Part one of a three part series. How to recognize a culture change is needed.

 
The Sinking Ship
A n underperforming culture looks like anything in-between a sinking battered battleship to a shiny new Titanic. One has been through war; the other is fresh from the paint booth. Both are sinking despite how they look on the exterior. One may have a humbled heroic captain grasping onto the sinking ship as its crew has fought gallantly to keep it afloat. The other with an arrogantly blind captain grasping to the notion that his boat is the best, all the while it’s going down and taking people with it. They’re both going to hit the bottom of the ocean.
 
What Does a Sinking Ship Look Like?
Here are some symptoms your ship may be going down:

What About Me Syndrome - Selfish teams never go far.
Foggy Priorities - Teams without clarity always stumble.
Fear - Teams need to feel confident that they can share openly.

 
How Do These Cracks Manifest?

Lack of a true collective passion for excellence.
Underperforming people.
Rapid change in a structure, like a merger or acquisition.
Lack of follow-through on commitments made by team members.
Team members giving up accountability.
HR issues stemming from certain leaders.
Shallow communication.
Turnover.
Low sales.
Sneaky politics.
Low motivation levels.
High number of sick days used.
Lack of quality.
Team members smile and head nodding leadership rather than confronting issues.

Often the larger the organizations are, the more these symptoms tend to hide under the surface.
 
Jim Collins (Good To Great) taught us that it's easier to get a terrible organization to be great than it is to get a good one to be great. In this he shows us that the blindly arrogant captain may have the most challenging symptom to deal with of all - pride. Arrogance is the biggest obstacle to changing a business culture.
 
We all build a culture around us, either on purpose or by accident. Culture happens by intent or neglect. It will crave crisis, mirror mediocrity or ignite excellence. Are you intentionally shaping yours?
 
Go to part two of this three part series:
How To Change Culture | The Cure | Part Two

“A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe fruit at length falls into his lap.”

— Abraham Lincoln

 These three things that Jack Hollis shared are from the Excellent Cultures radio show and podcast.  You can listen to the streaming show in it's entirety here:

Engaging People

Engagement comes from helping one another, not helping yourself. No person can make the end-all happen. You can control your attitude and your effort, the rest of it is not in your control. All I asked our team is to give your teammates your best effort.
 
If you're not authentic and not transparent, it's hard for people to trust you. If you don't get trust you don't get buy-in, if you don't get buy-in, you don't go anywhere.
 
I want our team to understand that we not only have each other’s backs, but we want to see each other succeed. By doing so everyone succeeds beyond 1+1=2. Synergy takes over and we get multiplication rather than addition.

Three Cancers to a High Performing Culture

What About Me?
Starts with entitlement and when we feel like we deserve something, then we're self-focused rather than team focused. When we or someone on the team begins to say,
 
- Why didn't I get…?
- I deserve…
- What about me?
 
That is when things start deteriorating. Pretty soon it becomes contagious. The "What about me?" or “What am I going to get from it?” philosophy is the most frustrating thing a leader can face. It's where things begin to turn bad for the entire organization. Toyota has always done a great job of recognizing those people and challenging them quickly to get back on board with the team.
 
Foggy Priorities

When we don't know what we're focused on, we don't know where we are going. The priorities are not easily defined. Then it becomes difficult for people to stay connected and focused.  We need to know where we are going, and have that clearly defined regularly.
 
Fear

When people don't feel safe to speak candidly and freely and withhold or delay sharing their opinions.  Where management shuts people down, or doesn't listen.  This is not always intention but nonetheless a cancer to high performing cultures.  Ask yourself, “What am I doing or not doing to encourage my team to not speak up and share their opinions?”

Advice to the Leaders That Have These Cancers

Personal Commitment

Is it really important to you as the leader to make that change? To allow that freedom of conversation, opinion, and risk taking. You have to look in the mirror first. Am I causing this entitlement, fogginess, and fear? What am I doing to either cause or allow this?
 
What brings the engagement of those you lead is when you can admit to yourself and others that you are the problem or part of it. Your transparent honesty opens the door for others to admit their downfalls and then you can grow together.
 
Personal Engagement

If it’s not you directly causing it, you need to be able to talk to your employees directly, allowing them to air that out and help evaluate and investigate where the cancer is coming from.  Often it’s not the entire culture; it’s one or two individuals.  Root those out; it’s not a problem because it’s not about getting upset at that employee. It’s about talking to that employee and asking questions:  Why are we having a difficult time?  Then throughout the conversation listen and talk it out together.  The goal is always to grow the individual and bring them back on track with the team.
 

Jack Hollis
Vice President, Marketing
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
 
Jack Hollis is vice president of Toyota Marketing at Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A. Inc.  He is responsible for all Toyota Division market planning, advertising, merchandising, sales promotion, incentives, NASCAR and motor sports, Internet, and service, parts, and accessory marketing activities.
 
In his previous position, Hollis represented the Scion division as vice president responsible for all Scion activities.  Just prior, he was corporate manager of Scion, and led overall Scion operations, including sales, distribution, marketing, product development and customer service.
 
Hollis has served as corporate sales manager of private distributors and sales strategies where he was responsible for all aspects of business relating to Toyota's private distributors, Gulf States Toyota and Southeast Toyota.
 
Beginning his career with Toyota in 1992, Hollis served as a management trainee. Since then he has had several national and regional management positions, including vehicle operations manager, sales administration manager, Lexus dealer advertising manager, customer services marketing manager, retail development manager and district manager (sales and parts).
 
Hollis also worked as a special assistant to the TMS president, acting as the primary liaison for internal and external groups interfacing with the office of the president and coordinating with executive committee offices while overseeing coordination of the president's daily activities.
 
A graduate of Stanford University, Hollis earned his bachelor’s degree in economics. He was also a member of Stanford’s NCAA Division 1 National Championship Baseball team and the Cincinnati Reds for two seasons playing under Coach Pete Rose.

The traditional definition: Servant leadership is both a leadership philosophy and set of leadership practices. Traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid.” By comparison, the servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Servant leadership begins with the reality that leadership is a sacrificial position. When we carry leadership roles we lose certain freedoms. We must also lose certain opinions, or at least keep those opinions from coming out of our mouths and actions towards those we lead, for the greater good. Many think that as leaders we give up personal fulfillment, for the greater good. This may seem true at the beginning, but soon you recognize the greater fulfillment that comes from seeing others succeed. In essence, when you're a leader you give up your personal rights for the sake of those you lead. You value others as you value yourself, without attributing your position as a higher status but as an equal status lifting others to greater heights.

The phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:

“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.” “The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“

Our friend entrepreneur Kevin Owyang talks to Dennis Bakke, about his new book, The Decision Maker, and shares his interviews with other experts about how bringing social responsibility into a startup impacts a business: Social Responsibility and a 'Servant' Boss Can Spark a Startup

Kevin Owyang is founder of B Jibe, a not-for-profit project of Avolusis, LLC where Owyang is chief executive officer.

A Sales Driven Company Doesn’t Have To Be Just About Profit

with Joe Shine, CFO Sheehy Auto Sales
 
C ulture Leaders meet Joe Shine, the CFO of the $900 million company Sheehy Auto Stores and recipient of the CFO of the Year Award by Atlanta Business Chronicle. From simple beginnings in 1965, Sheehy Ford began as a small, suburban, family-owned car dealership just off the brand-new Washington, D.C. Beltway. Because of their customers, they were immediately successful, and by 1975 had become the largest Ford dealership in the country. Today, the company is still primarily family-owned and has grown to more than 30,000 vehicle sales per year. With stores located from Baltimore, MD to Richmond, VA., Sheehy has 19 locations in the Mid-Atlantic region with 21 franchises.

Highlighting this leader in this company is easy. It’s a story that needs to be told. Leadership styles in the transportation industry are notoriously in need of improvement. Joe and Sheehy deserve to be recognized in this area. Just take a look at couple of pages on their site and you can just feel how they value their employees, which in turn value their customers. Using language like, “Because of you, the customer, we were immediately successful” and “Our employees are our greatest asset, and they set us apart from other dealership organizations in this highly competitive market.” Being a culture leader in the automotive industry is no small feat! Who have you ever spoken to that loves going and buying a car - let alone work for a car dealership? Shine won Best Places to Work in Atlanta as a leader when he was with Nalley Automotive there - the first automobile company ever to win and they were the first company of any industry ever to win two years in a row. This took place just two years after completing the Excellent Cultures curriculum and process. Joe was then recruited as CFO for Sheehy Auto Stores because of his leadership excellence and moved to the DC area where he currently serves the Sheehy organization.
 
Sheehy is the real deal and is a great model for what an excellent culture looks like. A client and friend, Joe Shine is an integral part of the Sheehy way. We sat down with him to hear his wisdom so we could share it with you.
 
CULTURE OF ETHICS, VALUES AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?
Organizational studies and human resource management consistently show high turnover in the sales industries. This isn’t so at Sheehy Auto Stores. We asked Joe what he considered an ideal culture, especially knowing that car dealerships notoriously have a negative image. He proudly stated, “I've always chosen to work for companies where I can be proud to work.”
 
In fast paced sales industries where high dollar spiffs and bonuses rule, Joe shared with us a different way to go. “We have to treat people the way they want to be treated. When we send a customer or a friend to one of our stores, they come back and rave about how they’ve never been treated by a car dealer this way before.”

“We have to treat people the way they want to be treated. When we send a customer or a friend to one of our stores, they come back and rave about how they’ve never been treated by a car dealer this way before.”

This culture happens because Sheehy trusts and empowers their employees to do the right thing. “We don’t criticize or correct their decisions, just coach them on it. This shows them that we trust them.”
 
Joe let us know that when they put that kind of trust in their teams, it makes it a fun place work. No one’s worried about getting yelled at or ridiculed; they look forward to contributing and adding their value and ideas to the entire company.
 
Too often we see that the direct sales industry puts the sales associate at the center of his or her own existence. By placing a person on commission, they’re naturally directed to focus on their own survival rather than placing the customer first. Sheehy wants the customer to be the center of their existence so there isn’t an emphasis on commissions with the sales force. This means their employees can maximize their focus on serving customers, not trying to maximize on the profit and forgetting about the customer. Sheehy works hard to show their employees how much they are valued so that the sales associates can experience it and value their customers in the same way.
 
How about these customer focused policies for an automotive dealership chain: In the 1970’s, Sheehy launched a three-day, money back guarantee for any dissatisfied customer - a first ever in the market. In 1991, they began the now famous Sheehy Markdown to ensure that no customer ever pays too much for a vehicle at any of their stores. Every new car and truck is value priced below the manufacturer's list price with a Sheehy Markdown sticker prominently displayed on the windshield. Preowned cars and trucks are priced at the market price. If vAuto says the car is worth $19K, Sheehy prices it at $19K, not $22K, trying to make an exorbitant profit. Sheehy does this because their focus isn’t vehicles out the door; it’s long-term customer relationships based on trust and integrity.
 
Their customer-centric approach has earned their stores some of the most prized awards in the industry. All of their Ford stores are Blue Oval Certified. The Glen Burnie, Manassas and Annapolis Nissan stores have all earned Nissan's Owner First Award for their achievements in customer satisfaction. In addition, their Honda store is a past President's Award winner. Their Lexus store has earned the highest awards given by Lexus and is a "Lexus Elite" award winner. And let's not forget their Infiniti store, an Award of Excellence winner. These awards are only possible due to customers’ glowing responses to their sales and service.
 
AVOIDING THE VALUE SYSTEM DETERIORATION IN ORGANIZATIONS
Joe shared his thoughts on how Sheehy maintains high standards of ethics.

“When you have a bad month, it's easy to throw everything out the window. A couple of bad months and you start putting pressure on your employees. Companies start putting pressure on people to compromise ethics and values, turning it into a not very fun environment to work in. The key to any organization’s long-term success is staying true in the hard times. It's easy to change when times are tough, but good companies like Sheehy are in it for the long haul.”
 
Being in it for the long haul, not just the current season, is what separates the good from the great. Joe continued, “It’s not a daily game but a lifelong game. When someone makes a mistake and compromises, we believe in coaching them back on track to the fact that our Customers for Life Philosophy is the best path and the way we choose to go. Sheehy has a lot of long-term employees and has been in business for a long time because of this.”
 
Employee engagement is always a key to longevity of employees. Joe shared that when he’s seen people draw back is when they don't feel empowered to make the right decisions because they fear that they are going to be yelled at or disciplined. They disengage when they feel mistakes aren’t allowed. Sheehy has worked hard to have policies that empower their people to not just be proud of where they work but to feel free to do what it takes to make changes that need to be made to serve the best interest of their customers.
 
SOME ADVICE FOR TODAY’S BUSINESSES AND CORPORATIONS

We loved hearing what Joe had to share regarding how other organizations can learn from Sheehy’s model. Sheehy being in the automotive industry has shown that you’ve got to be different than most for customers to come to you and stay with you. You've got to treat people like family members. Then they'll go out and tell a lot of people about that and your business will grow.
 
According to Joe, this begins with treating employees like family members. If you have employees who enjoy working for you, you have happy customers. Employee satisfaction leads to high customer satisfaction. If you do things right, you get the benefits. If you don’t, you pay the price. “As leaders, we need to make sure that our people never have to face the temptations of high pressure to take shortcuts wherever we can.”

“As leaders, we need to make sure that our people never have to face the temptations of high pressure to take shortcuts wherever we can.”

One of the biggest yet most simple things that make a huge positive difference is to just show people that you care about them. It goes further to develop trust and success than any other factor. They don’t care what you know until they know that you care. If they feel this, they'll go through walls for you. This goes for employees and customers.

"Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another."
— George Washington

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"Leaders conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts."
— John W. Gardner

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"Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away."

