The promises of new ecosystem ways of working sound so good.
Radical responsibility.
Full transparency.
Decentralized decision making.
But how does an organization get there from here?
Here usually feels like: Policies. Bosses. Performance Reviews. Reporting Structures. Human RESOURCES. Middle Management. Incentive Plans.
Not so inspiring!
Along with my co-authors, I wrote Reinventing Scale-Ups as a way of sharing experiments in new ways of working. Since its release we’ve been helping more and more companies make the shift. Along the way, we’ve continued learning and have a few new things that can help you on your journey. Here are my top 5.
Listen to the Naysayers
Naysayers are a pain in the ass. They point out all the things that could go wrong. They push back. They resist.
And we need to listen. There’s gold in those opinions!
Until naysayers feel heard, understood and valued, their heels remain firmly planted. They keep retreating to the safety of what they know.
Take time to listen. Engage with the intention of hearing and understanding their concerns. Don’t try to change their mind. You can’t.
Over time, new possibilities for moving forward will emerge.
Focus on building new practices
The shift to ecosystem-based or agile or Teal or [insert your preferred name here] takes root once team members start working differently. They talk differently. Act differently. Meet differently. Decide differently.
Doing differently is anchored in new habits… or practices. Here’s the five part scaffolding I use with my clients.
1) Philosophies and intentions. What rooting philosophies & intentions will shape your new ways of working?
2) Principles and practices. Every company needs to develop its own set of principles and practices through experimentation. What are yours? (We explore many examples in Reinventing Scale-Ups.)
3) Rituals and routines. Once defined, how are the new practices kept alive and baked into the DNA of how your company runs? This usually requires some sort of cadence.
4) New colleagues. How will each new team member learn the elements core to your company’s DNA?
5) Reflect, review and refresh. What works now might not work 6–12 months in the future. Where is space created to review and refresh intentions, principles, practices, rituals and routines?
Learn how to give, and more importantly, receive feedback
Free-flowing feedback is a core, essential element of healthy ecosystems. Hierarchies, on the other hand, rely on the intermittent and funnelled flow of information. Since most of us grew up in the latter stilted system of feedback, we’re not great givers or receivers.
Invest the time to anchor your team to a shared approach to feedback. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel here. My preferred model is Radical Candor by Kim Scott. Crucial Conversations is another great option. Find one that works for you and invest the time in boosting everyone’s skill level.
Language matters
Language is imperfect but it’s what we’ve got. Shifting to new ways of working while using words associated with old ways of working… well… doesn’t work! We stay stuck in the past.
If you are working differently, describe it differently. If your old team meetings were top-down affairs, reshape and rename them to reflect a new participatory approach. One of my clients uses “Team Connect” to reflect the vibe of equal participation in their meetings.
Respect the journey of change
On the path from hierarchy to ecosystem, individuals cycle through three phases of change. For some, it’s a linear path. Others jump around.
Stage 1: The Intellectual Journey of Change
Do I get “it” (this new way of working) intellectually?
Can I define it with clarity?
Is my definition aligned with others’ definitions?
Can I intellectually agree with “it” and believe “it” makes sense?
Stage 2: The Emotional Journey of Change
How is this change personal to me?
Has “it” landed emotionally?
Am I ready to question long-held beliefs and personal views?
Can I let go of emotional attachments I have to the past?
Stage 3: The Practical Journey of Change
How do I need to alter my day-to-day patterns and habits?
In what practical ways do I need to change how I act and react?
Are you shifting from hierarchy to ecosystem? I’d love to hear your experiences.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. My latest book, Reinventing Scale-Ups can be found here. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
Visiting Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, yet-to-be married adventurers Dana and David Krauskopf started playing with a crazy idea. What if they were to build a hotel… from scratch? Twenty-five years later Hamanasi Adventure & Dive Resort has evolved into one of the world’s top eco-retreats. The resort holds a long list of honors: TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards, Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, The Boutique Hotel Award for Best Beach Hotel in the Americas, and an Eco Excellence Award.
That’s the short story.
The goodness of Dana and David’s journey comes by taking a deeper dive into how they made it happen.
Before purchasing an initial 21-acres of undeveloped property in southern Belize, Dana and David were cautioned by bankers, lawyers and the business elite of Belize City that failure was inevitable. The couple had no hospitality management experience and had chosen to build near the village of Hopkins. It was an area near void of tourism with a reputation for having a lazy workforce. Sustaining a thriving tourism business in Hopkins was viewed by most as a fools game.
In late 2017, my wife and I visited Hamanasi for a week of diving. By the end of our visit, I was compelled to track down the owners.
I wanted to learn how they had created such a top-notch customer experience — one that far exceeded any I had seen at other similar resorts.
Despite having over 145 staff members, we felt like welcome guests in the team’s home. Our experience is best captured through Dana’s description of how she thinks about Hamanasi. “If a friend or relative comes to my home and I know they prefer cream in their coffee, I make sure I have cream on hand. It’s my way of letting them know I care. This is the experience we want every guest to have at Hamanasi. It’s not just about responding to our guests’ needs, but also anticipating those needs.”
Our first “coffee-cream experience” came following our ride from the local airport. On the drive, our van load of guests engaged in a lively discussion about coffee. By the time we completed a relaxing two minute walk from van to hotel, the front desk staff was already briefed. Knowing of their new guest’s passion for coffee, we were offered coffee makers in our rooms. We experienced this same level of service time and time again with team members radiating warmth, care and humour at every turn.
So how did Dana and David do it? How were they able to build a world-class team under circumstances most thought impossible?
