Those words were once the domain of the sea gulls in the movie Finding Nemo and a 2-year old learning how to play well with others. Who knew it would be the cry from corner offices atop large downtown office buildings.
Although I disagree with President Obama’s cap on TARP-receiving corporate CEO’s, sometimes you have to protect people from themselves when they don’t know any better. The free market system only works when there are self-governing checks and balances. Trust is the foundation of the free market for it to run successfully.
Oil companies having record profits with triple digit price increases, executive compensation in the 8 figures during blood-letting bottom line years, and athletes rejecting annual salaries of $25 million to play a silly game says the “Mine, mine , mine” game needs placed under control and those playing that game put in a time out.
Business who want to restore order to our economy and business environment have to understand that the first step isn’t refilling the credit buckets so loans can once again be made, it isn’t going to happen by creating infrastructure-building jobs, and it isn’t going to happen because Congress says so.
The only way to restore a long standing, growing, economy is to begin by restoring trust to those who lead the economy. Once the public again has faith in our governmental, corporate, and local leaders then we can build a strong business foundation. This will take years and lots of hard work and cleansing of people from jobs who no longer deserve the positions they have abused.
Begin the process of restored trust and we begin the process of restoring the lifestyle we love in this country.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Scary Wins in Scary Times
Industries are shrinking, profits are getting smaller and the global competition is getting scary good. You have three options on how to go forward.
A. Close the doors, give up and curl up into the fetal position and hope everything gets better – eventually.
B. Continue doing what has worked for the last 20 years because it has always served you well to this point
C. Get scary in these scary times
The NEW economy is here and to grow and thrive requires a different approach to employees, customers and how and what you offer in the marketplace. But first a few scary statistics.
One in ever five people lives in China. With 1.3 billion people, China has 20% of all of humanity within its borders.
India’s prime minister has committed the next big wave of government investment into higher education with the goal of producing over 500 million technology skilled workers by 2022.
The entire population of the United States is 300 million.
When you have 20% of humanity on this planet within your borders, you have a workforce size that is indomitable. China is beginning to emerge on the global scale as a corporate player not for lowest cost minimal quality goods as we have seen in the past, but with top quality goods and the commitment to play the business game better than anyone else. That also means they will have the buying power and resource demand to completely reinvent global competition. If you saw the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics, you know with practice and commitment this country can mobilize and synchronize a juggernaut of immense proportions.
As far as GDP or purchase power parity based on 2006 data:
United States $13.13 trillion
European Union $13.06 trillion
China $10.17 trillion
This is the foundation of the new economy where the US is fast being approached by the competition which means all businesses need to adopt the Olympic slogan of “Faster, higher, stronger.”
You might be thinking this only applies to Fortune 500 companies who are multi-national organizations what does this have to do with my small business? Are you aware small businesses (less than 500 employees) make up 99.7% of businesses in the United States? Were you also aware that small businesses employee over 50% of the American workforce? Small businesses are the engine that drives this country and the global economy and competition have everything to do with your business!
If you’ve recently filled your tank on your car, gone to the grocery store, watched the news on television or picked up a newspaper you know we are in different, some would call scary, times. So Mr. Business owner, entrepreneur, executive how do you react? Do those first two responses offered previously in this article inspire employees and encourage customers? Of course not, yet they are becoming a common scene across the business landscape in this country because business leadership is running scared.
Don’t be scared – just get scary. Scary wins in scary times because traditional well-worn efforts no longer work in this new economy so leadership needs to make the commitment to try scary steps in order to win in these scary times.
Scary Sales
Having a sales staff of order takers calling on the same customers hoping for renewed orders is old school that functioned satisfactorily in the good times of the 90’s. It’s a new economy that requires sales staffs to be high energy, product smart and prospect savvy. High energy is a must for the salesperson to be able to expend the needed energy and effort daily to locate the best opportunities, dial in the best approach to get to the decision maker and leave them breathless with the opportunity being presented. Does your sale staff have this attitude? This standard for every sales opportunity presented? Are your sales people ready to ramp up the effort and energy level at least three notches in order to compete?
