What If The Coach Didn't Show Up?

It's game day. The football teams have arrived and have finished warming up.  The fans have filled the stadium.  The players are ready.  They've practiced all of their careers for this game.  There's a coin toss, the teams take the field, and it's "game on."  The Blue Team against the Red Team.

But the Blue Team's coach hasn't shown up.  The game begins.

In the first plays of the game, the Blue Team is flawless.  Everyone knows their role and is doing their job. All of their training and practice has prepared them for this day.  They are veterans and have run these plays a thousand times before.

But an overload of maneuvers and opposing efforts from the Red Team begin to distract the coach-less players.  They begin focusing on one thing--and their opponents do another.  They let down their guard and are overcome by moves they didn't see.  In the huddle, everyone expresses their own idea on how to make the next play.  Without a coach's view, perspective, and coaching from the sidelines, the players are constrained by their own individual agendas and blinded to the distractions which are thwarting their efforts.  They are not playing their best game.  They are not playing as a team.  They are not being led.

If he'd have been there, the coach wouldn't have played the game.  He'd have helped them play better.

One of the leader's main jobs is to help others get their work done, to grow, and become better.  The leader doesn't do the work.  In an orchestra, the conductor does not play an instrument.  In football, the coach does not kick the field goals.

Good leaders LEAD, DIRECT, and TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY for the results.  They don't assume their star players will perform music or win the game on their own, without intense coordination, guidance, and direction.

Be there for your team.

What Are You Talking About?

What's the conversation at your board or conference room table?

A) Are you first talking about what's working before what's not?  Are you talking about customers, their needs, finding them, satisfying them, and holding onto them?  Are you talking about how to beat your competitors and what products your current and future customers need that you can make?

Or

B) Are you talking about widgets and manufacturing?  Product design initiatives and laborious process issues?

News is, both are equally important.  But make sure you spend equal time on both.  Our tendency is to fall in love with our products, plants, and processes.  But make sure you give your customers attention, as well as paying attention to your markets, the needs, the competitors, and all the stakeholders involved.

Seth Godin said it this way in a recent blog:

What (people) want

What do customers, friends, the socially networked, users, neighbors, classmates, servers, administrators, employees... maybe even brands... want?

notice me
like me
touch me
do what I say
miss me if I'm gone

Pay attention to what matters.

When Is A Leadership Team---"Not?"

A leadership team "isn't a team" when it's members don't trust one another.  It won't operate at its best if the members even mistrust a single person on the team.

A leadership team doesn't operate when it's members work in their own silos--placing their personal or department agendas ahead of the team's.

A leadership team doesn't point fingers at one another--because they know that four of those fingers are often pointing back at themselves.

A leadership team doesn't withold helpful, constructive criticism or debate around key ideas in order to "make nice" with the others.

A leadership team doesn't let take their collective or individual "eyes off the goal" and allow critical progress toward results to go unaddressed.  And a leadership team doesn't continuously take on new projects before they execute and complete the current.

So where does teamwork start?

In Patrick Lencioni's book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the author places "trust" at the foundation of building effective leadership and management teams.  If you've not read the book--I place it at the top 5 most useful business books I've read.  Like Lencioni, I also place trust at the core of an effective team.

Earning and building trust is a two-way street--and it happens on and off the court.  When team members trust one another--each knows that he or she can count on the other members to work together for the good of the team.  Personal agendas are checked at the door.  Attempts at control and power-grabbing are absent. The agreed upon objectives of the team become "goal #1" for all--with no exceptions.

Leadership teams can attempt to master all the other qualities of a high performing team--but if trust is missing--or even in question, the collective results will suffer.

Do you have a team? If the answer is no, where do you need to start?

What Gets Measured Gets Attention....

....and what gets attention gets results.  There's truth in this concept that "what gets measured gets attention--and what gets attention gets results."

It is difficult to deny that the goal of every organization must include “results.”  To go through the actions of business, transactions, product development, program initiatives, and tactical execution WITHOUT the attainment of results is in itself disappointing, but is totally unacceptable if the “results” were never the focus, not measured, not spoken about, unclear, and were not at the heart of the leader and his or her team’s focus and conversations.

