NinaSimosko.com

I can remember when customer relationship management (CRM) was the shiniest new toy in the IT bag of tricks. I was working with Tom Siebel and some of the smartest executives in the industry and we felt like we were ahead of the curve.

Back then, contact management systems were the lifeblood of every business manager. We’d live or die by these vital records. And then, at Siebel Systems, we changed the game. We came to market with the right software solution at precisely the time in which enterprises craved these services. We had seen the trend coming and were able to move quickly and comprehensively to claim the lion’s share of the market opportunity.

But where had this trend come from and how did we know it was going to reshape the landscape of enterprise technology.

In my first article for Forbes.com, I talk about some of the thinking behind the work I am leading with SAP’s Premier Customer Network. You can read the full article here.

One of the most powerful benefits of social media is that – as a form of media – it brings us closer to our readers. It brings us closer to our customers. In fact, it seems to strip away layers and layers of process, red tape and hierarchy at the click of a mouse. On sites like LinkedIn, I can find, connect to and communicate with business leaders the world over. Here on my blog I can share thoughts and ideas and receive feedback from some of the brightest minds of the business world. And it is a relatively simple process. Deceptively so.

For while we have never been more connected, we are also more exposed. With social media we find both success and failure within our grasp.

Some time ago, when I wrote about the work-life balance, I was of the opinion that we all live on a continuum – where sometimes our work lives take precedence and at others that our personal lives do. But social media is complicating this spectrum – what we say, do and even believe in one part of our lives can impact other parts. And not just other parts. Other people.

Take, for example, the situation where Brooklyn based journalist Caitlin Curran found herself unemployed after participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement. In How Occupy Wall Street Cost Me My Job, Caitlin came face to face with the contradictions and complexities of this new world.

With every tweet, blog post, status update, photo, video or podcast, we push ourselves – our individual selves into spaces and situations for which we are not always prepared. And while many have embraced this new communications freedom, they often do so without understanding (or even imagining the consequences). But this is a problem that is not confined to the young or inexperienced – nor is a problem that is going to go away.

If analyst, Paul Greenberg is right, and we are shifting from a focus on customer management to a focus on customer engagement, then the same focus should apply to all other business disciplines. And social media will be at the heart of these cross line of business shifts. As leaders, it’s time we not only began to engage with these technologies, but with the shifts that they are making within and across our businesses. We need to find a way to grapple with and understand these pressures and then work with our teams to integrate this all intelligently.

Nina Nets it Out: Increasingly our passionate employees, business partners and customers are engaging in social media in one form or other. Inevitably the lines between our personal and professional lives will blur – but rather than being penalized for this, we need to find a new way to make this work.

One of the most enjoyable series of blog posts I have written was looking at the leadership styles of celebrities. I started with Britney Spears and Madonna, moved on to Angelina Jolie and eventually ended up with Conan and Leno – and in each of these celebrities I found some insight worth sharing. But these posts weren’t just fun to write, they forced me to look beyond the image – to dig deeper, below the surface – to discover a trait or an ability that wasn’t just more grist for the publishing mill.

This week I was reading the 12 Most … website and came across an article on Lady Gaga. Now, there must be hundreds of websites devoted to this talented and controversial artist (and dozens of articles, believe it or not, connecting Gaga with leadership) – but Shawn Murphy took a different approach. He wanted to find 12 nuggets of leadership insight that are often overlooked. This was something that greatly appealed to me.

Out of the 12 items identified, one in particular caught my attention. Reinvention.

Gaga takes down her platinum albums before recording a new album. Why? To start all over as though she’s won nothing. It’s a reminder for leaders that previous successes do not make us special. They do not make us better than others. We must always step back before moving forward when we take on a new project or lead a team.

This idea of stepping back before moving forward is important. Even as leaders we need to take stock and re-assess our position – and the start of a new project is the perfect opportunity. We need to treat each new challenge with the respect that that challenge deserves, otherwise we run the risk of replaying ourselves rather than reinventing. Just look at the way that the best musicians change and tweak the same songs they have been singing for years. They find something new or profound with every performance. Just look at this bare bones performance of the Gaga hit Pokerface. It’s one performer, one instrument. There are no dancers, no support singers. It’s intimate and immediate. As viewers – as an audience – we have the sense that the performance is only for us.

This is the impact that we, as leaders, strive for. It’s what Wally Bock calls giving the gift of attention. The gift of attention is something that should not only be reserved for our teams – it should also be given generously to ourselves. It is vital to our own reinvention and ultimate success.

Nina Nets It Out: Singing the same old tune can make us feel safe – but also stale. The leader’s challenge is to tread the line between the two. A bit like the modern day Madonna, Lady Gaga is truly an artist who shows us how reinvention can trump repetition while still delivering to her audience – and there is much we can learn from her discipline and practice.

