Five thoughts on leadership

Last year I was appointed to a national leadership role for a niche technology-driven solution set at my Firm.  This marked a career first for me and dovetailed nicely with the final stages of my application to the MBA program at Columbia Business School; and as it is an area in which I maintain a high degree of technical proficiency, it was also a great career fit.  The period that has followed has been one of remarkable personal growth and unexpected challenges.  As I reflect on what our team has accomplished and the tremendous opportunities ahead of us, I can distill much of it down to five pearls of wisdom which I attempt to use as guiding beacons each day.

     1.  Integrity and execution define your professional value – Think about an unscrupulous executive who exceeds his numbers by 55%, but only at the price of leaving behind a trail of dead bodies and mountains of shredded trust.  Or to the contrary, imagine the most sincere, kind, analytical thinker who – out of “analysis paralysis” or the fear of even slightly offending – is simply incapable of driving urgently needed change.  More so than perhaps any other two attributes, it is the balance of your personal integrity and your capability to execute which drives your professional value to any organization.  Lack either and you will quickly lose the confidence of your customers and your team.

    2.  Good memories are fleeting; negatives ones, nearly eternal – It takes continuous hard work to cultivate and sustain trust, but precious little time to eradicate it.  Many years of delivering exceptional, above-and-beyond service to a key customer may wash away like seashells at high tide by one failed project or one critical deliverable of poor quality.  See the above point regarding integrity and execution.  I’ve found a key barometer of the effectiveness of senior leadership in this regard is whether quality controls in an organization are more attuned to senseless internal bureaucracy and bare compliance with regulatory standards, or are focused instead on seamlessly and consistently delivering a delightful customer experience.

     3.  Adopt a “buck stops here” mentality – even if the buck doesn’t – Unless your job title includes the word “chief” and you have a seat on the executive committee of your company, it is unlikely that the buck truly stops with you when it comes to decision-making and service delivery.  And even the most powerful chief executives can’t control factors such as the weather or mechanical failure which may have an adverse impact on customer service.  However, this does not – and should not – prevent you from going above and beyond, from getting your hands dirty, and from being highly creative to ensure that the areas under your responsibility operate as a well-oiled machine.  While in undergraduate, I briefly worked in inbound telemarketing as a call center representative (a great job for college students, by the way.)  It always amazed me how many of my fellow reps would seemingly go out of their way to avoid helping a customer if the needed solution required even an iota of “above and beyond” exertion.  We have all had the experience of dealing with people in customer service who seem to believe that we, as customers, should be thankful to have the privilege of a few minutes of their time.  Have those interactions ever made you want to continue to patronize an establishment?

     4.  You’re (almost certainly) not as good of a communicator as you think – For as long as I can remember – going back to winning public speech competitions well before turning 10 – I’ve had a certain way with words.  I’m bilingual, my qualitative scores on standardized tests such as the SAT and GMAT have always hovered in the 95 – 99^th percentiles, and people often say that my regionally neutral American baritone would be well-suited for radio.  And yet, I have an incredibly long journey to complete before I will be able to truly communicate at the level of a polished corporate executive.  When I first started as a consultant fresh out of undergrad, this came as a bit of harsh news to me.  I contrived every sort of excuse imaginable (“…people have short attention spans and aren’t listening to me!...”) to explain why my messages often did not go over as well as I thought they would.  The simple reality was that I had much to learn:  how effective listening is the key to effective speaking; the critical importance of nonverbal communication; the subtleties of context only observable by wise eyes; and on and on.  I keep those lessons close to heart today when communicating with my key stakeholders, whether internal team members or clients.

      5.  Your inner circle will drive or destroy your success – How solid are your relationships with the people one level above and below you on the org chart?  One of the first lessons any individual promoted into a management position quickly learns is that the cohesion and operating effectiveness of your inner circle is possibly the single biggest determinant of your overall success from an operational standpoint.  Studies of management and organizational effectiveness have demonstrated that as one becomes more senior in an organization and acquires increasing levels of responsibility, one’s core network tends to “shrink” around an extremely close knit coterie of key teammates, even if one’s overall network will likely broaden (think of the classic “White House bubble” lamented by many different Presidents.)  When I look at the success that our team has achieved over the last year, I can honestly say that none of it would have been possible without a few dedicated, superbly qualified individuals with a talent and a passion for delivering exceptional client service.  I cannot overemphasize the value of those individuals to my own continued career success; the time spent engaging them in conversation, learning from them, and coaching them is among the most valuable real estate on my calendar.  

Note:  The opinions expressed in this and all Bizteck articles are exclusively those of the author and do not express any implicit or explicit endorsement by any of his current or previous employers.