Leading Questions

Customer Relationships in Hard Times

How are you handling your interactions with clients / customers?

Right now you are demonstrating to them the reason why they buy from you. You are earning their loyalty and continued business.

However, if you are captured by your own fear of the future, where it is fear of not being able to pay bills, not having a job, or not being able hold onto your employees, you have to manage your fear so that it does not become the central feature of your relationship with customers.

Now is the time to go further with them that you ordinarily would. Treat your customers as friends. What do you do when a friends is in trouble? You pitch in and help him out.

Even if your business is suffering, you cannot entertain the notion that you are a victim of bad times. You have to discipline yourself to believe and help your customers to believe that your future is dependent upon what you will do today. Build strength in those relationships, and when we come out of this mess, the relationship that you have with those customers will be there.

Don't let fear be your primary emotion. Turn off the TV if you have to do so. Reread books that inspired you to become the person you are today. Do whatever it takes to elevate your daily performance to counter the challenges that you are facing. Do so, and your customers will find you the strength in the storm that they need.

Talia and Bill on Giving

Here is Talia Leman, RandomKid visionary, on how to turn kids' desire to give into opportunities to make a difference. Listen carefully. This is not like anything that has been happening.

Talia references Bill Gates 2007 Harvard commencement speech. In that address, he says.

But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
...

If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to find a solution.

Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring. If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks “How can I help?,” then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted. But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that makes it hard for their caring to matter.

Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have — whether it’s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.

...

Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again. This is the pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working – and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and quit.

The final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn from your efforts.

You have to have the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment from business and government.

But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers; you have to convey the human impact of the work – so people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.

  There are many obstacles to making a difference, and they are all overcome with a power that each of us has. Each of us as the power of initiative. Either we take initiative or we don't.  If we don't, something happens, and often it is for the worst. If we do, we have a chance to make a difference. Most of us don't know until we try.

Talia tried, and tried again, and again and again. Her life is making a difference. And yours can too if you take the first step.

Talia says Thank You

I've written about Talia Leman and RandomKid. But words do not quite capture the significance of what Talia is doing. Watch this video and realize that a generation of kids touched by other RandomKids will emerge into adulthood different than those in their 20's to 80's. Through kids like Talia, they will understand that they have the power to do things that most of us didn't dream of until we were well into adulthood.  If you can contribute to RandomKid in your end of the year giving, please do so. Your gift will make a difference.

Delaware Employment Law blog selects the 100 of the top leadership blogs

Molly at the Delaware Employment Law blog has posted her list of the 100 of the Leading Blogs on Leadership.  Leading Questions is on the list.

I'm glad to know that I have something to contribute to those who practice in the field of employment law. I welcome your questions and insights.

Thank you very much, Molly.

Real Life Leadership: Tough times can allow you to show your worth in sales

This week's Real Life Leadership column - Tough times can allow you to show your worth in sales - is online.

The question in this week's column emerged in conversation with Meridith Elliot Powell.  I asked her to respond to the question, and here's her full response.

Absolutely you can be successful as a salesperson and selling when credit is tight and everyone is holding  on to cash. 

Success in sales in this economy is all about getting back to the basics . I think right now is one of the most exciting times to be in sales.

During tough economic times customers really need you and your job is to help them understand why.   In sales, when you take the time to understand what you do, why you are doing it, and how to do it,  then you uncover the value you bring to the table and how, through sales, you can truly help people. It is important to learn early that sales is not about "talking people into" buying your product or service. It is about first understanding your customers' need and then helping them understand how you can add value.

Success in selling is simple, but it is not easy, like everything else in life long-term success takes consistency and work. Ever wonder why successful sales people have such a passion for what they do, why they are always so motivated and excited? Here's their secret, they have a personal sales strategy. One that is unique to them and their sales style. They've invested the time to first sit down and answer the right questions and prioritize the right actions that provide them with a systematic approach to the sales process. This focus and consistency minimizes stress and produces results explaining their motivation and enthusiasm.

To be successful in sales you need a strategy. You need to invest the time to uncover the answers to questions like: what differentiates you and why specifically should someone buy from you; what value and benefit does your  product or service offer to a customer; how do you communicate both of these concepts clearly and quickly so customers understand this early on in the sales process ; how do you find and connect with potential customers; what goes into a good sales call; how to really listen;  how to develop  follow-up plans and a healthy sales pipeline; and the list goes on.

