Good People Doing Good Work

Good people want to do good work for good wages so that they can have a good life. And managers are responsible for ensuring that these good people know what is expected of them.

Expectations need to be clear. When good people attain those expectations, it's up to management to set the bar just a smidge higher. Once the new expectation has been met, set a new standard.

The problem though is that managers become too busy putting out fires, settling petty disagreements and attending too many meetings to be able to check in regularly, to recognize achievement when it happens (not just once a year) and to make sure that the work they give to good people is challenging enough to engage but not too challenging causing disengagement.

That means a manager needs to manage - every day. Managers need to set their people up to excel - not just be competent.

An Attitude of Excellence is about giving your best, doing your best and being your best. Performance expectations need to be conducted regularly - not just once a year - unless you only open your doors once a year.

The market can change plenty in a year. Are you keeping up?

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Yellow Ties, Blue Cactus and Snarls

It's Filter-Free Friday™ again - a day when you turn off the natural inhibitors that prevent you from speaking the truth and start telling people how you really feel. The intent is not to hurt, but to help. Whether it's a business, organization or an individual, today is the day you get to say what is on your mind in an effort to help people make a better effort.

I had supper last night at the Blue Cactus in Ottawa after being referred by friends.

I went to www.bluecactusbarandgrill.com and was able to make my reservation on-line. I picked my exact time and number in our party and received a confirmation email within a few minutes. Then, a half-hour prior to my reservation, I was sent an email reminder of my reservation. Brilliant customer relationship management. (This is simple software that any doctor's office, dentist's office, hair salon or any place that offers appointments could use. It is simple and allows your clients to touch you when they're free - and you don't force them to sit on hold while telling them that their call is very important to you.)

The restaurant decor was outstanding. Neil, our server, was friendly and knew his work. The food, however, was kind of ordinary. Neil brought me a feedback card to get my thoughts - mostly compliments except for the kitchen staff who must not taste their food before it leaves the kitchen - or chef has a very dull palate. Regardless, I gave my opinion, my name, address and phone number. I have nothing to fear. I didn't condemn, nor did I become abusive or hurtful. I simply offered an opinion - an honest opinion - in an effort to help them serve their patrons better.

So, that guy that wears the same soup-stained yellow tie to work every day - he gets a polite suggestion from you that drycleaning might be in order. The clerk that snarls through serving you gets asked if you have done something to offend or irritate them. And today, you say something to the person who always seems to be cheery and helpful - something you have failed to do but never have.

It's Filter-Free Friday™. Speak the truth. Stop being ordinary. Find your Greatness.

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Just One Warning

What happens when you turn eighty years old and find yourself alone?

It suddenly dawns on you that you treated people poorly your whole life. And now when you could use a good friend to talk to, a great love to depend on, a grandchild to share joy in, a purpose to awake every morning for and something that could bring joy to others, you find your health failing, your spouse gone, your friends who've left you behind and grandchldren you don't see anymore. You have no purpose but to get out of bed and hope - no, pray - that someone comes by today to share a few words of conversation.

Your only joys are the distant and seldom happy memories of the past and the hope that maybe tomorrow, maybe, someone will want to share a little time with you.

What you do in this very moment can impact your life decades down the road. Be gentle. Be caring. Be the friend you would want to have if it were you. Do something nice for others without the expectation of something in return.

If someone owes you a favor, you probably will never collect. People will never want to share your company out of obligation.

Every action today has a consequence tomorrow. Choose wisely. Life is not a run-through. It is a once-only performance worthy of Greatness.

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

If Only The Same Rules Applied

Imagine walking into a bar and overhearing a couple of strangers discussing your job performance. Then, your attention is drawn to the TV above the bar where you see a picture of your face with the word, "Under-performing" featured under your portrait.

Dejected, you walk home to find a newspaper laying on your step and the headline reads your name followed by, "Is It Time He Was Fired?"

After a restless night's sleep, morning radio's call-in show is all about you: your lack of production, your below-par performance and your seeming unwillingness to explain why you are overpaid for such sub-standard results.

And to top it all off, just as you find your rhythm in your work day, you are constantly interrupted by small groups of people who stick their heads over your cubicle wall and yell, "YOU SUCK" at the tops of their lungs.

Such is the life of a sports figure. That's an average workday when a public sports figure seems to be under-performing or hitting a dry spell in production.

Maybe the same rules should apply to every person, sports figure or not. Imagine if your performance were under the watchful and judgmental eye of the public.

Maybe the same rules should apply in how we treat sports figures. Perhaps everyone's performance should be open to judgment and public discussion. Maybe then, the half-hearted efforts and "good enough" attitudes would cease to be.
Maybe.
--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

A Filter-Free Friday Garden Experience

We went plant-shopping this week. It seems that the garden store offers free replanting of your chosen plant into a pot of your choosing and then finishes it off with some decorative bark or stones to hold in moisture. It's a nice touch and more than enough people inside the store were willing to fall all over themselves to make our experience exceptional - except the cashiers.

While wrestling with our newly potted plant (almost 3 feet in height) through the cash lane, we inadvertently left our box of plant food on the check-out counter in clear view of the two cashiers - both teen'ish. Since it was a slow time of the day, no one was in line behind us. We pushed our cart across twenty feet of shop floor before we reached the door, continued into the parking lot where we took a few minutes to offload the plant into the truck and secure it. A lot attendant came up and offered to take our cart away, placing a 25 cent piece with us as our cart still had our quarter. We then drove away only to have to return when we realized we left the plant food behind. Back at the store, we found the two cashiers sitting up on the counter beside our box of plant food doing much of nothing.

Walking our forgotten purchase out to us could have been the icing on the cake of an exceptional service day. But sadly, all of the hard work of the rest of the staff was negated in a single "meh" moment (meh - a term indicating apathy or indifference to a situation - used mostly by Gen Y and younger). Still, we are likely to return to shop there again because the rest of the staff were attentive and helpful.

In the meantime, I have sent the store an email outlining my experience as I have told it to you. Why? Because it's Filter-Free Friday™, that's why.

Filter-Free Friday™ is the day you get to turn off the filters that prevent you from speaking up when you feel you could have been served better or when you feel someone needs a round of applause. Today is the day you craft letters or emails of face-to-face communication that tells the truth to a person or a business who you feel needs to hear the truth. Pretend you are being called upon to give evidence at a trial and tell your story without emotion and without blame.  Just the facts and perhaps your impression of how the situation could have been better handled. Then, once you have "made the world a better place" (wink), you can rest easy knowing that your concerns and ideas have been heard and that the experience for others that follow will be better.

It's Filter-Free Friday™. So who could stand to hear the truth today?
--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

What I Would Offer To University Grads

I was asked today, what few words of wisdom I would offer to university grads at their graduation ceremonies this year, just before beginning life on their own. Here are three pieces of advice I would offer:

First, today you may be the most educated students of your university, but you are about to become the least educated members of the workforce. Those who you will begin working with have also had their own lifetimes of experience on the job - practical experience. Officially, theory stops today and practical implementation of your knowledge will be augmented with life experience and workplace challenges. Those you will be working with have already done most of what you are about to experience. Seek their counsel and listen carefully. It may save you a great deal of difficulty and disappointment.

