A Great Place to Work

It has been quite some time since my last post tot his blog and it has been bothering me.  Life has been very busy over the last month and I am finally beginning to feel like I am catching up.  I hope to not let the time between posts go so long in the future.

This weekend I read "The Great Workplace - How to Build It, How to Keep It and Why it Matters" by Michael Burchell and Jennifer Robin.

I found it to be a great book that spoke of the various factors that make for a great workplace.  The organization described in this book reminded me a lot of my early days at IBM.  Some of the chapters I found interesting dealt with the following:

Credibility – “I Believe in my Leader”.  In order to have a great workplace I feel it is essential that the leader is someone you can trust.

Respect – “I am a valued member of this organization” People want to feel respected at work.  They need to feel they are a valued part of the group.

Fairness – “Everyone plays by the same rules” People like consistency.  They want to know that the rules apply to everyone equally.

Pride – “I contribute to something really meaningful” I need to feel pride for my work at both my company and in my personal life.

Comradeship – “The people here are great!” People want to work with great people.  I believe they are the happiest when they work with folks that are great.

This book does a great job in explaining how all of the factors above can be put into action in any organization.  Every organization has those individuals within their walls that this stuff will not work on, but most of the ideas expressed will help any company move towards being a great workplace..  Some people just think much differently that the rest and nothing will ever work on them..

I must say thought that none of the things listed in this book will help if they are not put into action.  Inaction is probably the failure of most good plans.  As leaders what have you done to make your organization the Great Workplace?  Have you done your part?  I plan to do everything in my power to make mine the greatest workplace of all time.

Have a great week!

Who are our customers?

Who are the customers we serve?  What can we do to give our customers a better experience?  What are our customer’s requirements?  Think about these questions a minute.

Now that you have thought about those questions for a while who do you think your customers are?  If you are like a lot of people you might not know who your real customers are.  I think many of us serve ourselves and never really care about our true customers.  I think we get too busy in our jobs, and personal lives, to take the time to determine who our real customers are.  I am convinced that a large part of becoming a leader is finding out who your customers are and determining their requirements.

Here is a real-world example that I have recently dealt with that will hopefully help us all understand our true customers:

I am currently enrolled in an MBA program and have had to apply for a student loan in order to pay for my classes.  The loan application process was very easy and I was pleasantly surprised.  The government has done a very good job at determining who their customers are and has made the whole process fairly effortless.  Everything is completed online and it happens very quickly.  Once students are approved for their loans the money becomes available and when classes start the institution takes it out to pay for tuition and gives the rest of the money to students for living expenses and books.  Can you pick out all of the supplier/customer relationships in this scenario?  The government clearly has at least two customers which are the students and the organizations of higher learning.  I think it easy to see that the school’s accounting personnel have two customers also.  They have the students who are anxiously awaiting their money so they can buy books and they have the school which needs the tuition to pay its bills.  It is very important for the leaders in this example to know who their customers are and if they are satisfied.  It is also very important for leaders to know which customer to satisfy first if you are experiencing periods of limited resources.

Please consider what the school is actually doing.  The money is sitting out in a reserve somewhere waiting for the classes to start.  Once the first day of class comes the school goes into that reserve and pulls out enough money to cover the student’s tuition.  At some point in time (2-5 weeks) the school gets around to distributing what is owed to the students.  Can anyone besides me see a problem here?  Can you see where the school might have lost track of who the most important customer is?  Other indicators that the school does not know their real customer lies in the customer service activities.  The accounting personnel, if they even answer the phone, answer your questions in a condescending tone.  You get a different answer depending on who you talk to.  They have really lost touch with who their customers are.

I think as leaders we must be very aware of who our customers are and constantly strive to meet their needs.  When we find a customer that is not satisfied with our performance we have to put any resources we can on making them happy because after all they are the reason we exist.  As we develop the leader that is inside each of us my hope is we do it with the customer in mind.

May God Bless You!

