The Power of Passionate People

Anything is Possible

2008-06-25T23:34:00.001-04:00

I was in Washington last week when the NBA Finals concluded with Boston beating Los Angeles in six games. I didn't see it live, but ESPN showed me what happened. After the game, on the parquet floor in Boston, Kevin Garnett said how hype he was. He paused and then screamed an exhilarating, “Anything is Possible….!!!” The sinewy seven-footer held the last syllable as long as his breath would allow.

His celebration was the culmination of a 12 year journey in the league. He always played with the passion of a lion, which I enjoyed watching, but he had never been to the Finals before, better yet win it. He was at the pinnacle of his career.

When I got home form the innovation house tonight, I sat on the beach with my aunt, uncle and cousin. It was my aunt and uncle’s 31st anniversary. They headed off to dinner and Kyle and I battled in a game of Ladderball, a new beach game with a slight horseshoe spin to it. This matters because I ate a late dinner, finishing at 10ish. After washing my plates, I cozied into the recliner and flipped. I stopped at ESPN and the 9th inning of the College Baseball National Championship Game. It was Game 3 of the series, the deciding game, between Georgia and Fresno State.

I can get into baseball in person, when my peeps are playing, or when my buddy Josh Whetzel is doing the radio play by play (someone get this talent a MLB gig already). But on TV, I can't do it. I flip between pitches. I forget about it between innings and pitcher changes. But I had read about Fresno State making it to the Championship Series. They said it was like a 16 seed in March Madness making to the finals, so I was interested. I knew Fresno State had blown a lead in Game 1 to lose 7-6 and then roared back from a 5-0 deficit in Game 2 to win 19-10.
So it is the 9th inning of Game 3 and most of the drama had occurred. Fresno was up 6-1. One guy had driven in all 6 runs for the Bulldogs. Both teams are Bulldogs, but one guy did in fact drive all 6 in for Fresno State. The point is, Fresno State did it. They won.

The TV said they were the lowest seed ever to win a national championship in any sport. The underdog of underdogs won the NCAA baseball title. I watched the college kids pour onto the field in euphoria, jumping into a huge pile. I watched the favored Georgia team with stunned looks from the dugout. I also watched Erin Andrews interview some of the players. That distracted me for a moment, but then the mix of KG (Garnett) and the Bulldogs played in my brain.

Garnett was on the best team throughout the year. They had the best record. They were somewhat favored to win it all.

Fresno State started the season 8-12. Fresno State has the most losses of any baseball champion. They were the first No. 4 regional seed to reach the CWS since the tournament expanded in 1999 (I don’t really know what that means, but it is a first.) And what paints the picture the most is they would equate to a 16 seed in March Madness.

This is why sports can be so great. You don’t have to be the best, possess the most talent, or carry the ideal skill. If you have a team that bands together, your chemistry, momentum and passion can propel you to uncharted accomplishments.

Many times we try and Terrell Owens it. Meaning, we try and do it in our own. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a student, part of a work group, or part of an athletic group, this shows the power of team. Are you solo on the road? Find some teammates to maximize your strengths and leverage your weaknesses. Find some teammates to push you when the going gets tough. Find people to help you when your passion cell is spent and needs a recharge.

Lesson Three in my book says you are the one that will make it happen. This is true, but you can make it happen faster with a team. And the celebration will be that much sweeter.

Congrats to Fresno State. This will go down in the record books. Learn from their championship. Not this game, but the run up to get to this game. Awesome stuff. And in my final sports mix of the evening, as they said in the rerun of Hoosiers I watched last night, “Team!”

Atmosphere

2007-11-21T11:37:00.001-05:00

Last night I spent five hours with a local branch of a national company. They had a husband and wife speaker team come in from Charleston, SC. They had people drive from over 2 ½ hours away to attend the meeting. And in all of the companies I’ve been with in my work career and now in the research of this book, none had the fire, energy, and passion that I felt last night. Standing ovations. People sharing and almost coming to tears. People afraid of public speaking overcoming their fears and getting up in front of 100 people. As I told my host when I left, “That is how business is supposed to be.”

