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Do you run an organization?  Don’t miss this easy win

The time demands on an executive are significant, so when you come upon a high-leverage activity, one that pays large dividends on a small investment, you stick with it.  This one is so simple that it seems too easy to be true, but I promise that this works and works well.

It’s simply a “Weekly Manager Call”.  

Every executive should have this!  If you lead a multi-layer organization, this will pay off quickly. 

Here is the recipe:

A Scheduled Meeting: Weekly – (mine was usually early in the week).

Duration: 30 minutes

Conference call: Title: “Weekly Managers’ Call” (…or the like).

Preparation Required: About 15 minutes

Invited:  Invite anyone in your organization who manages people. (Though I never discourage people from forwarding the invitation to others – this is good). Result: people just show up – managers and individual contributors, from your organization and some from other departments. This increases your reach!

Attendance: optional.  (I never do a formal headcount, even so, it is very well attended.)

Format:

  • No set agenda / informal
  • I speak for ~10 minutes on various topics.
  • I solicit and answer questions. (If there is trust, you will get some hard questions)
  • No minutes, though I will occasionally send out a brief follow-up or summary.

Some sample Agenda Items from my meetings (I usually only had 2-4 items/week):

  • News (WSJ, etc.) that may impact our business.
    • Upcoming events: review cycles, departmental moves, holidays requiring coverage, Town Hall meetings, senior management visits, recruiting events, etc.Rumors you hear! (Discuss them here with the managers – get ahead of it.)Recognition.
      • Thank teams that go above and beyond…and sometimes individuals too.Ask people on the call to recognize anyone I may have missed.
  • Reminders (reminding leaders how they’re expected to behave), e.g.,
    • When we are consolidating sites – I remind managers about their roles in keeping the team calm.
    • When promotions are about to be announced – I ask managers to remember not only the people who are to be promoted on that day but to be respectful of people who will be passed over this time.
    • When I know performance reviews are coming in a few months, I mention that I trust they are all doing one-on-one meetings and talking about performance regularly.  There may be disagreement, but none of their people should be surprised by feedback in a review. 
    • When there is a big implementation coming up on a weekend and the XYZ team will be working all weekend.  I ask managers to please reach out to someone they know on XYZ team to wish them luck and remember to provide whatever support they can to their colleagues. 
  • Views into executive life – from my perspective.  Some examples:
    • “The budget cycle begins next week.  I have been working hard with the CFO on creating our budget.  Here is how we’ve prepared…”
    • “I am heading to the Far East to visit our sites and with our partners.  Here is how I have prepared for this trip and what I hope to accomplish…”
    • “Here are ways I am collaborating with my colleagues on projects…”
    • “Here is a book I am reading now / course I am taking, to stay current.”

What people have told me about this meeting:

  • I always felt in touch with senior management.
  • It was good to be reminded each week that I represented the company.
  • It felt good knowing how much you thought about us.
  • It made me want to do more.
  • I knew I always had an open line to ask questions that were on my mind.
  • You didn’t duck the hard questions and that helped.  We did not always like the answers, but at least you leveled with us.
  • It reminded us of where the bar was.
  • It was good to have an inside scoop.

Background:

I love running into people that I have worked with over the years.  Through my current business, social events, or serendipity, I have the pleasure of doing this often.  Some people I meet have worked in organizations that I led at one time or another and it makes me feel good when they say something nice about the way I did things.  They sometimes comment on my work ethic, fairness, accessibility, or my willingness to spend times on the front lines of the business. But it often surprises me when I hear the most popular thing I did (and the thing they remember best) was this easy, simple weekly meeting that takes 15 minutes to prepare for. 

The tiny time commitment you make doing this will not stress your calendar and (if you do this regularly) the performance boost it yields will really pay off.  

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Are you overwhelmed? We will help.

If you are a manager or executive and you are barely above water with your workload, we have two free activities that will help you. The only commitment you must make is a bit of quiet time (about an hour for each activity) and a commitment to be patient with these processes and honest with yourself.

