Tomicide Solutions June 2007: Eight Leadership Principles The Military Can Teach High-Tech Business Development Folks

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

...but most of them refuse to learn

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In the movie Gladiator there is a scene when the Barbarian Horde is first introduced to the crowd at the Colosseum, and Maximus asks his fellow gladiators if any of them has been in the army. Some have, so they know that Maximus was emphasising the importance of teamwork, which is an almost unknown concept in most business development departments where the compensation system and other lunacies create more than enough internal competition to set team members against each other.

Maximus was emphasising the importance of teamwork, and why the military makes certain that every soldier understands it and gets the concept carved into his DNA. There may be a lesson here. Most technology companies' business development departments struggle with teamwork. In most cases managers attribute problems to inadequate skills, but the main problems revolve around substandard or non-existent commitment, accountability and discipline to work as a team. There are no consequences for opting out of teamwork.

In fact, most managers love to see gung-ho, aggressive go-getters who are willing to break through brick walls with their bare hands to close the next deal even if they stab a few colleagues in the back in the process. Actually business development departments at most technology companies have such strong internal competition that it undermines these companies' competitiveness in the marketplace.

The military is often called the ultimate professional service firm because it sells, what we can call in plain English, "peace of mind". There is nothing tangible, no deliverables and no billable time. And to maintain this "peace of mind", the military must work in close collaboration with the civilian side of society, like politicians and local law enforcement people who are the clients in this case. By the way, have you also noticed that the military doesn't have many fee objections? Governments are willing to invest a fair amount the services the military provides.

And while many civilians mistakenly believe that the military is about mass-manipulation, command and control, when you see beyond the veneer, you'll discover a "community" whose operation is based on deep-seated values. But since the military is probably the only institution where discipline, commitment and accountability are taken dead seriously, civilians tend to call this level of dedication, due to lack of a better word and understanding, to a dictatorial command and control environment. But there is the same level of command and control in every area of life. The mortgage company controls part of your budget. Bosses have a certain level of control over their subordinates. And in a society that, in general, is pretty low on accountability, these words command and control have been softened up to be more acceptable.

So, let's see what technology companies can learn from the army...

1. Developing Associates and Teams

Business development can be a pretty high-stress environment. After all, the company's future depends on this small group of people. Leaders and managers must build and sustain strong bonds with their people. Leadership by remote control is a sad and rather sick illusion, although it's pretty popular. Ken Blanchard calls it seagull leadership: So-called leaders fly in, make a lot of noise, shit all over the place on everyone and then fly out. Their only contact with their people is when they show up to reprimand them.

Just like warfare, working in a business development department is a team activity, and the battlefield of commerce requires tough and cohesive teams that can work together when the stakes are high and the heat is on. But this requires that teams are trained when the heat is on. And this is where the difference lies. Soldiers rehearse, musicians rehearse, dancers rehearse, actors and actresses rehearse, even politicians rehearse their speeches.

One of the very few groups of people who almost never rehearse their crafts is business development people. And not because they are so good that they don't need rehearsing. No! They don't rehearse because it's not a non-paid activity and management doesn't allow time wastage. Every single second of the business development folks must be spent on hunting, chasing and pitching new prospects to perform the monthly quota. Otherwise, quoting an old Judas Priest song, some heads are gonna roll.

So, what happens next? Well, we can call it winging. And winging is great when everything goes by the book. Every greenhorn sailor can sail a ship on a calm sea. But the shit seriously hits the fan when a vicious storm comes and all of the sudden 10-15 foot waves start pounding on the ship. A team that was built on brotherly love through retarded rah-rah exercises will fall to pieces even before the storm reaches its climax.

In a way business is like warfare. Every day your competitors wake up and hope to see your head on a platter and your body quartered and stuck on long spear on the four corners of your town. But here we have to note something. I know there is plenty to go around, so we don't have to worry about competitors, but most people operate on a scarcity mentality, and believe in the kill or be killed game.

I believe building a business development department is not about pushing others out of business. It's about becoming the best we can be, so we can attract the cream of the drop of our target markets that are great people with sexy projects. I'm totally against the Wal-Mart model in which the company tries to win on volume by literally pushing smaller operators out of business. In my view it's sheer bully policy.

