Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Tag: ceo coach

“Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Although I can’t imagine his accomplished players—back in 1961—were excited to hear this, I appreciate that when you’re seeking improvement, you start with the basics.

It’s difficult to get onto a professional football team while lacking basic skills. But I’ve seen numerous senior managers, all the way up to CEO, who are missing some core skills that most reasoned opinions would say you should have.

They’re leadership frauds, and many of them know it. Conscious incompetents, we might call them. Even if they’re unconscious incompetents, they should have the wherewithal to get feedback about their strengths and weaknesses. “I didn’t know” can’t be an excuse when you can easily find out.

I just spoke with a midlevel manager who handled a sticky situation with aplomb only to have senior leadership throw him under a bus. His company culture doesn’t allow for healthy conflict, and the tough issues are never addressed. If you bring one up, you are a troublemaker. The senior leaders are frauds.

The list of skills a senior leader should have is long, and you can’t be good at everything. There are, however, fundamentals that are akin to knowing what a football is. Honest communication is one of the most important. But here’s the thing: It’s not an innate skill! It must be learned and practiced just like throwing a tight spiral. It’s hard work.

If you’re a senior leader and have an internal voice that says, “I must know this stuff because they promoted me!” you need to change that talk track to one that says, “I should know this, so I need to work on it!”

I know of the senior leaders in the firm mentioned above, and they “grew up” in a company that has had a dysfunctional culture and historically weak leadership. It’s no wonder they’re so bad at leading through tough issues. It’d be like me trying to teach you how to golf. (You’d be lucky to break 100 in the remainder of your life!) But they should know better.

If you can’t effectively respond to the query, “Where did you learn to have tough conversations?” you’re probably bad at them. If you’re a senior leader and have never had an effective 360 review process, you probably have numerous career-stalling weaknesses.

Do something about it! Start with the most basic skill. As Lombardi might’ve said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is how we talk with one another.”

Todd Ordal is president of Applied Strategy®. Todd helps CEOs achieve better financial results, become more effective leaders and sleep easier at night. He is a former CEO and has led teams as large as 7,000. Todd is the author of Never Kick a Cow Chip On A Hot Day: Real Lessons for Real CEOs and Those Who Want To Be (Morgan James Publishing, 2016). Connect with Todd on LinkedIn, Twitter, call 303-527-0417 or email [email protected].

CEO leadership skills: you’ve gotta work at it

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “Damn, I wish I had his natural ability!” Not so fast, buckaroo!

Peyton Manning couldn’t throw a perfect spiral when he came out of the womb, and Albert Einstein couldn’t do math. Pat Conroy couldn’t write, and Charles Lindbergh couldn’t land an airplane! (OK, Nat King Cole might’ve been able to croon…)

The same goes for leadership. Find 10 CEOs who are labeled as brilliant leaders, and you’ll find that 9.5 of them worked their ass off to become that way.

I’ve worked with hundreds of talented leaders (i.e., those who can craft a compelling vision, align the troops and storm the castle). Some have higher IQs than the average bear, some were blessed with the right parents, and some have a built-in cosmic level of emotional intelligence. But I have yet to meet one who didn’t work very hard at becoming better. They didn’t come out of the womb saying, “Follow me!”

I have, however, met numerous poor leaders who wished for enough natural ability to do what the aforementioned ones could do. They assumed their ability level was fixed and the others were just lucky. It ain’t so! (A great resource for this topic is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.)

Luck plays a role in success. But leaders who have successful careers (measured by their ability to get others’ help with creating lasting value—monetary and otherwise) work hard at the business of their company and at developing themselves. This is lost on many wannabe executives.

There aren’t real shortcuts to effective leadership. Daddy may have started the firm, and you may inherit his equity and CEO title, but you won’t be an effective leader without the work. Being born on third base doesn’t make you a great baseball player.

To this day, I still sometimes find myself saying, “Damn, I wish I had his skill or luck!” when what I should say is, “Damn, I wish I had his determination!”

Co-CEOs? A look at the argument for two leaders

A recent piece in Harvard Business Review asks, “Is CEO a Two-Person Job?” I didn’t think so when I wrote this, and I still don’t.

I am impressed and appreciative of the relationship that these two leaders have developed but wouldn’t try to duplicate this arrangement unless you have an existing mind-meld, glued-at-the-hip, soulmate relationship going that can survive not only the challenges of running a business but also the challenges of marriage (currently a 50% failure rate).

