Contented Cows » by Richard

4 Steps to Avoid Playing Favorites

Bill Catlette — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:46:52 +0000

Managing employees is, in some ways, like parenting children. Every parent with more than one offspring has probably been fairly accused of playing favorites at one time or another. At home and at work, inadvertent or not, favoritism creates problems, and it’s something managers (and parents) would do well to be aware of, and guard against. Since this is a management and leadership site, and not a parenting one we’ll just talk about favoritism at work.

Bound in part by human nature (but not powerless against it), it’s relatively easy for a manager to step into the favoritism trap. Most of us, perhaps in response to the tough business climate, are running pretty lean, with little room for error. As a result, we rely heavily, maybe too heavily, on our stars. We give them the toughest, most important assignments, and most ridiculous deadlines. The most hours. The best schedules. More training. Cooler opportunities. And because they’re going above and beyond, maybe we grant them some privileges not afforded to all. We cut them a little more slack, and overlook the odd transgression that would surely be pointed out with lesser performers.

The average and poorer performers see this and cry favoritism, while the workhorse wonders, “Why am I the one carrying all the water?” Come to think of it, this is sounding more like parenting all the time.

If we’re really honest, we might admit that we just like some people better than we do others, for reasons not remotely related to job performance, and that we let that preference bleed through, even though we know that’s a lousy way to lead a group. Once we’ve gained control over that tendency, we’re left with the problem of favoring some over others for what we’d like to think are legitimate, performance-based reasons.

So what’s the difference, you might ask, between favoritism and performance management? Isn’t it only fair to reward based on results? And, doesn’t it make sense to use your best players for the toughest plays?

Well, yes, but there are better ways to reward the strong performers on your team, and strengthen the others, than playing the favorites game.

Favoritism almost always produces unwanted results. It rarely motivates the lackluster towards stardom, and can breed a sense of entitlement in the favored. And you can bet that, in a doomed attempt to prevent it, some bureaucrat or lawyer will devise a scheme of rules, the imposition of which will serve only to tie your hands, kill creativity, and squash good tries by the best on your team.

It forms the basis for too many labor grievances, and a protracted pattern of favoritism helps cultivate an interested audience for union organizers. In short, it’s a practice we want to avoid with the same fervor and determination as we do those difficult conversations about declining performance, hygeine, and the questionable wisdom of dating a direct report.

Here are some better alternatives to playing favorites.

If someone’s not performing up to snuff, show some leadership, actively manage their performance, and don’t take the passive-aggressive route of ignoring them, mistreating them, and hoping they’ll get the hint and take a hike. Poorer performers deserve to be coached, and given the opportunity to improve, not left out in the cold, to figure it out themselves (amid shouts of favoritism).
Establish clear standards for performance, and then be unambiguous in communicating those standards. Leave no doubt as to what behavior leads to which results. Clearly articulate the steps that lead to where they’d like to go. You wanna make more money? Work a better schedule? Do more of the fun stuff? Here’s what it takes. How can I help you?
Build a culture of excellence, by making a clear connection between performance and rewards of all types. Above all, be consistent in providing a platform for visibility, and the opportunity to excel, but distinguish those who do their best work from those who are mailing it in. That’s anything but favoritism.
Just as it can be difficult to see the spinach stuck to our front teeth without a mirror or a caring observer, favoritism is usually hard to self-recognize. Ask about it on your employee survey. (You are doing surveys, aren’t you? If not, we can help.) Or, give your peers permission to tell you when they see it. When you become aware that there’s a perception of favoritism on your part, seek to understand why. If you’re convinced it’s not really favoritism, make the case. Otherwise, make a change. In you.

There’s a big difference between rewarding the best, and playing favorites. Build a culture of excellence, and soon you’ll be leading a whole field full of stars, and that will be the favorite part of your job.

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Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by virtue of a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He and business partner, Bill Catlette are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

The Art of the Gentle Dressing Down

Richard Hadden — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:50:19 +0000

This weekend I was honored to have sung at the funeral of a man in our church. I didn’t know him well, but I knew him, and what I always saw was an upbeat, friendly, kind, and warm guy, whose interest always seemed projected outward – toward others – not inward. I was surprised to learn he was in his 80’s. I would have thought much younger.

What was not a surprise was a story the minister told about Lloyd, to the large congregation assembled to celebrate and honor his long life. During Lloyd’s last hospital stay, the minister was visiting him one morning when a middle-aged male nurse popped his head into the room and asked, almost without waiting to hear a reply, if Lloyd needed anything.

“Yes,” said Lloyd, “I do. I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?” Not really, but he’d make time. Lloyd, whose cancer was draining the life from him, told the nurse, through a genuine smile, that he had chosen to return to this particular hospital for his continued treatments primarily because of the outstanding nursing care he had received on earlier visits. This nurse, however, Lloyd was sorry to say, had not lived up to his high expectations. “You’re inattentive and brusque, and too rough. I’m an old man, in lots of pain, and you sometimes handle me like I’m a football player in here for knee surgery.

“Often, you’ve forgotten to do things you said you’d do. And I have to tell you that last night, you were talking loudly, all night, at your station right outside my room, and it kept me awake.”

Lloyd, an electrical engineer with an MBA, had served in senior leadership roles in the Bell System. He told the nurse that he stood out from his co-workers, and not in a good way, and not because he was one of the few male nurses there. But because he simply didn’t do his job as well as the others did theirs.

“I’ll be going into hospice care in a few days, and the way you do your job won’t really make much more difference to me. But it will to all the others who come in here after me. And it’ll make a difference to the people you work with.

“You don’t need to change a lot,” Lloyd told the guy, “but I think if you’d slow down a little, listen a little better, be a little gentler in your approach, and follow through better on your commitments to your patients, you’d go from being a good nurse, to a great one. Will you try to do that? Not just for me, but for you?”

The minister made the point that although Lloyd had been clear in giving the nurse some unsolicited performance feedback, he had done it in such a kind and caring way, that at least the nurse had stopped, and listened.

The leadership consultant in me observed from the story that Lloyd had followed, to the letter, the fundamentals of effective feedback. He’d been clear. He didn’t muddle the message with weasel words. He didn’t dance around the issue. Nor did he bash the guy over the head with it. Perhaps he was bringing his engineering education to bear on the conversation. He knew that too much pressure would cause the system to break, but that too little would be fruitless.

Lloyd provided clear and reasonable expectations, specific performance observations, and definable suggestions for specific behavior change. And he wrapped it all in a genuine sense of caring for the object of his feedback. That is the definition of a good performance coach.

After the service, the minister and I were talking. I told him I enjoyed hearing the story of the nurse. A sheepish look came over his face as he said, “Thanks. But I would never have told that story if I’d known the nurse was going to be in the congregation. I didn’t see him until later in the eulogy, and besides, he looks different in a suit and tie.”

