Mary E. Marshall's Blog, page 7

Magic 8 Ball

“Ideas can come from anywhere. ” – speech from this year’s CEO roundtable.

I’ve always found that I like to get ideas from everywhere— even random people can often give me a perspective that helps me clarify the situation, and therefore the answer. My leadership philosophy is that I gather the best ideas, pick one, and then execute—as all the best leadership books will tell you. Let’s take a recent example.

I knew we needed to reinvent or at the very least shake up our HR department. It was a complete and total mess. So, I gathered all the executives into a meeting and asked for ideas about what a structure that would work better for the firm might look like. Of course, they wanted to go into elaborate detail about what wasn’t working before we decided on a strategy, but I wanted to be decisive and just get the mess cleaned up before it started sticking to me like glue. So, I shut that conversation down and asked for ideas to fix it.

Reluctantly, they all gave some ideas; some were terrible, but a couple in there were worth consideration. After eliminating the really stupid or costly ideas, we decided to rework the department, hire a more senior VP to run the division, and create some clear-cut objectives that the department needs to achieve over the next year. Everyone left the room feeling pretty good about it, and I must say I felt pretty good about my leadership through a potential crisis.

The following day I had a lunch with some fellow CEOs—we meet up at least once a month to catch up and share ideas—and I shared my HR story. We had a few great laughs about the HR leader who left and also my shutting down the discussion about what went wrong—who needs to listen to all that whining! One of the guys had a great idea to just outsource the whole damn thing. He said that HR is so transferable these days that outsourcing it is a great way to save money and get rid of the “people” headache that it creates.

I was a little skeptical about how that might work with over five hundred people in the company, but he assured me it was the only way to go. His fifty-person company was running better than ever with an outsourced model. He called it outsourcing the whining! I liked the sound of that!

Later that day I was getting a haircut, and I really enjoy getting perspective from my stylist; he’s a great guy and hears so much that I always get a piece of wisdom from him. He thought it was a great idea and even had a suggestion for the firm: one of his clients! This idea was really coming together, so when he offered to make the introduction, I was all over it. I followed up with a call to the CEO, and we had a great talk. She had never worked with a firm as large as ours before but was confident it would be no problem, and she was completely staffed up to do so!

The next morning, I sent out the following email to the Senior Executive Team:

Team:

Although we had a great meeting yesterday and came up with some good solutions, I’ve been talking to a few people and come up with a better strategy. Let’s outsource the entire department. No need to have this expensive department in-house; it’s just a headache and a burden. I’ve asked HR Outfitters to give us a quote, and I’m convinced it’s the way to go.

Rod, I’ve CC’d you on the email to HR Outfitters, so go ahead and get that contract executed ASAP.

Susan, can you work up the list of people in the department we’ll need to let go and get that over to HR Outfitters so they can do the layoffs? No point in us doing it.

Of course, there was some grumbling about the new strategy, but as a leader, it’s your job to be open to new ideas, wherever they might come from. I feel confident that by going to seemingly random sources, the solutions can be better than what the team came up with in the first place!

Questions?

LET’S GET REAL

Getting outside perspectives is always a good idea. Using that information to override your team without their input is usually a recipe for a giant face-plant. Unfortunately, leaders do this on a regular basis. Ever heard of the leader who only listens to the last person he spoke with, so the team always tries to be the last one in line, so their idea is the winner?

Sometimes a problem cannot be solved with the same level of thinking that created it in the first place. In that instance, it’s the leader’s job to encourage the team—not the leader—to think out of the box. The team always needs to be involved in the solution, or it will be dead on arrival. How invested in the new HR outsource strategy do you think the team of our blockheaded CEO’s company is? Not only will they not be invested in making it a success, they will likely do all they can to sabotage it.

Great leaders encourage the team to look at outside contributors for ideas, not just the leader. Then everyone can get back together to decide on the right strategy. Those leaders who are always looking outside of the team and change direction more often than a feather in the wind end up with mediocre solutions and disengaged teams. Leaders who encourage the team to think out of the box and to own and implement their own solutions will have much better outcomes than our fickle leader who puts as much stock in his Magic 8 Ball as he does his own leadership team.

