Pruning, Always Pruning

It was February 2000.  A large IT vendor agreed to fund my dot com start-up with $10 million.  Twenty days later we were ready to go with $2 million in the bank. 

The problem was the dot com mantra was "grow fast", and I had already seen first-hand that growing fast is a delicate process and can easily turn into a disaster for a new company.  However, they were paying, so we set aside what I had learned and tried to hire and grow according to the IT vendor's strategy for us.

It was not pretty.  We made good progress, but also had a few rough setbacks.

One year later the IT vendor shocked us by cutting off the remainder of our funding.  Things had changed at their company, they were shutting down their fund.

Again I had been given an opportunity to learn a lesson.  Since then it has become clear that growth is good, but a healthy organization requires constant pruning of people, projects, and activities.  Cutting away unnecessary tasks and vague objectives are critical to achieving big T.A.R.G.E.T. goals.

Since that dot com turned into a dot bomb I have dedicated myself to developing a more systematic approach to how leaders hire, manage, develop, and retain top performing employees.  I am convinced that leaders and organizations who follow this systematic approach benefit immensely. They achieve a strong company culture, provide a superior experience for clients, and maximize profits.

To achieve these objectives requires constant pruning.  In gardening, different plants need to be pruned at different times of the year.  Here are some ways to prune in your company so you can grow beyond your past and into your potential: 

1. Start With Yourself.  We all have bad habits.  Work on better understanding yourself.  Identify 1-3 bad habits you have and how to change them.  Build it into your schedule.  Get help from a coach, mentor, or coworker.
2. Refine Your Schedule.  What projects, people, or interests are taking up your time, but not producing great results?  This can be a constant battle, and it creates a need for constant pruning.  Respectfully and professionally start pruning your schedule.
3. Evaluate Your Hiring Process.  Sometimes you hire people who do not consistently perform at a high level.  Zappos now pays $4,000 for a new hire to quit in their first 90 days.  Why?  It is cheaper to get someone to leave than have to work with a cultural misfit and act like they can be part of their winning team.
4. Simplify Your Offerings.  You might sell and/or support too many products or services.  It's time to consider to selling and/or supporting fewer product lines.  Make it worthwhile for your clients to switch to your preferred platforms AND fine tune the specific product offerings within your key solutions.  For instance, do not offer 5 good managed services offerings.  Instead offer 2 or 3 great ones.
5. Streamline Communication.  Try harder to communicate briefly via email, notes, or text.  It's best to compose an email that is short and concise, even when referring to a complex subject.  Instead, save those lengthy, detailed discussions for a verbal conversation. Take notes if necessary, then move on to the next task.
6. Adapt Your Communication.  In addition to keeping things brief, you will save time and build stronger relationships when you adapt your communication style to the preferred communication style of the other person, AND appeal to their values, not yours.  This is the basis of our Talent Assessments and a major reason they are so popular.

I could go on, but then I might need to prune this blog post...  :)

ROI of Breaking Negative Patterns

Opportunities to improve your company exponentially increase based on the longer your firm is in business and the more it grows.  However, just staying alive does not equal high profitability.  I have talked with plenty of business owners who have been in business for 10-20-30 years and yet they only understand how to survive, not thrive.

The foundation of profitable longevity is a strong company culture led by leaders who understand why they are in business, how to effectively and efficiently do business, and where they want the business to grow. The key to growth is how you spend.  These decisions needed careful assessment of the Return On Investment, or ROI.  

Let me share a secret with you.  The highest ROI is achieved when you break the negative patterns in your life.  Do you want to solve the water shortage?  Change your water-related processes so you use less water.  Do you want to solve the energy crisis so foreign countries have less control over America's future?  Change your activities that use energy so that you use less energy.  Do you want to solve the problems you are having with your employees?  Change your leadership habits so great employees thrive and weak employees leave.

First, let's consider the ROI Of Doing Nothing.

Robert E.  Hall wrote an article titled The Disengagement Economy on March 25 of this year.  One of the shocking statistics is that 35% of workers say they would forgo a significant pay raise in exchange for having their boss fired.  Pause to consider that for a moment.  One third of workers are so actively disengaged and unproductive that they would sacrifice a significant pay raise to get a new boss.

Hating your boss, employee tardiness, sloppy work, not taking full ownership for results, rudeness, low productivity, low morale, poor coworker relationships, etc...  These employee issues are all symptoms of what we might call, "Bad Boss" disease.  A "Bad Boss" is one who is intentionally or unintentionally not doing one or more of the attributes of a 3strands Leader: 

1. Demonstrate Systematic Leadership as you inspire others in
2. Meaningful Work, and consistently express
3. Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

You might be very wise and prudent in certain areas of your business, but when it comes to hiring, managing, developing, and retaining great employees...  you are weak.  How many more years do you need to go through the agony and expense of employee issues?

Dr. Henry Cloud shares a lot of wisdom in his new book  Never Go Back, 10 things you'll never do again.  The reason you will never do these things again is because avoiding these behaviors are some of the key reasons why other people are "successful" or "fruitful."  His first Never-Go-Back Awakening principle is "Never go back to what hasn't worked".

This sounds simple, but how many of us have repeated dysfunctional and/or unprofitable behaviors for years, if not decades?  These behaviors hurt us and other people.  It is time for us to man-up  or woman-up to make some tough decisions so we can truly enjoy our lives to their fullest potential.

