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!

Posted: August 21, 2019 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Team Building

I’ve always been told that repetition is one of the ways we learn.  If we are playing a musical instrument or learning a new skill, repetition makes sense.  Then there are other times when repetition does not work.  Have you ever found yourself having the same conversation over and over again with someone you are trying to correct or re-direct?  I’ll bet you have.  How do we break the cycle and solve the problem?  I will illustrate with a personal example:

In the summer of 1974, I was the manager of a hotel in a Chicago suburb.  My boss lived in Denver, and Mr. V would come in to check up on things about every six weeks.  He always had a list of things he wanted me to work on.  Some things I enjoyed, some I did not.  As time went on, it seemed like the stuff I didn’t like doing never got done.  Mr V. and I kept having the same conversation.  Then, one day, he broke the pattern.  I’ll never forget what he said, “Steve, what can I do to get you going on this?”  Whoa!  I’m tuned in.  The time for excuses was over.  I needed to execute.  I did, and we enjoyed a long working relationships that lasted for another 10 years.  He also promoted me to manage some of his other properties.

What happened in this conversation?  Mr. V shifted gears.  Before, he was focusing on the specific situation of what didn’t get done.  In our capstone conversation, he instead called attention to the “pattern” I had established, and let me know that this pattern needed to change…immediately!

Do you have a team member who just can’t seem to “get with the program”?  Once they established an unproductive pattern, address the pattern, not the incident.  Throw it right back to him or her like Mr. V did.  It will be tough.  We also know that the best coaches and teachers in our lives always challenged us.  We can do the same.

Posted: August 1, 2019 | Categories: Management, Team Building

In my experience of coaching managers and leaders, I have found the most successful ones know how to make good decisions.  Whenever possible, when facing a tough decision, they take the time to gather the facts, weigh them, and act based on their knowledge and instincts.  I was reminded of this today when talking to my 32-year-old son, David.  He and his wife, Nicole recently signed up to be a Foster Parent for dogs.  Soon after they signed up, they received a couple irresistible pups from the agency.  They were Beagle mix, male and female, and both from the same litter

From the moment that David and Nicole saw them, they could see that these two pups were inseparable.  They constantly have to be near each other, and when one is out of the room, the other panics.  David and Nicole declared, “We will not split up these dogs.  They would be devastated if we did.  We will hold out until we find someone who wants to take both of them.  It is a package deal”.  This made sense to Joyce and I.

Today David talked to a couple that was eager to adopt both dogs.  With great excitement, David called the agency and announced the good news.  When the person at the agency found out the dogs were going to stay together, her enthusiasm dropped.  She said, “We have found that it is not a good idea to let people adopt two from the same litter.”  She explained why, and my crestfallen son did some further research.  It is not a good idea to adopt siblings.  They are so into each other, they tend not to pay any attention to the owner.  That makes them difficult to train and bond with.  They only want to be next to their sibling.  We were all sad, but wiser.  I was reminded again of how powerful the “heart” is in making decisions, and how we always have to get the “head” involved too!

Posted: February 21, 2019 | Categories: Leadership, Management

In the summer of 1998, I was suddenly thrust into the role of managing a little league team consisting of kids ages 9 & 10.  If I hadn’t accepted the job, my son’s team would have been broken up.  I said yes.

As we began with the season, I held a meeting with the parents.  I said, “I don’t know much about baseball, but the assistant coaches that surround me do.  I do know a little about leadership.  Some say that it is not whether you win or lose, you just need to have fun.  Others say winning is everything.  I’ve got some good news for you…we are going to have fun and we are going to win!”

As I began my coaching, I kept clearly in mind the “secret sauce” that makes a winning team:  Building Structural Tension.  Structural tension means that each team member is driven by supporting their fellow team member, not the boss.  That means that team members encourage one another and don’t put each other down.  It also means that they trust and respect each other enough to hold each other accountable.  If someone in the outfield is daydreaming, it is fair game to say, “He Steve.  Wake up.”

In 2016 the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.  They had structural tension.  Recently, Athletic magazine wrote an article about David Ross, the Cubs back-up catcher that year.  He was a seasoned pro enjoying his final year in the Majors.  He would strongly encourage his teammates, and he also would comment when they were falling in to bad habits.  They loved him!  He knew that top-performing teams have a pact to keep each other on task.

Now back to my little league baseball team:  We finished the season 15-3!