Strategy before tactics

You are in the XYZ business – ok, fine.

But what is your strategy to compete, build and grow?

Once the strategic part is clear, the tactical part falls in line.

For example you are going to win by being in the best location(s), or paying higher commissions and recruting the best salespeople in the industry, or having the fastest service, or the greatest customer benefits through innovation, etc.

What is your strategy? 

Once you are clear on that, you can determine the tactics you need to use.

Well…?

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 17

How not to become “The Man.”

We know the expression “I work for The Man.” “The Man” is the guy in the corner office who only cares about numbers and money and is a slave driver. He has secrets he won’t reveal, and his word better be followed or there will be hell to pay. He’s happy when he makes money and Lord help the workers if he doesn’t.

You don’t want to be “The Man.”

To avoid it, do the things we have talked about so far. Acknowledge people. Smile. Share information, company strategy, and what you’re thinking. Ask them what they think. Listen to them. Care about their feelings and build them up.

More than that, if you are successful and have a big house, a boat, or a vacation home – share. Invite people over. Have a party or dinner. Take them out on your boat. Not just your top managers, but include an assortment of employees – including a few unexpected ones. When you share like this it says and means a lot. You remove the mystery. People feel included, and they won’t want to let you down. They won’t talk about you like you are “The Man,” at least not in derogatory way, and they will bring that message to other employees.

This is my advice, and from experience, I know it’s good.

“When you really care about people and their success, people want to reciprocate, and not let you down. They become their own supervisor.” – Larry Janesky

HANDSHAKES, HIGH FIVES, OR HUGS

Make people feel good about themselves. Make them feel important. Accept them the way they are, and then inspire them to be better. Believe in them. Care about them.

Here’s some business advice you won’t get anywhere else. And admittedly, it’s harder for some than others to give or receive at first.

Love openly. Show caring emotions.

If you get handshakes, that’s expected.

If you get high fives, that’s even better.

But when you get (and give) hugs, well then you know you’ve done it right.

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 16

Building a loyal, engaged employee base

Talking about having a reason for caring for others seems almost contradictory or disingenuous to our conversation so far. Being authentically caring of others and what happens to them as a result of your enterprise is the best place to come from. But there is a business case for being nice – a big one.

People will stay: and the longer they stay, the better they get, the less mistakes they make, the less training they need and the less time and money you’ll have to invest in recruiting and training and getting new people to work well together.

It’s a tight labor market. Employers are competing for people with the best resumes. Keeping great people and the people you have already developed for their positions is important. But there’s even more. There are people who have never been given a chance, never been recognized, or who have latent talent waiting to be discovered and unlocked by someone who believes in them more than they believe in themselves. Most of us have employees who have grown from entry level employees to superstars at our company.

We can build loyal high-producers out of people that other employers (supervisors) missed or threw away. There are masses of employees out there who are underdeveloped and underappreciated. They haven’t found the right place that would see it and ignite it in them. This is a very special opportunity to make the world a better place and touch a life in a big way.

Love unlocks people.

Will everyone stay? No. Sometimes someone you invested years in, and thought was your loyal friend will leave. They have their own journey to take. But if you do it right, most will stay far longer than they would have otherwise, most will perform better while they’re here, and many will stay forever.

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 15

BE CONSISTENT

An important component to showing people you care is to be consistent. You can’t have people wondering if you are going to compliment them today or be critical or bite their head off. You can’t send them in one direction today and then change your mind tomorrow and have them going in all directions trying to please you.

If you pet your dog one day and slap him around the next, he will be cautious and wary of you. People are the same way.

One letter in my gratitude book from a dealer says, “Thank you for being steady as a rock for me. One of the most important things in relationships is consistency and I consider you to be one of the most consistent of them all.”

BECOMING A MENTOR

“Help someone with their work, and they like you. Help them with their life, and they love you.”

– Larry Janesky

When you behave as a leader who cares, some will ask you for advice, or be touched by your words or actions more than others. They may come to you to ask for help with their problems, or say they want to learn more and grow inside your company.

This is a high honor. Take the opportunity. In giving advice and teaching, you will learn more than the student, and have some very grateful people in your wake.

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 14

My Gratitude Book

For years, when people wrote me a letter of thanks or email or note that they appreciated my leadership or working at my company or something I did for them, I three-hole punched them and saved them in a binder. I had multiple binders full of such notes. When the fire took them away, I began again. In 5 years, I have accumulated two fat binders of such letters.

If I lose my way, or feel like I am low on the meaning of why I do what I do, I scan some of the papers and card stock in one of my Gratitude Books. It reminds me of how I have the power to touch lives and make them better. It’s an awesome power that should not be abused, but used to the fullest while I am here. It is my purpose. The book is responses from individual hearts to how I am doing.

“You can get anything in life you want, if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

Use Your Voice Well

Your voice is how you communicate. It reveals what’s inside you. Use it well. Your volume, your intention, your tone and the body language you have while saying it – it all counts. You can say the words “I believe you can do better” or even “Thank you” and leave the other person feeling lifted or defeated.

Words are part of the communication. How you say them is perhaps even more important.

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 13

Be a Person Others Want to Follow

If you have nasty habits, can’t control yourself, are disrespectful to some people, are disorganized and undisciplined, your expression of caring will mean less. Hopefully you’ve heard others say, “Coming from you, it means a lot.” Be a person of value, and your words will mean more.

If you started your business because nobody else would hire you, you’ll have trouble getting others to follow you. Nobody is perfect, but get your act together. Work on you when nobody is looking. Keep your standards high, personally and professionally. Be impeccable with your word. Be a source of integrity and honor. When you speak, it will mean something.

