Have you ever been faced with an ‘untouchable’ in the organization?

These folks are the ones that are some how connected or protected.

What dynamic does this setup in the organization and more importantly who should take care of fixing it?

Maybe an example will clarify the situation.

Lets say that a supervior in an organization has a ’supporter’ in the Executive office.  It really does not matter how this relationship developed.  But now it exists.  The supervisor can do no wrong.  The supervisor even makes it obvious to everyone (including the supervisor’s manager) that he is tight with the VP.

People see them together at lunch.  They sit together in presentations.  Heck, jokes are passed over email to each other.

Now again this situation begs the question… what dynamic does this setup?

In order to answer this question, one needs to understand the power in the organization.

The supervisor has the power over the manager and over the employees.  What is scary is that the supervisor probably realizes it.  What is even scarier… they don’t know how to control or handle the power.

Well lets just say it is sort of like giving a a really fast car to a teenager.  They simply just don’t understand the power that they have. 

So now we have an ineffective power user that is screwing up the organization.

How to handle these situations.

Talk to the Executive - maybe he or she does not realize the dynamic that has been setup.   If you get no where with the executive, lay it out with the human resources team.

If no movement is made in this area, then the only other method is minimize the person’s impact on the organization.  Now you have to be creative in this situation.  You can’t make it seem like the person is losing responsibility or you make get burned.  You need to create a position that is still ‘important’ but has limited people involvement.

In this way, you can at least minimize the chance of the cancer spreading.

I wish I had better news.  But unfortunately when upper management is not willing to deal with true leadership (or power) issues in the organization - you may have to realize that it is probably not an organization that you want to be a part of.

I have utilized the 5s lean tool for nearly 15 years now.

For a quick refresher, 5s is a disciplined approach on making sure that you have a ‘visual order’ to everything.  It should be blatantly obvious to everyone if something wrong or out of place or missing.  There are five steps in the process.  They are listed below:

• Sort - figure out what is really needed and what isn’t
• Set In Order - organize, identify and arrange everything
• Shine - setup regular cleaning and preventative maintenance schedules
• Standardize - make it easy to maintain
• Sustain - maintain and follow the established rules

Originally, I really did consider it as a precursor to the Visual Workplace or factory.  It would reduce time trying to find something; or it would reduce inventory because it was obvious if something was needed or not.   But it wasn’t until recently that I took a slightly different look at the usage of the tool.

I took the 5s implementation as a Leadership Development oppportunity.  Specifically, natural work groups were assigned to each area (which is normal).  These teams established the rules for the area.  An audit list was developed for each area.  I had the management team be the auditors for the areas utilizing the rules established by the teams.

Now, it was a learning experience for both the management team and the hourly workforce.  The managers wanted to change the rules (ummm not their job - they should have been part of the team!)  And the hourly team at times did not think through the rules that were written on 5s board for the area.

For example, in one area a rule stated that the board would be updated every day with initials and a date stamp.  So, I walked to area with one of the natural work group’s team members and saw that the board had not been updated nearly for 3 days.  I said ‘what gives?’  The manager wanted to answer the question for the hourly person, but I did not let him.

The hourly person said ‘Well the train has not delivered anything for three days, so no one has been down here to check it.’

My reply “But your rules say that you are going to check it everyday.  The management team let you come up with your own rules and you can not even follow them?  What gives?’

I did not ride him or the manager any further.  This point quickly made its way around through the facility.

Eventually the rules were updated and reflected the true practice.  It was a joint effort by the manager and the natural work group.

Utilize the 5s approach to start the accountability and leadership development process.

We were eventually able to work this plant site up to having hourly personnel creating and writing human resource policies for minimum staffing requirements and vacation scheduling.

They understood the importance of thinking through all of the rules and holding people accountable to those rules.

How many questions do you get asked a day?

How many decisions do you have to make during the day?

Chances are the number of questions asked is more than the number of decisions made.

The easy questions get answered immediately.  No big deal there.

Now for those really hard questions.  The ones that you told the person you needed more time to think about it.

Did you really go out and get extra data?

Did you ponder the real answer to the question any more?

Or did you actually already have the answer and you were not sure how to tell it or sell it to the person that asked?

What I have witnessed with many leaders of people is that they know the answer already.  Heck they knew the answer 15 seconds after the person asked the question.