High energy will get sales people in the door and potentially to the right person but it won’t close the deal. They also need to be product savants. One sales man in one of my audiences stopped me in my presentation to tell me he offers thousands of products to customers, it is impossible for him to know them all in detail. How true he is! A person selling thousands of products is nothing but a walking catalog. That is useless today! Get rid of your sales force, put all the products and descriptions on your website, post an order form and tickle the customers with an email once in a while if that’s all you want your sales people to do. It won’t work but you will sure save on your labor cost!
Sales people today need to know their products as if they invented it themselves. They need to know the applications for each customer, the potential challenges, the proper pricing, and billing schedule that best suits the customer and be able to answer any question the prospect or customer has, without the BS lights flashing and horns sounding.
Run free trials, do experimentation with the customer, assist them with their R&D efforts and identify better ways to use the products more efficiently before the customer even asks to be able to. In other words, provide a “Shock and Awe” campaign in your sales efforts. You may have to actually add more sales people to accomplish this, and you will for sure have to add more training for your sales people. Is that a scary thing to do in this economy? You bet it is, and it’s what you have to do to win, that is if you want to win.
Scary Leadership
I’ve been hearing for ten years about the multi-generational workforce, and how people are so different and how the younger age workers just don’t have the same work ethic as we boomers and geezers had and no loyalty, blah, blah blah. Business executives are still trying to cram the workforce of the new millennium into a 1950’s style of management box. It doesn’t work! So why do they keep trying? Because it’s what they know and what they understand and what worked for them for a long time. And, the new ideas scare them.
Scary leadership involved removing time clocks and time sheets and expecting people to get their work done and accomplish what they need to do. It involves offering a flex time schedule that truly means flexibility! Organizations who offer day care services, gym membership benefits, time off with pay to experiment on new ideas and projects are doing the scary stuff and making it profitable. Who needs an annual review when you are giving weekly performance feedback and developing better habits and practices along the way? Scary leaders don’t wait for job openings to find new employees, they are in a constant talent search and when someone with top talent is located they hire that person and then find the right fit for them in the organization.
One of my clients had it all figured out. Their conference room didn’t have a table it had a bar, complete with a keg and a tap that operated by pass key that everyone had to get in and out of the buildings. On the bar sat a name tent that read: This is a conference table. Many evenings a week the CEO, department managers and shift leaders of this call center would gather for a “meeting” in the conference room and no one had more than two beers and the conversations hardly ever revolved around sports, or jokes or idle chit chat. It was all about business. How many accounts they sold, what the wait times were, how many customers they handled on this account, how many new people were signed up, what problems they dealt with and victories they wanted to celebrate. These guys were all young guns and they worked hard, had high energy and were savvy about customer development and employee management. In over 25 years in the workplace, those were the most constructive, beneficial and profitable management meetings I’ve ever witnessed. It was leading in the new way. A year later the entrepreneur sold his company to a large holding company and one of the first steps they took was removing the bar and analyzing the financial reports for ways to cut costs. Sadly but predictably, that company immediately lost revenue, profits and their best talent. The new ideas scared them. The employee freedom scared them. They just couldn’t allow themselves to be scary leaders because it was too much to expect from people stuck in the past and doomed for the future.
The responsibility of business owners and executives is to legally do what it takes to stay on the cutting edge and make the organization the best it can be for the employees, stock holders and customers, no matter how scary it can get.
A. Close the doors, give up and curl up into the fetal position and hope everything gets better – eventually.
B. Continue doing what has worked for the last 20 years because it has always served you well to this point
C. Get scary in these scary times
The NEW economy is here and to grow and thrive requires a different approach to employees, customers and how and what you offer in the marketplace. But first a few scary statistics.
One in ever five people lives in China. With 1.3 billion people, China has 20% of all of humanity within its borders.
India’s prime minister has committed the next big wave of government investment into higher education with the goal of producing over 500 million technology skilled workers by 2022.
The entire population of the United States is 300 million.
When you have 20% of humanity on this planet within your borders, you have a workforce size that is indomitable. China is beginning to emerge on the global scale as a corporate player not for lowest cost minimal quality goods as we have seen in the past, but with top quality goods and the commitment to play the business game better than anyone else. That also means they will have the buying power and resource demand to completely reinvent global competition. If you saw the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics, you know with practice and commitment this country can mobilize and synchronize a juggernaut of immense proportions.
