by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Aug 11, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Uncategorized
In discussing leadership styles and philosophies… with clients, potential clients, friends, over-the-fence neighbors, owners and executives, one of the most frequent refrains is “Well, I try to lead by example.”
Well hoorah for you. I think that’s just great. News flash, Dick Tracy, you don’t have a choice.
That’s right, no choice whatsoever. You see, when you show up—for work, for a drink with fellow employees, at a ball-game where employees are present, or even bump into one of those employees while being photographed for “People of Wal-Mart,”—you are an example.
The very fact you show up means you’re on stage, setting an example for others to emulate.
The only choice you have in all of that, is whether to be a good example or a crappy example.
- Be on time, for everything: Positive Example
- Use profanity in a meeting: Crappy Example
- Ask about their family and weekend: Positive Example
- Breeze through hallways without a word: Crappy Example
See, these things aren’t rocket surgery. This simply is not complex stuff; people glean behavior cues, way of being, how to act and what to say, from leadership examples.
I was at the Master’s golf championship in Augusta, Georgia a few years ago. Now many of you know this, but the people who run Augusta National (the Club) are fanatic about their rules. Positively loony about 100% enforcement, all the time, no matter what. So, we were in line to get in, early one morning, for a practice round. One of the rules is “no hard-seated chairs.” You can carry in a wide variety of seats, camping chairs, lawn chairs, etc., provided they have soft seats. The reason, of course, is that they don’t want you later standing on those seats, blocking the pristine Augusta views from others.
Well, you knew it would happen… just in front of us was a group of 3 guys. They saw the signs, discussed it quietly amongst themselves, then decided they’d give it a shot — that they wouldn’t get caught.
Wrong — cold-busted.
The gate marshal came up to the guy carrying the chair, and stated flatly, “that can’t come inside the grounds.” To which this 40-something adult male responded, “Well, why can HE do it, then???” …all the while pointing to another gentleman’s chair about 15 feet in front. That’s right — his complete rationale for doing what he knew to be wrong was, “someone else is doing it, and you haven’t said anything to him.”
Don’t kid yourself; this is not near as much an anomaly as we would like to believe. The behavior we allow, we promote. No different than if we were modeling the behavior ourselves. Think about that when you feel like it’s just too much trouble to correct some seemingly isolated (but negative) behavior in your staff.
Exemplify positive leadership–always. Or find a different profession. We need leaders who understand their influence on others.
Like it or not, you—and your position of executive leadership—are under a microscope 24×7.
You are always the example; those in your charge will certainly emulate your actions, behavior, maybe even your way of thinking. The question becomes, of course, are you a good example or… “not so much?”
You might be thinking, particularly if you hold a senior-most role, that the people working for you are already “set in their ways;” they don’t really change for anyone, anyway…; or even, “Hell, they’re old! They don’t need me for an example!”
Don’t believe that crap for one second. They look to you for the right–and wrong–way to do things. Be the right example. All the time. If not, get prepared — it’ll spread like wildfire, and you are personally responsible.
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Aug 5, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Organizational Effectiveness
Change is simple; just close your eyes, hold your breath, and wait. It happens.
Effective change management, on the other hand, takes some skill. From my view of the world, 3 things are necessary for senior executives to successfully drive positive change:
- Belief and commitment. You gotta believe — really believe — that what you are doing is right and appropriate, using a variety of litmus tests. Mid-management, supervisors, and/or line employees will quickly detect if your commitment is anything but resolute.Change management isn’t for the weak at heart, so strap in, point the way, and hold the course (I always wanted to use that line).
(more…)
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Aug 1, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Human Resources, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Organizational Effectiveness
Yup… a colleague of mine in corporate Human Resources told me he never, ever, goes to the EEOC’s proffered mediation sessions.
Says he has no reason to go; says he’s right, the claimant is wrong, and he can prove it. Therefore, in his mind, no reason to attend whatsoever.
What a loser…
Listen to me carefully: Go to each and every EEOC mediation offered by the EEOC, forever and ever, amen.
Look, the EEOC wants the employer there to potentially provide an economic or related reason for the plaintiff/claimant to relinquish their claim. They closely track statistics for successful mediation; though the EEOC is always (and never forget this), ALWAYS the employee’s advocate, they have vested, personal interests in resolving via mediation.
Additionally, it’s a chance to “see all the cards,” in case — just in case, mind you — there is a “smoking gun” or something similar of which you were unaware.
It happens, folks. At one time or another, we’ve all been blind-sided, BS’ed, exaggerated to, and just plain lied to. Better to find out in a non-discoverable venue like mediation, than from the EEOC when they file a “friend of the plaintiff” brief or worse, decide to support by suing in direct support.
You make better decisions with better information. Get all the information you can. You can still say “no.” You can still leave the mediation with your checkbook intact (if you want to), but go to the mediation.
While I’m at it, don’t get me started on the business case of early, inexpensive settlements. They have a viable place in the process — but that’s for a later entry.
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Jul 19, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Executive Improvement, Human Resources, Kevin Berchelmann, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Organizational Effectiveness
Leadership is authentic. You can’t fake it, folks.
So, I recently attended my niece’s wedding in San Antonio. Since we frequently travel there to spend time on the Riverwalk, I thought this a wonderful opportunity to evaluate a new hotel for future stays.
Enter The Hotel Contessa.
Lots of staff, all looking like they were in the right places. Classy decor, reasonably upscale. All-suites, and the one we had — a “King” suite — was quite nice.
For all appearances, this was the real deal.
