Recently, I was asked to organize a webinar with some of our company’s most influential customers.  As this was my first introduction to many of them, I wanted to make sure this call went perfect.  Our team put together a great agenda and worked with our logistics partner to review the technical specifics for all attendees.  We setup a meeting the day before the call to run through the details and to practice executing the call which went perfect.

As we all know well, life is not perfect.  We can role play and practice in artificial models or scenarios, but these types of interactions are not what determines success.  Accomplishment is determined by the end result, in this case, the 8:00PM call with our top customers and educators.  We had instructed all of our presenters to login 30 minutes prior to the call starting to make sure we were prepared.  At 7:40, everything went wrong…the slides were not advancing, there was background noise on the phone from one of our presenters, attendees were in-correctly allowed into our presenter “room” and heard us going through solutions to the multitude of technical problems we were experiencing.  Luckily, our team remain composed and we were able to conduct a positive call, overcoming the obstacles we faced.

The reason I share this story with you relates to how you and your team determine success versus failure.  When evaluating the company handling the logistics for this call, the practice call was great, but that was not the performance which mattered.   The only call that mattered was the 8:00PM call and this experience did not meet our expectations.

In running a training department for several years, our team witnessed many people who flourished in a controlled environment, participating well in simulated drills/role plays/testing modules.  Many of them achieved great things after training, yet we also witnessed people whose success in the classroom did not translate to the job they were hired to do.  We also saw people who performed at an average level in the training room but truly excelled in their jobs in front of our customers.  The best employees are the ones who perform on game days, combining the skills they learned in training with the will to succeed when it mattered.  Practice is essential to success, but companies or teams are only judged by their performance after training.  I will take the employee who rates a seven out of ten in the training room and performs at a ten out of ten level when it counts versus the employee who is a ten out of ten in simulated practices but only a seven out of ten when they have to produce.   If your scoreboard is based on practices or simulated exercises and results only, you are setting your teams up for failure.

1. Make sure you are holding your players accountable to their performance “in games” versus their performance “in practice”. Again, this does not minimize the value of practice.  However, accomplishment is measured by the performance when it matters.   If a person’s success is only seen on the practice field or in the training room and does not translate to the job they were hired to do, then we need to ask if they are the right person for the job.
2. When determining the right person for a role or job, make sure to gain feedback from others on the decision. Great leaders do not make decisions in a silo.  Listen to what peers and others say about any person you are evaluating for a position.  An example – a couple of years ago, we had a leadership position come available which we had 3 highly qualified people for.  In my mind and the mind of others, there was a clear-cut leader for this promotion, who was the most tenured and we had the most involvement with.  We asked for feedback from many people, especially the direct supervisors and peers of the other two candidates who had applied for this position.  These other two candidates had less tenure with our company and we did not have as many touchpoints or experiences with them.   In the end, we promoted the least tenured person for the position because of what her performance was and for the intangibles she brought to the interview and evaluation process, which we were not initially aware of.  The other two candidates did well in simulations, but when it came to specific performance when it mattered, it was an easy decision.  If we would not have asked for the feedback of her peers and managers, we would not have endorsed the right person.  And this new manager has been crushing it for two straight years in her role.
3. In training environments, don’t set a goal to be perfect, but to get better. There will be times when your practice is perfect, but it will not be every day.  Work on minimizing mistakes and set a goal of improving on 1-2 things per week.  Very few people in life perform at a 10 out of 10 level in all areas every day (maybe they exist but I have never met them).  We all have strengths and development areas.  Prolific people and teams work to improve on both.

When I was living in Texas, I had the pleasure of attending a breakfast with a Division I college football coach who described the “it” factor he looked for when recruiting players.  He would spend a lot of time watching practices, but the most important metric to his staff was how these recruits performed in games, when the pressure was on and when performance was tested outside of the simulations of drills and practice. While he was talking about players he wanted in his program, he would ask their high school coaches if their player had “it”.  This was defined by intangibles such as leadership, determination, handling of pressure, grit and many times could not be replicated on a practice field.  These “it” factors were important in every interaction every day, but he wanted players on his team who performed most on Saturday game days in front of 60,000 screaming fans and not just on Monday through Friday practice days.  If a player did not have “it” then he would typically pass on them.  Gary Patterson has won 167 games and lost only 63 games in his 19 years as a coach at Texas Christian University because he has recruited players into his program whose performance is analyzed by both practices and games, but most importantly the way they play and win on Saturdays, when it counts.  Successful businesses should do the same!

Well Done > Well Said-

Jimmy

 

A manager was tragically knocked down by a bus and unfortunately did not survive the crash.  Her soul arrived at the Pearly Gates, where St. Peter welcomed her.  “Before you get settled in” St. Peter said, “we have a little problem…you see we have never had a manager like you make it this far and we are not really sure what to do with you.”

“Oh, I see,” said the manager.  “Can you just let me into heaven?”

St. Peter replied “Well I would like to, but I have higher orders.  We are instructed to let you have a day in hell and a day in heaven, and then you are to choose where you’d like to go for all eternity.”

