Linking Strategy to Personal Performance

In their Harvard Business Review article, Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance, Michael C. Mankins and Richard Steele give seven rules for successful strategy execution for an organization.

The same rules can be applied to a professional career to improve your personal performance.

1. Keep it simple.

• Know who you are, where your contributions lie and be able to articulate them in a crafted and honed one minute "elevator speech.

2. Challenge assumptions.

• Evaluate for yourself the prevailing thoughts on who is difficult to work with, on whether the idea was tried before and failed, on what the market needs, and build a compelling case for trying something new.
  

3. Speak the same language.

• Define what success means to you and align your work with your goals; whether the work is a means to an income, a source of personal satisfaction, a place to grow and enjoy power.

4. Discuss resource deployments early.

• Know what it will take to meet the goals you lay out for yourself and put a structure in place to ensure that your time and emotional commitment are allocated appropriately.
  

5. Identify priorities.

• Meeting your objectives requires the identification and execution of key actions. Are you taking the steps every day that move you closer to your goal.
  

6. Continuously monitor performance.

• Whether it's how many times you exercise a week, how many networking calls you make, how many customer problems you resolve or how many days you make quality time for your family, tracking your measures of personal performance will keep you on track to your personal success.
  

7. Develop execution ability.

• Plans, goals, measures and "I shoulds" are easy to create. The challenge lies in developing the plans and structures one goal at a time, and then developing the habits that support achieving success.
  

Organizations require immense amounts of communication and coordination to meet their strategic objectives. While the referenced HBR article is based on the premise that companies deliver on average only 63% of their stated financial value, given the complexities, perhaps that is a testament to all of the employees who devote so much to their work.

My question is what could be achieved for the individual and the organizations if some of that commitment and those skills were turned toward developing individual success.

Turbulence and Agility

An estimated 60% of industries are deemed to be turbulent compared to 20% three decades ago. Turbulence is defined in industries where there are dramatic changes in the profit pool or the "rules of the game" are changing rapidly. (The Secret to Growth? First, Define Your Core by Chris Zook, Bain & Co)

More than 80% of American executives believe the pace of change is increasing around the globe. (AMA’s 2006 Agility and Resilience Survey Reveals the Effects of Change on Business)

What then are the lessons for companies, managers and individuals to succeed in such environments?

• Know your strengths as a company, manager and individual
• Understand how these strengths add value to your organization, clients, and customers
• Understand what differentiators these strengths provide to you
• Evaluate and take action on ways to leverage your strength in the interest of your organization, clients and customers
• Determine the ways or circumstances in which the strength becomes a weakness
• Put systems, structures or people in place to mitigate the weakness
• Invest in learning
• Stay on top of changes in your industry
• Travel and consider how different solutions to everyday problems might be applied in your industry
• Look for innovations in other industries and consider what can be leveraged from your strengths
• Stay agile
  
• Keeping the pipeline full of business ideas,
• Maintaining a personal network
• Be prepared to execute on Plan B
  

When the world is changing at an ever accelerating pace, when companies like Google can generate revenue per employee at rates twice as high as companies like Microsoft, Intel and Cisco (Our Challenge Is Change, Not Globalization by Rich Karlgaard), when the rules of the game organizationally and personally are being rewritten annually, only the agile will keep on top of the game.

- What step could you take to improve your agility? -

The Lesson in Failure

Whether in business or in our personal lives, we are often stalled by a fear of failure. What if someone has already done this? What if no one buys this? What if it doesn't work? What if I'm not good enough? What if I'm embarrassed?

What if, instead, we look at failure as an opportunity to innovate, to grow and to excel?

If you are succeeding in everything you do; you may not be taking enough risks. Failure, setbacks and less than full success can lead to increased resilience, maturity, and understanding. If you are constantly failing in everything you do; you may not be learning from your mistakes. Failure is, in fact, part of progressing in life and work.

In his book, Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes, John C. Maxwell suggests that every failure provides a lesson. When we have learned the lesson, our actions will change. The challenge becomes learning the lesson.

The first step in learning is to manage the emotional side. Don't suppress it. Failure rarely leaves you feeling good. However, if you can accept failure as a necessary step along your path to progress, and moreover, understand that failure doesn't make you a failure; you can more forward to the next step.

