To Bring Your Plans to Life, You Need a Dedicated Crew

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USS TEXAS (SSN 775) COMMISSIONING

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Roadell Hickman

“Officers and crew of the United States Gerald R. Ford, man our ship and bring her to life!” commanded Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Ford and sponsor of the newest U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

The command was answered by sailors in crisp, white uniforms peeling off formation and running to man the rails of the newest warship in the U.S. Navy. “Anchors Aweigh” played, horns blared, bells rang out, and the U.S. flag was raised to full mast. Within minutes, the captain was informed that “the ship is manned and ready and reports for duty to the fleet.”

As I watched this emotional ceremony play out this past weekend, I couldn’t help but think about the powerful message that was being delivered. The imagery, the speeches, and the commands all communicated one point, the crew brings the ship to life.

“A ship is only as good as the people who serve on it.” Donald Trump

As a business leader and former Naval Officer, I know this to be true but sometimes we forget. It’s easy to get caught up in the importance of our business plans, strategic initiatives, and stretch goals. Often we forget, it’s people that bring these plans to life.Without her crew, the $13 billion state-of-the-art nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is nothing but a hunk of cold steel sitting in the harbor. Without a dedicated crew, all our plans our dead as well.

So, how do you get a dedicated crew to bring your plans to life? Let me suggest four important things to consider.

Get people involved in the planning. When people are involved in creating the plans, they have more ownership. Annual off-site planning sessions are a great way to do this. If done right, these sessions can create energy, excitement, and bonding in the team. It also helps to focus the team on the key objectives for the year. To learn more about how to conduct a good annual planning session, see my article 10 Step Guide to Lead your Team into the New Year.

Communicate your plans in a straight-forward manner. I’ve worked for three global companies and one of the things that frustrated me is how they communicated plans. Global companies are complex and their plans are complicated but the communication process shouldn’t be. Using 100+ PowerPoint slides to communicate your vision is not effective. Focus your plans into a handful of important points and use stories to illustrate your message. Doing this will get more people on board.

Seek feedback and be willing to adjust your plans. Rolling out new plans in small groups is an effective way to let teams absorb the message and provide feedback. Listening to feedback is critical for two main reasons. It allows teams to internalize the plan and it allows you to learn things you hadn’t considered. Seeking feedback will help get even more people on board.

Corral the naysayers. Despite your best efforts, there will always be those on your team that don’t buy into the message. It’s important to identify those individuals and meet with them individually. If they have constructive feedback, hear them out. Everyone deals with change differently. If they are simply unwilling to get on board, it might be time to part ways. Naysayers can have a negative impact on morale and can hurt the overall team’s performance. It’s better to deal with the problem than ignore it.

A ship is nothing without her crew and a plan is nothing without people to implement it. If you spend a long time developing a plan, spend twice that amount of effort getting people on board. Without a dedicated crew, your plan is going nowhere. Take the advice from this article and get more people involved in the planning process. Work on a straight-forward communications plan and seek feedback. And most importantly, corral the naysayers. If you do these things, you will bring your plans to life.

What do you think? Have you used these principles in the past? What were the results? What other ideas have worked for getting your team on board? What are some examples of great planning and poor execution? What went wrong? Let me know in the comment section below.

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Trust and Speed: Lessons from Percy Barnevik

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Percy WP

How do you get a large, multinational company to move fast? You do what Percy Barnevik did at ABB in the late 80’s and early 90’s. You push decision making to the lowest level and embed a culture of decisiveness at all levels.

What seems like a simple idea is actually very difficult. For large companies, the desire for certainty as well as a need for command and control tends to force decision making to the top. Companies then add layers of bureaucracy to ensure compliance with the orders from headquarters. The result is a slow moving, cumbersome organization where employees are not encouraged to color outside the lines.

Barnevik did not want this for his new company. In 1988, when he created ABB by pulling off the largest merger in European history, he quickly moved to embed a culture of decisiveness. He did this by keeping operating units small, limiting the decisions coming out of headquarters, and preaching the value of decisiveness.

I was running one of those operating units in ABB at the time and it was one of the best jobs I ever had. As I discussed in Barnevik on Decisiveness, I loved working for Barnevik. He got things done. He was decisive and he expected the same from his employees. The company culture at that time reflected his personality. We moved fast and we fixed it along the way.

The main thing I remember from that time is that Barnevik trusted us to make decisions. He had faith in his business unit leaders. He knew that we would occasionally make mistakes but he trusted us to always make it right. There was a culture of speed, decisiveness, and forgiveness. If you made a bad decision, it was not the end of your career. You were expected to fix it and move on.

What do you think? Have you worked in a similar fast-moving culture where there was trust at the top? What was it like? Have you worked in a heavily bureaucratic organization? How was that experience? How does the company culture affect your attitude towards your job? Let me know in the comment section below.

 

Stop Expecting People to be Perfect

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Donald Miller WP

I have written many times that leadership is a people business. It’s about motivating and challenging people to accomplish big things. If you don’t like people, you shouldn’t be a leader. The truth is, people are messy. They have fears, anxieties, quirks, annoying habits, hangups, issues, and problems. Each member of your team is probably struggling with something at home or at work that is affecting them in some way. Leading people is not simple and can be frustrating at times. But that’s OK.

“When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” Donald Miller

Reading Donald Miller’s book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, made me think about this leadership issue again. People are amazing and they can truly surprise you with what they can do, but, if you expect them to be perfect every day, you are going to be discouraged. So, as Miller suggests, stop expecting perfection from your employees and enjoy who they are and what they bring to your team. Embrace the mess and keep motivating them towards great things.

What do you think? Why do we seem to focus on the negatives? How can we look past the quirks and annoying habits to see the best in people? If we simply accept people as they are, how much more could they contribute to the team? Let me know in the comment section below.

Gathering of Six Active-Duty Marine Corps Four-Star Generals

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Photo Credit: Sgt. Mallory S. VanderSchans, U.S. Marine Corps

At one time in history, the Marine Corps had six active-duty four-star generals. On April 19, 2013, they gathered at the home of the Commandant of the Marine Corps where this epic picture was taken.

“Old Breed, New Breed, there’s not a damn bit of difference so long as it’s the Marine Breed.” Chesty Puller

Dressed in their desert camouflage uniforms, the six Marine four-star generals share “coffee” and reminisced about the four decades of working on and off together.  “It was a bunch of friends who started out as second lieutenants,” said Gen. James Mattis. “We never thought we would end up as four stars. It is the surprise and twists and turns of life.”

From left to right, the generals are John F. Kelly, James N. Mattis, Joseph F. Dunford, James F. Amos, John R. Allen, and John M. Paxton Jr.

I’m not sure how I originally missed this in the news but it’s pretty amazing.

Get Up & Get Going!

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“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” Aristotle

As I wrote about in The Secrets of Morning People Revealed, mornings are uniquely important in five distinct ways:

  1. Your willpower is at its highest
  2. Your mind is less scattered
  3. You’re less likely to be interrupted
  4. You increase the availability of time
  5. You start your day with a sense of accomplishment

If you’re going to change the world, you need to get up early. You’ll get more done and you’ll see unique, amazing, and wonderful things. So, get up and get going!