“Actually, I think I would prefer heaven”, said the woman.

St. Peter responded “Sorry, we have to follow the rules”.   St. Peter put the manager into the downward bound elevator.

As the doors opened in hell, the manager stepped out onto a beautiful golf course.  In the distance was a country club; around her were many friends, past fellow executives, all smartly dressed, happy and cheering for her.  They ran up to her with joy and talked about old times.  They played a perfect round of golf and afterwards, went to the country club where the manager and her friends enjoyed the best dinner she had ever tasted.  She met the devil (who was actually very nice to her), and they all had a wonderful night telling jokes and laughing together. Before she knew it, it was time to leave.  Everyone shook her hand and waved good-bye as she stepped onto the elevator back up to heaven.  St. Peter again greeted her at the Pearly Gates and shared “Now, it’s time to spend a day in heaven.”

The manager spent the next 24 hours lounging around the clouds, playing the harp and singing, which was almost as enjoyable as her day in hell.  At the end of the day, St. Peter returned. “You’ve spent a day in hell and a day in heaven’, he said.  “You must now choose between the two.” The manager thought for a second and replied “Well, heaven is certainly lovely, but I actually had a better time in hell.  I choose hell.”

Accordingly, St. Peter took her to the elevator again and she went back down to hell.  When the doors of the elevator opened, she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth.  She saw her friends dressed in dirty clothes, picking up trash and putting it in old sacks.  The devil approached her and put his arm around her, welcoming her to hell.  “I don’t understand”, said the manager, “the other day I was here, and there was a golf course and country club.  Everything was beautiful and I had the best meal I have ever eaten.  All of the people here were so happy.  Now all I see is a dirty wasteland of garbage and everyone looks miserable.  What happened?”

The devil simply looked at her and said “yesterday we were recruiting you…today you’re staff.”

This is a loose adaptation from an HR joke I read years ago.  This story is very relevant for current leaders as many employees today value company culture and developmental opportunities with their jobs more than in the past.   Too many times, managers will tell a candidate what they want to hear during the interview process versus the reality of what working for the company is actually like.  This will lead to higher turnover, increased personnel spend, reduced company productivity and more time for a manager re-recruiting for the same role.

What Leaders Do To Attract and Retain Top Talent:

• Always interview prospective candidates with other members of your team. Multiple points of view are ideal, especially when you have a number of qualified candidates applying for the same role.  Plus, you could hear a response one way and another person’s point of view may be different.
• Be flexible and expect the same from your candidates. I’ve interviewed candidates in Coffee Shops, Restaurants, Hotel Lobbies & Baggage Claim areas in Airports, in addition to web-based interviews via Skype or Facetime.   Seeing candidates in multiple settings will sometimes give you a good look on how they respond and react to change.  I always try to interview candidates in different locations then other interviews they have had.
• Make sure the candidate is providing you specific answers to the questions you are asking, with examples of how they have handled the situations in the past versus what they “would” do in those situations.
• While application or pre-hire assessments are good tools, they should not be a make or break for a candidate. Use this information wisely and as another source of information to uncover strengths or development areas, as well as if the candidate is an ideal fit for the position.
• In the course of every interview process, you have to shift from interviewer to recruiter. This could be during the first conversation or the last, but your job is to hire the best talent, and successful leaders make the transition from interviewing candidates to recruiting them to join their team.
• Be honest with all responses. If someone asks you why the position is open, tell them the truth.  If a candidate asks you about the current state of the team or the position, share with them the realities.  If you hire under false pretenses, the new employee is more likely to be disengaged from the start.  A good sign of a healthy organization making the right decisions in the hiring process is minimal turnover in the first 18 months with their employees.
• Set a “soft” goal of getting a position filled by a certain time but never settle for hiring someone to meet an internal deadline.  Always say the timeline to hire is when we find the right fit for the position we are interviewing for.  And the fit has to be good for the company with the employee as well as the employee with the company.
• After 3-6 months into the role, ask the new hire if the job is what you told them it would be? Some managers think they do a good job explaining what the role is, but neglect to ask for feedback from the people they hire.  Thank the employee for sharing their thoughts with you. Being an authentic leader means others will many times have better ideas than your own. Authentic and humble leaders listen to their team’s opinions and take action on their commentary.
• The best way to work on your interviewing and recruiting skills is to practice them on your current employees. The most effective leaders are ones who are constantly asking questions of their current teams on what they as a leader and their company can improve on.  Don’t take your current employees for granted and make sure you tell and show your people how valuable they are.

As stated in the story above, be honest with each candidate about what your company does well and what gaps you have and how you are working on them.  Candidates today are more informed than ever, and attracting and retaining top talent starts with the trust developed from the first interview to the first month on the job.