Personally or professionally Dr. Cloud recommends you should not re-enter a relationship unless one or or more of three things have happened to confirm you are going forward.

Why?  There is a reason it did not work.  Before you go back, you have to make certain to the best of your ability that the prior reason the relationship failed no longer exists.  You need to be able to verify something has changed...  which is possible... but often not the truth.  Instead too often we allow our employees to behave unprofitably because it is easier for us to do so, and we let our hope for a better outcome blind us to the truth that nothing has changed.

For instance, I have had clients with sales people who have not closed a significant sale in one, two, or even three years.  Yet it was "easier" for them to retain that employee than to go through the pain and temporary expense to replace them.

Dr. Cloud recommends we consider three categories of possible change by asking these questions (page 18 of his book):

1. Am I different in some way that would make this work?
2. Is the other person or persons different in some way that would make this work?
3. Is the situation fundamentally different in some way that would make this work?

The ROI is huge and quick when you follow this advice and actually commit to invest the time and short-term money to remove a long-term, financially draining, profit sucking, money wasting leadership mistake.  Let me give an example of a friend and client who decided it was time to change the strategy, management, process, and tactics of their sales organization.  

About three years ago my friend's company was doing $3 million in revenue.  He was hoping to just match that number in the new year because there were some extraordinary sales that had been achieved which he did not expect to repeat.  I recommended he contact Roy vanNorstrand of The Leren Group, whom we have just recently established a partnership.  My friend checked references and went with my recommendation.  Now they are closing over $7 million in sales and considering acquisition opportunities.

What is the ROI of outsourcing sales management (or getting help in another area of leadership) even when your company is doing well?  "...even when your company is doing well" is the key.  Your company might be doing reasonably well, but how can you get it to leapfrog your competition and grow SIGNIFICANTLY.

You only have so much time.  Don't wait another 6 months, 1 year, or, god forbid, 5 or 10 years.  Invest for the highest ROI now while you can:

1. Commit to replace your negative leadership patterns with new, more positive habits.  Your issue might be sales leadership, service delivery, overall company vision, financial stewardship...  whatever!  
2. Get short-term help.  You cannot develop new habits on your own.
3. Take the short-term pain of making changes and make the short-term investment to get help so your long-term is more FUN and profitable than ever.

Realize the benefits of taking action far outweigh the cost of doing nothing.  You will be glad you did.

Holacracy: Fad or Truth?

According to Vox and other media, "holacracy" is the latest management trend to sweep the tech industry.

What is it?  According to the article,, "Holacracy is management by committee with an emphasis on experimentation. The CEO formally relinquishes authority to a constitution and re-organizes everyone into decentralized teams that choose their own roles roles and goals."

Is it a fad that will fade?  Is it enduring truth that demands our attention because its potential is too big to ignore?  Should you immediately drop everything and leap on the holacracy bandwagon - if you can pronounce the word...?

Yes, it is a fad.

Yes, it has some truth, but so do the best lies. 

No, you should not drop everything to pursue holacracy.

The truth is that most if not all of the positive aspects of holacracy are just reworded leadership systems of an Ownership Culture.

Yes, immediately and continually invest in developing an ownership culture where employees are passionate about their work and gain personal meaning from taking responsibility for achieving results.

In brief, an ownership culture achieves all the benefits of holacracy where employee:

• Authority matches their responsibilities
• Ideas are encouraged, explored, and piloted
• Opinions are considered for major decisions
• Roles are clearly defined and measured
• Accountability comes from peers, not just managers

This is how Nucor Steel, Amazon, Netflix, Nordstrom, The Ritz-Carlton, and many other companies have grown and keep growing.

There is always work to do to improve your company culture, but pilot ideas that may come from reading about fads like holacracy rather than abandon what is true to gamble on its entire premise.

My concern is not just wasting time.  Holacracy could encourage some employees' entitlement mentality.  It is potentially a socialistic fantasy for large companies to attempt to overcome bureaucracy that could fail miserably.  Zappos can afford to play with holacracy for a period of time.  Most small companies do not have that luxury.

Look at holacracy.  Learn from it.  Just do not drink the Kool-Aid...

BE a 3STRANDS LEADER

Systematic Leadership;  inspiring others in Meaningful Work;  and consistently expressing Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

Meeting Ideas

My suggestion is simple.  Read the article.  Then think about or discuss as a group:

Here is a quick test:

1. I supplied a list of holacracy benefits above.  Use mine or create your own.
2. Go through the list item-by-item.  Where are we strong and where are we weak?
3. What can we do to make our strengths even stronger within an ownership culture?
4. What can we do to make our weaknesses competitive, not the best, within an ownership culture?
5. What would require us to move to a holocracy?  Why?
6. Do we need to schedule a conversation with Dave?

Thank you.

2 Biggest Failures of Leaders

Probably 8-10 years ago I realized the two biggest failures of leaders who otherwise operate with integrity in general:

1. Not setting goals that are clear and measurable where each employee has the skills and authority to achieve them;  and
2. Not following-up systematically enough to make certain progress is being made to achieve each objective.  (I am NOT advocating micro-management.)

