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360 Degree Feedback: A Process That Works Different organizations will have a different approach to making 360-degree feedback work inside their organizations. However, there are a few critical steps that significantly contribute to overall success: Step 1: Understand what’s important about your leaders’ performance as leaders. Step 2: Build the survey. The questions you ask must reflect what’s critical about the leaders’ performance as leaders. Step 3: Figure out who you want to collect feedback for. In some cases, it maybe appropriate to start at the top and cascade the survey process down through the organization over a series of iterations. In other organizations, it may be better to involve all leaders right from the beginning. (We don’t think it’s ever a good idea to start at lower levels of the organization and work it up or to ignore the higher levels of the organization completely.) Step 4: Figure out who you want to collect feedback from. Direct reports must obviously be included. In many cases, you’ll want to collect feedback from the participants’ peers and manager. (Though you want to keep the responses separate.) Some organizations have also found it valuable to include feedback form those outside the company – customers, suppliers or key business partners. Step 5: Decide who gets to see the data and in what sequence. The person receiving the feedback obviously needs to be the first person to see his/her data.We strongly believe the people providing the feedback should see the data.Ultimately, we think the leader should also share the feedback with his/her manager. (However, some organizations find it effective to not share the data with the leader’s manager during the first time through the process.)- 2 -lead. learn. change. thrive. Step 6: Actively manage the process after the feedback is collected. The best practices we’ve observed include: The leader reviews his/her feedback and identifies strengths and weaknesses. The leader shares his/her feedback with the people who provided the data(the direct reports are the most important group). During this meeting, the leader can collect more feedback (“Are there any other issues I should be sensitive to?”), work with the group to agree on priorities and map out a plan for improvement. The leader meets with his/her manager to review the data, review the outcomes of the meeting with the survey respondents, make appropriate changes to the plan and agree on any developmental help the leader needs. Step 7: Conduct mid-course correction meetings. About halfway through the 360-degree feedback cycle is a great time for the leader to follow-up with the group.The primary outcomes from the process should be: Getting feedback about whether the leader has lived up to the initial action plans. Identifying any new developmental opportunities.\ Understanding if anything has changed about the priorities. Step 8: Repeat the whole process. To create the best opportunity for success,the survey needs to stay as consistent as possible over several iterations. However, some of the leadership issues facing the organization will undoubtedly change over time. So, the survey process must allow for some level of flexibility while maintaining consistency Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it.

Keeper of the Values One afternoon, my two young children were out in the front yard, playing a game of pickup soccer with a couple of neighbourhood kids. Within a few minutes, it became clear that the game wasn’t going well. From inside the garage, I could hear them arguing about the rules and debating the score. This group of kids was not playing from the same rulebook. It wasn’t long before the others took their literal ball and went home. This sort of scenario doesn’t just occur on the playground. As adults, we have these moments, too, although they might play out a bit more subtly (although not always). And if they are happening in your organization, it’s probably a sign that your company values aren’t clear or that there’s a misalignment between the stated values and what’s actually happening at work. Why Values Matter Values are a set of guiding principles that tell people how to behave. Your organization’s values are critical to unleashing the passion and capabilities of your people because they provide clear, consistent signposts not just for what is acceptable but what the organization aspires to achieve. As a leader, one of your most important roles is to be a steward of these values. Setting the right example is paramount: when the team looks up at you, what do they see? What do you tolerate and embody? How do you behave, especially in times of stress? How are you living them? Cultivating Culture Lived values are the DNA of your company’s culture. They set the foundation for so much of what enables outstanding leadership, including the ability to: Attract, retain and grow top talent. Enable the freedom to make decisions, take actions and fully engage everyone to contribute their best. Create an environment where people feel they belong, are valued for their differences and can be their true selves. Openly communicate, to be able to share our perspectives and truths and have others be shaped and influenced by it. Think of culture as your values in action. Now, it’s important to note that values tend to be ideals while life and business are often anything but. But that gap between the ideal and the real is normal. Your role is to make it as small as possible. The Value of Values I know for some leaders, “culture” and “values” might sound soft or fuzzy, something you have to articulate every few years in a strategic planning session, along with your mission and vision, and then promptly move on. This is a mistake. Values are directly linked to results—values equal performance. Well-articulated and consistently interpreted and followed values are the difference between great and merely OK, or even disastrous, performance. That’s because clear, consistent values breed engagement, a psychological and emotional commitment to the organization and its goals. To engage team members your organization must have a cause worthy of devotion. People want to contribute to something bigger than themselves. Put another way: if your strategy is what you want to accomplish, think of your values as how you’ll get there. The what and the how are a potent combination that creates a virtuous cycle. That’s because people who feel like their contribution counts perform better. The organization performs better. And then people feel that their contribution