Why is employee loyalty at a three-year low? Response to USA Today

There's an article on USAToday about a recent MetLife study, reported by Laura Petrecca that details how businesses are losing focus on their employees.

Key points:

• MetLife 9th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends
• Employee loyalty is at a three-year low
• Slightly more than one in three hope to find a new job in the next 12 months

This is evidence that companies are focused on getting work done instead of fully engaging their employees in a mutually-fulfilling company culture. In my opinion, this is the equivalent of driving your car 100,000 miles and never putting oil in it or getting a tune-up. At some point the car dies. In this case employees are reaching the breaking point where their relationship with their employer will end and employees will move on to what they perceive to be greener pastures with another company.

Don't let your people forget how much you need them.

Cycle 4

Here is a thought provoker for you: I often get asked, how can I motivate my employees?

The answer is: by creating an environment where they motivate themselves. I have a complete system, Success With People, and we train/coach teams of people for a year in our Customer Champions program. However, some people prefer simple steps to ponder.

Here are four cornerstones for success. You can build the house of your career or business many ways with different cornerstones, but here are four. If you work these systematically in a cycle you can achieve great results. (I admit more detail is needed, but that would take a really long newsletter.)

#1 Desire: You have to have a strong desire to succeed which leads you to commit yourself to focus on what's truly important rather than what seems urgent. Leaders or employees without strong desire do not commit, and therefore are average or poor performers even if they work long hours.

#2 Information: Desire initiates your journey and sustains you through challenges, yet wise use of information enables you to hire-manage-develop-retain great people, discern competitive threats, identify opportunities and build upon your success.

#3 Repetition: Otherwise known as Systematic Power, your ability to develop, repeat and evolve best practices enables you to deliver a more consistently positive employee, customer and vendor experience. The outcome is superior results, however you define your pursuits.

#4 Accountability: Success is elusive and/or unsustainable if you do not hold your people and processes accountable to delivering a "perfect" client experience and to achieve clear, measurable results. Your processes for accountability are repeated often to catch minor mistakes before they become major issues.

Check out the discussion questions below and add your own. You may identify some ways for your individual performers or organization as a whole to improve certain processes, behaviors or objectives.

Meeting Ideas

CYCLE 4 is one way to simplify your approach to improving your leadership skills and/or company culture. Although there is a lot of detail missing in this brief email, there is value in having a discussion with your people about these four cornerstones of your business because they exist whether you like it or not.

Here are some questions to consider this topic with your team: For the best conversation be honest and candid.

1. Desire: What burning passion do we have as an organization and how does it apply to our core business strategy? How about as individuals?
2. Information: What information are we gathering to support our business, or hold ourselves accountable, that is great? How can we leverage it even more? What information should we be gathering, but are not, and how should we present it serves us best?
3. Repetition: Start simple, but what best practices have you defined as a system? How can you more consistently follow those systems? How do they need to be updated? Make a list of additional best practice processes you need to define or update; organize the list in order of priority; and set dates for when each one will be released and people trained to follow it.
4. Accountability: As a starting point, what needs to happen for us to be held accountable to follow through on what we defined in #1-3 above and who will do it? (More than one person can share responsibility for accountability.)

Only Superstars

Intentional leaders enable companies to thrive by making decisions based on facts, logic and prudent financial management.

Would you like to have only superstars working for your company? By "superstar," I mean people who are passionate about your company culture, consistently do their best for your company, and contribute positively to the company's bottom line.

If this is what you want, then you have to make the decision that you only want superstars. Next you have to consider what every manager hates to do: Firing someone, or maybe multiple people.

Tony Hsieh, in his book Delivering Happiness (page 97), says "... We realized that we had laid off the underperformers and the nonbelievers, but because everyone remaining was so passionate about the company and believed in what we were doing, we could still accomplish just as much work as we had before."

Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix in his Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture (slide 32) says, "People who have been stars for us, and hit a bad patch, get a near term pass because we think they are likely to become stars for us again... But unlimited loyalty to a shrinking firm, or to an ineffective employee, is not what we are about."

The Society for Human Resource Management ("SHRM") in a recent article on "positive turnover" (page 20, Jan. 2011) stated, "If a low-performing employee is discharged, it... shows that the performance management system is working and managers are doing their jobs. In addition, other employees may gain confidence that their leaders are making decisions that will keep the organization strong."