But instead of answering the person directly, they said they needed time to think about it.

These are the questions that I want you to focus upon.   If you already know the answer and you don’t need to collect any more data.  Then it is all about the way you need to deliver it.

First if you are scared, say you are scared.  Now ask yourself why you are scared.  Is it that you are going to hurt the other person’s feelings?  Is it some monumental precedent that you are setting?

You need to be a leader and look past that fear.   Figure out how to have the hard conversation.  Delaying it is only going to make it worse for you and worse for the person hearing it.

It is not fair to individual to be strung along.   Get it out.  And don’t be scared.

I have been reading Seth Godin’s blog as of late.  His book Tribes which came out several months may be considered by some as a marketing book.  But actually, I as many other consider it as a leadership development book.

Take a look at your facility.  Are there tribes?

I remember when I worked at one multi-national, there was a group of finance people that evaluated the risk of taking on a new customer.  They were part of the finance team - but at the same time they moved slightly different than the rigid finance folks.  They had to balance the sales teams requests of approving every customer with the finance’s manager to mitigate risk.

These guys had a secret language - heck they probably had some sort of secret hand shake.  They would sit together at lunch and talk about finance stuff.  How would you evaluate this issue, etc.

They wrote their own sort of rules.  They did not need to be managed.  They were not sticking it to each other so that they could get the next job.  Instead, they helped each other so that they could be the best.

A saw a similar example in my most recent gig.  This team of raw material handlers again managed their own rules.  They tested each other and held each other accountable.  They new the code, the standards, the safety requirements, everything about the raw materials.

In each of these cases there was a leader of the tribe.  One person that the others followed.

As a manager of the facility, you have to figure out how to get the natural work groups to work as a tribes.  And then, you need to figure out how to get all of these tribes to work together for a common cause.

If you think people are showing up just to collect a paycheck.  You are sadly mistaken.  People want to be inspired.  They want to belong.  They want to wear the silly hats.

Take a look at your organization and see if you see the hidden tribes.  Watch them… listen to them… engage them.  And just maybe you they will let you know what the secret handshake is.

Which is worse?

• Working for a boss that is an idiot, or
• Having a bunch of subordinates that are smarter than you

So in the one case, you constantly have to help your boss look good… even if it is next to impossible.  And in the other case, you have to worry about all of your subordinates showing you up.

I am sure the following things are running through your head…

• Once again, my boss is going to get all of the credit
• He is making our whole department look like a bunch of idiots
• Which one of my subordinates are going behind my back
• Why aren’t my subordinates giving me all of the data… they want me to fail

First, as a leader, you need to put the greater need or the organization to the forefront.

Next, shouldn’t it feel great when you can help your boss succeed.

And isn’t great that you were able to help develop and mentor your subordinates.

Ok, I will cut to the punchline.

When you make leadership about you and not others, you really aren’t leading.

Ok, I am probably going to get shot for this one.  I don’t mind working with a collective bargaining unit.

Since most of my career has been spent in management and leadership development, readers probably wouldn’t expect me to be a huge union proponent.  Well this brief post is about having a set of rules and also being able to have the hard conversations.

Actually, I think having a union makes the management of facility easier.

Huh?

Well, let’s think about this.

There is a consistent set of rules that is applied to all people within a business that were mutually agreed upon management and the represented people.  These rules are based upon a negotiated contract in which there is representation from both sides.

So why is that a bad thing?

In a non-union plant, aren’t rules being put into place all of the time to ensure that things are done consistently?

Oh, I am sure I am going to hear about why it is fair for a union person to get paid $70 per hour, have lifetime benefits, and be protected to the 10th degree prior to being fired, etc.  And the unions are the downfall of our company’s etc.  They are the reason why jobs are going overseas.

Did I forget any?

Well management team, you made the bed and now you must sleep in it.  Making concessions on your part because you were afraid of a strike is your own fault.

So a little story to illustrate the point…

I am will hold my breath until you give in!

I remember my cousin being mad at my aunt because she would not let her ride her bicycle outside in the rain.  My cousin begged, she pleaded, she said everyone else gets to do it.  My cousin got mad.  She yelled and even cried about it.

My aunt did not budge.  Her answer was still no. (The reason for the answer ‘no’ for those interested was that the road was slick and two other kids took a header from previous rides in the rain.  No helmet laws back then!)

