You hear it all the time in organizations, especially when the economy is tanking, or a bad earnings report comes out, or the CEO demands his direct reports generate better results. “We need to be more active in the market place!”

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For example, one of my clients reacted to the recession by asking each of its senior executives to make 5 new contacts a week with the goal of closing at least 1 new major account for the quarter.  To put this in context – up to the recession – this company had little concern for how to win business.  In fact, the organization had been doing quite well for over 10 years to the point it was having a hard time keeping up with demand.  So most of the executives they were telling to engage in more business development had not had to do so for much of their careers.  Yet, now they are being asked, from on high, to go out and market, sell and network.  They were not asked to discuss the existing state of the business, their ideas for growing the business were not requested, and there was no discussion around what support they needed to succeed in their business development efforts.   You might not be surprised that their efforts generated marginal results at best.

At its core, there is nothing wrong with encouraging more activity and yes we need to make more contacts so that we can develop more relationships so that they turn into more sales.  I get that.  However, just pushing for more activity misses the point of effectively engaging the market place or, for that matter, to succeed at any endeavor.  While action is important – the question you must ask yourself is how do we ensure that such activity actually generates results?

The formula for achieving leveraged or inspired action is as follows:

In short, there needs to be some reflection and interaction around what we want to build, create, shift as well as doing gaining an aligned view of the current reality.   It is interesting that senior executives deal with challenges much like any human being.  They tend to focus on WHAT THEY DON’T WANT versus WHAT THEY DO WANT.  For example, as the recession hit many of my clients were focusing on how to survive the recession versus how to support their customers through the recession.  They lost mission focus and went to survival focus.  Now in some cases an organization must do this because they face real challenges.  Yet, the majority of my clients were living in fear this would happen – not considering their current state along with the long term view.

The first step of the model above requires the senior team to ask “How do we want to face this challenge and how can we use it to our advantage to strengthen our organization’s position and most support our client base?”   This leads to a more proactive vision, mission and set of goals. This is also a time to be brutally honest about the current reality being faced and to uncover any limiting beliefs or emotions that are driving the action forward.  As I mentioned above, in my view, any fear that is experienced is usually not warranted.  That being said, you don’t know that unless you can honestly assess the current reality.

The second step of the model has to do with engaging your direct reports around the vision as well as the challenge.  The goal here is to both enrich the thought process around how do we accomplish the vision and it also helps to instill ownership of the vision and the challenges by those you engage.  This is much different than pushing the edict down to “be active” in some way.

The third step has to do with energizing people. It is akin to filling up the gas tank in your car for a long trip.  Without the fuel you are not going to get far.  To get the most from those who are out there in the market place – you must be able to help them tap into whats in it for them.  When that is present people will engage in activity – even if it is a bit uncomfortable – because they understand the value for the organization AND THEM.   Here is where another mistake is made.  Sometimes senior leadership feels – “they are in this position for a reason – they should not have to be motivated to achieve our goals.”  This completely misses the point!  The question is do you want a 4 cylinder car or one running on 8 or more cylinders.  The more you energize people and engage their passion – the more they will accomplish.

The fourth and fifth steps can be taken together.  At this stage we are ready to act in a powerful way.  If the first few steps were done well – you won’t need to lay out elaborate activity goals.  You can but it is unnecessary – people who are engaged and energized will act consistent with the vision.  Plus you have the fifth step to ensure the activity is working to meet the vision and goals.  Taking time to take stock of progress and work through the process again will ensure more ownership, engagement, energy and effective actions.

Finally, another concern I get about this model is – “I can see your point but do we have the time to do this?“  I will ask a question back to you on that one.  You have two choices.  Door number one – accept a more narrow band of successful actions.  Door number two – you can take more time upfront time in order to ensure you will multiply your results many times over.  Which door do you choose?  Either choice is fine but one leads to what you really care about most – the other does not.

Umair Haque Director of the Havas Media Lab speaks on “Constructive Capitalism.”  This is an excellent view that will give every leader valuable insights on how to reinvent themselves to succeed in an emerging new era in business.  Take the time to watch this – it will support you as you consider how to rethink your approach moving forward.

Umair Haque @ Daytona Sessions vol. 2 – Constructive Capitalism from Daytona Sessions on Vimeo.

I work in a lot of corporate as well as public sector settings and I am always amazed at the intellectual horsepower found among corporate executives, partners in professional services firms and SES leaders in the Federal Sector.  Unfortunately, this intellectual horsepower goes partially untapped because of one thing -  the lack of regular feedback.  This is certainly not true for all organizations yet in our experience it is for most.

Can you imagine the implication if guided missiles, satellites, GP-S’s, or your own body’s temperature gauge had no feedback mechanisms built in?  Bottom line, they would not work and in the case of the later the lack of a feedback mechanism would lead to death!  Now look at your organization and ask yourself -

• How effective are we at giving each other constructive feedback?
• If and when we do – what impact does it have on our performance and profitability?
• What, if anything, keeps us from having a more feedback rich culture (e.g. we are too polite to each other, we live in silos, etc.)?

Here are some common challenges that hinder an organization’s ability to improve performance through feedback: (more…)

Every savvy business person understands that a key to growing your business involves expanding and deepening relationships.  The next series of blog entries will focus on the essential business practice of networking.  Today, more than ever, your ability to create and sustain a rich, deep and lasting network is central to your long term success.  Yet, before I start discussing the what and how of networking – I want to step back and talk about why networking is so powerful.  Because highlighting this foundation will allow you to be far better prepared to take full advantage of your network.

First attending networking events and being able to clearly articulate what you have to offer is not the foundation of networking.  Certainly attending networking events as well as being able to clearly articulate your value is important but these are tactical areas that support something more important.  Networking is founded on the following principles: (more…)

Maybe Corporate America is Starting to Get It?

I have been fortunate to work with hundreds of talented senior executives over the past fourteen plus years. Yet, over the past few years I have been quite fortunate to work with an especially talented group of women leaders.  And to be honest, through this experience I have found that women executives seem more naturally wired for the style of leadership demanded in today’s business environment.  This is not a judgment of my own gender – it just has been my experience.  Women tend to be more powerful in situations that call for:

• Collaboration and inclusion
• Teamwork
• More authenticity and transparency
• Building a culture the fosters creativity and innovation
• Coaching and mentoring high potentials
• Showing concern for how the organization impacts the community surrounding it

(more…)