In order to be a great leader, you’ve got to be comfortable with the fact that you don’t always have to be the smartest person in the room. In fact, it’s better if you surround yourself with people who are better than you are in significant ways. Success is not about your ego and making your employees suppress their own ideas so that you can look good! You don’t want employees who are going to work harder at making an idea seem like it comes from you than at coming up with a stellar thought that benefits the entire organization. Someone who is comfortable in their own skin is going to be comfortable around people who outshine them in various ways. And a good boss—a good leader, regardless of whether or not that person is in a supervisory position—is one who surrounds herself with the smartest, most capable people whose values align with hers. A good boss is going to be equally comfortable with having those values and the reasoning behind them challenged. That process only makes those values, and the results of realizing them in practice, better. Powered by Purpose, Scott Deming — author of Powered by Purpose: How to Engage and Retain Your Team Through Meaningful Leadership.

Here is a recent radio interview I did for the Senior Voice America radio show. The discussion was regarding my new book “Powered by Purpose.” The interview is about fifteen minutes long, but it goes fast and I believe you’ll find a nugget or two if you listen through. I hope you enjoy! Audio Player

The Business Review Europe has used content from my book Powered by Purpose to demonstrate how to build a flourishing culture through effective leadership.  Great coverage from a highly regarded and highly read publication! Get the story HERE

My new book, Powered by Purpose officially hits the shelves tomorrow, October 14th! You can order online at Amazon or directly from us at https://www.scottdeming.com/shop/powered-by-purpose/ This is a Must Read! An innovative and exciting process for leading your group or company with Purpose and Passion!       

  This week, I contributed to Adweek and Real Business, an online publication by Xerox Corporation. Here are the two stories.     ADWEEK     REAL BUSINESS          Copyright All Rights Reserved © 2018 – 2021

One of the “realities” I’ve discovered through the years of business ownership, consulting and speaking, is that the customer or client rarely sees you as YOU see you. This is known as Perceptual Reality. In his book Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams defines Perceptual Reality as our imagination. We spend a great deal of time there, and while there we create ideas and perceptions of ourselves that simply are not true or real. We begin to think we’re better than we are and we are convinced our service is better than it actually is. A study titled “The Lake Wobegon Effect” affectionately named after Garrison Keeler’s radio show highlights a human trait known as ILLUSORY SUPERIORITY. It is a cognitive bias whereby individuals overestimate their own qualities and abilities, relative to others. Simply put, we are not as great as we think we are and our service is not nearly as good as it should be. By understanding that all individuals suffer from this effect, especially those in business and especially those in a leadership position, we can take steps to reacquaint ourselves with our real selves. A Bain and Company study showed that nearly 90% of all senior executives pat themselves on the back for their treatment of customers. These same executives also say that they provide a superior level of service to their customers. When the customers of these companies were asked about the level of service they receive from said companies, they gave only 8% a superior rating. No matter how many processes are in place and no matter how technically correct a process is, if the customer views you, your product or your service as less than wonderful, that my friend is reality. I was recently at a hotel (no name, but they are a large luxury chain) and before my presentation I was eating breakfast in their restaurant. Before the waitress came over to my table I picked up my coffee mug and it was filthy. I switched it for another mug on the table that was clean. After she poured my coffee, I handed her the dirty mug and suggested they run it through the dishwasher. I told her it was quite dirty. She looked at the mug and said – “It’s not dirty, it’s stained.” And she put the mug back on the table. Then she said, “Everyone thinks they’re dirty. We run these through the wash so often the coffee gets stained on the mug.” Then she walked away. Now, technically speaking, this mug was clean. However, I and many others view it as dirty. Is it clean or is it dirty? Put yourself in your customer’s shoes on a regular basis and learn about you and your company from their perspective. You’ll be amazed at what you see and you’ll be pleased at the solutions you come up with to create a better culture and a higher level of service.       

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, writer Ben Fritz talks about Disney’s ability to turn movie hits into “Profits Ever After.” Each movie mega hit becomes its’ own franchise, with a dedicated team focused on turning that movie hit into successful and profitable rides, toys, clothes, video games and more. In the advertising business, we would call this “having legs.”   Think about your current business model. Do you have the ability to turn your knowledge and your skill sets into additional revenue streams? Does your current business model have legs? Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. I am a corporate speaker. That’s my main area of business revenue. To put it simply, I am hired by corporations to fly to their conferences or conventions and be their opening or closing keynote speaker. Many times, a company will also hire me to do a breakout session or a seminar while I’m there. Now, let me show you how I turned that into “legs.”   From my experience in business ownership, advertising and board positions I have created a knowledge base of several different topics, ranging from leadership to brand building. Now, I could easily just go out and do my keynote presentations, but there are many other opportunities I create with this information. Opportunities that turn into additional revenue streams or “legs.” I’ve written books, and from the books I’ve created presentations and training programs. I’ve turned the training programs into consulting contracts. The consulting contracts have led to additional marketing and advertising projects. I’ve turned my presentations and knowledge base into instructional DVDs and CDs. I’ve turned my books into audio books. In fact, I’ve turned my knowledge and skills into not only additional income, but passive income. I’ve put my knowledge into something people can actually see and touch.   Obviously, I cannot compare myself to Disney. My revenue stream is certainly not in the same stratosphere as theirs, but the concept is the same. I have franchised myself. I have turned my name and knowledge into a brand and into brand products and services. Now, let’s look at your business. Whether you’re in the financial sector, manufacturing, marketing, health care, or any other business, what other opportunities are you leaving on the table? Can you turn your knowledge and your skills into additional revenue streams? Do you have current products that have additional products in them, but you just haven’t seen it? Can you turn a product that really can’t be seen or touched into something that can? In other words, if you’re selling insurance, banking or intellectual property, what can you do to create a software program, game, or any tangible product that not only creates additional revenue, but also puts your brand on something your customers can touch? Is the customer experience great enough that your customers will want to experience you more, or in other ways? At Disney, that’s exactly what’s happening. “When people love a Disney product this much, they expect to be able to somehow experience it,” said Kathy Mangum, a senior creative executive in the Imagineering theme-park design group.   What can you do to create additional experiences for your customers that will ultimately turn into additional revenues for your company? Think of your company as a bicycle wheel. Your main product or service is the hub. Anything additional you can create becomes a spoke. The outside, or the wheel itself becomes your customer base and revenue stream. How large is that wheel? How many spokes to you have?

I received this wonderful email Monday from a business person in Australia. People ask me if my programs have real “takeaways.” Here’s some proof in the pudding. “Hello Scott. I had a friend tell me about you and show me a video clip, I’m blown away by what you evangelize. My friend has implemented your principles in his business and has grown his ‘electrical commodity’ business from doing $1M a year to $20M a year in just 4 short years. Amazing We hope to take on the same principles but mostly we feel entirely uncreative. We are a small family business who battle to see the woods for the trees. If you are ever in Australia, feel free to drop me a line & we would love to catch up.”