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____________________
Morning Column
Calling All Business Leaders …
Are you an Advantage-Maker?
By Steven Feinberg, PhD
Imagine that you are a commander of a fortress under a daily siege for six
months without any means to communicate with the outside world. Your
supplies are down to two bags of grain and one cow. With such scant
supplies, starvation seems inevitable. What would you do?
Expecting to hear the expected – ration as best you can--you can empathize
with the quartermaster's surprise and shock when his commander ordered him
to stuff the cow with the remaining grain and catapult it over the wall at the
enemy during the next attack.
What would you think of this bovine assault if you were on the receiving end?
The field officer could only assume that his enemy had ample supplies if they
were willing to throw them over the wall. Assuming it would be a long,
drawn-out battle, he ordered an immediate retreat, and the fortress was
saved.
As the leader, would you have been able to shift the odds in your favor under
the duress of battle? More importantly does this have any application to 21st
century leadership?
Advantage-Makers
Every leader endures difficulties, but where some fall apart, others come
through challenges in an even better position than before. I call these
people "Advantage-Makers." Advantage-Makers consistently transform
challenging situations into the best possible outcomes. Advantage-Makers
see possibilities that others don't even know exist. It almost looks like luck,
but it isn't.
Advantage-Makers aren't any more creative, intelligent, or determined than
you. They do not possess any specific personality type or traits. They are
not more optimistic nor goal oriented.
Advantage making requires creativity, but it is much more than that. The
process of Advantage Making is not only imagining but shifting. Using
strategic shifting Advantage-Makers shift time, shift interactions, shift
perceptions, and shift structures.
Strategic Shifting
The key to strategic shifting is moving to a commanding vantage point.
Advantage Makers find "advantage points" that others don't have. An
advantage point is a superior position, condition, situation or opportunity that
provides a comprehensive view or commanding perspective.
Imagine being on the 8th floor of an office building overlooking the freeway
traffic and side streets. From here you see a driver trying to get around
traffic, but he just made a wrong turn heading him into a major back-up.
From your perspective, you can see what the driver can not see. Strategic
shifts can take many forms.
By shifting time you generate possibilities. JFK inspired a nation by moving the
vision of lunar exploration from a far off dream to an achievable goal by
challenging scientists to send a man to the moon and return him safely within
a decade.
By shifting interactions you change the game. In the early days of digital
music, MP3 players were produced by small companies which were unable to
provide content. Apple CEO Steve Jobs orchestrated the network of
interactions in the music industry to produce the iPod and transformed how
music is delivered to customers.
By shifting perceptions you create winners. Former GE CEO Jack Welch
shifted the hierarchy of how to win by instituting a dictum to "be number 1 or
number 2 in the industry or get out." During his tenure, GE increased its
market capitalization by more than $400 billion.
By shifting structure you shape behavior. Churchill commenting on Parliaments
behavior said, "First we shape the structures and then they shape us."
The best strategic shifts involve many different elements. Our fortress
commander shifted the time frame of the attacking army from a short to a
long battle. He shifted the interaction from defending to sending a
counterattacking message. He shifted the perception from inevitable loss to
endurance. He shifted the structural forces questioning the credibility of this
siege strategy.
Advantage Points
There are four main Advantage Points that a leader can shift to see
opportunities others miss, overcome obstacles others are bewildered by, and
influence outcomes when others are stuck.
1) Adaptive Stretching
Two shoe salespeople go a foreign country to sell their products. The first
shoe salesperson calls up headquarters and says, "They don't wear shoes
here, I'll be on the next plane home."
The second shoe salesperson calls up headquarters and says, "They don't
wear shoes here, send as many as you can!"
Which person would you rather have on your team?
Time and time again we see that it's not the best who wins – it's the
individual or team that is the most adaptive. Non-adaptive responses are
costly.
Managers tend to repeat familiar and reliable patterns. They follow the
dictum, "It worked before it should work again." New situations, however,
require new approaches. A leader needs to shift to different vantage points
or generate options that are more of the same.
Former Chairman and CEO of Intel, Andy Grove's aptitude for adaptive
stretching played a significant role in his many successes.
2) Change the Game
If you are in a hole, stop digging and shift the game 180 degrees. First ask,
how's your approach working for you? Then devise a 180 degree strategy. If
you are pushing, pull. If telling, ask. If waiting, take action. If taking too
much action, do less.
Most companies, for example, take it as given, a fundamental assumption
that they should strive to be number 1. Avis rental cars tried to do just that,
and almost went bankrupt by repeatedly going head to head against Hertz.
Then Avis made a fundamental shift. Instead of trying to be #1, Avis
proclaimed "We are number 2. We try harder." That shift tripled Avis' market
share from 11% to 35% in one year.
In a similar way, hidden assets can be found by shifting convention. Forbes
changed a conventional sick pay program into a 'wellness pay.' Employees
could earn money and Forbes had a 30% decrease in medical and dental
claims.
This is not simply contrarian thinking, it is strategically shifting, like our
fortress commander, to change the game.
3) Move or Lose
Manage momentum to advance your organization.
Just as a riverbed determines a river's course of action, your business has an
underlying structure that determines your organizations' course of action.
Structure shapes behavior. Most change efforts fail because the underlying
structure has an allergic reaction to the change.
When Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM, took over the reins at IBM, he assessed a
structural problem in the computer industry and, instead of following a plan in
progress to break IBM apart, he refocused IBM to help the customer with
system integration from multiple vendors, without requiring all the elements to
be bought from IBM.
It was a dramatic structural shift, from a proprietary technology product
company to a customer-centric service company.
Gerstner guided the shift in the structure and is now credited with preventing
IBM from going out of business all together.
4) Strategic Influence
Small influential moves can create big leverage gains.
All great Advantage-Makers tell vivid stories that create questions. The
answers influence perception.
Our fortress commander catapulted a cow. What's going on? There is plenty
of food prepare for a long battle. His vivid, concrete demonstration
influenced the perception and won the day.
Most arguments are won or lost based upon how you frame the issue. The
most powerful frame wins regardless of the facts. Mouthwash is mouthwash.
Take Listerine—it kills germs. That's a fact—no frame there, right? Listerine
dominated the market until Scope was introduced by Proctor and Gamble.
Scope could have pointed out that it, too, kills germs, but instead it reframed
the argument. Unlike Listerine, Scope wouldn't leave you with "medicine
breath." The results taste better to Scope, because they leaped into second
place.
By applying these Advantage Points, you as an Advantage-Maker leader, can
shift the odds in the best of times and the worst of times.
Steven Feinberg, PhD is author of The Advantage-Makers: how exceptional
leaders win by creating opportunities others don't. He is a consultant,
speaker and coach to leaders, teams and organizations. He can be reached
at 650-852-0574 or www.stevenfeinberg.com |
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