Managing Teams Through Crisis

Every leader, whether it is in the Association world or any other work arena, must deal with their own version of “chin music.” Even Mike Tyson is right that “Everybody’s got plans, until they get hit.” Unexpected surprises come out of nowhere and sometimes even worse than expected circumstances land in the leader’s lap. Since Management and Board Members expect results, leaders know they must swing into action and get the job done.

Good leaders can find the pot of gold, even when there is no rainbow. New York Yankee Manager Joe Girardi for instance, looked to the 2013 season with optimism. Why shouldn’t he?  A storied franchise with star power and a $200 million plus payroll helped him field a powerful team. Then thirteen players suffered injuries and landed on the disabled list. What many viewed as a nightmare scenario is instead an interesting case study on managing effectively, despite crisis.

With most of his team out for the foreseeable future, Girardi and the Yankees’ General Manager Brian Cashman collaborated on fielding a team of some veterans and many replacements. Fans who expected a team collapse and even Yankee haters might be scratching their heads. At least for now, the 2013 Yankees sit atop the American League’s highly competitive Eastern Division.

Rise Above It

The tough situations can define the most effective leaders. Joe Girardi’s leadership reminds executives that while a field of play can’t be changed, it can be managed.  For Girardi and Managers in general, building on a solid foundation of trust is a sure winner.

6 Ways Managers Can Thrive During a Crisis

1. Apply Constant Optimism – Pessimism is “poison for the soul.” Identify the opportunity for someone to step up and make great things happen.
2. Offer Sincere Praise – Be specific, recognize what a team member achieved. It elevates morale and motivates others to step up and lead too.
3. Preparation Really Matters – In tough situations, spend extra time developing strategies and options. Know the team’s capabilities, and how they fit into any given scenario.
4. Consistency Plays Well –  Leaders should be who they are in good times and bad times. Consistency displays reliability and it reinforces trust with the team.
5. Clear Vision – Leaders must identify the path and deliver. Collaborate with superiors, mentors      and colleagues as they could provide an idea a leader had not thought of.
6. The Golden Rule – Successful Leaders almost always had great Managers and Coaches. Many remember how words of encouragement and coaching sessions lifted morale. Lifting people up works. Leaders who take credit and blame others decimate morale and performance.

Managing Teams Through Crisis

With more than one half of the Major League Baseball Season yet to be played, it’s tough to know how the New York Yankees will finish the season.  What’s been accomplished thus far is a teachable moment for Managers. Even the toughest of challenges can be overcome. Using similar approaches, one Association executive, after losing a top sales performer, turned their year end into a success from almost certain failure.

Do optimism, praise, preparation, consistency, clear vision and the golden rule by themselves assure success? No, but they offer a solid framework for any Manager to utilize when the worst happens. “It ain’t over till it’s over” said Yogi Berra, and now with 6 strategies built on a foundation of trust, leaders could have the capacity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

For a free copy of the “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” eBook, request your copy at www.potomaccore.com.

This is the ninth in a series on Association culture, its role, how it is shaped, and how it can be changed.

Changing Your Association Management Changes Your Culture

 As you likely know, the concept of “management as a system” is not commonly talked about even among experienced Association leaders and academics. However, if you understand that a process is a collection of activities that target a specific output, and that a system is a collection of processes that target a larger aggregated output, then buying the concept of a management system isn’t much of a leap.

Why does this matter?

When we understand that management itself is in fact a collection of specific processes, it allows us to apply process thinking and tools to the work of management. So, like any other process, the management process can be understood, assessed, measured, and improved.

It took a long time for me to understand the connection between an Association’s  management system and its culture. In fact, I learn something new about that relationship almost every day as I interact with customers and discover things I had not seen.

What is clear is that as an Association moves from an informal management system to an intentional and effective one, such as the Now Management System®, the leaders start to actually gain control over their results. This happens because process improvement is all about transparency (seeing where things are breaking down), accountability (measuring results and making it clear who has the responsibility to fix problems), problem solving (ensuring that process owners know how to fix processes), and the elimination of fear (which creates the safety to risk taking action on the problems).

NOW Management System

While the Now Management System systematically creates clarity, it shifts culture by establishing clear norms of accountability, new routines for transparency, and standard disciplines for solving problems. Our system achieves its maximum return on investment by shifting culture at the heart of these dimensions.

Changing Your Association Management Changes Your Culture

John M. Bernard, Founder & Chairman, Mass Ingenuity

Culture is all about patterns, roles, routines, language, and expected behaviors. A good management system addresses every one of those dimensions of organizational functioning. As an example, one of our clients recently held their Quarterly Target Review and reported improvement in 46% of their processes measures quarter over quarter.  This organization has dramatically shifted its culture to one of transparency, accountability, problem solving, and shared success.

All in all, I have never seen anything change culture as effectively and as positively as changing an Association’s management system.

Next week, the final post on this 10-part series on Association culture.

This is the sixth in a series on organizational culture, its role, how it is shaped, and how it can be changed.

 What’s Culture’s Affect on Association Change?

As a leader setting out to sponsor change, it is important to understand what that change will bump into in the Association’s culture. The more conscious the potential collisions are made, the more they can be avoided.

Professor Edgar Schein, a former MIT professor, identified 10 factors that transmit and embed culture. They are:

Formal statements of organizational philosophy (mission, values, imperatives, goals, etc.).

Design for physical spaces.

Deliberate role modeling, teaching, and coaching by leaders.

Explicit reward and status system, and promotion criteria.

Stories, legends, myths and parables about key people and events.

What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control.

Leader reactions to critical incidents or organizational crisis.

Organization design and structure.

Organizational systems and procedures (such as its management system).

Criteria used for recruitment, selection, and promotion.

Association Leaders

As a leader, this checklist is useful in assessing the gap between where the Association is, how it got there, and where it wants to go. By walking through these potential collisions, an Association leader can significantly improve the odds of success.What’s important in these assessments and subsequent communications about them is to not cast judgment on the past. The past just is what it is – we can never understand the motives of people nor fully appreciate the circumstance in which things happened. If we offer criticism we set a judgmental tone – even condemnation. That approach does nothing to increase the sense that the coming change will be safe to embrace and that related struggles will not be subject to the same criticism.

What’s culture’s affect on Association change?

As we work with customers on the Now Management System® we directly and overtly address items 1, 3, 6, and 9. But we encourage, advise and support addressing every single item in order to ensure their culture change sticks and that it delivers the business results that led to the desired change in the first place.

What are the attributes that allow an Association to make changes quickly? I’ll share some thoughts on that next week.