Mary E. Marshall's Blog, page 6

S.M.A.R.T Goals Are Dumb

A TALE OF TWO CEOS

John was a numbers guy—always enamored with how he could measure literally everything and everyone. He had statistics tracking how often people were late for work and could predict when the next person would be late, based on his calculations. His office walls were covered with charts and graphs measuring everything, from which customers bought what and when—and the number of steps to process an order—to the average number of minutes associates took in a break. You get the picture: if it was trackable, it was being tracked by John.

John called it his SMART goal strategy on steroids. Specific, measurable, achievable, results-based, and time-bound—at least that’s what it was supposed to mean, but John took it to mean that if it could be tracked or measured, it could be made SMART. Most people who worked for John thought he was a nutter and just a little obsessive. But since he never actually did anything with his charts and numbers except stare at them, he was viewed as relatively harmless.

He had heard about SMART goals as a way to track the execution of strategic plans, so he assumed it was good to apply to anything he wanted to look into. The rest of the executive team humored him, let him track his things, went on about their day-to-day business, and gave very little thought to the strategic plan. John had rendered it inert with his obsession with tracking noncritical, irrelevant items, which were not tied to the plan.

Jean is also a CEO, but her approach to the execution of the strategic plan is completely different than John’s, who is, by the way, her twin brother. Both Jean and John got in the right line at birth and were born to very wealthy parents, both of whom had trust funds and a few family businesses. Each got to pick the one they wanted to run when they turned twenty-five.

Not to be outdone by her brother, Jean decided to embrace SMART goals too. She knew John was obsessive and that his staff made fun of him behind his back, so she was determined not to suffer the same humiliation. She prided herself on being much more self-aware than John. Jean gathered her team and told them that this year she was going to use SMART goals to track the execution of the strategic plan. She patiently explained what they were and told her team to get started on coming up with a few metrics for each goal.

She was really pleased when, two weeks later, they presented her with dates assigned to all the goals. Wow, this was great! She had successfully implemented SMART goals! In her mind, they didn’t need to bother with all those silly charts that John used or even with how they would measure some of this stuff. They had a goal and a deadline—what more did they need?

Both John and Jean bumbled along leading their respective companies, and at mid-year review time, the family board of advisors asked for each to present a summary of his or her progress on the aforementioned plans.

John didn’t need input from his team; he had all the numbers anyone could want. He began putting them all into a spreadsheet presentation that would wow the board.

Jean decided to get an update from her team as to how things were going. She called a meeting, and everyone presented updates on their progress toward the SMART goals. Sadly, the goals that had deadlines in the past six months had not been achieved, and it wasn’t looking good for the future dates either. When she asked what the problem was, she was given a variety of excuses—all of which sounded like “blah, blah, blah” to her. Somehow, she needed to make this presentable in a way that would show the board how good she was doing. Aha! She would have everyone revise the dates to sometime after the board meeting, and she would surprise them with all the progress. Man, did she love this SMART goal thing—it was brilliant.

The board meeting came, and five minutes into John’s presentation, one of the board members stopped him and asked what the hell he was talking about, and how did these numbers relate to the execution of the plan? John fumbled, mumbled, and could not understand why they didn’t love his approach to SMART goals as much as he did. Another board member simply asked what he had accomplished in the last six months related to the plan, and John just stared—couldn’t they see? Were they blind? He was asked to sit down.

Then it was Jean’s turn. Pleased with herself that she got to go after John’s blunder, she would be a superstar. She presented her progress and outlined her SMART goals. One board member asked how the goals tied into the plan and why everything was due in the fourth quarter. Quick on her feet, Jean answered that these were big SMART goals, so they took time, and they were the plan. Geez, she thought, how dense are these guys?

Then another board member said that her progress was no different than John’s and that they needed to start holding their teams accountable and figure out a way to measure things appropriately so that the board can tell whether or not they were on track to achieving the goals of the plan—for which the board had paid a pretty penny to have developed.

Both Jean and John left the board meeting upset that they had not been feted in the way they were used to and went back to doing things exactly as they had been. What did the board know about SMART goals anyway?

LET’S GET REAL

SMART goals are just a way of tracking goals, not a replacement for a good strategy. If you set the wrong goal, making it SMART will not make it right. As our hapless John did, many executives get caught up in the over-tracking of everything—somehow thinking this will get them closer to accomplishing something. No. That only creates confusion, frustration, and endless spreadsheets.

Jean didn’t fare any better, thinking that having a deadline made her goals smart. She forgot to create a way to measure them. A date by itself is kind of meaningless if you don’t know how you’ll know if a goal was achieved by that date.

SMART goals are a way to track the progress of the execution of your plan. They are not a substitute for good leadership. You have to have a good plan to start with, tracking the most important goals, in the right order, with the right metrics and achievable date targets. If you don’t, it’s just a spreadsheet that nobody cares about or dates that are meaningless because there are no consequences for missing the targets.

Good leaders hold people accountable to the plan. SMART goals are simply a tool for helping them to do so.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

The post S.M.A.R.T Goals Are Dumb appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

The Plan Is the Plan Is the Plan

This is the story of George. George is an executive at a large manufacturing plant employing approximately 250 people. Throughout his career, he’s been called the golden boy or the one with the golden touch. Everything he’s ever set out to do professionally has turned out exactly as he planned.

