The Wall Street Journal pens an article about Coach purses and what they are doing to expand their brand.  Clearly it is a strong brand today, but they play at the upper end of the price curve.  Inside the article is a poignant comment from their CEO regarding marketing:

We want to be transformative in the way we look. You can’t be iterative when the economy is tough.

Simple, sound point he makes, isn’t it?  If you continue down a repetitive path, you are going to run into revenue shortfalls in this slow economy.  You have to change something up, refocus it, introduce something new, etc.  Some of the most successful lines were launched during a recession.

What do MTV, Trader Joe’s, and the iPod have in common? Yes, of course, they’re all now ubiquitous and make our lives much more agreeable.

But to us, the most interesting thing about all three is that these great brands were born during recessions. (Trader Joe’s: 1958; MTV: 1981; iPod: 2001, if you are scoring at home.)

And therein lies a point everyone seems to be forgetting in the midst of the current economic slowdown. If handled correctly, a downturn can be a good thing for your company. It can give you the opportunity — and the funds — to innovate and get a substantial leg up on the competition.

Stagnant companies get stagnant, or worse, results during slow times.  The same is true for salespeople.  Some get overwhelmed with the economy, assume nothing can be done and give up.  Or discount drastically.  Or change careers.  Whatever the outcome, now is the time for strong leadership from the sales manager and a unique marketing message that creates some buzz.

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Inc.com’s Boss School blog discusses a topic that seems like it might be a distinction without a difference - leadership vs. management.  However, I think the author hits a perfect chord right at the start:

Leadership isn’t the same thing as management. Leadership is about providing vision as to where the company is going. It’s about inspiring and motivating. It’s about instilling a certain amount of comfort that someone wiser than you is going to figure a way out of a mess.

I often think of managing as being somewhat akin to being a zookeeper.  You keep things in order and provide needed resources.  That’s not the greatest metaphor, but you get the idea.  Back to the blog post - here is the observation that caught me attention:

Don’t get me wrong. I think everyone wants a fearless leader. But I also think there’s a fine line between sounding positive and sounding delusional. You lose credibility. Done in the proper manner, an honest “negative” appraisal of a difficult situation can be positive if it leads to a good plan of action. It is an opportunity to show the staff that you are critical of yourself and take responsibility.

It is unnerving to work for a leader who seems out of touch with reality.  Leaders who refuse to address the realities of the situation are problematic.  They refuse to acknowledge the present realities which leads to a lack of corrective actions.  We’ve seen a handful of companies absolutely crater under this type of leadership.

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First we posted on the 7 Deadly Sins of Salespeople over a year ago.  Now comes the follow up - leaders, or sales managers.  Each item has a full paragraph explanation to it which I have removed for space.  However, 3 of them warranted the full paragraph:

1. Passiveness

2. Unaccountability

3. Thoughtlessness
Leaders think. They acknowledge they are making assumptions when they make them and that they are considering opinion rather than dress it up as a fact. They do not apply business models from other industries or businesses without considering whether their external operating environment, strengths and weaknesses are or can be made to be similar. They do not use buzzwords without knowing what they mean. They do not use buzzwords without how implementing them will affect their operation, in detail.

4. Affectation

5. Greed
Leaders share. Leaders share the glory of success. They see equity, not as a democratic ideal, but as part of what it means to be fair. They recognise that people need to feel valued to be motivated. They also share the workload and authority, understanding that independence and achievement is a strong reward.

6. Laziness

7. Inconsistency
Leaders are persistent and resilient. They set a goal, devise a strategy and execute the strategy. The strategy is changed consciously. The strategy is not changed unconsciously by reactive decisions. They do not allow their mood or the mood of their subordinates to change what they assert.

Number 7 resonates with me.  I have worked for more than one sales manager who changed courses on almost a daily basis.  I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating that was.  Not only would he change direction, he would change the entire focus (markets, products, marketing, target companies, etc.).

We were selling a high-end software package which exasperated the problem.  It took time to develop suspects into prospects (demonstration-intensive sale) and our market was fairly horizontal (which allowed him to jump into any area).  It is still frustrating to me as I write this almost 10 years after the fact!

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My father likes to state that your ego is your most expensive business partner.  I’ve seen this firsthand in companies where the leader regularly proclaims their position or superiority.  I’m all for it when it is accurate and not overstated.

I’m thinking of one particular company where the President consistently stated:

Our company does things better than any other company.
We are the best in our industry.
Nobody can do what we do.

Unfortunately, in this instance, these statements were just not accurate.  The outcropping from this situation was painful for us.  We were searching for a regional sales manager for this company.  We lost good candidates because the President wouldn’t provide benefit information - he literally would define how many vacation days the candidate would receive, what the insurance plan was or what his quota would be.

I’m serious.

The candidate asked politely 3 different times.  We begged him to provide it in writing.  He wouldn’t.  Yet, the President added the candidate to his sales team’s email list.  He sent out some marketing material to the group and asked for feedback.  The candidate, who had not signed any agreement, was stunned he was on the list.  The President simply assumed the candidate would sign in spite of not providing the aforementioned information.  He believe his company held that much sway over the candidate.

