Category Archives: LEADERSHIP – ALWAYS!
TRIPLE III TIME: “Don’t Make Boundaries”
When asked about how he motivated his employees to deliver consistent superior services to clients… Bill Smith of Smith, Bucklin & Associates shared the following message:
“I try to emphasize the philosophy that the more we give in this life, the more we receive. We may not be seeking that when we give, but that’s what happens. And that’s the real basis for customer service. If you don’t have that philosophy, a list of 10 things you must do to have great customer service isn’t going to mean anything.”
We have had several TRIPLE III TIME “customer service” messages over the years… but Mr. Smith’s statement about the extended value of giving every customer “a little more”… is really the finest guideline to follow!
Think truthfully about how personally you view quality customer service. Do you feel great when you get more time and attention? Do you appreciate your customer service more when you believe the professional helping you better understands your problem or situation? And do you positively share and even promote a company/organizations GREAT customer service to others? These are the outcomes you maybe didn’t think about when you did the right/extra customer service “things”… but as Bill Smith reports… “that’s what happens”!!
This week’s TRIPLE III TIME message: “Don’t Make Boundaries” specifically emphasizes not limiting doing customer service extras. Many times employees view a company operations handbook and take the most limiting practice of what type of customer service is allowed. And if it is not written in the handbook… does that mean “you better not” go beyond the rules… or does it mean doing “extra” is up to YOU!? Bottomline: No two customers will ever be the same. Therefore “Don’t Make Boundaries” that prohibit you from going the extra mile in the area of quality customer service! If you decide to go beyond the traditional boundaries in providing GREAT customer service… your return-on-investment
TRIPLE III TIME: Leaders “Borrow” Ideas Too!
“When we, as leaders, are faced with a problem, we can sometimes feel that it is our job to find a unique solution to it. However, when we open our eyes to other industries and technologies, we might just find that someone has already done the hard work for us, saving us time and potentially giving us a better solution than the one we would have come up with.” (Great TED Talks-Leadership: Harriet Minter)
Coming up with fast, competent solutions to problems/challenges in our ever-growing complex, techno-world… is never going to be an easy task. However, as Harriet Minter points out in her very straight-forward, common sense quote… Leaders “Borrow” Ideas Too!
As a very recent example, I can use my own “borrowing” of a youth entrepreneurship event/leadership concept from another area in Michigan… to construct something similar in the northern region! It has always been a professional priority of mine to somehow grow entrepreneurship ideas with a more youthful population (i.e. 10-18). The business-building learnings and experiences would remain consistent as with adults… but engaging with a more youthful clientele just seemed like a cool/necessary thing to try!
Well guess what?
During the winter months circumstances led me to become introduced to the creator and partners involved in a Youth Entrepreneurship EXPO that is conducted in July each year in Frankenmuth. The event design was very much what I was hoping to replicate and through some very basic follow-up connections… this summer on Saturday, June 20th… the first ever IMAGINE ME Youth Entrepreneurship FEST! will happen in Oscoda, Michigan!!
Bottomline: Growth-minded Leaders “Borrow” Ideas Too! Will both of the youth entrepreneurship events be exactly the same… No. Will both have their own learning personalities… YES! And in the final analysis will everyone gain in expanding entrepreneurship ideas and opportunities to young people in different parts of our State… YOU BET!!
TRIPLE III TIME: “Revisiting” Economic Development
It has been quite some time since I have met and trained with a small group of county-based economic development professionals. In most cases the economic development personnel were effectively blended-in with other organization employees and their individual issues, concerns and/or ideas never were addressed in the best… specialized way. So when asked to join with an economic development staff and do some “EDC exclusive strategic planning”… I did not hesitate to say: “Absolutely!”
Well it did not take too long for me to realize that in many ways this small group wanted to receive some historical and common sense points from me on the role and purposes of an economic development professional. So it was a pleasure to toss out these points:
- A good economic developer must be well versed in life-long learning and must understand that not all learning occurs in a classroom.
- That economic development includes community, business, education and entrepreneurship options and opportunities.
- That economic development often takes the form of “parenting”… which means helping guide a certain area.
- That “comprehensive LISTENING” is a high-value professional skill for development leaders and should be utilized continuously to hear all sides of every issue.
- That older residents view economic developers as someone who takes care of “the home area” (which includes neighborhoods/schools/stores and factories).
