1. An executive is only a leader if people choose to follow. How can you tell whether people are following or just doing their job?
2. Everyone says leadership is important, but why does it make a difference?
3. If an executive produces a good bottom line are they a good leader?

I think the first question is one that most leaders rarely ask but should. Unless you understand and observe the distinction between people who are following and those just doing their job, it becomes easy to have the misconception that you are being effective as a leader, even though the reality may be quite different.

When people are just “doing their job”, they are essentially just doing enough work to keep their job. They’ll do what’s asked of them – but generally no more. They’ll do a good job performing their tasks and fulfilling their responsibilities – but nothing notable. They’re not argumentative or confrontational – but they’re not passionate either. Basically, they do a good job. But there’s a big difference between doing a good job and doing a great job.

In contrast, when people are following a leader, they become engaged and enthusiastic in their work. When a leader builds a team that is enthused and engaged, remarkable things happen. They take pride in their work and regularly strive to improve the efficiency and quality of their work. Instead of simply putting in the time to complete their tasks and fulfill their responsibilities, they make an effort to accelerate their progress, going the extra mile to be the best they can be and producing the best results. Apathy falls to the wayside and people begin to care – not only about the quality of their work, but in their ability to make a difference.

Rest assured, if your team is simply going through the motions, they’re just doing their job.

The second question – the one about why and how leadership makes a difference – is also an important question that rarely gets asked. I’ve reflected on the answer to this question for years and I’ve been able to distill it down to one simple statement. “Eliciting excellence is the essence of leadership.” A great leader doesn’t directly produce great results. Instead, they work to bring out the best in the people they lead who, in turn, produce great results.

The key then, is to understand how a leader accomplishes that. Bringing out the best in people is accomplished in a number of ways. I believe a key to eliciting excellence is to adopt a coach-like approach to leadership. This approach is one of listening and asking good questions. A leader who is committed to bringing out the best in people promotes independent thought and personal growth, creates opportunities to develop people to their fullest, respects each person (which in turn earns their respect), and develops a vision which attracts and aligns people.

The third question about whether someone is a good leader if they produce good results arose as a consequence of a comment made during one of the LinkedIn discussions. The commenter’s contention was that an executive’s responsibility was to produce the desired results for the shareholders and was therefore a good leader if they achieved those results. My issue with that perspective is that, although a leader is responsible for achieving the desired results, if those results are achieved at the expense of the team, then the effort and the results aren’t sustainable. Consequently, I don’t believe that just because an executive achieves results he or she is necessarily a good leader.

So then, how does one become a more effective leader? There are many factors that go into making someone a good leader, but here are some of the more important ones:

Integrity: Acting with integrity means doing what you say you’re going to do and being true to your stated values. Consistency of action creates trust and respect, which allows a leader to inspire, motivate, and influence.

Respect: Showing respect for others is essential. Human nature is to respect those who show respect for us. Without earning the respect of followers, leadership is ineffective.

Transparency: Being transparent means being who you say you are. We need to avoid putting on the façade of someone we’re not. People eventually see right through a façade and if they find a different person, we lose credibility.

Vulnerability: Being vulnerable means admitting when you don’t know the answer and/or when you’ve made a mistake. People respect someone who acknowledges their weaknesses along with their strengths.

Development: People appreciate being valued and appreciate when someone thinks highly enough of them to invest their time in developing them. When we invest in others it creates the feeling in them – almost an obligation – to invest in you and your vision.

In conclusion, most people will do a good job regardless of whether an executive is an effective leader. The art of leadership is getting people to be and do their best. Good efforts produce good results. Great efforts produce great results. The challenge we each have as leaders is to be mindful of how engaged and enthusiastic our team is, and then to be honest enough with ourselves to admit when the reality is less than we’d like.

• An executive with presence commands respect instead of having to demand it.
• Executive presence is established, in part, by one’s dress and one’s carriage. What does your dress and carriage say about you?
• Successful executives develop a certain air about them. Not an elitist attitude or one of superiority, but one of refinement.

