Taking Service to a New Level

According to this article in today's New York Times, Kaiser Permanente has done some pretty amazing things with customer service, especially as it relates to re-design of patient areas and facilities. Looks like this service effort and patient-first mentality is taking over the culture there. The goal is to ensure the theme of "Thrive" is not merely a marketing slogan. Pretty interesting stuff and worth checking out.

Holding Leaders Accountable? Don't Forget Forgiveness!

Holding Leaders Accountable? Don't Forget Forgiveness!

Preparing for a trip to New York today, and I was going through some old magazines in my office and came across this one -- the June 2000 issue of Fast Company -- thick (418 pages) with the provocative cover "Enough Talk! It's Time for Results -- Are You Getting It Done?"

This was some fun reading. While the cover could be published today (it's still all about results, or should be), a few of the articles held up and a few of them reflected the mindsets we all had nearly 10 years ago. Check out page 88 -- a record company exec argues that CDs are here to stay, not those pesky MP3 players!

The article that holds up most is one by Alan Webber (no surprise - he's brilliant) on how to get things done. My favorite part is the section about accountability. Here it is:

Doing means learning. Learning means mistakes.

If companies genuinely want to move from knowing to doing, they need to build a forgiveness framework -- a tolerance for error and failure -- into their culture. A company that wants you to come up with a smart idea, implement that idea quickly, and learn in the process has to be willing to cut you some slack. You need to be able to try things, even if you think that you might fail.

The absolute opposite mind-set is one that appears to be enjoying a lot of favor at the moment: the notion that we have to hold people accountable for their performance. Companies today are holding their employees accountable -- not only for trying and learning new things, but also for the results of their actions. If you want to see how that mind-set affects performance, compare the ways that American Airlines and Southwest Airlines approach accountability -- and then compare those two airlines' performances.

American Airlines has decided to emphasize accountability, right down to the departmental -- and even the individual -- level. If a plane is late, American wants to know whose fault it is. So if a plane is late, what do American employees do? They spend all of their time making sure that they don't get blamed for it. And while everyone is busy covering up, no one is thinking about the customer.

Southwest Airlines has a system for covering late arrivals: It's called "team delay." Southwest doesn't worry too much about accountability; it isn't interested in pinning blame. The company is interested only in getting the plane in the air and in learning how to prevent delays from happening in the future.

Now ask yourself this: If you're going to be held accountable for every mistake that you make, how many chances are you going to take? How eager are you going to be to convert your ideas into actions?

Over-Communicate

Nothing lengthy today, just a reminder to double-up on your communications. We call this "over-communicating." One would think that this would not be much of an issue in this tough economy. I mean, isn't it more important than ever that we repeat key messages to staff? Yes, but that doesn't mean we are doing it.

I read in the Financial Times that "Weber Shandwick, the PR agency, reported research showing that 54 per cent of American workers have not heard from their leaders how their company will be impacted by the recession, but 74 per cent had heard co-workers discuss the matter. The rumor mill cannot be shut down and canny leaders will feed the grapevine with facts to help counter the rumours.

"Leaders must also show that they are listening and that they welcome employee feedback. In his new book, 'How the Mighty Fall,' Jim Collins notes that for companies on a declining trajectory, 'those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility. The vigorous, fact-based dialogue that characterizes high-performance teams dwindles or disappears altogether.'"

One point we make in our book "Ordinary Greatness" is that if you make people guess, they will almost always guess wrong. Are you making people guess or are you over-communicating?

