It was just another day at work…then the product manager and I were called into the boss’ office.
My peer and I had just been briefed on the project that would be consuming our professional lives for the next nine months. We needed to simultaneously design a new-to-the-world component and a manufacturing line to deliver it at volume. This would usually take twice the nine-month schedule – but we needed to do both tasks in parallel.
We were both MBA’s and engineers, but none of our training prepared us for the leadership task that was in front of us. My peer would take the lead on design, and I on manufacturing. We were given the checkbook and the resources we needed. There was only one non-negotiable – the completion date.
Throughout this process, my peer and I learned a lot of hard, expensive lessons and the challenge ignited a deep interest in what it takes to deliver breakthrough projects and services under extraordinary pressure. It was these lessons, and the work involved in this project, that led me to develop the Complete Growth Leader system.
The ability to activate a powerful cross-functional effort on behalf of a client is a learned skill. The good news, is that while you too will need to learn things, you don’t need to start from scratch, as significant portions of the experience you’ve gained in your functional area will translate. The challenges, as we’ll touch on in a moment, come from needing to work across the firm, leading you to work with people who have very different (and very important) viewpoints.
————————
This is the third article in a three-part series where we take a deep dive on the three essential members of sustainable Growth Leadership teams in complex organizations: the Sponsor, the Growth Leader, and the HR Partner. If you missed the dynamics of the system article, you can find it here. The first deep dive piece on Sponsor is here, and the second piece on the HR Partner is here.
————————
So just what characteristics does the leader of a breakthrough team like this need? Let’s start with four key attributes:
#1: Accomplished
What is it?
Growth Leaders need to have at least one area where they are a recognized subject matter expert. This can be a functional expertise, a capability like natural leadership skills or hard-won experiences with the firm’s products and services. This is not virtuoso level capability, but rather good solid skills and a track record of success in an important area for the team.
Why is it important?
Having a validated expertise in one area gives the Growth Leader “street cred” in leading the team and provides a foundation of respect that is critical to developing influence both inside and outside the organization. If it’s not present, there is almost always a “tug of war” for leadership that slows the team’s progress and the creation of value for the firm.
How does it add value?
A Growth Team needs to quickly sort out its mission, key workstreams and its tactical approach to building value for the firm. By having a tenured subject matter leader at the helm, precious time, budget and resources are not consumed in building a pyramid. Instead, they’re able to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
#2: Lateral Leader
What is it?
Growth Leaders develop significant value by accessing the creativity, insight, and resources that come by including the full cross-functional team in the growth project. This key capacity is being able to fearlessly approach their peers in adjacent organizations and develop a common commitment to creating value.
Why is it important?
Mature optimized firms tend to create firm, functional boundaries frequently referred to as silos. The problem here is that value for a client is not developed along vertical paths in the org chart, but rather horizontally. In developing a new product, service or delivery channel, it is essential to construct a team that represents the real value chain.
How does it add value?
Effective lateral leadership leads to multiple advantages for the firm doing the growth work. First, the cycle time is dramatically shortened when the whole team takes on the effort, allowing for much better decision making. The most common stall point for teams is when they need the resources of manufacturing and distribution. By putting them on the team up front, their voice is heard, and it paves the way for smooth handoffs. Secondly, resource trade-offs are much more effective. The reason for this is this: it gives you a whole-brained view that is applying effort on the high-value problem at the right point in the value stream on behalf of the client.
#3: Group Activator
What is it?
Effective Growth Leaders need the skills to not just assemble the team, but to create an environment where the best thinking of the group is created collaboratively. This is more than fast followership where one person thinks and others simply confirm. Activators develop healthy insights, challenges, and conflict that create better thinking than any individual member might have.
Why is it important?
New-to-the-world products and services are rarely created in a flash of individual insight. Instead, they more typically present as a piece of insight and a long road of challenges that demand consistent and creative problem-solving. To avoid being one of the 80 percent of new projects that don’t get out of the gate, the team must have the creativity and the stamina to overcome challenges as they arise.
How does it add value?
In this hyper-competitive world, it is important to develop teams in a way where their creative output routinely transcends that of the individual team members. This is accomplished by equipping the team and its leader with tools to find not just a solution, but a better solution through knowledge of one another and how to combine their insights for a much better outcome.
#4: Acutely Client Empathetic
What is it?
Growth Leaders need to have a uniquely perceptive ability to capture the real (and frequently unstated) needs of the true client or customer. For example, this is the ability to see that the client is not looking for “smart glasses” but a true end-to-end solution for the manufacturing operators to assemble and inspect their work. It’s a unique combination of curiosity and intuition.
Why is it important?
Growth Leaders and their teams can be easily driven off the core value proposition by resistance and distractions. By having a rock solid use case completely based on external clients’ real needs, the team is like a sailboat anchored in a lake. The wind may well try to push the boat off course, but the anchor line always turns the boat back into the wind. A good Growth Leader does the same thing on behalf of their client for their team.
How does it add value?
In the zone of building new products and services, there is nothing more important than finding a white-hot use case and delivering on it with dispatch. It takes experience, steadfast commitment and intuition to keep a team absolutely focused on the real needs of the client. It should be noted that not uncommonly, this is a fuzzy target that only gets clearer as the group does its work.
Becoming an exceptional Growth Leader is hard work. It’s a path that is usually accomplished through deep experience and hard expensive real-time lessons that are done under the pressure of demanding clients and operations leaders.
The good news is that with the competency-based system we’ve developed for the Complete Growth Leader process, we can accelerate the Growth Leader’s learning and save the firm’s time, money and resources. Most importantly, rather than risking your best and brightest talent, we can help create a leadership path that is safer and has a higher probability of success.
If you are a Growth Leader, Growth Team Sponsor or HR partner and are interested in how we can augment your current system, please reach out to me via 847-651-1014 or use this link to set up a short call.
Related posts you can benefit from…
