Destiny is not a matter of
chance; it is a matter of
choice.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

ARE YOU DRIVEN
TO CONSTANTLY IMPROVE?

You’ve come to the right place.

Here you’ll find models, methods, practices, and processes
to help you develop the right focus, create the right environment,
build the right team, and embody the right commitment.
To get the right results.

From Performance Mayhem to Performance Management

In a small, entrepreneurial business you can get by with people not having clear reporting relationships. You might benefit from loosely defined roles and responsibilities. Yet as your company grows, the ambiguity around reporting, roles and responsibilities can start to create mayhem. People don’t know who to take direction from or what the priorities are. Focus and performance suffer. But who’s truly accountable for what?

To successfully grow into an entrepreneurial organization you need to institute a basic foundation of performance management. Communications are at the heart of this. Your people need to know the answers to these six questions: 1) Who do I report to? 2) What am I responsible for? 3) What are our goals as a company? 4) What is expected of me to support those goals? 5) How will I know if I’m doing a good job? 6) What support will I receive to help me improve?

Both the employee and the manager have a role to play in an employees’ performance. Ensuring that you continually answer the six questions helps to fulfill your responsibility. And helps to avoid the mayhem that arises when informality in a growing organization breaks down into chaos.

Your thoughts?

Michael

From One-Hit-Wonder to Hit-Making-Machine

You’ve got a better idea? Great. How long before someone copies it? Or leapfrogs it? Or confuses the market into thinking that they can do what you can do? Better isn’t forever.

Consider a company I used to work for: FedEx. FedEx was founded in 1973 with a better idea – overnight delivery. Yet realizing that overnight delivery would soon be copied, they identified the next level of value: absolutely, positively overnight. In other words, while competitors might claim to deliver overnight, only FedEx could reliably deliver.

Still, it was inevitable that others would figure things out and close the reliability gap. So FedEx extended the value equation to real-time tracking. They knew that customers would value the peace-of-mind that comes from knowing the location of their package at any time.

And so it continued with additional value elements like customs clearance, deferred service and logistics. By sequencing together new sources of value, FedEx survived start-up, kept ahead of their competitors and became the fastest company at the time to reach $1B in annual revenues.

FedEx is more than overnight delivery. Google is more than search. Amazon is more than online retail. Being a one-hit-wonder might get you the spotlight … today. But if you want to grow, really grow, become a hit-making-machine.

Your thoughts?

Michael

From Heroic Efforts to Heroic Processes

A dangerous consequence of the common reference to “small and medium-sized enterprises” (SME) is it implies that “small” and “medium” are more-or-less the same. They aren’t. A critical question in the life of any thriving small company is: can it successfully make the transition from an entrepreneurial business to an entrepreneurial organization?

Small enterprises often rely on passionate and committed people who will turn heaven-and-earth to get things done. Those heroic efforts are recognized and reinforced. And the stories become part of the company lore.

Yet depending on heroic efforts poses two problems: they aren’t efficient and they aren’t scalable. The ongoing need for heroic efforts indicates a lack of well-thought-out, documented and standardized processes. It’s tremendously costly, in terms of time, money and effort, to make up for process deficiencies with ad hoc people solutions. And as people move in, through and out of the business, there’s no guarantee that the next person will be as heroic as the last. The problems emerging from a lack of process increase exponentially as the business grows. Ultimately, they outstrip the capability of the business to solve them with heroic efforts.

To successfully transition to an entrepreneurial organization, a business needs to develop essential (but not excessive) processes that are effective, efficient and scalable. While there will always be a time and place for heroic efforts, they should be the exception. Heroic processes should be the rule.

Your thoughts?

Michael

The Experience, It's All About the Experience

Working on my second mojito as we watch the surfers catch the late afternoon waves off the Southern California coast gets me thinking about why we like beach bars.

Sure, there are the views, the music, the people, the drinks, the staff, the décor, the this, the that …

But what we really like about beach bars is how they make us feel. Carefree, relaxed, comfortable, warm, content, good. The more those other things – the views, the music – help create the feelings we like, the more we like the beach bar. The more we like being at the beach bar.

It’s the experience. It’s all about the experience.

How do you want your customers to feel when they use your products and services and when they engage your people? What do you want them to experience?

Think I’ll experience another mojito.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Manage the Dynamic Tension

You act quickly. So are you decisive, or just impatient? You act deliberately. Are you patient, or just indecisive?

Is it that you empower your people or abandon them? Do you give them clear and detailed direction or do you micromanage?

The same management principles can be interpreted in different ways. And they can be correctly applied, misapplied, over-applied or under-applied. So how can you be sure that you’re always applying the right principles to the right extent?