Not everyone agreed with me on these statements, which was a surprise to me. Some felt that focusing on one’s appearance and presence was superficial, and that a leader should be judged/assessed solely on their accomplishments. Their argument was that an executive who focuses on “presence” was simply an “empty suit”.

I think that, whether we like it or not, people ARE judged in part by their appearance and presence, and therefore developing one’s executive presence is meaningful.

Also, some people were quick to point out certain successful business people who do not “dress for success” or have that certain executive presence about them. While I agree that there are exceptions to the rule, the majority of us cannot escape the impact that a strong presence (or a lack thereof) has on others.

I don’t think anyone would really argue that looking the part without the intelligence, knowledge and experience to back it up really is an illusion. However, my contention is that a competent leader will go farther and have greater impact if they also have a strong executive presence.

Additionally, in reading through the responses on LinkedIn (there were 100′s), it also became evident that some people had really been affected by how they’d been treated by past executives/leaders. Their tone on this topic was angry and judgmental. I found this to be yet another example of the impact we, as leaders, have on the people around us. The emotional impact of our words and actions is long remembered.

We define who we are as executives, as leaders, and as people, by our words and our actions. More specifically, we define who we are by the picture our words and our actions paint about us over time.

What picture are you painting with your words and your actions?
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The first benefit, obviously, is to the person being developed. When we help someone expand their skill set and knowledge base, we make them more valuable and more versatile, which in turn, instills a sense of pride. Instilling pride in work and workmanship is a cornerstone of the foundation for eliciting excellence. In addition, we demonstrate our belief in them, their abilities, and their potential. This in turn nurtures loyalty and responsiveness towards you.

The next way that developing people elicits excellence is the impact on our team. When individual members of a team grow their abilities and stretch themselves, they in turn inspire others to do the same. Even though you may not have personally worked with each member of your team (although hopefully you will at some point), the people you developed act as examples of what is possible, which if you have the right people on your team, will act to motivate others to take the initiative to improve themselves for the betterment of their future and the benefit of the organization.

The third manner in which developing others brings forth excellence lies within us. By mastering the art of developing people, we become more skilled in our communication abilities, more effective in our leadership, and more leveraged in our efforts. All of these benefits act to make us more productive, more creative and more confident, thereby eliciting excellence.

Given the impact and far-reaching implications of developing others, it is critical to master this important function. At the heart of this effort lies the leadership style of “coaching”. Adopting a “coach-like” attitude and manner is the fastest and most effective means of developing others.

What does a coaching style of leadership look like? Being “coach-like” embodies a number of competencies and strategies, all of which interlock and work in conjunction with one another. The first concept to acknowledge is the power of asking rather than telling. Many of us, in an effort to help someone “get it right” (and in the name of expediency), tell others what to do and how to do it. And while this does get the work done, it does little to develop the other person, their skill set, and their confidence.

The alternative, “coach-like” approach, is to ask. Instead of starting off by telling them what to do, ask them what they would do and how they would do it. This strategy serves a number of very important functions. Firstly, it demonstrates that you have an interest in what they have to say. When you listen to what someone is telling you, it acts as a sign of respect. It demonstrates that you value what they have to say. The next benefit of asking is that their answers will give you a sense of how they think. The answers will reveal their level of insight and judgment, and will illustrate their problem-solving abilities. And lastly, listening to the answers to your questions will provide clues as to how best to help them develop. It helps you understand which aspects of development they need help and guidance with.

When you choose to develop people this way, it creates the opportunity to mentor them, rather than to simply “train” them. Training is good for technical matters and knowledge acquisition, but if you also want to develop someone’s judgment, you need to share your insights, improve their thought processes, help them understand better ways to approach problem-solving, and basically give them the benefit of your experience.

In addition to adopting a coach-like approach with people, practicing effective delegation is essential. Effective delegation consists of choosing the right tasks to delegate, choosing the right people to delegate to, delegating in such a way that the person grows from the experience, and making sure the work gets done accurately and in a timely manner.