The founder of the VeraSage Institute, Ron baker says...

"Growing for the sake of growth is the policy of the cancer cell."

It's easier to manage a smaller company, and it's easier to make it super profitable. Your company may be growing in terms of revenue, but when you look at your profit per person figure, this number may turn that big smile into a big frown.

The biggest part of building "military-calibre" business development teams is to create mutual trust, respect and faith among team members. Trust in other members, respect for other members and faith in their abilities to do what has to be done to advance the company to the next level of excellence.

Managers must be able to represent the company to the team, and individual team members to the organisation. Also, managers must be exemplars. They must be willing to do themselves what they expect their people to do. One big destroyer of teamwork is when managers shout, "Do as I say, not as I do." Which is pretty much the equivalent of saying, "Ignore me, folks! My word is not worth shit. " And yes, team members will graciously ignore managers and now you have the harbinger of anarchy on your hands.

It's only fair to say that the military has the best technology available, yet, the main emphasis is on developing people. And that's exactly why technology companies should focus on their people too. It's vital that managers build 1-to-1 relationships with their people.

Technology companies must give up the "using better technology" mantra and replace it with "using technology better."

2. Communications

Communication is one of the fundamentals in the military. It must be very clear and precise, otherwise the smallest misunderstanding can cause major devastation. Clear communication takes place when the receiver precisely understands what the sender means. You communicate for several purposes, including directing, ordering, asking, requesting, influencing, co-ordinating, encouraging, counselling, coaching or educating. It is the sender's responsibility to send the message in such a way and form that it "lands" on the receivers, and they can understand the exact meaning of the message.

I remember that at boot camp some of us complained to the drill sergeant that we missed the target, and he asked us...

"Soldier, so you're bitching and blaming the target for jumping out of your line of fire. It seems you failed to notice that the target doesn't move. Now get your arse back in the line, shut up and aim better."

We swallowed the bitter pill, but essentially he was right.

And this is where Einstein's phrase comes into the equation...

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

This approach makes certain that your message is understood and can be acted upon promptly. And there is another consideration here. Sometimes the price of clarity is the risk of insult. People must pack up their egos, and realise that just because a comment hurts, it's not meant to hurt the person. Every comment is just a comment. It is us who add meanings to those comments.

In business development departments this kind of communication takes place both in-house among staff members and between staff and clients. We're living in a society that is becoming politically correct at the expense of clarity. I don't mean to be politically incorrect or outrageous just for the hell of it, but clarity must come first. If you mean to say bullshit, then don't settle for male bovine solid waste matter. It may sound nicer and less vulgar, but the meaning gets diluted, and the urgency and the importance of the message go down the toilet.

3. Developing Teaching, Coaching and Counselling Skills

The main purpose of leadership in the military is to turn soldiers into leaders, so they can pass on the skills both to the soldiers in their units and their children in their civilian lives. It's about helping people to grow as people. The military prepares soldiers for many worst-case scenarios. And since the environment can be pretty stressful, soldiers must become good counsellors and coaches to help people in their units. And since this level of help can mean the difference between life and death, it must be taken seriously.

How does this reflect on technology companies? Although that's not a life or death situation, but it does mean the difference between financial feast and famine, or excellence and mediocrity. And the famine period can be pretty stressful.

As a business development manager or executive you must be committed to your people's overall well-being and you must actively participate in your people's professional development. After all, your company's future depends on them. And let's stop here for a moment. Professional development is not about more adding more functional knowledge. It's not about sending your salespeople to another sales seminar. It's not about sending your client service people to another client service workshop. Besides, what is the chance that the seminar in your city is run by the best sales educator or the client service show run by a real client service expert. It's run by whoever lives in your city. Even a local college professor.

Technology professionals tend to make the mistake of learning more and more about technology, while they are barely able to carry a conversation with non-technical people using normal language. Every now and then I get beaten up because my language is not business-like. But I also know through feedback that, in spite of my fiendishly strong accent, people can easily understand my message because it's not wrapped into flavour-of-the-month fad words and phrases.