So, naturally, when it came time to expand the facility to accommodate the large part orders they anticipated, he went about it with the same rigor he applied to anything he did: plan, plan, and then plan some more. He was confident that his success was due to his meticulous planning efforts, and he was not about to change his methods now. After all, he had been rewarded handsomely for this all his life. In his mind, George knew he was GREAT, and life confirmed it for him every damn day.

He worked with his team to create an execution plan for the strategic initiative, which called for another building equal in size to the current building and adjoined by a “work corridor.” He envisioned beautiful offices lining the work corridor connecting the two plants, and they would be filled with all the plant managers and administrative staff—including a beautiful, big office for George that looked out over all he had created.

Once the plan was solid in his mind, he went about lining up the various resources to get it built, and the permits sailed through like clockwork, and construction began. Once again, George was on track for yet another win and another big, fat bonus! He could envision the Maserati he had ordered and the safari to Africa that he was going to take with his perfect wife and 2.4 children. Life was good for Golden Boy George!

Not long after construction began, rumors that the anticipated “big order” might not be as big as they all expected started to surface. The airline industry was starting to slow, and there were some regulatory issues with the winglets for that particular model of plane. The sales head brought the concern to George, but George dismissed it offhand, saying it was just a rumor, and forged ahead with the plan. He was certainly not going to let anyone or anything get in the way of his plan. This had been identified as a possible threat when they were doing their SWOT and was dismissed as implausible. Therefore, according to George, it would not happen.

The new plant had reached about 90 percent completion when the engineers discovered a potential problem with the connecting work corridor. They determined it might be subject to flooding due to a small creek running adjacent to the plant, which had a propensity to flood every hundred years or so.

Did George want to elevate that section of the building? “Absolutely not,” said George. The plan was in place, and it was highly unlikely they would have that level of threat—it was not in the plan. He was really getting irritated by all these interruptions to his plan. Why couldn’t they just trust his golden instincts?

Within six months the plant was complete, resplendent in its glory, and George was more than pleased with himself that the construction wrapped up on time, on budget, and—most importantly—on plan. He invited the board and local dignitaries for the ribbon-cutting, and all was right with the world. George could not wait to pick up his new Maserati and had booked the safari. Life was good as long as you stuck to the plan!

Two days after the ribbon-cutting, the airplane manufacturer put its standing order for winglets on hold. George was not worried; he had been through downturns before. His competitors would have difficulties, not George. He continued with hiring and production as if the order was unchanged, believing it would be just a delay, not a cancellation. This was in their plan, after all. Two weeks after the grand opening, the standing order was canceled. George was frozen. There was nothing golden about this. He had never had one of his plans go awry, and he was confused—what was happening? He had a plan, right?

George and the sales team tried to resurrect the order, but the airline had a clause that allowed them to cancel the order without consequences, so there was nothing they could do. George was furious the airline was not adhering to the plan—it was wrong of them!

To add to George’s troubles, the rainy season had begun, and with twice the average annual rainfall! Some were predicting an infamous hundred-year flood. The engineers implored George to do something to protect the building, particularly the beloved work corridor. However, George was too distracted by the canceled order to pay attention to any of the warning flags the engineers were waving.

A week later, the nearby river, and consequently the creek George had been warned about, started to overflow its banks. Within a day the entire work corridor was two feet underwater, and both plants were at risk of flooding as well. George was now in a full-scale panic—so much so that he was still sitting in his pristine new office in the work corridor with water up to his knees. His assistant called the plant managers to come and get him out, but he refused to move—frozen in fear because his “plan” had fallen apart. He couldn’t understand it had been so perfect in his mind. What was happening?

They finally called 9-1-1. George had to be rescued and sent away to a rehab facility due to a mental breakdown. No safari, no Maserati, no bonus, a completely ruined plant, bankruptcy, and—most concerning to George—a failed plan.

LET’S GET REAL

Moral of the story? Be flexible to avoid the otherwise inevitable failure. The plan needs to bend when the circumstances that the plan was built on change.

Good old George did not have a flexible bone in his body and could not see how to do anything differently than he always had. Having never experienced failure, he ignored critical information that might have allowed him to alter his path. When certainty and ego are involved, crucial questions never get asked, let alone answered.

George may seem like a far-fetched caricature of an out-of-touch white-collar executive, but he’s all too familiar. Mistakes happen, Mother Nature happens, accidents happen, people change their minds, and all can be dealt with as they happen. But only if the plan and the people involved are ready for the unexpected.

No plan is perfect, and a perfectly executed plan left unchanged in the face of new information is just as bad as having no plan at all—doomed to failure. Good leaders know how to be flexible and are always watching the horizon for those things that might have changed—consequently requiring a change in plans. It’s not sacrilegious; it’s good planning.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

The post The Plan Is the Plan Is the Plan appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Boxers or Briefs?

Sent: August 29, 12:44 p.m.
From: CEO
To: Companywide
Subject: Strat. Plan Decisions

Hello everyone,

I’m very excited to announce that our leadership team has created an amazing plan for 2020! Now everyone gets to help implement it. We will be posting the plan shortly, and I hope that each and every one of you will weigh in on what you think and what role you would like to take.

Ideally, each of you will take a different section, but even if you don’t, we’re going to try to make sure you all get what you want. My assistant, Sarah, will be taking your preferences, and then we’ll be assigning tasks based on those. With 100 of you now in the company, it will be a bit of a challenge—but not one that we haven’t faced before!

