Philip Kotler, marketing’s doyen, wrote the book Ten Deadly Marketing Signs – Signs and Solutions in 2004. In this brief post I can only list these sins and indicate some of the signs, also identified by Kotler, that point to the existence of such sins. Where do you find yourself?

The sins are:

1. The company is not sufficiently market focused and customer driven
Signs:
Poor identification of market segments
Weak or no prioritization of market segments

2. The company does not fully understand its target customers
Signs:
Your last study of customers is out of date
Your customers are not buying your product(s) at the expected rate
Competitors’ products are selling better

3. The company needs to better define and monitor its competitors
Signs:
Focusing on the wrong competitor
Lacking a way to gather and distribute competitive intelligence

4. The company has not properly managed its relationships with its stakeholders
Signs:
Your employees are not happy
You have not attracted the best suppliers or distributors

5. The company is not good at finding new opportunities
Signs:
Your company hasn’t identified any exciting new opportunities in recent years
The new ideas it has launched have failed

6. The company’s marketing plans and planning process are deficient
Signs:
Your marketing plan format does not include the right components or logic
The plan does not consider contingencies

7. The company’s product and service policies need tightening
Signs:
You have too many products, and many are losing money
You are giving away too many services free
Your company is poor at cross-selling products and services

8. The company’s brand building and communications skills are weak.
Signs:
Your target market does not know much about your company
Your brand is not seen as distinctive and better

9. The company is not well organized to carry effective and efficient marketing
Signs:
The head of marketing does not seem very effective
Your staff lacks some marketing skills needed in the 21st century
There are bad vibes between marketing and the other departments

10. The company has not made maximum use of technology
Signs:
The company has made minimal use of the Internet
Your company’s sales automation system is outdated
Your company has not introduced any market automation

The above content, slightly shortened, comes directly from the publication under reference. The publication provides a thought-provoking read and I trust that this post might induce you to buy it.

Albert

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In the 21st century, we all need to learn continuously.  Many of my clients will recognise the principles of learning. I personally use them in trying to master important new material.  In the text that follows I only provide a brief outline.

ME Inc.: Invest in yourself on a daily basis

You are Human Capital and you are busy turning yourself into a valuable asset needed by others. Make yourself invaluable and in demand. Create a habit of life-long learning. Schools and universities do not teach you how to learn. This text contains the principles of how to learn:

1. How to Change or form a Habit

It all starts with a cue, a personal wish to change or do something different, followed by taking deliberate action. And very important, ever so often give yourself small rewards which are meaningful to you and which will motivate you to keep on track.

2. Concise Learning Method (CLM): 5 Phases:

2.1 Preview the material and create a mind map.

2.2 Participate actively in lectures or meetings and expand your mind map.

2.3 Process – immediately afterwards review what you have learned and refine your mind map.

2.4 Practice and apply. Learn by doing.

2.5 Perform – and get results.
(Within each phase follow 4 steps: See the mind map.)

3. Small Wins – win small battles

3.1 Lag Goals – WARS: These are end-results – you win or lose a war.

3.2 Lead Goals – BATTLES:  These lead to winning wars: You can influence the outcome and you can predict the outcome. You can study or work smarter.

3.3 Ensure that you learn and grow personally each week. Each Friday your investment in yourself needs to show dividends. A week without growth is a week lost.

3.4 Create a learning habit and ensure that you deliberately create small wins each day. Progress is the single greatest personal motivator.  Achieve some form of progress each day.

4. Master Group

4.1 Create a small group of 2 or 3 individuals within your company. And outside. Teach each other. Teaching obliges you to know your material. Teaching accelerates learning.

4.2 Create a sense of urgency – and maintain it. Meet physically at least once a week. Give account of progress. Build a rhythm.

