Category: Case Study

Danboise Mechanical’s Impressive ‘Recovery’ Habit

In an earlier case, we introduced you to Danboise Mechanical-–headquartered on Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.  From before, the Danboise leaders went ‘all in’ in their application of professional values within their organization.  The impact was significant—helping break down dysfunctional departmental silos to building up greater levels of trust across the enterprise.

Over the years we’ve learned what a powerful prevention one’s professional identity can be in helping people avoid behavior (think: unprofessional) that they might later regret.  In short, it proves a powerful deterrent in succumbing to a myriad of temptations.

Trouble is, even with a powerful deterrent sometimes we fall short.  Whether it’s losing our patience with a know-it-all customer, lashing out at a co-worker who incessantly gets under our skin, or failing to return a critical client’s call in a timely manner, we’re human—we mess up.

Recovery from these mess ups is invariably a key indicator as to how well people have adopted professional values within the organization—either individually or collectively.

Consider this ‘recovery’ experience related to us by Carl Pistolesi, Danboise’s EVP:  ‘About a year after our engagement, Zachery (an assumed name), one of Carl’s division managers, had one of those rough days. Zachery was in the warehouse when he overheard a service dispatcher and one of the managers discussing an equipment purchase. Perhaps Zachery hadn’t slept well, maybe he just needed a cup of coffee, but something about that conversation set him off. He exploded, “That really isn’t any of your business, you don’t make those kind of decisions…it’s not part of your job description!” and proceeded to berate the dispatcher. Zachery momentarily had lost sight of his identity as a professional, and subsequently lost control.’

Later that day, Carl had a call from Zachery. Zachery explained what had happened and acknowledged how embarrassed he was.  He felt that he had been out of line and had clearly been unprofessional.  Carl asked him to go home to clear his head. The very next workday, Zachery was at work early and personally apologized to everyone present for his melt down.  Upon hearing Zachery’s apology, the suddenly-relieved dispatcher broke down in tears. Zachery recognized the recklessness of his actions, owned them, and committed to make things right.

Zachery’s successful recovery is instructive.  Recall from our earlier Danboise case how Carl and his management team had worked hard in reinforcing the staff’s identity of themselves as professionals.   The largely blue-collar staff readily embraced the message in a significant way.  How Carl and his management team went about keeping professional values top-of-mind is a subject for another day.  The point is: the staff viewed themselves as professionals and, while experiencing an occasional misstep, they really ‘upped their game’ in terms of how they conducted themselves.  Zachery’s example (admittedly a backhanded recovery example) is certainly illustrative of that.  Yes, a timely, heart-felt ‘recovery’ is reflective of what you’d expect from a professional who has experienced an unfortunate misstep.

Prior to our work at Danboise, explosions like Zachery’s were commonplace.  Each party would hold a grudge for months-on-end making subsequent interactions (even routine ones) between the parties difficult.   Non-routine interactions (think: sensitive) between the parties regularly would become downright contentious.  Given that there were upwards of a half-dozen situations (all by-products from earlier ‘interpersonal jujitsu’ incidents) that were impacting the organization at any given time, it really had a negative impact on the business.

It goes without saying that an organization that has created a habit of recovering from these types of ‘interpersonal jujitsu’ incidents has made great strides in ‘baking in’ professional values into their organization.  That’s an admirable accomplishment.

In your organization, how often do you see people recovering (quickly, effectively) from a professional misstep as Zachery did?   Or in your organization do the messy interpersonal skirmishes tend to fester– ultimately prolonging the pain?

How many Zacherys do you have in your organization? A few or many?   Carl Pistolesi tells me that at Danboise virtually everyone has a ‘recovery’ story.  In other words, Danboise has a lot of Zacherys.   Danboise has created a powerful ‘recovery’ habit.  That’s impressive. That’s only possible when ‘identity’ is universally strong amongst the staff.   And that means Carl and his staff are doing something very right.

Being Comfortable In Your Own Skin—Leadership’s Unspoken Prerequisite

Agribusinessman Chris Rufer is dominating an industry and, in the process, is turning management norms on their head.  Rufer, founder of Woodland, CA-based Morning Star, is the world’s largest tomato processor with annual revenues of $700 million. Their customers include major companies like Kraft and Frito-Lay.

