Developing and testing new business simulations at CMOE is always a lot of fun. It’s a time when the CMOE staff gets free lunches, prizes, and the opportunity to meet countless new people we ask to join us. So in addition to creating or reworking our products, we create a culture of fun.
This past week I was assigned to pick up the food for a volunteer test group. I went to get Pizza and as I was standing at the payment counter, I noticed a computer screen on this wall. In big, black, block print, it read “LEADERBOARD.” I was immediately excited to see this. As I was waiting for my order to be finished, I was trying to identify what was being tracked by the “leaderboard” and how it worked. It was obvious that the leaderboard was networked with other stores and I quickly noticed that the store I was purchasing from was second from the bottom. This piqued my interest further. I decided to speak with the manager to understand how it worked.
Me: I noticed your leaderboard on the wall; it looks interesting. It appears to be tracking certain success factors and percentages. Do you get rewarded when you hit certain levels of performance? The reason I ask is I work for an organization where we use effective management, measurements, and scorecards to drive bottom line profitability.
Manager: Yeah, it tracks just about everything in the store from the time a phone call was placed to the time the order leaves the store for delivery. Corporate can pull up data on just about anything in the store.
Me: It doesn’t sound like you believe it’s a good thing by the way you are speaking. Do you get recognized or rewarded for hitting certain levels of performance?
Manager: No, it basically indicates what you have to do as a minimum to keep from getting fired.
The manager continued to explain that this tracking system was to help employees have higher levels of customer service, reduced mistakes, and shorten production times, among many other things. While those are great focus areas, I was emotionally deflated by the way he explained it. This employee was telling me that the “Leaderboard,” this scorekeeping system, was the worst thing about his job.
If organizations are to succeed against strong competition and have higher levels of profitability, measurement cannot build fear and negativity into employees. Driving bottom line performance with the right measurement will engage people and get people excited and committed to push performance levels. By using our piles of data, managers can help employees sort out measurements that drive individual results.
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Are you a sports fan? Have you ever been part of a game where competition was very high, where emotions are running high and you can feel the palpable tension in the air? Maybe you were even more excited than the players and became one of those crazy fans sitting in the stands! Regardless of whether you were a player or a fan at this type of event, the word “scoreboard” should be familiar to you. Sometimes this term is used to “trash talk,” coming at a point in the game when a player on the losing team makes a great play or scores point, but not enough to put their team in the lead. Someone rooting for the losing team might say something about how great the play was, to which the fan or player for the opposing team might simply say “scoreboard.” What does it mean? It’s simple: While the losing team may have made one great play, it simply is not enough to take the lead in the game. The scoreboard is where the results of the performance are shown, indicating how well the team members are playing and whether they are actually accomplishing their goals. It is the tool that measures who is winning and, ultimately, who won!
Competition, Winning, and Business
Your company probably has its own corporate scoreboard, but do you know where it is? If not, ask around and see if you can find it. Company scoreboards will manifest themselves in how the company shows its stakeholders the business’ earnings. Businesses need to make a profit. Companies that don’t make a profit won’t stick around, so, making a profit is a focal point for all for profit organizations. What about at the individual level? Individual performance is also measured in this way, but rather than a scoreboard, some companies use and individual “score card.” A scorecard shows how and in what ways each individual is accountable for performance that increases the bottom line. Scorecards drive results and have a tremendous impact on the bottom line and help people become more engaged in competing for “wins” at both the personal and organizational level. Asking individual members of the organization to develop a scorecard to visibly show and track performance will inspire better performance across the company and make positive changes in the following ways:
1. Hold people accountable for what they do while at work and how they contribute to the bottom line profits.
2. Help individuals see that they earn a pay check for authentic achievement, not for mindless activity.
3. Help individuals understand how each person contributes in their role to the organization’s overall profitability.
Scorecards will drive bottom-line results and create bottom-line leadership as individual contributors think more deeply about their own unique areas of the business. Keeping score of their successes on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly) can help people feel more energetic at work and increase their interest in organizational success over the long term. In your next weekly meeting ask everyone this simple question: Did you win or lose this week? Followed this question with, “What were you responsible for in terms of helping our company grow and be more profitable?” Using scorecards, asking questions, and engaging the entire workforce is powerful stuff, critical to the organization’s performance.
Working in teams and across functions can often be complex and challenging. If you’re like most teams, you have certain processes that you are supposed to follow (guidelines, operating rules, specific forms to be utilized, etc.) When attending to these, how often do you encounter a process that is broken, doesn’t work, or seems to be pointless? Maybe your organization has processes that work most of the time? The bigger question is what do you do when you encounter troubled processes? How often do you attempt to fix broken processes? Do you ever try to diagnose what could make a process more effective?
