The Leadership Journey

Leadership is not easy. Anyone who thinks it is has most likely not been a “true” leader. What defines a true leader? Leadership is about inspiration. Real leaders will inspire people from within to take a journey – whatever the journey may be. If you are forcing people down a given road then you are not leading or inspiring, you are in fact ramming people in a specific direction. It doesn’t matter what your direction is, if you don’t inspire people and enable them to understand why the journey needs to be take and the value of the journey then you will most likely receive resistance, will not have company loyalty and probably won’t achieve your goals and vision.

Leadership starts at the top – with you! You have to walk the talk. If you change your company dress code from casual to business casual and you continue to show up in jeans while expecting your employees to show-up in slacks and jacket, well you see where I am going here. To inspire others you must be inspired yourself. What does it take to inspire someone? When we go down a path, take a journey, typically they are challenging. They should be. To inspire someone they need to realize and believe that where you are going, something that potentially seemed impossible is in fact very possible. If people believe in you and where you are going, they will follow. They will be great mentees and you a great mentor – which is how it should be.

All of us should think about our leadership skills and consider what we can do to improve them (as there is always room for improvement). Yes, leadership is hard but it is really fun too, especially when you have great team behind you believing in you and the journey that you are taking them on. Get yourself inspired and then inspire others.

Here are a few fun questions you can answer for yourself about leadership.

1. What gives you the greatest joy in being a leader?
2. What is your biggest pet peeve as a leader?
3. Who made the biggest influence in your life as a leader?
4. What books have changed your life?
5. What's your biggest challenge as a leader?
6. What goals do you have as a leader?
7. Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Managing Your Way to More Effective Meetings

Meetings are integral to business. Whether you are running a meeting or participating in a meeting, there are things that all of us can do to improve the overall success of every meeting. So, today’s post is some simple tips and tricks to make your meetings more effective.

First and foremost, do you need to hold a meeting? Meetings cost time and money, both of which are valuable. Hold meetings only when necessary, and ensure that they are concise and constructive. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Is the purpose of the meeting clear to everyone?
• Does everyone need to attend the entire meeting?
• Is there a better way of addressing the issues than having a meeting?
• Are there other people who do not usually attend your meetings who might make a useful contribution this time?
• Will the meeting benefit from the use of any visual aids?

Once you’ve answered the above questions then you can decide what kind of meeting you need. Is it an informal meeting, more formal, a 1-1 meeting, etc.? And of course, don’t forget the logistics. In this day and age it is not uncommon to have people conference in or even have a video link of some form. Don’t forget to make sure you remote attendees feel like they are part of the meeting.

The next two tips are near and dear to my heart. Have an agenda and set the time and stick to it. There is nothing worse than having meeting times not honored. Here is a format you might want to use for setting your meeting agenda‘s –

Purpose: describe the purpose of the meeting. Be as specific as you can.

Agenda: describe the agenda. Again, be specific. Sometimes it makes sense to put time blocks by each agenda item, as well as the presenter, if appropriate.

Logistics: this defines where the meeting will be held, what time, conference call-in and video link information as well as reminders to turn off cell phones, etc.

Outcome: this describes what you want to have occur by the end of the meeting. It might be a decision, a set of steps to move something forward, etc. Again, you want people to leave the meeting with a sense of accomplishment. This will also keep people focused on the agenda at hand as it should be all about obtaining the outcome.

As for meeting times, well, set them and honor them. If you have an hour meeting then your agenda needs to be realistic as to what you can cover in an hour.

And last but not least, here are two other quick tips if you are running the meeting.

• If you are running the meeting, then you need to actively listen to others, facilitate the meeting and not talk throughout the entire meeting. You should be taking notes during the meeting which can be disseminated, if appropriate, after the meeting. Most people don’t enjoy meetings where the organizer dominates the conversation.
• When action items are assigned, they need to be S.M.A.R.T –
  
  

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Resourced
Time-bound

For every action/activity that the meeting attendees feel need to happen, you need to make sure that there the action is clearly defined and measurable, has an owner responsible for it and has a due date. If your actions aren’t S.M.A.R.T they likely won’t get done on time.

There are many books written on effective meetings but these few simple tips will go a long way to improving the overall effectiveness of meetings within you r organization. In short, prepare for the meeting, hold the meeting, and then follow-up by sending out the minutes and making sure people are clear on their actions. If another meeting is required, you may want to think about scheduling it while everyone is there in the room with their calendars in front of them!

Let me know how this helps you save meeting time and money.

Taking Care of the Customer During Business Growth

I just had a great customer service experience. A company that I have been doing business with for a few years made a mistake in an order they sent me. What they sent and what I ordered were not only different but I ended up on the short end of the stick from a dollar perspective. So I called the company to find out what could be done.

What did the company do? Well, here is what they did:

• They apologized for the error.

• They acknowledged that I was on the short end financially and that I didn’t receive what I ordered.

• They credited my account for the different in price AND they sent out what I actually ordered at no charge.

• Then they apologized again and confessed to having some problems in the packing area due to having added an additional employee.

Now, do I care why they are having the problem? Not really but ... On one hand, I just want my order shipped properly and on time. I really don’t care much about the internal workings of the company. With that said, I can also tell you that having the company tell me that they have been experiencing growing pains and that they were committed to maintaining quality and keeping their customers happy as they grow was good to hear.

Often as companies grow they lose many of the qualities and traits that make them special in the first place. Should the company have taken all of the steps they did to make me “whole”? Yes, of course! Actually, I would have been happy with having them make up the financial difference. So, I was even more satisfied and committed to the company when they said to keep what was sent and that they would ship out what I actually ordered.

What do you do to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty, particularly when there is an issue? Sometimes all it takes is one mistake and you have lost a customer for life. The cost to make them “happy” is typically much less then the lifelong income generated from that customer, plus the referrals. Sometimes saying “I’m sorry” isn’t enough. Whatever you do, make it easy for the customer and make sure that at the end of the conversation the customer feels good about what you have done to take care of them.

So what are you going to do to improve your customer service, particularly as you grow your business?