The premise of this article, as you might imagine from the title, is that there is too much to do for one person to be CEO. It depends upon how the job is structured. I’ve seen CEOs of good size companies who have structured their job so that they have very few tasks to accomplish and spend a good deal of their time wandering about, deflecting blame. I’ve seen others who act like they snort cocaine in the parking garage before work and operate (usually poorly) at a feverish pace, fretting over details and trying to control everything in their sight. Neither is a good idea. With some good thought, the job of CEO can be structured like Goldilocks’ porridge; not too little, not too much.

Talented CEOs are no longer of the “command and control” variety like your father worked for. They are typically very inclusive and collaborate with their team on most big issues. One person at the top does not imply that they are the smartest person in the room. It does not imply that they alone decide on direction (e.g. vision and strategy) of the company or that they alone are the face of success and failure.

There is an exception to every rule, but have you frequently seen job-sharing work for Presidents, Prime Ministers or Monarchs? Does your city have co-mayors or co-police chiefs? How about military leaders? Does your children’s’ school have co-principles? Your favorite high-end restaurant probably has one head chef, right? Watching any football? Do you see many co-head coaches?

My list of reasons for one person with ultimate authority and accountability is part psychological but mostly pragmatic. I am also a product of my experiences and having shared a management position at one point early in my career and watched other organizations try it has given me enough empirical evidence to call bullshit when people try it. It is usually because a board (or company owners) cannot make a tough decision.

Here are some of my reasons for a single CEO:

If you have two people who own a leadership position, people are confused. At very least they have to think, “Do I go to Tom or Harry with this issue?” which slows them down. If you have someone slightly devious on staff, they know that they can appeal to both—like your kid going to Mom and Dad with a request for candy—to look for a “yes.”

If you share your CEO job, you’ll get the benefit of additional input, but you’ll also spend an inordinate amount of time coordinating with your “partner.” You can always make another buck, but you can’t make another minute. How many do you want to spend getting agreement before you do what you know is right? What happens when there is disagreement about this? Do you flip a coin?

Even with brilliant coordination, something gets dropped. “I thought that you were going to finalize that deal in Germany?!” If I am one of your board members or investors, I am not going to be happy about this!

What do you do about succession planning? If one of the CEOs gets hit by the beer truck do you fire the remaining one as she is only half of the equation?

If two CEOs is good, would three be better yet? If there are two CEOs then surely you should also have two CMOs, two CTOs, two CFOs, etc., right?

Once in a great while, the soulmate, mind-meld situation might exist in nature and perhaps a company will be better off for a short time if there are two leaders. Once in a great while you might survive a lightning strike, but that doesn’t mean you should purposefully plan golf outings in a thunderstorm.

Organizational Effectiveness: Why are teams sometimes so painful?

I have a confession. Decades ago, in my undergraduate Psychology program, I routinely dropped classes with team projects. I found non-facilitated group exercises excruciating!

I had the same experience in graduate school. Group projects took so damn long to get going, and group members’ dysfunctional behavior (never mine, of course) drove me nuts! Funny, however, that sometimes the end product was pretty damn good!

Have you ever been on a jury? Did you want to ask the judge, “Excuse me, Your Honor. Like, did you go search for a bunch of dolts to put in this room with me just to piss me off?!” The first hour of conversation is like a group of 3-year-olds fighting over a Ghostbusters toy. Eventually, it gets sorted out, but there’s a lot of pushing, shoving and crying involved.

So, guess what I spend half my time doing as a coach? Working with CEOs on team effectiveness!

I suspect some of you have felt this way about teams, and for good reason. You can’t get off to a good start without working on the team itself before diving into the content. It’s like teaching someone to fly by putting them in an aircraft and telling them to give it a shot. If they live, they may become an ace flyer, but the chances aren’t good. Some instruction and orientation will speed the process and reduce the death rate.

To have a shot at success, a team has a finite number of requirements, first of which is knowing what success looks like! What’s the objective?

But before that, you must identify whether you have a team or a work group. Is it (to paraphrase Patrick Lencioni) a relatively small group with common objectives, rewards and responsibilities? If so, you might have a team.

In the business environment, having no skilled leader or facilitator is a surefire way to waste time and increase your failure rate. Talking about the objective(s), agreeing on responsibilities and rules of engagement, and getting to know one another seem ponderous, but I guarantee that this allows for faster and better results.

I don’t coach undergraduates; I coach CEOs. At this point, the game is real, and you can’t just “drop the class.” You can, however, work on the team before you work on the business, and you’ll be in better shape and get a better grade.

