Send the right message
FedEx, the company trusted by millions of people to deliver their Christmas presents to loved ones, recently announced some belt-tightening initiatives. That’s the real tragedy of the economic downturn, that even great companies get affected negatively. You get most things right, avoid the icebergs and get the ship headed in the right direction, and out of nowhere you get hit over the head with a recession.
There’s an old cliche that goes “A rising tide raises all boats”. For the purposes of this post, I’ll turn that around to say “A receding tide exposes your Leadership”. Let’s look at how FexEx’s has provided a business leadership lesson for dealing with this recession.
What did they do?
While FedEx income and earnings per share beat analyst’s expectations and were up over the same quarter last year, much of the gain could be traced to the drop in fuel costs and FedEx CEO Fred Smith acknowledges that “our financial performance is increasingly being challenged by some of the worst economic conditions in the company’s 35-year operating history”.
So what was their response?
Instead of simply laying off workers, Fred Smith exhibited some true leadership and character by:
- Taking a 20% pay cut, and additionally reducing senior executive salaries by up to 10%
- Suspended 401K company matching contributions
- Implemented a hiring freeze and reduced labor hours
- And yes, reduced the workforce; however no cuts to hourly workers
(Credit CNN.com for quotes and data)
The Leadership lesson
While not highlighted in the CNN article, the piece I heard indicated that the other measures FedEx took greatly reduced the number of jobs that were cut. I think the other great benefit of the approach FedEx took is the message it sends to employees.
A few years back I was part of a very similar program. The company I work for is a non-profit, and while our funding sources are very diverse, we found ourselves one year facing a rather large cut to one of our funding sources. Our President’s response was a real leadership lesson for me.
Yes, we cut some staff. However, our President also instituted an across the board salary reduction for all employees. The leadership lesson was that from the top down management took a larger percentage cut than the rest of the employees, with our President taking the largest percentage reduction of all.
What was the impact?
First and foremost, we were able to weather the economic impact and come out the other side stronger than before. I predict the same will happen to FedEx, and probably lots of other well run companies.
More important I think, as I mentioned above, was the message that was sent to employees; a message I took as two-fold:
- We value you enough to take some bitter medicine for the good of everybody, and
- Our leaders are going to contribute more, as they should
Ultimately, while there was some mumbling in the hallways, I think most employees appreciated and understood the shared belt-tightening. The effect of the program, and how it was communicated by our President, was that “we’ve encounted some hard times, we’ve made some hard choices, and now it’s time to move on and get back to work.” From what I gathered talking to my team and employees at large was that:
- The quick, decisive action made them feel better about their job security
- The top-down, across-the-board pay cuts clearly sent a message of “we’re all in this together”
Final Thoughts
There has been countless articles written discussing these “challenging times”, “how to survive the economic crisis”, etc. etc. I do not intend to minimize in any way the seriousness of the business environment we are currently in. Let’s keep our heads about us though - it still comes back to Leadership. I would submit that leadership skills of character, courage, decisiveness, and yes, compassion will serve us all well not only to weather this storm, but come out stronger on the other side. If you do not have these skills in abundance on your leadership team, now may be the time to make some changes. One outcome of the unpleasant employment situation is the abundance of great talent available.
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How big do you want to be?
I talk to entrepreneurs virtually every day, in all stages of development and across a wide varieties of sectors. While they are all different, there are many common themes. There are the questions they ask, and there are the challenges they don’t ask about that we see them all face eventually.
Today I thought I’d touch on one of those challenges, which is Growth.
Most of the entrepreneurs I work with and talk to are in either the technology space or the consumer goods space. Since the majority of them are seeking outside investment, their projected financials almost always look like the proverbial “hockey stick”. One aspect of my job is to help them get there.
While multi-million dollar companies look good on paper, many an entrepreneur has come up against some hard choices on the road there. Are you willing to give up a significant share of your company to get the investment you want? Are you willing to tip the work/life balance squarely over to work for an uncertain number of years as you focus on building your company? What will that mean to your family? Can you maintain your values and integrity on the ride up, because they will be challenged? Do you really have the skills, personality and perseverance to grow your company as big as you think you can? Are you willing to step aside to get to where you want to go?
Hard questions that many an entrepreneur has bumped up against and struggled to answer. Similarly, we see struggles on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Not every great idea is a great business. Another aspect of my job is helping entrepreneurs understand this concept. While we sincerely want every entrepreneur we meet with to be a huge success, many simply have ideas that are more in the “lifestyle business” category versus high-growth potential. It is also interesting to watch entrepreneur’s response to this challenge. How do they respond when faced with holes in their business model? What do you really want - a small business you are passionate about or a big business you’re not? Does a setback or two on the road to riches inspire you or cause you to throw in the towel?