And sometimes we, as leaders, fail to give needed feedback because we’re afraid they won’t like us anymore.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by virtue of a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Instant gratification: the ultimate motivator

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:00:33 +0000

Of all the reasons my wife may have had for marrying me nearly 25 years ago, being ultra handy around the house is not among them.

That fact notwithstanding, last weekend I decided to pressure wash our house. The all-white structure has a large expanse of siding at the back that faces due north, and is therefore hospitable territory to a gray-green coating of mold and algae. Although the heat index was in the triple digits, I was actually looking forward to the task. And I knew why.

It’s the same reason that I actually enjoy mowing the lawn, even though there’s a fully capable onsite teenager, who would do it more often if I’d let him. The reason I like these tasks so much, and eschew others, like laundry and disinfecting toilets? Instant gratification.

Every swipe of the pressure washing nozzle was like applying graffiti in reverse. Expend labor – see result. It was magnificent! And enough to keep me at it in less than ideal conditions until the job was done. At which point I stood at the back of the house gazing up and admiring my handiwork.

We all need at least a little instant gratification at work, too. A strong need to know that what we do makes a difference. Some jobs come with this feature onboard. With others, this feeling of accomplishment is more elusive.

If you lead others, and help manage and design their work, here’s an assignment:

Pick one job you manage and assess it for instant gratification potential. Does it happen often, occasionally, rarely, or never?
If the answer is rarely or never, change that. Build into the job at least the occasional opportunity to see the fruits of the labor that goes into it.
- Give back office people some direct customer contact.
- Balance sales professionals’ account portfolios of tough customers with a few easier sales.
- If the task is an intermediate step in a process, let them at least see the finished product and have a clear understanding of the part they played in it.
- Make sure no job is all frustration – no fulfillment.
Once you’ve had a little immediate gratification with this experiment, do the same with the other jobs under your direction.

We all need to see the needle move from time to time. It’s part of what keeps us going.

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Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results with a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He and Bill Catlette are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership, written with Meredith Kimbell. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

What Will Happen When YOU Leave?

Richard Hadden — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:36:39 +0000

Steve Jobs’s resignation as CEO of Apple is a good reminder for leaders everywhere, and at every level, to ponder the question, “What will happen when I leave?”, whether “leaving” means quitting, retiring, getting promoted, being fired or laid off, or dying. And it’s not a question reserved only for legendary founding CEO’s of mammoth multinational corporations. It’s a question for every manager, leaders of teams large and small.

“What could happen when, for whatever reason, you leave?”

Three distinct possibilities exist:

1. Things will fall apart (a lot, or maybe just a little). In its August 26, 2011 issue, USA Today reported University of Illinois Professor Heitor Almeida’s claim that “companies with founding CEO’s tend to outperform and have 10% to 20% higher valuations than firms without”, and that “firms that lose their founder CEO often struggle, as was the case at Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Charles Schwab and Apple itself after Jobs left the first time in 1985.”

I’d be willing to bet that being a “founding” leader has less to do with this phenomenon than being a strong or iconic one. GE’s Jack Welch comes to mind.

The organization (team, branch, department, division, corporation – whatever) whose success is so closely tied to the personage of its leader at any given moment that it can’t survive that leader’s departure isn’t really all that great an organization, is it?

2. The business or team will survive, and even thrive. Leaders who build an organization around more durable principles than themselves often have the pleasure of looking back and seeing the success that came from the foundation they laid, and the work they did.

Southwest Airlines has done just fine since the retirement of co-founder Herb Kelleher as CEO. No one could be happier about that than Herb.

I could give a million other examples. I’ll give one. A manufacturer client of mine had a plant in the midwest that had endured a long history of labor problems, undoubtedly owing to a succession of plant managers who thought they were there to manage machines and production, not to lead people. The union was pretty much in charge of this particular facility, the only one of the company’s plants that was losing money. A new sheriff came to town, in the person of a new plant manager, and within 3 years, the labor troubles had subsided, the union had been deemed by the workers to no longer provide added value, and the plant was making money.

The new plant manager had fundamentally changed the leadership style in the whole factory, and his style had legs. Sadly, in his fifth year at the plant, he died unexpectedly. That was 2004. I still keep up with the HR manager at the plant, who tells me that the place is humming along nicely, and performing profitably on the foundation built by the late, greatly admired plant manager.

3. They’ll follow you where you go. This one may be the most personally rewarding, and is becoming more commonplace. We find ourselves in an age in which people are less and less tied to their organization – their employer – and perhaps more connected to individuals leaders – those who are seen as conduits to individual development and the chance to do meaningful work. For skilled leaders on the move, this may be the way to not so much leave a legacy, as to take one with you.

Many organizations espouse a desire to be an employer of choice. Our research has shown that to be a profitable course. But how realistic is it today, in a world where institutional trust is at a low point, and the “deal” in the workplace has been turned on its head?

Perhaps a greater aspiration is, on an individual level, to become a “leader of choice”. That might help answer the question, “What will happen when YOU leave?”

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by virtue of a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

A Tale of Two Brands

Richard Hadden — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:35:36 +0000

It was the best of service, it was the worst of service. Well, not really the worst, but with the title of this post, I couldn’t resist.

I love my Amazon Kindle. And not just because Rebooting Leadership is available in that format. So I was positively disconsolate when it stopped working on the first day of a 3-week trip.

From the Delta Sky Club at JFK, I logged into my Amazon account, clicked support, typed in my mobile number, and immediately my phone rang. They called me! I didn’t have to look up a number, dial it, navigate through an infernal scheme of menus, listen to hold music, and plead for a real human. One called me!

By virtue of my having logged into my account before I requested the call, the Amazon rep knew everything I wanted her to know. She didn’t ask me for my account number once, let alone twice. She grieved in sympathy with me, for a moment, over the demise of the e-reader, and without further inquisition, said she’d overnight me a replacement! Can you believe this? Did you know they did this? I didn’t.

Luckily for me, my wife was joining me on the trip 2 days later, and brought the new Kindle, completely loaded with all my stuff, to me.

Bravo, Amazon, all around!

Not so Panasonic. Our new Lumix digital camera (great camera – takes terrific pictures) arrived without the software, described in the manual, that lets the camera commune with the computer. Sending CD’s, I thought, is so first decade, surely it’s a download these days, and they just haven’t updated the manual.

Wrong. Went to Panasonic’s site (such as it is). Got no help there. Got on the phone. Customer service sent me to tech support, which sent me back to customer service, where a snippy woman who didn’t believe my story gave me the number for the “parts department”. I’m not making this up.

Twenty minutes later, Parts answered. They wanted my name, phone number, email address, account number, and – get this – the serial number of the item I was calling about – before they’d entertain any questions.

