Operational Audit: Synergy

     Within any business and most departments there are a number of functions that are completed by various groups or people. For any company to be truly successful it must have synergy. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines synergy as combined action or operation. The second meaning is a mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct business participants or elements (as resources or efforts). Based on this meaning we can ascertain that to have synergy we must have combined action or be doing it together and it must be mutually advantageous—it can’t only benefit one department or function, it has to be for the greater good of the company. So how do we know if our departments or companies are synergized?
     For starters, you want to evaluate if information is flowing freely. This includes information flowing from the top down, down up, and side to side. Free information flow is critical to being on the same page. If the top leadership develops strategy and your front line workers don’t have a clue you can be sure information is not flowing freely. Same applies if top leadership is not aware of the environment on the front lines whether it is workload capacity, lack of resources, personnel issues, etc. And just as important, you have to be able to determine if the departments or functions are communicating with each other. If there is an objective that requires a combined effort (as in majority of organizations) to execute and only half of the group is aware and as a result are not working together to determine the best course of action, your final product or service will only be half as good as it could have been. To determine this, select an organization wide initiative and begin asking the various parties what they know about that initiative and what their role is. I assure you, you will quickly be able to grasp how freely information is flowing.
     The next step you will want to identify is how well the departments or functions follow-up with each other. Do these departments place a high value on communicating with each other? This can quickly be determined by conducting a few interviews with the various functions and/or departments. Without prompt follow-up a negative environment will begin to grow because people’s natural response will be to think that they don’t respect me enough to communicate back with me. Morale will be impacted. Productivity will be stifled since people will not be able to move forward because they won’t have the necessary information. Without proper follow-up you’ll be fighting against the grain since your teams will be exuding energy on hunting down what they need versus focusing on process or service improvements.
     Another important aspect to evaluate is whether key decisions are made in a vacuum or involve all departments involved. It is pretty common for key decisions to be made by a single department that for the most part is responsible for the initiative. But 99.9% of the time that department will have to rely on other departments to execute the final objective. As a result, when other departments are needed to support this initiative they are unaware and unprepared resulting in unnecessary stress. And whether we like it or not, animosity probably begins to set in—further reducing synergy. Turf wars begin to develop and productivity once again is impacted.
     The last area to assess is to try and determine if there is a mechanism for feedback and candid communication. There has to be an open door to leadership at all levels where employees can freely come in and share frustrations, ideas, solutions, etc. Jack Welch in his book Winning says, “Trust happens when leaders are transparent, candid, and keep their word. It’s that simple.” Leadership has to be candid and allow for their employees to be candid. This creates transparency for the organization and as a result everyone is on the same page and moving in the same direction. And when that happens, trust happens, and when trust happens, synergy happens!

Operational Audit: Quality

     If your desire is to have a successful department or organization then quality must be at the top of your list. Quality is a key component of long term success. Pat Williams in his book The Leadership Wisdom of Solomon states, “Don’t be too quick to undercut your competitor’s prices; instead, deliver better quality and better service.” I am yet to hear of an organization that has been successful while putting out sub par quality products or service. As a result, you must be able to gauge the level of quality that your organization is generating at all times.
     I have experienced and determined that a full assessment of quality is a three prong approach. You have to know what your customers think (external), you need to know what your indicators show (internal), and you have to know how your team and leaders are performing. These three areas integrated into one quality assurance system (QA System) will ensure that you are delivering the levels of quality that will allow you to be successful in the long term.
     The first step is to determine how you will consistently gather information from your customers. If your customers are not happy, you will not be happy (since you’ll be looking for a new job). I believe it is critical to know what your customers are expecting, how satisfied they are, and what their future goals are for your product or service. You have to identify how you will stay engaged with all of your customers at all times. The free market is a very competitive one. Businesses are constantly looking for better ways to support their customers—this should apply to you too. The only way to do that is to be consistently asking them where you stand. So from an operational audit standpoint, the question is, do you know where you stand with your customers? What system do you have in place that is constantly gathering data about your customer’s satisfaction? And most importantly, what is your department or organization doing with this information? I cannot tell you how many companies I have come across that gathers information and does nothing with it. As a result, the customer is even more frustrated because they took the time to communicate with you, but you failed to communicate with them. So what do they do? They go to someone who does ask, listens, and takes action to meet their expectations.
     There are many mechanisms for knowing how satisfied your customers are but the two most common are mailed customer questionnaires and electronic survey systems. But by far the most effective is face to face interaction. Of course if you are a multinational organization this may not be cost efficient so you have to determine which method provides the most value at the lowest cost. But reality is, people buy from or continue to buy from or work with people they like—not companies. And the only way people can determine if they like you is through a relationship. And the only way to build a relationship is to spend time together. As a result I have found that the best way to gauge customer satisfaction is to do a customer assessment face to face.
     The next step in the QA System is to know exactly what level of quality you are producing internally. Your team and leadership have to be engaged and look for every opportunity to improve quality. However, it has to be measurable. You need to create KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) and commit to consistent inspections. This is the only way you and your team will know exactly where you stand. It is critical that you understand what are the levels of quality that you are trying to achieve and more importantly that your team does. So you have to evaluate your system to determine whether you have metrics that you are attempting to achieve, are you gathering the necessary data, and what steps are you taking to improve them. The most common ways to gather this type of information is through visual inspections and automated systems. These systems generate reports or highlight your KPI’s on an automated dashboard. Once you have this internal assessment in place, you are constantly evaluating it against what your external input is and are looking for any gaps. The point being that you may be meeting the quality levels that you think are important, but they may not be important to your customers.
     The final step in the QA System is to evaluate what mechanisms exist to monitor and develop your team and leadership on a consistent basis. Majority of organizations evaluate their employees once per year. And once per year they identify opportunities for improvement. If you desire to beat the competition with quality products or service you have to link your team’s performance to your quality assessments and results. It is a tremendous commitment but I believe leaders have to be evaluated on a monthly basis. You identify what their strengths, improvements needed, and significant observations are for that month. This assessment has to link to the level of quality they have produced based on internal and external assessments.
     It is imperative that your quality audit determines that the proper methods of assessing your customer’s satisfaction and internal operations exist and that these results are linked to your team’s performance. If you commit to this three pronged QA System I guarantee your quality will improve, number of customers will increase, and ultimately, your department or organization will have long term success!

