CEO Coach - What’s Your Value Proposition

Bill Warner Monday, June 30, 2008

I attended a very enlightening meeting last week of an organization called Men of Significance. It is led, along with others, by Fate Thompson, the CEO of iAdvantage Software in Cary, NC.

They bring to life another aspect of business vision and value proposition. When thinking about these two subjects, most of us think of the obvious observations about market size, customer value, revenue growth, profitability, marketing messages and sales traction. But, we don’t often think about our own fulfillment. That is, what of your own needs have been fulfilled by your business vision and value proposition. Often, the need is really not money or fame. Searching deeply into your own purpose in life, you perhaps will find a more fundemental and significant need that drives you. Entrepreneurs and business executives start businesses for many reasons. When you discuss with them why they are taking this risk, you will often find a deeply seeded and thoughtful reason that really represents their view of their purpose in life. Men of Significance is all about helping business people find that deeper need and to guide them to their significance in life.

This organization adds another dimension to the way we should think about our role in a business endeavor. I invite you to go to their website at www.men-of-significance.org and learn about their organization and the many resources they have available.

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Sales Fundementals

Bill Warner Thursday, June 26, 2008

You are selling your product from the time you put together your first market study and every day thereafter. Actually, everybody in the company sells in one form or another; it’s not just the sales team’s role. You have to sell to your employees, stakeholders, investors, channel partners, alliance partners and customers. Let’s focus on selling the company’s products and services.

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CEO Coach - Effective Communications

Bill Warner Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Over 80 percent of our waking life is spent either sending or receiving information. The ability to communicate effectively at work and in our personal lives is perhaps the most critical skill for everyone, especially the CEO. Poor communication leads to poor performance, yet it is common in the workplace. Luckily, communication skills can be improved and the more effective the communication, the better the overall performance and therefore the greater the level of business success.

Some CEOs don’t realize that communication is a two-way process. In addition to getting your own message across, it is also important to listen to and understand what others have to say, a technique known as “active listening.”

But an even more important communication skill that is often overlooked by CEOs was expressed best by Peter Drucker, “The most important thing in communications is to hear what isn’t being said.” Effective communication allows CEOs to use all the other skills they have to their fullest. The ability to motivate, delegate, organize, solve problems, and obtain information all rely on the ability to communicate effectively with others.

Effective Communications Brings Business Results

Evidence suggests that bad communication is probably the cause of most of the problems people encounter at work. It starts with an unclear company vision, gets worse because of ambiguous personal objectives, and is exacerbated by a company culture that evolves rather than being set by the clear communications of the chief executive. Jack Welch, the past CEO of GE said it best, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”

Effective communication can transform how well people work. Imagine an organization in which everyone is kept informed, knows exactly what to do, and has all the information necessary to do their job. The effective CEO fosters teamwork, empowers key employees with responsibility and authority, and communicates key information to the organization. These CEOs not only use effective communication, but they also gain employee buy-in to the vision and objectives, build employee confidence in the company and create respect for the management team.

Setting a culture of sharing knowledge is critical to business success. If, rather than keeping quiet, people shared their knowledge with others, and problems were solved using everyone’s knowledge, skill development of less experienced people would dramatically increase. It would also allow more delegation and facilitate problem solving. The CEO who operates this way creates cohesive teams and builds uniqueness of purpose

Think of the effect it would have on the performance of your organization if culture drove everyone to feel motivated and empowered.

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CEO Coach - Company Vision

Bill Warner Thursday, June 05, 2008

I am starting a new series of articles called the CEO Coach. I plan to address the various aspects of the job of CEO. It will not only be useful to company executives, but to all people within the company in that they should know what to expect from their CEO.

Let start at the top. The first thing that a CEO has to do from day one, and for every day thereafter, is communicate the vision of the company. The source of the vision and the keeper of the vision is the CEO. The CEO is responsible for:

  • Creating the vision with involvement from all the company executives
  • Establishing company-wide buy-in to the vision
  • Explaining the vision and answering questions about it
  • Communicating the vision to everyone in the company, consistently and constantly
  • Monitoring the understanding of the vision so that it stays on track

But, the task of being the keeper of the vision never ends. A vision is fragile. If the CEO doesn’t “walk the talk” every day, the vision will eventually erode away. The CEO’s consideration of the vision has to be visible to everyone. For example:

  • The CEO needs to take action to communicate the vision frequently in staff meetings, company meetings and other company communications
  • The vision has to be factored into decisions where the CEO makes it clear that the decisions being made are consistent with the company’s vision
  • In external communications via the website, newsletters, public speaking engagements and the media, the CEO needs to reiterate what the vision of the company is
  • When an incident occurs that is inconsistent with the company’s vision, the CEO must grasp it as an opportunity to make corrections and remind people what the vision is and what it means
  • In establishing business relationships, the vision is often a factor in deciding how to handle them

Managing the vision of the company is a full time job for the CEO. Not that it takes full time, but it takes constant awareness and discipline to ensure that the vision is well understood and being acted up appropriately.

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