“At the end, either you’re different … or you’re cheap”. This quote of the expert in computer science, marketing and writer Guy Kawasaki contains one of the most important keys to achieve success, not only in business, but also in our personal lives. In the business world, either you are different (and you are recognized as different) or you have no choice but to compete for price, which always means “low price”. However, it is very common that we do not apply this differentiation in the appropriate direction, and this can have a significantly different result than expected.
keys to success
Claves para el éxito
From our childhood we are subjected (and submit) to a constant comparison with those we consider better. We are encouraged to behave better because this or that person stands out for their good behavior, to study more because we have to overcome the schoolmates who obtain the best qualifications, and when we reach our professional life, the reference are the competitors in the market that obtain the highest sales ratios, the best stock market valuation or the best references in specialized publications. However, with this methodology of differentiation we lose focus on the essential; ourselves.
It is important to clarify that everything said above is not wrong, since improving is always good, and trying to be better and approaching the best is always commendable. What I want to emphasize is that the true reference on which we must focus in order to differentiate ourselves must be ourselves and look inwards before looking outside. We must reflect deeply to know ourselves and discover our true strengths, those things that we are able to do extraordinarily well, surely better than the average, and that this is the true engine of change and improvement.
Starting from our interior and improving individually, we will be better people, and only then can we be more competent and obtain better results in our relationship with others, both personally and professionally. If we always keep the focus outside of us, the result may not be adequate, since we cannot be who we are not, and we will probably try to develop on weak points, which will not allow us to reach the proposed goals and may lead us to feel frustration, obtaining a result absolutely contrary to what we aimed to.
This Japanese expression implanted in Toyota, recognized as the best managed company in the world, hides the necessary procedure to have the necessary information and be able to make decisions effectively; however, and given the apparent simplicity of its meaning, is something that it is very difficult to apply, even more the bigger the size of the organization on which it is necessary to decide.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and be more, you are a leader”
These words of the British writer Simon Sinek masterfully summarize what an authentic leader should be and how he should exercise his leadership.
The leader must earn the denomination through the results obtained, but not only by the objective data of the financial statements of the company, but by the results obtained through the influence exercised on the rest of the team, the rest of the staff, and in the company’s set of stakeholders.
“Every leader is a boss, but not every boss is a leader”
Every leader is a boss, but not every boss is a leader, and this must be kept in mind. If we want to limit ourselves to making decisions, to mathematically objective valuations and to results that qualify us as an efficient executive in the achievement of business objectives, we will be giving the boss profile. This can be perversely attractive, since we will have a good feedback in the short term and we will be well valued by those who pay us the salary, for which, it seems difficult to think that we should leave all this aside to do things differently.
Leadership in times of change
However, we are in times of change, and this change must also be made in our management style.
It may seem that everything said above must be abandoned because the present has changed, and things should be done differently. It is true that we must do things differently, but let us be clear that, if there are no objective results, if the company does not earn money and is not able to produce more efficiently and effectively and in a sustainable manner, everything else will be useless.
Having clear then that the results are essential, how we arrive at those results is what differentiates the real leader from the usual boss.
Be a source of inspiration for collaborators, transmit your passion, your vision and join with you adding instead of obeying, be consistent so that your actions do not contradict your indications, that your team wants to go where you go and not where you tell them to go, … in summary, and as Simon Sinek states in the sentence that opens this text, if you inspire them to dream, to learn, to do and to be more, YOU are a leader.
Become a leader to admire
Become someone to admire, to follow, to imitate; We all have references that have transmitted all this to us, thus we all have examples of what we want to transform ourselves, whereby there are no excuses. YOU decide if you want to be a boss and command or be a leader and transform.
Arturo Gálvez – Business Counselor
http://ajgalvez.com/