1CMO

Growth strategy | Advisory | Force multiplier

Management

Do You Want to Be a Frogman?

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“Everybody wants to be a frogman on a sunny day.” – US Navy SEALs

The US Navy Sea, Air, and Land Forces (SEALs) are arguably the most elite, and revered, fighting force in the world. This saying originated within the SEAL training program, where they take volunteer candidates and run them through an intense multi-phase training program called Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S for short. Only 20-25% of candidates make it through the entire process to become Navy SEALs, or “frogmen”.

Note: I have also heard the alternative phrase, “everybody wants to be a SEAL on a Friday” attributed to the same training program. I’m not sure which one is used today, but in my mind they have the same meaning: becoming a SEAL is much harder, and less glorious, than it looks to an outsider. And no matter how challenging, they are committed to achieving success.

I believe same observation applies to being the leader of an organization.

Leadership is Hard Work

By all accounts, US Navy SEAL training is brutal. Moreover, once they reach the end, newly minted SEAL operators discover the hard work has only begun. Their lives are a constant swirl of training mixed in with life-threatening and uncomfortable field operations in crisis hot spots around the world.

Despite being physically intense and exhausting, the real purpose of SEAL training is not physical fitness, it is to test the willpower and mental stability of the participants. You see, becoming a special forces operator is a high stakes and high stress profession, with danger lurking around every corner. They cannot risk having SEALs who break down at the first sign of trouble or hardship. The SEALs will not tolerate quitters; they want those who are willing to suffer while focused exclusively on achieving their goal with their team.

This is the Navy SEAL mission: “When there’s nowhere else to turn, Navy SEALs achieve the impossible through critical thinking, sheer willpower and absolute dedication to their training, their missions and their fellow Special Operations team members.”

In fact, the Navy SEALs have another saying that sums all of this up perfectly – “the only easy day was yesterday.”

Perseverance in the Face of VUCA

The trainers want to make sure that prospective SEALs are in it for the right reasons and weed out those who are in it just for the prestige or glory. The purpose of the training is to grind it out, to endure, to stay focused on the mission of finishing the training. They are looking for those who can absorb all the awful things thrown at them and still maintain a positive and focused mindset.

This is not too different from leading an organization in times of great uncertainty, like the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment we find ourselves in today.

Leadership is not about basking in the perks or glory of the role, or the title, or your team’s accomplishments. Leadership, is about evaluating risk, making decisions, aligning team resources, and inspiring action to work towards a common goal. It is hard, tiring, sometimes ungratifying work.

Having the ability to coach and lead others to victory, through extreme levels of chaos, is probably the single most valuable skill in this new VUCA world we are all facing. 

Now, more than ever, people are looking for strong leaders to help guide them through this crisis.

Leadership is Voluntary

Every SEAL trainee volunteers to be there, and every single one of them can volunteer to leave at any time during the training – you may have read about the mythical “bell” in the center of their training complex where a defeated trainee can “ring out” signaling their intent to quit the program immediately.

As the leader of an organization you volunteered to do the job, and every day you volunteer to keep doing it. If you get tired of it, you can always revert to being a follower.

If you choose leadership, it is a commitment you make to yourself, your team, and your organization to affect change and achieve the long-term goals of the organization. You must constantly motivate and inspire your team in their pursuit of success.

Becoming a leader is a journey, not a destination. It is by slogging through the hard times that you come to appreciate the good times, and become a better leader in the process.

Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way!

When the seas are smooth, the sun is shining, and there is a steady breeze it is relatively easy to steer the ship. However, what happens when all hell breaks loose and you cannot see a clear path to victory?

This is when some leaders shut down and become paralyzed by fear, uncertainty, and doubt…they make rash, shortsighted, or illogical decisions, or even worse, no decision at all.

This is also when true leaders emerge and find ways to win, no matter how difficult the circumstances, or uncertain the path forward. 

Everyone wants to be a hero until you have to step up and do heroic things! True leaders have the critical mindset of being able to move beyond fear, to confront whatever VUCA situation they are handed, and make sure their organization and team not only survives but thrives. 

It is not easy, but this is what the best leaders do.

Everybody wants to be a frogman on a sunny day, but real leaders also step up when it is dark, wet, scary, and the path is not clear.

-Onward

The Emperor Has No Clothes

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“The strength of any organization is a direct result of the strength of its leaders. Weak leaders equal weak organizations. Strong leaders equal strong organizations. Everything rises and falls on leadership.” – John Maxwell

We are living in a strange and challenging era. As the global pandemic continues to have a profound economic and social impact, two things have become very clear – this level of VUCA disruption is not going away, and the need for strong leaders has never been greater.

