Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

Whether you have three, thirteen, or thirty employees, every business has a culture.  Either you create the culture of your company or the culture will create itself.

Here’s a tip:  Every year in your strategic planning make sure to review the company’s vision, core values, and mission with the managers who are participating.  Spend some time emphasizing the importance of reviewing the elements of culture with the entire company team and make a plan for regular review during the year.  Frequency of review could be as simple as once a month during staff meetings.  More frequent reviews could easily be done during one on one coaching sessions and would create the perfect opportunity to reinforce the company’s vision, core values, and mission.  All of this matters because, CEOs, if we don’t create our company culture, our company culture will create itself.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Please click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week

No doubt you know that it’s your responsibility to insure that everybody throughout your organization clearly understands the vision of the company, its values, and the mission of the organization.  Yet from time to time through our actions and through the actions of our people, we may be compromising our vision, values, or mission.  Not intentionally, but it just happens in business.  Changes in the scope of the business, economics, struggles within the organization or employee turnover can all draw us off.  Often the vision, your core values, and your mission get a little bit tweaked.

Here’s a tip:  On a regular basis, once a week ideally, once a month if necessary, but at minimum once a quarter, take some time and push out a message to all of your employees.  You can use email, a newsletter, or maybe even a recorded voice message.  Use that message to reset the scales.  Re-communicate the vision of the organization.  If possible communicate something that the company has done recently to move closer to that vision.  Review your mission and communicate a strategic initiative that was accomplished that gets the company closer to serving that mission.  When you do send this message, be sure to let people know how they can contribute to living the vision and accomplishing the mission.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Please click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week

You know, CEO’s, often in a coaching session my clients will tell me about struggles they are having.  They will talk about things like customers not paying their bills on time and how that really impacts their cash flow.  Or maybe they have a manager who is not really leading his team well.  Some times they talk about vendors who make mistakes on orders causing serious delays. The problems come from many directions and can involve any area of the business.  When I hear these stories my immediate reaction is always have you told them?

Have you told the customer the impact their failure to pay is having? Have you had a conversation with them about the payment terms? Have you talked to your manager about their leadership development skills and provided options for training if needed?  Have you talked to your vendor about the impact of their late deliveries?  Often what I hear back is “no, I have not talked to them directly.”  Unfortunately when we don’t have frequent open and honest communication with the people in our business, the problems fester and grow.  The result is often an adversarial situation that is even more difficult to resolve.

So here’s the tip:  Next time you find your self disappointed with a customer, vendor or manager, ask yourself, have you had an open and honest conversation with that person? So often the answer to this question is no, but without communication we cannot solve the problem.  In this case the solution starts with you.  Make it “top of mind” that if you have that frequent open and honest communication, your difficulties are less likely to reach the point where they become adversarial or create unhappiness.

This is your CEO Rule of the Week.  Now you know, Your next Move!

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You know CEOs; at the CEO level we realize that success is really about getting results from our people.  Over the years CEOs have tried many different ways to get this done, but the CEOs at the top of their game know that the best way to get the most from your people is to be a great coach.  And to be an effective coach, you need to be consistent.

Here’s a tip:  Set up your coaching system to include regular scheduled times to meet with each of your key people.  Even if you meet for only a half an hour or so, make it happen every time it is on the calendar.  Keep an agenda based on an ongoing list of tasks and initiatives that your people are working on.  When you coach based on this agenda there is never any question as to what you expect them to do.  Follow up on the task or initiative list every time.  Be consistent. What you’ll find is that coaching will become part of the culture within your organization and your managers in turn will start doing coaching with their people.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Please click to listen to the CEO Rule of the Week

Think back CEOs:  Think of a time when you called a vendor and left a message and nobody called you back.  So you called again, and still didn’t get a call back.  How did you feel?  What was your attitude toward that vendor?  How quickly would you change if another vendor with a more responsive customer service system came along?  Now imagine how customers feel if they call and nobody gets back to them.

Here’s the tip:  First, develop a system to make sure that every customer’s incoming calls and your team’s responses are tracked.  When you find customer inquiries that have no response within a reasonable time, make it a point to ask why.  You may be surprised at what you hear.  Your team may say things like, “I had nothing to tell them, no update to give them, and no changes to communicate.”  The lesson here is very important.  Remember, to make and keep a happy customer the key is not fulfilling the immediate request every time.  Customers understand that orders take time and sometimes things happen to slow down delivery.  No matter what that status of the order, for the sake of the relationship it is often enough just to respond to their inquiry.  It’s true:  Responding to a customer’s request is as important as fulfilling their request.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

You know, CEOs it is your responsibility to make sure that everyone in your organization knows your vision, your core values, and your mission.  No doubt you have spent a good deal of time preparing these parts of your culture, but have you done all that you can to communicate them to your people?  More important, have you made sure that your messages about culture have been clearly understood by everyone?  All too often we find that even though the CEO has tried to make sure everyone is on board, there are people in the organization who really don’t get it.

