ZachEvans

Believer. Husband. Dad. Coach. Healthcare Thought-Leader. All-Around Good Guy.

Leadership

Just One Rule

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OK, maybe there are two, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

What an interesting thought this is. For years, Nordstrom’s employee handbook consisted of only one page with the following thought typed on it:

Welcome to Nordstrom. We’re glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them. Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules. Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.

This mantra goes beyond the customer is always right. It surely implies that the customer may be right, but also places a tremendous amount of trust in employees. All employees. Not just long-term employees or employees that have delivered over time. When was the last time you felt that you could trust everyone in your organization to use their best judgment at all times? It’s been a while for me, too.

My guess is that there was a tremendous amount of training that took place behind the scenes before employees were left loose on the department store floor, but that’s just fine with me. Great organizations do a great job of instilling their values and culture through training and have a process in place to ensure that employees are ready for the responsibilities they’ve been given. Good (or not even good) companies don’t. It’s that simple.

What did that training entail? At the moment, I don’t know. I’d like to think that it encompassed the thoughts espoused in John Maxwell’s wonderful book “Theres No Such Thing As Business Ethics: There’s Only One Rule For Making Decisions“. That thought (which is also the second rule mentioned above–I told you we’d get back to it): Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Those two rules combined, (1) Treat others the way you would like to be treated and, (2) use your best judgment in all situations provide a wonderful foundation for all businesses (and life in general). Don’t you agree?

In Pursuit of Perfection

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In cycling and speed skating (and perhaps other sports that I don’t know about) there are events known as team pursuits. The goal is to work together as a team to accomplish the goal, which is to win the race. They hope to obtain—together—perfection by leveraging the strengths of team to cover up the inadequacies of the individuals.

You’ll also notice, if you ever watch one of these races, that they are won or lost because of a series of small decisions and having the courage to charge through an opening to take the lead.

While we try to become the best in our business—while we strive in the pursuit of perfection—I think we too often forget the little things. We embark on the bold (and big) new initiative. We attempt a “merger of equals”. We want every new product launch to be the next billion-dollar idea. Why do we do this to ourselves?

It’s because we think that big results only come from radical changes:

The problems that plague organizations, or hold them back from greatness, are often small things that happen to be consistently overlooked. The lack of progress or greatness isn’t because there’s a grand idea missing. Instead the cause is a simple idea prevented by bureaucracy, killed out of ignorance, or buried under incompetence. If those simpler, smaller, ideas were set free, the effect would be as potent as any grand theory. Somehow we discount simple ideas for being playthings, for being too small to be worthy, not recognizing the surprising power hidden in what seem to be our smallest decisions.

I also think that when we finally focus on the little changes we can make, we often approach them the wrong way. When addressing a problem, why do we focus on reducing their occurrences by X percent? Why don’t we look at the problem from a perspective of how the issue would be handled in a perfect world? Once we find that perspective, let’s build a solution to meet that.

Those small changes would completely eliminate the problem, right? That’s right, they would.

So, do you pursue perfection? Are you still trying to fix the issues standing in your way with one grand move or are you ready to make the small changes necessary to actually get there?

(Image source: im.mick)

Why Doing Nothing Is Hard

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As my wife, Mandy, likes to point out, I don’t do well with long silences. This is never truer than in a classroom setting such as the classes that I teach at Lipscomb or in the Bible class that we attend at Harpeth Hills. If I ask a question or–and this is even worse–the teacher asks a question and no one offers up a response, I start to get really antsy and want nothing more than to fill in the blank space. It’s not that I feel that I always have the right (or best) answer, it’s simply that I don’t tolerate the silence well.

I find this true in my professional life as well. I typically don’t like to only have one thing going at a time because I’m afraid that there will be lulls in the action and that I won’t have anything to do (something that occurs with ever increasing infrequency now a days). When working in my home office, I prefer to have some kind of background noise on to help keep me focused (at least that’s what I tell myself). I also enjoy waking up in the middle of the night with an idea and I keep paper and pen in my night stand to capture these revelations that are proof that I don’t like to let my mind shut down: even during sleep.

