Freedom and Leadership (part 2)

Posted on 15 Sep 2011 by Mike Ognek

In part 1, we talked about how leadership relates to freedom. Specifically, that businesses who wish to continue to enjoy operating in a free environment have a necessary self-interest in the preservation of those freedoms.  Within those businesses, there is a requirement for leaders soundly grounded in morals and values. Here, we’ll look more deeply at leadership roles and the responsibility of power.

Culture doesn’t always start at the top and make its way down. That is true in society as much as it is in business. Certainly, a great leader at the top can create and guide a powerful culture. It is also true that cultural shifts, new paradigms, and evolutions can take root at the bottom or anywhere in between.

In his book “The Longer Tail,” Chris Anderson illustrates the concept of cultural changes originating from the middle in his discussion of Len Pryor’s launch of Microsoft’s Channel 9. Pryor effectively changed the internal and external culture surrounding Microsoft’s development community. It was an immense shift in Microsoft’s culture and changed the way the company related to developers.   Before the introduction of Channel 9, Microsoft development was essentially a closed system. To the initial dismay of division heads and PR leaders, Len Pryor opened doors and began a paradigm shift.

This project was extremely successful, not just because he drew back the shades, but because it created a more free environment. Microsoft employees said what they wanted to say. The public development community also said what they wanted to say and both sides benefited.

This might not seem like an individual or company contributing to the promotion of freedom, but it is nothing less than that. It’s not because Channel 9 spread democracy around the world, it is, however, because it contributes to a social culture of free exchange and transparency. Channel 9 didn’t create a movement towards transparency and free exchange and that movement certainly didn’t stop there. It did make a valuable contribution though,  just as so many other examples we can cite have.

Len Pryor and leaders throughout this country, that are just like him, make contributions that effect a small number of people, but in aggregate change the world. It’s not the role of the leader to only engage in activities that shift culture in one fail swoop. It is the role of leaders to constantly and consistently guard and develop the freedoms that allow companies to innovate, create, and prosper. Remember, a company without people is nothing. By leading a company to do these things, we are in fact leading the people.

It is also the role of corporate leaders to keep the free market free. If they do not, the creative forces that have made American business great will be stifled. In a perfect world, there would be no need for laws and regulation that cuff the hands of innovation by limiting how companies operate. We don’t live in a perfect world and there is a need for a certain level of regulation to protect consumers. This need was born from a failure of corporate leadership. If business leaders always did the right thing for the public and for the company, regulation would be unnecessary. Unfortunately, greed and cowardice are real human attributes. Part of protecting the freedoms we enjoy, as related to corporate leaders, is conducting business based on sound morals and values. Regulations are put into place after wrongs have been done and without those wrongs the regulations to counteract them would be unnecessary.

Just in case I’m not being clear, American businesses operate in an environment of overregulation. I absolutely concede that some regulations are necessary to protect the public from unscrupulous business practices. That said, the actions of a single individual or company should by no means result in regulation that penalizes the fair and honest businesses of this country.

It is quite fair to say that powerful people and organizations have influence in our government and our society. It is also fair to say that power, although not always, is typically derived from money. If you consider a certain position in government powerful, it is generally money that influenced the filling or election of that position. American businesses make and have a lot of money. So, big business has a lot of power. Business leaders can choose to wield that power to only benefit their company. They can choose to lobby for regulation that would benefit them and hurt their competitors. They can ask for special favors that allow them to bypass doing the right thing. Alternatively, business leaders can choose to create and nurture cultures that promote the benevolent use of corporate power to sustain and develop freedom.

Again, self interest is involved. The corporate lobbying effort to reduce or limit a regulation that stifles innovation will benefit the company and also the country. There is a level of risk involved with fighting for a more free market. It just might so happen that a company’s efforts to reopen or keep open paths of creation and innovation result in a competitor gaining the advantage. This wouldn’t be because the competitor had an unfair advantage that was gained from the efforts of the company, but simply because the competitor did something better, or faster, or closer to what the consumer wanted. Free markets don’t guarantee a win, they only guarantee we can play the game.