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

The post Magic 8 Ball appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Wagging the Dog

Sent: July 5, 8:35 a.m.

From: CEO

To: All Staff

Subject: NEW! Collaboration Tools

Good morning, everyone!

I hope everyone had a fun and festive holiday weekend. Welcome back! As we are now moving into the second quarter of the year, I wanted to touch base on a couple of important things.

First, we made great progress on our annual strategic goals! We are just a couple of months behind on the product development workstream, but I think if we really put our noses to the grindstone here in the second quarter, together we can make it happen. As you all know, product development is absolutely our most important goal this year, as we’re sure to get dusted by the competition if we don’t start next year with at least four new products on the shelf! So, it’s crunch time for sure.

Second, I want to announce that we’ve made an exciting new investment in technology and are going to be introducing an entirely new platform of collaboration tools. I know we have a lot going on in the second half, but it’s super exciting and we spent a ton of money on them, so we’re going to need to put our strategic plans on hold for about six to nine weeks while we get the new platform integrated. We’ll lose some time, but we can make it up in the fall, right? Go, team!

I know I told you all that product development takes precedence over everything else we tackle this year, but our biggest competitor is using this new collaboration tool; and if they can make time to get it installed, train everyone, and be fully operational in a year, so can we! And we have already paid the vendor and the license fees, so it’s happening— starting on Monday!

Your CEO

Annual strategic plan not going quite as well as you thought it would? Feeling behind or being eclipsed by the competition? Don’t get mad, get distracted! One of the best ways to take attention off of the fact that you have failed to lead your organization to strategic success is to throw something super tactical and strategically useless into the mix! Trendy technology is the absolute poster child for big distractions and can be used by the staff as a perfect excuse for why they didn’t meet their personal business objectives.

You can create mountains of distractions simply by introducing a big, new technology solution. You’ll have to create teams for developing requirements; bring in a super-distracting vendor team to interrupt everyone’s workday for a couple of months; create teams for focus groups; and shut down your current servers, website, email, etc. And if all goes according to your plan, it will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you’d hoped. Now you have a full-blown four-alarm fire to deal with, and your strategic plan will be forever lost and forgotten. This won’t be remembered as the year you blew your strategic goals; it will be remembered as the year you got saddled with that awful vendor! Whew! Winning!

Another method for taking attention away from a failing strategic initiative is to shine a big, bright light on your poorest-performing employee. You can saddle them with so much responsibility for executing said strategic plan that they become an incredibly valuable scapegoat when things don’t go according to plan. And in this case, this won’t be remembered as the year you blew your strategic goals; it will be remembered as the year you should have fired that train-wreck employee much sooner than you did. You just couldn’t because of your huge heart. Whew! Winning! Plus, the martyr card gets played!

LET’S GET REAL

Strategies aren’t projects, and they don’t get put on hold.

Strategy and strategic direction are long-term commitments about the direction a company is headed, and your job is to keep it headed in that (general) direction and not let it get interrupted, blown off course, or, worst of all, forgotten about entirely. Leaders will often knowingly or unknowingly allow or create other activities within the organization that quickly eclipse any attention or discussion of the grander plan.

When this happens, perhaps you should ask yourself if you created this distraction because it’s easier or has a clearer outcome, or to blame the strategy’s failure on someone other than yourself. Perhaps you created or allowed it because your strategic initiatives aren’t going to plan, and you can’t see a way to get them back on track.

Or perhaps you just can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.

Any way you slice it, the lesson here is that all businesses need a strategic plan, and all leaders need to first focus themselves on that plan, then ensure that everyone in the organization is focused on the same plan. Aligning the people, processes, and, yes, even the platforms to that plan is what drives the business forward. It is not something that you put on hold, and it’s certainly not something that you trade for some other tactical initiative. Strategic direction is what you focus on and what gives you purpose.

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

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Punched in the Gut

CEO NOTES

Journal Entry July 1

Today I was pretty pleased with myself. I just had this feeling that if I stuck to my guns, I would be right, and of course, I was. It’s really hard to teach gut instinct to all these wannabes coming up behind me—either you have it, or you don’t. And I’ve got it in spades.

