I’m a fan of Success magazine (www.success.com). The monthly infusion of ideas and inspiration is a great source of personal and professional development.

A recent edition featured an interview with Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, a $200 billion company. McDermott’s story of how he went from corner store (buying the local deli when he was just 16!) to corner suite is energizing.

Yet what stood out most for me was his definition of leadership. For all that is written about what leaders do and what traits they possess, the crux of it comes down to this:

Leadership is the art of developing followership.

Ultimately, it’s not about you. It’s about them.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Karl Lagerfeld is an icon in the world of fashion design. Creative director at Chanel (for over 30 years), Fendi (for 50 years!), as well as his own fashion house, Lagerfeld is as relevant today as he was decades ago.

How? How is it that Lagerfeld has stayed at the cutting edge, especially in an industry as fickle as fashion?

First, despite his countless designs, innovations and accolades, he is utterly unsentimental about the past. He completely embraces the now and is forward-looking to the extreme. As a writer in the Financial Times put it, “For Lagerfeld, nostalgia is creative poison.”

In his own words, “I’m always into the next step. I’m interested in what’s going on, not what has happened. I never look at the archives. I hate archives!”

Second, his work is his passion and he relentlessly immerses himself in it. Lagerfeld recently staged two couture shows in Paris – one for Chanel, one for Fendi – in a single week. In the world of fashion that is a Herculean task. Clearly this is someone who is not just riding out the wave.

Are you constantly looking forward? Is your work your passion? Are you immersed in it? And as a result: Will you remain relevant?

Your thoughts?

Michael

Two weeks ago I wrote about how one of my clients has embraced empathy as core to their business strategy. How seeing through customers’ eyes, thinking in their minds, and feeling with their hearts will allow them to interact, connect and satisfy needs at a much deeper level.

So of course the visionaries at Facebook have just announced a breathtakingly efficient way to accomplish these same things.

Click a button.

That’s right. If you should experience a death in the family, all I have to do for you to be deeply touched by how I share in your suffering is click. If only the Buddha had had such a tool.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains:

“What people really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment.”

Yes, not every moment is a good moment.

And the reactions?

Susan Pinker in The Globe and Mail writes:

“Clicking an icon on Facebook to express empathy has to be the laziest, most inadequate reaction to other people’s misfortune. You could call and listen to what’s wrong. Better still, invite them over for a meal. If they’re not up to going out, you could bring over their favourite foods, send flowers or a handwritten note. An e-mail offering sympathy might be appreciated if you’re far away and the message is heartfelt. In it you could ask how you can help.”

Roman Krznaric in The Guardian weighs in:

“Clicking a button as an act of empathy represents the worst kind of digital slacktivism. It substitutes genuine action in the real world for a momentary online act that might salve the conscience but does little else.”

Gail Rosenblum of The Minneapolis Star Tribune adds:

“Facebook already has a wonderful, and underutilized, empathy button. It’s called “log out,” and it’s very easy to use. You simply click on it, and you immediately return to the real world, which is full of people who likely aren’t always enjoying good moments.”

Maybe I should be celebrating this. If companies adopt this click-to-empathize approach, then I’m betting the farm that my client’s commitment to empathy sets them apart in a big way.

Your thoughts?

Michael

If you’re a retail business that sells what a bunch of other companies sell, how do you stand out? How do you make yourself desirably different?

One of our clients provides material solutions for builders, contractors and vineyard operators. A family-owned business for 60 years, they are clear about what resonates with both customers and employees, and what helps them effectively compete.

Empathy. Seeing through others’ eyes, thinking in their minds, and feeling with their hearts. Much more than just pointing the customer to where a product is, it means understanding what the customer is working on, why they are working on it, what challenges they face, and what they are thinking and feeling about it all. That’s empathy.

Sure, some customers in some situations just want a quick grab-and-go. That’s okay. Empathy also means recognizing this and not holding the customer up by engaging in unwanted conversation. It’s all about understanding what the customer wants and needs.

If you truly empathize – with your customers, employees, colleagues, suppliers, or any stakeholder – then you can connect and satisfy needs at a much deeper level.

Empathy. Not your typical business strategy. But an effective one.

Your thoughts?

Michael

There are at least three reasons you might want to trash / tear-up / blow-up your company “values.” Ready?