4.3 Do not become complacent because of success.

4.4 Do not procrastinate and do not put off taking the right actions.  Act.

5. Personal Greatness

“Deliberate practice”:  Not talent but consistent hard work leads to success.  It takes commitment and hard work over 10 000 hours over 8 or more years to achieve deep knowledge and competencies e.g. 1st year to PhD and in work from beginner to manager. Professional service providers know that it takes 20 000 committed hours over 15 to 20 years to become top in their fields.

Create a habit of life-long learning and follow developments in your profession.  After having completed your formal studies, read/study 1 to 2 hours per day concerning your field of work.

Success has very little to do with luck and mostly with deliberate learning and growth.

Albert

(Click on this link for some details on “personal greatness” and for access to a Learning how to Learn mind map.)

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It struck me that many MDs of medium-sized companies would be very familiar with Schwab’s five criteria.

What are the criteria which would underpin a global system for the 21st century? In a very abbreviated format here they are:

“First, such a system would foster cooperation between governments, business and civil society as none can do it on their own.”

Good MDs ensure that the various departments in their companies communicate and cooperate properly internally and with their clients.

“Second, a global system must approach challenges in a systemic, integrated way…our current system is too compartmentalized.” (WTO, WHO, IMF, UN)

What is the situation in your company? Do your departments function is silos? How integrated is your internal system? Good MDs ensure a vibrant, meaningful exchange of ideas and support of each other.  

“Third, the global system should be strategic, not crisis-driven. Most of our energy is currently absorbed by reactive rather than proactive measures. Managing crises instead of thinking about the future leads to defensive attitudes. We must adapt to a changing world, not defend outdated models.”

Astute MDs think strategically, try to read the trends, and are pro-active. They allocate some time each week to a few important objectives which build the business and their networks. They are open to new ideas and models. Above all, they know how to move from plans to execution.

“Fourth, a global system must continually demonstrate legitimacy. Today, this goes beyond mandates based democratic principles; it includes clear objectives and concrete results.”

MDs and their companies have clear lead and lag objectives. In execution, they focus on lead objectives and obtain measurable results week in and week out.

Fifthly, “our global governance system must embrace the notion of global citizenship”… this notion would be expanded “to include global responsibilities.”

Many medium-sized companies actively support social responsibility programmes and plough resources back into their communities. Many are environmentally responsible.

The criteria for running a global system and for running a local company are very similar. Don’t you agree?
Albert

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Fortunately I discovered my notes made in 2005 on Jack Welsh’s Eight Rules of Leadership.
Welsh, formerly CEO of General Electric, was named the top manager of the 20th century.

Here are the eight rules:

1.    Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using very encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach and build confidence. The development of his team leaders was a daily event.

2.    Leaders make sure that people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it. A vision is low in jargon and it has clear targets. Welsh talked vision constantly. He rewarded people who lived and breathed GE’s vision.

3.    Leaders get under everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. Leaders leave them energized with a can-do attitude.

4.    Leaders establish trust with candour, transparency and by giving credit.

5.    Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls. “You are not a leader out to win a popularity contest.”

6.    Leaders probe and push with curiosity that borders on scepticism, making sure their questions are answered – with action to follow.

7.     Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.

8.     Leaders celebrate wins as this creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Make a big deal of achievements.

I cannot promise that my newsletters will always be this short!
Albert

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Gary Hamel, a top American academic of 30 year’s standing (London Business School) developed a framework – based on Maslow’s hierarchy – which is not about human needs but about human capabilities at work (and please note, I fully use his text, somewhat abbreviated):
Level 6: Passion
Level 5: Creativity
Level 4: Initiative

Level 3: Expertise
Level 2: Diligence
Level 1: Obedience

Obedience is at the bottom – employees who show up each day and follow rules and procedures. Obedience is important and large-scale enterprise would be impossible without it.

Then diligence – employees who work hard, who stay till the job is done and take personal responsibility for delivering great results.

Next is intellect and personal expertise.   Every business wants employees who have world-class skills, who are well trained and eager to learn more.

Hamel points out that obedience, diligence and expertise are becoming global commodities and if these are the only things you’re getting from your employees, your company will ultimately loose.

