Sometimes it’s simple
Meeting with a group of CEO's this week, I was struck by how a slight change in behavior can make a huge difference. Think about the time you decided to get up 10 minutes earlier, or pay your bills on the same day every 2 weeks, or put $50 into savings every pay period, or some other slight change that made a noticeable difference in reducing your stress level.
In the book "Switch" by Dan Heath and Chip Heath, they talk about looking for bright spots where small actions can make significant change. One example they give is the State of West Virginia's campaign to reduce childhood obesity. We all know about the national issue with rising obesity and the human as well as medical costs this is generating. To make a simple step in the right direction, the public health department developed a campaign to get parents to switch to 1% milk from whole milk. They ran ads comparing the fat in a glass of whole milk to eating 5 pieces of bacon. What a visual! They motivated a significant switch to 1% milk which is one easy step to lowering fat consumption.
The positive benefit of achieving results keeps us motivated to continue with the good practices. It gives us confidence that we can do even more to get what we want. What is one small step you could adopt today to reduce your financial, physical or emotional stress? Let us know what has worked for you.
2011- the year of “NO excuses
I’ve been watching 2010 close itself out, and a lot is not done. Politically, we’re coming up with a tax deal that is attacked from both the left and the right, economically, we are still in the great recession, we are still fighting 1 to 2 wars, terrorism continues, and most of us are just grateful to have a job and a roof over our heads. If you don’t have a job or a roof over your head, I’m sorry. Please read on anyway.
The only way we get out of this is by gritting our teeth and moving forward-as a country and as individuals. Put the past behind and choose how you want 2011 to be. Create a picture of what you want and lay out a step-by-step plan to move you in that direction.
Say you want to increase your income by 10%. How much would that be a month? What are 3 things you can do to get you there? Get more clients/customers, charge more for each transaction, lower your expenses?
Okay, that all seems pretty obvious, you’ve probably done this before. So, how many months did you follow through on your plan? People join a gym in January and by March they’ve stopped going.
So, make a written plan, break it down into 3 simple steps and go do them.
AND, get a mentor or an accountability partner. For 20 years, I ran 3 times a week with my good friend who showed up at the appointed spot despite work pressures, children, or just being tired. I was too embarrassed to call it off with a sorry excuse.
Let’s make 2011 the year of “No Excuses”. Will you join me?
How much more could we do?
We play this game with ourselves about our capacity. We tell ourselves: this is it! It is all we can take, it is all we can give. We draw a line here in our hearts. We know we could do more, but we won’t shift and accept the challenge.
Does this serve us in this uncertain world?
I was backpacking in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, in August. If I had been the one who planned the trip, we would have hiked a shorter distance each day. Knowing how long and hard this trip would be at high altitude, I trained for the hike taking long Saturday hikes for 6 weeks in dread, I mean, in anticipation.
There was a lot that was uncertain about this trip. The weather can be iffy, we were hiking over 3 12,000’ passes in 6 days, and thunderstorms are not uncommon in August. I bought new rain gear. I bought better socks, better hiking boots, a new stove, a new water filter. My anxiety drove me to review every possible hiking emergency, and to try to be prepared.
And let me tell you this trip was hard! It was some of the most beautiful country you could hike through, AND did I mention that the trip was hard? Every night, we crawled into our tents in exhaustion, and, every morning we got up and did it again. We were fine. We all came down filthy dirty with big smiles on our faces.
There is no way I would have chosen this trip, yet due to exterior forces, I achieved much more than I would have of my own accord.
When you feel that combination of fear and excitement, in business or in life, do you run, or do you step into the challenge? I’m glad I tried it!
Why Did Hurd REALLY get fired by Hewlett-Packard?
When you see the outcome-the loss of shareholder value, the lack of planning in a successor, and the reasons given for the firing,-the sexual harassment complaint, the $20k in improper expense charges-it doesn’t add up.
So, now, we have shareholder lawsuits, continued scrutiny, and widespread doubts about the ability of the Board of Directors to make good decisions.
Who won here?
Hewlett Packard was known at one time for “The HP way”. Their Standards of Business Conduct” are inspirational, clear and well written. Since Hurd became CEO almost 5 years ago, he has enforced the Standards at a detailed level. After the scandal of Board members illegally going after leaks, he brought in an Ethical Officer, Jon Hoak, from his former gig, NCR to help improve the Ethical Enforcement at HP. This was serious stuff at HP even if it is not the standard in other companies. Could HP afford to keep him? He had turned around HP, improved their efficiency, raised their market value and their profitability, brought in a high functioning senior team-and they could be fine without him.
