Getting Smarter - Part 3

For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been writing about how making mistakes and changing our minds about something has taken on such a negative connotation that people are afraid to admit that they might ever have been wrong about something.

There is no doubt that the standards, as well as the stakes, are raised when you become a leader. The mistakes made by an up and coming young employee will likely bring much less damage to the company than the mistakes made by a member of the executive team. After all, when leaders make mistakes those mistakes can have long-term ramifications and can impact a far greater number of people than the average mistake. So, it makes sense at some level to hold our leaders more accountable for mistakes than we do for other employees.

But, whether you are a brand new employee, an employee with multiple years of experience, or a seasoned executive, mistakes will get made. You can bank on it. At some point in time, we all make mistakes. And let’s not forget that not all mistakes are made because someone didn’t think things through. Sometimes mistakes are caused by unforeseen circumstances or things outside of our control. In any event, the issue should never be “was a mistake made” but, rather, “how was the mistake handled? What happened when the mistake was discovered? What was learned from the mistake?”

“I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.” - Abraham Lincoln

If we acknowledge that everyone makes mistakes, then should it not then follow that everyone issues apologies for their mistakes?

I’ll bet that last statement made you stop and pause. After all, how often do apologies follow mistakes, especially in the business world? Not often.

Too many business leaders, at all levels of an organization, are so afraid to admit a mistake that they will do everything in their power to ensure that no one knows of it. They fear that admitting a mistake will be perceived as a weakness or will somehow cause doubts about their ability lead.

But I believe that the opposite is really true. I would much rather work for someone who acknowledges that they made a mistake, apologizes for it, and moves on than I would for someone who hides their mistakes.

I once had a co-worker who told me that he was a “lousy liar.” I assumed from that statement that I should not trust anything he said. Later, I discovered that his definition of being a “lousy liar” was that he was not good at it. “Lying is too much work” he told me. “I discovered long ago that I couldn’t keep my lies straight, so I just stopped lying. I was lousy at it.”

I wish more executives had his attitude toward lying. The truth is that most of them are lousy at it. And, while their employees may not publicly acknowledge their lies, those same employees are acutely aware of the lies. And, as a result, they don’t trust their leadership team.

It’s simple, isn’t it? When I lie, people find out about it. And, while they might not call me on it, they won’t trust me. And, if they don’t trust me they won’t work hard for me.

Maybe all executives should take a pledge to be “lousy liars.” It would build greater trust and create a whole new company culture.


At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

Getting Smarter – Part 2

In my last blog entry, I wrote about how we punish politicians for imperfections. Once a politician makes a public comment, they are held to it forever. If there is something that they don’t know or understand and they make the mistake of commenting on it, they are forever branded by those comments. For some reason, we expect our politicians to be once and forever perfect. Or, said a different way, we don’t ever expect or allow our politicians to admit a mistake and learn from it.

“I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.” Abraham Lincoln

In business, everyone makes mistakes. In fact, many astute business leaders will tell you that if you are not making mistakes then you aren’t really trying. Not making mistakes means that you are sticking with the tried and true. Not making mistakes means that you aren’t trying anything new or risky.

I’ve written numerous times that one should not be afraid to make mistakes because mistakes are how we learn. Making mistakes is not only natural and human, but it’s a part of our very makeup. If you have children, you remember when they first started to learn to walk. They didn’t know how and they weren’t very strong, so they fell down a lot. But you didn’t scold them for falling down. Instead, you encouraged them to get up and try again. You didn’t expect perfection immediately and neither did they.

There’s nothing quite like the determination of a toddler trying to learn to walk.

But at some point in your child’s development the standards were raised. You began to expect bigger and better things and in some cases became less tolerant of errors and mistakes. As a result, your children may have stopped stretching themselves and started doing things that they were already comfortable with.

Take this into the business world and you see that the same logic applies. When someone first enters the workforce they make a lot of mistakes. But that’s ok, they’re still learning. As they move up the management or leadership ladder, those around them become less and less tolerant of errors. Part of the reason is that the stakes are higher. With higher stakes, there is less room for error. Hence, leaders become less inclined to take risks.

But, there is another side to this quandary as well. We have high expectations of our business leaders and managers and are unwilling to let them make mistakes. So what happens when they do make mistakes?