Operational Audit: Staff

     I was part of a healthcare organization that was very focused on improving its patient (customer) satisfaction surveys. They created scripts that every employee had to say when coming in contact with a patient. They made sure that the script used the same words as the survey that would be received by each patient. Every employee wore buttons that proclaimed that they strive for the highest scores in patient satisfaction. So why didn’t the patient satisfaction survey improve?
     The reason the scores didn’t improve is because leadership missed a critical component to high patient satisfaction—happy employees. You see, customers can only be happy if your employees are happy. It doesn’t matter what you say to your customers, how many times, or that you advertise that you want happy customers. What matters is how your employees say it. I’m sure you have been in a situation where somebody has apologized to you but you clearly knew they were not sorry. That’s because their body language did not support their verbal language. And we all know that non-verbal communication is 80% of overall communication. John Maxwell in his book Everyone Communicates Few Connect says, “If you want to connect with others, you have to get over yourself. You have to change the focus from inward to outward, off of yourself and onto others.” This is very difficult to do if you are self involved with your current environment which is usually the case when employee morale is down.
     So if you identify that your productivity and sales are down. You observe that your customer complaints are on the rise, you learn that your customer satisfaction surveys are trending down—look to your staff’s morale. You should start by talking to them. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn by just asking questions, by learning what the environment is like. Of course, if you normally don’t engage with your team they may be hesitant to open up to you—more the reason to engage with your team at all times. Another great way to learn about your team’s morale is to speak to your internal customers. Most departments in an organization either support another department or work with them to provide the final product or service. The people in these departments will be a great resource for you because if your team is unhappy, they will usually be the first to feel it. You should also conduct an anonymous survey—it has to be anonymous so you can ensure full disclosure. There are many employee engagement survey templates on the web, research them and choose the questions that best apply to your department or organization. You should also observe the work environment. Take time to identify how your team works with each other and others by simply observing them. Are they engaged and excited or are they isolated and downtrodden? Another telltale sign is negative trending KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). Your staff is the primary driver of productivity and quality. If the KPI’s are changing for the worse, you have to look at your staff.
     Once you identify that morale problems exist you have to take action! You need to start by ensuring that proper leadership exists. If leadership is lacking, staff morale will always be lacking. So if you are in the position that is responsible for leadership that is directly responsible for the employees; you need to make critical decisions—see my previous article titled Operational Audit: Leadership. If there are other factors that you learned from talking to your staff, internal customers, and by conducting an employee survey—then you must take action to improve them. One of the most common and least desirable causes of poor employee morale is poor employee attitude and behavior. You may learn that one or a group of employees is impacting your teams overall poor performance. If this is the case, you have to eliminate this cancer as quickly as possible. This may happen through candid conversations and a change of heart or it may happen by separation. Not every job is suited for every employee. This is very difficult for any leader, but as the leader you must possess emotional fortitude to make this happen.
     Bottom line you must get your team engaged by communicating to them what you learned and how you want to change their environment. Engage your team in determining what is most important to them that you need to change first. As this process begins you have to communicate ,communicate, and communicate. That in itself will begin to change the environment and ultimately your staff’s morale. Employees need to know that you care for them. So commit yourself to getting to know them, determining a plan of action, and loving on them. Happy staff equals happy customers!

Operational Audit: Leadership

When I conduct an operational audit, whether in my former life in healthcare or in my current role, I always begin by assessing leadership’s ability. The primary reason why I start here is because if leadership is lacking, it will not matter how good the systems or processes are, the department or organization will be underperforming. Leadership of a department or organization is like the steering wheel of a car, it takes you where you want to go. Without the steering wheel, the car will still move but the chances of it going in the direction it should are slim to none.

To accomplish this leadership assessment I have created a Leadership Matrix (you may contact me and I will share it with you). I have selected criterion that through my experience is critical to successful leadership. I then assigned a weight to each area. Please note that your criterion and weights may vary but the objective is the same. To utilize a tool that will help us assess leadership as objectively as possible.


My criterion consists of six areas; Employee Morale, Proactive/Solution Driven, Time Management, Deliverables, Ownership, and Communication. All of these are necessary to be a successful leader, but for assessment purposes, we must be able to set weights to these based on what is most important for success to be achieved. As a result, I have weighted ownership and employee morale the highest at 25% each.


If a leader does not take ownership of his department or organization, it is only a matter of time before he leaves or is removed. A leader must be recognized by his team as the leader otherwise the department or organization manages itself, and when that happens, chaos ensues. Additionally, if the leader is not capable of creating an environment where employee morale is high, productivity, quality, and the overall environment of the organization will suffer. There has to be clear ownership, and the morale of the team must be high and both are a direct reflection of leadership’s ability.


The next highest weight is for communication at 20%. If a leader is not able to clearly communicate the vision and the direction the department needs to go—it simply won’t. But not only is it important for a leader to be able to clearly articulate the vision, the leader must also be able to communicate when conflict arises, push back takes place, or discipline must be administered. If the leader shies away from this type of communication, a change must be made. The negative impact on the rest of the department or organization by avoiding conflict or accountability is too great.


The last three areas of the evaluation are weighted at 10%, proactive/solution driven, time management, and deliverables. As you can probably decipher that to be a successful leader you must be proactive and driven to find solutions. Who do the employees go to when they are stumped and need help identifying the next step—the leader. So if the ability to be proactive and find solutions are lacking, consideration must be made with regards to their overall ability as a leader. Furthermore, if the leader does not possess the ability to manage their time accordingly and ensure that projects are delivered by the due date, on budget, and at expected quality—then leadership is deficient.


I’m sure you’re probably asking by now so how do you determine these things? Luckily some of these deficiencies will become apparent just by you knowing to look for them. Others may take a little investigating. The best way is to talk to people. Talk to the leaders subordinates. You will quickly be able to pick up on trends and gauge the overall morale of the department or organization. The next step is to talk to the leaders customers. How do they assess his ability? Is he delivering on the commitment he makes? Is the product or service at the level of quality that was expected? Bottom line—is the customer happy?


Once I have done my due diligence I do my best to objectively rate the leader in each of the six areas of focus on a 1-5 scale. The matrix then provides me with a weighted score that I then compare against my pre-determined rating scale: Unsatisfactory - 1-1.9, Underperforming – 2-2.9, Fully Competent – 3-3.9, Very Commendable – 4-4.9, and Distinguished – 5. The outcome of my Leadership Matrix helps determine the next steps. The leader will either be not qualified to lead the department or organization, they will need development, they are performing well, or they are exceeding expectations. If the matrix has resulted in any score below a 3, you must take action to improve this leader, or remove them from their duties.

Operational Audit

I often get asked, “How do I know if my department or organization is efficient and meeting expectations?” The other frequent statement I hear is, “I know that things are not working right, I don’t have happy customers, but I just can’t figure out what it is.” If productivity, quality, turnover, customer satisfaction, cost, etc. is below expectations, then you need to conduct an operational audit.

This series will focus on each of the seven assessments that are critical in conducting a full operational audit. By conducting these seven assessments you will know exactly where you weaknesses, strengths, obstacles, and opportunities lie. This is different from a SWOT analysis as we will primarily focus on your internal operations and does not evaluate your competitors or external factors (possibly at a later time). This takes a detail look at you and your operations. We’ll take the time and discuss each of the following functions in detail so they are practical and applicable to your industry, department, or organization. We will discuss Leadership, Staff, Quality, Integration, Productivity, Supplies, and Financial aspects. I invite you to follow along as we work our way through this series. And as always, if you have specific questions or comments, share so we can all benefit from them.

