LeaderLine

Actively Regaining Trust When You've Lost it!

Brian Thompson, from the Museum of American Financial History, reminds us of a painful reality:  “Wall Street is predicated on optimism. The very acts of raising capital and making investments are based on the simple belief that tomorrow will be a better day. That’s what makes economic growth and opportunity possible.”

More than losing money on Wall Street, the very institutions that drive our capital investment have lost something far more valuable than money. They’ve lost the trust of investors. Trust is fragile; it takes years to earn and just moments to lose. The investment vehicles created by financial institutions were designed to make amazing amounts of money for their institutions, confuse investors as to the value of what they are buying, and sustain the “good times” for as long as they could.

Now, the very optimism that causes people to invest has been lost sending the stock market into wild swings and continuing losses. Washington can provide only part of the answer. Businesses must do their part to gain back trust by working to establish needed reforms and regulatory oversight. Don’t wait for Washington to impose change; get involved in inviting change. 

There are lessons to be learned about gaining trust after it has been lost. In order to accelerate the process, continually make people aware of your trustworthy actions. Lack of trust must be actively turned around. Build a rapid history of promising and delivering on your promises by letting people know what you’re going to do, and then quickly doing it. When they repeatedly take notice of your actions, you rapidly build a new and growing trust account.

Don’t hide from workers and customers in the tough times; be a problem solver instead of a problem evader. When people see you actively facing the problems and doing what you can to produce solutions, they’ll appreciate your taking responsibility and doing what you can to turn things around. 

Finding the Opportunities!

Albert Einstein had a way of making wisdom simple: "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

All eyes are on Washington and Wall Street as we follow the "As the Financial World Turns" soap opera unfolding before our very eyes. Learned helplessness is described as the "giving up" response that comes from the belief that there's nothing one can do to influence one's outcome--we wait powerless hoping for experts to fix the problem or tell us what to do!

Inaction and powerlessness produce predictable results--nothing good! Invest your worry time in looking for opportunities that surface in the midst of difficult times.

Do something! Adjust your response as needed, but keep moving. What customers do well in poor economies? How can I add value to their efforts?

If you have available team members with time on their hands, challenge them to invest their time in accelerating progress in developing your next wave of innovation. When the economy turns, you'll be ready to lead the way.

Not only will such a strategy produce sustained results; you’ll help rally the morale of others by helping them stay focused on making a difference.

(Source: Albert Einstein in Carolyn Masters, Masters of Motivation card pack, Masters Resource Group, 602-297-6674)

Success Shared Is Best

Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, made an observation worth sharing, “Success is best when it is shared. You will be left with an empty feeling if you hit the finish line alone.”

In difficult times, organizations are tested. How organizations deal with decreased revenue and missing their quarterly plans can say a lot about whether their actions match the often quoted value—“Putting our people first.” If your people are your most important resource, it ought to show in the tough times.

Are companies more worried about paying top executive bonuses for making “tough” downsizing decisions or are they more committed to spread resources in a way to keep those “most important resources” to be ready for any economic upturn. Do you put your budgets where your printed values are or do your true values show?

In difficult times, the obscene sums of money paid to top executives, even when laid off for poor performance, makes the shared team victory mere words. This is not to say that some poor performers ought not to lose their jobs, but that should have been done for performance not as an economic strategy. Leaders question worker loyalty. Loyalty is earned by shared victories and shared support in the tough times. Are you going to bat for your team? Look for strategies to invest spare resources into emerging opportunities that you can ride when the economy improves. Earn the trust and the commitment you want from your people; they truly are your best resource.

What do you think?

(Source: Howard Schultz, Success, April/May, 2008, p. 24)

Values Don't Change During Change

Sidney Taurel, Eli Lilly CEO, reminds us about the importance of values: "The first thing I think any leader should be judged by is a very strong set of values. I think there's a difference between leading and managing. Leadership is really to do with getting people to follow you to a place you haven't been, which is the future. It has to do with change. People won't willingly follow someone into the unknown unless they can trust that person's instincts and values. ... In the middle of change, you have to have some things that don't change, which are strong values. I think that is essential for any leader." 