Secondly, most university grads will never achieve a 6 or 7 figure paycheck, as much as they think they may deserve one. You are not entitled to a 6-figure paycheck by your graduation. What your diploma entitles you to is to compete with every other graduate who will be seeking the same job as you and want the same promotion as you. You are, however, by your graduation, entitled to continue to learn, to become a valuable member of your workplace and your community, to help those who can't help themselves and to serve people well. You are also entitled to be grateful and thankful for your education, a chance many didn't have or perhaps didn't take. You are entitled to be grateful to your parents who have helped in some way and you are also entitled to be a decent human being when you get out into the real world.

Lastly, you entered university to close the gap between what you knew and what you needed to know. Don't let that strategy be left at the door after today. You spent four years of learning, studying and testing to get to where you are today. The same rules apply in the real world. There will always be a gap between what you know and what you need to know. The only way to close that gap is to do what you have done here: read, learn, study, experiment and pass your tests. The real world that you about to enter, operates on the very same principles.

The truth is, after applying themselves for four or more years to acquire book-knowledge, some will end up believing they have been given their diploma in "knowing everything." They will ignore the wisdom of others and likely end up wallowing in a lifetime of mediocrity. Others, who have open minds, will achieve or experience some degree of greatness.

For those who paid attention to these meager offerings, good luck on your journey.

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Managers Are Boring Their Staff

Managers are encouraging the relentless pursuit of mediocrity through repetition, routine and regurgitation that disengages people to treat the work as just a job. Managers who are too focused on following the rules and not enough on encouraging new ideas for new times serving new customers with new products are making it impossible to become organizations of greatness by forcing workers to stick to routines instead of rewarding innovation.

Everything about your business has changed except how you let your people do the work. Innovation is what engages people. Innovation is what gets people excited about coming to work. New things get people to re-focus (think about how happy your people get when they receive a new computer). They love new challenges and new products. Why would you think they wouldn't enjoy a new way of finding solutions to age-old, boring traditions that take too long to accomplish and are, well, they're boring?

Tradition, however, encourages boredom. Repetition encourages boredom. Boredom encourages disengagement. Stop focusing on doing things they way you've always done it. Your new Gen Y hires don't have those same traditions and they don't understand why you're still doing it the old way. Managers who can't relate to their staff also make it hard for them to feel excited about the work.

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

What Has Google Done To Your Business?

If you want to just hang out and do things the way you have always done them, you're dead. Google has changed the way we do business, the way we deliver, the way we sell and the way we hire our people.

Think about the number of times you've showed up in a store and didn't need a salesperson, just a cashier. By the time most of your customers get to you they already know more about you than you think they might. If you think that not having a web site gives you an advantage in that regard, then you're not getting it. A business without a web site is a business that can't be trusted. If you haven't got a web presence with testimonials and satisfied customers then you can't be trusted - and people won't buy from you because you have no on-line reputation.

Even the new people coming to our workplaces have a different idea about what they need to know and what they don't. Most new young workers won't remember facts and figures because they can access the facts and figures on Google when they need that information. If they don't need it always, they won't remember it.

If you think you're running the same business or organization that you were five years ago, hiring the same kinds of people and delivering the same customer expectations - you are out of touch with your own customer base.

Sure, you can run a business this way but it will always be a middle of the pack performer - mediocre.

Greatness requires visionary thinking and an embracing of change. Whether you like it or not, your customers are changing their buying habits. Are you changing your selling and service habits to match them?
--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

It's Filter-Free Friday™

Several months ago I proposed the notion of a "Filter-Free Friday™" - not a day that you rip the filters off of your smokes and go "cowboy" but a day when you turn off your "I can't say that" filters and you say exactly what is on your mind at work, at home, at the restaurant, standing in line at Starbucks. Basically the notion is that if you can think it, you can say it.

I am starting to see some references of Filter-Free Fridays™ on the Internet these days. The idea is starting to pick up steam so, it being Friday and all, let's remind everyone how Filter-Free Friday™ works.

Filter-Free Friday™ is the day when you stop worrying about what people will think about you and actually say what is on your mind - in a respectful and non-hurtful way.

• If your pasta at lunch today is salty, tell your server it's salty - it's not "fine."
• If you have putting up with a co-worker's bad body odor for days, today is the day you say something - not in front of others to embarrass the poor soul but pull them aside and make a comment about how others are affected by it and too afraid to say something.
• If someone parks poorly encroaching on a second space and you can see them doing it, give them a gentle reminder that they might want to straighten their car a bit so others can use the next space.
• If someone gives you exceptional service at Starbucks (or wherever) today, say something to them.
• If a co-worker has gone long enough without praise that you think is deserving, say something even if you're not the boss.

You get the idea don't you? Stop saying nothing and start saying something. The purpose behind the idea of Filter-Free Friday™ is to tell the truth in a respectful and non-hurtful way. The purpose is to make bad service better for the next person, to offer hope and encouragement when someone does something right, to turn off the filters that stop us all from accepting ordinary and mediocre when it could have been great and to encourage people to start telling the truth instead of swallowing and internalizing it.

Everyone deserves to receive something better and we can all use a reminder that we could do better. Filter-Free Fridays™ is designed to stamp out the word "fine" as a response to, "how was everything?"

We'll start this little experiment with one day, Friday, and see how it goes from there. Maybe you might get used to doing Filter-Free Fridays™ everyday.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Disinfect Workplace Bullies

In walking through the hospital today, I noticed a janitor sweeping up fallen leaves from some of the large plants in the common area. He was addressing the things that visitors to the hospital could see, not the things they can't see - like those who were sick enough to be admitted to hospital who had touched door handles, arms of chairs, vending machine buttons, elevator buttons and counter-tops. How often do you see janitors wiping down the coffee vending machine with disinfectant spray? How many dirty hands touch the daily-mopped floor versus how many flu-infected hands touch the elevator buttons or touch the arms of a chair in the Emergency room?

Now before you go thinking I'm some sort of weird germophobe, let me explain why I point this out.

Every single business and organization runs like this hospital: they spend an inordinate amount of time on things that might address how they are perceived but little or no effort on things that might affect their customers and clients profoundly. A poorly disinfected waiting room could result in a patient's second trip to Emergency in a few days. But if there's litter on the floor, one might perceive the hospital to be unclean. So you clean what they can see and ignore what they can't.

Think about when an organization offers their people a chance to air their griefs as a team-building exercise - but no one does because the staffer they want to complain about is sitting beside them. What about organizations whose front lobbies are immaculate but their shipping department can't seem to get a delivery done on time to save themselves. Then there are organizations who preach a safe and happy workplace but refuse to reprimand workplace bullies for fear of the employee union.