As per our corporate overlord’s decree, we embarked on our annual strategic planning exercise—really more of a check-in on what did or didn’t happen the previous year—but for the sake of our underlings, we call it strategic planning. As always, we’re on track for big bonuses as a result of my leadership—I have this thing nailed. We went through the list of all of last year’s projects, and not only are they on track but they are also set to net bigger profits than anticipated and likely to be done early. I was quick to point out that without my intervention last year, we may not have gone down this road; so, thanks to my 100 percent right track record of “gut,” we nailed it. They gave me a round of applause that was a little weaker than I would have expected due to my leadership and the results, but no matter, at least they are recognizing it.

Then we started talking about the product strategy for the coming year and the need to refresh some of the older products, which, ironically, were selling like crazy. My gut was telling me that this retro trend was responsible for the increase in sales of these dinosaurs, so why mess with a good thing? The product manager started blathering on about compatibility to the latest technology, et cetera, and I just held up a hand and cut him off. He had all sorts of charts and data to back up his ideas, but let’s be clear: my gut trumps that crap all day long. Were we not just looking at the unchallenged success of my gut instincts from last year? Sometimes I really wonder how dumb these guys are. Oh well, that’s good for me because I’ll never have to worry about any of these signposts challenging me for my job.

The conversation got pretty quiet when I said we’d be continuing to take advantage of the retro trend, so no need for any product updates in the line in question. Of course, I did the CEO thing and pretended to care, so I asked for any differing opinions. To my surprise, the numbnuts who had all that data raised his hand and started to object. Jesus, I guess he thought I really meant it when I asked for differing opinions; not my fault the idiot wants to commit career suicide. I shut him down by telling him that my gut has gotten me this far in life and it was going to get me a lot farther than his stupid data. Well, that shut him down.

So once again, I was able to use my trusty gut to guide our “strategy” to success and the team was impressed with my acumen and smarts. Let the bonuses roll in!

CEO NOTES

Journal Entry September 26

OK, so I really hate to admit this, but that dumbass product manager might have been correct with his stupid data. The product line is sinking like the Titanic, threatening to put our entire budget in the red for the year and possibly even next year. This means my bonus will be cut in half and the rest of the team will get nothing—but it’s kind of their fault for not seeing this. My gut has never failed me before, so I’m really not sure what happened here. There must have been some market condition that changed or was out of our control, or possibly the knowledge was unavailable, causing this to go south.

Now I need to figure out how to blame it on something or someone else because I’m not giving up that my gut is always right. And I want that bonus. Competitors? New technology? Market saturation? Coolness of retro cooled off faster than I thought— make that faster than anyone could possibly have predicted? Yep, that’s the ticket because the first three were what that doofus product manager with the data told me, so I’ll go with the last one and point to some others who were caught in the same spot. I can spin this because it’s actually true—it’s not my fault, my gut is still the ticket to success, and it was completely out of my control! Gut instinct is a leader’s best friend—at least it’s mine.

LET’S GET REAL

While there is a lot of research to suggest that “gut instinct” can be a good guidance system to follow, it doesn’t mean you should do so without any research or facts to back you up when it comes to strategy. That’s just reckless and likely to result in failure. Or, like our hapless CEO, it’s vanity. Good leaders who listen to their gut use a “trust but verify” method, not the “my way or the highway” method. Ignoring all evidence to the contrary will punch you in the gut every time.

The other thing that got our CEO into trouble was his big ego. One or two correct guesses or gut instincts that turn out well do not make a faultless gut. It means your gut may have had some good feelings and you probably got lucky. Humility is a good thing when it comes to getting things right. Experience, gut, luck, and DATA will keep you on the straight and narrow every time—and you won’t need to go in for a “gut check” when you fail.

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

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Solo Strategy: Always Be the Sage on the Stage

CEO’S KEYNOTE SPEECH ANNUAL COMPANY MEETING

“Good morning, everyone! Welcome to this year’s all-company meeting! What a great way to start the year, by bringing everyone together and charting our course for a successful year. We are going to meet our goals this year—and in the next couple of hours, I’ll be telling you what those goals are and what I expect you to do to achieve them.

“As you all know, I have always had an amazing vision for this company, a vision that only I could have since it’s the vision that I first had as a young boy, and it’s that vision that’s fueled my passion for achieving the success that you are all challenged to create for me now.

