Steph Robey put this video together based on a classic story of frogs traveling through the woods. The video talks about developing leaders. While this was made for home based businesses it still has two important lessons that apply to all leaders.
It is a great little video that I know you will enjoy. Those two lessons carry a lot of meaning. Please comment and share your thoughts.
Have you ever read a book or heard a speech and the idea that was presented made you kick yourself and think, why did I not think of that? Well that is how I felt after reading The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly a few months ago.
The book is written as a business fable. For those that have not discovered business fables they are a great format for helping one to visualize a methodology and how it will play out in an organization. They also are pretty easy reads between the more monotonous reads that business books can sometimes be.
Anyways, the book follows a fictional janitorial service company. The company has horrible turnover and horrible employee engagement. I will not spoil it for you, but the book goes through a simplistic yet powerful method that simply deals with helping others fulfill their dreams.
The reason why I kicked myself is because this is something I already do with colleagues and friends. I have given referrals and testimonials, made connections and helped colleagues in a wide range of areas to help them fulfill their dreams, but never thought of doing this for my employees. I felt pretty stupid.
So let’s think about this. Say you have an employee, let’s call him John. Through some discussions you learn that John has always wanted to take his family to Walt Disney World. To John, this seems like an impossible feet of which he will never have the time nor the money to bring his dream to fruition.
So you dig into your contacts and realize you have a colleague in Orlando. You call him up and through the conversation you come to find he has a guest house. You tell your colleague of what you are doing and he tells you that the guest house is his for 2 weeks if he comes during the off-season.
You then figure out with John what his expenses will be and you use your financial skills to teach him about budgeting, and you plan out a savings plan for the next year to get the money needed. You help him find deals online and as the time draws near you make sure that his duties are taken care of at work and home and you send him off.
It did not cost you a dime, other than your time. How grateful do you think John will be? Also, before I go too far, do not think that you can replace proper compensation with helping employees fulfill their dreams. Properly compensating staff is a given.
Let’s say you have another employee that has always wanted to own a home. To them the idea of owning a home is something that they will never see. You once again dive into your contacts and find a realtor that specializes in low-income housing. This realtor puts you in contact with a mortgage broker that specializes in such situations. You work with this employee and put them in touch with your financial advisor who helps them to budget and get a savings plan together.
As their savings grows and they see you truly care about them, what do you think happens with their engagement?
The ideas are endless, I think as leaders we naturally are problem solvers. But we are so busy solving problems for our company, that we do nothing to solve problems for our staff. Yet if we actually showed them we cared, the financial benefits to our organizations are unlimited. Our employees are the ones on the front-line. They see things we do not always see. If you think about them and help them, they will generally think about us and will help to make sure our organizations are successful.
We all have dreams we want out of life. Some of them are big and some are small. I think we all have some of both. As leaders I think we naturally have the knowledge and network to make things happen, but I think to the disengaged employee that thinks you do not care about them, their dreams are just that. We have the knowledge and resources to coach and help our staff fulfill dreams that we may take for granted.
In the book, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith, he states: “In the past, the key to wealth may have been control of land, material, plants, and tools. In that environment, the worker needed the company more than the company needed the worker. Today, the key to wealth is knowledge. As a result, the company needs the knowledge worker far more than the knowledge worker needs them. To make matters worse, they know this! They see themselves as fungible assets – no longer at the mercy of the company whim – rather than dispensable commodities. The difference is real: As a fungible asset, the free agent sees himself as always getting a better job somewhere else; if he were merely a commodity, anyone could replace him (which we know is not true anymore).”
I read What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, after The Dream Manager and that paragraph hit me hard. Leaders that see their employees as fungible assets will find themselves leading mediocre organizations and will have problems with employee engagement, low morale and possibly turn-over. While leaders that understand and value their employees to the extent of helping them fulfill their dreams, will find employees that are engaged, happy and willing to help the organization succeed.
This concept of The Dream Manager does not diminish the value of accountability and execution, but it may help you realize why those items might not be as high as they should b. I challenge you to look back at your career and think about how The Dream Manager concept could have been helpful for you and then, become a dream manager yourself.
Please comment and let me know your thoughts.
In the last few months I have become keenly aware of the public face of leadership. What I mean by the “public face” is that which can be conceived as happening internally in an organization by that which is observed externally.
With the spread of social networks and camera phones; there is not a lot that can be kept secret. But what I have observed is that even if a leader manages to keep his/her verbal or written comments at bay, it is the external, non-verbal factors that I think are more difficult to manage.