Management's failure to address a workplace's silent issues is no different than a hospital janitor rarely wiping down bacterial surfaces. Either way, someone will end up not well enough to come into work.

And then you have absenteeism which costs you money; big money. Soon it becomes a lousy place to work because your standards are lax. Your culture suffers and your new-hire candidates become more mediocre. If only you had just wiped the doors more often, enforced the rules and dealt with the bullies, you could have kept your good people.

A germ is a germ. Disinfect it before it makes your whole organization sick. 
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Talent Without Skill Is Nothing

I'm not comfortable with attending the social events at conferences because: 1) I am at work when I am at a conference, and 2) I'm really not very good at small talk.

As bad as I may be at small talk, my next door neighbor is, hmmm, let's say he's "inept" at making even the slightest conversation. I have no idea what he does for a living because, well, because communication seems almost painful for him and we've never gotten that far in a conversation. (Yes, I know that's small talk. I told you I wasn't very good at it.)

I hope he's not in customer service or sales. My line of work would probably make him catatonic.

Which brings me to this question: are you skilled in all of the areas you need to be for your work? I have heard far too many people say that they have the gift of the gab and that's why they're in sales. The gift of the gab isn't enough - unless you only want to be a mediocre salesperson. No, being "skilled in the sale" is where I would put my money.

Each person has a natural talent for something. But raw talent alone will only ever allow you to achieve mediocrity. Talent alone is seductive - thinking you don't have to work hard because you have talent. It's why too many with real talent only ever achieve mediocrity. But it is putting skill on top of that talent that drives you right into greatness. That means that even if you have talent, you still need to build skill.

Let me explain. Tiger has talent. Ovechkin has talent. Kobe has talent. So what? Without practice, they'd all be just average players.

You may have talent for whatever it is you do. But if you aren't honing your skill everyday, you're wasting your talent. You're as ordinary as every other mediocre "player" like you.

The quote goes: There's no difference between the man who can't read and the one who won't read. In the same way, talent without skill is lazy - a one-way street to the vast wasteland of mediocrity.

Be better than that. Stop being ordinary. Find your greatness.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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What If You Don't Speak The Language?

The summer of 2005, I spent 5 weeks in small-town, rural Quebec in a French immersion course learning the language. With my high-school French as a base and a lifetime around my French-speaking relatives, I built my vocabulary quickly. Then there was Jean-Louis, whose house I shared. We would converse each night for at least an hour. In week one, I understood maybe 5% of what he was saying. At the end of week five, I was conversing with 95% accuracy.

But I will never forget that first week where 95% of conversation was over my head.

Starbucks is another place where newbies get all nervous at the counter because they don't speak the language. A "venti, skinny, double-shot, extra-hot, no foam, no whip, caramel macchiato" runs fear through the veins of newbies not wanting to be embarrassed when they order a "medium coffee."

P'shaw. There's no such thing as medium because a tall is a small, a grande means large but is the medium size and a venti is Italian for "twenty" and refers to the 20-ounce sized cup - a large. Then there's the coffee. C'est confusant.

How about sending a courier package? Do you speak "courier?" Did you know that "height X width X depth" divided by 194 will give you the dimensional weight - the billable weight of your package - not the actual weight? And that the formula for calculating brokerage, duty and taxes varies but not based on weight or contents?

Are you speaking your language or the language of the people you serve? Take the time to educate clients in how your industry works. Speak plain language. (IT guys are famous for not getting that one.)

Build your relationships based on clear communication and trust, then you can build on that to bring people up to speed. Organizations and people of greatness make it easy for customers to follow them and they don't embarrass their potential customers or make them afraid to do business with them by using jargon.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Being Busy Is Not An Excuse

Have you ever used the excuse, "it's too busy" as a way of not paying attention to details, taking too long to get back to customers, missing project deadlines or being late for appointments?

Isn't the purpose of being in business ultimately to be busy?

If you can't handle juggling a few balls and still get your project in on time, can't get a meal out in a timely fashion, can't show your client or prospect some respect or show up on time because you're too busy, then I will guess that you won't have to worry about being too busy for long.

If your 100-seat restaurant gets bogged down after 60 chairs are filled, then take out 40 chairs and do a great job for 60 people instead of a lousy job for 100.

If you're leaving yourself ten minutes to get to your next appointment twenty minutes away, then start scheduling in 30 minutes of travel time - but show your customer/prospect that you think they are important enough to be there early.

If you can't seem to handle the details to get the project done on time, then delegate something or admit that you're over your head but don't let your project team grind to halt because you're "too busy.".

At a sporting goods store sale today, one clerk served one customer while 6 others waited for service. The clerk leaned against a stack of boxes while the customer took his time trying on several pairs of shoes - not acknowledging the others who waited. We didn't wait. We left, found a store where the clerk served us promptly, checked us for our walking style, brought out four pairs of shoes, allowed us try each, helped a couple of other customers at the same time and rang us through while we gladly paid a premium for premium service.

What's the point of having a sale to bring in more customers if you can't handle the numbers once they arrive?

Do one thing well. Be outstanding. Be the standard to which your competitors will measure themselves. Don't offer mediocre service (or none at all) and blame being too busy. You may end up solving your own problem of being too busy.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Raving About the Continental Breakfast

The hotel clerk handed me my room key and then a coupon for a free continental breakfast the next morning. The previous three nights I had stayed in a hotel that included a full, hot breakfast buffet of scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, oatmeal, cereals, bagels, etc. After being treated to the hot buffet for breakfast, the continental breakfast seemed like a cheap, half-hearted effort.

There was a time when a free continental breakfast was fashionable. Now, customers expect their hotels to make a fuss over them. A continental breakfast seems like the very least a hotel could do.

In fact, here's where the market is going and what other hotels are doing:

• The Hyatt Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona offers guests a margarita upon check-in.
• The Gansevoort in New York and Turks and Caicos offer guests a Sony Reader Digital Book for the length of their stay.
• Opus Montreal offers guests Xboxes and PlayStation in their room because packing these can be a pain.
• The Zetter in London boasts an interactive guide to local restaurants, bars, clubs and more - all through the room TV - as well as 4,000 music tracks.
• The Crescent in Beverley Hills leaves a loaner iPod in every room loaded with music.
• Seven hotel in Bangkok lends you a mobile phone preloaded with all contact info for recommended restaurants and bars in the city.
• Doubletree still offers a hot cookie upon check-in (a little thing but a deliciously nice touch).
• Hotel Palomar in Dallas will offer you a goldfish in a bowl as a companion for your stay.
• Toronto’s Hazelton Hotel offers a pillow menu including the Therapeutic Siesta Body Pillow and the Snore No More Pillow.
• The Esperanza in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, will place a painting or sculpture of your choice from the hotel’s collection in your room upon request.
• At the Four Seasons Hotel Washington, you'll get the loan of a Kindle, featuring 80 different newspapers from 15 countries at the breakfast table.
• The Whatever/Whenever service at W Hotels around the world includes free services like staff running errands to get your favorite perfume or foreign newspaper.