Then my cousin said ‘If you don’t let me go outside, I am going to hold my breath until I die and then you will be in big trouble and will be sorry about it for a very long time.’

My aunt’s response was ‘go ahead and hold your breath’.  After several shades of red, purple, and eventually blue, my little cousin actually passed out.

I let out a scream and whimper (ok I was only 10) thinking my aunt just let her daughter die.  Then I saw my cousin’s chest go up and down - her breathing was fine and her normal color quickly returned.

Several years later I asked my aunt ‘How in the world could you let your daughter do that? Weren’t you scared that she was going to die.’

My aunt knew my cousin wasn’t going to die by holding her breath.  She also knew that if she let her daughter pull this one over on her, then it would be hell to pay later (especially in the teen age years.)

Ok, so what the heck does this have to do with the union.

Well, as a manager your job is to ensure that you are making the best business decisions for both the short and long term health of the business.

Is the union requirements something that contradicts the company’s value system?

Does it some how setup a death spiral on costs or productivity.  If so, let them strike.

Boy that sure is scary.  Wouldn’t be easier to accept the 4% increase instead of the 3%.  And the sharing of the health care costs… so what if they are still 40% below the industry average.  We are making enough money now that it won’t hurt us.  Then I don’t have to think about it for 3 more years.

If this your approach, your company is going to have problems.  Not because of the 4 vs 3% raise.  You are right, it probably won’t kill your profits this year or even five years from now.  But it will kill the respect that you get from your leadership team and the union.

Your goal should be to make the offer good enough that the final vote is 51% to 49% in favor of the contract.  Heck, I would even give you a 60/40.  The point is that if you walk away with a vote that was 90% in favor of the contract then you should just move on.

Now if it something that is fair to the company and fair to the employee, then let them have it.

The whole point of this is establishing a set of rules and guidelines that can be adapted over time based upon business conditions.  Yep, I have union contracts written like this.

Just because you were not able to write it into your contract, don’t blame the union.

You can not blame the union for trying to get the best thing for their people.  Stop using excuses for why you can’t get things done and have the hard conversation with the union today.  Bring them in and let them know - even if it isn’t a contract year!

Every union that I have worked with (and there have been some pretty tough ones) have been very consistent on one item.

Use the rules that we both agreed upon to treat everyone equally.

Recently over at LinkedIn, I asked this question:

Just curious what people think about hiring a coach to do leadership development for line managers, supervisors, or high potential (hourly) workers.

Realizing that every individuals has different needs, what would be some of the general coaching topics that should be given (if any) for the above mentioned people.

What concerns, barriers, or road blocks would there be from:
a) the person selected to be coached
b) the manager of the person being coached
c) the peer group of the person being coached.

The intent of the question was whether the Management Team would invest in their Line Managers with an external resource.

Interestingly enough nearly most responses came back that it was a great idea to mentor and coach line managers.  There were several different opinions on who should be doing the coaching:

Internal versus External resources

Shouldn’t it be the responsibility of the Line Manager’ boss to mentor them?

In a perfect world, yes.

Unfortunately sometimes the Boss does not have the ability or maybe the time to do it.  So the Line Manager is left to figure it out by themselves.

They watch, they learn, they test.  And hopefully they make it.

What your thoughts about the positives and negatives of having a coach for a new Line Manager?

I have read and reread Jim Collins book ‘Good to Great’. The information that he presented regarding the Intersection of Three Circles is a very novel idea for a business.

For those of you who have not read this book… (please do), here are the basics of the Hedgehog concept
I feel lucky when I get to…
Identify something that you have God given talent (or genetically encoded) for…
And, I can make money doing…

Now you may notice that I have put a personal spin on the above versus having a business spin. Well that was on purpose.

If you take the above three items and write down on a separate piece of paper the answer to each of those questions… you will start learning something about yourself.

Heck ask your friends or business colleagues to add to each of the lists.

After time for reflection on what you wrote down on each list. Try to craft a position, a job, and even more importantly, a life around the intersection of those three questions.

You will be good at your job, you will like your job… and heck you will even get paid for it!

Additional steps to becoming a great leader are coming…

How important and valued is recognition to ALL employees?  Just completed a class on team building using the DISC reports to show how people are different and how critical it is to HONOR the differences.  Had almost 100 broken up into several classes so the mix was really unique.  Ninety five percent of the class members were wage roll employees, not salaried so you better be ready for some tough feedback.

