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March 5, 2010
Twenty Attributes of a BE DiFFERENT Leader
There are always conversations going on about what a leader is and what attributes they possess. I have participated in these on an opportunistic basis; here is a taste of my consolidated view.
Stay tuned for the complete version in my soon-to-be-published book ‘BE DiFFERENT YOU: Winning on the Inside’
A BE DiFFERENT Leader:
1. creates discontinuity in their organization to expose opportunity for competitive advantage and growth.
2. makes people feel uncomfortable with their love of change.
3. is intolerant of sameness.
4. is at ease with uncertainty.
5. inspires people to get out of their comfort zone.
6. learns voraciously and contunuously
7. practices the art of Constructive Emulation: go find someone else’s good idea and make it GREAT for you.
8.always push the evelope wanting to extend the degree of change required.
9. create followers. Followers find leaders.
10. is a customer addict and models this behavior to the rest of the organization.
11. serves people not commands them to action.
12. is the consumate story-teller, breathing lfe into the organization’s strategy by providing examples of successful execution.
13. bashes barriers to progess on the inside to make it easier for people to get their job done.
14. constantly and passionately communicates the organization’s vision and strategy to capture the hearts as well as the minds of people.
15. asks ‘how can I help’ rather than commands ‘do this’.
16. gives hope to people in times of chaotic change.
17. turns Brave Ideas into Crude Deeds.
18. is Anal about execution.
19. makes decisions with incomplete and imperfect information.
20. is good at anticipating future trends and events, but is GREAT at responding to the random and the unexpected.
If you can check-off all twenty, consider yourself a perfect BE DiFFERENT Leader (but remember there’s no such thing as perfect in anything - assess yourself again!).
If you can honestly say that you exhibit half of these leadership dimensions you are well ahead of 99% of other ‘leaders’ in business. Well done and now focus your work on the remaining 50%.
Cheers, Roy
Remember to follow me on Twitter
Posted 3.5.10 at 07:14 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (2)
March 2, 2010
Empowered Customers Rule!
There is a compelling case for Customerizing your organization in current market and economic conditions. Making a right-angled turn from pushing products and services at people to determining what their individual desires are and creating VALUE to enhance their lives.
Yet it is amazing to me how many companies don’t get it. They continue to market the way they have done in the past, believing what worked then will get them to where they need to get to in the future. It won’t work. We all need to look at the evidence and then take action to renew our organizations to SERVE customers not flog at them.
Here’s the evidence that customers are empowered and show no sign of letting g of their new-found power:
- customers are avid researchers, a capability made possible by the Internet. They spend copious time analyzing various suppliers and what they offer before making an informed decision. Businesses better respect the intelligence customers have and their willingness to impose themselves for their own good.
- they make faster decisions than ever before as cyber space provides real-time information for them to process.
- customers are becoming the subject matter experts in the fields they must research to get the value they desire.
- switching suppliers is easier than ever before as options become more numerous and customer muscle tone improves.
- there is almost a limitless number of competitors to choose from; the Internet is giving birth to most new business formation.
- customers have leverage on the prices they pay for the value they receive. And they are becoming astute negotiators that can’t be pushed around.
- expect loyalty to be the illusive challenge if you don’t dazzle them. Customer fickleness is on the rampage and is ravaging organizations not sensitive to the serving philosophy.
- people are suddenly mirroring common business behavior and are inflicting pain on organizations when their needs aren’t met. They are just not taking it any more!
Ignore this evidence at your own peril. The control has moved from organizations to those that they serve.
Winners will be those organizations that first, recognize the empowerment shift that is rapidly upon us and, second, adopt BE DiFFERENT Practices to serve their customers in a compelling way that is unique versus the competition.
Cheers, Roy
Remember to follow me on Twitter
Related Blogs
Serving Customers NOT Providing Customer Service
The Four Steps to Dazzle Customers
Customerize your Marketing
Marketers: You are in the VALUE creation business
Posted 3.2.10 at 08:02 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)
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