Sanders Says

Lousy managers try and catch people doing something wrong

Management by walking around works, depending on what you are walking around look for. 

The worst managers I've ever worked for used my mistakes against me, as leverage.  I felt awful, and gave them my least.  They used my weaknessness or errors to manipulate, dominate and frankly, play with my head.  When a company has too many of these types of managers, the culture goes negative, along with business results.  But there is a better way.

Case in point: At Barton Protective Services, new CEO Tom Ward was determined to change the culture of the company from transactional (what have you done for me lately?) to inspirational (we help improve the world!).  His secret weapon was a simple Friday routine which he called, "Catching someone doing something right!" 

He and his leaders fanned out to the edges of the organization, looking for big and small feats of greatness by employees.  Each week, one popped out the mix: Extra effort, process innovation, bravery, customer-centric behaviors, astute accounting, etc.  He'd announce it during the weekly wrapup, challenging everyone else to make the next week's roundup. 

Within a year, the culture of the company was radically transformed and all the biz-numbers got better: Turnover rates for entry level security guards was cut by more than 50%, satisfaction rates for clients shot up and net profits soared.  He realized through it all, that lousy managers look for mistakes and great leaders seek out excellence.  His example proves out something author Bill Strickland once told me: "If you run your organization like a prison, your people will act like prisoners." 

So get to it, after all it's Catch People Doing Something Right Friday!

 

Turn off the market and go back to work

No matter how many times you check on the Dow, it's down.  Get over it. 

I've been through these wild market swings before, starting the the breakdown of 2000 the DotCom bubble burst.  It was a nightmare on paper, on screen and the minds of people around me.  You could tell when someone was spending too much time watching cable TV or surfing Yahoo Finance - he had the 'deer in the headlines look.' 

He was also let go in the first wave of layoffs a year later.  Because he wasn't working on his work, he was sucked up into the game.  He thought that if he checked on the market, and talked about it with his colleagues enough - it would either go away or he'd be picked as the new team leader. 

"You can't be paranoide enough," is a strange-but-real part of our bizpsyhce and it's wrong headed. During those times, I advised my team to turn off the news, stop checking on the stocks and focus on the program we were buildling for our clients, and how over-delivering on it was more important than ever.  Every single one of them that took my advice was still with the company two years later. 

You are no good to your company if you invest more than four smoke breaks of your time on market conditions.  As one analyst said last week, "Change your portfolio or sell until you can sleep, then turn it off!"  Nothing good will come from time spent watching the blow-by-blow reporting of the stock market's trades.  Management doesn't need you to play Chicken Little or Debbie Downer. Your CEO isn't going to say, "that paranoid young man, the one that's freaked out by the stock market, he's a good candidate for leadership!" Never. 

If you start off conversations this week by chatting about 'this economy' - you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.  You'll suck the energy out of everyone you talk to, and that's not being a leader.  Remember what Napoleon said, "the leader's role is to define reality, then give hope." 

If you can stay focused now, your work will rise to the top.  Can you? 

 

Owners: Retreat into the background and let your team win

For Mark Cuban, piping down isn't an easy task. 

I should know, I've worked for him and then followed him since the start.  His energy and enthusiasm attracts others into the world and propels the energy ball forward: broadcast.com, HDnet, Dallas Mavericks, etc. 

But, in the case of his NBA franchise, he realized that there's only so much his enthusiasm can add to the mix.  Rewind to 2006, when Cuban famously appeared on a late night talk show to guarantee the Mavs first championship.  Then, when the series unraveled and the Heat came from behind to win, all eyes were on Cuban.  The players and fans, no doubt, wished he hadn't have "jinxed" them and/or motivated the Heat with his appearance.

So, this year, when the Mavs started their playoff run, Cuban stopped talking to the everyone about the team and its prospects.  He let Dirk and gang do the talking with the basketball.  He stopped blogging at Blog Maverick in mid-April.  His Tweets and Facebook posts slowed down to a crawl, only addressing HDnet issues and such (a few Go Mavs, but that's it).  

