Recently I had to replace my 2 rear snow tires in my front wheel drive car. Shortly after, I noticed that the front end seemed sloppy when cornering and suspected that possibly I had a problem with my front tires as well. A visit to my local tire shop resulted in them assuring me my front tires were fine — good tread, good pressure and no wear or balance issues. But the sloppy feeling persisted.

So I went to my dealership and had them look at the front end — and they also indicated that everything was fine. However, they suggested that the new rear tires might be the issue.

So back I went to the tire store, explained the situation and was pleasantly surprised by their response.

First they indicated that sometimes the match of tires with cars doesn’t always work — who knew? Possibly the tires they had recommended were not a good match for my vehicle — although they were an excellent tire.

Secondly, they indicated that they would install a different, more expensive, tire they felt might be a better match.

Third, they refused to accept any money for the new, more expensive, tires — even after I insisted that I should pay for the difference. They felt the inconvenience of having to return a couple times had already cost me enough.

My Perspective: I felt that the tire shop had gone above and beyond in looking after me. They could easily have told me I owed the difference between my original purchase and the new tires. Instead they choose to put my interests ahead of their own — and created a positive obligation.

The made me feel like it was important to them that I got the right tires for my car — making me feel like I was a friend versus just another customer.

The world is based on reciprocity and they created a positive imbalance based on the excellent customer experience which I wanted to balance by telling my friends about the great service

What are you doing to create a positive imbalance with your customers — so they feel a positive obligation to tell their friends about your exceptional customer experience?

Recently had lunch with a client — we agreed to meet at restaurant near their office at noon.

I arrived 15 minutes early due to favourable traffic conditions — so I checked for a reservation (there was none) and asked to be seated.

About 12:10 I was a bit concerned. My client is very punctual, so my first thought was not that they were running late — but had they arrived and we had missed each other.

A quick tour of the restaurant proved me right. She was sitting at another area of the restaurant wondering the same thing. I am also habitually punctual and always call when delayed.

By the time we connected and were re-seated it was now after 12:15. Both had afternoon commitments.

The Manager came by to apologize and when the bill came, the entire lunch was complementary due to the aggravation and inconvenience.

So how did the restaurant do? Did they put the customer first? Did they create a “Woo Hoo” experience?

My Perspective: As you might guess, I feel they missed some opportunities.

Obviously there were some issues at the front desk that need to be addressed, but that is not what I want to talk about. I’d like to think about the end result — a free lunch. I should mention it was a simple meal with no alcohol, so the cost was not significant — approx $30.00.

I think the Manager gave too much away. Rather than giving us a free lunch, a significant discount would have been fine. That would have shown they appreciated the situation they had created yet they could still have made some revenue. But even that point is debatable.

The real loss was not providing us with an incentive to return and experience the type of service they were capable to providing.

They should have given us each a coupon/certificate of some kind for a discount or free appetizer with a comment something like this;

“I apologize that today we failed in our promise of an exceptional experience. In addition to the discount to address our failure today, I would like to give you each a coupon to entice you to come back again and give us the opportunity to demonstrate the exceptional service we are known for.”

With the discount we were very pleased, but had no compelling reason to return. They fixed our current problem — but weren’t thinking about the future.

With the coupon, the restaurant had now created a reason to choose their restaurant above another. They had made a commitment to do better and had created some positive pressure to get us to return to see if they were up to the challenge.

So when you are dealing with a recovery — are you just looking to correct the current situation? Or do you have an intentional plan to create a positive reason for the customer to return to your location and give you another opportunity to demonstrate that you deserve their business.

Make sure you don’t leave any lost opportunity on the table.

January 15, 2009 marks the date of one of the most famous disaster aversions in history. US Air Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the Hudson River approximately 6 minutes after take-off and saved 155 people.

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullivan might not look like the typical corporate leader, but the skills he demonstrated that day provide a key lesson for all leaders.

Imagine, you were Captain Sullivan, when you recognized that you were in serious trouble over one of the most populated areas in the world. What questions might have been running through your mind?

