How to Use Emotional Intelligence in Procurement and the Supply Chain

 

 

How to Use Emotional Intelligence in Procurement and the Supply Chain

by Dr. Tom DePaoli

My first recommendation on Emotional Intelligence is for procurement and supply chain professionals to benchmark their own personal emotional intelligence aptitude. I used the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Bradbury and Graves. There are other sources and advice on how to improve emotional intelligence. Know your starting point.

Here are some areas where strong emotional intelligence and empathy skills help:

One field I would begin with is in hiring, or talent management. A few behavior-based questions will help here:

·       “Name a time when you had to lead a cross-functional or diverse project team. How did you get familiar with team members strengths and weaknesses. What tools or strategies did you use? What were the project results?”

·       “Describe your very best relationship with a supplier, customer or colleague. How did you develop the relationship and achieve trust?”

·       I recommend that you focus other questions on how the candidate got to know colleagues and gain their trust.

Another area is the understanding of cultural differences in global suppliers. Reaching a strong cul­tural understanding will make or break the sourcing process. Understanding the culture of the sourcing country is dif­ficult. Culture includes social organization, political beliefs, the legal system, religious beliefs, language, and the educational system, to name just a few. Any one of these areas requires extensive study and understanding in order to be suc­cessful.

Deep supplier relationships or partnerships require nurturing and frequent attention. There will be setbacks and the process of reconciling them and resolving conflict should be discussed with the supplier in advance.

Gaining employee, colleague, customer or supplier trust and confidence. Acquiring the trust of a person is different or idiosyncratic for each individual. The challenge is to discover the particular key that unlocks their trust. Emotional intelligence will help you read the person’s trust-enabling factors. Having high integrity is always a good supporting factor.

Negotiations results depend on reading the party you are negotiating with. One of my rules of thumb is to always have three ‘must’ goals and three ‘want’ goals in advance of every negotiation. Write them out and bullet list tactics under each one. Make sure you and your team conduct an after action review or negotiation debrief and learn from the results to adjust in the future. Review if you felt your team related with the negotiating party.

Understanding the soft background information about a person. Research their interests, hobbies, likes, and favorite charities or causes. This could provide a good starting point to connect.

Deselecting or rationalizing a supplier. The way that this is handled, professionally and with compassion, will enhance your reputation and appearance of fairness. Being sympathetic and listening to the supplier are critical or your future sourcing endeavors.

Tailoring employee development or training plans to both the organization’s and the employee’s wishes. Doing your homework about the employee’s skills, understanding their job requirements and, most importantly, their fears and dreams will help.

Discovering the voice of the customer (or VOC). VOC means to me the one or two key reasons or attributes a customer buys your product or service above all others. Often face-to face interactions with the customer are the best. Direct focus group observation does help. An example of VOC is most lawn mower companies (reason to buy) know that the customer wants their lawn mower to start in two pulls or less.

Executing information-based research and negotiations. This method departs from traditional approaches to negotiations and gains a deep understanding of the supplier’s industry, their margins, and their culture. In essence, this is an immersion or empathy therapy with the supplier and their competitive landscape. Best described as the procurement professional knows as much or more about the supplier and their industry as they do!

Professional competency, certifications and achievements. Knowing your own capabilities (self-empathy) and getting results with them, will build team loyalty and confidence.

My conclusion is that procurement and supply chain professionals must continuously develop their emotional intelligence and empathy. The above are just a few of the focus areas, and I am sure that there are more that the reader can identify.

Dr. Tom DePaoli, (Dr. Tom or Captain Tom), is currently an independent management consultant, the CEO of Apollo Solutions, which does general business consulting in the human resources, supply chain and lean six sigma areas. His organization was self-founded in 1995. He retired as a Captain from the Navy Reserve. In other civilian careers, he was a supply chain and human resources executive with corporate purchasing turnaround experience and lean six sigma deployments. He has worked for over ten major companies and consulted for over fifty organizations throughout his career. Some of his consulting projects include: information systems projects, re-engineering organizations, organizational transformation, e-procurement, e-commerce, change management, leadership training, creativity improvement, global sourcing and negotiating, especially information-based negotiations. His industry experience is in the chemical, paper, DOD, pharmaceutical, IT, startup, automotive, government, consumer, equipment, business services and consulting industries. He has been published extensively in journals, magazines and books. He is the author of twelve books all available on Amazon.  He has instructed at six education facilities in numerous roles. He is active in supporting the YMCA, Wounded Warrior, and the prevention of the bullying of children.

https://www.amazon.com/author/tomdepaoli    = Dr. Tom’s Amazon author’s page

http://www.apollosolutions.us  = Website of Apollo Solutions his business

drtombooks.com  = More information on Dr. Tom’s books and writings

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-thomas-depaoli/0/736/6b3/  = LinkedIn home page

https://apollosolutionsbooksandconsulting.blogspot.com/   = Dr. Tom’s blog

@DrTomDePaoli = Twitter    https://twitter.com/DrTomDePaoli

https://www.facebook.com/ApolloSolutionsConsulting = Facebook of Apollo Solutions

 

Contact Dr. Tom = thomasdepaoli@yahoo.com drtombooks.com for newsletter sign up https://drtombooks.com/contact/ My Books link: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-DePaoli/e/B003XSV1IQ

Now a recommended textbook for MBA students!

 

 

Try the book

Now a recommended textbook for MBA students!

