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Integration: It's Not Just A Tech Problem, It's A People Issue, Too - GROW GREAT #4025

Integration: It’s Not Just A Tech Problem, It’s A People Issue, Too #4025

Leadership, Not Going Crazy In The Process, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Integration: It's Not Just A Tech Problem, It's A People Issue, Too - GROW GREAT #4025

Business executives regularly consider API (application program interface). We have to. Our enterprise software has to play nice with a variety of other products we use to operate our businesses. Even on our work computers and tablets we need all the apps we use to work together with each other. We’re frustrated when that doesn’t happen. Just today I got an event invitation from some online web conferencing tool…but the invite wouldn’t work with Google Calendar. DOH. We hate it when that happens.

Open source and universal connectivity are the order of the day.

That’s why we have technical experts to help us navigate our integration needs. Fact is, we often don’t even know what we need — or what’s possible. We experts to help us better understand what’s possible, and how.

Integration isn’t just something we need with all the apps, hardware and software in our lives. It’s equally urgent that we consider the integration of people in our organizations. The key element of integration centers on one fundamental goal – to get it all working together. We want our technology to play nice together. The same goes for people.

“He’s really good at what he does. I just wish he’d play nice with others a little bit better.” A business owner said that about one of his star employees, a man with come prowess that was important to the firm. However, for the next half-hour the CEO told me a few stories of how this person’s behavior was disruptive to co-workers. By the CEO’s admission, the star guy likely had a negative impact on at least four other employees. When I asked if he could quantify that negative impact he replied, “I don’t know how I could possibly know, but I suspect it’s significant.”

“I realize we’re guessing a bit here, but would you say his negative impact is less than or greater than 25% for each of these other employees?” I asked.

“Oh, I’d suspect it’s at least 25%. Again, there’s no way to really know, but I think it could be as high as 50% — and I worry that any of those four could leave at any time,” he said.

So here we’ve got a so-called star employee. That’s how the CEO described him, but that’s based solely on this employee’s performance. His personal productivity is high. The CEO and I continued to try to quantify the impact on the four employees who suffer lower productivity because of the star. If each employee has a dollar amount of productivity (it could be anything else that can measured) based on 100% capacity, then what does 50-75% capacity look like? We played with some numbers, all the while knowing we were just speaking in harsh generalizations. No matter, it gave us something to look at and consider. And it gave us some starting point to quantify the impact.

The four employees didn’t all share the same capacity. But as it turns out, the CEO – using his own metrics for our discussion – said he felt confident that the overall negative impact on these four employees was in excess of $1.2M for the first half of the year. He figured it’d be somewhat higher for the second half. He settled on the harsh realization that his one star guy could be costing his company over $3M in lost productivity for the four employees.

Boiling it down to simple math I asked the big question: “If your star walked out the door, what would you lose?”

“He’s directly responsible for about $1.3M. He may exceed that this year though,” said the CEO.

Then the math is simple – assuming the CEO has a grasp on the metrics that’s remotely close. He’s trading $3M in lost revenue productivity from four employees for $1.5M in star performance from one. Hardcore proof of the high price of integration failure. People integration.

Integrating people isn’t just a challenge for M&A work, it’s applicable for every business. Tech problems are bad. People problems are worse.

As bad as it may be to have software or apps not work well together, those aren’t nearly as vexing as having people who don’t work well together. Is there room in your organization for toxic people? People who may perform at a reasonably high level in their own performance, but who have an adverse effect on others?

Race Horses vs. Plow Horses

Let’s be clear. I’m not talking about race horses, those high-performing employees who require a degree of pampering and special treatment. Those of us who have run sales organizations know this analogy well. We want a stable of race horses, people who are terrific rainmakers, capable of bringing in revenues and dazzling clients. Like literal race horses, they expect things no plow horse would dare expect. Being treated special is important because they know (and feel) they are special because of the results they bring. That doesn’t make them toxic or detrimental to others. They just need to feel that they’re part of an exclusive group. And they are! I have no problem treating them special.

Does special mean we’re unfair to others? Not at all. Fair and equal are not synonymous. Get that out of your head right now. An employee with productivity that is 3x others is deserving of different treatment. That’s completely fair. It won’t be equal to what those performing at 3x less deserve though. And the issues that stem from that may indeed require some management, process alignment or any number of other things…but that’s very different than a race horse responsible for personally hindering the performance of co-workers.

Last year I remember reading an article about a CEO who considered 2 fundamental options for growth and answered for himself and his company.

To continue to grow further. One can win a race either by running faster or by breaking the other runners’ legs. I believe in the first option.

If we apply what he said to our subject today it may help clarify the challenge. We can have team members (race horses) who outrun their co-workers or we can have team members who outrun their teammates because they’re breaking the other runners’ legs. The first is acceptable. The later is not.

How do we integrate these people? How can we have high-performing people working along side lower-performing people?

First, determine and set standards.

Too frequently I encounter CEO’s and other business leaders who are unwilling to do this. Why doesn’t really matter. Does it? If it does matter, why does it matter? What valid reason could exist to avoid determining and setting standards? I can’t think of one. If you can, share it with me at Twitter.

The real reason I often uncover is fear. Fear that some employees will resist. Fear that others will create problems (complain, create strife, quit, etc.).

So are we to assume that standards or expectations must always be fraught with fallout? Well, maybe. After all, in a classroom of 30 students there are going to be those straight A students who the other students think are the “teacher’s pets.” Those other students don’t put in the work or don’t have the capacity to be straight A students. They either choose not to be straight A students or they just can’t perform at that level. So we shouldn’t expect anybody in that class of 30 to perform at straight A levels?

Ridiculous. Teachers need to expect every student to do their best, right? Isn’t that what you want to happen in your company? We’re wise enough to know everybody can’t perform at the same, exact level. That’s okay, provided everybody can perform at some basic level that’s necessary so our enterprise can be profitable enough to sustain itself. I mean if we’ve got a small sales team of 6 people and 4 of them aren’t generating enough revenue to warrant (or offset) their compensation, then we’ve got a major problem. We can be nice and go with the flow, but we’ll quickly be out of business…and everybody loses. OR…we can establish some standards that everybody must meet in order to earn the privilege of continuing to be part of our team.

QUESTION: Do you want to be part of a losing team or a winning team?

