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.

I was working with a couple plant production managers today talking through a project. Sure we talked about all of the financial and business strategy stuff on this project.

We talked about how to sell it to upper management so that they could get funding for the project. They knew it was right thing to do…

Then I asked… so did you ask the persons actually impacted by the project?

The operator and mechanic who are hourly personnel were the folks that I was talking about. If the President of the company came to the site today, would that hourly person be able to communicate why the project was important?

You may wonder why I think this is important… the President is never going to show up, right?

There are a couple reasons. First… respect.

Think outside of work for a minute. Think about sitting in church or sitting at wedding reception. Now here is the question… as you are chit chatting about various things, asking for opinions, etc. Do you ever consider that the person you may be talking to is a CEO or maybe an hourly person at a plant.

I bet you can recall a time when you had some open and honest communication with someone outside of work and you felt great after the conversation. You felt that you learned something and maybe you even shared something with that person.

So why does it have to be any different at work?

Second point… it is actually about learning something.
My late Uncle told me the day that I graduated from college thinking about my first job as an engineer… his wise words…
You don’t know crap.
You won’t know crap for ten years.
And you better find a good plant maintenance person so you can actually learn something.

My Uncle was a long time Plant Manager of an Aluminum Plant… and yes it had a union.

Go figure…

Communicate with people to get different points of view, so that you really can make the best decision… and get the real support to make the project ultimately work. Knowing who to ask and being able to process the data is part of becoming a leader.

Try this test…

Instead of replying to the e-mail that you just got and responding with 25 paragraphs of text and extending the email trail…

Pick up the phone and call the sender back.

It would take two minutes… plus the sender will actually get more from the message because he will understand the tone of your message versus having to guess from the email.

People have different ’styles’ of communication. Some people keep things in and others blurt out the first thing that comes to their mind.

Do you think one of these styles is wrong…. or is one of these better than the other?

Or how about this situation…

How much information do you need prior to making a decision? Do you already know the answer to the question prior to person even finishing their question. Or are you the type of person that needs stacks of data, plus some more…

Again, which is right and which is wrong.

Well… it depends on the situation.

If you are at a party and want to be the star of the show and bunches of fun… say the first thing that comes to your mind. Whereas, when you are in the board room… obviously you should weigh every word very carefully.

I used these extreme examples to illustrate a point.

If it makes sense to change your communication style depending upon these extreme situations, why don’t when you are discussing items with people one on one.

For example, the gal that always talks about numbers, facts, figures, and data in general is probably not real interested in the human side of the story. If you try to hold a conversation with her about the impact that it will have on people… then you might as well talk to the wall because he is not hearing you.

Or what about the other guy that always has the good story to tell about his family, his crazy uncle, or what he did last night. If you try to approach this person and just start talking about work… you have lost him too.

You need to understand your style.

How do you approach people? Do you command a presence? Do you ask a lot of questions?

Let me give you this real life example…

I was working with a facility manager of small company trying to help setup his organization. This person had previously succeeded at another facility because he knew the manufacturing process inside and out. You could not tell him on anything! He was a task master who drove the heck out of people. You could not get anything technical past him.

I still remember the first day that he took over the facility. He told me ‘Michael, I figure in 3 months… I should have this place completely turned around and printing money.’

Now, what was interesting was the plant had made some significant gains over the last 18 months but the business still demanded more. Next interesting point was this new manager did not know anything about the process.

After the first week… yes the first week of being there he decided to make a change in personnel. He wanted to shake things up a bit. So he went to the Manufacturing Manager, who was a very technical and quiet guy to have a discussion.

This Manufacturing Manager had (internal) passion for his job and done some great things at the facility. But he would hardly ever voice his concerns immediately. Basically, he was a non-confrontational type of person.

So, here is what happened. Facility Manager tells Production Manager that he wanted him to become the Lead Engineer for the plant. As the Lead Engineer he would continue to make process improvements for the business and help the team win.

After this communication, I asked the Facility Manager how it went.

The Facility Manager said it was great. He further commented that it was a good move for the employee because he just did not have the guts for the Manufacturing Manager position. I can still remember this line… ‘I need someone that will drive these guys to perform’

I asked… ‘A 48% productivity improvement in 18 months wasn’t sufficient evidence of this?’

He was dumbfounded. He wasn’t sure why I would ask such a question. Then just to put him over the top I asked… ‘So how did you know it went well with the employee’

His reply ‘Well, he smiled, shook my hand, and said thank you for the conversation.’

Finally… I had to ask ‘So if he is truly non-confrontational like you say - why would you expect him to say anything else but to take it. You have lost this employee forever. You might as well give him a package’

Less than one year later the Lead Engineer left for another job. I bet he started looking the day after that conversation.

Know thyself… and know how to communicate will help you improve your Leadership

After being pushed by a colleague to get my thoughts down in print, I decided to pull together this blog to start a discussion with the best and brightest about improving your performance.

Think of this as a Leadership Development Course.

I hope to challenge your way of thinking and at the same time learn something from you.

So onward we go together in this journey of accelerating the improvement of yourself and your team.