Procurement Leadership Lessons
I recently did a moving trip where my wife moved some things cross-country. We brought some of the things she collected over years past that had meaning to her. One of us drove a rented box truck and the other drove our jeep. My wife is a fantastic driver and at one point she had jobs that entailed driving quite a bit (Firewoman, Police officer and even Semi truck driver, all of this while having a degree if Child Psychology and able to speak intelligently on wave particle duality- yeah, she's the smart one in this family). During this trip, I noticed a few very important principles needed where there is a relationship that involves following and leading, true for Procurement and any other function.
The person who is leading has to make sure they are always visible to those they are leading. Sometimes the GPS goes and you need to follow your partner in the truck/jeep in front of you. This happened once when we needed a break in a small town in Ohio. In an organization, we can have published objectives (e.g. goals, metrics, KPIs); but a leader needs to lead from the front but not so far that their stated aim isn't always visible somehow. Is there a spend goal or a business transformation objective? Do team members see their role in fulfilling the goal or do they feel far from it?
Followers need to make sure they can be seen by the leader. There were points where the traffic got heavy and the follower fell a half mile or so back and at that distance neither party wouldn't know where the other was (it could be miles for all they know). And if it was a dead zone, they could be broken down and the other would be unaware. In organizations it is the responsibility of both the leader and follower to be visible to each other- this can be done via meetings, metrics or other means. Is there another mechanism whereby regular proximity checks are made?
Constant communication is needed. There was a point where my wife was driving the box truck initially and I didn't know why she was further back. Well I had no idea the truck had a limiter and I clearly didn't take into consideration that it’s a truck and driving the way I do, was not the best for that vehicle - nothing further on that :-) We needed to communicate to get the right expectations. How often as leaders do we have certain expectations and when they aren't met - only then do we hear about the extenuating circumstances. Do we have an open door for communication? Lofty goals are good, but we need folks to tell us about potential failures in the process, not afterwards.
It is always interesting to me how some simple things are the keys to success in almost any endeavor. What are your thoughts?
At NaaSive, our heritage is Procurement leadership so it’s critical for us to lead and follow. We take pride in both leading Procurement as well as supporting existing Procurement teams to augment their size and capabilities.