Tip of the Spear Ventures

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sam palazzolo

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I recently participated in a roundtable discussion on the topic of change leadership, and subsequently was interviewed about the Javelin Institute’s new program, “The BEST Leader in 30 Days!” (This program brings you 30 daily activities that’s recognized through research validation to equip you to be the BEST Leader possible… Not a Good Leader, or even a Better Leader… the BEST Leader!) If you’re interested in the program, you can email me at info@javelininstitute.org for more information. Here’s Part I of the interview, slightly edited for clarity and brevity:

INTERVIEWER: Sam, you’ve not only led change as a leader yourself, but also helped other leaders with change. Tell us a little bit about how in general you think about change leadership, and how you apply that in the businesses you work in/with?

SAM PALAZZOLO: Change leadership can be a complicated component of business success. Do it right, and the change leadership landscape will have plenty claiming stake in the successful outcome. Do change leadership wrong, and you’ll be looked at as sole proprietor responsible for the failure. I see many leaders who enter into situations of change without really having the skills or coaching to know exactly how to successfully change. The biggest component of change leadership to me is rooted in the leader. Specifically, does the leader have the perspective required to gather themselves from an emotional intelligence perspective. It’s very much an EQ moment versus an IQ one!

In my 2018 book, titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader” I examined how you can better lead others by leading yourself. As a matter of fact, my research concludes that if you can’t lead yourself, the likelihood of you successfully leading others ranges from slim to none. One of the insights that allows for successful change leadership is to have insight into where you want to go (Vision) and what change will be required in order to arrive at that destination. It’s easy for leaders to become impatient when leading change because while they can not only see where they want to go, but how they want to get there, they forget to share and lead others at a pace at which they can understand and withstand. In other words, those you’re leading need to not only understand/comprehend where they are going, but perhaps more importantly, what their role will be in getting there across a possible specific time interval.

INTERVIEWER: So, with change leadership in mind, how do you coach people?

SAM PALAZZOLO: At its simplest levels, to have success in change leadership, it’s important for leaders to know where they are, where they are going, and how it is that they are going to get there. Knowing these three aspects allows leaders to architect a plan for change. This architectural blue print will allow leaders to create a plan for change. This blue print is important because it provides stakeholders with a clear understanding of what is being built (Where they are going and how they will get there).

Having specialized in change leadership for the past two-decades, I know that change involves a series of phases that both leader and stakeholders go through. There will be successes, equanimity, and failures along the way. As a student of the J-Curve methodology, I learned that initial failure is typical and with proper corrections success can/will be achieved. Allowing leaders to see this realistic change leadership landscape prior to experiencing change provides the proper perspective. The proper corrections typically, but not always, come from communication gathered from direct-frontline associates affected by the change. Listening to their feedback provides leaders with context from which they can assess situations clearly for proper corrections. With this in mind, and it’s part of the “BEST Leader in 30 Days!” methodology, is conducting a daily reflection of your change leadership efforts/energies. Specifically, there are three questions that you’d want to ask yourself:

  1. What did I do today to further the (change leadership) initiative?
  2. What did I not do today to further the (change leadership) initiative?
  3. What will I do tomorrow to further the (change leadership) initiative?

INTERVIEWER: What are some of the mistakes you see leadership making in their attempts to lead? Specifically, what are the most common mistakes when leading change?

SAM PALAZZOLO: I’ve seen just about every type of mistake be made when it comes to change leadership. Typically, the mistakes cluster around the basic business building blocks of people, processes, technology, and/or financials. All too often leaders will fail to get involved those they expect to go through the change (so that they have input into what will happen on the way towards where the leader desires to go).

I’ve also seen leaders fail in change leadership when they put a “spin” on change. One leader, who’ll remain nameless, used to replace the word change with innovation. His reasoning for doing so was because he had read a study that showed people dislike change. While the study might be correct, changing the namesake doesn’t increase the odds of success. Remember, a duck is still a duck!

At a gym I worked-out in they had a huge sign on the wall that read:

“Until the pain associated with staying the same is greater than the pain associated with change, you will not do anything different.”

Think about that for a moment… If we associate pain with change and pleasure with staying the same, then you’ve got to be in a bad spot to want to change! Afterall, staying the same should be painless. But once staying the same is more painful, you’ll desire relief/change.