I asked how I could download the software. You can’t. We have to send you a CD. Please do. It’ll cost you $15. An argument ensued, and to cut my time losses, I surrendered the credit card number.

Ten days later, I got a paper receipt in the mail from Panasonic. Someone actually cut down a tree, refined its pulp into paper, printed a receipt, stuck it in an envelope, put it in a truck, took it to the post office, transferred it to a jet, put it on yet another truck, then a van, and then a nice man walked it to my house.

Five days after that, the CD turned up on my front doorstep.

Point: Both Amazon and Panasonic have now burned into my psyche their respective “brands”. I associate Amazon with terms like “pathfinder, state-of-the-service-art, newfangled, impressive, and going above and beyond to help the customer.” Panasonic, to me, now means “obsolete, outdated, obstructionist, old-world, traditional, clueless”, and a host of other things, none of them impressive.

Product brand, and service brand, extend to workplace brand. If someone were to ask me where they should explore selling their talent, Amazon would be one of the first names off my lips. Panasonic wouldn’t even occur to me.

I wonder – no I don’t – which company’s getting the best candidates turning up on its front doorstep.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Royal Caribbean Misses the Boat on Internet Access

Richard Hadden — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:58:54 +0000

First, this post is not about my vacation. How boring would that be? It’s about a fundamental change in the way people stay connected, or not. But the issue came to light on my vacation, so please indulge me a sentence or two.

Last month, my wife and I took what was, for us, the trip of a lifetime, in celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary. A Mediterranean cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas. In short, the cruise was wonderful. We relaxed, unplugged, saw places I’d only heard of before. The food was good and plentiful. The service – no complaints. And our accommodations were very comfortable. May I never forget how blessed and privileged we were to be able to take such a trip.

If you think these sincere words (and they are sincere) are the wind-up for a complaint, you’re right. Well, not so much a complaint as an observation.

The problem: The Internet service on board the ship was wholly abominable. Indescribably inadequate. And shockingly expensive. It took about ten minutes (and 3 dollars!) to sign in to gmail. Any site that required any bandwidth at all was blocked. And Skype? Are you kidding? One day, I spent five hours of my vacation, and $90, to do about 10 minutes’ work, to send a promised proposal to a client.

Reminder – I’m not whining. I realize how fortunate I am to have taken the trip at all. Now, I’ll continue.

And don’t, as did the “guest services agent” on the ship, give me this lame line: “But you’re on vacation. You shouldn’t be working!”

Earth to Royal Caribbean. As we point out in Rebooting Leadership, the lines between work and play, work and home, home and play, are forever blurred. Whether this is good or bad is a matter of opinion. The fact that it is as it is – is not.

We work in our “off-hours” (whatever those are), and, likewise, play at work. Don’t try to tell me you don’t.

Today’s work, indeed much of today’s life, is facilitated online. If you doubt that, try unplugging your home Internet (or if yours is like mine, wait until it goes down naturally; it won’t be a long wait), and turn off your smartphone. Count the number of things you start to do, before remembering that you can’t.

On the cruise, we were traveling in a group of 19 friends. Many are small business owners, like myself. Others have responsible jobs working for someone else. All of us are used to traveling, at home and abroad, and, have gotten used to being able to connect from pretty much anywhere – hotel rooms, airports, coffee shops, you name it. Call us spoiled, if you like. Overindulged perhaps. But you may definitely call us frustrated with the ship’s inability to provide a usable Internet connection. And to charge us stupid money for the frustration.

Royal Caribbean’s excuses (offered as if highly practiced) involved pointing out that we were at sea, that satellite communications are iffy at best, and that there were more than 3,000 people on the ship, many of whom were competing for limited bandwidth. All invalid. The technology exists to let passengers connect as easily as if they were in the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

I’m pretty sure the problem persists for two reasons:

1) Royal Caribbean (and, to be fair, their competitors) don’t want to invest in making the technology work. They don’t believe Internet access on a cruise vacation is important enough to enough people to make the investment commercially advantageous. That’s shortsighted.

2) An old mindset curiously survives, and yet without nourishment from reality. A pipe, slippers, and brandy anachronism in which we commute into the office at the start of our “workday”, chain ourselves to a desk for a period of time, and then commute home. We’re generations past that. Many in the hospitality field are falling all over themselves to realize that, in order to compete. Not the cruise biz. Certainly not Royal Caribbean.

I relish my downtime. Had the Mariner of the Seas had Internet access that could be taken seriously, I would have had more of it on my vacation. For those 12 days, I could have connected, done my work, kept in touch, and taken care of business, in less than an hour a day. That would have been a small price to pay for 23 hours a day of vacation.

Here’s hoping that this summer, you have the chance to take a week or two, get away, and recharge. But I sure hope you’ve got better Internet access than I did!

Workplace Safety and Leadership

Richard Hadden — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:15:39 +0000

This past March marked the 100th anniversary of New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, one of the deadliest workplace disasters in U.S. history. 146 garment workers, mostly young immigrant women, died in the fire. As with too many things, it took a tragedy to bring about long overdue changes both in the garment industry, and in workplace safety in general.

While in some ways, we’ve come a long way with workplace safety, the anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the topic, and especially the role of leaders in keeping people safe at work.

Let’s be clear: Safety is everyone’s job. Repeat. Safety is everyone’s job. It’s the leader’s job to be sure that everyone knows that. Quality, productivity, organizational direction – you name it. The leader’s job is to set the vision, communicate it, model it, and help keep followers on track. The same goes for safety.

No sensible person would argue the merits of a safe workplace. Most of its benefits are self-evident. But there are others – significant, but less obvious. Of course, people can’t work as well (or at all) if they’re hurt (or worse). But let’s not overlook the fact that if people are worried about their own safety, or if they have to make cumbersome adjustments to their work in order to stay out of harm’s way, they can’t possibly give their full measure of effort. They’ve got to slow down – beyond the reasonable “slow down” that comes with giving due care to the job.

When a leader shows (not just says) that safety is a big deal, that leader demonstrates, in a clear and compelling way, that he or she CARES about his or her followers. And take this to the bank: we know that people simply reserve their best effort for leaders who care about them as humans.

In April, we administered an employee survey and conducted training for Alaska Clean Seas, an Oil Spill Response Organization (OSRO) operating on Alaska’s North Slope. Talk about dangerous work. In January, I visited their Prudhoe Bay operation, in preparation for the project. (That’s what we do. And we’ll do the same for you, if you ask us to work with you.)

From the moment I arrived in the aptly-named Deadhorse, Alaska, I was fed constant reminders of safety. Holding handrails (both inside and outside), eye protection, wearing seatbelts, appropriate clothing for Arctic weather, safe footwear, the list goes on. While every ACS worker I encountered made me safety-conscious, the issue of safety has no greater champion at ACS than President and General Manager Ron Morris.

