Category Archives: Contribution

Multiply Your Impact

26 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by in Concentrating effort, Contribution, Effectiveness, leadership, Management

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

golden-state-warriors-strength-in-numbers-wallpaper-4

Who gets promoted at your company? Who are your managers and what kind of performance did they demonstrate to earn their positions? Who deserves to have people “under them”?

People who are exceptional at getting things done, through their own direct effort, are often the first to earn promotions. As they begin to supervise, manage, and ultimately lead people in their organizations they soon learn:

What got you here won’t get you there.

In other words, the skills an excellent individual possesses are just the beginning of what it takes to be even an adequate manager and leader. Instead of promoting our best “doers” we need to ask:

Are you interested in learning how to achieve results indirectly—through other people?

The answer to this question must be a resounding, “yes.” Effective managers and leaders must first possess the desire to multiply their impact beyond what they were able to accomplish on their own. If they don’t want to make a greater impact, they will never acquire the necessary skills to lead and manage. They will simply set about doing their new job just like they did their old one, which often creates a confusing mash up of power and influence instead of entire groups of people working to create something greater than themselves.

As owners, leaders, and executives we also have to ask ourselves a question:

Are we ready to present the newly promoted with the knowledge and training to help them build the skills they’ll need to make the transition from super achiever to supervisor, manager, and future leader?

If our answer is yes, then here is what I believe is the underpinning of everything to do with mobilizing a group who wants to multiply its impact beyond what any one individual could achieve alone.

Inspire. As leaders our job is to inspire our team with a desirable future outcome. A vivid description that inspires our team to pool our individual efforts for the benefit of our customers, ourselves, our company—and even society—is our first task.

Buy-in. Once we paint a vision of the destination, our next objective is to earn the buy-in of each team member. Admittedly, this can be a detailed and, perhaps, messy step but it’s critical to get everyone “on board.” Sometimes that means some give-and-take or for some members to suspend their disbelief for a while.

Share. At this point average leaders will emphasize “how” they suggest “what” the team should do to get started. Some, falling back on their old skills as an individual doer, will even try to detail every step of the way. To be sure, we leaders have good ideas, but if we did our jobs correctly in hiring the people on our teams, what we need to share with our people is “why” we are setting about a task and then let them take on the “how’s” and the “what’s.” After all, that’s why we hired them, yes?

Own. The holy grail of mobilizing a group is when our teams move beyond buy-in and take an ownership position in our vision. That doesn’t mean mutiny or coopting our vision. It means their commitment to our vision is as strong as our own. It can be scary when someone else owns “your idea” with you but it’s well worth the emotional risk. Rest assured that’s what it takes to multiply your impact.

Active Listening

04 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in Concentrating effort, Contribution, leadership, Management, Shared values

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

Listening-6

Leaders and managers want to be heard, understood, and to be part of our communities just like anyone else. We appreciate it when people listen to our ideas and try to connect with us because it makes us feel good. That alone should be enough to motivate us to listen and try to understand others. As leaders and managers we often give ourselves too much permission to talk when we should be reminding ourselves to listen.

We always need to model the behavior we expect to see in our organizations. Given that, we have a special obligation to listen and to listen well. Here is a quick summary of the key “active listening” skills we should demonstrate in our personal and professional lives.

  • Attention/Focus. Devote your attention to the other person. Find a place that allows you to do that.
  • Interest. Take a true interest in the person and what s/he is saying. This isn’t a good time to go through the motions.
  • Take Time. Set aside time to listen instead of trying to multi-task. Schedule private appointments when necessary to ensure you have enough time.
  • Body Language. Listen to words, posture, gestures, and tone of voice. Provide plenty of eye contact and use all your senses to understand the other person.
  • Validate. Reassure the speaker that you see their point of view. Even if you don’t yet agree, it’s important you validate his or her point of view.
  • Repeat/Clarify. Repeat what you heard in your own words. “So what I hear you saying is….” is not just a cliché. It allows you to explain what you heard and allows the speaker to verify s/he got her message across.
  • Ask clarifying questions. Rather than interrogating your partner, ask her or him some clarifying questions to solidify your understanding. For example: “When you said (blank) could you clarify what you meant?” “Could you say that a different way so I make sure I understand?” “I’m not sure I understand. Could you go over (blank) again with me?”
  • Feelings. When it’s appropriate, probe for feelings. Communication is not only about what a person thinks. It’s also about how s/he feels about what s/he thinks.
  • Counter Argument. Do not waste your listening time planning what to say. Sit tight. Let the speaker finish and then interact with him or her. Save your counter arguments—if any—until you’re certain you understand the other party.