With power, comes responsibility. With money, comes power. Freedom requires responsibility. Freedom, makes money. It is the responsibility of business leaders to make money, to use the power gained from that money morally and ethically, and to guard and promote the freedoms of our society that allow their companies to exist.

Freedom and Leadership (part 1)

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Freedom and Leadership (part 1)

Posted on 3 Aug 2011 by Mike Ognek

Freedom is a funny thing. In a truly free society we have rights that, within reason, allow us to do the things that we want to do. We can say the things we want to say, go the places we want to go, believe in what we want to believe, and make our own choices. Now, I certainly have my own beliefs on the state of American freedom. Equally as many of you would agree as would disagree with my personal beliefs. Don’t worry, I’m not going to preach about the condition of the freedoms we enjoy; this isn’t the place for that.

I am, however, going to point out a fine line and how that relates to leadership. Because of the freedoms we enjoy coupled with human free will, we have the ability to impact other people with the choices that we make, actions we take, and interactions we have. We are free to get in our cars and drive down the road. We are free to drink our beverage of choice. We are also free to make the decision whether or not to drink that beverage of choice and then drive down the road in our car. Certainly, there are consequences if we choose to do that, but the choice is our own. We are free to go to our local park and run on the trails. We’re also free to go to that park and choose to do harm to someone else running on the trails. Again, there are moral and legal consequences, but the choice is our own.

So the fine line is what I call the balance of freedom. It’s not a perfect balance by any means. It’s simply not possible to live in a free society where one individual’s exercise of their freedoms fail to impact other individual’s negatively. That level of impact is, of course, relative. An individual’s exercise of their free-speech may offend another; it may incite violence that injures others; it can most certainly cause financial harm. One individual’s malicious exercise of their freedom to move about unhindered by undue legal constraints might result in a late-night assault on a park trail.

The balance exists in protecting the freedoms we enjoy while simultaneously protecting us from the abuse of those freedoms by others. Is it any wonder why democratic freedom took so long to develop in the world? Yes, it was keeping power centralized. Yes, it was keeping control of the populace. Yes, it was so many things, but it was also because creating a balance of freedom is an endeavor the world still struggles with to this day.

How does this relate to leadership? Yes, we as a nation require leaders who are capable of understanding the need for a balance of freedom and all the considerations that must be taken to successfully achieve it. Yes, we as a nation require leaders who have the vision to see when that balance is compromised and the courage to restore it. Yes, we require these leaders in our government, but this is not a political website. Our nation does not solely exist in the form of our government. This nation exists in the form of the people. The exercise of leadership is not limited to those in elected office. In fact, it is required of the people.

Although companies are legal entities, they are simply named organizations structured in a certain way with the goal of generating revenue. Without people, they are nothing. Among those people, they require leaders or, again, they are nothing. The role of that leadership is more than just guiding the organization to profit. American companies have changed the world. They’ve done so for no less reason than having the freedoms to innovate, create, and compete in a free society. Therefore, one of the roles of corporate leadership is to ensure the continuation of those freedoms internally and in society.  Indeed, that is a role of every member of a free population and business leaders are not excluded.  We are the keepers of our own interests, as a people, and if leaders want their organizations to be able to continue to operate freely, it is an inherent duty to actively participate in ensuring those freedoms are preserved. I don’t meant that by use of physical force, by any means, or by projecting American will abroad. That’s certainly not the role of business.

Self-interest, be it on a personal level or corporate level, is often looked upon as a negative thing. This isn’t entirely true. Certainly, if morals and values are absent, the exercise of self-interest can be dangerous and abhorrent. In conjunction with sound morals and strong values, self-interest is, in fact, a prerequisite for the sustainment of freedom. Take a moment to think about that. If an individual or organization wishes to continue to enjoy their freedoms, there is an ever present interest in their preservation–a self-interest. Yes, there is also an altruistic aspect of preserving those freedoms for others, but there is an undeniable self-interest. Without a self-interested population, specifically self-interested in the preservation of their freedoms, those freedoms will erode. In a perfect world, human nature would dictate that all people develop and govern with a necessary distaste for political and social control over others. We all know that’s not the case. Without a self-interested population, power centralizes and becomes unchecked.  Without a self-interested population, there can be no balance of freedom. What one individual or group believes is the most perfect balance will be the most imperfect balance to other individuals and groups. It is through these differences that the actual balance, the most viable balance, is created and sustained. It is through this self-interest that power is checked.