1) Without looking at any reference material … what are your company values?

If you don’t know, aren’t sure, or struggle to answer, then we’ve identified the first reason. If they are truly values that are core to your company, shouldn’t you and your leadership team – in fact, every employee – know them at the drop of a hat?

2) Do you know how well your company is living the values?

If you don’t have a way of knowing whether the values are being lived or are simply words on a piece of paper, then are they really that important? And how could you possibly manage them?

3) Do you test for values in your selection process?

If it’s hit-or-miss whether new employees share the values of the company, then can you really call them company values? Or should they more accurately be called company “hopes and prayers”?

So, how did you do?

If you know your company values, monitor them, manage them and select for them, then, yes, you can keep them. However, if you don’t … it’s time to open up the trash bin.

Your thoughts?

Michael

While sports analogies may be overused in business, there is one analogy I am constantly reminded of that applies perfectly: the biggest threat to successful teams is also the biggest threat to successful organizations.

Complacency.

Championship-winning coaches say it is their greatest fear. Coaches of teams that sustain a high level of success say it only gets harder to avoid. Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who has led his teams to six straight playoff appearances and a Super Bowl victory, was asked recently about sticking with a winning formula.

“You’re ignorant, foolish, dumb as a rock to think that. If you don’t continue to try to get better, improve yourself, you’re going to get your ass kicked.

Exactly as true in business as it is in sports. If you get intoxicated by success, if you succumb to complacency, you’re going to get your ass kicked.

Your thoughts?

Michael

You’ve experienced failure. And you’ll experience more failure. That’s okay, as long as you learn from your experience and don’t repeat what led to failure.

So what’s the best way to fail? Fast. Failing fast beats failing slow for three reasons:

1) It Accelerates Adaptation – Organizations that learn and adapt are organizations that endure. The faster you learn what works, what doesn’t, and why, the faster you can adapt.

2) It Costs Less – When you fail fast you don’t keep throwing good money after bad. Your total cost is less. Consider your initial cost an investment in your organization’s education.

3) It’s Easier to Move On – The longer you play a losing hand the more invested you are psychologically, and the more difficult it is to fold. Failing fast avoids this trap.

Failures can be constructive. Just make sure you get the most out of them and put the least into them. Fail fast.

Your thoughts?

Michael

(This is the 3^rd in a series of blogs about John Race, mountain guide and co-owner of Northwest Mountain School, who recently led two of my nephews and me up Mt. Baker in Washington State.)

It’s easy to set goals. And it’s just as easy to set bad goals. In business, pursuing rapid growth without sufficient money or infrastructure can be fatal. When striving to climb a mountain, not having the right knowledge, equipment or capabilities can also be fatal.

The goal isn’t to set goals. It’s to set good goals.

Set Good Goals
Despite John’s efforts to pre-qualify his clients, in some cases they simply aren’t capable of reaching the summit. As a responsible leader John knows that their goal has to be subordinate to his goal: safety. And not just their physical safety, but psychological safety. John doesn’t want his clients so demoralized or beaten down that they hate their experience. They don’t have to love it – many clients are prepared for the hardships of mountain climbing – but there’s nothing to be gained from them hating it. When his clients just aren’t up to it, John’s job becomes one of helping them reorient their goals to what is achievable and challenging for them.

Conditions can Change; Goals can Change
In a dynamic environment, whether in the mountains or in business, favorable conditions can quickly turn unfavorable, and vice versa. As a result, the consequences of pursing a goal can change dramatically. John constantly monitors the weather and conditions, reassesses the potential consequences, and, when necessary, leads his clients through a decision-making process to recalibrate their goals.

On Achievement and Self-Esteem
While protecting his clients against unrealistic goals, John also isn’t a fan of trivializing goals, or the everyone-gets-a-ribbon approach to building self-esteem. In his world, self-esteem is a by-product of good goals, targeted effort, and achievement. It’s experiencing the relationship between the three that builds confidence and ultimately self-esteem.

Yes, it’s easy to set goals. But remember, the goal isn’t simply to set goals.

Next week: Responsible Leadership: It’s Easy to Lead if …

Your thoughts?

Michael

Sammy Hagar rocks. As the former lead singer of Van Halen – at one time the biggest rock band in the world – Hagar knows success.

