Leadership or Management? Who Cares?

Recently I participated in a session about leadership experiences which drew from the rich experience of the people in the room, not merely a lecture by the person in front of the room.

The facilitator would set up a business situation and asked the audience of executives to share their experiences. I have found that listening to what others have faced and overcome is quite instructive and real.

A colleague sitting beside me grumbled at the conclusion of each topic - “that's not leadership – it's management.” In his eyes, none of the eight topics discussed that day passed muster as addressing leadership.

Although it was distracting to hear his continuing negative comments, I came to realize a couple of enlightening elements about leadership.

• There is a very fine line separating a management action and a leadership action when trying to catalog the act. But this is like trying to determine how many angels can fit on the head of a pin – who knows and does it matter? Was the solution successful? Did it advance the organization toward the vision (goals); did it create results? If so, Great! Next time the situation comes up, let's consider using it again. Adding a name-tag to the action adds no value whatsoever.
• My grumbling colleague spent much energy in slotting the activities, but took nothing useful away from the meeting. I heard about experiences and related results and took away many nuggets of useful information about better leadership practices. Two people, sitting side by side with vastly different outcomes.

Following the meeting, my business partner asked me – 'what was the best thing you got from this meeting?'

After a moment's thought, I summed it up as follows: leadership can be learned, but it can't be taught.

Do you find that thin line between what's leadership and what's management important? How so?

Customer Service?

The best customer service is not to have any incidents with your products or services requiring customer service.

When needed, however, customer service is about solving a problem or answering a concern – promptly and completely. Here's two approaches.

My smartphone has numerous apps and it gets a notice when apps are updated. Recently when clicking on an app update button, I got a message that it was not available from the app store (even though they sent the update notice). I sent an email to get help and got a prompt 'personal' response from Justin – an automated help desk response to gather more information.

When I sent back the information, Justin came back asking for more. Took 4 times and I got a link for the app update – but it did not work. I deleted the app – too much work for too little results.

At Zappo Shoes, the staff answers the emails, immediately dispatches replacement shoes if there's a problem, and openly solicit & display compliments or complaints - they learn from both. Growth in sales and customer satisfaction hits the top of the charts. It's easy and almost fun to get help here.

As more business is done remotely, it may be easy to rely on automation to handle routine or simple problems, but the high cost of this approach is losing contact with the customer. One of the most effective ways of knowing about your customers' experience is to use your product or service – the next best is to hear where they have problems or concerns.

Always wise to keep in mind that the customer is not a problem or a distraction. Perhaps doubly true if you don't see them face-to-face.

Speak Your Vision

Leaders are visionaries. They paint a picture of the way things will be.

How to go from vision to reality.

Share the vision often.

As President of NCI, my staff suggested that we communicate the vision more. Before hearing this, I felt that I had been speaking about the vision all the time – maybe even too often.

I talked more about the vision – in person, in writing, and through senior staff, managers, and supervisors. The outcome – NCI moved toward the vision faster. More sharing is strategically better to inform and stimulate creativity, innovation, and progress toward results.

Be concise and specific about the goal.

Just over 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy shared with Congress the vision of sending a man to the moon by the end of the decade (i.e., the 1960's). The vision was realized by Apollo 11 in July 1969 as Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man & giant leap for mankind.”

Kennedy was very clear on the what and when of the vision.

Be vivid.

Use vivid terms to create an image for the listener – keep it 'visual'; avoid painting a map showing the path to the vision – a map can stifle creativity and innovation.

Declare victory.

Celebrate victory when achieving the vision or when reaching a crossroads which calls for new or updated vision. Give closure to your supporters – in a novel, when the writer skips to new scene without completing the current one, it is disappointing to the reader and often confusing as well.

Take it seriously.

A vision needs to be challenging but possible – if it's difficult that's OK. Imagine the outcome if Kennedy had chosen time travel as the target for the '60s.

Once committed, ride it out – don't let the flame die from inattention or the press of other business.

A leader who communicates a powerful vision can move an organization to achieve great results. Almost like predicting the future.

Please share your experience with the effect of a strong vision by the leader.

Come to the Capital Technology Management Hub, June 14th, for Sales Lab Rainmaker #6: ‘Networking - Are You Being Served?

Networking is NOT Just Talking About the Weather

When you attend events to meet new people, what's your goal?