He was noticeably absent from the usual media storm around the Western Finals as well as the NBA Finals.  Only in game six, when victory was at hand, did cameras and commentators focus on him. It's as if he hired a reverse PR agent to prevent coverage of his personality during the playoffs.  I wouldn't put it past him, he's that wicked smart. 

Even in accepting the trophy, Cuban was a class act of an owner.  He insisted that Don Carter, the founder of the Mavericks, touch the trophy first.  When asked on the podium why he stayed so quiet during the playoffs, he deflected the question, telling Coach Carlisle to "get his butt over here" to talk to the mic.  Today, he's back on form, talking to the world about his championship experience and feelings. 

Did his absence move the needle? Who will ever know, as it's an intangible that's hard to measure or even proxy.  IMHO, his actions could only have helped.  The media attention was on Dirk, the team-you-love-to-hate and ... the game of basketball!  All the media distractions during the finals focused on LeBron-isms, not Cuban.  The heat was on the Heat.  

This is a lesson for all company founders and/or owners.  Stay out of the picture so your team (that you built) can finish the game.  Don't jinx them during the sprint with media blitzes, glitzy appearances at client meetings or events or social media musings about your impending win (John Mackey of Whole Foods can attest to this RE Wild Oats).  Just let the team play or as one VP at Oracle liked to say, "ignore me as required to get things done." 

For some founder/owners, you should take a permanent vacation from being the focal point of your 'franchise.'  Check yourself RIGHT NOW if you are playing Steve Jobs on every new product, program, event or customer meeting.  If you are just air, then breeze in during victory laps. Focus your energy on Talent, Product Quality and Vision.  Work in the background, like an operating system.

Follow Mark's lead and be behind-the-scene support, unless you are truly convinced that your ubiquity adds value either financially or psychologically.  I've worked at a few companies where the founder or owner's presence diverts the perceived authority inappropriately - turning a non day to day player in the quarterback of sorts. 

PS - For the star players of the bizworld, let the NBA finals teach you another lesson: Don't Whine Like Queen Lebron.  He really sunk to a new low today, when he informed his detractors that they would still wake up tomorrow with a lesser life than he, which makes him Marie Antionette like (let them eat cake) than Michael Jordan ish.  MJ would have just admitted he didn't do his job, and ask for the detractors to reconsider him based on his court performance.  

Picture source Wilfredo Lee, Associated Press via Desert News - read the article: Mark Cuban's lips unzipped, he remained somewhat humble

Skype in a special guest for your next talk

A few weeks, ago I brought a special guest on stage - via Skype! 

It was Skillsoft's Perspectives 2011 event for their customers in Orlando.  My talk was on Leadership, Confidence and Moving Forward, and directed to the HR community via a webcast.  As we prepared for the event, one of the producers asked me if I wanted to "skype in" a guest expert. 

"Like Oprah?" I asked.  "Sure, it's easy to do.  The trick is getting the expert, not the technology," he replied.  Aha!  So, I thought about various experts/authors that I knew, who might be able to add value to one of my points. 

My first thought was a friend, Jeremie Kubicek, author of the newly published book, Leadership Is Dead.  He shares my 'abundance mentality' point of view and I knew it would be a win/win/win scenario.  Unlike the old days, when you had to use satellite, Skype is easy and free to bring on stage. You need a dedicated laptop running Skype that outputs (video + audio) to a input selection mixer, and make sure both internet connections are robust.  A quick Skype-check happened day of the event, and then, during my talk, Jeremie was on Skype, listening to my talk via the laptop's mic and a monitor closeby.  

As I introduced him and told the crowd about him, the producer flips the switch from the power point to him, and just like that, I've Skyped in another speaker!  He made some good points and the crowd loved the bonus expert.

Try this for your next event, and leverage your network to spice up your next talk.  At almost all levels, it's doable, and you know people out there that would love the exposure or be willing to help. 

Watch this video example: Skyping In Jeremie Kubicek For My Skillsoft Keynote

 

 

The best gift to give on Administrative Professional's Day: Knowledge!

To commemorate Administrative Professional's Day, my friend Jonathan Spring is  giving Laura, his administrative assistant, a copy of What The CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan. Why? Because Laura is a smart young person whose hero is Colleen Barrett of Southwest Airlines. 

