Adventures in Leardership

There are always some stories that are told and retold because they are so pertinent and meaningful to our own lives. One of my favorites is about Tiger Woods after he won the Masters Tournament in Augusta Ga. Arguably the pinnacle in the golf world, most people would revel in their success and rest on their laurels. Not Tiger. As the story goes, he went to Michael Jordon to discuss how he stays at the top if his game. The two of them agreed that constant and continuous improvement was the key. Tiger then took some time off from golf; not to vacation, not to go on the speaking tour, and not to spend time with his family. He took time off to completely revamp his swing! The best golfer in the world takes time off to revamp the best swing in the world. The rest is history.

We all work at many things and continuously practice some as well but not all practice is necessarily good. Most of us work to a level of proficiency that is acceptable or even respected and then plateau. Studies show that the level of performance does NOT correlate to the number of years in the field! How many people do you know with 30 years of experience compared to those you know with 2 years of experience 15 times over? Maybe even you!

In order to improve in our chosen endeavor, hopefully that includes running your business, you need to follow Tiger’s lead. Don’t just keep practicing the same actions but take your game apart. Get better at each piece and part. In the case of golf it might be keeping your elbow tucked into your side during your swing that is practiced for a month! In your business it might be your hiring process, your negotiation skill, your performance review process or the hundreds of other individual activities that you do every day.

Another aspect of Tiger’s approach is important too. Tiger, again the best golfer in the world, would not have tried to improve his game without his coach at his side. The coach provided feedback on his every move. The coach prevented Tiger from developing and practicing bad habits. The coach challenged Tiger’s thinking to help him arrive at the best way to improve his game.

If you really want to improve your abilities beyond the plateau you reached long ago, you need a coach that understands your challenges and your business. They don’t need to be the best player but they do need to be a great coach! In our case we not only use a coach, but the entire coaching team impacts the business. Conference calls are important to give other inputs and challenges. On site visits by the consultant is important to help the owner and the steering team improve their game.

Tiger’s success is proof positive that meaningful continuous improvement works. There are many others. Your’s should be among them.

As we enter a New Year, every business owner should include the goal of becoming a better leader on the list of goals and resolutions.. Leadership is about making the right decisions for your business. Every owner should work to encourage greater teamwork to draw on the best resources and talents that each individual can bring to the table. A great leader draws on the experience, input, knowledge and ideas of all team members to make the best decision possible. Leadership starts with sharing knowledge.

A good leader must be able to listen and ask good questions. That means that the leader must understand himself in order to handle input in a non-judgmental way.. The leader’s judgment will be important later at the time the decision must be made. When a leader makes judgments too early in the process of making a decision, he or she stifles input from others and shuts down valuable sources of ideas, motivation and innovation. A good leader must also know his staff and organization and understand how they can contribute to decisions and actions.

Above all, a good leader defines the vision, values and culture of the business and then has the integrity to lead within those parameters. Vision and values tell the organization what you stand for and make you easier to trust and work for. The effective leader can use that template to guide the decision making process and the staff will understand what is expected and how to contribute .

A leadership team will require a steering team made up of key managers and those with influence in the organization. This team must be trained, coached, and guided in order to be successful in their mission. There are some decisions that remain in the domain of the leader and the steering team. Those involve

• Strategy
• People
• Crisis
• Budgets

In addition to these, the steering team must focus the organization on what is important.

If the owner happens to be a good leader, the right decisions will be made. When owners use a management process that brings a strong element of leadership to the organization, more good decisions will be made. Without a solid proven management and leadership process, the decision the owner wants often takes precedence over the decision that is best for the business. When that happens, the staff will often be less than enthusiastic and committed to implementation and success.

Once the right decision is made, the organization must spring into action to implement that decision. That is effective management. In 2008 success will require providing the organization a management process to communicate effectively and follow up on actions and results. Accountability is important but motivation and commitment are as important. The fact is, a good manager will use accountability positively to celebrate success and reward positive results.

