Tribal Leadership - FAQ

Will this require reorganization?

No, the current structure and configuration of a company work well with Tribal Leadership because the kinds of benefits are in management and leadership capacity and the ability to work together to resolve problems and produce business results.

How do you measure results? Are these merely soft skills?

No, the soft stuff is the hard stuff. Measuring is easy. Measure before you start a project. Measure after you finish a project. When you go from Stage 3 to Stage 4, the results generally go from 3-5x in measurable results, including the bottom line. There are a variety of different metrics that we utilize as we go through the process. Different metrics are appropriate for different circumstances and cultural stages. For a run down on the different stages of culture, refer to the Tribal Leadership TED talk, here.

How long does it take to implement a new culture?

Generally, it takes 18-24 months to elevate from a Stage 2 or 3 culture to a Stage 4 culture. Results start to show up within 1-2 quarters. 

How do you get employees to buy-in?

We first do a diagnostic that tells us where we are culturally and the prevailing issues or predicaments that are just not getting resolved. This is called “culture mapping.” Then, we look to discover where there already is alignment to create new overall strategies, using the “strategy model.” Then, we drill down and do the work until each and every person has their own map and their own self-designed strategy. Success depends upon the degree to which people follow the strategies that they created themselves. Normally, the people in the C-Suite hand a strategy to the employees and demand “buy-in.”

The way we do it, we involve everybody in the design of their own strategies/ and the wisdom of the overall strategy all at once.

Why would people who are set in their ways participate if they have been successful in doing what they’ve been doing for years?

This is a key issue. Those at Stage 3 ‘have it made’ and are in control of those at Stage 2, so their incentive is predictably not great to change their ‘I’m great- You're not’ point of view. However, if the overarching interest of the organization is to elevate their culture and the outcomes and results of the greater group, then the Stage 2/Stage 3 culture must move to Stage 4. In order to do this, the issue of ego and self-promotion on the part of the Stage 3 people must be addressed. The organization will only move to Stage 4 if the issue of the Stage 2/Stage 3 mentality has been successfully addressed. The issue with Stage 3 will always show up in the overall financial success of the company

If there’s such a focus on shareholder value, why isn’t everyone doing this?

The ‘shareholder value’ focus is a focus on the bottom line, not a focus on the cultural vitality of the organization. Tribal Leadership is focused on the well-being and effectiveness of the organization. Ultimately, shareholder value is an outcome of an effective and stable culture. The more effective the culture of the people at work, the more effective their results. Our philosophy and our supporting data have shown that if we effectively attend to the well being of the people doing the work, the quality of their work will show up in measurably higher productivity.  

How is this different from what is taught in business school?

Business schools are strong on management and weak on training people to be leaders. Management is based on control, domination, survival, and ultimately, fear. Most management is a carrot/stick game. The game is about managing for a result against a diminishing resource - time. Leadership requires transforming the relationships that people have while working together, mutual respect, collaboration, and stability. The culture of an organization is a function of the quality of leadership provided and attended to. If the management disrespects the employee, the employee will slow down and waste the most critical resource that management has - time. If the management provides effective leadership, the employee will respond by using the time effectively. Employees who have the experience of partnership and respect of their employers produce net superior results. 

Tribal Leadership builds sustainable environments where leadership and partnership arise naturally. Our data supports the point of view that a focus on culture and leadership produces superior results in a more efficient and sustainable manner than management techniques that focus on operational efficiencies alone.

Are management techniques and operational efficiencies not important?

Not at all. Management and Leadership are in and of two different domains. Management is about efficiency and is the vital and necessary underlying craft of any great company or organization. Leadership is about empowerment, teams, and the relationship between people working on a team, between teams to teams, and ultimately, an organization operating as a single unit producing profits and creating shareholder value. Leadership is in its own realm and requires a different mindset and worldview. The leader must be a great manager - that is a given - but he/she also must know when to step away from the psychological limitations of the manager fixated on efficiency and adopt the mindset of a leader who is exploring the creative world of breakthrough into ‘out of the box’ thinking and hitherto unknown or experienced effectiveness of the organization.

