Leadership is an interesting thing. Many people think about the tasks associate with the challenge in a very project management style and method. Many also under estimate the human aspects of the challenge.
Throughout my career, I have considered leadership as a service offering rather than a job, position or role. It is an interesting perspective which enables me to approach the subject with a strategic planning framework to help guide the decisions one has in managing the many investment options and trade offs.
As a starting point, I have assembled a core set of principles starting with a mission statement...
To be a valued service offering customers choose to hire on a recurring basis
I followed the mission statement with a set of objectives presented as value statements to help guide my career and choices...
- § Build long lasting relationships with everyone
- § Balance what I have to do by doing what I want to do
- § Recognize I can do anything except everything
Finally, I have assembled a personal handbook...
- I am a services based product offering.
- My boss is my customer, not my boss.
- As my customer, I strive to earn a position of trusted partner, everyday.
- To do that, I need to maintain an "Executive Assistant" mindset.
- I will always be open, honest, transparent, and trustworthy.
- I need to understand what he / she needs to do and help him / her do it. Whatever that may be.
- I need to do anything I can to help him / her be successful, so the organization is successful.
- I need to remember it is easier to retain a current customer than attract a new one.
- As a service, I need to be the most convenient, competitive alternative available anywhere.
- If given the opportunity to lead others, they are his / her employees, not mine.
- As a result, they too are customers.
- I must give them a reason to want to choose to follow my lead.
- I must provide a clear vision, direction, challenge, focus, inspiration and support.
- I must remove barriers, frustrations, confusion, and complexity.
- I must provide mentoring and coaching which helps them help themselves.
- I must help them see that they too are a service based product offering.
- I must help them be confident and encourage them to invest in themselves.
- I must be vigilant to not let the "Entitlement" cancer enter into the organization.
- My customers have customers too. I need to be their Sales, Marketing and Account Executive.
- I need to help my customers attract and retain their customers, the business users.
- I can never hide behind the statement, "it was not in the requirements."
- My success is determined only by the success of my customers.
- I will be thankful everyday to have satisfied customers.
The next step involves a bit of a strategic planning exercise conducted each year beginning around Thanksgiving and finalized at the start of the new year. I use a hypothetical service based business proposition that intends to generate $2 billion in revenue annually.
Many of the folks I have had the honor to work with have not had the opportunity to be involved with these aspects of strategic planning and the mental exercise you go through over a great deal of time to hone in on the set of choices made in finalizing the investment allocations. These same people are usually focused only on what is needed in their individual areas of responsibility, like development or operations, without the benefit of truly understanding the needs for balance across many dimensions. As everyone knows, a truly successful business will find the right balance making sure time and energy is invested in each area appropriately.
Balancing time and energy appropriately... Hmmm...
So, let's take the $2 Billion and change the definition to represent 2,000 working hours of YOUR time.
With 2080 working hours in the year, you have 80 to spare...
It is an interesting perspective.
How many of you are taking the time to think about your time as a set of business investment choices? How many of you carve 20% of your year to re-invest in yourself? How much time are you investing in Sales and Marketing to grow support for your efforts and initiatives through strong relationships and a very clear set of messages?
I strongly recommend taking the time to manage your time. However, I feel compelled to offer a set of warnings if you practice this exercise with the focus that I have chosen to use each year during the holidays. If practiced during the holiday season when most are enjoying time with loved ones, it can have irreparable side effects to relationships involving spouses, family members and close friends. It is not mandatory for you to attempt this type of activity. In fact, extreme caution should be exercised as this ritual has been found to be habitual, bordering on addictive, with the potential to cause headaches and serious communication conflicts with those around you.
On the other hand, if you work a plan for your time around a similar set of decisions that you would expect any successful business to do, I think you will find that you will spend more time doing things in a much more balanced fashion and your success and achievements will be much greater than you could imagine. I hope you have enjoyed this different perspective.