Posted: February 7, 2020 | Categories: Leadership, Management

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to address someone for making a mistake or not following through, and you realized this was not the first time?  I’ll bet you have.  Once a mistake or oversight has been repeated we to move away from the specific infraction and address the pattern.  Here is an example:

When I was in my early 20’s, I worked as manager in the lodging and hospitality business.  I loved my job and was given a pretty free rein in decision making.  My boss lived nearly 1000 miles away, and would come to visit about every 2-3 months.  I remember one particular time when one of those visits wasn’t so pleasant.  He asked me to report on a project he had directed me to do in one of his previous visits.  The specific project was an unpleasant and tedious one, and I procrastinated.  My boss (Mr. Lunt) realized that this was the third time he had asked me about the project, and each time I had come up short.  It was time to shift gears.  Mr. Lunt knew he now must address the pattern-not the incident.  He asked me one direct, appropriate, and chilling question:  “What can I do to get you going on this, Steve?”  He asked calmly and respectfully.  He said so much with just one questions.  I knew I had better turn things around and “get with the program” fast!  I did.  Mr. Lunt and I worked together for many years after that.  I have always appreciated the way he held me accountable.  The leadership lesson I learned:  If it is a mistake, address the mistake.  It it is a pattern, break it!  You will help the other person grow.

Posted: December 3, 2019 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Team Building

You may have noticed a couple of pervasive buzz words going around in the business world today:  Synergy and/or collaboration.  It means teams getting out of their silos, putting all their heads together, and solving problems.  The first and most important step is defining the problem.  By defining a problem, it means that you have simply stated the situation in a factual, non-blameful way.

As simple as this sounds, I find that people struggle with this step.  Too often in problem-solving team members start out with blame or just a symptom of the problem.

Several years ago, I was teaching a management class, Ralph was one of the class participants, and he decided to apply this fundamental with his team.  He asked for a statement of the problem, and he heard comments like, “Sam didn’t do the quality check in time”, or “the belts were not changed in time and the machine broke down”.  Ralph stopped them right there by saying, “That’s not the problem”.  He stuck with it, and they finally came up with a simple statement they could all agree on:  “The problem is we had a late delivery to a key customer”.  Now we are cooking!  Instead of getting into blame and finger-pointing, we can work through the next three steps of the problem solving process.

2.  What are the causes of the problem?

3.  What are the possible solutions?

4.  What is the best possible solution?

The team agreed on the best solution, laid out their action steps, and were well on their way to making the changes to improve delivery time.  Ralph said that had he not insisted they define the problem, they would have gone round and round.  Remember, if you have a problem to solve, begin by defining it.  Consider the old maxim, “A problem defined is a problem half solved”

Posted: November 18, 2019 | Categories: Management, Sales

In sales training we are drilled on asking well-crafted questions that uncover what our prospect wants and why they want it.  There is one more thing:  How bad do they want it?

About 20 years ago I was talking to an owner and founder of a highly successful graphic arts business.  Mike, the owner, had just finished designing a book cover for a very famous athlete.  I was there as a  consultant to help him advance in his management and delegation skills.  His company was growing fast.

I had prepared well for our first meeting, and designed my questions to get to the heart of his primary interest and dominant buying motive.  (What he wanted and why he wanted it).  Mike said, “When me and my team are meeting with customers, I’ve heard people say afterwards, “Mike, whenever you leave the room, the value of your company cuts in half”.  From this conversation I surmised that Mike wanted to change this.  I assumed he wanted to build a team that was strong and would sustain that strength even when he wasn’t there.

We started with some training in management and delegation.  It wasn’t long before he lost interest.  When I interviewed him afterwards, he finally admitted that he liked being indispensable, and didn’t want anyone else to share the stage.  In other words, even though he wanted his company to grow, he wasn’t willing to subordinate his ego in favor of building others.  He couldn’t let go of what he loved.

Do you want your company to grow?  Are you willing to let go of what you love?
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Posted: November 12, 2019 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Team Building

A good leader cares about his team.  Who would want to work for someone who didn’t care?

I have a good friend who is a caring leader and a successful businessman.  I was talking with Jim a couple months ago, and he talked about a challenge he accepted a month before while attending a trade convention.  The challenge was this:

“Imagine that someone contacted you, and wanted to buy your business.  They made you an offer that was hard to refuse.  You quickly realized that you could retire early if you accepted this offer.  It was in cash, and you accepted.

After about a year, you received a call from the same person, and things weren’t going well.  They were desperate, and wanted you to know if you would be willing to buy the business back for 10 cents on the dollar.  You were twitching to get back to work, and you took the offer.  Here is the question:  Now that you own the business again, who would you hire back?  Is there anyone you would not hire back?  If so, why is this person still working for you?”

It was a day of reckoning for Jim.  He did have a manager that he would not hire back in that scenario.  He knew what he had to do.  He let him go.  The person who has since replaced the dismissed manager is doing very well, and the business is doing much better.  Jim, like many I know, said the same thing after he let a sub-performer go:  “I wished I had done it sooner”.  If he had, it would have saved him a lot of grief and money.

Here is the message:  If someone is consistently under-performing, and he or she has been given ample opportunity to improve, it is usually wise to part company.  It can actually turn out to be a “win-win” rather than a “lose-lose”

Posted: September 10, 2019 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Team Building

Have you ever water skied? I have done so about a half-dozen times. With a few misfires in the beginning, I got up and stayed up. When I was skiing, the most prevalent thought I had was to avoid falling. As I result, I stayed in the wake and made no attempt to risk crossing it.

I have a friend who is an expert water skier. Not only would he cross the wake, he can do it barefoot! He loves to ski and finds it to be a never-ending adventure. He is also a very successful business owner, and as you might expect, he likes his employees to enjoy themselves in their work, and always rise to a challenge.

Now let’s talk about the opposite:  There are companies I have seen where the team member’s main thought is to not do or say anything that would rock the boat. If they have an idea that they think would help the company, they hold back for fear of being shot down. In other words, like me on skis, they are afraid to cross the wake.

When we think of the companies that have become successful and stayed that way, names like “Disney” or “Apple” come to mind. Where would these great companies be without the input and engagement of their staff? These companies are smart, and they have learned that creating a culture with idea fluency is vital to continued healthy growth.

Let’s consider our own team. When someone comes up with an idea, do we suspend judgment and hear them out? Are they confident “crossing the wake”? If we sense not, this may be a good time practice more encouragement and better listening. It will pay!