Grolistic

3 Core Values of Exceptional Leaders

Bob Schultek
Author of 
The Gauntlet

Leaders are judged to be genuine when their actions are guided by their personal core values. These three values are particularly relevant for leaders who seek to be exceptional:

Accountability. When there is a problem, accountable leaders look first to themselves. They accept responsibility for the consequences of their decisions. They credit their team when things go well, and when problems arise, accept the responsibility rather than blaming the team. When encouraging autonomy, these leaders sustain their responsibility to guide their more self-directed personnel, highlighting the linkage between empowerment and accountability.

Fairness. The willingness to treat everyone with respect defines fairness and marks the exceptional leader. Everyone wants to be seen and heard, and to have a chance to make a difference. These leaders provide opportunities for team members to contribute ideas or improve a process, enabling self-respect and dignity to grow in those they lead. Those whose actions earn them self-respect and dignity expect more from themselves and seek additional ways to make a difference. They become the advocates that leaders need to drive productive change.

Reliability. Reliable leaders ensure that their teams understand their expectations, about goals and behaviors. When teams know what a leader expects, and the leader consistently operates in accordance with […]

By |April 25th, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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The Law of Thirds

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

One of the laws governing change initiatives states that those impacted by a change separate into three groups.

One third of the group will immediately support the change. They are the spark that launches it and the energy that sustains it. They ask, “what if?” or “why?” and they’re the first to volunteer with an eager, “I’ll do it.” They are generous with their time and talent, putting in more than they take out, and surprising everyone with their level of commitment.

One third of the group will immediately reject the change. They are the doubters, paralyzed by fear of what the change could bring. They are first to voice objections, barriers and a long list of excuses why the change won’t work. They absorb the energy created by those that advocate for the change, undermining momentum until a positive pace of progress overwhelms them.

The final third are fence-sitters, passive bystanders who attend the meetings and drink the coffee, but do little to add energy to the initiative. They wait to see which group is winning before choosing a side. For a change initiative to succeed, they are the key group that the advocates must win over.

As senior leaders driving change, […]

By |April 17th, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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3 Behaviors That Reveal Leadership Credibility

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

When asked in several studies how they judge a leader, employees cite attributes like vision, experience, communication skills and others; but consistently, the dominant response is credibility.

When pressed to define “credibility,” people typically reply with a phrase like: “they walk the talk.” The consistency with which a leader’s actions align with his or her words defines leadership credibility.

These 3 behaviors reveal how consistently you act in accordance with your words and values:

1. How you spend your time.
The way you allocate your time sends a message. For example, if collaboration is a core value, then a portion of your time should involve directly engaging with others to innovate, improve or solve problems.
2. How you ask questions.
Words are powerful so choose them carefully. The questions you ask can stimulate action in a specific direction. To encourage increased collaboration, you might regularly ask each member of your team to describe the actions he or she is taking to boost collaboration. In a team meeting, seek to maximize participation and raise awareness about the variety of options by soliciting responses from each team member. But don’t ask questions you’re not prepared to answer yourself; you may need to share an example of your behavior to clarify what […]

By |April 10th, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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What is Discretionary Effort Worth?

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

When a qualified person does the job – completing obligations and achieving assigned goals with expected behavior, we recognize this as acceptable performance.

But when a person contributes more than the common standard, more than what’s expected, that’s discretionary effort.

While it can be a bit rare, leaders realize that inspiring this additional energy from those they lead is what makes change possible. If leaders cannot drive productive change that improves results, then they cannot succeed.

So, discretionary effort is worth a great deal…for the leader and for those who contribute above expectation.

For the leader, offering the challenge of discretionary effort produces more than results. It helps identify top performers and advocates needed to implement change. It provides an opportunity to discover which of these high performing individuals can lead others. And, it validates the leader’s credibility and competency.

For the investors of extra effort, the challenge provides an opportunity – to make a strategic contribution to the organization’s future, to be exceptional, to breakthrough and be recognized. Extraordinary contribution creates careers.
How much discretionary effort does your team exhibit?
 
How do you motivate discretionary effort?

By |April 3rd, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Inspiring Change

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

Improving results means tackling change. Change is hard work, demanding commitment, perseverance and discretionary effort.

Only the people in a business can change it, and they will invest their talent and energy to do so if they believe that their actions will make a difference.

Commitment, perseverance and discretionary effort cannot be commanded…they must be inspired.

Inspiration is possible when people believe that their work is meaningful, a realization that springs from an appreciation that their leaders are credible and supportive, consistently acting in accordance with their Company’s Purpose and Values.
How are you inspiring your people to commit, persevere and invest discretionary effort?
 
How consistently do you and your leadership team act in accordance
with your organization’s Purpose & Values?

By |March 27th, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Is This Business Sustainable?

Bob Schultek
Author of 
The Gauntlet

There are a multitude of models used to assess the sustainability of a business. Most evaluate strategy, performance, market growth potential, customer retention probability, governance and the management of human resources.

