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How to Increase the Number of A-Players on Your Team

3/16/2020

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A-players are the most productive people in your organization, and they consistently live your core values. They thrive in an environment of setting priorities, meeting goals, and being accountable.

Did you know that one of the main reasons A-players leave organizations is because of the tolerance of C-players.?

When I work with CEOs and their leadership teams, we make it a habit to do a talent assessment twice a year. It is here, where we assess employees based on two criteria; their performance (production) and living your core values. 

This approach provides an insightful view from 10,000 feet. 

To create this assessment, begin by creating a 4 square matrix. Label the Y-axis core values with a range of 0-100%; (honoring and living the core values); and label the X-axis as performance, with a scale of 0-100% (meeting all performance goals).

As the CEO, you plot your direct reports (with your coach). 
With the leadership team, plot their direct reports with all the leadership members in the room. 
It's important to note that some leaders can be hard scorers compared to others. Having others present (during this exercise) acts as a form of checks and balances. 
By the way, we don't score anyone present in the meeting. 

Here are the four-quadrant results.

  • Top Right Quadrant-A-players are high in performance and high in living the core values. 
  • Top Left Quadrant-B-players are high in core values but need to improve performance
  • Bottom Right Quadrant-B/C-players are high in performance but low in living the core values
  • Bottom Left-C-players are not living the core values, and they are not hitting performance objectives. ​

As part of the team, we then set out to take action. This assessment process is a waste of valuable time if you do not take action. 

What are the actions? 
  • A-players: the goal is to retain them, so the action is to recognize them and begin to understand their career desires 
  • B-players: we want to coach them. Coaching them to be an A-player. What skills, abilities do they need to improve, how does their mindset have to change so they can significantly improve their productivity/performance? 
  • B/C-players: they merit a warning. Employees who do not fit your values and do not live out your values can be harmful to your organization in the long run. 
  • C-players: serious consideration about moving them on. Have a tough conversation, create a time-based action plan with precise performance and values changes that MUST happen. Then make a decision. (These meetings should include HR.)

How are you going to hit your 1-year, 3-year, and 10-year goals? 

Too often, I/we picture our employees falling on the normal distribution curve. A Few A's and a few C's and the bulk are B players. We say to ourselves; everybody can't be an A-player. 

At Thought iQ, we don't support this view. 

We want an organization full of A-players. We believe you should be intentional about increasing A-players. Retain you're A-players and develop rock-solid B-players that you can coach into A-players. 
If you are serious, we suggest setting a target for the number of A-players you desire or the % of your workforce that are A-players. Just like you create a revenue or profit goal, set an annual goal, and track A-player growth. 

This assessment process is not to replace any of the human resources essential functions. Instead, it shines the light (on a category of players) in your organization and allows us to build a team that thrives. 


We know that successful organizations are learning organizations, and successful leaders are learning, growing, and developing their people. They do this by providing learning opportunities, coaching, and feedback. 


Assess with your team. 

If you are the CEO/President, then do it with your leadership team. 
  • What are the insights? 
  • How does the assessment make you feel? 
It's time to see how you can start to increase the number of A-players in your organization. 

Set a target and begin to track/measure. 


Let me ask you, are you building a team of A-players? 

Imagine the impact. 

​"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."
-Andrew Carnegie



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ACCOUNTABILITY, why the hesitation?

2/11/2020

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"Accountability separates the wishers in life from the action-takers that care enough about their future to account for their daily actions."
- John Di Lemme

Frequently, when we work with leaders and their teams, accountability can be a struggle. If accountability is a weakness in your organization, you risk not reaching the dreams and goals that you have for your team and the organization.

Symptoms of poor accountability may include:
  • unresolved problems
  • priorities not completed on time
  • lots of excuses from team members
  • a lot of blame discussions and
  • lack of tough decision making

I was a wrestler. Being accountable and responsible for results was commonplace. It was me and my opponent on the mat for all the spectators to see. 
Accountability landed on my shoulders. 
I owned my performance. Every win or defeat, I had to learn and grow from it. 

This is where I started my understanding of how accountability can impact your results. 

In the 10 Rockefeller habits, two habits address accountability.
  • Every facet of the organization has a person assigned with the accountability for goal meeting.
  • All employees can answer (quantitatively), whether they had a good day or week.

