We Messed Up FAR TOO OFTEN

I became a customer service GEEK in 1981 when I read Tom Peters and Robert Waterman’s book, In Search of Excellence.  I was then thrilled to hear they made a documentary on the book and it was going to be shown on PBS.  I recorded the show onto my VHS.

Every employee I’ve had (that’s well over 300) since then has watches the customer service sections of that documentary.  Since I wore out my recording, I eventually bought the VHS and then the DVD.

From 1981 on, we were REALLY GOOD at listening to our clients, putting ourselves into every client interaction and make things right when we messed up.

By 1991, we had grown dramatically, and while we did a great job of making things right when we messed up, we messed up far too often.  We wasted a bunch of time and money fixing things and I was totally burned out being the know- it-all King Solomon.

I had become a slave to my business.  It seemed like I was always responding to things and taking care of problems.  I had no time for myself.  It was not fun.

I decided I didn’t want my business to grow anymore.  It seemed like the only things that grew as fast as my business were my headaches, and I sure as heck didn’t want any more employees… talk about headaches.  I might as well have been a babysitter.  I in fact, considered throwing in the towel and going back into sales.

Happily, that wasn’t the end of the story.

By 2005 I owned 5 profitable businesses and loved what I did.

But what happened?

How did I go from a guy who didn’t want to expand his business, who had more headaches than he could handle, to a guy whose business has grown dramatically, added four more businesses, loves his work, has the time he wants to spend with his wife, kids, and grandkids, has time for his many hobbies, and recently sold that original business for millions more than like businesses?

Now, since 1995, when I go on vacation, I never get interrupted.  I come back refreshed and excited to get back to work.  Instead of problems, I come back to a business running as well, or better, than when I left.

Before I sold my big business, I went on a 3-week Mediterranean cruise, with no cell phone and no email.  I told my Vice President of Operations the ship I was on, and I told her “You’ll have to figure out how to get in touch with me if you need me.”  I knew she wouldn’t need me.  Like I said, since around 1995 when I go on vacation, I never get interrupted.

How does the business get better while you’re gone?

It’s the system.  The entire system is designed for continuous improvement whether you’re there or not.

I invented THE small business management system that made me more money, made my job infinitely easier and more enjoyable… a system that our employees love and in fact led to us being named “The Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State” by Washington CEO Magazine.

It’s a system that creates great clients who love doing business with you.  At the same time it gives you, the owner, more time to work on the important things in your business: more time for your family, more time for your friends, more time for yourself and it is simply a lot more fun.

What they teach in business school doesn’t work for small businesses – I know, I’m and business school graduate.  I was using that crap when I was burned out!

Do you think this system just might work for you?  Frankly, it’s not right for everyone, so why don’t you schedule a free 30 minute consultation with me to see if it will work for you.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to sell you anything.  We’ll simply have a conversation.  If it’s not right for you, it’s not right.  I’ll learn about you.  You’ll learn about me.  We’ll still stay in touch and remain friends.

Go here to pick a time to schedule our 30 minute consultation https://keith12.youcanbook.me/

How to Have the PAY Discussion

How to Have the PAY Discussion

There is no discussion that creates more anxiety for a business owner or manager than that of talking pay with a team member.  It doesn’t need to be like that.

When you have guiding principles, and a written document, that everyone understands, the discussion simply become another business discussion.  It simply, is not a big deal.

I was talking with a Kyle, a private client, last week and we got on the topic of pay, and raises.

He had previously done Performance Reviews in his business and like most business owners he hated them.  He admitted that he was, in fact, months overdue in getting them done because he hated them.

He was also feeling guilty because the Performance Review was the time they discussed pay, which meant he was behind in giving raises.  Then he confessed that one of the main reasons he hated Performance Reviews was the pay discussion.

Everyone was used to get a raise at their review, and he had a lot of people that didn’t warrant a raise right now.

I pointed out to Kyle that his experience with Performance Reviews and pay is the same as everyone’s.  It’s a NO-WIN for both parties.

I told him the experience of my brother-in-law at Boeing who hated Performance Reviews and why the discussion of pay during Performance Reviews was a NO-WIN for both parties.

When my brother-in-law had a Performance Review and was told he did everything great and got a dollar raise, he left saying to himself, “I did everything great and I got a measly dollar.”

But, seldom would he leave being told that he did everything right because the manager knew he had to limit raises, so he had to find something that was lacking.

So he would be told that he was lacking in some area, and then the next time we saw him he complained about how he wasn’t appreciated at Boeing.

Performance Reviews are stupid to start with.  Managing one’s performance in REVIEW is idiotic!  Adding pay into the discussion is BEYOND IDIOTIC!

Kyle’s question was, how do you address pay in The Make-You-Happy Management System?

