Adventures in Leardership

The following article was written in 2001 after 9/11.  I updated some wording to reflect this last economic disaster but I was amazed how pertinent and meaningful the message is for surviving this latest economic disaster.

Déjà vu All Over Again

The events of September 11 underscored the globalization that has occurred in the world. The enemy strikes when we least expect it and then retreats, invisible until the next strike.

Many businesses are faced with the same globalization effects in the Great Recession of 2009 . Retailers, manufacturers, construction moguls, Wall Street Wonks and professionals operated  businesses assuming that they were insulated from the effects of what happens elsewhere in the world and their business success would go on forever. Then comes the sudden attack when the world turns upside down. You feel victimized and vulnerable because everything you built is now threatened and none of it was your fault.

The United States and the world essentially shut down while we stabilized the situation, recovered from the disaster and developed a new strategy going forward. You need to take a similar approach as the economy enters recession, people lose jobs and spendable income ends up in savings accounts instead of new goods or  services. It will not be business as usual which means that you need to:

§  Stabilize the situation: Work with existing customers to assure they are committed to your business.  Customers you counted on before are reassessing their own situation.

§  Recover from the disaster:  Develop SWAT teams to find new ways to generate sales and reduce expenses. Even though the disaster was not your fault, don’t sit back assuming YOUR recovery is not within your control!

§  Develop a new Strategy: Reassess your markets, products, people and growth. Develop new objectives and direction for the company if that is required. Down size if necessary. Diversify if warranted. Study the situation and figure out how the environment has changed and refocus efforts, energy and assets to achieve greater success.

Sometimes survival is the first step to success but survival is never an end in itself. This country learned a lot in the hours and days after the attacks. Those lessons need to be understood in our personal lives for our security and in our business lives for our well being. We are in control if we take control. We have learned about teamwork, commitment and unity. The organization is going to change if it is to survive. Don’t act like a victim. Our future lies in our resolve, resilience and productivity.

“Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that can’t be true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.”     Robert Orben

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” — Abraham Lincoln

No, Management One® has not turned to advising the political hopefuls on the campaign trail.
This article pertains to you, your business and how you run it.

I recently read a survey done by a colleague, Nikki Weiss, that captured the mood which exists in many organizations today. She queried staff members about the management of their organization.

Nikki related, “While many said they liked their immediate manager and other managers in the firm, they reported that, in general, all managers are too busy doing other things (selling, administrating, reading reports) and do not take the act of managing (developing people) seriously. The surprising and encouraging note in the survey was that the survey respondents craved a culture of accountability, in which managers who proclaim their commitments to standards of excellence and vision statements follow through on their pledges.”

This survey is interesting because it mirrors what I have seen in countless organizations. The staff craves a management process which they perceive as fair, committed, organized and demanding. This is opposite to the perception that the owners and managers have of their own people. The staff wants the managers and leaders to spend more time coaching, teaching and nurturing their performance rather than rushing in to do the job for them.

I have broken down the success of business people into 3 broad needs:

• Make the right decisions –
  • Leadership
• Get the decisions implemented –
  • Management
• Implement the decisions –

• Work

Of course there are many pieces and parts to implementing a good leadership, management and work program in a company but most people in independent business have a vast number of areas where improvements at all levels will yield great results.

Are you nurturing and teaching others to make the right decisions? Too often the managers feel they must do too much themselves and step all over the people who should be getting the work done.

Are you empowering others to do more and even make some mistakes? When managers let the workers do their job, motivation, commitment, innovation, fun and results improve!

In 1965 at the University of Pennsylvania, Marty Seligman conducted an interesting experiment where dogs were subjected to negative stimuli. When the stimulus occurred after a certain action, the dogs learned to avoid that action. When the stimulus was random, the dogs gave up and simply “took it”. This is what psychologists call “learned helplessness.”

The lesson in this for managers and owners is one of the importance of consistency. Humans react pretty much the same ways as the dogs did. When people have a view that they can influence or change the situation, they are more prepared to cope and defend. If they don’t see the situation as permanent, they often hunker down to weather the storm, then they come back ready to overcome new obstacles.

When many people give up trying, they become passive and quit thinking on their own. When there are vague rules, guidelines, strategy or job descriptions, the worker does not know what to expect. He feels he has little control of his work environment and, like the dogs, he becomes passive. He quits thinking, creating or expecting and he tries to establish as much routine in his day as possible. Unfortunately he does that by avoiding more changes.

There is a different approach from the one of random inconsistency in management  called “learned response” which is how most people learn to do their jobs. They are trained that when a certain stimulus happens, it prompts a certain response. When that occurs in a consistent manner and success occurs from the response, learning transpires. More importantly, their attitude becomes one of optimism, excitement and control. They are more open to changes in stimuli response so that they can adapt and learn new ways to handle a changing world.

The new response becomes consistent, not random. The employees remain the creative, innovative and energetic people who were originally hired.

The Engine and Employees who Could

A favorite children’s story is “The Little Engine who Could”. Here was a tiny engine who believed he could get over the mountain. Because of that belief and the little children on the other side who needed his cargo of toys, he made it. Those two traits that are the basis of this story go way beyond childhood to the heart of every successful person:  Confidence and Importance.

