I believe there is a correlation between employee happiness, customer satisfaction, and increased profit margin. We all know in order for a company to stay in business it must produce profits. Too often though, the focus is centered around profits and not enough on the drivers of profits, the employees. Employees tend to treat the customers, whether internal or external, to the extent to which they are satisfied and happy with their current position. The question becomes how does a leader create enthusiasm and ensure job satisfaction for their team members.
Most satisfied employees feel empowered. This means they must have the tools, support, training and ability to make decisions. In addition, a leader needs to become more of a coach than a “teller” or dictator. Coaching creates an atmosphere of collaboration, trust, and confidence, where constructive and sincere feedback is accepted. Remember, “The worst feedback is no feedback”.
Employees need to understand how their job function contributes to the bottom line of the organization. Employees will tend to work harder if they feel like their work is meaningful and adds value. My first job in high school was at a dry cleaner. I staffed the front counter taking in clothes, entering the information into the system and creating an invoice for the customer. The job was not exciting and every day I wished for the fewest customers possible. When a customer came in I would get the order entered as fast as I could and get back to doing nothing but wait for the next customer. Looking back, I imagine that not everything was entered properly and those mistakes, although small, cost the company some profits.
I wonder if it would have been different if the manager took some time to explain how my work added value to the company through something simple like a scorecard. What if we created a scorecard review of my key functions so I could see the importance of the work I was doing. Even the “front counter” employees need to understand how important the work is that they are doing.
If employees are happy, customers are happy. When customers are happy, they come back and tell others of their experience. Repeat business and referrals equal greater profit. Sometimes we need to step back and look at our own performance. Are we focusing solely on the profit and forgetting about the people driving the profit? Are we creating an atmosphere where employees are coached or are we a dictator? Do the employees know how important their job function is? Do the employees feel empowered and find their work meaningful? Are we tracking the important functions that help build profit? We need to look at these questions often as we lead for greater profit.
The Value of You We all like to see results. Whether it is in the work we do, our bank account, or other personal activities, results make us feel good. The life of Warren Buffett is a great story about leadership that gets results. He spent decades mastering the financial industry and understanding how to get results. Regardless of how you feel about his approach, philosophy, or business style you cannot argue with the effectiveness and success he and his organization has had. In 2008 Warren Buffets net worth was estimated at $62 billion dollars. Those results were achieve by a lot of focus on the bottom line.
So how does Warren Buffett’s success apply to you? In November 2009, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates participated in a Town Hall meeting at Columbia University. During this event the following question was posed by a student:
Student Question: “Mr. Buffett, Mr. Gates, thank you for being here today. My name is Justin, I’m a second-year MBA, as I get ready to graduate, I was wondering, what’s the one thing that your MBA didn’t prepare you for when you got out into the real world?”
Warren Buffett Response: “Well, I was — it prepared me very well, not the whole degree, but specific professors prepared me very well for what I wanted to go into. I knew I was interested in investing, like I say, from the time I was six or seven years of age. So I was lucky that I found what turned me on early on. And I had these two marvelous professors here at Columbia that just being around — I had read all the stuff they had written. So it wasn’t I was acquiring lots of incremental knowledge but I was getting inspired. They were terrific for me. They treated me like a son. They would take me out to dinner. Ben Graham did the same thing for me. So it gave me confidence in myself. It just propelled me into a field I already love with a terrific tailwind from these professors that believed in me. [APPLAUSE] But let me add one point because — to the MBA situation. Right now, I would pay $100,000 for 10% of the future earnings of any of you. So anybody that wants to see me after this is over — [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] If that’s true, you are a million-dollar asset right now, right, if 10% of you is worth 100,000? You could improve — many of you, and I certainly could have when I got out, just in terms of learning communication skills. You know, it’s not something that is taught. I actually went to a Dale Carnegie course later on in terms of public speaking. But if you improve your value 50% by having better communication skills, that’s another $500,000 in terms of capital value. See me after the class and I’ll pay you 150-thousand.”
