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I’m reading this great book, by Micheal Watkins, and it talks about “Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels”.  This books shares 10 steps to make a positive impact on your organization in your first three months on the job.

 10 Key Steps

1. Promote Yourself
2. Accelerate Your Learning
3. Match the Strategy to the Situation
4. Secure Early Wins
5. Negotiate Success
6. Achieve alignment
7. Build Your Team
8. Create Coalitions
9. Keep Your Balance
10. Expedite everyone.

Step 1 - Promote Yourself

• Step away from your previous role/job, and embrace the new role
• Seek advice from people who might help you understand the new job
• Start planning milestones you wish to hit at specific times
• What do you want done the first day? first week?  first month?
• What kinds of problems do you like solving most?  There are 3 categories
  • Technical Problems (strategy, markets, technologies, and processes)
  • Political Problems (concerns power and politics in the organization
  • Cultural Problems (involves value, norms, and guiding assumptions)

Step 2 - Accelerate Your Learning

• Planning to Learn means figuring out in advance what the important questions are and how best you can answer them
• You should learn to try to understand the history of the organization
• “How did we get to this point?”
• Listening and observing should always be the first actions to take
• Don’t arrive with the solution in mind, when you haven’t studied the problem
• You want to earn “Actionable Insights”, which is knowledge that enables you to make better decisions sooner, and to reach break-even point sooner!
• Talk to people from all departments, to get various views, insights, and information
• Ask questions of the PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE!
• Understand the PAST - ask about performance, root causes, and history
  • What has the past performance been?
  • How were goals set? Were they too big or too small?
  • Were benchmarks used?
  • What measures were employed, and what behaviors did they encourage and discourage?
  • What happened if goals were not met?
  • What efforts have been made to change the organization?  What happened?
  • Who has been instrumental in shaping this organization?
• Assess the PRESENT
  • What is the stated vision and strategy?
  • Is the organization really pursuing that strategy?  If not, why not?
  • Among the company’s people, who is capabale and who is not?
  • What are the key processes, and are they performing acceptably? If not, why not?
  • What cultural or political missteps must you avoid making?
  • In what areas - people, relationships, processes, or productions - can you achieve some early wins?
• Examine the Future
  • In what areas is the business most likely to face stiff challenges in the coming year?
  • What are the most promising opportunities?
  • What are the biggest barriers to change?
  • Are there islands of excellence that you can leverage?
  • What new capabilities will you need to develop or acquire?
  • Which elements of the culture should be preserved, and which need to be changed?
• 5 Questions to Ask Your Direct Reports
  • What are the biggest challenges the company is facing now and wil face in the future?
  • What is the organization facing or going to face these challenges?
  • What are the most promising opportunities for growth?
  • What would need to happen for the company to exploit them?
  • If you were me, what would you focus attention on?

Step 3 - Match the Strategy to the Situation

4 Types of Business Situations

1. Start Ups
2. Turnaround
3. Realignment
4. Sustaining success

Start Ups -

• you will have to put together the people, funding, and technology to get a new business, product, or project off the ground. 
• people are going to be excited but may lack direction
• Your job will be to channel their energy in productive directions
• emphasis on taking action
• have to make decisions early and often w/o complete info
• learning is still required, but mostly technical

Turnaround -

• you have to take a troubled unit by the horns and get it back on track
• people will be demoralized
• your job is to provide light at the end of the tunnel
• emphasis on taking action
• have to make decisions early and often w/o complete info
• learning is still required, but mostly technical

Realignment -

• you are taking charge of a unit that is drifting into trouble and needs revitalization
• you will have to overcome people’s denial before helping them reinvent the business
• emphasis is on learning
• early mistakes will be costly
• important to secure early wins

Sustaining Success -

• you will need to preserve organization and shephard it to the next level
• you’ll have to combat complacency and find new challenges to maintain growth
• emphasis is on learning
• early mistakes will be costly
• important to secure early wins

Step 4 - Secure Early Wins

Avoid the 5 Traps

1. Failure to Focus - identify the best opportunities and focus relentlessly on translating them into early winds
2. Not taking the business situation into Account - simply getting people to talk about change can be a big win in a relignment, but a loss in a turn-around where action is required
3. Not adjusting to the culture - need to understand what a “win” means in the new culture.
4. Failing to get wins that matter to your boss - fix some problems for your boss!
5. Letting your means undermine your ends

Step 5 - Negotiate Success

• One of your most important elements of your success in transition is your boss!
• The time you invest in this critical relationship is well worth it
• The best strategy is to negotiate realistic expectations up front, reach a concensus, and secure enough resources to succeed. This requires a 90 day plan.

5 Important Conversations to Discuss:

The Business Situation

• What is the main objective, or problem to solve?
• What is your boss’s role in helping you achieve results?

