Is Your High Performing Employee More Trouble Than He or She is Worth? 10 Questions To Help You Evaluate

Today we have a guest blog from Lauren Owen:

As leaders, we want and need employees who bring talent and drive to their jobs. Yet sometimes it is these very same traits that can lead to a lot of time and energy spent dealing with the conflict they create with other employees.  Worse yet, their behavior can damage your company's reputation, lose clients and drive away valuable employees.

The classic example is the super talented, uber-competitive sales person who has the "win at all cost" attitude and uses it to win, and win constantly. Your challenges as his leader range from on-going friction and resentment among colleagues because he doesn't "play nice" or blows off deadlines for projects he feels are not a part of his job, to him cutting corners around compliance or regulatory issues that can legally expose your entire company.

The star player gets results for sure, but at what cost?  Is the trouble she creates worth it to you and your company? There are no easy answers here, but I offer a few questions to ask yourself:

1. If this person is in sales or account management, do you find yourself wondering who "owns" the relationship? In other words, if this person left would your clients go with her? 
2. Do you have a non-compete in place that provides legal protection if he left? If he holds technical or propriety knowledge, do you have a non-disclosure in place? 
3. If he's a sales person, how would you rate your relationship with his customers? Excellent? Good? Poor? Or non-existent? 
4. Is the conflict with other employees due to the high performer's own high standards? Are these standards that should be emulated and upheld by others? Is it "truth-telling" for the good of the company? 
5. Or, is the behavior really bullying? Is the conflict due to behaviors that ignore or flaunt company values and culture?
6. Do you know or do you suspect that you have lost other good employees because of this high performer?
7. Do you find yourself with a gut feeling that you are being "held hostage" by this person?
8.  Do often wonder what would happen to the company if she left? Are you afraid that no one could do the high performer's job? 
9. Are you not doing anything about the conflict and other incidences because you fear conflict and/or do not want to "rock the boat"? 
10. If you had the choice whether or not to hire this person again, what would you do? 

A wise person once said, most people don't do anything about a situation until they are unhappy about it least half of the time. If you are you at that half-way point, or better yet, well before it, I invite you to ask yourself these tough questions, listen to your gut, and test your thoughts and feelings with your trusted advisors.

LAUREN OWEN:

Lauren Owen, Redpoint Succession and Leadership Coaching

Lauren works with businesses leaders who want to develop and execute succession plans, sharpen their business practices, strengthen their leadership, and create long-lasting value in their businesses. She is a certified Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Leadership Coach. She is also a leader of the Excell Puget Sound Southend Group.

(206) 427-2856, (253) 245.3518

lauren@redpointcoaching.com

www.redpointcoaching.com

Failure to Launch: 5 Reasons Product Launches Fizzle

Today we have a guest blog from Elizabeth Andreini:

Are you one of the many companies that have recently released new or enhanced products or services or are preparing to launch new offerings later this year? Recently, I was talking to a company getting ready to release several new products this fall using a product launch plan (their first ever!), I thought it might be timely to highlight five common reasons product launches fail and how to avoid that fate. Hopefully you won’t fall prey to any of these!

5 Reasons Product Launches Fail and Products Don’t Sell

1.    “It’s a Can’t Miss ‘Cutting Edge’ Product/Service!”
Sometimes a great idea (based on anecdotes from a key sales person or executive) gets turned into a product offering before the company identifies a market that really needs or wants it – and finds out after the fact there is little interest and no real market. Another issue may be that the product offering is not a high need or want product. It could be a “nice to have” offering that there is no urgency to buy. Prospects can use substitutes or “do nothing” as an easy alternative. Make sure there is a clearly identified market and prospects have a reason to buy (and buy now). Define the “complete” product offering – including services needed – before you release to the marketplace.

2.    “We Have to Release on Time!”
We all work to deadlines. Sometimes as a deadline gets closer we realize that a product or service offering isn’t ready. At the last minute shortcuts get made and things get cut – or moved into “Phase 2.” Getting to market on time is only critical if key features or capabilities are ready, otherwise prospects won’t be interested. Alternatively a company may make the target launch date but the product offering is not completely ready (and is released anyway). The company likely knows the offering isn’t market ready and isn’t fully committed to its success. Quality issues slow purchase and will result in even more problems including longer term damage to the company’s reputation. Be precise in defining what has to be in a product or service and clarify what key benefits/capabilities have to be ready – and if it isn’t ready don’t launch it. Validate the final offering against the initial requirements, communicating early on if there are any discrepancies.