It has been estimated that Morning Star, a private company owned by the Rufer family, controls approximately 40 % of the world-wide market for two essential intermediate products: tomato paste and diced tomatoes.

When it comes to tomato processing, Morning Star is the 800 pound gorilla.  Not bad for someone like Rufer who was raised in a blue-collar family in Merced, California and later earned an MBA at UCLA.  Rufer founded Morning Star in 1970 and it has been through his contrarian approach that the company has flourished.

What has enabled this eye-popping success? Morning Star is operated by ‘self-managed professionals’.   It’s Rufer’s brain-child. He considers this ‘platform’ —which, in effect, is Morning Star’s central operating system—to be Morning Star’s competitive advantage.  That belief is hard to argue with as Morning Star’s employees are off-the-charts when it comes to engagement metrics and delivering bottom-line     results.   As a result, Morning Star is able to pay 15 % above market in salary and provide a benefit package that is unsurpassed in the industry.

At Morning Star employees make all the decisions.  There are no bosses, no titles, no promotions.  If an employee needs something, they buy it—they don’t need to ask anyone.  For management junkies studying this curiously unique, world-class phenomenon, it’s nirvana. The Harvard Business Review, Forbes and other national publications have all written about Morning Star’s approach to ‘self-management’.   The company’s approach is truly fascinating having seen it first-hand when they were a client of our firm.  A quick search on Google will enable you to learn more about Morning Star or ‘self management’ should you desire.

This issue of Bellwether has as its theme ‘Leadership 2.0’.  Breaking new ground, establishing a new status-quo, shaking up an entire industry are just a few outcomes consistent with someone exhibiting ‘Leadership 2.0’.  That’s precisely what Chris has done at Morning Star.  That’s real leadership! And it’s a marvelous opportunity to learn from one extraordinary professional.

From a leadership point of view, what is it that enables someone to accomplish the types of things that Chris Rufer has?  What can we learn from Chris—and others like him? What characteristics are especially important? If you’ve read many of my previous Bellwether articles you know the importance I put on leading oneself first before leading others.  That’s what trusted professionals do.  That’s what Chris does.

After years of working with tens of thousands of professionals, I believe that the defining characteristic of the trusted professional is being comfortable in your own skin. 

What does it mean to be comfortable in your own skin? Simply said, it means that the person isn’t conflicted about the most basic tenants of their nature—their identity, if you will.  They’re not trying to be someone or something they aren’t.  Typically they hold a core set of beliefs along with specific values supporting those beliefs. They’re not phony; they’re real. Invariably they are confident, typically in an unassuming way.  If there was ever anyone who was comfortable in their own skin it is Chris Rufer.

Self-assured, unpretentious, natural, inspiring, transparent, authentic, and humble are just a few of the adjectives people use to describe those who are comfortable in their own skin. These are people who don’t obsess about what others think of them, don’t talk trash about others, aren’t trying to win popularity contests, aren’t trying to be better than anyone else, don’t measure their success against others success, aren’t swayed by whimsical social fads, and aren’t torn by the fickle winds of public opinion.

In a recent post a frustrated Alan Weiss, CEO of the Summit Consulting Group, asked why so few people are comfortable in their own skin these days.  Does it stem from the desire to fit in (i.e. conformity)?  Or perhaps it originates from a desire to be liked. These are two big drivers in my view.  Weiss continued, “The people I’ve seen become most successful are those who aren’t afraid to stand out in a crowd.”

Weiss isn’t suggesting one adopt a fashionista mind-set in the hope of developing a cadre of sycophant followers.  Rather, he’s suggesting people stand up for (and make actionable) their best ideas and heart-felt beliefs—even if it cuts against the grain of conventional wisdom, even if it isn’t popular.  That’s a professional’s way of standing out–driven from higher-order thinking.

