Marcia's Leadership Q and As: How should a new executive deal with office cliques?

Q. As a new executive, I’m quite surprised at the arrogance of some of my management team. While we are a service organization, many long-time team members have formed an exclusive, dysfunctional clique that has caused high turnover. What’s the best and fastest way to dissolve this?

A. As the new leader, you will need to create a new environment with a new culture.

Think about the vision you have for the organization and the values and behaviors you expect your team to have so that everyone can collaborate. Start with one-to-one conversations with your management team. Listen to their thoughts, concerns, mindset.

Ask each one if they are willing to learn, improve and work together and help you move the whole organization forward?  Of course, watch what they say and what they do over the next few weeks and months.

Once you assess the individuals, discuss with them as a team, the need to change their thinking and leadership. Share what works and doesn’t work. Communicate and discuss with them your vision. Be clear about your expectations.

Ask them how it can be achieved. People will need to change. Some will. Some won’t. All will need clarity and coaching from you. An outside coach can share an outside perspective for you, too.

Give them some time to shift their thinking and actions, but also don’t tolerate dysfunctional, arrogant behavior. Some people have been stuck for years with their control, power, and position. It won’t be easy to change, but be clear that the company needs a healthier style of leadership.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: How can I improve my productivity when I'm working alone?

Q. I’m working independently with occasional connections with my team. How do I continue to be productive?

A. Productivity begins with clarity about what you need to achieve, how you will accomplish your tasks, and what resources and support you need to be successful.

You and your team can initially make your plan about what you want to accomplish and who will do what. Identify the timeframe and expectations.

Communication that is effective for all team members will help remove barriers and allow the team to feel supported. Identify your needs and ask how you can support others.

As you do your work, have a plan for your day and build in some structure as well as some flexible and break times. Remove distractions. Tackle the harder tasks first while you have energy and also have time to reach out to other team members if you need help or questions answered.

When the “must-do” priorities are done, assess your progress, what can you adjust and improve in the future, and reflect on the learning and contributions you’re making

Communicate with your team for fun, for progress, to plan, and to celebrate progress and results.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Why 'a great leader is a lazy leader'

Q. Our organization has grown, and now there are more people available to do the day-to-day work that managers used to have to deal with. But many managers still have a strong tendency to take on the tasks. How do we break the “I’ll take care of it” reflex?

A. Great question, and I’m smiling! One of my mentors told me over 20 years ago, “a great leader is a lazy leader.” That’s a pretty surprising yet memorable comment, isn’t it? It’s also powerful: A leader doesn’t do the tasks that can be delegated unless it’s a time when all hands need to work together to get the job done.

As people move from a more detailed and sometimes analytic role (like a salesperson or an engineer) into management and leadership, it means the mindset and the role of the person also must change.

Leaders need to think strategically, create and work ON the systems that the people work IN, anticipate and pursue opportunities, and develop the people. They delegate the work and create the environment where people contribute ideas and are self-motivated to contribute.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Why do so many startups fail?

Q. Why do so many startup companies fail, and what can be done to improve the success rate?

A. Gut punch! Entrepreneurs put their sweat and tears into their startups only to experience failure. Ten percent of startups fail in the first year of existence, and 70% more fail in the next two to five years. That’s a lot of waste, in ideas, energy, investments, and cash.

There are multiple causes for startup failures, but are the reasons just scratching the surface? Do so many businesses fail because the real root causes have not been identified and remedied? If business leaders and their investors understood the path toward failure the organization is likely to take (based on the statistics), they would pivot their company.

The common reasons for startup failures include:

• Poor product-market fit (there are few customers who will buy the products or services)

• The company was not solving a significant customer problem

• Poor implementation of marketing strategies

• Poor timing

• Lack of competitive edge

• Lack of cash or burning through it too fast

• Lack of management experience and business or industry knowledge

These are symptoms of failing businesses. However, the root causes of business failures are deeper. Yet, if they are addressed, more startups could survive.

Entrepreneurs must commit to not only ideas and a product dream, but a compelling purpose that everyone in the organization understands and understands how they can contribute to it. Startup leaders must also commit to developing a plan for success, a holistic system to strategically think and ask questions like never before.

Great leaders anticipate. They understand and communicate obsessively with customers and new markets to deeply understand what their customers need.

Startup entrepreneurs require a theoretical foundation of management principles to be successful. Personally, they make time to become more self-aware and continually develop their communication and leadership skills (leading is a continual process of learning.)