As we conducted several breakouts, I watch to see who leads the breakouts and who participates without being asked.  ALWAYS, I repeat, ALWAYS the D’s in the group will grab the marker and take over.  I then coax some others to take the lead.  Difficult but can be effective.

As we got to the last breakout of the class, one individual who had hung back the entire time suddenly stepped up and took the marker.  He led the discussion like a pro- asked questions, recorded responses with clarity, looked the speaker in the eye, etc.  I was awed by his expertise.

Soon after the class ended and I asked him to stay over.  He very quietly walked up (C) and spoke very quietly.  I commended him on the fantastic job he had done and asked whether he had any classes on facilitation.  I noticed him look away as he said he had not.  Then I noticed that tears were rolling down his checks.  I immediately stopped the conversation.  He was so overwhelmed by someone saying something complementary to him that he could not control his emotions!  I had a hard time controlling mine then!  Both of us will never forget the brief conversation.

Never pass up the opportunity to commend someone who has done something you would like to see repeated.

Unlocking the economic value of your employees.

This is not about how many units of production, or how many service calls or how many times the employee did wha i pay him/her to do. This is about unlocking of the knowledge and abilities of the people who come to work every day, do their job and then go home with all the unused capacity. This under utilized capacity is there for the asking, but requires you to do something first.

When you have done things to show that you value the person, the most outrageous employee is often the most valuable in terms of business improvement. The employee who challenges the leadership in public is most likely to be the one who understands our business and knows in his mind that we can be better.

His mantra is “in spite of this we make money”. Almost any change in the way we do business helps to make his day to day job easier.

Who is the only expert on any job? Most likely it is not the college educated person we pay the big bucks to. It is the person who does that job every day. Unleashing this gold mine is simple but difficult.

The secret- ASK!

“But I have asked many times.” How many times did you do anything with the information? This past week saw a very outspoken employee come up with an idea that will generate cost savings 10X his annual salary. We valued him. He told us his idea, we acted, fought the Engineer for him and he proudly told the division President about his idea and how much money it would mean.

ASK ME! I would love to tell you how to protect my job by being more efficient.

The ‘rules of engagement’ or ‘the code’ or ‘the unwritten rules’ or how about just common courtesy…

When you run a meeting do you have a set of ground rules that everyone must abide?

For example…

Only one person talks at a time.   Or, no one can talk more than 1 minute and then some one else has to speak.

Setting up the ground rules lets everyone communicate.  What happens if you have a slow talker or someone does not like to talk?  What do you do about these folks?

As an informed leader, you need to understand the make up of your team so that you can make sure that everyone’s opinion is represented during the team discussion.

The next time you sit in a meeting take a look around and watch the dynamics in the room.  Is everyone participating and actively engaged?  If not, try to figure out why.

Then develop a code of conduct that will make sure that everyone is engaged and participating.

Recently I was challenged by Don to simply say ‘Thank You’ when someone gives me a compliment.

He told me that he has heard me on numerous occasions that I always try to defer the compliment by giving a bunch of reasons why I was NOT the reason nor deserving of the compliment.

For example, I was helping a team improve the overall yield (how much material was made correctly from the raw materials).  I provided consulting to the team and even some engineering at times.  I acted as the leader when needed but I really tried to make sure that each member of the team had a chance to flex their leadership muscle so that they could develop into great leaders.

The compliment I received was ‘We could not have made that improvement without your services.”

My original response was “Thank you but… it really was the team that made it happen.  They worked long hours and attacked the goal head-on…”, etc.

I really believe that the team was the reason.  Yes, I did help but no more than anyone else on the team.

Don’s coaching comments were “You don’t let people give you compliments and feel good about giving you a compliment.  You always have a reason on why it is not you.  Break this habit.”

So for the last couple weeks, I have been taking compliments and only saying “Thank you’ with no caveats or if’s and but’s.  It has been hard.

Thanks Don for helping me develop into a leader.

How will you Coach your new employee? What will you ask of him/her? Are they capable of doing it? Do they fit the job they have been hired to do?

