The Leadership Matrix

Step #8 - in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

The Leadership Matrix - the process for business success and execution.

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"Every result has a process that is perfect for achieving it, good or bad. Thus if you want to change the result you have to change the process."

- Steve Chandler

 

Several years ago I put together a process for leading a business - for taking it from a business that relies on the owner to work, rather than one that works for the owner.

 

Below is the 9 step process and a 40 minute presentation that will take you through each step.

 

 

	Right People	Right Things	Done Right
Clarity	Vision/Goals/Purpose	Actions	Core Values
Focus	Engagement	Accountability	2 Second LEAN/ Process
Execution	Weekly Coaching Conversation	Scorecards/Dashboards	Training

 

Here is the 40 minute presentation that takes you through The Leadership Matrix - the secret to Execution.

A Players in Every Position

Step #7 - in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

A Players in Every Position

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"There's something rare, something finer far, something much more scarce than ability. It's the ability to recognize ability."

  - Elbert Hubbard

"A Players in every position? Impossible!", I was once told by a business owner. "I can't afford to have A Players in every position." "Why?", I asked. "My labor costs are already too high and there are not A Players for many of the jobs I have in my company." was his response.

My answer:

1. You have to start looking at Labor as an "investment, not an expense". If you look at it as an investment it doesn't matter what you spend (invest), it is what the return on that investment is that matters. A Players might cost 20-30% more, but they can produce 2-3 times what an average employee will. Which means you can run the company with less people. The Container Store  pays 30% more for an A Player but they run their stores with 1/3 the number of people other retailers do.
2. You have to define what an A Players is. Look for these 3 characteristics: 
   • They are competent at the job - Skill
   • They want to learn and get better - Will
   • They are engaged with the team, your company, they believe what you believe (values)
3. Topgrade. You can't have this team of A Players overnight, you have to slowly, begin coaching, teaching, recruiting and building a Virtual Bench of A Players. Over time you can Topgrade your team like an NFL team does. C Players will leave, B Players will be coached up to A Players, and you can do this with relative ease once you know you have a Virtual Bench in place to draft from.

A Players in every position - think about it. Surrounding yourself with people who are engaged, wanting to learn and get better, accountable for results - a place where you and everyone else likes coming to each day. Productivity will soar, profits will follow. 

The Science of Motivation

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

- Henry Ford 

The following is the Science of Motivation by Peter Rowe:

Oh the Friday procrastinations, as regular as clockwork. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds Fridays the most difficult day to get motivated on. In an effort to shift myself into gear I decided to do a little research on what Science can tell me about getting motivated. The results were actually quite helpful. This article is a little long, but hey it makes for an effective excuse to procrastinate ;) 

Why are we so good at thinking of what we need to do, but so terrible at actually doing those things?

The problem is you're skipping an essential step. Here's what it is...
 

The Mistake Every Productivity System Makes

Productivity systems rarely take emotions into account. And feelings are a fundamental and unavoidable part of why humans do what they do. We can't ignore our emotions. Because of the way our brains are structured, when thought and feelings compete, feelings almost always win. And we can't fight our feelings. Research shows this just makes them stronger.

Via The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking:

...when experimental subjects are told of an unhappy event, but then instructed to try not to feel sad about it, they end up feeling worse than people who are informed of the event, but given no instructions about how to feel. In another study, when patients who were suffering from panic disorders listened to relaxation tapes, their hearts beat faster than patients who listened to audiobooks with no explicitly 'relaxing' content. Bereaved people who make the most effort to avoid feeling grief, research suggests, take the longest to recover from their loss. Our efforts at mental suppression fail in the sexual arena, too: people instructed not to think about sex exhibit greater arousal, as measured by the electrical conductivity of their skin, than those not instructed to suppress such thoughts.

So what does the unavoidable power of feelings mean for motivation?

In their book Switch, Chip and Dan Heath say that emotions are an essential part of executing any plan:

Focus on emotions. Knowing something isn't enough to cause change. Make people (or yourself) feel something. 
 

We need to "think" to plan but we need to "feel" to act.

So if you've got the thinking part out of the way - how do you rile up those emotions and get things done? Here are three steps:

1) Get Positive

When do we procrastinate the most? When we're in a bad mood.

Via Temptation: Finding Self-Control in an Age of Excess:

So procrastination is a mood-management technique, albeit (like eating or taking drugs) a shortsighted one. But we're most prone to it when we think it will actually help... Well, far and away the most procrastination occurred among the bad-mood students who believed their mood could be changed and who had access to fun distractions.

Meanwhile, research shows happiness increases productivity and makes you more successful.

What does the military teach recruits in order to mentally toughen them up? No, it's not hand-to-hand combat. It's optimism. So how do you get optimistic if you're not feeling it?

