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In came the invitation to an emergency meeting.  A prideful thought emerged that I was only being invited so that I could “make a decision.”  Isn’t that what leaders do after all?

The situation was that the customer had called with an emergency. In short, they needed parts by Monday morning because of a production change on their end. They were desperate, so it was up to us to determine if we could juggle the competing demands of other customers, and figure out a plan of action to appease everyone?

The meeting was led by an up-and-comping sales person on our team.  He had not only called the meeting, but also had assembled the appropriate team-members to address this emergency head-on. He immediately put the production schedule, and upcoming orders, onto the screen in the conference room, and took the lead in discussing the potential scenarios. The team followed his lead and discussed the implications of the potential changes to the schedule, making double sure that no customer would be impacted.  The plant manager willingly bought into making the change, but asked for help with personnel. So, our young sales person asked for help on their behalf.  The room agreed, and our Director of Operations pledged to use the available resources necessary.  Everything was coming together, and by 1:14 p.m. a plan had emerged.

It had been 14 minutes, and I had not said a single word.

While this story may be a flattering one for Hoffer Plastics, I don’t tell it to make us look good (and I can tell plenty of war stories that are not nearly as pretty or flattering.  We make mistakes, too!)

I tell this story because of what I am about to confess:

I may not have spoken a word, but I wanted to.

I wanted people to know that I had input.

I wanted people to know that my voice mattered.

Heck, that my position mattered.

Of course, I don’t vocalize these internal struggles.  But, I am confessing they’re present. I am confessing the insecurity that often lies within.

In fact, not speaking made me wonder what people thought of me.  Did they think I was disengaged, or an ineffective leader?  (These questions made me realize that I care more about what people think of me than I often think I do. Thank you, Sarah, for reminding me of that the other night…You’re right, unfortunately).

The irony is that not saying a word is exactly what leadership is about.

In fact, leaders are supposed to lead in a way that empowers others to step up and take charge…

Moreover, leaders are to become replaceable.

Being replaceable, however, is never soothing to the ego.

“You’re not as important as you thought you are,” is what goes through one’s head in such scenarios.

Isn’t it strange that one of the ways of becoming more important to an organization is by becoming less important in certain regards?

In the scenario above, our young sales person had taken the lead.

I didn’t say a word because I followed.

Setting my pride and insecurity aside, I have to say that it was beautiful to see the team, including myself, following this person’s lead.

We reached a better result because of it.

I often hear leaders like myself saying things like “what we really need is someone to help us with ____, so we need to go hire someone who does ____.” While hiring an expert is often a good idea, and can even reap tremendous gains for the organization, “more overhead” is often used as an excuse for why the organization cannot address what they need help with.  It can even lead to the organizational mindset of being stuck – “we can’t move forward unless we get our costs in-line so that we can afford person x, otherwise we are stuck.”

There are two problems with this mindset.

First, it fails to uncover hidden talent on the team.  Turned into a question, what skills do some of our team members possess that can be leveraged for the overall benefit of the team?  For example, does a sales person excel in developing new accounts?  If so, shouldn’t I, the leader, help them manage their schedule so that they spend the majority of their time doing this, rather than spending time in day-to-day account management?  While this may sound obvious, what I have found is that leaders are often pressured to bow to what I refer to as traditional role stereotypes.  For example, the idea that the sales person should handle all aspects of their accounts, thus they may have to sacrifice some of their time building new relationships to manage their accounts effectively.  But it doesn’t end there either.  Because the sales person does this, the rest organization stays in its lane – the rest of the sales team acts the same, rather than leveraging each of its individual strengths, and the supporting services (like customer service) stay in their lane doing the “traditional” functions of their roles.  For some individual team-members, this might be the appropriate path forward.  But, and this is a big but, what if there are unhidden talents, like a customer service team-member with an acumen and desire to sell, that go unseen because they are told to stay in their lanes?

Does this mean they have to wait until the next job opening comes up?

This leads to the second problem with the stuck mindset.  Not only does it fail to uncover hidden talent on the team, it also fails to provide the opportunity for that talent to be leveraged.  “More” does not automatically mean “better.”  For example, in the case above, I could hypothetically add another sales person to the roster so that the organization reaches more customers.  But doing so would come at a cost to the organization.  Besides the fixed costs of adding overhead, it would cost others the opportunity to step up and develop their skills.  Conversely, if I challenged the sales person to give up some of the day-to-day account management, the best two options would be to hire another account manager, or find someone else on the team who could contribute.  Embracing the latter not only uncovers the hidden talent on the team, but provides the opportunity to bring it out.  Moreover, it also helps the organization become leaner instead of relying on the traditional ways “we have always done things.”

Ultimately, it is up to the leader to recognize when the organization would be better served by adding the expert.  The point is that is only one path forward.

