I have decided that I am going to apply some principles from “The Four Hour Work Week”.  I find myself being entirely too fractured during the day and I need to limit my distractions and make sure I am most effective for my team.

The first thing I am going to try is not checking email all day, all the time.  I began this process last night.  I have decided to check my email at 11AM and 4PM daily.  This has been an incredible challenge.  I keep wanting to grab my phone.  I am desperate to see what is happening and if I am missing anything.  So far, so good…  nothing groundbreaking has happened that I needed to know about in the last few hours.  I will update in a few days to let everyone know how this is going.  So far this is similar to when I quit smoking.  It feels good, but it still hurts.

Has anyone out there done this successfully?.. and if so- how did it go?

I think that many leaders believe they are good  at leading others because they were made managers.  I would like to leave these people with a couple of thoughts:

• “To lead, one must follow.” Lao Tzu –  SO READ!  Take the time to study other leaders and come to terms that even born leaders study and  hone their craft.
• Don’t beat your team, lead your team.  Leaders are leaders because people FOLLOW them.  If you cannot turn your back on the  team to focus on the future, then you may have a leadership problem.

Do, Reh, Me, So, La, Fa, Tee, Do… or at least that’s how I remember it.  3rd grade music class with Mrs. Peterson.  The first time I was ever introduced to formalized music and singing different parts.  I spent plenty of time in church and understood the concept of “making a joyful noise” with the congregation, but my music teacher was showing me something different.

I grew older and left music classes in middle school  and then came back to them in high school.   Once I was in varsity choir, I learned something incredible.  I learned that when everyone sings their part at the right time and on key, a beautiful cacophony of sound is created. A wall of  emotion in different layers that allows the listener to close their eyes and experience depth and elegance.

What most people understand,  but sometimes forget is the rehearsal and preparation needed in order to create this experience.  It is important to understand how much goes into finding harmony because the same structure can be used to build a world class company.

Harmony is defined by Princeton as:  congruity of parts with one another and with the whole.  Harmony in music allows for there to be multiple people singing different notes at the same time as part of  a greater sound.  Sometime people can be singing different words at the same time, too.  The purpose of a composer is to tie all of it together to create a focused experience for the listener.  In order to tie everything together, a well written plan must be created in the form of sheet music.

Leaders should provide the same type of written plan for their team.  Here is  a quick guide for creating harmony in your team:

• Identify the theme of your piece: What is the goal of your team? What are your values? Write them down.
• Who sings what part: Talk to your team.  See who is a bass or soprano.  Don’t make a tenor into a alto. Put the write singer in the  right place.
• Rehearse!:  Meet with each team member to discuss the plan.  Meet one on one and in groups.  Individual training and rehearsal as well as group training is critical to the success of a team.
• Give everyone their part in writing:  Provide written direction and updates to your team regularly.

Anyone who has seen ‘Office Space’ remembers the scene where Aniston goes off on her boss at Chotchkie’s.   Flair!  It’s an empowering moment.  The kind of moment many of us wish we had the guts to create for ourselves.  There is nothing as empowering as taking the upper hand on a person or group that has been sitting on top of you for months or years. Honestly- this is not the best way to handle a decision to change jobs.

What causes a person to want to change jobs?  Could be many things..  Most of the time a person leaves his or her boss not the company or team. Ever see emails from people to their team when they leave their jobs?  Typically they say things like-  ”I loved working with you guys” or “please contact me if you need anything” or “I value the relationships I have built here”.  Seems as if many people like their team, just not their boss.  People do not tell a company or group of folks these type of positive well wishes if they do not mean them.  Maybe they do-  maybe just to be polite..  but I find that shallow.  I find that most people are not shallow and most people want to do the right thing.   Which is what this whole post is about.

FLAIR!

When it’s time to go-  what happens??  I believe that the onus has been put on employees to provide a heads up to their company.  BUT..  What onus does a company or leader have in regard to an employee who is on his way out?  This is very interesting to me.  I have been so passionate about hiring the right people and developing the talent within my teams, I have not taken the time to understand the obligation of a leader to his team when an employee finds he is ready to move on.