“My vision is going to change the world. My vision is going to change the way every single person on the planet does business. My vision will attract world-class talent, catapult our industry into the future, and shatter our competition, leaving us so far ahead of the pack it will take decades for other industry sectors to catch up. Who’s with me?”

“I want you to know that I have been working tirelessly over the last two weeks to dot every i and cross every t to make sure my strategic plan is bulletproof. I have developed innovations in product development, a roadmap for total digital transformation, and a workforce enablement plan that is truly groundbreaking. And I can tell that you all are as excited as I am!

“But there’s no time to lose. We’ve got to get started right away on executing my plan. You each have an extremely important role in my plan’s success. On your chairs today, you’ll find a very good business book called “Cog in the Machine.” It’s about how important each individual job is and how the goals of that job contribute to the larger strategy of the founder—me. I want you to read it this weekend, and on Monday be ready to get your assignment from your managers about the goals I’ve created for you.”

“Next year at this time, I will be revealing my vision, and we will unveil all you’ve done to make it a reality. Onward and upward! Go, team, go!”

Now here’s a great example of a visionary leader! He knows where he’s going, why he’s going there, and how he’s going to get there, which is what strategic leadership is all about. Keeping the staff in the dark on those three things will make it happen even faster—fewer questions, fewer detractors, and certainly no one thinking that they have a better idea than yours.

Remember, it was your idea in the first place, and without you, there would be no them. Employees come and go and will never be as invested in your business as you are, and they certainly will never have the kind of groundbreaking strategic innovations that you do. No one else is as qualified and experienced to set strategic direction for your company for one simple reason: it’s your company—you thought of it first!

The other reason to keep your strategic thoughts to yourself is that there’s little chance that most employees are even smart enough to know what you are talking about. This is why good leaders keep their P&Ls secret. Most people are too dumb to understand them, and nobody really needs to know how the business makes money anyway. The same holds true for strategic plans. Developing them on your own and keeping them a secret spares your employees the embarrassment of being incapable of contributing to them.

Solo strategizing is also important for remaining competitive. You certainly wouldn’t want one of your star managers to know where you envision the company being in five years, and then to share that information with your biggest competitor! So, remember, keep them guessing, tell them the minimum they need to know to get the job done, and you’ll be well on your way to success.

LET’S GET REAL

Strategy is not a solo sport. Period.

Sadly, the example above is far too common, with entrepreneurs and leaders who believe that they, and they alone, are the innovative brain and strategic brawn behind the business and that no other person is as qualified or capable of developing or contributing to a strategic plan. More often than not, they also believe that it was their genius that led the business to success or growth when the reality is that luck and timing probably played a much bigger part than one individual’s intellect or creativity.

This is not to say that entrepreneurs and leaders don’t have great ideas; they do, and they are also often more risk-tolerant than others. But good, solid strategic plans that can be put into action and lead to specific results take teamwork, collaboration, shared vision, and contribution from the best and brightest. An idea may germinate with you, but unless you allow for further development or evolution of that idea through inclusion and motivation of your management team and staff, you are setting a course for strategic disaster.

Many entrepreneurs and leaders fall into this trap not out of arrogance but out of fear and insecurity. Just because you are the founder, the CEO, or the leader doesn’t mean you have to have the big idea. It means you have to empower others to bring their ideas forward or to evolve ideas into better ones.

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

The post Solo Strategy: Always Be the Sage on the Stage appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

The Beauty in the Rearview Mirror

(Note to self: Arrive late to meetings and make an entrance – it’s your show!)

Sent: July 5, 10:30 p.m.

From: CEO

To: Executive Team

Subject: Unacceptable Results

I want to express my disgust at the results we’ve been having lately. I’m shocked that you have gone so far down from last quarter. We need some new plans, and I want to go back to what was working last quarter and last year. Enough of this new innovative stuff.

We’ll meet first thing (9:00) tomorrow morning, and each of you should have a plan that will work.

