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Business Processes and the Leadership Decisions

Medium to large corporate organisations are having to change their approach to business because of the demands of their most important Customers, especially if these Customers are Industry Leaders and operate globally. These Customers are only willing to do business with the companies that have effective Business Processes and demonstrate good Leadership Decisions.

If we look at what makes up the major component parts of an organisation, then we discover the following: Structures People Products Systems Information Customers - Relationships and Knowledge. What connects all of these are the Business Processes, which are determined by Leadership Decisions.

All organisations use Business Processes to administer their companies, but careful analysis of the Business Processes, which connect the major component parts of an organisation, are necessary to determine their effectiveness and to see if they reflect good Leadership Decisions.

First let us take Structures should they be Rigid, which will mean the company could be slow to act, or Flexible, allowing the company to be quick to respond to their Customers needs, or should they be Aligned with your Customers Structures, which will mean a more Connected relationship and many mutual benefits.

The selection of your People very careful consideration should be given to this activity and as to who should perform this function, the companys human resources department, or an outside agency, or should the board of directors make the final decision, especially for Top Management positions, Customer Facing sales positions and Customer Service support positions.

And how do you decide on People payment against what criteria, by Performance and measurable value to the company, by surveying your Customers and determining their Satisfaction with the People that your company provides to them, or with a Bonus for significantly overachieving, in the duties that your company has asked them to perform.

Then there is Product Selection should your product portfolio be Innovative, which will mean a lot of investment in research, design, development and time to market, or a range of Standardised products that are of consistent high quality, or Specialist products that are influenced by your Customers requirements, or maybe even a mixture of all three.

What is the determination of Product Pricing by the Volume that your Customers are forecasting to purchase, or by the current Turnover of sales with them, or list pricing with a Discount for their continuity of business.

And then we come to System Selection the technological recommendations should be closely reviewed by top management to ensure close adherence to your companys Business Processes and policies, and then selection of the most appropriate Systems by Value, Functionality, Availability and Security.

Information and data gathering the oxygen of all serious business organisations, this can be with a dedicated Marketing Department project, or by careful usage of Internet research and by the many trusted Personal contacts that your company has established. All organisations forget, until they are reminded, that the biggest source of Information that they have is with the People that they have in their own company.

A very important Business Process and one that needs to be very firmly underpinned by your companys Leadership Decisions, is the activity of Customer Selection should they be determined by the Industry that they represent, or the Potential business that they may do, or the Past Spend that they have made. If there is not enough attention paid to this Business Process by your companys Top Management, then the penalty will be in higher costs, lower profitability and loss of respected Customers who do not wish to be associated with your companys choice of Customers Selected.

The choosing of Relationships is fundamental to your overall business success do you choose, Good Customer Relationships that have mutual trust, Bad Customer Relationships that spend a lot with you, but dont trust you and would easily go to your competitors, if you did not give them their discount, or Political Customers who you must have a relationship with because of who knows them high up in your company, even though they cause more trouble and effort for your business, which increases costs and inevitably spend much less with your company than they should do.

Last, but not least is Knowledge the life blood of your organisation, there are many sources for the acquisition of Knowledge, but this needs to be accurate and accumulated from trusted sources such as the Knowledge that is provided by your Customers, gathered from within your respective Industry, and even from your Competition. Knowledge is an intangible product, but if you share it with your Customers it is seen as a sign of respect and gives your company the reputation of being an Industry Expert.

The Leadership Decisions are an integral part of each of the Business Processes and can make a huge difference to the success of an organisation and to the continued support of its shareholders, who decide on the ultimate longevity of any company.

James Chapman is an international consultant and speaker, who has advised many of the worlds leading firms.

He has had the privilege over the past 16 years to provide motivational speeches to many international organisations.

James Chapman lives with his wife and son in the Algarve, Portugal.

Telephone: 00351 96 7114086
Email: James_Chapman12@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.adversityovercome.com

There are many definitions of leadership. The one that this article is all about is this, leadership is getting people to do good things that they ordinarily would not have done by themselves without...

posted by 70924 @ 9:31 PM 0 comments

Slow Is Fast and Fast Is Slow

When you are implementing change in an organization remember this line: Slow is fast and fast is slow. While this statement is the opposite of what often feels or seems right, it lies at the heart of a successful change implementation program.

Most leaders feel the need to push change to make it happen. In most situations, pushing change will actually slow the organization down. As Saint Augustine said: "Patience is the companion of wisdom."

In a recent discussion with one of my coaching clients, we identified change management and implementation as his highest priority issue. As we discussed the leadership and communication implications he needed to address during the change process, he said that his natural desire was to do precisely the opposite of the course of action that we finally agreed upon. He said that his natural inclination would be to "Go in and tell them what to do and expect them to do it." In fact, the course of action we chose made him feel like he was sitting still and doing nothing. That's a tough situation for an action-oriented leader.

This business leader needs to change both attitudes and behaviors in his team. He is not in a crisis situation, but neither can he wait forever for people to "get onboard" with the changes. He is a focused, hard-working leader who really cares about his business and his people. He needs the change to happen quickly and smoothly, but not at a break-neck speed. I advised him to slow down during the early phases of the change implementation to give his people the opportunity to contribute their thoughts and to maximize the probability that they will buy-in to the plan later. The leader, in this case, has good data and sound insights about what needs to happen in his business. Unfortunately, his team does not yet see things like he does. Honestly, I think his plan will prove to be the bestand most direct solution to improve his business performance. Unfortunately, what he and I think is irrelevant when it comes to his team accepting and embracing a new way of doing things. This situation highlights one of the major dilemmas leaders face. Namely, consciously choosing, in the early stages, to do what "feels wrong" or "seems too slow" because it pays big dividends later. Delayed gratification comes into play in a number of leadership situations, but slowing down while driving a change through your organization is vital to long-term change acceptance. The idea is to personally slow down so that your organization can speed up. To explain my thinking on this topic, I'll share a change acceptance model for consideration. Every change, whether good or bad, involves loss. The loss of "the way we used to do things," the loss of comfort, the loss of security, etc. This feeling of loss triggers something like a grieving process that follows a relatively predictable pattern. The pattern goes in this order:

Denial People focus on the past and hope the change fails or goes away.

Resistance People acknowledge the change, but they focus on the effects (their feelings of loss, anger, etc.) and not the positive benefits of the change.

Exploration People begin to face the reality of the change and explore both the positive and negative aspects of it.

Acceptance People accept the new way of doing things and start to move forward again.

Leaders often go through this process privately or with a small group of close advisors before they decide on the need for a change. Then they try to push the change through the organization. However, their people have not had the opportunity to process the change, so the organization reacts with denial:

- "It can't be done."
- "It'll never work."
- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Or resistance:

- "I'll quit before I'll do that!"
- "You'll have to force me."
- "I'll do it if I have to."

Leaders who push too quickly for agreement tend to lock themselves and their organization in a downward spiral of conflict and resistance. Once locked in a downward spiral of bad attitudes and behaviors, making progress on the change implementation becomes very difficult. Leaders who slow down to give people a chance to process, and contribute to, the change on the front-end, get better buy-in and faster progress on the back-end. The approach that initially feels slow and laborious winds up reducing the overall change implementation timeline.

About the Author:

Guy Harris is the Chief Relationship Officer with Principle Driven Consulting. He helps entrepreneurs, business managers, and other organizational leaders build trust, reduce conflict, and improve team performance.Learn more at http://www.principledriven.com

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posted by 70924 @ 9:09 PM 0 comments