The Recession: What’s In It For You?

General Motors, Chrysler, Air Canada and Canwest Global are “on the ropes.” They, of course, are all blaming the recession for their current situation. They won’t admit that they have been building sub-standard quality products or offering sub-standard service, sub-standard programming, over-extending and over-leveraging themselves when times were easy or possessing a “take as much out of the market while you can” attitude. No, it’s the fault of the recession. It’s much easier to point the finger squarely at something out of your control and not be accountable for your performance.

This time in our economy has been nothing more than someone pushing the “reset” button to weed out the weak, the lazy and the greedy. It’s easy to make money when everyone is flush with cash and many did. The challenge is in listening to what the market wants, what the market demands and what the market expects and give people what they want – not what business thinks they need. The companies who will survive this time in our economy will be the ones who deserve to – not the ones that have an entitlement attitude because of their tenure in history.

Last week, the Federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported that personal bankruptcies increased over 50% in March 2009 compared to March 2008. That’s “personal” bankruptcies. But what about business bankruptcies during the same period? Business bankruptcies have actually declined by 10% over the same period which means that when times were good in March 2008 there were more bankruptcies than there were when we are supposed to be in a recession. Business is actually doing better during this time in our economy because they are changing, adapting and responding to their customers in a positive way. For those businesses that are in trouble, natural selection and market cycles have a wonderful way of weeding them out.

Let’s not ever forget that you, as a consumer, vote with your dollars. You get to vote who stays in business and who doesn’t. You don’t vote for mediocre service and market complacency. No business is entitled to your money. Every single business should earn it. You get to vote for those businesses you want to succeed. In other words, if there’s nothing in it for you, why would you give your money freely to a business that is doing little for you?

As a consumer, you also get to choose whether or not you participate in this recession. Oh yes, you have a choice. You always have a choice. My friend Marty Park (www.martypark.com) said something so profound recently that I have been finding myself repeating it at every opportunity. He said, “The recession? I’m not participating.”

Here’s why you should make the choice right now as to whether or not you participate in the recession: what’s in it for you? No really, ask yourself what’s in it for you?

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: If there is nothing in it for you, do you participate in something anyway? Of course not. So why do you think that you NEED to participate in the recession? You don’t. Plain and simple, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. The economy is resetting itself. You have no control over that. Let it go and stop worrying. It doesn’t really affect most people. It’s your “personal economy” that’s most important right now. Spend a little less and save a little more. Make business work for your money. You’re in charge. Even during the boom times, people got laid off, got downsized and got squeezed by mergers. They just dusted themselves off and went and found a new job or went back to school to upgrade their skills. You can do that now too.

You’re still buying groceries, the lights are still on and the doors to work are still open for 92% of Canadians. What really has changed? Not much. In fact, in the last year, small businesses with fewer than 20 employees created 36,800 new jobs across Canada. Why can small business create so many new jobs? Because they respond to what customers want. Small business knows that consumers vote with their dollars.

Before you spend a dime today, think about whether or not the business you’re considering spending your money with is actually earning it or not. Don’t give business “pity money” because you feel sorry for them. Make them earn it. Most businesses, fortunately, are starting to figure that out. Those who don’t ever figure it out though, will join the list at the top of this article. But that’s not your problem is it?

Love The Work – Hate The Job

How is it that people can love their work but hate their job? I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s not the job that they hate. It’s likely the work environment. In other words, they love their work and responsibilities but hate the commute, despise their little cubicles, simply tolerate their fellow employees, agonize through the dress-code, get annoyed by meaningless interruptions during the day, hate getting sidetracked by office chatter and overall, simply wonder in deep silence “what is his problem?” when it comes to hearing the office whiner in the next cubicle doing the exact same work.

People who love their work but hate the work environment will usually be the first to seek another job. The average cost of replacing a good worker is about 1.5 times the annual salary of the worker. Simply put, if you’re paying a good worker $50K per year, it will cost the organization about $75K to replace a worker once he or she leaves.

It’s likely that only four hours out of an eight hour work day are productive anyway (perhaps even lower depending on the number of memos flying or how crappy the photocopier is). Idle chatter, noise all around, pointless meetings, quick conversations standing in the doorways of a cubicle, gathering in the coffee room to celebrate Mary’s birthday, figuring out a place for everyone to go for lunch, fifteen minute coffee breaks that last 20-25 minutes. You get the point here. There’s a lot of clutter to struggle through before people actually get to work. And the more people you gather in one place the more distractions there will be.

As an employer, the question you have to ask yourself is: are you paying your workers for their productivity or their presence? Sometimes though, they are one in the same. For example, a house framer has to be on the job in order for the work to get done, but someone who is researching marketing trends doesn’t actually need to be in the office for that to happen. If a worker has a high-speed Internet connection, a computer, email and a phone, they can pretty much work from anywhere.

The key to productivity is to remove distractions. If a worker can work from home (spouse and kids are gone for the day), why not see what kind of productivity you can get from your workers? Offer them an opportunity to occasionally work from home while they are plugged into the office network. Remove the distractions, remove the agonizing commutes of lost productivity time, remove the reasons and excuses for not being able to concentrate on a specific task and, most of all, remove the office whiner (please, please remove the office whiner before someone staples a “Stop Whining” sign to his forehead).

People who are allowed to remove the distractions from their work are more productive. Productive workers find greater reward in their work. People who find great reward in their work rarely seek greener pastures. In other words, get rid of the distractions and productivity will rise. It has to. There’s nothing else left for people to do but work.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Leadership Attitude means having a mindset that inspires your people to want to be better. Treat your people like the potential leaders that they can be and they will rise to the occasion. Treat them as rats in a maze (think of what cubicles look like from overhead), and they will simply be looking for a way out. Think about creative ways to get more out of your people while allowing them a little freedom to do it themselves. Force them punch a clock and they’ll be thinking up creative ways of punching you. Let people do the work they love but don’t force them to do it in a place they hate. Creativity is a key component of a Leadership Attitude.

Hanging Out With Negative People

Let’s say for a second, you were standing in line at your favourite Canadian coffee shop, or in the grocery store or awaiting your turn to pay for your gas fill-up and you saw a newspaper headline on the front page which read: “Canada’s Recession is Over” or “Canada Likely Among First To Recover From Recession.” Would you purchase a copy of that paper to bring home with you?

A headline like that would seem like good news wouldn’t it? You would perhaps want to know more wouldn’t you? At the very least, you would be a little curious. I mean, you’ve been bombarded with sky-is-falling headlines for some months now. Aren’t you in the mood for a little good news?

Well, a headline that appeared in the newspaper this past weekend was the following: “Canada Likely Among First To Recover From Recession.” But that headline was not featured on the front page. It was buried as a three-paragraph story in the bottom left-hand corner of page 2 in the third section of the newspaper.

Here’s why I say that this story was buried. Pages with even numbers (2, 4, 6, etc.) are less-read than odd-numbered pages. Because of how we turn the pages, our eyes focus on the right page first and left page second. That’s why book chapters always start on the right-hand pages. Right-hand pages in the newspaper are prime real-estate: that is to say these are the pages where advertisers would love to be. Right-hand pages get read more than left-hand pages. The chances of readers seeing your ad, if you’re an advertiser, are better on the right page. Left page placement gets a smaller return. But here was the news story, in the bottom-left corner of page 2 in the third section – buried.

I’ll summarize the story: Canada, along with Australia and the UK are expected to be among the first of the advanced economies to emerge from recession and return to normal economic growth. According to Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Canada, Australia and the UK should return to the historical average numbers within the next year. Europe and the USA won’t likely get there for another year after that.

This story would have made a wonderful front-page story. People who have been awaiting a little good news about the economy would have embraced their newspapers. The advertisers who advertised in this edition of the paper would have been advertising to people with a positive mindset. But sadly, that didn’t happen. The newspaper decided that a good news story about the economy wasn’t enough to sell the newspaper that day so they lead with a story of how Calgary’s ring road (a route around the city) may hit $1.5B for a small portion for the road to be built.

Oh, so you know, I got the paper for free at a store that was giving them away. There’s a sign of the economic times huh? They have to give the papers away to get people to read them. Well, I guess sometimes you do get what you pay for.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Be careful who you allow your informational influences to be. Remember that the media is hurting right now. Traditional newspapers are going out of business as more people get their news on-line. Newspapers and television stations are having tough times. The traditional media are desperately clinging to models that clearly aren’t working anymore. And they are still doing their news the old way: “if it bleeds it leads” headlines.

The great thing is that, because you have access to so many news outlets these days, you’re smarter than that. Don’t allow yourself to get sucked into the pandemonium vortex of over-the-top headlines and scaremongering. If you want to see good news and some glimmers of hope, you’ll probably have to find another place to get that from - but they are out there.