So how is that continental breakfast tasting right now? Doing the bare minimum is not how an organization achieves greatness. What was once a nice perk years ago is well below ordinary now. I mean honestly, would you rave to your friends about the continental breakfast? What is your organization doing to add value? How are you separating yourself from being ordinary and mediocre? Become the standard that everyone else follows. Find your greatness.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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"Ordinary" Is Never A Favorite

Do you have a favorite? A favorite restaurant, favorite food, favorite drink, favorite TV show or favorite sports team? How about a favorite make of car, vacation spot, airline, hotel or coffee shop? Do you have a favorite friend, co-worker or boss?

Everyone has a favorite something. Some parents even have a favorite child - even though the right answer is "I love all of you equally."

But now here's the interesting question: are you anyone else's favorite? Are you the coffee shop's favorite customer? Are you your doctor's favorite patient? Are you your waitress's favorite customer? How about at work? Are you your boss's favorite employee or your customers' favorite representative?

If you're not a favorite, you'll never achieve great success. It just can't be done. You can't rise to the top in people's minds by sitting in the middle of the pack. The middle of the pack is for the mediocre.

Are you OK sliding through life just being ordinary? No one picks "ordinary" as their favorite. You find life changes when you stop being ordinary and start finding your Greatness. Greatness is where you find your favorites.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Would You Still Do It?

If your customers couldn't tell the difference between a sauce of Mushroom Cream Reduction and Campell's Cream of Mushroom soup, would you still do it?

If your clients couldn't tell the difference between Starbucks and Folgers while they waited in your lobby, would you still do it?

If your customers couldn't tell the difference between 128-bit and 32-bit encryption when processing their transactions on-line, would you still do it?

If your boss couldn't tell the difference between you giving 100 percent and 60 percent effort, would you still give 100 percent?

If the rest of the volunteer committee you sit on couldn't tell the difference between you giving the project your full attention or giving the project lip-service, would you continue to accept the accolades for a job well-done?

What you do when no one is looking is what separates mediocrity from greatness.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How To Make $5.50 At Lunch

Sitting in an average franchise restaurant, I ordered the Southwest Chicken Sandwich with tossed salad. After I finished lunch, the waiter, who had not visited the table since he delivered the meal, asked, "How was the sandwich?"

"It was OK," I replied. It was an apt description of an average meal.

"That's it?" he asked. "Just OK?"

"Just OK," was my reply. It was nothing more than I had expected and I didn't expect a lot - just an average sandwich in an average restaurant.

I explained that I really didn't understand the brown gravy on a sandwich when I was informed that it was a peppercorn sauce - apparently without peppercorns (in hindsight, I probably couldn't taste the peppercorns because of the overpowering vinegar in the pickled banana peppers). All in all, pretty average.

When I was presented with the bill, our waiter had discounted the meal by $5.50 for telling the truth.

So, are you over-paying for your average meal by untruthfully answering "fine" when you're asked how your meal was?

Answering "fine" instead of telling the truth is costing you $550.00 per year in extra charges (based on eating out twice a week for 50 weeks). And your restaurant is still making average sandwiches because you're afraid you'll hurt their feelings.

Stop being a pushover customer. It's costing you money and you're not inspiring the restaurant to perform better.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How To Deal With Disappointment

Everyone gets disappointed at some point. Moms express their disappointment at the actions of their 6 year-old when they hit another boy. Fathers express their disappointment to teenage daughters in the hopes that the outward expression becomes a lesson to make better choices. Bosses express their disappointment on performance reviews in the hopes of motivating the affected employee. Teachers express their diappointment because they know the student isn't applying him or herself.

These are all expressions of outward disappointment in someone else. But what happens when disappointment is focused inward - when things don't turn out the way we had hoped?

There are some things in life that you just don't have any control over and there are other things that are within your control. Understanding which is which will help you to bounce back quicker from disappointment - to develop a resilience attitude.

Planning for months to visit the Grand Canyon only to be turned back by a snowstorm, a rained out family picnic, a power outage during your wedding reception or a cancelled flight to an important meeting are all things out of your control. You have no control over the weather, the electric company or the airlines. It's fine to feel disappointed for a short while but it isn't the end of your life. You can try again tomorrow.

However, disappointment about how much you get paid, your job-performance review, your golf score, that promotion you really want, your relationships at home and how your money is budgeted are all within your control. Only you determine how valuable you are to the company, how well you do your job, how much you practice at golf, how you self-improve to be the logical choice to be promoted, how hard you work at your relationship and how you spend your money. No one else is to blame for your results.

You have no control over other people, things or events outside of yourself. But you have complete control over your reaction to those things. You also have ALL of the control over every part of your life that involves YOU and your results.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Greatness Is Impossible To Duplicate

A recent walk through Scottsdale, Arizona this week had me shaking my head a little. Scottsdale's famous "Old Town" is a souvenir-hunter's paradise. There have got to be thirty gift shops within a three block area, all virtually carrying the same Red Dirt T-shirts, turquoise jewellery, Navajo blankets, water-ripple globes of the world and leather belts. All the prices are virtually the same. The hours of each store are the same. The parking issues are the same. The decor of each is virtually the same. All in all, each independantly-owned gift shop is a cookie-cutter version of the gift shop next door.

Did the people who opened the 30th gift shop really believe they were bringing anything new to the table by opening the exact same store as the 29 others on the street? And whose idea was it to make sure that every shop carry the same lines, selection and price? Really, there is no reason for the local residents to shop this area. This is a tourist area whose sole means of survival is by volume of tourists. Get enough tourists through and everyone can do OK - not great - just OK.

And while we're at it, as a tourist, why would you save up and plan a vacation for a whole year only to spend your vacation in the same restaurants you have at home? There are no memories made in eating in ordinary restaurants. The best memories are made when you stretch yourself and experience something different. In fact, the best businesses become successful using the exact same philosophy: be different than everyone else.

Greatness is impossible to duplicate. Copying mediocre? Piece of cake.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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When Board Members Don't Pull Their Weight

When you give your commitment to join a board, committee or volunteer organization, is it because you have deep convictions for the project or are you doing it to give the appearance that you are more important than you actually are?

Charitable societies, social projects or community prosperity initiatives all require brain trusts and people to follow through on decisions, ideas and commitments. All too often, we see people who initially show excitement and support for a project only to lag behind and blame their busyness, schedule or various other commitments to other boards, committees and social projects.

People who sit on volunteer boards can be categorized as either heroes or zeros. The heroes make no excuses for their involvement because they find the time to just get things done. Zeros, however, want to give the outward appearance of caring about something but their level of care is evident in their participation. Zeros are aptly named because other than attending the meetings, their output is a zero.

