Be Different or be dead

December 6, 2010

Every remarkable leader has these 16 simple strengths to use

Source: Unsplash

Every remarkable leader has these 16 fundamental strengths to use.

The most critical role the leader plays is to bring in the right “human essence” to their organization to ensure its success and survival in the long term.

These are the competencies remarkable leaders look for…

Lifelong learner — Look for evidence that prospects have been active learners. What areas are they interested in? Who have they learned from? How can their learnings be put to use in your organization?

Infection agent — the ability to “infect others” with the virus of your business plan is critical in terms of executing it. Some people have the interest, passion and tenacity to get others excited about advancing the cause.

Listener — you can’t discover customer secrets and create dazzling customer moments if you are not a 100% Listener.

Apologizer — a successful recovery act after you have screwed a customer around begins with “I’m sorry”. Make sure you covet people who do this naturally. Some can’t. Some don’t want to.

Human being lover — Dazzling customers is all about taking care of them and it can’t be done if your people would rather be doing something else other than dealing with humans.
Look for people with a born desire to serve. Memorable customer moments are possible only through employees that have the natural ability and desire to serve others.

High pain tolerator — greatness doesn’t come without disappointment and pain along the way. Resilience pays off.

Successful failure — Progress requires people trying stuff and failing along the way. That’s innovation. But failing is only useful and strategic if the learning from it advances the organization’s strategy. Failing begets learning.

Friend maker — deep customer relationships result in a revenue stream that goes on forever. Such connections depend on trust and friendship.

Storyteller — stories “breathe life” into a strategy. They paint pictures of what it looks like when a strategic game plan is being successfully executed in the field. You need people who can “light their eyes up” with a story about some aspect of your strategy. Talk the event.

Simple thinker — Execution is simplicity. Elegance that can’t be implemented is worthless. Think Simple. Find Simple. Dumb everything down.

Connector — think about this one from an internal perspective. Results (i.e. delivering what the customer wants) are produced through processes working across the organization and vertically.
This requires the ability to connect with others and build effective relationships with them. Service breakdowns often occur when a link in the teamwork chain breaks. Constant connections go a long way to avoiding such problems.

Reaction maniac — a huge aspect of surviving a customer screw-up is responding to what has occurred in the right (read as “Loyalty Building”) way. The truth is, a successful Recovery actually builds Customer Loyalty MORE than if the mistake never happened. Counter-intuitive I know, but true.

Service Recovery = FIX it + Do the UNEXPECTED.

Chillax-er — you really do need folks that react well under extreme pressure. STOP—PAUSE—THINK—RESPOND THOUGHTFULLY. This is tough to train people in (sometimes I think it is impossible).

Rememberer — a good memory will go a long way to dazzling a customer. It shows you paid attention the last time you connected with the person. It shows you care enough to remember.

Nano-inch seeker —  there’s no such thing as a silver bullet. Progress is made by having a distinguishing strategy and executing it flawlessly inch-by-inch-by-inch. Get an inch of progress FAST. Look for people who have demonstrated this capability.

Customer empathizer — can you look at yourself through the customer’s eyes? Objectively. Compassionately. ‘Solution-mindedly’. It’s not about your organization; it’s about the customer moment and you need practising empathizers if you want raving lunatic fans as customers (which we all do).

Competency coveting is the responsibility of senior leaders to ensure the right people with the right skills, experience, aptitude and attitude are in the right places to execute the strategy of the organization — delegation of this task is simply not an option.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 12.6.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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December 4, 2010

Why business success depends on being different not by being better

Source: Unsplash

Why business success depends on being different not by being better.

The majority of business failure is due in large part to the lack of organizational survival skills. So what’s the solution? How do you develop these skills?

What are the things that an organization should do to immunize itself against the shocks of external events?

The answer can be boiled down to this: if you are not different you are dead or you soon will be

In other words, to be able to survive, an organization needs to position itself uniquely in the marketplace.

It must be able to carve out a special place in the customer’s mind so that loyalty is not only created but also has a long life. An organization must Be Different.

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that if the external environment is changing faster than the inside of an organization, the end is near.

You need to recognize and keep pace with the dynamics impacting your business, and if you fail to do so, it will not be a question of whether or not your organization will die; it will be a matter of when.

DiFFERENT beats better

The interesting thing is that you don’t necessarily have to be better than your competitors; you just have to be different.
I am not suggesting that you can get away with providing shoddy products and services or marginal customer service; rather that you find a way to redefine yourself as different from others in the marketplace and give customers what they want in the quality they expect.

The challenge is to create meaningful and compelling differences that will separate you from your competition, and to articulate these differences to your target customers in a way that will convince them to do business with your organization and no one else.

A meaningful difference is value, provided that it combines a high must matter factor to the customer with a low currently satisfied factor. It is something that is really important to the customer and is currently not satisfied by any supplier in the market.