You can’t. The reality of management is that you’re constantly trying to determine the right course of action in a dynamic environment. So what principles can help you select and apply the right principles?

1)     Walking a fine line. Sometimes it‚Äôs a matter of walking a fine line when applying a principle. You want to be patient, but not too patient. Decisive, yet not impulsive. You want to be consistent, but not inflexible. Flexible, yet not inconsistent.

2)     Finding the right balance. Sometimes it‚Äôs finding the right balance in applying opposing principles. You want to be task-oriented but also people-oriented. Process-oriented and results-oriented. You want to rely on information but also intuition.

3)     Understanding the situation. And sometimes it‚Äôs knowing which principle to apply when. There are times for autocratic decision-making and times for democratic decision-making. Times for rules, times for guidelines. Times for reason, times for emotion.

You can’t know all the answers in a complex, ever-changing environment (and don’t pretend to know). That’s why it’s important to wrestle with the choices. The art of leadership is managing the dynamic tension you face with these choices.

Manage the dynamic tension. Start now. Because as we all know, he who hesitates is lost. But then again, haste makes waste.

Your thoughts?

Michael

 

Converging Evidence

One of my favorite principles is converging evidence. The idea that when evidence from different sources points toward the same conclusion, you can be confident in that conclusion.

Take selecting a new hire. How confident are you with your selections? Ideally, you want converging evidence from different sources that tells you a candidate is a winner.

1) Interviews
What you want is multiple interviews by people at different levels including a candidate’s prospective boss, peers and direct reports.

2) Role Plays
Effective when the position requires exceptional interpersonal skills, like in sales or customer service.

3) Job Simulations
If technical skills are important, give the candidate a chance to demonstrate them. Put a CFO candidate in a room with mock financial statements and have them come back with their assessment and recommendations. Have a welder weld. Assess their speed and quality.

4) Assessment Profiles
There are a number of well-established instruments that reveal things like a candidate’s work preferences, interpersonal style and values – things that may be hard to extract from an interview.

5) References
Generally not that helpful although if the right questions are asked (“If there was one thing you wish you had known about Joe when you hired him, what would that be?”) they can help to uncover red flags.

6) Online Searches
Almost everyone has left breadcrumbs on the web. Just be careful how you interpret all that personal information you come across.

7) Substance Abuse Testing
Certain positions inherently involve such a level of risk to others that pre-employment substance abuse testing is desirable.

8) Verify Credentials
Don’t set false barriers (see my June 4 blog), but if a position legitimately requires some type of degree or certification, obtain a valid copy of that document.

Many leaders are finding that despite the quantity of talent available in the marketplace, there is a shortage of quality. Applying the principle of converging evidence can help you find the nuggets in the stream.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Don't Set False Barriers

I’m all for education. I should be, I have a PhD. But I’m not for organizations saying a degree is a hard-and-fast job requirement when it’s not.

The best boss I ever had was Arthur at FedEx. Arthur was focused, bright and committed. He had impeccable integrity. He gave his people direction and support, and then let them do their jobs. He recognized people’s successes and held them accountable if they weren’t successful. Arthur got results.

What Arthur didn’t have was a university degree.

My Dad was a great boss. His people loved him. He was a savvy businessman and outstanding communicator. He was motivated, dedicated, confident and successful. His was a classic front-line-employee-to-senior-executive story.

My Dad didn’t graduate from high school.

I’m not against education. I’m not saying it’s useless, I’m not saying it isn’t important. If I ever have to have brain surgery I’ll feel a lot better knowing the surgeon graduated from Med school.

What I am saying is don’t make education a false barrier for a job. Say that a degree is preferred. Say that it’s strongly preferred. But unless it’s an absolute necessity to capably execute a job, don’t make it one.

Class dismissed.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Make Sure Your Incentives are Incentives

Customer feedback is an essential input for developing strategy. But how do you get your busy customers to give you feedback?

A sushi restaurant I frequent in Denver provides an incentive. After each meal they send me an email with an incentive to complete a brief survey. If I complete it I have a 1 in 5 chance of receiving 5 “points” in their frequent diner program. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

For every dollar I spend at the restaurant I get one point. When I earn 200 points I get a $10 reward. So, stay with me, if 200 points is worth $10 then 5 points is worth … 25 cents. Which means that taking my valuable time to complete a survey gives me a 1 in 5 chance of receiving 25 cents worth of points! Seems a touch light, don’t you think?