In the book Extreme Ownership the authors and Navy Seals state there are no bad teams, just bad leaders. They claim that leaders drive performance, or they don't. That’s a powerful self-review.

Are you driving performance or not? Is accountability a strength of your organization?  

If substandard performance is accepted and no one is accountable and there are no consequences, then poor performance becomes the new standard.

In the book Creating a Culture of Accountability, written by Mark Green, a fellow Gravitas Impact coach, he identifies four areas to build accountability for leaders.
  1. Lead by example
  2. Make sure the right people are in the right seats doing the right things
  3. Raise expectations of your teams
  4. Use metrics to measure performance

In an article I read recently, Coke CEO James Quincey, said his biggest regret as chief executive is that he hasn't moved quickly enough into specific segments of the beverage market, and that includes sparkling water. ("AHA" brand will be hitting the shelves in March of 2020.)
Quincey is "owning" the fact that Coca-Cola didn't move quickly enough. If you want employees to be accountable, you need to model it.  

Often the source of the accountability problem is a people problem. There is a gap between the manager's expectations and the employee's understanding of their role. What do they get paid to do? Occasionally, we find leaders hesitant or unwilling to address the situation. Maybe a person is just in the wrong role; perhaps the expectations were not clear, or the person is not the right person to achieve your lofty company goals.

In a survey of 11,000 managers and supervisors, a majority could not name their top priorities. You can't be accountable if you don't know your priorities.
If our goals aren't clear, how can we measure performance? 
If we can't measure performance, then we can't hold employees accountable.

Thomas Monson said, "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates."

Here are two simple ways of developing accountability within your organization.

Accountability Optimizer Exercise
One of the most revealing tools we use as Gravitas Impact coaches is the Accountability Optimizer.
I used this tool with a potential client, and it was very revealing. For one thing, the CEO was accountable for way too much, to the detriment of the organization. In some functions, it was vague on who indeed was responsible. Finally, people were not sure of the metrics for which they were accountable. Part of the tool is about identifying the leading and lagging indicators for each critical function.

If you would like a copy of this tool, send me an email. 
It is available by request only.

Coaching 
Another method to improve accountability is for leaders to conduct 15-20 minute weekly coaching sessions with every direct report.
Here we discuss:
  • Clarity of goals and performance progress 
  • Building trust in the relationship
  • Understanding how individual role(s) are vital to overall company purpose and objectives

"I believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities." Bob Nardelli (Past CEO of Chrysler and Home Depot)

If you want to create a winning team and build accountability in your organization, make sure employees know where you are going, and how they fit into it. They should be very clear about the job expectations. As a leader, lead by example and make sure you have the right people in the right seats and measure your progress.

If you want to talk about building a culture of accountability, connect with me at doug.hershey@thoughtiq.com or call me at 814-330-1973.

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Quarterly Plans Drive Results.

1/8/2020

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No single factor has more impact on employee engagement than “clearly defined goals that are written down and freely shared.” Deloitte Review, 2015 Quarterly planning is merely breaking down your annual priorities into four quarters to ensure that you accomplish and achieve your yearly goals. Your quarterly priorities create a sense of urgency and excitement that an annual goal cannot.
Annual goals are too “far out there.” It’s hard for you and your teams to maintain a focus over 12 months. But you can keep the focus, discipline, and energy to create and achieve 90-day quarterly priorities. You will accomplish more; faster. The quarterly plan also moves you toward your 3-year targets and your Big Hairy Audacious Goal. 

John Doerr, in his book, Measure What Matters
, shared the power of having quarterly objectives and key results at Intuit, Google, Intel, and the Gates Foundation. Former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, credits the focused Objectives and Key Results with “changing the course of the company forever.”


The critical elements of the quarterly plan include: 

  •            First, decide what the key metrics for the quarter are. Examples could include revenue, cash on hand, gross margin, net profit, # new customers, NPS customer scores, etc.
  •            Second, brainstorm and select the 2-3 key priorities and then set a completion due date and assign one person with clear accountability for each priority. Think of your priorities as activities that, when accomplished, will make the most significant impact in your organization.
  •            Third, decide on a critical number (we discussed in the newsletter last month) for the #1 priority on your list. This critical number is how you are going to measure the achievement of the #1 priority. I’d suggest you use a leading indicator. For example, # of sales demo’s is something that you control and is predictive of revenue (a lagging indicator).
  •            Finally, keep metrics and the critical number visible to all and communicate progress.  ​
A few thoughts on determining your priorities:
Focus on 1, 2, or 3 priorities. Start with 1 or 2 if it is new to you and your leadership team. This type of focus is a discipline (habit) that you want to develop.
Commonly, organizations attempt to take on too many priorities, and then none of them are achieved.

