Session Information:

From Defense to Offense – Practical Strategies for the New Reality of Leadership

Experts agree that most businesses today are facing comparable trends, which if not addressed, will negatively impact future performance and competitiveness.  According to Forbes and HBR’s recent “2020 State of Leaders” reports, how  your leaders handle these challenges will determine your organizations future growth and profitability. What are these trends and challenges?

• Driving a culture of  engagement and collective accountability linked directly to both people and  metrics performance.
• Educating and Engaging Employees on Critical Metrics
• Structuring Communication to Avoid Wasteful Time in Meetings
• Managing a multigenerational and multicultural workforce

In this highly interactive session, we will provide practical and business-focused processes that foster employee engagement and accountability. Prepare your organization for the future while taking it to the next level today.  

This session provides leaders with simple and realistic implementation techniques that create and drive sustainable improvement in the areas of communication, productivity, employee satisfaction, and bottom-line business results. 

Session Transcript:

Good afternoon and welcome, I am delighted to be bringing you a message today and I want to first of all thank the world summit it has been a great honor the last four years to be able to participate in this conference.

We consider it to be truly a gathering of some of the best thought leaders in industry and it is my hope that over the next 30 minutes i will bring you a message that will both resonate and inspire you to really think about the new reality of leadership so as we talk about this today first of all my name is Shane Yount. I am the president of competitive solutions and I want to start my message this afternoon with just a quick video about who we are and what we do yes.

So thank you thank you for joining me thank you for allowing me to share our message around thought leadership and the new reality of leadership that many organizations are facing in 2020 so just a little bit about our firm headquartered in Raleigh north Carolina.

That's where I'm coming to you from i certainly miss the opportunity to be with you face to face and Orlando is where we typically gather and so thank you for joining me virtually I've been very fortunate to have written three books over the last almost 30 years in industry my latest leading your business forward will be available to the participants of this webinar following the session and our firm has really four distinct capabilities.

I'm going to be talking today about process-based leadership and visitant and really how those two systems are driving the new reality of leadership now having been in this space since 1991 i have been very fortunate and my colleagues very fortunate to work with what we believe to be some of the best and most iconic organizations in the world.

I'm going to talk about several of these today as we unpack this message around are you managing by process are you managing by personality as we begin to think about that I think we cannot start a conversation in 2020 without acknowledging the reality of the current state and as you listen to me describe what we're hearing across our client base I want you thinking in the back of your mind are you operating as a leader from a position of offense or position of defense because see as you listen to me today and as i reflect on the previous four years.

That I've participated in the world summit you know I can remember being in Orlando and listening to great thought leaders talk about their systems and their processes and how their organizations are building an architecture to really move the business forward well in my time with you all today I'm going to ask you to really look into that architecture those systems those processes and ask yourself in the environment we're in today are they enabling a position of offense from leaders or are we operating from a position of defense so let's talk about some of the challenges.

It's November 2020 hard to believe but here's what's happened when we think about January and February of 2020 it seems like a lifetime ago and if you didn't have a crisis management system strategy and procedure identified for your organization in February. I bet you do now right and those crisis management strategies you know they've they've led to a couple of very distinct outcomes.

I call it the multiplication of meetings metrics and mandates I mean we've seen our time and our energy and our focus bent how do we operate and continue operating successfully in a pandemic and those well-intentioned crisis management strategies have led translating tactically into many organizations tremendous amounts of additional meetings tremendous amounts of additional metrics tremendous amounts of additional mandates and you know when you think about that and what I'm hearing as.

We talk to our clients you know they've spent the last 10, 15-20 years building architecture building systems building a way of work heck in fact at the world summit many organizations love to talk about you know their ways of work and their their proverbial versions of the Toyota production system and how proud they were of that but I want to ask you a question.

That system that you spent the last 10 15 20 years building is it as robust today in the times that we're living in a volatility as it was in the times of stability see here's what i believe i believe that those existing systems they've been diminished some have been totally forgotten because they've been supplanted with this crisis management focus and that's caused us as leaders to really lean into a way of work a way of leadership I describe that way of leadership as managing by personality and when we manage by personality that manifests itself in three distinct ways.