— Admiral James B. Stockdale

Are the leadership interaction styles in your organization encouraging employee engagement?  Get advice from the experts at Excellent Cultures now about your business safety, where you are with your safety program and where you’d like to improve.

"If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever."

— G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott

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Developing a Culture of Ethics, Values & Employee Engagement Series:

THE MOSS ADAMS CULTURE – P.i.l.l.a.r.

Moss Adams has a strong culture focused on Passion for excellence in serving their clients, team members and the communities they practice in, by creating a team culture in the process.  One of their founding formations is the acronym PILLAR:

P- Passion for excellence
I- integrity
L- lifetime learning
L- leading by example
A- accountability
R- respect

The only letter they capitalize is the “P” for Passion. Bob filled us in on passion being the founding factor within their culture; a passion for all these values is what keeps them going.

“If there is not a driving passion for excellence, integrity, learning, leading by example, having accountability, and respecting customers and one another then we lose the point.” - Bob Hinton

Their Pillar culture is part of the employee evaluation process within the organization; it is fastened as a principal to all decision-making, within employee relationships and operational business process. They spend a lot of time implementing PILLAR culture.

 “I find that the marketplace responds well to our Passion for our Pillar culture, while we work hard to understand our client’s values and culture. It’s the best way to maintain a long term relationship.” - Bob Hinton

MOSS ADAMS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee engagement is vital to the Moss Adams culture. We can see just by examining Mr. Hinton as the example, partner in the Moss Adams culture that is growing, reproducing, and lasting past 100 years. Bob gave us a clear path as to how employee engagement is one key to Moss Adams success.

Moss Adams reinforces Pillar culture through ongoing:

• Communication
• Mentoring
• Coaching
• Formal Consensus Building Meetings (twice a year)
  • Written Evaluations
  • Consensus discussion amongst 3-4 people creating honest feedback for individuals
• Up-streams (once a year)
  • Anyone can anonymously write an evaluation on the people above him or her in leadership. Giving them feedback on communication style, adherence to the Moss Adams Pillar Values systems, and more.
  • Those can be received anonymously or through a consensus building process.

These things are such a part of the fabric of Moss Adams culture that they are expected and received without negativity, creating transparency and teamwork.

For over 35 years, Excellent Cultures has continued to help create similar cultures with this type of transparency and mutual respect.

Grabbing this idea and running with it is not the answer for organizations that have bad culture. Without the foundation of the Pillar values or something similar, transparent feedback could turn into tattletale sessions where grippers gain ground and erode culture even further. The values must be in place to uphold these great processes of engagement, transparency, and teamwork in order for them to be productive. You can’t serve a five star meal on a dirty plate, the plate needs to first be cleaned for the five star meal to shine and have the presentation and flavor that it should.

“It’s not just the values it’s the people along the way that make the difference.” – Bob Hinton

IMPLIMENTING CULTURE IN A STRONG BUSINESS MODEL

The organizations that often stay strong in these times also hold to cornerstones of fundamental business management. Those corner stones being:

If you’re trying to hire the best people, manage the best people, retain the best people, and you’re trying to encourage and manage folks in that process, there’s a tendency at times for some organizations to not challenge their people. Afraid to go to their key players and fill them in on the issues and challenge them to step up, letting them know their value, while asserting that their organization needs more out of them.

BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS BY DEALING WITH CONFLICT
Authentic relationships that we have with people are much more important than any kind of survey. The killer is unresolved conflict. Only authentic relationships can overcome this.

“Protect your time so that you're not distracted from taking the time to really connect with your people and reach into relationships to listen and serve in an authentic way.” – Bob Hinton

“Within the context of our own character we must always ask ourselves, am I coachable?  Am I receptive to positive and negative feedback?  Am I willing to listen to a mentor?  We’ve got to stay coachable.  The minute we aren’t coachable we lose ground as mentors.” – Bob Hinton

HOW TO ESTABLISH & RESTORE A CULTURE OF ETHICS, VALUES, & EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Many reading this may truly want a culture change.  Perhaps you’re in a position that you’re ready to resign and move on from the toxic culture that you’re in.  Perhaps you’re a leader of a business culture and you want true change in your company, teams, and people.

We’ve heard many leaders over the years say, “I just need better people!”  I often disagree.  What you often need is a better culture that brings the best out of the people you already have.  A great culture will then nurture the greatness in people, which in turn will draw more great people.

Bob’s advice:

Be authentic about it. You may not see the results right away. There is no secret sauce. It's about trial and error, not about chasing unattainable perfection.

Successful companies should evaluate what they're doing. Outside coaches provide the tools while you provide the heart. Too often corporations become unconsciously competent at what they do and forget the important things that work for the long haul.

Ask yourself these key questions: Am I coachable? Am I receptive to positive and negative feedback? Am I willing to listen to a mentor, even if that mentor is currently positioned under me? Always stay coachable! The change in any organization begins in you, the leadership.

There's a lot of people who want to mentor and a lot of people who don't want to mentor. Don’t give up, keep looking for them, and keep nurturing them. You don't get this stuff out of a book. You get it from living it every day at home and at work. You get it from coaching and mentoring, and being coached and mentored.

“Creating value and opportunity in the marketplace always works.  Great companies embrace this reality.”  - Bob Hinton

ABOUT OUR INTERVIEWEE:

ROBERT L. HINTON JR., CPA
MOSS ADAMS

Tacoma Office Managing Partner

Automotive and Dealer Services National Practice Leader

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Bob has been with Moss Adams for over 20 years and has worked with large middle-market companies his entire career. He has significant experience working with clients on both tax and assurance engagements, as well as due diligence, operational consulting, strategic and wealth management assignments. In 1999 he became the firm’s Dealer Services industry group leader. This practice is one of the largest retail automotive and commercial equipment dealership practices in the country. He is also the chairman of the Praxity dealer services group which represents five regional CPA firms serving over 2,000 dealerships nationally. In 2007 he also became the managing partner of the Tacoma office. Bob is also a member of the University of Washington Business Advisory Board in Tacoma and is active in a number of civic organizations.

Bob has also helped develop and implement a number of firm-wide consultative “products” designed to help clients identify ways to increase profitability and manage business risk. These products include “SCORE” which is an operational consulting and profitability tool and our “BOSS Evaluator” with is a succession planning tool for closely held businesses. He has also developed an “owner focused” strategic planning tool (called the four corner stone plan) and an executive accountability planning model.

He is one of 15 recipients of the firm’s technical excellence award for consulting services and has collaborated on a number of articles and a nationally recognized management guide on financial management. For fun outside of the office, Bob is an avid Jazz Drummer.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS

Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants
Washington State Automobile Dealers Association
National Chairman of Praxity Dealer Services group
University of Washington Business Advisory Board - Tacoma

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration – University of Puget Sound

"No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings."
— Peter Drucker

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"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."
— John Kenneth Galbraith

Are the leadership interaction styles in your organization encouraging employee engagement? Have your organizational safety numbers reached a plateau? Get advice from the experts at Excellent Cultures now about your business safety, where you are with your safety program and where you’d like to improve.

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers."
— Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

Are the leadership interaction styles in your organization encouraging employee engagement? Have your organizational safety numbers reached a plateau? Get advice from the experts at Excellent Cultures now about your business safety, where you are with your safety program and where you’d like to improve.

There is no doubt that Tony Hsieh has been spotlighted as someone who has effectively moved Zappos forward in production and profitability. One of the things we find fascinating about Tony has been his recent switch to a wider-angle view.

Zappos moved its headquarters to Henderson, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas, back in 2004. He explains the decision simply: "It seems there weren't too many people in the Bay Area who thought of working in a call center as a career calling." By 2010, though, the company had outgrown its headquarters. Hsieh got to thinking about what makes for a thriving community, both inside and outside a company's walls. Inspired by Harvard economist Edward Glaeser's 2011 book, Triumph of the City, which explores the ways cities and humans interact and depend on one another, he eventually decided to move Zappos into Las Vegas' empty City Hall, in the long-overlooked Fremont neighborhood. The idea was classic Hsieh. In the same way he had succeeded in somehow making customer service fun, he was determined to flip traditional ideas of the company "campus" on their head. He cites statistics showing that when a city doubles in size, its productivity increases by 50 percent. When companies double in size, their productivity actually drops. "So we're working on this weird hybrid approach to try and prevent that," he says. Population density is key. Zappos' space per employee — 120 square feet in Henderson versus a national average of 200 to 300 — will shrink to about 100.  He's also part of a team of investors pumping $350 million into revitalizing Las Vegas. (EXCERPT FROM: Esquire)

This is fascinating! It seems so basic and easily applicable to every corporate structuring. We have to understand that the basics of small business still work in the large corporate culture of a business like Zappos. Zappos was considered too big of a giant for Amazon to kill, so they purchased it for $1.2 billion instead of trying to compete with it.

The nature of small business is to add value to the neighborhood. Creating community, not just profit, although we all agree profit must take place. Being someone who lives in the most densely populated urban area of Seattle, my wife and I greatly value the places we go to have a cocktail, a coffee, grab a book, or have a bite to eat. The walking distance of these businesses and the community we find there are what we appreciate most about them, far beyond their product.

When I talk to other people about their ideal living situation, many have a vision of a neighborhood with character, where you can walk to a neighborhood beer garden on a Friday night or a little bakery on a Sunday morning, and have serendipitous meetings with friends and neighbors.

Tony has begun doing this with Zappos. He hasn’t forgotten what truly valuing humanity creates within a company and in its customer base. People want community, not just a product.

Perhaps it’s too far removed from us, but remember the old days when you wouldn’t commute to work? Remember when you lived in the area you worked? Local shops, restaurants, boutiques, and the like were where you got everything you needed. We built relationships and community around these interactions. Some of our basic human needs are dependent on the simple fact that we need each other.

When asked why he’s part of a team of investors pumping $350 million into revitalizing Las Vegas, Hsieh replied that it's not all altruism and corporate advancement. Hsieh has a more practical reason:

"Why else am I doing it? Because I live there. That's why."

Maybe we can get back to the basics of seeking the welfare of the city where we live, realizing that in its welfare we will find our welfare. In the day of corporate giants, franchises, and chains, we still need each other. It will take great risks to make changes which value humanity. It will take us choosing inner peace over King Kong profits. But in the long run, peace is what matters and profits will come, they will also go. Thanks for leading the way Tony.

Excellent Cultures has been building "Tony Hsieh" style business cultures for over 35 years. We'd love to chat, talk to our experts for free now: 

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual…O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”
― Henry David Thoreau

Developing a Culture of Ethics, Values & Employee Engagement Series:

We are not web professionals, nor do we claim to have the knowledgeable expertise of webhosting or information technologies. What we do know is how to measure and benchmark business culture, change how leaders lead, draw in your team and create greater employee engagement. We do this while sustaining new business cultures far past events and pep-rallies. We also are the world’s best at being able to recognize the difference between which companies are faking the community corporate culture and which ones are truly living it.

Often we get glimpses into the first line of defense for any corporate structure, customer service. The customer experience is often a sign of a decent corporate culture but it is never a defining factor. Because the customer experience can be forced, disingenuous, and lack true transparency through fear tactics and driving numbers, one must look below the surface to find the core.

Since we’ve been given insight to many corporate structures we wanted to highlight those where we could pass on both the good and bad experiences we’ve had over our 35 years creating high performance cultures for clients. We do this in a way not to promote or belittle other companies, but to simply learn from these experiences and move forward in our own context of business, culture, and leadership.

Many of you may have known that on September 10, 2012 GoDaddy had a major fail. They are one of the, if not the largest DNS companies in the world, most known for their outlandish marketing campaigns with GoDaddy girls, including professional Indy Car driver Danica Patrick, and some bikes made by Orange County Choppers.

They had internal problems that resulted in their entire customer base having outages of either their websites, e-mails, or both. GoDaddy was later quoted in saying,

“There was not a single issue that caused the service disruption. Rather, it was the combination of multiple factors. The combined factors that contributed to the service disruption were:

1. Router memory exhaustion
2. Router hardware failure modes
3. Containment"

When the news hit social media you could see complaints coming from small business owners , mommy bloggers, internet trolls, and more. It was a storm that made the “sexy” marketing giant look truly foolish. What would be the response be from such a total meltdown?

Two days later every customer received an email from CEO Scott Wagner. This email was an amazing representation of how corporations, leaders, and mommy bloggers ought to take responsibility for our actions. Mr Wagner quickly stated,

“We owe you a big apology for the intermittent service outages we experienced on September 10, that may have impacted your website, your email and other Go Daddy services. We let you down and we know it. We take our responsibilities — and the trust you place in us — very seriously. I cannot express how sorry I am to those of you who were inconvenienced.” 

On October 4, 2012, almost a month later, Auguste Goldman 
Chief Infrastructure Officer released a blog stating the details for you technoids out there. Also mentioning GoDaddy’s pride for delivering high-quality services and stating his heartfelt apologies.

What a wonderful showing of humility, honesty, integrity, and good faith, truly a surprise coming from the “sexy” marketing beast known as GoDaddy. Kudos to you GoDaddy, Auguste Goldman 
CIO and you as well Mr Scott Wagner CEO, you’ve given us a model of well played customer service, cultural integrity, and honesty. Thank You.

Are your employees as safe as they can be?  Are the leadership interaction styles in your organization encouraging employee engagement? Have your organizational safety numbers reached a plateau?  Get advice from the experts at Excellent Cultures now about your business safety, where you are with your safety program and where you’d like to improve.

"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I.' And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I.' They don't think 'I.' They think 'we'; they think 'team.' They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done."

- Peter Drucker

Are your employees as safe as they can be? Are the leadership interaction styles in your organization encouragingemployee engagement? Have your organizational safety numbers reached a plateau? Get advice from the experts at Excellent Cultures now about your business safety, where you are with your safety program and where you’d like to improve.