To be part of a high performing team, it is important to constantly evaluate processes to determine if they are working, effective, and worthwhile. Effective processes help us to be efficient, reliable for our customers (internal and external), and minimizes the likelihood of a problem occurring.
In 2003, a US Air Force Thunderbirds F-16 crashed at an air show in Idaho. The pilot ejected from his aircraft and aside from the crashed fighter jet, there was no other damage. As unfortunate as this story is, I think it is an excellent example of taking the opportunity to improve processes. Take a look at the video from both inside and outside the cock pit.
After investigating the crash, it was determined that the pilot had incorrectly calculated his altitude as if he were at Nellis Air Force Base (where the Thunderbirds are stationed). The investigation board looking into the crash determined that “other factors” such as the pilots need to calculate MSL (Mean Sea Level) altitude to the AGL (Above Ground Level) altitude contributed to the errors resulting in the crash.
As a result of the pilots error and “other factors,” the Air Force determined that the processes around the calculation of altitude and “Split S” exercise needed to be fixed. And fix they did. Thunderbird pilots must now call out the MSL altitude at air shows. When they execute the Split S maneuver, they must climb an additional 1,000 feet to prevent and minimize the danger of altitude miscalculation from occurring again.
While the pilot only suffered minor injuries and a $20 million aircraft was lost, an improvement in a process was gained. While we may never know the future value or full impact in improving processes, it helps take a high performing team to the next level. Call it Continuous Process Improvement.
Suggested Tip:
Next time a process, action, or project in your team doesn’t go quite as planned, don’t be complacent. You don’t have to be the team leader seeking to improve team development. Step up as a team member and ask the following questions:
What went wrong?
Why did it go wrong?
Is it a problem or one time goof?
How can we prevent this from happening again?
Maybe there is nothing needs to be done after your analysis, but at least you’ve asked the questions to be sure.
All my life exercise and sports have been a huge part of who I am. As I got older and entered into the “real” world of work, family, and other responsibilities, I soon found myself in a position I had previously not known. I was 30 pounds overweight. It got me before I even noticed it was coming.
One day I heard an expert talking about exercise, the benefits of physical activity and the regret of doing nothing at all. He brought up the point that in many decisions we make in life, we can either discipline ourselves to do what we know we need to, or regret later doing nothing. One thing I know, “discipline weighs ounces”, “regret weight pounds”! I had to make a change.
I immediately set some goals for myself, and after three months I had lost 20 pounds. I was feeling great. Better yet, it was noticeable to others. One friend asked, “What are you doing? You have lost a lot of weight and are looking good. What diet are you on?” My reply was, “I am on the GOAL diet.” He looked at me confused and so I explained to him that I set goals for myself and then worked to achieve my goals.
By the look on his face, I think he was expecting a different answer. He went on to tell me that he had a goal of losing 25 pounds in 6 months, but he’s had that goal for 2 years. His biggest frustration was, “Why Can’t I Achieve My Goals?” I thought about the question for a while and here are three things you should ask yourself if you are struggling to achieve goals.
Are your goals written down and reviewed daily? This is vital to your success in achieving goals. The old saying is, “Goals not written are just wishes.” Reviewing your goals on a daily basis will keep you focused and keep the Goal in mind every day.
Is your Main Goal divided into “Mini-Goals”? My friend’s goal was to lose 25 pounds in 6 months. That was it. He didn’t have monthly, weekly, daily goals. Now that doesn’t mean divide the 25 pounds by 6 months to get your monthly goal and then divide that by 4 for your weekly goal. That would be the same goal. You need goals for specific actions that will help you achieve your Main Goal. In this example, a good weekly goal would be, to exercise 4 times this week. A good daily goal would be, to not have any sweets today. All these “Mini-Goals” keep you on track in reaching your Main Goal.
Did you share your goal with someone else? There is something to be said about accountability. If we are only accountable to ourselves, it is too easy to justify a sub-par effort. Just knowing that someone is going to ask how we are doing, gives us more motivation to succeed.