Losing teams don’t care who is on the roster. They likely don’t have a performance standard. Maybe it’s co-ed rec softball team where friends are playing together. They just want a nice evening together. Winning isn’t why they’re even together. Okay, the standard is simple: we’re all close friends. It’s not a great standard for winning games, but it’s a great standard perhaps for fun. But if you’re not in their inner circle of friendship, you don’t get invited. On the other hand, if you’re building a team to win the championship trophy, then close friendships aren’t the main standard. First, you want good players.

Part of determining and setting standards is knowing why you’re together in the first place. It may sound strange to know some business owners and CEO’s don’t really know why the team is together. I know because I’ve spent too much time in the office of some who couldn’t fully articulate it. It’s not something every business owner or leader has fully considered. Not when it comes to people!

Purpose. That’s the issue. What’s your purpose? Is it to make sure everybody who comes your way – or even everybody who gets hired – has a place to come every day? Is it to make sure you provide an opportunity for people to do their very best work? Those are drastically different purposes.

You’ll fail at determining and setting standards until or unless you first come to terms with why you have people in your organization. Why do you have THESE specific people? Why are these people still here?

Go back to our classroom of 30. Let’s break up the class into smaller tables of 5. We’ll have six tables with 5 students sitting together around one table. Let’s assume we’ve got 6 straight A students. That’s 20%. Now, let’s assume we’ve got 20% who are at or near failing, that’s another 6. We’ve got the bulk of students who are average or slight above or below. Let’s call that the other 60% or 18. How will you segregate these students? What will the seating chart look like?

Why will you group them in one way and not in other? You’ll do it because you have some purpose or intention in mind. If you put 5 of the straight A students at one table, then you’ll necessarily leave one of them out of the group. Why would you do that? If you put 5 of the 6 failing students together you’ll likely be asking for trouble from that table, right? It’s an integration problem. You have to integrate students together with some purpose in mind. As the CEO or business owner, you can determine why you’ve got people together. Figure it out and know what it is.

That won’t make it valid or wise though. A teacher could easily congregate all the best students together and the poorest students together. But not all of them because the math won’t work out smoothly. Somebody is going to be left behind. Then what? Well, in large part it depends on what the teacher is trying to accomplish. Hint: fear of hurting the feelings of any single student (or any subset of students) isn’t a good reason. It’s cowardly. It sacrifices the well-being of the classroom for a select few because the leader lacks courage. Don’t be that leader!

Know why you have people on your roster. Know what expectations you have for everybody to be part of the roster. Enforce it.

Have non-negotiable standards. That is, have standards that will cost people their jobs. I don’t mean illegal or immoral or unethical behavior. I mean performance-based. No, you’re not expecting everybody to perform at straight A level, but you’re expecting everybody to perform at “passing grade” levels. What is that? Hire for it. Train it. Expect it.

Second, don’t compromise.

The minute you move off the standard, you lose the standard. When that co-ed rec softball team with close friends starts seeing just one player frustrated because the losing sucks – they’re dead if they don’t uninvite that friend. They can remind him or her why they started the team to begin with. They can reinforce what they all agreed to and ask that frustrated teammate to get back on track with the team’s program, or leave so they can all maintain friendship off the softball field. OR, they can compromise and shift the focal point of the team by ramping up the pressure on the team members to perform better. That’s a poor choice because it involves compromising the purpose of the team.

It’s poor when you do it inside your organization, too. Once you’ve got your purpose, stay the course unless there’s some valid reason to alter it. Don’t alter it because a teammate, or few, develop different ideas. If you do, you’re letting them break the legs of their teammates just so they can outrun them. Is that the culture you want? I don’t think so. A culture of leg breakers is called the Mafia. That’s not who or what you are!

Third, cut toxic and poor performing players.

Some players aren’t worthy of being on your team. It doesn’t make them bad people necessarily. It doesn’t make your place a bad place to work. It doesn’t make you a bad boss. It’s just the reality of one-size doesn’t fit all.

Look at any professional sports league. During trade deadlines, good (sometimes even great) players get traded away. Sometimes their performance in one city doesn’t match the money they’re being paid. They move to a new city and a new team and bloom. That change of scenery, or teammates, or coach is exactly what they needed. It’s just a better fit.

Sometimes players are cut entirely because they just don’t have the skills sufficient to occupy a roster spot. There’s another player more deserving, a player capable of contributing more to the team.

When you’re assigning those students to their tables you’re likely going to think of how to best integrate the students to make each table as strong as you can. If you’re wise you want to provide students a table where they can be their best. But unlike a classroom, your business likely has some failing students who shouldn’t even be in the classroom. Teachers can’t cut students. Teams can and do cut them. You should, too. In fact, if you don’t cut players based on their contribution to the company, then you’re failing to serve the company and those employees who are ably serving the company.

Remember, race horses don’t want to hang around plow horses. A students don’t want to have an F student sitting at their table. Why would you think you’ve got star employees who should be happy tethered to poor performing employees? They don’t. They resent it. They don’t understand it. They don’t think it’s fair that you even keep those people.

In time, your culture will pay a heavy toll if you harbor poor performers or toxic employees. The good performers will begin to wonder why they should break their back to do good work. They’ll leave and you’ll be stuck with a stable of plow horses. Which will be fine if plowing is your business. But if winning races is your purpose…you’ll never win.

This step is critical for two reasons:

a. Poor performing team members drain energy, resources and damage performance-based culture.
b. Holding onto poor performers demonstrates to high performers that it’s not really about performance. It’s about something else.

It’s called human resources for a reason. People are an asset (a positive force) or a liability (a drain). They’re a resource, fully capable of propelling your business forward or fully capable of bringing it down. Like any other resource, people aren’t all equal in their skills, experience, personality, capacity or potential. Bringing out the best in people is job one of every CEO. Serving the employees of the company must be a priority for the owner or CEO. Customers can’t come before employees. Not if you’re going to have an outstanding company.

Fourth, feed the performers.

It’s commonplace to enter the C-suite and hear about the problem people. The sheer volume of time devoted to discussions about people who are creating problems should be a strong enough signal that this isn’t how to roll. Habitual complaining about Frank in accounting, or Joe in purchasing, or Margaret in planning becomes part of the company game played. Meanwhile, Frank, Joe and Margaret are ruling their respective workplaces with toxic behavior. Like the kid in class shooting spit wads, they’re getting all the attention. Maybe that’s the point – for them.