Well Done > Well Said

 

 

 

“It’s not my fault…I was told I had to do this”

“That is not in my job description…”

“I don’t have the tools to be successful…”

“My job changes every 3-6 months…how can they expect me to be successful”

“My boss does not tell us anything…”

“I can’t help you…figure it out”

These are comments that we hear all too often in our day to day lives.  Last week, I was in a clothing store and listened to a conversation with a manager scolding their employee for not handling their stocking correctly.  When the employee asked a very simple question searching for clear guidance, the manager responded, “they don’t pay me enough to figure that out”.

Accountability is a two-way street.  Accountability is a choice that has to be made by each individual team member versus a directive from their superiors.  Poor managers often think they only should drive accountability downward, forcing accountability on their direct reports and placing blame on their team for poor results.  An example of a poor manager’s comments “your results have to improve and you need to turn this around”.  High performing leaders develop a level of trust and accountability with their teams, setting clear and defined expectations, communicating clearly and often.  A high performing leader says “we need to improve these results, and let’s figure out a plan together to do so”.  Poor managers assign blame…Great leaders share the results and the plan to improve.

5 ways to develop accountability with your teams:

1. Assign specific tasks to your individual contributors with set completion dates. Try to avoid the individual sharing these assignments with others.  The more tasks are shared with others, the less accountable the individual becomes.  However, encourage cross collaboration and working with others.  Silo driven organizations are usually the ones making excuses vs achieving great things.
2. Align rewards to performance. Reward people for accomplishing tasks with measurable outcomes versus just getting things done.
3. Define the purpose of your group. Every member of your team should understand why you do what you do.  Once your team has bought into the purpose (WHY), you can develop the process (WHAT & HOW) to help you achieve your goals.  Every member of your team should understand the benefit of their roles.
4. Keep tasks clear and simple. We ask people constantly to produce more with less.  The simpler the tasks you assign to your team, the more accountable they become because they know exactly what is expected of them.  And many times, these simple assignments will encourage improvisation outside of the original project scope, which fosters creativity and ownership.
5. Set up multiple check points throughout each month. The worst managers are the ones who tell you what to do, make promises that they could never keep, then disappear on you (reference the Ghost Manager post from last year). Effective leaders setup check points which are determined by their individual team members and discuss progress updates.  Remember that some people like to have numerous communication check points while others are more comfortable with a less frequent update schedule.  With an accountable team, the quality of the updates is more important than the frequency.

I was recently questioned if I was a leader that I would want to work for?  This poignant question got me thinking about my journey as a leader, what traits and characteristics I possess that hopefully make others want to work with me, and more importantly, what skillsets do I need to work on to improve.  Please ask yourself this same question and write down the things you do well along with the areas that you wish you could develop.  What 1-2 things can you work on in the next 30 days to be better?  We all experience challenges in our careers and being accountable means celebrating the wins when they come and figuring out why we lost when we get knocked down.    A quote I recently enjoyed hearing is “the comeback will be better than the setback”.

I appreciate all of my followers on this site and enjoy the comments shared with me as we celebrate our third year of quarterly leadership posts.

Well Done > Well Said

-Jimmy

Today is Halloween, a day enjoyed by many children in our country as they collect candy wearing costumes of various famous and infamous people or characters.  This year, my daughter is going to dress up as her favorite soccer player, Sam Mewis, and will be trick or treating with our dog, Honey, who will also be wearing a US Women’s Soccer Jersey.  Tonight we will see many wonderful costumes….the simplest of which is the Ghost.  Anybody can put a sheet over their head, cut out two eyes to see with, and transform into this iconic Halloween costume.

A ghost is defined by several things: scaring others, wreaking havoc in your house and with your friends, flying in and out with little regard for others, and basically being a nuisance.  In my 20 years of leading others, I have seen many managers who resemble the disruptive nature of Ghosts, and I have called them Ghost Managers.  What are the characteristics of the haunting Ghost Manager?

1. Their primary focus is on the success of themselves and not the team they work with.
2. They “fly” in to work with you and after they leave, neither you nor your customers want to see them again.
3. When they come work with you, they promise all sorts of good things to you and your customers, many of which are not realistic and you don’t see or hear from them again for a long time.
4. Ghosts are characteristically invisible, which many Ghost Managers are with their teams.
5. Ghosts are meant to appear out of nowhere to scare you. Managers who don’t involve their teams in decision making and force their surprise ideas on unsuspecting teams are Ghost Managers.
6. There is very little substance to a real ghost, typically just a sheet with nothing behind it. Ghost Managers also have very little substance to them with their words meaning much more than their actions.

So how do we know if we work for a leader, someone who is invested in our development as an individual and the team for the betterment of the company and its customers?

