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Back in episode 318 we talked about the first basic ingredient of leadership according to famed leadership expert Warren Bennis – GUIDING VISION. Let’s kick this week off with a brief discussion on the other ingredients Mr. Bennis found foundational to effective leadership.

1. Guiding Vision (see episode 318)
2. Passion – Bennis felt this was next because without it a leader may find it tough to get people on his side. All that engagement and empowerment stuff. He defined the areas of passion as passion for the promises of life, coupled with a specific passion for a vocation, a profession and a course of action. In other words, a leader needs to be passionate about those things associated with her leadership. In short, the leader loves what he does and what he’s doing. This passion helps leaders communicate hope and inspiration.
3. Integrity – Bennis felt there were 3 essential parts to integrity: self-knowledge, candor and maturity. Self-knowledge (self-awareness) is tough, but we all need to put in the work to truly know ourselves. Get in touch with your strengths and weaknesses, know what you want to do and why you want to do it. Your success hinges on it. Great leaders never lie to themselves. Especially about themselves. Candor is a key to self-knowledge. Candor is honesty in thought and action. It’s uncompromising. Maturity is necessary because leading isn’t merely showing people the way or telling people what to do. It’s the experience we gain as we learn to be dedicated, cooperative and collaborative. Bennis also mentions that integrity is the basis of trust. Trust isn’t an ingredient, according to him, but it’s a product of leadership. It has to be earned.
4. Curiosity and Daring – the last two ingredients of leadership according to Bennis fuel the leader. These ingredients help prevent leaders from fearing failure – at least to the point of paralysis. Leaders learn from adversity and going into the unknown. The strong desire to learn as much as possible and the willingness to take risks by experimenting – these are necessary for effective leadership.

Great leaders are built or made. They’re not born. Many of these ingredients aren’t natural, but they can all be acquired. Wrote Bennis:

Leaders invent themselves. They are not, by the way, made in a single weekend seminar, as many of the leadership-theory spokemen claim. I’ve come to think of that one as the microwave theory: pop in Mr. or Ms. Average and out pops McLeader in sixty seconds.

The balance between feeling and thought is important. Both are required if we’re going to improve our understanding.

Bennis thought the difference between leaders and managers were as the differences between those who master the context and those who surrender to it. But he pointed out other differences, too.

• The manager administers while the leader innovates.
• The manager is a copy while the leader is an original.
• The manager maintains while the leader develops.
• The manager focuses on systems and structure while the leader focuses on people.
• The manager relies on control, but the leader inspires trust.
• The manager has a short-range view, but the leader has a long-range perspective.
• The manager asks how and when, while the leader asks what and why.
• The manager has his eye always on the bottom line, but the leader is watching the horizon.
• The manager imitates, but the leader originates.
• The manager accepts the status quo while the leader challenges it.
• The manager is the classic good soldier, but the leader is his own person.
• The manager does things right while the leader does the right thing.

Wrote Bennis:

To reprise Wallace Stevens (a Pulitzer prize-winning poet who was also a businessman and attorney), managers wear square hats and learn through training. Leaders wear sombreros and opt for education.

Our schools are pretty good at training. They’re dreadful at educating. Training is great for dogs. Not so great for humans. Perhaps that explains why there is such a gap in leadership.

Leaders work on themselves. Bennis felt the paradox of promotion was that leaders rise in spite of their weaknesses, but managers rise because of theirs.

We are our own raw material. We have to know what we’re made of and what we want to make of ourselves. It’s foundational to becoming a better leader.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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True confession: I’m not a baseball fan. I only watch it when the league championship finals begin. But I recently heard a radio interview with the manager of the Texas Rangers, Chris “Woody” Woodward. While answering a question about what being a first-year major league manager he uttered that quote.

You have to understand why you’re winning and why you’re losing.

He went on to reiterate the importance of a major league baseball team to know why what they’re doing is providing whatever result they happen to be experiencing at the moment. Baseball, because of the sheer number of games played,  can throw teams into slumps and winning streaks. Woody wants his team to understand why it’s happening.