This self interest as it relates to business must, necessarily, be based in a value system that differentiates the preservation of freedoms and the preservation of profits and power. Actions taken in the name of freedom, based on flawed moral principles and solely to increase profit or power, decay the very system that grants those freedoms. In order for a leader to be effective, they must help define the culture of their organization. It is the compilation of these cultures, not excluding cultural differences, that form our corporate society.  In order to do that, the leader must have defined their own personal morals and values. Without that, they are steering with closed eyes and the culture they create will reflect that; it will be a culture that contributes to skewing the balance of freedom.

I realize this is a departure from the typical tone of this site. The fact is, leadership isn’t easy and it doesn’t stop at the executive suite doors. If you’re reading this and think you’re not in a position to be a leader in this capacity, think again.  I remember watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon as a kid and one of the telephone operators said something I’ve always remembered, “It’s the cents and pennies that add up to the plenty and the many.” I’m not sure if that was her’s originally, but it’s true in so many things besides money. Small actions and contributions add up to create world shaping tides.

In part two, we’ll look more in depth at leadership roles, internally and externally, as it relates to freedom as well as the fact that money creates power and how power creates responsibility.

Freedom and Leadership (part 2)

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When Seeking Improvement, Simply “Suck Less.”

Posted on 1 Aug 2011 by Mike Ognek

Not too long ago, a friend was telling me a story. Which, as many of you already know, is not an uncommon practice among former military members. This particular story was about carrier landing evaluations. Every time a pilot makes a carrier landing they are evaluated on their performance. Certainly, when dealing with such a complex activity, multimillion dollar aircraft, and most importantly service members lives, constant evaluation is a good thing. That said, pilots and crews are constantly engaged in the aircraft recovery (landing) process. On any given day there are a lot of evaluations to complete.

Doing anything over and over again can become tedious. Filling out the same form over and over again can become very tedious. Having some experience completing performance evaluation forms myself, although not anywhere near the same quantity, I can understand the need for new phrasing, constructive criticism, and verbiage in general. Occasionally a phrase or thought just doesn’t convey the way the author meant. In conjunction with the standard issued sense of humor these comments can even be funny at times. There are times when the author says exactly what they mean to say, although probably not in the best way they could have said it. This story is a little bit of both.

My friend conveyed the story  of a fellow pilot’s landing evaluation.  The evaluation was less than good and the evaluating officer was clearly taxed by the sheer volume of evaluations he had been completing. It was clear because of the wording he used to describe the pilots performance. Most of it wasn’t funny at all. Remember, these folks are dealing with landing a multimillion dollar aircraft  on a multibillion dollar aircraft carrier with other multimillion dollar aircraft on the deck and service members everywhere.

The somewhat humorous part of the story came in the recommendations for improvement. Typically, one might find some technical or follow-on training recommendations to improve the pilot’s performance. In this case, however, the evaluating officer chose a simple, blunt, but poignant remark. His remark was simply, “suck less.”

Now, on the surface, that may seem unprofessional and even a bit unproductive. The fact is, a little humor is part of the culture and it’s an important part of the culture. Military service is not easy. It can often be the little things that break the tension and relieve stress. It’s also important to note that these officers live with and know each other well. That’s another part of military service, especially on ship.

So beyond the humor, is there really a lesson here? Believe it or not there is. In fact, it’s brilliant in its simplicity. Whether you’re starting a new endeavor, learning a new skill, or trying to improve on something you already do, there has to be a starting point. If the task seems monumental, perhaps like landing on an aircraft carrier, it can be difficult to discern what that first step is.