Using Ordinary Greatness Principles to Increase Trust

Now comes news that in a recent study by the American Nurses Association, about half of nurses say that they would not be comfortable having a loved one receive care where they work. (http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090706/REG/307069952/-1&AssignSessionID=273358755675162) The study concludes that these nurses have lost trust in their employer, so much so that they wouldn’t want their child or parent to be cared for in these facilities. There’s a business case to be made for rebuilding this kind of trust, because as healthcare marketers, we know that word of mouth marketing, especially from employees, is the most valuable type of marketing for a health-care facility.
What can be done to retain or restore trust in a workplace? In our book, “Ordinary Greatness,” we examine this question, and here is what we found:

1. Tell the truth. Sounds simple, but most employees we interviewed who had lost trust in their boss could tell some story about a time they felt they were lied to, spun, or were told less than the unvarnished truth. The boss often has a different perspective when confronted about this disconnect, and blames “the script HR gave me,” the employee’s unrealistic expectations, or the economy. But is there ever a reason not to tell the whole truth? Our commitment to protect confidentialities aside, be sure you are telling the truth in every situation. A friend of ours asks his young children every night when he tucks them in, “Did Daddy tell the truth to you today?” We asked him why he did this. He said, “Because I want to avoid situations where my kids think I lied to them when in reality we just had a misunderstanding. For example, if my kids ask me if I could take them to the park, I might say yes, thinking I will do it this weekend, when they were thinking of today. I want to catch that stuff as it happens.”

2. Stay visible. Schedule time each day to go around and visit staff where they work and work alongside them. In many of these hospitals mentioned above, it is a safe guess that administrators and decision-makers have hidden in their offices and made staffing and equipment decisions based on spreadsheets, not on what they saw in the workplace with their own eyes, causing trust on the front lines to erode. Here are the benefits to you of getting out of your office today:
·You will identify and recognize ordinary greatness occurring during the course of the workday.
·You will let staff know that you care about the work that is being done and appreciate its importance to achieving organizational goals.
·You will encourage staff to make suggestions and offer opinions to improve the organization creating a stronger sense of ownership.
·You will provide the context for identifying opportunities for improvement and understanding the dynamics of decision choices.
·You will recognize obstacles or barriers that need to be removed to achieve better outcomes.

3. Be vulnerable about your own blinders that inhibit trust. In our research for “Ordinary Greatness,” we identified five blinders that keep leaders from spotting greatness in those they lead. These are:
·Compartmentalization (The belief that everyone and everything can be put in its own box)
·Preconceived Notions (Making quick cognitive commitments without getting the whole story)
·Personal Bias (Your own experiences and judgments that can cloud your vision)
·External Focus (Falling for the trappings of success or making judgments based on how something looks)
·Busyness (Over-scheduling to the point that important things are missed such as employee engagement)
Which of these blinders might you struggle with? Know your limitations and which blinders might be traps for you. Then discuss these with your staff. To take a free blinders assessment, visit our website: http://www.ordinarygreatnessbook.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23&Itemid=21

4. Conduct “aspirational conversations” with staff. Do you know the aspirations of each of your employees? Do you know where they want their careers to go in the next five years? Aspirational conversations are ongoing dialogue between the individual and their manager focused on personal development actions to support the expansion of responsibilities, upward mobility, or new career paths. The leader open to spotting and developing ordinary greatness will see the value of conducting aspirational conversations with subordinates. We have been stunned by how few leaders actually do this simple, free activity that will reap benefits forever.

We believe that if the hospitals with the untrusting nurses had expected the above behaviors from leaders, trust would not be as much of an issue there. These principles work. Trust matters. Are you working hard each day to build trust by spotting ordinary greatness where you work and live?

Don't Skip The Offsite

Great blog post on HBR by Melissa Raffoni on the pros and cons of meeting offsite, even in tough budget times. http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/hbr/hbr-now/2009/07/the-pros-and-cons-of-canceling.html

Melissa is upfront about the expense and the risk, but I would come to the same conclusion -- don't skip the offsite, just make sure it is genuine and adds value. We recommend that all executive teams meet offsite at least quarterly.

Time for Some Visioning

Read an article on Forbes.com about Johnson Controls and an interesting custom there. http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/30/johson-controls-vision-leadership-ceonetwork-week.html Every year, all 140,000 employees in over 1,000 locations gather for sessions to discuss the strategic direction of the company, the overall vision, and the challenges the company is facing. Very admirable. I believe that "weigh in equals buy-in," and I would encourage all companies to copy this best practice.