The interviewers didn’t do what I had hoped. They neglected to probe further. I was curious to know more. Maybe it’s because I’m not a baseball guy. Perhaps baseball fans just understand things I don’t. But it didn’t make me think about our world of business.

Business, like baseball, is a long season (well, we sure hope it is). We’ve all experienced slumps. Hopefully, we’ve also experienced some winning streaks to offset those. I’m not sure we always understand why. Maybe business is so dramatically different from baseball – I suspect that’s the case.

Take advertising. A company can create an ad campaign that spikes sales. It seems to be working as expected. But in time, it stops working. Why?

Advertising seems to be THE big variable that’s awfully hard to understand. It’s why that old quote from John Wanamaker is so true.

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

I’ve never managed a baseball team, but I’ve managed businesses for decades. Understanding is difficult. Sometimes it’s tough to know why you’re winning. Harder still to know why you’re losing.

There are days when we’re like Nelson. It feels like we’re staring at Makes No Sense, Inc. and have no clues.

What can we do? I can’t promise that you’ll always figure it out and understand, but you ought to try. It’s learning and it’s necessary for growth.

Step 1 – Don’t ignore trying to understand success.

In our quest to understand why we’re winning or why we’re losing it’s easy to focus on the losing, not the winning. That’s why it’s more commonplace for companies to devote time to blaming people, but they neglect celebrations. It’s like the parent who ignores A’s on the kid’s report card but pitches a wild-eyed fit when a C comes home.

Donald O. Clifton is the father of Strengthsfinder. He wrote a book many years ago – the precursor to the Strengthsfinder work – entitled, “Soar With Your Strengths.” I devoured the book when it was first published. It made total sense to me, especially as a parent and a leader. Why try to make yourself or others something they’re not. Instead, lead with your strengths. Improve what you’re already good at. In a similar fashion, don’t ignore dissecting success. Figure out why things are working well so you can do more of it.

Step 2 – Ask others.

I’m still trying to figure out why this is so difficult. Especially when it comes to learning and understanding. People slightly older to much older than me have always been the chief folks I’ve looked to for understanding. I want to know what they may be able to teach me. I’ve never found it difficult to learn from older people – especially men (since I’m a man) with whom I’ve invested time to forge a trusting relationship. A small circle of men has helped me navigate the choppiest waters of my life. I can’t imagine going it alone. I’m encouraging you not to.

Others have helped me eliminate blind spots I didn’t even know I had. They’ve prevented me from being stagnant in my understanding of a variety of things. Others can do the same thing for you.

No matter how smart you are, you’re not THAT smart. Nobody is. You’re not smart enough to consider or see everything. And you’re not smart enough to always understand why something is working well or why something else isn’t working at all. You need the perspective of others. If you don’t seek it out and listen, you’re the bigger fool.

Step 3 – Look for patterns.

Life is patterns. Success and failure both have their own patterns. As you’d imagine, they’re not the same. Patterns of success don’t look like the patterns of failure.

When you’re looking to understand why something is working you’re going to see – if you look long enough and closely enough – patterns emerge. One thing leads to something else, which leads to a thing that seems to make a positive difference. The same thing happens with failure…a chain of events will lead to something that seems to throw the wheels off wrecking success.

If you’ll devote time to looking for and at patterns, you’ll see them. It takes practice. That’s why you need to practice it.

The problem is connecting dots that may not be connected. That makes pattern recognition difficult. It’s another reason why step 2 is so important – asking others. You may see a pattern that isn’t a pattern at all. Others can help you see whether it’s a pattern or not.

Step 4 – Question what you connect. Put it on trial and find out what changed.

Again, others can help you best do this. Am I seeing a pattern? Am I connecting dots that truly are connected?

A big part of this step is to figure out what has changed. This is especially helpful when we’re just finding success or when success is beginning to fail. What changed?

As we examine what patterns we’re likely going to spot something that is now different. Maybe it’s big. Maybe it’s subtle.