So we are moving up the capability pyramid – to initiative. Here we have employees who spring into action whenever they see a problem or an opportunity, who don’t wait to be told, who aren’t bound by their job description and are instinctively proactive.

Up another notch is creativity. Here, employees are eager to challenge conventional wisdom and are always hunting for great ideas that can be imported from other industries.

Finally, at the apex, is passion – employees who see their work as a calling, as a way to make a positive difference in the world. They pour all of themselves into their work. While other employees are merely present, they are engaged.

Hamel is of the opinion that we moved through an industrial economy, through a knowledge economy and that we now are in the creative economy – where the three top capabilities create the most value.  To him they are the ultimate wellsprings of competitive differentiation. These higher order human capabilities are gifts; they cannot be commanded.

Hamel observes that “throughout history, managers have seen their primary tasks as ensuring that employees serve the organization’s goals – obediently, diligently, and expertly. Now we need to turn the assumption of “organization first, human beings second” on its head. Instead of asking, how do we get employees to better serve the organization, we need to ask, how do we build organizations that deserve the extraordinary gifts that employees bring to the work?  To put it bluntly, the most important task for any manager today is to create a work environment that inspires exceptional contribution and that merits an outpouring of passion, imagination, and initiative.”

“Today, no leader can afford to be indifferent to the challenge of engaging employees in the work of creating the future. Engagement may have been irrelevant in the industrial economy and optional in the knowledge economy, but it’s pretty much the whole game now.”

Can one create engagement if some work does not seem engaging? The answer is yes.

A world-wide survey showed that three things are critical to engagement:
“First, the scope that they have to learn and advance – are there opportunities to grow?
Second, the company’s reputation and its commitment to making a difference in the world (is there a mission that warrants extraordinary effort?); and
third, the behaviors and values of the organization’s leaders (are they trusted, do people want to follow them?).”

Hamel points out that all of these are management issues. “It is managers who empower individuals and create space for them to excel, or not. It is managers who help to articulate a compelling and socially relevant vision and then make it a rallying cry, or not. It is managers who demonstrate praise-worthy values, or not.”

Hamel cites the negative results of a survey among 90 000 employees in 18 countries which cannot be unpacked in detail here. I only wish to cite one finding: “A scant 40% of employees believe that “senior management communicates the reasons for business decisions”.

In my experience, many MDs sincerely believe that they communicate well while they, in fact, under communicate and do not explain the reasons for their decisions. MDs and managers will move higher up Hamel’s ladder and get more emotional engagement among their employees if they involve them in more of their decision making and explain the why and their thinking to all employees.

Albert

PS. What Matters Now – How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation by Gary Hamel (Jossey-Bass, 2012) covers five elements namely values, innovation, adaptability, passion and ideology which matter now.

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I recently reread a book and three articles on totally different subjects when it struck me how related they were.

All had a single message: Keep it simple.

The power of repetition

James Allen and Chris Zook wrote Repeatability: Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change (HBR Press, March 2012). They state that success is generated by a relentless product focus, a culture of delivery, and an extraordinary marketing engine that communicates the magic of what you offer. But every MD knows this. What is the authors’ main message?

It’s about the transformational power of routines.

To quote from Allen’s blog: “The word “routine” implies an ordinary, everyday occurrence. But if you can make your company’s routine behaviour mirror your strategy, you can transform your business. So when I work with companies, I’m always looking to see if managers are translating strategies into front-line routines”.

“The secret to success is actually quite simple. At great companies, management teams focus on a few ways to differentiate themselves from their competition, they translate those into front-line routines, they make sure the organization supports these routines, and they thrive on customer feedback, improving their routines over time.”

Sustained success is…about buying into and living by a few simple ideas that remain at the top of the management agenda for multiple years.”

I totally agree.

The power of focus

Neuroscience studies about the brain and how one learns and accepts change, emphasise focusing on incremental progress against measures, and developing a fine-grain awareness of processes and how to improve them.