As far as GDP or purchase power parity based on 2006 data:
United States $13.13 trillion
European Union $13.06 trillion
China $10.17 trillion
This is the foundation of the new economy where the US is fast being approached by the competition which means all businesses need to adopt the Olympic slogan of “Faster, higher, stronger.”
You might be thinking this only applies to Fortune 500 companies who are multi-national organizations what does this have to do with my small business? Are you aware small businesses (less than 500 employees) make up 99.7% of businesses in the United States? Were you also aware that small businesses employee over 50% of the American workforce? Small businesses are the engine that drives this country and the global economy and competition have everything to do with your business!
If you’ve recently filled your tank on your car, gone to the grocery store, watched the news on television or picked up a newspaper you know we are in different, some would call scary, times. So Mr. Business owner, entrepreneur, executive how do you react? Do those first two responses offered previously in this article inspire employees and encourage customers? Of course not, yet they are becoming a common scene across the business landscape in this country because business leadership is running scared.
Don’t be scared – just get scary. Scary wins in scary times because traditional well-worn efforts no longer work in this new economy so leadership needs to make the commitment to try scary steps in order to win in these scary times.
Scary Sales
Having a sales staff of order takers calling on the same customers hoping for renewed orders is old school that functioned satisfactorily in the good times of the 90’s. It’s a new economy that requires sales staffs to be high energy, product smart and prospect savvy. High energy is a must for the salesperson to be able to expend the needed energy and effort daily to locate the best opportunities, dial in the best approach to get to the decision maker and leave them breathless with the opportunity being presented. Does your sale staff have this attitude? This standard for every sales opportunity presented? Are your sales people ready to ramp up the effort and energy level at least three notches in order to compete?
High energy will get sales people in the door and potentially to the right person but it won’t close the deal. They also need to be product savants. One sales man in one of my audiences stopped me in my presentation to tell me he offers thousands of products to customers, it is impossible for him to know them all in detail. How true he is! A person selling thousands of products is nothing but a walking catalog. That is useless today! Get rid of your sales force, put all the products and descriptions on your website, post an order form and tickle the customers with an email once in a while if that’s all you want your sales people to do. It won’t work but you will sure save on your labor cost!
Sales people today need to know their products as if they invented it themselves. They need to know the applications for each customer, the potential challenges, the proper pricing, and billing schedule that best suits the customer and be able to answer any question the prospect or customer has, without the BS lights flashing and horns sounding.
Run free trials, do experimentation with the customer, assist them with their R&D efforts and identify better ways to use the products more efficiently before the customer even asks to be able to. In other words, provide a “Shock and Awe” campaign in your sales efforts. You may have to actually add more sales people to accomplish this, and you will for sure have to add more training for your sales people. Is that a scary thing to do in this economy? You bet it is, and it’s what you have to do to win, that is if you want to win.
Scary Leadership
I’ve been hearing for ten years about the multi-generational workforce, and how people are so different and how the younger age workers just don’t have the same work ethic as we boomers and geezers had and no loyalty, blah, blah blah. Business executives are still trying to cram the workforce of the new millennium into a 1950’s style of management box. It doesn’t work! So why do they keep trying? Because it’s what they know and what they understand and what worked for them for a long time. And, the new ideas scare them.
Scary leadership involved removing time clocks and time sheets and expecting people to get their work done and accomplish what they need to do. It involves offering a flex time schedule that truly means flexibility! Organizations who offer day care services, gym membership benefits, time off with pay to experiment on new ideas and projects are doing the scary stuff and making it profitable. Who needs an annual review when you are giving weekly performance feedback and developing better habits and practices along the way? Scary leaders don’t wait for job openings to find new employees, they are in a constant talent search and when someone with top talent is located they hire that person and then find the right fit for them in the organization.
