.

And it is typically after sharing something for the fourth time that even the wisest among us need to call upon our internal Zen master and calmly say to ourselves, “Fantastic! I only have to repeat myself three more times before they actually get what I’m saying.”

The fifth time you say it, they have thankfully moved on to not just hearing you, but intellectually engaging with you.  Unfortunately, that’s almost always comprised of an all-out effort to find the error in the wisdom you are trying to impart.  And we once again call upon our internal Zen master: “Zen.  Zen.  Zennn.”  Because we need to repeat things even to ourselves!

The sixth time you say it, they conclude that what you are saying actually makes sense and that you must mean it since you have said it at least… what, three times?

And finally, the seventh time you say it, the little voice in their head goes, “Enough already, I get it.”

I am not just sharing the Rule of Seven philosophy because I hope you will appreciate the fundamental insight, but also because after you get your senior leadership team all on the Same Page with regard to the answers to the Eight Key Questions, it is now your team’s job to make sure that everyone in your organization is on the Same Page with regard to understanding and buying into the answers to the Eight Key Questions — the answers which now enable you to fill out your simple, but powerful, two-page strategic plan, the Vision/Traction Organizer™ (V/TO™) (download here) that I wrote about many full moons ago.

And guess what?  Yep, it’s absolutely going to take sharing your V/TO with every one of your colleagues at least seven times before you and the rest of your senior leadership team have mastered the Vision Component™.

Until next time, may you build with passion and confidence.

Smart + Healthy = Enduring Success: Core Focus

February 6th, 2014 Blog, EOS - Entrepreneurial Operating System, Leadership & Management
2 Comments

white water kayak

“If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him.”

Seneca

 

 

Greetings, a belated “Happy New Year!” and a sincere apology for not keeping up with this blog in the middle of a series. I have no good excuse other than being focused on too many things, which is ironic given that “Core Focus™” is the next topic in our Smart x Healthy = Enduring Success series.

Those of you with a memory better than mine will recall that we have been exploring the notion that enduring success is achievable when one builds an organization that is both Smart and Healthy. We have also discussed how one of the major aspects of creating a Smart and Healthy organization is getting every member of a senior leadership team on the Same Page with regard to the answers to what we are referring to as the Eight Key Questions. In previous blogs, we talked about the importance of getting everyone to agree to their “Why” (i.e., their Purpose, Passion or Cause), and in our last blog we talked about the power of a well-articulated set of Core Values.

In today’s blog we are going to talk about the power of getting clear on one’s Core Focus. My EOS® colleagues and I have found that organizations master Core Focus when there is complete agreement on two things. The first is the organization’s “Why:” where they excel, what they love doing, what they are great at doing, what they are passionate about–why they exist. The second is the organization’s “Niche:” a simple description of the distinct segment of the market they serve. Examples include:

•  Orville Redenbacher: popcorn
•  Mayflower: long distance moving
•  FedEx: overnight package delivery
•  Dropbox: cloud-based document storage and sharing
•  eBay: virtual marketplace

Once an organization creates a clear and compelling Core Focus, it not only captures the hearts (through defining it’s “Why”) and the minds (through clearly defining it’s Niche) of its employees, but it provides everyone within the organization with two powerful decision-making filters that help make things simpler and clearer for everyone. When organizations have this clarity and begin to align all of their people, processes, and systems with their Core Focus, they find themselves:

• Reinvigorated,
• Operating “in the zone,”
• Doing what they love,
• Focusing on what they’re great at doing, and
• Being keenly aware of what they shouldn’t be doing.

In fact, we have numerous examples of clients deciding to rid themselves of full business units as a result of this clarity.

In short, a strong Core Focus fundamentally enhances an organization’s effectiveness. It substantially reduces the likelihood that the organization (and its Visionary) will be distracted by things that may be interesting but are fundamentally inconsistent with the organization’s primary business. And trust us, you can only imagine how much time, effort, and money is wasted by organizations that get distracted by what we like to refer to as “shiny objects.”

As Zig Ziglar said:

“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.”

Until next time, may you build with passion and confidence.