My answer – “Pay needs to be transparent.  I don’t mean everyone needs to know everyone else’s pay.  In fact discussing your pay with others in our business if forbidden.”

“What I mean by transparent is, they need to know what is taken into consideration in determining pay.”

We then talked about the pay document included in The Make-You-Happy Management System.  It’s entitled, “How Pay is Determined.”

I told him this needs to be shared with every team member on their first day of employment.  It will make pay transparent for that individual, and it will motivate them to continually look for ways to improve the business.

I also told him he needs to distribute the, How Pay is Determined document to his entire team right away.

How Pay is Determined has eight bullet points that spell out exactly how each person’s pay is determined.  Kyle and I discussed the preamble to the document and the first bullet point.

How Pay is Determined

It is the manager’s responsibility to review the pay of each of their team members, at least, once a year (more often if the manager sees fit).  Whenever the manager thinks it is necessary (s)he should review the team member’s pay with the president of the company, and make recommendations for adjustments.

This is a discussion of how pay is determined:

If you are on commission you should expect that your pay will rise and fall with your commission and that you will create your own pay raise.

While many of the issues discussed below may apply to commission positions, this statement deals primarily with salaried and hourly positions.

A number of issues are involved in determining wages at <Business Name>.
Here are a few:

  • Prevailing wage – The reality is no manager, including the President of the company, sets the pay at <Business Name>. The biggest factor in setting a pay range is the market.

It is very simple.  If our wages are too low, we won’t attract or keep quality employees.  If our wages are too high, we won’t make money and we will be out of business.

Just because someone is here for a matter of time it doesn’t mean they automatically get a cost-of-living raise.  It is very possible, in fact likely, that we currently have positions in which the job being done simply is not worth any more money to the company.  At this point, regardless of how well the job is being done, a wage increase would be very small and possible nothing.

A huge problem with mature businesses is that over time their payroll can get out of line with the rest of the industry and the company can no longer be competitive (think United Airlines, Trans World Airlines, Pan American Airlines, General Motors, Ford).

When we as a company are more efficient and productive than others in our market place our team members can be at the top of the pay scale for a particular job.  In fact, we can create a NEW top above what the market pays for a particular job.

This is why it is so important that you are an active participant in our continuous improvement.  You are needed to insure that our MJRs service both our internal customers and clients in the most efficient and effective way possible.  You need to speak up when you see an opportunity to improve a MJR.

In every Personal Development Interview you will be asked, “Since we last met, what did you find that was broken, or could be improved; and what did you do to fix, or improve it?”  It is critical that you always look for ways to improve our deliverable to our clients.

The How Pay is Determined document then goes on to discuss the other seven factors in determining an individual’s pay in a Make-You-Happy Management System business.

There is no reason for a pay discussion to cause the anxiety it does.  Discover how to truly take control of every part of your business in my book, “How to Control Your Business and Your Life.”  It’s free for you.  All I ask is your help with shipping and handling with a $2.97 fee.

Click here to get “How to Control Your Business and Your Life.” 

Exposed! Owner of Company Named ”Best Business To Work For In Washington State” is a “Ruthless Manager”

By Lois Lane

It was reported today that Keith Lee, the owner of American Retail Supply, which was named the Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State by Washington CEO Magazine is a Ruthless Manager.

How is that? How can the owner of the company named “The Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State” now be revealed as the co-author of the New Edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits?

It was reported today that Dan Kennedy, the author of numerous No B.S. books, chose Keith Lee as the co-author for his newest edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits.

Our Lois Lane caught up with Mr. Lee as he was sneaking into his office today and asked him how he could head the Best Business to Work for in Washington State and be a Ruthless Manager.

Mr. Lee replied… “I don’t choose the names for Mr. Kennedy’s books, and Dan and I don’t
agree on everything, but when it comes to managing a business and the people in it; we agree much more than we disagree.”

Keith pointed to page 14 in the No B.S. book where Dan Kennedy writes about business owners, “And one thing they all have in common: gripes, complaints, disappointments, frustrations, pain and agony with regard to their employees. Much of this has to do with unreasonable expectations and a misunderstanding of the actual nature of employer-employee relationships. Some of it lies squarely at the fault of the business owner for failing in one or more of the Three Requirements for Having Employees: Leadership, Management, Supervision.”

Mr. Lee continued, “While I don’t think the nature of the employer-employee relationship need be as adversarial as Dan, the expectations and the nature of the relationship needs to be addressed during the employees’ first day of employment. With our DVD training business owners who use our Make-You-Happy Management System set those expectations during the first hour of employment.”

Mr. Lee agrees wholeheartedly with Mr. Kennedy’s statement that business owners failing in one or more of the Three Requirements For Having Employees is the cause of many of their headaches.

