Get In the Mud

Get In the Mud

Howard schultz when he came back as CEO for Starbucks gave a famous speech internally called “get in the mud”. The cliched version you may have heard is “get your hands dirty”.

I like “get in the mud” better.

It means get in fully. You will be fully covered in the dirt, grime, sweat and passion of the business. Too often mid and senior level managers become lazy and entitled. To cover their laziness they use the code word “delegation”.

No. In a fast changing world if you want to lead your business to success get in the mud. Everyday, everyweek, every month.

How can you do so- here are some ways

1.     Meet customers weekly – spend time with the front line sale team. This may mean a physical market visit with the sales person or it may mean a customer call or just simply picking up the phone to talk to key customers. Goal is to understand what is going, what are the issues and how can you help

2.     Meet consumers monthly – If you sell a product or a service, you need to know how your end user is feeling and how is their feedback on your offering. Did they try anything new recently. Have they changed their shopping, media or consumption habits. You can use a research agency or simply ask your team to organize a friends and family call

3.     Open the car hood and check the engine – This means pick every week 1 area of the business to do a deep dive into and sit with the respective team to understand in depth how the finance, operations, logistics, sales, marketing are working. What is good and what can be better ?

4.     Make it or Pack it – If you or your organisation at any place do anything physical go do it for day or a week. Serve a meal. Pack the goods. Man the manufacturing line. Drive a delivery truck. Then do it again. If you cannot find anything else go clean and sweep the factory or the office. Get in the mud.

5.     Do 1-1 engagement with everyone in your business – Get into their lives and understand how they are feeling. What are their challenges and issues at work and beyond. How is their health. Is there anything else you can do for them.

Great generals lead from the front. Great leaders get into the mud. They know that is the only way to know the truth of what is going on and what needs to be done. Great teams know that their bosses will always be there in the trenches with them at any point in time.

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