Got Leaders?

So who's an author whose books I most look out for? Mark Miller is right about the top of

the list. His new book, Leaders Made Here, was just released and I happen to be hosting his blog this week.

So many leadership books talk about theories . . . sorry, dozed off there for a second. Mark writes in a way that keeps your interest and makes it easier to sink in. Want to learn quickly? Tell stories. That's exactly what Mark does. Through parables, he tells leadership stories that strike a cord. Here, we learn about building leaders - not one at a time or as needed - so there's always a leadership pipeline . . . a real culture of successful leadership.

My favorite quote from the book sums it up and goes like this: "A leadership culture exists when leaders are routinely and systematically developed, AND when you have a surplus of leaders."

Got Leaders?

Mark Miller - originally published on GreatLeadersServe.com

What do you talk about at work? Recently, I’ve come to appreciate how many conversations I have every week about leadership issues… dozens, scores – probably thousands of these discussions over the past decade.

What do you believe about a leadership pipeline? Do you think this is something only big companies do? Do you wonder why you don’t have one? Do you want to know the secret to creating a never-ending supply of qualified leaders? Keep reading…

I’m more convinced than ever when it comes to leadership, an organization has only two real choices: Hire leaders or grow leaders. And, over the long haul, I believe the right answer is a combination of the two.

I want to address the more challenging and probably more productive method – Grow your own.  Here are a few questions for your consideration if your current pipeline is not producing enough leaders to satisfy demand.

How do you define leadership? This is the most common mistake I see in organizations struggling to develop leaders. Without an agreed upon operational definition of leadership, creating a pipeline is virtually impossible. What do you want your leaders to be able to do? What character traits are you looking for in leaders? These are non-trivial questions! They represent the foundation for any legitimate attempt to systematically grow leaders.

Who are your emerging leaders? You cannot, nor should you, invest equally in the development of all your people. Targeted and strategic investments will pay the greatest dividends. Where do you place your bet? Emerging leaders. Before you can move forward with this approach, you must know who they are.

What stretch assignments can you give them? After you’ve identified emerging leaders, you can begin to shape their development. One powerful approach is to match individuals with appropriate stretch assignments. If selected carefully, these can be opportunities to test and strengthen future leaders.

What experiences do you want emerging leaders to have? When we think about developing leaders, our first thought is often about the skills of leadership. This is important. However, experiences can add depth to a leader’s resume and contribute greatly to his or her confidence. Experiences can include such diverse situations as working in a union environment, turning around a struggling division, launching a start-up, and more. You decide.

Who can you ask to mentor or coach emerging leaders? I am a fan of mentoring and coaching. There is something that happens in the context of a relationship that rarely happens when we attempt to go it alone. When done well, coaching and mentoring can unlock vast reserves of untapped potential in people. I realize you may not be able to afford external coaching for all your people, but you can assign an internal mentor to guide, challenge and encourage emerging leaders. You’ll be glad you did. Oh, before I finish here, I did promise you the secret to a successful leadership pipeline…Leadership.

You will never find a successful leadership pipeline without leadership. A vibrant process for developing leaders will not emerge spontaneously. When leaders decide to make leadership a competitive advantage and invest accordingly, that’s the day the construction of your pipeline begins.

How strong is your process for growing leaders?

Mark Miller is the best-selling author of 6 books, an in-demand speaker and the Vice President of High-Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A. His latest book, Leaders Made Here, describes how to nurture leaders throughout the organization, from the front lines to the executive ranks and outlines a clear and replicable approach to creating the leadership bench every organization needs.

Under New Management

Times and technology are always changing. With these changes must come

process and management style changes. The problem is, that what we need to do to keep up doesn’t always happen. A new idea here and there is too slow and dispersed.

A number of things that I see in David Burkus’s new book, Under Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual, I’ve seen before. But what’s great about it is that he gathers these things - and much more - shows great examples, and puts them into one easy to read, understand, and implement reference.

Including research and case studies, Burkus presents examples of organizations that have successfully implemented each of these practices. Zappos paying people to quit. Whole Foods hiring as a team. Wegmans putting customers first. Adobe eliminating yearly performance appraisals. McKinsey & Company celebrating employee departures (and keeping contact).

