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authenticity

Establish Values for an Organization
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If the organization does not have a clear set of values, collaborate with your team leaders to create one.

 

Here is an example of a department’s set of values created by my direct reports and me:

  • Put family first.
  • Deliver high-quality services.
  • Foster customer partnerships.
  • Establish understanding, trust, and accountability.
  • Make data-driven, innovative, customer-focused decisions.
  • Facilitate collaboration, cooperation, and communication.

These values were prominently displayed on the organization’s website and reinforced to all staff via quarterly meetings and weekly blog posts. Orientation sessions for all new employees were scheduled every month so they could learn about these organizational values, ask questions, and meet the management team leaders.

The benefits of these changes were to build a disciplined, service-oriented culture where there was none; to establish understanding and accountability for services delivered; to increase efficiencies in the organization to fund capital and operating needs; to demonstrate the ability to collaborate, communicate, and follow through on service commitments; and to establish trust with customers leading to increased adoption of cost-effective services. We encouraged staff at all levels to build strong working relationships with their customer counterparts.

Actively listen to your staff and customers, and then set the expectations for the future of the organization. Reinforce these values in frequent communications, the organization’s website, weekly blog updates, quarterly all-staff meetings, job postings, and orientations. It’s crucial if you want to create a culture of customer service and discipline. Do not depend on vital communications to be passed down through the ranks; it just doesn’t happen.

Model the Behaviors You Want to See
 1024 536 Brad Englert Advisory

I was part of a new management team at the firm tasked to turn around a $100 million troubled project that was months behind schedule and over budget. Staff was working extremely long hours with no end in sight. They would drag themselves into the office  around nine a.m. and work until dinner. After a two-hour dinner break, they trudged back and worked until ten or eleven p.m. This was not sustainable, and the entire team was demoralized. It was a death march.

 

Though extremely difficult, we stopped the project for two weeks and asked all the staff to take a well-deserved vacation. The management team re-estimated the remaining work to create more realistic budgets, schedules, and contingencies. A new tool was put in place to accurately track project budget and schedule. We nicknamed the project tracking tool “The Rudder,” because we finally knew how to guide the project. In fact, someone found an old white and blue sailboat rudder, and we hung it on the main conference room wall to remind us that we were no longer rudderless. Some of the allegedly good managers turned out to be bad managers who could not adapt and soon left the project. After the project reset, morale dramatically improved as the team began to make real progress and was ultimately successful.

 

Model the behaviors you want to see. Do not respond to emails at all hours of the night. Do not expect your direct reports to respond to emails at all hours of the night. Do not work excessive hours. Do not expect your team leaders to work excessive hours. Stay home when you are sick, and ask them to do the same. Take vacations, and teach them how to do the same. Establish a family-first prime directive, so when team leaders and their staff are faced with decisions about whether to help a family member, attend a school play, or work, they feel safe to always choose family. I would always say, “Take care of your family and yourself. We have 330 people in our department who will gladly back you up.”

Building Authentic Business Relationships
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In one organization, I had seven team leaders reporting to me. Each of us had from five to 10 peers and customers in the enterprise who we reached out to in the liaison program. This liaison feedback was discussed in our weekly management meetings. We established and nurtured a strong network of business relationships, which served as our organization’s nervous system. We purposely met with people critical of our organization to better understand their concerns. We wanted them inside the tent solving issues with us, not outside throwing rocks. We gathered good and bad feedback, garnered input on team leader performance, and defused rumors that we could address. We also built up goodwill by getting out of our offices and letting people know that we gave a damn.

 

Just as I did for my one-on-one meetings with my manager, I would solicit topics for my liaison meetings with high-level executives. Often I would invite my team leads to my liaison meetings to give them greater executive-level visibility and to help them hear firsthand about those executive leaders’ needs, concerns, and priorities. This inclusive approach helped to improve communication countless times and fostered executive-level trust and confidence in my management team’s ability to deliver outstanding service.

 

Rumors can also be quickly addressed. One of my team leaders was falsely accused of not supporting a new program, and misinformation was quickly spreading about her views. I reached out to my peer liaison executive responsible for this program and said, “Sara has been working tirelessly to make sure your program is successful for both of our organizations. She and I are disappointed about the rumors.” My peer executive agreed and put a stop to the rumors.