That’s precisely what Chris has done.  Early-on Chris was “laughed out of rooms constantly” when he first sought financing for his fledgling company.  Later he was scoffed at for the seemingly high-stakes gamble he took on the grand experiment he called ‘self-management’.  Neither experience fazed Rufer in the least. He doggedly pursued what he believed in.  In the end, Rufer revolutionized his industry and turned traditional management thinking on its head.  That’s ‘Leadership 2.0’. That’s the right way for a professional to stand out.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it has never been Rufer’s aspiration to ‘stand out’.  It’s never been about him.  Shy is a word Chris uses in describing himself.  He appears to be quite fit.  He’s a neat (but not a snappy) dresser. He’s a regular guy—until it comes to his ideas.  When expounding his point of view Chris unknowingly sucks all the air out of the room.  And when you combine that passion with his matchless personality, he’s one of the most unique people you’ll ever meet.  Whether he likes it or not, Chris—the professional– stands out.

From where I sit, Alan Weiss is right—today fewer and fewer people seem willing to take a stand on the things that they claim matter to them.  Said another way, Leadership 2.0 is alluding them.

Ask yourself, as a professional what do I stand for? My ideals with purpose, what are they? What are the value-driven things (ones bigger than myself) that mean something to me? Professional: to what degree do I feel that word describes me?  What about my colleagues, to what degree would they say that ‘professional’ describes me?

Getting answers to these questions gets you a whole lot closer to Leadership 2.0.

The Shift From ‘I’ to ‘We’: How Danboise Field Workers Coalesced Around Professional Values 

It’s rare that we run across an organization that doesn’t have issues with silos.   An organization might have five major departments, say A – E, and each department thinks and acts like it’s the king-of-the-hill.      Often this attitude emanates from the current department head or the greater culture that groomed him or her prior to taking the job.  The department head, giving them the benefit of the doubt, is trying to demonstrate value of their particular department’s function.

That’s all well and good but the price of the unintended consequences is usually pretty steep. Demonstrating value often has as its unspoken objective making department ‘A’ look better than (say) department ‘C’.   That often translates to a lack of collaboration across departments, verbally disparaging other departments, undermining other departments for precious resources (financial or human), etc.   As bad as this may appear, none of this is malicious.  Borrowing a term from family therapy professionals, the department head is engaged in a ‘fair fight’.

And if the department head is championing their department’s value proposition primarily to advance his or her career or inflate their ego, then it gets worse.  Then it becomes about bragging rights, conquests, winning, being right, and a host of other unhelpful approaches. And typically the means and methods of achieving the goal become more aggressive, more mean-spirited—leaving a contentious (and often dysfunctional) environment. You might call it an ‘unfair fight’ (winning at all costs).

The reality is that departments (let alone department heads) don’t exist in a vacuum.   That’s why Mind-Set #2 (Professionals Realize–and Act Like–They’re Part of Something Bigger Than Themselves) is so important.  And when people begin to act like they’re a part of something bigger, the ‘silo problem’ often gets mitigated.

It certainly did for Danboise Mechanical, a client of ours.  Danboise adopted the principles within The Power of Professionalism as their north arrow in terms of how they would conduct business. They went “all in”—aspiring to be the most professional organization our founder, Bill Wiersma, had ever worked with.

Based in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, Danboise Mechanical has provided mechanical contracting services to Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio for over four generations. At Danboise, they provide a variety of services: HVAC, electrical, and mechanical.  In each instance, the services include both ‘new install’ as well as routine maintenance functions.

As you’d expect, Danboise had established several departments (think: silos) around each of these services. Historically, department heads took great delight in delivering eye-popping P&L’s.  If those P&L’s made the department head look good relative to their peers—so much the better.  Danboise department heads seemingly put more energy in competing with each other than competing in the marketplace.

Yet the Danboise department heads eventually came to an epiphany: namely that the overall success of the organization would never be optimized if department heads continued to work independently in an attempt to optimize their own ‘individual’ operations (essentially creating an informal dysfunctional internal competition amongst department heads).  Their epiphany largely came about when they came to a full appreciation of Mind-Set #2.  They subsequently committed to break down the barriers between departments and operate in a manner that was in the best interests of the overall organization.  No more playing king-of-the hill.  They started working together in a meaningful way; the troops noticed. The department heads also concluded that ‘the troops’—those on the front line—had fallen into the same trap they had.

