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Building Great Organizations: Speech to a coalition of state human resource directors

Building Great Organizations: Speech to a coalition of state human resource directors

May 13, 2009

Good afternoon, everyone! I was minding my own business when Sam Wilkins contacted me about speaking to this group. He had seen one of my published articles in Columbia Business Monthly magazine on creating a fun environment for employees and another on building great organizations. Sam is very methodical. He is a step-by-step manager. First, he got my attention. I thought to myself, “I don’t have time to do this! This is the fifth speech I have given in six weeks! I have a group of companies to run.”

But he worked on me and I agreed to speak. I asked him about a speaker’s fee (like I really deserved it) and he then told me he had no money to pay me. Then, once I agreed to help the cause, he said, “Oh, by the way, you’re speaking right after lunch.” Then, I thought: “when everyone is sleeping….the worst time in the world to speak to a group!”

So here I am lock, stock, and free! I will try my best not to put you to sleep. Think as though you are hearing one of those old-fashioned church sermons where the brothers and sisters are saying, “Amen!” Just jump out there and join me anytime you want to!

I feel unworthy of speaking to you today since you all have so much experience, have seen so much, and have done so many things! They just don’t place ying yangs into human resource positions; otherwise, all of you would be in jail. I am sure if they could read all of your thoughts when dealing with employees and managers, you would probably be locked up!

But I suspect that both you and I have felt a lot of knives in the back, have heard just about everything, and have probably wondered at times when dealing with employee and manager relations, “How in the world did we ever get into this mess?” And I am sure that some of you have looked at managers and thought, “How in the world did you ever get to be a manager?” It is sad that our system often elevates great workers to leadership and management positions where they fail (as described by the Peter Principle) and make things worse, not better, because they simply do not know how to lead.

I bet all of you could put together a bestseller on what you have seen and heard! What would you name your book? “As the State Agency Turns?” Or perhaps “Mama Didn’t Tell Me It Was Going to Be Like This?” Or “Who Moved My Money and FTE’s?” Or maybe you should consider writing a song: “Go Tell It to the EEOC!” I bet some of you have seriously thought, “I should have been a lawyer!”

Of course, you have to deal with all kinds of stuff! I bet your most commonly-spoken phrase is, “You did what?” Employees are an interesting group of folks too, aren’t they? I am sure that absenteeism is one of those subjects you hear a lot about. In fact, a survey from CareerBuilder.com tells us that 33 percent of employees skipped work last year, telling their supervisors they were sick when they really weren’t. About a third of those just didn’t feel like going in that day, and many were avoiding meetings, overdue projects, or a boss or colleague. Among the excuses that some employees gave for not showing up:

• Hitting a wild turkey while riding their child’s bike.
• Another said his dog was stressed out after a family reunion.
• One person swallowed too much mouthwash.
• One employee allegedly suffered a heart attack the day before, although he said he was “all better now.”
• And one person said his wife burned all his clothes, leaving him with nothing to wear to work! 

Isn’t human resource management interesting? Is any day boring? I bet you have watched The Wizard of Oz before and said, “I could have starred in that movie!” I know a few other characters who could play the Wicked Witch of the East!

Things are not what they used to be, are they? Surprises lurk around the corner each day. In fact, a group of physicians told me a few months ago that I was going to have to have open heart surgery sometime in the future. I am sure that you are thinking right now, “Where in the world did Sam find this character?” Actually, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night!

Listen to this! In 2007, three-fourths of my work force told me through a confidential survey that they did not plan to be with my companies in five years. Now, that was an eye opener, as I had thought that everyone was pretty happy!

In another survey two years later, everyone said that they were pretty happy and liked their jobs, and most planned to stay with our companies. What happened? We had turned the ship around from its negative path! I want to share the way we did this with you today.

But first, let me tell you briefly about my background. My first job was with the York County Department of Public Welfare. Now, that tells a lot about my age right away! Do I have any DSS folks here?

I will never forget when I started as a professional with a whopping $6,000 a year salary, fresh out of college. I was so excited when they told me that they had a new office for me and it was being painted. When I arrived in Rock Hill on my first day at work, I witnessed in horror that the county had converted an old jail cell into office space! And there it was … a 1948 steel desk with two chairs made in medieval times situated in a freshly-painted, depressing dark grey cell with bars and all. And then they said that when I interviewed food stamp applicants, I should tell them, with a smile on my face, to “trust me!” I would love to have a picture of my face and the size of my eyes when they showed me my first office!

