Ep. 477 - The Feedback Revolution: Crafting a Culture of Real-Time Growth

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Ep. 477 - The Feedback Revolution: Crafting a Culture of Real-Time Growth"

Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold
Host: Cameron Herold
Release Date: May 22, 2025

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Introduction to the Episode

In Episode 477 of the Second in Command podcast, host Cameron Herold delves into transformative strategies for fostering a culture of real-time growth within organizations. This episode, titled "The Feedback Revolution: Crafting a Culture of Real-Time Growth," features insights from top COOs who share practical techniques to enhance team communication, alignment, and strategic goal setting. The discussion is anchored around innovative exercises that promote transparency, personal growth, and effective leadership within companies.

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Enhancing Team Communication and Alignment

1. Creative Visual Icebreakers

The episode begins with a discussion on the importance of icebreakers in planning sessions and retreats. Chris introduces a visually engaging exercise designed to foster self-reflection and strengthen team connections.

• Exercise Overview: Team members use large post-it notes divided into four quadrants to draw representations of:

  • Family and Friends
  • Fun Activities
  • Day-to-Day Roles
  • Vision of Success

• Objective: To encourage team members to share personal insights without using words, promoting a deeper understanding of each other's perspectives and aspirations.

Notable Quote:

"It's fun to watch everyone's drawing abilities, but you get to learn a little bit about them and how they see their lens and what they also want to get out of it."
– Chris [02:42]

2. The 'Monkeys Looking Sideways' Feedback Exercise

Chris introduces a powerful feedback mechanism known as the "Monkeys Looking Sideways" exercise, aimed at facilitating honest and balanced feedback within leadership teams.

• Process:

  1. Preparation: Each team member writes down three positives and three areas for improvement for the person being reviewed.
  2. Implementation: Starting with the most junior member, each individual shares their feedback sequentially.
  3. Presentation: Feedback is posted on a wall under "Strengths" and "Areas to Improve," fostering a transparent and constructive dialogue.

• Benefits: Encourages ownership, balances positive and constructive feedback, and creates a safe environment for personal growth.

Notable Quote:

"It forces people to own. Forces people to write it down. It's done in a very safe way because everybody's getting reviewed... I had people in tears doing it, but they walked out saying it was profoundly changing."
– Chris [03:45]

3. SWOT Analysis for Team Insights

Chris further elaborates on conducting a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis collaboratively.

• Exercise Overview:

  • Team members individually note down three items for each SWOT category.
  • These are then collectively posted and discussed to identify key focus areas.

• Objective: To prioritize strategic initiatives based on collective insights, ensuring that the team leverages strengths and addresses critical weaknesses.

Notable Quote:

"You can talk about those as a team and decide which ones really rise to the top as stuff to either leverage or take care of."
– Chris [08:00]

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Strategic Goal Setting and Project Alignment

1. Setting Ambitious Goals with Post-it Note Exercise

Chris advocates for using a collaborative approach to set higher-than-expected revenue and profit goals.

• Exercise Overview:
  • Leadership team members write down their revenue projections for three years on post-it notes.
  • Sharing and averaging these projections often reveal more ambitious targets than initially anticipated.

Notable Quote:

"You take the average and all of a sudden it's bigger than you probably thought it was going to be."
– Chris [10:04]

2. Identifying Core Projects using the GE Workout Process

To translate strategic goals into actionable projects, Chris recommends the GE Workout Process, focusing on identifying a limited number of high-impact projects.

• Guidelines:

  • Limit to 10 core projects annually to maintain focus and avoid overcommitment.
  • Ensure projects align with revenue goals, profit targets, customer satisfaction, and employee happiness.

• Objective: Prevent the dilution of efforts by avoiding an excessive number of projects, thereby enhancing the likelihood of successful execution.

Notable Quote:

"Most companies go way beyond this and they end up with 20, 30, 40 projects. You're never going to get it all done."
– Chris [12:30]

3. Ensuring Interdepartmental Alignment and Prioritization

Once core projects are identified, Chris emphasizes the importance of interdepartmental communication to manage workload and prioritize effectively.

