Getting Focus

I start this year with a blog post by John Spence. He gave a great example of his leadership philosophy and business targets for 2009.

”I believe that two of the most important factors in running a successful company are:

robust communications and a sharp focus on the key organizational strategies.

Unfortunately, it is been my experience that most leaders do a relatively poor job of communicating what they want their people to focus on. Given the incredibly challenging economic times we are in, now more than ever it is critical to clearly communicate to all of your people what is expected of them and what they need to do to keep your company strong and successful. However, you don’t want to bog them down with long speeches or a 50 page strategic plan. The goal is to keep it as concise and focused as possible.

A few months ago I had the great pleasure of listening to one of the top leaders at Procter & Gamble talk about how he communicated to his team what was most important to him through a “one-page strategic plan” and a “one-page leadership philosophy.” This particular gentleman was often brought in as a change agent, a situation that can create great stress for the new teams he was going to lead, so he created these simple documents to allow him to clearly communicate what was on his mind, what he wanted people to focus on, and what they could expect from him as their new leader. What a wonderful way to help people stop worrying about what is in the leader’s head, and instead focus on the work at hand!

Because I think this is such a good idea, I’m even doing it with my team to get 2009 started off on the right foot. Below I have pasted in the actual documents I handed out to my team. Please give some thought to doing something similar in your organization. I’m confident it will be helpful and will set a great tone for getting everyone focused, energized and ready to get down to business.”

Please see John's blog for his great excemple of

One Page Leadership Philosophy

• Core values
• Major Areas of Focus
• What I want from you
• What I do not want
• What you can expect from me

One Page Business Plan

• Mission
• Vision
• Core Values
• Major Strategic Objectives
• Key Measure of Success

I was going to start my year in the office by defining some of these. Now I have a better framework to do so.

I wish you all a successful and focused year of 2009!

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is created by little things. I experienced this some time ago when we renewed some office furniture.

I realized one day that I was sitting on a nice chair (which I had inherited)
while all the other chairs in the office were literally falling apart.

We started changing the chairs from our service team as they were getting new desks at the same time. This caused some discussion. Some teams felt they are more important than service team, and should have at least as good chairs before the service team. We were soon changing all the chairs, so this did not become an issue.

But of course not all the chairs are similar. It was rather important that some chairs have armrests and others don't. And as you can guess, this has nothing to do with some people needing to rest their arms more than others.

Now I am still sitting on my old chair, while everybody else in the office has nice new chairs.

Years ago I studied organizational culture and I could not have believed it is really built with such little things. But it is. Edgar Schein has a three level model for organizational culture.

1st level

Organizational attributes that can be seen, felt and heard by the uninitiated observer. Included are the facilities, offices, furnishings, visible awards and recognition, the way that its members dress, and how each person visibly interacts with each other and with organizational outsiders.

2nd level

The next level deals with the professed culture of an organization's members. At this level, company slogans, mission statements and other operational creeds are often expressed, and local and personal values are widely expressed within the organization.

3rd level

At the third and deepest level, the organization's tacit assumptions are found. These are the elements of culture that are unseen and not cognitively identified in everyday interactions between organizational members. Additionally, these are the elements of culture which are often taboo to discuss inside the organization. Many of these 'unspoken rules' exist without the conscious knowledge of the membership.

I blogged earlier about how organizational culture is more powerful than organizations strategy. If you want to change one, you need to change both.

The following story of monkeys and bananas illustrates well how organizational culture is formed. And this culture and the original strategy really need some changing...

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.

And that, is how company culture begins.

The Positive Business Manifesto

I read another great article at ChangeThis. Jon Gordon wrote a manifesto about Positive Business. He states that you would have to live on another planet not to notice the plethora of business books and articles discussing the importance of developing a positive organizational culture at work. The research is clear, he continues.

Positive leaders, positive work environments, and positive engaged employees produce positive results.

However, if building a positive business is so important and beneficial, then we are left to wonder, “Why aren’t more companies, more positive?” Why are there not more people skipping through the halls, smiling at their co-workers and loving their job? Why do more people die Monday morning at 9am than any other time? Why does negativity cost companies 300 billion dollars and sabotage teamwork, careers, morale and performance?

Successful, positive companies with positive employees and positive cultures are created like anything else—through a set of principles, processes, systems and habits that are ingrained in the corporate culture and each individual employee. Positive companies aren’t born. They are developed by positive leaders. And when you build a positive business, culture drives behavior and behavior drives habits.