Colleen, too, was once an admin. In fact she was once Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher's admin. When they worked at a different company. Over time, Colleen matured into a savvy professional, so savvy that when Herb Kelleher took over Southwest, he hired Colleen away from her old job. Today she's the president of the airline. My friend Jonathan knows that anyone who wants to be the next Colleen Barrett must have a basic understanding of how companies work.  And so he's passing along to Laura the greatest gift of all: knowledge.  

Called National Secretary Day when it was first celebrated 50 years ago, now called Administrative Professional's Day, April 24th is more than a chance to recognize your assistant, helper, secretary, or whatever you want to call him/her. It's a chance to stage a positive experience, to inspire your most valuable resource, and to promote growth.  What does the day really celebrate? Type in the phrase in a search engine and a host of  information comes up. One web site actually claims that the day is a conspiracy made up for FTD and other related service industries.  Actually, the day was invented to promote the secretarial profession. PR maven Harry F. Klemfuss of Young and Rubicam, Mary Barrett of the National Secretaries Association, and C. King Woodbridge of the Dictaphone Corporation created and launched this day, along with National Secretaries Week, in 1952.  Their objective wasn't commercialism or placation. It was "to recognize the secretary, upon whose skills, loyalty, and efficiency the functions of business and government offices depend". 

While the titles change and evolve over time, the celebration should continue. Despite computers and downsizing, administrative professionals make businesses run smoothly. They are taking on more technology requirements and handling more management activities than their 1952 counterparts. Harry and friends had the right idea: celebrate the profession and promote solid business values. It's just that over the last five decades the execution has become totally commercialized and the event is de-personalized. 

Re-personalize it. These last twelve months have been an amazing challenge to everyone in your company. Nobody feels the pain like your administrative professionals. They have to roll with the your moods, with job stability, with communicating changes and executing everything others think up.  This last few years has meant more fear, less pay, and more work than ever.  During tough times, people continue to search for answers, and too often alone.  As a result, I think the bosses of the world are blowing it. They are ghetto-izing this opportunity. Think of the normal gifts you people give--chocolates, flowers, photograph frames (so they can put your picture in it?), greeting cards. Do you really think these are the best gifts? Think about it. These are not professional gifts that recognize someone's intellectual and material contribution. These gifts only recognize your lack of imagination.

The third week of each April, and particularly the third Wednesday, is a special time just for YOUR administrative professional. It's your chance to shine. You can be a dynamite boss or a dud, it's your choice. The hint? Don't give the standard clinker. The solution is simple; personalize your expression and promote your AP's growth. In a recent poll taken by the International Association of Administrative Professionals respondents were asked how they'd like this special day observed. Almost one fourth responded that they'd prefer a training session or educational event. Only two percent responded that they'd like candy or flowers, while only four percent preferred being taken to lunch.  

In my first book, Love is the Killer App, I define BizLove as the intelligent sharing of intangibles (knowledge, network and compassion) to promote another person's growth. To give some growth, give some Bizlove, in the form of a great book.  You can make a  profound difference on someone's life with just the right message. Which book to give? Think about a person's dreams, interests, and business challenges. Have a conversation with him/her as you research the gift. They will be happy to tell you about books they want to read, subjects they're curious about, ideas they want to pursue.

A great book is a gift that keeps giving. As Cicero once said: "Books are the wise man's passport to success and greatness. Books are the thresholds to wonder; the gateways to enlightenment; the foundations of virtue; and the pediment of honor."

Here are some of my recent book recommendations

 

Question and Answer about the Devil's Advocate

From time to time, I write about something that really stirs people up.  In 2010, I wrote a blog post called "The Problem With Devil's Advocates" and it got a  lot of engagement.  It was also expanded on as a concept in Today We Are Rich (move the conversation forward).  Since then, I've talked to several people that needed additional clarifications on the subject, since it's a habit that many leaders create to 'add value.'  Here (with the author's permission) is one of those Q/A sessions. 