Take action. Jerome Bruner, Harvard pyschologist, is widely quoted as saying, "You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action." Take a small step, celebrate that success, let your brain release some dopamines, deepen the neural connections, and the next step will become easier, both in action and motivation.

Avoid the tendency to work harder. Lack of success or failure frequently drives people to work harder, put in more time, and analyze more deeply. They follow the motto of "try and try again".

Evaluate. With project management, Bob Sutton in his article "Learning from Success and Failure", suggests that every project should be followed by an event review. Research has shown that teams learn fastest by experiencing and thoroughly evaluating challenges and failures. He recommends if a project is successful, the event review should focus considerable time on looking at what did go wrong. If the project is unsuccessful, the team should debrief on both the successes and failures.

Adapt. Innovation is not a singular event, rather it is the cumulative result of one idea building on another. Charles Leadbetter argues for a cycle of try, fail a bit, learn and adapt as the key to innovation.

Assess. Knowing yourself, your team and your process fully enables a clear-headed assessment of the strengths and options you bring to the next try. Shore up the weaknesses by enlisting help, adjusting the process, modifying the target, or developing new strategies.

If we can keep the big picture in mind, embracing failure becomes an easier task. Failure may be the key to innovation, it may be the key to a new strategy, it may be a signal to try something new. What is clear is that failure contains a lesson. It's up to us to find it.


Additional readings:
In Praise of Brilliant Failure
The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations
Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design
The Power of Failure: 27 Ways to Turn Life's Setbacks into Success

Bullies at Work

In a report released March 21, 2007, the Employment Law Association found that nearly 45% of American workers say they have experienced workplace abuse. This poll refers to behavior by supervisors not typically regarded as serious enough to warrant special legal protections afforded to racial, religious, or gender discrimination.

In a 2005 survey, 39% U.K. managers reporting being bullied within the last three years. In this survey, bullying was defined as "offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behavior, or abuse or misuse of power, which violates the dignity of, or creates a hostile environment which undermines, humiliates, denigrates or injures, the recipient."

While legal protections are being sought in many jurisdictions, the real actions need to occur in the workplace. The report from the Chartered Management Institute suggests the following:

• Institute a policy and procedures for handling bullying and abusive behaviors which may include

1. Policy rationale and position of organization on bullying
2. Definition
3. Examples of unacceptable behaviors
4. Responsibilities of managers and supervisors
5. Informal procedures for addressing concerns
   
6. Grievance procedures
7. Disciplinary procedures if appropriate

• Ensure a workplace culture from the senior management that serves as an appropriate example

• Educate managers and supervisors on the symptoms of bullying, the policy and procedures for addressing the bullying specific to your workplace

• Build awareness amongst the employees on the position of the organization on bullying, the policy, practical actions they can take, and grievance procedures

• Investigate and/or identify behavioral, counseling or mediation programs to address bullying and harassment situations

In all cases, be certain to understand the current and developing legal environment for your organization. Finally, treat all complaints seriously. An informal process may be of value where there are single incidents occurring under stress or unintentionally; however, the complaint may reflect significant underlying issues requiring intervention.

Remember, in two separate studies, significant portions of the workforce indicate that they have experienced bullying. Don't underestimate the seriousness of this issue.

For more reading, see links above for Employment Law Association, Chartered Management Institute, BNET: Nipping Workplace Bullying in the Bud, and Workplace Bullying Institute.

Books available on this topic include:

Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice

The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

When You Work for a Bully: Assessing Your Options and Taking Action

Reach for Questions, not Answers

A subordinate or colleague gives you a call to share their current problem at work. What do you do? The usual first instinct is to offer a solution - after all, resolving issues is what you're good at, and paid for, isn't it?

Although offering a solution may be the most efficient step to resolving the issue; it may not be the most effective. By offering open-ended questions, you assist in development, open yourself to new ideas and keep yourself from taking on unnecessary work.

Start first by determining what your colleague is seeking. Is she looking for a sympathetic ear, a sounding board, a brainstorming partner, or an answer. You might try such questions as "How can I best help you resolve this?" Or "Would it help if I used some questions to help you clarify your thinking?"