New Year’s Leadership Resolutions

Every year I make several resolutions that seem to go nowhere.  I start off with every intention to do them, but for one reason, or another, they never get done.  Well this year is going to be much different.  I am going to resolve to change several things in my life to help me build the leader within.  Here is my list for this year:

1. Physical Readiness – This past year has been a tough one with respect to my physical readiness.  My age and poor diet choices have finally started taking their toll on my health.  This year I am going to change this by eating right and exercising at least 5 times per week.  As part of improving my health I have decided to lose another 40 pounds before June 1^st, 2011.  Getting control of my diet and exercise will have many benefits, but the reduction of my stress levels will do wonders for my leadership abilities.
2.  Better Listener – One thing I have never been good at is listening.  Throughout my career I have always said what was on my mind and it was usually when I should have been listening.  In 2011 I vow to improve my listening skills to show the people around me that their opinions matter.
3. Read Widely – Dr. Howard Lacey, Professor Emeritus Concordia University, used to always tell me that good leaders were well read and I tried to spend a lot of time reading everything I could get my hands on.  Over the last few years I have not been as diligent in my reading.  I am going to change all of that in 2011 and replace television time with reading.
4. Service – I am dedicating the rest of my life to serving others.  I am convinced that service to others, expecting nothing in return, is the only way to success.  God, my family, and my employer deserve to have my service and I vow to give it.

I hope everyone develops a realistic set of smart goals this year and I would like to hear about them if you get time to comment to this posting.  I hope the coming year is one of the best you have ever experienced and you are able develop the leader within.

May God Bless You!

"There's No Place Like Home"

    In my MBA classes at Concordia University Texas we just finished our first semester and it is good to have a few days off for our Christmas break.  In my class Leadership-self we looked at finding leadership lessons in everyday life and now I am hooked!
     My 13-year old daughter had never seen The Wizzard of Oz so we decided to watch it last Saturday night as a family.  Keep in mind that I have probably seen this movie 45 times in my 53 years on this earth, but this time I watched it looking for leadership lessons.  It was like watching it for the first time!  This movie is full of great examples of leadership and I would like to share a few of those with you today.

Teamwork
     When you look at the team Dorothy put together it is a great lesson in leadership.  Each member of her team had different reasons for getting to Oz.  The Scarecrow felt he needed a brain, the Tin Man wanted a heart, the Lion was searching for courage, and Dorothy just wanted to get home.  Many times as leaders we will face similar situations where individual members of our team will have different goals and motivations for serving, but we can use the individual talents of each member to achieve the goals of our organization.

Stay Focused
     As each member of Dorothy's team headed down the Yellow Brick Road they experienced many obstacles along the way.  They had trees trying to grab them, Poppies causing Dorothy to sleep,  Winged Monkeys stomping the stuffing out of the Scarecrow, and Lions, Tigers, and Bears frightening the Cowardly Lion.  Our teams will have all types of obstacles that get in our way when we are leaders, but it will be our job to remove them so the goals of the organization can be realized.

Join in the Fun
    It would have been easier for Dorothy to send her team down the Yellow Brick Road while she hung out with the Munchkins, but she was right there with them every step of the way.  The lesson we can learn here is our team needs us in the trenches with them.  Teams respect a leader who works with them and is not afraid to get their hands dirty.

     I'm sure there are many other lessons to be learned from this movie and when I watch it again I am going to look for them.  Actually, I will probably be doing this with any movie I watch from now on.

     As the grades are posted from our last semester I hope everyone got the one they were hoping for and they are able to relax a little during this short break we are getting.  I hope everyone has a great Christmas and is able to spend some quality time with friends and family.

     May God bless each of you.

Moral Leadership

     Last night was my last class in Leadership of Self which is part of my MBA program at Concordia University Texas and the focus centered on Moral Leadership. Our professor Dr. Don Christian asked us to share our thoughts on what we felt was the definition of Moral Leadership and the discussions that followed were pretty amazing.  Dr. Christian also mentioned that many times when a discussion takes place on Morals it usually ends up on death, murder, and various forms of abuse.  The question I thought about for most of the night is why do discussions on morals end up being about death, murder, and abuse?  I think I might have an answer and would like to share it with everyone here with hopes that I will get some good comments.

