Big, Hairy Audacious Goals

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Big, Hairy Audacious Goals

Many of you have just finished your annual goal setting process. Often, that includes creating at least a few big, hairy, audacious goals. We’ve all heard about the importance of these types of goals in motivating and engaging our workforce to achieve top performance. So, we create the goals and roll them out. However, to achieve top performance, there’s another step in the process. You need to break them down into bite-sized pieces.

In his blog for Harvard Business Review, Robert I. Sutton lays out the reasons for making those big, hairy goals not so big and hairy. He shares the story of a CEO who sets a really audacious revenue target for his company. The CEO then has the team break the goal down into a campaign that will make it not just possible but probable. When the team lists over 100 tasks, the fear and anxiety level is palpable. When they sort the list into easy and difficult tasks, it becomes apparent that more than half the tasks can happen in a few days. The stage is now set for a series of small wins that will create success.

Take a look at the big, hairy, audacious goals you’ve set for this year. Have they created motivation or fear or just apathy because they seem so out of reach? How can you break them down into bite sized pieces? What’s easy? What’s difficult? Knock off the easy ones. Get some small wins. Build the energy for tackling the more difficult ones.

About Edith Onderick-Harvey

Edith Onderick-Harvey is a highly regarded consultant, leadership and talent expert, and speaker. Edith is frequently quoted in the media including The New York Times, CNN.com, HR Executive, and American Executive. As the President of Factor In Talent, Edith works with leaders to take performance — their own, their team’s and their organization’s — to the next level.

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What’s It like to Join your Company?

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“Welcome,
To a whole new adventure.
Another chapter in an incredibly exciting story.
Yours. And Ours.
It’s probably a bit different from where you used to be.
(Maybe really, really different.)
But your reason for being here hasn’t changed.
You are here to do great things.”

 

This is the note my brother received a couple of months ago when he and his wife arrived at their temporary housing as part of the relocation for his new job.

His new job is with what many of us think of as a dream company — Apple.

As part of his relo, they’re providing him with corporate housing for a few weeks until they find a new place. Pretty standard for many companies. However, that note is very, very different.

What makes companies like Apple great is that they build and rebuild their culture every time they greet a new associate with that note. They reinforce why great talent would want to work for them. They reinforce that their culture is about adventure, an exciting story and doing great things. It’s not ‘here’s you desk, here’s your compute and orientation starts at 9:00.” That note and the actions that surround it — I’ll get to those in a minute — say “We are so glad you’re here to be part of what we are here to do.”

The actions that surrounded the note? The corporate housing had a stocked fridge and homemade cookies. They were greeted at the door, given a tour of the facilities and ideas for how to spend their first weekend in California.

You know it won’t need to be going to the grocery store.

What’s it like to join your company?

 

About Edith Onderick-Harvey

Edith Onderick-Harvey is a highly regarded consultant, leadership and talent expert, and speaker. Edith is frequently quoted in the media including The New York Times, CNN.com, HR Executive, and American Executive. As the President of Factor In Talent, Edith works with leaders to take performance — their own, their team’s and their organization’s — to the next level.

Too many meetings

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Factor In Talent - too many meetingsAsk anyone about meetings and you get a similar response. “Waste of time.” “They get in the way of real work.” “Too many meetings.” For most people, they represent the time sink that produces very little. I’m stunned by how even the most seasoned executives, with years of experience leading meetings, see them as nothing more than a forum for information sharing, status updates and data dumps. Here’s a secret — they don’t have to be that way. As a matter of fact, you can use them to get real work done.

Meetings are an opportunity for interaction. They are a place to discuss issues, share ideas, and gather information that can guide decision making. However, they usually include very little of this. There are many reasons for this including a lack of a clear objective for the meeting, no agenda, not having the right people in the room, spending too much time reviewing what’s been done instead of focusing on what needs to be done.