1. Leaders respond to your emails and calls in a timely manner.
2. Leaders listen to understand or ask questions to understand before making judgments or responses.
3. Leaders involve you early on in decision making and do not try to force their opinions on you. Example – they ask your opinions on situations before a solution is decided on.
4. Leaders challenge you in a fair and specific way to improve your personal performance. Sometimes this means delegating their responsibilities to team members for insight into what a promotion into their role will look like.
5. Leaders promote the members of their teams for different assignments, even if there is a short term loss to the leaders’ individual performance.
6. Leaders ask you about what’s important in your life vs their own personal agenda. They talk about you more than they talk about themselves
7. Leaders challenge you to take time away from work and try not to bother you while on vacations. Recovery time is important to high performing individuals or teams in any aspect of life.
8. Leaders get in the weeds with you. They are visible to you and your teams and don’t ask you to do something they are not willing to do themselves. Leadership and talent assessment cannot be accomplished only by Skype, Text Messages and Phone Calls.
9. Leaders spend more time building relationships with their team vs strategic thinking. Both are important but the best working environments come from positive relationships with your teams. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.
10. Leaders provide recognition to you and your team when warranted and provide solutions to challenges when times are difficult.
11. During difficult times, the blame falls on the leader and not the team.  During times of prosperity, the credit all goes to the team.
12. Leaders don’t make promises they can’t keep. They are transparent with situations and consistent with feedback.
13. Leaders do not get caught up in rumors and gossip.  They will form opinions on their own personal experiences and not those of others.

Here are two suggestions on developing your leadership skills:

1. Work on performance management of your teams. Unfortunately, many companies define performance management only for their bottom performers, which is critical when you identify people who are not bought in to the current purpose of your organization.  Spend more time with your high potential team members who define what good looks like.  Develop action plans for them, ask them what they want to do in the next steps of their career, send them a handwritten note recognizing their contributions…whatever it takes to keep these top performers engaged so that they stay with your company.
2. Develop a culture of accountability with your team. A culture of accountability cannot be forced or mandated to your team. Being held accountable must be a choice that each team member makes. If you try to force high accountability without purpose and process, then your culture will slowly evolve into a directive culture, whose decisions and actions are directed by one person. Leaders make suggestions based on what they think is best and team members make decisions which ultimately define culture. When team members are involved in the decision making process before suggestions are made, chances of alignment are far greater which ultimately leads to higher levels of accountability.  People are more accountable to plans they provide input to.

 

Well Done > Well Said

Jimmy

 

 

August of 2018 marks my 18^th year of marriage to my wife, Christy.  She is an amazing woman who balances being a wife, mother, sister and realtor with such natural ease….I am very lucky to be married to such an incredible person who supports me in everything I do.  Christy has long been an avid lover of mountain biking and road biking, and is able to complete a long distance road race with minimal training.  She is a natural on the bike which brings me to the topic of this quarter’s post.

In February, 2017, I bought my wife a Peloton.  She loves to be on any bike and the thought of spending 45 minutes to an hour every day working out from the comfort of our home brought many smiles to her face as the company was delivering her new piece of exercise equipment.  Personally, spin classes or road biking was never something I adored.  Sitting on a bike for anything more than 10 minutes was about as gratifying as watching paint dry and my time spent exercising was doing pretty much anything else.

Something changed in January of 2018…suddenly, I was hooked to taking classes every day I could, not only on our Peloton at home, but at other spin class gyms in my travels.  I started looking up what gyms near my hotels offered spin classes.  Days without an instructor led class felt empty.  Classes at 5:30AM were suddenly very intriguing to me, as long as I could get the class in and not miss a day.  Several weeks ago, I was asked what was the “trigger” which made me become a fanatic of the Peloton bike and participating in spin classes almost daily.  To me, it is very similar to leading others and was a combination of things, but most importantly, it was finding instructors who I enjoyed spending 30-60 minutes with on a daily basis.  The characteristics of successful leaders and businesses are very similar to why Peloton has generated a cult-like following in the highly competitive world of physical exercise.

The Similarities Between Peloton and Leadership

1. Leading others is a competitive environment: There are many choices to choose from concerning where you spend your time and resources on exercising.  You have to love what you do or you will eventually find something else.  Professionally, there are always other companies and leaders, many with competitive advantages, who are trying to take your best people away from you.  Always let your good people know where they stand and work on implementing plans for their continued improvement. Peloton has expanded their portfolio to lead workouts in running, core, and yoga to name a couple outside of their cycling portfolio.  What are you and your company doing to expand the capabilities of your most important asset, your people?
2. You need to vary your workouts to get better: The most dramatic growth in anything comes from getting comfortable being uncomfortable.  The Peloton instructors are constantly coaching to this concept and recommend varying your class schedule from HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) to Endurance Classes to Climb Rides among others.  Professional growth is no different.  We must constantly be challenging ourselves to improve in areas outside our normal comfort zones.  What are you learning today that makes you a better leader than you were 12 months ago?
3. You need to have peers who push you to perform at your best: The Peloton bike has a touchscreen with a leader-board which shows how your statistics compare to others, in addition to showing your personal records depending on class. This scoreboard is a great tool to see how you are ranked versus other riders.   Peer leadership is just as important as leadership by hierarchy, and the peers I work with challenge me to be better each week.  I am fortunate to work with talented individuals, who are successful leaders and even better people.  Are you becoming the best leader you can be, not worrying about what others do well or need to work on?  Are you the type of leader that you would enjoy working for?  What do your peers do well that you could improve on?
4. A good leader will sometimes tick you off by pushing you to attempt tasks you did not think possible:  There are times when I am 30 minutes into a HIIT class and the instructor is telling me to give more and I would love to scream obscenities back at that instructor.  However, they are just coaching me to try and give my best and motivate me to give everything I have for that 45 minute class.   The best leaders are not worried about being liked…they are focused on being respected, developing others and have their employees best intentions at the forefront at all times.  Are you challenging your teams to perform at levels that exceed their own expectations?  Are you coaching them specifically on what their goals are and communicating in a style specific to their needs?
5. Every day brings a new opportunity to improve and learn: While Peloton offers many outstanding coaches (I have enjoyed every class I have taken with each instructor) I feel connected to several because of the way they push me to perform better.  Each of them is different in their style, music choices, and delivery, and each one talks about setting daily wins to hit long term goals.  They constantly share that the most important part of improving our performance is getting on the bike each day and submitting ourselves to their coaching.    Motivation is an internal trait that the most successful people have….what typically takes an individual’s performance from good to great is an inspiring leader.  To Dennis, Emma, Jennifer, Matt and Jenn, thank you for pushing me to be better and for your constant words of encouragement and inspiration.

