Consider what others think...

Most people will tell you they like change, but the reality is that many of them are afraid of it.  They like the certainty of the status quo and get anxious about the unknown. But if yesterday’s message was correct, companies that ascribe to continuous improvement need to address this anxiety and the resistance it creates. Before you get too far into the kinds of improvement you want, complete a scan of employee perspectives and perceptions, understand their interests and concerns, prepare a communications plan that educates them fully, and seek their feedback and input. What might seem appropriate or obvious to you is best tested. And don’t overlook the natural “what’s in it for me” reactions that you might find. Consider holding focus groups, creating feedback loops, and engaging employees in the planning process. Cities have representative government, universities have student senates, homeowner’s associations have participative bylaws, and companies have collective bargaining agreements – these are the models against which employees view management expectations of engagement. If you want your employees to be engaged, give them appropriate forums in which to do so. Consider the examples above as examples of thinking that help people to see change as an opportunity, not a threat. If you want employees to get behind innovations that are good for your business, make them part of the process today.

 

Steven Paul Jobs (1955 – 2011): American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc.

Ask people what they think...

I don’t know about not believing in excellence but stressing that without all the practices needed to identify, design, and implement it may be counterproductive. Employees intuitively want to find better and smarter ways to do their jobs and leaders should support and facilitate their efforts. Start with including them in discussions that affect them, their workspace, and their responsibilities. Ask them what they think and listen to their ideas – implement the good ones and help them to work on those that need improvement. It’s a great way to get them engaged in things that matter, in the overall process of continuous improvement, and to see that their ideas and efforts matter.  We can’t complain that they’re not engaged if we don’t give them meaningful ways to participate. Stop thinking that you’re the only one who can see or design change – that top-down thinking often makes employees feel left out. And don’t scoff at what they suggest – they’re there on the front line and you’re not. The highly paid designers who planned the front desk at Mirage got it all wrong – the employees had to turn around or go to another room to get the forms and materials they needed. When one of them brought the problem and a simple solution to management it led to a redesign that worked, and a changed management mindset about should participate in workplace design. Do yourself a favor – ask employee what they think will help promote excellence today. 

 

Tom Peters (born 1942): American writer on business management practices, best known for In Search of Excellence.

Do your homework...

When I used to attend SHRM conferences, friends and colleagues would congratulate me on all the cool HR programs we developed at Mirage and Wynn Resorts. While we rarely talked about it, most of those took long periods of time because they usually started out as bad ideas. That’s partly true because I was dreaming stuff up before there were computers to do them. And at that early stage there weren’t a lot of people skilled and knowledgeable enough to take the risk of working on them. But as computerization started to take off and people got more experienced with them, I was able to get people together to brainstorm my ideas. Notably, Bob Pemberton at Infinium believed in my vision and gave me the support and courage to continue while computing caught up. And David Kolins from the UK was disciplined and persistent in creating the specs needed to communicate with other developers and manage the projects. I’ve said before here that from thought to finish, my applicant tracking and paperless ideas took nearly 14 years – it would have been so easy to give up but the projected savings in time and money were too hard to ignore or abandon. My colleague John Strzemp used to say that ‘nothing comes easy’ and that was so true for my crazy projects. But bad ideas have a way of turning into good ones if you stick with them and continue to learn along the way. Do your homework and keep your eye on the ball if you want a good idea to live long enough to come true today.

 

Steven Spielberg (born 1946): American filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is the most commercially successful director in film history.

Leave a good legacy...

Everything we do, or don’t do, sticks to us in some way. We can be happy, helpful, and positive, or curmudgeonly, standoffish, and negative. The choice is ours. As easy as it is to just reflect what’s around us, it’s better to have values, discipline, and a focus to guide our reactions to those things. This is especially true for leaders – they need to be positive and upbeat all the time, inspiring others with their honesty, respect, clarity, optimism, and can-do attitude. If they’re full of doom and gloom, it’s hard to expect much more from those they’re leading. Because they set the tone that others follow. Part of it is being prepared – getting enough rest, exercising their bodies and minds, having a plan and a focused perspective. Part of it is being aware, recognizing the interests and needs of others. And part of it is caring – treating others the way you want to be treated. Be straight with your peeps – straight answers, saying what you mean and meaning what you say, following through, and keeping your promises. Doing these things regularly or apologizing when you don’t. Add all this up – it equals being a caring human. That’s what we should be. Because what we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all of our tomorrows. Starting today.