In a nutshell, here is what all of that means…
“Choosing the right task to delegate” – Generally, any task which doesn’t require judgment is a good task to delegate. Also, if one of your goals is to develop a person’s judgment, then choose a non-crucial task requiring some judgment.

“Choosing the right people” – The right person to delegate to is dependent upon their present skill set, their level of self-confidence, their openness to growth, and their level of ambition. Clearly, choosing the right people is an art rather than a science.

“Helping the person grow from the experience” – The success of this is contingent upon using a coach-like approach when delegating. Once you’ve clearly explained what needs to get done, ask questions to not only ascertain whether they understand what’s required, but also to see their thinking process as it pertains to the task at hand.

“Ensuring an accurate and timely completion” – It is essential to let someone know when a task is to be completed and to hold them accountable for its completion. The more important the task, the more critical it becomes to provide ongoing feedback with course corrections. This, of course, will ensure that the work is completed in a timely and accurate fashion, but also demonstrates your integrity by following through on the things you said were important to you.

By effectively developing others, you elevate everyone. As people grow and stretch, their value and their sense of pride expand, which in turn, elicits excellence from them and the entire organization.

There’s a significant difference between establishing an environment where excellence is expected and one where excellence is demanded.  In the first case, not only does the culture of the organization establish the expectations for excellence, but the actions of your entire team will essentially “put pressure” on everyone to perform up to the standards of excellence expected.

In the second case, where excellence is demanded, “pressure” from you is the only dynamic at play.  And you know how most people react to direct pressure – they push back.  And push-back usually comes in the form of either passive-aggressive behavior or by working just hard enough to keep from being fired.

So let’s discuss how to go about establishing an environment where excellence is expected.  There are two components to this equation.  The first is defining what excellence means to you and your organization, and the second is the design of that environment.

How we define excellence is governed by the standards and values we embrace.  Standards determine the level of quality we desire.  They govern quality of service and quality of product.  There are many levels of quality, and only you and your team can determine which level you want to be known for.  Excellent quality does not necessarily mean the very best that can be produced.  Let me offer a couple of real-world, practical examples.  The first comes from the restaurant business and the other from the automotive industry.

If you go to a fast food restaurant, excellent service means delivering the customer’s food within a very short time – typically 2-4 minutes.  Much longer than that, and most customers will feel that the service is less than excellent.  In contrast, if you dined in an expensive, gourmet restaurant and your food came out within 2-4 minutes, you’d no doubt feel rushed and consider the service to be poor.

The other example comes from the automobile industry.  (I’m not promoting or judging any make of car here  just offering an example that most everyone can relate to.)  If every automobile were made to the very highest of standards, then there would be only Rolls Royce, Audi and Mercedes Benz.  There would be no room for Chevrolet, Ford or Kia.

The appropriate level of quality that determines the standards by which you and your organization are governed is determined by the expectations of your market.  This doesn’t preclude setting a standard which exceeds the expectations of that market.  It just acts as a benchmark by which your performance is measured.

The values which create an environment of excellence govern how we do what we do and are – for the most part – concerned with how we relate to others.  Values that may immediately come to mind are integrity, honesty, respect, and fairness.  However, there are many other possible values that you and your team may want to include on your list in order to elicit excellence.  Here are some additional values to help you get started: Authenticity, Family, Kindness, Commitment, Loyalty, Compassion, Happiness, Empathy, Health, and Humor.

Once you have defined what excellence means to you and your organization by clearly setting an expected level of standards for performance along with the values which determine how you, your team and your organization carry out the work you do, you will be in a position to design an environment which elicits excellence.

Designing an environment which elicits excellence is about establishing an organizational “culture”.  A well-established culture will embody and reflect the standards and values you and your organization have agreed upon.

So… what constitutes “culture” and how do you establish it?  Culture is established by how well you and your team live by and communicate the values and standards you’ve identified.  It’s not so much “whether” you and your team agree to these things, as it is about how consistently and to what degree these values and standards are adhered to.  Doing this well will create the proper initial expectations with new team members, will install a sense of pride throughout the organizations, and will fill your organization with integrity – causing the majority of your team to act, think, and speak in a certain way.

