May the 4th (be with you!)

Today is Jedi Appreciation Day. Yes, it’s true that this is something we made up, but it really should be Jedi  Appreciation Day! If you are a fan of the Star Wars movies, you know what awesome feats Jedis are capable of – they are protectors of the galaxy and defenders of the weak, and they use their amazing skills for good…unless of course, they defect to the Dark Side.

What makes Jedis special is their dedication and commitment. What sets them apart from the average person (human or otherwise) is their mastery of three essential components: Knowledge, Discipline and The Force.

Knowledge seems pretty basic unless you are trying to learn how to defeat a death star. However, a large number of employers fail to assist their staff members to deepen their knowledge base. Things are changing in our world at a more rapid rate than at any time in history. For an organization to stay competitive, knowledge is power. Frankly, it is difficult to understand why in any economic downturn training is one of the first things sacrificed when an 86% higher share holder return is generated by companies that spend more than the average on training (American Society for Training & Development). Additionally, 41% of employees at companies with a poor training plan to leave within a year vs. 12% of employees at companies with excellent training (American Society for Training & Development). It’s no wonder Knowledge is one of the three key components to a Jedi’s training.

The second element is discipline. It takes a Jedi a tremendous amount of discipline to face challenges head on, but they do it in spite of the odds against them. While the challenges most of us face may not be as daunting as battling Darth Vader, they are important and difficult. Consequently, it takes discipline to keep going when projects are arduous or when faced with a tedious task. By assisting your team to develop a higher level of discipline through the use of proven tools and methodologies, you enhance the opportunity for success at both the individual and organizational level.

The last, and certainly the most mysterious of the three elements of a Jedi’s training is “The Force.” While your employees won’t be using the Force to levitate or to become proficient with the light saber, they can use it to become much more productive and more satisfied in both their personal and professional lives. Organizations that have tapped into the power of the Force have discovered new levels of ability, creativity and have been successful at dealing with difficult situations with reduced stress, and greater harmony. The Force is within each of us, but few ever have the opportunity to discover what it can do for them, and how to tap into it. The thing about using the Force effectively is that it requires both Knowledge about what it is and how to use it, and Discipline to continue to practice until it becomes second nature.

To learn more about how you can help your team to become Jedis click here. And may the Force be with you!

What do New Year’s resolutions have to do with your company?

Happy 2012!

Once again the new year has brought with it hope and anticipation, and people starting off the with the best of intentions for making positive changes – Loose a few pounds, exercise, quit smoking, get out of debt, watch less TV, etc. However, by this time in January many people have retreated to their old habits.

The very same thing can be said for making improvements in organizations. Many leaders are working on strategies to help their organizations to become more effective/profitable.However, what is typically ignored is that successful accomplishment of the strategies ultimately depends upon people – the very same people who are at this moment struggling (and most often failing) to keep their own resolutions.

So how can you overcome the odds? We’ve come up with a list of 9 simple steps you can take beginning today to improve your business in 2012. Here goes:

1. Communicate!! Communicate often, clearly and consistently. This builds trust encourages alignment toward a common goal and will boost morale.

2. Encourage 2-way communication. One way that you can help this process is to give feedback when someone offers a suggestion. Even if the suggestion won’t work, let the person know that you appreciate the fact that they took the time and effort to give you input.

3. Use multiple channels of communication (Do you see a general trend here?). Don’t assume that what works for you is good for everyone else. Ask for feedback and suggestions on  how to improve communication.

4. Write it down. People who are successful with their New Year’s resolutions often have reminders all over their house and workplace so that their subconscious can help them stay on track. Similar reminders of your desired outcomes for your company will have a similar effect.

5. Make success personal – Ensure that each member of the team knows specifically how her/his role impacts success. This includes establishing clear expectations, eliminating any ambiguities, and setting measurable goals with milestones.

6. Set incremental steps: If someone wakes up on January 1st and says “My resolution is to lose 50 pounds,” chances are that he won’t succeed. However, if  he says “I am going to lose 10 pounds before Valentine’s Day”, there is a high likelihood that he will succeed. The same thing goes for business improvements. The increments need to be time bound and measurable. If your team helps you establish these steps, they will have more invested in ensuring that they are accomplished.

7. Plan for success: A great motivator is for you and your team to plan how you are going to celebrate success – both the incremental successes and the grand finale. Make if fun. Write it down and keep visible as a reminder.

8. Monitor progress and make it visible. Think about the thermometer sign used by many charities to measure donations. One glance tells you everything you need to know. How can you and your team communicate progress?

9. Communicate. Just thought we would throw one more in for good measure. It is, after all the most crucial component to your plan.

For more ideas on how to launch the new year on the right foot, we invite you to download our Free Planning Guide Ebook that will provide even more assistance.

We wish you great success in 2012 and thank you for letting us be a part of it!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

We love this time of the year. For us it isn’t about a lot of gifts, but rather enjoying one another and about lending a helping hand where we can. Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever, we wish one and all the very best.

We have high hopes that 2012 is a great year. We spoke to a colleague yesterday who said that 2012 is the year of the collaboration. Isn’t that a great thought? Oh, what we can accomplish if we put our minds together.