When you first turn on the Peloton prior to a ride, the following definition comes up:

Great leaders work together and perform better because of one another.  I am thankful that my wife has a love for biking that has led me to join a community of teamwork, togetherness, and comradery who celebrates individual differences and challenges us to be better.  For other Peloton riders, please feel free to follow me…my user name is AlwaysLearning. 

Well Done > Well Said

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, a time where we all should remember to honor the lives of our armed forces who sacrificed their lives for us to live in a free country.  Some of the most courageous people I have met have served in our military and they typically understand that respect is a trait that is earned through time and actions and not words.

The traits that make our military successful typically hold true in the business world as well.  As a leader, we are all accountable to developing our teams with experience usually being the best teacher.   Loyalty and trust is built through the hundreds of daily interactions you have with members of your team.  Too many times, disingenuous leaders focus on one big decision or the promise of something big to come down the road without building strong equity with their team using consistent recognition or coaching.  People don’t follow ideas or tactics…they follow the ideas and tactics from the people who they trust.  Focus on big dreams with small tangible actions.

Being a courageous leader also means allowing differing opinions and welcoming discussions which causes healthy debate.  Weak leaders only want “yes” people on their teams…people who always agree with the leader’s thoughts and ideas.  Courageous leadership is not running away from those who disagree with you. Courageous leaders are not threatened by tension on their teams. They deal directly with the challenges and discuss them openly without repercussions.  Embrace differences in opinions and be open to ideas not your own. The strongest teams open dialog with their direct reports in the early tactical stages of influencing change.  They focus on the right questions (does a decision make our product/company stronger or does this decision improve the quality of the services we offer).  The cynical leader knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing, and too often, cynical leaders make decisions that negatively impact their business without listening to their team’s opinions.  Basically, they have their mind made up prior to asking for input…which is the worst decision a leader can make.

Ways To Be More Of A Courageous Leader:

1. Create a Leadership CRM: You should know everything about each direct report on your team…birthdays, marital status, hobbies, career goals as examples.  You earn trust by focusing on the individual and treating them as your most important customer, which they are.  Personally, I have used Evernote for 5 years and this is a great tool across multiple platforms.  And, as is the case with every CRM, garbage in = garbage out.  Make sure you take the time to develop your customer relationship management tool!
2. Ask your teams what you can do better – The best leaders don’t have all the answers, admit mistakes, and ask team members what they could be doing better without defensiveness. On every field interaction I have, I close out by asking what we could be doing better as a company.  Some of the best ideas we have come across result from asking this simple question.  And if you have a healthy team culture, then you may get some honest ideas to improve your business.
3. Be a fountain and not a drain….I heard this from a colleague last month. While we all have times of frustrations in our lives, make sure you are contributing to something positive every day.  Every individual should be self-motivated to perform at a high standard…leaders inspire their teams to achieve what they did not think was possible.  Make sure you are doing your best to provide daily or weekly affirmations to your team in leading them to high levels of achievement.
4. Conduct After Action Reviews –  After every meeting or major initiative, focus on what went well and what you could have done differently.  Focus more on the positives then the negatives and make sure to learn from your past experiences.  The best teams know that you either win or you learn.

Being a courageous leader requires focus on the things you control, anticipating the challenges ahead (leaders anticipate, losers react), and creating a shared purpose of why you do what you do (a great read is “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle).  Anyone can lead when a plan is working…the courageous lead when a plan falls apart.  On this Memorial Day weekend, please take a moment to thank a veteran or active duty member of our military for their service and their courage in defending our country.

Well Done > Well Said

Every leader has been promoted into a role that they have never done before….this is the idea behind promotions.  Much like a golfer who practices on the driving range and in practice rounds, the actual tournament play is much harder and challenging with internal and external influences affecting the training they thought were perfected.  Leading others is the same way…you can prepare all you want on the “leadership driving range” but you have to be placed in real life scenarios in order to fully comprehend how you will react and how difficult (yet rewarding) leading others is.

