Boss Tip #8 - The Credit Score

Is this column about financial background checks and credit scores? Well, not in the way you might think. This column is about credit scores but not about qualifying for credit as a consumer. It’s about how much credit you give as a boss.

Take a survey of your people and ask them what they want from their work and their boss and you will find this answer in the Top 5 every single time: recognition. People want to be acknowledged for the work they do – not just when they need to be raked over the coals for a screw-up.

People want to be recognized for their contribution, their diligence and the quality of their work. If the only time you talk to your people about the quality of their work is when you dump on them, well then you’re the village idiot aren’t you? Don’t believe me? Just ask your people. No better yet, secretly listen to what they’re saying about you in the coffee room.

Just because you’re the boss, don’t believe for one second that your people are doing everything in their power to make you look good. That’s just not true. People are doing a great job likely because of the personal satisfaction they get from doing a great job. If you overlook this fact, and regularly steal the credit for a job well done, you will be spending more of your time training new people to replace the people who left than you will on having the spotlight shone on you.

If you want the spotlight and the credit, then take the credit for attrition numbers being on the rise, training budgets being escalated because you have to train more new people and also poor morale.

Nothing knocks the morale out of people faster than stealing the credit from them after they poured their heart out on a project. People want a reason to take personal pride in their work and if you’re going to steal it when they do go above and beyond for you, or at the very least not acknowledge their effort, you are going to be a very lonely boss working by yourself.

If you work by yourself, well then you’re really not the boss are you? You’re just an employee who no one wants to work with. And that would be no surprise either. You brought it on yourself.

Are you giving someone credit for their work daily? I’m not referring to just a “Good job” in the hallway, but something public and heartfelt. The more you let your people know they will get the credit for a job well done, the more you will have a job well done from your people. What goes around comes around.

Publicly acknowledge and privately criticize. Make sure the rest of the staff know when someone has done a good job. Don’t play favorites and don’t blame someone else for a shortcoming in your department. More on that next time.

Pursuit Of Excellence

About eleven years ago, at a time when I had lost my Dad and my marriage, I was searching for something. I'm not sure what it was I was searching for but I was damn sure I didn't have it.

At the time I was selling photocopiers and fax machines (because faxes were the "in" thing at the time). It was an honorable profession and one that I learned how to hone my sales skills in very quickly. Honorable profession but tough.

I had been invited to attend an introductory session of a personal development course in January that year and after the one-hour introduction, I spent eight months resisting what it might do for me. Why? Honestly, I gave a lot of reasons but the truth was I didn't have the money and was afraid to admit it. Then someone invited me barbecue. About 40 people attended and I knew probably half of them. These forty or so people were all graduates of the same course I was resisting. They seemed to have what I wanted - some kind of sense of purpose and a joy of life. Within thirty days I was in the course.

Over the next few years I took other courses in the series and even chose to be a team assistant at many of these same courses. I lost touch for a few years but never lost the tools I developed.

Last weekend, I went back to sharpen the tools I had gotten those years earlier. It's true what they say about this course - "You will learn something new every time you go back." And I did this past weekend.

I'm feeling a little more peaceful and a little less stressed today. I recognize the things that have made me successful and the little areas I need to improve on. I know I am on track with my life today and know where I am going. A lot of questions got answered in a long-weekend.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the name of the course. It's called The Pursuit of Excellence. Curious? Click here.

Boss Tip #7 - Uncross Your Fingers

Dr. Phil said it best: “Don’t let your mouth write checks that your ass can’t cash.”

That’s a more straightforward way of saying if you’re going to make a promise you’d better be prepared to keep it. But the problem here is that although we all know that in a supervisory position, your word must be golden, still one in four bosses today don’t keep the promises they make.

I know you’re thinking, that isn’t possible that a quarter of all bosses openly lie to their people, but a survey from the University of Florida Business School says it’s true. One in four bosses on the job today don’t keep their promises. Jeez, there are politicians with better records than that.

“Relationships based on lies never last.” That’s my quote and it’s absolutely accurate 100% of the time. If you start a relationship based on a lie, then you have to tell more lies to keep the first lie going. Pretty soon you’re into your own lies so deep you can’t remember where you left off. That’s when the lie comes back and bites you on the butt. Everybody eventually gets caught in a lie. And it’s always ugly when the lie is discovered.

Bosses, you can’t afford to tell lies, even little white lies (I’m not sure what constitutes a white lie and what constitutes a big whopper of a black lie. A lie is a lie right?) If you tell that new hire today that in three months they’ll have an increase in salary, then in three months it better be an increase and not just a review to increase. There’s a huge difference between the two. Keeping your word brings trust from the employee. Bending the truth creates mistrust and you know how volatile people can be when there’s mistrust from management on down.

Also, you get what you give. If you’ve attended any of my instigational keynote sessions, you know I present that notion. If you’re surrounded by employees who don’t keep their word, then it’s likely you don’t keep your word. You get what you give.

If your people openly lie to you, likely you openly lie to your people. You get what you give.

If your people don’t tell you the full truth, likely you don’t tell them the full truth. You get what you give.

If you ever want your people to openly accept you as their leader, then you have got to lead by example. Keep your word and they’ll keep theirs. You get what you give.

Stop standing in front of them and promising while secretly holding a hand behind your back with your fingers crossed. We’re not in Grade School anymore. We’re in the real world where bosses need to keep their promises if they ever have any chance of keeping the trust of their employees.

C’mon. Really. It’s not that hard. Stop trying so hard to be liked by your staff and instead start trying to be respected.

Automobiles, Shuttles, Planes, Buses and Ferries

The airline ticket showed me arriving in Prince Rupert, British Columbia at 7:20 pm. According to my watch and the words from the Captain of the little "Buddy Holly" aircraft we were flying, we were going to be on-time. It had already been a long travel day to get to Prince Rupert, which is only 45 kilometers away from Ketchikan, Alaska. Don't believe me? Check a map.