We limit we lean into our physical proximity having to be there virtually or in person to ensure the right focus urgency and accountability is happening when we lean into our powers of persuasion right how i make a compelling statement a compelling argument how i can use that compelling argument to convince or even cajole performance in these trying times and then if that fails i can certainly default to my positional authority many of you in attendance at the world summit throughout the next few days you're equipped with that positional authority.

You've been given the title of leader some of you some very senior leaders and what I'm suggesting to you is what we're seeing across industry is that many leaders have leaned into managing by personality using their powers of persuasion their physical proximity their positional authority to just try to move the business forward.

I think we're doing that to try to stay one step ahead right but what's the consequence of that what I'm hearing what our consultants are hearing is that there is a hyper active daily regimen that we're experiencing both organizational fatigue and leadership fatigue because listen we can put the red cape on we can swoop in we can save the day we can use brute force heroic leadership and perhaps the crisis demands that of us but it's causing us to operate from a position of defense not offense and the question that I really want you reflecting on in my time today is shouldn't those business processes shouldn't all that architecture.

That probably many of you all listening to me today have a a three inch a four inch maybe even a five inch binder in your office right now of those systems and of those processes that define that way of work shouldn't that management system be robust enough durable enough dynamic enough that we lean into that not just in times of stability but more importantly in times of volatility see that's the message.

I want to bring to you today have you laid on top of your existing management system your crisis management protocols have you supplanted that fundamental way of work and now you find yourself in a position of managing by personality leaning into again your physical proximity your powers of persuasion and your positional authority.

If so I believe you're probably fatigued and so how do we move back to a position of offense how do we move back to a place where we have the right systems and processes in place that guide our organization not just in times of volatility but stability well I think it starts with first of all a very clear understanding of what should our management system be doing in our enterprise and ladies and gentlemen this should not and cannot change.

It's what I describe as the three c's I would argue today that it is our fundamental leadership obligation to create within our companies within our our organizations three distinct cultural outcomes outcome number one a culture of connectivity and when I say a culture of connectivity.

I mean connecting people number one text that matter metrics that tell us if we're winning or losing metrics that give us the capacity to stand at a guard shack or a cafeteria entrance or a break room or a time clock and literally ask any single person that walks up to that space are we winning or losing are you moving the business forward or not and the answer you get from that isn't anecdotal see i think the answer when we ask that question today are you winning or losing often comes down to an anecdotal answer based on how they feel well.

I'm exhausted or I'm frustrated or I'm tired or I'm burned out see we have to expect more of our business acumen process that drives connectivity we have to expect that that culture of connectivity drives empirical answers answers based on metrics that matter that define winning and losing that's what i mean by connectivity secondly we have a fundamental obligation as leaders to create a culture of clarity a rhythm and a cadence of information flow that positions us as leaders on offense not defense see i would suggest to you we spend an inordinate amount of time and I've seen this amplified in the pandemic of playing defense relative to communication.

Where the reality of leadership today is we're re-communicating re-clarifying we have meetings time is is no longer even a relative factor in setting up zoo meetings and teams meetings and google hangout meetings we're expected to be on call 24 7 to try to get in front of a process that's often broken i want to show you today what i mean when i talk about a rhythm and a cadence of clarity that allows us to be on offense not defense and lastly and i think most importantly to the message on the earlier slide we have a fundamental obligation as leaders to create a way of work that's the same yesterday today and tomorrow let me say that again we have a fundamental obligation to create a way of work that's the same yesterday today and tomorrow a way of work that's the same from January 2020 to it is in November 2020 pandemic or no pandemic.

We have a fundamental obligation to manage by process not personality and so as you listen to me today I'd like you to ask yourself the question to what degree does clarity connectivity and consistency exist within my organization today have I built the non-negotiable management infrastructure that I feel confident leaning into not just in times of volatility or in times of stability but in all times.

Now see there are four distinct elements of what we believe to be are the non-negotiable systems that we as leaders have to lean into to get on offense the first one is a business acumen process the second one is an execution or accountability process the third is a communication system and the fourth is a behavioral system and today.

