No. 12 December 2012

I remember the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners that Mom would fix for our family of four plus six to eight relatives that lived nearby.  They really weren’t “dinners” so much as they were “feasts,” in the Roman meaning of the word.  An immense amount of delicious food, including occasionally, dreaded brussel-sprouts or creamed pearl onions that my brother and I always said we didn’t like, but gobbled up along with everything else, because all the food tasted so good. 

What made up a typical Holiday “feast?”  For starters, it was a roasted turkey pulled out of the oven about an hour before dinner, and carved shortly thereafter.  There was always a wonderful sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and turkey giblet gravy, luscious cranberry salad with nuts and real cranberries in it; regular cranberry sauce; a plate of stuffed celery; southern style green beans; the aforementioned creamed pearl onions; an orange Jell-O salad with mandarin oranges; LeSeur baby green peas; a platter of Honey Baked Ham slices; warm rolls right out of the oven; and a platter of different types of pickles and olives. Once a serving plate or bowl was placed on the table, many believed that every spoonful taken out was magically replaced by an additional spoonful in the bottom of the bowl or plate making it virtually impossible to empty!.  I never believed that, but we did wonder sometimes.  Once you ate all you could, there was never room for desert, so desert was planned for several hours later (not that there would be any more room then either.). 

Next it was time for someone to be the first to get up from the table.  Moving is a very difficult thing to do after a big meal.  It seems like a nice concept, but it takes a huge effort to accomplish.  I’d look across the table at one of my uncles and wish I could say, “Uncle Bill, drag me over to the big brown sofa and stretch me out on it so I can get a nap.”  I came close to saying that more than once, but ultimately I knew Uncle Bill wanted that spot on the brown sofa as much as I did.  And the race was on!

Desert deserves its own paragraph.  If you peeked at all the homemade desserts that typically appeared before each holiday dinner including a fresh coconut cake, a chocolate cake, an apple pie, a mincemeat pie, a sweet potato pie, a southern-style pecan pie, and vanilla ice cream, you would become so overwhelmed that you would think you were going to pass out.  We were always asked two questions: “What do you want for dessert, or do you want a little bit of everything?”  Can you imagine the size of that plate with a little bit of everything on it?  Someone would have to wash the turkey platter first and use it for “a little bit of everything!”  Memories of wonderful food, visiting relatives and just being with family nourish us year-round.  

During this Holiday season, don’t forget to share your bountiful blessings and food with those less fortunate or suffering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  They deserve our assistance, and our prayers.

Good leaders in business have a way of deeply connecting with their employees and co-workers.  One way they do this is by really listening to the people who work for them.  They pay attention to what people are telling them and take it seriously.  They are quick to implement ideas and they are quick to give credit to the person who had the idea.  Likewise, they are willing to accept blame and criticism when mistakes are made.  And they never abandon their employees.

Walter Bemis, in his book “On Becoming a Leader,” details what he believes to be the differences between leaders and managers.  Some are worth mentioning.  “A manager accepts the status quo; a leader challenges it.  A manager relies on control; a leader inspires trust.  A manager has a short-range view; a leader has a long-range perspective.  A manager maintains; a leader develops.  A manager administers; a leader innovates.  A manager focuses on systems and structure; a leader focuses on people.  A manager asks how and when; a leader asks what and why.  And a manager has his eye on the bottom line; a leader has his eye on the horizon.  Read through the list one more time and think about which attributes might improve your leadership abilities.

Harvey Mackay’s recent blog about the effect of good leadership on a business had a terrific quote by a college professor about how one goes about spotting a leader.  The professor said, “I have come to the conclusion that the only way one can determine a leader is to look at the person and…see if anybody is following.”

Happy Holidays.  Be thankful.  Share.  Pray.  And most of all, smile, so someone else will too.

