http://mergespeaks.com/blog/">Turning Managers into Leaders

I overheard two people the other day involved in an escalating discussion about who was more busy.  As one person complained about how much she had to get done, the other one vied to show how long his to-do list was.  Then he told her about the consequences of not meeting a work deadline and she narrated the terrible result of missing an appointment.  This went on and on, back and forth, for about 10 minutes.  I glanced over at my business colleague who was composedly eating her sandwich seated across from me at our small table.  She smiled, well aware that I had been unabashedly eavesdropping on the neighbouring conversation.

“I’d handle it differently,” she said, in response to my unspoken comment. Read the rest of this entry »

About six months ago, I was asked by a senior leader at a client company to help facilitate his regular leadership team meetings.  The leader was concerned because recent meetings had not gone well, and he was troubled by his managers’ reluctance to speak up and offer insights on the different subjects under discussion.  I agreed to help, and suggested that for the next meeting, I simply attend as an observer.  Being an onlooker would give me an opportunity to watch team interactions and dynamics, and I hoped that it would give me some additional perspectives on what was going (and not going) well in the group.  I observed one particular behaviour that I wanted to share in today’s blog post.

There was one manager on the team who had only been in the organization for just under a year, and who repeatedly used phrases such as:

“I have a lot more experience about this kind of scenario than you do.”

“This is my area of expertise so …”

“That’s why I studied this subject for over six years.”

All these and similar sentiments were verbalized with one singular objective – to let his colleagues know that because of his expertise, they were obliged to defer to his opinion and agree with his recommendations.

There was only one problem – Read the rest of this entry »

So for the last week and a half, I have been blogging about how some people just don’t “get” that client focus and strategic thinking are important to the success and long-term health of their organizations.  Well, it’s a message that has resonated strongly with many of you.  In fact, it prompted one of you to send me a copy of a recent study published in the March 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review.  In this research, the authors looked specifically at how long it takes companies to follow up on business inquiries and sales leads that come to them over the Internet.  The results may flabbergast you.  The researchers queried 2,241 American companies through their websites and:

• 37% responded within 1 hour
• 16% responded within 1-24 hours
• 24% took more than 24 hours
• 23% never responded AT ALL!
• Of those companies that responded within 30 days, the average response time was 42 hours

I too was initially bowled over by the results: almost half (47 percent) either took more than one day or never responded at all!  But then I remembered something that I mentioned in my last blog post.  When I was trying to find an ACT consultant to help us with a remote installation, I left messages for three different vendors.  One called me back within 2 hours, another took one week, and the third … well, it’s been 2-1/2 weeks and I’m still waiting!  So my small microcosm of experience exactly mirrors what the researchers found.  Not so surprising after all!

In today’s competitive world, one of your roles as a leader is to make sure that your organization succeeds in the long-term.  It doesn’t matter whether you lead a for-profit organization, government, or even a non-profit charity, responding to queries from your clients and stakeholders is critical to your continued success.  And I’m not just talking about queries from potential external clients who can create cash flow; I’m also talking about interaction with internal clients and stakeholders that may be reason for your department or division’s existence.  Are you creating an environment where responses are timely and helpful?  Do you have clear expectations of your employees that they will respond (even if they cannot resolve) to queries and concerns within 24 hours?  Why or why not?

Last week I told you about the difficulty I had trying to find an ACT consultant to help us set up a new remote location in our system.  You’ll remember the trouble I had back in September with Lester, and more recently with Colbert who left me in the lurch just one day before our planned ACT changeover.  Well, there I was, one day before the work was to be done and without any technical help!  So I started making some calls.  I phoned three ACT consultants and left short messages, expressing that there was some degree of urgency and I’d really appreciate having a conversation about how they could help us.  In less than two hours, one of them called me back.  Given my last two negative experiences with ACT consultants, not surprisingly my expectations were low, but they needn’t have been.  While I explained what I needed, Sukhi from the Belmar Consulting Group asked me several questions to better understand our issues.  I was comforted by his professionalism, but it was when I told him that this work had originally been planned for the next day that Sukhi really impressed me.

“Well let me talk to one of our technicians, perhaps we can get your changeover started this afternoon.”

“This afternoon?  Really?” I responded, just catching myself before I fell off my chair. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, I told you about Lester, an ACT consultant we hired back in September who didn’t comprehend how important it was to think strategically and be responsive to clients’ needs.  I promised that I would tell you what happened recently that reminded me once again of Lester – this time my experience with another ACT consultant, let’s call him Colbert.

About two weeks ago, my business manager Paulene got a new desktop computer that created unexpected problems with our ACT system.  Given that this was something that went beyond our everyday troubleshooting capabilities, we needed to hire an ACT consultant again!  Clearly though, given our past experience, it was not going to be Lester!  Since time was of the essence, after some quick research over the Internet, we hired Colbert.  My conversation with him was almost identical to the one I had with Lester about six months ago – we needed a one-time installation with enough knowledge transfer so that we could handle routine issues on our own; my goal was for this to be the start of a long-term relationship so that we could go to Colbert as our resource person when we had out-of-the-ordinary ACT issues in the future.  We came to agreement and the work was scheduled for the following Wednesday.  On Monday, two days before the work was to be done, I received an email invoice from Colbert asking for pre-payment, either by credit card or by cheque.  That evening, I issued and mailed a cheque, letting Colbert know by return email that the “cheque was in the mail.”  The next morning, when I got to my office, there was a reply waiting for me in my in-basket.  Colbert was cancelling the planned work until he received the cheque.  A little shocked (the invoice was less than $300), I called him.  He was clearly in a bad mood when I called (not sure why), and the conversation went downhill in less than 30 seconds.