Improve Your Relationships: Improve Your Leadership

     Here are some facts: Leadership is about people. Without people you don’t have anyone to lead. Without anyone to lead you are not a leader. If we can acknowledge that these are true statements, then we can acknowledge how critical relationships are. Since leadership is all about people, then to be a successful leader you have to be able to build relationships.
     Building relationships with your staff comes down to two main attributes. The first is Be Personable and the second is Be Credible. Here are practical suggestions of how you can become personable. It starts with being friendly and proactive. You have to commit to going out of your way to make contact with your team. Visit them, stop by to say thank you, shake their hand, and ask them how they’re doing. It doesn’t matter what it is, but it does matter that you proactively make contact with them for non-work related items.
     To truly connect with your team you also need to get to know them. Make it a habit to learn as much about them as you can. Ask questions about their family. Ask questions about where they grew up. Ask questions about what they like to do in their free time. Ask questions about how they relax. Do you get the theme? By asking questions you let your team know you care about them as individuals. It also helps you learn what makes them tick which typically helps explain certain habits at work.
     As you begin to learn about your team and their families, make sure you follow up with them about anything unusual you may have learned. This shows your team that you care. Not only did you ask them about themselves and their families, you also engaged and truly listened to what they had to say.
     As a leader you have to be able to introduce some form of humor into the workplace. Work can become monotonous so you have to try and break the routine. You have to be conscious of creating interruptions but a moment to laugh is usually much appreciated. It teaches your team that fun is part of their work environment. This has to also include the ability to laugh at yourself. Your team needs to know you are human, you make mistakes, and you can laugh about it with them.
     The last aspect of being personable has to include you opening up and sharing personal things. Reference all of your close relationships. What do you do when you are together? You discuss personal things happening in your lives. Same concept applies to building relationships with your team, your boss, or for that matter, anyone.
     The second attribute is being credible. I won’t elaborate on this extensively since I recently wrote about it in the series titled 4 Keys to Leadership. The 4th key was Do What You Say You Will Do. Simply put, being credible is getting things done. As a leader, if you are only made up of the promises of the great things you will do, you will lose credibility with your team very quickly. Teams look to their leader to lead the way. Leading the way means getting things done—otherwise you’re just in the way.
     The bottom line is that without your team there is very little if anything that you can do. And the only way your team will be productive and driven to help you succeed as their leader—is if they believe in you as a person. And the only way for that to happen is for you to build solid relationships with those that you need the most—your team!

Cultivate Your Gift

     Life is not stagnant and either is leadership. It is always changing and developing around you. If you’re reading this article it’s probably because you desire to be a leader, or you already are. In either case, if you want to succeed as a leader you have to cultivate your gift.
     A farmer is always working the land; he spends a tremendous amount of time and dedication from preparing his land to harvesting his fruits. A bountiful harvest does not happen without hard work and care. Leadership is no different. If you desire to have a successful department or organization under your helm, then you have to invest in yourself.
     Developing yourself comes in many forms. It may include furthering your education, attending conferences, fellowshipping with other leaders, becoming a part of an association relevant to your industry, and reading books about great leaders or on the topic of leadership. Whichever way works best for you it is critical that you commit to it and expand your knowledge base, skills set, and perspective.
     It always astonishes me how many individuals who claim to want to be better leaders do nothing about it. But when it comes to committing time to activities that create zero value in their lives it accounts for majority of their time. I challenge you, if you want to improve your skills and gifting for leadership—invest in yourself. I guarantee it—you will see a return on your investment. It may come in the way of a promotion. It may involve you having the ability to change the environment for your team. Increasing your ability to develop and motivate your team may lead to increased creativity and productivity resulting in higher profits. The list of benefits from investing in your ability is endless.
     I personally love to read books and gain insight from great leaders or credible experts on leadership. I love to learn and identify new ideas and bounce my own thoughts off of their perspective. It excites me to expand my knowledge base which in turn allows me to practice new concepts with my team in my work setting. This process changes my work setting from a monotonous job to an exciting playground where I get to apply and test new theories. But what I enjoy the most is the feedback I receive from my staff. It overwhelms me to hear them say or write in an email how much they appreciate the environment I create. To hear comments that I am an amazing leader while in the midst of a grueling meeting where we are working to overcome severe obstacles—is indescribable. It chokes me up just thinking about it as I write this. I’m not sharing this with you to brag on myself. I’m sharing this with you to show you that investing in your leadership ability has amazing returns—some that are priceless.
     Here is a list of books I have read in the past 3 months:

• Today Matters by John Maxwell

• The Goal by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt

• Leadership Wisdom of Solomon by Pat Williams

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (again) by Stephen Covey

• Winning by Jack Welch

• Good to Great by Jim Collins

• A Man’s Guide to Work by Patrick Morley

• The God I Never Knew by Robert Morris

• Everyone Communicates Few Connect by John Maxwell


     And the next book on my agenda is Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. What do you say we read it together?

4 Keys: 4th Key—Do What You Say You Will Do

     The 4th key of our 4 critical keys to success is simple common sense—do what you say you will do. Lets discuss what happens if this principle is not followed, how to apply this principle, and the impact of following through on this concept.
     Not following this principle is the fastest way to lose credibility with your team. As a leader your team looks up to you to set the example for the rest of your department or organization. You are responsible for setting the tone. As a result, when you fail to do what you say you will do your team loses faith that action or change is real and possible. They find themselves working on an island without any support. Communication will decline since your team will not see the value of involving you in their obstacles because you have made it very clear—you are not interested in their problems. Your team has no choice but to feel that you don’t care because if you did, you would do everything in your power to change their circumstances.
     Do not promise things that you can’t deliver. This is important because I often see leaders over promise in hopes that when they are over promising their team will respect them. Unfortunately, no team member has ever found respect for their leader for his words. I cannot stress this enough—words are empty. Action is where respect is achieved. It is wise to under promise (words) and achieve results that surpass your team’s expectations (action). In his book Today Matters John Maxwell highlights a quote from Arthur Gordon who wrote in his book A Touch of Wonder, “Nothing is easier than saying words. Nothing is harder than living them, day after day.”
     To ensure that that you follow through on what you commit to, it is important to be well organized. You have to find a system that tracks your commitments so that your promises are not lost. By utilizing a tracking system for your commitments you can communicate back to your team on the status of your commitments. In reality, you will never be able to meet all of your deadlines or be able to achieve all that you hoped you could. But your team needs to be in the loop at all times—this lets them know that you have not forgotten about them. It’s okay to let your team know that you need more time or you didn’t get the results you hoped for. The fact that you’re communicating this to them lets them know you value them and that you’re still working towards your commitment. Doing what you say does not necessarily equal accomplishing every single thing you set out to accomplish. But it does mean you involve your team in your progress and clearly communicate to them what you did and what the results were. The ability to follow through with your team always starts with your level of organization and your commitment to your team.
     Following through with your team builds camaraderie, commitment, and loyalty. It creates an environment that you care about your teams obstacles and ultimately about them. It ensures that you and your team are engaged in the overall objective of your department or organization. The impact on your overall department’s or organization’s productivity will be substantial. And of course we know when commitment and productivity increase, costs usually decrease, which equals increased profits.
     If you desire to be a successful leader and you commit to the four critical keys to leadership that we have been discussing—I guarantee you that you will succeed. First, acknowledge each of your employees no matter what. Second, listen and truly engage with them. Third, hold your team accountable. And fourth, do what you say you will do.