Your CEO

Remember, you are in charge and what you say goes. If someone wants to take off in a new, untested direction, why the hell should you go with them? It’s not their nuts on the table. Well, technically it’s not your nuts either, because it’s all from your trust fund, and there’s more where that came from…

But back to the point. The best ideas are always those that have worked in the past—there is nothing new to be learned from trying something new. So, drag out those old plans, put a new shine on them, and take credit for them all over again! You have plenty to choose from because, just between us, you have some pretty smart people working for you. Of course, all credit goes to you because we wouldn’t want anyone getting too uppity!

The real key to success is wash, rinse, and repeat. And if you get stuck in the spin cycle, all the better!

Take a look at a good quarter or year and see what it was you did that worked. Then drag that strategy out of the closet and run it again. If it was a promotion that went well, do it again! It won’t matter that you just did it and made it special so that customers who purchased will feel a little jilted now that you are running it again—you want all those who didn’t purchase it before! Remember, you can make anything look new again. Just look in the mirror and see how good you look now compared to last year!

Once you’ve gathered the team together and shamed them for their poor performance, listen to their ideas. Make sure you’ve already thought of a surefire winner from past successes, and summarily dismiss all their ideas and share yours as the one you’ve decided on. Even if it’s eerily similar to someone else’s on the team, be sure to note one key difference—even if you make it up—that makes yours superior. Keep in mind that leadership is all about you leading, so it needs to be your idea, your strategy, and your say-so. The team is just there to execute. The beauty of this plan is that you have a high likelihood of success and if you fail, it’s the team’s fault, based on their execution; therefore, once again, you are golden! One key element is that you tolerate no dissent whatsoever. If someone questions you, take them out immediately with a put-down so fierce that no one else will have the balls to question you. You’ll feel great about yourself, and the rest of the team will be awed by your strong leadership.

Remember, looking backward is really looking forward, again! (Note to self: Put that in my book as a brilliant quote.)

LET’S GET REAL

Looking in the rearview mirror for insights is a good thing. Only looking in the rearview mirror will cause a serious accident. Take the insights and build a better plan forward; don’t be afraid to innovate; and for God’s sake, listen to your people. They often do have the best ideas. The best approach to gaining insight from the past is to talk about what went well, what did not go well, and what you will do next time. If you don’t learn from past mistakes, you will be doomed to repeat them. Get in the habit of doing a mini-debrief after every plan, implementation, project, initiative, or action. Not only will you get better each time, but you’ll also be teaching your team a great strategy for speed and learning.

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

The post The Beauty in the Rearview Mirror appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Business Books – Read ‘Em All

Sent: July 4, 12:30 p.m.
From: CEO
To: Executive Team
Subject: New Book – How to Be Great Again

Everyone,

Just finished this great new book about how to be great again, and we should use it as our new mantra. It beats Good to Great hands down. Set up a mandatory company meeting for tomorrow so I can share my insights with everyone.

So that we’re all on the same page, please read the book before the meeting.

This will be great!

Your CEO

The key to great leadership is to make sure you are up on all the latest literature. You don’t actually need to read the books, but you have to act like you did. You want to have your desk full of unread books, and if anyone asks, you loved this one or that one, but say things like “It was insightful,” “It changed my world view,” or some other mindless statement that will convey your brilliance. Remember, you can bluff your way to greatness—just look at all the leaders before you!

Then the key is to shame your direct reports into reading books and then take whatever ideas they come up with and pretend they were yours. Say things like “Why don’t you give it a read and tell me what you think; then we’ll see if we agree.” Then, no matter what they say, always disagree with something because you need to be right. Remember, that’s key to great leadership.

Of course, you’ll have to agree with something, so let them sweat it out for a while, and when something strikes your fancy, pounce! Say, “That’s exactly what I thought! How do you think we should best implement that?” And no matter what they say, respond with “Just what I was thinking. Let me give it some more thought and get back to you.”

Then—here comes the really brilliant part—wait a day or two and then send out a note to the team, taking that idea. Now you own it and can assign the hapless manager to implement your plan. Brilliant! No one will be the wiser.

Remember not to use the same person twice because there is a slim possibility that someone may catch on, so spread it around a little.

Another great way to never have to read an actual book is to have your executive team read them first, write CliffsNotes versions of the books, and then collectively decide the best way forward. This will create a feeding frenzy for your attention, so, again, you get to be brilliant and never have to crack a book!