I run into this scenario over and over again:  A boss, often an owner, is frustrated that their people do not achieve more, take on additional responsibility, and do their best all the time...  but the boss:

1. Has not clearly defined what the employees are to do.
2. Does not give employees authority that matches their responsibility.
3. Wants every employee to act like them.
4. Sees the negative of each employee crystal clearly, but not their positive contributions or POTENTIAL.

The list goes on, but the bottom line is the owner has not structured an environment where employees motivate themselves to do their best.  The systems are not in place to achieve their company objectives.  (We teach how to do this in our Ownership Culture program.

Sorry, but nearly every problem employee is the boss's fault.  We hired them, manage them, develop them, retain them, and want to kill them (at times - figuratively speaking).  They will do better when we do better as leaders.

WHERE TO START?  Stop making the first two, most common mistakes of leaders.  Set clear, measurable goals and then follow-up systematically.

It is Friday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. How are you doing on your 3strands this week?
2. Is the work remaining to complete this week's 3strands scheduled in your calendar so you can work uninterrupted?
3. Have you scheduled your Sanctuary time later today or over the weekend for personal accountability and focus?

Stay on track.

Transparency

I was working with a client recently and their employees felt the company was making tons of money.  It was profitable, but not making the massive sums of profit fantasied by the disgruntled employees.
At another client there was discontent because employees felt some senior people were not working as long as they were.  These people, a mix of owners and senior employees, would leave work early to indulge in their favorite sport.

The list goes on, but your concern should be perception becomes reality in a mind that gets all mixed up and permanently set, like concrete, when an organization lacks the transparency of an Ownership Culture.

In the first instance, the employees needed to have more of their company's finances discussed with them.  I am NOT advocating an open book company, but there are key financial metrics that are important.  Their misunderstanding also pointed out they need personal financial training too.  (We are creating a course on this as part of our Charm School.  It will be available by the end of August.)

In the second situation, the client needed to take a few actions:  (1) Allow everyone flextime, explain it, and better track it;  (2) Within the laws of their state, post the hours everyone worked, including the owners.  The employees did not remember the owners started earlier than them and worked in the evenings and weekends.  Showing hours worked by all employees educates people on the facts, and adds accountability between peers.

Transparency removes bad feelings based on misunderstood facts and gossip.

Can you identify one area of your company, or your work behaviors, where transparency would help you build a stronger Ownership Culture?

It is Friday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!

1. How are you doing on your 3strands this week?
2. Is the work remaining to complete this week's 3strands scheduled in your calendar so you can work uninterrupted?
3. Have you scheduled your Sanctuary time later today or over the weekend for personal accountability and focus?

Stay on track.

Narrative of Promise

In our Upgrade to an Ownership Culture webinar last week, Roy vanNorstrand said the phrase "narrative of promise."  I love the words...  According to www.Dictionary.com:

Narrative is a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.

Promise is a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc., or an express assurance on which expectation is to be based.

When you hire someone there is a narrative of promise that you will manage them encouragingly, develop their skills to do work they enjoy, and retain them by providing a work environment where they motivate themselves to become as excited about your business as you are.

The narrative of promise is that you will provide employees an Ownership Culture.  (Everyone wants to feel like a valued member of a team.)

Here are three quick questions to confirm your employees are fully engaged in an Ownership Culture:

What percentage of your employees:

1. Take full responsibility to complete work with excellence and make certain clients are satisfied like you do, as an owner?     _____%
2. Have the same amount of passion for your business as you do?     _____%
3. Balance efficiency, effectiveness, and maximizing profitability?     _____%

There is always room for improvement so if your answers are an average of 90% or more, then you have a very strong company culture.

If your answers are an average of 75-89%, then I suggest your company culture needs more attention and investment to maximize your opportunities and profitability.

If your answers are an average of 50-74% then I suggest you are working too hard for the profit you are achieving.  As scary as it sounds, your company culture is killing you.

I encourage you to invest a cup of coffee, tea, or a Jamba Juice smoothie to ponder just what is the actual narrative of promise you have made to your employees, and how well you are fulfilling it.

It is Monday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. Did you take Sanctuary time over the weekend to improve your focus?
2. How did you do on your 3Strands last week?
3. Have you defined your 3Strands for this week?
4. By 9:00 a.m. this morning you should have 3Strands emails from each of your direct reports.

Stay on track.

Judgement Deception

Everyone judges others, situations, and opportunities, but judgment is part of a leader's job description.  Leaders are expected to realistically, wisely, and relatively quickly judge "facts" to make decisions that affect the lives of others.

The challenge is what you might call judgment deception.  Let me suggest some thoughts to ponder:

1. One Standard:  We judge others more correctly, fairly and wisely when we first judge ourselves by the same standard to which we require of them.  Before judging mentally or sharing judgment, first confirm you consistently demonstrate the behaviors you desire.  DECEPTION:  Too often the standard required of others is higher than the standard required by the person judging, yet we are deceived into believing our conclusions are fair.
2. Foundation:  The emotional foundation of our judgment is partially, if not primarily, motivated by our wounds in life.  Take some time to study your wounds and heal, or at least learn to recognize how they affect your reactions and responses to others.  DECEPTION:  We all have them - childhood wounds, marriage wounds, career wounds...  and often they deceive us from the truth, and tilt our perspective and conclusions more than we realize.
3. Speed:  He who is quick to judge often puts foot in mouth up to kneecap...  offends others, makes mistakes, and hurts relationships.  Simply keeping our mouth shut and developing a discipline of considering BOTH SIDES of an issue yields much higher results.  DECEPTION:  There can be a sense that we have to deal with something immediately rather than wait.  Most of the time this is not true, but some evil force seems to pleasure in our quick decisions and the damage it causes (whether we realize it or not).