You think you have it rough now? Back then we did not have copiers, but rather the old blue carbon sheets we inserted in between two pieces of paper to make copies and were told to use over and over to save money. Gas was 16 cents a gallon and our cars got seven miles to the gallon! How many of you remember those times? There were also two people to an office. My roommate was hard of hearing, so you can imagine what I had to put up with. He sat three feet away from me!

I went on to work for the Department of Youth Services as a parole officer (I could write a book about what I saw in some of those homes!) and later as a social worker at two correctional facilities. Then, I was employed by the state Department of Social Services through Title XX and the Department of Developmental Disabilities, followed by three years as a grants administrator in the criminal justice division at the offices of governors Riley and Campbell.

I tell you this because although I currently own four businesses, I have been down your path in state government and know the environment to some degree. I always tell folks to not give advice to people or criticize them unless you have walked in their shoes. I have not walked in your shoes and I know it is a very difficult time. When Sam told me that there was an average cut of 17 percent in your budgets this fiscal year and there could be another 13 percent cut next year, I thought, “WHEW!” Can everyone say that word one time? WHEW!

There is little to look forward to except bad news of more cuts, layoffs, and stringent times. I am sure that there is more bad stuff going on in your department than good. Over the last three years, I have had to lay individuals off and fire people, which is the worst thing in the world to do. There is nothing good about letting people go!

When I interviewed some of you for this presentation today, one HR director said she knew another HR director who had laid off so many people that he went home at night and just cried from the pain of seeing good people leave. I had to do that myself when I laid off good people in an effort to keep my budget balanced. I know that many of you have done the same, and probably more than once!

Recently, I met with a very competent 30-year HR veteran whom I deeply respect. She was prematurely retiring, and when she stopped by to let me know of her plans, I could see the pain in her face. She had simply burned out from the pain of laying off so many people this year, only to see them thrown out into a terrible market where one out of ten people in South Carolina are unemployed. I am sure you are going through something similar now and have been pulling all sorts of innovative tricks like furloughs out of your HR hat as you try to help balance the budget. But as one of you told me, “We are reaching the point where there are few tricks left. There is not much meat left on the bone!” And more pain is on the way.

Not a day goes by that we don’t hear the media’s constant pounding drum telling tales of tight credit, low consumer spending, stocks losing most of their value, spiraling unemployment, company and government layoffs, poor corporate earnings, and people simply scared to death. Everyone is running for the hills! Mental health and liquor businesses are booming!

All of this mess is connected together. When people are scared, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend money, sales tax revenues fall. Businesses have less need for employees, who are laid off, so there are fewer people to pay state income taxes. When the governor resists accepting federal stimulus money, the amount of federal money available dwindles. When all of this happens, the legislature passes the pain down to you and here we are today. I heard that they plan to give HR folks a raise: a set of knives! Your new title should be “Director of Staff Cutting!”

I recently spent two days with Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, who authored the bestseller Winning. Jack compared the media during a bad economy to the meteorologists on the Weather Channel. When a hurricane is approaching, they go into frenzy and begin to salivate. Then, when it arrives, they love to get out there in 100+ MPH winds and say, with a rush of adrenaline, “Look at this! This is the thrill of a lifetime! Did you see that 2 X 4 sailing by?” The media is whipping up our bad economic times just like those meteorologists. They make a very bad situation even worse than it is! They say, “Look! There’s more bad news coming! Isn’t this exciting? Let’s scare everyone to death!”

Most individuals are seeing the glass half—if not completely—empty. Even the dreaded “d” word, “depression,” is being thrown around as if doomsday is approaching. No doubt, we will soon witness a record number of people and businesses experiencing failure and bankruptcy. Every person will be impacted by the constant bad news and despair as the pain trickles throughout our economy.

When stress and insecurity like you are going through exist in the workplace, staff creativity, excitement, and productivity diminish, though it is the very time when you need them to give 150 percent. Distressed employees spend a lot of time thinking, “Is my job next? How long do I have? Which of my friends will go? What about my future? I need to start looking for another job! I need to talk to my friends to see if they have heard anything! I have a family to feed and a child who is in college! How am I going to make it? I’m scared!”

