Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of leading a session of our Management Essentials Program (MEP) with the senior management team of a client firm. This intense, full-on, two-day immersive workshop is always energizing – and usually exhausting. MEP is the foundational piece of our larger, fully comprehensive leadership program XLD! The Extraordinary Leadership Development Experience – laser-focused on principal level management and leadership, personal growth, and elevated business performance. XLD is a highlight of our practice and professional work – and central to our mission of supporting professional services firm leaders to plan for the future, grow their business, and make more money!
As is often the case, this fifteen-person senior management team was amazing – with many very high performers and achievers: extraordinary technical experts with high business and people acumen, and with proven track records of action and results. And yet (as is almost always the case) I was struck once again by just how valuable this time together is (even for high achievers) to listen to one another, to discuss and debate, and to engage and wrestle with the opportunities and challenges of organization management. There seems to be a common, substantive, pent-up demand for deeper, more thoughtful and reflective, and more strategic conversations. [It reminds me too of how my wife Megan might admonish that, in the midst of a week of dozens of quick, transactional discussions, that ‘we never talk.’]
Our Management Essentials Program is structured around the same business focus area rubric that we use with strategic planning – divided into the three core business functions of strategy, operations, and people (and with three strategic focus sub-areas within each of these).
Nine areas of potential focus in total, including the strategic framework (or purpose – values, mission, vision); enterprise business model and growth strategy; ownership and transition; business development-marketing; project management-operations; organization structure; core professional team; admin-support team; and enterprise leadership team. In most workshop sessions, we could (and frankly maybe should) spend an entire day on any one of these subjects. Wrangling the group onto a schedule of 4-5 modules each day is a real challenge indeed!
On the flight back I spent time thinking (as I always do) – about how to improve it even further still, and especially on how to dial in deeper to the relevance of the larger, firm-wide leadership team. [My audience here was a senior group of fifteen, but within this company (700+ total staff) the real audience is, I think, the top 150-200 professionals. That then is a truly, powerful, impactful and sustainable leadership force, right?]
Looking at this list of strategic focus areas – one might ask which of these are not so relevant to principal leaders? Where the leadership team already knows quite well what they must – about strategy, operations, and people? Or where some, or maybe most, could indeed benefit (even transformationally) from additional business knowledge, know-how, and experience?
Firm-wide leadership development is, we believe, a first order path today for building lasting competitive advantage. It’s also one of the most important (and even existential) threats to the sustainability of the business and the industry itself. Many executives do agree, though most are, we think, still not moving fast– or at scale. [It’s right to further develop a handful of top leaders, and to create a succession plan for the C-suite team – but training, developing, mentoring, and career-pathing the top 25% of the entire company – that’s a much, much bigger, and we think even more impactful project].
A truly lasting competitive advantage for the firm …
This exploration of the core focus of business strategy, operations, and people – as embedded in our Management Essentials Program – is one of the most valuable things I do. And we’ve put a lot of ourselves (passion, energy, and twenty plus years of experience and expertise) into designing and building XLD! The Extraordinary Leadership Development Experience – to deliver real, tangible, and transformative results for client firms.
Because the extraordinary opportunity – right here and right now – is to become truly extraordinary.
