Leading the People Side of Business Series

10 Questions Every Executive Should Ask About Leading the People Side of Business

Todd Averett President Leading People Partners

About the Author

Many executives I know are very impressive people. They are experts in their fields, and some have built their companies from an idea to a substantial, meaningful enterprise. But some of them struggle, even with their expertise in their fields, and their ability to create something from nothing. Particularly as their company grows, they find that their prior expertise has limits, and that leading the people side of their business has grown to be both more important and more complicated. They struggle to know what to do next, to eliminate the barriers that they have to growth, and to enable the next leap forward to take place for their organizations. As a student of the people side of business for many years, and as a coach and partner to many executives grappling with this challenge, I’ve found that there tends to be a core set of questions that executives can ask that can help them pinpoint where their organization is from a people perspective. By asking these questions, they can prioritize where they need to spend their energy and time to improve their results as a leader of the people side of their business. Question #1: Do I have the right leaders on my team? I’ve found that executives quite often know when they don’t have the right leaders on their team, but are hesitant to address the problem. The “right” leaders would be those leaders who have the skill sets and characteristics needed to position the company for growth, those who set the right tone and culture for the organization, and those leaders who get results consistently. By conducting this simple assessment, and then addressing leaders who are not “right” through coaching or through personnel changes, this question can have a tremendous positive impact in an organization. Question #2: Does my leadership team work together effectively? While this question is often connected to “who” is on the leadership team, this concept is more related to

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Leading the People Side of Business

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Asking for feedback, and then doing nothing about it, is the surest way to not receive helpful feedback again.

assessing the effectiveness of how the leadership team works together. Is the leadership team aligned on company direction, and how it will go execute to this direction? Does the team work together in constructive ways to address disagreement? Do important issues get brought up or are they avoided? How are decisions made? Do team members listen to each other and respect one another? Many organization issues I have observed, even deeper within the organization, have stemmed from conflict and issues with how the leadership team works together. Reviewing this question as a leadership team, and working together to resolve issues, can be an effective way to accelerate the effectiveness of the entire organization. Question #3: Am I personally effective as a leader? The most successful executives that I know regularly ask themselves this question, and they ask others this question as well. This involves peers, direct reports, customers or suppliers, family members, and others who work with you as a leader regularly. A simple way to ask for feedback is to ask others “What do I seem to do particularly well?” and “What is something that if I started or stopped would allow me to be even more effective?” A key here is to then thank those that provided feedback to you for the feedback, and to adjust your behavior to reflect the feedback you have received. Asking for feedback, and then doing nothing about it, is the surest way to not receive helpful feedback again. Question #4: Is my organization structured properly? The question here is to determine if your organization design is both effective and efficient. An effective organization structure is one where roles and responsibilities are widely understood within your organization, where decision rights are clear, and where the organization can produce positive results consistently. An efficient organization, on the other hand, ensures that there is little duplication of roles, that the organization is as flat and streamlined as possible to get the work done, and that work is being done at the right level. Organization structures tend to be strongly anchored in history, culture, and the personal preferences and egos of leaders, so making organization structure changes requires strength and courage as a leadership team. Question #5: Do our employees fully understand our company strategy- and how they impact that strategy? Far too often, the company strategy starts and stops in the executive offices. The key question here is whether employees really see and feel the connection between what they do and the strategy of the company. Effective leaders regularly communicate what the company strategy is to their team members, and ensure that