What’s been the effect of an unrelenting focus on safety at ACS? The event for which they brought us to Anchorage in April was, among other things, a celebration of a remarkable milestone: Ten years without a lost-time accident at Alaska Clean Seas. You read that right. Ten years. No lost-time accidents. That doesn’t happen by…well…by accident. It happens only through leadership, and a commitment by everyone in the company.

So, Bill and I weren’t surprised when Ron Morris opened the Anchorage meeting, held on the 10th floor of the Captain Cook Hotel, with a safety briefing. Here’s how to escape in the event of fire, earthquake, or anything else that makes outside look better than inside.

So leaders – a few to-do’s to make sure you’re executing your leadership responsibilities with respect to safety:

Mind yourself first. Model safety in all you do. At work, and away. Seatbelts, helmets, handrails, smart moves. Whatever means safety in your world.
Keep your eyes and ears open for hazards, especially of the not-so-obvious variety.
Keep your mind open to suggestions from others about potential hazards, and ways to make your place safer.
Develop systems and processes that encourage safety awareness, and make it easier to comply. Be sure people fully understand the consequences of carelessness.
Emulating our friends at Alaska Clean Seas, celebrate your success with safety, but never grow complacent.

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Unwritten Rules

Richard Hadden — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:09:53 +0000

Visiting a new country reminds me a lot of being in a new job. There are so many rules to learn. The written, well-documented ones are hard enough to keep up with. But watch out for the pages and pages of “unwritten rules” – things you need to know, but may never be told. Until it’s too late.

Last month, I had the privilege of visiting six foreign countries – seven if you include the Vatican – on a trip that was part vacation, part speaking engagement. No, the speaking engagement was not in the Vatican. They have that covered. I spoke at two conferences in Singapore.

While my passport is pretty well worn, most of the places I visited on this trip, specifically Greece, Turkey, Dubai, and Singapore, were new to me.

And in each case, I couldn’t help feeling, “Hmmm. How does this work here? How do you do this here?”, “this” being regular everyday things like ordering coffee from a walkup counter, being seated at a restaurant, hailing a taxi, paying the restaurant bill, crossing the street, keeping the lights on in the hotel room (store your keycard in the mystery slot near the door) what to wear, how to greet people, how to use public toilets and public transportation (which in a couple of these places seemed to be indistinguishable from each other), and tipping – tipping the taxi driver, the bellman, the waiter, and even the toilet attendant. The list goes on. There’s nothing right nor wrong with these customs, nothing better nor worse. It’s just the way it’s done wherever you happen to be.

And then there’s airport security! Which countries do and do not have hangups about shoes, liquids, and laptops? TSA – take a trip. Pay attention!

How do we learn these unwritten rules in organizations? Pretty much the same way we learn them when visiting far-off lands. If we’re lucky, there will be someone who cares enough to tell us. We supplement that with observation, research, and simply asking.

I noticed in Brussels, that without exception, in the absence of cross-walk signals, drivers yield, unanimously, to pedestrians crossing an intersection. Expecting the same behavior in Istanbul will result in blood and broken bones.

I ordered Pad Thai from a stand in a food court in Singapore, and, when I asked what they had to drink, the guy looked at me like I was American, and politely directed me to a separate vendor who carried beverages. This was a food stand. No beverages on the menu. What are you thinking? When I gave a Singaporean cabbie a couple extra dollars over the metered fare, he looked at me like I didn’t know my numbers.

At work, not knowing the unwritten rules can have embarrassing, to career limiting consequences. Good leaders help new people navigate these treacherous waters. Aside from the written dress code, how do we really dress for success around here? How do we address those who live north of us on the org chart? In meetings, do we speak out, or wait to be recognized? Does the organization place a premium on doing the right things, or doing things right? Which works better here – challenging things outright, or taking a more considered approach?

Here are some thoughts (I won’t call them rules) on, well, rules:

When it comes to rules, fewer is generally better. I didn’t say “none is better”. Fewer is better.
As we wrote in Chapter 21 of Contented Cows Moove Faster, you should have 2 types of rules. Type 1 – a very few inviolable cardinal rules. Failure to comply renders one ineligible for membership in the organization.

Good leaders are crystal clear about these, and consistent in their enforcement. No one should even step foot on the premises on day one without having received clear, written documentation about Type 1 rules.

The immigration landing card you receive when you arrive in Singapore has, in bright red, all capital letters, in an area all its own, “DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW“. Any questions? If you have more than a few of these Type 1 rules, you’re either in a really weird business, you’re hiring the wrong people, or you’re a bureaucracy run amok.

Type 2, covering just about everything else, is more what this article is about. Sometimes, they’re de facto policies. More often, they’re culture elements that have evolved, for better or worse, as the organization has learned what seems to work best. They’re often the little things that can trip us up, unnecessarily. Good leaders are unfailingly skilled both at recognizing that these rules exist, and in schooling their followers as to how to abide by them, and when, and how, to challenge them.

Although not the case with Type 1 rules, discretion is a must for Type 2. If you’re a leader interested in having the best performing team you can, you’ll mold, groom, and develop your followers with respect to these “unwritten” rules, rather than punishing them if they don’t always get them right.

Finally, leaders in healthy organizations regularly examine, and question, the usefulness of their rules, especially those not written down anywhere. Is the “rule” helping our people do their best work? Does it build value for our customers? If you’re not sure, listen to both of these constituencies. They’ll tell you.

Get a chance for a free book. Got “unwritten rules”? Comment on this post and tell us about an unwritten rule you’ve seen, in your current or a former job. If you’d rather comment privately, send an email to Richard@ContentedCows.com. We’ll take all the entries, and on June 30, we’ll have a drawing for a complimentary copy of Rebooting Leadership. We’ll publish a list of the best answers in next month’s Fresh Milk newsletter, but we WON’T identify any names or organizations.

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Seven Simple Questions for a Great Employee Conversation

Richard Hadden — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:41:03 +0000

We’ve long advocated that managers move heaven and earth to get out and spend more time with the people they lead. Borrowing a phrase from one of our favorite legendary leaders, Vietnam era Major General Melvin Zais, we call it “sitting on the footlocker”. There’s simply no way to lead when the only contact we have is enabled by electronic means.

In addition to sitting on the footlocker, just observing, free from any specific agenda, being available, and visible, there are times when you want to sit down, face-to-face, one-on-one, and have a meaningful conversation with each person you lead. Doing this once a year, during the annual performance evaluation, is a little like going to church only on that one Sunday when all the women wear fancy hats, like some did just a few weeks ago.