Setting goals are important in all aspects of our lives. Used correctly, goals help to keep us on track and motivated to work hard and achieve what is most important in our lives. Used incorrectly, goals can hinder both our short-term and long-term success. As in the example with my friend, he had the goal for 2 years. Because he was not able to achieve that goal, he felt inadequate and unable to ever make the change. Therefore, he stopped trying. It is important to set our goals to be realistic and achievable (with some good effort). Then ask ourselves those 3 questions to make sure we are on the path to successful goal setting. If you Prefer Rules: 1. Write it down 2. Divide into Mini Goals 3. Create accountability.
The Decorator Crab is found in various parts of the ocean, and has a lot to teach us about the way the workplace can affect performance. As all living things have predators of sorts, the Decorator Crab survives and avoids its predators by camouflaging or blending into its environment. This crab will collect items found in its habitat, such as corals, anemones, sponges, and various algae, and attach them to their shell using a hook appendage. Their collection will eventually grow attached and permanently change the look of the crab. When I began thinking about how this species relates to the workplace, I had two totally separate insights that I think are valuable lessons. As such, this blog will be presented in Part One: Finding a Positive Work Environment, and Part Two: Standing Out at Work.
Part Two: Standing Out at Work
There are employees in the work environment who, like this crab, act in a survival mode. They are worried about being laid-off or given extra assignments and responsibilities, and don’t want to challenge the status quo. They too, try to blend in and act in fear of change or challenge. I’m sure you can think of someone just like this right now! The downside of this scenario is they are quickly passed up when opportunities arise. Literally, the chances float right by! What every work environment, and organization for that matter, needs is people who are willing to stick it out through hard times, get noticed, and take risks. While the Decorator Crab can only win from blending in, we can only lose.
A terrible disease is plaguing society, a disease that in my own medical terms I call “A Common Case Of Untold, Never-ending, Truth Avoidance Behaviors, In Large Increments To You.” If you take all of the bold letters and put them together it spells ACCOUNTABILITY. Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch.
Society has become too good at the “blame game.” There is an innate behavior in most people called the “Self-Serving Bias.” This means that when things go well, I should get all the credit, but when things go wrong, I am going to point the finger and blame everyone and everything else for the failure. Take for example the person who spills hot coffee on her lap and is burned by the incident. This incident happened while the person was driving a car and talking on the cell phone all at the same time. We have all heard how this individual then decided that it was not her own fault for the burns she suffered, but put the blame to the company that sold the coffee for making it too hot. In fact, the person even sued the company for a large sum of money.
This type of mentality is very prevalent in our society and it carries into the workplace. How many “C-level” leaders of big companies have we seen fudging financial reports so that under their leadership the company appears to be “prosperous?” We have seen people be able to hide from accountability for a while, but it eventually catches up and destroys a leader, or maybe an entire company. Whether the source is focused on financial gains, or an ego of being the “perfect” leader, placing blame doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we get back to being accountable.
It is time for a change back to the old traditional roots of individual responsibility and integrity. We can’t run from it forever, so why do it now. I would venture to say that we have all found that when leaders in our lives have taken responsibility for an action, a project, or even a small assignment that went bad, that we now held them in higher regard and developed a greater respect for that person. The ability to hold up the mirror and accept mistakes when they are made, takes courage and confidence. This behavior is what we desire in all our leaders, not to mention a little bit of humility and the ability to hold up the mirror and be honest about one’s own self.
If leaders today want accountability from the organization, then they too need to demonstrate it. But why stop there; shouldn’t we be accountable to coworkers, our organizations, and ourselves? The concept of leading by example is still the most foundational and fundamental way to influence others. Being able to say, “Do what I do vs. Do what I Say” is profoundly more powerful than anything else when it comes to getting others to work hard, work smart, and work ethically.
A week ago, the Los Angeles Times printed an article about Barack Obama’s desire to postpone the United States federally mandated switch to digital broadcast television.
When I read the first few lines, I thought “Why postpone? Haven’t we been aware of the switch for years?” Haven’t we been bombarded by media making us aware of this transition, the approaching deadline, and what we need to do? This makes me think of holding people accountable.
The Government created a program where individuals could request a coupon that would allow them to purchase a new digital antenna box for their T.V.’s at a low cost. According to this article, there are 1.1 million coupon requests that cannot be filled due to a lack of funding. Furthermore, as the article stated, 8 million households rely on antennas and are unprepared for the switch.
When I read this, my thought went back to the concept ACCOUNTABILITY. These 1.1 million people obviously waited until just a few months before the antenna box was required, rather than being proactive. They knew of the transition, they knew what was required of them, and they knew the deadline was February 2009.