There was an incredible feeling of teaching and growing others that radiated in all of the leader’s words and actions. The feeling of making a difference and making money. The feeling of growing your own and other peoples’ personalities. If every business could offer that same empowerment and connection to goals, our job satisfaction and economy would be booming.

The main speaker talked most of the night about how others helped him to get to where he was. And because of that, he would do whatever he could to pay that help forward. You can’t put a price on that type of motivation and leadership.

The big thing I took from last night was the incredible atmosphere that the group created. They did it by being interested in the development of others. It was an atmosphere of learning, sharing, and growing. It started at the top and funneled all the way down to someone who just walked in the door. As a leader said last night, if you let other peoples success be your success, great things will happen.

Trust

2007-11-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

I just got back from book research interviews around the northeast. The companies I sat down with ranged in size from 16,000 to 50 employees and in scope from energy, manufacturing, to software development. Even with the different types of companies I learned from, there was a definitive common theme from my trip. They allow their people to make decisions. This makes them feel like part of something bigger than their job.

From what I’ve seen, you can look at employees in one of two ways:

1. Employees are lazy and don’t care about their company, their results, and their success. The only way to motivate them is to intimidate them. The only way to get them to produce is to regiment their day so it takes all the guess work out of it.

a. This style of management is prevalent in our country. And successful to a degree. With some ups and downs, people eventually do the work they are told to do. Yet, this management style is the reason so many people are zombies at work. They come in, do just enough to collect their paycheck, and go home. This style creates clock punchers.

2. The other way to look at employees is that they naturally want to be successful at what they do. That it feels good to perform, to contribute, and to make a difference.

a. Obviously, this is the methodology I subscribe to. And that is the style that company after company I’ve talked with for this book live by. And that is why their people perform above and beyond the job description. That is why these companies have grown to 250 or to 16,000 employees. Because motivated people produce creativity, quality, innovation, and most importantly, results.

Trust is the most important (and the hardest) thing executives and managers can give their people. I’ve seen small business owners’ companies hit the performance ceiling because they don’t trust their people. I’ve seen managers pull their hair out at the dismal performance of their team, but when I ask them what decisions their people are allowed to make on their own, the answer shadows their engagement level, zero.

Trusting people in any size business is difficult. If you’ve grown your business from 1 to 20 to 100 people, you have years and years of blood, sweat, and tears in the business. You don’t want someone else screwing up your baby. If you’re a manager, someone else’s mistake can make you look bad. But the best way to sustain your growth, profitability, or performance is to tap into the people you have on the road with you and let them do what they do best. Micromanaging leads to lack of motivation, which leads to lack of performance, which leads to bad things for all parties involved.

The goal for today is sit back and analyze yourself and your company. Do your people enjoy working for you? Do you trust your people to make decisions? Do they think you trust them to make decisions?

Goals

2007-10-03T11:00:00.000-04:00

I attended a business after hours hosted by one of the counties in New York last night. It is always fun to mingle with business leaders and hear their opinions on things. The networking was good for all involved, but me being me, I analyzed particular conversations.

The focus of the night was trying to grow and bring business to this particular county. As some of you may know, the local economies of the upstate New York region have taken a beating over the past few years. Taxes have increased. Manufacturing has moved south or overseas. Young people have left for warmer climates, taking their education and brain power with them. Retirees have left the high property taxes. And the businesses that at one time made the northeast the most powerful part of the country have diminished. Growing up in Rochester, NY, I have seen the aftermath firsthand by the evolutions at Kodak, Xerox, Bausch and Lomb, and numerous GM subsidiaries.

One of the attendees last night was a local state assemblyman. At one point I spent a better part of an hour in a discussion with him and a business owner I’m friends with. From my talk last night and over previous conversations with other business people in the state, there seems to be a common theme: New York is not business friendly.