The candidate passed on the opportunity.

The issue was simple - the President’s perception of his small company and it’s allure to strong candidates was overstated.  His ego cost him more than one good candidate.

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Remember the book, All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Perhaps not, unless you are a seasoned vet like I am, but the premise is still sound. Today I was reminded of the power of principle centered leadership.

This morning I attended a meeting of the Manufacturers Alliance, a group of 300 or so manufacturers here in Minnesota who share best practices, lead training seminars and otherwise help their peers get better. The keynote speaker was Tom Tiller, CEO of Polaris Industries.

Tom’s message was so crystal clear I need to share it. Polaris, he told us, has increased its value by 150 times in the last 20 years (despite intense competition, wars and several economic ‘downturns’) because of one thing – people.

Tom said they treat their employees like gold, foster a culture of innovation and participation, and make sure they get and stay close to their customers. “It’s our passion for outdoor activities like snowmobiling and off-roading that drives our contact with customers. We use the product together and talk about what could make it better. I am with customers, using our products, more than 200 days a year.”

Wow! That’s a lot of time with customers. That’s a lot of time actually using the product. That’s a lot of time spent listening – to both employees and customers.

Tom ended his presentation with a quick story about his employees’ passion and commitment – during spring flooding a few years ago in Roseau, Minnesota, both the company’s plant and many employee homes were threatened. More than 400 Polaris employees showed up at the plant to help sandbag for 48 hours straight (Tom among them). They watched their houses float away but managed to save the plant.

What’s so simple about Polaris’ strategy? A clear and unshakable faith that success will come if they focus on their two most important constituencies – their customers and their employees. It wasn’t their strategic planning, their marketing plan or the way they organized their shop floor.

Does it work? Well, one would expect discretionary lifestyle purchases like snowmobiles, ATVs and the like to be down these days. Instead, Tom told us this morning, Polaris expects a 22% increase in sales this quarter.

Simple.

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Steven Rothberg over at CollegeRecruiter.com provides a money quote in his post Why Today’s College Students Need Not Fear Exploding Offers.  Obviously, Steven’s market is geared towards college students, but this paragraph is applicable to all businesses when it comes to hiring (emphasis mine):

The recession of 2001-03 was worse than the recession of 2008 and employers are looking backwards in order to better understand what to do as they move forwards. Although many and perhaps most employers have scaled back their college hiring plans for this spring, there’s little talk of exploding offers. More employers realize that recessions are tactical problems and college recruiting is strategic. You don’t solve tactical problems by grossly altering and certainly not abandoning your strategic vision. You may tweak the strategy here and nip it a bit there in order to survive the tough times, but organizations which confuse tactics with strategy are organizations which tend not to survive let alone thrive.

That is excellent advice for any company in this present economy.  I experienced this abandonment of strategic vision back in 2001 as a Regional Sales Manager for a high-tech company.  The company was small, but growing quickly in a niche market.  Unfortunately, the President buckled under the potential economic impact of a recession and abandoned the very principles that had grown the business.  Instead of slight adjustments, he collapsed the entire company by attempting to go a different direction.

I’m reminded of a short post from Seth Godin a while back titled That moment.  Here it is in it’s entirety:

When you are sitting right on the edge of something daring and scary and creative and powerful and perhaps wonderful… and you blink and take a step back.

That’s the moment. The moment between you and remarkable. Most people blink. Most people get stuck.

All the hard work and preparation and daring and luck is nothing compared with the ability to not blink.

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I’m presently working on some leadership projects with our customers so these topics are probably on my mind more than usual.  ManageSmarter.com presents an article Communication for Managers 101 that provides 5 steps for better communication between managers and employees.

Some of the suggestions are rudimentary, but we encounter many managers who simply do not follow these basic tenets.  The reason why good communication is important, in case you had to ask (emphasis mine):

Harvard Business Publications recently confirmed what many have always known: effective communication is the number one skill for executives to develop.

…

A Gallup poll of more than 1 million U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is because of problems with their immediate supervisor. Also, surveys show that over 80% of work-related problems are due to a breakdown in communication (Felber 2002).

It doesn’t get any more straight-forward than that.  The suggestion I appreciated the most:

2. Offer your employees time to prepare. It is only fair that you allow your employees some time to prepare for the meeting too by giving them a heads-up on what the meeting will be about. Communication is a two-way process. When an employee isn’t given time to prepare, they are left hearing your thoughts and unable to provide sufficient input that might be necessary. When you call a meeting without giving them time to collect their thoughts on the subject, you are setting yourself up for 2 big problems:

• You are being unfair to the employee, which will affect their workplace satisfaction and morale. After all, no one likes to be blind-sighted by their boss.
• You are causing productivity problems. You will not be getting all the input you may require.

Did anyone else think the proper phrase was “blindsided” instead of “blind-sighted?”  The things you learn here at the Hire Sense.

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There might be nothing more important to a business’ success than strong management.  When management struggles, the entire company pays a price no matter how large.

ManageSmarter.com offers an article with 10 excellent tips for leadership.  Here’s a taste:

• Have a vision and communicate it. Make sure you clearly communicate your vision for the company. No one follows a leader who cannot communicate the way in which the company will succeed. The future of all your employees is tied closely to the success of your company. Make sure they believe in your company, what it stands for, and its products and services, and make sure they know that the hard work they are putting in now will payoff.

I have been stuck in companies where the compass is always spinning and no one can find true north.  I didn’t stay long at the company since most tasks and accomplishments seemed almost pointless.  All of us knew that any ground we gained (in sales) would be given back in the very near future.

• Don’t be too serious. Make the business environment fun at times. While being professional and taking things seriously is important, nothing can beat the effects of a company-wide midnight round of bowling after you reach an important milestone, a lunchtime pizza party once a month, or a spontaneous Nerf-dart duel.

Been there, done that.  Work is serious enough so having the chance to deflate every once-in-awhile is a complete morale booster.  Unfortunately, I worked for a manager who was a complete taskmaster.  His view was that everyone should be working all the time and, worse yet, no salespeople should be seen having fun at the office.  This was a young, vibrant technology company that had ping pong, darts and other games.  No salespeople were allowed in the game area no matter what time of day it was.  Nothing was spontaneous.

Finally, a point that keeps coming up no matter what the position:

• Listen. You have built a great team and are paying top dollar for it. Hold meetings with your management team at least every other week. Also have frequent informal ad hoc discussions with your partners, managers, and employees. Get their feedback, discuss the business and its strategy, and inquire every so often if there is anything that is frustrating them that you can help with. A few weeks ago I had a quick spur-of-the-moment meeting with the lead developer for iContact. After inquiring whether he had any job frustrations, it came out that he felt he was working in an environment in which he became distracted too often. We quickly devised a solution whereby he would work at home four hours a day until we could move into a larger office where the development team could work in a separate room, away from the distraction of the sales and support team. This small change has doubled the developer’s productivity.

I love the line - “…away from the distraction of the sales and support team.”

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Being in the final stages of strategic planning right now with my company (following the establishment of a Vision statement last year) I just can’t leave Derrick’s post alone.

He is absolutely correct with his assumption that many “visioning” exercises are empty of real meaning or impact. As any good business consultant will tell you, execution of the vision and the strategy is a lot harder than crafting the words. Most companies do not follow through and get any real value. It sounds like that’s what Derrick experienced (as I have in several previous lives).

But, for a company like ours that is transitioning from a manufacturing mentality to become a “custom solution provider”, the ‘vision thing’ and the subsequent strategic planning has shown value already. Creating the statement was a company wide activity, and we got input from every level (a first). We are now working to help employees ‘connect’ with that vision - what does it mean for you? what does it mean for your function and area?

Simultaneously, the leadership team is working through a sometimes painful strategic planning session to align the company’s structure, resources and efforts towards achieving that vision. One approach is more organic, grassroots, the other provides focus for our management efforts. If nothing else, it got us out of our status quo, made us ask ourselves the tough questions and gave us a process to do some worthwhile planning (the strategic planning process includes setting specific action plans and measuring results, so it’s designed to lead to real changes).

Could a strong charismatic leader do the same without the hokey “OD” work? Sure. Many do. My suspicion is, those types of leaders use the same tools in a different way - they help people see the vision they articulate (even if its not developed by the employees), they reinforce and direct efforts that lead to that vision, and they make sure their organization supports it with its actions and behaviors.

Will our effort be a guaranteed success and is it worth it?  That’s up to us…and how well we execute.

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Color me skeptical, but I am just not a fan of vision statements, mission statements, company statements and whatever else is the latest iteration.  I prefer P&L statements.  I could be wrong on this so I’ll provide an article from BusinessWeek.com titled Vision Decisions.

The opening graph:

Feeling the pressure to prove they have what former President George H. W. Bush famously termed “the vision thing,” they drag their staffs through formal visioning sessions. The resulting empty exercises yield “vision statements” to which employees periodically genuflect, but they have no operative meaning. The net result is anti-inspirational.

The purpose of vision, after all, is to inspire: vision provides motivation through inspiration. As discussed in a previous post, inspiration is one key element of the “why should people get excited about this” dimension of establishing strategic direction (the other is incentives). An effective statement of vision provides an inspiring portrait of what it will look like and feel like to achieve the organization’s mission and goals. It crystallizes an emotional connection between employees and the business. Critically, a formal statement of vision is not an end in itself. It is both the product of and a symbol of a process of generating shared understanding and shared commitment among employees.

The process part makes sense, but the entire vision statement idea just strikes me as an organizational development symbol that has little impact on the company’s machinations.  Strong leadership provides inspiration.

I went through the ISO 9000 whatever registration over a decade ago and came away with a fairly jaded perspective of the entire thing.  That experience, where we had to memorize the company vision statement and mission statement in case we were asked by an auditor.  The statements sounded good, but operationally they had no impact on the business.  In my estimation, they were little more than political spin.

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