Mary E. Marshall's Blog, page 8

Pass the Aggressive

Sent: January 13, 10:30 a.m.
From: Alisson
To: Brenda, CEO & Founder
Alisson here from accounting. At the last staff meeting, you said that if anyone had any questions they wanted to discuss with you directly, you’d make yourself available. Well, I do have some questions. I was wondering if you’d be willing to have lunch with me sometime.

Alisson

Sent: January 20, 1:30 a.m.
From: Alisson
To: Brenda, CEO & Founder
Subject: 1:1? Hi, Brenda.

Thank you for lunch! It was so great. You’re the best boss ever, even though you’re my boss’s boss’s boss. Ha! It was so interesting learning more about the company strategy. Thanks again!

Alisson

Sent: February 8, 9:00 a.m.
From: Alisson
To: Brenda, CEO & Founder
Subject: 1:1? Hi, Brenda.

Hi. Me again. Was wondering if you were free for coffee next week? I’d love to share some feedback I have about the new break room decor.

Alisson

Sent: March 5, 8:00 a.m.
From: Alisson
To: Brenda, CEO & Founder
Subject: 1:1? Hi, Brenda.

I haven’t heard back from you. I also wanted to talk to you about my performance review that Tom gave me this morning. I don’t think it went very well, which was a surprise. I thought you and I were on the same page. Can you talk to him?

Alisson

Congratulations! You’ve got an employee stalker! A sure sign of your success is when you’ve got low-level employees beating down your door in a sad attempt to bond with you. This is almost always—no, it IS always—an attempt to bypass their direct relationship with their manager to get you to play favorites so that when they are finally called out by their own manager, they can come whining to you. But you can work this to your advantage! Play right along with the stalker; they will tell you every last glorious bit of juicy gossip from within the ranks, deliver unto you both good and bad news before you were meant to hear it, and most importantly sell out your most senior leaders by subverting their positions on the ole’ org chart and mainlining directly into your already blurry view of your team.

It will start most innocently. You’ll meet for lunch. Then she’ll ask you for coffee a few times a week. It will be tough to say no because she was quick to achieve a level of familiarity that makes it seem perfectly normal for her to just show up in your doorway unannounced. She’ll pounce on you in the break room, the elevator, maybe even the bathroom. She’ll prod you for information, drop breadcrumbs of her own gossip that will keep you up at night. Before you know it, she will be giving you body language and eye contact signals at group meetings and presentations—as if the two of you have “something special.”

All the while, because you are too busy getting sucked into her drama, you don’t even realize she’s on a performance-improvement fast track with her manager. Unless she starts performing her core duties, she’s going to be terminated. And all of this has been her strategy for avoiding that inevitable event.

LET’S GET REAL

The next thing you know, you wake up one day to this:

GLASSDOOR ANONYMOUS REVIEW

The ABC Company CEO Rating: 0 out of 5

The ABC Company, specifically because of their no-talent and lazy CEO, is the worst place to work on the planet. I would rather break rocks in a nuclear test site than set foot in that godforsaken hellhole. The pay is crap, the hours are crap, it’s a swampy cesspool of gossip, and the do-nothing CEO is worthless. The company has no strategy, and I’m pretty sure they are out of money also. Every single employee hates it there. It’s a revolving door of misery. Not only are their CEO, senior management, and culture in general complete disasters, their product is a sham. It’s nothing more than a straight rip-off of the competition’s, and they’ll ask you to do shady things to try to get even more competitive intel. If you have any dignity or integrity, stay away!

Why the abuse? Because your stalker was finally fired by her manager, and this is exactly how she’s going to repay you directly for not preventing it.

Listen, unless you want to manage a team of cat herders in the wild, Wild West, if you want to develop solid leaders, you have to be the shining example on the hill of order, protocol, and respect for the org chart. Most employees aren’t stalkers or subversive people like Alisson, but they are out there. Unless you are consistent about how you interact with your staff, they will find a way to bore into your resolve and then come screaming back in a most public way.

There is a way for you to be friendly—even well-liked— without subverting the org chart and allowing these fissures to crack the system. If you feel that an employee or team member is subverting the org chart, direct them back to their manager or hold a group meeting with the three of you. Forming a triad at the first sight of this kind of activity is a great way to fortify your hierarchy.

Remember, one of our most important jobs as a leader is to develop new and better leaders. Every employee—even the Alissons of the world—has the potential to be a leader or influencer, but most don’t really understand the value and purpose of a well-crafted, disciplined chain of command. Work with your HR department if you have one, and if not, work regularly with your senior management team to communicate protocol, design, and adhere to RACI methodologies, and stop breaches of org chart protocol in their tracks before you too are victimized or sucked in by one of the many Crazy Alissons!

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

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Type A Is For A$$hole

Sent: September 17

From: CEO

To: Exec. Team

Subject: Anti-Harassment Training

OK, guys,

It’s that time of year again that we have to sit through listening to HR tell us how we’re supposed to behave. So, show up, behave, and put your time in. I don’t expect any of you to fail this little exercise!

Remember, leaders lead, and losers don’t. Which one are you?!!

Your Boss

From the Desk of a Sick-of-This-Crap CEO

Realistically, I moved up through the ranks the hard way in this organization. No time for this pansy-assed pussyfooting around with everyone’s feelings. Men were men, women were women and if you can take over a room and perform, you move to the top of the food chain. If you’re at the bottom, you’re where you should be.

No time to give a hand down because you’re always reaching for that next rung up. The only reason to look behind you is to make sure no little f’er is hanging on your coattail trying to get a ride up. Cut that sucker off immediately. They provide absolutely no benefit to you if they’re not willing to make it on their own.

I had to schedule this stupid HR thing because of the complaints. Jesus. In my day you just sucked it up. I don’t have a problem with anyone’s race, ethnicity, gender, or anything else, for that matter, except lack of balls. If you don’t have balls, you don’t belong in leadership.