INTERVIEWER: You’ve had an impressive career to date (I don’t think you’re done yet by a longshot either!) You’ve worked with a Fortune 1 organization and now you’re working as a venture capitalist, consultant and philanthropist. Are there any differences between leading change at large vs. small organizations and for profit vs. nonprofit ones?

SAM PALAZZOLO: Thank you for the complement… I hope my career continues to grow/change in directions I can’t visualize at the current time. With that said, and to answer your question – Yes, there are differences. While the problem types are very similar (Think people, processes, technology, and/or financials), the scale is simply larger in big companies. This is the same regardless of entity formation (profit vs. nonprofit).

However, there is one key difference that I see play itself out time and again. That difference is that in smaller organizations the leader can make the difference. Whereas in larger organizations, there is less of a leadership impact, but the need to have good leadership in place across the organization exists. Think about it, if the organization is small and the leader is great, successful change leadership is relatively straightforward. In larger organizations, there are many more leaders to coordinate similar future change leadership vision with, and as such each needs to be able to share that vision precisely/similarly with their teams. Same vision and different share lead to unsuccessful change leadership typically (a disaster!)

https://tipofthespearventures.com/2306-2/

The Leadership Challenge: Judgement

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The Point: What type of judgement do you have as a leader? Is it sometimes good, sometimes bad? And in those judgement-times, how do you go about deciding which way to choose? After all, there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way when it comes to judgement (especially when you consider the outcome of your decision making!) We started thinking here at The Javelin Institute and Tip of the Spear Ventures, how are we using judgement to the fullest capacity when it comes to our leadership? So, in this post we’ll explore the leadership challenge of judgement… Enjoy!

You Will Be Judged on Your Judgement Abilities

Larry was a mid-level leader working for a Fortune 100 organization. We were assigned to conduct one of our Centered Executive Coaching initiatives with him (Specifically, our Stakeholder Centered Coaching engagement). Part of our Stakeholder Centered Coaching engagement consisted of conducting a 360-degree assessment, whereby Larry and Larry’s Stakeholders (Those he reported to, his peers, and those that reported to Larry) would all gage his effectiveness as a leader. The 360-degree assessment was conducted, and the results were in… and they were not pretty!

It turned out that Larry’s opinion of how effective he was as a leader differed dramatically from the opinions of his stakeholders. While there were a lot of potential reasons for these differences of perspective being present when it came to Larry, it turns out that the primary culprit for his stakeholders ranking him lower was his judgement (or his ability to accurately judge a situation, assignment, personnel, etc.) Larry was being judged based on his abilities to judge!

The Single Most Important Judgement Topic

I’ve seen a lot of leaders from a consulting perspective. One question that I used to ask a lot (and am considering bringing back out on the road with me) is “What keeps you up at night?” When I asked Larry this question, he had the following to say:

“What keeps me up at night as a leader is my ability to properly judge a candidate regarding when it’s not working, and we need to make a ‘should they stay, or should they go?’ decision. In my mind, this is the single most important judgement topic.”

 It turns out Larry is not alone. According to an Inc. Magazine article, roughly 70% of leaders are concerned about their ability to hire and then effectively decide if they should fire personnel. Most leaders would rather err on the side of “stay” and prove to themselves, as well as their stakeholders, that they did everything they could to keep the individual (Apply resources, provide training, etc.) before sending them packing.

I worked with Larry to not only establish judgement criteria which would significantly alter his success rates, but also revamped their hiring/onboarding process as well. The results were that he soon had less turnover, but the turnover he did conduct was done in a logical/objective manner.

SUMMARY

In this post we’ve explored the leadership challenge of judgement. We all are going to be faced as leaders with those moments where we have to decide. It’s the outcome of these judgement decision-moments that others will look to gage our success/failure rates. Insuring that you have a logical/objective methodology when it comes to applying judgement is crucial to your success as a leader.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – 2020 will be here before we know it, and I see some disturbing Leadership-trends taking place. If you’d like to receive a white paper I wrote on “5 Ways Your Leadership Will Fail in 2020” CLICK HERE.

PPSS – As we hit the halfway point of 2019, I’m launching my most aggressive initiative to date. It’s a 501(c)(3) structured nonprofit that provides Executive Education and Coaching to allow you to become the BEST leader possible (NOT Good, NOT Better… but BEST!). Launched in July 2019, I’m allowing 10 people in my network to “test-drive” the offering. If you’d like more information, contact me at info@javelininstitute.org.

