A Three-Step Process for Executive Leadership
As you and your leadership team evaluate your next move for 2023, we have a simple and effective system to:
- communicate your business goals down to the critical teams doing the work;
- evaluate the ability of each critical team and rank them on their ability to execute the strategy (necessary changes, new business goals);
- identify and implement counter measures to de-risk the execution of your strategy.
The entire evaluation process can be done in thirty days once data is collected. The required data consists of two 24-question surveys for the Executive Leader, and a Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment for each employee in each critical team responsible to execute the new business goals.
The overall time commitment for capturing the necessary data is 15-minutes for each 24-question survey and on average, less than 10 minutes for each employee to complete the behavioral assessment.
Here is the process that is used to complete the analysis.
Step #1: Define the Business Case
This is an opportunity to clearly outline the business impact in dollars and cents that is the success criteria for the business. Here are some categories that are used in these analyses.
- Reducing costs & increasing profitability
- Improving customer experience & responsiveness
- Improving quality
- Improving productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness
- Better compliance
- Increasing flexibility and innovation
Step #2: Executive Leadership Blueprint (Human System)
The first 24-question survey is designed for the Executive Leader to characterize the current organizational culture in the following categories:
- Leadership style. This is the leadership style that cascades down into the organization and establishes the norms of leadership in the organization.
- Employee management. How employees are managed sets the expectations for all leaders at all levels down to and including frontline supervisors.
- Policies and procedures. These are the expectations of how formal policies and procedures are applied at all levels of the organization.
- Strategic emphasis. The strategic emphasis of where the organization is headed is captured. Some organizations may be more external market and innovation focused while others are more internal looking at the control of work processes or how interdependent teams work with each other.
- Success criteria. What criteria must be satisfied to be successful in the organization.
The second 24-question survey is for the Executive Leader to characterize the future state of the organization. What is important to change in 2023, for example?
The comparison of both data sets will translate to a certain shift in the competing values framework as defined by Cameron & Quinn, University of MI, 1999. This difference is then used to translate changes that need to occur in the following twelve areas:
- Managing innovation
- Managing the future
- Managing continuous improvement
- Managing competitiveness
- Energizing employees
- Managing customer service
- Managing company culture
- Updating the Management Operating System
- Managing the coordination of work between critical teams
- Managing the development of employees
- Managing interpersonal relationships
- Managing teams
This blueprint will be a graphical depiction of the competing values framework that shows the changes that must occur for success in 2023, for example.
Step #3: Critical Team Analysis and Ranking
The Executive Leadership Blueprint provides the basis for rating and ranking each critical team.
Every employee that is a member of a critical team will take a behavioral assessment. Their results will be plotted on the competing values framework, using The Predictive Index Team Discovery. This plot will then characterize the nature of the team. Three specific items are evaluated for each team:
- Given the team type, will the team, as a whole, have a natural affinity toward carrying out the necessary changes outlined in the Executive Leadership Blueprint, or not? What measures can be taken to de-risk the implementation of the required change(s)?
- How does the Critical Team Leader’s natural style facilitate the required change(s) or hamper the required change(s)? Will the Critical Team Leader need to stretch his work to meet a challenge that is not in his or her sweet spot?
- How can we leverage the strengths of individual teammates on each Critical Team to operationalize the change(s) that need to be accomplished?
As the psychometric data of the team is evaluated, answers to these questions allow us to rate the team’s ability to work within the team, with other interdependent teams, with other important company stakeholders, and with external customers:
- Ability to effectively communicate and execute the change(s)
- Ability to identify and solve problems as the change(s) are implemented
- Ability to resolve conflict as the change(s) are implemented
- Ability to collaborate
- Ability to persevere
Each critical team will receive scores on the above criteria and ranked. The Executive Leader can determine which critical teams require further assistance to overcome any identified gaps or to rely on the other higher-ranking teams in the organization to take on greater responsibilities. Ultimately, the goal is to have all teams working at their highest level of productive output toward realizing the business objectives outline in Step 1.
Final Thoughts
A complete list of countermeasures (recommendations to de-risk the implementation) is developed for each team and presented to the Executive Leader. A series of meetings and workshops are used to kick-off the implementation phase. During these workshops, each critical team is presented the analysis and they are able to see where their gaps may lie. As we facilitate the brainstorming session asking for their ideas on countermeasures to de-risk the implementation, the majority of the time, the team identifies solutions that are very closely aligned to our initial suggestions.
The Executive Leader has now gained the following through this process:
- Critical teams understand the reason for the change(s) and what the changes are as it relates to each team.
- Critical teams understand their individual and collective strengths and how those strengths can be used to implement the necessary change(s).
- Critical teams understand their gaps, how to de-risk those gaps, and have ownership of closing those gaps and ensuring success toward the new business goals.
- Critical teams are actively engaged and committed to the success of the organization.