In my conversations with clients who own businesses, we often talk about things they can do to maximize the potential sale value of their businesses. I remember a conversation I had with the founder and CEO of a logistics company. He told me that he had been talking about the potential sale of his business to a larger player in their industry, and the larger company had asked what he and his partners had done to build the capability of their senior leaders. Their experience had been that once the owners got paid, their motivation tended to decline — and the next level of leaders often wasn’t ready.
As a result, one of the key things my client became focused on was building the capability of the senior leaders in his organization. During one of our early conversations he asked me how I would define leadership. I told him that in my opinion, leadership is ultimately about the ability to influence other people towards the attainment of goals. And I added, the ability to influence someone is a function of the quality of the relationship a leader has with that person.
Building Relationships With Key Reports
First, I encouraged them to take the time to get to know each leader as a human being. When working with their key reports, I suggested they think about three areas: (i) what’s important to this person, what do they want more than anything in life; (ii) what do they worry about; (iii) what are the circumstances of their life — health issues, problems with spouses, partners or kids, ailing parents, etc.
And as importantly, I encouraged them to help their key reports understand who they were as people — share what’s important to them, what they worry about, and what are the circumstances of their life. This is about being vulnerable, and for both of my client’s partners it was a stretch. Brené Brown’s TED talk on the value of vulnerability helped sell the idea.
The Six Questions Process
I then encouraged my client and his partners to have a one-to-one conversation with each of their key reports at least every month. I suggested that they ask the following six questions (full credit to Marshall Goldsmith, a well-known executive coach and leadership expert):
- As your leader, here’s where I see us going; where do you see us going? Where should we be going?
- Where are you going? Where do you think you and your part of the business should be going?
- Here’s what I see you and your part of the business doing well; what do you think you’re doing well? What are you most proud of?
- As your leader, here are some suggestions to help you move forward. If you were the coach for yourself, what advice would you have?
- How can I help you?
- It’s a two-way process — what suggestions do you have for me to be a better manager?
The bottom line: after two years the next level of leaders in the organization grew significantly. An important side benefit is that the organizational alignment created by the monthly conversations helped the company operate more efficiently and effectively. Revenues and EBITDA are up and the senior leaders are more engaged with the organization than they have ever been.