The truth is, you wouldn’t surround yourself with a very vocal group of whiners, moaners and complainers on a daily basis would you? So why would you allow the same sort of negative influences into your life by what you read? You have the choice of who your friends are. You have the choice of who you listen to too. Make that choice wisely. You have the choice of whether you develop a strong Leadership Attitude or whether you resign yourself to simply being "sheeple" (people who follow like sheep).

How To Do A "Courtesy Call" With Courtesy

It's been about six months or so since I received a "courtesy call" from my bank. The last time they called, they told me that according to the kinds of transactions I do, that perhaps I was on the wrong service plan. They assured me that day that if I were to change my banking package, I would save a few dollars per month. So I did. And they were right - I saved a few bucks each month.

That call, although it was an interruption in my day, was a courtesy. I was paying too much. They noticed it. They told me. They fixed it. Simple courtesy.

But how often do you get a phone call from organizations who preface their sales pitches with, "this is just a courtesy call." Then they go on, under the guise of offering you courtesy, to try to sell you something, offer you something free in exchange for an appointment or simply try to extract information from you? What's the courtesy there?

A courtesy call is not courteous if all you're wanting to know is if I want to buy another product or service from you. Giving money back to me is a courtesy. Me giving you more money is not courtesy - it's a sale. And just because I may have done business with you in the past does not give you the right to abuse that privilege and attempt to line your own pockets with my money again. That's not courtesy. That's greed.

If you want to make a real "courtesy" call, then don't call and interrupt me when I'm sitting down to dinner. Be courteous and book an appointment to speak with me. Send me something in the mail and offer me the choice of whether I want to speak with you more. Give me the opportunity to extend you some courtesy. What you're giving me right now is not a courtesy call - its an intrusiveness call.

Don't pick through my past purchase information, send it to some overseas call-center, interrupt my dinner, assume I'll welcome your intrusion and expect me to buy from some anonymous person on a telephone and insult me by calling it a courtesy call.

If you want to make a real courtesy call, stop making it all about you and start making it about me, the customer. To make a courtesy call requires my permission for you to call otherwise its not courteous. Sharing my purchase history with some telemarketing call center is not courteous. Asking for a credit card number on the phone is not courteous. Asking me to drop everything I'm doing to discuss with a stranger how I can part with more of my money is not courteous.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Look, if you want to make your intrusive phone call more courteous, develop a Service-Leadership Attitude. How? At the time of my first purchase, set up your courtesy call then. Tell me when you're going to call. Tell me what you will want to discuss. Tell me how long you will take and finally, tell me what's in it for me. That's courteous. Make the time specific, send me a reminder by mail and then keep your word of five minutes to follow up. That's courteous.

But stop interrupting me as a "courtesy." Its not courteous. It's rude.

9 Office-Relocation Transition Strategies To Boost Morale

Question: My team and I have just learned that our office will close within 10 months or so and relocate to another city on the other side of the country. Some will make the move and some won't. For those who will stay on and make the move with us, how can I boost the low morale prevalent in our office right now?

Most people don’t like change. Perhaps let me rephrase that: we, as humans, are not necessarily resistant to change – just sudden change. The news of moving the office to another city and the short turnaround period are what I consider to be sudden change. Given the opportunity to adapt to the announcement, many will. Some will not. Some have resilience – others simply choose to feel victimized. There’s nothing you can do now to lessen the impact of the announcement. But you must now demonstrate real leadership.

First, understand that there are two targets your people can be looking toward: 1) the day the office closes and many are out of work, or 2) the days after the office closes – when people are getting settled into their new jobs, new location, new environments, new offices, new friends, new people and new perspective. It’s an exciting time and this is where I challenge you to take the focus of your people – not to the day of the office closing but to the days after the office closes.

You can not be heard uttering the words, “yeah I know it’s tough but what are you going to do?” That simply makes people wallow in their pain and not look for the positive opportunities that could follow, regardless of whether or not they are choosing to move or find something else when the office closes. And it keeps your people focused on the day the office closes.

Next, you need to have a plan for the day after the office closes. Be proactive. Show your people that you’re not wallowing in misery but you, as their leader, are getting right to the next chapter of your work life. This will likely inspire your people to quit their wallowing and get on with it.

Here are 9 Transition Strategies that need to go into your plan:

1. Get a firm decision from each staff member right now: are they coming or are they leaving? For those who are choosing to move, get a plan in place to look after housing needs at the other end, arranging movers, arranging flights to visit the new city as early as possible so that those people can get excited about the prospect of moving.
2. If there are a few on-the-fence about moving, make sure they get a chance to visit the new city to help them make a decision. Provided it’s a pretty city, those who are sitting on the fence may be swayed by its beauty and come home with a positive attitude about the move. In other words, get as many of your staff onside as soon as possible so that you are not shouldering the burden of overcoming the negative attitudes alone.
3. If you are not in a position to help them travel financially, then at least develop a strategy to offer your people some time off so that they may travel on their own. Bend over backwards in consideration for your people. Moving is a big step for some.
4. Create a “Relocation Transition Team” in your office. Task your people to work with each other to find Realtors, research good neighborhoods, recreation facilities, schools, contact numbers for City departments, garbage schedules, residential Internet hookups, utilities, public transportation, gyms, park systems, bicycle rentals, organized sports for kids, anything that they currently do now. They will need this information anyway when they get to the new city. The transition becomes easier when they’ve planned in advance. Creating this team keeps everyone pointed in a forward direction focused on the day after the office closes.
5. For those who are choosing not to move, bring a little hope. Bring in an HR consultant to help them define their skill set, aid in developing an updated resume and help them feel powerful as they get ready to hit the streets job searching.
6. Offer those who will remain behind a liberal schedule to attend interviews, respond to want ads, and help them post their resumes to Monster and other job sites. Offer letters of reference with heartfelt words; offer to call interviewers on their behalf and to use the full resources of the company to help them land softly.
7. If your people end up finding good positions early (before the office relocates), let them go. Knowing that you are behind them is an unselfish act and keeps a positive mindset in the office. Let them know that you understand that when they get a great offer, you won’t hold them back. Ensuring that your peoples’ individual welfare is ahead of the company short-term welfare is real Service Leadership Attitude in action.
8. If, however, your generosity is still met with negative attitude in the office, address it immediately. Have face-to-face discussions with the guilty parties about their behavior. Make sure they understand that this corporate decision does not give anyone free license to act out in rebellion. The company is moving forward regardless of any whining. They have an opportunity to move forward with the company or to be job-seeking early. It is imperative that you remove the negative forces that influence the rest of the group and also remove those who annoy the others with their negativity. It is still a workplace and it is business as usual.
9. Most of all don’t dwell on the upsetting of the apple cart. The more you dwell on the downside of “change” the more you encourage your people to grumble and feel sorry for themselves. The decision has been made – let’s get back to work.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: In tough times, people look to leaders who are capable of leading. Are you one? If not, isn't it time you got busy developing your Leadership Attitude?

A Punch Line – Not A Punch

Standing in line at the checkout recently, I overheard this conversation:

Customer: “Whoa, wait a sec. How much was that?”

Clerk: (puzzled) “A dollar?”

Customer: “OK but what about this?” (pointing to another checked item)

Clerk: “That was a dollar too.”

Customer: (holding up another item) “So how much is this then?”

Clerk: (heavy sigh) “A dollar.” (Short pause for courage I guess) “Ma’am, this is a dollar store. Everything here is a dollar.”

Now once upon a time, during an episode like this in which the customer holds up an entire line of people who are waiting to check their items, I would roll my eyes in my head and say loud enough for others to hear, “You have got to be kidding.”

But for the past thirteen years, I have come to the conclusion that sometimes, people are placed on my path simply for my amusement. Kind of like today. (Oh sure, I still have my “you have got to be kidding” moments but they are short-lived.)

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: You need to adopt a Resilience Attitude when the time is right. A Resilience Attitude will get you through the tough days with a smile, a chuckle and sometimes a deep-down belly-laugh. The Resilience Attitude will help you weather tough days, tough situations and tough economic times.

The Resilience Attitude has no place for whining, moaning, complaining or blaming. The resilience Attitude simply says, “OK, it happened. Now what?”

It is amazing how many people can fall off of a bicycle and get back up to ride it again. And yet, there are so many others who, when something devastating happen in their lives, they refuse to get back up. Instead they wallow in their circumstances, complain about how they have been hard-done by, share their “victim” story with anyone who will listen and continue to re-live it over and over again.

In fact, people who seek revenge, play guilt games, re-live their regrets and are remorseful for their lives are, in effect, choosing to stay down after falling down. The Resilience Attitude doesn’t allow those who possess it to stay down. People with Resilience Attitude refuse to stay down. The Resilience Attitude helps you bounce back.

Every decision you have ever made in your life has put you exactly where you are today. By being victimized by that, you are not accepting accountability. It means that you do not possess the Resilience Attitude. But if you can accept that where you are in your life today has been a result of every decision you have ever made, then you have the ability to bounce back and succeed despite the “temporary” circumstances. Everything is temporary – nothing is permanent – unless you decide it is permanent.