One of my clients had it all figured out. Their conference room didn’t have a table it had a bar, complete with a keg and a tap that operated by pass key that everyone had to get in and out of the buildings. On the bar sat a name tent that read: This is a conference table. Many evenings a week the CEO, department managers and shift leaders of this call center would gather for a “meeting” in the conference room and no one had more than two beers and the conversations hardly ever revolved around sports, or jokes or idle chit chat. It was all about business. How many accounts they sold, what the wait times were, how many customers they handled on this account, how many new people were signed up, what problems they dealt with and victories they wanted to celebrate. These guys were all young guns and they worked hard, had high energy and were savvy about customer development and employee management. In over 25 years in the workplace, those were the most constructive, beneficial and profitable management meetings I’ve ever witnessed. It was leading in the new way. A year later the entrepreneur sold his company to a large holding company and one of the first steps they took was removing the bar and analyzing the financial reports for ways to cut costs. Sadly but predictably, that company immediately lost revenue, profits and their best talent. The new ideas scared them. The employee freedom scared them. They just couldn’t allow themselves to be scary leaders because it was too much to expect from people stuck in the past and doomed for the future.
The responsibility of business owners and executives is to legally do what it takes to stay on the cutting edge and make the organization the best it can be for the employees, stock holders and customers, no matter how scary it can get.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Character has Left the Building
The feel good story of the Olympics is now the puff, puff pass story of a celebrity athlete who let his young swimming fans down. The most gifted athlete in baseball has now gone from a lock for the Hall of fame as A Rod to another athlete who cheats as his new moniker A Roid will forever remind us. Throw in a little Madoff, mix in a bit of TARP bail out junkets and you have to wonder what happened to good judgment?
The Enron scandal of ancient history seems to have not been the corporate lesson we hoped it would be, instead becoming the jumping off point of a landslide of a loss of leadership character. Remember character? The ability to know how to make good decisions. The ability to control yourself for the benefit of those who follow you? Abuse of power and money is not a new story, but we seem to be awash in poor judgment. How do we right the ship?
Set the Tone
If you ever expect your staff to be honest, upfront and consider the greater good, you as the leader have to demonstrate the behaviors you want to see in your staff. The auto execs begging for money in DC and deep concessions from the unions while travel in corporate jets and accepting large bonuses in a profit bleeding year – are you kidding me? It doesn’t take an MBA to see the mixed message being sent.
We’ve reached a point where ethics, decision-making and what is means to have personal character should be topics of managerial training. Assuming “they already know that stuff” is an assumption that could cost your organization millions. Think I’m wrong? You probably also thought a food vendor knew not to ship salmonella poisoned peanut products as well.
We need a return to the basics of leadership that have been lost. Having good character, caring for employees and complete honestly are the only ways to restore trust in this country that is being shaken worst than a 9.2 earthquake. Begin the restoration process today.
The Enron scandal of ancient history seems to have not been the corporate lesson we hoped it would be, instead becoming the jumping off point of a landslide of a loss of leadership character. Remember character? The ability to know how to make good decisions. The ability to control yourself for the benefit of those who follow you? Abuse of power and money is not a new story, but we seem to be awash in poor judgment. How do we right the ship?
Set the Tone
If you ever expect your staff to be honest, upfront and consider the greater good, you as the leader have to demonstrate the behaviors you want to see in your staff. The auto execs begging for money in DC and deep concessions from the unions while travel in corporate jets and accepting large bonuses in a profit bleeding year – are you kidding me? It doesn’t take an MBA to see the mixed message being sent.
We’ve reached a point where ethics, decision-making and what is means to have personal character should be topics of managerial training. Assuming “they already know that stuff” is an assumption that could cost your organization millions. Think I’m wrong? You probably also thought a food vendor knew not to ship salmonella poisoned peanut products as well.
We need a return to the basics of leadership that have been lost. Having good character, caring for employees and complete honestly are the only ways to restore trust in this country that is being shaken worst than a 9.2 earthquake. Begin the restoration process today.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Statistics that Frighten Me
Smoking is down for 8th graders
I'm sure that is good news for all parents but the fact we actually have this statistic is frightening. USA Today had a graph showing the steady decline of smoking among 8th grade students. At first I thought it was a joke, some clever ad campaign, but no it was an actual study. Heaven help us if start seeing birth control pills that are chewable and in the shape of Fred and Wilma.