3.    “Ta Da!”
The product is done and “released.” Or at least it is available for sale, but no one is ready. The company works in silos and manufacturing, sales and customer service are not in sync. Employees within the company are not trained and ready to sell and support the product. The market, and competitors, figure that out fast. Put together a cross-disciplinary launch team and ensure that all parts of the company are “Go!” before launching. Every part of the company needs to be fully trained and ready to support the product when it launches.

4.    “I Didn’t Know You Had…”
Have you ever heard a customer say, “Oh, I didn’t know you had [blank].” If you don’t effectively and repeatedly communicate to the market and prospects - as well as current customers - they may not even realize you have a new product offering until after their budget is spent. They can’t buy what they don’t know about. Have a marketing plan in pace that covers communication to all key audiences internally and externally. Communicate to all audiences that a product is coming, again when it is released and finally again after the launch.

5.    “It’s Complicated.”
Got sales training? The company gives the sales team information on the new product it is launching, but the product doesn’t get sold. What happened? Maybe the sales team doesn’t have enough information or the product offering seems too complicated which could result in lots of questions that a sales person doesn’t have the answers to. Maybe the sales person doesn’t fully understand the information provided during training. A sales person might not admit that they wouldn’t sell a product because of all the questions prospects ask, which could slow down the sale of other products. Make sure the sales team is fully ready and practiced. Quota and track sales of the new product to catch sales problems early.

Consider these questions to help make sure your product launch is successful:

1. When new products are being considered, are clearly defined market needs documented, target audiences defined and a competitive analysis conducted? Are feature and benefit priorities clearly understood so the company can make accurate decisions on when the product offering is really ready to launch?
2.  Do you have the value proposition & market offering defined so that you know you are offering a “complete product” that resonates with prospects’ needs and wants?
3. Does your company have a coordinated rollout process across departments so that when a product or service offering launches all groups are ready and fully trained to sell and support it?
4. Has a communication plan been created that provides information on the new product, its benefits and pricing, to internal stakeholders as well as external audiences, including prospects in the target market as well as customers?

ELIZABETH ANDREINI

As the President of Accelerate Marketing, LLC, Elizabeth Andreini, is the "secret weapon" CEOs turn to at key growth points when they need to transform marketing and product management to grow their customer base, increase revenue & scale their business.  In addition to providing experienced executive insight and guidance, Elizabeth often works as an interim CMO or VP to provide the hands-on leadership needed tore architect marketing and product management and improve execution from the inside.  

Elizabeth Andreini, founder & president of Accelerate Marketing, LLC Accelerate Marketing, LLC
206-769-3420 or elizabeth@accelerate-marketing.com
www.accelerate-marketing.com
Twitter: @acceler8mkting
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethandreini

WHEN IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE AWARE – Taking on a new role or growing your employees

Most of us live in a world where we go unconscious from time to time.  Usually this happens out of habit or in to fear when something is new.  When we go unconscious, I mean that we do something without being aware of what we are doing…. Breathing is usually an automatic act and that’s a good thing.  Sometimes we go unconscious from boredom… (driven that stretch hundreds of times) and that may not be a good thing.   

Today, let’s talk about when it is important to be aware. In my role with Excell Puget Sound, I work with a lot of business owners.  They have usually started their companies or grown up in them, as family owned businesses. 

There are some roles, skills and ways they do things that are second nature.  You have those too.... things you do that you just don’t have to think about.  If you play golf and you are thinking about everything you do, my crystal ball says, “You are having a lousy round of golf!”

So choosing when to be aware, conscious and think about something is ultimately important.  The golf course is a bad place to try and practice. However, time at the driving range, doing exercises, thinking about what needs to be changed, modified and corrected can be very profitable time spent.  You get the idea... pick and choose when you are on automatic. 

