While at a charity dinner last week, I heard several executives discussing how one of the greatest opportunities they face today is managing getting things done. As work piles up, expectations grow despite the decline in available resources. It’s a tough situation with no clear solution. One executive illustrated the dilemma well, telling how when he went to his boss to get help, his boss simply replied, “Get it done.”
Hmmm…. Is this kind of response helpful? Not really. Although we accept the reality of budget cuts, we don’t adjust our expectations accordingly. Instead, demands continue to soar and expectations to meet and exceed organizational goals continue to exist. Bottom line, what do you do in such a situation?
The book “Execution: The Art of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan helps to provide some insight. Although not a new book, the text is still highly relevant and something that should be required reading for every leader who wants to get things done.
The authors explain how to “get it done” by describing execution as a “systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability. It includes making assumptions about the business environment, assessing the organization’s capabilities, linking strategy to operations and the people who are going to implement the strategy, synchronizing those people and their various disciplines, and linking rewards to outcomes.”
I define execution as “getting things done, systematically and with swift action with people.” The key words here are swift and with people. Getting things done is not simply about speed; it’s first and foremost about leveraging your people and including them in the process thoughtfully. After all, they are the ones who will need to execute your plan. Ultimately, execution is about a new way of thinking and acting, which can be accomplished by the following:
1. Connect what is most meaningful to organizational priorities – not everything is important. You must figure out what is and what isn’t. Avoid the tendency to make every new thing the emergency of the day and leave the really important things to the last minute. Plan it, prioritize it and then act on it.
2. Toss out the lingo – jargon gets in the way of getting things done. Every organization has its own unique style of language, and not everyone speaks this unique slang. For example, I had a client who didn’t understand what the words “big picture” meant because everyone around him used the phrase differently. You’ll save time by making sure you define everything clearly and universally from the start.
3. Right people in the right jobs rely on your right words and right actions – it’s not enough to have the right people doing the right jobs. It is your responsibility to align what you say with what you do. It’s challenging to believe someone who does not align their words with their actions.
4. Responsibility first, blame last – take responsibility for everything -- period. Doing so will make you a better leader and, more importantly, a better human being.
5. Advocate, pursue and mobilize change – change can be a dreaded term because people don’t like when the boat is rocked. Go ahead and shake it! The more dynamic the workspace, the more the organization can grow. Stagnancy only hinders the growth and output of people and the organization.
6. Impeccable coordination – as Fred Kofman notes in his book “Conscious Business”, coordinating well and with those inside and outside the company will define you as a leader. The better you coordinate, the stronger your rise to the top in your career will be and the more sound your organization’s output will be.
7. Act quickly with those who don’t perform – not everyone is competent enough to be in their current positions. Although it’s good to offer people opportunities and coaching, if someone is not performing, you must move them out and do so quickly. If you don’t move fast, you only hurt you, your employee and the organization. And if you are afraid to hurt your employee, remember a job someone can thrive in is better than one to just survive in.
8. Link strategy, people and operations – as Charan and Bossidy state eloquently in their book, you cannot have a thriving organization without these three things being critically tied together. Each one functions with the others. Focus on all three with equal measure.
A final thought -- you probably put a lot of time and energy into developing your strategy and operations, and that doesn’t mean that you are putting the same effort into developing your people. Your people are your greatest asset. Unless you leverage, nurture and care for them deeply, with responsibility and accountability, you may lose your strongest competitive leverage point.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Don’t Be Passed Over and Pissed Off: Learn to Lead
Recently diversity was celebrated as part of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's events and conferences for 2010, including the annual meetings for such cable diversity groups as Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) and the Walter Kaitz Foundation . What’s most interesting about all of these gathering was the one theme that stood out - “leadership.”
The question of concern, which is applicable to all industries today, was: how will you develop and hone your leadership to guide your people through this ever-changing business landscape? Spanning such diverse topics as mentoring, developing leadership and the bottom line, being strategic, producing multi-ethnic content and programming, developing multi-ethnic high potentials and more, diversity really boils down to one thing – people. In the words of Eric Hawkins of Discovery Networks International, “Who makes organizations run? People. Who ensures a culture is innovative? People. Who continues to keep us competitive? People.”
Well said by Eric. After all, even if you are talking about programming, marketing, digital, or any field of business, it’s all about leadership. Leaders are the ones that spearhead organizations, make decisions that affect what goes on cable/television and the Internet, and create an environment for employees to be creative, to innovate and to feel valued and motivated to do their best.
During the WICT conference, I was on a panel entitled, “Leadership and the Bottom Line”, and all of my fellow panelists – Nomi Bergman, President of Bright House Networks; Margaret Lazo, Executive Vice President in Human Resources at NBC Universal Television; Jill Smart, Chief Human Resource Officer at Accenture – all encouraged the participants to grow, nurture and cultivate leadership skills in order to become the most relevant and essential element of their organization.
Easy to say, and not so easy to do. However investing in yourself and your leadership ensures that you avoid what Jacqueline Welch of Turner Broadcasting, Inc. called, “POPO – ‘passed over and pissed off.’”
To avoid being POPO, here is a top ten list of some of the most useful and relevant tips for advancing your leadership:
1. Go international - Take a short-term or long-term international assignment to understand the international marketplace. After all, if your organization makes money globally and your employee pool is global, wouldn’t it help if you had global experience and understood this landscape well?