And of course, I’d really like to hear what you think of the plan because if you don’t like it, that’s important for us to hear. Although we went to the proverbial mountaintop to create it, we know we can’t get there without you, so each and every voice is important to us. We’re absolutely open to changing our course if we get enough feedback on any of the elements. Remember, every voice counts at LifeLine!

If anyone thinks of a better way to assign tasks, we are open to that too. We want to make sure everyone feels heard and that each of you is brought into the plan. Any questions are welcome; just run them through Sarah, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Lastly, let me know what you think about the timing. Is it too soon? Should we stretch it out to 2021 or keep the deadline at 2020?

Thank YOU!

Steve

Sent: August 29, 2:03 p.m.
From: Tom, COO
To: Leadership Group
Subject: FWD: Strat. Plan Decisions

Okay, guys, here he goes again, getting everybody and their brother involved. He’s likely to backtrack on everything that took us weeks to decide. Who’s got ideas on how to stop this train wreck before it gets out of the station? Anyone?

Tom

Sent: August 29, 2:30 p.m.
From: Ann Marie, CTO
To: Tom; Leadership Team
Subject: RE: FWD: Strat. Plan Decisions

Good call, Tom. You know he’s going to get everyone’s input and then change his mind a hundred times before we get going. I say we just ignore him and keep going, tell him that everyone loved the plan, and this is how it is. He’ll be fine. It’s how I get him to agree to sign off on any of the financial items. He just can’t make a decision to save his life.

Sent: August 29, 2:58 p.m.
From: Judy, CFO
To: Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: FWD: Strat. Plan Decisions

Guys, you know this is his process, so I’m not sure we should interfere. Let’s just wait till he’s done and then change what we need to. Unless any of you think otherwise? I’m completely open to doing this a different way.

Judy

Sent: September 24, 3:26 p.m.
From: Sarah
To: CEO; Leadership Team
Subject: Strat. Plan Assignments

Hi Steve,

I’m having a little trouble assigning goals and tasks to people. Everyone wants to be on the IT initiative for the new building, but no one wants to work on the marketing or compensation initiatives, let alone the innovation strategy. Some of the assignments were pretty vague, so I couldn’t really explain what they were, and about 40 people haven’t even bothered to sign up for anything.

I’m not sure what you want me to do.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Sent: September 24, 3:34 p.m.
From: CEO
To: Sarah; Leadership Team
Subject: RE: Strat. Plan Assignments

Hi Sarah,

Well, that is a pickle, isn’t it? I’m sure we can figure it out. Why don’t you put a meeting on the calendar for the leadership team, and we’ll whiteboard some ideas. Maybe at the end of the month, because I’m sure by then more people will have stepped up to the plate.

Steve

Sent: November 2, 12:02 p.m.
From: Sarah
To: CEO; Leadership Team
Subject: Strat. Plan Assignments

Hi Steve,

I hate to bring this up again, but we’re still waiting for about 25 people to sign up for tasks, and we still have multiple goals and tasks without anyone assigned to them. It seems like we’ve already missed some deadlines. I’m not sure this is the right approach, but I just did the seating chart for my sister’s wedding, and we made a big chart with all the tables and cut out the names of everyone coming, and started placing them around. Maybe we could use that approach?

I’ve never been able to get that meeting scheduled due to everyone’s competing priorities, so let me know if you guys still want to whiteboard it through.

Also, not sure what you want me to do with all the feedback and questions I’ve been forwarding to you. It’s been a few months, and no one has responded to them.

Just let me know how to proceed.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Sent: November 15, 1:15 p.m.
From: Steve
To: Sara; Leadership Team
Subject: RE: Strat. Plan Assignments

Hi Sarah,

Thank you so much for checking in on this. With the holidays and all, let’s set up a meeting for January and get this thing put to bed. By then we should have enough opinions to finalize the execution strategy!

Steve

LET’S GET REAL

I think we all know where this execution plan is headed: to the crossroads of Nowhere and Purgatory. Indecision cripples strategic-plan execution more than anything else. Whatever enthusiasm you had going at the start will quickly fade from the lack of a timely decision from leadership. In our example above, not just the CEO but all of them seemed stuck in the same indecision Twilight Zone; all waiting for someone else to make the call.

You don’t need to be right, but you do need to choose. Leaders who wait for consensus on everything doom the plan to paralysis. Nothing gets launched, and everyone goes back to business as usual. People figure out how to make the same stuff happen that they did yesterday, but NOT how to execute on a new plan. Waiting for all twelve members of the jury to agree will keep things stuck in yesterday’s paradigm. Leading a successful execution strategy requires making decisions in a timely manner. Have a plan for people if they make a mistake but empower them to keep moving forward—proper strategic execution requires it.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

The post Boxers or Briefs? appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Seat Assignments

Sent: July 18, 10:08 a.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives

Team,

Great job coming up with the assignments for the six strategic initiatives from the planning session. It looks like we have all 24 mid-level managers assigned and they are split evenly—four each. Just curious if each of you is taking the lead on any of those or just letting the managers handle it?

Jon

Sent: July 18, 10:20 a.m.
From: Dana, CFO
To: CEO; Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives

Jon,

We discussed it and decided that they really need to know how to do this, so they should learn on the job. We’ll let them battle it out among themselves as to who should take the lead. We have too much on our plates as it is. They are the ones responsible for getting it done, and we’ll have monthly meetings with progress updates. And the dashboard is up on the shared drive, so we’ll have total visibility to check up on them.