The virus in some way has affected each of us – Hundreds of thousands have lost their lives; tens of millions have lost the jobs; billions have been inconvenienced or stressed.

Against this catastrophic backdrop, there is no question this has also been a challenging period for leaders of organizations of all types: government agencies, public and private companies, and non-profits.

Times of crisis are an inflection point, providing an opportunity for true leaders to reveal themselves. Many have stepped up and demonstrated their true leadership attributes, while others have stumbled.

Crises can also reveal weaknesses in organizational alignment or teams that are often hidden, or conveniently ignored, when times are good. It is exactly at times like this that we can witness real leaders, showing their true characters and capabilities.

There isn’t an established playbook for leaders to follow in this type of disruptive and chaotic environment, but there are some timeless leadership principles that still work. In this article, I’ll share a few observations and some guidance for leaders as we slowly begin to re-start the economy.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

I was thinking the other day about some of the business leadership failures I have either witnessed, or heard about from my network, in the past few months. For some reason this topic reminded me of one of my favorite childhood stories, The Emperor’s New Clothes, by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Even though this folktale is almost 200 years old, it still has relevance.

CAVEAT: Although the parallels to some of our current political leaders are obvious, and it would be far too easy to pick on them, this article has absolutely no political aspirations or intent. My focus is purely on the world of business.

In case you have not read the story, or it has been a long time since you last heard it, here is a quick summary:

A vain emperor, who cares only about his status and appearance, and has a penchant for wearing fancy clothes, gets enchanted by two scheming weavers who promise to make him a new set of clothes unlike anything else in the kingdom. They bluff him with promises of an outfit made of fine and rare fabric that has the special power of being invisible to anyone who is unfit for their position, stupid, or incompetent. This proves to be too big a temptation for the emperor, who engages them immediately. In reality, the weavers only pretend to make the clothes. As a result, no one, not even the emperor nor his royal court can see the alleged “clothes” when they are finished, but they all play along lest they appear unfit for their positions. And the public has the same reaction when the emperor parades with his new clothes, lest they appear stupid or incompetent. Finally, a child, completely ignorant of the ruse, cries out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”

As a child, I found this tale, in its profound absurdity, to be very amusing. As an adult, I am coming to appreciate some of the applications to the modern business world.

Over the years, literary scholars have noted that the phrase, “Emperor’s new clothes”, has become a standard metaphor for anything that smacks of pretentiousness, pomposity, social hypocrisy, collective denial, or hollow ostentatiousness. Others have suggested that the real moral of the story is in having the courage of one’s convictions – to speak the truth and challenge authority, no matter what the repercussions or humiliation to the recipient.

All pretty relevant to effective leadership and today’s disrupted business environment.

Some Recent Examples

This got me to thinking about some of the lapses I have seen in the world of work over the past few months:

  • Companies with predominantly white male executive teams and boards, claiming they care about diversity and inclusion…
  • Organizations undertaking massive RIFs while simultaneously recruiting for “exciting career growth” job opportunities…
  • Public companies securing huge CARES relief loans at the expense of small ones who didn’t have the resources to apply quickly…
  • Leaders who claim they “lead from the front” yet have never visited their teams, or major clients, out in the field…
  • Tone deaf celebrities and business leaders sharing pictures of their swanky shelter-in-place digs (from mountain retreats to yachts)…
  • Companies who claim to be high-touch and people-centric in their recruiting firing people by email or group conference call…
  • Companies that have been hell-bent on growth and retail outlet expansion to gain market share, now demanding rent relief from property owners…

I’m sure you’ve probably seen a few notable examples as well.

Takeaways for Today’s Business Leaders

Of course, not all of the bad behavior examples above are attributable to vain or out-of-touch leaders, but I think many are. A few of them have garnered media scrutiny and negative publicity. Deservedly so.

Being the leader of an organization is a privilege. One that comes with responsibility.

It is appropriate to hold leaders accountable for what happens within their organizations. Depending on the example, individual leaders may not have done anything egregious, but they do craft organizational strategy, they do own the culture, they do set the tone, they should care about the well-being of their people, and by default every good leader should take full accountability for the actions of anyone in the organization.

In this new VUCA world, this time of turmoil and stress, it is time for leaders to step up.

Do the right thing.

Be a leader.

