CEO | No Smoke and Mirrors

Mentor Moment #2: You don’t have to be a Prick -Ly person, to become a leader

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Technorati Tags: leadership,market leadership,goals,objectives,christian leader

I see it way too often, particularly in young managers who never had a mentor; they think you have to be a Prick -ly person to get ahead in this world. Somewhere along the way they learned you have to be nasty and intimidating to win..

I am embarrassed to admit I too went through this phase. I am not sure if it was my wrong perception of what leadership was or a low emotional intelligence at the time, but I was a difficult person to work for when I was in my late 20’s. I felt the end justified the means, and the most expedient way to tackle the goals before me was to focus on execution with little if any regard or appreciation for the relationship with those I was working with. This is a very lonely way to live, and I am thankful to Jim, who one day pulled me aside and said “you need to change, I love the results and the growth, but my company can no longer tolerate the way you achieve them.” He rocked my world that day.

So I set out to learn how to lead people. I studied great leaders, read books, attended seminars and I hired a coach to hold me accountable. What I found was great leaders all had three things they demonstrated. They were;

Firm

Fair

Consistent

They gave equal weight to the relationship with others and the execution of objectives

My quest to learn about how to serve teams instead of drive them led me to becoming a Christian. I had tried everything else, but only giving myself to Jesus gave me the new heart I so desperately looking for .Over the years the Lord has given me a new heart, and has taught me many principles I use in my work each day like;

“Hate the sin, but love the sinner”

Now, when I bump into people who feel they gain power by pushing others down versus lifting them up, I feel sorry for them, and pray for them. For I know that lonely feeling when you are driving home, or on an airplane, regretting how you just treated someone. I wrote in my post:The leadership “Quiver” for driving change “When you use the discipline arrow it takes the least amount of skill. This is the only arrow that also pains me upon release as it means I failed to find the “why” behind someone is not getting on board with changes.” I also found the quote: “be careful how you treat those on the way up as those are the same folks you will see on the way down” to be very true.

Do you work for a Prick -ly person?

Are you a Prick -ly person?

How’s that working for you? Your team? …really?

If you worked with or for me in those days, I have tried to find all of you and apologize. I also ask your forgiveness in my use of “ Prick -ly” as it is my goal this is read by those who may be struggling working with someone as well as hopefully found by those who have the wrong understanding of leadership.

Mentor Moment #1: Don’t let them know where you tie your Goat

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Leader to leader, I want to share some key advice; do not let those you serve know where you tie your goat. You may say; “Well I’m not a leader…” Well I need to challenge you, are you a parent, do you have associates that come to you for advice? As I wrote in the Leadership two steps, if you have followers, I hate to tell you, you are a leader.

Just recently I had a friend say “Mark, don’t let them know where you tie your goat” I thought this was a very clever way of sharing a pearl of wisdom I heard lived long ago. Over the years you learn not to let customers , bosses, peers and employees know how to get your goat. If you fail to do so, the people you work with, will work you.

So what happens when someone gets your goat? For me, an inner anger burns and the minute it starts I am limited. My Creativity, my problem solving skills, my leadership ability, and my communication choices suffer. The key is to not let them know where you tie your goat(s).

For example, one of my goats is tied to those who bully others that are defenseless. (I realize I am not following my own advice here by letting you know) It has always driven me nuts when someone in a perceived position of power treats those with perceived less power wrong. When I was helping one company, the CFO learned where I tied this goat. So when I was challenging something he felt was his silo, his domain, he would verbally attack one of my team who was not present. At first I fell into the trap and this diversion tactic worked. However after seeing the pattern, I would quickly diffuse his attacks, table them for another a discussion and keep the meeting on point.

There are many mentor moments I have learned over the years. I will be sharing them over the next few weeks in my posts. Please share them with your team, and if you have the courage…share them with your leaders!

Do you have some mentor moments? Please share.

What Jimmy Buffet and Bruce Cockburn can teach Marketers about Nailing a Persona?

