Episode 26 - Great Leaders Help Their Teams Develop Effective Strategies

Lou Quinto (00:19):

Hi, welcome to Q and A On Breakthrough leadership. I'm Lou Quinto. And I'm Craig P. Anderson. The topic in our episode today that we're going to cover is how to help your team members develop effective strategies. In a previous episode, we talked about how to be an effective coach. Now what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at actually applying those coaching skills to developing your team members to develop those effective strategies. So the three areas that we're going to cover in this episode are going to be one, how to evaluate a current situation so that you can begin to develop the strategies. The second area that we're going to cover is to clarify exactly where that person is and where they want to be. And then the third area that we're going to cover is going to be how to take. And once we've identified where they are and where they want to be, how to bridge that gap. So if you would, Craig, take us to the first topic that's going to be, how do you evaluate?

Craig P. Anderson (01:18):

Talking about evaluating, this gets real about what it is we're trying to do. Where are we at? Are we performing well? Are we trying to take our performance to the next level? It's looking to understand exactly what the situation is of what, you know, where we're maybe, you know, needing to improve what our goals are and just trying to get some idea of really a baseline so we know where things are starting out.

Lou Quinto (01:44):

All right. And obviously in dealing and coming up with that baseline, part of that evaluation is both looking at positives and negatives. And as I always like to tell people, particularly when you're in coaching, start with the positives. Don't think negative first think, positive, because our brains are hardwired to think negative and we sometimes tend to focus on those, focus on those negative things to get people to improve. But one of the things in evaluating I always like to say is, is like doing a SWOT analysis. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Notice strengths is first to give that person a confidence to build up their confidence, to be able to say, here's what you're already doing. Right? And if we can just change that a little bit more, amp it up just a little bit more. You're, you're not making a lot of changes by starting from an area where they are in a truly a deficit area.

Lou Quinto (02:38):

Right? It's a weakness that requires a lot of work. So if you can get people also to really focus on those areas that are their strengths and how can you get them from good to great, amp it up a little bit. The work isn't as difficult and doesn't look as it's something that I can accomplish. So part of that evaluation process, and again as I say, turn that mirror around. You've got to turn that mirror around and you've got to get a true reflection of where that person is and they need to understand it as well as you as their coach. Okay. The second topic that we're going to talk about in this area of creating effective strategies for your team members is going to be to clarify where they are and where they want to be. And I kind of started off, I gave you the lead into that turnaround, the mirror on them to take a look. So talk to me about the process, where we are, where we want to be. So yeah,

Craig P. Anderson (03:28):

You know, starting with a SWOT analysis is kind of at a higher level, kind of getting the big picture of what the evaluation stage is. Then we kind of dive down to clarify where you are. So let's get really honed in on what it is you're doing. You know, if this is a conversation with a sales rep, right? You know, what are your activities? Well, you know, how many calls do you make in a week? Whatever those things are. What’s your sales script that you're using? How are you going through it? Then we start to work on really understanding, right? That's where we are. So these are the behaviors we have. Now we want to switch over to where is it we want to be and get really clear on those goals. Right now I want to have more revenue, right?

Craig P. Anderson (04:02):

That's a super hard goal, right? This is kind of digging in smart. It's not smart or CVS. So it's, it's really kind of diving in and building very specific smart goals, you know, smart, measurable, achievable. Although I was like to have a little bit of risk in there, right? And you know, so you work through the whole smart framework and start building those out and really getting clear on what the goal is. So now you have a very clear picture of this is where I'm at today. We have a clear picture on where it is we want to be so we can kind of start to work on, all right, so what has to change here? And you know, what does success look like? So that we get there, we know where it is. We arrived. Right. We need to know a lot of times they, you know, I think we, we were not so clear on exactly what success looks like, which can be very frustrating cause then the goalpost start to shift and some of that kind of stuff. So it's getting real clear. No Ferris Bueller quote to, I don't have a good Ferris Bueller point today, come to me, I may get inspired.

Lou Quinto (04:53):

Okay. All right. So yeah, and I agree 100%. It's when you've got an individual and you've got a situation, they truly have to understand where they are right now because if they don't understand where they are right now they could jeopardize their achievement of where they want to be because their goals are set way too far. And they become unaccomplishable and that gets them depressed. It gets you depressed. And so really going back to that old definition of a smart goal, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, or if you want to make our risky and T time. Yeah, I have a timeframe on that as well so that they can then start to develop milestones on accomplishing the, their ultimate goal. And it sort of goes back to in our effective coaching is controlling that flow to be able to help them take, to get right.

Craig P. Anderson (05:46):

They are. Oh yeah. And I just add, you know, especially in the part about clarifying where you are, right. That takes a lot of self awareness. It's not easy to be really. Yeah. Right. It's not easy to be really serious about where you are and where you're really missing the Mark. But that's such an important step because that really gets you clear on, okay, I don't want to be this. I want to be that. So that really helps you to kind of get, you know, getting clear and being honest with yourself is a really tough process, but it's an important,

Lou Quinto (06:11):

Yeah. And the other part of that too, just to throw this in, is too, because ego is involved, there's no question about when clarifying where they are. You need to be able to have measurable or tangible results that you can point toward. Going back to your example before, you know, I want to do better. I wanna, you know, I w I, I, you know, do better in my job or I want to get better sales that's not measurable. And so if you're creating that baseline, if you've got actual measurable and quantifiable numbers, metrics that you can point to, it sort of makes that pill easier to swallow because they can see the results that are on the scoreboard and say we're behind. Right? And luckily it's only the first quarter. Okay. All right. So once we've decided and identified where we are and where we want to be, and the next thing we need to do is we need to create that, that gap or look at that gap and find out what do we need to do to bridge that gap to get that person from where they are and where they want to be.