Now, while this all sounds like a lot , investing time in building a personal sales strategy actually gives you more time to sell.  Taking this approach,  gives you a systematic way to consistently prioritize the right actions that keep you productive in sales rather than busy. It also gives you a sense of purpose, which will build your self- confidence and help tap into your motivation and enthusiasm.

Developing your personal sales strategy takes an initial investment of time, and the reward is more than worth the effort.

Meridith is directing her comments to my question. However, if you were to broaden this perspective to encompass all that we do in business, her strategic approach makes sense. Here are my take-a-ways.

1. Our customers need us now more than ever to help them work through the challenges that they are having.

2. To be successful we need a strategy. This strategic way of thinking goes beyond simply having some goals. Our strategies are how our goals will be met.

3. We need consistency, commitment, and hard work, as well as persistence, resilience and a no quit attitude.

I heard Meridith speak recently on relationship network stategies. I've been working with network theory for over a decade, and I found out that what I knew was way too abstract and impractical. I learned some new approaches to developing my networks that I've beginning to apply. 

If for all these reasons, I'm excited about Meridith being one of our workshop leaders for our 2009 Lessons in Leadership conference.  If you are anywhere close by Asheville, N.C. on January 20, sign up for this afternoon/evening event.  It will be worth the trip. I'm absolutely certain.

You can download a PDF copy of my column here. Thanks.

Quick Takes: That No Quit Attitude - Waddie Mitchell

During tough times, our attitude is often the key to whether we'll thrive or merely survive. Waddie Mitchell, Waddie Mitchell - That No Quit Attitude  the world's foremost cowboy poet wrote a poem - That No Quit Attitude - for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics that has been a great encouragement to me. Here is my transcription of the recording.

THAT NO QUIT ATTITUDE  -Waddie Mitchell

While gathering cattle near the ruins of a long abandoned homestead in the shadows of the mountains, questions swarmed around my mind of the people who had claimed there, most forgotten now, and long dead still.

 I wonder what had prompted them to leave their worlds behind searching for a life uncertain, in a vast and rugged region up and leave their home and kin for opportunity to find.

Taking little more to start with than an idea, and a reason and a dream of their succeeding in a future yet defined.

Soon these queries led to more like …

Why it is that some folks always need to push their borders out beyond the furthest milestone on a never-ending quest to find new ways and trails to blaze and in the process stretch that realm of what is built and done and known?

From the little draw above me and my pard’s ride with his fine’ns, throwing his bunch with mine now shaded up and settled down.

I could see that he had gone through battle for his pony sporting lather but his smile claimed that he had made it in with everything he’d found.

The sweat and dust and brush streaks on that pair done heaps of speaking as he pulled up near, dismounted and loosen latigo a bit.

He said, “We jumped them in the rough, and would have lost them had we weakened  but I swear, this here caballo ain’t got one half ounce of quit.

And that no quit phrase speaks volumes on one’s character and makin’s to a cowboy drawing wages riding ranges of the West.

Them who have it you’ll find usually conquer most their undertakings for the best in them is drawn out when their spirits put to test

Then I spot my cow dogs bushed up staying well hid from the cattle knowin’ with a cue they’d give all to do anything need done.

I thought then how the most of us will opt to shun that battle never knowin’ fully what we could accomplish or become.

Still, I believe like dogs and horses we’re all born with resolution.

Like muscles and good habits it needs use and exercise, if left dormant, its in jeopardy of lost evolution for eventually it shrivels ups and atrophy and dies.

But when flexed, it blossoms heroes in a source of inspiration for we all recognize that virtue and a no quit attitude.

And it proves its attributes in competition and vocation that evokes appreciation and a show of gratitude.

And since mankind started walking, it has been swifter, higher, stronger, as if pushed by some deep need to keep their limits unconfined

Almost thriving, always striving for things bigger, better, longer in an unrelenting pursuit of perfection, redefined.

And in this world that is soft complacence there are still a few among the masses who will readily give all to see a job or dream fulfilled.

It’s a trait that’s void of prejudice toward races, sex or classes just demanding its possessor be of valor and strong will.