I asked you how would you rate the excitement and passion among your workforce right now (on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being outstanding), and the numbers 3 to 4 were mentioned. How would you rate your excitement and passion about your work? Do you look forward to coming to work each day?

We have created a work culture with more depression and despair than excitement going on, one where people reluctantly get out of bed each day wondering what that day will bring.

My advice to everyone is: don’t panic! Take a calm, rational approach to analyzing your current condition and where you plan to go. Don’t make rash, fearful decisions that could make things worse.

Former President Franklin Roosevelt was right when he said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!” But his wife, Eleanor, was also wise when she said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…you must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

But with these bad times and very little good news coming, where do we go next? How do we create a workforce that is excited, happy, creative, and productive when we have little to look forward to? This task can be summed up in one word: TOUGH! There is some silver lining because some of you said that the quality of employees available is much better because so many are looking for work. But many of you don’t have jobs to offer!

What I am about to share with you are things we are doing within our companies that are working. They may or may not work for you. Some could be tried in one department as an experiment and some agency-wide. On other things, I know that I am preaching to the choir! And there are some items that you have no control over.

Some of my suggestions are being conducted within one of our companies that is experiencing cutbacks and is under stress, yet whose staff has banded together to make things work as a team. They chose to look at these bad times as a challenge and a puzzle. They are thinking of all sorts of ways to cut expenses and raise income.

If you can take just one thing away from today, then I will have achieved my personal goal and my companies’ purpose of “creating opportunities to improve lives.” The big point is to try new and innovative things to see if they work. Don’t sit back and let the bad times push you and your agency into a corner. I am a believer that in conflict, there is always opportunity! We just have to look for it, no matter how small it may be.

Many of you have seen leaders come and go in your agency. Consistent leadership is critical in a great organization, but every agency needs a cheerleader. That could be you!

As I speak, I would like for you to take the same journey that I began in 2007 of reinventing the way we did business in my companies. Perhaps it is time to reinvent state government from how we have known it for so long, even if it is only in small ways. For the world is changing, and perhaps now is the time to begin a journey—as I did—to building great organizations.

First, let me tell you that I do not have all the answers. As Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, once said, if I can get it right 50 percent of the time, I am doing great. Kim Inman, senior team leader of my Columbia Conference Center, noted that for every ten ideas, you will have nine dumb ones, but it is that one in ten that sparks success!

Second, I believe that every organization should experiment and dream. Eighty percent of what we do is our core business that pays our bills, but for the other 20 percent we experiment with new things and are always asking the question: “Can we do it better, faster, and more efficiently?”

Third, my greatest teachers are Failure, Mistake, and Murphy! How many of you have had these wise teachers?

When I turned 55 four years ago, I decided to consider myself pretty dumb and as a result, it is amazing how much I have learned over the last four years, mostly in the last two. The key was telling myself, “I do not have all the answers and there have to be better ways of doing things if my companies and I are to improve.”

Fourth, with this attitude, I decided that I needed to become a sponge and absorb all the helpful knowledge that I could from other leaders and experts in the field. I wanted to know how to do things better, how to make workforce improvements, how to improve efficiency logically, and how to create a happy workforce. My goal was to build a work culture where everyone looked forward to coming to work instead of dreading it.

I recently read a bestseller by Marshall Goldsmith called What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, and he made some resounding remarks like:

• People who believe that they can succeed see opportunities where others see threats. They are not afraid of uncertainty. They embrace it!
• People don’t stumble on success. They choose it!
• You can’t force people to work together. You can’t mandate synergy. You can’t manufacture harmony, whether it is between two people or two divisions.
• You can’t order people to change their thinking or behavior.
• People will do something—including changing their behavior—only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their values.

Like you are now, I was staring at a 30 foot wall to climb with no ladder in sight. I thought to myself, “How in the world am I going to turn a negative environment into a positive one?” I decided to focus on the “how” versus the “why” I should not. I had a vision of the future and wanted to lead our companies and staff in that direction.

The process began slowly. Although I read a lot and subscribed to ten magazines and newspapers, I had not read an entire book since completing my master’s degree in social work in 1979. Quite frankly, reading was not my favorite pastime, but now I love to read. It is all about attitude. Since then, I have read 50 bestsellers.