 

Alexandra Stoddard (born 1941): American author, interior designer, and lifestyle writer.

Make the most of every moment...

If there are no unimportant days (see yesterday’s message), then there certainly are no ordinary moments. Every moment counts. If you treat each one as an opportunity to do your best, then you set the stage for excellence. That’s what I told the 180 hiring managers at Wynn when we opened: they interviewed 55,000 applicants in 5 weeks – that’s an average of 3 interviews every minute, and each one counted. I told them: ask good questions.; listen carefully to the answers; pay attention to the body language; focus; there are no unimportant decisions in each of those moments. That was then, this is now: you may not be interviewing hundreds of applicants, but every one of your professional decisions matters – don’t treat any of them as ordinary. They affect others, they’re a reflection of you, they’re your responsibility. It’s what every coach tells every player in any game – go out there and do your best, every time. Do that and you or your team have a chance. Mistakes may happen – learn from them and apply that to your overall knowledge and competence. And adjust accordingly. That’s what it takes to be your best every moment of every day. That’s the key to excellence today.

 

Dan Millman (born 1946): American author and lecturer in the personal development field.

Make every day a good day to be your best...

Cal Ripkin, Jr., a shortstop and third baseman for baseball’s Baltimore Orioles, holds the record for most consecutive games played: 2,632 consecutive games, a streak compiled over more than 16 years. When that happened, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal called and asked me if any of our employees had a similar record – I told her about Irene Greene, a cocktail waitress who had perfect attendance at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas for 43 years; that’s 53,750 consecutive daily shifts. I like telling this story because good attendance is what managers want from their employees; to feel the importance of being there for their colleagues and customers every day. The best employees understand this and have good attendance, but it’s the employees who don’t that create a ripple effect in scheduling that’s very challenging. Poor attendance is usually the single greatest cause of active disciplines and involuntary separations, especially in the hospitality business. I think the best antidote for that is management making employees feel needed and appreciated – we instituted an award of an extra day off with pay for employees who had perfect attendance for 6 consecutive months. While we weren’t sure if that would be a good enough incentive, we were pleasantly surprised when nearly 70% of our employees earned it. Don’t just hope that good attendance happens – put your money where your mouth is. Do what it takes to show your employees that there’s no such thing as an unimportant day today.

 

Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (1887 – 1943): American drama critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio personality.

Learn more about this eccentric fellow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Woollcott

Remember that perfection is the enemy of progress...

ex·cel·lence

/ˈeksələns/

noun

the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.

 

Perfection is a good example of a ‘big, hairy, audacious objective – something to strive for in the overall scheme of things. Something off in the future. But don’t try to make perfection the way you conduct yourself every day – in that scenario, perfection is the enemy of progress. And progress is what we are responsible for every day. So, if you’re looking to set the bar high, try for excellence in everything you do. Because perfection has to do with the end product – winning the World Series is a good example. But excellence has to do with the process – getting a hit every time you’re at bat is something you can focus on. As a leader, don’t frustrate your team with challenges to be perfect – just encourage them to do their best at whatever they do. You can manage that, People can train for that, and leaders can coach to that. And everyone can practice on those basics. With every opening I worked on, that was what we preached – keep your head down, work hard, be prepared, flexible, and resilient. Learn from your mistakes – that’s not something you’d talk about if you only focused on perfection. Because mistakes happen, things change, people are people. That’s where flexibility and resilience come into play. And when your people do that, be sure to recognize how they are approaching excellence. Try to be excellent in everything you do; that’s how to build the foundation for perfection today.

 

Gerald Wesley “Jerry” Moran (born 1954): American politician and former lawyer who is the senior United States senator from Kansas, a seat he has held since 2011.