are you keeping your commitment?

Something else is more important than you

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Years ago, one of my people got mad at me because I rescheduled a meeting. It is something that I try not to do and I felt badly that I did. He felt that the time we scheduled was his—I made a commitment and backed out. The unintended message to him was: Something more important than you has come along and you are being rescheduled to accommodate.

Keeping commitments is one of the toughest and most important leadership lessons. When I reflect on the most successful leaders I’ve worked with, they never rescheduled on me. Keeping their commitment was so important, I had a CEO take a call from a hospital bed. Another kept a meeting in the midst of a major acquisition. Keeping their commitment was important.

It is easy to apologize for rescheduling a meeting and move on without thinking about the real message. It is worth taking time to step back and think about how you show up with your team. Are you sending the message you intend?

are you setting your front line people up for success?

Are you setting your front line people up for success?

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It was a long flight, so I got up to stretch my legs for a minute. The flight attendant was nice and not in the middle of anything, so I stopped to chat for a minute. She was having a tough day. The coffee had exploded on her three times, leaving spots across her uniform at the start of the flight. Catering did not stock about half the food they should have. She expected to spend the entire flight apologizing. After all, she had 26 years of experience and did not relish being in the position of looking incompetent.

Being on the front line is tough. Especially if the business is not run well. Front line people are left to apologize and take heat for something they have no control over. At the same time, the customer expects a certain level of experience and don’t really care who is to blame. Having a cohesive experience is important. How are you ensuring you meet customer expectations, while not leaving your front line people to flap in the wind?

Are you compelling enough?

Are you compelling enough?

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The dogs two doors down were barking, so my 75 lb yellow lab decided it would be fun to join in. She was having a grand time barking and running back and forth across the fence line. So when I called her, she really was not interested in coming. She was having too much fun and was enjoying herself. My offering of a treat was just not that compelling.

That’s the thing with motivating people. If they are having a great time with what they are doing, and are enjoying themselves, doing something different is not compelling. Even if they aren’t having a blast, if there is no promise that doing something different will be better, there is no motivation to make that change. Change has to offer something better—people need to understand why they will be better off. It has to be compelling.

How are you making change compelling in your business?

 

is there a third option you haven't considered?

Is there a third option you haven’t thought about?

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My dog was at the doggy hotel. Being a rescue dog, she always struggles when I’m out of town. So, I do my best to minimize the time she is there. I was debating the merits of driving back and forth twice in traffic to pick her up, drop her at home, then back into town versus leaving her for a few extra hours at the doggy hotel and making just one trip.

Then it struck me, my plane was getting in early enough and I could pick her up tonight rather than tomorrow. I usually get in too late, so the option didn’t immediately occur to me. But once it did, it was obvious and the best choice—and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought about it earlier.

Many times there are better options that don’t present themselves because you are so focused on the choices in front of you. It is only when you step back that other better options present themselves. How are you making space to invite better options to reveal themselves?

what happened to the barf bag?

What happened to the barf bag?

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The flight was relatively smooth and uneventful. So it was a surprise when five people got sick. The flight attendants scrambled to get plastic bags and paper towels to clean up the mess. One of them remarked to me that he felt badly for the people, but was surprised since there was no turbulence. The incident left me thinking it has been some time since I saw the bag in the seat pocket. I checked, and sure enough, there was nothing there. The thing is, the bag isn’t needed most of the time. But when it is needed, it is needed immediately.

In business, there are tools put into place to mitigate risks. But if you take away those tools, you may find a little mess becomes a big mess. Just like turbulence and people getting sick can be predicted, you have situations in your business that can be too. What can you do to put tools in place to mitigate the mess before it happens?

missed sales

Are you missing opportunities that are right in front of you?

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There are several prime parking spots. They are a little wider than the others, nearly a guarantee that you won’t have to shimmy into your car when you come back due to someone parking too close to you. People hold up the line behind them just to get one of these spots. So, it was interesting to watch more than a dozen people drive right by an empty spot. People were looking left to go up the ramp and missed looking right to see the spot.

Achieving results in business is all about where you place your focus. Sometimes the focus is so narrow we miss opportunities right in front of us. How are you making sure you don’t miss opportunities in your business?

Your mindset impacts how you show up

The way you show up has ramifications beyond you

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Your personal leadership style ripples through your company and community. If you go to work as a grump, everyone will feel stressed and they’ll suffer. If you go to work feeling optimistic and centered, people will want to accomplish big things. The way you show up has ramifications far beyond you.

you can't skip the basics

Not knowing the basics can lead to big problems down the road

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After dance class last week, a few of us gathered to talk for a few minutes. We had noticed a few of the people in class didn’t know the basics and thought it would be helpful for the instructor to cover them next time. You learn the basics when you are younger, so as an adult, they are not normally taught. But if you come into class without having taken dance earlier in life, you don’t know what you don’t know.

The same is true in business. At one point in my career, I spent a lot of time looking at why some projects fail while others are wildly successful. One of the key findings was people. When people were put in a position to run a project and didn’t have the basics, the projects failed. You can’t skip the basics. How are you making sure your people are getting them?

How do you make space for ideas?

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how do you make space for ideas?I’m in the final stretches of writing my book. And sometimes I’d get a little stuck. The same has happened in trying to think through problems and opportunities over the course of my career. The ideas come when I make space for them. Sometimes while walking my dog, sometimes in the shower, and other times while listening to the radio.

How do you make space for ideas? If you don’t, what is holding you back from getting started?

Are you building redundancy into your processes because they are broken?

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are you building in extra work because your processes are brokenI went to the bank to update a signature card. It seemed like it should be a straightforward process. But it wasn’t. The fellow on the front line asked me to sign on a little pad several times even though I couldn’t see what I was actually signing for. After a few signatures, he asked me to wait a minute while he printed out the document. He needed additional signatures there as the system automatically deletes the electronic signatures about half the time. Huh?

Imagine if this was your business. Would you want your peoples’ work load to be double because the system doesn’t work? Would you want your customers to experience this type of situation? Most businesses are trying to find a way to increase productivity and engagement. This one little instance indicates there is probably a lot of opportunity. How are you building mechanisms into your business to report and fix problems proactively?