So, it’s no fun to have made the call, but I see that Tony Hayward is in fact on his way out. He is being held accountable (not necessarily blamed, but the buck stops with him).A recent Gallop Poll showing how the “confidence” people had in various institutions means we have a very long way to go in getting folks to have faith in big business. Luckily, many still have confidence in small business. “Small businesses rate a 66% while big business gets 19% and organized labor 10%.”
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Corporate Culture, Crisis Management, Governance, Leadership
It’s kind of like what I used to call “forced fun” at company sales meetings. It was meant to be team building but it really was “forced” in the sense that many folks did not really want to be there or even be participating. Many times, once they were there, they liked it well enough and actually had some fun in spite of themselves. The internet is causing forced transparency in company operations. Many don’t like it and would rather not be transparent. Some, like the forced fun situation, will find they can use the new rules of the game to actually win and have some fun along the way.
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We all have companies we “love to hate.” There’s a video running around with a marine blasting an HP Printer that failed and the folks on the other end of the phone wanted to charge him for assistance (warning this guy is very angry and not using polite language).
My prime target is AT&T and without going into a long tirade, I’ll just say that I’ve not personallyexperienced more deplorable customer service at the hands of a company. I’m adding another one now though, Intuit. After deciding that the “gentle warning” on their website that the latest software was best for Windows 7, I paid my money and downloaded the QB 2010 software. That’s when it all began.
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AT&T, Communication, Customer Service, HP, Intuit, Leadership, Management, Poor Service, Shaping the Corp
A colleague was complaining that “Obama is bashing business” and it wasn’t fair. He plans on punishing those who don’t support business by “voting the %^$*#&’s out of office.” I don’t see it that way. What I see is that business owners and C-suite folks need to think about this a bit more. Here’s why. Successful politicians are successful because they READ (as opposed to LEAD) the public. Rarely will a politician last if s/he gets too far out in front of the people.
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Communications, Leadership, Management, Opinion
There’s a 17 month old boy running around our vacation home. He is just full of joy and curiosity. Everything is exciting and needs to have a word attached to it. He is adding words to his vocabulary at an amazing rate. The adults seem not to be able to move fast enough to “baby proof” the place or answer all the questions about “whatz at?” When did we grow out of that joy and insatiable curiosity? How do we get it back?
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Creativity, Intrinsic Motivation, Joy, Leadership, Management, Shaping the Corporate Culture
“My job is pretty prescriptive. I know I have so many parts to complete on the production line and you’ve given me the tools, training and autonomy to do that. So I appreciate the thought that if I reach a stretch goal for production you will reward me with a bit of a bonus in my paycheck. Not every time, every day, but for special projects, recognizing my extra efforts is appreciated.”
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Autonomy, Leadership, Management, NUMMI, ROWE, Shaping the Corporate Culture
“I know you keep trying. And I know somehow, it isn’t working. You keep fiddling around the edges trying to figure out what will motivate me to do what YOU want. Stop breaking your pick on this. You can’t motivate me. There’s only one person who can motivate me and that’s ME. You are not doing your job as a manager if you fail to create an environment where I have some autonomy.”
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Communication, Creativity, Knowledgeworker, Leadership, Management, Shaping the Corporate Culture
Later in life, my mother became an artist; a painter. She worked in oil on canvass. Her skills progressed as she learned more from teachers and mentors and then began to teach students herself. I remember seeing her canvasses in various states of completion and was often intrigued by how she painstakingly and carefully selected frames for the final product. She would make her own choice if the picture was to hang in a show or other display. Or she would collaborate with the purchaser to select a frame that not only enhanced the painting but would “work” in that persons home. Framing, it seems, was not a simple thing.
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Communication, Framing, Leadership, Management, Reframing, Shaping the Corporate Culture, Words
Recently, on one of the e-mail lists to which I subscribe, a colleague mentioned that he had been counseled by one of his mentors that the best thing he could do for his good employees was to fire a bad employee. Sounds harsh. Yet it is true that for the greater good, we have to sometimes admit that we will not be able to help an under performing employee to make the grade. It’s best for them and for the organization if we “make their services available to industry.”
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Growing Edges, Leadership, Management, Retaining top talent, Shaping the Corporate Culture
For lots of reasons, I love my work. One of the reasons is that I get to address a wide variety of challenges in a wide variety of companies and industries. Yet, while the details and personalities are different, many of the issues boil down to being pretty much the same. This week, I was revisiting the issue of an executive totally frustrated with business forecasting. He was “losing sleep” over the feeling of helplessness at missing a forecast through no fault of his organization. It was causing major stress in his life.
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Communication, Culture, Forecasting, Leadership, Management