Lou Quinto (07:10):

So Craig, what suggestions do you have on that bridging of those two areas? If you kind of think about it,

Craig P. Anderson (07:16):

It's like building a house, right? The evaluates kind of, you know, getting the floor and kind of understand where, where things are, then the walls are, you know, where you are and where you want to be. And then bridging the gap is really about building, you know, building the roof, right? And building the supports. So if you think about it that way, that that is really start where you start to build in what are the strategies I need? You know, what are the things I need to do? Is it I need to go get more sales training? Is it, I need to make 50 calls a week instead of 10, whatever those things are. And you start identifying those measurable things if this is what success looks like, what did I do when to achieve it?

Craig P. Anderson (07:51):

So that also starts to build into what are the milestones? What are the things that I need to do? So ultimately at the end, you've got a full house with walls and a roof and the whole deal. So it's really kind of clarifying exactly what those things are. Because you know, if you think about the analogy of building a house, cause I've built so many houses in my day, right? But if you think about it, you know, if you don't measure it and you don't get it really specific, you're not going to match up at the end, right? So it's really important to, to kind of build all those pieces in so you can say, all right, by this date I will have done this by this date. I will have done that. Because then you can start tracking the progress and going back to our coaching conversation as a, as a leader that helps to build in the accountability. All right, Lou, you said by this day you would have this thing done. Where are we at? So it's getting very clear on what the milestones are, what the things are that we have to do, and then making sure that we're hitting those milestones and if we miss knowing why. Right.

Lou Quinto (08:40):

And the other thing is just to pick up on something you said to be careful is don't come to them that day and say where are we? Yeah. Come to them a week before, two weeks before and say, Hey, I noticed on my calendar that we've got this goal coming up. How are you coming on it so that this way we take that focus and put it on that particular goal. And the other thing too is when you do create a plan to bridge that gap, it truly creates focus because if you don't have that focus, you've got this entire situation and I want to be doing everything. I want to be as good as possible, as quickly as possible. And my focus, my list of things to do becomes enormous and everything. But if you can actually take just that section in the middle of where they are and where they want to be and put that plan together, it becomes truly focused oriented at that point. Or a term you, you like to use is deliberate error. Intentional word of the year 2020. Write it down. Okay. All right. So our key takeaways on creating strategies for effective teams? Well, I think the big one, right,

Craig P. Anderson (09:44):

I want to focus on is that whole idea of being honest with yourself. If you can be really clear about where you are, right. That makes it so much easier to find where you want to be,

Lou Quinto (09:52):

Then that goes back to the metrics. Yep. Truly pull out the, the metrics into that because that makes honesty, irrefutable that that's where we are. Look at, look at the numbers.

Craig P. Anderson (10:01):

Yeah. And being, yeah. And being real honest with yourself. And then, you know, it's kind of that idea in good degrade of, you know, facing the reality but never lose sight of the goal, which I'm probably torturing that reference. But nevertheless, it's, it's that idea of be real honest about where you are and then never losing faith that you're going to accomplish the goal, but just build that plan to get there. Yeah.

Lou Quinto (10:20):

Yeah. And my key takeaway is the, is the gap in between is that's where the action happens and that's where the plans are developed. And that's where the, the motivation happens because you're, you're striving for something that, you know, can be achievable as opposed to standing at the bottom of the mountain and saying, I want to get all the way up there and realizing after a day of hiking, I ain't never going to get up there. But if you can focus instead on the top of the mountain, but the first plateau that you want to get to when you get to that first level, that first plateau, it becomes, I achieved something. And so in bridging that gap, be sure in your plans and your strategies to truly have those milestones where they see that they are accomplishing something so that it gives them motivation to begin moving toward the next goal or the next part of their plan and strategy. And the other thing too is with the plans and strategies, you remember a need to be flexible. We didn't talk about that, but I'm going to throw that in. The plans have to be flexible because if not, things change. And if you're didn't, if you're not flexible in your planning bridging that gap can be

Craig P. Anderson (11:29):

Quite difficult. But yeah, and it's also a key part of the plan is anticipating roadblocks, right? Right. If this happens, what are we going to do? Right? You want the best of intentions and you expect the plan to go right, but you know, plan doesn't always go according to plan. So what are you going to do when you guy Murphy out there? That's right.

Lou Quinto (11:45):

Okay. Murphy's law, anything can go wrong. It definitely will. And usually at the worst possible moment. That's it for this episode of Q and A on Breakthrough Leadership.

Craig P. Anderson (11:54):

Please hit like share and subscribe if you found our content valuable. You can find our old episodes on QA leadership.com and video form. You can also link through to the podcast versions in case you like to educate yourself while you drive. So a for a Q and A on breakthrough leadership. I'm Craig Anderson's and I'm Lou Quinto.