4 Keys: 3rd Key—Hold Your Team Accountable

     We are working our way through the 4 critical keys to successful leadership. We started with acknowledging all of your employees no matter what. We then proceeded to discuss the importance of listening and engaging and now… we have to hold our teams accountable.
     An organization without accountability is an organization in chaos. Accountability has to exist at all levels of an organization—from the Chairman of the Board to the direct laborer on the front lines. Let’s first define what accountability is and then we can discuss why it’s one of our 4 keys to leadership.
     Accountability as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.” Being a leader means you are obligated and have to be willing to accept responsibility. In other words you have to address issues within your team (and yourself) for the sake of your team and organization. What type of issues do you have to hold your team accountable for and what happens if you don’t?
     You have to hold your team accountable for their behavior. This can come in many shapes and sizes but to give you some examples—your team has to operate with respect towards each other and you. Respecting each other means honoring deadlines, being on time to meetings, acting professional towards each other at all times, and being committed to your and the teams goals and objectives.
     If this level of professionalism and respect is not present it is your obligation to address it. If you allow it to happen you are intentionally creating a negative environment for the rest of your team. Your team is looking to you to be a leader and create an environment conducive to positive morale, innovation, cohesiveness, and an overall enjoyable place to work. If the environment is poor because of lack of accountability your department or organization will self destruct.
     If you are unable to hold your team accountable to behave properly and produce their share of work, you will impact other team member’s morale which in turn impacts staff turnover, which then leads to reduced productivity, resulting in higher costs and lower profit margins. And before you know it, either you’re fired or you go out of business.
     I’m sure a lot of you know how to hold employees accountable and you just needed a reminder to do so. For others that are wondering how do you hold employees accountable—here are some principles to follow.
     First, address the concerns immediately. A number of things happen when you address the issue as quickly as possible. For starters you set the tone that this type of behavior is unacceptable. Not only does the employee who needs correction realize this but so do your other team members. This lets them know that you will not accept negative behavior and you support the employees who do act accordingly. The other side of addressing concerns immediately is that it makes the process easier for you. By addressing the issue immediately, there is less to address and less to correct. If you wait until three or four issues have taken place before addressing them, the bucket of bad things is bigger and there is considerably more that you will have to work your way through.
     Second, never be upset and always be respectful. Why would you as a leader attempt to correct inappropriate behavior with inappropriate behavior? When holding an employee accountable your objective is to correct the misbehavior—whatever it may be; not turning in a report, abusing absences, or being verbally disrespectful to you or another employee. You will be successful in correcting their behavior only if the employee sincerely feels you are trying to help them by identifying their inappropriate behavior and showing them how to correct it, because you ultimately want them to be successful. There is never a reason to get upset because if they receive your correction it becomes a joyous occasion and you move on. If they are not responding to your correction you politely let them know what the consequences are if they don’t adjust and that it will ultimately lead to termination.
     Third, follow through on your corrective action plan. This means two things. First, if the employee corrects their behavior you agree to not refer to this incident ever again. You assure them that you want nothing more than for this to never happen again and if doesn’t, this will truly be behind you both. Second, if the employee continues to misbehave, you have to follow through on the next step of the corrective plan. Depending on the severity, it may be a written warning, a final written warning, or termination. If you don’t, you will automatically lose credibility with that employee and your team as a leader. They will see you as weak and ineffective.
     To sum up the importance of holding your team accountable I’m going to refer to Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. Jim has identified that the second step good organizations must take to become great organizations is to identify First Who…Then What. In other words, hold the poor performers accountable.

Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people. Strong performers are intrinsically motivated by performance, and when they see their efforts impeded by carrying extra weight, they eventually become frustrated.

    
     By holding your team accountable you meet your obligation as a leader and ensure that you not only have the right people on the bus, but that you also have them in the right seat. The reality is that no system or process will ever help you be successful as long as you don’t have the right people with the right attitudes on your team, because ultimtely, it's the people who make you successful!

4 Keys: 2nd Key—Listen and Engage

     Last article discussed the importance of acknowledging all of your employees no matter what. In this article we are moving to listening and engaging with your employees. All four keys are integrated in the sense that you must do all four to be a successful leader, but they’re also integrated in the sense that when you do one, it causes you to have to do the next.     
     What I have found is that when leaders begin to acknowledge their employees and they are sincere about wanting to say hello or ask how they are doing, employees will begin to feel more comfortable around their leadership which leads them to open up when engaged. Some of you right about now are saying I don’t have time to say hello to everyone, yet alone find myself embarking on a conversation. My advice to you is that you can’t afford to not take the time.
     The only way you, your department, or the organization will be successful is through open lines of communication. You as a leader have to know exactly what the pulse of the team is and there is only one way to get that pulse – talking to them. More specifically, by listening and engaging.
     Let’s take a look at how a lot of managers listen (notice I didn’t say leader). The manager is walking into her office and sees an employee walk by so she musters up the ability to say hello. The employee responds back and the manger can tell they’re distant as if something was wrong. The manger feels compelled to ask if everything is okay hoping it’s something very simple that she can quickly handle and move on with her busy schedule. Unfortunately the employee begins to talk about their workload, which leads into processes and systems. She decides at this moment that her day is too busy and she begins to focus on her tasks and how this conversation is taking her away from them. She seeks the first opportunity to say she understands and that she’ll work on it when she has the time.
     The employee leaves her office dejected because he felt the manager never truly understood what he was trying to tell her. As a result, he becomes demoralized, begins to disengage, and ultimately his productivity plummets until he either leaves, or the manger fires him. It’s very unfortunate what Stephen Covey points out in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
     Why would you as a leader want to take this risk? Why as a leader would you not put your employees ahead of all tasks, projects, or anything else that’s not a true emergency? Your objective is to understand what is happening and if the organization is going in the right direction. Having a true understanding of what your employees are encountering can only happen by listening to them and engaging with them on the potential solutions.
     The opposite from the scenario above would be to ask the employee to come into your office and wholeheartedly listen and engage to what the employee has to say. Since employees typically know you are busy, try to comfort them for taking up your time by letting them know there is nothing more important than learning what is on their mind. You can even designate a block of time and communicate to them that if for any reason you are still not in full understanding at the end of the agreed upon time you will schedule a meeting with no distractions to ensure their voice is heard. By wanting to understand what is on their mind will give you opportunity to build a stronger team than you could ever imagine. In Steven Covey’s book that I mentioned earlier he states, “If I were to summarize in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” which happens to be Habit #5.
     By simply listening and engaging you will have the opportunity to learn about broken processes, inefficiencies, new innovative ideas, and many more benefits. By listening and engaging you may learn of issues your team is struggling with that you may not be able to help with, but the fact that you take the time to listen will create a caring environment that your team as well as employees outside of your area of responsibility will want to be a part of. Your department or organization will be engaged allowing for consistent process improvements which lead to increased employee morale, increased productivity, increased profits, and ultimately, a successful leader.

4 Keys: 1st Key--Acknowledge Your Employees

     As promised, the four keys to successful leadership are very simple. Starting with the first key—acknowledge all of your employees no matter what! Take a moment and think back on ALL of your interactions with your staff. Has there been a time where you knew one of your employees has walked past you in the hallway, or entered the same room you were in, and you didn’t acknowledge them? Has that ever happened to you with your boss? How did you feel? Did you enjoy the moment of not being acknowledged?
     The simple fact is all of us appreciate being acknowledged. It’s an internal mechanism that is consistently monitoring the environment to determine if we provide value. When someone acknowledges us we tend to feel valued, cared for, and ultimately that we provide value. When the opposite occurs we tend to feel unappreciated and when we experience this feeling it usually stays with us throughout the day. For the strong individuals, we have the ability to justify why our boss did not acknowledge us so we can feel better about the situation—and we typically do. We understand that our boss can’t always say hello, or ask how we’re doing. And we go about our day.
     But how would we feel whether confident or not in who we are if our boss acknowledged us each and every time? Not by chance, but deliberately went out of their way to say hello and possibly even thank you. What would it be like if our boss broke away from a conversation with their boss, or an investor, or even just a colleague to look you in the eye, shake your hand, and say thank you? You have to admit, it would feel great!
     The bottom line is that each and every one of us wants to be cared for at work. We desire to be valued and know that we mean something to our department or organization. We want to know that our boss knows who we are and there is nothing more important than us—his team members in the overall objective of getting things done.
     I assure you, if you commit to acknowledging each and every one of your employee every time you come into contact with them, even with a simple hello—you will make tremendous strides in your success. Your team will respond differently to you. They will become more productive. Employee morale will increase. The entire environment will change simply because you take the time to let them know they exist and that you appreciate them. They will become motivated to support you and follow you in whatever you do or wherever you go…and isn’t that what leadership is? In his book The Leadership Wisdom of Solomon Pat Williams quotes John Baldoni, a leadership consultant who said, “Motivation is purely and simply a leadership behavior. It stems from wanting to do what is right for people as well as for the organization.” So my final question to leave you with is—is acknowledging each of your employees each time you see them not the right thing to do?