I want to talk about each of those to give you just some reflection points to ask yourself have you built a robust durable and dynamic management system that runs your business not just in times of stability but more importantly in times of volatility you know as I said earlier having been in this space for almost 30 years we've been able to work with some great organizations.

I'm going to talk a bit today about 3m the largest manufacturing company in the world and what they're doing to position their leaders to be on offense not defense relative to these three c's at pfizer they call our process integrated manufacturing excellence but again having that shared goal to create an organization of clarity connectivity consistency.

I've had the pleasure to work with Michelin for many years in their their Greenville south Carolina organization helping them understand how to do this and they call this methodology the Michelin manufacturing way no matter where you are in the world it's the way we do business and then also i get the joy of working with the department of defense and they call this system their corporate philosophy so when you come into different installations and bases across north America.

You will see a way of work designed to drive greater clarity connectivity and consistency so let's unpack each of these real quickly I would also just say that as you listen to me the difference of where we are today versus where we are were rather at the beginning of 2020 has got to drive us to look at our systems and processes from a thermostatic lens see when you think about this word thermometer versus thermostat I think it applies to the way we think processes and many of the processes we built much of that architecture i believe organizations built at the end of the day.

It really became just a thermometer a passive report a system that gave you a reading but really gave you little else than that i want to describe how our clients are using this methodology to create a thermostatic system a system that gives you a reading but then allows you and gives you the functionality to do something about it and we talk about an iterative system where we align design and iterate so that what's happening in the organization is we're not throwing out or marginalizing that initial management system we're using it we're iterating it.

We're applying a thermostatic mindset to it so we're changing the content of conversation we're not diminishing or marginalizing those processes so what's that look like well let's take a few minutes and let's unpack a couple of the ideas that i want to share with you all today so when you talk about business acumen just a few themes i want to pull out here let's talk challenges let's talk about this pbl velocity model of how to drive this thermostatic approach to our systems.

You know think for a second about your your metrics today think about the way you're tracking and looking at performance see i would suggest to you that despite all the data and many of you all listening to me today you have more data at your fingertips than we've ever had in the history of our organizations but i'm also going to tell you that business acumen it's at an all-time low now how can you say that well i believe today we have built hidden factories of folks of analysts of people generating charts and graphs that we have no intention of using.

We have no intention of even opening the files because they were built but they're not utilized it's more like we've built a whole bunch of thermometers and very few thermostats I think that's led to culturally and i see this in meetings all the time where we have a meeting culture of explanation not execution where we bring all the data to the meeting we're so overwhelmed with the data we're just trying to explain the data forget about executing against the data forget about affirming positive performance around the data we're just in an environment we're just explaining it away and then i want to just ask you to think about if if you walked out to your guard shack or your cafeteria or a department within your organization and you asked the question are we winning or losing how would that get answered because see if that question can't be answered i would suggest to you you don't have good business acumen the clients like 3m colgate palmolive pfizer who we've worked with for many years they recognize first and foremost good business acumen is not about the data it's about building the non-negotiable system of use.

If you take nothing else that i say away in my 30 minutes with you all i want you to remember these words educate facilitate motivate see those three words define at a very high level what i believe a good system of use must be when people come into the organization come into a team whether being a new colleague or an existing colleague that just moved we need to spend that first day with them saying welcome to our team here are the metrics that matter welcome to our team here's what we track and why welcome to our team here's the single source of truth that we use to affirm performance and to execute against that performance. We need to use those metrics to facilitate our meetings.

I'm amazed how many meetings we go into and we have no idea walking into that meeting are we winning or are we losing see i believe when you walk in a meeting the first thing you need to see is the scorecard for that team that scorecard should be color-coded red or green so before a verbal word is spoken the tone the tenor the duration of that meeting is set just by me visually being able to look at that scorecard and see the number of green versus the number of red metrics we will never improve meeting effectiveness until we deconstruct our current meeting process and reconstruct it in the framework of thermostatic metrics designed to facilitate the meeting and then lastly motivate the system of use around using that data to motivate continuous improvement for instance when i talk about thermostatic metrics.

