Want a living example of leadership in action? Serve on a board chaired by Suti Prakash!
From 1997 through 1999, I did just that as a member of the International Echo Committee Board of Directors. As anyone on that board will attest, Suti has that rare ability to inspire, motivate and mobilize people with strong opinions, senior level skills, and healthy egos.
Suti is the Director, New Business Development at Pitney Bowes Mailing Systems. His focus is on conceiving and implementing new business concepts in the mailing, messaging and business service areas. Prior to this assignment, Suti directed the marketing, product development and global market launches of several product lines.
Active in the direct marketing industry, Suti is currently on the operating committee of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). As a tribute to Suti’s contributions to the Direct Marketing industry, he was recently awarded an individual Diamond Echo. This is only the second time in its 60-year history that the International Echo Award Committee conferred this prestigious award upon an individual.
Suti Prakash is a natural leader who dishes up his wisdom with a dose of humor and contagious enthusiasm...a powerful combination to be sure. I am delighted that Suti has agreed to share some of his insights with the readers of this column.
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Team-building starts with having a very clear vision and goal. There's a business school professor at Dartmouth who calls it "strategic intent." The example he used, which I loved, was to point out that forty years ago we did not have a U.S. President stand up and say: "I am today chartering a new cabinet organization to investigate and analyze and debate how we might be able to go into outer space and when we might be able to do it." He said, "We are going to put a man on the moon and bring him safely back to earth before this decade is out." It was a very, simple, clear challenge, but at the same time a goal.
Second thing is to choose diverse people. Most teams need diversity in terms of not only functional expertise, but diversity in terms of backgrounds, experiences, exposures, how each member of the team views life. That diversity enriches the debate, the discussion, the planning and the essence of what we're trying to accomplish.
The third element is that it's very important to share broadly and frequently with other members of the team. What are we accomplishing well? What are the roadblocks? What can we do better? This helps us to track and learn. What did we do as a team? What did we do as individuals? How did it work out? What can we learn from it? How can we share it with the team so the team can grow? So, you're learning not just from your own experiences but also from your teammates.
Finally, the fourth thing is that it's very important to watch that everybody on the team is pulling their weight. Because if one or another person is slacking off, the team members sense it pretty soon and their motivation to give their best likely falls because they say, "hey, so-and-so isn't pulling their weight, they're not doing it, etc."
Star players must understand how their performance can be enhanced by -- and often that it absolutely needs -- the work and effort of others on the team. Last year, the star performer was "the Web site designer." The Web site designer, if he or she went off on his or her own, would accomplish a lot. However, it isn't going to matter two hoots if I don't have the infrastructure that's going to host that Web site coming along on the same timeline.
So it's very important to help star performers understand that they are very good, and that they're contributing a whole lot. But for them to maximize their own performance, they need to work with others -- because others are important to building the full house, the full project, the full output.
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Most projects need diversity in terms of backgrounds, experiences, exposures, how each member of the team views life.
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At Pitney Bowes, we have a succession planning process, and that cascades up. So I start out by reviewing my people with my peers, as well as with my boss and his or her peers. I get their input and I explain how I think of them. I'm not just suggesting who can succeed me in eighteen months, two years -- whatever the time frame is -- but where might the person go elsewhere in the organization.
The second thing is to encourage their growth by involving people in multiple aspects of the business. For example, a technical person might become involved in the business negotiations with a technology partner. The idea is to grow the technical person's knowledge base by having him or her participate in the business negotiations.
In a team situation, you need people to be continuous learners. The market is moving very fast -- everything is moving fast. If you're not learning, you're going to be a has-been. How do you demonstrate your continuous learning? It's also very important in a team situation to create a sense of excitement. There must be some passion to what we do if we're going to really succeed, to make it fun.
That involves encouraging the team, while also challenging them with specific, measurable goals. I don’t remember the full acronym, but there is an acronym called "smart, specific, measurable, actionable, time-lined goals." Will we both know in the end whether you succeeded or not? I think to the degree we can put that down and have that agreement, it facilitates accomplishment and it facilitates growth.
I also encourage -- to borrow a phrase that direct marketers know -- one-to-one sessions with your boss. That means it's not about a project, it's not about a problem, it's not about an issue. You meet on a different frequency, depending on who you are and what your relationship is and so forth, to just discuss anything you have. That's an excellent time to encourage people to continue their growth, to make sure they are enjoying themselves -- learning, growing, contributing and guiding them to be more successful.
Dennis Troyanos is the founder of The Troyanos Group, an executive search and consulting firm specializing in recruiting senior-level relationship-marketing professionals. Dennis has led many highly- acclaimed management workshops for the DMA and National Center for Database Marketing. He has facilitated CEO roundtables and written numerous articles on the subject of interviewing, hiring and retaining top performers. Dennis can be reached at dennis@troyanosgroup.com or 914-997-1907.
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