Now, the point of this post is not to talk politics or slam my home state. The point is to share what happened when we asked the assemblyman what was being done to fix the problem. He carried on with a few points, but I asked him what I ask all of my clients, “What are the goals?” Even though this issue has been going on for years, he didn’t have any definitive answers or action plan.

And that is not his fault. Goals start at the top. In any organization, the goals come from above. If you don’t have company goals, you’re in trouble. If your managers don’t know the goals, don’t believe in the goals, or don’t know how to achieve the goals, you are in trouble. If your doers aren’t on board with the goals and if they don’t see how their job impacts the goals, sayonara.

When you are setting goals, some questions to ask are:

Are the goals clearly defined?
Do the goals make sense?
Do managers understand the goals and know how to explain them to others?
Have we informed every person on what the goals are and why they are important?
Can employees of all levels and educational backgrounds understand the goals?
Does each employee know how their job impacts the goals?

In any government, organization, business, or team, if you have common goals, it will be much easier to get on the road to success. Put everyone on the same page and watch your results move in the desired direction.

Jerry of Ben and Jerry's

2007-09-15T14:54:00.000-04:00

I went to a talk at the University of Rochester last night where the speaker was Jerry Greenfield, one of the founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. The subject of the talk was Social Responsibility, and that is interesting, but I really went because I wanted to hear how a company who always seemed pretty cool, or as cool as a company can be, came to be. Ben and Jerry’s evolution to huge success was always built on having fun and being innovative. They weren’t afraid to try new things and differentiate themselves. Start an ice cream shop in frigid Burlington, VT? Probably not what the MBA’s would say was wise. Chunks of flavors in ice cream? Never been done before. A stock offering to state residents? Nope, no one had done that either.

The success of Ben and Jerry’s can be attributed to a lot of things, but leadership, creativity and willingness to let others creativity flourish are the main reasons why Jerry stood before hundreds of students and a few locals talking about giving back as a company. He talked about being a values based business, he talked about spirituality, and he talked about making money while making things better. I can sum up the main theme of the night, if you give, you will get. That can be applied on a corporate level, on a team level, and on an individual level.

Note, I didn't go for the free ice cream after the talk, but the chocolate chip cookie dough brought me back to some late night chow sessions from my high school and college days.

I was about to close this post when I looked back over Jerry’s bio. Because of who I am, this stood out to me. “Jerry created the Ben & Jerry’s Joy Gang: a group of employees dedicated to bringing more joy into the workplace through fun activities.” Ben and Jerry’s has grown immensely, made a lot of people a lot of money, and done a lot of good for the world. Not a bad way for a company to be.

Talent doesn’t always trump heart

2007-09-05T21:50:00.001-04:00

I am a big sports fan and as I watched the opening weekend of college football, a plain as day lesson on the importance of passion and determination played out in Ann Arbor, MI. The home and #5 ranked team in the country, the University of Michigan Wolverines, charged out onto the field in front of 110,000 frenzied fans dressed in maize and blue.

On the opposing sideline was Appalachian State, a team from Boone, NC. If you were to open up a sports magazine and look for the App State Mountaineers amongst the 119 college football teams, you wouldn’t find them. That is because they are in the lower Division 1-AA system.

The Wolverines paid the visitors $400,000 to suit up for what was supposed to be a home opening yawner. I won’t go into the play by play, but if I’m writing about it, things didn’t go exactly as planned.

7-0 Michigan. 14-7 Michigan. 28-14 App State. 32-31 Michigan. Final Score: 34-32 App State!

The team that had no chance, the team that was supposed to be a cupcake warm-up for the real season, came into a hostile environment and beat the #5 team in the country. The Michigan team boasted a running back and offensive lineman rated as top three in the nation and a quarterback who started all four years and would’ve been drafted by the NFL last year. Michigan’s higher paid coaches, highly recruited players, superior training facilities, and a home crowd did not matter to App State. They came in and proved that if you mix teamwork, brains, and passion, you can run with the big boys.

