How Do You Know Your Employees Trust You?

Posted on May 20, 2013 by John G. Self

Trust

That word is intrinsically linked to leadership. It is an underlying value in most companies – the CEO and the senior leadership trust their employees to do the right thing.

trust

The more important questions for the CEO are, “How do you know that your employees trust you? Why do they trust you?”

Harry Herrington, Chairman and CEO of NIC, Inc., a provider of on-line services for federal and state governments and a former police officer, said that employee trust of leaders must be built around engagement and transparency.

In an era of business management fads and boatloads of business books touting seemingly clever, sometimes one-off approaches to leadership success, transparency and engagement are two characteristics that are decidedly not in the fad category.

This was the theme of Adam Bryant’s Corner Office column in yesterday’s New York Times business section – “If the Boss Rides A Harley, He Must Be Human.”

This column is an essential part of my Sunday morning newspaper reading. I highly recommend it along with another Sunday business section staple, The Boss.

Mr. Herrington believes his number one job is to set the culture of the company because culture will drive success and integrity (and the quality of the people who want to work for the organization). But his is just one voice among many. So why is he a successful leader?

The short answer: He bought a Harley.

“About that time, we were organizing a big company conference with all of our general managers. So I had 200 employees in Oklahoma City for a marketing conference and I thought, I’ve got this brand new bicycle…so I decided to ride the motorcycle to the conference…” When he arrived, replete with his cycle leathers and helmet under his arm, his team was dumbfounded. Immediately, the Harley, an ultra-classic in law enforcement blue, became the hit of the meeting. Employees thought it was cool. Instead of serving as merely an imitate the boss moment, sparking a surge in Harley sales among NIC employees; Mr. Herrington leveraged employee reaction to build on his role. He created a feature of his office visits called, obviously enough, “Ask the CEO.”

Instead of questions on the company’s five-year strategy, Mr. Herrington fielded decidedly personal questions like where he went to school. Why did he get into law enforcement? Why did he leave law enforcement? How many kids does he have? Why do you prefer pink shirts when you play golf?

When he shows up on a motorcycle, Mr. Herrington said, it casts him in a different light – as a human being…” not trying to be one of them, not trying to be someone I am not.” Employees, he believes, want to understand what makes you tick, to understand how you think.

And that brings us back to the trust thing.

The Big Three: Confidence, Courage & Experience

Posted on April 15, 2013 by John G. Self

In the realm of leadership, executives must successfully manage their departments, their divisions or their companies. At the same time they must apply these same leadership principles to their own career management.

That said, for the Baby Boomer and older Gen X leaders, experience counts. It is an important brand equity that distinguishes them from those who are on their way up.

As leaders “mature” – which I find to be a nice word for age – two things happen. They get better at what they do based on applied experience, and they begin to glance over their shoulder to check on the up and comers – the competition. For most, the latter is not an all-consuming fact of life, but there is almost always some curiosity. That curiosity is healthy as long as it does not become more than a passing interest.

Applied experience is also in play when it comes to career management. Leaders become more aware –and honest with themselves – regarding their strengths and their weaknesses. Smart leaders have the confidence and the know-how to maximize and leverage their strengths. Their honesty regarding their weaknesses typically keeps them from making the most serious of the missteps.

There are two more words that apply: confidence and courage.

As the provider segment of the healthcare industry undergoes major transformation over the next five to seven years, leaders from the Baby Boom era and Generation Xers will face some challenging career management tests. This transformation will require confidence, courage, applied experience and lessons learned to avoid pitfalls – terminations, layoffs and possibly long periods of unemployment.

Over the last several months I have heard from a number of executives in their late 40s to mid-50s who see this transformative period as a real threat to what they thought would be a stable career with a smooth path to retirement. They see the Affordable Care Act and deficit reduction as two very large and daunting threats to their plans. With good reason.

