Posts Tagged ‘team’

Build your leadership competence

Posted: November 9, 2015 in Leadership
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12 techniques to boost your leadership competence:

  1. Set clear overarching objectives for you and your team.
  2. Analyze the internal and external environments, as well as the evolving situation.
  3. Consider multiple scenarios and courses of action before making a decision.
  4. Formulate a clear and direct mission and communicate it openly to your followers.
  5. Surround yourself with the right people and involve them as much as possible in analysis and decision-making.
  6. Ask for advice from followers, peers, and superiors and consider multiple perspectives in your analysis and decision-making.
  7. Break your plans into actionable steps and tasks and assign these to specific individuals on the basis of their competencies, talents, and developmental requirements.
  8. Ensure your subordinates have the resources needed to do their respective jobs and support them in their tasks.
  9. Communicate your plans and intentions clearly and directly.
  10. Question your followers frequently to know what they know, understand, and believe.
  11. Designate priorities and the focus of effort for all your plans and intentions.
  12. Follow up to ensure effective and efficient implementation of your guidance and direction.

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Embrace conflict as a sign of engagement and stimulation within your team

Posted: October 12, 2015 in Powerful Ideas
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There is nothing wrong with conflict within a team. It only becomes a problem when it gets out of hand and prevents decisions on important matters or undermines performance. In addition, lack of conflict can be just as much of problem as too much conflict. It can be a sign of group think or unquestioning obedience to authority.

In fact, conflict is a sign of healthy disagreement and debate about important issues. If managed properly, through respectful dialogue and exchange, then it can lead to higher quality outcomes.

There are four basic types of conflict, and I’ve listed them below in growing order of criticality and difficulty of resolution:

  • Conflict about inputs, priorities, and resources
  • Conflict about courses of action and options to achieve an aim
  • Conflict about objectives and aim
  • Conflict about fundamental values

As long as internal conflicts are limited to the first two and are resolved by clear decisions and communications–which is ultimately a leader’s responsibility–then they are very manageable. Conflicts about aims and objectives are harder to resolve and may require difficult decisions and resentments. The final form of conflict is usually impossible to resolve without one or more parties to the dispute leaving the organization.

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned “personality conflict.” In my opinion, this is really nothing more than disagreements about fundamental values.

I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Balance decisive and participative forms of decision-making and leadership

Posted: September 28, 2015 in Leadership
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I’ve developed the following model to guide leaders in when and how to be decisive, delegative, consultative, or participative.

Decisive-Participative Matrix
I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Prepare for battle!

Posted: August 31, 2015 in Readiness & Strategy
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There is nothing worse than failing to prepare and increasing your readiness when you have the time and fair warning.

I’ve just developed a quick aide-mémoire to increase readiness. Here are the four key steps to be fully prepared for any challenge (e.g., sales campaign, product launch, client proposal, etc.)

Step 1: Activate

  • Confirm situation and probable mission and goals
  • Determine time available to prepare
  • Review documents, do preliminary research, consult previous reports
  • Activate team and support network
  • Prepare equipment, dress, “ammunition”
  • Inform your troops

Step 2: Reconnoitre

  • Terrain (market)
  • Objective (client, target segment)
  • Enemy (competitors)
  • Weather (context and conditions)

Step 3: Plan

  • Analyze reconnaissance results: aim, factors, options, decision, plan
  • Tactics: frontal attack, flanking attack, bypass manoeuvre
  • Exploit and protect centre of gravity
  • Determine main effort and mass forces for optimal impact
  • Manoeuvre strengths against weaknesses and gaps (of clients, competitors)

Step 4: Deploy

  • Brief troops, supporters, colleagues (as needed)
  • Initial and final rehearsals
  • Update plan, develop contingency plans
  • Final preparation-material and psychological
  • How is your morale and that of your team? Do you have the will to win?

Now, go win your battles!

I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Build and maintain morale

Posted: August 24, 2015 in Leadership
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You can’t generate morale and teamwork through “morale activities” and “teambuilding exercises.” You have to act, adapt, and adjust in line with your objectives and mission on a day-to-day basis with strong leadership and effective, efficient management.

Morale is the will to victory. Whether you’re an individual, team, or organization, the following elements are critical to building and maintaining solid morale.

  • A clear and compelling mission and deepset belief that you are helping others by bringing outstanding value.
  • Passion for the work and the results you bring.
  • A support system, including family, spouse, and close friends.
  • The right tools, supplies, and material support to get the job done.
  • Clear goals and understanding of higher level intent and plans.
  • Training and coaching as needed to build skills and knowledge.
  • Mentoring from someone who has been where you’ve been and achieved great things.
  • A technical advisory team consisting of experts in their domains: e.g., accountant, financial advisor(s), IT and web support, marketing, etc.
  • Business advisor(s) who give you honest feedback quickly and effectively.
  • Celebrating and profiting from wins while learning from temporary setbacks.
  • Knowing what you really want. In some cases, this can only come from the gritty world of action. You don’t know how you will react to something until you actually face it.
  • Experiment and learn from trial and error. Feedback from acting generates a lot more knowledge and wisdom than sitting around and waiting for something to happen.

I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Êtes-vous prêts pour un automne chaud ?

Posted: August 6, 2015 in Readiness & Strategy
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Je ferai un « Briefing de préparation au combat » lors du Kickoff Motivation 2015, organisé annuellement par Michel Bélanger de La Zone Vente (lazonevente.com). Voir le billet descriptif de Michel…

Rehearse plans and practise future actions

Posted: August 3, 2015 in Readiness & Strategy
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Rehearsing plans and scenarios and practising future actions give a foretaste of your thoughts, emotions, and behavior as well as those of competitors, clients, and other stakeholders.