The first book I read was Monday Morning Leadership by David Cottrell, which began to open my eyes to what I should be doing as a leader. Then, in early 2006, I read Good to Great by Jim Collins. This bestseller helped me establish the goal of building a great family of companies. At first, however, I was taken aback by Collins’ statement that “good is the enemy of great.” I thought to myself, “What is wrong with having a good organization?” The more I read, the more I realized that only great companies survive and in fact thrive in the future! I eventually read the book four times. Of course, it focused more on the business world, but also took a long look at what Collins called the Hedgehog Principle and Level 5 Leadership. His research indicated that organizations that focused on what they did best and what they were most passionate about were the most successful. Have you ever thought of building a GREAT state agency? I am sure many of you are more in the “life support stage” right now! But how do you get the patient out of bed and walking? I learned that I could not reinvent my company in one fell swoop. It would take one step at a time.

So, the first thing I thought was that I wanted to know how my staff REALLY felt about the companies, their jobs, management, and where we were going. You may also want to take this path in your agencies. In 2007, decided to conduct an independent, confidential assessment. Staff gave input to the survey to build ownership. We had a high return rate, no names were used, and all the results went to an outside organization. The results were shocking, since I had thought most folks were pretty satisfied:

• Many were unhappy with our management and sluggish hierarchy.
• Words like “micromanagement” and “distrust” popped up in the survey.
• We were taking too long to make decisions and complete projects.
• Too many people were involved in the decision-making process.
• Staff saw no clear direction on where we were going
• Job descriptions were unclear and were written by supervisors with little input from employees.
• We had turned into an e-mail organization, even disciplining employees by e-mail.
• There was dissent between company divisions and political rivalry between leaders, even on common projects they worked together on.
• There were miscommunications, lack of communication in some areas, and in some cases too many unwelcome communications.
• People were not on the same page.
• We were pushing people too hard, expecting too much, and not recognizing good work regularly.
• Senior management was driving, controlling, and micromanaging everything. We were reviewing employees’ work using the Microsoft Word tracking feature, which would butcher everyone’s documents. It looked like a Chinese puzzle when it was returned to the original writer! We were killing everyone’s egos and self-confidence.
• Employees expressed fear about saying what was on their minds or making recommendations and suggestions on how to make things work better.
• There was more negativity than there were positives—just like you may now be experiencing.

I was stunned! Why were my employees so unhappy when they had some of the best benefits around? When I expressed dissatisfaction about the survey results, leaders responded, “But we are paying our bills and doing really well financially!” They were right in that we were unbelievably successful and were debt-free. However, I wanted more than a money-making group of companies—I wanted to build a great group of organizations with happy staff members.

And then it happened. I went blind. I woke up one morning feeling great and was about to present a grant workshop to 100 people when suddenly, my vision went blurry and I could not see. Talk about a change of one’s life and priorities! After many eye operations, I can see pretty well again, but that incident made me realize that life is fragile. Since then, I plan to die tomorrow and have built a family of companies that will survive beyond my lifetime. My blindness also made me realize and appreciate the important things in life. I used to teach Sunday school for 65- to 80-year-olds at my church and would ask them, “If you could change anything about your life, what would you do differently?” Over the years, nearly every one of them said, with pain in their faces, “Spend more time with my family!”

My blindness turned into a gift from God. I realized that I had burned out and was not really passionate about life or my companies. I am sure that some of you feel the same way! The blindness helped me to recharge. God had given me another chance to shine, so that I did, with the help of my staff. As I speak today, how passionate and excited are you about your jobs? How happy and passionate is your workforce? Are they excited about their futures and the clients they serve or just trying to survive and get by? Is your work culture charged with positives or is it depressing?

I read a good book called The Carrot Principle by Gostick and Elton. In it, they described the outcomes I wanted in a great organization: “Show us an organization where people are coming to work on time, doing their jobs, and feel satisfied, and we will show you an organization that is close to achieving its full potential.”

The bottom line was that I wanted to create a work environment where people looked forward to coming to work each day!