You can buy into that and give them the attention. Or you can decide to follow truth – it’s more profitable, more fair and more valuable to feed the people meeting or exceeding your expectations and standards.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking your resources or assets are in unlimited supply. You know better, but you can still lean toward thinking the wheels will stay on if you leave well enough alone. They won’t. Time will run out on you. And the people – the good performing people – left in the wake will be senseless. You can do something about it. You can jettison weight that drags down your company performance while bolstering the energy of those who have the ability (and desire, willingness) to take the company to a higher orbit. The top performers are waiting – and hoping – you’ll finally do what must be done. The poor performers are banking on history repeating itself. Your fear to do anything except what you’ve always done.

Surprise them all. Integrate good performing people with great people. Some of the good ones will become great. No matter. Great performers value good performers. Everybody will perform better and you’ll attract higher talent when integration means you don’t tolerate just any kind of behavior or performance.

A week or so ago a developer commented to somebody who wanted some software integrated, “You need to update to a more stable solution. That software isn’t valuable enough to be integrated into your ERP.” And there it is. The V word.

This client evidently had some older, legacy software he’s used for many years. Now, he’s trying to get it to play nicely with his high-end ERP. The developer pointed out an obvious (to him) truth. Today, there are much more valuable solutions that are worth integrating into the ERP. This legacy software isn’t worth the trouble.

Daily we have to make decisions on where we’ll put our resources and our energy. Always take the road to high value!

Randy

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Momentum: How To Get It, How To Keep It #4023

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Momentum- How To Get It, How To Keep It #4023 - GROW GREAT Momentum Monday.

Is that how you view Mondays? Most don’t. It’s time for you to stand apart from the crowd.

Today’s show is a quick 15 minute episode recorded while out and about hustling. Pardon the less than studio-like sound quality, but hopefully the message is one to spark inspiration as you start a new work week.

Prompted by my passion for Stanley Cup hockey and business, I’ve had conversations about momentum in the past week. Those talks provoked me to hit the record button on my iPhone while out and about today, hoping to avoid the thunderstorms looming here in DFW.

Enjoy.

Randy

P.S. Today’s show was recorded with my earbud microphone (JBL Inspire 300 Yurbuds).

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YOU Are The Reason People Are Quitting Their Jobs #4021

Leadership, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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It’s not me. It’s YOU.

That’s not what people say when they break up. Or when they quit their job. Well, not often.

Mostly, people aren’t confrontational. They just want to get away with little fuss. So when people quit they’re prone to forego candor. Instead, they may blame quitting on all kinds of things. Some just walk away without warning. Others sneak away quietly due to some family emergency or other contrived excuse. Anything to avoid a show down.

It’s all just as well. Bluntness wouldn’t likely do any good. And it might hamper the future prospects of the quitter. It’s a no win situation – being candid about why you’re really quitting! Besides, the person you’d have to be candid with about it is the culprit himself – the boss. He’s the reason you’re leaving.

Best to leave in the most gracious way possible by saying as little as possible.

YOU Are The Reason People Are Quitting Their Jobs #4021 - GROW GREAT

Almost 8 years ago Jennifer Robison, Senior Editor of The Gallup Business Journal wrote an article entitled, Turning Around Employee Turnover. The article lists the top 5 predictors of employee turnover.

The Top Five Predictors of Turnover

Work units with high potential for turnover send out warning signals, according to Gallup research, but managers and executives must know where to look:

1. The immediate manager. If employees report that their manager’s expectations are unclear; or that their manager provides inadequate equipment, materials, or resources; or that opportunities for progress and development are few and far between, watch out: Trouble is on the way.

2. Poor fit to the job. Another sign of trouble appears when employees perceive that they don’t have opportunities to do what they do best every day.

3. Coworkers not committed to quality. Watch for employees who perceive that their coworkers are not committed to a high standard of work.

4. Pay and benefits. Engaged employees are far more likely to perceive that they are paid appropriately for the work they do (43%), compared to employees who are disengaged (15%) or actively disengaged (13%). And pay and benefits become a big issue if employees feel that their coworkers aren’t committed to quality; they may feel entitled to extra compensation to make up the difference or to make them feel like they are truly valued by their employer.

5. Connection to the organization or to senior management. Another key sign that turnover may be looming appears when employees don’t feel a connection to the organization’s mission or purpose or its leadership.

Source: Gallup research, including meta-analysis, employee opinion polls, and exit interview studies conducted over the past 30 years

Who cares? So what if people come and go in your company?

YOU should care because there’s a big cost to employee turnover. Again, according to the Gallup article…

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that the U.S. voluntary turnover rate is 23.4% annually. It’s generally estimated that replacing an employee costs a business one-half to five times that employee’s annual salary. So, if 25% of a business’ workforce leaves and the average pay is $35,000, it could cost a 100-person firm between $438,000 and $4 million a year to replace employees.

Still don’t think it matters if Joe walks out? Too many bosses don’t care. They think people are plug ‘n play interchangeable parts. Joe leaves. Jim enters. Jim leaves. Josh enters. Josh leaves. Jill enters. Of course, it all started with Abe. Over the course of three decades the organization is fast approaching the end of the alphabet. Then it all starts over again. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost dollars and productivity to even a small business. Millions of dollars to a larger enterprise.

If you think VC money often goes down the drain – and it does – then you need to consider the high price of human capital. Millions of people are going down the drain every day in organizations all over the world. It’s not because they’re bad people, or unskilled, or unproductive. It’s because they’re working for a jerk and they just can’t stand it any more.

The High Price Of Employee Turnover

How do you make a boss care? You don’t. Truth is, you can’t make a business owner, a CEO or any other boss care about something. You may be able to persuade them why they should care. You may be able to influence them with compelling data, or an engaging story that just might convince them it’s in their best interest to care. But they have to care about people enough to create a culture that fosters superior human performance. Higher human performance should be the priority of every CEO. Should be, but it’s not.

Lower levels executives – even mid-level bosses – can often behave with greater disdain than the disinterested CEO. Disinterested in making sure people are properly trained, coached, encouraged, rewarded and held accountable. Not caring if people leave and not caring why they leave is the mark of a boss who should not be the boss. They’re destructive to their enterprise. No amount of process management proficiency can outweigh the greater rewards of higher human performance. It’s simple math. One boss can destroy the work of everybody who reports to her. She can’t possibly perform alone at a high enough level to outweigh her damage…even if she’s only got a handful direct reports. The more people she has reporting to her, the greater her damage.

