BERKONOMICS

So, what’s the difference?

First, thanks to longtime reader and friend, Harley Kaufman, for the thought and title for this insight.  He stated, “Too often it seemed our internal staff was more focused on getting the ‘work’ (daily tasks) done and not enough on the ‘job’ (supporting subordinates with resources and encouragement.)”

Wait. Had I been guilty?

Of course, this comment made me think of the many times I had been guilty of this more than occasional heads-down office work over the years of management and assume that most of you who have supervised others have fallen into the same trap.  I recall one of my CEO’s when I was his chairman, stating, “If you are not serving our customers, then you should be supporting those who do”.   Is that statement a bit of a stretch for those in the lowest levels of office work, such as posting accounts payable invoices?  Maybe not.

How do you frame menial desk jobs as “customer support?”

[Email readers, continue here…]   Even the most menial of jobs fit into the grand scheme of customer support.  Some accounts payable invoices come from suppliers providing the company resources to serve the customer.  Moreover, most managers of all groups work to make the company better at servicing the sales staff, the customer support group, or the customer directly.   So, it would be easier to see why you’d want to get behind the rallying cry from that CEO who focused his staff upon the customer – and the company’s mission – which surely incorporated the customer in the first sentence.

Shout it out! 

Harley went further by hanging a banner on the wall of the office with the headline to this insight in bold, large type.  He made it clear that this wasn’t just another sentence in a mission statement to be read by a few and immediately forgotten.

Let’s take this thought one step further. 

If you manage even one other person, are you guilty of focusing upon your deskwork a bit too often when you could have been coaching, supporting, and asking generating questions of your subordinate(s)?

Generative questions?

“What problems are you working with where you could use resources or help?” “Where is your bottleneck, preventing you from doing your job most efficiently?”  “How can I help you succeed today and in the longer run?”  “What if you had more resources, how would you use them to better serve our customers?”  “What do you see happening that we could do better?”

Generative questions such as these make people think and respond in ways they might not have considered.  That’s much better than “How’re you doing today?” to which most people would respond, “Fine” and which would usually end the conversation without generating any positive or negative response or thought.

So, with these thoughts and questions aimed at you, are you a manager who uses generative questions to elicit thoughtful conversations?   If not, consider how you can better support your customers directly or by supporting your direct reports.

Be a better manager of people. Don’t let your work interfere with your job.

Are we who issue orders to associates or employees ever acting as jerks?  We’d never like to think so, or we wouldn’t do it in the first place.

Here’s a clue…

If someone is saying “This is confusing to me” when you’ve given an instruction or order, there are several ways to respond.  Of course, it may be appropriate to explain your reasoning, or ask what part of the instruction is confusing.

But, as one CEO pointed out to me recently, it may be more appropriate to ask yourself if the instruction was necessary or worth the effort in the first place.  He worded it a bit differently, as in the headline to this insight.

It sure gets your attention. 

Managers can be jerks as easily as anyone with a bit of power misused or misdirected.

So here is the simple test. 

[Email readers, continue here…]   Before issuing any kind of order to perform a task, think of how this might be interpreted by the person receiving the order.  Take the cynical view – the worst-case possibility.  Because it’s a guarantee that many of those on the receiving end will do just that.

Did your proposed order pass the jerk test? 

Will the requested outcome advance any of your goals – or just provide an increment of satisfaction?  Will the output be used in a meaningful way?  Or will this just be another reason for that cynical associate or employee to label you with that term?

Now raise the stakes of that order to the corporate level.  Will a whole department or all those under the level of the issuer feel a bit of the jerk syndrome?

Well, then. You have a tool for the question. And you know how to use it.  Think back to your past.  Ever think that of an action by a leader in your past life?

Leading by example

How do you teach your work force that mistakes are OK as long as they learn and don’t repeat them?  By being a visible example.  A friend and fellow CEO states that he publishes each of his mistakes in his company internal blog along with the lesson he learned.  “If the CEO can do this, he gives permission for anyone to confess as well,” he states.

Think of aviation lessons for safety’s sake

You may not know it but the National Transportation Safety Board has for years offered a reporting program for pilots, air controllers and others involved in aviation safety.  Anyone reporting an accidental safety error (such as flying into restricted airspace) within ten days is granted immunity from FAA prosecution, as long as the mistake was not an intentional breaking of the law.  Even NTSB understands that mistakes are learning experiences as it insulates accidental infractions from prosecution in order to learn and solve problems communally.

