blog

At a recent corporate Sales event, the guest speaker was retired General Rick Hillier of the Canadian Forces. I must say that he is a very engaging speaker who truly cares for the men and women that he commanded during his tenure. His condensed biography can be found at: (http://www.canadaka.net/modules.php?name=Famous_Canadians&action=viewperson&person=218)

Canadian military is an interesting place for business to learn.

1. Big objectives
2. Few resources
3. Demanding much resourcefulness!
   

As General Hillier brought his soldiers on stage for us to meet and understand their stories, it was obvious to see the mutual respect and admiration and there was not a dry eye in the house and the feeling of patriotism filled the air.

What really struck me throughout his speech is how similar he was to the executives I most respect in the corporate world. General Hillier understood the value of the assets at his command and never missed an opportunity to share the spotlight with them.

Battle Plans

His view on a Battle Plan was that it was only good until you engaged the enemy and then it went out the window since the enemy hadn’t read the Battle Plan and didn’t always behave in the fashion that was expected. This sounded hauntingly familiar to the Strategic Plans put together by many organizations. Great plan that we all agree to, then we encounter the competition and our customers. Then we scramble to do mid-course corrections.

The Changing Rules of Engagement

General Hillier was explaining how the military is a hierarchical machine in that commands are passed down from the General, to the Colonel, to the Major, to the Lieutenant, and so on until the foot soldier must fulfill that command. It was this linear, directive type of order taking that caused significant casualties and injuries as soldiers followed the orders to the letter, even if they knew it was wrong.

In today’s military, according to General Hillier, they are practicing the art of “Leadership Intent”, whereby the orders still follow the same chain of command downward to the field. Yet the key difference is that the field is being asked to use their own decision-making skills and creativity- at each stage - to accomplish the desired goals. What they have discovered is that the foot soldiers are very creative and will generally accomplish what is being asked without the same number of casualties.

Similarities in the Business World

At the beginning I mentioned that General Hillier reminded me of my favorite bosses and I believe it is his strong endorsement of “Leadership Intent” that pulls at my memories. My most recent boss in the corporate world was a man a lot younger than me, but a smart savvy business man that I thoroughly respected. Each year he would lay out the challenges for us and we would determine the goals that we needed to achieve. Usually he had to pump the room full of oxygen as we always seemed to have growth targets that outpaced the industry. Once he had guided us to the desired targets, his philosophy was to get out of the way while our teams went about trying to deliver the targets. When we would hit a road block, he would step in to help us remove it by asking us enough questions to help us see the issue clearly or if it was political or required capital, he would pick up the phone and connect with his network within the company to get us back on the path again.

This is a learned skill that happens over time and as trust is built between the members of management.

What’s your style?

Will your team follow you into battle? Will they lead to success?

On behalf of Walmsley and Co. I’m pleased to announce my new partnership with Stan Tyo.

Stan has over two decades of applied leadership in high growth and transitional situations. He “gets” clients, he “gets” people and he has a remarkable breadth of insight into business. Stan’s experience as a senior executive will prove invaluable in shaping the practical counsel and execution that is the hallmark of the Walmsley & Co practice.

You may know Stan from his six and a half years as Vice President Contact Centre Solutions and Vice President Sales at TELUS Communications Inc. where he drove new sales processes and created the strategy and winning team to revitalize the Contact Centre practice.

You may have met Stan as he developed and spearheaded initiatives and operations at ICCI, CIBC, MDR Technologies, Telcost and Hudson’s Bay Company.

You may have listened to Stan at one of his numerous speaking appearances at industry conferences, universities/colleges and corporate functions to raise the awareness of Aquilium, CIBC and MDR Technologies or while he lectured for four years in Telecommunications and Management skills at Humber College.

You will be hearing about Stan and Walmsley & Co:
1. Broadening our reach into the technology and telecommunications sectors
2. Augmenting our results-driven and strengths-based approaches
3. Building distribution and licensing for our high impact sales, delivery and leadership workshops
4. Helping businesses integrate, measure and convert quality behavior into sustainable results

And if you haven’t yet met, heard or known Stan, you really should.
Drop me a line at steve@walmsleyandco.com or (416) 703-4563 – I would be pleased to make introductions.

Thoughts for challenging times

Lots of gloom.

Lots of financial advice.

Not much in the way of how-to’s about managing a positive mind-set.

Here are three quotes that I really appreciate – they anchor me and help me navigate choppy waters. After all aren’t challenging times the best time to learn new things and make new commitments?

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Ghandi

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.

E. B. White (1899-1985)

“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

Suzuki Roshi

And once you decide… COMMIT!

Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.

What do you use for guidance and focus in challenging situations?

We’d love to hear from you.

I recently read on the Business Strategies etc. website that a “Recession is a Terrible Thing to Waste!” (www.business-strategies-etc.com/2009/a-recession-is-a-terrible-thing-to-waste/). It seems they read an email bulletin from the NAPL (National Association of Printing Leadership) where this was described. They liked the phrase and decided to re-use it, well so did I.

