by Bill Collier
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” -Henry Ford
How do you determine who gets promoted at your company?
Is it the person who’s been there longest? Or is it the person with the highest amount of job skill?
We’ve all seen it. Imagine you’re the CEO with this crew ...
You make Harry the marketing manager because, well, he’s Harry. Nobody can write ad copy like Harry.
Lloyd gets promoted to manufacturing team lead because he was in manufacturing before the young whippersnappers on his team were born. You can’t ask Lloyd to report to someone younger and less experienced.
Mary has been called many things: Rainmaker. Hunter. Closer. And everyone says she could sell sand at the beach. So of course she’s your sales manager.
So there’s your leadership team. Trouble is, this team is not really a team at all. It’s riddled with dysfunction. Harry ignores most of the company’s plans and does his own thing. Lloyd actively opposes most of your goals and isn’t shy about sharing that with his team. Mary focuses on her own commissions to the detriment of her team and the company.
Every week you run a leadership team meeting with little substantive discussion. Every day you see evidence that the company’s goals and core values are not being supported and taught by the managers.
How about a better approach? What if getting onto your leadership team involved a “blood oath” to support all company goals, values and initiatives? To make a point, I’m purposely exaggerating when I call for a blood oath – but not by much. I suggest that every single member of management – team leads, supervisors, managers, VPs – be firmly committed to supporting the company and all its initiatives. Publicly and privately.
Best-selling business author Patrick Lencioni advises leadership teams to engage in lively, constructive debate behind closed doors. Speak your mind. Hear and be heard. Push back. Bang the table. But once a decision is made and the doors open, support that decision as if it were your idea. No bad-mouthing to your team. No halfhearted compliance without commitment. Full, enthusiastic support.
Imagine you line up your management team between you (the CEO) and the employees. If you’re trying to get a message across to the employees and your managers aren’t supporting and teaching it, it’s as if you’re shouting over the top of the managers’ heads. It’s frustrating and ineffective.
If you have managers between you and the rest of the company, they have contact with and influence over their teams all day, every day. Anything you say can be undone by a supervisor who’s not committed to the mission, vision, values and goals of the organization.
The person with the most technical expertise or tenure is not necessarily the right choice to manage.
“A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind.” -Bill Bethel
Bill Collier is the St. Louis-area head coach for The Great Game of Business. He works with organizations that want to improve financial results, engage their employees and create a winning culture. Bill can be reached at 314-221-8558, GreatGame.com/stl, GGOBSTL.com or bcollier@ggob.com.
Submitted 8 years 169 days ago