ENHANCE TEAMWORK: My first objective was to create teamwork, reduce conflict, decrease stress, and help staff understand and appreciate each other. So I asked Don Jenkins, a consultant from the Columbia-based Leaders Advantage (www.leadersadvantage.us) to create a three-day course that would bring our staff together. We decided that to work with small groups of ten employees each. Each staff member took a psychological profile that separated different personality types by color: blue symbolized creativity; red stood for confrontation and assertiveness; yellow focused on teamwork, group support, and involvement; and green denoted a love of order, facts, and caution. Of course, there were smaller details associated with each color and profile, but it was amazing how accurate the assessments were!

After the training, everyone started to be more civil and respect each other more. Teamwork improved and patience was dramatically enhanced. Things started to come together and people were working together and caring for one another. They even joked based on their profiles, like when the reds wanted a decision right away and the blues would say, “OK, your red is coming out!” Or if creative blues wanted time to think about an idea, the reds would be more patient with them. It was the neatest thing I have ever seen!

INVOLVE EVERYONE: Once all our employees completed the training, my next objective was to get everyone involved. I decided to treat all my employees like owners of the business. When you actively engage employees and their minds, create a culture of openness and candor, solicit input, and most importantly, LISTEN, things run more efficiently and effectively (even in bad times). Team members in our companies’ culture are happier because they are helping craft their own futures and the companies’ direction. I learned to play the game of survival and use fun rather than fear to keep our organization focused. This effort got everyone fired up to think outside the box as a team! I think they liked the new focus on openness and input because they felt like a part of the bigger picture. They were helping to drive where we were going and were being asked about nearly everything, “What do you think about this?”

ELIMINATE FEAR AND NEGATIVITY: Stress is high amongst American workers and it will get worse before it gets better. People are expected to do more with less. You want to have a steady stream of positive communications that will inspire, motivate, and encourage your team. Now is a good time to revisit the book The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard. Look for things people are doing right and recognize them. Think outside the box and keep staff energized with rewards. Above all, thank them for going the extra mile. Make them feel valued as part of a professional family and send the signal that we are all in this together. That does not cost money!

I made it clear that I valued positive, proactive thinking and did not want to hear a bunch of complaining and whining. We wanted to hear problems, but with ideas for solutions. Everyone had a right to say anything, as long as they could provide ideas on how to approach any problems.

HIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLE: Jim Collins hit the nail on the head when he said to only hire good people and then place them into the right jobs! We defined the type of employee we are interested in and then defined our culture. We are most interested in hiring the right people who will fit into our culture first, with skills being secondary. We want folks who:

• Think outside the box.
• Are not afraid to be themselves.
• Are honest and ethical.
• Have high integrity.
• Are good team players.
• Take their work seriously but can laugh at themselves.
• Are humble.

We hired some people that we did not even have jobs for yet. We just knew they were outstanding and did not want to lose them!

Our motto now is to hire tough and slow. We usually take folks through three interviews with at least three different people interviewing them and we grill them pretty tough. We screen the daylights out of them and come up with all kinds of questions. We even asked two finalists this past month, “Why should we hire the other candidate?” One suggested employing both of them and the other expressed a good Christian attitude by saying, “I think you should hire me!” 

FIRE THE WRONG PEOPLE: Occasionally, we hire the wrong people and must “fire fast, but with care.” We help the wrong people who do not fit our culture or have performance problems to get off our bus, but always look after them once the termination has occurred. I believe that people fire themselves. It is our job to help them through the process legally and in the least amount of time so they can find another job and we are not sued or taken to the EEOC.

KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING AND HOW TO GET THERE: We brought in two strategic planning consultants to help us determine our purpose, mission, vision, and management plan (once again calling on Don Jenkins). In order to promote happy employees, agencies, and departments, staff members need to know their destination. At every state agency for which I worked, I never knew our strategic plan or where we were going as an agency. In fact, outside my department, I did not even know the person who worked across the hallway or what they did. As with my companies in the past, everyone was doing their own thing and there was no common goal or purpose. As Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there!” Don helped our companies create strategic plans that make clear what we are all about, where we want to go as a team, and what our values are. That way, everyone is driven toward a common goal and purpose. We followed Larry Bossidy’s advice in his book Execution by limiting our strategic plan to no more than 25 pages.

We keep our plans in front of us and revisit them regularly with staff. Our plan is not just sitting on a shelf—we post important points on the walls and discuss the mission, vision, purpose, and values every chance we get. Be flexible and willing to change it if necessary, but try to stay the course. Our purpose changed from “making money” to “creating opportunities to improve lives,” including those of our staff! 

