The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

No sooner had Barack Obama announced the selection of Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as his running mate than many in the media, with the smiling support of Republican operatives, were chirping about Senator Hillary Clinton having been dissed by the lack of consideration for the job. The question on the minds of many was/is, “why didn’t Obama at least show her some respect by vetting her, even if he wasn’t going to consider her for the position?”

While I don’t know and really don’t care what was on Senator Obama’s mind, I do know that there is a larger lesson here for those of us who daily interview people (or not) for positions on our team. The lesson is this: Gratuitously inflating a person’s hopes by putting them through a sham interview process, or otherwise wasting their time is one of the most disrespectful things you can do to them. Moreover, very few of us have the acting talent to pull off such a charade, hence doing so also imperils your reputation for authenticity.

In the early days of FedEx, company founder Fred Smith called me one afternoon to tell me that, though I had been recommended for a vacant VP position, he already had his mind pretty well made up, and I wasn’t on the “short list” this time around. He added that he had, however, noticed my work and felt sure that my time would come. I thanked him for his candor and kind words about my work, and went about my business, feeling good about what had just happened.

Over the years, I have tried to show similar respect to people who have expressed interest in a position on my team. In many cases, after telling a person that I’m not going to create false hope or disrespect them by putting them through a phony interview, I have asked if we could instead spend some time talking about their interests so that I might get to know them better. Most of them seemed to appreciate it. To me, that type of “courtesy interview” is more productive, and a lot more courteous.

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

The Atlanta Journal Constitution (electronic version) posted a very good article this week by Atlanta labor attorneys, James Walter and Matthew Simpson about a piece of legislation, the “Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA) now working its way thru Congress. If passed by the 111th Congress, it is expected that the bill would be signed into law by Sen. Barack Obama, should he be elected President.

The proposed legislation would overturn a 43 year old system in which union representation elections are conducted via a federally overseen secret ballot process, and replace it with a less formal “card check” procedure where the rules are enforced not by an unbiased federal representative, but a decidedly partisan union organizer. In essence, it is designed to do one thing and one thing only - to make it easier for labor unions to shore up their shrinking membership rolls, ‘er bank accounts.

The bill has recently drawn considerable attention as the result of union-backed furor over efforts by Wal-Mart, a fervently union-free employer, to alert its management staff to the downside potential of this act, if signed into law, on their business.

As one who for thirty years has been more than a casual student of employee relations, I can attest with some certainty that there is nothing about this bill that is good for American business or its employees. Moreover, as with many of the other labels (e.g., conservative, liberal, values voter) that seem to float unchallenged through our conversation these days, I am totally and completely perplexed by the name of this bill. How in the world can something that actually reduces freedom and eviscerates a scrupulously fair process be known as “employee free choice?”

A thought leader in the areas of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

The July 28 issue of Nation’s Restaurant News featured a piece by staff HR writer, Dina Berta, on efforts by Claim Jumper Restaurants to nourish their employment brand. That’s right, employment brand. According to Avery Block, a member of Claim Jumper’s HR team, who is quoted in the article, “the CJ brand is commitment to the journey. It represents and reflects the journey the company has been on the last 30 years… We’re committed to our community, one another, and to ourselves for individual growth and development. We want people to feel that when they come to Claim Jumper, they are on a journey.”

Two things are axiomatic in this respect:

1.Like it or not, every organization that has employees (including yours and ours) has an employment brand. At it’s root, that brand reflects your reputation within the community of those who would, do, and have worked for your organization. Not unlike other types of reputations, your employment rep is hard to enhance and easy to ruin.

2. Our employment brand extends well beyond the usual raft of trite, worn out slogans (e.g. people are our most important asset) to the very tangible qualities that define the employment relationship, things like trust, mutual respect, standards, and discipline.

If you’re at all uncertain as to the value of this reputation, chat up any recruiter in the hospitality or high tech industries.

