How to steam ahead in 2013

An employee said: “Our company is just bobbing along, going nowhere fast.” This comment really resonated with me because it seems to describe so many firms.

Are you happy for your company to just continue surviving during 2013?

2,921 companies in the UK alone grew at 15% or more over each of the past 3 years. Many are in tough industries including construction, manufacturing, property, training and retail.

We will soon publish a report on these impressive companies.

Silo thinking will stop business growth dead

I have been lucky enough to work for some of the world’s largest companies. It always amazes me how senior management bemoan how their teams work separately, in silos, yet do not realise this problem comes directly from them.

It also concerns me that they do not do whatever it takes to stop the problem dead. They are literally giving away business.

Don’t throw away all your efforts

Here is an analogy I help with explain my thinking. I race sailing dinghies on Sundays. In a race, every mistake you make, however complex or basic, allows the competition to beat you. For instance, if the boat is heeling or if you do one bad tack (change of direction), other boats will very likely overtake you. All that effort for nothing….

It is the same in business. Your people are by far the biggest power you have. They must be aligned- like an army. Otherwise:

• They will pull in different directions. If any army does not pull as one force it will be beaten. It is the same in business.
• Different team do not work together – or even talk to each other much
• They feel disillusioned because a lot of their effort is wasted. Energy and productivity drop.
• You, the business leaders, find you have to spend a lot more time and effort to get anything done
• You need to employ more staff to get the same amount done. Your costs go up. The business is not nimble enough to take up so many opportunities. Customers see slower responses. Business gets harder

It is like trying to push water up hill.

Ensuring superb alignment across your people is essential to your business’ success.  Silo thinking stops growth dead.

The mis alignment comes from the very top. I am always shocked to find on any leadership team that, while 1 person is headed in the direction the company says it wants to go, the rest of the team is usually pointed in different directions and often 2 people are pulling in exactly the opposite direction.

There are 3 reasons for this:

1. Leadership teams try to agree where they are headed in terms of financial targets alone. Not only is money divisive, financial targets on their own are just not enough.
2. Companies do not have a vision that really inspires every single person on the leadership team. If they have a Vision at all it sits in a document somewhere, is written in Management speak that no one is totally clear about and is pretty much forgotten before it has been finished.  The one thing that aligns businesses powerfully is a joint dream about creating something incredibly exciting and impressively worthwhile.  (See our article on How to smash staff performance levels).
3. Senior Management teams do not take time to become truly aligned by discussing the elephants in the room. They assume they agree on important topics e.g. which markets, what makes the company really different/ better than its competition in the eyes of the customer, the core strategies to achieve the vision etc.

When will your business decide that silo thinking must go?

What will you do to ensure this happens?

Apple: How to create an unstoppable army

Two of the biggest challenges Chief Executives ask me about are:

1. Why are my people not more productive?
2. When they clearly have far greater ability, why do they keep on asking the same basic (boring) questions over and over? Why are they not thinking for themselves?

Conventional wisdom on staff engagement really does not help. Yet a couple of years ago Dan Pink described some enlightening research on what really motivates staff.

In summary, he says that money, above the industry norm, actually demotivates. He goes on to explain that 3 things have a powerful positive impact on solving the 2 challenges above:

• Autonomy- being allowed to think things through for yourself
• Mastery – having the chance to really shine at something
• Purpose- knowing that what you do adds real value to the world

To be honest, we each know that that is the case because we have experienced it for ourselves and, at least, on the odd occasion with our own staff.

In November 2011, Philip Elmer De-Witt told an amazing story about 2 motivated employees  who created Apple’s graphing calculator application. These 2 guys worked around the clock for months to develop the application they had started for Apple- despite the fact that, due to budget cuts, they had been let go!

I wondered then how Apple had engendered such a culture.

Recently some quotes from Apple employees that Adam Lashinsky uncovered, threw light onto it:

“People are incredibly passionate about the great stuff they are working on.”
“What they do at Apple in their true religion.”
“people are so passionate about Apple, they are aligned with the mission of the company.”
Or from Steve Jobs himself: “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t say it’s the most fulfilling experience of their lives. People love it.”

Apple is inspiring the same level of commitment from their staff that we see in the marines or even back in the time of the Roman centurions.  Apple has created a way for its people to work in a way that:

• is autonomous
• drives them to achieve mastery
• because of the company’s powerful and inspiring vision, gives them a real purpose

Now that is impressive, and starts to show why they really are doing so incredibly well.

Interestingly, Mr Lashinsky claims that, because working at Apple is so intense, so secretive, it is not fun. Actually I suspect working in Apple, for the right type of people, is the most fun you can imagine. (Apart from when they were hit by a tyrade from Steve Jobs, of course!)  In fact, I recently spoke to a young guy from an Apple Store- the level of fun radiated from his eyes as he talked about his job.

How to Smash Staff Performance Levels

Business leaders are asking: “How can I get my people to achieve more – to do more without increasing costs?”

The dynamic is wrong – staff mainly come to work to pay the bills. Teams that achieve outstanding business results are very different.
…

A team that inspires

The Red Arrows air display team is a great analogy:

■ 9 red planes flying in impressive alignment

■ A vision so powerful that every member of the flight and ground team achieves better results than they thought possible!

Photography by Matt Hinsa …

Did you know that they exceed the performance levels of all the other flying teams, breaking their own standards year after year?

Business teams waste effort

Leaders often have slightly different agendas. As a result, their teams pull in different directions. Marketing annoy Sales; Technical teams are suspicious of business people … and so it goes on.

This is accepted business practice the world over. It achieves mediocre productivity.
…

A team to power your business

Can you picture your company flying like the Red Arrows?

With your leadership team so inspired that everyone in the business ‘gets’ their vision – and is proud to be part of something so unusually good? A company where each leader is so excited about what the business stands for that they cannot but walk their talk?

As a result:

■ The leadership team is aligned

■ Their teams are aligned and powering forward

■ Productivity soars

Photography by Lulu P

Apple is achieving this – and their valuation is now higher than Microsoft’s! A hotel chain in the US, ACE, is doing this and growing incredibly fast. Click here to read more about them.

Is your business flying in formation and growing fast?
…

2 steps for you to take

Of course you want more revenue and profit. Yet focusing just on money will never unleash even half of what your people can really achieve!

Create a vision that aligns your people and brings out the incredible best in them – one that gives them a purpose, capturing their imagination, so they wake up each morning determined to make it a reality.

Design an environment where they see their efforts really are valued and that they are making a difference.

Then your business results will improve out of all recognition.

How to Smash Staff Performance Levels

Best wishes,JaneTel: 0207 0604 006