One of the most important points of balance for business leaders concerns the mindset that you bring to the leadership role. In another section there will be a discussion of the so-called leadership pipeline, which applies to large organizations that have the luxury to groom people, over time, into leadership positions. On the other hand, it is the norm in smaller businesses and startups for the founder and owner to be a passionate performer, who starts a business to pursue their passion, without necessarily going through a series of training and promotion experiences to build the mindset and expertise of a CEO or business leader.
Mindset of the CEO
What do you think of when you think of a CEO? Do certain famous names come to mind? Jack Welch? Meg Whitman? Richard Branson? Lou Gestner, Sam Palmisano or Ginny Rometty? Steve Jobs? Henry Ford? Warren Buffet? I'm not going to try to detail out what these people have in common. I'll just let those images sink in, and ask you to think which, if any of them seem to be perfect role models for the leader of a business.
However different CEOs may be in personality, education and experience, I think we can agree that the great ones stay in our minds as the face of their companies. They carry the image, the brand, and the story of their organizations. They set the tone for the culture, and what it means to be a member of their teams. For any business to experience a healthy future, and rise to its potential, there needs to be someone with the mindset of a leader to stand up and take the lead.
There are many ways to develop into that leader. It's not our purpose here to catalog all the aspects, and all the sources of help in that quest. But here are a few points to consider.
It is difficult under any circumstances to bear the responsibility for the vision-setting and decision-making that provide guidance to your business. This becomes overwhelming if, at the same time, you are mired in the day-to-day firefighting and details. Setting and guiding the vision open up the opportunities for the future growth and maturity of your business. Without the CEO mindset, it is all too easy for you to literally become the bottleneck. If you can't find the time to get away from the press of current events, then the business tends to stay at its current level, or shrink, or shrivel.
A big part of this is micro-managing everything that needs to be done. And why would you do that? You can answer that yourself, but if you're honest with yourself I'm sure that lack of trust is at the heart of the answer. Can you trust the people who are performing, to do things the way you feel they should be done? Do they know how to interact with customers? Do they maintain your standards of quality? Can you trust all aspects of your business to operate smoothly when you take your eyes away? If not, this is a health issue of the highest priority.
Maybe this is going a little deep, but I thought it might be worth mentioning a study on the value of a (good) mission statement to the longevity of a business. Of course I translate longevity into health. You can access the full paper here, but the key finding for me was the following paragraph: "Inclusion of customers (r=-.12) or employees (r=-.03) in the mission statement, the two stakeholders most likely be addressed, was not related to longevity. In contrast, specifying the business existed to serve the community/society (r = .15) resulted in a significant relationship with company lifespan. Regarding the strategy variables, none of the relationships were significant. This lends further support to the recommendation that specifying financial objectives such as profit does not enhance the desired benefits of mission statements. Values related to longevity included only: (1) the importance of accountability/stewardship (r = .15), and (2) respect for a company's civic or social responsibility (r = .17). Behaviorally, the only content correlated to lifespan was mention that actions were driven by ethical, equitable, or moral principles (r = .13). Interestingly, the correlational results do collectively support de Geus' "living company" orientation toward stewardship...."
What this makes me think is that the mission statement itself is a bit of evidence of the mindset and behavior of your management team. The apparent importance of concern for serving the community/society, accountability/stewardship, civic or social responsibility, and ethical, equitable, or moral principles, paints a pretty vivid picture, in my mind, of a management team that is unlikely to engage in a cut-throat race to the bottom, but rather is focused on building relationships that foster ongoing health and wellness throughout the organization and the community.
Return to Expert mindset and CEO mindset.
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
However different CEOs may be in personality, education and experience, I think we can agree that the great ones stay in our minds as the face of their companies. They carry the image, the brand, and the story of their organizations. They set the tone for the culture, and what it means to be a member of their teams. For any business to experience a healthy future, and rise to its potential, there needs to be someone with the mindset of a leader to stand up and take the lead.
There are many ways to develop into that leader. It's not our purpose here to catalog all the aspects, and all the sources of help in that quest. But here are a few points to consider.
