The Lowe's Difference: My Thoughts From Their Leadership Summit
The Lowe's Difference:
I had the honor of participating in the Lowe’s Leadership Summit.
It all began a story. And a packed room of amazing women leaders from throughout the world.
Here’s what I took away!
- Lowe’s Women’s Diversity is Strong. Did you know when they send the note out about the Women’s Leadership meeting, it would fill up in less than one hour? They expanded the room this year, and added more people from Canada, India, and beyond. They mean business. They are amazing women!
- Leadership matters. Robert Niblock, their CEO, stayed the entire meeting. He didn’t sneak away for calls or meetings and truly participated. Women’s leadership at Lowe’s is important to him. Jennifer Weber, the CHRO, of Lowe’s led the meeting and participated the entire time. This participation showed me that Lowe’s knows that diversity matters. It is not just a nice to have.
3. Inspirational Takeaways from Amy Cuddy, Alison Levine and Kristan Seaford
- Success isn’t always about going up, sometimes it goes up, down and sideways – embrace and learn – Alison Levine
- Hope can change lives and business – Never give up – Kristan Seaford
- Feedback is free. Growth is optional. Anna Marie Chavez
- The Power Pose is backed up with real data. Make the change – Amy Cuddy
4. Startups + Enterprise = Innovation and it is alive and well at Lowe’s. Lowe’s Innovation Lab’s is all about disruptive technologies, including shipping a 3D printer to the International Space Station to help astronauts print parts and tools on demand. They also developed the Holoroom, a VR headset to help shoppers visualize bathroom and kitchen improvements. The Woman of Lowe’s have phenomenal ideas that can help innovate Lowe’s into the next generation.
5. Have common values and goals. The key to making any relationship work is to have a common vision as the foundation. The entire day was based on the value based structure of Lowe’s.
- Be a part of something bigger
- Make a difference in somebody’s life every day
- Listen intently, sense and respond
- Be who we say we are
- Give your best always
My Summary
My favorite quote is “Tell me the facts and I’ll believe, but tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever!”. This Summit for Leadership and Innovation was a set of stories that will live in my heart forever. From Jennifer’s opening, to Robert – the CEO – stories about each of the values, this conference was a driver to more innovative approaches through diversity of thought.
Birds in a V Formation -- Enabled to Change Speed Quickly Based on the Lead Bird
Today, I was at the beach -- my favorite place in the world! As I was laying down I looked up and saw the birds positioning themselves into a new V formation.
Some lessons I learned from the "V":
- Speed of change. It's amazing how quickly they can respond to any changes from the bird in front. The V enables them to sense each other's movements especially the leader's faster.
- Take Turns. Birds take turns at the front. Each then takes a turn at leading and following.
- By working together, a flock of birds is greater than the sum of its parts. By not being selfish, individual birds can reap the collective advantage of aerodynamic movements.
Is your team so in sync that they can respond with speed to the leader's movements?
I've learned that much can be learned at the beach!!!!
Social Business leadership lessons from playing Candy Crush!
One of the funner videos on Social Business Lessons!
Customer-Centric Leadership - One of my Picks for HBS Learnings!
At the end of this week I will be heading to Boston for my HBS Reunion! I am so excited about seeing my friends and their families.
The other thing I love about our reunions are the case studies that drive new learnings. One of the case studies I cannot wait for is on the Taj -- in particular, the bravery and resourcefulness shown by the rank-and-file employees of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower luxury hotel during the terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai, India, on Nov. 26 2008.
It will be a lesson in customer-centric leadership including the hotel’s history, its approach to training, and the “guest is God” philosophy inherent in Indian culture. It is interesting that the Taj employees stayed at their posts, jeopardizing their safety to save hotel guests.
Can this level of loyalty and dedication be replicated and scaled elsewhere? I will learn their secrets!
View the case at http://courseware.hbs.edu/cases/taj
Leadership matters! One of the Top 5 Social Business Questions Answered!