I often receive calls from leaders who are overwhelmed. I have suggested these activities to leaders so many times that I decided to just put them here so anyone can get relief.

This will not fix everything, but if you follow the steps and take the actions, you will get back an important measure of control. It’s well worth the time.

Here you go:

Activities for overwhelmed Executives and Managers

And we are always here to help with longer-term coaching plans, team dynamics, delegation strategies, driving organizational change and other needs.

Good luck!

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Money is tight. Why not add another Executive to your Organization?

You can add a top manager to your team in the coming weeks without putting a dent in your budget or making your organization top-heavy. It is possible. And you don’t have to listen to me on this one but see what Peter Drucker has to say on the topic.

From the Effective Executive (with gender normalized):

“The individual who focuses on efforts and who stresses downward authority is a subordinate no matter how exalted their title and rank. But the person who focuses on contribution and who takes responsibility for results, no matter how junior, is in the most literal sense of the phrase, “top management.” They hold themselves accountable for the performance of the whole.”

So, dedicate time with one motivated employee (no matter how junior) over the coming weeks and talk about results, and specifically, about their contribution. According to Drucker, you’re creating another top manager.

And he goes on to say:

“For every organization needs performance in three major areas: It needs direct results; building of values and their reaffirmation; and building and developing people for tomorrow.
The focus on contribution itself supplies the four basic requirements of effective human relations:

  • Communications
  • Teamwork
  • Self-Development and
  • Development of Others”

In these stressful times, we need really strong organizations. Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen yours.

Start with these important questions:

  • Who will your focus on as your next “top manager”?
  • How will you talk about their contribution in the context of results?
  • But first, consider:
    – Are you behaving as an Executive focused on Contribution? Or have you lately been dragged down and focused “on efforts and stressing downward authority” (behaving as a subordinate)?
    – What adjustments do you need to make?
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School’s Open(ish), Lead Carefully

A simple action taken now can make a world of difference.

Two months ago, I launched a small study to learn more about how my clients and some former trusted colleagues were leading under pandemic conditions.  I asked them specifically about what was working most effectively with their remote teams.  The significant and common message in almost every one of their responses: actively demonstrate empathy, compassion and flexibility.   These are some very commercial executives and they emphasized understanding and kindness as keys to getting results in the face of great stress on their businesses. 

When asking executives, you might expect a high-minded and strategic response. In this case, they agreed on simple action: Just make time to listen.  

That was July.  Now factor in the difficulty for working parents as they try to navigate the safe return of their children to school.  The situation is fluid and there are many approaches.  Some schools in my area are meeting in-person (with precautions), others are still 100% remote for all students and there are many flavors of hybrid schemes to reduce the number of students and teachers on site at one time.  It is not an easy situation for anyone involved and it is turning up the seemingly relentless stress level on families with working parents. 

So, I emphasize the need for leaders of remote teams to take simple action: 

  • Make dedicated time to listen to each of your team members and see how they are holding up (especially working parents). 
  • Put it on your calendar this week to check in.  Repeat periodically.
  • See where your understanding and flexibility can help.  This may be just the right time.
  • You’ll need a healthy team for sustained performance. 
  • Act.
  • If you are already doing it, good.  Keep doing it.  Don’t stop.  Not yet, anyway….
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Tom Seaver’s lessons for every aspiring professional

I know that holding up sports figures as role models is fraught with peril, but you could do a whole lot worse than emulating my childhood sports hero, even (especially) in your career:

Embed from Getty Images

In my practice, I work with executives and companies that are seeking ways to improve their performance and effectiveness.  The sources I use in my work can be found in my experiences, my post-graduate work, my training as an executive coach, and numerous research studies, articles and modern management books. 

But honestly, Tom Seaver provided some simple and clear examples of professional behavior for all of us:

  • Intimately know your competitors’ strengths & weaknesses before taking the field.
  • Objectively evaluate your own performance and make adjustments.
  • Highlight the value in the contribution of your teammates.
  • Arrive early, rested and prepared for your days’ work.
  • Constantly evaluate / moderate your own emotional state during the game.
  • Grade yourself critically on consistency and form.
  • Focus on your game and your performance overall.
  • Talk about performance.  Always.
  • Show respect for your competitors – especially the greats.
  • Be happy with your achievements, but really cut loose and celebrate when the whole team wins.