"I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game."

- Tom Landry

Developing a Culture of Ethics, Values & Employee Engagement Series:

CULTURE IS A RAILROAD SYSTEM
Interview with Russell Freeman, CFC/COO for Ross Perot

With 35 years in the business we’ve had the opportunity to work with some great companies. Many relationships we’ve formed over those years of service to companies have led us to opportunities to interview some of the nations top leaders. The other day via landline, cell phone, and Skype we got to chat with Russell Freeman.

Russell is the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for the Perot Group led by Ross Perot (Yes, the businessman best known for running for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996.). Russell focuses on providing operational and financial leadership to all of the Perot business activities (See Mr. Freeman’s full bio below). The Perot group has had multiple companies that were built on a culture of ethics, values, and a “do the right thing” environment. A real testament to the significance of culture and its impact on a company when there is a "disconnect" in culture can be found in looking at two of Ross Perot's former companies - EDS and Perot Systems.

Both of those companies had an extremely strong culture, very much in the spirit of a "do the right thing" culture. The culture was driven from the top - and lived out daily. So what happened to those companies once other companies with a significantly different culture acquired them? Well, EDS (now owned by HP), is an all but a dead company. HP recently wrote down the value of EDS as an asset by billions.

Far too often we see that when a company changes hands, the culture of the original rarely remains intact. Often the clash in cultures between two product companies and one being of the strong values based, "do the right thing" service company they acquired, usually fundamentally kills’ both of them.

This is something that we've been discussing. The fact that companies spend millions for due diligence on acquisition targets but rarely does culture even get a mention. It's ridiculous, because it's without a doubt, the most important aspect of blending two companies! Like a marriage, right?

So how does the Perot System culture operate? How do they continue to have these winning teams? For that, we interviewed Russell Freeman. As we spoke over the phone Russell was in the car on his way to helping start a cancer support group at his church. A common trait we’ve found in great culture leaders, they have a care for the community that goes beyond themselves, their company, and their personal interests. Catching a busy CFO/COO is no small task as we routed Skype to a landline that so graciously was connected to Russell’s cell by Rene, his administrative assistant that was so full of warmth and southern hospitality that we could sense it, even over the phone.

IDEAL CULTURE & LEADERSHIP

Out the gate we wanted to know what Russell’s vision of an ideal culture was. Without hesitation he dove in definitively that there must be a clearly communicated set of defined values. Knowing that every company has at least a mission statement, Russell quickly jumped in to let us know,

“It doesn't work unless it has leadership behind it, living it, breathing it, and loving it.”

Leadership is critical. Someone has to set expectations. It has to be communicated, taught, lived out and displayed daily and consistently. Leadership lays the initial tracks which the train will travel on. Throughout the life of a company, leadership’s main role is to keep the train on the tracks. Leadership has got to be married to the given set of values and principles. When leadership isn’t married to them, the organization quickly loses track and all kinds of conclusions are drawn, with rogue conductors leading the way through gossip, undermining the course set by the vision of the leader. At Excellent Cultures we call this beast the culture monster.

Russell hit strongly throughout our time with him that the values and principles are the tracks, and leadership keeps the train moving down the tracks. But that as leaders we have to give team members the ability to execute, empowering them to operate themselves. Giving them the opportunity to innovate and be rewarded. Team members need to be proud of the tracks but have the ability to execute. They drive the train, leadership lays down the tracks.

ORGANIZATION DETERIORATION AND COMBATING IT

At Excellent Cultures we do a lot of work with the best and the worst regarding organizational culture. We wanted to know where Russell might see where the value systems start to deteriorate in organizations. In his normal confident style he explained that when the leaders don't live the values the rails come off. Things then begin to crumble. It becomes everyman for himself and you begin to make really bad decisions. The organization gets way off track when the leaders leave the tracks set by the defined set of values and make decisions based on short term results. When we get those two things combined you’ll have all kinds of bad things happen. Like the Penn State thing, you’re not looking at the long-term so you just remain focused on protecting the organization and short-term results. That is always a bad road to go. Leaders must stay married to the values. They must keep running down the tracks they set up, keeping the long-term in mind.

It was inspiring and yet basic common sense when Russell began to explain how they have avoided this deterioration in Perot Group Companies. They had formed from the beginning regular core leadership training. That was heavy values oriented training. They looked at what was valuable for the organization and for the individuals. Showing them what is the right thing to do for the company and for the individuals involved in the company. They also had higher-up leaders reinforce those values in a major way. Much of it was done with regular training and preaching of the values. So common sense, but so ignored by many organizations. This type of engagement is ignored by companies because they can’t fathom taking the time and resources to do it. But valuing individuals over product is what makes great companies great long-term, rather than successful for the short-term.

ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF LIVED VALUES

Every organization deals with the reality of assessment. How do leaders know they are really on track? At Perot Systems annual employee and associate surveys are normal practice. These assessments gave the chance for team members to state what they thought about our leadership, our values, whether they were proud to be working here, and would they recommend this place to other companies and associates. They also had regular typical associate engagement surveys. Surveys are on a wide range of things. Russell stated emphatically,

“We took those surveys very seriously. The feedback was always off the charts because we had a leadership team that strongly believed and lived out the values.”

There is always the question, was this feedback due to the leaders they would recruit or because of the training? For Perot systems it’s always an endless cycle. It began with a founder whose reputation was solely founded on values by which there were set expectations and they made all their leaders based on those expectations. It was the key thing that they looked at. They hired people that shared the values, whom would then hire others that shared the values. It eventually happened by itself. Like slow cooking popcorn, eventually it happens with little work.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND HUMAN RESCOURCES DEGENERATION

Gallup says over 70% of workers are disengaged from their jobs. This statistic wasn’t proven true for Perot systems. Russell let us know why those statistics didn’t include Perot Systems. He stated that for a team member to be engaged they have to be proud of where they are. There has to be a sense of pride and of mission. If you have an organization and its leadership is such that it is above reproach and can set those expectations because of the trust team members have in them, it tends to drive pride in the organization, pride in where you work. If you have that mutual respect for associates, that's how you succeed.

Russell recommends to businesses that want to maintain a strong engagement focus to lay out the expectations and constantly reinforcing it with training and structure. It has to be from the top of the board throughout the entire organization. Holding each other accountable, living it together. Too often Human Resources rather than the board and the CEO drive these things. That can't happen, the board and the leaders at the top have to own it and live it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Russell grew up in a company that had set those values and with leadership that embraced it. He spent time preaching to us that it's a core principle; that you have to hire people that have it at their core.

“I don't know that you can put in mechanisms that force people to have the kind of culture you want. There are certainly tools that help you gage where they are at, like associate surveys, feedback mechanisms, training. But at the end of the day you have to hire people that have these things within them. That's why it is so important that the board and leaders have these things and are living them.”

At its core, it's really hard to make people think it's important; you've got to find people that already believe that a culture of ethics and values are important. It's got to be a core belief for them.

If you have a long-term view, you have less pressure to sacrifice on values. You begin to realize that values, culture, ethics and principles are actually good business. Russell’s belief:

“That principle, people, and premise create long-term value. What works for me is to treat people like my teammates, not that they work for me.”

As we finished the call, Russell had reached his destination, the cancer support group he was helping start at his church. We came to an end of our time with some basic, but strong words regarding how to keep the train on the tracks. Get the selfish, non-team players out as soon as possible. They ruin culture, create dissention, and generally ruin the experience for everyone. Eventually people want to be a part of something, the selfish, non-team players ruin that natural value within others. Lay tracks with leaders that believe and live the tracks, let the team members be the conductors moving the train.

Are your employees as safe as they can be?  Are the leadership interaction styles in your organization encouragingemployee engagement? Have your organizational safety numbers reached a plateau?  Get advice from the experts at Excellent Cultures now about your business safety, where you are with your safety program and where you’d like to improve.

ABOUT RUSSELL FREEMAN

Russell Freeman
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

Russell Freeman is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for The Perot Group, where he focuses on providing operational and financial leadership to all of the Perot businesses. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the board, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Petrus Trust Company, which is the trustee for all major Perot family trusts. Mr. Freeman is also a board member for HKN Energy, Ltd, which has oil operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Mr. Freeman has more than twenty-four years of operational, financial management, accounting, and business development experience, twenty of which were with Perot Systems Corporation. He served as Chief Operating Officer of Perot Systems from 2007 to 2009 focusing on execution of company-wide strategic and operational objectives. Prior to this role, he served as Chief Financial Officer for seven years and was responsible for the financial analysis and financial management activities in support of Perot Systems worldwide. He was also the main interface to the investment community, oversaw mergers and acquisitions activities, and was responsible for the corporation's planning, accounting, and treasury functions. He previously served as Corporate Controller and was a member of the leadership teams for several of the company’s operating units. Prior to joining Perot Systems in 1989, he worked for Arthur Young & Company.

Mr. Freeman is a member of the Board of Trustees for Southwestern Seminary Foundation, a foundation established for the benefit of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and serves on the Investment Committee for the board. He is an active member of Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church, serving on the Personnel Committee for the church and as an adult Bible teacher.
Mr. Freeman previously received his certificate as a certified public accountant (currently inactive). He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in accounting from Texas Tech University. He has been happily married to his wife, Carolyn, for twenty-five years, and has four sons.

"You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together."

- Henry Ford

"An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success."

- Stephen Covey

"Not many of us will be leaders; and even those who are leaders must also be followers much of the time. This is the crucial role. Followers judge leaders. Only if the leaders pass that test do they have any impact. The potential followers, if their judgment is poor, have judged themselves. If the leader takes his or her followers to the goal, to great achievements, it is because the followers were capable of that kind of response."

- Garry Wills in Certain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership

"Virtually every company will be going out and empowering their workers with a certain set of tools, and the big difference in how much value is received from that will be how much the company steps back and really thinks through their business processes, thinking through how their business can change, how their project management, their customer feedback, their planning cycles can be quite different than they ever were before."

- Bill Gates

"If there is any one axiom that I have tried to live up to in trying to become successful in business, it is the fact that I have tried to surround myself with associates that know more about business than I do. This policy has always been very successful and is still working for me."

- Monte L. Bean

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Today many American corporations spend a great deal of money and time trying to increase the originality of their employees, hoping thereby to get a competitive edge in the marketplace. But such programs make no difference unless management also learns to recognize the valuable ideas among the many novel ones, and then finds ways of implementing them."

- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The Wizard of Oz introduced us to three wonderful and flawed characters. We cheered them on in their magical journey to Oz. One lacked a brain, the other lacked a heart and the third was without courage. With Dorothy and Toto, they plodded along in a fanciful world with witches, wizards, ruby shoes and flying monkeys, searching for what they lacked. In the end, these three endearing characters realized that all along what they were seeking was always well within their grasp. They just needed a way to figure it out, live it and make it part of their DNA.

Similar to the three wonderful and flawed characters of Oz, leaders and organizations today have a choice when it comes to ethics and compliance. They can act like the bumbling Tin Man without a heart, the timid Lion without courage and the not-so-smart Scarecrow without a brain . . . or, alternatively, leaders and companies can take the journey, face the “demons” and come out smart, compassionate and bold. They can create a “do the right thing” company and culture.

A majority of large companies today, particularly those that are publicly traded, have a Compliance & Ethics Department, whose function is to ensure the company and its employees comply with laws, regulations, rules, policies and procedures. If a company does not have a dedicated Compliance & Ethics group then this function likely operates formally or informally through the Law Department.

As part of a company’s ethics, most companies have a mission or values statement. Here, they boldly proclaim their corporate mission, principles, purpose and values, with statements about integrity, honesty, sustainability, courage, customer-first, and innovation. Between Compliance & Ethics Departments, Law Departments, policies, rules, mission statements and value statements, the ubiquitous corporate message is generally something to the effect that: “we are trustworthy and good corporate citizens – do business with us, invest in us and come work for us – you’ll be glad you did.”

The taglines in corporate America are becoming routine and predictable. Although many companies truly live-up to their high standards, it is remarkable the number of leaders and organizations that fall so short of their noble ethical intentions.

It is a simple thing to create departments and check boxes. Any organization can create taglines that tell the world how honest, trustworthy and noble the organization is. Anyone can say anything at any time, that doesn’t make it true or complete. Sometimes such rhetoric is accurate; and other times it is puffery, incomplete and even inaccurate. Unfortunately, for some companies, the mission, values and ethics can be a glittering image of an otherwise dubious underbelly. Much like Oz, what is behind the curtain is sad, disappointing and not as advertised.
This was recently highlighted in the New York Times op-ed by Greg Smith regarding his abrupt departure from Goldman Sachs due to the company’s toxic culture. Mr. Smith’s unflattering description of Goldman Sachs’ culture was the talk of Wall Street, the water cooler, executive offices and board rooms. Someone very publicly ripped open the curtain. Despite Goldman Sachs’ Compliance & Ethics Department and its public mission and purpose, Mr. Smith conveyed a very troublesome picture.

To be fair, these were allegations by one former employee and, if true, Goldman is not alone. Other recent examples include the football programs at Penn State, Ohio State University and the University of Arkansas. This list includes the likes of Bernie Madoff, MF Global, News Corp., HealthSouth, Worldcom and Enron. Unfortunately, there are many more institutional examples of scandals, troublesome cultures and ethical shortcomings. Some we know about, others remain hidden from the public light for the time being, and sadly there are more to come.

The leaders of these organizations surely had ample checklists, policies, functions, and procedures at their fingertips. Nonetheless, these policies and procedures were insufficient in and of themselves to keep the organization true to its ethical intentions. Something was missing.