4. Upholding and Enforcing The Firm's Code of Honour

The US Armed Forces (Army, Navy, etc.) adhere to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The Samurai in Japan lived by the code of the Bushido (Code of the Warrior Soul of Japan). The glue that holds together any team of people is a Code of Honour. This code clearly lays down specific behaviours between team members and between the company's representatives and its clients. And many companies are pretty good at creating such a code. The problem is when it comes to enforcing the code.

I've recently worked with an architect firm where one of the senior architects was constantly late from meetings. At the end of one of the meetings the facilitating partner asked everyone to be on time because he intended to shut the meeting room door at 10:00AM, and anyone who's not there wouldn't get paid for the day and lose their monthly bonuses. Everyone agreed with the decision. Next morning, some 30% of participants weren't there at 10 o'clock. Nevertheless we shut the door. Guess, what? Latecomers basically demanded entry.

They didn't get it. Later when the senior partner told them that, according to the agreement they had made on the previous day, the latecomers wouldn't get paid for the day and lose their monthly bonuses, we almost had world war III on our hands. These lazy flakes didn't have the guts to suffer the consequences of the very decision they had agreed to. While it was easy to make an agreement, for some people it was impossible to hold themselves accountable to their own agreements.

The problem was this. When the partner asked associates to be accountable for their time-keeping with consequences, these chronically late associates thought they were treated like kids. They resented the "childish" accountability stuff. The essential message was, that "We're professionals and no one has the right to hold us accountable for anything." And this is where partners differ. This specific partner decided no to tolerate this behaviour, and instantly fired seven associates who decided to declare war on management. The other four repented their sins and promised to change their behaviours.

For some this may sound too harsh, but when you're building a "military-calibre" team, you must know you can count on your people to walk into the arena with you whenever it's necessary, not only when they feel like. Some people may consider this act as tyranny, but it's just part of the Code. Some people just refused to live by the Code (which they created and agreed to), so they were asked to leave. And I believe this is the only way to reinforce a Code of Honour. In this case firing of those associates wasn't initiated by partners. It was written in the firm's Code. Associates knew that they were committing a "hanging" offence by breaking the Code. They did it anyway. And this partner, unlike most partners out there, actually had the balls to reinforce the firm's Code of Ethics.

When people, regardless of rank or position, give in on the Code, that's a form of violation of the Code, and those people must be made accountable for their irresponsible acts. In the military soldiers don't live by what the generals dictate. Both soldiers and generals live by what the Code of Ethics or the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) dictates. It's a sort of Code of Honour. And generals and other officers must become the living embodiment of that Code, so they set an example to soldiers.

Just like in the military, in technology companies too, managers may come and go but, paraphrasing the old Led Zeppelin song, The Song Remains The Same, that is, the Code remains the same. Look at great companies like the retailer Nordstrom. Most employees never meet the top dogs, but they are introduced to the "Nordstrom Code" on their very first days and are told that everyone is expected to live by that Code (or getting fired for breaking it).

So, what is your company's Code? Is it worth living by? Are you willing to live by it and lead by example by living it?

5. Improving Decision-Making

Imagine a shooting competition. The contestants are holding their riffles at the target and are aiming... aiming... and still aiming. The clock strikes noon, and they're still aiming. Then the clock strikes midnight, and they're still aiming. At the crack of dawn they're still aiming. At lunchtime they're still aiming.

In the corporate world people tend to say, "We haven't taken any action but we're aiming very very hard."

What you see here is the typical decision-making process in most technology companies. Making a decision over an important issue that would actually advance the company's position in the marketplace.

I've recently got a request from an IT consulting firm to help them revamp their lead generation process during the summer slow-down, so they can be ready when the season starts in September. I suggested that all the key people meet and discuss what we want to achieve. Then the CEO informed me that all the key people were too busy organising their vacations and wouldn't have time to meet until mid August.

This puzzled me for a moment, and then I realised that they probably had a truckload of investor's money to burn, as most technology companies do, so improving organisational performance wasn't an important enough issue.

When decision has to be made over an urgent issue, the decision is instant. But some 35% of those decisions are ego-driven. Nearly 66% of executives never consider alternatives once they've made a decision. 81% of managers push their ideas using persuasion, position power and edict with no regard for the quality or relevance of the idea. "It's the boss' idea. It must be the best idea."