Now please don’t think that I’m going all “motivational speaker” on you. That’s not it. This is simply an Attitude Adjustment on ‘perspective versus results.’ If you think people want to be entertained by your victim story, then you’re choosing to stay down. People love to laugh. Make other people laugh with your stories. Don’t make them feel your pain. That’s not funny and it’s incredibly rude to force others to sit through your awful story. Make your story have a punch line – not a punch.

So today, when you’re in the line at the grocery store, the coffee shop, stuck in traffic or waiting for your meeting to show up, have a look around for the one thing that has been placed into your life at this moment simply to amuse you. You’ll have an amusing story to tell at the end of your day. It will change your outcome. You’ll have taken the first step into achieving a Resilience Attitude.

So what’s the punch line to your story today?

Your Compelling Offer

As I passed the roadside sign in front of the pet store, I read its message: “10% Off Fish Supplies.” This sign struck me as a little strange and I felt compelled to keep reading it again to attempt to better understand its meaning. But as much as I looked at it, it still read “10% Off Fish Supplies.”

The reason that I found the sign strange is because of the question I asked myself as I passed by: is ten percent enough of a discount to bring in traffic off of the highway? In a world where retailers are yelling at us to notice their deep-cut discounts of fifty, eighty and ninety percent, is 10% a compelling offer? Not knowing the regular prices of the store in question, I was flummoxed to make a determination on that.

To a small mom-and-pop operation, a ten percent discount may seem like a big deal to the owners, but to the consumers, ten percent may not be much of a compelling offer. Twenty nine cents off of the regular price of an aquarium cleaning brush would certainly not offset the cost of fuel to get to the store to purchase the item. In fact, in most provinces in Canada, a ten percent discount doesn’t even offset the sales tax.

The assumption had to be made that the owners of the pet store have chosen to compete in the market on price and not on service as the sign made no indication that their service was superior. Nor did the sign give any indication that an additional ten percent saving would bring pricing far below its competitors. A compelling offer needs to be relative. Ten percent off of the price of a new car is a big deal. Ten percent off of a $2.99 item is not.

Purchase a new aquarium for $200 and get a free fish net, cleaning brush, gravel, some plants and filtration pump would be the equivalent of a ten percent discount. That might seem like a more compelling offer than a few pennies off the regular price of a fish net.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: What is your compelling offer? Your offer has to mean something to the potential consumer if you are going to sway the decision. You don’t have to be in sales to have a compelling offer. What was your compelling offer when you were hired? What is your compelling offer now to be considered for a promotion?

Are you bringing something to the table that no one else possesses or are you simply filling a space? Are you the leading candidate for promotion or do you feel that because of your tenure, you deserve to move up? Have you read the books on leadership in an effort to position yourself to be the natural choice for a leadership position or will you not bother learning about leadership until there is a need to know how to be a leader?

Does hiring you for the job benefit just you or will it benefit the organization as a whole? How is the organization different as a result of choosing you for the job? If you can make that case, then you have a compelling offer.

If you won’t grow yourself first, then it could be argued that the organization as a whole wouldn’t grow much if you were in a leadership position. Leadership, after all, is an Attitude. If you don’t have the Leadership Attitude, then you aren’t reading the books, you aren’t listening to the audio recordings, you aren’t attending the seminars and you aren’t prepared to invest in yourself. It’s pretty much going to be a case of “same-old same-old” for you. If you won’t invest in yourself first, then why should any organization invest in you and expect much of a return.

If you don’t invest in you, then you’re likely to continue being a small fish in a big aquarium and it could be argued that a ten percent discount in your value wouldn’t much affect the organization. Now if your organization would change by fifty percent as a result of your not being there, then that’s a compelling offer to keep you and pay you more.

Leadership is an Attitude. If you want to attract investors (customers, bosses, promotions), then you have to show a history of increased value and outstanding performance. Compare yourself to the stock market. Are you a blue-chip stock that continues to increase in value consistently? Or are you a penny-stock that investors overlook or dump to get to the blue-chips? It’s your call. What's your compelling offer?

The Illusion Of Being In Business

Do you earn your money or do you simply give your employer the illusion of earning your money? What I mean by that is are you actually giving your best effort to get the job done in every moment of your day or are you simply doing just enough to not get fired? Are you actually busy or just giving the illusion of being busy so people don’t end up tasking you with new work and projects?

The guy who walks around the office all day with a phone glued to his head or constantly on his Blackberry can make you think that he is busy but may, in fact, be just trying his best to look busy so no one questions his work ethic. Appearing busy is not necessarily being busy. Why is it that some people get their work done during the day and others, doing the same job, end up taking their work home with them at the end of the day? I believe it is because one is productive and one gives the illusion of being busy.

So let’s say that you are the person who is actually productive during the day. You manage to get your work done on time. You even have time to help others out by taking some of their workload when you have a little extra time in your day. At the end of the day, you managed to help a co-worker out of a jam by helping them with their project. Should you be compensated more than the person who simply gives the illusion of being busy? Of course you should. Do you get compensated that way? Not likely because when it comes right down to it, you seem as busy as the guy who gives the illusion of being busy even though being productive and being busy are two different things entirely. Most workplaces don’t bother to check the difference because why would you question someone who seems like he’s always doing something?

Being productive is the right and honorable thing to do. Giving the illusion of being busy is stealing. Some businesses give great service. Others give the illusion of service.

So, let’s say you actually earn your money – fair work for fair pay. If you’ve worked to earn your money, why would you then give up that hard-earned money to another business who doesn’t earn it? I’m speaking of businesses who don’t give you the same service you give your customers and co-workers. I’m speaking of businesses who give the illusion of being in business but fail in the “service” area. Given the option of buying the exact same item from a business who gives great service and one who simply takes your money with no real “gratitude attitude,” why would you freely give up your “earned” money to an organization that doesn’t earn it?

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: You need to set a standard in your life – a line that says “I will not accept service less than this.” Lay out your expectations to yourself. Prepare yourself to walk away if they fail in service that is not up to your standard. You can fire a business just like a company can fire an employee.

You vote with your dollars. A company that does not earn your business shouldn’t get your business because of convenience – because they were easier to get to.

Some grocery stores will bag your groceries for you and then walk your groceries out to your car Yet others will make you pay for the bags to put your groceries in and you will have to bag your own groceries. If the groceries are virtually the same price, wouldn’t you prefer buying from the store that gives you the bags for free, bags them for you and then loads the groceries in your car for free as well? That’s service and you deserve to be served well. It’s your money. You earned it. Or is it that you just give the illusion of earning your money and are unable to tell the difference between service and the illusion of service?

Five Serious Problems In The Retail World

I happen to be a big fan of Seth Godin – author of such books as All Marketers Are Liars and nine other bestsellers in the area of Marketing. I read Seth’s Blog religiously as it gives quite a great take on how we are exposed to marketing messages daily and how marketers are finding new and unique ways to cut through the marketing clutter to reach us and convince us to buy their products and services. It helps me to better understand why we are, as consumers becoming increasingly frustrated when it comes time to make a purchase and how the marketers seem to be becoming complacent with product selection and how most seem to be competing in the same price arena.

Because of the tweaking of my marketing mindset, I notice and pay attention to businesses more and how they conduct business. I have come to notice five things that are becoming quite disturbing.

1. For the most part, you will find the same products in virtually every store - all relatively close in price. That means that the selection of brand names is fairly limited in an effort to not keep a competitive edge in the market but instead be only as good as the competition. Business seems to be spending more time focusing on their competitors (and keeping the same stock and price) and not focusing on the customer and offering something superior.
2. By keeping price-point as a key component of being in business, the cheapest price usually wins. Unfortunately, cheapest price almost always means cheapest quality. You’ll be back looking for a replacement before long.
3. Although you may find the item you’re looking for a store by visiting their web site, there is no guarantee that the item is in stock. Don’t trust the “Check Store Stock” option on a web site. Inventory tracking isn’t working the way it is supposed to. You may think there’s one in stock, but when you get there it isn’t, so most people end up buying something else in its place. (Always make the phone call first, get them to physically check to see if it’s there, offer a credit card number to hold the item and then go get it right away.)
4. High-priced quality products don’t sell well in a Wal-Mart priced world. If it’s quality you want, you’ll need to find it on-line from specialty stores and have it shipped to you. Otherwise, it’s a frustrating experience.
5. Businesses only seem to stock what they think you should buy, not what you want to buy. You only get to choose from a series of inferior products.

Try Googling “reviews on breadmakers” and you’ll find Zojirushi makes the best one. You can’t buy them in stores. You have to order them from one of only two on-line stores in Canada. But almost every department store carries Black & Decker or Sunbeam bread makers – terrible quality items that reviewers warn people to stay away from. There’s a reason why they are one quarter of the price of a Zojirushi.