Sources of priorities:

I highly recommend that you tap into employees throughout your organization to listen to what they believe the priorities should be. When people weigh-in, they buy-in.
Also, data that you have collected from your customers can be a great source in identifying priorities as well.
The clarity in writing:
Make sure you take the time to write the priorities clearly. Write them with the SMART acronym in mind. Priorities should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reach, and Time-Bound. There can be zero subjectivity around the accomplishment of the goal. It’s either yes we hit it, or no, we didn’t.
Accountability:
A reminder, quarterly priorities are designed to be hit. There are no excuses. We all work together to ensure we hit our targets. Once a leader is assigned a priority, that priority trumps any preference they may have within their department. If you get behind on the priority, you need not be afraid to ask for help. Team members are there to support each other. When you only have 13 weeks, if you get a few weeks behind, more than likely, you won’t be able to catch up.

I
t is not unusual that quarterly priorities span multiple departments. Therefore, it makes sense that departments, teams, and individuals will have 90-day priorities, and they should tie into the organization’s top priorities. When this happens, we have alignment. When everyone knows the plan, understands their part in the plan, and is focused on achieving it, we are in sync. When employees are more productive, they have more fun. Accomplishment brings energy, a source of pride, and gets people excited.
Helping the CEO Facilitate the Process:
Quarterly planning frequently is put on the back burner because it is time-consuming, and other things are “more urgent.” But they are not more important. Is anything more important than accomplishing stated goals?
I can help. My proven process includes supporting your leadership in creating an annual plan and, subsequently, a quarterly plan. I conduct a series of on-site quarterly meetings with the CEO and the leadership team where we review the results of the past quarter, evaluate and discuss what worked and what didn’t. Then we create new priorities for the next quarter. I take the burden from you as the CEO.
My goal is to help you hit yours. Want to be more productive? 90% of research confirms that well-defined, challenging goals enhance productivity.
Time to start building quarterly plans.

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Let Go, My EGO!

12/18/2019

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​According to a recent Twitter post by Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, the two most significant barriers to good decision making are your ego and your blind spots. He says, "that together, they make it difficult for you to objectively see what is true about you and your circumstances and to make the best possible decision by getting the most out of others." 

Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, declared in 2014, the new game was to be a "learn-it-all" company rather than a "know-it-all" one. Nadella is quoted as saying, "A learn-it-all company makes the decision that every day will be a new day, with learning, exploring and experimenting as the norm."

That's' great advice. As a CEO or leader in the C-Suite, you do not need to be a know-it-all. 
Who says you must have all the answers. Is this an area where your ego can hold you back? 
Do you believe you should have all the answers? 

In the early days of my career, we chose what we thought was the best distribution channel to go to market. But after disappointing results, we ended up leapfrogging the norm of selling industrial products through industrial distribution channels and decided to sell to the end-user directly via direct marketing. 

Our founders had run successful businesses, but direct marketing was very different.
We were blessed with owners that highly supported growing, experimenting, and learning. Every day at work was a new adventure. Because we were new to building a direct marketing business, we reached out to gurus. We were in learn-it-all mode. 

We invited Don Libey, Al Ries, Laura Ries, Simon Synek, Robert Fritz, and many more to central PA. Throughout my 30+ years, we engaged multiple experts in all the critical areas of our business. 
It's funny to think back to the mid to late 1980s; there was no internet, no YouTube, no Google, so knowledge was obtained in the old fashion way. 

What benefits were we expecting? Initially, it may have been survival. Still, it was our wish that meeting with the gurus would accelerate our learning, minimize potential mistakes, and set us on a stable business growth trajectory. I believe having this growth mindset and desire to seek help, fueled our business success. But we had to admit (let go my ego) that leadership didn't have all the answers. Investing in consultants who had been down the road before and had engaged with many successful direct marketing companies, we believed, would accelerate our financial and people growth. 

When I reflect, I'm thankful for people who encouraged me and supported my learning. 