I was seated next to a lawyer for the two-hour flight north. Chris was not just any lawyer, but a Crown Prosecutor based out of Prince Rupert. He, if you can believe this, has the good fortune of visiting the Queen Charlotte Islands (some 120 km offshore in the Pacific Ocean) every month for a week at a time. He gets there by single-engine float plane. Life changes when you live in remote communities.

Anyway, back to my story.

Chris told me we would be landing on an island. In my mind, I pictured a cute little island and a cute little bridge that would carry us to the mainland in a few short minutes once we landed at Prince Rupert. I didn't ask anymore questions. I should have.

At 7:20 pm we landed and everyone got off the plane. Last flight of the day coming into Prince Rupert and last flight leaving. The airline has a schedule to keep so once our bags were offloaded onto baggage carts, the outbound bags were loaded onto the plane before we got ours. Not much you can do with only ONE baggage handler.

After the plane was loaded up with the outbound bags and passengers, a large steel door opened and we watched our bags come down the "baggage carousel." It wasn't a carousel. It was really a very wide stainless steel slide that looked more like a deli counter than a baggage centre.

Once I got my bag, I walked with it for about twenty feet when I handed the bag to a bus driver who loaded it on the bus (the only way in or out of the airport). We each took our seats on the bus, including airport staff (last flight of the day and everyone goes home).

We drove for about 5 minutes until we came to the ocean and a ferry awaiting our arrival. We could feel the gale-force winds coming off the ocean. Two large motor coaches were loaded on the ferry as well as a one-ton cube van. Then we settled in for the twenty-minute ferry ride to the mainland and the town of Prince Rupert. That ferry ride was a little more fun with waves smacking the sides of the ferry and splashing over top like a Hollywood movie. Once to the other side, the bus drove up the ramp and a few more miles to the center of town where we offloaded the bus. A short shuttle drive to my hotel and I looked at my watch: 9:15 pm. It took almost two hours between landing and arriving at the hotel. The distance? No more than 5 or 6 miles. Was I in Toronto?

Once the sun came up the next morning, I saw the reason for the airport on Digby Island: it's the only flat piece of land as far as the eye can see. The Prince Rupert airport was an adventure for sure. But once in Prince Rupert, I found that this is one of those places that everyone must see at least once.

When you do visit Prince Rupert, do yourself a favour and stay at the Crest Hotel - a four-star hotel overlooking the ocean from almost every room. Fabulous facility, incredible food and breathtaking views. Hotel Manager Scott Farwell and owners Steve and Tina Smith have assembled an incredible staff of people who get the big picture - it's all about the guests. (That’s why they hire speakers to come and speak to their staff and improve their guest-service experience).

You will not be disappointed. And you'll get to tell your own story about getting to and from the Prince Rupert airport. Trust me, people won't believe you.

Boss Tip #6 - Keep Your Mouth Shut

Over the Christmas holidays, I ran across an article in the Winnipeg Free Press that claimed that 27% of employees said that their bosses made negative comments about them to other employees and other managers.

Now just picture this: lining up 100 bosses in a row, having 27 of them step forward and accusing them of talking about their employees to other employees behind their backs. How incredibly juvenile and malicious is this, really?

I couldn’t believe what I read. It was sourced from the College of Business at Florida Sate University who surveyed some 700 people in a variety of jobs. This was only one of their findings. But this is the one that surprised me the most. Bosses? Talking badly about employees to other employees? Jeez are we still in high school?

It’s time for these bosses to start growing up. What possible good can come from talking to employees about the performance of other employees? You can only hope, as a boss, that the person you’re telling doesn’t clue in that in five minutes you may be talking to someone else about him or her. Gossip is one of the most demoralizing factors in any office. And when that gossiper is in a supervisory position, the company is in big trouble.

Employee morale drops. Performance numbers fall. Attrition rises dramatically. Training budgets become stretched to the max from having to hire so many new people. The company will have a bad reputation with its employees. And once it becomes part of the corporate culture, good luck finding qualified people willing to work there.

If this gossiper sounds like your boss, risk the loss of your job by going over their heads and demanding a change. The boss that talks about their people to other employees needs to be fired today. If their immediate supervisors are reluctant to do something about it, they should be fired too.

And if you can’t find a way to make senior management do something about the problem, then plan your exit strategy and perhaps consider doing what they do: talk to others behind their backs – others like the media.

Nothing solves a problem quicker than the watchful eye of the general public and a subsequent drop in business. No business can afford to keep loose-lipped bosses in their ranks. Business, be prepared to take your lumps if you choose to keep these poor excuses for mentors on-board. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior from anyone in a supervisory capacity. Doing nothing condones the behavior and actually fosters more.

Make sure your supervisors are skilled in the art of tact, confidentiality and diplomacy. If you don’t, you’ll pay – one way or another.

Boss Tip #5 - Lunch Menu Leadership Test

There have been a lot of questions this past week on what the Lunch Menu Leadership Test is all about. No one, it seems, is able to find any reference to it on-line anywhere. That’s because it’s MY test. So stop looking. This is the only place you will find that information.

So whom is the test meant for? The test is applicable if ever you are in the position, or even on a selection committee, to hire for any of the following positions: CEO, CO, Mr. Big, VIP, administration, administrator, baron, big brother, big cheese, big man, big wheel, boss, brass, businessman, chief, commander, director, directorate, don, entrepreneur, exec, godfather, government, governor, head, head honcho, head man, heavyweight, hierarchy, high priest, higher-up, industrialist, key player, kingfish, kingpin, leader, leadership dude, management, manager, meal ticket, number one, officer, official, point man, skipper, supervisor, top, top brass, tycoon or any other position in the upstairs upper echelon.

