By Heidi Pozzo
It is very easy to stay at your desk. The emails flood your inbox every day. There are always fires burning somewhere. The list of meetings is long. People call regularly needing a variety of things, always urgent. But the thing is, you are in a leadership position and you can’t lead while sitting at your desk all day.
If you are new to leadership, this may not be a natural instinct, particularly if you are in functional roles. Business is all about people. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, there are people that are your employees, your customers and your stakeholders. To be effective, you need to get out of your office and meet the people who determine the success of your company. Remember, communication is a two way street. You have the opportunity to understand what is important to the people you are meeting with and how the business runs (from an internal and external perspective). You also have the opportunity to share key goals and topics that everyone needs to know. In this article, I’ll outline people that you should be speaking with on a regular basis.
Visit Your Operations
Your operations are why you are there, so you should know intimately what they are about. So, ask key operations leads for a tour. In putting together the tour, explain that you would like to:
- Understand how the end to end process of creating the product or service works
- Speak with the people producing the products or services and ask them what goes well and where there are challenges, and why they like working there/what they are most proud of
- Watch for a while to see how smoothly or not things run
- Talk about the key objectives for the company – the things you want all employees to know
- Encourage people to ask you questions
- Anything else that your contact believes is beneficial
If you have multiple locations, visit each one on a regular basis. Speak with each location and that will build in some accountability as you have committed to the visit. The only way this will happen is if you put it on your calendar. If you make it a practice to get around and speak with the people, you will learn a lot, build relationships and understand how you can better support your people and the business. You will also be able reinforce the goals and objectives of the company.
Visit with Customers
Many companies want you to understand how their business runs, that they are important to you, and how best you can work together. Your sales lead will have a perspective on which customers would make the best sense to visit and when. They will also be able to provide you with background on the customer before your visit, provide any key points to stress with the customer and be your partner in the visit. You should also understand the profitability and relationship of that customer.
With customers, you should understand:
- Why they choose you over your competitors
- What is important to them
- How their customers use their products
- Any concerns or suggestions they have
- What your business is trying to accomplish
- Specific points your sales team highlights
Understand the Perspectives of your Stakeholders
Investors and lenders have expectations of the company that include achieving certain levels of profitability and not running afoul of a series of measures that are designed to raise a flag if the business starts getting into trouble (these are known as covenants). They expect the business to do what it says it will do. The only way you know what those expectations are is to meet with them. The CEO and CFO manage these relationships. It is important that each of the key leaders in the business understand the expectations and participate in meetings on a periodic basis as appropriate.
Beyond understanding what the expectations are, you need to manage the relationship. Meet quarterly to go through the results, talk about the progress of the business, key initiatives that will grow the business, etc. Your stakeholders will be happy if you keep them posted and you do what you say you are going to do. If you don’t communicate and miss, you may find that it is difficult to get the capital you need to run the business. And you will have more attention than you want.
Get to Know the People in the Back Office
You may be surprised to learn what people hear in places that you might not expect. The accounts receivable department speaks with customers every day. Human resources can gauge turnover problems or reputation in the market. Accounts payable talks to suppliers. I could go on, but you get the idea. Walking through the various departments that are not sales or operations can be enlightening and help you run the business better. Schedule some time to walk through a different area each week and just speak to the people in the same manner as the operations section above. It will be enlightening.
Get to Know Your Key Suppliers
Your suppliers can make the difference in whether you have what you need to provide a product or a service. As your business flexes up and down over time, how well you know and work with your suppliers will determine how successful you are in delivering on the expectations of your customers. Your suppliers will have insight into how well your business is running and will see things you may not. They may also have ideas on how to improve the operations of your business. The head of Sourcing/Procurement can help you meet with key suppliers.
When you meet with them, understand:
- Why they enjoy doing business with you
- What can make the relationship even stronger
- Their perspective on the market
- How their business is going
- Key points the head of Sourcing believes are relevant to discuss
Call to Action
Knowing the people and their perspectives is critical to being successful as a leader and a business. If you are a top leader in your business, the actions above should be at lease 25% of your time. To make that happen you need to make it a priority otherwise it won’t happen. Each week, make sure you have time blocked out on your calendar to spend time with each of the groups above. This is an opportunity not only to get to know the people and their expectations, but also to share the goals of the company and how everyone can contribute. When was the last time you got out to see the people? Will you make it a priority in your day? You can start today. What are you waiting for?
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Copyright © 2017 Heidi Pozzo – All Rights Reserved
Permission is granted to reprint this article in your newsletter or magazine with the following byline and click-able link:
Heidi Pozzo, The High Performance Igniter, works with leaders and businesses to achieve high performing status. To find out more about her services,
visit www.heidipozzo.com
or call 360-355-7862.
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