Dos for Procurement Leadership, Part II

A recent article in the CPO Agenda had some good Dos and Don’ts of Procurement Leadership that are worth repeating. Today we’re going to dive into the other five dos and put an SI slant on them. DO:

  • Communicate

    You can’t afford to be the unsung hero any longer. Make sure to communicate your successes on a regular basis. Furthermore, make sure you use the language of finance when communicating those successes to the rest of the C-Suite. You should know the ROA, ROE, and ROI(C) of every success. Bob has some good posts on the topic in his archives over on the Transformational Leadership blog and in the Sourcing Innovation archives in addition to the great advice to be found in his many books, including Straight to the Bottom Line, On-Demand Supply Management, and Beat the Odds.

  • Provide Recognition

    Recognize the accomplishments of your team. A true leader is one who brings out the best of the people in his or her team. And great results are achieved not by one hot-shot, but a team of superstars.

  • Lead from the Front

    Be visible and ready to dive in and do whatever it takes to achieve success, even if that means helping out in a supplier identification and qualification exercise and spending your day on the phones helping out your team. After all, if you’re leading a PPO (Procurement Process Outsourcing) team, and a quick win could spell the difference between a 5M renewal deal with a new customer and losing that customer, your position and title become irrelevant.

  • Broaden Your Expertise

    One of the keys to success, which you hear time and time again from those companies that exhibit true supply chain excellence, is cross-functional collaboration. In order to collaborate, you have to understand where finance, legal, marketing, etc. are coming from. Make sure your people have the background to communicate across the organizational and include appropriate education in their PDPs. And remember these collaborative innovation insights which form the foundation of The New How.

  • Trust Your People

    This is probably the most important thing. You’re not Superman or Wonder Woman. You might be the biggest superstar your organization has ever seen, but you can’t be everywhere, or do everything, at the same time. You need to trust your people to do their jobs right, to handle the supplier crisis when it arrises, and to make the right decision when you’re not around. Otherwise, everything will come to a stand still every time you take a lavatory break.