$253.4 million Vioxx verdict
No, that wasn't for an entire class action case; it was awarded to one woman for the loss of her 59 year old husband. Yes, Merck should pay if they were found negligent, and yes punitive damages should be given to deter irresponsibility by corporations, but a quarter of a billion dollars? Our courts are being turned into lottery tickets, and the other 4,200 Vioxx cases waiting in the wings are not longer looking for justice; they are looking for riches. I guess justice will be left to criminal courts…as soon as O.J. finds the perpetrator.
$380 a barrel in 10 years
A report prepared by energy economists at the French investment bank Ixis-CIB has warned crude oil prices could touch $380 a barrel by 2015.
Analysts Patrick Artus and Moncef Kaabi said in the next 10 years demand for oil will outstrip supply by around 8 million barrels per day (mbpd). Between lower oil production and the juggernaut of China's economic growth, the world will be fighting for crude.
When the average gasoline price in the United States is $2.55 for regular when oil is $65 a barrel, what would it be if oil was at $380 a barrel? How abut $14.90 a gallon. Yes, we got a reprieve from the prices of this last summer, but have you noticed the recent price creep because refinery workers may go on strike?
What are the statistics that scare you? Let me know at RJWhite@PinnacleSolutions.org
Thursday, February 5, 2009
I Gotta Be Me (So Do All Leaders!)
I had a message on my desk the plant manager wanted to see me. As a newly promoted fresh-faced department head I hadn’t been jaded to the fact I was wanted in the plant manager’s office. To my eagerness this was an opportunity for face time. To shine. To please my boss.
He asks me to close the door and have a seat. The tone was stern and unemotional. His first question to me was, “Russell do you want to be a success in this business?” Of course! There was never a doubt. How could he question this? I answered immediately, “I’ll do what ever it takes to be the best manager I can be.” He smiled, sat forward in his seat and said, “I knew you’d see it my way.”
He continued, “The first thing you need to do is get rid of the boots. I don’t care how polished you keep them and how nice they are, they’ll always be sh*tkickers in my book and no one in management in this company wears those things to work. Second, you have a personalized license tag on your car and your car is a Cadillac. That just won’t fly here. No one needs to be calling attention to themselves with anything other than a regular license plate and let your wife drive the caddy and you get a pick up or smaller car – like mine. Now, what’s this I hear you have a solid gold monogrammed chewing gum case?”
I laughed at that and showed him the brass gum case my wife found in a newspaper supplement for 88 cents. I tell him it keeps my gum from getting wet in my pocket and… He cuts me off in mid-sentence and tells me to get rid of it and that is all he had to say and I am excused.
When I get back to my office I am a different person than the one that left there fifteen minutes ago. I’m stunned. My success is predicated on my footwear?
For the next two years I tried to fit in. I complied with all the requests except the car – and I quit being who I really am. Finally, I took a stand when I was asked to “quit being me” when it came to an ethics issue. Enough was enough. After ten years with the company I walked away and the biggest mistake I made in my career happened the day I quit being me and tried to be what someone wanted me to be.
1. Be who you are and find the right fit
Have you ever been forced into a mold you didn’t really fit? How did it make you feel? How much did it carry over to your personal life? How did it impact your self respect and confidence? How fast did you want to get out of that situation?
I see many people wedging themselves into jobs they fit into about as well as I would into a Speedo. What an ugly sight! Why do you do this? For the paycheck? For the sake of your careers? To get ahead?
If you aren’t being true to yourself you are being a fraud and deep down inside your spirit knows it. You hear it in your mind no matter how hard you try to ignore that inner voice.
Have you ever laid off a worker and knew the reason this worker was being laid off was because the president of the company was making bad decisions and the worker just happened to be an employee someone thought expendable? How did that make you feel? How many times have you taken actions at work under the title of “That’s just business” and felt a bit guilty about it later? These are all signs of how we are compromising ourselves as managers, and not being leaders as a result. If you find yourself making more and more decisions deep inside you don’t feel right about, then you are being given direction to find a better fit.