Monetary Value of Learning and Communication
This matters because it illustrates the importance of learning and effective communication. As individuals, it is important to develop ourselves. Whether you get an industry trade degree, look at going through a mini MBA program, or complete a Masters Degree at Columbia University, ongoing development of yourself is important to you, your future success, and ultimately your net worth. Investment in learning will pay huge dividends. If good communication skills are worth an additional $50,000 to Warren Buffet, it’s worth far more to you individually.
Heavily Invested
Ask yourself this question. What would an investor ask you at the annual shareholders of YOU meeting? At a high level, you might hear questions such as:
- Do you understand what it takes for you (and your organization) to win today?
- Do you understand where and how we can increase profit margins?
- Are you cutting operational expense to increase profit margins?
- How can you create distance or differentiation from the competition?
- Is the organization focusing on what matters?
If you can answer those questions, you are doing great. If not, look to refocus your efforts. Educate or develop yourself to the point where you can answer them. You are heavily invested in yourself so what do you want your future earnings look like? Are you a million-dollar person? It’s hard to argue against hard results.
Every one of us likes to see results; whether it’s in the work we do, our investment portfolio, or other activities, good results make us want to celebrate success. Bill Gates has been consistently ranked as one of the world’s wealthiest men. It’s hard to argue with his track record in business or philanthropy. Regardless of his approach, philosophy, or business style you can’t argue with the effectiveness and success he and his organizations have had.
At a recent Town Hall forum for MBA program students at Columbia University, a Masters student asked Bill Gates the following question:
Student Question: My name is Erica and I am a second-year student. My question is for Mr. Gates. What is the most important thing you do every day?
Bill Gates Answer: Well, I do a lot of variety. I think reading a lot, you know, and continuing to learn. I’m in a lot of new areas in the Foundation, education, health. And I love reading a lot. So I think, you know, arming myself with that knowledge and sitting down with people who live the topic and brainstorming with them, that’s what helps me back the right people and make sure I know what’s going on. So I guess I’d say learning is what is the key thing.
“Arming” yourself and your employees with knowledge is so important. What would organizations look like if we “armed” people to be results based leaders who understand how to increase profit and drive bottom line results? This can be done, by exploring and discovering what really matters and how to properly measure results. I’m not talking about more reports, more charts, more graphs, to bore people with. I’m talking about engaging individuals to measure and do it in a way that speaks to them as individuals. It is about how I fit and why I matter.
Whether you’re looking to drive key results of your business or looking to simply educate employees on finance for non financial managers, arming your people with knowledge to be prepared for battle will ensure more focus around winning as an organization. It’s hard to argue with results.
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.
With the first half of the New Year comes the opportunity to set New Year’s resolutions, new goals for self-improvement. As a leader within your organization (current or future), you can improve your leadership skills and make an even greater impact on the organization’s bottom line as we move forward into the year by taking note of some of the elements discussed below:
Within most organizations there is a management / leadership track – take advantage of this track by further refining and developing the leadership and management skills you already possess.
1. Improve your Peer-Leadership Skills Build a reputation as a leader among your peers. Actions speak louder than words. At various meetings, listen and speak only when you have something important to say that will help the group to move forward. Do not focus on negative issues. Identifying problems is one of the easiest things to do; there is no great demand for problem identifiers, but there is a great demand for problem solvers. Be Solution Oriented: if you address a problem, be sure that you have a potential solution to discuss as well. Share information and communicate often with your peers. This helps you and others to grow and develop.
2. Improve your Administrative Skills
Develop an administrative competence in every form of communication and logistical follow up you perform in your job. Cultivate a reputation as someone who produces high-quality work no matter what your endeavor, no matter who your audience.
