Leadership on Speed

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Continued Success!

one of the most powerful movies i have seen in a long time

With my schedule, I don't get to watch nearly as many movies as I would like (older or newer) but I recently had the chance to watch the movie Secretariat and I LOVED it.  It is only fair to tell you that I am a bit biased because 1. I LOVE horses and 2. I am a sucker for anything remotely inspirational but, in my opinion this movies still moves to the top of the list.  

Most biographical movies are not 100% accurate and Secretariat is no different but any movie that inspires me to spend hours pouring through material to learn the rest of the actual story should be an indicator of how much I enjoyed it and the more I learned the more fascinated I became..

I learned a lot of lessons from Mrs. Tweedy and her crew.  Here are just a few: 

1.  Only YOU know what you know

    Despite how others may discount you, YOU know what you know.  If you have the experience or expertise to make something happen (even if you are the only one who knows it), GO FOR IT.

2.  Believe in yourself.  Believe in your dream. 

    New journeys are frought with trepidation and uncertainty.  Often the only thing that sustains you is your vision of the outcome.  Believe in yourself.  You may not always be confident in the path but always stand firm in the destination.

3.  Dreams breed innovation and creativity.

    Don't be afraid to step out of the box to accomplish the seemingly impossible.  You may be the only person on the planet to do what you are about to do - and that's ok.

3.  Commitment. Commitment. Commitment.

   Did I say commitment?

4.  Surround yourself with the right team.

   It is not enough to have talented people around you (though that is important).  They must also be likeminded spirits and believe in the dream as passionately as you do.  There is no doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.  

5.  Commitment to a dream means sacrifice.

    Any journey worth taking involves sacrifice.  If you don't recognize that, I guarantee you that the people around you will.  

6.  Trust your intuition.

    This has always been a core belief of mine throughout my life and this movie only reaffirms that.  Women tend to call it "intuition".  Men may feel more comfortable "going with their gut" but however you couch it, use it.  The only times my intuition has EVER failed me was when I failed to trust IT.

7.  Speak your truth but let actions speak louder.

    It's one thing to speak up when the time is right but sometimes words can become bluster.  When that happens, it's time to be quiet and let the work speak for itself.  NO ONE ignores results.

8.  Know when to walk on the edge.

   No risk. No reward.  All of the great leaders of our day walked on the edge.  They walked on the edge because they believed in something so strongly that they could take no other action.  It was often not until the race had been run that history revealed their true greatness.

9.  Sometimes it takes a perfect storm.

   The question becomes: Are perfect storms acts of God or do you actually create the perfect storm by acting on influences in your environment?  I believe the latter.  Leaders see a need and make a choice to fill the gap.  They see events unfolding and recognize that they can make a difference where others see events unfolding and hope someone else will do something about it.

Is it time for your perfect storm?

Continue to be great! 

it's a culture thing

I was recently reading a blog post that invited companies when hiring to "Hire for Culture First, Skills Second".  While it was an interesting read, it was also a frustrating one.

Why?

Because the fact of that matter is that YOU (as the hiree) should do your best to ensure that the company fits you culturally first.  That is your responsibility and should not be left to the auspices of the company you are interviewing with.  Presumably, you are interviewing for a position because you already know that you can do the work - that's the easy part.  

What is less clear is how you will fit into the organization.

Don't let  organizations rule you out because you don't fit.  You should already know before you interview whether that company is potentially a good fit, and why. 

Failure at an organization is often less about job skills than it is about fit.  If you join a company and then find that the company ethics or way of doing business goes against everything that you stand for, your ability to succeed is greatly diminished.  If doing your job means compromising who you are, you may eventually pay the price mentally, physically and finanicially to the extent that all those compromises lead to a decline in job performance.

And it will.

So do yourself (and your career) a favor.  

Don't go for the money without buying into the company culture first.

Your career (and your sanity) depends on it...

Continue to be great!

 

i left. you might. and so will your loyal customers.

As both a CEO and a consumer, I often experience customer service situations through a unique lens.  I am usually on the lookout for how to apply those experiences to my own organization. Seth Godin reminded me today of a recent encounter with my (now former) cable company that had the potential to teach me a powerful business lesson.

Which I completely ignored.

Until now....

You see, my husband and I were loyal Dish customers for almost 10 years.  For about the past year, we had been discussing the possibility of looking around but we were quite satisfied with the service.  We really thought perhaps that the outcome of our investigation would result in our continuing with Dish but negotiating better pricing.  We were certainly in no real hurry to switch primarily because we had many of our favorite programs saved on the Dish DVR and we were struggling with a simple way to save those to another device.

....then our HD hard drive crashed and we lost all of our recordings anyway - STRIKE ONE.

Bummer, drag.

Yet and still, Dish sent us a new HD box and with all we had on our plate we were still in no hurry. In the meantime, we continued to casually look around at other providers and we noticed that we could really save money even if we added more services. 

Still no hurry.