Here are some highlights:

• Because of financial challenges this year, someone suggested that the vision sessions be cancelled. The CEO said it took about 30 seconds to kill that idea. I've found that most great companies and teams have a "now more than ever" approach to clarity and effectiveness. The hard times are when we really need to do this, not just when things are going well.
• "In an employee survey afterward, 68% said this year's week improved their understanding of how to effectively serve their customers. A surge of organizational and cultural awareness was created as hundreds of operational, sales and marketing, and support teams shared stories and plans." Sounds like a good return on investment.
• Johnson Controls also invites some its largest customers to the meeting. Definitely a good idea. When discussing and sharing vision, get the input of customers.

Stanford Study Confirms "Ordinary Greatness" Principle

The Stanford Graduate School of Business (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/fast_commongroup.html?cmpid=news) recently conducted a study to determine if performance really matters when it comes to who we talk about and how often we talk about them.

The researchers asked participants to discuss baseball players, and gave them two lists: well-known players who were having mediocre seasons and less-known players who were having All-Star caliber seasons. They told the participants to discuss the players with one another, and more participants selected well-known players (66 percent) than lesser-known, higher-performing players (34 percent) to discuss with their conversation partners.

There are many reasons for this, but the main one seems to be that the participants selected the safer, well-known choice for a conversation topic as a way to seek "common ground." So when asked to select a player to discuss with a partner, performance seemed to matter less than how well the participant felt their partner would know the player.

In "Ordinary Greatness," we talk about blinders that inhibit our ability to see greatness, and this is an example of the blinders of compartmentalization and personal bias. We simply have a hard time spotting greatness if it doesn't fit into our preconceived notions of what greatness is or who can be great. In most companies there are employees who are doing great things who are less noticed because they may be quiet or are just not in a position to be noticed.

If you'd like to take a free assessment to see if there are any blinders you should be aware of in your own leadership, click here for that part of the Ordinary Greatness website: http://www.ordinarygreatnessbook.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23&Itemid=21

Thoughts on Leadership from CEO of Prescription Solutions

Interesting interview with Jacqueline Kosecoff in Sunday's Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/business/21corner.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all). She had some good advice and insight into leadership that really mirrors some things that I share with clients. Here are some highlights:

• She doesn't lead all of her team's meetings. "Each one of the executives leads the meeting — it rotates in alphabetical order and we just go through the list." She said this approach gets some good outcomes: "First of all, it teaches them how to lead a meeting. It also sends a message that this meeting’s not for me, it’s for us. And it’s been my observation that at a lot of these operations meetings, everyone talks to the C.E.O., not to each other. It also teaches good meeting etiquette. People are much more, I think, respectful of how they behave in a meeting because they’re going to be leading the meeting one day. "


• She also starts meetings by asking if someone in the company needs to be acknowledged. A good idea to be sure reward and recognition is prevalent in the company.


• Kosecoff also has this to say about silence: "it is consent. If you don’t speak up in the meeting, you can’t later come back and say: 'I really hated that. I don’t want it to happen.'" I would add that silence is really abdication. It is a good idea to have each team member go on the record and state their opinion on every important issue to avoid the outcome Kosecoff describes above. I am so glad she has thought this through. Shows good leadership on her part.


• She also stresses "assume positive intent." I agree. On the great teams I have worked with and on, there is a high level of benefit of the doubt.

Summer Reading List

Summer is a great time to catch up on your reading. Yeah, right! Who wants to read on vacation, you say? Well, whether you are a prodigious reader like us or not, these are the books we recommend this summer. We prefer books that are easy reads that challenge our assumptions and give us tools we can use in our everyday leadership. These definitely fit the bill:

How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In
by Jim Collins

·Whether your company is on the way up, way down, or stagnating, this book will let you know the warning signs of failure and how some organizations stay successful. Hint: a lot of it has to do with your senior leadership team.

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You
by Jack Covert, Todd Sattersten

·This is my kind of book - pick it up anytime you have a few minutes and read the 2-3 page summary of a book you have perhaps read before but want to be reminded of the key concepts.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
by Seth Godin
·Puts a whole new perspective on how leadership develops on blogs and social networking sites.

