Catch the bus

Another note in Scott Wilkerson’s article “Out in Front, Leading People, Leading Organizations” talks about leadership. He said he is shocked by the number of book titles focused on leadership. A quick Amazon search uncovered 223,472 books with “leadership” in the title.

We have all sat through numerous leadership training sessions. Sometimes speakers are brought in, you review a tape, or you are given a book to read, one of the 223,472 books available at Amazon.

What makes a good leader? What qualities do they have? Managers can have a team; meet their goals, however not be a good leader. Think about it. You have worked for people that you went that extra mile for. You supported them and yet not all of the ones you supported worked in the same style and manner. Are did they have the same personality. You can’t say a person will be a good leader if they are 6 ft. tall, weigh 200 lbs. and graduated from college. A good leader connects with his employees. He works with them and is not stuck away in some office giving out instructions. It is hard to walk the line of being a mister good guy and still retain the role as boss. 

Back to the bus story –

How does leadership translate into a company’s success? In his well-known treatise, author Jim Collins dug into the factors that distinguished good companies from great ones. “The executives who ignited transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it,” he wrote.

Having the right people on the bus means that one’s company can more easily adapt to a changing world. The right people are self-motivated to produce outstanding results. But if you have the wrong people, “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”

To sum it up, W. Clement Stone wrote:

“There is very little difference in people. But that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.”

Scott suggests taking these concepts and replace “employees” with “suppliers”. That employees and suppliers can be managed similarly. We should not consider people a commodity, but many of us still inadvertently source and manage suppliers as though they are commodities. With the great tools we have today, EDI, Fax, voice mail and email, we lose a lot of contact with our suppliers. We do things the fast way due to our time limitations. We no longer call a supplier, talk about the weather, the family and very seldom do we go out to lunch any more with a supplier. Do we recognize our good suppliers? With the shift of lines, I lost a very good supplier. The customer service person, Dan, was one of the best people I have ever worked with. The supplier offered excellent service because they had a great customer service person to work with, that had a great attitude.