Not to trivialize my own point, but I am horrible at driving a golf ball. It seems like no matter what I try I just can’t get it right. My short game is good enough where I can play and have fun. I’m certainly not going to win anything, but it’s a good time and the frustration level is low. On a tee box however, I’m abysmal. I’ve tried big change after big change and even gotten to the point where I haven’t played in a long time because it’s just not fun anymore.

So what am I to do, in this admittedly inconsequential example? Well, at the most basic level, I simply need to “suck less.” Perhaps if I hit the reset button and pick one element of my drive to work on I would see some sort of incremental improvement. From that I could gain a little momentum and pick another aspect to work on. Before long, maybe I could play 18 holes with less than 18 balls (a conservative estimate by the way).

We all have things that were not good at. Maybe we just started or maybe we’ve been working on it a long time. Instead of looking at the whole problem, pick just one aspect and work on that. If you focus on it, it won’t be long until you see improvements. Don’t get bogged down in seeing the total improvement, rather look for improvements in the aspect you’re focusing on. If you can make incremental improvements, aspect by aspect, you’ll find you “suck less.” Keep the momentum going, continue to make improvements, and you might even suck a lot less. Of course, if one of your personal or professional goals is to be good at what your working on then with time and dedication you’ll get to a point where you can even drop the “suck” and find yourself “not bad,” or even “really good.”

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Take a Vacation- It will help you succeed

Posted on 21 Jul 2011 by Mike Ognek

It’s easy to get into the habit of pressing hard all of the time.  This is true no matter what level you work at.  Small business owner’s, manager’s, department head’s, project manager’s, and CEO’s alike can all feel the need to be fully engaged around the clock.  I know the feeling quite well in fact.

It’s probably true that if we stay focused on pressing forward and advancing our business’s and projects, we’ll see greater results.  If we lacked that focus and self-directed pressure, certainly it would negatively impact our success so it makes sense that doing the opposite would be positive.  There’s a catch in that logic though- a sweet spot if you will.

When we are full throttle all of the time, our surroundings get more and more blurry.  It’s just like being in a fast car, or better yet a jet.  If the throttle is pegged, we continue to accelerate and as we do that the scenery around us gets more and more difficult to see.  Eventually, the tree we just blew by looked like a green blob that lacked any detail at all.

If we can’t clearly see our surroundings and the things that are occurring in the environment, we can’t make good decisions.  We also loose peripheral vision- vision in the sense of where we want to go with our company, opportunities around us, and even changes in the environment that are “very close” to our operating sphere.  We might be able to see clearly a mile down the road that’s straight ahead of us, but as objects get closer they get blurry and if they’re passing close by, they are indistinguishable.

Taking a break isn’t just an excuse to kick back and sip martini’s- if you want to stay clear, focused, and agile it’s a necessity (the break, not the martini).  By letting off the throttle, even if just for a few days, you’ll get a chance to see what’s going on around you.  You’ll gain some new perspective on current projects and future endeavors.  Let your focus drift from whatever it is that you’ve been pressing so hard on and you’ll find new ideas, improvements, and a new fervor for what you are doing.  Sometimes not thinking about an issue that’s been plaguing you will yield a solution.  I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s true.  Give your brain a break and free up some processing power- you just might get that eureka moment with your feet in the sand.

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Incentives Gone Wrong

Posted on 11 Jul 2011 by Mike Ognek

I’m reading a book titled “Practical Wisdom” by Kenneth Sharpe and Barry Schwartz.  Overall a good read thus far and I’ll have a few more comments in the coming posts.  There is a topic I wanted to make mention of that is of particular interest: how incentive programs can backfire.

It’s certainly no secret that human nature can, at times, be difficult.  Not everyone is motivated to act in the spirit of a program, rule, or even law.  One aspect of human nature is a battle between self-interest and community interest.

To illustrate the potential negative effects of incentive programs, the authors used the example of a fourth grade reading program.  The teacher wanted her students to read more books and created a points based program.  Each time the students completed a book they received a point.  Accumulated points could be redeemed for prizes and the student with the most points at the end of the term won a “grand prize.”

