Everything We Thought We Knew About Leadership Competencies is Wrong (almost)

Transcription

1 Everything We Thought We Knew About Leadership Competencies is Wrong (almost) Bay Area OD Network Workshop Brent Green Ph. D. and Peter DiGiammarino Date: May 5, 2015 Copyright 2015 Dr. Brent Green, IntelliVen, LLC and Peter F. DiGiammarino. All rights reserved. Quotation, reproduction or transmission is prohibited without written permission from IntelliVen, LLC and 1Peter F. DiGiammarino

2 Odds of achieving potential to perform and grow improve with intelligent actions motivated by seven simple truths. Today s Session Fits Here Note: the truths are simple but the actions are not easy! 2

3 Truth. Growth is good. Action. Grow Grow to increase value, impact, and opportunity.

4 Target Outcomes Understand that the ideal executive skill set changes as an organization matures. Practice a way to discern a team s skill-mix and compare it with successful organizations at the same stage of maturity. Learn an easy way to assess, and feed back, individual executive performance and growth.

5 Tenets As organizations evolve so should executive team competencies in order to increase the odds of success. A single leader can only do so much as the organization matures, so build an aligned team of balanced strengths. Executive team competencies can be developed, culled, and/or expanded to align with its current and next stage of organization maturity.

6 The Dream Every organization wants to do well over time. Value Time 6

7 Many start-ups launch quickly. Scale Launch Owner burns out and hires experienced operators who clash with culture and fail to click. Owner thinks of throwing-in the towel and selling at a low price to get their life back. Time 7

8 The rate of growth might eventually slow. Scale Owner burns out and hires experienced operators who clash with culture and fail to click. Owner thinks of throwing-in the towel and selling at a low price to get their life back. Time 8

9 Founders may lose confidence; hire pros who clash with the culture and fail to click. Scale May lead to throwing-in the towel before target value or impact achieved. Owner thinks of throwing-in the towel and selling at a low price to get their life back. Time 9

10 Success comes when leaders and teams evolve along with their organizations. Value Add governance, finance, marketing, and/or operations Founding team good at what they do but not at all that is needed to grow Acceleration Fast Start Stagnation Time 10

11 The Reality It s usually a rockier road than anticipated but can be done if leaders change the right things at the right time. TURBULENCE TURBULENCE TRANSFORM TRANSFORM TRANSFORM TURBULENCE 11

12 Organizations Mature Through Five Stages DEFINING ELEMENTS Concept Money Team First clients First employees Revenue/Funding Plan Leadership Drive Going concern Sale or Finance IPO Routine CONCERNS Get Started Proof Survival Focus Execution Growth Performance Payoff Managing growth New Growth STAGE Concept Startup Credible Sustainable Mature 12

13 CEO and top team roles and required skills change by stage of maturity. CEO & TOP TEAM ROLE Idea Maker Zealot Doer Decision Maker Delegator Direction Setter Team Builder Coach Planner Communicator Industry Innovator Change Catalyst REQUIRED SKILLS???????????????????????????????? STAGE Concept Startup Credible Sustainable Mature Based on Leading at the Speed of Growth by Catlin & Matthews. 13

14 Maturity Worksheet Use the Executive Team Skill Assessment Worksheet for the organization you most identify with: your organization s top team the leaders of your unit your own organization.. Make an X to mark its current stage of maturity.

15 Executive Team Skill Assessment Worksheet Organization name: Mark its stage of maturity with an X: Concept Startup Credible Sustainable Mature 15

16 Executive Team Skill Assessment Worksheet Organization name: Example Organization Mark its stage of maturity with an X: X Concept Startup Credible Sustainable Mature 16

17 Maturity Worksheet Call out an organization example for each stage.

18 1x1 Exercise Think of a book on leadership. Stand up and turn to the person on your right: Share the name of your book. Share something you remember from the book you thought of. Sit back down; share book and topic when called upon. How many comments refer to leadership skills that change by stage of organization maturity?

19 Executive Skill Model* Most leaders need three generic competencies across all stages of organization maturity: Knowledge (or Know) Skills Thinking (or Think) Skills Execution (or Act) Skills Each of the three competencies has three sub-skills, i.e. nine in total. *From: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent. OD Practitioner, vol. 32/#2, 2000, by Vicino & Green, pgs

20 Knowledge Sub-Skills * Technical and functional know-how Industry understanding Organization knowledge *From: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent. OD Practitioner, vol. 32/#2, 2000, by Vicino & Green, pgs

21 Thinking Sub-Skills * Analytic Creative and innovative Strategic *From: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent. OD Practitioner, vol. 32/#2, 2000, by Vicino & Green, pgs

22 Execution (Act) Sub-Skills * Planning and organizing Communication and influence Execution (action for results) *From: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent. OD Practitioner, vol. 32/#2, 2000, by Vicino & Green, pgs

23 Summary of Three Generic Skill Sets Know Think Act Technical/Functional Analytic Planning Industry understanding Creative/Innovative Communication Organization knowledge Strategic Execution Our approach: A two-part process in which we interview, survey, and multi-rate each executive. 23

24 Know Think Act Executive Team Skill Assessment Worksheet Organization name: Example Organization Mark its stage of maturity with an X: X Concept Startup Credible Sustainable Mature Draw a horizontal line to indicate the relative strengths of its top team in the three generic skill areas: High Low 24

25 Know Think Act Ideal Mix of Competencies by Stage of Organization Maturity Warning: The ideal skill mix does NOT guarantee success, but it increases the odds. Key: STAGE Concept Startup Credible Sustainable Mature Adapted from: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent by F. Vicino, Ph.D. & B. Green, Ph.D, OD Practitioner, vol. 32/No.2,

26 Worksheet Compare your ranking with the ideal skill mix for the stage of maturity selected earlier. What do you notice? Punchline: Research shows that successful organizations tend to have a different and specific mix of Know-Think-Act skills by stage of maturity! The game changes when we show a team how its skill mix compares with success norms for its stage.