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged..." sounds great, but leaders have to make judgment calls.  Please consider whether your approach to judgment could be improved by any of the three insights above. 

It is Monday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. Did you take Sanctuary time over the weekend to improve your focus?
2. How did you do on your 3Strands last week?
3. Have you defined your 3Strands for this week?
4. By 9:00 a.m. this morning you should have 3Strands emails from each of your direct reports.

Stay on track.

CCB Business Technology Showcase Keynote

CEO of MANAGEtoWIN, David Russell, speaks about leadership at the CCB Business Technology Showcase

One Day vs. Every Day

Back in March of this year I was listening to Bill Hybels talking about leadership when three things jumped out to me that are worthy of your consideration today and into the weekend:

#1  You have to discipline yourself to train.  This is how you develop skills.  For instance if you are weightlifting, you start with a smaller weight and build up to greater weights.

#2  Do not try to do everything in one day.  Instead, train every day on part of what you want to accomplish to eventually become the champion you want to be.

#3  Last but not least, do not add leadership duties as habits to your day, but rather frame your day around your leadership activities.

To accomplish the focus and intentionally on these three steps requires a discipline of daily and weekly Sanctuary time for self evaluation and accountability.

I am working very hard on being a better person, more effective leader, and more consistently living out my values.  This journey has difficult moments every day, but based on what I have accepted as the foundation in my life I have no other choice.  I am very thankful for anything and everything that I have, including YOU!

If you have chosen your foundation in life and are pursuing a personally meaningful destination, please accept my encouragement.  I'm rooting for you!

Have an AWESOME weekend.

It is Friday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. How are you doing on your 3strands this week?
2. Is the work remaining to complete this week's 3strands scheduled in your calendar so you can work uninterrupted?
3. Have you scheduled your Sanctuary time later today or over the weekend for personal accountability and focus?

Stay on track.

Making Great Decisions

John Ortberg, a very creative and insightful guy, gave a great talk recently titled The Secret to Making Great Decisions.  I encourage you to listen to it, but here are some of John's tips to spark your Friday 3strands accountability:

• It's not what you do, it's who you become.
• Very often God's will for your life is "I want you to decide".
• We make terrible decisions when we are exhausted and/or afraid.
• The most important decisions we make are the ones we hardly even realize we are making...  We make them without considering what type of person we want to be.
• The battle for wisdom is never over.
• Are you a decide-a-phobic?  This is a person who avoids making important decisions.

I suggest that your process for making great decisions, and becoming the person you truly want to be, comes back to your 3strands:

1. Is your Systematic Leadership giving you the ability to do what you do best and fully empowering your employees to take ownership for results?
2. Are you making decisions based on a clearly defined vision of Meaningful Work - job activities that are personally fulfilling to you?
3. How well are you balancing Sincere Gratitude for all that you have with all that you want?

It is Friday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. How are you doing on your 3strands this week?
2. Is the work remaining to complete this week's 3strands scheduled in your calendar so you can work uninterrupted?
3. Have you scheduled your Sanctuary time later today or over the weekend for personal accountability and focus?

Stay on track.

Employee to Employee Accountability

When you have a strong company culture that is driven by 3strands LEADERSHIP then employees hold each other accountable. One of my favorite stories from an IT solution provider about how this worked in his company went this way...

His company pays a quarterly bonus to employees on their technical services team of just under $2,000.  The bonus is only paid when the entire team performs at a certain level. One member of a technical team within this organization really needed the bonus to make his mortgage payment.  The problem was another member of the team was failing to achieve the performance standards so the team could receive the bonus.

The guy with the financial challenge invited the poor performer out into the parking lot for conversation.  He said something like, "Listen, we have to make our quarterly bonus so that I can pay my mortgage.  I am not going to miss my mortgage payment because you are not doing your work.  So you have two choices, you can pick it up and perform as well as the rest of us, or we are going to come back out here after the end of the quarter and it's not going to be this pretty.  Got it?"

I do NOT encourage this type of behavior between employees.  However to be candid, I love the story!

How well you engaging your employees in the key areas of 3strands LEADERSHIP?

Systematic Leadership:  Are you as consistent and process driven in the way you hire, manage, develop, and retain employees as you are in the areas of your business that relate to your natural strengths, such as sales, tech work, accounting...?

Meaningful Work:  How well are you engaging each employee so that the work they do for your company is personally meaningful to them?

Sincere Gratitude:  Do you know how each employee wants to be recognized.  Hint:  It is different for each employee.

The only scalable way to grow your business is to have employees take full ownership for results and to hold each other accountable when you are not present.

If you need help, our LEADERSHIP Essentials and All-In LEADERSHIP programs are an ideal way for you to improve your Systematic Leadership in less time and with processes we have proven to work over the past 11 years.

Meeting Ideas

Have a meeting with your leadership team, or you can do this alone as part of your weekly Sanctuary time, to evaluate how systematic you are in the way you hire, manage, develop, and retain employees.