In that spirit, here are a few takeaways for today’s business leaders, which I think are also good values for any organization to embrace:

  • Display empathy. Run every decision and communication you make in regards to your workforce past this filter: In the past 3 months, nearly 40 million Americans have lost their jobs. Over 100,000 have lost their lives. Unemployment is now at historic highs. Is your decision empathic to those affected already, or those who are worried they may soon be?
  • Practice humility. It is not a time for grandstanding or braggadocio, it is a time to get busy, and do the hard work. The concept of servant leadership has great application here. Leaders should serve those on the front lines who are doing the work of the organization. Helping to solve problems and remove obstacles. Be a visible leader, but don’t take the credit for it.
  • Be honest. Nobody expects leaders to have all the answers. However, lies and deception always catch up to the owner. If leaders do not have the answers, then they should promise to work through it and find solutions. People don’t always expect you to have to have the final and definitive answers, they just want to know that leaders care and are working towards a solution.
  • Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. In fact, you cannot over-communicate to your organization in an environment like this. Practicing the above traits (empathy, humility, honesty) while providing frequent and transparent updates to your team. They will appreciate it, and you.
  • Lead by example. Great leaders lead from the front, and they walk the talk. If leaders are going to open a plant or office back up, they had better be the one opening the door and greeting each worker who enters. It would not hurt to be the one serving them coffee or lunch too!
  • Be human. I left this for last because I think it is the most important. Remember, business is all about people. Focus on them. Act with integrity. If all else fails, follow the golden rule: do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Be human.

Conclusion

Organizations and their leaders show their true colors in the difficult times. In this new and unpredictable VUCA business environment, I hope more leaders step up and lead.

The world needs it. Now more than ever.

-Onward

What is Your Envisioned Future?

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“If you don’t know exactly where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?” – Steve Maraboli

In today’s disruptive VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) business environment it is critically important for organizations, teams, and individual contributors to have clarity on their vision of the future and what their long-term goals are.

This clear direction becomes a guiding beacon for building an effective VUCA strategic plan, one that clarifies your strategic intent and enables your organization to quickly make decisions and then take action in order to get there.

The Foundation for VUCA Strategic Planning

There are two foundational elements required effective VUCA strategic planning: Your core ideology and clarity around your envisioned future. Your long-term goals should be based on, and in alignment with, your mission, values, and purpose. Together these become the core ideology for your organization.

  • Core Ideology – defining the mission, values, and purpose of the organization. As a previous article explained, these elements describe why the organization exists and what it stands for. With this foundational framework you will have greater clarity when making critical business decisions that impact the future of your organization.

However, before any strategic VUCA planning can begin we must also have clarity around the envisioned future state of the organization:

  • Envisioned Future – defining a clear vision for what the organization aspires to become or achieve, and your long-term goals. These elements explain the desired future state of the organization, and the long-term goals you and your team are working towards achieving in order to get there.

Defining Your Envisioned Future: Vision and Goals

Articulating the envisioned future of your organization has two main components: a vision statement, and long-term goals:

  • Vision – Your vision statement defines what the organization aspires to become or achieve. Based on the current status of your organization, an effective vision will articulate where you want to take your organization in the future. Because of this future focus, your vision statement often sounds much different from what the organization is today (mission statement).

A specific and compelling vision statement can and should help drive decisions and goal setting. This description of what the desired future state looks can be extremely powerful for strategic planning because it provides inspiration and direction, and a focal point for the mission statement and an overall goal or destination for the organization. A clear vision will also help to identify and define potential strategies; and clarify what is within or outside of the organization’s limits.

  • Goals – The goals for your organization are brief, clear statements of significant outcomes to be accomplished within a longer timeframe, typically 3-5 years. A goal is defined with a broad, general, tangible, and descriptive statement – It does not say how to do something, but rather what the singular end-result will look like.

Goals are sometimes described as outcome statements that define what an organization is trying to accomplish both programmatically and organizationally. Some common examples of business goals are, grow profitability, maximize net income, improve customer loyalty, increase market share, etc. Note the brevity of these statements.

Goals are critical to your company’s success. Ultimately, your organization’s goals need to align with your vision, and support your mission, values and purpose. Together this planning foundation will propel each team member’s individual actions and decisions.

Goals Versus Objectives – What’s the Difference?

Business consultants love to develop complex models and invent proprietary terminology for each element of their frameworks. Strategic planning practitioners are no different. This often creates unnecessary confusion.

My bias is to keep things simple, defaulting to the most commonly used terms and definitions, and in the process hopefully making it easier to understand and adopt the VUCA strategic planning framework I’m proposing.

It has been my experience that most organizations, both large and small, public or private, do not understand the difference between a goal and an objective. As a result, they do not effectively communicate them to their teams. This has obvious negative ramifications when you think about the lost opportunity to cascade goals and objectives, and gain buy in, throughout an organization.

