Leadership: when you lack pricing power

Published: 2011-04-18   There are 2 comments ... please add yours below

Charlie Aitken is my favourite stock-market writer. Today, aside from energy and resources, he says every bit of feedback he gets from companies is the same … “margins under pressure, lack of consumer confidence, genuine rise of the internet as a competitor and a broad lack of pricing power.” Not pretty. So, in the leadership market, how much pricing power do YOU have? Can you justify a salary or bonus increase? Better, how are you building personal competitiveness? Below is a new 3D mindset that shifts your thinking about leadership to become follower driven, future directed and outcome based. Below that is my 3-step approach for planning your leadership actions: making them practical, value-adding and accountable. Together these can change how you lead – and get some pricing power.

• The WHO axis. There’s a famous saying that the only thing a leader must have is followers. If so, why is so much leadership investment leader-centric? All that spending on your MBTI or LSI and those seminars, books and articles. Looking at yourself in the mirror is fun for you. But not flattering to your team members and others you need as followers. That has to change.
• The WHEN axis. Have you noticed how all your feedback and profiles are backward looking. In contrast, the business or project plan you’re responsible for is forward looking. So, where’s your related leadership plan? Most leaders don’t have one. It’s the missing link in business planning!
• The HOW axis. For all the talk of situational leadership, most books, articles and gurus push a theory or specific way of leading. Lots of one-size-fits-all! But, what about some business-like problem-solving based on reality not theories? In this case, that means addressing the specific challenges and issues worrying your followers – so they become upbeat and want to deliver.

1. FOLLOWER QUESTIONS. What are the concerns holding your people back from full understanding and commitment? Is it about the vision and where you’re taking them; about whether they can do it; how they’re expected to behave; the required weekly deliverables; or what?
2. ACTION AREAS. For their most critical concern or question (from Step 1), what type of leadership actions by you would best address it? If they’re concerned about the journey, are the goals or plans unclear or the business model outmoded; or, are the external threats seen as unduly threatening?
3. ACTION COMMITMENTS. Finally, for those priority action areas, what will be your specific commitments to sharpen the plan, adjust the model or address those threats? This is the place where you plan YOUR detailed leadership actions … the “what, with whom and by when.”

As I said earlier, leadership is the missing link in business planning. Too often, we prefer to talk, tell stories, criticise and thereby avoid addressing how we’re personally going to get traction – and generate our career pricing power. Well, if you’ll forgive the bluntness, if that’s still your way then in the current climate (and century), the game is damn near over. And, if you’ll forgive the commercial, V|E|C|T|O|R offers you a leadership-action-planning tool that’s reflective of real-world business imperatives, not theories and generalisations. So, if you really want pricing power, V|E|C|T|O|R’s your place to start!

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The VECTOR Tool Kit
" ... contributed to better service ... " Adam Simpson, Simpsons Solicitors
www.simpsons.com.au

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Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership^®

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Comments (2)

Timothy Pascoe - date: 2011/04/19 09:45 am


Dear Kurt,

Delighted this week's Potshot is "on time and on target" for you. That's gives me a lot of pleasure.

I hope your work goes well.

Timothy


Kurt Rieger - date: 2011/04/19 08:51 am

Thank you so much - just what I needed on time and on target. This blogshot provides clarity in what actions I can take toward achieving systemic/complexity leadership for today high tech world of automation.
Thanks you
Kurt Rieger

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