Consistency in the effort is all important.  The consequences are unfortunate if you and your team profess to embrace and embody a certain culture, but live by it in an inconsistent manner, tolerate behaviors by others which are at odds with the culture, or worse, act in a manner at odds with the so-called “culture”.  There is nothing more demoralizing than someone hearing about and believing in a certain culture, only to see a leader speak and act in an inconsistent manner.  It absolutely undermines the integrity of the leader and the organization as a whole.

The bottom line is that demanding excellence of your team will only produce modest and inconsistent results.  Alternatively, putting in the effort up front to design, implement, and live by a culture of excellence will produce long-term, self-sustaining results.

Attendance to the Summit is FREE and you can listen to the programs online. By attending this virtual event, you’ll get loads of innovative ideas and strategies for becoming a more effective leader – all from the comfort of your home or office.

Take a minute, and visit this website to learn more.
www.ElicitingExcellence.com

Act now while it’s on your mind. It starts on October 11.
And this is one event, you don’t want to miss…

Let me illustrate this distinction. Leadership is more about WHO you are than about what you do or what you know. Two executives can do and say the same things but get very different results – even when they do and say those things to the very same person! Although what you say and what you do are important, effective leadership is even more dependent on HOW you do or say those things. This explains why the actions of those two executives can elicit such different responses.

You can train people about what to say. You can train people about what to do. You can even show someone how to do and say those things. But getting them to change how they go about doing things and getting them to change how they go about saying things is a whole other story.

Leadership is about who we are, and it’s this “how” of doing, saying, and being that defines who we are. I think a good deal of “who we are” is captured within the competencies of Emotional Intelligence, developed and made popular by Daniel Goleman. There are 12 EI competencies, with five of them being the one’s that ultimately affect our effectiveness as leader. These five competencies are:

1) Coaching and Mentoring – The ability to develop others
2) Inspirational Leadership – The ability to develop a compelling vision and to lead with it
3) Influence – The ability to utilize persuasion
4) Conflict Management – The ability to resolve disagreements
5) Teamwork and Collaboration – The ability to build and guide teams

Let’s briefly examine each one of these competencies with respect to training vs. development as it pertains to leadership.

Coaching and Mentoring

As a professional coach, I know many professionally trained coaches. They’ve gone through a curriculum of coach training from an accredited coaching school. And yet, although they have the necessary skills and knowledge to be a good coach, a number of them are really rather poor at coaching. Conversely, I’ve come across associates who are reasonably good at coaching, yet have never had any formal coach training.

How is this possible? How is it that someone with great coaching skills is mediocre at coaching? And how is it that someone without any formal training is very effective at coaching?

The answer of course, is in HOW they apply their coaching knowledge and skills. In order to be effective as a coach, one must, at the very least, be aware of one’s own emotions, have control of one’s emotions, be empathetic, and have good judgment. The reality is that each of those traits must either be developed or be natural to a person. They just aren’t things that can be “trained”.

Inspirational Leadership

Leaders need to be inspiring. They need to instill pride, they need to hold and communicate a vision, and they need to inspire an organization and its people to aspire to excellence.

Here’s the challenge… People aren’t simply inspired by the right words. The right words spoken by the “wrong” person will have only a minimal effect. In order for a leader to move others to action, he or she needs to be someone who others admire and respect.

How does someone garner the respect of others? It’s obviously through our words and actions, but once again, “how” we say what we say and do what we do determine the impact those words and actions will have. “Who we are” is something that can be shifted and developed, but it cannot be “trained”.

Influence

Effective leaders are influential. We influence people by our words and actions, but of course, it comes back to how we’re viewed by others and how we do and say the things we do. Honing and improving those abilities comes down to development and not training.

Conflict Management

Conflict and challenges are inevitable in business, and a good leader has the ability to diffuse and resolve situations as they arise. In order to be effective in this effort, a leader needs to have the respect and trust of those involved. How we conduct ourselves during these times is important, but even more critical is how we’ve conducted ourselves in the past. Establishing “who we are” takes time and is not something that can be trained – only nurtured and refined.