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Sanders,

Enjoyed your interview with Robert Pagliarini-- great stuff, thank you! I do have a question. You expressed disdain for the playing of "devil's advocate". In my organization and teams, I often assume this role, particularly when discussing a possible idea or new direction with my business partner. It's certainly not bullying (not my personality), but I see it as a way to make sure we understand and consider the risks and costs of the proposed idea or strategy, so that we are going in with our eyes open. I am sure I am misunderstanding your point somehow, but it sounded to me almost like you were saying we should just "focus on the positive" and ignore any alternative viewpoints, evidence to the contrary, or possibility of failure or harm coming to us as a result of our decision. You mentioned, "You don't come up with breakthrough solutions playing devil's advocate". I suppose that's true, though, would you agree that playing devil's advocate can be a way to "vet" an idea? If you'd be willing to provide some clarification, I'd sure appreciate it. I know your time is very valuable. Thank you. Ryan Levesque eBookIt.com

ANSWER: Hello Ryan - 

Nothing is absolute, and at certain companies, their are leaders who manage 'group think' - but it is a strategic assignment.  You may be the exception to the rule.  My issue is that Devil's Advocate is misunderstood.  In the book, I explain it was invented by the Catholic church hundreds of years ago to prevent a 'bad guy' from being canonized.  Attorneys were assigned to do it, only once, and in many cases it was career suicide.

In our culture, far too many people (wracked with jealousy or devoid of creativity) evoke the D.A. Approach as a linguistic form of 'catch up.' They aren't doing it, as you do, to protect the organization.  In any collaboration (tech labs to comedy), this rampant approach is a killer to the critical 'yes-and' approach to disruptive innovation.

If you read the book, and I hope you do, I make it very clear that the banker OR the resource giving leader MUST play the Devil's Advocate on the part of the enterprise.  But the junior leaders need to focus on problem solving, innovation and encouraging other to bring ideas to work and spin them up into breakthrough strategies.

Got a question about Today We Are Rich? Email me at tim (at) timsanders.com

Why People Are the Heart & Soul of the Information Age

On Monday, I gave a keynote address to 1000 IT and technology managers on the subject of people skills. 

Not just the fine art of getting along or motivating the troops, but something any engineering mind can relate to: Enterprise and Work-life design.  If a company, or even a group within a company, is designed to bring out positive mood state, a culture of cooperation and a human working environment - the end result will be excellence.  

Consider the findings of John McKean in Information Masters: The Secrets Of The Customer Race (illustrated above in the chart).  He studied hundreds of companies and identified a segment he calls "Information Masters."  Wal-Mart is an example, where IT Supply Chain excellence delivers every day low prices and Pac-Man growth opportunities.  These companies are excellent in areas of tech, information management and how it relates to supply chain and CRM performance.  When he broke down how these companies invested, he found out the real difference between Good and Great when it comes to IT: People-centric business.  

In his research, he found that most companies pile the cash on data and technology.  Machines, programs, consultants, etc.  And all of it, a whopping 92% of the budget, produces a mere 25% of the outcome.  If you add up their 2% investment in people, 1% on culture development and 1% on leader (training) - this small batch of cash produced 50% of success in terms of productivity, ROI and customer value.  

This explains why companies like Google, SAS Institute and Genetech all roared to the top of their piles even though they didn't have the same mountain of machines and service providers as their competitors.  In each case, people were considered the heart and soul of the business - relegating data and technology to the extremities of the company.  And when you step back and think about it, the whole finding makes perfect sense - unless you are steeped in the engineering mindset.  

To quote Tom Peters, the difference between a good software engineer and a great software engineer isn't 20% or 50% like it is in the world of sales and marketing.  Nope, the difference between a Good-Geek and a Great-Geek is more likely 10,000% or 30,000%.  These highly engaged innovators produce the breakthrough products and make the competition obsolete.  The trick is to get them to come to work, collaborate with others, finish what they start and guard the company's culture like a parent looks after a newborn.  You don't generate that with checks, you generate that with an obsession on people.  BTW: all three companies above are also on Fortune's Top Companies To Work For list year-over-year with SAS Institute ruling at the moment. 

