Posted by Robert Hargrove
I had a fascinating meeting in Manhattan with Arturo Poire, Global Head of Talent Management for Marsh McLennan, the $10.5 billion dollar, professional service firm. As I sat discussing the Masterful Coaching program with Arturo and his colleague, Paul Picciani, he noticed that I had written a book,
Your First 100 Days, and asked me a very good question: “How is the book, which came out last spring, different from the classic,
Your First 90 Days, written by Michael Watkins about a decade ago.
The two books, though coming at leadership transitions from different angles, actually really complement each other very well. With regard to my book
Your First 100 Days, the differentiator lies in the subtitle -
Powerful First Steps on the Path to Greatness. This suggests boldness of vision that can change the face of things, which in turn shapes, limits, and defines immediate action. Michael Watkins’ book, by contrast, emphasizes the importance of securing early wins so as to establish key relationships and build personal credibility and momentum.
I generally coach CEOs in their first 100 days, who have a clear mandate to deal with a crisis or competitive threat, to declare an impossible future that will inspire and motivate the troops, while setting the stage for organization transformation and the kind of paradigm smashing thinking that leads to breakthrough results. I then coach them on creating a structure for fulfillment that follows Watkins’ model of securing early wins and establishing ‘A’ level priorities.
This past week in the business news, I noticed a couple of good examples of this approach.Thorsten Heins, New Rims CEO Pledges to Put Blackberry Back On TopAccording to a story in
Businessweek, Research In Motion Ltd.’s Thorsten Heins, five days into his job as CEO, pledged to put the company back on top of in the U.S. smartphone market and said he was holding talks with rivals eager to license its software. “We have to do something dramatically different in the U.S. to get our market share back,” said Heins, 54. “I’m here to fight. I’m here to win.”
“In the first 100 days, I am going to focus on one thing,” Heins said. “My first job is to get BlackBerry 7 into all of your hands.” Heins, who took over from co-Chief Executive Officers Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, said his immediate priority is to revive BlackBerry sales in the U.S., get a revamped version of Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM’s struggling PlayBook tablet onto the market next month and introduce its new operating system, BlackBerry 10, on time later this year. This is to make up for the fact that the company lost out on the smartphone market to Apple’s iPhone and devices that run on Google’s Android software. RIM’s revenue has slumped for two quarters, driving RIM shares down 75 percent last year
New CEO sets path for J.C. Penney to Reinvent ItselfIn
The Salt Lake Tribune, there was a story about Ron Johnson, who oversaw Apple’s retail strategy before starting at J.C. Penney this fall. Johnson said last week that in his first 100 days he wanted to establish a bold vision to totally reinvent the company. While many shoppers go to Walmart for price, Target for cheap style, high-end stores for luxury treats and the Web for ease, stores such as J.C. Penney have faded into the background.
Coming into his job from his vision of an impossible future, he began scoring some early wins. “We need to give customers enough reasons to love us.” His powerful first steps to make JC Penny a destination retailer included announcing a new designer partnership with Nanette Lepore and a new spokeswoman and advertising star, Ellen DeGeneres. He also introduced a logo and new color-saturated advertisements that barely mention price.
Johnson’s problem was that reinvention was hard to do for a retailer stuck with yesterday’s stores. He declared right off the bat that within four years, the stores would be completely redone, each divided into about 100 small boutiques with a service center that he called “Town Square” at the center.
He scored an early win right out of the box by getting off of the nonstop promotions at the stores and moved to three kinds of pricings (everyday, monthly specials and clearance).
Investors last week, while having reason for caution, responded positively. J.C. Penney shares soared nearly 19 percent Thursday when the department store chain delivered a 2012 profit outlook that was well above analysts’ projections, a day after debuting the new pricing plan. Shares rose $6.44 to close at $40.72.
Posted by Robert Hargrove
Most CEOs spend their first 100 days getting settled in. Not Olof Persson, who became CEO of Volvo in September of 2011 and has embarked on one of the most ambitious shakeups in decades. The key has been how he has handled the preparation period before he started the job.
According to an interview in 3D-Car, Persson said: Although I officially took over as Chief Executive on 1st September, I have been concentrating on this role since May, when I became deputy CEO. I spent that interim period travelling around the Group, visiting facilities that I’d not seen during my five previous years at the Volvo Group, and speaking with a whole lot of new people.
