Board of Directors – Do you have the right folks running the business?

While working with a Director of Marketing the question arose, not about their immediate boss but the management team. It’s a fair question. We are placing our bets and our livelihoods on their know how and good judgment.

Consider the Big 3 Automakers. We certainly can’t have more of the same expecting different results.

There are on doubt competent people in management and it may not be their fault for this crisis.

However, the same managers will unfortunately make similar decisions, unless they are Advantage-Makers.

Let’s not pretend Advantage-Makers never make a mistakes. It’s simply that the are profound learners.

They learn faster, make mistakes quicker, engage more fully in unexpected solutions, work the probabilities and the possibilities and rearrange the scope to create value. Their thought process systematically leads to game changing decisions.

Assess their ability to shift time:

Does the executive know how to shift rapidly in these trying times or are they using the same words doing the same old same old. Are they acting like Eeyore, woe is me. We all feel it but how are they acting. These folks are not strategic, nor are they using tactical ingenuity. They are duck and covering. Survival is at stake. Defensive moves are important. But if they are only driving defensively you will be at an even bigger disadvantage. Time shifters are able to rapidly adjust to the circumstances, resolve issues early, and shift time horizons. For Advantage-Makers, ‘there is no time like the present to create the future’.

Assess their ability to shift interactions:

Does the executive know who to change the game. Do they know how to uncover viable options in the midst of all the cost cutting. Are they just cutting across the board or are they focused on specific strategic interactions and spectific tactical decisions that they adjust to move with the winds of change. This is no time for platitudes, like stay the course. But it is time for rapid adaptation and knowing how to uncover viable options.

Assess their ability to shift perception to influence outcomes:

Does the executive know how to persuade the remaining employees to reengage? Do they know how to make the case compelling for your products and services. Are they leading? Have they differentiated your brand in the minds of the prospects? If your company is not differentiated your company is failing now. Everyone is paying attention to your leaders command presence in this time of crisis. Both the advantage they create in products as well as their non-verbal, their tone of voice, and the language of influential leaderships.

Assess their ability to shift structure to shape behavior:

Does the executive know how to create structures that succeed? I’m not speaking about the org chart. I’m speaking about the forces at play that drive behavior, make decisions, produce momentum, align the teams and generate movement. Has the executive made command decisions that root out structural conflict, that is, competing objectives between teams and departments that are causing delay. If your executives are not determining the hierarchy of importance and making the hard decisions they are contributing to a structure that will fail.

If they are Advantage-Makers, keep them, endorse them, support them.

If not, change them or get them help now.

Now is the time for the Board to act, for the executives to perform, for the leaders to lead.