Ep. 467 - Timely Triumphs in Team Dynamics

Summary

Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold
Episode Summary: Ep. 467 - Timely Triumphs in Team Dynamics
Release Date: April 17, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 467, titled "Timely Triumphs in Team Dynamics," host Cameron Herold delves into effective strategies for enhancing team dynamics and optimizing annual planning within executive teams. The discussion emphasizes practical approaches to team building, goal setting, budgeting, and the implementation of structured planning frameworks to foster a cohesive and high-performing leadership team.

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Transformative Team Building Strategies

The episode kicks off with Cameron highlighting innovative team-building exercises that go beyond traditional methods. He shares a practical example from a mentee who successfully applied his advice during their annual planning retreat.

Cameron Herold [00:00]: "Team building is just hanging out together."

The mentee recounts renting a house in Denver for their executive retreat, incorporating activities like grocery shopping and cooking meals as a team. This approach not only fostered stronger bonds but also created a familial atmosphere within the leadership team.

Mentee [02:46]: "I rented a house in Denver... we did grocery shopping together and cooked meals as a team. It just totally changed. It brought in this family feel that I loved. It was a home run."

Cameron endorses this method, emphasizing the importance of casual interactions in a relaxed setting to build genuine connections.

Cameron Herold [03:43]: "Team building is not the straws and marshmallows exercise... Team building is just hanging out together."

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Timeliness in Annual Planning

Cameron stresses the critical nature of timing in annual planning to ensure that businesses are well-prepared for the upcoming year. He outlines a clear timeline for when various aspects of planning should be completed.

Cameron Herold [03:43]: "Your annual planning meeting should be done by the end of October. Your plans and your budget for 2025 should be locked in stone and signed off on by the end of November."

He advises against using hotel settings for retreats, advocating instead for immersive environments like Airbnbs that encourage decompression and organic team interactions.

Cameron Herold [03:43]: "Renting a great big badass Airbnb... that decompression in nature is huge."

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Comprehensive Annual Planning Process

The conversation delves into the specifics of effective annual planning. Cameron outlines a structured approach that aligns long-term visions with actionable yearly plans.

1. Establishing Goals:
   • Three-Year Vision: Setting a broad framework for where the company aims to be.
   • Two-Year Goals: Breaking down the vision into more immediate objectives.
   • One-Year Goals: Defining specific targets for the upcoming year.

Cameron Herold [05:50]: "You have to establish for three years out, two years out and one year out."

2. Budgeting and Staffing:

   • Integrating the staffing and hiring plans into the annual budget.
   • Ensuring all projects are accounted for and aligned with departmental plans.

3. Implementation Timeline:

   • Finalizing the plan by the end of November to allow for actioning in December.
   • Preparing job postings in December for hires expected in March.

Cameron Herold [03:43]: "If you rent some great big badass Airbnb... Trust me."

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Quarterly Planning and Accountability

Beyond annual planning, Cameron emphasizes the significance of quarterly planning to maintain momentum and ensure continual progress toward goals.

Cameron Herold [05:50]: "Quarterly planning has to happen fairly similarly. I like doing quarterly planning as a half day or a full day and it should happen three or four weeks prior to the start of the next quarter."

The mentee shares their alignment with Cameron's methods, incorporating quarterly rocks (goals) and maintaining accountability through regular check-ins and scorecards.

Mentee [09:23]: "We have quarterly rocks and a scorecard weekly and checklists and stuff."

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Frameworks for Structured Planning: EOS and Beyond

Cameron discusses the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) as a popular framework for managing goals and accountability but notes its limitations as companies scale.

Cameron Herold [09:10]: "I call them business area reviews... EOS tends to break down when you get to about a hundred employees."

He suggests that while EOS is effective for smaller organizations, larger companies might need more advanced systems like Metronome or Next Level to handle increased complexity and departmental interdependencies.

Cameron Herold [10:48]: "When you get to about a hundred employees... you're moving into like Metronome or next level or even maybe scaling up."

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Actionable Insights and Recommendations

To wrap up, Cameron provides actionable steps for listeners to implement effective annual and quarterly planning:

1. Early Planning: Begin annual planning by the end of October to ensure timely budget and staffing alignment.
2. Immersive Retreats: Choose retreat settings that promote relaxation and team bonding rather than traditional hotel environments.
3. Structured Goal Setting: Define clear, multi-year goals and develop detailed yearly plans to achieve them.
4. Integrated Budgeting: Ensure that staffing and project plans are seamlessly integrated into the annual budget.
5. Regular Check-ins: Maintain accountability through quarterly planning sessions and ongoing reviews.

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Conclusion

Episode 467 of the "Second in Command" podcast offers valuable insights into enhancing team dynamics and refining the annual planning process. Cameron Herold shares practical strategies and frameworks that empower COOs and executive teams to build stronger bonds, set clear objectives, and maintain accountability throughout the year. By adopting these approaches, leadership teams can position their organizations for sustained growth and success.