Ask yourself the following: 
Are you "out over your skis"?  
What experience, insight, & knowledge would be impactful?
Who are the gurus that could help?
Then go and do some research, choose a guru, and make the call. 

As business coaches, we believe that "as the leadership team goes, so goes the rest of the company." 
The world is changing and changing rapidly. There is a lot to learn. 
So as a leader, don't let the ego get in your way. Don't be afraid to ask for help — model to your leadership team the value of being curious and humble. 
Learning is a never-ending journey.
So as Nadella said, " a learn-it-all beats a know-it-all." Which do you want to be? 

Don’t be blindsided.

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Do You Have a Process for Managing Your Organization?

11/12/2019

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That seems like a pretty simple question, and it's more than likely that you answered yes, but let me ask you; If you won the lottery and left tomorrow, could a leader pick up on the process by following your documentation? 
​

Let's dig into what to include in that documentation or Management Operation Process (MOP). Ideally, it will consist of all of the nuances that make up a great organization. If your MOP doesn't cover all of the following, it's time to update.
  • How do you determine your strategy? 
  • How do you select critical priorities for the quarter, and how do you measure results? 
  • What are the inputs and the outputs of your strategic thinking and execution planning? 
  • What positions and skills make up your leadership team?
  • What are your processes for communicating with your team and the entire organization? 
  • What is the process of holding your team accountable? 

 Answering these six fundamental questions are what keeps your organization running.
 Many times leaders want to answer the question on the MOP with a technology tool. While technology is imperative in maintaining your competitive edge, it doesn't interact with or motivate your leaders, and it won't hold them accountable. 

You will be able to retrieve data and set up operating procedures that will improve your margins using technology. However, you will still need to make decisions and use strategic thinking. If you automate something without a clear and documented process, technology could likely make it worse. 
 Whether you are working with people, processes, or technology, customer and employee feedback and metrics are critical. Ask yourself, 
  • Do you have leading and lagging indicators to measure and ensure:
    • industry-leading operating profit
    • increased cash flow
    • higher valuation as compared to the competition 
  • Are your customer satisfaction scores continuously improving? 
  • Are you completing projects on time? 
  • Are you surveying your employees regularly?

 As you begin to put together your MOP, you will have a lot of tough conversations, and some of them will be with you. You want to be honest and answer,
  • What's blocking me from documenting these processes?
  • Am I inconsistent with meetings and agendas?
  • Is strategic planning an afterthought? 
  • Do I make decisions based on whether my team will like it or whether I feel it makes an impact?

If you are unable to say that "routine has set you free," developing habits & processes will help you go from good to great in your organization. And more importantly, you will have more fun, enjoy the climb to success, and get back some of your time.

It's more than likely that you have the product development process, the accounting process, the sales process, the ERP process, the purchasing process, but do you have a MOP?

Working with a Gravitas Impact Premier Coach will help you develop a proven process for your CEO and leadership team to establish habits, attract and retain the right people. Let's work together to create a truly differentiated strategy, drive flawless execution, and have cash for a rainy day. 

 If you're intrigued, I'd love to chat.

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Another Annual Strategy Session. MAKE IT COUNT. HIRE AN OUTSIDE FACILITATOR.

10/23/2019

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As we finish out the year, most of us are spending at least a few hours in strategic planning sessions. They can be impactful, or they can be something we have to check off our to-do list. If your organization has some things that need to change, annual strategy sessions can be the beginning of launching your company into your best year ever. Spending some money on the correct format for the meeting is worth considering.

Meeting format means that your agenda and engagement, and even location and set-up need to have some thought put into them. For most C-suite leaders, the issues with creating and executing a strategy are that you need to engage in the meeting and plan. If you are also part of running the meeting, you lose out. Even if you try hard not to be, you are also often involved in office politics. You will deal with who gets to speak the most, whose opinion carries the most weight.  According to a study published on NCBI, “Facilitation is an approach that can be used by individual and team change agents to help build capacity and support practice change within organizational contexts.” If something needs to change in your organization, giving the job to an outside facilitator - you may win big.

More importantly, once the meeting is over, you need to implement it. That means accountability to the ideas you flushed out. The right facilitator is fully engaged - they will create a follow-up process to ensure that you get the biggest bang for your time and money.