Managing means allowing your organization to make decisions and influence decisions. The real work occurs where your organization interacts with customers, vendors, creditors and the community. That is what we call the Employee Action Interface. (EAI) The process of delegating successfully at the EAI begins with empowering effectively! A manager that delegates without effectively empowering makes success unlikely. The process of empowerment is not trivial and that is the subject of another blog. Suffice it to say that there are hundreds of operational decisions that are required each day and the more of these that are made at the Employee Action Interface, the more effective and efficient your organization will be. Real success is impossible unless it is reflected at the EAI!

Every owner and business should be establishing goals and resolutions for the New Year. Look back and see how well you did last year. If you need to do better this year, find a process to help you do that. This year promises to be a challenging one if you believe all the economic skeptics. The business is out there but you must be more effective and efficient at landing a greater share of a shrinking market. That means making the right decisions, focusing on the right actions and motivating the whole team to achieve results.

A solid management and leadership process is successful only when there is input from those closest to the issue. In 2008, why not commit to establishing the culture and the forum to gather the right input and arrive at the best decisions for your business. That is leadership. Have a very happy, prosperous and successful New Year!

We have not turned to advising the political hopefuls on the campaign trail. This pertains to you and how you run your business. 

I recently read a survey done by a colleague, Nicki Weiss, that captured the mood that exists in many organizations today. She queried staff about the management of their organization.  “While many said they like 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 was interesting because it mirrors what I have seen in countless organizations. The staff is craving a management process that they perceive is fair, committed, organized and demanding.  This is opposite to the perception that the owners and managers have of their own people.  They want their 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 three 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 amount of area where improvements at all levels  will yield great results.  

 

Often owners view themselves as the sole leaders and only one capable to make the decisions in the business. 

Are you nurturing and teaching others to make the right decisions?

Too often the managers feel that they must do too much themselves and step all over the people that should be getting the work done.

Are you empowering others to do more and even make some mistakes?  

In a simplified view, when owners are the leaders, managers manage and let the workers do their job; motivation, commitment, innovation, fun and results improve!

What’s the Point?

By Evan Wise

Managing Director

Management One®

Look at any sport. Read the instructions for any game. The first thing you want to know is, “What’s the goal?” In football they are so blatant as to call it the goal line. In baseball it is called home plate. In checkers it is to capture all of the other persons pieces. Whenever there is a situation where you win or lose, success means identifying the goal and achieving it.

The problem is in many real world situations the goal is not clear. Choose the wrong goal and even if you achieve it, you can lose. Regardless of your view on what should be done now, most would agree that the U.S. chose the wrong goal in Iraq in 2003. We declared, “Mission accomplished” because we achieved the goal we set but it was the wrong goal. The same situation happens in businesses all the time. A goal is set to launch a new product and money, time, emotion and effort are poured into achieving the goal. The product is launched and sits on the shelves unsold. Wrong goal achieved!

What are the goals you have set for your business? If you said to make a profit you are wrong. Profit is what happens when you choose the right goals. Profit is what happens when you achieve the right goals. Profit is what happens when you manage your business effectively. Making a profit requires skill in so many different areas that it is much too broad to be a goal. So what is a goal? How do you create a good one? When we are hired to implement Winning@Businessâ„¢ we work hard with our clients to help them choose the right goals and achieve them. The following are some good guidelines to establish goals.

