Building Better Leaders by communitynowmagazine

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." – Michael Jordan

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Leading For The Right Reasons

PG. 5

Building A ‘First Team’ Mindset

PG. 8

Let’s explore the concept of ‘First Team’ PG. 9 Building a ‘First Team’ Mindset PG. 11 5 Important Steps to Building a ‘First Team’ Mindset Amongst Your Leaders PG. 12

6 Questions to Bring Clarity to Your ‘First Team’! PG. 14 Organizational Health PG. 17 -

Q & A with Steve Armstrong About Organizational Health PG. 18

A Check List for the Health of Your Team PG. 20 6 Things You Can Do to Reduce the Risk of Project Failure Due to ‘People’ Issues. PG. 22 6 Reasons NOT to Hire Me as Your Executive Coach PG. 24 5 Behaviours at the Heart of a Great Team PG. 26 Questions to Prevent Fear of Leadership Failure PG..28

“INSPIRING TEAMS TO ACT, MOVE, AND OVERCOME OBSTACLES HAS BEEN THE KEY TO MY ONGOING SUCCESS TO HELP ORGANIZATIONS TRANSFORM.” - Steve Armstrong

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Do you want to know what I know to be true?

I’ve never met a leadership team that was too stupid to be successful, but I have met teams too dysfunctional to succeed. Being a consultant for leaders who want to make their organizations more effective & stronger, I offer two things: 1. I help leadership teams become stronger, better aligned and have a clear view into their work, while developing an impactful culture with engaged employees. 2. I help organizations who are struggling with politics, confusion, morale, productivity, turnover, and wasted time, money and energy to refocus and revitalize their most valuable resources. What I do really works. It’s practical, not touchy-feely or theoretical. I deliver quick impact, often within days, and transformation within months. I provide three vital deliverables: 1. A free 17 question Organizational Health Survey and report. 2. An inexpensive Team Assessment and report. 3. A plan you can implement yourself, or I can help, in building better and healthier teams and a better and healthier organization.

We all want a successful team, strong organization & a chance to make an impact…Let’s talk about how we can make lives better together. PAGE 4

Leading For The Right Reasons Did you take on a leadership position for the right reasons? There are many reasons you might put yourselves in the position of being a leader. Still, it's vital that those reasons, whatever they are, be deeply considered because if you're not leading for the right reasons, you may not be willing to be what you need to do. And that may come at the risk of catastrophic results. What Leaders Won’t Do In my career, I've always been amazed at what leaders will do for their organizations. So many will spend countless late nights working, endure long and grueling travel schedules, even sacrifice their financial resources, all to increase the likelihood, even slightly, that their enterprises will succeed. Sadly, these efforts often come at the expense of their health, their families and their sanity. But the one thing that amazes me more than what leaders will do for their enterprises is what they so often WON’T do: And that is to endure emotional discomfort at work. Though this may sound innocuous, there is nothing trivial about it. This determination to avoid emotional discomfort is the single most costly and surprising Leadership trait I’ve witnessed in business during my career. PAGE 5

Let me offer an analogy - Imagine that someone spilled a coffee in the lobby of your building. No one would call the CEO down to clean it up. But when a political or interpersonal mess occurs in an organization, there is no one better to clean it up quickly and efficiently, and eliminate the possibility of collateral damage, than the CEO. Unlike the janitor whose job it is to clean up spills, many leaders complain about doing this part of their job. In all too many cases, they stand back, hope and wait for the problem to go away. Or for someone else to deal with it. After all, isn’t that what HR is for? Why does this happen?

In part, it is due to the natural fear of conflict and accountability. But I think some of it is related to a subtle, perhaps subconscious, sense of entitlement among leaders. Consider the most unfortunate example I’ve ever seen. I recently partnered with a company of 1,500 employees and a market evaluation of $1B that was struggling with rapid growth as they grew from a high impact team into the enterprise. As the company developed, the ties that made them high-performing became stretched to the point where its goals and objectives were being frustrated. Employees lost trust and confidence in leadership, and they became disconnected from the mission and objectives.

I sense that, in addition to merely not enjoying conflict, senior executives feel that they've earned the right to avoid the unpleasant parts of their work. They've paid their dues on their way up and are happy to delegate or abdicate the roles of their jobs that they don't enjoy and that especially includes having difficult, messy and emotional conversations with those they work with as well as themselves. The healthiest and most effective organizations are the ones where leaders seek out discomfort at work. They find opportunities to enter the danger whenever they can, realizing that they'll accomplish three productive things by doing so. First, they'll set an example for others to do the same. Second, they'll improve their level of "comfort with discomfort. And most importantly, they'll reduce the impact of their organizations' problems. Someday, perhaps most leaders will realize that embracing discomfort is a profoundly human task and is the key indicator of organizational health and success.