counts. The cycle then repeats itself. When leaders fail to embody and protect their company’s values, the results can range from disappointing to downright disastrous. The Big Lie When values and leadership behaviour are out of step, it doesn’t just damage morale: it jeopardizes performance. It’s the company that says it values respect but allows the hot-headed manager to yell at junior staffers with impunity. It’s the business that claims to value work-life harmony, but team members are constantly getting emails and requests after-hours. It’s the organization that states it values diversity but has a predominantly white, primarily male leadership team. This misalignment is fertile ground for all sorts of harmful elements that can sour your culture. It creates distrust. It sows the seeds of apathy: why bother trying to do my best or do the right thing if bad behaviour is tolerated or even rewarded? It can create a sense of fear, where team members are paralyzed by indecision or afraid of making a misstep because it’s not clear what the right choice might be. This profound disconnection is success kryptonite. Connection is at the heart of values. Strategy + Values Truly engaging people is a high bar. In most organizations, only 15-20 percent of employees report they are fully engaged. Yet, great leaders find a way to connect with people and engage them in the work and close the gap. You can have all the management tools in the world, but without being able to connect with and motivate people to act on strong, shared values, you’ll never lead them to contribute their best every day. I’d love to hear your stories how the values and culture in your organization enable success, or get in the way. Share yours in the comments. And email me directly if you think this approach might be a fit. Want more stories from the leadership and strategy trenches? Sign up here for WhiteWater’s free bimonthly newsletter. http://www.wwici.com

Several years ago, I witnessed a group of kids playing soccer in the street. They started right into the game without discussing where the goals were or the sidelines were (the curb? The first line of bushes? The busted down car in the street?). The game started with a lot of enthusiasm. Within a few minutes, one of the kids kicked the ball very far down the street and started screaming, “Goooooaaaaaaallllllllll!” His teammates were very happy. The kids on the other team started screaming that he hadn’t kicked the ball in exactly the right spot for a goal. Everyone was frustrated. But, they resolved the issue and resumed play. Within a few minutes a kid kicked the ball up into a yard. The kids on the other team said that the ball was out-of-bounds. The kids on the first team said it was still in-bounds and kept trying to play. Again, an argument ensued. This one lasted a little longer than the first argument. Toward the end, several kids wandered off in different directions saying they had better ways to spend their time. What had started out as a highly motivated, high energy group of kids wanting to play soccer outside on a gorgeous day quickly transformed into a case study in dejection and demotivation. The kids all found things to devote their attention to that were personally more motivating than the soccer game. Without any agreement about goals, sidelines or other rules, the game was just too frustrating to play. Leading your team, or a whole organization, is much the same. It is a game. People are more motivated and more able to deliver their best performance when they know how to win and what the rules of the game are. And, if those boundaries are not clear, playing the game is frustrating and demotivating. Think about the last time you started playing or watching a game for the first time whether it was Texas Hold ‘em Poker or soccer. Like most players, you almost certainly wanted to know two things: How do I win? What are the rules? What plays are in bounds; what plays are out of bounds? Inside the organization, one of your most critical roles as a leader is to define the playing field. Whether you’re the CEO or a first level supervisor on the shop floor, the people on your team have exactly the same questions…How do I win? What are the rules? The first question, “How do I win?” is answered by the goals and objectives you set for the organization, departments, teams or individual performers. People want, and need, to know what contribution they must make to be successful and to contribute to the organization’s success. This is the performance-driven aspect of “Performance-driven, Values-based Leadership(tm)” philosophy that WhiteWater Consulting Group is based on. Performance is the goal line. What must the organization accomplish for it to be successful? How do these objectives cascade down to the performance goals and targets of teams and individuals. People want to know how they win, personally, and how they contribute to their company’s or their department’s or their team’s success. These are the results that come from work. What are the rules? Values-based defines the second part of the game. The organization’s values represent the widest parameters within which people can take action. Clearly defining these parameters is critical because: Values provide the autonomy to act. In a “values-based” environment people know they can take whatever action is necessary to achieve the objectives (i.e., win the game) as long as they behave inside the boundaries defined by the values. Values define WHO can be on the team. If teamwork is critical to your organization’s success, then you need people who can work and play well with others, even if they aren’t the best individual contributors. If individual contribution is critical, then you might hire the absolute best individual performers, even if they act like rabid piranhas when working with others. As a leader, some questions to ponder: How well is the playing field in your part of the organization defined? To what extent does everyone in your work group know what their individual goals are? How well do those individual goals align with the organization’s, department’s and work team’s goals and objectives? What are your organization’s values? How consistently do people behave inside those values? What happens when people behave outside the values? Leave a comment about how you think values add to your Game. What have you seen as a benefit for your team when values are established and enforced?  What are the consequences when the boundaries aren’t clear, or the aren’t consistently enforced? Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it.