Here are the top 6 reasons to spend some extra money on a facilitator.
  1. Experience a proven process that works. The right facilitator will have a proven planning and execution process that's worked for thousands of other C-suite leaders worldwide.
  2. Ensure that 100% of your team is engaged. With an internal facilitator, presenters lose the ability to participate fully in their organizational planning.
  3. Receive completely unbiased coaching. The right facilitator has no desire to choose sides or get involved in office politics.
  4. Bring in an outside perspective. The right facilitator will ask different and hard questions composed from a broad scope of research.
  5. Introduce new concepts. As a result of a professional facilitators' continuous learning, you experience the best strategic planning concepts.
  6. Make accountability part of the process. A facilitator should not be just a facilitator. The best will bring in a continued accountability process that includes touch-points and "homework."
​
If you're ready to make 2020 different, start with your strategic planning. And do it differently.
If you are ready to hire an outside facilitator - we are still booking for November and December meetings. Email today at doug.hershey@thoughtiq.com.

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Book Highlights: The Five Temptations of a CEO

10/8/2019

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Author: Pat LencioniJossey-Bass      
A Wiley Imprint www.josseybass.com
US $24.95
 
As a fellow leader, I give this book 4/5 stars. 
 
The Five Temptations of a CEO is easy to read and comprehend. Fellow readers will relate to all or at least a few of the temptations that make this book so impactful.
 
Written in a fable format, The Five Temptations makes for an interesting read and provides practical examples for easier comprehension. Pat shares the story of Andrew, a CEO who has a board meeting the next day and has to report business results that are less than favorable.
As luck would have it, Andrews meets an older man on the subway who provides wise instructions with an overarching theme - people make business complicated because they are afraid to look at the simple issues.
 
The introduction makes the point that CEO's talk about the complexities of the job, and when faced with failure, will point to what Pat calls symptoms, like strategic errors, marketing inadequacies, competitive threats, and technology failures. Pat says these are only symptoms, the real reason they fail is they succumb to one or more of the five temptations.
These temptations can be poison.
 
So here they are:
 
Temptation #1: Choosing status over results
Temptation #2: Choosing popularity over accountability
Temptation #3: Choosing certainty over clarity
Temptation #4: Choosing harmony over conflict
Temptation #5: Choosing invulnerability over trust
 
Temptation #1

 
Leaders may be more interested in protecting their career status than making sure the company achieves results. Do not be so proud of the title, rather as CEO; be proud of the things that the organization is accomplishing. Great CEO's focus on the need to accomplish something; that is what drives them, not their ego.
 
Takeaways:
Focusing on status and career above focus on company results can lead to complacency.
Make results the most important measure of success. 
 
Temptation #2
 
Leaders are often more interested in being popular with direct reports than holding them accountable.  The result is the failure to have frank discussions around performance and expectations.
Friendships with direct reports make it challenging to have discussions when they are not meeting the expectations. Leaders will fire someone, a difficult decision, but they find it hard or neglect to give constructive or negative feedback.
 
Takeaways:
Work for respect, not affection. Do not view reports as a support group but as employees who must deliver on commitments. 

Temptation #3

Leaders want to ensure that their decisions are correct. Therefore they can be slow making decisions that need making. Alternatively, they are afraid to make decisions without all the information for fear of being wrong. If a CEO is not comfortable being wrong, then they won't make tough decisions with limited information. CEO's cannot move forward in the face of uncertainty if they are not willing to make mistakes. Often they do not want to put ideas out there where ideas will get challenged. They focus on the need for precision and correctness, which leads to postponing decisions and which leads to unclear deliverables. 
 
Takeaways:
Leaders learn more when they take decisive action rather than waiting for the perfect amount of information. It is the job of the CEO to risk being wrong.
 
Temptation #4
 
Leaders often have a desire for harmony. Yet harmony may be cancer to decision making. Leaders need the full benefit of everyone's ideas.
CEO's can believe that employees should agree and get along rather than disagree with one another. Harmony restricts productive and passionate debate around opinions that individuals may have strong views and feelings.
Without this conflict, decisions are often sub-optimal.
 
Takeaways:
When leaders have all the available information, they can be more confident in their decisions.  
Tolerate discord. Encourage people to air their differences.
 