Yin & Yang and the Visionary & Integrator Part Three

June 5th, 2013 Blog, Leadership & Management
2 Comments

Yin Yang Sky Earth - Illustration

In our last two blogs, we introduced the notion that many of the most successful and enduring companies had or have an inside/outside leadership pair—what we call a Visionary and Integrator team (V/I Team). This insight is supported by our work at EOS® with over 600 companies as well as by some incredible research undertaken by David Thomson for his insightful books Blueprint to a Billion and Mastering The 7 Essentials of High-Growth Companies (highly recommended reads). In his books, David details why having an inside/outside leadership pair is one of “The 7 Essential” ingredients to success. This idea is based upon his detailed study of 410 companies that went public since 1980 and reached $1 billion in revenues. Frankly, it all seems fairly obvious when one thinks about all of the things a leadership team needs to do in order to build a strong, growing, and enduring business—especially in times like today where it feels like there is an unprecedented amount of change taking place. In today’s blog we will talk about how to best organize around, and what makes a great, V/I Team.

Once a leadership team decides it wants to lead utilizing the V/I model, the Visionary and the Integrator must get crystal clear as to who does what. Our experience suggests that each of their roles needs to be distinctive and complementary for everyone’s sake. As the old saying goes, “when two people are accountable, no one is accountable.”

As for who does what, our experience suggests the most effective structure is one in which the Integrator reports to the Visionary and all of the functional heads report directly to the Integrator. This structure enables each of them to optimize their Unique Abilities™. For the Visionary, this structure enables him or her to focus on doing the things he or she loves doing:

  • Leading through example
  • Meeting with people (current and prospective employees) and listening
  • Driving the culture
  • Working on the next Big Idea
  • Developing and nurturing Big Relationships
  • Solving Big Problems
  • Staying on top of the industry

For the Integrator, this structure enables her or him to focus on:

  • Leading by managing
  • Harmonizing the way the functions work together
  • Optimizing resources
  • Removing obstacles and barriers
  • Driving the business plan
  • Hitting the numbers (P&L, Scorecards)
  • Overseeing special projects
  • Making sure that all of the right things are being done across the organization

So what are the key ingredients of a great V/I team?

  • Each has to genuinely posses the characteristics we enumerated in our last blog, otherwise they will not be truly complimentary
  • Each must have a huge amount of respect for the other as an individual and as a professional, otherwise they simply will not trust the other to do his or her job and the entire structure will breakdown
  • Each must truly embody and embrace the organizations culture, otherwise they will have conflicting values
  • Each must be ready, willing, and able to make the other look good, especially when it comes to the other’s short comings, otherwise, neither will be able to truly concentrate all of their energies on leveraging their Unique Abilities™

In short, at their core great V/I teams are, as David Thomson wrote: “the yin and yang, the weave and the warp, the bacon and eggs—and without the dynamic of compatibility their companies could not have made it to the top.”

In one of our future blogs we are going to talk about the notion that at their core, really strong and enduring organizations are both Smart & Healthy. In many respects, while both the Integrator and the Visionary are responsible for building a Smart & Healthy organization, I hope it is now clear to you which role I think is responsible for driving each of these two perpetual needs.

While I haven’t written it yet, I suspect the there will be one more part to this Yin & Yang and the Visionary & Integrator series, until then…

Be well.

Yin & Yang and the Visionary & Integrator Part Two

May 3rd, 2013 Leadership & Management
Leave a comment

Yin Yang Sky Earth - Illustration

In our last blog, we introduced the notion that many of the most successful and enduring companies have, or had, an inside/outside leadership pair—what  my EOS® colleagues and I call a Visionary and Integrator team. As we illustrated last week, Visionaries and Integrators couldn’t be more different in terms of how they lead and problem solve. They are the Yin and the Yang of leadership. Today we’ll discuss the key characteristics of Visionaries and Integrators to better explain how they complement each other.

We’ll start with the key characteristics of a Visionary.

A Visionary:

        • Is often a founding entrepreneur
        • Has lots of ideas
        • Is a strategic thinker
        • Always sees the big picture
        • Has a pulse on the industry and target market
        • Loves the research and development of new products and services
        • Is easily distracted
        • Manages big relationships (e.g. customer, vendor, industry)
        • Keeps the company culture alive (provides inspiration)
        • Leads with emotion
        • Is good at creative problem solving (handles big problems)
        • Creates the company vision and protects it
        • Typically sells and closes big deals
        • Gets involved with customers and employees when needed
        • Loves to connect the dots
        • Occasionally does the work, provides the service, makes the product

In short, Visionaries are passionate, big picture people who are easily distracted and love to put 100 pounds in a 50 pound bag.  As you can imagine, they are pretty good at creating chaos. For this reason, organizations that are run by Visionaries typically find themselves yearning for more stability and control. Often times this stability comes in the form of Integrators.

