This year’s February 6 issue of Fortune magazine lists The 100 Best Companies to Work For. Google rebounded to #1 … Boston Consulting Group #2 … SAS Institute #3, etc.
There is limited detailed coverage of the companies, except for the interview of Larry Page with Google and a profile of #27 Salesforce.com and their CEO Mark Benioff. The way Fortune displayed eligibility was by denoting each company’s qualifications in four “box score” areas:
- currently hiring more than 50 people
- never had a layoff
- pays 100% of health care premiums
- offers paid sabbaticals
You have to read beyond the box score from a little more depth, so I counted the Best Companies organizational attributes ( those that were c alled out by the reporter ) and here’s the top 10:
- profit-sharing/stock options/bonuses/commissions/matching (18 occurrences)
- appreciation events (10)
- health and wellness/exercise facilities and classes (10)
- personal growth/mentoring/promotion (7)
- executive listening/suggestion systems (7)
- paid volunteer time off (6)
- tuition subsidies (4)
- paid sabbaticals (4)
- unstructured/flex time (3)
- childcare (3)
I’m just guessing that Fortune’s reporting of the actual occurrences related to benefits and compensation are skewed in the sense that they are more classic indicators. For example, although they didn’t make the headlines, I would venture to guess that if you asked all 100 of these Best Companies if they had some type of appreciation event, the answer would be “yes” across all 100 companies. The same would go for the other categories as well. Again, for example, in the category of personal growth/mentoring/promotion, I’m pretty sure that more than seven companies out of 100 provide attention to those personal growth human desires.
The bottom line is that these companies have leadership that balances the “bottom line” and humanity, ie., caring!
Tags: caring leadership, corporate culture, organization culture
Every year I would exchange Christmas cards with my high school track coach, Keith Krantz. This past Holiday I did not get a card from him and I assumed that after so many years he had “retired” from writing the many students who also kept up with him. Then, last month I received a letter from Keith’s wife, Audrey, that Coach had passed away. As I had done many times before at other teachers’ and coaches’ passing, I thought about their impact on my life. It brought to mind the principal attributes of that calling … which are educating, correction and encouragement.
When I was a senior in high school I won a district half-mile race that allowed me to compete at state (which only lasted the first heat! ). Following that season Coach Krantz wrote a handwritten note of congratulations with mention of several specific things that he noticed about my commitment.
The point of this is to call attention to leaders about the undervalued power of encouragement in the form of acknowledgment … particularly from someone that you admire and respect. Coach’s note to me was a gesture that I never forgot.
The most compelling corporate leadership story that I am aware of, was expressed in Doug Conant’s book Touch Points, a revealing story of the Campbell Soup turnaround that he crafted with an amazing blend of strategy and humanity. During his 10 year tenure, he ( not his admin ) wrote 30,000 notes to employees and others.
So, whether from a high school coach or Fortune 500 CEO, personal attention, through personal expression, has huge … sometimes lifelong impact … simply through the gesture of valuing contributions and achievement.
I like the analogy of a theatrical stage production to a well – orchestrated business. So where does the analogy begin? First, we need a product (stage production) that will sell (attract an audience). Given that foundation I see two distinct components of a successful business (show).
First comes the “script” or screenplay. For a business, I think vision, values, purpose and tradition comprise the screenplay.
Next, beyond the script, you need direction. Business direction is labeled leadership. Elements of this “direction” component are: expectations, humility and trust, listening and credits.
Once the “script” elements are in place by the leadership, the rest is entirely up to the cast, stagehands, musicians – performing in response to the director’s vision and enthusiasm.
One of the more famous 2oth Century directors was John Ford who won six Academy Awards, four as director. Those that worked with him revealed his penchant for perfection, sometimes requiring as many as 42 takes. And actors said the he brought out the best in them. John Wayne said, “nobody could handle actors and crew like Jack.” Dobe Carey: “He had a quality that made almost everyone almost kill themselves to please him.”
