I recently had an interaction with a successful leader where he shared his view on the elements needed to achieve success. One of them was very interesting, it was as simple as ‘think’.

In the panic of the global meltdown it is fascinating to compare and contrast leadership styles, and how ‘think’ is applied within organizations and sales. The knee jerk reaction to a bad situation is to put in more process and control. Process and control is needed in all business, but it must be measured – balanced. Neil Rackham provides some great evidence in his work around process and sales productivity. In small and medium business, Rackham notes that there is a direct correlation between quantity sold and quantity of sales calls. These are transactional sales, low quantity and low value per deal, often requiring a single sales interaction. However, in multi-call or complex sales cycles (Upper Medium or Enterprise), it is a different story. Consider this (via):

Whenever it takes many calls to conclude a sale, and the economy tanks, sales leaders may ask their Reps to work harder. Reps then build bigger funnels and half-sell to twice as many prospects. This is a proven recipe for big effort with small rewards. An example which Rackham cited: a capital goods company in which Reps were making an average of 1.4 calls per day. The VP Sales pushed for more effort and got:

• a 36% increase in calls/day
• a 16% increase in orders
• a 1.5% decline in sales (as the average deal size declined)
• resignations from 4 of his top 10 salespeople
• subsequently fired

Instead, in these circumstances, Rackham advocates:

• working smarter, not harder (serve the right few)
• creating value (rather than communicating it)
• making calls so valuable that prospects would pay for them
• focussing on safety (it will matter more than price)

For the sales leader who is not balanced, who prioritizes operational excellence or metrics above all else, this must seem counterintuitive. The VP pushed for sale call tracking and ‘more calls’, surely that will lead to more sales? But what is forgotten is the value of people and thinking. The value of inspiring people to do great things.

Metrics such as volume of sales calls or a scorecard are valuable tools to indicate where an organization is. I have often told my teams, putting contacts and opportunities correctly into a CRM tool is not a negotiation – it is a condition of employment – we need to know where we are. Nothing frustrates me more than having to do a manual forecast – it is a waste of the saleforce’s time and management time. But it must be remembered that metrics are not the end goal, they are a tool to reach a goal. After all – if you raise your number of sales calls but miss your number, or you have the best scorecard inside the company and miss your revenue target – you still failed.

So there needs to be a balance and one must carefully guard against a cultural shift where adherence to the process becomes more important than evolving the business. Thinking must not be replaced by blind obedience. If ‘thinking’ stops, then how will the business find new ways to outperform the competition? After all, a company cannot outperform a market by adhering to the norms – whether external norms (market conditions) or internal norms (doing it exactly like corporate dictates).

In the book ‘What would Google do?‘ there is a great quote:

‘To gain control, you have to give up control’.

There is a balance to be struck. Put in place operational excellence so you know where you are as you pursue your goals, while trusting in people, helping them take risks, watch those risks pay off, make a few mistakes and learn from those mistakes. And as that leaders stated, remember to ‘think’.

Part of changing companies is the opportunity to ‘purge’, to start your system over (with refinements), to shed a few things that have been hanging around.

Part of my ‘purge’ is to collect up notes from a few leadership conferences that I have attended over the last year. It is interesting to hear all of the different views on leadership, ranging from military obedience to radical concepts such as ‘you must let go of control, to gain control’. The following were processed, according to my estimates, over Greenland on Monday night on the way back to Canada one final time. A few that I found interesting and noteworthy:

The 5 practices of exemplary leadership ….

1. Model the way:  Talk the talk, walk the walk.
2. Inspire a vision:  I have seen many leaders false start on this one, promising vision and then letting it fall by the wayside as they become so numbers, process and check mark focused that they forget about the fact that people need to understand where they are going. Without a vision, it is just a daily ‘check-in’, and those leaders find out quickly how uninspiring that is. Set the vision, inspire.
3. Challenge the process:  When I was part of the UK team, I remember my early months were every question seemed to be answered with a ‘no’ or ‘no, that is not how we do it’. To which the right response is ‘It takes 5 no’s to make a yes’. I had the same experience in Canada too (smile).
4. Enable others to act:  Allow people to take smart risks, make mistakes, learn and be supported. You cannot outperform a market if you do it the same old way. It requires great people who know that you will be there to back you up and are trying new things.
5. Encourage the heart:  No one follows the heartless leader, unless they have a gun to their back, and then only until the opportunity appears to change the situation.

 Another speaker on key leadership lessons from his career:

• Be willing to ask the obvious questions:  Until you understand the business, be willing to ask all types of questions and go deep into the details.
• Take more risks on people:  Companies don’t do this enough. Empower people to make decisions, support them and make successful.
• Know when to trust:  Just let your people get on with it. Trust them with the jobs you gave them.

On the course, there was a discussion on attitude and the notion that as a leader you ‘make the weather’. Don’t trust people, constantly criticize, micromanage with little positive reinforcement? Expect a climate of fear. Support, encourage risks, be open with people and watch the clouds clear. One speaker explained it in a great story:

Two cities were separated by a road with a hermit living in the middle. A traveller comes from the city and asks the hermit ‘What is the next city like?’  The hermit responds ‘What was the last city like?”. The traveller responds ‘Beautiful, friendly, amazing’. The hermit smiles and says ‘Well, the next city is probably the same’.

The next traveller walks up the road, stopping to ask the hermit the same question. The hermit responds ‘What was the last city like?’. The traveller responds ‘cold, miserable really’.

The hermit responds ‘The next city is probably the same’

The final executive shared his leadership philosophies as follows:

1. Be curious, listen and learn:  He was taught, ‘start as an owl, end as an eagle’. Look at business like a puzzle, embrace ‘figuring it out’.
2. The customer is the north star, the competition is the baseline:  When he has things upside down, he looks to these two to reorient himself, remembering that it is the manager’s job to react and the leaders job to participate and lead.
3. Play to win and win through/with people:  It is all about the people. He then added a few key insights:
1. Remember that competition is outside the company, not inside.
2. Have restless discontent, what is good enough today is not good enough tomorrow.
3. It is your job, as a leader, to attract, coach and retain talent – to build and grow the best team.
4. Make sure you bring everyone along, as a team, to the finish line.
4. Enjoy the journey:  We often get wrapped up in what is next. Smile every day, enjoy the now. It will be tomorrow fast enough.
5. The most important thing you have is your reputation:  Be your hardest critic. You build a reputation based on how you achieved the results. Achieve the results as a team, in a sustainable manner, the right way.

A few interesting thoughts from a few very successful executives.