3. Develop your General Leadership Skills
Leadership is a learned skill. Constantly seek to learn from those successful leaders within and outside your organization. What pearl or pearls of wisdom can you pick up and use to help you become a leader? Pick and choose from their leadership styles, yet make it your own as you continue to develop your personal style. Whatever style you choose, keep these “pearls of wisdom” in the forefront of your mind and think about how to apply them as you move forward in two key areas – achieving bottom line results for your organization and developing your people.
Here are some key ideas to consider as you move along this path of continuous leadership improvement during the first half of the New Year:
• Know yourself and seek self-improvement opportunities
• Be technically proficient and know how to apply your knowledge
• Seek out responsibility and take responsibility for your actions
• Make sound and timely decisions
• Set a good example for others
• Know your people and look out for their wellbeing
• Keep your people well informed
• Help your people develop a sense of responsibility
• Ensure that task job tasks you delegate are understood, supervised, and accomplished
• Train your people as a team
• Develop plans of action that are in accordance with your team’s capabilities
Interview with Ted Zimmerman on Bottom Line Leadership In 1981 I had the honor of interviewing Ted Zimmerman. You might have a similar reaction to hearing the name as I did when I first heard it, because I had never heard of Ted Zimmerman. As a teenager Ted had been a clerk in the first self-service grocery store in America. Although there has been an unresolved debate concerning when the first self-service store actually opened, and by whom, I will go with the Safeway claim of being first, with Ted Zimmerman working as a clerk in that store on grand opening day.
S.M. Skaggs opened the store in early June 1915 in American Falls, Idaho, and within months sold the store to M.B. Skaggs, one of his six sons. Neither Ted, nor any other witness can pinpoint the date any closer than, “early June.” Prior to the advent of self-service, clerks assembled product orders from a customer provided list. But everything changed on that grand opening day in June 1915 and I was given the privilege of interviewing an elderly gentleman who was a personal witness to that historical event.
The reason for the interview was that Ted Zimmerman was in declining health and it appeared that his story might go forgotten and untold if it wasn’t documented. On the day of the interview near Tacoma, Washington Ted was in good spirits and seemed eager to have his participation in history documented.
After a few cordial preliminaries, I asked, “Is it true that on the first day a cigar box was used as a cash register?” Smiling, Ted said, “Yes, we couldn’t afford a real register for some time. In those early days a cigar box was all we had and it worked just fine, even as we opened more stores.” So the rumor I had heard about a cigar box was true.
Measuring Success
Later in the interview I asked, “In the store’s early days how did the Skaggs brothers measure results or success?” Ted’s response was simple. He said, “At the end of each day we counted the cash in the cigar box and entered the total in a ledger we used to keep track of our sales. It was cash only in those days, because there were no checks or credit cards. That meant our sales for a day was the cash we had in the cigar box at closing time.”
Ted explained more about the ledger, “We kept track of daily sales in one column and added the days of the week into a weekly total in the next column. The weekly totals then added up to a monthly total, and so forth.”
I asked, “What other measurements were used in the early stores?” He said, “It didn’t take long to learn that when an owner isn’t managing the store that labor cost can get out of hand. So we divided the weekly labor cost in dollars, by the weekly sales dollars and called it Labor Percent. It was easy to know your labor dollars, because we paid the help in cash right out of the cigar box each Friday.”
I continued, “How was Labor Percent used to manage a store?”
He explained, “We figured out Labor Percent benchmarks so we could tell within a week or so if a manager was using too much labor. As you can suspect, there wasn’t much of a problem with a manager using too little labor. Figuring Labor Percent each week gave us an easy way to look at the biggest controllable expense we had.”
Overall Gross Margin Ted described another bottom line measurement used in those early stores. He continued, “At first we kind of stumbled onto things as we opened new stores. By knowing our sales for a period of time, what it cost to purchase the products we sold, and how much inventory we had on hand, we could figure out an overall gross margin percent for the store. That made it possible for us to help a manager whose gross might be lower than other stores. If a gross was low it meant that something was wrong. It gave us something to look at and work on.”
