3 E's of Effective Leadership

The greatest responsibility of a leader is to make their employees successful. This is, more often than not, the one trait that does not garner enough attention from those measuring leadership success. It is about how well the employees are flourishing under one's leadership!

Use the 3 E's to answer this question; perhaps a better measure than (or in addition to) the usual promotions, team size, numbers, etc.

• Empower your employees (go do it!) – set clear goals and expectations, but don’t stymie free thinking. Establish the culture where managers can think freely and are “empowered” to make decisions that move the project forward.

• Enable your employees (provide the required resources!) – get down from the “I know all” pedestal and learn about the daily struggles of a manager in balancing deliverables and getting projects prioritized for delivery. Then make sure to provide the required resources and/or remove the organizational hurdles to “enable” employee success.

• Engage your employees (give a pat on the back more often!). Employees are more engaged when they are recognized. But, do it on a regular basis, not just once a year. Even the small achievements should be called out at weekly reviews or other team gatherings. It will go a long way in keeping them motivated and “engaged” towards the company’s success.

Just like the other assets within the company, employees also need nurturing, albeit with a human touch!

Align Sales Strategy with Customer Growth Strategy

Kind of obvious – isn’t it? After all, sales are meant to grow the customer base! But not so fast.

Sales organizations are by default programmed to increase their numbers period over period. However, quality has a different task – to retain the customers and optimize inflow such that churn is reasonable and within industry benchmark limits. So more is not always better! As we evaluate the quality of customer intake, we should also be cognizant of its downstream impact. Sales-only focus, beyond a certain threshold, invariably leads to greater customer dissatisfaction, higher churn and lower revenue for the organization.

In a recent test, changing the incentive plan on sales of price differentiated products led to a dramatic shift in customer take rate and early-life churn. In essence, the metrics improved, as the product was more aligned with customer need, rather than which one offered more commission to the sales agent. Aligning our sales with customer needs usually leads to a happy customer, which in turn, promises to deliver a greater Life-Time Value (LTV).

The analytics for assessing customer growth, therefore, should look at optimizing a wider set of determining factors, including; sales drivers, product/service pricing and customer segments. I shared some insights into a similar strategy for subscription based businesses. However, the sales and customer growth optimization discussed above is bound to benefit any organization that thrives on long-term contracts with its customers.