Tip of the Spear Ventures

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leadership challenge

The Leadership Challenge: Active Listening – 3 Tips!

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The Point: You might be listening, but do you really hear what your stakeholders are saying? At Tip of the Spear we frequently pose this question to the leaders we work with in our Business Advisory Services. The answers we receive are unfortunately shocking (and not in a good way!) Besides, what’s at stake if you don’t listen effectively as a leader? Only everything! So in this post, we set out to explore the leadership challenge of Active Listening and provide 3 tips… Enjoy!

Leadership Challenge Active Listening 3 Tips

Active Listening by Carl Rogers

Active listening or reflective listening was originally defined by noted psychologist Carl R. Rogers. The basics of active listening are to put ones concerns, attitudes and ideas to one-side while listening to others. The theory goes that without these distractions one will be able to observe not only the conscious signals displayed by others, but the unconscious ones as well. Therein you’ll be able to identify the true meaning behind the words that are being spoken.

Typically, active listening is reflected in the following interaction/behavior elements:

  • Providing your undivided attention
  • Encouraging the other party to continue
  • Restarting a potentially stalled conversation
  • Self-disclosing with the desire for reassurance
  • Knowledge improvement, confirmation, and/or correction
  • Connecting the dots in a loosely structured conversation
  • Insight improvement
  • Rapport building

I Listen, Therefore I Hear?

So active listening typically comes down to hearing, and therein a comprehension of what is happening/when. But more importantly than listening is equipping yourself to do something with what you just heard. With that in mind, a robust conversation can take place where ones actions are directly correlated with what was said, including clear comprehension not only of what was discussed, but what next steps will be.

So if so many leaders are listening, why do so many stakeholders feel that they are unheard?

3 Tips for Active Listening

I once participated in a seminar that had quite the magical leader presenting his view on everything active listening. He had three tips that I’ll share with you if you want to become a much more dynamic leader in the active listening space:

Active Listening Tip #3

You must focus intently on the speaker, so much so that you can see the color of their eyes clearly. Why is this important? The leader shared that if they maintained this level of focus, few distractions could interrupt their discussion.

Active Listening Tip #2

Repeat the keywords spoken internally to yourself three times. Why is this important? The leader shared that if he categorized the main topics by repeating them to themselves three times, a virtual card catalog of keywords was created for the conversation. A catalog that could be easily reviewed at a later date when called upon.

Active Listening Tip #1

You have to care. Why is this important? If you don’t care about the other person, the topic their speaking of, or about anything you will never retain anything with the conversation. It sounds simple, but Carl Rogers would have you put your own thoughts/concerns out of the way so as to be fully present in the given conversation.

 

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of active listening and provided 3 tips to help you as a leader. Most leaders contend that their role as a leader is to provide direction to their stakeholders. In maintaining this “telling” strategy, they rarely focus on the importance of not only what is being said but who is saying it.

 

Sam Palazzolo

PS – If you like this post, I hope you’ll share it with a colleague. I know you’d also like a copy of my latest book, titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader.” In this work I explore the challenges of leading yourself as a leader (and review a roadmap for success). Here’s a link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Tip-Spear-Sam-Palazzolo/dp/1981860436/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527785570&sr=8-1&keywords=sam+palazzolo+leading

The Leadership Challenge: Competitiveness

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The Point: If nothing truly happens in business until you sell something and the Darwinian principle of “only the strong survive” is alive and well in business today, we scratched our heads here at Tip of the Spear pondering exactly what role individual competitiveness plays across industry. After all, is your ability to compete a signal of success or certain doom/failure in business (and therefore in life)? So in this post, we’ll explore the leadership challenge of competitiveness… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge Competitiveness

Is Competitiveness an Economic Model?

Your ability to compete and win in business is a key differentiator for leaders that want to succeed. Have a good idea that you know will be the organization’s next homerun? You’d better be prepared to compete to get it on the agenda for the upcoming leadership meeting. Want to ensure that your monthly goals are met, even though it’s the final week of the month and you’re only 2/3 of the way there? Better fire-up the troops (yourself?) and get those competitive juices flowing STAT!