Yesterday we lost Tom Seaver at the age of 75.  As a kid growing up in the early 70s in a NY suburb, Tom Seaver was everything to me and my friends.  We read every article we could find about him in newspapers, magazines and books and fought for number 41 on every baseball team we played on (I only got it twice).  When he pitched, we watched him on television, and on rare and very special occasions, saw him play in person.

It is clear that he had some God-given natural gifts (he often spoke of being grateful for his talent), but it was his focus, work-ethic and habits that turned him into one of the best and most consistent performers of all time. 

I had a few friends who respected him but felt he was “aloof” in interviews and later as a commentator.  I always looked at it differently.  I like to think that Tom was always preoccupied with performance and with excellence. 

Rest in Peace, Tom Seaver. 

Thank you for being one of my best teachers growing up, even though neither of us knew it at the time.

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Happy Independence Day

There is common ground out there yet.

On this July 4th, let’s recommit to the original idea of equality set forth 244 years ago and create more common ground in this country through action and kindness.

It may be the most recognizable sentence in the American English language: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Deep in our souls, this rings true. And, like the teachings of the great religions of the world it is deeply virtuous…but it is also aspirational. The men who conceived of these ideas were as imperfect as we are now, but we owe it to them and to all others who sacrificed to make this experiment work to keep pushing for the aspirational goal of equality that they set for us.

A common theme of our times is that we cannot move forward together because we are fundamentally divided.  So we must fight to find common ground – and service is a very effective way to find that common ground. We generally do not see people deeply involved in performing a service engaged in partisan debate. They are too busy acting. They may be pushing a disabled car to safety, rescuing a child in deep water, feeding hungry people, giving directions, aiding the sick, caring for older people, counseling refugees, fundraising for charity, shoveling snow off the roof of their church or any number of organized (or ad hoc) gestures of kindness. It is through acts of kindness that we can find a way unite. 

Kindness + Action = Citizenry 

Happy 4th.

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Leading in a time of Pandemics, Downturns, Elections – The one thing you must create space for.

Leaders navigate a flood of information, learning constantly and synthesizing all of it to guide and encourage people each day.  Add the anxiety and emotion generated by recent, rapidly-evolving national and global events and we have an extra measure of (personal and professional) leadership challenges. 

So how do we stand up to this test? Not by trying to work longer or to cram more information into our heads.  

Actually, we need a little of the opposite.

Right now – we could do with the best leadership possible – for our organizations, companies, units, congregations, teams, work groups, families … and country.  I mean people who can evaluate inputs thoughtfully and make responsible determinations – not to simply yield to ‘conventional thinking’ or what ‘everyone else is doing’.  This is harder to do than ever when we are constantly marinated in other peoples’ ideas with a 24/7 news cycle/feeds, instant notifications, commentary shows and social media.  

Today’s evolving situations may require a leader to focus on an urgent issue without losing sight of the big picture.  It may even demand the moral courage to challenge conventional thinking and take calculated risks.  This balance of perspective, imagination and inner strength is simply not available to a busy, multi-tasking and distracted leader.

If you are a leader who aspires to perform at a high level in a high stress environment, you must find time for solitude:

  • Alone
  • No head phones, no interruptions.
  • To think things through – really concentrate.
  • Long enough to marshal the incoming data points, emotions and thoughts.
    • To filter some
    • To form ideas and turn them over in your mind, testing them, generating more.
  • Then imagining the coming hours and days. 

This could be 15 minutes a day, it could be an hour.  But if you are leading in a crisis, you’ll need to develop this discipline – to step away from the fray and be alone with your thoughts.

Try it one time and you will find yourself with a measure of perspective and composure that you simply cannot access on days when you dive right in. 