From my perspective, these 8 million people need a little tough love and a lesson on accountability. The government shouldn’t be required to take care of every need or every issue facing society. Especially when it comes to funding the availability to sit in front of a television set. Shouldn’t these people either make do, or do without? What about your organization. Have you developed processes to have them put off or ignored?
Here are a few thoughts on accountability:
Unaccountable behavior is costly for your organization. How much is it costing you?
As a leader, you have a greater challenge when it comes to accountability. Not only do you need to model the behavior yourself, but you need to instill it in those you manage.
People with integrity and accountability do make a difference in the organization’s performance which will translate to bottom line results.
A culture of accountability will shift people from being reactive to more proactive.
Accountability can be summed up as acting in a responsible way and following through on your commitments.
This article in the Los Angeles times is a great example of a lack of accountability. It reminds me of the woman who spilled coffee on herself while at a major fast food chain. She sued the organization for a few million dollars because she didn’t want to be accountable for her own foolish actions. What’s next? A 50 billion dollar Ponzi investment scheme? Let’s start holding people accountable for their own actions. If you have a good example of accountability or lack-of, post it into our comments section below.
We are in a recession! For months now “that word” has been the big elephant in the room that few people would acknowledge. It is here now and there is all kinds of evidence to prove it. Have you looked at your 401k lately? How is your stock portfolio? Does your bank account have more money or less money in it these days? Are you feeling the pinch? Many people around the world are. Hey, at least gasoline isn’t outrageous anymore.
Like many of you, I have been intrigued by the bailout programs that have been offered to many of America’s largest companies. “The Big Three” stood in front of Congress in mid- November and pleaded for $24 Billion in loans. I guess the “poor house” for the Automakers is coming even sooner than they thought. Just two weeks after Automaker CEO’s botched their first meeting with Congress, they have the courage to ask for 10 billion more and increase the total bailout request figure to 34 Billion in low interest loans.
Even large cities across the U.S. like Phoenix, Atlanta, and Philadelphia are crying poor. Governor Schwarzenegger says the State of California needs more than 11 Billion to keep the State from bankruptcy. We just haven’t seen anything like this since the 1930’s, and frankly it is a little scary that the world economy is in such poor shape.
Many of you working in sales likely have heard from your customers that they are cutting back, spending less, being cautious, and looking for ways to be more profitable. I have asked myself how can my organization help companies cut back, spend less, be cautious, and most importantly be more profitable?
Perhaps there is a way for organizations to be more profitable right now. Could there be a process that helps organizations measure performance that ties directly to the bottom line? A process, in which all leaders give appropriate feedback and coach members of the organization about their performance, that leads to dollars added to their bottom line. Keeping score is nothing new. Those of you who play games or play sports know exactly who the winner is and who the loser is by keeping score. This same scorekeeping principle is easily applied in business as well. Many organizations have embraced the concept of keeping score. By helping each employee understand when they are winning or losing, organizations have the ability to create an environment of accountability, responsibility, and focus. Additionally, it is not enough for leaders and employees alike to know if they are winning, losing, or stagnant. Leaders in organizations must assist all employees to win, to make a contribution to profit, and to improve bottom line results by frequently talking to people about performance. Yes, you read this right. Leaders must engage their employees not just once a year in a performance review, but regularly about winning and losing.
A combination of leadership principles coupled with scorekeeping does provide an internally generated bottom line “bailout” created by the employees and leaders working together for bottom line results.
During the past few months I have facilitated several team development training sessions. Teamwork is a favorite topic of mine and one I have a lot of passion for. World class teams, in my opinion, are something that can be achieved as long as the right ingredients are present and consistently used. Lately, I have recognized an interesting pattern in these team development sessions – one or more individuals will approach me during a break with the same question. Their question goes something like this, “I am on this team that just doesn’t quite reach its potential. What can I do about it?”
The benefit of this question is that at least one member of the team recognizes some flaws and is looking for guidance on how to influence and change the team for the better. Of course from my standpoint, I need more information to give appropriate suggestions as to what to do. But, after digging a little deeper and getting more information, the same problems seem to be occurring within the majority of teams. The common themes typically are:
1. The team isn’t very focused.
2. Team meetings are not effective.
3. Certain members are working harder than others on the team, causing frustration and negatively impacting cohesion and unity.
Within these themes, the element that is commonly missing, which causes these symptoms to surface, is processes. I have found that when teams have frustration, it can often be traced to lack of processes, or processes not being used, or processes that are outdated, or even processes not being followed correctly. Regardless of the problem, teams need to take a serious look at their processes.
