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.
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 12/5/08
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. Weekend Reader is a regular feature here at DCO, and you can read past Weekend Readers here.
Many times I embed rich media into the Weekend Readers that may not show up in E-mails or RSS readers. For that reason, I generally recommend you click through to my blog to read Weekend Reader posts.
Welcome to December! Turkey Day is over and we’re headed straight into the heart of the holidays. I had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and hope you did also. I don’t know about you, but it seems like those couple T-Day pounds take longer and longer to work off every year that goes by.
In observance of the holiday, I did not publish a Weekend Reader last Friday, so we’ve got a jam-packed on this week, with something for everyone I think. There are so many great articles this week you really should browse through them all to pick out what interests you most. If I had to pick this week’s must read I would direct you to the CEO’s recession survival guide under Leadership and the article asking if you’re ready for Web 2.0 under Thought-Provokers.
I trust you’re all well. Can you believe there are only 20 shopping days left until Christmas!
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 11/21/08
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. Weekend Reader is a regular feature here at DCO, and you can read past Weekend Readers here.
Another solid week with lots of good stuff for you to read. The news about Mark Cuban and Jerry Yang was especially interesting to me and will be even more interesting to see how both play out. Mark’s situation as there is always more to the story that meets the eye and it will be interesting to see how Mark is treated in the context of Martha Stewart’s trial. In Jerry Yang’s case, very few entrepreneurs go on to actually run their companies. Jerry just took on the CEO role about a year ago and he’s already in trouble. I’ll be watching to see if he can recover.
A lot of information again this week on the topic of your career, protecting it against the recession, and making yourself more visible/valuable. I hope these posts continue to be interesting for you. My assumption is with everything going on and the continuing economic troubles we are all taking a hard look at our options and keeping those paychecks coming in the mail.
Less than a week until Turkey Day. Have a great weekend.
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 11/14/08
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. Weekend Reader is a regular feature here at DCO, and you can read past Weekend Readers here.
Wow - jam-packed Weekend Reader this week. We’ve got radio, we’ve got video, the only thing we’re missing is puppies. I’m not even sure where to start to recommend a “must read” for the week.
For Leaders I think your must read is the post on Leadership being a choice. At the same time inspirational yet re-affirming, a good levelset for making sure you’ve made the right choice and what happens if you don’t. I also like the post on C-Level resumes. Good advice for how it needs to be different from earlier in your career, especially if you want to switch industries. Entrepeneurs? If your concept is software-based, check out Microsoft’s BizSpark program to save that precious cash.
Feel free to peruse the rest, I hope you find some value. As always - have a great weekend!
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 11/7/08
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. Weekend Reader is a regular feature here at DCO, and you can read past Weekend Readers here.
What a historic week for our country. I am not a politcial pundit and I do not intend to introduce politics as a topic of discussion on this blog. That said, I agree with certain observations that at least some part of Obama’s victory was tied to hope, inspiration and the promise of change. We all know delivering on promises is the hard part, but I’m proud of my country voting for excellence, even if it is just the promise of excellence.
The fact is nothing can prepare you for the job of President, so all we are left with is to vote for the person who brings what we each feel are the best tools for the job. Each candidate clearly had impressive qualifications and no one can definitively say why any one person voted the way they did. I do think it says something about our country’s thirst for authentic leadership and inspiration that Obama prevailed. His challenge now is delivering on that inspiration, and as one of the Weekend Reader articles below outlines, Americans are more and more impatient when it comes to our leaders. Let’s hope he gets the chance, and the time, to deliver.
For my own little piece of inspiration it seemed appropriate to turn to two of my personal heroes, Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; two men who played no small part in allowing this election to happen and dedicated their lives to equality, harmony, and justice. There is no end to the inspiration that can be found in their speeches and writings, but I settled on the final sentence from Lincoln’s second inaugural address, inscribed on the North wall of the Lincoln Memorial. Hopefully, the nation can stop looking back on our past sins and dedicate ourselves to building a better future:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 8/22/08
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. Weekend Reader is a regular feature here at DCO, and you can read past Weekend Readers here.
Last week I promised to try to limit the number of links this week, and sadly I just wasn’t able to live up to that promise. Whereas I initially thought this feature might not even be weekly, it now appears not only will it stay weekly, but it will be chock-full of great posts and links. To help you decide which links are most appropriate for you, I’ll expand my descriptions of posts that might not be self-explanatory, to help guide your weekend reading.
This week I’m also adding a new section to the Weekend Reader: Tips & Tricks. I read a post that simply had to be mentioned and it really didn’t fit any of the four categories, so I just created a new one.
I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but the weather here couldn’t be more pleasant. Late Summer / Early Fall weather gives us sunny days in the low 80’s and cool clear nights perfect for opening the windows. Have a great weekend - take a hike!
Personal Excellence & Leadership
- Courage has been discussed on this blog as a possible “essential” quality of entrepreneurship. This post examines what happens when you have to little or too much of it.
- Are your corporate (or for that matter personal) metrics not in line with your goals? If you hit your metrics can you still miss your goals?
- Some insightful comments on why leadership development might be such a popular topic these days in business.
- Positive Leadership (also a book).
- On staying committed… Warning #1 - some “salty” language. Warning #2 - may be extremely motivating.
- Are you the leader of an organization that needs a better sense of urgency? Could you use more urgency around your personal goals. Here is a good article outlining the difference between true urgency and false urgency, along with four tactics to create a true sense of urgency.
Thought-Provokers
- What beliefs support your Leadership philosophy? I’d love to see some thoughts from all of you in comments.
- Sitck with this one. It ends better than it starts.
For Fun
- This is fun and might even be useful! Screen2 lets you share your web browser with a friend or colleague. Nothing to install, safe and secure.