Kill or be killed, and NEVER show any sign of weakness. That’s why I hate these stupid things because it’s like we’re supposed to be soft and cuddly to all these losers who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.

I did take this up with the board but got shot down because of that last little complaint against me. They said I was a little “too aggressive” in telling our female sales manager what I thought of her piss-poor performance. What was I supposed to tell her? She FAILED!! We will not be meeting our numbers this quarter, and bonuses are on the line, so it’s on her!! Unfortunately, the board had to settle with her when she left after our meeting, and they’re holding me accountable for it. Such pushovers.

Leadership is all about taking charge, no matter what. Show weakness and you lose. Period. There is not one of my Harvard classmates who would have any respect for me if I was passive. Even passive-aggressive is for wussies.

If you want to show leadership, show strength! Be out front with it! Call people out when they don’t perform, and you’ll be respected. My team respects me. In fact, they probably fear me, which is a good thing. You need to keep people on their toes, never knowing where you stand, so they are always looking for praise or favor. That’s strength.

I teach all my leaders to be tough, to take a stand, and to never back down. Even when faced with evidence that would show you were wrong—DON’T BACK DOWN!! They’ll come after you like a pack of hyenas if you do. This was how I learned how to be a leader and how I became the successful CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Why should I look in the mirror or change now?

This is how they should teach these damn HR seminars: tough, muddier leadership. Those who don’t survive weren’t meant to be in the race. Period.

LET’S GET REAL

“Type A” usually refers to go-getters, the people who can handle a lot and those who want to win. These traits are good for a team; however, the in-your-face asshole is not good. No one responds well to working with or working for this type of person. If you have one on your team and can’t point out to them the error of their ways, point them to the door.

If you are the leader of the team, it’s great to be tough. It’s also great to listen and be willing to be wrong. Great leaders look at all sides of the Rubik’s Cube to see the best way to put it together, not just their way. When you have an asshole on the team, good players will usually try to play nice with them or even try to get them to come over to the light.

A true asshole, like our CEO above, will crush them like a bug. He will perceive their invitation as a sign of weakness and take a shot at them. Someone who has learned from an example like this might be redeemable. If they can be persuaded to see a different way to get what they want, one that involves teamwork, cooperation, and collaboration, they might work out. If not, they’re an asshole and need to be removed from the team—like yesterday.

Building a great team starts with talent and requires looking for a fit that aligns with the company’s values. You don’t all need to be carbon copies of one another. In fact, it’s best if there is diversity. Diversity breeds innovation and equality, which then provides opportunities for all. Assholes love other assholes because it’s like looking in the mirror and loving what they see: themselves. Assholes never grow, they just replicate like cockroaches, and then it’s time for the exterminator.

Good Type As are driven, hard-working, talented individuals who look out for the team as much as they look out for themselves. Type A assholes are always going to be a bad fit for a team—and usually lead to lawsuits—with time and money wasted on someone who was never going to be a team player. Type A assholes are always a team of one.

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

The post Type A Is For A$$hole appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Silence Is Not Golden

It landed on Carol’s desk with the muffled thump of a dead body wrapped in a heavy, wet flannel blanket.

A neat but heavy package, it was a nine-by-twelve-inch envelope no less than four inches thick. FedEx had delivered it that morning, and the receptionist casually swung it by after her lunch break. How could she have known that within this package lay the next six months of utter and complete hell? Hell in a FedEx Overnight envelope.

When she opened it, it didn’t hiss. Smoke didn’t slowly escape from its hellish guts. It wasn’t hot or even warm to the touch. But when she pulled the neatly stacked, stapled, stitched, and clipped papers from the envelope and got the first view of its contents…it STUNG. And stung mightily, and repeatedly.

There they were, the crisp, clean white pages, staring at her, the stinging words—the important words—flying off the page and stinging her directly in the eyeballs:

IN THE MATTER OF… DEFENDANT… PURSUANT TO… You are hereby NOTIFIED…

And the numbers…The numbers cascading down the left margin of what would be more than a hundred pages seemed to never end.

1.

1.1

1.2

1.3

And the pages of text that would follow, as the numbers droned on and on, and the text droned on and on,were carefully double-spaced as if designed to ensure that she was subjected to the maximumamount of pain with each and every word, each and every sentence. Drip, drip, drip . . .

The PTSD of her divorce came screaming back and filled her with dread. What was this? What had gone wrong? What did she miss? It had been five years; how could this not have been resolved? Once her head stopped spinning and the blur of the words and numbers and the vibration of the white space on the paper ceased, she was able to take a closer look.

WRONGFUL TERMINATION

Wrongful termination? Of whom? She quickly surmised that with fewer than a hundred employees in her company, surely, she would know if someone had been wrongfully terminated. Surely, she would know if there had been an “unpleasant departure,” as they say in the business. But nothing came to mind. She read on:

JAMES SMITH

James, Jim, Jimmy, Jimbo? Nope. Who is James Smith? Who the hell is (or was) James Smith, and when did he work here, who did he report to, and why is he suing us for wrongful termination?

She snatched the org chart off of her bulletin board. Inspecting box after box, in every branch office—BOOM!—she finally found a small box in the lower left corner of the PowerPoint-generated org chart: James Smith, receptionist, Los Angeles branch. We had a receptionist in the LA office? This was news to her. It was either in the “news” or detailed-information-she-didn’t-care-about-until-now category. It would require a call to the LA branch manager to put her finger on it.

He reminded her that James had been hired last summer, so he was with the company just over a year. He missed the company’s annual meeting due to an illness, and he missed the company’s summer picnic because he was getting married the same weekend. Totally valid excuses. The LA branch manager explained that he’d made the decision to hire a receptionist even though other branches didn’t have receptionists because he thought it would look good to visitors. There wasn’t much for the person to do in a three-person office, but that was no matter. So, the detailed-information-she-didn’t-care-about-until- now opened up a new category of information: activities-that her own management team was engaging in and not telling her about.