It's one thing to be involved and to make your commitment to the project you choose to be involved with. It's quite another thing to give the illusion of being involved only so you can use the name of the humanitarian effort to advance yourself, not your project.

Volunteer organizations have a culture just like regular business. As volunteers, you are allowed to fire other volunteers who are not advancing your cause. In fact, if a board member is not advancing the cause by claiming to be too busy to do more than attend the meetings, then he or she is dragging down the cause. Separate yourself immediately from laggards who are "using" you to advance themselves. That board member is taking the space of someone who would be willing to do the work. Get rid of the roadblocks. Sometimes that means removing people.

If you're not prepared to participate fully to elevate your cause to one of greatness, then you are standing in the way of a group of people making a difference. And you become the reason why nothing changes.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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What Doctor's Offices Can Learn From Hotels

There are things that some businesses do badly that no other business should adopt as a service strategy:

• help desks that seem to shrug their shoulders on issues, "Yeah, that problem happens on occasion. Oh well. Not much we can do."
• retail stores whose on-line stock check shows there are several items in stock but when you get there, they don't have any.
• automated reminders that it's time for another visit - phone reminders that call you incessantly until you have to lose your temper with them to have your number removed.
• Costco's "everyone's a potential shoplifter" policy that creates lineups at the exit while someone with a highlighter goes through your stuff to make sure you didn't take more than on your receipt.

But then there are some ideas that other businesses should adopt. Hotels, good hotels, have something to teach doctor's offices, dentists, chiropractors, medical labs, etc. I check into a lot of hotels. At the front counter, I simply give my name and the clerk usually finds my reservation within a few seconds. The paperwork has already been done, keys are ready and I can check in quickly. After all, the quicker I get into the hotel, the quicker they have a captive customer spending money.

"Do you have an appointment?" is a question that shows a lack of initiative. Of course I have an appointment. Otherwise I would say that I don't have an appointment and ask if the doctor can see me today? How hard is it to look at a schedule of appointments and match my name with an appointment on or about the same time?


Here's the rub though: if you do have an appointment, it's because you made an appointment (called in and actually spoke to someone), then had the doctor's office call you back a day in advance to re-confirm your appointment asking you to show up a few minutes early and then when you do finally show up for your scheduled appointment, you get asked, "Do you have an appointment?"

Hotels process more guests an a daily basis than the average doctors office, or chiropractor or dentist. So how come they don't ask if I have a reservation? Remember, we're talking about good hotels here - not the ones whose clerks are standing outside the front doors having to butt their smokes when you stand at the front counter. Most people who check into hotels have a reservation otherwise they ask if there are any rooms available. Unless your medical practice is a walk-in clinic, I would suspect most patients have an appointment. Same could be said of dentists. Those without an appointment would probably call ahead in an emergency to see if they could be squeezed in amongst the appointments.

Most people have appointments when they go to see their doctor, dentist, chiropractor, lawyer, accountant, hairdresser and auto mechanic. OK, let me explain that I rarely get asked if I have an appointment when I get to my lawyer, accountant, hairdresser or auto mechanic. They assume that I do or I wouldn't be there. This really just happens in doctor's offices - but there are a lot of organizations who take their lead from treating clients like cattle. They may not necessarily ask if you have an appointment but they do the bare minimum to impress you on your first impression.

Stop thinking of your receptionist as a receptionist. Change your Attitude. That person at the front counter is the Executive Vice President of First Impressions for your company.

Mediocre, apathetic organizations make it difficult to do business and first impressions are lasting impressions. But then, as I've been saying for a while, there's no effort required in being ordinary.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Friday Is Employee Recognition Day

Friday, March 5, 2010 is Employee Recognition Day. Now you might think that a day like this is kind of cute and meant to be lighthearted but it's not a really serious thing. That may be true, but then so is Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Try not to take those two days seriously and see what happens. You would never dishonor your mother on Mother's Day nor your spouse on Valentine's Day if you want to have peace and harmony at home.

Think of Employee Recognition Day the same way. If the employee knows that it's Employee Recognition Day and no attempt is made by management to recognize them, you might as well have forgotten your spouse on Valentine's Day. You will have created a bigger chasm between employees and management.

Yes, there is the argument that you don't need a special day to recognize your employees and you would be right. But you don't need a special day to recognize your sweetheart or your spouse but it seems to be the only days of  the year that many do honor them. So we have this day to force the laggards to get with the program and show their gratitude. It is a day designated to REMIND managers that they have a staff who do their work without a lot of recognition: managers get so wrapped up in attending endless (and pointless) meetings that there is little time left to say "thanks" to their people.

So this Friday, show your Attitude of Gratitude by springing for pizza for the staff, buying a $25 Starbucks card for each member of your team or giving a heartfelt, handwritten card personally prepared for each member of your team. Do NOT hand out awards that day. Friday is Employee Recognition Day. That means all employees are recognized - not just your superstars.

If you want to build a culture of engagement in your organization, you will recognize your people on Friday. Then, make a decision to make the first Friday of every month, Employee Recognition Day. One simple change in your corporate attitude will spread the word that yours is a great place to work. More people will be lining up to work there - good people - not just the ones who are available.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Engage In Something Meaningful

Managers who spend endless amounts of time sitting in their offices waiting for the next crisis to handle normally find themselves handling a lot of crises.

Managers whose Attitude is that staff need to be watched usually find things to need to watch their staff about. In other words, they will always find things wrong that need addressing right away.

Managers who have developed an Attitude of praising their people usually find that they have much to praise their people about. People work well for managers who appreciate contribution.

There is always much discussion about how to get employees to engage better in their work. Focusing solely on engagement is a mistake. Engagement is what you want the end result to be. It should not be the focus of the strategy but rather the result of implementing the strategy.

The truth is, employees engage better when the work means something. When a manager praises them for their effort, then the work means something. When customers return and are loyal because of the employees efforts, then the work means something. When the company or employee are recognized in the community for their tireless efforts to make their community a better place, then the work means something. When lives are changed, families are helped and problems are solved, then the work means something. When the work is defined as people giving service to people, then the work means something.

You will never get employees to engage themselves in work that doesn't mean anything. Managers need to make their workplaces meaningful if they want to engage their employees. It is not meaningful to find fault with your people or to sit and wait for another disaster to handle. That is how you make the work look futile - not meaningful.

Create a culture of meaningful work and you create a workforce of engaged individuals.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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A Gold Medal Performance

This is going to be the worst day of their lives for a few people who have an attitude of just doing enough work to not get fired. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if a bunch of slackers phoned in sick today - at the Vancouver International Airport.

After the 2002 Olympics, Salt Lake City airport never thought about planning for the tens of thousands of passengers who would be all flying home the same day. Ticket counters, security screening, food service, janitorial and baggage handlers were grossly understaffed. Consequently, lineups went right outside the doors into the freezing cold and many missed thier flights.

But that won't be the case in Vancouver today.

