"Business Leadership Happens at the Intersection of Proper Behaviors and Great Business Results"

Leadership means influencing how other people think in ways that generate better sustainable results both for the organization and the people in it. A behavior is an action that a person has decided to invest energy into doing. If the person is whining, then they have decided consciously or subconsciously to put energy into the act of whining. If they are adding more value to customers, then they have decided to invest energy into the act of adding value. Consequently, leadership means influencing people to invest their energy in doing the right things that will achieve better sustainable business results.

Classic example: Martin Luther King, Jr. He said the desired outcome was equal rights for all Americans, and the right way to get there was through non-violent resistance. Bingo. He caused the intersection that generated one of the greatest social changes in the shortest period of time in the history of the world.

So what are proper behaviors and great business results? Remember that painfully boring session your organization went through to establish your corporate values. You know the one where terms were wordsmithed for what seemed like forever. Look on the wall behind you. Yep, those values. That's where it all starts. Values are beliefs that determine behaviors. If your corporate values say things like "integrity, honesty, teamwork, open communication, creativity, customer first, dignity, respect, and speed," then you know what the desired behaviors are for the people in your organization. Somewhere on a sheet of paper are written your most important desired business outcomes for the year. So far, so good. You know the desired behaviors and you know the desired business results.

The missing link is that elusive characteristic known as leadership. A business leader influences the people in the organization to behave in a way that demonstrates the desired values AND achieves the desired business results. Please remember this next statement: labels don't make the leader. Any person in your organization can influence the way other people think in ways that cause them to behave properly, in alignment with the stated business values, AND achieve the desired results.

Here's the challenge. Leadership is invisible work. It can happen by asking a question, making a statement, honestly sharing with another person feedback based on observed behavior, giving them a chapter in a book to read, and on and on. So what makes one person a great leader and another equally competent person merely a tactician or strategist? Why is one person able to effectively influence other people to cause the all-important intersection of proper behaviors and desired results, while another person merely does what he is told to do? Are some people just born leaders and others can never hope to lead successfully?

Here are the answers in reverse order. No, people are not born to lead. They are not a leader because of their height or looks or the tone of their voice. True leaders step off the train of daily tasks, and they ask themselves,

• What result are we trying to achieve?
• What behaviors do people need to demonstrate in order to achieve those results in a sustainable manner?
• How can I influence them to think in ways that will generate both the desired behaviors and the desired results?"

Once the business leader determines her answers to those questions, she moves into action.

This is the sandbox I play in every day as an executive coach. My goal is to figure out the proper behaviors for people in a particular organization, the desired business results for the organization, and the influence I need to provide to a specific individual to generate the intersection of the desired behaviors and business results. What I do is fairly simple. Any leadership approach I use can be implemented by any person at any level in any organization in any industry. That's not the hard part. The hard part is convincing yourself to take the time to step off of the train long enough to answer the three questions above, and then having the courage to put your plan into action.

The tweedle-dees and tweedle-dums who ruined Enron, WorldComm, Parmalat, Adelphi Communications, and Arthur Andersen were not business leaders. They influenced people to generate great results with completely the wrong behaviors. They missed the important intersection of business leadership by a hundred miles.

Even though business leadership is invisible and your influence will oftentimes go unnoticed and unappreciated, please trust me when I say that it is THE most important characteristic of a successful career and a successful organization. The leader, regardless of title, provides the magic potion that moves results forward in a sustainable manner.

I found out that several business groups use this monthly electronic newsletter as the basis for discussions on how they can accelerate the achievement of their most important business outcomes. What a neat idea! Maybe these groups could be called, "Business Acceleration Teams." Toward that end, I'm going to add a new section each month called, "Questions For Business Acceleration Teams." The approach will be to take that month's topic and add a few open-ended discussion questions that your team could use to move the ideas into action in a practical manner. Here are this month's questions:

Questions for Business Acceleration Teams for December 2005

1. What are the two most important business outcomes we are working to achieve in the next six months?
2. What behaviors will be necessary in order to increase the chances we will achieve those desired business outcomes?
3. Whom do we need to influence in order to get both the desired behaviors and the desired business results?
4. How will we influence these people?
5. Who will specifically provide the influence to the various individuals?

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Have a great holidays!

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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