BCA

From Leading Effectively, Center for Creative Leadership

Oliver was recently promoted to lead a business unit at his company. He has been in management and leadership roles for many years, but, for the first time, he’s responsible for much more than short-term results and team-level execution.

Chloe, too, is balancing the trade-offs between today’s needs and tomorrow’s priorities. As director of operations for a region that is strategically important for the company’s growth, she needs the ability to envision the future, effectively communicate her ideas, and turn them into a strategic plan for execution.

Both Oliver and Chloe know that they are at a pivotal point in their careers: skillfully leading a function or division is not only critical for their own personal success, but also to the success of the organization.

“Leading at this level has unique challenges,” says Stephanie Trovas, global portfolio manager of CCL’s Leading for Organizational Impact, one of several CCL programs for senior leaders. “Employing strategy, prioritizing and managing others are done on a much broader scale by working across multiple boundaries.”

“Whether their scope is local, regional or global, managers of functions and divisions have to set a vision and build toward the future. At the same time, they face very real and challenging short-term pressures,” Trovas continues. “How can senior leaders balance the trade-offs between the short and long-term, make the tough calls and build alignment within the organization?”

Leadership success is rooted in what CCL calls The Fundamental Four: self-awareness, communication, influence and learning agility. If you are an experienced leader, you have developed these skills during your career. But as you advance in your career, you need to know how these four skills are applied differently at the senior level.

Self-awareness is critical for senior leaders in the organization. It goes beyond knowing your strengths and weaknesses, your preferences and patterns, and the effect of your behavior on others. At this level, you need to really understand the impact your leadership behavior has on organizational outcomes.

Being an effective communicator becomes more complex as you lead a function or division. The logistics of sharing information, often across time zones, cultures and operations, is one challenge. Effectively communicating the goals of the business while at the same time inspiring trust is the larger challenge for many senior leaders.

Learning agility involves learning from your experiences and applying that knowledge in new ways. For many seasoned executives, this has become second nature. But over-relying on what worked in the past or assuming you have what it takes to be successful in the future can spell trouble. For you, the challenge may be knowing when to change course and having the tools to learn and adapt (and helping others to do the same).

The process of influencing others takes on new dimensions as well. More than ever you need the ability to influence across vertical, horizontal, stakeholder, demographic and geographic boundaries.

As you manage a business unit or division, you also need to have (or develop) seven additional competencies that address the breadth and complexity of your role:

1.Being visionary.
2.Driving results.
3.Strategic thinking and acting.
4.Creating engagement.
5.Identifying innovation opportunities for new businesses.
6.Working across boundaries.
7.Leading globally.

While this checklist just touches on the complexity of your job, these leader competencies are key to meeting the goals of your organization. “Organizations suffer greatly when senior leaders falter or fail,” says Trovas. “In spite of this risk, leader development at this level is often overlooked.”

“By strengthening these seven competencies, as well as the four fundamentals of effective leadership, even very experienced managers can accelerate their effectiveness. They begin to see their strengths and weaknesses within the context of the organization and the demands of their role,” Trovas continues. “They can then work on the specific behaviors that will have the greatest impact on their success and on the success of the business.”

Leading for Organizational Impact
As a senior leader, you are no stranger to setting strategy, prioritizing and managing others. But leading a large function or operation requires something more — it requires that you drive organizational-level results.

Whether you are taking on a top job at a small firm, managing a function of a mid-size business or running a division of a global company, you must lead in ways that build on your experience, but also go beyond it. To be effective you need to:

•Develop the ability to recognize opportunities and avoid pitfalls,
•Balance tactical concerns with strategic possibilities, and
•Leverage leadership to impact organizational outcomes.
“One of the best ways to make the transition to leading at the functional level is to gain a deep understanding of your strengths and development opportunities,” says CCL’s Stephanie Trovas. “It is critical to understand how your leadership behavior impacts organizational outcomes.”

From e-marketer.com

Word-of-mouth may not translate to loyalty.

Social media is a hot topic in marketing circles, but many consumers are also discussing the trend, which accounts for nearly 23% of time spent online in the US, according to Nielsen.

An April 2010 survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the Online Publishers Association (OPA) found that social media sites were the most talked-about on the web, ahead of portals and top media sites that are members of the OPA in discussions on a wide variety of channels.

All those conversations, whether in person, via email, on the phone or elsewhere on the web, however, don’t make social site visitors loyal—internet users expressed the least loyalty for such properties, compared with portals or OPA member sites. They were also most likely to say social sites were not a very good fit for their information and entertainment needs.

The OPA’s findings are in line with the annual customer satisfaction report from ForeSee Results that found Facebook among the most disliked sites on the web after its many disagreements with its own user community and several privacy debacles.

According to the OPA, negative feelings about social sites may also apply to the brands that advertise there. Only 8% of internet users felt social media site advertisers were reputable, compared with a 21% average for content sites. They also felt advertising on social sites was less relevant and the companies that did so were less respected.

