Resourced Leaders

We negotiate all the time in business, and in our lives.  It is a skill that is rarely taught, yet it is poorly implemented – often leaving a lot of value ‘on the table’ and ensuring that people don’t manage to achieve their best outcomes.

One of the questions I am often asked when training behavioural marketing is ‘how do I calculate ROI?’ 

How do you, and your organisation, approach business development?  That is, how do you work to grow your business?  

This is an important question I have been asking leaders recently, and the responses told me much about the current success and outlook in the businesses.

Most of the problems we face in business and in life occur because we get stuck in abstract or global views of issues.

When we are certain that there are clear, concrete steps for achieving an outcome, we are able to take each step in the correct sequence to get our outcome.

In this way, ‘marketing plans’ are a great example of how we can break down a global concept (‘growing the business’ or ‘changing behaviour’) into a series of strategies and tactics which can be completed, one at a time., to get to the planned result.

I am finding that when I raise this question with clients and in presentations to groups, everyone 'wants' to be leader rather than a manager (what' does it sound 'sexier?').  People have difficulty understanding the difference, and why it is so important to an organisation to have both leaders and managers.

'Leadership' can be a fuzzy concept.  What really is leadership, and how does it relate to management, or even to performance?  What, then, is management?

An easy way to think about management and leadership is to consider how they impact upon company process.  An organisation establishes processes to simplify, standardise and quantify tasks.  Every organisation has processes.  Some have them written up in big, thick, manuals; and others are just 'remembered ways of doing business'.  Process is important because people don't have to relearn, or reinvent, the task steps to complete repeated jobs.

If you are in business, you should expect a crisis.  Whether your organisation survives depends on how you manage it.

When coaching clients, they often describe a desire to have 'better leadership flexibility' - or to see it in their staff.  Understanding leadership flexibility and how to create it is critical in business - and it is not as hard as most people think!

We come to the end of another year.  This has been my first full year in business back in Australia.

I have enjoyed providing this blog, and I hope some of the ideas have stimulated some thoughts and actions as you have read it.

As a final post for this year, I would like to say a heart-felt 'thank-you' to everyone who as been involved in my journey.  I have learned and grown in my business, I have worked with some fantastic organisations and I know I have made a difference.

I am working with a number of clients around the world as an executive coach.  People seek me out as a coach because they are looking for help – rather than harm.  Unfortunately, I am often seeing the tail of what has been ‘left’ from previous coaching experiences, or indeed even therapy, that has been harmful to the client.

One of the keys to success in business is how effectively you can communicate.

Recently working with an organisation in a strategic planning meeting, I saw a classic example of ‘poor communication’ – and with some facilitated intervention they the protagonists were able to get to an outcome.

I have doing a lot of work with organisations around change.  Change in culture, change in vision, change in strategy.  At the heart of it, there is a level of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, and the desire for change leads to action.

Last week I was working with a group of CEOs.  The topic was around the human elements of their businesses - were they 'fit' for success?  In looking at this question, one of the topics that really 'lit up' the group was on relational dynamics, and in particular mindsets.

In previous posts, I have looked at the background concept of Digital marketing and the problems that arise.  I have also explored issues relating to its integration and implementation in organisations.

Today I will cover the problems with ‘digital selling’.

We have at our disposal incredible computing power available in mobile devices.  Reps can have laptops or tablets with the most amazing information and graphics.  They can have the most complex CRM and tracking software to support their sales approaches.  If these are use in the right context and the right way, they have the potential to add value to the sales engagement and enhance the service provision to the customer.

I was working with a new business start-up last week - they have a great product (in fact, the world champion was blogging about their excitement for it without any payment or endorsement fees!).

They have a great product - but it is not in the market yet.

And here is the rub - the only thing that is holding them back from 'getting it done' are the small, simple things that a great business / marketing plan - distilled into a to-do list - would offer.

Decision Making is one of the critical roles of leaders and managers.

It is also something that is often not done very well, or done for the wrong ‘reasons’.

In this second piece on the pitfalls of digital marketing, we will look at the problems of integration and alignment.

Often organisations which are not clear on what or why digital marketing should be used (see pitfalls #1!) fall straight into the second set of digital marking ‘traps’ – that of problems with alignment and integration.

Consider the circumstance that happens in a lot of companies – they make a decision to invest in ‘Digital Marketing’ – perhaps because the opposition are, or because they don’t want to get left behind.  The big question is ‘how do we do that?’

After working with a number of clients recently on cutting edge marketing approaches, it appears the concept of ‘Digital Marketing’ causes a lot of problems for businesses big and small.  

Over the next few weeks I will put a few ideas on darketing and its pitfalls here for you and how to avoid them– and I look forward to your digital feedback!

The first issue of Digital Marketing is often the cause of many issues for businesses– What is 'Digital Marketing' and why should I do it?  If we don't get this right, then any digital marketing that we engage in is bound to fail.  So what is digital marketing, and why should you do it?

Behind every behaviour is an intent.

When you sit in a meeting and there is someone up the back that behaves in a passive aggressive manner, you can wonder why they are behaving in that way.  Do they really WANT to annoy everyone and cause collaboration and performance to collapse?

How we define ourselves often sets the boundaries of what we believe is possible for us.  What if you could change your label and change your life?

I met with a client this week who reminded me of one of the ‘pitfalls’ of assessment.  At one point in a discussion, they came out with “I’m not very good like that BECAUSE I am an ENFP”.  I have had other clients say “Oh, but I’m a DI”.

In other words, they are using the outcomes of assessment tools that describe preferences to defend their behavioural rigidities or incapacities.  They become excuses as to why they can't live up to their potential.

Why is it that everyone wants to be called a ‘leader’? 

What is it about the concept of leadership that is so attractive, to so many?

What is wrong with the old fashioned idea of ‘management’?