They'll be too embarrassed even to consider letting a messy situation fester, knowing that it would be a matter of negligence to do so. Until then, those organizations comprised of leaders who embrace discomfort will have the advantage.

Critically, they faced these issues while undergoing an expansion that would grow its size by 30-50%. While the company's leadership was 90% certain that the expansion project would be on time, on budget and successful, employees were 75% sure this would fail.

What follows is based on my work with Leaders from the Corporate, Nonprofit and Public sectors and it’s theories and models are applicable for anyone interested in Teamwork, Building Better Leaders, Leading Healthier Organizations and Achieving Remarkable Results.

When I reported back to the client what I saw, the CEO angrily asked: "Why is this a problem? I Am The CEO. If I want it fixed, I'll say so!"

Whatever the case may be, I sincerely hope it helps your team overcome whatever messy organizational issues that may exist, so that your team can achieve more that any one individual member could ever imagine doing alone.

The client’s employees identified low leadership competencies, low culture of leadership, and gaps in managers and supervisors' leadership skills. Yet the CEO wanted it fixed by fiat, chose not to accept responsibility, and actively blamed confused managers for the problem.

That, after all, is the real power of a Healthy Organization. Remember, leadership is a choice, not a position so enjoy the read and the journey.

This is indicative of the behaviours I've seen among many reasonable men and women, most of whom work close to the top of those organizations and who naturally want to avoid uncomfortable situations and conversations. That’s where entitlement comes into play.

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- Steve Armstrong

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Building A ‘First Team’ Mindset I loved my job.

I was part of a powerful and effective executive team to whom I was loyal. I had no problem identifying that they were the team I was personally responsible and accountable for. They were my ‘First Team.’ I had built my own team into a great team. People took on some of the most complex projects you could imagine and not just succeeded, they excelled. I felt great loyalty to everyone who directly and indirectly reported to me.

“I think team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.” -

LeBron James

But there is no doubt that my division was my ‘Second Team’. ‘First Team’?

A First Team – best articulated by Patrick Lencioni – is the idea that true leaders prioritize supporting their fellow leaders over their direct reports – that they are responsible to their peers more than they are to their individual or ‘Second Teams’. PAGE 8

Let’s Explore the Concept of ‘First Team’ Collective Versus Siloed Decision–Making If a leadership team is debating how to allocate a budget surplus best, each team member’s perspective will affect individual suggestions and, ultimately, decision making. A group that believes the team they lead is their ‘First Team’ will usually engage in debate with a departmental focus: engineering needs more developers, marketing needs more advertising budgets, etc. This jockeying for position and resources often causes frustration and resentment. When a team approaches the same budget question with the leadership team as their ‘First Team,’ the debate completely changes. The team evaluates each of the potential investments in light of what would be best for the organization and not just their functional group. As obvious as this sounds, clarifying the distinction about ‘First Team’ can make all the difference.

To truly be a cohesive leadership team, members must pay attention to the team’s collective results over anything else, including the results of the groups that they may manage personally. This is difficult for many leaders because they see it as being disloyal to their direct reports. Remember, a leader’s direct reports are the people they hired, the people they spend most of their time with, and the people they enjoy leading.

However, if every member of an executive team is more concerned about how decisions will impact their group rather than the overall organization, collective decision–making will inevitably suffer.

What is a First Team? Imagine a group of people who meet every day to resolve the most significant problems our society faces. Now, imagine those same people being more concerned about the people they represent and their own self–interest than society’s most pressing concerns. When this happens, and people advocate for their political interests first and foremost, the greater good takes a backseat. Imagine when politics focuses only on personal issues and not on the greater good. This same phenomenon occurs in companies and organizations. Executive teams are comprised of leaders from various functions – operations, sales, marketing, technology, human resources, finance – who are often more concerned about what’s going on in their own area than how the executive team as a whole is performing. This is a very natural and understandable phenonium and something I often see in my consulting work. To explore this idea, I always ask executive team members, “Which team is your first priority, which is your ‘First Team’?” Unfortunately, the answer is not easy to admit. If you want to ensure your leadership team is working as cohesively and effectively as possible, the question can’t be ignored or glossed over. Most executive team members serve on two teams, the team they lead and the team they are a member of. To be truly effective and for the good of the organization, they need to prioritize the leadership team first. This team must become their ‘First Team.’

