How To Set Records in a Falling Market
This week South Africa became the world test champions in a one-off test match against the Aussies in London. They wrapped it up with over a day to spare and thoroughly deserved the win. For a federation struggling to pay the bills it was a wonderful win for them, and good for world cricket. But how did they win? How did they become world champions?
There are hundreds of answers depending on who you speak to. From the development program of the last decade, to the coaching staff, to the captain's ethos, to the tactics, to the talent, to their style of play... the options are endless. This is the same as our businesses. You may be a teacher, a Marketing Manager, or a CEO of a multinational - there are hundreds, if not thousands of ingredients to what makes for a good day, quarter, year, or tenure. So, where do you start?
In the case of the South Africans, maybe it was as simple as the fact that they held their catches and Australia did not. That is it. That was the difference.
If we allow this to be true, it can be more helpful than the bold, technical, or sophisticated strategies we are feverishly working night and day to deliver in the hope they will pay off.
Last week I spoke to a Sales GM that led a team to bring in a record quarterly sales number for the company's entire history. Not only was this lovely news to hear, but she had done this in the face of a massive downturn in the industry. Of course, I asked, "how did you do it!?!". Her answer was, she had put a deliberate strategy in place and executed it. I asked what model she used, what theory she had put in place, and what techniques she used to drive this growth.
She looked at me funny (or as if I looked a bit funny).
Her answer, "nothing really, just the simple stuff. Done well".
In reality, this looked like a simple sales tracker, focused activity, and unrelenting consistency. That is it. No Boston Consulting Growth-Share Matrix, or Porter's Five Forces Analysis... no, just a mature conversation about what the market needed, what the company could offer, and setting clear and direct activities that were tracked and supported without restraint or excuse. None of it took extra budget, was laborious to set up, or required much involvement from directors or boards for approval.
This is a great model for doing strategic thinking. But, before you use it make sure you have looked at the simple stuff first.
It was impressive in its simplicity.
From taking catches, to leading a team of sales people, it made me think of the core ingredients we need to have in place to lead anything successful...
Metrics - You have to track it. In a warm up exercise I'll often ask groups to discuss how they are going in their respective positions versus their targets Year-To-Date. Usually, over half the room cannot answer this question as they don't have tangible ways to track their performance - I used to be stunned by this but have now come to realise how common this is. Two weeks ago only three of twenty people in the room could answer this question. Peter Drucker famously said, "what gets measured gets managed", or how I would put it, "You can't lead what you don't track". If you are not doing this for yourself or the business you lead, then just do this - track one to three critical metrics - it will be a game changer.
Movers - You can't do it all, so what can you do. If leadership is about the deployment of capital, then it is just as much about what you 'do not deploy capital into'. Doing fifty things poorly never beats doing one thing well. In The Rhythm Effect I call out 9x Technical Leadership Practices. They are not the be-all-and-end-all, but they are 100% helpful. After a decade of teaching this, I am still yet to find one person that practices them all concurrently in their leadership, even after I have taught them. This is a tiny bit depressing (for me). But, what is uplifting is when they practice and master 2-3x of them their entire leadership world shifts. Doing one, two or three things with full commitment often gets the job done.
Moments - You can't tolerate rubbish. Henry Cloud was a clinical psychologist specialising in boundaries and accountability. His work found that when people accept sub-par standards in how they are treated, in their relationships, or the quality of work people did for them, then an inferior benchmark would be established. Cloud's famous quote, "you get what you tolerate", is a central tenet to leading with simplicity. Give clear instructions, state a clear standard, and talk to this often. If you see/hear/witness anything below this, then questioning it and supporting the alternative is critical. Keeping others accountable can be uncomfortable, but is not an excuse to ignore it. If you do, you'll get rubbish.
There is no point putting together a five year strategy or getting the consultants in to do a review if your people don't know their goals, don't know what their focus is, or don't know how to behave. As a co-facilitator once said to a room full of managers, "you might as well put a pile of cash on the table and set it on fire".
I marvel at the beauty of real people doing real work that gets great results and can be explained on a spread sheet or a napkin. In a complex world, why would you add more complexity? Make things harder? It makes much more sense to strip it back and call it for what it is - a team that catches every catch, because you know what they say about catches and matches.
