I've had questions from leaders who find themselves in a company that was formed through several mergers. While they hear talk about "synergy" and "cross-organizational teamwork," they don't always see this in practice.

The number one reason for mergers is synergy - which will, hopefully, lead to more profitability. If there is no "1+1=3" effect in joining with another organization, why bother to do it?

In spite of seemingly great synergy, many mergers fail. The main cause of failure is not bad strategic fit.  It is the lack of integration of people and culture. The question is critical - not only to the success of companies formed through mergers - but to almost all huge, global corporations.

Here are a few basic suggestions for managers that may help building synergistic partnerships across your organization:

1. Review the larger company goals, then focus on how your unit's objectives relate to overall corporate success.

2. Identify other parts of the business that may be impacted by the work of your group and let them participate in the development of your goals and plans.

3. Have each person in your group identify cross-organizational colleagues with the potential for synergies and partnerships.

4. Develop a disciplined procedure through which each person regularly reaches out to their cross-organizational partners and asks "How can we better help each other?"

5. Establish monthly team meetings for sharing what has been learned and ensuring accountability.

6. Rather than defending your viewpoints, or protecting your organization try to methodically balance your views with those of your colleagues to build a sense of shared commitment to larger objectives.

7. Establish a regular best practices forum (this can be done online) in which participants from all areas of the organization discuss what is working. (GE has done a fantastic job of making this happen.)

8. Be willing to transfer some of your best talent to other parts of the business. This will both facilitate cross-organizational synergy and help develop potential corporate-wide leadership. (Admittedly, this one is much easier in theory than in practice!)

9. Finally, go first. If we wait for the other people across the organization to reach out to us - and they wait for us to reach out to them - both parties will only succeed in waiting, not in building partnerships.

Life is good.
Marshall

http://www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com
http://www.MarshallGoldsmithFeedForward.com

UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 16, 2009 in Chicago - Linkage: What Got You Here Won't Get You There one day program

June 30, 2009 in Edinburgh - IMS full day program

July 1, 2009 in London - IMS full day program

July 2, 2009 in Manchester, England - IMS full day program

1. To those of you who have just endured a career adversity, join the crowd--and by the way, it's a very distinguished successful crowd.

Many members of the Fortune 500 Club could easily earn membership in the Misfortune 500 Club. Successful people are not people who never fail; they are people who know how to fail well. They have learned to use the leverage of a failure to push themselves up higher.

Bill Gates relishes the lessons of failure so much that he purposely hires people who have made mistakes. Roberto Goizueta, Coca-Cola's CEO, says the risk-taker mentality is the very reason he hired back the guy who launched New Coke--a huge marketing failure. Goizueta recognized that you can become uncompetitive and dangerously inactive if you let "avoiding failure" become your motivator. "You can stumble only if you're moving," he says.

If you've recently stumbled and fallen in your career, re-focus on how your risky thinking makes you more knowledgeable. See work failure as "fullure"--full of many lessons.

2. Think like a lion about your firing. Graham Thomas Chipperfield, a lion tamer with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, was bitten by Sheba, one of his 500-pound lionesses.

Before he got back in the cage with her, he analyzed the event from her point of view. First, he recognized that lions tend to think of the trainer as another lion. So, when he attempted to break up a fight between her and another lion--Sheba figured that he wanted to join fight!

Did Chipperfield blame Sheba for her inaccurate thinking? No. He took time to see the biting from her perspective. This is the same technique as that used by many therapists--beginning with Freud--called "mimesis." Through such role-play from offending party's perspective, patients can better understand why someone has "bitten" them and hopefully avoid being bitten again. If you've been fired, rejected, yelled at, take time today to see things from "Sheba's Point of View," so that perhaps you can avoid this happening again.

3. If you ask depressing questions, you will get 100% depressing answers. For example it does no good to ask yourself: Why didn't I...? What if...? Why me...? Would you accept some of the mean questions you ask yourself if they came from an outside source? Doubtful! So you have to "stop 'em and swap 'em" immediately for these questions that bounce you upward: What can I do to move forward? How can I grow from this challenge? What's within my control to change?

4. Shrink negativity into "nuggetivity." Limit the amount of time you allow yourself to think negative thoughts to three-minute nuggets, three times a day. Set aside a specific time of day when you will allow yourself to think negative thoughts. Whenever a negative thought enters your head, tell yourself it will have to wait until your preset Negativity Appointment. Who knows, maybe you won't even want to think negatively once this time swings around?

Marshall: Thanks Karen! What an uplifting interview. For more career and happiness info pick up Karen's new book The Bounce Back Book: How to Thrive in the Face of Uncertainty, Setbacks and Losses, or go to notsalmon.com. 

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His latest book "Succession: Are You Ready?" - is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. His personal website, www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com, contains hundreds of his articles and videos.

One key factor in leadership success is self-confidence.  How can future leaders learn to demonstrate more of this?  Here are a few suggestions that I give leaders who have self-confidence issues.

1. Decide if you really want to be a leader. Many of the MBAs who report self-confidence issues are brilliant technicians. They often find the uncertainty and ambiguity of leading people very unsettling. They are looking for the "right answers" - similar to the ones in engineering school. In some cases, brilliant technical experts should continue to be brilliant technical experts - and not feel obligated to become managers.

2. Make peace with ambiguity in decision making. There are usually no clear right answers when making complex business decisions. Even CEOs are guessing.

3. Gather a reasonable amount of data, involve people, then follow your gut and do what you think is right.

4. Accept the fact that you are going to fail on occasion. All humans do.

5. Have fun! Life is short. Why should you expect your direct reports to demonstrate positive enthusiasm, if they don't see it in you?

6. Once you make a decision, commit and go for it. Don't continually second guess yourself. If you have to change course, you have to change course. If you never commit, all you will ever do is change course.

7. Demonstrate courage on the outside, even when you don't feel it on the inside. We are all afraid on occasion -- that is just part of being human. If you are going to lead people in tough times, you will need to show more courage than fear. When direct reports read worry and concern on the face of a leader, they begin to lose confidence in the leader's ability to lead.

Marshall Goldsmith Effective Leadership Skills video training.

Marshall Goldsmith Training and Speeches.  The American Management Association named Dr. Marshall Goldsmith as one of 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years. Marshall is one of a select few advisors who has been asked to work with over 100 major CEOs and their management teams.