Leaders are responsible for generating results, or Outcomes, as illustrated in the Thinking-Action-Outcomes™ model below.  Those results are determined by the Actions that leaders take.  Hence, most leaders and management development courses focus their attention on technique and actions – more effective ways to set goals, feedback and coaching tactics, how to inspire people or how to hold difficult conversations. Possessing those skills are necessary, but absolutely not sufficient for developing great leaders.  Great leadership requires that leaders challenge their own thinking and mental models – the assumptions, beliefs, values and perceptions that drive decision-making and action in the first place. Simply, we can teach effective listen skills all day long, but if the leader doesn’t give a damn about the person they are listening to, then the leader won’t hear a word…and the other person will know it.  On the other hand, if the leader truly cares about the other person and their point-of-view, then s/he will get the message almost in spite of how flawed his/her listening skills might be. Real leaders are able to examine their decisions and actions to truly understand why they act the way they do, and understand how their own mental models have more influence over the outcomes than the specific actions they took or decisions they made.  Only then, can they fully engage people in the organization and achieve the highest level of results. Combining those 5 elements with effective management practices – like goal-setting, coaching, etc. – result in real leadership that engages the organization and gets the herd moving roughly West. The Duke would be proud! Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it. Challenging Mental Models.

Leading is Delegating Leading, by definition, is not a solo activity. So why do so many leaders try to go it alone, hoarding their team’s roles and responsibilities and struggling to delegate? In more than 30 years of corporate consulting and executive coaching, I’ve discovered a few common causes. One of the most frequent? The mistaken idea that delegating is lazy. A few years ago, our team was hired by a mid-sized manufacturing company with poor productivity and demoralized staff to help identify the production snags, retain talent, and generally turn things around. We didn’t have to look far for signs of trouble. When I spoke with one of the managers on the floor about how he delegates to his team, his words surprised me. “Delegation? I’m not a fan,” he said. “It’s just getting other people to do my job.” I was taken aback by such a fundamental misunderstanding of his role. But it explained a lot of the challenges I’d seen in the organization. No wonder they were getting stuck. And no surprise, there was rampant discontent and high turnover: no one could do their work. They were micromanaged and felt undermined every day on the job. A variation of that conversation has been repeated many times in my career. And my reply is inevitably the same: there’s a big difference between knowing what’s happening on your team and being directly involved in every decision, meeting, and move. The former is empowering. You know what’s happening, what’s essential, and can make high-level strategic decisions based on that. The latter is a straight path to burnout for the leader and inefficiency and frustration for your team. To be an effective force multiplier, you have to be willing to give up control of how things get done while retaining control of what gets done…keeping the focus on the key priorities and objectives of your team or group. To maximize your impact, let go. Your job as a leader is to be a force-multiplier, to help your team accomplish together what you can’t do alone. If you keep it all for yourself, you're going to hinder results and crush morale. So why do so many leaders still hold the reins so tight? For a variety of reasons. Fear of losing control Let’s start with control issues. Many leaders have a hard time delegating because they know they can do a task better and quicker than their subordinates. They just can’t seem to let it go. This tendency among leaders to want to do it all has an obvious source: most organizations promote the best doers, not necessarily the people with the greatest latent leadership abilities. There’s a pervasive “magic door theory” that somehow, at promotion, they’ll instantly transform into leaders, like Clark Kent emerging from the phone booth as Superman. And most organizations don’t help their leaders build their leadership capabilities, which are different from job functions or management skills (more on that below). It’s more comfortable Sometimes, doing the old job is just more comfortable. We’ve seen this at every level of organizations: leaders are more comfortable working one or even two levels down in the organization than at their level. They know how to do the old job. At some point, it had probably become easy. The new job is different, uncomfortable, probably more ambiguous and abstract than their former role. It’s easy and comfortable doing the old work. Early in my career at Pacific Gas and Electric, a senior director (let’s call him Tom) of a high-level engineering team was the ultimate work hog. His direct reports had little to do besides take legendarily long coffee breaks. Meanwhile, he was buried in his corner office under stacks of manila folders, shouldering a teams’ worth of work. Tom wasn’t only making himself overwhelmed and inefficient–he was depriving his team of the opportunity to develop by not delegating to them. It feeds the ego Along with control issues, some leaders take on all the things because it fuels their sense of self-worth and makes them feel essential. The simplest executive coaching client I ever had, a senior director of a team of 400, had this problem. We weren’t two minutes into our first session when his email pinged, and he immediately spun around to respond before continuing our conversation. This pattern repeated multiple times in the hour that followed. Throughout these ongoing interruptions, he shared the story of his life, which was in a disastrous state. He was on the verge of divorce and had no real relationship with his two teenage kids. He arrived at the office at 5 am, left at 6 pm, and worked at home until 10 when he’d collapse into bed. His sense of purpose relied upon being always-on, ready to respond. Not only was this destroying his personal life, but he was spread unsustainably thin at work. The fix was simple. We put him on an email diet–just 30 minutes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And, we agreed he wouldn’t work from home and on weekends. He was anxious, but he did it. And it didn’t take long for things at work and at home to improve dramatically. His team was there to step in and step up. They just needed a chance. Fear of failure In most cases, we know that we can do the work better, faster, and with fewer opportunities for mistakes than our team members. So, we fear delegating because their results won’t be as good as ours. Yet, in doing so, we take away their opportunity to learn and grow new capabilities…they never develop the skills they need because we never let them stumble, fumble, bumble, and learn. As a great leader/friend of ours said, “Why should I deprive my team of the development opportunity by doing their work for them?” Up and out, not down and in. There are, of course, practical reasons that make delegation necessary. One person can only do so much. Try to do it all, and you’ll be the proverbial headless chicken, rushing from one task to the next. But there’s a higher reason, too. As a leader, your most valuable resources are your brain and your time. To be most effective, you have to make the best use of both. That’s your real job. And you can’t do it if you’re interjecting into every aspect of the operation. To engage your team, you need to be a performance motivator, coach, and change agent–not a busy-body task hog. Instead of working down into the business, you need to have your head up, looking ahead. Leading. Here at Whitewater, we believe true leaders are learners who challenge their thinking and habits, teachers who educate your team through your actions and statements, and stewards of the values that guide your organization. You show by your words and deeds which behaviors are in-bounds–and which are out. Becoming a leader–learner, teacher, steward–is an ongoing journey that benefits leaders AND your teams and organizations. The bosses I mentioned above were missing a foundational element in the recipe for success: the ability to engage others in the journey–and the courage to let them contribute to something no one could do alone. Leading is Delegating.

