Executive Challenge #1: Leadership Teams Lack Cohesion and Accountability

Have you ever felt like you’re carrying the whole company on your shoulders? Have you felt in your gut that there’s someone on your team that just doesn’t belong? 

Jing Johnson is the owner of PRISM Renderings. She has a passion for helping commercial real estate professionals to acquire funding, entitlement, and leasing by providing high-quality architectural renderings and animations.

Jing found Sheryl just in time to make some major changes to her team during a pivotal time of growth for her business. By working with Sheryl, she created the company’s core values and built a friendly and collaborative culture. As a result, Prism has grown into a high-performing team with a stellar reputation.

The principles Jing attributes to her success are: selflessness, hunger for knowledge, and servitude. It became clear to her that she needed assistance as she felt the heavy burden of executive leadership, and desired to create a stronger sense of team. Jing was in the routine of leading weekly team meetings that garnered little participation from team members, and wanted to hear more than her own voice. She sensed there was a “bad seed” on the team but couldn’t put her finger on why she felt that way. Jing was looking for a way to rally and engage her team. Sheryl came in with a plan to turn things around for Jing and her team at PRISM. 

The two steps below paved the way to a company culture that truly reshaped PRISM.

• Change Company Core Values

1. 1. 1. Sheryl challenged Jing on her company core values, changing them from broad concepts that could define any company, to those that reflected Jing’s personal values that fueled her success. Sheryl asked the tough questions that got to the true core of the business. 
      2. Then Sheryl and Jing measured every PRISM employee up against the new core values. When you’re forced to say either “yes” or “no” to the question “does this employee embody this value?” the answers clarify and magnify the outliers. 
      3. This exercise brought substance, objectivity and clarity to Jing’s “bad seed” intuition. Once identified and quantified, it became clear it was time to exit that employee.  
      4. Sheryl and Jing then went about searching for a replacement using the new Core Values in the selection process. The new team member exemplified those values, creating a stronger and more unified team.

• Restructuring the Team Meeting

1. 1. 1. Jing planned for and ran every weekly team meeting, feeling burnt out and like she was not engaging the team, so Sheryl recommended changes to the meeting structure. 
      2. The restructuring added a recurring agenda item where employees shared personal and professional good news, and a space to compliment team members according to the newly developed core values. This ensured everyone on the team had a voice. 
      3. Team members began rotating the responsibility of leading the team meeting. Encouraging employees to share in that responsibility added awareness and appreciation for the leadership role and intensified the team’s engagement. 

Sheryl stepped in at a time that PRISM craved cohesion and accountability.  Sheryl listened, assessed, created and implemented a custom solution enabling PRISM to excel together as a cohesive team.  The new values and meeting structure paved the way for success. By deliberately constructing a company culture of purpose, clarity, accountability and performance, PRISM exemplifies unity and structure, and has been a major success.