4 Key Principles to Leadership

     We are about to embark on a new journey. I will be starting a new 4 part series on the 4 must be followed principles IF you want to be a successful leader. These principles are extremely basic yet very few leaders apply all 4 and do them consistently. These critical principles can be applied by anyone with a little bit of effort. More importantly, these 4 principles are the only principles you will ever need to implement to be a successful leader. Not 7 principles, not 18, not 29, just 4 key principles to leadership. I guarantee it! I also look forward to starting dialogue with anyone who feels that other key principles apply that do not fall within these four. I'm excited and I hope you are too! Make sure you bookmark this site and visit often to make sure you don't miss any of our discussion over the coming weeks. For convenience, you can also sign up for email updates which will be sent to you automatically with each new article.

Higher Standard

     Being a leader means you will be held accountable to a higher standard. This makes your world a little more complicated, but unfortunately that’s the price of leadership. To some of you, being held to a higher standard may come easy to you, for others, it may be a challenge. The objective is to realize that you will be held to a higher standard and rightfully so.      
          This means that everyone around you—your employees, vendors, bosses, potential candidates, etc. are evaluating your every move. This is normal and understandable. Why shouldn’t others evaluate you? If you happen to be on the forefront of your department or organization than that’s the responsibility you take on. The point being, you have to be aware that this takes place so you understand that you have to hold yourself to a higher standard first. By holding yourself accountable to the leadership principles that you believe in and know are critical to being a successful leader, then when others evaluate you, there is a higher probability that you are doing right and your critics will be few.
     The other side is that as a leader, you know you live in a world of higher standards so you cannot be soft skinned. There will be those people who will attempt to find holes and they will point them out whether right or wrong. It will happen and it is never enjoyable. However, how you respond to these types of criticisms will have a bigger determining factor on what type of a leader you are versus the mistakes you make. John Maxwell in his book Today Matters quoted Walt Emerson who said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
     Reality is that as leaders we are not perfect. We have to learn and make mistakes like everyone else. We also have to have the ability to admit when we make mistakes and do our best to apologize, learn from them, and move forward. Because the bottom line is—in one way or another, you were put in the position of leadership. So accept your role and lead to a higher standard!

Helping Others Grow and Succeed

     So far there have been six articles posted. I started with “Foundation of Leadership” which highlighted how humility is a critical characteristic of being a leader. I then discussed “Ethics and Leadership” and how ethical behavior is nothing more than how you make people feel. I then proceeded to write about “Difficult Decisions” and how they are a part of any organization and have to be made. I noted that when dealing with difficult decisions you have to be consistent and have compassion. I then brought forth the idea that to “Motivate your Team” you have to exude positive energy. Next was “Knowing your Top, Middle, and Bottom.” This concept as Jack Welch stated “clarifies business and makes it run better in every way.” Finally I discussed “Hiring” and how critical it was to invest the time and effort to increase the probability of hiring the right candidate. As you may have noted, the common denominator in all of these concepts has been people.
     As you will see, most of my articles will have this correlation. The reason for this is because no matter what leadership principle or concept you apply to management – it will always involve people. Unless you are in an underground bunker and have zero engagement with the rest of the world you will in one way or another have to deal with people. As a leader, dealing with people is your primary responsibility. So the question for today is. Do you want to deal with people? Do you want to deal with smart, not so bright, lazy, overly excited, stubborn, suck ups, or just plain normal people? If you are in a leadership role now or will be soon – you have to know the answer to this question.
     When the former CEO of GE was asked what legacy he hopes to leave behind he said, “If there is anything I would like to be remembered for it is that I helped people understand that leadership is helping other people grow and succeed. “ He went on to add, “To repeat myself, leadership is not just about you. It’s about them.”
     Every interaction with an employee has to be viewed from the perspective of how can I help this individual grow and succeed. Of course there will be employees that exhaust your commitment to helping them succeed and you have no choice but to remove them from their role. But until you arrive at this point – your goal has to be to help them grow and learn from every situation. Jack Welch in the quote above stated “…leadership is not just about you. It’s about them.” I agree with this notion but I want to point out a selfish side. I’m not proud of my selfishness but as a leader I understand that if I help my team grow and succeed – I will grow and succeed. As I mentioned in “Foundation of Leadership,” without the people working for you, you will no longer be able to function.
     So why is it that when employees do, ask, or forget something outside of our expectations we get frustrated? We make statements like, “I would never do that.” Or, “why can’t they just do what I tell them.” Well, if every employee did exactly what they are suppose to and every employee did it the exact way it is suppose to be done – what are you there for? Why would your organization invest thousands of dollars in your salary and benefits if every employee underneath you was self managed? I’m grateful for these people. I’m grateful that I have an opportunity to interact with lots of different individuals with unique strengths and perspectives. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from them and apply what I learn to others. Jack Welch says, “BUSINESS IS ABOUT PEOPLE. In fact, life is only people – family, friends, colleagues, bosses, teachers, coaches, neighbors. At the end of the day, it is only people that matter.” With regards to leadership I couldn’t agree more. I would however add one more to the list – God. So do your best to change your perspective and look forward to helping others grow and succeed. That’s what leaders do!

