What's Impeding Your Progress?

When it comes to defining what is impeding your organization’s progress and holding back your people from realizing all that they are capable of achieving, Ralph Waldo Emerson summed it up as well as anyone ever has.

His observation was that “Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.”

As human beings, you and your people have the innate ability to simply get in your own way. All too often, the biggest obstacle that is holding back your people in their life and work are their own self imposed limitations.

As a leader it is your direct responsibility to bring out the best in your people. In like fashion, you are also charged with the additional responsibility of improving performance, productivity and efficiency.

Yet, just like your people… You as well struggle to keep up with the demands of the day and allow your own self imposed limitations and bad habits to impede your personal performance.

A few years ago in his popular comic strip Pogo, cartoonist Walt Kelly poked fun at this aspect of life while at the same time addressing the matter head-on when Pogo said to his troops “We have met the enemy… And he is us!”

The continued forward progress of your organization is dependent on two primary prerequisites; leadership that can engage and people that are capable of achieving peak performance.

People only achieve success when there is someone to show them how to succeed and subsequently provide them with the support and encouragement that they need in order to succeed.

Concurrently, your people need superiors who lead by example, for it is by the specific example of demonstrating the organization’s standards for excellence that will provide your people with their most powerful source of influence to do the same.

Albert Einstein aptly addressed this process when he stated “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.”

While your organization has great potential, it will never get to the next level until such time as its leadership addresses the obstacles that are currently impeding the organization’s progress.

The Leadership Academy… Changing the way organizations and people work, perform and live.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank | All Rights Reserved.

One Chance To Get It Right

The recent difficulties associated with the flawed roll-out of the Affordable Healthcare Act should serve as a stern reminder that your organization or business has both a responsibility and an obligation to the customers whom you are privileged to serve to get it right… the first time.

Regardless of the products that you may sell or the services that you may render, your organization’s #1 job is to render them with excellence. As they say in the cookie business… You can’t allow your work to go out “half baked”.

As you know only too well, it’s tough out there in the New Economy. And just as important is the fact that it is more competitive out there than ever. Your organization simply can’t afford to take a cavalier attitude about anything thing that it does.   

When was the last time that your organization really took the time to identify exactly how many ways there are for your potential customers to have some form of contact with your business operation? Believe me when I tell you, that there are far more points of connection than you may realize. The same thing holds true for your organization as it does when you personally meet someone new, as there is only one opportunity to make a first impression.

It’s important to realize that you’re never going to make the sale at the time of your first contact. In fact, the latest research states that on average it takes nine contacts with a prospect before he or she makes the decision to do or not do business with your organization.

While you won’t have the opportunity to earn your prospect’s business at the time of your all important first impression, you will definitely have the opportunity to lose their business in those first few seconds of your initial contact. It may be as simply as a broken link on your website or a staff member who doesn’t have their game face on that particular morning.

You’ve heard me say this before and I’m going to say it again… because it’s important. What ever business you think that you are in, you’re not. Your organization is first and foremost in the people business. Secondarily, you are in the relationship business. You need customers who are more than merely satisfied. You need customers who are going to be genuinely “loyal” through the years. And that can only occur if you and your people are willing to invest in the process of building long term mutually beneficial relationships that stand the test of time, service and competition.

Otherwise, prospects and customers will continually come and then go. The result outcome will be that your organization will ultimately plateau and then fail to grow any further due to customer migration.

Several years ago, one of the national accounting and consulting firms performed a research study on customer satisfaction. What they were surprised to discover was that 88% of all “satisfied” customers were willing to switch to another company for just about any reason. While the issue of price was not the prevailing quantifier, 80% of satisfied customers indicated that they would do business elsewhere next time for a lower price.

If your organization is going to truly capitalize on its opportunities to develop meaningful customer relationships, then you must first define “who” your ideal customers are, “what” it is that they want, what their “needs” are and exactly what it is that they “expect” from you. When your organization and your people learn how to appropriately respond to the wants, needs and expectations of your ideal prospects and customers -- You will stand a far greater chance of building customer loyalty and solid relationships that can stand the test of time.

In the event that you’re not convinced of just how critical this issue is in the New Economy, then consider the following fact:

On average, U.S companies currently lose 50% of their customers every 5 years.

Secondarily, your organization would also be wise to consider the observation of the Gallup Organization of nearly ten years ago, which stated that “Regardless of how high a company’s satisfaction levels may appear to be, satisfying customers without creating an emotional connection with them has no real value.”