Here's how you can re-engineer your business to put people at the center and race to the top: 

1 - Hire nice smart people only.  NEVER hire a depressed, negative minded or anti-social person. One of them can bum everyone else out, and destroy your culture.  You've got too many good candidates to choose from, you are being lazy when you hire a jerk.  In fact, if they are high-performance on paper, but Larry David like in the interview (or the reception area), call your competitor and send over a referral!  

2 - Measure and manage the mood state thoughtfully.  If your employees come to work with a song in their heart, Heartmath and Daniel Goleman  both found that the resulting chemical flow produces higher engagement, creativity and desire to please customers.  And that's money.  Don't let the mood state be driven by the market though, that's also lazy.  Walk around, look at your people's faces, analyze the spirit of your groups.  If there's not 'buzz,' you need to find out why.  A few companies I know put 'mood state leadership' into the annual reviews, holding managers responsible for the emotional quality of life of their people. 

3 - Invest heavily in people via training, development and wellness.  Don't just teach them how to program, teach them how to present, problem solve, meet better, etc.  By investing in their soft-skills, you'll take the tech edge out of your group.  The end results will likely be more minds coming together around problems.  And as Steve Jobs says, "Every good idea starts out as a bad one.  That's why it takes so long."  Wellness programs are the silver bullet too.  They have a four to one return on investment due to less sick days and higher productivity.  They are also very popular with your employee's family - causing them to cheer from you when a poacher or high flying competitors comes calling. 

Pink Elephant knows this: Check out their new video (Are You Ready?) that illustrates the value of people in the face of fast changing IT developments (from social media to cloud services).   

 

Why Love Is The Most Powerful Force In Business

Nine years ago today I published Love Is The Killer App. 

A few weeks prior, Fast Company ran a cover story excerpt from the book, leading with this line: "The most powerful force in business isn't greed, fear or even the raw energy of unbridled competition. The most powerful force in business is Love.  It's what will help your company grow and become stronger. It's what will propel your career forward."

Today I believe that statement more than ever.  The downfall of shark companies, moguls and take-no-prisoners bizfolk prove my point.  If you want your success to last, build it on the platform of BizLove.  Promote success in all those you do business with - treat your employees and customers like you'd treat your family.  Why?  People reciprocate and give back Love.  It's how we are built as beings.  In certain cases, fear or suffering trigger non-reciprocity...which can result in greed, evil or deception.  But those cases are very rare, once your ego let's go of them. 

How do we Love people at work?  We share our intangibles: Knowledge, Network and Compassion. We learn from sharing, and refine our ability to find synergy in others: Where reciprocity truly spins up relationships into career-changing opportunities.  Or as I say in the book, Nice Smart People Succeed. 

For more on this, check out the video Adrian Smith (Yahoo Alum) produced at Stacey's bookstore in SF way back in 2001: Tim Sanders on Love Is The Killer App

 

Love Is The Killer App from Tim Sanders on Vimeo.

 

How to be an effective mentor

Mentoring can be one of the most rewarding experiences you'll ever have. 

The requirement, though, is to be effective at giving mentorship advice.  That requires delivering value, helping the mentee achieve his/her potential and solving immediate needs.  In many cases, our thoughtfulness doesn't translate into effectiveness when it comes for formal or informal mentoring. We pick the wrong student, come across preachy or fail to make a connection.  

This week, I gave a workshop to a group of business leaders on this subject, suggesting that mentorship wasn't just a matter of being generous with knowledge.  It requires a process.  Here are the advice points I shared with them along the lines of the mentorship cycle: 

1 - Identify:  You must shop for a mentee by looking for two things: Intersections and Reflections.  Intersections occur when change meets opportunity meets ambition.  A new person joins your organization at a point in time where there's uncertainty or novelty.  Someone wants to make the next leap in her career, but her skill set isn't yet up to the task.  Reflections of you signal a good candidate for mentorship.  If you 'see a greener version of you' in someone, you'll likely have empathy for her, and that leads to more compassion and desire to help.  It will also give you more stick-to-it-ness, should you get busy.   Once you've identified a candidate, plot a journey for him, seeing him as a potential hero that needs to embark on an adventure with tools you give him.  

