Changing Business

Have you ever heard of anything quite so pathetic?

I was having a meal with an old friend recently when he told me how frustrated he was with his employer. Not that unusual in itself, you might think, except that he was on the point of resigning because his bosses had just approved his plans for transforming his business division! 

Obviously we are not talking junior level here, my friend is a VP.  He told me that was sick and tired of trying to persuade his other VP colleagues to implement their part of the changes and cost cuts that they had all agreed to, more than a year ago.  It is not as if his company no longer needs cost reduction and efficiency improvements, it does badly.  Until very recently it was at the point of going out of business completely. 

My friend is the kind of guy that does not like to sit around and do nothing while Rome burns.  Recently he came up with a new proposal for trimming down another division and the board agreed, not because they thought it important but, because they could sense that he was becoming so frustrated by doing nothing that if they didn’t let him do something then they thought (quite rightly) he might resign!

So there you have it, A board of directors agreeing to changes, in order to try and retain an important employee.  Now my friend is not stupid; he’s proud for sure but he genuinely wants to turn the business around and bring it to another level of success.  But his motivation is understandably lacking when he knows full well that his board is not committed, or able, to get it’s VP’s to work together to deliver the changes that the business so badly needs.

Have you ever heard of such a thing and how far would you go to keep a valued employee?

Have a good week,

Harley 

Grey is the colour of proportional representation

I once knew a painter who at the end of each day emptied his leftover paint into a big tub he had in the back of his van.  No matter the colour of paint he was using, in it went into the tub:  Post box red, canary yellow, blushing pink, emerald green, even Prussian blue.  No matter the combination, with a stir of a paddle it always turned a light battleship grey.  The painter used this leftover paint for undercoat and even top coat; when he could persuade his customer into believing that grey was the colour of sophistication and compromise.

And yet, this seems to be true of everything:  Write an article for an in-house magazine and let a few managers review it and before long you have a grey text that says nothing and bores even the most optimistic employee into a deep sleep.

In politics too, if you live in a country where everything is just perfect and you do not want anyone coming along and changing things, then be sure to have proportional representation: give everyone a say, ensure there are lots and lots of political parties and make sure everyone’s voice is heard.  In no time at all everything will turn grey.  You don’t need to worry about any ideas that people may have (especially if they are important) because they will never find a sufficient majority to come to anything.  Every idea will have to be traded in compromise; ‘if I support you on this what will you give me in return?’.  And even if the idea did eventually make it to the statute books, it will be so watered down with grey compromise that it will most likely be completely ineffective.

In the same way, please God spare us from collaborative board rooms; the debating business units, the open HR departments and the logic of the consensus of the workers councils.  When everyone’s voice is heard you end up in white noise, or dare I incorrectly say, grey noise?   However I do need a caveat here:   I am not advocating dictatorships or anarchy, far from it, but in business I do like to see distributed responsibility;  leaders that have a vision; that take decisions, that report back progress to the shareholders while delegating  action to those best placed to take it on.
So be careful of anything grey, it may look calm and hassle free and it may even replace purple in becoming the new fashionable colour in neck ties and shirts for men.  But watch out: if you start to live it; unless you live in paradise, you’ll end up bored and despondent and having to debate with everyone, just to keep things exactly how they are right now.
So be prepared to upset someone, be bold enough to execute ‘your plan’.  Be prepared to stand up and be counted for taking a decision.  The enemy of enterprise is not regulatory control, its inaction (disguised in the form of grey compromise).

Have a good week,

Harley

The Exchange Company Club

In Brussels there is a charitable organization which arranges experts from Belgium to spend time working on a voluntary basis for companies in the southern hemisphere that need expert help but have no way of being able to pay for it.  Having engaged my consulting business with this organization, it got me wondering how our clients might also benefit from such a scheme.

To put it bluntly, no matter the company, I notice a common trend.  After a number of years in the job, many employees become so insular that they are simply unable to imagine doing their jobs, or running their businesses, in any other way.

Over the last decade or so the software company SAP has played a considerable part in challenging large companies to seriously look at their end to end business processes and to streamline them.  Over time their software has been released in versions that are tailored for specific industries.  However, no matter how similar one business might be to another, most have one thing in common:  They think, even without really knowing, that they are different and that any other way of doing business would not work for them.

For most companies redesigning their business processes ‘in line with a software program’ is a challenging change of mindset, and therein lies the danger.  Alongside the many success stories there have been numerous disasters.  In general these were not down to the technology but to the way that the projects were owned and managed.  Too often it is the IT department, working with external consultants that try to tell the business how it should be done.  Resistance becomes endemic and business ownership flies out the window.