Temptation #5
 
Before direct reports trust the leader, the leader has to trust them. Desire vulnerability. Are you willing to admit when you are wrong? Willing to share your weaknesses? People who trust one another are not worried about holding back their opinions, shortcomings or their struggles. The key is to embrace the self-examination that reveals the temptations and keeps them in the open where they are addressable.
 
Takeaways:
It is a messy, constant, and uncomfortable process but one that great leaders accept.
Actively encourage reports to challenge ideas. Trust them with your reputation and ego. They will respond with trust and honesty, and be more willing to be vulnerable with their peers. 

Ready to overcome some temptations and get started on your 2020 strategy? Get in touch at doug.hershey@thoughtiq.com.

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Are You Profitable? Not sure? Let’s Start the Discussions.

9/25/2019

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Are you profitable? That is the question. For most leaders, at a basic level profit means that there revenue covers their expenses with some dollars left over. Pretty basic. The idea of creating metrics based on profit is not as basic.
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When we dig into profitability, some questions deserve exploring.
  • Are your expenses valid?
  • Are your salaries or hourly rates what they should be and are they appropriately allocated? This question is especially necessary for generational family businesses.
  • How satisfied are you with your COGS?
  • Do you understand Gross Profit versus Operating Profit versus Net Profit Margin?

Digging into these questions will undoubtedly create additional assessments.

To truly understand profitability, you will need to dig into your current COGS calculation. There is no reason to tie metrics to gross profit if you aren’t sure that your COGS is accurate. While you may be thinking, “we better know that” there are reasons why your COGS may not be correct. Ultimately it may come from:
  • Inaccurate Reporting of Labor
  • Erroneous Reporting of Expenses
  • Incorrect Inventory Costs
  • Lack of understanding of how a “task” is associated with an item or service sold (this is part of determining Operating Profit, which = Gross Profit – (Operating Costs, Including Selling and Administrative Expenses)

If you are pretty confident that your COGS and operating costs are accurate and allocated adequately, then you can use Gross Profit or even Operating Profit as a critical metric.

However, most of us need to dive into the above bullet points to create metrics that drive true profitability. This digging is where the rubber meets the road.

Let’s look at four leadership discussion points that you may be able to use to create meaningful KPI’s (that drive profitability). 
  • Validate your data and update your technology. For many companies, especially those manufacturing or distributing products, inaccurate reporting is the result of living in a spreadsheet nightmare, or with a homegrown system. Bad data and outdated technology lead to inventory mismanagement and improper COGS calculations. If this is you, it may be time to consider a new ERP system. Focusing on your data accuracy combined with the selection and adoption of new technology can dramatically improve your decision making. The better your data, the better your results. If you can’t get two years of data quickly – it’s time to upgrade. 
 
  • Competitive Analysis. It may be time to get to know your competitors. What are they charging? If they aren’t charging more- is there a way to explore how they may be creating a similar output with fewer expenses? Build leadership KPI’s on exploring the competitive landscape and implementing what you learn. 
 
  • Reduce Expenses and report them accurately. I’ve seen change leadership put into place for nothing more than finding ways to reduce costs. Task your leadership team by looking at their departments and bringing potential waste to the table with lean and six sigma. This process usually involves decisions like outsourcing areas where you are weak and re-evaluating any complex expenses. The sales process is always an excellent place to start. Tie KPI’s to expense knowledge and reduction. 
 
  • Focus on profit by segment. This type of focus can engage your segment leaders. Please encourage them to compete healthily and build the understanding of profit by segment into their KPI’s. When you segment your business by product or service lines to find out which areas of your business have the best revenue and net income – you begin to use your data for decision making. Healthy companies rarely keep divisions because they’ve always had them. If salaries make up a big part of overhead, you can allocate them based on how much time they spend on each segment.

There’s no doubt that building metrics and, or KPI’s based on driving profitability benefits everyone in an organization. However, starting or finding time for these problematic leadership conversations can be a monumental task. Having an outside professional drive the discussions can take off the internal pressure. 

Ready to start the conversations? Get in touch today at doug.hershey@thoughtiq.com​.

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Customer Feedback - Your Built-In Metric

9/11/2019

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As a business owner/operator, you do your best to please your customers, satisfy their needs, and take steps to keep them loyal to your brand. However, how can you be sure that your efforts bring desired results? What are you doing to interact with them to gain the information you need to make intelligent decisions? Your clients experience with your brand and organization isn't something you should be guessing. Their opinions about the experience of your brand are invaluable. This information can help you to analyze and adjust your business practices. Don't leave customer feedback out of the equation.