The only way your organization will ever make an emotional connection with its prospects and customers is the day that the organization commits to creating customer relationships that are based upon “value”.

Until then, your prospects and customers will have no other way of quantifying their relationship with you except to default to the age old measurement of “price”.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

Embracing Change

The single most important role of leadership is determining the future direction of your organization.

In such capacity, your responsibility as a leader demands that you properly align organizational structures, people and processes. The ever present challenge that most often impedes this essential leadership function is the lack of clarity about the leadership skills that are required to actually effect organizational alignment.

There is a very distinct difference in the leadership skills that are necessary to develop a sound strategic plan for the organization and those which are required to actually build organizational culture and manage change.

As market conditions, economic conditions and trends change… The functionality and direction of your organization remains in a constant state of flux. Resultantly, the objectives and goals of your organization will as well constantly be evolving.

In that the wants and needs of citizens, businesses, vacationers and consumers are constantly changing, it is incumbent upon your organization to be positioned to respond appropriately. This continual change will ultimately impact your organization’s functionality, direction and organizational alignment.

When leadership is immersed in the day to day operational challenges of the organization, it becomes every so easy to fall behind the curve of change. There are countless numbers of organizations that were once well regarded household names that are no longer part of the business landscape because the failed to keep abreast of change.

Regardless of what is happening inside of your organization on a day to day basis, whether at the end of next quarter or the end of next year -- Your leadership and the organization are going to wind up “somewhere”.

Your organization’s leadership needs to comprehend that the organization is not only traversing market conditions, it is also traveling in time. Consider this concept from the following perspective… Your organization has places that it wants to go in the future.

For example, business organizations want to go to a place where they have increased sales, lower operating costs, new markets, better workers, new products and better equipment.

In like fashion, municipal organizations want to go to a place where they have more visitors, more diversity of attractions, activities and entertainment, lower crime rates, better public safety, better ratings and rankings, a cleaner more attractive city and more convention business.

All of these places that organizations want to go can readily be viewed as goals and objectives. They can also be viewed as critical components of the organization’s mission and vision.

Your organization’s ability to successfully reach these future destinations is entirely dependent on your leadership preparedness to embrace change and maintain proper organizational alignment.

The Leadership Academy… Changing the way organizations and people work, perform and live.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

The Performance Gap

There is an ever widening gap in the work place between job proficiency and job productivity.

During the time of America’s industrial revolution in the early 20^th century there was a clear standard the existed with regard to the wages to be earned and the work to be performed.

There was a profound performance protocol that linked job proficiency with job productivity that made them virtually inseparable. The accepted standard for compensation in America’s burgeoning industrial organizations was known as “piecework”. 

Wage incentives in the form of piecework were intended to successfully boost worker efficiency, effectiveness and output. In turn, industrial workers were self motivated to increase their personal competency, skill proficiency and productivity. The end result was a win-win scenario for both the organization and the worker.

The piecework concept was straight forward and simple. Moreover, it provided a clear and resounding answer to the worker’s #1 concern when it came to their job -- The proverbial W.I.I.F.M question… “What’s In It For Me?”

As we fast forward to present time, the 21^st century post industrial period offers little in the way of wage incentives. Even in the once lucrative sales business, most sales people find that their supposed sales bonuses and awards are always just beyond their performance reach. Their incentives are more theoretical than reality, because the organization itself is the one that is creating the set points for the bonuses and awards which are based on the organization’s revenue requirements as opposed to the respective capabilities of their sales force.

In our current age of information technology the relationship between “proficiency” and “productivity has become virtually nonexistent. 100 years ago piecework ruled the roost and salaried positions were few and far between. Today, the vast majority of job positions are either fixed salary or a flat hourly wage with little or no option for overtime -- As a high percentage of employers have adopted a stringent no overtime policy as a result of the Great Recession.

With rare exception, other than a few remaining trades, the piecework model has become an antiquated dinosaur. True productivity has become severely impaired as a direct result of the lack of achievable wage incentives and worker motivation.

As adolescents, your workers received scholastic based proficiency testing to determine what they had learned (what they know). In contrast, as adults the real world focus shifted to what can they “do”?

The reality is that adult workers in mass are not fully utilizing the skills that they have already acquired. This is attributable to a variety of contributing causes that include a lack of personal motivation, work ethic, incentives and the inadequacy of their leadership to engage them.

