A Leader’s Legacy Part 3 - When the Legacy Survives the Leader

We’ve been talking about the importance of a leader leaving a legacy and how that legacy can impact an organization for years to come. Just as you want to build a house on a firm foundation that will last for years, and maybe even generations, the same is true when you build a company. A true leader has a vision for the company and builds a strong foundation through the company’s mission, vision, and values. In fact, the visionary leader creates a culture and embeds it so deeply in the organization that it not only survives that leader’s time as President or CEO but it will actually outlive the leader.

If you’ve ever had the privilege of working in a strong, well run company with a strong, visionary leader then you know what I’m talking about. A visionary leader imparts on an organization something much stronger than the goals and objectives; something much more dynamic than a 5 year plan; and something much longer lasting than just the company’s mission statement. A leader of this type wants to create something bigger than themselves, something that will last more than a lifetime.

When I think of leaders of this type, a few different names come to mind. Henry Ford built a company based on his own values and it stays true to most of those values today. Thomas Jefferson, in writing our Declaration of Independence, created something much bigger than himself. And William (Bill) McGowan founded MCI Communications and built a company in his own image. Unfortunately for Bill McGowan, his legacy could not survive the telecom shakeout of the late 1990’s and was lost in the merger with WorldCom.

But, there is one name that truly stands out. This is a man who created something so much bigger than himself; a man who thought big, dreamed big, and acted even bigger; a man whose vision was so clear and his ability to communicate that vision so compelling that his legacy survives nearly 50 years after his death.

His name is Walt Disney.

Is there a man, woman, or child in the United States over the age of 7 years old who has not heard of Walt Disney?

For that matter, there are not too many adults anywhere in the world who do not know of Walt and what he stood for?

Walt Disney passed away in 1966, yet the legacy he left has survived him even to this day. And, while his company has undergone numerous management changes over the years, they remain steadfast to the values and principles that Walt Disney espoused when he created his company.

We’ll talk a little more about the legacy that Walt Disney left in our next edition.


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

What is the legacy of a leader? – Part 2

In last week’s blog we started talking about the legacy of a leader and the intangibles that remain after a leader is gone. Real leaders at every level of an organization need to be thinking about their legacy and what will happen to the organization once they are no longer a part of it. A true leader is always thinking about the long term impact of their actions and not just about what will happen today or tomorrow. But, there are far too many people out there in positions of leadership who think only about the here and now.

Many leaders do think about leaving their imprint on an organization and seek to clearly delineate their time as a leader versus those of a predecessor. And, while this imprint can be positive, too often we see leaders who make change for the sake of change without regard to the implications for the organization as a whole. For example, we’ve all seen leaders assume control of an efficient, functioning organization, only to turn it dysfunctional sooner than anyone thought possible.

When leaders focus only on the short term, or focus on themselves rather than what is best for the organization, they tend to chase away top performers, lose sight of the true goals of the organization, and create top heavy organizational charts which revolve around them. And, while these leaders may occasionally provide short term results, their true legacy is the long term despair of the organization – broken only by the short term elation and joy at the announcement of their departure.

When leaders focus on the long term and create a plan to leave the organization stronger than when they arrived, they build an organization with a vision for the future, instill the values to support that mission, and find talented people to carry the mission and vision forward. Leaders with this focus not only create results for today, but also for the future. You can feel the imprint on the organization years after they have been gone; managers quote them, employees are still empowered with the values they set forth, and decisions are made that are consistent with the long term vision they so clearly communicated.

In our next issue, we will talk about one such leader – a leader who created a legacy with such clear values and such a strong mission that it survives and thrives more than 50 years after his death.


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

What is the legacy of a leader?

Although much has been written about leadership and the qualities of a leader, one often overlooked aspect of leadership is the concept of legacy. What kind of legacy does a leader leave once they are gone?

According to the American Heritage Dictionary a legacy is “anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor”. That means that the legacy of a leader is what they hand down when they pass the reigns of leadership to someone else. It’s not a physical thing like a scepter that represents power or wisdom, and it’s not about systems or processes that make the business run. In terms of leadership, a legacy represents the intangible assets of the organization that make it different than their competitors. You might call it the culture, but that may not be broad enough to cover all aspects of what the leader leaves behind.

The problem is that too few leaders give much thought to their legacy beyond the new products offered during their watch or the merger that redefined the company’s place in the market. In some cases, these items may indeed represent the leader’s entire legacy. If so, that leader has fallen far short of the requirements to be a great leader.

Too often, leaders view their role rather selfishly and believe that the success of the company, or even just their individual department, is tied directly to their own brilliance and astute understanding of the technical details of the organization. The organization will surely fail without them, as no one can have the insights into the customers as they can. They have built the entire organization around the strength of their own personality and it’s clear to all that they can never truly be replaced. You can almost see their glee when they look back at the old organization and see that, without their leadership, the organization is struggling to perform or maintain their standards.