My next question was, “How long did it take for the company to develop a Profit and Loss Statement?”
Ted wasn’t sure about the answer, but clarified, “I know it wasn’t for a while, because none of us had much accounting background. But after a while I think it was a bookkeeper that started to make them. When we got used to them, they came out every few months. Then, when the company got bigger the P&Ls came out each month.”
Measurements for Success I summarized to Ted, “So what you are telling me is that the primary measurements for success in the early days of self-service grocery were:
1. Sales Per Week, 2. Labor Percent Per Week 3. Store Gross Profit Percent After An Inventory 4. A monthly Profit and Loss Statement.
Is that correct?” Thinking for a minute he said, “That’s about it and it worked pretty good for us in those days.”
Having heard this piece of history, consider this: “What has changed in measuring bottom line results or success in the grocery industry from 1915 until today?” The answer is: the cigar box, and not much else. That’s why, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The sad truth is that almost all retail stores today function with the same four primary measurements that were used almost a century ago. With the unbelievably sophisticated POS systems, scanning, computers, and expensive software, can’t we do any better than what Ted and his colleagues did so long ago?
Consider the cost of an empty cigar box and ledger, compared to the cost of today’s highly computerized POS systems. If Ted and the Skaggs brothers could get four critical measurements out of a cigar box, how much valuable information should we get and use from a POS system that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars?
How well do you use the information supplied by your POS and accounting systems? Is your organization’s bottom line leadership and measurement strategies stuck in 1915, or have they progressed beyond the four standard measurements into more specific and motivational ways to measure results?
Pennies Lead To Profits, Dollars Lead To More Profits In an industry where dollars of sales only produce a few pennies of profit, do you honestly believe that measuring bottom line results on a weekly and monthly basis, and only in a manner that hasn’t been improved in almost a century, is adequate? I don’t think so! Give these ideas some thought and then consider how much information coming from your front-end and accounting systems are being used, and how much is going to waste. Remember, if we don’t actually use the information that comes out of the POS system, we might as well use a cigar box.
A few years ago I had an interesting experience while working with the store management teams for a chain of supermarkets. I was implementing a process focused on improving bottom line results consisting of six sessions taught over five months. Among other things the department managers were required to develop measurements such as profit per day, sale per customer per day, and other things that increase performance visibility. These measurements are designed to give department managers a perspective of their department that they can’t see with traditional measurements. Thus many managers become quite entrepreneurial and creative in how they approach their job.
One of the department managers in this class was a Deli Manager who had been the department manager for over ten years. Because of her experience, reputation, and previous success, she was very confident in her way of managing and seemed reluctant to try the new measurements and techniques the workshop required.
However, after a couple of months began to glance at her scorecards, perhaps mostly out of curiosity. With her curiosity peaked, she began to see things about the daily performance of her department that she had never seen before. For example, she learned for the first time that although her department was profitable for the entire week, she actually lost money on Wednesdays. The shocking reality of being unprofitable on Wednesdays did not set well with this very proud and experienced Deli Manager.
So each day as she posted her scorecards in her department she began to analyze them a little closer. Gradually, the scorecards began to talk to her and said things that she didn’t know. For example, on Wednesday not only were her sales 17 percent lower than any other day of the week, but also her average transaction size was 81 cents lower, and fewer customers shopped her department as well. These problems, combined with slightly higher labor costs on that day, were causing the unprofitable situation.
Part of this process implementation challenges participants to experiment with ways to improve their department’s daily performance. The methods to make things better included all of the traditional tactics such as suggestive selling, signing, and in the case of a deli department, food demos and sampling. Also people were encouraged to look for new and innovative ways to make things better.