Authentic leadership bears the responsibility of bringing out the best in people by helping the organization and its people to use their talents, abilities, skills, education and professional training more often, more effectively and more successfully. This will ultimately enhance worker proficiency while increasing organizational productivity.

The Leadership Academy… Changing the way organizations and people work, perform and live.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

Knowledge Is Not Power

For the record, I’m quite serious about the above ascertain. Like myself, you most likely hear people saying that “Knowledge is power” on a regular basis. But, have you ever stopped to really question this statement? If knowledge really is power, how is it that so many well educated people are performing in such a mediocre fashion?

How is it that technology companies that employ scads of IT Consultants have internal technology issues and then wind up engaging the services of an outside IT Consulting firm to come in and assess their problem? The last thing that their company or any company truly needs is another “expert”.

This exact same scenario occurs with engineering firms who like wise turn to an outside engineering consultant to fix their engineering problem. In fact this is an accepted practice in virtually every field of business and industry.

If mere knowledge was power… Then these companies wouldn’t need to consult with external sources of expertise in their own field. Simply take a moment to consider that these employers recruited and hired their IT people and engineers based on their education, training and experience in the first place. There is an abundance of talent already on board with these employers. If there is one thing that these organizations are not lacking… it’s people with plenty of “smarts”.

In her book “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits”, author Verne Harnish recalls a story about Charles Schwab the CEO of Bethlehem Steel Company in the early 1900’s. CEO Schwab was conversing with a management consultant who inferred that Schwab’s people gain more knowledge around managing.

Charles Schwab responded with the now famous statement “What we need around here is not more knowing, but more doing! If you will help us to do the things we already know we ought to do, I’ll gladly pay you anything you ask!”

Like any bright consultant would do, he took CEO Schwab up on his challenge and then asserted “In 20 minutes, I’ll show you how to get your organization to do at least 50% more.” The advice which then provided to Charles Schwab was to:

● Write down and prioritize your 5 most important tasks to complete in the next business day.

● Put the list in your pocket until tomorrow when you will take it out and start working on number one.

● Look at that item every 15 minutes until it’s done.

● Then move on to the next and then the next.

● Don’t be concerned if you only finish two or three or even one because you will be working on the most important things. 

Charles Schwab who was compensated in the amount of a million dollars a year by Andrew Carnegie for his leadership abilities and expertise stated that “this was the most profitable lesson he had ever learned.” What exactly was this valuable lesson you ask? It was this:

The organization whether small or large that understands and executes on the power of focusing on priorities will progress and succeed.

CEO Schwab paid the consultant $25,000 for this sterling advice, which in the early 1900’s was a huge sum of money. Especially when you consider that it was for just a few short minutes.

I completely concur with Charles Schwab that knowing is void of value unless there is real doing… For knowledge only has power when it is applied and subsequently implemented.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

Build A Better Business

Throughout the annals of history there have been countless times when the hallowed halls of Ivy League institutions of higher learning and the walleyed investors of Wall Street simply didn’t get it right.

Given the continuing economic uncertainty… This may be such a time.

As a business executive, entrepreneur or public servant you need to shift your focus from what isn’t working and make every attempt to refocus your attention on who and what is in fact working in these tumultuous times.

For there is a very specific group of business organizations that comprise virtually every segment of business and industry that are doing extraordinarily well… even in the New Economy. These unique organizations encompass supermarkets, engineering, construction, photography, staffing, holding companies, industrial components, manufacturing, architecture, electrical equipment, environmental services, dairy, retail, sporting goods, motel management, technology and more.

The common component that all of these companies regardless of size, stature or business classification share is that they are all “employee owned”.

Some of the household names of employee owned organizations that you are undoubtedly familiar with include Publix Supermarkets, Piggly Wiggly, W.L. Gore, Davey Tree Experts, Kinney Drugs and Graybar Electric.

Unlike traditional business organizations that employ a “top down” approach to their operations, employee owned organizations hold to a “bottom up” business philosophy that accommodates each employee’s status as an owner.

Publix Super Markets is currently the largest employee owned company in the United States with revenues of over $24 billion and more than 140,000 employees. Publix has the esteemed distinction of being one of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America”. Publix stock which is tightly held by its employee owners, has (since the company first launched) grown twice as fast the S&P 500 index at a rate of more than 19% percent per year.

A ranking of the Top 100 companies by Fortune Magazine in 2009 revealed that 14% of the companies listed were in fact employee owned. Moreover, this trend and its underlying business model are on the grow globally. The John Lewis Partnership is a 81,000 employee owned corporation that owns the largest department store chain in England, the Waitrose Supermarket chain and other brands. Over the course of the past decade, JLP grew faster than Macy’s and in 2011eclipsed 13.7 billion dollars in revenue.

