The Best Laid Plans

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

If you are a consistent WorkPuzzle reader, you know how passionate we feel about developing a plan, working that plan, and then measuring the results. This simple formula is the basis for success and effectiveness in many realms of life and business. Last weekend, my wife gave me some additional insight into this principle that is worth sharing.

About ten years ago, my wife and I made the decision to home school our children. At the time, we committed to try home schooling my oldest son for a year, and see how it went. Each year, we re-evaluated this decision in an attempt to determine if it was the best educational option for our children. Maybe we became delusional along the way, but my oldest son is now a junior in high school, and my wife is home schooling five of our six kids!

One of the reasons that she has been successful at home schooling is because she develops a plan each semester and then does her best to follow the plan in her daily activities. To help in this process, she takes a few days each summer and a few days each winter to develop her plan for the upcoming semester.

Last weekend, she locked herself in a hotel room for three days to develop her plan for this fall’s semester. During these planning sessions, it is my job to watch our kids and make sure she has uninterrupted time to put her plan together. No deaths or major injuries over the weekend, so I accomplished my part of the mission!

As we debriefed from the weekend’s activities on Sunday evening, my wife expressed a frustration that surprised me. I always thought the difficult part of her job was conceptualizing the academic plans for a set of children at diverse ages and developmental levels. Or, I thought perhaps her biggest frustration might be trying to figure out a daily schedule that allows her one-on-one time with each child to teach lessons. I was wrong on both accounts.

The most frustrating part of her job is coming to terms with the differential that naturally develops between the plan that she puts together each year, and the actual results that she accomplishes. I’m not trying to suggest that she does a poor job of executing her daily activities. She is one of the most tenacious people I’ve ever met, and she does a wonderful job at following through. However, she sets very high expectations and therefore does not always meet all the objectives in her plan. This is, by far, her largest frustration.

As we talked through this issue, we wondered which was more effective:

(1) Developing a plan with high expectations and then falling short during the execution phase of the plan.

or…

(2) Developing a more reasonable plan and ensuring that every objective and task associated with the plan is accomplished.

Which frame of reference would put her further ahead in the end? Also, which philosophy is better for maintaining the long-term motivation required to be successful over time?

We’ll discuss this more tomorrow. But, in the meantime, try to answer these questions for yourself. As you put your plans together and attempt to execute successfully, are you falling short of your goals or consistently meeting/exceeding them?

Relationship Farming

Monday, August 03, 2009

Whether you manage, recruit, or sell, there is nothing more important than your ongoing task of building relationships.

My 24 year-old son, who is a an account manager at a Seattle radio station, recently sent me a very good article. The article, Relationship Farming Starts With Creating A “Wow” Experience, helps remind us all of the importance of relationship building through the analogy of farming.

Terry Brock , president of Orlando, Florida based Achievement Systems says:

“Building quality, profitable relationships in business is much like farming, or what I call relationship farming.

Like the farmer who keeps us all alive, you have to study the soil (know what is happening in the world and environment of your customers), plant the seeds (send your message in a positive, respectful way), nurture the plants (provide continued benefits), allow for ample moisture and fertilizer (keep providing what the customer needs) and be around for harvest (have systems in place to process sales).

Then when all the work is finished, it is time to begin for next year.

But how do you keep those wonderful, delightful people who pay our bills (call them customers, clients, members, guests — whatever) happy?

Keep creating experiences that make customers say ‘wow’ when they deal with you.

See customers’ experiences from their point of view. What do they have to deal with in your business? In the market you serve, what are the major problems people encounter? Why are they buying from you? What problems are they seeking to solve?

Once you’ve nailed that very important first part, you want to sit down with your people and lay out your plans.

Find out where you can make experiences pleasant and easy for customers. What can you do to ease their pain? What can you do in your business to create that wow experience? Here are a few ideas to get you started and to use as a check-up on what you’re doing now:

• See the world through your customers’ eyes. What is causing them pain? Where are they hurting? What can you do to help relieve the pain?

Don’t just assume you know, talk with them and listen. Find out from them what is going on and what they want solved.

• Do the hard work of thinking. Yes, it is hard work as you struggle with options.

• Provide important extras. Find key areas that add that wonderful new dimension that brings a smile. Not so much huge, expensive additions but little, important-to-the-customer touches that keep bringing them back.

• Automate as much as possible. Make the systems around your business fine-tuned and bullet-proof. Yes, use technology but think in terms of systems and developing better systems all the time.