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“

Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is TEAMWORK that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare. - Patrick Lencioni

”

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Building a ‘First Team’ Mindset

In my personal experience, a ‘First Team’ mindset has been transformational in creating a high-performing organization by improving the quality of leadership and management practiced. When leaders have built trust with each other, it becomes significantly easier to manage change, exhibit vulnerability, and solve problems together. I was part of a team who looked and functioned like Example A in the drawing when I fell out of my ‘First Team.’ Things changed when I got a new boss who considered me a trusted confidant. Over time, she went quiet, stopped sharing reasons for decisions and stopped responding. People were hiring people onto the leadership team, of which I belonged, whom I believed did not demonstrate the standards I expected of them. My performance began to slip, and my reactions to events were not always as professional as I either hoped or that was expected of me. In retrospect, all the signs pointed to the simple fact that I was nearing or had gone past my best before date as far as she was concerned. To be clear, I have never purported myself to be perfect in any regard, but in this case, I was dealing with a boss who was not providing me clear and proper performance management nor effective leadership.

As illustrated in Example B, I lost faith in my boss and much of the leadership team and we were now disconnected from our leadership. So much so that I focused on my own team, and slowly but surely, I became more and more isolated from the organization’s objectives. Other Examples of a Broken ‘First Team’ Are you part of a leadership team that is so disconnected from the rest of the company that they have no idea what is happening on the shop floor? As in, Example C above, this is the premise of ‘Undercover Boss,’ where leadership has no idea what truly happens within their organizations on a daily basis. Imagine that the top leaders in your organization are gathered to solve the company’s most pressing challenges. Instead of coming together as a team focused on solving that problem, they approach the exercise more concerned about their own self-interest than solving the company’s needs. As pictured in Example D above, disconnection at all levels has happened. Probably just another day at work for many people, and it’s why I spend a lot of time building a ‘First Team’ mindset with my clients.

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There are 5 important steps to building a ‘First Team’ Mindset amongst your leaders: 1.) Be Proactive Be explicit about the behaviours you expect from your leaders. Make sure you are clear with managers about their responsibility to one another, including details of the ‘First Team’ expectations in the job description and when hiring, interview for how they’ve practiced it. 2.) Treat Your Leadership Team Like a Cohort If you don’t treat your leadership team like a cohort, they won’t become one. Ensure you bring together your leadership team regularly and afford them the same benefits and constructs as a normal team, including everything from mailing lists and slack channels to team-building exercises and social events. Information and trust are the currencies of leadership, and demonstrating an equal distribution of them through shared experiences is a powerful tool.

3.) Help Your Leaders Help Each Other Encourage interdependence and normalization of helpseeking amongst team members.

5.) Make it Stick Through Repetition and Example To ensure that you and your leadership team are adhering to the ‘First Team’ concept, I recommend reviewing the following with your team: -

This will put leaders in the correct frame of mind. When entering an executive meeting, team members must remove their functional hats and put on their executive team hat. -

Formalizing psychological safety is a key component of success and roundtables are a great way to achieve safe spaces to share and solve problems collaboratively using a third party to facilitate. 4.) Help Your Leaders Help You Invite your ‘First Team’ to help you solve your problems. This vulnerability may feel scary, but it has proven beneficial to leverage your leaders’ capabilities to lead to better outcomes for your organization. And it is a great development opportunity because it exposes them to the types of problems they will face at the next level of their career.

Demand that team members prioritize the executive team over all others.

When the executive team is truly cohesive and prioritized appropriately, their ability to face difficult challenges with confidence further bonds the team and models unity to the organization. This requires an absolute and unwavering commitment to the ‘First Team’. -

Encourage them to talk to one another about their problems and refer them to each other for help. If a manager has a difficult conversation coming up, have a fellow manager role play it. Normalizing this type of behaviour is powerful.

At every opportunity, point out the priority of the ‘first team’ before making any key decisions.

Explain how the team’s direct reports will be impacted.

We all know that if there is any daylight between executive team members, it ultimately results in unwinnable battles that those lower in the organization are left to fight. Help your executive team understand the impacts of the ‘First Team’ concept on their reports and the reports of the other members of the executive team. -

Finally, change the agenda of the Executive team meetings from reporting on a functional or departmental basis to a goal or objective-based agenda. Meeting the organization’s defined goals and objectives should be the most critical work you do – this is the work that moves your organization forward. Having each executive member report on how they are contributing to or dealing with problems achieving the goals and objectives will completely change your ‘First Team’ meetings from silos to collective thinking.

I have seen highly educated leaders with vast experience have “aha” moments about the ‘First Team’ concept, resulting in an immediate impact on their team’s cohesion and ability to succeed.