Teamwork/Collaboration

In order for a leader to successfully foster an atmosphere of collaboration, he or she must be good at the previous competencies – coaching, inspiring, influencing, and resolving. Clearly this ability once more rests on things best developed and not trained.

Now that we’ve made a case for leadership development and one against “leadership training”, we need to address how this development occurs. Here’s what has to happen:

1. An objective assessment of one’s competencies needs to take place. Since “how” we do and say things is habitual, we’re generally blind to our shortcomings.

2. No one needs to be excellent in every competency in order to be an effective leader. Based on the objective assessment of our leadership skills, we need to focus on one or two areas to target for improvement.

3. Enlist the help of one or two trusted associates to help point out (in a loving fashion, of course!) when we fall back into old patterns.

By being mindful of your words and actions, and being persistent in your efforts to improve, you’ll find that over time – there is no “quick fix” for what we’re achieving – your effectiveness and impact as a leader will increase. Not only should we strive to develop ourselves as leaders, but need to work to develop those around us. Ultimately, a great leader is someone who develops other leaders.  That’s how great leadership is created.

Eliciting excellence in others is the essence of leadership, and one of the most effective means of eliciting excellence is to instill a sense of pride in those around us.

Instilling pride has a myriad of benefits – quality of work and workmanship improves, creativity and innovation increases, collaboration is facilitated more easily, and people are willing to “go the extra mile” to do their best. A team or department instilled with a sense of pride will excel simply to prove to others that things can be accomplished that are otherwise thought impossible.

Let me illustrate the power of professional pride with two remarkable leadership stories. The first story has to do with the achievement of casting the V-8 automobile engine as a single block. Everyone acknowledged that it couldn’t be done. But Henry Ford was determined, had assembled a great team of engineers, and had instilled a sense of pride in his team. They worked for six full months with no success. Then they continued to work for another six months with no success. But Ford’s determination and his team’s sense of pride prevailed. Over the next months they devised a means of casting a V-8 engine as one block, an innovation that revolutionized the auto industry.

The second leadership story was reported in the magazine Fast Company in August, 2003. Mortgage lender Fannie Mae asked more than 550 employees to bring down, move, and start up more than 300 business applications. They had to unplug, wrap, and box 577 computer servers, lay more than 1.8 million feet of copper cable and 35 miles of fiber. Department employees were asked to do their “day jobs” all week and then throw themselves into this new task over 13 consecutive weekends, pulling all-nighters on Friday evenings — without even the promise of extra pay.

They did it flawlessly, without a single interruption to the company’s business. The leader of the initiative inspired them, fed them, and instilled a great sense of pride in them. She served about 1,600 pounds of chicken wings to her crews for midnight snacking, Friday-night themed dinners, ranging from New England clambakes to down-home southern cooking, and full-blown Saturday morning breakfasts with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage.

The leader who spearheaded this task is one of those relatively rare inspirational leaders who is able to get people to do extraordinary things. She is a pride builder: a leader who instills self-esteem in workers and builds unflagging support for remarkably tough assignments through her leadership. Drawing the very best out of people is accomplished by making the emotional bond every bit as important as the monetary one.

So just how do we go about instilling pride in people? As always, I suggest using our own experiences as our best example. In thinking back over the things you’ve done in your life, what kinds of accomplishments caused you to feel proud?

Here is a sampling of the kinds of situations and accomplishments that may have caused you to feel proud:

* Being part of a winning team
* Accomplishing the unlikely
* Being better than the competition
* Doing something successfully for the first time
* Accomplishing something difficult

Having reflected on the kinds of situations and achievements that create a sense of pride in people, let’s examine how our leadership can be used to create those opportunities within our organization. The two most impactful means lie with establishing an appropriate culture and effectively developing people.

Creating a strong, positive organizational culture will attract and retain the right people – people who will be loyal, who will take pride in their work, and who will put forth their best. This culture may be one of success, of excellence, of innovation, of service, or of achievement.

