People

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

Leadership is more than just managing people. It's about developing them to their highest and best use and giving them the tools, resources and support to be productive and happy.  It's also important to lead by example and demonstrate the values you expect your team to demonstrate. 

Earlier in my career, I became certified in Situational Leadership where leaders adapt their style and approach to match the individual and their needs at any given moment.  No one style or approach is appropriate for all situations and people.  Good leaders adapt to the situation.

At IMA Financial Group, I inherited a situation where the company employees had given IT a -47 Net Promoter Score (NPS). The Infrastructure, Field Systems and Help Desk teams were at odds with each other and there was constant tension. The first, and most important step, was for me to get a clear understanding of the causes of the conflict. After meeting with members and leaders of each organization the root cause started to become very clear to me; no one really understood either their individual or team roles and responsibilities. The result was they had no idea how to work together because they had no clear expectations of each other. 

With the CIO's blessing, I combined both teams into the Technical Operations (TechOps) group. I then started meeting with the leaders and members of both groups to develop and document clear responsibilities for both groups. Then, within each team, I worked with the team leader to assign clear roles, responsibilities and expectations for each team member. I also developed Subject Matter Expert (SME), mentorship and Incident Escalation Plan for the entire organization.

Over the next two years, combined a comprehensive employee development plan (see below), the Technical Operations group improved the NPS to a +98.  That's a 145-point swing in just two years!!

One of the other challenges for the TechOps Team at IMA is that there was no clear path for employee career growth. After working to create clear roles and responsibilities for each team and team member (see above), the next step was to review and update job descriptions for each role in the organization. Additionally, building on the mentorship and SME programs, I developed 3 levels for each individual contributor role, based on the apprentice, journeyman, master concept. 

Finally, all roles were connected together into a Technical Operations Career Development Plan that gave team members clear development paths and requirements to every position within Technical Operations. This made criteria and requirements for career advancement much more clear and objective.  Additionally, managers referred to the Career Development Plan in their 1:1's and quarterly review meetings with team members to encourage growth and performance.

The end result was greatly improved employee satisfaction and, consequently, greatly improved (internal) customer satisfaction.

While it's fine and well to have a Career Development Plan there would be no chance for success without backing up that plan with a formal training program, which became the next goal for me.

There were four components of this program:

1. Develop an approved annual training budget for the team.
2. Develop a transparent training request and approval plan and mechanism.
3. Combine the mentorship and SME programs with an Incident Escalation Plan to create a positive feedback loop.
4. Ensure training, either formal or informal, became part of everyone's annual performance goals.

The Career Development Plan, combined with the Subject Matter Expert program, and backed by a budgeted training program created an environment where team members were self-motivated to develop their skills and demonstrate exceptionally high levels of performance. Another positive benefit of the combined programs was decreased employee turnover as team members were no longer motivated to look for alternative employment when they could grow their careers at IMA.

With all the above pieces in place, there was a complete transformation in not only productivity but also in the culture of the organization. As everyone understood their roles and responsibilities, as well as those of the other team members, friction between the teams completely evaporated. The final step, then, was to establish mechanisms that encouraged collaboration. This is where the Subject Matter Expert program, combined with the Mentorship program and the Incident Escalation Plan all came into play. 

In a nutshell, Enterprise Architect worked with the System Administrator to develop & document the Enterprise Architecture. The System Administrators were responsible for mentoring the Field Systems Technicians and receiving escalations from them. The Field Systems Technicians, in turn, were responsible for mentoring the Help Desk Technicians and receiving escalations from them.  The better each team member trained and mentored their proteges, the fewer escalations they received from them and the faster incidents were resolved. Not only did this system ensure better collaboration between the teams, but it also improved incident resolution times. 

The final component of this organizational turnaround was performance management. Fortunately, during the same period of time as the reorganization was underway, IMA, through their Human Resources Department, was implementing a formal Performance Management Plan, which included a new performance management system, Lattice.  On its own, the new Performance Management Plan and tool would likely have not been as successful or well received as it was. However, combined with all of the other programs the timing was perfect!

I worked closely with my team leaders to help them understand how to implement performance management, including goal setting, regular check-ins and quarterly reviews, to be a positive experience for team member and leader, alike.  Company goals were created by the CEO and cascaded to the CIO.  The CIO, in turn, developed IT goals to support the company goals. The CIO then cascaded his goals to me.  I, as it followed, developed TechOps goals and cascaded them to my direct reports, etc. This ensured that everyone's goals were clearly connected to the overall company goals, which gave the goals meaning and purpose. 

Through weekly 1:1's, performance discussions and year-end reviews the leaders in my organization made sure everyone understood their goals and their progress towards them.

The net results of this turnaround plan were:

• Improved morale
• Higher productivity
• Reduced labor costs (due to higher productivity)
• Decreased incident resolution times
• Improved employee satisfaction
• Increased employee retention
• Improved collaboration
• Attainable employee career development
• Greatly improved customer satisfaction (increased NPS from -47 to +98)