But what is it all worth, and why exert the effort? After all, aren’t there 12 months in a year (So what if we miss one month’s goals as long as we achieve the annual?) The truth is that while you can’t build a successful leadership career in one-month, the converse relationship of undoing a career can occur in a single moment (NOT the extended timeline of a 30+ day month!)

When it comes to career path success, a leader today will share with you that success can only come through successful competitiveness versus their peers. There are only so many “slots” on the career pyramid at the top to be had. Regardless of the “flatness” of your organization, there are/will always be more people clambering for these leadership roles than there are spots available to house them all. In other words, it’s a matter of economic supply and demand with competitiveness playing the differentiating factor.

Competitiveness Craziness

Amazon reached headline state for all the wrong reasons regarding competitiveness not too long ago. In 2015, the New York Times wrote how workers at Amazon often “complained about 80-hour work weeks, interrupted vacations, coworker sabotage, and little tolerance even for those struggling with life-threatening illnesses or family tragedies.” Worse yet, those that went out on maternity leave were left little time for maternity duties (as work was expected to still maintain a priority, especially seeing how there were countless others more than willing to take the place of those vacating).

Even the Whitehouse has been the subject of competitiveness craziness. Under the Jimmy Carter administration, an edict of spending more time in the evening with family was levied. However, most chose to work late into the evening as opposed to letting peer competitors pass them by in the dog-eat-dog world that is politics.

I’m a Leader… How Do I Become More Competitive?

I worked with a client that had a “Want to Move Up? Screw Up!” policy whereby in order to achieve a promotion, the leader would have to essentially make a mistake (potentially costing the organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars!) The organizational leaders questioned competitiveness, and instead rewarded those that in their eyes “put themselves out there for the sake of innovation where others did not.” With organizational politics at fever-pitch levels, what then is the poor high-potential future leader to do?

SUMMARY

It’s important to know the culture of the organization at which you are competing. Know that organizational leaders reward the “bowl people over” theory of competitiveness? Begin bowling others over for success! See that “slow and steady wins the race” at your firm? Then curtail competiveness (but still ensure that you end up in the winner’s circle at the end of the race!) There simply is no “One Size Fits All” rule here when it comes to competitiveness, but culture identification is key to success.

 

Sam Palazzolo

 

PS – If you enjoyed this post on the leadership challenge of competitiveness, then I know you’ll enjoy my new book, “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader” It’s filled with antidotes to allow you to succeed on your leadership journey. Click the hyperlink above (or here: www.LeadingattheTipoftheSpear.com)

 

The Leadership Challenge: Ownership Mentality

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The Point: At Tip of the Spear Ventures, we believe in leading from the front… Not the middle, and certainly not from the rear. This leading from the front-mentality is one that we encourage our Business Advisory Service clients (M&A | Sales/BizDev | Turnaround) to take as well. However, working with leaders that have a leading form the front focus is only part of the business-battle, and a minority one at that. You see, we’ve determined that the majority business-battle is to get stakeholders engaged with the Tip of the Spear Ventures’ leading from the front-mentality as well. At the heart of this conversation is the leadership challenge of ownership mentality. So in this post, we’ll explore what it takes to not only create and develop such ownership mentality, but ensure that it is sustained as well… Enjoy!

 The Leadership Challenge Ownership Mentality

The Sales Strategic Plan

I just met with another client working within our Business Advisory Services’ Sales/BizDev consultation offering at Tip of the Spear Ventures. After flushing out the Sales Strategic Plan and assessing a baseline measurement of right here/right now as well as where they’d like to go (Goals?), we started to build the Action Plan. Our Sales Strategic Plan action planning process consists of not only breaking down goals for implementation, but also taking into consideration contingency planning and the like (Time/Accountability commitments are most definitely established!)

Central focus of this Sales Strategic Planning process is a communication plan. We’ve typically seen the best-developed sales strategic plans lose tremendous momentum, and some even jumping the rails, when communication gaps are present (meaning communicating the vision of the plan is omitted/forgotten). I’m not certain about you/your company, but from my experience and the leaders I work with, mindreading is still a skill that is severely lacking in today’s workforce. If only there was a way to achieve clairvoyance on the way to achieving the Sales Strategic Plan… If only there was a way!

