Business Results & Personal Development
for CEOs & Key Executives
Home   |   About Us   |   Lit Request   |   Contact Us   |   View Ensellopedia.com
847-208-8709         Email  
Download Free Article

"Best Practices for Managing
in the Best of Times"
Best Practices
Business Results   »
Personal Development  »
Growth Coaching
Executive  »
Sales Manager »
Sales Rep  »
Chally Tools
Sales Reps  »
Sales Management  »
Managers  »
Executives  »
Vistage / TEC Tools
Vistage Works   »
CEO Peer Groups  »
Key Executive Groups  »
Trusted Advisors  »
Request Literature
Sales Recruiting  »
Sales Compensation  »
Exceptional Managers  »
Resource Links

CEO Best Practice: Management Development

Executive Tools

  • Executive Summary
  • Self Assessment Checklist

Expert Practices Articles

  • Management Development Overview
  • Principles of Development
  • Creating Individual Developmental Plans
  • Ten Steps to a 9+ Management Team
  • Developing a Second-in-Command
  • How to Conduct Developmental One-to-Ones
  • Coaching Resistors and Mediocre Performers
  • Developing the CEO Position
  • Managing the Managerial Work Mix
  • Better Teams Through Better Meetings
  • Avoiding the Developmental Potholes

Case Histories

  • Offer Weekend Training

Tools & Analysis

  • One-to-One Rating Form
  • Self Assessment Checklist

Book List: Management Development

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


CEO Best Practice: Management Development

Executive Summary

  • Management Development Overview
  • Principles of Development
  • Creating Individual Developmental Plans
  • Ten Steps to a 9+ Management Team
  • Developing a Second-in-Command
  • How to Conduct Developmental One-to-Ones
  • Coaching Resistors and Mediocre Performers
  • Developing the CEO Position
  • Managing the Managerial Work Mix
  • Better Teams Through Better Meetings
  • Avoiding the Developmental Potholes

Management Development Overview

Making people development a strategic priority offers a number of benefits, including:

  • Ability to attract and retain talent
  • Improved "CEO return on investment"
  • Increased ability to adapt to change
  • Competitive advantage that compounds itself every year

Change is running rampant through everyone's industry and marketplace. The companies with strong management teams will face the change and thrive on it. They will use it to differentiate themselves and gain a position of market leadership, while other companies struggle to keep up.

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Principles of Development

Thomson identifies the fundamental principles of management development that apply to companies of all shapes and sizes:

  • People development is the CEO's job.
  • Management development must be a priority.
  • People development must become part of the culture.
  • Growing people requires change.

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Creating Individual Developmental Plans

Growing your managers requires a customized developmental plan for each manager. Thomson outlines five essential steps for creating individual developmental plans:

  1. Introduce the idea of a developmental plan.
  2. Identify the developmental priorities.
  3. Create the action plan.
  4. Conduct monthly progress meetings.
  5. Have your key managers engage in this process with their people.

To help implement the plan:

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Ten Steps to a 9+ Management Team

To survive and thrive in a digital world, says TEC speaker and team building expert Lawrence King, you need a top-notch management team. He offers a ten-step process for developing a world-class management team:

  1. Profile the winning team.
  2. Assess your current team.
  3. Identify your role on the team.
  4. Identify your personal barriers to building a 9+ team.

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Developing a Second-in-Command

When done properly, says TEC speaker Steve Coffey, bringing on a #2 person can provide a host of benefits to the CEO, set the stage for a stronger management team and help propel the business to a new level of growth. The process, however, is fraught with potential pitfalls. Before hiring or promoting anyone to a position of second in command, ask:

  • How will the company be different with a #2 in place?
  • What is not happening that would be improved with a #2?
  • What, specifically, do I expect from a #2?
  • What will a new executive provide that the current management team doesn't? Why?
  • How will my life be different with a #2? What will change for me personally?

To successfully install a #2:

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


How to Conduct Developmental One-to-Ones

A former Vistage chair, King firmly believes in the power of one-to-ones as developmental tools. Accordingly, he strongly recommends that CEOs meet with each direct report for a monthly one-to-one meeting. To conduct effective one-to-ones with your direct reports, King recommends a four-step process:

  1. Schedule your one-to-one meetings in indelible ink. Schedule one hour per month of quality, protected time with each direct report. Set up the meetings six months to a year out and write them in indelible ink.
  2. Work the executive's agenda, not yours. Direct reports must prepare an agenda for each one-to-one that:
    • Contains four to eight items
    • Focuses at least 25 percent on strategy and long-term developmental issues
    • Contains at least one opportunity
  3. Listen, listen, listen. In the one-to-one, let the direct report do 80 percent of the talking. With an 80/20 split, the direct report will perceive the "air time" as just about equal.