Let me give a few examples of some things I have seen that could impact what your customers think of you or your company. These traits are not all bad in every situation and company; and there are definitely exceptions depending on the industry, business size, and various other factors. So you will have to be the judge if your external actions will affect the profitability and perception of your company.
A Leader that is the Main or Common Customer Face of an Organization
I believe that leaders often think that only they can handle the customers best and that doing so shows the customer how much they care. I am not suggesting that leaders shouldn’t ever interface with customers, but I think it can be a very fine line to walk, and the behavior needs to have a defined purpose and ROI. When I see a decent sized organization; one in which a leader is actively playing many roles in front of clients and the public, such: as sales, support, product innovation, marketing, etc…., it makes me wonder. Does the leader have trust issues? Does the leader have ego or power issues? Does the leader not empower their staff to perform the jobs they have been hired to do? Is the company understaffed? If they are understaffed, are they in financial trouble?
Exhausted and Late Night Communications
There is a fine line between dedication and hard work, and fear and “slave-driving“. I know this one can touch some buttons. I know as much as anyone that there are times when you have to bite the bullet and get a project done. I believe that hard-work is one of the most admirable qualities one can possess and something I thank my father for instilling in me.
What I am referring to is sustained exhaustion that you see, over and over and over and over again in both leaders and employees, the exhaustion that never seems to end. I have seen companies in which the employees are worked so hard that they never progress individually and they frankly never would have the time to move-up or move-on to bigger and better things.
Employees are our greatest asset, but when I see this I start asking questions. Do the leaders value their employees? Is there low morale in the company? Are they not treating their employees well? Do they not have the financial resources to properly compensate their staff? If employees and leaders are always exhausted, am I going to get inferior products or service?
A Leader that Cannot Take Critical Feedback
This one is self-explanatory. It makes me wonder if the leader has trust issues or self-image issues; both of which have many reciprocating effects on an organization. The idea of feedback stretches into aspects of accountability, execution and innovation. If a leader cannot take feedback with a thank you and sincerely appreciate it and the messenger, then there is a good chance that the staff cannot take it and that the organization will never reach its full potential. I don’t expect companies I work with to be perfect, but I like to get the sense that they are moving towards greater innovation and better products and services.
The Darker Side of Social Networking
I like it when leaders are not “business” all the time, meaning I enjoy learning the real person behind a leader and what motivates them, but I think one needs to be careful. Flaunting ones possessions can have negative connotations. Certain music and interests that people often share on social networks can also give underlying messages about one’s personality and therefore their leadership style in an organization. I won’t go into these “interests,” you can figure that one out.
A Leader’s Casual Appearance
This one does not apply to all industries or companies, but it is something I feel strongly about. I believe that if a leader’s appearance is casual to their clients, then maybe my business is considered casual to them also, and I wonder if the business is taken too seriously. Before everyone comments about how crazy I am; yes, I know that some cultures value the laid-back casual atmosphere and that in the right business and culture it is appropriate and good. But just because it works for Google and Zappos, does not mean it is right for every company and industry. I am also not referring to internal facing appearance, but customer/vendor/partner facing appearance. Appearance, such as: cloths, hair, grooming, tie selection, etc…, can also signify a lot about one’s personality and their potential leadership traits.
As leaders we have to be careful in how we are portrayed by others. Our actions and other external factors, can give negative perceptions about our company. and us as leaders. While every company, culture, and even position is different, we have to judiciously ask ourselves how certain actions can be perceived by those that can help us succeed.
A few months ago, I looked at the New Year fast approaching, and was driven to start the year running. I did not want to just create the normal annual resolutions that many tend to make, including me, but I really wanted to create something that had some teeth, had an element of accountability and execution and would really help me to achieve greater success in 2011.
I have received great feedback from this and have even had a few business consultants ask me if they could use the format with their clients. I think it is important as leaders that we are not only leaders of our organizations, but leaders of our own life’s as well.
This idea of becoming leader or CEO of your life, was one of those, “Why did I not think of that” moments. Kris Cavanaugh, wrote the book, Stuck to CEO, her “specialty” and primary message in the book and her practice is to help people become “CEO of their Life”. I will be doing an interview with Kris sometime in the next few months. Please check out her website and get to know her. She is a wonderful person.
This success plan was inspired from several things I have read, heard or seen, with the main ideas coming from, Who’s Got Your Back, by Keith Ferrazzi.
