Dottie (my wife) and I have just returned from a trip to California, highlighted by spending several days with Don and Susan Couch. (Don was my college roommate.) One of his hobbies is home winemaking—easy to understand since he lives near 10,000 or so wineries.
Instead of buying an expensive home wine-making kit, he decided to muster his own kit, only buying what he really needed. Impressed and interested, I asked how he got started and he replied, “I bought a garbage can.” Yes, a garbage can, followed by what looked like a Crystal Springs 5-gallon water bottle, then a small oak container, wine bottles, and so on. He spent about $300 and yielded several dozen bottles of wine, one of which I sampled. I don’t know if his wine would win any awards, but it tasted fine to me.
Now, like me, you may be thinking, “A garbage can? Can you make decent wine using a garbage can?” The answer is yes. Why? Because the first stage of wine making is called primary fermentation and it doesn’t much matter what kind of container you use as long as it is clean. The type of container used for primary fermentation wouldn’t make a list of the 20 most important things about wine making. Grapes, water, temperature, yeast, etc., are all much more important than the container you first dump them in to get fermentation started. So why spend hundreds on a container when $10-15 will do just as well?
There is a great lesson in this for businesses, churches, or organizations of any kind. Spend your money on what will really make a difference in the outcome. The next time you are tempted to spend time, money or energy on something, ask yourself, “Am I doing this because it will look good and feed my ego, or will it really make a difference in results?” If you aren’t sure, then try the garbage can first. You can always spend the big bucks later if you need to.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
Warren Bennis, the “dean of leadership gurus” (Forbes, 1996), said this about leadership:
“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.”
How are leaders “made”? By learning…
“an identifiable set of skills and practices that are available to all of us….”
(The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner)
The whole purpose of Hard Lessons is to “make” you a better leader by equipping you with simple, effective, practical leadership tools that work in the real world—tools you can begin to use immediately, the very next day—with no therapy required.
The Hard Lessons workshop on Monday, October 24, is sponsored by and a fund-raiser for Williamson Christian College (meaning no fee for me). The cost is $175ea; $150ea for groups of three or more. You will receive donation credit for all but $25.
Workshop Agenda
Leadership Under A Magnifying Glass
If it was easy, anybody could do it.
Avoiding Change Wreck
Is change hard, or do we make it hard?
Raising Your Leadership FICO Score
Credibility—you can’t lead without it.
Creating Greener Pastures
Make sure your most talented employees want to stay.
Leadership Flea Market
The hardest person to lead is…
Plus…
Eight Lessons I Learned The Hard Way
Is it worth the time and money? Check out the feedback from previous workshops at www.hard-lessons.com.
Sign up today at www.williamsoncc.edu. Click Stakeholder Path, then Donate Now, enter the information requested and put attendee names in the Comments block.
This will be a great day for a great cause. I look forward to seeing you.
[Please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested.]
Dottie and I have just returned from 11 days of relaxation on the Northern California coast. We were entertained by seals, sea lions, whales, waves, fog, sunshine and wind music—through the trees and in the car. While driving south on CA 101 toward San Francisco, we were distracted from enjoying the redwoods on the Avenue Of The Giants by an irritating and intermittent whistling sound produced by a small air leak somewhere in the car.
Since I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering, it occurred to me that I should explain to Dottie why the wind music comes and goes, so I launched into a brilliant explanation of wind speed and direction, car speed and direction, and so on. She dutifully listened. I smugly concluded with “I learned that in college.” Unimpressed, Dottie smugly countered with “I learned that blowing on coke bottles when I was eight years old.” (Please don’t laugh more than five minutes.)
There are a lot of things we make more complicated than they need to be. Leadership is one of them. In simple terms, a leader is someone who knows where he (or she) is going, knows the way, has influenced others to willingly follow, and is out front slaying the dragons, removing obstacles, picking up followers when they stumble or fall behind, and doing it all the way to the finish line. Leading is not about position (CEO, senior pastor, owner or whatever). It is not about power, and it doesn’t depend on education. (Even an MBA from Harvard doesn’t make someone a leader.) It is not about being charismatic or a great communicator. I love this quote from The Leadership Challenge (Kouzes and Posner):
Leadership is an identifiable set of skills and practices that are available to all of us, not just a few charismatic men and women. The “great person”…theory of leadership is just plain wrong.”