And there she sat—totally exposed. Without even reading the rest of the lawsuit, she felt totally blindsided, and the air was knocked clean out of her. She had no idea who this person was, why he had been hired, what he had been hired to do, and why—really—he had been fired. She was at the mercy of a branch manager that had gone rogue, but she didn’t know what kind of rogue.

What had gone wrong? And what would happen next?

LET’S GET REAL

Any parent instinctively knows that if you have more than fifteen seconds of silence from toddlers—who aren’t sleeping soundly—in another room, you’ve got big trouble. Fifteen seconds of silence could be a jellybean up a nose. Thirty seconds of silence could be a permanent-marker masterpiece on the kitchen wall. A full minute of silence could be a full-blown journey into the uppermost shelves of an open refrigerator.

But silence in the workplace can go on much longer than a minute. It can be days, weeks, months, even years. If a leader isn’t listening or doesn’t have the proper controls in place for communication and accountability from those who should be listening, things can go horribly wrong. By the time they are clued in, and everything is brought to light, it’s too late.

Carol’s company was growing, and she was stepping back from the day-to-day. It was becoming more and more difficult for her to personally know each and every employee. She’d gotten pretty good at dealing with that awkward moment of meeting someone for the first time after they had been working at her company for six months. Carol felt like she had a solid leadership team in place, and she did—right up until she didn’t. She liked giving them the space and autonomy to make decisions on their own. She didn’t want to be “the meddler.”

But her branch manager made a series of fatal errors that ended in a lawsuit, and they all were born out of silence. He made a hire into a new, untested role and told no one above him. He hired a qualified person but didn’t communicate the nature, goals, or career path of the role. He didn’t train or onboard the hire with any kind of structure or rigor. He didn’t help assimilate the person into the company. He hired a phone answerer, plunked him down at a desk with a phone, and walked away.

The details of James’s termination and the outcome of the lawsuit are best saved for another chapter titled “How Not to Not Settle a Lawsuit,” but the moral of the story thus far is: Great companies and great people can fail in silence.

All companies are people companies, and people are always a company’s greatest assets. When we don’t communicate or put in controls and rigor for collaboration and communication, the rails bend, and things can head in unintended directions.

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

The post Silence Is Not Golden appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Accountability Free Workplaces

Sent: September 9
From: CEO
To: Executive Team
Subject: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

Team,

Per our 2019 strategic plan, we were supposed to have a timeline worked out for the new warehouse in Texas. At our last meeting, we agreed that you all would get together to agree on something and put it in writing so we could review.

Let’s set up a meeting for later this week to see where we are. Thanks.

Sent: September 10
From: Tom T.
To: CEO
Subject: RE: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

Hey Boss Man,

My bad. I meant to set up that meeting but didn’t do it because Jane was unavailable on the day we wanted to meet. Sorry, I’ll get right on that. Let’s hold off on the bigger meeting till we have something to show you. No worries, we’re on it!

Tom

Sent: September 10
From: Jane
To: CEO
Subject: RE: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

John,

I meant to bring this to your attention, so my apologies for having forgotten. Tom was going to set up a meeting, but then some of us had conflicts with the date, but he never rescheduled. I’ll make sure we get someone on the calendar to discuss.

Jane

Sent: September 24
From: CEO
To: Executive Team
Subject: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

Hey Guys,

I heard from Tom T. and Jane that you all were going to meet to go over the timeline for the new warehouse. Did that ever happen? Remember when we met in January for our strategic planning that we wanted to have it operational by June of 2019. I’m a little worried we will bump up against the date if we don’t get moving soon! Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter.

John

Sent: September 25
From: Tom T.
To: CEO
Subject: RE: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

Sorry, Boss. We got waylaid with the new order from Amazon that came in last week. I’ll get right on it!

Tom

Sent: September 26
From: Jane
To: CEO
Subject: RE: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

John,

Tom T. has not set up that meeting that he promised a few weeks ago. Would you like me to set it up for everyone?

Jane

Sent: September 30
From: CEO
To: Jane
Subject: RE: RE: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

Sure. I’d like to meet first of next month about it, so if you guys could get on it, that will work.

John

Sent: October 21
From: CEO
To: Executive Team
Subject: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas Guys,

Did you ever meet to come up with the timeline? I would like to review so we can get moving because Finance told me we need to make some budget commitments if we’re really doing this thing.

Thanks

Sent: October 30
From: Tom T.
To: CEO
Subject: RE: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas

Boss, we’re on it. Last meeting got canceled because Finance didn’t get us the budget numbers, so will get it scheduled ASAP.

Tom

Sent: December 1
From: CEO
To: Exec. Team
Subject: Launch Date for New Warehouse in Texas Hey guys,

I never heard back from anyone on the plan. Let’s plan to address it in our December 15 budget meeting. We’ll just add some time to that meeting.

Sent: January 15
From: CEO
To: Executive Team
Subject: Strategic Planning Meeting Team,

It’s that time of year again to plan for our strategic planning session.

Like last year, let’s take a day to review what we’ve accomplished and look at what we need to do going forward. We’ll need to decide what we’re doing about the new warehouse since we didn’t get it into the budget for 2019 and we didn’t get to talk about it at our December meeting. Did we ever get that timeline? Just bring it to our strat plan meeting, and we can decide to move forward or push the decision out till the fall.

Thanks,

John

LET’S GET REAL

In the workplace, “stuff” happens to get in the way of the “stuff” we said we wanted to do. Sometimes it’s important stuff; most of the time it’s not. Accountability-free workplaces are fun for everyone; no one is really held accountable for anything other than what they want to do each day. Chaos sets in when you have everyone marching to the beat of their own drum—and plans become meaningless.