Monitor the progress you're making and celebrate it. Harvard's Teresa Amabile's research found that nothing is more motivating than progress.

Via The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work:

This pattern is what we call the progress principle: of all the positive events that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work; of all the negative events, the single most powerful is the opposite of progress-setbacks in the work. We consider this to be a fundamental management principle: facilitating progress is the most effective way for managers to influence inner work life.

(More on how to get happier here.)

Okay, so negativity isn't making you procrastinate and holding you back. But what's going to drive you forward?

2) Get Rewarded

Rewards feel good. Penalties feel bad. And that's why they both can work well for motivating you.

Research shows that rewards are responsible for three-quarters of why you do things.

Via The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People:

Researchers find that perceived self-interest, the rewards one believes are at stake, is the most significant factor in predicting dedication and satisfaction toward work. It accounts for about 75 percent of personal motivation toward accomplishment. - Dickinson 1999

So treat yourself whenever you complete something on your to-do list. (Yes, this is how you train a dog but it will work for you too.)

Having trouble finding a reward awesome enough to get you off your butt? Try a "commitment device" instead:

Give your friend $100. If you get a task done by 5PM, you get your $100 back. If you don't complete it, you lose the $100.

Your to-do list just got very emotional. (More on how to stop procrastinating here.)

So you're feeling positive and there are rewards (or penalties) in place. What else do you need? How about nagging, compliments and guilt?

3) Get Peer Pressure

Research shows peer pressure helps kids more than it hurts them.
(And face it, you're still a big kid, you just have to pretend to be an adult most of the time - and it's exhausting.)

Surround yourself with people you want to be and it's far less taxing to do what you should be doing.

Via Charles Duhigg's excellent book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business:

When people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that change to occur becomes more real. 

The Longevity Project, which studied over 1000 people from youth to death had this to say:

The groups you associate with often determine the type of person you become. For people who want improved health, association with other healthy people is usually the strongest and most direct path of change.

And the research on friendship confirms this. From an interview with Carlin Flora, author of Friendfluence:

Research shows over time, you develop the eating habits, health habits and even career aspirations of those around you. If you're in a group of people who have really high goals for themselves you'll take on that same sense of seriousness.

(More on the science of friendship here.)

So we've got all three methods going for us. How do we wrap this all together and get started?

Sum Up

Got today's to-do list? Great. That means the most rational thing to do now is stop being rational. Get those emotions going:

1.       Get Positive
2.       Get Rewarded
3.       Get Peer Pressure

You can do this. In fact, believing you can do this is actually the first step. What's one of the main things that stops people from becoming happier? Happiness isn't part of how they see themselves so it's harder to change. Think of yourself as a motivated, productive person. Research shows how people feel about themselves has a huge effect on success.

Via The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People:

For most people studied, the first step toward improving their job performance had nothing to do with the job itself but instead with improving how they felt about themselves. In fact, for eight in ten people, self-image matters more in how they rate their job performance than does their actual job performance. - Gribble 2000

Still unsure if you'll be able to beat the procrastination demon? Then skip right to #3, peer pressure.

Forward this post to at least two friends and start holding each other accountable.

Now you've got something outside of yourself that's watching and motivating you. And everything is easier - and more fun - with friends.

This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Right People, Doing the Right Things, Right - Part 2

Part 2 of Step #6 - in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

Right People, Doing the Right Things, Right

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"Goals without Actions are dreams. Actions without Goals are chaos."

- Japanese Proverb

Step #6 is Right People, Doing the right things, Right.  Last weeks post was "Right People" - now we will discuss doing the "Right Things".

One of my favorite quotes (above) - I've been using it for 7-8 years now - provides the best insight I can find as to why most businesses seem to be in chaos all day. Steven Covey called it "the urgent getting in the way of important."

How do we define what ownership and A Players should be working on? What are the Right Actions/Rocks they should be focusing on?

It all starts with Goals, SMART Goals. Let me tell you a quick story.

A client of mine was setting goals with me for the coming year. He was setting SMART Goals - numbers and metrics - for his company. I asked him about new Ideal Customers and he replied, "we brought on 100 this year so next year we

will bring in 120" (notice the commitment to achieving the goal). Before I could say anything, the Sales Manager said, "well to get 120 new Ideal Customers we need to do 1..,2..3..., (Actions/Rocks)", and before he could finish the Operations Manager said, "to support that we need to 1., 2., 3." One goal and we produced 6 or 7 Actions/Rocks that were, suddenly, prioritized. Those are the Right Things to assign one person and make them accountable for each one, and one by one finish, execute.

Warning:

You can't do them all at once. My experience says 2 Rocks per quarter per employee is about the maximum. If you assign more it is overwhelming and nothing gets finished. Each Rock has only one person accountable for it. They can use other resources and people but they are accountable for it being completed. More on how we track this progress and ensure we finish/execute in future posts.