Good Intentions Aside, Sometimes Things Go Off The Rails

This post is an abridged version of a story from The Power of Identity, Bill’s latest book which was released in Nov 2019. The full story is found on page 73.

Good intentions aside, sometimes things go off the rails. That certainly was case for Nate McFadden, a newly-minted General Manager for Otis Elevator. The young man, a relative novice in his industry who had worn Marine combat boots only three years earlier, was asked to take over an under-performing region in Central Michigan that had floundered. Contrasted against their North American peer group, the region Nate inherited was statistically dead last in virtually every KPI measure.

Turning around the organization would prove challenging. Yet McFadden, a gifted leader, did so. In twenty four months, his unit went from worst-to-first—a remarkable turnaround. You ask, ‘how did he do it?’. McFadden shared with me, “Our recovery had any number of important ingredients in place but when the concepts and principles from The Power of Professionalism crystallized in my mind our resurgence became rapid and pronounced.”

Professionalism became their central organizing principle. The principles and precepts from The Power of Professionalism became the centerpiece of the leadership team’s development efforts over a concerted twelve-month period. But why the focus on, of all things, professionalism in the first place? “I became convinced that these concepts needed to be central to how people thought about their profession and achievement of our objectives.”, McFadden told me. In evaluating the region’s turnaround, professionalism proved to be McFadden’s X factor.

I’ve found that to be true for both organizations that were floundering (think: needing a turnaround) as well as those that were flourishing (think: seeking ‘next level’ growth). Either way, it’s wonderful to be a part of.

Be A Professional—Kaepernick’s New Aspiration?

By now even the casual football fan is aware of the travails of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. His recent performance (the word abysmal comes to mine) on the football field is a head-scratcher for many of us. His success in earlier years belies the types of disappointing performances we’ve seen from him in 2014. It’s a fall from grace. (Note: the 49ers, in general, are having an extremely disappointing year as well. That said, it is widely acknowledged by football insiders that something is clearly ‘off’ in Kaepernick’s game.)

To add insult to injury, Kaepernick’s on-field performance has shined when compared to how he’s handled the media. In a nutshell it appears that Kaepernick views the media as the enemy (much like his boss—coach Jim Harbaugh—seemingly does).

During a recent press conference, Kaepernick responded to 32 questions with only 87 words. From his demeanor and body language you’d think Kaepernick would rather endure a root-canal than spend another second with the press. Defensive, petulant, aloof, are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind that characterize how Kaepernick comes across with the press. It’s painful to watch. Treat the press as your enemy and they’ll soon become such.

To me, Kaepernick’s act has gotten old (Harbaugh’s too). These two are the primary faces of the organization to the public. They need to positively represent their organization. At the moment, the impression they create leaves a lot to be desired. Sure the media can be a pain to deal with, but ‘media management’ (otherwise known as PR) is an important part of the job—especially for a NFL quarterback.

Hall of Famer Jerry Rice was asked by a Bay Area radio host what advice he’d give Kaepernick. Turns out, Jerry once had a problem with being defensive with the media early in his career as well. At the time he finally realized, “You know, I need to be a better professional.” (click here for more on Jerry’s comments) Simply put, Jerry realized that he wasn’t handling the media as a professional would.

‘Be a professional’…that was Jerry’s advice to Kaepernick. I don’t know if Jerry spoke to Kaepernick after the radio interview or if Kaepernick heard the interview. But what I do know is….

….the very next day after Jerry’s comments Kaepernick was downright charming with the media. He was vulnerable and even empathetic towards many of the ‘media types’ he presumably loathed. All of a sudden the guy ‘shows up’ in a more effective, more helpful way. He puts a more engaging, more upbeat face on the 49ers organization. No doubt, that’s something that the 49ers had long wished would emerge from one of the NFL’s most public personalities.

For everyone involved, undesired behavior in the workplace is maddening. Gazillions of dollars are spent every year in prevention, investigation, and remediation. Yet it’s amazing how effective the admonition—’be a professional’—can remedy undesired behavior in the workplace.

Whether this contributed to Kaepernick’s ‘about-face’ is unknown (at least by me). But I’ve personally seen dozens and dozens of such cases ‘fixed’ with just such an admonition.

Professional Values Under Attack–A Sobering Look At Healthcare

Why Doctors Are Sick of Their Profession is an article that ran recently in the Wall Street Journal.  It’s a sobering look at the human side of the current dysfunction we call healthcare.