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
by Geoff Colvin

A Sense of Urgency
by John P. Kotter


Here are some books that aren’t as new as the titles above, but ones that we definitely recommend:

Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters
by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward
·I picked this one up at a used bookstore just because I hadn’t remembered seeing a book on this topic before. At about 300 pages, there is a lot there, but it is a tremendous look at what it takes to recover from setbacks.

The Servant
by James Hunter
·A nice little fable that illustrates that the greatest leader is the greatest servant. This one changed my life.

Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers
by Robert Kriegel
·Funny and provocative look at innovation and shaking up your business.

The Transparency Edge
by Barbara and Elizabeth Pagano
·This isn’t just a leadership book – it will teach you how to live.

Of course, we recommend that you read anything ever written by Patrick Lencioni. Also, any of the “Little (Color) Book of ____________” by Jeffrey Gitomer. Both of these authors are especially good choices for people who don’t like to read traditional business books.

Any that you would add to your summer reading list?

Get More Done By Saying Less

Good article by Carmine Gallo on the Business Week small business site on the value of being more succinct when communicating. http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2009/sb20090616_017396.htm

Contains a great quote by New York real estate queen Barbara Corcoran. "Nobody is as interested in you as you think they are." This can be applied to our communication strategy as well. People probably aren't as interested in our message as we think they are, but we can improve our communication effectiveness.

We coach leaders to use two strategies: elevator speeches and over-communication.

When introducing a new concept or message, employ an elevator speech. Elevator speeches should answer four questions about our topic:

1. What is it?
2. Why is it necessary?
3. What will success look like?
4. What do I need from you?

The idea behind the elevator speech is that if you can't describe your idea, product, or message in four sentences or phrases, it's too complicated and will probably not be retained by the hearer.

Then once the elevator speech is prepared, you can't just say it once. You have to absolutely pound the message over and over and over. Dont' be afraid to repeat yourself. Repetition is how people remember.

This Summer, Don't Be Camouflaged

I chuckled when I saw the "uniform" satirist Stephen Colbert wore when he went to Iraq recently to entertain the troops. I didn't know Brooks Brothers custom-made camouflage suits. Then I really cracked up when I saw the clip of him getting his hair cut by order of the President: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31183492#31183492

Camouflage makes for a funny suit for Colbert, but fading into the background is something every leader should avoid this summer. Summer is already a time of vacations and time away from work as it is. The thing to remember this summer is visibility. In our book "Ordinary Greatness," we talk about the importance of leaders being as visible as possible in order to find the greatness that exists everywhere in the company. So instead of staying in the office doing e-mail or spreadsheets, get out and spend time with staff. Here are the benefits:

1. Builds trust between staff and management


2. Provides opportunities for the leader to identify and recognize
   ordinary greatness occurring during the course of the workday


3. Lets staff know that you care about the work that is being done
   and appreciate its importance to achieving organizational goals


4. Encourages staff to make suggestions and offer opinions to improve
   the organization, creating a stronger sense of ownership


5. Provides the context for identifying opportunities for improvement
   and understanding the dynamics of decision choices


6. Helps the leader recognize obstacles or barriers that need to be
   removed to achieve better outcomes

However, the myriad benefits of visibility are often lost on executives. They have given us many excuses for not being visible. Here are some we have heard over the years:

1. Too busy


2. Didn't I just do that last month?
   
3. I don't know what to say when I am with staff.


4. They don't want me around anyway.

Entire books can be written to debunk each of those excuses, but if you are interested in improving your visibility, here are some tips:

1. Commit to just getting started and doing it. It's always scariest right before you get started.


2. Schedule it. Be sure your schedule is not so overburdened that you miss out on being visible to your staff and customers.


3. Use your visibility time as an opportunity to over-communicate key messages. Don't be afraid to repeat yourself.


4. If you are interacting with staff layers down in the organization, don't forget to manage up their leader to them -- be positive. This is what we call a win-win-win-win.

So next time you are tempted to hide out in your office, remember Colbert's camouflage suit. Be sure this is one article of clothing that you never wear. Stand out and get out. Now about that haircut...

