The Sales Archaeologist

Yesterday I was able to attend the Xsite conference at Babson University and it was really a great event - it should fuel many more blog posts. It was an opportunity to hear some great people speak on some great topics that are relevant to business everywhere. It was also an opportunity to meet with some great professionals and make some solid connections.

Sometimes I wonder if I am being too hard or cynical in some of my posts - especially on CEO level executives. But yesterday two panels, speaking at two different times were much harder than me. These panelists were from some of the leading VC firms nationally and although discussing different topics they each covered their biggest challenge at length. What was it? Unanimously the biggest problem was finding a good CEO?

As they listed the concerns and challenges related to this I started to make a connection with our sales manager and our KMD assessment tools because the issues were some of the same ones we run into on a regular basis.

• We look for 5 strengths or skillsets related to being a great manager. Too often people in management, although great sales people do not know how to manage or lead. The panel mentioned that founders or inventors do not know how to get the company to the next level.
• We regularly find managers that are only focused on accountability ( a required strength ) but they never motivate, never coach, never mentor and so the team flounders. The panel talked about great CEO's being inspirational to their people - really hard to find.
• In our leadership assessment we are looking for things like Risk Taking, Strategic Thinking and other leadership qualities. The Panel spoke to that as well - often a CEO has a very short term strategy that does not line up with investors goals of 20x Return. Sometimes their view is too small picture and they focus too much on "what got them here" not "what will get me there?"

These observations and comments (along with some one on one conversations) helped me to appreciate two things. 1) Putting the title CEO on a business card has nothing to do with whether or not you really are a CEO. There are a lot of fake salespeople - we know that. There are also a lot of fake CEO's so buyer beware. 2) They need help - the process of personal growth is apparently directly related to the process of business growth. Companies that do well have a CEO that recognizes his own flaws and works on them. As he grows into a "bigger" CEO the company will follow and grow into a bigger company.

There is much more to come from the Xcite conference so stay tuned.