If you don’t think you have time for solitude and thinking, look at it this way.   If you are maxed out on multitasking and tactical distractions, you simply will not have the mental capacity to evaluate new challenges with detachment.  You may even become a net negative – actually harming the people that you mean to nurture.  Or, best case, you will simply “just do enough” and guide them in following the herd, doing what everyone else is doing, because you will not have prepared yourself adequately to respond creatively to disruptions.

You (We) Must Be Better.

Years ago, I stumbled upon something that worked for me.  I was unexpectedly assigned to run a troubled but talented technology organization.  Replacing a leader and founder who was dismissed in a controversial acquisition, I was seen as an interloper of sorts.   There were serious business challenges from the first day.  To make the situation more interesting, the new role was an unpleasant two-hour drive from my house each day. 

During the first week, I had a particularly bad commute one morning and just sat in my car in silence for 15 minutes to cool down before entering the building.  At one point, I pulled out a notepad and jotted a few things down.  I unexpectedly found that this helped me – a lot. 

Eventually, sitting in silence each day with a notepad became a crisis management ritual for me.

Every situation is different, but my time-in-silence exercise looks a little like this:

  • Remind myself of big picture leadership context – my larger objectives / longer term
  • Think about things that I may have been missing that I need to focus on
  • Ask the big question:  Who do I need to be today?  What is my best behavior?
  • Imagine situations that can go wrong today….and how will I respond?
  • Place myself in good humor.  And get moving.

Later in my career, having read books like “Excellent Sheep” by William Deresiewicz (also look for the transcript of his outstanding West Point Lecture) and biographies of people like Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Abraham Lincoln and others, I came to see that some sort of solitude ‘ritual’ is a mainstay for many leaders in times of crisis.  

Please give it a try.  The people you lead deserve your very best performance….and they need it now.

Start with 15 minutes tomorrow.  I really believe it will help.  Good luck and let me know how it goes.

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The replay of this goal will probably not go viral….and I think it’s a shame

Anders Lee had already scored two goals toward the end of last night’s NY Islanders hockey game against the San Jose Sharks.  With a few minutes left, the Sharks pulled their goalie to get an extra skater and Lee stole the puck with an opportunity to pop it into the empty net for the win.  Lee, a stand-out player and captain of the Islanders is in his eighth season and yet has never had a three-goal game.  So, what does he do?   He takes the puck up the left side, sees the empty net and passes it to his teammate Josh Bailey, who scores the goal.  The game ends and Anders Lee has still never scored a hat-trick.  With an opportunity for a nice personal accomplishment, the team captain opts to be unselfish and pass the puck and let someone else score.  Cool.

I live in the New York area, and on one of the many screens at my gym, I saw this replay on the morning sports report. 

Moments later, on the same telecast, they showed highlights of a local high school basketball game and I watched a player slam dunk and jump around shouting and flexing his biceps.  Look at me, I just scored two points with a slam dunk…not the game winner, not even a tying basket, just two points in the middle of a high school game….so look at me.   Never mind his teammate that hauled down a rebound in traffic and fired a beautiful pass to him so he could score.  No.  Look at me.  See me flex.  It may seem kind of ridiculous in this context, but I fully understand the kid.  He has been watching sports on TV his whole life.

Watch any sport.  Basketball, yes.  American Football has the choreographed touchdown dances that take place even when their team is losing, and the chest pounding after a catch.  Baseball has players standing and flipping the bat when hitting a home run, and the styled home run trots…all too often played out when their team is still losing.  I really don’t mean to pick on sports, heck I love sports, but this sort of thing has never sat well with me.

The funny thing is (and I have not scientifically proven this) that I don’t feel like the big  celebrations we see are actually correlated with great results.  Heck, I have watched the NY Jets players celebrate in the NFL for years and they are still, well, the Jets. 

It may seem like ancient history, but when you read about the greats like NCAA Men’s Basketball coaches Dean Smith and John Wooden, you find was a day when the opposite was expected.   They would expect a player scoring a basket to point to the player who passed them the ball.  This was the celebration.  They were onto something, I expect.   Wooden is the greatest coach of all time with a run of 10 national championships in a 12 year span. 