I've heard these statistics from Dave Marcum and Steve Smith (authors of businessThink) at one of their seminars. The two of the weakest attributes of leaders and managers are the ability...

1. ...to seek feedback on how to improve the current situation

2. ...to listen to feedback without becoming defensive

And why is this happening?

A whopping 83% of leaders and managers are confident in themselves (basically trust themselves), but only 27% of them are confident (basically trust them) in the people they work with. The essential message is that "I'm a genius surrounded by idiots." But the interesting thing is that in others' eyes, they are the geniuses and everyone else is an idiot. Well, essentially everyone is a genius and an idiot at the same time. Talking about parallel universes. In his book, The Invisible Touch, Harry Beckwith calls this phenomenon the "Late Wo-Begone" effect: People (especially guys) mistakenly believe they are better looking and smarter than they really are. A great example is your local gym. Some 30% of the guys lift far too heavy weights just to impress others.

And what is the result?

A recent Gallup Poll study has found that 59% of the workforce is disengaged, that is, people couldn't care less about their work. Going through the motions but tuned out. 14% of the workforce is actively disengaged, that is, actively pursuing non-work related activities while neglecting their work by choice. And a mere 27% are engaged. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the disengagement rate averages about 36.9%, but goes as high as 70% in some industries.

Is it surprising that among all industries, IT companies have some of the highest levels of failure rates in executing change initiatives?

The military teaches us that leaders must be able to make high-quality decisions within a reasonable time frame that are both appropriate for solving the problem and can be implemented by the soldiers. The other point is that every decision must be made at the lowest organisational level. In the military you can't pester generals with minutia. I have worked with IT firms where consultants weren't allowed to close new deals without getting the deal double-checked by the president. He spent his days doing tactical work, which made him feel important. And he enjoyed the fact that no one could make a decision in the company except him.

Similarly, in technology companies there must be a "chain of command" or "chain of accountability", and if you expect accountability from your people, you must give them a "room of discretion", so they will decide what's best under the circumstances. When I go skydiving, I have people above me in the chain of command as to how the whole jumping day unfolds, but they don't poke their dirty little noses into why, when and how I open my emergency parachute when my main chute quits on me. I'm accountable for carrying out that jump to my best knowledge, and to do that I am authorised to make certain decisions.

The other end of the same equation is that you can only expect accountability from your people if you are willing to be accountable to them. Yes, it must be a two-way street. The traditional "Do as I say not as I do" is just not enough.

And the other diabolical option is when managers retain authority but abdicate responsibility. These are some of the phrases I've heard from managers...

Actually, in the 1986 W.A.S.P. album, Crimson Idol, Blackie Lawless described this kind of "bring them in -> burn them out -> dispose of them" companies and management rather accurately in a song called Chainsaw Charlie.

Have you been in situations when you were asked for taking responsibility while someone handed you off-the-shelf, ready-make, shrink-wrapped decisions?

Some people criticise the military for demanding that soldiers follow order without question. The good part of this deal is that, unlike employees and managers in the corporate world, both soldiers and officers are on the same side of the table without hidden agendas of protecting their positions and pension plans at the expense of others.

The other key element is to include your people in decision-making. That creates respect, and managers become the kind of leaders who are worth following.

6. Perfecting Planning Skills

Planning is the skill that is less and less appreciated in this Internet-speed world. And a few years ago the dot com companies made it even worse. "Never mind planning. If we fail, we just beg for more venture capital and maybe we burn less of it in the next round." The interesting thing is that over the years information technology and venture capital have become co-dependent. One doesn't seem to be able to live without the other.

Visit 10 IT companies' websites. You're likely to find a button in the main menu called "Investor relations." In every other industry people sell their cars, re-mortgage their homes and cash their savings to start their businesses. But in IT, it's quite typical to go on a begging spree. I guess many of these IT geniuses know that their ideas are not worth much and they don't want to invest their own money.

