The Blue Ridge mountains are at the beginning of their annual fall glory. God has his pallet and brushes out and is splashing red, yellow, and gold all over the mountainsides. A few years back, I spent a week watching this annual transformation (hoping that He would transform me as well).
But one morning, sitting on the deck reading with one eye and looking at the trees with the other, I was rudely interrupted and irritated by a day cricket. When it should have been hidden under a leaf somewhere sleeping and waiting for nightfall, it was chirping away repeatedly: chhiiirrrrppppp… chhiiirrrrppppp…chhiiirrrrppppp. One stupid cricket that should have been asleep like all the other crickets was ruining my solitude because it seemed to be chirping just at me. If I could have found it, I would have stomped on it and put me out of my misery.
Most leaders have to deal with day crickets. Too often, we deal with them by stomping on them. We would be better off if we listened to them. It is true that day crickets are often chirping about things that aren’t relevant or sound more like science fiction than reality. But day crickets are often the source of breakthrough ideas that change the future. If Hewlett-Packard had listened to day crickets (the two Steve’s), HP would be Apple instead of Apple being Apple. There are about ten thousand examples of day crickets being stomped on in one organization, but changing the future in another because someone would listen to them.
There is another type of day cricket that is stomped on even more. It is the day cricket that tells us the truth about ourselves. How irritating when a day cricket dares suggest that we are arrogant, or controlling, or lazy, or full of anger and rage, or are acting like a bully, or __________ (you fill in the blank). In True North, Bill George says leaders lose touch with reality when “they reject the honest critic who holds a mirror to their face and speaks the truth. Instead, they surround themselves with supporters telling them what they want to hear.”
Next time you are irritated by a day cricket, take a deep breath, steel yourself, pray for patience, then listen. You’ll be a better leader for it.
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© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Organizations are like Humpty Dumpty: sooner or later they are at risk of a great fall. GM took a great fall when Toyota and Honda came along. It took a lot of change and time, but GM eventually made it back together again. Blockbuster was pushed off the wall by Netflix; they never put things together again. Ask your kids about Blockbuster, you’ll get that blank-stare “what are you talking about” look. Sometimes companies jump off the wall (Lehman Brothers—risk and Enron—dishonesty) and sometimes they slowly slide down the wall to the bottom (newspapers and telephones). All the king’s horses and men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again, and if you wait until it’s too late, you may not be able to put your pieces together again.
The Coronavirus has knocked a lot of organizations off the wall: airlines, live entertainment venues, restaurants/bars, tourism, malls, churches, and many more. Racial unrest is shaking the wall of our society (with hopefully a good outcome). If you are expecting a return to the “2019 normal”, forget it; that normal has already fallen off the wall.
Conventional wisdom has been “if it’s not broke, don’t mess with it.” But the reality is: if it wasn’t broke before, it probably is now (or will be). Wise leaders—while working to survive in this pandemic year of 2020—are also looking ahead to 2021 and after. Technology will be different. Customers, clients, and congregations will be different. Demographics will be different. Competition will be different. The economy will be different. The question is: Will your organization be different or will you take a great fall? If you are going to be different, now would be a good time to get started.
[By the way, great falls can also happen in your personal health, finances and relationships. Get started in those areas as well!]
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© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
If I ask you—“Should a Cadillac dealer try to sell Chevrolets?”—your answer would be emphatically “NO.”
But they tried it once. Wanting to compete in the small car market, Cadillac introduced in 1981 a Chevrolet disguised as a Cadillac called a Cimarron. But even with a Cadillac emblem and a leather interior, it was still essentially a Chevrolet with a Cadillac price. It was a disaster for Cadillac from both an image and profit standpoint and was discontinued with the 1988 model. (By the way, wanting a Cadillac, but unable to afford a real one, I bought a Cimarron in 1987. It was embarrassing when I realized it was really just a Chevrolet in fancy clothes.)
I made the same mistake in business back in the ’90s. We were a Cadillac company—building large (up to 100’ length) expensive ($0.5M and up) aircraft assemblies for Lockheed, Airbus, Gulfstream, etc. Having some open capacity on some equipment, we decided to get in the Chevrolet business by going after some low-value machining business to utilize some of our open capacity and make a little “incremental’ profit. It was a disaster and a hard lesson.