How does one go about establishing a culture? It starts with deciding which values you want the organization to be known for. Don’t think of this so much as some written “Mission Statement”, but rather a pervasive atmosphere that takes hold. It will define the organization. When someone is considered for employment, they “get” what the culture is. When decisions are made, the culture is used as a yardstick. When promotions are run, when work is evaluated, and when marketing collateral is created, they each reflect the culture. This culture will permeate the organization, and people will either identify with it or will move on to other opportunities. The consequence of identifying with this culture – this “thing” that sets them apart from everyone else – will instill a sense of pride and a sort of esprit de corps.

The result, of course, is that an organization filled with people proud of the work they do and the company they work for will put forth their best.

The other means of instilling pride and thereby eliciting excellence lies in how we go about developing people. By constructively helping people stretch beyond their current abilities, knowledge, and/or level of self-confidence, we help them become more valuable to the organization and to themselves. We create the opportunity to allow them to learn new skills they never had, to achieve things they never felt they could, and to feel a renewed sense of accomplishment. Not only does properly developing people achieve all that, but by our very belief and trust in them, it causes them to become more loyal, more responsive, and more willing to accept additional challenges. In short, our efforts cause a sense of pride to blossom in the individual, which in turn, translates into excellence of effort.

In conclusion, creating a sense of pride within the people in your organization and within the organization itself will ultimately elicit excellence. The ways in which this gets accomplished are through establishing a culture of excellence and through taking advantage of every opportunity to develop people. Incorporating these two strategies into your leadership style will yield excellent results and establish you as an effective leader.

The parallel exists within the concept of leading without leading.  It exists in the ebb and flow of leadership style.  And it’s reflected in the very duality of the role of a leader within an organization.  Let me share my perspectives on each of those concepts as an insight into effective leadership.

The first concept to expand upon is that of leading without leading.  Many people hold the notion that leadership is about leaders and followers.  They feel that an effective leader learns how to either “pull” their followers along, or they become adept at “pushing” followers to “follow”.  At first blush, this might sound a bit simplistic, unrealistic, or naïve, but the practice of pulling or pushing followers is much more prevalent than one might expect.

When we push or pull followers along, they’re simply acquiescing to our demands or desires.  In contrast, when a leader truly has people following him or her, people act not because they “have to” so much as because they “want to”.  How is this accomplished?  How do we shift our team from acquiescing because they feel they “have to” to a place where they excel because they “want to”?

That is captured within the concept of leading without leading.  An accomplished leader develops the ability to inspire those around him or her to be, do, and give their best.  The leader inspires them to be, do, and give willingly.  An effective leader elicits excellence from their team.  It’s not about “getting” people to do anything.  It’s not about being viewed as “the leader”.  It’s really about becoming the kind of person others admire, respect, rely on, and want to emulate.  People are attracted to and respond to someone because of who they are, and not because of what they do.

Effective leadership is about leading without leading – a Zen-like philosophy.

The next concept to examine is the ebb and flow of leadership style.  Many leaders make their mark on an organization by staying true to a certain style of leadership.  And while consistency and acting in integrity are critical to strong leadership, one’s style of leadership needs to ebb and flow with changing situations and circumstances.  It’s analogous to the Eastern concept of Yin and Yang.  The very symbol for Yin/Yang illustrates the never-ending flow between hard and soft, strong and weak, expanding and contracting, masculine and feminine.  And even within those concepts, the seed of its opposite exists.

For leadership to be truly effective, there needs to be a flow of style.  Sometimes a strong, unyielding style is required, and other times, a determined, yet yielding style is called for.  The more adept at masterfully flowing among the various leadership styles that one becomes (yes, there are more than two styles), the more effective that leader can be at eliciting excellence.

Effective leadership is about ebbing and flowing – a Zen-like philosophy.

The final leadership concept to examine is that of the duality of the role of a leader.  This philosophy once again parallels some of the principles of Zen Buddhism.  The duality of leadership is reflected in the fact that sometimes a leader is the Master and at other times, a leader is the Servant.  In truth, Servant Leadership can be an extremely effective role which fosters respect, admiration, and trust – all of which are very powerful influences in eliciting excellence.

