Lean Connections

Outstanding talent, ideally LeanThinking talent, is your greatest source of competitive advantage in the best of times and in the worst of times. Every CEO must have strategies to attract, retain and develop the best and brightest in order to win the war for talent and accelerate business results – especially in a down economy…

Attracting talented Lean managers and executives is a challenge which will only grow more significant as we begin our economic recovery in North America. So make sure you apply a Lean-focused results and value approach to hiring, developing and retaining the best possible leadership for your organization.

•   Make some ONE accountable – because if it’s not in anyone’s job description or performance review, don’t expect to see anyone doing much about searching out, developing and looking after the best of the best.
•   Define those jobs which are strategic to your organization in terms of leadership development and retention – because a talent-management strategy without this focus is no strategy at all and will fail you.
•   Think about and strive and reward to implement these key leadership practices for maximum results within your organization:

Build trust and candor. Great people are inspired by great leaders, and great leaders are honest and trustworthy. Know the potential successors to all direct-reports and make positive connections as frequently as possible. Too often leaders kill trust and candor by being judg¬mental, or more concerned with looking good than acknowledging others. Being a control freak or, on the flip side, avoiding control and blaming others, is a sure way to turn off your talented employees. Yes, it’s the Toyota Way, and it works.

Be accountable for talent. Every individual on your management team must consider identifying and retaining your best employees as “Job One” (with apologies to Ford). All of your HR strategies should be integrated throughout the organization. As with continuous improvement initiatives, you get what you measure. Hold people accountable for hiring well, and for suc¬cession plan execution. Integrate your plan with your corporate strategy and evaluate quarterly. All the top organizations with whom we’ve worked have a talent “war room.” Do you?

Actively protect and promote future potential. You’ve got high-potential players. Why should senior leadership keep “the list” of key employees a secret? After all, we’re not talking Skull & Bones here. Particularly if you’re trying to build a culture of trust and respect for people. Make sure that your top talent knows who they are and then help them to develop. Invest more heavily in the growth of already-excellent talent and extraordinary leadership; almost no amount of spending on “C” players will ever get you a solid ROI.

CEO is the Chief Talent Acquisition Officer. CEOs must take a leadership role in attracting top talent from other organizations. Be a visible evangelist; develop a personal brand beyond your role in the company. Be the kind of leader for whom people want to work. As a leader, be personally accountable for attracting a few key people regularly and serve as a sensei to some of them. Expect the same of other top executives.

Demand only the best. Create tough standards for new talent, and cut your losses when they don’t measure up. When people are performing in an outstanding manner, continue to increase expectations of per¬formance. Strong performers thrive on recognition and ever-increasing challenge, and the opportunity to show what they’re made of. Don’t disappoint them.

“There is a better way for everything. Find it.”

Thomas Alva Edison

Turbulent times provide ample opportunities for success, if we approach things with the right frame of mind.

by Adam Zak 

In my role as an executive recruiter specializing in helping companies with Lean transformation, I’ve been spending a lot of my time lately speaking with people all over the world who are wrestling with complex decisions. I thought I’d share some of my observations with you, and in turn, hope that you will share your thoughts with me. 

Everywhere we turn, there’s advice heralding “How to manage in a crisis,” or “New rules for surviving the crunch.” Just the other day I heard a discussion on PBS involving business writers trying to agree on a title for what the economy is going through. And there was no consensus (imagine that, from business writers). 

Crisis Breeds Opportunity 

Craig Barrett, recently retired CEO of Intel told Newsweek readers, “There is a general rule in business life: market share is won or lost during transitions. You cannot save your way out of a recession, you can only invest your way out.” No one is denying that cutting costs is essential to surviving 2009, but we Lean disciples have always practiced a different philosophical approach. As we look for ways to eliminate waste and improve productivity, we are always focused on getting better. In early February Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola’s CEO told the Wall Street Journal “I’ve been through this movie in smaller versions a number of times in the past…times like these are not an excuse to sit back and ride out the storm.” And this week, at a global sustainability conference in Chicago, I spoke with Rick Frazier, Coke’s VP Supply Chain, who told me they were leveraging their Lean & Green efforts even more dramatically during this time of uncertainty. 

“A recession creates winners and losers just like a boom,” observed Mauro F. Guillen, a professor of international management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in BusinessWeek. Let’s chose to be among the winners.  read more »

“Respect for people: Very few businesses start up only on the backs of the sole founder. It takes a team.”  Jamie Flinchbaugh 

Just a few days ago Jamie blogged over at LeanBlog about the Lean Entrepreneur. With layoffs mounting at even the Leanest Thinking companies, he argued that this might be just the time for “lean-minded” individuals to strike out on their own and start new businesses. In fact, some quick research I did indicates that 16 of the 30 DJIA (Dow Jones index) corporations were launched during past recessions, among them Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Walt Disney, for example. Jamie makes a persuasive point. 

And he’s also on target writing that Lean Thinkers’ clear focus on “customer obsession,” “direct observation” and “respect for people” can add tremendous value to the new venture.  But I might have changed the order a bit and put “respect for people” first. So here’s some additional perspective on the importance of the team – people – to the success of your new business undertaking.

In my earlier days I spent some time in Silicon Valley helping start two companies, one which turned out moderately successful and was sold to a strategic buyer, and one which burned to a crisp and was eventually abandoned.  These two experiences qualified me for a very small seat at the venture capital table, and I found myself assessing the viability of entrepreneurial ventures as they were brought to our attention. 

I learned that, without question, the start-up team is absolutely the most critical element in the success or failure of a new company.  Analyze carefully your own strengths and weaknesses and recruit others who can balance and complement these.  Sure, it may be your brilliant idea for a phenomenal product or service, and you may be hesitant to share decision control, execution responsibility and eventual profits with others.  But unless your business is high-powered consulting (think Deming, Drucker, Ram Charan, or James O. McKinsey – well, you get the picture) you are not likely to make the big time on your own. read more »