Why are we last?
The same model, one level up. This time the job was not to lead the team, but to choose the person who would, and protect his slow start.
In my last post I shared a model I keep coming back to: learn, define, build and execute. It came from a region in Hyderabad.
A few years later I used it again, from a different seat. From 2020 I was VP for the South, and one of the regions under me was near the bottom of the table, with sales shrinking. My job was to fix it and get it back to growth.
Learn
The learning phase told me the numbers were not the real problem. The biggest hurdle was the team culture. People worked in silos.
Define
So I made a note for myself. If we were going to win in this market, I had to rebuild the leadership first.
Build
I brought in a leader with no telecom background. He came from outside telecom. What I liked was his approach: his calmness, the way he engaged the team, and how he went to the right places for support.
He used the same model, and it was a slow start. His team used to reach out to me and say, we are not going anywhere. I always pushed back. Let him settle. Let him learn the culture and the lingo.
It took eight to nine months before he was ready and confident. We also made some key changes in his team, including a seasoned planning resource who knew the system and could ask the right questions.
Execute
Then he engaged the sales team. He listened to them and built the willingness to grow. They started hitting the mark, the excuses stopped, and people began looking for opportunities.
In two years the region went from shrinking to strong growth, and it stayed there.
The tool: four stages, one loop
Two turnarounds, ten years apart, one in my own hands and one through someone else. The same questions did the work both times. Here they are, so you can use them with your own team.
Learn. What is our culture? What are our strengths? What should we watch? Is the problem the numbers, or the culture?
Define. Who are we, and what do we want to achieve? Can we become the number one team? Why are we last? What is holding us back?
Build. What will it take for us to lift our performance? Which tools and systems do we need? Do we have the right person leading? Does the leader have the right people beside them? What support do you need from me? Are we all committed?
Execute. Are we hitting the mark, or making excuses? Are we looking at opportunities?
Nothing moves to Build until Define is clear. And it is a loop, not a line. What a team learns while executing is where the next round of Learn begins.
If your team is last, where would you look first: the culture, the leader or the team?