1. A goal must be simple and clear to everyone who has a part in achieving it. Too often a goal is only in the mind of the owner. Other times the goal is too all encompassing to be achievable (like profit). When the goal is not simple, the impact that each person has on the goal is not clear and direct. There are too many other factors that affect the outcome; no one really owns the goal.
2. If you can’t measure it, you can’t achieve it. When goals are subjective, everyone can have a different opinion about whether it was achieved or not. For example, “We want to make customers happier,” sounds like a great goal for any business. Unless you measure with surveys or repeat business, there is no definitive answer as to whether you were successful or not. Every goal must be stated in measurable terms.
3. Your steering team must own the goal. At Management One® the first endeavor is to replace an owner driven company with a team driven company. The owner still navigates but the team steers. Training and implementing that steering team to work effectively is important in the success of the business. The steering team must own and embrace the goal in order for it to be achieved. If not, and the owner is the only one that embraces the goal, the owner will need to be there constantly to be sure the actions are taken to achieve the goal. When the owner begins to micromanage he emasculates all his employees and he becomes the critical part of the business. He works 80 hours a week and is married to the business!
4. The steering team must create accountability for achieving the goal. Each steering team meeting includes follow-up and review to be certain the goal is being achieved.
5. Communication is always a huge part of every successful company. We work hard with clients to improve their communication processes and skills. When setting goals and achieving them, effective communication to every employee is important. The communication should also include an understanding of how the goal affects the way that person does his job. If the goal does not effect different actions, different results will not be achieved!
6. Give the goal a deadline. Goals that are open-ended are meaningless. That is why there is a goal line in football! Will you reach the measured goal in 3 months or a year? Try not to go longer than a year unless the goal truly demands that much time. (i.e. if you are building a nuclear power plant as the goal, it may take 7 years!)

There are other important keys to effective goal setting but these key steps will move a company in the right direction. A good consultant will help identify the right goal, help you state it in the right way and then stick around to be sure you achieve it.

Change is good. It moves us forward and challenges us to create and innovate. Change is bad. The disruptions create havoc and stress. Since Management One® is all about helping businesses manage and even create change, understanding when change is good or not is important. In today’s fast paced world where TV ads promise you can lose weight in days, build muscle in weeks or get rich in months, we expect that huge improvements should be within our grasp immediately. Of course, none of these ads can consistently deliver on the promises they make! Fast change is usually not good change. Like an earthquake, the fast change leaves disruption in its path. When change is an event, it is normally difficult to predict and impossible to control. The best we can do is frantically adapt to make the best of the new situation.

When change is a process, there is a huge opportunity for a business to manage, wisely adapt and prosper from the transition. These changes are trends, forecasts and sometimes demographic shifts that occur slowly over time.

Recognizing the change is the first challenge. Developing processes that take advantage of the change is step two. The last step is implementing the adaptations to the change. Winning@Business™, Winning@Retail™ and Winning@Marketing are all based on moving businesses to implement adaptations to take advantage of the “good change”.

As a CEO, owner or leader of a company, the networks and relationships that you build can make or break the success of your endeavors. Independent business leaders tend to overemphasize their technical expertise in driving the business forward rather than relying on their leadership skills. Leadership is what is needed to pull away from the pack, move to the next level and realize the dreams that you had when you went into business. So how do you readjust the way that you operate with the business to better serve the company as the leader? When your networking within the organization is geared toward the deployment of your directives or only meeting the objectives you assigned, people tend to only achieve what they are
told to achieve – if that. Building relationships strategically means asking questions instead of issuing directives: “Why do you want to do that?”; “What else could you be doing?” and “What do you think would help more?” These are questions that elicit strategic thinking instead of realizing short-term demands.

When you broaden the scope of your internal network and build relationships based on strategic thinking, you empower the members of your staff to achieve their full potential. Don’t constrain them to your thinking. Question their own ability to grow the business and they will exceed your expectations.

By Evan Wise 2007

 Any training must always take into consideration the makeup of the trainees. At Management One® we have worked hard to develop a management system that allows an organization to get the best results from all of the people in the company… Optimizing any company must be done by optimizing the many small work groups that exist within it. The opportunities are locked up in people and those people are different based on age, culture, experience and many other factors.  Changing the way people work, think, respond and communicate is done on a personal and team level. People’s attitudes will be palpably different based partly on their experiences while they were growing up. In a larger sense, differences between generations are found due to the time period and experiences that each generation was exposed to while growing up and in their career. It is not the whole story but it is a good place to start.

There has been a shift in the attitudes and motivations of people over the past century. We have moved from the Tough Generation, which is made up of those people born from 1925-1942, to the Baby Boomers born from 1943-1964 to the group referred to as Generation X born from 1965-1981. Now “Generation Y” is entering the workforce and the customer base and businesses need to know how to adapt and adjust once again. As each group entered the workforce, they brought their own specific needs and motivations to our businesses. How did your company adjust? How will you adjust in the future? winning@business is the successful adjustment many businesses have made.

