2 Key Traits for Managing Millennials

This list could be much, much longer in dealing with this generation. However, let's focus on two traits that we are seeing consistently in successful leaders of Millennials.

1. Empathy - a quick, paraphrased definition from Merriam-Webster:  the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another without having those things fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.

Now to be clear, empathy has always been a valuable leadership trait through the generations.  Leadership is associated with power which allows leaders to operate, potentially, with a heavy hand.  They need not worry about reading their direct reports.  The leader provides the direction and expects the reports to execute it.

Empathy is a critical component of emotional intelligence.  The ability to read the nonverbal cues of people provides access to the largest channel of communication.  7% of communication is verbal (i.e. words) while 93% of communication is nonverbal (e.g. tone, body position, inflection, posture, etc.).  Nonverbal communication is the universal language and if the leader can read it effectively, he or she has an advantage in leading Millennials.

2. Patience - This trait appears to be more uncommon by the day.  Millennials have matured in a microwave world.  Data, entertainment, communication has always been at their fingertips primarily through their cell phone.  Patience has not been a common point in their collective lives.

The ingrained lack of patience means the leader of this impatient generation needs...patience.  Saint Augustine famously stated, "Patience is the companion of wisdom." How true.  The Millennial generation often pushes for expediency in their careers to the point where they leave companies after short tenures.  They believe they have acquired all of the skills they can from that company and their path to the CEO suite is unclear.

The modern-day leader has to maintain a steady hand with the Millennials.  The leader must manage the Millennials expectations and provide a growth path focused on skill development.  The key is to coach them to take measured steps forward.  Patience will provide progress.

Keep this in mind, by the year 2020, Millennials will make up approximately 75% of the workforce.  Their generation requires an evolving leadership style better suited to the Millennial mindset.  Two traits, empathy and patience, will be in growing demand each year.  The leaders with the ability to adapt will successfully harness the energy of this new generation.

10 Traits of Creative Leaders

Creativity is a rare talent in leaders today.

The modern-day pressure to increase productivity, I believe, has put a burden on leaders that has neutralized their natural creative abilities.  Creativity takes time, thought, risk, perseverance and resources.  You can see where this cuts against the role of many leaders today where profitability, speed, and efficiency are valued over pace-oriented traits.

This article from Monster.com quotes 10 qualities of creative leaders.  The source is David Ogilvy, one of the original Mad Men:

1. High standards of personal ethics.

2. Big people, without pettiness.

3. Guts under pressure, resilience in defeat.

4. Brilliant brains — not safe plodders.

5. A capacity for hard work and midnight oil.

6. Charisma — charm and persuasiveness.

7. A streak of unorthodoxy — creative innovators.

8. The courage to make tough decisions.

9. Inspiring enthusiasts — with trust and gusto.

10. A sense of humor.

Notice how his list contains elements of courage in multiple qualities?  I couldn’t agree more with his list and especially this need for courage.  Creativity usually requires some form of going against the grain.  Many leaders simply avoid upsetting the status quo or longstanding sacred cows within an organization.  I find that reluctance all-too-common...and disappointing.

I’ll leave you with some sage advice directly from the author of the article:

“Creative leadership makes your job more meaningful and gives you visibility. Do something small at first – deliver a project early, come up with alternative courses of action, and whenever possible deliver unexpected added value. A bit of qualitative research or sentiment analysis (collecting comments made on forums or social media) is a good example of providing new perspectives that lead to new solutions.”

10 Characteristics of a Leader

Photo by David Dibert from Pexels

These are the 10 according to Selling Power:

1.)  Be courageous.

2.)  Think big.

3.)  Master change.

4.)  Be ethical.

5.)  Have a sense of humor.

6.)  Be persistent and realistic.

7.)  Be positive and hopeful.

8.)  Accept power and use it wisely.

9.)  Make decisions.

10.)  Be committed.

A solid list for sure.  I have to call out the description for “Think big.”:

“Great leaders are curious, eager to create new things, and able to bring out the best in others.  They have an ability to see the big picture and work toward making that picture a reality.”

If you want to call out 3 qualities for a strong leader, you would have a good start with curious, creative and inspiring.

What is Your Leadership Style?

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels

We help CRO's and other leaders understand their leadership style.  This knowledge helps optimize communication with their team, develop their emotional intelligence and leverage their natural strengths.

Harvard Business Review provides a short look at some general leadership styles.  You can take a quick quiz on this page to determine your style.  The selections are these:

COLLABORATOR: empathetic, team-building, talent-spotting, coaching oriented
ENERGIZER: charismatic, inspiring, connects emotionally, provides meaning
PILOT: strategic, visionary, adroit at managing complexity, open to input, team oriented
PROVIDER: action oriented, confident in own path or methodology, loyal to colleagues, driven to provide for others
HARMONIZER: reliable, quality-driven, execution-focused, creates positive and stable environments, inspires loyalty
FORECASTER: learning oriented, deeply knowledgeable, visionary, cautious in decision making
PRODUCER: task focused, results oriented, linear thinker, loyal to tradition
COMPOSER: independent, creative, problem solving, decisive, self-reliant

An important pull quote from the test:

But far more often we find that success depends on the hows — specifically, how leaders’ styles mesh with their teams and organizational cultures.

Very true. 