Accountability starts with leadership. If the CEO can’t hold people accountable, why should anyone else? Employees will watch what the leader does and do the same. If it doesn’t fit with their values or style, they will leave. Unfortunately for most companies, good employees will not hang out at a place that is devoid of accountability. They don’t want to be measured by and against people who aren’t accountable. Fundamentally, they want to succeed. If you never know where the goal post is, how can you succeed? You can’t—because anything goes.

Our hapless John is not an atypical leader. He asks for things, and he sort of knows what he wants done, but he mimics his employees’ bad behavior. So, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Lack of leader accountability or follower accountability?

First, he sets no specifics or dates for when he expects something—so why should anyone else? Second, he makes it sound like whatever he is asking for is optional or “whenever they get around to it.” Third, he doesn’t bother to follow up in a timely manner, so why should they? Lastly, there are absolutely no consequences for NOT delivering on the most basic of requests, a timeline for a new project. There were no consequences for missing the opportunity of the warehouse—if it was even a real opportunity.

When holding people accountable, the three elements to look for are awareness, ability, and commitment. When something doesn’t happen, make sure the person or persons are aware of what the expectation is and when you expect to get it. Next, make sure they have the ability to do what it is you are asking of them. Lastly, check that you have commitment from all parties involved.

At the executive leadership level, we can likely expect that they are aware and also have the ability. In John’s case, it was likely a lack of commitment by his entire team to get it done. John’s inability to hold them accountable potentially cost the organization a strategic move. Ultimately, lack of accountability will cost companies money, people, and jobs.

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

The post Accountability Free Workplaces appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Lessons Learned Are 4 Losers

Notes for my Leadership Memoir:

Let’s take a lesson from Tom, the newly minted and inexperienced CEO. When you’re the new CEO on the block, everyone is looking at you to do great things. Some, like your employees and especially the leadership team, are a little wary and waiting to see whether you prove yourself or fail. They hold off a bit on hitching their wagon to yours—watching out for their own butts. The board brought you on to shake things up, so you’re on a short time frame to prove yourself. Generally speaking, you’re also given a lot of leeway to do whatever you want.

I took over a great organization that was a cash cow after a buyout, and the board wanted me to grow it in three years and triple the multiple. With that kind of cash being thrown off, how could I lose? The old CEO offered to spend time with me and walk me through some of the more nuanced areas of the company, but why waste the time? I didn’t plan to do anything he had done, so I didn’t want to be cluttered up with what didn’t work. I love how our US presidents leave letters for their successors with what are supposed to be inspirational and helpful lessons learned—does anyone really read those? If you’re the one in the Oval Office now, why would you even care? You have new ground to plow and great things to accomplish. They were part of yesterday, not tomorrow. (Note to self: Remember that phrase for my memoir)

The business was not complicated. First order of business was to get rid of the senior team and bring in my own. Not a big deal that it was two totally unrelated types of business—they’ll learn quickly, they always have. Business is business. Once they’re in place, they can tell me how they think we should proceed. I only kept the CFO and got rid of the overpaid, undereducated bunch of freeloaders anyway, so no loss with them.

My team went right to work, except for the COO, who had to take some personal time off between gigs, which cost us about three months. Not a problem, though, as I spent the time introducing myself to the customers and independent contractors that delivered our services. And might as well take advantage of the great city while I was here! A little R&R on the company dime is just what the doctor ordered.

OK, back to business. My team recommended we roll out three new and radical programs to jump-start growth. I love it. They were new and different and would really shake things up. We rolled them out with great fanfare (the secret is always in the marketing pitch behind any new initiative), and they were widely received as new and innovative—mostly by the staff, which I found to be very supportive. I had heard a few rumors that this had been tried before, but my comeback was, “Not like I am doing it!” The real pushback came from the field contractors. They started raising alarm bells and telling me I didn’t know what I was doing. First, I was shocked that these assholes were telling me what to do with such disrespect. Then I realized they were really just frustrated wannabe CEOs who failed and were now contractors. What did I care what they thought?

A year into our innovations, I started to hear a daily drumbeat of messages of “we’ve tried this before and it failed,” “we’re not getting support from the field,” “this is like Groundhog Day,” and “it’s déjà vu all over again.” We were not getting the results, and in fact, we had moved backward. The bottom line was shrinking before my eyes. Why didn’t they tell me all this before? The board was not happy.

I brought the leadership team together and asked them to give me a rundown of what wasn’t working. Well, the floodgates opened up and they dumped all over me that I didn’t listen to what had already been done and was ignoring the fact that all of these initiatives were not new, just retreads. I exploded at the team. How could they have let me down like this? I had asked them to vet these ideas, so of course, I thought they were new. How could I possibly have known that they had been tried before when my team let me down so badly?

Of course, I was going to have to make a lesson of these guys. One of them would have to go. I would have to make one of them a scapegoat. Unfortunately, I decided to let the COO go since she took three months to actually get here—she’s the one who missed the due diligence. It’s not my job to look backward; it was hers, and she should have presented only new and fresh ideas.

When faced with a bad plan, or a plan that has been tried before, resist the urge to go back and look at lessons learned. Remember, success only comes through trying out new things and moving as fast as possible away from failures until you hit on one that works. (Another gem for my leadership book.)

LET’S GET REAL

Ignoring the wealth of knowledge from our predecessors or outgoing leadership is a reckless—sometimes fatal—mistake. Sometimes it can be due to pure hubris, such as in our current political leadership. Sometimes it can be due to ignorance or even fear. Fear of failure or of doing anything the same way as it was done in the past is not an excuse to overlook the lessons of others. But both past successes and failures have invaluable lessons for every leader.