A business begins to experience a drop in profit margins. They dive into to figure out why. Nothing leaps out at them at first because the top line numbers seem appropriate. It’s not like there’s been some sudden rash of discounts offered. Something changed? What?

Turns out two big accounts slowed down. Just slightly. But that prompted something that wasn’t looked at too carefully at first. The travel and entertainment budgets for these two accounts shot up dramatically driving costs higher. Fearful that the downturn might keep going south sales management pushed more chips into the middle of the table to woo these two big accounts. It wasn’t working. At least, not yet. But it ruined the margins companywide.

Something indeed had changed. You need to find out what changed. For good. Or bad.

Step 5 – Keep asking questions and keep seeking insights from others.

Don’t make this a one-off exercise. Keep it going.

Become a professional business autopsy expert inside your own business. Develop, maintain and grow your curiosity about what causes success and failure. It provides the answers you most seek. It provides guidance so you know what to do. Otherwise, you’re just taking a blind stab in the dark. Much better to see what you’re aiming at. So be thoughtful, mindful, intentional and purposeful. That’ll help you shorten the losing streaks and lengthen the winning ones.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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Warren Bennis, the brilliant, but reluctant expert on leadership believed a guiding vision was the first ingredient of leadership. Leaders need to have a clear vision of what they want to do. They also have to possess the determination and resolve to persist through setbacks, even failures.

Where are you going?

Personally and professionally?

It makes sense that nothing else comes before a guiding vision. Guiding indicates it’s a direction with a plan. It’s not merely wishful thinking. There’s a purpose and intent behind the vision.

Great leaders see the future first.

What do YOU see? How are you helping your organization see what you see?

Let’s break down a few things that may help.

Step 1 – Don’t assume people can read your mind.

It’s far too common for a leader to become frustrated with people because they don’t know what she’s thinking. We’re living with our thoughts 24/7. Surely we’ve expressed all these thoughts – especially thoughts about where we’re heading. Hold on. Check yourself.

People are working hard to read you. At times, they’re mostly getting it wrong.

You don’t realize it, but you’ve got a scowl. It’s nothing more than a dull headache coming on and inside you’re thinking, “I do not need a headache right now.”

People think you’re displeased with them. One employee even thinks you disapprove of what she’s wearing. So it goes with how people can often MIS-read you.

You must communicate without relying on your ESP.

Step 2 – Have a system of communication.

You can leave things to chance, but as you’d imagine — it’s very risky. Don’t leave your communication to pure chance.

This isn’t about managing the narrative or spin. I’m hoping you operate in a no spin fashion where you can be candid with people. Especially when it comes to the guiding vision you’re sharing.

What’s the process for sharing information? What’s your preferred method of communication?

Every organization has a favorite way of distributing communication. Mostly, it stems from YOU, the leader. The entire organization will follow your lead by watching how you prefer to communicate.

If you prefer email, then it’s highly likely you’ve got an email focused culture. I’d bet most information in your company is shared via email because the organization has figured out it’s your preference.

So which is it? What’s your preferred way to communicate inside your company?

Electronic? Small group meetings? Companywide meetings? Formal? Informal?

Figure this out and then figure out if you’d like to change it. It may not be working as well as you’d like. Maybe you’d like to change it. Then do it.

But have a system.

I’ve found guiding vision conversations were best done with my leadership team first, then distributed companywide in an in-person meeting with hard copy communication to back it up. That was my preference. You need to know your preference.

Step 3 – Once is not enough.

Never assume that one communication is enough. Some will get it very quickly. Others won’t. You don’t want to leave anybody in the dark.

It’s up to you to make sure that the message is received and understood. You need to repeat a consistent message about your guiding vision.

We attend worship services and hear preaching each time. The Gospel Story is ancient. The church was established in AD33. The message is preached consistently service after service to make sure it penetrates our minds and lives. To instruct old heads like me and young heads like my grandchildren. Once isn’t enough.

You should be the Chief Evangelist inside your company. Preach the vision you see. It’ll help everybody understand it and it will cement in the minds of your team that you mean it.