The Leadership Challenge: Surveys

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The Point: We see a lot of surveys at both Tip of the Spear Ventures and The Javelin Institute (We’ve partnered with organizations to even create a few!) But a conversation with a client the other day caused us to wonder; “Why are we conducting surveys?”, “What do we do with the data surveys collect?”, and “Can we actually improve as leaders through surveying stakeholders?”. So, in this post we’ll explore the leadership challenge of surveys and as a bonus, provide three leadership survey questions you should be asking… Enjoy!

To Survey or Not to Survey… Is There Really a Question?

We met with a C-Suite leader as part of a launch of a Business Centered Coaching engagement recently. Part of the launch consisted of a review of their most recent customer surveys. Here was the data reviewed:

  • Customer Satisfaction YTD was 77% (Compared to 88% Region and 90% National)
  • Survey Responses YTD was 18% (Compared to 20% Region and 15% National)
  • Highest Scores were in Product/Service Offering
  • Lowest Scores were in Salesperson Satisfaction and Price Paid

The leader we met with was ambivalent to the survey responses. While they relished the success of product/service offering, unfortunately the leader’s operation had little/nothing to do with this metric. In other words, their offering was provided to them by their headquarter team by large. What they did have control over was their salespeople and ultimate price paid to a large extent (They could offer sales/enhancements to secure sales).

Net Promoter Score Surveys

So, with so much survey data collected, were we looking at the “right” survey metrics? I would argue that we should review Net Promoter Scores. Netpromoter.com states that a “Net Promoter Score®, or NPS®, measures customer experience and predicts business growth. … Use your NPS as the key measure of your customers’ overall perception of your brand. Because NPS is a leading indicator from growth, it provides the best anchor for your customer experience.” Calculating the Net Promoter Score percentage consists of the following series of steps:

  • Enter all of the survey responses into an Excel spreadsheet
  • Next, break down the responses on a scale 0-10 by groups:
    • Detractors (0-6)
    • Passives (7-8), and
    • Promoters (9-10)
  • Add up the total responses from each group
  • To get the group percentage, take the group total and divide it by the total number of survey responses
  • Now, subtract the percentage total of Detractors from the percentage total of Promoters—this is your NPS score

Surveys: Marketing and Sales Best Friend

Reviewing survey results along the Net Promoter Score methodology provided grim results for our C-Suite Leader… Turns out that only 20% of the 20% (4%) fell into the Promoters group. Why does this matter? Surveys can be utilized in a transparent methodology to provide insights to Marketing teams so that they can best create campaigns so as to reach more customers effectively. It’s in the “effectively” moment that Marketing teams can adjust campaigns so that more customers that will act as Promoters will purchase. In turn, Sales teams can glean survey data for training material that matter to an organization’s best customers. NOTE: Surveys should not be utilized as lead generation activities unless transparently sharing with customers such intent.

Three Leadership Survey Questions

In addition to providing insight to Marketing and Sales teams, surveys should be leveraged in similar capacity to provide insight to leaders regarding their effectiveness. As such, here are three leadership survey questions that you should ask/capture data on:

  1. What do I do as a leader today that allows you to operate at your best?
  2. What should I be doing today as a leader that would allow you to operate at your best?
  3. What should I be doing tomorrow as a leader so that you can operate at your best?

SUMMARY

In this post, we’ve explored the leadership challenge of surveys. Surveys can provide valuable insight to leaders so that they can architect successful strategies in Marketing, Sales, and Leadership (to name a few). Identifying key data metrics such as Net Promoter Scores can assist in providing insight into what your best customers desire. Desires that can lead to creating a greater volume of Promoters for the future of your organization/leadership.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – 2020 will be here before we know it, and I see some disturbing Leadership-trends taking place. If you’d like to receive a white paper I wrote on “5 Ways Your Leadership Will Fail in 2020” CLICK HERE.

PPSS – As we hit the halfway point of 2019, I’m launching my most aggressive initiative to date. It’s a 501(c)(3) that provides Executive Education and Coaching to allow you to become the BEST leader possible (NOT Good, NOT Better… but BEST!). Set to launch in July 2019, I’m allowing 20 people in my network to “test-drive” the offering. If you’d like more information, contact me at info@javelininstitute.org.

The Leadership Challenge: Insecurity – 3 Tips!