Where did this mindset go?  In this era of non-stop self-promotion everywhere, and especially in sports and on social media (where some peoples’ careers depend on it), there are still some places you can find the old-school self-deprecating person.  In fact, they are always in our midst.

Find a well-run business, a restaurant, store, department, or office that has happy employees and happy customers.  Just ask to meet the manager.  And there you have it….Old School.

Have you tried looking?

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A new decade! Is it time for the Annual Holiday Layoff to die?

I love to hear from friends and former colleagues around the holiday season! But over the past decade, I have learned to hold my breath as I open emails and messages. I always want to hear news of career progress and growing families, but 2019 once again brought painful stories of holiday season layoffs in the New York area. 

The Annual (holiday) Layoff:  We know layoffs are bad. So why do some (usually large) firms, seem to do them annually?  

Many firms have calendar year fiscal cycles and feel pressure to hit performance targets.  For some, the method used to do this is to shed staff at the end of the year – often around Thanksgiving, Hanukah and the Christmas holidays.  The traditional time of counting blessings and celebrating with family and friends, is turned into a time of stress, dread and sadness for the beleaguered employees of these “Annual RIF” firms.

So, what happens when Layoffs become Annual Events?  (You probably already know):

A low-grade, persistent fear slowly sets into the culture.

  • Every day is a mini battle for job survival.
  • Self-preservation begins to eclipse individual or team performance
  • CYA wins the day

Innovation slows down.

  • Real innovation requires experimentation and a willingness to fail during the discovery process.  People are increasingly afraid to fail and abandon experimentation in favor of the relative safety of the “tried and true”.

All Projects in Green Status.

  • At certain times of the year, it is personally risky to report bad news…so people find ways to hide or defer it.
  • Small ‘fires’ go unreported…. until they are too big to hide.
  • People back away from complex problems instead of attacking them.

Performance management goes out the window.

  • Annual ‘rank and yank’ at layoff time means that keeping bad performers until the year-end “reaping” becomes the norm.  Day to day performance management skills atrophy as managers are no longer trusted / required to improve or manage out bad performers during the year.
  • It becomes a discouraging environment for conscientious managers and strong performers, but a fertile ground for mediocre performers who can “work” the annual system.

A growing cynical malaise.

  • Looking good for the annual evaluation trumps actual performance.
  • It becomes about playing the annual ‘game’.

Human Resources loses traction.

  • They gradually become the annual grim reaper
  • People may even avoid confiding in them

Breaking the Cycle is Not Easy:

How do executives of large firms avoid the temptation of Annual Layoffs and still get the ‘Benefits’ of meeting financial and transformational expectations in challenging years?

Answer: It is good old-fashioned, Druckerian, hands-on management.

There is no hack for this – we must create an environment where overall performance and operational discipline combine to reduce the likelihood of layoffs.

Leaders just do the job:

Constantly talk about Firm and Departmental performance at ALL levels:

  • Relentlessly align people to strategy
  • Make everyone responsible for knowing the market you are in
  • Be seen – be relentlessly visible in the organization

Train, evaluate and demand performance from your managers – at all levels:

  • Understanding the market and aligning teams to the firm’s strategy
  • Communication at all levels (especially listening) and striving to create clarity
  • Constant feedback and performance management
  • Delegation and asking for more – always building depth and successors
  • Evaluating and attracting talent
  • Understanding financials and fiscal responsibility
  • Recognizing people for good performance, mutual support, teamwork and innovation

Create Systemic Transparency:

  • Adopt a system to ensure the accurate reporting of progress at all levels
  • Balance the value of honesty vs. delivering positive news
  • Discourage unnecessary protocol – encourage open doors
  • Relentlessly focus, measure progress and demand top performance on your strategic imperatives.  Every day.  Every damned day.

Let’s resolve now to do this! 

  • Demonstrate and expect real performance management all year
  • Demonstrate and expect real financial control all year
  • Evaluate every month (or at least quarterly) and course correct all year
    • At the end of the year, no surprises or need for reductions
  • Here’s to a new ethical and prosperous decade – the 2020s.

