Leadership Fundamentals

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Lao Tzu, 4th Century Chinese Philosopher
Tao – The Way – Special Edition

One of the things managers frequently do is assume that because they are managers, they have all the answers. Frequently, they don’t. Even sadder is that they assume they do, based on the single fact that they are managers. Yet, it should be apparent that those who have the most critical information about a process are the very people who go through the process daily and bump their heads against its inadequacies. Why on earth would you want to change or replace a process if you don’t know why it should be changed in the first place? How would you know that the process that is replacing the original is not worse?

Getting the right information at the beginning of the project, before it is set in stone — especially if it has been outsourced and contracted for with a set of specifications — would seem to be extremely critical if the project is not going to incur cost overrun. Additionally, you can bet the project will probably be late, as review of its functionality [finally!] by those who are going to use the process reveals an alarming inadequacy.

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Would your team fire you if it was in their power?

If your employees were to take a closed-door poll of how you’re doing as a manager, how do you think they would vote? Are you confident that you have their respect, their trust, their reliance on you to perform adequately as a manager? Or would you have misgivings, concerns about how you’d score? If you do have concerns, chances are that you already have an at least an inkling of what your drawbacks are. If your employees could fire you, would they? What’s your management style? Does it work?

Micromanager
Do you feel that you must be involved at all levels in order for any project to be completed in a timely, efficient, and productive manner? Do you suspect that without your attention to all the details, the project could not be completed? Are you involved with every project at the same level of intensity and intervention? You may be doing your team a big disservice by demonstrating that you obviously do not have enough trust in their experience and know-how to carry out a project on their own. While a manager should give project definitions and goal-setting directives, you are killing initiative and the sense of responsibility your team should have if you get yourself overly involved. It’s fine to set delivery dates and allocate certain tasks, as well as to ask for updates on how the effort is going. It is not fine to demonstrate that you have little faith in their ability to complete the task at hand unless the reins are all in your hand.

Directorial and non-inclusive

You call all the shots, and truthfully are not interested in “group participation” or input, not even enough to fake it, because you are sure you are the only one with all the answers. You don’t even give lip service to “teamwork” because you have no desire to let it get started in your management system, to slowly creep into a system that is just fine the way it is [as far as you're concerned] — with you in charge and calling all the shots.

If you start to weaken and let everyone else’s ideas go into the pot, you’ve lost all control, right? Or are you just so afraid of anyone questioning your methods and shining a spotlight on your failures?

One of the other sinister results of this kind of leadership is the fact that you have locked out everyone else’s ability to shine — even their DESIRE to shine.

Once again, remember: it’s not all about you — it’s about your team. But if, by some magic, your team is highly regarded, it will reflect on you. Fascinating concept — yes? By stepping back and letting the light shine on your great team, you still win.

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One of the less than sound moves a leader or manager can make is to be afraid of admitting when they’re wrong. Many bad mistakes are made when an idea or vision is held on to tenaciously just because it is your own. Truly great managers are those who want to examine a policy from all angles before finalizing a decision. You put together what you believe is a team made up of highly creative and hard-working individuals. The purpose of doing that is to achieve access to the brightest and the best ideas to help you sharpen your decision-making practices, so why not take advantage of your assets?

Most of us need and want to look at issues from many sides and consider the possible repercussions of our policies before they are set in stone. There is wisdom in gathering alternate views and considering suggested alternatives. One of the key rewards in listening and reviewing additional points of view is that people buy into policies they have contributed ideas to. It’s that simple. They also take ownership of ideas that make sense to them and seem possible to carry out. The trouble with top-down decision-making is that it’s hard to enforce if it doesn’t make sense to the people who must carry it out. Unfortunately, too often one of the strong reasons people want to manage other people is so they can make decisions for those people based solely on what they themselves want. Too often, when the policies or implementation doesn’t work out, it’s those other people who get blamed for the failure.

The failure is not simply a policy that doesn’t work. The failure is a loss of trust, a discouragement of sharing ideas, and to put it bluntly, a lack of faith in your judgment. That doesn’t mean everyone expects you to be right all the time — they don’t. They simply expect you to listen, to ponder, to be open to other ideas.

When we talk of good management, the same terms come up again and again: trust, communication, inclusion, employee engagement.

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In this episode, Chris McCann, President and COO of 1-800-FLOWERS, America’s largest florist and online gift shop, goes undercover to try and understand what practices the company is lacking in and how to battle the image of his company as simply an internet business.