• Constantly review and revisit what you’re doing on how to tweak and make it even better. Be so focused on their problems that they would complain if you weren’t around to help them!

Make it your goal to become indispensable in the minds of your customers. That is what relationship farming requires and that is the benefit for your long-term business.”

Have you ever noticed what the common denominator is with articles (like this one) that resonate with what we know to be important? It’s that they always represent the “right thing to do.”

Finding Peace

Friday, July 31, 2009

As the saying goes… “If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.” If your position requires you to lead and coach others, I guarantee that those you mentor know whether you stand for something, and their willingness to follow your lead will be determined by this. Here is one great example, with lessons you can build a life around:

Northern State University men’s basketball coach, Don Meyer, was presented the ESPY Jimmy V Award 2009 for Perseverance. You may not know him, but all the great coaches in College Basketball do. He’s been at it for 38 years. His story is incredible, and his acceptance speech, impressive and memorable.

Meyer is the third recipient of the JIMMY V Award. The honor is presented to a personality within the world of sports who, due to sheer zeal and perseverance, has achieved success in their respective field after having overcome immense obstacles.

The award was presented to Meyer in an effort to honor the determination he displayed after sustaining life-threatening injuries following a car crash last September. The accident almost killed Meyer. Somehow he survived, but was inflicted with critical injuries. Amidst the numerous surgeries to revive him, doctors discovered that Meyer’s intestines and liver were infected with cancer. This was another blow that he had to courageously face, while still recovering from the post accident trauma.

Meyer spent 55 days in the hospital, undergoing the recovery phase, and lost part of his leg as a result of the ordeal. It was his sheer will that kept him going day after day.

In his acceptance speech, he described the long-standing foundational values that lead one to this kind of determination:

For example, he explained that from the very start, he instills in his team the following “F” words: Faith. Family. Friends. He went into how each one of these was a critical factor to his healing and fortitude.

He also teaches his players something that John Wooden taught him:

“Don’t whine. Don’t complain. Don’t make excuses.”

And finally, he summed up his experience with these words:

“I’ve learned from this Odyssey that peace is not the absence of troubles, trials and torment, but the calm in the midst of them.”

This kind of living, remarkably, provided Coach Meyer with the resources and dedication to get back to work in time for basketball season. He coached from a wheelchair. Can you imagine how his players must have listened and followed his direction?

A reminder to all of us: Great Coaching takes living your values when it really counts…

Trusting Your Gut

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been relaying some of the lessons learned from the aftermath of the financial crisis last fall, as reported in a series of articles published in Harvard Business Review this month. When a plane crashes, people want to know what went wrong… The same is true with the economy.

One of the primary causes of the financial crisis was an over-confidence in financial models that did not prove reliable. Surprisingly, these models were built on data and rational thought.

For example, if no more than 2% of the population has ever defaulted on their mortgage in any given year for the past 30 years, it is rational to conclude that no more than 2% will default in the years to come as well, right? However, this pattern did not hold true…the models were wrong. The HBR article puts it this way:

“Data, computing power, and mathematical models have been transforming many realms of management from art to science. But, the crisis exposed the limitations of certain tools. In particular, the world saw the folly of the reliance by banks, insurance companies, and others on financial models that assume economic rationality, linearity, equilibrium, and bell-curve distributions. As the recession unfolded, it became clear that the models had badly failed.”

So, is it time to pitch the idea of using data to solve problems and manage more effectively? Probably not. It makes sense to utilize data when making a decision, but realize an over-reliance on information alone, may lead you astray.

This balance reminds me of the equilibrium that Captain Kirk and Spock discovered in the legendary Star Trek series. While Spock’s cold, hard facts were important, the Vulcan logic alone was not sufficient to arrive at the right decision. Additionally, Kirk would consult his gut-level intuition before pulling the trigger. The combination was effective.

If you’re a hiring manager, you need to find this balance as well. It is important that a person “look good on paper,” but that is never the whole story. Without verifiable competencies, work history, and education, it is foolish to move someone forward in the hiring process. From a data perspective, it is also important to verify additional sources of information, such as assessment data, via factual questions during an interview.

Once you have supporting data, trust your gut to make the right decision. Your intuition can tell you things that the data will never tell you. When you “feel” a red flag, listen to your instinct and pull back. When the data looks good and your gut is confirming the data, make the decision with confidence.

