This is the third post in a four-post series – The Invisibles: What Your Boss Wants You To Know. You can read the first post here. You can read the second post here.
Whenever I kick off an executive coaching engagement, I spend 30 minutes one-on-one with the boss of the person being coached. Over the years, and across hundreds of these boss interviews, a certain pattern has emerged. Turns out, there are three things I have consistently heard that your boss wants you to know.
1. Raise your executive presence.
2. Inspire and lead with vision.
3. Build and nurture your networks.
In this series, I am addressing these points one by one. Here’s Invisible #2.
Inspire and Lead with Vision
In Women and the Vision Thing (2009, Harvard Business Review), Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru point out the empowering nature of vision. “Visionary leaders,’” the authors tell us, “don’t answer the question ‘Where are we going?’ simply for themselves; they make sure that those around them understand the direction as well…” In other words, vision is key to enabling others to act. And, the more your team is on board with your vision and empowered to act, the freer you are to focus on those mission-critical efforts that drive the business.
Sam* runs the customer service operation for a fledgling Internet start-up that sells stylish women’s shoes made from sustainable materials. From the outset, the company’s product hit a sweet spot in the market that even the company’s founders did not anticipate. Sales soared, accelerating both revenues and customer-service issues. Sam was faced with one of those “nice problems to have” that accompany surprising growth. In order to honor the company’s commitment to high-quality service, he had been given the go-ahead to double his customer service team — seemingly overnight.
In my intake conversation with Sam’s boss, she acknowledged the dilemma. “Sam started as a rep in the operation he’s now running. We all think he’s doing an amazing job. He’s put systems and technology in place. He really gets the customer experience inside and out. He’s great at personally putting out fires. But he can’t do it all himself. We tend to hire inexperienced reps just out of school for his team. With twice the people and twice the problems, Sam can’t be everywhere at once. His challenge is to find a way to clone himself.”
As a leader, Sam had to back out of hands-on execution and find a way to accomplish the operation’s mission through his inexperienced yet earnest new team. The surest way a leader can clone him- or herself is vision. We kicked off his coaching by defining his vision for the team.
Uncovering Your Vision
Your leadership vision is as unique to you as your fingerprints, the sum total of all the experiences and decisions, good and bad, that inform your values as a leader. In fact, Sam already lived and breathed his vision, though he had never put it into words. It’s highly likely the same is true for you.
- “Make photography as simple as using a pencil.” – Kodak
- “Capture and share the world’s moments. “– Instagram
- “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an athlete.)” – Nike
Here’s How You Can Get Started
- 1. Define your ask: What do you want individuals on your team to think, feel, or do differently when they hear your vision statement?
- Complete this sentence:
How can I get X to do (or think, or feel) Y?
…where X is the name of the stakeholder group and Y is the change you want to influence. - Here’s Sam’s:
Because Sam’s customer service reps were often the first contact that a customer had with their company, they were in a position to make or break that critical first impression. Sam wanted to give them permission to do whatever it took to ensure that the customer came out of a difficult situation with a positive experience. Here is his sentence: How can I get my new and inexperienced customer service workforce to turn a customer complaint into a positive customer relationship? - 2. Help others visualize it. Since we’re talking about “vision,” how can you get your stakeholders to visualize your collective desired future?
- Brainstorm all the images and metaphors that come to mind. What should we picture?
- Here’s Sam’s:
Picture a pebble in a pond, the ripple effect of one customer converted from an unhappy situation to a happy one, who now tells their friends, who tell their friends, and on and on. - 3. Express your ask in one sentence. If I asked you to add a “tag line” to your business card that would convey the change you want to see among your stakeholders, what would it be?
- Write a 3-to-12 word sentence that begins with a verb – the imperative – and conveys the change you want your stakeholders to think, feel, or do differently?
- Here’s Sam’s:
“Change the customer’s story.”
Vision On
Change the customer’s story reflected Sam’s own values and resonated with his team. Reps were encouraged to side with the customer and to take up their cause rather than argue with them. Sam wanted them to picture themselves on the same team as the customer on the other end of the phone, and to find a way to make them feel seen and heard, whatever it took.
Change the customer’s story became woven into the customer service culture as the company grew. Sam continually battles his urge to personally jump in and problem solve, but he now estimates that his time spent putting out fires has fallen to a manageable 30% — allowing him to take on only the most important escalations and, importantly, freeing him up to lead.
Your turn!
What’s the vision statement that guides your leadership and empowers your people? Please scroll down and leave it in the comments section below.
Special shout out to Tangible clients who have done this exercise in one of our Visionology workshops: write a comment below sharing your vision statement and how it’s worked for you.
In my next post I will discuss the third and final Invisible: Build and nurture your networks.
*Note: While the coaching situations described in my posts are actual, the themes are universal. I have taken care to change names and some details in the interest of client privacy.
Ibarra, Herminia and Obodaru, Otilia (2009, January). Women and the Vision Thing,
Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2009/01/women-and-the-vision-thing.
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