1. List the systems you have in place in each of the four key areas of employee engagement:  Hiring, Management, Development, and Retention.
2. Rate each system by simple four-point scale:
   1. Does Not Exist (Nothing is in-writing, no accountability, inconsistent...)
   2. Needs Improvement (Something is in place that people should follow, but it clearly could be much better.)
   3. Doing a Good Job (Figure out how to make it better)
   4. Outstanding (Figure out how to more broadly take advantage of the strength.)
3. Develop and pilot improvements.  Drive your business based on employee engagement and everything else will improve.

Let me know if you need help.  And have fun!

Game Face?

I was recently reading an "expert's" recommendation to motivate your people to put on their game face and turn on their work personality...

Oh... make me puke.  That's right, let's all be a bunch of shallow phonies!

Wake up!  If you have to get your people to "put on their game face" then you are going to have a "shame face" when they let a client down.  Posers are not superstars.  Top performers have a natural positivity, achievement record, love what they do, and do what they love.

No turning on of a work personality is necessary.

Take a moment this morning to pause and think of each person on your team.  Does anyone have to put on their game face to perform at a top level?

If so, then that is a problem.  Work on solving it before that person lets you down (again?).  Or maybe they are a great player on your team, but they need your support through a rough patch right now.  Either way, be intentional.  Engage, or start a fair process to prove performance or disengage.

P.S.  Ryan Barton, the visionary leader of Mainstay Technologies has pushed me to agree to add a Charm School course on Ownership.  He has a great team and his people really own / take responsibility for results, but he does not want to lose that as they continue to grow rapidly.

Do you have any suggestions or questions about employees taking ownership for results?  If so, email me and I will consider including your perspective or needs in the training.

It is Monday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. Did you take Sanctuary time over the weekend to improve your focus?
2. How did you do on your 3Strands last week?
3. Have you defined your 3Strands for this week?
4. By 9:00 a.m. this morning you should have 3Strands emails from each of your direct reports.

Stay on track.

Drawing the Line

"My tech yelled at a customer..."

"She is constantly pointing out where our services fall short..."

"His email complaining about the situation made me mad..."

Each of these situations is true.  It may have happened or is happening in your organization. Should you tolerate a tech, or any employee who yells at a customer? Is it really worth it to keep a "Negative Nancy" on the team?  (People who point out flaws are men as often as women.) You're busy and have enough stress.  Should you tolerate someone who sends you a flaming email?

THE ANSWER:  It depends.

1. Yells at a customer:  What if the person yelling at the customer is you, or your partner?  What if the employee doing this is under a lot of stress personally and you are aware of it? There are reasons why the person may deserve a second chance.  As a leader did you put them in an environment where they can perform their best and avoid mistakes due to lack of competency or a temporary personal deficiency?  Are they properly trained?  Is their workload too heavy? Employees who have clear systems for service delivery and understand how their work is personally meaningful to them would never yell at a customer.  These are the first two strands of 3strands LEADERSHIP.
2. Negative Nancy:  Is the person right?  Are you or any other key employees complaining about service problems or regularly suggesting improvements?  Is it just this person's style that bothers you, or the fact you know they are right? This comes back to how the employee is being managed and trained.  In particular, the employee may not feel their suggestions are being heard and fully considered.  This tells them that you do not trust them and value them as a member of your team.  If this is the case then you are violating the third strand of 3strands LEADERSHIP.
3. Flaming email:  The next time you receive an email that makes you mad just stop and catch your breath.  Ask yourself, is the person right?  Are they even partially correct?  Most of the time they are, and leaders of integrity need to start by taking ownership for their own mistakes. Accept the fact email is a terrible form of communication.  Train your people how to correspond appropriately and systems to avoid sending emails that can be offensive.   If the person is at least partially right then do not skewer them.  Look at the positive side:  They care enough about your relationship to raise the issue.  It is consistent with the first strand of Systematic Leadership for 3strands LEADERS to tolerate an occasional emotional outburst, particularly when it was done in private such as an email.

Clearly some of these situations may justify discipline or even termination.  Nevertheless it is important to consider all of the facts and not be driven by our emotions when we conclude that someone has crossed the line and there should be consequences.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  Employee problems are symptoms.  The disease is leadership flaws.  How we respond to others' mistakes says more about us than it does about them.

SPECIAL OFFER:  SAVE 25% or more on our All-In LEADERSHIP program for orders placed by May 28.

Email me if you have any questions.

Meeting Ideas

There are a lot of different roads you can go based on the three points I make above.  Just taking time to explore those is plenty for one meeting.

If you believe your company culture should be stronger and the leaders in your firm would benefit from some training, then consider our All-In LEADERSHIP program.  It is a bargain.

First Lap Delusions

I try to swim three times a week and in the Fall love to join high school boys water polo practices with my old friend Carl's team.  

The first lap of a swim workout set is a gift.  I imagine myself as strong, the water feels wonderful, and there is a sense that I can do anything.  It is a refreshing taste of life.

But I can't do anything...

I work harder as the set of swimming multiple 50's, 100's or whatever diabolical plot Carl has devised for our workout continues, but often move slower.  I struggle to keep up with Carl.  He goes faster the longer he swims, which makes me feel like the proverbial hare in a race with the tortoise.