Step 4 – Make every objective congruent with your guiding vision.

Your guiding vision can’t be one thing and all your short-term objectives something completely disassociated with it.

“We’re here to make lives better” sounds great except when employees feel you do nothing but make their lives miserable. Don’t be dishonest. Be real. Be congruent.

Step 5 – Provide feedback.

Guiding visions can be violated. We don’t always hit the mark. It’s important that the troops know when you’re hitting the mark so they can be encouraged to do it more often, and better. It’s just as important they know when you fail to hit the mark. Sometimes personal ownership might be required.

I’ve stood in front of people and apologized for my own failure to hit the mark. The guiding vision should be like true north. Violations have to be acknowledged. Corrections must be made. And good or great adherences to the guiding vision should be properly celebrated.

Are you putting out fires and killing rats? Not paying much attention to a guiding vision? Then you’re attempting to leapfrog the first essential ingredient to effective leadership. Go back to home base, don’t collect $200 and get it right. 😉

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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Transformative change. It’s been a popular business phrase for a very long time. Transformative means…

causing a marked change in someone or something

I guess folks mean something substantial. Something that sticks and has a big impact.

One reason this podcast is entitled Grow Great is that I view growth as the goal. Maybe it stems from my early career in the consumer electronics business when Japan ruled the day. Constant improvement was the popular business banter. The Japanese call it Kaizen. Pure and simple – it’s figuring it out and growing all along the way. Getting better every day.

People want to be part of something bigger. Something monumental. Something challenging.

We want a cause. Some of us crave it more than others, but I’ve never encountered a high-achiever or an aspiring high-achiever who didn’t fully embrace joining a movement, a cause.

That’s why when I first read of a man from Springfield, Missouri who opened the books of a new company in 1983 resonated with me. A decade later, in 1993, John Case of Inc. magazine was credited with coining the phrase, open-book management. But Jack Stack and SRC Holdings created it. In 1992 Stack wrote the book, The Great Game Of Business.

Jack was running a plant for International Harvester when word came down, “we’re closing your plant.” Stunned, thinking they’d been doing good work, Stack dove into finding out what went wrong. How can our plant close when we’re doing what’s asked of us? He taught himself by asking great questions. He learned about business and along the way, grew a resolve to buy the plant and keep it going. Rejected time and time again for loans he and 13 employees cobbled together about $100,000 and finally got loans in excess of $8M. Along the way, Jack knew the employees needed to understand what they had never understood before – how companies make money and what’s required for businesses to be sustainable. That meant Jack had to open the books and share key numbers with employees. It worked so magnificently that within 5 years (by 1988) the company was worth in excess of $40M and they had saved over 100 jobs. And as they say, “the rest is history.”

Jack Stack created a revolution. He created a movement – a cause. Admittedly, it was a big cause – “let’s save our jobs, let’s save our plant.” Does every movement have to be that dramatic? Or that enormous? No. Movements can be positive and they come in all shapes and sizes.

Many years ago I learned what Jack Stack discovered. Ironically, it was about the same time, too. The early 1980s. Jack’s success eclipsed mine big time, but the lessons learned were similar – people need a game to play.

More specifically, people need to see where they fit and how their work makes a difference. As a teenage employee, I learned very quickly the importance of congruency. I once worked for a boss who said one thing but did something different. His actions were rarely congruent with what he preached. I learned firsthand the negative impact that had on employees and the culture. We struggled because none of us had any clue how we made a difference. We were just working for our paycheck and our commission.

Let’s learn some things together from all this. Let’s create a movement and get people energized by understanding how their work makes a positive impact on the company.

Step 1 – Give People A Story

Storytellers focus in part of the characters. The story is all about the characters and how they behave. Well, your company is filled with characters – employees, team members.

What’s their story? I don’t mean you dive into their personal lives. I mean, what’s their story in the context of why they’re holding their role in your company? Have you told them the story and shared with them how they affect the outcomes for your company?

If you don’t give people a story about how they fit, they’ll create their own. And it won’t be good.

