March 2015
In This Edition | High-Performance Teams
"Driving Transformation: Endologix’s Journey to High-Performance Leadership and Innovation"
Leader’s Corner: | David M. Jennings - The “Logix” of High Performance |
Howard Guttman: | Crisis Management: The High-Performance Way |
Ted Gerber: | From a Consultant’s Notebook |
David M. Jennings
Vice President
Endologix
David M. Jennings is vice president, human resources at Endologix (www.endologix.com), an Irvine, California-based company that develops and manufactures minimally invasive treatments for aortic disorders. The company’s focus is on the manufacturing of endovascular stent grafts for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Its products are available in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Japan.
What makes Endologix distinct?
For one, we are all “in.” We are a focused, mission-driven organization, with highly engaged employees. We don’t have deep pockets and are up against much larger competitors. Our passion is to serve our customers and patients. The way we will win is through launching important new technologies and therapies for our patients. We cannot operate by status quo; we need to be transformational. That’s the only way we can win. What I have learned over my career is that, in order to be a transformational market leader, the organization must feature a tightly knit group, whose values are aligned and whose skills are valued by our customers and patients. An average organization will not gain and sustain market leadership.
You mentioned a transformational therapy. What’s in the pipeline?
We have developed a groundbreaking therapy for patients that represents a significant breakthrough in treating aortic aneurysms. Indeed, it is a new therapy. This product has been successfully used by vascular surgeons in Europe and other countries, and we expect to have it available in the U.S. and new markets within the next 18 months.
I take it that much of your growth is still ahead. What issues prompted you to pursue the horizontal, high-performance approach?
We know we have a transformational product that will drive an ambitious growth plan, but do we have an equally transformational organization to support it?
Leader's Corner: |
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David M. Jennings – The “Logix” of High Performance |
Frankly, we knew we had to up our game, beginning with the senior team. We recruited exceptional talent from top companies. They all brought their own best practices and cultural expectations to Endologix.In effect, we had “pockets” scattered throughout the company that reflected cultures different than our own. What we needed was to gain agreement on a uniform set of best practices for how we operate here. What was the “Endologix way?”
How did this Balkanized approach play out organizationally?
There were silo problems. Each function focused on doing its own thing. Those of us on the leadership team lacked a coherent vision that said, “We’re all in the same boat together.” We weren’t fully accountable to one another. There was low appreciation of the benefits of being interdependent.
What will Endologix look like at the end of your quest to reframe the organization?
In early 2014, we met numerous times to hammer out our values. This in itself was a watershed event. We began aligning around tangible concepts and expectations. We were determined not to have the values statements sit gathering dust on walls; we wanted to ensure that they were embedded into all our organizational systems. This is seen in the way we select new employees, whom we promote, and the competencies that we assess and develop. Our values articulate our relationships with patients and customers, as well as how we operate and work with one another day to day. If we adhere closely to these values, then we are confident that we will be successful.
I’m a fly on the wall at a leadership team meeting. What would I notice that’s different now that you’ve been through team alignment and leadership development sessions?
You’d see that we’re much better at calling out behaviors that run counter to our high-performance values, such as group-think and lack of transparency. You’d also see conflict coming to the surface and being resolved in the moment and in the open. It has been raised to a constant awareness and we hold each other accountable to it.
Any examples come to mind?
Two of our team members, with significant management responsibility, were not aligning, and this was becoming increasingly apparent to the leadership team. After the alignment session, it was clear that the two continued to avoid one another and weren’t working together. The team told them, “Wait a second, this is not okay. You two need to go off, work it out, and come back to us and let us know what you came up with.” That would have never happened before. We would have watched it, shaken our heads, and never dealt with it head-on. Now, the team takes responsibility for the way team members behave. We are also doing a better job with being transparent: “I’m going to tell you what I’m really thinking about this issue.” The level of openness is probably one of the biggest changes I’ve seen.
To be open and transparent, team members need to feel safe. What is there about the high-performance culture that allows people to “go there?”
The alignment session provided a context for transparency. We discovered in the session that when we gave one another honest feedback, most of the fears were empty. Relationships that were strained didn’t get worse; they actually became more intimate. When you get people to be honest and transparent, when you purge long-standing concerns by airing them, it’s very therapeutic—even liberating. When the conversation you’ve always wanted to have with a peer, but never did, finally happens, you get a deep level of understanding and a sense of comfort and safety from it. It’s scary at first, but once you do it the relationship changes. You feel an immediate swing from being all alone, in a silo, to being part of a team, where you are valued as a person and a member of the team. And it makes you feel more powerful.