This is the book to read if you’re ready to make a positive change in your organization or even if you’re just starting out and building from scratch. Leave the past in the past. Let go of the old ineffective methodologies. Create an organization that will provide the base for success.

“To Do” or “To Stop?”

Well, I've been away from the blogosphere for about a month, but what a great way to

jump back in.  Today's guest blogger is John Manning, author of the brand new book, The Disciplined Leader: Keeping the Focus onWhat Really Matters.  Whether your leadership is in need of focus or refocus, this book is the place to go.  John gives you the tools to prioritize and create the right balance of activities to achieve the most successful results.

“To Do” or “To Stop?”

If you’re struggling with time management and feeling overwhelmed by the trivial many, it’s time to create a “To Stop” list.

Include activities on your list that aren’t vital to your professional and personal life and that can either be terminated or delegated to others. Consider involving your staff members in helping you develop this list, asking for their input. You may have people on your team who are happy to step up and assume more responsibility to improve their own skills. Lose what lacks real value in your life, and you’ll free up more time to focus on the “vital few” factors that drive your success.

Here are four steps to help you develop your “To Stop” list:

Evaluate where you spend your time. Pick an average week or month and chart your activities — write down what you are doing and what percentage of time you are spending on various tasks and responsibilities, e.g., answering emails, conference calls, putting out proverbial fires, etc. Within that snapshot, analyze when you were most productive — what did that look like? When were you least productive — what did that look like? Of everything you’ve listed, what really matters? Anything that qualifies as “noise” or is extraneous to your company’s mission and core strategies isn’t vital. Those are the items that belong on your “To Stop” list.

Understand the impact. Once you’ve charted what you’re truly doing with your precious time, it will be impossible to ignore or overlook the correlation between the “trivial many” and lost productivity. Let that discovery and any associated revelations (good or bad!) get under your skin and motivate you. Embrace this very natural catalyst to jumpstart the changes you’ll personally need to make.

Challenge yourself to let go. Just as you would with an unhealthy relationship or a bad habit, call upon self-discipline to let go of the work habits undermining your progress, productivity and profit. Take your “To Stop” list and start acting on it. Challenge your team and ask them to step up and take on some added responsibility. Simply put, to stop what’s on your “To Stop” list! Either find someone else to do it or quit it altogether.

Stay focused on the “Vital Few.” Once you’ve eliminated the “trivial many” from your daily agenda, be proactive about doing more of what’s essential to your success. How? Dedicate your free minutes to the “Vital Few,” whatever is directly related to your core mission, critical goals, or only what you can or should do. Stay the course, centered in this way, and you’ll find it’s much easier to avoid the temptation to slip back into old habits or get derailed by those ever-new distracters.

What are some of the “trivial” things you do that you could assign to others?

Originally published February 9. 2015

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/create-stop-list-john-manning

John Manning is the president of Management Action Programs, Inc. (MAP), and author of The Disciplined Leader - now available on Amazon. Learn more about his work at www.disciplinedleader.com, or connect with him on Twitter @JohnMManning.

Dare to Serve . . . I Dare You

As soon as I read the table of contents I could tell I was going to like this book.  Part 1 -Whom will we serve? What is the daring destination?  Why do we do this work?  How will we work together?

I’m talking about Cheryl Bachelder’s new book, Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others.  You may know her as the CEO of Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen.  A CEO with a new way to lead that, in seven years, increased profits by 40%.  Leadership style.  No fancy gimmicks.  Just Dare to Serve leadership.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the Starship exercise that "revealed some remarkably simple lessons in leading high-performance teams." These are five things that make me stop and shake my head, thinking, why don't more leaders do this? Focus on team member strengths, determine skill gaps, respect different talents. This is why Popeyes Franchise Owner Survey results changed so dramatically in five years.

With reflection questions throughout to keep you engaged and thinking, this is a book that any leader will gain insight from.  Some people just don’t grasp the idea of servant leadership, thinking they have to roll over and become submissive.  If this is you, pick up Dare to Serve and see what it’s really about.  Learn to serve others with humility, courage, and passion.  All while increasing productivity and profits.

As Cheryl says in the book, “avoid the spotlight”.  “A leader without personal responsibility remains stuck in the spotlight and fails to serve others well.”  Look at yourself in the mirror, and Dare to Serve others.