Thanks for listening. Now, what did you hear and how will you put it into action?

Leadership is a Verb

03 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by in Concentrating effort, Contribution, Effectiveness, leadership, Management, Results

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

vsassoon1_v_10may12_rex_b_426x639

I searched amazon.com for “books on leadership” and it returned 21,000+ hits. I googled “leadership seminars” and received 76 million+ results.

Apparently, people buy products and services with the word “leadership” in them. It’s a lot like how the word “natural” or the word “organic” helps companies sell food (and haircare products). We know that we want those things even if we’re not precisely sure what they are.

Many of my clients struggle to develop a shared understanding of what leaders are supposed to do versus what managers are supposed to do. Here is how I define these terms simply and usefully. Please give this some consideration—it may save you a lot of reading!

MANAGEMENT

The manager’s job is to create results. When J. B. Say defined management in 1767 he said, “The manager is responsible for directing vision and resources toward greater results.” Of course, he’s talking about one person’s impact (a manager) on more than one other person (employees) in an organization.

LEADERSHIP

The leader’s job is to create priorities and then stimulate individuals and groups to take action. This definition tells us that “leader” is not a noun it’s a verb. In other words, a leader is not a special type of person. She or he engages in a special type of action, that is, pointing others in the right direction and stimulating them to pursue a certain end.

PEOPLE SKILLS

The ability to communicate, interact, and connect with individuals and groups. We all need people skills regardless if we are managers, a leaders, or followers.

STYLE

Leaders and Managers can do their jobs, using different styles, and almost any style can be successful. Prevalent misconceptions are that successful leaders have a particular style (e.g., they are charismatic) and that managers have a particular style (e.g., they are boring). The truth is that any style can work—as long as the person has the people skills to get others to work toward the organization’s vision, mission, and goals.

Art, Beauty, Love

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in Concentrating effort, Continuous improvement, Contribution, Customer Experience, Customers, Developing talent, Results

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

claude-monet-artist-s-garden-at-giverny

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
-Aristotle

As part of The Beacon Program at #cosmoprofna you just experienced two days of what it feels like to be considered the future of our industry. Even though I was only privileged to sit in on a couple hours of your experience, the goodwill and concentrated effort of your PBA hosts, facilitator Geno Stampora, and speakers such as Jay Williams, showed me people putting everything they have into giving you a personal head start. When Geno shares his “Words to Live By,” or when Jay talks about “Significance, self-worth, and sense of belonging,” what you’re witnessing are two people doing their utter best to gift you a lifetime of experience so you can achieve your own riches, potential, and happiness.

With that in mind, this is what keeps coming back to me as I consider you and your bright futures.

ART

For many, art is the enduring nuclear reactor inside your heart that provides the endless source of energy and passion for our business. As you create your journey, stay closely connected to your artistic self. When people say, “Motivation and passion come from within,” accept it as an invitation to renew your connection to your art.

BEAUTY

It is useful to ask yourself, “What business am I in?” Some answer, “hair,” some will say “beauty,” and others feel it is, “The people business.” Regardless, for convenience we end up calling it the beauty business. Even though it does change, sometimes change comes slowly—too slowly in fact. Friends behind the chair were recently telling me about how in Europe hairdressers are considered “professionals” while here in the U.S. not so much. After much reflection, I think professionalism, motivation, and passion are cousins that come from the same place—inside each one of us. So, if you want to be seen as a professional, choose a professional role model and act like her until you become one too.

LOVE

I have enormous respect for how difficult it must be to be your absolute best for every client, every day, every month, year-in-and-year out. We are all human beings and we all get depleted. We have ups and downs and some of us even get burned out. Believe me when I tell you that clients can sense when you’re not feeling your best and it impacts their mood and experience in your salon and in your chair—and maybe the rest of their day. We each have to find our own little happy place where we go to get our minds right before seeing our next client. If you haven’t found yours yet, I humbly suggest love is the answer. If you can pause to love yourself, and see something to love in each one of your clients, you’ll be on your way to being your best for every client every time.

SO WHAT?

My hope is that among these 500+ words you take-away just three and let them run as a little script inside your head: Art, Beauty, Love. That’s all you really need to remember in order to succeed in your new, meaningful, and lucrative career.