Given the small capacity of the working memory, many small bites of learning, digested over time, may be more effective than large blocks. The key is getting people to pay sufficient attention to a few new ideas.

The power of small wins

Progress is the single most important motivator. Not feedback, praise or a bonus – although these factors also make a contribution. Any MD or manager would do well in creating opportunities for others to achieve progress.

Purposefully engineer their small wins and personal and team progress.

Assign or delegate challenging and achievable projects and assist individuals and teams to win.  Everyone simply gets a kick out of winning; out of making progress.

This post provides more information on this important topic…Small Wins Mean Progress.

The power of one

What brought it all together for me was a book about execution, with lack of execution being the 80% reason for failure. I use the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and for years have propagated the creation of a “BSC Light”, However, I also inserted too many important goals about building my business into my own BSC. This year, I limited it to seven goals but to my surprise learned that this is still too large a number when it comes to execution. Fail-safe execution requires a much lower number and a sharper focus.

“Light” in terms of 4DX (The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling (Simon & Schuster, 2012)) means having at any time ONE hugely important goal for a company aimed at building the business. This one goal is pursued simultaneously by every department from its individual perspective. Each creates and aligns ONE major goal (with measures and a date) which is supported by one or two lead goals at a time. To repeat, per department one main and two small lead goals at a time.

Ask one question: “If every other area of our/my work remains at its current level of performance, what is the one area where change would have the greatest impact?”

We all have 10 or more items on our daily to-do lists and tend to have 10 to 20 important strategic goals somewhere in a folder. Each day we tackle a huge list of client objectives and to-do lists items. We run around and stress madly to get everything done. Once or twice a year we review strategies.

Recognise that two very different areas require our attention:
•    The daily whirlwind of “to-do list” activities – which includes urgent and important client projects and the day-to-day running of our companies; and
•    a very small range of important new goals when achieved will revitalise and grow our companies.

Many of our major strategic goals will die a natural death because of a very understandable preoccupation with our to-do lists.  Prevent this by singling out ONE priority main company-building goal and ONE departmental goal and their two supporting lead goals and focus sharply on these till they have been achieved.   Then again ask the one question.

Only one goal? Yes. Put the other goals on a back burner and know that with this approach you will thoroughly attend to more goals in the next 12 months. Managers, at the start of each week check your one major departmental goal and insert a 1-hour appointment per day with one or both of its lead goals into your diary. That’s right, make five entries on the spot, one per day.  Your company’s growth and possibly it‘s life depend on these five hours per week. Execute, achieve and measure progress. Then move on.

Focus, one goal and two sub-goals, create progress, measure and repeat.

Keep it simple.

Albert

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Any company with clients should provide extraordinary service. What is your experience? Would you agree that most provide a dead-average service not worth a positive mention?

I approached a chain of office supply shops. I needed two basic items that are not that easily obtainable and contacted all the branches of this group and noted the service attitude and actions of their front-line sales staff. Only one of 5 staff members displayed a pro-active attitude to assist, to go out of her way to obtain what I needed, to call me back twice. She actually found the items in less than an hour. What’s more, she was helpful and friendly throughout. She sounded as if she actually liked assisting me.

Her colleagues made no extra effort. They did not have the items in stock and that was it. No effort to check on their computers whether the other branches had the items, or to check with the suppliers, or to take my name and number and then to see matters through.

Ordinary vs. Extraordinary

Being friendly and sounding helpful is not a service. Just producing the goods is standard. What is extraordinary? What makes customers loyal? Alan Fairweather on 11 September 2012 in a contribution to a blog asked:

“Do you want customers to return to your hotel or restaurant, to tell other people about your great service and spend even more money? Then Ordinary Customer Service won’t do! You must deliver Extraordinary Customer Service.

What is Ordinary Customer Service?