2. Hold Your Ground
In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram conducted a now-famous laboratory experiment in order to study obedience. After recruiting male volunteers, he set up a task in which someone called a "teacher" would administer electric shocks to a "learner" in order, ostensibly, to help them learn a list of words. When a "learner" missed a word, the "teacher" would administer an electric shock. An experimenter was in the booth with the "teacher," and would encourage the "teacher" to push the volt-delivering button when the "teacher" expressed reluctance. In fact, the experimenters would tell the "teachers" that they had no choice but to deliver the shocks.
In Milgram’s experiment, no shocks were actually delivered. The "learners" hidden from sight from the “teachers” were confederates of the experimenter. But the "teachers" thought that they were delivering shocks. And more than 65 % of the teachers were willing to administer the maximum voltage to the point of death, in spite of the cries of pain and screams for mercy. I’m sure you are thinking I’d never do that. Really?
Middle managers are being asked to do a lot of dirty work they don’t agree with and doesn’t benefit the greater good. As demonstrated in the Milgram experiments we will do things against our better judgment in order to please. Any idea how many times do we do exactly that in the workplace? We use excuses to justify our decisions to ourselves, such as, “I have to take care of my family,” and “I’m only doing what I was told to do,” and my personal favorite “Hey, what are you gonna do?” Eliminate these “reasons” for making decisions that just don’t serve a greater purpose and don’t fit you.
3. Leaders don’t sell out
Leadership is about doing the right things and holding firm in that approach. Why is this so hard to do? Maybe you are worried about losing your job. Or, worried about not having enough money to feed your family? Or, worried about being the rebel. Maybe we should worry less about these things and worry more about how willingly we give up on being ourselves. Standing your ground doesn’t mean you have to give up on success. It may mean you find even great success, just in a different place than you have been looking.
I used to look for success in the manufacturing management world. My experiences told me I wasn’t in the right place and it surely wasn’t the right fit. Once I listened to that inner voice, I found the job I was created for and have experienced success I never knew I could reach.
Three speaker colleagues I admire tremendously have abandoned the molds of the world and decided to just be themselves. It doesn’t mean they don’t work hard at what they do, it doesn’t mean they don’t sharpen their skills and make efforts to constantly improve. It means they don’t compromise themselves for anyone or anything, and their success is the proof of how effective this way of living can be.
Think about it. You know which decisions during the day are the ones that ring true to you and which ones are going against your grain. Leaders make the right choices because they can feel it within themselves. Be who you are and care enough about yourself to be the best you, you can become.
He asks me to close the door and have a seat. The tone was stern and unemotional. His first question to me was, “Russell do you want to be a success in this business?” Of course! There was never a doubt. How could he question this? I answered immediately, “I’ll do what ever it takes to be the best manager I can be.” He smiled, sat forward in his seat and said, “I knew you’d see it my way.”
He continued, “The first thing you need to do is get rid of the boots. I don’t care how polished you keep them and how nice they are, they’ll always be sh*tkickers in my book and no one in management in this company wears those things to work. Second, you have a personalized license tag on your car and your car is a Cadillac. That just won’t fly here. No one needs to be calling attention to themselves with anything other than a regular license plate and let your wife drive the caddy and you get a pick up or smaller car – like mine. Now, what’s this I hear you have a solid gold monogrammed chewing gum case?”
I laughed at that and showed him the brass gum case my wife found in a newspaper supplement for 88 cents. I tell him it keeps my gum from getting wet in my pocket and… He cuts me off in mid-sentence and tells me to get rid of it and that is all he had to say and I am excused.
When I get back to my office I am a different person than the one that left there fifteen minutes ago. I’m stunned. My success is predicated on my footwear?
For the next two years I tried to fit in. I complied with all the requests except the car – and I quit being who I really am. Finally, I took a stand when I was asked to “quit being me” when it came to an ethics issue. Enough was enough. After ten years with the company I walked away and the biggest mistake I made in my career happened the day I quit being me and tried to be what someone wanted me to be.
1. Be who you are and find the right fit
Have you ever been forced into a mold you didn’t really fit? How did it make you feel? How much did it carry over to your personal life? How did it impact your self respect and confidence? How fast did you want to get out of that situation?
I see many people wedging themselves into jobs they fit into about as well as I would into a Speedo. What an ugly sight! Why do you do this? For the paycheck? For the sake of your careers? To get ahead?
