Where Have All The Leaders Gone?

Anecdotal evidence is dangerous. But current events (micro and macro level) beg the question: Just when we need it the most, where has real leadership gone?

Significant global unrest appears perpetual. Economic crisis inhibits dialogue around everything from national initiatives to local education. Infrastructures that facilitate so much of what is deemed essential seem stretched beyond reasonable limits.

Yet, those seated in the centers of power – political, social, private enterprise, all – seem impotent when it comes to effecting positive change.

Where is the brand of leadership that sees beyond its own street, neighborhood or village? Do leaders anywhere possess a world view born of an understanding that, while each community is made up of a multitude of perspectives, the threads of shared aspirations are strong enough to bind us together.

Without respect to your sphere of relationships, influence and operation, if you run into a leader that meets the following criteria you’ll be ahead of the game if you tap into their experience and perspective. If you own or run a company, hire them. This kind of leadership is, at best, a lost art.

Characteristics of a Leader

1. Big Picture Perspective. Whether a Manager, an occupant of the C-Suite, or a representative of “the people,” leadership cultivates and maintains perspective that transcends personal or parochial opinions and experiences. Driving an agenda rooted in narrow interests rarely gives rise to significant and lasting change.

2. Doesn’t Roam the Neighborhood Marking Fire Hydrants. If you’re searching for leadership, run when you encounter someone that invests time staking out territory. This never goes hand-in-hand with collaboration and consensus building.

3. Builds Teams. Leadership understands, whether intuitively or experientially, that winning requires a team. From governments to corporate giants to garage entrepreneurs, the best leaders rally support and leverage resources. They do not operate on (or seek to “mark”) an island. Leaders who do not believe in the greater potential of a team should be relieved of duty. Fire ‘em.

(By the way, the ability to build teams goes hand-in-hand with accepting responsibility -- versus blaming all ills on the shortcomings of someone else.)

4. Possess and Inspire Vision. A verse in Proverbs observes that “where there is no vision, the people perish.” If you wonder whether you are a leader or whether your enterprise has leaders in every area, look for the vision. The absence of vision equates to the absence of leadership. On the other hand, the ability to inspire vision is linked to the ability to identify and tap into shared aspirations.

5. Values Listening and Learning over Hyperbole. Somewhere along the line we began to think of personal charisma and the ability to articulate a message as earmarks of a great leader. We manage to overlook that these characteristics have been shared by some of history’s greatest scam artists. This is not to demean the importance of being able to communicate. Rather, it is to remind us that what we most need in leaders today – the ability to find common ground between multiple diverse experiences, collaborative skills, a visionary perspective – are grounded in understanding. And understanding comes from listening. Have someone masquerading as a leader, but unwilling to collaborate and listen? Fire ‘em.

We select leaders in a number of different ways, depending on the venue. But perhaps one of the reasons leadership seems in short supply in so many circles is that we have forgotten what it looks like. Charisma, titles, access, economic might – none of these, leaders make.

What would you add to this list of characteristics?

Enough Talk About Listening!

If you interact with a significant other, a neighbor, team members or co-workers, no one needs to tell you that listening is critical to almost any relationship.

What we must not overlook is the fact that all listening is not equal.  Query your favorite search engine for “types of listening” and you’ll find plenty of content on Discriminating (I-get-to-pick-and-choose), Passive (I’m-not-really-engaged) and a handful of other labels that seem like attempts to quantify the fact that sometimes we listen; often we fake it.

It is not difficult to make a case for Discriminating Listening in selected situations.  After all, it is almost impossible to find a market segment that is not flooded with messages, each making as big a splash as possible in pursuit of mind share.  The art of communication often seems inexorably linked to the metrics of media buys, production costs and decibels.  The result can be deafening.

And with all the talk about the subject, one can’t help wondering whether marketers are listening.

An Opportunity to Reinvent

Few will admit it, but the proof is in the execution of strategies.  Most strategies indicate that messaging is what we value most.

While we focus on the creation and delivery of the message we ignore at least two things central to the most basic communication theory:

Like it or not (and many struggle mightily with this) the basic building block of communication is the dynamism of shared experiences.  Shared experience is the byproduct of interaction, participation, and collaboration.  It does not begin with messaging.