The organization will need to think differently about how it is already doing things, and how it does things in the future.  Like Major League Baseball Teams embracing more “hybrid” roles (players who can play multiple positions), so too will we have to figure out how to manage escalating costs (healthcare, etc.) by leveraging team members that can do more than one thing.  I believe this will not only make us better, it will also offer more opportunity for our team members to develop and cultivate their own skills.

And seeing people grow may be the best part of leadership.

Last month our sales team had its annual two-day strategic planning event.  The team talked about its strategic goals for not only the next year, but also about where we wanted to head over the long-term.

I love how engaged our team members are.  They’re smart, motivated, passionate, and not only willing to challenge each other, they’re also willing to challenge me. In fact, one of my favorite moments of the two days was when one of our team members openly challenged my views.

The issue had to do with a pricing expectation.  The sales person stated that they disagreed with my expectation. In fact, they thought it was off-base and could lead to us losing out on business.  Rather than leave it at that, I challenged them back.  What would their expectation be if this was their company? (And it is their company because it is OUR company!)  They stated that while they saw where I was coming from, they felt a lower figure would be more apt so long as we were guaranteed the business for a certain number of years.

My response?

I’d take that deal today!

The point of this post isn’t about who is right.  In fact, I am being vague with some of the details above because they don’t matter and they’re private!  The point is that as leaders, we need to be open to being challenged. We can actually benefit greatly by it!

Being challenged matters because no single person has all the answers, or all the information.  In the scenario above, the salesperson actually made some compelling points and offered a perspective that helped improve upon my original assumption.  So, by listening to them, my view improved.

Furthermore, by listening to them I demonstrated that as a team, we listen to each other!  Remember, the entire team was present when I was challenged.  So, if I, the leader, failed to listen, then why should anyone else on the team?  We have to remember that both positive and negative behaviors are mirrored by those we lead.

Finally, the experience demonstrated that we can disagree without having any repercussions. Our culture today sees a disagreement as a personal attack. This is not the way it should be, and we need to make sure we create an environment in our workplaces where this is not the case. I did not hold a grudge towards this individual, nor did they toward me.  How do I know?  Because I intentionally sought them out at our first break and affirmed them, then revisited the conversation later in the day by telling them what I learned from it, and by texting them and another team member that evening to tell them both about my favorite two moments from the day’s events (with this one making the cut!).  All that might sound like a lot, but as the leader, it is my job to ensure that we are “all good” and that we do not silence dissenting opinions. (We aren’t right ALL the time!)

Ineffective “leaders” often crave self-esteem boosts coming from ineffective, and often uninspired team members, who long ago gave up on challenging the status quo.  The more effective path is the one where the leader surrounds themselves with people who will sometimes disagree, and often challenge.  As my experience above reminds me, everyone gets better when this happens.

Especially the leader.

A few years ago, I purchased a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee. I have absolutely loved driving the car ever since. In fact, the car has exceeded my expectations in terms of reliability and performance.

That said, I doubt I’ll buy another one.

How come?

The customer service at the local Jeep dealer is abysmal.

I was reminded of this recently when I sat for 3.5 hours waiting for two recalls to be fixed. I think Sarah delivered our third child in less time than it took this dealership to fix two recalls! The time sitting there was one thing, the T.V. —and noise accompanying it—was so loud I could hardly think. Worse, the programming was so depressing that it is no wonder Americans are mad at just about everything anymore. Why a dealership would want to encourage such negative animosity while customers are waiting hours for fixes to their high-priced vehicles is beyond me (I’d play something soothing in attempts to keep everyone chill to distract them from the ridiculous wait times!).

My first-world problems aside, what bothered me the most was the lack of communication. As much as I asked for clarity about when the car might be done, none was given: “I don’t know, man, it depends on how long the software takes to download.”

Really?

As my judgmental thoughts continued to fester, I asked myself a sobering question in an attempt to snap out my own negativity: What kind of after-sales experience do our customers have?

Is the information that we share clear?

If there is a delay, is it clear why?

Is it clear when the parts will be delivered?

How often are we in touch with customers after they place the P.O.?

As I sat there—and as I tried to tune out the latest celebrity nonsense that was blaring on the T.V.—I reminded myself of two important realities:

First, much of the customer’s experience happens POST sale. These experiences, as I am learning with my beloved car dealer, can shape the customer’s opinions about the brand.

Second, while I cannot control what the Jeep dealer does, I can influence what we do at Hoffer Plastics. More specifically, I can re-emphasize with our team how vital post-sale customer interaction is.

Creating clarity might not solve every issue, but it is a great starting point! Customers want to know all the answers to the questions they will be asked by their teams, and they want to know with complete certainty that those answers are trustworthy.

Then, it is up to us to deliver and prove our trustworthiness.

It is not rocket science.

Had I been told that the recall would take 3.5 hours up front, I would have probably been annoyed, maybe even upset.

But, my trust would have grown when the car was done on time.

Instead, I remain annoyed a few days later.

Worse, I continue to dream about a sports car (much to my wife’s delight!).

The after-sales experience matters immensely.