2. Seek and enlist a champion – Ask someone inside the organization to be your “champion.” This person can advocate on your behalf, give you advice and promote you consistently. Whoever you ask needs to be trained to understand what opportunities you are seeking (aka, what is your “sweet spot”) and what to say about you. A champion may be someone who emerges from working jointly on projects or who takes notice of the good work you are doing or simply someone you ask for help. In any case, get one!
3. Business strategy – Understand the business you are in and the company you have joined. Be sure to listen and participate on earnings calls, join affinity groups and become a well-rounded student of your organization and business.
4. Applied formal and informal learning - Being a life long learner is critical to advancement. This enables you to have an open mind and learn different disciplines and points of view. Naturally, learning makes you smarter, and applied learning will effectively make you stand out.
5. Professional presence – At Diversity Week, Dr. Tonya Cornelius from ESPN emphasized the need for leaders to know and leverage their brand. Know what people “see” in you when you walk in a room and how others think of you. Hone, develop and manage your brand.
6. Scrappy wins - Become a “scrappy” leader. Be resourceful and do what you need to do to get the job done, e.g. devise innovative ideas, enlist departments, which never worked together before, hire people with non-traditional experience.
7. Stand out – Win people over with your ideas, performance, goals and mission. Allow people to see all parts of who you are.
8. Measure your success – Learning how to use and devise metrics will set you apart from the rest. Consider how it sounds to say, “the campaign was a success” versus “78% of our clients voted this campaign as being the key driver of their business, increasing revenue by over 50%.” Which one impresses more?
9. Pay it forward – Mentor, look for places to champion others, give constantly with a clear consciousness wanting and asking for nothing in return.
10. Know who you are – Great leaders are self-aware, drive with authenticity, know when to ask for help and are always true to themselves.
Pick one of the top ten and go for it full force. Take your leadership and your career into your own hands, because if you don’t, no one else will.
The question of concern, which is applicable to all industries today, was: how will you develop and hone your leadership to guide your people through this ever-changing business landscape? Spanning such diverse topics as mentoring, developing leadership and the bottom line, being strategic, producing multi-ethnic content and programming, developing multi-ethnic high potentials and more, diversity really boils down to one thing – people. In the words of Eric Hawkins of Discovery Networks International, “Who makes organizations run? People. Who ensures a culture is innovative? People. Who continues to keep us competitive? People.”
Well said by Eric. After all, even if you are talking about programming, marketing, digital, or any field of business, it’s all about leadership. Leaders are the ones that spearhead organizations, make decisions that affect what goes on cable/television and the Internet, and create an environment for employees to be creative, to innovate and to feel valued and motivated to do their best.
During the WICT conference, I was on a panel entitled, “Leadership and the Bottom Line”, and all of my fellow panelists – Nomi Bergman, President of Bright House Networks; Margaret Lazo, Executive Vice President in Human Resources at NBC Universal Television; Jill Smart, Chief Human Resource Officer at Accenture – all encouraged the participants to grow, nurture and cultivate leadership skills in order to become the most relevant and essential element of their organization.
Easy to say, and not so easy to do. However investing in yourself and your leadership ensures that you avoid what Jacqueline Welch of Turner Broadcasting, Inc. called, “POPO – ‘passed over and pissed off.’”
To avoid being POPO, here is a top ten list of some of the most useful and relevant tips for advancing your leadership:
1. Go international - Take a short-term or long-term international assignment to understand the international marketplace. After all, if your organization makes money globally and your employee pool is global, wouldn’t it help if you had global experience and understood this landscape well?
2. Seek and enlist a champion – Ask someone inside the organization to be your “champion.” This person can advocate on your behalf, give you advice and promote you consistently. Whoever you ask needs to be trained to understand what opportunities you are seeking (aka, what is your “sweet spot”) and what to say about you. A champion may be someone who emerges from working jointly on projects or who takes notice of the good work you are doing or simply someone you ask for help. In any case, get one!
3. Business strategy – Understand the business you are in and the company you have joined. Be sure to listen and participate on earnings calls, join affinity groups and become a well-rounded student of your organization and business.
4. Applied formal and informal learning - Being a life long learner is critical to advancement. This enables you to have an open mind and learn different disciplines and points of view. Naturally, learning makes you smarter, and applied learning will effectively make you stand out.
5. Professional presence – At Diversity Week, Dr. Tonya Cornelius from ESPN emphasized the need for leaders to know and leverage their brand. Know what people “see” in you when you walk in a room and how others think of you. Hone, develop and manage your brand.
6. Scrappy wins - Become a “scrappy” leader. Be resourceful and do what you need to do to get the job done, e.g. devise innovative ideas, enlist departments, which never worked together before, hire people with non-traditional experience.
7. Stand out – Win people over with your ideas, performance, goals and mission. Allow people to see all parts of who you are.
8. Measure your success – Learning how to use and devise metrics will set you apart from the rest. Consider how it sounds to say, “the campaign was a success” versus “78% of our clients voted this campaign as being the key driver of their business, increasing revenue by over 50%.” Which one impresses more?
9. Pay it forward – Mentor, look for places to champion others, give constantly with a clear consciousness wanting and asking for nothing in return.
10. Know who you are – Great leaders are self-aware, drive with authenticity, know when to ask for help and are always true to themselves.
Pick one of the top ten and go for it full force. Take your leadership and your career into your own hands, because if you don’t, no one else will.
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