Be Different or be dead

December 28, 2015

Why a leader who stands out is better than a great one

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Why a leader who stands out is better than a great one.

Much has been written on leadership and what it takes to be competent in the craft.

Contemporary writing, however, doesn’t differentiate between the various levels of leadership.

Leadership instruction promulgates similar ‘formulae’ to enhance one’s leadership capabilities. It’s pretty basic stuff. And it really doesn’t teach much to someone who wants to take their game to another level.

It’s time we recognize that there are different levels of leadership and enable individuals to understand what it takes to move up from one level to the next.

There are, in my experience, 3 classes of leaders — ‘good’, ‘great’ and ‘standout’.

Leadership principles

The good leaders practice accepted leadership principles satisfactorily; for example, they may be acceptable communicators and they delegate according to the norms.
The great excel at performing one or two principles; they may be beyond competent, for example, at creating strategy for their organization.
The stand-out leaders, on the other hand, create new principles based on what it will take for their organizations to thrive and survive an uncertain future. They introduce notions like ‘to be successful we need to do lots of imperfect stuff fast’ and fail fast.

The standouts do not accept today’s norms; they create new ones.

Business momentum

The good leader manages the momentum of their business, content to let the direction of the past carry them into the future.
The great builds momentum and accelerates progress. They look for ways to achieve their end game faster.
The standouts disrupt the momentum of their business to take it in a different direction. The standouts intervenes on themselves; the good and the great are not so inclined.

Best practices

The good leaders identify best practices to emulate.
The great copy best practices fast and furiously; they simply do more copying (and faster) than their good brethren.
The standouts don’t copy; they create a unique and different way forward. They look at best in class as the model to break away and be different from.

Delegation

The good delegate and hold people accountable. They treat people ‘by the leadership book’.
The great delegate and coach people to be the best they can be.
The standouts refuse to delegate tasks that require their own fingerprints. They take personal ownership in such matters as managing the customer moment. They recognize the limits of delegation.

The standouts are masters of do-it-yourself when the moment requires the personal involvement of the leader.

Communication

The good communicate the business plan of the organization using all traditional broadcast channels available.
The great broadcast and personally engage in face-to-face meetings and Q&A sessions.
The standouts provide a detailed explanation of the strategy to each function in the organization so people can see specifically what they need to do differently.

Leader brand

The good have a generalist brand of leadership and are not known for any particular trait.
The great have strength in a particular leadership category such as strategy development.
The standout brand centers on serving people and asking asking “How can I help?”

Good and great leaders practice their art better than others; standouts, on the other hand, create a different practice.

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

• Posted 12.28.15 at 04:25 am by Roy Osing
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December 14, 2015

Does a leader’s strengths make them great?

The strengths possessed by someone address the lowest level requirements of the leadership job.

Without the basics you have little chance to lead; with them you’re guaranteed nothing in terms of being remarkable and memorable. At best you will be guaranteed a solid position in the leadership herd, blending in with other leaders who also have the same strengths.

My eyes glaze over when some individuals describe their strengths.

I hear things like:
- Technology;
- SEO;
- Finance;
- Team building;
- Dealing with others:
- Communications;
... and it goes on and on.

They all say the same thing. They’re clones of one another.

Strengths that are cited are merely adequacies if the herd promulgates them.

Rather than asking someone what their strengths are, let’s start asking “How are you different from everyone else?”

▪️“What have you done that shows a contrarian attitude?”

▪️“Where have you gone in the opposite direction to the crowd?”

▪️“Tell me a story about where you’ve diverged from the crowd not conformed with it;

▪️“Do you believe that there is strategic value in benchmarking?” (and hope for a negative response)

Good leadership is achieved by being strong.

Great leadership is created by being different.

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

• Posted 12.14.15 at 04:22 am by Roy Osing
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December 7, 2015

4 simple ways to stand out and easily beat your competitors

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4 simple ways to stand out and easily beat your competitors.

NEVER has it been more important to get out of the herd and carve out a distinctive and unique place for your organization in the market than it is today.

The economy is unpredictable.

Competition is intense as new competitors are entering the market at a blistering rate.

New technology disrupts organizations relentlessly.

Markets are cluttered with sameness; products and services are undifferentiated and competitive claims are lost in the crowd.

Customers are more empowered than ever before, establishing relationships with suppliers that deliver distinctive solutions and ignoring those that don’t.

Which organizations are successful and survive this challenging business environment, and what separates them from the others that struggle, hang on and eventually fail?

Those that are able to win this battle are different from their competitors. They survive the scrutiny of the discriminating customer by providing relevant, compelling and unmatched value.