No, we think more frequent is better. How often? As with so many things, it depends. But two or three times a year probably represents an improvement, and so we’d say that’s a good goal to shoot for.

Call it a coaching session, a midcourse checkup, or whatever you like. If you’re like most of us, you sometimes have trouble knowing where to start, and what to say. Here are seven questions that you – and your followers – will find helpful to move the conversation along:

1. How do you think you’re doing in your job?

2. What one thing do you think you could do better?

3. What help do you need to do that?

4. What one thing could others you work with do better?

5. What one thing do you like most about working here?

6. What one thing do you like least about working here?

7. If you were me, what one thing would you do differently?

The list starts with the sublimely simple, and progresses through questions that take a little more courage for others to answer. And perhaps for you to hear.

Before we sign off, some tips on making this conversation as productive as possible:

o Be prepared to be nowhere else but right there, with the person you’re talking with. Shut off the cell phone, don’t answer the landline, close your email client. Clear the decks. Clear your head.

o Learn the meaning of the number one. You’ll notice that five of the seven questions say “What one thing”. Stick to that limit. Otherwise, you’ll likely be there all day. If there are other issues that need attention, schedule a time to explore them. For this discussion, enforce the limit of one thing.

o Listen, listen, listen. You’re in input mode here, not output. Chapter 2 in Rebooting Leadership, and Chapter 7 in Contented Cows Moove Faster can help you here. If you don’t have these books, we can solve that problem for you. (Click here).

o Underpromise, and overdeliver. Make it clear that this conversation is to get your input, not to promise immediate changes. Question 7, in particular, could lead others to think that you’ll implement all of their specific recommendations. Be honest. Unless that’s your intention, sincerely thank them for their input, and then weigh it up with the other feedback you get. But – and this is a big but – if you’re seen to ignore everything you hear, you’ll shut down the flow, and quickly. When your followers see positive changes, based on their input, your credibility, and effectiveness as a real leader, will take off.

Finally, have fun with this. This conversation should be seen as a good one. Anything but a chewing out. They’ll be taking some risks if they’re completely honest with you. Play with that a little. Thank them for it. And then, act.

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The Fabric of Culture

Richard Hadden — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:36:46 +0000

As an American with a British wife, I’m sometimes asked (and no more often than in the last few weeks) what I think of the British royal family. The question is usually accompanied by the implication that the American asking it doesn’t quite understand the value of the monarchy, and thinks the royal family is a waste of time and money.

While I don’t share that view, I do understand why some feel that way.

And while this blog post is about organizational culture, and not about about the Windsors and Waleses, there are some pertinent points. To wit, the Queen’s approval rating among the British is about 80%. Hard to argue (or compete) with that. And, although it’s impossible to know, I suspect that the value of the monarchy to the tourist trade exceeds its cost.

But the real value of the British monarchy, and its associated family is in how it helps to define the culture of the British society. For better or worse, the monarchy is part of – I said part of – the essence of what it means to be British. These historic assumptions and practices have given structure, and some stability, to British society, kind of like protein molecules give structure and stability to a great loaf of crusty bread.

The organization where you work has a culture. And that culture goes a long way toward defining what – or who – that organization is.

Two eminent scholars, John Kotter, and Edgar Schein, have studied and written much about organizational culture in the last 30-40 years.

Harvard’s Kotter asserts that culture is part of why some organizations succeed and some fail.

MIT’s Schein defines culture as “A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems…, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems”. He points to what he calls “artifacts”, as the outward manifestations of that culture. The architecture of the corporate headquarters, dress code, our hiring practices, and how we treat employees are all examples of these artifacts.

At the heart of Schein’s thesis is that assumptions drive practices. Think about your assumptions with respect to people in the workplace. Whatever those assumptions are, they give structure to your organization, and allow it to function, with some consistency, over time. Do you assume that people are on the asset side of the balance sheet? Or the liability side? Do you assume that they’re trying to cheat the company, or make a valuable contribution? That they want to learn, grow, and develop? Or stagnate, collect, and retire on the job? These assumptions are critical to how you respond to, treat, and therefore lead people.

Here at Contented Cow Partners, we tend to agree with Dr. Schein. Assumptions drive practices. And carrying it further, practices drive results.

As you sit and watch the endless loop of today’s Royal Wedding coverage on TV, wherever you are in the world, ponder anew what your assumptions are about the people you work with. And how those assumptions make it to the bottom line.

Cheers!

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Enable People With Good Systems

Richard Hadden — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:36:35 +0000

For 15 years, I’ve been getting my cars’ oil changed at a little shop near my home. It’s not one of those 10-minute lube places; but while they do all kinds of car repair, they’ve always specialized in oil changes and related services. Without exception, every visit has been attended by the manager, a fellow named Tim. I had begun to think the guy never takes a day off, or a vacation.

The first time I went, in 1996, Tim took down all manner of information on me, my car, and my fluid preferences. Since then, he’s always greeted me, “Hello, Mr. Hadden,” and then without my needing to tell him or his staff anything at all, serviced my car, and handed me the keys a half-hour or so later.

Today, there was no Tim. “Oh, great,” I thought. “I’m going to have to tell them my name, and I hope they’ve got everything on file, so I don’t have to go through all that again.”

Instead, the counter attendant, who saw me drive up, said, “Thank you. Have a seat in the lobby, and we’ll have you out of here in a half-hour or so.” I kept thinking, “But aren’t you going to ask me my name, or what I want done, or what kind of oil I like?” I fired up my laptop, answered some emails, and 30 minutes later, he said, “Mr. Hadden, you’re ready.”

So I asked, “How did you know me? And how did you know my car? And where’s Tim?”

“Tim’s on vacation,” he said. “We plugged in your license plate number, and I saw that you’ve been coming here since 1996. You’ve had this car since ‘08, and I see the kinds of fluids we’ve been using in it. And it looks like your wife’s car should be due for an oil change pretty soon.”

For years, Bill and I have been saying, in books, speeches, and seminars, “Forget about ‘empowering’ people; instead, ‘enable’ them to do their best work, and their job satisfaction will go through the roof.”

Pro-Lube, on Library Road in Jacksonville, has done just that. I expect (and receive) this from Kimpton Hotels, for example. But from my neighborhood lube joint? It really is like the theme from “Cheers” suggests, that people like to go “where everybody knows your name.”

Meanwhile, my cable company makes me punch in my phone number twice, and when I finally get a human being on the line (in about the same amount of time as it takes to get my oil changed), that person asks me, again, for my phone number.

The point is simple. Good leaders are constantly looking for ways, through their systems, policies, and procedures, to make their people look good in the eyes of customers.

Right now, stop and figure out a way to this for your business.

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The Boss’s Speech

Richard Hadden — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:59:35 +0000

Have you seen “The King’s Speech”? My wife (who happens to be British) and I saw it this weekend, and we give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. I liked it not only because it’s a great movie, but for the leadership lessons it teaches.