Planning is a process that is necessary to support tactical-level execution that is vitally important to achieving the company's strategy. Saying it in a less pompous way, if you want to make omelette, you have to be ready, willing and able to break some eggs. And some of them may be bad eggs and stink up the whole bloody kitchen, but that's part of the game. The other option is just standing there and staring at your box of eggs until doomsday.

Planning is also a collective name for such activities as goal-setting, forecasting, defining objectives, formulating strategies, setting priorities, delegating, sequencing and timing, budgeting, and standardising the necessary procedures. Your people want to live chaos-free orderly lives, so they must know they can depend on their managers' and leaders' abilities to plan for success.

There is one more consideration here: As a leader your job is to grow other leaders who will someday replace you in your day-to-day work. And it's up to you what kind of a leader you grow.

7. Enhancing Functional, Contextual and Personal Mastery

Many technology professionals believe that the more they know about their functional areas, the better they become as professionals. There are some interesting considerations here. I use the world of sports here. Think of some high-achieving athletes and think of some high-achieving sports coaches. What you find is that most high-achieving athletes have never become high-achieving coaches, and most high-achieving coaches have never been high-achieving athletes. They require two different skills.

Also let's remember that the dying IBM was saved by a guy, Lou Gerstner, who had never worked in the IT industry and became the big boss at IBM with zero experience. And he saved a company that almost went bankrupt in the hands of highly experienced technology geniuses.

In great technology companies you find great functional experts who are also great (or at least on the path of becoming great) leaders. Besides the content of their speciality, like computer programming, they also understand the context into which programming falls, like the IT industry in general and operating an IT business. And of course the personal issues related to rendering computer programming as a business. That can include decision-making, emotional intelligence and even personal health and fitness. They all relate to running a successful firm. Remember every business problem starts out as a personal problem and then it becomes a business problem.

Nothing is more pitiful and useless than a computer programmer who learns one programming language after the other but has no understanding of how those computer codes tie into the big picture of the client's company. Understanding content while ignoring context is not a brilliant practice. Similarly, improving our business skills while ignoring personal growth is a waste of time and effort. Our job is to improve our clients' condition, but in the process we also must improve ourselves both personally and professionally.

But why is the personal improvement so important? Well, on the final analysis technology is a commodity. There are many programmers, engineers and IT experts out there. The defining factor whether or not you get paid premium fees for your expertise is the process of how you're dispensing your expertise. A good surgeon with good bedside manners (personal skills) will always be able to charge more than a great surgeon with stinking personal skills.

McDonald's uses clowns and magicians in its stores and campaigns to sell large amounts of "food" that is barely fit for human consumption. Yet, it creates a context in which millions of people are willing to pay billions of dollars to eat crap that can only shorten their lives.

And here we must make a difference. By good bedside manner I don't mean to be weak or wimpy. One of the main aspects of engaging a professional's help is to hold clients accountable to do what they need to do to achieve what they want to achieve. We have to see beyond selling a piece of technology. Just think about it. Anyone can learn to shoot in a shooting club or learn to crawl in the back garden, but it is the strict military training that actually makes soldiers accountable to learning and mastering these skills to such level that they can be relied on when the heat is on.

Selling technology is the same. It's just the start, but there is much more to it. That technology must tie into the client's strategy and people's lives.

In my experience, it's accountability where most technology companies fall flat on their faces. Managers are just not willing to make their people accountable, which tells a very interesting story about those managers. Maybe they are allergic to accountability. Basically, they can't expect others to do what they are not willing to do. And since they are not willing to be accountable as leaders, they can't really demand accountability from their people. It's a pretty simple equation.

According to Harvard Business School research (confirmed by Stanford University and the Carnegie Foundation), regardless what business you are in, your success is only 15% functional skills, and 85% of other skills.

According to Accenture's survey of 500 top international executives, the most wanted workforce skills in the next 2-5 years in business are...

  1. Business skills: 68% (Decision-making, cross-functional collaboration, client focused, project management)

  2. Technical skills 42%

  3. Flexibility and adaptability: 33%

  4. Self-motivation: 18%

  5. Leadership: 6%

  6. Functionally good at what they do (good programmer, web designer, engineer, etc.): 3%

These same executives also predict that with time it becomes extraordinarily difficult to come by people with good business skills.