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While at the gym this morning I was listening to my iPod to take my mind off the workout. I guess I hit “shuffle” and in the middle of the upbeat songs I try to keep up with a song by Jimmy Buffet grabbed me. His song; “Pacing the cage” so intimately captured a feeling that so many leaders experience at some time, but more often when the supposedly “made it”.

Maybe it’s because today is my 48^th birthday and I am always a bit reflective on my birthday, but this song totally nailed my feelings, and the feelings of a number of the executives I have helped.

If you have not heard the song, below are to lyrics I downloaded from one of the song Lyric web sites for you.

by: Bruce Cockburn
Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it’s pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you’ve lived too long
Days drip slowly on the page
And You catch yourself
Pacing the cage
I’ve proven who I am so many times
The magnetic strip’s worn thin
And each time I was someone else
And everyone was taken in
Powers chatter in high places
Stir up eddies in the dust of rage
Set me to pacing the cage
[ Jimmy Buffett Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ] I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It’s as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you’ll wind up
Pacing the cage
Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can’t see what’s round the bend
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land
For the coming of the outbound stage
Pacing the cage
Pacing the cage

The way I feel and what I hear other executives share is our lives can be broken into three phases if you will;

Go get it

Don’t lose it

Give it away.

When I was in the “Go Get it” phase I was working 6-7 days a week, traveling 4-5 days per week, with 18 hour days. I thought it was about building wealth, about building safety for me and my family, but the truth was this time was about self justification and proving my metal. A bad choice as I reflect because lost so many memories with my young children and my wife while I was…on the road.

So you have moved up through the ranks, and now “you da man” and you have teams reporting to you. You still are full of the “piss and vinegar” that got you hear, but now you also focus on growing what you captured as well as protecting it in the “don’t lose it phase”. At some point you have a wakeup call moment, something that happens that makes you say “is this all there is?”

At that moment you have a wakeup call and realize all your focus, all your driving for success is kind of a hollow victory. Some of the worst times in my career were when I achieved a goal early. (Now what?) Sometimes I hear executives say it happens when they are sitting quietly at their big desk when everyone has gone home for the night, and they realize they just missed their daughter’s musical recital.

Then we move into “Give it away” in which success becomes second to significance. In this phase, the phase I am in now, we want to not just “kick ass and take names” but we want significance, we want to make a difference in this world and the lives of others. Studying the Word and becoming a Christ Follower has helped me in this phase more than I can share.

For me, I get much more joy in helping others than the thrill of the conquest I once had in my “Go get it” phase. Each morning before my feet hit the floor I pray “Lord, please help me to help someone today.”

If you are a marketer you need to intimately know your buyer. Jimmy Buffet does an amazing job of capturing an intimate understanding of a feeling a number of us feel. I recommend you buy this song and listen to it today.

My question: Do you have an understanding of your buyer’s that Bruce Cockburn had when he wrote this song?

Hit songs, like hit products happen when we intimately understand a buyer persona and their needs, and that takes work. But once you have it, and speak in that person’s voice you will experience explosive sales growth.

If you are in the go get or don’t loose them phase, make a conscious effort to focus on what really matters, what you will realize, often too late in the give it away phase. Put your family, friends and others intentionally into your schedule, and when you are with them, be with them 100%.

Is your leadership in a holding pattern while your team runs out of gas?

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At one point in my career I traveled a great deal spending four nights per week away from home. I lived in North Canton, Ohio so a number of my flights were small commuter airplanes to major hub cities. You learn to accept the slow baggage claim, fueling delays, and needing to run through the hub airport to make your connection. However one aggravation I never seemed to get used to was the plane going into a holding pattern as we approached the Akron Canton airport. If you fly a great deal as I did you know how long it should take to fly from Cincinnati or Charlotte, it was predictable. You know that a flight from Cincinnati should take just under an hour and when you notice you have been in the air for 80 minutes you become anxious. You look out the window and you can often see the runway lights, and then the moon, and the moon again, and again. Why? When will we land? I have flown this flight plan for years and now I do not know what to expect and I am getting frustrated. Eventually the pilot announces “we are cleared for landing, please put your tray tables up and your seats in an upright position…” and we land.

