When Your CEO Retires

You are a Board member for a nonprofit and, at a regularly scheduled Board meeting, your CEO gives her two week notice.  Even though she is 68 years old, you and other Board members are somehow shocked.

I hope this does not happen to you or your organization, but it could.  One reason is that many Boards and staff alike are in denial about leadership succession.  They don’t even want to talk about it.  “I just hope I retire from the Board before we have to deal with it,” I have heard some say.

How do you begin to prepare for the inevitable departure of a CEO?

My recommendation is that you encourage your organization to create an “Emergency Succession Plan” of what you would do in the event that your CEO has an unplanned illness that keeps them away from work for ninety days.

The components of that plan would be:

*A list of the key functions of the CEO

*A designation of who on the staff would temporarily take over each of those functions, including who the Interim CEO would be

*A plan to provide those people with the training/education/information so they can carry out these responsibilities

*A clear statement of which staff members will have authority for what

*A list of the most important organization stakeholders, how they will be communicated with regarding the “emergency” situation, and who will maintain relationships with them

It is simply “good business” to be prepared for a possible emergency situation with your CEO.  Actually the same is true for other senior staff positions.  Completing these plans will open the door for more expanded conversations about leadership succession.  What will we do when the CEO ultimately retires?  How would we handle that?

Seamlessly handling leadership transitions is a key to organization resilience and making a long term Mission Impact.

*For excellent resources on leadership succession, check out the Transition Guides web site.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Being Fantastic

The basic question is this – if you want excellence, awesomeness, fantastic performance from your team/organization then what do you need?

Talent & Teamwork.

Both of these aspects of performance are appreciated, but I am suggesting that the way in which they complement one another is underappreciated.

Some organizations tend to go the Talent route.  “Let’s just hire the most talented people and it will all work out.”  (New York Yankees, perhaps?)

Others value Teamwork.  “As long as we get our people to work effectively as a team, we will pursue excellence.”  (My Beloved Pittsburgh Pirates from 1993 – 2010, perhaps?)

The fact is that we need both to be excellent, fantastic.  Teamwork will not make up for Talent and Talent will not make up for Teamwork.

When you find a team – whether in Sports, Business, or Nonprofits – that exemplifies both, then you find winners.

What are the specific lessons here?

You need to invest in talent!  Yes, I mean paying fantastic people well in order to attract and retain them.  I know that this does not get my nonprofit brethren very excited, but it is a reality that you – and your Boards – need to accept.  The most talented people can do “good works” in many places.

You need to invest in developing teamwork!  And it does not just happen by sponsoring a quarterly Happy Hour or having a cake once a month to celebrate birthdays.  You need to take the time to develop teamwork behaviors and to create a culture of effective teamwork.  It will take time that you do not have, but you need to do it anyway.  Check out this blog for suggestions.

When your team is about to be eliminated in whatever your definition of the “championships” are, then you want to have the effective teamwork to know who to pass the ball to in the last seconds who has the talent to make the final shot and, ultimately, take you to victory. That’s a Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Five Management Fundamentals

It’s a sports cliché – because it is true, and it is true in the working world as well.  Winners are the ones who get the fundamentals right.  Management is complex, but here are the five fundamentals to make sure you get it right:

1.  Set Clear Expectations.  It makes common sense and it is backed up by research (1).  Make sure that your direct reports are perfectly clear on what you expect of them.  This includes job descriptions and lists of responsibilities, but also those often “unwritten” expectations.  Write them down.

2.  Set Goals. Setting goals that are connected to expectations improves performance.  This is also backed up by research (2), but it is truly remarkable how often managers don’t do this with direct reports!  Set them annually and quarterly, then follow-up.  Check here for advice on goal setting.

3.  Provide Encouragement and Appreciation.  It is the right thing to do and guess what, research (1 & 3) on leadership and management demonstrates that it leads to higher levels of performance.