Seeking relevant, knowledgeable advisors and coaches is essential to engage in the pertinent conversations that a young team need to address and ask. Advisors who have management knowledge (not just people who have been a successful founder once or twice) can help guide and scale young organizations and help them survive and accelerate their growth.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: What are some basic strategies I can use every day to succeed as a leader?

Q. What are some basic strategies I can use every day to succeed? 

A. Start with thinking about how you define success, then follow these five steps:

1. At the beginning of your day, identify a few actions you plan to take during the day, and write them down.

2. Work to implement your plan of action.

3. At the end of the day, assess how well you implemented your plan. Did you accomplish it? What worked? What didn’t? Did you stay focused or lose your focus with issues you reacted to? Allow time in your schedule for unplanned events. For example, a dental office will schedule unplanned time to accommodate the patient that calls in an emergency in the morning. 

4. Based on your assessment, identify what you improve for the next day. 

5. For the people you work with, appreciate them. Share your gratitude. Recognize their work or the effort they put in to make a difference on the team, in the organization, and for your customers. 

These are five easy strategies to make a difference as a leader. A leader is clear about what the team need to accomplish, communicates it, removes barriers to delight the customers, recognizes people, and works to improve tomorrow.

To understand an improvement model more clearly, think about the PDSA. It means Plan, Do it, Study how it went, Act or standardize what went well.

Then appreciate yourself and your team for learning and leading together.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Should I seek an outside perspective about my business?

Q. My friend who is a CEO just had his company assessed by an outside consultant. A few others in our business group are curious about the value. Will an outside perspective provide relevant value?

A. Do you go to your doctor for an annual check-up? Do you take your car in for periodic maintenance? To run smoothly, you get the diagnosis. You intervene before a major event occurs.

The same is true for you and your organization. You are working in your company day in and day out. It’s challenging to see the big picture. Over time, people get comfortable with the status quo, even though you may be growing. There may be an approaching crisis in the marketplace. Do you see it? Over time, executives develop assumptions, beliefs, “best practices,” and those need to be examined.

Management doesn’t know what they don’t know — yet. Seeking an outside assessment from a knowledgeable leadership and management consultant is like getting a gift into the future. The value that outside perspectives can bring you are full of gold nuggets.

How are you doing right now? How can you improve your leadership? How can you optimize (not maximize) the productivity and results? How can you accelerate quality, decision-making, and collaboration? Where is the waste and complexity in your organization that is impacting both your team and your ability to deliver your products and services to your customers?

The value an assessment provides may be the difference in your ability to lead, develop a healthier culture, grow your business, pivot as necessary, innovate, or transform. Reach out and make that appointment for your assessment.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: How can I learn to be a leader?

Q. I started a business a few years ago and love the work, but I’m not good at managing people. What shall I do?

A. Being a business owner or having an executive title doesn’t equate with success. Managing an organization and leading people are two integrated skills, and they don’t just happen when a person has a title or role.

Having a great job being a mechanic, finance director, teacher or cashier doesn’t mean you have the knowledge and skills to run an organization. Great leaders are dedicated to continual learning about how to improve themselves and their organization. They don’t rest on the laurels of a title or think because they got the job, they know it all.

People who grow a successful business dedicate themselves to intensive learning to attain the necessary and ever-changing business skills. They also ask, “How can I lead my people better?” That requires leadership knowledge that is both foundational and constantly transforming.

Some people seek executive positions to add titles to their resume or build their own ego. But do they serve customers (or are they an after-thought?) Do they develop their staff into productive, collaborative teams obsessed with delivering a great experience to customers?

Leadership is not easy, but when fundamental values and behaviors are in place, it is easier: respect, trust, two-way communication, collaborative decision-making, inclusivity, and transparency.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: My industry is stable. Why are my employees leaving?

Q. As a business owner in a stable industry, I'm puzzled at our continuing employee turnover. Why don't we have more stability?

A. Your clarification about being in a "stable industry" is helpful. Some companies should expect relatively high turnover because they operate in sectors like hospitality, where there are a high percentage of student workers who start and leave jobs regularly. But because you don't operate in an industry like that, your turnover rate is a signal that something's wrong.

You should look internally for the causes. Among other things, your own leadership style and that of your team and managers needs to be evaluated. There are a couple of ways to do this.

One method is to assess the situation yourself, together with your team. If you and your managers and employees can be objective and honest, you can have some tough conversations about topics including the quality of leadership within the company, how well people inside it communicate, its culture, the level of trust team members have in each other and management, and how the company solves problems.