Months later, the Deli Manager arrived at session six several minutes before her fellow managers for the specific purpose of asking me a question. She said, “After I got all of my scorecards up and running I learned that I had a serious profit problem on Wednesdays. So I began to experiment with food demos. I tried demos in every part of the store, at every time of the day, with active and passive demos, and with different people doing them. Then I experimented with demos on the other days of the week, too.” She said, “I’ve tried every combination I could think of. The people in my store thought I was nuts, but I had to solve the problem.”
She took a breath and continued, “And during all of this experiment I’ve kept track of everything that happened to the numbers on my scorecards. I watched everything, everyday.”
Seeing her excitement, I asked, “So what did you learn?”
With a smirk on her face she said, “I found the best place in the store to do a deli demo that drives the most profit. And I found the worst place in the store to do a deli demo to increase profit. Do you know where they are?”
Now frankly, I had no idea what she had learned. To that point all I knew about demos is what I had learned working in stores and the experiences shared in workshops by several thousand participants. But not wanting to confess my total ignorance, I said, “With that look on your face, I’ll bet you are going to tell me the answers to your questions.”
Before I recount her answer, which I frankly did not know before she related it to me, where do you think the best place for a deli demo is? And where is the worst place? Historically we have done deli demos in the deli department and meat demos in the meat department. Also historically, retailers have done passive demos where the product is put out for people to sample without any assistance, or active demos with a person assisting the sampling.
I must concede that what may be best for one store may not be best for another store, but nonetheless, what this wise deli manager learned took me by surprise and opened my eyes to her ingenuity and creativity. This is what she told me, “When I did a deli demo in the deli department, the only customers I could reach were the ones already in the deli department. If I was lucky I could draw a few people into the department who were passing by. But mostly I only got my existing customers. So,” she continued, “I started doing demos everywhere, even in the parking lot. And on one day I did a demo for people leaving the store, just to see what would happen to my scorecards; now that’s crazy, isn’t it?”
I agreed that doing a demo for people leaving the store was, indeed, a bit strange, but it did show her determination to take experimentation to the extreme. Then, she continued, “And after three months of keeping all the records, I now know where the best place and the worst place for a deli demo. Where do you think they are?”
With no way out but to look stupid, I confessed, “I haven’t any idea. Where are they?”
She explained, “Each time I moved the demo to a different place in the store, good things happened. And each time I got lazy and did a demo in the same place it was done last time, things stayed about the same. The thing I had to do was interrupt the customer traffic patterns in the store to gain new customers. The trick is to not only sell more to each customer, but to also get new customers. And the new customers I need are already in the store, but they aren’t shopping my department for some reason. So by moving the demo to a different place in the store each time, I attracted new customers to my department. That’s how I solved my profit problem on Wednesdays!”
“So where is the worst place for a deli demo, on the way out of the store?” I asked.
“No,” she replied, “the worst place in my store for a deli demo is in the deli department, because it’s too consistent and doesn’t attract new customers. It doesn’t work for me.”
I call this lesson the Principle of the Deli Manager because it illustrates several important things. First, a manager must know what is really going on, not just what you think is going on, or what you would like to happen; second, don’t be afraid to experiment and try new, and sometimes crazy, things; third, results on a scorecard will talk, if you will listen; fourth, if you keep doing the same things you’ve always done, you can only get the same results you’ve always gotten; and fifth, it was humility, determination and creativity that enabled the deli manager to solve her Wednesday profit problem. Without those traits she would still be unprofitable on Wednesdays, and wouldn’t even know it!
Budgets are tight and time is limited. For those that want to strengthen their resume or for companies who have the talent, yet need individuals to brush upon their business skills, there is now a way to do this through a quick-hit, cost effective business education program. This is called the “Mini-MBA”. This is an excellent course for an organization that recognizes by developing their people, they will improve their performance. A Mini-MBA course can help one better grasp the business fundamentals of finance, accounting, economics, marketing and strategy. This type of course will help one learn to better think in business terms and speak in business terms.