Someone has to give you a chance at any new opportunity.  To me, there are several core principles to seeing if an individual is ready to take on a new responsibility of leading others:

1. People are interviewing for a position before the job is posted. I value what a person does in the months leading up to a position becoming available more than what they share with me during the actual interview.  All inputs matter…I just like seeing how people act in normal environments in addition to what they share during a face to face interview for a leadership position.
2. Would I want to work for them? Can they inspire someone to achieve a goal they did not think possible?  Do they have solid communication skills to make the transition from an individual contributor to a leader of others? Can they handle adversity when asked to implement a change that may be viewed as negative by their team? I have to answer yes to these 4 questions to feel comfortable with a potential new leader.
3. Are they doing something to improve their skill sets? Meditation, personal development through books or webinars, Ted Talks or Blinkist sessions….Each person has to be working on their own development outside of the training a company provides.  My group has been asked to set an appointment in their calendar with themselves for 30 minutes per week on personal development.

After accepting a new leadership role, here are some tips on setting up a successful first 90 days:

1. Stay Hungry and Humble: I often see new leaders get promoted into a role, get complacent because they finally have achieved that “next step” and forget the core principles that earned them the promotion.
2. Spend more time figuring out what’s going right versus focusing on what’s going wrong: New leaders make the mistake of trying to fix the bottom 20% and focus their efforts on this.  Work with your top performers, discuss the successes they are having and look to replicate this performance with your other employees.
3. Leadership versus authority: When you start a new role, you have to earn your team’s trust. A leader does this by listening to understand versus listening to respond, not making quick decisions, and communicating quickly and consistently on expectations.  Keeping your people uninformed creates distrust and anxiety.
4. Make your own judgement on people and processes: I have seen too many leaders influenced by another person’s feedback on what is working or who their best or worst people are. Always listen to what others say, but don’t make decisions based on someone else’s comments, who may have a different agenda or perspective on a situation.  Make your own informed decisions based on the data you value.
5. Be careful with drastic changes in the first 90 days: This is not to say that changes should not be made. Make sure the changes you are making are sound in judgement and the impacts to your team are clearly understood.  Change without proper communication leads to uncertainty about the change.
6. Don’t be afraid to accept hard feedback: New leaders usually excelled in their previous position…now they are novices in their new role. Consistently ask your supervisor what you are doing well and what areas you need to improve on in the first 90 days. Also, ask your team what you could be doing better to help them achieve their goals.  Always Be Learning!

The most effective leaders I work with are genuine in nature.  They have an ability to inspire without trying hard to do so, and are consistent with their day to day actions…you always know what you will get from them.  As a new leader, you must remember that people don’t follow titles…they follow leaders who they enjoy working for every day.  Title management is temporary and shallow.  Effective leaders inspire and motivate, no matter what their business card says.

This summer, I spent a weekend with some college friends playing golf in Pinehurst, NC.  Pinehurst is one of the true meccas of golf in the world, and we played on some amazing golf courses.  I played more rounds in those 3 days than I had in the last 18 months and had a blast doing so.  For those of you who know me, I graduated high school in Pinehurst as well and was able to spend some time visiting my mom while there.  I also had the opportunity to watch my niece, Kit, play in a USGA Junior event and was thoroughly impressed with her composure and her ability (at 12 years old she is a much better golfer than I am).

This was the first juniors golf event I have attended and during the round, Kit’s father was her caddy (which seems like a common occurrence for parents to caddy for their kids during tournament rounds).  Through the pre-shot plan of every stroke, to helping her determine the right club or the slope of the green, to encouraging and pushing her to be better, he assisted her to finish second in this tournament.  I wished I had a caddy helping me for the three rounds I played the previous 3 days.  From a professional perspective, it also got me thinking, “Who is my caddy in the professional world”?  As leaders of others, we all should have people in our business life that we are able to run through a pre-call plan with, someone to remind us of the tools we have to be successful, and lastly, someone to encourage us to be better when we have bad days, and continue to push us on the days where nothing can go wrong.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT CADDY?

1. Pick the right number of people to support and guide you. Just as you don’t want to have too many caddies giving you advice during a round of golf, limit the number of people you confide in or seek advice from to 3-5.  Network with as many people as you wish, but try to limit your true “Caddy” group to 3-5 people.  And don’t be afraid to change your group from time to time.
2. Choose people with varying strengths than yours. The best “Caddy” I ever had was our Chief Financial Officer, whose leadership style and strengths were totally different from mine.  He challenged me to think through situations from a totally different perspective then I had ever used which has allowed me to avoid some mistakes in decision making.   Surround yourself with people you can learn from.   It’s easy to interact with people who share your same way of thinking….true growth comes from getting comfortable being uncomfortable and learning from people who are different from you.
3. Set a goal and follow up action item for every meeting you have. The most frustrating meetings and conversations are ones without purpose or without a specific direction on what needs to happen after the meeting.  Make sure to set objectives for all interactions and more importantly, make sure you are setting up what needs to take place between this meeting and the next.  This will allow you to hold yourself and others accountable to detailed action items and make sure you are improving on the process or skillset originally discussed.