Dana

Sent: July 18, 10:43 a.m.
From: Bob, COO
To: Dana; CEO; Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives

Concur with Dana. They’ve got it handled, let’s move on.

Sent: July 18, 10:58 a.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives

Team,

OK, if you’re all on board with this, I guess it will work. I’m just a little concerned as none of them were involved last year, so not sure they’ll know what we’re trying to achieve. What is the plan if it goes off track?

Sent: July 18, 11:13 a.m.
From: Sarah, CMO
To: CEO; Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: Assignments for Strategic Initiatives

Jon,

Have a little faith in your senior leadership team. We know what we’re doing, and this year we’re just delegating a little more. The managers need to show us what they’re made of—do they have the stuff or don’t they? Besides, their bonuses are resting on their completion of this, so what’s the problem? Good incentives, good leadership by us—it’s going to work. What could possibly go wrong?

Sarah

Sent: August 18, 2:45 p.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team
Subject: Update on Strat. Plan Progress

Team,

After sitting in on the monthly strat. plan meeting today, it seems pretty clear that some of these assignments were not well thought out. Who put James in charge of the marketing initiative? He just started in June, and before now his biggest marketing job was as a copywriter for a defunct newspaper.

Not to mention the person leading the HR initiative—who is she? Did I get the right idea that she’s a temp and whoever you assigned in the first place opted out and a temp is now leading the selection of the new HRM software? Bob, shouldn’t you be sitting in on these meetings?

I have to say, I am really getting concerned that we’re not going to meet our quarterly objectives. I notice that no one has been updating the dashboard unless it is up-to-date, and nothing has been achieved in two months?

Let me know the plan moving forward, and let’s discuss in the upcoming leadership meeting on Friday.

Sent: August 18, 2:45 p.m.
From: Bob, COO
To: Sr. Leadership Team; CEO
Subject: RE: Update on Strat. Plan Progress

Jon,

We met as the Sr. leadership team and need to respectfully remind you that we are in charge of the plan. You delegated this task to us, and we have delegated it to our teams. This is an example of the type of micromanagement that you said you would not engage in anymore— we’re simply trying to do what’s right by the company, and you are consistently getting in the way.

We do not wish to discuss it at our meeting, and if you have any further questions, maybe we should bring the board in as we all know they signed off on the plan. Making any changes now would require them to be involved, and we all know that’s not what you want, is it, Jon?

Bob

Sent: August 19, 10:12 a.m.
From: CEO
To: Sr. Leadership Team; COO
Subject: RE: RE: Update on Strat. Plan Progress

Bob,

You’re right. I didn’t mean to interfere, but there is a lot riding on the success of this plan. As you know, the board has said that they are looking at me as a leader and expecting better results than with our last plan. I’m just worried it’s not starting off well. I’ll go ahead and give it another few months to see if we have made some progress, but if you all could please put your updates on the shared drive, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your help!

Jon

LET’S GET REAL

This plan is sparking into a dumpster fire. Having the right people doing the work, as well as leading the charge, has everything to do with the success of the plan itself. Execution is NOT about delegation of authority and responsibility to make the plan work; it’s about giving the right initiatives, goals, and tasks to those who actually know how to do them BEST.

This leadership team is either completely derelict in their duties or trying to set the CEO up for failure. Neither is good. Good execution of the plan requires the leadership to own the strategic initiatives and to check in—not checkup—to see how it’s going and what is needed. Over-delegation to people who don’t have a clue or are simply not skilled at the particular initiative or task will lead to chaos. Good people will leave; bad people will just quit while still on the job. Who cares anyway? The senior leadership team sure as hell didn’t.

A leader who allows himself to be bullied into an execution strategy he doesn’t understand or has clear doubts about is a wimp. Leadership does not need to be loud, but it does need to be strong. Allowing something you know will be a train wreck is an abdication of leadership and will doom any strategy, no matter how good.

Successful execution is about having the best people in the right roles to maximize the chances of success—not delegating it to the last man standing. Although you might be building the plane while in the air, the need for qualified mechanics is even greater than when the plane was on the ground.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

The post Seat Assignments appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

The Monkey’s Wrench

It’s been four months since marketing started working with that super-expensive design firm in San Francisco on that “rebranding initiative” they talked me into. I never really understood what was wrong with the logo that we have, and I certainly don’t understand why we are spending 50K on a new one. My brother did the first one, and it has a special place in my heart. I’m thinking I’m going to ask them just to use a variation of the old logo and stop the bleed on the budget. I’ll like it and that’s what matters.

Sarah is the problem; I’ve known it all along. I seem to be the only one who thinks so, but I am looking at it from the business perspective, and I think that Doug is being too soft on her because he hired her, and he likes her. She’s not the right person for the job, and I think the whole lean strategy failed because of her. Everyone else thinks it’s because I didn’t give them enough budget, but they’re wrong. If he doesn’t let her go by Friday, I’m just going to do it myself and let him know on Monday.

I don’t care what Sales says—we do not need a customer relationship management system. CRM, CRM—it’s all I ever hear about from them anymore. Apparently, it’s another trendy software platform they think is going to magically increase our sales tenfold. I’ve heard what it costs to implement one of those things, and there is no way I’m forking over that kind of cash when they can use a spreadsheet like I always did.

