One of the most common challenges leaders face is planning for the future.  You can come up with a great plan, but then you have to sell it to your team, or the whole organization.  Inevitably, someone feels you didn’t consider their views or interests.  And then they block your designs.

So maybe you try meeting with the groups who have to implement the plan to get their input beforehand.  But now you have to prioritize the different perspectives and integrate them into a coherent plan.  Again, some group will feel that they are getting short-changed, and you will have to deal with that resistance.

I have helped solve this problem – the best way to move forward is to tap the expertise and experience of stakeholders in your organization, and even those outside it (e.g., customers, suppliers, government authorities). Simply asking for input is not enough – it will leave you with the impossible task of balancing competing demands and needs, and inevitably some group will be unhappy and potentially obstructive.

I help provide a structure for the stakeholder groups to talk with one another, unleashing surprising creativity, innovation, and energy. With the right methodology, they will discover their common ground and eagerly work to implement a shared vision of the future of your organization. And you can be confident that they will be behind you.

Case example:

School districts often have trouble getting their communities to unite behind their plans, be it passing a referendum to build a new high school, or establish partnerships with local businesses or colleges.  In Wisconsin, many districts have “gotten the whole system in the room” to talk with one another and find their common ground.  And the results have been quite impressive.  I co-wrote an article on these successes, published in the flagship Journal of Scholarship and Practice of the American Association of School Administrators.

For more details about how I approach Strategic Planning, see this page.

Sometimes leaders have to, or want to, make major changes.  Mergers and acquisitions and plant closings are the most extreme examples.  But there are other situations such as reorganizations or desire to change organizational culture.  You know where you stand now, and you have a picture of where you want to be.  But how do you get from Point A to Point B?  There are so many moving parts and people whose roles will have to change.

Case Example:

An architecture firm experienced rapid growth over a short period of time, following having acquired two smaller firms.  Their leaders were overwhelmed and highly stressed managing the new situation.  We did an in-depth assessment using interviews with key people, and made recommendations for reorganizing into a matrix design.  This created some new positions, and we provided coaching for these individuals to help them define their new roles.  We instituted a Leadership Learning Group for a new class of positions.  This provided a forum to negotiate lines of communication, clarification of authority for decisions, and created camaraderie within this group so that they could support one another.  Finally, there was another coaching assignment with an architect who was not fitting into his new role.  These steps resulted in the firm increasing their efficiency and ability to get and complete projects, all with less stress on everyone.

The traditional approach when there is a conflict between people or groups in an organization or community is to talk to the parties, perhaps get them to talk with one another. Mediators try to find compromises in positions that still address the parties interests. This can sometimes be effective. But often this approach leaves everyone at least a little unhappy, and can drive the conflict underground, emerging in other difficulties you will have to address.

I go deeper. When I work with such situations, I treat the conflict as a symptom of some systemic issue. Rather than limiting my inquiry to the parties in conflict, I will do a wider systemic assessment, interviewing other stakeholders and groups to make an organizational diagnosis.

Two case examples:

In a large law firm, there was conflict between the Associates and the Partners.  In taking a wider view, I discovered that a change in the firm’s business environment was causing everyone (Associates and Partners) increased anxiety about the future profitability of the firm.  Once this became clear, I helped create a steering committee comprised of representatives from both groups to address their common threat.  In so doing, the tensions between the groups disappeared, and the firm was able to weather these challenges successfully.

The Residents in a medical training program lodged a formal complaint about a hostile learning environment, causing a major rift between the Residents and the Attending Physicians.  Patient care was suffering, Residents were not learning, and the Attending Doctors were burning out.  In a series of group and individual interviews, it became clear that a recent merger in their medical system and changes in resulting reimbursement patterns had caused a ripple effect in the department.  By surfacing this common challenge, the department Chair was able to get the department more resources, and I facilitated discussions between Residents and Attendings to develop how they would address these systemic changes together.  This shift from fighting one another to banding together to meet their common challenge led to a more harmonious relationship, and better patient care.

The Three-Circle Model of family businesses is very helpful to understanding the dynamics of owner-led businesses. The intersections of family, ownership, and the business provides a helpful frame when helping family businesses thrive. As a psychologist, I am particularly attuned to family dynamics, generational differences, sibling relations, and succession issues. These must be addressed along with classic business dimensions.

Case Example:

This is one of the most common situations in family businesses: the Founder is getting ready to retire.  His children have different talents and ambitions.  But they also have tensions and rivalries that are so natural for siblings.  How will they be able to sort out their new roles, once their parent retires?  One of the adult children will assume leadership, and the others will have to be subordinate to their sibling.  This generates all kinds of feelings in everyone.  I help in two ways: I facilitate discussions between all the family members, as well as conduct coaching sessions with the individuals involved.  We surface the relevant family dynamics, and untangle the business issues from the family issues.