When developing leaders, you want to share examples with them of what has worked for you and what has not. Ignoring those, you’re casting them out to sea without a safety rope. They might make it, but they might not. Why take that chance? One of the great benefits of using the past as context for your decisions going forward is that you will save enormous amounts of time and resources. Why would you try something that failed in the past in exactly the same way? Learn through a debrief what didn’t go well and try something different. Time and money are things we never get back, so why would you spend the same amount on a clunker that won’t drive? You wouldn’t. Don’t waste your precious leadership capital without carefully considering the lessons from the past. (Note to self: Put that in a leadership book! Oh yeah, I am!)

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

The post Lessons Learned Are 4 Losers appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Titles Are Forever

Sent: September 20
From: CEO
To: HR
Subject: Chief of Compassion

Jennifer,

Please prepare a promotion package for Randy. I believe this new role, Chief of Compassion, will be much better suited to what he does on a regular basis. We need someone with his empathy and ability to connect with our customers and employees.

I know you and I have discussed that some of what he does actually fits into the HR department, but I don’t see it that way. I know you want the title of Chief of Staff, and at some point, we may revisit it.

For now, let’s just do this one. Give him only about a 5 percent bump in pay because it’s not a real C-level job, but it looks good, and he deserves it. He will be included in the C-suite meetings, but only so he can help us be a bit more compassionate. He won’t have any direct reports or any real authority, so make sure to outline that in his letter. I don’t want him getting any ideas.

Also, let’s move Jane and Jim Bob up to VP levels. I know they’ll be passing up the director level altogether, but they’ve achieved such great results this past year. I think they deserve the bump. They can keep their same teams—just have it be a direct line to their managers, the other VPs, again, not a real change in authority, just a bump for a recognition of a job well done.

Let me know if you have any questions.

LeRoy

Sent: September 20
From: HR
To: CEO
Subject: Chief of Compassion

LeRoy,

I’m a little confused by this title. I could find no comparable title anywhere, so can’t find any comps for pay. Also, I’m not sure how to even write a job description for it, let alone map out how he can be successful at it. I’m worried that we are setting a dangerous precedent for unreal job titles. Can you please give me more detail on how this person will succeed and what they should be doing?

Regarding the bump for Jane and Jim Bob: Have you spoken to their managers about this? Both of their managers have expressed grave doubts that these two should move up to director, let alone VP, level. Can we discuss this before you move ahead with it? Again, I’m worried that we are setting a dangerous precedent regarding promotions that could lead to a free-for-all and more of a popularity contest.

The last issue is that we still have Steve to consider. You bumped him to director last year, and he has completely failed. As a sales guy, he was great, but he can’t manage his way out of a paper bag. Everyone thinks we should move him back to sales, but they don’t want me to take away his title. If he’s one of the salespeople, he can’t have the director title. And we’ll have to move his payback in line with the rest of the outside sales team.

How would you like me to proceed on these?

Jennifer

Sent: September 21
From: CEO
To: HR
Subject: Chief of Compassion and Other Matters

Jennifer,

As we discussed multiple times, this is a brand-new innovative position, so I’m certain you won’t find comps—we are the first! Don’t worry about a job description; we’ll just play it by ear. If I’m happy with his performance at the end of the year, he’ll get to keep the title. If not, we’ll just move him back to his old role.

Jim Bob and Jane came from my old company, with much higher titles than we started them at, so these promotions have been a long time coming. I know them better than their managers, and I am completely comfortable moving them into these roles. I am fairly confident they will grow into them in due time. Their managers are just jealous because I have a closer relationship with Jim Bob and Jane due to our previous work relationship—and that I am the godfather to Jane’s kids. Besides, I already informed them about it. Your role is merely to make it formal. No need to discuss it further.

Just move Steve back to sales and take away the title. I’m tired of everyone whining about this one. He sucked as sales director, and if he wants to keep his job, he can go back to his old role. He can go talk with Randy as our new Chief of Compassion if he wants a shoulder to cry on. I’m done with it.

LeRoy

LET’S GET REAL

These days it’s trendy to have new and trendy titles: Director of First Impressions, Chief Inspiration Officer, Chief Evangelist, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Fun Officer, and Chief Diversity Officer. C-suite titles should be for those major functions that are needed to run the company, executives, operations, sales and marketing, finance, and technology or IT. Occasionally you’ll have research and development in that mix, but only if that is a significant product or service area for the company. The problem with made-up titles is that they come with real salaries, job descriptions, and expectations. Someone has to put that on their résumé and explain to someone else what they did in that position. Ill-defined positions reflect poorly on both the employees and the company. It can get muddy very quickly. Decide on the business structure for the organization and stick to it with defined paths for employees to move through the ranks if they choose to. Make sure that what is expected and required to succeed is crystal clear. Pay fairly based on comparable positions at like-sized organizations in similar regions.

When we promote someone based on anything other than real reasons—such as actually earning it—there are all sorts of problems that follow: entitlement, fiefdoms, pay inflation, incompetence, unclear expectations, and resentment. When we finally decide that this person is failing, it’s usually too late to save them. No one wants to move back to their old role and old pay. It’s humiliating.

Moving people up to garner loyalty is also a bad reason to promote and title creep. It wreaks havoc on the team and shreds the leader’s role as an impartial arbiter of talent and judgment. Titles need to be meaningful; employees need to know how to succeed, pay needs to follow titles, and all of it needs to be transparent.

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

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Compensation: Show Me the Money

From: Amy Hoohoo, Director of HR
To: Jeff Parson
Subject: Job Offer

Dear Jeff,

We are pleased to present you with this formal offer for employment with the Acme Corporation as our new director of corporate communications. This is a full-time salaried position located in Atlanta, Georgia, that reports to our senior vice president of marketing, Jill Smith.

The starting salary for this position will be $120,000 per year. Please see attached for your eligibility and details of both our 401(k) program and our employee benefits.