In conversation with Dana, I found five distinct, purposeful ingredients to their culture. They fall under the umbrella of genuine care. Care for team. Care for customers. Care for environment. Care for community. As I hear so often in conversation with successful founders, the Krauskopfs are not driven by a desire for excessive wealth. It’s personal passion and strong values at the core of their business.
Lazy or Unskilled?
From the beginning, Dana and David disagreed with others’ assumption that the people of Hopkins were lazy. Instead, they saw a village of good people lacking training. The Krauskopfs believed local residents would rise to the challenge given an opportunity to learn. They were right. 85% of the original 30 employees came from the local community. Nine of those are still with Hamanasi today.
Hamanasi takes training seriously, placing a heavy emphasis on staff development. Every new team member completes a robust onboarding program including award-winning customer service training. That same customer service training gets repeated as a refresher every two years. The team works with Antonella Moroni, a former business consultant. Antonella provides ongoing training and one-on-one coaching to the Hamanasi team. She teaches the practice of Mindfulness and how its fundamental principles can be applied to foster clear communication, open collaboration, positive conflict resolution and effective decision making.
Every team leader also receives training based on John Maxwell’s book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Chris, a young Mayan man who started at the resort as a beach-raker, was recently promoted to be the leader of the beach-raking team. He received the same leadership training as every other manager at Hamanasi.
This investment in education has an added benefit — an ever increasing sense of personal pride. Many team members don’t have a lot of formal education or global exposure. Through Hamanasi training programs they become genuine experts working at an award-winning resort. Marcia, one of the Krauskopf’s first hires, started off as a cook. She has since been certified by Johnson & Wales and the Culinary Institute of America and had the pleasure of preparing a meal for Britain’s Prince Harry as part of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebration.
Dana has an opportunity to speak at an annual team gathering. Each time, she shares her leadership perspective. “As leaders at Hamanasi, we see our job as treating you well, training you well, paying you competitively, and helping you be someone other resorts want to hire. At the same time, we aim to create an experience that leads you to want to stay with us and be part of this team.”
Building the Team
The Krauskopfs initial recruiting process was simple. They posted fliers in the community and set up a table on the beach where locals could apply. Beyond the most basic of application forms, Dana and David sat and talked with people. Unless specific skills were a necessity, such as dive-master certification, their focus was on personality. “Is this a person I would enjoy being around?” Much of the kitchen staff, for example, had never cooked outside of their homes before joining the Hamanasi team.
Hamanasi is now a bit more selective on skills and experience, but still hire young, personable, untrained locals too. It’s Dana and David’s belief that, “sometimes it’s better that way.”
Since day one, the Krauskopfs have maintained high ethical standards. Hamanasi never actively poaches employees from other hotels. If someone wants to work for Hamanai, they need to apply directly.
Setting Expectations
Hamanasi is demanding in the expectations it sets with the team. This is especially true for customer service orientation, which doesn’t always come naturally for new team members.
As part of its onboarding program, rules get explained and expectations set. In Dana’s words, “We go over the normal nuts and bolts you would anticipate. We also explain that we are a hotel and an eco resort. We are bringing guests into our home and our job is to provide nothing short of ‘experiences of a lifetime’. We train the team on our own customer-service method known by acronym GKLAA. GREET the customer. Get to KNOW them. LISTEN. ACT. ANTICIPATE.”
Guest comment forms get consolidated each month to help keep a pulse on how the team is doing. The comments get sorted into the good, the bad, and the ugly.
So what happens when team members fail to live up to Dana and David’s expectations? The Krauskopfs return to their core philosophy: care & train. Managers talk to those who need to improve. A lot of coaching and guidance is provided to help people along. This often takes time. Dana shared Kim’s story as an example. Kim was a server in the hotel restaurant. Her performance oscillated. She had good mood days and bad mood days. Her managers kept working with her and the investment paid off. Today Kim is a restaurant supervisor.
Feedback, Feedback and More Feedback
When I contacted Dana to research this article, she welcomed the opportunity to speak. For Dana, it was an opportunity to get feedback from a previous guest. She was keen to know what I thought they could do better. Her follow up email ended with, “Should you have any additional comments, positive or negative, please pass them along. Criticism is how we improve!”
For the Hamanasi team, feedback is fuel. As Dana explains, “I love when customers give us feedback… without it, we’re blind. For example, our restaurant servers spend their time standing by tables and looking down. They see the table in a certain way. Our guests see things from a different perspective and it’s that perspective we need to hear.”
Comment cards are just the start. Two days after arriving at Hamanasi a resort team member approached my wife and me. With clipboard in hand, she asked us a series of questions to see how the team might improve our stay. They asked us for more feedback before leaving the resort.
Human Connection
It’s clear that Dana and David’s intent is genuine. In Dana’s words, “we want our guests to feel we are inviting them into our home and they are part of our family. It’s about genuine human connection. I can treat you as a human, you can treat me as a human.”
While writing this article I’ve come to recognize the single defining element that separates Hamanasi from other resorts. The team at Hamanasi was there to serve me, but not to be my servant. The distinction may seem minor, but the onsite experience profound. Every member of the team stood tall, spoke with confidence, and served with pride.
As I dug deeper into this idea with Dana, she explained, “We encourage our team to get to know our guests, to talk with our guests. We want them to interact and to share their personal stories… it’s a powerful thing.”
I shared with Dana how I had had a lengthy conversation with a member of the front line resort team. Throughout the discussion, I never got a sense he was fearful of getting in trouble for not doing his job. Dana’s response: “He was doing exactly what he should have been doing at that given moment. There was no where else he should have been.”