As we approach the end of my second year with this blog, I appreciate all of the well wishes I have received with this project.  It is truly humbling to think that people are referring to my thoughts or ideas to help them get through challenging leadership situations or using some of these experiences to make their leadership conversations more effective.  I have been fortunate to have worked with and learned from some great people throughout my career who have challenged me to be better than I am today.  The most influential and inspiring leaders care more about impressing the people they lead versus worrying about impressing their boss.   Be confident and courageous in your leadership and challenge yourself to “always be learning”…

 

 

 

Employee turnover can cripple a team and organization.  There is usually nothing gained when one of your best employees decides to take their talents to another business (I always think of Lebron James leaving his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to head to South Beach and the Miami Heat and the crippling effect it had on the Cavs).  Recent articles show the following employee turnover statistics:

1. A case study published which showed retaining a sales person for three years instead of two, along with better on-boarding and management practices, yields a difference of $1.3 million in net value to the company over a three year period.
2. Josh Bersin of Deloitte believes the cost of losing an employee can range from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5–2.0x the employee’s annual compensation. These costs include hiring, on-boarding, training, ramp time to peak productivity, the loss of engagement from others due to high turnover, higher business error rates, and general culture impacts.

*Huffington Post, 1/18/17, Jack Altman

So why are people changing jobs so quickly and leaving organizations?  There has been a shift over the last 5 years with Millennials entering the work force and this chart highlights the top reasons employees left jobs 5 years ago and why employees leave jobs in 2017…

Why employees leave companies 2012	Why employees leave companies 2017
1.       Compensation (base salary) 2.       Did not like their Manager 3.       Work/Life Balance 4.       Poor Career Development 5.       Long Term Vision of the company	1.       Poor Career Development 2.       Life/Work Balance (Flexible working environments) 3.       Feeling they are not being heard 4.       Looking for values that align with theirs 5.       Overall Compensation (Stock, 401k, etc…)

To put in a clearer way, the culture of your organization in 2017 plays a much bigger role in employee satisfaction then it did just 5 years ago.  Strategic vision and strong tactical planning are still the cornerstones for any successful business, but if your organization is not addressing culture and employee development with the same level of investment, your company will be in a constant state of on-boarding new hires (the revolving door).

Here are some best practices for leading others to promote positive employee engagement:

1. Your People Come First: If you are a leader, you are relying on your team to represent you whether internally for meetings or externally for customer service. Spend quality face time (this means in person and not over Skype or email) with your direct reports discussing where they want to be in 1-3 years and what specific tactics you can work with them on.  If you are not spending this one-on-one time with your employees, someone else will be soon.
2. Listen More Than You Talk: If a leader is talking more than they are listening, they are typically not genuine in their approach. “Listening to Understand” is much more valuable than “Listening to Respond”.  An interesting approach is to watch poor listeners engage others and see how the conversation goes. I have seen a leader come into a employee dinner meeting to gauge how things are going, ask one question, then talk at great lengths about nothing relevant to the real issues.  My dad always said you had two ears and one mouth for a reason.  The best leaders are the best listeners.
3. Be Consistent: Your team should know what they are getting from you every day. They need to be able to trust you whether you are having a good or bad day.  Your decisions and direction should always be fair.  It is also OK to say you do not know the answer on a situation presented to you…while it is always great to respond in a timely manner, consistency is more important.
4. Focus On Short Term Impact: Setup a 30 day development plan for your direct reports. Work on a 1 week goal sheet for performance.  Work on a quarterly team project.  We sometimes get too wrapped up in the big picture that we lose sight of the short term initiatives that get us to our long term goals.  And praise one person per day for something they did.  An employee never can hear “Thank You” or “You Are Appreciated” enough.
5. Be Humble: This is a constant theme throughout many of my posts. To become a leader that others will follow, humility is critical.  You have to be confident in your abilities to lead others, but never forget what got you to the point in your career where you are currently at.  Always be willing to do the job your team has to do daily….and not just for an hour or two.   Be Visible and Present in these tasks and your team will recognize this.

 

We talk a lot about what makes a great leader…I have also seen many people in leadership roles who struggled to lead others.  How to identify a weak leader:

1. When something goes wrong, the weak manager immediately looks for someone to blame. They instantly say “you need to fix this” instead of “how can we fix this together”.
2. When an employee makes a suggestion, the weak manager says “You’re wrong” and immediately contradicts the thought. Why does a weak manager react this way? Typically, they are afraid. They are afraid a direct report might have a better idea than they had.  And weak leaders feel they have to be the smartest person in the room.
3. A weak leader manages through policies, e-mails, spreadsheets and edicts. They don’t listen. They don’t care about building trusting relationships with their teammates — or maybe they’re not capable of doing that.
4. A weak manager makes it clear that employees serve at his or her pleasure and can be replaced at any time. Employees who feel threatened cannot produce great work.
5. Weak managers cannot look in the mirror. They cannot admit to having made a mistake and therefore, they cannot learn anything new.  They will constantly tell you what they have done in a previous company or a previous role which many times is not relevant to the current situation.