Obviously, the Board decided they could do without him, and he was gone. Maybe, there are no winners. Maybe, there was a lot more going on than we will ever know. Maybe, Ethics enforced at lower levels was applied to the top levels. Maybe....
“Eyes turn to the danger of deflation”
This is the LA Times headline of July 26, 2010-what does it mean to us, really?
Are prices going down, or up? For many small to mid-size manufacturers, material prices are going up and they are on allocation-they can’t get enough materials to produce what their customers are ordering. That sounds like a classic case for price increases, and sure enough, their prices are going up. They should also be hiring employees to turn out the work. Instead, with so much uncertainty about the future, businesses are working overtime and/or hiring temporary workers. They are afraid to put on full time staff. They are investing in productivity tools, especially in technology that allows fewer people to produce more products.
If employees’ jobs are uncertain, they are not going to invest in a new car or even new clothes for school. Consumers are keeping their spending low. That continues the pressure towards deflation. If many people are unemployed, companies can replace their workers with employees who will work for less. This is not happening across the board, but if you have noticed, there are a lot of young college graduates without jobs. They are taking paid internships at minimum wage, they are taking unpaid internships, they are free-lancing, or they work 2 or 3 part time jobs. This means the next year of college graduates will be competing against these young folks for the minimum wage jobs companies are offering. These consumers have no money to spend, and end up living at home. Good thing the new health plan says they can stay on their parents plans until 26 years of age.
So maybe, we do have deflation to fear. As individuals, we can support the economy by spending now on replacement purchases, and maintenance. Maybe you need your house repainted or a new roof. If you can afford to do it, now might be the time. Lots of contractors are looking for work. If you have extra work, hire someone to help. There are a lot of good people out there who need jobs.
Jellies
On Sunday I toured an exhibit at the National Aquarium in Baltimore about “Jellies”-jelly fish. They do an amazing job in multi-media presentations. Screens with comments about the tanks underneath, beautiful displays, mood lighting and of course, the star of the show the jelly fish. Jelly fish are amazing looking creatures-oranges and whites and reds-amorphous and swirly and mysterious. They float around growing smaller, then larger, with their long sweeping tentacles. I learned that they are in all the oceans and some fresh water habitats as well. Not all of them sting, some are quite harmless.
I was quite struck by the time line outside the exhibit. Jellies have been around, little changed, for over 300 million years. Humans, on the other hand have been around for about 200,000 years. I’m not sure what jellies have done to influence their habitat. My guess is that their impact is small, even though our planet is 70% water. Plankton or algae may have a wider impact. And, early on, there did not seem to be enough people to seriously affect the planet, either. Now, things are clearly different. There are too many of us to sustain the earth without serious change and we are incredibly reluctant to take action when it is hard and is not universally agreed to.
I keep trying to apply systems thinking to address that conundrum. We all want a better, safer, healthier planet for our grandchildren and their grandchildren, but we can’t agree on what we all would have to do to get there, nor if we would be willing to take the necessary steps. The continuing spill in the gulf, and the resultant damage to ocean life, beaches, marshlands and the people who depend on them to eat, feed their families, recreate, navigate is mind boggling.
Life in that aquarium as a jellyfish sure looked easier.
Who’s your peer group?
When we were kids, we had peer groups of all sorts. We had classmates, we had team mates, we had recital groups, or dance classes or religion classes. Everywhere we went we were lumped into some subgrouping.
Sometimes they were peers, sometimes they were just our age. For adults, there are very few regular standards in which to measure success. You don't make/not make it to the finals every year. We measure ourselves against financial outcomes that are not completely within our control and can devastate us when the outcome is a layoff or a termination. Not to say that financial outcomes are not important. On the contrary, if financial success matters to you, it makes sense to create accountability and benchmark your success against your goals. So, where do you go to find accountability?
Some people find a friendly competitor or a competitive friend at work or in their community. Other people look to industry or professional associations. How can you get independent objective feedback to help you reflect on what you do well and what could use some work?
Once you find a partner or a peer group, here are some ways to make accountability work:
Be honest about what you are looking for and who you really are.
No shame or trash talking unless you both like that sort of thing.
Agree in advance about the ground rules.
Set goals that are measurable (ex.:contact 3 prospects this week).
Write down the commitments and review them each time you talk.
Encourage and help each other. It’s easy to find negativity.
Keep notes and review your progress every 3 months.
Finally, stick with it.
Let me know how it turns out.
When you offer a business opportunity to a man…. Is that different from offering the same opportunity to a woman?
A young woman I know told me quite excitedly about a new project that was posted at her company. The project manager was being hired from the outside and a team was to be created in the next 6 weeks to implement the project. We talked about what the jobs might be on the new team and whether she might want to throw her hat into the ring. It turns out that there was a lot of information she wanted to find out through back channels before she approached the decision-maker.
4 days later, I asked her what she had found out. Her natural pattern of connecting with her co-workers gave her the insight to know exactly who to approach to get the scoop on the new project. Further, she gathered all the information she could before putting herself on the line with a superior.
And then, she waited. She didn’t jauntily walk into the boss’ office and throw her hat in the ring. She kept looking for a moment when no one was around. By the end of the week, now 10 days after the project was announced, she still hadn’t said a word. With a little encouragement, she hung out until finally he was alone late Friday afternoon. Guess what, he had been waiting for her to seek him out.
I described this scenario to a Senior Partner at a top consulting firm. I asked him what he would think about this. He became very engaged in the conversation. It turns out his very large firm had held a seminar for management recently about gender differences, and one of the topics was how women respond to opportunity as compared to men. Men say “I’ll do it!” before they even know what it entails. Women will give him a list of reasons why they can’t take something on. In my friends’ experience, he thought the women just weren’t interested. Turns out, that was not true. When he asked them directly if they were interested in the job, they stopped and stared at him. Well, of course they were interested. They just needed to assess how they would do everything else they were responsible for as well.
Why is there such a gender difference? Maybe, it doesn’t even matter. As business leaders, we may just need to be aware and not misinterpret people’s reactions just because they are not our own.
Is it about you?
I spent a long time talking with a CEO this week about him. We talked about who he was, what was important to him, how he showed up in personality profiles. We didn't spend much time talking about how that worked with his people or with customers.
We do that with our products or our services, too. We talk about our stuff without knowing much about the audience. Then we can't figure out why one customer loves us and the next can't wait to get us out of the room. What's up with THEM?
Yes, it is critical that as leaders, we know ourselves. That might be described as step one. However, if we stop there, we miss the juice. The next step is how that resonates with the customer. Do we really understand how we come across? Do we do any research, ask for any feedback or evaluation? How many times have you listened to someone's presentation, and been turned off by their demeanor, felt bored or irrelevant to the conversation? Yet, the speaker thought they gave a great presentation.
Where do you get CONSISTENT feedback about how you are showing up? Do you have feedback partners within your organization? Do you have feedback partners outside-customers, vendors, peers?
What product or service does the customer really want? How do you find out? Do you ask them? Do the people within your organization have a template for what to say about your products and what to ask the customer? Do you do market research?
There is so much noise out there and everyone is working so hard to be heard, we can't take it for granted that what we did last year will get us heard now.
I challenge you to get feedback from 3 customers/clients this week on what you should stop doing, what you should start doing, and what you should keep doing.
Let me know how it works out.
Personal Mastery
How well do you know yourself? Can you predict or understand the behavior of other Members of your team?
I was talking with a CEO who is working with a new assessment tool for leadership style. If you have done personality assessments before, you may have discovered characteristics about yourself that may be a challenge to your success in your job. When you examine them carefully, you may find that this is the reason you struggle with parts of your responsibilities.
Well, my friend is very self aware. She knew most of what she heard in the personality assessment to be accurate. However, there was one thing new that she learned- that she was extremely focused when she had a goal. Not reasonably focused, not balanced, extremely focused. She had always thought that most people were that way, at least the people on her team. For her, once she set a goal, other things dropped out of her line of sight. Some of the members of her team didn't react that way, and had questions or comments that to her felt like they didn't get the goal. Now she understands that they don't immediately organize around goals, so she needs to give them time to process what they will have to do differently. Now, she can gauge the reaction and modify her communication style if she needs to. By using an assessment tool, the team can have a conversation around differences that are non-judgmental...leaders just have different styles that are neither better nor worse than the others around the table.
When we get a reaction that puzzles us from the people around us, do we examine what our part was in creating the dynamic? By working with personality profiles, we can open a discussion with our team about who each of us is and how that helps or hurts our organization. In other settings, we can stop the conversation and check in with others on what they are hearing and how it affects them. Ultimately, the more we know ourselves, and pay attention to how we affect the people around us, the better leader we can be for our families, our companies and the community.