For instance, on the job site trade ‘X’ (working in department ‘A’) wouldn’t work with trade ‘Y’ (working in department ‘C’).  The same dynamic regularly occurred amongst just about any combination of trades you might want to mix-and-match.  This type of behavior was clearly undesirable—driven largely by the impacts of ‘silo mentality’.  All that seemed to matter to the staff was their department, their job function.  Two different trades on the same job site—both employed by Danboise—and one wouldn’t help the other. Go figure. This approach is myopic, certainly not one worthy of anyone who considers themselves to be a professional.

Executive Vice President Carl Pistolesi described the situation,

When it came to our people it was all, “I, I, I.” It got to the point where our clients were coming to us saying, ‘Is this the same company? The right hand’s not talking to the left hand!

Naturally this was frustrating to Carl and his team.  Carl sensed that Danboise front line workers needed a stiff shot of professionalism.  Carl felt that his blue-collar work force would respond favorably to the challenge of living up to the professional values memorialized in The Power of Professionalism. They did.

Since our firm’s engagement with Danboise, Carl has seen his workers grow as professionals and minimize the vast majority of dysfunctional behaviors that emanate from a ‘silo mentality’.  His workers are now acting from a higher-order plane. Front line workers from disparate trades now help each other out and see the company as a whole, rather than only through the lens of their particular department or job function.

According to Carl,

We have gotten rid of the ‘I’ and now it’s ‘We’. They’re working together as a team.

For Danboise, this has been a really big deal.  Their newfound unity helps them in a myriad of ways beyond worksite collaboration (as important as that is).  Is this merely some Kumbaya ‘feel good’ experience? No, not at all.  As a result of the newfound levels of cooperation amongst the staff (and the productivity that followed), Danboise is now able to offer clients a discount (ranging from 2% to 5%, depending on the job).   Naturally this development has contributed to the company’s competitive advantage in a significant way.

What enabled this significant change was a shift in thinking.  That change started with the staff’s desire to ‘show up’ as a professional would.  Then the mind-sets were used as a platform to drive the change. Ultimately a new (and very powerful) habit was formed.

The good news for Danboise is the impact this terrific outcome had on their business. The even better news for organizations facing similar circumstances is that this type of outcome isn’t unique, we see it with some regularity within our practice.

In business, separations with employees are a necessary evil. Call it what you will—a firing, a furlough, a layoff, a whatever—virtually every organization eventually finds itself in this situation.  This can be by choice or from circumstances. Managers detest the process. Talk to virtually any manager about the most distasteful thing they have to do and letting people go is typically at the top of the list. The horror stories of stunned, outraged employees receiving a security escort out the door are unfortunately pretty common. To say that the process is emotionally charged is an understatement.

Yet, when was the last time you heard of a displaced employee saying, ‘thank you’ to the person firing them? It happened at the Wilkins Group, a Dallas-area based telecommunications company.  The principals of the Wilkins Group attribute this remarkable experience to 1) their amazing people and 2) the emphasis they have placed on professional values.

The principals of the Wilkins Group—Tom and Faye, a husband and wife team—adopted professional values as their north arrow for their company.  What that meant to them is that they would use the principles from The Power of Professionalism as a guide in making everyday decisions—both common and complex. In addition, Tom and Faye believed that how people did things defined whether they were a professional or not—as opposed to merely defining professionals by what people did (e.g. their technical competence). Perhaps most impressively, Tom and Faye had instilled within their staff a desire to incorporate professional values in everything they did.  Simply put: at Wilkins being a professional was a big deal.

Sam, one of Wilkins service workers, was fighting his own demons off the clock and unfortunately it was bleeding into his work. Despite his top-notch technical talent, Sam was constantly late to appointments, taking short-cuts with important administrative responsibilities, and, in general, served as a poor representative of the company. After multiple interventions and little change, Wilkins’ senior manager Christy decided to let Sam go. The question then became…

“How do we manage the separation process such that it reflects the professional values we espouse?” For those professionals at the Wilkins Group that were charged with the separation process, this was the central question they asked themselves.