It’s our culture. We have a problem with our culture. We need to invest in some fun stuff, like ping-pong tables, and we need to hire an HR person to make sure that people are having fun here. Our culture needs to be more fun; it’s the only way we are going to win the Best Places to Work award. I think I’ll just go ahead and buy a couple of ping-pong tables, and we can put them in the lobby. That way our visiting clients can see how much fun we are having.

We need more capital. We’re not growing because we don’t have a treasure chest of money. I should go find some angel investors or private-equity money. Money will solve everything, and with investors on board, we’ll have all of that great outside advice to help us create a winning strategy. People will love it, and we’ll get so much great press.

LET’S GET REAL

Sound familiar? It’s because these are some of the many random thoughts that swim aimlessly through a lot of leaders’ heads during long, sleepless nights. And sometimes they act on these wayward thoughts, which more often than not then turn into giant monkey wrenches in an otherwise perfectly managed situation or a well-planned strategy.

Look, leadership can be a lonely job, and if you’re a leader who believes that you, and only you, should have all the answers, or who needs to be the fixer or the solver of all the problems—it is lonely. But if you can look at your organization from the highest altitude possible, you’ll see that there are solutions all around you. You just have to give them the space they need to come into focus.

Building a business and creating a strategy for the success of that business is a team effort that requires a wide range of talent and skills. Many entrepreneurs begin their foray into business wearing multiple hats, and they do what they need to do in order to get something off the ground. But this is not how great businesses are built, and certainly not how they thrive. Great businesses with winning strategies happen when you build a reliable team of talented people who are (a) in positions that play to their strengths, and (b) are allowed to do the jobs that you hired them to do.

Your job as a leader is not to make sure they are doing things the way you want them to; it’s to make sure you’ve hired the right people and that they are contributing great ideas that you hadn’t thought of, or maybe would never think of. This is a fundamental difference in an approach to management that many leaders miss entirely because they are convinced that it is indeed their job to have all the answers.

If you’re a leader, ask yourself how comfortable you are answering “I don’t know” to a question from one of your employees. If it makes you uncomfortable, then you have to ask yourself if you might need to work on your own skills of empowering others. The truth is, you don’t have all the answers and that’s why you hired them. Practice the art of empowerment by challenging those around you to bring great ideas and strategies to you, and then practice your restraint by not throwing monkey wrenches in their plans.

Great things happen when great leaders see that their job is to clear the runway for their team. You want your people to fly, not to drive planes around on the ground. And to do so, you need the view from the control tower. If you’re running the airport from the tarmac, you’re probably going to get hit by one of your own planes.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

The post The Monkey’s Wrench appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

The Saboteur

Sent: April 14, 2:00 p.m.

From: Gayle, CEO

To: Robert, Director of Product Strategy

Subject: Rethinking Annual Plan

Robert,

As we turn the corner on the third quarter here, I wanted to touch base on our annual product-rollout plan. I know the big launch is already planned for the fourth quarter, and we’re depending on holiday sales to help push us over our sales goal, but I’m having some second thoughts.

I know you spent the better part of last year with the research firm. We did spend a fair amount of money on market research, and there was consensus in the focus groups, but I’m just not sure it’s the direction we should be heading.

I had dinner with one of the principals at the private-equity firm where my boyfriend works (it’s his boss, actually), and I explained our annual strategy and product-rollout plan, and he thinks we are on the wrong track.

I didn’t have a lot of time to go over the research findings, but I explained it in summary. He thinks that our competitors are just doing a better job of pushing new product into the market and maybe we should consider putting more energy into the products we have.

He’s not in our target market and doesn’t use our products or our competitors’ products, but he is a private-equity guy and really smart. He’s in their professional services division, so he doesn’t really have any expertise in CPG. But again, he’s a private-equity guy and is all about the money, and he thinks we are spending too much money on market research, and I should just trust my gut.

My gut says that we’ve come this far with the products we have, so why not do more of what we know how to do and what we know will be successful? I mean, it got us this far, right?

Gayle

Excellent plan, Gayle. This has to be super demoralizing for Robert, having spent an entire year doing market research; then presenting a thoughtful, fiscally sound, and strategic plan for success; and marching toward the incentive package you put together for him at the beginning of the year.

There’s no better way to keep your team on their toes than by changing horses midstream as often and as disruptively as you can. After all, your business needs to be flexible, and your people need to be able to pivot at a moment’s notice.

You’re doing a fantastic job of getting solid advice from advisors as well. There’s no better way to seek sage wisdom than to reach out to people who don’t know your business at all—that way their opinions are completely objective. Now Robert will have plenty of time to look around at what your competitors are doing, and maybe next year you can just follow in their footsteps and skip all that spending on market research.

LET’S GET REAL

There are two important themes in this anecdote.

The first is the theme of the saboteur. This is the leader who, for one reason or another, can’t commit to innovation or change and actively seeks out ways to sabotage a strategic plan at the most critical time. It stands to reason that many founders have a deep-seated fear of stepping outside the safety net of “doing things the way we always have” because that is what got their business to where it is. But this fear often rears its ugly head when change and progress are the most important factors for survival.

The second theme is good old-fashioned stick-to-what-we-know-and-make-it-happen-ness. Many entrepreneurs are impatient, want instant results, and aren’t willing to stay the course of a strategic plan. Solid plans for business innovation and change take time and perseverance, which are often in short supply at the top.

Either way, leaders are usually the ones to sabotage the best-laid plans. Sabotage can come in the form of cutting budgets, under-resourcing, reacting to outside advice, or even just plain sticking their noses in where they don’t belong (as we’ll discuss in our next chapter, “The Monkey’s Wrench”).