Enter Intentional Listening – listening by design, with purpose, with ears wide open.  This is the opportunity and potential of Social Media.

And though the irony of talking about it this much is not lost, here is fodder for what can hopefully be an on-going discussion around one of the most critical practices if you're venturing into social media.

Five Keys to Intentional Listening

1.     Begin by asking “to whom should we be listening?” as opposed to “what should we be saying?”  Somewhere in the course of the media age we have come to equate the best communication solely with message creation and delivery.  And though this is not to say that the quality of messaging is not critical, it is to suggest that perhaps we have placed the proverbial cart before the horse.  The most successful marketing always begins with target identification and research.

2.     Take note (scrupulously) of what your target audience cares about.  Review tweet streams, examine past posts, and browse lists of friends and followers.  This “listening” will yield some of the best marketing intelligence available – a glimpse into what your market values and invests in.

It 

3.     Build on shared experiences.  Listen carefully and your market will tell you exactly what it takes to connect.  Build your connection strategy around shared experiences, interests, values and common needs.  (If you are unable to identify this point of connection, return to number 1.)

4.     Remember the arithmetic.  Listen more than you talk…at minimum, two times more.  Practically speaking, retweet more than you tweet your own message, ask questions that promote conversations around what your target market values.  If the only time you seek interaction or feedback is when you want to precipitate action on your behalf, your arithmetic is wrong.  Intentional Listening is about what it takes to build relationship.  It is not about exploiting a podium or pulpit.  In short, give more than you expect to receive.

5.     Help build.  Community is the life-blood of social media.  Help build it and, with deference to the better mousetraps that might come along, your market will beat a path to your door.  Build connections.  Invest more time in a cause, event or idea that is important to your market than you do in asking targets to join your cause, and you’re on the road to relationships based on shared experiences.  And there is dynamism in there.

This is the challenge for social media strategists: do we view this evolving arena as a message delivery media, or do we see it for what it is – a way to invest in Intentional Listening.  The former view squanders the potential, turning social media presence into little more than a firestorm of sound bites.

Practice Intentional Listening and we’re on the road to shared experiences, valued collaboration, relationships that endure – and yes, loyal friends, fans, clients and customers.

What Really Matters?

Some things simply are not important in the scope of things.

Mac or PC? Important to the respective companies, to be sure; but give me either and I’ll get the job done. Number of Twitter followers or Facebook friends? Great possibilities; but not near as important as how you treat those you’re connected to -- online or face-to-face.

Pro sports contract negotiations, college bowl selections -- 90% of what fills an hour of sports talk radio or sports center highlights -- important to the individuals and enterprises they touch, yes. But is the amount of time invested by many of us on such issues just a bit out of proportion?

Red state, blue state, left side of the aisle, right side of the brain -- are the things we invest so much time cussing and discussing -- are these things (or are the conversations we’re having about them) as important as the time we spend on them?

This is not to say that purchasing decisions, the thrill of victory and the body politic don’t warrant attention, or to suggest they have no importance.

But (thankfully) every so often I am reminded that it is more important to be quiet for a moment, and consider what really matters.

Time with friends and family really matters.

Experiencing what happens to human beings when we give of ourselves -- this is important. Nothing will change a community more quickly. I would certainly do better to shift some of my sports or political talk time to efforts here.

What others think of you is rarely as important as what you, deep in your heart, think of yourself.

And simply pausing for a few minutes to consider the very few things that really matter -- this is one of the most important things we can do today.

Why Nothing Changes

Thankfully we've survived the campaign antics of another election season in the U.S. And the news, whether your candidate won or lost, is that not much is likely to change.

So we can relax. Fear mongering notwithstanding, two, four, even six years from now we'll find ourselves a little older, to be sure; but, apart from that, not much will have changed. The issues, challenges and debates of 2016 will be alarmingly similar. (Consider how long we've been debating healthcare in the U.S.)

The truth is whether in ones personal life, as a leader in business, or a player on the political landscape, real change -- not to mention meaningful progress -- is rooted in unselfish perspective.

The trouble is perspective is in short supply; unselfish perspective may be near extinction. And big picture vision has given way to the belief that winning is the only true measure of success.