Then our new HD box began acting funny - STRIKE ONE AND A HALF.

Hmmmmm......

Still no hurry.

We became "ispired" while were out running errands one day at Sam's Club and a DirectTV rep "happened" to be in the store selling HD packages.  Fortuitous, right?

We got a great deal, saved ourselves about $100/month on comparable services (STRIKE TWO FOR DISH) and switched to Direct that day but it was when I called to cancel Dish that I learned the most.

Now remember, we had been Dish customers for 10 years.  Always paid on time.  Never a problem.  When I phoned Dish to cancel, the discussion went something like this:

Me: Hi.  I'm calling to cancel our Dish service.

Dish rep: Well hello.  I see you are one of our best customers.  Wow, you have been with us a very long time....  Well if you stay with Dish, we have a special going on that gives you free...(blah, blah, blah).  We also have a special program that can reduce your price on "x".

Me:  Well thank you but those deals still don't come close to saving the money I do by switching.  I am going to save $100/month.

Dish rep: Is that for comparable service because we do have the lowest pricing in the market.

Me:  You may think that's true but clearly if I'm saving $100/month for the same service, your pricing isn't the lowest.

Here is where it get's really interesting......

Dish rep:  Well, I see that you guys are not signed up for our email specials.  Had you been signed up for those and viewed them on a regular basis, you would have seen many specials that might have saved you more money because we do have the lowest prices in the market.

Me:  What I heard her say in my head was "It's your own fault stupid for paying too much." STRIKE THREE! What I replied was, "Well sweetie, I believe that YOU believe that you have the lowest prices in the market. Please just end my service."

Dish rep: Yes ma'am.  We're sorry to see you go.  We will send you some boxes to return your items.  You don't have an outstanding balance but we do charge you for the boxes to return your equipment..

Al-righty then.  After 10 years of being an excellent customer and OVERpaying for years and years and years, the final insult was an additional $31 charge to NOT be a Dish customer anymore.

MY LESSONS:

Great customers are valuable gems.  They need to be nurtured and cared for.  If Dish could decrease our bill by $40 when we threatened to leave, they could have decreased our bill JUST for being a loyal customer (which is better than a good customer).  If just once Dish had sent us a letter saying:

Thank you for your loyalty.  In reviewing our records, we see that you have been a customer for well over 5 years (or 6 or 7 or 8 or whatever the number is) and we would like to thank you by reducing your regular bill by $20/month.

Heck, it could have been $10 for all I care, the point is that we would have KNOWN they valued us and despite continuing to pay more money (even with the reduction), they would most likely have kept us for another 10 years.

As a CEO, I promise to do better for our clients - to notice, to reward and to be loyal to those who are loyal to us (and to ensure that our client services personnel NEVER call anyone stupid). We hope you will too.

Thank you for your continued confidence (and thank you Seth for the reminder).

Continue to be great!

 

PS.  For Seth's full blog post, click here.

 

fridays inspirational vid: are you living a life of immersion?

I found this to be a powerful video by Jacqueline Novogratz on living a life of immersion.  Of the need for leaders who are not drawn by money to fill a purpose but by passion and the willingness to live in that passion (ie immersion) understanding that taking "the road less traveled" also means making sacrifices to be the difference only you can be in the world.  As you watch this, I ask that you think about your purpose.  Your passion.  What changes and what sacrifices would you need to live a life of immersion?  Are you willing to go there?

 

valentines day: the rest of the story

Happy Valentine's Day!!  If you are among those of us who believe that Valentine's Day was created by Hallmark in order to sell more cards, think again.  I thought you might be interested in the rest of the story.....

First of all, the story goes that Saint Valentine is probably not just one man but rather a number of martyred saints named Valentine or Valentinus, names derived from the Latin word for valor.  According to Christian tradition, all of these Saint Valentines are believed to have been martyred on February 14th.

In fact, of the first three Valentines or Valentinus', one was a doctor committed to treating those who could not pay, the second was beheaded for protecting Christians from the Romans and the third is a bishop believed to have been killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian.

Does it come as a surprise that a holiday that has morphed into being about love has its roots in the valor and honor of the human spirit? 

Doesn't almost everything?

For the full story, click here.

Continue to be great!

people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it

Does everyone in your organization know (and buy into) why your company does what it does? How do you inspire your customers to do business with you?  This speaks directly to why a shared vision is so critical to the success of an organization.  I would love to get your feedback once you have had a chance to watch.  Agree? Disagree? Why?

 

Continue to be great!

silence is not always golden

One of the core challenges many people often have in the business environment involves the simple act of knowing when to use their voice - of knowing when to  speak up in order to make a difference in their space.  

How often have you been in a meeting discussing a business situation and a thought crossed your mind which sat on your tongue?  In the span of mere seconds, you surveyed the participants, heard your idea spoken, evaluated the perception (Is it the "right" idea? Will it sound "smart"?  Will this make me sound competent or inept?  Will it sound too rudimentary?) and after internally evaluating all of the possible outcomes, you decided against speaking.

