As a Leader, Here's My First Winning Story On My Way to Executive!

From GW's Management Workbench...

Most of you recognize GW as a "hard-skill" expert of the 6 functions of leadership- management: strategy, planning, organizing, leadership, teamwork, and control. This story has a unique outcome about a soft skill, "winning." Here's the definition out of the Vocabulary for Success, for executives.

?Winning

The soft skill in leadership that results from combining the hard-skill competencies of objective setting (planning) with metrics (control), which is an irrefutable example of achieving results planned.

Winning is all about being the best planner with the challenge at hand and achieving the result desired, based on a goal or metric which measures accomplishment.

?It was the summer of 1967, and I was working as a Sales Representative with the Maxwell House Coffee company, a Division of General Foods, in the San Jose/San Mateo areas of northern California. My wife, Marilyn, was a teacher in Sunnyvale.

Marketing wise, Maxwell House coffee had about a 6% share of market in that area, with Folger's having a 42% share of market. Very tough competitor.

I was called into our sales office for a major announcement. There had been a freeze in Brazil, and the price of coffee beans was going up significantly. The sales manager laid out the objectives and case metrics to sell-in lower-priced product, but we all knew the buyers would buy large quantities of Folger's before Maxwell House, because of the shares of market.

?So the key was to get to the buying offices of your key retailers before the Folger's salesperson.

Town & Country Markets was my key retailer, with 8 supermarkets in the area, so as soon as the meeting ended I rushed over to sign-up to see the buyer at the buying store. The buyer, named Bill, sat in front of a window on the 2nd floor, looking out over the many aisles. Everyone could always see him in the back window as you entered the front door of the store.

?Damn! As I went to sign in, I was about 8th on the sign-up list, and the Folger salesperson was the next one in on the list, and would get all the sales, and I would miss my objective and metric.?

How could I make this a winning occasion? By using the soft skills of innovation and the hard skill of communication!

There were no cell phones at the time, but every supermarket had a couple of pay phones in front of the check outs, so having the buyer's office phone number, I rushed down to the pay phones, inserted my coin, and dialed his number, hoping he would answer.

I could see him in the window answering the phone, and I knew right beside him sat the Folger's salesperson.

He answered my call and he could hear that I was in a store with cash registers humming. I immediately said, "Bill, this is Greg Weismantel, your Maxwell House salesman, and I know you're with the Folger's salesman, but my price and deal are better, so wait 'til you see it!” I could see him stand up in front of the window with the phone in his ear.

?"Where the hell are you?" he said. "Right here in the front of the store," as I waved my arms at him.

?"Well, I'll be damned. I've never seen anything like that," he said, "I'll wait for you."

?A year later, I was to learn that he wrote a reference letter to my boss about this situation, as they promoted me to Territory Manager in Milwaukee.

?You see, the best leaders are the ones who innovate and communicate, and it always leads to winning combinations because it is this type of example that thrills your team . This is a perfect example of how a leadership manager utilizes the hard-skill competencies of objectives, metrics, and communication with a soft skill like innovation to create a winning attitude. There is an Axiom about this.

AXIOM OF A Winning Attitude

Those leadership managers who plan (set objectives) and measure accomplishment (goals & metrics) with their direct reports or team will always achieve more objectives and win more competitive challenges than those leaders who plan by themselves. (From, The Axioms of Success, 2nd edition)

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GW