A thought leader in the areas of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

Earlier this week, a Qantas Airlines 747-400 jet with 350+ souls aboard, en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne experienced sudden decompression at cruise altitude, resultant from a mysterious rupture in the underbelly of the aircraft. See the BBC for an account of this episode.

Owing to the skillful reaction of a well-trained crew, the plane made an emergency landing in Manila, resulting in no injuries.

We’re thankful that this episode ended as well as it did. One of the chief reasons that flying is as safe as it is relates to rigorous training and testing of flight crews. Contrary to what a lot of other businesses are doing right now, commercial airlines are not trying to work their way out of a tough economy by suspending training and “dumbing down” the organization. Our bet is that if you think about it for a minute or two, you’ll conclude that your business is no less dependent on having a trained, competent workforce than Qantas.

A thought leader in the areas of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

Yesterday, the US Airline Pilots Association, on behalf of member pilots at US Airways, placed a full-page ad, “A Message to Our Valued Passengers…” in USA Today (p. 5A).  The ad lambasted US Airways management for “pressuring your Captain to reduce fuel levels for your flight in order to save money.” The ad goes on to assert the aircraft captain’s prerogative to, “ensure a fuel load that will safely fly you to your destination with all the reserves necessary…” Translation: We’re in a power struggle with management, so we’re going to whip up sympathy and support by giving you something extra to worry about when you’re traveling. They might be willing to let planes fall out of the sky, but we won’t. Yeah, right.

In our book, Contented Cows MOOve Faster, we wrote about the extra effort and ensuing productivity that arise from treating employees as professionals. The model we used was that of commercial airline pilots. Though I’m sticking with the larger argument, the behavior of this particular pilot group, their union, and ultimately US Airways management bring into serious question the use of the term, “professional” for two reasons:

1. Professionals don’t take their grievances with one another into the public square, and
2. Professionals certainly don’t insinuate that safety is being compromised when it is not.

One of the reasons that our domestic airlines are in trouble is because there are still too many seats chasing paying fannies. Approximately 50,000 of those seats are controlled by US Airways.  For the benefit of those carriers (e.g., Delta, Southwest, Continental, Jet Blue) who do generally behave responsibly, I’ve resolved to do my part to equitably correct this market imbalance by making sure that my fanny never finds itself in a US Airways seat. On the premise that I’m not going to trust that fanny to anyone but a professional, our travel agent has been given explicit instructions that Greyhound comes before US Airways. Those clowns deserve one another, but not paying customers.

We do a fair amount of work with the hospitality industry, and to be sure, they are feeling the pinch right now. Operating on the leading (bleeding?) edge of the economy, restaurants and other food service operators tend to suffer a lot of the early pain in an economic downturn. Just ask some of the folks at Starbucks.

The current climate is especially pernicious because the very factors that are reducing discretionary spending are also causing food costs (especially dairy products and seafood) to skyrocket. As a result, restaurant operators are scrambling to take costs out of the system, and yet do it in a way that doesn’t totally alienate the guest.

Inevitably some turn to their employees, as they well should, to find ways to do more with less. But, unfortunately, the industry’s “just get it done” culture that operates fairly well most of the time can put the entire enterprise way out on a legal limb when little things like time clocks come into play. In the past month, I’ve overheard food service managers in two different chains tell employees to “get it done” while in the same breath admonishing them that, “there is (wink) no (wink) overtime.” Translation - I expect you to do it off the clock.

Unfortunately, in most cases, the person complies. I say “unfortunately” because in so doing, the fuse on this little liability, which can be a very long fuse indeed has just been lit. In some cases the person, a gung-ho employee goes along with the program, and for so long as they remain gung-ho, nothing comes of it. Many others aren’t as gung-ho or benevolent, however. Some will be receptive to advances by labor unions, employee “advocacy groups” (fronts for unions), or attorneys who prefer to do their ambulance chasing with a fork. Others prefer to impose their own remedies and take advantage of a target-rich environment by beginning to confuse their money with the company’s (or guest’s) money. Either way, the business loses, and the losses are bigger than you might imagine.