To build a positive organization fueled by positive energy, the leader must invite his/her leadership team on the bus and develop a shared vision, focus, purpose and direction for the business. The leadership team must join the leader in making their organizational culture a top priority and be engaged and committed to the process.

In a world driven by stock price and short term results, building a positive, successful company requires leaders to have a long term vision. You should not focus on the fruit of the tree—stock price, profits, costs, etc. You should focus on the root— the culture, trust, people and positive energy of the company. Leaders who run successful, positive companies over a long period of time know that when you take care of the root of the tree you will always be pleased with the fruit it supplies. However, if you ignore the root, eventually the tree will dry up and so will the fruit.

At work you’ll likely face organizational and individual negativity. You’ll have to deal with processes and systems that create poor communication and negative interactions. In other cases negativity will arise from negative co-workers and customers, a group of office complainers and/or a boss who is a jerk. Regardless of your situation or the source of negativity, it is critical that you take action to cultivate the positive and weed out the negative.

Building a positive business always begins with selecting the right people. We must identify who the right people are, make sure they are positive, and create a process that gets them on the bus. We must also make sure we let the wrong people off the bus. Too many leaders know who their negative employees are but they don’t know what to do with them, and so they do nothing, which leads to dangerous consequences.

With the right people on your bus, you want to make sure you communicate consistently and effectively with them so they always know where the bus is going. Peter Drucker says that 60% of management problems are the result of faulty communication. When people feel fearful or uncertain or unheard they start thinking the worse and act accordingly, and negative energy increaces. By designing systems that enhance communication, you allow positive energy to flow through the business.

When you care about your employees and the people you work with, they are more likely to stay on the bus and work harder, with more loyalty and greater positive energy. In turn, they are more likely to share their positive energy with your customers, enhancing service and the bottom line. That’s why I say the greatest customer service strategy has nothing to do with customer service, but rather it has everything to do with how you treat your employees. If you treat them well, they will treat the customer well.

Caring about your employees keeps your people on the bus, but when you drive with purpose they will help you push it when the bus breaks down. The fact is every organization will face adversity and challenges and be tested on their journey. And the answer to these tests is a positive culture filled with purpose driven people.

I've shared a number of principles, strategies and suggestions to develop a positive business. However, he is realistically aware that none of this will do any good unless you and your organization have the ability to take action and execute. The difference between a successful positive business and unsuccessful business is one word: “Execution.” The way the most successful businesses do ordinary things better than everyone else.

To build a positive business, you must be able to not only identify your vision and purpose for your organization, but make it so it is ingrained in the culture, mindset and actions of your people. Having the desire to be a positive business is wonderful, but it won’t happen unless you relentlessly focus on your culture, people, processes and systems.

I wish you all green lights on your journey. Stay Positive,
Jon Gordon

The text above is my short summary of Jon's manifesto about Positive Business.



Jon Gordon is the author of The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work and The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy

Three Essentials of Leadership

I was browsing trough Zen Lessons - The Art of Leadershipand I was again amazed how correct the ancient wisdom is. The rest of this post is simply a copy of what Master Fushan Yuan said in a letter written about 800 years ago:

There are three essentials of leadership:
humanity, clarity, and courage.

Humanely practising the virtues of the Way promotes the influence of the teaching, pacifies those in both high and low positions, and delights those who pass by.

Someone with clarity follows proper behaviour and just duty, recognizes what is safe and what is dangerous, examines people to see weather they are wise or foolish, and distinguishes right and wrong.

The courageous see things through to their conclusion, settling them without doubt. They get rid of whatever is wrong or false.

Humanity without clarity is like having a field but not plowing it. Clarity without courage is like having sprouts and not weeding. Courage without humanity is like knowing how to reap but not how to sow.

When all three of these are present, the community thrives. When one is lacking, the community deteriorates. When two are lacking the community is in peril, and when there are is not one of the three there, the way of leadership is in ruins.

Master Fushan Yuan
in a letter to
Master Jinqyin Tai

The next US president is elected today – do you think the candidates lead according to these essentials?

How about the world financial crisis? Which of these essentials do you think were lacking?

How about the Chinese food and toy scandals? How many of these essentials do you think were lacking?

Don't you think that humanity, clarity, and courage are as essential for 21st century business ethics as they were for ancient Zen monks?