Hiring

     You know that the most important part of any organization is its people. You know that to get quality employees you have to hire quality individuals. You know how critical it is to find and hire the right person. But as important as we know this process is - we still tend to commit very little effort to hiring the right person. Why?
     For those of you that are saying hey, wait a minute, I take hiring very seriously. Let me ask you a few questions. How much time do you commit to preparing for your interview? More than likely you’re running into your office right before the interview is going to start, you’re hoping you can find the resume since you can’t remember their name, and you have very little idea of what questions you’re going to ask. Have you prepared any tracking form or interview matrix? Typically, notes are scribbled on the resume as you work your way through the interview with deep, thought provoking questions like, “so, tell me about yourself?” How do you compare one candidate against the next? More than likely after you feel like you have interviewed hundreds of candidates (actually three) you decided it’s time to make a decision. So you pull out all three resumes and begin to try and read over your notes and realize, you don’t remember much of the interview and you end up making what you hope is the right decision solely based on gut and probably a little bit of a guess. Unfortunately, without any concrete data as to how their skills matched your role requirements you simply end up hiring the person you liked the most. Please know that the reason I can describe this process so well is not only because I observe it regularly, but it’s a process I have followed myself. I can also acknowledge that this process has caused me to hire some very unfavorable candidates. Since I learn from my mistakes, I decided to invest the time necessary and truly commit to the hiring process.
     For starters, I decided to prepare. My preparation for interviewing candidates starts with identifying exactly what I need from a candidate. In other words, what are the critical role or position characteristics that the candidate will need to have to be successful? My recommendation is to identify your top 4 role characteristics. Some examples of these role characteristics may be adaptability, calming demeanor, strong leadership experience, and strong operational/management skills, etc. The idea is to identify the characteristics that are critical to your job position that you are hiring for.
     The next step is to identify questions that will help you identify how well your candidate matches the characteristics you identified earlier. The key point here is to ask each candidate the same series of questions. You can of course have follow up questions and probe further as they respond but you need to have the same starting questions. By asking each candidate the same series of questions, you can accurately compare your candidates. Otherwise, you have to try and compare candidates on three totally separate interviews, versus comparing three candidates on the same interview. So for example, if I’m trying to identify operational or management ability I might ask the following question: How do you organize yourself and prioritize projects? Or if I’m trying to identify their adaptability skills I might ask the following question: How do you handle a situation where you had planned out your full day and an urgent project was dropped on your desk? Please know that as the candidates respond, I will be listening closely to determine if and what I want to ask as a follow up question. The objective is to learn as much as possible about the candidate and how well they match your core role characteristics.
     At this stage I now invest the time necessary after the interview. Immediately after the interview, preferably with your interview partner – an assistant, colleague, supervisor, human resource representative, etc. you evaluate the candidate on how strong or weak they are in each core role characteristic. On my form I have my four core role characteristics across the top prioritized from more important to less important. Since I have four characteristics I will rate each candidate on a 1-4 scale; 1 being the best. This allows for a few things. One, it allows me to generate a score for each candidate so I can easily see who my strongest candidates are. Second, it allows me to see which candidate was stronger in the characteristics that are more important. You can easily have two candidates end up with the same score, but rarely will they be scored the same for each characteristic. So this quickly can become my tie breaker as the candidate with the better rating in the characteristic that is more important is the better choice.
     In addition to rating each candidate on how well they fit each characteristic, I also apply to each candidate an overall interview rating – this is your chance to identify how each candidate made you feel. Because let’s face it, this is also a critical component of hiring the right candidate. So I rate each candidate on a 1-5 scale for overall interview feel. This is important because you may have a candidate that has tremendous leadership experience and it is a critical role characteristic for the job function but the individual was extremely boring and lacked humor. Whereas you on the other hand love to have fun on the job and appreciate a good laugh when appropriate. This would probably not be a good fit so it is important to identify this as well.
     Ultimately, I’m left with two primary rating sections. The section where I rate the skill set compared to my key role characteristic and the section where I rate overall interview feel. What I have found is that the candidates who score well in their abilities usually also score well in the overall interview process. This is simply because if a candidate possesses the skills you identified as critical to your job function, you will naturally have things in common with this person which in turn impacts how you feel about them. Once I have each candidate evaluated I begin to fill them into one of four categories. 1) Top Candidates. It is my objective to identify at least three top candidates. By committing to getting at least three, it will ensure that you have interviewed enough candidates. 2) Potential. This category is for all candidates that you are on the fence with and have the potential of being in your top three. 3) File. This section is for all candidates that currently don’t have what you are looking for but may with development or may be a better fit for another role down the road. 4) Others Interviewed. This category simply keep tracks of all the candidates I interviewed so I can keep a final count as well as know who I need to send thank you for applying letters to.
     In addition to fully utilizing this matrix, I also commit time to talking to my top candidates numerous times. I will do a follow up call and have them answer the same questions I have already asked them. I will contact them again and have them fill out a questionnaire with the same questions. The objective is to connect with the candidate as much as possible so you can hopefully learn who they truly are. Unfortunately there are a number of individuals that have the ability to put on a false front and seem like the perfect candidate. But fortunately, those that are good at putting their best foot forward cannot sustain it for long. The responses from those who are sincere will be consistent since that is who they are. The responses from those who are not will begin to vary as they have to remember how they responded before.
     By committing to the interview process and truly investing time and effort into it, you increase your probability of hiring the right candidate exponentially. By having this matrix and utilizing it along with the set of questions allows you to manage the interview process in a way that provides the necessary data to help make the correct hiring decision.

Knowing your Top, Middle, and Bottom

     If random managers were asked to name their employees that make up their top 20 percent with regards to performance – how many could do so? Or, how many managers would know which employees make up their bottom 10 percent? Unfortunately not many. And if you don’t know who your top and bottom performers are, you more than likely don’t know who makes up your middle. I have been aware of this concept which many of you know is what made GE so successful under Jack Welch’s helm. Jack believed that his company differentiated itself from others by differentiating people within his organization. He would assess and separate employees into three categories in terms of performance: top 20 percent, middle 70, and bottom 10. So why is this so important?     
     Having this information on paper (or computer screen) will immediately help guide your decisions regarding your department, business, or organization because it makes it real. And when something is real it allows you to act on it. All of us differentiate our teams to some degree in our heads – but what do we do with that information? Does having this information in our heads help us make management decisions that improve our operations? Speaking for myself I know it didn’t. I always felt that I knew who my stars were and who my weak links were – but I didn’t do anything extra with this knowledge. I continued to manage my team and deal with the issues that arose from the weak links knowing that one day they probably won’t be with me any longer. For the employees who were my top performers I did my best to thank them for their hard work and recognized them as great assets to our team. To be truly candid, until just a few days ago, I thought I was doing pretty good managing this team dynamic. I thanked those who did great consistently, I held accountable those that broke the rules or failed to perform. But I learned that there is so much more opportunity to improve my operations by taking the time to clearly define my stars, middle work horses, and those at the bottom slowing us down. Here is the process I went through.
     I came to a point within my operations where I began to feel like I had too many people working in areas that didn’t need it and not enough people in areas that did. For me to correct this would require adjusting schedules and responsibilities which naturally impacts people. It would impact some for the better and some for the worse. So the question I was faced with is – who do I reward with better shifts and responsibilities and who do I negatively impact with less desired shifts and responsibilities? Simple – I need to rate each employee from top to bottom.
     Rating a large number of employees can become a daunting task so I began with baby steps. I quickly went down my list and rated each employee from 1 to 5. In my case 5 being the best and 1 being the worst. I now had a list of employees with a rating next to their name. I then segregated each employee into three distinct functions. You may have more or less, the point being you identify how many there are and fit each employee into their respective category or function. Having each employee in smaller groups with a rating made it much easier for me to rate them from top to bottom within each category. Now I was able to look at my three top employees from each category and identify who my overall top performer is. Then out of my final two top performers from their respective function I was able to select my second overall best performer and so on. Before you knew it, I had the department rated from 1 to 29. At this point, I simply determined how many employees constituted 20 percent and filled them in. In my case 20 percent of 29 employees are 5.8 so I rounded up to 6 employees. The top 6 rated employees were my top 20 percent. I then followed this process to identify the 70 percent that made up my core work force and eventually my bottom 10 percent.
     It was amazing, with regards to my top performers half of them I anticipated, the other half I was pleasantly surprised. Within my core 70 percent, I was amazed to learn how some of the employees I did not expect were towards the top of the 70 while others found themselves towards the bottom. And as you can imagine, seeing on paper the employees that made up my bottom 10 percent was a true eye opener. Having this data it immediately began to change how I managed this department. I was energized to know who my top stars are. These are the people I need to involve in helping improve our operations. These are the folks I need to empower to identify new and better ways of doing things. I don’t just need to thank them for their great work – I need to take advantage of their great work and give them the opportunity to do even greater things. These are the individuals I need to invest in and develop them for promotional opportunities.
     Looking at my core 70 percent, it became so clear who my dependable group was. This is the team that is not very flashy or steps out of their comfort zone, but they are the group that I would be lost without. This is the group that is handling the bulk of our workload. It also became apparent who was at the top of this group and had potential to move up. And on the other hand I learned that who I thought was at the top of the list was actually towards the bottom. This made me realize I had individuals in leadership roles that should not be in them, and other employees who should. We quickly made changes to reflect what we learned from this exercise. Making these changes immediately rewarded those employees who have been working hard and performing which improved their morale and simultaneously improved the operations of this department.
     With regards to the employees who made up the bottom 10 percent. It was interesting to me how even though I anticipated that some of them would be in this group – it was not clear to me that I should be acting on this reality. As clear as it now became, I knew that if I wanted to be a strong leader, I now had the information to act and I better act. I could no longer be in a position with assumptions and no action. By not putting a plan in place to eliminate this weight on the department, I would be directly responsible for slowing this department down.
     Having utilized Jack Welch’s 20/70/10 concept from his book Winning allowed me to have a much clearer perspective of this department. It gave me the information needed to make better managerial decisions which in turn will improve our operations. This process made it extremely clear who my stars are and who I should be investing time in so that they can grow and develop and as a result, our overall department can grow and develop. I cannot urge you enough to conduct this exercise with your team no matter what the size. Jack Welch closes the chapter in his book Winning with the following:
     "If you want the best people on your team, you need to face up to differentiation. I don’t know of any   people management system that does it better – with more transparency, fairness, and speed. It isn’t perfect. But differentiation, like candor, clarifies business and makes it run better in every way."