Any visibility tips that have worked well for you? How do you stay visible to your customers and staff?

What My Summer Job Taught Me

With millions of high-schoolers and young adults heading out to the workforce for their first summer jobs this month, the WSJ ran an interesting item, "The Strange Summer Jobs of 23 Famous People." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124389730538274205.html#mod=djem_we

While it is satisfying to think of Rod Stewart as a gravedigger, Brad Pitt in a chicken suit, and a young Colin Powell selling furniture, this article also acted as a catalyst for me to think about my first summer job. I worked at a Dairy Queen (just like Gwen Stefani, it turns out), and here's what I learned there:

1. The concept of mandatory effort/discretionary effort is real. I hadn't yet heard these terms, but before long (maybe a week), I had figured out just how much work I needed to do and how fast I needed to do it to avoid getting in trouble. Every one of your staff members knows where this line is as well. Those leaders who can tap into discretionary effort and get more than what is mandatory will be most successful. Not getting the maximum discretionary effort from people represents the greatest waste in most businesses today, and if leaders addressed this, most layoffs and waste-reduction efforts would not be necessary.

2. Find out the most important part of your job and do it better than anyone else. The rest is pretty simple. For example, though no one told me early on, I quickly found out that the most important part of my job was keeping the soft-serve mix bags in the cooler from emptying. Duh, you say, it is a DQ, and people will want soft-serve ice cream, but hey, give me a break, I was 15! Don't make anyone ever guess what is most important to the business overall, to you, and to their individual success. Are your staff members confused about priorities?

3. The true leader isn't always the one with the title. Every shift at the DQ had a crew chief as you might expect, but then there was a lady named Ruth. Ruth had worked there since the Dairy Queen was a Dairy Princess, and her combination of tenure and confidence and fearlessness made her a leader though she was not a formal crew chief. I made sure I didn't cross her, and often looked to her for guidance before I checked with my boss. Do you know who the influential informal leaders are in your business? Do you recognize that some people have more influence than others and deal with them accordingly? Fortunately, Ruth was generally a positive force and presence, but I have seen many cases where the informal leaders were negative influences, and those teams and businesses were almost always dysfunctional.

What about you? Any lessons you learned at your first summer job?

Is Your Team on the Way Down or the Way Up?

The current Business Week contains an excerpt from Jim Collins's new book "How the Mighty Fall." http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_21/b4132026793275.htm

In the book, Collins talks about the importance of the role of the executive team in making the organization mighty. He lists the traits of teams on "the way down" and those on "the way up." Fascinating stuff.

If I could dare to supplement Collins's list, here are some I would address:

Teams on the way down are led by leaders who create confusion by assigning work and discussing outcomes only with individual team members.

Teams on the way up are led by leaders who know how to use the team's meetings to promote clarity and cohesion.

Teams on the way down are made up of members who come to the table representing first and foremost their vertical line of the business.

Teams on the way up are made up of members who come to the table representing first and foremost the team and the organization -- they think horizontally across the business.

Teams on the way down work together for years with the members never really getting to know one another.

Teams on the way up are cohesive because they genuinely enjoy being around one another and are comfortable discussing even personal aspects of their lives.

Teams on the way down are made up of team members who hide their weaknesses from one another.

Teams on the way up are made up of team members who willingly apologize to one another and freely admit mistakes.

Teams on the way down have meetings that are boring and that are dreaded by the team members.

Teams on the way up have meetings have that are interesting, compelling and relevant.

Teams on the way down pursue artificial harmony.

Teams on the way up pursue healthy levels of debate.

Is your team on the way down or the way up?

One Man's Trash....

I came across a strange little story in today's New York Post (http://www.nypost.com/seven/05312009/news/regionalnews/vinyl_treasure_in_yukky_trash_171811.htm?CMP=EMC-email_edition&DATE=05312009). It is about music-memorabilia dealer Howard Fischer and the fact that he has found many valuable music albums, old comedy recordings, and even famous speeches by Winston Churchill, all in his neighbor's trash.