We learned that if you have a Cadillac customer base, and a Cadillac cost structure, don’t try to compete with Chevrolet dealers.
There are many downsides:
So, when tempted, remember:
By the way, the Cimarron was a pretty good Chevrolet; not a very good Cadillac.
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© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
“Dick, they hate you.”
“Who hates me?”
“The people who work for you hate you.”
That was a tough day. Someone decided to tell me the truth about how I was doing in my first position as a boss. It was the day I learned that boss is a four-letter word. It was the day that I learned that controlling is not leading. It was the day I learned that leadership is a job, not a position. It was the day I began to transition from “me” to “we.” It was one of the hardest days of my life, but one of the most important.
Have you had a day like that? Do you know if you are a boss or a leader?
Don’t trust yourself to answer these questions objectively. Ask someone. If you are as fortunate as I was, they will tell you the truth about yourself. It may hurt, but you need to know because, “Boss is a four-letter word.”
[“Dick, they hate you” are the first words in 16 Stones. You can order it here on this website or online at Amazon.com.]
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© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
Trucks carrying hazardous cargo are so commonplace on U.S. highways that many towns have road signs that prohibit the trucks from driving through the heart of the town—no hazardous cargo is permitted. Unfortunately, organizations of all types are full of different types of hazardous cargo.
In some organizations, the most hazardous cargo is the truth. It is routed around the corner office because the boss doesn’t want to hear it. And woe to the poor soul who dares to ignore the No HC Permitted sign on the door.
Rumors are a common form of highly toxic hazardous cargo. They move freely on the main communication highway of the office because the leaders operate with a “they don’t need to know” policy. If your followers don’t know what is going on, they’ll make something up.
Gossip is another form of hazardous cargo. It spills out in the hallways, contaminating everyone. The most destructive gossip originates in the corner office because it carries the approval stamp of the boss—but it’s still gossip. Here is a working definition of gossip:
Talking about someone, to someone else, when neither of you is part of the issue nor part of the solution.
Just because it may be true, doesn’t mean it should be shared. Is it kind? Is it necessary? Do you need to know?
By the way, if you think gossip isn’t so bad because “everyone is doing it,” in the Bible, it is included in a list of sins alongside “evil, wickedness, greed, murder, and arrogance” (Romans 1:29).
Want to raise the level of your leadership? Get rid of the hazardous cargo in your organization. Find someone who will tell you the truth about yourself and the organization—even when it hurts. Communicate the truth so rumors can’t gain traction. And stamp out gossip—starting with any gossip that originates with you.
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© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, The Hard lessons Company.
So how do you get pigeon poop out of your attic? A Wall Street Journal article reported on the futile efforts of the Select Board in a well-known town in Massachusetts (unnamed to protect the guilty). Pigeon poop had piled up in the town hall attic and become a health hazard. The Select Board budgeted $125,000 to clean up the mess, but the lowest contractor bid was more than twice that. A group of citizens volunteered to clean up the mess for nothing, but that idea was nixed by the lawyers, fearing the city would be sued. Finally, someone had a brilliant idea: “If we can’t clean it up, why don’t we at least make sure it doesn’t get worse by keeping the pigeons out? We could patch their entry hole in the attic window frame.” Duh.
This true story is a great example of an organization focused on the symptoms, not the problem. There are lots of other examples:
We make the same mistake as individuals: heart patients go back to cheeseburgers soon after their quadruple bypass relieves the chest pain and golfers try to fix their swing by buying a new set of clubs (quitting would be smarter).
Why do we fall into this trap so often? Fixing symptoms is often easier and quicker than fixing the problem (but only in the short run). Once the symptoms are relieved, we move on to the next set of symptoms. Often, we focus on the symptoms because we are in denial about the real problem—very common when the leader is the problem. Unidentified problems continue their hidden destructive work until they finally erupt into the open with sometimes fatal consequences.
Tired of relief? Want to actually fix the real problem? Do this:
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© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, the Hard Lessons Company
George Burns, the popular cigar-smoking comedian of the WWII and Baby Boomer generations (yeah, I know, I’m dating myself), had this to say about advice:
Too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.
