I love that saying on several levels. Nothing frustrates me more as a manager than the employee who builds a wall of secrecy around his area of responsibility. You know the type. They build an ever increasing list of things that only they can do. They guard the processes and procedures with their lives in a misguided belief that their job is secure if only they know how to do something. In effect they’re trying to create job security by holding you hostage.
Nothing makes me madder than that. Not only do they take me for a fool (thinking they can hold me hostage,) they foster an ever increasing cloud of bitterness each time they are passed over for a promotion. And, of course, they are passed over. How could they be promoted if there’s nobody who can take their current job!?!? And more than that, why would I ever promote somebody who’s going to hold me hostage for heaven’s sake?
To solve the problem, when somebody starts to hold me hostage, I let them go. Life is too short to play games with people. I want people who will tell you what they think, give you an honest day’s work for and honest day’s pay, buy into being part of the team and part of the organization, and contribute something to the overall good. There is no place on my team for manipulators, liars, those who sow the seeds of hate and discontent, or anything like unto it.
I can’t imagine how those businesses ever get anything done. So much of their time is spent on petty BS they don’t have time or energy to move the business forward. There are people out there who would love to show you what they can do. All you have to do is recognize them and reward them, and they will give you all they have. They’ll do it without complaining, dragging everyone else down, or playing little games. Don’t waste your time on superstars who think the world owes them something special. Teams with above average players will beat a team with a couple of superstars every time.
Look for people who are good at what they do, fit well into the team, work hard when you need them, and then reward them handsomely for what they do. That is the key to building a team. Get rid of the dead weight and do it today. The biggest sigh of relief you will ever utter is the day you unload the useless baggage you’ve been carrying. Once you actually do it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the need to adapt or die. Today I read an article that illustrates exactly why. Kodak announced today that it will be discontinuing production of Kodachrome film effective this month. The article talked about how sales had dropped to a point it no longer made sense to continue. The real telling thing was, there is only one lab in the country that still processes Kodachrome and they will be done this winter.
Apparently Kodak stock is off 76% from earlier this year. That’s pretty ugly. But I remember telling my son in 2000 that the film companies had better reinvent themselves or there would be problems down the road. Some did, some didn’t. The thing to keep in mind here is Kodak had the best product. It’s still as good a slide film as you can buy. That’s not the problem. The problem is, people aren’t buying slide film. It doesn’t matter how good your product is, if the market has moved and nobody is buying your product anymore.
It’s like typewriters. You could start manufacturing the best typewriters ever made, but nobody wants one. The market has moved on. Typewriters are old news. It’s the same with film. Who shoots film anymore? Movies are still made on film, but stills are taken digitally. Everyone knows that — except Kodak, apparently.
The funny thing is, these things don’t happen overnight. It took 10 - 20 years for word processors to overtake typewriters. It took the same for digital cameras to overtake film. The obvious question is what were these guys thinking during this time? Why did they sit idly by and watch their business slowly slip away into oblivion?
And it’s not just film and typewriter companies that need to reinvent themselves. Every company needs to be constantly evolving if they’re going to stay in the mainstream of the market. The real question is, if you’re not watching the market (and making small course corrections along the way,) what are you doing?!?!?
I just returned from a week in New York City. Paraphrasing what NFL quarterback Jim McMahon said on leaving BYU, “My favorite view of New York was the one in the rear view mirror on my way out.” That’s not entirely true, or course, but there is certainly some truth there.
I had fun in New York. Who doesn’t have fun in a place with that much culture and that much cultural diversity? We went to the theatre, to the museums, to the historic places, to the touristy places and everywhere in between. Some of the best food in the world can be found in New York. In some ways I really enjoyed being there. It’s a great place to go every four or five years, if only to remind you why you live in the mountains.
The thing that I marvel at is how poor the customer service is everywhere you go. “They’re just New Yorkers,” people say, as if to excuse the way people treat you. “Oh, it’s okay that they treat you like that then. I didn’t realize they were from New York.” The level of customer service was so poor you hardly dared ask for directions or advice for fear someone would bite your head off.
In a great city with so much to offer culturally, I don’t see how they can get away with treating people that way. I have been to other areas where tourism is a big part of their livelihood and they don’t mistreat tourists. Not only do they “tolerate” them, they embrace them. Would that be so hard in New York? Surely there’s someone in New York who needs a job who’s not a jerk. We joked that in order to get a job in customer service in New York you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you really are incapable of treating people civilly.
If I didn’t learn anything else on this trip (and I did) it was that the customer is king. People who are treated well are more likely to spend more, and encourage their friends and family to return and do the same. Those who are mistreated close their wallets and encourage people to avoid going to such a place, even if you are from New York. ‘Nough said.
I spoke with the owner of a very successful business the other day. They have a unique business model that has worked phenomenally well since they opened the business. They have experienced double digit growth month by month from their inception — until the last few months.