In the final meeting, Christy sat Sam down and in an even, controlled manner, praised his abilities and potential, but explained that his personal distractions and lack of professional standards were unacceptable.

“Sam, at The Wilkins Group this is the level where we want our professional standards to be (raising one open palm to just below her chin).  And, now placing her other open palm to her navel area, “this is the level where we see your professional standards”.  The distance between her two palms was significant. “That gap is just too big, unfortunately, we are letting you go!   But please understand we believe in you.  We want you to succeed.  And please know you’ll always have a job here when you get these problems corrected.”

Not surprisingly, Sam initially didn’t take the news well. He panicked, and started to yell and argue with Christy while she remained even keeled and level headed– just what you’d expect from a professional.  Sam was hoping Christy would respond in-kind. He wanted Christy to yell back, to swear at him—anything to justify his anger. After Sam’s ranting, his harshness suddenly turned to tears.  Christy was amazed.

Sam went on:  “For the longest time you told me what I needed to do. I didn’t listen. I’m really sorry.” With her patience and commitment to maintain Sam’s dignity, Christy enabled Sam to not only see, but feel, his inherent value and the potential that went with it. Sam realized that Christy was the first person to ever treat him, warts and all, in such a dignified manner.  Her professionalism helped him to realize that he was the source of his problem, at the end of their meeting Sam stood up and hugged Christy, saying “thank you, thank you, thank you.”

At the end of the day, Sam got a much needed wake-up call. Sure, it was painful. But Sam realized, at a very personal level, it was also necessary. Perhaps that’s why Sam was prompted to say ‘thank you’ to the very person who fired him.

Is it likely that an organization, even one that stresses professional values, will regularly have employees thanking leaders who are in the midst of severing ties with them?  Don’t count on it.  But what you can count on are the consistent benefits that naturally emerge when ‘baking in’ professional values within an organization—like the Wilkins Group has done.  For Tom and Faye, professional values have evolved from being a powerful idea to a powerful habit—whether they’re applying them to their most important initiative or to a sensitive separation plan for an out-of-sorts employee.

 

Heaven only knows the interest our clients have in correcting undesired behavior within their organizations.  It’s maddening—especially when people know what to do and fail to do it.  Leaders often attribute this to personal slothfulness—seemingly uncommitted people with lackadaisical attitudes.

As prevalent as this problem can be, undesired behavior isn’t always attributable to lackadaisical attitude.  Rob Christensen, CEO of Christensen Fasteners, was wise enough to recognize this in his own company.

Rob met our Founder, Bill Wiersma, at an event in which Bill was speaking.  After the address Rob approached Bill about an aspect of his business that he was dissatisfied with.  Simply put, he thought his equipment repair function was anything but ‘professional’. He knew it, his people (each a tried-and-true professional) knew it.

One of the tools we use at Better Professionals is what we call our “Good, Better, Best” model. We won’t attempt to explain it in detail here, but one of the things it highlights is “Process.” During his address, Bill mentioned that, “process (or lack thereof) can markedly contribute to an environment which doesn’t allow people, even the finest professionals, to put their best foot forward.”

Rob came up to chat with Bill following the presentation and said, “You know, you asked us this question about process and it hit a nerve.”  That innocent five minute conversation would prove to be the catalyst for a fruitful, multi-year relationship.

As you might have guessed Christensen sells fasteners for the construction industry.  They sell nails for nail guns, super heavy duty staplers, things that fasten other things together. They also have a value-added service of repairing the tools that used the fasteners. If the customer’s nail gun broke, Christensen would fix it for a fee. They did a great job of repairing the tools, but the process associated with managing the overall repair function was less-than-optimal.  Clients would call in for a status update and chaos would ensue—no one knew what was going on. Getting an answer, one the client had confidence in, on a date certain for the repair completion was rare.

Frankly, Rob’s salespeople were embarrassed to offer the repair service.

They didn’t speak up about it—clearly undesired behavior.  Yet, you can understand why they didn’t ‘push’ the service.

One of the questions that emanates from our model is, “Think about your processes and systems: ‘to what degree does the word, ‘professional’ describe them?’ Rob knew that when it came to his repair function, the answer was ‘no’, ‘professional’ was not a word that aptly described that function.  So he took it upon himself to build a process to correct the problem.