What they lacked was a “do the right thing” DNA; a values-based, genuine culture of “doing the right thing.” Like the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion in the first part of the Wizard of Oz, these organizations were lacking a critical element for sustainable success. They were pretenders running a higher risk to ethically miss the mark and find themselves in scandal or with toxic cultures.

It is what Mr. Smith stated disappeared at Goldman Sachs; he referred to it as the “secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years.” It is culture – made up of teamwork, trust, humility, integrity, honesty, hard-work, excellence, compassion, fairness and . . . “do the right thing”.

A “Do the Right Thing” company may have, but does not need, all the programs, forms, training and procedures to know what is right and what is the right thing to do. It lives comfortably within its moral compass, with a strong identity of its values and moves in alignment to generate sustainable profits.

Strong values are core to the company and these values are part of the company’s ethos. Its culture is authentic and engrained within its employees. These values are lived with boldness and pride. And there are examples every day in small and large ways that exemplify that this organization will “do the right thing.” It is a written and, more importantly, an unwritten rule. This type of company has a soul, a heart and a purpose bigger than just making money or getting ahead.

On the same day I read about Mr. Smith’s description of Goldman Sachs and the “decline in the firm’s moral fiber” and how the firm is now “as toxic and destructive” as he had ever seen it, I came across another story. One that juxtaposed the story of the iconic investment bank. One that exemplified intelligence, compassion, grace and courage. This story was not about Ivy League graduates managing billions of dollars. It was much more simple than that. It was a video about a girls softball game.

There was a girls softball double header with two teams vying for the conference championship. That day in April, Central Washington and Western Oregon played before no more than one hundred spectators. In the second inning, Sara Tucholsky, a senior, was up to bat. There were two runners on base. Sara had never hit a home run, but had always dreamed of doing so.

There was the wind up, the pitch . . . and Sara miraculously hit the ball out of the park. The two runners on base rounded the bases while Sara sprinted to first. In her excitement, Sara overran first base and forgot to touch the bag. She quickly turned around to touch the bag and suddenly screamed collapsing to the ground in pain. She had torn her ACL and couldn’t walk. She crawled back to first base and clutched the bag.

Sara’s coach ran onto the field not knowing what to do. She inquired of the umpire if she could assist Sara or replace Sara with a pinch runner. The umpire instructed the coach that if her team assisted Sara she would be called “out” and if they replaced Sara it would be a two-run single. Sara remained at first base clutching the bag in pain, waiting for her fate to be determined as her season and career came to an abrupt, unexpected and sad end.

After a few minutes two players from the opposing team approached the umpire. Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace from Central Washington asked the umpire what would happen if they helped Sara around the bases. Not sure where this was going, the umpire informed them that the opposing team players were permitted to make contact with Sara.

To everyone’s surprise, these two players from the opposing team walked over to Sara and carefully picked her up. They gingerly carried Sara to second base, where Sara gently touched the bag, then to third base, where Sara gently touched the bag and finally to home plate. There was not a dry eye on the field or in the stands. Sara got her home run. Sara’s team won that day 4-2. Later the Central Washington players explained, “she hit the ball over the fence, you deserve it.”

For those girls on Central Washington, doing the right thing was important. For them, doing the right thing was part of winning. They naturally lived out their values and purpose. The Western Oregon coach said, “It is a great moment when someone has character to step up and do the right thing at the right time.” The Central Washington coach was holding back tears after the game as he commented how proud he was to be associated with those kids. [See ESPN Report]

Those young women did the right thing. They did not need a bunch of policies, guidelines and departments to tell them what to do. They knew what to do, it was instinctive. It was part of their culture and DNA. Very different than how Mr. Smith described Goldman Sachs or how some organizations operate today, despite their public rhetoric and compliance programs.

At some point the Tin Man, Lion and Scarecrow stopped hiding, avoiding and cowering. Instead they stepped up, collaborated and engaged. It became substance over form; it became living it out rather than going through the motions. And this is where they found success. They embarked on the journey and took the correct fork in the road along the way. They found what was already within themselves - a heart, a brain and courage . . . the capability, motivation and confidence to do the right thing.

Besides putting in place all the usual policies and processes expected of responsible companies, there are concrete measures leaders can take to build a sustainable do-the- right-thing culture. A company that does the right thing offers a significant competitive advantage to its employees, shareholders, vendors and customers. Below are ten areas that with focus and persistence will help create a do-the-right-thing culture. One that is more likely to retain talent, increase revenue and avoid scandal.

1. Leadership. Consistently provide authentic and genuine examples of “doing-the-right- thing” type leadership. Model it, demonstrate it and talk about it. The tone at the top is critical - this includes the Board, President and Senior Management. Reward such leadership and promote those leaders who are known throughout the organization to have the right DNA.
2. Purpose and Meaning. Be inspiring and bold about what your company and employees do. If a technology start-up has the audacity to want to “Change the World”, why can’t you. Look for ways to provide and offer more meaning and purpose to the employees and organization beyond just financial returns. Find meaning and higher purposes in what you do and who you are.
3. Values. Carefully, collaboratively and thoughtfully define your values. Who are you and what is important to you? This is about you and your organization – who do you want to be? Actively make these values an authentic part of the fabric of your company.
4. Strengths. Explore and define your strengths on an individual, group and corporate basis. Play to your strengths and focus on your strengths. Stop focusing and ruminating on what is wrong.
5. Optimism. Believe. Be solutions-focused. Stop playing the blame game. Have confidence that you can solve, fix and achieve, despite any setbacks. Think about getting better, improving and positive outcomes.
6. Collaboration. Create a true team. A team that is humble, confident, with strong relationships, high-performing, encouraging and diverse. A team that thrives on and enjoys working together and collaborating to achieve great results.
7. Autonomy. Freedom, freedom and more freedom. Create autonomy as to how people approach their job and tasks. Let people take ownership and provide them the tools they need to be successful. Look for opportunities for autonomy with respect to time, task, team and anything else. Harvest the power of creativity within the boundaries of your values and purpose.
8. Mastery. Give people the opportunity to become really good at something and to continually improve. Create an environment where people can make clear progress towards a clear goal. Make it a place where people can flourish, grow, develop and continually experience new mastery.
9. Well-Being. We are multi-dimensional. We are emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual beings. Be interested in your employees overall well-being. Create an environment where employees genuinely feel cared for in every sense.
10. Laugh. Life is too short not to have fun. If work is not fun (at least a good part of the time), why do it? Remember Huck Finn – make work play. It beats the alternative.

To succeed, Compliance & Ethics Departments, Law Departments, Human Resource Departments, Board of Directors and Senior Management should focus on creating a “do the right thing” culture; and not a “check the box” culture. In order to raise the level of performance, organizations must focus less on form, rules and regulations and more on collaborating cross-functionally to create environments where “doing the right thing” is part of a company’s DNA.

We have to be smart, have compassion and be bold to up our game and create organizations that authentically and sustainably bring out the best in us. If we fail to do so, we can certainly expect to face the same scandal, toxic cultures and ethical shortcomings that have befallen the pretenders that have gone before us.

Are your employees as safe as they can be? Are the leadership interaction styles in your organization encouragingemployee engagement? Have your organizational safety numbers reached a plateau? Get advice from the experts at Excellent Cultures now about your business safety, where you are with your safety program and where you’d like to improve.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS:

Craig O. Donaldson

As Principal at Donaldson Strategic Advisors,  Mr. Donaldson advises companies and executives on legal and business issues, including strategy, organizational effectiveness, general counsel services, compliance and negotiations.  He is a strategic thinker and expert problem solver who has a passion helping people and teams succeed.  Prior to starting Donaldson Strategic Advisors, Mr. Donaldson was Vice President Splenda Sucralose for Tate & Lyle and General Manager Global Acidulants for Tate & Lyle.  Mr. Donaldson began his legal career at the law firm of Winston & Strawn in Chicago.   He then moved to the Netherlands to oversee the delivery of legal services in Europe, Middle East and Africa for JohnsonDiversey.   After his stint in Europe, Mr. Donaldson returned to the US to head-up a legal division of Tate & Lyle before moving to the commercial side.   Mr. Donaldson has a B.A in Economics from UCLA;  a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law; significant course work in Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary; and language studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany and the International Preparatory Institute in Budapest, Hungary.  Mr. Donaldson is married with three sons.  In his free time, Mr. Donaldson enjoys coaching his sons' sport teams, reading, traveling, working in the yard, golfing and fishing.

Dr. Giovanni Gasperoni

As principal at “Volare & Connecting”, Dr. Giovanni Gasperoni advises companies and senior executives on business strategy, merger and acquisition, integration, growth and organizational strategy on a global basis.  Mr. Gasperoni is a Global Business Leader who positions companies for accelerating growth.  Solves complex business challenges using strategic business acumen, critical thinking and creativity.  Ability to make key decisions, introduce necessary change and ensure success.  Motivates (cheerleader), mentors, holds accountable and leads talented multi-cultural professionals. Prior to starting “Volare & Connecting” Mr. Gasperoni was Chief Administrative and Strategy Officer at Novus International, Inc., responsible for the company’s Administrative and Strategic Planning Unit, with oversight for the Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Enterprise Systems and Optimization (IT), Corporate Development (Strategic Planning), Process Improvement, Strategic Initiatives, Internal Audit, Government Affairs and Industry Relations functions. This Unit also leads the long-range planning process for the organization and manages mergers, acquisitions and integration. Mr. Gasperoni has been instrumental in his prior role of Executive Vice President, Marketing and Sales, in leading Novus during its growth into a global health and nutrition company with sales of nearly US $1 billion. He has helped guide Novus as it diversified from a poultry market-focused organization into the Beef, Dairy, Pork and Aquaculture markets. Under his direction, Novus has grown from three core poultry market products to over 100 products covering strategic nutrition, gut health and feed quality throughout the animal agriculture industry. A native of Italy, Gasperoni graduated “cum laude” from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bologna. Gasperoni is fluent in five languages, English, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese. He frequently speaks at conferences and events around the world on a variety of topics related to forward-looking trends in animal agriculture.

There's so much to be caught from Tim's experiences and hard work. Leadership is not limited to the realm of organizational avenues or public domain, but is truly rooted in leadership of self. How we lead comes from an overflow of who we are and how we lead ourselves. Our lives are just mere extensions of the inner self we've trained.

If you missed our first installment of the interview with Tim you can read it here. Enjoy this second part of this interview and glean from a truly self-disciplined man.

Q: What made you decide not to pursue the Olympics?

A: I was sixth in the Olympic trials in 2008. It is a three man team with an alternate so I was a few spots off. When I started triathlon I really did want to go to the Olympics. Every kid growing up wants to go to the Games. In 2009 and 2010 I was second at the U.S. Pro-Nationals in Olympic racing so I was considered a strong contender for this year. But I decided the way the sport has grown over the last few years, becoming much more competitive, I needed to focus on one goal. In 2009 and 2010 I had been doing a little Olympic racing and I had been doing a little bit of Ironman long course racing, the level of competition was so fierce in both formats that I decided I needed to fully commit myself. I stepped back and said, “Ultimately what do I want to do in this sport?” I decided that winning Kona was really the one thing in triathlon that I wanted to achieve. So I decided I needed to put all my eggs in that basket and really focus on one goal.

Q: If you win Kona, do you think you will want to go back and do the Olympics again?

A: I might – there is an Australian named Chris McCormack (professional triathlete and two time Ironman World Champion), and after winning Kona and in his late 30s he tried to get in the mix for the London Games. It is not totally out of the realm for me in the future.

Q: What’s the single biggest decision and single biggest mistake you think you’ve made in developing yourself and your career?

A: Switching to long course racing would be the biggest decision I’ve had to make just because it is so hard to leave what you know in terms of the Olympic racing. I was comfortable with that. It was something that from the outside, a lot of people thought I should do even though in my heart it really wasn’t what I wanted to pursue. That was definitely hard.

In terms of mistakes, I don’t know if I’ve made anything I really regret in the sport. I view my mistakes as learning experiences that make me a better racer. I would have loved to maybe done some long course racing earlier in my career just because it really is my strength. I don’t know if it is a mistake but if I could have had a little more confidence in myself earlier in my Olympic racing, in terms of my running ability, I think I could have had a lot more success in that format of racing.

Q: Was it a coach that encouraged you to switching to long course?

A: It was a personal decision. My coach was there and he could see it both ways. He thought I could be successful in either format. It was really a big lifestyle difference. It you are doing Olympic racing you need to live in Europe for about six months of the year.

My fiancé is a professional triathlete as well, we both enjoy life and we want to be on the same page. The lifestyle change for Olympic racing wasn’t a sacrifice that I wanted to make at that point in my career either.

Q: If you could mentor the world’s business leaders on developing discipline, focus and performance in their people, what would you say to them?

A: I would say you don’t have to be the favorite. You can be the underdog. You don’t have to be the company with the biggest budget, the most resources, the most media coverage or the most praise from critics. You can be successful from the other side of the coin, with the right plan and lots of work the underdog can prevail.

Q: What have you done to move from underdog to world champion?

A: I would say my attention to detail. A lot of guys don’t think through their racing. They don’t develop a long-term plan or focus on the small stuff that will bring you big returns. When you look at the top professionals in triathlon everyone is extremely fit. What are the small things that you can do that your competitors might overlook? That is where you can get competitive advantages. A great example is a Half Ironman I did in Thailand in 2010, the Asian Pacific Championships. The swim started in the ocean and then you ran across the beach and swam across a fresh water lake to get to transition. I came out in the lead from the first part of the swim with about five guys on my feet. I was the only guy who took the time to scout the course and I knew there was a sandbar on the left side of the beach as we entered the lake. So when everybody dove in and started swimming, I made a beeline over to the sandbar and put about 50 meters on everybody. That turned out to be the race; I never saw anyone again and took home the win. Finding the little ways you can get a competitive advantage over those that are more talented or have better resources is something that I always try to do.