No. 11 November 2012

During the past three years, I’ve learned that grandchildren are the primary reason that most of us lead long lives.  I don’t have any scientific evidence confirming my conclusion.  But I know I’m going to live as long as I possibly can so that I can fully enjoy my grandchildren.  Reading a bedtime story, celebrating a third birthday, going to the beach together, being on the receiving end of the most beautiful smile in the world, or receiving a hug from tiny arms with love from 100% of their little hearts, provides all the reasons we need to live on and on.  And yes, it is true that you can send grandchildren home at the end of a day or the end of a vacation, but now I’m wondering why you would even want to?

In his recently published book, The Trust Edge, Dave Horsager cites a study by Forum Corporation as evidence of the importance of trust in business.  Using hundreds of salespeople from eleven companies in five different industries, Forum Corporation’s investigators found that the unique trait of top producers was honesty – not charisma, ability or knowledge.  Would you have said “honesty” was the key trait of top salespeople?

When we trust people, we are optimistic that they are competent to do what we trust them to do, and they are committed to doing it.  They will be totally honest with a customer even when it is difficult or potentially costly.  Their reputations are more important than any deal.  Horsager believes that this “Trust Edge is the competitive advantage gained when others confidently believe in you!”  That’s a pretty simple and natural way to gain a competitive edge for most sales people.  Try it.

A father called his son to wish him a happy 60th birthday.  As they were talking, the son said, “Dad, you know I’m 60 years old today, but I really don’t feel that old.  How do you know when you are really old?”  The father responded, “Son, you know you are really old when you call your son to wish him a “happy birthday” on his 60th birthday!”   Enough said on that subject.

In 2007, I told my surgeon, Dr. Borden, that he could do whatever he needed to in treating my severe case of prostate cancer because I was planning on living until at least the age of 85.  And that if I didn’t make it, I was going to be really upset with him.  After surgery to remove the cancerous prostate gland, and recovery, followed by seven-and-a-half weeks of almost daily radiation treatment on the surrounding tissues and lymph nodes, I began every cancer survivor’s journey – the journey to keep living.  First monthly, then quarterly and finally every six months, I had my PSA test and then my visit to the surgeon, always hopeful, but never really knowing what he would report to me.  A few days ago, I had my last bi-annual visit in the fifth year after surgery.  And the message was that the PSA (and cancer), as it had over the past five years of visits, remained un-measurable.

Now my visits become annual.  Dr. Borden suggested that after five years of being cancer-free, it was time to celebrate.  I believe I will!

There’s nothing I like better than business competition, because competition has made me and my company better over the years.  We like to always be proactive in offering better or more innovative service than our competition.  And then when the competition finally catches up with us and offers the same, we’ve already moved on to something even better, more innovative or more appreciated by our customers. 

Many competitors can’t compete on quality or innovative service, so they do the only thing they know how to do: cut selling prices.  How do we compete against price cutters?  Want to know my secret?  I can sum it up in one word: patience.  I bet you weren’t expecting that!  Most of our price-cutting competition have disappeared and been “long-gone.”  Make sure your business remains profitable and your customers are delighted with your service.  And I guarantee your business will always survive your price-cutting competition’s business.

There is an old saying in Africa that goes like this: Every morning a gazelle gets up and knows that it must out-run the fastest lion or it will get eaten. And every morning, a lion gets up and knows that it must out-run the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

So, whether you are a gazelle or a lion, every morning when you get up, never forget you'd better be running.

No. 10 October 2012

Researchers at the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine questioned 243 people age 100 or older. They found that centenarians tend to share certain personality traits (in addition to other factors, like genetics).

In general, these long-lived people are: “outgoing; positive-minded about other people; full of laughter, open with their emotions; conscientious and disciplined; and unlikely to obsess about anxieties or guilt.  The scientists point out that these characteristics don't necessarily represent a cause and effect relationship.”

They did notice, however, that in many cases the personality traits they observed weren't necessarily lifelong tendencies, but behaviors their subjects learned as they grew older.

Focusing on the good and not worrying about the negatives may have a very positive impact on your overall life expectancy.

