blog

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.

Are you well deployed as the “CCO”?

This job - that of being in touch with your clients in a consistent, collaborative way - is probably more critical to your company’s performance in this economic environment than it ever has.

Why?

Clients need more care and feeding. They want to know your business has some stability.  They want optimism, everywhere they can find it. The businesses that engage in detail and positive possibility will win through the tough times and excel in the good times..

On the other hand, let’s also not be naive.  There are some tough situations and problems to be solved.  You’re going to have to get your best “solutions hat” on and come ready to hear things you may not want to hear.

When?

Our primary research tells us that clients want to see the Chief “Calling” Officer in five typical situations:

1. Commitment to the client’s business and the business relationship with them

2. Damage Control: has there been a problem in fulfillment?

3. The Red Carpet: celebration and recognition

4. Senior-to-Senior: there is an appropriate ongoing relationship between peers

5. Supporting the client-facing professional: nothing makes the producer look powerful and help expand her contact patterns in the client business like the CCO coming and demonstrating they are on the agenda

How?

There are many great CCO’s who are awesome in the trenches.  Too often their process is too informal, too casual, too sporadic to be a powerful catalyst for continuous excellence. They need to distill that natural talent into something consistent that clients can count on and the sales professionals can emulate.

Starting points:

• Ask the sales professionals to think through the big 5 above and identify targets.
• Identify the timing for telephone calls and face-to-face
• Ask to be briefed using Know Your Client Warm and the Agenda for the last contact with the client
• Ask to be prepared with the objectives and draft agenda for the call you are to make as CCO
• Help measure the impact

What will you reap by sowing these seeds?

An increased clarity of the expectations and culture. Increased client commitment. More power in the hands of the sales professionals and relationship managers. More deal flow and profitablity.

That’s a crop worth tending…

I just read a Fortune article based on Q&A with Jim Collins of “From Good To Great“.It reminded me of something I had forgotten.

Who remembers this?: Eighteen of the companies Collins’ research team studied were Depression companies. FIFTEEN of them are still independent operations.

Timely to quote another key piece of work by Collins: something he calls Level 5 Leadership. It highlights a key component of the leadership required to create sustainable greatness.

“Level 5 leaders want to see the company even more successful in the next generation, comfortable with the idea that most people won’t even know that the roots of that success trace back to their efforts. As one Level 5 leader said, “I want to look out from my porch at one of the great companies in the world someday and be able to say, ‘I used to work there.‘ ”

To explore this further, read more at Jim’s Website

When Walmsley & Co. meets with potential clients, whether they be selling professionals with responsibilities in a business or firm or independents with their businesses at a certain level of growth, we identify them as “Producing Leaders”.

What is a Producing Leader? Most people get “producer”- someone who produces great results. Most people get “leader” and think of it conventionally as a formal leader.

If I transported you to a floor of a services business or to get an helicopter view of professionals leading with their clients, engaging and influencing peers, service and delivery professionals… you would immediately recognize the “producing leaders” when you saw them in action.

They have drive… they have enough information to move the ball forward… they are fun and easy to work with … they make their clients and their colleagues successful… people want to be around them and they know that they will be more successful as a result!

So What’s a Producing Leader?

A Producing Leader is the high-performing selling professional who holds the responsibility for bringing in business results through sales and client relationships. They may be the head of an entrepreneurial company, a professional like a financial advisor or an specialist consultant, or someone who is the company “rainmaker” even if he or she also does the company business… i.e. a lawyer who also lands the clients, or a the head of a recruiting company who also does the placements, an executive who demonstrates the strategy every day rather than just talking about it.

You can tell the Producing Leader because he or she has some distinct responsibilities and drivers:

• Leads through results
• Leads the growth of the business
• Is Client focused
• “Makes it happen”
• Service, fulfillment and delivery professionals want to work with them and feel more successful when they do
• A producing leader’s team is explicitly focused on supporting the Producing Leader in creating results.

The Producing Leader holds the key expertise that is the trusted center of the business.

Producing Leaders have highly effective ways to connect with the lifeblood of the business - that being client relationships - while still reaching out to new ones, knowing each client is receiving the kind of care and attention needed to feel they have made a good choice.

They have a simple, effective process in place to be sure everyone is being “touched” regularly, and also “heart”… meaning that those “touches are meaningful exchanges” with clients, future clients and colleagues. The heart is where profit, pride and purpose connect; where the Producing Leader and staff are engaged and motivated.

They are positive AND progressive. People get engaged on passion and stay engaged on urgent, vital execution.

Are you a Producing Leader?

If so, ask yourself: is your business “heart” connected and engaged or are you too often going through the motions just to keep up with day-to-day business?

In future posts we’ll talk more about how to keep in the “heart” without losing effectiveness.