Note that no Division I-AA team had beaten a team ranked in The Associated Press poll from 1989-2006. That is why the headlines asked, “Biggest upset ever?”

I write about this story in a business blog because it shows the power of team. Michigan had the bigger named talent, but they were underprepared, complacent, and overlooked the little guys. Well, your company might just be the little guy.

Big or small, to get to where you want to go, it will take all of the things App State showcased last Saturday.

Perceptions

2007-08-17T10:51:00.001-04:00

In just about any relationship we are a part of there tends to be a difference between our perceptions and reality. In the business world the discrepancy is even greater. Typically, management thinks theirs employees think and feel a certain way. But when you ask the employees how they are feeling, management’s eyebrows raise at the answers. “Really? I didn’t know they thought that!” My response is, “Of course they feel differently than you, did you ever ask them?” If management can avoid this disconnect, it will reap huge dividends.

An example of this disconnect comes from a company not currently known for their employee engagement, Sears. This story comes from the early 1990’s, but it paints a great picture of perceptions in the workplace.

In 1992 Sears had their worst year in history and wanted to know why. They undertook a huge task, surveying more than 70,000 employees. Here is the disconnect between what management wanted employees to think and what employees actually thought.

Two survey questions:

What do you think is the primary thing you get paid to do every day?
More than 50% responded - “Protect the assets of the company.”
Hoped for Answer – “I get paid to satisfy the customer.”

If you are Sears and you have more than half of your employees trying to make sure people aren’t stealing rather than making sure the customer shopping experience is a pleasant one, you are in trouble.

How much profit do you suppose Sears keeps on every dollar of revenue from the register?
Median response – 45 cents
Actual – 2 cents

If you are Sears and the majority of employees are thinking that they are making a relatively small wage but the company is raking in 45 cents for every dollar spent, the motivation level will not be there. “They are making all this money, why aren’t I seeing any of it?”

Sears knew they had issues and they did research to find out why. In response to the disconnect, they held employee town hall meetings across the country explaining the survey results and clearing up the stigmas. And it helped (for a while).

In your business, my guess is there are disconnects between perception and reality. The good news is you can do something about it. Ask your people what they are thinking and feeling (surveys are easily accessible). Then take action on what they say. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Wasted Time

2007-07-31T10:18:00.000-04:00

I get emailed links to various articles and one from today stood out. The title read, “Average Employee Wastes Two Hours of Every Workday.” If you are an executive or a manager, that title has to make you cringe. Just think, for every 40 hours of pay, you are only getting 30 hours of work. That is not exactly what the financial people would call ROI.

So the question becomes, Why the waste of time? The article blamed some of the results on younger workers, saying the older generation had a stronger work ethic. Another point in the article says that this waste of time is not such a bad thing, that it may build up camaraderie. My guess is most execs won’t see it that way. Their brains are rolling through ideas of how to make sure their people are working harder.

“How can we track them? How can we hold them accountable? How can we gain productivity?” These are fair questions. But at the end of the workweek, it boils down to motivation. "Do I care about my job? Does my work really matter to the overall goals of the team, division, or company? Does my company care about me?"

I love my career as much as anyone, but I still waste time. Yet, when the clock ticks to 5:00, I am not slamming my computer shut and running from the office. We all waste time.

If you have passionate people, they will make up the time. Passionate people will get more done with their 40 hours minus waste than someone who doesn’t care. They will produce the results you are looking for. The solution to the why of the article is not in more micromanaging, it is in more leading and motivating.

Just the Facts

2007-07-10T10:11:00.000-04:00

The subtitle of this blog says passionate employees will lead to passionate customers which will lead to profits. A few months ago I had the chance to sit down and interview Will Kuchta, The VP of Organizational Development at Paychex. I’ll save his experiences and words of wisdom for the book, but there is no question Paychex subscribes to a similar theory as I do.