• Methodology:

  • Business areas communicate their involvement in core projects.
  • Discuss and adjust project timelines based on departmental capacities to ensure realistic implementation.

• Outcome: Facilitates a cohesive approach where departments collaborate efficiently, preventing bottlenecks and ensuring strategic objectives are met.

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Insights and Best Practices

Throughout the episode, several best practices emerge for cultivating a culture of real-time growth:

• Balanced Feedback: Combining positive reinforcement with constructive criticism fosters a well-rounded development environment.

• Visual and Creative Exercises: Utilizing non-verbal methods like drawing enhances engagement and reveals deeper team dynamics.

• Focused Strategic Planning: Limiting the number of core projects ensures that efforts are concentrated on the most impactful initiatives.

• Collaborative Goal Setting: Involving the entire leadership team in goal projections leverages collective intelligence to set ambitious targets.

• Interdepartmental Communication: Regular dialogue between departments ensures alignment and effective resource allocation.

Notable Quote:

"At the end of the two days, you should be able to walk into the meeting knowing what the goals, the vision, the SWOT, knowing what the projects are, having agreement on, the interdepartmental stuff."
– Chris [13:00]

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Conclusion

Episode 477 of the Second in Command podcast provides actionable strategies for leaders aiming to build a dynamic and growth-oriented organizational culture. By implementing creative feedback mechanisms, structured goal-setting exercises, and fostering interdepartmental collaboration, COOs and other second-in-command leaders can drive their organizations toward sustained success. The insights shared by Chris and the methodologies discussed offer a roadmap for cultivating transparency, alignment, and efficiency within leadership teams.

For more expert advice and practical tools, listeners are encouraged to explore additional resources available through the COO Alliance.

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Connect with the Podcast:

• Website: cooalliance.com
• YouTube: Cameron Herold
• Social Media: Follow Second in Command on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms.

Transcript

[Cameron Herold]

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 cooalliance.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.

[Chris]

The leadership team is signing off on the goals for the year, right? So when the leadership team is coming up with those four goals, the employee net Promoter Score, Customer Net Promoter Score, profit and revenue. And we're all discussing and debating and there's, there's ways that you can use it to have them set bigger goals. As an example, I would sit down with all of the leadership team and say grab a post it note and write down on your post it note what you think our revenue could be in three years. And everybody writes it down on a post it note and then you read it out and you take the average and all of a sudden it's bigger than you probably thought it was going to be.

[Cameron Herold]

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 podc, we talked 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.

[Unknown]

In today's episode, we're exploring creative and impactful ways to enhance team communication and alignment. During planning sessions and retreats, you'll discover a powerful visual icebreaker that fosters self reflection and strengthens team connections. Plus a game changing feedback exercise designed to boost transparency and personal growth among leadership teams. But that's just the beginning. We'll also break down a structured approach to strategic goal setting. One that ensures your big picture objectives translate into actionable high impact projects. You'll learn how to align teams across departments, avoid common pitfalls like over commitment, and master the art of prioritization to maximize efficiency. If you're looking for practical techniques to refine your leadership approach and set your organization up for long term success. This episode is for you. Let's dive in.

Just a fun share for something that I've done before when you if you're doing your planning or getting the team together, looking for an icebreaker is you get those big post it notes and everyone gets their own sheet and draw it into four sections and you're one quadrant you do, you know, family and friends. Another quadrant you do fun other quadrant you do what you're kind of day to day. What's your what's your role? And then the right quadrant is what is what does success look like from your retreat or your event? Like what is the big thing you want to get out of it but the only rule is no words on it. You got to use all pictures. So putting skills. Give everyone like 10 or 15 minutes to draw their four quadrants and they do that. You know, family and friends, you're fun which what you do for your your role and what your goal is. But it's fun to watch everyone's a drawing abilities but you get to learn a little bit about them and didn't know I didn't know you like skiing. I didn't know you you were into that and how they see their, their lens and what they also want to get out of it, which a lot of people sometimes are like hey, I'm looking for us to come together more as a team or I'm looking to get aligned on what's our big thing going to be next year.

