Category Archives: Work

#30 Leaders falling on grenades

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This is a good way to separate the wheat from the chaff, when it comes to evaluating leaders in your organization.

When faced by tough problems, which leader employs skill, and which leader employs brute force? There are times when brute force is necessary, just watch sports which involve contact (American football, wrestling), but the best in that business know that skill and technique is more sustainable and injury free.

Use of brute force may be employed by martyrs, who sacrifice themselves to gain sympathy for defects in their work output (not to mention personality flaws). In the right circumstances, sacrificing yourself can gain you immortality or fame, but that usually can happen only once (you die in battle) or comes at great personal cost (you lose a body part while saving someone from harm).

Now go back to your list of leaders and score each one to show the degree to which they employ skill and the degree to which they use brute force.

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#27 What does your customer want? And can your leaders provide it?

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The next exercise to refine your leadership inventory is to make a list of things that are important to your customer. Does your customer want:

  • High quality or low price? (Usually, you can’t have both!)
  • Personalized service?
  • Speedy delivery?
  • Lower cost of operations?
  • Improved market share?

The list is industry specific, and perhaps unique to the market you are targeting. Meaning, you could be targeting the medical vertical, but within that vertical, dentists will have specific needs.

Now map your leadership criteria to the list of things important to your customer. Finding the cause and effect can be difficult, if not impossible. But having the tough conversations will reveal the thought leaders in your organization. How many of them have the “facts” based on hands on experience, and how many of them are simply brilliant, analytical speakers? Hint: you need both, but lean towards those who have experience.

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