What’s great about this is their results show the equation in action. And what amazing results they have. Here’s the skinny:

Paychex reported their fiscal 2007 earnings last week. Before I report the info I want to mention a few points that make sense for this post. In 2007 Paychex was once again named to FORTUNE magazine’s “Best 100 Companies to Work For,” this year coming in at #70. In 2007, Paychex continued their run in Training magazine by being ranked #34 on their Top 125 List. These accolades show their employees like working there and that Paychex takes the time and money to invest in their people. And now for the numbers…

For fiscal 2007 Paychex reported their profits rose 14 percent over last year, topping $500 million. That $500 million is not revenue, that is $500 million of profit!

Paychex provides an environment where their people feel invested in and appreciated. This leads to their people taking care of their customers. This leads to repeat customers and new customers. Combine all of this and the profits follow. A lot of profit!

Moving faster by slowing down

2007-06-27T15:26:00.000-04:00

I recently started doing some management consulting work with a company of 60 employees. They are a company who has grown substantially, but are currently at a place when many huge projects are on the road to the next level of growth. Some of these obstacles are operational in nature, some technological, some manpower, and some financial. It is safe to say my time on site is a whirlwind, with project after project on the to do list.

If my time on site is a whirlwind, I can only imagine what it is like to be in the center of the whirlwind every day. In my one on one meetings with the managers, they rattle off all of the things they are working on. And the list is many. But what I see from the outside is that because there are so many projects going on at once, they are not making near as fast of progress as they could if they broke things down into smaller chunks.

They need help prioritizing. What is the most important project for me to tackle today? How can I tailor my day so I am focusing on the tasks that will accomplish those goals? What do I do about the other projects that I might not get to if I prioritize?

There are many of us caught up in the whirlwind. When that happens, you can’t ask those questions, better yet answer them. My advice is to take a small step back, take a deep breath, and analyze all of your projects. Figure out which is the most important and which is the closest to completion. And create a daily timeline. “No matter what, I will spend three hours today on project XYZ.”

And then tell your caught up in the cyclone co-workers what you are doing. Your focus may be just what they need. They’ll either pitch in or see what you’ve done and do they’re own prioritization.

You will then see yourself and your company moving forward faster by taking the time to step back.

Patience and Perseverance

2007-06-18T22:14:00.001-04:00

I spoke with the CEO of a 90 person company a few days ago about the process of motivating people. His company has been focused on the process for a little over three years and he described some of the ups and downs. His advice for those wanting to create a passionate workforce or who are in the process of doing so was to be aware of the incredible amount of patience and perseverance it truly takes to make it happen.

He said there were days when he thought all of this “human stuff” was a waste of time and effort. But he went on to say that once things fell into place and people believed that this was not a HR initiative or a theme of the month, when they believed that the entire company was on board with making it a great place to work, the results were undeniable. Managers trusted their people to do right. People believed their opinions mattered and their work was important. In the end, they obliterated the company goals.

Great Place to Work Institute, Inc. says a workplace is great when employees trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do and enjoy the people they work with. As I have seen and been told, to accomplish this is much easier said than done. And it doesn’t happen overnight.

The first step is to say you want to be a great place to work. The next step is to live it. And keep living it through the ups and downs.

Work Life Balance

2007-06-12T09:18:00.000-04:00

A friend of my father's started a new job recently. He is a few years older than me, married and has two young kids. I asked my dad how it's been going so far and he told me well, except for his boss. He didn’t say the boss is a jerk, but he did say the boss checks emails daily at 5:30 AM and replies before he comes to work at 7 AM. He does the same thing at night. He also expects his new employee to be online doing the same thing.

The company is paying their new hire a very fair wage and my guess is his boss had a boss before him instill the work around the clock mentality. I am not married with two young kids, but I know what it is like at my brother's house in the mornings and evenings: hectic!