Values can be your anchor and keep you steady through the sudden storms of change. They provide the compass that guides you when strategic maps don’t provide a clear path in uncharted waters.

But values don’t work unless you share them, make tough decisions using them and lead with them over and over again. Don’t leave them on the wall or in your annual report. Talk about them frequently.

When you make difficult choices and endure the cost that goes with them, people know values count. When you can honor and support a member of your team who lived by your shared values and lost a battle anyway, they will know you walk your values.

What are your rock-solid values you use in times of change? How do they show in what you do as a leader?

(Source: Sidney Taurel, Eli Lilly CEO, NWA WorldTraveler, August, 2007, pp. 48-51, 74.)

Invest Worry in Action

Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has talked about his struggle with terminal cancer: “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.  We can’t change the cards we are dealt, just the way we play them.”

Randy Pausch delivered his well known “Lecture of a Lifetime.” Dealing with terminal cancer has helped Randy learn what it’s like to play a poor hand well. There is much we can learn from such attitudes.

As the media spreads fears of a recession, leaders and consumers are responding to a rapidly changing economic reality. Many are observers who are cutting expenses and preparing to weather out the worst. During the tough times, the best earn their success by staying focused and engaged in securing strategic opportunities. With the dollar taking a beating, companies with products and services to export are soaring— America is now the world’s bargain basement! Find ways to serve those who prosper in down markets, and you will do well. If they call a recession, don’t passively participate. You’ll miss 100% of the business you never ask for, so invest your worry time in action!

With any additional down time, invest in strategic learning and in developing your next generation of products and services. When the economy rebounds, you want to be ready to ride it.

True maturity comes from experience—getting through the tough times gives you the assurance that you can do it again. Economies go through cycles. What goes up, comes down. What comes down, goes back up. Welcome to the challenge of minimize the impact of any downturn and maximize the return during the rebound that is sure to come.

What do you do to make yourself more resilient and focused on opportunity?

(Source: Randy Pausch, a computer science professor, Carnegie Mellon University, “Lecture of a Lifetime,” WSJ.com)

Visions without Maps

Col. Steven David, a military defense lawyer, when asked for details on the capital case against six Guantánamo detainees, said something that every change leader can relate to: "You’re asking me to tell you how we’re going to get to a place we’ve never been, with a map I don’t have."

We ask our leaders for their vision, but a journey into an engaging but uncertain future is more of a Safari than a comfortable cruise with destination tours. In a time of global competition, constant change and economic uncertainty, inventing the future, if nothing else, is a true adventure. If you have a leader that speaks with total clarity about the future, it’s probably not radical enough to excite anyone. A vision worth having doesn’t come with MapQuest directions. It does require a leader willing to paint a picture of a destination worth reaching.

If you’ve seen your people overcome obstacles on their way to past successes, have confidence in their ability to help you invent the future. If you know the limitations of where you are now and have a story to tell about what you hope the future holds for you and those you serve, let your team turn your novel into a non-fiction documentary of excellence in action. Create a stretch goal that can’t be done by just improving. Believe in their ability to innovate before they believe in themselves. Then, let them free to find their own way!

During these uncertain economic times, by turning their anxiety into constructive action, you may very well build the next platform for growth your company can use to soar to new heights. 

(Source: Col. Steven David, Quote of the Day, New York Times, e-zine newspaper, Tuesday, February 12, 2008)

Get a Kick Forward and Take Advantage of a Poor Hand

Coach Kay Yow, the 2007 Winner of the Jimmy V Espy for Perseverance, has learned from her own bout with cancer: “I feel I had zero control over getting cancer, but I have 100% control over how I will respond to dealing with cancer. When life kicks you, let it kick you forward.”

When life deals its card, cancer is a wild card no one wants to receive. But increasingly, advances in science, treatment and therapy have given people more hope. They don't get to pick whether they have cancer, but they can control what they do to fight it.

The same could be said with every setback we face. It's not what happens to you; it's how quick you bounce back to deal with what has happened. When life deals you a bad hand, play that poor hand well.