Let me start by asking a question – how early did you check your email inbox this morning? And how did you do it? Did you login to your computer from your desktop in the office? Did you use your laptop while eating breakfast? Or did you turn off the morning alarm, roll over, grab your BlackBerry and scroll through the latest and greatest?

Let’s move on from email – and ask about social networks. When and how often do you check Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn? Amazingly (to me), a report last year indicated that 53% of people surveyed check their social networks before getting out of bed. That is significant for business. It is significant because these people work in our teams. For me, it is yet another indicator of what I call the life continuum and the need for us all to manage outcomes, not process. But it is significant for another reason – because these people who check their networks, their email and source their news as a high personal priority are also our customers.

As leaders, when we talk about leadership, we often talk about vision. We seem to think that leaders – real leaders – have the ability to peer through the chaos and hectic daily activity of business, perceiving a clear path towards a promised (and promising) future. But, in my view, we are seeing a new form of leadership emerge. One which is less reliant on that leader’s personal vision. This new leader engages in what I call customer-oriented thinking. But it’s more than just thinking – it is about the eyes, the voice and the shoes of the customer.

• Eyes: Today’s leaders must look through the eyes of their customers. What is your customers’ vision for the future? The GE corporate culture expects their leaders to take an external focus and see “around corners.” We need to do the same. We need an industry perspective and understand the way that our customers see their world. This, in turn, becomes part of our own customer insight.
• Voice: We need to moderate our own terminology and begin speaking with the voice of our customers. We need to also listen to the way in which our customers describe their challenges and opportunities – and even the language that our customers use to describe the products and services that we provide them. Only by listening, learning and speaking in the voice of our customers can we truly begin to communicate deeply.
• Shoes: As leaders we cannot any longer walk a path on our own. On the contrary, we must walk, instead, in the shoes of our customers. We need to understand – on the ground – what it means for our customers to live with our products and services. We need to seek out opportunities for co-innovation, collaboration and deeper relationships – and this should then inform the way that we speak, think and view our joined futures.

But what does this mean in practice?

Start by asking how your customers start their days. What keeps them up at night and what drives them to start their day connected to business and social networks? After all, we all want to do a good job, be recognized for our efforts and deliver value to our companies, our shareholders and our customers. How can you help your customers help their customers? Starting with the eyes, voice and shoes will get you a seat at the table.

Nina Nets it Out: We are all inundated with information yet only have limited attention. As leaders we must more deeply understand the lives, challenges and opportunities faced by our customers – and we can only do so by looking through the eyes of our customers, speaking in the same language and authentically joining them on their professional journey. It’s not just the best way to conduct business, it’s the most rewarding – for us all.

I am more of a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, but this infographic from Mindflash caught my attention. Based on the Star Wars series – the Jedi Trainer’s Guide to Employee Management outlines some of the trials that we all face. And while this is a little “tongue-in-cheek”, it is worth sharing with the first time managers in your teams.

Regular readers will not be surprised that my favorite skill is identified here as the “trial of insight”. Powerful communication is one of the hallmarks of a leader – to be able to listen, engage and respond – and ultimately to action requires a great deal of effort and experience. Aspiring leaders should never underestimate the importance of communication – nor as the graphic points out – that communication is often coupled with courage.

As leaders we need the courage to communicate – and to follow that communication through with action. Sometimes it is indeed our actions which communicate most forcefully.

Nina Nets It Out: A great chart for the aspiring leader – it reminds us of the challenges that come with leadership. We must listen, evaluate, decide and communicate. In the words of MY favorite sci-fi leader, Jean-Luc Pickard, only then can we “make it so”.

I have been thinking, for some time, about the different aspects of social media and how they can apply to the day-to-day challenges of leadership and the opportunities of business.

In particular, I want to understand where social media can impact customer oriented thinking.

Interestingly, for me, social media almost seems like a perfect storm of convergence. For example, just look at how:

• Technologies are getting easier to use – blogs make it easy for executives and non-technically savvy leaders to publish their thoughts and ideas on the internet
• People are attracted to ideas and connections – like moths to the flame, we all find topics that we are passionate about and engage in spirited conversation with others who share our passions
• Conversation and opinion rule – the conversations and opinions of customers are not only important online – they drive web traffic, promote products, deliver feedback, do a great job of marketing our offerings, and they can “encourage” a strong customer service ethic given their public nature
• Behaviors are shifting – we are becoming more used to “participating” in the online communities that form using social media

But while social media applies easily to the marketing arm of your business – it strikes me that there are many ways to align social media and business value beyond just the marketing funnel. One such method would be to look at the complex models that govern the kibbutz. Let’s compare the elements and qualities of kibbutz and social media:

The kibbutz has been able to survive – and in some cases to thrive – because it was culturally self-reinforcing. The experience of working and living on a kibbutz is a meta-experience – after all, “For the founders, tilling the soil of their ancient homeland and transforming city dwellers into farmers was an ideology, not just a way to earn a livelihood.”