We always bring high hopes and maximum energy to the start of a new job. We want to succeed. And we bust our butt to do so. But does this new relationship seem like it is going to last? I doubt it. Whose fault is it? I would say the boss.

He may have had to fight the battle of working round the clock while balancing his family. I'm sure he hated it. I think that's part of the reason he's passing it on. "I went through it, so should he." I liken it to my fraternity experience. "They hazed me, so I'm hazing you." The cycle continues until someone says, "Hey, wait a minute. This makes no sense."

And this work relationship does not make sense. As a boss, you have to step outside of your experiences and think about your employee. From 5:30 AM - 7 AM the employee is not at home snoozing away, nor is he sitting on his porch sipping coffee, he is running around getting kids fed and ready for school. And after work he is not sipping Crown and Coke's at the country club, he is putting his kids to bed and spending some time with his wife. Those are the important things. Take that ability away and you take away his energy and motivation. Around the clock work does not produce greater results, it produces greater turnover.

Now think, this guy has a new job and he wants to do well, but he is already questioning if it is the right fit. I'm sure his wife and kids aren't too happy about it either. This starts the downward spiral of resenting your boss, looking at CareerBuilder and Monster, and most importantly, quitting the job but not telling anyone. Showing up for work but not caring. Exactly what you don't want as a manager.

In today's world, there has to be balance. High expectations are fine, but they have to be realistic. You may not have been allowed to live a life outside of work, but that also means you know how much that stinks. Don't pass it on. People want to work hard and perform. Having a work life balance brings maximum effort. This breed’s creativity, innovation, and most importantly: results.

Master

2007-06-08T14:46:00.000-04:00

A friend recently passed me a link to an article by Jeffrey Gitomer, a Charlotte, NC based writer and speaker focused on sales. This particular "Sales Moves" column talked about his airplane conversation sitting next to Zach Johnson, the golfer who recently won the Masters.

The article says Johnson always knew he had talent, skill, and passion for the game even though he was not the #1 golfer on his high school or college golf team. But things didn't come together for him until he surrounded himself with a team of coaches and an inner circle of experts. And it came together in a big way, winning the most prestigious tournament in the game of golf.

Johnson had the tools, but he needed help along the way. "If you can get others to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself, you can become a master. And not just in golf or business or sales - a master in life."

If you are the leader of a business, the manager of people, or trying to get something new off the ground, the key is surrounding yourself with good people and sharing a common goal. Prepare to be amazed by the opportunities coming your way.

Words for the CEO

2007-06-05T20:32:00.001-04:00

Today I went to a seminar given by Ole Carlson. He wrote the book Beneath the Armor: How Business Leaders Stand Tall in a Turbulent Global Economy (http://www.influencemany.com). Today's session focused on the CEO’s role in leading their company. It was a group of close to 20 and he held our attention for the entire three hours.

I will not share the program here, but a point that really stuck with me is the growth or hindering power held by the owner/president/CEO. In a small to mid size business, this leader took an idea or vision and made it reality. They went from one employee, to five, to twenty, to eighty employees. They drove the growth through their energy, effort, and skills. But with the growth comes new obstacles and challenges and the question of, “How can we keep growing?”

The answer I heard today and that I have also seen in the businesses I have interviewed and worked with is this: The leader must change. The attributes and style that worked as a start up with 5 or 10 people will and does not work with a workforce of 80. The leader has to focus on leading, not doing. And this is a very hard idea for leaders to grasp.

“It’s worked so well for so long, why should I change?” Because you need to lead the doers.

This takes us to the people aspect. In his talk and book, Ole discusses seven strategies. I was glad to hear him say that the most important one was Strategy Five: It is All About the People.

I say this: A great doer can accomplish many things, but someone leading many great doers can accomplish infinitely more.

Growing in a Shrinking Economy

2007-06-04T11:35:00.000-04:00

My second sales job had a strong focus on creating and maintaining relationships via the trade show circuit. As the economy turned south, so did the size of the pie for the companies who supply the marketing displays for the trade show industry. This hit home recently after a family friend in the trade show supply business saw the booming national company that she worked for recede, finally to the point of shutting their doors.