Then as we start our cattle homeward lettin’ the dogs bring up the rear, and we leave what’s left of once somebody’s hopes and dreams behind

I’m convinced that no quit attitude will always persevere. Now it's the essence and the promise and the crown of human kind.

Whatever you are facing in your business or life, having a No Quit Attitude is the only one that we'll get you home. I am referring to an old American virtue long sense fallen out of favor in the public's eye, and that is self-reliance. To be reliant upon one's self is like the two cowboys in Waddie Mitchell's poem. They live and work in a dangerous environment, and they find a way to make it through.

Self-reliance, as I've learned from guys who spend their days on the back of a horse, is not about being the hardening loner, unreachable, not needing other people. Rather, it is a person who accepts the responsibility of their life, and because of that capacity are able to help others as they seek to become so.

As  I've told my sons and daughter, the only failure in life is to quit. If you don't, if you keep trying, you eventually succeed. It may be different than you expected, but it won't be failure. There is a huge difference between mistakes and failure. We learn and improve by making mistakes. We quit when we fail.  And these times, there is no place for quitting, and every reason to learn how to live That No Quit Attitude.

Vote for RandomKid at BestBuy.com during December

Last week I wrote about Talia Leman, the 13 year old CEO of RandomKid, a kids' social entrepreneurial / philanthropic organization. Talia had been featured in a column by Nicholas Kristof in the NYTimes on Sunday, November 16. Talia writes

to ask a favor.

Best Buy is giving my organization, RandomKid (www.randomkid.org) the opportunity to fund a new website through a $10,000 grant. The catch is that I have to earn that grant by getting people to vote for my grant project on-line.  Out of 30 projects selected by Best Buy (RandomKid is one of them), 15 will receive $10,000 grants to advance their goals. (The odds are good, since I have a 50% chance of being one of them.)

Here is my project in a nutshell, so you will understand the value of it.  Before I describe it, though, I want you to know that I am not asking you to vote for me as a friend, or family member, because I don't feel that one person deserves this over any another.  I am asking you only to vote for my project, if you feel it will bring a value to the world that makes it deserving of this grant. 

Purpose of my project:

To save lives, and improve lives, by empowering youth to achieve their goals that make a difference. 

How: 

By providing advanced computer technology that unifies youth fundraising efforts around the world toward common goals so that together we can solve real world problems, literally building schools, placing safe water wells, vaccinating children, and more.

Impact: 

So far we unified the efforts of schools in 8 states to fund safe water wells together serving 5000 in Africa, we unified the efforts of kids in 19 countries to build and name a school for 300 students in Cambodia, we unified 10 kids from 5 states to raise the money to build a home in the gulf, and now we want to rally kids around even more great projects ideas.  By having this website, our potential is unlimited.

Best Buy grant goal: (I have already raised $21,000, and I need the final $10,000)

Finish development of a website that allows kids to safely create or join into any project in real time and raise funds/resources that can be seen accumulating on a real-time thermometer toward their goal-- all under the umbrella of our 501C3 so that every donation is tax deductible. (I am modeling this site after www.globalgiving.org, only it will be geared toward kids with curriculum supports and safe networking/educational opportunities.)

The voting period is from December 1st-December 31st. I am trying to figure out the best way to run my campaign for votes, and this is what I think would work best:

• I am looking for friends and family who are willing to vote for me once per day for one month (whenever they can). 
• I want to know if you are able or willing to do this, and if you are, please email me back with a YES.
• I will send you an email every day for all 31 days in December, with the link, and some words of inspiration for the day (how about that!)
• You do not have to register to vote, you can just go to the site and simply click where you want to.
• You can only vote once per day per computer (per modem, actually), and once per day for every cell phone you have if you wanted to go above and beyond.
• It will take only 20-30 seconds each day
• The contest requires you to vote for 2 different projects each day to encourage people to vote for people they don't know, based solely on their projects (a good twist)
• I truly believe that the project I am putting out there will create something phenomenal for the children of the world, and that is why I am comfortable asking you to do this
• Here is what I have so far for the home page for the website, so you can get a sneak peak: http://securemockups.net/php/randomkid/wireframe/version%205/index.html
  

I hope that you will consider this.  My goal is to find 30 people who are willing to take this on with me and make it happen.

