Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
September 26 - November 7, 2021
“As people pay their respects and they ask you why
successful leader can be summarized as a person who adds immediate value as a trusted advisor, mentor, and visionary who uses a process approach to lead the organization and its people to new levels of success.
in everything you do, be the best you can be; you owe it to your family. Learn everything you can about your job, and then learn some more. Whatever they ask you to do say, ‘Yes and thank you for the opportunity.’”
Time + Effort + Enthusiasm = Results.
Leaders must ensure there are no barriers to communication—real or perceived. They should listen with the intent to act on what they learn and invite feedback. This inspires openness and trust.
To be a good communicator you first need to understand your role as a leader, what you do, as well as what’s expected of you.
There is no substitute for follow-up. Follow-up can be in a simple phone call or in a visit a few days later. This follow-up will also demonstrate your passion. As a leader and communicator you must inspire others. Nothing says you care about your message more than that personal follow-up touch.
You can only handle a few urgent things, so do not allow important things to become urgent.
Take the approach that someone is going to be the best, so why not you and your team?
they take the role of the victim as it moves to urgent. It is never their fault: it is luck, fate, timing, their boss, anything but them.
a successful leader can be summarized as “a person who adds immediate value as a trusted advisor, mentor, and visionary.” A leader is someone who uses a process approach to lead the organization and its people to new levels of success.
Another important concept of a high-performance team for Joe was the ability of the team to focus on the business result, then work backwards toward a comprehensive solution that includes customers, people, and stakeholders. A complete solution included all three constituents as well as the approach and the process.
A confident, balanced leader must understand that the goals will be achieved through disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action.
As leaders, we must always be constructively dissatisfied—continuously improving our business processes, improving our own skills, and developing our people. Bottom line: Maintain your balance.
There are many different types of examples that can be cited and used as case studies. To a frequent flier none is more profound than the story Joe loves to tell about flight expectations. The story goes like this: As a flier you are prepared for a certain flight time as communicated to you when you booked your flight.
Set clear expectations and maintain them to avoid unnecessary confusion and disappointment. Thinking like a customer is the act of understanding the customer—their requirements and expectations. Your goal is to meet and exceed their requirements and expectations. If you change expectations, do so strategically and with deliberate processes that are well communicated and understood.
“How was everything?” Joe used the proverbial killer word in the customer service vocabulary. He responded that everything was “Fine.” “Fine” is commonly used by people who are not happy but do not want to discuss it and are ready to move on.
The more employees understand what’s expected of them and where the organization is headed, the better able they are to align themselves and work efficiently to accomplish goals.
Years later, as Joe was touring his own operation, he realized the confidence the Hershey organization must have had in their people as literally thousands of people walked through their factory each day while they made their famous chocolate bars. Joe wondered, Can a customer walk through my operation unannounced and still be impressed with my organization? Joe asked himself, Do I run a Hershey factory? Can my customers walk through my operations anytime and would they be proud of what they saw? From that day, Joe challenged himself and his staff to inspire those in their care to be as
...more
This ability to understand that the greatest thing he didn’t know was what he didn’t know allowed him to be open to collaboration.
To breathe life into this ownership concept Joe would take his people through a series of questions designed to understand the solution, view it from its widest consequences, and determine if it was a balanced approach. As the group or a person approached the final decision, Joe would ask the most important question last: “If this was your candy store would you make this decision?”
“Do you have a favorite child through all of this?” Adrianne smiled and said, “Each of them believes they are the favorite, because I believe that they each got what they needed when they needed it. When each of them was the focus of attention it was because that is what they needed at that time.”
We take great pride in the books we have read and where they sit on the best-seller list. But sometimes these lessons and learning experiences come from the people right in front of us, the people in our care and supervision, the people we engage with every day
The leader must ensure that everyone is working together and every-one checks their agenda at the door. Put another way, everyone must understand the destination and how we are getting there and their roles in getting us there.
Three people were laboring in a field of boulders and large stones. Sweat ran from their foreheads as they swung their heavy picks again and again. A curious passerby approached them and asked each what they were doing. The first person answered in a stern and abrupt voice, “Can’t you see? I am breaking rocks!” The second person replied in a matter-of-fact way, “Can’t you see? I am earning my salary!” The third person smiled—their eyes gleaming with enthusiasm—and proclaimed, “Can’t you see? I am helping to build a Cathedral!”
As Joe was evolving into a performance-driven leader he was connected by the principles of Balanced Leadership. This is where you think like a customer by approaching each challenge as a true solutions provider; feel like a valued individual by knowing your work matters and you are part of the solution, not part of the problem, and you will never compromise on safety and integrity; act like an owner by understanding the business and your role in what leads to success.
Customers . . . I need to visit our top two or three customers in each business unit. I would like to understand the current service metrics, our service recovery procedures, and the depth and breadth of our relationships and who owns them.
People . . . Through my visits I would like to understand our safety culture. I would like to begin the process of getting our people to understand that they are a part of a great company and that their business unit is an important part of the “Who We Are” as an enterprise and understand that they are part of a bigger entity.
Ownership . . . Understand each business unit’s business plan before I go out and visit their operations and let them tell me their business plan as they understand it. Here is where I usually see big disconnects. What are the important leading indicators? What are we tracking, and what are they tracking and where and why are we disconnected? Will these metrics lead to a successful month and quarter? As we prepare for our customer visits and reviews,
At the end of the first 100 days I would like to be able to answer these questions from my visits, interactions, and communications: Who are the primary customers in each business unit? This is more than the name of a customer. It is who the customer is, what the opportunities with that customer are. Who is our top churned customer in each business unit and why? How do we, our leaders, our people prioritize our core values of our customers, our people, and stakeholders? What are the critical performance metrics that are being tracked in each staff function and business unit, and do they meet
...more
the Big Eight.
SAFETY AS A CORE VALUE
DIVERSIFICATION OF OUR CUSTOMER BASE AND ORGANIC GROWTH
INCREASE RETURN ON INVESTED CAPITAL
REDUCE DEBT TO
IMPROVE CAPITAL STRUCTURE
GENERATE FREE CASH FLOW
LESS VOLATILE EARNINGS
BE THE BEST PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY
Use simple but effective metrics to track both organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Demand high performance. Build and sustain a culture of continuous improvement. Define your list of critical performance metrics to monitor. Believe strongly in cause and effect. Be a news maker, not a news reporter.
