Create the Magic For Every Stakeholder

Create The Magic For Every Stakeholder

Everything you do is a value proposition. 

The simple truth is, every decision you make is an attempt to lean the sum-total of the scales of value in your favor. You want to realize a net-positive value. This concept applies to you whether you’re an individual or the CEO of a business. As a CEO, the ability to sustain success depends on your ability to create mutually beneficial relationships between all of your stakeholders.

So, how do you create mutually beneficial relationships with all of your stakeholders if everyone is always trying to tip the scales in their own favor? The key is to understand the nature of mutually beneficial relationships and set the conditions for creating them with each type of stakeholder.

The magic of any great relationship is that it creates a net-positive value for everyone involved.

When this occurs, the relationship is mutually beneficial. No losers. All winners.

Every CEO must understand how to create a mutually beneficial relationship with all key organizational stakeholders. The answers to how to accomplish that can only come from asking the right questions.:

• Employees- People will be great at their jobs when what they value aligns with what Leaders want them to do. It’s about the value they perceive they receive in return for their efforts.
• Do you understand the value your employees perceive in the Compensation & Benefits they receive in relation to the effort they give?
• Do you understand how key employees find satisfaction in their work?
• Do you understand how employees perceive their leadership sets them up for success?
• Do you understand how satisfied your employees are with their relationships with the people they work with:
• Leadership?
• Co-Workers?
• Customers?
• Do you understand how to find the best fit for the job and the culture you want when you hire new employees?

(c) Copyright- Thomas Eakin, 2013

• Leaders- People will be great leaders when they can provide the purpose, direction and behavioral drivers that are in alignment with what the people they want to lead value. 
• Do the leaders in your organization personify the values you need them to in order for them to create a net-positive value proposition for your employees?
• Do the leaders in your organization make decisions in alignment with organizations Core Values by placing the priority on the principles that will result in maximizing the net-value in every situation?

• Vendors- People will be great at giving you what you want, when you want it, in the quantity you asked for and at the price you are willing to pay when your organization can satisfy their needs.
• Do you understand what the value of the products and services they are providing to your organization?
• Do you understand what net-negative conditions your organization creates for its key vendors?
• Do you understand how your organization can help key vendors find solutions that create value for you and them?

• Customers- People will be great customers when what they value is in alignment with what you want them to do. You want them to buy from you.
• How do you make sure they perceive the net-positive value required to compel them to buy from you?
• Do you know if they perceive a net-positive value from the products and services you provide?
• Do you know where you’re exceeding expectations?
• Do you know where you’re not realizing the value proposition for your customers?

• Organizations- Groups of people can create a mutually beneficial net-positive value when they can consistently translate the core values and principles upon which the organizational value proposition is founded throughout the processes within which products and/or services are created and delivered.

Are you creating the magic?

Is your organization holding up your end of the value proposition for all of your stakeholders? 

In order to realize a net-positive value for yourself, you need to create a net-positive value for everyone else, your success depends on it.

• Do you understand where the greatest risks exist in each of the relationships your organization needs to maintain in order to sustain success?
• Are your strategies purposefully designed to mitigate those risks?

If you want to get the right answers, you need to ask the right questions. BoomLife has the Success Engineering tools to help you do both:

• Values-Based Seminars & Workshops.
• Coaching.
• Organizational Development Consulting.
• Powerful Surveys- Designed to ask the right questions.
• Leaders
• Employees
• Customers
• Vendors

BUY THE BOOK!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Eakin is the author of Finding Success and the Success Engineer at BoomLife. LEARN MORE ABOUT TOM...

READ A SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM THE BOOK

How to Ruin an Organization While You Keep Making Money

How to Ruin an Organization While You Keep Making Money

The Situation- Doing Things Versus Doing Enough

I once worked with a CEO who tried to convince everyone he cared about creating a great culture. I believe he even thought he was doing what it takes. The problem came from what really drove his decisions and his behaviors.

The company was full of great people. The business had grown over the years to the point where relying on people to figure out what to do was no longer efficient. Departmental barriers started to form based on what key individuals wanted to do instead of the business processes that created the products and services. Gaping holes were left open and waste was created in the form of re-work and "extra" inventory which kept piling up. The great people started pointing fingers at each other.

It was an opportunity to put systems in place that would ensure safety, quality and efficiency were maintained as the company scaled. The CEO stuck to what he knew, the numbers. He made decisions primarily based on revenue and profitability. The conflicts got worse as frustration levels increased with each recurrence of waste-creating incidents. Meanwhile, the CEO kept his head down, crunched the numbers, made decisions based on what the financial statements were telling him and celebrated the company's success at being profitable. A few times a year, he held company events: golf outings, holiday dinners, barbeques. He was going through the motions. He believed he was "Doing" the right things. Meanwhile, people who'd worked closely together for years, people who'd once been the best of friends inside and outside of work, stopped talking to each other altogether. Hourly employees were consistently expected to work 60-hours a week. Everyone was getting burned out. The things the CEO was doing to create the culture he said he wanted weren't wrong, they were just not enough. 