One of the reasons process improvements continues to be a vital aspect of an organization is because of frequent changes in the marketplace. Paradigms change and the goals of the organization and the team change regularly. Because of change, processes must be in place to ensure stability and constancy.
Teams with process issues need to be prepared to question them. Some of my recommended questions would be:
1. What processes do we need to create and follow to have efficient meetings that produce the results we are all seeking?
2. What processes do we need to eliminate or modify that are hindering our success currently and will continue to affect us in the future if we don’t so something about it now?
3. Does the whole team understand our processes and are we committed to following them from now on?
Processes are the playbook by which teams operate. When team members don’t understand the playbook, the rules, and the tools that are in place to create success, teams do not reach their potential. If your team is not quite reaching its full potential take a hard look at your processes and see how well your team is following and using your playbook.
In families, organizations, and indeed even our society, one of the reasons for failure is the inability by leadership to establish and enforce accountability. Accountability in leadership is a topic that is not frequently discussed and the result is often relating to compliance to procedures, following work rules, treating customers with respect, achieving results, and getting along with co-workers. Accountability is at the heart of empowering people to perform well, demonstrating initiative, and acting responsibly. When a climate of accountability exists, things work smoothly; and when it is absent procedures fail and policies are ignored.
Let me describe parental leadership first. I read a newspaper report about a father who had an emotional outburst and caused a scene in a school board meeting regarding the suspension of his son from school. His eleven-year-old son had threatened the life of another student on the playground. Following district policy, the principal had suspended the boy for three days saying, “In light of tragedies that have happened in schools around the country, we take all threats such as this very seriously. The policy requires a three-day suspension.”
The irate father emotionally pled his case to the school board saying, “He’s a good boy and even though this is the second time this year he’s been suspended he doesn’t deserve punishment this harsh. Three days is just too much, because it’s embarrassing for him and our entire family.”
The father apparently was saying that because the suspension would be embarrassing that the punishment ought to be reduced. In other words, the consequence of the son’s behavior is trumped by the father’s desire to evade embarrassment. That is interesting in light of the father’s emotional outburst in a public school board meeting.
Now let me describe organizational leadership. A manager complained, “My employees just don’t take me seriously.” She said, “Even though I tell them over and over, some employees won’t even call in to say they are sick. They just don’t show up.”
I asked what she did when an employee didn’t take the time to call in sick. She replied, “I just find somebody else to work the shift and then when they do show up I tell them to be sure to call me next time.”
I asked, “So how is this technique working?” She said, “It’s not! That’s the problem. I can’t find good people these days.”
The situations with the irate parent and the ineffective manager are related. They both show the absence of a leader establishing and enforcing individual accountability. When people do not feel that they are held accountable for their behavior, they often lower their performance to the lowest possible level acceptable to the leader. In other words, leader behavior regarding the establishment of accountability does a lot to determine a person’s highest level of performance. That’s what the eleven-year-old boy did on the playground. He had gotten away with inappropriate behavior before (certainly at home and possibly at
school) and believed he could do it again. His previous inappropriate behaviors had not resulted in undesirable consequences for him. That’s similar to what the employees were doing to the manager. They had not been held accountable when they didn’t call in sick before, so they had no belief that it was a necessary requirement to maintain job security. The manager’s failure to hold her employees accountable created an overly permissive climate where the employees could dictate their own policies and procedures.
The foundation of establishing accountability is the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence. When people do not believe that their behavior will result in a consequence, they are free to choose any behavior that feels good at the moment. When people believe that their positive behaviors will result in positive feedback or even rewards, and their inappropriate behaviors will result in corrective feedback,
coaching, or even discipline, they will raise their performance to the standard expected by the leader. The leader sets the standard through his or her application of feedback, coaching and discipline.
I don’t know all of the details about the parent and his son, the schoolyard bully, but it is a safe bet that the son had not been held accountable for his behaviors in the past. The reason he threatened another classmate’s life is because he didn’t believe that his behavior would have any undesirable consequences. He thought he could get away with it. And, the reason why the manager’s employees didn’t call in sick, and didn’t even apologize for not doing so was because they also thought they could get away with it. The two examples are related because in each case the leader failed to establish personal accountability by practicing the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence.
Effective leaders believe in and practice the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence. When an employee performs well and/or adheres to organizational rules, an effective manager will notice and provide the employee with appropriate feedback to reinforce the good performance. Likewise, when an employee does not perform well and/or does not follow the rules, an effective manager will notice and provide the employee with corrective feedback, or coaching to change the performance. Exactly the same thing is true when raising children. Behavior Must Equal Consequence, both positive and negative, must be a guiding principle to raise responsible children who as a consequence act responsibly.