DISC reports are very thorough, but for them to be useful to the hiring company, you must know what the job entails. If the job could speak what would it say? Remember that DISC only tells HOW the employee will respond to the task. The closer the person and the job match, the more successful they will be. High D’s like to make decisions and be in a highly visible leadership role. Put them in a room by themselves and they will retire in place- if you can even keep them in the room!

As you Coach the high C, put them in the room. They are thrilled to work on projects alone, in a private area with no interruptions and very explicit rules to follow.

Placing these people in the wrong roles leads to absenteeism, possible drug use and eventually they will leave or you will fire them. In spite of all the costs you have incurred, you have lost of some of your self esteem as a leader by making poor hiring decisions. Use the DISC and PIAV as a hiring tool. You will make yourself successful and contribute to the success of others. Hiring the right people makes you a great leader.

An informed leader knows how to hire the right people using DISC and PIAV. Take 20 minutes and complete one on line.

Coaching impact on the family is sometime not recognized. Was called to help a manager who was not accomplishing things that their boss the President of the company needed done. I spent several hours and several sessions both face to face and on the phone with the individual.

I did not establish the first rule of coaching-do you want to change? Essentially the manager even at times almost in tears, felt that he didn’t want to change, liked the way he was and let things fall where they may.

Always a part of coaching is creating life balance. He did not help his wife with the two small twin boys. She also worked full time outside the home, but he saw no reason to help her out. After several discussions about this, he agreed to try to improve in the home life area by sharing household chores and being home more often. He reported back to me that his marriage was much improved even as he joked “we haven’t made much progress at work have we?”

Long story short, I could not help the manager in his professional life and he began seeking other employment. He left the company but we were still friends and he stayed in contact. The president of the company and I both felt we had failed him. End of story- we thought. Ran into his wife a few months later. With trepidation, I approached her and we began talking about him and what had happened. Suddenly, out of the blue she said “I know that your coaching did not save my husband’s job, but you saved our marriage. Thank you for that.”

I called the president of the company the next day and told her the story. She almost cried. That was the best money I ever spent then, she said.

What are you asking of your new employee? If you are responsible for their leadership development, take coaching them serious.

DISC reports are very thorough, but for them to be useful to the hiring company, they must know what the job entails. Remember, DISC only measures HOW a person will respond to the tasks. The closer the person is matched to what they like to do and HOW they want to accomplish the task the more productive they will be. High D’s like to make decisions. Put them in a room by themselves with no one to lead and they will either dry up, leave or retire in place.
On the other side of the coin, the high C is thrilled to work on projects alone, in a private area with no interruptions with many rules. Placing these people in the wrong job leads to absenteeism, possible drug use and eventually they will leave and you have to pay for another new hire. You also have done them an injustice by giving them a stop on their career that will be seen as a failure in their eyes.
Match people to the job. You should be able to see what successful people in this role do. How much interaction is necessary? How much time is spend assembling and interpreting data? Do they have to work on routine items each day? Do they have to solve many problems at the same time.
Again, DISC tells you HOW the person would like to accomplish the job tasks. Give them the best chance of being successful by placing them in the proper role based on FACT!

This is not pigeon holeing people. It is putting them where they have the most likely chance of success. EAch of us has certain God given talents. The earlier you recognize these in yourself by using the DISC, the more of your life will be spent on “acting natural”.

Just got off a coaching call with a wage roll employee that his company values him enough to pay for the service. He was the most outspoken, arrogant, untrusting person in the plant. Every meeting with management, he did everything possible to disrupt the meeting and question the leadership in public. His decision was essentially learn how to play with others or you can look for a new job after 18 years with the company. When we got the results from his DISC, it was obvious. The employee was driving, ambitious, pessimistic, impatient and exacting. We did a 360 with his peers and he ranked lowest in accepts feedback and role model for others.
Why did his supervisor put up with this? He was the most technically competent operator in the plant. He just had no patience with others? Couldn’t tolerate their slowness and did it himself.
We did not want to lose him. What kind of leadership coaching could we give him that would work?  We sat down and reviewed his DISC and 360 feedback and told him if he wanted to be considered for a senior operator job, he had to work with people. We explained how to communicate with different styles of people and how to recognize them. Within a week, he asked others opinion. At first they just stared at him. Now they believe he is sincere and are helping him work on a project to make their job easier.
Without the DISC tools as coaching data, we could not have salvaged this valuable employee.  He has recently been awarded the site senior operator job!  He has gone from one foot out the door to our most valuable leader on that shift. 