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“Steve is my go-to guy when I need a sober second opinion or to look at performance from a different perspective. He has walked around my problems with an open mind and often asks me proactive and penetrating questions that bring us down to the real issue. If you want the unvarnished truth, he is the guy. But with Steve, the truth comes with a lot of laughs!” Greg Shumlich, Director at Acquest Properties Ltd.

StevenArmstrong.ca Steve@stevenarmstrong.ca PAGE 13

The Six Critical Questions

6 Questions to Bring Clarity to Your ‘First Team’! One of the first areas addressed in consulting sessions with clients is organizational clarity. Members of the executive team need to be on the same page regarding foundational concepts of their business. How do members of the ‘First Team’ answer questions such as:

In our sessions, I facilitate the exploration of the following six questions: •

Why do we exist? Beyond making money

•

What do we do? What is it we exist to do?

•

How will we behave? What are our core values?

•

How will we succeed? How do we make the best decisions?

•

What’s the most important work that we need to achieve right now? What is the one thing that, when accomplished, will significantly advance the company?

•

Who does what? Define roles and responsibilities

Why does this organization exist? What is our strategy? What are our goals? Without clear, consistent answers to these questions, confusion and hesitation begin to plague an organization. Imagine the frustration for employees to have to navigate the politics and confusion caused by leaders who are misaligned. The slightest bit of daylight between executive team members can have an overwhelming impact on their employees. Creating alignment at the executive level is essential to building and maintaining a healthy organization.

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To assess the alignment of the ‘First Team’ it is necessary to understand how each member of the leadership team would answer the Six Critical Questions as listed previously. Like in much of leadership, these questions may appear simple on the surface, but they can be profoundly difficult to answer. And even harder to adhere to.

Test your Team Many executives assume that they are on the same page as their peers, but once they get in a room together and openly discuss these concepts, this is not often the case.

Interested in conducting a simple, but eye-opening experiment? 1.) Have your team members sit together. 2.) Give everyone a sheet of paper and 5 minutes to write down their answers to the question “What do we do? 3.) Have each person read their answer out and listen to each answer in silence.

I think you will be shocked by the discrepancies amongst your leadership team members. Then consider this … If the key leaders in your organization are not in agreement about “What do we do? how on earth could anyone else understand?

Seize the Advantage If you ensure your team and company are clear and aligned from the top down on the answers to the six critical questions, you will have an insurmountable advantage over your competition.

Building Better Leaders Today

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“Steve has earned the reputation of being a skilled and thoughtful advisor to businesses and not-for-profit organizations. I highly recommend Steve.” - Alec Milne, Principal, Framework Partners Inc.

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Do You Want to Achieve Organizational Health?

What is organizational health?

Organizational health is essentially about making a company function effectively by building a cohesive leadership team, establishing real clarity among those leaders, communicating that clarity to everyone within the organization, and putting in place just enough structure to reinforce that clarity going forward. Simply put, an organization is healthy when it is whole, consistent and complete - when its management, operations and culture are unified. Healthy organizations outperform their counterparts, are free of politics and confusion and provide an environment where star performers never want to leave.

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Q & A with Steve Armstrong About Organizational Health Why does organizational health offer a company its greatest opportunity for competitive advantage? Addressing organizational health provides an incredible advantage to companies because, ultimately, health becomes the multiplier of intelligence. The healthier an organization is, the more its intelligence can be tapped into and actually used. Most organizations only exploit a fraction of the knowledge, experience and intellectual capital available to them. The healthy ones tap into all of it. Addressing health helps companies make smarter decisions faster, without politics and confusion.

Having worked with companies for so many years, is there anything that still surprises you?

Why are so many of today’s smartest companies losing to underdogs? I have found that some of the underdogs are more apt to shed their preconceived notions about running a business and allow themselves to gain an advantage by adopting a different set of principles. The key ingredient for improvement and success is not access to knowledge; it is really about the environment’s health. I have worked with many great, healthy companies led by men and women who attended relatively modest colleges, people who would admit to being just a little above average in intellectual capacity. When those companies made wise decisions that set them apart from their competition, journalists and industry analysts incorrectly attributed their success to their intellectual prowess. The truth of the matter was that the underdogs weren’t smarter than their competitors; they simply tapped into the adequate intelligence they had and didn’t allow dysfunction, ego, and politics to get in the way. Conversely, smart organizations don’t seem to have any greater chance of getting healthier by virtue of their intelligence. In fact, the reverse may actually be true because leaders who pride themselves on expertise and knowledge often struggle to acknowledge their flaws and learn from their peers. They typically aren’t as easily open and transparent with one another, which delays recovery from mistakes and fuels politics and confusion.