Customer Service? But They're Co-Workers!

What all employee's need to realize is that INTERNAL customer service is just as important as external.  Everyone is a customer of someone else.  It's not rocket science.  Just think about these 3 simple factors to provide better quality service:

Respect:

Everyone has their job for a reason.  While all members of a team may not contribute equally, each is considered equally important.

When you give respect, you earn respect.

Interdependency:

It's not a one man show.  We can only truly succeed when our entire organization succeeds.

When you are there for someone, someone will be there for you.

Reciprocity:

“What goes around, comes around”.  Usually, this is used negatively.  With a winning team, it's in reference to mutual benefit and support.

When you're willing to give assistance, support, caring, and benefit of the doubt, you'll also receive the same in return.

 Give a little - gain a lot!

Why I Like My Mechanic Better Than My Doctor

Some doctors need to take a page from the customer service manual of my mechanic.  Why, you ask?  When 
was the last time you didn't have to pay for a follow up visit to your doctor?  Original appointment, follow up - just to see how you're doing, appointment to discuss your test results or to check on your medication size (I know - it's all driven by insurance companies - just go with me a minute).  Paying - even with a co-pay - for all of those appointments adds up very quickly.  No wonder people don't like going to the doctor.  Personally, I believe that "follow-ups" should be included with the original appointment.

Any business, medical or otherwise, could learn from my mechanic (Choice Automotive Repair).  His business is based on customer service.  There are a million mechanics around.  But he realizes that it's customer service that brings people back.  He tells me and shows me everything - and he doesn't mark up parts like others do.  I found him through word of mouth when I left my previous mechanic because of lousy customer service.

Recently, when I had to have my transmission replaced, he did what he could to get the price down and still have a quality warrantied product.  The first transmission didn't shift quite right and he made the company build an entirely new one.  I've had a couple minor issues since then with the transmission (covered) - plus some other minor things - and have not had to pay a thing.  He knows that it's not only the big things, but also the "little things" that will keep customers happy and coming back.  Just a smile and hello does not make great customer service.

In businesses where there's a lot of competition and you do the same thing, the only thing that may set you apart is customer service.

Now, to be fair, yes I've liked doctors in the passed, but have never actively recommended one.  Do you think I recommend my mechanic?  Absolutely.  All the time.  I may sound like I'm picking on doctors, but I'm really not, they just serve as a good example.  Actually, every type of business, whether medical, mechanical, service, or retail, needs to look at the whole picture, evaluate the regulations, and ask, "What is going to keep our customers coming back and talking - positively - about us?"  "What exactly is my customer getting, or not getting, for their payment?"   

Promises, Promises

Trust, honesty, integrity . . . a promise is a promise.

For those "leaders" who don't have those three things, promises will never mean a thing to employee's.  You've probably heard of "the boy who cried wolf"?  The more lies he told, the more no one believed him, until it was too late.  Same thing with leaders.  If you're not honest and carry through with your promises to your employee's, you're just blowing smoke.  It's an easy way to lose respect . . . but it's hard to get it back.

I try not to get into politics, but this timely and is just a great example (and no I'm not going to debate it).  I saw a graph today on how many people have lost their current insurance due to the Affordable Care Act - millions.  This was after the country was told, by the President, that if people were happy with their insurance they could keep it.  As I began writing this blog post I got a CNN tweet headlined, "Obama apologizes for some people losing health coverage despite his promise".  What do you think that apology means to those millions of people?  Nothing. Nothing but lost trust.

It doesn't matter who you are or where you land on the totem pole - bottom or top - a promise is a promise.  And people - employees - WILL remember when you break those promises.  It's kind of like the silent customer.  If you give bad service, they may not say anything to you.  But they will tell others who you won't see and not return themselves.

A promise IS a promise.  Make it so.

Stewardship

I enjoy reading leadership books that have been “updated and revised”.  Sometimes they’re only fluff just to get renewed attention and sometimes they actually have some new and essential information.  Peter Block’s newly re-released book, Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest, does the latter.

 

Some of you may have read the first edition of Stewardship which came out 20 years ago.  The revised release of the book is most definitely something you’re going to want to read also.  Block backs up everything he says with examples, case studies, suggestions, and creativity.  You’ll see that your “business as usual” can’t be your “business as usual” anymore.