It is difficult under any circumstances to bear the responsibility for the vision-setting and decision-making that provide guidance to your business. This becomes overwhelming if, at the same time, you are mired in the day-to-day firefighting and details. Setting and guiding the vision open up the opportunities for the future growth and maturity of your business. Without the CEO mindset, it is all too easy for you to literally become the bottleneck. If you can't find the time to get away from the press of current events, then the business tends to stay at its current level, or shrink, or shrivel.
A big part of this is micro-managing everything that needs to be done. And why would you do that? You can answer that yourself, but if you're honest with yourself I'm sure that lack of trust is at the heart of the answer. Can you trust the people who are performing, to do things the way you feel they should be done? Do they know how to interact with customers? Do they maintain your standards of quality? Can you trust all aspects of your business to operate smoothly when you take your eyes away? If not, this is a health issue of the highest priority.
Maybe this is going a little deep, but I thought it might be worth mentioning a study on the value of a (good) mission statement to the longevity of a business. Of course I translate longevity into health. You can access the full paper here, but the key finding for me was the following paragraph: "Inclusion of customers (r=-.12) or employees (r=-.03) in the mission statement, the two stakeholders most likely be addressed, was not related to longevity. In contrast, specifying the business existed to serve the community/society (r = .15) resulted in a significant relationship with company lifespan. Regarding the strategy variables, none of the relationships were significant. This lends further support to the recommendation that specifying financial objectives such as profit does not enhance the desired benefits of mission statements. Values related to longevity included only: (1) the importance of accountability/stewardship (r = .15), and (2) respect for a company's civic or social responsibility (r = .17). Behaviorally, the only content correlated to lifespan was mention that actions were driven by ethical, equitable, or moral principles (r = .13). Interestingly, the correlational results do collectively support de Geus' "living company" orientation toward stewardship...."
What this makes me think is that the mission statement itself is a bit of evidence of the mindset and behavior of your management team. The apparent importance of concern for serving the community/society, accountability/stewardship, civic or social responsibility, and ethical, equitable, or moral principles, paints a pretty vivid picture, in my mind, of a management team that is unlikely to engage in a cut-throat race to the bottom, but rather is focused on building relationships that foster ongoing health and wellness throughout the organization and the community.
Return to Expert mindset and CEO mindset.
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
Mindset of an expert
[in progress]
The Hoppers observe that the internal growth of leaders who truly and at a gut level understand and appreciate what the workers feel, how they are motivated, the esprit de corps that they feel as being part of a band of brothers and sisters. They may endure hardships, but that is what makes the unique, and gives them a sense of accomplishment. Can an outsider, educated in general theories of business management, ever have the visceral relationship to this kind of working organization? Can they gain this perspective, and the trust and rapport that goes with it?
They are relentless in their criticism of what they call "The Cult of the So-Called Expert"
To return to Mindset of the CEO and the expert
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here
The Hoppers observe that the internal growth of leaders who truly and at a gut level understand and appreciate what the workers feel, how they are motivated, the esprit de corps that they feel as being part of a band of brothers and sisters. They may endure hardships, but that is what makes the unique, and gives them a sense of accomplishment. Can an outsider, educated in general theories of business management, ever have the visceral relationship to this kind of working organization? Can they gain this perspective, and the trust and rapport that goes with it?
They are relentless in their criticism of what they call "The Cult of the So-Called Expert"
To return to Mindset of the CEO and the expert
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here
Marketing and Sales
The balance point between marketing and sales is important for any business. Both aspects and processes are needed, although there are differences in balance, from industry to industry, and by individual business, depending on a number of factors.
There are discussions of marketing separate from sales, linked below. At this point, the topic is balance. But in simple terms, what needs to be balanced?
In simple terms, marketing is about gaining the attention of potential customers, clients, users of the products and/or services of a business. Gaining the attention, and creating interest, and hopefully desire, or matching with desires that the audience already has. In simple terms, sales is getting members of that audience to take action on the fulfillment of their desires by actually making some kind of exchange that gives them access to the product or service. So it's about education, and then a move to action.
The need for balance arises from the fact that the action won't happen without a potential being identified, or self-identified. This requires a connection, which needs to be about desires, and the satisfaction of desires. The buyer needs to be aware of their own desire, and their awareness may arise from exposure to the seller's marketing. The seller needs to be aware of a potential buyer whose pre-existing or stimulated desire matches well enough to initiate the selling process.