However, looking beyond this horizon, one of the problems lies in our lack of desire to objectively look at ourselves from another’s view point.   When my children were at school their teachers used to organize school outings to local businesses, factories and museums.  Apart from the adventure of a coach trip and a day off school, these trips encouraged the opening of young eyes.  Opinions were formed and even career choices made in those early informative days. 

In the same way, it would make a refreshing change for long term employees and middle management to have the chance to visit other companies and even consider exchanging jobs for a few weeks.  This could be safely done with either a similar, but non competitive business, or by working for a small company in a developing country where the benefit of one’s input can be more than matched by the total experience and knowledge gained. 

I believe that leaders should work with voluntary organizations such as ‘The Exchange Company Club’ and try to find ways to encourage their middle management to inject new ideas and life into their organizations while benefiting others at the same time.  Just an idea!

Have a good week,

Harley

So you think what you are doing is for the best?

For the last few weeks I have been considering how it is impossible ‘to do the right thing’.  I guess everyone has tried to do it at least once in their lives, only to find that it got kicked back in their face with such ferocity that one is reluctant to try again?  While you are probably remembering such an incident, I want to ask you a question:  

Do you think that it is possible to take a positive action without it having a negative impact somewhere else? 

The more I consider this question, the more convinced I am that the answer can only be ‘no’.

Imagine, if you will, a positive action; perhaps an act of charity?  Now think of a negative consequence it can have somewhere else.  Keep trying this until you find a positive action that has no negative side affects at all…

Many years ago I negotiated an extremely attractive pay rise for a group of employees.  The rise was long overdue but the company I was a director of was extremely short of cash, so I had to find very inventive ways of raising it and at the same time convince the rest of the board to let me spend it. 

The net result of my extremely hard effort was that I ended up with a little more than expected and so had the possibility to supplement everyone not only with a higher than expected pay rise but also a sizable voucher to spend in a wide variety of stores. 

Just when I was settling back in my executive office chair, looking forward to receiving congratulatory thank you e-mails and to telling everyone that 'it was really nothing apart from my shear negotiation brilliance', my office door was flung open by a group of angry employees.  Apparently the pay rise I had negotiated was kind of OK for them, but “why had I extended it to the US office, after all they were still loss making and behind their targets?”  Apparently their reasoning was that the money I had needlessly given away to their American colleagues could have been better spent on R&D in Europe.

After getting over the shock, I reminded them that they too were still running at a loss and that their targets had only just been met after a great deal of dubious debating over the interpretation of them! 

Not long after another person came to see me.  He complained that his wife never shopped in the group of stores that the voucher supported because she did not agree with their policy of sourcing products from a specific Middle Eastern country!  To top it all, one of the board complained saying that she thought that the rise was only going to be implemented after the dividends had been paid, meaning her dividend would now be lower than otherwise!  I assured her that we quite plainly agreed to pay it before the dividend calculation.  And so it went on.  

Eventually I came around to the conclusion that maybe the whole idea of trying to do the right thing was ill conceived.  Even though in my heart I had believed it was needed because by having delayed the pay rises time and time again, I was on the verge of losing some employees whose loyalty had been stretched to their limits.

In conclusion; when people today ask me how it is I can predict resistance, I tell them that as long as you try to make a difference in life, you will always meet resistance.  So as long as you remember the roots from which resistance comes, you can predict (at least most of the time) a negative response to every conceivable action.  Even when they are supposedly positive.  In Dutch they call this ‘Stank voor dank’  or, in English ‘a bad smell for thanks’!

Have a good week,

Harley

Never done a days work in my life

I don’t know what it is that drives me on, that makes me want to get up and creep down to my home office before the household awakes?  “Are you working again?” “ No dear, just checking some e-mails…” I don’t like my job, I love it.  And because of this I don’t always know when I am working or not.

For a self employed person work can be measured by the amount of invoiced hours.  But in my case, the little gaps of time I set aside somehow become filled with unforeseen tasks that will not rest until they are put into action.
For employees, there is the addiction of not being able to resist reading emails on the company mobile phone, or thinking about work during leisure moments while in the company of others.  So what is it that drives busy people on?  What is it that tells us that our work is never done?

At school I was a lazy boy.  Full of dreams, I filled my days with visions of an adult life full of fun and freedom.  But somewhere between then and now my dreams have largely become my work.