One of the Top 5 questions people ask me is does it matter if your leaders are sold on social and the answer is YES!
Getting your executives to buy into the concept of a social business in most cases is something that they will either get straight away or not. Those who are switched on to “modern” technology will not need much convincing that implementing social technologies in the workplace will improve communications and enhance productivity. Those who don’t see the need for it, of course, require a little more persuasion.
However you arrive at their participation, they will most likely be nervous about stepping into a less controlled environment. It’s a bit like them going to the local swimming pool where all the employees swim. There’s no hiding!
How do you approach executives who are not Social?!
My advice to getting them into the water is to let them observe for a while. Get your enthusiastic evangelists publishing and propose that your leader checks in on these things. With their permission ask a public question. By that we mean something they will be happy to answer in public. Encourage your other trusted evangelists to do likewise. Use the fact that you have a team of enthusiastic users to vary the method of interaction. Ask in a forum post for a suggestion, ask in a micro-blogging entry something else.
Make it easy for your leader to get into the water by making it easy for them to answer. A couple of short sentences for the first few answers to things is all that’s needed.
Once you have the leader taking part, albeit on a light basis, we need to convince the leadership team that they too should look at taking part. That team will only see value in doing this if they see the chief doing it.
The leadership team will likely be nervous about what their own areas of the organization are putting into the social system – they will be concerned that their dirty laundry might be getting washed in public. Try to quash this concern. Remember that a social business is one which is engaged and transparent (and nimble).
Show your leaders that by participating in the system and answering cross-departmental or cross-organizational issues their area of the business shows its value. Remember – your value is in what your share – not what you know in a social business.
Commitment
Altimeter's report shows that only about 1/2 of executives are engaged. How do you get that commitment in your organization?
Having a strong commitment among the leaders in the organization sets the tone, volume and enthusiasm for the use of the system. Remember that in any organization the leadership team are essentially “celebrities” and when they post information or participate in the system the staff become engaged. As an analogy to this, while many people consider the old-fashioned two-page memo from the chief executive setting out policy and priorities to be deadly boring, everyone reads it. Everyone engages. So to get the engagement, to cross the social chasm, you need your leaders to start becoming more transparent.
You can facilitate this slowly by driving engagement from your core Social Business team from below. Encouraging the execs to take a more active role in forum discussions, making the technology available to them on their chosen mobile device and empowering the gatekeepers to your execs – the secretaries – are all good ways of driving top-down participation which in turn drives bottom-up engagement.
Reverse mentoring as a technique for helping with engagement. You should, however, consider preparing the ground by producing some executive training materials. An executive handbook – amounting to a maximum of 5 pages of tips and tricks, some one-to-one time, and perhaps a presentation provided to them on paper or some other medium to help them get into the concept are all good approaches. Above all show them that these are “special” materials – these are designed only for them. They are intelligent people and like to be treated that way. Give them the facts in tweet-size points.
Ask if you can check in on them from time to time. If you get their approval then MAKE SURE YOU DO IT REGULARLY. But not too regularly to avoid getting on their nerves!
A FRIDAY question - What is an inspirational leader?
A few people have me about inspirational leadership.
This is my video blog trying to express what it means to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts too!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV0h1zf2Zl0&feature=youtu.be]
New Year Resolution: Social Leadership #ibmsocialbiz #ibm #socbiz #ibmconnect
Have you set your New Year's Resolutions yet? I am still working mine but today as I sat down with one of our clients, and his New Year's resolution was social leadership.
What does a Social Leader look like? Act like?
Here's what we agreed were the top 10 attributes (thoughts?)
- Transparent
- Non believer in silos
- Authentic
- Likeable
- Collaborative
- Comfortable with fast decision making
- Explorer of new tools
- Active in both internal and external networking
- Actively looks for new ideas from employees and clients
- Passionate about engagement and dialogure
Would this challenge to be a great social leader in 2013 be a New Year Resolution for you?
How can I help you?!