I had a phone conversation with a midlevel executive this week who was very frustrated and his emotion reminded me of the feelings I experienced when planes I was on went into holding patterns. He said that deals that the executives have historically signed are no longer being signed. His competitors are making a run at his key accounts, and management seems to be in a “holding pattern” not knowing what to do, so we are doing nothing.

When I wrote Attention leaders: Don’t look now but your lack of market knowledge is showing… I discussed how employees are more fearful now than ever before. They want to follow leaders they believe will lead their team out of this current situation and come out on the other side positioned to be a market leader. However I am hearing executive doubt in their leadership teams who have their business in a holding pattern. Employees, like me on my flight into the Akron airport are frustrated. They want to make decisions that add value however their leadership teams are stuck in a state of indecision. These mid level leaders just want to know the plan. (Or that there is a plan)

The Strategic Sourceror blog they discuss: Indecision is not an acceptable decision. The author points out “In every business decision situation, whether organizational, tactical, or strategic, there are two acceptable answers; Yes and No. Indecision is the cornerstone of faulty, short-sighted, C.Y.A. management philosophy. It’s the prized virtue of the mediocre and a tattered safety blanket for the incompetent.” Yet some large and small businesses are choosing to be in holding patterns today and their teams are growing more frustrated each day.

Why do you find leaders chose to be in a holding pattern? The above blog sites two main reasons;

There’s Not Enough Information

Happy Enough with the Status Quo

Next I went to the Bible, I was curious what advice it had regarding a lack of leadership and what could occur if a holding pattern lasts for too long…

“In the days with no King of Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes”

Judges 17:6

“When everyone does what is right in his own eyes, before long moral conditions sink”

Judges 19:25

If leaders choose not to lead, their teams will do what they feel is right. If left unchecked, employees doing what they feel is right will erode the core values of what’s left of your culture.

Indecision is a tool of the incompetent leader. Determine what you know. Do you know what you don’t know? Admit what you don’t know and put a plan in place to gain the knowledge you require. Your team is counting on you to take them out of this holding pattern and have a flight plan that leads to a future landing as a market leader.

Does your senior leadership team have your team in a holding pattern, a let’s wait and see, plan?

Have you experienced your company’s indecision hurting your relationship with loyal customers?

Do you find senior leaders or mid level managers with more indecision today? Why?

Is a holding pattern ever a safe strategy?

Is a bad decision worst than indecision?

Attention leaders: Don’t look now but your lack of market knowledge is showing…

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I had coffee with the president of a local business this week. A friend from church recommended he buy me a cup of coffee and chat. I seem to be meeting with a number of business leaders and owners these days that are struggling. Their businesses are in different industries yet they have common problems;

“My business is down, struggling, this economy is killing us. I have our team doing what we did in 93’, but this time it just isn’t working…”

As a leader in your business your entire team is watching you,looking to your leadership.What is new today is your team’s level of fear. Their 401k’s are down. They have many friends and others in their network now unemployed. Your team deals directly with your customers, and they hear their concerns about the economy. They feel the decrease in activity staging orders on the shipping dock. They prepare the financial statements for your leadership team meetings. They are trying to get extended terms from vendors. They are receiving the calls from vendors with past due balances. They are tracking your team’s key indicators more closely than ever before and they are wondering…

Will I lose my job?

Should I wait for the shoe to drop, or should I find something else? Should I work on my “plan B”? “Plan C”?

Do our leaders know what they are doing? Will their leadership take us out of this storm?

The good news is your team desperately wants to be led. They want to follow a leader who will quiet those inner fears. They want and need a leader to step up and set a course that pulls the company and them out of the current poor performance.