Everyone talks about getting the balance right, about being able to switch off and relax.  I can do that, but I cannot keep it up for long.   Sooner or later the nagging foreman of life taps me on the shoulder reminding me that playtime is over; that there are bills to be paid and a group of people waiting for me back in the office.  But are they?  ‘The graveyard’, I am told, ‘is full of irreplaceable people’. 

If work means continuing to do something against my will then I am not sure I know what work is.  It seems that sooner or later I end up enjoying whatever it is that I do.  That’s why I have never done a days’ work in my life.  Sure there were the nightmare student holiday jobs; endlessly washing up in a greasy kitchen or filing insurance claims in a dull building in a bright new city, but that was long ago and even they were not that bad. 

Have a good week,
Harley

Sometimes excellence means being able to do the same thing day in day out.

Most leaders love taking on new challenges; working in new environments, in new locations and in new industries.  For them ‘variety is the spice of life’.  However what if their leadership role needs to be focused on simply keeping the status quo?  What if their company or team has got everything just about right and improvements can only be measured in fractions of a percentage point?

For those companies that have reached a point where further expansion is pointless and where consistency is the overriding management driver, keeping everything the just the way it is can be the hardest challenge of all.  What might seem to many as a mundane nightmare, can in reality prove to be a challenging leadership task.

‘Never change a winning team’ is the favorite motto of many.  But ask any coach and he or she will tell you that that statement is a naive hope of over simplification.  Winning teams quickly become complacent and with complacency comes de-motivation and the increased likelihood of loosing.  The upward pull of the vortex of motivation is just as powerful as the downdraft of the vortex of depression.

In order to keep a team performing consistently, one must be prepared to make constant tweaks and changes:  A new initiative here, a minor improvement there.  You might, for example, need to re-deploy a ‘comfortable’ manager (even initially against his or her will) into a new challenge before they become complacent.  And you certainly will need to spend a great deal of time inventing endless variations of personal rewards for same level company performance!

A manager that has consistency as their main objective quickly learns just how tough their task can be.  Any competent leader can lead a team to victory, given the right team and the right circumstances and a bit of luck.  But only the toughest leaders can keep their team in the number one spot year in year out. 

So the next time you find yourself thinking that running a consistently outstanding company or department is much easier than turning around an under performing one, think again.  If a company that has experienced year on year double digit growth ever hits the number one spot in a flat market, trust me, they will need to replace most, if not all, of their management team!  The challenge of trying to stand still, even at the top of the mountain, is an objective too great for most.

Have a good week,

Harley

Trust me I am a doctor!

The basis of any relationship where an instruction is given and an action is expected in return, is trust.  Whether in management or in leadership, be it in the office or at home, trust is the most important component of the foundations upon which our lives and relationships are built.  But where does trust come from and how do we install it in others?

When two strangers pass one another, be it in an office hallway or even on the street, it is customary to acknowledge one another in some polite way.  This simple act puts us at our ease and allows us to relax and continue on our journey comfortably in the belief that the other person will not harm us.  This is the very basis of trust.  Believing that another will not harm or let us down.  Trust is earned incrementally, step by step, bit by bit.

Leaders can win confidence quicker depending on the level of trust the people they lead had in the people that appointed them in the first place.  However the team’s natural skepticism can only be overturned by the leader acting in a way that installs a high degree of trust, not just through their actions but also through their past and present results.

Because all succesful leaders have a very high degree of confidence, they feel comfortable to delegate and to trust others to deliver what was agreed.  By demonstrating their skills and quickly acknowledging the skills of others, sustainable trust is progressively formed between the leader and their colleagues.  But leaders have an additional burden when it comes to trust.  They have to win the trust of all those that are under their guidance.

Weeding out your non believers. 

There are always people that will distrust you no matter how hard you try and demonstrate your worthiness.  This should not concern you too deeply as long as the doubters still believe in the vision, if not in you.  In this case the doubters will more likely than not come round in time.  However, a leader is not a leading if he or she allows non believers to straggle on continuing to spread doubt after a reasonable time has passed. 

Winning teams win because of their ability to align to a common held belief and shared commitment.  In this scenario, no one is bigger than a team, not even the leader.  Therefore trust is one of the most powerful elements that a leader needs to install in their team and this is only done by balancing all of the five elements over a prolonged period of time:  

• Intellectual Curiosity to inspire and inform
• Confidence to motivate pride, ego and self belief
• Adaptability to show there is a strategy and plan for all circumstances
• Pragmatism to demonstrate that the strategy can be implemented
• Emotional Intelligence in order to get the maximum performance by knowing how far the leader can push and motivate the team and each of its individual before their break points are reached

Have a good week,

Harley

Is your ego becoming a problem?