27 Implications For Leadership: Assessment Recruitment Selection Development Retention Transition Succession

28 Traditional Executive Assessment Process If done at all! Recollections You re in the big league now write your own review. Notes Reviewer You don t really know or understand me and the way I work. Prepare Performance Assessment Review Reviewee Weaknesses Hard to do, time consuming, gets put-off, done last minute Arbitrary based on ability, skills, and perspective of reviewer May not represent best thinking or interests of the team Hard stuff gets pushed under the rug Demoralizing to reviewee Easy to ignore feedback 28

29 Multi-Rater, Peer-Reviewed Assessment of Skills, Contribution, Growth, and Prospects Reviewee, reviewer, and management select stakeholders Reviewee COO Reviewer CEO Input CFO Collect and consolidate input on: Skills, Contribution, Growth, and Opportunity Consolidated Assessment CTO Stakeholders 29

30 Multi-Rater, Peer-Reviewed Assessment of Skills, Contribution, Growth, and Prospects Reviewee COO Reviewer CEO CFO Executives CTO Input CFO Collect and consolidate input on: Skills, Contribution, Growth, and Opportunity Consolidated Assessment Peer-review and tweak as agreed Tweaked Consolidated Assessment Reviewee COO CTO Stakeholders Benefits CEO Easy and fast to do Reviewer Edifying to reviewee Represents the best thinking and interests of the team Everyone on board with agenda and efforts of each other Hard stuff gets out and dealt with Taps into and allows leader to impact thinking of reviewers Reviewer CEO 30

31 Case Study: Executive Team Profile Pre & Post Intervention Actual results for a global medical device manufacturer Before After Cited from: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent by F. Vicino, Ph.D. & B. Green, Ph.D, OD Practitioner, vol. 32/No.2,

32 Case Examples: Does this assessment and development system impact organization performance? YES it does!

33 Performance improved for a global device manufacturer Pre-intervention Yr -5 Yr -4 Yr -3 Yr -2 Yr -1 Cited from: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent by F. Vicino, Ph.D. & B. Green, Ph.D, OD Practitioner, vol. 32/No.2,

34 Intervention Performance improved for a global device manufacturer Pre-intervention Post-intervention Yr -5 Yr -4 Yr -3 Yr -2 Yr -1 Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr4 Yr 5 Yr 6 Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr -4 Yr 5 Yr 6 Cited from: The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent by F. Vicino, Ph.D. & B. Green, Ph.D, OD Practitioner, vol. 32/No.2,

35 5 CEOs and top team members reveal positive impact one year post intervention. Incidence counts from 59 responses collected from 19 executives with 190 raters, from 5 different organizations, post intervention. Type of Impact Positive Impact on Self Positive Impact on Team Incidence E.g.: I recognize now more fully my strengths and weaknesses; it confirms my own awareness significantly. E.g.: We now have a senior manager representative to sit on our executive team to improve communication up and down our business." Cited from: Listening To Leaders: Feedback on 360 Degree Feedback One Year Later, by Brent Green, Ph.D., O.D. Journal, from the Global O.D. Institute, vol. 20, #1,

36 Don t take our word for it. Talk to those who have benefited.

37 Roman Iwachiw CEO and Co-Founder FI-Consulting X This is the first time in 12 years I ve had constructive feedback. I now wish to stay with this enterprise, whereas before the assessment process I was thinking of leaving. I feel we as an executive team can now talk openly with one another and move forward together. We now have specific growth areas to work on as individuals and as an executive team. 37

38 Remember this: Ideal team skill set changes as organizations mature. You can discern a team s skill-mix and compare with successful organizations at the same stage. It can be easy to assess and feed back individual executive performance and growth.

39 What do you take away from today s session?

40 IntelliVen Resources Free to all Subscribe to IntelliVen blog IntelliVen tools, insights, videos Course syllabus, reading list, windows-of-time Free to you PDF of today s slides Today s session Fee-based Board-in-a-Box Management Team Workshops Executive Performance Assessment Executive Assessment vs Stage Ideal Multi-rater Peer-review process 360 Leadership Practices Inventory Strategy Development Initiative-to-Action Contracting and Governance Culture Development Manage to Lead Workbook Executive Training Sessions 40

41 Selected References Ames, D. & Wazlawek, A. How to tell if you are a jerk in the office, Wall Street Journal, C-Suite Strategies section, Catlin, K. & Matthews, J. Leading at the speed of growth: journey from entrepreneur to CEO. Kauffman Foundation, DiGiammarino, P. F. How a top team spent a little time and took a big step to the next stage of growth Dierdorff, E. & Rubin, R. Research: we re not very self-aware, especially at work, Harvard Business Review, Green, B. Listening to Leaders: feedback on 360-degree feedback one year later, Organization Development Journal, vol.20, #1, Vicino, F. & Green, B. The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent, OD Practitioner, vol. 32, #2, 2000.

42 Thank you, PeterD and Brent Green website twitter