A big part of racing is about knowing the course and how to be successful on that particular day.

Q: How do you keep your focus on your training regimen and still maintain that with life priorities?

A: That is one of the biggest challenges in triathlon. It is such a self-serving sport, so focused on your own training and racing. It is great to challenge yourself individually and be able to push your limits, but when you do this professionally it really can consume your life.

I’m lucky my fiancé, Mirinda, who I mentioned is a triathlete (Wikipedia: Mirinda Carfrae, born 26 March 1981, is an Australian professional triathlete who won the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in 2007. In 2009, she achieved a silver medal at the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, her first attempt at the full Ironman distance. The following year, 2010, she became the Ironman World Champion.) is at the top of the sport as well.

Some professionals can’t find good balance in life. They can lack some social skills because you spend so much time on your own. But I surround myself with people that enjoy life as well and want to have a balanced life like Mirinda. We make sure that by 9:00 o’clock at night the computer is shut down and we can have some time for each other. We make sure to plan little mini-breaks throughout the race season where we know we might have three or four days of just getting away from everything. We try to plan family time and try to incorporate our families into our racing if we can. If we can bring them out to a race then we love to share what we do with them as well.

Q: What is the biggest thing you’ve learned from Mirinda?

A: It is the joy of life that she has. We will have a bottle of wine on a weeknight or do something just to relax and take a step back. Some athletes can’t do that and they get so caught up in triathlon. They think they have to be locked down all the time. If you don’t love what you are doing you won’t perform as well as you can, you need to have that passion. In taking some time away from whatever you do and enjoying other parts of life you will keep you more energized and keep your performance high.

Q: What do you know now that you wish you knew before? Any advice for those with similar aspirations?

A: I wish I knew, how to be a little more patient in my racing early in my career and I wish I had more confidence in my ability to race as well. If somebody wants to do this it’s all about staying committed. This is a sport where the young guns aren’t taking over yet. Guys in their late 30s are winning the big races because it is a sport about building endurance over time, almost like a bank account of fitness. It just keeps growing and growing over time. If you can be patient and be willing to put in the work and pay your dues then you can have success.

With the instantaneous nature of life right now it is harder than ever to be willing to commit to something for the long term. But the reward you get when you put so much into a goal over the long run is much sweeter when you know all the hard work you’ve done over the years. When it finally comes together and you have success after years of obstacles, that sense of pride and accomplishment is something you can’t experience overnight.

Q: What’s the most important quality you look for in building relationships with sponsors, colleagues or team members in achieving your goals?

A: A lot of people, this would deal with business relationships too but particularly with athletes and sponsors, they think me, me, me – what can you do for me? When I look at a partnership I think how can I help your brand or what can I do for you? How can I help your business and triathlon come together, how can I help you grow your brand or introduce a new product? I have seen some companies come in, throw money at an athlete and then do nothing to activate the athlete. The athlete will take the paychecks and then the company says, “Well, we didn’t get the return on that investment” and then they pull out. If you can really help engage your sponsors with the sport and their target audience you can bring value to them. That’s what it is all about – a mutually beneficial relationship. How can I bring you value and really make this a long-term partnership?

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By Dale Hinz

The transportation industry like many is awash with data. GPS technologies and detailed reports track everything. The key to success and effective business communication is balancing the abundant historical metrics and with a firm focus on future desired outcomes. Inspiring positive behaviors from all levels – especially at the driver level, requires reinforcing the behaviors we want versus what we don’t want. Leadership styles effective in the future will fully grasp this.

Too often reports emphasize negative results: 1) accidents; 2) late deliveries; 3) customer complaints; etc. All valid data points but if not balanced with positives the negative focus drives negative outcomes. Cognitive science holds we do what we think about. “So a Man thinketh” is wisdom from the Psalms that remains true today.

Champion golfers see past hazards (water, bunkers) and visualize their shot safely on the green. Whereas average golfers face the hazards and see past bad shots that blew up their score. Champions in all sports firmly visualize positive outcomes. But as business leaders, we too often focus on the negative metrics and then wonder why we’re stuck. Why do our teams make the same mistakes even though numerous emails point out the mistakes and countless meetings call out the problems.

Focus on negative actions and negative results is self-fulfilling. Don Osterberg, SVP of Safety, Driver Training and Security at Schneider National Trucking, balanced to the negative reports by creating a positive Affirmation for drivers to focus on and commit to. Effective employee engagement requires commitment. Don, describes changing to a more positive and professional image was a “watershed event.”  Click here for two minutes of Don’s presentation to the DOT’s Distracted Driving Summit.

Don stated it starts with a belief that shapes attitudes that encourages correct behaviors that result in improved outcomes. A positive balance was a watershed event that changed their trajectory. Note the word “balance” as the suggestion is not to jettison analytics of metrics (positive or negative) but to also put forth a strong positive vision. A vision so clear drivers can see it and drive positive outcomes because of it. The balance becomes a set of powerful leadership styles.

Safety is a dominant cost factor in transportation. Many firms invest significantly in safety improvement programs but not enough balance metrics with a positive vision. Don’s investment in creating, training and then seeking commitment to their positive Affirmation statement (visualizing safe behaviors) has paid off very nicely in improved results and increased employee engagement.

Your business can do the same but it will take collaboration and persistence to create that balance. Look beyond the black and white printed reports and look at your team’s beliefs – the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors may need some alignment if you want a different future.  Want to build a safety culture like Schneider National?  Tell us about your culture.  Ask the experts.

TIMOTHY O'DONNELL

A graduate of the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Maryland.  Timothy was initially a member of the Varsity Swim Team until his brother convinced him to try out for the Triathlon Team as well.  But athletics weren't his only talents. 

O'Donnell excelled in other aspects of life at the USNA. His leadership skills were further developed when he was selected as the 6th Battalion Commander his senior year. As Battalion Commander he was responsible for over 700 members of the Brigade of Midshipman. Academically O'Donnell was part of the engineering community, studying Naval Architecture. He was selected to Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society and, his senior project, the structural design of a harbor cruise ship, won the award for superior design. In May of 2003 he graduated the USNA with Honors and was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy.

Just last month in Galveston, TX at the Ironman 70.3 US Championships, Tim won the title of US Pro Champion! We got to interview him while he was training in Australia just weeks before this hard fought win! Take a look at the success Tim has had over his career. He is one of the world’s top triathletes.

As we all fight for values and employee engagement within our perspective contexts there is something to be learned from world-class athletes. Their dedication, work ethic, positive attitudes, and mental toughness can be truly insightful as we each look to grow in our business communication across cultures of people and leadership.

Part one of a thirty-minute interview with Tim:

Q: How do you begin your day mentally and physically?

A: You know your day. Sometimes you get up and you are punching the clock but you know the days when you really have your key sessions. You know the first thing I do mentally is remind myself of my own goal in racing right now which is to win Iron Man in Hawaii. Then I say all right you know let’s think about what I’m doing today that is going to get me to that point. It is usually those specific sessions and what I need to do to have a successful session that will contribute to that ultimate end goal of winning Hawaii.

Q: So you always remind yourself of the ultimate goal when you start your day?

A: Exactly and then what am I doing this for. I had a high school swim coach that told me to decide what you want to be and pay the price in who you want to succeed in. I’ve kind of used that to remind myself when I’m training because it can get pretty monotonous and you get pretty tired and broken down. I want to win coming in. You know each day I focus on what it will take to get there.

Q: What do you do on the junk days? On the days you feel horrible?

A: I’m a self-motivated person and I think most triathletes are kind of Type A, so I’m not the kind of guy that if I’m not feeling well I will try to weasel out or try to take it easy on myself and be held back. If it is a really rough day sometimes I will think “okay, how is this going to contribute to the end goal?” Sometimes it is smarter to step back and take it easy or maybe modify or take a day off or whatever is needed, but I think when you are self-motivated and self-driven you know that it is really needed if you have to do that and it is not just…you know when you are trying to bag out on something or if it’s really needed. So just think and being able to monitor yourself and to be honest with yourself and know your self dialogue helps a lot.

Q: What was it that made you decide to have a career as a triathlete rather than staying in the navy?

A: I was a swimmer growing up. I started swimming on a team when I was 5. I went to the Naval Academy when my older brother, Thomas, was the captain of the Tri-Team and he got me – you know I was swimming at the time – and he got me to go to the Triathlon. It was just something that I really loved. I never was the best swimmer – one of four – I was probably the worst swimmer of the group, but I would train really, really hard and I eventually got better and got to be a very competitive swimmer.

There is just something in Triathlon where, it is a sport where if you really put in the time and the dedication and the effort you will succeed. It is just something I appreciate with the challenge of not just a physical challenge, but the mental challenge and at the point where I was when my 5 years in the Navy was up my boss, who actually had been a professional triathlete back in the ‘80s, he said to me, “Tim, you know you have a great gift here in this sport and you have done what we’ve asked you to do and if this is what you want then you shouldn’t feel bad about moving on and pursuing this dream.” So at that time I decided to take the leap.

My parents thought I was crazy. I left the Navy, which was a consistent solid career and lots of benefits. I went to a job where there was no guarantee of payment or no health insurance, but it was a leap of faith in myself really.

Q: So the support your command gave you was the boost you needed?

A: The support I had from my Command before I left the Navy was fantastic. It is a culture thing too, you know. I was in the Special Operations community and those guys really value physical fitness and I guess the life and mental skills you can get from training your body and they took great value in what I did. More so than maybe some other parts of the Navy would have done.

Special Ops actually gave me – it’s called a World Class Athlete Program that the military has and the Army has a huge (well not huge), but you know they have a whole Command set up in Colorado Springs and they have 140 athletes. The Navy was purely case by case and my Command was supportive enough to let me go to Olympic training center and pursue that and represent the Navy while I was doing that. The Navy wants to showcase their talent and their people and that was a great way for them to do that.

Q: What has been your biggest success, as well as your biggest struggle?

A: Success – if you are talking about purely results like winning the ITU Long Distance Championships, was really a great moment for me, but I think my real success in this sport comes from sticking through. I was really, I’m not going to say a bad runner, but I was not a good runner when I started Triathlon. In the summer I had around 20 or 25 pounds on me, more than I have now, and when I first started doing the Olympic stuff and was in the development pipeline doing the under 23 national teams and the collegiate resident teams, I was told that I would never succeed in sports just because I couldn’t run. I kind of ignored them because I didn’t think that was true.

I went through a lot of years when I didn’t have – I was not racing well, I wasn’t running well, but my run was progressing in training. Even when I got out of the Navy and decided to race professionally as a full career I hadn’t had the success that would probably warrant that, but once again I had faith in what I was doing and trusted in my ability and I think the way my run came on now I am running and am considered one of the best long course runners in the sport. So for me that is probably my greatest success and coming out in 2009 after I got out of the Navy and I started winning races and started winning them on the run. For me that was a huge accomplishment emotionally.

Q: What is the source of your inner belief? The faith you have in yourself, where does that come from?

A: I think I get that strength from – obviously my family, they are always very supportive of what I do. We were very competitive growing up. We all swam and my dad was always out there playing sports with us and keeping us honest so to speak. But I really think my work ethic and my dedication and willingness to not give up in training and racing is really what I base that faith or that trust in knowing that I do the work and when race day comes I’m not going to back down. It’s probably where I get that from and that is one of the things you know that as you progress as an athlete you see, you know, you and your coach know all the work that you are putting into this and everybody else just sees the results. They are seeing the results and they are telling you that you can’t do it or you are not going to make it – all this stuff – and myself and my coach, who has been a great strength for me as well, we stuck to our plan and we had a several year plan to get to where I am now. We just stayed the course.

Q: What are 2-3 of the critical decisions you made that have contributed to my success?

A: I think in terms of my ultimate – I think the first one, if we just look at my athletic career, was the decision to no longer label myself as a swimmer who does Triathlons, but say “I am going to become a runner” and that was huge. As a former swimmer you kind of want to rely and lean on your strength and a lot of people that do that and can never make the transition to be successful because they don’t work on the weaknesses. My first thing was to say I have to accept that fact that I’m no longer a swimmer and I’m going to learn how to be a runner and I’m going to be a triathlete.

I think transitioning from the Navy was a huge life-changing step for me. Then finally I would say at the beginning of last year I decided not to pursue the Olympics for this year and completely focus my career on the long course racing, the Ironman racing. I think that has been one of the biggest decisions I have had to make – looking at Triathlon not just as a sport, but for me as my career.

We will continue this series over the next week:

Part Two Begins with...

Q: What made you decide not to pursue the Olympics?

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I live in Seattle, yes the birthplace of Starbucks. I have been their biggest fan for years, until now. My wife and I just moved back into the heart of the city from the suburbs. Our neighborhood here seems to be the hub of Seattle coffee. We've been introduced to some amazing coffee, from many different little shops. These little shops have such good coffee that we could literally go to a new one everyday and have a cup of the roasted nectar of the gods and experience the same thing with new flavor daily!

My point of this coffee rabbit trail is to show you that there are many ways to make the same great thing.

Your brand, your leadership, your communication, your culture, all may be great but is your delivery of this great thing still the same? Or has it gotten stale?

Often we find ourselves in communication ruts or leadership lulls of laziness without realizing it. We keep communicating great things, but our delivery never changes and becomes stale to the people we lead. Those of you that are parents may understand this. You regularly communicate values to your children that they soon grow numb to and you wonder why they don't listen to you. Then comes a song, a movie, a relative, a family friend that says the same thing you've been saying for months and all of the sudden your child hears it! Values and employee engagement are constant goals in business. We must constantly grow in our approach to communicating them, so that employee engagement is a normal part of our culture.