Thank you so much.

Very Truly,

Talia Leman, with the support of  Anne Ginther (my adult RandomKid partner who shares this dream with me every day).

Talia, I think we can do better than 30.

If you would like to receive a reminder from Talia each day in December, she is going to send out a little inspirational message to her email list. If you'd like to hear from her, leave a comment here on this post, making sure that when you register to comment that you include an email address. I'll collect them and send them to her.

Thanks for your help.

 

Quick Takes: A Bright Spot in this Financial Mess

Reading Tom Friedman on Citibank bailout left me a bit disappointed. Oh, I think he is correct in all that he says, but he doesn't say what we all need to hear.

This financial meltdown involved a broad national breakdown in personal responsibility, government regulation and financial ethics. ... That’s how we got here — a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, and now we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a total systemic crash. These are the wages of our sins.

The bright spot in this mess is that we should all be wiser people.  It is a hard earned wisdom that points me to the following realizations.

1. We live in a highly integrated world where our futures and fortunes are connected to one another. We need to better understand that this integration, while beneficial in many ways, also leads to the tsunami effects that we have seen over the few months. So, we need to develop redundant, non integrated systems, that provide ways to thwart the kind of things we are seeing happen.

2.  We need to renew the virtues of self-reliance and community. The purpose of these values is to give each of us the confidence that whatever situation we are in that we together as individual members of our local communities can work through the crisis to a successful end.We need to understand that we cannot pass off the health of our communities or nation to someone else. It is now clearly our responsibility.

3. We need to emphasize the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship education and development for our children, and provide the practical structures where they can learn to be self-reliant and collaborative.  If you are unsure what this means read Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The opposite of this approach is a one size fits all system that is highly integrated and efficient. Instead, every person and family needs to develop multiple streams of income in order to provide a buffer against financial loss.  And the place to start to find it is at your local community college.

4.  The bright spot in this financial mess for me is that I've seen this shift to greater self-reliance, community-building, innovation and entrepreneurship already at work in many, many ways. I already see a growing emphasis on entrepreneurship that is both technological and social.  I see a growing willingness of people to put aside their own personal needs to care for those in much worse shape. 

However, I don't see this happening by large institutions like the kind that Washington is bailing out. I see it in local communities, where individuals and small organizations are both connected and independent. And for this, our financial mess will encourage these counter measures, and will strengthen our communities and build greater resilience to the challenges that will inevitably come.

Say Thanks, Everyday

As our American Thanksgiving Day approaches, I wanted to say something about an idea that I believe is important for leaders to consider.

Dan PInk, author of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, has a contest going on to pick a 7th lesson to follow the six that he illustrates in his book.

My 7th lesson?  Say Thanks, Everyday.

Here's why I think this is a fitting completion to Pink's 6 Lessons.  The lessons are:

1.  There is no plan.

2.  Think strengths, not weaknesses

3.  It's not about you.

4.  Persistence trumps talent.

5.  Make excellent mistakes.

6.  Leave an imprint.

If you follow the logic of Dan Pink's perspective on careers you will see that there is an organic nature to the process. There is no formula that fits everyone. In other words, figuring out your career is about learning to adjust to changing circumstances. If you think about it, and have read the book, most of us make our way through our careers dependent upon the kindness and advice of others. We don't do virtually anything on our own. If this is true, then we are indebted to many, many people who have contributed to making our lives what we have found it to be.

So, I believe that one of the most important things we can do is say Thank You. We need to say Thanks, everyday, because it put us in a frame of mind of openness and gratitude toward others. We can learn to appreciate the gifts and talents of others because we have disciplined ourselves to look for their strengths and realize the importance of their impact upon us.

Some may think that saying thanks everyday could turn into just empty words. If so, then our problem isn't the lack of gratitude in our lives, but rather then deeper issues of our character. If you read through Johnny Bunko with an ear to the opportunities for him to say thanks, they are many.  And the same is true for our lives. I guarantee that if you practice saying Thanks everyday, that you will find a really good life, and good friends and colleagues to share it with.

What better day to celebrate my 7th Johnny Bunko lesson than on Thanksgiving.  I hope all of you in the US have a marvelous Thanksgiving, and all of you outside the States join us in saying Thanks.