Air-O-Swiss are the world’s best humidifiers. Again, you can’t buy them in stores. They’re expensive and the highest quality and people apparently don’t want quality. Go online and get Air-O-Swiss shipped from California.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Are you in business or are you just giving us the illusion of being in business? We, as consumers have more access to more information, and we are educating on-line before we go shopping in-store. By the time we get to your location, we need a cashier – not a salesperson.

Are you offering your customers the exact same product or service as your competitors? Are you willing to stand out, be different, offer service over and above and offer a superior product? Do you make a customer for life or for just a few minutes? Is your product or service just good enough or is it head-and-shoulders above everyone else?

Service is an Attitude. Customer Service is a department. You should be tired of accepting sub-par service and products. Give your business to those who offer quality and who demonstrably show the “Service Attitude.” You can spot these marketers a mile away. They are the one’s who carry what you WANT to buy – not what they TELL you you’re going to buy.

Worldwide State Of Chasing Balloons

The recession is over … or it has caught the swine flu?

A month ago, virtually every page in the front section of the newspaper had a story on the “recession.” The first ten minutes of a national TV news broadcast featured stories on the “recession.” Recession. Recession. Recession. The sky is falling. Hold onto your money. Doom and gloom warnings.

Now, if you pick up a newspaper today, you will have to search for the stories on the recession. It seems our financial future is not important as the few hundred people in Canada and USA who have contracted swine flu. In fact, most cases of swine flu are relatively mild. Only a few people ever develop the dangerous symptoms. And they will number a few dozen at the most.

But where is the media? They’re sitting in briefings from Medical Officers because covering some new “tragedy” that will end up seriously affecting a few dozen people is sexier than reading financial reports and talking with economists.

In fact, listening to one Medical Officer describe swine flu symptoms, he described them as relatively mild and that the “pandemic” that the media keeps eluding to, is well under control by the qualified medical organizations whose job it is to contain infectious outbreaks like this.

“Wash your hands and prevent catching the flu.” That’s the advice to containing the spreading of swine flu. It’s a very simple solution. No drugs. No hoarding of Tamiflu. No locking yourselves in bomb shelters to wait out the deadly disease. Just wash your hands regularly and you’ll be doing plenty to protect yourself.

So why all the fuss? Because apparently the media spent a little too long in front of the TV watching Will Smith in I Am Legend. The bigger the media attempts to make this story, the more they are saying that our medical leaders are inept – all in an effort to boost ratings and readership. They are reporting a story that they can’t possibly understand without the medical officers “dumbing it down” for them (you can’t fully comprehend the complexities of the virus without some sort of medical or scientific training). Then, the media simply takes the sexy pieces from the briefings and report only that.

I was a member of the media for eighteen years. I worked with reporters whose job it is to get an angle on a story that no one else has – no matter how marginal it may be. They spend more time preening in front of the mirror making sure not a single strand of hair is out of place and that they look fabulous before the cameras roll than they do getting themselves up to speed on what they’re reporting on. If a medical briefing takes place at 7:00 pm, a newspaper reporter will have to return to the office, pour through her notes, find an angle to the story, write it and submit it to an editor before 10:00 pm. In the two hours or so that the reporter has to write the story, there is little time to research, understand the complexities and face the editor.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: I don’t think that media understands just how intelligent we are about what's going on. If the media can be distracted from their work uncovering a drastic so-called “economic disaster” by a disease that can be prevented by washing your hands, then are they like little kids chasing balloons?

Let’s not panic just yet. Let’s keep our heads and our wits about us. Let’s develop our own individual personal leadership qualities and keep relaxed. We can handle these events of our lives. We have up to now. Let's instead let the media go mad. They seem to be worrying plenty for all of us anyway.

Service By Inquiry or Insanity?

Did you know that there are only TWO types of service? I was finally able to nail down these two types of service this past weekend. As with most things in life, you usually only ever have an opinion on one type of service without something to compare it to. This weekend, I found the comparison.

Service Model #1 – Service By Inquiry: As the name suggests, inquiry is the key here. How can I help you? What is it you’re looking for? What specific model/brand are you looking for? These are all questions usually asked by a clerk/service personnel as you wander around their store with a lost look on your face or when you have finally decided to approach the Customer Service counter as a last resort. Then there are the questions posed by the customer: Where do you keep your …? Where would I find …? Do you carry any …? These are simply inquiries which should normally be met with simple answers.

Service Model #2 – Service By Insanity: As this name suggests, the customer has to lose his mind, his patience, his good mood and his common courtesy before he gets the service he should be entitled to. Sending a customer across the store to the Customer Service counter to be helped when there is a perfectly good in-store phone at your fingertips drives a customer nuts. Getting a clerk to help a customer only after they have hit “desperation” is not good service.

However, the worst question in any retail setting is usually asked just before you leave the store if you’re making your way through the checkout line: Did you find everything you were looking for? That’s really a dumb question that makes unhappy customers crazy. Yet more and more retail operations are hell-bent on asking it. Most people simply answer “yes” and silently vow to never come to the store again.

But what if the answer is “no?” Are you going to hold up all of the other disgruntled customers who are also standing in a long checkout line? Answer “no” and the clerk gets a look of terror on their face. Who fixes the problem with you only ten feet from the door? I’ll tell you right now, if you answer “no,” you get the pat-answer, “Oh sorry.”

Look, if you want me to find everything I’m looking for; don’t place your cashier in an embarrassing situation. Put more people on the floor to help the customers. Jeez, it’s really a simple idea. Don’t try to fix my problem when I’ve already gone through your whole store and no one helped me there. Now you think you’re going to help me once I've already decided to leave? It doesn’t work that way. Besides, if I didn’t buy anything, no one asks the question. I’m not in the right line (checkout line) to see if I’m satisfied.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: When a manager has to help a complaining customer with two or three qualified staff standing around doing nothing means your people don’t own a Service Attitude. If you’re a manager who feels compelled to respond to customer concerns, it usually means that your staff is unmotivated. If so, your management style needs a lot of work. Obviously, if as a manager, you have to help, it’s because your people aren’t helping enough. Either get rid of these people or move them to where they don’t deal directly with customers. A manager should be doing PR on the floor. Clerks and customer service reps should be ensuring that a manager never has to actually help customers find things. By the time a manager speaks with a customer, it should be all smiles and chuckles – not complaints.

If you’re a manager who deals with complaints, then your people aren’t doing it right. If you’re a service representative and you’re not looking for ways to help a customer in every moment of your day, then you are not doing enough to ensure you become the most valuable person in your organization.

Help me, the customer, on the floor so that when I get to the checkout line and get asked, “Did you find everything OK?” I can answer “yes” and take the pressure off of the cashier. Your cashier should not have to be the last line of defense of ensuring customer satisfaction. Besides, if I’m on my way out, how are you going to fix it now anyway?

Are You Indispensable?

This is my favorite time of year - hockey playoffs. So on game night, which is pretty much every night, I'm glued to the tube watching in hi-def. It's a Canadian thing.

I was watching the game highlights from the games I missed. The New York Rangers are playing the Washington Capitals. Sean Avery of the Rangers was up to his old cheap-shot tricks again. I began to wonder, would the Rangers be a worse team without Avery playing?

On American Idol, would the show be worse if Tara DioGuardi were not a judge this year? Would her contribution really be missed? Of course, the answer would be different if I asked the same question about Simon Cowell.

How would your workplace be different without your contribution? Honestly. Would the job get along without you if you weren't there anymore?

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Have you been able to make yourself indispensable? Are you prepared to become the go-to person in a pinch?

Here's what it takes to become indispensable: continuous improvement. The more valuable you make yourself, the more you assure yourself of job security. And if your position is still tenuous, you set yourself up well to become the person that other organizations "must acquire."

The market continues to shift and change and so must you. You must keep on top of your game - keep sharp, keep adapting and keep learning.

You don't have to be in a leadership position to own a leadership attitude. In fact you don't have to be in management to be a leader.

The truth is, if your workplace could get along without you, then you're an average performer. Average performers get an average wage. Top performers get top wages. The difference between pay scales is in your willingness to improve and to position yourself as indispensable.

Don't complain about the job or the pay. You get paid what others think you're worth.

The Four-Letter F-Word

Oh you’ve used this word too so stop being so offended. In fact, you’ve witnessed other people use the word and you don’t get offended. So what’s the problem here?

You see, you’ve used the word when you get lousy service in restaurant, get a lousy night’s sleep in a hotel and even when someone asks how their salesperson handled your complaint. You use this word freely and it seems not enough people take offence when you use it – well, the right people anyway.

The word I am speaking of is the word “Fine.” And if you use that word to describe someone’s service, they should be offended. If anyone has ever used this word to describe your service, you should be doubly offended. “Fine” is the word of indifference to describe your opinion. People use this word when they don’t want to hurt your feelings or they don’t want to seem a bother. But you sure didn’t give them any sort of “wow” factor.

