Is There a Faker Among You?

It can feel great and satisfying to work with a (team) that seems to take on assignments, make decisions, and produce results.  But if that (team) has an imposter among it--well, you don't have a true team. And you aren't going to have lasting success.

Imposters and fakers on teams nod in approval but act in opposition.

Imposters and fakers on teams appear to be "on board" but in fact, quietly undermine, undermine, and undermine.

Imposters and fakers on teams give lip service to the mission but hold their invidual agenda highest.

Imposters and fakers on teams will be the end of the (team)...unless you find them out.

Do you have an imposter and faker among you?  What are you going to do about it?

5 Qualities of a Team

By far, the most important of the four components of Strategy, Team, Execution, and Results--is the TEAM.  Specifically, no group, organization, or team can function at its highest level possible until five qualities are present.  In Patrick Lencioni's best selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he shows what happens when these qualities are non-existent--and how to achieve lasting change.

Qualities of the Best Teams:

• They trust each other.  If hidden agendas exist or the slightest mis-trust between any of the group members, teamwork will be stifled.
  
• They engage in unfiltered conflict.  Ideas and debated--sometimes very passionately.  Everyone has to know that its acceptable to push on one another and flush out any bad ideas which will let the best rise to the top.
  
• They commit to plans and actions.  Once a direction is set, ALL members commit.  They are aligned, they move quickly, and they are clear about their direction and priorities.
  
• They hold each other accountable.  Poor performers feel pressure to improve.  Respect increases when all team members are held to the same high standards.
  
• They focus on collective results.  Individual agendas are replaced by an intense desire and commitment to the team's accomplishments.  Attaining the goal is job #1.

CHALLENGE.   If you want to take one step to achieve absolute improvement in the way your team works together, buy a copy of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team for each member of your team and take them through it and it's exercises.  You'll experience some amazing breakthroughs....and break-withs.

Success…right under our noses.

Patrick Lencioni captured my attention in 2002 when Chris Walton shared "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" with me and his management team.  I've been a fan ever since (of both Lencioni and Walton, but I digress).

Yes, products and services are important, but it's the TEAM that at the end of the day, defines a company's greatness.

I was in the audience last month when John Maxwell told a story about two clients.  They both happen to be restaurants selling chicken.  One of them was operating with a focus on product and price.  They had little emphasis on the people.  The energy in the employees was low.

The other company focused on developing their people and viewed success as creating a superior experience for their customers--through the excellence of their people.  The investment in the employees was high and it showed in their dynamic energy.

Two restaurants selling chicken.  One focused on product and price.  One with an emphasis on developing their people and teams in order to provide superior service.  Guess which one is achieving record success?

Lencioni's latest book, The Advantage, makes the point even further.  The following is from the jacket of the book:

"While too many leaders are still limiting their search for advantage to conventional and largely exhausted areas like marketing, strategy, and technology, Lencioni demonstrates that there is an untapped gold mine siting right beneath them.  Instead of trying to become smarter, he asserts that leaders and organizations need to shift their focus to becoming healthier, allowing them to tap into the more-than-sufficient intelligence and expertise they already have."

Lencioni and Maxwell remind us "it's not about the widgets (or chicken).  It's about people.

Organizational Clarity

Leaders need to personally be clear about their vision and their strategy.

And just as importantly, they need to do something with it.  Employees and the team must know the vision, and the top leader must take responsibility for ensuring the vision is shared.

How?  Constant messaging to employees.  I don't know of too many companies that over communicate. But the greatest ones do.

They create visual work places.

They post the score (how the company is doing in all measurable areas).

They communicate the goals to the employees often.

They communicate the successes, setbacks, and challenges often.

They are accessible and "make the rounds" often to socialize the goals, objectives, initiatives, and how the company is doing.

Question:  Do your team members know the goals and the score?

To Be Like a Rockefeller

In the late 90's, I was presented with a book from my friend David Parfitt in Atlanta titled Mastering The Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish.  That book forever changed and improved the way I've set goals, created and communicated plans, and organized and worked with teams.

I'll share just three principles from the many that Harnish discovered were put to use by John D. Rockefeller  during the latter half of the oil industry era--when his disciplined approach to business created unprecedented success.

1. Create a One Page Operating Plan.  A one-page plan is simple enough that it will get referred to and used often, as opposed to most plans in 3-ring binders that become shelf decorations.

2. Keep Everyone on the Same Page.  How do you do this?  You create simple, compelling goals and make them visible-- and then support with #3 below.

3.  Create Meeting Rhythm.  Establish a series of regular meetings with your team and extended team to communicate priorities, get reports against objectives, and use the One-Page Plan as a measure of your progress.  Everyone ought to know what's expected and what's coming each time you meet.  This keeps the meetings short, pointed, and impactful.

If you'd like to learn more about The Rockefeller Habits, go to Gazelle's website, created by Verne Harnish, where you can download the forms and worksheets to help get you on your way.

