If you Google “Leadership”, you will get 772,000,000 hits in 1.01 seconds so defining leadership is 
statistically, emotionally, and conceptually impossible. But that doesn’t mean you stop trying. All Advantexe Business Leadership learning journeys start with our interpretation and definition of leadership which we believe is simply “Leadership is equal to the execution of your business strategy.”
Unfortunately too many leaders in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world don’t know how to turn that definition into an applied reality that achieves their business goals and objectives. Today’s leaders are faced with the daunting task of working in ambiguous matrixed organizations made of remote employees that transcend up to 5 generations of workers. Yet the goals and objectives to achieve Revenues, EBITDA, and Shareholder Value targets are given to them in black and white with no room for interpretation. In order to be successful, leaders must be able to work across the horizontal organization – and across the value chain that include customers and suppliers – to get the job done. This requires an important leadership competency some experts call “creating followership.”
I believe very strongly that enhanced Business Acumen skills are the foundation for creating better followership. Based on research, interviews of executives, and practical experiences over the past 25 years, I present four specific things leaders can do to create better followership through strong business acumen skills:
Create an Inspiring Value Proposition that is Offered to Customers
Everything in your business must start with your strategy and value proposition to customers. Are you going to offer the best product? The best service? The lowest cost? Business Acumen skills enable you as a leader to understand that the value proposition is your business. How you create the value proposition is your leadership. In order to gain strong followership, you have to involve your organization in the process. Even though they may not directly report to you, you need to use all of your skills to understand their styles and ask them to listen to the voice of the customer and report back what they are hearing. You need to engage with them to share their perspectives on what they think customers want and more importantly what they can deliver to customers.
Motivate and Inspire Employees to Engage with the Value Proposition
Once you have used your Business Acumen skills to create your value proposition to your targeted customers, the next step is to motivate your employees to engage and support the value proposition. Different functions and different styles of people will interpret and feel differently about the value proposition. Your job as a leader is to transcend the matrix and inspire people who don’t report to you to become aligned around the value proposition and understand the role they play in executing it.
Lead the Execution of the Value Proposition
Execution of the value proposition is the hardest part of leadership. You must be able to utilize your Business Acumen skills to create followership and alignment. One of the most important things we have learned over the past few years is that the more complex the business and organization is the more important it is to provide clear and specific objectives and key results. Business Acumen skills enable you to understand what the best goals and objectives are and what are the critical resources needed to execute the value proposition.
Builds and Coaches the Team for Efficient Long-Term Execution
Sustaining execution of the value proposition over the long-term requires the ability to integrate and leverage Business Acumen skills and Coaching skills. The best leaders of today and tomorrow will be able to read the weak signals and the current signals of the marketplace and translate that information into ways of coaching and providing feedback that is focused on the value proposition. Coaching in this complex environment starts with Business Acumen skills as the foundational context of the business and includes understanding personality styles, having hard conversations, identifying areas for improvement, and providing the tools and resources for the team to close their developmental gaps.