Yes, I still get surprised by what I see in companies I work with, even after all these years. Some of that surprise is just a function because no two people, and thus, no two organizations are exactly alike. The nuances are interesting and keep me on my toes. But ironically, the biggest surprise I get is being reminded repeatedly that even the most sophisticated companies struggle with the simplest things. I guess it’s hard for me to believe that the concepts I write and speak about are so universal and applicable. I don’t know that I’ll ever come to terms with that completely.

Why are so few companies skilled at overcoming dysfunction? Leaders often complain about worker productivity, politics, turnover and other signs of dysfunction but feel addressing the problem is either a hopeless endeavor or too touchy-feely. Even if leaders understand the need to address dysfunction, more often than not, they tend to naturally gravitate right back to the parts of the business they feel most comfortable with (usually in areas like strategy, finance, marketing, etc.).

What’s “the wuss factor,” and how do you overcome it? The “wuss factor” happens when a team member or leader constantly balks when it’s time to call someone out on their behaviour or performance. Many leaders who struggle with this will try to convince themselves that their reluctance is a product of their kindness; they just don’t want to make their employees feel bad. But an honest reassessment of their motivation will allow them to admit that they are the ones who don’t want to feel bad and that failing to hold someone accountable is ultimately an act of selfishness. After all, there is nothing noble about withholding information that can help an employee improve. Eventually, that employee’s lack of improvement will come back to haunt them in a performance review or when they are let go. PAGE 18

What’s the best way to run an effective meeting? To answer that question fairly, it is important to be clear about what kind of meeting you are in. I find that all too often, leaders have one meeting a week where they put all issues into one big discussion, usually called the staff meeting. They combine administrative issues and tactical decisions, creative brainstorming and strategic analysis, and personal discussions into one arduous meeting. The fact is the human brain isn’t meant to process so many disparate topics in one sitting. This type of meeting exhausts people. For a meeting to be effective, there needs to be greater clarity and focus, which means there needs to be different kinds of meetings for different kinds of focus. So, being clear about what kind of meeting you are in helps everyone understand the purpose and what they can expect for outcomes. The four meeting types include: • • •

•

rather a practical session around everything from how the team behaves to how it will succeed to what its most important priority needs to be. That first session will provide the momentum a team needs to lead the organization to improved health.

What’s something I can do tomorrow morning to get started? The first thing anyone can do immediately to begin the process of making their organizations healthier is, to begin with, themselves and their team. A leader has to understand and embrace the concept of being vulnerable, which inspires trust in the leadership team. That trust is the foundation for teamwork, which is one of the cornerstones of organizational health. If a leader cannot be vulnerable, cannot admit his or her mistakes, shortcomings or weaknesses, others will not be vulnerable and organizational health becomes impossible.

Daily Check-ins – administrative information exchange Weekly Staff – tactical issues and goal-related activities Ad hoc Strategic- strategic meeting that takes on one single big topic Quarterly Offsite Review – developmental meeting and review of business fundamentals

How can someone who’s not in the upper levels of their organization make an impact on its health? While it’s true that no one can influence an organization like the leader and that without a leader’s commitment and involvement, organizational health cannot become a reality, there are many things that employees deeper in an organization can do to make health more likely. First, they have to speak truth upward in the organization. Most leaders, even the struggling ones, want to get better. When an employee is courageous and wise enough to come to them with respect, kindness and honesty, most leaders will be grateful. Without honest upward feedback, a leader cannot get better. Beyond that, people deeper in an organization can focus on making their own departments healthier and not getting too distracted or discouraged by their inability to change things outside of their “circle of influence,” as Stephen Covey says. By focusing on their own departments and their own areas of influence, they provide others with an example to follow.

How healthy is your organization? Take the Free survey here!

What’s the first step any company can take to start achieving organizational health? The first step in becoming healthy is to get the leadership team together, offsite, for a couple of days of focused, rigorous, honest discussion. Nothing touchy-feely, but

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A Check List for the Health of Your Team

In organizations, things can be more ambiguous. Often, you’re not entirely clear about your role, the expectations placed on you, your expectations of others, the rules, and what success looks like. Let me offer up a model to check the health of your team and to help make things clearer for all.

Each section considers the people you serve as well as the people with whom you’re working.

Vision and Mission Often “teams” are a loose collection of people who happen to work on the same project and often appear more like an ad hoc, unrelated and disorganized system and less like a single unit.

