The transparency trade off
There are many leaders that resist the entire notion of transparency with every instinct and every fibre of their body. This is understandable when you consider how us human beings have evolved. Yet UK plc is facing unprecedented global challenges and therefore so are its organisations and so are its leaders.
In the Boardroom you first have to discuss the Bull’s Eye for your organisation and then you have to debate it but finally you have to agree it. This requires openness, honesty and a willingness to put the interests of the business ahead of the interests of any one individual.
But it doesn’t stop there. Once you have a Bull’s Eye measurable statement of excellence for the organisation you then need to move on to your own facilitated 360 degree appraisal. This is where you discover your own personal development points and your own personal commitment to excellence that you share with colleagues.
The trade off for genuine transparency is peak performing people and peak performing organisations.
Complacency
When the CEO presides over a settled top team it says a lot of positive things for the culture in an organisation and indeed for the style and integrity of the leader too. And if the business is blasting through successive Bull’s Eye targets as well, what more do you want?
The answer is: to keep it going. Peak performing teams don’t win the title once; they do it again and again and again.
The client and I first worked with the Bull’s Eye concept nearly ten years ago. The team then was the same as it was last week, with the exception of one or two additions. The pre meeting messages about organisational performance were all very strong in a competitive market.
When I asked members of the executive what their personal development points, linked to the Bull’s Eye actually are, no one could tell me. The lesson of the Sigmoid Curve is that none of us can afford to take our eye off the ball at any time, especially when we are doing well.
The new CEO
When you know you need a new CEO for whatever reason, there are three main options:
1) Try a senior manager already on the payroll, as CEO designate for a trial period conditional upon him / her receiving structured mentoring and support from an external executive coach.
The advantage here is that you already know the person, it is the lowest short term cost option but the risk is that they may simply not make the grade. This will delay the process.
2) Use a recruitment agency to source and shortlist a selection of new candidates for a ‘business as usual’ post.
This is usually an exercise in trying to find someone with the skills, knowledge and / or attitude that people internally are not perceived to possess. This person would work within existing parameters but the brief would be to make incremental improvements to the business without access to any substantial capital investment. The risk is that the business may require more radical surgery if it is to develop and sustain competitive advantage in the market place.
3) Head hunt someone that has had extensive executive experience in successful related businesses. This person would have a track record in innovative capital project development.
This option is looking at the big picture. There is an acknowledgement that there is a need for an overhaul, maybe involving substantial capital investment to avoid slow or even terminal decline. The risk is that you have to get the right person who has the appropriate range of high quality skills and knowledge.
As usual everything depends upon the Bull’s Eye.
Relief
The anticipation of disruption in the Board Room can cause needles stress for all those concerned.
If someone is not happy in their role or if they are happy but others are not, then there are very straightforward ways of dealing with the vast majority of changes and replacements that need to be made.
The tension comes from people seeing the situation from first position, their own perspective. This means that the CEO who is upset at having to remove an under performing production director, simply cannot be certain how that person is actually going to react.
Equally, if a member of the Board is confident that they are next in line for the top post, it is impossible to predict how they will behave on being told that they will not get the job.
One of the most common if surprising, reactions to these situations is one of absolute unconditional relief, sometimes from both parties.
Foreplay
The most powerful way to enhance executive performance is the facilitated 360-degree appraisal with other members of the Board.
People can be apprehensive about the exercise because the concept of having personal development points, let alone sharing them with colleagues, is still uncomfortable for some. Development points are not weaknesses. All organisations including mine have weaknesses. Every executive in the land including me has development points. That’s OK
But you have to know what the Bull’s Eye measurable statement of excellence for your organisation is, before you even contemplate executive reviews. And the steeper the flight path towards the Bull’s Eye, the more important executive development points are.
Think about it! Unless organisational aspirations towards excellence are matched by executive aspirations then the whole thing is a farce. And it sometimes is.