This process not only helped fill gaps in my knowledge about the Group, the discussions also acted as a valuable sounding board for my ideas. So by 1st September, when I officially took over, I already had my plans for moving the company forward in place and was ready to go.
Persson went around asking a lot of questions, but in the process he went beyond seeking answers and came to what I call the moment of true insight. Says Persson, I have always believed that the Volvo Group was a company filled with an enormous amount of talented and committed people.
My travels and conversations have confirmed this view. I have been surprised by the number of good initiatives – and by the level of enthusiasm and engagement I have seen during my visits. Our big strength is, of course, the Volvo culture, which is well aligned throughout the company. This, and the ‘Volvo Way’ philosophy, is a universal foundation for how we work, how we treat customers and each other.
In going through this period of rigorous active inquiry, Persson saw Volvo’s strengths and weaknesses, and then focused on what was missing. The previous CEO, Leif Johansson, had made Volvo into a global company, with multiple brands, and divisions from cars, to trucks, to airplanes and construction. Persson’s insight about what was missing involved modernizing the structure of the company – as he puts it: one where we take advantage of all that growth by maximizing economies of scale and leveraging synergies.
Persson’s background, which includes restructuring Volvo construction equipment and making it one of the most successful in its industry in terms of both profitability and size, makes him uniquely qualified to do this.
Instead of being divided into four brands (Volvo, Mack, Renault and UD), Volvo’s truck operations will be organized into three geographic units. The aim is to improve coordination. Persson also has changed the talent line up in the organization, bringing in seven new people and adding three new women to the top team.
Posted by Robert Hargrove
WHY YOUR FIRST 100 DAYS MATTERSSince Franklin Roosevelt, America’s 32nd President, took office in 1932 and declared his first 100 day plan in the middle of the Great Depression, leaders throughout the world have used their first 100 days, not just to learn the job, but also as a launch pad for their political and economic agenda. This period of time is often marked by a newly installed leader thinking big and acting boldly to bring about needed change before the window of opportunity closes. One thing is certain, the world will view whatever you do during this period of time as a bellwether of things to come.
In taking over the leadership of North Korea you will face, in Shakespeare’s words, great expectations. Your first 100 days will be pivotally important in establishing the foundations of your long-term success or failure. It’s a time when people in your country and all over the world will be straining to take your measure as a leader, “Is he up to the job?” It’s a time when you have the opportunity to establish a vision of an Impossible Future for North Korea—from third world to first by 2020. Why not? It’s a time to address ‘A’ level priorities, like improving relations with South Korea. It’s a time to secure early wins that would build personal credibility and momentum—like extending an olive branch to the global community and bringing food aid to your country so people don’t starve over this long cold winter.
The question on everyone’s mind: Will Kim Jong-eun be his own man and strike on his own, calling forth a new era of peace and prosperity for his country or will he merely follow in the footsteps of his father whose actions have brought suffering to the North Korean people and caused continued threats to regional( global) security? Your first 100 days as “The Great Successor” is a time when small words (that suggest a shift in the wind) and symbolic actions can have a big impact. It’s important to have a story ready day one, as key leaders both in Pyongyang and around the world will immediately be looking for signals of your intentions. Imagine you are standing up and saying something like: “I respect my grandfather’s and father’s accomplishments, but it’s time for a change.” It would be like a shot from a gun heard round the world.
One thing I would advise is to not just come into the job with a smile and a coronation, as many leaders do, but with a 100 day plan, followed by swift and immediate action to improve the lot of the North Korean people and increase global security. One of the first things you must do in setting forth your 100 day plan is to create a burning platform that change is actually needed, so as not to stir up the reactionaries in your government. This should not be difficult considering your three biggest problems are that your economy is slow and inefficient, you cannot feed your own people, and the entire world has sanctions against you.
GETTING READY TO CREATE YOUR FIRST 100 DAY ACTION PLAN Accelerate your leadership development by finding a coach. You are a relatively young person without much leadership experience thrust into a position of great power. It’s therefore important that you find a leadership transition coach, like your uncle Jang Song-taek, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, who understands the political chessboard and who can help you consolidate your power. Yet it’s also important that you find a leadership coach, preferably from outside North Korea who can accelerate your development as a leader, providing you both a moral compass in making decisions and an objective point of view. Your coach should help you to understand that there is a difference between being a real leader who is attuned to the throbbing human needs and wants of their people, and a mere power wielder who is attuned only to their own self-interest. Your first 100 days are a great opportunity to demonstrate that you have learned this lesson.
