Distributorships that dominate the world of distribution by always performing in the upper quartile of their industry and those which will play an even greater role in the foreseeable future generally have characteristics that often create a large and incredibly complex set of independent relationships between highly diverse groups of people. Problems with staffing and retention often apparent in their counterparts, the lower quartile performers, may not be due to bad hires or a low unemployment rate. In fact, they may be related to poor leadership insight by not recognizing employees as a core competency in the business strategy.

Although employees may not fit the strictest definition of a core competency, it is a fact that employees are the ones responsible for creating many of the core competencies that create competitive advantage for the company. It is an undisputable fact that failure to recognize the importance of employee contributions will lead to lower quartile performance and even failure regardless of your business strategy. Core competence is professed to be the source of sustainable competitive advantage.

The Three Determinants of Core Competence include:

 IT MUST BE VALUED BY THE CUSTOMER. IT MUST BE HARD TO COPY QUICKLY. IT MUST BE TRANSFERABLE TO OTHER PRODUCTS OR MARKETS.
A BUNDLE OF SKILLS MAKE UP A CORE COMPETENCY - A SINGLE SKILL IS NOT A CORE COMPETENCY.

Employees control and create core competence through their actions and execution. Core competence is built around employee initiative and creativity.

Leadership must figure out how to maximize active involvement and creativity in their employees. Questioning of the status quo and the generation of new ideas is a mandate of success. That success depends on a superior level of performance, a level that requires deep commitment. This commitment will not flourish in the old workplace environments that often were dominated by the slap and point method of management or the motivational technique of the carrot and the club often used in the past. Manage your assets but lead your people.

That means treating your employees like they are your most precious asset. It requires coaching and mentoring skills. Treat them as a core competence and they will become one.

Leadership is not about...beating people into compliance. Its not about demanding that people follow you based on your title. When youre the employer of choice...and again it gets backsback to culture, and creating an environment where people feel that theyre developing personally and professionally. And this culture isnt just feel good stuff, I really think in terms of retaining, recruitingthe performanceit leads to more successful companies. If you treat people with dignity and respect, you just need to communicate, and let people know how youre going about making your decisions. Mike McClelland, CEO, Do It Best

A monthly review process is the cornerstone of effective leadership. During the reviews, critical performance issues are discussed. It is the Leaders job not to simply participate in this process, but to use these reviews as an opportunity to mentor, coach, counsel, and correct issues regarding overall performance. If conducted properly, the review process will become an effective tool in improving both executive Leadership and the entire teams performance. The purpose of the review is to acknowledge and maintain good performance, as well as improve performance. (e-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for a fre*e self test determine if you are or ready to become a mentor.)

If people arent on-board and they dont respect managements ability to lead them, failure is imminent. People must be lead not managed. Leadership starts with respect. Respect your employees, coach them, mentor them and support them and they may just become your companies primary Core Competency.