It is the very existence of the role of Master that allows the role of Servant to exist – and to exist with such impact.  Without having a role as Master, the impact and influence of the role of Servant is greatly diminished.  Conversely, without the role of Servant, the role of Master loses its effectiveness as well.

If a leader acts in self-interest without regard to the people they are leading, then their impact and effectiveness is soon diminished.  Over the years, we’ve seen the self-interest of many corporate leaders exposed, and their power and stature destroyed.

The other extreme can be just as ineffective.  If a leader abdicates his or her authority, is unable to make confident decisions, and does not command respect, an organization will soon lose its way and drift apart.

Effective leadership is about the duality of Master and Servant – a Zen-like philosophy.

The concepts of leading without leading, flowing among leadership styles, and understanding the role of leader as both Master and Servant are essential to effective leadership and to eliciting excellence.  If a person is to excel as a leader, they must abandon the concept of developing themselves as “leader” and must instead, embrace the concept of mastering the ability to elicit excellence in others.  This leadership concept is not simply a matter of semantics, but a fundamental shift in perspective.

When you get right down to it, the essence of leadership – the thing that best reflects good leadership – is when a leader is able to bring out the best in others. If a leader is able to elicit excellence from the people around him or her, then that person can truly be deemed great leader.

In order to be a great company, the culture of bringing out the best in others must permeate the entire organization. Let me offer some perspective on how to make that happen. In order to do that, three questions need to be asked and answered.

The first question that needs to be asked is, “Who is the most important person to your company?” (Notice I didn’t ask “in” your company, but rather “to” your company.) The answer, of course, is your customer. No Customers = No Company.

The next question is, “Who is the most important person in your company to your customers?” Clearly the answer is not “the CEO”. No… the most important person to a customer is the person they come in contact with – the “front line”.

And the final question is the one that really drives the leadership point home. Here it is: “What then is the job of the manager of those front line people?” The job of that manager is to bring out the best in the people he or she “manages”. (Read that as “leads”.) The manager must ensure that his team has the training and knowledge they need. She needs to provide the support and environment to allow them to be their best. The whole goal is to make their work as enjoyable, productive, and rewarding as possible.

If this philosophy is taken up one level and applied to the manager of the managers, and then to the leader of the managers, and ultimately to the leader of the leaders one ends up with a servant leader organization. It results in an organizational chart that looks like an inverted pyramid; an organization that acknowledges the importance of the front line and reflects a philosophy of service throughout.

This isn’t simply a theory or a type of feel-good culture that compromises profit and performance. Far from it. It is a practical, proven, and extremely effective approach to conducting business. I can point to three businesses that have embraced a servant leader philosophy and have not only done well, but are out-pacing their competitors by orders of magnitude.

The first example is a relatively small company in Denver. It’s in an industry where many of their competitors are struggling just to survive. However, this company is making a seven-figure profit! The owner has adopted a philosophy of helping those around him to become successful. He applies this philosophy to his employees, his customers and even his vendors. I’ve interviewed the owner and his employees, and found his team to be loyal, enthusiastic, professional, free from stress, and highly productive. The results speak for themselves.

The second example is Frontier Airlines. In an industry plagued by stagnant growth and evaporating profits, this company has adopted a servant leader approach to business and out-paced its competition by leaps and bounds – both in growth and profits. By way of example, when the office closes for a holiday, many of the office staff will go into the field to help the front line folks with the heavy holiday workload. Servant leaders abound within the organization.

The third example is Nucor Steel, which ended up dominating the U.S. steel industry by adopting a servant leader, almost egalitarian, business model. The leadership of the company minimized the perceived differences between the front line and the management/executive team. It became a company that recognized the important role each person plays in the success of the organization.

Adopting a servant leader philosophy can make a tremendous difference in the productivity, growth and profitability of an organization. Bringing out the best in people always yields excellent results. It advances the people doing their best, it advances you as a leader, and it advances the company. This is a smart and savvy approach to business that should be adopted and implemented in any company, no matter what industry or size.

