Last week, in preparation for the upcoming Canada Day celebrations on 1st July, I bought a bag of apples to make one of my celebrated ("legend in my own mind") apple pies. As I was putting them away I noticed there was a bruised one. Shrugging, I reckoned that the pie would be long baked before the apple went rotten, so I did nothing about it.
In many organizations, from for profit to not-for-profit to volunteer, there is often an individual who is a bad apple. The trouble with a bad apple in your organization is that they have the potential to negatively impact the organization in two key areas: the people as a whole and implementing strategic plans.
For your talent (like the rest of the apples in my bag) the bad apple is festering away slowing spreading discontent and negativity. In terms of strategic plans (my apple pie) the bad apple is undermining them by possibly forcing compromise or subverting the passion and skills of those engaged in the endeavour.
Dealing with bad apples is never easy; often our default choice is not to deal with them at all. Which is an odd leadership decision as we know intuitively that not dealing with them, through remediation (preferable) or letting them go (worst case), tends to end up costing us more emotionally and/or financially.
But back to my bag of apples. By the time I got around to making my pie I discovered that now half of the apples were bad. Cursing my laziness for not having dealt with that bad apple when I first noticed it (maybe saving the good bits and snacking on them or, if it had been past salvation, composting the whole thing). At least then I would have only had to deal with the short-term pain of getting a single replacement apple.
But, with the shops closed for the holiday and no time left, I now had two problems. One, not enough good apples to make a pie. And two, I had no dessert for the family feast.
On telling my partner, her first question was: "Why didn't you deal with the bad apple in the first place?"
Showing posts with label ROI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ROI. Show all posts
Friday, July 6, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Clarity of Purpose (Pt 2): objective statement
Writing an objective statement, no matter the scale or context, is not easy because once it is written and promulgated it sets in motion a series of decisions, some irreversible, that will begin to use up two of your most valuable commodities; time and money.
In a previous blog we talked about Commander's Intent. It is from the Commander's Intent that we make sure that our objective is strategically aligned and also understand what resources we can expect/need in support of the task.
It has been our experience that the best way to approach writing clear, concise and strategic objective statements is to think of it as a sentence: "I am going to do X in order to achieve Y." The key part of the sentence is the link in order to as this is vital to ensuring that you can connect your actions (X) with the Commander's Intent (Y).
Years ago when I was on exercise as a young infantry officer I was told by my commander to 'deny the enemy the bridge'. So off I went and did an analysis of the task and wrote my objective statement as 'secure the bridge'. I then decided that the best way to secure the bridge was to blow it up.
Task completed I head back to report to my commander. The conversation went something like this:
My task, and approach to it, would have been very different if a) I had been given context for the task (Commander's Intent) and b) my objective statement had been written within that context (i.e. "secure the bridge (X) in order to allow the tanks to cross in the morning (Y)."
Since that day I have used this objective statement construct with everything from getting clarity from a CEO around a strategic business issue to working with smaller teams on a very tactical task. If your objective statement does not ladder up then there is a good chance you are not aligned with the bigger picture.
In a previous blog we talked about Commander's Intent. It is from the Commander's Intent that we make sure that our objective is strategically aligned and also understand what resources we can expect/need in support of the task.
It has been our experience that the best way to approach writing clear, concise and strategic objective statements is to think of it as a sentence: "I am going to do X in order to achieve Y." The key part of the sentence is the link in order to as this is vital to ensuring that you can connect your actions (X) with the Commander's Intent (Y).
Years ago when I was on exercise as a young infantry officer I was told by my commander to 'deny the enemy the bridge'. So off I went and did an analysis of the task and wrote my objective statement as 'secure the bridge'. I then decided that the best way to secure the bridge was to blow it up.
Task completed I head back to report to my commander. The conversation went something like this:
Him (looking somewhat surprised): "What are you doing here so soon. I thought I told you to take care of the bridge?"
Me (looking pretty pleased with myself): "I have denied the enemy the bridge. Nothing will cross it"
Him (beginning to look a little worried): "What do you mean nothing will cross it?"
Me (now beginning to feel worried): Well, I did my analysis and decided that the best way to achieve my objective was to blow it up."
Him (now looking very worried): "You blew it up! I didn't want you to blow it up; I just wanted you to secure it."
Me: (nasty feeling in pit of stomach sensing where this was about to go): "Your orders to me were to deny the bridge, and blowing it up does that".
Him (alarm written all over his face): "But how are our tanks going to cross in the morning?"
My task, and approach to it, would have been very different if a) I had been given context for the task (Commander's Intent) and b) my objective statement had been written within that context (i.e. "secure the bridge (X) in order to allow the tanks to cross in the morning (Y)."
Since that day I have used this objective statement construct with everything from getting clarity from a CEO around a strategic business issue to working with smaller teams on a very tactical task. If your objective statement does not ladder up then there is a good chance you are not aligned with the bigger picture.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Service firms: risk management of time and money
For most service-driven firms (such as ad agencies or PR firms) there are two things the leaders of client teams need to be constantly risk managing: the time and money allocated to a project. Successful management of these two elements has a direct bearing on the profitability (ROI) of a project.