I just watched a CEO with one of her reports.  She is really knowledgeable and good at what she does.  In this case, she was in a hurry.  By the time the conversation was finished, I noticed that the employee looked frustrated and had lost eye contact.  As good as this CEO is at reading people, she was unaware that the interchange had ended negatively.  

Here was a prime teaching opportunity lost.  The employee (I ran in to her later) told me she felt more dependent because of the directions received (translate that in to less satisfied with her job and less engaged in taking initiative).  This was a time that the CEO should have made a decision to be present, ask lots of questions and challenge the employee to come up with several solutions and recommend a course of action from one of them. 

Can you always take time? No.  If you can’t tell your employee that you either want to address the issue later or that because of time constraints, you are making a decision. At ExcellPugetSound we urge business owners to be clear about when and where you are teaching, or not.  If you are constrained, then  communicate what the impact is of tight time and do it before you “fix” a problem. 

Do you have redo’s in your company?  Do they include teaching moments and professional development?  I later suggested to the CEO that she ask the employee to raise the issue again at their weekly staff meeting and allow everyone to weigh in.  What are your techniques for getting a redo? 

Creating the future

 “Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do….The best way to predict the future is to invent it!”, Alan Kay

How much time do you spend thinking about how to disrupt your industry?  What would it take to stand everything on its head? 

All my clients tend to enjoy what they make/sell/do. About 25% of them are thinking about how to change how people buy/use/experience what they do.  These 25% spend more time dreaming, more time looking around corners and more time focused on improving every aspect of their company. 

These are the business owners who are predicting the future by inventing it.  If you want to be one of them, here are some specific and simple activities that will increase your chances for inventing the future you desire: 

1.    Vision: The more clarity you have and the better you are able describe to others what that vision looks, feels and sounds like, the better

2.    Desire:  If you don’t want it (whatever the “it” is) it is unlikely you will get it

3.    Commitment:  What will it take to achieve your dream goal? 

If you are still ready for more, then do these:

4.    Learn to be disciplined (I did not say easy… I said simple)

5.    Learn to be curious

6.    Learn to be resilient

Alan Kay accomplished a great deal in his professional life.  So can you.  Being a Member in an Excell Group is not a sit back and be filled up classroom.  It is tough work.  Cheers to all those who take on this kind of work.  What have you found creates your desired future?

What we think, determines what we see

What I heard and read indicated that being able to stretch and twist was critical to scoring in the 70’s and 80’s in a round of golf.  Throughout my four years playing golf, I told myself that what would ultimately hold me back was my body’s inflexibility.

So, when I began studying the physics of golf, I was a bit surprised to find that while it can be important, flexibility is not fundamental to forming a smooth easy golf swing that rockets a drive 250 yards.  What is more amazing to me is that I began hitting the ball further while maintaining and improving my accuracy.  Why amazement, because I began to see others (really good golfers) maintaining looseness and suppleness in their wrists and arms throughout their swing. 

Had these golfers all changed their swings?  No, I simply was seeing something for the first time… something that had always been there. With these “new” observations, I see a path to playing golf down in to the rarified air of scratch golfers. 

A part of the work I do with my business clients, is getting them to see a belief that they have and how that belief is limiting them.  My client’s often believe something exists and that belief is keeping them from growing their businesses in a sustainable way.  Here some examples of limiting beliefs that clients I have work with have held:

• I have too much to do and can’t focus down on one thing

• If I just work harder, the company can get over this hurdle

• There is no way I can train our team.  I just need to get people who have done this before. 

• We can’t finance our growth and no bank will finance it. 

Many of the CEO/business owners in our Excell Groups, tell me that a big part of the value in their group is looking around and seeing others who have not let their beliefs limit the growth of their businesses and then lay down that belief and go grow their own business. 

Ask yourself, “What do I see and does my belief around what I see hold me back?”  Love to hear some of your thoughts/beliefs and what you would like to do about them. 

Toughest part of leadership

Today we have a guest blog from Jim Hessler:

I surfed the ‘net today looking for answers to this question:

“What is the toughest aspect of leadership?”

Not surprisingly, I found a lot of answers.  Examples:

• Making decisions
• Looking at yourself honestly
• Dealing with conflict
• Building a culture
• Taking action when you “don’t know”
• Dealing with negative employees
• Letting go and delegating
• Being consistently positive

But here’s my favorite. It comes from a college basketball coach named Kevin Eastman:

• The hardest part of leadership is this:  you must be able to tell the truth.