Story first, then lessons. In a nutshell, Prince Albert (played by Colin Firth) has a speech disorder so severe that it’s nearly impossible for him to speak publicly. As the 2nd son, that wouldn’t have been so bad, except that his older brother, who becomes king when their dad dies, gives up the throne to marry a twice-divorced American. Suddenly, Albert becomes king, and promptly changes his name to George VI (are you with me?) While princes can get by with ribbon-cuttings at train stations, kings must address nations. Especially as they go to war.

As the threat of war in Europe loomed, George knew it would be his duty, and his alone, to tell the news to Britain, and indeed the world, using the new technology of radio. And whatever you may say about George VI, and his queen, Elizabeth, who most of us knew as the Queen Mother (played by Helena Bonham Carter), they understood the importance of duty. The new king toiled, at first reluctantly, and then with greater commitment, to improve his speech. Working with his unorthodox and uncertified speech therapist, Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush), the king eventually minimized his stammer, and the attendant anxiety, so that he was able to deliver, in nearly flawless cadence, in 1939, the most important address of his life, announcing to a worried and frightened nation, that the second World War had begun.

Here’s what I took away from the film, from a leadership standpoint:

People need to hear directly from their leaders – not through an intermediary – especially in times of crisis. King George could have commanded any number of more eloquent spokespersons to deliver the war message, especially since, in his case, speech was so excruciatingly painful. But sharing difficult news is a DIY job, not something to be outsourced to mouthpieces. Get help in crafting the message, to be sure, and, if necessary, as in the king’s case, with enunciating it. But deliver it yourself. Sooner, rather than later. And in person, if possible.
We never know when we’ll be thrust, unexpectedly, into a position of leadership. Be ready, as Albert was, to find yourself in a job you thought somebody else would do. Sadly, too many of today’s future leaders, coming of age in a bad economy, haven’t been afforded the necessity of much leadership development. Their employers will pay a price. Those who take it upon themselves to develop leadership skills will find themselves in an advantageous position when the time comes to step into the breach.
Learn to speak to those you lead, and to others, in a public setting. And learn to do it well. If you have a fear of public speaking (many do, we don’t), get help to conquer it. We’ve followed lots of corporate execs on stage, too many of whom did a shamefully incompetent job at the podium. It makes our job easier when that happens, but that’s not really what we’re after.
Hire the best, as the king did in hiring Lionel Logue. Worry less about degrees and whether or not the person has specific experience in your industry, and more about results. Logue had no degree, and he’d never treated royalty before. And yet his results speak, quite clearly, I might add, for themselves.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Talent Matters

Richard Hadden — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:14:59 +0000

Christina Aguilera is a talented singer, fully capable of rendering a flawless and inspiring performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner”, or many other songs, to the delight of all those within earshot.

Unfortunately, during the 2011 Super Bowl, she failed to deliver her best performance, butchering the tune, and forgetting words she has known since childhood. Everyone has an off day now and then. It’s better when it doesn’t happen in front of 100 million people, but hey, it happens.

There are thousands of singers in America, who, in terms of raw talent, could have outsung Ms. Aguilera, but let’s face it, talent was probably not the only, or even the primary, consideration in her selection. And that’s fine. The NFL, who does usually place a premium on talent, to the exclusion of less relevant factors, can hire whomever they like. In this case, it didn’t turn out so well, but it didn’t seem to detract much from the enjoyment of the game, especially for Packers fans.

All indications are that hiring in the US is slowly waking from a long hibernation. As employers get back into the hiring game, those who can’t afford a lot of missteps would do well to focus more on factors that predict job success, and less on criteria that miss the point.

Examples of the former:

Talent. Pure native talent. Are they naturally good at the job they’re expected to do?
Fit. Do they “fit” the organization’s culture, by virtue of temperament, nature, values, and character?
Behaviors. Do they tend to exhibit behaviors needed for the job under consideration.
In some cases, and I emphasize in some cases, experience doing the kind of work, industry and environment notwithstanding, they’ll need to do.

There are valid and defensible ways to screen for all of the above. Find them, and use them.

Examples of the latter:

Looks, height, weight, age, race, gender, politics, connections, and who they sleep with.
Credit score, unless it’s pertinent to the job, which in most cases, it isn’t.
Experience in your specific industry, again, unless it really matters. Hint: it often doesn’t. Employers in some fields in particular labor under the arrogant and often mistaken notion that unless the candidate has experience in their specific industry, they’ll never make it. Banking and healthcare are good examples, but they’re not the only ones. If you’re looking for lenders and anesthesiologists, industry experience would be a must-have. Accountants and project managers, not so much. Talent, skill, and “fit” transcend industry.

Talent matters. It matters a lot. Look for it, know how to recognize it, hire it, develop it, and reward it.

Rebooting Leadership is Launched!

Richard Hadden — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:12:38 +0000

Since the middle of 2007, corporate and other organizational training budgets have been in the deep freeze, along with new hire requisitions and your last three merit increases. During that period, four classes of grads have found their way into the workplace. Many of them have since moved into their first management positions as their predecessors and even a few baby boomers have ascended a rung, or moved along. Most of these moves have occurred with virtually no formal preparation or training to enhance the likelihood of success. Moreover, during this same period, the workspace has become a faster paced, less trusting, less forgiving, meaner place.

Learning about little things, like how to select/deselect teammates, how to coach for better performance, how to acquire and use influence, how to manage time/priorities, and how to recover from a failed project or other career spill has largely been declared DIY territory.

Against this backdrop, and armed with the belief that a recession is a terrible thing to waste, in 2009 we embarked on a new book project. The “we” in this case took on a new dimension by virtue of two important new partnerships.

First, on the writing front, we teamed up with Reston, Virginia based management consultant and coach, Meredith Kimbell. Meredith added fresh perspective, tons of great examples from her consulting practice, a pithy writing style, and a woman’s touch. And, she’s just plain fun to work with.

Second, in order to accentuate B2B sales, we signed on with the king of leadership book publishing and B2B distribution, David Cottrell of Cornerstone Leadership Institute. A strong reader’s advocate, David pushes authors, his staff, and himself to do their very best work, and do it in less than 118 pages. There is no doubt that he pushed and cajoled us into doing a better book. And, true to his word, David consistently does exactly what he says he will do. How refreshing is that?

For those who speak, train, coach, and consult for a living, as we do, doing a new book is akin to printing new business cards – expensive business cards. It is also a lever that forces us to think long and hard about new realities, and prepare fresh advice and content for client presentations; content that is worthy of the time it takes to read or listen to. Forgive the lack of modesty, but we’re confident that we’ve succeeded.