Here’s a tip:  Take every opportunity you can to communicate your culture to your team.  Whatever means you use to get the message out, be sure to craft that message with care.  It is important to think about how the people who will read or hear the message will understand what you are saying.  It is even a good idea to check with members of your team periodically to see if they are on the same page you are.  Remember, if you want to communicate clearly you need to make sure that your message is understood by the person who receives the message.  To make this happen, craft every message with care.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

CEO’s know that they have to be the coach to the key people within their organizations.  But sometimes when you think coach, you might start to believe that you are not the best person to do the job.  After all, you work hard to hire people that are better, smarter, more effective, more efficient, and often more experienced in certain disciplines of business than you are.  Still, even the best people in your organization need the guidance, direction, and focus that coaching brings.  Simply put, your coaching helps your people stay focused on the basics and motivates them to improve performance.  The bottom line here is, the CEO has to be the coach, and when you are coaching, you have to coach with a purpose.

Here’s a tip:   First, if you’re not doing one on one coaching with your key people, plan to get started right away.  If you are already doing regular coaching sessions with them, make sure you set a clear agenda for your coaching sessions.  Use a coaching journal that lists all of the high impact initiatives that they are working on.  Make sure to have them come to the coaching session prepared to review the list of items on their list with you.  When you coach, be sure that you coach with a purpose and have the agenda in mind.  Make sure that the agenda is focused on how to improve performance, accomplish key objectives, and increase efficiencies or effectiveness.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week

CEOs, we all know this rule applies to many different areas of leadership.  We could list them, but the one that comes to mind for me here is the boundary we create when initially hiring an employee.  We define these boundaries when we apply a job description to the position.  This is the tool we use to define what the employee needs to do, what responsibilities they have, and their level of authority.  Of course, a job description is a living document that needs review.  From time to time, you might identify gaps in position development and training needs not being met.  You may find that it is time to review, refresh, and even rewrite the job description. 

Here’s a tip:  Sit down with one of your key managers or ask them to sit down with one of their department employees.  Go through the original job description for their position line-by-line.  This will immediately show how much of the work you originally hired them to do is actually being performed.  Work with the manager or employee to make adjustments to the job description and outline measures to make sure that they are being fully successful.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week

Sounds simple doesn’t it?  The trouble is that often when we look at our branding strategy we put our products and our service in front of us. Ultimately, of course, the product or the service is what our customers receive.  But a lot of companies offer similar products and services.  Do you really want to brand your product or your service or should you be branding you?  Here is a great example.  Think about Nike.  Think about their brand.  Ask yourself, what is a Nike?  It is certainly not the name of a product or a service, but their brand has become one of the most recognizable in the world.  We know from the brand that they sell sports clothing and equipment.  Obviously, they’ve done a good job branding Nike.

Here’s a tip:  Look again at your Branding Strategy.  Are the image and language you use focused on your products and services, or are you branding you?  Take a fresh look at the messages you’re sending out through your e-mails, pushing out through your marketing collateral, even what your sales people might be saying.  Make sure that what your customers hear leaves them knowing you.  If they know you they will have no trouble remembering what it is you do and what you sell. Remember, brand you.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week

When we review the Executive Maturity Curve, we realize that an effective CEO spends 50% or more of his time delegating and then following up to get his results through others.  Once a CEO understands this, making a list of things to delegate is not a difficult task and we often delegate many things.  Why, then, are we not always successful in our delegation?  The most common source of failure in delegating is in the method of follow up.

Here’s a tip:  Start a journal, maybe on a notepad, using the name of the person that you are delegating to.  Each time you delegate something to them, write it down in that journal.  Be specific by including the date you assign the task and what it is that you are going to follow up on.  As you come in contact with that person throughout the week, just pull out your list, review it with them, and perhaps make a note or two about the progress they have made.  Better yet, if you conduct coaching sessions, start your sessions by reviewing these open items.  You’d be amazed how much gets done through effective follow up.   

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week