If the idea bombs, you now have a scapegoat to blame, keeping your hands clean of all culpability for a bad idea. And if it’s a good one and your team actually makes something work, you swoop into the meeting and praise everyone for implementing your idea so well and to your specifications. It’s a win-win for you!

If you don’t have a big team of minions to assign the actual reading to, just go on Amazon and read a review or two, then copy and paste them together as your idea and assign it to one of your people. Again, no one will ever check to see if you plagiarized anything from Amazon, I mean really, who reads those?! Always go for the books that have lots of reviews so you can go with the crowd.

LET’S GET REAL

Not every business book is worth reading, and just because you read it doesn’t mean it’s a great one. What are the problems your organization is facing? Find relevant books so you can connect the dots for your people. Books are one way to teach and train your teams, but today there are so many other ways you can utilize them as well. TED Talks, podcasts, blogs, speakers, and generally anything that addresses the challenges or opportunities you are facing in the organization—these can bring the conversation to life and make it feel more real for your team.

Find the useful nuggets in each book and paraphrase. Let those who want to read the whole book read it if, and only if, there is value for the entire team and the company.

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

The post Business Books – Read ‘Em All appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Your Advisory Bored

Sent: July 14, 10:30 a.m.
From: CEO
To: Executive Team
Subject: New Advisory Board Meeting at Noon

All,

Today at noon will be the first meeting of our new advisory board. I want each of you to be prepared to present and speak on where your department is, as it relates to the strategic plan. You will have five minutes each, so just the highlights and don’t go into detail, but be prepared to answer any specifics.

The meeting is mandatory. Sorry for the short notice, but I think my assistant forgot to send out the notice last week.

BB

A great way to look like a real company is to have a board of some sort. An advisory board frees you from actually giving them any real authority, so it’s definitely the way to go. The reason you would want to have this is so that when people ask, you can say you have a board, which sounds very official.

The choosing of the board members is crucial. You don’t want anyone too smart or too bossy because that would undermine your leadership. Choose your friends who also want to enhance their reputations and may want something from you in the future—it’s a way for them to pay it forward.

Don’t bother with areas of the company that may need help and for which you might need an outside view. Go to the areas of the company that you are a real expert on. For instance, if you are a great marketer, make sure to have someone with marketing expertise on the board—although be very careful to make sure they understand YOU are the expert, not them. If you have a person who manages your buckets of cash, put them on the board as a little reward for what they do for you. You’ll never have to worry about them questioning you.

The key is loyalty. If anyone you choose questions you, boot them off immediately. You want this to be a feel-good meeting that reinforces your leadership brilliance, not one that questions it. As always, show up late, leave early, or skip the meetings altogether to show that you are in charge.

Make your team prepare for the meetings and let them think that the board actually has a say or that how each of them performs matters. The board can feel good about itself by criticizing your team members and putting them down; then you can double down on this and let them know how embarrassing their performance was. It’s great to have a board to back up your opinions and keep the troops in line. This way, everything you’ve been saying is constantly reinforced.

Paying your board can be tricky. You could pay them for meetings; but if they’ll do it for future equity, that might be a better way. Because, as you know, you’ll kick them off the board before they ever get to exercise their shares. Make sure the agreement states that the shares are of no value if they no longer serve on the board. On the other hand, paying them a good rate for attending the meetings lets them know how successful and generous you are, so it could look good for you too. Keep in mind, you could use both strategies depending upon who the board member is. If it’s someone you really want, pay them a lot, and if it’s someone who’s already a lapdog, just give them nonexistent shares. Make sure you impress upon them how “confidential” their arrangement is, so they don’t talk among themselves.

As for frequency of meetings, quarterly is fine as long as it fits your schedule. Make sure the entire team prepares rigorously with spreadsheets, updates, PowerPoints, and reports so that it literally consumes everyone’s activity once per quarter. This makes it seem very official. But if they don’t get to present or you have to change the board meeting for any reason, don’t sweat it. Just tell the team they are now more prepared for next time.

Remember, a board is purely an accessory; you don’t need them to augment your leadership. What they do is reinforce what you are already doing, like having a mirror on the wall that tells you what a great leader you are!