The bottom line: If you have an employee who is not a superstar and/or not fully passionate about your company then you are better off firing the person with a generous severance and investing the money and time that employee was receiving into developing a stronger company culture.

Time and again companies do better without someone who has a negative attitude, poor work ethic, is constantly late and demonstrates other behaviors that prove they are holding your company back. Let the person go. Keeping them encourages their behavior and poor performance, whereas letting them go may help them understand that they need to develop better work habits so they can succeed in their next job.

ONLY SUPERSTARS is a fork in the road for many leaders. Do you have the guts to get rid of people who are holding your company back from becoming the best it can be? It is better to run a little leaner and harder than to invest money and time in someone who will never give their all for your company.

Obviously this is not a company-wide discussion. It is a decision you have to make on your own or with your management team. Here are some questions to consider:

1. Are certain employees performing so poorly that no other company wants to hire them?

2. Is our company not growing as rapidly as we can because one or more employees are fighting positive changes, not working a full day, not giving their job everything they have to give, and/or behaving in another manner that is negatively affecting other employees?

3. What would happen to our organization if we decided 2011 is the year we redirect everyone's focus to developing a superior company culture that gives us a sustainable competitive edge in our markets?

4. Reed Hastings of Netflix estimates the difference between an average performer and a superstar is 2x for procedural work and 10x in creative work. How much better would we be performing if we let our poor performing employees go, and invested in our company culture and developing the skills of our remaining employees?

5. Developing a superior company culture is a lot of work, but it provides you with a significant competitive edge. That is why the best companies invest in it.

Invictus

If you want to be a different, more successful leader then go see the movie, Invictus, which was just released to theaters. It is directed by Clint Eastwood, and stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

Don't miss it. Here's why: The film is about Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South Africa during his term as president. Consider his leadership challenges:

1. Many of the black leaders who helped him when he campaigned for president wanted revenge against the white minority who had abused them for decades.

2. As he arrived to take office all the white office staff was packing-up to leave, assuming they had lost their jobs.

3. One of the greatest symbols of white oppression is the South African Sprinbok rugby team, and its green and gold colors.

Rather than do what is popular, Mandela chooses to do what he perceives to be right. This is the mark of a great leader and one virtue missing from the vast majority of political and business leaders today. Here are a few examples:

1. The biggest choice he makes is to forgive and seek reconciliation between blacks and whites. He realizes that only by working together can they achieve their economic goals.

2. While in prison for 27 years he prepared himself for greatness without knowing the opportunities he may have. He studied the whites to learn their ways, passions and values. He then used this wisdom to perceive a unique vision of how to lead them.

3. He worked long, long hours and gave himself a pay cut to demonstrate servant leadership. No one could question his dedication. Even today he is revered almost as a saint by South Africans.

BIG IDEA: While everyone emotionally debated black versus white issues, Mandela focused on how to develop a mutually respectful black and white community, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had done before him.

Mandela had an inspirational vision that eluded everyone around him: Bring the country together by winning the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which South Africa hosted.

Make it mandatory for your team to watch the movie and then discuss it during your next team meeting. It may give you new inspiration to motivate yourselves to achieve beyond your expectations in 2010.

Be an intentional leader.

Meeting Ideas

Invictus is about a lot of things, but mostly it is an opportunity to consider the vision truly great leaders are given and how they respond to it.

At one point in the film Mandela says he is supporting the rugby team because it is the right thing to do, and if he ever stops doing what is right then he is unfit to continue as president.

Here are some ideas for discussion during your next staff meeting to consider how your people can demonstrate a different, more positive type of leadership:

1. What character do we demonstrate in our actions? Nelson Mandela was not a perfect person. None of us are. However, when are we not demonstrating our company values through our behaviors and communications on the job?

2. Where could reconciliation increase opportunities? Your customers or vendors could be considered opponents. What could you do to improve your relationship with either group?

3. Where are we stuck in our thinking? Too often we get stuck between yes and no, them and us, higher and lower... What could we do that is unexpected, yet takes advantage of our strengths in a different way?

4. What is the right thing to do, but we are doing what is popular or easy instead? Even the best companies make mistakes by taking "the easy road" rather than doing their best. Can we name 1-3 areas where we are doing something that is not right because our current method is easier, popular or profitable?