Today I read the business section of the Rochester, NY newspaper and the company they highlighted intrigued me (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070604/BUSINESS/706040314/1001). The title of the article is, "Trade show company flourishes by investing in 'human capital.'" They interviewed Donna M. Shultz, president of Mirror Show Management about their success. Her advice is this: "Human capital matters. Companies with the vision to invest in their human capital are companies that flourish."

Even in a shrinking industry, MSM still finds ways to focus on the passion of their people. Shultz said, "MSM's devotion to client service affords us continuing growth opportunities." So a devotion to client service is MSM's key to growth. The big question to ask is, how do you devote your company to client service?

The answer is by devoting yourself to your people. Motivated people with the proper training and tools will give your clients above and beyond what they need. And those clients will stay clients and tell potential clients about the great service your company provides.

In thinking about a shrinking industry, realize good customer service lives beyond the walls of that customer. In a reducing sector many people will get downsized. If these downsized people like the services you provided for them, chances are good they will call you when they land on their feet at a new company.

MSM shows that even if you are in an industry that is shrinking, if you have the vision to invest in your people, those same people will take care of your customers, who will in turn take care of you.

The Basics of Business Motivation

2007-05-31T14:03:00.001-04:00

Businesses need motivated employees. The Power of Passionate People:

• Increases productivity
• Improves quality of work
• Decreases turnover
• Increases retention
• Increases return on investment per employee
• Increases loyalty and word of mouth
• Brings in better potential employees
• Positively effects the bottom line.

And it makes life so much better for each worker.

Communication

2006-05-24T15:45:00.000-04:00

I am currently doing management consulting with a company outside of Rochester. It has been awesome to see such a motivated group, especially at the top level of the company. They are at an important stage, one that many successful entrepreneurial companies go through. In the book I am reading right now, Growing Pains, they talk about how growth causes the need to change from an entrepreneurial management style to a professional management style.

In this case, the past decision making of the company was dictated by the owner and an inner circle. Until recently, the people constantly looked to them for approval on many decisions they are more than capable of making on their own. But for years, this is the way it was. "What does the owner think? I need his affirmation."

What is nice about now is that the owner sought me out and said he wanted help in empowering people to make decisions. He knows that there is not enough time in the day for him to have his hands on everything. Thus, the important step in the company’s future moves them toward a professional management style.

The point of this post is to share what happened yesterday. The operational processes of the company have sped up to the point where some of the front line staff thought the company was doing poorly. They felt there wasn’t enough work. What they didn’t realize was that because the production process has become more lean, they are making more, faster. They are doing a wonderful job and are exactly where they need to be as the boom push continues.

The key is this: The old management style probably would have not known the front line was frustrated. They would have been too busy doing other things to realize it. But because the new style is taking place, there was a company wide meeting. The owner spoke to all 80 employees. He told them that they are exactly where they are supposed to be. The vibe in the room exhaled in relief, then applauded at their accomplishments.

That open, constant communication, from CEO all the way to the front line worker was and is essential. People need to know where the company is at and where it is going. The front line perspective was wrong, and it was hurting production and morale. One 45 minute meeting caused a major turnaround. Even better, I had nothing to do with setting up the meeting. The professional management style is pulsating. They are on the track, moving forward to great things.

Innovation

2006-05-19T11:29:00.000-04:00

The drive to harness the energy of the workforce might start within the HR department, but it cannot stop there. There must be buy in from the CEO, from the top managers, and most importantly from the immediate managers. Without buy in from these groups, this will be just another initiative, not an innovation. The April 24, 2006 BusinessWeek discusses the world's most innovative companies. The front cover shows the who's who of today's successful businesses and some of the things they are doing to stay on top. Almost all of the how to's deal in one way or another with people.