The answer for brands is to continue a greater focus on non-advertising marketing activities, engaging on the social media user’s terms. And marketers should remember that while loyalty to individual social properties may be low and site users dissatisfied, the activities that have come to define social media— connecting with friends and family and sharing information and content with a trusted group—will remain important in the lives of millions of internet users and continue to provide avenues for brand engagement.

For compete data charts and story, go to e-marketer.com

By John Riley

All too often small companies hesitate to quote on large contracts because they don’t feel they have the capabilities or resources to fulfill the requirements.  That may be true, however partnerships can be the solution to grow when all other avenues offer limited opportunities.

 Management attitudes toward competitors in the past have created barriers to keep competitors at a distance .  Not any more. Today, the word is connectivity and building a more formidable means to sustain competitive advantage.  This process broadens the executive’s view so she/he can scan the horizon for larger business opportunities rather than focusing exclusively on the smaller niche markets.

 Transitioning to a business partnership starts when a large purchase requirement  appears  and you want to pursue it.  That’s when the capabilities and resources needed to  handle the order are defined. Once the requirements your company can provide are noted, the balance of capabilities and resources are what a partner will need to provide.

 For example, one partner may have special skills in software and hardware selection and compatibility. The other partner may have expertise in managing computer networks worldwide.  The combination of skills significantly elevates the partnership’s  qualifications beyond either company’s individual capabilities.

 Another example could be a public relations firm and an advertising agency.  

 Values are very important to a successful partnership. There needs to be an exchange of views to make sure there are no conflicts that might disrupt a good working relationship. Occasionally, this is an area overlooked by business owners and executives in forming partnerships, joint ventures and mergers and when that happens, problems occur frequently.

 Another area where understanding and agreement is necessary is defining  the purpose of the partnership.  Usually partnerships, like joint ventures and mergers, are undertaken for more than one reason. To avoid working  at cross purposes, the potential partners need to discuss what they want to gain from the cooperation.  If there isn’t agreement, then its best to start looking for another partner.

 The confidentiality of information shared in the partnership needs to be protected. A confidentiality agreement should be consummated between the two companies early in the discussions.

 Sometimes one or both partners will take for granted who will do what if they get the contract they are pursuing. That’s a bad idea. It’s important to determine the responsibilities of each partner at outset of discussions. 

 Properly structured, partnerships can be very effective, save time and increase productivity.  In effect,  partnering gives you competitive advantage by accessing your partners skills and resources.  Don’t overlook this avenue to growth.

By John Riley

 Businesses that have managed to weather the economic storm by cutting staff, reducing inventory, and a variety of other measures are now trying to figure out how they are going to sell their wares in this new and uncertain economy.  In response to the new business environment many companies  are changing their business models and most likely, more will be. 

 Building a business model  can be as simple or as complex  as the situation requires. The important thing is to end up with plan that offers you a realistic chance of success.

 It always starts with customers. You can be sure their businesses have been impacted by the recession as yours has been and they are or soon will be doing things differently.  You need to understand what’s changed and most importantly, how it’s going to affect the way they are going to do business in the months and years ahead.  Be sure you are well prepared with the questions you need answered…you may not get another chance for a long time. 

 Remind yourself that if you don’t listen to what the customer is telling you, you’re not going to get the message.  Communication experts tell us that listening is the biggest weakness people exhibit when trying to communicate.  We also know that listening is a learned skill so concentrate on nurturing it. When you do, the valuable intelligence you will receive from the customers will help build your business.

 You will already have a good handle on the economy and forthcoming government regulations so its time to think about the strategies you need to penetrate and expand what you have defined as your target market. If you run a tight ship, each of your departments will have processes that have generated and stored historical performance data and the metrics that are used to measure that performance.

  Input from the sales and marketing department is a good place to start. Sales personnel report on each of their customers and submit  forecasts of anticipated purchases for each, how much of that business he expects to receive, and the resources he needs to make that happen. With that information, the head of sales consolidates the data and arrives at a total sales figure for the year, taking into account the enthusiasm or lack of enthusiasm  of his team members.

 Manufacturing then introduces their metrics, units of production per day, cost per unit, amount saved through manufacturing efficiencies, quality improvements, capacity increases or decreases, etc.  Also taken into account is the financial officer who distributes the list of planned capital expenditures, timelines for receipt of equipment and start up of operations.

 Each of the departments that support sales and manufacturing provide their proposed contribution in the form of increased revenues or reductions in operating costs or both.  Metrics from each department will be used by the Department Heads to support their proposals.

 With this collective input, the executive team is able to fashion its business model for the coming year. The business model remains a dynamic tool as the year progresses. Management knows and expects there will be some tweaking of the numbers, but when management spots a gap (significant variation) between expected performance and actual performance they take corrective action. 

 In general, this process of collecting data, analyzing it and then preparing a business model is one of the most important management  functions.  Approach it casually and without preparation and you will pay a high price.  Do it well and you will reap the substantial  benefits.