It’s simple. They refuse to admit them. They cover them up. They hide them and hope you won’t notice. They deceive themselves and those around them, rather than admit that they are human and have human failings.

And in doing so, they fail the very people and organizations that they have pledged to serve.

But…..I’ll write more about that next week.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

Getting Smarter – Part 1

Now that our political elections are successfully behind us, I want to take just a few minutes to comment on something that appears to be an ongoing issue in the world of politics. The issue of “getting smarter.”

Confused?

I hope not. Let me explain. And let me explain exactly how this relates back to business and leadership.

Political ads for “John Smith” often are not focused on what John Smith believes or promises but rather focused on his opponent.

“Don’t vote for ‘Jane Doe.’ Jane once said it was our obligation to protect the Polar Bears at the South Pole. And everyone knows there are no Polar Bears at the South Pole. Jane Doe is bad for our country.”

We could take this conversation a lot of different directions here. We don’t know the context of Jane’s statement. Maybe she was telling a joke and “Polar Bears at the South Pole” was part of the punch line. Maybe the quote is entirely out of context and hearing the whole statement would actually let this statement make sense. Maybe she goofed and just misspoke.

It doesn’t matter.

But, let’s assume for the moment that none of those things are true and that Jane was talking about conservation and really did not know that there are no Polar Bears at the South Pole. The question is: how long are we going to punish Jane for making a mistake? Since politicians (and business leaders) are human, there are some areas where they likely do not know everything. Like everyone else, they make mistakes, misspeak, or find themselves not fully knowledgeable about some issue.

“I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.” Abraham Lincoln

In our quest for, and expectation of, perfection from our political and business leaders we often hold them to unrealistic standards. We not only do not allow human error, but we force them into positions where it is worse to change their minds about something than it is to be wrong in the first place. In other words, it’s worse for Jane to “flip flop” on the Polar Bear issue than it is for her to admit that she was wrong and learned something.

In next week’s edition I’ll talk more about how this topic specifically applies to business leaders.


At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

More on the “No Friends” Culture

In last week’s blog, I wrote about the young entrepreneur who wanted to create a professional and business-like culture where people were team-oriented and professional, but did not socialize inside or outside of the office. To some people, this is likely a very appealing culture where they can effectively separate their personal lives from their professional lives with clear lines of demarcation. They no longer have to worry about “taking work home with them” in terms of discussing the office with their spouses and/or families. It also relieves them of any responsibility for having to take part in the seemingly innumerable fundraisers that their co-workers children might be involved in.

Ah… the relief of clear separation between work and home.

Thinking more about this culture made me think of a good friend of mine. We were close friends in High School and beyond. He was always a lively guy with a great sense of humor, quick with a joke, and always up for doing something creative or different. He was the kind of friend that I really appreciated because he helped me stretch myself and do things I might not do on my own, but he never crossed the line into things that were illegal or overtly dangerous.

After college, we were physically separated by hundreds of miles and, as many people do, drifted apart. This was prior to the time of the internet and Facebook, so for years I totally lost track of him. Occasionally, something would remind me of him and rekindle my desire for that friendship, but there was no easy way to contact him. His parents and family had moved away and I had no idea how to contact him.

Years passed and the internet made its way into our lives. Sure enough, one day I started thinking about him and decided to try and locate him. It didn’t take long until I had an address and phone number. And best of all, he was living in a location that I would be travelling to shortly.

To make a long story short, I had the chance to visit him and his family in their home. We quickly bonded again, and the weekend was filled with stories and laughter, fond memories and jokes, photographs and dreams. At the end of the weekend, his wife, whom I had never met before, pulled me aside. With tears in her eyes, she thanked me for my visit. In our weekend together, she had rediscovered the man she fell in love with 20 years earlier and it gave her hope for the future.

She went on to tell me that her husband was involved in highly classified work, a fact that had come out during our time together. Naturally, he was not allowed to discuss his work outside of the secure facility in which he worked. So he never brought his work home, which was a relief. But he also could not socialize with his co-workers outside of the office for fear that classified items might be discussed in public. He never had lunch or dinner with any of his co-workers, avoided places they might hang out, and had built a wall around his work life.