Bring your ministers together and honestly assess North Korea’s situation. There is a fable people tell about the Emperor who has no clothes. Everyone could see this except the emperor himself, which if he had known, would have been embarrassing. Here are three things people in the rest of the world see about North Korea that may or may not be apparent to you: 1) While you enjoy a cooperative relationship with China, your country is considered a terrorist, police state by the majority of nations around the world. This keeps North Korea from enjoying the advantages of the global economy and makes economic development difficult or impossible. 2) As you know, while a small percentage of your people who are employed by the government live fairly well, the vast majority of your people cannot meet their basic earthly needs such as heating and lighting, food and nutrition, health care. 3) Your people are denied basic human freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of information.
Come up with a strategy that matches your situation. The “winning strategy” your grandfather and father used was based on communism, aggressive foreign policy and self-reliance has run out of gas. You need to create a new winning strategy consistent with the betterment of the North Korea people and global stability.
1) From Communism to Capitalism. The primary driver of high growth economies, said Milton Freedom, is the desire to get rich. Why not adopt Deng Tsiao Peng’s strategy by throwing off the communist mantle and embracing capitalism. As Deng said, “I don’t care if it’s a white cat or black cat, as long as it catches mice.”
2) From Self Reliance to Feeling Globalization’s Embrace. Your next strategy should involve recognizing that today, becoming part of the global economy trumps self-reliance as the path toward economic prosperity. This means you need to send a very clear signal in your first 100 days that you intend to embrace globalization and its “rule sets” (starting with obeying international law).
3) From Fanaticism to the Four Freedoms. FDR, America’s 32nd President, made an inaugural address in his first 100 days in which he promised to build a country based on the four freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Why not follow his example?
CREATE A 100 DAY ACTION PLAN Now that you have a strategy to at least think about, the next step is to move from that strategy to creating a 100 day action plan. Put up three large pieces of paper and fill each up: 1) things I will absolutely do in my first 30 days, 2) things I will absolutely do in my first 60 days, and 3) things I will absolutely do in my first 90 days.
To prepare for this exercise it might be good to think in terms of three waves of change:
- First 30 days—Secure early wins
- Second 30 days—Attack ‘A’ level priorities
- Third 30 days—Establish your long term vision
Securing early wins. As you are taking over the leadership of your country at a very young age, I think it is pivotal that you secure early wins that will help you establish political capital, build personal credibility and momentum toward your long term vision. When President Lula of Brazil was elected to office, his operating credo was “do the obvious,” which involved helping the poor. He made it possible for chronically poor people to get small government loans to start a business, made access to public schools more widely available, and opened up free medical clinics for children (as long as they were enrolled in school). He recently left office with an 87% popularity rating. You could do something similar, but may have to make some tough tradeoffs. For example, by suspending the development of nuclear weapons, you could open a flood gate of international aid to North Korea, bring foods, medicine, and fuel to people who much need them.
Attack ‘A’ level priorities. You have to admit that no matter how much righteous indignation, a 50-year family feud is very wearing on all concerned. South Korea may be your enemy, but as old cousins they may be just waiting to be your best friend. Think of what you could do in your first 100 days to create a much better relationship with South Korea. President Lee Myung-bak (who your father crossed swords with) will soon leave office. The 2012 Presidential elections in South Korea will focus in large part on the candidates debating their policy toward North Korea. You can shape the debate by extending an olive branch in your first 100 days that gets people to see your country in a new way and act in a new way toward it. For example, suspending nuclear weapons development in conjunction with small symbolic acts, such as apologizing for the sinking of the Destroyer Cheonan, could promote a One Korean Peninsula “economic cooperation,” and could result in South Korean companies making investments in your nation that could dramatically accelerate the development of your economy.
Establish your long term vision. I personally very much admired Prime Minister Lee of Singapore who created a vision of his country after the Japanese occupation in World War II of “From third world to first in 25 years.” I think if you had the courage to stand up in your first 100 days and declare an Impossible Future for your country of a similar nature, you would not only gain the respect of the political and military bodies within your country, but attract help from all over the world. The good news is that you are young enough to not only stand for such a vision, and to plan for it, but to drive it to completion.