An interesting concept they talked about was CEO's becoming innovators-in-chief. The top dog sets the tone and culture of the company, large or small. If they are open to new ideas and try new things, their people will too. If they are risk adverse, the company will show it.

In order for people to be passionate about work, the management of the company needs to make it a priority to take steps to allow that. They need to see how much of an influence they have on their teams. I was trained perfectly on this. “People usually don’t quit their company, they quit their boss.”

You may hire great people, but if your management is weak, the great people will go somewhere else or be miserable and not produce like they are capable of.

Wegmans

2006-05-15T12:47:00.000-04:00

FORTUNE magazine said for 2006 the #2 Best Company to Work For in the U.S. is Wegmans, a grocery store chain headquartered in Rochester, NY. In 2005, Wegmans was the #1 Company to Work For according to FORTUNE. How does a company who you might not have ever heard of accomplish such lofty recognition? By focusing on the satisfaction of their employees.

Chairman Robert Wegman said, “No matter what we have invested in our people, we’ve gotten more in return. I have always believed that our path to great customer service began with that investment. That philosophy has proven itself many times over.”

I regret to say Mr. Wegman passed away a few weeks ago. It was a huge event in Rochester. There is no doubt he left a major mark on this area, on his industry, and on company/employee/customer relations.

I know Wegmans well. I grew up in Rochester, NY. Most of my book was written while I was in Rochester, NY. A lot of my friends from high school worked at or still work at Wegmans. And this much I can say about Wegmans. When I went away to college in Arkansas, when I was at grad school in South Carolina, when I was working in Memphis, Phoenix, and Charlotte, and when I was on the road, the one thing I had to do whenever I came back to Rochester was to go shopping at Wegmans. That's how great of a store it is. That's how well their philosophy works.

Wegmans has passionate employees, but they also have profitable businesses. Invest in your people and it will come back to you.

Manufacturing CEO

2006-05-15T10:15:00.000-04:00

I interviewed the CEO of a 200+ employee manufacturing company a few months ago. He was brought in from the outside with the task of "bringing organization to chaos." There was a major disconnect between management and the line. He focused on the front line workers, asking them a series of questions. At first, it was not about speeding about production. It was about personal motivation: "What is expected of you everyday? Who do you report to? How can we make this a more pleasant work epxerience?" The answers he received were astonishing. It was in fact, chaos. He defined roles, empowered front line management and implemented many of the ideas to change the work environment.

From there, the goal was to figure out how to produce more, while eliminating a defect rate that at his hire date was close to 10%. Again, he went from the bottom up and asked the front line people: "How do you do it? What can we do better? How can we do it differently?" After analyzing the information, they implemented new processes based on the information of the line. Imagine the feeling of ownership of a front line worker when the CEO actually listens and implements an idea! Their effort skyrocketed because they are now part of the process. They were not told do it this way because we say so, they told the boss how to do it better.

Via implementation of new processeses and constant communication throughout all members of the company, the chaos was calmed. The results were astonishing. Turnover went from 30% to less than 5%. The defect rate went from 10% to less than 1%. And sales increased by over 50%. All because they harnessed the power of their people.

He laughed as he told me the story. "Andrew, wisdom comes from the line, not the CEO office."

Motivated Workers

2006-05-14T11:49:00.000-04:00

Recent Gallup studies show that the U.S. losses over $300 billion each year due to unmotivated workers. The May 2006 Business 2.0 magazine says that 65% of workers planned to be looking for new jobs in 2006.

The business community has done a great job in creating new technologies and implementing new ideas to speed up productivity. But now, with information flow so rampant and ideas easily accessible to all, including your competition, the one area that companies can still differentiate themselves from their competition is in their people. People are an untapped competitive resource that needs to be focused on and corrected.

People do not want to hate their job. They don't want to be looking for new work and hopping from company to company. We all want to succeed. Companies must figure out how to harness the energy of their people. Great things will follow for the company and for each person working there.