There are a multitude of ways to leverage customer feedback, but first, let's explore how to collect that feedback and how to utilize the information once it's in your hands.

Having reliable customer satisfaction data is a crucial component in being able to address customer retention, evaluate your team's customer service efforts, improve products and services, and review other vital areas. Let's see how we can understand your customers journey through interacting with your products, services, and relationship management processes.What is customer feedback?
Top performing companies understand the role customer feedback plays in their business and strategies. So, what exactly is customer feedback? It's information regarding clients satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your products, services, and overall experience they have had with your company. Their feedback is data for improving customer experience and adjusting your planning and ultimate actions to their needs. This information is collected using surveys or direct communications (prompted feedback). 
You can also find opinions and reviews that your clients post online, utilize internet monitoring tools to understand user activity. (unprompted feedback) A combination of these and other methods are essential components in seeing the big picture of how your clients perceive your brand. Let's break it down a bit and focus in on some core reasons why you should be getting feedback from your customers:
  • Customer feedback helps improve products and services
When you launch a new product, brand, or service to market, you probably have an idea about customer needs. You have more than likely conducted some market research that provided a snapshot of what potential customers would be willing to pay, as well as ways to ramp up or customize your goods or services to meet needs. Only after customers use your product or service can you uncover tangible successes, flaws, and can track and note their experience, aka the customer journey.
After that initial launch, needs and expectations will evolve with time. You can have the best widget in the industry, but this expertise will never be more valuable than customer insights. Keeping your eye on your customer's experience will serve you.
  • Customer feedback helps you measure satisfaction
Customer satisfaction and loyalty gives insight into a company's financial performance. When broken down, it is directly linked to market share and higher (or lower!) revenue. 
There is a direct correlation between customer satisfaction and business performance. 
If you want to know you need to ask! A simple survey can reap many benefits! An accurate method to measure, manage, and improve customer satisfaction is determining your NPS (Net Promoter Score). This metric includes a straightforward question - "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?"
A good time to ask this is after they purchase or when they contact customer service.
To do this effectively, you need a Net Promoter Score questionnaire or process and a scoring scale.
If you are using a scale of 1-10, then those that respond with a 9 or 10 are promoters, a 7-8 are passives, and a 0-6 are detractors.
Once you have your responses, you can add up your "promoters," "passives," and "detractors." For the NPS score – you subtract your detractors from your promoters. If 85 people responded and you had 60 promoters, 15 passives and 10 detractors, approximately 70% are promoters, 18% are passive, and 12% are detractors. When you subtract your detractors from your promoters, you get your NPS% of 58%. In this case your NPS = 58, which would be excellent. Some tools can calculate this for you – but it all starts with an excellent customer survey process.
  • Collecting customer feedback shows how much you value their opinions
Reaching out to your clients for feedback communicates that their opinion matters to you. 
When you include them while shaping your business, they feel more connected to your company. Listening to their feedback helps you create stronger ties with them, and they with you. This engagement is the best way to gain valuable brand ambassadors who will spread positive word-of-mouth for you, which is a priceless commodity.
  • Customer feedback helps you create the best customer experience in your vertical
Today's marketing requires creating a personal experience for individuals with your products, services, and brands. Keeping the focus on providing the best customer experience at every touch-point establishes brand loyalty. Moreover, the most effective way to give them a fantastic experience is by asking them what they like about your service and what should be improved.
  • Customer feedback helps to improve customer retention
When you understand your customers level of satisfaction, you can intelligently evaluate the service you provide and uncover any areas that may need improvement. Hearing some negative commentary? Use it as an opportunity to address issues head-on! Keeping the flow of information keeps you in tune and on top of your game.
  • Customer feedback is a reliable source for information to other consumers
Social media and the internet have paved the way consumers interact with brands. 
According to Inc. contributing writer, Craig Bloem, Research shows (click here to check out the numbers) that "91 percent of people regularly or occasionally read online reviews, and 84 percent trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Opinions provided by other customers who have already used a product or service carry much weight!" 
Do you incorporate a review system into your strategy? 

