understand that reasoning, look at what really happens when you do layoffs. Each person laid off gets, on average, about six months’ worth of severance pay and outplacement services. So in essence, it takes six months to start saving money. Recessions usually last 12 to 18 months, after which demand picks up, so it’s pretty common for a company to have to start hiring people about a year or so after its big layoff, undoing the savings it began realizing just six months earlier.7
A winning organization’s leaders are agile by evaluating what they’re doing based on its impact on the business, making data-driven decisions, and making proactive efforts to change when change is warranted.
Instead of restructuring, Cote and his team implemented a series of unpaid furloughs. The organization worked through some heavy challenges during the furlough periods, but in the end the company emerged strong. Employee morale stayed higher than it would’ve under layoffs, and as business began to pick up, the skilled workers were ready to jump back in. Cote’s leadership was strategic because he was able to see beyond the immediate pain of the recession. That, combined with some creative problem solving, put Honeywell ahead of its competitors when the economy was ready to grow again.
Educational assistance for employees
One strategic opportunity for McDonald’s Corporation was the education support program, which had a rather low participation rate. The original design of the program aimed to give employees throughout the organization the opportunity to earn a four-year degree, which seemed to the team who launched it to be a useful benefit. When the team surveyed the audience eligible for the program to find out why they weren’t taking advantage of the opportunity to get a four-year degree, they learned that the audience was still several steps away from that educational level. Many needed to complete a high school diploma or GED, and others felt that a two-year degree was more conducive to their goals. The team realized that the educational program would better serve this audience by offering pathways to a GED and/or two-year degree. Not only did they employ data to make this decision, but they asked the employees and partnered with outside organizations to find out how they had built their education strategies.
Improving workforce education levels also had the benefit of improving retention and strengthening the organizational leadership pipeline. Many employees were moving up through the ranks without a degree but eventually getting to a level where they needed additional knowledge and skills to meet the demands of the business world. Much of that was offered within the company, and the educational program helped to supplement internal training.
To continue winning and to employ the lessons learned from the tuition assistance program, the McDonald’s team decided that they would gather more direct data on the front end to design and deliver the most beneficial program possible.
Leadership’s pet project
A client’s organization was spending millions on a sales training program with little to show for it. Sales numbers remained unchanged. The CEO was friends with the owner of the small training company that provided the sales program and thought it would be a big win for his company. The rest of the team, with no emotional attachment to the vendor, wanted to cut the program, but the CEO continued to fight for it. In these kinds of situations, hard data is so critical to getting your message across. You must be able to show results (or lack thereof) in business numbers. For the sales training program, the group (including the CEO) compromised by letting the sales training run for six more months. If at the end of that period results continued to be unchanged, they all agreed to cut the program. The metrics of success were clear to everyone involved, and they were able to detach from the personal factors involved.
Creating a winning organization requires strong, strategic leadership. Based on our experiences, both in and out of corporate L&D, we’ve developed a leadership model that is a microcosm of the six factors for strategic leadership you’ll read about later in this book, and it will help you begin to think about the way winning organizations operate.
1.Align with a motivating vision that’s grounded in expectations. Defining an inspirational vision is the critical first step in providing your team with the direction and motivation to achieve success. A sound vision provides everyone with a clear line of sight to the strategic win. This vision needs to be grounded in the definition of success for your company and business—based on customer and stakeholder expectations. We’ll talk more about how to identify the company’s strategy and success measures, as well as how to craft your vision, in later chapters. But as you define success, be sure to include what satisfaction looks like for your employees, customers, and shareholders (if applicable). Your vision should be a motivating statement—one that’s tied to stakeholders and is a stretch for the organization. Everyone on the team should be able to relate to it, repeat it, confidently and enthusiastically explain it, and more importantly, live it! In fact, the vision statement should be incorporated into your daily language and interactions with others outside of the organization.
2.Define goals and strategies as a road map to success. Once you’ve crafted a motivating vision, define the key goals and strategies needed to bring your vision to life. These become the roadmap to your destination. Identify the critical actions that must be executed to move you along the right path. Leaders and team members should focus on actions that will have the greatest impact on desired results.
3.Have the right players in the right roles. To have the right players in the right roles, you start by hiring the right people. Staff for success by keeping your standards high and hiring the best. They don’t necessarily have all the technical knowledge or fancy credentials, but the right disposition. Look for people who have the right attitude, willingness to be team members, and a desire to learn. Do they reflect the vision and mission for your organization? Are they the role models you want? Will they relate to the work and stick around to see the results? It’s not only much easier to accomplish your goals when you have strong players, it’s downright impossible to accomplish them with weak players. Don’t waste time and effort trying to improve the people who may be strong performers but don’t have the right attitude or lack the willivngness to learn. No matter how much time you sink into them, you can’t force them to truly care about the job at hand or be a team player. Find the right fit for your team. Recruit, hire, train, and develop team players who have the ability and passion to bring your vision to life.
4.Create the best work environment so everyone thrives; celebrate success! Create an environment that allows people to not only do good work, but to thrive as they’re doing it. Ensure workload is broken down into manageable chunks, and then match tasks and projects to the skills of each individual so they can accomplish their best work. People do their best work when they feel comfortable bringing their whole selves (mind, body, and spirit) to work. Take the time to get to know what motivates your team—what jazzes them. Most people have the sense that they work for a person, not for the company, so stay connected with them as individuals. Recognizing and celebrating successes is a strong motivator to keep team members productive and engaged. If you celebrate what you want to see more of, you’ll get it! Ask yourself: “Would you want to report to or work with you?” What’s good about reporting to you? What could be better?
Ask yourself: “Would you want to report to or work with you?”
5.Plan, Do, Study, Act. Winning leaders have a plan. They execute that plan. They learn what was revealed during the plan’s execution, and then they act to make the informed change. Several later chapters will provide in-depth guidance to help you with strategic planning, execution, decision-making, and continual improvement.
6.Measure functional success and focus on continuous improvement. Item one entailed defining your vision of success. But to know if you’re on track along the way—and if/when you achieve success—you need to measure your progress. Establishing regular check-in routines will give you and the team the opportunity to recognize and celebrate progress, which creates energy to keep going forward or make needed