The test is relatively simple. Hey, it would have to be. I thought of it.

Take your management/leadership candidate for lunch, nothing really fancy just a place where the menu wouldn’t be too foreign to an average Joe. Once seated, either your host/hostess or a server will swing by with menus and say something like this: “Good afternoon and welcome to the Monkey Bar & Grill. My name is Peter and I will be your server today. Can I start you folks with a couple of beverages before I tell you about our fantastic luncheon specials today?”

(Jeez, did you order a story? I don’t remember ordering a story.)

Anyway, back to the test. Once Peter drops the menus on the table and rattles off the luncheon specials for the day, once he turns his back and runs to fetch your beverages, start the clock and say nothing more. Simply open your menu, pretend you’re looking at it and observe what transpires next. This IS the test.

If the candidate closes his/her menu in under sixty seconds with a decision made for lunch, you have a winner. Here’s my thinking, if someone about to be moved into a leadership position can not make a decision for themselves in under sixty seconds, a simple decision about what to eat, then how in the world would they be able to make far more important decisions affecting the entire organization?

The key to the Lunch Menu Leadership Test is the following philosophy: How we do one thing is how we do everything.

If the candidate can make quick decisions on unimportant stuff, then he/she can likely make quick decisions on important stuff.

If the candidate takes more than sixty seconds with a simple luncheon menu, you’re going to have problems with him/her.

If the candidate says, “I’ve never eaten here before, what’s good?” I hear, “I’m not comfortable with new surroundings. I might be able to become comfortable with a little help from someone who’s experienced this before, but right now, I don’t know what to do (have).”

“Hmm, I’m not sure what to have. What are you having?” means I will be making the vast majority of my decisions based on consensus. That means I will be polling people so I can decide what I should do next.

Studying the menu and flipping pages back and forth several times means they can’t decide. They are indecisive.

During the meal if I hear “Maybe I should have ordered what you did,” he/she spends too much time on second guessing their decisions. Likely, direction will change like the wind.

There are many more things that can be translated from the test but the key here is if you are going to place someone in a position of leadership, they had better be able to stand on their own two feet, accepting the results of their decisions and not afraid to make them.

This test never fails, unless the candidate knows about the test in advance and knew where they were going to be eating.

Want to find out what your boss is really like? Take them for lunch. You’ll see what I mean.

A Motivational Speakers Convention?

Did you know that there is an association of motivational speakers? Can you imagine what it would be like to attend the annual convention of motivational speakers? Well, sorry but you missed it. It was last weekend.

OK, to be fair, it not actually called the motivational speakers association. It is an association of professional speakers. They met in Vancouver this past weekend. I didn’t attend for two reasons: 1) I actually had an audience to speak to while everyone else was at the conference, and 2) well, I’m not actually a member of the association.

I used to be a member. Over the time that I was an active member of the association, I learned that there are some practices of the association that I am in opposition with at a values and principles level. I had a difference of opinion, so I left.

In the association, every member is welcome to work toward his or her CSP - Certified Speaking Professional designation. (It really carries no weight when you’re being considered for a job – trust me.) It is possible to become a Certified Speaking Professional within the first six years of ever being a speaker. All you have to do is make enough money over five years ($250,000-$675,000) doing enough presentations over five years (100-250) and have had enough clients over five years (25-100). Then you do the normal stuff: attend the convention every year (32 Continuing Education Credits), pay your membership dues every year for six consecutive years ($400/yr), get 20 clients to write you nice letters about how good you were (over 5 years) and pay a $375.00 US application fee. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Pass that criteria and you can be a CSP. (Honestly, for the speaker who is doing this full-time, the criteria is pretty simple).

Even though there is a committee who supposedly watches the speakers in action, and even though there is a questionnaire that is sent to clients hiring the speaker asking them to rate the speaker on preparation, delivery, thoroughness and professionalism, nowhere will the speaker ever be asked for what kind of results the client received. And that is where I take issue with a certification of any kind: where the certification is based on everything except the results the attendees experienced.

When I say results, here’s what I mean: if you’re a sales trainer, after you finished your seminar, how much did sales increase? If you’re a productivity trainer, how did productivity increase as a result of your session? If you’re a motivational speaker, how well did your session inspire the attendees to reduce the number of sick days over the next year?

Those are results. Results are what tell the story of whether or not a speaker should be certified as a professional – not how much money they make. Money is a lousy way to keep score.

And it shouldn’t be other speakers who sit on the selection committee for certification standards, it should be the meeting planners who hire speakers who should determine who is certified professional and who is not. (There is an organization called MPI – Meeting Planners International. These are the folks who should be handing out the hardware.)

If you’re half ways decent in marketing, can live with $1000 per speaking presentation (unbelievably low price for a professional speaker – more like a starting speaker), you could find yourself doing 50 presentations per year to charitable organizations and community groups. Do it for five years and you’ve made $250,000 speaking to 250 separate clients and organizations. You ought to be able to get at least 4 nice letters per year from clients and several who say that you were professional. You could do this part-time and still become a Certified Professional. You don’t even have to be very good. And that’s my issue.

Don’t even get me started on becoming a member of the speaking Hall of Fame. That’s an award given by your peers when they think you’re at the peak of your game, even if you’re not. After you get the Hall of Fame, there’s nothing left to earn.

Personally, I think the speaking industry is in too big a hurry to congratulate themselves on a job well done – even if it isn’t well done. Oh, and that thing about getting results for the attendees? Don’t mention that. They’re a little touchy on that one.

Boss Tip #4 - Monkey See, Monkey Do

Over the last couple of weeks I have received a few emails that have been fodder for future Tips for Bosses. Today’s tip encompasses several of those emails. Remember, if you're not a boss, then send this to your boss. If you are a boss - listen up.

