Leadership and Customer Relations

I recently read John Maxwell’s book on The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, which considers leadership from a non-authoritarian perspective. The author hails from the nonprofit sector (a superchurch pastor), who was a paid staffer who largely managed through committees of volunteers – people whom he could not threaten to gain their obedience. This requires rather a different approach to dealing with people.

It’s an approach that correlates well to customer relations: you wish to motivate people to do something (buy your product), without having the ability to threaten them into doing it, and merely getting rid of the people who do not cooperate with you isn’t a wise option (except in extreme situations where the cost of serving a customer’s demands exceeds their lifetime value).

In terms of leadership, people who most want to be leaders are often the least qualified to hold such a position: they’re the sort who lack the people skills to gain influence and foster cooperation, and seek a position of leadership for the sake of the authority that comes with it, as “I say, you do, no questions” is the kind of power they covet.

To make matters worse, many organizations seem indifferent to the tactics of those they seek to place in leadership positions: so long as they have a track record of achievement, their methods are beside the point. They are lauded for their short-term success; meanwhile the long-term damage they do to the organization and its culture are considered collateral damage and often goes undetected for a long period of time, discovered long after the leader has left the organization to take a position elsewhere and repeat the cycle.

Maxwell’s approach takes a different perspective: leader as motivator, organizer, and coordinator. In his view, the value of a leader isn’t felt until after he has left: if the place falls to shambles behind him, he’s done more harm than good; if he leaves a legacy of success, he has put service to his organization and his people above the need to achieve and dominate. And in the long run, that’s the more productive path.

The same can be said of the way in which customer relations are managed: if people stop buying the day you stop promoting, you really haven’t convinced them of the value of your product and they haven’t made your brand a part of their lives in a meaningful way. When they repurchase, even when your product isn't being pushed, then you know you have provided value to the customer.

I seem to be going back and forth, and will take a bit more time to untangle and assimilate what I’ve learned – I have the sense it correlates well, though i may be stretching to connect the dots.