Every problem does have a solution.  And sometimes those solutions turn out to be quite creative as the following story indicates:

A woman had traveled about six miles in a taxi when she discovered that she had left her wallet at home.  Realizing that she had a problem, she knew that she had to take some kind of action. So about a block short of her destination she leaned forward and told the driver:  "Stop at this hardware store. I need to buy a flashlight so I can look for the hundred dollar bill that I dropped back here."   When she came out of the hardware store, the taxi was gone.  And her “problem” was solved!

I recently returned from traveling overseas recently for a little more than three weeks with my wife.  Near the end of the trip, our small group was traveling through Estonia, ready to cross over into Russia to visit St. Petersburg for a few days.

Unlike the open and free border crossings between EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the crossing into Russia was met by gates and fences and a large passport control building.  We sat on our bus waiting for something to happen for about 20 minutes.  We were then instructed by the Russian border agents to remove our primary luggage from under the bus and take it into the building.  Each of us showed our passports to the single agent sitting in his passport control office.  Besides having to have a current passport, the agent was also checking to see if we each had our Russian Visa’s (the only visa needed on the entire trip.) 

Now comes the interesting part. The young lady who was our guide and translator for the entire three weeks was last in line. Once she was processed, the young Russian passport control agent asked her an enlightening question:  “Why are American’s always smiling when they have nothing to smile about?”  She responded that American’s are always happy, enjoy life, and they smile a lot naturally.

We discovered that Russians in particular, and Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians young and old alike only smile when they have something to smile about.  Throughout the trip, we realized how much the three Baltic countries and the Russian people suffered under Czarist Russia control, German control during WWII, and Soviet Union control after WWII.  Smiling was a hard thing to do for decades as hundreds of thousands of citizens were killed by the Germans and later the KGB or deported to Siberia. 

Say a prayer tonight for the souls of these brave people killed in the Baltic countries and Russia since 1919, and for the relatively peaceful lives we have lived in this great country we call the United States of America.  We are so lucky to be living here untouched by many of the cruel realities of the world.

Curtis Carlson, founder of the Carlson Companies, spent his life building great businesses. When asked what personal qualities contributed to the building of his successful empire, Curt responded, "I think my success is the result of my ability to see and to imagine how things could be.  I'm not distracted by how things are."  Don’t let “how things are today” keep you from improving and growing your business for success tomorrow.

Having a goal and the vision of what it will take to reach it are important attributes for any business owner or manager.  Share the goal and the vision with your team.  You want them to buy into the dream and to be as excited as you are about being successful and reaching your business goals.  The power of a group of people all focused on reaching the same goal is amazing.  I truly believe anything becomes possible.  Try it and see for yourself.

No. 9 September 2012

There was a recent Wall Street Journal article about computers and the algorithms that drive them invading areas of our life that might seem too personal for automation.  

Here’s a great example that you can easily relate to:  We are all familiar with the words “this call may be recorded for quality or training purposes.”  When you hear that phrase, it might also mean that your call may be monitored by a computer algorithm. 

There is a company called Mattersight that has developed more than five million eavesdropping algorithms that use only the words you say in a three-minute conversation to determine your personality type, what you want, and how you might be most easily and quickly satisfied by a customer service agent.  The software divides people into six sorts of personalities.  According to the WSJ article, “The next time you call, the algorithms, recognizing your phone number, will route you to an agent with a personality similar to your own, which results in calls that are half as long and reach happy resolutions 92% of the time, compared with 47% otherwise, according to an assessment of 1,500 customer service calls at Vodafone, the European telecom company.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to have to think about this for a while.  Should I like these eavesdropping algorithms that ensure my customer service experience will be superb?  Or is there something I’m not thinking about; something I should be worried about?  Let me know what you think or how you feel about this.