Unfortunately, that wall had been built around his home life as well. Since he had basically stopped talking at the office, he also stopped talking at home. It was the only way he could be sure of not letting anything inappropriate slip out. My visit and all of our discussions about the past had been safe ground for my friend, and he had returned to his former happy, almost gregarious self. And his wife loved him for it.

What is the message here?

When people understand what is expected of them, they will try their very best to comply. But, if those expectations are inconsistent with the type of person they really are, unintended consequences may well pop up. In this case, a happy and vibrant individual had complied with the culture of his organization and that culture had taken over his personal life as well. And I doubt that my friend is alone on this. My guess is that many people adapt themselves to their company culture even though it impacts their personal and private life.

Have you found that to be true? Have you worked in a culture that was contrary to your own nature causing you either to be miserable, or to adapt yourself and change the person that you were? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

A “No Friends” Culture

I recently met a young entrepreneur who had opened his business about a year ago and was very pleased with the momentum his business was showing. His revenue growth was exceeding his projections, he was making inroads into new customers who held great potential for future sales, and he had moved into new office space that would accommodate significant planned future growth.

Yet, as we talked I could not help but notice the underlying tone of concern in his voice. The concern didn’t seem to match everything else I was hearing about his business. Digging deeper with my questions, his concern finally rose to the surface. It seemed that he was very concerned about the culture of his new company. He had a very specific culture in mind but was very unclear about how to integrate his desired culture into his growing organization.

What kind of culture did he want?

He wanted a culture where people worked hard and where they were very clear about their responsibilities and the responsibilities of the other members of the team. He wanted his team to work together efficiently to resolve issues with customers and vendors without having to rely on his personal intervention. He wanted skilled and competent people in his organization that would require minimum direction from him on a daily basis. But most of all, he wanted people who would not be friends with each other.

He went on to explain, “I’ve seen these companies where people do things together. They go out after work and have a drink. They socialize outside the office with a bowling or softball team. They have birthday parties in the office for different staff members, go to lunch together, have summer picnics and cookouts, and then there is the annual holiday party. I don’t want that. I don’t want any of that. I just want them to work together quickly, efficiently, and in a business-like manner. Can I create a culture like that?”

I won’t go into depth about his reasoning for creating this type of culture. I’ll just say that he is a very private person and draws a clear separation between his personal and professional lives. And he wanted his team to be the same way. A huge personal fear for him was that his team would become too social in the office and want to include him in their activities. He didn’t want to socialize with his team members inside the office or outside the office. And he knew that the more people he hired, the more challenging this would become for him.

“How can I make sure that I get the kind of culture in the office that I really want?” he asked.

The good news is that you can create any type of culture that you want in your organization. And an office of highly efficient, dedicated people who leave their personal lives at the door is really not unheard of. But the key to making sure that you have the culture you really want in your company is to clearly define your needs and expectations from the beginning.

“Define exactly the kind of culture you want in your office,” I told him. “Be clear and specific about your expectations with potential employees before you hire them. Let them know what you expect from them and what they should expect at work. Then hire the people whose expectations are in line with yours. But, here is the key. You MUST define the culture yourself right up front. If you don’t define the culture yourself, your employees will define it for you. And you might not like the culture they bring to your team.”

Now, here is the question for the readers:

Would you want to work in an organization that was clear and specific about NOT wanting social activities among team members inside or outside of the office?

I’ll gather the responses and post them in a few weeks. I expect the results may surprise a few people.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

It’s Not That Simple

I was catching up with an old friend recently and he brought up a couple of challenges in his life that were holding him back. Being a coach, this is a pretty common occurrence for me and I have to be careful to stay in “friend” mode and not go into “coach” mode. As I was listening, I thought to myself: “This just doesn’t seem like that big a deal. I wonder why this is holding him back?”

Eventually I spoke up and offered him a suggestion.

“Well,” he replied, “it’s not that simple.”

At that moment, I began to flash back to early in my career as a manager and leader. I was pretty new at being a leader, but I had a great rapport with my boss and could ask him anything I wanted. There were a number of things that we were doing as a company that I didn’t understand. Sometimes when I asked about these things I would get excellent answers that really helped me learn and grow. But sometimes my questions would be met with, “Well, it’s not that simple.” Whenever I heard that reply I knew my lessons were over because my boss never explained what wasn’t simple.