To make meetings more productive, start with these questions:

      • Why are we meeting? If the answer is to share updates, you most likely don’t need a meeting. Unless you need input from most of the meeting participants that impacts the ability to move an issue or imperative forward, find another way to share. Share updates via brief status reports on Box.net or Sharepoint. A good reason for a meeting is the need to discuss issues, debate a plan of action, gather input for decisions or finalize decisions.
      • Who should be in the room? Who are the right participants? Do they have the perspective, responsibility and accountability for the issues and actions you’ll be discussing.
      • How often do we need to have these conversations? There is no perfect number. In a rapidly growing dynamic company, it may be once a week. In a more mature firm with less change, maybe once a month or once a quarter. Too often meetings are scheduled more frequently than the content warrants.
      • Do I have tools to use that will facilitate the conversation? Sometimes it’s just asking the right question. Sometimes it’s having a framework for analyzing the issue or guiding the conversation. The most basic tool — have an agenda that is shared with people before the meeting.

Look at the meetings you are currently leading. How could they be better?

About Edith Onderick-Harvey

Edith Onderick-Harvey is a highly regarded consultant, leadership and talent expert, and speaker. Edith is frequently quoted in the media including The New York Times, CNN.com, HR Executive, and American Executive. As the President of Factor In Talent, Edith works with leaders to take performance — their own, their team’s and their organization’s — to the next level.

Love vs. Fear, Making It Great and a Sense of Purpose

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leadership and relationships
August is upon us, and our New England summer is winding down…

I decided to share other people’s thinking with you this week. Check these out:

Connect, then Lead. Stop leading with your strength. A growing body of research shows that influence — which is the heart of leadership — starts with warmth. Without trust, emphasizing strength leads to fear and compliance not engaged followership. For additional tips on establishing trust, check out my blog article on the trust equation.

7 Ways to Make the Rest of 2013 Amazing. Kevin Baum shares some additional thoughts on Finishing Strong in his blog for Inc.

‘Culture of Purpose’ Is Key To Success According To New Research From Deloitte. A new study from Deloitte shows that a culture of purpose is key to strong financial performance and…Companies aren’t doing enough to create a shared sense of purpose. Take a look at the full article on Forbes.com.

Another Common Misconception

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working guy over 40

I saw a recent example of hiring decisions based assumptions not reality today. It seems that Silicon Valley has a major issue with hiring people over the age of 40. The common thinking is that anyone over 40 has lost their edge, aren’t innovative and stuck in a paradigm. Based on some research by Vivek Wadhwa, the news of the over-40’s creative demise seems to be drastically overstated.

Here are a few innovators and their over-40 inventions:

 

    • Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod when he was 44. He discovered electricity at 46.
      He helped draft the Declaration of Independence at 70, and he invented bifocals after that.
    • Henry Ford introduced the Model T when he was 45. 
    • Sam Walton built Walmart in his mid-40s. 
    • Ray Kroc built McDonald’s in his early 50s. 
    • Ray Kurzweil published The Singularity Is Near in his 50s.
    • Alfred Hitchcock directed Vertigo when he was 59.
    • Frank Lloyd Wright built his architectural masterpiece, Fallingwater, when he was 68. 
    • Steve Jobs’ most significant innovations-iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad-came after he was 45.

Instead of making the assumption when you’re hiring and cutting out a significant sector of your possible candidate pool, ask some questions that will let you know just how creative that gray-haired guy with few wrinkles really is.

Four Ways to Energize

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Managing-time-vs-energy

 

A few weeks ago, a client and I were talking about time management when she brought up the idea of energy management. Rather than trying to better manage your time, she said, think about managing our energy.

This, I thought, is brilliant. Many of us (including myself) are driven by the clock and manage our lives by it. Wake up at 5:30. Get the kids up at 6:15 and off to school by 7:15. Client call at 8:30. Meeting at 10:00. And so it goes.

By changing my thinking from time obsession to an energy orientation, my whole image of a day changed. Rather than it being the face of a clock, all about hours and minutes, my visual is now a red helium balloon. At times, the helium balloon is full and floating high. I need to take advantage of those times. Sometimes, it can begin to lose some of its helium and start to sink. I need to be aware of those times.

 

How can you manage your balloon?

  1. Be aware of your personal energy-flow. Are you a morning person? How much time can you be in front of your laptop before you’re lethargic? Does interacting with others give you energy or zap it? Does your productivity peak between 9:00 and midnight?
     