What do you see as your unique role, as vice president of HR, in transforming your team to a high-performance one?
At first, I played an advocacy role. I had to convince members of the leadership team that we needed to undertake the high-performance journey. That was a 10-month process! Once we embraced the process, nurturing it became important. I wanted to make sure that we lived the high-performance approach. For example, at the end of each meeting, we routinely discuss how we operated as a team in the meeting. Did we act as a high-performance team?
Another role I had was to hold team members accountable. I remember having to tell a team member that refusing to trust and work with another team member was not an option. He went to the team leader, who echoed what I had said.
It’s either the high-performance way or the highway, which we clearly didn’t want him to choose but were prepared to accept.
What are the next steps to ensure that your high-performance vision becomes real?
After the alignment, we agreed to have GDS coach our CEO, which for us was significant. It reinforced the HPT message. We went through the influencing-skills program, and we’re having a GDS consultant sit through one of our business meetings to observe how we’re behaving. In April, we are scheduled to do a team reassessment to check on our progress. We will provide on-going leadership-skills development to the team to ensure that we’re equipped to play at a high-performance level. In mid-year, once we have traction as a leadership team, we will then involve the next level in the process.
What do you see as the core skills that are essential for high performance?
Conflict management is surely one of the most important. Influence management, holding oneself and others accountable, and listening receptively are all critically important.
Listening receptively?
Yes. It’s about accepting the idea that all of us can contribute to one another. This entails understanding another person’s perspective, especially when it may be foreign to our way of thinking.
For example, each of us sits in executive meetings as general managers. Sure, we represent our own functions, but our primary role during these meetings (and when we get back to our offices) is to be thoughtful and open to all opportunities to improve the business. I need to be open to ideas from my colleagues on different insights into HR-related programs, and I am empowered to comment openly about other areas in the business. Being a high-performance team requires me to source ideas outside my silo or traditional way of thinking.
What is the biggest challenge in getting to a high-performing team?
We have to scale up our organization to take it to a much larger, global, complex level. We need to build people, systems, and process capabilities. We need to be ready for the explosive growth in less than 18 months.
To what extent will the high-performance, horizontal model help you upscale to a global organization?
Perhaps most importantly, as a team we now talk openly about the challenges. In the past, we entered one global market with a “ready-fire-aim” approach. We made commitments without proper consideration of infrastructure needs. We now are looking at new regions, but now we work as a team, using an integrated, multifunctional approach for that business, carefully laying out a plan, and reallocating resources. The high-performance experience has made the difference.
What’s your advice to other senior-level executives in terms of undertaking a similar high-performance journey?
Some may feel that they only need HPT if their leadership process is completely broken or dysfunctional. It is common to feel a bit defensive when someone suggests that your team could benefit from an alignment. But, there are outages on every team. It can be seen when agreements are made but not remembered, when agreed-upon follow-up actions aren’t taken. Perhaps “yes” doesn’t always mean “yes,” and “no” doesn’t always mean “no.” Maybe you’ve felt that you could have better traction as a team—that things take longer than anticipated. Whenever you see misfires like this, it’s a sign that you need some help. We reached out to embrace the high-performance approach, not because we thought we were broken, but because we saw the transformational journey ahead of us and knew our current process would not be sufficient. Today, we won’t accept what we accepted in the past. It’s been a great journey, and I would recommend it to any executive intent on transforming his or her team.
Crisis Management: The High-Performance Way |
by Howard M. Guttman
Crises are leadership moments of truth.
While it’s tough enough these days for business leaders to thread their way through all the turbulence, add an unexpected threat or crisis to the mix and you and your organization can be left gasping for air. The margin for error is paper thin. A misstep can be costly. Think about the NFL and its handling of abuse, global financial institutions and persistent cases of rogue trading and money laundering, and BP’s initial mismanagement of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
There is no magic wand that you can wave over a crisis situation to make it disappear. Call them what you will—crises, tough management challenges, existential threats—they are disruptive and potentially life-threatening to the health and survival of an organization. And they better bring out the best that the leader and the organization have to offer, or else…
Crises come in many forms. Some are internal to the organization: a sudden change in top leadership, dire cash-flow issues, fraud at the highest levels. Others have their origin externally: a serious competitive threat, product recalls, government investigations, and, more recently, internet security breaches. The one certainty about a crisis is that sooner or later, you will have to face one.