Eventually, that boss left the company and I found myself working for someone new. And, while our relationship was not as strong, that didn’t stop me from asking questions. Sure enough, a couple of the same topics came up that had met with such resistance from my first boss. But this boss wasn’t reluctant to talk about the reasons that things “weren’t that simple.” The more he talked, the more I learned. And the more I learned, the more I understood. And several of the problems were indeed quite complex; dealing with a lot of different issues and often involving a variety of personalities. I could clearly see why “it’s not that simple” could apply.

But there were other times that the explanations were convoluted, but not complex. And while navigating through these challenges could remind one of a maze, in some cases it seemed like it was a “kiddie maze” and not really all that hard. Of course, I didn’t challenge these statements from my boss. I wasn’t totally comfortable with our relationship. So I just accepted his explanations at face value.

As I progressed as a leader, I continued to hear, “it’s not that simple” on a variety of topics. And clearly, the person making the statement was correct. It really wasn’t that simple. But more and more I began to recognize that this phrase was being used by executives as a way to avoid addressing some issues. It was like an “executive code phrase” that was intended to shut down discussion on a particular topic. But as I became more experienced, I was also less tolerant of issue avoidance and I began to press for details.

It turns out that “it’s not that simple” really means, “For whatever reason, I’m not comfortable with this issue.” In other words, it really WAS that simple, except for some personal baggage being carried around by the executive.

Getting back to my friend, I asked permission to step into the role of coach for just a few minutes. With his permission I began to dig down into his fear. It didn’t take long to uncover his real issue, expose it as a FEAR (False Expectation Appearing Real) and help him realize that his problem really WAS that simple. With his new found knowledge, he was able to quickly eliminate this issue from his life.

Now back to executives; or maybe just back to human beings as a whole. How often are we using the phrase “it’s not that simple” to shield ourselves from confronting a fear (real or imagined) that should be addressed? The next time you find yourself saying, “it’s not that simple,” ask yourself what you are really afraid of.

Maybe it really is just that simple.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/

Do You Know How Talented Your Employees Are?

Contrary to popular belief, employees are human beings too.

That’s the message that I often share with managers and executives as we discuss creating energy in an organization. We believe that positive, productive energy is created through the intersection of a company’s culture, its leadership style, and the employees’ expectations. In general, we find that companies think a lot about leadership and how they as individuals can improve their leadership techniques. They talk a lot about the company culture, but don’t do anything to really identify what culture they want or even what culture really exists in the organization. But, when it comes to employee expectations, there is neither a lot of thought, nor a lot of talking.

In fact, when it comes to employee expectations, there is a whole lot of nothing.

Even companies that are “employee friendly” have a tendency to focus on making their environment open and accessible, but forget that, as human beings, employees have needs that must be met. Or said another way, employees have needs that, when met, can have a very positive affect on the bottom line.

What kinds of things do employees want?

Well there are a lot of things. And what they actually want can certainly vary from employee to employee. But one thing that all employees want is to be able to display and use their talents on the job.

Think about this. There are some things in life that you are really good at and that you really like doing. The more you can do of the things that you like and are good at, the better your results will be and the happier you will be.

The same is true of all of your employees. They have things that they are really good at, really talented at, and they want to do those things every day in their job.

Now, before I go any further, let’s pause and get real. If you are managing software development and one of your key employees is a talented sculptor, this does not mean that you should try and find a way to have them sculpt on the job. It does mean that every person has multiple talents and you should try and match their most relevant talents with the things you need to get done.

The only way to really tell what employees like to do and are talented at is to ask them. When you do this for the first time –actually sit down with an employee and ask them what they are really good at and like doing that could be applied to the job – you will truly be amazed at the results. It will likely start with a deep sense of mistrust or disbelief, especially if you’ve never shown any interest in your employees before. But you will soon uncover a plethora of talents and skills that you never new existed in your organization. And, you might well find yourself reassigning responsibilities based on the talents that you never knew existed.

Identify the talents of the people who work for you and find a way to put those talents to work in your organization and you will not only make your employees happier, but you will get a better quality result and improve your profitability.

At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees

When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.


Until next time.....

Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/