Going too Far

03 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Concentrating effort, Contribution, Developing talent, Effectiveness, Management, Shared values

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

circa 1933: American film actress & sex symbol, Mae West (1892 - 1980). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

I like restraint, if it doesn’t go too far. Mae West

In my business experience, I haven’t met (m)any people who learned at home—or at school—how businesses essentially work or how to behave within an organization. Like other roles in our lives, mother, daughter, friend, spouse, etc., we learn by experience and figure things out by the seat of our pants.

In “What is Management?” I proposed the basis of how businesses work. I encourage you to come back to these 11 bullet points until they are second-nature. We spend so much of our time working in organizations while actually ignoring the context of business and its requirements of us as leaders, managers, and employees.

My clients often ask for my input on difficult employee situations that inevitably occur. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t begin my response by first reflecting on “How Business Works.” As I listen to situations, clarify goals, and probe for motivations one thing crops up time and time again—the issue of restraint, or self-control.

At a very basic level, organizations simply cannot function unless everyone has achieved some minimum level of maturity. We don’t work well together unless each of us takes responsibility for our own behavior and exercises control over our own urges which may come from any direction; absentmindedness, fear, power, self-image, control, and so on.

Management has a reasonable expectation that employees will conduct themselves responsibly, with restraint, and even professionally. Employees must take responsibility for their role at work, recognizing its basic requirements, the same way they take responsibility in their roles as mother, daughter, friend, and spouse.

Employees have a reasonable expectation that Management will conduct themselves responsibly, with restraint, and to “do” management instead of just tasks. It is on them to provide leadership, goals, clear communication, and constantly state and reiterate the importance of values, purpose, and the company’s vision. Management must take responsibility for their role in the organization and not confuse it with power, control, micromanaging, dismissiveness, and the like.

Mae West was quite a character. For organizations to excel what we need is a lot of character.

What is Management?

25 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Branding, Concentrating effort, Continuous improvement, Contribution, Customers, Developing talent, Effectiveness, Management, Results, Shared values

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

ID:47476390

Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.
Peter F. Drucker

Because few of us have had bosses who were trained managers, and because few of us have received specialized training in management, we tend to think management is some kind of gut-feel thing. In fact, there is much that is known about management as it has been defined, studied, and systematically improved over the past century. Management is endlessly fascinating and, at the same time, it is not rocket science. For our mutual benefit, and so we have a shorthand way of understanding what we’re talking about when we say “management,” here it is on one page. Again, thanks and props to Mr. Drucker.

ROLE OF BUSINESS

To create a customer.

ROLE OF PROFIT

To serve as validation that customer needs are being met.

ROLE OF THE EXECUTIVE/LEADER

To know the Purpose, Vision, and Values of an organization and to constantly communicate them.

ROLE OF THE MANAGER

To make our work productive and to help workers achieve results.

There is a lot of study and discussion about how our memory works. Authors such as Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Kahneman talk about the concept of “The availability heuristic.” Availability describes what’s happening when, “Something just ‘pops’ into our heads.” In the hustle-bustle of daily management, how we respond to (or lead) a situation is often determined by what pops into our heads. The results can be pretty random. Instead, I ask you to train your memory until the following model of how business works pops into your head. That will help you put things into perspective, help you lead for results, and solve situations in more effective ways. For every business situation you face it’s far better to rely on this model than to just wing it.

HOW BUSINESS “WORKS”

  • There is a customer need.
  • There is a better idea to satisfy the customer need.
  • Values, Purpose, and Vision concentrate the effort of multiple people.
  • An organization is formed to divide the work.
  • Each job is described so its contribution is clear.
  • People who share in the Values, Purpose, and Vision are hired.
  • Employees use self-control and contribution to guide the work they do and how they do it.
  • Customers are satisfied.
  • The business earns revenue, and eventually profit, as validation of its success.
  • The business shares their monetary and other success with employees.
  • The business invests so that meeting customer needs can continue.

Diversion!

20 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by in Branding, Contribution, Customer Experience, Customers, Product, Retail

≈ 1 Comment

Enjoy DuoManufacturers of professional hair care products are not restricted to a single channel of distribution. Historically, brands have established their reputations and built their images through the salon distribution channel. Today the salon distribution channel moves an ever-smaller portion of a brand’s total volume. Other channels such as big box retail, drug stores, specialty retail, and the Internet make up the bulk of all sales volume and growth. You might consider this diversion but it certainly isn’t the grey market. Most manufacturers are well established in several legitimate distribution channels. You are not alone if you feel they unfairly exploit the salon channel and leverage their own success at the salon owners’ expense.