Unlike a Visionary, an Integrator has the unique ability to manage daily issues as they come up while also integrating all the major functions of the business–sales, marketing, client services, operations, and finance – into one harmonious group.  Put simply, the Integrator acts as the glue that keeps the team together.

Here are some other key characteristics typically associated with an Integrator. An Integrator:

      • Has clarity
      • Excels at communication
      • Provides resolution
      • Has focus
      • Is accountable
      • Promotes team unity
      • Leads with logic
      • Is good at project management
      • Follows through
      • Serves as the tie breaker
      • Removes obstacles and barriers
      • Prioritizes
      • Drives execution
      • Is a steady force
      • Beats the drum
      • Is accountable for P&L results
      • Executes the business plan
      • Leads, manages, and holds the leadership team accountable

As we pointed out in Part One, most of us get that we cannot be great at all things or be all things at once. I’m curious if you have ever met anyone who genuinely possesses the key characteristics of both a Visionary and an Integrator. If you have, I would love to hear about her or him and the success of her/his firm in the comment section below.

In our next couple of blogs, we will continue to discuss Visionaries and Integrators. We will provide an overview of how the typical Visionary/Integrator team leads while referring to what we call the Accountability Chart. We’ll also go over the essential ingredients necessary for any great V/I team, discuss why most organizations eventually falter without a strong V/I team, and explain what to do if you don’t have both or lose one member of a V/I team. When the series is done, we hope you will have a pretty good sense for why V/I teams are not only powerful but almost essential for enduring success.

Until then, be well.

 

Yin & Yang and the Visionaries & Integrators

April 18th, 2013 Leadership & Management
1 Comment

Yin Yang Sky Earth - IllustrationI have always had characteristics of Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. Love big ideas, reaching for the stars, and building things. Pretty good at seeing how things are interrelated. Have a critical mind in both the best and worst of ways. My way of looking at the world lets me instinctively know that we can always make things better. It also leaves me paranoid about someone else getting there first. To me, this potential for improvement is obvious. Look at where the world is today versus just ten years ago. Look at the amazing new products we now take for granted like the iPhone and iPad. Think about the fact that billions of us now have access to almost an infinite amount of knowledge and consequently an infinite array of opportunities. It’s incredible, if not a bit overwhelming, and it’s all due to man’s insatiable need to make things better for himself.

My passion for making things better combined with my love of the big picture means I often find myself trying to do too many things, losing focus, and creating confusion and a little chaos. I have what we refer to at EOS® as a “visionary” mind versus an “integrator” mind. This “visionary” mind can be its own worst enemy.

Looking back at my career, it’s clear I have been at my best when this visionary “Yang” was counter balanced by a “Yin.” These “Yins,” and I have been blessed with many, have helped me focus and execute in a disciplined and thoughtful manner. I sought out these partners because I instinctively knew, and still do, that I needed a Yin for my Yang to flourish.

Some people refer to these Yin/Yang teams as inside-outside leadership pairs. As I mentioned above, at EOS we call them “Visionaries” and “Integrators.” One of the key things we’ve learned during more than a decade of working closely with hundreds of senior leadership teams is that many of the best, most successful, and most enduring companies had both a Visionary and an Integrator. You can probably think of numerous examples of V/I teams that support this observation. My exemplars include: Apple’s Jobs and Wozniak, and later Jobs and Cook; Hewlett and Packard; Intel’s Moore and Grove; Google’s Page and Brin; Disney’s Walt and Roy, and later Eisner and Wells; Berkshire’s Buffet and Munger; Microsoft’s Gates and Allen, and later Gates and Balmer; and others in that same vein. Have your own exemplars?  Please share them in the comments section below.

We all get that we cannot be great at all things or be all things to all people but how many of us leaders still try? And to what end?

Over the next several blogs, we will enumerate the characteristics of Visionaries and Integrators. We’ll also cover why most organizations eventually falter without a strong V/I team, and what to do if you don’t have both or lose one. When the series is done, we hope you will have a pretty good sense for why V/I teams are not only powerful but almost essential for enduring success.

Until then, be well.

Get VTH

    First Name (required)

    Last Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Phone

    Please select your free book(s):

    © 2024 VTH Partners