CEO coaching: do you get into and allow good trouble?

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year; it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
—Congressman John Lewis

The more I know of the former congressman, the more I appreciate what a good person he was. A great orator with a great message from a fearless guy!

I particularly like his “good trouble” message. I don’t want to diminish from his message regarding racial equality, but also it applies very well to careers and running a business.

I’ve often told younger leaders that they may have to risk their job (several times!) to do what’s right and get out of a tough situation. Heaven knows I’ve made many mistakes in my career (and life in general), but I’ve also spoken the truth to power.

And although I never had the pleasure of being fired, I did quit several senior positions out of disgust. It was good trouble to get in. I’d like to say I had Lewis’ lifetime perspective, but frankly, I was more just pissed off (for good reason).

In both circumstances, this cost me a good deal of future income, but as I look back, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Most of the talented executives I’ve coached had to make some noise and get in good trouble sometime in their career. Some even got fired. If you routinely run from the good fight, you end up being a shallow leader.

If you’re fortunate and talented enough to run an organization, this message applies not only to you personally, but also to your culture (which, by the way, you either actively created or allowed). The question is, do you allow people to bring “good trouble” to work, or do you squash dissent and truth-tellers? As I wrote recently, you should pursue alignment, but agreement isn’t always a good thing.

In times of turmoil, businesses should strive to thrive

For a number of months now, business owners have been fighting a battle to survive circumstances brought on by COVID-19. Today, these owners are beginning the process of recovering from the world’s fast and furious pandemic.

While many business owners and people have faced stress, rock blocks and constant challenges, it is important to remember one unwavering truth: The lessons taught from this unparalleled time can be invaluable to a business owner’s future success. Why? Because when you survive challenging times, growth happens, whether it is wanted or not. From past economic downturns, adaptation to shifting scenarios has proven that businesses can and does thrive in the wake of loss.

Although stressful, surviving the pandemic and coming out on the other side, can bring the following elements: togetherness as well as growth to your business, personal life and bottom line.

However, these elements do not come magically. Below are some ways your business can pivot in uncertain times, re-emerge better than ever on the other side, and thrive for decades to come.

Pivot to a new business order

Implementation of a new order, a new way to view shifting circumstances includes staying current on news and new business requirements and on developing an understanding of how to incorporate the unexpected and sometimes odd-feeling facts.

Former, hard-wire facts of the old business often get thrown out when adaptation and implementation are the new order. Policies and procedures often must be changed. The team that knew all the old ways must be taught and trained on the new.

Business owners should expect opposition, some of it fierce. Make that opposition less combative with patience and with communicating and posting the new policy appropriately and ubiquitously.

It is also important to educate customers, as well as staff. Make it the business’s responsibility to take care of the health of everyone: the owner, staff and customers. To maintain order, create consequences for those who choose not to comply. What will happen is that staff will want to support the business and customers will redefine and recreate their own loyalty to the organization.

In working through uncertain times, remember it might be necessary to change your services and products to better meet customer needs. One caterer who lost tens of thousands of dollars reworked her business model to one that cooks whole family meals – every single day – and delivers each one within a 100-mile-area. She is now reconsidering her entire business model and wondering if catering events is the company’s future plan.

Another hairdresser has crafted remarkable “kits” for all clients that afford her loyal base the option of not engaging in human-to-human interaction, even though salons are now open.

As businesses re-open, strive to thrive

As offices begin to reopen, it will be necessary to cut office staff down to allow for distancing, shift work hours to incorporate two shifts a day and meet via video instead of meeting face-to-face. These changes may remain well into 2021.

The thing is all of this is doable. Businesses and workspaces do not need to look exactly like 2019 and early 2020 to work. Most industries, including manufacturing, IT and agriculture, have a history of change. The 2020 pandemic suggests more change, perhaps for the better.

Today, business analysts are predicting that work travel will be remarkably diminished, with the idea that this change is a welcome economic, environmental and psychological improvement. In addition, working from home has proven to be, in the last two months, entirely doable and welcome by both staff and management.

Electricians, HVAC, construction companies and builders, are making customers happy by protecting them with new-found safety procedures. Kindness and understanding have slipped into the day-to-day working demeanor, and no one is complaining about these changes.

Continue to forge forward, pivot and consider building a plan for your business’ next 90 days. Doing so will improve a business that can and will, undoubtedly, thrive for decades to come.