Why is this? What is the cause of this character flaw? Perhaps it’s a lack of patience. Maybe I fear discovering that I like mindless downtime and that, once discovered, I’ll have a hard time continuing to motivate myself to be as productive as I normally am. Maybe I just don’t like feeling awkward when a question is posed and no one wants to answer. Whatever the reason, it’s a response / habit I know that I need to learn to control.

Peter Bergman offers an incredibly interesting opinion as to what happens when we don’t allow ourselves to opportunity to do nothing:

It’s ironic because the less we live in the current moment, the more mistakes we’ll make in it and the more material we’ll have to stress about in the next moment. My biggest obstacle? Time. With so much to do, it’s counterintuitive to take time to sit and do nothing. Here’s the most interesting thing: sitting and doing nothing has made me significantly more efficient. 20 minutes of meditation helps me avoid hours of time lost in unproductive thought, unconstructive comments, and unstrategic actions.

Do you want one more example of the fact that I am completely wrapped up in this mindset (I almost said ‘hopelessly’ but I don’t think that’s the case)? I can’t even brush my teeth for two minutes without having a book or magazine ready to read at the same time. I can’t even practice good dental hygiene without engaging in multitasking!

Meditation may not be your cup of tea but I challenge you to try it sometime. It definitely takes practice and discipline but I think you’ll be surprised at the benefits. When I was much younger I was actively involved in the martial arts and we did a fair amount of meditation. Maybe you (and I) should try a mid-day nap? Whatever solution you come up with, I hope you find yourself more peaceful, productive, and generally happier with the results.

So, what should I do with the thought that doing nothing for limited amounts of time will actually make me more productive during the time when I’m actually working? I’m not sure yet: I feel that I need to research and think about all of the possibilities for a while. How about you?

Where Did All The Leaders Go?

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The companies I have worked for in my career have not offered a leadership training program. I have, however, been fortunate to identify mentors within most companies I’ve worked for that have provided this on an informal basis. Most of these mentors remain just that–in addition to being my friends–long after I leave the company. This is something that I’ll never be able to fully repay, short of offering similar guidance to others when the opportunity presents itself. The fact that I’ve never had a formal opportunity like this is what makes a recent blog post from Harvard Business Review so interesting to me.

Entitled “Where are Tomorrow’s IT Leaders?” (although you could substitute almost any corporate department for IT in the title), the author–Susan Cramm–uses an anecdotal story of a meeting she was recently in to describe how the leaders she was talking to had been developed–five, 10, even 15 years ago– and that the next generation of leaders weren’t being groomed to take their place when the time came.

In the case of IT, specifically, Ms. Cramm points to the use of out-sourcing (including, but not limited to, off-shoring) as draining the leadership pipeline at many organizations because the once available career paths from junior level positions leading to mid-level managers, and on up have largely disappeared in some companies. One option that many companies take is to hire from outside of the organization (especially from the ranks of consultants) but history has shown us this practice, more often than not, will not lead to success.

Even if an organization identifies a good leadership candidate and tries to develop them over time the individual still might leave. A recent blog post from catalystspace lists “7 Reasons Leaders Quit Your Organization”:

  1. They couldn’t live out their personal vision.
  2. They were told no too many times.
  3. They felt unappreciated/never recognized for their abilities.
  4. They were given on voice.
  5. They were left clueless as to the future of the organization.
  6. Their vision doesn’t match the vision of the organization.
  7. They were micromanaged.

I completely agree with all seven of these points and have personally felt all of them at different points in my career. I would add and eights item to their list, however: They never felt that the organization would be loyal to them.