Unfortunately, self-evaluation is often a challenge, because people inside an organization are typically too close to the situation to be objective about it. Even if they can identify the operation's actual issues, they often struggle to find solutions. Generally, if a team had the answers, it would have already solved the problems. 

Indeed, going the self-evaluation route often just delays the inevitable need to go the alternate path, which is to bring in someone from the outside.

An outside consultant will typically observe how the company operates, how managers lead and how people inside the business communicate, solve problems and make decisions. The consultant might also interview people inside the company to get better insights about it. At the end of the process, the consultant should be able to help you understand what's going wrong and offer solutions.

A knowledgeable facilitator is much more likely than self-evaluation to help you identify the root causes of your problems and find good ways to address them. 

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: How can we ensure a healthy culture as workers return to the office?

Q. As people come back to the office, how can we develop a healthy culture?

A. The more your employees engage with your company — via its recruiting, hiring and onboarding processes — your teams and your customers, the healthier your culture can be. As workers return — whether it be one day a month, one day a week, or even full-time — you and the management team should make a point to meet with them on a regular basis to discuss how thing are going and allow them to ask questions or voice their concerns. 

Town hall-style meetings can be an effective way to have these interactions with employees, as long as your leadership team offers them clear messages. But you and your management can also meet with employees in smaller groups, giving them a chance to share their ideas, brainstorm, discuss issues, bring up possible solutions and suggest opportunities that may be worth pursuing. People need to feel heard and to feel like they're having an impact.

The most important thing is for your top management and team leaders to come up with a plan. Prioritize and focus on quick wins that will make a difference to those you are serving. Then implement the tougher solutions that are consistent with your organization's aims.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Leaders Consider the 4-day Work Week

Q. The employees are interested in a 4-day work week, and we’d like to consider it. How should we make this decision?

A. Think about how your organization serves your customers, patients, students, or members. Do people work in person with the public and do they need to?

Each organization has to assess how a 4-day work week could work for them. Management doesn’t have all the answers. If your organization is small, gather ideas from all employees about how it could work. If your organization is large, create a committee to research and discuss the pros and cons. They can propose the benefits of switching to a 4-day week and how your customers will still be served. Perhaps you create various shifts for workers.

The main benefit is that people have more autonomy to make the choices they want in their lives. Burnout, stress, and turnover can decrease because people have three days to re-energize; have time for their errands, appointments, exercise; or time with friends and family. The four days at work are more focused, and the longer day doesn’t feel much longer.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: What’s Your Speed of Business?

Q. Customer service is declining? How do we assess our responsiveness?

A. Quality is one key business strategy. It’s essential, but is often overlooked. Customers expect various kinds of quality from different organizations. We don’t expect the same quality from a fast-food restaurant as we do a Michelin star restaurant. But we believe our expectations should be met—or exceeded!

Speed can be another business strategy. If you go to a fast-food restaurant with several hungry little children, speed is necessary. But if a group of friends are dining for a ten-year reunion, service in ten minutes may be undesirable.

The speed of your service needs to match or align closely with the expectation of your customers. We have seen the speed of service suffer in some businesses (technical support, reservations, customer service.) Other services have improved: making online appointments or paying bills.

The role of leadership is to first, understand the Voice of the Customer (their needs and expectations.) Second, understand the Voice of Your Process. What is your process delivering? If a customer calls with a flight reservation question, the desired time to an agent is immediate. Does your process deliver, or is the customer on hold for twenty or forty minutes?

Your speed of business needs to align with the expectations of your customers. If it doesn’t, do you understand your customer? Are you aware of your customers’ needs? (Many executives are not. Call your company, and see how long you’re on hold.) Continually improve your quality. If that means, quality of speed, work on your processes.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Accelerate Your Success by Responding

Q. Speed is key as our customers want more, faster. How do we achieve it?

A. Understanding what customers want is crucial. What they need is where your creativity, vision, and leadership is required. Customers ask for what they currently want, but they don’t innovate your business that’s your job.

First, customers want high quality, from your product or service. When they don’t receive it, they will look for options and at your competitors. Successful organizations are in constant communication with their customers. Executives on the leadership team really listen to, understand, and visit their customers.

It’s not uncommon for very successful company leaders to spend more than 50% to 80% of their time with customers. Then they bring back that feedback and effectively communicate what they learned to their teams. They want to ensure that the quality and speed of service that the customers need and expect is achieved. How are you doing?