"The recordings are on 7- and 10-inch plastic discs, in brown paper sleeves with handwritten labels. They were made in the mid-'40s, but it's not clear which radio shows, or even which stations, the devoted listener recorded. Fischer thinks his unknowing benefactor must have recorded the shows with some primitive device he made himself. "

Now even the Library of Congress is interested in getting its hands on these recordings.

I suppose the appropriateness of what Fischer is doing can be debated, but I can't stop thinking about the person who threw the recordings away. The person who made the originals obviously knew how unique the records are and how difficult they were to make. I suspect the person who threw them away was not the original owner and probably someone who didn't know or care about their value. Maybe it was a relative who thought, "Let's get rid of this trash." Or, "it can't be valuable if one of our family members owned it." Little did that person know the value of the "trash" right there in that apartment.

In our book, "Ordinary Greatness," we write about leaders tendencies to do this same de-valuing, but instead of music recordings, they tend to underestimate the people they lead. There are several blinders that get in the leader's way -- personal bias, preconceived notions, busyness, compartmentalization, and external focus. Any of them could be at play here.

As you interact with those you lead this week, watch out for these blinders, and remember -- there is valuable treasure right were you are. Don't throw it away!

Leading Clever People

One of my favorite leadership titles of the past decade is "Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?" by Gareth Jones and Rob Goffee. They are at it again with "Clever – leading your smartest, most creative people" being published later this year.

I saw Stefan Stern's column about the book in the FT, (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/643a8cec-4914-11de-9e19-00144feabdc0.html), and it got me thinking of my own list of challenges related to leading clever people:

1. They are not easily-controlled because they don't fear for their job -- they know they have talent that others will want or they can embark on their own.

2. They will only want to work on the most important, invigorating projects, often with no respect for turf or boundaries. This can drive corporate managers crazy.

3. They have a lot of influence, so it is important to keep them engaged, as others will follow their lead.

4. A real challenge is helping them see that they are not more important than the organization or the team. An expectation will have to be created that they use their impressive skill sets in service of the whole, not themselves.

Do you lead clever people? If so, what has worked for you?

Another Recognition Reminder

As you know, I am an enthusiastic proponent of managers learning new recognition strategies in order to better engage their staffs. So when I saw a column by Lucy Kellaway in today's Financial Times on what leaders should remember when recognizing good work, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c89a5f04-46ea-11de-923e-00144feabdc0.html, I was drawn to it.

The article is thought-provoking, and here are my take-aways:

1. We often teach that recognition should be specific, but Lucy says this is not always a good idea. She shares the example of a leader who told a direct report, "You are a brilliant administrator." Leaving it at "you are brilliant" would have been better. I hadn't thought of that before, but it makes sense. I know for me the second example would have been more effective.

2. Lucy says she is "addicted to praise." I think most of us are, and the leader who realizes this will have an awesome tool in her arsenal.

3. "Praise is hellishly difficult to get right: good praise is even more of an art form than good criticism, and bad praise is worse than none at all."

4. Lucy closes the article by stressing the importance of handwritten notes. Amen!

Hey, He Has a Goal. Kind of Strange, But He Has a Goal

Saturday's WSJ features the story of a 37-year-old man named "Winter" who for the last twelve years has been in pursuit of a personal goal: to visit every Starbucks store in the world. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124301100481847767.html#mod=djemITP

So far he has been to over 9,000 stores around the world (98.9% of North America's), and a focus of the article is the bit of a panic he finds himself in due to the recent announcements by Starbucks that hundreds of stores will soon be closing. You can even go to his website http://www.starbuckseverywhere.net/ and check to see if Winter has visited the Starbucks you frequent. He has visited "mine" (pictured above) in Gulf Breeze.

Winter's story first made me laugh, then made me think about what would possess a 37-year-old man to give his life to pursue this? He admits he is "mildly obsessive-compulsive." OK.

What I did admire in our age of short attention spans was his focus on his goal . A strange goal, but a goal. Most people have long-since strayed from their New Year's resolutions by the Super Bowl, and my corporate clients often confess that they have difficulty sticking to a goal, and their goals are certainly more important and meaningful than Winter's, I would think.