Despite having a largely pro-business judiciary for some time, employers are getting whacked with stiff fines and settlements as the result of federal wage and hour law violations. The July 14-21 issue of Business Week (p. 7) reported an adverse ruling against Wal-Mart by a Minnesota judge in a case involving 2 million alleged separate instances of employees being forced to work off the clock or cut short their breaks. According to the article, in addition to the $6.5 million back pay award, the company could potentially be liable for punitive damages up to $2 billion (based on a $1,000 per event maximum penalty).

Similarly, the June 20 issue of Nation’s Restaurant News (p. 6) chronicled an expected $3.9 million settlement of two wage and hour related lawsuits against Fireman Hospitality Group, the New York operator of upscale restaurants such as Redeye Grill, Cafe Fiorello, Brooklyn Diner, and Shelly’s.

Any way you cut it, working people off the clock, or funding operations through some of the nefarious tip sharing arrangements that pop up from time to time is simply not worth the risk. Whether you’re serving tacos or t-bones, it takes a hell of a lot of covers to pay one of these supersized fines.

For the rest of us, who spend our time on the other side of the plate, we would do well to remember that when we do dine out, we’re really not going to balance the household budget by stiffing a deserving server out of a tip. Do the right thing, even though no one is looking.

Business Week is currently soliciting solutions to a list of “tough challenges” identified by its readers. While my response to their challenge goes thru the editing process it seemed a good idea to let our readers see it first, before it appears at BW. Here’s my reply to the question, “How do you continue to innovate when the economy is in a recession?”

Truth be known, operating in a difficult economy gives everyone a better appreciation for what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. The wind is chronically in your face, and it seems there’s never enough time, capital, or runway to draw an assured breath. You’re scared, but you keep going. Maybe it’s because we’re too Committed or just too hard headed to give up.

Whether in a start-up or a high-performance team deep inside a larger institution, entrepreneurial behavior involves the relentless and passionate pursuit of an endeavor in which one has a vested interest. By definition, this behavior is contingent upon Focus, Passion, and Trust.

Focus: In the words of former NFL head coach, Jimmy Johnson, “confused players are not very aggressive.”  Even more so in difficult economic times, it is imperative that leaders at every level make darned sure that all hands on deck understand, really understand where the ship is headed, why it’s going there, and what that means. Despite having more communications modes, gear, and doodads at our disposal than ever, we probably do a poorer job of communicating (as in making meaning) regarding this stuff than at any time in history. As a quick litmus test for your own organization, ask the next ten staffers you bump into to jot down a list of the organization’s three (3) highest priorities. If they’re all the same, call me. I’d love to hear more about how you do what you do. If not, get busy.

Passion: Operating in the incredibly difficult, commoditized air transport business, Southwest Airlines flies the same planes to the same places, serving the same stale peanuts as its competitors. (Actually, some of their competitors have recently decided that eliminating the peanuts will be the ‘secret sauce’ to achieving prosperity.) For better than thirty years, Southwest has beaten the competition senseless not so much with planes or routes, but by hiring people who are capable of, and inclined to be a bit more passionate about what they do. In short, Southwest recognizes that there are more folks who have the talent to fly and fix their planes than those who, by virtue of pace, preference, and values fit their merry band. Unlike the competition, they’ve figured out that it should be unlawful to lock customers up in an aluminum tube for long periods with cranky employees. In other words, talent is important, but so is attitude.

As leaders, we need to realize that passion is not a static condition that can be ignored or taken for granted. We must cherish it, invest in it, see that it is well directed, and above all else, set the example to be worthy of its expenditure in our workplace.