Interestingly, the students did read more books.  So, mission accomplished right? Not so much.  The students read more books, but instead of challenging themselves, they sought the shortest books they could find.  They even went as far as searching for short books with extremely large type.  After all, the more books they read, the more points they were awarded.  A further negative was that the students comprehension of what they had read was nearly non-existent.  They weren’t really reading the books; they were looking at the words.

The point here is that incentive programs will most often do what they are designed to do, but not necessarily what you want them to do.  I am a big proponent of incentive systems; rewarding the behavior you want more of.  That said, we need to ensure the programs we create are not flawed in that they promote behaviors that may appear like the behaviors we want more of, but in fact promote self-interest and surface level performance standards.

Granted, the intricacies of a fourth grade class are vastly different than a business.  Human nature is not though and the behaviors we learn at early ages carry into our adulthood.  The reading program was well intentioned, no doubt.  Perhaps having a deeper requirement for performance would have mitigated the impact of human nature- requiring the students to write a short report demonstrating their comprehension.  As a basic example, in business that might translate into rewarding converted leads after X months or dollars in sales instead of leads into the system.


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Pride- the good, bad, and ugly.

Posted on 8 Jul 2011 by Mike Ognek

We should all have pride in what we do, but pride comes in many forms.  If you have a goal to finish a marathon and you do it, should you be any less proud of your accomplishment because you didn’t finish first?  No, of course not. You should be damn proud that you did what you set out to do, even if it took you 10 hours to do it.

Pride is a wonderful thing.  It’s not only an emotion that exists for past accomplishments, but it also drives us as we actively engage in achieving success.  When we decide that cutting a corner is not acceptable, we are actively taking pride in our work. It is nothing less than that sort of pride that continues to generate innovation and quality.

Pride also has a dark side. We’ve all heard people refuse help or advice because they are “too proud” for that. It’s that kind of pride that kills team unity and stifles success. It’s also that kind of pride that fogs the intelligence of people. Have you ever been in a situation where you are working with someone to achieve a common goal, but they see the process as adversarial?  This is pride gone astray. We should be proud of being fair and reasonable, not in dominating the other side of the table.

Contract negotiations are the perfect example of this. Some people see negotiations as a competition and approach it from a winner-loser perspective. The fact is that most negotiations have, at the risk of sounding cliche, win-win possibilities. You’re not going to change the attitude of an adversarial negotiator mid stream in a negotiation. Instead, be the better person and be proud of it.  See the bigger picture and don’t let the ugly side of pride rule your day.

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Critical-Customer Employees

Posted on 27 Jun 2011 by Mike Ognek

Its probably not surprising that people tell me about their bad experiences with businesses- they know I’m in the business of making businesses better. What might be surprising is that they tell me about their experiences as customers more than as employees. It’s really an interesting thing- if you think about it. People seem to inherently understand that great businesses not only work well internally, but also deal well with their customers. No customers, no business. The funny thing is that people are much more attuned to recognizing customer facing issues in companies they don’t work for. You would think it would be the opposite, but it’s not.

I would even argue this is a major fault for entrepreneurs as well. They fail to see the shortcomings in their own business, but readily recognize them in others.

So, what can we do to utilize the critical-customers that fill our ranks? Turn them on their own company? Absolutely. Give your people the authority to tell you what’s wrong at the customer level. Allow them to experience your retail, call center, tech support- whatever it is you do for your customers and give critical feedback like they would if they didn’t work for the company. Your employees will be more vested in the company and your customers will have a better experience.

If they do bring valid complaints and/or improvements to the table, act on them. Failing to follow through on an employee based refinement program will have the opposite effect of what we are trying to achieve- divested employees who end up not caring about the customers because the company doesn’t care about them.

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Retentative: More than a made up word

Posted on 15 Jun 2011 by Mike Ognek

We all have messages to convey.  It might be direction, instruction, tasks, lessons, or any number of other communications. Some of our messages are delivered via email, text, memo, etc.  There are times, though, that we need to deliver our message in person.  That might be one-on-one or on a stage in front of an entire organization.  When you are in front of people, how do you get your message across so that it is understood and retained?