Companies and managers must take the time to understand why the employee is leaving the organization.  It is always the hope of any firm that their employees are not leaving due to internal issues within the company.  Many people I know feel it is OK for someone to leave because of personal reasons like family matters or illness- but a chance to take a promotion or move to a better comp package with a competitor is not OK.  Why the dichotomy?

The feeling that a company is owed something in regard to how their employees quit is wrong.  As a manager or leader, if you have  let your team get into a position where they need to look outside your organization to find opportunity, happiness or fair compensation, then you have failed.  The reason  managers do not feel a team member can happily move to another firm is out of shear frustration with their own inadequacies to keep their team intact.

I hear some of you- BUT!  ”There is more to a company than just the employees!!!” I understand a company has an obligation to many stake holders including employees, clients and shareholders.  These different groups should not over ride a core piece of humanity, which is to take care of one another.  Managers must remember that changing jobs is incredibly difficult on people and the decision to move on was is generally not made lightly.

I believe that managers and companies should remember a few simple rules when a person decides it is time to move on.

• Managers and leaders must take care of their people to the END
• 2 weeks notice is a two way street
• You never know when you may want someone back
• It’s a small world and people talk, post and blog
• Other employees see what you do

Leaders should remember that the road to division has more than one driver and that fairness and equality are critical to building lifelong relationships with employees.  Employers should be quick to recognize that a small bit of generosity during a disruptive time in a person’s life will go a VERY long way.  People will remember how they were treated and will convey that sentiment to people still working at the company, potential hires, the competitions and possible clients.

A recent Houston Chronicle Article discusses 2 weeks notice.  ”Most companies view it as an act of thoughtfulness and consideration by the employee, and they want to encourage that kind of behavior by keeping the worker on the payroll.

If they don’t, he said, it doesn’t take long for word to get around that the company will put its departing employees in a bind.”

With the power of social media, companies should remember that one person can reach thousands.  It is always better to do right by your people even when they are walking out the door-  you never know when you will walk in on them again or who they may be taking with them.

I will be giving away an advanced copy of Tony’s new book: Delivering Happiness,  before it comes out in stores (June 2010).  I am going to have a contest on my blog.  I want to know why you think your company or team needs to build a service centric culture of happiness.  Be as long or as short as you like-  but post a comment here.  Participating with others can help as well.  The person with the most interesting or convincing story will win.

Delivering-Happiness

Looking forward to the responses.  I will  pick a winner with the help of some of my business friends and family next weekend and announce the winner on Monday April 26th.  All entries should be in before Midnight on Saturday- April 24th.  Good Luck!!!

I was sitting at lunch.  I was having a bad week and was looking at my plastic plate piled high with chicken fingers and fries.  I love chicken fingers.  They are a great passion of mine.  I sat across the table from one of the managers in my firm.  I knew what lunch was going to be about-  he was going to complain about the company, about his place in the organization and decisions that he did not understand.

I could feel his negative energy creep into my psyche..  I was beginning to pile on.  I started to complain more and more.  It was a feeding frenzy and we were both pissed off by the time I had finished my strips.  It was now time to go back to work.

So there it is…  negative begets negative…  I guess we all know this.  But I am curious about why we were both negative.. We were both PASSIONATE about our frustration. What happened that allowed us to get to this point?

The funny part is that we spent considerable negative energy because of our positive passion for our company.   Both of us wanted our firm to be better.  We were proud of what had been built and what we had contributed. What was missing??

Could it have been vision?  I have come to the conclusion that many firms do not have a clear vision.  Vision:  A focus on overall goals and a road map we could all follow.  Without a clearly communicated purpose, a company is the same as a boat listing in the waves.

A Pirate’s Life for Me!

Think about an 18th century pirate ship.  Consider a ship that has a group of senior officers who have defined their goals.  The ship sails the seas with a clear purpose.  The Captain and his officers explain to their crew how each of them is critical in achieving specific goals for the journey.  The men on board understand how they contribute to the cause and what their ultimate payoff is when they reach their goal.  From the cook to the man in the crow’s nest, each person is playing a role.  There is a vision and a purpose for each person.