The common problem, regardless of industry that I hear is a lack of current market information to make good decisions. Media Post just released an article by David Koretz titled Cheating Your Way To The Bottom and he discussed how leaders must use facts to make good decisions .Leaders describe how they used to lead sales “back when they ran the North West region…” I am sure the strategies and supporting tactics they described worked back then,….but here’s the common problem:

The market and your buyers have changed. They have changed how they buy and how they shop for solutions to their problems. Yet the plan you are managing with corresponding activities is based on the buyer needs of the past.

Below is a summary of my recent meeting over coffee. By no means am I poking fun at this struggling leader nor minimizing the troubles he and his company are having. When I decided to start blogging as I stated in my about page it is my desire to discuss real issues.

So I started our meeting by asking;

“When you ran the North West region and realized so much growth, how did you come up with such good ideas?”

“Well I just knew what to do…it was easy, my customers told me what we needed to do and I went back to corporate and fought for them.”

And now you are corporate?

Yes,… I guess I am, hadn’t thought of it that way

Is anyone fighting for their customers right now and you are shutting them down?

Well yah…

What are they asking for?

You know sales guys…our prices are too high, our quality sucks, and if we would only change the product by adding one more feature….

When was the last time you were in the market, “belly to belly” so to speak with a customer? A user of what you sell?

It’s been a while, but I get weekly reports, and I talk to my sales guys, I feel I am up to date with what’s going on.

Really? What are they telling you about your customers and the problems they are experiencing?

The usual; business is down, no money to invest in their business, just trying to keep their heads above water…you know

Anything new they are struggling with they did not struggle with last year?

Not really, just that business is bad, and they want a lower price and extended terms, I think we have a pretty good handle on what’s going on

When you ran the North West, did you think your boss knew the market and your customers as you?

Well…no (he became noticeably uncomfortable)

I asked a more questions and we agreed he did not have current nor first hand data to answer my questions. Given the importance of turning this business around, we agreed we needed market data.

These conversations seem to have the same next steps…”get out from behind your desk and get into your market and understand it today. After two weeks of meeting with customers and users you will know what to do in today’s environment. You will have first hand, timely market data, and you will be able to make strategic, market driven decisions and provide the leadership your team desires.”

We agreed to meet again when he returns.

What happened next I did not expect, he smiled and said; “you know this would be fun, I have not been having much fun lately.”

How about you?

Are you leading a team?

When was the last time you were “belly to belly “with a customer? A user?

You have the ability to lead your team out of this current economic condition and emerge as a market leader once you have good market data.

(Have you ordered you plane tickets yet?)

Five questions a radio preacher asks to see if your business is heading in the wrong direction

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Each day I listen to a Christian radio station as I drive to lunch. It’s not unusual that a preacher is sharing and often I find myself parking my car and taking notes. Yesterday was no exception as Chuck Swindoll was sharing five questions to know if we as believers are headed in the wrong direction.

As I quickly grabbed some take out and returned to the office I thought how the wisdom he shared could help businesses who may be headed in the wrong direction. Below are his five questions shaped to apply to you and your business.

Do you find yourself fighting greater battles within than without?
Is there more attention on one versus the team? (kingdom building)
Do you feel you don’t need the Lord’s help in your business?
Are criticisms of your leadership and your business quickly dismissed versus taken seriously and respected?
Are consequences of sin are no longer feared? ( as a reminder, the definition of sin is “missing the mark”)

For a preacher who jokingly said he has a “face for radio” I find myself feeling very thankful for his sharing the wisdom found in the Bible. I find the Bible is an amazing resource of wisdom that can be applied instantly to circumstances we face as leaders in our business.

So how did you answer the above the above?

How is your team reacting to the challenges of today? Do they need to just STOP or are they “blame-storming?”

Do you find team members (you?) worried about how an individual may look versus the performance of your team?