The truth is that people can do what they think they can do. The 4-minute mile was “impossible” in the opinion of experts of the day. In fact, it took 9 years to lower the record the last 1.4 seconds to break the 4-minute mile. Once Roger Bannister did it, his record stood for just 46 days until an Aussie, John Landy, broke Bannister’s record by 1.5 seconds. Today an Olympic athlete will be well back in the pack at 4 minutes. Once the barrier was broken and others believed it could be done, it was.

When people believe that what they are doing is important and that they can do it, they are very likely to get it done. Remember the mantra:  “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . .  ”

Who do we Appreciate?

Appreciation is a very under appreciated motivator. Too often business people focus on money as the only motivator that matters. To cut costs other than salaries, owners sometimes resort to cutting back on staff or scrimping on tools staff members need to do their job. The result is a frustrated and bewildered staff. Studies show that workers who feel appreciated are 52% less likely to look for work elsewhere.

A pay raise is an action that soon loses its motivational power. Appreciation is an ongoing process that involves listening, taking an interest and showing excitement for the achievement of others. A simple and sincere “thank you” is a good start. They care about how much you care!

Management One® is all about helping every retailer succeed. That is why we offer Winning@Marketing as well as financial consultation, cash flow planning, management consulting with Ultimate Retail and budget reviews — all important to retail success. Let us show you how you can bring more profit to your bottom line.

Quote of the Day

“Well done is half done.” - Aristotle

Frustration in business. Frustration saps more productivity from a business that any other cause yet most businessmen tend to ignore the untapped potential. If you look around there is frustration everywhere. It permeates from top to bottom. I will offer a few examples but the key is to write down your own frustrations. OwnersLeaders of businesses have many frustrations that come from within and outside the business. In some cases the frustration is from employees that require extensive communication in order to function. In other cases it is from employees that cannot do the job to the level expected. Sometimes customer’s demands seem unreasonable or their complaints relentless. In still other cases the magnitude and consistency of the barrage wears a person down and becomes frustrating. ManagersOften managers are very frustrated due to a lack of empowerment. When a person is given responsibility but not the necessary authority, he is put in a frustration building pressure cooker. Other managers are frustrated by the clash in personality with subordinates and superiors. EmployeesEmployees are faced with a myriad of challenges that are often poorly defined. They are expected to overcome these challenges with tools that they perceive are inadequate. They are under funded and over supervised in their quest to achieve success. Everyone Life balance is a concept that has arisen with the X-Generation. Boomers were not allowed life balance but as they enter their moneyed years they feel they can afford some at this point in their career. When strains and demands at work conflict with the strains and demands at home, there will be immense frustration on one side or the other. This life balance requires funding that some people do not have and others perceive is inadequate. Whether that comes as not having enough money to pay the rent on the house or to make the payment on the yacht, it is frustration. As a consultant, frustration is one of the greatest reasons that I am hired. Surely no one blames it on that. It is always blamed on cash flow, employee turnover, over work, poor productivity and the like but I would not be hired if these issues did not degenerate into frustration. Overwhelmingly the answer applied to frustration falls into the following categories:

• Tough it out
• Ignore it

Winning@Businessâ„¢ is one proven way to overcome much of the frustration in business. It is a methodology to focus on the greatest frustrations in the business and overcome them. Some of the keys to success in overcoming frustration included are:

• Communication
• Problem solving
• Meeting Technology

Team management Teamwork is very important. It helps people take ownership of their own assigned frustrations while unburdening them from the general frustrations of others. The focus is on the present and what needs to be done. You can fantasize and even lie about the future. You cannot do so in the present and that is another key to success. When you start overcoming your own frustration your approach to work improves. Your ability to work with and through others improves and your productivity increases about 30% in most cases. Multiply that 30% across the board in your business and you begin to see the potential that Winning@Business and team management can bring to an organization.What is your greatest frustration? What do you do to overcome frustration? Let me know by posting here or through our website at (www.management-one.biz)

I have always recognized a great need to get team members motivated to do what I needed to get done. Sometimes getting the goal accomplished meant it happened in ways I didn’t expect, but in the end that was fine. Better even. Sometimes what I wanted the team to get done didn’t happen and I was always interested in why. I really think there were two reasons for differing responses by the team to my efforts at business development depending on the stage of my career that I was in.

When I was a young manager I thought I knew more than I did. I would develop a plan and then start organizing people and telling them what each one was to do according to my plan. Sometimes it worked but often the results and dedication of the team were less than desired.

I was then moved from assistant paper mill superintendent to pulp mill superintendent. In the pulp mill there was an assistant I had, Harold Tanner, who was much older (and wiser). He would always corner me and say, ” why don’t we think about this for a minute?” We would then begin to communicate our views and reach a consensus on what WE should do. Suddenly things started getting done! I learned a lot about the importance of consensus and communication from Harold. He was the one that showed me how team management could work on the job!

I put a lot of Harold into the Winning@Business process that I developed to help others manage their business more effectively. The lessons included:

• Communicate clearly

• Listen

• Adapt

• Get commitment

Easier said than done you might quip and you would have a good point. The fact is, however, that these aspects of business development are critical to long-term success. When teamwork becomes ingrained in your management process and culture, employee turnover goes down, motivation rises, commitment and dedication increase and you start seeing happier customers too. Always remember that your people will support what they help create.

Evan Wise

Managing Director of Management One Consulting