Blanchard LeaderChat

There are a couple of different measures that always matter.  Productivity is one of them.  You have to hold people accountable to deliver upon the goals and tasks that they are asked to accomplish.  The other piece that is not as heavily managed is people’s discretionary energy. 

That’s part of what I found out after finishing an interview with Chris Edmonds, a senior consulting partner here at The Ken Blanchard Companies. My interview with Chris will be featured in next week’s issue of Ignite!, our monthly e-newsletter and Chris will also be our featured presenter for an April 14 webinar on Revitalizing the Downsized Organization.   Both of these resources are free and you can find out more by clicking on the links above.  If you haven’t had a chance to hear Chris speak, here are a few of the ideas that Chris will be sharing: 

• Most leaders are more comfortable managing metrics like productivity but may not be as comfortable having the type of wide-open conversations about issues that you have to have if you are going to build the passion and commitment you need to move forward in trying times.  And because leaders don’t take the time to stop and get everyone involved, you can end up making a stupid short term decision that may look really good right now, but a month from now, or six months from now, continues to have really negative impact on your business.
• You want your people to be passionate and engaged in the work that they are doing. And you are only going to get the discretionary energy of your people is when they are feeling trusted and respected as a valued partner and stakeholder in the way that the business operates.   
• It’s the secret behind organizations like Southwest Airlines where even when times are tough they don’t have folks leaving, demonstrating, or picketing.  Instead, they’ve got folks constantly meeting together about how they can help the organization get through this economy.  It is a great example of how overall employee commitment and demonstrated discretionary energy is driven by clear communication of what is happening, open involvement in trying to influence the decisions that are being made, and what can happen when people are consistently cared for as a vital asset.

If you want your organization to move forward during tough times, everyone has to feel some ownership in the process and feel that they can make a difference. I was reminded of that fact when I saw an article about Ben Zander, the highly regarded conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  Both Ben and the orchestra celebrated anniversaries last week.  Ben celebrating his 70th birthday and the Boston Philharmonic celebrating its 30th.

Ben had spoken at our company a couple of years ago at our annual Week of Excellence all-company meeting and encouraged all of us to replace “downward spiral thinking” with “possibility thinking” instead.  Ben also cautioned us not to fall into the trap of thinking that leadership is just for those people at the top of the organization.  For an organization to truly move forward together, everyone has to be involved and feel that they play a role.

To illustrate his point, Ben told the story of an accomplished cellist who joined the Boston Philharmonic but who was disappointed when she found herself ranked as the 11th cellist among the twelve seats available.  Still, she persevered and at Ben’s urging, she volunteered an idea of how to play a certain section of a symphony the Boston Philharmonic was scheduled to perform.

The piece was performed the following week to rave reviews.  After the performance, the cellist came up to Zander excitedly and asked, “You played the piece the way I suggested, didn’t you.”  Ben nodded in agreement and saw the woman’s whole attitude change. 

“From then on,” he continued, “this cellist who sat in the 11th seat played like a completely different person.”  Instead of just being technically correct, her playing took on an added dimension that she hadn’t displayed before.  When Ben asked her about this, she explained that ever since that night when she first saw the possibility that she could influence the orchestra from her modest position in the 11th chair, she felt like she had been leading the orchestra every night since then.

But can a person sitting in the 11th chair of your organization really make a difference?  You bet.

I found this out for myself when I talked with a co-worker who said Ben Zander touched her heart and reminded her that each one of us is important to the bigger goal.

“It creates a feeling in me of my worth in the workplace,” she said. “What I like about this idea is that it makes me feel like I might have an idea that would contribute and that I have value to the company,”

A lot of clients have been asking us to help them with positioning training in their companies.  Tight budgets have put restrictions on travel and any expenditure that doesn’t immediately impact the bottom line.  Training budgets have been especially hard hit in companies that mostly see training as long-term skill development that you do when you have extra time and money—which is certainly not the situation today in most organizations.

It got me thinking about who needs training.  If training is just for training’s sake, the answer is probably no one.  But if it is training designed to help people be more productive on the job, serve customers better, or impact the bottom line in some way, then that’s a different story.

So who in your company needs to be more focused and productive?  Who could benefit from managers better able to prioritize work, manage expectations, and provide support?  There are probably a number of people depending on the situation your company is in.

In any of these three situations, training can help your organization immediately, and also position it for new growth in the future as the economy improves.

Did you eat at Denny’s yesterday? I tried to, together with three of my coworkers, but the lines were too long.  For those of you who might have missed the ads during the Super Bowl and also the full page ad in USA Today, Denny’s was offering a free Grand Slam breakfast to everyone who stopped by any Denny’s location between 6:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. yesterday.  Over two million people did exactly that.

I can’t say that any of us were surprised when we saw the full parking lot and the line out the door when we drove by our local Denny’s at eleven-thirty thinking we would beat the lunchtime crowd. We ended up eating at another restaurant down the street—which was also packed. (A scene that was probably played out near many Denny’s restaurants yesterday—a thank you note for the spike in business is probably in order.)

Even though I didn’t get a chance to enjoy a free breakfast at Denny’s I still want to compliment the senior leadership at Denny’s for taking a proactive stance in a tough economy.  It’s great to see an organization moving forward, building enthusiasm for their brand, instead of sitting back hoping that people will still come in as usual.  It’s something we can all probably learn from.  Think about what they accomplished yesterday.

• A great goodwill gesture that generated a lot of buzz and press coverage.
• Getting folks reacquainted with the store—many people stopped by for the first time in years.
• A chance to sample the product—“This Grand Slam breakfast is good, and it’s normally $5.99 for two eggs, two pancakes, and two strips of bacon or sausage, that’s still a good deal.”

 What can you be doing to shake things up in your organization?  (You can be sure that I’m thinking about it.)  And you can bet that I am still hungry for that breakfast now that Denny’s has planted it in my mind.

At a time when everything seems topsy-turvy, it was comforting to enjoy the touchpoint of the Super Bowl.  I listened to the game on radio while catching up with some work and it was reassuring to hear the ads for Lincoln-Mercury (focusing on batteries, tires, and brakes), Subway (eat healthy), MotorCraft batteries, and Barbasol shaving cream—just like always.  It reminded me that even as we cope with a serious recession, there is still a lot of business out there and things are more the same than they are different.  Sure, we’re all saving every nickel and dime, but we are still buying the things we need.  People and businesses are being cautious with their money.  I can handle that.

It was also comforting to see that some people—marketers especially—are still working hard.  It was fun to see them adjusting their messages to fit the current economic situation.  No panic—just a necessary adjustment.  It’s probably something we can all reflect on.  What’s the approach in your organization?  Are you adjusting, moving forward, dealing effectively with the situation, or are you holding back, unsure of how to proceed.  That’s a sure recipe for failure.