5. Reality check: All of our ideas may be good, but what is one thing we can do extremely well? Let's get real. Answering the questions above could give you a list of ten or twenty actions to take. Achieving which one would offer the most significance in the lives of our employees, clients and/or vendors?

WOW Customer Experience

When I spoke last month at the Ingram Micro SMBA Invitational there was a talk by Justin Crotty, their Vice President of Services. He spoke about providing a great customer experience.

As leaders we need to be pushing LOI: Live It - Observe It - Improve It constantly to make our customer experience surpass our competitors.

Justin used an example of a wedding cake that sells for $5,000. Now does the person buying the cake ask to see the bill of materials to make the cake so they make certain the baker is not marking-up the cake too much? Of course not! The customer's concern is the experience and a great experience with the cake - great look, taste and freshness - justifies the cost.

He also talked about BMW. Although many people will argue a Beamer is a better car, in reality it is the experience of owning a BMW that keeps their sales and margins high.

Why don't we do that more often in our business? Why do we focus on price? It is simple really. We cannot adequately justify a higher price based on demonstrable ROI and a superior customer experience.

How can you significantly improve your customer experience? The same way you eat an elephant: One LOI step at a time. Why not start today?

Meeting Ideas

WOW Customer Experience is about leadership fully committing your organization to creating and consistently delivering a superior experience when your customers use your products and/or services.

Here are some potential questions for your next staff meeting to determine how you can improve your customer experience:

• What are the ten most common ways we fail to meet our customers' expectations?

• What are the ten most common ways our competitors deliver a great customer experience?

• What are the ten most creative ways any company in any industry are providing a superior customer experience?

• Looking at these lists what are ten ways we can improve our customer experience, listed in order of priority, weighted for importance, and estimate the time and cost it would take to implement each action item.

• Everybody take this data and think about it for a month. Each week we will discuss this again as part of our meeting. We want new ideas to consider and better ways to implement the ideas we have already listed. The company will recognize anyone who supplies one or more new or improved ideas with a gift from your Wish List - EVERY WEEK. Let's do this, people! (If you don't know what I mean by Wish List, then email me.)

Gen Y What?

BusinessWeek has their Best Places to Launch a Career issue out and the gold I mined is a mention of Why New Grads Love Cisco. The reason I love this is because Cisco has changed the game.

According to the article, 2,500 Recent college grads have gone through an onboarding process at Cisco since 2006. It's like a fraternity/sorority rush rather than the typical hiring process because the new hires choose their manager. 98% are still at Cisco after 2 years. Compare this to BW's #1 pick - Deloitte, who loses 50% in three years...

Cisco's approach is a great idea that may lead you to change parts of your onboarding process so you can increase intern and new employee productivity and retention. Although this article refers to Gen Y'ers, the benefits should apply to all types of new hires.

Meeting Ideas

Gen Y What? is about considering ways to do an extreme makeover of your intern or new hire onboarding process. "Onboarding" is the steps a new hire goes through to begin work at your company.

Here are some potential questions for your next staff meeting to challenge your people to consider how to improve your onboarding process:

• What is the most disappointing part of our onboarding process? What can be done to improve it?

• What is the best part of our onboarding process? How can we make it even better, or at least extend it?

• What part of the Cisco onboarding process could we implement at our company?

• How can we cut the time it takes for someone to be fully productive by 25-50%?

Be a Catalyst

I was driving down the freeway last week to a meeting in Silicon Valley. In central San Rafael the traffic slowed in an area that should be without delays. I joined the crowd of vehicles about 200 yards out from the traffic jam and it was difficult to discern what the problem was.

As I got closer the problem was clear. A truck had dropped 15-20 rocks that were about 12-18 inches in diameter. They were strewn across all four lanes. The problem occurred probably 10 minutes earlier and people were weaving their vehicles around the rocks.

This seemed illogical to me. I worked my way from the third lane to the shoulder on the right of the freeway to park my car. I got out of my car in my dress slacks and pressed shirt to start rolling and carrying heavy, dusty rocks to the shoulder of the road.

An interesting thing happened.

Two other vehicles pulled over behind me along with a motorcylce in the fast lane into the center shoulder. Guys jumped out and started moving rocks off the road. We were done in two minutes.

My point is NOT to tell you about my good deed, but rather to share how being a catalyst motivates others to do what is right and/or their best. After the rocks were moved some people waved their thanks to me as they passed. The best part was the look in their eyes, particularly from my brothers who helped.