Most people lean toward filling in gaps of knowledge with paranoia or the prospect of something negative. It’s commonplace. Maybe human nature. Leaders are wise to assume it. And then fixing it. There’s no downside to assuming that people will say negative things to themselves if you don’t intervene as the leader!

What happens if a person doesn’t properly perform their job? Do they truly understand it?

It’s your job to make sure they know that story. Not in some “I’ll kick your butt” speech, but in an honest, open conversation about what’s required for the company to achieve the goal.

Step 2 – Keep The Big Thing In The Forefront

What is the goal?

Some think it needs to be financial. That’s up to you. I’ll just tell you that people need to understand how important the numbers are. Jack Stack and his original workforce didn’t understand it. They never attempted to learn until they got word their plant was going to be closed. Learn from their story. Know the numbers that determine success. Teach them to your team. But you need something bigger.

Maybe it’ll help to share with you an objective that I established years ago in a retail company. MTA = Most Talked About.

There were many other elements, but I wanted to focus on a singular effort of dazzling customer experience. The challenge I issued was simple – how can we be the most talked-about store (in a positive way)?

You gotta mean it. It can’t be a platitude. Words don’t matter if the actions won’t back it up.

What’s your big goal? Make it plain, easy to understand and real. Make it big enough to be ongoing and long-term. Most Talked About was a goal we knew we’d always work toward.

Step 3 – Live It

Revolutions are led by real people. Genuine people. Pretenders don’t successfully lead revolutions. Check yourself. Look in the mirror and get real with yourself first. Fix whatever ails you as a leader because the troops will spot it instantly.

Nobody ever worked harder to help the boss get a new BMW.

Nobody ever worked harder to help the boss take a fancy vacation.

That doesn’t mean the boss – YOU – can’t drive a fancy BMW or take a fancy vacation. it means that can’t be the battle cry for your movement.

The goal has to be alive in your life and your leadership. That goal has to be your passion first.

Step 4 – Don’t Compromise It

It must be a cause that speaks to others. When you get it right, it’ll resonate with the right people. When it doesn’t resonate, then you know you’ve got the wrong people.

Don’t waver. Stay the course.

You’ll be tempted to squeeze people into slots where they don’t belong. Resist.

You’ll be tempted to accept people who don’t fully buy into the WHY you’ve established. Their talent will call out to you and tempt you to think you may be able to make it work. No, it won’t. Waste no time fooling yourself.

Hire nobody who refused to see the reason. Revolutionaries want to be alongside other revolutionaries. Don’t match them up with mercenaries. Accept only the real, genuine thing – people who see what you see and want to achieve what you do.

Step 5 – Let Everybody Know The Result (Did We Win?)

Have you ever bowled?

Would you like to bowl in the dark…without seeing the pins? What’s the point, right? I mean, the whole object of the game is to knock down the pins. But if you’re unable to see the pins you knock down, there’s little point in throwing the ball down the lane.

Sadly, we can operate our businesses daily without letting our employees know whether they’ve hit any pins or not. We think they should be thrilled to show up every day not knowing if their efforts are resulting in a win or not. Your team isn’t that stupid. Or foolish.

Teach them the game they’re playing. Teach them how to play it. Then keep coaching them how to get better. And let them see visible results of how well they’re doing. Are they winning? Are they losing? How can they affect the outcome? By playing the game better and better and better.

You’re now ready to go back and close the loop on the circle or cycle. Go back to step 1 and keep reminding people of their story. Keep putting in the work to create a movement. It’s the very best way to implement – and to keep implementing – change.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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Who You Surround Yourself With Matters

Are you a US-based entrepreneur? 

I’m looking for a few SMB owners to join us at The Peer Advantage, a professional virtual (online) peer advisory group.

Apply Today – the application is brief and will help us have a phone conversation about this group. I look forward to talking with you.

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NFL pundits claim this year’s Dallas Cowboys’ roster is Super Bowl quality. Time will tell. They’ve got to play the games. They’re certainly throwing big dollars around. Time will tell.