Dana and David have a deep desire for their employees to respect customers as real people and not just wealthy transients. They want guests to respect the team too. When that healthy human connection develops, so does a sense of pride within the team. It leads everyone to think about how they can make others’ lives better. It starts to shift their outlook from “it’s my job” to “it’s the decent thing to do, the thing I want to do.”
Dana and David’s greatest sense of satisfaction comes when their staff gets commended. It’s the joy of proving that the original doubters from 20 years ago were wrong.
To learn more about Hamanasi, visit the resort’s website at www.hamanasi.com. While you are there, make sure to visit the Community and Sustainability sections of the site. The Hamanasi team is active in the local community. In 2017, Hamanasi gave over $28,000 to various local charities and initiatives, not including many in-kind gifts by both guests and the resort. They also house visiting veterinarians when they donate their time to the Hopkins Belize Humane Society.
To learn stories of other entrepreneurs and the radical ideas they are using to grow their businesses, visit www.reinventingscaleups.com.
Three years ago I was stuck in the mud. Fully up to my knees trudging a path I didn’t enjoy.
I knew exactly what I wanted.
I knew where I wanted to be.
Yet that hopeful future image alluded me. It had been doing so for a decade or more.
Every year, like many, I wrote a list of goals for myself. I’d charge into the new year full of enthusiasm. By mid-January I was back in the same rut — the list of goals buried deep in a book somewhere.
Everything changed three years ago. I was introduced to a new approach. Over time I’ve improved upon it.
The result? I hit all my 2017 goals. In less than two years, I created a new business from ground up. I’ve surpassed the goals that laid dormant for more than a decade.
Here’s the recipe I use. Give it a try.
Visualization is everything. If you can’t visualize your outcome as if it’s already happened, then it won’t. Period. I spent years hoping for something different in the future. Even planning for it. But I couldn’t fully visualize it. I wasn’t able to put myself into the future state I wanted to create.
All great accomplishments come to those who believe before they achieve. Elon Musk can envision taking humans to Mars. Richard Branson could envision landing a hot air balloon on the other side of the ocean.
I’ve learned to focus on what I believe possible. I visualize that goal as already complete. The sense of accomplishment it has brought. The feeling of it all.
In the first year my goals were small, but they took me out of a rut. Each year the visualizations get a bit bigger and bolder, always remaining believable — and achievable.
Write a letter to yourself at the beginning of the year… as if it’s the last day of the year. In my experience, a bullet point list is too sterile. It fails to capture the essence of a good visualization. Instead, I write paragraph form. I tend to start jotting down thoughts a few weeks ahead of time. When I’m ready, I sit down and write free form. I write and re-write until I’m happy with what I have. Next I review the following lists of questions to ensure I’ve captured everything important.
What are my intentions in these five areas of my life this year (the five Fs): family and friends; primary focus of my work; fitness and health; finances; internal fire (my personal passions and hobbies)?
Who do I want / need to become to achieve my goals?
What beliefs or values do I want to work on strengthening this year?
What capabilities do I want or need to master?
What behaviours do I want to practice / ritualize?
What environment do I want to create for myself by the end of this year?
Actions and intentions matter more than specific outcomes. Think about the life of a farmer for a moment. What are his primary goals? Reap a good crop, sell it for a healthy profit, sustain the farm? Will he achieve his goals? Maybe. Maybe not. Frost may linger or the rain may fail to come. Farmers are not so naive as to follow the traditional predict-and-control approach to goal-setting. They know how little control they often have. Instead, they keep their eye on their long-term intentions while taking short-term actions. Look far ahead and to tomorrow. Everything between will not go as planned.
Be smart about measurement. With the farmer analogy in mind, I’ve found it makes little sense to set annual goals that I can only assess at the end of the year. Instead, I look for things I can track daily, weekly or monthly at most. Having no idea what the future holds, I focus most on measuring what I’m doing today. All those todays add up.
For example, I tend to push myself too hard in the gym and stray from good health habits. This year, rather than setting a fitness goal as I usual would, I am focused on minimizing sick days to less than 11. It’s hard to visualize “not being sick”, so instead I’m visualizing the daily rituals and routines I’ll be following to stay healthy. In this example, everything is measured daily.
Have an accountability partner and visualize that relationship too. Yesterday, I sent my coach an email summarizing 2017. I included a screenshot of my dashboard too. Here’s why:
Written January 1st, 2017…
It’s December 31st 2017… As I look at my year-end dashboard, I can see that it’s green across all three major objectives… A smile of pride crosses my face and I do a fist pump high in the air. I take a screenshot and send it to Peter (my coach) and my mentors.
Every day throughout 2017, I envisioned sending the dashboard to Peter. It kept me focused and made sure I did everything I said I was going to do. For me, it’s a recipe that works.
I wish you all the best as you begin your 2018 journey. Visualize and go make it happen.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
Ben & Jerry’s, Etsy, Patagonia, Ecosia… wait… who?
For every celebrated purpose-driven business, there are thousands of companies working hard to do their part with little fanfare. Ecosia is one of those companies.
On a recent trip to Berlin, I journeyed into the heart of the city and to a nondescript collection of buildings with a small Ecosia sign street-side. Few who travel the cobblestone street would have any idea that within the labyrinth of offices sits a unique social enterprise responsible for planting close to 18 million trees. Ecosia runs a web search engine founded by CEO Christian Kroll eight years ago. The company now powers over 175 million web searches every month, dedicating 80% of its profits to supporting tree planting programs.
My goal in meeting with Christian and his colleague Philip Baumann is to pull back the curtain and see how this purpose-driven company operates. How exactly do Ecosia’s 24 team members prosper while balancing business realities with a strong purpose motive?
As you might expect, Ecosia’s office has an earthy, casual feel. My first reaction upon arriving: “Who wouldn’t want to work here?” After a quick tour we settle around the company’s ping pong table and invest time getting to know each other.