It is a position that includes a fair amount of business travel, as we have discussed. Please review the attached travel policy and let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Amy Hoohoo
Director of Human Resources

One year later…

Sent: September 1, 9:00 a.m.
From: Jill Smith, SVP of Marketing
To: Amy Hoohoo, Director of HR
Subject: Jeff’s Salary

Amy,

In preparation for this year’s performance and salary reviews, I received the following table of salary histories for my staff. This says that Jeff’s salary is $220,000. Must be a mistake—I hired him at $120K. Can you make sure this is corrected and sent back to me?

Thanks,

Jill

Sent: September 1, 11:30 a.m.
From: Amy Hoohoo, Director of HR
To: Jill Smith, SVP of Marketing
Subject: RE: Jeff’s Salary

Jill,

No mistake there. That’s what Jeff’s salary has been since day one. Did Curt not tell you that he had me change the offer letter before I sent it to Jeff last year? He was really worried we wouldn’t get him for $120K, so he bumped it up a little.

Amy

Sent: September 1, 11:55 a.m.
From: Curt Collins, Sales Director
To: Jill Smith, SVP of Marketing
Subject: Jeff’s Salary

Jill,

I didn’t trust you to be able to hire him at that low salary. And I knew you wouldn’t listen to me, so I intercepted the offer letter, increased the amount, and had Amy send it. I figured I’d get around to telling you or that you’d see a payroll report before now, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. I can understand why you’re upset, especially given that you and Jeff aren’t getting along that well.

Curt

Sent: September 1, 11:59 a.m.
From: Jill Smith, SVP of Marketing
To: Curt Collins, Sales Director
Subject: RE: Jeff’s Salary

Curt,

My direct-report employee makes $80K more than I do? Seriously? And you think he’s not performing because we’re not getting along well? How about his pay is completely out of line with his job description and he has no idea where he actually sits in the order of things around here?

Thanks a lot!

Jill

LET’S GET REAL

Anyone who has ever been in middle management knows what it feels like to be tasked with hiring top talent but not given enough budget to do so. But there are also scenarios where employees are paid too much or bonused too much. Either way, not having the right compensation package at the individual level and the right—and consistent!—compensation philosophy at the corporate level can wreak absolute havoc on an organization. Let’s take a look at how either of these can happen and how we can prevent it.

PAYING TOO MUCH

Jill’s story about an executive at her company literally hijacking an offer letter that was under her authority is a true but extreme anecdote about how you can start off on the wrong foot with a compensation package, but the result is not uncommon at all. Oftentimes, we convince ourselves that we’ve found a unicorn, the perfect fit for the job, the ideal candidate, and we fall head over heels.

We are so afraid we’re going to lose him or her to the competition, we front-load the compensation package with everything we’ve got. And we literally buy him or her off the market. Of course, we have to do all kinds of fancy footwork to rationalize it in our budget—but we convince ourselves it’s worth it. We make the offer, and WE WIN. We got ’em.

But here’s the rub: Does that compensation package allow you to manage your new hire for continuous growth and improvement? That’s different than just getting the hire made, and often we forget that, as hiring managers, it’s not just our job to hire top talent, it’s to manage that talent to add real growth and value to the company over time. Mark our words: you cannot do that if you overpay someone from the get-go. Not only because it doesn’t give you the room to increase the pay incrementally over time, but because it creates a scenario in which that employee compares their pay with pay outside of the company, causing them to misalign their job description with their pay.

Logic might say that if you pay someone well, they will do a great job; however, if you pay them over the pay scale of the job you’ve hired them to do, they won’t do the job at all. Make sense? Well, in Jill’s true story, Jeff was impossible to manage because he thought he was above the tasks she asked him to complete—and he was right! With a $100K differential on what the job was worth and what he was being paid to do the job, it made perfect sense that he wasn’t performing. And that wasn’t fair to anyone involved.

PAYING TOO LITTLE

There is nothing to be happy about if you just landed a new hire for significantly less than you thought you were going to have to pay or less than market value. If you are getting away with paying less than market value, it’s probably because your candidate didn’t know their value or simply did a poor job of negotiating. There should be no pride in taking advantage of someone by paying them less than what they are worth for a job simply because you can get away with it.

There are going to be performance problems associated with underpaying employees. They will eventually learn that they are not being paid what they are worth, they will be resentful, they will underperform, and, ultimately, they will leave. It seems like a no-brainer when it comes to under or overpaying, but it’s probably more the norm than the exception in business today.

PAYING JUUUUUST RIIIIIGHT

There are three important words to remember to get it just right: fair market value. If the most important tenet of your compensation policy is fair market value, you really can’t go wrong. What it means is that you will have to make an effort—or pay a professional to do the research for you—to always know where the fair market values in your industry stand. The goal is to know the values so well that you can build a pay scale that you can stick to and be proud of. If you commit to fair market value and never allow exceptions, you’ll land in the juuuuust riiiiight range every time.

If you want to ensure you are always in the safe zone, consider hiring an HR professional or compensation specialist to do the following:

Create a documented compensation philosophy and require all staff members to readCreate packages that are simple but flexible. Never create a package that is difficult to understand or calculate, or impossible toCreate compensation ranges for every role or set of roles in your company and never, ever deviate from them. If there are exceptions, they aren’tUse the same structure and logic in every department. Differing structures simply invites misunderstanding about fairnessPrepare to pay fair market value for every role in your companyAssume your payroll report will accidentally be forwarded to everyone in the company someday and be ready to stand by every decision ever made related to

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

The post Compensation: Show Me the Money appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Leadership: Gifting Greatnesss

You will never see “She made me what I am today” written on anyone’s tombstone. But a leader’s job is just that: identifying the individual strengths that each team member comes to the table with; coaxing, leading, training, cajoling, and developing those strengths into greatness. As a leader, you will come with specific skills and deficits; knowing both will help you help others achieve their potential.

Insecure leaders worry that a team member will overshadow them and take credit—or worse, take their job. Confident leaders give credit and are thrilled when one of their team surpasses them. It’s considered a job well done. Unfortunately, that is becoming a rarity in our culture. Leaders who fear loss of stature, importance, or position will never let others over-shadow them, yet a real leader’s job is to let all those who work for them shine as bright as they possibly can.