The article’s author Sandeep Jauhar MD makes the point that he and many of his physician colleagues are ‘struggling with the loss of their professional values’.  He suggests that in many ways he has become the doctor he never thought he would be: impatient, occasionally indifferent, at times dismissive or paternalistic.  Whether he’s being too hard on himself, I don’t pretend to know.

The causes for the trend are varied and, in many cases, deeply rooted within an industry in need of reform. In many ways the system has beaten down the doctors—imparting cynicism in place of their once noble aspirations.

The doctors are largely part of a system they can’t beat and many don’t want to be a part of.  This article is instructive in two important ways:

***First: it demonstrates how important professionals really are—healthcare just happens to be today’s example.  Absent professional values, things ‘go south’ fast for all stakeholders.  As Jauhar points out, naturally the patient’s experience is negatively impacted when the doctor’s professional values slip.

***Second: to me the answer to having a system ‘beat you down’  is (in part) to remember why you entered the profession in the first place.  In other words, never forget what your purpose is.  Tattoo it on your forehead if you must.  For one’s own mental health, a compelling purpose (on most days) will typically trump a bad system.

It’s interesting to note, from a systemic point of view, that the author suggests emphasizing professional values in the next generation.  That means ‘instilling professional values early on’ in medical school. Couldn’t agree more.  That’s precisely what we’ve helped do at the West Coast Ultrasound Institute. The results are exciting.

Professional values: without them, eventually we’ll all be sick. With them, we’ve got an invaluable  formula for health.

 

Culture’s Influence on Performance—Greater Appreciation Abounds

It was John Bogle, the founder and former chairman of Vanguard, that noted that ‘the most important things in life are often the most difficult to measure’.

How true—especially things like trust. In the work world, culture is another ‘thing’ that is really important but is often difficult to quantify. Culture (which some have characterized as how we think and act) is not only a vague notion for some but one that Is next to impossible to put on a balance sheet. Rest assured though that culture (which is inseparably linked to trust) effects the balance sheet and other facets of organizational performance.

This weekend two articles ran on the East Bay Times (a San Francisco Bay Area paper) editorial page (Sunday edition) that highlighted the dysfunction of two public-sector cultures that have had a significant impact in terms of degrading public trust. In my experience, it’s rare for two investigative reporters (on the same day, on the same editorial page) cite culture as the major culprit of discord in their stories. I was harkened by the two investigative reporters, acting independently, that were speaking forcefully about the pervasive nature of culture. For ‘culture deniers’ (whom I run into somewhat regularly, are prone not to give the influence of culture it’s due) these types of articles help put a ‘real-world’ context to the impact of culture. In other words, the two articles give a hard edge (albeit with imperfect measurement) to a supposedly soft subject.

The first public-sector culture under the microscope in Sunday’s article was Caltrans (California’s transportation department) for their contribution in the new eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Daniel Borenstein, the article’s author, refers to Caltrans culture as unprofessional—with senior leaders routinely using heavy-handed intimidation, secrecy, and denial as means to the meet the leaders ends. As the article points out, the costs for the eastern span skyrocketed from $1.4 to $6.4 billion. The project suffered significant construction delays and is now is under scrutiny for safety concerns. Not all of these issues have ‘culture’ as the sole cause, but certainly culture is considered a significant contribution. For the complete story see:
Daniel Borenstein Gov. Brown Must Fix Caltrans Culture

The second culture under scrutiny is the Veterans Association (VA). In the VA’s case, it is believed that the silence and secrecy embedded in the culture led to patient deaths. How sad. As author Kate Scannell’s article points out, the VA culture has other troubling issues as well. See:
Dr. Kate Scannell: VA scandal shows we must speak up about the deadly silences in health care

Both of these examples illustrate the very real consequences of a dysfunctional culture. In both instances, trust is on life support. Plus, key performance targets have failed miserably. In the case of the VA, people died. Edgar Schein, an early pioneer in the field of organizational development, may have put it best: ‘culture is to the organization what character is to the individual.’ Both of these examples have been well chronicled in articles beyond the two highlighted here. It’s clear that both these organization’s cultures were by-products of their leadership—in this case inadequate leadership.

Schein also wrote ‘there is a possibility that the only thing of real importance that leaders do is create and manage culture’. Given the era in which Schein made that statement, it was difficult to justify that point-of-view. Today it’s much easier, especially given these two examples.

Football’s Skill Players—Lessons For Today’s Professionals

A colleague friend of mine was updating me on her prize-recruit son who is destined to be playing football next year at a Pac 12 school.  He plays on the offensive line.  He goes something like 6’ 5”, 280 pounds and bench presses half-a-gazillion pounds.