[Chris]

I'll give all of you a thank you for that, Chris. Thank you. I'll give everybody a an exercise that can work very well for team building at your annuals or at your quarterlies. I called it the monkeys looking sideways and it it's basically like a verbal 360 feedback that's done on the spot. So I'll walk you through how the pros how the process works. You basically pull your leadership team together or if you're the head of a functional area, you pull that functional area team together. So let's say it's your leadership team with, you know, your head of each of the areas. Maybe there's six or seven of you together. You're going to start with the most senior person in the room first. So in this case it'll be the CEO. Everyone is given a stack of post it notes, a little 3 inch by 3 inch or 2 inch by 2 inch post it notes and everybody has to write down three things that they want the CEO to continue doing. And three things the CEO has to get better at. And everybody gets two or three minutes to write down their ideas. And then you start off with the most junior person in the room starting first. And they have to read out their list of three things the person should continue doing first. And all the CEO is allowed to say is thank you or ask a clarifying question. And then after they've all read out, after the person's read out the three to continue, then they read out the three things to work on. And all the CEO is allowed to do is say thank you or ask a clarifying question. And. And then the person goes up and posts them up on a wall. All the good things on one side and all the constructive criticism on the other. Then the next person reads them, and then the next person reads them until everyone has reviewed the CEO. Then you go to the COO, then you go to the CFO, and you take turns getting a verbal 360 feedback. It's very powerful because it forces people to own. Forces people to write it down. It's done in a very safe way because everybody's getting reviewed. And it also is done in a really safe way because we're showing you three things to continue as well as three things to work on. So we kind of balance it all out. And because you give them the good stuff first and the constructive criticism second, somehow it just works. I've had people in tears doing it, but walk out afterwards saying it was like, profoundly change them. I had the first time I ever did it with my group. Almost every single one of them told me not to be such a workaholic. I didn't even know that that was even in their frame of reference. But what they felt like was, but me working 17 hours a day never gave them time to downshift and to relax. They always felt guilty when they were doing it. So the reason I call it the Monkeys looking Sideways is if you have a bunch of monkeys in a tree and the CEO, the top monkey, is looking down at everybody, all he sees is their big smiles, but they're kind of looking up at his ass. They have a very different view. So the reason I have it looking sideways is I want everybody looking at each other and telling everybody what we really see. That monkeys looking sideways exercise, I'll drop it in the chat, I'll pull it up in a second and share it with you, is a really powerful one to do at a retreat. It takes about 20 minutes per person to do it, but it's really powerful. One second here.

[Cameron Herold]

Hey, it's Cameron. I hope you're loving today's episode. Quick question for you. Does your company have a strong leadership training program in place to grow the skills of everyone who manages people? If you want to help yourself and your company grow, get everyone who manages people learning from my invest in your leaders online training program.

[Chris]

There are 12 core leadership skills that.

[Cameron Herold]

I cover online and they're all going to really grow. CEOs pay me $78,000 a year to coach them one on one and now you can all benefit for 1% of what they pay me. These are the same leadership skills that I created and certified everyone in at 1-800-got junk when I was there as CEO. Go to investinyourleaders.com today and use promo code podcast10 before the end of the month to get 10% off each manager you sign up. Now back to the show.

[Chris]

Foreign if you want more leadership tips and systems from me, they're free at YouTube.

[Cameron Herold]

Forward slash Cameron Herold.

[Chris]

And that's H E R O L.

[Cameron Herold]

D.

[Unknown]

You, you like it. You like it public. I've done that before, but it's like almost like speed dating. So you're going around and everyone's got like you line up all six or seven chairs and you kind of go around and give each other the feedback personally. You like everyone's public. The whole leadership team's publicly giving that person there. Continue doing this and here's three things to work on.