We call for a non-negotiable 90-day review a 90-day iteration on every metric for instance if that metric's been green for 90 days that team needs to have a conversation on the 91st day to say have we accomplished this metric have we delivered this project do we even need to be pencil whipping this number anymore can we stop doing that activity maybe we've been green for 90 days and it's time to raise the threshold maybe it's time to raise the target knowing that now that target's much more aggressive it's much more aspiration it's probably gonna be red but guess what that's a good red because we're using the data thermostatically to move the business forward maybe we were so aspirational.

We've been read for 90 days and we look at that and we said we've taken all these actions and we're still red maybe we were so aspirational that we never allowed the team the opportunity to win so we have to reconsider that target educate facilitate motivate think about your current meeting culture when you walk in a meeting and you look at numbers spreadsheets kpis dashboards scorecards is it an explanation culture or an execution culture that's what i mean i'm using a metaphor this afternoon to really talk about pressure testing your systems.

If you want the new reality of leadership to be a place where leaders operate from a position of offense not defense then what I'm suggesting to you is that architecture that you've built that management way of work that management infrastructure that you currently have you need to pressure test it and ask yourself is it really moving the business forward is the view worth the climb a question i had to one of our clients this morning as I led an event for them they produced.

This this large spreadsheet and i said to them is the view worth the climb how much time and energy are you all taking each day or week to populate this spreadsheet and as they began to talk through it you sensed organizational fatigue leadership fatigue you sensed a spreadsheet that was just a bunch of thermometers and very few thermostats ladies and gentlemen you want to improve your business acumen it starts with recalibrating how we see the system of use it also we have to also have a single source of truth now many of our clients 3m colgate palmolive revlon they run our vizuont application and that application is meant to be the single source of truth.

So when we come into our meeting we don't have 9 10 11 tabs open like i saw on a team the other day where they were trying to facilitate a virtual meeting and the facilitator got lost in all the open tabs of data spreadsheets kpis there was no way that team could discern winning and losing we need one place one digital adoption accelerator that pulls our metrics together into a thermostatic view so when we walk in that meeting be it in person or virtual which many of you are operating virtually today still we are looking at one single source to drive that execution culture within our team meeting let's talk about the second element here let's pressure test for a second accountability and execution within your organization you know.

I believe today there are very few true teams in the industry today and some people find that that comment provocative that i would say there are very few true teams and the reason i say that is i believe today when you pressure test your current team environment you often see teams powered not by collective accountability but rather selective engagement.

You see a team of 10 people literally being driven by two or three individuals we have created a disparity of engagement and that disparity of engagement is the biggest demotivating factor in our teams today see we've got to recalibrate how we view execution. I think today the reason many leaders are operating from a position of defense versus offense is because we have a very uh what i would characterize in the south as a jacked up way we think about accountability see i think today we judge accountability by how people feel as opposed to what people do many leaders we want to create a culture where people feel good and they feel empowered and they have ownership and they're involved and they're engaged and we take all that and it creates this emotional response see i want to challenge that today to say accountability good execution.

It's not about how people feel it's about what people do it's about creating a culture of accountability that's visible personal and measurable a culture of accountability that drives the team not to performance powered by selective engagement but performance powered by collective accountability it's bolting on to that score card remember that that score card that thermostatic vehicle that tells us if we're winning or losing it's bolting onto that a robust discipline of execution a discipline of execution that lays out actions with 12-month clarity that lays out responsibility.

So we can't suffer from selective amnesia that lays out due dates so people understand what's on your plate and what's expected of you to move this business forward and when you begin to think about this thermostatic relationship between are we winning or are we losing and if we're losing what are we doing about it and you begin to apply that logic of bolting on to that this robust demonstration of engagement and execution you know what can happen.

You can change the narrative in your team see we believe in our visual software does this we believe you have to have the capacity to measure engagement and the way we measure engagements very simple if you've applied the logic that I'm expressing to you all today.