With your role clarified, and your employee or colleague supported and empowered, you can shift to open-ended questions. A useful opening question can be "How long have you been thinking about this?" This question can move your subordinate out of the drama of the current crisis into reflection. You can help create clarity with the simple question "How clear are you about this issue?" Avoid seeking more details about the situation and keep the issue firmly with your subordinate with a follow-on question like "What ideas have you considered for resolving the issue?"

Helping your subordinate clarify their thinking, explore alternatives, evaluate consequences, and lay out the next steps, involve such simple questions as:

• Can you see any gaps in your thinking?
• What insights are you having as to your next steps?
• What are the consequences of going this route?
• Are you clear about what you are going to do next?
• How can I best support you?

Refraining throughout from offering your experiences. Use questions to challenge assumptions. Even if you have tried this route before, allow your subordinate the opportunity to try, learn and grow from their own experiences. And teach them the useful practice of the debrief - "Why did this work?" and "What can we learn from what went wrong?".

For more on using questions to develop and support your employees, see

• David Rock. Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work (New York: HarperCollins, 2006).
• Judith A. Ross. "Real Leaders Ask", Harvard Management Update, October 2006, Volume 11, Number 10.
• Judith A. Ross. "Communicating Strategically with Direct Reports - Debriefing Jeswald W. Salacuse", Harvard Management Update, October 2006, Volume 11, Number 10.
• Prior Coachblog postings Helping Others Think and Choose Your Focus.

Political Awareness: Alliance-building or Turf-protection

Researchers from the Warwick Business School in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute have just released their research report on political awareness across all sectors in the UK. They found, in interviewing 1495 managers and executives, that less than one-third saw politics are "protecting turf". Conversely, nearly 60% found politics to be about building alliances in support of organizational objectives.

The activities seen in UK organizations that are dependent on political skills are:

• shaping key priorities within the organization
• building partnerships with external partners
• promoting the reputation of the organization
• managing risk of the organization.

Notice the strong focus on external forces. In our media-rich world, with increasing competition and globalization, political skills are moving from that of promoting self-interest, to understanding other's motivations and developing appropriate outcomes.

The work suggests using these approaches in developing individual political awareness:

• Assess your political skills using 360° feedback
• Observe, reflect and question actions and motivations, particularly in times of crisis and mistakes
• Seek opportunities to be involved (even if only in a minor role) in politically-sensitive situations
• Mentally debrief after key meetings to develop stronger skills in reading people and situations
• Gain exposure to other cultures, business sectors, functional areas, etc. to build understanding of the various perspectives and needs

An executive summary of the research is available at Leading with Political Awareness.

Feeling Felt: Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

"When ordinary people were asked to list what makes a person intelligent, social competence emerged as a prominant[sic] natural category."

In his ground-breaking work on Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Coleman introduced the concepts and tools around Self-awareness and Self-management. Social Intelligence extends the concept of intelligence to look at Social Awareness and Social Facility (otherwise known as Relationship management).

Goleman illustrates his points throughout the book with anecdotes and stories. There are no prescriptions, no self-tests, no action items. Rather, the book presents a cogent look at how our brains tune into others, and how this presents itself in our social interactions.

Perhaps the one cogent reminder is that empathy requires attention. The philosopher Martin Buber coined the term "I-it" for the interactions that range from detached to exploitive. In our multi-tasking world of cell phones, wireless internet and Blackberrys, how easy it is to enter into a conversation and then become distracted, disconnected and leaving the other person feeling like an "it".

Could you, today, turn more conversations into "I- You" conversations, where the level of engagement was one of "feeling felt"?

Teamwork and Social Support

"In the United States, we think about teams as supportive networks of people who are there to help each other. Asian teams are not necessarily warm and fuzzy. Teamwork is a cultural obligation; it's the way the culture operates."

In an interview for Gallup Management Journal, Shelley E. Taylor, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at UCLA notes the cultural disparities in teamwork and support between European Americans and Asians. European Americans believe that building team spirit, pulling together, and being personally supportive are keys to strong teamwork and collaboration. Supporting this perspective on teamwork is work by Edward J. Lawler, Ph.D., Dean of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. His work focuses on how people come together into a group, develop an emotional attachment, and act in a collective, rather than individual, fashion. He notes a key piece to teamwork is that the positive feelings of success are attributed to the team.