360 Feedback Process The idea that “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions” applies as much to leadership performance and growth as it does to improving cash flow, reducing receivables, increasing the sales close rate or decreasing service delivery cycle times. If we truly want to improve leadership performance, we must assess it and provide feedback about it in the same way we measure the more objective aspects of organizational performance.  Unfortunately, most organizations don’t measure leadership performance and, hence, rarely provide the quality feedback leaders need to grow and excel. In fact, leaders may get the worst feedback about their performance as leaders of any people inside organizations.  Why?  The people in the best position to provide feedback about the leader’s performance as a leader are the people being led.  Unfortunately, that creates a couple substantial barriers to providing leaders feedback: Most companies never ask them for their feedback and thoughts. They have a built in bias against providing frank, open, honest feedback – they don’t want to risk upsetting their bosses who control vital aspects of their work lives such as compensation, access to career opportunities and goal assignments.  Even if they have a great relationship, most people would prefer to not rock the boat.  If the relationship is negative to begin with…fuhgetaboutit!  For the sake of career preservation, few employees will provide even mild criticism to help their leaders improve. This creates an interesting dilemma for many organizations: Everyone believes outstanding leadership is critical. Developing outstanding leadership requires that leaders get timely, accurate feedback about their performance as leaders. But, because of the inherent barriers, leaders may get little quality, actionable feedback. The result can be inconsistent, highly variable leadership.  Some leaders naturally are very effective at what they do.  Some leaders are successful in some situations, but don’t know what contributes to that success.  When the situation changes, their effectiveness disappears yet they don’t know why.  Other leaders, many with great potential, just whither without the feedback needed to improve.Fortunately, the challenge can be resolved.  An effective, 360-degree feedback process can provide leaders with timely, accurate actionable data.  Further, the data can be anonymously gathered from the perspective of those being led. We have been helping clients build 360-degree feedback processes since 1990 (long before most people had even heard of, or thought about, collecting such feedback).  We have standard, off-the-shelf, well-tested survey instruments.  We also help our clients develop custom surveys to fit their specific needs.  If you’re interested in 360 Feedback for yourself or for your organization, contact us . We can provide you samples of our survey instruments, feedback reports and feedback guide.  Then, we can talk about your specific needs. Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it.

The Business Challenge: Navigating Perpetual Whitewater All organizations today are in a state of perpetual whitewater. Change is constant. New Challenges lurk around every bend in the river. These challenges include: Rapidly changing customer and consumer preferences; A competitive landscape which can change almost daily and may often come from an organization’s own suppliers and customers; Technology changes which can completely alter the sources of competitive advantage overnight; Seemingly conflicting needs to radically improve the value provided customers –through better service, more rapid turnaround, higher quality, mass customization of products and services – while stripping out every possible cost; The need to have a highly productive, highly skilled, constantly improving mobility workforce, while carefully managing compensation costs and maintaining flexibility in employment levels; Providing ever faster response times to customers while eliminating the costs of inventory; and The challenge of acquiring and developing the depth of leadership talent necessary to guide the boat through the rapids. The most severe rapids can quickly swamp even the best positioned organization.Companies that are unprepared for the challenges are perpetually at risk in this environment. Even when organizations think they are not in the rapids, conditions can change quickly. And, the river is infinitely long. What seems certain and secure today will almost definitely be turbulent and threatening tomorrow. So, who survives and prospers? The factors that drive success in the business world are the same factors which drive success on a whitewater expedition. Organizations that prosper and sustain themselves in this climate of perpetual whitewater share several common key factors: A clear understanding of where they are (their strengths and weaknesses bothinternally and externally) in the competitive environment. A clear vision of both how they must compete strategically and how they must shape their internal organization to be successful; The skills and capabilities to execute the journey. And the ability to grow new skills and take existing skills to higher levels to meet challenges as the journey progresses. The ability to identify necessary changes in systems, structures, processes and key business and people practices to move quickly from the current state to the future estate; and Leadership — The ability to engage people in their organization in the effort. Adaptability – the ability to make quick turns and decisive moves when encountering new rapids, while staying focused on the ultimate long-term goals. The one compelling difference is huge: On a whitewater expedition, almost every precaution is taken to ensure the safety of the participants. Rapids are scouted. Safety Lines are deployed. In the business world, there is no safety line. If we’re not prepared, if we don’t have an understanding of where we are and where we want to go, if we don’t have the necessary leadership or take the time to develop the talent necessary of success, failure is certain. No one is waiting at the bottom of the rapids with a throw rope to pull us out if we make a major mistake. So ultimate success and sustainability requires constant effort to chart the right course, get everyone aligned and build the capabilities necessary to navigate the rapids. Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it.