Some last thoughts:

First off, let’s face it – there are likely no firms that do Annual Layoffs as a practice.  There are a number of firms that have had layoffs in various divisions in the last few years in a row.  My point here is this:  It does not matter what the whole firm actually does:  If people THINK layoffs have become Annual at your company, then you have this problem…and the clock is running on you.

And I think it gets better!  I am optimistic that the number of firms that have Annual (or near-Annual) Layoffs will dwindle to near zero by the end of the ’20s.  Transformational technology and the need to innovate will require these firms to re-think their practices in order to attract and retain talent, or they will be eaten.

Reflection Questions:

  1. As a leader at a firm doing frequent annual layoffs, how can you effectively start a dialog to change?
  2. What actions are within your power as a leader to mitigate damage to your organization’s performance?
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Deep sigh. Let’s Talk About Layoffs.

Why do layoffs happen in the first place?

They are a corporate reality that can be caused by many things. 

It could be an under-performing product line, a department that does not hit sales targets, the impact from a merger, a company that falls behind the technology curve or did not anticipate market events or it could even result from large-scale economic downturn.

So many reasons.

These things happen… a lot. They just do. 

A staff reduction is something that a firm does with extreme reluctance – a sacrifice made to head off a major problem at the firm – a last resort… a failure of the firm’s leadership to anticipate something important.   

Damage from Layoffs:

Layoffs may address a potential problem, but they also damage the Fabric of an Organization:

  • The flow of information is interrupted, impacting productivity
  • Projects are impacted and so is quality
  • Customer service may suffer
  • It breaks the unspoken trust that employees have with their employer (I will trade you my best work and my time for employment and support for me and my family)
  • People lose friends and colleagues

Just the rumor of a layoff creates fear, which can drive survivalist behavior and impact teamwork.

“Benefits” of Layoffs: 

What!?  Benefits?

Layoffs can quickly help address pressing financial problems by closing expense gaps. They are a tactic to drop the bottom line to meet or exceed the margin expectations of shareholders, investors or analysts. They can also help expedite an organizational transition like a large relocation or outsourcing plan which can improve financial targets. In times of stress, a layoff can take some pressure off senior executives by tactically addressing the financial picture. In extreme and rare situations, they may save a troubled company.   

Here’s where it can get ugly:

In some larger firms, there is immense pressure on executives and boards of directors to meet company performance expectations. Due to large company complexity, these execs may not directly ‘feel’ the employee culture in global or even regional locations. In the executive suite of a large company, they may be closer to the tactical benefits of layoffs than are with the cultural damage that is caused by them.  In some of these firms, they can be tempted by the annual boost they can get to their financials – and layoffs can become annual events.

Reflection Questions:

  1.  When a layoff is the only option, what are some ways for firms to mitigate the cultural damage?
  2. Once a layoff is over, what are some steps for firms to take to ensure that an event like this is not repeated?
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From a person I never even knew… comes a timely reminder

A Quick Thought for a New Year’s Resolution.

I was running errands with my Dad this week and we made a stop for gasoline.  While the tank was filling, I found myself gazing at the funeral home across the street and thinking about how difficult it can be to lose a loved one around the holidays.  I noticed that the parking lot was mostly full and wondered about the person that these visitors had come to honor. 

On my drive home that evening I had some time in traffic to think about the day when I am the person lying in repose in the front of that room.  The finality of it.

When I leave this world, I will be taking with me:

The “Composition of Me”:

  • The memory of the thousands of relationships that form “me”
  • All of my opinions and biases
  • All of my worries and stress
  • The memory of every movie I have seen and every book I have read
  • The memories of all the great games I have seen and all of the games I have played in when I was young
  • My memories of the world, voyages, business trips, vacations, and of growing up near New York City
  • All of my accomplishments, licenses, promotions and titles
  • The knowledge of how to do the jobs I have done in my life

Also, the “Unshared Gifts” I will take:

  • All of the ideas I have yet to act on.
  • All of my intentions to do good and kind things, that I have not done.
  • All of the love that remains in my heart.