Perhaps you are recognizing these traits in some of your prior leaders at all levels of the organization. Leaders who leave a legacy that begins to fade almost as soon as their name is taken off the door. These leaders really don’t care about what happens after they are gone. They don’t care about the people, the products, or the customers. Instead, they think only of themselves.

Now, there is another type of leader who tends to leave a longer lasting legacy, even if it is not a positive one. There are certainly those leaders who leave a legacy of despair, and even brokenness. They come in like a deadly storm and lay waste to the organization without blinking an eye. Soon after their arrival, key members of the organization are suddenly no longer there. They have either been asked to leave or have decided on their own that they are no longer a good fit in the organization.

But, we will talk more about these leaders in our next edition.


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

Implementing an Engaged Culture

Culture changes in an organization are never easy or quick. A company culture is the personality of the company, and just like with a human personality, deciding to change it is one thing but actually changing a personality is something entirely different. For example, every year we make New Year’s resolutions about things we are going to change. But the reality is that most resolutions quickly fall away because, while the desire to change might be strong, changing ingrained habits is a long and painful process.

Experts in the process of change will tell you that the probability of successful change can be enhanced with the proper level of support. For example, if your desire to change involves losing weight, you are encouraged to sign up for a program, start an exercise program with a friend, and even tell your spouse, family, and friends about your desire to lose weight. If they know about your weight loss goals, they can help you stay away from food that is bad for you and even help you steer clear of situations where bad food may be prevalent. This is especially true if your desire to lose weight will have a direct impact on the food that they might end up eating.

Having support for change is a critical factor in moving yourself in a new direction and is often the difference between success and failure.

The same is true when deciding to change the culture of your organization. Once you have decided that you want to make a specific change, the next thing you need to do is begin to line up support for that change. And, just like you might sign up for a well-proven diet program, your culture change should also be supported by experts – experts who understand the complexities and pitfalls of a culture change and can provide you with valuable guidance. Trying to change your culture without the assistance of an expert is like trying to do brain surgery … on yourself.

And, much like you want to inform your friends and family about your change in eating habits so that you can gain their support and let them know about the possible impact on them, you will also want to inform your employees of the desire to change the culture. After all, changing the culture of the organization will have a very direct impact on them and you will need their support and involvement to ensure your success.

For many leaders, the question of communicating desired changes to the employees represents a significant challenge. Too often, leaders fail to appreciate the level of understanding that the employees have about the current culture, or they believe they can implement culture changes through simple process or reward adjustments. Unfortunately, when employees don’t understand the culture shift being pursued, they will try and meld any new process or reward changes into the existing culture. Obviously, this can have a significant negative impact on any desired culture changes when processes intended for one culture end up being implemented in another.

For culture to truly change it must be planned from above but implemented at the lowest levels of the organization. By making the employees your partner in your cultural shift you can more readily communicate not only the “how” of the shift but also the “why”. And, if the transition is to a more employee centric culture, your employees will be delighted to assist you.


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

Are There Skeptics in Your Organization?

In our last few blogs, we’ve been talking about the concept of employee engagement. And, in last week’s post we talked about the first steps in moving your team from where they are today to being a more highly engaged team. Asking the people who deal with the problem every day how to solve that problem is a great way to begin to engage your team. Full engagement does not happen overnight or through a single exercise. But, if you engaged your team to solve the problem, you likely saw an inkling of the power that an engaged workforce brings to the organization. They say that two heads are better than one. Imagine if everyone in your organization brought their best thoughts to solving your problems. Can you imagine the power of that organization?

As I noted above, full engagement does not happen overnight. But, if you engaged your team in the problem solving exercise we discussed last week, you took the first step to engage your team. I would expect that your first attempt at employee engagement met with limited success. You probably engaged a few employees and got some excellent feedback, but you also noticed that most of your employees did not engage. Instead, they watched and observed but didn’t fully participate.

This is a natural reaction to this kind of a shift in thinking from management and demonstrates a lack of trust. They heard the words, but they weren’t sure what was going to happen next. They believed that the best thing for them to do, the safest thing for them to do, and the easiest thing for them to do, was to do nothing. By doing nothing they limit their exposure and don’t set themselves up for a major psychological letdown. In fact, I would guess that, based on the size of your organization, you found some people who were not only skeptical, but actually mocked the idea and those who participated. These people have been well trained that being disengaged and not caring is the easiest way to stay employed and out of the line of fire.

Fully engaging your team means changing the mindset and culture of the organization to one that encourages creativity, rewards risk taking, and promotes open communication. For many organizations, this represents a major cultural shift in the way that people think. That goes for changing the minds of the skeptics as well as those who fully participated. And that is why it is so important that you implemented the solution your team came up with, regardless of what you really thought of it. Failing to implement the team’s solution leaves the skeptics free to say, “I knew this was not real. Management doesn’t really care what we know or think. This is just the latest management fad of the month.” Implementing the solution from your team does not eliminate the skeptics but, rather, it begins to crack the façade that they have built up. Permanently knocking down that wall will take time and effort. And, it may even cost you a few employees along the way. But it will be worth it in the long run.