Go public with your 100 day action plan, and expect to be held to account. Once you hone your first 100 Day Action Plan, the next step is to make it public, telling people you intend to be held to account for what you have said. Additionally, I would advise asking every minister in your government to come up with their own 100 day action plan of reforms that they are going to bring about for the benefit of the Korean people. Ask them to make these public. At least within the government itself and hold people accountable for results. Sweep out those who don’t follow your leadership by taking swift action with a big broom.
Get other people on your team to create their own 100 day action plan. If you want to bring about real reforms, but are concerned with reactionaries, highlight 1 to 3 burning platform issues that you absolutely need to attend to. Then go all out to get the buy in you need to drive the necessary changes needed to address the issue. For example, opening up meaningful talks with South Korea, opening up foods banks with the help of international agencies to make sure no one goes hungry, inviting high tech executives from America, South Korea, or Japan to see how technology could help solve the nation’s issues.
Good luck to you sir.
Posted by Robert Hargrove
What does the new CEO of Philips, Frans van Houten, have in common with Dutch explorers of the past, such as Henry Hudson who sought to find an easterly passage to Asia, or Willem Janszoon who recorded European landfall on the Australian continent?
These hearty Dutch explorers each pursued an Impossible Dream in service of a cause, even though they didn’t have modern navigation equipment and there was no simple or obvious map to follow.
Mr. Van Houten, who began his first 100 days about four months ago after taking over from a former client of mine, Gerard Kleisterlee, is intent on another Impossible Voyage of Discovery, even though he doesn’t have all the answers when starting out. It involves sailing the 100 year old conglomerate still know as Royal Dutch Philips through new and uncharted waters, marked by blue ocean strategies and game changing innovation, with a culture to match.
When Van Houten became CEO, he found an old portrait of the company founder in the basement of the corporate headquarters. The story goes that the founder went off to Moscow to sell light bulbs to light city streets. He sent back a telegram with an order for 50,000 bulbs. Since it was such a larger order, people at headquarters in Amsterdam assumed it was a mistake and that he meant 5000 bulbs. Van Houten says that the portrait and the story inspire him to think big, to act bold, and to personally make a difference.
Permit me a flashback. I remember landing in Amsterdam not long after Mr. Kleisterlee took over as CEO of Philips to begin an assignment Masterful Coaching had been given, which involved coaching Philips’ top executives. As I drove from the Schiphol Airport toward the city, I ran into a billboard that said “Philips, we make things better.” As this was shortly after the dot com boom, I was frankly shocked by this billboard. We are living at the dawn of a creative economy and age of innovation, and the company’s advertisement is “We make things better.” I thought to myself that here was a company out of step with the times and it was going to be for a rough ride. I tried to get the company to change it, but to no avail.
Now let me fast forward to the present. I had gotten wind of the fact that Philips had a new CEO and decided to study up on him. I was absolutely astonished to hear that Mr. Van Houten was preaching the gospel of disruptive innovation in his first 100 days, while at the same time, making some very tough business decisions which involved big layoffs. The key to it all was creating a new culture and this was something he was headlong engaged in.
Here are a few of the quotes I came across from Mr. Van Houten than impressed me, not to mention the fact that the company slogan had been changed at some point from “We make things better” to “We create better ideas.” Says Mr. Van Houten,“Innovation is our lifeblood and will be the main driver of profitable growth going forward.”
Mr. Van Houten emphasized in a recent speech, where he echoed one of my familiar themes, great companies pursue impossible dreams in services of a cause, and make money at the same time. “Philips has the right portfolio to address key societal issues, such as ageing populations, improving the livability of our cities, promoting healthy lifestyles and a more sustainable world.”
“I intend to drive innovation with more intensity to help us win new customers,” said Mr. Van Houten. “Philips has deep research and engineering competences and we are constantly looking to attract the brightest talent to do amazing things together.”
Three game changers• Develop high technologies that make high quality healthcare without the expense of a hospital bed, driving down the total cost of healthcare.
• LED lighting that turns up the ambiance without turning up the electric bill and promotes sustainability.
• Lifestyle technologies such as luminous wall paper.
Hats off to Mr. Van Houten who recognizes the challenges of getting a big conglomerate to an like an entrepreneurial innovator. His new theme is “accelerate.” (Big companies have pockets of innovation, but are often too slow in getting to market.)