The problem seems complex because of how varied we are as humans. One boss tasked with leading some number of other people is outnumbered. Just like the coach of a professional sports team has one personality, style and philosophy is asked to coach up to dozens of players who are all very different. They’re different from the coach, and from each other. So the challenge is figuring out how to best lead the entire group – the whole team – and to also lead each individual player. Quite frequently professional sports has it more right than business. They fire the coach and keep the talent. We tend to let the talent walk away refusing to consider that the boss is the reason. Pro sports views it from a more economical and practical model. It’s easier to replace the boss than it is to replace major chunks of the team (talent). Businesses don’t tend to see it that way. We often choose to diminish the value of the player because we think that enhances our own worth. We’re wrong. Expensively wrong. Stupidly wrong.

Once upon a time I’d try to evangelize every leader who seemed disinterested in his employees. Over time I made adjustments to that strategy. Mostly because I found it futile. Not always, but mostly.

Emerging leaders – those folks flying at lower altitudes, sometimes early in their management careers – often seemed more open-minded to the logic (and heart) of treating people well. Well doesn’t mean easy. Nor does it mean without confrontation or accountability. It means doing the right thing to help people succeed. It means behaving toward employees so they can become the best versions of themselves. I’d dive into a series of questions aimed at discovering the cost (the overall toll) of employee turnover. Oddly enough, I found lower level leaders could more easily see the business reason to put people first than the chief leader, who most often was steeped in a long-held philosophy of not caring so much. If the person at the top had such a strong personality of not caring, then it was sure to be difficult to convince lower level leaders to hold a contrary philosophy. After all, the chief’s direct reports want to please him. Being like him in philosophy and behavior can be a safe career move.

As much as I believe in a skunkwork (a term made famous by Lockheed Martin), there are severe limitations to grass roots works. Most of us use the term to mean some under the radar, secret endeavor or initiative. Sometimes it may be a bottom up sort of thing. As valuable as those may be, they’re ineffective compared to an initiative fostered by the top dog. When the CEO speaks, everybody listens. Lower level folks can scream and shout and still the boss may not hear it. Or care.

Sadly, nothing trumps voting with your feet. That’s why employees working for a jerk quit. Not all of them, of course. Some are trapped. I’m thinking of all the stories I’ve heard throughout my life of single parents who simply need a job — and lost their self-confidence long ago. They’ve been fooled into thinking they have no other options except to endure the bad boss. They stay. Dwarfing their development with every passing day. De-energized by the environment and their boss. But hey, it’s a paycheck. And that’s what they need most.

When a person quits the bad boss says, “Good riddance!” Without hesitation or concern they quickly move on with the philosophy of Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary – “You’re dead to me.”

That’s exactly why they’re losing people. They just don’t care about others. Self-centeredness prevents them from seeing the value of high human performance. It’s all about them. The quitters have forsaken them, betrayed them and created more work for THEM. They see leadership as a position that deserves to be served – not a position that deserves to serve! A stark difference between being the recipient of service or the purveyor of service. Leadership is a position of service. The higher the position, the more powerful the service rendered.

Today, I focus on working with CEOs and top leaders who understand this – and who see the world as I do. It’s more profitable to pass on the philosophy that organizations are best built by using the highest human performance possible. And by finding ways to continue to elevate it. It’s building an A team, then maintaining a culture committed to superior performance. It’s not easy work, but it’s the most profitable way to go. Nothing will elevate an organization’s performance faster, or more, than leveraging the people who do the work. You don’t have to believe me. In episode 4019 I referenced two leaders who operate multi-BILLION dollar businesses. They see people as their greatest asset. That’s what I’m urging you to do, even if it’s contrary to how you’ve been operating.

As always I just hope to provoke you to think about what you do. And why. Re-examine things. As the boss, you’re constantly asking people to improve. All I’m asking is that you devote yourself to the same thing – your own improvement. Stop letting talent run out the door. It’s preventable. It’s up to YOU to stop it because too often, YOU are the reason for their leaving.

Randy

P.S. Here are some articles from this week to provoke further thought:

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You Can’t Offer A Solution Without Asking Questions #4020

Communication, Getting New Customers, Podcast, Serving Existing Customers Better / By Randy Cantrell

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You Can't Offer A Solution Without Asking Questions #4020 - GROW GREAT

Thousands of salespeople have sat across from me throughout my career. Some were very good. Most weren’t. Not because they lacked ability, but most lacked what I valued most while leading a company – somebody who really wanted to help me grow my business.

Self-interest is what drives far too many salespeople – and others, for that matter. What’s in it for me? That’s our collective battle cry. I’m okay with it provided we help the other person get what might best help them first. Mutual benefit should be the objective.

Countless sales executives have entered my office for the first time ever, armed to the teeth with a bag (sometimes literally) of tricks they claimed would solve my problems. It always fascinated me how a complete stranger who had spent no time with me, or my organization could have such a solution. Or how they could even know what my problems might be. Focused entirely on what was in it for them, they began their pitch with all the reasons why this solution was ideal for me. It was left up to me to decipher whether or not they really did have something I could find valuable.

That’s a bad strategy for problem solving – no matter if you’re selling a solution or not. Well, actually, even people on the executive team are selling a solution. They’re trying to persuade the organization to accept their idea. The value of their solution isn’t enhanced with a “let me tell you why this is good for me” tactic.

Never put the burden on the buyer – whether it’s your boss, a client or somebody else – to figure out if you’ve got something valuable or not. Presenting the value as the buyer would see it isn’t the same as deciding if it’s right for them, or robbing them of the opportunity to decide for themselves. But let’s back up before we even get to the part where you present a solution.

First Things First. Ask. Investigate.

As a young salesman I read and heard sales trainers use a term that never felt quite right to me. Probe.

Probing is what we were taught to do to uncover a customer’s needs, possible objections and anything else that might help us figure out an ideal solution. Not that there’s anything wrong with the term, it just wasn’t a favorite word for me. My natural style was always to simply have an engaging conversation where I asked customers questions. It didn’t take me long to learn that if I could ask the right question, I could find out more about the customer’s desire. That elevated my ability to figure out what I might have to help them. Or it helped me learn I may not have anything that would help them.