So, like performing arts direction, business leadership competencies in this context, to achieve outstanding performance, are similarly:
- Casting
- Role-playing
- Quality control
- Listening
- Working environment
- Coaching
A vision for your organization opens up the dimension of contribution … one of our eight innate human desires. There are no right or wrong visions – you can write one that says you want to grow your firm into a $100 billion company operating all over the globe, or one that says you’ll be the sole employee. Your goal in either case is simply to provide a clearer sense of the scale at which your business will operate. But for reasons both concrete (people work a lot more effectively when they understand how you define success) and spiritual (things just seem to come together better when you’ve written them out), this vision idea really works. More thoughts about this: The Art of Influence – Vision
Tags: culture, employee inspiration
The newspaper story ( Houston Chronicle, January 28 ) reported that a fourth-grade teacher earned a $10,300 bonus for improving fourth-grade student test scores. After reading about the teacher Chavis Mitchell – his motivation was not the money. Q: So, what drove him to succeed? A: The same things that inspire employees to excel and contribute at work.
Communicating expectations: Mr. Mitchell refers to his students as “writing scholars” now … not later only when they show improvement. I think it definitely mirrors the Pygmalion effect that elevates their classroom writing activities to a context of excellence. To encourage their use of “dollar words” they staged a funeral for ordinary terms by placing their own in a mock casket.
Everybody wins: a segment of his bonus was based on scores and improvements by the entire fourth grade; it was reported that teachers plan together daily and discuss ideas. The goal is: everyone wins.
Teacher passion: Mr. Mitchell was attracted to teaching by his mother, herself a preschool teacher. He received a BA degree in political science, then a Masters in public school administration. He taught sixth grade for year, then sought a school with more at-risk students. Most of his students at Osborne elementary are black or Hispanic from low income families. A leadership parallel in business is mentoring and training to help employees make greater contributions.
Leaders are “made” by those who want to follow. You cannot fool fourth-graders … one of his students said, “he’s like our second Dad” … and you cannot mislead adults into performing without setting expectations, honoring all achievement and caring about their growth and success.
Tags: caring leadership, employee inspiration, encouragement
Courtesy: Masters of Design
This past Sunday the AFC Champions, New England Patriots, and the NFC Champions, New York Giants, advanced to the Super Bowl. If a sports season is like a “year” in business, we can draw some parallels. In sports, winning games is a result of good coaching and great player performance. In business success comes from good leadership and great employee customer service. In sports, financial success … sales of tickets, concessions and merchandise … tracks winning games. In business, excellent returns come principally from product value or service delivery.
Alas, sports offers business another dimension that inspires winning games and that is the pursuit of “the ring”. At the beginning of every sports season, at any level, the quest ( translation for business: purpose ) is to become champions: division champions, conference champions, national champions, world champions … and for NFL teams: Super Bowl champions.
I believe team sports gives solid evidence about the power of purpose … the power of “why” that offers satisfaction beyond multimillion dollar player contracts (translation for business: compensation packages ).
The power of a winning vision, to me, is equally pronounced for the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco Giants. In the wake of their losses ( each by the margin of a field goal ), none of the players groused about a missed assignment or their missed playoff bonuses. Instead they were focused on reasons for coming up short ( translation for business: lessons learned ) and an immediate post-game optimism for next season.
For “head coaches” in business it is important to personally communicate and commemorate the “winning” purpose and vision. For business leaders, what is your “super bowl”? And what is the payoff for your individual team members? Perhaps the power of your quest has to do with satisfying the innate human desire for competency and contribution toward a “championship” purpose.
Tags: championship recognition, employee inspiration, excellence, performance accolades
When you hear stories like this, you just shake your head. I’ve been going to class lately to understand the applications of social media to Visible Applause … and I highly recommend Karen and Crystal’s work – check it out at www.socialtunities.com .
So, at the conclusion of a recent workshop, another attendee told me the story of a company that passed-the-hat, in the spirit of the season, to underwrite Christmas gifts for two people important to the company’s success –the boss and the cleaning lady (please readers take no offense at either label … none intended! ). No point in dragging out the campaign results: collections for the boss: $35 and the cleaning lady: $200.
How can this be? Pure speculation, but maybe the boss was demanding and controlling and did little to validate or appreciate the work done by employees. As I listened to the story, the teller was not vindictive toward the boss, rather just an observer, but the story plays to the fact that all behaviors follow a path of reciprocity. If I’m helpful and courteous to you, you will likely reciprocate.
It’s just interesting.
Warm Christmas and Holiday wishes to all!
My wife, Nancy, had cataract surgery last week and, believe it or not, the entire experience was made almost-pleasant due to the professionalism and care of many specialists. At each “station” people were pleasant and engaged. It is always interesting to me to find engaged employees, especially when we are the recipients of their caring. The day following surgery, Nancy’s follow-up appointment was at 7:45 am back at the clinic. Again my antenna was turned on to detect anyone might be reluctant or disengaged about their work. I was surprised to not find any example of that.