Well, the first part is to ensure you convey your message in a clear and concise format.  Of course, we do that using the 5P tool.  The second is to do it in way that facilitates attentiveness and retention.  We’ve made up a word that describes what this condition is: Retentative.

What?  You can’t make up words.  Sure we can, and we just did. You can too.  Why not?  If it helps you describe what you need to describe and you can’t find a word that fits perfectly- make one up.

When I am addressing people with the goal of conveying a message, be it tasks, lessons, or anything I deem important for mission accomplishment- I want them to be “retentative.”  That is, I want them to be attentive and retain the information I am conveying.

In order to do that, you must set the conditions for achieving it.  There are myriad examples of setting the conditions for this.  If you are a construction foreman, don’t gather your folks at the end of a grueling18 hour workday and expect them to be attentive or retain the complex details of the next phase in the job.  Instead, do it at the beginning of a workday, ideally on a day where the workload is easier so they are not focused on all the things they need to get done and that you are impeding.

If you are a basketball coach, don’t scream tactical corrections at a player as he is in the air for a slam-dunk.  He’s not paying attention to you and will remember how you interfered with his shot more than any message you wanted to convey.

For people to be attentive, they need to be able to focus.  This is not just a function of environment, but also of situation.  If too much is going on around them or if they are uncomfortable in the physical location, their attention will be on themselves, their comfort, and their well-being.  Clausewitz says that friction is a result of the frailty of the human condition.  Lack of attention on the part of your audience is indeed friction and it is absolutely due to the frailty of the human condition.

The situation is dictated, also, by the conditions you create or timing you choose.  Again, this relates to the frailty of the human condition.  People are inherently concerned with their own well-being.  This is not to say that people are inherently selfish.  Rather, we all have an innate desire to protect and preserve our own well-being.  Everyone has the “fight or flight” response ingrained in our make up and that takes up many forms.  It’s not always to the extreme of actually fighting or taking flight.  It can be as simple as a distraction created by the tenseness in our guts when we are in a stressful situation.

When I was just out of high school, I waited tables.  There were times when the entire restaurant was “in the weeds.”  Everyone was absolutely slammed.  The kitchen was behind, customers were frustrated, management was frazzled, and the wait staff was overloaded.  The entire staff goes into survival mode.  They are all focused on completing their own piece of the puzzle to complete the night’s service.  In fact, most are on the edge of giving up because they are so stressed.  This is an example of fight or flight too.  Do they give up or “fight” through the night?  Almost every one of them fights through it.  Now, imagine a manager stopping a line cook in an attempt to convey a message.  If it’s not something about how he is going to help the cook get through this, the cook will have very little willingness, and perhaps ability, to listen.  It’s just a fact of human nature- when the fight or flight response is engaged our attention is focused on what is causing it.  The level at which it is engaged is directly related to the amount of attention we focus on it.  A low level response might allow us to take in other stimuli.  A full-fledged life or death situation would focus all of our attention on the risk and leave nothing else for additional and unrelated stimuli.

This same response occurs when someone interrupts you from doing something that is time critical.  Think of the feeling you have when you are running late and someone interrupts your getting to where you need to be.  Ever have a boss do that to you?  What do you remember about the encounter?  Was it the overwhelming importance of what he or she was saying?  Probably not, it was the feeling you had that made you want to slump down and feel defeated that there was yet another delay or tell them that you had no time for this right now.

So, in order to facilitate “retentativeness”- there did it again, another word- we as leaders have to ensure the environment and situation are conducive to our audience giving us their attention.

We also have to facilitate retention, the second part of “retentative.”  Again, we do this first by ensuring our message is clear and concise.  We also do it by conveying the message in a format that is understood by the audience.  Even with those things though, we have to ensure our message is relevant to the audience.

That might sound like a marketing tip.  It’s the same thing.  You have a message to convey to an audience and that message has to be relevant for them to retain it.  With all of the information and stimuli bombarding us from moment to moment, we filter what is relevant, retain it, and discard the rest.