A short time later, Bill ran into Rob, who reported, “You’ll never guess what happened.” He went on to relate to Bill how he had built a system so that when somebody calls in for a repair they get coherent answers and Christensen Fasteners looks like they know what they’re doing. His biggest source of pride? Revenue from the repair service was up 30%!”

Rob had developed a process that deservedly could be described as ‘professional’.

Yet, we wanted to see if those results had become sustainable so three months later we followed up with Rob.  Sure enough, revenue and productivity for the repair service were both still up 30%. Is the repair function a huge line of business for Christensen Fasteners? No, it’s not.  But that really isn’t the point. The improvement was a byproduct of Rob upgrading (think: making the process ‘professional’) the process.  And since the change, sales has evolved from being embarrassed to being proud of the repair function.  Thus, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that sales now regularly ‘talks up’ the repair service.

In this instance, undesired behavior on the part of sales was pretty straight-forward to correct.  It was Rob’s desired behavior (desiring for things to get better and taking commensurate action….consistent with Mind-Set Three) that helped correct undesired behavior in others. Rob was modeling what it meant to be a better professional.

As the owner Rob said, “As a professional, I gotta get on top of this.” He did.  He was measuring himself as a professional, as a leader. He succeeded. He was also wise enough to know that undesired behavior can be prompted by a number of factors besides simply slothfulness—something that hasn’t been lost on his sales guys.

In adopting professional values as an organization’s ‘north arrow’, leaders not only make their professional life easier but set the stage for some significant benefits—powerful ones.        Becoming an ‘employer of choice’ is one such benefit.  Think about it: who doesn’t want to work for a ‘professional’ organization?  Turns out, that’s a powerful draw. After all, what’s not to like about leaders making it a priority to instill a sense of professionalism—both in purpose and execution—within their organization?

Sometime back we chronicled in a blog Axis Teknologies’ experience in becoming an ‘employer of choice’.   Click here to read the post in its entirety.  Without repeating the whole story here, suffice it to say Axis has significantly enhanced their recruiting since adopting professional values as their ‘north arrow’.

Jennifer (Jenn) Schoenhofer, is President and CEO of Atlanta-based Axis Teknologies. And if you knew Jenn you wouldn’t find it surprising she has adopted a ‘we only hire professionals here’ philosophy.

Jenn originally participated in one of our programs—-one that introduced the principles associated with The Power of Professionalism.    As a result, she became one of many that have since become enamored with applying the principles within their organization.  It’s as if they say, “Where’s this been all my life? This is profound—an incredible way to think about the business.” For Jenn, and many like her, their adoption decision was very intuitive.

Typically it doesn’t take long for real results, real impacts to emerge during implementation—just as Jenn realized in the ‘recruiting’ space.  To no one’s surprise, Jenn isn’t bashful about telling others.   In Seth Godin’s language, zealots like Jenn are “sneezers” because of the way their excitement infects others.  They spread the word. When Bill Wiersma originally mentioned the idea of using professional ideals to aid her recruiting efforts Jenn really lit up. She had never considered it. Today, the results speak for themselves.

When Jenn was interviewing the candidate who would later became one of her chief lieutenants she gave a really good vision of who they were, she was able to communicate very effectively that her company was centered on professional values and that it meant a lot to them. Then she gave examples of how that played out and what it meant and the emphasis they were putting on it and why it made a difference. It really made an impact with this candidate.  In his case, professional values won out over a more lucrative offer from a more prestigious company.  Bottom line: she now regularly lands candidates that one would argue she wouldn’t have a prayer in landing.  Again, you can read the complete story here.

Axis’s success in applying professional values within their organization isn’t limited to recruiting.  In other words, for Axis, becoming an employer of choice is one success story among many. This has been a pleasant surprise for Jenn.   Did Jenn originally think that she’d be applying professional values to important aspects of the business like recruiting? No. She, like many others, had as their initial focus using professional values to correct undesired behavior.  Today she knows better—appreciating that professional values are powerful levers for improvements in both brand and culture.