It is a sad fact of modern life that the word ‘Ego’ is beginning to take on a negative connotation. People with big ego’s are considered somehow bad and those with absent ego’s as good. Of the various dictionaries I use, I think the Collins says it best “Ego: a person’s opinion of his or her own worth”. If we accept this definition then the word ego is linked with the word pride.

Whether we like to admit to it or not, our sense of self worth is very important. Without it we lose confidence and motivation. Any leader without a big ego is unlikely to lead for long. The question to keep in check is, “is it too big”? But before attempting to answer this question a secondary question is needed; “too big for what”? In situations where self confidence and pride are an absolute necessity it is almost impossible for any ego to be too big. The very nature of the self belief expression ‘I can do this’ is built solely upon oneself, i.e. ‘ego’.

However, in a counseling group or at home on the weekend with the family, the career ego needs to remain in check. This can be difficult as it requires the balancing of three different elements; adaptability, emotional intelligence and confidence. For this reason it can be very useful to have one’s place of work a short car journey or (better still) walk from one’s home. If the journey is long enough to tie up the loose ends of the working day and to re-focus on the needs and pleasures of our loved ones, then the distance is just right. Very few people can switch from work to home between the garage and the kitchen.  For those working from home a dog can come in handy here; a short walk every morning and evening is good for both hound and master.

So my advice is; worry if your ego is too small rather than too big. Worry, if you do not feel proud of your achievements and of who you are. Worry, if you do not make the time to turn negative feelings into positive plans for reconciliation and improvement.

Have a good week,

Harley

One reason why some people achieve so much more than others

Have you ever wondered how it is that some people achieve so much more than others? One answer is because they constantly set ambitious deadlines for themselves. The moment they are given a task, or have a new idea, they immediately turn it into a challenge by setting a deadline by which it will be achieved.   By telling it to the world, their deadline becomes an irreversible ‘must do’ matter of pride.

The all time classic ambitious deadline is president Kennedy’s “to put a man on the moon and to return him safely to Earth, before the decade is out”.  High achievers set these kind of deadlines constantly and for absolutely everything. “I am rather busy right now, but you’ll have it by Friday, is that OK?”. For them a deal is a deal and Friday is their new deadline.

Because most high achievers are also optimists, their overriding sense of confidence makes them temporarily blind to obstacles.  They rely on their ability (and that of their team) to overcome everything that blocks their way.  Life, to them, is like a computer game with its constant stream of challenges.  When they run out, they simply invent more.

Geoff Thompson, the author of The Elephant and the Twig, purchased twenty thousand copies of his own book, by doing so, he set himself the task of selling them himself, rather than sitting back and relying on his publisher to do so.

Successful people surround themselves with achievers. They are not in the slightest worried about competition or being out done. The only thing that is important for them is achieving their goals and objectives. So when they come across people that do not share their energy and passion, they simply ignore them. To a high achiever, a person without vision or drive, sooner or later becomes an irrelevant bystander of a forgotten game.

Have a good week,

Harley

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it

You don’t have to look too far around you to find ‘can’t change, won’t change’ people, they’re everywhere, hiding behind phrases like “I am fully open to change, but if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it.”  I have been looking at this paradox recently and have been trying to understand it.

According to professor John L. Ward, the more successful our past set of rules are, the more resistant we are to changing them. In addition the more involved one was in creating the status quo, the more resistant one becomes to changing it. But perhaps it is more realistic to say ‘the more involved one was in creating the status quo, the more determined one becomes to defend it’?

And yet change resistance is logical, after all no one likes spending a morning preparing and polishing an important email just to have it hacked to pieces by the person you asked to ‘quickly check it for typo’s’. The root of the problem is not so much in our resistance to change but in our inability to see the need for it in the first place.

When a tidal wave comes roaring in from the sea, even the most change resistant turn and run. The need is obvious, there is no room or time to defend, discuss or debate.  From this we can obviously conclude that vision is the essential element here and that vision comes from a combination of observation and anticipation.  Keeping one’s eyes focused on the horizon and not on the sand under one’s feet.

Furthermore, something does not need to be broken in order to improve it. We all like to hang on to our tried and tested ways, to the reliable tools of our past. Our old television may not be broken, but when the broadcaster stops sending signals it recognizes, it is effectively dead, even if its components are all still working.   For this reason, I am going to be careful from now on with using the phrase ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’.

Being a source of inspiration to others, being a leader is about anticipation. It is understanding the importance of discerning subtle changes and patterns and adapting to the new emerging environment long, long before it becomes too late.

Have a good week,

Harley