Leadership Trouble Spots

A Synopsis on how to solve your most challenging Leadership Trouble Spot

1 - My business has just lost a big customer and we have had to make some redundancies.  I am very despondent and so is my team.  How should

I go about energising my employees and myself?

 Title: How to raise the group Energy

1.      Have a ‘let it all out’ session

2.      Building the vision

3.      Have an ‘away day’ that focuses on:

a.      Identify individual + team strength

b.      Personal growth activities

c.       Team Building and Bonding activities

d.     Team Challenge

4.      Have an ‘our future away day, focusing on:

a.      Setting new corporate goals

b.      Setting individual goals

c.       Aligning corporate + individual goals

2 - I have inherited a team of employees and while they are capable, their previous manager allowed a lot of sloppy practices and de-motivation to set in.  I am quite capable of picking up the sloppy standards but how do I go about motivating them to put in the extra effort.

 Title: How to get Superfantastic performance from you team

1.      Have a team made-up of high achievers

2.      Have a result orientated business model (30 day transactional model)

3.      Introduce the ‘ABC[1]’ management concept

4.      Create an awareness of high expectation within the organisation

5.      Define and communicate new targets that will stretch everybody

6.      Introduce informal weekly team review get-together

7.      Introduce formal 30 day review meeting (focus on[2])

8.      Raise the bar after each 30 day review

3 - My team are all very capable at the technical aspects of their job, but seem to have no commitment to our customers or the business.  For instance, as soon as 5 o'clock arrives they all disappear out the door leaving whatever they are dealing with unfinished no matter how important it is.  How can I motivate them to care as well as simply follow the procedures (as ably as they do it)?

Title: Navigational Ability

1.      Find out why your employee joined your firm

2.      Find out what makes them get up in the morning and commute to work with you (notice, I did not say ‘work for you’)

3.      Find out their true motives (intrinsic motivators)

4.      Have a genuine relationship[3] with them 

5.      Align work, task and project such that it appeals to their internal motives 

6.      Have a organisational culture that celebrates small victories 

4 - My team seems incapable of co-operating with each other, there are constant arguments, bickering and one-upmanship with little co-operation.  How can I motivate them to pull in the same direction rather than against each other?

Title: It’s in the Culture

1.      Determine the cause of the internal conflicts

2.      Determine the cause for covet thought process, attitude and behaviour

3.      Determine what hidden or double agendas exist

4.      Eliminate competing objectives from corporate policies

5.      Eliminate internal resource competition

6.      Have a ‘let it all out’ session

7.      Define a new single vision for the organisation

8.      Facilitate ‘Buy-in’ from the employees

5 - We are often invited to pitch against competitors.  We always seem to get down to the last two or three but never quite clinch the deal.

This continued "nearly" has drained our enthusiasm and we are unable to focus on what we can do to clinch the next appointment. What can we do to break the pattern and start winning the business?

Title: Breaking Through

1.      Examine business area

2.      Determine whether you’re in the right business – must distinguish between the business area and the vehicle for delivering the business

3.      Determine what’s causing the limiting belief

a.      What’s causing the ‘we’re 2nd best’ mentality

                                                              i.      Why wasn’t it challenged

4.      Establish where both the team + organisational strength, capabilities, & abilities lie

5.      Establish areas of weakness

6.      Align strength, capabilities & abilities with the needs of the business (right) sector

7.      Define new high expectation goals based on #6

---

[1] Attitude, Behaviour, Consequences

[2] What worked, what worked really well, what do we need to improve on, where can we leverage, what will constitute a step forward for us

[3] Don’t just know their name and job role, get to know their dreams, aspirations, fears, and hopes …