I think we can take these lessons easily into a discussion of Personal Excellence and Personal Growth.
How big do “you” want to be? We’ve talked about personal branding a bit on this blog, and implied that your personal brand is, in a sense, your personal business. So how big do you want to be and how prepared are you to face the journey?
If you are trying to grow your brand, have aspirations to be a CEO, published author, famous artist, or start a successful company, how prepared are you to fail? Or at least fall short of your goals? Will you be challenged or will you give up. What if you are successful? Are you prepared for the seductions of power, money and fame? Are your personal values and ethics strong enough that you can stay true to yourself even as your brand takes off?
You’ll have challenges too even if you want to stay small. Even lifestyle business and entrepreneurs grow, and it’s all relative. So what happens when your brand becomes popular enough that you’re working 60 hour weeks and it’s impacting your family life? Can you maintain the quality of your brand in that situation? Do you bring in a partner, potentially growing even more, or do you scale back potentially sending the message you don’t want to be successful?
How big do you want to be?
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A surprise package in the mail
Every once in a while life throws you a little surprise; a gift-wrapped smile from parts unknown.
I got one of those over the weekend. Checking my work E-Mail, I had a message from someone I didn’t recognize. There was no signature, no introduction, no marketing - literally nothing to help me figure out where the message came from.
I really have no idea if this is a message that was sent directly to me, or if it is just someones little experiment, but here’s what was in the message:
Be understanding to your perceived enemies.
Be loyal to your friends.
Be strong enough to face the world each day.
Be weak enough to know you cannot do everything alone.
Be generous to those who need your help.Be frugal with that you need yourself.
Be wise enough to know that you do not know everything.
Be foolish enough to believe in miracles.
Be willing to share your joys.
Be willing to share the sorrows of others.Be a leader when you see a path others have missed.
Be a follower when you are shrouded by the mists of uncertainty.
Be first to congratulate an opponent who succeeds.
Be last to criticize a colleague who fails.
Be sure where your next step will fall, so that you will not tumble.Be sure of your final destination, in case you are going the wrong way.
Be loving to those who love you..
Be loving to those who do not love you; they may change.
Above all, Be yourself.
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Building character through entrepreneurship
Inspired by a short article with the same title over on Dr. Jeff Cornwall’s blog, today I’d like to talk briefly about how entrepreneurship can build character, and how you can do the same even if you’re not an entrepreneur.
Dr. Cornwall references a post that lists five reasons why entrepreneurship improves your life. For those of you who like Cliff Notes, the five reasons headline as:
- You’re going to be tested
- You’re going to fail
- You’re going to learn patience
- You’re going to have a major impact on people
- You’re going to develop character
That number five is somewhat more of an outcome of numbers one through four more than a reason in itself. In supporting that last point, the post suggests:
…through the pursuit, you will obtain rewards of character. And the development of sound character is perhaps the most important perk of entrepreneurship. At the end of the day, no one really cares how much money you made. They care about who you are.
What I’d like to suggest today is that you don’t have to start a business, or even consider yourself an entrepreneur, to reap the same benefits within your life. However, you do have to embrace the qualities of entrepreneurship. For to be tested, to fail, to learn patience, to have a major impact on others and therefore to develop character, you will have to:
Take a Risk and Do Something Big!
You don’t have to start your own business, but you will have to get out of your comfort zone. You don’t have to look for investors, but you will have to sell your idea to other people. You don’t have to risk your financial well-being, but you will have to risk some personal embarrassment. You don’t have to change the world, but you do have to change your world.
Growth does not come from the status quo. To grow you need to stretch your wings, challenge yourself (and maybe others), and to the important points made above, be willing to experience short-term discomfort, even failure, for long-term growth and development.
“Big” is relative. For one person, a big risk might simply be asking their boss out to lunch, for someone else it might be volunteering to run a new division. Whatever you choose, be honest with yourself that it is truly “big”, that it will truly challenge you and presents a real chance for failure. Remember - nothing risked, nothing gained.
Here’s my challenge to all of you: leave a comment to this post and tell me (and the world) what big risk you plan on taking before the end of the year, and what personal growth you hope to get out of it. If I get at least 3 comments, then I’ll tell you the big risk I’m taking and what I hope to get out of it.