• How was your meal?
• How was your stay?
• How did that rental car work out?
• How was our salesperson?
• How did we do in responding to your concern?
• How was your experience with us?
• How did we do in solving your problem?

If you use the “F-Word” as an answer to any of those questions, then the owners/managers of those businesses had better be shaking in their boots. “Fine” means nothing. It doesn’t say “great” or “lousy.” It just means you didn’t provide me with an experience that is memorable and I don’t want to be bothered to answer a question whose answer you really don’t care about anyway. I don’t want a clerk or server gushing “sorry” all over me when they aren’t the responsible party. (When was the last time your hotel checkout clerk was responsible for the lousy night’s sleep you got? Why would you dump on them? Be respectful in your answer but be clear.)

I refuse to use the word “fine” to describe any service encounter. If I know that at the end of my experience I am going to get asked that question, I begin preparing my answer at the beginning. Hey, if they’re going to ask, I’m going to answer. If the only reason they’re asking is so that I can blow a little smoke up their skirts, then they’ve asked the wrong guy.

In fact, in recent weeks, I have stayed at a number of hotels who have asked me the question at checkout. In both instances, I have asked the clerk what they do with my answer to their question. I was, on both occasions, met with an uncomfortable, stammering clerk (as though they were expecting “fine” to be my answer).

“No, answer the question,” I asked. "What do you do with the information I give you?"

“Umm,” the clerk started. “We tell maintenance if something is wrong.”

“Well what if it’s not a maintenance issue?” I asked.

“Uh, we tell a manager?” She asked in question-form as though only I knew the right answer and she was answering her high-school History teacher’s question.

“Good answer.” I offered. “Now get a piece of paper to write these things I am about to say down.” And she did.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Look, if you don’t want an honest answer, don’t ask the question. Otherwise, if you’re going to ask customers to describe their experience, be prepared to take notes. Don’t make your “Satisfaction Survey” empty and vacuous. It's patronizing and you’re wasting your customers' time.

Also, if you’re going to force your front-line people to ask the question, then you had better prepare them to handle the answers. It amazes me that so many organizations will force their people to ask but then it becomes clearly evident that they have not been trained to handle an answer other than “fine.” What's the protocol when the answer is other than "fine?"

Not preparing your people to handle an answer other than “fine” means that you really don’t care how your customer experience was or you would have armed them with the tools to fix it or at least tell the customer right away that they're taking this information upstairs. A "Service Attitude" means understanding that the whole reason for being in business is to serve. If you don't care about customer answers and instead just want to be placated, then you don't get the whole "Service Attitude" thing at all.

If your people don't know how to handle your customers' truthful answers, stop asking the question. It’s embarrassing to you.

Why Should You Be Hired?

My friend and mentor, Brian Stecyk, sent me an email recently in response to a Blog entry I had written called Memo From The Customer. In it, I mused aloud as to why front-line staff feels that everything else, other than serving me, is more important at the time of my transaction. All I was asking for is a little attention and a genuine thankfulness for my business – not a tall order really.

Brian sent along the following comments that included a great observation at the end.

Great column. Every time I interview someone, I ask them the question, "Why should I hire you?" I have received the following responses:

• Because I am nice.
• Because I need a job.
• Because I am a hard worker.
• Because you need someone.

But not once in 28 years has anyone ever said, "Because I will help your business earn a profit."

When I inform them of what I am looking for, I usually get an absolutely stunned response. It is as though the thought that they must make a contribution to the bottom line is heresy. On a couple of occasions, interviewees even remarked, "It shouldn't be all about money and profit." Obviously those people did not get hired. Without profit I cannot hire anyone.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: As the market heats up with increasing competition for the same numbers of jobs, what are you bringing to the table that is better than the last guy who was interviewed? What is it that you possess that you do better than anyone else?

At no time in history (I am guessing here) has a paycheck ever been handed to an employee with a little notation in the bottom left corner of the check that reads, “For Being Nice,” or “Because You Needed A Job,” or “Because We Needed Someone.” That’s not why you get hired.

If your Attitude on the job is one of “that’s good enough,” when it comes time for performance and pay review, your employer is likely to say, “What we’re paying you right now is good enough.” If you want to be paid more, you need to be valued more. If you want to be picked over all of the other job seekers, you need to have more value than they. If you want to be promoted, your number of years on the job aren’t enough – you need to be more valuable than the others being considered.

If you think you’ve gotten as far in your current job as you can go and you’re not the person running the place, then people don't think you're worth more and you obviously haven't given them any reason to think differently.

If you won’t do the work to get better, become more knowledgeable and to become the most valuable person in your organization, then why should anyone pay you more? That’s like paying more money for the very same item, made by the very same manufacturer at the store next door. Why would you pay more for it? It hasn’t been improved and it will do the same thing it always does.

What’s your edge? What makes you more valuable? What is demonstrably different about you?

Car Wrecks, Grieving Mothers And The Economy

You’ve seen it happen when a tragedy befalls a family. You see the media clamoring and jockeying for position to try to get an exclusive interview with the affected family members. Family members are in tears trying desperately to remain coherent and composed while facing the barrage of cameras and microphones shoved in their faces.

I get no pleasure from watching events like this. I don’t understand how the media can be so calloused as to think that someone who is suffering a personal tragedy would make for good TV. But they do it anyway because in order to boost ratings, the media feels compelled to put the most sensational, gut-wrenching and over-the-top footage on their newscasts. We, the public, love to watch a car-wreck. Events like this are sadly, just like that.

Shoving a camera in the face of a grieving mother is not factual – it’s sensational. Interviewing the investigating police officers of a crime is factual.

At the same time, we look to that same media for the facts of what is happening to our economy. If they will go through great lengths to make a personal tragedy sensational, wouldn’t it figure that they would do the same with every story – including the state of our economy.

There are many experts who believe that we are turning the corner in the economy right now. There are just as many who believe that we’re headed for more trouble. Those who think more trouble is ahead seem to get more than their fair share of the headlines. Those who think that our economy is on the upswing usually get buried in the story (for balance so they tell us). If you read only the headline and the first few paragraphs of a newspaper story, you get the idea that things are going to get worse.

In no less than twenty stories in various newspapers across the country in the past few weeks, I have found buried inside the dastardly-headlined stories, some hope, some optimism and some good news. But the headline rarely suggests that. My friend and business growth expert, Marty Park, made an interesting suggestion: start telling your friends that the recession is over and claim you heard it on the news. Watch how people react.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Let’s not forget that the media is a business. After being a member of the media for eighteen years, I can tell you with no reservation that the media’s job is to sell advertising. Ads are easier to sell for those with a bigger share of the market. In other words, a bigger audience means bigger dollars. Make the headline sensational. Make it loud. Make it brash. And make it appeal to the inherent “car-wreck watching” parts of us.

The awards for best photo don’t go to photojournalists who shoot beautiful sunsets. They go to those who shoot tragedy. Journalism awards don’t go to reporters who write good news stories. They go to investigative reporters who uncover a major plot. Documentary awards don’t normally go news crews who tell happy stories of companies succeeding during tough times. Those awards go to crews who bring down the big multi-nationals.

Before you think that what you read in newspapers, see on television and listen to on radio is gospel truth, think about what the individual reporters are trying to do (win awards) and what the media companies are trying to do (win awards and raise advertising revenues). Journalism is “supposed” to be fair and balanced – but that doesn’t mean that the headlines have to be.

It’s your own personal economy that’s really most important to you anyway. Your own personal economy is turning the corner if you whatever is necessary to make it turn the corner. For the most part, what’s happening in the rest of the country or the world won’t have much effect on you personally if you look after your own personal economy (household, personal finances, revenue streams, etc.). Let’s keep our eyes on the ball and stop getting so spooked by organizations trying to profit from our difficulty.

If The Job Is Boring, Maybe It’s Not The Job

Ok, you’ve heard about Southwest Airlines. They are the airline in the United States that makes the experience just a little bit different. As a flight attendant on any airline, what do you think the boring parts of the job are? My guess, having flown enough, is that the announcements on most airlines are always the same, the passengers all start to look the same, the airports all start to look the same and you can bet that the boredom factor can be high when you’ve been up and down on five or six flights in the same day.

So that means that the fun on the job would be up to the employee – otherwise it’s a boring affair after a while.

Have a look at the following video to see what happens when you exercise a little creativity in the mundane work each day.



ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Don’t complain that the job is boring. It’s boring if you let it be boring. If you want some excitement, make it exciting. You’ll have many more better days than boring ones.

3 Key Components To Succeeding In Today's Economy

Ray was a former Sales Manager of mine when I sold radio commercial time. Although I had been in radio for some sixteen years to that point, I had never formally been a sales representative. We had, as sales reps, monthly quotas to achieve. The numbers seemed daunting in a relatively new territory which I was taking over. I had also never actually sold radio airtime before. I just couldn’t figure out how I was going to achieve the monthly quotas that were expected of me.