If you aren’t being true to yourself you are being a fraud and deep down inside your spirit knows it. You hear it in your mind no matter how hard you try to ignore that inner voice.
Have you ever laid off a worker and knew the reason this worker was being laid off was because the president of the company was making bad decisions and the worker just happened to be an employee someone thought expendable? How did that make you feel? How many times have you taken actions at work under the title of “That’s just business” and felt a bit guilty about it later? These are all signs of how we are compromising ourselves as managers, and not being leaders as a result. If you find yourself making more and more decisions deep inside you don’t feel right about, then you are being given direction to find a better fit.
2. Hold Your Ground
In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram conducted a now-famous laboratory experiment in order to study obedience. After recruiting male volunteers, he set up a task in which someone called a "teacher" would administer electric shocks to a "learner" in order, ostensibly, to help them learn a list of words. When a "learner" missed a word, the "teacher" would administer an electric shock. An experimenter was in the booth with the "teacher," and would encourage the "teacher" to push the volt-delivering button when the "teacher" expressed reluctance. In fact, the experimenters would tell the "teachers" that they had no choice but to deliver the shocks.
In Milgram’s experiment, no shocks were actually delivered. The "learners" hidden from sight from the “teachers” were confederates of the experimenter. But the "teachers" thought that they were delivering shocks. And more than 65 % of the teachers were willing to administer the maximum voltage to the point of death, in spite of the cries of pain and screams for mercy. I’m sure you are thinking I’d never do that. Really?
Middle managers are being asked to do a lot of dirty work they don’t agree with and doesn’t benefit the greater good. As demonstrated in the Milgram experiments we will do things against our better judgment in order to please. Any idea how many times do we do exactly that in the workplace? We use excuses to justify our decisions to ourselves, such as, “I have to take care of my family,” and “I’m only doing what I was told to do,” and my personal favorite “Hey, what are you gonna do?” Eliminate these “reasons” for making decisions that just don’t serve a greater purpose and don’t fit you.
3. Leaders don’t sell out
Leadership is about doing the right things and holding firm in that approach. Why is this so hard to do? Maybe you are worried about losing your job. Or, worried about not having enough money to feed your family? Or, worried about being the rebel. Maybe we should worry less about these things and worry more about how willingly we give up on being ourselves. Standing your ground doesn’t mean you have to give up on success. It may mean you find even great success, just in a different place than you have been looking.
I used to look for success in the manufacturing management world. My experiences told me I wasn’t in the right place and it surely wasn’t the right fit. Once I listened to that inner voice, I found the job I was created for and have experienced success I never knew I could reach.
Three speaker colleagues I admire tremendously have abandoned the molds of the world and decided to just be themselves. It doesn’t mean they don’t work hard at what they do, it doesn’t mean they don’t sharpen their skills and make efforts to constantly improve. It means they don’t compromise themselves for anyone or anything, and their success is the proof of how effective this way of living can be.
Think about it. You know which decisions during the day are the ones that ring true to you and which ones are going against your grain. Leaders make the right choices because they can feel it within themselves. Be who you are and care enough about yourself to be the best you, you can become.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Don’t Just be Optimistic, Be Opportunistic!
Lately I’ve been listening to people who are always upbeat and excited about life and their optimism is great but it’s missing something. “Sure the economy will turn around.” “I have my health.” “There are a lot of people a lot worse off than me, so I have nothing to complain about.” Some of the optimism seems Pollyanna to me and wishing and hoping optimistically isn’t enough! You need to be opportunistic!
When I bought this house I live in on the lake I was looking for not just a nice house but a good deal and great investment opportunity. That fact that we found a house underpriced because of an acrimonious divorce just wanting to get rid of the last connection they had was my good fortune! Had we not signed the papers the day we did the opportunity would’ve been lost because literally there was a couple flying across the country from Seattle to come put a contract on it. They were in the air when we inked the deal! Oh yea! That’s opportunistic!
Those reading this can scoff but winners take control and grab opportunity when it presents itself. I got to watch the Panthers beat the Packers at Lambeau Field because I grabbed opportunity. I got to see a Styx concert in Vegas for free because I grabbed opportunity. I met my breakeven figure for the year before the year started because I grabbed opportunity.
