Do you want to be a leader - think like a leader

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

What distinguishes the leader from the rank-and-file team members is his way of thinking. Today we will talk about an interesting approach to our work - “think like an owner”. Learn what it is and why it works in an article by Robert Kaplan, Harvard Business School professor and strategic management researcher. Lifehacker publishes her translation.

Every person in the world has an opinion. Television, radio and other media abound with all kinds of commentators who make suggestions and hand out seemingly authoritative advice to officials and leaders on how and what they should do. During dinner, at a party, or near a cooler at work, we also talk about what should or should be done by others, or we discuss mistakes from our bosses.

At work, we can express our opinion as an official point of view - as the opinion of the entire company. Or we can assess the actions of the boss without thinking about the problems and interests of others that he has to consider. We do this because we are not knowledgeable enough. Or they are convinced that there is no need to understand all the details, this is not part of the job responsibilities.

A leader is not someone who simply expresses his opinion on all issues (although sometimes this is quite appropriate, and in some situations it is even necessary). Leadership requires more: you need to look at things more broadly, have principles and be confident in your actions.

I thought I did a good job

Jim is the vice president of a consumer goods company. He called me to discuss a problem he faced at work. Jim sought advice: he had just had an unpleasant experience and was trying to figure out what went wrong.

Jim was working on the launch of a major project. He was part of a large multidisciplinary team led by a senior vice president in charge of one of the most important business units in the company. The team was responsible for new product design, packaging, marketing and sales strategies. This product was vital for Jim's company because the market share of several other products began to decline rapidly and management urgently needed to find new growth opportunities. They believed that the new product would be useful to customers and restore the company's position in their eyes.

Each project participant was assigned one aspect of the work related to the new product and its launch. Jim was in charge of organizing the points of sale for the new product. This is not the most important task, but given the importance of the whole project and the high professionalism of the other team members, Jim considered this a great opportunity to prove himself.

After several weeks of work, he came up with a detailed plan for demonstrating and placing the product in various sectors of the trade: grocery stores, pharmacies and other retail outlets for consumer goods. In addition, he has developed several additional materials - tests for regional points of sale, which must be carried out on site.

During the work on the project, the team members met once a week to report on the work done. The senior vice president wanted everyone on the team to be aware of others' plans and all aspects of the launch. He expressed the hope that all team members will ask each other questions and learn about each other's tasks, and therefore will be able to develop the most effective strategy.

At first, Jim was very pleased with his work on the project. “I thought I did a good job,” he told me. Jim thought things were going great, so what happened next threw him into confusion.

At one of the meetings during the final phase of the project, Jim was asked to provide final recommendations. To his surprise, several colleagues sharply criticized his proposal. They believed it was inconsistent with the nature of the product, pricing, and likely consumer buying behavior. Specifically, the team members felt that his point of sale positioning was more in line with impulse buying, while they were convinced that this product should be positioned and seen as a pre-planned purchase from the buyer's point of view.

Jim was shocked. After the meeting, the team leader took him aside and asked how much he really knew about the product launch. "I was in every meeting," Jim replied, "and listened carefully." If this is true, the manager asked, then how could Jim's vision be so different from the expectations of other team members? Jim objected that he felt he took what he heard in the meetings right and that he also used his experience from successful launches of other products.

The manager went on to ask Jim a series of specific questions: “Who do you think should buy this product? How much should it cost? How should it be packaged? Jim admitted that he did not think about these questions, as they were not part of his assignment. He stated that the other members of the team should have been worried about it.

The manager was not satisfied with Jim's answers.

Before the meeting ended, he advised him to think about how he could answer these questions if he were a team leader, and not just a member with a limited set of responsibilities.

Jim thought this was an odd recommendation. He called me to find out my reaction to what happened and ask for advice on how he should react to problems with the project manager. My reaction was simple: “Jim, your manager gave great advice. And I completely agree with him. Imagine that it is you who are responsible for this situation. Try to think as if you were the boss or even the owner of the company. Imagine your life depends on every aspect of a proper product launch. What would you do? You are a talented guy. Think like a leader and use your talents to answer these questions."

Jim admitted that he never thought about this approach, in part because none of his bosses ever recommended that he act that way.

“Are you sure this is my job? Do I really have to do this? “Yes,” I replied, “if you want to be a leader, you must.”

Jim decided to get down to business in all seriousness. He interviewed other team members, applied all his skills and talents to understand every aspect of product positioning. He even conducted several of his own research in individual retail outlets, looked at how competitors' products are positioned. With the work done, he began to realize that his initial recommendations were superficial at best. And at worst, they were strikingly different from how to properly position the product.

Jim made an unpleasant discovery: the last time he did his job lousy. His ideas did not fit the project. As a result, he did a second-rate job and was also unhappy with his colleagues. Jim decided to take courage and apologize to the leader and team members.

The project participants accepted his apology. They were impressed that Jim had the strength to admit he was wrong, go back, do all the work again, and rethink his recommendations. He explained the new positioning proposals, which were quickly approved by the entire team. Jim felt appreciated now.

He realized that his experience had given him valuable knowledge. This awareness was strengthened when the senior vice president told him, “From now on, Jim, I hope you will act as a leader. You have great potential, but only if you think like an owner. Expand your horizons, don't narrow them."

Jim made a promise to himself that in the future he would not think like a highly specialized employee, instead he would approach work as if he were the owner of the company. This new way of thinking helped him learn to think more clearly and work many times more efficiently.

Expanding horizons

Sounds simple: think like an owner. But in reality it is difficult. You need to put yourself in the place of the person who makes decisions. And you can understand that this place is not suitable for you. Too much pressure, too many factors to consider, too many people interested. Complexity, constant change, myriad opinions make it easier to think, "Damn it, this is not my job!"

Yes, this is your job if you want to be a leader. Thinking like the owner means looking for confirmation of the correctness of your actions. You need to strive for the highest confidence, not to doubt what needs to be done.

In fact, most of the time, a leader may not have the conviction of how to do the right thing. But he continues to collect information, agonizes in indecision and analyzes until he reaches the desired level of confidence.

On the other hand, sometimes a leader needs to be on the lookout if confidence in something comes too quickly, or if he clings so tightly to the original idea that he doesn't take everyone else into account. Each of us has blind spots - things that we do not understand. Therefore, it takes time to gather information, consider alternative options, agonize and, finally, make sure that a balanced solution is found.

The fact is that the very process of finding confidence can be very difficult. Circumstances change all the time, competitors are on the alert, new products appear on the market, and so on. In addition, different people look at the same situation from different points of view, and everyone believes that he knows how to do the right thing. To respond to all these factors, a leader needs to analyze, consult, seek information, discuss options, and think a lot.

While you are going through this process, you don't have to know for sure what to do next. However, as a leader, you must continually strive to build confidence on the most important issues. How to do it? You and your team should focus all your efforts on concrete, agreed-upon steps that will help you arrive at an intelligent decision.

With experience, you will learn to better understand yourself and feel when complete confidence has come. Leaders don't look for excuses. Instead, they think like owners and encourage the team to think the same.