Are you seeing clearly?

Over the past week, many of us have had the opportunity to spend time with friends and family.  Many of us will hear stories of successes and accomplishments that our friends and other family members have had, and as a result be envious to have their success.  What we often don't realize, is that the same people who we are envious of, may actually be trying to compete with us.

Life doesn't need to be a competition, but should rather be enjoyed for the moment that you are in.  Here is a clip that in my opinion illustrates how we can get so caught up in winning and losing that we forget to recognize success and accomplishment.

Take the time to recognize the successes you are having and the impact you have on a daily basis.  If you don't, you may not recognize success when it is right in front of you.

What accomplishments are you going to enjoy this week?  If you think about it, I guarantee that you have had some that you haven't given yourself enough credit for!

Have a great week!

Directional Leadership

In 1984, singer Joe Jackson had a hit song with a line in it that said, "You can't get what you want, until you know what you want".  As a leader, the most important questions that can be answered is where are we going, and why are we going there?

Typically, business are started to solve a problem.  Whether the business owner is attempting to create a new product or to improve on an existing concept, they are fundamentally wanting to solve a problem.  The leaders reporting to the business owner must believe in the vision and direction that the owner has.  Leaders must engage the front line employees in the direction of the organization in order for the business to be successful.  As a result successful operations have top to bottom synergy.

In customer facing roles, the worst response that can be provided to a customer is "They say I need to follow this procedure, even though it doesn't make sense"  If successful operations must have top to bottom synergy in direction, why would customers receive this response from front line employees.  Has the direction of the organization changed, and the top level management just hasn't caught up or vice-versa?  This is a problem.

How do you know what you want?  What direction do you as a leader want to create?  It is essential to continually be taking temperature checks of the organization both formally and informally to ensure if conditions have changed in the market, that leaders are creating the direction and are being response to the intel provided to them at all levels.  Leaders that dismiss feedback, are doing themselves and their organization a big disservice. 

Once you have created organizational synergy and are providing directional, responsive leadership, you are then able to ensure the organization is being effective and efficient in the execution of the vision and mission of the the organization.  You can get what you want, if you know what you want.  As a leader, you need to invest not only the monetary and intellectual resources to creating organizational direction, but you must invest your human resources for long term organizational success. 

A baseball team would love to have a lineup of all .400 hitters, but what is the cost of doing so, pitching effectiveness, defensive ability.  What's the benefit of scoring 15 runs a game, if you are giving away 16.  Balance and team work are imperative for baseball organizations.

This same balance and team work are imperative in other environments as well.  The difference is the directional leadership that is being provided and if the organization buys into the leaders direction.  You really can get what you want, if you know what you want!

Have a great week!

Baseball Season

It is Baseball Season!!!  America's pastime! It is the best time of the year!!

What does baseball mean to me?  It is a time of learning, it is a time for motivation, it is a time of new beginnings!

In the movie "Bull Durham", Kevin Costner is a teacher of the finer points of the game.  The new hot shot pitcher has to learn more about the finer points of the game.  Never throw a punch with your pitching arm, never mess with a streak, and most importantly to trust in your teammates. 

In the movie "The Sandlot", Bennie "The Jet" Rodriquez was born out of his "pickling the beast".  The lesson here is that everyone has their defining moment that will carry them throughout their life.

In the movie, "The Rookie", Dennis Quaids character learns that it is important to recognize when you become a hero or a mentor to others.  As his wife tells him when he is about to quit his dream of making it to the major leagues that his 10 year old son is asleep for the night and that if he thinks about quitting, what kind of message is it sending to his son.  What a powerful message!

At the end of the day, Baseball is a metaphor for life!  To quote Kevin Costner from Bull Durham, "some days you win, some days you lose, and some days it rains."  In life, we are all going to have our good days and our bad days.  Some days things just don't work out as planned, but we always need to keep our priorities straight.

Those that have played baseball at the highest levels will tell you that the highest compliment that can be paid to a ball player is to be known as a great teammate not to just be the best player.  I have been fortunate to coach my son's when they were younger and humility is a big part of their individual games.  They are known by their peers as a teammate first, and a skilled player second.

In the workplace, individual accolades can be attained, but it should be more important to maintain trusting relationships.  This is the way I play the game, for better or worse!

I look forward each week to my 7 inning vacation for my sons games and look forward to those 9 inning vacations with my family once the professional season starts.

Have a great end of the weekend!

Progress, not perfection

Progress, not perfection.

This is a statement that I have learned over the last few years when in coaching and development situations.  I first heard this statement from a good friend that is in an AA program, and it is one that I have been able to transfer to coaching and development.

In my contact center, I have several front line representatives that are very hard on themselves for making an error.  They expressed to me that in other positions, errors were not acceptable and that they could lose their jobs for making mistakes.  My immediate question back to them was, what did you learn from that previous negative experience.  Typically their response was that they needed to slow down and make sure their work was correct the first time.  Interesting.  Slow down and make sure that you don't make the same mistake again. 

What I didn't hear from that interaction was that representative was never coached and developed.  How much effort would it have taken for the supervisor to spend an extra couple of minutes and have a conversation with that employee about their thought process, or what they were looking at when the error occurred.  Getting employee feedback as to the why an error occurred is more important than the error itself.  By doing so, it can lead to identification of process improvements, training gaps, or system enhancements.  At the human level, it can demonstrate to the employee that leadership really does care about them as individuals, not just numbers.

Whenever coaching a manager, supervisor, or front line agent, focus on root cause of the error.  The thought process leading up to the error is more important than the error itself.  Progress, not perfection means to me that errors and mistakes are going to occur.  What is more important though is what an individual learns from the error, and how the individual and organization can develop from the mistake.

Baseball is the best analogy for not being perfect.  What other profession can you be successful 30% of the time and have a 20+ year career and reach your professions Hall of Fame. 

Next time you find yourself with a teachable moment, take the time to remind the person that your expectation is that they are progressing forward, not backward as a trend.  Force them to critically think about what they are doing.  If you do so, you will have a much more engaged organization.

Have a great weekend!