“I’m not doing any work until I get paid,” he said.

“The cheque went out last night, it should arrive by the end of this week,” I responded.

“The only way I’ll do it is if you give me a credit card number right now.”

“I’d prefer not to, you gave me the option to pay by either cheque or credit card, and cheques are easier to track in our accounting system.”

“Clearly you don’t understand the concept of prepayment,” he replied rudely.

Nonplussed, I paused.  Taking a deep breath, I tried again.

“Seriously?  You’re going to hold everything up for an amount this small?  We were counting on having the work done tomorrow.  If we’re going to have a long-term relationship with one another, our level of trust has to go beyond $300.”

“Well then maybe we should end this relationship right now.”

I barely got out an “okay” as the phone slammed down loudly in my ear.

So there I was … left in the lurch, one day before we hoped to have resolved our problems and be up and fully running!  Once again, someone else who simply didn’t “get” that thinking strategically and being responsive to your client’s needs are a precursor to success in business and leadership!

So I’ve got to ask again – what has been your experience?  Do you agree with me, or do you think Colbert’s behaviour and actions were justified?  I’d love to know your thoughts – add a comment below.

So did Paulene ever get her ACT system up and running?  The answer in next Monday’s blog post!

I’ve always known that being responsive to your clients is an important measure of business and leadership success, but recent events in my office have just served to further emphasize and highlight this important concept.  Let me explain.

I’ll give you the whole story over the next few blog posts, but in today’s instalment, let me first set the stage by telling you about what happened last September.  Here in my office, we manage our client relationships using the well-known commercial software ACT.  Last fall, Paulene joined our team as my new business manager, so we had to setup a new remote location of ACT on her desktop.  Now, we’re familiar enough with ACT here in my company that we can do most routine activities and everyday maintenance on our own, but an installation and setup of a new remote computer is beyond the usual (plus I figured it was time to upgrade to the new 2011 version of the software anyway).  So to facilitate the process, I contracted with an independent ACT consultant who I’ll call Lester.  In our initial conversations, I was very upfront with Lester that we were looking for a one-time installation with enough knowledge transfer so that we could handle future routine issues on our own.  But I also told him that I hoped for this to be the start of a long-term relationship so that in the future, when we had out-of-the-ordinary issues (which seem to crop up fairly often) we could use him as our go-to person.  He agreed, and I thought all was fine.  Things started well enough; but unfortunately the eventual experience was not a positive one.  Read the rest of this entry »

As you may know from my recent blog posts, I visited India in early June for the first time in 30 years.  Speaking to a group of young leaders there was exciting enough, but there was another huge highlight of this trip.  I was also attending my Class 10 reunion at a residential boarding school I went to for six years when I was a teenager.  Our class turned out in full force – they came from all over the world – Canada, the United States, Thailand, Australia, and of course India.  It was a fabulous time, but what absolutely amazed me was how the thirty-year gap just melted away.  Keep in mind that I went to school long before the advent of the Internet, so almost all these girls (including me) had lost touch with each other over the years.  In fact, we had only just “found” each other on Facebook in the past year!  Yet, within minutes of meeting each other, it was like we had only parted yesterday.  Over the course of three days, we simply picked up where we left off thirty years ago, and we continued the deep relationships we had formed from six years of living and schooling together as youngsters.  What astonished me was that not even time (make that a VERY long time) could destroy solid relationships that were built on friendship and trust!

Can you imagine the depth of loyalty we could create in our companies if we focus on creating solid relationships that are built on friendship and trust – with our employees, our customers and our suppliers?  What are you doing to build solid relationships that can stand the test of time?

Early one morning, I was walking through an empty parking lot when I observed a seagull gracefully swoop down towards a small paper bag lying upon the asphalt.  No doubt, the seagull hoped to find some morsel of food within the bag.  It must have been right, because moments later, a magpie plunged down and tried to snatch the bag away from the seagull.  A crow arrived in the next instant and attempted to get its share of the prize.  Within minutes, the three birds were battling one another in the quest for whatever unknown gift lay within the paper bag.  So caught up were they in their conflict that they failed to notice the squirrel.  The little bushy brown-tailed creature watched them from about 10 feet away.  As the three birds skirmished with one another, he began to cautiously make his way forward.  With a quick burst of energy, he dashed forward, grabbed the bag, and made off towards the trees that skirted the edge of the parking lot.  At the last moment, the seagull noticed the squirrel and tried to switch its attention towards rescuing the treasure.  But the magpie and the crow weren’t having any of it; they continued to wage war with the seagull and with each other.  By the time they all realized that the subject of their fracas was no longer, the squirrel was long gone, probably dusting off crumbs and chuckling at his good fortune. Read the rest of this entry »