Okay, this sounds all well and good, but Philips is a big company spread out all over the world, and Mr. Van Houten will face a lot of barriers to getting his message through. As a case in point, this past week, my partner in Korea, Dr. Edward Choi, went to visit with the CEO of Philips Korea to talk to him about the new Masterful Coaching program—Game Changers (how to repeatedly create block buster business models, products and services). The Korean CEO said “Game Changer is too big for us here,” (red flag) but please contact our new chairman,” which I am doing.
I hope Mr. Van Houten is smart enough to know that he is going to need help!
Posted by Robert Hargrove
I saw an interesting column in the New York Times by Tom Friedman, “The Next First (and Only) 100 Days.” Says Friedman, “Since F.D.R., we’ve measured presidents by their “first 100 days.” But now it’s really “the only 100 days.” That is to say, a President has about 100 days to prescribe their transformational agenda and get it passed year one.
After that, partisanship (members of Congress who I will call the “No Nos”) begins to block any forward movement and before long, we’re into the midterm elections. If the President’s party loses (which is often the case), they take their eye off the ball and begin to focus on winning the next Presidential election.
This not only creates a dysfunctional government here at home, as we have seen on issues like the national debt and job creation, but puts the USA at a disadvantage globally. Says Friedman, China has five-year plan. We have 100 day plan, once every four years.
It’s obvious that President Obama (or whoever wins the 2012 election) needs to be part of the solution to this malaise, not part of the problem. This could start with the President declaring an Impossible Future (for example, full employment) that is big enough that both parties can subordinate their egos. The next step would be for both parties to learn to work more collaboratively with each other. It just won’t work anymore for a President to say, ‘We won the election. Now you listen to me.”
By the way, it dawns on me that the same logic applies to many CEOs and business executives. Their first 100 days may be their only 100 days. It’s this period of time that Wall Street, the board and others extend the new CEO or enterprise leader a honeymoon period that carries with it tacit permission to lay out their transformational agenda. Even if some board members disagree with the new CEO’s initiatives, others will come to their defense and say: ”Isn’t this exactly why we hired this guy?”
Yet I have seen over and over again that as soon as a CEO or top executive reaches the first 100 day mark, heading into the first year the opposition often begins to form. The goodwill that was previously extended can quickly turn into back stabbing, and forward progress on the CEO’s transformational agenda can come to a crashing halt. It doesn’t have to be that way and there are antidotes for this, but it often does.
The moral of the story? Think big and act bold in your first 100 days, it may be your only opportunity to do so.
Posted by Robert Hargrove
Return HP to Iconic Status With First Principles
On August 23, 1937, two recently-graduated electrical engineers—Hewitt and Packard—met to consider the idea of founding a new company. They put their thoughts to paper, beginning with a general statement about design and manufacture of high tech products. This was followed by a startling statement, "The decision of what to be manufactured will be postponed." Instead they wrote down the core values—The HP Way—that, when translated into strategic decisions and operational practices, would allow them to build an iconic company over the coming decades.
Today, much of the business world is trying to figure out just what newly appointed CEO Meg Whitman should do to stabilize the iconic Silicon Valley company after a decade of boardroom brawls, CEO departures, and strategic initiatives whose communication was bungled. I think that as Meg Whitman sits down to write her maiden speech, emphasis should not be placed on strategic questions, like whether to stay in or go out of the hardware business, whether to continue to build the HP Tablet, or whether to go into high-end software services.
In my opinion, the most important thing Meg Whitman could do to return HP to its iconic status is to emphasize the importance of The HP Way, which I will put in a nutshell as follows. Create an organization that is fit for human beings and demand results. Limit growth to arenas of distinctive contribution and create new arenas of growth through path-breaking innovation. Set unwavering standards for products and allow immense operating flexibility. Contribute to the community and deliver exceptional shareholder returns. Demonstrate absolute integrity.
Advice to Meg Whitman on her first 100 days:
1) Have your story from day one, as stakeholders look for important signals immediately. Manage by walking around, not just the headquarters, but make a point of visiting every HP facility and telling your story, “this is where we have been, this is where we are going.” Engage people around their questions.
