Paralysis
Politics, hidden agendas, greed, illness, religion, complacency can all get in the way of top team performance. Circumstances are never the same, nor is the degree to which any one or all of these things can impact an organisation.
In addition further complexity derives from top performing teams that are made up of diverse nationalities, religions, black and white, old and young, able bodied and disabled, male and female.
So the trick, above all else, is to be aware of the shifting sands. Top people have to incorporate this diversity somehow for the good of the organisation. World-class competition, customers wanting more for less, the need for corporate transparency means that you can’t allow anything to get in the way of organisational performance.
Sometimes even old rivalries or past favours granted come into the equation. The real issue can even be, to what extent does the CEO’s obligation to an individual override an obligation to the organisation? It’s a tough call, but one that has to be faced.
One-way street
Because the world is so complex and getting more so, top performers are increasingly turning to experts to help them on their journey. I believe that we all need a mentor or two if we are serious about fulfilling our potential in order to help others fulfil their potential.
I have a mentor for my speaking and one for personal life issues. As for business expertise I work with professionals on the PR side and on web design. There are all sorts of other people involved with our business that could be called stakeholders.
People often ask me how I find the right support. Well firstly it is always good to look for people with a similar level of both passion and commitment in their area of expertise. For a start you need to see who else they work with and what their testimonials say.
There is a danger in all this that you reciprocate advice. In other words someone could potentially help you, but because of your particular expertise and their particular needs, you could just as well end up mentoring them. This is invariably a mistake. Mentoring needs to be a one-way street.
Deal with it
Failure to deal with poor or inadequate performance at the top of organisations is extraordinarily common. It is far too common for the good of UK plc.
Part of the problem is that the CEO doesn’t really want to believe that the culprit is a limiting factor to progress. Secondly, the challenge of dealing with someone like this, together with the repercussions often seems insurmountable. Much better then to leave well alone. Maybe the issues will go away.
For family businesses it can be nepotism, for local authorities and Government departments, politics often gets in the way. For charities and ‘not for profit’ organisations it can be radical beliefs and values that undermine performance.
The best way to resolve these issues is to remember, and never forget, that everyone serves the organisation. Without the organisation none of us would have a job. With this perspective, you can sort anyone out, even the CEO.
Retrospectively wrong
Executives in organisations are invariably either paid more than they are worth or they are paid less than they are worth. Not infrequently, as time goes by, someone feels that they have contributed more to the organisation than is reflected in their rewards package.
However it is invariably futile to try to renegotiate in arrears. What has happened to date is history, and if your boss has seen fit to reward you adequately during that period, all well and good. If not, then this is the time to instigate a review with the employer.
But if you approach the subject from a “Lets look at what I have achieved during the last seven years” or “Without my efforts (during those seven years) you wouldn’t be here today”, then it can end in tears.
Self worth, value and contribution needs to be regularly reappraised and then appropriate action can be taken by either party, faster.
Part company
When the CEO is feuding with his number two or three or four, for whatever reason, then the result is always the same. Day after day, week after week, month after month and sometimes even year after year, time, energy and resources are being frittered away.
With world class competition and ever more demanding customers it is pure self-indulgence to not resolve the issues in the interests of the organisation at the earliest possible opportunity.
So often in these situations the protagonists are both coming, remorselessly, repetitively from first position. In a speaking scenario for example, first position is what we think about our own performance, second position is what our customers think, and third position is how we rank vis a vis the competition in the market place.
People only convincingly change how they think, change what they do, and change how they behave when they are able to see the issues from all three positions. And even then the feud may continue and that is the time to part company.
The striker
I find that members of an executive team are not always playing in the right position. Never mind the core competencies of an accountant, a marketer, the ops director or the ICT specialist. Never mind the fact that the CEO may have got there by default, we are all having to develop the other stuff, the elements that we contribute to the intellectual capital of the business.
Sometimes things evolve naturally for the organisation, but the reality is that most people feel most comfortable with where they have come from. This discussion is more interested in where they are going to.
Its not just the speed of change in the market place that is the catalyst for people developing a wider skill and knowledge set, it can be the impact of transformational continuing professional development.
Circumstances facing business are never the same. We need to change structures, salaries, routes to market, strategies, plans and people just as fast as our business model requires. Someone may start out playing in defensive midfield but they could end up as the striker.
Loss
Sometimes I get to help a CEO re arrange the top team. Poor or sub optimal performance will invariably be revealed by the end of a facilitated 360-degree appraisal.
An operations director with great technical skill, but barely a ‘people management’ bone in his body had to be moved. He was being replaced by someone 20 years his junior. The incumbent has less technical knowledge but much greater latent people skills.
When this proposition was put to the younger man his first reaction, despite the promotion and despite the rewards, was to say that he enjoyed his current job and that he would miss it. He wanted to talk with his wife before accepting. An interesting reaction.
When we move onto another stage in our life it is almost never ‘all good’. In order to make the move there are nearly always things that we have to leave behind.