A brief look at blogs and at sites like Twitter provide more than a snapshot of some aspects of a similar meta-experience. Participation in social media is evangelized by those who “get it”. It is encouraged and advocated as a force which is changing the nature of the very way that we live, work and play (see my points above). But where the kibbutz was strongly predicated on aligning social activity with economic progress, we are only just starting to see this focus in the realm of social media. This will come but there is more work to be done. Perhaps we could start by following Olivier Blanchard’s better business doctrine and simply “giving a s#*t”.

But the kibbutz model of social media goes beyond this also. It covers:

• Social: the relationships that we have are all personal. And with a personal relationship comes a form of interdependence. It is part of the fabric of our lives.
• Economic: our social relationships also tie us to economic realities. In business as in life, we choose where to lay our affinities and how to act upon them. Increasingly we will choose to work with those we like and trust.
• Cultural: like life on a kibbutz, living in the realm of social media brings with it an understanding of the customs and behaviors of the online social environment. Adhering to such aspects makes for easier engagements with others online and fosters a greater social reputation. This is important when taken in the context of social media background checks.
• Participation: each member of a social forum chooses their respective level of participation and engagement. As such, those that contribute more eventually “earn” higher status and recognition. Similarly, while historically people on the kibbutz were compensated equally, regardless of individual work done, more modern kibbutzim use a more capitalistic approach to compensating the members.
• Commitment: stating one’s commitment is easy; but, demonstrating a true commitment takes hard work. Remaining active on the social networks is time consuming, but can foster relationships that would otherwise not exist. My efforts have resulted in relationships with several great writers, thinkers and leaders such as Wally Bock, Dan McCarthy, Erika Andersen, just to name a few. Likewise, being committed to a kibbutz takes hard work. Many members realize that it is too challenging and leave after a few years. The same can be said of bloggers, social media enthusiasts and the like.

By focusing on these five elements and learning from the kibbutz, as business leaders, we can begin to transform our businesses – and the ecosystems in which they operate. We may start with the customer relationship, but the opportunities clearly extend into almost every other part of the enterprise.

Surely leaders can see the impacts of their participation and commitment across social, economic, and cultural arenas. These play out be they in day to day leadership, interactions with key stakeholders be they investors, clients, partners or vendors, and in pursuit of business opportunities such as acquisitions, mergers or divestitures.

Nina Nets It Out: Learning the lessons from the historical kibbutz-style collective communities can shine a spotlight on how to succeed in the modern, online social networks of today. Be certain, while the means of interacting with the “collective” may be vastly different, the approaches to communal engagement are tried and true and the lessons learned from them very real.

Often when we discuss the idea of leadership, we apply it to our own organizations. We think about the various echelons of leaders – from the first line managers through the senior ranks to the role of the chief executive. But it is also important for us –as leaders within our businesses – to characterize and understand the leadership aspirations of different classes of stakeholders who are just beyond the reach of our business boundaries. Think, for example, of your best customers. What can the language of leadership tell us about their experience? What can the lens of leadership reveal about the motivations, interests and level of engagement of your customers and how can this impact your own leadership style?

Customer Leaders – Innovators and Early Adopters

Just imagine for a moment that you have a group of customer leaders. This is a group who are very closely aligned with your business. You have deep reciprocal relationships across your businesses and leaders at all levels are in regular contact. Quite possibly you have extensive co-innovation or co-marketing arrangements. What’s more, these customers expect to be in the advanced guard of any new innovation that you produce – and they work with you closely to preserve a competitive market advantage. In this way they are what Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations calls “innovators.”

Following closely behind the innovators are the “early adopters”. These are likely to be your upstart customers – more recent, ambitious customers. They can see the opportunity that close engagement represents and they are open to playing with moderate levels of risk. They engage you because they lend you credibility in different (or emerging) markets, and they love the stability and scale that you deliver. It’s a win-win.

Customer Followers – the Early and Late Majority

The early and late majority cover a large proportion of your customer base. According to Geoffrey Moore who extended Rogers’ model in Crossing the Chasm, attention should be paid to each of these segments in sequential order. This means that a customer tipping point is achieved at the level of 15-18% of the customer base – and until this is reached, customer followers are unlikely to engage until there are “proven models” and “best practices” already well established. Therefore, early stage focus should remain with the innovators and early adopters.

The chasm and discontinuous innovation

Now, Moore’s model applies only to innovations which are discontinuous in nature – where you are seeking to effect a change in behavior. This is particularly prevalent in technology focused businesses, but with the rise of social media, these days it can readily be applied to almost any industry sector.