In the financial world, it should have “felt” wrong to close a mortgage for someone with no income and no assets (this is a called a NINA loan), but that is exactly what many financial institutions did because they trusted their financial models. Hopefully, you won’t make the same mistake with your candidates.

Tapping the Passion of a New Hire

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Many believe that there is a major shift happening in the business landscape. There are significant, long-term forces that are shaping the way businesses are able to produce returns. As the recession lingers on, there is a growing consensus that “business as usual” may never return.

Does that mean that the recession will last forever? Of course not. But it does mean that the way businesses bounced back after a recession in the past will not likely repeat itself. More specifically, the previous employment options enjoyed by many may be gone for good.

Last week, I alerted you to a series of articles (1, 2) that Harvard Business Review recently published on leadership in the workforce following the September 2008 financial crisis and ensuing recession. In an article titled, The Big Shift, the authors make the point that traditional business measurements no longer capture the challenges and opportunities for companies. This is occuring due to fundamental shifts in how businesses contribute to the economy.

This is all pretty heady stuff, and some of it is quite interesting. I’m not sure anyone can fully understand or predict what is going to happen, but it is fascinating to pour through all the ideas and theories.

What does all of this have to do with you? If you’re a recruiter or hiring manager, you’re going to see the effects of this shift in your candidates, new hires, and existing employees. Individuals may not have a full understanding of what is happening, but they can sense changes in the air, and that will impact their behavior.

As individuals attempt to process these changes, one of the early symptoms to look for is passion. There are two important trends in this area worth noting:

1. Talented workers are passionate about control:

“Self-employed people are more than twice as likely to be passionate about their work as those who work for firms, according to a survey we conducted. This suggests a potential red flag for institutional leaders—companies appear to have difficulty holding on to passionate workers.”

If you’re not able to offer candidates at least some level of autonomy in their new position, you’re at a disadvantage. It is difficult for people to concentrate on the grand vision of the company when the ground is shifting under their feet. Giving them something small and contained that they can control may be much more appealing.

2. Talented workers are passionate about working with other high-quality people:

“The initial findings from our research indicate a correlation between the rapidly growing use of social media and the increasing knowledge that flows between organizations. Worker passion also appears to be an important amplifier: When people are engaged in their work and pushing the performance envelope, they seek ways to connect with others who share their passion and who can help them get better faster.”

The principle here is pretty simple: If you want to tap the passion of a talented new hire, put them around the highest quality people possible. Shielding your existing best performers from involvement with newly hired employees is a mistake. You’ll not only fail to engage the passion of the new employee, but you’ll miss an opportunity to rekindle the passion of your top performers.

Making an effort to tap the passion of your candidates and employees will always produce a return, regardless of which direction the business landscape shifts…

Finding Your Inner Loser: Debunking Positive Thought

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

If you are responsible for coaching those on your team, you may be hurting their chances for success by encouraging them to think positively. This revelation is completely opposite from what the self-help industry would suggests. New research, however, claims that the “power of positive thinking” pontificators may be on the wrong track…

In a recent article in Time Magazine, John Cloud highlights the following research:

“Is there power in positive thinking? A study just published in the journal Psychological Science says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.

The study’s authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin with a common-sense proposition: when people hear something they don’t believe, they are not only often skeptical but adhere even more strongly to their original position… [This is true because] many of us are reluctant to revise our self-judgment, especially for the better.

In 1994, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published a paper showing that when people get feedback that they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you try to tell your dim friend that he has the potential of an Einstein, he won’t think he’s any smarter; he will probably just disbelieve your contradictory theory, hew more closely to his own self-assessment and, in the end, feel even dumber.”

As a coach, your job is to help people understand their legitimate strengths. Everyone has strengths, but many people have a difficult time recognizing and implementing them successfully. Much of your work should be focused in this area. When you do spend time on weaknesses, show how these deficiencies can be shored up by others. Nobody is perfect, but in a team environment we all compensate for each other in some way or another.

This principle is difficult to remember when coaching someone. We’re all too eager to provide encouragement, concentrate on the positive, and highlight what’s going right. But, however well-intended, telling a person something that is not true, or choosing to focus only on the positive, typically backfires. Think about all the great professional coaches we all hold in high esteem… Lou Pinella, Mike Holmgren, Billy Martin, Bobby Knight…. are they known only for their positive strokes? Not so much.

The correct formula for improvement is to teach those on your team to better utilize their strengths and become more mindful of their weaknesses. As John Cloud puts it, “Mindfulness…can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking.”