He’s right. Sit in any barbershop on a busy Saturday morning and you’ll learn how to fix the government, which coach ought to be fired and which quarterback ought to be starting. You will also learn which is better, Chevrolets or Fords, and where to go for the best fried chicken (The Chicken House, New Albany, IN). Preachers can learn how to improve their sermons (shorter is better) and you’ll hear spirited debate about the virtues of John Deere (for real farmers) versus those “foreign” brands (for hobby farmers). Generally speaking, the barbershop mantra is: “If I want your advice, I’ll give it to you.”
Eugene Peterson, paraphrasing Proverbs 15:22, says, “Refuse good advice and watch your plans fail; take good counsel and watch them succeed.” The problem? It’s easy to get advice; not so easy to get good advice.
There are times, lots of times, when we all need advice. We are facing a hurdle or an opportunity, and we aren’t quite sure what to do. We may have an idea and need confirmation, or we may have no idea at all. In either case, someone asks us, “Have you talked to ____________?”
An overall principle for seeking counsel is the old adage, consider the source. Here are some questions about the source that I ask:
A few concluding thoughts:
(This post taken from chapter 3 of 16 Stones. If interesting and useful, please forward it to a friend.)
© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
According to the Gallup organization, only about 30% of employees in a typical American workplace are actively engaged in their job. The rest—70%—are benchwarmers taking up space, doing only what they are told to do and waiting for payday and Friday (my words, not Gallup’s).
Interestingly, the percentages don’t change much because of age, education, gender or even income. People making more than $90,000 per year are no more engaged than people making less than $36,000 per year. Imagine that. Gallup has proved once again that pay is not a long-term motivator for most people.
Is there something leaders can do to raise the engagement level? Yes. Employees will engage with their jobs when leaders engage with their employees. It’s that simple.
So if you are the leader, it’s up to you. Try this: sit down with one of your unengaged employees, ask how you can help him, listen (really listen), ask questions, act like you owe her as much as she owes you. Do it with somebody else tomorrow…and the day after…and the day after…. Is it worth the effort? Yes! Imagine your competitive advantage and improved productivity if you can increase your engagement level to 40% or even 50%. Why don’t you get started today?
[I became aware of the Gallup report at Wally Bock’s Three Star Leadership Blog, a daily read for me.]
© Copyright 2020 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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In my last post, I reported that the Container Store pays its retail employees twice as much as the national average ($50,000 vs. $25,000) based on “the 1=3 rule…one great employee will be as productive as three employees who are merely good.” (Business Insider, 16 October 2014)
I finished the post with this question:
Are the great employees three times as good because they are paid twice as much, or are they paid twice as much because they are three times as good? (In other words, which came first, the chicken or the egg?)
Here is my answer plus a few other comments. Please feel free to argue with me:
A warning: good employees will not become great by paying them twice as much. You can elevate some good employees to greatness by leading them well, but money alone won’t do it. By the way, when they achieve greatness, pay them twice as much—they’re worth it.
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© Copyright 2014 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
High school students with good grades and good attendance need not apply for a job at Southwire’s Carrollton, GA, plant. Southwire is focused on helping those who are on the edge of dropping out and failing in life. They call it 12 for Life—finishing high school is the first step toward a better life.
From Forbes (August 18, The Dream Factory by Christopher Helman): “Since the launch of 12 for Life the district’s dropout rate has plunged from 35% to 22%. A total of 851 kids have graduated from the program…40% of whom have gone on to college.”
You can get the full story at http://goo.gl/xAp87p, but the short version is:
One of the keys to enduring greatness in any business is a purpose greater than profit. Southwire gets it. Now don’t be confused; they are a for-profit company with more than 7000 employees, 20 factories and $5B in sales. They manufacture wire, so they aren’t as glamorous as TOMS shoes and aren’t given shelf-space in Whole Foods. But along with profit, they are proactive in impacting their community for good (proactive meaning investing more than $3M to set up the 12 for Life program).
Southwire, founded in 1937, is owned by the Richards family of Carroll County, Georgia. What do you think they are most proud of? #1, we’ve made a lot of money; or #2, we’ve helped a lot of kids.
In your business and personal life, do you have a purpose greater than making money for yourself? If you don’t, follow Southwire’s example—get one!
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© Copyright 2014 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company.
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