Invariably, minutes later, someone else shares the same thought you had on your mind and they are praised for their great insight and contribution.

You, meanwhile, are mentally kicking yourself....

So how do you decide when the time is right?

In a recent Conversation Starter blog post, Nilofer Merchant over at HBR identified three critical times when speaking up is not only valuable, but necessary:

1.  When it will improve the results of the group

2.  When it gives others permission to speak their truth

3.  When the costs of silence are too high

I couldn't agree more.  For her full blog post, click here.

Continue to be great!

 

keeping the pedal to the metal eventually takes its toll

The April issue of Harvard Business Review had an interesting article entitled The Acceleration Trap which highlights a challenge faced by so many of my clients (if not all) particularly in the current economic environment.  Organizations have simultaneously downsized personnel while trying to increase production which means that the associates left behind who were once operating at 80-90% production are now functioning at 125%+ on a daily basis.  Every organization goes through periods of increased productivity but The Acceleration Trap occurs when organizations rev up to 125%+ and instead of revving down after the project or mission is complete, leaders expect the employees to continually operate at the new higher level.  In other words, that higher pace becomes the new normal.

As you might imagine, the article goes on to point out the potentially negative impact of consistently operating in high gear and outlines some strategies for decelerating such as stopping the action and deciding how to make decisions but as a strategic planning consultant, it was the suggestion surrounding strategic planning that most caught my attention:

Be clear about strategy and more importantly, ask the question, "What should we stop doing?"  When working with clients, it is always one of my favorite questions and ultimately one of the most thought-provoking questions we can ask as business leaders.

No strategic planning discussion is complete without also discussing actions and activities that need to stop.  Otherwise, we're only perpetuating the trap by piling more on an already overfull plate.  But you don't need a strategic planning session to begin to notice the superflous activities that occur needlessly in your organization.  Here's an activity for you:

Pull your team together.  Get an assessment of where they spend most of their time and ask this question:  What activities are you currently engaged in that if you stopped doing would have absolutely no negative impact on accomplishing your goals?

You may be surprised by what you hear.

Continue to be great!

coaching your promotees to success

This post is inspired by Steve Tobak.  Back in July he wrote a post entitled Why That Big Promotion Can Be a Curse. Steve's post focused on failed CEO promotions in light of the BP debacle but it really got me to thinking about failed promotions at all levels of an organization and "why those little promotions can also be a curse".

In North American culture, we are taught from early ages to desire "status".  Early on (whether we as parents like it or not) society teaches our children that they are more "important" if they have it.  We get a bit more excited and proud when they are elected as team captain or president of "something".  Colleges are impressed by early demonstrations of leadership.  As we go out into the world, we are considered more successful if we move "up" into management.  We gain more money and we gain more respect.

It is what it is.  No judgment here.

The problem is that all too often, when we promote our high performers, we do nothing to ensure their continued success and when they fumble their way to failure, everyone loses. 

For the sake of clarity, we'll place promotions into two distinct buckets: managerial and non-managerial.

Non-managerial promotions tend to involve technical expertise (ie promotion from Lab Tech One to Lab Tech Two).  They may involve some implied leadership based on a greater knowledge-base but the associate is not held accountable for the leadership they take on.

This posted is directed towards those promoted into management and how organizations can help newly promoted managers and leaders be successful from the beginning:

1.  Begin to provide leadership opportunities before the promotion.  This gives the candidate an opportunity to "try on" a leadership role and decide if it's for them while giving you the chance to see them in action. It also stretches them because taking on leadership without a title requires a unique skill set that will only serve them when they are promoted.

2.  Don't assume that your newly promoted manager has the skills for his new role. Educate associates on what it means to be a manager and if possible, set-up advancement tracks that are not linked to management.  Recognize that not everyone wants to be a manager and not everyone who wants to be a manager can do so.

3.  Provide a leadership coach to newly promoted managers and new leaders in the organization.  This gives them a "partner" from the beginning and provides objective feedback to support leadership growth by an expert in the field.

4.  Assign a mentor at least two levels above the new leader.  Why two levels?  Leaders at the next level may feel threatened by up-and-coming talent. 

5.  Set-up quarterly personal development goals and assessments.  New leaders need to know what's working and what isn't working (collaborating with a leadership coach can maximize this process).  This also demonstrates that you care about their success beyond the numbers and models a process that they will adopt as they grow and promote others!

6.  CRITICAL: Rinse and repeat with every promotion.  These guidelines don't just apply to the first time manager.  They also apply when a manager is promoted to senior manager, a senior manager to a director and on and on.  Each new level brings its own new challenges and corporate leadership has a responsibility to provide the tools to offer its leaders the best opportunity to succeed.  We all know that "hope is a bad business plan" and that applies to "hoping" new leaders succeed without giving them any tools to do so.

Continue to be great!