The void isn't limited to the body politic either. We manage to turn virtually everything into a contest. From discussions with significant others to a town hall meeting examining the health of our communities, dialogue far too often gives way to a debate. And with the combination of self interest and a commitment to victory, we dig in and hold our ground as if engaged in a battle for field position.

Unwilling to give even an inch, we witness -- well, something like a political campaign. No real dialogue. No information. No learning. No compromise. And no progress.

With rare exception, here's what we seem to have forgotten: meaningful change doesn't begin with the articulation of a winning argument or even a winning strategy. It begins when individuals become more concerned with listening than talking, and at least as concerned with understanding as being understood. It begins when winning today -- whether with family, neighbors or colleagues -- is less important than teeing up the dialogue that will enable us to find solutions to tomorrow's challenges.

Because no matter the venue or the issue, lasting change does not come in a day. Or a week. Or even an election season.

At The Heart of Today's Game-Changing Marketing Strategies

Ask a dozen professionals from a variety of endeavors to define marketing and you will likely receive variations on two or three different themes. Retailers, B-to-B enterprises, service providers, Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurial start-ups – and everything in between -- often view, plan and budget for marketing from unique perspectives.

But all of us, unique perspectives notwithstanding, count on our marketing investments to do one thing: contribute to a change – in awareness, in behavior, in loyalty, in habits or routines.

You may not think of or define marketing as an agent of change, but consider it. Regardless of the deliverable, from a single effort to an entire campaign, marketing is designed to instigate some type of change in the status quo. It may be about transforming a target into a client, expanding a customer’s use of your product/service line, creating awareness, or deepening loyalty to a brand. But effective marketing is, at its core, an agent of change.

Enter “Social Media”

I don’t believe any single solution is the holy grail of marketing; but the so-called “social media” options present marketers a new level of access to a critical dynamic of change – the oft overlooked (or ignored) element of dialogue.

Simply put, dialogue is the life-blood of enduring change. One-off decisions and temporary digressions can be precipitated by an event, an incentive or a compelling message. Dynamic campaigns can certainly win customers. But lasting change – the kind that lies at the heart of repeat business and customer loyalty – is the byproduct of feedback, conversations and the dialogue attendant to shared experiences. And “Social” provides a platform for numerous approaches to each of these activities.

We have long recognized the potential impact of “word-of-mouth” marketing. Get satisfied clients/customers talking about their experience with your product or service, and the marketing game changes. No longer is it the voice of the company extolling benefits; customer-originated messages have authenticity. Shared experiences resonate.

Add the element of actual real-time feedback, and you’ve tapped into the real marketing potential of social media; now you’re building relationships. And relationships trump everything. Relationship is the context for turst. Conversations that allow for questions and answers, musings, what-ifs, and even the airing of a problem – this kind of dialogue is the DNA of relationships that grow and thrive.

So when you wonder about the role of social media in a marketing strategy…or how to introduce the idea to leaders in your company…or what the best practices might be with respect to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, remember the seed that eventually gives rise to the most pervasive and enduring change your market will ever know: today’s game-changing marketing plans create shared experiences, encourage on-going dialogue, and build communities with clients and 

The Marketing Tool That Transcends Message & Media

Today’s marketing professional has an impressive tool kit at the ready. In addition to the staples of the past half-century or so, technology has created a whole new set that seductively promises to change the arithmetic and shrink things to manageable size. Where the world used to be an accessible oyster for those with the budget, today’s venture can play in the global arena with even the scarcest of resources.

Okay -- truth be told, many of us are still wrestling with pieces of the new tool-set. (Please submit all workable Social Media marketing strategies.)

But while in pursuit of promising new connections in an undeniably dynamic marketplace, it may be timely to revisit the tool that has always shaped, and will again change the discussion.

Spot The Common Thread

Spend a few minutes visiting with a lawyer or a doctor who built a successful practice twenty-five or thirty years ago. Turn the discussion to how the practice was developed and the response will be something close to “I did good work; the word spread; and the practice grew.”

Find a retailer whose product isn’t the cheapest, but for whom customers exhibit intense loyalty. (Yes, they exist.)

Or talk to a client of one of Carl Sewell’s auto dealerships in Dallas, Texas where the idea is to transcend selling a car today in favor of creating a customer for life. (If you haven’t read it, the book is a “must read.”)