I was doing a DISC Triad this week with a client who always completes one with everyone who comes to work for her in the first 2-3 weeks.  This is simply to sit down together with a certified DISC trained third party, exchange reports and review each section.  As we review them, we ask “which ones do you think in each section are most critical to your sucess”?  The manager then knows how to lead this person.  How best to teach Leadership Coaching, than to honor the differences.  Unless we know how to recognize different styles, how can we honor them?

The do’s and don’t’s of communication are always the highlight of  the session.  What is a “do” to one party is often a “don’t” to the other.  For example one person’s report said “make an organized presentation and stick to the agenda” while the other said “leave time for relating and socializing”.  This is a great way to teach the DISC profile tools and how we communicate as WE like to be communicated to instead of how the other person likes to be communicated with. 

When we have a new employee, we can try trial and error for the first few months or sit down together with a facilitator and read each other’s DISC profile.  I then know how to adapt a leadership or coaching style that has your full attention.  This is also the most efficient way to run a business. 

One of the largest Personnel placement agencies in the world surveys more than a 100,000 people every year to determine success factors. Year after year, they get the following responses.
There are really only three things that are critical to my success in any new job.
I have the tools I need in good working order is the first.
I am not a mechanic, why do I need tools?
Tools for any job require things such as procedures, desk, computer, phone, map of work area, how to get support, etc. Many people are put in jobs without these basic essentials.
Many companies drive employees away by not providing the most simple of things.
The second most important to my success is to KNOW WHAT MY JOB IS.
Really simple isn’t it! Business often spend thousands of dollars finding the right person for the job and then ignore them as soon as they are in place. Give me my job description, goals, measurable, and when I can expect to get feedback on how I am doing. I shouldn’t have to ask.
The third and last thing I need to get my job done is feedback. This feedback should occur regularly and in a standard format that ties to our department goals and how I am impacting them with my performance.
Using DISC, all three of these can be satisfied.

Recently I held an interview with a prospective client who is the Senior VP of Operations for an $8B corporation.

An associate and I were trying to convince him that even though we were small, we could give them the service to help them meet their goals quicker than doing it with their current tools. After sharing our success with him, he very adamantly stated that the results were in manufacturing and what did that have to do with their business?

He was quick to tell us how busy he was that they were engaged in the annual capital plan meeting and was not in a very good mood. Since Cost of Poor quality was only good for manufacturing, how could that metric be useful to them?

What are your goals for next year? To double the stock price, he answered.

How do the employees impact the stock price?

How does this capital plan meeting impact the stock price?

How do you measure the success of the meeting?

How do you accomplish the goals of the meeting without rework, waste and downtime?

What are the critical four to six measures that all capital spending should be measured against? Were you using a Priortization matrix (also known as a Cause and Effect Matrix or Decision Matrix) to decide which projects to fund?

Did everyone in the meeting understand what these critical few were?

After we had prioritized the list of capital appropriations, did we know how to use a FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) to see how likely we were to accomplish the goals of the appropriations?

No, the goal is not to spend all the money on time and account for all of it!

If we were not going to meet the financials promised by the job, did we have an alternate plan to make the numbers with other capital opportunities? Was someone accountable for the results? Was it baked into the operations plan?

After hearing the questions, the VP could only respond. The Prioritization matrix and FMEA do not apply to a non manufactureing environment.

This is not about how many units of production, or how many service calls or how many times the employee did what I pay him/her to do. This is about the unlocking of the knowledge and abilities of the people who come to work every day, do their job and then go home with all the unused capacity. This under utilized capacity is there for the asking, but requires you to do something first.

When you have done things to show that you value the person, the most outrageous employee is often the most valuable in terms of business improvement. The employee that challenges the leadership in public is most likely to be the one who understands our business and knows in his mind that we can be better. His mantra is “in spite of this we make money“. Almost any change in the way we do business helps to make his day to day job easier.

Who is the only expert on any job? Most likely it is not the college educated person we pay the big bucks to. It is the person who does that job every day. Unleashing this gold mine is simple but difficult.

The secret- ASK!

“But I have asked many times.” How many times did you do something with the information? This past week saw a very outspoken employee come up with an idea that will generate cost savings 10X his annual salary!

