Monthly Archives: May 2016

Victim, Judge or Warrior – Surviving a Mistake

Mistakes happen to the best of people and organizations. When I was promoted to Chief Financial Officer at the age of 29, I articulated my fear of making a mistake to one of my mentors. It was overwhelming to accept and consider the responsibility of the lead financial role. I would be the last one to review information before it went to the President and Board. The response I got from expressing my concerns was great – You will make mistakes, I guarantee it. What sets great leaders apart is how they deal with the mistakes.

 

What I learned from that experience is that leaders can impede or even stop the ability to develop and execute strategy if they do not take responsibility for their own mistakes. Lack of execution can cause the organization to miss revenue opportunities and quickly burn through cash.

 

When you are a leader of an organization one of the toughest responsibilities you have is leading by example. The Type A leaders who are bold enough to put together a start up or buy a company may not be sufficiently self-aware to take responsibility for their own actions and, as a result, when something goes wrong they can turn into one of three personalities: the Victim, the Judge or the Warrior. What happens next depends on which personality the leader assumes.

 

The Victim says, “I can’t believe the team did this. They are out of control and now this project is ruined.” This is followed by public accusations that humiliate workers.

Leaders, put on your big girl or boy pants and take responsibility as the Warrior.Mindy Barker | Barker Associates

Leaders, put on your big girl or boy pants and take responsibility as the Warrior.

The Judge says, “I can’t believe this happened. I am so stupid for trusting the team and I am never going to do it again. The project is ruined.” This is followed with micromanagement and control freak like activities.

 

Either personality can lead to turnover in the organization, which significantly slows down the organization’s ability to develop and execute strategy. A Star player on your management team will not stay and live in chaos. The star players on the team are all updating their resumes and keeping their ear to the ground to determine what other positions they can pursue. They will resign and say something like: “This opportunity was just too good to give up” or “They approached me, I was not looking.” They were not looking until the leader turned into the Victim and/or Judge and created chaos and an uncomfortable working environment. The culture is such that the star player cannot contribute in a meaningful way and they will leave you. Baby boomers tend to have a deeper sense of loyalty, so they may stay and hope the situation will change. The Millennial generation, in contrast, will bolt quickly once the Victim and/or Judge show up. They are very focused on making certain they can personally contribute immediately.

 

The Warrior says, “I’m responsible for this team and actions. How can we correct and learn from this mistake?”

 

Instead of using blame and shame to work through the dissonance, Warriors use tools like awareness, compassion, integrity, and ownership. Warriors empower their team to fix issues with customers at the earliest point possible. Warriors take responsibility and execute. Execution leads to building enterprise value and higher existing values.

 

Leaders, take an honest assessment of your leadership style and adopt a Warrior attitude!

 

Responsibility can be scary. Leaders put on your big girl or boy pants and take responsibility as the Warrior. Stop the blame and shame, micromanaging and control freak ways that keep the organization from executing. We all have the ability to change once we become self-aware – take an honest assessment of your own actions.

 

Board members, investors, coaches, and mentors – challenge the leaders of the organizations in this area. Although it can feel distressing to challenge a leader without it sounding like a personal attack, it comes with the territory. I have sat in many a meeting when I knew the Board wanted to ask these types of questions and did not because it is uncomfortable. You have a fiduciary responsibility to address the issue if you think it exists. If you suspect it exists – it almost certainly does.

 

Star players – before you update your resume and bolt, try to effectively manage up and have a frank conversation with your leader about the situation. Even if it does not work and the leader does not change, it is good practice for you. To help develop the dialogue, consider reading the book, “Crucial Conversations, Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High,” (Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler), before initiating the conversation.

As a Chief Future Officer, I can help you analyze your financial results and determine if the actual results are aligned with your strategy. Contact me at [email protected] or www.mindybarkerassociates.com.

The CEO’s Guide to Fraud Prevention

In my

The perpetrators of fraud often rationalize their choices by telling themselves, "No one pays attention to what I do anyway."

The perpetrators of fraud often rationalize their choices by telling themselves, “No one pays attention to what I do anyway.”

experience I have found that whether you are a new business owner or an experienced CEO, it’s easy to overlook some basic controls in your organization to detect and prevent fraud. I’ve put together six practices you can…and should…implement if you have not done so already.

 

Read further at The CEO’s Guide to Fraud Prevention.

Four Must-Haves for Strategic Growth

As new entrepreneurs become caught up in day-to-day survival it’s easy to overlook these four practices that support the long-term strategic growth of the new business:

  • Annual budget
  • Business plan with 5-year forecast
  • Planning for leadership evolution
  • Impact of decisions on cash flow

Let’s start with budgeting. The key to survival is measuring and monitoring the results. It is essential to complete an annual budget, break it down in monthly components and monitor each month. The budget should include an income statement, balance sheet and cash flow. Most companies have an income statement; however, I have seen fewer balance sheets and cash flow projections. This can really get you in trouble as you will not have any line of sight to your working capital needs. Working capital is the cash you need to run the business.

 

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Grow in leaps and bounds when you incorporate these 4 strategies.

For example, if you sell goods, chances are you will need to spend money on inventory prior to selling the item and recognizing revenue. If you have projected your sales to increase by 25%, you may have painted a lovely picture of growth with your projected income statement that is not reality if you do not have the cash to purchase the inventory to sell because you have not projected the use of cash to purchase the inventory, which is what the balance sheet and cash flow projection are for. This can really get you into trouble, especially if you have inventory on your balance sheet, but not enough cash coming in from sales to pay for it.

 

In addition to a budget, your company should have a business plan and a five-year forecast. The business plan should articulate the plan for your company’s growth and address anticipated changes in the economy and future trends. It is difficult to predict all of these things, but if you develop a robust business plan, you are thinking through the different scenarios and how these scenarios will impact your business.

 

Think through leadership, including yourself, as your company grows. Clayton Christiansen* of Harvard Business School, says managers who are talented and skilled in the area of productivity and squeezing out the last bit of value from a company’s assets, are usually not the same people who are great at innovation and major change. Often a successful manager replaces the person who is responsible for helping the company become successful when the company becomes mature enough to establish systems and balance checks.

 

It is imperative to think through how decisions you make can impact cash flow – and here is why. I worked with an organization a few years ago that historically had double-digit growth each year and was very profitable. The initial product the business launched was a great success because it was much better than anything on the market. The company was getting ready to launch a second product. At my first management meeting they discussed how the product was on its way to the warehouse, noting they had offered extended payment terms to customers on their entire order if they added the new product to their order. No one had projected the impact this decision would have to their balance sheet and cash flow, so they were unaware that the plan they had in place was going to essentially stop incoming cash – and they had just signed up for a huge payable to the vendor. We had to react quickly and manage cash to meet payroll and other obligations. Such a decision caused a 5-6 month stressful time, requiring we run cash flow projections daily during that time to ensure obligations would be covered.

 

Unsure how to get started on these four critical processes to help with your growth? Contact Mindy Barker & Associates to find out how we can assist with the process.

 

* Clayton Christiansen is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth. He is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches one of the most popular elective classes for second year students, Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise. – See more at: http://www.claytonchristensen.com/biography/#sthash.jS5zzfLx.dpuf