When saboteurs at the top take aim at a strategic direction or plan, look first for a lack of confidence, or insecurity. Not many leaders would admit to their management team that they are fearful of taking a big step, but they all hold the power to make decisions to prevent that step from occurring. They have at their disposal a myriad of methods to sabotage a perfectly laid plan without anyone being the wiser.

If this is you, ask yourself what you’re afraid of. Is the plan not well-rationalized or not rationalized to your satisfaction?

Do you need to take a step back and ask for more research or evidence? Or do you need to simply come clean with your team and tell them you’re having second thoughts and don’t know where they are coming from? Either way, come clean before you inadvertently (or purposely) use sabotage as a cover-up for something else that’s making you question where your business is headed.

If you are on the pointy end of the saboteur’s stick, and your leader is actively undermining what he or she directed you to do in the first place, don’t just sit by and let it happen. Even the best of leaders can find themselves in this position, and they are counting on their teams to tell them if they are being led astray. Work with your team and dig into the problem with your leader— “manage up”—and see if you can help your leader find the root cause of their fear and work through it with them.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

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By Imitation Only

Sent: August 18, 11:00 a.m.

From: Ann, CEO

To: Dan, Director of Marketing

Subject: NWFFPSC Booth

Dan,

Last year at the National Worldwide Forum for the Future of Professional Services & Consulting, I saw at least twenty of our direct competitors with booths that were far superior to ours. It made us look like some podunk, rinky-dink small business staffed by a bunch of hacks with  AAs from the local community college, trying to compete with the Zeuses and Adonises of Big Consulting. I mean, honestly, are you going to try to tell me that we are going to steal market share when we show up to our biggest industry trade show looking like we did?

Bonafide Consulting had a 50ʹ x 50ʹ booth with a coffee bar, a barista, finger sandwiches, and four parchment-leather sofas to schmooze their potential clients. Hat Trick Services had a full-blown movie theater showing their commercials on a nonstop loop, with a popcorn vendor and an endless supply of KitKats—I mean come on, we didn’t even have a water cooler in our booth! And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, Premier One Fair Equity was prancing around touting free the band, not the dog. Argh!

Dan, this year I want you to kill it at NWFFPSC! I want to bury the competition with our booth presence. Last year we spent $25,000 on our booth for a three-day show. This year, I’m throwing in an additional

$10,000 because I want you to blow them out of the water. I want a booth that is on a corner or smack dab in the middle of the trade-show floor. I want our entire sales-and-marketing staff to be there, and they are not allowed to leave the booth for more than one bathroom break. That means they stay put for 7 hours and 55 minutes—the more people we have at our booth, the more popular we’ll look. No uniforms, shirts, or name tags because we want them to look like potential customers. Just pack ’em in there.

I would also like to see some sort of very loud and showy entertainment. Last year, Bonanza Consulting had four beautiful “booth babes” in short skirts and four-inch heels demonstrating the latest in artificial intelligence for cloud computing. We don’t do AI, but it’s the hot new thing, and I want us to look like we are on the absolute bleeding edge of technology. So, figure out what AI is and make it happen, Dan. Make. It. Happen.

I’m not going to take another gloating call from that crusty old Harold Sherman at Bonanza asking me if we’ve had budget cuts for NWFF- PSC. Total humiliation from one of our biggest competitors. No way is that happening to ME again, and it’s YOUR job to make sure of it. So, get to work. I expect a plan and booth layout on my desk by next week.

Urgently, Ann, CEO

Now here’s someone who really knows how to stick it to the competition! Paralyzed by fear of not keeping up, she’s got her right-hand man Dan on a mission to out-do every one of her overspending, overindulging, glitzy competitors at the next big event so she’ll look brighter, bigger, better, and—well, let’s face it—smarter!

Ann knows that it’s all about keeping up with the competition, and her strategy is spot-on. She keeps copious notes on their advertising and marketing, she peppers her customers with questions about her competitors, and she’s even been known to poke around for confidential documents and proposals to see if she can get “competitive intelligence.” Her marketing team spends hours and hours doing competitive analysis reports for her, and her recruiting team stalks every one of her top competitors’ senior employees on LinkedIn, so she knows exactly who they are and what they are doing.

Nothing is going to get by Ann. She proudly refers to herself as ruthlessly competitive, and she’ll go to the ends of the earth to make sure her competitors know it.

LET’S GET REAL

Our CEO Ann is not ruthlessly competitive; she’s scared to death to face the fact that her business’s strategy, core offerings, and customer testimonials simply aren’t good enough to compete. Her insecurity about where her business falls in line next to her competitors causes her to spend more energy chasing the competition than she does creating her own compelling strategy.

We see this every day in copycat marketing, and if you look closely, you’ll see it right down to copycat headlines. Social strategies have compounded the problem with increased messages to market and trends that change so fast that businesses are executing social marketing without even knowing if it works. Panic sets in when Ann sees her competitors tweeting twenty times a day, so she runs like her hair is on fire through the marketing department demanding a Twitter strategy without knowing or even thinking about results.

We see this in product strategy as well. Beware the leader who sees a competitor launch a new product strategy one day and demands a company-wide rebrand the next day. It’s not to say that being competitive isn’t important or that keeping an eye on your competitors isn’t time well spent—it is. But great businesses are built by leaders who have confidence in their vision and spend more time executing that vision than they do chasing the competition. Customers buy confidence, investors invest in businesses that are sure of themselves, and great talent is attracted to differentiated workplaces.

