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How Do I Develop A New Accountable Management Team?
Posted By: kalpesh103* on 10/3/2004 11:48 AM (CST) 250 Points
I joined 2 yrs ago as CEO for Financial Bank Co., which was running in terrible shape for slumping deposits, declining loan portfolio, and many consultants recommending for change. When I joined everywas had assumed they would either go out of business or be absorbed. As a action, I reduced the mangement group from a large to people of 7 team, 6 branch managers and myself. I used my internal management team and consultants recommendations, and a bit of luck which changed the status of our company, and we were doing good.. Now I want to move towards more distributed decision making model, where branch managers took a more active role in decision making and implementing, in addition to managing their areas. But the try didnt seem to work. Also I want to locate 2 additional branches and a small business deposit/loan products where I need active participation from branch managers who understands cliental needs.
Could you advice me ?

Posted by: JBtron Accepted Answer
10/3/2004 5:26 PM (CST)
kalpesh,

Your dilemma is profound, yet you've given us SO LITTLE INFORMATION to go on in trying to help you that I can only give you a pro forma response:

If a distributed distribution decision model doesn't work, it is sometimes a result of a weak chain of command that really didn't empower the decision-makers to do their separate jobs in the first place. That might be a place to start in your investigation of your past results. Perhaps there was something more you could have done to make sure the managers knew it REALLY WAS their decisions. In my experience, that most often comes in the form of budget control.

Better communication between managers is also a contributing factor in a situation like this. I once instituted a daily conference call among one of my management teams, because our efforts and RESULTS were interlinked, and EACH manager had an impact on the success of the overall team.

But, I think, and I’m sure my KHE colleagues would agree, more info would be a help for everyone.

Hope THIS helps!

Best,

::JBtron
 
Posted by: mbarber Accepted Answer
10/3/2004 10:57 PM (CST)
Gidday Kalpesh.

You have a couple of critical issues that will create the most tension for you.

First up you probably still have staff that remember the bad days when it looked like you would go under.

Second you have the same staff that now know that they are in better shape BECAUSE of the way you have managed the process.

To move to a distributed decision making model then means you are going to ask people that have essentially been following your lead to now take some responsibility themselves.

So the CRITICAL thing you will need to do is show your staff that they HAVE PERMISSION to make some decisions.

If all you do is say - 'okay, you go away and come up with something' that won't work because the existing frame of thinking is unlikely to support that process.

I'd recommend that you establish 'think sites' and 'think sessions' where collaborative ideas can emerge (decisions without the fear of rejection). As manager it would then be incumbent upon you to implement some (not neccessarily all) of those decisions so the group learns that thinking for themselves (rather than just following orders) is okay.

Then you ensure that you send out a company wide email/newsletter where you talk about the great ideas that emerged from the session. Ensure you explain that staff from 'x' levels (or across the company) were involved. That sets the tone. You can show them the guidleines that were set and how the decision making process evolved and was acted upon.

Over time you give more and more responsibility with a reminder always to the rules for engagement.

As to the local branches, just get the staff in and ask for their honest opinions. If there is any residual fear about management, get an external facilitator in to run the session and to gather any thoughts independently
 
Posted by: ASVP/ChrisB Accepted Answer
10/3/2004 11:42 PM (CST)
JB is spot-on.

We need a load more info to be more helpful. However, from the little you have told us, it sounds to me like you may have a lack of defined accountability in the business.

Strategy needs to be clearly communicated. And Responsibility needs to be clearly communicated. If you have done that properly, then so far, so good, the whole team knows what they are supposed to be doing and which team member is responsible for which element.

Then you need to measure results transparently. Which means you must define appropriate measures or indicators, agree with your team these are appropriate, and then review their results versus the targets for each defined measure.

The final step is to link rewards to performance.. which is something you should NOT attempt until your performance measures have been in place and working for at least twelve months.

My company prefers the Balanced Scorecard approach to map, communicate and measure strategic and individual performance. If you are interested in this, feel free to contact me vi my profile http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/profile.asp?userID=189752

Hope this helps

ChrisB
 
Posted by: et3dotcom* Accepted Answer
10/9/2004 1:11 PM (CST)

Good advice, a couple more points to consider:


It sounds like an element of your success may have been because you had to be successful in order to save your job. Fear is a powerful motivator –more powerful than greed. Greed is good too – the second most powerful motivator. The unreasonable and arbitrary use of fear will not enhance performance, it actually erodes it. The too frequent use of reward is also counter to peak performance – its costs too much. The best combination is a balanced “stick and carrot” approach where the manager has a stake in the optimum performance of the branch; is rewarded for meeting high goals, and punished for going backward.

Ownership is proven to be one of the best ways to implement both the stick and carrot at the same time. Is it possible for you to use compensatory shares? Profit sharing? If so these motivators could represent a win win situation for your bank and your managers. The carrot is implemented by awarding a lot of shares, but vesting them over a period of time – say 5 years provides a “stick”, so good managers have incentive to excel, and it will be harder for other banks to recruit your best managers away from you.

Also announce that the worst performing manager will be fired, and the best performing manager will be rewarded in a fixed period of time, and according to fair measures.
 
Posted by: thinkmor Accepted Answer
10/12/2004 9:49 AM (CST)
Hi Kalpesh

I would agree with the need for more info but here is my angle.

How do you know your current team HAVE the skills to develop the business and take more responsibility?

What training programmes, skills and personal competency assessments have been executed e.g. 360 degrees, psychometric testing? How do you know your level of customer quality delivery? Do you have any QA processes or other TQM in place?

Although, you may want to change your business model, you need to find out WHY what you have done has worked or was it a short term cost reduction exercise in exchange for strategy that will help build future change and success for your organization?

I would recommend building a culture with SHARED ownerships with a FOCUS that everyone is committed to and believes in, with rewards to match. Integrating and keeping your organization structure as flat as possible, in my experience, has always worked better if you want to succeed for the long term.

Hope that helps.

Zahid Adil
 
Posted by: jcmedinave Accepted Answer
10/14/2004 10:06 AM (CST)
Are they involved and convinced in the new challenges? Are they trained in the new roles?
Depends on the answer, you could increase the communication activities, participation, training, or hiring people. Develop a plan, define objectives, give tools, develop incentive programs, metric, and communicate, communicate and communicate. Remember that the best communication include the facts, emotions and symbols.

Some interesting articles:

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/29/teams.html

http://www.hr.com/HRcom/index.cfm/46/9472FC13-C617-4EFB-A46E0CD1A52F63C4?os...

http://www.hr.com/hrcom/index.cfm/195/17B6BE5A-A0E5-4CD5-B2DCC0AAC25AA61D

http://www.hr.com/HRcom/index.cfm/74/AA02E044-CD98-45D0-B47D071AC86E1DAB?os...

http://www.hr.com/hrcom/index.cfm/74/21BA404E-F5EB-4A41-B37C961FB2E40BDF
 
Posted by: Val (Moderator)* Moderator Response
10/18/2004 4:12 AM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since its more than 10 days old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions. Thanks, so much, for participating!

Val (Moderator)
 


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