Ray, in his wisdom from years on the street, simply focused me this way: “Kevin, if you look after the weeks, the months will look after themselves.”

Ray refocused me by showing me how to break down the monthly totals into four weekly performances – small manageable steps.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: This is good advice at any time in the economy, especially today. But there are three key components that you will need to consider to succeed in a resetting economy. Perhaps you may have overlooked these in the past few years.

1. Get rid of the need for record-breaking performance. Not every year is a record-breaking year. An organization can still do well in today’s economy if they are prepared to commit to creating relationships based on value with their clients and staff. Relationships based on money only will seriously be undermined and loyalty becomes non-existent. When you teach your clients and staff to buy based on price, then the guy with the best price wins. What are you offering as far as solutions go? People will pay a fair price for something they get tremendous value from. Sell your “value-proposition” and not your need to have a record-breaking sales year. What has that got to do with your staff’s and customer’s needs anyway?
2. Stop comparing to last year’s performance. Last year and the year before were boom-years. If you want a fair comparison, compare to 2002 just prior to the boom. (If we could only teach the media how to do this when they tell us how bad our economy is today.) But in relative terms, comparing apples to apples (2009 to 2002) we are about the same – perhaps a little better today. Make a fair comparison. Measure yourselves by the quality of your work and not the finances. Money is a lousy way to keep score. Customer satisfaction is a better way to check how you’re doing. Keep customers satisfied and they keep coming back. Look after the customers and staff and the dollars look after themselves.
3. Chop the deadwood. When times are good, you get fat. You get bloated. You feast at the table of the never-ending supply of money. You gorge yourselves and treat your lives like a drunken orgy of delights. Now is the time to get lean, to lose weight, to trim the fat. Because times were so good you had to hire people who were not necessarily the right fit for your organization. But you needed warm bodies and any body would do. But now is the time to eliminate waste. Companies are getting rid of programs that don't positively impact the bottom-line directly. Feel-good motivational stuff doesn't make people better salespeople, better workers or better managers. But change an attitude, a perspective or point of view and you can make a difference in the day-to-day functioning and results of any organization.

Now is the time for personal and professional leadership - not being paralyzed by the scare-mongering of the media. Now is the time to strike while a company's competitors are sitting on their hands waiting out the storm. Now is the time to create relationships with customers - not to agree that the sky is falling. Now is the time to bring value to the market - not just price. Now is the time to be bold while everyone else is being conservative. Now is the time to change minds - not agree with the media-induced perspective. (Even the media is in trouble - having spent the better part of the past year telling people that times are hard. It has come back to bite them in lower ad revenues. It's the old adage of what you think about, you bring about.)

People want to believe that there is something positive coming out of all of this and they want something to look forward to. People want a reason to believe that what they do matters and that they are valued. People want believe that they can still succeed in this economy. And I believe that they can. Anyone can. And I will argue to the death with anyone who believes anything to the contrary.

You Don’t Have To Go To Meetings

Recently, I was chosen to address the full staff of a small municipality – everything from Administration and Social Services personnel to Fire, Police, Library, Recreation and Public Works staff. This was their annual Staff Day, a half-day session to inform all of the members of the municipal government staff of what was happening with new projects, new staff additions and new directions for the coming year. I was brought in to wrap up the morning offering a new perspective and a new attitude towards work, safety and developing a personal leadership role within the job environment.

During the early part of the meeting, while representatives from each department were addressing their updates to inform the rest of the staff of the goings-on, a few employees sitting in the back row decided that it was more important to chatter amongst themselves instead of keeping up to speed on what their own employer and organization was doing and how it may affect them, their work and the community in which they live and work. There was little respect or courtesy being demonstrated by these few workers especially during the part of the program in which the CAO was addressing the topics of Respect, Trust and Integrity.

Just prior to my session commencing, there was an open forum to ask questions. One back-of-the-room disruptor muttered under their breath loud enough for others around them to hear, “Do we have to be here?”

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: No you don’t have to be here. You don’t have to attend any staff meetings. You don’t have to show up at work on time. You don’t have to endure three hours of coffee, donuts and free pizza for lunch. You don’t have to give your attention on the job. You don’t have to be considerate to your fellow workers. And no, you don’t have to sit through a boring meeting. Simply hand in your resignation and you’re free to do whatever you want.

However, if you take the job, you need to suck it up. You take all of the meetings, the procedures, the bosses, the whining of your co-workers, the hours, the holidays, the paycheck and the benefits you’re entitled to. You don’t have to do any of the jobs you don’t like – but you will have to give up everything you do like in order to stop doing what bores you. Some parts of the job are not as much fun as other parts of the job, granted. But they are all necessary.

My guess is that the Staff day was developed in response to, “How come no one ever tells us what’s going on?” I’m willing to bet those comments came from the people in the back row who chose not to pay attention anyway. And in a few weeks they’ll ask, “How come no one told us this was going on?”

Full kudos to the Administration for bringing the staff together to communicate what is happening with the municipality. They demonstrated respect, trust and integrity with their employees. Too bad not everyone reciprocated.

People who show no respect for their fellow workers will likely show little respect to their work, their equipment, their responsibilities, their co-workers, their bosses and their customers. Would it be a loss if these people left the job? Really?

Look Who’s Talking

There is one very powerful voice today that is speaking to your staff, your customers and the customers of your customers. That voice is shaping purchasing decisions, growth strategies, corporate training, hiring practices, customer service models and your corporate culture. Left unchecked and unchallenged, that voice will continue to chip away at your bottom-line.

I’m not speaking of that one big dissenter within your organization that the rest of the staff wish would just go away or get fired. This one voice doesn’t even work for your company. It stands outside of your organization like a lone protester carrying a “The World Is Ending” picket sign and creates havoc and warns people that they had better not spend their money with you because tomorrow, there won’t be any money left. That voice is like a single mosquito in a tent at 2:00 a.m. – incredibly annoying until it has been squashed. But people are listening to that voice and they are making decisions about doing business with your organization based on that single voice.

Why are people listening to that voice? Because you’re not challenging that voice. You’re not engaging in the same public forum to reassure your customers and your staff that doing business with you is a good thing to do. That voice is doing huge damage to your organization right now because it is being allowed to singlehandedly make a lot of noise, disrupt your business, scare your staff and sully your customers.

That voice is the voice of the media who look for evidence every single day to justify the “Sky Is Falling” headline in their stories. And since there are very few opposite opinions telling their “good news” stories, that one voice is allowed to continue to dominate the discussion with your clients and staff. People are listening to the only one voice that seems to be talking. And since you’re not talking to your customers and staff, since you’ve decided to suspend training until the “recession” is over, that voice is allowed to dominate the market and potentially bring about the dire consequences it is predicting. Say something enough times and people start to believe it.

Had your decision to pull back training, or have a hiring freeze or take a “wait-and-see” attitude been done during a Boom-time, your decision would have been interpreted as a corporate strategy. People applaud corporate strategy. Most time corporate strategy makes an organization stronger at the end. During this time, however, any of those same decisions are perceived to be a reaction to the marketplace and makes each organization look like a follower and not a leader. It makes customers nervous. It makes staff nervous. And when customers and staff are nervous, you will see the evidence on your bottom-line.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Yesterday, in the Edmonton Journal, read the following headline in 72 pt font: “City Economy Will Shrink In '09.” The truth is, in Edmonton, this year’s growth is expected to be down 0.2%. That’s zero point two percent folks – for a city. Is that even news? Of course it is – if your mandate is to sell newspapers. Make it loud. Make it scary. Make it a must-read and people will buy the paper. More papers sold means more advertisers attracted.

The story went on to explain that Edmonton’s growth will bounce back to 3.1% growth in 2010, and 3.8% in 2011 to 2013. But the headline doesn’t indicate that the 0.2% decline is short-lived. So, you, your customers and your staff read headlines like this (since virtually no one reads the whole story anymore) and start to pull in your horns a little. Everyone gets nervous and the nervousness spreads like a virus. Sorry, but to the average organization, a 0.2% decline in growth would only seem like a small correction in the market – not the basis for an outlandish headline.

I challenge you today, to find a good news headline in your organization and either call a meeting or send a company-wide memo telling your people about your positive growth story and do it every day. Ask your people to pass it on to your customers. Let’s start talking about what’s good in your organization and let’s start drowning out the voices of the dissenters. Those dissenting voices are not good for your business. Why are you allowing someone outside of your company to dictate the success of your organization? Speak up. Where’s your Leadership Attitude?

