Communication Rhythms in Uncertain Times

Let me start by saying that we, as humans, are resilient. We have all been through hardships before, and by definition if we didn’t navigate and overcome those uncertain times, we wouldn’t be here today… Use this to propel you through the current atmosphere and to remember what your team needs from you.

It is of the utmost importance to be communicating regularly with your teams through each and every step of this pandemic and what it is doing to the economy, and most significantly, how it is affecting your business. Your whole organization is desperate to hear what you are doing as the leader and are looking to you, and your leadership team, for answers. To keep yourself and everyone else feeling informed, daily and weekly rhythms of communication should be in place, all the while leaning on your Core Values and Core Purpose to drive results and morale.

After sitting in on over 500 daily huddles/stand ups, over 100 weekly meetings, and working with CEOs and their leadership teams from around the world, here are the best practices I have found:

Virtual Meetings

We all are on more virtual meetings than we ever thought we would be. Here are some tips to help keep everyone feeling connected and keep the team on track.

• Video on! - We all know that some people will be working in their PJs and some will be in work clothes… regardless of what you are wearing, having your video on makes people feel more connected to you, which is key in times of uncertainty and working remotely.

• Connected audio headphones - The audio with connected headphones is 10x better than using bluetooth connection. The audio on bluetooth is often delayed and can feel like a constant interruption.

• Tinker toys - Yes, you heard me right! If your team is going to be on a meeting for a while, order tinker toys to be sent to their house. It is a stress reliever. We love “PlusPlus Blocks”. This keeps people in a creative space too! Some people may not “play” with them and that is okay, the caring gesture is what matters most.

• Mute audio upon joining a meeting - Muting your audio when you join a meeting and throughout, unless you are talking, keeps the background noise to a minimum. Everyone wants to be able to hear what is going on. The less dog barks, food crunching, and paper shuffling, the better.

• Breaks - Take frequent breaks. It is hard to stay focused and engaged in a virtual meeting. Give them time on their own to do what they need to do and also insert movement in other breaks. You can have someone lead the groups through some exercises or stretches to get their blood flowing. 

Daily Huddles (15 minutes)

Most teams now have some sort of daily huddle. The real questions are; is it informative or just a waste of time? And are you getting what you need from it or just everyone else’s to-do lists? The agenda that we see work to elicit relevant information goes as follows:

• Good News/What’s Up? - Share some wins! Share stories surrounding how people are living your organization's Core Values and Core Purpose! Then share what is relevant that the team needs to know from your realm. Not just what they need to know but also how it will affect them or why they need to know that. Be specific and keep it brief.

• Metrics Update - Quick touch on your individual KPIs. Say what the KPI is and where you are. Do not go into detail about why you are where you are. That takes up time and you will most likely lose your audience.

• Lessons Learned - Share something you learned from the day before AND what you learned from it that the whole team could benefit from hearing. This helps the whole team grow and it fosters an environment where it is okay to make mistakes. Remember that leaders go first, so if your team continually says they don’t have anything to share here, then you should share a mistake you made and how you fixed it/what you learned. They are more likely to contribute after that. Be specific and keep it brief.

• Top Thing for the Day - This is just one thing you promise to get done for the day. Not 4 things or your entire to-do list. Be very specific about where you will get with that one thing. What does success look like at the end of the day with that one thing?

Weekly Meeting (60-90 minutes)

Just like the daily huddle, most teams practice this. What I see is more often than not, these are going longer than 90 minutes and eating up valuable time with content that isn’t so useful or helpful. Here is what we suggest and what we see works well:

• Good News - Always good news to start the day. When the world is full of people sharing the negative, it is easy to forget about all the good happening around us and in our business. So share the good stuff that is happening with customers and teammates. Share stories about people living the Core Values and Core Purpose… Keep these at the forefront of everything!

• Review Action Items - Review the action items assigned last weekly meeting with the team. Go one by one; who owned it, what they were supposed to do, by what date, and if they got it done. If it didn’t get done, why not and do we need to set a new due date or does it not need to happen based on new information.

• Metrics Update - Share your department KPIs and where you stand on them.

• Company Priority Review/Update - Each company priority owner should speak to the company priority they own and give an update. They should share how they are currently tracking and what the next steps are. If there is a major issue, this is the perfect time to talk about what is going on and solve it as a collective group. This fosters accountability, transparency, and owing up to/learning from mistakes.

• Customer and Employee Feedback - What is the team hearing from customers and employees? Is there anything that needs to be addressed and solved as a group while in this meeting? Work to solve and close the look on some of these things.

• Top 3 Things for the Coming Week - Based on the information you have now, what are the top 3 things you need to accomplish this week (if your weekly meeting is earlier in the week) or next week (if your weekly meeting is later in the week). Just like in your daily huddle/stand up, be specific here. What is success with each item?

• Review Action Items from This Meeting - Review the action items that were assigned during this meeting. Who said they would do what, and by when.