Books
- How to be useful: A beginner’s guid to not hating work. I’m glad to see themes like being nice and using common sense so prevalent in today’s leadership commentaries. This new book shows “how to restore courtesy in your work and your organization, and move up in the world while doing so.” It may sound a bit trite, but based on the extended overview of the book, this one may get added to my reading list.
Tips & Tricks
- The concept of one’s “personal brand” is one that I’m seeing more and more articles about. If this is an issue that is important to you, then you may be interested in this article on tracking your online brand. It’s not just as simple as “googling” your name once a month, and the author offers some tips on monitoring not only news, but blogs, forums, discussion boards and twitter.
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 8/15/08
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. Weekend Reader is a regular feature here at DCO, and you can read past Weekend Readers here.
Wow - LOTS of links this week. I’m not sure if I just enjoyed everything I read or if there really was that much good stuff this week. Either way, you should find plenty here to keep you busy over the weekend. The good news is, most of these links are short reads with a lot of value-add content. I promise I’ll try to be more selective next week.
Leadership
- The importance of conversation as part of your leadership practice.
- 5 tips for implementing innovation.
- A good quick read on 5 barriers to decisiveness and how to overcome them.
- A great list of beliefs that support leadership. I’ll be reconciling this one to my initial list of essential leadership qualities to see what I might have missed.
- Related to the bad habits post below, here are some examples of how too much ego can get in the way of effective leadership.
- Please, no complaining.
Thought-Provokers
- A Nice Guy Bill of Rights. Are you a nice guy? Is it hard for you to say “no” or to be firm with someone. Well you can be a no-nonsense leader and still be a nice guy. Here are some simple thoughts to get you started.
- This post was titled The Secret of the Web. I think it’s good everywhere.
- Do you have a bad habit or two that might be holding you back from that executive position you applied for recently? Check out this list and see. (Personally, I found myself guilty of the first two and will begin paying attention to these immediately).
- File this one under Dress for Domination. What color clothes do more winners wear? You may be surprised.
- The lengthened shadows of leaders.
For Fun
- Using online tool Dipity, you can create a visual, scaleable timeline that looks great. Check out this timeline of Internet fads, or this one on the conflict in Darfur. Signup is quick and painless. Adding “sources” like photo-sharing site, YouTube and blogs, you can add rich media to your timeline. Timelines can be embedded into websites, and tools are offered to link into various social sites. While I’m not sure I will use Dipity right away, I like the concept. It seems to be an easy way to relate history via rich media. What I don’t see is a way to create a timeline and package it up for stand-alone presentation. This is a new tool, so stay tuned for future features.
Books
- A list of 5 books covering the topic of the value of social media to the enterprise. Don’t discount this topic - social networking is here to stay and smart leaders will understand it and use it.
- I just read a great quote on books, attributed to Winston Churchill:
“If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or, as it were, fondle them–peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on their shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what is in them, you will at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances.”
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 8/8/2008
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.
This week I’m pleased to have two great lists of book recommendations, and some other recommendations via post comments. When I first started this feature, the four sections of the Weekend Reader were written somewhat on the fly, and the section on Books I thought would be the hardest to consistently have good content for. On the contrary, with the popularity of the Leadership and Excellence topic, and the number of blogs dedicated to it, I’m pleased to so far be able to find good information on recommended books.
Leadership
- Kevin offers 5 ways to incorporate learning into your work and your life. He offers up 5 questions to ask ourselves to positively navigate learning opportunities.
- I recently found Steve Pavlina’s blog on Personal Development. I haven’t read it enough to recommend it yet, but if the following list of interesting posts I found upon signing up are any indication, this will be one blog whose posts I will look forward to: Making sense of having lots of different interests (this is me and I love the positive spin on this), Steve’s brief overview of The purpose of Life, and equating habit change to chess.
- Since it’s such an important quality of being a leader, you will want to read this article on Soul Shelter with numerous tips on how to stay stressed. (Yes, that is sarcasm…)
Thought-Provokers
- Are you a PITA? No, not an animal lover, a Pain in the Arse! Following the philosophy that all of us are someone’s problem, take this test to find out exactly what kind of PITA you are.
- The Leading Blog asks: Can you Lead with Kindness? In answer to that question, they recommend a new book called Leading with Kindness. Based on the excepts they provide, I’m adding this book to my reading list (I really need to get to the bookstore). And before you starting thinking I’m going all warm and fuzzy, leading with kindness may not be exactly what you think. As pointed out in the post, you can be hard-nosed and kind.
For Fun
Nothing popped up on the radar screen this week, so I’m reaching into my bag of tricks for something fun. Ask 500 People bills itself as “public opinion polls for the world”. Basically, anyone can submit a question (with answers) to the site. Site visitors vote on the questions they like, and the current active question is closed once 500 people cast their votes. Questions can range from the absurd (”How famous you are?”) to the sublime (”Have you ever written to spammers asking them if spamming is a good way to make a living?”).
Questions can be yes/no, multiple choice (including pictures), and 1 to 5 scale. If you register with the site, you can create and ask your own questions. This would all just be an interesting social web experiment until you find the section that gives you the ability to embed the questions you create on your own website. Digging a little further, you find the section on using Ask 500 People as low-cost market research. Paid questions are asked on a private network. If you are looking for a low cost way to get wide demographic opinions on any business question involving “people who use the Internet”, you may want to consider this service.
Check out this site at your own risk. It can be a serious time-waster. You have been warned.
Books
- An overview of the best Leadership books to be published in August.
- Going one better, a list of the best Leadership books ever!
- In commenting on a recent post, Carol had some great recommendations.