It’s been more than 35 years since organizations began to embrace SMART goals. A SMART goal, which traces back to a 1981 Management Review article by George Duran, is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Focused and Time-bound. SMART goals gained currency as part of the popularity of the management-by-objectives concept created by consultant and author Peter Drucker. They became popular for good reason. SMART is a useful way to think about the goals you create for your organization. But there’s a better, simpler approach. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the drawbacks to SMART goals. In the next, I’ll offer you an alternative. The main drawbacks to SMART goals involve the S and the A. Let’s take them one at a time. Is S for Specific or Stifling? Goals do need to be specific. The problem is…what does specific mean? What’s specific enough to guide one person, may leave another person confused and flailing. Or, it might be stifling for another. We do an exercise occasionally in our leadership training sessions. We give everyone in the group 20 minutes to go out and come back with a rock and present it to the group. When they return, we make a point of rejecting each offering. This one’s too sharp. That one’s too smooth. This one’s too shiny. We send them out again, and reject every rock on the second try. It doesn’t take long before most of the group is frustrated. What’s wrong with these rocks? You haven’t told us exactly what makes one rock good and another bad. How are we supposed to know what you want if you don’t tell us? Exactly. The problem is this: The same specific goal that provides critical guidance to the new employee is demotivating micromanagement for a veteran top performer. One size doesn’t fit all. Imagine telling your 20-year-old son, on leave from the army, “Clean your room.” That’s all the instruction he needs. He’s been professionally trained to maintain a neat bedroom. Now, go tell his 10-year-old brother, “Clean your room,” with no further instruction. Good luck with that. So, a specific goal is helpful, but it’s only the start. You need to provide the right level of detail for each member of your team. You Can’t Transform with Attainable Goals The other aspect of SMART goals we’ll take on here is Attainable. As with Specific, there’s nothing on the surface to object to. What’s the point in having a goal if you can’t attain it? The problem is that sometimes attainable goals lead to the wrong result. Sometimes, the only way to compete is to set a stretch goal that’s very difficult to attain. In fact, it’s impossible to attain, unless you fundamentally rethink what you’re doing. In the pager market of the late 1980s, Motorola was at a huge competitive disadvantage. Japanese pager manufactures enjoyed dramatically lower costs due to their significantly better production quality. At the time, Motorola measured manufacturing quality in percent (defects per hundred), while its Japanese competitors were measuring quality in defects per million. Motorola couldn’t afford to typical attainable goals of 10% improvement – it would never have caught up to its competitors. Instead, it set stretch targets to improve quality by 10 times every two to three years. At the surface, these goals were NOT attainable. The impact of these stretch goals was dramatic. Motorola had to change every system, structure and process involved in pager production and completely re-skill their team members to achieve these goals. Had they set “Attainable” goals, they would not have been able to transform the organization sufficiently enough to be successful. Setting stretch goals requires organizations to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. They demolish current thinking, motivate action and challenge everyone to change everything except the organization’s core values and principles. Because they’re so radical, they’re best used in a mix with more conventional, incremental goals. But an organization that focuses too much on making its goals attainable might miss a critical chance to transform itself. Next: If SMART goals are out, what should take their place? Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it.