All of these perish when we leave this world.  Gone.  None of it will be backed up to the cloud or recovered.

I suppose the people who come to the funeral home can testify to the part of me that remains behind.  My impact on them and the other people in my life will be all that survives.

Maybe this is a good thing to have in mind on the doorstep of a new year and decade.

I am using this little experience to influence my resolution this year:

  • Less focus on the perishable “Composition of Me”.
  • More focus on minimizing the “Unshared Gifts” by giving these things now:
    • Showing up more for people
    • Trying to listen more and to have a kind word
    • Sharing adventures with others as often as possible
    • Working on being a good example
    • Sharing that love a little more
    • Putting some of those ideas and intentions into action to maybe do some good
  • We don’t get to choose when we go.
  • We can choose how we use our Gifts.
    • But only while we are blessed with the time to choose.

To the person who was being honored this week at that funeral home across from the gasoline station on Long Island: Thank You. 

You had one more gift to give a stranger that you didn’t even know about:  You made me think.

I wish for all a New Year and a Decade that is full of Peace, Good Health and Time to Share. 

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What’s a Compelling Team Formula that lasts – for 40 years? It’s on TV every week.

The recipe for today’s popular cable “makeover” project shows is to have attractive hosts make us feel good by presenting and solving problems in a single episode.  This Old House features a group of average-looking professionals renovating a single house per season.  Even cast members did not expect this show to survive beyond its first year.  How are they doing this?  

Last weekend I watched the 40th Anniversary special for This Old House on PBS.  I always enjoyed this show.  Each season, their journey includes the history of the area, the home, and the plans for the renovation with the homeowners’ objectives.  Each project takes the entire season and highlights the technique, materials and technology used to execute the plan and solve the problems that inevitably arise along the way. 

Why is their formula still drawing an audience in the era of instant gratification?  I like to think it is simply Competence and Respect.

  1. Competence:  The core cast of the show consists of the host and a small group of seasoned professionals.  The latter are masters of their respective trades; carpenters, contractors, plumbers, electricians and landscapers.  The cast professionals know their stuff and we observe old-school methodical craftmanship while they embrace (and explain) modern technological technique.  The host ties it all together, providing the viewer a light narrative with good humor, clarity and context.
  2. Respect:  The cast members respect the work they do, respect one another and treat the homeowners and the local professionals they work with on each project with decency.  They explain things clearly and with care.  They approach problems and mistakes with patience and curiosity.  They have fun, using gentle pranks and self-deprecating humor to break the tension that mounts in the face of obstacles. 

Why I watch:

  • I see sound motivation technique; a clear view of the conditions and parameters of the project, so all involved – including the viewers – have a stake and realistic expectations.
  • Camaraderie, technical skills and resourcefulness in action are just compelling to me. Heck, this is why people watch Seal Team (though the action factor is a bit different).

What I take away:  

When working with a firm, I will come upon the occasional group that has a reputation for good results and positive culture over time.  I sometimes call them Anchor Teams. When I ask about their success, they often give good fortune and one another the credit, but it is always more than this.  Anchor Teams can be hidden drivers of intellectual curiosity, harmony and high standards in an organization.  People on these teams can be observed encouraging one another and kidding one another, but always asking one another for more.  For a leader, there is always something valuable to learn from these special teams, but only leaders who really engage with their organization get to see this. 

As for This Old House – Sure, I think it might be uglier when the cameras are off.  Every home project is messy, and these people are performers in addition to being skilled builders.  There will be competition, friction and disagreement.  But, at This Old House, the producers, directors and cast members do their jobs well.  I can’t see the drama on Sunday evenings – I see their core Anchor Team at work, and I see Competence and Respect.  I am grateful for this.

Once a week, I can enjoy being part of their project and imagine (and hope) that their behavior and standards are still held in high regard.

Congratulations to This Old House on 40 years of success!

Discussion:

  • Where do you see Anchor Teams (with a reputation for good results and positive culture) in your organization?
  • How do you expand their value without damaging their successful formula?