Understanding the following motivations and experiences will begin to explain how different companies take on different challenges and character. In training, we adapt and adjust to get the most value from the human assets that exist.

TOUGH GENERATION 1925-1942

The events and social pressures that are prevalent affect every generation as the group matures. The Tough Generation faced the Great Depression, World War II and nearly universal military service for males. During the war effort, men and women alike learned to sacrifice for the total effort. Technology allowed a view of the world through radio and the movies.

These experiences led to certain attributes and beliefs that this generation carried with them into the workplace. The Depression made them treasure employment. They were part of a community that sacrificed together during the Depression and WWII. They had clubs, PTA, and religious organizations that provided a strong sense of community outside of work. Their goal was to get a job that paid a regular wage and they treated work as an investment. The investment was to work and sacrifice now and the rewards you are due will come to you. The military training made them a very obedient group that was well suited to the traditional command oriented model of a business organization. They had a great deal of respect for the hierarchy. They looked up to the boss. In a survey done in 1890, 64% of the people rated obedience as one of the three most important traits a person needs for success in life. During these years, schools, churches, synagogues and families taught children obedience. “Children are to be seen and not heard” was a common guideline for parents. They saw WWII as a glowing example of the success of the hierarchy and the need to follow orders. They sacrificed for the war effort and it ultimately brought success. Their sacrifice to the company would also be an investment that would bring success. They based their life on gaining success “the old fashioned way…they earned it!”

The environment in the business that the Tough Generation created allowed the hierarchy to make it easy to control the organization. Decisions were not open to scrutiny so information and decision-making could rest comfortably at the top of the organization. The formal relationships and respect for the boss allowed the middle manager to turn the decisions in to action by various directives. The repetitive nature of the sales, production and service work was ideal for an employee taught obedience. The jobs provided regular wages; everyone knew his position and was willing to be obedient to the structure in place. Slow change was desirable so that no one “rocked the boat”. There grew a sense of self-censorship in the organization. You knew what you could and couldn’t tell the boss. The boss or manager knew what the executive wanted to hear and was obedient to the unwritten rule. The executive would make decisions based on the limit of his experience rather than new information that the lower levels of the organization might provide. Since the pace of change was slow, the experience that the executive carried from his days further down the line was still relevant and an upward flow of information was not crucial to success.

Dan Rather, in his autobiography The Camera Never Blinks, tells of his trips to the front lines in Viet Nam and the knowledge he gained in talking to the field officers directly. When he returned to the States, it was suggested that he report to the White House what he saw and heard. The appointment was set up with Walt Rostow, LBJ’s advisor on national security. Rostow began the meeting by bringing out the maps of the area and telling Rather what was going on. When Rather disagreed with Rostow on the real situation, he was told, “This is the White House and this is the way it is.” LBJ and the entire organization were set up based on a traditional hierarchy since LBJ and his staff were born before or during the Tough Generation. Information flowed down, not up. According to Rather, “By the time the information is passed up the chain of command, everyone puts the best possible face on it…This is where the sugar coating starts, the lies that eventually provide the president with what he wants to hear.”

The Tough Generation motivates people by command and direction. That is how the people of that era ran their companies and how they raised their children. Their concepts of motivation are tied to their concepts of discipline.

The source of power during this generation was changing. Earlier times saw brute force as the source of ultimate power. This source of power was one-dimensional in that one could use it only to punish. The industrial revolution and the need to establish a means to easily trade created a system of wealth that came to be used to designate power. This power based on wealth was two-dimensional as a person could punish and reward based on wealth. Wealth was limited and thus “empowerment”, the assigning of power to others, could be easily limited and controlled.

The hierarchy worked extremely well in this environment. These people populated industry into the 1970’s and control many companies even today as the last of the Tough Generation are finishing their careers as CEO’s and owners of companies.

As customers, this generation is practical and logical. They do not tend to buy things that are not needed. They tend to keep things until their useful life has expired rather than replacing items due to new technology or the latest styles.