The thread that runs through these and a relative handful of other examples is the importance of the client/customer experience.

While companies invest heavily in innovation, go-to-market strategies, creative marketing communication and reward mechanisms, are we spending more than an afterthought on the experience clients (or targets) have when engaged by even the intangible aspects of a company. Certainly, benchmarks exist for creative budgets, production costs and even customer “loyalty” initiative. But when it comes to what prospective customers actually experience, otherwise sophisticated strategies focus on comfy waiting room chairs, a cup of cappuccino or a “we appreciate your business” flyer stuffed in with an invoice or statement.

I should confess that I’m pretty big on comfortable waiting areas and a good cup of cappuccino. That said, if we believe a handful of tactics are the things that engage the market, and build enduring relationships, we have not learned the age-old and most basic lesson of successful marketing endeavors.

If the objective is to move one round of widget production, empty shelves of current inventory, sell one car, or sign one consulting contract, you likely quit reading a couple of hundred words ago.

But for every enterprise interested in creating customers for life -- or, maybe even more valuable, loyal advocates for your brand -- effective marketing comes down to what customers/clients/prospects experience when they encounter your company, product or service. This is really the essence of brand: is what your clients and targets experience consistent with what your message promises? Does the experience transcend or fall short of expectations?

There is little doubt that creative genius is able to engage for a season. But those who seed the stuff that turns to word-of-mouth muscle believe in creating, and invest in delivering an ongoing experience.

Market shifts and media innovations will inevitably distract many. Those focused on engaging the market in the experiences from which enduring relationships are born are the companies that will be left standing.

The Role of Proactive Listening in Social Media

Here’s the problem: we believe that once we’ve delivered a message -- written it, recorded it, spoken it aloud, hit “SEND” or (truth be told) even outlined it in bullet-form -- that we have Communicated. Put another way (and maybe a bit more to the point), when we think about communicating, we inevitably think about message delivery.

Conventional wisdom views “Great Communicators” as those gifted in the art of articulation. When it comes to marketing communication, we seek a wordsmith, an award-winning designer, and those able to grab an audience by the eye and ear, create and produce at the highest level...and deliver the message.

Enter the "Social Media."

View social media marketing tools through conventional eyes -- that is, see them primarily as message delivery vehicles -- and you sacrifice the opportunity to organically add a new dimension to your marketing efforts. Am I the only one who, upon first hearing about Twitter, scoffed -- wondering what value could be contained in 140 character limit for each message? How profound or poetic might one be when brevity is enforced? (My appreciation for Emily Dickinson notwithstanding.)

Clueless. Because I was thinking only in terms of delivering my message.

And while i may be slow, i did eventually come to realize that the real power of social media is that listening is at its core.

In fact, unlock the art of proactive listening in the social media, and you’ll discover a way to connect with your audience that will change your marketing -- both in terms of strategy, and execution.

To that end, here are a three ideas on how to use social media to proactively listen.

1. Master two or three questions. That's all it takes. Pose the right query to followers, fans and even foes, and you tap into the best marketing research available -- insight into what matters most to your clients/customers and targets, directly from them. And never underestimate the potential of a 140 character survey.

2. Build a Feedback mechanism. What this ends up looking like will depend on the tool, but you can bet your unhappy customers will utilize every tool at their disposal (remember the United Breaks Guitars video?). Be proactive and facilitate (encourage) conversations about your product or service -- the good and not so good -- and you'll hear about problems and opportunities in real time. This "conversation-context" is significantly more productive than a complaint box or traditional reactive approach to customer service. (By the way -- defensiveness has no place in a proactive feedback mechansim. Avoid it at all costs.)

3. Spend more time taking content in than you do dispensing your message. There is, no doubt, a more poetic way to articulate that idea; but we'll forgo poetry in favor of connecting. You get the idea. Listen (much) more than you speak. Read more than you write. I've seen varying suggestions as to effective ratios, and don't profess to have a proven formula. I think in terms of no more than 1 in 5 communication efforts revolving around a marketing message. I know a few folks who hit more like 1 in 10 when it comes to Twitter.

Three ideas. I'd appreciate hearing yours.

Imagine a marketing strategy built around on-going proactive listening. No telling how the marketplace might change!