White Papers & Articles

Are you an effective leader? 

​If you answered ‘Yes’, how did you come to that conclusion?  Did you base your answer off your company financial performance,  goal achievement track record or your wonderful employee morale? What if Peter Drucker himself had an opportunity to review your leadership work, do you think he would come to the same conclusion? 

If by chance you are new to the philosophies and teachings of Peter Drucker I highly suggest taking some time to familiarize yourself with his works.  Short and sweet – Drucker is considered the godfather of business leadership and is responsible for much of what we know today on how effective leaders work and operate.  His works redefined leadership through the 60s, 70s and 80s and we still refer to his teaching on the daily today.

What makes for an effective leader?  Let’s ask Drucker himself.  ‘The Effective Executive’, a leadership book for the times and originally published in 1967, provides eye opening insight on exceptional leadership in ways which broke the mold back then and continue to do so today.  ‘The Effective Executive’ provides a straight forward, simplistic guide to “getting the right things done” for people in a leadership capacity.  What I found amazing about this book is how relevant and simplistic Drucker’s advice is, even for today’s purposes 52 years later in a business world that is far different from when these thoughts were put to paper.

So, what is it then that makes for an effective leader?

All too often I find people enjoy making the topic of leadership how-to’s overly complicated.  Maybe they do that to sell more books or to justify their new and insightful leadership methodology.  For me, I’ve found the more simplistic something is the better chance I have in understanding it, implementing it and continuing to act on it as a new habit. 

Drucker’s approach to leadership success and effectiveness is simplicity at its best.  He identifies the following five core competencies successful leaders should have as a part of the fabric that guides them through their daily work:

1. Managing Time
2. Focus on outward contributions, gearing efforts towards results
3. Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect
4. Setting the right priorities
5. Combining #1-4 with effective decision making

Humbly, I’d like to offer up a 6th leadership core competency to add to Drucker’s list:

1. Empathy. Modern day leadership requires emotional intelligence, or simpler put and ability to be empathetic and understanding of others, especially ones employees.

While this list may seem incredibly simple, I can tell you from personal experience it’s anything but that.  Often times the most simplistic things in life can be the most difficult to master.  Why?  Because it takes discipline.  Though these concepts may be easy to understand, the difficultly comes in the form of holding oneself accountable to doing it above all other things.  That’s the tough part! 

“Intelligence, imagination and knowledge are essential resources [for a leader], but only effectiveness converts them into results.” – Peter Drucker

Being disciplined to doing the right thing at the right time is certainly easier said than done.  So much so that Drucker identifies that the number one reason for leadership failure is the inability or willingness to change with the demands of and expectations of the new job.

Key Take Away:
The leaders’ who are willing to change and adapt while being disciplined to doing the right things at the right time are the ones that will be the most effective.

Action Item:
Read Drucker’s book ‘The Effective Executive’.  Regardless of your job title the insight you’ll gain from his timeless approaches to leadership is worth every minute you spend reading it.
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​In this weeks Monday Quickie Recap we talk about our article ‘How to be Successful in the Start-Up World’ and the importance of working outside of the box and your respective job description, as well as the impact good/ bad leadership can have on small companies.

We're covering this weeks article talking about the art of negotiations and a simple yet effective tactic to use during a negotiation.  Reduce your chances of saying something you don't mean, reacting too quickly and missing an opportunity.

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Think back to the last time you experience a moment where during a conversation an elongated pause or silence occurred between you and the other person, inevitably leading you to think in the moment “this is awkward”.

​Perhaps you were in a social setting, on a date, in a debate, or even at work.  Whatever the situation may have been it’s highly likely you did or thought about saying something in moment just to end the awkwardness of the deafening silence between you and the other person.  If in fact you acted and said something in order to break the uncomfortableness of the silence know that you just failed one of the basic lessons taught to many professionals about the art of negotiations.

​Don’t feel bad, it happens to all of us.  Here’s why…

While the situation you were just thinking about may not have had anything to do with a negotiation, the action you took and therefore the outcome is all too reminiscent of a typical negotiation setting.

Did you know many people in a professional ‘buying’ role are trained on how to deal and negotiate with a seller?  Meaning, they’ve been taught a ‘buyers strategy’ on how to negotiate with sellers in order to get an outcome which is more favorable to them as the buyer.

I know this because I’ve been through the class.  Many companies train their key people in decision making positions, such as leadership, buyers, purchasing, contract managers, etc. to use an interesting tactic in negotiations which is the ‘pause’.  It’s a devilish and fairly simple tactic that works like a charm with sellers, especially those who aren’t particularly skilled with negotiations.  Here’s how the ‘pause’ from a buyer works:

Seller: Well Tom, we can certainly provide you with 10k units of ABS molded tubing at $3.85 per meter.

Buyer: Doesn’t say anything in response to the sellers pricing comment; buyer just sits there with a smug look on his face starring at the seller creating an uncomfortable and certainly awkward silence.
Seller (20 seconds into the awkward silence): Actually, you know what Tom, we can probably get that number down to $3.40 per meter if you’re able to sign off on a PO today.

And there you have it.

The art of negotiation at times is nothing more than a pause; flat out no response at all, no reaction.  When an inexperienced seller is confronted with a pause in a negotiation they squirm in their seat to the point where they feel compelled to say something in an effort to get out of the awkwardness and hopefully move the discussion closer towards the sale.  They then break the number one rule of negotiations, “whoever responds 1st loses”, and blurts out another offer.

The buyer may have had every intention to buy the sellers product, they were just trained better in the art of negotiations to know that sometimes patience and not responding to the first offer can get you a better deal.

It happens all the time.

If you’re a consultant the art of negotiation is very much the same.  Many times a client early in a conversation will put a consultant on the spot by asking “what is your rate?”.  Most people and or consultants hate that question, especially if it’s early in the discussion as they haven’t been able to ask enough questions to better understand the client or buyers needs.  As a result, the consultant throws out a figure with limited information which further puts him or her in a back peddling position defending their rate and or service with the client.

If you find yourself in a conversation where the rate question comes out early in the discussion the best way to address it is, yep, you guessed it – use the ‘pause’.

Pauses also work on the sellers side too.

Utilizing a pause, a momentary stalling in discussion, allows you to adjust and think before blurting out an answer.  Peter Bregman’s book ‘4 Seconds’ talks about the power of pause and how even a 4 second pause before responding can dramatically improve your outcomes.

“What’s your rate?”, the buyer asks.

“My rates are based on the work I’m performing, length and difficulty of the project.  For this reason I don’t use a standard rate for my work and would need to understand more details of your project before I can ensure I’m the right person for the job.”

Basically, you’re saying ‘I’m not a commodity, so don’t treat me that way’.  You also didn’t rush into giving them a price which may or may not be reflective of the work the client needs completed.  You ‘paused’ as the seller and backed up in order to reframe the conversation in a way that helps both you and the client learn more about one another’s capabilities.

Key Take Away:
If you’re in a negotiation don’t rush to fill silence with a comment that might work against you down the road.  Stew in the pause, in the silence.  You may find the person on the other side of the table cracks before you do.

Action Item:
Read the book by Peter Bregman called ‘4 Seconds’.  It’s a quick read and provides great insight and perspective on how utilizing a pause, even 4 seconds, can dramatically change the outcome of your conversations, actions and even relationships.