How do you do this?  One way to start is to ask yourself “how visual is my workplace?”  If for instance, safety, on-time shipments, customer satisfaction, or profit margins are important--how do you keep track of those?  Better yet--how does your team and how do your employees keep track of those?

A visual workplace is one where the company metrics aren't a secret, where they're not shared only among the management team.

A visual workplace is one where the "vital signs" are posted, they are shared, and they are used in daily decision-making.  A visual workplace uses "dashboards" or charts or bulletin boards to post the progress against the stated goals and objectives.

And while you're considering sharing vital information--why not post your entire strategic plan?  Whether you post it for all employees or in your office for you and your team to review frequently--Verne Harnish has created some outstanding tools for business planning.  Review and download his templates and planning forms at http://www.gazelles.com/.

One of the Gazelle's primary principles is to create measurements and themes and post them for all to see--and to track the progress throughout the year.

Three keys to creating a visual workspace are:

1. Select a small number of metrics to measure that reveal the progress of the company and departments towards the top objectives.

2. Use dashboards and easy-to-read graphs or charts to convey the "green light/red light" status toward the goals.

3.  Keep them updated.

And finally, engage your team and employees in conversations regularly around the progress you're making.  Bring attention to the measurements--and you'll bring attention to the results.

Is Your Focus Inward or Outward?

I recently read a blog by Dirk Beveridge with a reference to the "fox hole" and how we get comfortable at times in it.  "It" can be a love for our product and innovation above our love for identifying and meeting customer needs through dedicating the resources (time and money) to do it.

We may talk a good line--and even place the customer at the center or top of our org charts--but at the end of the day--where does the passion flow in a business?

Where does the money flow? Does it flow to product development and manufacturing improvements? If those are the critical needs--so be it.

But does everyone in the organization know and care as much about the business from the customer's point of view as they do their own manufacturing, engineering, or administrative fox hole?

What's Your Company Culture?

Innovative? Risk averse? Customer centric? Entrepreneurial?

There's a culture within your company.  Your people reflect it--and the leader at the top sets it.  Are you WHO you want your customers to experience?  Why or why not? 

If the answer to your question isn't what you think is right--ask your customers.  They'll tell you.  But deep inside--you really know, don't you? 

Most great companies are really clear about this--and at the end of the day--their customers are (1) at the top of the org charts, (2) in the center of everyone's efforts and focus, and (3) why the company exists.

Are you there?  Is your customer?

Forgetting To Put The "Sell" In Selling

If you're selling a product with highly technical attributes--well, yes--you'd better know them well and how to sell them. And how they benefit the buyer. But of course--the technical and performance attributes aren't the only reason that buyers buy.

This blog is about getting caught in a trap. The trap of a singular focus. The trap of forgetting why people buy.

Are you selling the practical benefits? And stopping there? Or are you reaching out to customers with a story about "why?"

Some auto experts claim the Honda CR-Z is the best value in automobiles in America today based on fuel efficiency, performance, and the low $20,000 base price. But of course--not everyone buys a car based only on value--or the "logical" reasons for the purchase. We buy for prestige, comfort, safety, resale--and a host of other "emotional" reasons.

Consumers can buy a $800 set of Cutco knives when a $300 set from Macy's might do. Consumers can buy a $800 replacement window when they're commonly sold for $300. And consumers can choose a BMW 128i Coupe for $32,000 when the Honda CR-Z at less than 2/3 the price is judged a better investment.

Long story short--buyers buy on more than just reason, payback, and tangible attributes. The more expensive products listed above might all in fact be much better. And that's where the "sell" in selling comes in.

Paint a picture. Ask questions. Find out what buyers truly value. And then create a compelling "why" that helps them satisfy their emotional as well as logical needs.

Park yourself for 18 minutes and watch this video of Simon Sinek giving a talk about the "why" in buying decisions--and not just "what" and "how."  My good friend Rick VanDermyden shared this with me after a conversation we had about the need for companies to have a "customer and market" focus--as opposed to only a "product and services" focus.

The "traps" are:

1.  Forgetting why companies make stuff.
2.  Forgetting how we sell stuff.
3.  And overlooking "why" people buy stuff.

Enjoy the video--and here’s to good selling!