Personal accountability is a climate that is created when a leader consistently practices Behavior Must Equal Consequence. The word “consistently” often bothers managers, because they think it means “every time.” Clearly, a manager cannot provide supportive or corrective feedback every time an employee does something. That obviously is not possible. But a manager can do what is necessary to become more aware of an employee’s performance and then provide appropriate feedback as often as is practical. Simply, if employees feel and act as though they are accountable, then the leader is practicing consistent feedback. If employees do not feel and act accountable, then the leader is not consistent with his or her feedback.
Consistency not only involves the frequency of feedback in that it must be frequent enough to create a climate of accountability, but it also includes the ppropriateness of the feedback. In the principle of Behavior Must Equal Consequence, good performance must result is supportive feedback, and poor performance must result in corrective feedback. If a manager, due to stress, anger, lack of understanding, failure to take time, or habit gives negative feedback for good performance, positive feedback for poor performance, or no feedback for any performance, then the employees will sense a lack of consistency and conclude that they are not accountable for their actions. Thus they are free to act any way they want.
So the secret to creating a climate of accountability is to become more aware of performance levels, take the time to give the correct type of feedback or coaching, give feedback as often as practical, and do so as consistently as conditions permit. Done over time with the proper administration of rewards when deserved and discipline or sanctions when appropriate, a manager can create a climate of accountability and become more effective.
Me: I noticed your leaderboard on the wall; it looks interesting. It appears to be tracking certain success factors and percentages. Do you get rewarded when you hit certain levels of performance? The reason I ask is I work for an organization where we use effective management, measurements, and scorecards to drive bottom line profitability.
is used to “trash talk,” coming at a point in the game when a player on the losing team makes a great play or scores point, but not enough to put their team in the lead. Someone rooting for the losing team might say something about how great the play was, to which the fan or player for the opposing team might simply say “scoreboard.” What does it mean? It’s simple: While the losing team may have made one great play, it simply is not enough to take the lead in the game. The scoreboard is where the results of the performance are shown, indicating how well the team members are playing and whether they are actually accomplishing their goals. It is the tool that measures who is winning and, ultimately, who won!
The Decorator Crab is found in various parts of the ocean, and has a lot to teach us about the way the workplace can affect performance. As all living things have predators of sorts, the Decorator Crab survives and avoids its predators by camouflaging or blending into its environment. This crab will collect items found in its habitat, such as corals, anemones, sponges, and various algae, and attach them to their shell using a hook appendage. Their collection will eventually grow attached and permanently change the look of the crab. When I began thinking about how this species relates to the workplace, I had two totally separate insights that I think are valuable lessons. As such, this blog will be presented in Part One: Finding a Positive Work Environment, and Part Two: Standing Out at Work.
Society has become too good at the “blame game.” There is an innate behavior in most people called the “Self-Serving Bias.” This means that when things go well, I should get all the credit, but when things go wrong, I am going to point the finger and blame everyone and everything else for the failure. Take for example the person who spills hot coffee on her lap and is burned by the incident. This incident happened while the person was driving a car and talking on the cell phone all at the same time. We have all heard how this individual then decided that it was not her own fault for the burns she suffered, but put the blame to the company that sold the coffee for making it too hot. In fact, the person even sued the company for a large sum of money.
The Government created a program where individuals could request a coupon that would allow them to purchase a new digital antenna box for their T.V.’s at a low cost. According to this article, there are 1.1 million coupon requests that cannot be filled due to a lack of funding. Furthermore, as the article stated, 8 million households rely on antennas and are unprepared for the switch.
Like many of you, I have been intrigued by the bailout programs that have been offered to many of America’s largest companies. “The Big Three” stood in front of Congress in mid- November and pleaded for $24 Billion in loans. I guess the “poor house” for the Automakers is coming even sooner than they thought. Just two weeks after Automaker CEO’s botched their first meeting with Congress, they have the courage to ask for 10 billion more and increase the total bailout request figure to 34 Billion in low interest loans.
Processes are the playbook by which teams operate. When team members don’t understand the playbook, the rules, and the tools that are in place to create success, teams do not reach their potential. If your team is not quite reaching its full potential take a hard look at your processes and see how well your team is following and using your playbook.
Now let me describe organizational leadership. A manager complained, “My employees just don’t take me seriously.” She said, “Even though I tell them over and over, some employees won’t even call in to say they are sick. They just don’t show up.”