Anyway, we have a little gift to share with you. It is a short story that was inspired by those who put profit ahead of everything else. We hope that you enjoy it. If you do, please leave us a note. If you don’t…sorry!

To download the story, click the link:

Merry (Corporate) Christmas

Al Pujols – What Price Loyalty?

One of the biggest complaints that we hear from business leaders is that they feel like they have to buy loyalty from their employees. Albert Pujols’ decision today to leave the St. Louis Cardinals in favor of the LA Angels made us wonder about the price tag on loyalty.

Just to be up front with you, we are Cardinal fans even though we are transplanted Californians. When we went to see the Eagles perform at Busch Stadium, they referred to it as “The house that Albert built.” You could tell from the cheers and applause how much pride there was in the audience. We wonder how those people feel now.

Albert Pujols has had a great run in St. Louis. How many players can say that they have been to the World Series three times and won twice. Once upon a time, Al said it was all about the rings. He wanted to be a part of a winning team. Yes, Albert has been a crucial component of the team’s success, but it took the talents of the entire team, staff and even the fans, to realize those amazing achievements over the past few years.

Today, however, Albert decided that the money was more important than being a part of an incredible team. It makes us sad. Not because we are huge sports fans, but because money won out over loyalty to the team and the fans that helped to create the legend.

We heard one person remark that he could easily have made up the difference in salary with endorsements, and that his charity would have, perhaps, done even better if he had chosen to stay here. We’ll never know.

So, what value do we as a culture place on loyalty? On being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves?

The argument is, perhaps, that Albert does a great deal of good with the money he earns. The more he earns, the more good he can do. Yet, we have to wonder, what message does this send to people of all ages?

Perhaps we are all wrong. Maybe $40 million over 10 years is reason enough to leave. Perhaps we are crazy to think that he owes any loyalty to anyone. Maybe he really did it all on his own and should sell his loyalty to the highest bidder. Maybe, but we don’t think so.

We don’t pretend to have all the answers. We don’t even have all the questions. What are your thoughts?

Are you helping your customer’s to be heroes? (Cape and tights not required)

We recently had the pleasure of speaking on the ‘People Side of Process Improvement’ at the Whip Mix Lean Symposium. It was a great event with numerous speakers who provided important information and tools that the attendees could use to help improve their businesses in ways that will, ultimately, allow them to better serve their customers. Nothing was said about how to use Whip Mix products more efficiently or what additional products would allow their customer to better meet the needs of their dental clients. It was two days focused on how their Whip Mix’s customers could improve their businesses by implementing lean processes.

Many companies say that they help their customers be heroes to their customers, but few really do. We were impressed with the level that this is an integral aspect of the Whip Mix culture. It is a wonderful example of Servant Leadership which Wikipedia defines in part as a leader who ‘ looks to the needs of the people and asks himself how he can help them to solve problems and promote personal development.’

As we got to know a number of the attendees during the two-day event, it became increasingly clear that this isn’t a once-a-year goodwill gesture. It is a way of life for Whip Mix. The results appear to be well developed relationships between customer and supplier that goes beyond the ‘what have you done for me lately’ mode of doing business that is so prevalent in the world today. It exemplifies the philosophy that people do business with people not businesses.

In their book “The Go Giver” Bob Burg and John David Mann address how being a ‘giver’ is one of the best sales strategies there is. As they point out, it may seem to be counter-intuitive to be giving things away when you are trying to make a sale. However, there is no better way to build trust and confidence than helping someone shine.

So, how can you help your customers be heroes to their customers? Some things you might think about:

• Provide value added content such as articles or videos on your blog that will help your customers’ better assist their clients;
• Sponsor an event or webinar that will help address a common area of concern shared by your customers that will make them stronger in the market place. An example might be to invite a social media guru to be interviewed by you on a webinar. Many companies are just now getting involved in social media and would welcome an opportunity to learn;
• Keep apprised of new developments in your customers’ clients’ industries and share this with them. This can be as simple as sending a customer a link to an article you read.

Helping your customers be heroes isn’t something that has to be expensive or complex. It is often the little things that can make a huge difference. The fact that you care about the success of your customers will most likely put you light years ahead of your competition.

If you would like to learn more, we invite you to attend a free webinar 5 Ways to help your customers be super heroes. We are offering it twice. To learn more and register, click on the link below for the time that works best for you:

Tuesday, November 1, 2011 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT

Friday, November 4, 2011 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM CDT

Catch of the Day

Rebecca with Liz and Damon

In Ken Blanchard’s book, “Whale Done” he teaches us the benefits of ‘catching people doing something well’. While we typically interpret that to mean co-workers or family members, it also applies to those you meet who make your life a bit better.

We recently had the pleasure of catching a whole team doing great. We were out with a group in Louisville, Kentucky after a day spent in a training session. We had ended up at Joe’s Crab Shack which has a beautiful location on the Ohio River. Now we’ve been to many Joe’s and were, quite frankly, a bit disappointed to be going there. We were hoping for something with more local flavor. But it all turned out well.