The Loudest Person In The Room

Have you ever been struck by a line in a movie? You know the kind of line I’m talking about; a line that had profound meaning for you perhaps like the ones below:

• “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” (Coach Carter)
• “Writers are meant to write for readers who are meant to read.” (Finding Forrester)
• “Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.” (Braveheart)
• “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.” (Dead Poets Society)
• “Either get busy living or get busy dying.” (The Shawshank Redemption)

Last week, I witnessed another line that spoke volumes about organizational values and could be identified as one a very profound statements for the workplace. Denzel Washington spoke this one.

“The loudest one in the room is usually the weakest one in the room.” (American Gangster)

You know that this quote is bang-on truthful. You know the people that this quote describes. They are the loudest ones in the bar trying hard to be popular. They are the loudest of critics voicing their displeasure at your choice of new car. They will insult you – but say it’s just in fun. They will attempt to bring others on-side to create an “us versus them” situation. They brag about their expensive clothes and lifestyle. They attempt to make you wrong when they themselves don’t understand.

You have worked with people like this. They are the know-it-alls in the room. They poo-poo everyone else’s ideas. They pretend that they work with idiots and attempt to control the work of the group. They think themselves superior and believe that no one else is capable of contributing anything of meaning to a project. No one wants to work with them because they shoot down the ideas of their co-workers. They hate to be challenged. They dislike opposing ideas.

But the truth is the loudest one in the room is usually the weakest one in the room. Real confidence requires no proof so those with confidence don’t feel the need to prove themselves. People who feel the need to be loud usually need the attention focused on themselves. Attention seekers have low self-image and a big ego as their defense. They compensate for low self-image by looking for attention to fill them up inside. They outwardly point out your faults so that the attention is not focused on their own. By tearing you down, they believe that they somehow elevate themselves. That is the classic definition of the workplace bully. Bullies hate to be found out.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Every organization needs confident leaders: those with a good sense of self-worth. Sending the loudest person to management training only feeds their desire for superiority. Sending the loudest person to management training only creates tyrants for managers.

Bullies need to be challenged by the rest of the staff. In group projects, outvote the tyrant in every opportunity. Calmly and confidently challenge every insult immediately. Refuse to back down from a bully’s barbs because deep down, bullies are cowards who use insults to make you feel inferior.

The loudest person in the room has a need to be the loudest person in the room. Take that power away from the bully and he or she will either leave on their own or be labeled as a non-team player and be removed by management as not being a good fit.

The Service-Leadership Attitude™ says that you, as a leader, give people a reason to follow. Fear is not a reason to follow. Bullies use fear as a tool to deflect criticism on themselves. Leaders use inspiration and ideas to give people a reason to follow. Bullying, tyranny and conflict will sink an organization quickly. Leadership has difficulty surviving in this environment. That's why bullies need to be fired - even at the cost of expensive legal bills.

Does It Matter?

When you see your doctor, does it really matter to you what place he finished in his class or is it more important that he have compassion for you and be able to explain your situation clearly and with caring?

When you hire a lawyer, does it matter that he was fourteenth in his graduating class or is it more important that he be good at reading people, be willing to spend a an extra few minutes with you explaining your options and looking out for your best interests?

When you hire an accountant, does it matter which school she received her degree from or is it more important that she be well-versed in changing tax laws, understanding your business needs and be willing to help you set yourself up for maximum success?

When you hire a Realtor, does it really matter that he barely passed his licensing course or is it more important that he keep up to date on market changes, spends time getting to know the properties in your neighborhood and is willing to work hard for his commission?

When you hire a new employee, does it matter that they come to you with the highest marks or is it more important that the new employee is willing to learn, accept guidance, work well with the rest of the team, accept that he or she has a lot to learn and shows determination in helping develop better customer relations with your clients?

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: The truth is your education doesn’t really start until you leave school. It’s in the real world where you are forced to deal with the ever-changing economic realities. You are obliged to adapt to change, correct your course and handle adversity as it shows up daily – both personally and as an organization.

You rarely get the choice of who you work with. You are thrust into an environment of diverse people, genders, racial backgrounds and incredibly diverse opinions. Your marks aren’t going to help you here. It’s your “people skills” that will make or break your team. It’s the attitudes of your people towards “service leadership” that will separate the winners from the losers.

Every career, every position and every employee must understand that the job – regardless of what your title might be on your business card – is service. Everyone in every job in the world serves someone else. There isn’t a job that doesn’t serve someone else. Customer Service reps and salespeople serve the customers. HR serves the employees and senior management. Marketing serves the sales department. The CEO serves the employees and shareholders. Every employee serves every other employee by being able to get along, accept people’s foibles and idiosyncrasies and move forward toward the common good. Everyone serves someone else. That’s the definition of Service Leadership – taking the lead in serving others.

Those who can’t or refuse to comprehend Service Leadership will fail miserably. Service is an attitude. Customer service is a department. If you’ve hardly picked up a book on how to be a better, more compassionate, empathetic, genuine service to your community and clients since you left school, well then; you’re likely to wallow near the bottom of your success potential for years to come.

You want to work with people who have people-skills. You want to hire professionals with good people skills. You want to feel valued and respected in every interaction. It’s the people with excellent people-skills who will excel in life. Credentials on a wall don’t make you a decent human being. Your education has just begun. Yes, it matters.

On Life’s Journey With A GPS

“Would you like to add a GPS to your rental today?”

It’s a question I was asked at the Rental Car counter. I think a GPS is great, especially the ones with the voice prompt that tells you to turn in 500 meters.

That’s a safe way to keep your eyes on the road. But a GPS can be a bit distracting when you already know the shortest and most expedient route to get where you’re going and the electronic voice wants to send you another way.

“Turn left at Main Street,” the voice may say but you drive right by because you think you know a better route. That’s when you hear the voice prompt announcing, “Recalculating,” as it recalculates another route to get you where you want to go.

How many times do you drive right by the opportunities in your life because you think you already know the better way?

You gave the company your loyalty in the Boom years and now you’re being downsized? Recalculating.

You got a university degree in a discipline that offered too few opportunities in an “Off-Boom” market. Recalculating.

You believed that employers hire the “highest marks” so you gave up networking opportunities to concentrate on your work and now you find your lower-achieving co-workers are being promoted ahead of you because they developed the necessary social-interaction and communication skills. Recalculating.

You thought that the Boom years would last forever and spent like a drunken sailor only to find yourself behind and the money train is leaving the station. Recalculating.

You believed that finding a job and working for a large company was the safest way to job security and now you learn that while the 500+ employee companies are laying off their people, small businesses under 20 employees are growing. Recalculating.

You still won’t make the move to start your own business even though now is the perfect time to strike out on your own giving you more security and freedom. Recalculating.

You refuse to shed your comfort zone even though the world, the economy and your life is changing. You refuse to stretch yourself which leaves you further behind every day you don’t adapt to the changes – all because you’re afraid of failing. Recalculating.

You live your life trying desperately to fit in with the rich people only to finally realize that you gave up who you are in the hopes you'd end up rich. Recalculating.

You grumble about others getting ahead, even in a normal economy (compare 2009 to 2002’s economy and you’ll see we’re at “normal”) and you still think that you’re entitled to have everything just handed to you. Recalculating.

You refuse to accept that others may know better than you how to get where you want to go but you don’t ask their opinions because you’re afraid you’ll look weak. Recalculating.

You condemn and criticize others who have the courage to chase their dreams in the hopes of somehow elevating yourself. Recalculating.

You know everything. Recalculating.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: There’s always another way to get where you want to go. Pay attention when others offer simple directions and stop making life so hard on yourself. Every road map has more than just one street.

Training – Necessary or Perk?

Are you treating training as a perk? If your organization has chosen to forego training sessions for your people at this time in our economy, then you are telling your people that training is not really necessary. You’re telling them that their improvement on the job is a perk. And that’s a horrible message to be sending your people at this time.

Employees are looking for reassurances right now: that they are valued, that their contribution matters and that business continues in spite of what the economy may be doing. If you’ve pulled your training programs until the economy gets better, you’re saying that you want your people to be nervous, to be frightened, to be uncertain and that is the message your people will pass on to your customers.

Training, the right kind of training, is not a perk – it’s necessary. In fact, training your people to become more confident, more resilient and stronger individuals is exactly the kind of leadership these times require. Not hosting continuing training sessions for your people because you may be scrutinized in the same light as AIG (after they were handed bailout money) is a follower’s way of doing business - not a leader’s way.

You need confident, resilient and strong individuals on the job right now. You need individuals who are not afraid of a turn in the economy away from the Boom times. You need individuals who, in spite of what the media may be saying, are confident that they can get a leg up on the competition.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: When the economy starts to rebound (and there are glimmers of that happening right now), will you choose to be ahead of the competition or lagging behind the competition? Second place is not leadership. Tenth place is not leadership. Leadership is an attitude of busting through the difficulties and not allowing reasons, excuses or justifiers to stand in your way.