Christian’s story starts in university. While completing his studies in business administration, he was disappointed to learn most people saw profit-making as the only valid objective for a business. As his schooling came to an end, he decided he wanted to do something more meaningful with his energy and embarked on a year-long trip exploring the world. During his travels he learned about the important role of trees in our planet’s survival. He returned from his adventure and started Ecosia in December 2009.
Since Christian’s only business experience comes from leading Ecosia, he’s learning as he goes. He is open about his leadership journey and his aim to serve the team in a way that avoids a rigid management approach while also preventing the company from devolving into chaos.
Our 90-minute conversation spanned a long-list of topics. Here are my biggest take-aways:
Self-Management: For the most part Ecosia operates using a self-management philosophy, prioritizing principles over rules. What, exactly, is self-management? Every day the Ecosia team works to further define their own answer to this question. Rather than being a destination, they see self-management more like a way of being. They’ve come to learn that operating in this way requires a certain level of maturity to embrace heightened levels of responsibility.
Christian’s Role as Leader: Christian sees his role as being similar to a sports coach. He aims to serve his team without unnecessarily stepping into the game. To help distribute authority throughout the organization, Ecosia relies on governance records to make things explicit. Christian is honest in saying, “In some circumstances I just don’t know how to coach so I end up telling people what to do.”
Decision-Making: Ecosia is continuing to mature their use of the Advice Process for decision-making. Through their experimentation with the process, they’ve come to appreciate the importance of being clear on decision ownership. Still, they find they drift into consensus mode too frequently and often the team just wants someone with adequate authority to make a decision.
Recruiting: Recruiting at Ecosia is not democratic. Each hiring decision has an owner who has ultimate responsibility. After a candidate interviews at Ecosia, the team holds a quick stand-up meeting where everyone is invited to share their thoughts and feelings about the candidate. Tuning into their gut is encouraged. It’s OK for participants to ramble on as a way of sorting through their thoughts.
A Cool Perk: Every member of the Ecosia team has the opportunity to travel to one of Ecosia’s tree planting projects. It’s an opportunity to keep the social enterprise aspects of Ecosia’s work present for everyone.
Every superstar founder I work with has a single ability that sets them apart from everyone else: They know how to build a powerful network of powerful people.
Success has a ceiling. Entrepreneurs who don’t develop these power relationship skills will only go so far on their own merit and drive.
The good news? The skill of relationship building is available to EVERYONE… even if thinking about networking tends to make your stomach churn.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with two co-founders of Exact Media. Both come from modest beginnings and built their careers from ground up. Ray Cao, Exact Media’s CEO, made Profit Magazine’s Top 20 Under 30 list in 2011. Earlier this year Forbes named Daniel Rodic to its Top 30 Under 30 list. The two have personal and respected relationships with powerful people around the world.
Both Ray and Daniel are more introverted than extroverted. Neither one benefited from extensive family connections. They built their web of friendships from ground up.
Securing new leads and sales opportunities is the “that’s obvious” value of networking but founders are poised to gain so much more value from the RIGHT connections. For example, shipping costs will drop dramatically if you have a personal relationship at the executive level of an international courier company. The people at the top can provide better pricing.
So how’d they do it? How did they build a second-to-none global network? I’ve had a front row seat for the last three years. Here’s what I learned.
The mantra that defines a way of being
Ray has a mantra: Build relationships by adding value first, always. He has a sincere personal need to be helpful. In every interaction, Ray listens for opportunities. Can he leverage his knowledge, experience and relationships to lighten the load for others? He seeks nothing in return other than the personal high that comes with giving.
What’s the greatest gift you can give? Ray and Daniel figured out early that relationships are incredibly valuable and must be cherished, cultivated and protected. Connections are hard for others to get. As a result, they have a high degree of value. They are a gift.
A few times each year, Ray hosts a dinner party. He limits attendance to 20 people and brings in exceptional speakers. The guest list is curated with the goal of creating helpful interactions between attendees. It’s relationship building on steroids.
By now you’re likely thinking, “Sure, it’s easy to give when you have money, knowledge, proven experience, and an impressive rolodex, but I’m not there yet. Then what?”
Getting started
Have you heard the story of Kyle MacDonald? Unemployed, he bartered a single red paperclip, and through 14 trades secured himself a house. Daniel’s story of relationship building has many parallels. Early in his career, Daniel’s list of high-powered relationships was thin. Recognizing that connections would be key to his personal success, Daniel made a list. He compiled a spreadsheet of the interesting people he knew who could be helpful to others. The initial list was short, just three people. These became his red paperclips.
I recently experienced Daniel’s relationship building in action. I shared my interest in getting involved with a United Nations initiative. Daniel jumped in to say he knew someone leading the initiative. 24 hours later I was in touch with Daniel’s UN contact. Daniel’s red paperclip has grown into powerful international friendships.
Figuring out how to help
Both Ray and Daniel are masters at stepping into other people’s shoes. As Daniel shared with me, “business leaders are generally worried about the same things. They are on the lookout for great talent, new clients, and perhaps financing. Most have a cause that’s close to their heart.” By asking a few questions, potential opportunities to help emerge.
The rules of the game
There are unwritten rules when it comes to making introductions. Master these and you will be well on your way to game changing results.
Rule #1: Win — win. There needs to be a balance in value exchange. Both parties need to get a win from the interaction that’s of comparable value. Introducing a first year university student to a fortune 500 CEO is likely to be a failed connection.