Those that have no distinctive identity simply don’t make it.

They die.

How can organizations stand-out from the herd and easily beat their competition?

Business plan — It starts with reinventing how strategy is developed. The emphasis is shifted from strategic direction to execution. Many plans look good on paper but can’t be executed. They are theoretically pristine but worthless as they fall short of delivering results.

The strategic business game plan is designed for execution and is created by answering 3 questions:

1. HOW BIG do you want to be? - growth goals;
2. WHO do you want to SERVE - target customers to achieve growth;
3. HOW do you intend to compete and WIN - the value proposition that gives the WHO reasons to buy ONLY from you. Being the best of the best is ignored; being the ONLY ones that do what you do is coveted.

Marketing — Marketing is focused on creating experiences rather than flogging products. Investing in current loyal fans is given priority over providing special promotions and deals to acquire new customers.

Mass markets are ignored in favour of concentrating on the individual and discovering their secrets that will unlock economic value.

Marketing to ’ME’ gains momentum.

Customers are looked at holistically; experiential packages are designed for each of them to satisfy their broad life desires. Creating happiness is the marketer’s end game.

Customer Service — Customer service the way it has been traditionally practiced is out; SERVING customers is in with the end game to dazzle the customer and take their breath away. Internal rules and policies are re-vectored to make customer engagement a friendly process.

The customer is brought in to the organization to get their fingerprints on how they want to be treated.

Leadership —  Leadership is practised by serving around is the new culture. “How can I help you?” are the words leaving leaders’ lips not “Do this.”

To Stand-out from the Herd you need to provide VALUE that people CARE about and that is UNIQUE. Failure to deliver and you’ll be IgNORED, InVISIBLE, CoMMON and DeAD (sooner or later).

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

• Posted 12.7.15 at 04:02 am by Roy Osing
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October 26, 2015

The 2 simple questions that guarantee you will be innovative

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The 2 simple questions that guarantee you will be innovative.

There are significant challenges facing innovation in any organization.

People are taught to be cautious and to make “informed” decisions based on thorough and rigorous analysis. As a result the process tends to be long and arduous and faces numerous levels of scrutiny before a decision is finally reached.

Paralysis by analysis often sets in and current business momentum is maintained. Nothing changes.

People are taught to avoid making mistakes. They witness how punishment is handed out to their colleagues and decide that risky actions have too much personal downside; they prefer the status quo. Nothing changes.

These powerful forces act against creativity in most organizations; here is my formula for letting the innovative juices flow:

Creativity = “How do we get there?”

If you know how to get from A to B the Creative Incentive Quotient – CIQ – is zero. On the other hand, if you have absolutely no idea how to reach your destination the CIQ is high.

Creativity is not spawned by applying analytical tools that draw upon historic performance to predict future results. Trend line thinking stultifies breakthrough action as it merely extends past performance with the expectation that the future will somehow mirror it.

Creativity is driven by declaring a goal without knowing exactly how it will be achieved and doing the hard entrepreneurial work to figure it out. It’s about having the intestinal fortitude to enter uncharted waters, pointing your ship in the general direction you want to go, and navigating – creating – as you go.

Creativity is killed by not wanting to go forward without knowing how the end goal will be achieved. I see people shut down when confronted with the objective of doubling revenue in 24 months because they don’t know how to do it. They stop, say the objective is “unrealistic” and adopt an uninspiring target that they think they can achieve. CIQ = 0. Creative juices don’t flow.

Creative juices flow more when the way to achieve the goal is unclear when you begin.

Creativity = “What do we have to do differently?”

Listen to the conversation that pervades most organizations today: “What is best in class doing?” is the driver of most activity. Benchmarking the leader of the pack and copying them absorbs everyone’s time and energy; yet even if you are successful you remain in the pack like everyone else.

Benchmarking is the tool of sameness.

It does not get the creative juices, and you won’t separate yourself from the pack. CIQ = low (some juice might flow as improvements are made based on others’ experience). And if you don’t stand-out from the pack, what does your long term future look like?

Sameness = mediocrity = invisibility = irrelevance = dying = dead (sooner or later).

To be successful in the long run, your CIQ must be high; creativity must force you out of the pack and make you relevant and unique.

Creativity is launched by asking these questions:

▪️“How can we be different from our competitors?“;
▪️“How can we be contrarian and seek uncommon ground to cover?”;
▪️“How can we go in the opposite direction to the leader of the pack?”.

The unknown and uniqueness are the drivers of creativity; what’s your CIQ?

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

• Posted 10.26.15 at 04:28 am by Roy Osing
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