- And finally, that economic developers may sometimes need to be a financial “coach” and explain what “progress bills” should be paid first… second… and so on.
The time went by very fast and I closed with this final thought: An economic development person can not pick when it comes to being involved with a progress/growth issue… only when!
Maybe these points might help in other jobs too?!
TRIPLE III TIME: Creating A “Next-Step” COMMUNITY
“Don’t select which seed to plant… instead make sure the “soil” is developmentally ready so any seed can grow!”
I wish I knew the author of this quote. Why…because I sure would like to pick their brain for additional thoughts and insights into its prep and sharing! There are so many progressive points that can be taken from this very “back-to-basics” collection of terms. However, for this week’s TRIPLE III TIME message…we are going to use this quote to focus on Creating A “Next-Step” COMMUNITY!
Many times, the best source of genuine next step creativity comes from your heritage. As a farm boy from rural Michigan, I had the privilege of watching and learning the farm craft from a strong group of growth-minded community members. “No one goes it alone”…would have been a true theme of purpose for the group. And as the introductory quote says: “making sure the soil is developmentally ready” was the common core mission of every farmer in the community. Progress was then achieved and observed through regular crop rotation and diversity allowed no matter what type of seed was planted! So why is this old-time memory important??
Bottomline: Today I believe everyone plays a role in Creating A “Next-Step” COMMUNITY. Whether it is:
- Shopping closer to home
- Helping your community area remain clean
- Speaking proudly of where you live
- Volunteering to help at the school
- Continuing to advance yourself, your family and your workplace
Just like my hometown farm “heroes”… initiating and maintaining a process of regular community next-step progress is really everyone’s job. So don’t allow your area of growth be determined by someone else. Rather… “Don’t select which seed to plant…instead make sure the (YOUR) “soil” (community) is developmentally ready so any seed (Next-Step) can grow!”
TRIPLE III TIME: The Power of Convening
One of the more important leadership actions today is realizing The Power of Convening. Think about it?! Meetings are often the least desired employment activity…no matter the occupation. Whether it is the time required, the travel to and from, the topics to be discussed and/or the personalities in the room (or online), positioning oneself to obtain the greatest value from every meeting situation often gets lost in the importance of properly convening.
The goal of this week’s TRIPLE III TIME message is to encourage leaders/managers to take active responsibility for meeting prep and facilitation by embracing The Power of Convening. And just for old times sake…lets use a common sense TOP 10 that may help everyone maximize The Power of Convening.
Here we go:
- Step up and volunteer to host the meeting… (location… location… location!)
- Exercise the convening opportunity to think about who to best be in the room.
- Avoid the potential of having a “stacked deck” of participants who would control the meeting.
- Be the author of the agenda.
- Identify an independent note/record keeper.
- Stress the time limitations in every communication.
- Highlight priorities for the group… not individuals.
- As convener… take responsibility for timing future meetings/addressing future topics.
- Manage the clock… start on time and end on time.
- Share the convener role… ONLY if it makes progress sense.
The Power of Convening is not a professional role to take lightly. It is excellent when people trust, respect and appreciate someone who excels in this area of responsibility.
So are you ready to be a good… GREAT Convener?!
TRIPLE III TIME: The “Benefits” of Balance
It is always interesting to observe the functions of a team, group… organization and consider The “Benefits” of Balance that may or may not be in play.
What do I mean by Balance?
Think about the overall staff make up of any entity. Are they led by mostly males or females? Is there a constructive mix of older, younger and middle-aged personnel working proportionately at every level of the organization? And given the customer-base that exists within a specific market area… are there ethnic personalities appropriately retained within your business or agency to ensure a strong understanding of the wants/needs and preferences of those coming through your doors?
For example… if agriculture is a service target for your entity… do you have at least one person knowledgeable about farming equipment and animal care? Or if you work with and assist customers that have a majority of higher level staff that are males… are you established to have The “Benefits” of Balance in this male-dominated area to offer a common understanding of issues from their point of view?
As we discussed before PERFECTION does not exist in any area of our regular or workplace lives. However, it is a high value area of leadership consideration to achieve The “Benefits” of Balance in your personnel line-up! When hiring or promoting… it is totally appropriate to take all logical actions to convey the strategy of balancing your workforce. That does NOT mean that you intentionally discriminate and not select the best person for the job. Rather it would be professionally progressive to openly discuss The “Benefits” of Balance priority with current personnel and very likely it will cause more balancing candidates to show interest in position changes or new opportunities.