SET THE STAGE BY EXHIBITING POSITIVE AND PROACTIVE LEADERSHIP: Everyone watches and listens to the leader. He or she sets the stage for the play. While there were times that I did not feel well or was in a bad mood, I knew that I needed to smile, be friendly, positive, encouraging, caring, and above all, leading! And that means practicing good ethics and honesty, which are the most important characteristics that employees and customers want to see in their leaders and companies.

Great leaders and staff believe their future is secure and failure is not acceptable. While you want to be open, honest, and realistic about what is going on around you without making false promises to staff, great leaders shine during difficult times and crises. They are cautious optimists who say confidently, “Yes, it is difficult and we will experience some bumps in the road, but in the end, we will not only make it, we are going to do well!” They stare defeat and failure square in the eyes and give them a swift kick in the pants! They build confidence and excitement amongst all staff and are constantly pointing to their bright future. They look through the front windshield and not the rearview mirror.

Set high standards and maintain integrity and ethical behavior. Think outside the box, under it, in it, over it, and around it! This is the time, no matter what the obstacles, to move forward—not to fear that the sky is about to fall. It is a time where you want to inspire your employees by telling them, “See that mountaintop? That’s where we’re going! Follow me!”

COMMUNICATE: Great leaders have long known the important role that communication plays in business and in life. Alan Greenspan once said, “To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation…in communication skills.” John Powell was right on the money when he noted, “Communication works for those who work at it!”
Effective communications are critical in order to maximize success. The lack of, confusing, or untimely communications cause more problems in organizations than any other issue!
Since deciding to build a new culture of good communications, we have shared important financial information with staff and have held regular, open meetings where everyone is encouraged to express their opinions, raise concerns, and pose questions. And I decided to tell them the truth, even if it hurts. Staff needs to believe you; otherwise, negative gossip channels will flourish. Negative attitudes will kill creativity, dramatically reduce productivity, and build a mindset of failure. People will focus more on their insecurity and bringing others into their dreary discussions than getting the job done and making a profit! Negativity is like a rapidly-advancing cancer that will choke the life out of your organization.
We asked leaders to develop brief minutes when they had an important department meeting and send them out companywide. This was a critical piece of communication that had been missing, and when the left hand started to see what the right hand was doing, collaboration improved. Senior leaders also sent a staff member to sit in on other divisions’ meetings to enhance coordination and communication. Everyone could see part of the bigger picture versus departmental staff working in isolation like silos.

We developed structured policies and procedures, but did something different that was inspired by Southwest Airlines: we eliminated all rules and regulations that were not needed, slowed efficiency, or impaired decision-making.

We also developed an informal employee newsletter that lets everyone know personal things like birthdays, deaths in the family, humor, policy changes, and neat stories. Employees submit information and receive $50 prizes for the best contributions.

Each supervisor and employee customized his or her job description to reflect what they really did and wanted to do. Then, we asked leaders to meet with each employee at least quarterly and let them know how they were doing, what they needed to work on, and what they were doing well. This reduced the conflicts between what employees perceived they should be doing and what the manager expected of them. The descriptions are updated annually. We now strive to prevent annual review and employee performance “surprises.” We believe that feedback on employee performance should be an ongoing process.

We reduced the volume of our e-mails by two-thirds and encouraged leaders to talk or meet with employees when they were concerned. We started to employ some of the tactics in The One Minute Manager, like if someone had a problem with an employee, to confront them privately at a good time and in a nice way. Leaders are now coaches and mentors to employees versus bosses. It was amazing how often frustration and conflict erupted because there was a misunderstanding on what an employee should be doing. Many times, unclear communications meant that the employee thought they were doing everything right. We wanted to transition from “zapping” employees with what they did wrong to focusing on what they were doing right and rewarding them for that.

Encouraging leaders not to micromanage employees became a major effort. Everyone was driving each other crazy by perfecting everything and not trusting each other. We tried to take a new approach by clearly defining what we wanted and letting the employee fly with only limited supervision. It sure was fun watching the efficiency and effectiveness of our organizations flourish because we allowed employees freedom to do a great job…and that they did!

We organized committees and let employees step up to chair them. Many came out of the woodwork to volunteer to help “steer the ship!”