BABY BOOMERS 1943-1964

The Baby Boomers are a transition group between the Tough Generation and the Generation Xers of today. Many of the leaders of companies today and those that populate those companies are from the Baby Boom generation. The events that shaped their maturation included Viet Nam, assassinations of two Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, Watergate and the fall of Nixon and landing a man on the moon. There was a great increase in national wealth that gave this generation more freedom to change the view of work and a job while the family stayed intact. (In 1960 only 18% of women with children less than 6 years of age were working outside the home). The technology to bring information to the baby boom generation was now TV; the window to the world. Their working life began to incorporate the computer but it was a large mainframe that was inaccessible to most.

These experiences led to a different set of attributes in the people of this generation. Rebellion became a part of their existence in both music and deed. Woodstock was attended by relatively few but became a symbol for many of the rebellious nature of this generation. Marches against the war in Viet Nam were a very different experience than the national sacrifices made to win WWII. Viet Nam showed that the U.S. and its leadership were vulnerable and not invincible like the Tough Generation believed. Watergate showed that authority can be questioned and the hierarchy is open to scrutiny. Baby Boomers were much more likely to assert themselves in the workplace. They tended to informal working relationships that began to erode the strict separation between the different levels of the hierarchy that existed before. This generation would strive to be the boss compared to the Tough Generation that was content to have a job. These members of the workforce wanted to climb the ladder to gain a greater degree of influence over the company and their own situation.

This was a generation of people that was questioning the traditional organization structure but was still content to work within it. They began to see the intensification of competition and a globalization of markets. The response time that an organization required to react to changes, problems and opportunities began to be a competitive weapon in the market place. They tried to look to Japanese models of management for guidelines. They tried to grab at reorganizing work as they struggled to compete. The traditional organization would not allow the successful implementation of the Japanese models or any other models.

The source of power was changing in the later stages of this generation. Knowledge was becoming a source of power in many organizations. Rebellious workers were demanding access to more information than was ever before available. Educational levels created an employee level capable of greater understanding than ever before. A major shift in the source of empowerment was not far in the future.

As consumers the baby boom generation was after the good life. They wanted luxury to the greatest extent possible. Starbucks was an example of people wanting luxury in their beverage for a few dollars even though they could get a similar product for a fifth the price. This generation wants to be in style and renew items with the latest technology.

GENERATION X 1965-1981

This generation has been entering the workforce for the past 10 years. In most cases they have not attained positions of influence in the traditional organizations but they are putting tremendous pressure on those organizations to change. They tend to relate to the Baby Boomers in the organization although they may not relate as well to the Baby Boomers at the top of the pyramid. The Baby Boomers, as a group in transition, has members that relate to the traditional structure but also has many members that relate to the more open style of the Generation Xers.

The influences on this generation include living in dual parent homes and broken homes due to rising divorce rates. The women in the workforce that had children under 6 years old at home jumped from 18% in 1960 to 60% in 1992 while 40% of children lived in a single parent home at some point in their maturation process. The effects of income and career gave women the option of divorce without the fear of poverty. Higher education was available as community colleges were begun in many communities to give training and education to anyone that wanted it, instead of anyone that could qualify intellectually or financially. Since 1960 the numbers of high school students graduating has doubled and the numbers of College graduates has more than doubled. Massive downsizing in corporations led to 42 million people losing their job from 1979 to 1995. Computers became commonplace with the advent of the PC in the early ’80s. Technology has led not only to computers but the internet, cable, video etc.

This background has led to the informal arrangements that are needed to optimize the successful workforce today. This generation wants to participate and work together with others for success. They are striving for a community at work since they don’t belong to clubs and many organizations outside of work. This generation is very information oriented and they know how to gather and use the information. They are looking for a balance in their lives that includes family and work due to the lack of much of this equilibrium in their own backgrounds. This leads to working online at home through the internet and other ways to combine the needs of work and family. Where the Tough Generation respected the boss and the Baby Boomer wanted to be boss, the Generation Xer looks at “boss” as a negative term that indicates an assault on the informal relationship that they seek. They see the hierarchical system and the labels applied by it as creating an artificial distance between people. Their concept of power is based totally on knowledge instead of force or wealth. They expect to be empowered as they gain the knowledge required to have control over the job. *These people, as a group, are very independent. By 1978, a poll showed that 75% of parents said independence was the most important trait (60% in 1890) and only 17% even listed obedience in the top three traits (64% in 1890). This group wants interesting work and will leave a company to find it. There is no loyalty to the company from this group however they are loyal to the community, the team and to themselves. Instead of seeing work as an investment they view it as a transaction. These are a very computer literate group of people and they can work the system to glean, manipulate and use a tremendous amount of information. They can have a meaningful relationship in a digital mode, never seeing or speaking to the other party.