Mr. Lee says, “Business owners usually lead, manage and supervise as they were led, managed and supervised, or how they learned in business school; neither of which work very well.”

Performance Reviews Suck

Mr. Lee pointed to Performance Management. Every business owner knows that they need a Performance Management System but the only type of system they know about is Performance Reviews and they know that Performance Reviews Suck. With this the business owner continues with Performance Reviews knowing that they suck, or they stop them altogether, and are left with no Performance Management System.

Mr. Lee informed this reporter than Dan Kennedy agrees that Performance Reviews are “like looking in your rearview mirror to drive your car.” Mr. Kennedy’s tells the story of how the late Mike Vance, who worked personally with Walt Disney on the original Disney University and other projects, laughed and scoffed at standardized annual or quarterly ‘performance reviews.”

Mr. Lee’s management system replaces Performance Reviews with Personal Development Interviews.

Mr. Lee went on to explain. “Just listen to what they’re called. Which would you rather give… a Performance Review or a Personal Development Interview? Would you rather review someone’s performance, or develop someone?

What if you’re on the receiving end? Would you like your performance reviewed or would you rather have someone work proactively to develop you?

Which do you think gets better results, developing people and coaching them or reviewing their performance after the fact?

Traditional management focuses on catching people doing things wrong. If every time I do something wrong the boss catches me, but he doesn’t catch me when I do things right, my creativity is stymied and I stop using my creativity, stop stepping out front, and stop helping the organization grow by using my creativity.

Conversely, when we start catching people doing things right, we encourage empowerment. People start to do things in the organization. Productivity improves on an ongoing basis. Improvement doesn’t just come from management but from the whole organization interacting with each other and picking each other up. The organization is permeated with a motivating environment.

Another benefit of this type of management is you create a learning organization. Researchers tell us that as we move forward, people are going to stay with organizations where they have an opportunity to grow and learn. There are going to be many more skilled positions than there are people to fill them. And if there are a lot of skilled positions and not enough people to fill them, money isn’t going to make the difference. Money is going to be a given. You’re going to have to pay in the competitive market to get good people.

But they want to work in a place where they can grow, where they can enjoy themselves, where they can use their creativity to help the organization grow, and that happens in a learning organization. That’s exactly why my company, American Retail Supply was named the Best Company to Work for in Washington, by Washington CEO Magazine.”

What You Accept You Get

What You Accept You Get

Dan Kennedy asked me to write three chapters in his book, NO B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits.

My Make-You-Happy Management Systems clients think it’s very odd that I contributed three chapters to a book with the words Ruthless Management in the title. They point out that my system is anything but Ruthless.

I won’t go into details as to why Dan wanted me in his book, but you’ll get a taste of why I’m in his book in this article.

In the article Dan talks about Donald Trump ripping the towel dispenser off the wall and toss it down the hall. I’m not that kind of guy.

But I can sure as heck see myself, like Eisner, firing a group of employees, at a Disney Park, for not smiling.

No one, in any of my businesses, would expect to have a job if they were ever found to give rude customer service, and yes, I’ve set that example by firing someone on the spot, even when we were short handed.

I’m told businesses write people up THREE TIMES for consciously and deliberately doing something wrong.

Are you kidding me??? As Donald Trump says, You’re Fired!

And yes, and I’ve done that on the spot when I found someone consciously and deliberately doing something wrong.

You need to create a culture in which NO ONE would consider doing something consciously and deliberately wrong… and if they do, they’ll start walking out the door on their own.

You can get Dan’s Ruthless Management Book at Amazon.

Dan’s article is here in blue.

Here’s a secret I’ve discovered about million-aire and multi-millionaire entrepreneurs: they want what they do and their companies do to be right. Not 80% right. Not 90% right. Right, period. They are, therefore, very much disliked by a lot of people, and if they are “big” enough, by the media. Jobs. Bezos. Trump. Working for them, many ex-employees say, was hell. But maybe it was being incompetent in their employ that was hell.

Winning isn’t just a statistic on a spreadsheet or a bank account balance. It is the customer, Mrs. Matilda Smith, in Rockford, Illinois, getting what she asked for on her pizza or the right product in the delivered package or a human answering her call in fewer than four rings. Customer appreciation is not a once a year sale or an automated thank you e-mail. It is an authentic attitude, top-down, permeated throughout an organization, actually occurring – and measured, policed and enforced – every day. I don’t care how big your company, if you don’t actually care about the people, the individuals, giving you money, they will drift off in search of a place where they feel valued and appreciated.

Another secret about rich entrepreneurs: they don’t just seek success. They HATE failure. They often react to it violently. Martha Stewart was known to drop into a K-Mart store, find her branded goods sloppily stocked and throw the entire inventory from shelves onto the floor. Eisner instantly fired a group of Disney Park employees caught not smiling. Walt had a fit over one’s lousy delivery of The Jungle Cruise script. I saw Trump tear an empty towel dispenser from a restroom wall in a Trump hotel and throw it 20 yards down a hall.