What are First Lap Delusions in leadership?  This is where we can be too excited about something early on and then it is a struggle to follow through, if not a total disaster due to our lack of follow-up or our choice was wrong in the first place:

• Hiring Dr. Jekyll and getting Mr. Hyde
• Setting goals and returning to them daily/weekly for focus
• Signing-up a new vendor and then completing their sales plan / certifications
• Spreading ourselves too thin, even with the best of intentions
• Announcing a permanent change when we should have done a pilot...

I am not pointing the finger at you.  These are my struggles too, but that does not mean we allow ourselves to be repeatedly deceived by them.  Being aware of obstacles gives us the ability to plan our way around and past them.

Enjoy your first laps.  They are a blessing.  Just be prepared for the challenges of the full workout.

It is Monday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. Did you take Sanctuary time over the weekend to improve your focus?
2. How did you do on your 3Strands last week?
3. Have you defined your 3Strands for this week?
4. By 9:00 a.m. this morning you should have 3Strands emails from each of your direct reports.

Stay on track.

Object vs. Process

Two quick housekeeping items:

1. Schedule Change:  Due to a need of our great Client, Mainstay Technologies, we have moved our Bedford, NH LEADERSHIP Essentials Academy to September 11-12.  Join us there or come out to the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area on August 7-8 or October 2-3 for our hometown Academy.
2. # Merged:  You may notice the jump in this newsletter's number to #348.  This is because I merged the numbering of my email accountability and leadership suggestions.  This would have been #133 of LEADERSHIP Accountability and there have been 215 of my Work Smart Live Well ideas.  I will continue to focus each newsletter differently, but the dual numbering was confusing to some people.

Is leadership an object?  Well, this is worth a pause for consideration as we start this week. Dictionary.com gives us five definitions of an object:

Anything that is visible or tangible, and relatively stable in form.

A thing, person or matter to which thought or action is directed:  an object of a medical examination.  

The end toward which effort or action is directed;  goal;  purpose:  Profit is the object of the business.

A person or thing with reference to the impression made on the mind or the feeling or emotion elicited in an observer:  an object of curiosity and pity.

Anything that may be apprehended intellectually:  objects of thought.

What do you think?

I suggest that although some attributes of leadership may be objects, the power of leadership resides in systematic processes involving meaningful work and constantly reinforcing relationships.

An object can be something without life or a moment in time, whereas leadership is alive in constant movement in ever developing best practices and processes.

The question:  What is one part of your leadership responsibilities where you are stuck as an "object," and what is the process needed to achieve a breakthrough?

It is Monday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. Did you take Sanctuary time over the weekend to improve your focus?
2. How did you do on your 3Strands last week?
3. Have you defined your 3Strands for this week?

By 9:00 a.m. this morning you should have 3Strands emails from each of your direct reports. Stay on track.

Irreplaceable

As a teacher of leadership, I strive to always pass along lessons I have learned personally and professionally.  Each of these newsletters communicates something that has been learned through pain, enjoyed as success, or perspectives I have found thought-provoking.

This morning at 5:07 a.m. on 05/07/2014... there must be something meaningful in that "coincidence"... I am changing the focus of today's newsletter because last night I saw the movie premier of Irreplaceable.  In a word, it was overwhelming.

The movie focused on how society worldwide is devaluing sex, which in turn devalues family, which then devalues marriage, which leads to devaluing being a parent, which ends up devaluing, or destroying children.  

Why this cascading devaluation?  We are sold lies that appeal to our natural desire for self-gratification.  (My conclusion, not the movie's.)

Let's apply this to leadership of your business, which is often very similar to being a parent.  I mean, don't you feel like you are running an adult daycare center at times?

1. When we devalue the relationships we have in our workplace, then success and enjoyment are momentary rather than lasting.  We allow busyness to replace purpose instead of having meaningful work drive all that we do.
2. This leads devaluing company culture so employees have different experiences working for us and the majority feel negatively about their managers and/or our organizations.  We become a band of individuals instead of a spirited team striving to achieve common goals.
3. This cascades into devaluing 1:1 management of people who report to us.  We opt for "managing with a long leash," hiring people who can operate without our involvement, or the opposite, micro-management focused only on what they do wrong rather than encouraging accountability while reinforcing what they do right.  We encourage individual self-governance with varying standards instead of responsibly engaging in caring, professional 1:1 relationships with consistent values.
4. This devalues leadership into self-serving activities rather than systematic efforts that help our people become the fulfilled top performers they were designed to be.  Lost leaders consciously or unconsciously act as though "It's all about me, baby!"  We churn through employees instead of being inspiring, nurturing and protecting leaders.
5. Lastly, this then devalues individual employees into commodities who only have value if they meet the leader's needs for self-indulgence.  Make me look good.  Do the work without my guidance.  Do a great job without training.  No accountability, just inconsistent bursts of condemnation.  

We engage employees in moments of time based on conflicting standards rather than systematically leading them to achieve their dreams, and ours.

You are not irreplaceable, yet as leaders we should strive to be remembered as people of character who our employees and peers will miss when we move on to our next challenge. 

3strands LEADERSHIP helps you be the leader you were designed to be.

BE a 3STRANDS LEADER

Systematic Leadership, inspiring others in Meaningful Work, and consistently expressing Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

Meeting Ideas

Just take 30-60 minutes and consider points 1-5 above.