The environment that the Generation Xers are facing is much different too. This is a world of rapid change instead of the slow change that made the traditional pyramid and self-censorship work in the past. The global competition we face today requires a rapid and effective response as a competitive tool. The economy is based on information and not products. The company that can promote, share and use information and knowledge effectively will have a sustainable competitive advantage in the market.

Informing them, convincing them and involving them motivates this group. They strive and react to information and can achieve more than any other generation by using the information effectively.

As a group of consumers they will buy what they like and are used to spending money on entertainment and fun.

There is a psychological experiment that is used with children. A child is put in a room with a desk. A piece of candy is put on the desk and the child is told that he can have the candy when he answers a question correctly. A phone rings and the tester excuses himself and leaves the room. The child is watched and timed.

The Tough generation would wait until the question is answered and the candy can legitimately be consumed. The Baby Boomer would negotiate for two pieces of candy due to the delay. The Generation X’er would eat the candy before the tester returns, unable to delay gratification.

Just as you would manage each group differently, we have learned to train different groups in a customized fashion that matches the group.

When a company is planning to buy another company the most important consideration is the strength of the management team. Warren Buffet makes the strength of the management team his most important consideration before investing in a company for his funds. Venture capitalists estimate that 60% of the success of an investment is based on the strength of the management team while 20% is based on the strength of the technology and 15% is based on the market acceptance for the new product. The biggest reason for this breakdown is that the technology will not have a chance to fail if the management team and management process are not competent. Management will make fatal mistakes that will sink the venture long before the technology even has a chance to fail. This occurrence is much more prevalent than most managers believe.

With all this emphasis on management competence, way too many companies feel that management is not a key component to their success. It is very difficult to gauge competence from within the management of the company. The two things that most people feel they do well without training or guidance include sex and management. Manufacturers take the best workers and bump them up to foreman. Retailers put the salesman with the longest tenure on the floor as sales manager. Even the owner often has a technical knowledge, extra cash or a family history in the business rather than any real management training or outside experience.

This dichotomy raises a lot of questions about the value of your business. Would it be more valuable if it were more profitable? Most everyone would answer yes. Would it be more profitable if the management process and team were more proficient? It seems logical that yes would be the answer but the truth is that many independent businesses function as if the answer was a resounding NO. They can’t envision a return on the investment in a management consultant or hiring a proven manager. A consultant is normally a less expensive solution than hiring a proven manager. A consultant can be removed easily if there is not a fit or competence. A hired manager is much more difficult to remove.

Amazingly, the most common objection we hear to bringing in a management consulting team to improve the skills of the management and implement a management process that provides more effective results is that we don’t have the people or the time to do any more than we are doing now. That is really a crime. Your business is what you depend upon to send your children to college and provide for your own comfort and retirement. Your employees depend on your business for their livelihood and your customers depend on your business for your expertise, products and or service. Not providing the resources to make that business more profitable, stable and significant is being pennywise and pound foolish as the British say.

Another reason many owners put off the decision to bring in a consultant to improve the management team and the business is that they are confused about how to choose the right consultant. Admittedly, that is a daunting task. There is no organization that polices the consulting industry or that licenses consultants to be certain that they have the skills required to do the job. Almost every manager has or has heard of the horror stories that were brought on by a consultant. Our approach at Management One® is to train and certify all of our consultants to assure that they will provide the help to clients they expect. Most Winning@Business™ engagements include more than one consultant since we know that every consultant has certain areas of expertise. We have experts in marketing, finance, business management and other areas that are critical to your success.

