Leadership Mantras

Not a mission statement or an elevator pitch, they are quick and easy statements that capture the essence of what you want to accomplish. Leadership mantras work like product taglines, imbedding a message in employees’ minds with repetition. To work, a leader must use them and act on them consistently. For example…

“You will miss 100 percent of the shots you do not take.”
“Hire slowly, fire quickly.”
“Hope is not a strategy.”
“Work is not a place.”

Marketing isn’t always external. Leaders must sell their vision to employees and customers. Mantras can be effective, if occasionally hokey, tools.

What’s your favorite mantra? How do you use it? What has it helped you achieve?

Balance who you are and what your customers need.

In a recent post, I talked about the importance of seeing your products/company the way your customers see them. This morning, I stumbled across an article written by Tom Zahniser, a former colleague at Vistage International. He adds a second, equally important dimension to the mix. Speaking to entrepreneurial leaders, Tom said that the surest way to grow a business is to understand who you are and how your customers see you.

Can the king lead the revolution?

According to C.K. Prahalad, the University of Michigan management professor who coauthored the book “Competing For The Future,” this concept is based on the incorrect assumption that top managers can develop strategy and force everyone else to implement it.

In effective organizations, he says, real change is enabled by the people lower down in the organization who are closer to new technologies, to customers and competitors.

In an interview with strategy+business (3Q 96 p84), Dr. Prahalad said, “If you think about strategy as a revolution, as discovery, as innovation, as changing industry norms and industry patterns, then you must acknowledge that no monarchy has ever fomented its own revolution. In other words, senior management does not have a great propensity for change.”

So, how can you get the best ideas from people throughout your organization? Try this…