If you are struggling in leadership, maybe you have made it too complicated. Quit worrying about your DISC score, personality, position, title, rights, etc., and start doing what effective leaders do. Not sure what they do? A Hard Lessons workshop will help you get started. Contact me (dickwells@hard-lessons.com) for information about the October 24 workshop benefiting Williamson Christian College.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
In 1950, an eighteen-year-old Mickey Mantle played shortstop for the Joplin Miners. In 137 games, he made 55 errors, one every 2½ games. How bad is that? So far in 2011, the best shortstop in the major leagues has made one error every 23 games and the worst shortstop, one error every 5 games. Mickey Mantle was twice as bad as the worst shortstop playing major league baseball today. It is probably safe to say that he was the worst shortstop to ever play baseball. However, he was one of the best hitters to ever play baseball. In the same year that he made 55 errors, he hit .383, including 26 homeruns. One year later, in 1951, he began his eighteen-year Hall Of Fame career with the Yankees which included a Gold Glove for fielding in 1962. From the worst shortstop to a Gold Glove? Yes, but it wasn’t at shortstop, it was center field.
Casey Stengel is the one who moved him. Watching Mantle throw balls out of the first basemen’s reach, Stengel came charging out of the dugout, yelling, “I’m gonna teach him how to play center field…and I don’t want to see him at shortstop again” (from The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle by Jane Leavy).
In First, Break All The Rules, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman say that great managers—baseball and otherwise—“Focus on…strengths and manage around weaknesses….” They “…don’t try to fix the weaknesses.” Stengel knew that trying to fix Mantle’s weaknesses at shortstop would yield a mediocre shortstop at best. However, by utilizing his great speed in center field, he could be something special. He was following the Good To Great principle of getting the “right people in the right seat.” Mantle was clearly a “right people” and center field was clearly the “right seat” for him.
The leadership lessons from this are:
◊ Superstars can’t play every position. Do you think Peyton Manning would be a Hall Of Fame wide receiver?
◊ Don’t exhaust yourself trying to shore up weaknesses—your own or anyone else’s.
◊ If your talented players aren’t performing, maybe they are out of position. Move them before you give up on them.
Casey Stengel was a good player; he was a great Hall Of Fame manager. Why? He knew how to manage great talent. That is what will make you a great manager too.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of vision, finishing the post with: “It wasn’t a Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 11, it was a vision.” President John Kennedy cast the vision on May 25, 1961. It was fulfilled eight years and fifty-six days (July 20, 1969) later when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed on the moon, announced by Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic statement, “The Eagle has landed.” Though President Kennedy deserves immense credit for casting the vision, the real story is what happened during the eight years and fifty-six days.
The cost of Neil Armstrong’s “ …one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind” was $24B and three lives—the entire crew of Apollo 1 was killed in a cabin fire during a 1967 pre-launch test. More than 400,000 people from 20,000 companies and universities were involved in the project. There were thousands of tests, changes and retests in the systems and flight vehicles. There were the six Mercury and twelve Gemini/Titan launches, plus six unmanned Apollo launches and four manned non-lunar Apollo launches, all before Apollo 11. It is truly said that every good idea is a lot of hard work for someone.
There are a lot more visions unfulfilled than fulfilled. Why? Poor execution. In their best selling 2002 book, Execution, Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan made it painfully clear:
“…unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they’re pointless.”
They go on to say:
“Many people regard execution as detail work that’s beneath the dignity of a…leader.That’s wrong.
To the contrary, it’s the leader’s most important job.”
The leader’s most important job? Yes, and Warren Bennis agrees:
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”
I love these quotes because as a non-visionary, I admit I’m more than a bit biased toward action. Without action, the “next big thing” soon becomes the “last abandoned thing.” So don’t fall into the trap of believing that just because you may be great at casting vision, you are a great leader. Great leaders may or may not be good at casting vision. However, they will always be great at getting things done. Leaders are remembered for great accomplishment, not great dreams.