Be ready. At any moment you may have the opportunity to make something better for a family member, co-worker, client, vendor... or even people you do not even know. It's an old American core value: Working for the common good.

Be ready to serve others humbly. It can be a powerful catalyst for positive change, even if it's just moving some rocks so people can drive safely.

Be Memorable in Meetings

You are a leader. Why not be a memorable one?

An important part of being memorable as a leader is listening well, making certain your people feel valued and having meetings that are productively interactive. However there are some little things you can do to increase your memorability in meetings also. Here are some ideas:

Gifts. I often bring hard-cover copies of my books to meetings as a gift. It helps them get to know me and our work better. It is thoughtful because the book retails for $29.95 and can be helpful. Yes, it also is a great business card. $10-$15 gift cards are an alternative that can be effective, especially if you match them to the interests of each meeting participant.

Treats. Consider bringing high quality treats such as See's Candies chocolate (high quality, not some cheap brand), brownies or other treats from a classy bakery, or anything that is classy but not too expensive. No doughnuts!

Examples. For instance, if you are talking about the importance of branding then bring some samples of great brands to give away after you explain why they are unique. (You don't have to bring a Macintosh computer, just an iTunes card...) Maybe give the examples as prizes for people who have innovative ideas or answers to your questions.

Tell great stories. If you are on a tight budget then be prepared with one or more great stories to tell. If you think others tell stories better than you, work with your storytellers before the meeting and weave their participation into your agenda.

Life is way too short! Be memorable.

Promotion Problem

Think about this NOW, not in January 2010. Here is a typical situation.

Your company promotes people or just moves them into new responsibilities. Being an incredible leader, you now have new people reporting to you. The problem is you only manage these people for three months and then you have to give them an annual review covering the last 12 months!

The answer involves using software like MANAGEtoWIN as your foundational system to more effectively manage your people. Then, should you inherit employees you have instant access to their:

• Annual goals with notes on progress
• Notes on significant activities outside of their goals
• Past performance reviews
• What they are doing to pursue education, volunteer work, certifications, memberships/awards...
• Compensation, attendance, benefits...
• Behavioral assessments, feedback from others...

The bottom line is MANAGEtoWIN provides a system for maintaining a complete, accurate, real-time picture of every employee in your organization. Leaders can better understand the capabilities of their people and thus more fully engage them in achieving their best.

My thanks to Yolanda Underwood of LeadershipOne for sharing how some of her clients did not have any records of employee performance when they inherited people.

What's Your One?

When I did a keynote talk at the ConnectWise conference last September they asked attendees to focus on, "What's Your One?" It may be a good time to consider this ourselves.

Attending a good conference to learn new ways to improve your business can be like drinking water from a fire hose. ConnectWise was encouraging attendees to improve their ability to benefit from the conference by focusing on:

• Idea to contemplate
• Initiative for your business
• New process to implement
• Forward step to take

This is one of the reasons the ConnectWise conference was a great success. They provided lots of opportunities yet encouraged focus. Today most companies - not all - are working through the challenges of lowering costs and incresing sales. We have about 45 days until mid-year. So I ask you:

What's your one? What is the one thing you need to accomplish by the end of June to start the second half of the year stronger than you are today?

Attend the Microsoft Business Edge series!

Yesterday I did the first of 12 Web seminars (proprietary content) we’ve created for Microsoft as a Business Edge series to teach business etiquette and process to recently hired college graduates, and other employees who need a refresher course.

The registrations for the web seminar yesterday were strong and I believe attendees enjoyed the content. I encourage all Microsoft partners to have your young employees attend the Microsoft Business Edge series Web seminars live or at least view the recorded sessions. I am doing 3 of these a week for the next 4 weeks (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11:00 a.m. PST each week).

Microsoft Partners can learn more about the seminars at https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/search_adv.aspx?ssid=7A5A37E3CBE64942ADD116A693BB2506

Today’s session is on how to Identify and Pursue Your Strengths. I hope you join us to learn more about how you can improve personally and professionally.

What’s Missing?