Rest assured that Ann may be pleased with her glitzy booth next year, but it won’t bear fruit for the business. It will just be a doom loop of one-upmanship year after year. And meanwhile, a smart, stealthy competitor with a confident, sharp strategy will come from behind and blow them all out of the water without spending one dime on a trade-show booth.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

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Innovation Is for Losers

Sent: Sunday, March 3, 7:42 p.m.

From: David, Founder & CEO

To: Chris, Director of IT

Subject: Web Sight Budget

Chris,

I’ve been putting a lot of thought into our technology budget for this year, and I’m having second thoughts about your request to redo our web sight.

When we started the company in 2002, we paid a lot of money to an Internet developer to build our web sight. He made sure it was compatible with browsers like Netscape and Internet Explorer and also made sure it looked good on all different sizes of computers. He did a great job. In fact, even when I look at it today on my iPad it looks pretty good.

I also think the designer template he used still looks good. Maybe we could make the logo a little bigger and use up some of the white space with more copy, but all in all, it works and looks good on my computer.

I don’t really understand why you think it needs to be updated. It seems to be taking payments OK through PayPal, and when I type in our company name in the Google it comes right up. I also don’t understand why you think it’s crucial that people be able to look at our web sight on their telephones. Everything would be so small. Why would someone want to do that?

I know you are going to say that 18 years is too long to go without a refresh, especially now that we only sell our products on the Internet, but you know me, Chris. I’m an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” kind of guy.

Dave

From: Chris, Director of IT

To: David, Founder & CEO

Subject: RE: Web Sight Budget

Good morning Dave,

Sorry for the short notice, but I wanted to let you know that Friday was my last day, and I won’t be coming in today, or any other day. Good luck.

Chris

LET’S GET REAL

First of all, if you have a founder or CEO who uses terms like “web sight,” that should be the first clue that you’re dealing with someone who is grossly incompetent and should have retired a decade or three ago.

But all kidding aside, if you are a leader or business owner who doesn’t understand the importance of technology in every single aspect of your business, then you need to hire someone who does—immediately. Give them the biggest budget you can afford and let them do their job. Technology is here to stay; it should be embraced, not feared. It can be the single most powerful thing that can propel your business into the future Many leaders are casual users or late adopters of technology, or their foray into technology was at a time when many of the tools, platforms, and apps available online felt “free.” There was a time when the do-it-yourself attitude prevailed, and they don’t understand that now, more than ever, the you-get-what-you-pay-for theory rings true.

Embracing technology is just one part of having an innovative mindset, however. Being innovative means, you are willing to evolve, to change, to rethink the methods of the past, and seek out new ideas that are more relevant to today. Innovation isn’t an initiative; it’s a way of thinking and a mode of operating that is always on and ever-present.

Today, “moving at the speed of business” means embracing innovation in everything we do and being open to the fluid business environment that it creates. Great leaders are avid readers, continuously learning how they can take what is happening in the world and in our culture and use this as a platform of ideas for how to evolve their businesses.

The best-laid plans need to have innovation at their core and a “take a step and repeat” approach for long-term planning by continually innovating. “Next year we are going to do something we’ve never done before” is a perfectly reasonable goal when it means we are going to innovate and push ourselves to think outside of our comfort zone.

Leaders who stay comfortable—who hold on to what they know best—or who refuse to invest in innovation, even at the most basic level, will inevitably get left behind in a small, irrelevant cloud of dust.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

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It’s All in the Execution(er?)

Now it’s getting fun. You’ve spent a ton of time and money planning, and now you actually get to do something other than sit around and hope something will happen—you get to make it happen. Feel those butterflies? Or is it just the sinking feeling that maybe the plan you created might go the way of the Titanic because you forgot to plan for the inevitable iceberg that has your name on it? What? You didn’t do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)? No worries, it’s very unlikely that scenario would ever play out…or would it?

The execution of a bad plan leads to a poetically tragic strategy—like having your wife and girlfriend leave you at the same time and then finding out they are lovers. As a leader, it was your job to launch this strategy rocket with a well-prepared team. It was your job to let them know exactly what, where, and when they were supposed to act. Did you make it clear who was on first? Leaders fail all the time at execution—and it’s usually because they are the chief executioner.

Plans fail in the execution stage because they are a wash, rinse, and repeat of the previous year’s plan—not some big innovation—drawing a big yawn and a “who cares” from the team who has to do the work. Copying another company’s execution strategy will not make a bad plan work well; it will only create more confusion and chaos. The leader who refuses to switch tracks despite the oncoming train will likely be flattened. Then there are those leaders who read the latest business books and adopt the made-up words to describe what everyone already knows, and think they are the reincarnation of Steve Jobs. Or the leader who takes SMART goals to such an extreme that the changing of the bathroom tissue is charted daily so that even the janitor gets to participate in the execution of the planning process. As those involved in dangerous sports often find out, taking things to extremes has a nasty habit of resulting in death. That’s when the leader of execution becomes the executioner.