You see… people can’t be “managed”. Things get managed. People get led. It’s not simply a matter of semantics. There’s a fundamental difference between trying to manage agents and effectively leading them. Let’s start by examining how managers attempt to “manage” their agents, and then explore what effective sales leadership looks like.

In a nutshell, we’re managing agents when we try to get them to do things or reach goals that are our own or those of the company. These generally take the form of production or activity goals. There’s nothing wrong with these goals, and your goals along with those of the company are important. But when we try to impose our goals on other people, “management” occurs. We generally sit down with each of our agents and tell them what we want them to achieve.

We might encourage them, offer to mentor them, or even threaten them. But I think you’ll agree that these “management” techniques generally are ineffective. It’s not that your agents turn you away. No… they’ll agree with you and offer to do something beyond what they’ve been doing, but at the end of the day, nothing changes.

This pattern seems to hold true even if you’re running a promotion or conducting year-end goal-setting meetings. Sure, you’ll have a few agents respond to a promotion, but generally the majority of agents don’t respond at all. There’s very little lift in production. The same holds true for year-end “business plans”. Often the plans are credible, do-able, and promise the results you want, but by the end of the year not much has changed. “Managing” agents just doesn’t work.

In the alternative, sales “leadership” is much more effective. There are a number of components to effective sales leadership, but before getting into the specifics, it pays to understand the whole idea of leadership and how it makes a difference. Pretty much everyone agrees that good leadership is important, but very few of the people I’ve asked about it can explain why leadership makes a difference. Over the years, I’ve distilled the purpose and effect of leadership down to one simple sentence.

Effective leadership inspires the best effort in others.

When effective leadership is present, people work to do the best they can, they take pride in being part of the team, and they take pride in advancing. Not only that, but in the presence of effective leadership, people become all those things because they want to, not because they’re being “managed”.

It’s within this concept of inspiring people that the dynamics and strategies of leadership become apparent. Effective sales leadership begins with the “culture” of your sales team. Culture determines how you recruit, who you recruit, and what your new agents’ expectations are. The culture of a team is created by the leader and goes beyond the simple mechanics of what gets done. It defines how things are done and it establishes the character and values of the team, its members, and its leader.

This concept of inspiring leadership is also embodied within the leader. After all, like it or not, we all lead by example – good or bad. An effective sales leader must strive to enhance personal leadership skills and then learn to communicate them effectively. Effectively communicating or projecting oneself as a leader is a study in public relations. Everything that a leader does or says makes an impression.

The final piece to creating inspiring leadership is that of working one-on-one with agents. Having the first two pieces in place (culture and personal presence) can especially leverage this effort. Leading your team to higher production starts by acknowledging an important truth. This truth is that regardless of what your team production goals are, each individual agent has his or her own personal goals. And these goals will determine how much more an agent will be willing to do, if anything. These goals can be spoken or unspoken, acknowledged or unacknowledged. But make no mistake, they exist. Our task, as inspiring leaders, is to bring these goals to the surface, bring them to life, and then help our agents overcome their personal “roadblocks” in order to achieve these goals.

Unfortunately, the reality is that for most agents, other situations also exist. The first situation is that an agent may have given up on their dream. They may have vocalized their dream at one time, but now feel that it’s unattainable. Our job as a leader is to re-kindle the fire of that dream and goal. An adept leader can inspire an agent to once again strive to reach their goal.

The second situation is that an agent may not truly believe they can succeed. Our role as leader is to develop each agent so they can realize their full potential. Leaders develop people.

And the third situation is that regardless of what we’d like for our agents, some agents are satisfied with their present level of accomplishment. No amount of poking, prodding, pleading, or threatening will cause them to change.

An effective leader will avoid attempting to reach their team goals by working with each and every agent. Instead, they’ll identify the agents who have higher aspirations and are open to improvement, and then focus on working with them.

By becoming an inspiring sales leader for your team and your agents, you can have greater impact, accomplish more with less effort, and produce better results – not to mention being looked up to and having a great time.