Getting out more
Many business people realise the need to get out more in the current climate, but it is just time wasted if you are not absolutely certain of where your expertise lies.
The ‘Rule of 7’ discussed last week is a great attitude to have when you are at an event because it takes the pressure off you. It is not about selling yourself in any overt manner but rather more about exploring a relationship with someone you have just met to see where it will lead. You can relax and take a genuine interest in the person in front of you.
But when your turn comes and it’s time to say what you or your company does, then the words you use are absolutely vital. They can be as powerful, sharp and slick as the point of a tungsten steel tipped arrow. Alternatively, the words you use can be as casual, slipshod and unfocussed as a soggy sponge.
Get your words right or you might as well stay at home.Labels: knowing what your expertise consists of, powerful words
Seven times
Some people think that when things get tough you do more marketing. The truth is however that you need to do appropriate marketing through good times and bad.
A few years ago I met a lady called Julia who taught me about the Rule of 7. She said that for most business relationships to flourish you need to “touch” someone seven times. She went on, “It could be face to face, it could be a telephone call, it could be an email or a text” Her general point was that you need to touch someone seven times before the relationship can move to the point where you start to do business together. We both agreed that there can occasionally be love at first sight.
Of course at any time during the process, one or other of you may make the decision about whether to move things on or not. And so it was with Julia that after a couple of meetings and a phone call we haven’t been in touch since.
In London yesterday I attended a conference focussed on doing business in the EU. I had first met the CEO two years ago in Coventry. I asked to speak for him at that first meeting but heard nothing afterwards. Several emails and another meeting later I felt no further forward. Yesterday was different. He asked for a proposal.
Your marketing needs to be the consistent, regular, application of time, energy and money over time, whatever the economy is doing.
Labels: in it for the long term, long term relationships, love at first sight, trustworthiness
The Hidden Agenda
If the CEO has something up his or her sleeve that is not immediately apparent from all the business planning and strategy work, then watch out for trouble.
Working with a plc before Christmas it was the man at the top that had heard me speak to an IOD conference about Clarity of Direction and the Bull’s Eye. So I had been brought into repeat the presentation but to apply it to his directors and senior management team. With nine separate divisions all working in different but related aspects of the pharmaceutical industry it rapidly became clear that no one had much idea what any of the other divisions actually did or how they contributed to the Bull’s Eye for the group as a whole.
This puzzled me for a while because all 200 employees are based on the same site. So during the afternoon we broke into nine separate groups with three or four people on each table. It was only when the focus arrived at the CEO’s table that he disclosed his personal ambition for the company that was a complete surprise to almost everyone in the room.
In fact his statement was so radical that it would mean the closure, restructure and maybe renewal of all the divisions. No wonder he wanted me in there, but there is now so much more work to be done.
Without Clarity of Direction in any organisation then levels of trust between colleagues, staff stakeholders and ultimately customers are low.
And then you can forget about developing and sustaining competitive advantage.Labels: harnessing intellectual capital, the problem with hidden agendas, transparency in business
Bob Dylan on time
Many business leaders are reporting the need to be working harder to achieve the same results as a year or two ago. If this is true for the rest of us then we all need to look more clinically at who we are, and what we want to achieve with the time available.
Some people like master mind groups where all sorts of things can be discussed with the objective of moving participants onwards and upwards. I’ve tried a few but they don’t work for me – I prefer to go direct to experts and pay for the specific expertise that I need, when I need it.
Blogging and article writing can be done with a view to stimulate discussion, analysis and further engagement with people. Bob Dylan was interviewed about his song writing process. He replied that he just observed, thought about it, wrote a song, sung it and then moved on to the next life experience. Once I’ve written a blog, comments are welcome, but essentially I too am moving on to something else.
Client engagement can be a convoluted relationship fest with the adviser consciously or otherwise trying to take root, trying to become an indispensible part of the client’s operation, maybe collecting a handful of non exec directorships on the way. For me, that is an anathema; I just want to get in there, sort out the problems, give them the tools to do it themselves next time and then be on my way.
Helping others that we meet on the journey is all part of our purpose on this earth. It gives me a good feeling to put time aside to meet up with someone, anyone that I perceive I can help. It’s a no strings attached engagement purely designed to help people as I myself have been helped.
So above all else in the 168 hours per week available, we have to find ourselves, then get on and be ourselves. After all, who else could we be?Labels: self awareness, using time more effectively
Director development
The most powerful way to develop trust at the top of organisations starts with the externally facilitated 360 degree appraisal of the Managing Director.The four of us had been in session for some two hours and Charles had already got two really powerful personal development points that linked directly to the Bull's Eye for his company. Rohit and Diana, two of the co directors had been sceptical that this approach would indeed help transform business performance but on the day they really were up for it. Openness, honesty, humility, those are the main requirements for this work.Right at the end I asked if either had anything else they would like to add or to ask. You are only ever looking for two or three development points for any one person. But Rohit shifted uneasily, he coughed, so I repeated my question. Rohit replied that he was full of admiration for Charles, the way he leads some two thousand employees and always from the front, but...... And his voice trailed away. Charles knew something was coming but he had no idea what it was and I noticed him stiffen.Then Rohit almost pleaded, "I just wish you would listen more". The Managing Director, in post for some twenty years, had never been spoken to like this before, but it was true. In Board Meetings he would always speak first on any issue. This meant that several of the others round the table didn't say a word, all meeting long.Charles stared out of the window, his shoulders dropped and he said quietly, "I guess that my wife and children would say the same"And in that split second we all knew that Charles' behaviour would change for ever.Labels: honesty and transparency in director development, openness
Legacy
So many people running organisations are in a unique and privileged position to leave a lasting legacy for those with whom they come into contact.
There are some wonderful long established family businesses along the English border with Wales and I had the sad occasion of attending a funeral this week at Lyonshall. For a small village country church it was overflowing with people wishing to pay their last respects to David. There must have been three or four hundred in attendance.
One of David’s young sons James, read a poem and then paid a powerful and moving testament to his father. He recalled a kind and gentle man who never spoke ill of anyone but who was always ready to help and nurture other people. He spoke of a loving, caring and compassionate person and everyone in the congregation, who had worked with or known David would have agreed with this view.
Sometimes people get so battered and beaten by an uncertain and unforgiving world, that their real gifts, their specialness is all but smothered and sometimes even destroyed.
I guess that the trick for all of us is try and live the legacy each day, come what may, however difficult and challenging our lives become.
Just like David Burgoyne did. Labels: Leadership influence, making a difference to other peoples lives
Excellence
When you look for it, excellence is all around us in all sorts of things that people do.
I was speaking at an Academy for Chief Executives forum in Corby last week. We worked through a three stage model that starts with how to 'clarify direction', a crucial need for all organisations to address. We had then moved on 'develop trust', the imperative of how to get closer to colleagues, staff, stakeholders and ultimately, customers.
Finally we were working on how to 'improve performance' by identifying unique tacit knowledge, sharing it and eventually striving for relationships where one and one makes three or even four.
As part of this exercise I ask what it is that makes the people in the room special, what do they above all else, bring to the party? This question is often met with a blank stare from some. Aware of the super atmosphere in the room as we approached the lunch break I asked the group what made, Peter, the Group Chair so special. Peter looked down at the floor and there was much banter and good natured ribaldry.
And then in the silence that followed, Nicola said, "Peter cares more about his members than he cares about himself. And he does it in spadefuls".
Now that really is special.Labels: commitment, relationships, transparency, unique tacit knowledge