One of the organizational attributes that contributes to the success of employee owned companies is that the organization’s accountability is to the employees themselves and not a group of external investors or shareholders.

In like fashion, employee owned organizations take their mission and “value” proposition earnestly to heart. It’s no longer a meaningless platitude, rather it is a set of basic principles that everyone can believe in, take pride in and govern their individual actions by.

Employee owned organizations typically have excellent communications that flow freely throughout the organization while promoting ideas, creativity and innovation. As well, employee owned organizations generally have a unique perspective with regard to organizational alignment of talent, skills, experience and expertise. This occurs through the process of having those employees with the greatest levels of expertise in a given area of operation making or recommending the decisions for that portion of the organization’s operation.

As for the benefits of an employee owned organization, you need only consider the research performed by Harvard and Rutgers which confirmed that employee ownership fosters high performance, lower employee turnover, increased trust, greater shareholder value and long term sustainability.

Clearly, there is much to be learned from employee owned organizations that can be applied to your organization regardless of size or industry that will help you to build a better business.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

Are You Asking The Right Questions?

One of the hallmark qualities of a great leader is their ability to ask the "right" questions. In your role as an executive leader or business owner, your ability to effectively lead your organization and people formally is rooted in your ability to first provide personal leadership of "self".

While many of your daily self questions are routine, such as “What’s the weather like this morning? “What should I wear today?” or “What do I want for lunch?” At your performance level, the significance of your questions changes dramatically as they will ultimately affect your professional result outcomes… “How can we better serve our customers?” or “What can we do to further engage our employees on a daily basis?”

So, when you take inventory of the 50,000+ thoughts and 30,000 decisions that you make on a daily basis, exactly what kind of questions are you actually asking yourself? More importantly, are you even paying attention to how you are answering yourself? Following are some of the top questions that successful people pose to themselves on a regular basis:

How can I make the world a better place in the time I’m privileged to be here? Consider how you would want others to remember you after you are gone. Even if it’s just one thing, what is the legacy that you want to leave behind to benefit others? What is most important to you? Does the life that you are living reflect those priorities?

Where and how am I wrong? This is one of the most powerful questions that you can ask of yourself or your people. Everyone including you makes mistakes and bad decisions. When people make the shift from defending that they didn’t do anything wrong to forthrightly considering where and how they went wrong -- Everyone will get to the truth much quicker and then begin the process of investing their time and efforts to actually become better and achieve more.

Why am I so tense and serious? Learn to lighten up. Not only will you feel better, it will help the others that are around you. Adults laugh about 15 times a day, however that includes nervous, put-on and sarcastic laughter. Children on the other hand laugh 400+ times a day, because they allow it to be natural. Laughter is infectious… Pass it on… and by the way, it’s a “win-win”.

How much of this stuff do I really need? Devote more time to learning something new every day than acquiring something new every day. How much of your stuff do you really and truly need? How much of it are you actually using on a daily basis? Honestly, you’ve got thoughts, possessions, habits and even people in your life that you would be better off without. Too many meetings, too many nonproductive social media messages, too many TV programs and not enough quality time to think clearly. Decide what has to go and then be courageous enough to follow through with it.

Am I facing my fears? If there is one thing that is going to hold you back it’s fear. This question requires brutal self honesty, as most people want to appear strong and in control. Are you afraid that others might see your vulnerabilities? The greatest fear that people have overall is the fear of public speaking and everyone ultimately fears something. Whether you stuck your foot in your mouth, spilled a glass of wine or embarrassed yourself in some other way… You are not alone. No one is perfect, so get over yourself and in the process understand that you can only go as far as your greatest fear.

What has to change? In all candor, there are probably a number of things that you know that you need to change in your life. The reality however is that you either feel overwhelmed or have attempted to tackle too many things at one time and then threw in the towel. Change is always big, at least in your mind. So treat it like the elephant analogy and eat it one bite at a time. Identify the one thing that absolutely has to change. Now ask yourself the following two questions… What are the consequences that you are already living with as a result of your inaction? What is the “cost” if you don’t change it now?

Learning to ask the “right” questions of yourself and others will re-frame important thought processes while leading to better problem solving and decision making. It is also an important step forward in creating a life, a career and an organization by design.

Copyright © 2013 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.