LEADERSHIP CAN NOT BE TAUGHT, LEARNED, OR IMITATED…..OR CAN IT?

Do I have your attention? I had the priviledge of having a very thought provoking and insightful speaker on leadership to my CEO, Executive Groups. He made the above statement….what do you think?

If it can’t be taught, learned, or imitated……then what? It must be DEVELOPED.

Not just semantics here....meaning that you, as the CEO must develop your own leadership agenda. Put it to writing and create an Intentional Culture. Develop your style of leadership….you can not copy mine. Figure out who and what you are and what type of leadership culture do you want.

If you are the Quarterback of the team…the leader…you must run the plays. I can coach or guide you and put you through exercises but YOU have to develop the play. You have to execute and create your style of leadership.

You can read more about this at: www.logistyle.com by Balaji Krishnamurthy, PhD.

Challenge yourself, it could pay big dividends.

THE POWER OF PERCEPTION

Is it what we see or what we believe....to be true? So how do you make a purchase decision? How does your customer or prospect make a decision?
Do you understand the power of perception? The mind is a strong and powerful organ which influences the way we think, what we believe, and how we act. Even if it is not really true.

Beliefs drive our attitudes.....attitudes drive our behaviors.....and behaviors drive our actions. Influence or change the beliefs and you can change the resulting actions. Remember the Coke formula change in the mid 1980's? The company performed thousands of consumer taste tests (yes they were blind tests....taste product A vs product B and which do you prefer?) One product was the new formula, the other was the existing formula. The new product beat the existing by a significant margin in the blind test. Now advance the clock....Coke rolled out the new flavor, replaced the existing and of course it was no longer a blind test.....it was in a new package called "New Coke."

Well, the results are now a business case study. The consumer was outraged and flooded the 800 lines with complaints. But why? They preferred the new flavor, on a blind basis. What was going on? Coke found the answer quickly.....this was about emotions....about perceptions....not about the taste. How could you take away the product I grew up with? Said the consumer. Coke brought back the original....called it Classic Coke....and the market share increased. How's that for the POWER of PERCEPTION!!!

So the lesson for you.....how can you tune in to the perceptions of your audience? Not just to do a simple test. But what are they thinking and feeling? Not so easy to do but very valuable in the end.

Entering Leadership? How must your perspective change?

Entering Leadership? How must your perspective change?

I recently viewed a video from legendary GE CEO Jack Welch. It was actually from his last management meeting upon retiring from GE. He was offering some valuable insights for his leadership team as they approach the future.

One powerful section talked about entering “leadership.” How must your perspective change? Think about your own career. On the way up, you are totally focused on yourself and achieving certain performance goals or standards. Then you are promoted into a position of management and now leading a group of people. So what is different?

You must change your focus from you!! You no longer can do everything. Your focus needs to be about them, now!! Your team, the development of your people.....accomplishing things through others. In sports terms....you are moving from the star player to the Coach. Your role is very different.

If you want to hear Welch’s comments go to YouTube and search “Jack Welch final meeting” or click here http://bit.ly/eArcHW

There’s also an interesting interview of the CEO of TheLadders.com that deals with similar insights as he was moving up the leadership curve.

click here to read it http://nyti.ms/h09xQe

He talks about the focus on how to build your team and the importance of sharing the passion, the vision and direction of the firm.....spending more time on communicating the direction than telling everyone else the details of how they should be doing their jobs. Good advice.

So how are you spending your time? If you are the leader, what is your focus and direction with your firm? What should it be?

DON'T TRY TO PREDICT BEHAVIOR....OBSERVE YOUR AUDIENCE!!

Don't try to predict behavior....observe your audience


Why would we say this? Why not rely on your loyal employees to give you innovative ideas and suggestions. It certainly could be a good place to start….problem is that the longer they have been with your firm, the less objective they are. They have a tendency to take an inside view and believe that they know the customers …. right…. they can predict the desired future demands.

The great marketers know that better and more innovative ideas come directly from your audience….your prospects and your customers. You might be surprised and just have that light bulb go off with new product or service suggestions for your firm.

So how might you do this? Send a survey to your audience to find out their needs. Zoomerang is a good tool to use….driven by your email marketing lists. Include a post card in your next delivery of product to your customer….ask for their ideas. Find a good reason to have a phone conversation with some of your accounts…..see how they are doing….while you are on the line, ask them a few questions about future needs. Send out a message on Twitter….put out a question on Facebook or LinkedIn…see how your contacts might react. Better yet invite an account to lunch or breakfast and find out how you could serve them better. What else could you provide?

Try it….you just might like it and surprise yourself with some great new ideas to grow your business.

Fail often & quick.....then debrief to learn

The above is my first Cardinal Rule of Marketing. If you are not failing, it means that you're not trying many new things. And if you're not trying a lot of new things it's hard to generate a new product or service success.

I have found that the best marketing lessons are empirical. They are not often predicted or pre-planned. The key then becomes to figure ways to observe the behavior of our customers and not predict what they might do.

So how can this be done? At a reasonable cost? Start small....in a specific geography....or with one or two customers who are willing to work with you. Introduce your new product or service with that customer and follow up to observe the results. What's working....not working.....what needs to be changed?
Now take your learnings....revise the offering....and roll out on a broader basis.

Work this process, to get your organization comfortable with innovation. Test....observe....change.....retest......expand. It just may lead to success.
So happy failures......just do them quick and often!!

DON'T LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY....

DON'T LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY....WATCH WHAT THEY DO!!

In a recent Blog post I mentioned my Cardinal Rules of Marketing. The above was one of them. What does it mean? Does your audience lie to you?

Well it's hard to separate the truth from perceptions when you ask your audience questions. Why....because we are dealing with psychology. People say what they think is positively perceived especially in the presence of other users.

Years ago, as a Brand Mgr for Minute Maid Orange Juice I recall one of those frequently used focus groups. You know, when you ask a collection of your users what beverages do they buy for their kids? In a group, they said "I only serve orange juice or apple juice to my kids." Of course, that is nutritional and they would be perceived as a good mother, right?

Very interesting, however....when you watch what they do, a very different picture emerges. Ask them to open up their pantry to you and you find 8 packages of Coke to 2 packages of juice!! But how can this be? Not what they told you.

So what's the lesson for you? Make sure your marketing and sales people become more skilled at observing behavior than listening to the psychological answers. Look for opportunities to watch what your customer is doing.....with your product/service or your competitors. Learn from their behavior.....it is more accurate.

CARDINAL RULES OF MARKETING

Based on many years of developing, introducing, new products and services....I have been recently asked "What would be your Cardinal Rules of Marketing?"

I thought that was an interesting question and got me thinking about various insights from the real world of marketing. So shown below is my list....enjoy...see how many might apply to you.


BRODY’S CARDINAL RULES OF MARKETING


- fail often & quick.....then debrief to learn

- don't listen to what people say.....watch what they do & buy

- don't try to predict behavior....observe your audience

- don't roll out new products/services....perform limited tests, first

- with fierce competition, you can't afford to wait to get things 95% right......get it 70% - 80% then start selling somewhere & tweek it as you go

- perception is reality.....find out what's in their mind

- people don't buy based on price ......think Starbucks

- to innovate....get out of your office

- prospects often don't know what they want.....give them options to choose

- narrow your focus.....be black or white....not grey

- all of marketing is about segmentation.....don't try to be all things to all people

- prospects don't want to be sold today......provide information & market intelligence for them to buy

- everyone in your firm can influence & effect your brand presence.....constantly guard & polish it

- don't do mother-in-law research....does any grandparent have an ugly baby? Ask your customers & prospects for feedback....several times per year