What is your culture?

Do you respond to an employee mistake with a warning or even punishment?  If so, it is a sure thing that fear will cause your employees to hide them, cover them up with quick fixes if possible and worry over the consequence of creativity efforts or of pushing the envelope a bit.

So, here’s your question of the week:

[Email readers, continue here…]   Doesn’t the whole enterprise fail a bit each time a learning opportunity is lost or someone hides actions from management?  And what does it say about your corporate culture and your individual management style?  Even if you condone the overreaction of others in management, aren’t you then guilty of reinforcing such a culture of punishment over learning?

Celebrate your mistakes.  Others will follow.

All will learn to share for the sake of safety, growth and open culture.

Empathy comes from experience.

Over fifty years ago, I was CEO of a record manufacturing company in Hollywood.  We were the only such facility on the West coast to provide and control the entire process from studio, through finished vinyl record pressings in the same building, therefore able to promise quality control others could only dream about.

The “clean” work in the front office

As founder and CEO of the then public company, I was expert in several of the “clean” processes such as studio recording, record mastering, cover design and photo lithography.  But if I knew then what I know now, I would have spent time working with my employees in each of the subsequent and more mechanical processes such as printing press management, record press management and shipping control to better learn my own business and hear first–hand suggestions from the line.

I lost an invaluable opportunity to learn from the front line.

Later, as CEO of a fast-growing computer software company with over thirty employees in customer service alone, I did learn the lesson, as I sat in on customer service calls on occasion to get a more complete understanding of the process, pressures and opportunities for improvement.  Then, when my manager of customer service sent a request up the line asking for funds for equipment or expanded staffing, I would understand the need, sometimes offering suggestions for improvement to try before making the investment.

[Email readers, continue here…]   

My conclusion is your challenge:

It had taken years to learn that empathy comes from experience, not just perceived understanding.  And that there is such a thing as a business leader showing empathy while making good strategic decisions.  I learned that employees appreciate knowing that their executives have experienced and can understand their world.  I learned that tough decisions, such as denial of a request, are better received when all affected know that there was a deeper understanding of the issue and reasons for the response.

All because I learned to sit in and understand the position, the workflow, and the challenges at each stage in the process of customer service.

Are you too busy to learn each step along the corporate process enough to understand issues and challenges?  Start by sitting in with some of your employees in the tough jobs alien to you.  The benefits are immense.

First, what is “servant leadership?”

It’s a term rooted in ancient philosophy.  Robert Greenleaf may have been the first to resurrect the concept in his book published in 1970.  Not quite as bold as inverting the management triangle, the concept of servant leadership requires that a business manager focus upon his or her people’s highest priority needs first.  

So, what’s the question?

The question begged by the headline above is whether this form of leadership is perceived as soft, indecisive, and inappropriate for the fast–moving world of today’s business.

How do you classify this style of leadership?

A servant leader uses a participative style of management, as opposed to one that is autocratic or (at the opposite end of the spectrum) laissez–faire.  More important, a servant leader involves employees in the process of decision–making, focusing upon the performance and satisfaction of employees.

Doesn’t sound tough or forceful enough for you? 

[Email readers, continue here…]    You are not alone.  It is a very thin line between abdication of responsibility and participative leadership.  The world loves bold leadership.  Steve Jobs, who was known to be in charge of each detail in design.  Elon Musk, who obsesses with metrics and constantly asks for employees to feed him their concerns but makes bold moves on his own.

How about tech businesses or remote workforces?

In technology–based enterprises, the question of leadership vision becomes mixed with leadership style.  Can a visionary leader abdicate the execution of that vision by subordinating to those who carry out the execution of that vision?  Or must he or she be more like Jobs or Musk and stand in the center of the storm, constantly testing the execution efforts of those around?  And how about the leader working with his or her remote workforce?

There is a place for a leader as servant. 

But the perception of that leader being soft and lacking in strong leadership traits is the sure result of using this method as the leading style for a CEO.   It is fine as a secondary style used in tactical decision–making, when strategic issues are not the focus, and where threats to corporate health or resources are not evident.

But those leaders who will be remembered as having changed the world, even if the world is defined as within the walls of one enterprise, are those who were clear in their ability to communicate urgency, quality and focus upon the customer – not necessarily those who delegated the best or allowed decisions to flow from management concurrence.