Lack of Appreciation has Consequences

I attended a banquet this weekend for an organization in which they give out awards for achievement and for longevity. The awards are presented to both the employee and their spouse for support of the organizaiton's efforts. During the longevity awards, which are given for 5 year increments of service, there was a gentlemen at my table who had a noticeable look on his face. My wife attended the event with me and she leaned over to him and asked "was he okay?"

It seems that the organization neglected to recognize he and his wife for his five years of service. This organization has a rather high turnover rate (an organization with whom I have not consulted with on retention) and a seemingly simple mistake like this can act like a pebble in a pond.

I was approached by the organization's leader and the subject came up. His response was "I was unaware that he was due this award." Unfortunately, that excuse doesn't fly in our technological age. The ability to parse data and determine when someone joined the organization and in turn to recognize them is a rather simple task, if organizational retention is important to the organization and it's leadership. Apparently in this case, it is not.

After some discussion, it seems that this neglected employee has decided that he will be moving on shortly. It's unfortunate that the lack of emphasis and attention to detail will cost this organization a highly skilled worker.

Who is your organization failing to appreciate?

It's Not My Job!

I've spoke with many business professional's who have become extremely frustrated with employees and leaders who state "It's not my job!"

Unfortunately, leaders do not do a great job of setting expectations when it comes to onboarding employees. An employee's or leader's "job" is to create value for all stakeholders; shareholders, customers, employees and the public. They accomplish this by doing whatever it takes, so long as it is legally, ethically and morally correct. Their career; accounting, HR, IT, sales, etc., does not matter.

I've held senior leaderhsip positions and I've mopped floors, taken out trash and answered the ringing phone. It's a leaders responsibility to set the example and the expectation from the begining, at the recruitment phase.

American businesses are loosing their competitive advantage by not setting the standards upfront, holding people accountable and growing their business on many of the values that this great country was founded upon.

Leadership's Competitive Advantage

As a values-based leader, your values define the culture of the organization. The culture you create is your competitive advantage in the marketplace. In order to change the organization, it must begin with personal change.

Once the individual leaders change, and begin to build team cohesion amongst the leadership team, then and only then will a true competitive advantage be achieved.

Organizational change will only occur when individual leaders at the top set the example. Here's the simple truth:

1. Developing values-based leaders drives employees engagement.

2. Employee engagement drives customer satisfaction.

3. Customer satisfaction drives your profits.

I've said many times that Aristotle got it right when he spoke of the three proofs or appeals. He spoke of Pathos (emotions), Ethos (Character) and Logos (logic). It takes leaders with Values (emotions) who execute them with Valor (character) to create Value. We determine value logically.

In order to create a high performance organization, values-based leadership development must take place. In doing so, you will create value for all stakeholders; shareholders, customers, employees and the public.

The Leadership Effect: Influence

It seems as leaders, we get short-sighted sometimes. I experienced a great joy this evening. Nine years ago, while I was a soldier at Ft. Bragg, NC assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), I had a young soldier named Michael P. that worked for me.

One of the things that I did with new soldiers was have them write down their personal and professional goals. I couldn't help them achieve them if I didn't know what they were. Michael's goals were to go to Officer Candidate School (OCS), finish his degree and eventually become a Special Forces Qualified soldier.

Michael and I stayed in touch over the years as he completed OCS. Then attended degree completion for his Bachelor's. We talked more as he was a Rifle Platton Leader in the 101st Airborne in Kentucky, before and after his deployments to Iraq. We spoke even more as he returned to North Carolina to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course.

I had the tremendous honor of watching my former soldier, and good friend Michael P. earn his Green Beret this evening at a ceremony at Ft. Bragg.

See, leadership is about influence. We often get short-sighted about the task or project at hand, and neglect to look at the bigger picture. Leaders with values, who really care, influence lives, not just company's, projects or tasks.

Well done Michael!
De Oppessor Liber!

Grow Employees - Grow Your Business

One mission will grow your business. Build your people, focus on that mission, and they will build your business. It may sound simple, but many things in life are. Notice I didn't say easy, just simple.

When illness strikes: Leadership Succession

It's a terrible thing to loose a beloved leader. I know this from first hand experience during my military career. It takes a strong organizational culture to continue at the same peak levels when the death of a leader occurs.

The glue that holds it together are the organizaiton's values. As long as the leader who succeeds continues to live, model and exhibit the values of the organization, their transition will be relatively smooth.

Here are some suggestions for helping to get through this difficult time:

• Acknowledge the passing leaders contributions and provide examples of how they modeled the organization's values.
• Reassure personnel that those values live on with the organization.
• Provide personnel with an immediate example of how you will execute a project, task or mission with the same values.
• When employees feel they share the same values with executives and senior leaders, difficult times can be overcome. In the end, everyone is better for it.

Gossip Kills

Is Office Gossip Hurting Your Business?

As leaders, we have a responsibility to stop all gossip in our organizations. First, it kills morale. Second, it impedes productivity. What values is your organization investing in? Look at the values you reward and you should be able to determine the behavior you can expect. There are a few things you can do to squelch office gossip:

1. Set the expectations during recruitment, the interview and during orientation.

2. Stop it immediately when noticed and remind the offenders that it is not valued at the company

3. Terminate repeat offenders. These individuals are not the proper values-fit for your organization

The greatest impact on organizational performance and employee behavior is the example that executives and senior leadership provide.

Follow the Leader

We all remember this game we played as children. There's a great lesson to be learned from follow the leader. As Dr. John Maxwell says, "Leadership is caught as much as taught." Remember, the gist of the game was to always to do whatever the leader did. It didn't matter whether the leader jumped, you jumped, if they stepped on a line, you stepped on a line.
The same is true in business. People do what people see. Leadership is about setting the example, what I call Valor. It's having the character to do the hard right vs. the easy wrong. While setting the example, we create experiences. People will remember memories long after the gift is gone.

Leadership is:

Chosen
Fun
Visible
Valuable
Memorable

Lead, follow and get out of the way. Sometimes you must do all three at some point. Remember, Valor is visible so take the hard right over the easy wrong.

Engaging Employees

Organizations have the greatest impact on employee engagement. A new study released by Towers Perrin, a Management consulting firm in Stamford, CT titled "The Global Workforce Study" confirmed the most powerful driving factors are Senior Leadership, learning and development and the organizations reputation. The study examined the relationships with supervisors and areas of rewards, development and leadership. The study examined 40 global operations and found a direct relationship between "high employee engagement" and better financial performance in operating margin, net profit margin, revenue growth and earnings per share grow as compared to "low employee engagement" companies.

Organizational Values are critical factors to engaging employees. The study revealed that the words and actions of the senior leadership had the greatest impact on worker engagement. Only 21% of workers feel engaged. This leaves much room for improvement. Furthermore, the companies that have highly engaged employees have higher retention rates.

The study confirms the 3V Leadership concept of Values, Valor and Value; it takes Executives and Senior Leaders who live organizational Values with Valor to create Value. This is how employees stay engaged and retained while organizations grow and prosper.