Trust:  At the end of the day, trust is the central lubricant that allows the entrepreneurial juices to flow – trust in one’s self, your ideas, the people around you, and in your support systems. Sadly, due to the ongoing reinvention of the ‘deal’ in the workplace, trust is in as great a demand and low supply as well, uh… oil. The pressures of an eroding economy make this even more the case.

If you’re truly worried about keeping alive the entrepreneurial instincts in your organization, this would be a great place to start. Consistent with the premise that people would rather “see a sermon than hear one”, turn off the PR machine, put the lawyers back in their sound proof offices, and begin taking visible steps to demonstrate that you personally, and your organization can be trusted to do what you say you’re going to do. Make it abundantly clear that you’re not going to stop at doing what’s legal, but what is right. In similar fashion, be strident and unapologetic in demanding that those with whom you work and partner are similarly convicted.

I can’t promise you that doing these things will convert your organization to a bunch of fire-breathing entrepreneurs, but it’s pretty safe to say you’ll never get there without them. Good luck and Godspeed!

A thought leader in the areas of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

At about 8:45 AM I eased into a booth at Dick Clark’s Grill at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport in search of breakfast.Though the day was still relatively young and nothing particularly bad had happened, I was annoyed.

Getting to the airport had first involved navigating to the omnibus rental car facility, a place that is not especially well marked on surface streets. Navigation was made more difficult by road construction in the area, but I made it, with only a couple of wrong turns. Having once before boarded the wrong bus from this facility to the airport, I knew that the buses don’t circulate to all terminals as they do at most domestic airports. So, as I exited the building I looked for the signs to tell me where the bus to Terminal 3 (my departure terminal) would be - not readily apparent. Thank goodness, an employee was standing by to serve as a human signpost. Once at the airport, signage for rest rooms and other essential ports of call was similarly weak. In fact, in my search for the nearest rest room, were it not for the pleasant, purple-jacketed guide at the top of the escalator, I might have gone from annoyed to well, uh, forgive the expression… pissed.

Don’t get me wrong. I very much like the Phoenix area. The people are great, there’s lots to do, and the weather is great about nine months out of the year. But I think I’ve figured out why the area is growing so fast, and it has nothing to do with the aforementioned factors. People simply get there and then, like a Las Vegas casino, can’t find their way back out of town.

I had lunch the other day with a handful of mid-level managers whose annoyance was a lot more acute than what I experienced this morning, but emanated from the very same cause. No, they hadn’t gotten lost at Sky Harbor. Rather, they are lost and confused within their own organization, where, to hear them talk, they get a fairly steady diet of the “mushroom treatment.” In other words, the “signage”, or visability into the organization’s strategies and plans is severely limited, and thus compromises their ability to do their jobs. One of them in fact remarked that she feels personally diminished by the fact that, when the boulders of change roll off the highest level of the org chart and land in the organization below, she is often ridiculed by her people for not preparing them for changes that she, too, is completely unaware of. As a result, she not only has the change to deal with, but first, she must contend with a workforce that believes that their boss is either lying about her lack of foreknowledge, inept, or asleep at the switch.

Despite burgeoning corporate communications budgets and the availability of more communications methods, modes, gear, and doodads than the mind can comprehend, we probably do a poorer job of communicating in the workplace than at any time in history. Communicating, as in making meaning. A few thoughts:

1. As managers, we get paid to think. To a degree, we also get paid to rock the boat a bit. If needed information about your organization’s plans and strategies is lacking, don’t be ignorant, and don’t be a victim. Go search it out. You can start by chatting up your boss, your peers, and your own network. but if that fails, don’t be bashful about going to someone who ought to know, someone higher in the food chain perhaps. Make it clear that you’re not whining about not having been told, but don’t be timid about asking for information or insight that you need in order to run your part of the business. In all likelihood they will thank you for the question and your interest. In the unlikely event that they react adversely, well, that tells you something too.

2. Use a simple test to determine whether or not your own people are getting the sort of information they need to do their best work. Ask a representative sample of your team members to jot down and share with you what they believe to be the organization’s top 3 priorities. To the degree that their answers are either inconsistent or off the mark, you’ve got atherosclerosis in your own area. Get busy.

