Learning To Lead

I've decided to shake hands and part ways with blog.com's hosting of this blog. Please stop by the new site, hosted by Windows Live Spaces at http://learningtolead.spaces.live.com/. I will not be posting any further entries on this site, so please visit the new site and reset your bookmarks.

MJH

Just a quick reference today. InBubbleGuy has a good book offer if you stop by the InBubbleWrap website. He is giving away what appears to be a good book, 'Moral Leadership', so I thought I'd send a friendly redirect to all of you who crave to become the best leader you can be. In all fairness, I haven't read the book, but I have applied for the contest.

Hint: read the blog post before applying for the free book.

FYI: The picture was taken several months ago when I visited a famous Chinese city called Chengdu, in SiChuan province. The scene behind me is the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, a 2000 year-old miracle of civil engineering that still serves its purpose today. The guy who threw this together was indeed a great leader. You can read more about him here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Bing).

John Wang respectfully left our company last week.  It was truly a sad day, because John was the type of employee that managers dream about.  The good thing about it is that John is still my friend and will be for many, many years to come.  I've placed him on my network list and plan to be in communication with him until one of us dies. In fact, he demanded it.

John was everything an employee should be; loyal, honest, efficient, hard-working, and goal oriented.  Everybody liked John.  He was with our company for six years, and left only because he felt he needed a break from working, and he wanted to try something different.  His reasons were valid, and everybody respected them.  Still, as we cut the cake on his last day, it took all of my self-control not to keep my eyes dry.  As the company's managing partner handed John the gift that the human resources director and I had chosen earlier that day, John glanced at me for just a second.  In that brief point in time, he flashed a smile that said, "You have been a great boss."  Later that day, he told this to me to my face.  I told him that he made it easy for me.

John wasn't an account.  He wasn't a computer technician, and he wasn't a shift supervisor.  He was nobody's assistant, and he didn't answer the phones.  John, who will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the greatest employees this company has ever had, was a driver.

Great people can be found at any level in any company on any continent.  I work with some managers whose professionalism and work ethics don't hold a candle to that of the driver called John.  If every employee I am responsible for followed John's example, retention would be at an all-time high, efficiency would be near perfect, and I could sit at home watching the Simpsons while drinking Coca-Cola, and have my check sent to my house.

Over the next few days my human resources manager and I will evaluate what it was made John such a great employee we will endeavor to look for these personality traits in future hires.  Even after John has left our company, he will continue to make a huge impact on productivity and efficiency. That's what fantastic people do.

On the eve of his last day of work, he drove me home.  I almost cried, for I knew this was the last time we would do this as our daily routine.  Earlier that day I had handed him a personal gift from my family.  He couldn't even bear to look into the bag, which was probably better because both of us were fighting to retain our respective manly faces. I'm not ashamed of the emotion that we both felt, but we both had jobs to do at that time, which is something we've always respected of each other.

As I lay in bed that night I realized that one man, who had held a job often considered low on the company totem-pole, changed our company for the better more than most of the high-level managers who worked there. He had impacted our lives through motivation, respect, and example. In six years, Xiao Wang had made all the difference in the world, and he did it while driving a van.

Lesson learned: When it comes to making a difference within a company, titles are worthless. Titles don't define people; they only define jobs.

MJH

I'm going to take a step back from work and recommend a wonderful, free, online 'thingy' that I really enjoy; Pandora.

I'm one of those people who likes to have some ambient music in the background now and then. In fact, when I arrive to work at 6:30 AM and the office is completely empty until 8:30, sometimes I crank the music while I work and shake the drywall loose (just a little). Hey...I'm a child of the 80's (dude!) and those are roots I don't want to trim.

So when my good friend Deanna (from the US office) sent me this link to a 'radio' station, I tried it. I already had subscribed to Yahoo!Music and like it, but I thought I'd give this 'Pandora' a shot. I'm glad I did. Great interface, I can skip songs I don't like, learns my taste, allows me several stations, and the feed is smooth and good quality.

So if you need a little break, stop by Pandora's website and set up your station. I doubt you'll be disappointed, unless you like classical music...I can't seem to get them to play that. Otherwise, enjoy!

I'm not a marketing 'guy', but I do have a strong interest in how the Chinese people think. If you are in business today or plan to be in the new future, you should be interested too. If you don't know why you should be, let me know and I'll share some insight.

The book was recommended to my by my friend Shannon Brown, the Senior Vice President of Equity Marketing's Burger King Account Services. It's Shannon's business to understand how people think, and she spoke highly of this book when I mentioned how one of my core tasks is to understand the Chinese mind.

Billions, by Tom Doctoroff, is a two part book. The first part deals with how the Chinese think (Chinese Culture & Buyer Motivations), while the second part focuses on marketing strategies. The first part was for me, the second part...not so much. Therefore my review is based chiefly on part one.