2 - Engage:  You must be overt in your effort to mentor someone, offering to both show-them-the ropes and explore new areas of professional growth.  To do it well, you need to make a personal connection with your mentee, dialing into her passions and goals in life.  The old saying is true here: No one cares how much you know until he knows how much you care.  Once connected personally, agree on your value-add during the mentorship program and schedule regular meetings or discussions. 

3 - Empower: You should always seek to make someone stronger, eventually independent of you.  Offer devices to the mentee in the form of books, resources and new contacts.  Hold the mentee accountable to act on your advice, but be willing to let him modify it based on his life-work context. Most important here: At the end of all mentorship sessions, let the mentee share her knowledge with you!  Ask her, "what should I be learning from you?" and give her the airtime to give-back.  This will give you more knowledge for your next student, and empower the mentee to start the process of becoming a mentor.  One last thought: Never expect repayment of any type.  Do this for the love of helping, giving and growing others.  

 

What's your point-of-view about People?

People will almost always fulfill your expectations of them. 

This is the core idea behind research on The Pygmalion Effect: People sense what you expect of them, and respond accordingly.  Sometimes, and it's rare, they do the opposite.  Note that I say 'rare' as in less than 10% of the time or so.  

If you want to be an effective sales person, you have to possess a positive bias about your suspects, prospects, customer and company.  Otherwise, you'll use false urgency or misrepresentation to make the sale - and you'll likely turn on your company on a dime.  If you are a leader, and you have a distrusting attitude about people, you'll bully, mislead and manipulate them to go in your direction. The minute your performance slips, though, they too will turn on you.  

There's a thread that runs through all my books and speeches, and it has to do with my point-of-view about human beings.  I believe that people are good, fair and loyal.  They want the same things you and I want.  They almost always give back when given to or pay it forward.  When they are selfish, boorish or mean-spirited, they are motivated by suffering or fear.  Only in rare cases do human break this design-mold. 

But in our minds, the ego magnifies each violation of the 'give-back-be-good' ethic, making us think that people are usually in it for themselves, or at least half the time, takers instead of givers.  It seems that way, because no one wants to be taken advantage of.  That's the ego talking.  If you wrote down a list of every person you've been generous too, and circled the ones who took-the-good and ran - you'll find that in about 80-90% of cases, my theory came true.  This exercise is liberating, because it frees you up to be an investor, not a user.  It frees you up to be a giver, not a taker.  

Here's the takeaways from my POV: 

1 - Design your business to assume that people are kind, fair and loyal.  For employees, take some risks and be generous with them from Day 1.  For customers, trust that when you give them value, they will give you back goodwill, future income and satisfaction.  There's a business model out there called "The People Customer Model" - where you take care of employees, who then take care of customers and partners - putting your enterprise into a trust based virtuous cycle of profits.

2 - When people are bad, find the Tiny Tim story or the Fear source.  I talk about this in The Likeability Factor:  Most negative behavior, especially bullying or pessimism, is driven by a suffering.  When employees at Yahoo complained to me about co-workers in this regard, I challenged them to do some research first - finding the Tiny Tim in their life (personal problems, health issues, etc.) that explain the behavior.  In a remarkable number of cases, they came back brimming with empathy, because I was right - The bad guys were sleeping on a friend's coach, battling a health scare or suffering from a  life of being mistrusted and/or abused.  In some cases, the selfish were, in fact, fighting for their economic or political survival.  Here's the point, if you judge a person as bad before you do your research, your ego is running the show. 

3 - Make yourself vulnerable by extending trust to others, even those you've just met.  Over time, this habit will pay dividends, because people will trust you back.  If you haven't read my post on Mack Brown ("Develop a Sincere Interest In Others"), it's a good follow up to this post.  Do not wait for people to earn your trust and generosity - by that point, your response is merely calculated.  This is what Dale Carnegie meant when he wrote, "you'll accomplish more by developing a sincere interest in people, than trying to get people interested in you." 

Read an excerpt from Love Is The Killer App from Fast Company for of my perspective.