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My personal SWOT

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The SWOT

Over the holidays while I was slothfully catching up on some overlooked TV, Ted Lasso spoke to me (not literally).  Damn, there are some leadership lessons here.  So from the couch, my leadership self-evaluation became a Netflix resolution binge resulting in the SWOT-like graphic you see above.  It’s meant to be light-hearted and here for all to see in the hope that it will nudge me in the direction of my goals.  Maybe you’ll want to play along and send me your personal SWOT and think about what small-screen characters best typify your quirks.  My apologies in advance if you don’t follow the same shows as I do, but I’ll try and explain as I go.

Y’all know what a SWOT is.  Yes, it’s that uncomfortable probing group exercise we go through to take stock of our business assets and deficits so we can (hopefully) re-prioritize our efforts amid all the day-to-day work.  It’s a tried and true tool for uncovering hidden scourges, and for getting a team to rally around a set of goals.  Being human naturally, we’re more likely to actually meet our goals when our friends and colleagues are breathing down our necks – maybe that’s why it works.  Here’s my self-eval:

Strengths:

I’m at my best when I’m coaching like the bubbly Ted Lasso.  Encouraging my team to bring out their best performance.  Shining sun on the grumpy, cajoling the tired, challenging the self-victimized, and making sure that everyone recognizes how their contribution adds to what we accomplish.  To use Ted’s favorite word: BELIEVE.  This is when I’m multiplying my efforts through my team and liberating their competence.

Weaknesses:

As an owner, I am responsible for portraying a positive narrative and keeping slogging no matter how deep the snow gets. The problem is I sometimes don’t have the answers, or at least not yet.  So that is when I stall, or give vague directions and I take on unpleasant tasks that I should be delegating.  I resort to applying the ‘reality distortion field’ that Walter Issacson described at Apple.  This makes me feel like Jimmy McGill getting ready for his next con.  When I catch myself in this mode I know I’m not making the best use of my time or skills and am likely frustrating my team.

Opportunities:

The semi-fictitious Thomas Shelby leads the ruthless Peak Blinders crime family in post-WWI Birmingham.  While his “persuasive” ways would come in handy dealing with GCs it’s really his communication style that I admire.  Tommy is unambiguity about plans, performance expectations, or whether a goal is attainable.  His family meetings are to-the-point and free of fluff.  When Tommy meets opposition he holds his ground with cool unyielding confidence.  This is the clarity I want to portray (I could go for that undercut hair and tailored suits too).  I also appreciate how Mr. Shelby is not above doing lowly tasks.  He shows up in the clutch with sleeves rolled up when his family needs him.

Threats:

Great Scott! Construction is where the best-laid plans of mice and men go to expire.  At least that has been the case for the last two years.  Like Doc in Back to the Future, we seem to be constantly tossed into situations where we are seconds away from the melting of the space-time continuum.  I haven’t enjoyed how it feels when projects are running late and we are scrambling to meet customer expectations.  Yes, I think the industry is slowly returning to greater predictability, but we still have to double the expected lead times for materials and labour and make sure our customers understand realistic timelines.  My challenge as a leader is to trust my team with these challenges and not let urgent problems keep me from the more important work of building the future company.

I’d love to see what your personal SWOT looks like.

Come back! Offices gotta change

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The entrepreneur I just spoke to is anxious.  She feels that the company culture she built over the past decade is at risk, or at least slipping from her control.  The close comradery of her office has been an important ingredient in the secret sauce that made her distribution company special and successful.  Now as we emerge from our home pandemic bunkers, how will entrepreneurs lure their staff back to the office for a culture recharge?

If the comment section of this recent Globe and Mail article is any indication, her anxiety is warranted; many office workers aren’t keen to return to the office.  An article in Fast Company even suggests that more than half of employees would rather quit than return to headquarters.  It might give my friend some comfort that there are also lots of folks like Nkechi Oguchi chomping to get away from working at home.  Certainly, this is a not topic among the business in my circle.

There’s no doubt that this trend will impact all aspects of business.  My friend is most concerned with how to align her company’s working conditions with her staff’s needs so they will to return.  After all, she’s not the stick type and is searching for some carrots.  Since we do a lot of office interiors at Morinwood, I thought my take on this might be useful.