Rule #2: Give for the joy of giving. You have to do this because you love helping others without the expectation of return. Without this mindset the interaction becomes a transaction. From this point forward go into the world with a mission to help as many people as possible. Ray and Daniel are known to “surprise and delight” people in their network with small and unexpected gifts. They play personal recruiter too, matching up people and jobs. They do it because “it’s just fun!”
Rule #3: Get permission first. In Daniel’s words, “I’ve learned that the double-opt-in is important. It gets everyone’s buy-in, gives context and sets up the right conversation.” By making an introduction, you are offering up someone else’s time. Make sure to have that person’s OK, first.
Rule #4: Full transparency. Ray and Daniel are both upfront in sharing the process they follow in making introductions. There are no surprises.
Rule #5: Watch the timing. You never want anyone left feeling you made an introduction to get one in return. An ask that follows shortly after a give says, “now that I did an intro for you, I need you to….” Not cool.
Rule #6: Spread out “asks”.Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur, four-time New York Times bestselling author, speaker and internationally recognized internet personality. He’s also been a guest speaker for one of Ray’s famous dinners. In his writing, he advocates for a “give, give, give, ask” approach. Spread out the asks and make sure the gives far out pace the takes.
Rule #7: Make it personal. Ray puts a lot of thought into his helpfulness. I know because I’ve been on the receiving end. He does his research to figure out when and how he can be uniquely helpful. Daniel shared two of his favourite questions for discovering ways to be helpful. By asking, “What’s keeping you busy?”, Daniel looks for ways to ease that busyness. “What are you most excited about this year” unlocks boatloads of information about what’s top of mind.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
When the energy and commitment of a team slumps, there is only one reason. Super successful CEOs know the reason. They make sure it never happens.
Once superstars disengage, the organization is headed for trouble. In my work with founding CEOs, I’ve seen how a simple, innocuous misstep quickly grows into a team-destroyer. Productivity drops. Contributions and creative problem solving disappear. Worse yet, disgruntled former superstars spread malaise like a contagious virus, bringing others down with them.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You can keep your team on your side. The key is to understand and embrace a truth of human emotion…
Everyone is happy when your team’s current reality remains above their expectations. The slump begins the moment reality falls below expectations. The slightest gap between the two is like a pebble in their shoe. It might not be big, but it quickly moves from annoying to maddening.
As a founder you are, by necessity, a dreamer and visionary. You set an exceptionally high bar for yourself. The likely result is over-commitment on your part.
“We’re going to have an option plan within 8 weeks and I promise to give you options as soon as the plan is done.”
… 9 months later, the option plan remains on your to do list.
“Our company is going to grow and that’s going to create a ton of career opportunity for you.”
… but as the company expands, junior team members watch as you hire experienced talent rather than promoting from within.
“I’d like to hear how you think we should design the product going forward.”
… but you’ve already decided the product roadmap priorities and there is little chance you’ll change your mind.
In the moment, every one of these commitments comes from a good place. You want to provide stock options asap. You plan to help develop careers. You want input from others.
With each commitment you make, and without appreciating the long-term implications, you are setting expectations that will be missed.
As soon as an expectation-to-reality gap opens up, you’re sunk. Even if you eventually close the gap (like providing stock options in the example above), the damage is done.
Eliminating the Expectation-to-Reality Gap
Honest transparency is the answer. The single most effective way to eliminate the gap is by ensuring it doesn’t get created in the first place. Here’s what that looks like:
“It’s my intention to put an option plan in place as soon as I can. I’ve never done this before and it’s likely to take time. I know options are important to you so feel free to reach out from time to time for an update on progress.”
“All signs point to our company growing. You will get a lot of interesting growth opportunities here. Much of that will come through the work you get to do rather than frequent role changes and promotions. I’m sure we’ll hire some senior, experienced people too and we’ll all be able to learn from them.”
“I have some pretty strong thoughts on where the product needs to go next. I’d like to hear your thoughts to see if I can improve the plans that I’ve got. What advice do you have on the product roadmap?”
Keep the gap closed. Search deep for the truth of the situation so that reality ALWAYS stays above the expectations you are setting. The result will be a team that trusts and supports you. Your occasional misstep will be seen as exactly that, an honest mistake.
If you hit some bumps, contact me and I’ll share more tips to help close the gap.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
Scrapped your weekly leadership team meetings yet?
There are three measures of a world class leadership meeting:
(1) Everyone shows up every week, driven by FOMO and a belief that this hour is the most valuable of their week
(2) There is a palpable sense of forward momentum and an unlocking of potential throughout the meeting
(3) The team leaves energized with a greater sense of clarity
Few leadership teams seize the full benefit of their weekly connection. More often they find any reason to skip it, or bail on the routine completely. The unspoken truth is that everyone finds the meeting a massive waste of time.
For many founders, these meetings take on a bipolar personality. One minute someone at the table seeks to validate their worth, boasting about their latest achievement. The next minute, you find yourself managing a barrage of passive aggressive attacks.
Your leadership team meeting — the group meeting you have with your direct reports — is the most expensive recurring meeting on your calendar. It’s also the biggest leverage point you’ve got. Without them, inefficiency permeates your business.
The defining question to ask yourself before creating or reshaping your leadership team meeting:
Do your direct reports collectively constitute a leadership team?
Most leadership teams in early stage companies aren’t actually teams. They are a collection of individuals who report to the founder and CEO. They don’t feel a shared responsibility for running the company. Instead, they co-lead their respective departments with the CEO.
If you don’t have a leadership team, you don’t need a leadership team meeting. Other types of meetings will be helpful, but skip this one until you are ready to build a true team.
Find the format that meets your needs
Let’s assume you do have a functioning leadership team. It’s a group where everyone brings unique content and has a voice in the running of the business.
