Consider a man in his 30s, the CEO of a company that was doing well. He sees profits are not rising as fast as they were. His concerns are likely to be
- how to stop further decline;
- how to regain lost profits
- how to get enough additional profit to protect against future drop.
We at Business Team Solutions (BTS) have found the most likely cause of the sluggishness is an internal conflict.
- If so, resolving the conflict will likely stop any future decline.
- It is likely to help regain lost profits.
- It may help increase profits even further.
What do we do?
- Often, a company’s C-Suite and Board are too close to the problem to see the conflict.
- BTS comes for a day or two.
- We first find out the CEO’s or Board Chair’s to view of what is happening
- We ask them about additional possibilities.
- We spend the day talking to managers and staff to explore what may be going on.
- That evening, we meet again with the CEO or Board Chair
- to discuss our findings
- to decide together with them how best to
- improve matters
- and resolve the issue.
While each internal conflict is unique, in our experience they usually fall into one or more of 9 categories.
- Non-productive Board meetings:
- Circumventing egos makes meetings productive
- Emotional situations:
- an excellent technician
- who is promoted to manage the team
- needs to learn to recognize emotions
- when the team comes with problems at home
- when the team comes with problems at work
- Polarized disagreements in Executive Committees:
- The more the two sides argue
- The more each side digs in its heels.
- Unproductive teams:
- New teams can’t decide what to do
- Established teams have lost their way
- Mergers:
- Everyone worries.
- Some disagree with their new peers
- Splits:
- Who will be fired?
- What will the new companies be like?
- How will customers react?
- People who stop contributing:
- Some causes and reasons are easy to resolve
- But hidden agendas
- are dangerous to the organization
- are more difficult to resolve
- The beatings will continue until morale improves:
- The neurological basis for staff shutting down
- When managers disdain them
- Accidentally
- Deliberately
- Gaps in culture:
- Why these must be addressed
- How to recognize them
- How a specialist team
- Analyzes them
- Collaborates with you to improve them
BTS only stays
- Until you tell us the issue is resolved.
- We are not going to be a permanent burden on your budget.
Other issues are likely to arise at your company in the future – at any company.
- We offer to teach your leaders how to resolve this themselves.
- Our fees for teaching are a fraction of the cost
- Of BTS returning to resolve a new issue.
Illustrations in my blogs are either my own drawings or courtesy of pixabay.com
Contact me at 650-762-6755 or pieterk@post.harvard.edu for more information or to start a conversation.
Pieter Kark, MD, Central Florida (near Orlando)