Aug 2013

How to create an office environment where change initiatives can flourish

Aug 2013

Aug 2013

Overview

Henry Ford’s businesses failed and left him flat broke five times before he founded Ford Motor Company, R.H. Macy started seven businesses and failed at each one before  he found the right combination, Soichiro Honda was turned down as an engineer at Toyota, was jobless for quite a while then created a scooter company that went broke before he finally created Honda Motor Company, Harland Sanders and his famous Colonial Sanders Chicken recipe was rejected by over 1,009 restaurants and hundreds of bankers before he finally turned the corner and made his recipe for business cook.  Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor and started quite a few businesses that ended in bankruptcy before he created his world famous amusement parks. Yes, even Bill Gates has gone broke. Bill’s first company was called Traf-O-Data. Many now mega-successful business people have stumbled and hit the ground a few times before they figured out how to run effective and profitable organizations. Here are three traits of the successful business person who is faced with uncertain economic challenges.

The Step-by-Step Process

The first is persistence. From day one a human being must learn to be persistent to walk, ride a bike, read, do algebra and run a successful business and people usually don’t succeed the first time at any of these. In my experience, people simply don’t give themselves enough “cushion” of time and resources to make the inevitable small and large mistakes required to “figure it out.” The richest and most successful business man I know personally (all self-made and happens to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars) told me once. “yes, I’ve made some money but I’ve made tons of mistakes and lost millions in the process. The main thing is that I stuck with it.” I have close friends and colleagues who are struggling right now in these uncertain economic times and although some of them are getting a pretty severe beating, they know and I know that they will once again create and lead successful businesses. As my earlier examples illustrate, successful business people can struggle at different levels or be flat broke but the persistent ones can take a punch and keep moving toward their objective.

The second critical element is a strong identity. In other words, successful people have a strong sense of self–an unwavering trust in themselves. They are aware of their strengths and have learned to leverage these and conversely, they have weaknesses as well. In these areas, they have the strength to surround themselves with people who are better in these areas than they and rely on them to do that which they are not good at. It takes courage for a person who has been more successful than his or her peers to admit anything less than superiority. Get over yourself; admit it; embrace it and give your overworked ego a rest. Learn to delegate those mundane or overly difficult tasks and life will get easier. Persistence and self-awareness alone will not do it, however, you need a little something extra.

That something extra is knowing how to “Think.” Successful business people have learned to slow down or even stop what they are doing and “think.” The term “Think” was made famous by Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, who had plaques made for every executive’s desk. He knew the answers to IBM’s success lay in the minds of his people, he just needed to teach them to stop trying so hard, take their collective noses off the proverbial grind-stone and LEARN to “think.” Successful business people see the world as a place where opportunities exist—and they zero in on these and then take action. Learning to slow down, think, and take action is a learned process and when coupled with the first two suggestions one creates a mindset that makes success almost certain. What is that last piece to this “success puzzle that creates the tipping point?”

The last piece to this success puzzle is often overlooked but necessary: adding real value to the customer. If you remember only one piece to this puzzle remember this. If the customer isn’t directly touched or their situation significantly improved due to your product or service then it is of no value and should be dumped. end of story.  The customers opinion is the only one that counts. Successful business people are “value added.” In essence, they have learned to add something of value to the conversation, to make the product or service better, and to improve the customer’s situation.

Self-Review for Success

Now look in the mirror and ask yourself, what will be my contribution to the world? How will you improve yourself and those around you? As human beings, we are at our best when we are working to improve our situation or that of another. make a habit of consistently pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

Remember that many successful business people have experienced similar thoughts and feelings as you, as they overcame the challenges that were set before them. Stand up, dust yourself off, look for opportunity and take the next step.

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@CorporateTherapist.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

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I had been working with a group of managers and their director on preparing for some major restructuring within their large school district. A lot was going to be happening very soon and we wanted to be prepared. We all knew too well, that once it all started, any problems would be costly and would be played out in the local newspapers. As we approached this challenge, I noticed some uneasiness and quiet maneuvering surrounding two managers. I knew we couldn’t go on unless we addressed this covert problem.

It turned out that a couple of years earlier, these two managers had had a significant disagreement and, since then, they had stayed away from each other whenever possible. But, even with their attempts at careful avoidance, their once covert friction had grown loud and developed some teeth. We didn’t need internal sabotage in our mix. There were enough issues to deal with without adding this subterfuge. And, too many other employees sincerely cared about these two managers. Loyalties would be strained if these two formidable players squared off. We had to resolve this quickly so that we could go into our restructuring free of clutter, and with a crystal clear and mutually accepted vision.

I talked privately with these two managers and encouraged them to take the lead to resolve this matter. I suggested they use a structured, problem-solving approach to discuss this topic in front of their departments and the whole group, so that neither gossip nor misunderstandings would follow. They agreed. A whole group meeting was set up with my facilitation. Then, each taking turns, they each told their side of the story. As usual, they each harbored many misperceptions that needed to be cleared up. Clarifying what had happened, what had been said, and what had been meant was essential. Many misunderstandings were cleared up once and for all for all present. Some issues needed additional time and resources, so they were tabled to be addressed at a later time. When appropriate, the group joined in to lend support and clarify their own misperceptions and to squelch rumors and gossip, as well. This meeting didn’t take more than forty-five minutes, but it was invaluable for bringing this team together and helping them learn how to REALLY communicate. Loud and clear this session modeled two values they later chose to guide their group as a whole:

We agree to face challenges sooner rather than later.

We will always work as a team toward our agreed upon objectives.

Clarifying these values was especially important given the gravity of the challenges that lay ahead. We were embarking on one of the biggest restructurings this district had faced in many years. As a result of the problem solving meeting with all members together, the whole team became closer and learned to communicate much more effectively. From then on, as we all began to prepare our plans and contingency plans for the restructure, we had the strength of “all hands on deck,” which was good, because we needed each and every one of them.

When the final decision to begin the restructuring process was made by the school board, this department had their plans and contingency plans firmly in place. Each person knew his or her role and was ready, willing and able to get the job done. There was no lost or wasted time on unfortunate communications problems or cumbersome baggage to impede their work. As a result, their role in the restructure went very smoothly.

August 2013

Throughout history, many great communicators have mused about how difficult it is for people to effectively communicate — even those who speak the same language! Some scholars cite how subtle differences in age and style can potentially create real challenges in successful communication. Case in point might be the stereotypical communication challenges faced between teenagers and parents, husbands and wives, conservatives and liberals. These same kinds of communication issues appear in the work world, as well.

I was asked to work with a director and one of her high level computer technicians. This technician was responsible for a major account significant to this director. This technician had the ability to accomplish his work successfully, but it seemed he was horrible at communication and customer support. These two areas of deficit were greatly jeopardizing this major account, not to mention putting the tech’s continued employment in question.

The director, the technician and I sat down for a meeting to see what could be done to clarify the communication and customer service issues. The director spoke very clearly about what she expected of the technician when he met with the clients and when he interacted with others (both clients and colleagues). The technician nodded in agreement and said that he understood the gravity of the situation. He said he understood what he was doing wrong and assured his director that he would “improve.” After they were finished discussing the communication and customer service issues, and the detailed procedures the director had clarified for him, I asked the technician what his next steps were going to be to improve his standing with the clients on this major account. He looked at me and said, “I have no idea.” The director looked dumbfounded; her mouth was literally hanging open. She was without words. She believed she had been very clear. She believed the technician had nodded in agreement to all of the well-thought out plans she had presented, yet clearly now he didn’t know what his next steps should be. This was an example of an unsuccessful communication event.

I further asked the technician a series of questions and led him through the necessary steps, in his mind, using his metaphors and word choices. We essentially created his game plan in a manner that he could comprehend. We clarified expectations, created measures of success, and established timeframes. With that now visually and firmly in his mind, he was able to summarize his next steps. The technician left the meeting relieved. Over a reasonable period of time, evidence indicated that this technician had indeed learned some new communication skills and his customer relations had improved accordingly.

At the conclusion of the meeting with the technician, the Director and I spent thirty minutes debriefing. We discussed different learning and management styles. She was amazed how her message which had been so clearly intended and what she thought was so clearly sent, was not the message received or understood. This realization was a profound one for her. She vowed to check for understanding more often and especially when she interacted with this technician. She wanted him to succeed and had never seen the role she had played in the breakdown of communication between them. She saw how, as the person delivering a message, she had the responsibility to be sure the message had been received and understood. In the case of the technician, she needed to reframe her message in terms that made sense to him, ask him to summarize it back to her, and then review his next steps, so both she and he would leave the communication event with the same understanding. Although she had believed herself to be a skilled communicator (and by many measures she was), she learned that in this isolated event, she had needed a new set of communication skills. She foresaw how she could also generalize these new skills with other people and different situations. She had added another strategy to her repertoire of positive communication skills, one that would help her to be a better leader in the future.