Loyalty, I know, should be a two-way street, but if an organization doesn’t show loyalty to their employees why would those employees ever show loyalty to the organization? Too often, organizations reward hard work, dedication, and leadership with micromanagement, zero recognition, and a sense that their employees are nothing more than a cost center to be managed and, hopefully, one day cut.

This is what I call an artificial productivity enhancer. This is when there is enough work for two employees but the organization decides to eliminate one of the positions to cut costs and simply asks the remaining worker to do twice the work. This panacea is a 100 percent increase in productivity for little (to zero) additional cost (perhaps they offer a meager raise to the remaining employee). What CEO or CFO wouldn’t love to see that situation play out countless times in their organization?

The problem is, if employees feel that this may happen regardless of what they produce, why would they choose to stay for the long-term?

Not all organizations can afford to have a large-scale and expensive leadership training program but can any organization really afford not to seek out its most promising leaders and develop them in some form or fashion? I’m not even talking about succession planning at this point (although that can be just as critical for organizations of all shapes and sizes) but rather a program that exposes potential leaders to (hopefully) all areas of the organization, allows them to develop their skills in any number of areas, and keeps them motivated to stay with the organization, continue to work hard, and deliver stellar results.

Granted, some leaders will still leave, most likely for one of the reasons mentioned above, but many will not, which will provide a good pipeline of future senior leaders to maintain the progress of the organization in which they serve. I’m not sure if there’s much of an alternative. Do you?

Strategic Alliances (and Marriages)

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I recently read an interesting article entitled 15 Steps for Successful Strategic Alliances (and Marriages) from Harvard Business Review. In it, author Rosabeth Moss Kanter lays out the following ideas for a success alliance:

  1. Be open to romance, but court carefully.
  2. Know yourself. Build your strengths.
  3. Seek compatibility in values.
  4. Treat the ‘extended family’ respectfully.
  5. Put the lawyers in their place.
  6. Vow to work together until business conditions do us part.
  7. But don’t count on the contract.
  8. So keep communicating, face-to-face.
  9. Spread involvement. Create more ties for more people.
  10. Build organizational bridges and formal structures.
  11. Respect differences.
  12. Teach partners. Learn from partners.
  13. Be prepared to change yourself.
  14. Help everyone win.
  15. Get closer, change course, or exit gracefully.

For me, personally, I don’t like the idea of parting or exiting gracefully from a marriage but I do like the overall analogy. In today’s world I think that both our marriages and business relationships need more of one critical factor: Commitment.

Commitment means doing what it takes to make things work even when you don’t really want to. Commitment means waking up every morning and making the choice to continue in a relationship even when things are bad. When people fail to commit or honor their commitment the only people that win are the lawyers (both when marriages and business relationships fail), and there are always innocent victims.

Now, I’m more than willing to admit and accept that business relationships do need to come to an end when necessary, but better due diligence on the front-end will help make these messy endings less common.

Breakfast at Waffle House

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I had the chance to take my two oldest boys to eat breakfast at Waffle House while on vacation in Destin, Florida. This has become a bit of a tradition with me while on vacation–one that I look forward to continuing with all three of my boys once Ethan is old enough. Now, I have to admit that the WH in Brentwood has spoiled me a bit but I still enjoy a double waffle from time to time.

That being said, I had never thought that there was all that much to learn from a trip to WH, but today, while looking for shells on the beach, I thought a bit more about how the WH close to you and me operates (and that apply to you and me as well):

