TEAM FOCUS

Effective, efficient executives take responsibility for the return on investment (ROI) their teams generate, because doing so benefits the entire organization. Getting discretionary effort from team members begins with a genuine concern for them and their lives—an approach that previous generations of executives might have found a little too touchy-feely for their liking. Some still do. But during the past generation or so, something unusual has happened: executives have evolved from being bosses to being team members. Oh, they’re still in charge, but smart leaders realize they get further by forming partnerships with their employees.

Modern executives act mostly as visionary facilitators, even cheerleaders, rather than as dictators. They drive strategy with team input as part of their leadership role and encourage team members to deploy their own tactics for achieving goals. Why? By necessity.

Strategy is more fluid and responsive to change than ever before, so everyone has to execute in whatever way works best at a particular moment. Since the Great Recession hit in 2008, managerial and individual contributor roles have started converging. No longer can leaders consider themselves completely distinct from nonmanagerial teammates. Business has always been a collaborative endeavor, and today it must become even more so to facilitate efficient execution and greater productivity.

EXECUTIVE IMPROVEMENT 101

You depend on your team at least as much as they depend on you—probably more. So before we get into how to maintain a team focus in the next four chapters, let’s consider some principles first:

1 SINCERELY VIEW EMPLOYEES AS YOUR GREATEST ASSET. Everyone says they do this, but in our precarious economy, some leaders still see employees as replaceable. True, they must be to some extent, since no one—even you—should be indispensable. People must be able to be promoted, and the company must survive without key people if they die, fall ill, or leave. But employees are not interchangeable machine parts. They’re people. If you take care of them, they’re more likely to take care of you—loyalty cuts both ways.

In a knowledge-based economy, your teammates become especially valuable, because their skills are completely portable; they live in those few pounds of gray matter between their ears. Treat them well so they’ll stay with you—good workers cost a lot to replace.

Care for your team, too. Don’t act like a distant eminence more worried about your annual bonus than your people. It’s easier for your team to like you if you care about them, so make it obvious you do. If your people are happier, they’ll perform better, and you’ll all prosper as a result.

2 COMMUNICATE LEADERSHIP BY WORD AND DEED. Talk is cheap. If you can’t keep a promise, don’t make it. Otherwise, ask your people what would increase their job satisfaction and performance—and then pursue putting those factors in place.

Promises are important, particularly where goals are concerned. Similarly, don’t demand the kind of hard work and focus you won’t do yourself. You’ll have your team’s loyalty if you’re in there actively working with them, insofar as your duties allow. You won’t garner respect if you roll in at 10 A.M. and leave at 4 P.M. to play golf during a tough time, even if you’re on the course schmoozing to capture a new account.

Darren Smith, Senior Vice President at John Hancock Investments, encourages continuous improvement by expecting it in himself. “If a company and its leaders are always trying to push forward and get just a little better every day, to reach a little higher every day, and to make more of a difference every day, it quickly filters down through the company,” he points out. “It’s also critical to equip team members with the ability to define and measure improvement, and also recognize when there’s a lack of progress toward the stated objectives.”

3 UNLOCK THEIR ENTHUSIASM AND ENERGY. Find reasons for your team members to pour their discretionary effort into their work. Empower them in every way possible, share your authority, and provide top incentives in whatever forms work best. Given the need to do your own work, remain as accessible as you can and don’t micromanage. Instead, trust your folks to do what they need to do and make it easier for them to do it. Tackle your own work with enthusiasm and verve.

Allowing your people to do their jobs without too much interference can work wonders. Steve Gangwish of CSS Farms points to autonomy as a big part of the loyalty recipe in his company. “We rely on leaders to be autonomous and manage their operations on their own. While we have weekly communications with everybody, a corporate leader may only get to their site a couple of times a year. So the other three hundred sixty days of the year, [the farm managers] are in charge.”

4 PROVIDE TRAINING. Give your employees the intellectual and educational tools they need to maximize their potential. Teach them to ask themselves, “Did I pay for myself today?” If the answer is no, they may need more training. Give it to them so everyone can benefit. Make the option available to everyone who qualifies and allow them as much room to improve as they can handle. You’ll more than earn back the cost in increased productivity and goodwill. For example, I’ve recovered the investment made in my virtual admin’s WordPress training by huge margins.

What matters in the end is ROI, not initial cost. If you can make more money by improving your employees’ performance than you spend on doing so, then do it. When employees specifically tell you how you can help them boost their productivity, listen up!

Better in Every Way

If you keep these points in mind and take care to implement the suggestions outlined in the next four chapters, you’ll inevitably improve your team’s performance. And you may just improve the whole company’s well-being along the way.