The fourth group of leadership competencies, as defined in the global study by Marshall Goldsmith, is about assuring success. Again, like with the previous competencies, there is a close alignment between alliance management and leadership. The three competencies in the group “assure success” are about elements we see in alliances too:
Developing Technological Savvy is about understanding how the application of technology will increase productivity and effectiveness. With many technology driven alliances, this is an important competency to increase success. Digital technology is everywhere and sooner or later it will be part of your alliances too.
Ensuring Customer Satisfaction might speak for itself. However, experience learns that not all companies rate customer satisfaction as highly as others. There is a lot to be said for Richard Branson’s philosophy to put his employees first. Like sales, customer satisfaction is an outcome, a lagging result, and satisfied employees will take care of customer satisfaction. So in parallel with Richard Branson: treat your partners like your people, and they will also take care of customer satisfaction.
The third competency in this group is about managing competitive advantage. Even though there are different reasons to enter into an alliance, as Ben Gomes-Casseres explains in his first law, alliances are all created to form some kind of synergy and competitive advantage. As such it is important to manage for competitive advantage.
How are you doing on the Assuring (Alliance) Success competencies? Where can you improve to increase your success?