March 11th, 2010
By Ron Cox, CEO, Tailwind
When on-boarding a senior level player at the strategic level—it’s important to get them connected to the overall strategy as quickly as possible. They are being brought in to manage a key part of the business and drive results quickly. To accomplish this, they need to become strategically engaged and develop a strategic plan of action. The only problem is that they don’t really understand the company or the overall strategy well enough to independently drive key parts of it. No wonder nearly 50% of mid-career executive transitions don’t work out.
No matter how talented someone is, they typically need to build their own strategy within the context of the bigger picture. That’s why, when they first come onboard, the focus is to get them “up to speed” as quickly as possible. Corporate on-boarding programs are generally designed do that. But these programs almost always fall short of integrating the new executive strategically.
There is a natural rhythm that needs to be understood and managed in order for Strategic OnBoarding© to work effectively. We have identified four key phases that new strategic hires naturally transition through. A key point to remember here is that these phases will unfold in this order whether or not your company chooses to influence them. These natural four phases are:
1. Intelligence—gathering as much information as possible about their new company.
2. Insight—filtering the information to discern what’s relevant strategically and why.
3. Analysis—analyzing their own situation to decide what changes they need to make.
4. Synthesis—building their own strategy that is aligned with the overall strategic direction.
Unfortunately on-boarding executives are often left alone to navigate these phases, reflect on their new situation and synthesize their actions with the strategic direction of the company. Strategic information is not readily available or in a format where it’s easy to understand and connect to. Early experiences in the new position are not always highly structured and sometimes opportunistic. Companies rightly try to take advantage of events and situations that are available at the particular time that the individual is coming onboard. This can result in a more stochastic approach to strategic integration that is not structured and predictable. Strategic OnBoarding helps newly hired executives critically think about their role in what the company is trying to do so that they can focus their individual contributions to that strategic effort.
No matter what the company wants to do, strategic integration has to happen for the executive on a personal level—they have to align themselves with the strategy, not the other way around. Our recommendation is to provide the on-boarding executive with a disciplined and structured process that teaches them how to successfully transition through the four natural phases.
Filed under Uncategorized.
December 9th, 2009
By Ron Cox, CEO, Tailwind
As we work to wind-up what has been an “interesting” business year and look forward to better fortunes in 2010, our minds naturally turn to things like improving performance, execution and growth. We’ve been working on our business strategy and making plans to gain strong traction at the beginning of the year—engaging our people and getting the new year off to a strong start.
We’ll all put a lot of effort and resources into “getting everyone on the same page” strategically, but how successful will we be? How well will your people be able to understand and execute your strategy?
Getting everyone on the same page in any endeavor is the key to its execution. Playmakers need to know both the gameplan and the plays. Increasing your people’s collective literacy in your company’s strategy will increase your results.
Three tips for getting everyone on the same page are:
1. Clarify and focus your big picture strategy–make it easy to understand.
2. Build absolute strategic consensus with your senior executives.
3. Make sure that your playmakers have translated versions of the strategy for themselves so they know both the gameplan and the plays they should run to make it happen.
These, naturally, sound easier than they are. We recognize the high degree of difficulty associated with all three of these best-practices. If you’d like to explore some ideas for clarifying your strategy, building consensus with your senior team, or translating your strategy at the individual level, give us a call. We’d be happy to learn about your situation in more detail and make some suggestions to help you on your path forward.
Filed under Uncategorized.
November 30th, 2009
By Ron Cox, CEO, Tailwind
Dr. Joseph Juran developed the Pareto Principle–better known as the 80/20 Rule. This rule, often applied in analysis and problem-solving, describes how often a small percentage of causal variables account for most of the results being analyzed. Using Pareto Analysis is one of the fundamentals in business. In the process of showing us the way, Dr. Juran coined the phrase, “separating the vital few from the trivial many”.
One of the issues with business strategy and planning lies in our inability to separate our vital few from the trivial many. When working with business leaders in both large and small companies, our discussions always seem to center on the vital many. There are often a dozen or more items in their “vital few,” and sometimes the number is over 20. Getting it down to a core 5 to 7 items for your vital few is essential because the human mind and the business organization can’t simultaneously entertain and execute more imperatives than that. Having too many imperatives impedes your focus and dilutes your intent.
Whether you are managing a small unit, a department or division, an emerging growth company, or a large corporation, separating your vital few imperatives from the trivial many will make a big difference in your ability to execute your strategy.
Filed under Uncategorized.