When have you been kicked forward? What setback in your personal or professional life can you make into a stepping stone to a profitable or more meaningful future? What lessons can it teach you and your team? Instead of investing in victim thinking, get busy making a difference. Look for ways life’s experiences can kick you forward. 

Surviving Shortages

Roger Herman had a gift at sharing critical trends: "We are at the beginning stages of the most severe shortage of skilled labor in history."

It may soon become even harder to lead, because it will be getting more difficult to attract and keep your best employees. The U.S. Labor Department forecasts a shortage of 10 million skilled workers by 2010. With more Baby Boomers retiring and fewer workers available, what is your plan?

How are you isolating young workers and selling them on joining your team? Have you positioned to use promising interns and given them reasons to join your organization? Are you mentoring young workers to help them take advantage of career opportunities without having to leave your organization?

What have you done to explore ways to keep valued retirees involved in your future? Few will want to work full time, but when you use their experience wisely and keep their skills updated, many who could retire will continue to serve. Give them a project assignment for three months, and then let them travel for three months. Use them as contingent resources. Old dogs can learn new tricks and know a lot of old ones that still work!

The true challenge will be finding, leading, motivating and keeping teams focused on making a difference where it counts. What are you doing now to position for the challenges ahead?

(Source: Roger Herman in Brendan Coffey, "Leadership Quotient," Executive Travel, May/June, 2007, pp. 42-48.) 

Your Worry Department

Sue Nokes, T-Mobile's customer-service chief, knows customer service is all about worrying, listening and making a difference: "I'm head of the department of worry.... It's important that we build an environment where you can tell me that my baby is ugly. And when you ask what's wrong, you better fix some stuff."

Getting truth up the organization is all about making it safe to complain! Many talk about customer service, but how many can admit that their favorite "baby" is ugly? We take pretty pictures and pass it on to anyone willing to smile, but customers don't always tell you the truth about what they see. Too many customers tell you what you want to hear while they're busy finding another product to buy.

Honor truth telling by employees and customers. Build a problem solving culture, not a problem evading one. Every problem confronted early, gives you an opportunity to prove that you're there to "fix some stuff!" Turn your worry time into listening and customer service that makes a difference. 

What do you do that works in this area?

Source: Sue Nokes, T-Mobile's customer-service chief, in Jennifer Reingold, "You Got Served," Fortune, October 1, 2007, pp. 55-58.

Who Provides Your Contra Team?

Ken Melrose, the chairman of Toro, makes sure nay-sayers get a voice: "Nay-saying in corporate America isn't popular. The contra team is a way to create negative views that are in the shareholders' best interest and the company's best interest."

With a study by Booz Allen Hamilton indicating that two-thirds of all acquisitions fail to meet their goals, Toro, the lawn-mower giant, wanted to curb unwise mergers. Like most organizations, they charge a due-diligence team to make a balanced case for any merger or acquisition. But Toro also turns to a "contra team" made up of a half-a-dozen vice presidents and directors with a mission of delivering a strong voice of dissent. A few years back, the "contra team" helped kill an eight-figure acquisition after discovering that their sector was facing a severe slump. The proposed acquisition's revenue has headed south while Toro has nearly doubled in sales.

Too many corporations and leaders prompt their teams to support desired deals, when they ought to be encouraging dissent to surface problems early. If you don't make it safe to disagree, after a decision fails, some will say, "I had a feeling that wasn't going to work!" You want dissent when it can help you make quality decisions quickly.

Due diligence in a rapidly changing world requires champions of support and dissent. Do you need a "contra team" in your organization? If you do, don't wait a moment longer. Act quickly by creating a strong voice of support and dissent early in the decision-making process. 

ng dissent to surface problems early. If you don't make it safe to disagree, after a decision fails, some will say, "I had a feeling that wasn't going to work!" You want dissent when it can help you make quality decisions quickly.

Due diligence in a rapidly changing world requires champions of support and dissent. Do you need a "contra team" in your organization? If you do, don't wait a moment longer. Act quickly by creating a strong voice of support and dissent early in the decision-making process. 

(Source: Ken Melrose, Chairman of Toro in Paula Kaihla, "Best-Kept Secrets of the World's Best Companies," Business 2.0, April 2006, pp. 82-96)