So what can we learn from Winter? What does it take to be so invested in a goal that one would devote 12 years of life to seeing it through?

One thing is obvious: if leaders could tap into this kind of passion, energy, effort, and commitment with those they lead, some great things could be accomplished.

Oh, and another thing -- the London Fog Tea Latte is really, really good.

Money's Nice, But a Good Boss is Better

Today's Washington Post details the results of a recent survey of federal workplaces. I love the title of the article -- "Money's Nice, But a Good Boss is Better." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051903621.html

Of course, some federal departments in the employee survey fared better than others. Here's what the article has to say about the difference between the departments with high morale and those where employees are miserable:

"What separates these agencies in the minds of their employees is often the senior leadership, how well or poorly it shares information with subordinates, and the training and opportunities it provides workers, according to the study of federal survey results by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group devoted to improving public service. "

The study also found that workers valued communication and straight answers from the boss more than pay and benefits! This research validates organizational studies we have been a part of and reiterates a central theme of life: everything rises and falls on leadership.

Every improvement tactic and strategy, to be effective in your company, will have to be role-modeled by the leaders first. The best gift you can give your employees is a great boss.

Google's Approach to Higher Turnover, Lower Engagement

According to an article in today's WSJ(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124269038041932531.html#mod=djemTMB?mg=com-wsj), the leadership at Google is concerned over the loss of staff members to newer start-ups like Twitter and Facebook and also over what seems to be a lessening of employee engagement in the company.

So their response? "The Internet search giant recently began crunching data from employee reviews and promotion and pay histories in a mathematical formula Google says can identify which of its 20,000 employees are most likely to quit. Google officials are reluctant to share details of the formula, which is still being tested. The inputs include information from surveys and peer reviews, and Google says the algorithm already has identified employees who felt underused, a key complaint among those who contemplate leaving.

I have my doubts about the effectiveness or appropriateness of a tool like this. Wouldn't equipping leaders at Google to get to know their people and spend time with them to see if they are fully engaged and/or at risk of leaving be a better approach?

In our book, "Ordinary Greatness," we talk about the need for leaders to have "aspirational conversations" with staff to get to know them better and to see if the work they are doing is fulfilling and meaningful. Give me that over an algorithm any day.

What do you think?

Is the Recession Costing You Sleep?

According to survey results published in the Financial Times today (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/222c8a8a-4342-11de-b793-00144feabdc0.html), the recession is costing us not just our money, our savings, and our 401(k)'s. It is also costing us sleep. The average manager is sleeping 19 per cent less than the recommended eight hours a night. Some 40 per cent of those questioned blame the state of the economy for their lack of sleep. If you think the results of your business in this recession is going to cost you sleep, instead of tossing and turning, do the following, and you might sleep a little more and make a little more money:

1. Contact every customer who has purchased from you in the last two years. Tell them you are thankful for their business. Period. This isn't a manipulative, "salesy" conversation -- just reach out.

2. Take care of your top people. You know who they are. The people that your customers mentioned when you called them. The people that you know make you look good. You think it's bad now -- if you lost your top people, it would be worse. Thank them, recognize them, and get to know them.

3. Weed out poor performers. I know I mentioned it in a previous post, but it keeps ringing in my ear: the only thing scarier than top people leaving is bottom people staying. Again, you know who they are -- start coaching and having the conversations immediately.

4. Make sure your leadership team is cohesive. Do team members acknowledge weaknesses to one another? Do team members point out one another's unproductive behaviors? Does the team engage in healthy debate? All these are critical to your success, and success usually begins with the team leader modeling the behavior.

5. In times like these, you cannot afford a single employee who is not operating at full discretionary effort. Are your staff members doing just the minimum to get by? Or are they "going the extra mile"?

Instead of losing sleep and money, take the above steps. Then you can rest easy, knowing your customers love you, your top performers are safely in the fold, the poor performers are on notice, your leadership team is cohesive, and everyone is giving their all.