Finally, every owner is wary of the cost of a consultant. At Management One® we understand the financial limitations of independent business owners and work with our clients to bring the guidance they need in a way that minimizes the time and people commitment they must make. Our affiliates are independent which minimizes overhead costs. Our marketing is primarily word of mouth so you will not be paying for fancy advertisements and you won’t see a Management One® sponsorship of the SuperBowl. The return on investment in Winning@Businessâ„¢ that our clients normally see is generally greater than 5 to 1 and as much as 50 to 1!

What does a management team need to do to be successful? (Notice I said management team. Gone are the days where a single manager can be as successful as a management team working together to solve problems, seize opportunities and manage change.) The following entries in this blog will identify some of the key factors with which a successful team deals.

Copyright 2007 by Management One® LTD. All rights are reserved.

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

Please forward to your contacts in Oro Valley .

Clint Bolick, director of the Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Litigation, will speak at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at the Oro Valley United Church of Christ, 1401 E. El Conquistador Way .

Mr. Bolick will discuss why tax subsidies and other government giveaways to corporations are unconstitutional in Arizona . He will also discuss the Institute’s Turken v. Gordon lawsuit over tax subsidies and their impact on local economies.

“People in Oro Valley are still concerned about the tax subsidies to outside developers that brought us a Wal-Mart Supercenter ,” said Art Segal of LetOroValleyExcel.com. “Local governments have been willing to ‘give away the store,’ and the developers couldn’t wait to accept their gifts. Hopefully, the Goldwater Institute will prevail, and the verdict will be retroactive.”

“It’s how the game has been played for far too long,” wrote Sarah Fenske of the Phoenix New Times. “Journalists rant and rave, and gadflies scream conspiracy, but nothing changes. No one has the money to fight City Hall.

“No one, that is, until the Goldwater Institute decided to file suit.”[1]

The event is sponsored by Oro Valley First. Admission is free. For more information, and to RSVP, see http://www.ov1st.com/events.htm.

About Clint Bolick

Clint Bolick serves as the director of the Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Litigation. He has argued and won significant cases in the Supreme Courts of Wisconsin, Ohio , and Arizona , as well as before the Supreme Court of the United States . Mr. Bolick is the author of several books including Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government & the Erosion of Liberty. He was named one of three Lawyers of the Year in 2003 by American Lawyer. In 2006, Bolick was the recipient of a Bradley Prize for excellence in “strengthening American democratic capitalism.” For more information, see http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/aboutus/StaffView.aspx?id=99.

About the Goldwater Institute

The Goldwater Institute is an Arizona policy research organization dedicated to protecting and expanding economic freedom, constitutional liberty and educational opportunity. The Institute meets public policy challenges with solutions that maximize freedoms and keep government within its constitutional boundaries. The Institute has been a policy architect for many successful reforms, including initiatives to protect private property and tax relief. The Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation defends constitutional liberties and protects taxpayers against unconstitutional expansions of government power. For more information, see http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/.

About Turken v. Gordon

In July 2007 the City of Phoenix signed a contract with the Klutznick Company to provide a $97.4 million subsidy for their CityNorth project through sales taxes, despite a constitutional prohibition on corporate welfare within Arizona . The CityNorth project is a $1.8 billion retail development on prime real-estate in an affluent part of north Phoenix . On August 8, 2007 the Goldwater Institute filed suit against Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon over the City North subsidy. The Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, directed by Clint Bolick, will argue that the CityNorth subsidy violates three clauses within the Arizona constitution. The Institute will represent six small business owners in Phoenix . For more information, see http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/litigation/turkenvgordon.aspx.

About Oro Valley First

Oro Valley First was launched by a group of local, independent business owners and concerned citizens who recognize and appreciate the unique character of Oro Valley . We are working actively to ensure the vitality of the local, independent businesses in our area. We believe in living as good citizens while buying locally when possible. By preserving the richness and diversity of retail choice here in the greater Oro Valley area, we will all continue to thrive and prosper. For more information, see http://www.ov1st.com.