These people are said to terrorize their employees, their associates, their vendors. But how calmly should you accept failure? Should you “stay calm and carry on”? Only if you want more of the failure you calmly accept. If your blood doesn’t boil and offenders see fire shoot from your eyeballs, your lesser response will be taken as permission. If there is failure and new training, new controls, new supervision is not installed as remedy, then “let’s TRY and do better” will be taken as permission.

There are places where incompetence as failure has dire and instant consequences. The jailer who forgets to lock the inmate’s cell or misses the razor blade in the body search may wind up quickly dead. It’s a fine object lesson for other jailers. The cruise ship captain who is busy texting and gets into too-shallow water and capsizes and sinks the whole thing, and injures and drowns passengers, goes to prison. As it should be.

Creating dire and instant consequences for incompetence and failure is a good thing in any and every business. I’ve told of Chuck Sekeres’ “3 strikes and you’re out” for his in-bound telemarketers: three calls in a row without a set appointment, you’re out. Next batter up. No quarterly performance evaluations. Don’t even wait to be told. After 3, get up and slink out. Minute by minute.

Drop three passes in a game, butt on bench. If possible, traded. Fail at managing the V.A., the IRS and Benghazi, shouldn’t three strikes be enough? They tried to impeach Clinton over one intern. I used the word RUTHLESS in my book title “No BS Management of People and Profits” because, damn it, we desperately need a lot more ruthlessness in a lot more places. In homes, in neighborhoods, in small businesses, in big companies, in government. You can start with you.

Here’s some reality. Dan doesn’t like employees. He tells everyone to have none, or as few as possible. I guess I can’t disagree with that. You certainly shouldn’t have more employees than you need.

With that said, I think employees (team members) are the ultimate leverage tool in your business. Every additional employee should send more to the bottom line FOR YOU!

And no, in my system, we don’t get performance at a high level by being Ruthless. We get them performing at a high level by setting high standards, creating systems that allow them to produce at a high level, getting buy in from them, and conducting Personal Development Interviews that make every individual feel important and appreciated.

Schedule a 30 minute free consultation with me to discover exactly how to do all of that. Go to https://keith12.youcanbook.me/

Hiring a Millennial? Are You NUTS!

I don’t want to get a bunch of hate mail, so if you’re not a spoiled millennial who thinks
you should get something for nothing and the beer’s free, THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU!  In fact, during the FREE tele-seminar I’m hosting, I’m going to show business owners how to identify YOU and how to hire a millennial who will give them a good day’s work for a good day’s pay.  In fact the title of the tele-seminar is, How to Hire a Millennial Who Will Give You a Good Day’s Work For a Good Day’s Pay.

I do a lot of one-on-one consulting with business owners and every single one has a horror story of hiring a millennial.  It’s not an exaggeration when I say, some have given up on the entire generation.

You don’t need to give up on hiring millennials and you don’t need to change your business to accommodate them.  The articles I see about changing your business to accommodate millennials drive me NUTS!!!  They’re telling you to spoil the brats more?  As United States Army, General Anthony McAuliffe said to the German’s when they asked him to surrender at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

“NUTS!!!!”
Don’t Surrender to that B.S.

The solution is simple, you need to hire millennials who will put in a good day’s work for their good day’s pay.

Believe it or not, millennials who will put in a good day’s work for their good day’s pay are out there, but you need to know how to identify them – AND you need to know how to identify, and not consider, the spoiled brats who think they’re entitled.

You’ll discover exactly how to do that during the FREE 45 minute tele-seminar I’m hosting with Grant Robinson.

Click here to register

Do you have friends, clients, members, vendors or other business associates who might want to attend?  Feel free to invite them, but be sure to register yourself right now because we have a limited number of phone lines.

Grant wants to make sure he answers all of your questions and concerns during our time together, so enter a comment below with any questions you want Grant to answer, and share any millennial horror stories or successes.

Click here to register

If Walt Disney were an NFL Owner

What Would Walt Disney Do,

If He Were An NFL Owner Today?

NFL owners are stuck between a rock and a hard place with players kneeing for the national anthem, entire teams deciding to stand together, or kneel together, or deciding to not participate and stay in the locker room.  Players protesting, displaying their political beliefs both before the game and during the game.  Fans are being turned off, rating are down and ticket sales will be next.  And the owners have no one to blame but themselves.

As a management and customer service consultant, I often look to Walt Disney for inspiration and guidance.  In fact the name of my management and customer service system comes directly from Disney training.  In Traditions 1, new cast members (Disney speak for employees) at Disney are asked, “What business are we in?  Everybody knows that McDonalds makes hamburgers, General Motors makes automobiles, Sony makes TVs, what does Disney make?”  The answer, “Disney Makes People Happy.”