Look at the title again – Monkey See Monkey Do! What more do you need to know? Your people learn from your example. Get it? That’s it. That’s all that needs saying.

However, there are too many bosses out there who are apparently too thick to get this one in a sentence or two, so here comes the rest of the explanation.

Are you in some sort of advisory situation, like a manager, supervisor, Vice President, you know, some kind of power position? If so, name a book on leadership you read in the last ninety days? And that, in one simple question, will illustrate the difference between managers and leaders.

Leaders lead by example. Leaders know that if they want their people to improve, they themselves have to set the bar by leading by example. Leaders will make time to read and improve themselves and show their people that although they too have busy days, there is always enough time for self-improvement.

Managers, however, are so busy making sure that they are needed in their position, that they will spend the better part of their days justifying their position. In other words, they will look like they’re busy, make decisions (when someone else could have made them just as easily) and keep the paperwork flying across their desks (after all, a cluttered desk looks so much busier than an empty desk don’t you think?). Because managers are doing all of these things, there is no time to read – besides, reading at a desk would make a manager look like he or she has nothing to do – their bosses might think so too and replace them with someone who “looks” busier.

So the message that managers send to their people is “look” busy and your job is safe. Not much wonder managers have a hard time inspiring their people to do better.

The message that leaders send to their people is that everyone could stand to improve him or herself - and that includes leaders too.

Now here’s a problem that managers have when they spend so much time trying to justify their position by “looking” busy: they get so caught up in their own heavy workload that they have no time to inspect what’s happening outside their office door (and yes I know managers never come out of their office, they expect people to bring stuff to them). If there’s no time to inspect what happening in the office, then they become less informed of what needs doing and completely ignorant of who’s doing what. At that point, they are no longer leading the team. They are simply a figurehead in-charge.

If this is your office, fire your manager immediately and replace him or her with a leader. Do not subject your entire team to this kind of irresponsible lack of direction and expect your people to perform. Monkey see, monkey do.

There are people on your team who care very deeply for the place they work. A “manager” is only going to mess things up. A manager who is only interested in making sure he or she looks busy is going to sabotage your organization.

When you want to replace your manager, ask this of those in line to replace him or her – “List the books you’ve read on leadership in the last ninety days and give me your brief summarization on each.” You’ll find a suitable and very capable leader within your own organization in short order.

Instigationally,

Kevin

Next Tip For Bosses - The Lunch-Menu Leadership Test

Boss Tip #3 - Never Be Missed

(Here's another one to pass on to your boss. If you are the boss, I hope you get the big picture of this one. If you're not the boss, take these tips to heart and you will be one day.)

What would happen if today, you, as the boss, went out for lunch and made a decision to not return to the office for the rest of today and several days as well and didn’t bother to phoning in to tell people you were taking time off? Think about that question for a moment.

What would happen if you just stopped showing up for a few days and didn’t tell anyone where you were? Would your people mildly begin to panic about who would make decisions in your absence? Would the foundation of the office start to fall apart because no one was there to take charge? Would there be a great deal of unease around the office wondering where you were and when you would be returning?

Do you even know the answer to that question? In your mind, would the place fall apart? In the minds of your staff, would they welcome your departure?

The difference between a manager and a leader is that a manager will tend to need to have his or her fingers in everything that is going on in the office. That need to have some form of control is usually the result of a deep-rooted and well-hidden insecurity. A manager who feels the need to control every decision and/or needs to have his/her input made prior to a decision being made, well that person has a control problem. Control issues stem from insecurities.

If you’re worried about one day being replaced as the person in charge, then you don’t get the whole concept of leadership – you are, in fact, a manager.

You will never be a leader so long as you are worried about someone else doing a better job of running the place than you do. You will never be a leader if you let your fear of being shown up stand in the way of bringing out the best in the people who work for you. You will never be a leader if you need to be in the spotlight and need to make sure that everyone knows you are the leader. If you need any of these, you may be the person in charge but you are no leader.

A leader will ensure that he/she has surrounded himself with competent people: perhaps even people who are smarter and better at managing. That same leader will ask his/her people to stretch themselves and make decisions – decisions that affect the company. That same leader will also understand that so long as people feel that they are valued for their contributions, that they get the opportunity to make valuable contributions and that they also take responsibility for their actions, they will not be trying to knock off the guy at the top. The leader’s job is safe because everyone is in charge – in charge of his or her own areas of responsibility.

Think you’d be missed as a leader if this were you? Not a chance. Enjoy your vacation.

Boss Tip #2 - Be The Dumbest Guy In The Room

Have you ever had to work for a boss who had no need for encyclopedias because he already knew everything? I did, and for quite a few years too.

Day after day, he would sit in his corner office overlooking the sales pool. He would rarely fraternize with the troops because; well because that's not what managers do. Managers have much more important work than do the minions below them.

Think of how great it would be not ever having to read the stuff that would improve you in sales, customer service, finances, economics, management, teambuilding and morale. How great would it be to not have to ever open a book when all you really had to do was ask your boss?

Have you got a boss like that? Then send your boss this article and maybe he/she will get the wake-up. And, if you are that boss, then STOP IT!

People don't get better at their jobs because you tell them to. People get better at their jobs because they want to. And that want comes from taking ownership of their work. Ownership comes from not blindly following your directives, but to actually discovering something for themselves.

People have ideas, thoughts, inspirations that should never be quashed. They should be encouraged to explore, to think abstractly and to brainstorm with others. Your people must be encouraged to explore new ways of getting things done. They must be rewarded for their results and not for doing the work the way you say it must be done. (But if you're a "manager" and not a "leader" then you really haven't got the foggiest clue as to what I am speaking of anyway.)