In his creative guide Avoiding a SupplyChain Apocalypse – the Best of Dr. Tom, Dr. Tom DePaoli offers practical strategies and tactics, learned and tested from his purchasing and supply chain career.  He does not recommend a single silver bullet or quick fix, but suggests a multi-faceted diverse approach to avoiding supply chain meltdowns.

 

Dr. DePaoli challenges the reader to survey his best writings and to select what fits their particular organizational cultures. There is no one size fits all for the supply chain. As the importance of supply chain management grows leaps and bounds; the supply chain professional must develop multiple options and proficient tactics to insure the continuity of the supply chain.

 

Of particular importance is “Purchasing is the art of building relationships. It is not about negotiations, transactions, industry knowledge, market knowledge, know-how or technology. It is all about building strong relationships and gaining the trust of suppliers, customers, and colleagues. There is no easy way to get employees to trust you. One of things that I've always done is to make sure that I do what I told them I was going to do. Nothing impresses employees more than keeping your word. Another good tactic to use is to always admit your mistakes and do not try to cover them up. Employees appreciate when you invest the time and effort to train them. Make sure you have a training plan for all of your employees. Try to behave ethically, employees expect you to lead by example and to live by your word. Communicate to them daily if possible in use as many different channels of communication as you can.”

 

The book serves as a guide for the purchasing or supply chain professional to optimize their supply chain and avoid disaster.

 https://dare2compete.com/bites/books-for-mba-students-in-every-specialization-that-should-not-be-missed

 

Contact Dr. Tom = thomasdepaoli@yahoo.com drtombooks.com for newsletter sign up https://drtombooks.com/contact/ My Books link: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-DePaoli/e/B003XSV1IQ

Book review of Leadership by Storytelling: The Best Way to Learn Good Leadership Skills. Available on Amazon.

 

 

 

What’s Your Story? by Kelly Barner

Book review of Leadership by Storytelling: The Best Way to Learn Good Leadership Skills. Available on Amazon.

Leadership by Storytelling: The Best Way to Learn Good Leadership Skills, by Dr. Tom DePaoli, is the latest in a long line of books that are firmly based in reality and provide advice that is easy to put into practice. I’ve read and reviewed many of Dr. Toms’ books and you won’t find the same kind of time-tested, easy to read books from many other authors in our field. If you find yourself thinking that most procurement books seem too academic, he may just be your new favorite author.

In this latest book, Dr. Tom focuses on the importance of developing leadership skills by leveraging storytelling, a practice he employs in the book. He shares many of the best leadership experiences from his career and clearly points out the lesson to be learned from each one.

Here are my favorites:

“As a leader, if someone has a problem and needs help, especially when it is personal or family related, go out of your way to help them.”

All of the management training in the world won’t prepare you to deal with people like a human. Goals and objectives notwithstanding, none of our work means anything in the grand scheme of things. When ‘life happens’, colleagues are often asked to step up and fill the gap. Try to take a big picture approach to these situations. After all, better to be picking up someone else’s slack at work than to be dealing with a family crisis at home.

“Never neglect details. Walk the process. Do it yourself to learn how to do it.”

This is something I try to do on a regular basis with the Buyers Meeting Point site. No one is going to tell you if your site or process is broken. They just aren’t going to come back. But it is also a lesson that procurement can learn from internally. As self-guided buying becomes more prevalent, for instance, we cannot make the mistake of setting it and forgetting it. We need to be using those sites and processes on a regular basis AND also collecting feedback directly from internal customers and users.

“Take an interest in people, not toys, technology or hardware.”

Digital transformation may be here today, gone tomorrow. Despite what you’re hearing about automation and digitalization, it is the people and the processes that make the greatest difference. That isn’t an altruistic recommendation to put people first in all things. It is a reminder to remember that there are efficiencies to be gained and insight to be harvested from the people around you. Allow yourself the time and opportunity to benefit from it.   Kelly Barner.

 

Dr. Tom DePaoli, (Dr. Tom) is currently an independent management consultant, the Principal of Apollo Solutions, which does general business consulting in the human resources, supply chain and lean six sigma areas. His organization was self-founded in 1995. He retired as a Captain from the Navy Reserve. In other civilian careers, he was a supply chain and human resources executive with corporate purchasing turnaround experience and lean six sigma deployments. He has worked for over ten major companies and consulted for over fifty organizations throughout his career. Some of his consulting projects include: information systems projects, re-engineering organizations, transformation, e-procurement, e-commerce, change management, global sourcing and negotiating. His industry experience is in the chemical, paper, pharmaceutical, IT, automotive, government, consumer, equipment, services and consulting industries. He has been published extensively in journals, magazines and books. He is the author of eleven books all available on Amazon.  He has instructed at six education facilities in numerous roles. He is active in supporting the YMCA, Wounded Warrior, and the prevention of the bullying of children.

 

https://www.amazon.com/author/tomdepaoli    = Dr. Tom’s Amazon author’s page

http://www.apollosolutions.us  = website of Apollo Solutions his business

drtombooks.com  = more information on Dr. Tom’s books

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-thomas-depaoli/0/736/6b3/  = LinkedIn home page

 

Lead by storytelling and be authentic. #leadership #leadershiptips

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lead-stories-book-well-reviewed-dr-thomas-tom-depaoli

 

 

 

Contact Dr. Tom = thomasdepaoli@yahoo.com drtombooks.com for newsletter sign up https://drtombooks.com/contact/ My Books link: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-DePaoli/e/B003XSV1IQ