Chick-fil-A Leadercast 2012: Marcus Buckingham

• Every content deliverer, has to say to the customer: Who are you?

• Have you noticed the first question content providers ask today is: who are you?

• Netflix gives you a movie quiz and as a result your home screen is different than mine.

• NY Times, far right column is things you will be interested, your algorithm for their content.

• Google, Amazon, Facebook all have your algorithm in place and that determines the book recommendations and ads you see on your home pages each day.

• Leadership is idiosyncratic, leadership does not fit into the competency models, that person does not exist in real life, those are only models, someone’s compilation of what an idea leader should and should not be, leadership just does not fit into that box!

• Studied various companies to see what made them successful, what made them great at what they do (Evaluated companies such as Best Buy and Hampton Inn)

• Discovered these companies had various leadership styles, and those leaders used different techniques to come up with excellent results.

• People often capture the technique but mess the concept of what the technique has captured. Many times companies try to roll out techniques across the entire organization without fully understanding the true reason for that techniques success.

• You must remember that you can teach any leader the right concepts like reflecting back when you find excellence happening in your organization, but this often gets confused with teaching the techniques instead.

• Everyone got fixated on the “technique” being used and not on capturing excellence and reflecting it back to the people who are exhibiting the great behaviors that lead to the great results.

• Many companies then create culture of rules for the techniques being used and totally nullify the effectiveness of the “technique” because it was being executed without an understanding of what actually made that work for that location.

• You have to pick your own algorithm.

• What’s your edge as a leader, you particular competitive advantage?

• If we understand this, we can teach you the proper techniques that fit your edge

• We measure you on 9 strength roles and you are defined by your top two.

1. Advisor: What is the best thing to do? You are a practical, concrete thinker who is at your most powerful when reacting to and solving other people’s problems.

2. Connector: you are always looking to see what is best in us, you are a catalyst, your power lies in your craving to bring two people or ideas together to make something bigger and better than it is now.

3. Creators: what do I understand? I need time to process information, I don’t like surprises, I need quiet time, you make sense of the world, pulling it apart, seeing a better configuration and creating it.

4. Equalizers: what is the right thing to do, you want to make things right, you see world as moral commitments, you do what you say you are going to do, you are a level-headed person whose power comes from keeping the world in balance, ethically and practically.

5. Influencer: always selling, everything about you is moving me from where I am to your agenda, you engage people directly and convince them to act. Your power is persuasion.

6. Pioneer-what’s new, what’s next, walk around corner and see for ourselves what is there, you see the world as a friendly place where, around every corner, good things will happen. Your power comes from your optimism in the face of uncertainty.

7. Provider: No person gets left behind, you go one by one and ask each person, are you OK? You create an environment where I believe you care in genuine manner, this creates innovation and creativity. You sense other people’s feelings, and you feel compelled to recognize these feelings, give them a voice, and act on them.

8. Stimulator: You ask how can I raise up the energy level in the room? You feel responsibility for the emotional status in the room, you invigorate us. You are the host of other people’s emotions. You feel responsible for them, for turning them around, for elevating them.

9. Teacher: how I learn? How can you learn? You see yourself as a work in progress, you see others as a work in progress as well. We are never done learning. You are thrilled by the potential you see in each person. Your power comes from learning how to unleash it.

• When you study the best performers in a particular field you don’t necessarily find the same profiles in the top performers.

• There is no perfect leadership profile, only perfect practices that fit your profile.

• We kept asking: How do we keep creating this content, keep people motivated, keep it moving forward?

• Get motive and content through a leader who goes around finding young new unknown bands to partner with them to keep them fresh and growing and this provides motivation and content that keeps them moving forward,keeps us on cutting edge of what is going on today.

• Situational Judgment Test is to determine which are your top two strength roles. The Stand Out test put you in different types of situations and ask what would you do? From this your top two strength roles are determined.

• Your summary of your results will be a summary of what you would do, not based on what you see yourself as, or what you think you are, it is based on your behaviors.