Everyone has gifts; some just never get a chance to open them. As a leader, making sure there is no gift left unopened is your job. Like watching a kid open the gift they asked Santa for, as a leader you will and should have that same excitement when someone on your team succeeds. It’s perfectly OK to have that moment of doubt, that quick little pang of wow, that used to be me, but if it’s more than a moment of angst, you’ve just stepped in it. It’s about them, not you.

Parents try as hard as they can to pave the road for their children and make it as easy as possible to succeed. Unfortunately, as well-intended as this may be, it does not always work out. If the child never learns how to solve a problem, they will lash out when faced with one and wait for someone else to fix it rather than try to fix it themselves. Leaders often try to make it easy for their teams to succeed, fixing mistakes or telling them what path to take. Individuals will only find their own leadership style and gifts by doing it themselves—mistakes and all. The leader’s job is to make sure none of the mistakes are fatal. Skinned knees and broken bones may happen, and from these people will learn how to self-correct. Patience is a requirement of the leader when developing people, as is having the fortitude to NOT cover the kids in bubble wrap to keep them from getting hurt.

Gifting greatness is not only recognizing the unique contributions of everyone on the team but also being a model of what good leadership looks like. Words and actions must be consistent and authentic—do what you say you will do, model what you want in your team. Everyone smells BS. No matter the deodorizer you choose to cover it, BS still stinks.

When a leader makes a mistake, it needs to be acknowledged, not covered up. “There is learning in them there hills,” as they say—no screwup is made without a chance to learn, and a good leader shows the way by owning it. Give your team a model they can start with and make their own. Only then will their greatness, not yours, find a voice.

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

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Team Dynamics – Loyalty Is the New Cocaine

From the narcissist’s guide to selecting team members…

As we see from our current political leadership, loyalty is the number one criterion to ascertain whether someone is worthy of being on our team. Why wouldn’t it be?? If you don’t have loyalty from your team, you are not a leader—period.

I recommend getting loyalty pledges from all of the people that work for you. Some will balk, so it’s quite simple to let them know their job is on the line if they refuse to participate. Now, unlike a non-compete or non-disclosure agreement, you don’t have to pay anything for this. Essentially, their paycheck is all you have to commit to! Think of the beauty in that! I seriously don’t understand why more companies don’t take advantage of this rarely used, incredibly successful tactic.

Let’s think about it in practical terms. You expect loyalty—but yet, you can’t be sure that your people are. And what makes an incredibly strong team? Loyalty. Bingo! Use the loyalty pledge. You can consider getting it verbally, which may be sufficient in some cases, but in most cases, I would recommend getting it in writing. The problem with verbal is that the bastards will turncoat on you, and then you have to call them liars and hope that your word is stronger than theirs. If you’re in the position of power and authority, your word over their word is usually enough. However, having a loyalty pledge in writing is always the ace in the hole when they start dishing on you to the failing New York Times.

Getting this agreement in writing is nothing short of brilliance in leadership terms. It feels great—like a shot of the best drug in the world straight into the arm—at least in the moment. It feels even better when you get the chance to enforce it as soon as one of the little rats jumps ship and reveals less than flattering details about you. But getting it in writing can be tricky. First, your HR department will tell you that although it’s not strictly illegal, it’s highly unethical. Well, we all know that ethics are a matter of interpretation, so forget about those.  They are what you say they are. And if you say them louder and longer than someone else, you win. Believe me, it works.

Once you are past the pain-in-the-ass HR and legal types, you simply craft a letter that says this is my loyalty pledge to you, and whatever you do or say, I will support and abide by and never, ever reveal any doubts, questions, or otherwise countervailing points-of-view. The conversation with your team can be tricky so I recommend the approach of meeting with all of them as a team and laying it out for them. Explain that as a leader, it’s fundamental to the success of the team that your authority, prowess, and decision-making ability never be questioned. When they look at you with that stupid, questioning, or quizzical look, you face them off and say, “Do you have a problem with this pledge?” And then, “Are you the first who will show me disrespect and disloyalty?” I always like throwing in the disrespect aspect of it because if they’re stupid enough to have a conscience, this term will cut to the bone. Of course, they will back down, and it’ll just be a great lesson to the rest of the team. The leader is all-powerful and that they are not—which is exactly how you want it. If you get some smart ass who is all indignant because you are requiring this pledge, fire him or her on the spot and remind them that you will sue their ass off if they violate the confidentiality agreement. Boom! You just showed everyone who’s in charge.

Usually, you’ll get full compliance at that point. But you may detect a few outliers that have gotten together to question your competence. It’s vitally important to cut these weeds down as quick as you see them. Invite them into your office for a friendly chat and remind them that they are special to you. Butter them up with whatever you know will make them feel good, and then ask why they haven’t signed their agreement. Tell them that they are the chosen one, the heir apparent—they’ll never talk to their peers to find out you said the same thing to the rest of them. You know they’re stupid; otherwise, they would be in your job, right? So, don’t start to give them credit now for being smarter than they are.

Once you are relatively sure you have everyone on board with pledging loyalty and fealty to you and only you, now for the coup de gras. Get everyone together and have them say nice things about you, particularly about your stellar leadership skills so the rest of the group can hear. Something like, “I am so grateful that Don selected me to be on his team. I can’t wait to learn more from him about leadership and am happy to pledge my loyalty.” A few specifics are great but more importantly, you want the pledges.

Once you have these from your team and rid yourself of the traitors, you’re the golden boy. Of course, this type of loyalty can always backfire if you’re not careful about constantly weeding out the miscreants and the two-timers. Sometimes just firing someone because you’re suspicious—without any proof— will do the trick. Stay on it and you’ll have a team of sycophants second to none!