YVR (Vancouver International Airport) has been planning this day for two years. Expectations are that 40,000 extra passengers will make their way through YVR today. That means that a full complement of ticket agents will be on duty, all security stations will be open, there will be more than enough food service workers on duty. Not to mention washroom attendants, janitorial staff, greeters, hosts, gate staff, baggage handlers and more. This will be the biggest day in YVR's history.

So, back to my original thought. Some people who work at the airport, will try to find a way to dodge the heavy work today. They will whine. They will pass the buck and the heavy lifting on to someone else and some will openly show their frustration in front of a world of passengers. What a horrible last impression to leave people with: that you could care less.

For those who will do their best and keep a smile on their face through this busy day, well done. Be proud of your achievement. You will be able to tell the story of the day that YVR was swamped and how you helped make it better. For them, it will be a gold medal performance. For others, it will be a forgetable performance - as it should be.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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What Do You Make?

It's not a question of money. It's a question of how the world is different because you're here.



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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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McLovin' It

Have you gotten caught up in Olympic fever yet? Watching the thousands and thousands of people on the streets of Vancouver daily, seeing the cheering and flag-waving crowds at the events and even seeing the people wearing Canada clothing in every city across the country makes it difficult not to feel a sense of pride that something special is going on.

At the top of Calgary's Canada Olympic Park, known as COP, where many of the athletes prepared and trained themselves for the Vancouver games flies a lone white flag, the five interlocking Olympic rings.

At the base of COP, the legacy to the '88 Calgary Olympics lies a McDonald's restaurant, the official restaurant of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. But there's nary a sign that the Olympics are being hosted in Canada in the restaurant. There's no signage touting their "official" status even though they look right up the slopes of COP. And on either side of the chalet-style four-sided fireplace on the two thirty-two inch plasma TVs there are no Olympics playing. Just the news from one of the non-Olympic news networks.

There are seven television networks broadcasting the games but not one channel is being shown in the official restaurant of the 2010 Vancouver Games. And until I mentioned it to the manager, no one even seemed to notice that the Olympic spirit had left the building.

For the 2010 Games, McDonalds chose 350 servers from across Canada to work the McDonalds in the athlete's village (which doesn't charge the athletes anything for the food). This is a major promotion for the company and one they take pride in.

By the way, my car dealership had the Olympics on in their customer lounge today. They are not an official sponsor. The electronics store I visited this afternoon had almost 100 televisions all tuned to the Olympics. They are not an Olympic sponsor either. Even the Mongolian restaurant I had supper at had the Olympics on in their lounge. They may have been supporting Team Mongolia if there was one but I don't think so.

Apathy exists even in management. It's missing little details like this that makes it a very mediocre place to work and an even worse place to be a customer.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Solving Social Problems

How would you go about improving a sales culture of a small business? You would get all staff to buy into a few new ideas, to focus their attention on ways of turning each customer interaction into a potential sale and to encourage each other to improve their sales ability.

How would you go about improving an environmental culture in a multi-national, publicly-traded company? Likely the same way as a small business just on a larger scale.

So why, if it is possible to improve a company's culture by focusing on the problem and connecting it to the desired outcome, why don't we think we can solvethe social problems that exist in the towns and cities we live in? Why do we throw up roadblocks when it comes to improving the volunteer culture in a small town or the help-the-homeless culture in a small city or making sure every child in every school in a large metropolitan area has enough to eat during the day?

It's not that difficult. It just requires three things: focus, desire and effort. So why do so many of our communities have so many problems? My guess is that the "effort"part is missing.

If it seems like work most turn their backs. Probably the same people end up complaining that nothing is getting done. Those who are making the effort and getting it done are too busy to whine about things not being done.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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No Effort Required In Being Ordinary

I had a quote of mine make its way around Twitter this week. The quote was, "There's no effort required in being ordinary."

Maybe that's the reason why we are overrun with mediocrity, ordinary, sameness. There's no effort required in just being good enough. That's easy. That's why there's so much competition at the mediocre level because almost everyone competes at that level.

The stretch is when an individual or a company makes a decision to move toward "greatness." That's when everything changes. That's when it get s hard. That's when the scrutiny of those who would throw stones (the secretly envious) arises and that's when you hear from the naysayers in your life, all of the reasons why you can't do it.

"You can't increase your business in a recession."

"You can't have a banner sales month in a market downturn."

"You can't risk renovating your house when jobs are tenuous."

"There's no such thing as a perfect relationship."

"Blah. Blah. Blah."

You can do these things and you most certainly will do these things if you have made the decision to stop being ordinary and strive for greatness. The sideline critics are just too lazy to get off their fat asses and do it themselves and they know it. You're embarrassing them and they will complain about it.

There is no effort required in being ordinary. That's why there's so little competition at the "Greatness" level. The people and companies willing to do whatever it takes to be the standard to which every mediocre person and organization will measure himself are very few.

There's hardly been any effort needed to get your results so far, huh? That means you're capable of more but you're not even trying.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Set Your People Up To Win

At the door last week, was a rep from my cable and Internet provider. She introduced herself and displayed her company employee card clipped to the outside of her jacket.

"I'm here to see if I can save you a few dollars by bundling our services," she started out.

The she asked, "So, can you tell me what services you are currently subscribing to from us?"

Huh? Wouldn't she already know what services I subscribe to before she got to the door if her purpose was to actually save me money?

What I soon figured out is that the cable company, instead of using a third-party call center to phone to pester me, sends people out into the field to knock at doors. They probably have a better closing ratio than the phone since no one answers their phones anymore. But why did she have NO information about my account?

This is what makes an organization look dumb, mediocre, ordinary: sending their people (contracted or not) out to represent the company, to talk knowledgeably to their customers, to sway new customers to increase the number of service subscriptions, and yet give them absolutely nothing to go on - no help, no "warm call," no support, no nothing. Any ordinary and mediocre company can do that. Most do. There's no effort required in being ordinary.

If you were an organization of greatness, you'd make sure that the reps you send would at least know a little something about me - even what services I subscribe to. If you're going to save me money, then you had better know exactly how you could do that before you get to my door. This pathetic sales attempt at my door was not about making me, the customer, the focus of the call.


I checked their web site under the "Careers" section. It's where I found their "Values" statement: Together, we designed a value system that will guide us and that will represent to our team and our customers how we do things here. Our values are: Accountable, Balance, Customer Focused, Loyalty, Integrity, Positive, Can Do Attitude and Team Player.

Do you want some advice cable behemoth? How about you walk your talk and actually do what your "Values" statement says you will do: support the people out in the market who deal with your customers by at least giving them a modicum of information and set them up to win instead of finding ways of getting doors slammed in their faces and your company to get a bigger black eye as a company out-of-touch with its customers?

Just another mediocre company paying lip-service to their company values.  It's no big surprise that on the same page of their web site I also found: We are always looking for motivated individuals to fill a wide range of positions in a variety of locations. No kidding.