Expectations on both sides

• Set short and medium-term goals, and define what success is going to look like
• You decide on a timeframe for milestones and look to the future beyond those targets
• Figure out some early wins that will align with your boss’s priorities
• Promise less than you deliver, because promising what you can’t deliver hurts credibility

Style of interaction

• Does your boss prefer voice mail or email?
• What kind of decisions does he/she want to be involved with?
• What will just annoy him?
• Does he arrive early / late?
• You must build a good relationship with your boss, and will have to adapt to his style.

Resources you will need compared to what is available 

• Plan ahead.  Get what you need upfront for agreeupon goals
• ALways link resources to clearly defined results

Your personal development on the job.

• Are there new skills you need to develop in order to advance?
• Are there special projects that could help build those skills?
• Ask your boss for feedback on developing your skills.

My coworker sent this out to the team, as something important that we should always remind ourselves off…FAMILY!

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
‘Oh excuse me please’ was my reply.

He said, ‘Please excuse me too;
I wasn’t watching for you.’

We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
‘Move out of the way,’ I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.
I didn’t realize how harshly I’d spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God’s still small voice came to me and said,

‘While dealing with a stranger,
common courtesy you use,
but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You’ll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes.’

By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
‘Wake up, little one, wake up,’ I said.

‘Are these the flowers you picked for me?’
He smiled, ‘I found ‘em, out by the tree.

I picked ‘em because they’re pretty like you.
I knew you’d like ‘em, especially the blue.’

I said, ‘Son, I’m very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn’t have yelled at you that way.’

He said, ‘Oh, Mom, that’s okay.
I love you anyway.’

I said, ‘Son, I love you too,
and I do like the flowers, especially the blue.’

FAMILY

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company
that we are working for could easily replace us in
a matter of days.

But the family we left behind will feel the loss
for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more
into work than into our own family,
an unwise investment indeed,
don’t you think?

So what is behind the story?

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?
FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU

…so true, so true!

Everyday we live is a new day / a special gift / time that will simply pass and turn in memories of the past.  Embrassing each valuable day as an oportunity for growth / learning / love / laughter / or anything you’re passionate about is what it’s all about.  Days will come, days will go, but realizing that our days are numbered in this world can put all the worries, frustrations, fears into perspective.  Change is all around us, just look around.  Unexpected things will happen whether we choose them or not.  But as the saying goes, “You can only live forward!”  And that we must.

We can only understand why changes / events happen by moving forward.  That allows us to look back, and eventually come to understand that things happen for a reason.  I guess that’s the power of blogging, and why so many do it.  It’s a great way to stop, take a deep breathe, and reflect on the 1 day of your life that just went by, and to “understand it backward”.

Was it a meaningful day?  Did I live today to the fullest?  Did I make a difference?  What happened?  Did I make someone smile?  Did I get into an argument?  Why?  What did I learn today?

Message to my team.  May the all lessons we learned together, the struggles we faced, successes and failures as team, and the wonderful moments we shared take each one of you far in life!  Value each day of your career, as an opportunity for personal growth, and share what you’ve learned with others.   Always ask questions, and share the answers with others as well.  Just live life forward! 

I just finished reading a book by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, called Execution.   It’s a discipline of getting things done! They describe “Execution” as

• a discipline for meshing strategy with reality, aligning people with goals, and achieving the results promised
• the gap between what a company’s leaders want to achieve and the ability of their organization to deliver it
  a system of getting things done through questioning, analysis, and follow-through
• the way to link the 3 core processes of any business –the people process, the strategy, and the operating plan
  the major job of the business leader
• must be a core element of an organization’s culture

The book talks about seven essenetial behaviors for leaders, in order to create a organization or culture of execution and performance.

The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors

• Know your people and your business
  • Leaders have to live their businesses.
  • They are where the action is, and engaged with the business
• Insist on Realism
  • Start by being realistic, and not try to avoid or shade reality
• Set Clear Goals and priorities
  • Leaders who execute focus on a very few clear priorities that everyone can grasp
  • Focusing on 3-4 priorities will produce the best results from the resources at hand
  • Along with having clear goals, you should strive for simplicity in general
• Follow Through
  • Clear, simple goads don’t mean much if nobody takes them seriously.
  • People should be named accountable for results
  • Have to follow up with expected results, and hold people accountable
• Reward the doers
  • You must reward folks who produce results
  • Have to distinguish between those who achieve results and those who don’t
• Expand people’s capabilities through Coaching
  • Leaders must expand the knowledge and capabilities of everyone in the organization, individually and collectively
  • “Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime”
  • Good leaders regard every encounter as an opportunity to coach
• Know Yourself
  • Leadership requires strength of character, emotional fortitude, and courage.
    You understand your strengths and weaknesses

I think this book has a great message, that it’s all about Execution.  Many people can simply talk the talk, but not walk the walk.  I have heard many people talk about a “Vision” for themselves, and develop a “Plan” to reach that vision.  But the toughest part is the “Execution” of the plan, which many fail to do.  As a manager / leader of a team, it’s important to set clear goals / be realistic / follow through / and reward those who do execute.