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Coaching Resistors and Mediocre Performers

To help turn mediocre managers into quality performers, King recommends the following steps:

  • Create a 90-day developmental plan with the under-performing manager.
  • Meet with the manager on a weekly basis to review progress.
  • Provide feedback, coaching and mentoring as needed.
  • Provide praise and recognition for improved performance.

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Developing the CEO Position

"The best candidates combine solid business thinking, personal integrity, an ability to analyze problems and who also want to work with others," says Zaepfel. "They should be able to speak for your customers so the focus stays on doing everything possible to give people what they want now and in the future."

Other advice:

  • Look for a track record. "Broaden your candidate search to include at least one CEO or senior executive who have expanded their own business by at least two or three times," Zaepfel says.
  • Appeal to a candidate's sense of challenge. The challenge of serving on a board and helping a business grow isn't so very different from building your own business. Seek out people who respond enthusiastically to the intellectual challenge of bringing a company to a higher level of achievement and success.
  • Choose someone who's confidential by profession. Attorneys, accountants and recruiters are frequently a wise choice as advisory board candidates -- both because of their experience and knowledge, and because they're bound by their positions to confidentiality.
  • To locate potential board members who are "the right fit," the TEC experts suggest the following guidelines:
  • Match strategic goals with strategic individuals. Are your expansion plans likely to involve new initiatives in human resources, technology issues, raising capital, etc.? Knowing your long-range goals helps guide you toward the type of people with experience and knowledge in these areas.
  • Don't be afraid to ask for help. If your own search doesn't prove fruitful, consider going to a professional recruiter. They'll conduct an assessment of your company and suggest candidates who will likely make a good match.
  • Good talent doesn't come cheap. You don't want to choose someone who's in it just for the money, but remember that men and women with proven experience and skills expect to be reasonably compensated for their time and efforts on your behalf.
  • One director can lead to another. So you've landed an outstanding individual to serve on your board. "The next logical step is asking this person for other recommendations," Lapides says. "A valuable board member brings his or her own network of contacts and is likely to know others who specialize in areas you're interested in."

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Managing the Managerial Work Mix

Three factors play an essential role in managerial success:

  1. Have the right person in the right job.
  2. Make sure the manager/leader understands the key elements of the job.
  3. Make sure the manager/leader does the right work.

What is the right kind of work for a manager/leader? According to TEC speaker Bill Scherer, all managers and supervisors engage in three different kinds of work:

  1. Administrative work. The paper-processing, approving and checking that comes with the job.
  2. Operating work. Activities that relate directly to the work the supervisor oversees.
  3. Managing work. This includes five broad categories:
    • Planning
    • Leading
    • Organizing
    • Controlling
    • Motivating

The key to success is making sure your manager/leaders spend an appropriate amount of time in each area. Although he hasn't found the perfect formula for allocating time between operating and managing work, Scherer offers the following guidelines:

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Better Teams Through Better Meetings

According to King, meetings offer a powerful tool for developing your management team. You can dramatically increase the quality of your meetings by understanding four fundamental principles:

  1. Quality. Go for quality, not quantity. If you can't identify a specific outcome from a meeting and why it adds value, cancel the meeting.
  2. Structure. Never conduct a meeting without some type of structure. Meetings without structure give meetings a bad name.
  3. Ownership. In successful meetings, someone takes ownership for the process and the outcome.
  4. Variety. To keep meetings fresh and interesting, break up the routine every once in a while. Use techniques such as brainstorming, role-play and breakout groups to raise energy levels and promote creativity.

To turn your management team meetings into crisp, fast-paced sessions that accomplish meaningful outcomes, King recommends the following steps:

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development


Avoiding the Developmental Potholes

To avoid derailing your management development efforts, watch out for these common mistakes:

  1. Failure to communicate expectations.
  2. Failure to make people development a priority.
  3. Unrealistic expectations.
  4. Inappropriate leadership style.
  5. Failure to get buy-in.

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: Management Development