Managers (this is ultimately what separates them from being leaders) are insecure. Any employee who demonstrates an ability to think and/or know more than the manager is a threat to the manager. Therefore, to keep the rebels from rising, the manager will defend himself with, "I already knew that."

A leader, however, is full of self-confidence. A leader understands that in order to lead the very best team, that team has got to be at their very best. A team is at their very best happens when each member of the team takes ownership of their respective duties within the team. The leader, therefore, to help bring out the very best in his/her team, must become the dumbest person in the room.

Let me explain my "Dumbest Person" philosophy.

The dumbest person is the one who demonstrates the least amount of knowledge on any particular subject. Only by asking questions will that person ever become more knowledgeable. By asking questions and challenging a team's thinking, will a leader be able to draw out the best ideas from his/her team.

The leader cannot profess to know anything if he/she wants to encourage a team's freethinking. Once a team hears, "I already know that," they will immediately stop following that particular line of thinking and move onto something else because the members of the team don't want to spend any amount of time telling a boss that what he/she knows is wrong.

So dummy-up bosses. Play the devil's advocate. Be the dumbest guy in the room. Ask a lot of questions. Challenge your team's creative thinking. Don't ever say you already know the answer if you want your team to think for themselves and take ownership of every thought, every deed and every action.

If, as the leader, you won't play the part of the dumbest guy in the room, then you really are the dumbest guy in the room. But then you already knew that didn't you?

Boss Tip #1 -Get Out From Behind Your Desk

I spent eighteen years of my life as a radio broadcaster. In those eighteen years, I saw some of the worst and some of the best examples of management style. It’s where I learned the difference between being a leader and being a manager.

Here’s the difference: A manager will “send” and a leader will “bring.”

Let me explain. I had one manager who, it seemed, was forever chained behind his desk. He never came out from behind that desk and we, as staff, were reminded in every discussion in his office who the boss was.

Yet, I had another manager several years later that would always come out from behind his desk and sit beside me whenever we met. He made me feel, at that moment, like the most important person in the world.

Now which of these two managers do you think I gave a better effort for?

Over those years of working under different management styles, here’s what I learned:

• A manager will send a memo, will send a directive to work harder, will send an order, will send his/her idea to a meeting or will even sometimes send his/her replacement when he/she thinks it’s not important enough to attend him/herself.
• A leader will bring him/herself to the meeting, will bring a willingness to show that he/she is prepared to work alongside his/her people, will bring his/her own ideas and encourage everyone else to poke holes in them, will bring out the ideas from his/her people and will bring other staff with him/her to a meeting in order to allow his/her people to bring their best to the meeting as well.
• A manager will sit behind a desk and have a psychological barrier between him/her and a staff member. Usually the manager’s chair will sit several inches higher than the chair on the other side of the desk making the other person feels smaller and less important than him/herself. Usually a manager does not want to have their authority questioned and therefore will ensure that the employee never forgets who’s in charge.
• A leader, however, will come out from behind the desk and sit beside the person he/she is talking to. A leader will raise the prominence of the employee to almost that of an equal and certainly to a valued member of the team, thereby creating a better “team” environment. A leader will choose to be vulnerable because he/she has inner confidence. Real confidence requires no proof (think about that one for a moment). A leader realizes that if nobody is following them, then I guess they’re really not the leader are they?

So, if you’re going to be a better boss, you’d better get used to the fact that there are a whole lot of people on your team who are, perhaps, just as smart as you and have a few ideas you haven’t even thought of yet. Trust in them enough to show them they are valued. Don’t make them feel small in your presence, as it will only encourage dissention in the ranks.

Be a leader instead of a manager. Understand the whole leadership concept this way: The purpose of a fruit tree is not necessarily to grow fruit, but to grow another tree. Now go grow some trees.

Instigationally,

Kevin

13 New "Not-So-Best" Practices

Instructions before reading: please firm up tongue, make space between upper and lower teeth, now place tongue firmly in cheek.

LAUGH-long learning – finding the humour in messing up and being confident enough to admit you made a mistake.

LACK-countability – a trait found in whiners, moaners and complainers who take no responsibility for sub-standard results. They insist, instead, on blaming the job, the boss, the customer or the economy for doing poorly.

FUNomenal employee – those with a positive attitude who make the job a better place to work.

LEERdership – a trait found employees who sit at their desk staring at the clock waiting for the whole terrible ordeal (workday) to be over.

Customer DIService – believing that it’s the customer’s privilege to be served by you. Here’s the Balance-Sheet philosophy: The customer is “Revenue.” You are “Expense.” It’s your privilege to have a customer. Get it straight.

Earning Disorder – the result of not understanding that the more you learn, the more valuable you become. Look at your paycheck: The amount is not what the company pays – it’s what the company pays you. Other people, more valuable people, are earning a lot more. Your paycheck is directly proportional to your perceived value.

NOtivation – the result of too many times saying, “That’s not my responsibility.”

GINspired – those returning from a two-martini lunch. (Can also be found at conferences and conventions showing up first thing in the morning at the commencement of a full day of intense learning, still half-drunk as a result of abusing the Hospitality Suite’s open bar the night before).

Lunch Rumour (a.k.a. BUZZness meeting) – water-cooler gossip between two or more individuals targeting other employees behind their backs.

Employee DEtention – how staff feel about managers who still believe that they can get more productivity from employees by ruling by fear.

ResponsiBULL Management – managers who preach about taking responsibility and then look for a scapegoat when one of their own decisions goes wrong.

POLLitically Correct – managing by poll – elevating their own “need-to-be-liked” as the most important component of decision-making.

GRatittude Adjustment – That “a-ha” moment when you realize that every bad job, every lousy boss and every meager paycheck has a blessing attached: you could be unemployed. You ARE in charge of your own life y’know.