Leading Through Uncertainty Takes Caring & Connection With the ongoing pandemic, the war in Ukraine, an inflationary economy, the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and an uneven job market where some employers can’t find talent and others are announcing mass layoffs, the first quarter of 2023 has been rough. Leading through this uncertainty is daunting regardless of your industry or sector. But there are ways to build resilient teams and remain competitive in these challenging times. Here are some things you can do today. Hire slow, lay off slower Inflation, rising interest rates, supply chain woes and other economic pressures have some companies feeling the pinch and looking to trim costs. Cutting staff is one of the first places many will look. Not so fast. Before you embark on knee-jerk layoffs, take a beat to explore the alternatives. What other expenses can you forego before cutting human resources, which are so much more than just another line item in your budget? The costs of cutting staff go far beyond finances: it’s people’s livelihoods on the line. Treat them accordingly: with great care. Instead of showing people the door, get creative about staffing. Could you offer early retirement to people close to the end of their careers? Is there an opportunity to shift some roles to part-time work or job sharing? Restructuring pay and compensation is another option. One option is to align it more closely with results. If the company succeeds, everyone wins; if it’s struggling, everyone makes less–but at least they've got jobs. Staffing is an area where long-term thinking and a cool head pay off, and yet so much of hiring, firing, and layoffs is reactive. We saw many organizations rush to staff up coming out of the pandemic. Why should their team members suffer the consequences of management's short-sighted decisions? Every time you hire, ask yourself: am I thinking far enough into the future that I won’t have to lay people off when things get tight? If you can't forecast that far ahead, consider staffing up with temporary or contract workers or offering overtime to your existing employees. There are serious short and long-term impacts to chopping your staff to cut costs. Along with the labour loss, there’s the inevitable dent in morale among those remaining that can have profound ripple effects on your organization’s culture and productivity. Engagement is critical There’s a stat I cite all the time, and it hasn’t changed in years: only 15 to 30% of workers are fully engaged in their work. So, what about that other 70-85%? What’s the disconnect? Usually, these people feel like factors of production in indifferent organizations where they’re just trading time for money. And who can blame them? Why commit to an organization that will lay you off when times get tough? “If you're not going to be loyal to me, why should I commit to you?” goes the thinking. Why go above and beyond for an employer who won’t reciprocate with care in return? But the inverse is also true. The more committed you are as a leader and employer, the deeper the engagement will be from your team, especially in a pinch. Of course, not every company is looking at layoffs. At the other end of the spectrum are many companies that can’t find the talent they need to win. Recruitment and retention are more important than ever, especially in highly competitive labor markets. Quiet quitting, job hopping, and the so-called great resignation are all signs of discontent on the work front. The pandemic prompted people to think more deeply about what matters, and many decided work is not the No. 1 thing in their lives. Now, more than ever, employees are looking for more–including more meaning. They want to feel valued, and that their work and roles matter. Communication, caring build connection Being a leader isn't just about making prudent business decisions and undertaking management functions: it's also about relationships. When you take the time to build a bond with your colleagues and employees, you show them that they matter and are part of something bigger than themselves. Leaders are essential in creating an environment where people feel connected and engaged with their work. You can do this by providing feedback and recognition, encouraging open communication between team members, and creating opportunities for collaboration. Communication is crucial to this sense of connection. But too often, in times of stress, leaders clam up. They communicate less because they don't want to be wrong. They make the mistake of thinking that communicating simply means transmitting correct information to their teams. Communication is every touchpoint with your team, from emails and memos to town halls, meetings, and impromptu water-cooler chats. It’s less about being right and more about being present, sharing and caring. And it needs to be a two-way street. As a leader, you must create a respectful atmosphere where communication is encouraged and people feel seen and heard. When your team can safely ask questions, challenge each other, and share ideas, it fosters trust, which increases engagement, which in turn builds commitment. You see how this works? All of this is premised on a foundation of caring–truly caring–about people. Caring is your leadership superpower. It is the key ingredient for forming strong relationships, fostering trust, and creating an atmosphere of respect, empathy, and acceptance within your organization. To remain competitive in uncertain times, you need to build strong teams that are committed and engaged with their work. Follow these guidelines above, and your leadership can weather any storms that come your way in 2023–and beyond.