Thanks for reading. It means more than words can express. And thanks to Dan Pink for a great book that gives us all an opportunity to give thanks for the people who have helped get where we are. Thanks.

Primus inter pares - a strategic ethic of leadership success

The Latin term, primus inter pares, means first among equals. As typically defined, it is the senior most person on a team of equals. Robert Greenleaf uses the term as one way to understand the nature of servant leadership. Both terms, primus inter pares and servant leadership are principally about the character and relationship of leaders to others.  These are not descriptions of a system of organization. Rather, they are descriptions of how a person relates to people within a given structure.

Let's use my Three Dimensions of Leadership diagram as a guide.

Primus inter pares, first among equals, is an idea that describes a relationship. It means that one of the people within a group has an authority that exceeds the others, yet they are equal in some respect. Their equality could be based on the roles within the organizational structure, or the lack of a specific structure.

For example, a group of sales people meet to discuss strategies for coordinating their outreach to the market. One of the members of this group may emerged as the defacto leader of the group. This first among equals earns this position within the social structure of the group because of experience, knowledge, or personal character. They may be the most strategic thinker, or the best at facilitating conversation, but ultimately, this person emerges as the one who makes the group function best.

It is important to understand the connection between the social structure of an organization, the Relationships dimension, and the organizational structure. Within the latter, individuals have titles, roles, positions of authority and responsibility. In organizations where the Relationship dimension is poorly developed, the organizational structure will more likely be hierarchical, segmented, resistant to change.  In organizations where the Organizational Structure is dysfunctional, meaning how the business is organized is not compatible with its mission and inhibits the people within the organization from doing their best work, the Relationship dimension strengthens to a certain level to facilitate daily survival.  In this instance, some individual will emerge as the primus inter pares.

The importance of a culture of primus inter pares is that it provides a greater degree of openness for relationships to develop. People are more free to exchange ideas. The organization thinks more strategically, than tactically, or rather tactics and strategy are much better coordinated because the communication and interaction level of the organization is much higher.

Does functioning as a primus inter pares enhance the role of CEO in an organization?  I believe it does. The challenge is to learn how do be a first-among-equals while also being the boss. The distinction is between the Relationship and Organizational Structure dimensions.

If the CEO, simply functions within the parameters of the executive role, what ultimately happens is a narrowing of the relationship network available to him or her. When a CEO fails to develop a relationship network as a primus inter pares, then there is a closing off of access to information.

Ron Burt in his two books, Structural Holes and Brokerage and Closure, writes about how relationship networks provide access to information that gives entrepreneurs a competitive advantage. The advantage is between the person who has a widely dispersed, diverse network of relations, and the person who doesn't.

Recently, I heard Meridith Elliot Powell speak on the develop a relationship network strategy. She identifies three different networks that leaders need to develop. There is an Enterprise network functioning within the business, a Business network of relationships within the business' industry, and then, a Strategic network of people who provide information that would not typically be available to those in the other two networks.

What these networks do is open up the CEO to learn what he or she needs to know that within the more closed, restricted circle of executives is not available. Within the closed circle, the CEO can act as supreme authority, but within an open, diverse network of relations, the CEO must act as a primus inter pares at least.

Within this network perspective, the CEO comes to understand that what he or she doesn't know is more important than what is known. Access to people with different perspectives and knowledge broadens the CEO's own perspective. The relationship to those outside the executive circle is not an Organizational Structural one, but rather a personal and professional one. There is relative equality based on the basic human need for trust and respect in the relationship. We approach those relationships with humility and openness to learn, and have perceptions broadened. And in exchange, the CEO provides perspective to those outside the executive suite.

Servant leadership is an ethic of relationship between leaders and followers. It is organizationally understood best from the primus inter pares relationship. As the first among equals, the CEO and other executives broaden their relationship network, putting them in a competitive advantage with those executives who do not. Primus inter pares is not a tactic for leadership success. It is an ethic for building strength within an organization. If the CEO is able to engender trust and confidence in him or herself, it will be because of both their competence in the role of leader and their relationship of openness and equality with people.  And becoming a primus inter pares within one's relationship network as a servant leader is a path to leadership success.