2) Secure some early wins to build personal credibility and momentum. For example, put an end to all the chatter as to whether your predecessor Leo Apothecary’s deal to buy Autonomy Corp was a good idea. Complete the deal and let HP take its place in the field of high end, software service business. Decide to stay vs. abandon your PC business, the biggest in the world. When Windows 8 rolls around next year, the line between PCs and Tablets will blur and you could record big profits.
3) Attack ‘A’ level priorities that build a foundation for the future. Leo Apothecary may have made some okay strategic decisions, but he created stress and confusion because he didn’t put in place the teams. Make sure you not only have a good strategy, but an organization that can change as fast as change. Get the team and processes in place so that once a strategic decision is made, it can be executed with speed.
4) Establish a long term vision. Will HP ever be an iconic company again? I don’t know. Does it have the potential to be? Absolutely! A lot depends on your coming up with an answer to the following questions: Who do we aspire to be as a company? What would be an Impossible Future that would inspire people to wake up in the morning and go to work? And at the same time, what do we need to do to deliver on our day jobs, making sure we meet quarterly profit goals to stakeholders?
Posted by Robert Hargrove
In the Selection Process, Most of the HP Board Declined to Even Interview Him
Leo Apotheker? Who is he? When HP fired Mark Hurd (who had performed brilliantly in his job, but was suspected of a sexual tryst with a porn actress who he hired as a consultant), they had to find a new CEO in a hurry.
Like most boards, they had not considered how to replace their CEO if there was a sudden departure, like being hit by a truck walking across the street. In this case there was no “truck” candidate.
The task fell upon the board to select a new CEO. The problem was that, according to Ray Lane, a former HP board member and CFO of Oracle, “The HP board is probably one of the most dysfunctional in the history of corporate America, which resulted in them selecting a candidate for this venerable company who the majority of board members had never even met.
As the story I have been able to piece together reveals, a single member of the board was in charge of finding a CEO candidate. The board selected Leo Apotheker, the SAP CEO who had just gotten the axe in part because he was a stranger to them and, therefore, had not been involved in any past rivalries with the rest.
At the same time, the board was so exhausted from the political wrangling in the selection process that the majority of members refused to meet, let alone even interview him. Leo Apotheker received absolutely no executive on boarding except being handed his badge and being pointed toward his office.
As he was brought into the job in a hurry, he didn’t spend much time doing due diligence. He was unable, therefor, to come up with a strategy that matched the company’s situation (or even its business). He used his first 100 days to try to turn HP into SAP.
He announced shortly after joining that HP, a high tech hardware icon, was getting out of the hardware business (its strength) and becoming a software service business, much like his former employer. It didn’t seem to matter that HP had never been in the software business. He made an immediate play to buy Autonomy, an SAP-like company, for a price many believed was twice what it was worth.
He also announced that HP was dropping its iPad-like tablet just coming onto the market, a product many thought would compete well with the iPad (a product whose technology the company had just bought from Palm.)
He failed to do the three things a leader must do in their first 100 days:
1) He didn’t succeed in getting his message through on his long term vision;
2) He didn’t attack ‘A’ level priorities like building as team of ‘A’ players or marketing the HP tablet, which was flying out of Best Buy at $99;
3) He didn’t secure any early wins that are critical to establishing a virtuous circle of increasing personal credibility and momentum.
He missed the first quarter’s earnings, then the second, then was on his way to missing the third. At that point, the stock started falling off the shelf and investors started calling for his head. After 11 months, it was over.
Posted by Robert Hargrove
I am excited to meet with Congressman Marty Russo next week for dinner in Boston's North End, otherwise known as Little Italy.
I was contacted by Mr. Russo’s chief consultant, Nancy Andriuk, a top Washington political strategist, about a month ago which prompted me to write a blog on the excesses of the Tea Party, with some tips for newly elected legislators emphasizing collaboration.
Mr. Russo, Nancy tells me, is the definition of tenacity with many years of experience moving legislation through Washington's congressional maze way.
The topic for our discussion is a leadership coaching and mentoring for new legislators, who both need to establish key relationships, take stands on things that match their electoral mandate and party, yet build coalitions across the aisle.
Sounds like a fascinating and intriguing idea, and I am sure I will learn much from Congressman Russo at this meeting.
We will see how it goes and let you know what comes out of it.
Posted by Robert Hargrove
The first 100 days are high stakes for the new leader and organization, and people need help!