Let me describe what I have done:
On the lower left-hand side, I have placed my personal vision statement: “I will not accept status quo and as such will seek after that which is efficient and effective in all areas my life, but never at the expense of my relationships. I will focus on that which is important versus that which is critical. I will be teachable and will strive to always learn new things that will help me reach my full-potential. I will act with Integrity at all times and will treat others as they would like to be treated. I will look for the good in all I experience, and remember all the blessings that I have been given.”
I placed this on the document because it is something I need to remember and keep in focus, every time I plan my schedule and look at this document, which is at least daily. If you do not have a personal mission or vision statement, start working on it, no matter what your station in life is.
In the top-left I have placed a diagram with all the elements that I feel are important to a well-balanced life. They are in order clockwise by personal priority. You have to figure out what are the most important elements for balance in your life.
The right side of the image is the “meat”. This is in order of personal priority as well. Here I have placed actionable items that I feel must be accomplished in order to “claim” success in those areas. I have put a LOT of thought and I requested feedback from those important to me before I finalized on these. This is the part that takes some effort and deep thinking. It is important to get feedback from those close to you and those that will be honest and look through the reasons why you may be putting some things down.
In the bottom-right, I have placed images of things that tie back into my goals. There is much research on the value of imagery in fostering motivation and goal achievement.
Now onto the execution side of this; the key to this are several accountability partners. I meet with one each week and another every other week. Each of my accountability partners is genuinely concerned about my success and they call me out when I am doing something that is not in alignment with my goals.
I also look at this daily and weekly when I do my planning. In addition I have printed out and laminated a few copies, one to keep with me in my portfolio binder and one that is shrunk down and serves as a bookmark while reading.
Even though the year has already started, it is never too late to plan out your success.
I would love to hear your comments, if you would like a Microsoft Word copy of this document to edit for yourself, please leave a comment, share your thoughts, and I will email you a copy.
Harold Geneen the former CEO/President of ITT Corporation (International Telephone & Telegrah Corp.), once said, “Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.”
Whether we think it does or not; structure or the lack thereof in business causes great impacts on the effectiveness of our organizations. I don’t believe as leaders we naturally think of structure and how we fix our structures when trying to solve business problems. I think we often treat (fix) the symptoms of a lack of structure.
I learned years ago when I was Scout Master for a Boy Scout Troop that structure is essential to performance. In boy scouts, performance is measured by kids advancing to the next rank or getting the next merit badge, or the ability to listen and follow directions and not get mauled by a mountain lion. When there is chaos, the mind seems to be drawn to that chaos and chaos begets chaos. Newton’s law of motion says “An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it“. Have you ever had a messy room in your house, and noticed it got messier and messier until a force was acted on it? The mess begets the mess. You think, “screw it it is already messy” and you end up contributing to the mess. The same thing happens in business. I think when things are orderly, organized, planned, (i.e. structured) and the lines are drawn in the sand; that people actually feel happier, more at peace, and more capable of performing.
The idea in and of itself sounds counter-intuitive; imposing restrictions and setting boundaries, would seem to limit one’s ability to perform and achieve. But the opposite is actually true. I have to thank my wife for teaching this to me many years ago. She was a first grade teacher and taught me that children are happier and more productive when they have structure. Over the years I have observed children and noticed this effect and we have striven to provide structure to our child. He lets us know when we are slipping. 🙂 I have noticed the positive and negative effects of structure and the lack of, in other children and businesses as well.
Structure can mean a lot of things in different situations in life and there are often outliers that might be the occasional exception. I accept that. I want to suggest a couple structures that I think are important to consider in leading a business. These could also apply to one’s personal life.
1) Organizational Structure
2) Execution Structure
3) Environmental Structure
4) Relationship Structure
5) Internal (Personal) Structure
The organizational structure can be looked at a couple of different ways. One way is the legal structure of a business; i.e. S-Corp, C-Corp, LLC, etc… But as far as performance and leadership are concerned, people like to know how they fit into the organization of a company and how they can progress, well at least high performing individuals that want a career not a job. Having something as simple as a organization chart is a start. But it goes deeper; here are some questions to ask yourself:
The organizational structure has to also provide some “hard edges” or limits of what one can and can’t do. Hiring someone and then saying, “Go at it” is a setup for failure. Some questions to ask yourself:
This is just touching the surface, but organizational structure, I think, is often something that leaders love or hate to deal with. But it really is one of the foundation stones to a successful business.