[Chris]

And then you're going to do the next person. So Chris, let's say we brought you and all of your direct reports in. I just dropped the exercise into the chat. If we all reviewed you first, Chris, and you got all the good stuff to continue and all the stuff to work on, you'd have your list for the quarter. And then we're going to go and we're going to do Lacy next and we'll review Lacy all the stuff she can do like so in doing it. So it's about 20 minutes per person. So if there's six of you, it's a two hour exercise, which is why this is perfect for an annual retreat session.

[Unknown]

Love it. And a fun name too.

[Chris]

Yeah. Another good exercise that I like is when you do a the SWOT analysis. I do it exactly the same way. You give everyone a stack of post it notes and everybody writes down three strengths for the company, three weaknesses for the company, three opportunities for the company, and three threats for the company. And then they all stand up and post their strengths, weaknesses Opportunities and threats by area. Right. So you can have all the strengths together, all the weaknesses together, all the opportunities together, all the threats together. And then you can talk about those as a team and you can decide which ones by voting really rise to the top as stuff to either leverage or take care of. That again, is another powerful exercise. And there's lots of these that you can do.

[Ali]

Cam, I posted in the, in the chat to see if you could just. You went fast on this part. On the how do we then roll the strategic plans down to the. The threes that each department is committing to, then each employee is committing to, plus the review process for the threes and the accountability at the daily or weekly level, at the employee level, especially with virtual.

[Chris]

Okay, so the starting point with it is by first saying the leadership team is signing off on the goals for the year, right? So when the leadership team is coming up with those four goals, the employee net promoter score, customer net promoter score, profit and revenue. And we're all discussing and debating and there's ways that you can use it to have them set bigger goals. As an example, I would sit down with all of the leadership team and say, grab a post it note and write down on your post it note what you think our revenue could be in three years. And everybody writes it down on a post it note. And then you read it out and you take the average and all of a sudden it's bigger than you probably thought it was going to be. So you kind of use the wisdom of the crowd. That's a great exercise to get the goals a little bit higher. But once you've established your goals, you've set your goals, you've done your SWOT analysis, you've reviewed your vivid vision, you're going to think about as a team. And I use the GE workout process to come up with what are the core projects that we're going to use to make those goals happen. And we try to maximum of have 10 core projects for the year. Most companies go way beyond this and they end up with 20, 30, 40 projects. You're never going to get it all done. Even if Marketing's only got five operations have five projects, but two of them involve marketing. It's got six projects, two of them involve marketing, the CEOs got four projects, two of them involve marketing. All of a sudden marketing's got 14 projects. Same with it. So what you want to do is agree as a company, what are the 10 core things we're going to do that are going to make the revenue goal happen the profit goal happen the customers happier and the employees got happier. It based on I have an idea. I think what Scott what Scott's good news is too. So, so that's where I start. Ali and then what we're going to do with once we know what those core projects are, is each business area having communication with each other so they know where they're involved. And that way it can say, wait a second, you're suggesting three projects? It looks like our time is going to be so maxed out that we can't even do that project you're thinking about in Q1. We can't do it until Q or 2. Q3. So then you have that dance and that discussion as a team. At the end of the two days, you should be able to walk into the meeting knowing what the goals, the vision, the swot, knowing what the projects are, having agreement on, the interdepartmental stuff. And then you go back to the company and say if these are the goals and these are our projects, what are you going to do to make those projects come true? What are you going to do to make these metrics happen? And then your job at the leadership team level is to sign off to make sure that business areas and people are working on the right things. Often what happens is the leadership team isn't strong enough to say no. Especially if you're an early stage company where you more have a management team and not a true leadership team. It's hard for early stage managers to deal with conflict. It's hard for early stage managers to say no. It's hard for early stage managers to say not now. It's hard to say no to the CEO. So we end up having more on our plates. We end up having or we have the wrong projects because we're trying to create this like, you know, everybody, all inclusive, everybody's all part of the decisions. But what can really come out of that is we end up committing to too many things or we end up committing to the wrong things.

[Cameron Herold]

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 industry leading COOs, visit cooalliance.com.