Ownership Mentality

One of the organizations we worked with had a great plan (No bragging on my part here, while we provide “curbs” to the Sales Strategic Plan “road” we in no way/shape/form create the plan without organizational leadership input). With Sales Strategic Plan finalized, timelines established, accountability accounted for, contingency plans planned, and communication channels outlined it looked like the organization would easily breeze through the plan execution and sustainment initiative. And then reality smacked us all down!

If You Build It, Will They Really Come?

One of the critical Sales Strategic Planning steps that went overlooked was will the employees (Stakeholders) actually buy in to the new goals and ensuing process changes required in order to accomplish said goals? While the stakeholders were more than up to the task from a skill-level qualification (Some would argue over-qualified), they were severely under-qualified when it came to their mentality (or attitude). You see, the stakeholders traditionally were given a parent-leadership model, whereby they were expected to execute the directives of leadership not with understanding/agreement, but because leadership told them to do so. The Sales Strategic Plan was in dire straights if this ownership mentality could not be created!

Gordon Ramsay Just Gave You 24 Hours… Uh Oh!

I just watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s “24 Hours to Hell & Back” series. I’m a huge fan of Gordon’s restaurants (he has several by Tip of the Spear Ventures HQ in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada USA). I’m an even bigger fan of his straight to the point leadership style (I would argue that he operates at the Tip of the Spear!) I mention the show because it dawned on me while writing this post that this show is not only challenging leaders to lead at the Tip of the Spear, but also employees/stakeholders.

In a crucial scene in each of the episodes, Gordon pulls the entire restaurant full of employees and customers over to his “Hell on Wheels” truck where they watch hidden camera footage of what exactly is wrong with each restaurant. After this review (and they’re often shocking!), Gordon declares to the restaurant staff that they should grab their phones, call their loved ones, and tell them that they are not coming home tonight because they have 24-hours to save the restaurant (In other words, he’s requiring them to pull an all-nighter like you used to do when cramming for an exam in school!) And then it hit me…

Why Would Your Employees Act Like an Owner?

While the pomp/circumstance of having Gordon Ramsay work with you/your business for what essentially boils down to a 24-hour window to accomplish the beginnings of a turnaround, why on Earth would an employee (stakeholder) take on such an owner mentality? There’s a good reason for the owners of a business to pull all-nighters in order to save their business… Because it’s their business! Employees (stakeholders) are just that… They are employees (stakeholders), and NOT owners. As such, what’s in it for them?

– Better employment terms? Doubtful

– More money? Uh, no

– A job that they can come to tomorrow? They can probably find a job somewhere else

– The chance to get yelled at by Gordon Ramsay himself? Most definitely!

SUMMARY

In summary, in this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of ownership mentality. While it’s critical to have all leaders and employees (stakeholders) on the same page in order to accomplish strategic plan goals, it’s even more important to identify just how leaders are going to foster an ownership mentality for all.

 

Sam Palazzolo

The Leadership Challenge: Turnover – 4 Tips!

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The Point: As leaders, we know that turnover is “bad” for business. We’ve all seen the stories and statistics regarding how employee turnover costs a business roughly two-times (2x) the staffer’s compensation according to industry expert estimates. But we started thinking here at Tip of the Spear, is there a time when the costs associated with employee turnover are worth it? In other words, would you gladly pay 2x a staffer’s salary to see them simply go away! So in this post, we’ll explore the leadership challenge of turnover, along with 4 tips… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge Turnover 4 Tips

Be Successful Somewhere Else!

In recessionary times when unemployment rates are high, business leaders cut staffing so as to reduce expenses. Seeing how expenses (costs) associated with labor tend to be some of the most high, and easily lowered through staff reductions, this appears to be an easy fix.

However, the model shifts when times are good and unemployment rates are low. That model then becoming one where the rising tide of revenue conceals the costs associated with labor. In other words, we see less-turnover as a result. But should this be the employee turnover case?