Execution structure is the “HOW”. It is the processes and procedures for getting from A to B. I think this is one of the most important structures in business. In Boy Scouts, when earning a merit badge, it is very clear on exactly what has to be done. Following are the first few requirements for earning the “American Business” merit badge:
Do the Following:
a. Explain four features of the free enterprise system in the United States. Tell its benefits and responsibilities. Describe the difference between freedom and license. Tell how the Scout Oath and Law apply to business and free enterprise.
b. Describe the Industrial Revolution: Tell about the major developments that marked the start of the modern industrial era in the United States. Tell about five people who had a great influence on business or industry in the United States. Tell what each did.
Do the Following:
a. Visit a bank. Talk with one of the officers or staff. Chart the organization of the bank. Show its relationship with other banks, business and industry.
b. Explain how changes in interest rates, taxes, and government spending affect the flow of money into or out of business and industry.
c. Explain how a proprietorship or partnership gets its capital. Discuss and explain four ways a corporation gets its capital.
d. Explain the place of profit in business.
e. Name five kinds of insurance useful to business. Describe their purposes
Imagine how successful staff would be with that kind of structure. Of course they need to be empowered to make changes and adapt if the need arises, but I think execution strategy is taken for granted, especially in small business, probably because it is one of the more difficult things for people to conceptualize and document. Documenting the most important processes in a company gives people order. It makes hiring easier and firing easier. It makes for a more efficient organization.
Walk into company or in a CEO’s office and you will quickly be able to tell how much environmental structure is in place, but you can also generally tell the status of the other structure’s. Messy offices, files that are not filed, boxes in the halls, desks that are unorganized, all display the culture and environmental structure of a company. I may get called out on this, but I do not believe anyone works better in chaos. I know many people that if you took them from their normally messy office and put them in a clean and organized office would have difficulty because of the change, but not for the lack of chaos. Meaning they used to know where things are and now they do not.
The environmental structure sounds superficial but is really important. If you are culture like Google, who values innovation and creative thinking at work, then your environmental structure should be setup that way, and theirs is. If you are a law firm dealing with clients who expect order and professionalism; then that is how the environmental structures should be setup. The way you and your people dress and groom, how the phone is answered, what time people come into work, are all important aspect of environmental structure. Virtual organizations can still have environmental structure as well. Walk around your office and look around and ask yourself; if I knew nothing about my company, what would I think of it by what I see now? The truth can be scary.
I’d like to think of relationship structure as the interpersonal behavior that exists in an organization. There is a plethora of research out there about why people quit and why people hate their jobs. Many studies often lead to how one was treated and communicated to. While I think most would like to erase emotion to some degree and have more rigidity, it is important to have a relationship structure that fosters, positive interpersonal communication and behavior. Some questions to consider:
Someone once said, “Leave the drama for your mama”, great advice for working relationships. This does not mean you should not have conflict; you just need to have the right kind of conflict. Probably not the most enjoyable “structure” for a leader to deal with, but necessary nonetheless.
The internal structure of employees is not something that you can really control, but you sure the heck can control who you hire. You want people working for you that live your values, that live your culture, and that actually have some form of internal structure that mirrors the culture of your organization. If your company values a well-groomed and professional appearance, you will want to hire people that naturally feel comfortable in that kind of attire; otherwise you will be fighting it forever. If you value ongoing learning and skill advancement, then you want people that like to read and want to progress and are humble enough to admit they have more to learn and actually want to learn. There are many examples of how internal structure can affect your company culture and the ability to execute. As Jim Collins said in Good to Great, you have to “get the right people on the bus.”
I think that creating and fostering the improvement of all five of these structures in business is one huge slice of the leadership pie and invaluable to a successful business if you do not want it to resemble the weak, breaking building in the picture above.
Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts and if there are any “structures” you think I might be missing.
I have never liked status quo, any status quo leader. Maybe someday when life is perfect; when there is no disease or conflict and I am all knowing and want for nothing……maybe then I can accept status quo. Of course at that point I will be so prideful, arrogant and annoying that I will have to change my status quo. So I guess I will never like it.
As we all know, status quo is to “keep things the way they presently are” (Wikipedia). As business leaders we can rarely if ever be accepting of “keeping things the way they are.” It is our job to succeed and achieve, in fact it is our responsibility. It is our responsibility because there are so many people depending on us. Employees depend on us, colleagues depend on us, vendors, partners, suppliers, customers, heck even our country and the world economy depend on our success; but most of all, the well-being of individuals and families of everyone we can touch depend on our ability to succeed.