A little background information: His older brother, James McCann, started his chain of florist shops — at the time known as Flora Plenty — in the New York City Metropolitan area in 1976. In 1986, he made the important decision to acquire the 1-800-flowers phone number and changed the company name. They were reportedly the first company to incorporate a toll-free number into their business name. They were no stranger to leadership.

Their vision of where business was headed had them on the internet in the 1990s. They have been around for 33 years and have grown to a billion dollars in annual sales. They pride themselves on quality and in knowing who their core customers are. And they know how to keep their costs in line. They had 5 service centers a few years ago and were able to cut that down to 2, offering their employees the ability to work from home and make more money. You’ll recognize some of their companies immediately — Fannie May Confections, the Wine Tasting Network, the Popcorn Factory, Plow & Hearth.

They obviously know how to run a successful business, but they wanted to know firsthand where improvements could be made that would benefit the company and its employees. So Chris went undercover, and spent a week going to several 1-800-flowers locations. He discovered the reason why one of their most profitable locations did so well. The woman who managed it, Dee, had built strong relationships with people in the community. She treated patrons like family and their loyalty made them staunch customers. Chris recalls that his brother Jim’s philosophy is to build relationships first, then do business. Chris considered her “fantastic”. In fact, he was so inspired by her, the company named a floral arrangement after her: Dee’s Paradise.

As usual, there are employees here who are of great value. The creative floral designer who paid for her own classes and seminars to keep up with new trends in the industry. The store manager who understands that well-to=-do potential customers are put off by the company name, or don’t realize it’s an actual florist, not just an internet service. When an undercover boss is willing to go to the trenches, he leaves with a bundle of information which, if acted upon, will strengthen the company and create dedicated employees.

P.S. Chris did extremely well with the flowers, but not so good with the Fanny Mae chocolates. It was reminiscent of Lucy and Ethel’s I Love Lucy episode which took place in a candy factory. Neither one of them could keep up with the conveyor belt and ended up stuffing chocolates in their pockets and mouths and anyplace else they could think of.

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“Inclusion is a sense of belonging: feeling respected, valued for who you are; feeling a level of supportive energy and commitment from others so than you can do your best work.”

– Miller, Frederick A. and Katz, Judith H. 2002. The Inclusion Breakthrough: Unleashing the Real Power of Diversity. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

In today’s world, accepting and adapting to change is one of the most important abilities any employee, manager, or team can adopt. A company that stagnates is not a company that will survive in today’s changing world. Yet change is often uncomfortable and threatening, and while some personalities thrive on change, others are intimidated or even annoyed by it. These negative feelings are heightened when the project leaders are not inclusive with the team who will be affected and who, surprisingly, may more closely understand the issues involved and the testing, requirements, and timing needed to avoid breaking the production cycle while these changes happen.

So what can we do as managers/leaders to encourage employees to buy into change? The following are key approaches to getting their trust and engagement:

• Bring them into discussions on the anticipated changes as early in the process as you can, and ask for their input
• Show them how the change will benefit them in their daily workday. If they reply that it will not, ask them why not. Request specifics. If the team doesn’t see clear benefits from completing the project, they won’t buy into it.
• What about the organization? Will the change bring about substantial improvement in the company’s market standing? Will it result in more customer satisfaction? Have you asked a select group of your customers whether this change would be agreeable or even desirable? What is it’s purpose and it’s goals, and can they be achieved, based on the resources available?
• Ask your team to contribute their ideas, questions, or arguments for or against the changes. Be open to their suggestions. Be prepared to really examine if their perspective is something that should be seriously weighed. Have you overlooked something? Don’t let ego stand in the way of rejecting weak or unsustainable projects.

As with so many workplace issues, communication is the key here. There are many types of changes that can happen as a result of long-term strategies, all of which have the possibility of overwhelming the team. When that happens, your team is not functioning at full capacity, because their stress levels are accelerated, and they are unclear about what their future day to day work lives will look like.

Open communication will contribute to the success of a project because the team is encouraged to contribute their ideas and solutions.

Be careful about your timelines, though. If a project that should take 6 months or less drags on for 2 years, something is drastically wrong with the way it is being run. Once the feeling of project failure starts creeping in, it’s too late to rally an enthusiastic team. By now they’re exhausted by missed deadlines, unmet requirements, and the feeling of being on a sinking ship.

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