“

It’s straight forward being on a sports team. You know what your position is. You know what is expected. You know who’s with you and who’s against you. The rules are clear.” -

Steve Armstrong

Simon Sinek would ask, ‘Why?’ In other words, what are we all working to achieve? If there’s no shared vision and mission, is this even a team? Two questions you might wrestle with as you try to understand your organization are:

Who are we helping? To successfully serve, you need to know who it is you serve. Savvy marketers create avatars of their ideal customers to make them real. Who is your team serving? What dent are we making? If you get away from the inbox and your calendar for a moment, what is your team to achieve? If your team is successful in all they do, what will be different? If that’s not clear or if it’s just a little bit “meh,” then there’s work to be done to getting clear on the Why. PAGE 20

Communications What’s the data? There are two parts to communication: the data (the facts) and the judgments (our opinions about the facts). What’s interesting is just how easily we slip from one to the other or how quickly judgments come to resemble facts. As you make decisions as a team, ask yourselves, “What do we know to be true?”

Connection Who matters? You can’t always treat everyone as if they were equally important to the team’s goals and ambitions.

What do you want? An essential element of leading teams is understanding wants and needs. If you find yourself at odds with someone on your team, one of the most powerful things you can do is to ask them what they want, and then share what you need. First, it’s shocking how hard it can be to articulate what it is you want. Second, it’s shocking how quickly that knowledge can clear away what’s superficial and focus the conversation on what matters.

Within your stakeholders, who’s on the A-List? If you could have only five names, who would they be?

I bet that you’re probably underserving your A-List. How could you give them the support and service that they deserve? Who is on the B-List? You are probably over serving these stakeholders. How can you scale back here, so you can direct more time and effort to your A-List?

You will need to review these lists regularly to understand how the A and B-Lists can change and to adjust to those changes.

Accountability What’s the promise we’re making and to whom? Our very first question was, “Who are we helping?” Now ask, “What’s the promise we’re making to them, and how are we doing delivering on that promise?” Where are the soft spots? Where do you need to lift your game? How can I help? Ironically one of the ways we break promises is that we over-deliver. We think we know what’s wanted, so rather than check it out and get clear, we leap in and start doing stuff. Before you rush in, slow down and get clear on how they think you can help them. Ask, “What do you need from me?” PAGE 21

80% Of Projects Fail Because Of ‘People’ Issues … Here Are 6 Things You Can Do to Reduce That Risk I have been coaching a CEO whose company is developing a poor record of delivering products and projects to their customers’ satisfaction. It isn’t critical – yet – but in the current market there are lots of competitors who are cutting prices and making big promises. His unhappy customers have options, and although they like my client as a person, friendship isn’t a compelling reason to do business with him.

My client runs a professional project management company and has the PM processes down to a science, yet they are failing their clients … they are failing at stakeholder management. What happened? They mapped out who were their stakeholders. They considered matrixes of the influence and power each potential stakeholders had. They developed strategies that were customized to each stakeholder. Despite all of that work and analysis … still they fail.

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Simply put, they forgot that following proven project methodology does not deliver success; people do. All of those ‘stakeholders’ are people, and you can’t manage people like little boxes with theoretical communications plans. The people who are your stakeholders all have egos, emotions, career aspirations and family problems. A recent article in The Harvard Business Review reported that people account for 80% of the factors that contribute to a project’s failure. Their analysis indicated that the average project manager had competency in three times as many “technical” topics as “people” topics.

Think about that for a moment: 80% of the causes of project failure rely on the competencies that your project managers are worst at! Here are six things you need to do to changes those odds: 1. Get to know your stakeholders – Develop a comprehensive understanding of who they are, what they care about, what are their stated and unstated drivers, and how they relate to your success. 2.

Engage your stakeholders as early as possible – It is a very natural human response … no one wants to be surprised by any change. Egos get fired up when they are excluded until they are expected to get onboard.

Listen with both ears open – Listen to what the person is saying and watch for those non-verbal clues. Sometimes people are only telling you what they think you want to hear; sometimes they are nodding in agreement, but their language is saying no-way. Stop communicating with your stakeholders – talk to them. Communications are the tools; talk with your stakeholders like human beings first.

Use policies and processes as a carrot and not a stick – Doing something because of rules or history is shortsighted. Work with people to find out what they need out of this project and piggy-back on that to create win-wins

Create communities – Gather people who care that your project succeeds and work to achieve everyone’s success.

