Bootstrap Leadership Blog

As you know, business today is extremely competitive. In order to survive, you need to know the language of business, which is filled with unique terms and phrases that you need to learn if you want to join the conversation. So let's take a moment to work on your development, shall we? Let's spend some time helping you to continuously improve, and get creative about how you add value. What follows is my advice, my counsel, my mentoring around learning the language of business.

A word of caution though - I can explain this to you, but I can't understand it for you... you have to take responsibility, exude accountability and dedicate yourself to execution, or you'll fall short of the goal. And that would be bad, as you'd be missing the mark and under-performing, and we might have to have a difficult conversation, take action, put you on a plan, manage you out or help you transition out of your role. That is if we don't reassign you or put you into redeployment, or reassess your contribution. You have to understand, we're just managing our resources, so we can maximize our human capital and capitalize on our revenue and growth opportunities. So don't assume that you're not looking at this the right way. I'm just offering a competing point of view, looking through a different lens, and trying to work backwards from the answer.

At the end of the day, you need to get aligned on the language of your company. You need to capture the synergies and strive for outperformance when you engage in the dialog. Be sure to calibrate yourself, and manage expectations, because others are looking to streamline your feedback and achieve a paradigm shift. If you can offer alternatives, and provide some perspective, others can focus on results, think outside the box, and produce some early wins. Be sure to manage conflict, however, or people will lose work-life balance, and that will not be a measure of success that you'll cite as a best practice. How can you innovate, on time and on budget, to produce the strategic thinking that others will utilize to produce project outcomes that will have clear metrics that demonstrate a win-win for everyone?

Last time I checked, learning to talk "corporate" boosts your executive presence, demonstrates that you're buttoned up, and sends a clear message that you are looking for a competitive advantage. If we were to plot you on a nine-box, we'd see that you've been achieving your potential, and working off the side of your desk to create a deck that reveals a rigorous burning platform. You're in sync with the culture, and understand that how you speak has everything to do with motivating, empowering, and engaging your people. It's not just about coaching others to take their game to the next level, it's about extending your own mojo beyond your sphere of influence, so you can help others get out of their comfort zone and step up to operationalize their unique contribution.

There is a lot of synergy to be gained by collaborating with your teammates on a common language - who knows, you might even win the war for talent in the process. You'd better understand the international landscape, however, or you'll miss an opportunity to beat the competition with a business model that builds customer loyalty and increases your brand and global footprint. In the end, it's about bringing others with you and investing in your people, who, after all, are you most important asset. It's about building a pyramid of focus that is unmatched by those who might seek to copy your position or outflank you in the court of public opinion. It's about winning in the marketplace, being # 1 or # 2 in your industry, and making it all about the customer.

It's not about you, it's about the language. So get with the program, start driving for results, and be a team player. It's funny, because when it's all said and done, more is said than done. And what's not to like about that?

There was a great article in the Harvard Business Review recently on millennials (people born between 1977 and 1997) and what they want from an employer and a manager.  In 2014, millennials will account for almost 50% of all employees in the world.  Think about that for a minute… pretty amazing, huh?   As the HBR article pointed out, in some companies they already constitute a majority.  As a people manager, are you ready for this wave?

Millennials are famous for wanting a constant stream of feedback, and for being in a hurry to have success.  They also view work as just a part of life, something to be balanced with the rest of their passions.  As a result, they place a lot of value on finding work that is fulfilling.  HBR polled 2,200 professionals across a wide range of industries to ask them about their values, their behavior at work, and what they want from their employers.  Here are some of the results:

What millennials want from their boss:   

•  Help me navigate my career path
•  Give me straight feedback
•  Mentor and coach me
•  Sponsor me for formal development programs
•  Be comfortable with flexible schedules

 What millennials want from their company: 

•  Develop my skills for the future
•  Demonstrate strong corporate values
•  Offer customizable options in my benefits/reward package
•  Allow me to blend work w/ the rest of my life
•  Offer a clear career path

 What millennials most want to learn: 

•  Technical skills in their area of expertise
•  Self-management and personal productivity
•  Leadership skills
•  Industry or functional knowledge
•  Creativity and innovation strategies

What do you make of these lists?  I think the first two look a bit different than they probably did 30 years ago… but that last one seems pretty timeless.  Maybe managing millennials isn’t that hard after all… I’m guessing the classic management tips still apply:     1) Get to know your people – find out what really motivates them; 2) provide lots of candid feedback about their performance; 3) challenge and stretch them; 4) engage them in the process – ask for their input, and 5) help them get exposure across the organization.

If you’re managing millennials, I’d love to hear from you – what’s it like?  Are you finding these survey results to be true?  Are they easier or more challenging to manage than other employees?  Pretty soon, millennials will be the workforce.  I wonder what that will mean for employers, and for the millennials themselves, when they become management?

This just in – leadership matters. It’s true in all walks of life, but especially true in the business world. You can’t browse the internet or pick up a paper or business magazine without reading about the power of positive leadership. And everyone wants more if it. Executive search firms have never been busier trying to fill the demand for leadership talent. Every year, the top consulting firms and Fortune 500 companies line up to grab MBA talent from the best business schools. Great leaders demand a premium on the open market, as they seek to find the right environment to apply their skills. 

If you are a business executive, you face a number of critical challenges to building a successful organization. However, of all the variables that impact your company, one stands out as the single best indicator of your success – the quality of your leaders.   By now, it’s accepted that a company’s human capital is its best single asset. If this is true, then leadership is certainly the key ingredient that powers this asset; you simply can’t become a great company without great leaders. And in today’s competitive environment, you need leaders at all levels of your organization to spark innovation, drive productivity, and motivate and empower employees. Having the right leaders also makes a substantial impact on key customers and business partners. In fact, great leaders have been proven to be significantly more effective than average leaders in every way – from producing revenue and profits to driving customer satisfaction and employee commitment (Zenger & Folkman, 2002).

As a business executive, leadership needs to be one of your top priorities. You need to insist upon and support the right processes. You need to make sure you’re being rigorous, fair, and well-grounded in your assessment of leadership talent. Finally, you need to demonstrate a passion for growing leaders, and make it known that you consider it every manager’s job to help develop the next generation of leaders.  

In the weeks and months to come, we'll explore the characteristics that great leaders share, examine specific examples where leaders are making a difference, and offer suggestions for how you can take your leadership game to a new level.  Leadership most definitely matters, and you owe it to yourself (and your team) to continuously improve as a leader.  Make a commitment to your own development by book-marking and visiting this post on a regular basis.  Its up to you to create your own leadership style and improve your impact as a leader.