But he’s never taken it for granted.

“Truthfully, I never felt secure about my music. I always thought, boy, as big as you are today, you may be history tomorrow. I’ve seen this happen time and time again.”

Lesson 1: Never Get Complacent

Early in his music career he began to invest in businesses. He opened Cabo Wabo, a restaurant bar in Cabo San Lucas, because he thought people would gravitate to a tequila bar. And he started making his own tequila when he stumbled onto the best he had ever tasted and realized most people hadn’t experienced tequila that good.

When his current wife took him to see Jimmy Buffett – not exactly Van Halen-style rock – Hagar realized he could create a lifestyle for his fans much like Buffett had done for his.

“We beach all day, eat tacos for dinner, drink tequila. I get onstage and play. That’s it.

Lesson 2: Opportunities are everywhere – if you’re open to seeing them

Hagar hired an executive from foodservice operator HMS Host to oversee his airport-based Sammy’s Beach Bar & Grill restaurants. And when he sold his tequila company to Campari (for over $90 million!) and started a Maui-based rum company, he brought in a Seagram’s executive to run it.

Why?

“My strategy for running companies successfully is to find the right guy.”

Lesson 3: Find the right people

When his mother advised him as a boy that, “If you’re going to be in the music business, then you have to save your money and invest it properly because all those guys end up alcoholics, drug addicts and broke,” Sammy paid attention.

Like I said, Sammy rocks.

Your thoughts?

Michael

You want to build top-of-mind awareness for your company, products and services. You want customers knowing about you and thinking of you when their time-of-need comes. You want to build mindshare.

Stop. There’s something more important.

It’s Heartshare. How customers feel about your company, products and services. And just as important, how they feel about themselves when they engage you.

When the time comes to buy, 50% of the decision making process is emotional. This, according to research involving over 30,000 people conducted by Level 5.

Don’t focus simply on building mindshare. Build heartshare. Appeal to what’s meaningful to them. What do they value? What do they care about? What is essential to who they are? Connect with the answers to those questions and now you’re building something more deep-rooted and enduring than mindshare.

You’re building heartshare.

Your thoughts?

Michael

A commonly held assumption is that continuous growth should be the goal of every business. Yet a recent article on Inc.com, Lessons from the Private Equity Playbook, makes the case for shrinking your business – in the short term – as a means to greater growth in the long term.

When a private equity (PE) firm acquires a business the first thing it often does is to eliminate business units, stores, product lines, and/or people that are thought to add little or no value. Short-term revenue is sacrificed. Why? To consolidate focus and resources in areas with higher potential for both revenue and profit growth.

How do PE-backed companies perform? A WSJ.com article reported that in all but one of the past six quarters, revenue growth for PE-backed, mid-market companies exceeded that of their non-PE counterparts by at least 24%. And the Inc.com article reported that in 2014 mid-market companies backed by PE firms grew jobs by 6.2% compared to 4.5% for companies not backed by PE firms.

So, sometimes you have to shrink to grow. And if your company isn’t backed by a PE firm, you might want to act as if you were.

Your thoughts?

Michael

There’s a way-too-academic debate going on in the management literature about what strategy is and is not. In a recent Harvard Business Review article (https://hbr.org/2015/03/stop-distinguishing-between-execution-and-strategy), Roger Martin, a well-regarded management thinker, exhorts us to “stop distinguishing between execution and strategy.”

“It’s impossible to have a good strategy poorly executed,” he claims. Oh really? Good strategies are automatically well executed?

But that’s not what Martin means. He continues, “… execution actually is strategy – trying to separate the two only leads to confusion.” Well, there’s certainly confusion! Especially since poor execution, by Martin’s definition, makes a strategy a poor strategy.

Many leaders have told me of strategies that failed when they first attempted to implement them, yet succeeded on the second attempt. Why? Because of the lessons learned from the first attempt. So did a poor strategy suddenly become a good strategy?

No, strategy is not the same as execution. Your strategy captures what you aspire to, why, and how you intend to achieve it. Execution translates that framework into an actionable plan and applies mechanisms to track, manage and recalibrate that plan.

Success requires a good strategy that is well executed. It is a critical distinction.

Your thoughts?

Michael