Be open to having candid conversations with your team and working through things together. You don’t have to solve all the problems by yourself. Your team wants to help and wants to be successful just as much as you do. You can make it through these rough waters together, using your Core Values and Core Purpose as anchors.

If you are looking for further advice or resources, you can reach our team at pfd-group.com or by emailing me directly at kmcneil@pfd-group.com. We are here to steward lives and we want to help.

Communication: Foundation for Trust

Great communication is a key factor in the success of our clients. In our experience, not only is communication a core value for the PFD team, but we also found it to be a key factor in the success of our clients. We find many CEOs theoretically understand the importance of great communication both internally and externally, however, the execution can be difficult.

Equally, CEOs must communicate with their teams; over-communicating their vision, the core values, where they are focusing, where they are going. It is so important that this type of communication happens regularly. At PFD, we found two tools to be very effective in communicating and aligning our team.

Internal communication is a key factor for team alignment. The first tool that we recommend is a weekly CEO email. This is compiled by the senior leadership team, but edited and sent by the CEO to the entire company on a set schedule every week. Celebrating wins, reinforcing core values, and sharing KPIs can all be populated by the data in Metronome Growth Systems.

The second tool that we found to be very helpful is using growth system software to drive alignment and visibility. In our case, we have had success with Metronome Growth Systems that not only captures the company’s one-page growth plan but it also makes it easy for leaders to update their key initiatives and have awareness of what the rest of the team is working on.

We have found excellent communication to be a key success driver for high growth companies and nurturing the culture as the company grows. This is a core value for the PFD team.

Core Values: Client Value

Client value is all about our clients getting a great return on their investment. Not only financially, but with the time we spend together. Time is one of our most precious and limited resources, and one of the few things we can’t make more of. One of the great outcomes that we see with our clients, and our coaching work specifically, is it frees up time for them to work strategically on the business. It allows their teams to execute so much better, which ultimately gives them more time to be with customers, to be with family and the make time for the other areas of their life that are really important.

A Holistic Approach

As entrepreneurs, we naturally come from an abundance mindset where anything is possible. However, there are two exceptions to that; Time and Energy. Time is finite, and we must be good stewards of our time as well as the time of our team’s time. The second is energy levels, and we as leaders are all wired with different gifts and strengths. This is true of the things that give us energy as well as the things that rob us of our energy. We spend a lot of time helping CEOs build their senior teams, so their leaders are clear on their strengths and are in roles that really leverage their strengths.

What approaches have you found to best recognize your team?

Zingerman's Workshop

When you take time off from client work and attend workshops and invest in learning best practices, you always have to ask yourself what it is you walk away with. The ZingTrain workshop is one that I would attend over and over again. It was hosted by Zingerman's - a company that began as a deli, and has since grown into an incredible organization that spans into several industries. Why is Zingerman's so special? They have a world-class leadership and visioning strategies, and they generously share the secrets to their success. It was perfect for learning how to reinforce that all stakeholders should be engaged in all change, and how this change has to be communicated to the expanding team. Their creative approach to explaining their Vision Process helped me walk away with an amazing new approach to creating a Vision Plan. I had a great opportunity to attend a Coaches session with a room full of incredible power thinkers. The two-day session helped me gain valuable perspective, and I can’t wait to share it with my own clients. Zingerman's ideas on visioning and leadership are valuable in helping a company scale, and they are complimentary to our Scaling Up and 3HAG IP.

Zingerman’s offer a great series of books you can learn about and purchase here

The ZingTrain Workshops are perfect for your company and leadership teams. Learn how to attend their next session here.

Confidence & Clarity: Inside our May 14th Workshop

What an awesome experience we had on May 14th for our 3HAG Workshop with best-selling author of 3HAG WAY Shannon Susko. What is 3HAG? It stands for 3-year Highly Achievable Goal. It is the bridge between your Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) and your smaller goals. Shannon Susko’s 3HAG Framework will allow your company to connect your business's daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and year-of-execution goals and align them with your 3-year Highly Achievable Goal, so that you are always on track to achieve your BHAG. It is a tool for leaders to be able to create a strategy and execute it with confidence and clarity. Our workshop provided a day of training with Leaders who walked away with practical and simple tools to implement their company’s 3 year plan.

Ethan Martin is honored to become the 1st US based coach to be certified in the 3HAG Way, and we are excited to continue working with Shannon to help give more leaders the tools and gain the confidence, clarity to succeed.

Missed the workshop but want to learn more about 3HAG? Please reach out to us to learn more.

3HAG Way & PFD Group Strategic Thinking & Execution Planning Workshop May 14th

Have you ever struggled with confidently crafting a differentiated strategy? One that the whole company understands and aligned to deliver? One that puts your company in a unique and valuable position now and in the future? One that you can clearly make great decisions today and looking out 3 years –12 quarters?