Let me give you an example: On one of my trips to South East Asia, I was conducting sales, customer service, and management seminars. I also enjoyed some well-earned rest and recuperation. I used three hotels, two airlines, several restaurants and all the other services that a business person or tourist might use. Aircraft departed on time, hotels provided the services detailed in their brochure, and restaurants served up some delicious meals. All things that I would describe as Ordinary Customer Service. However, none of this would necessarily make me loyal to these businesses or recommend them to other people; it takes more.

Add the little bit Extra

Let me give you an example of what I mean. One night in Singapore found me wandering around Little India looking for the restaurant that could serve the perfect curry. After much searching I decided on one particular place; must have been the sign outside – ‘We serve the perfect curry!’ The food was good and the service was fast and efficient, however no more than any other restaurants I’d used in the past. What made the difference for me was one small incident. After taking my food order, the manager returned to my table and introduced himself. He respectfully asked what had brought me to Singapore and showed great interest in what I had to say. He was warm friendly and told me how proud he was to be Singaporean. He then shook my hand, wished me success and told me how pleased he’d be to see me again.

All of this only took a few minutes but it made me feel really important and I felt good. Would I go back to this restaurant, of course I would; would I recommend it to other people, of course I would. This small incident moved the service from Ordinary to Extraordinary. Extraordinary customer service is about touching the customer on an emotional level. It’s about letting them know that you care about them as human beings.

Here are 7 steps that make the difference

1. Warm and friendly responses. When customers meet you or your staff face to face, or speak to you on the telephone, they want to feel that you’re pleased to see them and happy to help. For example – It’s not so important what you say when you answer the telephone but more important how you say it.

2. They want to feel important. They know that you’ve lots of other customers and guests, but they just love it when you make them feel special.

3. To be listened to. Listening is probably the most important skill to develop when dealing with customers. It’s been said that people are either speaking or waiting to speak. In order to build rapport with customers it’s important to listen and show that you’re listening. People like good listeners; listening gives you information and indicates to the customer that you’re interested in them and value what they say.

4. Someone to know their name. A person’s name is one of the sweetest sounds they’ll ever hear. If you use a customer’s name when you talk to them, it indicates that you recognise them as an individual. Don’t use it too often as it can become irritating, but definitely at the start and the end of a conversation.

5. Flexibility. Customers hate to hear the word ‘No’ or ‘It can’t be done.’ It’s not always possible to say ‘Yes’ to a customer or do exactly what they want; however, it’s important to be as flexible as you can. Tell customers what you can do, not what you can’t.

6. Fast recovery when something goes wrong. When things go wrong, customers want you to solve their problems quickly. They don’t want to hear excuses or who’s to blame, or why it happened, they just want it fixed fast. Customers will often judge the quality of your service by the way you recover. They will even forgive your mistakes if you recover well.

7. They want to feel good. Overall, customers just want to feel good. They want to feel better after they’ve dealt with you or anyone in your business, than they did before. If you can create that feeling, then you’re well on the way to giving your customers extraordinary service. Remember – the difference between Ordinary and Extraordinary is just that little bit extra.”

Thanks Alan! Don’t you agree with him? How many of these 7 behaviours do you encounter in any restaurant or shop?

How many of these behaviours do your team members display? There are many other tips but understand that you, not the customer, are responsible for the service.

Make it easy for the customer to buy from you. Lessen the customer effort. In my book, if I do not have to make much of an effort to get a product or service from you, that in itself is extraordinary. And if, in addition, you are friendly and make an emotional connection, you’ve got me hooked.

Albert

PS Now I have to ensure that I heed the 7 steps in serving you!

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A very interesting article Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis by Ronald Heifetz Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky appeared in the Harvard Business Review of July/August 2009. It’s as relevant now as when it appeared. I thought the final few paragraphs were especially applicable to a number of my clients.

Country economies are still adapting to new global economic conditions. Uncertainty will remain the norm. The authors cautioned that the “work of leadership demands that you manage not only the critical adaptive responses within and surrounding your business but also you own thinking and emotions. This will test your limits. Taking care of yourself both physically and emotionally will be crucial to your success.”