I would often imagine somebody who requested an appointment just to find out more about our company, or me before knocking my door down with a “here’s exactly what you need” pitch. It never happened. Periodically (not very often), I’d see some sales executive who I thought might be open to hearing such a message, and I’d run the idea past him. Most were just polite, but only a few – very few – appeared genuinely startled at such a novel approach. Startled to the point where I thought they might actually try it.

These were the day of the one-call-close. Nothing has changed. People today are aiming for the one-call-close. We’re all busy. Our prospects are busy. We think, “We’ve only got one shot.” That’s not true though. And if it is true, then I want to challenge you to do something more valuable with that one shot.

Serve.

You can stand out more by not putting your need to make a sale – that includes you executives who are trying to sell your boss on your idea – at the forefront. Instead, try to gain a clearer understanding of the problem. You can substitute pain, desire, want, need or anything else in the place of the word “problem.” Find the word that best fits your situation.

Every single day I’m talking with CEOs. From very small companies to enormous companies. And I always discover the same thing with any of them willing to talk to me – and most of them are willing. Here’s the simple, but service oriented strategy (which isn’t so much a strategy as it’s simply how I naturally operate):

I spend a few minutes (1-2) telling them why I’m reaching out to them. Don’t play some bait and switch game with your prospects (especially your boss). Be candid. Tell people why you’re wanting to hear their story – why you’d like to ask them questions. It’s not an interrogation. It’s a conversation. Don’t make it a grill session.
I then simply ask them to tell me their story. And I shut up. Most open up quickly – evidence they’re not asked this question nearly often enough. We all care about our story. Most of us wish somebody cared enough to ask us about ours. I do care enough. I’m fascinated by the stories I hear. Most days I hear more than one really compelling story. Amazing what you learn simply by asking.
Then I briefly tell them the truth. Sometimes what I do – or anything I might offer – isn’t a good fit for me. That means it won’t be a good fit for them. Other times, I’m not sure. But it’s not up to me to make the call when I don’t know on my end. If I’m thinking, “This may be something valuable for him, but I’m not sure” — then I’ll tell them that. I don’t try to make the decision for them. They need to make the call.
It leads to more conversation or it doesn’t. Either way, I’m good with that and I’m convinced so are they. We both win regardless of the outcome.

I don’t want to sell. And I don’t think selling or sales is a dirty work. I just don’t want to do what most people think of when they think of selling. They think of talking people into things. Manipulation. That’s not what sales is. It is persuasion and influence – which we all want to incorporate into our communication when we know we’ve got something of value…something that can help others. Mostly, it’s giving people an opportunity to solve their problem (remedy the pain, gain some pleasure, get a solution, etc.).

No Agenda Except To Give Others An Opportunity. And Give Yourself An Opportunity To Serve.

Put first things first. Put your prospect (yes, that means your boss, or perhaps a co-worker, or anybody else you’re trying to serve) first. Listen to them. Better yet, express interest in learning as much as you can about what they think, how they feel and what they want or need. Ask. Listen. Pay attention.

People are searching for solutions. Many are staring into space right this minute, wishing somebody would arrive into their life to help them. What if you could be that person? Why can’t you be that person?

My headline isn’t completely true. You can offer a solution without asking a question. You can offer a solution without even listening to the other person. It will be a terrible experience for you – and the person you’re hoping to sell. But you can keep doing it. And keep enjoying a life of disinterested people. They’re disinterested in your solution because you’re disinterested in them.

You reap what you sow.

Randy.Black

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Lip Service, Customer Service & Employee Happiness (People Determine Your Profits) #4019

Books, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:58 — 27.8MB)

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Lip Service, Customer Service & Employee Happiness (People Determine Your Profits) #4019 - GROW GREAT

In the summer of 1998 one of my all-time favorite sales gurus, Jeffrey Gitomer, published a book that would become my chief “most gifted” book – Customer Satisfaction Is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless: How to Make Customers Love You, Keep Them Coming Back and Tell Everyone They Know. I’ve given that book to employees, friends, business owners, CEOs and even people with no real business element in their life. It’s a book about and for fanatics – or those who need to become fanatical about service. I had encountered Gitomer sometime earlier – I don’t remember where – and I was already a fan by the time the Business Journals around the country picked up his column on selling.

Gitomer-Satisfaction Hard to believe a southern boy fell for a guy from Philly, but I did. Gitomer was blunt, candid and delivered his message with a passion I felt was long-overdue. From my earliest days I saw the benefit and long-term value of not being transactional. Customer happiness was always my focus, even as a teenager selling stereo gear. Why would any sales guy or business owner be okay with customers who just felt “okay” about their purchase or their service? Made no sense to me.

What did make sense was Gitomer evangelical passion and candor. Twenty years ago – as now – businesses continued to market how much they cared about their customers. Few walked the walk. That’s still true. It’s common to see salespeople and business people grab the money. And run.

Earlier in the 90’s – years before Gitomer’s book – a couple of authors wrote another book I had fallen in love with – The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch ’em Kick Butt by Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters. At the time it was quite a remarkable message. Love your employees before you love your customers because the employees are the ones serving the customer. Again, I had intuitively believed that and been mostly attracted to companies who behaved that way. It helped that Mr. Rosenbluth ran a high growth company that wound up topping revenues of $6B (that’s BILLION) before selling to American Express. How could a guy like that get it wrong? Well, he didn’t get it wrong. Others do.

This clearly was a time of enlightenment for me as a business guy because somewhere during this time I became aware of a man who appeared to be the epitome of a nice guy, Jim Goodnight. He ran a little enterprise in North Carolina called SAS. Talk about fanaticism. Goodnight was fanatical about making SAS the best place on the planet for employees. The Internet had yet to be born. Silicon Valley startups wouldn’t happen for many years. Goodnight put employees on a pedestal and provided services for them that made other business owners cringe. Even then employers were searching diligently for ways to reduce overhead in the way of employee benefits. Instead, Goodnight was searching for ways to provide more benefits that would enhance the lives of his employees. He fascinated me. And made me want to be more like him albeit on a much smaller scale. Goodnight’s SAS blew past the $3B (that’s BILLION) mark last year.

Why do business owners and CEOs still not get it?