Like many businesses in the USA (and the world) today, things are changing. Not only that, they’re changing so rapidly, many businesses aren’t able to keep up and are going under. This is a poor time to keep saying, “No, this is the way we do it around here. It’s the way we’ve always done it.”
What I think people fail to realize is they’ve always done it that way because it worked, given the circumstances in the market at the time. That doesn’t mean it’s always going to work. If you are inflexible and unwilling to adapt in these times, you’ll almost certainly fail. The old saying, adapt or die, has never been more true than it is now in these volatile times.
What adjustments have you made in the way you do business, given our current circumstances? Now is the time to make a course correction. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
In this time of economic trouble, many people are losing their jobs. As they go out into a sometimes hostile marketplace looking for a new job, they find that there are few positions in their field. The trap many of them fall into is saying, “I could do that.”
What that means is, “I don’t really like that. Under normal or ideal circumstances I wouldn’t do that. But if push comes to shove, and it looks like it has, I could do that.” The problem with that type of thinking is those people are not functioning in their “wheelhouse.” That means they are working outside their talent base.
It’s also likely that those people will be unhappy in their work. When you do something you love and something you’re good at, you’re much more likely to be successful. When you do something you “could do,” you’re not. You’re not as successful. You’re not as energetic and you’re just plain not as happy.
If you’re changing jobs (whether by your choice or by the choice of someone else,) make sure you focus on getting a job in a field where you have a distinct talent and where you’ll be doing something you do well. Avoid the “I could do that!” trap. In the long term, you’ll be glad you did (and so will your employer.)
After writing about what I learned from business from coaching baseball, I realize that everything we learn in life — no matter what the source — prepares us for everything else we do. I could write a similar series on business lessons I learned from flying, or rock climbing, or back-country skiing, or search and rescue, or anything else I’ve ever been involved with. The past experiences we’ve had in our lives prepare us for the ones we’ll have in the future — assuming you know how to process the lessons learned from that experience.
Ask yourself what you’ve learned about business from the experiences you’ve had in your life. Is it easy to make the leap from water-skiing to business? If not, that’s a talent you need to develop. Once that talent is well developed, you’ll find that you know way more about business than you thought you did and that you’re way more prepared to deal with difficult situations. You’ll find yourself asking, “When did I have a significantly difficult situation in some other area of my life, and how can I apply what I learned there to this situation?” You’ll soon realize there’s not much that really throws you, or that you’re unprepared for.
Nobody gets a hit every time they step up to the plate. Sometimes you just plain strike out. What I’ve learned from watching people who strike out is this: If striking out teaches you something, then there is value in striking out — it’s the cost of the education. If you strike out, then immediately adopt a bad attitude then striking out had no value.
It’s that way in business. You have to give people enough room to try and fail if you want to achieve greatness in your business. Winners will learn from their mistakes and do better next time. Losers will keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Give the winners a break, and create an environment where they can take risks. You will reap the benefits. The losers???? Who hired them in the first place? They can be the ones to let them go.
Hit and run is a big part of baseball. You can make giant strides against your opponent if you execute it properly. Of course the risk is, if not done well, you lose your advantage. It’s also important that there be an element of surprise. It’s not that your opponent doesn’t know you may be planning something, he just doesn’t know when you’re going to drop the bomb.
Business is like that. If you have someone who can put the bat on the ball, and someone who can get a good jump on the pitcher, you can leap well ahead of your competitors very quickly. You need to time it to occur when they least expect it, then execute it perfectly. When it works (and it will if you’ve been practicing) it is a thing of beauty.
Have you ever noticed how inexperienced outfielders always take 2 - 3 steps in before running backwards and watching the fly ball soar over their heads? It’s hard-wired in us to move toward the target. But what we really should be doing is watching (and analyzing) where the target is going to be, not where it is. When you jump too soon, and move in, the ball invariably goes over your head.
It’s that way in business. We need to focus on where the ever-moving target is going to be, not where it is now. And we ought to take just that millisecond to be sure we know where the target is going to be before we jump. That will help us avoid what are often very expensive mistakes in judgment.
Knee-jerk reactions are almost never your friend – especially in business. There is almost always time to sort it out. Don’t get in too big a hurry.
When you’re standing on second base and a fly ball is hit, you don’t watch the ball. You watch the third base coach. He will tell you how far to go, how fast to go and whether to stop at third or keep going. This seems to be one of the most difficult lessons to teach. There’s something magical about watching the ball (ask any beginning golfer.)
But watching the ball costs you at least a half step (maybe more) in the race to third or home. That’s often the difference between making it in safe and being called out.
It’s that way in business. The CEO is the coach. If you keep your eyes on the CEO and follow his / her direction (having confidence that he or she is watching the ball and knows when you should and should not go) then you’ll be successful. When we fail is when we cease putting our trust in the leader and start doing things for ourselves.
At that point everyone is pulling on whatever rope they want in whatever direction they want, in place of all pulling on the same rope in the same direction at the same time. There’s great power in keeping your eye on the leader and overcoming the human nature that drives us to go it alone.