 

Right off the bat, Block’s new definition of stewardship struck a cord.  He says, in part, “It is the willingness to be accountable for the well-being of the larger organization by operating in service, rather than in control, of those around us.  Stated simply, it is accountability without control or compliance”.  We need to lessen the self-interest and increase the service experience.  There needs to be a balance of power.

 

This book gives you the understanding and the tools to create a work plan to get greater business results in the most effective way.

Slow It Down Pal

Many business leaders are just too darn busy these days. They tend to spend less time thinking about themselves and their employees, but rather use that time thinking about the bottom line, goals and strategies. You, maybe?

 

By spending so much time on the "work" aspect, they tend to get more physically and emotionally drained than leaders who take time to breath and build relationships. As a result, these "leaders" begin to avoid their relationships, become irritable, aggressive and close-minded.

 

In, Wired For Success (04/11/11), Ray Williams listed a number of key elements to becoming more mindful:

• Pay attention: Focusing 100% of your attention on whatever you are doing
• Be non-judging: take the role of an impartial observer to whatever your current experience is, and don't judge whether things are good or bad.
• Have patience: cultivate the understanding that things must develop in their own time.
• Be in the present moment: Be aware of how things are right now in the present moment, not as they were in the past, or how they might be in the future.
• Non-reactivity: Our brains are built to have you react automatically, without thinking. Mindfulness encourages you to respond to your experience rather than react to your thoughts. Being mindful is a deliberate and intentional choice.
• Have beginner's mind: have the willingness to observe the world as if it was your first time doing so. This creates an openness that is essential to being mindful.
• Trust: have trust in yourself, your intuition, and your abilities.

If you're not doing at least some of these things . . . now may be a good time to take a look them.

Guestology - Know Your Customers

I had the great privilege of attending Disney Institutes Approach to Quality Service a few months ago. What a great experience. They've really got this customer thing down.

For one thing - customers are GUEST'S. One of the keys to great service is treating people the way you'd treat guests in your own home. Treat them the way you want to be treated. Good leadership understands this type of thing.

Sit yourself in a position to form a customer oriented culture. An organizations culture is only as good as its leadership.

The book, Be Our Guest (from Disney Institute), describes Guestology as "the study of people for whom Disney provides service". For over half a century "the one constant has been a relentless focus on the needs, perceptions, and expectations of Guests". This is driven by great leadership.

In order to treat customers like Guests, you have to learn everything you can about them. Some of the things Disney knows are:

• where they come from,


• the average party size,


• their length of stay,


• frequency of visits,


• attraction utilization, and


• per capita spending patterns.

Wow - wouldn't it be great to have staff that knew that much about their customers?

Lead your staff in a direction that exceeds expectations. Keep the bar high. Guests continually tell Disney that "a key driver determining their overall level of satisfaction is the interaction they have with Cast Members" (employee's).

Remember that leaders are role models. The better service that YOU provide and the more YOU learn will directly affect the service your staff provides.

You Did It? You Fix It.

Have you ever worked for a "leader" that didn't accept blame? It can be extreeeemely frustrating - especially if he turns it back on you.

I believe one of the biggest positive factors in success is having the ability to say, "I did it", "I'm sorry", or just plain, "I screwed up". I've always taken responsibility for my actions and believe it's one of the biggest reasons for my success. I have NEVER tried to push blame onto others. Frankly, that's about the worst thing you can do as a leader. You will NEVER have the respect of your staff if you do.

In Pam Fox Rollins new book, 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role, she says to "ban the blame" and ask "what are we learning from this?" Screw ups are learning experiences, folks. If it was your screw up, "say you were wrong, make repairs, and explain how you're going to ensure it doesn't happen again".

Don't waste time and energy on the blame-game. Hold yourself and your staff accountable. When you come across a problem, use your problem-solving tools to find the root cause as soon as possible. Remember, the actual cause is not always as obvious as it seems.

Immediately acknowledge mistakes, figure out what went wrong and why, fix it, and learn from it. Then all that's left is to mooove on.