In a dynamic, competitive market, where customers believe they can find all they need on the internet, and where a competitive advantage built on technology cannot long be sustained, it’s an organization’s culture and people that constitute its most sustainable competitive advantage.

Harvard’s James Heskett argues that “Culture can account for up to half of the difference in operating profit between two organizations in the same business. Shaping a culture is one of a leader’s most important jobs; it can be ignored, but only for so long and at one’s peril.”

The culture of a business is a significant contributor to its success, but evaluating culture can be challenging, involving more qualitative than quantitative metrics. As a result, during a typical acquisition due diligence process, inadequate cultural assessments are the norm as most effort is invested in evaluating more easily measureable parameters. The consequences of a deficient appraisal of cultural impact on the business are significant – a greatly prolonged integration of the acquired organization, wasted time, energy and money, and […]

By |March 21st, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Is Your Promise Synching?

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

Your sales team is making promises that the rest of your organization is expected to fulfill. Are those who must deliver on these commitments prepared to do so? Is your promise to a customer synching with the operational resources necessary to satisfy the commitment?

The most productive strategy for increasing sales is to build enduring relationships with customers that generate more orders. Sustaining these relationships requires that your customers recognize you as a reliable partner, committed to their success. Failing to fulfill a promise made when an order was booked is the surest way to erode this trust; once the relationship is compromised, restoring the trust on which it was built will consume lots of time and energy, if it recovers at all.

The days are long gone when a CEO could urge a Sales leader to do what is necessary to secure more orders, and then promptly challenge the Production leader to increase productivity by limiting flexibility. Avoiding these mixed messages in a dynamic, competitive market, when it’s vital to sustain the shared accountability of a leadership team, is a key responsibility for a senior leader. Customers have many options available to meet their needs, so the CEO must remain engaged with core customers to understand what they value. Similarly, another key obligation […]

By |March 13th, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Leadership and Change

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

Leaders drive change. Whether reacting to an external challenge that threatens the business, or proactively disrupting the status quo to improve performance, leaders and change are inseparable.

The most visible leadership stories describe triumphs over trouble, departures from the past, doing what has never been done, or going where no one has ever been. Every story is about challenge and change.

The same is true for those who lead their businesses every day without notoriety – committed leaders like you, pursuing improvement at every level of your organization to earn sustainability and success. You may be challenging what is possible and pursuing a new opportunity, or fighting complacency by disrupting established practice in pursuit of improvement.

Wherever your change energy is directed, there will be uncertainty, disruption, fear and discomfort among those you lead. People do not readily embrace change. But leaders recognize these emotions as necessary ingredients in a change initiative, leveraging them to focus energy and to encourage their people to persevere in meeting the challenge.

Leaders who remain actively engaged in the change process influence and inspire those they lead to invest the required discretionary time and effort necessary to achieve targeted results, while avoiding a drift towards demotivation.

Leaders are expected […]

By |March 6th, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Two Directions for Culture

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

Culture tends to move in one of two directions, and as a leader who influences which path your organization and team will take, you have a decision to make. It’s a choice that impacts how you work with others in the organization and the investments you make in your business and yourself.

One path leads towards more openness and transparency. Turn the other direction for control and dependence.

Does your business benefit if your people are smarter, faster and more connected to one another and to your market than they used to be?

Are you hoping that those you serve become more informed, or is greater focus on conforming to the established standards more important?

Are you helping your people gain confidence and mastery in their work, or is fear of failure a better motivator?

Are you encouraging those you lead to pursue greater autonomy or less?

Do you want your people to feel comfortable offering suggestions, or are you concerned that doing so causes confusion and wastes time?

Do you seek productive change or more control?

Leaders and organizations follow one of these paths every day.  Will you pursue more openness or more control?

What’s your choice?

By |February 28th, 2018|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Transaction or Investment

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

When a customer requests a proposal, how do you respond?

If you propose a solution that merely resolves the stated problem, then you may relieve the customer’s immediate pain without ever discovering how your solution could help the customer succeed in the longer term. Your solution is a transaction, a one-time resolution that wastes an opportunity to reveal your organization’s broad experience and competency in a way that differentiates you in the eyes of the customer.

But if, prior to proposing your solution, you probe to discover why resolving the need helps the customer succeed, how solving this problem relieves the pain while supporting the customer’s goal achievement, then your solution becomes an investment in the customer’s future. Learning more about the customer’s current circumstances, and how their problem is constraining their progress, opens the door to a discussion that transforms your solution – from the resolution of a short-term pain into an opportunity to impact longer term success. It’s a discussion that enables you to leverage your portfolio of experience, expertise and competency, revealing your distinctiveness and your commitment to the customer’s success.

Acting with urgency to relieve a customer’s pain faster than the competition generates transactional value in the customer’s eyes, and it feels […]

By |February 21st, 2018|Grolistic|0 Comments
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