How to Succeed Where Other Leaders Fail

Posted By: Robyn Greenspan
Filed Under: robyn greenspan, success, communication, leaders, denny strigl, customer, frank swiatek, results

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"What you do on a cell phone is far from the most important thing of the day. What you do in front of people is far more important." That's an odd statement coming from the former CEO and president of Verizon Wireless, but Denny Strigl, as a leader, is more invested in people than technology.

In an exclusive presentation to ExecuNet members, Strigl, with co-author of Managers, Can You Hear Me Now? Frank Swiatek, shared the common reasons leaders struggle and how to deliver results without getting derailed.

Where managers typically get tripped up is they have the wrong focus, not keeping their eye on, what Strigl calls, the "Four Fundamentals:" growing revenue; getting new customers; keeping existing customers; and eliminating costs.

"Managers fix the same problem over and over because they never took the time to find the root cause of the problem," said Strigl.

Or, leaders get stymied by trying to make too many people happy, which Strigl said, there is real failure when managers try to befriend people who work for them. "What I have always found is employees are happier when they are contributing to the bottom-line results of the company or department," Strigl told the ExecuNet audience.

Finally, self-importance can be what unhinges a leader. Strigl related sage advice he received from his boss, the chairman, when he was CEO of Ameritech Mobile Communications. "I was told the stripes that are on my uniform, coat, shirt, stay on the uniform. They're not mine. They come off with the uniform," recalled Strigl. "The most important focus is the customer, employee, shareholders. It's never about you. Don't focus on you."

Rather than linger on the factors contributing to failure, Strigl talked about what he learned were the key ingredients that have helped drive him to lead companies to success during the evolution of the telecommunications industry.

Integrity: which, Strigl said, was more than honesty. "An honest manager can lack integrity. 'Yes, I took the money from the vault' is an honest statement. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching."
Trust: Integrity enables trust and that enables respect to be built.
Respect: Must be two-way.
Accountability: "It isn't what people hear from you; it is what they see you do," said Strigl, adding that leaders should be working out problems with the team, rolling up their sleeves. "Develop a positive shadow," he recommended, and others will model that behavior.
Daily discipline: Keep your message consistent, focused and relatively the same. Strigl said it was important to project that you're not "going to change with flavor of the month, quarter or year."

Co-author Swiatek added that managers also need the discipline to keep things simple, recommending all memos, strategy, ideas, performance appraisals, or any other unnecessarily long documentation be limited to just 1/2 sheet of one side of one sheet of paper.

Strigl simplified email communication even further: "If you can�t say it in the subject line, you can�t say it."

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Robyn Greenspan's avatar Robyn Greenspan
Robyn Greenspan is the Editor-in-Chief at ExecuNet, where she is responsible for setting and driving the editorial content engagement strategy across the private business network's publications and expert-led programming. She is also a Huffington Post blogger. You can follow her on Twitter @RobynGreenspan