CREATE A RELAXED ENVIRONMENT: Our employees are allowed to dress casually instead of in stuffy suits. The Apple Corporation learned long ago that relaxed employees perform better, and we apply this principle at our offices.

STOP DOING THINGS! In Good to Great, Collins said that great organizations knew what they were doing or should be doing, but also what they should not be doing! Now, that was the first time I had heard of that, so I asked everyone to start looking at anything we were doing that caused stress, reduced efficiency, impaired our effectiveness, slowed decision-making, or impacted project completion. As a result, we stopped doing many things. Imagine sending out a memo to staff telling them that this month we are going to study what we need to stop doing! We discovered all sorts of problems that were hurting our organization and creating unnecessary work.

CREATE A POSITIVE CULTURE: I will never forget when one of my staff said to another leader about me, “Can’t we ever please Mike?” Another leader told me that she got knots in her stomach every time she met with me because I was so driven! Management sometimes needs to loosen up and not expect perfection all the time. I used to push my staff beyond their capabilities, and when I started the goal of building a great organization, I knew I had to change personally. I wanted to build a positive work environment where people were recognized and felt appreciated. The One Minute Manager really started the ball rolling when Blanchard said that leaders (and really, everyone) should actively look for things people are doing right and recognize them, both personally and in front of others. I learned that giving out certificates might be nice, but what employees really want is a heartfelt thank you for job well done!

Now, we recognize an employee of the month for one of our departments when someone comes up with a neat idea or goes the extra mile. We learned that certificates usually just get filed away and naming an employee of the year was not enough recognition. We all agreed that we wanted to build a culture of appreciation, so whenever we got a chance to recognize someone, we sent the e-mail out companywide. I asked everyone to let me know if they saw anything good that anyone did that was above and beyond the call of duty or was a unique idea. Then, I would send them a thank you note. Since then, we have had many positive notices going out in e-mails.

I also started to sign nearly every one of my e-mails with “Thanks, Mike.” Soon, I noticed that it spread and others began to sign their e-mails with a similar conclusion. Sure, it takes a little longer, but it just sends a message that says, “Hey, I am thankful you are here!” One major thing I learned is that positives and thankful attitudes are valued and are very infectious.

BUILD LEADERSHIP: When I read Kouzes and Posner’s book The Leadership Challenge and Collins’ definition of a Level 5 Leader, I thought, “Whew! I (and we) have got a long way to go!” Kouzes and Posner said, “Leadership is all about how to mobilize others to want to get extraordinary things done in organizations. It’s all about the practices leaders use to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards. It’s all about leadership that creates the climate in which people turn challenging opportunities into remarkable success.”

In The Carrot Principle, the authors said, ‘Show us any leader who sets clear goals, communicates openly, respects people and treats them fairly, holds people accountable, and creates trusting relationships, and we will show you a leader who’s almost got it right!” Wouldn’t you love for all your leaders and supervisors you work with to be like that? Do I have an “amen?”

I engaged our senior team leaders in a slow process by establishing some broad goals for them like:

• Work with your leader peers like best friends and do not compete.
• Get out of many of the details (Focus more on leadership and stay out of the weeds).
• Delegate more (We all wanted to micromanage. Instead, trust staff to help).
• Communicate weekly and meet regularly with your peers.
• Collaborate as department leaders.
• Measure what a good caseload is among staff so we don’t overload people.
• Get out of tunnel vision and work as a team.
• Reduce stress where possible and carefully look at each work activity before taking it on. (For every activity we are involved in, we ask, “How much stress will this create?”)
• Begin a leadership professional development track to learn more about leadership.

I assumed the role of servant leader and was there to help, coach, mentor, and guide. I let our senior team leaders blossom and run their departments with minimal interference from me. It is amazing how people can grow if you just trust them and let them do their jobs!

HAVE FUN! Collins noted that great organizations were filled with people who not only cared about each other, but were friends as well. Plus, they had fun together. We created an employee liaison committee whose job was to determine ways to have fun and bond. We assigned them a budget and we do all sorts of fun things like:

• Having a lunch together paid for by the company.
• Bringing food and eating it together for lunch.
• Going out for employees’ birthdays.
• Meeting at a bar after work.
• Going bowling during work hours.
• Having parties together.
• Playing a game called SECRET where one of the team leaders sends out a riddle each day and whoever guesses the answer first wins a cash prize. (This might sound a little stupid, but we have professionals with Masters’ degrees and Ph.D.s desperately trying to figure out the game!)
• Sometimes unexpectedly telling staff to leave around 3 PM on Friday and have a great weekend!