So many leaders think that because they have a beautiful mission statement and stellar corporate values like integrity, communication and teamwork that values and employee engagement are the same. Believing that great values and employee engagement are one and the same is like believing that because we love coffee, all coffee tastes great. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Leadership is everything you say and do and fail to do. Leadership is a lifestyle, not a job. As leaders we are never off the clock. Everything is modeling and showing people what we are trying to communicate. Living and modeling stellar corporate values rather than posting on websites or hanging in gold antique frames in corporate lobbies is what causes employee engagement. So much so that we must be mindful when:

• Our communication becomes repetitive
• Our communication becomes normal
• Our communication becomes average
• Our communication becomes cliché

Being mindful of the leadership ruts we fall into is important, so that we can avoid them and keep communication going! Our lack of communication can also be something to be mindful of:

• Our lack of communication can be interpreted as a lack of direction
• Our lack of activity, can be interpreted as no leadership or that we have nothing to say

How we communicate to those we lead is so very important. I myself have fallen into the communication lull often. First in my own family and second with those I lead. The more predictable our words are, the less memorable they will be. We must find new ways to say the same thing so that our values are communicated in a way that employees engage as people, not just cogs in a machine.

Practical Steps to Improve Leadership Communication:

• Clearly know the message you want to communicate.
• Find a way to twist it to exceed expectations.
• Keep the pace of change high, call your listeners to change. People want to be challenged in a way that makes them improve.
• Change the pace in your speech, every 4-7 minutes to keep engagement. Monotone puts listeners into a blissful sleep. Change your tone, your story, your approach regularly.
• Teach less for more. Messages that are simple and to the point are the ones that get through. Think through what must be communicated and boil it down to its simplest form.
• Challenge the status quo. People long to be part of something bigger than themselves. The challenge of attempting something that others see as impossible is enticing.

There are many ways to enjoy coffee, but coffee remains the same. The same can be said of leadership, values and employee engagement; mix it up and challenge yourself to be different, communicate differently, and listeners will follow and engage more regularly and effectively.

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"As soon as a company focuses on profits, then the company begins to lose. The more profit focused you are the less relational you become." - Jack Hollis, VP of Scion

This is a problem in the workplace. We find in every business we have the opportunity to work with, that employees actually care less about the bottom line and more about their inner wellbeing. People will sacrifice wages for positive business culture. So what are the values we need to employ to create greater employee engagement?

We find in every case study we've done, that genuineness and honesty are the foundation of high performance culture. A former client of ours put it like this:

"It starts with integrity; everybody has a mission statement and a vision." - Dennis Clements, former VP of Lexus USA

So stop wearing a mask and pull back the curtain on your own hardships! Open yourself up to reveal a fear, a hope, a weakness that you are facing and allow your people a window into your life. When a leader provides a window for people to see into his or her life, then people receive a mirror to see their own. By holding up a window to their own soul (their own humanity), our teams identify with your story and become engaged with you as a human and their leader. Which brings them onto the path you're leading them, rather than pushing them to heartless agendas and insincere tasks. Pulling rather than pushing, with our own story and pains.

• Be secure enough to be vulnerable
• Let people into your world, so they can see why you are who you are
• Give windows to your own soul, so they can feel why you feel the passion you do
• Allow them the chance to come along on your journey of life
• Build a bridge to people by being normal, accessible in your communication

There is great value of transparency and authenticity…

1. It opens up team members enabling them to be honest and genuine as well.
2. It cultivates trust among team members fostering synergy for them.
3. It engages team members and invites participation and ownership.
4. It creates a safe place for acknowledgement of weaknesses and areas for needed improvements.

One of our culture graduates, Starbucks, grew from a few stores in 1982 to over 15,000 in 43 nations today. They moved from genuine to gimmicky. How did they recover? Howard Schultz chose transparency. He admitted fault and invited others into the recovery story. He revived the passion of customers and employees with his authenticity.

In the 1960’s, Avis was #2 in their industry just behind Hertz. They were trying to figure out an ad campaign that would connect them with customers. They used the slogan, “We try harder” to emphasize that the fact they were #2 actually made them a better company because they were striving to be #1. They got their staff on board with this campaign and experienced a 30% increase in sales.

Authenticity is a risk worth taking. The windows you open to reveal yourself more fully to the people that you lead will produce genuine buy in.

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Charles R. Oglesby

A SIT DOWN WITH CHARLES OGLESBY

Q: Charles, would you describe yourself as being more concentrated into the automobile industry or transportation industry?

A: I see myself, really, as being in the people business. We happen to sell cars or provide transportation but it’s always about the customer or it’s always about our employees. The thing that always attracted me to this industry is I love people and I love cars. And so the combination of those two things is for me what’s so exciting about it. So I really view myself personally, and we’re in -- we are in the people business.

Q: What pointers would you present to this audience this morning to help those that are in the start-up phase or those that are involved in a business?

A: It’s been all because of other people. I think it’s the philosophy of creating a shared vision. Not only for yourself. You need to have a vision on where you want to go and have the ability, the courage and strength to overcome the obstacles. Because there will always be obstacles that are preventing you from getting where you think you want to go. And it’s being flexible so that whenever these obstacles present themselves that you go over, under them, around them, or through them. And I think that mixed in for me it’s always been about creating a culture.

Always when I would parachute into these organizations I knew where they were financially but I didn’t know the people in the operation…I looked at the employees and as I was speaking to them, I did not know who the stars were. So again, treating all of them like stars allowed the people that were in whatever kind of order that the organization was in before I got there -- you have these people that either spread bad news or a few leaders and usually the potential of an organization is much lower. I knew that if I was there, there was a reason I was there, the reason that I was hired and asked to be part of an organization is because it wasn’t working right. So whenever I treated everyone as if they were the stars it’s amazing at how many barriers went away and performance levels went up.

But everyone needed to know and wanted to know where are we going and what is the vision for this organization. And when that is shared throughout your organization, however ever small or large it is, then you remove all the barriers to performance and allow people do things they didn’t even know they could do …If you’re starting a business, other than getting a lot of cash, I would say that believing in yourself enough that it doesn’t matter what obstacles that are in the way -- you’ll go over them, under them, around them, or through them. If it involves other people understanding, seeing the best that they have to give.

Q: What personal trait would you best describe has been the staying power -- what talent do you think that Charles Oglesby has that contributed to that line of succession and success?

A: I think that I’ve been blessed with a lot of gifts of insight, a respect of people, an acknowledgement that it’s not about me. That my role in life is more of an igniter for others and that the greater things that others do, I just get pulled right along with it. So as I looked at all of the things that I wanted to be a part of and that I was a part of, it was always about the people that were around me that I surrounded myself with. So I think that it was not being afraid of smart and strong people and always looking for someone that had more talent than I did and not allowing my ego to get out front so that everyone else has to be below me, you know that it was about me but helping others. But I think that’s probably one of the key aspects that has helped me.

Q: I think most of us would salute you, Charles. I know everyone in our audience would salute you for your tremendous personal success and climb of the ladder at the corporate level. What would you say was the largest mistake you ever made and what was the take home that you learned from this major mistake?

A: Well, this room can’t hold all the mistakes I’ve made. I mean it’s -- what I learned about mistakes it’s not “The Mistake,” it’s to make more of them. And the reason that I say that is the more mistakes you make, the more you grow, the more you learn. The problem comes when you make the same mistake more than once that you don’t learn from. That’s the killer. So it’s not about making mistakes. It’s also how you think about the mistake. Whenever you recognize that you’ve made a bad choice or as we’ve termed it a “mistake” then you fix it and you go on. Because what you do then is you want to think about the things you want, not what you did wrong. You don’t want to get that anymore, you want to get these things. So for me it’s how I responded to the mistakes not necessarily the mistakes that I’ve made. Cause’ I’ve – you know like all of us we’ve all made plenty of them.

Q: Charles, what do you see going forward as far as the competition that comes from the internet and from potentially other reorganization from other companies that are reorganizing under bankruptcy and trying to driving their costs down? How do you compete with that going forward?

A: Well, social media, social networking, the internet, we are embracing it because that is one of the portals that our customers want to hear from us from. They want to use this process. Now they still like the touch part. We can almost do a complete transaction online but they still want to take delivery of the vehicle at the dealership level. That aspect has not changed yet. So we are spending quite a bit of our resources on our IT and our development so that we are very competitive in that market. On companies that are reorganization and restructuring from bankruptcy that was almost us except the bankruptcy part is gone. We were fortunate that that didn’t happen to us. But we became one of those companies that restructures and reorganized and we took excess of 100 million dollars in cost out of our business last year and restructured and did a number of things while we were doing that. So there were a lot of balls in the air. I think that any organization that does not do that today won’t be able to compete in the future. You’ve got to be able to take all the cost out that you can, unfortunately even the human capital side. The human side -- all productivity measurements that you look at -- anyone that chooses or can’t produce at the same level of your high performance people, you can’t keep them. They become a drag on the organization and they lower everyone else’s performance level. So I think in all aspects in everything you measure you’ve got to look at performance side of it. and again reorganizing – competition doesn’t bother me. It makes me better. So I hope that they’re doing the same thing we are because I want to continue to grow and get better too.

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts.

Mr. Clements also serves on the advisory boards of high tech firms Noribachi L.L.C. and its affiliate, Qnuru, as well Asbury Automotive, a Fortune 500 Automotive Consolidator. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Buffalo. Denny and his wife Sharon currently reside in the Santa Fe New Mexico Area.

EXCELLENT CULTURES INTERVIEW WITH MR. CLEMENTS

What do you think are the two or three biggest decisions that you ever made that contributed to your success?

I think in terms of the drive and energy and the skill, but I think early in my professional life I was exposed to the Excellent Cultures curriculum and out of that it really made me so much more of an effective communicator. I knew how to deal with adversity. I knew how to set goals. I learned all that and that was the foundation and that may sound a little self-serving to you, but it is true. That was the foundation.

I had adversity and I wasn’t always the most political person. I had setbacks in my career and I learned once again through goal setting the importance of resiliency and perseverance. I always had my core understanding that, for me to be successful everyone around me needed to be successful – people that worked with me, people that we were interfacing with. I know that sounds trite today, but at the time there weren’t any business books on this subject. It was just something that I figured out. I remember early in my career calling the dealers at Ford. I made some mistakes and I was young and aggressive and I learned from those and learned what was important.

What do you think the biggest mistake you ever made was?

Well, I don’t think I can say one mistake. Most of the trouble I got into in my life was that I was a change agent and I would often get out in front of the organization and not communicate effectively with the people I reported to. At times I was maybe overly frank and honest in my discussion and feedback with them. So I think I was locked in and focused on what I was trying to do and at times didn’t have the empathy for other people in different parts of the organization.

So you were moving too fast in your vision and not enough empathy for …

Maybe not taking the time to create the buy-in to other stakeholders. Either corporate stakeholders, peers or people who were in my immediate realm of responsibility. I think that was the passion in me, to make things happen.

So it was almost like your biggest strength was also your biggest weakness?

Yes. I created a lot of advocates. Fortunately for me they were people I was working with or the dealers. Unfortunately for me sometimes I didn’t create advocates with the people I was working for because I didn’t take the time to really communicate what I was trying to do. I didn’t have the patience to talk and convince them. I just went ahead and did things. That mostly worked. LOL

I guess the best way of responding to this was that I would always ask for forgiveness instead of permission. There were moments in time when I didn’t quite get the level of forgiveness that I should have gotten. LOL

What a great attribute. You mentioned in your email that “Culture is everything. Customer loyalty has moved from satisfaction to surprise and delight me, I may be back.” Can you expound on that a little bit?

Here is the way I see it today. I think customer satisfaction has really changed. I think if you are in business today you have two choices, sort of a continuum, there really is not a lot in the middle. You can either be a commodity – be a commodity and sell the product, don’t worry if anybody is coming back and spend a lot of money every day getting customers to show up and you can be successful doing that. It takes a lot of energy. As soon as your product becomes a little obsolete or you have any adversity then you have trouble.

I think the other option is to try to create an advocate of the customer. If you are going to create customer advocacy, which means the customer is going to come back, the only way you can do that is – you can’t do that because you are working for a company. You can’t do that because people are working for you. People in the organization work for – they don’t work for Toyota or Lexus – they work for a manager. That manager has a huge impact on their level of advocacy to the mission of whatever you are trying to accomplish.

The associates at the end of the day – it’s the guy in the service drive or the sales person – they are either excited and totally brought in to what you are trying to do or they are not. You have to have a culture where managers are interested and care (legitimately care) about the associate’s welfare, the people that work for them. If the people that work for them, if they really believe that, the culture is one of the facilitation of success – you can have high standards and high expectations.

You are bringing people along with you and you have a credible product to sell and you create an energy that comes out of that culture that creates a customer experience. That surprises and delights the customer because frankly that doesn’t really happen very much in life. Customers are saying, “This place is a little different” and come back. Even when you have a period of time when the economy is not on the top or you don’t have new products, those people will stay with you because your business is different from other businesses they happen to visit.

Other businesses are so focused on satisfaction which means the customer is satisfied, everything went fine, and that used to be a big deal in the early days of JD Power and they were going to measure the customer’s satisfaction and measure associate satisfaction. Which means, hey I’m glad I get a paycheck and I’m glad I’m here and if the heat comes on there is air conditioning and you know it’s a job and I am very satisfied with my job.

Those old satisfaction goals are so antiquated today in this era of social media and where your reputation is out there for all to see. You have to – if you are only striving for customer satisfaction – you are really spending a lot of money. You are creating a lot of drive and energy – it is just getting people to buy something and that is fine. There is no intention there. There is no thought in the customer’s mind that this business is really different and I’m just not going to go anyplace else. I’m going to go back.

To earn customer loyalty, today has gone from a satisfying customer experience to “I can get a cup of coffee” or to get a service loaner to now you’ve got to surprise and delight them.