• How many lives are at stake? The families that would be affected.
• How will my family be affected?
• How can this be happening to me? I can’t believe that a flock of birds has taken out my entire engine system?
• When do we land? Which airport?
• What are the rest of the crew doing? Are they looking after the passengers?
• What am I going to do? Can I do what needs to be done? Was I trained for this?
• How fast? How slow? What rate of descent? Nose up or down?
• What happens if I screw up and everyone dies?

The list is virtually endless.

But Captain Sullivan was able to successfully ditch the plane and everyone survived. In under 3 minutes — the time between the bird strike and the landing — Captain Sullivan needed to process an untold number of variables and outside influences and make the decisions that ultimately saved lives.

That’s leadership.

My Perspective: When we are faced with a leadership decision, it is imperative that we focus on the issues that are critical and block out the noise that is constantly crashing the decision-making process.

Captain Sullivan made very few critical decisions that day. He quickly evaluated and decided which option to pursue for landing. He focused on the key issues that were his responsibility for landing the plane. And he cleared everything else from his mind so he could focus on the decisions that were critical.

How often do we as leaders get so caught up in the non-essential chatter that surrounds decision-making that we get distracted from the core elements that we must focus on.

Captain Sullivan was calm, clear and focused on his task.

Blocking out the noise can only happen when we have clarity on what we stand for and where we are going as an organization. The tough decisions of leadership can only be made when we have clarity around our values and the purpose of the organization.

Leaders need to develop the ability to filter out the chatter and focus on the critical elements.

Recently I was working with a client and was reminded just how destructive email can be when used incorrectly.

Like many companies, their standard form of communication is email. They are spread across Canada and internationally. People work together who never meet, and the default form of communication for all issues is email.

The problem is that people will often say things by email they would never say to your face. People use email to avoid dealing with conflict — it’s easier to fire off an email than deal with the issue head-on. Plus, there is always a record — the ultimate “cover your ass”.

Too often emails don’t get at the substance of the issue — or important elements do not get addressed because they rightly should not be put on paper. Words on paper can often be misunderstood by the recipient, causing escalation when none is needed.

My Perspective: Leaders build rapport based on emotional connections. If you really want to build relationships — you won’t do it unless you create an emotional connection with people — and that requires individualized interactions.

Here are a few thoughts to keep in mind the next time you think about sending an email when a phone call might work better.

1. When you speak to someone personally, you have the opportunity to build rapport with your colleagues. The emotional context of the conversation is much easier to communicate. Too often the tone of an email is misunderstood. On the phone you have the modulation of your voice and it’s easier to communicate the feelings behind the words.
2. The phone allows you to listen and build on their contribution more efficiently.
3. If you misspeak, you have the opportunity to immediately address the situation. It doesn’t create an opportunity for the recipient to fester and contemplate their response. Although email does offer time for reflection, it too often is used to launch a counter-attack.
4. Email prolongs discussion. I am sure we have all experienced entire conversations played out via email, with the entire company copied, looking for input from anyone and listening to no one.
5. It’s not always what you say, but how you say it. Electronic communication removes the emotion and personality and we are left with the stark words. This is especially problematic when people are trying to resolve problems or communicate the subtleties of thought or emotion.

I agree that email has an important role in communicating — as do Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and a host of other electronic channels. They have fundamentally changed how we communicate. They may deepen and broaden and existing relationship — but they cannot, on their own, create a deep relationship with a real emotional connection.

The digital channels cannot replace the live emotional connection we can create face to face or on the phone. That’s hard to replicate electronically.

Often if you ask a colleague who is having some difficulties with another colleague if they have picked up the phone — too often the response is “no”.

So the next time you are preparing to dash off an email — ask yourself, could this situation be better served through a phone call (or even a face to face). Then pick up the phone and build a relationship.

This is the second in our series of articles that looks at leadership capacity and its impact on organizational growth. The full series will be available for download as a white paper once it is completed.