Tom gives excellent insight into how the Chinese think, and bases his claims on not only his own eight years of experience in marketing to the Chinese, but on an understanding of Chinese history. Five thousand (plus) years of indoctrination by emperors has created a nation focused on collectivism, while Confucianism dogma has molded them into walking, breathing contradictions. Tom's exploration of each of the major personality traits of the Chinese (as motivators) is fantastic yet easy to understand. The way he ties their motivations to their history is logical and believable. Those who have not yet had contact with the Chinese (or are just beginning to join the rest of us in this activity) would benefit greatly from the first part of this book. Tom exposes the plain truth that I and many other expatriates in China have been saying for years: Chinese do not think like Westerners, and probably never will.

I enjoyed the read and learned a few things along the way that may help me be a better leader, both in China and in the West. I recommend the book for anyone who expects to deal with or is dealing with the Chinese (and if you in business, you will). However, due to the nature of the second chapter which I didn't find very useful due to my particular discipline, I'm only going to give it 1.5 coffee cups. I liked the book, but the second part might have been better if it had been a separate book altogether.

Over the years I've developed a little 'equation' to help people understand how I determine promotions for my employees. It is particularly important for the employees to understand the method, which is the real reason I created it.

Tomorrow I will promote one of my people to a Senior position, which is a rare and exiting event for all of us. I will give a quick talk on how people get promoted and then proudly present the promotion to this person. The real 'speech' comes in the form of a column in our quarterly company newsletter, in which I will write an article on the subject. I wanted to share it with you because I think its a great way for me to communicate my ideas on promotions, and also because it is fantastic blog-filler material.  ;)

MJH

Promotions are often viewed as a reward for hard work. This is not entirely correct, from a management point of view. Hard work is only one part of the equation that equals promotional advancement. There are several things that must be in the equation in order to reach that promotion.

Capability: Promotions almost always mean additional responsibility for the person being promoted. Therefore, management must be confident that the person being considered is capable of handling the additional workload in a quality manner without sacrificing the quality of their current workload.

Efficiency: As important as working hard (if not more important) is working smart. Every one of my employees has heard me say that if I always see them running through the halls as if they are they are the busiest person in the company, then I know something is wrong. Either they have too much workload and need assistance or they are not working smart (in most companies the latter is usually the case). People who work hard often run out of time and do twice the work they need to. People who work smart are masters at managing their time and workload and often find ways to accomplish more by doing less.

Need: There must be a slot open for the position. If there is no need in the Army for more Captains, there will be no promotions that year. If a Captain retires then a slot will open up. If the size of the company increases then new slots will be created. It is the same in any business.

Desire: The employee has to want the promotion. It would never do to promote someone who doesn’t want it. My father-in-law worked for the American automotive manufacturer, Ford Motor Company, for over 40 years. He worked as a line supervisor on the assembly lines for nearly 30 of those years. He was offered management positions at least three times while he worked there, and each time he turned them down. He was quite happy where he was as he liked his job, his co-workers, and was already providing for his family quite well. He didn’t want to deal with the intense pressures of management that would accompany such a promotion. In short, he had no desire to be promoted and retired with honor and a great pension. Some people don’t want to be promoted, and should not be forced into accepting advancement they don’t want.

However, the key factor in a promotion is not how hard someone works or how smart they are or even how many slots are open. No, the key factor can be summed up in one word: Performance. People who perform the best are always the ones who get the promotion. Always. Performance is often defined as, “what is required to be performed in fulfillment of a contract, promise, or obligation.” An employee’s obligation to perform their duties is always being scrutinized by management; that is how management separates good performance from poor performance. When the need for a promotion opens up, managers review performance of eligible employees to determine which one is most suitable for the job. The employee may not be perfect (no one is), but management focuses on how well the employee performs their job, not how well they don’t.

It is important to remember that promotions are not accomplished by looking busy, making friends, saying smart things to management, taking the boss out to dinner (although we wouldn’t complain about it), or showing up and doing the bare minimum. Promotions are not a popularity contest.

Let’s review the promotion equation:

Did you notice where ‘performance’ is in that equation?

Sometimes I digress...

I run a Gulf War Veterans Club over at the infamous Yahoo! Clubs hangout and one of the club's members posted an excellent video. We should all be able to motivate our 'troops' like this. I highly suggest you double-time over to the video on YouTube and take a 47 second break, soldier!

MJH

Some time ago I performed a Drucker Analysis and found that I didn't spend enough time attending to what the company needed me to attend to. I adjusted and things got done.

The other day I was sifting through emails and a reminder popped up on the screen telling me it was time for me to review the planned overhaul of our SOP system (I'm migrating to an ISO system). I clicked the snooze button (for 2 hours) and continued reading emails.