Rebooting Leadership, our newest work, was written expressly for the above-referenced 1st and 2nd level managers, who daily attend to the myriad thankless tasks associated with getting the wash out, and those who coach and lead them. It’s a high protein, fad-free guidebook that is chock full of prescriptive advice for surviving and succeeding in the new world in which we find ourselves. Think of it as a semester’s worth of leadership education for much less than the price of a textbook or seminar.

Rebooting Leadership is an easy, 2 hour read, equipped with immediately actionable insight and prescriptions. Available both in print and digital versions for the Kindle reader, it is our best stuff to date, and we want you to have it.

The book even has its own website, at RebootingLeadership.com.

The print edition is available for $15.95 from Cornerstone Leadership Institute (volume discounts apply).

The Kindle version is available for $9.99 from Amazon.

For those who like to try before they buy, a free sample chapter is available by clicking this link.

OR – if you want to have one of the authors come to your organization and teach your leaders what it means to reboot their leadership, click here.

Whichever path you choose, we’re confident that you will find Rebooting Leadership a valuable addition to your management library.

Report from Alaska’s North Slope

Richard Hadden — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:58:38 +0000

For some reason I don’t yet fully comprehend, we do a lot of work in Alaska. I’m not complaining. I love Alaska, its people, its terrain, and yes, even its weather.

Last week, I had one of the most unique and memorable experiences of my professional life, when I conducted a site visit to our client, Alaska Clean Seas, at their base in the settlement of Deadhorse, on Alaska’s North Slope, in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Bill and I will be speaking for their annual meeting in Anchorage in April. We’re serious when we say that we’ll go to any length to do our homework in preparation for a keynote presentation or training session. In this case, the “length” was about 5,000 miles. And did I mention that I made this trip in January?!

I learned far more than I could squeeze into a single blog post, so let me hit the high points. My chief curiosity before making the trip was, “What’s the attraction? What makes somebody want to work on the North Slope of Alaska, where the work is hard, potentially dangerous, isolated from family and friends, and where winter means double-digit subzero temperatures, 21-24 daily hours of total darkness, in a labor camp with no private homes, hotels, restaurants, schools, stores, or anything else we associate with ‘community’? Most Slope workers work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. That means 12-hours a day, for 14 days straight, then 14 days off, back at home. The company flies them to the Slope for their 2-week hitch, and then back home, wherever that might be. In Alaska, Seattle, San Diego, Montana, you name it.

Why would anyone do this?

Is it the big bucks? Partly, yes. There’s no denying it. These folks are paid well. And the work schedule – work HARD for 26 weeks a year, and do what you want the other half of the year – that’s VERY attractive to the people who work here. But it’s more. And in the case of Alaska Clean Seas, it’s much more. Here’s what I learned:

1. Mission is motivating. Alaska Clean Seas is a not-for-profit coop of North Slope oil and pipeline companies, whose mission is to provide response and cleanup for oil spills on the North Slope. These folks clean up this unique environment after routine operations in the production of North Slope oil, and after larger scale accidents and mishaps, like the pipeline leak that happened just this week. Do the people you lead have a clear motivating mission? Something that’s important to them?

2. Professionals want to work in the company of equally committed professionals. Everyone I spoke to said they genuinely like the people they work with, trust them with their safety, and respect them for their professionalism. Lessons: high standards beget high standards. Nobody wants to work with turkeys. We should keep that in mind as we recruit, hire, and promote during the economic recovery…and always.

3. People like doing cool things with cool stuff. Regardless of the temperature, this is cool work. ACS employees tout the variety in their jobs, and the “toys” they get to work with: snowmachines, 4-wheelers, oil skimmers, airboats. Serious work, but fun, too. Lesson: work a little fun into some of what your followers do.

4. Creature comforts matter. OK, Prudhoe Bay is no resort. Conditions are extreme, and virtually no one lives here permanently. They don’t call the town “Deadhorse” for nuthin’! But employers here do what they can to take the edge off. Workers live in attractive “camps” – think upscale college dorm – with wide screen plasma satellite HDTV’s in their rooms, really good food (and lots of it), well-appointed (and well-utilized) fitness facilities, wi-fi, social gathering areas with nice furnishings, religious opportunities, and much more. Lesson: every minute your employees have to worry about taking care of their own needs is a minute they can’t be focused on your customers’ needs.

5. Finally, you can’t pay anyone enough to be miserable. One worker aptly pointed out that almost all jobs on the North Slope pay well, and offer the 2-and-2 schedule. “If it weren’t for the schedule, none of us would be here. But,” he said, “I don’t care how much you pay me, and how much time I have off, if I didn’t love what I did, I wouldn’t work in these conditions.” Lesson: nevermind…you get it.

My timing for this trip was uncharacteristically fortuitous. Not only did I miss the pipeline leak (in which case my client would have been very busy), but the low temperature during my 2 days on the Slope hit about minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit. The week before, it had hit -47, and it’s headed back in that direction this week. Minus five was quite cold enough for this Florida boy.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Time for an Employer Brand Checkup?

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:00:46 +0000

I remember seeing a cartoon depicting a couple in the southern US, watching TV in a cluttered living room, strewn with beer cans, newspapers, and laundry. The wife hangs up the phone and says, “Paw, put on a shirt and straighten up the front room. Company’s comin’!”

If the momentum of a slow recovery pans out, with the attendant moderate uptick in hiring whose prediction was reported last week in USA Today, then a lot of employers will need to put on their shirts and straighten up the front room, because for the first time in years, company is sure enough comin’ through the HR office, the metaphorical “front room” of most organizations.

A December 1, 2010 article by Andrea Davis, in Employee Benefit News, reports that with hopes of at least a modest recovery, up to 60% of high-performing employees are eyeing plans to leave their organizations in 2011. That remains to be seen, of course, but what’s certain is that there’s lots of pent-up desire to seek greener pastures, and a more robust hiring picture will certainly open the gates for those who may feel abused and taken for granted during hard times.

If you’re planning to ramp up your hiring after a hiatus, it may be wise to do a checkup on your intake process, remembering that your reputation as an employer has everything to do with the caliber of your applicants. Some (no, lots of) organizations have become sloppy, cocky, and arrogant in how they treat potential new hires, reasoning that the labor supply/demand imbalance gives them the upper hand. They’ve apparently forgotten that every applicant represents a window, with a mouth, into the character of their organization.