Being a disciplined person who has their own life together earns you the right to challenge others to be their best.

PEOPLE CAN’T LIVE ON LOVE ALONE

Obviously, we’re not advocating everyone sitting around holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” all day. Love is not incongruent with high expectations, high performance, discipline and high standards. It’s for you to bring both and balance the two.

Some people need more of one and less of the other, and vice versa. People are different. Bring out the best in your team.

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 12

How to kill Love at work.

You’ve spent a lot of time, or will, showing people you care about them and their work and that you appreciate them being here. Then come the tests. Don’t blow it now. Here’s what NOT do to, even once –

Lose your temper. If you feel it coming – go home right away.

Yell at someone, in public or private.

Call people names.

Gossip about someone – they will find out.

Be in it for yourself, and abandon a team member.

Sacrifice a team member to save yourself (with a customer for example).

Take a “leader vs. team” attitude or position.

See yourself as better than anyone.

Mistreat someone for any reason.

Accountability

Team members being accountable to goals, tasks completed, and making their numbers sounds great and there is nothing wrong with it. But to an employee, when the leader says “You have to be accountable” or “Were going to start having accountability around here”, it doesn’t sound very friendly; it sounds like a threat to them. If we’re to be honest, too often it is.

How we express things matters; the words we chose, what our intention is, and how we use our voice. Carrot or stick; be careful. Accomplishing very short term goals at the expense of a positive mutually caring relationship is not a wise trade. Deposits to a relationship take time, patience and purposeful action. Involuntary withdrawals can be sudden and extreme. 

There were times when an employee really messed up; I mean big; I had a cause and an opportunity to really pound them verbally. I didn’t take it. They knew they messed up. They tortured themselves. I actually built them up instead.

These moments are big. They are tests and people are watching. You can’t undo what is already done. Sure, there’s crisis management that needs to be done with customers and property. But when you show grace and love in times when people expect you to freak out, it shows what is really inside you.

When something really bad happens, go calm.

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 11

Give Away the Credit

We need to understand that we have the need to be recognized too. Run amuck, we take credit for everything good that happens in our company. In some way it’s true; we set up the circumstances and caused things to happen. But we couldn’t do it without others. A smart leader gives away the credit.

The opposite is to take the credit and not give any to those who worked to get it done. That’s a recipe for having disgruntled people.

When things go wrong, take the blame. Stand in front of your people and say “I’m sorry guys. I didn’t get it done. Maybe I didn’t communicate well or often enough, and maybe I didn’t get you what you need to do the job, or I didn’t train you guys well. But I pledge to do better starting now.” You’ll get people wanting to do more to make it right that way, than by blaming others. 

“Brains on the whole, are like hearts, and they go where they are appreciated.” – Robert S. McNamara

Are we exaggerating or simplifying here? Are there any times when you acknowledge that someone fell down on the job? Well… you hired them and put them in that position, right? If they did well, your inner self would want to take the credit. If they did not, you have to take the blame.

If you ever did need to lay blame on someone, you certainly would not do it in public anyway. People know who did what. Get up there and lead. Show that your ego is not in the way.

“You know how blame is described in the research? A way to discharge pain and discomfort.” – Brene Brown

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 10

I’ve got a job to do – where do I find time to do all this loving?

“The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement.” – Charles M. Schwab

It’s true. Showing you care takes time. But like anything else, if we recognize the power in it and make it a priority, it gets done. You could set up your environment to make it easy. How? Put note cards and thank you cards on your desk where you can see them every day. If you can see it and it’s within arm’s reach, you make it easy. You’ll look at the pile of notecards and ask, “Did I recognize anyone today?” Maybe you reach for a note card and maybe you send a text or an email or buy a gift or something else.You could put a reminder on your calendar and schedule it each week or even each day until it becomes a habit. Do what you must, but do it. Shower people with recognition, praise and gratitude. It’s part of the job if you are doing it well.

“The greatest humiliation in life is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it.” – E. W. Howe

Love – The greatest leadership tool – PART 9

Shower people with praise, recognition, and gratitude.

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

If there were any “hard strategy” in this exercise, this is it. Make it a practice to tell people you are glad they are here, happy they are on your team, and that they are doing a great job. Acknowledge their attitude, their commitment, and their work. Tell them you believe in them, that you are a fan, and know they will grow here. Acknowledge small acts, and broad behaviors. Constantly tell people you appreciate them.

If there were any “hard strategy” in this exercise, this is it. Make it a practice to tell people you are glad they are here, happy they are on your team, and that they are doing a great job. Acknowledge their attitude, their commitment, and their work. Tell them you believe in them, that you are a fan, and know they will grow here. Acknowledge small acts, and broad behaviors. Constantly tell people you appreciate them.

The words of the leader are far more powerful than anyone else’s – and those words are free. Manufacture these powerful performance stimulators regularly.

How? Note cards. Post-it notes. In public on a bulletin board or white board. In a meeting. With a note in their paycheck envelope. Verbally. Mail it to their home. Put it in their locker. Leave a little gift. Give them food or a snack and a sincere note. Give them an award. Name an award after them. There are 1000 ways.

“One cares so little for the style in which one’s praises are written.”- Edith Wharton

Remember the least of your employees. The top performers get all the praise and recognition. Go down to the quiet ones, the supporters, the day-in-and-day-outers. Be sincere. Be intentional. Be grateful.

These people are dedicating their lives to your organization. Sincerity and gratitude should not be hard to muster. Be sincere and change up how you express it from time to time. 

“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies. But let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessing.” – Henry Ward Beecher