Creating a Culture of Trust

Trust.

Something that every leader wants. Many leaders initially gain trust, but then lose it due to a series of mistakes. In our experience, the level of trust in an organization is one of the best predictors of long-term success and the organization’s health.

Trust is an effective metric because it measures how well you are doing with four key aspects of your company:

1. Do you have clear values? Are your actions always consistent with your values?

2. Do you have a clear strategy? Does everyone know how they contribute to the team’s success?

3. Do you have the right people in the right roles? Is your team being properly trained and developed?

4. Do your employees feel like they are being fairly compensated and recognized for their contributions?

Trust requires excellent communication, universal accountability and transparency. Some of the processes we have found that work well include:

1. Surveying all employees twice per year, 4-6 weeks before each strategic planning facilitation. Use the confidential surveys to check in on the four key areas above and make sure the organization’s critical issues are addressed in the facilitation.

2. Frame weekly/monthly leadership meetings around the company’s core values. Have each leader share a story of the values in action – particularly when difficult choices were made.

3. Make sure the metrics driving the strategic plan are visible. Where the company is not meeting a goal, solicit ideas at all levels for improvements.

4. Use the company’s core values as a key part of the hiring and termination process. In many organizations, it only takes a few bad actors to corrupt a company’s culture.

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Is There a Cure for Founder's Syndrome?

By: John Wood, PFD Group, Senior Consultant

In the world of public companies this topic is known as CEO succession. Over the last few years the process has become increasingly formalized.   Boards of directors have recognized their responsibility to shareholders and adopted rules of good corporate governance.

Private companies can make their own rules and many face difficult succession issues.  A strong entrepreneurial founder typically possesses many skills not found in others, and they obviously know what is best for the business because they built it.  However a few things can happen that cloud their picture: the business could ‘outgrow’ the founder and require a new talent set to succeed, the founder could get old… if he or she is lucky, they may decide to retire, or a founder’s heirs may sell the company or try their own hand at running it.

Well-run public companies have succession plans that span three or more levels down through the organization, and their boards are actively involved and receive regular updates.  Successors for key roles may be ranked as ready to assume more responsibility immediately, in one year, or following a probationary period.  Shareholder value is enhanced because the company is cultivating a crop of strong players.  Unwanted turnover is avoided because these employees realize they are valued and know the potential for growth exists.

Private companies tend to have the opposite problem.  The founder, perhaps unwittingly, may tend to drive off good talent – people they see as a threat.   This often results in an organization with a ‘rock star’ at the top but nothing underneath, which becomes an obvious problem that must be tackled when the founder retires.  These situations also cause depressed valuation should the company be sold, as there is little value in a ‘one man band’.

Boards have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.  In a public company all shareholders must be treated alike, and good directors understand their role as one of stewardship and oversight.  Private companies may have a ‘rubber stamp’ board made up of friends and supporters that serve only the founder, not the company.  It is important for friends and supporters of an entrepreneurial founder to understand that they serve the founder best if succession planning is actively pursued.

Implementing an effective succession strategy requires wisdom and foresight on the part of a founder as well as guidance and persistence from the board members.  Founder’s syndrome may not be 100% curable, but it can be effectively treated. 

We, at PFD Group, enjoy serving as an outside resource, sounding board, and coach to companies navigating this critical time of change and opportunity for growth.

"The graveyards are filled with indispensable people."
- Charles de Gaulle

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Convert Plans Into Action and Impact

We are six weeks into 2012…where are you with your strategic plan?  Do you feel like your entire team has signed off on it.  Is it working? How do you know? Does your personal plan still inspire you?

These are questions we frequently help our clients with and this blog post will focus on some of the best practices we recommend:

1. Keep your 2012 plan fresh and relevant.  Have a one-page version printed where you and your team can see it on a daily basis.  Use your plan to frame the agenda for your weekly leadership team meetings.

2. Track the metrics that support your plan. Share the scorecard with your team and ensure that everyone is held accountable. 

3. Review your assumptions and lessons learned.  Where is the market validating your assumptions?  Where do you need more time?  Where do you need to refine your approach?

4. Use virtual tools to create action / implementation plans. Smartsheet is a tool we use internally to share project plans with our team and clients.  You can log on from any browser, easily collaborate on projects and the software automatically emails users updates made on their projects. Click the Smartsheet link below to create your own account today. 

5. Celebrate early wins, recognize key players and acknowledge company successes.

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Happy Holidays! A Great Time for Reflection & Planning

As the New Year begins, we have found that this is a good time to review achievements in 2011 and opportunities for new growth in 2012.  With the experts predicting another year of uncertainty, it is important to have a realistic plan and alignment of your senior team to lay the foundation for good execution.

Some questions to consider:
1. What are your top 3 goals for the year?
2. What are the key considerations driving these goals?
3. Do you have the right people in the right roles to achieve these goals?
4. Where may your team need additional resources?
5. What can you do in 2012 to start your legacy planning?  How can you achieve alignment between your business and philanthropy goals?

We look forward to your feedback and working together in the coming year.  2011 was a banner year for PFD Group and we are honored to be engaged with CEOs making a profound impact on their organizations.

Happy New Year!

Ethan

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Giving Thanks

The PFD Group team is grateful to have wonderful clients to advise and coach. One of our core values is giving back, and we are pleased to announce a new program that will institutionalize our commitment to giving back.

Since we enjoy sharing our strategic planning and execution experience, for every corporate strategic planning client we add we will donate a strategic planning session to a 501(c)3 non-profit. We will be the first consulting firm, we know of, to offer this type of service and our commitment to giving back does not stop here. Over the next six months we will be developing and promoting resources to support non-profit strategic planning and fundraising efforts.

Thank you for your support of our efforts and have a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends.

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The Importance of Direction

In our current economy, there are significant growth opportunities for companies with disciplined strategic planning and execution focus. In his latest book, Great by Choice, Jim Collins and his research team investigate hundreds of companies to discover the key factors for predicting which companies succeed in times of uncertainty versus those who at best fail to reach their full potential. Collins’ key belief is that although we are living in a time of great uncertainty and change, we are more in control than ever of our own destinies.

One of the key processes successful companies adhere to is setting and following Specific, Measurable and Consistent goals. Collins refers to these goals with the acronym SMaC. The SMaC process creates easily quantifiable operating metrics for the organization that in the most successful companies remain largely unchanged over time.

What have you seen in your own organizations? Have you found a focused approach on a consistent strategy to be beneficial? What SMaC do you follow?

In our experience, we have seen our clients realize break through results when they make the commitment upfront to follow a focused approach based on rigorous market assessments.

"Goals live on the other side of obstacles and challenges. Be relentless in pursuit of those goals, especially in the face of obstacles. Along the way, make no excuses and place no blame." -Ray Bourque

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