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Notable Quotes:

• Cameron Herold [00:00]: "Team building is just hanging out together."
• Mentee [02:46]: "It just totally changed. It brought in this family feel that I loved. It was a home run."
• Cameron Herold [03:43]: "Team building is not the straws and marshmallows exercise... Team building is just hanging out together."
• Cameron Herold [05:50]: "You have to establish for three years out, two years out and one year out."
• Cameron Herold [09:10]: "I call them business area reviews... EOS tends to break down when you get to about a hundred employees."

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For more insights and best practices from industry-leading COOs, visit COOAlliance.com.

Transcript

[Cameron Herald]

Hey, it's Cameron Herald, the host of the Second in Command podcast. Before we dive in, there's something you need to know. If you're a coo, VP Operations, or you're in any role where you're the second in command to the CEO, the COO alliance is the place for you. If you're the integrator to the visionary, you're going to want to join us. The COO alliance is the world's leading community for the second in command. We've had over 500 members like you join from 17 countries to grow their skills, connections and confidence. You'll get the tools, friendships, and a 10x guarantee to ensure that you get your money's worth. Go to COO alliance.com to learn more and see if you qualify. You can even book a free call with our team to ask questions. Now, let's jump into this week's episode. Team building is just hanging out together. And then the last part that Nel's talked about was what I like doing is splitting the group into two, giving them each a budget, 250 bucks, 500 bucks, whatever you decide it is. And each team of three or four people have to go grocery shopping and they have to buy the food for a breakfast, a lunch and an a dinner where they're going to cook for the whole group. So they're going out and figuring out what they're going to make. They pull together the recipes they put together and then they cook breakfast while the other three people are hanging out in the living room just chatting, while three are making breakfast and then lunch. That day, it switches.

[Podcast Announcer]

Welcome to the Second in Command podcast, produced by the COO alliance and brought to you by its founder, Cameron Herold. In the second in command podcast, we talk to top COOs who share the insights, strategies and tactics that made them the chief behind the chief. And now, here's your host, Cameron Herald.

[Mentee]

In this episode, we're diving into one of the most powerful ways to transform your team dynamics and ensure successful annual planning. You'll hear how a mentee used a simple yet highly effective strategy from our last coaching call, bringing their executive team together in a shared space for their annual retreat. They ditched the typical hotel meeting rooms, opted for an Airbnb, and incorporated activities like cooking and cleaning as a team, creating stronger bonds and a true sense of family within their leadership team. We'll also explore the importance of timing for your annual planning. I'll share actionable insights on setting clear goals, locking in budgets, and creating a staffing plan or all by the right deadlines to set your business up for a strong start to the year. Plus, we'll touch on quarterly planning, team accountability, and frameworks like eos to keep everyone aligned and on track. If you're ready to rethink your approach to annual planning and team building, this episode is for you. Let's jump in.

Yeah, I wanna jump in and report back on. I used a strategy that you gave me in our last coaching call. So I just had my annual planning meeting with my executive team last week. We rented a house in Denver and everybody flew in. And two ideas of yours that I used. One was the everybody go to the grocery store together and buy food together. And the second one was cooking and cleaning in teams. And we did that, and my team loved it. It just, like, made us bond and see each other in a completely new way. And then I cooked dinner for everybody on the first night, and I made, like, a really nice dinner, and they were just kind of blown away that I went to that much effort to serve them. It just totally changed. We already had a good dynamic, but it just. It just brought in this family feel that I loved. And so I wanted to just share that in case anybody else is thinking of doing it. It was a home run. And, Cameron, thanks for the idea.

[Cameron Herald]

You're welcome. Yeah. Whenever we run business retreats, business off sites, annual, we should all be right now thinking about running your annual planning meeting for next year. Right. Your annual planning meeting, by the way, should be done by the end of October. Your plans and your budget for 2025 should be locked in stone and signed off on by the end of November so that you have December to actually start actioning some of the January plan. So in doing that, it sucks being in a hotel. I'm in another hotel right now. It sucks. Trust me. And you don't see the other people when you're in a hotel room, you don't see the other people. There's six other people on your team. But if you rent some great big badass Airbnb, whether you're off at a ski resort in the off season or you're by the beach or somewhere in the mountains, wherever you can go, that you're just around nature, that decompression in nature is huge. When you all wake up in the morning in your shorts and T shirts and somebody's making coffee and somebody's out sitting doing their journaling and somebody's lying in bed sleeping and they're walking out with their hair all disheveled, that's team Building. Team building is not the straws and marshmallows exercise. Like anytime the government does a team building exercise, that's not the stuff you want in your business. Team building is just hanging out together. And then the last part that Nel's talked about was, what I like doing is splitting the group into two, giving them each a budget, 250 bucks, 500 bucks, whatever you decide it is. And each team of three or four people have to go grocery shopping and they have to buy the food for a breakfast, a luncheon, and a dinner where they're going to cook for the whole group. So they're going out and figuring out what they're going to make. They pull together the recipes they put together, and then they cook breakfast while the other three people are hanging out in the living room just chatting, while three are making breakfast and then lunch. That day, it switches. All you need to do is that little exercise, your food costs are down, everybody's having more fun, you're hanging out together and having a good time. So, yeah, I love that you did it, tried it, and ran with it. It's always worked well for me, too. Can you just say those dates again?