Motivate Your Team!

     We are all familiar with how important motivating your team is. Motivation is critical to creativity and productivity. When your team is demoralized they will not be excited to find new ways of doing business. Your team will be going through the motions and performing under their capacity and ability. So how do you motivate your team?      We know the most common ways – empower your team, value them, care for each individual, treat each employee with respect to name a few. These are common to most managers, but unfortunately a high number of managers fall short of these. Before I move on to share with you the most successful method of motivating your team, I do want to highlight that these areas are important to successful leadership. Find out how to tap into them and practice them daily. But is there something that naturally and without much effort motivates a team?
     To answer this question, I want to start by asking a question. What’s it like to work with someone who is negative? What is like to work with someone who starts the day off complaining about their work and others? What is like to work with someone who is always expecting something bad to happen to them? What is like to work with someone who is always sick or in pain? This type of individual is not very fun to be around right? And it’s probably also safe to say that you don’t gravitate towards this individual. You may even intentionally avoid them knowing that if you run into them you’ll be forced to listen to how bad something is. As you can see, this type of behavior is very demoralizing. As a result, a leader who wants to motivate his team has to be the very opposite!
     A leader who wants to and needs to motivate his team has to exude positive energy! By simply being enthusiastic and optimistic people will gravitate towards to you. They will want to work on projects with you. They will want to be a part of your team because they know that working with you will bring them joy and excitement through the course of the day. Jack Welch in his book Winning says that positive energy people “start the day with enthusiasm and usually end it that way too, rarely seeming to tire in the middle.” He adds that “people with positive energy just love life.” Have you ever worked for or with someone like this? How did this person make you feel? Positive energy individuals have the ability to motivate others because they have the energy to motivate themselves. You will never be able to energize others, if you can’t energize yourself. Positive energy stems from your inner core. Its how you look at life, how you view your role in your job, in your family, or even on earth. Are you excited to be living the life you have or are you constantly depressed about who you are and what you have to do? You have to take a moment and honestly evaluate yourself and determine if you exude positive or negative energy. If you already exude positive energy then great, keep it up. You will notice your team will be more and more motivated to accomplish what is needed. People simply want to be around and work for individuals who have a great outlook on life.
     Once you have a positive outlook and exude positive energy, you can begin to energize others. In Winning Jack Welch states that “people who energize can inspire their team to take on the impossible – and enjoy the hell out of doing it.” This doesn’t mean giving fancy speeches or giving out mugs for rewards – it’s a combination of skills that vary from person to person. But they are derived from one common source – positive energy. If you have a desire to motivate others or you have a team that you have recently taken on and you know they need to be motivated – then lead by example. People who are motivated are energized. So lead that way. Arrive to work excited and ready to go. Don’t just slowly stroll into the office – walk with a purpose. Have passion for what you are about to do. Jack describes passion as a “heartfelt, deep, and authentic excitement about work.” He continues to say that people with passion “love to learn and grow, and they get a huge kick when the people around them do the same.” Involve your team, point out the great aspects of your work or project. Praise people in your organization and those working directly for you. Have fun and laugh at yourself. By doing so, you will create an environment with positive energy which will energize your team. And when your team is energized, I guarantee they will be motivated to create and produce more than you could ever imagine!

Difficult Decisions

     This is a topic that is not discussed often, yet, every leader will be faced with having to make difficult decisions. Difficult decisions can vary widely. They may include whether you give someone a straightforward performance evaluation or tell them what they want to hear, selecting who you promote out of a group of qualified employees, do you go to your bosses boss regarding something about your boss, holding your employees accountable when they don’t perform or misbehave, or whether you terminate an employee. The list of difficult decisions that leaders are faced with on a daily basis could go on for many pages. The reality is that difficult decisions have to be made regularly. There is no way that if you are in a leadership position now, or plan on being in one soon – you will not be faced with difficult decisions. So the questions is – are you in or out?     
     Let me be very clear. I do not prefer to be in a position where I have to make a difficult decision. I manage with all my ability to be pro-active and thorough so that I can avoid difficult decisions as often as possible. Unfortunately, the reality is that no matter how hard you try, you will be faced with them. Asking yourself now whether you have the ability or even desire to be in situations where hard decisions have to be made is critical. The answer to this question will impact your success. Giving this question serious thought may determine that you should not be in a leadership role and as a result you may have a long successful career in the position you are in now. On the other hand, if you don’t give this serious consideration and you eagerly accept a promotion into a leadership role and you find yourself not being able to execute difficult decisions, you may find yourself out of a job. I have seen examples where managers allowed inappropriate behavior to impact their department and ultimately them by not making the tough decision to act and hold the employee accountable. I have seen managers not terminate an employee when it clearly constituted termination which resulted in additional problems and reduced production - eventually leading to their termination. There is example after example like this. So if you are hoping to be a leader or are one now you have to ask yourself - will I be able to make these decisions? So why is it that we as leaders shy away from making these difficult decisions?
     We shy away from making difficult decisions because difficult decisions are exactly that – difficult. I can speak for myself; there have been times where a decision has kept me up at night. A decision has caused me to consider the variables in my mind over and over again searching for the right outcome. Decisions have overwhelmed me with emotion from sadness to compassion. There are times we shy away from making those difficult decisions because we realize the decision will not only impact someone directly, but it will also impact their family. It is not easy to have to make these types of decisions. Unfortunately, making these types of decisions is what leaders are in position to do. They will never be easy, and they will never get easier. But there are things you can do.
     For starters, you have to be consistent. You have to be consistent with your decisions knowing that each decision you make will be precedent for the next. You have to be consistent with your core principles. It is imperative that your core principles are not compromised. Standing on your core principles no matter how difficult the decision may be is what equates to integrity and character of a leader. Once you have mastered being consistent you have to have compassion. There is no situation where arrogance or simple lack of compassion is acceptable. As leaders we have to understand that we are dealing with people who deserve your support even in the worst of times. Just because as leaders we were put into a situation where a tough decision has to be made because of a mistake, lapse of judgment, burst of misbehavior, etc., does not provide an opportunity for us to act inappropriately. We have to extend ourselves to help those individuals grow and learn from their mistakes. As leaders we have to do our best to exude compassion knowing that our decision can extend to the individuals family and may impact their lives as well.
     It is not easy being a leader. Difficult decisions will be made. People will be hurt. But with love and compassion through the difficult times, lessons will be learned, opportunities will arise, and improvements will be made personally and operationally. And when this type of improvement occurs, you realize, that as difficult as being a leader is - it is also as equally rewarding.