The highlight of the follow-up experience was Nancy’s excitement over the clarity and color acuity of her new right eye lens … even though she had done a sneak peek from under the protective eye patch the evening before! Her elation caused her to express gratitude to the surgeon and ask him if he also felt the joy that comes from helping his patients’ almost-instant vision improvement. He responded affirmatively and then proceeded to share a special memory of helping a child with down syndrome to see.
The point of this is that we all have opportunities to honor people who provide services for us that maybe we often simply take for granted. Yes, in most cases, they are adequately compensated and we assume that’s sufficient. However, they derive additional satisfaction, even joy, from us when we show that we notice and are grateful for their care. Admittedly, this recounting of Nancy’s experience revealed my own missed opportunities to, beyond informal thanks, to formally thank people who care and perform great service for us … and, in turn, their employers.
Finally, the bottom line is that none of this care and professionalism occurs without the organization’s leadership hiring the right people and then providing them with an environment where they can prosper and receive deserved applause from their marketplace.
Tags: corporate culture, inspired employees, performance accolades
Leadership is about serving others, even if at a price of slight inconvenience. One of my favorite phrases that describes that quality is “( he/she )didn’t have to do it”.
There was a story in the August 2011 of Success Magazine, and the article cited several examples of influence by leaders and by people who understand the power of influence and courtesy. One of the stories was told by Chris Widener, who is a personal development speaker, author and businessman, whose works include, The Art of Influence: Persuading Others Begins With You.
He writes, “We are influencing people to one degree or another all day, everyday.”
Widener will always remember one childhood encounter. He was about 12-years old and a ball boy for the Seattle Supersonics. One of his tasks was to lug two five gallon jugs of Gatorade onto the court before the start of each game. Widener broke his arm. He reported to work anyway. The team trainer, upon seeing him, said he couldn’t keep his job if he couldn’t do his job.
Well it happens that Dennis Johnson, the late Celtics star, who was then a young guard on the Supersonics, was sitting on the trainer’s table at the time and overheard the exchange. For the next six weeks, Johnson carried the Gatorade onto the court himself. Widener said it didn’t matter to Johnson that the fans would be filing into the seats and likely witnessing the basketball player hauling his team’s drinks.
“He taught me an interesting lesson in leadership,” says Widener, who then paraphrases scripture: “Whoever becomes great must become the least. Whoever wants to become the leader must become a servant of all.”
Dennis Johnson’s ultimate fame came later as a member of NBA Championship teams at Seattle and Boston. His #3 hangs from the rafters at Boston Celtics’ TG Garden arena.
Tags: caring leadership, leadership character, servant leadership
At the August 2011 Houston Strategy Forum luncheon – expertly choreographed each month by Ravi Kathuria of Cohegic - John Sheptor, CEO of Imperial Sugar Company, Inc., spoke about strategy and the cultural implications. He talked about how it was critical first to get your strategy implemented and new processes in place that support that strategy in order to reposition the company and to give it a better future. In the case of Imperial, their strategy was to move from being a producer of commodity sugar products to becoming a company whose core business was branded sweeteners. That took them in several new directions and caused several new initiatives to be put in place.
And one of the first steps in the reformulation of their culture was making sure that those people that were on board saw the value and benefit of a new destination. People, presently comfortable in their roles, would want to know “why change?”. So, instead of the classic command and control “this is how it’s going to be and you better get in line”, Sheptor organized and participated in multiple town hall-type meetings that were attended by leadership team members, production floor employees and their supervisors.
Sheptor would spend some time talking about the new direction for the company and why it was important to move away from a commodity-based business that could survive principally by reducing costs and payroll. Following his explanation, he would open up the floor to questions. All of the discussion questions and answers were transcribed and made available to the entire company. One of Sheptor’s very compelling comments that he made in his remarks to us – which reflected his openness to not having all the ideas himself or by his senior leadership team – was that “a complaint is a disguised request.”
What Sheptor most likely realized was the key to leading is to have followers who believe in your mission. In one critical activity that goes a long way to attracting followers to leaders was the leaders willingness to ask “How can I help…What do you need …What gets in the way of you doing your job?” When people understand that the leaders are on their side and when people are willing to make the effort to embrace the new company vision and mission it’s the point where culture and people’s willingness and understanding is really what makes the strategy and process design work.