If you are in a meeting where the presenter is discussing complying with a new SEC regulation and you are a production line manager, will you retain that information?  Probably not, there’s no relevance for you.  The relevancy of information also breeds attentiveness.  If the information has no relevance, people’s minds shift to what they could or should be doing with the time being wasted for them.

Create retentativeness by setting the right conditions: environment, situation, and relevance.  Then keep it by delivering your message in a clear, concise, and understandable format.

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The Best Day Ever

Posted on 9 Jun 2011 by Mike Ognek

We teach kids everything they know or think they know.  We teach them how to behave, speak, what words to say, and how to react to situations.  What we expose them to shapes them in every way.  It’s funny, though, how they shape us too.

I don’t mean just in the sense of putting a new perspective on life in general.  Sometimes, they illustrate how life should be.  It’s amazing how things can be so simple from a child’s viewpoint.  Of course, they are unaware of many of the complexities that underlie serious issues, but it can be refreshingly honest.  Okay, it can drive you crazy too.

Because my work life is about making businesses better, almost everything I see, hear, and read passes through that frame of reference.  On a nearly subconscious level, I am always looking for bits of information that can be applied to bettering businesses.  It might sound odd, but occasionally those bits come from my children.

I can almost hear our client’s gasping- “What?  He gets his business ideas from a 3 year old?  Great, we’re screwed.”  Not true, entirely (the getting business ideas from a 3 year old part).  Experience dictates how we help businesses, but not just my experiences.  Paraphrasing here, but the Oracle told Socrates that he was the wisest man in all the land because he didn’t believe he was the wisest man in all the land.  He sought knowledge from everywhere and everyone.

I’m not recommending hiring toddlers, but I am recommending listening to everyone.  There’s wisdom everywhere, if you’re listening.  In that vain, my daughter has been saying something lately, and she means it every time she says it.

Everyday she says, “This is the best day ever!”  Then, she proceeds to make her siblings, and even me and her mom, say it with her.  I can’t tell you how many times I have been in organizations and hear people complain about their days.  Take a look at your Facebook feed and count the number of people who are complaining about what happened that day.  The heat, the cold, the hour, the food, the service, the boss…. It goes on.  Heck, I’ve even done it if even just a thought to myself.

So, why is it “The best day ever” every day.  I wish I knew.  Honestly, I do.  I would bottle it and sell it.  Sometimes she says it before her eyes are even all the way open in the morning.  After a night of little sleep from various kid related episodes, it’s the last thing I want to hear.  But, when I do hear it, I have to chuckle because it’s just so matter fact.  I might not know why it is, but I do know that it actually is for her because she believes it is.  It doesn’t matter what happens that day or the day before or even what’s going to happen tomorrow.  She sees her days as great no matter what.  If something bad happens, she sees it as an isolated incident in an otherwise wonderful day.  Even if several bad things happen, bad to her anyway, they too are unconnected.  That’s a powerful attitude and one I wish I could more easily emulate and teach.

Think about how many days you’ve had where things seem to keep getting worse and you just can’t wait for the day to be over.  We all have them.  What if we could break the chain that makes all of those events into a bad day?   Yes, we’ll all have days that are just abysmal and no matter what we’ll be miserable.  Terrible things will happen around or to us and there’s just no getting around that.  Aren’t most days pretty damn good though?

So, how does this relate to business and leadership?  It’s simple actually.  The way people feel and behave is more than what’s going on inside their world.  It’s about the collective mood and emotion that surrounds us.  Ever spend time around a persistently negative person?  Feel good?  No.  Ever spend time around a person with an amazing outlook on life, work, or the task at hand?  Feel good?  Sure does.

It’s a leaders responsibility to lead by example.  If we, as leaders, are negative then our folks are going to take that in and it will kill their morale.  If we’re positive, honestly positive, they’ll take that in as well.