Putting your buyers at the core of your business model and treating their feedback as a valuable source of data for decision making should be a crucial part of your overall strategy.  
Their pleasure in your service is your success, so give them a voice at the table and listen carefully! 

For a personal evaluation of how your organization can better utilize leadership tools, such as customer feedback, contact me today. ​

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7 Ways To Get the Most Out of Your Strategic Planning

8/20/2019

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A sound strategy should produce sustainable and growing revenue. You have great execution when you have drama-free processes and industry-leading profitability.
This type of strategic planning separates strategic thinking from execution planning. Too often we do capture where we want to go, but we overlook clearly stating what needs to be done by when and by whom. Execution
is often overlooked or placed on the back-burner.

 Why? 

 It's overwhelming.

 We suggest you start by breaking your strategic planning into bite-size pieces. Think first (strategic thinking 12+ months and longer), then execute (execution planning) — 12-month priorities broken into 4 quarters with key performance indicators. So often leaders come up with great ideas but fail to close the loop with clear execution plans.

Strategic thinking allows you to deliberate beyond your current daily action items or knee jerk reactions. Where do you want to be in 18 months, 3 years, and 10 years? Execution planning builds on that vision and allows you to focus on your 90-day "rocks" – those big, highly essential priorities that must be accomplished in the current quarter. When you combine these two components – you are well on your way to effective strategic planning.

Ready to get started? Let's incorporate 7 items that launch your strategic planning into the stratosphere.

 1. Form your strategic circle or council, if you will, of 3-5 people.

Start by committing to weekly meetings. Spend 1.5 - 2.0 hours together exploring trends and creating ideas around your future direction. Think innovatively. These ideation-only discussions are for learning and formulating. The tactics come later. Strategic councils give you opportunities to see and hear from your leadership circle in ways you just can't on a day to day basis. 

 2. Build the right team. 

Involve at least one outside industry expert on your strategic council, and select internal leaders that fit your outlined criteria.
Don't know how to build your criteria?
Pick those who are visionaries.
Pick those who are passionate about the future.
Pick those who challenge the status quo and value change.

 3. Think longer term.  

Begin to create a 3-year plan that includes critical financial targets. 
That plan should generate 12 months rolling-quarter milestones. Use those milestones to keep you on track. Build them into KPI's and other internal employee assessments. 
Create a 10-year inspirational and measurable goal that gets you and your employees excited. Do you want to give bonuses, stock options, a dream conference based on these goals? 

 4. Put it in writing. 

Your plan should be written in an easy to read one-page format. 
Think 6th-grade format. No, your employees aren't dumb – but digging through a large planning document isn't high on their priority lists. 
Post it throughout the organization.
Every employee should understand how their role fits into and ultimately contributes to the plan. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be a dynamic and ongoing process.

 5. Be sticklers on the execution of your plan.

Don't worry about employees getting sick of your plan. Too many great strategies fall by the wayside due to unwanted feedback. 
All your documentation, meetings, and internal communications should reiterate the 3-5 initiatives that live within your 12-month plan, along with your "Critical Number" for your most crucial yearly initiative. 
These initiatives become your internal language.

 6. Conduct quarterly meetings that drive accountability towards the achievement of quarterly "Rocks."

Break your 12-month strategy down in quarters. 
Engage everyone in the wins and losses. 
When we don't share with our employees, we create a "they/we" mentality that defeats the purpose. 
When an employee completes their rocks – we celebrate. 
When the company hits theirs, we celebrate bigger. 
It's a joint effort, and it's joint accountability that works. 
All employees should know their 90-day rocks and be able to answer whether they accomplished them or not.

 7. Consider hiring an outsider to facilitate your strategic planning meetings. 

​When an internal leader facilitates, they become caught up in the process of facilitating and not as engaged in innovation and thinking "future." An outside facilitator takes off the pressure. There is a cycle that can happen within an organization that leads to "if we do this –we create more work." The right executive coach can facilitate, create tasks, and lead accountability efforts. 

If you know the coach returns in 13 weeks – you tend to accomplish more. 

Ultimately, this allows your team to learn and use a repeatable process for consistency and effectiveness. One that you can use well into the future. 
 
 So, take this all into consideration, but know that effective strategic planning is a habit that happens weekly; it's not a one-time event.

Why not get a taste of what a clear long term vision combined with a great plan of execution can do for your organization? Schedule your FREE discovery call below. ​

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