These are just some of the many ways that the execution of a plan makes for great how-not-to stories. If you want to avoid some of the most obvious pratfalls when it comes to executing the most beautifully crafted strategy, keep reading. You’ll likely see some of your “friends” in these upcoming stories.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

The post It’s All in the Execution(er?) appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Snake Oil Strategy

GOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING! WELCOME TO THIS YEAR’S ANNUAL STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION! GRAB SOME COFFEE—HURRY UP, WAKE UP, RISE AND SHINE, PEOPLE! GRAB A SEAT, NOTEBOOKS OUT, THINKING CAPS ON—WE ARE GOING TO GET STRATEGIC! MY NAME IS BOB, I AM WITH BOB CAMPBELL CONSULTING INCORPORATED, I AM YOUR LEAD STRATEGIC CONSULTANT, AND IT’S DAMN NICE TO MEET YOU! I AM AN ACCOMPLISHED STRATEGIC CONSULTANT! I AM ALSO A MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER! I HAVE WRITTEN TWO BOOKS, WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO PURCHASE AFTER TODAY’S SESSION!

I want to extend a BIG HUG OF THANKS to your BRILLIANT founder and CEO for hiring ME, BOB, THE STRATEGIC CONSULTANT, to take you on this EXCITING JOURNEY today!

Now SIT DOWN! You’ll find in front of you, on this table, TOYS! So, grab a toy and start PLAYING WITH IT! We are going to have twenty minutes of PLAYTIME to get your creative juices flowing. Get those big ideas rolling through the cobwebs of your busy brains, and by the end of the day, we are going to have the MOST BRILLIANT STRATEGY YOU’VE EVER SEEN! Am I excited? HELL YES I’m excited!

PLAYTIME IS OVER! Now we are going to BONDING TIME! I want you to look to your left, and now to your right. Give one of the two people sitting next to you a HUGE HUG! Come on now—WITH FEELING! Now doesn’t that feel better? We are going, to be honest, vulnerable, real, and, dammit, you people are going to shine today! I can already spot the rock stars in the room. I have a sixth sense for strategy, I tell you—I know exactly who the real contributors are in this company. I can tell just by LOOKING AT YOU!

Now SIT DOWN and open your BOB CAMPBELL CONSULTING INCORPORATED notebooks, provided by ME, BOB CAMPBELL. Pens ready! OK! For the next thirty minutes, we are going to have THINKING TIME! I want each and every one of you to write down your TOP FIFTY GOALS for the year. You have thirty minutes, people. HOP TO IT! I am going to step out of the room, grab some coffee at the Starbucks in the lobby, and will be back in exactly twenty-eight minutes. EYES DOWN!

CONGRATULATIONS, team! You’ve accomplished step one of MY proprietary strategic consulting M-E-T-H-O-D-O-L-O-G-Y. That’s what I do—I have a method, and I’m practically a doctor in methodology! And I’m pretty funny too if I do say so myself. Now I want you to circle your three favorite goals, your top three, not the most important, but your favorite. One, two, three, GO! When you’re done, put the paper in the basket. PUT THE PAPER IN THE BASKET! And because I’ve been doing this for forty years, and because of my sixth strategic sense, I am going to draw five of your goals lists out of this basket. One, two, three, four, five. YOU! What’s your name? Get up here; let’s see what you’ve got when you’re in the hot seat, pal. Here, take these five pages, and I want you to choose ONE GOAL from each of these pages and write them on the whiteboard. One from each—that’s five total, sport.

And there you go! THERE THEY ARE! Your top five goals for the year. THE BOB CAMPBELL WAY! This is a democracy, people! And LOOK AT YOU! You did it! You’ve identified the top five things that your company is going to focus on this year whether you want to or not. I knew you had it in you! NOW LET’S HAVE LUNCH!

LET’S GET REAL

We have all suffered through at least one planning session facilitated by a “professional facilitator” that had some aspect of this nightmare scenario to it, whether it’s the overly enthusiastic stranger who claims to be “as passionate about your brand as you are” or the pile of sticky and well-used fidget toys to play with. We’ve all seen part of Bob’s big strategy charade. The “methodology” that they pitch as their own proprietary genius varies little from consultant to consultant, and the results are seldom better than what you might get out of a five-minute multiple-choice survey.

Many leaders dread the obligatory annual strategic-planning session because:

(a) it brings the otherwise productive management team to a screeching halt for an entire day

(b) they themselves have no idea how to facilitate a session to yield actionable results

(c) by the end of the first quarter—as is with many businesses—everything has changed and the planning you did during that wasted day-long session goes right out the window

And the crumpled sheets of paper from the big notepad easel generated on that dreary January day of being locked in a room—with a two-week holiday hangover—sit until about July; then you finally decide to toss them in the recycle bin along with the rest of your best-laid plans.

Strategic planning is not an exercise or a box to check every year. Real strategic planning is also not for the unengaged or faint of heart. It’s for the real contributors in your business, and it’s up to you to make sure it’s eye-opening, useful, and has real material impact on how you operate the business in the coming year. Great leaders know that planning for the planning session is as important as the planning session itself, and if done correctly—with or without a qualified and well-vetted consultant—a good planning session is not an event, it’s a progressive mind-shift that will be felt throughout the organization.

A few tips to get it right:

Consider having at least four planning sessions throughout the year. Things change. You’re moving at the speed ofGather feedback and ideas from your participants before a planning meeting, notSpend as much time talking about what you are going to stop doing and what went wrong as you do about what you are going to start Good on top of bad is still bad.Operationalize your goals and strategies throughout the business, to every employee, every Make it matter.And most importantly: Let conversations evolve.

If you’re doing it right, you should hear some things that you haven’t or didn’t want to hear before.

To get your copy of “How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy” click here.

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