TouchPoints
Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments
By: Douglas Conant, Mette Norgaard
Published: May 17, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 208 pages
ISBN-10: 1118004353
ISBN-13: 978-1118004357
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
"TouchPoint leadership is not about running faster, working longer, and wringing more productivity out of every waking minute. It's about being present in the moment and feeling confident that you can deal with whatever happens in a way that is helpful to others - and by extension, to yourself and your organization", write president and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, Douglas Conant: and expert on strategic leadership and learning, Mette Norgaard, in their groundbreaking and empowering book TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments. The authors describe how those chance meetings that every leader has during the day should not be considered interruptions but as opportunities to build engagement and to share the organizational values, vision, and agenda.
Douglas Conant (photo left) and Mette Norgaard recognize that their new approach to leadership is not a replacement for existing leadership concepts. Instead, they consider TouchPoint leadership as an enhancement that invigorates and energizes established leadership principles. Whether a leader is an experienced manager or a novice in their first executive role, the authors point out that the ideas are effective in any leadership situation. The authors offer a complete assessment of the TouchPoint concept, and why a commitment to the principles will transform the entire organization. The authors also provide a step by step guide to establishing TouchPoint leadership; as well as offering some philosophical questions to ponder about one's own organization and leadership.
Mette Norgaard (photo left) and Douglas Conant understand that more many leaders, the daily interactions with their employees and peers are simply interruptions that cut into the time available for work. The authors take an alternative approach to considering those chance meetings. Instead of seeing these interactions as a hindrance, they should be treated as opportunities to engage employees; as well as a chance to share the organizational vision. To alter the leader's thinking about these engagement events, the authors provide a principle that is based on three guiding practices. The practices are meant to be practiced and repeated over and over by the leader. The practices are as follows:
* Head: Change the random concepts into a strong set of ideas
* Heart: Make work personal and care about both the work and the people
* Hands: Develop the TouchPoint skills so they become second nature
For me, the power of the book is how Doughlas Conant and Mette Norgard offer an engaging and inspirational approach to leadership that transcends the standard view of personal interactions. The author's share the crucial insight that listening to people, and understanding on the deepest level, that the people and not the leader are what matters to the organization. To take the leap of faith toward becoming a TouchPoint leader, the individual must move beyond doing all of the talking and becoming an intensive listener.
When people are truly listened to and heard, the leader can then ask the transformational question,"How can I help?". The response provides a richer understanding and recognition of the problem. The leader can then frame the question using both their head and their heart to take all aspects into consideration. At that pint, the leader can then devise a solution that considers the best people and the benefit to the organization. With constant and daily practice, the TouchPoint leadership model can become part of the very fabric of the organization, and a basic plan of leadership for everyone within the firm.
I highly recommend the profound and refreshing idea packed book TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments by Douglas Conant and Mette Norgaard, to any leaders who are seeking a completely new, yet very powerful approach to leadership. This book will change radically the way that you view those daily chance meetings with employees, creating an opportunity to engage, listen, and create an entirely new form of leadership.
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