Feel free to pass these around. And if you have a Not-So-Best Practices phrase you’d like to share, click on the “comments” button below and add yours.

Corporate Social Responsibility? What?

It's one of the latest buzzwords in business today: Corporate Social Responsibility. But what exactly is it and why is it growing in the business world?

Wikipedia defines it as follows:
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)is a concept that suggests that commercial corporations have a duty of care to all of their stakeholders in all aspects of their business operations. A company’s stakeholders are all those who are influenced by, or can influence, a business’s decisions and actions. These can include (but are not limited to): employees, customers, suppliers, community organizations, subsidiaries and affiliates, joint venture partners, local neighborhoods, investors, and shareholders.

CSR requires that businesses account for and measure the actual or potential economic, social and environmental impacts of their decisions. In some cases the application of a strong CSR policy by a business can involve actions being taken which exceed the mere compliance with minimum legal requirements. This can sometimes give a company a competitive/reputational advantage by demonstrating that they have the interests of society at large as an integral part of their policy making. CSR goes beyond simple philanthropy and is more about corporate behaviour than it is about a company's charitable donation budget.

In other words, CSR is supposed to mean that companies should do the right thing when it comes to their business practices. In other words, the CSR is the conscience of the company.

So, it was with great interest that I have been watching TV and reading the newspapers these past few weeks looking for companies who wanted to complain that the Government of Canada reversed their policy on allowing companies to operate as Income Trusts (paying almost all profits of the company directly to shareholders and thus paying virtually no corporate taxes to the government). The only real complaining I heard was from the companies who were in the process of moving toward Income Trust corporations and not so much from the companies who had been operating as IT's.

The shareholders though, oh they complained. They complained that their regular source of income, the payment of company profits, was going to be washed up when Income Trusts came to an end. They complained that they were mostly seniors who had invested large portions of money into those same companies and were being paid in their retirement. Mostly, they complained that things change.

This got me to thinking.

It's pretty hard to convince the general public that a company is doing the right thing by avoiding paying corporate tax, even though those same taxes, if they paid them, would be used to build the roads that their goods travel on.

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy it. As more and more companies moved toward Income Trusts there would be less and less tax revenue generated to government. That means that the onus, my friends, would be on you and I to provide the infrastructure through our taxes, that would allow the companies to ship their goods on the roads they didn't pay for but we did, so that they could make a profit and then pass it on to those who invested in their companies, not necessarily you and I.

Corporate Social Responsibility means doing the right thing, and still making a profit. But do the right thing nonetheless.

Hey I totally understand why companies would operate as Income Trusts: the government said it was OK. I may be simple but I'm not an idiot. Why wouldn't a company not pay taxes if they weren't legally obligated to pay them?

It's the same principle that you and I employ every year in April when we try to squeeze out as much as we can on our tax returns. The difference is, that we're obliged to pay something. And that's why government stepped in and leveled the playing field.

At the end of the day though, the Corporate Social Responsibility statement of a company doesn't mean a thing, if the people who developed it are choosing to not do the right thing.

You will get what you give. That's a law that has been around for thousands of years and still applies today. Do the right thing, and it will come back to you. Yes it will. Sometimes though, we have to be nudged toward doing the right thing. I think that's what happened here.

I'll Be Nicer If You'll Be Smarter ...

Unless you've been living under a rock, the economy is on fire in Alberta, Canada. As a matter of fact, guesstimates are that between 20,000 and 100,000 jobs will go unfilled in Alberta this year due to a shortage of labour.

Companies are competing with each other to attract anyone and everyone who wants to work. Although the minimum wage in Alberta is around $7 an hour, no employer in their right mind is offering that kind of money and expecting anyone to apply for the job. Fast food workers are getting between $10 and $14 an hour for dishing out burgers through a little window. There's a ton of money floating in the air in Alberta, and not enough people to grab all that cash.

Now before you pick up the family and move here, know this: there's virtually no place to live. Real estate and rents are at a premium and unless you already have a home here, you'll end up staying in shelters which are already overcrowded.

But that's not the point of my ramblings. So let's get to that point, shall we?

With so many jobs and so few people to fill the jobs, a couple of things are happening right now.

1. We're dipping way down into the labour pool to depths never before dipped and pulling just about any warm body we can to fill a position that needs not much more than a warm body. Let me tell you, that makes it difficult these days to find exceptional customer service. Companies are spending less time on the finer points of customer service and instead concentrating more on getting their new hires up to speed on the goods and services the company offers. Their new hires know much about their companies but not much about how to deliver exceptional service.
2. Because their is stiff competition in the marketplace, managers are having to change their ways of how they deal with employees, especially in sub-par performance situations. The slightest little feeling of not being valued (interchangeable with "having their butt kissed"), any new hire can quit in the morning and can be working somewhere else in the afternoon. One wrong word from a manager, and the company is looking for another new employee and going through the whole training issue all over again.

This got me to thinking.

Whatever you've learned as a manager in past is "out the window" today. You can no longer be demanding, you can't insult your people in reviewing job performance and you sure can't threaten them with a firing. They'll just flip you off walk out on you right then and there.

The new manager in a hot economy has to have people skills. Without people skills and especially soft-skills training, your manager is going to see net revenues decline within their companies as they drive up training expenses by not being smart enough to realize that you can no longer manage by fear.

The new manager has to be diplomatic, encouraging and above all, patient. If that's not you, then be prepared to be spending every waking moment of your day putting out fires of new hires.

Now is the best time to bring managers into the classrooms and teach them how to be people first, managers second. Personal development training is crucial right now for both managers and new hires.

The problems is not with job-skills in a hot economy. The problem is with people skills. You'll never succeed at Time-Management training to a new hire if they didn't have enough self-discipline to go out and look for a job before. Sales training is a waste of time if your people lack self-confidence. Team-building is pointless if your people are only here because of the money they can make.