LET’S GET REAL

Having an advisory board or a true board is important for your business. But not how BB uses it. It gives you an outside perspective in those areas that are important to the growth and health of your business. Finance, acquisition, marketing, sales, systems, technology, and online and industry experience are just some of the many areas you could look to for a capable team of board members. Pay them fairly for their work and come to the board meetings with one or two questions or strategies they can help with. Get people who have been successful with whatever you are heading toward and take their advice seriously. Let your leadership team learn from them and lean on them for help. But most importantly, invite them to critique your leadership, your strategy, and your vision and take action on their feedback.

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

The post Your Advisory Bored appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Let’s Start Plannicking

Giddy up! Let’s go! Let’s get the plan going. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon now! Yes, some leaders treat the annual planning session like a cattle roundup with one thing in mind: the plan. But don’t expect them to give you a definition of what the plan might look like, who should be involved, or—God forbid—the vision that might be accomplished if you actually succeed. They relish the planning phase, as if it’s the be-all and end-all of strategic planning—in other words, they start “plannicking.”

Plannicking is a combination of planning and panicking because the leader doesn’t know what he or she is doing, and guess what? It shows. Plannicking is getting everyone all spun-up about the plan itself without ever bothering to answer the question: In service of what? It happens in about 90 percent of strategic planning sessions. Get your advisory board involved, read every business book, have nostalgia for the past, go with your gut, plan alone, and generally use every fad that relates to strategic planning you’ve ever heard of, and you’ll have a strategic plan that’s guaranteed to have the lifespan of a gnat.

In this section, you will learn what NOT to do during the planning phase. As a famous leader once said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” But, through inept planning, having the wrong players on the bus and in the wrong seats will guarantee that you won’t accomplish a thing. You’ll end up with words on paper that mean nothing, not even to you.

You can’t fake the planning phase. Well, you can, but everyone knows you’re faking it. Like the emperor with no clothes whom everyone compliments for being dressed in the best garments, they KNOW you’re faking it. The team will dutifully carry out the plan—at least to your face—even when it’s bollocks, which is a face-plant of the worst kind because it has the leader’s name all over it.

So, buckle up, cowgirls and cowboys, and read a little about how NOT to round up your cattle as you start the planning phase, and you just might avoid the pitfalls of so many of your fellow leaders.

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

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How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy

Ever sat through a strategic planning session that was facilitated by an inept facilitator or, worse, a CEO who wasn’t sure what strategy was? Or even worse than that, the “strategic plan” was to drag out the old plan from the previous year, dust it off, make a few cosmetic changes, and call it good? These are all ways NOT to create a great strategy. Unfortunately, all of these are done more often than anyone will admit, and the result is always the same: companies miss the boat on creating a great strategy that people can actually get excited about.

This book will show you exactly what NOT to do. Twenty-four “strategies” that will not work, no matter how hard you click your heels together and wish to be transported back to a time when someone else was building your strategy. One of the biggest challenges to creating a great strategy is that a lot of leaders don’t even know what a strategy is. They confuse it with a list of goals that need to be accomplished. Goals are good—they are even better when in service of a great strategy.

A strategy is a way to achieve something; it is a particular path you choose to go down to accomplish something that you or your organization wants to achieve. Say you want to make a cake; there are multiple ways to do it. When you decide to go forward, you will pick a certain strategy to make that cake based on any number of factors. There will be various tasks and goals associated with those factors, and if you’re taking your cake to a bake sale, everyone will have used a different “strategy” to get their cake to market. Some will taste great! Some will be just okay. And some will be politely or not so politely deposited in the same bin with the doggie poo bags. Inedible and—like a bad business strategy—nasty, and if you eat it, you are likely to be spending time on the porcelain throne wishing you had chosen more wisely.

Business strategies are—or should be—in service of a vision the organization has. Sometimes the bigger problem is the vision is really a mission, or strategic objectives are confused with goals (see above), and the result is a word salad that no one understands. Oh, and about $25–50K was paid to some guy to facilitate this dead-on-arrival plan. You know you have a stinker when as soon as the ink is dry on the document, every- one leaves the room, glad that two-day waste of time is over, and goes back to business as usual.