Taylor's research suggests that teamwork for Asians has a different cultural norm. While a group may work together to improve the overall performance, it tends to be intensely competitive, with the focus being, ultimately, on individual success. The team is a vehicle for generating the individual success, and a cultural expectation rather than a source of social support.

When the actions of a team are observed through our own cultural norms, how often are we confused by what we see? Leaders of multinationals in Asia often note the lack of teamwork. Perhaps the perspective of what constitutes a team in Asia needs to changes.

The Will to Win

Are mental workouts what you need to help you win?

Sports psychologists have been working with athletes for more than 30 years to give top competitors their winning edge. According to The Will to Win, Scientific American Mind April 2005, the key techniques are visualization, confidence and self-talk.

Purveyors of "The Secret", aka the Law of Positive Attraction suggest that we can draw into our life that upon which we place our dominant thoughts. See yourself winning, think only about successful execution, think about dominating the game, and ... well, it's not quite that easy. The question perhaps is how much of this can be used.

In my earlier posting, Performance Anxiety or Energy, I noted that John Eliot, Ph.D. in his book “Overachievement: The New Science of Working Less to Accomplish More”, argues that top performers understand that they perform best under pressure. Rather than seeking to relax, they use the natural physical reaction before a performance to increase their focus and move into the process of performance.

Beyond finding the balance between strain and relaxation, many athletes employ visualization techniques. Repeated visualization can make the real motion easier to perform. Brain researchers have found the imagining a movement activates the same motor regions of the brain that light up during the actual movement. Repeated attention to this area of the brain is believed to increase the strength of the neural connections.

However, some studies, and the work of John Eliot, suggest practice is one thing, performance is another. Breaking the motion into pieces at the time of performance can hinder the results. "The alternative is to imagine the outcome" with great focus.

Brain research points to compelling evidence that visualization enhances physical performance, that neural connections are strengthened to repetition. Awareness is drawn to that which we most think about. So when we are positively focusing on the will to win, do we draw toward ourselves that which we most think about, or do we, perhaps, draw ourselves toward the goal?

Science of Team Success

"What team members think, feel and do provide strong predictors of team success" and give insights into the design, training and leadership of team, according to "The Science of Success" in the June 2007 issue of Scientific American Mind. In a review of 50 years of research on teams, the authors found a few interesting points.

Is a team needed? Not surprisingly, we need to start with the crucial question of whether a team is even needed; can an individual easily complete the team working independently? This type of team is liable to slow progress.

The collective mind. Various experiments have shown that team members can benefit from the combined knowledge and skills of the team beyond that of individual learning. Further, team turnover hampers the ability to produce. Development of the ability to use the distributed information in a team is enhanced through face-to-face interaction.

Team climate. A shared mission or purpose has a significant effect on the impact of teams. Climate is enhanced through social interactions and positive relationships with the leader or boss of the team.

Disruptions. The emotions of the team members tend to move together. Consequently, an underperformer or an unpleasant or negative person can change the emotions of the entire team. Addressing these disruptions quickly and restoring a positive attitude to the team is a key role for the leader.

Feedback. As teams cycle through projects, their performance can be improved through interventions as above and feedback on the process. Research suggests that feedback aimed at individuals will improve individual performance at a cost of team performance. Conversely, team feedback enhances team performance to the detriment of individual performance. In the development of ongoing teams, leaders need to carefully consider the elements of feedback and whether they should be delivered to the individual or the team.

Training. Teamwork skills can be taught and improved, whether in the classroom, in simulations, or on the job.

Research continues to provide insights into the dynamics of teamwork and team performance. While giving credence to the wisdom of the years, the role of the leader stays the same - be clear on the direction, provide the correct resources, ensure the team has the necessary skill sets (individually and collectively), motivate team performance, enable social interactions, intervene when issues arise, and celebrate positive results.

For more details, see the Scientific American Mind: The Science of Team Success.