1. Strengths:  What are you doing right?  How can you do more of this?  How can you systematically focus more of your time on your strengths?
2. Weaknesses:  What mistakes are you making?  How can you apply your strengths to overcome a weakness?  Where do you need someone else's accountability, guidance, or to delegate away a weakness?  How can you systematically remove each weakness?
3. People - YES:  What needs to be done to more fully engage your employees?  Top performers do not stay with weak leaders.  Do not assume your superstars are happy.  Improve your systems for full engagement.
4. People - NO:  Do you have people who are not performing?  Work with them to define a 90 day Success Plan.  Strive with them 1:1 daily and weekly to achieve their plan as they develop new habits.  

Or maybe they just will not work out, or are a cancer that are negatively affecting the performance of others.

Work with me or someone else to give them a great opportunity to prove what they can do.  If they cannot meet your standards, then let them move on to other opportunities.

Let me know how it goes.

Tomato Head

It is springtime!  Many of us might grow tomatoes, which are botanically a fruit but considered a vegetable for culinary purposes.  How does this relate to leadership?

Go with me on this for a moment...  Your employees share the following attributes with tomato plants. They are:

1. Attractive (at least they were during the hiring process) because of their excitement to be alive and grow in your organization.
2. Healthy when they are "good fruit" who positively contribute "vitamins" and "fiber" that strengthen others.
3. Fuel to grow your organization.
4. Limited in their ability to grow and provide value without structure, care and nurturing. 
5. Rotten to your company culture when your care for them is inconsistent and/or limited.

Consider a tomato plant that is growing within a tomato cage, a metal structure that is specifically designed to help it grow to its full potential.

Without the cage the plant grows without focus and some of its fruit rots on the ground.  While your people may be growing as they work for you, are they truly developing the skills that best support your organization?  Their activity level may be impressive, but without focus it has limited value.

The LEADERSHIP Essentials we teach help you become a great gardener.  Our leadership systems are comparable to a well-designed tomato cage to help people fully develop their talents and apply them to collectively build an organization that positively impacts the lives of others.

Do not mistake activity for accomplishment.  Your people need you to to be the leader you were designed to be.  Help your tomatoes thrive.  Move beyond assumptions to intentional, 3strands LEADERSHIP

P.S.  My thanks to Bill Hybels for his mention of a tomato cage recently.  it reminded me of the many hours I spent with my grandfather working in his garden that was overflowing with tomato plants.

BE a 3STRANDS LEADER

Systematic Leadership;  inspiring others in Meaningful Work;  and consistently expressing Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

Meeting Ideas

I suggest the following for conversation with your leadership team: 

1. Hire:  Is our hiring process clearly defined in-writing?  Are we consistently following the process when adding new people to our team?  What parts of the process are we not following consistently - do we need to be more diligent in these areas, or drop these activities from our hiring process?
2. Manage:  What structure do we have in place to manage our employees so we are providing them with focus, support, accountability, and the tools they need to succeed?  Do we have a strategic plan for each employee success?  Does each employee have clear, measurable goals?  Does each employee have written behavioral expectations, and the opportunity to express what they want from their boss to be successful?  What is our process for helping our people focus on what is most important instead of getting caught up in the tyranny of the urgent each day?
3. Develop:  What specific activities are happening to develop the natural strengths of our employees?  What is the accountability in this process?  How are they encouraged?  How is their progress recorded?  Is our process to develop our people exciting them, increasing our ability to improve client relationships, and building a stronger bottom line for our organization?  How?  If not, what are we going to do about it?
4. Retain:  What intentional activities are we doing to make certain we retain our best people?  How consistently do we do these things?  Do we have people on our team who have been with our organization for a while and we need to reignite their passion?  How much would it hurt to lose our top 5-10 people?  Specifically what are we doing to make certain we retain those people, separate of just throwing money at them?

As you can guess, I can go on for quite some time in this area...

Let me know how it goes.

Hard One on Time

Note:  I am in Wisconsin this week with CCB, Inc.  This is a really unique company culture.  I am sharing my new Power of One talk for the first time at two sold-out events.  Thank you, CCB!

Do not be fooled by the simplicity of the question below.

The impact on your life is so significant, but this exercise appears so simple that most of you will not bother to do it.

I guarantee you in one hour or less you can identify something that will create a minimum of $100,000 in revenue or profits.  (Or the money you paid for this newsletter back!)

All joking aside, invest one hour or less in this exercise and you will gain an advantage to achieve what you believe is important.

QUESTION:  Are you spending time as a leader, or investing time as a leader?

ANSWER:  Follow these steps in 30 minutes alone, without any distraction:

1. Look at your calendar last week starting with your first activity the morning of the first day and working through activity-by-activity each day.
2. Questions for each activity:
   • Which of my 2014 goals did this meeting relate to?
   • Did I really need to be there or do this?
   • If "yes," then what was my ROI on this activity, an investment of my time?
   • If "no," then who could have been delegated this activity or how do I avoid this waste of time in the future?
   • How could the activity have been more productive?
   • If a meeting, did everyone need to be there?
   • What information could have been shared pre-meeting to save time?
   • What 1-3 things could have been done to shorten the activity but increase its effectiveness?
   • What could I have done that relates to my 2014 goals if this activity took less time or was avoided?

   P.S.  Where should you invest your time the most?  In relationships.  (Thanks for the reminder, Jeff Mazz!)