The Hotel Contessa, however, suffered from a problem. In Texas, we have this phrase (ok, in Texas we have a lot of ‘phrases,’ but I’m just using one):
All hat and no cattle.
Looked good, had all the appearances of the “real deal;” I’ll even go as far as to say that, for the price, it wasn’t a complete disaster. They simply failed to execute. In every way, when given the opportunity to have delivery (service) match their appearance, they failed miserably. Time and time again.
Realize that there were many, many instances over the 2+ days we were there. I’m only sharing a few here for examples.
They promised my sister that the wedding party could check in PRIOR to their absurdly late 4:PM check-in time. When pressed, they stated that “someone made a mistake — we cannot promise anyone an early check-in.” This ridiculous travesty went on for 30 minutes, until finally they just gave in and gave them the rooms. That’s right… they had the rooms available for early check-in; they simply wanted my sister to know that they couldn’t promise anything!
No less than a half-dozen staffers opening the doors and welcoming people; my sister, hands full with wedding “stuff,” slips and falls on the steps. They watch, but do not move a muscle. My sister collects herself, and moves toward the door. Courteously opening the door, the nearest bellman says, “be careful, the steps can be slippery.”
Ya think??
When I checked in, I needed the front desk to break a $20 bill. The guy (Tommy) says, “I’m sorry, I can’t make change.” WHAT? “Yes,” he says, “I don’t have access to cash. Perhaps you can go over there and ask a bellman.” I needed the change FOR the bellman, and had no intention of walking anywhere to get it. I exclaimed how surely some people still actually use cash, and perhaps he should find a manager.
Manager comes over, takes my $20 bill, opens a cash drawer and makes change. Complete with “have a nice day!”
Sunday morning, we’re running late (I have a wife, remember?), so I call the operator to get a late check out. I say, “I’ll need a late check-out, say, until 12:30.” Guy says, sorry, 12:00 is best he can do. I respond, “whatever, but I’ll be here until 12:30.” He asks me to hold… a manager comes on the line, repeats my request to me, taps a few computer keys, and says, “There you are, sir. All set!”
No execution. No one, save a few poorly positioned managers, seemed capable of making even rudimentary customer service decisions.
Did I even mention the part about the newlyweds reaching their room around midnight, to discover they had twin double beds?? Don’t get me started again…
Great looking hotel, lots of dinero spent on staff, money leaking out like a drain because of the real, obvious, lack of leadership authenticity.
All hat and no cattle.
Now, no, this isn’t turning into a travel review site (I give the Contessa one of four stars); I merely wanted to demonstrate how leadership must be applied — it must be authentic — to make a difference. Otherwise, it’s just an act.
And not a very good one.
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Jun 17, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Executive Improvement, Uncategorized
A recent HBR blog post mentioned the results from a recent Gallup survey: Less than one-third of Americans are engaged in their jobs in any given year.
This is a great topic. Many leaders get wrapped up around money, which is never, ever, a
long-term motivator or anything but a short-term, artificial boost to engagement. Engagement—real employee ownership– requires
leadership, thoughtfulness, and a demonstrated compassion for employees; we
must sincerely care as much about their well-being as we do our own.
Misguided leaders believe that motivation and engagement is
about dollars–that if you have sufficient, budgeted dollars, you can
motivate effectively; if you’re cash-poor, then suddenly you are
de-motivating…making a disengaged workforce “not my fault.”
Absolute malarkey. BS. Balderdash. Pure unadulterated bunk.
Here’s 3 things within your grasp today that can drive
employee engagement: Communications, Involvement, & Recognition.
- Communications.Make sure performance and objectives
expectations are realistic and equally aligned. Be honest and open with data
and information; allow your staff to determine what “enough”
information is, before you arbitrarily decide. Provide a good, forthright look
at the “big picture.” Eliminate unnecessary blaming, and be
transparent.
- Involvement. Here, you’ll determine what your staffs’ key
motivators really are. Not just parties, but provide opportunities for real,
substantial input. Force decision-making down to more appropriate levels.
Increase ownership and buy-in through inclusion in both front-end planning and
progress efforts. Eliminate unnecessary hierarchy.
- Recognition. I’m not talking here about “employee of
the month/quarter/millennium.” I am speaking about making sure your
management attention is appropriate for someone’s performance level–don’t
micromanage a key performer just to satisfy your control-freak tendencies.
Provide developmental/learning opportunities within the work and project
itself–allow employees to grow through “doing.”
Engagement isn’t about the money. It’s about effective
leaders stepping up to lead, and taking personal accountability for that
leadership. Money can certainly provide an incentive for behavior changes and
specific performance, but you can’t buy the real engagement that provides
impetus for employee acceptance of personal accountability–the responsibility
to do “whatever is necessary.” That comes from skilled leadership,
not the ATM.
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Jun 3, 2015 | Brazen Leader, Human Resources, Kevin Berchelmann, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Organizational Effectiveness
Yep, no kidding…
If you are leading an in-house human resources effort today, and not currently or actively considering outsourcing much of your task-driven work today, get your resume polished up.
You’ll be needing it.
No, this isn’t merely because I’m a consultant hoping to win your outsourced business. It’s because reality is slapping us in the face: We cannot accomplish these task-driven administrative minutiae efforts as cost-effectively as we can outsource them, nor can we maintain the level of talent necessary to be really good at it.
As a friend enjoys telling me, “This ain’t rocket surgery.”
Besides, you don’t need to be doing those things anyway. Businesses need real HR talent doing things that contribute to the success of the business — documenting a beneficiary change to someone’s life insurance doesn’t fit that definition.
Get out of the trenches, and go do something important.
Before you need that resume again…