After your Who, What, Who, What intro (name, title, organization, what you do) and they have done the same, what's next?

You are both going through a ritual to identify common ground – looking for something in which you share an interest.

One topic you share in common is the other person's business – find out what keeps them up at night.

Then you can see how to be of help – your services or products, a trusted referral, similar personal experience and results, or staying alert for a solution to the problem.

Going to an event without thinking of what you want to get out of it, you may come away with several opinions about the weather.

With a goal, you may come away with a sale, or at least the beginning of a new relationship.

Which is a better ROI for your time?

Your thoughts?

Come to the Capital Technology Management Hub, June 14th, for Sales Lab Rainmaker #6: ‘Networking - Are You Being Served?’ 

Rainmaker #6 – Networking – Are you Being Served?

Definition: A Rainmaker creates a significant amount of new business for a company. The Sales Lab Rainmaker Series is one rainmaker technique for technologists during the first 300 seconds (five minutes) of the monthly Capital Technology Management Hub Meeting. This is the handout for our June meeting.

We're professionals! Somebody said we're expected to network.

What do you want to get out of a networking session? This may surprise you - 1 or 2 new relationships. Someone of interest – who they are; what their organization does; what's their role; and what interests them .

Offer some help if you can – by telling about results - from your customer’s viewpoint – from using your service/product (only if directly on target); or refer someone or something; describe a useful blog & send them the link.

Then – be quiet for a bit – if you offered some help, they may ask what they can do to help you (or you can tee it up for them “I've been trying to …”) - or - they may ask for more info about the results you mentioned. Either way - tell them something they can react to – not a sales pitch - and thank them for any suggestion offered – no rating, ranking, or refuting.

The key to successful networking is to focus on the needs of the other person as you learn more about them and seek a way to help. Zig Ziglar says: “You can have anything in the world you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”

Please share your thoughts to help extend our learning - comment below:

Reserve your place for the next Capital Technology Management Hub Event, How to Transition a Small Business Into a Fortune 50 Company , June 14^th, http://smallbusinesstofortune50.eventbrite.com

The previous Rainmakers:

Rainmaker # 5 – Start With An Offer

Rainmaker #4 – Time, Talent, and Treasure

Rainmaker #3 – Process to Purchase

Rainmaker #2 – The Nametag

Rainmaker #1 - Gifts

The Doer

You know this person – uses hands, mind, eyes, ears, and creativity to contribute directly to the organization's results.

He is engaged and there to contribute. She supports the mission and works to the highest of standards. Doers are the tensile strength of an organization's operations.

The Doers do their part, are always ready to jump in where needed, quietly improve performance, and focus on outcome & results. They are on the direct path for producing results of the organization – not in a support function for those who are on the path.

Want ideas about how to improve the organization? Ask a Doer.

Know any Doers? Share a story.

Drucker Was Right!! And He Still Is!

Peter Drucker has taught us a lot about the development of management – and by extension, leadership.

Here's his view of what management must do to lead an organization, which he wrote in 1974 (for more, click http://bit.ly/Management_role, beginning at page 39).

Management has three tasks of equal importance which it must to create a successful organization:

• Establish the specific purpose and mission of the institution;
• Make the work productive and the workers effective;
• Manage the social impact and social responsibility.

This was the foundation for successful traditional organizations 40 years ago, but it also fostered some successful non-traditional ones as well.

Look closely at Apple and Southwest Airlines in the '70s -

Purpose and mission were simple and broadly communicated - useful computers for everyone and inexpensive air travel which is fun, respectively.

Their employees were highly productive and innovative - engaged in supporting the mission.

Both embraced social responsibilities and their impact on the community and nation – conserving resources in pursuing the mission, reducing wastage and trash, and working in the community for improvement and progress. Apple was noted for supplying schools with computers at little to no cost; Southwest was the first airline to recycle drink cans and research the optimal altitude and speed for the most economical fuel usage.

They remain in the forefront of their industries today.

The New Normal of doing business continues to evolve and the successful firms are built on a platform of these three tasks – lots of communication about purpose and mission to the market, media, and employees; workers are more engaged in supporting the mission and being innovative in ways to do things better; and conservation of resources and materials is the rule rather than an afterthought.

Drucker's three tasks of leadership remains valid after almost 40 years and they're a trait of the New Normal successful organizations - Google; Zappos.

Do you agree? Share some examples so we all can learn more.