  1. It’s clear that if you want your folks to return happily you’re going to have to work at it.  You may be able to force some folks back but the very best people have the power to walk.  You’ll have to work to keep them happy.
  2. Focus on the things that don’t work well in the home office and make sure those same pain points don’t exist in the office.
  3. After the initial novelty, it can be lonely at home.  So make your workplace one where positive in-person connections happen.
  4. The tech sucks at home.  So make sure your internet connection rocks, and you have high-quality meeting rooms and seamless video conferencing setups.
  5. People hate commuting.  Can you subsidize your staff’s transit costs?  Or find a way to make the long drive less unpleasant?  Paid parking or even a monthly Audible credit might go a long way?  How many days a week do they NEED to be in the office?
  6. The pandemic has meant less face time with managers and fewer feelings of appreciation among staff. It’s more important than ever that your manager has great people skills.  Keep your weekly in-person one-on-one structure strong, so that there are lots of positive interactions inside your building.
  7. Offices are good for training, connection, and learning.  Like in the previous point, pay attention to how well those sessions are done.
  8. How safe do they feel at the office?  Openly discuss the status of your HVAC infrastructure and whether an upgrade would improve indoor air quality.  Are your desks adequately distanced?  Is the lunchroom large enough?  I can guarantee that your physical space needs some reconfiguration to suit the new reality (shameless plug, we do that stuff)
  9. Maybe come to peace with the fact that skilled staff is now more easily able to work for more than one organization.  Have the flexibility to keep them working on some of your projects rather than losing them altogether.
  10. Don’t expect it to be all 2019 any time soon.  This will be a transition for all of us!

 

 

Leading in Tough Times: Wisdom from CEO’s

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After I saw the ravaged store shelves this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to get some perspective on piloting through choppy waters from local CEO members of The Entrepreneurs Organization.

Many of them started tiny businesses that grew into much more serious enterprises and unknowingly committed themselves to quarterback a lot of folks. One recurring theme they brought up is the realization that there is no escaping the obligation to lead, especially when an emergency like the current COVID-19 pandemic is raging.

Here is a summary of the sage advice I gathered speaking to some of the city’s top business brains today on how they approach a crisis:

-Stay positive. No matter how crazy things are you are still in control of a lot of moving pieces. Fight the urge to be overwhelmed and focus on the positive things you are able to achieve.

-You set the tone. The leader’s positive energy will give more comfort and strength to your team than you know. In a crisis, the leader’s every action is noticed and scrutinized. You can make the most of this.

-Get the facts. Good decisions come from good data. Take time away to read, listen, talk to colleagues so that your decisions are well informed.

-Use your powers of vision. Not everyone is born with the ability to see the future. Many entrepreneurs, however, have this gift. Use it to prepare people for what lies ahead and to set their expectations as to how you will deal with the challenges to come.

-Comfort. Listen to everyone’s concerns and validate them, even if you disagree. This lowers anxiety and lets people focus rationally on the tasks at hand, of which there will be many.

-Keep some perspective. This is not the first or the last health crisis we’ll have. It will require decisive action over a prolonged period. However, sure as the sun will rise, we will get through it intact.

Wisdom’s Retirement Party

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I like politics, so I stayed up late to watch our youthful federal leaders deliver their post-election speeches.  There was a strange chaotic moment when, the Liberals, Conservatives, and NDP all tried to take their respective stages at exactly the same time – perhaps each hoping to drown out the others – forcing the poor CBC anchor to jump feverishly between them.  But it was the contents of their speeches that really dismayed me.

The NDP crowd burst into an animated chant of TAX THE RICH, TAX THE RICH that the leader encouraged along for two full uncomfortable minutes.  Andrew Sheer for his part went on about how his loss was really a win and he was going to beat the encroaching forces of socialism next time.  Our prime minister dished his regular pablum and seemed to think that liberal values had triumphed and been embraced by all, when in fact only 32% of our country supported him.

What was missing for me, was any recognition that the election is over and it is time to bury the partisanship for a bit and get united on governing the country.  We have ample big problems:  resource development and Alberta’s place in a new economy, housing the next generation, Indigenous reconciliation, how to pay for our cherished education and healthcare systems, getting citizens to take responsibility for the hot mess we’re making of our planet…to name a few.  But our leaders were not talking about solutions for Canada’s problems.  They were each preaching to their bases and bashing the other two thirds.