She was explaining to me how the recruiting process worked and how her son (ultimately) would be spending more time with his O-Line coach than that same coach would spend with his own family.  It was fascinating.  Each group (linebackers, running backs, lineman, etc), she explained, had the own specialty coaches.   “You know, the skill players have their coaches and each of the other groups have theirs.”   In football parlance skill players are running backs, quarterbacks, wide receivers, etc.

I smiled mischievously.  “What?” she asked.  “What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t help myself, so I asked her “does that mean that your son and his fellow linemen are unskilled?”

She hesitated, then smiled knowingly.  We both agreed that each and every player on the team was exceptionally skilled—each in their own way.  And we further agreed that today’s distinctions between so-called skill players and the rest of the football team was unfortunate.

The same thing happens in the workplace.  There’s the professionals and then everybody else.  For those of you who have read The Power of Professionalism, you know we’re trying hard to change these unfortunate distinctions.

Always remember, you’re the one that determines whether you’re a professional or not –no one can ever take that away from you.

Next year I’m looking forward to seeing this young man play at the next level.  Any football fan who appreciates athletes with amazing skill-sets will too.

Professionalism To The Rescue

Customers were frustrated by ‘it’, employees were embarrassed by ‘it’, the owners were uncomfortable by ‘it’. What, you ask, is ‘it’?

‘It’ was an archaic (think: 19th century) tracking system for repairs of customers’ mission-critical equipment.  This value-added service has been provided by a well-respected Walnut Creek, CA based company for years.  Trouble is, few people now were seeing the repair service as ‘value added’.  The company did a great job fixing the equipment; it was the process that was the problem.  It certainly was a good thing that the repair service wasn’t ‘core’ to the business.

Consider these ‘equipment repair’ experiences:

***A customer calls in to ask for an estimate (time and money) of getting their equipment repaired.

***A customer asks their representative for a status report on their equipment repair order.

***Employees (of all stripes) would ask the foreman of the repair facility for workload reports and backlog estimates.

In each and every case (regardless of who was asking) people consistently got untimely and inaccurate information from well-intended, but less-than-confident, employees. “Amateur hour” was how one person described it.   It was no wonder that representatives from the company cringed when having to give their customers updates on their repairs.

I first met the owner about six months ago after an address I had given on professional values to business leaders.  My core message that evening:  make professional values your north arrow.  After the address the owner reached out to thank me, indicating that the message had really resonated with him. My address had reinforced something in him that he had always believed….but he had never been taught before that evening.

Little did I know how much the message had resonated with him until I reconnected with him weeks later.  Since our first encounter, he had committed to making every aspect of his business as professional as possible.  He had made a laundry list of things he wanted to change: first and foremost was that antiquated tracking system for equipment repairs.

He smiled as he recounted with me how much fun it had been for him creating the new tracking system.  As a professional, he noted, the new tracking system was something that he always knew he should do. Having made the commitment to himself to center his company around professional values proved to be impetus he needed to get started right away.

Almost from the onset of implementing the new tracking system the company gained 30% additional business in equipment repairs.  And that 30% increase has held steady over these many months.  In other words, it wasn’t a fluke.  Interestingly, the owner says that handling 30% more volume with the new system ‘feels like’ their previous volume with the old system.  In other words, the greater work load hasn’t been a problem at all—even though it’s 30% higher than before. For the benefit of those who desire quantification, that’s a 30% increase in productivity!

His employees love the new system as it really helps their ability to satisfy customers.  And it avoids them looking stupid and feeling embarrassed as they had before with the old system.  It’s proven to be a winner in every way.  The owner can’t wait to make even more changes!  Said another way, he can’t wait to make his operation that much more professional.

Professional upgrades can take a lot of forms—this one happened to involve a system.   All this owner needed was to be reminded that he was a professional and how important that was for his company.  The experience has reignited his commitment to the high standards (e.g. mind-set # 4) he’s always believed in.  His business, his employees and his customers have all benefited.  I can’t wait to see what he’ll undertake next.

 

Hard Unemployment Truths About ‘Soft’ Skills

A recent article by Nick Schulz of the American Enterprise Institute in the Wall Street Journal reveals some inconvenient truths about the difficulty the manufacturing sector currently faces in filling jobs.  There’s a lot of jobs that need filling, the problem is finding qualified people.

In many instances the difficulty stems around the lack of ‘soft’ skills—not necessarily the technical stuff. It’s skills that employers not-so-long-ago took for granted:  being on time for work, properly answering the telephone,  passing the drug test.

Others sectors have reported similar findings.  The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has reported ‘that “professionalism” or “work ethic” is the top “applied” skill that younger workers lack’.