In Ram Charan’s book – “What the CEO Wants You To Know”, he states “the best CEO’s take the complexity and mystery out of business and they make sure that everyone in the company, not just their executive colleagues, understands the fundamentals noted above. The company and the CEO are more successful when everyone knows how the business works. People feel more connected to their work and have greater satisfaction from their job.”
During this time of year as organizations are finalizing 2010 business plans and budgets, wouldn’t it be to your organizations benefit if everyone was on the same page when it comes to business acumen? This means that everyone from the various departments, i.e. Marketing, sales, finance, IT, HR, strategy planning, etc. have the skill sets to better communicate because they fully understand business fundamentals?
Attached is a link for a Business Week article and video featuring David Buckner speaking about the Mini-MBA program offered by CMOE.
Personal Example A couple of weeks ago I taught a workshop at a very large hotel and conference center. The room the workshop was held in was located as far away from the lobby as possible. Upon my arrival, it was difficult to find the meeting room the first time. I had to stop and ask two employees for directions. However, after the first day, I became used to the route. Then I hit a roadblock as I walked to the meeting room the second day. The hotel employees had blocked part of my route so they could fix an electrical issue. I was asked to take a different route to my meeting room. The new route was twice as complicated and I encountered several wrong routes before I finally found my meeting room.
Goals, Results, and Leadership
This experience reminded me of a person trying to achieve a goal, but needing some leadership and direction to navigate through obstacles and complications in order to accomplish the goal. A well set goal is a stretch and challenge for the person. In addition to that, most people have to change the way they originally envisioned accomplishing the goal. An even bigger issue, in many organizations, begins before that. Most employees don’t know or don’t fully understand where they want to end up. It is common that individuals don’t know how to create bottom line results or how to play the competitive game of work. In reference to my personal example, managers and leaders can often become the roadblock to goals for two reasons.
First, they fail to help their employees know how to “win” at their job and set the right goals. Second, they fail to communicate clear expectations or help employees achieve success.
For organizations to play the game of work more effectively, and have better bottom line results, leaders must coach and develop team members to establish stretch goals, then give regular feedback, and finally correct and guide when success is not attained and celebrated when it is.
Being a better leader means helping others get what they need to be the best employee they can be. As leaders, provide resources, share your experiences, and coach for performance improvement whenever you can. Daily is a best practice. Dust off your Leader Development material and help people establish goals and then be sure you are not like the conference center maintenance crew who blocks the entire hallway making the journey to goals harder than they need to be. Creating a game of work mentality in your teams and businesses will help people achieve world class results.
Goals
Research on goal setting indicates that teams who set goals can obtain 20 – 25% improved work performance. With some direction, coaching and accountability measures, you and those you lead will reach unbelievable heights. The next time you have the opportunity to lead others in setting goals, use the SMART Goal principle (Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic, and Time Bound) to ensure the goal is worded in a way to maximize power and effectiveness.
Results
Personal accountability to results will make a significant difference in the organization’s performance. But how does a leader instill accountability or keep score? Metrics and measurements is the answer. These tracking tools are a vital part of a results focused culture. Leaders must encourage their reports to ask themselves “What are the two most important results for which I am paid?” Instill that if they produce those results, they and the business win, but if not, they and the business lose. Metrics and measurements often require innovation and “thinking outside of the box.” The main guideline is to create a tool that defines responsibility and establishes accountability.
Driving Bottom Line Results
Being a better leader means helping others be the best employee they can be. In addition to goals and results, this applies to all realms of performance. As a leader, it is vital to share your experiences, provide resources, and coach for performance improvement whenever you can. Creating a “game of work” mentality in your teams and businesses will help people achieve world class results.
It has been interesting, if not disheartening, to watch businesses close, thousands of people losing jobs, and bailouts to keep some companies upright. As a survivor of one such company, I can relate to the frustration, fear, and fury many of these people are feeling. At the time I experienced this, I was with a company that had been in business for over 80 years. I really thought that if I did my job well, my position was secure. Nevertheless, the company went through some tough times and finally was forced to file bankruptcy. It was devastating to the 30,000 employees nationwide who were terminated and worst yet those who put all of their 401k monies into the stock of that company.