Well Jiminy Cricket

In sports, when a time-out is called just before the tie-breaking point is played, the coach reminds team members what's at stake . . . the rewards that await the players who make the winning effort. As a leader, you challenge team members with the memory of their past victories, with examples of what they accomplished.
- You enthuse,
- you excite,
- you encourage,
so they believe they can do it. Motivating and inspiring are about them, not you. It’s about instilling the confidence and energy that helps them to achieve the desired results. It’s what causes them to get excited enough to take ownership of their work.

In 1940, Walt Disney stopped production of Pinocchio because he thought Pinocchio was looking TOO wooden. He called the young animator Ward Kimball into his office.

Kimball, who was already upset because his long hours of work on Snow White had ended up on the cutting-room floor, was planning to use the occasion to resign when Walt called him in. But the young animator never had a chance. He got so excited listening to Walt talk about his dreams for the film and his ideas about Jiminy Cricket that Kimball entirely forgot about his own intentions of resigning.

Ward Kimball went on to become one of the greatest animators of all time. How many leaders can say that they enthuse, excite, and encourage that way? Had it been you in Walt’s situation, would Ward Kimball have stayed around?

But It's Not Illegal!

C’mon people. Lets drop the unethical behavior and act the way you’re expected to. Try to remember the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Ethics are the inner-guiding moral principles, values, and beliefs that we use to analyze or interpret situations in order to decide what’s the “right” or “appropriate” way to behave or react. Laws tell us we either CAN or CAN’T do something. If there’s no law – or a law that’s not well enough defined – we're left to use our own ethics (or lack of) to decide how to act. Problem is, TOO many people these days are unethical.

According to the annual USA Today/Gallup Poll, less than one American in four rates highly the ethical standards of business executives, attorneys, members of Congress, or stockbrokers. Bankers had it especially rough in the latest poll: their approval rating fell from 35% to 23%. Only 22% of Americans held state governors in high esteem. With two unethical candidates, I would guess that Florida is even less than that.

It’s not just business and politics. A report by the Josephson Institute showed that 64% of high school students cheat and 30% steal. WOW! Nothin like starting early.

Neither laws nor ethics are fixed principles. Both are always changing. Unfortunately, people will always try to get away with things by going around and misinterpreting laws, so continuous change will always be necessary.

People will always argue that, “it's not illegal”. Maybe not. But keep this in mind the next time you have a thought like that – not being illegal does NOT make it ethical.

Walk That Talk

In the past, I’ve known so many supervisors and managers that talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Good leadership means that you “walk the talk”. Leading is sometimes like raising children – sometimes there’s really not much difference at all. If you’re going to say “do as I say”, you also have to “do as you say”. That goes for any situation. You, as a leader, are on stage . . . the star of the show. You’re being watched more than you realize. In some cases, some may even call it stalking.

Over the past number of years, leaders have been getting more into the “employees are important to me” frame of mind. That’s a good thing. But at the same time, if you tell your staff, “if you are ill, stay home”, you can’t take things away from them or give them bad appraisal marks if the do (unless it’s obviously being taken advantage of).

If you keep telling your staff that they’re doing a good job when they’re not – that’s your fault. You can’t take things away from them or give them bad appraisal marks.

If you give your staff a survey to find out what’s on their minds or what problems or issues they have, then never do anything with the information, youuu might be a redneck. Oops, sorry - actually they’ll lose confidence in you and your abilities to effect change.

If you reap praise on your staff, as you should, but then take all the credit when it comes to your bosses – they’ll lose confidence and acceptance in you.

Are you seeing some kind of trend here?

Leadership Rule #1 – You’re the Leader – You’re being watched – You must be the example – You must set the bar – You must do as you say.

It's All About ME

Rufus Wainwright said,“Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn't.” Ahhh, arrogance.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines arrogance as: “An attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions.”

Let me see. Does that definition fit anybody we know? Just a hunch, but I’ll bet you could apply that definition to a lot of people occupying leadership positions.

Some have been given their leadership roles too quickly and therefore pick up a degree or two (or three) of arrogance along the way. Unfortunately, the people around them end up suffering for it.

Arrogance causes natural confidence to disintegrate while the person primarily serves themselves. The real sad part is that the arrogant assumes his views and opinions are the truth. He sees no weakness in himself and may even secretly rejoice in finding flaws in others. Team cohesiveness quickly goes down the drain.