Earl Weaver came on board as the manager of the Baltimore Orioles in 1968.  Although he was ejected from 91 games, kicked dirt at the umpires, and had the foulest mouth in baseball, many thought he had panache and a wicked sense of humor. Here’s a great example of that humor:  “Following one altercation with an umpire, Weaver headed toward the dugout screaming, ‘I'm going to check the rule-book on that!’  When the umpire taunted, ‘Here, use mine.’  Weaver yelled back, "That's no good - I can't read Braille!”

Back in the 1950’s, my Dad would drive our family 12 to 17 hours to visit my grandfather (Mom’s Dad and extended family) at their family farm about a mile from the Hudson River in the Catskill Mountains.  In those days, Dad would throw a spare fuel pump and a water pump in the trunk in case the car broke down.  When we regularly approached a very big and very tall bridge on the route, Dad would always say “I sure hope we make it to the top because if we break down going up it’s going to be really tricky backing down this side against traffic.”  And if we did make it to the top, at least we could roll down the other side if the car broke down.  I remember our car actually breaking down or over-heating more than once going up that extremely tall bridge.  And you can imagine the adventure of having to roll backwards back down the bridge against traffic. As you’ve guessed, cars in those days were not very reliable on long trips, accounting for the 5 hour variation in our one-way yearly vacation travel time

Within a day or two of our arrival, Dad would take a bus back home by himself, a trip usually lasting 24 hours or more, leaving the car for Mom to use.  And then in a couple of weeks he would make that long bus ride back to drive us home.  Looking back, I know the sacrifice he made making that bus trip both ways, plus driving the car by himself taking the family up and back home was truly a sign of how much he loved us.  Sometimes looking back and remembering is the best way to really appreciate how lucky we were and how much we were loved growing up.

Isn’t it amazing how a timely rainfall and the resulting green grass can make us feel better overnight.  It’s a powerful antidote for what doesn’t make us feel better such as politics and news headlines. 

No. 8 August 2012

“Showrooming” is growing according to The Kiplinger Letter (Kiplinger.)  Showrooming” is when you customer uses a mobile device to comparison shop while in your store looking at the products you’re selling. 

Kiplinger says “The new norm is (called) ‘multichannel shopping.’  Your customer researches products online, has it customized and ordered on a tablet in a store with a salesperson’s help, and then has it delivered to their home.”  By 2016, Kiplinger says that “half of all consumer purchases will incorporate some online or mobile component…comparison shopping, ordering, customizing, paying.  For most retailers, both large and small, survival means embracing the model.”

One of the results of multichannel shopping will be a new emphasis on customer service, “turning in-store shopping into a pleasurable leisure activity rather than a necessary chore.  A knowledgeable sales staff that can solve problems can make the difference between profitable and broke.”  If you’re using unskilled and untrained labor in your business to sell, it may be time to rethink the effect of those people on your revenue and profitability, and to make knowledge and positive customer service the hallmark of your business.

A famous organist was performing a concert on a huge antique organ in front of a large audience. The bellows were hand pumped by a boy seated behind a screen, unseen by any in the vast auditorium. The first part of the performance went very well, and at intermission the organist took his bows as the listeners applauded enthusiastically. During the break, the musician rested in a side passageway. The boy came out to join him.

"We played well, didn't we, sir?" the boy asked.

The arrogant musician glared at him. "What do you mean, we?"

After the intermission, the organist returned to his seat to begin his next number. But as he pressed his fingers down on the keys, nothing happened. The bellows produced no wind, and so not a sound came out.

Then the organist heard a whisper from behind the screen: "Say, mister, now do you know what ‘we’ means?"

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what Peter Drucker describes as "the last of the deadly sins of business,” which he defines as "feeding problems and starving opportunities."  It’s human nature to focus on what’s going wrong and how to fix it rather than focusing on what’s going right and how to make it bigger, better and stronger.

Focusing on problems and not maximizing the potential of your opportunities can have a huge negative impact on your business results. The lesson to be learned from this Peter Drucker statement is that the squeaky wheel isn’t always the one we should automatically apply grease to. 