How successful are the Tribal Leadership-based strategies that come out of the new culture compared to the strategy models currently taught in business school? 

Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

B-school strategies are mostly derived from HBS and Michael Porter - a brilliant man. However, according to Peter Drucker, at best, the Porter model is successful 30% of the time on average. That is because the strategy is ‘imposed’ on the employee and the employee has little or no input. Therefore, the person who best knows the job and is actually doing it is told what to do and how to do it. Predictably, the employee often resists and is resentful. The strategy model we teach in Tribal Leadership is between 70-80% successful. This is largely because we teach the employee to design their own strategy, quarter by quarter. They are ‘bought in’ by definition from the beginning of the process and appreciate that their input is honored. Furthermore, the strategy model we teach is simpler, self-managing, and self-correcting. In essence, a more elegant design.

And it allows leadership and managers to take advantage of and capitalize on the inherent understanding of customer data and other critical aspects of having an organization perform at a high level and make its clients and market happy.

Proxy Battles — FAQ

I have a stock that has gone down a lot in price. What are my options

First, determine if the stock has gone down because of decisions made by the board or due to factors outside the board's control.  If you determine that the stock is down because of decisions made by the board, one of the options available to you is running a proxy contest to change the board to a new board of directors chosen by you

How do I determine if I am likely to create shareholder value from launching a proxy contest?

First, you must determine what your odds are of winning the proxy contest and installing your new board members on to the board.  Second, you must determine how successful your new board members will be. A proxy contest only makes money for shareholders if the activist wins the election and if the new board of directors selected by the activist succeed in creating value.

How can I maximize the chances that the new board of directors creates value?

It is possible that implementing tribal leadership is the best way to create value for all shareholders.  [See the section on Tribal Leadership.]

What documents will i need in order to run a proxy contest?

You will need to prepare a detailed presentation. You will also need to write a proxy statement.    Your proxy statement will need to lay out in great detail the qualifications of the board candidates you have selected and lay out their plans for what they will change at the company if elected.

How do I persuade shareholders to vote for my slate of directors?

You will need to show shareholders exactly how badly the stock price has  done, the specific mistakes of the incumbent board that led to the stock price drop, and also show shareholders the qualifications of your board candidates and show shareholders the plan of your board candidates.

What is the first step to running a proxy contest?

As soon as you decide you are thinking about running a proxy contest you should ask your broker to convert one share in to certificate form and get the certificate for the one share in the mail and keep it with you.   If you attempt to run a proxy contest without having this one share in certificate form the incumbents will often challenge your right to run a proxy contest.  Having a share in certificate form guarantees your right to run a proxy contest.

What is the second step to running a proxy contest?

You will want to contact experienced successful people in your business network who have served on public company boards in the past and persuade them to run on your board slate.  Without experienced board candidates you are unlikely to win the election.

When am I allowed to ask shareholders for their votes?

While there are exceptions, you are generally prohibited from soliciting votes from shareholders until the securities and exchange commission declares your proxy to be definitive.

What are the steps to getting my proxy declared definitive?

First, you or someone you hire must write the first draft of the proxy and have someone experienced edit it.  The fully edited proxy is then submitted to the SEC by your attorney.  The SEC tells your attorney what objections they have to it and which items need to be changed. Your attorney makes these changes to satisfy the SEC and then the SEC if they are fully satisfied declares is definitive.    As soon as it is definitive you or your proxy solicitor will mail it to all shareholders and start calling all shareholders asking for their vote

What happens at the shareholder meeting?

There is an independent inspector of elections who will count all the votes after the annual shareholder meeting - if the dissident shareholder has won the most votes, the directors nominated by the dissident shareholder get seats on the board