Five minutes later I was at a website reading about gas prices when I suddenly realized that I had shunned my responsibilities. That block time for the SOP overhaul was there for a reason: to get it done. I had let my old habit of procrastination creep back into my schedule. I closed Outlook and Explorer and got to work on that overhaul.

In a few months I plan to perform another analysis. I'll do this every six months. Keep an eye on that time you scheduled and stick to it. Don't forget why you set that block-time reminder.

MJH

A little over one year ago I instituted a new salary/promotion structure that upgraded our office in a couple of ways. First, it brought our salary to a competitive level. Secondly, it created a promotion structure whereas prior to that the only way to get a promotion was to get a job somewhere else and consider that a promotion.

During that process of creating and implementing, someone made the statement that we would need to amend the policy in the future. At that time I thought they were talking about increasing the salary to meet inflationary rates or cost-of-living adjustments. It turns out that they weren't talking about that at all.

No matter how sure you are that your policy is the perfect one, it probably has flaws. If there appears to be no flaws at the time of implementation, changes in people and environment will expose them. I'm calling that the 'Hitchcock Theory of Policy Perfection'.

Recently several employees came to me and complained that they were qualified for promotion under the policy and therefore should receive their due. It took me a minute to recover the first time, but I pointed out that in order for the promotion to occur there must be a 'need' for the promotion, as determined by the managers. After I said this, I realized how much hoopla that sounded like. To them it must have sounded as if I said, "I'll promote you when I darn well feel like it."

Of course there's some truth to that statement, but it isn't really a 'feeling', it is a detailed understanding of capabilities versus performance. But the fact is there must be a need. I researched my policy and realized that I didn't really define that 'need' at all. After this blew up into an HR cluster of confusion, my supervisor suggested that we institute a quota; so many promotions per year. I added that this might help but that management has to have the authority to over-ride any quota in the event that the need arises (there it is again...poorly defined 'need'....but in this case I think it means a bus accident kills some of our previously promoted people leaving a vacuum somewhere). All agreed so now I have to re-write this policy.

One of the partners noted to me that he 'felt as if our promotion policy was a mistake' because of these recent developments. I reminded everyone that we expected this and even talked about it a year ago. Then I pointed out that the policy certainly achieved the two goals that it was designed to achieve: to retain great employees and to improve overall departmental performance. In my opinion those two achievements blow this silly hiccup out of the water.

So now I must amend the policy, just as someone predicted a year ago. This time I won't have a little voice in the back of my head telling me how great I am to have come up with a perfect policy that will endure until the last trump. This time I understand that I will probably be doing some more revisions within a year or so, and I'll take it in stride.

Lesson Learned. MJH

It is 5:44 AM on a Sunday morning. I write this from a hotel in Quanzhou, a good-sized city about 1.5 hours drive north from my home in Xiamen. My wife and I spent the night up here partly to 'get away' and partly for me to strengthen my relationship with a factory owner in this area named Mr. Huang.

Some time ago I realized that although I was getting better at leading employees, there was something bothering me about my managing method. After some serious introspect, I concluded that I needed to spend some time improving my relationships with the factory owners and managers who supplied our products to our customers.

I realized that although I would take the ocassional trip to a factory by plane, train, or automobile, it usually only ocurred when there was a problem that required me to get involved and try to negotiate or motivate the supplier. Therefore, when they heard I was coming, they became tense or defensive. This made my objectives harder to achieve.

So I decided that although I don't always enjoy flying to a far-away city and spending a night or two in a hotel on the 27th floor, it would benefit my customers if I did so once in a while. By paying a vendor a social call I would be creating a relationship of friendship and trust that linked with the business relationship to pave the way for better communication between our companies. The vendor would be more likely to trust me and work together with me in a spirit of cooperation. This, in turn, means that his/her employees would be more willing to work together with my employees. This benefits the customer as it can only help increase overall quality of product and service as well as reduce late shipments. I concluded that it is my goal to pay a social visit to at least one vendor every month, and here I am.

As Peter Drucker explained so well in his book 'The Effective Executive', one of the key characteristics of an effective leader is to find out what the needs of the company are and then schedule his or her time and activities attending to them. In other words, we are paid to do what we need to do as opposed to what we want to do. Frankly, I'd rather be at home with my son and daughters snoring soundly on the second floor of our wonderful home, but I'm here for my customers (and therefore my company). In taking care of them, I'm taking care of my family as well as helping thousands of other families whom depend upon me to sell products they use and trust as well as those families whose income depends upon those products being sold.

On a not-so-side-note, at about 5:20 this morning I woke up from a dream that I was attending a seminar/dinner where Mark Horstman and Michael Auzenne (the boys from Manager-Tools) were speaking and I was lucky enough to get to meet them. I know, I know...what a cheesy dream. Over the years my dreams have migrated from those of partying with Joan Jett to having dinner with a management consultant, but that's my life for you!

MJH