WhiteWater International Consulting named as Top Emerging Leadership Development Company Recognition underscores WhiteWater International’s end-to-end capabilities and sustained success in creating value for clients by driving real-world results. SAINT JOHN, NB, March 1, 2023 – WhiteWater International Consulting, a consulting firm that helps organizations better leverage their leaders to thrive amidst perpetual change, has been named as the 2022 Top Emerging Leadership Development Company by HR Magazine . The award was given to WhiteWater International as it has proven itself to be a scalable and high-performing solution that can effectively support the ever-evolving complexities of enterprise-level organizations. “Our mission is to build leaders who can help their firms survive and thrive in this world of perpetual white water,” said Sean Ryan, founder and president, WhiteWater International Consulting. “Thanks to the skill and hard work of our diverse and talented team at WhiteWater International, we’re able to continue to attract industry leading clients and partners - we’re excited to build on this momentum into 2023.” "Businesses run on Strategy-Execution-Results. WhiteWater International brings all of those together, helping leaders to make informed decisions with the most up-to-date information available. For companies that require a scalable strategy for competing in a highly changeable environment, WhiteWater International is meeting that need," said Rich Gonzales, ManageHR Magazine. Organizations have always needed leaders who are good at recognizing emerging challenges and inspiring organizational responses. That need is intensifying today as leaders confront, among other things, digitization, the surging power of data as a competitive weapon, and the ability of artificial intelligence to automate the workplace and enhance business performance. These technology-driven shifts create an imperative for most organizations to change, which in turn demands more and better leaders up and down the line. - 30 - About WhiteWater International Consulting With more than 30 years experience in helping organizations understand the challenges they face and then guiding them through the turbulence, WWICI helps enterprise organizations to achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it. Unleash your passion. Empower your team. Get in Gear! Media Contact Vanessa Burley VP, Communications vanessa@wwici.com

How to keep on course when everything’s fighting for your attention  Watching the U.S. Open earlier this month, I was struck, again and again, by the players’ intense focus, particularly how their eyes followed the ball through their entire shot. Slow down the footage, and you can see their attention doesn’t leave that bright yellow streak until it’s off their racquet.  There’s a lesson here for business, I thought.  Too often, we take our eyes off the proverbial ball. I’ve been doing a lot of strategy  work with clients lately, and this is a recurring issue. I keep hearing from leaders how torn their attention feels and how overwhelmed they feel by the many competing priorities coming at them. In sports, we lift our gaze (I’m notorious for this on the golf course) because our mind has already finished the shot before our club or racket has hit the ball. I think that's what happens on the (often long) path from strategy to goals to execution, too: our brain has finished the shot, and our attention’s gone on to other projects or priorities. I don’t mean this as a criticism: it’s understandable, especially in an age of instant gratification, super-accelerated expectations and complex demands.   But if you can develop the ability and systems to resist the very understandable diversions and detours that assail you daily and engage and align your team with the most critical tasks to get you to your goals, you’ll exponentially increase your odds of achieving them. And, hey, if you’ve strayed from the path from strategy to execution to results, don’t worry. Fall is the perfect time to refocus.  Strategy’s messy middle Strategy is vital. It gives organizations direction, focus, and a shared vision and goals. And it might also be one of the most misunderstood and mismanaged elements of business.  I’ve written extensively about how the first step, crafting a rigorous strategic thinking session , tends to get the bulk of the attention. And why not? Holding aspirational conversations about a desired future state is inspiring and exciting. With this momentum, the early execution of the work to move toward the goals tends to get off to a hot start.  But then months go by and the gap between strategy, execution and results starts to show. I’ll bet you’ve experienced this. The strategy binder goes on the shelf. Once in a while, you dust it off and go, “Oh, crap! We haven't done any of this stuff!” That’s a classic case of the strategy to execution to results gap.  Work and life happen, and 101 things are fighting for your attention, dragging your focus away, and, before you know it, you’re off-track. Or maybe you haven't seen much in the way of results, people are getting restless, or you just want to do something else. It’s tempting to lift your head. But that messy middle is precisely the time when it’s most important to stay the course and keep going.  Remember: results take time In our super-accelerated world, instant gratification has become practically the norm. That affects our expectations for everything, including strategies. We want to have a plan and then have it work, like, tomorrow. Remember five-year strategic plans? They’re practically unheard of now due to the incredibly brisk rate of change that makes this kind of long-term planning seem old-fashioned. Today, even a three-year plan can seem far-fetched. But of course, some goals need multiple months, quarters, and even years to be realized.  And it’s human nature, I think, to get bored if a goal is too big or too distant. It’s shiny, like a star, but how will you get to that far-off place? I often see a tendency to want to fill the gap between strategy and results… with more strategy! But what’s needed is a little patience and some mechanisms to stay on track, like guardrails on a busy highway.  Set milestones and guideposts  The key to successful execution isn’t a mystery; it’s mostly about maintaining a commitment to the things most likely to get you to your goals. This sounds easy but is very hard to execute due to the competing priorities constantly vying for your time and attention.  Breaking down those big goals into bite-sized pieces can help maintain focus. It’s the classic retort to the question, “How do you eat an elephant?”  Check your processes The best way to overcome this risk of distraction is by implementing operating mechanisms and developing a structure to adhere to your highest priorities. I think back on Deming’s total quality management (TQM), a set of management practices to increase quality and productivity, in which 80% of failures come from systems, structures and processes. They are failures of execution. But often, we blame people or even the strategy itself when it doesn’t seem to work.  