I’ve only reached one conclusion. It’s because most are too short-sighted. Yes, some just don’t see people as valuable as they should. They figured humans are like generic parts, interchangeable. One is as good as another. If you lose one, no big deal. Let’s just plug another in place. But even those who believe people are valuable has set limits on that value. I mean, after all, the benefits packages have to be reduced by 25% this year no matter what. It’s easy to say people matter, but it’s very different to make the investment to prove it.

Even privately held companies are under constant pressure to exceed last month’s numbers. Group think kicks in because we’re all reading Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company and Inc. Innovation. Creativity. Blah, blah, blah. We read about it, give it a few seconds of thought then we go back to the reality that it has little to do with our life and our business. We’ve got to get sales up. And costs down. It’s the ying and yang of business building that mostly lures all of us. Along the way, we can easily forget the impact on our people — and our customers. We grab today’s dollars because we’re unable to see the five dollar bills we might be able to garner next month. A bird in the hand and all that.

It’s understandable. Well, sorta.

I’ve sat with too many CEOs who lamented about an employee’s performance – a key employee – who performed well until a bit more pressure was applied (intentional or not), proving they couldn’t quite hold up. We’re no different. Apply enough pressure on us to grow that top line, or the bottom line…and we’ll be likely to grab the dollar in front of us. I don’t make harsh judgments about leaders who grow short-sighted, even if I don’t always agree with that strategy.

It was in the early 80’s when I first wrote down and began preaching what I called “non-negotiable standards.” I was involved in turning around a company that was just a few years old, but quickly the inventory had grown obsolete, the people disenchanted and the systems non-existent. Two things ruled all my early actions: cleaning up the company (physically) and establishing non-negotiable standards. I wasted no time telling people what that meant – “non-negotiable standards.” It means things you must do or refrain from doing else you’ll put your job at risk. Now before you think, “Man, how heavy handed” — tap the brakes.

It was fair. Candid, but fair. I wanted employees to own their behavior and performance. That hadn’t been happening. People were lackluster, lethargic and apathetic. Many of them didn’t last. I don’t doubt their goodness as people, but the culture had betrayed them. They had grown accustomed to the pathetic environment. Good performance happens at the hands of good performers. Good performers need fostering, training, encouragement and rewards. In short, they need standards to meet.

Quickly I learned that the good performers who survived had long been frustrated by the unfairness of busting their humps while the slackards sat around without accountability. They embraced the changes and soared. I’ve since seen it happened many times.

Talk is cheap.

I’ve not yet met the CEO or business owner who openly admits, “I don’t much care about my people. They’re all replaceable.” Instead, most of us – okay, all of us – give it lip service. Yes, some of us back up that talk, but many of us don’t. Some of us wish we could or would back it up. Others of us don’t much care, we just want to be polite and politically correct. A few of us are bullies who honestly don’t care about people. They’re a necessary evil and they vex our existence as leaders. Those are the folks I call “managers.” They’re not leaders. Honestly, they may not be very good managers (that is, people who oversee systems, processes and operations).

We lead people. We manage the work.

That’s my view. You may not share it. It’s okay. You can be wrong. 😉

I could write volumes of books on the horror stories I’ve heard about bosses who behave badly and who treat people even worse. You could likely be a contributing author. We’ve all got tons of these stories. But the behavior still persists.

I cringe every week because every week I hear multiple stories of bad boss behavior. Yelling, screaming, threatening – they’re just too commonplace in some workplaces. Grown people treated like pre-school children. Workers being humiliated. Supervisors and bosses feeling good about themselves by making sure the staff knows who is in charge. Like medieval fire breathing dragons, they roam the office just waiting for a white knight armed to the teeth to cut their head off. Unfortunately for many employees, no such knight ever arrives. Eventually, human indignities realize their limits, and people quit.

No big loss. Hire somebody else.

How much does it cost to hire or replace an employee in your company?

Most don’t know. They’ve never taken the time to compute the lost time, lost productivity, lost revenue or any other losses associated with a good employee walking (or sprinting) away. Sometimes it’s because the profits and revenues are high enough, it doesn’t much matter. That’s really shallow thinking. A business earning strong double digit net profits doesn’t seem bothered because they’re fat and happy. Unproductive perhaps, but fat and happy none the less. If an owner is banking $1M…it can be a daunting task to show him how a shift in his culture might result in a $1.25M income.

I live in the Land Of What’s Possible. What if?

What if we really embraced finding, training and retaining top talent? What if we pushed our chips into the middle of the table to build in some consistency and longevity among our employees? What if we actually put our employees first – above our customers? How would all that impact the customer experience?

Unfortunately many businesses will never find out. They’ll churn through people never figuring it out. They won’t calculate the cost – human cost or business cost.

Some will go out of business. The odds of failure in business are still staggering.

Others will survive in spite of themselves. They’ll never realize their full potential, but they don’t care. Enough. If they did, they’d find another way.

Books and articles about leadership may help shift a collective culture, but then again there’s Steve Jobs. Tyrants get worshipped. Some buy into the notion that you must be an insufferable maniac to succeed. Rather than try to persuade people otherwise, long ago I just decided to urge people working for such people – or people working in dysfunctional organizations – to find new opportunities. Get gone. Sooner than later. Protect yourself. Guard your heart and your own passion for doing good work. Life is way too short to work for a tyrant.

I wish I could impact the bigger picture, but I’m not naive about my own reach. Instead, I think it best to soar with my strengths as Donald O. Clifton wrote (the father of StrengthsFinder). I’m committed to serving leaders who already know the truth of profit generation and business building. People make THE difference. It’s not lip service. It’s not some better-felt-than-told philosophy. It’s a working culture that daily is willing to be tested to prove itself. Owners and CEOs who refuse to give an inch to behave otherwise. They remain committed to doing the right thing all the time, no matter what.

That kind of leadership resolve is rare, but it exists. Just today I had a nice conversation with a CEO who shared his story with me proving that his talk was anything but cheap. Big customer, little customer. They’re all the same to him – deserving of a great experience. He’s in the real estate game. He’s got a good sized team. Back last summer he recounted how he had to part company with an employee who simply didn’t understand that the CEOs “non-negotiable standards” are indeed NON-NEGOTIABLE. Grabbing the money – even for the firm – violated the principles and culture established by this high integrity CEO. He put his money where his mouth was. He acted, not based on financial gain, but on doing what was right. Why? Because he understands how big he’s going to win over the longer haul.

If business guys who achieved $3B and $6B respectively don’t convince you to value people, then I’m certainly not successful enough (financially) to persuade you.