The first 100 days can be like walking through a jungle. After studying many executive transitions and writing a book on the subject, I have come up with ten critical success strategies that, taken as a whole, represent a critical path. This is the roadmap that we use in coaching executives through their first 100 days.
1. Find an executive onboarding coach. Why get lost in the jungle when there is a guide who can show you the critical path?
2. Prepare for the journey before you start: a) your TPOV as a leader, b) getting clear on your going-in mandate, c) do your due diligence, d) get a head start on establishing key relationships.
3. Make a powerful first impression. Have a story ready for Day One. Seal your leadership and have an impact by making decisions and taking action in the first 72 hours.
4. Match your leadership transition style to the business context, culture, and politics. Spend time understanding the matrix of the business situation, cultural norms, and political chessboard.
5. Don’t walk in with a strategy, walk in ready to lead a strategic process. First assess your situation with 3 c’s: 1) company, 2) competition, 3) customer needs. Next: Ask what’s your: 1) strategy, 2) ‘A’ level priorities, 3) early wins?
6. Create a 100 Day Plan. What’s my impossible future or vision? Things I will absolutely do in my first 30 days (secure early wins), second 30 days (‘A’ level priorities), third 30 days (long term vision).
7. Manage your message; go public with your program. Get your TPOV out there with every breath you take. “This is who I am as a leader. This is how we are going to win in this business.” Use every platform of communication—town halls, email, social media, etc.
8. Start building an ‘A’ team; Embed your team with a burning imperative. Decide to have a team of ‘A’ players. Be prepared to make tough people decisions. Embed your team with a burning imperative.
9. Secure early wins that build personal credibility. It’s pivotally important to secure early wins that build personal credibility and build momentum. Early wins lay the foundation for larger goals and can be used to signal desired changes in culture and behavior.
10. Build coalitions that create openings for larger change. Establish key relationships with power brokers. Build coalitions by aligning your goals to theirs. Focus on interests, not positions.
Posted by Robert Hargrove
Criticaleye, a UK consulting firm that focuses on helping leaders navigate the C Suite, recently held a luncheon with the topic of the chairman’s role during their first 100 days. Whether you are a NEC (non-executive Chairman) or Chairman/CEO who is running the business, it’s a good time to both take stock and to establish a simple vision of what you want to achieve over the next 3 years or so. One good way to get there is to lead a debate among the directors about what goals should be accomplished, what tone needs to be set in the culture.
CEO relationship is the lynchpin. Leslie Van de Walle, Chairman of building material company SIG plc, reflected on his first 100 days as chairman and outlined the following as crucial for success: “For any chairman, the relationship with the CEO is the lynchpin for the success of the business. The chairman should assess whether the CEO lacks experience in a particular field of expertise and add value by plugging those gaps with his/her own experience. “
Only fools rush in. Simon Laffin, independent NED (non-executive director) of market research business Aegis Group plc says: “The new Chairman’s most important task is to establish the relationship with the CEO. The CEO will worry that the Chairman will interfere too much, and the new Chairman will want reassurance that the CEO won't give him any nasty surprises. It's a bit like an arranged marriage. Both parties are chosen by others, but you've still got to live together.”
Deepen relationships through Informal meetings. Rick Haythornthwaite, NEC of MasterCard Inc. and Network Rail Ltd, suggests informal meetings might aid the bonding process. “Get to know the NEDs. They will be wary of your arrival, so decide early whether there is a need for change and get on with it – the sooner that you get to a stable board, the better. Establish NED dinners, if they do not exist, and put a date in the diary to meet the board with partners in a social setting. Both steps deepen relationships quicker and make for better dialogues.”
Hold a board strategy day. But to gauge what kind of board has really been inherited, the chairman can always hold a board strategy day, as Alison Carnwath, Chairman of commercial property company Land Securities plc, explains: “Once you have spent time with the CEO and other senior management and talked to shareholders, you should assess your board and begin to form a view of what the critical short to medium-term challenges are. Holding a board strategy day is one way of bringing this all together.”
It’s important to both understand the company situation before stepping into the Chairman’s role as well as to be prepared for the unexpected—a defection of the CEO, a drop in the stock price, an explosion at the plan.
Stay completely balanced at the back of your corporate toboggan wherever possible, but always be prepared to redistribute your weight from one side to the other very quickly.