These burning questions and more are answered in Shannon Susko’s & Ethan Martin’s 3HAG Workshop taking place on May 14th, 2019 in Denver, CO. You will learn how to ‘Gut Out’, develop, and implement your 3HAG (3 Year Highly Achievable Goal) and build a detailed 12 quarter-over-quarter plan (your Swim-lanes) to provide a confident execution plan designed to keep you on track to meet or exceed your stretch goal. This workshop is designed for business owners and CEOs looking to refine and focus their strategies. By learning and practicing the 3HAG 12-step process, you will dig into the key areas of your strategy to create the confidence you need to grow your business.

Learn More Here

Fortune / Gazelles International Scaling Up Summit – St. Louis 2017

This was my third Scaling Up Summit and well worth attending – for the great learning, community and inspiration of proven growth tools to share with my clients. It is exciting to be a part of the Gazelles International coaching community and bring additional resources to support high growth companies. Let me share some of the highlights from the Summit that captured my interest. 

There is a new breed of company coming to the forefront. The “Exponential Organization” uses the power of technology to scale up, and has the ability to capture much larger markets with new ways of thinking. Change is constant, but the rate of change is increasing, so how to you keep up? ”The answer is the Exponential Organization.”

Digital transformation has changed how a company evolves. No longer is human power the answer (more people, more productivity), but instead, accelerating technologies are what brings a company to it’s goal at a pace that will outperform others who continue to move on a linear course, rather than a hyper-accelerated course.

The second book that inspired me is titled "Everybody MATTERS - The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family."

Inside these pages, powerful data is provided on the strong financial results that can be had when you invest in your people and community. Bob Chapman sums it up: “Everyone wants to do better. Trust them. Leaders are everywhere. Find them. People achieve good things, big and small, every day. Celebrate them. Some people wish things were different. Listen to them. Everybody matters. Show them."

The 2014 Rocky Mountain Entrepreneurial Summit - March 7th

Creating Your Legacy – What Do You Stand For?

That is the theme of the 4th Annual Rocky Mountain Entrepreneurial Summit.

This year's special Keynote Speaker is Marcus Luttrell, the man behind the country's #1 movie, "Lone Survivor."

2014 Rocky Mountain Entrepreneurial Summit

Friday, March 7th

University of Denver

Since we are co-chairing this popular event, we have spent the last six months assembling a great group of inspiring speakers. No matter what stage of growth your business is in, from start up to exit strategy, you will walk away with practical advice that can be implemented immediately.

As entrepreneurs, we have the opportunity to give back to our communities and there are many ways to do so. From hiring and mentoring veterans to running for office, conference speakers will share their many successes and lessons learned.

There will be three tracks of workshops throughout the day focused on your business, your family and you personally as an entrepreneur. 

For the latest speaker list and to register please visit:  http://rmes.eocolorado.org/

5 Ways to Leverage Your Customer Base & Alumni Network

Your customer base is not only a source of current revenue, but it is the best source for referrals and growth opportunities.

Here are a few best practices to nurture this critical asset:

1. Survey regularly. Make it easy for your customers to provide feedback before they turn to social media to complain.

2. Take action on the feedback. How can you provide more value?  What are you doing to recognize employees who provide great service?

3. Capture video case studies. A professionally shot, 30-60 second customer testimonial can transform your brand. 

4. Provide ongoing educational resources for your customers.  What are the trends in your industry that can benefit them?

5. Develop a customer advisory board to provide strategic guidance and broaden your professional network.

Click here to download a PDF version of this blog post.

Kick Off Your 2014 Strategic Planning Now

Now is a great time to finalize your plans for 2014.

Like many companies, you are probably facing growth opportunities in several areas of your business. Yet, the economy is uncertain. Where should you focus your resources? How can you get your leadership team on one page to execute the vision efficiently?

In our experience, the following process has proven helpful:

1. Review your core values. Have they become a checklist for how you run your company?

2. Do you have the right people in the right roles on your team?

3. Where does your team see the growth opportunities?

4. What important feedback are you not getting from your team? From your customers?

We have found this fourth topic – internal and external feedback to be a critical area for growth. Having team alignment reduces the need to make assumptions that are not validated by the market.

The best strategic plans are focused and designed with execution in mind. They support team alignment and accountability. We have developed a facilitated process that creates a two page business plan that is readily implementable.

We have also developed a three week process that maximizes the time of the leadership team:

1. Week one – confidential interviews of leadership team. Develop ideas to validate with customer / external stakeholder survey

2. Week two – send out customer / external stakeholder survey.

3. Week three – compile and share feedback from the survey. Half day to full day offsite facilitated strategic planning session. The facilitation is helpful to allow the senior team to be present and engage in the session while not having to be distracted by the logistics of running it.

If you would like to talk more about the benefits of using this three week process and how it could help your organization please call Ethan Martin at 720-295-4888.

Click here to download a PDF version of this blog post.