Ask "What’s missing" instead of saying "That’s WRONG". I got this idea from Tony Smith, CEO and Founding Partner of VSA Consulting Group, when I heard him speak at the ConnectWise Partner Summit in September. When there is a problem, do not tell someone they are wrong but instead say, “I think something is missing…” You have some choices on how to do this:

1. Speak generically and just state that you feel like something is missing. Ask if the other person or people can figure out what is missing.
2. Give them a hint as to what you think is missing. Such as, “It seems like something is missing. Have we taken into account how this is going to affect our legacy customers?”
3. Specifically refer to the missing process, person, detail or item, but not in a threatening way. Such as, “This sounds interesting, but it seems like something is missing in regards to whether we have the manpower to complete this project in the time frame you’re promising.”

If you’re practicing active listening, you can precede each of these comments with the statement, “If I understand you correctly” and then summarize what you think you heard. Then bring up your concern that something is missing.

We are all about developing strong relationships with other people in your workplace so your business can grow profitably every year. Give this suggestion a try this week. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.

Community

TIME Magazine has an article titled, A Sense of Community, in their September 22 issue. The article is primarily 21 ways to serve America written by their editors and submitted by others.

As leaders we need to consider some of these suggestions very seriously:

Re-think Christmas: This is an interesting concept to consider promoting to your employees starting in October. Is there a way you could support and/or contribute to their gifts of time and resources with those less fortunate rather than themselves during the Christmas season?

Get Out!: This suggestion aligns with your company values if your organization likes outdoor activities. It recommends getting involved in preserving our natural resources.

Turn Off the Tube: Virtually everyone who works for your organization does not have enough time to do all that they would like to do each day. One simple way for them to increase the amount of time available to help others as a volunteer is to simply turn off the television and leave it off. I have a growing number of friends who have stopped having cable television both to give themselves more free time and to avoid the trashy programming.

Cut Your Hair!: Why not encourage your employees to grow their hair as a group and then get it cut to donate their ponytails to nonprofits like Locks of Love and Weeks for Kids? These groups make wigs and hair pieces for children who lost their hair because of cancer treatments or medical conditions. The ponytail has to be a least 10 inches long so this might be a long-term project.

Take Off from Work: Instead of increasing the number of vacation days, why not give people additional days off but only if they use the days to do volunteer work for a recognized nonprofit organization?

At the end of the day we are a community. As leaders, we can more fully engage our employees and make the work more meaningful by encouraging them to serve our communities for the common good.

How to Respond to The Unexpected

Many leaders are told to expect the unexpected, but if it is unexpected how can you expect it? Certainly there is value in trying to expect and prepare for worse case scenarios, however great leaders know how to retain their focus on achieving superior results when surprising challenges are setbacks occur.

My mother sent me this story today. I do not know whether it’s true. The reason I am posting it is not for any spiritual message, but rather to encourage leaders to consider that often times challenges occur to make us stronger, encourage us to consider an alternative approach, or to serve a purpose unknown to us. Therefore as leaders our primary role is not always to solve the problem, but rather to retain our focus on key priorities as we work our way through the challenge.

Lost Glasses

My mother’s father worked as a carpenter, on this particular day, he was building some crates for the clothes his church was sending to orphanages in China.

On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his glasses, but they were gone. When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he realized what had happened; the glasses had slipped out of his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut.

His brand new glasses were heading for China! The Great Depression was at its height and Grandpa had six children. He had spent $20 for those glasses that very morning. He was upset by the thought of having to buy another pair. “It’s not fair,” he told God as he drove home in frustration. “I’ve been very faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this.”

Months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in the United States. He wanted to visit all the churches that supported him in China, so he came speak one Sunday at my grandfather’s small church in Chicago.

The missionary began by thanking the people for their faithfulness in supporting the orphanage. “But most of all,” he said, “I must thank you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the Communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying everything, including my glasses. I was desperate. Even if I had the money, there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along with not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my coworkers and I were much in prayer about this. Then your crates arrived. When my staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top.” The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in. Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued: “Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been custom made just for me! I want to thank you for being a part of that.”

The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent overseas.

But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way. There are times we want to blame God instead of thanking him!

I have to remember this in these times of trials of my own. May GOD bless your week! Look for the perfect mistakes. “People are like tea bags- - you have to put them in hot water before you know how strong they are.” Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of God.

Great leaders are not always those who sit up at the front or stand as the speaker. This carpenter and father was a leader who knew how to serve others. He was making a positive difference in the lives of his family, church, clients and community. Did you notice how he did not stand and seek to be recognized for the gift of his glasses? Instead he listened, and learned.