If you know an organization like that (wink, wink, nod, nod), here’s a checklist you might want to send them anonymously:

Do we have enough HR staff to handle an increased workload without botching the job or burning themselves out?
Is the HR staff sufficiently trained in all aspects of their jobs, especially those who will be conducting interviews?
Does the professionalism and consideration with which we treat job applicants accurately reflect the way we treat our employees?
Do we treat every interviewee as we would a guest in our home?
Who – or what – is making decisions to take applicants to the next step? Do real humans have input at every point? Or are we letting software determine who gets to play on the team?
How well do we communicate with applicants? Do we let them know, in a timely and professional way, that they’re out of the running? Or do we assume they’ll figure it out by our inaction?
Are we looking for the right qualities? Things that really matter? Or are we stuck on irrelevant “qualifiers” that leave the best talent to the competition?
Do those we don’t hire feel at least about 80% as good about us as those we do?

The Hearing-Doing Gap

admin — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:20:16 +0000

Leaders must listen. But does being open to others’ input obligate us to implement their views?

First, the usual disclaimer whenever I blog something that could be seen as political: I’m not, repeat, not, making a political point here. The example I’ll use simply brings up an interesting leadership lesson. If I do what I intend, you won’t know any more about my political persuasion than you did before you started reading this.

Yesterday, Ohio Republican John Boehner (whom I don’t like) accepted the gavel as Speaker of the US House of Representatives from Democrat Nancy Pelosi (whom I don’t like). (How am I doing so far?) According to USA Today, Boehner promised, in his speech, that the minority party would be heard. Then, the first piece of business to come to the floor after the speech was fraught with disagreement between the R’s and D’s, and the R’s didn’t give in.

As a result, both Congressional Democrats and outside observers were quick to dismiss Boehner’s promise that Democrats’ views and input would be heard. This dismissal may ultimately be justified. Or not. But, at the moment, it’s premature.

OK – let’s move off the House floor, and into the place you work. As leaders, we have to listen. Really listen. And we have to be genuinely and honestly open to the input, views, ideas, opinions, plans, suggestions, and pleadings of those we lead. None of us is smart enough to lead well without doing this. But our openness and encouragement of others’ input does not create an obligation to always use it.

HOWEVER, comma… If we consistently ignore the stuff they give us, bang goes our credibility. And that has consequences. The kind we don’t want.

If you ask for your followers’ input, and never use it, they’ll learn not to bother offering it. Then you’re flying solo. While that’s not likely to happen in Congress, it’s the common response at work.

Just because the Republicans have verbally invited Democrats’ input, and then ignored it in this instance, tells us nothing about the sincerity of the invitation. A consistent pattern over the next few months, one way or the other, will.

Same goes for us at work.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

The cost of lethargy

admin — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 21:19:22 +0000

Popeye's in the Atlanta Airport - where they have a bit more OOMPH!

I lunched a few days ago at the Quizno’s sub shop in Concourse D of the Atlanta Airport. Actually, I lunched on the fast walk from the Quizno’s to my gate, but you get the pic. I like Quizno’s sandwiches, which is why I was willing to endure what I’m about to describe.

The people behind the counter (I hesitate to say working) had 2 speeds. Slow and stop. The longer I stood in line, the more I began to wonder if maybe the theoretical concept of absolute zero, the cessation of all molecular motion, were about to be realized.

To earn a profit in the quick service restaurant business (what fast food calls itself these days), things have to move fast; otherwise the numbers just don’t work. And I’d hate to be the Quizno’s manager who had to explain the numbers on this particular day. They simply couldn’t have gotten enough people through the line in the period of an hour to pay the fixed and variable costs they incurred. They don’t serve rice pilaf at Quizno’s, but there was plenty of customer peel-off as one hungry traveler after another changed destinations to competing outlets that afforded a greater chance of catching a bite before catching their flight.

I know what some of you are thinking – that the food service workforce in the Atlanta airport is made up largely of young people who haven’t had a lot of advantages in life, and they can’t really be expected to put a whole lot of oomph into making sandwiches. Bull! It’s not the workforce demographics that explain the lethargic performance in this shop. It’s the “management”, a representative of which could be seen in the back room of the shop talking on the phone while his employees were wandering aimlessly behind the counter and his profits were taking off for other destinations. You’ll see a demographic carbon copy of the Quizno’s crew in the Popeye’s Chicken in the same airport’s Concourse B. There, a spirited shift manager gets those chickens moving so fast down that serving line that you’d swear they had wings. I love watching the energy there, as this bunch makes serving fried chicken and cajun rice and beans look downright fun.

We wrote a book a few years ago, entitled Contented Cows Moove Faster. And we see the truth of that statement borne out every day. So do you. Got any lethargy in your outfit? How much is it costing you?

Does every performance get a standing ovation?

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:00:06 +0000

A few weeks ago, I attended a performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “Oklahoma!”, performed by a professional touring company, at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. It wasn’t West End (Britain’s Broadway), but it was close. Very close.

At the end of the show, the audience showed its intense appreciation for the outstanding performance with thunderous and sustained applause. From a seated position. The cast took their bows. The audience kept clapping, and hooting, and whistling, and shouting. And sitting.

As a big fan of musical theatre, and the father of a musical theatre major, I’ve been to lots of shows. In my experience, in the United States, unless a performance is embarrassingly lousy, it gets a standing ovation, deserved or not. Once in a while, after a truly remarkable performance, the standing O is spontaneous, immediate, and unanimous. More often, it starts with a few enthusiastic supporters, then those who think “Yeah, that was really good. I guess I’ll stand like these other people,” and finally a more reluctant group who stand so they don’t look like soreheads.

I belong to a professional association whose annual conventions (the last 19 of which I have attended) feature some of the best professional speakers in the world. Many of them have deserved a standing ovation; virtually all of them have received one. More than once, I’ve asked a friend sitting – er, standing, nearby, “Did you really think that was all that great?” to be answered, “Not really, but I think we should be supportive of each other, so I always stand at the end.”

I respectfully, and supportively, disagree.

Standing ovations, like the top rating on a performance evaluation, should be reserved for those performances that are truly distinguished in their excellence. When everybody gets a “5”, “Outstanding”, or “Consistently Exceeds Expectations”, it cheapens the feedback meant to be imparted by an evaluation.

I’m all for positive feedback. But I’m even more in favor of accurate feedback. Become known as a straight shooter. When someone’s got room for improvement, let them know, then help them get the rest of the way. We’re doing no favors when we tell people they’ve reached the summit, when the summit is actually just a few yards away. Reserve the standing ovations for those performances that are truly in a singular place at the top.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and the followup Contented Cows MOOve Faster. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Contented Cows on Real Recognition Radio

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:53:15 +0000

When: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time

What: Real Recognition Radio with Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown will feature Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden, talking about how good leaders get people to put more OOMPH! into their work.

Roy Saunderson, founder of Recognition Management Institute and S. Max Brown host Real Recognition Radio Tuesdays at 10 Eastern. These guys understand the value of recognition in getting the most, willingly, from people at work.

Tune in and listen to the show, on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, at 1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time, then bookmark their site, to listen each week.