I can’t remember the last time I passed an entire week without talking with a business owner or CEO about constructing a better team. The people problem persists. Recruiting, training and retaining people who can help take the enterprise to new heights has always been a challenge. But too often we make it harder than it needs to be. Mostly because we neglect to give it the attention it deserves.

Over 25 years ago I went to hear Tom Peters. He used to come to the DFW area every few years. I’d go see him every time he came. I’ve always found him thought-provoking and my fondness likely stems from being a young man when In Search Of Excellence was published (1982). He resonated with me.

Well, during this presentation – which wasn’t a speech as much as a presentation because people were seated around tables and Tom would walk amongst us while talking with a comprehensive slide deck serving to illustrate his points – he talked about how much effort the NFL puts into assembling a team. General Managers have teams of scouts and other people dedicated to studying film of college players. Countless man hours are applied to the team every season. Makes sense because that’s their business, a team sport. It requires building the strongest team possible so you can compete. Tom made the analogy that our businesses aren’t much different. People make the difference.

I instantly thought, “Yeah, I agree, but NFL teams have game film to watch, previous coaches to interview about the player, and a lot more data to consider than I ever have with prospective hires.” But I didn’t want to be completely dismissive of Tom’s analogy. I knew I could give it greater effort. And I knew there had to be some strategies I could deploy so I could act with greater efficiency. I needed to be more intentional about it all.

Since then I’ve found almost every CEO or SMB owner suffers the same challenge. And I know why. We too often hire out of desperation. We have a pressing need, then we seek to fill it. That’s the extent of the strategy. Immediate need.

I started to think about being more proactive because there were times early in my career when I’d done that instinctively. But along the way something happened. I didn’t get smarter. I got stupider. I started chasing my tail. By the time I got to the mid-1980’s I was figuring out how to stop chasing my tail so much. Fire fighting is part of the task and I rather enjoyed that part of it. What I hated was feeling forced to act out of desperation. So I began to think more strategic. To give greater effort to being prepared. To think ahead.

What would you do if THE key employee you most rely on suddenly resigned?

I often ask leaders this question and most have no answer other than, “I hope it doesn’t happen.” I’ll press them. “But what if it does?”

Panic! That’s what would happen.

I’m not saying that we’re all prepared for such events, but we’d do well to think about it more. To pre-think it and prepare. To develop a plan.

So how would you build your ideal team?

Let’s start by defining “ideal.” I’m not talking about a perfect team. I’m talking about the team that would be ideally suited to achieve what you want. The team of people capable (and willing) to help you grow your enterprise.

Step 1 – Shore up the weakness that’s killing you.

You likely have chronic weak areas. If you’re like most of us, these areas have been problematic for too long.

Figure out why.

Don’t accept shallow answers. Dig deep enough to really discover, maybe for the first time ever, why this area is THE ongoing problem. Don’t be fast to blame external forces. Look in the mirror and figure out what you and your company may be doing poorly to contribute to this. Training, compensation, culture – test them all to find out why you’re consistently weak in this area.

Soar with your strengths is a great way to roll, but I wonder – can you turn your weakness into a strength? What if you could?

I’ll wager that this area of weakness for you may also be an area of weakness for your competitors. If you can turn this around it solves a major problem for you while providing you a competitive advantage in the market. Win-win.

By starting with your weakest area you can stop the bleeding in multiple areas. Inefficiency in getting the work done and lower performing culture. That’s why I first focus on this area even though my natural tendency is to lean into areas of strength and make them even stronger.

When it comes to team construction weak areas have a devasting impact. Think of it like triage. Doctors in the ER examine patients according to how dire their circumstance. A person with a severe head wound trumps a broken arm. A heart attack trumps a badly sprained ankle. So it goes with your company. Go where the need is greatest to build your ideal team.

Note: This likely will mean you need to eliminate people who should have been removed long ago. Don’t beat yourself up for living with them. Be fair. Be legal. Get busy doing what you must to correct poor performance. That may include eventually getting rid of people incapable or unwilling to help your company win.