10 Rules for Losing in Business

1. Quit Taking Risks!

2. Be Content!

3. Always ask yourself “What would the founder have done?”

4. Rely totally on research and experts to make decisions for you.

5. If you want to lose, be inflexible.

6. Concentrate on your competitor instead of your customer.

7. Put yourself first.

8. Administrative concerns take precedence over all others.

9. Look to someone else to do your thinking for you.

10. Memorize the motto, “That’s good enough.”

-Donald R. Keough, President, Coca-Cola, Inc.

The Danger of Complete Agreement

From the Harvard Business Review (emphasis mine):

“Team leaders want to nurture creativity. That’s why team building is often a high priority, because cohesion is supposed to help team members work together to achieve their goals. But you should avoid fostering too much cohesion. When it comes to creativity, the best teams fight a little (or even a lot). Structured, task-oriented conflict means that new ideas are being submitted to the group and tested. If your team always agrees, that might mean people are self-censoring their ideas or not generating any new ideas at all. Research suggests that when teams forgo traditional brainstorming rules and engage in debate, they end up with more and better ideas. As a leader, it may seem like your job is to break up fights, but don’t be afraid to act as a referee instead. Allow disagreements over ideas to unfold, while making sure it stays fair and doesn’t get personal.“

How true.  If your sales team is always in agreement, it is probable that you have either assembled a group cloned after yourself or you are overly domineering and no one wants to challenge any idea.  Either one is detrimental and definitely needs to be addressed (i.e. corrected).

If you have a group that you cloned after your own style and strengths, you are dealing with a group weakness effect whether you are aware of it or not.  Although you have strength in certain areas, other areas can be complete blind spots.  The problem with blind spots is that markets move, and if they move into one of your group blind spots, you will lose market share quickly.  The strongest teams we assess have a variety of styles and strengths which provide a well-rounded group skill set.  These teams are more difficult to lead and they often debate, but therein lies their strength.

If you are domineering, that is a different issue requiring a behavior change (no small feat).  The first step is to know you are overpowering some, or all, of your team.  As the article states, you should view yourself more as the referee and less of the active player.  A thoughtful pause, a question for others’ input, deflecting to the group…these are all approaches that will help empower your people to be more creative.

Execution Isn't The Problem

Our RoundTable program is totally results-focused meaning our executive membership knows the leadership road to results is always a combination of 3 components – Leadership, Strategy and Execution.

Many times we observe non-member leadership putting all their performance shortfalls on execution. More successful executives have learned that where the problem appears is not always where the problem exists. Our members say it best – culture eats strategy for lunch every day. When culture and strategy are not aligned (a core leadership responsibility) execution becomes an intermittent compromise at best…and terminally toxic at worst.

Leadership and Strategy exist inside the business – execution takes those “assets” outside to your market. That’s how it works so be careful not to define results as solely an execution issue.

5 Brutal Leadership Comments

Whatever you do, avoid these statements.

After decades of working with companies to improve their revenue performance, we have heard a litany of comments from leadership teams that will cause any engaged employee (or outside resource) to urgently start the quest for another opportunity.

The 5 most atrocious are:

1. The only job the sales department has is to keep manufacturing running at 90+% capacity.
2. Customers would be “stupid” not to buy this.
3. Forecasting should only happen after sales writes the order.
4. Sales needs to find smarter customers.
5. If we have to downsize, sales will be the first to go.

If you encounter one of these…Good Luck!
Regarding your next opportunity – contact us and we will connect you with one of our CRO RoundTable member companies.

Revenue-savvy leadership is never a commodity.

Analog vs Digital - the Contrast of Operations vs. Sales

The gap between operations and sales in organizations is always obvious and can be explained by their respective measurement cultures.

In operations, improving a process from 93.4% successful performance to 93.9% can be cause for an over the top celebration. Even improving it to 93.5% confirms positive progress is being made and everyone gets knuckles for their positive efforts. If the number drops to 93.2%, everyone goes into do-over mode to drive the process % higher. The model is totally analog in terms of everyone’s focus on evolving improvements.

In sales, there are no 93.5% orders. Orders are binary outcomes meaning you win or lose (commission plan gets a 1 or 0 multiplier). Everyone with a 0 multiplier finished “second” and there are NO do-overs. This fundamental measurement (and celebration) difference requires totally different employee profiles and leadership cultures to perform successfully. What works inside never works outside – the circuitry is wrong…it is that simple.

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If you would like to learn how the RoundTable can help you win in the digital world of sales, please consider attending one of our upcoming briefings.

Why Do Executives Join Peer Groups?

After 6+ years of interviewing candidates for the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Executive RoundTable, the primary business reason most join is clear – Leaders listen to employees and experts but believe peers.

Leaders know they have to make good decisions for their business to prosper and grow. Most have 3 primary sources of input:

Direct Reports – employees have good tactical knowledge about the business today but typically have limited bandwidth regarding growth possibilities on the horizon.

Outside Experts – experts bring knowledge, but applicability is always a “fear of discovery” concern.

Peers – experience brings the “been there, done that” tribal knowledge of how the real world works…and they don’t work for you or want to sell you anything. That is the core reason why executives value a peer group membership.

CRO Executive RoundTable – we help members take the guesswork out of growth options and revenue strategies.