 

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Why "Help Wanted" Is Not A Good Sign

Coming out of a recession, the last thing that should be cluttering the sides of roadways are "Help Wanted" or "Now Hiring" signs. Here's why: with unemployment rates the highest in years, you would think that people who are out of work would be taking the initiative and applying for jobs that are not being advertised - at companies that they would WANT to work for - not just those that happen to have an opening. If the job-seekers have not taken the initiative to be proactive, are these really the kinds of workers you want working in your organization?

Also, your "Help Wanted" sign sends a message to job seekers and your competitors that you don't have a lineup of people who are clamoring to knock down your door and come work for you. That means that your corporate culture is not attracting the best and brightest minds or you would be flooded with resumes all the time and never have to place an advertisement or a roadside sign.

Do you think Google has a road sign of neon red letters which reads, "Now Hiring?" No, of course not. Google has thousands of applicants everyday trying to join their company. And they have a full complement of HR administrators who sift through the thousands of resumes submitted daily and make contact with each of them. They even tell you on their web site that if you can differentiate yourself, you have a good chance of getting an interview. Does your HR department operate like that?

If your HR department is only accepting resumes when there's an opening, find a new HR director. You don't get the best and brightest minds when you advertise a job opening. You get whomever is available. That's not how you build a strong culture that attracts more of the best. It will simply attract more of the available - you know, the people who couldn't find work elsewhere.

Half of the North American workforce are actively looking for new work in 2010 (according to Right Management Survey results). Just because there may be no openings today, doesn't mean you can't start a conversation with potential candidates today.

Oh, and if you're a job-seeker and you see a big "Now Hiring" sign or big ad in the newspaper on Saturday don't get terribly excited. It probably hasn't got much of a culture of innovation or leadership or people would be busting down the doors to work there. It'll probably be just like the last job you had - kind of mediocre.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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7 Ways To Detect Fake Job References

News that job-seekers are now buying fake references in an effort to jump ahead of deserving candidates struck me as being the lowest of the low. Even the slimy name of the company helping these liars makes my skin crawl - CareerExcuse.com. These guys, for money, will build a great reference for you, create a fake past employment history, create a fake company with accompanying phone number, fake web site, fake logo and even a fake LinkedIn profile.

This is a site for people who don't work well with others, are jerks on the job, get fired often, show up drunk or high and put their co-workers at risk or who have done criminal acts while on the job. In other words, this is a blantant attempt to avoid accountability and personal responsibility.

How popular is this site? Well, they aren't taking any more subscribers at this time because they are full. That means thousands of job-seekers are lying their way into companies and organizations as we speak. Thousands of organizations are falling victim to unscrupulous job-seekers and their accomplices. Possibly, organizations will be stolen from in short order: recruitment and training time, training budgets, deserving candidates and expertise.

But, HR Directors can unite and fight back. Follow these 7 strategies to ensure that liars and cheats are NOT infiltrating your organization and rotting your culture from the inside-out:

1. Build a network of real people on the ground who can check addresses and business licenses to ensure that the companies are real before you accept the reference at face-value. Fake companies don't have real business licenses and real addresses. Google search the address. Google search other businesses in the area and call a business across the street or in the same building to see if they can see the sign on the building from across the street and if it really does exist.
2. Spread the word. When you discover a fake business and/or a fake reference, let your network know about it immediately. Hold nothing back. You would like to know if the business is a fake before you hired wouldn't you? Well, so would your fellow HR Directors.
3. Don't stop checking after the candidate has been hired. There may have been enough window-dressing to keep you distracted while a fake reference made its way through. Follow up monthly while the candidate is still on probationary period and tell the candidate up front about your plan.
4. Stop placing so much emphasis on the reference. If an HR Director is following potential candidates on social networks long before they ever get close to hiring, they will discover the truth and not rely solely on a piece of paper.
5. Track the candidates on social networks like their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and look for things out of the ordinary. Watch how the candidate interacts with others and messages he or she may leave on the walls of others.
6. Watch for job titles that don't make sense in the context of the organization. Question someone who was "director of personnel" for a five-employee company or "vice president of production" for a service organization that doesn't manufacture anything.
7. Trust your gut. If something seems hinky, it probably is. Ask the candidate to provide any personal particulars of their former workplaces (or fake workplaces) like how many worked in the department, the receptionist's name, the name of their favorite co-workers, the name of their co-worker's dog, spouse's name, co-worker's golf handicap, etc. Liars are never prepared for questions like that and get very nervous when asked.

I look at it this way: there are some things that past employers won't tell you (because they are afraid of lawsuits).  So take the offensive. If you have just discovered an employee who falsified his resume, fire him and sue him for the expenses incurred by recruitment and training. And don't forget to sue the accomplices like CareerExcuse.com. Make them feel the pain of consequence too. A good dozen or so lawsuits ought to shut down their motivation to continue to lie. It also sends a very strong message to your employees that you will not stand for lying. A great way to foster a culture of honesty is to toss the liars.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How Managers Can Ruin Culture

Three middle managers who worked for the City of Calgary were discovered to have been making money on the side using City technology (email) and contacts and contractors. This information was discovered by audit of the department. A few others were found to be visiting gaming sites on company time and using the City email account to make money while off on disability.

Management is not a right but a privilege. Those who have been elevated to management need to lead by example. It's hard to do when the manager is obviously devoid of scruples, ethics and morals. How do people like this get promoted?

These managers need to be fired immediately. If you don't, you risk giving your own organization a black eye. Being afraid to do the tough thing is exactly how corporate cultures rot from the inside out. If the leaders are corrupt, they will corrupt culture. Those who are easily swayed will come to believe that this sort of  behavior is acceptable.

Fire those who can't tell right from wrong - especially if they are in management. Then, gladly pay the legal bill to get rid of the offenders. It will be much cheaper in the long run once you send a message to your people.

If you want to create a culture of Greatness, stop thinking "ordinary." Nothing gets swept under the carpet. Everything is dealt with. Everything is talked about. Everything is in the open. Set a standard for your people to rise to. They will.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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It Sucks To Go Backwards

When a speed skater or skier shaves a full second off of their personal best time - or a football player scores a new high in season touchdowns - or a baseball player has a home-run record season - or a hockey player scores 50+ goals in a season, will any of them be satisfied with a lower performance in future?

What happens when you discover delicious food in non-franchised restaurants or experience a fabulous stay in an outstanding boutique hotel? It's hard to eat at same-old, same-old franchise restaurants or cookie-cutter hotel rooms. Discovering a great bottle of wine or an outstanding beer makes it difficult to buy everyday ordinary brands once you've tasted something so much better.

Once you set a new standard in your life, you realize what you are capable of. This happens too with sales people. Once they hit a great month they set a new standard. And if they don't set the standard themselves, their bosses will do it for them.

If you don't honestly put a great deal of effort into improving your work performance, then you're, at best, an ordinary performer: average, mediocre. You probably complain about your job, make excuses for your results in life and settle for what you get instead of setting a standard for what you could have.

