"How do you define leadership?"
That's the question I posed to the self-described leadership expert. I had just met him at a conference. He told me he had spent the past 20 years delivering keynote speeches on leadership and had written several books, so I thought this would be an easy question for him to answer.
It wasn’t.
He stopped and started, struggling to find the right words. He tried a few metaphors that didn't quite land. Finally, he just shrugged and admitted defeat—he didn't have an answer to give.
The speaker wasn't alone. A lot of people struggle to find a clear and consistent definition.
You could ask a 100 leaders to define leadership and you'll likely get 100 answers, but they'd all be different. It's hard to become a "leader" when everyone defines leadership differently.
That’s why, when I wrote The Service Culture Handbook, I initially avoided marketing it as a book about leadership. I thought it would be better received if I focused on the context: getting employees obsessed with service. But leadership is what the book is really about.
It contains a proven, step-by-step process that leaders can follow to build a customer-focused culture in their organization. Here's how the process can help you become a better leader.
What is leadership?
Sometimes, we try too hard to be fancy when a simple answer is right in front of us. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has a definition of leadership that works just fine.
the power or ability to lead other people
Just to be safe, let's look at how Merriam-Webster defines lead:
to guide on a way especially by going in advance
When it comes to leadership, context is essential. “To guide on a way” implies leadership requires a specific task or mission. The Service Culture Handbook helps people build leadership skills in the context of guiding a customer-focused organization.
The book outlines three major skills that every leader needs to have.
Skill #1: Articulate a vision
The first skill in leadership is getting clear about your vision. You can't lead anyone anywhere, or expect people to follow you, if you don't know exactly where you are going.
In the book, I shared the story of an executive who wanted his team to be more like the Apple Store. When pressed for details, the best he could explain was the Apple Store had a reputation for outstanding customer service and he wanted to earn that same reputation.
The executive failed to get his team to embrace his vision, because the vision wasn't clear. He couldn't described what outcomes he wanted the team to pursue or what behaviors were essential to get there.
Without a vision to follow, the team lacked clarity.
In The Service Culture Handbook, I describe a number of customer-focused organizations. All had leaders who articulated a clear vision for employees to follow.
REI wants to help you enjoy the outdoors.
JetBlue wants to inspire humanity in air travel.
The Center for Sustainable Energy wants to make it easy to join the green vehicle movement.
In each organization, the vision is a shared definition of outstanding customer experience that gets everyone on the same page. It acts as a compass to constantly point everyone in the same direction.
As a leader, it's your responsibility to craft a vision, but that doesn't mean you should create it by yourself. Getting input and buy-in from key stakeholders is an essential leadership skill.
That’s why I created this guide to help you engage stakeholders and create your vision.
Skill #2: Engage employees
The second skill in leadership is to make sure everyone understands the vision. Part of guiding others is making sure they know where to go.
This is the true essence of employee engagement.
Employee engagement, like leadership, suffers from having too many definitions. One of the greatest challenges in the employee engagement movement is finding a way to make the concept operational so it’s impact on an organization can be plainly seen.
In my research, I've found on a definition that makes it easy to observe whether an employee is engaged.
An engaged employee is deliberately contributing to organizational success.
According to this definition, an engaged employee should know the answer to three questions:
What is the vision?
What does it mean? (In other words, can they explain it.)
How do I personally contribute?
It's a leader's responsibility to ensure employees are engaged. They should know the vision statement and have a clear understanding of what it means. Employees should also know exactly what's expected of them.
Skill #3: Navigation
The third skill is navigating the team to keep everyone working in the right direction. There are unforeseen obstacles and challenges along any path, and it's a leader's responsibility to keep everyone moving forward.
Every decision a leader makes can either keep the team on course or derail the journey. In The Service Culture Handbook, I call this concept alignment. The decisions a leader makes must be aligned with the vision.
Conflicts happen without alignment. For example, if a CEO proclaims that quality is important, but then authorizes a new product to ship before a design flaw can be fixed, employees aren’t sure whether to focus on quality or meeting deadlines. But if the CEO proclaims quality is important, and insists that new products go through a rigorous design and testing process to prevent defects, then employees will understand that quality is truly valued.
My research shows there are five major areas where a leader should focus on alignment:
Goals: The metrics that define success should propel people towards the vision.
Hiring: Getting the right people on the team.
Training: Giving employees the knowledge and skills to do their part.
Empowerment: Enabling employees to do a great job.
Modeling: Acting as a role model for employees to follow.
Additional Resources
You can get detailed instructions on each of these leadership skills from The Service Culture Handbook.
There's also a free, downloadable workbook you can use the implement the concepts.
Finally, if you have access to LinkedIn Learning, you can view my Leading a Customer-Centric Culture course. It's just surpassed 70,000 learners globally.
A 30-day trial is available if you're not already a LinkedIn Learning subscriber.