This TRIPLE III TIME message may not be favored by all people involved in organizational personnel. However, ask them to look at your business or agency as an outsider. Ask them then to measure The “Benefits” of Balance that they observe or do they see a noticeable imbalance in personnel that results in too many “one-sided” or “unequal” service/product decisions because they lack input from absent Balancers??
TRIPLE III TIME: 3 “C’s” Board Growth Chart
The timing for a special message about building and more importantly developing a public/non-profit sector Board is really long overdue! Given my career history that required me to work with and for these types of community groups… plus the consultant information requests that have been part of my service mix… this week’s TRIPLE III TIME topic will focus on a: 3 “C’s” Board Growth Chart action plan.
Private non-profit and public sector organizational Boards are traditionally created based on Federal/State/Regional/County policies and thereby built on a special assembly of knowledgeable, caring citizens. Their typical assignment is to oversee the expenditures and performance of public dollars for a specific service/product. The criteria for Board membership is routinely flexible and open in an attempt to recruit and retain the best candidates available in a prescribed geographic region. However, it is noticeable that most Board formation regulations do NOT contain instructions nor a methodology specifying the need and processes for ensuring public sector Boards have a plan for continuous improvement. Boards may participate in strategic planning sessions for the entity they oversee, however the resulting progress issues they discuss do NOT apply to them. Hence in an effort to “share” the responsibility for comprehensive organizational continuous improvement, public sector Boards need to make appropriate changes in this area.
In an effort to fill the continuous improvement action void currently experienced by most public sector Boards, this TRIPLE III TIME proposes the introduction of a 3 “C’s” Board Growth Chart initiative. The 3 “C’s” referenced in the III title stands for creating continuous improvement plans around: Comprehension/Commitment/Challenges. Specifically, these responsibility areas would be components of each Board‘s annual learning Growth Chart.
Proposed implementation components of the 3 “C’s” Board Growth Chart may include, but not be limited to the following:
Comprehension
- Legal understanding of total organizational mission and target service audience.
- Full awareness of all fund sources and allowable cost costs.
- Knowledge of funding and oversight organizations.
- Awareness of fiscal and program reporting requirements and related timing.
Commitment
- Full knowledge of Board attendance responsibilities.
- Understanding of the value Board members provide as a representative of a specific business/community sector.
- Accepts the role/responsibility for supporting the organization’s priorities and public service activities.
- Supports the opportunity for Board members to be quasi-ambassadors for the organization.
Challenges
- Awareness of continuous political, fiscal, performance, and public service challenges.
- Understanding of potential conflict due to legal requirements of different programs.
- Difficult administrative decision regarding personnel levels, program expectations and/or results of monitoring/audit issues.
- Possible deviations from service delivery/operational processes practiced in other regions.
The goal for implementing an annual 3 “C’s” Board Growth Chart would be to expand the overall expertise, intellect and judgment skills with regard to Board responsibilities. Additionally, the progressive outcomes for engaging in an annual 3 “C’s” Board Growth Chart initiative are self-evident:
- Stronger/informed Board
- Greater advocacy
- Increased Board interaction
- Solid regional leadership example
- Avenue for idea–generation
Bottomline: Standardly continuous improvement is an expected requirement of all organization staff… therefore, the Board should also be a “teaming” example.
TRIPLE III TIME: “Ground-Level-Leading”
“Times they are a changing!” This phrase appropriately describes the evolutionary status with regard to the task of LEADERSHIP. Today with the accelerating rate of change, intrusion of social media, revised list of occupation expectations and millennials impacting today’s workforce; LEADERSHIP as a professional trait, has become confused. The confusion does not just occur in the day-to-day prioritization and organizational decisions. Rather it calls in thoughts about how to correctly share leadership, determine the pros and cons of inventing/introducing totally new approaches, but also it asks the question: Where is leadership most valued as it is delivered?
Historically and typically leadership expectations are delegated to the highest levels within an organization’s structure. However, over the past 10+ years leadership duties and responsibilities have bled down into multiple management levels for all the right reasons and with positive results. So today we must take on the challenge of how to constructively harness the leadership contributions of front line staff!
Introducing factors involved in moving toward a “Ground-Level-Leading” (GLL) organizational design would include the following:
- Leadership training would be the GLL priority for front line staff professional development.