Anyone can be a naysayer. That’s easy. But not everyone can say to their staff, “In spite of what’s happening in the world, we think we have a great shot at taking extra market share. We think you’re the people who can do the job and we’re going to make sure that you have the right tools, the right products and the right attitude to be successful regardless of the circumstances.”

Professional athletes are still being coached even if the stands are not full of fans and gate receipt revenues are down. The coaches of these teams aren’t saying, “We’re not coaching you to be any better until the economy is better.” No way. It’s “game on” right now. So how come you’re not coaching your players?

Training is not a perk. If you’ve pulled your training budgets, then when it does come time to train your people, they won’t take it seriously because you didn’t take it seriously when your people needed it most. In leadership, it’s not what you say that matters – it’s what you do. Your actions determine your outcome.

If you want your people to take their jobs seriously, to take their contribution seriously and to take you seriously, then you had better take them seriously. Your people are the one asset that never depreciates. Treat them like the investment they are. Invest in them and they will invest in you – regardless of where the economy is at. You will get what you give.

Emergency Or Brain-Fart

So what constitutes an emergency? Is it only an emergency if you don’t deal with the signs? Could your emergency today be chalked up to stupidity yesterday?

Such were the questions that fluttered through my head just a little after midnight on a cold winter night on a desolate highway. I was making good time driving to my next destination but the cold weather was causing more fuel than normal to be used. I had made this drive many times before with plenty of gas to spare at the end but now the low-fuel light was lit up on the dashboard and I was still about a half-hour away from my destination. Based on the fuel consumption so far, there was no way I would make it to the next big city with all-night gas stations.

I pulled into a small town and right up to a set of gas pumps but the station had been closed for over three hours. I had been driving five hours since my last fill-up and had passed several 24-hour gas stations – not bothering to stop since I was still relatively full. The last three hours of the drive however, not a single gas station was open at this hour.

I carry a CAA (AAA in USA) membership and the car even has a Roadside Assistance guarantee. But I wasn’t on a roadside. And I wasn’t stranded. I was in front of a fuel pump at a gas station that was closed. Was this an emergency or was I here because I wasn’t paying attention earlier?

The sign in the window of the gas station had a number for 24-hour towing. It was a local number and I was guessing that by the size of the town, the tow-truck guy could probably see me from his house. I called the number and in just over ten minutes, my car was being fueled from a jerry-can on the back of the tow truck. Forty dollars (tow truck call) plus the cost of gas and I was on my way in under five minutes.

I realize that I could have called CAA and they would have found someone (maybe the same guy) to come and put gas in my car. Then there’s the requisite paperwork, the verification of membership and the motivation of the driver who has to decide whether he’s in a hurry to jump out of a warm bed on a cold night, bring a can of gas to some schmuck sitting at a gas station and maybe get paid for it a month or two down the road.

I just decided to adapt to my situation and cut out the middle man for expediency. It was late. I was tired. And in fifteen minutes I was on my way. I wasn’t going to expect someone else to bail me out. It wasn’t an emergency. It was simply bad judgment on my part. I created it. I could fix it.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: How often do you expect others to bail you out of your situation when you are completely capable of handling it yourself? When you expect someone else to fix your predicament, you no longer take ownership of your situation.

Are you taking stock of your situations? Is what you’re going through right now a real emergency or is it just an inconvenience? Are you now expecting someone else to get you out of the predicament you put yourself into?

A flat tire in the middle of nowhere, or a broken fan belt, an overheated car and a dead battery all constitute being an emergency. Then you use the “insurance” you have. Running low on fuel because you ignored the open stations earlier – not an emergency. Fix it yourself. You created it.

Don’t whine “that’s what you pay the membership for.” No it isn’t. You pay the membership to help you out in an emergency - not to come running like a staff of servants whenever you don’t want to do it yourself.

If it’s your mess, and you’re completely capable of fixing it yourself, then fix it. Don’t make someone else do your work just because you can. That’s just selfish. Trust me; you’ll feel better just getting it done yourself.

Globe And Mail Feature

Sarah Boesveld, a reporter with Canada's largest daily newspaper The Globe and Mail, asked me a few questions this week on whether or not I think it's OK to be laughing during the economic downturn. My answers appear in her story in Monday's edition of the Globe And Mail.

I will endeavour to post the full story here on Monday.

UPDATE MONDAY MARCH 9: OK, so the story went in a different direction than what I was commenting on so my comments don't appear. Sorry for the false alarm. (KB)

It’s Not The Economy Stupid

Driving past the electronics store yesterday, a roadside billboard caught my eye.

“Watch the recession in high-definition.” That was how the billboard read.

My first thought was that the store manager obviously had a few leadership abilities himself. In an effort to stop his employees from becoming de-motivated by the doom and gloom of the media about the current economic crisis, he injected a little levity. In doing so, he sent a strong message to his people: “we’re still open, you’re still getting paid and people are still buying big TV’s. So let’s remember that the economy isn’t an excuse for not being good at what we do.”

At the same time, he sent a very strong message to his customers. “You’re also still getting paid, the world isn’t upside-down and now is a great time to be making a major purchase with some of the best pricing ever.”

I spoke with a real estate agent today who tells me that for the month of February, real estate sales are up in Calgary and the median price per sale is also up. Some people, when the economy was on fire, got greedy and snatched up some overpriced properties in an effort to flip them for a quick profit. Research says that by the time amateur real estate speculators get involved in the market hoping to make a quick buck, the market boom is usually over. And such is the case for a few greedy-wannabes.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Are you really any worse off this year than you were this time last year? Honestly. If you are worse off, is it the economy or your own decisions that have caused you to be worse off? If you’re about the same as last year, has the economic situation affected you directly or are you just thinking that it’s affecting you? Did you overspend your means when the economy was robust and now you have to play catch-up?

It’s time to take stock and really tell yourself the truth of whether you are any worse off today than you were yesterday. For the 92.8% of Canadians who are still working, it’s really no different today than it was this time last year. For some people though, well they made some bad decisions about their own personal finances and it got away on them.

If you overspent in past and now it has caught up with you, it’s not the fault of the economy. If you over-extended yourself in past and now you find yourself a little behind, it’s not the fault of the economy. If you got greedy when the economy was hot and perhaps thought you could buy up some real estate and flip it for a profit and now you’re stuck with it, it’s not the fault of the economy.

There is only one common-denominator in every bad job, bad financial decision, bad judgment and bad luck. That one common-denominator in every bad thing in your life is you. Change you, not the economy, and you change the results in future.

Fear-Mongering And Its Results

Two big news stories came out yesterday. These stories were a perfect opportunity for the media to instill a little confidence in the public if done right. But good news stories don’t sell ratings.

One story told of how retail sales were down to their lowest level in fifteen years during Christmas 2008 compared to December 2007. The truth is most of the decline was caused by skidding car sales (right after the automakers bailout request) and lower gasoline prices (lower world oil prices). Excluding the automotive sector, retail sales were down only 1.8 per cent. But that part was glaringly absent from the news report.

In fact, one retailer interviewed even suggested that in December 2007, it was a stupid buying frenzy. Customers were hungry for anything they could get their hands on and would simply throw money at the retailers. “We couldn’t service our customers this way. It was awful,” he said. That part of the news story was buried.

The second story featured a recent survey by Harris Decima Research which showed consumer confidence in the economy at its best level since August. 27% of consumers felt that they would be better off in a year from now – up from only 20% who felt that way a month earlier. A whopping 41% of consumers felt now is the perfect time to make a major purchase – up from 35% a month earlier. This story wasn’t even featured in the TV news last night. The news outlet chose instead to feature a story about a woman who clips coupons to save money on her groceries – a story they featured as their third story overall. Clipping coupons is a news story? Really?

In fact, even the good news angle of the first story was ignored by the media last night. They chose to focus on the “worst numbers in fifteen years” which is at best a half-truth. The second story about you and me feeling more confidence in our economy was ignored because good news doesn’t sell commercial-time.

Now before you get to thinking that I was watching Fox News, let me set you straight. I watched Canwest Global news.

Canwest Global is in its own predicament right now. If Canwest Global can’t secure a financial lifeline before the end of this month, it will be forced to seek bankruptcy protection. And yet it still chooses to run the “sky is falling” stories which keeps advertisers and investors away. They are forcing their own demise. There’s no news department without money to run it. You’ll never sell advertising time to people while you’re telling them it’s an awful time to be spending money. That is not leadership. That is fear-mongering. And what goes around comes around.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: If you keep telling your customers how bad it is your customers are going to find another company to buy from. What you need to be doing is talking to your customers and your employees about how good it is. You need to be instilling confidence.

Now is a time for leadership. Leaders don’t scare their people to death and expect them to be able to confidently serve their customers well. Leaders look for opportunities while others cower in their corner offices waiting for the sky to fall.

Make sure you’re instilling confidence in your customers and employees. You have two choices: to instill confidence or to instill fear. What is the good news that your organization should be telling your people and customers right now?