When I think of diversion I think, in particular, of the unscrupulous brand who has pressured a salon to take on too much inventory—more than they can possibly sell. Or, on the other hand, an unscrupulous salon owner who intentionally buys too much knowing she will offload some of that product in the grey market.

One of the biggest grey markets of professional hair care products operates completely in the open. Amazon.com. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Amazon is a bad company at all. And, frankly, they are at least three degrees of separation away from the real problem, that is, too much inventory getting stuffed into channels beyond their normal business capacity.

If you haven’t already done it, then look for yourself. There are many examples of hair care brands who purposely do not distribute their products through Amazon.com—and yet there they are. Why? Because some salon owner, or middleman, has the ambition to buy up excess inventory and resell it below “retail” (and “at or above” in some cases) directly to consumers. This, of course, offends the brands themselves, but more to the point, injures salon owners who play by the rules. They are the ones who build the customer relationships, diagnose individual needs, recommend effective products—while their customers often buy hair care products on line, or from other channels, to save money.

Knowledge Work is More than You Know

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by in Contribution, Customer Experience, Management

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The_Thinker_Musee_Rodin

Think about service businesses for a moment—especially businesses like hotels, restaurants, hair salons, and retail shops. If you peel back current fashions, modern conveniences, chains and franchises, and the cornucopia of offerings, these businesses exist much as they did in the 18th century. Merchants, hoteliers, and shopkeepers operate business models that are hundreds of years old and have very low barriers to entry compared to, say, rocket science.

In these pages, one thing you’ll learn is that service can set one business apart from another.

What’s more, knowledge sets one business apart from another—or even above the rest. Knowledge is such a powerful factor that when applied properly it actually transforms 18th century trades into 21st century businesses. Knowledge in the form of business management, human behavior, art, fashion, customer experience, sales, computer science, technical education, and so on carries with it the potential to separate your business from the millions of “entrepreneurs” who’ve gone before—and who are still out there, just opening and closing each day while conducting transactions in between.

Every day I encounter businesses—many of them national brands—that miss their opportunities to put knowledge to work for the benefit of their customers and the benefit of their own organizations. Think back on situations you’ve encountered:

  • Hotels where the receptionist asks you, “Is this your first stay with us?”
  • Coffee shops or counter-service restaurant employees who call out, “Next person in line.”
  • Hair salons who ask, “Who are you here to see?”
  • Dentists and doctors whose receptionists who say, “Just sign in and take a seat.”

Each of these, and many more, have the option to choose knowledge work over low-level, menial, dead-end jobs—and they don’t need to change careers to do it. When Peter Drucker coined the term Knowledge Worker in the late 1950s it came, rightfully, to mean people who deal primarily with knowledge like accountants, lawyers, engineers, and others.

By accepting Mr. Drucker’s famous challenge to search for the unused potential in every job, even a low level clerk can transform her work as a hotel receptionist into knowledge work by learning that people prefer to be looked in the eye, recognized, and greeted with a smile. See? It’s not rocket science.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

Tweet

My Purpose Here

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by in Contribution, Customer Experience, Management

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

camping

On one side of the coin it reads, “How do I help my workers achieve?” On the other side, “How do I make a contribution in this job?” These are the two sides of the same coin of managing people.

Recently, we were catching up with our friend who works as a receptionist at a campground where my wife and I spend several nights each year under the stars. We’ve always been impressed with Ola and her customer service and people skills. At 82 years of age, Ola looks forward to coming to work each day, serving her customers, and being the ambassador of her campground’s brand.

The campground has been under the same management for years and in all that time the owners have never shared their organization’s purpose and vision with Ola. Curbing my speculation, it seems their main interest is in maintenance, making physical upgrades, and keeping track of the cash flow and accounts. The rest, they leave to chance.

Well, as chance would have it, Ola is intuitively filling in the rest. She has a keen sense of what the campground stands for and its small-but-growing reputation as a destination. She recounts stories about visitors from all over the U.S. and several points abroad. How they heard about her place, how she made them feel welcome, and the positive experiences they had. She gets post cards from friends she’s made as they pass through her campground and her life.

I asked her if the owners support her and help her achieve these amazing results. Her reply, “No, not really. But, I don’t let that interfere with my purpose here.”

Ola demonstrates impressive knowledge in three little words, “My purpose here.” She looks for the ways to realize the unused potential in her job. She’s working for something larger than herself. She’s achieving results for her customers. Ola is a self-managed executive and an inspiration.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

Tweet
© Copyright Jim Lucas 2007-2013 All Rights Reserved