Hearing Voices - Why Hallucination is Good for Management

So you want to be a good manager, a great leader; what do you do? The key to Good management, yes, even to Great management, is the ability to hallucinate, to hear voices that nobody else can hear.

First, the Voice of the Customer. If you can hear the voice of the customer, you're doing well. Actually, it would be more accurate to say the Voices of the Customers, because there's more than one type of customer, and they have more than one thing to say. There are your Actual Customers, those who buy your solutions. Then there are Brokers, those who connect you to your customers, act as some kind of middleman, and help your Actual Customer buy your solutions. Then there are Fixers, who help your Actual Customers when something goes wrong with your solutions. And, each of those different kinds of customers will tell you about What Outcomes They Want, What Outcomes They Don't Want, What Features They Want in Your Solution, and What Features They Want in your Selling Process. So, Three types of customers times Four types of wants equals Twelve different voices, just from your customers.

Then, there's the Voice of the Process. If you can also hear what your processes are telling you, you're doing really well. If you can understand the data you collect about what your processes are capable of, what's normal for your systems, what you can expect from them in the future, you're among an elite group of companies. Most managers respond to randomness in their results as if something significant has happened. And most managers ignore clear cries for help from their processes, because they don't know how to listen. So, two more voices here, one saying "something special is happening" and the other saying "everything's under control". We're up to fourteen.

Finally, there's the Voice of your Employees. Once you become CEO or President, it's almost guaranteed that you'll never hear the truth again. The higher up in management you go, the less likely you are to hear the truth. Your employees are almost certainly scared to share the truth as they see it, because they're justifiably worried about the possible consequences. They've seen what happens to people who stick their necks out, open up, and are candid about the risks and opportunities they see. But if you can manage this; if you can find a way to truly hear your employees' voices; to get them to share their thoughts and ingenuity and creativity with you - you set yourself amongst the super-elite few of the world's elite organizations.

The world's best companies aren't necessarily the largest companies, or the ones in the news. Often, companies are in the news simply because they are large or because chance has favored them with exceptional luck this quarter. But if you can hear the Voices of the Customers, the Voices of the Process, and the Voices of your Employees, you are well on your way to becoming one of the world's best companies, with engaged employees working in stable processes that are truly focused on the customer.

So if someone calls you crazy, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe you're hearing all of these voices, the voices no one else can hear, and you are becoming a truly great leader of a truly great company. Or, maybe you actually are a slobbering nut job like everyone says you are. Only you can know for sure.