Step 2 – Make your strength even stronger.

This begins with not taking it for granted. Go back to that question about the sudden resignation of a key employee. It’s not always the result of taking them for granted, but it often is. Stop it. Embrace gratitude.

Don’t assume making your strength stronger involves adding people. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. It most certainly involves you not taking it for granted – not assuming it’ll always be this way.

Protect your strength. Keep investing in it. Pay attention to it.

Add to it if you want. But whatever you do, grow it even stronger.

Step 3 – Create a high-performing culture. Nothing will attract talent more, and keep it longer. 

Don’t tolerate mediocrity. Ever.

The name of the game is victory. You’re in business to win. In the market. In the mind (and wallet) of the customer.

Everybody is putting in hours.

An NFL game consists of four 15-minute quarters. Sixty minutes. Both teams will invest the same 60 minutes into the game (or more if it goes into overtime). At the end of the game, one locker room celebrates while the other bemoans the loss. Which locker room do you want to be in? As the CEO or owner it’s your job to establish the expectation, focus and effort required to create a winning locker room.

Top-performers want to play with other top-performers. It transcends roles. High achieving salespeople want to interact with and associate with high-performing accounting people. Don’t be narrow-minded in thinking that only some areas of your business need “A” players. Work hard to put as many “A” players into every role within your organization.

Birds of a feather and all that. It matters. Talent attracts talent.

You can’t have a high-performing organization if there’s a place for everybody in your company. The culture must be selective IF you’re going to have a top-notch culture. You have to be intolerant of mediocrity. Poor effort, poor habits, and poor performance are culture killers. Don’t accept them.

Here’s a key. You must work on all three steps simultaneously. Always. You’ll never be done. The work is never finished. Constant, ongoing attention is required. Make up your mind. Commit to it. You’ll reap the rewards.

I’ll leave you with what Jack Welch taught the world. At least he was the first to articulate it where it made sense for me. Welch was always in the process of dumping the bottom of his rosters. He was always searching for ways to improve the roster.

Make room for good people. No matter what. If somebody must go, you likely have plenty of candidates who should be moved along to make room. That strategy continues to improve the roster and help you achieve your ideal team.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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One of my first big technology projects involved custom programming for a point-of-sale (POS – and you thought it stood for something else 😉 ) system. Programmers were on site almost round the clock for months and the cost was out of control. Nightmare doesn’t begin to describe it. Disaster doesn’t either. It was a mammoth failure. The only thing that came out of it was a deep education for all of us involved. Mostly, let’s don’t ever do this again!

But you can’t just stop using technology.

You can’t neglect to put in the work to future-proof your business.

And we all need to find ways to be more efficient.

The question is, “How can we best accomplish these things?”

People. That’s the answer. A goodly number of them. And not just anybody, but people qualified to provide valuable insights. People who may disagree with each other, too.

If I had it to do over, my POS project in the early 1980s would have been handled differently. Back then we had technology folks who claimed to know what they were doing. Things were so new I failed because I trusted they knew more than me. I knew what information I wanted, but I had no idea how to get it. The technology nerds at the time were arrogant in their prowess because at the time, Management Information Systems wasn’t even a thing. As business people we were sort of hostage to the few people around us who claimed to know how to get stuff done. Part of the failure was the early stage of the tech. Part of it was my human failure to incorporate more brains into the room to figure it out.

You SHOULD be giving attention to these activities and areas of your business: technology, future-proofing, and efficiency. Not everything will involve a computer, but much of it will.

Today, I want to spark your imagination and give you some practical tips that may help in your quest to elevate these things inside your business.

Step 1 – Get the right people in the room.

This isn’t always easy because too often I have found people do it too quickly without enough forethought. They think of the obvious players to have in the room, but it’s often the least obvious who can provide the greater value.

Make your list of the usual suspects.

Now, make your list of the most unusual suspects. There are people who have an insight that the most brilliant people in the room may lack. I’ve encountered countless times when a low-level team member recognized something that the brainiacs in the room were overlooked because he was dealing with the problem every day. They weren’t.