Check in often Regular strategy reviews are a vital part of your MO. I can’t stress how important it is to have consistent, frequent times on your schedule, either for meetings or personal thinking time, to assess your strategy, check progress and alignment and make adjustments as needed. Here at Whitewater, we call this “ follow-up, follow-through ,” a process of intentional, ongoing communication linked to action, keeping execution on track. Be flexible Staying the course when the course isn’t working is foolish. But so is abandoning the ship when you’re not necessarily on the rocks. It’s a bit of a balancing act between staying committed and knowing when to shift. It’s about  staying agile: Be open to adapting strategies when necessary, but avoid chasing every new trend or idea.And make sure you’ve got the right metrics in place to assess how things are going. This data will help guide your course and tell you when it might be time to adjust.   Reconnect with your vision Sometimes, we need to lift our gaze, just not in the middle of the game. One of the best ways to get out of the weeds is to step back, look at the big picture, and ask (and ask often): What was your original vision for your organization and your strategy? Reinforcing your big “why?” reminds everyone of why these small steps or tasks connect to the overall plan.  ​​

Design & Execute Your Best Strategic Thinking Session Ever It’s go time! You’ve done your pre-planning and preparation . Your participants have done their pre-work. You’ve conducted customer interviews and market research. Let’s take all those valuable inputs from the prep phase and put them towards the creation phase of your strategic thinking process. And, yes, we use the term “thinking,” not “planning.” That’s because we can't really plan for the future, we can only prepare for it. In a rapidly changing world, we have no idea what's coming next or what new challenges might arise. Plans might change, but flexible and adaptable strategic priorities can pivot as circumstances shift and opportunities arise. Who to include You need the right mix of people in the room for a great strategic thinking session. Make sure everyone who was involved in pre-planning is involved. And ensure the key people responsible for executing and measuring the strategy moving forward are there, too. Who do you need to engage to create commitment and increase the likelihood of follow-through when implementing? Don’t keep the guest list confined to your leadership team. Go for a diagonal cross-section of your organization that cuts across departments and units and encompasses various levels of management right down to your frontline staff. It’s messier, but ultimately, this diversity will result in better strategy, more buy-in, and higher ownership in the final output. If you’ve got a large group, break out into small groups that report back to the whole, so everybody is a part of the conversation. If the group gets too big, it will feel too much like public speaking, and some people will stay silent. Make sure it feels like a conversation, not a public address. Session structure Strategic thinking is hard, tiring work. It’s essential to design your sessions with people’s energy levels in mind to maximize their input and not drain their batteries. We find partial day sessions (roughly 6 hours) provide enough time for rich discussion without depleting everyone. Along with ensuring you get the best out of your participants, it’s enough to build in some unstructured social time before and after the official schedule for participants to connect and share ideas. (When we lead virtual strategy creation conversations, we typically break the process into even smaller, bite-sized sessions of 2-3 hours.) Set the scene Kick things off with a review of your current state. This is where you share your people’s SWOT responses, customer interview intel, and market research. This foundational information will inform the conversations to come. Define Your Purpose A purpose-driven strategy allows people to think more broadly about the value you deliver, to keep the focus high-level and even aspirational. Spend some time near the beginning of your strategy thinking session discussing what your organization truly provides. For instance, if you're a steel maker, instead of getting locked into the idea that “we make steel,” encourage participants to think about the real value you deliver, such as “we provide the resources people need to make things.” Diverge From here, invite participants to start to share their impressions from the research. Some general questions to kick off the discussion: What markets are growing, and which are shrinking? Where are our growth opportunities? What differentiates us? What target markets do we want to be in? Where should we consider reinvesting? Initially, you want to be as open as possible (don’t worry, you’ll converge later). These wide-ranging, divergent conversations make space for big ideas to bubble up. Converge Once you’ve got a lot of great ideas generated, it’s time to focus. Ultimately, your aspirations and the opportunities you’ll pursue must align with your resources. If there’s a huge opportunity you can't take advantage of because you just don't have the human or financial capital to access it, it’s not strategic, it’s just wishful thinking. To keep the discussion broad yet focused, remind participants to consider a few key questions: How can we create unique value? Do we have, or can we develop the right competencies? Is this the best use of our capital? (Intellectual, human, financial, etc.) Encourage dissent Universal head-nodding is the worst thing you can see at a strategic thinking session. There should be a lot of different opinions. Don’t shy away from respectful conflict. You want to have the most open, wide-ranging conversation possible to get at the deep work of making choices and articulating priorities. The biggest mistake most organizations make in strategic thinking is not challenging the assumptions, beliefs, and perceptions that made them successful and underlay their current strategy. In Stall Points , Matthew S. Olson and Derek van Bever write, “you must continually articulate and stress-test the assumptions underlying your strategy because it is the assumptions that you believe the most deeply or that you have held as true for the longest time that are likely to prove your undoing.” Pivot to execution Now, it’s time to talk about how to get from strategy to results, to connect the dots between where you are and where you want to go. Based on the discussions you’ve had so far, list the top three to five strategic goals that have emerged. These should be specific. They might relate to things like market share, profitability, total revenue, product development, or service levels. Next, ask yourselves: what are we going to do to attain these? List five to seven broad actions to drive those strategic goals. For each, you’ll need a scorecard. What indicators will you want to track to know if you’re effectively executing your strategy? From each of those five seven actions, list three to five projects, creating a portfolio of potential initiatives. Prioritize and sequence the projects, whittling the list down to the highest impact projects you'll undertake. Congratulations! You’ve now got a solid strategy to drive your organization forward. Next up in our Stages of Strategic Thinking series, we will be sharing posts on: Execute: Actioning your strategy to make it real Measure: Calibrating results against projected goals Top tools: A roundup of our favorite strategic thinking tools