My Management System is called The Make-You-Happy Management System and my customer service system is called The Make-You-Happy Customer Service System because in both cases the focus is on a system that makes customers happy, team-members happy, management happy, and business owners happy.

But yikes! What would Walt Disney do if he were an NFL owner today?

If Walt were an NFL owner today he would have no issue at all, because every player, coach, and all support staff would have gone through Traditional 1, and each and every one of them would know that they are in the entertainment business.  That they are all players in a performance, and their job is to entertain the fan – the people in the stadium.  They would understand that at no time are they to break character and do anything that is not focused on providing the best entertainment value for the fan.

On the very first day of employment, every player, coach and staff member would have gone through training focused on the history of the franchise, and its value of putting the fan first.  The first time Colin Kaepernick took a knee, Walt would have instructed the staff to repeat Traditions 1 and remind the team of the basic values of the organization, and make it clear to every team member that their duty is to the team and that they must always respect the fan.  The general manager might even ask the team if they could imagine George Harrison in Indiana Jones stopping while fighting the Germans and making a comment on a political issue.

Then when Donald Trump made his statement, Walt himself, would have addressed the team and reminded them that their obligation is to the fan and the values of the team.

It’s clear to me that the NFL, and most team owners, don’t know who they work for, and they certainly have not passed it on to the players.

They don’t know that there is only one boss, and whether a person shines shoes for a living or heads up the biggest corporation in the world, the boss remains the same.

IT’S THE CUSTOMER.

He is the person who pays everyone’s salary and who decides whether a business is going to succeed or fail. And he doesn’t care if a business has been around for 100 years.  The minute it starts treating him badly or taking him for granted, he’ll put it out of business.

The boss, THE CUSTOMER, has bought and will buy everything you have or will have.  He’s bought all of your clothes, your home, your car, pays for your children’s education and your vacations.  He pays all of your bills, and he pays in exact proportion to the way you treat him. 

The man who works inside a big office building or plant might think he works for the company that writes his paychecks, but he doesn’t.  He is working for the person who buys the product at the end of the line.

In fact, THE CUSTOMER can fire everybody in the company from the president on down.  And he can do it simply by spending his money somewhere else. 

Some of the largest companies that had flourishing businesses a few years ago no longer in existence.  They couldn’t or didn’t satisfy THE CUSTOMER.  They forgot who the boss really is.

In chapter one of The Happy Customer Handbook I write,

“The starting place for Make-You-Happy Customer Service isn’t exciting or fancy, but it is critical.  Your core values, your vision, your mission statement, what-ever is at the heart of your company, needs to put a huge emphasis on the customer.  If it doesn’t, it’s going to be apparent on a daily basis.  Your team members simply won’t believe you when you tell them that customer service is all-important, and it’s going to be reflected in the service they give your customers.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like making money as much as the next guy.  In fact, the best reason to implement Make-You-Happy Customer Service is to maximize your income.  But if your core value is only making the most amount of money in the least amount of time, then you might as well stop reading!”

Giving a lot of thought to your core values is critical when it comes to making tough decisions in your business.  Often the right decision is easy when you refer to your core values.

I’ve been a season ticket hold of the Seahawks since 1977, their second year as a team.  Today I have six season tickets.  I go to football games to escape reality, not have it thrown in my face.  Every time I walk in the stadium I’m spending close to $1,000 and yet the players, and now coaches and management think it’s OK to both take and make me feel uncomfortable.  I don’t know how long I’ll keep my tickets.  I used to proudly wear my Seahawk apparel, now I’ll only wear it on game day when I go to the stadium.  I don’t want to walk around and have someone ask me what I think of their protests.

It was apparent to me, when the NFL implemented instant replay that they didn’t understand what business they are in, The Entertainment Business.  With instant replay they took excitement from the game.  They think “the game” is more important than the entertainment.

Prior to instant replay, on a close play in the end zone, you looked to the official and if he signaled touchdown you “went nuts.”  Now you look to the official and if he signals touchdown you “start to go nuts” and then you come back to reality and think, “I hope it stands.”  Then after a five minute wait for the official you see it was a touchdown and no “half nuts.”  They don’t know what business they are in.

As a side note.  Disney, especially ESPN, has forgotten who the boss is also, which is why they are in a tail spin.

You can get my book, The Happy Customer Handbook for free.  Go to www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook. I simple ask that you pay $2.97 to help cover shipping and handling.

How to Empower Every Member of Your Team

I’m mostly a black and white kind of guy.  There’s good, there’s bad.  There’s right, there’s wrong.  There’s proper behavior, there’s stupid behavior.  You succeed, or you fail; and you don’t blame anyone else.