Are you your own God? Is your ego preventing you from asking for the lord to bless you, your business, and your customers? (After all, EGO does stand for: Edging God Out) Are you counting on your gut and intuition?

How well does your senior leaders accept criticism and new ideas? How about you? Do you need to hire a Heretic?

Are you allowing bad behaviors that are not consistent with your team’s values? Are you allowing an “end justify the means” mentality?

All of this free business advice from the Bible and radio preacher? You bet!

You may want to check out his web site at Insight for Living, …who knows you too may find yourself parked in your car and taking notes at lunch time.

“Blame-storming” … a sign you work for a market “loser” not a “leader”

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Direct TV has launched a number of very creative TV ads that resonate with me. Over the weekend I saw a new commercial that caught my attention. The scene takes place around a board room table with what is perceived as a senior leadership team trying to figure out how to solve a business problem. Whoever led the creative for the development of this advertisement has spent time, as I have, serving in dysfunctional teams.

For example, one of their more recent TV ads depicts a senior management meeting and the CEO says “what should we do?” And one team member quickly says “we should have a Blame-storming session…I blame Eileen …”

Market “Losers” choose to blame team members verse understanding the problem. Years ago I had a wise business coach and mentor named Bill Clarke who would say “focus on the problem not the person Mark,.. Very rarely do people choose not to perform well (particularly if poor performance adversely affects their income),… people are not broken, processes are…” Market losers and losing teams look quickly for a fall guy, someone to blame so that whatever was just discovered does not attach to them. If Market Losers spent as much time focusing on the real “why” behind the problems they discovered, verse “piling on team members when they have made a mistake”, they would become market leaders and grow profitably.

What makes this commercial connect is I have been in the meetings in which one team member finds a problem in another team members area, and as opposed to constructively trying to help, they “throw the other team member under the bus.” (trust me , I have plenty of tread marks on my back, and will probably have many more in the future)In truly dysfunctional teams other managers pile on. After all if we are playing the blame-storm game, if the focus is on one of my peers then the odds are people will not find nor focus on my shortcomings. (we all have them)

Market” Leaders” are excited when they find problems as they view them as an opportunity to improve. Every uncovered problem is an opportunity to better serve your market through creating a process that overcomes the issue(s) you have discovered. Market leaders have developed a culture deeply rooted in trust, common values, and aligned around a cross functional goal.

Market “Leaders” seek out roadblocks to success and they rally team members to build processes that help their other team members win in the future. Market leading teams have real discussions about topics that matter as they know they are safe to share mistakes and ask for help. Market losers quickly learn to hide mistakes and blame others.

The blame –storm game adds no value to the organization. Those who focus on someone to blame take the easy way out. It takes little skill to find problems in business today. Market losers want to pile on and lead a lynch mob do so in fear that their shortcomings will be discovered. They focus the beam of attention on others in hopes of building their credibility and importance to the organization by pushing others down. Leaders know we gain power by helping team members identify broken processes and creating new procedures that lifts struggling team members up.

What kind of organization do you serve? Market leader or market loser?

Have you been the victim of “blame-storming”? Did it help?

How do you deal with coworkers who try to gain power by pushing others down?

Does your culture condone “we eat our young” behavior? How’s that working for you?

The Leadership “Two Step” … how well do you score?

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How do you know if you are an effective leader?

There are two quick steps to determine if you truly are a leader;

1. Check to see if you have willing followers

2. Take a look at the shadow you cast

The first one is pretty easy, and often very obvious if you take the time to look. Do you have people willingly following you? I say “willingly “because I am not referring to employees who do what they are asked to do, but team members who choose to follow you and believe in your vision. Guess what, if you do not have any followers…you’re not a leader and you can quit reading now.

So you have people following you, but are you effective as a leader? The second question may take a bit longer reflection time. I was taught early in my career that leaders must be intentional about the shadow they cast. Your shadow will speak volumes over what you say to your team. As a leader you must be intentional about the shadow you cast…after all EVERYONE is watching! Ineffective leaders do not walk the talk and are not aware and or do not care about the shadow they cast.