[Mentee]

End of year?

[Cameron Herald]

Oh, yeah. Should annual planning done by.

[Mentee]

You said it very fast.

[Cameron Herald]

Annual planning meetings with your leadership team have to be done by the end of October. And your annual planning meeting is when you revisit your vivid vision. You look at your goals for three years out, two years out and one year out. Your goals. Yes, I have a group coaching program for CEOs. And the beauty of my group coaching calls is you actually get to ask me questions on every call. You're not just listening to other CEOs. Drop me an email cameronameronherald.com for more information. You have to establish for three years out, two years out and one year out. Have to include your employee net promoter score, your customer net promoter score profit in dollar figures and revenue in dollar figures. And this isn't when you're forecasting, it's what you're deciding you want to be at. And then in your annual planning meeting, you're going to figure out the plan to make those goals come true. So I like having goals for three years, but creating a plan for one year. The goals for three years provides a framework, but at that annual planning meeting, we're going to come up with a plan and the core 10 projects to make those four main goals happen. That's what I like to do in the annual planning. I also like to bring in a bit of Team building, which really happens when you're in the Airbnb, cooking and hanging and a little bit of leadership development. Whether that's two different TED talks that you watch or a couple modules of an invest in your leaders course, or a chapter of a book that everybody reads or you know, whatever a consultant you bring in to teach a session, whatever it is, some team building, a lot of the goal setting and planning, revisiting the vivid vision and some of that culture stuff that has to happen by the end of October so that in November, based on the projects, based on the goals, based on the plan in November, you can come up with the staffing plan and the hiring plan for the year. You know all the projects you're going to be doing. You can figure out in reverse engineer who you need to be hiring and when. So you can build that staffing plan out and then that gets baked into the budget. So you have your staffing plan built into your annual budget by month. You have all of your projects built into the budget by month and you have the interdependencies on projects signed off on. So it knows of all the projects that all the other business areas are working on for the next year so they can think about that as part of their plan too. So by the end of November, you've now got your plan, your goals, you've got your budget, your staffing plan, your hiring plan, you've looked at all the interdependencies and then in December you're kind of starting on stuff, right? If you know you're hiring somebody in March, those job postings have to be up in December so that you can be doing the interviews in January and February so that you can place the job right. If you wait until December, you're already behind the eight ball. Now quarterly planning has to happen fairly similarly. I like doing quarterly planning as a half day or a full day and it should happen three or four weeks prior to the start of the next quarter. So that means March 1st you're already doing the planning for Q2.

[Mentee]

Cameron, do you, do you not like how do you feel about us?

[Cameron Herald]

I like it. I haven't been a practitioner of it because last time I was actively growing companies was post that. What's their model show on this?

[Mentee]

Pretty similar. I, I think it, you know, you do the annual planning November, it's usually a two day thing. I agree with you that it should align with the budget. Getting your budget in place is super important. And then there has quarterly rocks and so everybody on the management team has Quarterly rocks Goals. Rocks. At the end of every quarter you go over everybody's rocks and they accomplish them setting goals for the next quarter. And so there's a lot of accountability and there's a lot of. There's a scorecard weekly and checklists and stuff.

[Cameron Herald]

So yeah, so I wasn't sure if.

[Mentee]

You were into it or not.

[Cameron Herald]

Yeah, yeah. So yes, I'm absolutely into that. I call them business area reviews. I cover a lot of those in my book meeting. Suck. I all I was focusing on this point was just annual and quarterlies. But yes, I have every employee committing their top three goals or rocks with each other. I have every business area committing their top three for the quarter in the month. And then leadership signs off on each business area's top three. Each leader signs off on their team's top three. And you have a review process monthly to make sure that people are hitting their top threes and their top threes are working on the right thing. So I do like EOS for that. EOS tends to, in my mind, break down when you get to about a hundred employees. Even less when you're at like 50 to 70 employees and you've got your solid leadership team. EOS starts to break down and then you're moving into like Metronome or next level or even maybe scaling up. But yes, I do like eos.

[Mentee]

Yeah, it just sounds like similar in terms of the process. The quarterly goal setting and the annual planning. It seemed to align really well with.

[Cameron Herald]

That we have a hundred. I will say that I do my budgeting and planning probably a month earlier than saying November. And it's mostly because I'm usually working with companies that are a little bit bigger where we have to actually have more intra departmental sign offs. We do have a bigger budgeting process. There's usually more moving parts. But I'll tell you, anybody who's thinking of doing annual planning in December, you're dead to the water. It's over.

[Podcast Announcer]

You've been listening to Second in Command, brought to you by COO alliance founder Cameron Herald. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to like, share and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and our other podcast streaming platforms. For more best practices from industry leading COOs, visit COOAlliance.com.