The Company was Making Money. Isn't That Success?

People join organizations as employees or volunteers for one reason: The believe they will realize a net-positive value from the relationship. The form, or combination of forms, the net-positive value is made-up of is different for everyone. From the CEO's point of view, the view from the financial statements, the company was making profits, employees were getting paid a lot of overtime money. He perceived the net-positive value was being satisfied for the employees because of the financial results. Leading an organization with the financial statements as the highest priority for making decision-making is like using the speedometer as the only means to control a car. 

A car can only travel so far with the needle pegged before it runs out of gas or the driver loses control. 

What happens to the car happens to the passengers. What happens to the organization happens to the people.

Sooner, or later, resources reach their limit and things just stop working. Or, the situation changes in such a way that damage is done. The severity of the damage depends on the conditions present in the situation. It's easier for employees to exit the organization than a speeding car, so when some of them realized they were not realizing a net-positive value, some great people left.  As new employees came and went, safety incidents increased, more quality defects created more rework, profits tapered off. 

The company needed a leader more than anything, someone who knew where they wanted to go and were willing to control the speed based on what was going on all around them. The company had a person who was willing let the speedometer control their behavior. 

Organizational Values- More Than Just Financial Transactions

When people join an organization expecting a net-positive value it's not just because of the money. Let's think about this: if everyone viewed money as the only measure of achieving a net-positive value, we'd never see any organizations form. Everyone involved couldn't realize a net-positive value because one party would always give up something. The very best-case scenario would be a net-neutral result where everyone comes out even. There would be no incentive to join, or remain in, such a situation. 

As a Success Engineer, it's frustrating to be in a situation where the person who ultimately leads the organization is unwilling to do what it takes to create the culture they say they want. It makes me sad to think about those great people and how their situation changed for the want of a leader. I wish I could tell you a story about how I was able to help them do great things. I'd prefer to tell you the truth. Yes, I was there. Yes, I got out of the car. I chose to end the

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business relationship. I want to help people achieve Life-Long Success, I couldn't accomplish what I wanted so there was no incentive to remain. The net result was neutral, at best. We can't always get what we want and be the person we want to be. We have to choose sometimes. I chose the latter. I'm certain the business will remain financially salient for some time...their CEO is a smart and capable man. The culture has been severely compromised and until something changes it will continue to degrade. Only one person can lead that change.  

Set the Conditions for Organizational Success

The key to creating an organization that can provide a net-positive value for all stakeholders is creating a value proposition that represents a mutually beneficial relationship for the type of people who can reciprocate based on something they have to offer (leadership, skills, expertise, etc.).  

Organizational Success happens when:

• The Organization Knows What it Values
• Leaders promote Organizational Values
• Employees (including Leaders) align with Organizational Values
• Organizational Values are translated through the business processes that create value for Customers.
• The Organization Does What it Values
• Leaders exemplify Organizational Values
• Employees (including Leaders) live Organizational Values
• People, Processes, & Resources combine to create Products & Services that:
• Reflect Organizational Values 
• Create value for Customers

Only when the organization Knows What it Values & Does What it Values can it Be What it Values.

Are you a leader in an organization? What do you WANT? Do you KNOW what to DO to get it?

THE GPS THEORY MODEL

BoomLife provides personal, professional, and organizational success engineering services. Our Values-Based, practical, GPS Theory processes will help you:

• Recruit & Select Inspired Employees
• Evaluate Performance- Inspired, Motivated or Coerced?
• Measure Engagement & Create Improvement Strategies
• Develop people who are inspired to be GREAT at their jobs!
• Develop the Organizational Structure to Ensure Core Values Translate Throughout Your Business Processes.

Sign-Up for BoomLife's Newsletter to stay informed of updates, events and news about GPS Theory!

Try our GPS Theory App- www.goboomlife.com

Need an Inspirational Speaker for Your Next Event? 
Tom Eakin's presentation of "What Do You Want?" is designed to challenge the way you define success and inspire you to engineer your own personal, professional or organizational path to success. tom@goboomlife.com

GET WHAT YOU WANT! 

Getting what you want and being the person you want to be can seem complicated and confusing! Together, we'll define what you want, what it takes to get it and help you realize the kind of success you never been able to achieve before! Sign up for personal one-on-one coaching. You can sign up for a program or a single-session. It's up to you!:

• 90-Day Success Engineering Program
• Personal Success Engineering Session