3. Finally, we would do well to remember the advice of Jan Carlzon, former head of SAS, the Scandinavian airline, who maintained that, “An individual without information cannot take responsibility. An individual with information cannot help but take responsibility.”"

According to news reports, Presidential candidate John McCain is planning a little cookout over Memorial Day weekend, at his place in Sedona, Arizona. As the guest list includes a number of people who’ve been suggested as possible vice presidential running mates for Senator McCain, the news media have been reporting that it’s really an audition for the job of VP.

McCain’s people deny that.

I don’t know why. I suspect it probably is, in fact, a vetting opportunity for the job of veep, and if so, I think it’s a good idea. Especially for jobs with a complex set of requirements, like that of Vice President of the United States. I know what John Nance Garner, one of FDR’s VP’s said - that the job wasn’t worth a bucket of warm spit - but that’s changed over the last 20 years or so.

I’ve done a lot of “observational” interviews, taking job candidates to lunch or dinner, in part to observe how they behave in social situations, how they interact, and how they treat others. I once decided against an executive candidate because, during dinner, he snapped orders at our server, and never once uttered the words “thank you” for anything she did. I didn’t think he’d make a good leader - someone who needs to be able to inspire the discretionary effort of those they lead.

I also traveled one time with someone I had considered recommending for a particular job. This guy did nothing but complain the whole time, even when faced with relatively minor annoyances. I changed my mind.

According to a story (perhaps apocryphal, maybe true), the late department store magnate James Cash Penney once took a prospective store manager out to dinner as part of the candidate’s interview process. He noticed that the fellow salted and peppered his meal before taking the first bite. Penney wondered if this might portend a tendency to make decisions before having all the necessary information, and he passed on the potential candidate.

The next time you’re hiring someone, try to create an opportunity to observe them in a situation where they need to interact with people. It might tell you more than any interview question you could possibly come up with.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

A piece of incoming email caught my eye this morning. It was from our friends at Workforce Management Magazine promoting their upcoming June issue and the feature article, “Best Practices in Talent Management.” Carroll Lachnit and crew at Workforce do good work, and I’m sure this issue will be no exception. I just wish they’d make one small change to the title, however. Let’s change the word, “best” to something a little less grandiose, like, well… better.

Having spent a good bit of the last 15 years studying leadership and employment practices, if I’ve become convinced of anything, it is that no one, repeat, no one has the market cornered on best practices in this arena. Not the ones mentioned in the annual ranking of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” (Fortune), not the oft-cited exemplars like Southwest Air and Google, and no, not even the firms labeled as “Contented Cows” in our first book, Contented Cows Give Better Milk.

So where’s the beef? My point is this:  Branding your employment practices as the “best” or even accepting that mantle is putting yourself on a very slippery slope. It is a bit like calling yourself the best airline. Now there’s some rarified company for you! Admittedly there are some good players out there, but unlike the game of golf, there is no Tiger Woods; no consistent, odds-on favorite.

For the organizations that have earned themselves a spot way back in the pack, the point - indeed this whole post is moot. For them, the difference between best and better is an academic exercise. But for the ones who are doing some great things in the employment arena, the “A and B players” if you will, it is best, or should I say helpful to remember that one of the keys to greatness is staying hungry. Being proclaimed the “best” interferes with that hunger because at some point, you start believing that stuff and before long, your performance suffers as your breathe your own exhaust. I saw it happen at my alma mater, FedEx, where, after about the 3rd year of being labeled one of  the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America”, we started believing our good press and stopped working so hard at improving our leadership habits. Soon thereafter, our employees noticed, as did, in succession, our customers and shareholders.

To the  point of my last post, by all means celebrate whenever you’ve got cause to do so, but just like Tiger, keep your head out of the clouds and stay hungry.