Who touches this process? Who does it every single day? Are they in this room providing input? Make sure they’ve got a seat at the table.

Think of anybody who may be able to provide insights to help you figure this out. I’d strongly encourage you to assemble a very small team, including yourself (I like the number 3 because it’s small and odd-numbered) to review WHO is going to be involved in vetting the projects.

Nothing is more important than in assembling the right team to help provide good answers and solutions. This team will provide the discussion and debate necessary to provide the best possible answers to all questions, and perhaps more importantly, they’ll be able to think of all the best questions to ask.

Pick the right people and don’t be afraid to invite outsiders.

Step 2 – Dive deeply inside your operation.

Question everything. “Why do we do it that way?” was among my top questions. Always.

Find out the reason. It can be enlightening.

It’s remanence of the story of the man who’s wife sent him to the store for a ham. After he bought it, she asked him why he didn’t have the butcher cut off the end of the ham. He asked his wife why she wanted the end cut off. She said that her mother had always done it that way and that was reason enough for her. Since the wife’s mother was visiting, they asked her why she always cut off the end of the ham. Mother replied that this was the way her mother did it; Mother, daughter and the man then decided to call grandmother and solve this three-generation mystery. Grandmother promptly replied that she cut the end of the ham because it’s the only way it’d fit in her pan.

Ask questions. Lots of questions. Find out why you’re doing what you’re doing. You may learn there are reasons just as stupid as having too small of a pan.

Step 3 – Dive more deeply into other industries.

Industry tunnel vision is real. We’re all prone to suffer it. We see “best practices” in our industry and assume that’s literally “the best way.” Often times, it’s not. It may simply be the best-known way by so-called industry leaders.

Copycat cultures in every industry are dangerous. It limits beliefs, stifles creativity and gives a vanilla sameness to things. Look at any industry and you’ll quickly see it. Listen to advertising for car dealers. They’re all doing the same thing and saying the same thing. Why should a customer go to one dealership over another? No reason. Not usually.

When you more closely examine how other industries tackled a similar problem you begin to expand your thinking. Make appointments with other CEOs or operators willing to share with you stories of how they’re tackling these issues. Take your small team with you (another reason why I don’t like to assemble more than 2 other people to go with me). Let them hear and see the insights of other industries.

Step 4 – Assemble the information so the discussions and debates can be lively. And fair.

It’s important to put every idea on trial for its life. But it’s equally important that the trial be fair. Don’t omit important information because somebody already has an end in mind.

When parties start squaring off in opposition to one another on what course to take, at some time of your choosing stop the discussion. Then ask each side to take the opposing view. Force them to flip positions so the truth can emerge. This also helps each side more clearly see the viewpoint of their “opponents.”

Step 5 – Try for consensus, but accept the best answer for your enterprise.

Personally, I’d like to reach consensus if possible because it makes for a higher-performing culture. It’s not always possible though. The way I attempt this is to influence and persuade. Not manipulate or coerce. But sometimes people don’t see it. Or don’t want to see it. They’re too dug into their position and unable to see anything beyond their own biases and viewpoints. That’s okay, but you can’t be swayed from doing what’s best by it.

Give yourself whatever time is necessary to make the decision. Then assemble the team and let them know the decision. Everybody must accept it and without moaning. Or resentment. Or threat of sabotage. Make sure everybody salutes the decisions and commits to making it a success.

Step 6 – Don’t be afraid to course-correct.

Even with all that prep work the decision may prove wrong. Or slightly off course. That’s okay.

Regroup and figure out what you can learn now that you’re some distance into the project. What isn’t working as you thought it would? Is something working better that nobody saw coming? What has changed?

Questions, questions, questions. Leverage them as long as you must to drill down to what actions NOW need to be taken to get things on track.

Make the changes as quickly as you can. Let the team see how willing you are to course correct. This isn’t about somebody’s ability to be “right,” but rather it’s about getting it right. No matter what.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy