Our family loves the year-in-review sports edition. Top plays, top misplays, top 100 catches of all time….
Here is a fun reflection of some of the best coaching or advice, given or received, over the years. There are ten, but not in any specific order.
But first,
I am very thankful for the experience I have gained and the many leaders I have learned from over a 25-year corporate career. It has equipped me with skills, stories and a little wisdom. Not all lessons were apparent at the time, but there is always learning in reflection.
Also, I am incredibly grateful for the support, mentorship and trust this community has given Edge Consulting in its first full year. I could not have done it without you. Thank you!
Now, the list:
There is no bad weather, just bad gear
I first heard this one from my father-in-law and have used it, like he did, many times to justify the purchase of costly technical sporting gear.
In a business context, there are no bad business climates; there is just an inability for a business to connect with its target prospects.
There are various reasons why: inability to identify the ideal customer, lack of vision, no understanding of your company's differentiators or inability to create a compelling value-based hypothesis that your prospect wants to solve.
Market challenges will present themselves in 2024, but businesses must continue to solve problems to be successful.
Hope is not a strategy
I have two thoughts on this phrase.
First, true strategy is inherently uncertain. Call it faith, optimism, youthful exuberance or hope —there is room in business to strive for things beyond your reach.
Second, hope can be a strategy if you structure your business correctly, follow along… The issue is not what your strategy is; it’s the incongruence between structure, processes, and financing for the strategy you have chosen.
If hope is your strategy, you better have low expectations, a lot of cash and a very elastic expense model or, said a different way, define your strategy and then align structure and processes for the best chance of success.
Give it the old jiggety poke
This is one of my favourite phrases from an executive at North West Digital: “Back in the day.”
I don’t know what it means, but he used to use this phrase when we were deep in a very tense customer technical issue, often with enormous consequences on the line. It always made us front-liners smile.
The lesson?
Upon reflection, executives often need to be the chief cheerleader when things are tough, and appropriate humour is one of the best tension breakers. I don’t need to have all the answers. I need to create an environment where our competent team can find the answers while I support them at every step along the way.
You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
This one had to be explained to me.
It was used often by the first sales director at the Long View, BC office. I was a very inexperienced leader, and I learned an incredible amount from him.
The message is simple: quality, above all else, in everything you do. Hiring staff, acquiring customers, building products, doing it all, and understanding what good looks like because changing things into what you want them to be takes more energy than just doing it right the first time.
The response of “Like grass through a goose.” to the question “How is your day going?”
In my first consulting job, we had a customer who grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan. He had this same answer every morning. I think this one has to do with a specific process being smooth and fast with a satisfying outcome, literally.
What I marvelled at was his ability to have a positive attitude no matter what was happening around him. He was a very predictable and dependable person to work for, which meant all our energy could be focused on the task at hand, not on managing the environment we were working in.
This is an essential attribute for a leader at any time, but it is critical in times of uncertainty. Be the rock for your team and remove drama.
Margin is margin is margin
The concept is every margin dollar is the same no matter how it is created. This could not be further from the truth. Though financially, the dollars may seem the same, strategically, they are not.
Truly understanding what products or services align best with your strategy and not getting swayed chasing vanity metrics, like revenue or selling misaligned products or services for the sake of “wins,” is fundamental to long-term team alignment and financial prosperity.
It takes courage not to “take a deal,” but sometimes it is the best thing to do.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result
This is true but is more nuanced than it may seem.
Changing direction constantly has an enormous cost.
The skill is determining the difference between persistence and insanity. There is an art and science to executing the timing of a pivot. Using the "pre-mortem" to identify desired outcomes goes a long way to knowing if you are on the right track or not.
Preplan intended outcomes and then measure like crazy; the art part I leave to you.
Sales is all about relationships
To quote one of the most strategic salesminds I know, “Some salespeople have too many friends and not enough customers.”
In sales, you must be respectful and trustworthy, but those qualities alone will not gain you customers.
A salesperson must be an excellent listener, be naturally curious, and know how to position their product in terms of value to their prospect’s business. Unfortunately, being nice will not get the job done, especially when financial constraints exist for most companies in the coming year.
As my friend always reminded me, “When you look at a family photo, who do you look for first?” It is a rhetorical question to which the answer is usually yourself.
Your prospects must see themselves in your solution and how it will help their business. You must prove to your prospect that you understand them. That means your pitch is not about you; it’s about them.
Feed-Forward
It's a Marshal Goldsmith gem that I wish I had known many years ago.
The concept is that feedback is about the past, something we can not change. Feed-forward helps shape a better future.
The past is critical for context, but dwelling on it usually initiates a doom loop that ends up being about “who” did what rather than “what” is correct.
Reframing difficult conversations in a feed-forward format is challenging, but it pays dividends.
Stay Above the Line
The Conscious Leadership Group has the simplest leadership model yet, a horizontal line. Above it, you are curious, open, and want to learn. Below it, you are defensive, close-minded, and want to be right.
Leaders should be able to locate themselves. When you are below the line, you need tools to shift above.
Being an effective leader requires you to be above the line.
I hope you enjoyed the read. I wish you the best of the holiday season and a prosperous New Year.
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