Randy

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Managing The Energy Of The Workplace #4018

Leadership, On Being Extraordinary, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:11 — 27.1MB)

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Managing The Energy Of The Workplace #4018 - GROW GREAT Podcast

If this is your first foray into BulaNetwork.com or the Grow Great podcast – it’s important that you know my world-view and philosophy of leadership. People matter! I don’t mean in some lip-service way. I mean people really do matter. They make all the difference. For good. Or bad.

Let me bullet-point it for you so it’ll be easier and faster:

People mostly want to get up in the morning energized to do good work.
If given the opportunity, most people would prefer to make a positive difference.
People crave a positive sense of accomplishment.
We manage the work. We lead people.
People deserve great leadership.
Great leadership serves the people by always doing the right thing.
Always be honest, be competent, give more and make it right.

Those are the basics of who and what I am. Everything I do reflects these important things. So that’s my bias – if you care to call it that. It’s my perspective and it may help you better understand today’s show, and all the content you can find at GrowGreat.com (which by the way was once branded HigherHumanPerformance.com – I still like that and you can enter that into your browser and arrive at the same place; growing great is very much still focused on helping people in the quest for higher human performance).

The-Energy-Bus-Book Some months ago I began to really focus on my own energy. At first I didn’t use the word, energy. I wasn’t sure how to quantify what I was feeling, but one day that word arrived by way of a book my daughter loaned me, The Energy Bus. I still haven’t read it, but when she handed it to me I instantly had THE word to attach to what I was feeling and thinking. Energy.

Our Work Hinges On How Well We Manage Our Energy

By “work” I mean our performance. I don’t mean just movement, or action. I mean getting things done that move our enterprises forward.

Let’s back up to that first bullet-point – People mostly want to get up in the morning energized to do good work. That’s important because this is where so many companies get it wrong.

If people – this includes US – want to get up in the morning energized to do good work, then they have to fully understand how their work fits. They have to know and understand that their work matters. They have to see their work in the context of the bigger picture. In short, they must see the value of their work.

Motivation is the energy we each bring with us to do the work. Inspiration is what leaders (or others) can supply to encourage us. Both can flag and waver if we’re not careful. Of the two, motivation is the longer-term value. You know this every time to attend a seminar or conference that you find valuable. You get jacked up and excited sitting in that hotel ballroom listening to this keynote speaker. Then Tuesday morning happens and that inspiration is gone. Poof. Vanished. And it was just 2 days ago you felt like you could conquer the world. Such is the nature of inspiration, even world-class inspiration.

Motivation on the other hand is driven by many things. Among them the reasons you’re doing what you’re doing. You’re supporting your family. You’ve got other things that matter to you – things that drive you work hard, and well. Mostly, those don’t vanish. Poor health or some calamity in life can create a hiccup, making your motivation (energy) waver, but hopefully you battle back. Everybody faces challenges. How well we navigate those challenges determines how successful we are – and how valued we are at work.

It’s all about energy management. I used the pronoun “we” – our work hinges on how well WE manage our energy – because too many people want to surrender ownership. Some are even deluded to think other people do indeed possess control of their energy. Nobody holds the key to your energy except YOU. You’re driving your own energy bus. If you refuse to drive, then that’s on you.

Leaders Impact Energy

For starters, leaders have the task of incorporating people into the enterprise. That means onboarding new people. Onboarding is that official HR term. I don’t like it, but it helps you know what I mean. I hate it because it’s too impersonal. And maybe it sounds too close to waterboarding. 😉

Simply put, it’s the task of making people feel at home in a new company or a new role. It’s supplying people with the information and resources they need in order to soar. Leadership must make sure people clearly see and understand how their work impacts the overall success of the enterprise. Equally important, they must understand what success looks like. How will their performance be judged? How will they know if they’re succeeding or not? That’s the job of leadership to make sure all those answers are promptly provided BEFORE the person begins the actual work.

I know, lots of us fail right there. Well, today’s the day to stop failing at this critical beginning. If you’ve got people on your roster who were never properly integrated into their role, then go back and get that done today. Sit down with them and apologizing for failing them. You can’t neglect doing this work. Assume that time will fix it, and you’ll be making an enormous mistake. The only thing time will bring you is entropy and slippage. Things will surely grow worse, not better. It’s the leader’s job to intervene and stop entropy. You do that by being proactive and making sure people have all they need so they can achieve success.

If leaders don’t do that, then I don’t know why leaders are even needed? Serving the people is THE reason for leaders to even exist. It’s not about being large and in charge. It’s about being in a position to do things necessary to get the crap out of the way so people can do the best work possible. Authority of leadership enables those roadblocks and speed bumps to be removed. Get busy removing the first one – a lack of understanding about why the person is even in the company and why their work (their performance) matters. Make sure every single person in your organization – from the highest on the food chain to the lowest – sees how their work impacts the whole. Don’t end your meeting with the employee until it’s clear they see how they matter, and how they fit. And remember to make sure they know how to tell if they’re succeeding or not.

Sometimes people are succeeding, but they feel like they’re failing. That’s leadership’s responsibility (and fault). It’s a morale killer. Few things will disrupt your workforce more than people who don’t see the importance of their role, their contribution — and people who just never seem to know if they’re doing well, or poorly. Give them clear vision.

Candor.

It’s one of my all-time favorite leadership words. Some people mistake it for embracing conflict. That’s narrow-minded. Candor is honesty. It’s not unkind, or brutal. It’s not conflict oriented. Mostly, it’s prompt, candid conversation designed to help clarify, inform, instruct, correct — and perform other positive communication outcomes. Let me illustrate.

True story. A worker with a disgruntled, toxic attitude and communication is already on a PIP (performance improvement plan). She’s been reprimanded and her poor behavior has been clearly outlined along with recommendations on the actions she can take to turn things around. It’s about 20 days into the plan she leaves the office at quitting time. Earlier in the day the staff was informed of a scheduled inventory, planned in 3 weeks. Plenty of time for people to make adjustments to their personal schedules. It’s going to require team members to work an additional 2 to 4 hours, depending on their department and role. These are ordinary, regular affairs that everybody understands are just part of the company’s operations. Our PIP employee lobs a verbal grenade on her way out the door, “It’s ridiculous to drop that on us today.” As she’s existing the door, the boss hears it. She’s still in the doorway when he firmly, but politely says, “Gayle (no, that’s not her name), can I have a quick moment, please?”