Here are three different meeting formats to consider. Use these to customize a meeting that works for your circumstances. Try out all three so you know which one works best for your team.
Format #1: The weekly check-in
Best used: when the primary goal is to keep everyone aligned and you informed.
Meeting rhythm: go around the table with each person sharing the following four items in 5 minutes or less:
1) Changes to their top metrics (sales numbers, milestone completions, cancellations, etc.)
2) An update on critical news since the previous meeting. What should everyone else in the room know?
3) The top 2–3 priorities of their team for the upcoming week.
4) Requests for help (information, resources, etc.) from other teams.
Leave 15 minutes at the end to tackle the most pressing issue of the week.
Close out: by quickly reviewing everyone’s action items.
Format #2: The weekly tactical
Best used: for tackling a high volume of action items. This meeting is all about getting shit done. When teams rely on each other and are too busy to connect between meetings, this format rocks.
Meeting Rhythm: Select a scribe to capture notes that get projected in the room or shared live online. Create an agenda on the fly by capturing a list of topics. Everyone in the meeting participates in creating the list.
Example: “Discuss hiring — Mike”
Start at the top of the list. “Topic one, discuss hiring, Mike what do you need?”
Mike has four possible responses:
“I need everyone to know… [insert critical information that Mike cannot share in some other written format]”
“I need a quick answer (or approval) on…”
“I need time with Zak, Julie, and Sarika to discuss…”
“I have an issue/tension/problem with… [insert issue] that I would like to address by… [propose solution]”
Each of these should lead to an immediate and quick resolution of the issue or to a specific action item. The scribe captures the action and assigns an owner.
Example: “Mike to schedule a 30 minute meeting with Zak, Julie, and Sarika to discuss…”
The weekly tactical should move super fast and cover a long list of issues.
Close out: with each person sharing their version of: “Leaving this meeting I am most excited about / energized to / focused on…”
Format #3: The weekly problem solver
Best used: for tackling big topics needing time and collective brainpower.
Meeting Rhythm: Select one or two topics in advance of the meeting. Send everyone a clear problem statement.
Example: “Sales are 20% below target with 5 weeks left in the quarter. How can we work together to turn this around while we still have runway?”
Start the meeting by restating and taking ownership of the problem statement. Ask for advice. Dedicate a solid 10 to 15 minutes to brainstorming. Let the ideas flow — no idea is a bad idea. Then move to action, recording decisions when made.
The key to these meetings is staying on topic.
Close out: by quickly reviewing everyone’s action items.
Tips for staying on track
At this point you may be rolling your eyes thinking it can’t be that easy. You’re right. Even the experts religiously use hacks to keep meetings on track. Whatever meeting format you choose, here are some tips to keep your meetings running smoothly.
Tip #1: Know why you are meeting.
If you don’t know, the meeting is over. Your time is too valuable to sit around hoping something important drops onto the table.
Tip #2: Be clear on your role at the table.
How are you going to show up in these meetings? As a “teller”? A decision maker? A tie-breaker? An instigator? A disruptor? A facilitator? A negotiator? I guarantee you have a default style you use in these meetings. Choosing to flex is a sign of true leadership. Sometimes the team needs you to be a decision maker. Other times, allowing the rest of the team to debate is better.
Tip #3: Keep it super simple.
You are too busy to manage the creation of a new meeting agenda every week. So don’t. Depend on rituals, repetition and habit instead. Design a standing agenda and stick with it. When you reach the end of the agenda, the meeting is over.
Tip #4: Have an eagle eye for balance.
Agendas can become too rigid. Item. Item. Item. Done. Teams need the opportunity to bond too. Some social banter throughout the meeting is healthy. Without it, creativity and collective problem solving will suffer. If the balance swings too far the other way, important business gets missed. It’s your job to keep this balance healthy.
Tip #5: Meet to design the meeting.
Until you all agree on a set of meeting principles, everyone comes with their own ideas. Your first leadership team meeting has one agenda item: how will we run this meeting? Together, create a short list of principles that will give shape to the meetings. White board a list of questions. Is technology allowed? Under what circumstances can a meeting be missed? What type of content is a good fit? etc. Distill the answers into 5–6 principles. Keep it simple.
Tip #6: Stay focused on business fundamentals.
Meetings often become so intense that business fundamentals get lost. The company Resourceful Humans built a free app to keep the fundamentals present at all times. When someone notices that one of these five basics is no longer true, a red flag goes up.
• The customer is clearly the centre of our debate
• We are making things as simple as possible
• We are clear on the question before moving to solution mode
• Actions are understood and clearly communicated
• We are honouring our values in this meeting
Once you take off the training wheels, these meetings will become a crucial pillar of your business success. You’ll wonder how you functioned without them. Your team will love the clarity and energy that results, and so will you. Embrace a format that works for your circumstances.
Reach out with your success stories and share your unique customization. If you hit some bumps, contact me and I’ll share more tips to get things on track.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
A source of employee dissatisfaction is ALWAYS a lack of communication. It’s in the top three complaints your team has. I guarantee it. Your team wants more info than you give.
Inevitably you’ve tried a weekly team meeting. You put it on the calendar. The first one was a resounding success. You had so much to say that the meeting ran into overtime. The second meeting wasn’t bad, but the content dropped. By the third meeting, you struggled to scrape together enough to fill the time. You shifted to monthly as a compromise. Within four months the meeting was gone from everyone’s calendar. Or worse yet, it has continued as a painful time waster spent reviewing long to-do lists.
Think about this. For a team of 25, a one hour meeting is costing you at least $1k. That’s $50k a year!
A shoddy company-wide meeting reflects directly on you. It damages your leadership cred. On the flip side, if you’re not bringing the team together and keeping them up-to-date, you’re wearing that too.