It's people like you who hold your organization back from "greatness." Sorry, but you will never be part of a "great" organization if you're not willing to work for it. Greatness doesn't happen by accident. Greatness is achieved when all members of the organization are pulling their weight. Great organizations get rid of the dead-weight holding them back. It's how they're able to become "great" organizations.

Once you raise your standards, those new standards begin to seep into every other area of your life: relationships, investments, parenting, vacations, etc. It sucks to go backwards. You can never successfully downgrade your standards. Once you get a taste of something great, it's hard to enjoy mediocre ever again.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Are You Open At 2 A.M.?

If you've got teenagers then you know that they're up into the middle of the night chatting on MSN (Windows Live), watching hour after hour of YouTube videos and doing everything possible to avoid actually having personal interactions with their families because virtual interactions require absolutely no focus.

So a college student who is up most of the night, sleeping until 3 pm wouldn't have much time to reach a dentist to make an appointment if the only way to reach the dentist or the doctor or the chiropractor or the massage therapist or the hair stylist or... well, you get the idea ... was during traditional working hours of 9-5. Most businesses close their doors at 5 or 6 pm just when college students or other Gen Ys seem to be getting going. But not just that: people who work a day job can't get to you during day hours because they're working too.

Think of how many people, not just young people, are up between 11 pm and 2 am on the Internet actually buying things. The number of Baby Boomers on-line at this time is growing exponentially.

Discover Small Business' recent survey showed 46% of small businesses don't have a web site. That's about half of the small business market with no way for your clients to reach you unless you force them to call (on the telephone) when it's convenient for you - not for them. Today's young market has more phones than ever but they don't talk on them. They text on them.

There's a great divide of hours between when customers are available and when businesses are open. And it's only getting worse. The numbers of people expecting to be able to interact (simply send an email) to a business is getting larger. The demand is getting higher and you're losing market share to your emerging (and soon to be dominant) market because you won't give them a simple email address or have a simple web site to do business by?

How much money are you LOSING to competitors because they can be reached after hours? You'd better have a way for this up and coming market to reach you or you're going to lose quickly. 

Any mediocre business can shut it all down at 6. But organizations of greatness will find a way to allow their customers and clients to reach them when it's convenient for the client.

Ease and accessibility for clients is another way of separating the ordinary boring businesses from organizations of greatness.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Savvy Shoppers Are Kicking Your Butt

This week, I went looking for a specific item, an AV cart for my office, but didn't know the name of any stores that would carry what I wanted. For the office supply stores, it is a "special order" anyway. So why not just save a useless trip to the store (only to be again disappointed) and instead just order it on-line - like they would at the store. So I Googled.

I didn't bother with opening my copy of the Yellow Pages because, well, the information in the Yellow Pages is from last year - and besides, there are no prices - and no pictures of the specific item - and no updates - and no way to check if it is in-stock - and no info on new stock - and no way to see their web site - and no interactivity - and no way to compare against others - and no video showing how to use the product - and no recommendations - and no reviews from customers - and no pictures of the storefront - and no interactive maps with directions. And businesses still spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars monthly on their Yellow Pages ad for basically a billboard on paper that only gets seen when someone needs your product immediately and is willing to haul out a big book and you hope they can find your category.

I search on-line. I am a Baby Boomer with no fear of technology. Today I know the name of a great kitchen store because I've read some great reviews on it. Today I know to NOT deal with my neighborhood flower shop because they're out of business - caused by poor service that I discovered on-line. Today I know which restaurants are great, which car dealers to avoid, which hotels have the best view, which second-hand store has that classic guitar I've been looking for and also that people, no matter how great the review, will not put their trust in a hair stylist that isn't recommended by a friend or neighbor. I might use the Yellow pages at 2 in the morning if I wanted a pizza - but then maybe not - unless I were in a strange city.

If you are using the Internet to do your homework before you buy, wouldn't it stand to reason that your customers are doing the same thing? You've got to be on-line and on-line needs to be one of your primary marketing strategies. You can probably forget that big, flashy Yellow Pages ad and go with a simple free listing in the book with your web site address included. Then, make sure you are where everyone else is already gathered - on-line. Besides, if your customers already know your name, they'll find you in the white pages - not the Yellow Pages surrounded by all of your competitors.

I bought the AV cart, not from a local company, but from one in the USA. They had the best web site, the best selection, outstanding pricing, free shipping to my front door (even to Canada) and it was in-stock today and would be shipped immediately. Add to that the fact that their web site was so easy to navigate, didn't ask me to set up an account but automatically set one up for me (with user name and password) once I keyed in the credit card info, gave me a tracking number for my shipment, had hundreds of testimonials from over-the-top satisfied clients who rated each product individually ... and ... they also said "thank you." And I think they meant it.

Stop being ordinary. Start being the standard to which your customers become raving fans and your competitors bristle. Change your Attitude about how you do business. Your customers have just as much knowledge as you do. Don't ever treat them like you're doing them a favor. You're not.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Death To Funerals

A wedding is NOT something you HAVE to do which is why some spend tens of thousands of dollars (and go into deep debt to start their new lives together) on lavish events - because they WANT to. Whereas, a funeral is seen as something not done by choice but by necessity which is why if forced to do it, most will skimp and spend as little money as possible getting it done. Just get it done and forget about it.

How much can people skimp? Costco USA is selling caskets and has been doing so for the past few years. Can you see where the trouble might be for Funeral Directors?

While funeral service market share is shrinking, weddings are becoming more lavish, more expensive and more garish - over the top. Dresses worth thousands, limos, chocolate fountains, decorations, flowers, extended trips, money in envelopes, exotic locations, me, me, me, me, me. Funerals? More "eeeww" than "wheee."

If Funeral Directors want to rebuild their industry, they had better start thinking like Wedding Planners and make the event more of a Celebration of Life than a mourning of death. Funerals need to get to that place where if you buy a Costco casket and spend no time, money or effort on your departed, you should be shamed. Funeral Directors need to shame people for treating their departed loved ones like last week's trash. People who cut corners to keep the balance of money for themselves should be shamed. How we treat people in death is a perfect illustration of how much we cherished them in life. Allowing some distant clergy member to say a few words about someone he didn't know is shameful too. Could you make the whole funeral thing even more impersonal? Not likely.

Weddings you get invitations for. Funerals you read about in the paper. Something as simple as mining the departed's email addresses and sending an invitation to a celebration and memorial event seems so much more appealing than reading about a funeral at a church that the departed never went to, officiated by a clergy member he never met who takes to opportunity of a half-full church to try to convert or save some souls and you have a funeral attended by a fraction of friends because they didn't read the newspaper this week.

No, if the funeral service of today is the best you can do as a Funeral Director, then your industry deserves to be shrinking. Complaining about it won't change that. Doing something about it will. Change your Attitude. Make people see the value. Markets change. You had better be able to respond to it or we're all about to attend the funeral for funerals.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel