What is your Competitive Advantage?
Posted on July 13, 2012 by Farnaz Hedayati PhD, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
A leader has to be the driver and manager of significant and usually competing multiple relationships
Often, organizations become preoccupied with the bottom line, particularly during arduous financial times, and tend to overlook a very important resource in plain view: their daily interactions. It is far less cost effective to acquire new contract rather than add to the current ones.
Underneath the stifling blanket of recession, employee development may appear to be an extraneous frivolity rather than the key to organizational success and growth that research continues to support. However the smart organizations, increasingly, inquire about opportunities for leadership development for their employees. It’s a fallacy that competitive advantage and sustained corporate growth are seemingly resulted from other sources, such the marketing mix and strategic planning. It is developing future generations of leaders within the organization, who multifaceted, cross-functional, with advanced decision-making and execution skills who drive performance and motivation throughout the organization. They deepen and strengthen the roots rather than just spread them thin. Seems easy enough? That’s because it’s not!
Many capabilities in life are a matter of acquiring skills and knowledge and then applying them in a reliable way. Leadership is quite different. Good leadership demands emotional strengths and behavioral characteristics, which can draw deeply on a leader’s mental and spiritual reserves.
A leader has to be the driver and manager of significant and usually competing multiple relationships; stakeholders, clients, employees, vendors, alliances, etc. in addition to the “hard skill” requirements of his/her role. Therefore, the rules that govern his/her communications and interactions are based on a philosophy and not a process, tool or formula. This philosophy reflects the deeply significant, and dynamic nature of the various relationships.
A very useful way to explore this crucial aspect of leadership with respect to wider relationships and systems is offered by the Psychological Contract and how that theory relates to organizations and leadership. Respect, compassion, trust, empathy, fairness, objectivity – qualities like these characterize the Psychological Contract, just as they characterize a civilized outlook to life as a whole. It is a great formula in underpinning principles in all our relationships, not only employment situations. Because lets face it, in a world of technology driven output, the only thing that is constant, and reminds us that we are human are our interactions. Be the competitive advantage of your business, be You.