Here’s an explanation of the difference between goals and objectives to make sure there is no confusion or ambiguity when it comes to your long-term and short-term plans.

  • A goal is a broad and long-term desired result you want to achieve. You might use company goals to inform yearly strategies and guide the direction of all your efforts.
  • An objective, on the other hand, defines the specific, measurable actions individual employees or teams must take to achieve the overall goal. It is at the objective level that the ownership of the strategic plan shifts from organizational leaders to teams and individuals. This is where the actual work gets done!
  • A goal is where you want to be, and objectives are the steps taken to reach the goal.

Timeframe-based View of Vision, Goals, Objectives

In strategic planning, all the elements need to fit together, and build from one to the next. In other words, your vision statement should inform your goals, which should then inform your objectives. To eliminate any lingering confusion about the differences between vision, goals, and objectives, here’s another way to look at it. Since all strategic plans are time-based, that becomes the key differentiator between these sometimes contradictory and synonymous terms.

  • Vision – this is an aspirational statement that is not time-bounded. In fact, your vision may never actually be attained, but rather serves as an imagined picture of the future.
  • Goals – these are broader and longer-term, typically 2-5 years in timeframe. Your strategic VUCA plan will undoubtedly have several goals.
  • Objectives – the short-term, tactical action items to be accomplished within the next 12-24 months max. Each of your goals will have multiple objectives behind them, and they become a key component of the organization’s VUCA plan. Much more on that topic in future articles!

Next Step Towards Creating a VUCA Plan

In summary, your mission statement focuses on the present, and clarifies what the organization does and for whom. Your values define the core beliefs and provide moral guidance for the organization, becoming the operating system that determines how you get there. While your purpose defines “your why” to provide market-facing clarity on the value you deliver to your constituents.

Defining this core ideology for your organization creates a solid foundation and starting place for overall strategic planning to begin. It comes to life when you combine it with your envisioned future, to articulate a vision for what the organization aspires to become or achieve, and then defining your long-term goals in order to get there.

Organizations achieve their goals by creating strategic plans, within which they define the strategy, and key objectives the team must accomplish. Many organizations struggle with setting up actionable objectives. Next time I’ll share a methodology that I have successfully used for years – the SMARTER framework for setting objectives that get done.

-Onward

Hope is Not a Strategy

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“Hope is not a strategy.” – Vince Lombardi

I was speaking with a company leader earlier this week about the scale of disruption she was seeing in the industry, and the significant impact it was having on her organization’s financials. She then stated, “I just hope we get back to normal soon.”

I took a deep breath and, as delicately as possible, shared my view that this was not going to happen.

Why? The dramatic shock we have experienced in the global economy is already causing widespread changes in almost all aspects of the business world, both on the buy-side and sell-side. For both B2C and B2B businesses across almost every industry.

Nobody is immune. And things are simply not going to revert back to where they were.

I then observed that hope is never an effective strategy for solving problems. In this unpredictable and chaotic new VUCA business environment, we need to think strategically and take decisive action to overcome the challenges we are facing.

We ended up having a great conversation about all the changes that will likely happen in the broader world of work, and a few in particular that are very likely to impact her industry and organization directly.

It is super interesting to note that several of the trends we discussed have already been creeping into her market over the last 12-18 months, but have not gained much traction yet. I suspect the post-pandemic business environment will accelerate these changes…it will be like pouring gasoline over a lit matchstick.

BOOM!

By the end of our conversation we had uncovered and brainstormed a few great ideas for new solutions that her company is both well positioned to offer, and highly capable to execute on.

The shift in energy was dramatic. In just a few minutes, the conversation had morphed from downtrodden “hope” about something that was, if we are being honest, completely out of her control to tangible excitement about actions she had her team could take, all within her control.

As it turns out, the new normal (whatever that turns out to be) actually brings with it many new opportunities if you are paying attention and start looking for them!

Bottom line: It is okay to be hopeful and optimistic about the future, but we must also act today.

Sitting and waiting, hoping we get back to normal, is not how you succeed. Hope does not make or produce anything. Believing in something, setting goals, creating flexible VUCA plans, and taking focused action, is the only proven path forward.

-Onward

VUCA’s Impact on Strategic Planning

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“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson

The global pace of change was accelerating long before the current pandemic crisis hit us like an out of control freight train. For quite some time it has been clear that the new normal is now a confusing environment best described as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA for short).

Both today, and into the foreseeable future, VUCA appears to be the only thing we can count on as business leaders and growth strategists. It will force us to reconsider many aspects of the world of work  and, more importantly, how we develop strategy within it.