Reminiscing, I can think of five areas, other than financial ethical practices, I feel had a major effect on this company’s failure. Consider these points, as they might help salvage your department, team, or organization.
1. View all employees as having a stake in the future of the company. This seems elementary, but you would be surprised at how many managers look at their people as simply a resource, commodity if you will. However, a successful leader knows that each team member can contribute greatly to the success of the team. When a team is working at 100%, processes are streamlined, costs are reduced, and creative solutions are the norm.
2. Keep the communication lines open. I don’t know how many times a boss has told me, “I have an open door policy” and then been surprised later by something that affects my tasks or position. People will be more receptive to change and will respond more positively if they know of an impending opportunity or crises. Realize that most people already have an acute sense of the organization climate and will know when you are keeping things from them. This creates fear.
3. Hold yourself and others on your team accountable for their commitments. You will accomplish two things by sticking to this concept. First by being an example, your team will know they can count on you and in return you will be able to count on them to be committed to the task or goal. Second, it sets the parameters for excellence. The title of the book by Dr. Steven Stowell and Stephanie Mead says it all, With Teamwork Anything is Possible.
4. Set policies that everyone adheres to – not just certain groups. For example, if a policy is that no one accepts gifts from vendors, the President or Chief Financial Officer should also adhere to that rule. Simply put, leadership should walk the talk.
5. Finally, be open to the other people’s opinions and accept that they may not carry-out the task the way you would do it. If you do allow others to take the ball, don’t undermine their efforts. Give them room to excel. People are going to make mistakes, but don’t bully them or attack their character. Coach, rather than chastise. People become defensive when they feel attacked, creating resentment and lower performance. Coaching more often creates a willingness to change for the betterment of the group. General George Patton was correct when he said, “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
These may seem basic and you may be committed to practicing these already. Just remember, under the increasing pressures of daily tasks, and especially in a crisis, it is very easy to forget these areas. Unfortunately your employees won’t and some may become hurt or even angry. Either way, productivity will go down.
Luckily, I have discovered that when these points are followed, people will support you and your organization in ways you would never imagine.
I wonder if it would have been different if the manager took some time to explain how my work added value to the company through something simple like a scorecard. What if we created a scorecard review of my key functions so I could see the importance of the work I was doing. Even the “front counter” employees need to understand how important the work is that they are doing.
“Arming” yourself and your employees with knowledge is so important. What would organizations look like if we “armed” people to be 
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!
One of the department managers in this class was a Deli Manager who had been the department manager for over ten years. Because of her experience, reputation, and previous success, she was very confident in her way of managing and seemed reluctant to try the new measurements and techniques the workshop required.
In Ram Charan’s book – “What the CEO Wants You To Know”, he states “the best CEO’s take the complexity and mystery out of business and they make sure that everyone in the company, not just their executive colleagues, understands the fundamentals noted above. The company and the CEO are more successful when everyone knows how the business works. People feel more connected to their work and have greater satisfaction from their job.”
It is common that individuals don’t know how to create bottom line results or how to play the competitive game of work. In reference to my personal example, managers and leaders can often become the roadblock to goals for two reasons.
It has been interesting, if not disheartening, to watch businesses close, thousands of people losing jobs, and bailouts to keep some companies upright. As a survivor of one such company, I can relate to the frustration, fear, and fury many of these people are feeling. At the time I experienced this, I was with a company that had been in business for over 80 years. I really thought that if I did my job well, my position was secure. Nevertheless, the company went through some tough times and finally was forced to file bankruptcy. It was devastating to the 30,000 employees nationwide who were terminated and worst yet those who put all of their 401k monies into the stock of that company.