If your organization is foundering and you’ve cast vision until your vocal cords are worn out, it’s time to for you to focus on execution—“…the leader’s most important job.”
By the way, Execution should be on your required reading list if you are leader, think you are a leader, or want to be a leader.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
It is not unusual when a new leader arrives to sequester him in a conference room with the key senior staff and bombard him with hours of PowerPoint presentations to make sure he has a clear picture of the situation. If the situation is good, the focus is on who gets the credit (the CEO or senior pastor). If the situation is bad, the focus can be on who (China or the worship leader) or what (the economy) should be blamed. The entire view of things is from the perspective of and through the filters of the senior staff who, by the way, have the most to gain and the most to lose.
That was the plan in the mid-90’s when I arrived as the new leader of a small west coast aerospace machining company. Our owners wanted to merge it with our Nashville operation because it was losing money and customers. Machined parts for a Boeing 777 (or any other Boeing or Airbus airplane) are manufactured to tolerances within a few hundredths of an inch in high-tech, clean, organized and efficient facilities. At least they are supposed to be. After handshakes and a cup of coffee, the executive team was ready with the PowerPoint. However, I scuttled that plan with “let’s take a walk first.” After more than thirty years in the aerospace business, I knew I could learn a lot just by walking around.
We exited the conference room, put on safety glasses, then stepped outside. It looked more like the Sanford and Son junkyard (a 1970’s hit TV comedy starring Redd Foxx; check it out on tvland.com) than an aerospace facility. The first thing I saw was a couple of acres of rusting truck doors, old machines, barrels of who knows what, obsolete tools and piles of scrapped parts. Inside the buildings, the aisles were so cluttered with half-finished parts that it was hard to walk from one machine to the next. The paperwork for each job was scattered and oil stained. I fully expected Redd Foxx to rush up at any minute and fake a heart attack (his tactic on the TV show when things were going bad). Because I saw it with my own eyes, I knew it was going to take a total change in management and months of hard work to fix it. I learned more in a thirty minute walk-around than I would have in eight hours of presentations.
As a leader, you need unfiltered information and clear perspective. You won’t always get it in a PowerPoint presentation. Get out of your office and take a walk with your eyes open and your ears unplugged. A little dirt on your shirt won’t hurt you.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
Women in heavy-industry factories are common today. They do all the things men do on assembly lines, in machine shops, quality labs and stock rooms. But it hasn’t always been true. It started during WWII when the men were off fighting and workers were needed to produce airplanes, tanks, rifles, jeeps and so on. The women stepped up and were immortalized in a hit song, Rosie The Riveter:
All the day long, whether rain or shine,
She’s part of the assembly line.
She’s making history, working for victory,
Rosie the Riveter
It’s not an exaggeration to say that without Rosie, the war would have dragged on for years or have been lost. The women had no experience, but they were motivated to get the job done and they did.
I had my own Rosie The Riveter experience in the late 80’s. While serving as VP of Finance for a mid-size aerospace company, we were confronted with a crippling thirteen-week strike. At least it could have been crippling, but it wasn’t. Why? Because accountants, secretaries, engineers, buyers, vice-presidents and even the lawyers all went to the factory floor to keep production going. They even let me work out there. Since no one wanted me to have anything in my hands that moved or made noise, I was a wing wiper, meaning I took a rag, squirted Trike (trichloroethylene) on it, and cleaned excess adhesive, oil, sweat, dirt and grime off of aluminum surfaces before they went to the paint shop. For thirteen weeks, this motley crew—most with no experience—kept the production lines moving and our customers satisfied. It was an experience all of us remember proudly, made possible by four “…tions” that all leaders should burn into their leadership DNA.
#1 Motivation Our president, John Kleban, was our CMO (Chief Motivation Officer) prior to and during the strike. He made it clear that our future was at stake and that by working together, we could do it. We believed him.
#2 Preparation Prior to the strike, every employee who would work in the shop was trained for a specific assignment. On day one, we were ready to go.