While VUCA may not have killed traditional strategic planning, it has definitely exposed some shortcomings…

The Pain of Today’s VUCA Environment

I was talking to a CEO last week about the impact COVID-19 was having on his 2020 business plan achievement. Up until the end of February his team had been very confident they would crush their growth targets for the year, and he was making investment plans to match. The economic and social tsunami of the pandemic has now completely decimated his business (topline revenue down more than 70%) and unfortunately, his confidence in planning for the future has been destroyed as well.

In a nod to Mike Tyson’s quote above, this certainly qualifies as bombshell punch to the mouth. The real question is whether my friend will absorb it, pivot his company’s plan and keep fighting, retreat to a corner, or be forced to throw in the towel. I think this question will apply to many business leaders and organizations in the upcoming months.

Another example comes from Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, who was recently quoted: “We had a plan, and all of a sudden the entire plan was not relevant anymore. The world changed.” In the interview he was talking about how they are taking bold and decisive actions in the face of coronavirus – with the objective of helping to weather the storm while also preparing for an inevitable new era of travel in the future. His leadership focus is to bring Airbnb back to its roots as a scrappy, resilient startup that can quickly adapt and evolve with changing market conditions.

As a recent HBR article highlights, there is a risk in weak and indecisive leadership in VUCA environments: “Strategic uncertainty can feel like slogging through mud. Leaders avoid investments. Decisions are deferred. Resources are frozen. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt drive bad behavior and personal agendas. Even so, companies often succeed or fail based on their managers’ ability to move the organization forward precisely at times when the path ahead is hazy.”

The Value of Having a Plan

In the world of startups and strategic planning, it has long been accepted gospel that no business plan survives first contact with the market (a huge shout out to Steve Blank for that timeless pearl of wisdom!). However, that doesn’t mean there is no value in having a plan.

Quite the opposite is true. There is enormous value in creating a strategic plan.

In fact, I would suggest that any organization aspiring to grow and thrive must have a plan.

Why? The act of strategic planning requires business stakeholders to think about why the organization exists, and how they will get from wherever they are today to where they want to be in the future. This level of thought forces them to quantify human and financial capital requirements, and more importantly evaluate the tradeoffs that investment decisions often require since both people and money are limited resources.

Without a strategic plan, an organization is like a rudderless ship, in stormy seas, on a journey to some unknown destination. Not a good place to be, and it guarantees a very low probability of success.

The Shortcomings of Traditional Strategic Planning

The challenge with traditional strategic planning is that markets, economies, and global climates are not static. They are dynamic – always in motion. The path to growth is almost never linear…it can have many twists, turns, detours, and dead-ends…and that complexity is at the core of why traditional strategic planning often fails. It fails to think through the complexities that a VUCA environment introduces.

The reality is we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, or how quickly it will unfold. However, what we do know, as a good friend once told me, is that “something will happen!”

Today, your business needs to be prepared to respond quickly to disruptive new threats, often from completely unanticipated directions. Therefore, your strategy needs to be agile and robust. It requires enough breadth and flexibility to accommodate known challenges plus whatever is lurking around the corner. Traditional frameworks like SWOT, PEST or Porter’s Five Forces have some utility but are also limited because they are relatively static models of history or a snapshot of the current state. While they do bring historical events, current trends, known competitors, and trending developments into the planning picture, that is simply not enough.

The risk is that you optimize the current business model, instead of challenging the status quo and evolving. Ultimately, you risk spending scarce resources to strengthen your current business advantages only to discover that the market has changed and no longer values what you offer. You wake up one day to discover the rules have changed, you’ve been left behind and more nimble competitors have stolen your market share.

Moving Forward

The essence of great strategy is making decisions. Deciding where the organization should go and what to do, and by default where not to go and what not to do.

The essence of great leadership is the ability to quickly make decisions between competing choices with less than perfect information, and then taking action.

This is where the value of a VUCA plan comes in to play.

As business leaders, it is very easy for us to spend much of our time worrying about a future that is unknown and largely unpredictable. It is also impossible to anticipate every possible disruptive change. The risk in being caught between these two forces is that we freeze in our tracks and therefore fail to make any meaningful progress.

A better approach is to be agile, to create flexible strategic plans that incorporate our most up-to-date data points and insights, but also leave latitude for the unknown. This frees us up to focus primarily on those things you can control and do right now! By addressing your fixable risks today, and building as much flexibility into your plans as possible, you will be in the best position to thrive in the future. No matter what it brings!

In the next article, I will introduce the concept of a VUCA plan, and why you need one.

-Onward