I’ll give you an example of what happened to me one night at dinner. This couple had ordered some red wine and I had ordered a glass of Malbec. My wife really liked my drink and she commented to the waiter that she wished she had ordered the Malbec. The waiter immediately took her wine and gave her a glass of Malbec. It was such a surprise that it came through that this restaurant was different.

Most of us have hundreds of transactions a day, but every so often somebody just kind of blows you away because it was so unexpected that it really captures your attention. You say this place is really pretty cool.

More of this interview to come in later blogs. Follow @XLNTCultures for updates, or subscribe to our daily Culture Coaching.

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1. Measure and benchmark the culture: They use Business Culture MRIs to find out what kind of results and supporting culture the leader envisions and benchmark the data against what’s really taking place in their people’s minds and hearts.
2. Engage people’s hearts and minds at the core: They engage the leader's people by using their data tools to define what kind of culture the people would love to work in and something awesome starts to occur...Ownership and Accountability.
3. Change the way leaders are leading: They change how your leaders are leading using their leadership MRIs as the basis for fast, actionable coaching that causes the leader's people to stop resisting and volunteer to be held accountable.
4. Modify business systems and process to support the new culture: Finally, they help the leader measure and change their business systems to get fast results while building the culture that sustains the firm's success for the long term.

Top down mandated changes in a business accomplish one primary goal: anxiety and resistance. The more intelligent and technologically developed the workforce is, the stronger the resistance. This resistance manifests in most cases passively with politically correct head nodding and smiling, followed by doing just enough to get by, never embracing the fullness of the implementation of the desired change. In some cases, the resistance becomes aggressive and so we have Labor vs. Management and nobody wins. Hats off to Matthew Mays and Dr. Schwartz. Your research establishes one more time that Peter Drucker was right when he taught us that, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Add today's fast-paced society, advanced technology and educated workforces to Drucker's equation and culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Enlightened leaders now more than ever look below the surface to the habits, attitudes, believes and expectations in their people's minds and hearts that make up the culture which dictates how successful change initiatives will be. Change the culture and the performance follows. Ignore the culture and expect the change initiative to fail.

Thanks again Matthew and Dr. Schwartz:
(Read their blog by clicking this image)

Follow @MatthewEMay on Twitter

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Mr. Clements also serves on the advisory boards of high tech firms Noribachi L.L.C. and its affiliate, Qnuru, as well Asbury Automotive, a Fortune 500 Automotive Consolidator. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Buffalo. Denny and his wife Sharon currently reside in the Santa Fe New Mexico Area.

EXCELLENT CULTURES INTERVIEW WITH MR. CLEMENTS

In all of the years that you have spent building high performance cultures, what do you think was your biggest success and your biggest struggle?

I think my biggest success was when I was running Lexus in North America. Lexus was an interesting phenomenon. I had 30-some years in the car business with Toyota and Ford. The model at Toyota was always incentives and a lot of advertising, get people in, generate a lot of traffic, sell big volume.
I remember my first day at Lexus. At my first introductory meeting I asked, “What have we got going on this month?” Everybody looked at me kind of funny and said, “Nothing.” It actually took me back because all of a sudden I realized someone has to show up and want to buy these cars. Then it became apparent to me that every transaction at Lexus was really our marketing budget, and trust me, it is a lot harder when you are running 15,000 sales a month and relying on 200 dealerships and all the people to sustain a culture where every interaction is marketing.

So, that was a huge challenge and at Lexus we were very successful. I think the challenge is, how do you get to those salespeople, partners and associates down through the organization to be advocates of sustaining that kind of culture, to make an advocate out of a customer?

How did you feel like you did that? How did you reach them?

Certainly you’ve got to have a credible product – a product that delivers on all its promises; a brand that delivers on its promise. But I think from the standpoint of working with dealers, who are independent business people, it starts with credibility. They have to genuinely believe that if you are asking them to do the right thing at all times, that you are going to treat them the same way.

So at Lexus, the goal was to create advocates of our dealers. For them to believe in the idea that you could really change the car business and really create a culture where on a very consistent basis you surprise and delight the customer.
I think the challenge is communication and execution and training. You’ve got to get people the tools. You’ve got to constantly reinforce that by acting in a certain way; that it’s in their best interest. And in fact, what happened is, by always doing the right thing for the customer we attracted sales people from other franchises that really were pretty excited about leaving the store at night and feeling good about what they did during the day.

After a while, the culture once you get it really burning, it begins to self-fulfill. They believe that this is who we are. This is what we are like. Then you begin to attract like people.

With all of the mistrust that exists in the auto business between dealers and manufacturers and sales people and customers, how did you get them to believe you? How did you get them to trust you when you first started telling them this?

I think it was the belief in the parent company that we were going to give them world-class products and that we were going to protect and be very concerned that our dealers were successful. Unlike other manufacturers we had very few outlets. We really took great concern to be sure dealerships were going to be very profitable because we knew that for them to offer the amenities and do the training and make the commitment to facilities, that they needed to be successful.

I think it started with the recall in 1989 of the Lexus LS where there was a rear high monitor brake light that wasn’t functioning well. I wasn’t there, but Lexus had a recall (normally and prior to that moment a recall was an extremely negative thing) and Lexus really reinvented that whole experience. They contacted all the customers, gave customers amenities, picked up cars in Alaska where there was no dealership and did all kinds of amazing things. Out of that, Lexus really convinced the dealers that this company really meant what they are saying, there really is a lot of integrity in this business.

I think it starts with integrity; everybody has a mission statement and a vision. Everybody has been around for a while. It doesn’t take long for people to figure out whether you are for real or not. (7:10)

Yeah, that is so true. One of the things I always heard from dealers who were in the framework and had the opportunity to deal with you. I don’t know if you remember this – I’m sure you heard it – that the thing that they liked about you the most was that your integrity was such that they could always depend upon whatever you told them was going to happen always happened and they could always trust that you had their best interest at heart, in a very unselfish way and that you would always tell it like it is. How did you get that message across?

I think early on in my career through Excellent Cultures I was really exposed to the curriculum and began to realize that in order to be successful, the people around you have to be successful. I quickly understood that in order for me to be successful, the dealers had to be successful. I always had their interest. I represented the company as well, which I did well. I think the dealers understood that if I said something was a good thing for them, they would tend to believe me and if it wasn’t I would say, “Hey, you know these are the pros and cons. You make your own decisions.” I never misled them because I always understood that relationships that are going to gain strong buy-in have to start with integrity and credibility. So I was always very conscious of the facts, whatever I told them we had to deliver on. At times, that didn’t always happen but I think they understood our spirit of intent was one of a win/win relationship and I think that served me well.

More of this interview to come in later blogs. Follow @XLNTCultures for updates, or subscribe to our daily Culture Coaching.

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts.

"Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture. When you realize you have made a mistake, you need to cut your losses and move on." – Howard Schultz

Many leaders confuse culture with vision and strategy, but they are very different. Vision and strategy usually focus on products, services and outcomes. Culture is about the people – the most valuable asset in the organization. The way people are treated, the way they treat their peers and their responses to their leaders is the air people breathe. If it’s clean and healthy, people thrive and the organization succeeds. But to the extent this air is toxic, energy subsides, creativity lags, conflicts multiply, and production declines. Culture - not vision or strategy – is the most powerful factor in any organization.

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." - Peter Drucker

As the Father of Management, Peter understood the value of culture in a business even way back then when he first said it. Understanding this is so important to the vitality of our business. Hiring isn't just about hiring the right people. It's about hiring the right people. I know that sounds redundant, but hear me for a second. We don't just want people that have the education, skills set and resume to be an asset to the company. That would be hiring the right person, who may not be the right person. What about who they are at their core? Their personality? They may have amazing skill, but a horrible attitude.

Look for the right people who are the right people. Can they adapt to the culture, language and spirit that is already resident in the business? Will they be accepted by that culture? Will they add to the team or just take for themselves? How do they lead others? How do others respond to their leadership? These are more vital questions to answer than resume.

Howard says "Hiring People is an Art not a Science." Peter says, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." At Excellent Cultures, our clients have proven time and time again that hiring and culture are both an art and a science and that "culture not only eats strategy for breakfast but for lunch and dinner as well." If this is the case as it has been for so many years, why do so many leaders miss the subtle cues and clues that make mountains of difference in their decisions?

The last cost estimate of replacing an ineffective employee was 150% of their annual salary. Fast and deep are not always the same on the front end but deep always produces fast in the long run. Leadership and Culture are both a predictable science and an art.

Talk to one of our business culture experts to get free consulting on why. Click Here or start the process yourself and take our free online Business Culture MRI on your culture www.ExcellentCultures.com/MyBizCulture

What are some ways you have gone about finding these things in a potential hire?

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts.

Some communications are better in written form.
Communications that have potential to be either emotionally charged or incredibly detailed can sometimes be better on paper. If you are worried about emotions getting involved you can take your time to pick your words deliberately, thoroughly revise and edit and sleep on your thoughts before sending a message. This can help your tongue from getting the better of you in an important correspondence. When conveying the particulars of a detailed task it helps to put those details in writing. This ensures that those putting plans into action have specific records of what needs to be done.

Not verbalizing enough can also be a communication barrier.
Written communication is great for some things. Some things are just better off spoken. Verbal communication has subtleties like tone and inflection that simply cannot be captured by characters on a computer screen. Jokes and sarcasm are notorious for failing in written form.

Talk through obstacles.
Not every project will go 100% according to plan. How challenges are handled is crucial to success in individual projects and also a team's success in the long term. Team members can grow impatient or frustrated if they do not understand why another part of the project is not on track, this is one of the classic communication problems in business. It helps to communicate these issues so that teammates don't feel ignored. Just as important, communicating obstacles allows others to help solve a problem.

Involve a mediator in negotiation.
Business is inherently competitive and negotiations can bring this competitiveness out in people. Even when both sides enter negotiations with the intentions of reaching a mutually affable agreement it is not always easy. When there is simply not enough to go around things can get pretty heated. Since there is usually not any true malice between the parties it helps to get a mediator involved to help keep the participants level headed and proactively working towards a resolution.

Play devil's advocate.
Brainstorming is one of the hallmarks of effective business communication. When communication is flowing at a brainstorm meeting it is extremely helpful to refine ideas. It helps if your group can recognize the need for a devil's advocate and constructively talk through other points of view. This helps keep the channels of communication from being clogged with groupthink.

These hallmarks of effective business communication can keep your team running like a finely tuned machine while avoiding common communication problems in business.

If your team is struggling with communication, contact Excellent Cultures so that we can help catch up with business communication trends by incorporating communication into your organization and culture.

Carl’s clients pay him well earned big bucks for wisdom and insights that literally save and earn them millions of dollars. He has a great article on his site citing Fortune magazine research establishing the value of executive coaching at more than 6 to 1 its cost. 600% ROI beats the daylights out of most any investment out there these days! Coaches as talented as Carl are hard to find. Way to go Carl! Check out Advanced Leadership Coaching

Steve Gandara
@Steve_Gandara

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Time and again, experience has shown us that when organizations engage Western employees where a high performance culture exists in the adventure of innovation -- journeys of exploration, discovery and application of the prize -- those employees tap their imagination, creativity, and passion to make spectacular breakthroughs. Team members often describe a deep sense of fulfillment and characterize these journeys as the high point of their careers. These are culturally resonant values that actuate spirit.

We are not suggesting the techniques of continuous improvement are not powerful and necessary. They are essential to develop and optimize processes. However, when organizations promote Kaizen to the level of guiding value, they may get compliance, but spirit will be diminished. Kaizen just does not touch our hearts unless our culture resonates with it. Kaizen will not foster high-performance cultures because we thrive in a culture of discovery and innovation, not continuous improvement. In the West, breakthrough happens when innovation and adventure are the cultural norms. However, when we combine Western cultural inflections with Lean principles, we can achieve breakthrough results. In fact, where innovation and adventure are already a part of the culture, Lean principles thrive.

Our recommendations are not new, but they are still difficult to heed. Consider this statement from a business classic:

Today everyone seems to complain about the decline of American productivity. Examples of industries in trouble are numerous and depressing. Books claim that Japanese management practices are the solution to America’s industrial malaise. But we disagree. We don’t think the answer is to mimic the Japanese. … We need to relearn the old lessons about how culture ties people together and gives them meaning and purpose in their day-to-day lives.

 

- Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy, Corporate Cultures, 1982.

Eastern or Western, Japanese or American, Lean, Six-Sigma or any other change initiative; CULTURE is the bottom line that determines success & sustainability or failure. Regardless of the process deployed cultural norms that insure success are:

• Seeing change and conflict as opportunities for growth and innovation. Embracing barriers head on while asking to be held accountable for ultimate success and the greater good.
• Developing a belief in an unlimited potential for growth and development. Developing the habit of setting lofty goals to break through to higher levels.
• Developing deep compassion for each other as fellow human beings with unique gifts. Valuing the truth above political agendas or even personal acceptance. Bonding with companions on the journey.
• Aggressively seeking to fulfill higher purpose rather than competing with each other. Working collaboratively to create something better.
• Leading with positive aspirations and deep passion rather than mere compliance. Surrendering defensive agendas and embracing adventure.

These norms of belief and the behaviors that follow lie at the soul of any culture that exhibits spirit and produces breakthrough. Once it can be solidly established in any culture, Lean or any other change related initiative will not just thrive, it will spark breakthrough. Implementing change initiatives without prior establishment of these cultural norms kills spirit and thwarts breakthrough. We cannot allow dissonant aspects of Lean to kill spirit. Otherwise, as the culture expert, Harrison Owen, stated, “When you’re out of spirit, you’re out of business.”