Furthermore you must be proactive about risk managing these vital commodities. By that we mean your account leaders need to know (on at least a weekly basis) where they stand in terms of burn rate. To risk manage accurately means they must have the mechanism in place to understand how much of the budget (resources) has been expended against getting the task done (time). This mechanism will need to be an institutionalized system otherwise you will have garbage in......
Not risk managing means that you are likely to be having the Oliver conversation ("Please Sir, may I have some more...)" with your client. And this is never a pleasant conversation - especially if your people have squandered the time and money.
Decision-making is a key component of the risk management process. But more on that later.
Furthermore you must be proactive about risk managing these vital commodities. By that we mean your account leaders need to know (on at least a weekly basis) where they stand in terms of burn rate. To risk manage accurately means they must have the mechanism in place to understand how much of the budget (resources) has been expended against getting the task done (time). This mechanism will need to be an institutionalized system otherwise you will have garbage in......
Not risk managing means that you are likely to be having the Oliver conversation ("Please Sir, may I have some more...)" with your client. And this is never a pleasant conversation - especially if your people have squandered the time and money.
Decision-making is a key component of the risk management process. But more on that later.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Leadership: surviving the Death Zone
It is climbing season in the Himalayas and already we have seen tragedy and triumph - most of it taking place in the Death Zone.
On Everest the Death Zone is the zone above 8,000 meters where there is not enough oxygen to sustain life (an extended stay in the zone without supplementary oxygen will result in deterioration of bodily functions, loss of consciousness and, ultimately, death).
What has this got to do with business leadership? We use the expression Death Zone in the context of business leadership to describe the transition that managers must make when they are promoted into a leadership position.
Giving new leaders the intellectual and emotional tools, and coaching to survive this transition is an investment that has high ROI for both your people and your business.
Unfortunately it is more common than not, especially in marketing and advertising firms, to promote a 'craft' expert (manager) into a leadership role without giving them what they need to thrive as a leader. When you promote someone it is essential that, right from the start, you give them the fundamental tools of leadership. By this we mean the intellectual framework on how to direct a team, the practical framework to understand and manage a task, and the emotional framework to direct and nurture the talent and, ultimately, the coaching to sustain them through this transition from manager to leader.
All to often we see people with great potential fail to transition the Death Zone and default back to their comfort zone of managing. This inevitably means one, or all, of three things: 1) they end up suppressing the talent they are there to lead because they do their job (craft) for them; 2) the task is inefficiently executed (i.e. costly to the firm) due to poor decision-making burning hours and time (the two vital commodities in any firm); and 3) the team becomes dysfunctional due to a lack of clarity of purpose and roles and responsibilities. Or, worse still, you will see an individual's passion and talent crushed due to the negative experience.
On Everest once you are in the Death Zone every decision you make, no matter how simple, has the potential to change your life forever. To successfully transition the Death Zone requires skill, motivation, bravery, teamwork, leadership and personal drive in just the right mix.
For those of us in business with the responsibility for selecting and nurturing leaders there are valuable lessons for us above 8,000 meters.
On Everest the Death Zone is the zone above 8,000 meters where there is not enough oxygen to sustain life (an extended stay in the zone without supplementary oxygen will result in deterioration of bodily functions, loss of consciousness and, ultimately, death).
What has this got to do with business leadership? We use the expression Death Zone in the context of business leadership to describe the transition that managers must make when they are promoted into a leadership position.
Giving new leaders the intellectual and emotional tools, and coaching to survive this transition is an investment that has high ROI for both your people and your business.
Unfortunately it is more common than not, especially in marketing and advertising firms, to promote a 'craft' expert (manager) into a leadership role without giving them what they need to thrive as a leader. When you promote someone it is essential that, right from the start, you give them the fundamental tools of leadership. By this we mean the intellectual framework on how to direct a team, the practical framework to understand and manage a task, and the emotional framework to direct and nurture the talent and, ultimately, the coaching to sustain them through this transition from manager to leader.
All to often we see people with great potential fail to transition the Death Zone and default back to their comfort zone of managing. This inevitably means one, or all, of three things: 1) they end up suppressing the talent they are there to lead because they do their job (craft) for them; 2) the task is inefficiently executed (i.e. costly to the firm) due to poor decision-making burning hours and time (the two vital commodities in any firm); and 3) the team becomes dysfunctional due to a lack of clarity of purpose and roles and responsibilities. Or, worse still, you will see an individual's passion and talent crushed due to the negative experience.
On Everest once you are in the Death Zone every decision you make, no matter how simple, has the potential to change your life forever. To successfully transition the Death Zone requires skill, motivation, bravery, teamwork, leadership and personal drive in just the right mix.
For those of us in business with the responsibility for selecting and nurturing leaders there are valuable lessons for us above 8,000 meters.
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