Looking for a solution that works? Here’s a PROVEN RECIPE FOR SUCCESS. One of my clients has been using this exact formula religiously, every week, for five years. Their employee satisfaction is off the charts positive.
Use the time to maximum benefit — You can achieve a ton in 25 minutes with a solid schedule. Here’s a sample to get you started.
Host starts the meeting at the scheduled time
Good news stories (4 mins) — An opportunity for anyone in the company to share quick personal or professional good news. A new client. A pregnancy. The launch of a long awaited marketing tool. A promotion. Before the first meeting, prompt a few people to share. It will help get the ball rolling.
Industry news (2 mins) — The host shares one or two bits of news from your industry. Something that’s new, exciting and worthy of sharing.
Department updates (10 mins) — Each week, on a rotating schedule, one or two departments present an update. This is the time to share successes, learnings and upcoming plans, keeping everyone in the loop.
Metrics (2 mins) — Report on the top two or three metrics that your company is tracking. Volume of new orders. Percentage up time. Number of new customers.
Open Floor (4 mins) — An opportunity for anyone else to speak if they have valuable information to share. Often this is where other departments, committees, and you provide urgent updates.
Recognition (1 min) — The host recognizes someone on the team. If you have company values defined, the recognition gets tied to a value. It needs to be a specific person for a specific action or achievement. A general appreciation for the awesomeness of a department or individual doesn’t cut it.
Select the next host (1 min) — The current host chooses someone to be next week’s host. They also announce the departments presenting the following week.
Embrace these four philosophies to rock your weekly meetings.
1) Weekly without fail — Pick a time that works and NEVER move it. Steer clear of Mondays and Fridays to avoid public holidays and personal vacation days. The meeting goes, whether you are there or not (You should be there at least 75% of the time). Set the expectation that everyone needs to schedule around this meeting.
2) Keep it tight — Irrespective of the size of your team, this meeting should run less than 25 minutes. If you can’t keep it on schedule, something’s not working. You will start losing the support of your busy team.
3) Depend on rhythm — This meeting works or fails based on rhythm. Create a template, make sure everyone knows it, and stick to it.
4) Keep it fun — If there isn’t a good dose of laughter every week, be concerned. These meetings should be fun. It’s a time for the team to connect. Keep it light.
That’s the time tested recipe and here are the critical ingredients.
Define a meeting owner — Someone needs to own this meeting. Often it’s an EA, receptionist or office manager. This person has a few critical responsibilities. Two days before the huddle, they send a reminder email to the host and presenting departments. Before the meeting they collect presentations and compile them into one document. On the day of the meeting, they make sure the space is ready, IT equipment is working, and music is playing. During the meeting they take notes of what’s said. Within 60 minutes they send those notes and the presentation to the entire company. Anyone who missed the meeting is back in the loop within an hour.
Start time — Set a standard start time for your meeting and be specific. My client starts their meeting at 1:07 SHARP every Wednesday and ends by 1:30. Why 1:07? Meetings scheduled for the top of the hour will start late. Period. Midday is good for spanning time zones. Early morning meetings infringe on your team’s work-life-balance. Late afternoon meetings will be lower in energy. Choose a time that works and stick to it.
Pump the music — About 3 minutes before the start time, pump music through the office. It builds energy and provides a friendly reminder. The meeting host picks the music for the week.
It’s a standing meeting — Any team member capable must stand. This is a quick huddle not a lingering social event.
Rotate the meeting host — There are so many benefits to having someone different host each week. Here are four. The host gets to practice their public speaking and gets some visibility. No two meetings are the same. As the team grows, everyone gets to know everyone else. Most important, the meeting can always run even if you are away.
Remote employees — Everything I’ve shared is perfect when your team is in one place. This is often not the case. Technology is the answer. Buy a portable video camera and microphone and broadcast the meeting using [insert your favourite tool here]. Have someone watch the computer so remote team members can type in questions.
Large vs small teams — If your team is small (under 10), find ways to have everyone take part in every meeting. Keep it short. Have everyone share one good news story or their single biggest priority for the next 5 days. For larger teams, impromptu is better. Everyone has an opportunity to speak but doesn’t need to.
Daily vs weekly meetings — Some companies use short (<10 min) daily meetings rather than longer weekly ones. Everything here still applies with two changes. Use the same host for an entire week and break the larger agenda down into smaller, shorter pieces.
Give it a try. I’d love to hear your success stories. If you hit some bumps, contact me and I’ll share more tips to get things on track.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
Soon someone close to you will propose the ultimate time waster. They will tell you it’s essential you implement it in your company. They will say you can’t scale your company without it. Their intentions will come with the most genuine and positive intent. For them, their recommendation is a no-brainer.
They will tell you that you need a performance management process. As a founder, you despise the term and what it stands for. YOU NEED TO ADDRESS IT HEAD ON or it will surface again and again.
You’ll hear that…
“You need to cascade objectives and get people aligned.”
“People need to be accountable.”
“You need visibility into what people are doing.”
“You can’t manage what you don’t track.”
“To fairly compensate your people, you need to measure their performance.”
This is OLD THINKING.
Companies that are CRUSHING it know how to balance accountability and freedom… Communication and trust… Planning and flexibility. They do it without the baggage of complicated and time wasting processes.
When it comes to setting up your growing team for success, there are only 5 or 6 moments that matter. Get these decisions right and your team will soar. Make the wrong choice and you will mire your organization in time wasting processes. Energy will be zapped. Frustration will build.
This is one of those decisions.