You DON'T have to put up with arrogance. Give the arrogant the benefit of the doubt - consider confronting him after he's displayed inappropriate behavior. Explain how you interpreted the behavior and let him know you're trying to help him and the team.

Many people quickly realize they were perceived negatively and work to deal with their arrogance. Even if they're not completely successful in altering themselves, they're now at least aware of it and should be able to limit the behavior to some degree.

Sure, there'll be others that won’t get it . . . at all. You did the right thing though, by making them aware of how they're perceived and you may want to bring it up to him again at a later point. But give him some specifics on what he's doing and how it's impacting the team.

Bottom line - watch it! If it's your supervisor that's the arrogant one, subtly let him know. If it's you that's the arrogant one, listen to your peers and learn to change.

Tell The Truth

I just read the coolest quote from Pixar President Ed Catmull. He said, "Management's job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur. It must be safe to tell the truth."

Wow. The End.

It's Your Call

Decisions. In Lee Iacocca’s autobiography, he says, “If I had to sum up in one word what makes a good manager, I’d say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act. And I don’t mean rashly. I’m sometimes described as a flamboyant leader and hipshooter, a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants operator. But if that were true, I could never have been successful in business.”

This quote from Lee Iacocca illustrates how you’ll never get anything accomplished unless you’re prepared to make decisions. When you reach the top, the workers below you will only be as effective as YOUR decisions.

A decision can go one way or another – either POSITIVELY or NEGATIVELY. INdecision, though, can only be negative. Now that you have that nice office with the window, it doesn’t mean that you sit around reading the sports section all day just letting things happen. Get off your duff. The more decisions you make, the better your judgment and decisions will become. Not sure how to make the best decisions? Here a few tips:

- Never make decisions based on emotion or to prove a point. That will bring you more problems then you had in the first place, and ones that tend to escalate.

- Make sure you have a good grasp of the subject. Write it down and list the pros and cons. Don’t take too long to make decisions. Writing things down will help move it along.

- Get input from people whose opinions you trust. Use your network – if you don’t have one, build one – now.

- Once you make your decision, make sure it’s executed swiftly and fully.

You’ve been making decisions your whole life. Now’s the time to put together everything you’ve learned. Be confident, carry it, and show it. You owe it to your team and yourself.

EXTRA NOTE: I'm currently reading an advance copy of Tony Hsieh's (CEO of Zappos.com), book, "Delivering Happiness". It's a great book detailing his early childhood entrepreneurism up to current time. It will inspire your own success, better customer service and focusing on your company culture. If you'd like a chance to win an advance copy, comment back to me the name of the company that Tony sold to Microsoft. If you'd like to find out more about Tony's upcoming book release (June 7) go to http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/.

Apologize And Learn Your Lesson

Have you ever made a mistake and not known what to do to make things right? You say you don’t make mistakes? Let me tell ya – you make more mistakes than you think you do. Mistakes HAPPEN, whether you want to admit it or not. A mistake can be the result of misinformation, confusion or just a simple accident. Once discovered though, a mistake can shake trust and cause people to question your abilities. Making amends following a mistake is one of the most important things you can do. It helps you move beyond the confrontation and prevent the same mistake from happening again.

The first thing you need to do is ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY. Admitting that you made a mistake and letting others know you're to blame makes people more receptive of your apology. APOLOGIZE to the people you offended. Be genuine and forthright. Without going into great detail, explain the reason you made the mistake and reassure the person(s) it won't happen again.

Try your darndest to MAKE THINGS RIGHT if you can. Take any opportunity to reverse the effects of your mistake. Unless you own a DeLorean with a “flux capacitor”, you cannot erase the mistake you made, but striving to improve the situation is crucial to making amends.

You may actually have to BACK OFF a bit because some people feel wounded when they’re the victim of someone’s mistake. Trying to push for acceptance of your apology may leave them feeling resentful. Give them time to recover and re-establish trust with you.

After proving through your actions that you have LEARNED YOUR LESSON, try to regain a sense of normalcy in your relationships (hopefully "normalcy" is good). The other person's demeanor and body language will indicate when you've made satisfactorily amends. MOVE FORWARD and put the incident behind you.