So we see the important linkage of marketing and selling. Let's take at a look at each of these separately: To Marketing To Sales
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
There are discussions of marketing separate from sales, linked below. At this point, the topic is balance. But in simple terms, what needs to be balanced?
In simple terms, marketing is about gaining the attention of potential customers, clients, users of the products and/or services of a business. Gaining the attention, and creating interest, and hopefully desire, or matching with desires that the audience already has. In simple terms, sales is getting members of that audience to take action on the fulfillment of their desires by actually making some kind of exchange that gives them access to the product or service. So it's about education, and then a move to action.
The need for balance arises from the fact that the action won't happen without a potential being identified, or self-identified. This requires a connection, which needs to be about desires, and the satisfaction of desires. The buyer needs to be aware of their own desire, and their awareness may arise from exposure to the seller's marketing. The seller needs to be aware of a potential buyer whose pre-existing or stimulated desire matches well enough to initiate the selling process.
So we see the important linkage of marketing and selling. Let's take at a look at each of these separately: To Marketing To Sales
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
Marketing
[in progress]
A dictionary definition: the ways in which a company encourages people to buy its products by deciding on price, type of customer, and advertising policy
From Wikipedia: "process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling that product or service" and "a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers",
Back to Marketing and Sales
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
A dictionary definition: the ways in which a company encourages people to buy its products by deciding on price, type of customer, and advertising policy
From Wikipedia: "process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling that product or service" and "a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers",
Back to Marketing and Sales
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
Sales
The sales process, even abstracted away from the rest of your business, is one of your most important considerations. As Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM, is quoted, "Nothing happens until someone sells something." (Or was it "Nothing happens until a sale is made"?) Whatever it was that old Tom actually said, the point is clear. A business will not continue without people buying products or services, and that means that somehow the business has made those sales.
This is such a fundamental factor of a successful business, it is definitely worth serious attention to the health of the sales process itself.
One thing to notice is the extent to which the sales process has penetrated into one of the traditional arenas of marketing - the advertisement. This has been made possible by various electronic media, including television and the WorldWide Web. A familiar example is the infomercial, which seeks to
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
This is such a fundamental factor of a successful business, it is definitely worth serious attention to the health of the sales process itself.
One thing to notice is the extent to which the sales process has penetrated into one of the traditional arenas of marketing - the advertisement. This has been made possible by various electronic media, including television and the WorldWide Web. A familiar example is the infomercial, which seeks to
- Gain our attention
- Make a claim to provide some satisfaction of desire to enhance or remedy our lives in some way
- Educate us as to how such a claim is brought into reality through some device or product that can be delivered
- Have us respond to a call to action -- "Call this number now! Operators are waiting"
This is a form of sales that populates late-night television, of course, but is also ubiquitous on the Web. There, the all-important click-through takes the potential buyer directly to a place payment can be made through some supposedly secure service, and the product or device sent, through the magic of outbound logistics, straight to the buyer's home or office.
There are many gems and quips of wit and wisdom about the art and science of selling. People buy from those they know, like, and trust. Everyone likes to buy, no one wants to be sold to. Etc. There are also dozens of programs that can help salespeople from cold calling to closing. These typically have some version of the following approach:
Variations on this approach include solution selling, and consultative selling. A still more recent approach has arisen from an intersection of the selling process and the coaching discipline. A summary of a coaching-based sales process can be found here.
Back to Marketing and SalesThere are many gems and quips of wit and wisdom about the art and science of selling. People buy from those they know, like, and trust. Everyone likes to buy, no one wants to be sold to. Etc. There are also dozens of programs that can help salespeople from cold calling to closing. These typically have some version of the following approach:
- Establish rapport, or find common ground, with the potential buyer.
- Determine the needs or desires of the buyer.
- Match something you offer to the concerns you've uncovered.
- Make the deal, close the sale.
Variations on this approach include solution selling, and consultative selling. A still more recent approach has arisen from an intersection of the selling process and the coaching discipline. A summary of a coaching-based sales process can be found here.
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
Leading and Managing
[in progress]
Let's take at a look at each of these separately: To Leading To Managing
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
Let's take at a look at each of these separately: To Leading To Managing
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
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