The biggest “cost” of implementing a culture that encourages employee engagement is the mental and emotional stress that it might cause you personally. We are talking about moving from a culture where you were the center of attention – the person with all the answers – to an employee-centric culture where the emphasis is on the strengths of the employees.

We’ll talk more about implementing that culture in our next issue.

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

Create Engagement Through Involvement

In our last few blogs, we’ve been talking about the concept of employee engagement and how valuable it can be to your organization. If you think back to your early years on the job, you were likely highly engaged, at least when you started out. You were eager to jump into the work, anxious to impress your new boss, and wanted to fit in with the other employees. The question becomes, how long did that eagerness last? How long was it before you realized that your eagerness was not truly appreciated by your boss or by your coworkers? How long until you placed more value on blending in than on being the best?

From my personal experience I believe that for most people disengagement, the art of not caring about your job or your company, is a learned behavior. When we first start working we really want to care, but we learn from our boss and our peers that this trait, this eagerness, is not truly appreciated in the workplace. Over time, we begin to accept this as the truth and incorporate it into our daily behaviors.

The same is true for your employees. They likely learned fairly early in their careers that the best way to get along was to go along.

Here’s the good news.

Since disengagement is a learned behavior it can be unlearned as well. The trick is in how you “teach” your employees that it is ok to be engaged.

The process of integrating engagement into your organization requires a significant amount of work for you and your leadership team. And, it starts with honesty about what you are trying to accomplish and why. You will need to build trust with your team and give them a reason to believe in you and what you are saying. To engage your team, you need to be fully committed to the concept of employee engagement. You need to be willing to encourage and accept their ideas and suggestions, be open in your communication about what is and what is not working, and, most importantly, you need to convince them that this idea is not the “leadership fad of the month” but a concept that is here for the long term.

Here is my suggestion for getting the engagement ball rolling in your organization. Start by identifying the biggest challenge that you are facing. Then, call a meeting of key people who are involved in this challenge and who should most want to see it solved. Once that team is assembled, explain the problem to them and ask them how they would solve this problem.

Isn’t that easy?

Here comes the hard part.

As the group begins to provide comments or give feedback, you need to encourage them to tell you more. You want them to believe that it is ok to be open and that their thoughts are welcome. That means putting aside your natural tendency to critique their ideas and, instead, encouraging them to expound on them. Focus on what IS possible from their suggestions and not the pitfalls. Encourage them to build upon each other’s ideas so that they build a solution together.

And then you have to implement their solution.

I told you it wouldn’t be easy.

We’ll talk more about how to build your engaged organization in future issues.

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

There Is a Better Way to Manage Your Employees

In the last few blogs, I’ve been talking about employee engagement and how valuable engaged employees can be to your organization. Study after study demonstrates how engaged employees work both harder and smarter. They provide better customer service and enhance customer satisfaction. They add directly to the bottom line through increased productivity and the reduced costs of employee turnover. Yet, these same studies show that less than one-third of US employees are fully engaged and nearly 20% are actively disengaged. The remainder are marginally engaged, but could be more fully engaged…if only someone would engage them.

For decades the belief has been that the best way to get production from your team was through the “carrot and stick” approach. People were offered a carrot to produce and if that didn’t work, we hit them with a stick. Motivation was seen as offering rewards for performance or threatening people with the loss of their jobs. Often, successful executives specialized in rants and tirades; the louder and more colorful, the better. Intimidation of employees was common and thought to be a way to gain respect. And, of course, these methods of motivation will often produce short term results.

But we are in business for the long term.

Studies of motivation, employee engagement, and emotional intelligence have proven that there are better ways to lead your team. People are inherently good and creative and are willing to work hard for what they believe in. When properly encouraged, they are anxious to demonstrate what they are capable of doing and will also work well with others.

At this point you might be thinking to yourself, “What has this guy been smoking? I’ve been leading people for years and they simply aren’t motivated. In fact, they seem to do as little as possible, usually just enough to avoid getting fired. I can’t trust them and I certainly can’t expect this team to work together unless I literally force teamwork on them.”

Unfortunately, this thought process is way too common in our world today. And it’s not that you are wrong for thinking this. It’s just that your team has developed the traits of disengagement over a long period of time; possibly before they even came to work for you. Changing their attitude and getting your team engaged is no easy task. It requires a lot of dedication and hard work on your part to change not only your perceptions of what they are capable of, but also their perceptions of what you are trying to accomplish.

Is it worth the effort?

The statistics alone make it worth while to invest in yourself and your team to try and raise their level of engagement. Even more importantly is the fact that it is just easier and more fun to lead a team of engaged employees than it is to lead a team of disengaged employees. When your team is engaged they work harder without you having to push them. They are more creative without all of the ideas having to come from you. They treat your customers better, meaning that you get more repeat business. And, you have more time to spend doing the things you want to do versus the things you believe you have to do.

We’ll talk a little bit about this transition and how to create an engaged team in upcoming segments.

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