Possibly the next time we are faced with a challenge our question should not be, “Why did this happen?” Instead possibly we should ask, “What am I supposed to learn from this problem?”

Bad Situation, But at Least the Employer is NOT to Blame

BLR through SHRM reports a California court actually sided with an employer for once.

The case, Flores v. AutoZone West, Inc. (Cal. Court of Appeals Dist. 4, No. G038322 (2008)) arose out of an altercation at an AutoZone store in Orange County. A customer was at the store to buy motor oil when he whistled at an employee to get his attention. The employee, a sales manager, took the whistling as an insult. After a verbal exchange hit the customer with a metal pipe.

Now let me break from this story for a moment. About 25 years ago I pulled into a gas station and waited to be served, which was before self-service. The attendant continued to chat with a buddy for what seemed like eternity, but probably was about 5-10 seconds. I whistled at him to get his attention. It made him angry. I apologized, but also told him I did not like waiting while he chatted with his friend. I later reported his anger to his boss. Years later I had my car serviced at a local dealership and it came back with a totally unrelated problem. When I picked it up I noticed the gas station attendant now worked at the dealership. Now you decide, was that just a coincidence? Apparently most of us do not like to be whistled at like a dog.

Now back to AutoZone. The customer filed a lawsuit against AutoZone to hold the company liable for his injuries on the grounds that the sales manager was acting within the scope of his employment when he hit the customer. The customer also contended that AutoZone was negligent in hiring, retaining, and training the employee, in light of his allegedly violent background. In particular, the sales manager had a juvenile delinquency record for attempted murder, although AutoZone was unaware of it. AutoZone had previously given the manager a written warning for raising his voice to a customer.

The appellate court ruled the case can proceed. Under California law, an employer is vicariously liable for its employees’ wrongdoings that are committed within the scope of the employment, and an employee’s willful, malicious, and even criminal acts may fall within the employment scope. AutoZone argued that the employee’s attack on the customer, who was an “an older and smaller gentleman,” was “perverse” and far outside the bounds of his employment. But the court said that an employee’s violent response to a customer interaction could be a predictable risk of retail employment, and it was up to a jury to decide that question in this case.

AutoZone’s appeal won in the appeals court, which rejected the negligence accusations. According to the court, AutoZone had no duty to do a more-thorough background check before hiring the employee—and even had the company done more, it still might not have uncovered the juvenile record. What’s more, the prior incident in which the manager raised his voice with a customer wasn’t a red flag that he might be violent.

How to Avoid Liability

1. Do a thorough background check (learn more) that includes a criminal and civil court check in the county the individual resides in addition to the largest adjacent county. You cannot make a hiring decision based on the civil court check, but you sure want to know if the individual is suing neighbors or past employers, or they are suing him.

2. Monitor performance AND conduct of all employees. Document problems and good works. Consider problems carefully. AutoZone won the lawsuit, but it cost them tens of thousands of dollars to do so. It can be better to terminate an employee rather than risk a serious problem. Sometimes the decisions you have to make as the boss are just tough.

Make this year your best year ever.

Who’s Pulling You Down?

Sanctuary is one of the 12 Desired Results of the Success With People system because it gives you perspective.

My friend and pastor, Joe Everly, mentioned this past weekend the example of freshly caught crabs that are offered for sale in a market. As long as there are multiple crabs for sale, they can be offered in open baskets because if one tries to escape the others drag it back into the basket. Do you have people stopping you from achieving your key priorities?

Elaine Hahn has some nice paintings of crabs in baskets if you are interested in making this point to your team. Here is one of them.

All those crabs just crawling around complaining… It sounds like some offices I’ve been invited to visit.

Use Sanctuary to break away from the crabs! Turn off all forms of communication for 1-2 hours a day just to focus on achieving key priorities. At other times Sanctuary is getting away from the office for a healthy walk/exercise and snack just to clear your mind of the crabs.

Make this next week your best week! It’s a great life… as long as you can escape the crabs!!!

Apprenticeships

Costco has a nice article titled, On-the-job training / Apprenticeships enable small firms to grow their own skilled employees. Next time you are hiring, I recommend you consider apprenticeships and internships for young people.