I have witnessed many great leaders in my career, as well as some people who I felt were poor and selfish in leading others.  I can tell you that I have learned just as much from the weak leaders in what not to do versus the positives from the great leaders.  Creating a positive work environment is a tough task, and is not solely the leader’s to create.  Ask your team what they want their culture to embody and work constantly to make decisions which support these endeavors.  Employees want to feel valued more than ever…if they don’t, they will leave and you will be stuck in the revolving door.  As a child, going around and around in a revolving door is a lot of fun…a revolving door of on-boarding will lead to high levels of frustration and poor performance.

As stated in earlier posts, leading others is a very tough and rewarding job.  Being a leader in 2017 requires stamina, courage, and determination to lead multiple generations of employees in the workplace.  Today’s leaders are required to inspire millennials (typically born from 1981 – 1997) who are just entering the work force, generation x (typically born from 1970 – 1981), and baby boomers (born between 1950 and 1970).  These 3 generations of employees have vastly different views on work, life, culture, community and technology, to name a few.  One of the best books I have read in understanding how to communicate and lead various generations is “The 2020 Workplace” by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd.  This great read provides many tips and tools on how to leverage the strengths of all employees and especially the new generation of millennials entering the workplace.

One common trait that binds all successful employees (regardless of age) is the willingness to take a risk, be active and passionate, and understand that perfection is very rarely attainable.  Michael Jordan, the GOAT (Greatest of All Time – a term recently learned from my 14 year old son) finished with a career field goal % of 49.7%….meaning he missed more than half the shots he took.  In addition, a very famous commercial in 1997 featuring Jordan revealed that he was trusted with a last second shot to win a game 42 times, and only made 16, a 38% success rate.  I had the opportunity to meet Jordan in the early nineties while working at a golf course, and I remember him saying to a co-worker that he always wanted to be in control of the outcome of any game he was competing in, and that we wanted the ball in his hands. He was one of the most competitive athletes of all time who was not afraid to miss but knew his team had the best chance of winning when the responsibility for victory was when he had the ball.   After hearing this, I realized that one cannot win a game from the sidelines.  Winners need to be engaged, active, and open to try new things to be successful.

Leading From The Field – 3 Tips To Try

1. Understand your internal customer’s needs and goals. As a leader, our most important customer is our team. We often discuss individual goals at the beginning of the year or at a mid-year review.  When conducting meetings with employees throughout the year, make sure to have them review their objectives again with you, discuss specific action items they are taking to achieve these goals, and their progress made so far.  One tactic I have used is to have an employee write an acceptance speech now for the accomplishments they will achieve at the end of the year (similar to post-dating a letter or email).  Getting your employees to think positively about achievement can help them get through the challenges they may face in reaching their goals.
2. Listen to understand versus listening to respond. I recently witnessed a conversation between a supervisor and a member of their team.  The supervisor asked what challenges the employee was currently facing in achieving their goals for the year.  After the employee shared several obstacles they were experiencing, the supervisor immediately diminished these thoughts and told the employee that these were just potential excuses.  I doubt the employee will ever honestly share their ideas again with that supervisor.  One of the worst things a leader can do is ask for an opinion, then immediately downplay the individual’s thoughts which are different from theirs.  Listening and communication are the most important aspects of leading others as these two skills create a trusting and collaborative culture.  A poor work environment is established when employees feel that they cannot share ideas on how to improve situations.  The next time you ask a question of an employee, just listen to their response, thank them for sharing (does not matter if you agree or disagree), and ask their permission to follow up with them on that topic at your next meeting.
3. Establish your criteria for hiring top talent. Think about the people you have led in the past 5 years.  Write their names down and separate them into 3 lists…place 33% of the names into the “Top 1/3 List”, 33% into the “Middle 1/3 List” and 33% into the “Bottom 1/3 List”.  Next, list common traits  for the people in the Top and Bottom lists.  More than likely, you will see a vast difference in the quality of these lists and the people who compose them.  Make sure you are hiring the right people who meet your criteria as a top employee…and never put a time limit on filling a position.  I would rather keep a position open for a year versus hiring someone in a month who is not going to be a standout employee.  We all make hiring mistakes, but minimizing those mistakes by only hiring top talent will make your life as a leader so much easier.

We have a chalk board in our home that my wife updates on a regular basis with quotes to inspire our family and most importantly our kids.  Currently, the chalk board quote is “You Did Not Wake Up Today To Be Average”.  I think many of us want to be excellent at anything we do…the difference between success and failure many times is just getting off the sideline and getting on the “field of play”.  Regardless of your individual field, aspire to make a positive difference in the lives of others and realize the rewards that come with the responsibility of leading people.