Your business plan must be built around this notion.

You need to get the customer’s attention, clear the message clutter, and then tell them in very clear and specific terms why they only have one choice, and that choice is you.

This process requires that your organization develop and communicate a value proposition to the market that is truly unique.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 12.4.10 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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December 2, 2010

Why the ONLY statement is the way to standout and be successful

Source: Unsplash

Why the ONLY statement is the way to standout and be successful.

How to be successful? Do you have a career plan?

It all boils down to being able to state how you intend to satisfy the career decision makers in your organization in a unique and compelling way.

So how do you do it?

My ONLY Statement can help: “I am the ONLY one in the organization that ...” is a statement that will define your uniqueness and distinguish you from others.

But there are some caveats. Your ONLY claim must meet the following tests:

Relevance — It must address a relevant, compelling and high priority need for your organization.

To claim you are truly special at something that is not relevant at that particular point in time is futile and will get you nowhere.

For example, if your business has significant marketing challenges and you attest to your unique brilliance in inventory control you will not likely dazzle others and get a leg up on your internal competition.

Climb the mountain that is THE challenge for your organization so that when you make your only claim others will sit up and take notice because it resonates loudly with the issues leadership is struggling with.

Truth — It must be true.

Others must attest to the fact that the words and music line up; that you consistently demonstrate the values and behaviours expressed in the statement. If you claim to be unique at something that isn’t true or that you demonstrate inconsistently, others will see it and you will suffer a major set-back.

Consider this example of an only statement:

“I am the only person in my organization that has the demonstrated critical marketing skills and experience to lead the transformation required from a transaction based monopoly to a customer driven competitive business.”

Constantly measure your ONLY Statement to ensure you are delivering its value every day and that the uniqueness you claim continues to be a high priority for your organization.

Report card — Develop a simple ONLY report card and get your mentors, colleagues and other leaders to rate you on the ONLY claims you are making.

Their perception of you is reality so stay close to them and listen to what they have to say.

Keep your report card simple.

Here’s an example of the statements you could get others agree or disagree with as a way to measure how effective your ONLY Statement is:

▪️ ‘The company considers competitive marketing skills to be a critical competency that needs to be developed to be successful in the evolving competitive market’;

▪️ ‘I have a proven background of marketing experience that is relevant to transforming our organization to a competitive enterprise’;

▪️ ‘I have the necessary marketing skills to create our marketing function as a core competency that gives our organization a strategic advantage in the market’;

▪️ ‘I am the only person in our organization who possesses the essential combination of demonstrated experience and skills to lead our marketing team into the brave new competitive world’.

Based on how others see you in terms of relevance and truth, address any deficiencies in your ONLY and keep measuring.

Your best career coach is the ONLY Statement; let it be your guide to relevance and truth.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 12.2.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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November 29, 2010

Why competitor knowledge is really important to your career success

Source: Pexels

Why competitor knowledge is really important to your career success.

One of the critical components in developing a business plan for any organization is HOW you intend to compete and WIN given the competition in your space.

The challenge is to decide what its strategic uniqueness is relative to the competition that is targeting the same customers you have chosen to SERVE. A detailed assessment of your target customers’ critical priority needs and desires must be made along with the internal competencies that line up with satisfying them.

And you need to know your competition at a granular level - strengths, weaknesses, performance, value proposition and business strategy.

Know your competition at a granular level in order to build a winning career strategy.

The internal world of an organization where you are fighting for career success has similar competitive dynamics and it’s critical to understand the competition for the jobs you want.

Here are 7 questions to consider as you evaluate who you are up against for those few precious leadership opportunities:

1. Who are the players in the organization that are considered to be high potential and promotable now?

2. How would you rank them in terms of probability of success? Who are the top three and in what order? What skills do they have that you don’t? What strengths do you have that they don’t?

3. What currency does each of your competitors have in the organization? Currency describes the amount of influence you have on the decision making process in the organization. People with a high level of currency are typically asked for their opinion on matters of importance; they are consulted when exploring the pros and cons of various courses of action and are in on the final decisions.

Persons with lower currency are not regularly consulted on important matters and rarely are asked to participate in task force teams quickly assembled to address a critical issue.
You can observe high currency factor individuals in meetings. They are always engaged in the conversation going on and people look to them to voice their views; they are valued by the organization and represent intense competition for you.

4. What is your currency factor? Where do you rank relative to the top 3?

5. Do you have specific strategies to build your currency in your career game plan?

6. What is your competitors’ overall career strategy? How does it compare with yours?

7. Does your plan put you in a stand-out position relative to them or are you merely catching up to them? Beware of copying what others do, however, as benchmarking has pitfalls.

Knowing who else is in the game is critical to you developing your career strategy.

Do your homework.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.29.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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