  2. Figure out one energy-building thing and do it every day. It can be very simple. Some people like jokes so they have a joke-a-day calendar. Walking down to the break room with a colleague you enjoy talking to can give you a five minute boost. Taking a quick walk so you can see the fall colors can bring energy back. 
     
  3. Tackle tough tasks when you are at peak energy. You’ll have the ability to think more creatively, stay more focused and handle more complexity.
     
  4. Most importantly, have something in your work that fills you with energy. Do a job audit every once in a while. Is your work, overall, energizing you? If not, what would you want more of? What do you need less of in your work? Is it possible to make a change?

So change that time paradigm — don’t manage by what time it is, manage by where your energy is.

Are You Really a Team?

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Are You Really a Team?The word and idea of a team gets used a lot in corporate America. Managers talk about their teams. Teams are pulled together to solve business issues. Teamwork is touted as the best way to achieve results.

I’m often asked to work with teams who are not performing as well as they should be. Some are outright dysfunctional. And, sometimes, the group is not a team at all. They are a group of people who report to a particular manager or who serve a particular client group. Usually, the person who brought me into the organization thinks they are or should be a team, but in reality, they aren’t or don’t need to be.
 

There are four reasons why what is often called a team is not a team at all:

  • Lack of common purpose: A team needs to have a common purpose that can only be achieved by the members of the team working together. If the purpose can be achieved without that kind of collaboration or if the only commonality is that we have the same boss, it’s not a team.
     
  • Individual, not shared, goals: Teams have shared goals and accountabilities. If each individual only has individual goals and there is no need for shared goals, then what is it we are all trying to achieve together?
     
  • Team members aren’t bought into the cause. If the team members don’t find the purpose of the team to be compelling and can’t really see how they add value, there is no team. Team members need to believe that the work being done by the team is important. They need to be committed and motivated to achieving the results.
     
  • They only get together to share information. Many of us have been in team meetings where the sole purpose is for each team member is to update the other team members and this is the only interaction the team members have with each other. Teams exist to take action against a shared purpose and goals. If we do not work collaboratively to generate ideas, to make decisions or to execute specific actions, then the “team,” is really a very labor-intensive communication vehicle. The “team” is a distribution channel. It’s not really adding any value, just getting information from one point to another.


Expectation Busters

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What kind of expectations do you set for your team? Most people I speak with believe they set clear, concise goals that help their people focus on what’s important. For some people, that is probably true. For others, setting expectations does not seem to be working as well.

Setting expectations is about more than just setting goals or objectives at a point in time. Expectations are set and reinforced every day by your actions and reactions to situations that arrive. When that reinforcement doesn’t happen, you have what I often call expectations-busters. Have you ever experienced one of the following expectation-busters?
 

    • Goals are set and within two to three months most of the goals are completely irrelevant or have been re-prioritized to the bottom of the list. Business priorities change. That’s a given. However, if this is a regular occurrence in your organization it sends the message that leadership really isn’t sure where things are going or can’t make up its mind. The result is an attitude of “I don’t really need to put a lot of effort into whatever the stated goals are because they’re just going to change anyways.”
       
    • Once a goal or expectation is set, it’s never discussed again. If I’m given a goal and we never discuss progress against the goal, I will assume it’s not a very important. I’ll assume you are really interested in other things. 
       
    • Objectives are set but rewards and recognition are given for things completely unrelated to achieving them. Remember the adage what gets measured, gets done. Well, when an expectation is set I assume it has some relevance to my performance and, in turn, my salary increase, promotion consideration, and general recognition. Nothing busts expectations like seeing people rewarded for things that have nothing to do with meeting expectations and achieving results.
       
    • There is no differentiation in recognition when expectations are achieved. This is a corollary to rewarding things that are unrelated to achieving goals and objectives. If people who meet expectations and those who exceed expectations and those who do not meet expectations are not recognized and rewarded in distinctly different ways, a high performer will become disengaged quickly and you’ll see overall performance migrate to mediocrity.

Setting expectations is not a onetime event. The relevance of those expectations is established on a regular basis. How you integrate those expectations into your leadership approach will mean the difference between achieving expectations and moving towards excellence and mediocrity.

Issues 2012: Retention and Engagement

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Workers in America are an unhappy lot. In 2010 The Conference Board reported that only 45% of workers are satisfied with their work, continuing a two-decade trend of increasing dissatisfaction. Think about that. Nearly six out of ten people in our organizations are not bringing anywhere near their best to work.