Moore suggests that the challenge is in bridging the chasm between the early adopters and the early majority. It loosely equates to what I would identify as Gartner’s “trough of disillusionment” stage of the Hype Cycle – where the early excitement of a new innovation wanes and the hard graft of gaining more widespread acceptance kicks in. The challenge for leaders is ensuring that not only are customer leaders engaged quickly and powerfully, but they also help set the agenda for the early adopters – building momentum that can spread across the entire customer ecosystem. Remember, it is important to understand the leadership aspirations of your customers. Allow them to not just follow an agenda, but to set one. Allow them to own and engage the innovation process, and encourage them to activate their own business ecosystems – those who could also be your other partners and customers.

And in the process, your business (and your leadership), will also be transformed. For the better.

Nina Nets It Out: Your best customers are not just transactions. They are, and should be, a strategic category of their own. Recast your best customers in the terminology of leadership and you will find new opportunities to engage, build and sustain relationships well beyond a single sale.

Many of us are challenged by our inboxes, by our list of priorities and the demands that are placed upon us by our colleagues, teams and business stakeholders. Leaders are no different. Except in the way that we respond.

You see, leaders only do what leaders can do.

Or more precisely, leaders should do what only they can do.

Take a look through your inbox and your list of to-dos. What can be handled by your team? What can be delegated to another person? What is worthy of your attention and where can you have the most impact?

You will see that there are some tasks that only you can complete. That’s what you should focus on. That’s what you should prioritize. And the rest of the things that you have on your ever-growing list can be delegated or re-routed to others.

By concentrating on the things that only you can do, you not only free-up your thinking for the important tasks, you also provide opportunities for your colleagues and your teams to demonstrate their abilities. But more importantly, this allows you to focus your own leadership on the act of “doing”. As Wally Bock explains, “… great leaders are great because of what they do, not because of who they are”; and this simple, but useful, technique ensures that you spend most of your effort where it will have the greatest outcome.

So what’s the first thing you’re going to do now?

Nina Nets It Out: The modern business is a challenging place with competing priorities. As a leader, your role is not to do everything, but to do those things that can only be done by you. All other tasks can be delegated or re-prioritized.

In this great TEDx talk, Simon Sinek explains exactly why some businesses – like Apple – inspire fans rather than “have” customers. It’s partly a function of biology.

Sinek explains that the biological functioning of our brains is comprised of the limbic system – the evolutionary, older area that is responsible for emotions, behaviour and decision making; and the neocortex – the newer, homosapien brain responsible for rationalizing and language. Interestingly, the limbic system – what is also called “the emotional brain” – has no capacity for language.

This explains why we make decisions with our “gut instinct”. It’s not our “gut” at all – it is not instinct – it’s our limbic brain making the decision that has not yet been processed through the neocortex.

What this means for leaders, is that if we want to achieve our goals, we need to engage our teams, our colleagues and our entire ecosystem in ways that appeal to, and activate, the core of the brain – the limbic system. It’s an inside-out approach. We have to “speak” to the non-linguistic brain. We need to enter a conversation with that part of the brain that controls behavior, trust and loyalty. We need to reach the decision maker directly (as any good sales person will tell you).

How can we do this? Sinek has a short, snappy line that we all should remember:

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Say it with me (and say it out loud) – “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.

If you want to become a better leader, then take the 20 minutes or so to watch this video (see what I did there?). Then apply what you learn to your own leadership practices. Riffing off Simon Sinek – start with your own why.

Nina Nets it Out: Too often leaders talk to the facts and figures to motivate their teams. And too often those teams fail to deliver. But leaders who speak to the vision – who understand WHY and can articulate that – will allow their teams to make that cause their own. In this way, projects won’t simply be a chore for your teams – it will become their calling. Your challenge is to start by articulating your own “why”.

A couple of weeks back I sat in the Hoffman Hot Seat – Tom Hoffman’s regular interview series. It gave me a chance to talk about the SAP Premier Customer Network and the approach we are taking to customer oriented thinking. Please take a few moments to listen.

As I explained to Tom, the real opportunity for business leaders is to engage your customer early – especially where you are working to deliver something that is, ostensibly, for their benefit. Now, we all think that the work that we do is valuable to customers (why else would they buy it, right?), but pure, raw customer feedback can take your breath away. Not only that, it can really transform the way that you think about – and frame – your business programs and customer solutions.

It may be hard to hear at first, but once you start to truly engage with your customers – listening and then acting on the insight, you’ll soon see that results flow. And we all smile when customers smile!

Nina Nets It Out: Your customers obviously have a significant investment in your business and they can become a very powerful ally in helping you identify improvements and innovations. But you need to invite them into your business process. Once you do that, you’ll soon find that customer feedback truly does fuel actionable results.