Clear Leadership

It hits you like a 2 x 4 on a freezing day. That strong, clear, and compelling leadership that's missing so often. But when it's present, it is awesome. 

You see it this way.

The leader that cares for the people, and is genuinely interested in them.  Who starts with assembling the greatest team comprised of the greatest people doing the greatest things.

The leader that articulates a clear vision--so clear and compelling in fact that everyone from the senior team to the team who sweeps the floors knows exactly what is important, which direction is North, and where you are headed. 

The leader who develops her people with training and coaching.

The leader who meets with his team one-on-one to provide feedback and coaching--and support the achievemkent of individual and organizational goals.

The leader that meets with all the employees frequently--to reinforce those messages you found so inspiring and compelling the first time you heard them.

And the leader who, of course--delivers the results, because she helped her team be successful, who in turn--helped her be successful.


This is the leader who "suits up, and shows up."  Every day.  In every way.

Sage Advice From Drucker

I try to keep up with reading my copy of "The Daily Drucker" which is a compilation of Peter Drucker's work arranged by topic with an idea provided for each day of the year. I share here a particularly insightful essay based on Drucker's work "The Effective Executive."

Five points:

1. Know where your time goes.
2. Focus on outward contributions.
3. Build on strengths.
4. Concentrate on superior performance.
5. Make effective decisions.


From "The Daily Drucker"

Five practices have to be acquired to be effective. Effective executives know where their time goes.  They work systematically at managing the little of their time that can be brought under their control.  Effective executives focus on outward contributions.  Effective executives build on strengths--theirs and others. They do not build on weaknesses.  Effective executives concentrate on superior performance where superior performance will produce outstanding results.  They force themselves to stay within priorities.  Effective executives make effective decisions.  They know that this is a system--the right steps in the right sequence.  They know that to make decisions fast is to make the wrong decisions. Whenever I have found a person who--no matter how great in intelligence, industry, imagination, or knowledge--fails to observe these practices, I have also found an executive deficient in effectiveness.  Peter F. Drucker

Hard to argue...

What Gets Measured Gets Attention....

....and what gets attention gets results.  There's truth in this concept that "what gets measured gets attention--and what gets attention gets results."

It is difficult to deny that the goal of every organization must include “results.”  To go through the actions of business, transactions, product development, program initiatives, and tactical execution WITHOUT the attainment of results is in itself disappointing, but is totally unacceptable if the “results” were never the focus, not measured, not spoken about, unclear, and were not at the heart of the leader and his or her team’s focus and conversations.

How do you do this?  One way to start is to ask yourself “how visual is my workplace?”  If for instance, safety, on-time shipments, customer satisfaction, or profit margins are important--how do you keep track of those?  Better yet--how does your team and how do your employees keep track of those?

A visual workplace is one where the company metrics aren't a secret, where they're not shared only among the management team.

A visual workplace is one where the "vital signs" are posted, they are shared, and they are used in daily decision-making.  A visual workplace uses "dashboards" or charts or bulletin boards to post the progress against the stated goals and objectives.

And while you're considering sharing vital information--why not post your entire strategic plan?  Whether you post it for all employees or in your office for you and your team to review frequently--Verne Harnish has created some outstanding tools for business planning.  Review and download his templates and planning forms at http://www.gazelles.com/.

One of the Gazelle's primary principles is to create measurements and themes and post them for all to see--and to track the progress throughout the year.

Three keys to creating a visual workspace are:

1. Select a small number of metrics to measure that reveal the progress of the company and departments towards the top objectives.

2. Use dashboards and easy-to-read graphs or charts to convey the "green light/red light" status toward the goals.

3.  Keep them updated.

And finally, engage your team and employees in conversations regularly around the progress you're making.  Bring attention to the measurements--and you'll bring attention to the results.

What's The Value of Your Values?

When you establish values for your company--what's the real value?

I've been fortunate enough to have happend upon Jim Collins' methods for establishing values within a company--and have had the chance to do it twice within two different organizations.

In short, Collins suggests that instead of the executive team sitting down and picking out the 4-5 values THEY believe are important--that instead--they study the best employees in the company, identify the values those employees demonstrate, and where those values overlap--make them the company's own.

What you end up with is a set of values that defines the very best people within your organization. You may then use these values to emphasize behaviors, evaluate performance, and also use them to recruit and bring aboard new employees into the company.

You now have a set of values that really mean something. They not only describe your company--but they ARE your company.

And that's where the real "value of the values" comes into play.

When facing decisions, these values serve an imporant purpose. These values become the filter through which your evaluate choices and they help chart your course very cearly and plainly.

These values--that have been developed from a set of the best characteristics displayed by your very best employees--now have real meaning. This, as opposed to the meaning derived from a set of 5 "classic" values that the management team thought were important and had printed on posters around the office.

Not that you shouldn't print and post them--but wouldn't it be better if they resonated with your employees?

Follow Collins' process and you'll wind up with the best set of values possible--which will help guide you in every way you can imagine.