[rating:3]
(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011)
173 pgs
Doug Conant is the CEO of the Campbell Soup Company. Since his arrival in 2001, Conant has brought a stop to his company’s decline and helped it to experience a significant turnaround in profitability and employee satisfaction. Previously Conant was an executive at General Mills, Kraft, and Nabisco. Mette Norgaard is a “teacher of leaders.” She is an expert on strategic leadership and learning and has worked with some of America’s largest companies. These two, a successful practitioner, and an innovative teacher, have partnered to produce this practical leadership book.
This book’s fundamental contribution is to focus on how leaders can maximize the numerous encounters they experience throughout the day with their staff and constituents. While these moments can often appear to be interruptions to their work, these authors suggest they are their work (xxxviii). They explain that “Touchpoints “describe the way that each of the many interactions leaders have with others during their workday gives them the chance to ‘touch’ someone: to influence, guide, provide clarity, inspire, create a sense of urgency, and shape the course of events” (xxix). The authors note: “Touch Points take place any time two or more people get together to deal with an issue and get something done” (2).
There are always three “variables” in a Touch Point: the issue, the other people, and the leader (3). “Every TouchPoint is spring-loaded with possibilities” (9). The authors note that using TouchPoints is “about gaining momentum instead of settling for compliance” (11). What makes these encounters so significant is that whatever you transmit in a TouchPoint is soon passed on to 5-6 other people directly associated with the person you dealt with (12). The key, the book states, is “to draw the line between not tolerating poor performance (which results in high standards) and not tolerating mistakes (which leads to compliance) (20). Readers are challenged that if they made twenty TouchPoints a week, they would experience 1,000 over the course of a year (24). What would be the impact on your organization if you had 1,000 meaningful encounters with those you led annually?
The authors suggest: “the average leader doesn’t change until the cost of not changing becomes greater than the cost of changing” (44). They also cite the insightful finding of Marshall Goldsmith that 70% of people judged themselves to be in the top 10% of their peers (88). Clearly there are people who are out of touch with their effectiveness!
The book has a helpful section on “Lead with Listening” (104ff). Clearly to experience meaningful encounters with those you lead, you must develop the ability to listen, and to hear what your people are saying. Interestingly, the authors encourage leaders to “forget about the PowerPoint slides and tell more stories” (116). Various studies continue to confirm that few things have the force of a well-told story.
There are three important aspects to a TouchPoint. First, we must listen intently. Then we must frame the issue. Third, we advance the agenda. All three are essential. Finally, the authors note that “ . . . when it comes to substantive issues, the final decision is seldom made in any one meeting” (134). For those of us who are driven to make decisions, this is probably good counsel. Overall, this book can be summed up with the question, “How can I help?”
This book addresses a significant issue in leadership: how to make your encounters with others significant. That is something I have been giving much thought to of late. Of course, Jesus was the Son of God, but do you notice how significant His encounters were? None were wasted! As a leader, how often do we leave people demoralized rather than inspired? How often do we waste an encounter by merely engaging in chit chat?
I found this book generally easy to read. It also focused on a specific leadership issue that drilled down into the subject. If there is a negative it might be that after a while you feel like the authors have made their point but still have more pages in the book to go. Nevertheless, this is a subject that every leader needs to be reminded of regularly. For those who may struggle with people skills or being inspiring or who regularly find themselves in conflict with others, this could be a good book to read next.