What the market needs right now is personal development, personal leadership and personal accountability training. Until you convince your people that every little thing they do or say has a consequence, they'll jump from job to job to job looking for someone to coddle them like mom did.

People, managers and workers, need a hard cold dose of reality that every single one of us is exactly where we planned to be or we'd be somewhere else. What we have in our lives is our doing. No one else is to blame. It's time for people to take ownership of their lives. Now if you tried to say that to your people you would likely have a mass-exodus. But guys like me can say it, in a way you can't say it and probably way better than you could ever think of saying it, and your people, including your managers, will get it. And you'll have a better bottom-line because of it.

Think about that today. How much more of both money and people would you like to keep right now?

I Hate Motivational Speakers...

Believe it or not, I actually only came to this conclusion this past weekend. It dawned on me as I was taking a review of my business to ensure that I was in line with what the market is looking for, that I am changing with the wants and needs of the marketplace and keeping my material fresh.

That's when it hit me - in order to explain to someone what it is I do (y'see I'm not that famous yet), I would have to explain that I am like a motivational speaker. But really, that's not true. I hate motivational speakers. I think I'm more of an UNmotivational speaker.

I don't think it's my job to motivate anyone to do anything. Because if I did, and it didn't work out for them, they would blame me. And where's the accountability in blaming someone else?

I want people to get the concept of accountability - that we create the lousy little lives we have. We did it. It's all our fault. Stop blaming everyone and everything else.

Greatest quote I ever heard about motivational speakers is this: If this industry, the people who are speaking to business, were to actually run the businesses they were speaking to, there would be no businesses left to speak to. Because as an industry, we preach success and practice failure more often than any other industry! - (Larry Winget)

I have seen more speakers take the stage and preach stuff that hasn't worked in ten years. They haven't read a new book in that time. Some take the stage for the applause or simply the money. Others use the stage as a catharsis to work out their problems - hoping magically that if they say their stuff enough times they'll actually start to believe it.

There are, however, some really good people in the speaking industry too - people who believe and practice what they say, don't deceive the client, don't do things just for the money and don't need professional psychiatric help. But the ones in it for the wrong reasons outnumber those who simply want to do good in the world. That's a shame but I suppose it's the same thing in every industry.

And if you're lying to yourself and your audience, then I guess you just don't get "accountability."

Think about this fact: if the whole world understood the concept of accountability, Jerry Springer would be off the air ... and there would be no more Injury Lawyers. (Hmm, maybe that's a secondary mission for me, get Springer off the air and do away with all of the injury lawyers. Hmm, I'll work on that.)

That's when it hit me that I am not motivational - I am instigational. I don't want you to make just a few minor changes for a few days and then go back to the way it was, I want you to make profound changes that will stick with you for life. I will instigate you to make those changes especially if you don't like where you are in your life.

I will instigate you to stop whining and moaning and bitching and complaining about your life being someone else's fault. Suck it up princess. The world owes you nothing - it was here first.

So, don't ever call me a "motivational speaker" - 'cause if you do, you'll probably be looking for an injury lawyer soon after. I'll instigate the fight.

If It's Not In You, Don't Do It...

I was asked today, why I don't offer workshops, seminars, full-day or half-day sessions in addition to my 75 minute keynote presentation. Actually, come to think of it, I have been asked that question a lot recently. Trust the process. There's a reason I was asked again.

Let me back up a bit on the story. Before I was asked why I don't offer anything except a keynote, I was asked if I was aware how much money I am leaving on the table with my clients. You see, if I offered seminars, workshops, break-out sessions and the like as well as my keynote, I could be paid for each additional item I convinced my clients to buy.

But my thinking is this: if I have a really good presentation, and everything I have to say, every funny story, every touching moment, every point I want to make, can be made in 75 minutes, why would I not do it in 75 minutes?

I think that there a lot of speakers in the marketplace who are doing a huge disservice to their clients by offering a keynote, a break-out and a seminar over a couple of days, but actually have to spread out their points over three events, then the client isn't getting the very best of each of the three. That's dishonest on behalf of the speaker and totally and utterly unacceptable as a business practice.

There are too many speakers who have a half-dozen titles for their presentation and each one, remarkably, is just like the next: same ideas, same concepts, same presentation with a different title. That's just bad business. Not much wonder people make fun of motivational speakers.

I only have one presentation, it has one title, it has amazing results. It's not in me to deceive the client. It's not in me to do a seminar (Lord knows I hate being a seminar participant sitting in a room with complete strangers doing dumb little exercises just to eat up time because the seminar leader used up all his ideas in the keynote we just heard). That's not honest. That lacks integrity. I will not be a part of that.

If you're a meeting planner, do not hire the same speaker to do a bunch of things for you, unless you've seen every single presentation of his and know for a fact that each presentation is fresh, does not repeat itself and ideas won't be stolen from one to make the other go.

I don't care how much money I leave on the table. I just will not deceive my customers to get it. I will earn what I earn, and so long as the family is fed and there's a little left over, that's a good day.

Repackaging the same old stuff as new is not in me and I won't do it.

Can you ask yourself the same question when it comes to your business practices? Step up now and be accountable. Tell the truth. Do the right thing.

If you do the right thing, you'll be surprised at how much more rewarding your job becomes.

Do Not Disturb ...

OK, admittedly, I stay in a lot of hotels - nice hotels. Hotels with business centres, convenience stores, mini-bars, a couple of restaurants and shuttle services.

After enduring airports, crowds, pushing, shoving, being shoved into seats that are small - even for me - I look for a little peace, quiet and space at the end of my travels. Most times I am completely rested after one quiet, peaceful and restful night's sleep of no interruptions. You see, there is supposed to be a secret weapon for guests that hang on the back of the door to each hotel room: the "Do Not Disturb" sign. This sign is supposed to ensure that a guest in a hotel is not disturbed when the sign hangs outside the door.

Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a "whine" session. I've actually stayed in hotels where the guests and the housekeeping staff are quiet and respect the noise levels in the halls. However, some hotels take a view of indifference on this matter.

(Actual conversation this week:)
Clerk: Checking out sir?
Me: Yes
Clerk: How was your stay?
Me: Noisy.
Clerk: How's that?
Me: Some of your guests don't care that people are sleeping early in the morning. They're noisy in the halls.
Clerk: Not much we can do.
Me: Oh? How about signs in the elevators and in the halls that ask guests to walk quietly through the halls. Maybe something that says "We do our best to offer our guests a quiet, relaxing stay. Do your part. Keep the convesations down in the halls. After all, you're a guest too!"
Clerk: I'll pass along your suggestion, sir.
Me: To who?
Clerk: Someone.
Me: What about housekeeping?
Clerk: I don't think that's their department.
Me: But they're the noisiest of all. They yell to each other in the hall, run the vacuums without closing room doors, and clang and bang their carts into the walls.
Clerk: (Nothing)
Me: (dripping with sarcasm) Perhaps you should call your printer and replace your "Do Not Disturb" signs with signs that read: "Make All The Noise You Want, Just Don't Knock On My Door." That would be closer to the actual experience.
Clerk: That'll be (amount) dollars sir. On your credit card?
Me: (shaking head) Sigh!

Whatever happened to customer service accountability? The customer experience is everyone's responsibility. The sooner we all get that, the better customer service is going be. Pass it on to your co-workers. Everyone, no matter what the job title, is responsible for a great customer experience. No exceptions.

Do it and watch business grow.

The Turkey Staple

(October 25)

I met John this week. I met him in a pub in the Pittsburgh Airport. He was flying to Norfolk, Virginia. In conversation with this professional traveller, I asked him what he does for a living.

"You know those little staples that close the bags at the top of a frozen turkey?" he asked me. "That's what I sell."

I've often wondered who did that work. No really, I do think about things like that. (What, did you you think they just magically appear?)

John explained that they sell the machines that staple the bags as well as the staples - the consumables. He explained it to me like this: the machinery to attach the staple is sold for a discount but it only fits one kind of staple: theirs. The staples sell for a premium. (Think ink jet printers. Printer = cheap. Ink cartridge = premium)

He owns a ranch in Ohio, 5 acres of land, half wooded and half cleared, a 2-storey house and 4 vehicles. So when you buy your Christmas turkey this year, remind yourself that John has a family to feed. Cut the bag but save the staple. Tell your guests the story about the staple. Every thing in this world is some kind of commodity. Everyone gets a fair shot to make a decent living and provide well for their families. No product is insignificant. In the same way, no job is insignificant. That includes yours.

Gadgets, Gizmos and Technology

(October 24)

It's another "fly day." I get to return to at least as far as Calgary today. Airports, and especially Chicago O'Hare International, seem to be a showcase for the latest gadgets, gizmos and other technology. I see more new technology, Palm Pilots, other PDA's, PDA's with video, camera, MP3 players, wireless internet hi-speed connections, fully functioning keyboards, telephone and yes, even a calculator. Of course, when you have tens of thousands of people all squeezed into a tiny space (that would be Chicago O'Hare) they can't rely on pay phones, public access Internet terminals or airport business centers. Heck, there isn't even enough space to sit down, let alone finding any of the techy devices.

I've spoken with two fellows alone today, that recently purchased some of the above mentioned items. When I asked if it does this or that, they simply reply: "I don't know. I haven't really gotten to understand really how it works." Both gentlemen I spoke with were retirees by the way. (It's a man thing ladies.)

The little Canadian Regional Jets seem to be a big item with American air carriers. They're a smaller plane, cheaper to fly and easier to fill with passengers. Being smaller though means there are some services cut back: no video, no music channels and a single trip down the aisle by the flight attendants right after we leave the ground (won't see them again till we get off the plane). The upside? There's no middle seat. Only about 80 seats in total. You get either a window or an aisle seat. I'm on my third CRJ in three days. Luckily, for the last leg home, there is no one in the seat beside me. I think I will just stretch out across both seats (at my height, I can do that) and take a well deserved nap.

G'nite.

Happy Birthday To Me ...

(October 22)

Well today is my birthday. 46 to be exact. I find myself writing this in a hotel room in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's been an odd day. Michelle made me French Toast with pure maple syrup for breakfast. I guess I'm allowed to have sugar for breakfast on my birthday. I love my birthday (for that reason alone).

On my way to the airport, there was an accident on the highway. It looked terrible. I had to slow down for the traffic and the emergency vehicles. That's when I felt my transmission jump, sputter, clang and grind (it's kinda like the feeling of being 46 - joke). I managed to get the car back up to highway speed but every time I would slow down, the tranny did the same thing. I successfully parked at the Park 'n Jet at the airport. Not sure if it will move when I get back.

As I write this, it's a little after midnight (having flown Calgary - Chicago - Pittsburgh). I'm enjoying a cup of regular black tea. Probably not the best before bed but I'm a traditionalist in the "tea" sense. I like a cup of good ol' fashioned tea. I occassionally drink the herbal varieties but black is best for me. I needed real milk for my tea. The restaurant and lounge were closed. I asked the shuttle driver, Tom, where I might get a splash of milk. He led me through the back hallways, storage rooms, through the hotel catering kitchen and into a small room with a small fridge. In it was a splash of milk, enough for a cup of tea.

Tom proved to me that customer service is everyone's department. Who'd have thought that the shuttle driver could fulfill my request with a smile on his face. Thanks Tom, you did your employer proud.