In his book, Leapfrogging, Soren Kaplan reminds us that, “the human brain is wired to appreciate positive surprise.” He goes on to say that, when we experience such a surprise, three things happen:

1. We want more of it.
2. We want to find out how and why it works
3. We want to tell others about it so we can take a little credit for the smile that will soon be on their face.

In a recent leadership seminar with a client group in New York, I asked the assembled group of senior business leaders to recount a time when they were positively surprised (make that amazed) by a product, service, or experience.

A few iProducts came to mind along with things like ice cream, Cirque du Soleil, the ability to “swipe” a digital tablet (or other) display page, and, we can’t leave out sex can we? One fellow proudly held up his Windows phone, and even in a room dominated by Seattle residents, I thought for a moment that his life might be in danger.

Then, we posed a related, but different question: How would it impact your business, and indeed your life if people found your leadership to be a positive surprise on that same order? What would it be like if people wanted more of your leadership? If they wanted to better understand it and to tell others about it? How might that affect your ability to recruit, engage, and retain talented staff members? Huh? What about their willingness to part with Discretionary Effort? Interested?

The principle of positive surprise applies every bit as much to leadership as it does to products, services, and other experiences. If we want to achieve it, there are five (5) things we must do:

1. Understand first and foremost that leadership is NOT about you. It’s about THEM, your team… the folks you’re responsible for leading.
2. Invest heavily in every team member, not just with organizational assets, but with your own personal store as well – your time, talent, trust, and political capital.
3. Maintain high standards. No one, least of all high performers wants to work with turkeys.
4. Be quick to own your mistakes. People don’t expect you to be perfect. They do, however, expect you to be genuine, and that means fessing up when you’ve stepped in it.
5. Have two expressions on the tip of your tongue, ready to be used genuinely and often: Thank You; and Tell Me What You Think.

And on that last point, tell us what you think. We appreciate your comments, suggestions, and even a little push back now and then.

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Over the course of her life, my mother taught me more about leadership than any class I ever took on the subject, or any one boss I’ve worked for. The lessons were usually prompted by life experiences that she seized on as teachable moments. Her last lesson for me, now permanently seared into my being, took place in the nursing home where she resided, about six months before her death.

 For about seventeen years, my mom, and my dad as her ever-faithful caregiver, dealt with the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. No matter what, he visited her daily, cared for her, and kept the nursing home staff on their toes with respect to her care.

Nearly every waking minute of her time in the nursing home was spent in a “merry walker”, a wheeled contraption made of PVC that allowed her mobility, but afforded protection against falling. Anyhow, mother was famous (6 years in one of those places allows someone to become famous) for scooting around the home in and out of public spaces and various other folks’ rooms, befriending and talking with them. As time wore on and her disease progressed, the “talking” was reduced to something that gave every appearance of being gibberish. The contents of her “hard drive” had been pretty well erased back to early childhood as the result of cognitive erosion caused by the disease.

One early fall Sunday afternoon, dad and I paid her a visit. Having a visit with mom wasn’t exactly a simple process, as it first involved doing a complete sweep of the building just to locate her. After a twenty-minute search, we finally found her in a hallway not far from one of the nurse’s stations. During our “conversation”, in which it was impossible to decipher anything she was saying, my mom kept pointing at me, more specifically toward my feet. Frankly, I had pretty well written off the entire exchange as gibberish until finally, something made me look down to where she had been pointing, and to my complete shock, noticed that my left shoe was untied. All along she had been trying to tell me that!

The lesson I came away with is that listening, really listening can be hard. It takes work, and it takes suspending judgment if you really want to absorb and comprehend what someone is trying to tell you. The people who work on our teams deserve no less effort and attention in that regard than our mom’s do.

I’m no longer able to tell my mom thank you for all the lessons she taught me over the years. If you have that opportunity, take it… today and every other day.

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Earlier this week, in the first game of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff series, the Chicago Bulls, absent three of their star players, traveled to Miami and beat the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat in their own building. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of basketball fans were stunned by the outcome. They may wind up being stunned by the series outcome, too. Who knows?

What we do know is that the Bulls are being led by a coach, Tom Thibodeau, who is an optimist. With three star players out of action due to injury or illness (effectively 20% of the roster), it would be easy for Thibodeau to say, “Ain’t it awful?”  and effectively foreclose on their slim chances of winning. Au contraire! On more than one recent occasion, Thibodeau, when asked about his short-handed team’s chances, has responded to the effect that, ‘we have more than we need to win.’

What matters is not that Thibodeau is saying this stuff, but that he’s got everyone on the Bulls’ bench buying in, and contributing every last drop of their discretionary effort to the cause.  With effort like that, you can’t help but be impressed, and maybe even like their chances.

Ironically, it was another Chicago coach, an NFL football coach, who many years ago announced early in the season that his team was so lousy that they probably wouldn’t win another game all year. Guess what? They didn’t, not because the coach was clairvoyant, but because the team simply played up (or in that case, down) to the coach’s expectations.

Your team, is no different. If you truly believe that good things will happen, and you do the work to prepare to win, you, too have all you need to win. Like nearly every other aspect of leadership, being an optimist is rather simple. But it can be hard, especially when you’re sailing against a strong headwind. But we have to do it, because people won’t follow, let alone give it up for a leader who is a pessimist or doesn’t believe in them.

Here are a few things you can do to improve your odds:

Check Your Look

Check your look, ‘er attitude in the mirror. Just as you might check your look on the way back to work after lunch, check your attitude every day on the way to work.  In the late 80’s, I helped run FedEx’s wilderness-based leadership development program. Week after week we were engaged with two dozen of the company’s best and brightest leaders in a physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting program in a remote, high altitude location in northern Utah. If the altitude, physical exertion, or the task of keeping 24 city-dwellers safe wasn’t kicking our butts, something else was. Accordingly, the preceptor group (program leaders) had a quick check-in every morning, first personally, and then with the group, just to make sure everyone was upbeat and in the game. If on a given day you couldn’t “spin your hat around” and really engage in a positive fashion, you stepped back and supported someone else who could.

Treasure Your Truth Tellers

Every good leader has one or more “truth tellers” around them – people who care enough about them to come in, close the door, and provide some unvarnished feedback.  It is to your advantage to cultivate those kinds of relationships. That way, if you’re getting a little cranky or narrow-minded, someone will let you know about it before it gets too far.

Have a Place to Go

We all need to have a “place to go to” when our outlook is suffering. Except for chemicals, it doesn’t matter too much what or where it is as long as you have confidence in it. Some people use a good, hard workout to clear the cobwebs and get re-oriented. Others who are musically inclined might spend time with their guitar, piano, or other instrument.   I use music (think aging rockers at high decibels pumped thru earbuds), travel (specifically looking out an aircraft window at 39,000’ at a whole lot of blue sky), and fly fishing to do the job.  The important thing is, in today’s always-on, high speed world, you can’t be afraid to unplug for a few hours or days to reorient. Your team is counting on you.

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Leaders Ought to Know: Maintain Honesty and Confidentiality

“Casey is a front line supervisor.  During a weekly supervisory meeting, Casey’s department manager announced a plan to transfer one of the team’s newest members to another division.  The affected employee was unaware of the transfer decision.  The supervisors were cautioned about maintaining confidentiality.  The manager wanted to meet with the affected employee before the news became public.” Less than an hour after the meeting, out of the blue Casey was approached by the employee in question.  “Do you know anything about me being transferred?” he asked.  “No, I don’t know anything about that,” Casey responded before walking away. “Moments later Casey returned to the employee with this startling revelation.  “I lied to you a few minutes ago.  You asked what I knew about a transfer and I said I knew nothing.  The truth is that subject was discussed during a meeting I was in this morning.  Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to share details — your manager will do that — but I wanted to be honest with you.” ‘The surprised employee responded, “Thanks.  I appreciate your honesty.” ‘Casey voluntarily shared this very personal leadership experience with me.  His admission sparked a wonderful discussion.  We marveled at how easy it is for leaders to play loose with the truth—and how often it happens in organizations.  We also agreed that leaders often disregard the impact such dishonesty can have on their reputations.’

The Honesty Game

‘Leaders Ought to Know Ground Rule #5:  “Leaders don’t play loose with the truth; Leaders lead from a position of unquestioned honesty.” (Excerpted from Leaders Ought to Know: 11 Ground Rules for Common Sense Leadership, John Wiley & Sons, releasing April 22, 2013.) Thankfully, the most considerate leaders fully understand that honesty builds respect; respect builds trust; and trust builds leadership reputations.  But the converse is also true.  Dishonesty (including those harmless little “white lies”) undercuts respect; unearned respect erodes trust; and eroding trust destroys leadership reputations. Simply put, Leaders Ought To Know the honesty game is one conscientious leaders cannot afford to lose.

Now it’s your turn: What are some ways leaders can rebuild a reputation when they’ve been less than honest or confidential?“Join the LinkedIn Discussion Now.

Phillip Van Hooser, Leadership Expert, Keynote Speaker, Author – Leaders Ought to Know: 11 Ground Rules for Common Sense Leadership

It’s hard to evaluate a third-party recruiter in advance. The ultimate test, of course, is whether the recruiter brings you high-quality candidates. But you won”t know this until you’ve worked with that recruiter for months. You”ll certainly want to choose a recruiter who has experience hiring in your industry for the type of talent you need. But these basics just scratch the surface. To dig deeper, I asked three recruiting experts for some clever questions to ask a prospective recruiter. The experts:

• Jessica Miller-Merrell is the President and CEO of XceptionalHR, which provides businesses with recruitment strategies and human resources consulting, as well as the head writer for the well-known HR blog, Blogging4Jobs.

• Julie LaBrie is the President of BlueSky Personnel, a Canadian recruiting agency based in Toronto. She has worked in the staffing and recruiting industry for 14 years.

• Jennifer McClure is the President of Unbridled Talent, a consulting and advisory firm that provides services to clients in the areas of recruiting and HR strategy.

1. What is the internal turnover rate at your recruiting firm?

This is a great question to help you determine if a recruiting agency or Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) provider you’re considering engaging has a history of hiring dedicated recruiters. The logic: if the agency vets its own recruiters thoroughly, there will be less internal turnover–a good indicator that the agency has a history of hiring dedicated individuals who will be equally dedicated to finding you great candidates. According to LaBrie, when she hires new recruiters for BlueSky Personnel, she tries “To find out first if they’re passionate about what they do and if they really care. At the end of the day, I need to find out if they’re going to dig for that person.”

2. What is the turnover rate of your past placements?

One of the most quantifiable ways to assess a recruiter’s dedication to finding the right person for the job is to determine if they have a track record of placing new hires who stayed on the job for an extended period of time. If their past placements have stayed on for at least two years, it’s a good indication that they know how to source candidates who have the skills required to succeed in a position and are a good culture fit with the employer. Conversely, a high turnover rate could indicate that the recruiter failed to adequately screen candidates.

3. What is your sourcing strategy?

Often the best candidates for a position are passive. In fact, for any given role, only 10 percent of the relevant talent is actively looking for a job. To access the other 90 percent of that talent pool, you’ll want to find a recruiter will do more than just post jobs and search job boards.

Great research skills are essential, because, LaBrie says, “We don’t always get the candidates we want through the postings, so we have to be very good researchers and diggers to get the information.” Your recruiter needs to have a proven method for doing this if they’re going to find those needles in the haystack.

McClure says it’s a good idea to ask how a prospective recruiter typically finds people, and what tactics they then use to engage the candidate. And, she notes, “Once they find the people, how do they connect with them, build rapport? Do they understand what the candidates are looking for to make a move? And how do they sell them on the opportunity, especially if it’s a passive type candidate who they found when they weren’t actively looking?”

4. How do you determine if a candidate fits the culture of the client?

Determining if a candidate will be a good fit with your company culture is absolutely necessary for your (and their) success. As the authors of Who: The A Method for Hiring found, “Not evaluating cultural fit was one of the biggest reasons for hiring mistakes. People who don’t fit fail on the job, even when they are perfectly talented in all other respects.”

McClure recommends asking the prospective recruiter what questions they use to assess whether a candidate would be a culture fit. For example: “Tell me about the best culture that you’ve ever worked in. What made it really enjoyable for you to work there? Where’s a place where you didn’t fit well and what was that like?”

She also emphasizes that it’s important to evaluate how the recruiter poses those questions to candidates. Companies should consider, ”Do they ask open-ended questions, and are they good at framing it in such a way that it really doesn’t give away what they’re looking for?”

Of course, it’s also important to know how the recruiter will get to know your culture before they can assess a candidate’s compatibility with it. Ask how the prospective recruiter would go about that. Miller-Merrell says, “Most third party recruiters will probably go through a checklist, or they’ll spend some time with you on the phone, or they’ll do some research on the Internet to try to get a sense of who you are as a company.”

You’ll have to do your part, too. As LaBrie notes, for recruiters, “What’s important for us when we’re trying to recruit for the company culture is that [the employer] shares everything–absolutely everything–with us. When it comes to who their hiring manager is, his style or her style, it’s very important for us to understand that.”

If you ask these questions up front, you’ll be well on your way to finding a recruiter who will source great people for the open positions your business’s growth has created–and with their help, you’ll be able to focus on what you do best, and keep your business growing.

Bill and I have said to audiences for years, only half-jokingly, that most of the time, people are notified of their transition to management (usually on a Friday afternoon), in this way: “Congratulations! You”re a manager now. And you”ve got all weekend to get ready.”

At least Lindsay got the news on a Thursday.

This is not the first time (recently) that our firstborn has caused my wife”s and my heads to swell with pride, and because I”m her dad, I can”t be particularly objective. But presumably, the leadership of the university where she”s worked for about a year can be, and they”ve deemed that she”s demonstrated a degree of leadership skill and potential worthy of a supervisory role.

I, for one, am gratified that they based their decision, at least in part, on her leadership skill and potential, and not solely on her considerable operational prowess. That”s how it should be done. Unfortunately, too often, it”s not.

If I were to be asked by this new supervisor, for any leadership advice (so far, I haven”t been), here are 5 high points I”d cover:

• Remember why you were issued 2 ears, and one mouth. Use them in like proportion.

• Pay 10 times as much attention to appreciating your employees as you do correcting them.

•  Recall what you”ve admired most about the good managers you”ve had since you began working as a teenager. Emulate those qualities.

• Be unfailingly kind to those who report to you. And remember how unkind it is to fail to tell someone that they”re not performing up to expectations. You owe them the opportunity to improve, if they”ll take it.

•  You get what you expect to get. Expect a lot.

If I were asked to give managers advice on choosing, appointing, and leading other managers (now that I have been asked to do on occasion), here are my top 5 as well:

• Always remember that to lead – that is, to be followed – is a privilege that is earned, never a right that is bestowed on anyone.

• Leaders, like attitudes, plants, pets, and humans, have to be fed, nourished, and given access to a healthy environment. Don”t expect people to grow into great leaders unaided by training, good examples, and worthy rewards for being effective leaders.

• Followers will be far less impressed by their manager”s technical acumen than by their proficiency in people skills. Make that the number one criterion for appointment to a leadership role, above all other considerations.

• Pick other managers to be on your team who will compensate for your weaknesses.

•  Never equate position on the org chart with value to the org. Just as it”s foolish to turn a great teacher into an inept principal, it”s cruel to turn a great individual contributor into a lousy boss. Especially when done as a “reward”.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by virtue of a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He and Bill Catlette are the authors of the popular “Contented Cows” leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. Their newest book, Contented Cows STILL Give Better Milk, published by John Wiley & Sons, is now available. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Health assessments are neither unreasonable nor new. They represent an effort by employers (who still provide and pay for the vast majority of private health insurance coverage in this country) to encourage workers to take greater interest in their own health. Many of those same employers incentivize (or dis-incentivize, depending on your perspective) people to complete the assessment.

Where CVS appears to be breaking new ground is in requiring workers to turn over the results of that review, or face a penalty. Though companies that take this approach are quick to point out that the personal health data is being held by a contractor and not directly by the employer, that distinction is not particularly assuring.

Our advice to those in the C-suite is that, if they are going to continue providing health insurance for their workers, they should proceed apace in taking sensible measures to yield a better functioning, more efficient, better understood, user-friendly system. Greater cost sharing, and incentivized health assessments for the covered population are part of that, as are much better communication efforts.

But they should be careful not to get heavy handed in their approach. The labor market that has favored employers for the past five years is beginning to shift in the other direction. And, beginning in 2014 with full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, workers, many of whom have felt chained to their jobs by access to health benefits, will have new choices when it comes to purchasing insurance.

It is entirely possible that at the precise moment that organizations are renewing their interest in hanging onto talent, many of their workers, led by the most talented, will be voting with their feet. That”s a challenge we don”t need.

*****

A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

With full implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) now within sight, every organization with a payroll and a modicum of good sense is getting serious about determining their strategy and tactics with respect to the act.

Some have already decided to go ahead and upgrade their health care insurance programs to make them compliant with both cost and coverage requirements of the act. Many are taking a “watchful waiting” approach to see how the first few organizations that pay a fine and dump their workforces (in whole or in part) onto the state insurance exchanges fare. Many others, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors, signal that they will be shifting even more to a workforce constituted of part-time workers in order to escape the act’s coverage requirements. At first blush, the act seems to incentivize some to do just that. Although every management must decide what’s in the best interest of their stakeholders, it is this last group that we’d like to focus on.

In a recent webinar sponsored by People Report and Black Box Intelligence (very credible organizations that provide info. services to the restaurant industry), the unmistakable take-away was that reliance on part-time vs. full-time workers will be a Big.Dot.Issue. 82% of the mostly restaurant managements surveyed indicated that cutting worker hours in order to reduce the number of full-timers with mandated benefits would be their likely approach. Further, 80% of those surveyed indicated that it was their intent to hire a greater ratio of part-timers going forward.

On the surface, swapping one full-time worker for two or more part-timers seems a perfectly sensible thing to do if it helps you avoid a significant expense for worker health care benefits. Yet, managements that make such a move based purely on avoiding the cost of employer-sponsored health insurance are opening yet another, possibly costlier can of worms.

Regardless of the number of hours each person works, the addition of each incremental real, pulsating human being (RPHB), aka “heads” to the beancounters in the crowd, adds significant complexity and cost to the mix. Here are just a few of the factors to consider:

1. Additional pressure on the physical plant (think bathrooms, parking spaces, work stations, et. al.)
2. The task of communicating with and leading, directing, guiding the workforce becomes more complex. At some point, additional managers must be hired due to span of control issues.
3. Recruitment and training costs go up, way up.
4. Barring some clear and reasonably predictable way to migrate from part to full-time status, you must either recruit from a totally different demographic, or face the prospect of having a bifurcated (and not necessarily enchanted or engaged) workforce. (Think A-scale and B-scale and how well that worked for commercial airlines.)

We don’t advocate one approach over another. Rather, that each management team get beyond the surface considerations and consider all the implications. And, not to put any pressure on you, but you need to do it soon.

*****

A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Although participation in the youth labor force has declined steadily since at least 1989 (see this white paper compiled by Patrick J. Holwell, of the Arapahoe-Douglas Workforce Center in Denver), those early part-time after-school and summer jobs do much to build valuable job and personal skills that will be deployed to even greater use later in life. As leaders of very young workers, we mustn’t underestimate the influence of that first job, and our roles in shaping young people”s view of the world of work.

From the ages of 16 to 20, I worked as a “student assistant” at the Regency Square Branch of the Jacksonville Public Library. Yesterday, the branch held a celebration of its 40th anniversary, and someone was thoughtful enough to put my name on the invitation list. The picture accompanying this post shows yours truly, flanked on either side by two of my first bosses (including my first-ever job interviewer), joined by a couple of others from my library days.

What a great job it was. But not so much for the duties we performed, which were less about literature than inventory management. And, at $1.60 an hour, it sure wasn”t the money. So what was it that kept me there, and engaged, for 4 years? It was the same things that keep your employees, of all ages, engaged today. While much – indeed VERY much – has shifted in the workplace since the late ”70”s, the fundamentals of engagement have remained rock-solid.

Good leadership. My bosses probably covered very little about leadership and human motivation in their Master of Library Science programs in graduate school, but somehow, they knew how to treat people.

These professionals also taught me about showing up on time, properly attired; keeping up with my name badge; looking for ways to help others when my work appeared to be caught up; the fact that I was not indispensable, and that my job security depended, in large measure, on my performance; finding creative ways to help customers; and a host of other valuable life lessons.

Meaningful work. There”s nothing particularly exciting about sorting and shelving books (our number one function) and our bosses knew that. So, they were careful to season our days with as much variety as possible – a few hours of shelving, followed by an hour of customer contact at the front desk, a special project, or maybe running the projector for the classic movies we  showed (something the geekier ones of us truly relished.) They were also careful to point out how our work enabled our branch to be the top performer in the library system, and how that affected our budget, which in turn affected the number of part-time hours distributed to our location.

Just rewards.  As city employees, we weren”t eligible for incentive bonuses, and the librarians didn”t exactly go around handing out 5 dollar bills to the student who shelved the most books accurately in an hour, but they did know what motivated us – each of us – individually. In other words, they subscribed to the notion that, when it comes to rewards, one size fits one. Our most effective incentives came in the form of work assignments, both hours and duties. They knew that my least favorite task was sorting incoming books, and that I much preferred working the checkout desk. Some of my friends wanted only enough hours to pay for gas and date money; others wanted to work as much as possible. We quickly learned that the quality of our work seemed to have a direct relationship to our goals. If ever I slacked off, my next week”s hours would be cut, and those hours would be spent – you guessed it – sorting the 800”s down to 6 Dewey Decimal places.

A good “fit”. The library gang was a diverse lot that eventually chose wildly varying career paths, to include: nurse, art appraiser, auto mechanic, two-star general in the US Army, and even a librarian. But, at the time, most of us “fit” the job, and the job fit us. It fit our temperament and our interests. It worked with our school, extracurricular, and social schedules. Of course if provided some income, but also, not insignificantly, given the age group, a great social environment. I”m still in touch with many from those days so long ago; a few remain my best friends today; one introduced me to my wife.

This simple library job, my first job, remains a good demonstration of what we”ve always known about employee engagement. Compensation is secondary to other factors: good leadership, the chance to do meaningful work, rewards that provide a good incentive, and a job that just “fits”.

Those things don”t change.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by virtue of a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He and Bill Catlette are the authors of the popular “Contented Cows” leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. Their newest book, Contented Cows STILL Give Better Milk, published by John Wiley & Sons, is now available. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

A day or so later, invoking the example of her older sister, my three year old granddaughter offered the same reasoning when corrected by her mom for running in the house.

It would be one thing if this were confined to a handful of super-star athletes and young children. But it’s not. Witness the facts that, in corporate America:

• Precious few organizations are adequately training their new staff members these days, either because “we can’t afford it” (have you priced ignorance lately?), because “they won’t be here long anyhow” and, you guessed it… because everyone else is doing it. Really?

• Many organizations continue to irritate customers by off-shoring customer-facing call-centers to countries where the language and culture don’t mesh particularly well with those of callers because… A. They think it’s cheaper, and B. Everyone else is doing it.

• We see managers regularly overlooking meaningful performance and behavioral discrepancies in the workspace because, you guessed it…

Please pardon the rather closed-minded point of view on this, but everyone else is NOT doing it. Moreover, for those of us who are considered business leaders of any stripe, we get paid to set the bar higher, first for ourselves, and then others. Averting our eyes to this reality can, in the short run, be a source of competitive edge. But the problem is, where (and when) do you draw the line? How do you put the worms back in the can? How do you un-do the example that has been set for all those who are watching?

Here are three things that leaders at different levels can do to keep things on a higher plain:

1. Senior leaders – Make it known throughout your entire organization that those who lie, cheat, or steal will be ejected like a virus. At the same time, be clear that people will not have their employment terminated for doing what they truly considered to be the right thing. (This is distinct and apart from those who, over time, demonstrate bad judgment).

• Level 2 Leaders – Make sure that your new and emerging leaders get the benefit not only of appropriate training offerings, but of your good example as well. Insist that they always set the bar high, and teach them how to coach their team-members to higher levels of performance and behavior.

• Front Line Leaders – Never forget that those who look to you for guidance and direction also look to you to paint bright lines about what behavior is in and out of bounds, and then to hold people’s feet to the fire, regardless of who their uncle is, or whether or not they are a star performer.

We are convinced that the cumulative effect of these behaviors actually puts your team in better position to win yellow jerseys that you won’t later have to give back.\r\n

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

What are today’s biggest leadership challenges for emerging and newly appointed leaders? The greatest challenge perhaps is that the on-ramp to today’s leadership highway is short, steep, and unforgiving. Less than a decade ago it was still conventional for newly appointed leaders to experience the benefit of some pretty intensive leadership training in their first few months on the job (if not prior), and be on a relatively short leash with their reporting senior during that period. Within reason, mistakes were expected, and were considered part of the learning curve. Today, not so much. Most of the prep work is a DIY proposition, and mistakes are things that your boss may be less able or inclined to provide air cover on, so it’s probably best that they happen to other people.

Not unlike the world of professional football (the U.S. variety), where yesterday’s rookie players (quarterbacks in particular) could expect to ride the bench for a year or more before being inserted into the starting lineup, today’s players are paid (and expected) to be fully productive from day one. And sadly, once on the field, we tend to forget that they are still rookie players, and not fully developed.

I will submit that had a lot to do with the recent re-injury of Washington Redskins’ rookie phenom quarterback, Robert Griffin III during the team’s first (and only) game of the 2012-13 NFL playoffs. As a 22 year old man who, to my knowledge has not spent any time in med school, Mr. Griffin was allowed to be the sole decider as to whether or not his previously injured leg was ready for action. He guessed wrong. It wasn’t, and hopefully he will recover.

Perhaps the most challenging part of this for the rest of us has to do with the fact that today’s newly appointed leaders can’t always count on having a good example set for them. By virtue of having a sour economy for the past five years, it is entirely likely that their boss hasn’t had the benefit of any leadership training either, ergo it’s not unusual to have the blind leading the blind.

The good news (and it is good news) is that, due to the fact that most of today’s workers are more likely to engage with (and on behalf of) their leader rather than the broader organization, the efforts of each individual leader tend to matter quite a bit more. It’s truly motivating when you realize that what you pour yourself into every day is indeed mission critical.

What are your recommendations for students to achieve success as leaders? For better or worse, here’s what I said.

1.    For openers, be bone honest with yourself about whether or not you are up for this particular ride.

• Do you have the courage to make tough, unpopular decisions, and to deliver bad news without blaming them on someone else? How about telling a friend that they either need to change or leave?
• Do you have the resilience to take shots and beatings that are intended for other people (your team) without whining? You better be, because that’s part of the job.
• Are you willing to subordinate personal interest for the good of the team?
• Are you willing to liberally share credit with others, perhaps even more than what they deserve at times? If so, proceed. We need a lot more like you.

2.    Early on, it’s important that you become a real master of your time and priorities. On day one, and every day thereafter, you’re going to have a hundred fresh emails and other incoming items of varying importance before you even get to work, and a line out the door (oops, doors are a thing of the past) when you do. How you handle that stuff and keep it in proper context will materially impact your success as a leader, not to mention your sanity.
3.    Though you must be ever mindful of the fact that accepting the mantle of leadership means that you are held to a higher standard, you must at the same time, be authentic – be real. People who are not comfortable in their own skin have a habit of becoming petty tyrants.
4.    Be grateful, and show it, every day. Really. Leadership is not about you. It’s about the mission, and it’s about them.
5.    Become a good listener. It’s one of the quickest ways of gaining the respect and trust of others, not to mention being a great path to the answers you need.
6.    Lastly, unless you find that you’ve been blessed with having a really good boss who is both competent and willing to invest a lot of time in your development, get a coach or mentor that you can rely on – somebody who has been around the block a few times, who cares about you, and won’t blow smoke up your nose.

These are my thoughts. You are invited to join the discussion.

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Really. Think about that for a second. Certainty about what? Since when have we enjoyed certainty about much of anything, beyond the fact that the sun will come up tomorrow?

For better than 2 years, we worried about a banking crisis and vicious recession, then, when it was clear that those things were on the mend, we averted our national nervousness to implementation of the healthcare reform legislation, followed by federal elections. More recently, we’ve been consumed by the prospect of plunging over a man-made “Fiscal Cliff”. To be sure, each of these items was/is very real.

But let’s at least accept the fact that we survived the banking crisis, and overcame a potential melt down of the global financial system. We’re recovering from the recession – really. The elections are over, and where there are to be new officeholders (none of whom give the impression of being complete chuckleheads), they will soon be peaceably sworn into office. Now that we have at least begun the process, we will be reforming our healthcare system for many years to come. It’s about time.

Look, I’m not making light of any of these. They are serious events in our nation’s history, and they indeed carry consequences for us. While it’s appropriate to give them thought, and influence the direction of events when and where we can, it is every bit as important not to become paralyzed by the fear of what might happen. As Mark Twain once said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

As for visibility, I will submit that Christopher Columbus, the Wright brothers, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, FedEx’s Fred Smith, Bill Marriott, and a long list of other high achievers didn’t have very good visibility when they set forth on their respective ventures. Indeed, some of the aforementioned businesses were launched in some pretty difficult times.

In an event this week at 92Y in New York, Bill Mack, Chairman of AREA Property Partners and Mack-Cali Realty Corp., after reminding his audience that the U.S. remains a great and good country, indicated that, in his view, the U.S. is still, by far, the best place on earth to do business. When asked about risk, he and Steve Ross, Chairman of Related Companies, Equinox Holdings, and owner of the Miami Dophins suggested that a willingness to do one’s homework and then take the long view mitigates a lot of risk.

One of the lessons to be taken from the recent unspeakable tragedy in Newtown, CT is that we ought not live in fear, but we should hug our kids a little tighter every day. The same holds true for our businesses. Let’s continue to nourish them, hold them dear and then, taking the long view as Mr. Mack suggested, take steps and make the necessary investments to grow and develop them.

These are my thoughts. You are invited to join the discussion.

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

The refreshing part of Mr. Cathy’s answer, regardless of content, or anyone’s position on the matter, is that it was direct, and without obfuscation. And, in view of Mr. Cathy’s straight-laced image, it was about as surprising as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s pick for the 2012 Super Bowl.

Nevertheless, outrage ensued with some fresh meat, ‘er chikin (as the company’s bovine advertising mascots spell the word) thrown into the fire. While many accepted Cathy’s right to express views different from their own, others were not as tolerant. The mayors of Boston and Chicago even threatened to block the company’s development in their respective cities (apparently they had all the jobs they needed), until the ACLU, hardly a bastion of conservatism, reminded Their Honors that they really couldn’t do that. It seems that issuing government sanctions in response to protected speech kind of tramples on that First Amendment thing, and so they dialed back the rhetoric.

Since neither Mr. Cathy’s views on marriage, nor ours, are especially relevant to our work, or the reason you subscribe to this newsletter, we’ll spare you the discussion. But we’d like to highlight a few lessons that we can all walk away with.

1. Authenticity Means Being Comfortable in Your Own Skin

Leaders who aren’t comfortable in their own skin tend to become petty tyrants. Frankly, we see too many leaders fall short of their peak because they spend precious time every day twisting in the wind, seeking polished, popular positions on the subject du jour – positions that don’t necessarily jibe with their inner beliefs, if they even have inner beliefs. The end result is messy, because none of us is a good enough actor to pull it off for very long. If nothing else, our people have become good consumers of content, and they recognize bad acting when they see it. For further reinforcement on this topic, just rewind some of the video from the recently completed U.S. election.

2. Say it Loud, Say it Clear

Our work with high performance organizations and leaders of choice (they can usually be found in the same place) suggests in the strongest possible terms that these organizations, Chick-fil-A being but one example, have a crystal clear sense of who they are, where they’re going, and what they stand for. They aren’t bashful about it, and it doesn’t change overnight with their socks. They know that not everyone is going to like their products and services, or the way they do business. And they certainly understand that not everyone’s going to be happy, productive, or successful working there. Accordingly, they take considerable pains to recruit and retain people who are able to work comfortably within their value system.

This is not, repeat, not, a wink and a nod to employment discrimination. The leaders in these organizations know that discrimination on the basis of irrelevant factors is bad form, bad for business, and generally indefensible in legal terms, so they don’t do it.

If your company is a tough place to work, say so, and be very explicit in explaining why and how. The same advice applies to you as a leader. That said, if you can’t consistently find, retain, and engage enough truly great people to work for you, you might want to make some changes.

What Chick-fil-A does seems to work, and work well. The company is growing like a weed and has always enjoyed a stellar workplace reputation, and, not coincidentally, is perennially rated among the very best in customer service for Quick Service Restaurant chains. (Witness recent articles in Fast Company and The Los Angeles Times.) Their annual employee turnover rate has consistently been a fraction of the industry’s triple-digit figure. There’s no indication that this year’s controversy has made the slightest dent in that outstanding record.

As we point out in Contented Cows STILL Give Better Milk (and in all of our books), a company’s decisions about how it treats its customers, and its employees matters, and matters a lot. Not so much for social or moral reasons, but because it drives business outcomes. The market is a wonderful thing. Our latest group of “Contented Cow” companies have 70 billion reasons (as in dollars) each year to remain committed to their people-oriented employment cultures.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by virtue of a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He and Bill Catlette are the authors of the popular “Contented Cows” leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. Their newest book, Contented Cows STILL Give Better Milk, published by John Wiley & Sons, is now available. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Somewhere late-morning as I furiously scribbled notes, I realized that, despite not being mentioned on the meeting agenda, one word had come up… a lot, almost as much as words I was expecting to hear, like gene, physician, science, payor, and the like . The word – culture. “Its about the culture you need to create.” Mikael Dolston (Pfizer); “The problem is trust.” Peter Tippett (Verizon); “It’s all about culture.” Andy Slavitt (Optum); “The biggest challenges are culture, culture, culture.” Dr. Richard Rothman (The Rothman Institute). “The culture is critical.” Sandra Fenwick (Boston Children’s Hospital). The clear implication from each and every mention was that if you want to innovate, optimize, execute, and get better outcomes, you had better pay attention to getting and keeping the culture thing right. Indeed, sparks flew for a moment or two when one of the presenters suggested that his business might never have gotten off the ground if he had been forced to recruit workers with a public servant mindset from the government sector. Yikes!

Whether in healthcare or elsewhere, I don’t think it’s too big a reach to suggest that the primary burden of responsibility for getting the culture right rests with those of us who occupy a leadership role – generally anyone with a trailing “R” in their job title, like officer, director, manager, supervisor, or leader. So what does that entail? Here are a few thoughts, in no particular order:

In my little pea brain, culture, at least as far as the workspace is concerned, is about expectations, customs, norms, and languages. It lends definition to the tribe. It means we have given serious thought to what it takes to be happy, productive, and successful here, gene mapping the organization if you will. It means that we have set, and abide by certain behavioral boundaries and expectations. It also means that we eject, like a virus, those who prefer to behave outside those lines. It means that, when recruiting, we are as careful about organizational fit as we are talent. Because of these expectations, things like respect and trust are usually in greater supply than elsewhere. As a result, people are more free to perform because they don’t have to waste precious time and energy looking over their shoulder. My questions to you are, how much time and attention are you giving to getting and keeping the culture right in your organization? How stridently do you, as a leader, explain and defend your culture?

These are my thoughts. You are invited to join the discussion.

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Our view is that organizations should be working on both ends of the job attendance equation. While the average worker experiences a relatively modest 3 days per year of unscheduled health-attributed absence, there is a growing number of chronic malingerers whose absenteeism rate is 5 to 10 times greater. Owing to a managerial workforce that is less well trained than ever, many managers quite simply don’t know how to deal with it.

And yes, on the other side of the coin, “presenteeism” is very much an issue, both with those who come to work when they shouldn’t, and those who are sick of work because it follows them home (and wherever else they go).

Worker attendance is at once both a human and a business issue that profoundly impacts the bottom line. Hence, it deserves fresh thought. A few starters…

1. Give workers more choice and flexibility with work scheduling. As but one example, older workers usually find that they perform better when afforded fairly constant schedules and consecutive days of rest.
2. Explore ways to afford your workers (all of them) better, more affordable access to health care (as opposed to health insurance).
3. Crack down on abusers. One of the things that most infuriates high performers is the allowance made for turkeys.
4. Stop making people lie to you about time off. Respected studies have repeatedly suggested that roughly two-thirds of last minute sick calls are for non-medical reasons.
5. Treat staff members like the responsible adults you thought they were when you hired them, and let them know that you expect them to behave accordingly. Tell them that you will respect their judgment if they elect to stay home due to illness, and that if they have a communicable disease or malady, you most certainly don’t want them sharing it with co-workers.
6. Take a hard look at the economic side of presenteeism, and the fact that in an increasing number of cases (health care and hospitality industries in particular), people are bringing their germs to work because they can’t afford not to. Achoo!

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A pathfinder 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. He is co-author of the Contented Cows leadership book series, and Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows