It’s ironic that people sacrifice time and wages, lose sleep, and exert a significant amount of physical effort to obtain a unique possession. People are willing to spend money, buy “apps” (applications), and spend large amounts of time to become experts on such devices. Yet we rarely see this type of passion, energy, and motivation in the workplace to drive results and increase profits. Isn’t the time we spend at work more important and valuable?

Dr. George Odiorne, is a well known management expert known for his concept “Management By Objectives.” What if we spin this concept slightly and implement “Management By Motivation.” What if you create the conditions for motivation in your organization. Like a new gadget, toy, or phone, discover what stimulates a behavior change in people at work. Hint: Everyone is a little different. Organization, productivity, and improvement in profits will increase when individuals discover what excites them. If people get excited and involved in their work like it is the latest and greatest gadget phone, organizations will find it truly amazing as to how they can flourish. There is no doubt that excitement and involvement will make a huge impact on the bottom line of any organization.

As I write this article, I stare at my new phone (the latest and greatest) in a box, ready to be turned on. However, I feel enough motivation in my work that writing this content offers more value to me, my team, and my organization than heading to the break room to play with a new gadget. Are your people motivated to work or motivated to head to the break room and play? Let’s get our people excited and engaged to the goals and objectives that benefits everyone.

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
-Aristotle

Take John for example. John recently became the team leader of 14 people who are responsible for $1,000,000 in production. Doing their very best, John’s team delivers 90% of the million dollar production budget. Managing by instinct, John tends to avoid conflict, uses the relationships with his former co-workers to emotionally bribe them into doing additional work, and measures success in the number of days passed where John manages to fly below the radar of the management team. John deserves better. He needs to be given the tools needed to do his job well. A small investment in his bottom line leadership skills will have a two-fold return: A gift to John that will last a lifetime and the opportunity for you to close your $100,000 budget shortfall.

Who’s holding you back? Who, not what, is standing in the way of your initiatives to increase sales, cut operating expenses and learn how to increase profit margins across the board? There is a John in your organization. He deserves a chance to succeed and continue to grow his contribution to the organization. An investment in John is not just an investment in John; he has 14 people reporting to him and they will also reap the benefits of his development. As John becomes a better leader we create the culture that will meet the demands of your business tomorrow and build ownership and commitment in the next group of potential leaders.

Do you think it’s too hard to find the time? Too hard to find the money? Stop for a moment and do the math. Can you really afford not to?

To run a successful business there must be those who rise up and lead, and as a lead climber does, one must step up and make many decisions that will be crucial to the life of the company. As a leader you will not be alone. You will have those who are beside you who, when you begin the climb, will be there to catch you if you fall. There are also many tools available that you must use to aid you in getting to the top.

To have leadership that gets results many of the same responsibilities that a lead climber has must be taken on. The first responsibility a leader has is planning out and taking the correct line. Remember, others who follow behind you will take the same rou

te you did, make sure its where you want them to go. The second is using the proper tools available at the right times. Often, leaders feel like they have to do everything. Trust and teamwork must come into play. You hire specific people who all have different skills an abilities for a reason, use them. Lastly, setting up a secure anchor. If you do not have a secure anchor to rely on and keep you steady as you make your way to the top, there will come a time when something will happen and because of a lack of an anchor you and others may fall.

These of course are only a few of the responsibilities necessary to lead, and every leader will need to carry out these responsibilities in the way that is specifically tailored to their companies needs. When things get a bit challenging, tie in and climb on, the rewards waiting at the top are well worth the effort.

Question #1: Is it possible for a manager to manage sales in a retail store?

Through out the retail industry, including manufacturers and distributors, the sales number is often the number one priority. Indeed, in many companies sales numbers are so far above any other measurement that managers live and breathe by whether sales are up, or down. If sales numbers are so important they must be manageable, right? Let’s find out.

A number of years ago two highly experienced retail store managers quit their jobs and promising careers and purchased two stores and began a career of teamwork as owner-partners, rather than employees of a large chain. For four years the partners did everything imaginable to build sales volume in both stores. During the first two years the partners frequently told friends and family, “Sales are up.” In fact, about 18 months into the venture one of the partners said, “Can you believe it, our sales are up 22 percent over last year!” Without doubt these two owner-partners had achieved the American dream. They owned their own business and were controlling their own destiny. Clearly, everyone who knew the owners was envious, wishing they had as much courage to do the same. After all, isn’t this how other successful retail business began?

The first indication of trouble was when the partners tried to sell one of their stores. When that didn’t happen, they abruptly closed it over a weekend. Their explanation was that the store had always had problems and by closing it they could focus their attention and capital resources on the one remaining store. With the problem store closed, friends and family once again heard reports of, “Sales are up.” But within a few months the second store was also closed and the owner-partners declared personal and business bankruptcy. Literally the partners lost almost everything they owned. They escaped the failed venture with one taking a job as a clerk for Home Depot, and the other selling used cars.

What happened? If sales were consistently up, how could the business not be profitable? The answer is that in retail there is no direct connection between sales and profit. Unless gross and expenses are fixed, sales and profit become independent variables. It is possible for sales to go up, for example, while profit goes down; and profit can go up, while sales go down. The reason is that there are no guarantees in retail. Other factors such as gross margin, labor, overhead, and expenses have greater impact on profit than sales alone. That’s what happened and crushed the American dream for two enterprising, former, store managers. Now do you know the answer to the question, “Can sales be managed?” Let’s use a bit of strategic thinking and drill a little deeper toward the answer.

Question #2: Is there anything a manager can do directly to sales that will make the number change? Is it only possible to impact sales by influencing other factors?

Actually, sales are a product of two factors. That means nothing can be done directly to sales to make it change. To change sales a manager must manage something else, not sales itself. Therefore, to focus primarily or excessively on an unmanageable number, at the expense of the things that can change it, could lead to failure. This explains the failure of the two storeowners.

Question #3: What are the only two factors that determine sales in a retail store? Can these two factors be managed?

It’s true that many things contribute to retail sales; things like, margin, signing, suggestive selling, pricing, displays, merchandising, stocking, store location, advertising, product availability, and many more. But all of these things can be rolled up into two factors. Do you know what they are? The accompanying illustration is the key. All of the things listed above, and many more contribute to two factors: (1) Number of Guests, and (2) Sale Per Guest. The number of guests and the amount of each transaction determines sales. Did you answer correctly?

Question #4: Can the two factors that contribute to sales, Number of Guests and Sale Per Guest, be managed?

As with the sales number, what can a manager do directly to Number of Guests or Sale Per Guest to make them change? The answer is, not much. Once again, it isn’t possible to manage these numbers either, because they are the products of other things. Although they are excellent measurements of the health of a retail store (or company), they are technically unmanageable. To focus primarily or extensively on them at the expense of the basic things that really drive sales could be a mistake.

Question #5: So what can a retail manager manage?

The answer to this question is everything that contributes, or rolls into, Number of Guests and Sale Per Guest. The basic elements are the things that can be managed, not the products of these elements. That means the most effective place to manage sales is not with sales itself, but rather in all of the fundamental elements that begin the process. These are the things that are manageable, not the product number such as sales. When a retail employee is told, “Your sales are down, you better get them up,” the employee can only make the change at the basic element level. And if the employee doesn’t have a good understanding of the process, it will be very difficult to make the change.

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.

Thomas Cooley, professor of economics and former dean of the NYU Stern School of Business, articulates the importance of having strong financial knowledge:

Many of the most important decisions consumers make in their lifetimes involve financial products: a mortgage to purchase a home, a loan to purchase an automobile, credit to make a large durable purchase, investments for retirement and insurance to keep one’s family secure. All of these financial products have become increasingly complex over time and there is a much wider range of product options offered by different providers, making decision-making more complicated. Consumers need to be financially literate in order to make well-informed choices about such complex products. A growing body of evidence suggests that many consumers lack the knowledge they need to evaluate and make decisions about financial instruments.

Fixing our financial illiteracy and understanding  the fundamentals of business acumen (finance, economics, accounting, and strategy) will not only aid you in your personal, consumer-based life, as Professor Cooley mentioned above, but will open doors for you at work, allowing you to sit at the conference table and make decisions that ensure viability – the life blood of organizations, the ability to stay competitive, profitable, and relevant.

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

You Can’t Teach A Old Dog New Tricks
Over the course of a couple of sessions, Lynn participated just enough to stay out of trouble with his boss, but not enough to gain much advantage as a manager. After the second session he told me privately that with his considerable experience as a manager he didn’t need to attend the sessions, but that he was being forced to attend. He told me, “You know old dogs can’t be taught new tricks. Well, I’m that old dog.” I thought at the time that he was trying to put me on notice that I should back off in trying to change his managerial style.

Lynn’s statement motivated me to look for a way to get his attention so he could benefit from the workshop experience. That’s when I concocted an experiment that not only taught him and his fellow managers a valuable lesson, but also me as well.

In the workshop I asked Lynn if he would help me conduct a “psychological experiment.” Before he could say no, two of his bosses were nodding affirmatively. Truthfully, I had set that reaction up in advance. Shame on me!

With Lynn obviously very reluctant to hear my proposal, I nonetheless pushed on. I told him that the experiment was to test the power of a graph, or scorecard, to motivate hourly employees to change their behavior. I explained that I would help him create a separate scorecard for each of his employees who worked the bakery counter on Saturdays. The scorecards would have the person’s name at the top, and across the bottom x-axis of the graph would be the dates of the next six Saturdays. Up the vertical y-axis would be numbers from 1 to 20.

Driving Results To Increase Profits
His employees would be instructed that each time they mentioned the words “chocolate chip cookie” to any customer in any way on Saturday they could put a mark or dot for that date progressing up from 1 mention of chocolate chip cookie to as many as 20 mentions. The measurement would be voluntary, because about one person in five typically doesn’t like to participate in such exercises that require competition. We would be happy to deal with the four out of five employees who find such exercises fun and exciting. The scorecards would be posted in the bakery back room and employees would be encouraged to keep their scorecard up to date as often as they could during the day. The experiment would use an honor system, where marking scorecards accurately would be up to the employees. Lynn’s responsibility would be to explain the exercise to the employees, have a positive attitude toward the exercise, and, of course, lead by example, because he needed a scorecard too.

At the next two workshop sessions Lynn gave brief progress reports on the project, but didn’t elaborate very much. I became worried that the experiment wouldn’t work and that Lynn might miss the point of it. But those fears were forgotten when Lynn returned to the last session and exclaimed, “Did you know that it’s possible to sell too many chocolate chip cookies?”

Lynn explained that by the second Saturday most of his employees really got into the exercise. It became a Badge of Honor to be recognized as the employee with the highest number of chocolate chip cookie mentions each week. Lynn’s assistant manager had a badge made at a local mall that said, “Chocolate Chip Cookie Champion.” The person with the highest mentions each Saturday got to wear the Champion badge during the following week, which further intensified the competition. Isn’t it interesting how a simple badge can create so much excitement? During the week his employees plotted what they were going to do and how they were going to get the most mentions. Lynn said that he had to adjust the rules because people “were taking unfair advantage.” One employee got on the store PA and mentioned chocolate chip cookies, then walked around the store counting how many customers must have heard her announcement, trying to claim those mentions. Another employee stopped in the middle of taking a cake decorating order and said, “Oh, by the way we sell chocolate chip cookies. Now how do you spell your son’s name?”

Apparently the competition got so intense and the bakery was selling so many cookies that the ovens were consumed with baking cookies, at the expense of the other products that needed oven time. That’s why Lynn exclaimed, “It’s possible to sell too many chocolate chip cookies.”

As a facilitator it was fascinating to see the change in Lynn’s attitude over the six session series of workshops. The crusty Bakery Manager became a champion of measuring, providing instant feedback, and healthy competition. He even told me in the last session that he had “learned a ton of new stuff.”

So how did Lynn’s cookie sales go? In his final report he explained that for as long as he could remember his bakery had sold about 15 dozen chocolate chip cookies on an average Saturday. (Actually, for a bakery the size he managed, 15 dozen is at best only a fair result, so I’m told.) The first Saturday of the project the bakery sold 27 dozen. The second Saturday they sold 36 dozen. The third Saturday they sold 67 dozen. The fourth Saturday they sold 117 dozen. And on the fifth Saturday they broke the bank, or perhaps the ovens, with 157 dozen chocolate chip cookies!

Increasing Profits 10X
The improvement over a month was a ten times increase. How did this happen? Providing frequent feedback to people who otherwise had not much incentive to suggestive sell cookies caused the incredible results. The personalized scorecards each employee had in the back room provided a method to measure performance. Thomas S. Monson once said, “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”
As Lynn was leaving the last workshop session I asked him, “Well, was this experience worth it?”
With a slight smile on his face Lynn replied, “Maybe it’s possible to teach an old dog a thing or two. Thanks for a great class.”

We have just been though one of the greatest financial crisis in the history of the world.  The world goes further into debt.  Companies struggle to be profitable.  We continue to see the bickering of politicians and watch the business-as-usual with our governments.  The wars in foreign countries continue.   We continue to watch the further disintegration of the family system and family values.  And through all of this, one asks “Where are the leaders?”  What is leadership?  Who is a leader?

Regardless of our position in life, all of us can and should be leaders.  So what is leadership?  “Leadership is the ability to decide what is to be done, and then get others to want to do it.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leaders accomplish things by leading.  That is, by guiding and helping other people.  Dictators issue orders, using fear and punishment to command compliance.  Leaders shape people’s opinions and win their enthusiasm, using every available opportunity to send out their message (VISION) and win supporters (Noel Tichy, The Leadership Engine).  Dictators break people down to feel inadequate, incapable, and don’t know much about the value people and their power.

What makes a leader?  A leader has VISION about what needs to be done.  He/she makes changes and helps others to make changes in order to see the VISION through completion.

What is your VISION about leadership?  What is the vision that you have about leading your family, in your community, in your employment, in your religious organization, or in your own personal development? As we talk about vision and change, there are a number of tools that can be used to help lead others towards change:

· Situational Leadership by Paul Hersey & Ken Blanchard (1984)

o Directing

o Coaching

o Supporting

o Delegating

· The Coach by Steven Stowell & Matt Starcevich (1987)

o Be Supportive

o Define the Topic and Needs

o Establish Impact

o Initiate a Plan

o Get a Commitment

o Confront Excuses / Resistance

o Clarify Consequences

o Don’t Give Up

· The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (1989)

o Be Proactive

o Begin with the End in Mind

o Put First Things First

o Think Win/Win

o Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

o Synergize

o Sharpen the Saw

· Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (1995)

o Self-awareness

o Self-regulation

o Motivation

o Empathy

o Social Skill/Team Builders

· E’s of Excellence by Curtis Reese (2000)

o Ethic (Work hard and Smart)

o Ego (Strong Ambition to Win)

o Empathy (Meet their needs)

o Empower (Help them to Help Themselves)

o Enthusiasm (Full of Energy)

o Education (Continue to Learn)

o Exercise (Stay Healthy)

o Execute (Put your Plan into Action)

Let’s take a closer look at Curtis Reese’s E’s of Excellence and what they means.  What can you take away from one or more of these areas so that you can be a better leader as you travel down the path of continuous improvement.

· ETHIC

o How committed are we to the task or job at hand when we are at work?

o Do we go beyond company demands?

o Why do our services provide value to our customers?

o Do we work beyond the mark, within the norm or outside the box?

· EGO / AMBITION

o I want to provide the very best service because I want to drive results.

o I want to be a top performer because it is who I am.

o Our services are better because we value our cusomter

o I have quiet confidence because I believe that success is a journey, not a destination.

· EMPATHY

o What are my customers’ needs and how can I help them fulfill those needs?

o How does my customer, family member, religious leader, community leader, view the situation.

o How and in what way do our products/services satisfy our customers’ needs.

o I am aware that a statue has never been set-up to honor a critic and understand the metaphor.

· EMPOWER

o Allow others to help you accomplish your goals

o Compliment everyone around you; make them feel good about their contribution.

o Realize that the sole advantage of power is the ability to do more good.

o Empower your people to make your organization’s services even better by sharing ideas.

· EDUCATION

o Be a general student and always learn.

o Knowledge is POWER!

o The glory of God is intelligence.

o When you stop learning, you stop life itself.

o Don’t learn for the sake of learning, let your knowledge lead to action

o Teach and share your skills with someone else.

· ENTHUSIASM

o Enthusiasm, Energy, and Emotion can all have positive effects on what you do and on the people you come in contact with.

o Even your dog can feel your energy level; be aware of the effect you have on others.

o No one wants to get a “Kick In The Pants,” but it will raise their level of focus and attention.

o Clear your mind of the word “CAN’T.”

· EXERCISE

o Your most important asset is your health.  What do you do to protect your health?

o You buy insurance to cover all your material possessions

o You need a healthy diet and exercise for both the body and the soul.

· EXECUTE

o Live your goals and make your dreams become reality.

o There are three kinds of people:  those who wonder what happened, those who watch what happens, and those who make things happen.  What kind of person are you?  What about the people you lead?

Each one of us has the ability to look like a leader and act like a leader just by making minor improvements in our leadership skills each day.  James Michener, author of “The Tales of the South Pacific,”  wrote; “The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.  He hardly knows which is which.  He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leading others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.”