November 2024
Article
Top Sales Magazine

Leadership and Plumbing

Format:Print
| Pages:2

Abstract

“Leadership” is a growth industry. Amazon lists over 60,000 books on the topic. Most focus on emotional intelligence, charisma, avoiding narcissism (usually someone else’s problem, according to these authors, not their problem) and other personality traits. But as organizational scholar James March once put it, “Leadership involves plumbing as well as poetry.” His point was that, whatever else they do, effective leaders help busy people in their firms to deal with the business problems or opportunities they face and so increase their contributions and productivity. This is especially true when it comes to a core activity like customer acquisition and retention. But surveys indicate a growing gap between C-Suite leaders and their customer-facing people and processes. This article discusses how to establish and maintain good organizational plumbing in areas like communicating priorities and establishing a two-way process between C-Suite and front-line sales leaders.