The biggest career management threat I see is not legislative or business reform but a loss of confidence and waning courage. True, successfully navigating these career pitfalls will be challenging – more for some than others, but these hurdles are not the end of the world as we know it. Here are some thoughts to consider:

Don’t blink – There are no guarantees in life, but being afraid of losing your job can easily become a self-fulfilling prophesy as hospitals look for a way to reduce their costs below Medicare. Leaders must continually prove they can deliver the necessary results
Be confident – People follow confident leaders
Remember – You have experience. Don’t sell yourself short. Draw on your past experience, the political and operational insights that the up and comers have yet to master. Use this knowledge and experience to deliver killer results
Have courage – Just as fear of losing a job can drain energy and distract focus, having courage is part and parcel of having confidence. Leaders who lack the courage of their convictions in themselves or in their decisions are of little use to anyone, especially their employer
Your competitors – Look but do not stare and obsess. The current conventional wisdom is that the hard charging younger Gen Xers and Millennials will take over the world, and your job sooner rather than later, is just wrong, as long as you deliver exceptional results and value

One more thing, the conventional wisdom also says that these Millennials and the younger end of the Gen X generation are dominating in the number of start-up companies is also wrong. The average age of entrepreneurs who have the appetite and the confidence and courage for the risk is rising.

WANTED: Leaders Who Are Good Communicators

Posted on March 20, 2013 by John G. Self

The transformation of healthcare will require senior leaders who are exceptional operators, strategists and communicators. Communication has always been an essential element of good leadership, but as we navigate the sweeping changes that lie ahead, effective communication will move from an essential to a critical skill.

Being a good talker and an effective communicator are two dramatically different things.

Leaders who do not grasp the significance of this reality are in for some tough sledding. What we do and how we do it is in for radical change over the next seven years.

Given this coming storm, I have been thinking more and more about this subject. I am more than a little surprised, and concerned, that so many new graduates are being set free in an industry with requisite knowledge about management but their ability to be effective communicators seems to be taken for granted by the graduate faculty. Or the students didn’t pay attention.

There are several categories of executives who need help in the effective communications department.

I speak well, ergo I am an effective communicator
A casual jogger, replete with the latest footwear and other accoutrements of a serious runner, is probably not going to win any serious races regardless of how good they may look. Looking the part — or even talking the talk — will not push them across the finish line ahead of the experienced runners.
When President Bill Clinton left office he was one of the most popular presidents in modern American history, including President Reagan. Why? Because Mr. Clinton possessed an almost magical ability to connect with voters, particularly those in the middle and lower income segment. They believed he truly understood their fears, concerns and needs.

There are more than a few political operatives who believe that the President’s Democratic Party convention speech in Charlotte was as close to a tour de force as you can have, shy of being the party’s nominee. Whether you like former President Clinton, or dislike him as many extremist conservatives do, his convention speech was a game changer. The momentum shifted. He took his interpretation of the issues and presented them in a way that common Americans could connect with, the complete accuracy of his claims notwithstanding.

He is an excellent communicator even if his moral compass went haywire.
One and Done Disruptors
In the communications business, one and done — delivering a directive or an opinion just one time and not understanding why the team isn’t following — is an immutable truth of the trade. Repetition, repetition repetition is the key. I find it fascinating that many CEOs and other senior leaders believe they are great communicators, or their brand is framed by those skills, but fall into the “one and done” category on critical issues, all evidence to the contrary, including their own experience with their children. They announce — once, twice at best — a new focus or initiative and they are surprised and visibly frustrated to the point of raising their voices (read: yelling) when the team does not seem to share the CEO’s intensity in responding. They may deny yelling but it sounds like it to their team.
Ironically, some of these same CEOs suffer from the same affliction. You can tell them something important — seeking their concurrence in a decision— and in three days when you need an answer, the CEO is frustrated because they do not remember the one time this issue came up.

CEOs in this category create disruption in their organizations on several levels — from effective operations to employee satisfaction scores — because they have their own communication style flaws or they do not believe that having a communication strategy is that important.
Sell the ideas
Giving a good rousing speech does not make someone an effective communicator, or a great leader. When the echoes have subsided and the crepe paper and balloons are strewn across the empty floor, the important thing is whether the audience is filled with passion, ready to act, and to fight the good fight. More importantly, do they remember, a month later, why they are doing what they are doing? Are they still true believers?
I once worked for a good speaker who was a great communicator. He was a true seller of ideas, of personal responsibility and accountability. When all was said and done, with some of the English language mangled on the floor of the meeting room, the employees filed out knowing exactly what they needed to do and, more importantly, why they needed to do it. These are leaders around which cultures are constructed and the fires of passion and commitment are stoked.

This wonderful boss who I respect enormously was not the most polished guy in the world, but his earthy, common language, resonated with his employees. He was smart — and the employees knew it — and he was committed, and they believed it.

And he cared so much, and they knew that, too.