These techniques give you greater presence of mind once you go into action. They help you develop a baseline against which to compare your eventual performance. You can rehearse mentally or through simulated interactions with others. High-level athletes do such “visioning” to get into the right mindset before performing.

In the military, rehearsals are built into planning and battle preparation procedures at all levels. There are various approaches, such as war games, “chalk talks,” “walk throughs,” tabletop exercises, and many others.

Here is what you can do:

  • Imagine at least three different scenarios and their potential consequences.
  • Picture the events or interactions, their surroundings, actors, possible action-reaction-counteraction sequences, decisions, obstacles, and outcomes.
  • Develop “what if” contingency plans to deal with these.
  • Practise the words you will use and your behavior; try to predict the emotions that will arise when you are in the situation.
  • Consider how you will react in each step of the scenario.
  • You can do this alone, with one other person, or with your entire team.

I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Put “troops to task”

Posted: July 20, 2015 in Leadership
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Military leaders learn to “put troops to task” when they are making their battle plans. In simple terms, you may want something to happen, but unless you assign specific tasks and responsibilities to people, along with resources and timelines, things are likely not to get done. So, unless you believe your followers are capable of mind-reading, or you believe in miracles, make sure they know what you expect of them.

  • Specify your overall aim so people know what you want to achieve.
  • Identify key roles and functions.
  • Assign these to specific individuals with clear responsibility to achieve concrete, measurable outcomes.
  • Assign ressources and ask those you’ve tasked to ensure these are sufficient. Tell them to analyze their options and request additional ressources if required.
  • Confirm understanding of your outline plan and key responsibilities.
  • Have them brief their plans back to you so you know they are doing what you want them to.
  • Have them coordinate details amongst themselves and inform you of any major impacts on the overall intent and plan so you can modify if needed.
  • Detail constraints (thou shalt) and restraints (thou shalt not) so they know their “limits of exploitation.”
  • Always end your meetings or planning sessions with a record of decisions, assigned tasks and responsibilities, and next actions/events/milestones.
  • Talk with your immediate subordinates’ followers so you know if they have understood the tasks of the team and can execute them.

I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Lead from the inside out

Posted: June 29, 2015 in Leadership
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Leadership is the art of influencing others in the accomplishment of a task or mission.

Many people automatically default to using rewards and punishments and various other forms of transactional leadership to influence followers and subordinates. The problem with this though is that people habituate quickly to rewards and punishments (assuming the latter aren’t extremely abusive). It’s like jumping into a swimming pool. There can be an initial shock of cold or pleasurable cooling sensation, but you get used to it fairly quickly. Once people are habituated to transactional leadership tactics, they tend to fade into the background and lose their effectiveness.

Another problem with transactional approaches to leadership is that they can initiate an unintended train of cause and effect. If you promise bonuses to your sales people so they focus on clearing out inventory of a particular product, you shouldn’t be surprised if they focus almost exclusively on that to the detriment of other products and services.

Leading from the inside out involves finding what motivates people internally, and working to either modify or leverage those intrinsic motivations. Here are some key approaches for “leading from the inside out.”

  • Lead by example.
  • Say what you do, and do what you say.
  • Give people the end state, overarching vision, and goals, and let them find the best way to achieve these (assuming legality and reasonable standardization of processes and procedures). In other words, specify what to achieve, not how to achieve it.
  • Involve people in setting goals and the overall vision, if relevant.
  • Let people define their own contributions and mission statement.
  • Provide resources and inputs subject to the requests and needs of subordinates.
  • Give them as much situational information as feasible within the constraints of business secrecy and personal confidentiality.
  • Find what makes each of your direct subordinates or followers tick, what their strengths personal goals are, what their personal preferences are, then try to assign them tasks and responsibilities that will leverage these and stretch their capabilities.
  • Give people general functional responsibilities and let them figure out the details.
  • Ask for their advice on important matters, not just trivial ones (sales planning vs the color scheme in the break room).

I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

Define your end state

Posted: June 8, 2015 in Leadership
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Goal-setting is a buzzword (or is that buzzterm?) that gets bandied about a lot. We’re supposed to set clear goals so everyone is motivated and knows what to aim for.

Forget SMART goals though: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Sometimes the last thing we need is an “achievable” goal, much less a “realistic” one. Most accomplishments–and they needn’t be monumental or earth-shaking in scope–appear unrealistic and unachievable in at least some respects to some people some of the time. The other things are useful, but speed, surprise, and originality can be just as important, if not moreso, especially if you’re in highly competitive situation.

Instead, I propose defining the end state you’re looking to create. This comes from military practice, where a commander clearly communicates what the battlefield or operation will achieve in very concrete terms: for instance, the enemy has withdrawn from objective X and is on the run; our forces have seized objective X and are in a strong position to exploit to line Z 20 km beyond the objective.

This type of goal creates a vision that anyone can relate to. Moreover, it sets the parameters for what is needed to get there. “If this is what the end state looks like, then what do we have to do and by when, with what resources, and in what manner, for that to become the new reality?”

I’m never too busy to discuss your needs or those of anyone else you feel may benefit from meeting or talking to me. So feel free to contact me at any time!

Richard Martin is The Force Multiplier. He brings his military and business leadership and management experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to radically improve performance, grow, and thrive in the face of rapid change, harsh competition, and increasing uncertainty.

© 2015 Richard Martin. Reproduction and quotes are permitted with proper attribution.

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