Monthly Archives: August 2009

Purpose before Self-Your mission as a leader

August 23, 2009 – 9:24 am

In an era when many business leaders seek celebrity at the expense of their companies, others are quietly focused on something else entirely: the business.

What they care most about is carrying out the mission of the business, delivering the promised results, and building an organization they can be proud of.

They have a sense of purpose that goes beyond their own personal desire for extraordinary wealth, status, self-aggrandizement, or power. They put a broader purpose before interests that benefit only them.

Magnetic Leadership

Look around your organization and you’ll likely see leaders who are always thinking of what’s best for them or what will make them look good.

Then there are others who are driven to create something meaningful and enduring. Their purpose might be to make the organization the most respected in its industry, or to develop the best workforce in the world. One CEO I know has made it his purpose to recast his company as an innovation-driven organization.

These are the leaders people typically gravitate toward. The ones we trust, and who we want to be more like — not because of how much money they make, how much power they have, or how well-known they are, but because of who they really are, their inner substance.

Given the public transparency of the 21st century, leaders who put purpose before self are the ones to follow — and to emulate.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Some leaders make impassioned speeches about their glorious mission or lofty goals, but their actions reveal their true motivations. They want their own fame, power, and fortune more than anything.

Are you the type who says the right things, or the type who does the right things? Is your self-interest served by meeting a higher purpose?

Put yourself to the test by being intellectually honest in answering the following questions:

1. Are you willing to give up some of your turf for a broader purpose?

In 2005, a $20 billion company underwent a major reorganization, and one of the senior executives approached the CEO to tell him a portion of the executive’s new job really should belong to someone else.

What was he thinking? He was in a horse race to succeed the CEO and already had the smallest scope of all his peers and fellow contenders for the top job. Under those circumstances, many leaders would try to expand their span of control. But he believed the organization would work better if certain areas went to someone else.

This leader was not naïve or unambitious. It’s just that he truly wanted the business to succeed. Of course he hoped that his thinking would be recognized and appreciated. When his boss and the board get close to the succession decision, no doubt they’ll remember that this person revealed he’s not a greedy empire builder.

Caring about the good of the organization can mean ceding a portion of your span of control, voluntarily agreeing to cut back on projects in order to meet a budget goal, or sharing part of your leadership responsibilities with an up-and-coming leader who needs a development opportunity.

It might also mean giving up valued team members who would better serve the organization in a different capacity. In today’s global organization, letting go of good people is almost an imperative.

2. Do you place a high value on relationships?

Leaders who lead with a purpose understand that they must build and sustain relationships — with customers, suppliers, employees, colleagues, and others whose favor or contributions are important to their organization’s success.

They don’t see relationships as an immediate exchange of benefits. Their primary concern is not “What’s in it for me?” In fact, it may not even be clear exactly how a relationship could ultimately prove beneficial. Nonetheless, they’re happy to devote the time and energy.

One legendary leader who understood this was John Weinberg, the former head of Goldman Sachs. He was famous for regularly calling to check in on clients, even when he had nothing to sell them. He just wanted to be available to them to help with any issue he could.

The payoff was that he built deep, trusting relationships with his clients, who would often turn to him for advice. These relationships in turn helped solidify the reputation and strength of his business. It’s part of what brought him recognition as a great leader.

3. Can you value — and leverage — different perspectives?

If you lead with purpose, you understand that there’s little value — and much short-sighted paranoia — in dismissing or deflecting viewpoints that differ from your own.

If you try to create a picture from a higher altitude, namely the corporate viewpoint rather than a departmental or divisional viewpoint, you’ll be better able to reconcile conflicts. To do that, you have to be able to step into someone else’s shoes and see things through their eyes.

Are you given to clashing with other leaders in your company, or do you seek to build strong working relationships with them based on your shared commitment to the common good of the organization? Do you automatically push back on customer demands for earlier delivery dates, discounts, or more favorable credit terms, or do you try to understand why these requests are being made and work with the customer to arrive at solutions that benefit both parties?

Leaders who put purpose before self can recognize, accept, and even leverage different perspectives — often to tremendous advantage

4. Are you comfortable with transparency — because you have nothing to hide?

Transparency is the order of the day, and people are more willing to work with, work for, and partner with people they trust. Trust is, after all, the crucial glue of collaboration.

Those who are narcissistic, who cut corners, and seek the easy path when the right path appears too difficult, and who clearly put themselves first, are less effective because they’re held in much lower regard.

If, on the other hand, a higher purpose guides your actions, others will know where you stand and what you’re about because you have nothing to hide.

Mark Twain observed that if you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything. He offered this as a humorous observation, but as a leader you should take the spirit of the message seriously. If you put purpose before self, you’ll spend little time covering your tracks, “spinning” bad news, brandishing your image, or seeking to rebuild trust with others. And, as a result, you’ll have that much more energy to devote to your purpose.

Disclaimer: source and author unknown.

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics, Sales Management, Strategy and Leadership | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Superficial Leadership, a common Malaise.

August 11, 2009 – 7:10 am

How often have you known a leader who takes command of the room the minute he walks in, gets all eyes focused on him, delivers a fantastic PowerPoint presentation, and has everyone eating out of the palm of his hand?