The authors provide the following guidelines:

First, give yourself permission to be both optimistic and realistic. This will create a healthy tension that keeps optimism from turning into denial and realism devolving into cynicism.

Second, find sanctuaries where you can reflect on events and regain perspective.  A sanctuary may be a place or an activity that allows you to step and recalibrate your internal responses. For example, if you tend to demand too much from your organization, you might use time to ask, “Am I pushing too hard? Am I at risk of grinding people into the ground, including myself? Do I fully appreciate the sacrifices I’m asking people to make?”

Third, reach out to confidants with whom you can debrief your workdays and articulate your reasons for taking certain actions. Ideally, a confidant is not a current ally within your organization – who may someday end up on the opposite side of an issue – but someone external to it. The most important criterion is that your confidants care more about you than about the issues at stake.

Fourth, bring more of your emotional self into the workplace. Appropriate displays of emotion can be an effective tool for change, especially when balanced with poise. Maintaining this balance lets people know that although the situation is fraught with feelings, it is containable.

Finally, don’t lose yourself in your role. Defining your life through a single endeavour, no matter how important your work is to you and to others, makes you vulnerable when the environment shifts. It also denies you other opportunities for fulfillment.

Achieving your highest and most noble aspirations for your organization may take more than a lifetime. Your efforts may only begin this work. But you can accomplish something worthwhile every day in the interactions you may have with the people at work, with your family, and with those you encounter by chance. Adaptive leadership is a daily opportunity to mobilize the resources of people to thrive in a changing and challenging world.”

The entire article is worth reading.
Albert

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It is with sadness that I learned of his passing this month – which led me to rereading The Seven Habits. Through the years I have read a number of Covey’s books and also valued The 8th Habit.

While The Seven Habits in style is not a classic business book, it covers the domain of leading/managing in an intriguing and thoughtful way. It prompted me to write this post.

Dependence to independence to interdependence

Habits 1, 2 and 3 focus on the development of the individual from dependency to independence.

Habits 4, 5 and 6 concern collaboration between persons which is only truly possible between independent individuals who act interdependently.

Habit 7 covers continuous individual learning and growth necessary for staying ahead in the game of life and business.

The 1st Stage: From dependence to independence

I borrowed freely from Covey in the paragraphs that follow while inserting references to business practices.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

The first habit is about “self-knowledge or self-awareness and the ability to choose your response (response-ability)”, to quote Covey.

“Be Proactive” concerns creating your own future. You choose and plan your future and proactively work towards making it happen. It is not a given and it is not predetermined by fate.

Covey was struck by a thought formulated by Victor Frankl: Between stimulus and response lies your freedom and power to choose your response. How you respond to life and business is your choice. You always have a choice. Exercise it. Do not abdicate it.

True leaders/managers are proactive and they choose how to proceed.

Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind

This habit concerns imagination and conscience. Visualize what you’re going to do with your strengths (talents, qualifications, skills and experience) and the tools and resources at hand.

“Begin With the End in Mind” means find strategic direction with your team, visualising where your company is going and what you want it to become. Lead the process of defining your company’s or organisation’s mission, its vision and its core values.

Also define the purpose of your area of responsibility while contemplating what contribution you personally make to the bigger scheme of things. This applies to every team member.

Some leaders develop more than a work purpose. They also develop a relationship purpose and a personal purpose and think not only about their role as company leader but also about private roles such as partner, spouse, father, friend or as a volunteer and about personal health. They do not focus only on their work. What do you do?

Consider dealing with your work, relationships and health. Do not overplan. Develop one specific overall Wildly Important Goal (WIG) with clear measures for each role.

Each person has a circle of influence which you can expand. Most people have a circle of concern – often large and negative – instead of placing their energy and focus on building their circles of influence. Extend the latter circle by means of your own growth, and the contributions that you are able to make. Being influential means being able to muster support.

Often a young person is able to develop a truly remarkable circle of influence within a company.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

“Put First Things First” is all about being an effective manager or self-manager and on deciding on important priorities which grow your company or organisation and its value to your clients.