Now consider the boat that is not clear in purpose.  The captain tells his crew that they will sail… generally in “that direction”.  The crew is expected to perform their jobs to keep the boat and team in line each day.  From time to time, the boat may encounter a ship to plunder or an island to explore,  but there is no focused direction.  There is no plan to troll waters rich with the King’s ships.  Just to sail and to do what the captain says as soon as he says it.

At some point, the crew will begin to mutter… they will begin to question their need to wash the decks or get up early to man the lookout.  The crew will lose their passion to push ahead and at some point they will eat their chicken strips together venting frustration over the captain, officers and their decisions.  Passion for success turns into negative frustration.  Engagement is lost and a mutiny is at hand.

Mutiny! Vision is Core to Engagement

Line of Sight

It is crucial to provide line of sight for your team.  Line of sight is simple-  Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company’s performance?

How does a company or team keep an employee engaged through line of sight?  Here is the bottom line-  your team and your company need to focus on overall goals.  It is incredibly simple. Leadership includes setting goals.

Once a team has goals for the year or for the quarter, then each member should be presented a road-map of  how their daily tasks contribute to those goals.  I personally like having annual ‘Outlooks’ with employees.  These are very different than the ‘review’ structure that many companies use.

Outlooks

An Outlook should be done at least once a year. It is written and should be very simple in structure.  There should be a focus on the future rather than past accomplishments.  Outlooks take into account company and team goals and align those with employee desires, strong suits and goals.  Being able to focus on what makes each person great and providing a way to line that up with the team provides a strong path for everyone to succeed.

Once employees understand what the overall goals are and how they are being provided an opportunity to contribute to those achievements, engagement can begin.  Without a clear and focused vision, company goals will be difficult to define and Outlooks may not be effective.

Do you have a vision that is clearly communicated?  Is the vision of the company lined up with each employee’s greatest attributes and passions?

“I don’t get paid enough to do this.” I have heard it, thought it and even lived it.  What happens when someone wakes up one morning and comes to the conclusion that they are not happy with their job?  Why does a person finally decide they have had enough of their job?  In almost all instances, it is because the employee is no longer engaged.

Engaged…  ??  Leadership is about fostering engagement.  The Conference Board defines engagement as “a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work”.

Patricia Soldati summarizes some great points on engagement.  Her findings from the Conference Board study summarize 8 key drivers of employee engagement:

• Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and ‘walk the talk’.
• Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
• Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company’s performance?
• Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?
• Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
• Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one’s level of engagement
• Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee’s skills?
• Relationship with one’s manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?

Each of the drivers listed above should be studied in depth by managers and leaders.

I Got Your "Working Late" Right Here!

Why do your employees hate you and their job? Most likely you are not setting goals and giving your team an opportunity to achieve in areas where they excel. I will be looking at all of these drivers over the next few weeks beginning with line of sight between employee goals and company goals.

Do you have a culture of engagement in your company?  How does a positive culture provide engagement?  Do you have examples of positive motivators in your firm?

Leadership Manifesto-  Lesson 2…   Balance

I have yet to just talk in my blog….  rarely have I taken the time to just open up my thoughts and let the world know what I am doing or thinking.  I have used my blog as a base of operations.  I venture into subjects and connect with people from a familiar spot-  just close enough to who I am to be safe and far enough out to learn…. a leadership guerrilla- if you will.  There has actually been something bubbling……

I quit my job . A job I had for almost 6 years.  Not the same job I had when I started,  but MY job none the less.

Made a Fortune Off Being Happy

We all consider what will happen when we finally make a life changing decision.  Most of us think the change will be GREAT and that we will be free and happy.  Others may feel changes are like train wrecks… difficult and mangled with fault in all manner of people and circumstance.

The truth is that change can be more like a grey cloud.  A strange place where you are not sure what is coming, just that something is different.  Maybe I am different….maybe I worry too much….

The truth is-  I do worry.  I worry that the challenges I leave behind are my doing.  I worry that the people I am moving away from may need me.  I have concern that what I helped build may only be sustainable with my help. These are all DARK ideas and suspicions.   These suspicions are probably not entirely wrong but more than likely they are not entirely right.  They are the wrong focus.  They are not what I should be coming to terms with.  The reasons I am making a change….