Leading the People Side of Business Series

Individual goals and responsibilities connect to the desired company outcomes. Question #6: Do our employees know what they are expected to do, know how to do it, and perform their roles consistently well? This is a big and broad question. The first piece is related to Question #5, ensuring that employees know how what they do is related to the company’s strategy. The second piece is whether or not they have the skills and abilities necessary to perform their jobs well, and the third is whether they actually perform their roles consistently well. This requires speaking to associates about what they think their responsibilities are, clarifying what skills they have by observation, and reviewing what results they are delivering consistently and well—and which ones are not being delivered on. Depending on what you learn, there may need to be additional clarity provided to employees on their job responsibilities, more training, or a review of what barriers are in the way of consistent employee performance. Question #7: Are our employees positively emotionally connected to the company? Are they motivated and engaged? This question gets at the emotional connection between your employees and the company. If there were an internal “net promoter score”, where your employees were rating your organization in terms of likelihood to recommend working at your organization to someone else, what would it be? Internal surveys, focus groups, and informal discussions can give insights on how your employees are feeling. Where there are opportunities, prioritize which ones that you will focus on, recognizing that if you ask employees for feedback, and do nothing, you are worse off than not asking at all. Question #8: Can we hire the new talent that we need? This question gets at both the notion of ensuring that teams are clear on what exactly they need in a new hire, and the notion of attracting and selecting that new hire. There are many situations where organizations have found it difficult to hire, at least partially, because they were not clear on exactly what they needed, or did not have alignment on the most important experience or characteristics for an open position. Effective talent selection begins with that step. Once that is achieved, it is a matter of effective searching and recruiting efforts,

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If there was an internal “net promoter score”, where your employees were rating your organization in terms of likelihood to recommend your organization to someone else, what would it be?

Leading the People Side of Business Series

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Key areas to look at would be employee policies, compensation and benefit systems, performance management processes, and promotion guidelines.

and creating conditions in which candidates see both your company and the potential new role favorably. Question #9: Do our policies, systems, and processes reinforce the strategy, culture, and results we want? This question is about aligning internal policies, systems, and processes. Key areas to look at would be employee policies, compensation and benefit systems, performance management processes, and promotion guidelines. Often these are developed for a specific need at a specific time, and are not reviewed and updated to reflect current strategy, desired new culture, and higher expectations for results. Adjustments will likely need to be made in several areas. Question #10: What does our company “stand for” in the community? While this question is focused on external perceptions of the company in the community, this perception has a dramatic impact on attracting great talent and how current employees feel about and are connected to the Company. Wise leaders pay attention to what the company “stands for”, whether it is contributing financially to the community, a commitment to sustainability, or contributions of time and talent of employees to causes in the community. Leaders can ask community members to learn more about the perception of the company, or commission surveys to find out more of the community’s perception. These ten questions, while not inclusive of every possible “people” matter, can serve as a very helpful framework to assess how well an organization and its leaders are leading the people side of business. Organizations and their members are imperfect at best, so it is wise to prioritize which of the items identified during the course of asking these questions that should be addressed. Fewer, higher impact approaches will matter more. Focusing on those things that have the biggest impact on results or culture should be the priority. As executives examine these questions regularly, perhaps during an annual organization review, they can focus their thinking on those efforts on those things that matter most to their organizations. And truly lead the people side of their business.

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Leading the People Side of Business Series

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About The Author Todd Averett has been fascinated by the challenges associated with Leading the People Side of Business for over 20 years. He was most recently Vice President, Global Human Resources for a global, multi-billion dollar retail company with over 25,000 employees. There he held progressively responsible positions, ultimately leading the global HR teams located in the US, China, Canada, Latin America, and Australia. Todd has played key roles in acquisitions, divestitures, international expansion, organizational restructures, and cultural change initiatives. Todd has partnered with and coached many leaders at all levels of the organization, including the C-level, to better lead the people side of business. Prior to working in retail management, Todd worked in the Learning and Development function at Brigham Young University, where he received a Master’s Degree in Organization Behavior from the Marriott School of Management. Prior to his master’s degree, he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, with an emphasis in Organizational and Personnel Psychology. Todd can be reached at todd@leadingpeoplepartners.com or 785-478-0023. About Leading People Partners, LLC Leading People Partners is a consulting, training, and executive coaching firm, specializing in:

• Onboarding and Developing Leaders • Developing Strategic Human Resources • Accelerating Talent Management Practices • Building Strong Internal Partnerships and Teams

We’d love to partner with you to help you and your team better lead the people side of business. To learn more, check out our website at www.leadingpeoplepartners.com or contact us directly at todd@leadingpeoplepartners.com or 785-478-0023.

Leading the People Side of

Business

Todd Averett President Leading People Partners