Which Way Does Your Leadership Flow?

From the Top Down: Which Way Does your Leadership Flow?

What kind of leader do you think you are? What kind of leader would you like to be? When we consider our behaviours as leaders, do we exemplify the activities and attitudes that we value in our staff? The most challenging task you will face as a leader is ensuring that your values and vision are instilled in your team.

So how can you as leaders, create a corporate culture that leads to a dynamic and healthy workplace where customers both internal and external are inspired?

There are four key components to all organizations that value and successfully implement a WOW! culture;

The leaders of the organization recognise the value of people;
The leaders clearly demonstrate the ability to instill their personal values in their individual team members;
These leaders lead by example. They recognise that their team will not buy into the culture even minimally, if the leader says one thing but does the opposite; and
They recognize and appreciate the strengths that different personalities and styles contribute to the good of the corporation.

The Value of People

People do not do business with products, services or even companies, they do business with other people. When we recognise the importance of interaction and WOW!ing the customer, our focus is taken away from selling a product or implementing a service, and is replaced with a desire to meet the needs of the client. Strong leaders encourage their team members to focus on doing what is best for the customer. Wally Gabler, a former CFL quarterback and Vice President of Sales for a National Investment firm once said ‘Do what is best for the customer, and everything else will take care of itself’.

Personal Values

Drop by Prairie Meats any given Sunday, and you will be welcomed by a notification that they are closed. In fact, the sign reads ‘Always closed on Sundays. Cooking up family values.’ Gene Dupuis, owner and manager of Prairie Meats in Saskatoon, implemented his own personal values in this company policy. This is a simple illustration of bringing a significant personal value and putting it into operation in a company. Gene Dupuis will not ask anything of his staff that he wouldn’t willingly do himself. By recognizing the importance of family and personal development among his team, Mr. Dupuis has developed a loyal and engaged staff that is the envy of his competitors.

Lead By Example

While this appears to be an obvious concept, many leaders still direct their troops in a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ approach. Have you ever experienced the manager who insists that the customer service team pander to the customer, then once the customer has left the manager proceeds to debase them. This behaviour eventually leads team members to believe that the customer is indeed less important and soon their customer service will reflect this. It is critical for leaders to consider how they want their team to behave and the ethics they want instilled. And more importantly, they must execute best behaviours themselves at all times.

Strengths in Differences

When building a team, we are often attracted to individuals who are most like us. We imagine that those who appear to have similar styles, personalities and attributes will be most valuable to the team and work best as a group. The best leaders recognise that diversity and variation in skill sets create the most dynamic teams.
All of us bring more skills to the table than each of us individually. For example, a leader who is a hard-charging, get-it-done kind of person, would be disappointed in her newly hired CFO who was just like her. Why? Because a leader should be a results based person focused on getting the job done and done hastily, whereas someone in the world of finance would be more should be interested in getting it done “right” instead of getting it done fast. Hiring based on our own attributes will limit the success of the team and organization.
Individually, each of these concepts is simple to understand and basic in principle. Execution and implementation are the challenges. Leaders need to identify the true priorities of the organizations mission and values, and live them. Leaders have to be fully committed and fully accountable to the cause. Leading a WOW! Culture is not rocket science. True leaders understand the value of people and their influence From the Top Down on every aspect of the organization.
To read the full Chapter on From the Top Down, download your copy of The Power of Wow Customer Service at Ron Morris Seminars.com