So when I heard the term “Situational Leadership” I thought, Holy cow, another feel-good, politically correct excuse for not performing. I was wrong – way wrong.

Situational Relationship Behavior is the extent to which the leader engages in 2-way communication; in other words, your interaction with people.

High relationship means you’re highly engaged.  You’re giving them additional training and support on an ongoing basis.  You’re interacting with them quite frequently.

Low relationship behavior means that you’re not as engaged in 2-way communication.

Task Behavior is the extent to which the leader is engaged in spelling out the duties and responsibilities.  High task behavior means the manager is more detailed and directive toward telling the subordinate step-by-step what to do.

Low task behavior is when the manager assigns the task, delegates the task, and is not involved with actually getting the job done.

A new employee (team member) typically starts in Q1 (see picture) and the manager does a lot of Telling (high task, low relationship).  There is a lot of instruction showing them how to do the job.  You’re not patting them on the back yet because they haven’t shown anything yet.  You’re teaching and training them, so there is not a lot of relationship behavior.

After a few months, the new employee is making some progress and it’s time to move from telling to Selling (high task, high relationship).   The manager is still directing and showing, but the communication is more 2-way.  The manager gives a lot of reinforcement while explaining, clarifying and persuading.  The manager is mining for ideas from the team member and teaching them to think on their own.  The leader still defines the roles and tasks, but seeks ideas and suggestions.  The leader pats them on the back.  The more you can guide them to thinking things out the more beneficial it is to you in the future.

As the individual grows, it’s time for the manager to move from selling to Participating (high relationship, low task).  The person understands the job and knows how to do it, but doesn’t have a lot of confidence yet.  They need reinforcement on an ongoing basis until they develop confidence.  The manager gives the individual a lot of support, pats him on the back, and stays very close.  Because the individual knows the job, there is much less directive behavior from the manager.

As the team member becomes more and more competent, he becomes a true expert at the job and the manager moves to Empowering (low relationship, low task).  The team member is doing 80% or more of the talking during the PDI.  The manager is observing, monitoring, reinforcing, and delegating.

Your goal as the manager is to get your staff to Quadrant 4, but as the arrows in the graph above show, it’s not a one-way street.  Depending on the job or task, you may move down or up a quadrant, or even two – and sometimes even three.

In one of my businesses, one of my vice presidents is fabulous at her job and my management style is almost always empowering.  But she’s not a numbers person, so when it comes to working with numbers my management style moves to Participating and sometimes to Selling or even Telling.  With her it was not uncommon for me to say, “That number doesn’t make sense, check it out.”

It’s also important to understand that you’re working with people, not machines.  We all have personal lives away from business and for all of us, our personal lives influence us at work.  Sometimes it’s critically important to move down a quadrant when a team member has personal problems.

Leaving your empathy and understanding behind, you have a lot invested in someone who’s in Q4.  Moving up on the relationship scale to Participating or even to Selling is sometimes critical to get that person back up to speed.  And, of course, if things get worse you may need to move to Telling with get this done or you’ll be fired.

For a complete discussion of Situational Leadership get my book Performance Reviews Suck for FREE. I just ask that you help with postage and handling by paying $2.97.

Click here to get the book.

Do What You Do So Well
That People Can’t Help Telling Others About You

Checking it Off My Bucket List Today!

The picture above shows my ride for the next two days.

This is a big one for me… Heli-skiing with my daughter Jenny, and son Travis.

Living your bucket list now, and not waiting, is one of the best reasons to implement The Make-You-Happy Management System in your business. The system is called the Make-You-Happy Management System because it makes your customers happy, your employees happy, your managers happy, your vendors happy and most importantly, you and your family happy.

Every once in a while when I’m on an interview in podcast, coaches call tele-seminar or webinar, I’m asked, “What accomplishment are you most proud of?” My response is, “My 42 year marriage to my high school sweat heart Patty.” Then I ask, “Can I share one more with you?” The answer, of course in always, “Yes.”

Here’s my second accomplishment that I’m most proud of. “Skiing has always been huge in our family. My wife Patty and I met on the ski bus in high school. The kids started really young and we skied a lot. Now both of our grand kids started skiing when they were two – actually Whitney was 22 months. We skied in the Cascades, about an hour from our house, and took another ski vacation most every year. Today we have a vacation home that’s 16 miles from our favorite ski area.

While it may not be an accomplishment, this represents what is most important to me. When Travis was a senior in college he asked if he and I could go on a ski vacation for his last spring break. While his friends were partying in Hawaii or Florida he wanted to go skiing with me. Then two years later when Jenny was graduating from college she also asked to go skiing with me. I knew when they both asked me to go skiing with them on their last spring break that I did it right by making sure my businesses ran properly so that I could live my bucket list while they were growing up and not miss out at being a dad.”