Ethics and Leadership

     It is very common to hear the words ethics and leadership in the same sentence or at least in the same conversation. We have heard many news stories in the recent years about unethical acts by key leaders in key organizations like WorldCom, Enron, Fannie Mae and Tyco to name just a few. If you do a Google search you will find hundreds. As a result a tremendous amount of focus and money has gone into increasing the education and training on proper ethical behavior. Unfortunately, I can sum up all of this expensive training for you in one sentence - do what is right, and don't do what is wrong.
     As you can see, this level of training may not solve all of our problems since what is right and what is wrong is still not defined. But what would happen if we ignore this aspect of leadership and continue to do the best we can in other areas? Is being an ethical leader even important? The answer to these questions is that it is extremely critical to focus on this subject and if you are not an ethical leader - you will not be a leader for long. The reasons being an ethical leader are so critical is because if you are not you create an environment that is unfair, authoritative, controlling, insincere, and ultimately demoralizing to the point that your team, department, division, business, or corporation fails. It can fail because it was exposed for illegal practices or it can fail because you have lost your most critical asset - your employees. If your department or company experiences high level of turnover due to unethical leadership you are never able to move forward since you have to train and retrain new staff. Creativity cannot flow. Productivity is stagnant since the people that are there are going through the motions and more than likely spending most of their time looking for other jobs.
     So let's define ethics. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ethics as “discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty." As I first read this definition I automatically wondered how is "discipline" defined as well as "moral." Discipline is defined as "field of study or subject." Moral is defined as "conforming to standard of right behavior." Okay, now that we have defined ethics, discipline, and moral - do we know what ethical leadership looks like? If you're anything like me, then you probably still do not. So let’s look at the definition of ethics one more time. “Discipline dealing with good and evil and with moral duty.” I finally saw the most critical components of the definition and underlined them for you. Most of us do know what good and evil looks like since it is very intrinsic and does not require much training. When something bad is happening to you - you feel it in your gut, you feel uncomfortable, and you question what is going on. When something good is happening to you - it is clear as day because you have a big smile on your face. You feel peace and joy, and you want to feel like that again. Ethical behavior is nothing more than how you make people feel! How do you think the people at Enron felt when they were asked to produce financial books that they knew were not accurate? Do you think they felt peace and joy and asked for more? I would venture to say no. More than likely they felt very uneasy, they questioned what was happening, and they probably felt very uncomfortable knowing they might lose their jobs. Focus on how your actions are making people feel and you will be able to determine if you are an ethical leader.
     Unfortunately, there are leaders that do not know how they are making people feel. There are other leaders that may want to know and are wondering how can I find out how my employees feel? Ask them! It would be a safe practice if you are looking to improve your leadership ability to start asking your employees on a frequent basis - what do you think of this plan? Please provide me your feedback on what we discussed here today. Please know that I value your opinion and want to know what you think and how you feel. You may be amazed at what you find out if you just ask. I have to pre-warn you. What you hear you may not always like - but that's what separates leaders from non-leaders. If you truly want to improve your ethical behavior and as result your department, company, etc., then you have to start paying attention to how you are making people feel. And if ever in doubt, start asking. One of the best leadership books out there with a tremendous focus on good and evil and with moral duty is the bible. If you are already reading it regularly, then begin to see the teachings from a leadership perspective. If you are not reading the bible, then I strongly suggest you begin. The greatest leader of all time is Jesus Christ. Being a leader is getting people to willingly follow you no matter where you go - Jesus did that. His following has extended beyond his time on earth and thousands of years. To this day, millions of people are still following Jesus.

Foundation of Leadership

     It seems that those who seek to improve their leadership skills are often looking for the magic ingredient. What is that I can do that will help me succeed? What is that I can implement in my everyday job that will help me get a promotion? What do I need to do to ensure my employees are doing what I ask them to? Questions like these are very common. Unfortunately there is not a miraculous stroke of a wand that can ensure that you will achieve your leadership desires. But there is a foundation that you can lay which will be the catalyst for anything that you place on top of it. This foundation will hold strong all the principles that you develop and implement as you travel through the exciting world of leadership. What I am about to share may seem simplistic, but unfortunately too often it is lacking in individuals that are responsible for leading others. The exciting part of this foundation is that it can be applied to your everyday life and to anyone around you - your spouse, children, peers, supervisors, and of course your subordinates.
     The foundation to leadership begins with your outlook on life, how you view yourself, and most importantly how you carry yourself. Your foundation has to be humility. An individual who desires to be a leader or already is one - has to be humble. If your outlook on life is that you have achieved or will achieve great things because of your ability, you will struggle. If you view yourself as having all the tools and skills to be a great leader, you probably don't. If you carry yourself as a big shot that knows everything, you more than likely know very little. You see, this type of behavior is usually a result of insecurities. Great leaders are individuals who are extremely comfortable in their skin. They are not concerned about what others may perceive of them - negative or positive. They do not go home at night wondering if the people working for them were impressed with how much they knew. Great leaders understand that the reason they are in the positions they are in is not because of their own ability, but because of the ability of those that work for them. Begin humbling yourself by understanding that the people that work for you is the only reason you accomplish what you do. Take a moment and consider the leadership position you are in (for those who are not yet in a leadership position - try to imagine how this would play out). How many employees are you responsible for? What are your core responsibilities to your oversight? What is it that you have to deliver to your boss on a consistent basis that allows you to remain in your position? Now picture the people that work for you and envision every single one of them getting up and walking out. You are now left with an empty office, plant, or sports team - and you're the only one left. If you are being honest with yourself than you can admit that without your employees you can achieve very little, if anything.
     Understanding how critical the people that work for you are, you may begin to understand how critical the foundation of humility is to being a successful leader. In all my years of working in the corporate environment I never heard anyone comment after a meeting about a humble person that they were disgusted by how humble he or she was. I have however, heard many comments about people who were arrogant that were not very pleasing. It is very clear (consider your feelings) that nobody likes to work for a know it all. People need to feel valued and cared for. People need to know that they have something to offer. People love the fact that their boss, spouse, father, subordinate acknowledges that they don't know everything but will do everything they can to find out. This type of humbleness brings everyone together - it eliminates superiority and makes individuals feel like they are part of a team.
     By understanding the value of everyone around you, you can begin to make necessary life changes that will lay the foundation to great leadership. There are a number of great books on this subject but one of the better and practical ones that I have read is Today Matters by John C. Maxwell. Dr. Maxwell underscores how critical today is in making a difference tomorrow. If you want to be a great leader tomorrow and be truly successful, get that promotion you have dreamt about, or just know that your employees are willingly following you and accomplishing what you have asked them to do, then humility is the place to start!