The Exkalibur Leadership Forum is a group of senior executives and business leaders, running companies from $10-100 million in annual revenue, who meet on a regular basis to build their leadership skills, enhance their executive education and share their insights and experiences to help each other make better decisions and improve their Company’s performance. Please visit our Exkalibur Leadership Forum main page for further information.

Incentive Plans

During this quarter, we focused our Best Practices series on incentive plans and their value in stimulating superior performance. We discussed relevant excerpts from the updated book, SuperFreakonomics by Levitt & Dubner, who believe that “incentives are the cornerstone of life”. Each member examined the principal incentive plan in his or her respective company, discussed its features with the other members and took away some valuable ideas about how to modify those plans to achieve the desired results.

The Key Attributes of Successful Leadership Teams

We also focused intently during this quarter on some of the key attributes of successful leadership teams and how to improve organizational effectiveness by improving recruiting and hiring plans. We listened to several experts and considered the latest research from leading universities: Why aren’t we very good at judging talent? What can we do to improve our chances of hiring top performers for key positions? What biases do we bring to that process and how can we overcome those limitations in judging talent for the pivotal roles in our organizations?

Member Problem-Solving Sessions

Several members also sought the collective counsel of the group about some of the particularly challenging issues they’re facing. Many of these problem-solving conversations involved issues that greatly benefited from the insights and experience of the CEOs and business leaders in the Exkalibur Leadership Forum.

Executive Plan Update

On a regular basis, each member shares their progress toward the goals and objectives set forth in the Annual Executive Plan, prepared by each executive during the 4th quarter of the year. The plan is updated quarterly, with concrete financial performance criteria as well as an active discussion about the achievements, shortcomings and concerns experienced in the pursuit of the individual, team and company goals they have set for the year.

Other Practical Strategies

Here are some of the other practical strategies that we discussed during this quarter:

–  The value of powerful personal databases to support the collection and searchability of the disparate information that we need to organize and access every day, including some concrete, hands-on experience with several platforms.

–  Proven Personal Productivity tips and techniques are often part of our meetings, as each of us struggle to deal with the flow of information, email, social media and other time-eating distractions that impede our progress toward our goals and a meaningful work/life balance.