If you want to discover how to create a business that gets better whether you’re there or not, so you can live your bucket list now go to https://keithlee.com/freedom-for-business-owners and watch the video.

P.S. Today I own three businesses. Travis runs the biggest of the three and all of the businesses run so well that were going skiing together for three days this week; and then our entire family Travis his wife Jen, their kids Carson and Whitney, Patty my wife, and Jenny our daughter, are going to Mexico for the first week in April, and all three businesses will continue to improve while were gone.

Do What You Do So Well
That People Can’t Help Telling Others About You

Keith Lee
Keith@KeithLee.com

It Starts and Ends with Trust

How to Get Your Team to Open Up… It Starts and Ends with Trust

I learned a number of great lessons from my mentor, retired ex-partner, and founder of American Retail Supply; Dick Thompson.  One of the best was, “When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you.”

As I share this story with you, please understand that 3 fingers are pointing back at me.  This was one of my biggest failures as the president of our company.  In hindsight, I should have done a much better job making sure this manager understood and truly bought into the Make-You-Happy Management System and its reliance on team member participation.

Middle management can be a particular challenge with the Make-You-Happy Management System, especially when that manager has previously managed in a business that does not practice Z-theory management (participative management).  It can really be a challenge when the middle manager has previously leaned towards X Theory (authoritarian management).

It’s critical that your middle managers understand and buy into Z-Theory Management when you use The Make-You-Happy Management System.

When I owned American Retail Supply, our headquarters were in Kent, Washington, and we had distribution and sales offices in Denver, Dallas, and Honolulu.  One of our division managers asked me this question, “When facilitating a MAT, how do you get the ball rolling when you’re just staring at blank faces?  I just sometimes feel like people have enough energy to complain, but are unwilling to use their energy to help solve the problem or think of a positive/better solution.”

When he sent me this email, he had been with us for almost a year.  I had been working with him on this and other, similar issues and I knew what the problem was.

I would normally not put this type of answer in an email, but I wasn’t making much progress and I thought it was time to put our previous discussions in writing.  Maybe that would get through.  Here’s my answer: “The problem you express above is a symptom, not the disease.  The disease is they don’t believe you’re sincere when you tell them you want their input.  In other words, they don’t trust you.

Think back to us talking at the show in Las Vegas.  You said that you do this to show you’re decisive, or you do that to show that you’re understanding or fair.

That’s when we talked about a silly management philosophy that says that a new manager should come in strong and tough and you can then back off after you get respect.  That’s what I perceived that you were thinking and doing when you started managing.

I told you that was a bad idea.  A good manager should come in and be appropriate and fair to show that you are appropriate and fair.  Once you get their trust and show them that you really want to listen and be their coach, cheerleader, facilitator and nurturer of champions and not a cop, devils advocate, pronouncer and nay-sayer they will open up.

If they don’t open up, it’s because they don’t trust you.  They don’t see you as a coach, cheerleader, facilitator and nurturer of champions.  People open up to coaches, cheerleaders, facilitators and nurturers of champions.  They don’t open up to cops, devil’s advocates, pronouncers and nay-sayers.

As we’ve continued to talk since Las Vegas I still hear you saying that you said this to show you’re decisive, or you do that to show that you’re understanding or fair.  That’s being manipulative –  not being a coach, cheerleader, facilitator and nurturer of champions.

Again, you need to do what is right and appropriate because it is right and appropriate – not to be decisive, or strong or anything else.

Ask yourself this question, what have you done consistently with each and every person in your division to show that you are a coach, cheerleader, facilitator and nurturer of champions?  It is absolutely critical that you think of this from their point of view and not from the “I do this to show I’m that” point of view.

My first suggestion is to look in the index of the Team Handbook in the Make-You-Happy Management System under “meeting tools and techniques – warm-ups”.  There are ideas in there to get involvement.

Again, that’s going to be tough because if they don’t trust you they’ll just see that as a way to manipulate them.  I would still try it.

Ask them what things they think need to be improved, or what problems they have with getting their jobs done efficiently and effectively.

If you’re still getting nowhere try this.  Say, “In Kent they answer the phone the same way every time.

  • Greeting – “Thanks for calling”
  • Identification – “American Retail Supply”
  • What you can do for them – “How may I direct your call?”

They developed their greeting in Kent from watching a DVD by “The Telephone Doctor” who says, there are two reasons to have a greeting before you identify the company.

  • Often the person calling isn’t ready to listen right away
  • Sometimes when we answer the phone we start talking before we have the receiver all the way to our mouth

Keith asked us to come up with a similar greeting for us.  He also said when he calls he sometimes doesn’t know who he’s talking with and it would be good to hear your name in the greeting.