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Has the Age of Mediocrity arrived?
One of my information sources (recommended by reader Lauren) is Harvard Business Publishing’s Management Tip of the Day. (Go here, then look for the Management Tip of the Day in the right “Subscribe Options” area.)
A couple days ago the title of the article was Do Something Remarkable for Customers. It’s actually a cool little article that focuses on Best Buy’s Geek Squad. In the six years since starting in 2002, the Geek Squad has grown from 60 employees to more than 15,000 currently and is contributing more than $1 billion (yes that’s illion with a B) to the bottom line.
The secret sauce for the Geek Squad is fanatical adherance to customer service. Here’s the 6 point pledge every fledgling Geek signs on to uphold:
- Never violate the trust of my clients or disrespect their property.
- Never say, “I don’t know.” Instead, say, “I’ll find out.”
- Always understand that my clients’ time is more valuable than my own.
- Assume every problem is my fault, unless proven otherwise.
- Consider my job done only when my client is completely overwhelmed with joy. And instead of assuming they’re happy, I’ll ask them.
- Keep every promise I make. Including this one.
It’s a cool program and I give Best Buy credit for reinvigorating customer service just when I was convinced it was dead. And as a geek at heart, it’s kind of fun to be cool again!
Reading the full article though, I had two thoughts.
Thought 1: When did good service become remarkable?
Kudos to Best Buy and all, but look at that 6 point pledge. Never violate someone’s trust? Respect client’s property? Ask customers if they are happy with your work? Keep your promises? Didn’t those used to be qualities we were taught as kids that were essentials? I know I’m being overly negative here, but it’s a sad state of affairs when doing a good job and respecting your customers and clients is considered remarkable.
Thought 2: What a great platform to build upon
You can do this with the 6 point pledge or just the title of “Do Something Remarkable for your Customers”. Anywhere you see the word “customer” or “client”, try replacing it with “boss” or “spouse” or “friends” or some other relationship you have maybe neglected.
The fact is we have lots of relationships in our lives. Our relationship with our clients may pay the bills for most of us, but that doesn’t mean that all our other relationships don’t deserve something “remarkable” once in a while.
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What motivates you?
I had an early morning meeting with an entrepreneur last week. He’s located in an area that historically has a lot of traffic congestion to begin with, not to mention the large construction project that began on the interchange there about six months ago. I hate to be late to meetings, so I left with plenty of time to spare.
For whatever reason, traffic was very light and I breezed through the construction. With a good half hour to spare, I took the opportunity to stop into a Bob Evans for breakfast. I love breakfast yet seldom go out for it, so this was a treat for me.
I was seated at a table by a window looking out into the parking lot. I had the morning paper with me, but glanced out into the lot every once in a while. Eventually, my gaze was drawn to an employee that had been sent out into the lot with a broom to sweep up the random bits of trash and cigarette butts in the lot.
Not the most glamorous job in the world, and this guy’s demeanor definitely reflected it. His energy level was way down, his shoulders were drooped and he just oozed “I wish I was doing anything but this”.
Like just about everything, it got me to thinking. First impressions are very important, and a clean, well maintained exterior speaks well of any establishment. Obviously, with a restaurant, quality of food and sanitary conditions in the kitchen are also pretty important. But that first impression out in the lot can really set the stage for what to expect inside.
So here’s this kid doing fairly important work, and he’s wanting to do pretty much anything but. Somewhere, there was a disconnect between the importance of the task to the organization and the motivation and involvement of the employee performing the task.
So what motivates you? Is it the task or the value of the task?
If you are a leader, how good of a job do you do communicating the importance and value of your assignments? Do you assign “tasks”, or do you ask people to add value to your organization?
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Progress?
A friend of mine, Mark Pinto, is an example of a person whose destiny was probably foretold from the day he was born. So visual and creative he can’t eat lunch with you without doodling on the napkin, Mark runs a successful consulting business providing “graphic facilitation” to clients, helping them with issues ranging from personal leadership, self-directed teamwork, and large group decision-making.
Mark also has a blog called Sketchy Business that he posts to every once in a while. Recently, Mark wrote a post on what happened to his family when the electricity in his neighborhood went out. You might be surprised at the result - the family ended up spending “rich, relaxing and productive” time together.
Which makes me wonder - are we really making progress with all of our so-called advancements?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting we should abandon electricty, light bulbs and automobiles, but I do think Mark eluded to an important concept in his post. On what basis should we evaluate Progress? Too often it seems progress is put in terms of how much more money I can make, how much more productive I can be, or how much more quickly I can get from point A to point B.