The only redeeming moments of the night were the gracious speeches from Conservative Lisa Raitt and Liberal Ralph Goodale – two seasoned and respected parliamentarians who each went down to defeat.  They both seemed to come from a more civilized planet than their respective leaders.  Godspeed.

It made me think about the changes in the construction industry that EllisDon’s Jeff Smith observed in an article recently:  our industry is becoming nastier.  I agree with Jeff.  Over the last couple of years, my company’s jobs have become more about emailing than millwork, more about building arguments than structures, more about protecting interests than getting the work done.  Of course, we all have to look out for ourselves in business, but it can’t be the only thing we do.

I fear that the old guard that has been retiring over the last few years were the holders of a more balanced common sense.   They were leaders who could leverage relationships to get work done without a single trip to their inbox.  Their underlying ethic was win-win in spite of whatever crusty exterior they might have presented.

It’s funny because when I started in the construction industry I thought this group of gruff, old-school men where the problem (yes, they were all men).  In retrospect, in almost every case these gentlemen had an uncanny sense of the best way to get a project to the finish line with all of the players intact.

My friends, reflect on this.  Is it possible that our industry has become too political, too partisan?  Is it possible that our younger generation of project managers is more concerned with winning than with satisfied customers and successful projects?  As this industry’s leaders, what can we do to improve this?  I’m going to suggest we need to act less like our current political leaders and look to the values of the old guard who are now retiring.  Let’s make sure we extract and hang onto their ethic as they take their retirement.  We’ll be a poorer industry without their wisdom.

Our MVP Plan

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I learned why Alan Mulally is such a unique CEO when I heard him speak last October.  He changed the way I run my business and inspired me to create our MVP Plan.

What makes him unique

First off, Mulally is responsible for saving the Ford Motor Company. When Ford was at its lowest point (losing 17 Billion in 2006) he led the company back to profitability.  This included weathering the 2008 financial meltdown, that bankrupted GM and Chrysler, without taking any government assistance. 

Another is his unique style.  Mulally describes his leadership as service and combines this with infectious optimism and gracious humility – traits that let him unify a fractious company around a shared mission.  He says his leadership values are based on snippets of wisdom his mother ingrained in him such as  “It is nice to be important, but more important to be nice.” And “The purpose of life is to love and be loved.”  This is not typical thinking from a corporate titan.  However, it struck me that his message of collaborative teamwork is the way forward not only for manufacturing but also for our construction industry.

The most powerful lesson for me was Mulally’s integrated operational plan that he summed up on a single slide titled:  ‘One Ford: one team, one plan, one goal’.  It laid out the way Mulally united a complex global corporate culture around a single compelling vision and tied that directly to an operational plan that was tracked with detailed metrics.  

Mulally famously carried this out at a weekly Business Plan Review meeting (BPR), which he established to track the progress of the One Ford plan with his 16 senior managers.  At the Thursday meetings, each director was responsible for reporting on a host of green/amber/red colour coded metrics that tracked their department’s progress against the plan.   The focus and accountability that the BPR ultimately created are credited with Ford’s turn around.

How he changed my company

Understanding this simple, powerful system connected deeply with me.  We started building and tweaking our own Business Plan and identifying the right metrics to drive the results we’re looking for.  I call the result our ‘Most Valued Partner Plan’ because our Mission is to be just that for our clients – their most valued partner. 

Internally we now track 37 metrics under the four categories that are critical to our customers’ success: 

  • Competent People
  • Obvious Value
  • Flawless Execution
  • Excellent Quality

I’m already noticing that seeing the data weekly is causing us to uncover longstanding problems and motivating the team to cooperate on eliminating them.  

Starting next week, we’ll be surveying our customers and our staff and integrating their ratings of our performance into our dashboard.  This data will further confirm that we’re ‘on plan’ and show us where to focus our efforts.

These are exciting times and I’m grateful to Mr Mulally for showing me the path. 

Learn more about Mulally’s turnaround in this book by Bryce Hoffman .