Hire Slow, Fire Fast!

At a recent roundtable discussion, we brought up the topic of employee turnover and the impact “bad” apples (employees) can have on the business. Seated around the table were leaders from a variety of industries, all with the common goal of becoming better (Better businesses, better leaders, better etc.) It turns out that while most leaders looked negatively on turnover for two traditional reasons:

  1. The aforementioned high costs associated with turnover, and
  2. The reasons why employees leave the company.

But just why do we as leaders care why employees leave our company, and are there times when their leaving can be advantageous to our business model? At a firm that I recently consulted with, they had a standard hiring procedure that could be summarized as “Hire slow and fire fast.” In other words, the length of time/people/consensus decision-making involved would be significantly longer than previously conducted. Gone were the days that if a leader needed a new associate they could simply run an ad (or ask a present employee if they knew someone) and hire them once they passed a few high-level cursory questions. If their organizational goal was to attain the best possible employee for the near/short-term, then lengthy job descriptions needed to be written, recruiting strategies (where to place ads, how to screen applications, etc.) put in play, interviews with multiple organizational participants leveraging the same questions, and consensus regarding “best” candidates conducted post-interviews.

Of course, if the hiring process took a long time, then the firing determination needed to be executed with haste/speed! As one leader explained to me, “We need to come to a determination regarding new employees that are underperforming. While we’d love to believe that we’ve given them the proper tools to be able to conduct their new role (Training, technology, etc.), if they are simply unwilling to conduct their jobs according to our expectations then we need to quickly assess this unwillingness and allow them the opportunity to be successful somewhere else.”

4 Tips for The Leadership Challenge: Turnover

What follows then are our summation regarding why turnover might be good (dare we say “Great” for an organization and its leadership):

Tip #4 – Productivity

If you monitor productivity in your business (and who doesn’t?), then one surefire way to identify if employee turnover is warranted is to identify if productivity rates are consistently below target levels. Target levels established at realistic levels typically will define if performance levels are not being attained by staffers now, in the future, or ever.

Tip #3 – Teamwork

Teamwork makes the dream work… or so the saying goes! But what happens when the team has to pick-up the slack of the lagging associate? Is it fair for a team to consistently pick-up said slack continuously? We don’t think so… Teams are only as good as their weakest link, and if the weakest link is the same individual time and again, then turnover is warranted.

Tip #2 – Brain-suck

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are the staying force of an organization. They typically are a wonderful resource for new and old employees alike. However, what happens when these SMEs are spending more of their time working with employees that just don’t seem to “get” their job duties? Is this the most valuable time for such SMEs to be spending their time? We don’t think so…

Tip #1 – Training Expenses

For those that know me, you know that I’m a huge proponent of training. Whether it’s in-house or external, whether provided by in-house SMEs (See “Brain-suck” above in Tip #2 for The Leadership Challenge: Turnover) or strategic partners (Do you still call them “Vendors” in your organization? Welcome to 2018!), soft or hard-skill based I believe that training can make the difference for success in individuals as well as organizations at large. However, if training expenses are not showing significant return on investment (ROI), why are you doing them? Isolate monies spent and results returned on training expenses and you’ll gain insight into if turnover should take place (HINT: The answer isn’t necessarily more training, regardless of what your Chief Learning Officer tells you!)

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored The Leadership Challenge of Turnover, as well as provided 4 tips for when employee turnover should be encouraged by leaders. Remember, we all should have the expectation to earn a living conducting work. However, some work should be done by individuals willing/able to perform such work.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – If you like this article, you’ll love my new book titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader.” This first in a series of five books takes a look at what it takes to lead from a private equity | Venture Capitalist’s perspective. 100% of the net profits go towards our 501(c)(3) nonprofit at the Javelin Institute. You can purchase a copy from Amazon by CLICKING HERE.