The bottom line: you can have fun, but you have to have a paradigm shift and think outside the box!

WE CARE: Our companies’ purpose of creating opportunities to improve lives extends to our employees, clients, and local community. We formed a community service committee that is run by employees, who are allowed to partner with another staff member to help their favorite charity during work hours every two weeks. We simply wanted to be a part of something bigger. It is so refreshing to hear some employees’ comments about their experiences mentoring teenagers at an alternative school or reading to elementary-age children. We also started a recycling program and everyone participates in that project as an outward sign that we care about the world. There are a lot of people who are seriously concerned about our environment that work with us, and I am sure there are in your company as well.

EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE: I had the hardest time getting people to read and learn from experts and think of outside their boxes. Many were unhappy with themselves and others thought what they were doing was the only right way. So began the Live and Learn Club at our companies. We formed a professional development committee led by employees and identified ten bestselling business and self-improvement books. My goal was to help improve employees’ business and personal lives, with the hypothesis that happy employees would work harder, smarter, and more passionately. The first book was Happy for No Reason by Shimoff, followed by Power of Being Nice by Thaler and Koval. Then, we moved to Letting Go of Your Bananas: How to Become More Successful by Getting Rid of Everything Rotten in Your Life by Drubin. Many of my staff had baggage (like most people do) and I wanted them to learn that they could do so much better at work and life if they left that old baggage behind at the airport!

Then, I felt like they were ready to move from the personal side to the more business-oriented book Good to Great. They are currently reading Who Moved My Cheese, which can be applied to business and personal matters. To discuss each book, the companies were broken down into groups of four whose members were randomly selected. Each group rotates each month so that people get to know each other. Group leaders also rotate, since my second goal was to place all employees into leadership roles. Each group receives cash incentives for participating in each book selection, and staff members may opt out of participating because of heavy workloads or lack of interest in a certain book. They read the books on their own time but meet as groups during work hours for discussion. Then, each group leader submits a list of main points that the group learned to a designated employee, who stores the responses. It is so much fun watching and hearing back from the groups as they study each book! For the first time, folks are enjoying learning new ideas, growing as people and employees, and understanding one another more. I believe that people want to work for a company where their knowledge and horizons are expanded.

BE HUMBLE: When interviewing leaders of great companies for Good to Great, Jim Collins and his team found that truly great leaders tended to be extremely humble. I would take that a step further and say that great businesses need to be confident but humble. You cannot sustain long-term success through arrogance, especially in dire times. I recently interviewed a human resource director with a large Columbia-based business. He had seen ten company presidents come and go at the successful corporation. When I asked him if he observed a common thread in the bad CEOs, he immediately responded: BIG egos! When you think you are next to God and you are invincible, prepare for the fall. We subscribe to the “we” theory, where we do things together and do not reward arrogant individuals who are attention-seekers.

BELIEVE YOU WILL WIN! There is a great Biblical scripture that inspires me: “All things are possible for those who believe.” Everyone in your organization must have an unwavering belief that while there may be bumps in the road, you will win in the end and good times are ahead. Keep the momentum going, and as Larry Bossidy, author of Execution, once told me, “Celebrate victories, no matter how small!” Look for innovative ways to reward your people and keep their spirits up. Keep your train moving up Mt. Success—the sights up top sure are nice! Great, successful organizations don’t live in the valleys. They build the mountains and then climb them.

Thriving in bad times and developing a culture of highly efficient and effective employees isn’t easy, but great organizations do. It’s all about planning, sending the right message, having the right attitude, developing the right, outstanding teams, knowing where you are going and how to get there, and—most importantly—having the right leadership.

Above all, you just have to believe you will win! Do I have an “amen?”

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Mike DuBose has been in business since 1981. He is the servant leader and owner of four debt-free corporations, including Columbia Conference Center, Research Associates, The Evaluation Group, and DuBose Web Group with his son, Blake. Mike is writing his book The Art of Building a Great Business, to be released in 2009. For more information and helpful articles, visit www.mikedubose.com.

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