March 14, 2014

I am tired of hearing, "There is a difference between being a manager and a leader." Whoever created that phrase didn't know anything about running a business. Sure, there is a difference between simply managing people's time and leading them to excel, but the phrase above gives managers the excuse to ignore the big picture and leaders the excuse to stare at mission statements while overlooking the everyday life of the company. Everyone leads, or should. An employee who has been on the job only a few weeks longer than the new hire will lead the new kid on the block. The question is, will that leadership be in the direction you want?

Everyone knows that when a new hire comes on the floor fresh from orientation, all it takes is one disgruntled fellow employee and that great new hire smell fades fast. The disgruntled employee is leading, and in the wrong direction. Waiting to teach leadership skills until the employee is moving past middle-management is too little, too late. Here is a real-life example.

My friend Brian is a middle-aged professional with a bunch of education and a heart for businesses. He ran his own company and lead a big staff, until the Great Recession reminded him that no business is immune to the fickle finger of fate. Still needing to feed a family he got a job that combined the two things he loved best, technology and selling. He took an entry level position at one of the big box electronics stores. Once Brian got past the discomfort of taking orders from someone his son's age, he dove into the job; thinking that hard work and dedication would lead to a climb back up the ladder. Foolish Brian.

You see, Brian comes from the school of thought that what matters most is the outcome; in his case, selling the most electronic equipment per hour that he is on the job. The problem is, the top leaders of the big box store are so busy focusing on the next fiscal year that they ignore who is leading the company at the ground level; the team leads and supervisors. Remember, team leads are the people who, according to conventional wisdom, are managers, not leaders. The leaders of the company ignore how these first-level leaders are trained, monitored, and rewarded. Without proper training, these just-a-bit-older-than-the-kids-they-manage leaders fall back on rules and policy.

Because Brian is from an older generation, he has an old-school approach to customers; he actually talks to them. He asks where they are from, if they have family, what they do for a living. From these casual conversations come two wonderful outcomes, Brian sells more dollars worth of stuff per shift than any of his counterparts, and customers ask for him by name. Some customers have even left the store when they learned that Brian wasn't in, stating that they would be back when Brian was there. Discovering details about the customer's life enabled Brian to suggest other products that would be of use.

Brian would go two steps further. He would come in on his day off if a customer experienced a problem picking up merchandise. He has called customers on his own time to make sure everything was honky-dorey. If a big enough problem occurred, Brian would throw in some video cables for free to make up for the hassle. Would you reward Brian for all this? I certainly would. In fact, I would move Brian into a position where he could show others how to do this. Not so at the big box store. Because his supervisors think being a manager involves managing people's time instead of leading to an outcome, the only comments that Brian has received from his team leads are, "You are spending too much time during each sales interaction," "You aren't authorized to give away stuff," and "That's really not your job." Brian's attempts to explain that his actions have lead to higher sales falls on deaf ears.

Managing people's time ignores the outcome of their work. Leading involves getting the best out of everyone, regardless of how they do it. In business, the only thing that matters is the outcome; which means the ego of the manager/leader must be put aside. What happened to Brian? He never did get a leadership role at the big box retailer, they are too busy laying off managers in an effort to deal with lagging sales. Brian was lured away by a different company that is experiencing huge growth. They want Brian to be a part of it. They are having him lead other staff members to do their best. Me? I think I'll buy my electronics online from now on.

 

Stevie Ray is a nationally recognized corporate speaker and trainer, helping companies improve communication skills, customer service, leadership, and team management.  He can be reached at www.stevierays.org or stevie@stevierays.org.

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