Develop an operational plan , having proactively defined the strategic side of things (Habits 1 and 2). Ensure that all your company Wildly Important Goals are chosen in terms of the impact which they make on your one overall company WIG. Develop clear measures and due dates for each WIG.

Covey emphasises the difference between urgent and important. His son, Sean Covey, and the latter’s co-authors in a publication which appeared in 2012, describe the whirlwind of daily activities. Nobody can escape the whirlwind, whose activities, which are usually urgent, are essential to the day-to-day survival of your business. These activities easily consume most of your day. However, find time each day to tend to one and at the most two important lead WIGs. They build your business. Invest in building the future. Work at only two WIGs at a time. Tackle more and you will achieve less (The Law of Diminishing Returns).

Block chunks of time in your diary for important WIGs and their activities. An effective leader is proactive, plans, sees to it that everyone works on one or at the most two important WIGs at a time, and builds relations. A leader ensures that his/her life is not totally governed by wheel-churning urgent work.

Deliberately create the habit of having and working lead WIGs, “battles that win the war”, to quote Covey Jnr. Know the difference between lag and lead WIGs. (Lead wigs create and track movement forward while lag WIGs are historic – having won or lost a war.)

On attaining independence

Independent individuals work well with other independent individuals.

We live in the Knowledge or Information Age and a growing number of people have an independent proactive attitude. They have the mindsets of the first three habits and work at it to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary to attain true independence – even if they work for someone. They turn the job they have into the job they want; or pack up and go elsewhere or start their own enterprises.

Independent people prefer to work and converse with other independent people.

The 2nd Stage: From independence to interdependence

The next three habits define an approach that makes interaction and collaboration between independent people successful.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Covey observed that people who harbour feelings of intrinsic self-worth often go from a scarcity to an abundance mentality. They harbour a desire to act for mutual benefit.

What does “Think Win-Win” mean? You are not self-centred as you realise the value of getting an appropriate portion of success for both you and others in areas of collaboration, of joint projects or joint ventures.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Being able to firstly listen is truly difficult. Covey observes that this habit requires restraint, respect, and reverence. The ability to listen and then make yourself understood requires consideration.

Go from too-often fight and flight instincts to mature two-way communication. Develop a mutual purpose and actively seek mutual benefit.

Habit 6: Synergize

Synergize is the endowment of creativity, the creation of something not on you own by yourself but through two or more respectful independent minds communicating and producing solutions that are far better than what either originally proposed. Two plus two could be seven.

Most negotiations are positional bargaining and result at best in compromise. But when you get into synergistic communication, you leave position behind. You understand the basic underlying needs and interests of each other and find solutions to satisfy all concerned.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

This habit concerns continuous improvement or self-renewal concerning the seven habits and other areas.

If you don’t constantly improve and renew yourself, you’ll fall into entropy, closed systems and styles. You’ll fall into a rut. You might become stuck in mindsets and approaches that do not serve you or those around you.

The habit of “Sharpen the Saw” is in present times more important than ever. Ensure that you learn daily and weekly and become very proficient at what you are doing. Make yourself more valuable and provide value. There are a number of ways to accelerate learning. Each is simple to master. In the age we live in, one’s personal pace of change has to be faster than the change around you.

You will have noticed that each habit overlaps into the next. They form a set of principles.

Covey authored his book in 1989. It is as relevant today as when it was first published.

Albert

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Others who have sailed through usually invigorating strategic planning sessions are still struggling in getting an execution process in place. To them the new processes and new systems which need to be mastered are daunting. They fail to committ themselves step by step.

Every MD knows that execution and changing the behaviour of those you lead are the difficult parts. Google glibly shows that about 15 million articles have been written about the “execution of strategy” and 6.6 million on “leading change”. Save yourself some reading by reading only one checklist on leading change, developed by John P. Kotter, formerly from Harvard University, the preeminent change guru.*1  I abbreviated the content of his eight points to make it even easier.