#3 Execution Have a plan. Work the plan. Track the plan. Change the plan. The more inexperienced the team, the more important is the plan.
#4 Appreciation Kleban, along with most of the executive team, was in the shop every day, listening to, thanking and encouraging the team. We pushed water carts to all areas of the factory and served lunch.
Is your organization on a hard road that is beginning to look hopeless and impossible? Before you give up, ask your team which of the four “…tions” is lacking, then be a strong Kleban-type leader, do something about it!
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
The Nepalese government is organizing an expedition to place a GPS device on the top of Mount Everest to resolve the “raging” international debate on the exact height of the mountain. Oh, you didn’t know there was a raging debate? Here are the current “estimates” of the height of Mount Everest:
► Nepal 29,028 feet
► China 29,017 feet
► U.S. Nat’l Geographic Society 29,035 feet
Now, all these measurements are the height above sea level. However, a lot depends on where and when you measure sea level. The U.S. uses the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, as the baseline. The U.K. uses a location in southwest England. Actually, due to tides, rotation, gravity, ice pack melt, etc., sea level is ever changing, though there is something called a geoid which is supposed to account for all of these. Further, the Himalayas are actually rising every year, so whatever is accurate today will not be a year from now.
What is at stake in all this? Nothing. Mount Everest is about 750 feet higher than the second highest mountain, so its reign is not threatened whatever the outcome of new measurements or estimates. This is a clear “much ado about nothing,” a trivial pursuit that will absorb time, energy, and money with no meaningful outcome. I sure hope the Government of Nepal is not paying for this with deficit spending as the good ol’ …. (oops, no politics on this blog).
I don’t want to be too hard on the Nepalese government. Most organizations have a few trivial pursuits that use up human and capital resources with little meaningful impact on the health or future of the organization. Doing with excellence what doesn’t need to be done at all is common in businesses, churches, non-profits, and so on. If you are a leader trying to focus your organization on what is important, getting rid of trivial pursuits is a good way to start. There are a lot of ways to go about this, but my favorite is simply asking, “What bad will happen if we don’t do this any more?” I wonder if someone in Nepal is going to ask that question?
[The catalyst for this post was a WSJ article by Carl Bialik, July 30-31, 2011.)
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
It was 5:56am on July 21st when the Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center—the 135th and final flight of the 30-year Space Shuttle Program. Sadly, the U.S. manned space flight program is over for the foreseeable future, maybe forever. The International Space Station is still up there circling our globe at 17,000 miles per hour, but it is now the Russians who now have the lead role of shuttling astronauts back and forth. If you are over fifty, it sounds familiar doesn’t it?
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union shocked the world, launching Sputnik 1 into orbit, taking the lead over the U.S. in the space race. It was a clash of good versus evil, God versus atheists, capitalism versus communism, democracy versus dictatorship, and the “bad guys” were winning. Four years later (April 12, 1961), the bad guys were still ahead when Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit earth—one time around in a Vostok spacecraft. The good guys pulled off a 15-minute sub-orbital flight (Alan Shepard, Freedom 7) about three weeks after Gagarin’s feat. However, it would be almost a year before John Glenn circled the earth one time for the U.S. We were behind and not catching up. Why? We were in a race, but we didn’t have a finish line, a goal, a clear vision. Vision is the responsibility of leadership, both to cast it and pull it off. President John Kennedy was our leader then. It was his job to do something and boy, did he!
Six weeks after Gagarin’s feat—before the U.S. had even attempted an orbital flight—President Kennedy cast a vision that excited and energized America like no other in my lifetime:
I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
Special Joint Session of Congress—May 25, 1961
This wasn’t just a vision, it was a BHAG! (Big Hairy Audacious Goal per Jim Collins in Good To Great.) Before the U.S. had flown around earth a single time, President Kennedy challenges us to go to the moon and back in less than nine years. He didn’t say it would be easy; he said it would be “difficult…expensive to accomplish.” He also said it would be worth it: “No single space project…will be more impressive…or more important….” Two years later, President Kennedy was struck down by an assassin’s bullet and didn’t get to see his vision fulfilled. But it was, and how!
