The document discusses building exceptional teams and outlines 5 key elements: thoughtful direction, market behavior, competitive position, bottom-line focus, and effective organization. It emphasizes the owner's role in strategic planning, using a coach and advisors for support. Hiring and training a second-in-command can help owners address growth challenges and transition responsibility over time. Partnerships between The Alternative Board and LSU Continuing Education aim to provide business owners and their leadership teams with tools and resources to develop these exceptional qualities.

1. Building Exceptional
Teams
Baton Rouge Entrepreneur’s Week
Presentation

2. 5 Elements of a Successful Team
 Thoughtful Sense of Direction
 Market-Oriented Behavior
 Strong Competitive Position
 Bottom-Line Focus
 Effective Organization

3. Building an Exceptional Team
 It all starts with the Owner
 How?
 What can the owner do?

4. Start With a Strategic Plan
 Peter Drucker, father of modern
management:
“A leader’s first job is strategic planning”
 Begin with a vision
– What do you want your company to look
like in 3 years / 5 years / 10 years?
– What will the future look like in which
you operate your company?

5. Take a Critical Look in the Mirror
 Where are you today?
 Perform a realistic competitive
analysis:
– What are your team’s Strengths?
– Weaknesses?
– What Opportunities can you capitalize
upon?
– What Threats can you anticipate?

6. The Planning Pyramid

7. Privately Owned Companies Are
Different
Owner’s Personal Vision

8. HOW DO I FIND/MAKE
THE TIME TO PLAN – I’M
TOO BUSY!

9. Get a Coach
 “A coach is someone who tells you
what you don’t want to hear, who has
you see what you don’t want to see, so
you can be who you’ve always known
you could be” - Tom Landry

10. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Even
Jack
Welch &
Bill
Gates had
a business
coach

11. Value of a Business Coach
 Impartial 3rd party
 Someone with whom you can be
totally honest
 Someone who will
– Challenge you
– Hold you accountable
– Help you to see your blind spots

12. Surround Yourself With Good
Advisors
 It’s a 3000 year old idea:
– “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with
many advisors they succeed.” Proverbs 15:22
 Corporate Boards of Directors exist to
help CEOs:
– Make better business decisions
– Provide an outsider’s perspective
– Provide accountability

13. Surround Yourself With Good
Advisors
 A board of advisors composed of other
business owners will:
– Provide different perspectives & skill sets
– Give unbiased opinions
– Focus on solutions

14. The Alternative Board
(TAB)
 Bring groups of business owners together in
small groups, or boards
– Monthly board meetings
– Focus on solutions
 Between board meetings TAB provides
business coaching to each board member:
– Enabling entrepreneurs to go from wherever
they are to wherever they want to be
– Unique CEO planning tools

15. 5 Elements of a Successful Team
 TAB positions CEO’s / Owners to be
successful:
– Thoughtful Sense of Direction
– Market-Oriented Behavior
– Strong Competitive Position
– Bottom-Line Focus
– Effective Organization

16. THE GROWTH DILEMMA

17. Owner Transition
 Freedom  Entrapment
– Too many hours at work
– Not enough time with family
– No time for hobbies or other diversions
 All of the financial responsibility / risk
 Rising stress level
 No time for:
– What you most love to do
– What you are most talented

18. Decision Point
 Downsize to a more manageable scale
– Financial feasibility?
– Strategically desirable?
 Hire one or more second-in-
commands (SIC)
– Training is key

19. What an Effective SIC Needs
 Understand how an owner thinks
 Understand individual skills
 How to develop an effective team
 Upward & downward communication
 Organizational change
 Customer communication/management
 Leadership skills

20. Leadership Management 2.0
 LSU Continuing Education and The
Alternative Board – Metro Baton Rouge
partnering to bring this new course to
businesses in metro Baton Rouge
 Uses The Noise Reduction System™ based
on Make The Noise Go Away by Larry Linne
 First time for Baton Rouge
 Uniquely for SICs

21. What is the Value of Training a
SIC?

22. Leadership Management 2.0
 Course Details:
– First Class on Jan 10, 2012
– 10 Class meetings approx 2-3 weeks apart
 Each class runs 7-9 am
 Homework exercises & course design ensure
lots of owner/SIC interaction
– Last Class on June 26, 2012
– Funds available through Louisiana Workforce
Commission may cover most of the course fee

23. 5 Elements of a Successful Team
CEO SIC
Tools Training
 Thoughtful Sense of Direction
 Market-Oriented Behavior
 Strong Competitive Position
 Bottom-Line Focus
 Effective Organization
Available through TAB
Available through LSU
Continuing Education

24. The Alternative Board – Metro Baton Rouge
Bringing You the Tools &
Resources to Build
Exceptional Teams

25. Thank You!
 For more information:
– LSU Continuing Education
 www.outreach.lsu.edu
 Lisa Verma- (225) 578-4316;
lverma@outreach.lsu.edu
– The Alternative Board
 www.tabmetrobr.com
 Tim Stoll- (225) 636-2091;
tim@tabmetrobr.com