While there are no magic wands or cookie-cutter solutions, here are a few suggestions for handling the crisis that inevitably will occur on your watch:
Be Prepared. A few years ago, Toyota faced an “unintended acceleration” problem. The Economist’s analysis of Toyota blamed the crisis handling on “the rigid system of seniority and hierarchy in which people are reluctant to pass bad news up the chain.” This hierarchical structure lacked transparency, leading to slow decision-making. Contrast this with how President Kennedy handled the Cuban missile crisis. He assembled a trusted, horizontal team (ExComm) with open, transparent discussions, resulting in a high-performance crisis response.
In a crisis, engage the brainpower of everyone who can contribute. Build a high-performance environment for fast, effective decision-making in good times and bad.
Take Command. High-performance leaders lean forward to direct a crisis rather than be at the effect of it. They ask questions, gather facts, assess key players, reassure stakeholders, and begin formulating a strategy. Leadership is about being present during a crisis, ensuring that the impact you make is positive.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia, responded to the tragedy of flight QZ8501 by taking immediate action, grieving with the families, and providing transparency. This was a stark contrast to the inconsistent and incomplete responses from Malaysia Airlines during the disappearance of flight MH370.
Be Cool—and Real. Remaining calm in a crisis is essential. Captain “Sully” Sullenberger remained focused and landed US Airways Flight 1549 safely in the Hudson River after it lost both engines. On the other hand, businesses like Amy’s Baking Company and BP mishandled crises with emotional outbursts and misleading statements, which further damaged their reputations. Keeping it real and taking responsibility helps build trust. A study found that firms that took personal responsibility for a bad year performed better in the following year than those that blamed external factors.
Communicate. Timely, accurate, frequent, and honest communication is key in a crisis. Acknowledge the problem, communicate progress, and apologize when necessary. The truth pays, and leaders who take ownership are often more respected and trusted.
In times of crisis, these steps—preparation, taking command, staying cool, and communicating effectively—are essential for not only navigating through the storm but for coming out stronger on the other side.
From a Consultant’s Notebook |
Ted Gerber
Here are the field notes from an intervention led by Guttman Senior Associate Consultant Ted Gerber.
Presenting Situation
The senior leadership team of the manufacturing division of a major supplier of beauty products was seriously underperforming. The team leader, who was president of the division, put the blame squarely on the team: Team members were not aligned with strategy and goal….there was little focus on results…. they wouldn’t look beyond their respective silos. Team members fingered the leader: He was condescending and dismissive, was standoffish rather than inclusive, and made decisions unilaterally. Not surprisingly, the division was in trouble….Corporate wondered if the leader had the right leadership stuff.
Charter for Guttman
Make sure there was tight alignment between the team leader and the team….This included ensuring that the leader’s style was in sync with the needs of the team for collaboration, and that expectations between team members were clear and agreed upon….Also, team goals had to be clarified, team members had to operate more interdependently, and protocols for conflict management and decision making had to be put in place.
Process
First met with divisional VP of HR, who served as a magnet for complaints from members of the leadership team. Next met with the president and the VP of HR to discuss objectives, the situation, and lay out next steps for a team alignment….A process overview for the team set expectations, answered questions, addressed concerns, and got team members engaged….Interviews and a team survey were conducted….Results first discussed privately with the president and HRVP, before sharing with the team….Biggest surprise for the president: widespread lack of goal clarity among team members; feeling he monopolized decision making; was arrogant; and had a cowboy, shoot-from-the-hip style…. Next, alignment session held….Team members eager to provide leader with feedback. Dispensed with structured feedback and instead opted for each team member getting up before the team for candid feedback and discussion….Tough, but liberating experience….Commitments made and codified….more transparency, shared best practices across functions, ground rules agreed upon for in-the-moment feedback: solicit input cross-functionally…agree to protocols for managing conflict and decision making.
Results
This is a work in progress. Leader now aware of how he shows up to team…is less condescending…more inclusive, less unilateral….but needs additional coaching….Team less siloed, more honest with leader and one another…now show up as players, not victims…Clarity on decision-making process…24-hour rule for resolving conflict has reduced friction and triangulation. Corporate impressed and waiting to see if improvements continue.
Key Insights
Teams function optimally when everyone is clear on expectations. Having honest conversation and feedback—leader and team, and peer to peer—is essential. If this is not happening or difficult to do, then ask: Why isn’t this happening? What’s blocking transparency: the leader’s behavior, the team’s stories, or something in the consequence system that promotes dysfunctional behavior?
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