4.  Establish an Environment of Mutual Trust.  Recent research (4) found that what people want most from a leader is honesty.  And we know that this is the foundation for building mutual trust that creates an environment for high performance.

5.  Share the Vision & Mission.  In the same research (4) referenced above, the #2 thing people want from a leader is for them to be visionary – or forward thinking.  This does not mean you have to give an “I Have a Dream” speech at every staff meeting.  Simply help remind everyone of the big picture regularly.  Why are we here?  We can all easily lose focus on this with the business of daily work.  Remind people of the difference you are there to make and the future you are building together. 

Print this and tape it to your wall at work so you don’t forget.  Follow the five fundamentals and you will build a winning team that truly makes a Mission Impact.

(1) First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, 1999.

(2) A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance, Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, 1990.

(3)  The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes & Barry Posner, 2012, 5^th Edition.

(4)  James Kouzes & Barry Posner, “To Lead, Create Shared Vision,” Harvard Business Review, January 2009.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Good is the Enemy of Great

Every chance I get, I talk with people about how to pursue breakthrough performance.  And I can tell this gets on some people’s nerves. 

“Rob, we are working our butts off and now you are suggesting we do more?  Why?”

Yes, I am suggesting that more is possible.  Why?  Because there are millions of people on our planet who need more and better.  And “No,” I am not suggesting that you simply work more hours.  I am suggesting you work “differently,” that you innovate.

Good is the enemy of great. 

“People think we are doing a good job.”

“We don’t have any real obvious problems.”

“Actually, things are going pretty well.”

“We are good.”

Jim Collins* popularized the “Good is the enemy of great” quote, but the idea has been swimming around for some time.  If no immediate problems exist, it can lead to people being “Comfortably Numb” (Great Pink Floyd song) with the status quo.  

Greatness takes a continuing commitment to innovate.  And that is uncomfortable.  We get used to doing things a certain way.  But what if there are far better ways?

If you want excellence, if you want more for those you serve, if you believe that more is possible – then do not allow “good” to be “good enough.”

This is why Vision is so important.  What are your dreams?  What do you care about?  If you could have it any way you wanted, what would it be like?  Dream Big!  Have you accomplished this?  If not, then seek more – seek breakthrough performance.

And the best way I have found to lead breakthroughs is to set Almost Impossible Goals – based on Vision.  You can read more about that here – and that will lead to you making an even greater Mission Impact.

*Jim Collins, Good to Great, 2001.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Thriving in a VUCA World

Earlier this week I attended the annual conference of the Executive MBA Council where directors of these programs from across the globe gather once a year to share best practices, concerns, and plans for the future.

A common concern that was expressed: “How do we prepare executives to survive in VUCA world?”  Indeed, the environment in which we all operate is increasingly:

Volatile.

Uncertain.

Complex.

Ambiguous.

Taking the contrarian view, I’ll actually suggest that the VUCA world provides even more opportunity than ever before for leaders who are Externally Focused, have Clarity of Purpose, and remain Nimble.

Externally Focused.  Thriving in a VUCA world takes vigilant attention to trends and changes in the environment.  What are you reading and who are you talking to about changes in the environment?  Make sure to get out of the office regularly and talk with clients, collaborators, and even competitors.

Clarity of Purpose.  With mission firmly in mind and – hopefully – specific mission metrics and goals, you can stay on course even as the environment churns about you.  Today’s environment has been described as “permanent whitewater.”  Swimming in an ocean of whitewater requires you to keep focused on the specific spot on shore where you are going.  This allows you to adjust rather than getting swept where the waves want to take you.

Nimble.  Don’t be wedded to past practices if you aren’t getting the results you need.  The VUCA world requires creative responses to changes in the environment.  Make sure that you and your team remain focused on results, not process.

If you do these things and – as the saying goes – “keep your head while those around you are losing theirs,” then you will see and seize opportunities that others miss.  And that will continually enhance your Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.