Today, Lean culture too often refers to “more-with-less” and “then-more-still” thinking camouflaged in warm and fuzzy HR psychobabble or complex consultant-speak. It is not the way to support Lean. High-performance Lean environments demand simple, scalable, proven processes that change cultures and embrace Lean principles, producing quick sustainable results. If you do not develop a Lean-compatible culture, a consequent Lean-process implosion is inevitable. But when high-performance culture is combined with Lean Thinking, you can anticipate a surge of innovation as Lean ideas are combined and recombined with employee-driven innovations. Lean culture combined with Lean process yields breakthrough and sustainability. Lean process, without Lean culture, will generate some improvement, but will be followed by drudgery and ultimately the Inevitable Lean Process Implosion.

The path is yours. Choose wisely.

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From the author’s experiences in Japan and with Japanese organizations, we can see Kaizen’s clear cultural resonance and spiritual underpinning to the idea of never-ending continual improvement. In many ways, it is the secular rendition of the path to enlightenment as embodied in Eastern myth, philosophy and religion. The Japanese tea ceremony is another secular embodiment of this idea. Kaizen is no mere technique; it is a cultural norm or motif. In Japan, participating in Kaizen resonates with cultural beliefs, norms and values. We would argue that Kaizen is a part of the Japanese soul.

However, in the West, Kaizen can be a cultural disaster that derails Lean. We have observed that so many American employees see never-ending, continuous improvement as akin to drudgery. Kaizen conjures images of a squirrel on its wheel or Sisyphus rolling the boulder uphill only to lose his footing, fall to the bottom and begin again. Unlike the Japanese experience, Kaizen weighs down Westerners’ spirit. It has negative cultural resonance.

Many Western business cultures also suffer from years of heavy handed command and control by leaders mandating their desires top-down to a lesser engaged, change-resisting workforce. These types of cultures not only resist any perceived top down mandate with passive head nodding followed by a return to “their own” better way, they resist them aggressively with organized labor initiatives and purposed (as well as subconscious) performance slowdowns. All of the above result in anything but the enthusiastic breakthroughs and empowering victories resulting from the dramatic waste reduction that Lean produces in Eastern cultures.

Additionally, with the advent of the social media boom taking hold in the workforce, consider the following occurrences as they may impact your Lean intervention:

1975: No wrongful termination suits.
1989: General Motors sets new standard paying out $40 million class action discrimination legal settlement that began with a single disgruntled employee and grew to 3,800 plaintiffs.
1990: 27% of all lawsuits had wrongful termination implications.
1999: Coca-Cola raised the bar paying $156 million in similar settlement.
2011: Egyptian government overthrown via social media.

Now that the Social Media Boom is on, the resistance of one angry disgruntled employee could virtually wipe out an entire Lean initiative.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Lean does not naturally lead to a stronger culture. In fact, the contrary is often true.

This is because the cultural dissonance between the Lean concept of Kaizen and American culture is profound. If care is not taken, this dissonance will inevitably become a cultural spirit killer. When organizations run out of spirit, Lean programs die and they move on to the next thing.

Sure, some significant gains will still be achieved, but the organization will never rise to the level of Lean maturity where Lean Thinking becomes a way of life — “the way we do things around here” — embedded in the culture. How did Toyota sustain Lean for over 60 years? As the guide suggested to my friend, it was not the superiority of the techniques, it was culture, pure and simple.

The source of Lean’s cultural dissonance in America has its roots in Masaaki Imai’s 1986 book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. Kaizen refers to the Japanese concept of never-ending, continuous improvement. Imai took Americans to task for our failure to understand the power of Kaizen and for not seeing how it animated Lean. He also clearly told us that Kaizen was a Japanese cultural inflection, but somehow we missed that part of his message. Americans took Imai’s Kaizen message to heart and Kaizen became a pillar of Lean programs everywhere. As a result, for over 20 years, we have inadvertently sabotaged our organizational cultures.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Randall Benson & Steve Gandara

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts. 

If you are becoming active in Lean, you are probably hearing about concepts like: value streams, flow, end-user value, waste, Kaizen, continuous improvement, PDCA, visible systems, and time-based metrics. You may also be trying to remember strange words like Takt, Jidoka, Gemba, Muda, Andon, and Kaizen. These are great concepts and will be useful to your organization as it takes concerted steps to become Lean.

Lean is commonly defined as a management philosophy that involves everyone throughout the organization in the elimination of all forms of waste, resulting in dramatically increased flow of value to the end-user. The definition of Lean emphasizes collective improvement action, but collective action alone will not be sufficient to sustain a Lean transformation.

Lean, like any transformation approach, operates concurrently in four spheres:

1. Awareness
2. Collective Action
3. Leadership
4. Culture

The vast majority of Lean programs focus almost entirely on Awareness and Collective Action. Some touch lightly on Leadership, but virtually none appropriately attend to Culture. Many designers of Lean programs simply assume that Lean techniques themselves will improve culture. After mentioning the cultural benefits of Lean (e.g. more participation), they then quickly move on to talk about “change management” (i.e. how to overpower the existing culture). Yet, we know, based on over 40 years experience at Toyota and beyond, that a strong and congruent culture is the single most important factor in the sustainability of Lean.

A friend recently returned from a visit to Toyota in Japan to study Lean. This was his second trip to Toyota because he was frustrated with his progress in Lean in his company (where he is the president). Toward the end of his visit, he asked his Toyota guide, “Is there one overriding factor that determines one’s success with Lean?” Somewhat to his surprise, his guide smiled and answered, “Yes, the number one factor is always culture. That’s what everyone misses.” I recall his excitement when he related this story to me and added, “These Lean tools and techniques aren’t worth a damn without a strong supporting culture.” Today his company is a Lean showcase that conducts well-attended tours every Friday.

To Be Continued...

Randall Benson & Steve Gandara

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EVERYTHING COMMUNICATES!

When it comes to presenting your brand, everything communicates! Your look communicates. Your words communicate. Your clothing and uniforms communicate. Your colors communicate. Even your business card communicates. What about your culture? Many leaders fail to remember that everything they do communicates, not just in brand language, but in a culture language.

Leaders how do you…?

• Walk around the office
• Answer emails
• Take phone calls
• Eat lunch
• Smile
• Touch
• Remember names
• Deal with employees in transition
• Welcome new employees
• Respond to questioning

Everything communicates, and you are the biggest bearer of your brand of culture. You are a walking billboard to your team. What you do matters. How you say it matters. Why you say it matters.

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts. 

Social Media has changed the game.  Right now, someone from your company is posting about their day at the office on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or perhaps they're publishing a blog on your entire organization.  Do you have the business culture that you want the public to know about?  Are you the type of leader that is ready for the public to see?  Like it our not, social media is not something Human Recourses can control, even your attempts to control it will fail.

Here's some things you need to know:

•  In 1989 General Motors set a new standard paying out $40 million in a class action discrimination legal settlement that began with a single disgruntled employee and grew to 3,800 plaintiffs.
• In 1999 Coca-Cola raised the bar by paying $156 million on a similar settlement.
• While there were no wrongful termination suits in 1975, by 1990, 27% of all lawsuits had wrongful termination implications.
• Recent medical practice research indicates that a primary differentiation between physicians with no mal-practice suits and those with numerous suits is a mere 3.3 seconds per patient of quality time and attention.

Culture trends of employees and customers demanding increased care and sensitivity to the human factor are at an all time high.

With the advent of social media, we live in an era where a single disgruntled employee can purposefully or inadvertently launch a company damaging campaign in seconds, just by sharing their feelings about a performance review or unfavorable interaction with a supervisor. With Google+ this can be done in a manner where leadership has no ability to monitor feedback if the employee and their friends so choose. Since Google created this feature, facebook has now added it as well!

Much research has been done by the Harvard Business School, University of Michigan and others proving the business financial value of a proactive, respectful business culture.

Harvard completed a study in the early 90’s validating the direct correlation between business culture and revenue, employment, bottom line and shareholder value.

Valid scientific statistical processes currently exist to define, measure and benchmark a business culture against proven best practices yet are rarely understood or used. With today’s fast paced society and market pressures, it’s easy for companies to become so focused on chasing revenues, profits and stock prices that they loose site how to best serve their customers and employees.

Thus, most are vulnerable to a social media assault from emotional disgruntled employees, power hungry labor unions and competitors who have the edge with proactive highly engaged cultures.

Employee opinion and engagement surveys are not fast enough to address and stop this. Because of social media, a thoughtful, well-maintained, proactive, respectful, and forthright relational business culture is more valuable than ever. We will be speaking at the NCA Conference speaking on this issue and tooling you to win in the culture area.

You can't control what people post about you to social media, but you can build the environment and culture of your business to produce happy people.

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts. 

Seeing that an uprising was at hand, the Egyptian government sanctioned the blocking of all communication with the outside world in an attempt to control and contain the flow of information of its people. Unbeknownst to them, the people of Egypt united using social media as a vehicle spreading word of the government's intentions so quickly that the regime simply couldn't push their agenda forward and revolution broke out.

Social media gave this recent uprising a foothold through social circles formed on Facebook and Twitter. When people discover that they are not the only ones who hold a particular view, they develop boldness towards action.

With information becoming even more accessible than it used to be, it's becoming more difficult to thrive in an environment of control. It would certainly be next to impossible for someone like Hitler to carry out his control-based agenda today where information is so freely available and people are tightly connected. What we are finding instead is that our times call upon leadership that gets things done through influence-based leadership.

• What kind of a leader are you?
• Do you have a culture of control or influence in your organization?

Aspiring leaders would do well to stop focusing on control and figure out how to expand their influence.

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts.

This being said, making the tough calls as a leader is no simple task. Often emotions, relationships, and our desire for comfort get in the way of us acting on the leadership instincts we know that we must act on. But we can do it! I once heard it said, "Leadership is stewardship." I truly believe in this statement. The most successful leaders are those that are amazing stewards of the current resources that they have. Here are some things to remember when having to steward your area of leadership through a tough call...

CONFRONT TOUGH SITUATIONS EARLY

The sooner you make a move to confront the issue, the less time it has to develop into something far more severe. Many leaders wait to long to make the tough calls because they have a tendency toward avoiding confrontation or they don't want to be seen as someone who makes a mountain out of a mole hill. A goal of every leader is to foresee issues before they arise. Deal with it while it's a mole hill, you will be glad you did.

PREPARE YOUR PLAN OF ATTACK

Often we don't deal with tough issues appropriately. Our leadership becomes a series of emotional reactions rather than planned responses. As leaders we must remember that reactions only happen because we fail to confront issues early and fail to prepare responses before acting. As leaders we are wise to keep journals or logs of issues we are foreseeing, then before confronting the issue, prepare a plan of communication. What will you say? How will you say it in a way that the parties involved have the best opportunity to receive it and make the changes need? Your preparation is what makes you a great leader.

KEEP THE POSITIVE OUTCOME IN YOUR SIGHTS.

Keep a positive outcome in your mind. See the end result that will come from this tough call before dealing with it. It is true that you cannot control the responses of others, but you can control how you approach the situation and what tone of communication you use. As you mediate on the future benefits of making this decision and keep that in the forefront of your mind, your communication spirit will follow.

COMMUNICATE CLEARLY, HONESTLY AND CONCISELY

This is very important. Often people leave meetings confused at what was said because the leader didn't take the time to prepare their communication in such a way that it could be clearly understood. Clarity and conciseness is so important to others gaining the understanding needed to make change.

Hope this helps. If you have questions or specific tough calls you have had to make we would love to hear about them in the comment section below, or on Facebook. Lead well!

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts.

EHOW describes the Duties and Responsibilities of a Captain as this...

An airline captain is responsible for overseeing the flight operations of their own aircraft and ensuring successful, safe flights. The captain briefs the crew, checks flight procedures, inspects the airplane before takeoff, flies the plane, and files a post-flight report after the aircraft has landed. The captain must also ensure that all work on each flight is planned, executed and performed properly and in accordance with any Federal Aviation Administration regulations and rules, as well as within the standards set by the particular airline.

That far exceeds what my expectations were of an airline captain. Often we view the plane as the important element of transportation, but clearly the plane without the people is just a piece of machinery. Without the crew and especially the captain no one would reach their destination.

Although every plane has a captain, every plane also has an autopilot. The autopilot is engaged once the course has been set, the heading has been entered, and the crew has been trained and released to do their part of creating a great flight for the passengers. Autopilot is an important part of every plane. If set correctly it will create and maintain a natural heading in the direction you tell it to until disengaged by the pilot or captain.

You may remember in 2009 when Delta Airline Captain Richard Cole of Salem, Oregon, and first officer, Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Washington overshot their destination by over a hundred miles. They would have noticed that the autopilot had sent them past their destination but somehow they lost radio contact with the tower and never heard they were off course.

This is often a tragedy in our businesses as well. We start off well, set everything and everyone in their place. Then before long there is an autopilot that takes over, and if we cant hear the tower giving us warning signs of misdirection we end up places we never desired. That autopilot is our business culture, and that tower trying to get our attention is our people.

It is the culture of our business that really flies the plane. Often we think we’re steering in one direction and without our knowledge our culture is really what’s in control veering us off course. The culture consists of the pulse of our people, the health of their communication up and down through the organization, their trust of management, policies and procedures we have set in place, and much more. This is the autopilot of every organization, and once the captain takes his hands off the wheel, this is what is really steering. How can we change this? Is it possible to redirect a culture?

It’s not easy, but there are answers! There is hope! Please stay tuned in our upcoming weekly blogs, as we will be discussing these things and much more. Our desire is to discuss the elephants that are in the room of every organization. The pain points we want to ignore, but are causing so much damage that we’re are forced to be crying out for help.

Please leave your comments or questions below, our team of experts would love to help in anyway we can.

Want to build an excellent culture in your business?  Tell us about your business and the vision you have for your culture.  Ask the experts.