When that happens, people think to themselves, “Now that’s a leader!”

But as time goes on, the same leader makes terrible decisions or none at all. The people who report to him lose focus, the organization loses direction, and the business begins to flounder.

The so-called leader, it turns out, has no real ability to lead a business.

Style Before Substance

The issue comes down to style versus substance. Far too often, the people who identify, develop, and appoint leaders focus on the appearance of leadership. They miss the most important aspect of it: knowing how to run a business.

In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell notes that CEOs are on average three inches taller than the average male, and he attributes this fact to an unconscious bias. An imposing physical stature, he surmises, sends unconscious signals about who is or isn’t a leader, and thus influences who gets picked.

It may be hard to believe that people are swayed by such superficial qualities, and height is clearly an extreme example. But there are many other traps that cause us to put the wrong people in leadership positions, with terrible consequences for the person and the business.

Are They Really Leaders?

There are certain types of leaders who aren’t necessarily business leader. Don’t assume you’ve found a leader when you find one of the following:

  • The Pedigree

When you hear leaders making frequent references to their alma mater (“When I was at Harvard…”) or the big successful company they used to work for (“When I was at Toyota…”), be skeptical. Such people may be trying to impress by virtue of where they’ve been, rather than what they’ve done as a leader.

I’m not against education or valuable work experience. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a proud Harvard guy myself.) The point is that some people are taken in and choose such “leaders” either because they assume something good must have rubbed off, or because they think it’s safe.

It isn’t. You have to look at the person’s skills and record of actual accomplishment to have any sense of the person’s capability as a business leader.

  • The Spiritual Leader

Some people have a way of stirring up energy and excitement in other people. They conjure a vision of something great and appealing and have extraordinary communication skills that fire up emotion. People believe them, and want to go where they’re going.

The ability to inspire others is indeed a wonderful trait in leaders, but not every person who can arouse emotion can link her vision to the practicalities of business, and emotion alone cannot get an organization where it needs to be.

When a spiritual leader, rather than a business leader, runs the show, the initial burst of excitement can be uplifting. But it inevitably fades when results fail to materialize.

  • The Brain

One way people gauge a leader is by how smart she is. We can’t help but be impressed by the person who reacts quickly, gets to the answer fastest, can speak knowledgably on a breadth of topics, and has instant recall of names, quotations, and numbers.

Sometimes such people let you know how well-read they are. But being quick on your feet is not the same as intelligence, and intelligence is not the same as being a leader. Do we want intelligent leaders? Absolutely. Just don’t choose leaders based on raw intelligence alone.

  • The Savior

A leader is running a troubled division. Margins are shrinking, quality is deteriorating, and customers are defecting. But he is undaunted by every piece of bad news. In every review, he assures his superiors that change is right around the corner.

He has a plan, meticulously detailed in charts and graphs. He wants you to trust him, and because he seems so confident and sincere, you do.

Optimism and confidence are appealing, but make poor substitutes for the know-how of addressing problems. And we all know that problems neglected have a way of growing. The person who promises the answer but never delivers on it is not a business leader.

Focus on Substance

There are lots of personal traits we want in our leaders — things like confidence, intelligence, and communication skills. But if we want our organizations to be in good hands, we have to focus primarily on the substance of leadership — whether the person really knows what he or she is doing.

If you’re an aspiring leader, don’t assume you were born to be a leader. Leaders are largely made, not born. You have to build your leadership capabilities. The time you spend polishing your PowerPoint presentations or building your reputation may get you ahead temporarily, but in this age of transparency, the inability to deliver results will eventually catch up with you.

Disclaimer: Article source unknown, author unknown.

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics | Tagged , , | Comments (6)

What is needed from a Leader in 2009.

August 11, 2009 – 6:59 am

I have often struggled to find convincing answers or a magic formula for what makes companies operating under similar circumstances, in the same verticals, identical markets, same starting point, you get the idea… end up 180 degrees apart, heading different directions, with nothing in the way to stop them. Now that I have you thinking of at least a few, you are probably saying to yourself that it is obviously the usual suspects (fill the blanks). The one intangible I keep coming back to is the person at the very top of the pyramid- the leader who sets the course months, sometimes years before the first employee is even hired. Like infants when they are born, companies thrive on their internal culture, sowed by leadersip. It is that culture, properly cultivated, that will lead to greatness. Just like the mind of an infant, filled with negativity, it will lead to mediocrity, at best.

Many books have been written about leadership, great leaders, and mediocre ones. I have, instead, chosen to share with you some real life scenarios of good and bad examples of leadership, from exisiting and long gone organizations. I am certain that these next few posts will enact a sense of deja vu for most of you. You will see that lack of leadership is often the common denominator for great plans, strategies, and companies that struggle, and in some cases vanish.

The first of this upcoming series is about Superficial Leadersip. Feel free to comment.

Diaclaimer: I have come across some great articles a few years ago that I kept, and have since made them required readings every so often. Most were from a series of articles by The Economist magazine. The next few blogs will contain some of those articles. Dates are unavailable.

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics | Comments (0)