Are You a Good Example of Leadership? What Do You Measure to Come to that Conclusion?

Are You a Good Example of Leadership To The People In Your Quad State Organization?

“We strive to deliver something for which there is unlimited demand–being treated with honor and respect. There seems to be a very limited supply of that in today’s world.” -Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A CEO

There is much talk these days about what the vacuum in our country's current leadership is doing for the USA's reputation across the globe.

This piece is gleaned from an inspirational article in none other than the vaunted Harvard Business Review. (You are reading HBR and Forbes.com regularly, yes?)

While we can get off on very good rabbit trails in good discussions in this regard, Quad State owners are often remiss in simply taking time to ponder our own 'core values' in regards to our leadership and the impact it is having on those we lead.

Listen in on MBA classes and corporate conferences and you will hear a lot of talk about the need for inspiring missions, ethical behavior and transcendent purpose. And judging from the “core values” statements in most annual reports, the vast majority of business leaders want their companies to grow by enriching the lives of their customers and employees.

And yet, this can often sound like so much fluff in the real business world. Our system of financial accounting rewards quarterly profits, but struggles mightily to place a value on ethical behavior. Even accounting rules specifically dealing with reputation — goodwill and intangible assets — are subject to frequent rule changes and endless debate.

A Great Leadership Tool...The Golden Rule in Long-Term Mathematics for Financial Success?

Reputation is earned, for the most part, through the simple, age-old concept of the Golden Rule (I refer you to the original source of Matthew 7:12 to check out), treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.

Each time you live up to the Golden Rule, your reputation is enhanced; each time you fail, it is diminished.
The mathematics of long-term financial success — revenues, profits, cash flow — square perfectly with this scorecard.

Everyone wants to be treated with honor and respect in many ways, large and small, that enrich our lives.

Could this be the missing ingredient in your leadership repertoire in striving for that 'ultimate' customer service? 

 Such experiences not only make us happy, we want to share them with people we care about.
It's a lot bigger than Yelp or Yahoo! notations. Sure, we rely on social media way too much, but in many industries, getting comments from fellow customers enhances our own buying decisions.

By recommending an experience, we’re signaling our trust that our friends will be treated similarly.

Recommendations also signal to businesses how customers view their relationship with the company. When customers feel so well treated that they enthusiastically recommend a company to friends, they are promoters. When treated so badly they recommend avoiding the company, they are detractors. Both have direct and measurable economic consequences.

Is This the New No-Cost Customer Relationship Management (CRM) breakthrough?

While a high level of 'serving others the way we want to be treated' may keep our bank accounts happy, there is also both a management and inspirational dimension to get to that end.

We as leaders should be striving to come up with practical ways we can measure how customers and potential customers are treated. Add our employees and suppliers in there and we have completed the loop!

That’s how Walt Bettinger, chief executive of Charles Schwab, describes his company’s new-found 'CRM tool' and system when recommending it to other CEOs:

“First, I ask them if they believe in the importance of the Golden Rule — that ancient moral and ethical principle that we should treat people the way we would want to be treated. They always nod emphatically and say, ‘Yes, of course.’ So then I ask them what they do to measure how consistently they and their organization are living the Golden Rule each day. Their typical response: ‘Well, it would be great if we could measure it, but there’s no practical way to do that.’ To which I reply that there most certainly is a way.

In fact, at Schwab we have been using a new measurement tool to measure our Golden Rule compliance for more than five years, and it works brilliantly. This tool is the first screen I open when I boot up my computer each morning. It lets me know for each part of our company how we are performing in living up to our core values. By making NPS a top priority, we have become a better company — not just in terms of living our core values, but also in terms of profitable growth.”

Bettinger is not alone. CEO Dan Cathy explains the winning strategy at Chick-fil-A in similar terms: “We strive to deliver something for which there is unlimited demand–being treated with honor and respect. There seems to be a very limited supply of that in today’s world.”

These CEOs have not discovered a new concept: in one form or another, the Golden Rule is a pillar of most of the world’s great religions and it also lies at the heart of secular ethics. The Golden Rule is simply a key part in our basic human DNA in wanting to bond with others.

The challenge executives face is how to put the Golden Rule into practice, especially when the lingua franca of financial accounting pushes the business to focus on short-term profits.

In striving to measure something heretofore that may be to many UN-measureable, there are ways that just about anything we can conceive of can be measured. As Schwab and Chick-fil-A have discovered, it really does pay to think of others first—paying dividends in both revenue and your personal and corporate leadership.

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Republished from: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com