LET’S GET REAL

Loyalty is good to have but true loyalty is earned. Having loyalty pledges in writing or verbally is counterproductive to what you are trying to achieve. If loyalty is required, it’s not loyalty—it’s servitude and that will only go so far. Forced loyalty will almost always backfire on you because people don’t like to be forced into anything.

If you have earned the loyalty of your team—which is helpful for effective leadership—they will know it’s optional. You need to show them every day why they have made a good choice to support you as leader. Not because their job depends on it, but because they believe in your leadership. Forced loyalty is fake loyalty. It will never last and is almost worse than having none at all because now you’ve created moles and enemies.

Be an authentic leader, own your mistakes and successes, recognize the contributions of others, and help them grow into leaders. These principles will gain you the highest level of loyalty: Respect.

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

The post Team Dynamics – Loyalty Is the New Cocaine appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Talking About Fight Club

Management Team Quarterly Meeting Agenda:

Warehouse workflowHoliday schedules and hours for next weekAnnual performance review deadlinesERP system maintenanceMonthly sales results

CEO: Thanks for coming to the meeting today, guys. We have a lot to cover, so let’s get rolling. We’ve got Sue joining us today— she’s a management consultant who is helping me work through some strategic issues. Welcome, Sue. Steve, why don’t you get started and give us an update on any changes you have to the warehouse workflow.

Steve: Yep. OK, well, it’s looking like we are going to be able to handle the increase in capacity that’s forecasted for next week.

Mike will step in and cover Peter’s fulfillment duties until we can backfill that position. I’ve also got some new packing materials to experiment with, but I will probably wait until after the holidays to do that.

Accounting Manager: Is Peter on vacation?

CEO: Let’s move on. How about holiday schedules? Who is going to be out between Christmas and New Year’s?

Marketing Manager: What happened to Peter?

CEO: I’ll pass around the calendar; if you guys can jot down the dates you’ll be out, I’ll have Stephanie put them in the group calendar.

Consultant: Excuse me? What’s going on here? Who is Peter? Where is Peter? And why are we both talking and not talking about Peter?

CEO (voice in head): Oh my God, I have to stop this conversation right now. They don’t need to know that I fired Peter. It’s none of their business. If Peter finds out I told people that I fired him, he’s going to sue us. Everyone will think I’m an asshole. Peter was a nice guy. No one can know. How can I explain my way out of this? He quit? He disappeared? This is a nightmare.

LET’S GET REAL

Imagine being on a senior management team and having the fact that an employee had been terminated purposely withheld from you. Can you think of any logical or rational reason why a manager would do that? Neither could we. Now imagine being an employee—at any level—coming into your job one day and finding the person who had been sitting at the desk or station next to you for a couple of years suddenly gone. And nobody is talking about it.

There’s been no announcement of his or her departure, there is no reason for his or her absence—it’s as if the person got raptured! Just up and disappeared. Can you think of any reason on Earth why it would make sense to sow this kind of mystery and mistrust around an employee’s departure? Neither could we. But this is a true story, and it happens more often than you’d think.

The first rule of management is to talk about management. That means talking about employee performance and disciplinary measures and being honest and transparent with your leadership team and staff about departures and other not-so-pleasant news. Transparency is the buzzword of the decade, and it’s easily misunderstood or misinterpreted. So, let’s clear up a few things (pun intended):

Transparency works because it builds TRUST, and trust only works when it’s based on the TRUTH.

We parted ways with John today as we did not feel that he was the best fit for the position.

John’s last day with us was Monday. We wish him all the best in finding a new role that better suits his skill set.

John’s last day was today, and we’ll be looking to fill the position within the next two weeks. Please join us in wishing him all the best in the future.

These are all perfectly acceptable and respectful ways of saying, “We had to fire John.” But saying nothing at all, or fabricating some story, because you fear telling your organization that he was terminated is a huge mistake. Saying nothing is flat-out lying and creates unfair mystery and intrigue. Covering up the termination also doesn’t allow you to send a message to your organization that says, “YES, if you don’t do your job and perform to our standards, you will lose your job. That’s how jobs work!”

Remember, as leaders, we are the adults in the room. If you can’t adhere to the basic tenets of a healthy and high-functioning management team, then you need to take a close look at your leadership style and the makeup of your leadership team. We believe that there are at least eight core things that should be discussed regularly and with total transparency among a leadership team:

Leadership and championship of the mission, vision, values, and purpose:

Are you all in alignment with these? From your vantage point, can you see anything happening within the company that isn’t? Discuss and hold each other accountable.

Respect for the organizational chart.Following the RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) structure:

Is everyone in alignment with how the organizational chart works and what the protocols and authorities are? Does everyone understand their roles and the roles of others on the RACI chart? Both of these documents, along with job descriptions at the individual level, should be reviewed and discussed regularly.

Complete and immediate transparency:

Are there any sensitive issues that we need to discuss privately before communicating to the staff? What is our strategy for communicating sensitive issues to the staff? Are we being transparent with each other and holding each other accountable for transparency among our staff?

Unity and consensus in decision making:

Have we communicated and debated critical decision-making among the management team prior to the decision being made? Do we have consensus on strategy? We may differ on tactics but must have consensus on strategy and confirm regularly that we do.

Discipline and time commitment:

Are we, as a team, committed to each other, and have we made time for actually managing as a team?

Triads and the buddy system:

Does anyone feel like they are on an island? If so, why? And what will we do about it?

Financial visibility:

Lastly, does everyone on the leadership team know how we are doing financially? Do they know what role they and their team play in building value and profitability for the organization? (We’ll talk more about this last point in our next book, How (NOT) to Create a Winning Strategy.)

The first rule of a good management team is to talk about management with your team. Seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many teams talk about everything except management. Have the conversation with your team and use the above checklist to make sure you’re transparent and aligned.

To purchase a copy of How (NOT) to Build a Great Team click here.

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