Meanwhile, where do we stand on cultural and societal progress? We will pump billions into advanced energy research over the next few years, and rightly so, but if we also continue to cut funding to social, cultural and educational institutions, what message are we sending to our citizens; to the world? More importantly, what kind of country are we building?
We need more focus on family, mutual respect and rich, meaningful relationships in this country. I’m not talking about simple “family values” rhetoric that has become a required paragraph in every politicians stump speech. I’m talking about figuring out how to create authentic connections like Mark had with his family, without the electricity having to shut off.
Here’s my simple proposition: let’s not wait for our government to do this for us. I’m not saying I’m down on the government. I am saying this is something we need to take responsibility for. Instead of waiting for the electricity to go out, let’s all spend more nights than not working on our son’s and daughter’s homework with them. Instead of waiting for the neighbors to invite us over, let’s invite them over for a bowl of chili and some warm bread. Instead of waiting for the price of gas to come down, let’s form a carpool and save some money while we build some relationships.
Instead of waiting for our significant other to tell us how much they care for us, let’s tell them first. Extra credit - add family and friends to that one.
Just because the electricity comes back on, we don’t have to be different people.
Please help get this message out. Forward this message on to at least one person you know will take it to heart. It’s not about chain letters and it’s not about promoting my blog (copy and paste the text into your own E-mail, I don’t care). But if we simply stand by and let “progress” march us by, then no whining when we end up with a life and society that doesn’t fit with our values. It’s about Balance my friends and right now, there is precious little of it on the end of the scale that matters most.
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DCO Weekend Reader - 8/1/2008
The web is a vast repository of opinions, commentary and occasionally, wisdom. Here’s a selection of the best articles I read over the past week.
If you would like to recommend an article, blog or book, please leave a comment with your suggestion. We’ll see how this goes, but Weekend Reader is intended to be a regular feature here at DCO. Depending on the quantity/quality of articles I find (and your suggestions), I’m guessing it will be either weekly or every other week.
It was an interesting week - only one Leadership post made the list, but lots of thought-provokers and fun stuff. Enjoy!
Leadership
- Character sets the foundation for Leadership. True enough. I love the statement “you cannot impart what you do not possess.”
Thought-Provokers
- George Ambler finds a new blog and briefly reviews it’s Guide to World Domination
- Great article over on Lead Quietly about growing a Leader Mob. Probably not what you’re thinking.
- 9 Insane Strategies to Grow Your Business. I just subscribed to this blog. Based on the first couple of articles I’ve read, I think I’m going to like it.
- Have a funny feeling you’re rationalizing a point to yourself? Take one of these tests.
For Fun
- Use Wordle to turn any RSS feed or block of text into a word collage. Sure, not many of us are geeky enough to actually have fun turning RSS feeds into word clouds. But what about song lyrics. Okay, a bit more interesting. Mission statements? Vision statements??? This could be fun. (I apologize in advance for wasting the portion of your day you spend playing with Wordle).
- Also at Leading Blog, some Leadership wallpapers for your PC.
- Not that you or I ever have this problem, but here’s 5 ways to overcome boredom at work!
Books
- In the comments for a recent post, Carol made what look like some darned good suggestions for practical Leadership reference books.
- In a book review I mentioned recently, Leading Blog talks about Cruicibles of Leadership, a book to help us develop a personal learning strategy to learn from experience. As soon as I can find this book it is next on my reading list.
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What my GPS taught me about Character
Like many folks I have one of those GPS devices in my car. It’s actually pretty similar to the one pictured on the left. Since I have it mounted inside my window and plugged into the cigarette lighter, it automatically comes on when I start the car, and is always on when I’m driving. If you don’t have one of these devices and you are on the road a lot, I highly recommend them. It’s one of those things you think is an extravagance, but once you get one you will wonder how you got along without it.
The display as shown is actively routing you to a destination, giving you turn by turn instructions. If you are not using the device for directions, you can simply bring up a map mode where it will show you all the roads in your immediate vicinity. From map mode you can click into a speedometer mode which shows your current speed, direction and some historical statistics.
This is the mode I go into a lot. The car I drive has an adjustable steering wheel, which I usually have lowered down as far as it can go. I just like it that way. However, it makes the speedometer very hard to see, and it is usually a good idea to have a sense of how fast your are driving. So clicking into the speedometer mode of the GPS gives me an alternate speedometer right at eye level. It’s much more convenient.