We valued him. He told us his idea, we acted, fought the Engineer for him (let’s try anyway) and he proudly told the President of our division about his idea and how much money it would mean.

ASK ME! I would love to tell you how to protect my job by being more efficient.

Recently, we received a request from a local school for some much needed supplies. The school (private) as a classroom project was teaching the students how to write letters and benefit the school at the same time (love efficiency!). This was a rather mundane thing that passed my desk.

The opportunity was this child belonged to one of my most outspoken critics on the plant floor. Maybe this was the opportunity I had been looking for. This employee was technically the most competent, but attitude was horrible.

To make a long story short, I approached the employee about what was needed and why. He was not sure I was sincere and it took some convincing to show him that the company would provide the needed supplies if he would accompany me to the school to present them. He agreed.

When we contacted the school they were so pleased that they wanted to do the presentation in front of the entire student body (500) . I had planned on doing the speaking, but kidded with the employee and told him “it is your idea, you can make the presentation”.

He did the presentation of the supplies. We gave the kids a framed certificate. They were the only ones in the class that even received a response from any local company contacted. Their dad was a hero in their eyes. His son was the envy of his classmates with his “framed certificate”. His dad was the envy of his classmates.

Although this did not enter our minds at the time we did this, we had an incident at the plant that made the local papers a few months before. How much good did we do with the 500 families represented in the audience to improve our company image.

Don

The other day I was working with a Manager who has continuously demonstrated to the workforce that he wants them to have control of their own destiny. He has supported this workforce with training, leadership development skills, and defined metrics or criteria for success.

Yet his workforce still does not fully trust him.

Here is a recent scenario. He has decided to change the schedule of the call center employees.

After collecting several months of data, he came to realize that most calls were coming in on Mondays and Tuesdays during day time hours. Currently the workforce has a 24 x7 rotating shift schedule. One of the perks is a 7 day break for the workforce.

So, he showed each of the employees the data. He told him he wanted 7 day coverage for 12 hour days. It was obvious from the data that this was the best solution. Then he told them that he wanted them to design the schedule. His criteria:

a) Cost neutral to both the employee and the company

b) Easy to manage (knows who is supposed to be on and who is supposed to be off)

c) 7 days covered and 12 hours covered

It was unbelievable the response that he received.

They hated the idea. Some of the employees felt that he was trying to take away their seven day break. Others had side jobs and felt that the new schedule would not allow this continue. They cried, they wined, they felt he was putting the screws to them.

Well, this went on for four days. The manager could not go into the call center area without a hush falling over the place. He knew something was up. And he was upset about it. He received some feedback from some of his lieutenants about the employees’ issues.

So here is what he did.

He took 15 minutes and created three shift schedules.

Schedule 1: It was exactly like the employees thought it would be. Two days on two days off, three days on three days off. Working two weekends a month. It was cost neutral to the company and the employee. It was simple to manage because there were only two groups or shifts of employees that went through the schedule. No seven day breaks.

Schedule 2: Difficult to explain but it split the two groups into four groups (which was previously assumed to be a constraint.) This new schedule gave the employees six days off in a row and another 5 days off in a row. However, it required them to work 7 days in a row… which is tough. Again cost neutral… but a little more difficult to manage because there were four groups to manage instead of two. Required the teams to work two weekends a month

Schedule 3: Again difficult to explain but in this schedule, more people worked on Monday and Tuesdays. Only one person worked on Saturday and Sunday. And since there were four groups, that meant a person only had to work one weekend a month. Also, they got seven days off in a row. The longest number of working days in a row was four which was exactly what they had in their current schedule. Finally, it was cost neutral to the employee and to the company. Plus it was all day work… no more switching shifts from nights to days to nights.

He walked into the call center and gathered several of the employees around to review the schedule. He took them through each one. Everyone groaned after seeing the first schedule. His comment… yes I thought it sucked too… but it would be easy to manage.

He took them through the next two schedules and he could hardly get done with the third before people were saying that schedule was great. They thought it was awesome. People outside of the department wanted to move to that schedule!

He explained to them that it met all of the criteria laid out. And commented that it took him about 15 minutes to lay out the three schedules.

Guess what he did next.

He took the piece of paper he had everything written on…

And crumbled it up and stuck in his pocket.

Everyone gasped and said how can we explain what you came up with to the other people on the next shift?

‘Easy’ was his reply.

