Monday, December 04, 2006

GREAT Idea, BAD Execution....

"What IS this?!?"

My client, Karen, flipped the envelope across the desk with disgust. The long white envelope slid to a stop in front of me, with the word "Karen" written across it in a beautiful feminine script.

"What's wrong?" I asked Karen.

"The president of our company just sent us all holiday cards."

"...and...," I asked, more than a little puzzled.

"The cards are embossed inside with the president's name and the name of our company."

"So what's bugging you?" I asked, still confused.

"THE PRESIDENT PROBABLY NEVER TOUCHED THESE CARDS!" Karen shouted. "I expect to get these kind of cards from my car dealer ... but the president of my own company?"

"Well," I offered, "at least she signed your name on the envelope."

"Our president," said Karen quite dryly, "is a man."


****************


Karen's frustration points out a common dilemma among employees these days. So many employees--from division managers down to line-staff--are starving for personal recognition. By sending these coldly embossed (albeit beautifully) cards to his employees, the president of the company was blowing his chance to build emotional engagement in his company ... and the bottom line will suffer.

Great leaders recognize the importance of personal recognition. While few company presidents have time to sign Christmas cards by hand, leaders in organizations need to be careful...because--as in Karen's case--sometimes a Christmas card can destroy emotional engagement rather than build it up.


(above names and details have been changed to protect confidentiality).


BOTTOM LINE: SUPERIOR LEADERS PAY ATTENTION TO MAKE SURE THAT BAD EXECUTION DOES NOT DAMAGE A GREAT IDEA.




A Little Nonsense Now and Then.....

...is relished by the wisest of people.

'Tis the holidays, and nothing says "Christmas" more than the Transiberian Orchestra and someone with too much time on their hands....

Watch the video.


This scene always brings a smile to my face.



BOTTOM LINE: Smart leaders make time for silliness and humor.

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A Little Nonsense Now and Then.....

...is relished by the wisest of people.

'Tis the holidays, and nothing says "Christmas" more than the Transiberian Orchestra and someone with too much time on their hands....

Watch the video.


This scene always brings a smile to my face.



BOTTOM LINE: Smart leaders make time for silliness and humor.

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Monday, November 27, 2006

It's SO Satisfying....

"The quality of relationships has a far bigger effect [on happiness] than quite large rises in salary..."

These are the words of economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. A recent AP Science article discussed the connection between money and happiness. While many leaders seek to build salaries at the expense of relationships, the latest research is now showing that relationships have a larger effect on life satisfaction than money does.

While there is nothing wrong with making a 6-figure (or better) salary, wise leaders make sure they take an emotionally intelligent approach to their income ... by focusing on the importance of their relationships.

PLUS, as I mentioned in Leading People the Black Belt Way, a better way to lead is to use Both/And thinking. For leaders, it's not the question of either building better relationships OR making high salaries. The better question that leaders can ask themselves is .... "How do I do both?"

The answer: focus on relationships.

When you focus on relationships at work, you'll have employees who are more emotionally engaged. Emotionally engaged employees are more productive, which is better for YOUR bottom line.


BOTTOM LINE: Smart leaders focus on building better relationships. Better relationships create emotionally engaged employees ... which improves your bottom line.

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Friday, November 24, 2006

A Ounce of Prevention ... or a Pound of Financial Loss?

Say it isn't so.

The retail giant Walmart didn't know that lots of people were going to be visiting their website today?!?! In this AP article, Walmart's website crashed due to too many visitors.

Memo to Walmart Execs:

People tend to shop on the day after Thanksgiving (aka "Black Friday").
A lot of people.
Might want to build up that IT department a bit.

My guess is that Walmart won't be releasing figures on the financial damage (hint: average the total web sales for hours), but the figures could easily run into the millions. Imaging losing millions of dollars in sales because your website is down. Now imagine you have an IT department the size of Walmarts.

An ounce of IT prevention could have prevents a pound of financial loss.

BOTTOM LINE: Great leaders pay attention to the ounce-of-prevention rule.

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Monday, November 20, 2006

Sometimes the customer is NOT always right

If the customer is always right, then the makers of both Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii would have stocked a lot more games.....

...and gotten less publicity.

As large as these corporations are, it seems impossible to believe that they couldn't make accurate market forecasts. The reasonable conclusion to draw, then, is recognizing that "coming up short" is an effective marketing strategy.

Imagine how much it would cost to create a marketing campaign that almost everyone would be talking about. Far too much money.

Instead, by keeping distribution of these games relatively limited, these gamemakers have received extensive media coverage as the media talks about ...

... people waiting all night in lines.
... game consoles going for over 400% retail on ebay.
... the hue and cry over people not getting one.



BOTTOM LINE:Smart leaders know receiving media coverage that money can't buy is one brilliant reason to realize that the customer is not always right.

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Monday, November 06, 2006

Core Problem #5 ... in the news

In my book Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today, I wrote about Core Problem #5:

Organizations lose viability when they follow the old structures that serve people at the top first.

Here's a perfect example of Core Problem #5 in the media. In his OpEd column, Washington Post columnist Colbert King writes about Colin Powell's book My American Journey as well as Bob Woodworth's State of Denial.

In his column, Mr. King explores Colin Powell's beliefs that his generation of military top brass would never make the same mistakes that were made in Vietnam.

While I respect General Powell tremendously, clearly he was wrong. Mr. King points out how we are making the exact same mistakes in Iraq.

What went wrong? Did General Powell's generation go bad?

Not by a longshot.

As I point out in Leading People the Black Belt Way, it's not the people, it's the system. Corrupt systems create corrupt decisions. By having a military and political system that serves people at the top first, we will all be paying for the mistakes made in Iraq.

Don't make the same leadership mistake.


BOTTOM LINE: Great Leaders create healthy systems.

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