This topic has always been a sore spot for me. I see people immigrate to the United States from other countries and be here 20 years and still cannot speak proper English. I see people stuck in dead-end jobs that stay there for years and years because they do nothing to increase their knowledge or training. We have all seen people with annoying habits or weaknesses that they never put any effort into changing.
We all have our “some-day’s” and “tomorrow’s”. You know, that excuse that pulls us back and drags us down, sometimes for our entire lives. Someday I will learn to be a better sales person. Someday I will learn to speak in front of large groups. Someday I will learn how to communicate better. Someday I will learn how to manage my money. Someday I will take a vacation with my family. Someday I will show my employees how much I care for them. Someday I will write that book. Someday I will overcome such and such bad habit or someday I will spend more time with my kids. Tomorrow I will tell my spouse how much I care for them. It seems they never stop.
Status quo is something we often think of as a kind of “environmental” problem that is happening around us, something that is caused by others or caused by the “system”. But bring it back and bring it closer to the individual level, to the personal level. If we could foster this value of progression in ourselves and in those that work for us, think about what could be achieved. If every employee had a learning mentality and a mentality of overcoming their weaknesses and learning new skills, how much more powerful of a culture could we have at our companies? We would not just have a lone leader progressing, but we would have an army of people going the extra mile and improving every day. How much greater profit and greater happiness could be produced in this scenario? How many more people could we positively touch?
I mentioned that this is a sore spot for me, because changing our current state does not necessarily have to be hard. Learning a new language is hard, but if you learned 10 words a day or 5 words a day, how much greater could you learn to speak that language, than if you had done nothing? Dr. Nido Qubein, said: “I learned English by memorizing ten words a day. Each day, I would review the words I had learned the day before and then study 10 new ones. By the end of the week I had added 70 new words to my vocabulary. It was this consistent effort, that enabled me to achieve fluency in English.” Nido is a self-made raving success.
This is not some rant on immigrants. What I am driving at is that small consistent effort is the key to overcoming status quo. There are thousands of stories like this, where someone took small consistent steps and were able to overcome great challenges, setbacks or weaknesses. By only reading about 5 pages a day, you can read an average business book or self-improvement book a month. There is a wealth of information in books that will help us overcome just about any challenge we face, although more effort is often spent searching for the remote control.
The biggest excuse I hear is “lack of time”. It really is an excuse. What you are really saying is: “I enjoy staying in my miserable state and I cannot prioritize what I do so I will just stay miserable and keep making excuses.” “Miserable” might be a strong word, but there is almost always some level of suffering by not progressing. That could be missing out on a better salary, a healthier lifestyle, amore loving relationship, a more profitable business, etc…. People will do what is most important to them. If you find yourself watching TV a couple hours a week and not working for 5 minutes a day on something that could help you, then obviously the TV is more important. If you spend your time always doing menial tactical work, and never strategizing to grow the business, then obviously business growth is not that important.
There is always a better way to do something or squeeze more time in somehow. Great leaders know this and do not make excuses; they focus on what is important to them and their organization. They will make time.
No matter if you are a CEO or a high school drop-out, I invite you to look at your life and to consider what small and consistent effort you could work on that might have an impact on your current situation. Then start acting. Don’t be haunted by “some-day’s.”
Please leave a comment or send me a message through the contact form. I’d love to hear what you think and I am always happy to help.
Well here I go! Those that know me know I am somewhat opinionated, so I decided that the best outlet to express those opinions would be here on my very own leadership blog. I am passionate about leadership, efficiency and execution. I am a voracious reader of any book on leadership, management, communications, team building, time-management, execution and just about anything else in the business realm.
In this leadership blog, I plan on sharing my thoughts on well…leadership and management and all the many facets that those two concepts envelop. Each post will be a small “slice” of an area that falls under the big “pie” of leadership. I will also bring guests to the blog, such as authors and business leaders, that can bring more value to the information I share and can bring a perspective that others might enjoy and find helpful.
I do not know what will come of this leadership blog or if anyone out there will find it interesting, but I hope that it serves some purpose in helping others be successful in their careers. I know I have a lot to learn and that things are constantly changing, so all I have to say for now is, “Let the ride begin.”
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I help organizations create miracles of profitability & success by creating a culture that gets things done! I am referred to as the Execution Expert. I am the |