If we are to be intentional about the shadow we cast, what are some common characteristics of true leaders? Below are my top 10 favorite leadership characteristics;

1. They gain power through lifting others up, not by pushing them down

2. They focus on problems ( road blocks), not people

3. They delegate authority to team members closest to the problem

4. They ask what is best for the overall organization, not the CEO, owners or employees

5. They personally take ownership of risky strategies

6. They describe a clear destination and share the flight plan to get there with mile markers along the way

7. They do not delegate the “hard stuff”

8. They are accountable , they own their decisions and do not look for fall guys if things go wrong

9. They are humble

10. They focus on what’s working, verse what’s broken

How about you, what are some of the characteristics you look for in a leader?

What are some characteristics you see that you cannot work for?

Do you report to someone, what does their shadow look like relative to the above 10 characteristics?

Are you creating a symphony for your market?…or just noise?

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To create a symphony you need multiple instruments playing at strategic times to create something the audience enjoys. It require planning, practice, and integration. Each note played either adds to the total experience or takes away from it.

Marketing is like creating a symphony in that you use instruments like the web, direct, blogs, PR, creative, social media,copy, media, and so on at just the right time , based on the needs of the market and its buying process. The only way you can insure what is pleasurable and more importantly useful to your audience is to thoroughly understand the markets needs and wants while understanding what each instrument does. You do not make those decisions in a board room or a weekly staff meeting. Your team does not make them by guessing, assuming, or relying on: “when I was in the market we …” You make them in the market speaking with customers and noncustomers alike. You gather data through open ended questions and your personal observations.

Buyers have patterns, processes,personas, and accompanying emotions connected to pain points. People buy with emotion then validate their decision with facts. One big emotion is trust;” can I trust you will do what you said you will do? That your product or service will solve my unresolved problem like you said it will?” Your integrated marketing therefore needs to build trust.

So what are the rules for integrated marketing that sounds like a symphony and not just noise?

1. Know your market and its problems

2. Know your buyers buying process and buyer personas

3. Identify where your buyers go to solve their problems

4. Create content that explains how your product or service solves your buyers problems

5. When they find you, “serve” them don’t “sell” them

6. Build trust

7. Be authentic, transparent

8. People buy from people

9. Attach the value of solving their problem

10. Speak with a unique voice for each of your buyer personas

11. Create learning’s -Measure and track everything you do

12. Feed the market in spoonfuls and not a fire hose

Are your buyers hearing beautiful music when they view your integrated marketing campaigns? Or are they inundated with noise? I don’t know about you, but when I hear a noise that annoys me I tune it out, I switch the channel until I find music that resonates with me.

Are your marketing instruments creating noise and your buyers and those who could be buyers are tuning you out? Chances are you are not connecting to the market problems and you are using instruments that may have worked fine 15 years ago but need fine tuning.

What are some other ways that marketing becomes noise, and worst an annoyance to the market?

What are some recent examples of marketing noise?

Want to add value to your bottom-line quickly?…Hire a Heretic!

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In Art Kleiner’s book titled: The Age of Heretics , Kleiner‘s definition of a heretic as: “a visionary who creates change in large-scale companies balancing contrary truths they can’t deny against their loyalty to their organizations.”He discusses how managers get stuck into a rut and need heretics to point out new points of view to get past the deadlock and move forward. Later he describes some as “rebels unwilling to kowtow to the corporate bureaucracy.”

One example of a heretic (and there are many in the book) is Jack Welch who gained a reputation as he climbed the ladder at GE as “ignoring or pushing back against, the bureaucratic strictures of his parent corporation.”

In Art Petty’s recent post this week titled : Help Wanted: Visionaries and Dreamer-Safe Return Doubtful Art refers to individuals who create great works of art on a blank canvas, they run towards adventure instead of away from it. Art goes on to say how we should channel our inner-Shackleton,(after the leader and explorer Ernest Shackleton ) and provides four lessons that apply to the adventurers called Heretics today. It reminded me that some people are cut out for adventure and some are not.