STEVE’S COACHING One-On-One Leadership Coaching: Individual coaching is for new or uncertain leaders who need help finding their way forward. You’ve got the passion and the intellect, but feel like you have no power, confidence, or time to deal with people. Even though you see organizational problems, you don’t know how to fix them. Steve’s coaching helps leaders prioritize their work, streamline communications, and gain the confidence they need to become truly motivational leaders

HOW IT WORKS: Standing shoulder to shoulder with you, Steve will use his battle-tested leadership skills to identify the source of any shortcomings and help you to create solutions. It is not an overnight fix, though, and the process takes time to work effectively. This coaching program includes: A. Safety and confidentiality B. Three months of coaching, giving you time to benefit C. Two one-on-one coaching calls per month, keeping you on track D. Six one-hour phone calls to discuss any pressing issues on your mind E. Unlimited email access F. A copy of Steve’s book, You Can’t Lead from Behind G. Your own personal leadership journal

With Steve’s coaching, you’ll learn how to be a more effective leader for those following you, and how to implement strategic efforts that will move your business forward. With Steve by your side at the start, you will see for yourself what works and what doesn’t, and before long you will be leading the way on your own.

StevenArmtrong.ca steve@stevenarmstrong.ca 403-701-3752

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Here are 6 Reasons NOT to Hire Me as Your Executive Coach! It is true that an executive coach will make you work harder and progress much faster than you would you have if you tried to do it all on your own. A coach can give you the tools and perspective to grow your leadership effectiveness, but it doesn’t mean you should hire one. Sometimes hiring a business coach might not be right for you. So, carefully consider the six points I make and determine the commitment you are prepared to make to being coached by Steve!

1. You don’t want to go outside your comfort zone. If you’re the sort of person who is completely happy where they are and have no desire to grow as a boss by stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new.

2. Solving your personal issues. If you have personal Issues that are affecting your relationship with your boss, peers or employees, then you may need a psychologist or counsellor.

3. You need to learn new technical skills. If you need to learn new technical skills, such as web design or accounting, you need to take a suitable skills course.

4. You’re not coachable. Some people can’t cope with being told their way isn’t the best way. If you don’t like to be told you could be doing things differently, then don’t hire a coach.

5. You don’t want to be held accountable. Let’s face it; You are busy. It’s not always easy to deliver on your commitments. And if you’re the sort of person who agrees to things, but doesn’t follow through, then paying for a coach to help keep you accountable is a waste of money.

6. You aren’t sure what you want out of life or your career. If you don’t know what you want out of life or whether you’re on the right career path, then an executive coach is not for you. Hire the right kind of help.

Should you hire an executive coach? If you’ve read this far and realized that you are serious about growing your business or your leadership experience, then consider hiring an executive coach who can help you achieve far bigger results than if you were doing it on your own.

Here are four other tips to help you find the perfect match: 1. Gauge your chemistry. During your initial meeting or phone call, pay attention to the chemistry between you and the coach. Do you like the person’s energy and experience? Ask them about what works and doesn’t work in a coaching relationship to see if that works for you. 2. Find someone with the background you need. You want a coach who has worked with other clients like you. Before meeting with a potential coach, consider the questions you need answered for him or her to help you best. 3. Make sure you understand the coach’s area of expertise. Many coaches have a specialty in helping improve certain skill sets or to support clients during specific situations. Depending on your needs, you may benefit from someone with specific know-how. 4. Ask how the coaching process works. A skilled coach should walk you through their process, so you have a clear idea of what to expect and how it helps reach your goals.

Now What? You now know why you shouldn’t engage me as your executive coach or perhaps you have learned that you are ready for an executive coach and I have shared what you should consider before you hire a coach. How would you like to proceed? PAGE 24

“Always pass on what you have learned.” -

Yoda

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5 Behaviours at the Heart of a Great Team Team dynamics are an important predictor of organizational culture. Teams that work well together perform better (and they are more fun to be a part of). To achieve this advantage, teams must master five specific behaviours. 1. Focusing on Achieving Collective Results Teams can accomplish things that individuals could never do on their own. The ultimate measure of success for any team is the results it produces. 2. Holding One Another Accountable A team can reach its goals only when everyone does his or her job. Therefore, our ability to achieve collective results is reliant not only on our individual efforts but also on the combined efforts of every team member. It naturally follows that it is the responsibility of every member of the team to push every other member of the team to do his or her best. 3. Committing to Decisions There is one simple concept that makes all the difference in the world when it comes to holding another person accountable for something…did the parties commit to the decision in the first place? If we have not established clarity around our shared expectations and gained agreement on our respective roles and responsibilities, then the idea that we would be willing to hold each other accountable is irrational. 4. Engaging in Conflict Around Ideas There is a saying that people must “weigh in to buy in.” If we are going to ask all members of a team to truly commit to a shared vision, then we need to be darn sure we get all the ideas (and emotions) out on the table. And the only way to make sure that all voices are heard is by having the team be collectively willing to engage in healthy and respectful conflict around ideas. 5. Building Trust With One Another Putting your own ideas out there, especially when they go against “bolder” personalities or the whole group, can be difficult. When team members are fearful of attacks or uncertain about how others will respond, there’s a natural tendency to hold back and just stay quiet and not show vulnerability. But there is one key element that enables teams to push past the typical discomfort of associated with conflict: it’s called “trust.” Trust in that your teammates are good, honest and have the best of intentions is an important foundation in building any team. RESULTS! When teams dedicate focused effort on learning to be vulnerable with each other, the result is a domino effect that enables the team to….