One of my team members asked me how to be more confident, more effective, and how to be a more successful contributor.  Where does performance steam from?  I shared some key lessons learned I learned, as the first steps to get there - “Be the first to Initiate”

• “Your life is yours when you initiate.  And your life belongs to others when you don’t.
• The first step is taking the initiative in making the first move.  If you wait until others do it, you might wait forever.
• There are many opportunities in your life just waiting to be seized.  You can’t let them go without a try.  You have to take opportunities before you are ready, before you are invited, before you are comfortable, and before the ice is broken.
• You have to go beyond your comfort level in taking the initiative
• When you take the initiative you do something for yourself that no one can ever take away from you. ” - Executive Charisma

That is exactly the first step towards gaining more confidence in one’s self, and steps towards becoming an effective / productive / performance oriented individual.  If you take a look around you at who you consider successful or moving ahead in their careers, one of the reasons is their ability to take initiative.  Confidence is gained by taking risk, getting out of one’s comfort zone to try something new, going through failures and successes, and simply by taking the first step towards the direction you want.  Simply sitting around and waiting for things to happen, is not the solution.

As as Bob Marley sang,

“Get up!  Stand up! Stand up for your rights!  Get up, Stand Up, Don’t Give up the Fight!”

So “Be the first to Initiate!” 

Integrity, Confidence and Full Disclosure  

• Integrity – Am I doing what I promised?  Have I done what I promised?  Check yourself once an hour or at least once a day!  Integrity, like morality and fairness, is often in the eyes of the beholder.  You know whether or not you:
  • Tell the truth and don’t stretch, distort, or come in late with it
  • Live up to your word
  • Worry about being “caught”
  • Worry about your dad / mom or favorite mentor would think
  • Would want your actions to be on the front page newspaper
  • Would be pleased and proud if your children behaved like you
• Confidence
  • Is a state of mind
  • Is not the absence of fear and apprehension, but the conquering of it.
  • You do not pass uncertainty down to your team members.
  • No matter what is going on around you, you have to be cooler than cool!
  • A leader has to put on a “take charge” attitude, stand up straight, smile, and look people in the eye because a leader has to do the necessary results-oriented work.
  • If you show confidence, people will treat you like you have the required confidence.  If you don’t act confidently, they’ll treat you like you aren’t’.
  • Overconfidence that turns into arrogance will turn around and bite you.
  • You have to talk about a problem like it’s doable.
  • “You play the part before you get the part”
• Full Disclosure
  • Means being direct, crystal clear, disarmingly open, and straight in all of your verbal and nonverbal communication
  • You tell people your position, and you ask questions to get to know theirs
  • Tell people what they need to know
  • Communicate early and often.
  • Tell people what you want or expect from them or what you plan for them.
  • Ask what they want or expect from you and what they plan for you.

These are key learnings from a book I just read, called Executive Charisma. 

Mission and Values

• A good mission statement and a good set of values are required for any successfully company / team
• The mission announces exactly where you are going, and the values describe the behaviors that will get you there
• An effective mission statement basically answers one question: “How do we intend to win in this business?”
• This question  requires companies to make choices about people, investments, other resources, and it prevents them from falling into the common trap of asserting they will be all things to all people all the time.
• An effective mission statement balance the possible and the impossible
• Setting the mission is top management’s responsibility.  A mission cannot be delegated to anyone except the people ultimately held accountable for it.
• Values are just behaviors, and the actual process of creating values has to be interactive.
• The behaviors require explanation, and should be specific / descriptive that it leaves little to imagination.
• Clarifty around values and behaviors much be backed up with reward to those who exhibit them, and “punishment” to those who don’t.
• For a company’s mission and values to truly work together as a winning proposition, they have to be mutually reinforcing.

There are key lessons learned from the book Winning!, by Jack Welsh

Identify your next move and the one after that. What do you want to be doing next year? In the next three years?

Identify areas for development. What skills, experience or training will you need for that next move? Start planning now by researching how to get the skills and experience you need.

Become an expert. Taking classes, reading books and doing informational interviews are just a few ways to start preparing for your next career move. Learn everything you can about your area of expertise.

Seek out cross-functional activities. You’ll learn more about the company and also benefit from the knowledge of your co-workers.

Treat every mistake as an opportunity to learn. Everyone makes mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up, but do take some time to analyze where you went off course, and then take measures to ensure you do better next time.

Ask questions. Don’t understand something? Ask questions or do some research. Don’t be afraid of seeming “ignorant.”

Seek out a coach or mentor. Whether it’s someone at work or someone in your community, a mentor can provide invaluable insight and advice. Choose someone who is in a position you want or a similar position.