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The Leadership Challenge_Insecurity 3 Tips

The Point: What do you get when you cross a bully, a know-it-all, an underperformer, a spotlight-grabber, a perpetual reward-seeker, a comparer, an imitator, and tenure? The answer: an Insecure Leader! It got us wondering here at Tip of the Spear HQ just why/how could the trait of insecurity actually take root and grow within a leader in the current workplace. So, in this week’s post we’ll explore the topic of being insecure as a leader along with 3 tips… Enjoy!

So You’re Telling Me You’re an Insecure Leader?

I’m fortunate, in as much, I typically love the consulting work we do at Tip of the Spear (M&A, Sales/Business Development, and Turnaround). However I sometime question my “fortune” when I have an experience that goes sideways, and that’s exactly what happened on a recent consultation visit when insecurity raised its ugly head.

It’s customary during an initial consultation visit to (1) provide introductions, (2) establish a baseline of current activities, and (3) determine desired outcomes for this, as well as future, consulting sessions. Pretty standard stuff, right? Wrong, especially when insecurity is present! Less than twenty minutes into a recent initial consultation session the “Insecure Leader” of the operation voiced their frustration with the process, insisting that introductions and baselines were a waste of time, and that assistance is needed in this/that area (Insecurity?) However, with little/no context provided as to whether or not the “this/that” areas, (Again, insecurity?) were truly where assistance was needed. It left me wondering why I was there if help wasn’t warranted…

What the Insecure Leader is Actually Saying

Insecurity can raise it’s ugly-head in leadership in many ways…

  • There can be the classic bully (I’m the leader and I said you need to do it). There can be the know-it-all (I’ve been there/done that and I know this company/industry/world inside and out)
  • There can be the underperformer (I’m a little behind the 8-ball this month, but it’s the fault of the customers/employees/your visit taking me away from important items/etc.)
  • There’s the spotlight-grabber (Failure is shared by all, but victory is all my doing)
  • There’s the imitator (Just tell me the best-practices going on out there… Pay no attention to our business basics that we fail at)
  • Lastly, there’s tenure (I’ve been here 30+ years…Enough said!)

How to Avoid an Insecure Leader – 3 Tips!

So what should you do when you encounter an Insecure Leader? It’s not a matter of “if” as the saying goes, it’s a matter of “when” you encounter an Insecure Leader. The following are 3 tips to assist you, whether you are managing-up or managing-down with an Insecure Leader:

  • Insecure Leader Tip #1 – Find Pride: Insecure leaders typically share a narcissistic view of the world. What’s not good enough for the goose must be good for the gander. Helping them find pride in themselves and their operation can greatly assist insecurity within the Insecure Leader.
  • Insecure Leader Tip #2 – Celebrate Success: Recognition NOT of how great the Insecure Leader is, but in the potential for greater success is what I’m talking about here. There often is too much coddling of the Insecure Leader and not enough having of tough or difficult conversations. If you’re always telling the Insecure Leader that they’re great, you’re not valuing them, yourself, or your performance potential with them.
  • Insecure Leader Tip #3 – Pull the Plug! I have a friend who is a Psychologist. I asked him once “What do you do when you have a really difficult patient. One where you’ve tried everything and they are making little/no progress. What do you do?” He told me that after he buckles-back and doubles-down to insure that no stone has been left unturned, and once he is satisfied that his efforts have been exhausted, he simply pulls the plug!

SUMMARY

In hindsight, I should have taken “Insecure Leader Tip #3 – Pull the Plug!” and ran instantly away from the insecurity present, and more importantly the Insecure Leader. In a consulting capacity, one of my former principal associates shared that he often felt like he wore a bull’s-eye on his back. In the subsequent days since my Insecure Leader encounter, I noticed a warm/burning sensation in my back (figuratively, not physically). I reached back and touched what turned out to be the handle of an ax buried deeply between my shoulder blades. Yep, should have taken Insecure Leader Tip #3!

Sam Palazzolo

PS – Last year I published my fourth book. Titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader” it’s a look into how you can become the best leader possible. You can check-it out here on AMAZON. All proceeds go to The Javelin Institute, a 501(c)(3) whose aim is to assist families who’ve experienced hardship through death, divorce, disease, or drugs.

PPSS – My next book, titled “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: Leadership Strategy” is due out next month. The work is a look into how you can develop your best strategy for yourself/your organization. If you’d like to receive the Introduction please drop me an email at info [at] javelininstitute.org.

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