This statistic tells me that our #1 leadership issue in 2012 needs to be retention and engagement.

Wait a minute. You’re thinking, “In this economy, no one is going anywhere.” Maybe not in the current situation, but it’s beginning to turn around and soon resumes will be hitting the streets. What you do now will impact how many resumes from your team will be in the mix.

What we know about people who are dissatisfied in their jobs is that they will leave — either physically or sometimes worse, mentally. Usually, our best performers are the first to go when they are dissatisfied. They are highly marketable and they know it. On the other end of the spectrum, our poor performers will often not leave but simply continue to be dissatisfied. The bulk of our workforce won’t be the first out the door but will begin mentally shutting down. They will begin to only do what absolutely needs to be done or only what will impact their merit increase. They will come in at 8:00 and walk out precisely at 5:00. And once they see top performers leaving, they too will begin to look toward the door.

As a leader, your new year’s resolution should be to retain and engage the performers on your team. Here are some things to think about: 

      • Look at your team. Who’s a flight risk? Whose departure would significantly impact the business or the team? Who’s not going anywhere but at the same time not as fully engaged as they once were? Create re-engagement strategies and contingency plans if a performer leaves.
         
      • On the chance that a poor performer leaves, how attractive is it for a strong performer to join your team?
         
      • Look at yourself. How satisfied are you? As a leader, your team takes direction from you.
         
      • What vision have you developed and communicated for your organization? Does it make people say “I want to be part of this?”
         
      • People are satisfied when they perceive they are doing something meaningful, have a choice in their work activities, feel they are performing competently, and are making progress. As you set 2012 goals with your team, how meaningful are they? Will the person have a sense of progress?
         
      • Are you giving people a choice in how they run their business or manage their work?
         
      • Do they have the skills and knowledge to perform competently? Are they able to use their strengths? Are you helping them build their capacity through coaching?
         
      • Have you spoken with people about how they perceive their current work and working environment. What interests them about it? What frustrates them? Have a conversation and create a plan together to build on what’s good and address what can be changed.
         
      • Finally, don’t throw money at it, unless that is the real issue. Money will only work in the short term. Meaningfulness, choice, competence and progress will motivate people in the long term.

Why Are You A Leader?

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Why Are You A Leader?

 
I recently receive the following as part of a longer post from the Human Capital Institute and it instantly caught my attention:

 

“In the context of an organization where people ideally share purpose, the power of knowing “why” each of us chooses our role helps us be more productive. “It’s often difficult to do something well if we don’t know the reasons we’re doing it to begin with,” says Dan Pink, adding, “People at work are thirsting for context.” As a leader one of the most powerful things you can do is provide that context; instead of monitoring what, where, when and how, encourage people to consider why they’re in their roles-every day, and listen to what they have to say.”

I’ve referred to our Leadership in the Next Decade research quite a bit lately. When I read this, it reinforced the wisdom that our respondents shared with us about where leaders need to focus to build success and business results in the coming years. One of the top leadership abilities respondents identified as critical was ‘creating a compelling vision and strategy’, in other words providing context, helping people understand why. Pink’s quote brings home the other side of the equation — listening to why others are in their roles. By listening to what people throughout the organization have to say, we will be able to understand why they have chosen to be part of this larger organization and to build alignment of purpose for an ever larger part of our organizations.

As leaders can you answer these questions:

    • Why am I in this role? What makes you get up in the morning and come to work? Have you shared that story with others in your organization? 
       
    • Why are other people in their roles? Do you have any idea why the people on your team choose to be there? What about your peers? Your boss?
       
    • Why does our organization exist? What is our compelling purpose? I would argue that if you can only come up with “to provide shareholder value” you are going to come up short in the eyes of many people. Many people don’t think that the main reason they come to work is to drive up stock prices for investors. That may be an outcome of the work that is done and the value the organization creates but it’s not really the context people are thirsting for.
       
    • How do these 3 whys align? We may have different reasons for being in our roles and still be aligned around a common purpose. How does our collection of why’s build the tapestry that delivers value to our customers, shareholders, employees, and communities?