In our last article, we discussed how leadership impacts your organizations ability to grow. Now let’s discuss some of the characteristics that leaders need to impact the growth of their organization.

There are certain core characteristics the majority of leaders possess. However, there are also an additional set of characteristics that define transformational leaders — leaders that have the ability to make an impact on organizational growth.

It is an organizations ability to develop this next level of leadership capabilities through training programs, mentoring, and skill development programs that put organizations in the enviable position to grow year over year without experiencing dips in performance.

Core leadership characteristics

There are certain leadership characteristics that, while important, do not inspire organizational change and growth that help companies develop into innovative, consistent industry leaders.

Examples of these core leadership characteristics include:

• Good judgment
• Communication skills
• Competence or knowledge
• Interpersonal skills
• Confidence

We hear about these leadership characteristics all the time and in many different contexts. While they are very important for leaders to have, there is another level of leadership characteristics that are “must haves” for transformational leaders. These are the leadership characteristics that make an impact and spur growth.

Transformational Leadership characteristics that impact organizational growth

In order to put your organization in a position to grow effectively and on a consistent basis, leaders with the following characteristics not only make them an effective leader — but also a transformational leader:

1. Internal motivation and self-management: Transformational leaders find motivation from within and use that as the driving force to effectively manage the direction of the company. The best natural form of motivation is to love what you do and ensure that your values are aligned with the organization you work with.
2. The ability to make difficult decisions: Difficult decisions are a part of being a leader. Transformational leaders do not back away or put off tough decisions. Difficult decisions are made easier when decisions align with clearly defined vision, values, goals, and objectives.
3. Check their ego: When placed in a position of power, it is easy to let your ego get the best of you. However, transformational leaders keep their ego in check and do not let it get in the way of doing what is best for business. The benefit of checking your ego ensures you put the company first over personal gain and encourages the best input from others within the organization — because when the company succeeds, you as a leader also succeed.
4. Willing to take the right risks: Anyone can take a risk. Transformational leaders take calculated risks that more often than not result in positive outcomes. Trusting your instinct, as well as your team to gather the necessary intelligence is important. Trusting your gut is easier when you have taken the time to research, evaluate and inform your decisions with input from those around you. Failure to take the appropriate risks and make these difficult decisions will inhibit change and your ability to grow.
5. Organizational consciousness: Transformational leaders share the collective conscious of their organization. They understand what actions to take to evoke change, spur innovation, and make decisions that will create growth. Since their own values are aligned with the organization they share a joint purpose with the organization and do not just view their position in the company as just a job.
6. Adaptability: Transformational leaders are willing to adapt and are always seeking new ways to respond to a constantly changing business environment. They know that the second they stand still is when they will be passed by their competitors; which means they are open-minded to change and lifelong learners.
7. Willing to listen and entertain new ideas: It is a rare individual who can build an empire. Transformational leaders understand that success is a team effort and growth is derived from the willingness to be open and listen to ideas from all levels of their organization. Transformational leaders create intentional ways to listen to their team and incorporate their insights.
8. Inspirational: People want to be inspired. Transformational leaders have the ability to make those around rise to the occasion. Inspiration comes not just from a formal motivational speech or simple recognition for a job well done, but by treating people as individuals and taking the time to understand what motivates and inspires their team.
9. Proactive: Transformational leaders are proactive decision makers. They do not wait around for others to make decisions and then react. They are willing to take risks, try new things and take an innovative approach to growing the organization. However, they also understand how to manage risk and make decisions that are backed by research, multiple insights and are well thought out.
10. Visionary: Being a visionary is about setting a realistic and concise company mission, vision, and values that fit the culture of your organization. Transformational leaders have the ability not only to effectively communicate the vision, but also get every person to buy in and work toward that vision by communicating with passion and clearly emphasizing the direction they want the company to pursue.

Transformational leaders constantly strive to have these characteristics. Developing these characteristics is what separates companies that are led by managers versus leaders.

The next article will build on these must have characteristics and examine how leaders can assess organizational leadership to improve their companies’ ability to grow.