As I was writing this, I remembered a boss I had in Iraq.  He was a Major and one of the best I ever knew.  Every morning, he would stand up and say good morning to everything in sight.  “Good morning sun,”  “Good morning sand,” “Good morning captured anti-air guns,” “Gooooood moooooorning blown up buildings!” We all thought he was nuts and he probably was (is).  There was a method to his madness though.  No matter what the day and night before held- whether we slept in the dirt or didn’t sleep at all, were blasted by a sand storm, or whatever else occurred- it made us all laugh.  It set the stage for a new day, almost like hitting the reset button every sunrise.  I didn’t realize the power in that, but looking back I certainly do- especially for troops in war.  In fact, we all came to expect it every day and on the rare occasion when he didn’t do it, we knew he was having a really bad time and that spread like wildfire.  We would all look for ways to turn that around because we looked to him for that positive break.

My daughter believes every day is “the best day ever” and I’m starting to believe her.  I’m not a negative person, but have also always felt there were good days and bad (more good than bad)- probably like most of you.  Is a positive attitude contagious?  Bet it is.

Try to be the leader who has “the best day ever” everyday.  When you have that occasional train wreck of a day, you’re folks will be there to help turn it around.  Whether at home or at the office, I think you’ll be amazed at how quickly it catches on and how big an impact it has.

Start tomorrow and say “hello” to your front lawn for me too won’t you?

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Common Sense Efficiency

Posted on 3 Jun 2011 by Mike Ognek

We talk a lot about leadership and empowering employees to make decisions that will benefit the organization.  Sometimes, that authority to act may take an employee out of standard operating procedures.  That’s okay, if it makes sense and the decisions are based on good sense- even common sense.

Enter the United States Postal Service.  We received a “Postage Due” notice in our box a few weeks ago.  Apparently, we were mailed a letter and the postage was short $.02.  Not a typo- 2 cents.  The post office our mail is distributed through is not very convenient and it was late in the day, so we didn’t send anyone to retrieve the letter that day.  The next day, we received another notice.  I was a bit curious how long this would go on before someone made a call that the efforts involved have already far surpassed the 2 cents owed.  So, we didn’t immediately go to retrieve the letter.

After a few more days, the notices ceased.  There was a bit of mystery involved as the writing on the notice was nearly illegible and we didn’t know the source of the correspondence exactly.  I had to personally go to the post office for something else so I figured we should finally pick up the letter- maybe there was en error and the amount due was much greater.  At least enough to cover the costs of issuing the notices, carting the letter around, moving it several times within the post office, the fuel, and time of the employees.

No, it was 2 cents.  After waiting in a separate line just to pick up “noticed items” I asked the cashier if this occurs often- to which several people in line chimed in and made comments about their own “noticed items” with postage due of a few cents.  I offered my credit card to pay the postage- honestly in hopes to give the cashier a little chuckle.  She actually took it and intended to run the charge.  So, it’s safe to say there are issues with the whole process here- from the point a postage shortage is identified through collecting payment.

How much do you figure each of those little notices costs?  Lets call it half a cent just to put a number on it.  Just calculating that, the postage due was has already been exceeded.  What about the time it took the employee to fill out the form- seconds, yes, but calculated using their pay rate- probably exceeds 2 cents.  Fuel, mine and the USPS?  Time spent processing?  Storage of the letter?  Time lost in line- mine and those behind me?  Pay for the post office employee who attended to me?  The credit card processing fees if I actually used my credit card?  How about transporting the letter back to the sender if we failed to retrieve it?  The list goes on…. and on.

What if USPS employees had the authority to make a call with regards to issues like this?  Perhaps they slap a warning sticker on the letter- stating that the recipient should notify the sender of the deficiency to ensure future deliveries?  Certainly, there is a threshold- a point where collecting the postage makes sense.  That’s not only from a monetary perspective, but also because the USPS can’t have folks getting in the habit of failing to include proper postage.  But, with equal certainty, there is a lower threshold where it just doesn’t make any sense to process a collection.  I would venture to say that 2 cents is well below that threshold.

Empowering employees doesn’t have to be made into an incredibly complex endeavor.  For some organizations it will be an enormous cultural shift and for others it could be as simple as giving them the authority to exercise their own common sense- they have it, believe me.  Let them use it- they’ll feel respected and you’ll see improvements.

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