The second way I help family businesses is to provide a place to reflect and talk about their struggles with family dynamics in the business. They often feel that they can’t discuss family concerns with their family, and they fear talking about them in the business will have a harmful impact on valued employees. That’s why I believe in the power of peer groups, and offer Executive Roundtable Groups – a place where family business leaders can discuss things they can’t talk about anywhere else.

For more details about these peer groups, please see this page on Executive Roundtable Groups.

Ask anyone who feels they are burning out, and they will tell you that it’s not the job that is stressing them.  Rather, it’s their boss, or the paperwork, or the intrusions that interrupt them constantly, or the team dynamics, or endless and useless meetings, etc.

Many people think that burnout is a function of the individual’s personality, and many attempts are made to help people avoid burnout. Offerings such as yoga classes, relaxation lessons, company outings, recreational retreats, etc. are often aimed to reducing individuals’ stress and combating burnout.

Research and experience show that these steps are not effective. Burnout is really a symptom of systemic issues, not individual characteristics. A psychologically healthy person will burnout and want to leave their job if the environment in which they work is too stressful. And even someone who is more fragile can thrive in a work environment that pays attention to these issues. Similarly, turnover and low morale are evidence of systemic problems. A full organizational “check-up” can reveal where the problems lie, and point to ways to address them effectively.

Case Example:

Psychiatric facilities are notorious for burning out their staff.  And every time someone leaves due to work stress, a vicious cycle starts: in the time it takes to train and integrate a new staff member, patients tend to act out more, stressing the other staff members, leading to more departures, and more stress.  The way to stop this destructive cycle is to provide a forum for staff to discuss their common problems, and the systemic problems to which they are all subject.  Facilitating such discussions takes skill so that they don’t devolve into mere gripe sessions.  These can be regular and ongoing, or in the form of staff retreats.  I provide the structure and psychological safety to contain the conversations so that they remain productive, and the systemic issues causing the stresses can be addressed.

Some people are familiar with the “Peter Principle”: employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.  So how do you ensure that someone who is doing a great job, will turn out to be a great leader?  Some people have leadership qualities already, but even if they do, they still need to develop those leadership qualities into day-to-day leadership skills.

Case Example:

A senior engineer does great work, and his higher-ups want to promote him to Vice President.  But there has been some interpersonal friction, and blow-ups in the office, and there is concern that he won’t be able to manage his temper as a leader.  I worked with this engineer in a coaching relationship, and helped him to understand the roots of his anger.  He was then able to find ways to express legitimate and important feedback in a way that could be heard by others.  He was promoted to V.P., and has been functioning beautifully, leading his staff without blowing up.

For more information on how I approach coaching, see this page.

You’ve got a great group of individuals – everyone is top talent and does great work… when they are working independently.  But team members are NOT independent – everyone’s work is inter-related with everyone else’s!  So when you have meetings, there are all kinds of conflicts about how decisions are made and who gets to make them.

Case Example:

I worked with a team that had three people who thought they were the team leader.  And when asked, other team members could not agree on who was in charge.  As you can imagine, this caused friction and disagreements, and demoralized the rest of the team.  I designed and facilitated a retreat with the three “leaders” and in structured exercises we were able to clarify the roles and responsibilities.  They were able to reach agreement on who would have the decision-making authority for different issues, and whose input they would need to solicit before making a decision.  This not only smoothed out current issues, but also they learned techniques for how to resolve such questions in the future.

To see more about how I help develop high-performing teams, see this page.

Team meetings are often quite important.  They help everyone to get on the same page, clarify roles, determine action items, plan for the future, and resolve any conflicts that arise.  But in so many instances, people complain that their team meetings are a waste of time.  The reasons for this vary, but one common situation is when one team member can go on and on, while others tune out and stay silent.

Case Example:

When I work with a team to improve their meetings, we start with an assessment process.  This involves interviews with all the members, my sitting in and observing a meeting or two, and giving a formal, evidence-based and thoroughly researched assessment tool.  There are different options for this, and I choose a tool that fits the particular issue.  The results of the assessment point to the issues that are getting in the way of full and equal participation of team members.  Often we identify barriers to psychological safety, that is, what is keeping team members from feeling free to speak their minds productively.  There are specific activities that we can do to address these barriers, and create an environment where the team can have the right conversations.  It is important to have me as an expert in group dynamics to facilitate these activities, to ensure the team doesn’t repeat their same old patterns.

To see more about how I help teams function better, see this page.