Figure out your own schedule like I asked in the first place.

He walked away knowing that he could walk back into the call center at anytime and the low hum of chatter and laughter would be back.

After many months of thinking about reorganizing a company, you start to role out your plan to your top lieutenants.

After the warm reception from your first conversation, you figure the next couple will be equally as easy.  Considering that each of these folks are getting a promotion (including more money… not just a title), you start to feel proud of yourself.

Then BAM!  A train wreck occurs.

During your next conversation with a star employee, she tells you sorry, I am not interested in the position that you are offering.  She’s not hostile.  Just very direct.  She also hints that if she is ‘forced’ to take the new role, she will leave the company.  She knows that you know that the company would take a hit if she leaves the company.

What do you do?

Well here are a couple things to take into consideration.

a)  There is never a ‘kept secret’ in any company.  If you let her have her way (regardless of how you rationalize it to yourself), it will get around to the rest of the workforce.  Guess who the new leader is now?

b)   Consider where YOU went wrong in the assessment.  How did you get to this place where you misread her needs?  Maybe you don’t understand what her values are?  Maybe you thought money and power were important to her… maybe she is actually happy with the type of sanctification (or flexibility) that her current work provides her.

c)  Remember no one person is bigger than the company.  Let her go.  I still remember this little story after leaving my first job for a promotion within the company.

A superior of mine that I had the greatest respect for stood and gave a small speech at my going away party.  I had worked with this individual for over five years and learned a great deal from him.  I thought that I had made it look good (and I was happy to do it) during my tenure at the location.  This is what he said… ‘Michael has been a great asset for our business during the last five years.  He has grown and developed as a leader.  With that being said, after two weeks, it will be like Michael was never on our plant site.’

I was floored.  I was sad.  I almost dropped my drink.  The people around me weren’t.  I felt terrible.  I approached him towards the end of the night after I was able to gain enough courage and asked him why he said what he said.  He smiled and told me that it was a compliment.

I could not figure out how that was a compliment until he explained.  He said ‘Michael, usually when I stand up here and give this speech, I tell people it usually takes only TWO DAYS before it was like the person was never here before.  Whereas for you, it will probably be two weeks.’

He then continued to tell me that the place was going to continue to satisfy customers because of systems that I had put in place and because of the people that remained.

This was the greatest lesson that I ever learned in my career. Think of this way, if the company truly failed after you left, you may have been a great task master, but you were not a great leader or developer of people.

One key to becoming a great leader is understanding what motivates (and what motivates other people.)  Money is not the only motivator in life!  But that’s a post for another day.

Here is a simple exercise to better understand your motivations…

If you found right now that you had 100 millions dollars (in other words money was no longer a concern) and you had 10 years left to live, what would you do.

Maybe I should ask ‘What would start doing and What would stop doing?’

Take a couple days to do this and then come back to it.  Do you see any general trends?

Is more about people or more about things?  Is it more about going places or more about leaving a legacy?

You will be able to start to shape what you are really all about it.  You will start to understand what motivates you and inspires you.

Remember, everyone can become a leader.  They just have to figure out what field they want to become a leader in.  This simple exercise will help you find your area.

Get a piece of paper and write these things down.

Heck, post a comment on our blog about it.

One of the biggest things that can change an organization is enforcing the use of data in every conversation.

If you as a leader, ignore the ‘I think…’ or ‘I remember when…’ or ‘We already tried that…’ comments.

And, at the same time, recognize people who start the debate with ‘The data shows… ‘ or ‘I used the Pareto Principle to…’ or ‘Statistically it appears that…’

You will completely change an organization.  The people who considered themselves in power just because of tenure may find themselves with an internal struggle and resentment towards you as the new leaders.

While others (typically newer people to the organization) or the lower ranking people love this approach.

Why?

Data levels the playing field.  If a union worker or the new guy comes in and explains to everyone that the data shows this… and the Leader listens, very quickly this person gains credibility with the workforce.

This simple change mechanism is greater than any Six Sigma initiative, Kaizen Event, Lean Manufacturing team, or any other Change Management program of the month.

Committing the organization to use data in every single decision will quickly drive change throughout the organization.

And the best thing about this approach - chances are you are going to be able to make the right decisions because you have the data in front of you that clearly illustrates what to do.

Leadership… it really is easy.

Just kidding.