This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to many of you. Here’s the full article—Hard Unemployment Truths About ‘Soft’ Skills.

To me the skill-gap that Schulz has identified is really not a skill at all, it’s the lack of a professional’s mind-set.  Yet, let’s look beyond the semantics for now.  The problem Schulz is illuminating is symptomatic of a declining culture…one that hits the business community smack upside the head!

Credibility Provides The Foundation For Change

Success sometimes extracts a price.  It had for a senior executive I was working with recently.

His problem—among other things—was time. Like most of us, he didn’t have enough of it.  He was the first one at the office in the morning, and the last one out in the evening. As a result, time with his young family suffered. The situation was becoming unacceptable.

In discussing the situation with him it became apparent that he was especially generous in making himself available to his staff (think: open door policy). Naturally, he was trying to do the right thing.        

The staff was appreciative and regularly sought out the executive.  His open door policy, however well-intended, had the unintended consequence of negatively impacting his personal life.  For the staff it had the unintended consequence of making them a bit too dependent on their boss.         

 I suggested (with one big caveat) the executive try limiting his availability to the staff.  In other words, create some dedicated time for himself wherein he could invest time on several longer-term initiatives that had been neglected. He’d be creating some pre-determined ‘quiet time’ when his staff knew not to interrupt him.  This would turn out to be quite a significant change as the open door policy had been something the staff had become quite accustomed to and really enjoyed.      

The tactic surrounding ‘quiet time’ was pretty straight-forward —it wasn’t rocket science and it normally works well.   To me, the most important aspect as to whether this was going to work was whether the executive had credibility with the staff? That was the big caveat.  If the executive had credibility, then I was confident the ‘quiet time’ change would work.  If he didn’t, I’d withdraw the suggestion.        

I became confident that the executive had already built the necessary credibility to pull this off.   And despite the change being somewhat unpopular, the staff supported it. 

The thing that made this work was the credibility the executive had built with the staff.  They trusted him.  They were confident that, as a professional, he had the organization’s best interests at heart.   

Whether it’s a smaller change like ‘quiet time’ or a major initiative like a productivity enhancement, they’re both highly dependent on the credibility of the leader advancing the change.  If the leader doesn’t have credibility, the odds are long against the ‘change’ effort succeeding.        

Turns out, the executive loves the new arrangement.  The staff is very accepting of it—more so than was originally anticipated.  It’s working.  Early on, it has proven to really improve the executive’s quality of life.

Lest you think the main point of this post is about the tactical suggestion I made around ‘quiet time’…it isn’t.  Tactical suggestions are easy.  The hard part is earning the credibility that, when combined with some common-sense tactic, makes the whole thing work. Hats off to this fine executive who had earned his people’s trust and had the courage of his convictions to act.  Bravo!         

Professionalism To The Rescue–Right Out Of The Box

Two short days after participating in a teleconference on The Power of Professionalism, Amber Peebles— President of the Athena Construction Group— experienced first-hand its impact in handling a thorny issue that had generated a lot of negative energy in her organization.

The issue wasn’t their company’s most important but was typical in the way it sapped valuable time and energy.  The question was: should hourly employee David (or at least let’s call him that)  be allowed to use a company-issued lap-top while on an out-of-state family bereavement visit?  The circumstances involving the visit were nuanced, but—bottom-line—David was offering to keep up with his work while away.

Amber’s colleagues (business partners in an affiliate company whom David was supporting) said no. It was their computer (loaded with everything David would need) that was in question.

The frustrating decision prompted a number of semi-contentious meetings and a stream of frustrating phone calls before the issue finally got to Amber.  Relying on the principles in The Power of Professionalism, Amber cut to the quick.  She made it clear to her affiliate colleagues that David was a professional and should be treated as such.  Her expectations were clear.

With that, the issue had been resolved without additional drama.  What made the difference?  Amber’s re-framing! She not only helped facilitate a solution but educated at the same time.

The big idea upon which The Power of Professionalism is based is that is that the central role of professionalism has not been fully appreciated, let alone understood well, in the quest to perfect organizations.  Amber got it…big time!

Amber had raised everyone’s sights (mind-set #7) and also held to her high standards (mind-set #4). But most critically, she reinforced the importance of putting professional values as the centerpiece of her organization’s culture. Amber’s approach quickly shifted the energy from negative to positive.

Sure, this was arguably a small issue.  But the principle behind it can just as easily be applied to ‘the big stuff’ too…as we’ll see in subsequent posts.

Congratulations Amber!