     I think our society’s morals have changed so much, and so many things that used to be immoral are now accepted, that we have become jaded.  Watch one night of television, listen to the radio, watch the evening news, and you can quickly see that our society, as a whole, is accepting of many things once thought unacceptable.  Television is glamorizing many things that not long ago were shunned by society.  Reality television lets us see people in all kinds of acts that only ten years ago would have had serious consequences for the broadcaster.  With the moral fiber of our country being manipulated to try to make us think these things are acceptable it will take strong leaders in families, workplaces, and communities to keep our compasses headed in the right direction.  So many bad things have become the norm that when a discussion starts up about morals the only things that everyone can agree on being unacceptable are death, murder, and abuse.

     Last night when the discussion started the thing that jumped into my mind was Enron.  I thought about the blatant disregard for what is right and wrong.  I think there are so many things that we can work on with respect to morals that fall well under the death issue.  I think everyone, less the mentally disable, would agree that murder is not acceptable.  We need to work on the other issues that are quickly eroding our quality of life and are more in our control.

     One of the ways I can help is for others to see great examples of Moral Leadership in me.  I hope to do that for the rest of my leadership journey.  Will anyone do the same?

     Have a very Merry Christmas.  Yes, I said Christmas!  It will always be Christmas to me.

Thoughts on Servant Leadership

    Earlier this year our leadership team here at work reviewed the book The Servant by James C. Hunter.  Our team learned in this book review that the true foundation of leadership is not power, but authority, which is built upon relationships, love, service, and sacrifice.  The Servant is an easy read and I would recommend it for anyone wanting to work on becoming a true servant leader.  The problem I had with this book, and many others that I have read, is putting the things I have learned to good use.  We finished this book review and I placed it on my book shelf where it was collecting dust.

     Now here I am in a leadership class as part of my MBA degree program at Concordia University Texas.  Each week we are given reading assignments on various aspects of leadership as it relates to ourselves.  I have made a vow to myself that I am not going to just put these books on the shelf when I am finished with them, but I am actually going to try to put them to good use.  As part of trying to honor my vows I have expanded my study of the area of servant leadership.  I truly believe that a servant leader is what I want to be when I grow up.  Keep in mind I am 53 years old and still have a lot of growing up to do.

     I recently read an essay by Robert K. Greenleaf titled The Servant as Leader.  In this essay, he states: "The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first; perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."  Think about this for a minute.  Let Mr. Greenleaf’s quote sink in.  I am overwhelmed by the power of this one quote!  What would our communities look like if all of our leaders were servants first?  I just wonder what my personal life would have been like if I had chosen to serve instead of worrying about what I could lead and when my next promotion was coming.  I agree with Mr. Greenleaf that if I had dedicated my life to service then my opportunities to lead would have found me.

    

      I am going to look at this servant leadership thing in a lot more detail over the last years of my life.  It is a shame that I started so late, but I am excited about the prospect of finishing better.  I hope everyone that reads this blog takes a little time to consider servant leadership and the positive changes it can make in people, corporations, communities, and families.  I plan to dedicate more time to it in this blog and make every effort to try to become a better servant.  Maybe I can inspire others to do the same.

     I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

A Time For Thanks

     I want to take some time this week to thank everyone who makes my life special.  First I would like to thank my wife for putting up with me all year.  She should get a humanitarian award for her efforts. 
     I also want to thank my kids for being great.  They make great grades, cause very little trouble, participate in extracurricular activities, and love me for who I am. 
     Next I want to thank all of my friends.  Friends are what makes life special and mine do that to the max!  Some of my friends are also co-workers and I want to especially thank you folks. 
    One of the best things that has happened to me over my long life is finding Concordia University.  I always valued my undergraduate degree from there, but my MBA program is a true blessing.  The relationships I am building with both fellow students, and staff, are amazing.  The MBA program is hard, but it is causing me to think again which was something I was needing very much.
     I would also like to thank everyone who has been reading this blog each week.  This blog is my therapy and I hope that people can find some small bit of insight from it that will help them in their lives.
     Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank GOD for loving me even though I don't deserve it most of the time.  HE is amazing!
     I hope everyone is safe over this holiday and I look forward to us getting back at it next week.

Happy Thanksgiving