The industrial era was fertile ground for metrics-driven, top-down planning systems. That time has passed. The most progressive organizations have moved on. If you are a founding CEO starting from scratch, rebel against this system.
Want to align your team around your priorities — and keep them aligned?
Try this instead.
Humans are not machines to be measured and controlled. Our strength is in our ability to manage in complex environments. Emotion is infused in our work, decisions and communication.
Every member of your team wants to add value. They want to do good work that matters. They want to grow founder.
Rather than relying on a rigid system, build the following philosophies into your leadership.
Share your vision in full colour rather than creating soul destroying targets. FREQUENTLY communicate the themes and priorities that are most important to the business. The best teams aren’t motivated by numbers and targets. It’s impact that fuels their work. Use storytelling to bring your priorities to life. Did I mention you need to do it FREQUENTLY? Take your current communication and increase it 10x. Check out this article for ideas on how to amplify your message.
Trust and enable personal choice. If you can’t trust your people, there is a problem that requires immediate attention. Exceptional talent expects trust. Ritualize asking “What are you working on and how can I help?” This allows you to enter into a conversation and see if their work aligns with your priorities.
Model deliberate ownership of personal development. We all need role models to support our personal development. Share your personal development areas. Seek insights from others about how you can improve. Encourage the same of your team. If you are a founder of a growing company, you already embrace personal development. Now your founder job is to make your development skills visible to your team.
Ensure 20% of your weekly meetings focus on important rather than urgent conversations. With a frequency and format that works for your team, schedule regular conversations. Use the time for a deeper dive on important topics. Include each others’ personal development priorities. This is a two-way conversation anchored in the work that you are both doing. Taking notes is optional. Food and drink is highly recommended. Keeping up with these meetings can be tough in an urgency driven world. Use nudges to help keep you on track. There are many great tools out there to help. WorkTango is a client of mine and I like the approach their tool offers.
Resist any approach that rates, ranks or categorizes people on your team. Trust the power of conversation to tell you who is doing well and who is struggling. Ratings and rankings are a scapegoat for important and often difficult conversations. Don’t slip into the industrial age practice of treating people like soulless resources.
Stick with language that real people use. When we use terms like human resources, performance management, and feedback, we dehumanize the relationships we have with our team. Consider terms and phases like: “Let’s get together for a check in and share what we’ve learned over the last few weeks”; “Can I share a thought?”; “I see you struggling, how can I help?”; “What have you learned about yourself over the last few months?”
Do you feel the difference? Your team will.
Superstar leaders understand the nuances between what I’ve just described and traditional performance management. Communication and a sense of direction is essential to the success of your organization. Trying to control and manage performance is not. The style and frequency of communication permeating your business reflects what you model.
Give it a try. I’d love to hear your success stories. If you hit some bumps, contact me and I’ll share more tips to get things on track.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
There is one important piece of work that needs your focus. It’s the prelude to all business breakthroughs. The ultra successful know this already. They’ve done the hard work. And they are reaping the rewards.
Avoid this upfront work and you doom your business to spin its wheels month after month. You will spend your next team meeting rehashing the last one. Decisions won’t stick. You will be in a rut. Team members will question your leadership.
Until you can answer any one of the following questions without pause, your business is dead in the water.
“What is our purpose as a company?”
“Why do we exist as a company beyond making money?”
“Why us? Why now?”
Can you do it? Can you answer right here, right now, without pausing to think? Can every member of your team?
If you can’t, you are not alone. In my experience working with Founder CEOs for over 10 years, less than half can do it. When it comes to their teams, the number drops to 10%.
Without a clear purpose, you are missing the critical emotional connection. It’s this connection that separates the winners from those stuck in the mud.
Take the time to do this important work. Without it, you will hit a painful wall in your growth. Your dream will elude you.
Here are the 5 steps to define your purpose.
1) Select your purpose-defining team — Who will you include in the purpose journey? If your company is less than 30 people, include everyone in the process. Emphasize how their voice is important. Clarify that, as the founder, you will be the final decision maker. This is an inclusive but not a democratic process. Choose a small group of 4–6 trusted advisors from inside and outside the company to help you craft the purpose. Make sure these are people who will push back and challenge you.
2) Answer these five questions:
Question 1: What do you collectively love to do? What’s the common passion that has brought the influencers in your company together?
Question 2: Who are you serving? Who benefits the most from your work?
Question 3: What want or need are you filling for these people?
Question 4: What core competency are you leveraging in helping those people? Your competency will fall into one of four categories:
Connecting: Bringing people together through direct links or likeminded communities
Problem-solving: Providing a solution for a specific problem faced by people
Educating: Sharing knowledge, information and expertise
Process Improvement: Developing systems that deliver consistent and sustained results
Question 5: What change or transformation will people experience as a result of what you give them?
3) Draft your purpose — You will find your purpose in the answer to question 5. Successful companies exist to serve a genuine need that improves the collective human experience. It goes beyond the intellectual and connects at a deep emotional level.
4) Test your purpose — Purpose statements are notoriously vague. They try to resonate with everyone, everywhere. A good purpose statement closes doors. It defines a specific direction and creates defined boundaries. “We head east, not north, west or south.”
Give it a test drive. Challenge your working group to run through 10–20 different scenarios with you. If almost everything gets included as part of your purpose, it’s too broad. Tighten it up. You can always modify it later as your company grows. Lastly, make sure it excites you. If you aren’t super pumped about the company purpose, no one else will be either.
5) Commit — Put a stake in the ground. This IS your purpose. Don’t question it. Live it. Be ready to answer the question “What is our purpose as a company?” before people ask.
Give it a try. I’d love to hear your success stories. If you hit some bumps, contact me and I’ll share more tips to get things on track.
I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.
