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Successful Leadership has three components: Identify the goal;
Outline the path; Build consensus and positive team dynamics.
Fall 2003
Volume I, Issue 4
The Latimer Group is solely focused on helping
executives and sales
professionals develop powerful and persuasive communication skills.
Our programs are customized and specifically designed to create
authentic presentations delivered in the voice of the speaker.
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Serving Multiple Masters - The Leadership Challenge
If you only want to know who I am, I'll tell you in two words.
I am the servant of my master.
- Truffaldino, from Goldoni's The Servant of
Two Masters, Act I, Scene 1
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There are many ways to define Leadership. Like any intangible
quality, it will mean different things to different people, mostly
based on their own personal experience. Here is my definition: in
its most basic form, Leadership consists of providing your
organization with an achievable goal and a path to that goal.
Furthermore, Leadership requires building alignment around the goal
and the path, while fostering a positive group dynamic.
I recently returned from Cowes, England where I competed in the
British-American Cup. The BA Cup is a bi-annual sailing regatta
between the US and the UK. It is the oldest and one of the most
prestigious team racing events in the world. There were twelve of us
on the team and I served as team captain, as I also did for the 2001
team. We successfully defended the Cup with a narrow and exciting
victory over the UK team.
In my three years as team captain, one of my greatest challenges
has been leadership communication. It has not always been easy to
communicate with my teammates. I was surrounded by eleven highly
successful and motivated sailors, each with an entirely distinct
personality and each possessing his own conception of the path to,
and recipe for, success. We had plenty of sailing talent, but unless
we could build alignment around the best way to prepare and the
details of our on-the-water strategy, our talent would not make the
difference.
I am absolutely certain that, in any endeavor, a good team
dynamic will determine the potential for success, and a significant
aspect of Leadership is building that dynamic. In the end, our team
won the BA Cup because we were talented and well-practiced - but we
also believed in and respected each other. When the regatta came
down to the final and deciding race, our functional team dynamic
allowed us to focus on the task and perform at a high level, free of
nerves and full of confidence. We won the last race in convincing
fashion and accomplished what had not been done in more than 20
years - clinch the BA Cup on the opposing team's home waters.
As I think about my experience in leading successful BA Cup teams
and apply it to my professional life, a few parallels are clear: my
primary responsibility as team captain is the same for any business
leader - identify the goals, define a strategy to achieve the goals,
and communicate with multiple audiences to achieve alignment and
consensus. Once the goal and the path are agreed upon, a leader
needs to keep the group aligned around that path. In the business
world there are multiple stakeholders - board members, shareholders,
and employees to name three - and each will be focused on different
issues and goals. But in each case, the business leader must
accomplish the same thing with each audience - build a functional
team dynamic with alignment around where the company is now, where
it is going and how it is going to get there.
Communicating effectively with any single audience is no easy
task and each distinct member of that audience will have his or her
own needs. But communicating with only one audience or affinity
group allows some focus. A salesperson, for example, has one primary
audience - customers. If the salesperson can communicate effectively
with that audience and sell the product, he or she will be
successful.
The communication demands on the business leader are far more
complex. Imagine this scenario. You are the CEO of a publicly-held
company, and you have a busy day ahead of you. The fiscal year has
just ended and there are many constituencies who are eager to hear
about the organization's performance and strategy, and your vision
for the coming year. You are scheduled to present to the Board of
Directors in the morning. Over lunch, you will speak to your
employees in a town hall style meeting. In the afternoon, you will
be the keynote speaker in the annual shareholder meeting. In the
evening, there will be a company party, attended by several members
of the media, to kick off your product launch for the coming year.
You will host the event and be expected to give a welcome toast.
In your morning Board meeting, you give a formal presentation,
complete with a high-tech slide show. This audience is concerned
with high-level, performance-oriented information, strategic
direction and risk - both the company's and their own.
In your mid-day employee meeting, you speak more casually with a
few notes on a card as you work your way around the room, jacket
off, sleeves rolled up. This audience also cares about performance -
they have company stock in their 401K. However, they are equally
concerned about your vision for the company and how that vision will
affect them - job security, benefits, and career development.
In the afternoon shareholder meeting, you return to a formal
speaking environment, but with more focus on Q&A. Unlike the Board
meeting, you don't know everyone in the audience and predicting
questions will be more difficult. This audience is primarily
concerned with shareholder value; they care more about the stock
than about the company, a significant difference.
The evening event is intended to be a celebration, but you can't
relax. The spotlight is on you. You need to work the room, hold
meaningful conversation, maintain eye contact and apparent interest
in every conversation, despite the fact that you are exhausted. You
need to convey confidence and excitement, and deliver a seemingly
impromptu welcome toast. You need to remember names and titles.
I have both exaggerated and simplified this example to make my
point, but the point remains nonetheless. The successful business
leader speaks in a variety of formats, to a variety of audiences,
and in all cases must speak authentically, in his or her own voice.
The successful leader speaks to each member of the audience in ways
he or she can understand, and most importantly builds alignment
around where the company is now, where the company is going and how
it is going to get there.
There are many ways to define Leadership, but if you cannot
communicate with your multiple "masters," all your other Leadership
skills will leave you short of the finish line.
Dean M. Brenner
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© 2003 The Latimer Group. All Rights Reserved.
Dean M. Brenner -
The Latimer Group: 203.265.4344.
Feedback or comments: dmbrenner@thelatimergroup.com.
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