We need a scorecard that defines winning and losing and where we're losing we bolt onto that a visible personal measurable demonstrative version of accountability then you know what i can do i can go to my team I can list every person's name on my team and I can run some analytics visual does that I can run some analytics and say number of actions taken by team number number of actions delivered by team member value of those actions that were delivered to the metric did it move the metric forward see these are the analytics that we need to be talking about today with our teams.

If you want to move to a position of offense versus defense we have to give our leaders a different definition of accountability it's not about how you feel it's about what you do and if you believe that that we need to equip them with an enabling process that allows us to measure engagement finally i want to talk about this idea of meetings communication pressure testing your current communication process you know if you looked at your outlook today many of us we wake up in the morning we go we look at our outlook and we we see and we say in our inside voice how am i going to get any work done.

When I'm literally in this many meetings from the moment i get up to the moment I go to bed those meetings they feel like an in addition to the work not the enabler of our data says that today leaders spend 78 percent of their time in meetings ladies and gentlemen that is a compelling business problem you cannot lead when you're sitting in 78 of your weekend meetings we need to recalibrate the way we look at a good communication system you see my my notes are on the right hand side side there six hours a week or less we need to build a standard way of work with a communication cadence that allows leaders to drive the right focus urgency and accountability in six hours a week of meetings or less.

Now how do you do that well 3m is a great example again the largest manufacturing company in the world 219 plants globally we worked with them to institute a tier management system tier ix is mike roman the ceo of 3m tier 8 is eric hamas he leads the global supply chain that's the group we work with those 219 plants and you see this tier process listen ladies and gentlemen when they hit the pandemic in march they didn't add more meetings to their communication system they changed the content of conversation that's what i mean by pressure testing your system have you built the proper system that runs your business not just in times of stability January and February but volatility march through November.

We don't need to add more meetings we need to make sure we built the proper architecture so the meetings today are moving the business forward so how do we do this right so when i look across the last 30 years that I've spent enabling and helping organizations achieve clarity connectivity and consistency it starts first and foremost with what we call the discovery phase.

We want to discern to what degree do systems and process exist today to what degree do those systems processes and leaders integrate to form a sustainable culture of clarity connectivity and consistency once we do that we're going to work with each team in the organization and we're going to design the right architecture we're going to take that process-based leadership model and we're going to build the right system of use we're going to build the right systems that that organization and those leaders can lean into not just in times of volatility but stability and we call that our business boot camp.

It's a two-day design event and there is a work product published from that we take that work product and guess what we put it in our vishuant digital adoption accelerator so now that teams got not just the thought ware but they've got the software and when you can put thought ware together with software you can deliver to the business results that candidly are unbelievable and so i want to thank each of you all for joining me today as you reflect on your current reality of leadership i want to just leave you with some closing thoughts number one the management system.

You have today isn't durable enough robust enough dynamic enough to drive your organization have you created a thermostatic operating system that you lean into in times of stability and volatility it's the same system you just need to change the content of conversation or have you created and have you fallen back to managing by personality see again.

We have an obligation and i firmly believe we as leaders are called to create cultural clarity connectivity and consistency we cannot do that if we are operating in a hyperactive personality driven system we have to take a step back we have to pressure test those systems proverbially and we've got to look at those and see are they moving our business forward in this new reality of leadership now 30 minutes goes fast and so i would love to offer you some additional resources so we can continue the conversation.

If you would like a copy of my slides reach out to me if you would like an article on how to pressure test your existing processes let me know if you'd like a white paper on our process-based leadership methodology and that boot camp process of how we discover how we design how we deploy and how we deliver let me know and if you're interested in our digital adoption accelerator that tool that becomes the single source of truth for clarity connectivity and consistency.

I would love to give you a demo and talk about what our clients like 3m and colgate are learning and gaining from that application you can get all those things if you visit that site there csipbl.com slash vetoes again thank you for joining me today thank you for spending 30 minutes with me i hope I've given you some compelling thoughts to consider as we all explore the new reality of leadership and operating from a position of offense not defense thank you very much stay safe stay healthy and god bless.