Don’t do any of that. Read these twenty-four priceless vignettes of hapless leadership and strategic planning and learn what NOT to do when creating a winning strategy. Why not? Let’s be honest: your last strategic plan is still sitting on your shelf, and no one remembers what’s in it.

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

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Social Irresponsibility

You’re Invited!

What: A Dinner Party/Fundraiser

Why: To Support Anytown’s Homeless Population

Where: The Estate of Our Founder, Bill Brookstone, in South Highlands

Please join us for an evening of wine, dinner, and song.

Our homeless population is important to us, so we at Brookstone Realty want to do our part to support shelters and programs for the homeless in our city.

Catered by celebrity chef Rich Richardson, dinner will be a fantastic Asian fusion exploration of fresh sushi and seafood.

Wines will be paired by our very own sommelier, Susan Sheppard.

Dinner will be followed by a special private performance

by world-renowned violinist Jen Chen.

Tickets: $250 each Tables for 6: $1,350 (save $250!)

All additional donations will be matched 100% by Brookstone Realty!

As leaders, it’s important that we stay connected to our communities, contribute to our communities, and make it appear as if we care about the communities in which we live. Holding fundraisers and events is a fantastic way to demonstrate your commitment and leadership without taking too much of a hit to the bottom line. The above is a perfect example of how to put together a fabulous party that you and your guests will enjoy immensely while giving you the opportunity to host a party in your home with top-of-the-line service providers and entertainers. Also, it’s 100 percent paid for and can be written off! Win-win!

You can invite community leaders and industry leaders, and while they won’t be able to afford to come, you can even extend the invitation to your employees. They’ll see not only that you’re generous, but that you have great taste in food and music. By selling tickets, you’re simply covering your costs. You can ask for donations, but because most guests will think that the cost of their ticket is donated, they won’t make extra donations, and your claim of matching donations 100 percent will sound so, so much better than it really is. You may actually get to pull this scheme off and turn a little profit!

LET’S GET REAL

Oh yeah, there’s nothing like holding a fundraiser for the homeless in the estate of a real estate tycoon.

Seriously, this seems absurd, but when it comes to “social responsibility” leaders really can be this tone-deaf. Social responsibility is a term popularized over the last several years that has become a mainstay of good corporate stewardship. It is supposed to be defined by what your company believes is its responsibility to society and what it does to support that belief. Keyword here: believes.

It is one thing to simply throw some money at some charities, then spin up some marketing-speak to make it sound like your company is run by do-gooders. It’s another thing to actually believe in something, communicate that belief genuinely to both your staff and the community, then execute strategies and tactics to stay true to those beliefs. Example:

Belief: At Brookstone Realty, we believe that everyone needs to feel at home.

Strategy: We’ll donate 5 percent of our annual profits to programs that help build shelters and homes for those in need.

Tactics: Twice a year, for one day, we close our offices as our staff joins Habitat for Humanity to participate in building homes.

See how easy it is? Much easier than throwing a fancy party that nobody on your staff can participate in. Habitat for Humanity wins, your company wins by being true to a belief, and your staff wins by feeling like they achieved a common goal. THAT, dear leaders, is a win-win-win.

Each year, as part of your strategic planning process, design a social responsibility platform for the year. First, decide on a maximum percentage of net income that you or your owners are comfortable with earmarking for charitable donations. Once that amount is agreed on, do not change it until the following year. Then create a pie chart showing the allocation of percentages. You can have each department take on a piece of the pie, or you could decide that some of it will be straight cash donations and some of it will be employee time off to volunteer with special charities. However, you construct your platform, make sure it is inclusive and genuine. At the end of the year, you and the staff can include it in your list of accomplishments, or “goals met,” for the year.

Nothing bonds a group of people together like meeting shared goals. And a goal of giving that is shared and believed in by all can be part of a very powerful brand story.

Do I have a social responsibility platform that has been clearly communicated to the company?Does the platform have some conceptual relationship to the mission of the company?Are there enough opportunities within that platform to give my staff options to get involved?Can the staff get involved without spending any money, and is their time just as valuable to the cause?Does anything about the platform feel mandatory or expected?

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