Inefficient and slow to respond companies will decline and fail in time. They assume that by having a VP of Customer Service and a call center, that will solve any problems.

Often there is a disconnect between a “customer service” department, what customers need and want, and leadership decision-making. If you contact Customer Service or Tech support, and they tell you they’ll get back to you in 48 hours, how long will that company survive? And the leaders will be unaware.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Problem Solving is a Fad!

Q. The same problems keep occurring, for years! How do we solve problems better?

A. Many organizations are founded on problem-solving. Their premise is, what’s the problem we’re trying to solve? A company is founded. But the success is temporary, and it’s often not sustainable.

The same is true when your organization has a problem, and you brainstorm how to solve it, and put a solution in place. A month or a year later it resurfaces! Why?

Independent problem solving has become a fad. What is needed is accurate problem identification that links to customers. Are you identifying the right issues that make up the problem? Most often, teams that are problem solving are not asking the right questions, not looking at the root causes, and aren’t linking all the pieces together that create the challenge they’re facing.

Employee engagement and employee retention are common problems that many organizations face as reoccurring problems. Leaders need to look at the system, the culture, communication, and all of the processes that making up the recruiting, hiring, training, onboarding, etc. system.

Reacting to problems with quick fixes and band aids never make a problem go away for any sustainable future. Temporary fixes frustrate employees and customers and erode your workplace.

Identify the problems –and the root causes accurately. Ask questions. Learn about the issues that impact the customers. Look at the parts that create the problems and work on solving the challenges, together!

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Business Pivots with AI

Q. AI has popped up in our business conversations, and we’re clueless. Where do we begin?

A. The impact of AI in business, education, healthcare and across all sectors has begun. Actually it began decades ago just as the Internet and computer age seemed to develop slow, then fast. For every organization, AI can and will play a significant role. The faster your executive team and you tap in on your whole staff to explore and learn about AI and how it can help you be more creative and efficient with your organization, the better. It’s time to attend conferences, workshops, webinars.

It’s time to read articles and practice using AI. One key question is, how can you leapfrog the way you are doing the work today and save time? How can robots or machines operate where people are doing the redundant, repetitive work? Can houses be cleaned and crops be planted and fertilized without workers in the field?

Early adopters of AI experience tremendous opportunities and results. AI won’t merely bring changes, but will transform the way we think, create, work, improve, and interact. Innovation will abound.

Develop continually the natural leadership of all employees. Create listening forums and opportunities to tap in on the creativity of your organizations. Great times are ahead. And using AI to create solutions for large and societal issues will be an asset.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Improving Team Communication

Q. We have a team environment where people criticize, blame, and judge others. How can we improve this?

A. Dysfunctional behaviors where people (management and employees) criticize, blame, and judge others is not healthy for the staff or for the business. Why and how do these workplace behaviors begin or persist? 

When the organization or a team isn’t achieving the results it wants or what the customers need, there are fundamental root causes. It will take new knowledge that leaders and teams apply to improve this situation. If not, the team and organization will continue to struggle and decline (either slowly or fast) over time. 

A quick intervention is necessary. An organization or “team” full of poor behavior will only infiltrate more bad behaviors.

Clear communication and direction from leadership is necessary. Answer, “what are we trying to accomplish together?” Systems, processes, and healthy, respectful two-way communication are your foundation. People need to work in a healthy work environment. They are also responsible for communicating with respect, with asking good questions, and contributing ideas for accomplishing good work. 

Focus on learning and working well together, not judging, criticizing, or blaming others. If you’re not getting the results you want, look at your work process, your resources and training, and your communication. What do you need to improve together?

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: What Workers Want

Q. As a manager, I sometimes struggle with my teams. How can I improve so we can achieve our goals?

A. The principles that you as a manager need to apply are not complicated. But in a business and on teams, complexity and dysfunctional behaviors may have crept into your workplace. The barriers that deter you from achieving a smooth workflow in a healthy environment that serves customers, need to be identified and removed. 

Your staff wants to come to work and take pride in their work. They want a clear aim. They want to learn and work together to accomplish meaningful work. People want to contribute. 

Management’s job is to create the environment where people can work together to serve your customers. What direction, training, and resources do they need to do the work? Provide it. Then let them do the work. As a manager, you are a resource and facilitator, not a babysitter or micromanager. 