If you’re offering your customers an incentive, yes, make sure the odds don’t seem astronomical. But also make sure the payoff is significant enough to truly act as an incentive. Otherwise, there’s little incentive in having an incentive program.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Attack Your Assumptions – Wall Street Edition

No sooner do I post a blog on attacking your assumptions (May 7 2012), on how our judgments of people can be misguided or just plain wrong, then some of the suits on Wall Street express their horror that Mark Zuckerberg – the 28-year-old, now multi-billionaire CEO of Facebook – wore a hoodie and jeans when conducting pre-IPO meetings with analysts.

The noble defenders of capitalist society were unequivocal in their pronouncements. “Not the smartest thing.” “Disrespectful to investors.” “It just pisses off people who can wreck your IPO.”

Who can wreck your IPO? Yaaaaa, to show the little punk who’s boss, let’s torpedo his IPO. Forget about our usual motive – greed – we’ll show him. Riiight.

Of course Wall Street analysts, whose clothing choices are inspired by the former Soviet Politburo, are well positioned to be dispensing advice as to what is and is not appropriate attire.

Forty-five years ago if you didn’t sport short hair you were obviously a hippie and had no chance of succeeding in business. Twenty-five years ago if you wore jeans to work (wait, didn’t a guy named Steve Jobs do that?) you obviously weren’t serious about business. And today …

Don’t get distracted. It’s not about the hoodie. It’s about performance and results. Revenue, customer growth, retention, profits. Attack your assumptions.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Motivation in the Desert

Zidane, our very capable Bedouin guide, was leading our scramble up a mountain in the Wadi Rum desert in southern Jordan. This is the staggeringly beautiful and vast landscape that Lawrence of Arabia wrote so passionately about.

After climbing a testy rock wall we rested and talked about Zidane’s work with the tour company. “I could start my own business,” he explained, “but I like the people I work with here. And this way I don’t have to be in an office answering phones and problems. I like to be in the desert with the tourists.”

And what about his boss, the owner of the company? “Attayak is a good and kind boss. He treats his people with respect. He trusts them. And if mistakes are made, by guides or tourists, he is straight with them.”

Whether in the Wadi Rum or Washington, Bedouins or British Columbians, the elements of employee motivation are the same. A boss who is respectful, direct, trusting and kind. Doing the kind of work one likes to do. And being with the kind of people one likes to be with.

That’s why Zidane is not just capable but motivated. That’s what makes him a great guide. And that’s why I’d recommend him.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Attack Your Assumptions

I often challenge my clients to attack their assumptions – the shared beliefs that go unquestioned yet drive strategic decisions, and if wrong, can be disastrous.

Traveling in the Middle East has caused me to attack some of my assumptions. Like many Westerners, my belief was that the abeyya, the black cloak seen on many Islamic women, is an austere garment worn either by those with fundamentalist religious beliefs or those who are repressed. While undoubtedly true in some cases, what I’ve learned in Oman and Jordan is more complex. Far from being austere, many abeyyas have fashionable design elements like colored silk accents, embroidery and beadwork. And speaking of fashion, don’t be surprised to find that abeyyas are worn over the latest skinny jeans, high heels, and attention-grabbing jewelry.

Many women consider the abeyya a natural and modest over-garment for going out in public. Going without would make them feel about as comfortable as a Manhattan banker going into a board meeting without a suit.

What does this have to do with you, an organizational leader?

Attack your assumptions. Assumptions about your customers, competitors and suppliers. Who they are, how they think, and what they want and value.

Attack your assumptions. You just might find the truth cloaked in mystery.

Your thoughts?

Michael

Disincentives

It was a typical form of a typical size that you typically complete when entering another country. Except for one thing. The red letters near the top of the form that demanded attention:

“WARNING. DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKER.”

Fortunately, drug trafficking is neither my profession nor my hobby. Yet the Saudis want no doubt in the mind of any traveler entering their country. Drug trafficking carries severe consequences.

A disincentive. Clear. Unambiguous. Powerful. Do you have any doubt at all that the prevalence of drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia is lower than in, say, North America or Europe?

When there are no consequences for undesirable actions people tend to do what they tend to do. Sometimes it’s important to draw a line in the sand and say, “this will not be tolerated.” Like the manufacturing company that insists that everyone, with no exception, wears safety goggles every time they step on the plant floor. And failing to do so is a terminable offence.

What about your organization? While being late for a meeting or missing a project deadline might not warrant a beheading, is there a consequence? Perhaps a verbal reprimand? Or conveying disappointment?

Do you have sufficient disincentives to ensure that the behaviors that absolutely shouldn’t happen, don’t happen?

Your thoughts?

Michael