So, with that in mind, he asked us to come up with a greeting that would be the model for answering the phone in each division where we don’t have a dedicated receptionist to say “How may I direct your call?”

How should we answer the phone to include:

  • Greeting
  • Identification of the company and the individual
  • What you can do for them
  • If no one answers say, Bill, what do you think?  Then come up with a greeting everyone can agree on and implement it.

Here’s one I would love to see you discuss, “I want to come up with a dress code that everyone thinks is fair and appropriate for the job.  Who would like to help with this”?  This is what I suggested that you do right after you got flaked on the dress code you implemented without getting the team involved.

You decided that would show weakness.  I think it shows just the opposite, that you know you’re not perfect and you’re confident enough to admit it when you make a mistake.

Click here https://keithlee.com/freedom-for-business-owners to discover how to manage your entire team in one hour a week so you can spend your time on the important things in your business.

 

 

 

Live Your Bucket List Now

One of the things that I’ve added to my “Live Your Bucket List Now” presentation is to make sure you have items on your bucket list that require you to stay in shape as you get older.  That way, instead of working out and eat right just to stay in shape you’ve eating right and working out to LIVE YOUR BUCKET LIST

Follow this link to discover how you can Live Your Bucket List Now

If you have items on your Bucket List that require you to stay in shape you won’t be working out and watching what you eat to just stay in shape, you’ll be doing those things to Live Your Bucket List.

My bucket list included back country skiing with my daughter Jenny. That’s where you hike up the mountain and ski down.  I’ve skied to 49 years and I’ll continue to ride the chair lift and ski in bounds, but AT skiing looked pretty darned awesome.

So, about a year ago I checked, “Become an AT skier” off my Bucket List by taking a 3-day avalanche class with Jenny.

They say a picture say a thousand words, so I’ll share some with you as I go

The Make-You-Happy Management System is about YOU
Living Your Bucket List Now… are you!

I took a 3-day avalanche training class with my daughter Jenny.  In the class we learned how to be safe in the back country and how to find someone should they become buried in an avalanche.  After the class I’m confident that I can travel in the back-country safely and have a great time skiing.

Jenny’s friend Christy joined Jenny and me in the class.

Day 1

We drove up a windy private dirt road to about the 4,000 foot level of Downing Mountain outside of Hamilton Montana.  From there we skinned up the road to Downing Mountain Lodge at 5,500 feet.  (Skinning – You attach a synthetic ‘skin’ to the bottom of your skies so you can walk up the mountain without sliding back).

We didn’t know what to expect for accommodations but it turned out great.

We got our gear settled in and started our first classroom session.  We learned how to use our rescue beacons to find someone buried in the snow.  About 2pm we went outside, skinned up about 1,000 feet and practiced finding buried beacons.  As the sun was setting we skied back to the lodge, had dinner (great lasagna) and another class room session.  We started learning how to read the terrain, weather, and other things so we could have fun and STAY OUT OF AN AVALANCHE.

Day 2

Got up, had a great breakfast and another classroom session.  Then it was time to head up the mountain, learn how to read the terrain, snow pack weather, dig our avalanche pit, test the snow and ski!

We skinned from 5,500 feet to the summit of Downing Mountain at 8,000 feet.  Oh my GOD!  I don’t know if Jenny keeps me young or not, but I was sucking air and feeling every bit of my 61 years.

But… I felt absolutely incredible as I ate lunch with Jenny at the summit.  Here I am with Jenny eating lunch at 8,000 feet.  I’m the black blob leaning on the tree to the left of Jenny.

Here is most of the group getting ready to ski down and dig our avalanche pits to test the snow.

Jenny – Taking a measurement in our pit.

After a great run down to the lodge, it was time for a little relaxation, and a shot-ski.  Get it, doing shots with holes drilled into the ski to hold the shot glasses.  Daddy-daughter bonding at its best.

Day 3

This was our (the students) day to plan the ascent and the path to ski down.  The previous day got us to the summit quickly and safely so we decided to take the same route up.  On day two we skied down the same way we went up.  Today, we wanted to see if we could safely ski the huge bowl to the south of our ascent line.

Our plan was to test the snow at the top near the bowl and if it was as stable as day 2, or better, we would go to bowl, measure the inclination of the slope, and if it was 35 degrees or less, we would ski down that way.

We found that the snow was actually more stable than the previous day and the slope was about 30 degrees.  So  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Remember, one of the main reasons to implement the Make-You-Happy Management System is so you can Live Your Bucket List NOW!

Follow this link to discover how you can Live Your Bucket List Now

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), How to Control Your Business and your Life, Proven Secrets to Creating Highly Productive Teams at www.HowToControlYourBusiness.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

“Do What You Do So Well
That People Can’t Help Telling Others About You” 

Keith Lee
www.keithlee.com