We had a meeting yesterday with the entire management team including a couple of new additions.  I really enjoyed listening to the give and take of the participants.  I hope the new management team members saw that everyone was willing to speak their minds in a positive way, as well as recognized that each team member has particular strengths and perspectives that complement the strengths and viewpoints of other team members.  It was a definite “wow” moment for me, that made me smile as I realized the immense amount of talent in the room who were all working together to accomplish important business goals. 

I like what Michael Jordan writes about teamwork in his book I Can't Accept Not Trying:  "There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves.”  Jordan summed up the powerful results of teamwork when he said, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."  Don’t forget that final thought.

No. 7 July 2012

Lou Holtz said many years ago that customers walking into your business have three basic questions that you have to answer for them.

The first question: “Can I trust you?”

"Without trust, there is no relationship," Lou said. "Without trust, you don't have a chance. People have to trust you. They have to trust your product."

The second question: “Are you committed to excellence?”

Lou explained that "You must send a message that you are committed to certain standards.  You must do everything to the best of your ability."

Their third question: “Do you care about me?”

Holtz said: "Do you care about me and what happens if your product doesn't do what it's intended to do?  Caring about people is not making their life easy. Caring about people is not being their friend.  Caring about people is enabling them to be successful."

“So if you always do the right thing.  If you always do the best you can with the time you have.  And if you always show people you care, the chances are that you and your business will be successful and your customers will remain loyal and true.”

It just goes to prove that doing the right thing is never the wrong thing to do.

It’s hard not to be aware of the struggles going on in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and more recently Syria.  Democratic aspirations (at least on the surface,) have caused governments to topple and people to take to the streets demonstrating at great personal risk.  The Internet (Twitter and Facebook primarily) has gained a lot of notoriety in helping facilitate these populist movements and rightfully so.

But a recent comment about the value of Facebook made by an Egyptian friend of NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman, got me thinking about Facebook’s role in these movements and in our own lives.  Friedman’s Egyptian friend said “that in the Egyptian movement that caused the overthrow of our President, Hosni Mubarak, Facebook really helped people to communicate, but not to collaborate.”  And that’s an overwhelming weakness of applications like Facebook and Twitter.

Friedman went on to say that, “No doubt Facebook helped a certain educated class of Egyptians to spread the word about the Tahrir Revolution. Ditto Twitter. But, at the end of the day, politics always comes down to two very old things: leadership and the ability to get stuff done. And when it came to those, both the Egyptian Army and the Muslim Brotherhood, two old “brick and mortar” movements, were much more adept than the Facebook generation of secular progressives and moderate Islamists — whose candidates together won more votes than Morsi and Shafik combined in the first round of voting but failed to make the runoff because they divided their votes among competing candidates who would not align.”

Does that imply, that while millions of younger generations of Americans use Facebook and Twitter to communicate, their communication is trivial and meaningless, and that no higher purpose will derive from it?  Is expecting more than just communication, too much for us to expect from Facebook and Twitter?

A king visited his dungeon once a year to talk to the prisoners there. Every year, each inmate insisted that he or she was the picture of innocence: They'd all been framed, or treated unfairly at trial, or victims of circumstances, or otherwise completely free of all guilt. Not one had a dishonest bone in their body.

One year, the skeptical king asked the newest prisoner in the dungeon, "I suppose you're as innocent as a lamb, too?"

This man shook his head sadly and said, "No, Your Majesty. I'm a thief. I was caught fair and square, and my sentence was just."

The king blinked in surprise. "Release this man!" he proclaimed, and the thief was promptly set free.

The other prisoners began shouting. "Your Majesty, how can you do such a thing? How can you free a confessed criminal while we rot in here?"

"I'm doing you a favor," the king said. "I can't risk leaving that evil scoundrel in here to corrupt all your innocent souls, could I?"

This goes to prove once again that honesty is always the best policy.