What I am coming to terms with is that I am making a change  for my family and me.  The ideas of being a corporate baron have been replaced with a desire to smile and listen to my wife and not be secretly considering the changes I need to make with a business process.  I would rather get home to play light-sabers than stay late for an accounting meeting.  I want to go to soccer games and not be on my cell phone.  I am finding that life is forcing a balance in me.

I am coming to terms with the idea that a leader should be the  same person at home as he is at work. The foundation stems from a leader identifying himself through his values before placing his worth in his career or his ambition. Something I have recently discovered…

This is what my decision to change jobs has boiled down to for me personally:  I had to build a new career level where I could start over and be me (balanced me).  2 weeks in Mexico would not have allowed me the rebirth I needed to change my path and stay at the same company.   I had gotten obsessed with making things work…  This job, this firm and this position were all too personal and it was time to make a break.

So-  I want to thank those who have followed and argued and considered.  I want to thank the people that have told me their story and asked for my help.  I am grateful to those who believed in what we were doing and truly thought they could be better people. Everything that we ever did was because you all DID IT.  All I ever did was ask you all to live up to your potential….  and you have…..

To those I am about to meet…  I am creative.  I freak out if I cannot do something creative and artistic.  Building a company, a department or a process gives me an outlet for creativity.  Be prepared to be asked ‘why’ 5 different times and 4 different ways.  Are you accountable?   Are you ready to push others to be their best for no other reason than you know it is how you get results? Are you ready to give without expecting to get something back?  Do you understand balance?

As for my parting thoughts….  Jimmy Buffett said it best,

“Oh, yesterdays are over my shoulder, So I can’t look back for too long. There’s just too much to see waiting in front of me, and I know that I just can’t go wrong.

If it suddenly ended tomorrow, I could somehow adjust to the fall. Good times and riches and son of a bitches, I’ve seen more than I can recall.”

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never us a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

So there I was-  just putting the finishing touches on a new process masterpiece!  I had worked on it for weeks.  I had been given a directive to fix a problem with one of our processes.  (I could go into detail, but it does not matter as my story is really a conglomeration many different times when I have worked to develop a new product or process. )

I was debriefing my boss on the progress of the initiative.  She had no involvement in my planning up to this point despite the multiple emails I sent her detailing our progress.  I had asked for meetings about our status and she replied, “I trust you are getting it done.”  No Meeting….

It was time to begin execution of the process changes.  I began to walk her through the last steps.  We were 2 days out from executing my plan.  That is when I heard the ‘Seagull Call’.

In Ann Rowley’s book, Leadership Therapy: Inside the Mind of Microsoft, she discusses the Seagull Call.  Microsoft management referred to an event where Sr. management would come in at the last minute and swoop down over their project and crap all over it.  Much like a seagull at the beach.  Wow….  I love this analogy.

The call was loud and swift.  I had been pooped on.  My project was ripped apart at the last minute.  I managed to fight off most of the changes, but the damage was done.  I felt like a child and thought my work was lacking in some way.  My project was changed and did not have the impact I had intended it too.

This is a Great Idea.... For Me to POOP ON!

This was not the last time I would be pooped on.   It was not the only time I had been involved in a pooping, either.  I have been guilty of letting a project run too far without my guidance and then jumping in at the last minute to ‘fix’ it.  I have done this out of poor planning on my part and trusting a team member to read my mind.

As a leader, it is our job to provide guidance.  We should be setting goals and giving feedback to our team members regularly.  Our team will only grow if we allow them to execute all the way to the end.  When a project is changed, dumped or micro-managed at the last minute; there is a strong possibility it is the manager’s fault and not the employee’s fault.

When allowing an employee to develop a process, product or project, managers need to:

• Provide structured guidance and feedback along the way
• Set clear goals and desired outcomes
• Create boundaries from the jump
• Allow your employee to struggle-  difficulty is just as important as success
• Do NOT come by at the last minute to ‘fix’ the project

By setting your people up from the beginning for success, you eliminate the possibility of having to poop on their ideas at the last minute.