- GLL would require evidence-based “up-line” communications and reporting to encourage a continuous improvement mind-set.
- GLL findings would be given customized involvement in Board/Director level discussions/planning
- Regularly scheduled GLL Strategy Sessions would be organized and led by front-line staff…with top level leaders also in attendance.
Eventually, projected positive outcomes of employing a GLL strategy may include but not be limited to the following:
- GLL would improve the value of agency products/services to the customer.
- GLL would narrow the gap between front-line customer knowledge and higher level decision makers.
- Time is a limited asset…GLL would further improve time management at all levels.
- GLL implementation would reduce service limitations resulting from perceived organizational and geographic boundaries.
- Direct evidence-based information would be realized via front-line customer contact/input.
There really is no “best” time to begin “Ground-Level-Leading” actions. Rather just moving steadily in this direction can only grow your organization or business in a unified way.
TRIPLE III TIME: TRANSFORMATION… Does It Ever Stop?
Today as young adults have asked my advice on jobs… future jobs… and what type of classes should they take to best prepare for a great future… my single word answer is: TRANSFORMATION! And as you can guess their standard response is that a TRANSFORMATION class is NOT listed in any college catalog that they have seen?! So then comes the next question: “What do you mean when you reference a TRANSFORMATION class??”
(A fun kind of intro for this week’s TRIPLE III TIME message… right?!)
Well as a leader… if I was offered the opportunity to develop and teach a class on TRANSFORMATION Unending, I would customize it around the following main topics:
- Introduce the class with an understanding that TRANSFORMATION Unending occurrences impacts everyone.
- That the TRANSFORMATION Unending class intends to “pull-out” the leadership potential in all.
- That the incidence of TRANSFORMATION will even affect a company’s purpose and mission regularly.
- That TRANSFORMATION activities can be perceived as both positive and negative at the same time.
- That progress as a result of TRANSFORMATION in the workplace and/or with employees may become redefined.
- That TRANSFORMATION for an organization or business may include cost-cutting and layoffs.
- That use of technology during any TRANSFORMATION may become the end or new beginning in a workplace… but time and timing will be essential.
- Employment opportunities in a TRANSFORMATION environment will require a strong competency and diversity skill-set.
- That TRANSFORMATION in the workplace may not require a complete service or product change… rather responsible quality and modernization upgrades.
- Finally, the TRANSFORMATION Unending class would explain that by not addressing this issue EVERYDAY… the “behinder” you get.
Bottomline: There are a lot of separate thoughts included in this unique TRIPLE IIII TIME message. Consider taking this TOP 10 list one at a time to get the most out of each!
TRIPLE III TIME: Creating A Culture of Participation
It is always interesting when you become challenged with a professional development topic area… that for some reason has never been prioritized before! Innovation, quality, teamwork and safety are all topics that come to mind when you think about continuous improvement factors. But has anyone ever considered Creating A Culture of Participation for your workplace? Does this specialized challenge: Creating A Culture of Participation get your mind and memory going?
Ironically at the present time I am planning a new entrepreneur-based initiative that will test my Creating A Culture of Participation capabilities to the limit! However, as I begin my quest to have the GREATEST event ever…I realized I need to go “back to the basics” when reassessing my Creating A Culture of Participation strategies. Here are MY “Basic” SOLID 5 concepts for maximizing participation of partners and colleagues:
Basic 1: First, concept designs need to effectively show the mission, goals and community values of any unique participation-building project. Explaining the target audience and learning take-aways would be extremely vital.
Basic 2: Next describing in full detail the structure for delivering the innovation learning moments to those in attendance would highlight areas of special partner participation.
Basic 3: Listing the rewards for a partners investment of time and/or money would be critical to Creating A Culture of Participation. Too often organizers of a new initiative pass over the area of partner rewards because they think they are just “obvious”. Don’t assume this is true.
Basic 4: Also when building/ Creating A Culture of Participation it would be key to indicate that there will be an ongoing hope for continuous involvement in additional future initiatives.
Basic 5: Finally, it would be beneficial to share reflections on the extended benefits and value of partnership participation. Creating A Culture of Participation most times has a positive infectious impact on everyone’s future.
Please give these Basic SOLID 5 strategies some extra attention. They together or separately can have very useful personal and professional benefit.
Inspiring Innovations, Inc. 