If you have read our blog and other articles, you know that our focus is on Team Engagement. We firmly believe that this is the biggest differentiator in any organization. Studies have found that highly engaged teams outperform their less engaged competitors exponentially. One of the many studies that support this found that “the financial performance of organizations with highly favorable employee attitudes is typically nearly 4 times better than the financial performance of companies with poor employee attitudes.” (Watson Wyatt USA, 2004/2005).

Which takes us back to Joe’s Crab Shack…The managers of the Louisville location are really doing things correctly when it comes to developing an engaged team if our experience was any indicator. As mentioned earlier, we’ve been to other Joe’s and it is always a nice experience, but this was different. There was more energy and passion than we have seen in most workplaces. It was evident that the team wasn’t merely going through the motions because they had to. You could tell that they enjoyed what they were doing, and that helped the guests get the party going!

Liz is a manager at Joe’s. She was right there leading the way and you could tell by the look on her face as she danced that she was loving life. Damon, our server, is equal parts entertainer, salesman and wait staff.  Again, he let us know by his actions and attitudes that not only were we welcome guests, but that there was no place that he would rather be. That’s saying a lot considering it was a beautiful, warm Friday night! How great is it to have a team that you can see wants to be at work?!? Imagine what you could accomplish with an entire team made of people like Liz and Damon!

What can other teams learn from our new friends a Joe’s?

• Never forget to play! Others may not want to ‘work’ with you, but chances are that they will want to ‘play’ with you. Play stimulates creativity, innovation, cooperation, energy and a host of other positives. People love to be part of a happy team – even customers;
• Hire for attitude. You can always teach people the right moves, but you can’t teach them to want to dance!
• If you are passionate about what you do, your customers will be too.
• Be intentional about your culture. A good culture seldom happens by accident.

If you would like to build a highly engaged team, complete the subscription form to receive “The Business Case for Team Engagement”. To request a consultation, complete the form below or give us a call at 573-747-1951.

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It’s the End of the World as We Know It!

It’s the end of the world as we know it… Do you ever get a song stuck in your head? If you are like me, it keeps replaying over and over all day. The only problem is that you only know one or two lines from the entire song. Like me, you may find yourself singing said one or two lines at work, or in line at the grocery store or at church (not always a good thing!).

Today’s featured song playing on KRAL (that’s short for radio Rebecca) is “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”, the 1987 song by R.E.M. I gotta tell you, I really don’t know any of lyics other than that one line. Consequently, it is those same 10 words replaying in my mind (and out loud if I’m not careful).

The reason that this song has taken up temporary residence in my brain is simple: The news is filled with stories about the end of things that many of us thought were permanent fixtures. Let me elaborate.

Earlier this month the U.S. Postmaster General announced that it was likely that Saturday mail delivery would soon halt. This may become necessary because the USPS can’t pay its bills. Unlike other government agencies, the postal service is self-supporting. With the increase in email, other delivery services combined with the recession, the post office has been hit hard. Personally, I really don’t care if Saturday mail service stops (apologies to postal workers who will be impacted), but it is a sign of changing times. I mean, would you have ever imagined that this would happen? Afterall, Saturday delivery service between cities began in 1639. When something has been around that long it’s like air…you just expect it to always be there when you need/want it.

The next thing that is influencing my vocal selection today is the end of the manned space program. This is another American fixture that is now history. The ‘space coast’ of Florida is feeling the economic impact as thousands lose their jobs. Personally, I am already feeling nostalgic for “Houston we have a problem.” Will future generations even understand what that means? It is hard to imagine that after 30 some years, there will no longer be a Mission Control. What do we lose as a nation in the way of innovation, of curiosity to understand what is ‘out there’? I feel that we just took a giant step backwards from our collective hopes of intergalactic travel aboard the Enterprise. Let’s face it, unmanned space exploration really doesn’t create any of those “Where were you when…?” kind of moments.

The final inspiration for my musical selection is the announced closing of Borders. Did you see “You’ve Got Mail”? If not, this is the time to do so because it has particular irony right now. In the movie, Meg Ryan’s character is being forced to face the closure of her quaint neighborhood book store for children that her mother had established years earlier. Times were changing, and the behemoth Fox Books (aka Borders) was moving into the neighborhood. Customers left the Shop Around the Corner for the glitz and low prices at Fox’s even though they loved the customer service and charm of the smaller store. That was the reality in 1998 when the movie was released. Fast forward a decade or so and the monster that came in and devoured small books stores is now gone the way of the dinosaur (except no one will remember them a few million years from now, and kids won’t want to play with Borders-shaped toys). Could we have imagined five years ago that technology would have changed so much that it would threaten such an established industry? I didn’t. I really didn’t buy that much from Borders, yet I must admit that there was a bit of a tug at my heartstrings when I opened my Rewards email this morning to find a farewell note signed by Mike Edwards, the company’s CEO.

Change is interesting. Sometimes it breathes hope and imagination into the world. Sometimes it creates a longing for things to stay the same. The last century has brought the human race more change than the rest of history combined, and there is no sign that things are slowing down. So, we better get used to it.

“It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”