When I read this, I thought that they had captured the essence of what every good company should do in difficult times. However, my belief is that if you want to develop a truly great company you should view that a recessionary trend is a natural way of correcting markets that have become unstable or artificially overextended. The one underlying message to this is that “This Too Shall Pass” and we better prepare ourselves so that we come out the other side as a stronger organization. There is the ability to do a quantum leap, gain market share or tackle new markets once the economy returns to normal (if there really is a normal). The proper preparation falls to our leaders, but how do we accomplish this when we are fighting the day-to-day battles?

Well I read the newspaper today) and there it was, another indicator on how our economy is in a tailspin and our unemployment rate is nationally 8.4%, and even greater in some areas across the country: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/unemployment-by-cities-provinces/article1170164/ Over the past months the headlines seem to claim that we haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Depression. On occasion, someone will mention that we in fact have suffered through a couple of more recent recessions and come out stronger when it has passed.

I think one of the reasons that this seems harsher today is that we hadn’t really recovered from the last series of issues and they do seem to be coming faster. Hard to believe it was 10 years ago when we were all preparing for the Year 2000 disaster that failed to materialize. Perhaps that is why we didn’t see the DOT com bust or Telecom downturn approaching. Then, when we add the fiscal mismanagement of some very significant corporations throughout North America, currency fluctuations and the global impact of the sub prime mortgage industry…well it seems like we have been battling for the past decade.

Typical Management Behaviour

As leaders, we tend to follow some very traditional patterns in surviving difficult times. We have learned these patterns over the years and we seldom challenge the track record of their success rate. Here are a few of the most common things that I have seen:

• Bring all of the big brains together and lock yourself in a room for a couple of days
• Recognize that sales are slipping which means that cost cutting is your only salvation. This means wage freezes, no promotions, travel freezes and of course “layoffs.”
• Management becomes invisible and always seem to be in closed door sessions.

For the sake of brevity I am going to stop at these three because these three points start to define a manager’s behaviour. What do you think these three points signify to the average employee? After all, your role as a leader is to lead isn’t it?

Tips to Improve Your Management Style

Now I am not suggesting that the preceding points aren’t necessary for corporations to survive difficult times, but there is a reason that during war times, generals try to make themselves visible to their troops. When you are asking someone to help fight a war for you, and make no mistake the similarities are strong, they need to know that they are not in this alone. Here are a few simple things to do that will make you stand out as a leader during tough times:

• Be visible – walk the halls, engage in conversation
• Provide clear leadership intent – this means that you tell them the objective but give them some leeway in determining how they get there
• Recognize individuals but praise the team
• Make decisions quickly and fairly – procrastination is a business and morale killer
• Connect with your customers – they are probably suffering just like you and probably would appreciate that you understand their position not to mention that your employees will like the fact that you are engaged

In my past life, I was the CEO of a mid-size software company that was named one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies during our last economic challenge. It was during that time that I learned to be out among the staff. They needed to know that they weren’t alone and I was constantly amazed at the great ideas that people were willing to share. I guess it is true that necessity is the motherhood of invention, because we created three new products that were introduced just as the economy was recovering.

Make Your Communications Meaningful

This is the ideal time to improve your personal and corporate communications. Your messages need to clear and memorable for them to have the right impact. If you don’t know how to make a message memorable, you might find some helpful tips in a book called “Made to Stick” by Chip & Dan Heath: http://www.madetostick.com/. I found their book to be helpful in understanding why some messages stick with people and why most just bounce off of us.

Tough times really aren’t new, but we sure treat them like it is something we have never seen…every time it happens.

I was walking through the airport on my way to business meetings in California

I saw a poster of a pair of hard core cowboy boots and denim with the word “Follower”. It immediately got my attention. The ad immediately confronted my expectations by playing on what we usually project when we think of a ‘follower’.

I was curious, who’s the leader? Sure enough, the next poster, “Leader” had a figure in a snappy suit, shirt and tie. That seemed to make sense but I wasn’t sure I saw the point.

But the ads weren’t done. The next set of posters came up, this time with the figures reversed. Now the suited guy was the follower and cowboy boots was the leader.

“Got me!”

Okay  so now I’m paying attention and I want to know who’s playing with my mind. I looked for the advertiser …www.hsbc.com. http://www.yourpointofview.com/page03.html

There was another set of contrasts on the jet way for me to chew on: a camping trip “stressful” or “relaxing” depending on your perspective. A party deck on a cruise ship, “stressful” or “relaxing” depending on your perspective.

Reminds me of conversations with many top performers and leaders.

Good performers stop or slow when it comes to the crux of labeling the moment with the client in front of them…

“close” “open”

“aggressive” “patient”

“support” “challenge”

They look for the right answer - either/ or.

But the best do it differently.

The best just plow through - they know the answer is both! New insight comes from the tension in the new spaces discovered by reconciling what looked like contradictions:

Open-close

Aggressive-patient

Tactical-strategic

Consistent-adaptive

If you can be in both spaces at once, holding the space for both to be possible in any given moment, then you are playing a top performer game.