The Art of Customer Driven Leadership with Daniel Hammond

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Today on the show we have Daniel Hammond. Daniel has an incredible constellation of experiences, backgrounds, and interesting stories to tell. We are blessed with the opportunity to explore quite a few of those around the world and in very unexpected places and professions.

The main thing that we are going to be talking about today is operating systems for your business. How does your business operate as a whole? This is a really important system and culture and thing to install as you start to grow beyond being able to influence everybody directly and manage everybody directly in a small business. We are going to be talking about the counterintuitive nature that is customer-driven leadership as opposed to leader driven. The difference is in how you approach and solve problems in your business.

We discuss:

[02:28] Daniel shares his defining moment.
[06:15] You need to really be able to communicate. You really need to listen to the needs of the people you are trying to serve. You need to understand what your solution is, how it is going to impact them, and for how long.
[07:35] Customer-driven leadership is an operating system. It creates checks and balances on a team level.
[09:24] The incremental growth over time starts moving that company very quickly in its maturing, and innovating, and it keeps the teams engaged so they build a culture of cooperation and that is a great place to work.
[12:24] An inspiring leader is definitely the right place to start.
[14:01] It starts with a big vision. A big lie of entrepreneurship is that as the leader of the organization, it is our job to solve all the problems.
[17:01] At the team level, it is really increasing the understanding of how the different teams all serve to deliver for the end customers.
[19:36] If the company doesn’t have systems in place. Having systems is important. If the company doesn’t have good teamwork in place. Coaching is important.
[22:07] You have to understand what the team next to you has to deliver and what the team upstream and downstream have to deliver to deliver success to the clients.
[23:53] If your organization is well run you should never see the problems of the organization unless they are truly epic like the market is shifting away from what we are doing and how we are serving. That is the role of senior leadership.
[24:46] Think through what can go wrong so you have got contingencies in your pocket.
[28:00] Start looking at the functions of every role or team in the organization. What does it really need to deliver and how does it need to deliver it? That will help keep you focused on what is important.
[31:24] Get each member of the team to map out the care abouts that they have to do to be successful at their job.
[34:37] Daniel shares the main skill sets he learned as an interrogator in the army.
[35:48] Don’t make promises that you can’t keep.
[39:05] Daniel's suggestions for getting a referral in college or in business.
[41:52] Put yourself in a new customer’s shoes.
[43:10] You are building a customer for life when you can be ahead of their concerns.
[44:35] People are far more likely to buy from somebody who has a good story that seems trustworthy and sincere about how they are passionate about serving people. Differentiate yourself by telling better stories.