The more I travel around the world delivering Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling programs for our global clients, the more I am amazed at the disconnect between the skills needed by organizations to execute their chosen business strategies especially as we move further into the digital disruption.

For many C-Suite leaders trying to create their version of the digital disruption, they are faced with the stark reality that the strength of their strategy is as strong as their weakest link in the value chain of human capital and skills.

... Because they Don’t Have Business Acumen

As many business professionals know, there are a number of different “personality styles” that show up in the approaches of managers in the workplace.  Great tools such as DiSC identify behavioral patterns managers and employees exhibit in the workplace that include “dominating”, “outgoing”, “influencing”, “steady”, “skeptical”, and “questioning”.  By definition, skeptical and questioning people like to have all the details and aren’t comfortable until they have them.

Being skeptical, questioning, and detail oriented can be critically important in business especially if you are a leader responsible for making business decisions that have a significant impact on the results of your business.  This approach can be beneficial in many instances and there is certainly nothing wrong with conducting deep analysis, understanding how things work, and doing everything possible to limit or minimize mistakes.  Unfortunately, sometimes being too detail oriented can frustrate other styles who like to move quickly and make decisions on instincts and smaller data sets.  We hear terms like “agility” and “disruption” being thrown around by organizations who think too much detail and too much analysis gets in the way of being innovative and agile.

54.

That’s the average number of unsolicited cold prospecting touches (emails, texts, phone calls, and letters) my focus group of 7 key business decision makers say they receive in a typical week.  That’s more than 10 a day and when I asked these decision makers if they ever follow-up on the unsolicited prospecting touches the answer was not unexpected, 0. Not one of the 7 professionals in my focus groups said they saw any value in the prospecting reach outs and wouldn’t waste even 2 seconds reviewing it because they all instantly knew it wasn’t for them.  Here are a few comments from the focus group that should sound familiar as we’ve all experienced this:

Let’s cut right to the chase.  If you are a manager in today’s business world, you may be managing in an environment of great strategic change that has up to five generations of employees, a global matrix where you have 10 direct reports half of which you will never meet face-to-face, and unrealistic business goals that you are supposed to achieve with 30% less resources then you had a year ago.

Most current leadership development initiatives suggest that the role of the modern leader is not “managing” employees, but rather “coaching” them through goal setting and performance dialogues that continue to enhance strong behaviors and overcome the weak ones.  By all definitions, a good coach is someone who can help others reach higher levels of effectiveness and business performance by engaging in dialogues that lead to awareness, actions, and results.

Over the past decade many organizations have invested significant resources in created an “environment and culture of accountability”.  As the leader of an award-winning talent development consultancy that works with more than 50 large global clients, I have interesting access and insights into what types of training and other initiatives companies are investing in to provide the skills and tools needed to create this accountable world.  Literally billions of dollars have been spent on eLearnings, seminars, books, and other materials that teach people how to lead and be accountable.