Opportunistic seems to have a negative connotation to it, I figure that’s because there are more people who miss out on opportunities than those who grab it. Be the one to grab opportunity and elevate your optimism to opportunism.
When I bought this house I live in on the lake I was looking for not just a nice house but a good deal and great investment opportunity. That fact that we found a house underpriced because of an acrimonious divorce just wanting to get rid of the last connection they had was my good fortune! Had we not signed the papers the day we did the opportunity would’ve been lost because literally there was a couple flying across the country from Seattle to come put a contract on it. They were in the air when we inked the deal! Oh yea! That’s opportunistic!
Those reading this can scoff but winners take control and grab opportunity when it presents itself. I got to watch the Panthers beat the Packers at Lambeau Field because I grabbed opportunity. I got to see a Styx concert in Vegas for free because I grabbed opportunity. I met my breakeven figure for the year before the year started because I grabbed opportunity.
Opportunistic seems to have a negative connotation to it, I figure that’s because there are more people who miss out on opportunities than those who grab it. Be the one to grab opportunity and elevate your optimism to opportunism.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
As the song by the Clash says, "If I go there will be trouble, an' if I stay it will be double…" How many people are waking up Monday through Friday wishing they could go some place else or do something else than the job they are facing. But too often you think the problems you know if you stay are easier to deal with than the problems you don't know if I leave.
Sometimes the decision is made for us. Good people are being let go at all levels of an organization, and for many it is a shock and the first thought is how can I get money flowing back into my account! Quick! Grab anything, something I just need a paycheck!
Whether you want to leave or have been relived of duty now is the time to think BIG. Play the "What if" game. If you leave this job what would be the perfect job you want? After you answer that question, figure out what you need in the bank to make that jumping point possible? Do you want to move to the perfect city and look for the job you always wanted to do? Do you want to go out on your own and be a sole-practioner at something? Do you want to open that deli you always dreamed about? Map out a plan, set a target date, discipline yourself to put away money each month to reach that point of readiness. Then comes the gut check. Is now the time?
Jump ahead into your future. You are 72 years old and you are looking back on your life. Do you regret making the effort at your occupational dream? Or, are you regretting never taking the chance?
The biggest reason people don’t take the leap to try to chase their dream is the fear of failure. Failure is not death. If you fail at your business venture all the way to bankruptcy you still wake up the next morning. You still have marketable skills. The failure isn’t in making the effort; it's in the not trying.
Many of the most successful business leaders have faced a personal or business failure. The key is to recover.
This is the worst case scenario. In my case almost fifteen years ago I made the right step and I am enjoying my choice every day. As Harvey MacKay once told me, "Do what you love to do and you'll never work another day in your life." Life is good.
Sometimes the decision is made for us. Good people are being let go at all levels of an organization, and for many it is a shock and the first thought is how can I get money flowing back into my account! Quick! Grab anything, something I just need a paycheck!
Whether you want to leave or have been relived of duty now is the time to think BIG. Play the "What if" game. If you leave this job what would be the perfect job you want? After you answer that question, figure out what you need in the bank to make that jumping point possible? Do you want to move to the perfect city and look for the job you always wanted to do? Do you want to go out on your own and be a sole-practioner at something? Do you want to open that deli you always dreamed about? Map out a plan, set a target date, discipline yourself to put away money each month to reach that point of readiness. Then comes the gut check. Is now the time?
Jump ahead into your future. You are 72 years old and you are looking back on your life. Do you regret making the effort at your occupational dream? Or, are you regretting never taking the chance?
The biggest reason people don’t take the leap to try to chase their dream is the fear of failure. Failure is not death. If you fail at your business venture all the way to bankruptcy you still wake up the next morning. You still have marketable skills. The failure isn’t in making the effort; it's in the not trying.
Many of the most successful business leaders have faced a personal or business failure. The key is to recover.
This is the worst case scenario. In my case almost fifteen years ago I made the right step and I am enjoying my choice every day. As Harvey MacKay once told me, "Do what you love to do and you'll never work another day in your life." Life is good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