3. Commit to invest your time, not spend it.
4. Assess the ROI of your time investments weekly in Sanctuary.

BE a 3STRANDS LEADER

Systematic Leadership, inspiring others in Meaningful Work, and consistently expressing Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

Meeting Ideas

The Meeting Ideas are simple:

1. Check It:  After you complete the exercise above, confirm your conclusions with someone you trust.  Look for guidance on how to be a better investor of your time.
2. Group:  You can also do this exercise as a group.
3. Sanctuary:  Do not underestimate the power of Sanctuary.  The discipline of taking Sanctuary time to improve your focus will always lead to a higher return on your investments of time.

Let me know how it goes.

Day 127 | Do They Want Your Opinion?

We leaders serve all kinds of people in a wide variety of roles, such as peers, partners, employees, contractors, vendors, clients, etc...

One skill we are developing is becoming intentional leaders.  Consistent with this objective is to develop the habit to think before we speak.

Another good habit to develop is to ask ourselves:

Are they asking for my opinion, or for validation of their idea?

WARNING:  This is a two-way street.  Too often in the past I did the latter and sought out people who were not strong enough to tell me "no" or that I was wrong.  This did not build strong relationships and led to many mistakes.

RECOMMENDATION:  Develop a habit to pause and think before speaking both before you speak, and before you respond to someone else's request for your opinion.  It will help you avoid a lot of pain.

It is Friday.  ACCOUNTABILITY TIME!  

1. How did you do on your 3Strands this week?
2. At the end of today or at least before 9:00 a.m. Monday take Sanctuary time and hold yourself accountable to this week's 3Strands and define your 3Strands for next week?

Stay on track.

3 vs. 1

Many years ago a friend of mine was asked to become the chairman of the board for a non-profit company in my local community.  

This organization was having serious trouble.  The board meetings were long affairs, often lasting until one or two o'clock in the morning as the top executive fought it out with the board members and everyone had to have their say.  It was unproductive and contrary to the values of the organization.

To start his initial meeting as chairman, my friend said:  "I have two rules on how these meetings will proceed.  First, each meeting will end at 11:00 p.m., even if someone is mid-sentence.  Therefore please keep your comments brief and try not to repeat what others have already said.  Second, if you have something negative to say, you must first say three sincere, positive things."

He then enforced those rules.  The situation turned around rapidly.

Notice my friend had carefully considered the situation and then focused on the positive.  Human nature leads many people to build themselves up by putting others down.  Being negative does not get results long-term.

If you think you are a "realist," then you might actually be a skeptic or pessimist with "the gift of correction."  This creates some potential problems that are hard, but not impossible to overcome:

1. It is easier for you to correct people than compliment them.  Following my friend's advice can help you better reinforce the behaviors you want to see in your people.
2. You have difficulty admitting you are wrong.  Yes, you may be right a high percentage of the time, but if you cannot recognize and fully embrace the areas where others are correct and find commonality then you are throwing up barriers to working most productively with others.
3. SINCERE compliments are important, but consistency in positively engaging people - i.e. thanking them specifically for the little things they do rather than occasionally in general makes a big difference.

How do you develop a habit of better complimenting people?  See the Meeting Ideas below for additional ideas.

BE a 3STRANDS LEADER

Systematic Leadership, inspiring others in Meaningful Work, and consistently expressing Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

Meeting Ideas

The 3-to-1 communication style with other people can be very engaging, if done sincerely and not strictly.  

Let's be candid, it would be irritating to be complimented three times before a correction each time you talk with someone, but here are some ideas to consider if compliments are challenging for you:

1. Shut Up:  Develop a habit of thinking before you speak.  If you react without thinking you will correct someone.  If you pause and think, you can direct your thoughts to something sincere and specific to compliment.  Often times the compliment can lead to asking questings and finding that another approach to a problem may be better.
2. Ask:  Do not tell them what is wrong, ask them.  For instance, "I liked the way you closed that service ticket with the client.  One of our values is to exceed expectations.  I am wondering, would it help close the experience on that ticket better if we (not an accusatory "you") also sent a follow-up email confirming the work that was done and thanking them for their support through the process?"
3. Choose Your Battles:  Let some stuff go, just not the important activities.
4. Good Cop, Bad Cop:  Make your company values, policies, Always/Never Standards, etc. the "bad cop."  Encourage people to meet these standards rather than your opinion.  You are the "good cop," who wants only the best for them, your team and clients.  (The best for people, rather than focus on what is best for "the company," which is impersonal.)
5. Gratitude:  Too often "realists" are not thankful enough for what they have.  Instead they wallow in not getting their high ideals met.  (Sometimes they are not meeting their own standards or following their own advice.)  

Consider what might happen if you developed the 3rd Strand of 3Strands LEADERSHIP, Sincere Gratitude, and it led your thoughts rather than follow weakly if not at all.

You may need to say or write statements of gratitude like dictums to reprogram your brain.  For instance, "I am thankful for the way (employee name) does (something specific they do).  I am thankful for (Client's name) because they..."

The behavior of being a "realist" can be positive if it is balanced and follows a skill of sincerely, positively reinforcing people. Communication lacking sincere positive reinforcement is toxic.  Try changing for one day.  Just one full day.

Add a comment and let me know how it goes.