  1. Know what you’re good at. WH knows that it’s not the Stock-Yard,but that’s OK. Knowing who you are and being comfortable with that is one of the most important discoveries you’ll ever make. As a person or a business it’s OK to accept your limitations even if you never try to stop overcoming them. You’ll never succeed, however, by trying to be someone or something you’re not. WH is great at what it does, is comfortable with it’s personality, and goes out of its way to maintain it.
  2. Always acknowledge other people. When ever you walk in to a WH you’re likely to be greeted by several people wishing you a “good morning”, “good evening”, or “good, what time is it?”. You’ll be invited to sit wherever you want and will pretty quickly be greeted by a friendly waiter or waitress ready to take your order. Acknowledging others is always a good, polite, practice. It could be as simple as a nod or a smile or a more formal “good morning” or “good evening”, or whatever is considered good manners where you live.
  3. Communicate calmly and clearly. A nightmare that I’ve had on more than one occasion has be working as a short-order cook in a WH. This isn’t a nightmare because of the nature of the work but rather because of how complicated it is. My boys love watching the cooks work their magic without notes or other cues all while (almost) never messing up an order. Certainly this is due to a lot of practice and hard work but it’s also because of the way the waiters and waitresses communicate with the cooks. They aren’t rushed, they don’t yell (at least not out of anger), and they speak clearly using an agreed-upon jargon. Everyone can learn from this. Do you feel stressed and overwhelmed? Try speaking in a level, calm tone while trying to be as clear as possible. You’ll be amazed how quickly your heart rate will fall.
  4. Take responsibility but help others. You’ll have a single waiter or waitress while at a WH, but you may have someone else clean your dishes, take your money at the end, or do a host of other jobs. WH works because the individuals working there take responsibility for their own customers but are always willing to help each other out. What a great rule to live our own lives by, especially in a world where people don’t take enough responsibility for their own actions and where many are loathe to help out another person.

So, take it for what it’s worth, but I’ll certainly never look at a WH the same way again. I hope continue to enjoy my double waffle (without guilt) for a long time to come however.

Coaching Little League Baseball

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I volunteered to coach Carter’s (my oldest) baseball team this spring. I would have the joy of spending 3+ months with 10 (yes, 10!) five- and six-year olds comprised of 9 boys and 1 girl. Organized practices started at the end of February with games spreading out from mid-April to the end of May. This particular league is a part of the Grassland Athletic Association, a great organization based in Franklin.

In the Grassland Baseball League, teams in the 5 & 6 year-old division are pitched to by coaches, play every player in the field on defense, don’t keep score (officially), and end each half inning after 5 runs or 3 outs. As you might imagine, the kids always ask at the end of the game, “Who won?” Telling them that both teams did has worked so far but my guess is that by the time they start playing in the 7 & 8 year-old league that explanation simply won’t cut it anymore.

So, what have I learned from the experience so far? Here are some thoughts:

  1. Getting frustrated doesn’t help. If a child doesn’t want to do something on the field no amount of frustration will change their minds. Instead, you’ve got to be creative in finding ways to motivate them to do what you want them to do. For example, if a player doesn’t want to hustle, challenge them to a race (and let them win).
  2. Yelling doesn’t help. Children (and all people, to a certain extent) have the ability to shut their ears to something they don’t want to hear. Simply repeating what you want them to hear over and over again and raising your voice in the process won’t help you either. Instead, get down on their level, look them in the eyes, and calmly explain what you want them to do and why. (If that still doesn’t work, refer to #1 above).
  3. Even if you don’t keep score, someone else will. As I said before, our league doesn’t keep score but, believe me, the kids have a pretty good feeling by the end of the game who’s winning and who’s losing. If you’re not careful, life itself can become a competition but we all need to learn (and we certainly need to teach our kids) that how you play the game is what is most important.
  4. Keeping control of the chaos on (and off) the field takes a team of coaches. I have been blessed with two assistant coaches and several parents that have volunteered for dug-out duty. Without the coordination and dedication of these men and women, our team would not have been able to enjoy the success we have. Too often we (I’m included in this list) try do too much ourselves when we’d be much better off focusing on one thing at a time while we delegate other duties to trusted associates.

So how will the season end? Who really knows. We only have two more regular-season games left and the All-Star game is behind us (which I also had the privileged to coach with Carter playing for me). So long as the kids learned as much from me as I’ve learned from them then I’ll be pretty happy and feel that the season has been a success.