Build Trust with One Another, which enables the team to … Engage in Conflict Around Ideas, which enables the team to … Commit to Decisions, which enables the team to … Hold One Another Accountable, which enables the team to … Focus on Collective Results, which enables the team to… ACHIEVE COLLECTIVE RESULTS!

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“Though many may say otherwise, the simple truth is this: nobody is

born a natural leader.”

- Steve Armstrong

StevenArmstrong.ca

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7 Questions to Ask Yourself: 1.

Did I provide the service my stakeholders deserve?

I am coaching a bright and well-respected leader who came to me very upset and quite emotional. She has an excellent reputation for delivering results.

Did I focus on the activities that allowed me to be the most productive and efficient I could be?

She was struggling with her current project. Her boss was starting to press her for deliverables.

Did I reduce or eliminate distractions so I could focus on what gives the best chance of success?

Did I make decisions that delivered the best results for all involved?

Did I act with integrity in my personal and professional relations?

Were my thoughts and actions focused on accomplishing my goals?

Did I not make excuses to let myself off the hook?

She was working longer and longer hours without results. What was going on she asked? “I am a good worker and leader, yet I am failing?” We talked. I asked probing questions to allow her to take the emotion out of the situation and to allow her to shift focus from busy task-orientated work to actions that will move towards success

Are you focusing on moving to success? Fear of failure can often drive our actions. We work long hours, sacrifice personal time and put our heart and soul into what we’re trying to achieve, only to find that we’re spinning our wheels. The fact is, most of us accomplish a list of tasks each day, but have little to show for it. Success depends on you getting things done. If you’re not moving closer to your goal achievement, you are not getting the right things done the right way.

Did you have to answer ‘no’ to any of these questions? Do you know how to change those noes to yeses? Getting a mentor or coach to explore why and how you can improve future actions and achieve the desired results may be what you need to succeed.

Why? Because RESULTS are what matter! PAGE 28

Author, Speaker, & Leadership Expert From the Arctic to the European countryside, from Asia to Africa, Steven Armstrong has seen and done it all as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Red Cross. Now the leader of Paratus Education, he uses the skills he learned while leading complex strategic situations around the world to help others achieve their leadership goals and create long-lasting positive results.

How Steve can Help YOU be Better Though many may say otherwise, the simple truth is this: nobody is born a natural leader. And even though you might be excellent at what you do, that doesn’t mean you can inspire others to do it well too. When stakes are high, you don’t need “business” leadership or empty talks full of platitudes. You need leadership solutions, experience, and a trusted guide who can show you how to make a real difference in people’s lives. Steve’s lessons, gathered from a lifetime of field experience and steadfast personal values, deliver all of that in a down-to-earth way, giving you and your leadership team the skills that will inspire your organization to thrive. PAGE 29

Powerful book with simple steps to success as a leader! 5 out of 5 stars

“Brilliant piece of work! Steven Armstrong does an amazing job in this small but powerful book highlighting the fundamentals to strong leadership. He delivers practical approaches to improving our effectiveness as leaders and demystifies leadership in the process.” Keith J. Johnston - Author of A Garage Full of Ferraris

ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY: CLICK HERE www.StevenArmstrong.ca

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A Personal Message From Steve

Struggling with how best to lead your team? You may be aware that I led the Red Cross response to SARS. We deployed hundreds of volunteers and paid staff into what could have been an extraordinarily fearful situation. Our team responded to the situation with class and style because, as leaders: ▪ We provided expert evidence-based advice and full disclosure of the risks to all our people. ▪ We hosted daily telephone operational briefings where all personnel were encouraged to listen. ▪ As the operations director, I invested my time by being visible and visiting frontline workers as much as possible.

If you lead a team and have any questions or need a friendly ear to bounce ideas off of, give me a call or send me an email

steve@stevenarmstrong.ca 403-701-3752 PAGE 31

Building Better Leaders Today With the world changing, and all the uncertainty we face daily, the one thing we can control is how we lead! StevenArmstrong.ca steve@stevenarmstrong.ca 403-701-3752

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