Checklist

1.    Establish a sense of urgency during the strategic planning sessions and maintain it strongly. You will not drop everything but you have initiated a process that requires commitment and focus for as long as it takes.

2.    Create a guiding coalition, a guiding team of a few doers who feel enough commitment to assist you in guiding this change initiative although you and they may already be overworked or overcommitted. The MD is to personally lead the change process – and stay the course. Your team needs their MD especially when the stakes are high.

3.    Develop a clear corporate goal, a vision, which indicates in a single sentence where the company is (X), where it wants to be (Y) and by when. Ask: “If every other area of our operation remained at its current level of performance, what is the one area where change would have the greatest impact?”*2

4.    Communicate your change vision to all and do so relentlessly. Use every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the one sentence outcome-based wildly important goal.   The MD and the guiding coalition should model the behaviour expected from everyone. Walk your talk.

5.    Empower broad-based action by removing obstacles in the path of those who are committed to making the vision, the one goal, a reality.  Change systems and beaurocratic practices that undermine the change goal. Encourage risk taking and new, non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions.

6.    Generate short-term wins – visible, unambiguous short-term wins that disarm critics. Recognise and reward people who made the wins possible. Nothing motivates more than small wins and progress.*3

7.    Consolidate gains and produce more change
•    Never let up. After initial successes, groups with a true sense of urgency refuse to let their companies or organisations slide back into a comfortable complacency. They expand the effort, work on every phase of the challenge, and never let up until a vision is a reality
•    Use increased credibility to change all systems, structures, and policies that don’t fit together and don’t support the team members, and the clients
•    Invigorate the process with new projects, themes, and change agents
•    Anchor gains and produce more change

8.    Anchor new approaches in your company’s culture
•    Making change stick: High-urgency organisations feel compelled to find ways to make sure any change sticks by institutionalising it into a structure, system, and, most of all, culture
•    Create better performance through member and client-oriented behaviour, more and better leadership, and more effective management
•    Talk about the connection between new behaviours and organisational success
•    Develop the means to ensure leadership development and succession

SEE-FEEL-CHANGE

Kotter taught that an approach rooted in emotion has the greatest chance of success. This method is: See-feel-change:

1. Help people see

Create compelling, eye-catching, dramatic situations to help others visualise problems, solutions or progress in solving complacency, strategy, empowerment, or other key problems within the eight steps

As a result

2. Seeing something hits the emotions; you feel something stir

Visualisations provide useful ideas that hit people at a deeper level than surface thinking. They evoke a visceral response that reduces emotions that block change and enhances emotions that support it.

3.  Emotionally charged ideas change behaviour or reinforce changed behaviour

ANALYSIS-THINK-CHANGE

Kotter states that rarely does the method analysis-think-change lead to this sort of success:

1. Give people analysis

Information is gathered and analysed, reports are written, and presentations are made about problems, solutions, or progress in solving urgency, teamwork, communication, momentum slippage, or other key problems within the eight steps.

As a result

2. Data and analysis influence how we think

The information and analysis change people’s thinking. Ideas inconsistent with the needed change are dropped or modified

 3. New thoughts change behaviour or reinforce changed behaviour.

It is clear that change more readily takes places or is accepted if an appeal is made to the emotions and feelings of people.

Not that analysis does not have a place. Of course, it is required but by itself it will not effect the much needed change in behaviour when the execution process starts.

Kotter observes that a “good analysis rarely motivates people in a big way. It changes thought, but how often does it send people running out of the door to act in significantly new ways? And motivation is not a thinking word; it’s a feeling word.”

Albert

With acknowledgement to:

*1  Leading Change by John P. Kotter, 1996, Harvard Business School Press

*2 The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey & Jim Huling, 2012, Simon & Schuster

*3 The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Creativity and Engagement at Work, by Teresa M. Amabile & Steven Kramer, 2011, Harvard Business Review Press

See post: http://www.abplan.co.za/blog/2011/06/30/small-wins-means-progress/

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