Gayle joins the boss as they walk together back to his office. You’re seeing candor in action. It’s prompt. He’s not going to let her leave the building without addressing this action.

Keep in mind, Gayle is already on a PIP. Her job is at risk. Her behavior have impacted others in her office. Negatively. The PIP was designed to help her turn things around because her work – technically speaking – it good. She knows her job and does it well. However, she’s an ongoing distraction to the rest of the team and her constant complaining creates a tension that negatively impacts the whole group. She’s been told that and part of the PIP involves ongoing help, support and feedback. Sadly, for the boss, he’s discouraged now because for the past 20 days or so she’s done better. He’s told her so and he’s encouraged her to keep it up. Now, he’s feeling like she’s taking a major step backwards.

He asks her to sit down at the conference table in his office, where he joins her. “I don’t want to keep you long, Gayle, but I heard your remark and I can’t ignore it,” he begins. “Gayle, do you fully understand – I mean, really understand – how your work impacts our organization?”

“Yes, sir, I think so,” she says. “And I’m sorry for spouting off about the inventory schedule.”

“Gayle, I want to make sure I’m serving you well by helping you every way I can,” he continues. “Part of that is making sure you see the big picture and where you fit in it.”

“I think I do, sir. We’ve talked about that in the past, ” says Gayle.

“Then help me understand why you felt compelled to make that remark as you exited the building?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I just don’t like doing inventory,” she replied.

On and on it goes for another 5 minutes or so. The boss tells her that he’s not going to tolerate her poor behavior because it’s not profitable for her, or anybody else on the team. He encourages her by telling her that she’s capable of doing high performing work. And because others look to her, she’s got a responsibility to lead, too. He’s firm, fair and kind. She’s appropriately ashamed and apologizes. She also assures him she’s going to work harder on curbing her bad habits. He makes sure she knows her future is in her own hands. From start to finish, it took about 8 minutes.

Did it involves a bit of conflict? Sure. Was it prompt? Absolutely. Real time feedback is the trademark of true candor. Was it appropriate and respectful? Yes. There’s no other way it should roll. Did it have the impact? It seemed to, but time will tell. The leader isn’t fully in charge of the response. Gayle is. It’s now up to her to do better work.

Leaders often ignore and avoid candor. Or they behave badly themselves. The boss could have yelled and screamed. He could have belittled Gayle. He could have ripped her up one side, down the other and felt better about himself. But none of those things would have served Gayle, or the company. They would have all been selfish acts. And they would have all robbed Gayle of energy while maybe giving the boss more. But that’s poor energy management. And bad leadership.

So What Can Leaders Do To Positively Impact Energy?

Begin at the beginning. When employees join the company, or assume a new role, spend time “onboarding” them. Scrutinize your onboarding process. Make it spectacular. Do not skip this step. Don’t get it wrong. It’s the foundation of everything else. Make sure the employee understands how valuable their work is, and how important it is to the overall organization. The object is to: a) make the employee feel and know they’re valued, b) make sure they understand they’ve got all the resources and help to be high performers, c) insure they understand what success looks like and d) make sure they know how they and their work fit the rest of the big puzzle that is the company. If you fail at any one of those, then go back and re-engineer your onboarding process.
All acts of management and leadership must be congruent with the beginning. You’re going to have to commit to remaining true to all those onboarding messages. Remember, we manage the work. We lead the people. While the example with Gayle demonstrates the negative impact of a poor attitude, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to serve a person with a poor attitude. And it’s made worse when the person is like Gayle – they’re doing good work themselves. The boss put her on a PIP not because of the quality of her work, but because of the negative impact she was having on others within her team. Two exit interviews with previous employees had revealed Gayle was a major factor in their leaving. She constantly complained and griped about perceived injustices done to her. The leadership had specific, distinct issues that needed to be addressed with her. It wasn’t an opinion-based PIP. That wouldn’t have worked. The only way for management and leadership to be congruent with the beginning is to make sure feedback is objective, quantifiable and susceptible to specific recommendations for correction, or improvement.
Work is done by people. Always treat people with respect. Firm doesn’t mean unkind. Or heavy-handed. Great leaders calculate the most appropriate response to good and poor performance. The goal is to always improve. Growth is the objective. Keep the objectives in mind. It’s never about YOU. It’s not about you showing off your authority. You must make it about serving the employee to do better work.
Listen. Pay attention. Don’t jump to conclusions. Few things will more quickly improve your leadership than shutting your mouth and opening your eyes and ears. Watch any episode of Undercover Boss and you’ll quickly see it in action. I’m always fascinated at a CEO or other C-level officer who goes undercover. They’re not doing any high tech surveillance or hardcore data crunching. They’re out among the troops. Working side by side, watching, listening and paying attention. No spreadsheets. No analysis, other than the human kind that involves listening, watching and talking. Human connections result in learning where the warts are. Sometimes those warts are years and years old. They were visible the whole time. The CEO was just too distracted, too focused on things that didn’t matter to notice. Now, she sees them. Back to the C-suite to make the changes that should have been made long ago — if only she had known. Gather information. Get it from the lowest level possible. Keep your eyes open. And listen. Refrain from making judgments until you’ve got sufficient evidence upon which to base a good (wise) decision.
Be reactive. Everybody tells you how urgent it is for you to be proactive. Forget that. It’s way more important for you to be reactive. Faster! Don’t waste your time trying to be proactive. Instead, get faster – way faster – about reacting to the market and the performance of your people. Adjust quicker than you ever have before. Make speed your competitive edge. And I don’t mean knee-jerk. I mean thoughtful, but intentional. You can get fast and still be thoughtful and intentional. You do it at home all the time. Your husband or wife gets upset and you react. You work through it. Or, you stew about it. Stewing doesn’t work at home, or work. Act. Today. Now. Base it on the best evidence you can gather. Start taking more shots than you’ve ever taken before. It doesn’t mean you don’t take aim. Do that, too.

I’m sure there are other things you can add to create your own list. Do it. Figure it out. Embrace the people who make you look good. Serve them. Well.

Maybe you’ll find some inspiration in my personal business philosophy. You can apply it to management and leadership.

Always

Now, go to work. Today. Right now. Put some high energy into your workplace! And into your own life, too.

Randy

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