America has an edge in global competition in the years ahead IF WE FULLY ENGAGE our young people in our businesses. If we allow too many of them to languish without a clue what they would like to do for a career - like we are today - then we will miss this opportunity to create jobs, prosperity and the American Dream for millions of people.

According to the article about 450,000 apprentices are registered with the U.S. Dept. of Labor. They estimate about 225,000 U.S. companies, mostly small businesses, offer apprenticeships.

To learn more how your company can engage young people in apprenticeships contact or visit the websites of:

• U.S. Dept. of Labor Office of Apprenticeship Training - Your state or local government agencies promoting apprenticeships
•  AART - American Apprenticeship Round Table - The AART estimates that for every dollar invested by companies in apprentices (on average) there is approximately a $3 return over the life of an apprentice. So if you are looking to hire someone at a low rate that possibly has long-term potential, consider an apprentice or an intern.

We have information for our Success With People Club members on internships. Or you can email us to learn more.

Make this week your best ever!

Overtime Blues?

Workforce magazine has a great article on the 5 top mistakes businesses make in regards to the Federal Labor Standards Act. For complete details, see the article. In brief:

1. Salaried employees are NOT exempt from overtime - you need to pay them.
2. Assistant managers qualify for overtime because they do not have the authority of a manager
3. Do NOT automatically deduct for meal breaks. Only do so if your people have written time records confirming they took the break.
4. Pay for overtime whether or not it is approved in advance. Your policies may state someone can only work overtime when approved in advance, but the FLSA makes no such distinction. You can discipline or fire them for working overtime without pre-approval, but you must pay it if you allowed them to work.
5. An employee canNOT waive their right to be paid overtime. You must pay them.

Keep it simple: Just pay for overtime consistently.

Make this week your best!

Think First or Act Quickly

Richard Reeves writes a recent column for Universal Press Syndicate titled. McCain and Obama: Different Kinds of Men.

In the article he quotes Obama commenting on the importance of taking Sanctuary, a Desired Result of the Success With People system, so he can think clearly when he becomes president. In contract Reeves also talks about how McCain does almost the opposite, responding to a situation quickly and leaving more thorough consideration of the facts for later, if ever.

What type of leader are you?

Of course the greatest leaders balance these two decision-making approaches. The reason is simple. Sometimes you have to make a quick decision or the opportunity is lost. Other times you must take the time to think because not only will you better understand your options but the problem may resolve itself if you do not respond. This was the case for President Theodore Roosevelt when his inaction helped end the possibility of an all-out China-Japan war.

I encourage you to take Sanctuary time. There are 3 types of Sanctuary in the Success With People system:

1. Uninterrupted work time to focus on achieving a key priority.
2. Break time that involves a healthy snack and light exercise - ideally without cellphones or work-related activity.
3. Vacations without interruptions from work - ideally 2 or more weeks at a time.

Make this week your best week ever!

The Dark Knight

I went to see the Batman movie, The Dark Knight, with my son, Jeff, this past Saturday night. I was hesitant to go because it was reported to be very dark and bloody. Possibly due to this expectation I did not find it to be excessive in either area. However there had to be at least 10 previews before the movie started. When will the advertising ever end?

Leaving the movie Jeff commented about how Batman demonstrated values of old when he refused to kill any bad guy, particularly the Joker. We discussed how once you make a decision to kill people, then where do you draw the line? It’s easy to conclude killing the Joker would have saved the lives of others, but Batman knows himself too well. He realizes that if he crosses the line to take another’s life, then the line will move. Once he becomes comfortable killing murderers, will he consider stopping a rapist or an armed bank robber by taking their life?

In America the Declaration of Independence endows all citizens the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At what point, if any, do you forfeit your right to life? You certainly forfeit your right to be free in America if you violate certain laws. Your right to pursue happiness is also curtailed if you violate certain laws. But what about your right to live?

Again I refer you to the blog written about whether a leader today can demonstrate character, courage and chivalry and still be elected as a free world leader. Batman, in his own feeble way, attempts to be a servant leader for the city of Gotham. He demonstrates character, courage and chivalry. But alas, he is just a comic and movie character, not real life.

I suggest you take some of your workers to the movie, The Dark Knight. Afterwards grab a pizza to discuss whether a leader today can have Success With People without lying, focusing primarily on self advancement and avoiding responsibility for their own failures. Try to listen more than lead the conversation. The insights about your team may be quite rewarding.