Employees today want some input, want to contribute ideas, and want more flexibility than past generations. Think about what needs to be accomplished for a healthy team and business, and work together to communicate how to make that happen.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Leaders’ Role in Diversity

Q. Our organization is expanding, and management wonders how to address diversity as we grow?

A. First, the management discussion should not only be words that stall. Clarity of your purpose, defining diversity and how it currently shows up in your company, your future vision, the plan you create, and the policies and actions you put into place are critical. 

Second, placing people in roles based on competency and character is also essential. This decision can lead to hard discussions. Do you put someone in a role to make your policy for diversity effective. Or is someone else a better fit? 

Third, really consider all diversity. It is race, gender, age, cultural backgrounds, social, ethical, financial backgrounds, political, disabled, and more. There’s are some diverse traits you may not be aware of unless employees or candidates share them. 

Everyone is special, and each is a natural leader. Consider your leadership role is to create a workplace where everyone can contribute, support each other as a team, and serve your customers together. Be mindful of having diverse ideas, people, and opportunities to be able to optimize your system/company.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Improve Team Behavior: Ask Questions

Q. In our team meetings, we have members who periodically judge, criticize, and blame other team members. The behavior makes everyone uncomfortable! What should we do?

A. When a team member acts as a judge or critic to put down another member, they are showing their own poor self-esteem and arrogance. Their behavior is controlling and power-seeking. Sadly, they want to act as if they are leading, but their dysfunctional behavior results in increasing fear and decreasing trust. Healthy communication wanes. 

A competent team leader or facilitator immediately intervenes on this behavior. But many don’t know how to. The dysfunction continues, and over time the productivity and team engagement decrease significantly. Soon people may leave the team or the company. 

To pivot poor behavior, any member with good communication skills can intervene and re-direct the conversation. The critic has beliefs or assumptions that may be right or wrong. But if the critic cares about the team goals, the relationships of the team members, and healthy team communication, they will ask questions. They will seek to understand a situation and the work people are doing. They will ask if they need help. 

Rather than judge they will be a supportive colleague. Consider, do you judge and criticize, and blame? Or do you seek to understand and support your team members to accomplish the goals the team is working toward?

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Leaders Crave Feedback

Q. I held a large meeting of managers and asked for their feedback. They gave me so much; I feel like a failure! How do I cope?

A. Great leaders create a workplace where on-going robust conversations are the norm. But leaders prepare the environment for feedback, problem solving, and idea generation. Too often there is a potential for managers or team leaders to ask for feedback with a poor process and setting. They take is personally and blame themselves.

The managers’ meeting was exuberant because the leader asked for feedback. Assume the managers had good intentions to share many ideas for improvement. First, assume the managers want to help solve problems they’re identifying. Or ask, “how can we address these and solve them together?” If they do blame and criticize, intervene immediately, and ask them to focus on ideas to improve and move forward.

Leaders are clear about the intention. An example would be, “Today we want to explore how WE can improve our workflow on this project to better meet our customers’ expectations.” Or, “Today let’s discuss how we can communicate more effectively to meet our deadlines.”

The intention and aim is specific. It includes the “WE.” People working together will solve the problems or generate the ideas and create a plan to implement them. Also the leader focuses the conversation to be respectful. There will be ground r="ules" like no blaming, criticizing, and finger-pointing. It adds no value.

Every organization has problems and opportunities. Teams working together will focus on the issues and the customers. They will support each other to accomplish their goals. Welcome feedback and ideas—with respect.

Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Uncertain Times Are Normal

Q. Our managers feel more uncertainty about our business. How do we cope?

A. Stagnant or fear-based thinking will not add value to your business or to your customers. Every day, every year, every decade, life is full of uncertainty. But, it is also full of certainty and choices. 

Great leaders and organizations focus on what can we do today to make a difference to our employees and customers in the future. They address problems today and discover solutions. They have a vision for making a better life and develop innovations.

Globally there are new risks that can impact businesses, whether it’s climate change, new innovations, AI, or geopolitical competition. Worrying about any issues robs people of creative thinking, collaboration, and energy. 

Leaders identify what issues may impact their customers or communities. By contributing ideas and developing new services and products, a platform is also created that guides government and industry leaders to create policies, laws and guidelines to address issues. 

Interacting with customers and your communities, looking at the trends in your industry, analyzing relevant data and measures Over time (weeks, months, years) can help you be better informed about where you are. Assess the direction you want to go. Identify decisions to make together and put them into action. Study what you learn so you can make rapid adjustments. The more you learn and communicate, the better control you’ll have of your business.