Having played the role of heretic in most of the companies I have served, let me tell you what to expect if you have the guts to hire one. A heretic is someone who will not take the easy road agreeing with key influencers throughout your organization. Obviously if what your key influencers are saying and or doing is in alignment with market needs they will, but if they hear something that is inconsistent with the vision of the organization or market needs they will tell you. Team members may feel this is a lack of loyalty. However to the contrary a heretic is singularly focused and loyal to one objective and that is adding bottom-line value to the team he serves, to aligning the organization to win profitably in their market. They will tell the CEO for example that his recent directive to the troops is not in alignment with market needs nor the core values and mission of the organization. He will remind the CEO that the mission statement is as much about what you will not do as much as what you will focus on.

A heretic does not know, or more importantly does not care, your VP of Marketing is your sister in law. He does not know or care that your VP of Sales was your fraternity brother at Ohio State, but he will tell you if that VP is not demonstrating the ability to lead his team in a direction aligned with market needs and your vision. A heretic will come into your organization and ask a lot of questions. Some of his questions will make you uncomfortable and definitely rock the foundations of some silos that have built throughout your organization. How will you as the leader of your organization know? You will recognize incoming torpedoes when you see them. If key influencers and leaders in your organization start using their relationship with you to shoot torpedoes at “the new guy” you know he’s asking uncomfortable questions.

The heretic will then want to spend a great deal of time in your market finding what he does not know. They may ride along with sales people, and often may engage with your customers on their own…LET THEM! Sales will balk, marketing will object, finance may say it’s too expensive, but let him dive into your market asking questions. What you will find if you shadow him ( and I strongly encourage CEO’s to do so) is he has an innate ability to make people feel comfortable and get customers talking. When you listen to him you will hear open ended questions, not questions to validate a current corporate understanding. He will seek to get to “why’s” much more that “what” and he really does not care about “who” . Who did that? Who said that?…He’s not out to find who did things wrong, but he seeks to gain an understanding of the market and its problems.

After spending time in your various departments, (and I should mention he will not just speak with leaders, but every level throughout the team) and spending time in your market with customers, non customers and market influencers… the fun begins.

The easy part is they will share with you what you are doing well, but not in his opinion, but the voice of the markets’. He will also share gaps, misalignments like poor positioning, branding, or a lack of sales tools to support the buying process he observed. He may hold your customer service or quality department’s feet to the fire over interruptions he found in speaking with your team and your market.

Heretics reshape organizations to be market focused and thus the organizations become market leaders. Market leading companies are over 30% more profitable, grow faster, have higher customer satisfaction and higher morale.Their radical thinking throughout history has reshaped corporate management ( and our society) as we know it today, and they will create the market leading organizations of tomorrow.

So how about your organization, how do you know if you need to hire a heretic?

1. Lack of EBITDA growth

2. Your leaders speak in terms like “I think” verse sharing authentic market feedback and data

3. No one on your team challenges you as the leader

4. Your team has many meetings but you do not discuss topics that matter

5. Your salespeople sell your product or service like it is a commodity

6. The last two product launches failed to meet ROI projections

7. Your salespeople are creating their own sales tools

8. Your leadership team spends more time covering their own butts that talking about growing your business

9. If you are on your third advertizing firm in 18 months

10. If you answered a question with something like; “because that’s the way do things here…” in the last three months

11. If your competitor just released something that seems to “be selling itself” instead of your team introducing it

12. If the distribution of marketing funds to various vehicles like; print, web, trade shows, direct, social media, has not changed in the last 12 months

13. If reading this post made you feel uncomfortable

What are some other signs that companies should intentionally hire a heretic?

How would a heretic be received in your organization?

As the CEO, what’s more important …increasing the economic value of the corporation, or being the one who has all the answers?