Amen, Kevin. I agree wholeheartedly. The ability to speak the truth is a rare quality. It involves risk.  It invites conflict.  It often incites passionate response.  For all these reasons, it takes tremendous courage.

Like so many other aspects of leadership, telling the truth puts you “out there” in an exposed place – on the proverbial limb where all you can hang onto is a fierce belief in your instincts, your convictions, your intellect, and your openness to being influenced by the perspectives of others.

Telling the truth also creates tremendous potential for growth – for you, for your relationships, and for your organization.

As you go through the rest of your day today or tomorrow, monitor how aligned your words are with your convictions.  Are you couching?  Hedging?  Not being as straightforward as you could for fear of … what — not being able to tell the truth effectively?

Or, on the other hand, do you tell the truth too bluntly, not assessing how it’s landing on the recipient – not assessing whether the way they hear it motivates them in a positive way?

JIM HESSLER

… brings over 25 years of business management and executive leadership experience to Path Forward, which he founded in 2001.

Jim has been an award-winning salesman, sales manager, general manager, and executive. He has specialized in turning around underperforming operations, and in the mid 90’s he helped lead a massive national reorganization for a Fortune 150 company.

Jim’s experience in general management has resulted in broad and deep knowledge of nearly all aspects of a well-run business. From building and managing a sales organization, to managing complex inventories and delivery systems, to generating vision and trust in demoralized organizations, to leading complex restructuring efforts, Jim has earned a depth of knowledge and insight that serves his Path Forward clients exceedingly well, regardless of the leadership challenges they face.

Jim lives in Issaquah, Washington, and has been married for 32 years to Paula Weiss, a teacher in the Issaquah School District.

Your Achilles Heel

Today we have a guest blog from Dan Weedin:

Last summer, I suffered an injury to my Achilles heel. I’m 49 years old, and for my fellow mid-lifers, it’s a very common malady. After visiting my doctor, I learned that what I actually was suffering from was a condition called Achilles “tendonosis.” The difference between tendonosis and tendonitis is that “isis” is acute, and “osis” means chronic.  Basically, this was an ailment that I would have to be dealing with forever. The good news was that there were some exercises and stretches that I could do that would reduce the inflammation and relieve the pain.

After assiduously following my regimen, the symptoms went away. This year, they popped back up. I had been extending myself with exercise and was beginning to feel a little discomfort. Then I walked the hill from the ferry terminal up to the Washington Athletic Club. Wow! I felt like an old man (and probably looked like one, too). I can blame it all I want on walking hills and overuse, yet the problem was me. I felt better, so I stopped doing what improved it. My Achilles Heel roared back like a lion.

When you have Achilles pain, you discover that it greatly affects your normal walking. I realized that this small part of my otherwise healthy and able body was causing chaos. It was slowing my progress, forcing me to divert to different routes, causing pain, and generally being a nuisance and distraction.

What is your Achilles heel in your business or personal life? My guess is that each of us has blights that keep us from maximizing our talents and value. Something that distracts us, wastes time, causes pain, or just simply creates chaos. This Achilles heel is keeping you from reaching your potential. AND, if you suffer from the chronic “osis,” you’re allowing it to drag on and on, with the danger that you will never fix it and could “rupture” your dreams and passions.

We are all guilty at times of fixing our symptoms and then relaxing when we feel better. Just like the pain in my heel. Yours will also come back to bite you hard if you stop working at it.

The moral of the story is this…Fix it. Fix whatever allegorical Achilles heel you’ve been carrying around before it becomes chronic, or worse, ruptures. The sooner you identify it and then eliminate it, the sooner you will be unleashed from its burden. 

Now, get “walking!”

DAN WEEDIN

Dan Weedin helps turn his clients business risk into rewards. He is able to take the abstract concepts of risk and crisis management to help business owners prepare and respond more effectively and with less time and cost to crisis. Since he doesn’t work for an insurance company or agency, he is able to act as an unbiased advocate for his clients. You can lear ore about Dan and how he can help your business on his web site at www.DanWeedin.com.