Eight years and fifty-six days (July 20, 1969) after President Kennedy’s speech, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed on the moon, announced by Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s simple statement, “The Eagle has landed.” About six hours later at 10:56 EDT, Armstrong’s left foot touched the moon’s surface as 600 million people watched on live TV and were stirred by his statement, “That’s one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.” Even more stirring for me was the planting of the U.S. flag and Astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s pause to salute it. I am not ashamed to admit that I shed some tears that night and then again four days later when the Command/Service Module Columbia splashed down in the Pacific Ocean with Armstrong saying, “Everything’s okay. Our checklist is complete. Awaiting swimmers.”
It started with a surprising and shocking vision: “I believe this nation should commit itself…before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” Significant accomplishment always requires a significant vision. In his book, Visioneering, Andy Stanley says:
“It is vision that helps you end up somewhere on purpose.”
Leading without vision is like trying to put a puzzle together without the box cover. Your vision doesn’t have to be a BHAG like going to the moon. However, it does have to give you something clear and compelling to shoot at. Is your organization floundering, frustrated, getting tired and going nowhere? Maybe you are running a race without aim, without a finish line, without a vision. Are you the leader? It’s up to you. Get out your paint brush and start painting a picture of the future. Your business, or church, or non-profit, or family, or __________, is waiting on you.
Remember, it wasn’t a Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 11, it was a vision.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
A trip to the beach last year included the obligatory task of making a sandcastle, except it wasn’t a sandcastle we built, it was…well…let your imagination run wild (but not too wild). Sandcastles aren’t a children’s activity anymore; the adults have taken over. There is even a U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition in San Diego with $21,000 of prize money. There are hundreds of competitions, usually fund raisers, in places without sand (Omaha) and places with lots of sand (Qatar). With so much at stake, a new occupation has washed up on the beach: Sandcastle Consultants. Whether it is a competition, fund raiser, or company picnic, people are willing to pay big bucks to get help building “world-class” sandcastles. It takes more than a blue plastic bucket and yellow shovel these days, you need a consultant.
Another childhood favorite, Jell-O, has also been taken over by adults. The Jell-O Mold Competition in Brooklyn, N.Y., featured gelatin sculptures like Jell-Obama, Jelly Fishin’ and Jelly Dogs (the grand prize winner, complete with bun, hotdog, mustard, relish and ketchup, all sculpted with Jell-O). Look it up on Google Images—you’ll be amazed. I couldn’t find any Jell-O consultants, but no doubt they are coming.
Sandcastles and Jell-O sculptures have a lot in common. They can’t withstand much stress. Even with the help of consultants, sandcastles are eroded slowly by small waves or wiped out by one big one. Put a little heat on gelatin and it falls apart and becomes unrecognizable.
One of a leader’s main jobs is to make sure his organization is built on something that won’t erode when the waves come, or fall apart when the heat is on. Organizations need a firm foundation, a clear purpose for existing:
“People get through tough times because they have a strong sense of…purpose.”
Kouzes & Posner in The Leadership Challenge
“This is who we are; this is what we stand for; this is what we’re all about.”
Jim Collins in Built To Last
(Chapter 3 of Built To Last is a great read about organizations with enduring purpose.)
Purposes that won’t survive waves and heat are:
◊ Profit: a shallow, meaningless purpose; organizations that exist primarily to make money never make enough
◊ Power: look at the mess in Washington; it’s all about power
◊ Self: a leader who makes it all about self ends up lonely, depressed and bewildered
◊ Size: Texas is bigger than Tennessee, but Alaska is bigger than Texas; so what?
Without a clear understanding of who you are and why you are taking up space in the first place, even a consultant can’t save you when the waves are high and the temperature hot.
By the way, it’s not just your organization that needs a clear purpose, you do too.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
[If this post was interesting and useful to you, please forward it to a friend. Thanks.]
The Hard Lessons Company
© 2014-2020
All rights reserved.
337 Whitewater Way
Franklin, TN 37064
615-519-3765