8. Effectively Using Available Systems

Many technology companies take the "we provide personalised services" a bit too far and in the wrong direction. You call the firm and it's almost impossible to find your way from the voice mail labyrinth to a live person. But when you ask for the same information which ten other prospects have already asked for on the same day, someone starts assembling the information pieces for you one by painstakingly one. In plain English, technology companies humanise the trivia and automate the vital.

One reason for that is that quality people cost money. So, they hire lows-killed people for minimum wage and force them to use some ill-contrived systems.

Just think of many technology companies' websites. One doesn't need to be a genius to suss out that people visit websites to search for useful information, not as buyers with credit card at the ready. Yet, most companies start the selling process right on the landing page of the website.

Many companies rebel against using systems because they believe that would dilute their customised approaches, but realistically systems make things consistent and reasonably predictable. And this consistency and predictability are the cornerstones of the company's brand. I am wiling to fly on an aeroplane because planes have been fairly consistent and predictable at taking people from A to B. All right, every now and then one comes down in unexpected ways, but in general flying is pretty consistent and predictable.

People don't buy your services based on what you deliver but rather based on how you deliver it. Think of how Saturn revolutionised the way cars are sold. The first time in history car dealerships started treating people, including women, with respect and courtesy. Was it rocket science? Not really. Saturn used a car selling system that was drastically different from the traditional slimy and manipulative car selling approach that regarded buyers, especially women, as high-grade morons with pulse beats, who must be screwed out of as much of their money and as quickly as humanly possible.

Many technology companies fear to recommend systemised and less personal services because they are worried about personal services for which they bill by the hour. A computer consultant could sell me a "100-Point Self-Administered System Check-Up" for $50, but he's likely to keep quiet about it and try to pitch me on his $100 an hour personal consulting services to check my machine.

I may find $100 an hour too much and I may go to the competition. But if I don't get on with the $50 checklist, I still can hire him at $100 an hour. Why would the tech guy blow his chances by trying to sell me his most expensive services fist?

Performance expert W. Edwards Deming once said that some 94% of all problems are related to systems. He also said that unless you can map out your work in some box and arrow diagrams, then you don't know what you're doing. These are harsh words but certainly confirm the importance of systems.

And while I agree that in professional services, just like in the military, it is the people who make the difference, but when you have great people using great systems, then your company is as good as untouchable by the competition. You must be ready and willing to use every available system that make you better than the competition.

Summary

So, why can't most technology companies live up to these military standards? It's lack of accountability. In most companies there is only one kind of accountability: Making money. As long as you perform your sales quota, which is a retarded way of measuring performance, everything else is irrelevant.

This is the equivalent of telling soldiers, "Men, as long as you produce the assigned quota of enemy corpses, everything else is overlooked. All sins forgiven."

And here let's revisit the movie Gladiator, respect and how leaders earn it. It's just a little detail but even when Maximus was a slave and his former personal assistant was a free man, yet, Cicero always addressed Maximus as "General". Again, it may be just a tiny detail but it may be worth discovering how many of people call their bosses, behind their backs of course, "Fat Bitch", "Dumb Jerk" or by other innovative names rather than their real name and how many flick their tongues in contempt of their superiors rather than bowing their heads in respect.

George Washington once said...

"The preservation of the soldier's health should be the commander's first and greatest care."
The more leaders and managers can adopt this basic philosophy, the better off they will be in their businesses. Only excited, passionate and enthusiastic people can attract top-drawer clients with sexy projects with premium fees.

Business consultant and former West Point Class President, Scott Snair writes in his book, West Point Leadership Lessons...

"The end is never in sight, the job is never done, and for the rest of your time in the Army, no job will ever really get done. What you have to do is to concentrate on the process, not on the completion, and try to do some good along the way."

I believe this statement sums it up for business development folks as well. It's an ongoing process. Walking the path towards mastery, which we can never reach.

Nevertheless, we keep marching. How about you?


Attribution: "This article was written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan who helps privately held information technology companies to develop high leverage client acquisition systems and business development teams in order to sell their products and services to premium clients at premium fees and prices. Visit Tom's website at http://www.varjan.com.