The Leadership Challenge: Executive Vocabulary – 3 Tips

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The Point: At Tip of the Spear, we’re “lucky” to get exposure to a lot of leaders. Each of these leaders has their own unique way of speaking, and let’s face it, some speak better than others! With a wide-range of personalities, backgrounds, and goals, each executive seems to bring their own sometimes-unique vocabulary to the table. It is this executive vocabulary that sometimes (perhaps every time!), makes us not hear the message they are attempting to deliver. We started thinking, what role does executive vocabulary play in an organization’s success and is there anything a leader can do to enhance their opportunities? So in this post, we’ll explore the leadership challenge of executive vocabulary and provide 3 tips… Enjoy!

The Leadership Challenge Executive Vocabulary 3 Tips

I Can’t Believe What I Just Heard!

“Say what?” we heard a leader exclaim. Not the most outrageous statement we’ve ever heard, clear of vulgarity, and just intriguing enough to make us pay attention to what was to be said next. But it was exactly what was said next that had us scratching our Private Equity | Venture Capital heads! You see, the leader went on to use an executive vocabulary that would have been more appropriate on an MTV-episode instead of the boardroom where we were being pitched to invest in their company.

Just what about using slang/vulgarity is appropriate for executive vocabulary? While some would argue that there certainly is passion at work, is this passion in a desire for performance the most appropriate display of the effort/energy required to have to resort to gutter-speak (or the sewer)? So why do we do it (and we’re all guilty of it every once in a while, right?) The answer seems to lie in either laziness of lack of vocabulary!

3 Tips to offset the Leadership Challenge: Executive Vocabulary

So what follows is our attempt to help you, the leader, offset the leadership challenge of executive vocabulary (In other words, you might be lazy from here forward, but will not resort to inappropriate language due to lack of vocabulary or a strategy to employee that vocabulary!):

Executive Vocabulary Tip #3 – Learn the Right Words

There are over 150,000 words in the English Dictionary (and throw on top the 50,000+ words in the Urban Dictionary and you have a disaster brewing!) What do executives and master communicators do so as to offset the poor choices associated with the leadership challenge of executive vocabulary? They learn the right words that are powerful and practical in use so as to communicate better.

Executive Vocabulary Tip #2 – Learn the Right Way to use the Right Words

What’s at stake if you don’t improve your executive vocabulary? After all, it’s a choice you can make that will determine your career progression. Excellence can be had by ensuring that the right word is at the ready so that you can always communicate your ideas clearly and succinctly with impact. Also, sounding intelligent is important! So make certain you know how to use each word in the proper context.

Executive Vocabulary Tip #1 – Use the Right Words the Right Way in the Right Context

So how do you put executive vocabulary together for a winning strategy, so that you can start receiving those promotions you so rightly deserve and/or ensure that those you lead actually follow? Simple: Learn executive vocabulary constantly. There never is a bad moment to learn a new word for proper utilization!

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of executive vocabulary, along with 3 tips. Employing a much better vocabulary as an executive is not optional (it’s mandatory!) Empower yourself with an executive vocabulary so that you know the words that can propel your career trajectory onward/upward!

 

Sam Palazzolo

PS – I just published my 4th book, aptly titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader” which looks at the skills needed to successfully lead in today’s business climate. I hope you’ll purchase a few copies for yourself/the leaders you know. 100% of the net profits go towards supporting my 501(c)(3) charity at the Javelin Institute. Amazon’s editors had the following to say about the work:

“In these days when so many expect so much recognition for doing so little, leadership seems easy, when it’s really harder than ever. To be that person who truly takes a chance, makes a stand, and ventures out in front of the crowd requires courage, commitment, and conviction—qualities that more than ever seem to be in short supply. There’s no shortcut to the skills that mark a true leader, but there are definite strategies that can help you set your internal compass, find the right route, and steer others onto the right path.

Leading at the Tip of the Spear – The Leader focuses on the physical, mental, emotional, intuitional, and spiritual abilities that are found in leaders who are willing to lead. You will learn to develop your individual values and purpose, strengthen your foresight and failure-resistance, step up your self-control, plan for any contingencies, and always stay on the offense. It will take effort and energy to understand the proposed process and fully implement it in life and business, but leadership is all about doing hard things for the right reasons. Once you’ve mastered true leadership, nothing can stop you from having the career and the life you’ve worked for.”