 

You and your team leaders must establish and nurture authentic business relationships with peers and customers throughout the enterprise. The liaison program establishes a nervous system for your organization and builds trust and goodwill.

Setting and Managing Expectations
 1024 536 Brad Englert Advisory

One of my new supervisors had a direct report peer of mine, Frank, who was the boss’s close and trusted confidant. They had worked together for 13 years, and I was new. Early on, my boss would clearly seek and often take the advice from Frank on many aspects of my department: budget, personnel, and policies. Frank would give advice that he didn’t have the expertise to give, and he started to create conflict where there wasn’t any.

 

Some of my boss’s emails giving me direction were clearly ghostwritten by Frank. Emails actually written by my supervisor, often via his smart phone, were short, all caps, with no subject line. Frank’s ghostly emails were confusing clouds of words, sent by my supervisor minutes after the two of them had met. (I would check Frank’s calendar to confirm the timing.) One email from my manager actually said, “I am not sending you this note because someone has whispered this in my ear.” This dysfunctional work dynamic was both hilarious and sad. I always wondered if I would have an opportunity to ghostwrite email orders from the boss to Frank, but that never happened.

 

In a one-on-one meeting with my boss, I drew on a sheet of paper three heads with headsets all connected with coiled wires. Below the first head, I wrote, “offensive coordinator.” Below the middle head, I wrote, “head coach.” And below the third head, I wrote, “defensive coordinator.” Then I said, “You are the head coach. Frank is your long-time, trusted offensive coordinator, and I am the new defensive coordinator. Your job is to hold Frank accountable for the offense (his department) and to hold me accountable for the defense (my department). When I get Frank’s orders through your headset, you no longer need me. So, I expect that from now on you will hold Frank accountable for his domain and me accountable for my domain.” My supervisor understood and thanked me for the “open and honest feedback.” I set expectations for what I was comfortable with, and my boss embraced the feedback.

 

You are responsible for setting clear expectations with your supervisor from the outset, especially if you find yourself in a dysfunctional relationship. You must stand up for yourself in a professional and respectful way.

The External Sphere of Influence: Customers, Peers and Influencers, and Strategic Vendor Partners
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The external sphere of influence includes business relationships where you have less direct impact: customers, peers and influencers, and strategic vendor partners.

 

Create and nurture working relationships with customers by seeking to understand their goals and aspirations, delivering value, and genuinely caring about their success. This will build trust and brand loyalty.

 

Whether you are working in your own enterprise or providing services to an external customer, you need to know who your peers and influencers are. Peers are at the same level that you are in an organization. Influencers can be at any level in an organization. Once you identify who they are, you need to understand how you can help each other.

 

“Vendor” implies a short transactional relationship, like you have with a vending machine. I became a strategic vendor by understanding the goals and aspirations of my customers by building the relationship beyond a transaction. When I was on the customer side of the desk, my goal was to build mutually beneficial relationships with vendors we deemed strategic.

Authentic Business Relationships: 5 Tips For Working With Executive Leaders
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Building authentic business relationships with executive leaders is a critical skill. Where do you start? Here are five tips:

 

  1. Understand Your Organization

The best way to align yourself with executive leadership is to understand the organization’s strategy. In the private sector, strategies are often presented in a company’s annual report, quarterly earnings statements, and company websites. In the public sector, reviewing legislation related to an agency is the best place to start to understand the organization’s purpose. Agency websites often convey mission and strategy.  

 

  1. Align with Those Goals

Step back and reflect on how you can best support the achievement of the organization’s goals. Ask yourself what ideas, skills, knowledge, and abilities can you bring to the table? It is shocking how many organizations do not have a strategy. If your organization does not have a strategy, offer to help create one.

 

  1. Set and Manage Expectations

Set expectations from the outset. Seek to understand what is being asked by executive leaders. Ask lots of questions to determine the scope, timing, and resources. At times, you may not be able to align or have the skills or knowledge. Be honest if you cannot help.

 

  1. Bring options to resolve problems

Find solutions to problems and ask for support when you need it. Be open and honest. If you need others to do what they are supposed to do, ask. There are times when you need executive leadership to make decisions, so ask. 

 

  1. Genuinely Care 

The most important tip is to genuinely care about the success of your executive leaders. Demonstrate grit and the will to help them succeed. Be sensitive to the chemistry, timing, and leadership voids. Apologize when you screw up.  

Earning the trust and confidence of executive leaders is fulfilling.