Remember to let the other person(s) set the tone for your interactions until things get better. In trying to put it all behind you quickly, you may become overbearing. That’s the last thing you’ll want. TIME heals all.

EXTRA NOTE: I'm currently reading an advance copy of Tony Hsieh's (CEO of Zappos.com), book, "Delivering Happiness" (it's reeaaly good so far). If you'd like a chance to win an advance copy, tell me what was the name of the company that Tony sold to Microsoft. If you'd like to find out more about Tony's upcoming book release (June 7) go to http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/.

Pimp My Energy

Cash? Raise? Bonus? They may help a bit, but none of them will make an energizing impact on employees these days like they have in the past. The ole standby of threats and intimidation may have worked in days gone by, but now only serve to decrease morale and build up resentment. Employees today want their supervisors to hold their best interests at heart and to SHOW IT each day. They want more meaning and responsibility in their work.

According to Bob Nelson, author of 1001 Ways to Energize Employees, “trust, respect, and consideration from managers are the foundation of an energized organization.” Executives at the Cigna Group, “personally push coffee around the office, serving drinks and refreshments to their front-line partners.” This serves two purposes. First, the employees feel appreciated by the gesture made by top management. And second, they have the opportunity to raise concerns and resolve issues all at the same time – on the front line.

One of the best ways to involve employees in an organization, and to energize them in the process, is by asking for employee ideas. The City of Phoenix openly receives employee suggestions and then notifies each one “in writing about the final disposition of their suggestions within 60 days of the date the suggestion was received.” When someone’s suggestion is rejected, they’re also sent a letter giving a full explanation of why the idea wasn't accepted. How many organizations do you know of that do that? Actually, how many do you know of that have a SERIOUS suggestion program? Most talk, but don’t walk.

Who knows best what motivates your team better than they do? Get them involved with the process. That added bit of energy can come from the most “unorthodox” places. To challenge normal tech thinking, and to spur energy and creativity, Honda Motors (obviously not Toyota) places individuals who know nothing about technology on the company's design teams. Huuh? This is classic thinking outside of the box. Great ideas and discussions can come from the questions that arise from the person who knows nothing about the system. Things the people closest to the system would never have thought about.

Workplace boredom is a major cause of turnover. Energizing the job shouldn’t be a tricky task (if it is, maybe YOU’re in the wrong job). It just requires you to stay alert to opportunities to encourage people and to suggest ways for them to energize their own jobs.

Responsibility and Owning Your Job

I recently read a speech by Admiral Hyman Rickover, the Father of the Nuclear Navy, that he delivered at Columbia University in 1982. He was one of the most successful - and controversial - managers of the 20th century. He was big on providing clear purpose, emphasis on staff development, and a willingness to give them ownership. Admiral Rickover was definitely a management visionary. Trivia: Admiral Rickover and his team designed and built the first nuclear submarine in just 3 years.

This week I'd like to share the following few paragraphs from Admiral Rickover's Columbia speech:

"When doing a job - any job - one must feel like he owns it, and act as though he will be in the job forever. He must look after his work just as conscientiously, as though it were his own business or his own money. If he feels he is only a temporary custodian, or that the job is just a stepping stone to a higher position, his actions will not take into effect the long-term interests of the organization. His lack of commitment to the current job will be perceived by those who work for him, and they, likewise, will tend not to care. Too many spend their entire working lives looking for their next job. When one feels he owns his present job and acts that way, he need have no concern about his next job.

In accepting responsibility for a job, a person must get personally involved. Every manager has a personal responsibility not only to find problems but to correct them. This responsibility comes before all other obligations, before personal ambition or comfort.

A manager must instill in his people an attitude of personal responsibility for seeing a job accomplished. Unfortunately, this seems to be declining, particularly in large organizations were responsibility is broadly distributed. To complaints of job poorly done, one often hears the excuse, 'I am not responsible.' I believe that is literally correct. The man who takes such a stand in fact is not responsible; he is irresponsible. While he may not be legally liable, or the work may not have been specifically assigned to him, no one involved in a job can divest himself of responsibility for its successful completion."

There is no substitute for hard work and determination. Take responsibility. Do these things, as the leader, and staff will follow your "lead".