The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

I've been asked to respond to the following questions:

• What makes a good leader?
• What are some good examples of strong leaders in your industry?
• How does a leader affect his or her company?
• What effects does leadership have on employee productivity?
• What companies do you know of that exhibit strong or weak leadership?
• How do you decide whom to hire when looking for someone with leadership potential?

• What makes a good leader?
  This is a difficult question to answer because leadership depends heavily on the circumstances that require leaders to emerge. The unifying factor (and I'm borrowing this from military studies) is that the best leaders have the moral authority to lead and that gives the people they're leading the confidence they are being well-lead. Note the word moral. Therefore good leadership is not necessarily based on intelligence, experience, ability, et cetera. All these elements play a role, yes, and they must all either grow out of or contribute directly to the leader's moral authority to lead.
• What are some good examples of strong leaders in your industry?
  I know of none. This is my own ignorance, not an example of non-existence.
• How does a leader affect his or her company?
  Leaders set the tone, atmosphere, voice, et cetera, of their company. Think of a good author and a story they're writing. The author creates the mood, atmosphere, tone, voice, plot, theme, location, characters, et cetera, in which the characters in the story must operate. These elements of good storytelling become company morale, workplace atmosphere, marketing, PR, business plan, business goals and values, physical plant(s), hiring and employees, et cetera. The one drives the other. My personal opinion is that the best leaders/authors will also listen to their creations to better understand them.
• What effects does leadership have on employee productivity?
  See above.
• What companies do you know of that exhibit strong or weak leadership?
  Not a question I feel qualified to answer.
• How do you decide whom to hire when looking for someone with leadership potential?
  We use interviews, experience and our technology to determine best fits.

Here are the relevant statements (in order of the pages from which I copied them):

1. ...so it has taken Crotonville on the road to hot spots around the world like Shanghai, Munich, and Bangalore. GE employees can also tap online leadership workshops through the company's intranet.
2. "We need to have people who can be in touch or have the social intelligence to really understand consumers' needs."
3. ...apply the lessons they learn to plans for their personal development. And for Nokia's top 200 executives, part of their evaluation depends on how subordinates rate their ability to lead, teach, and inspire.
4. (doesn't fit the model easily)
5. ...a program to ensure managers are in shape to lead. More than half have been paired for a year with a former exec or outside "trainer" to hone leadership skills.
6. Groups of 36 managers are brought together at headquarters and divided into six teams to compete against one another in challenges that replicate normal business problems.
7. ...allows employees to work 12- to 24-month stints in two foreign markets. A Scandinavian building a career in tech might spend a year in Silicon Valley and one in Korea before returning with a broader perspective and an expanded network.
8. (doesn't fit the model easily)
9. peer sentiment and self-evaluation are just as important. Co-workers spend time analyzing your work habits by answering 35 to 64 open-ended and fill-in questions.
10. ...gives them a seat on the company's management council. There's no holding back at that point: Members of all ages are expected to "debate, discuss, and critique" any and all aspects of the business.

The discovery? Eight out of ten of the blurbs describe social aspects to these top performing companies and their leadership styles, not business aspects. I find this fascinating, you?

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Links for this post:

• Sweetness' Findings: Resumes Going the Way of the Dinosaur, Part 1

• Audience Focused Optimization

• DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
• Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.