Impact Today™

Labels: Attitude, Diversity, Motivation

Sunday book review


Have you ever been given a new assignment? Did you realize how much the first 90 days counted toward your long-term success? Do you immediately change those things that are wrong or do you use the entire time to develop a plan to deploy at the end of your first three months?

Michael Watkins reviews some of the important challenges faced by new leaders in his book, “The First 90 Days”. You will probably enjoy the framework Watkins lays out as he looks at the five fundamental propositions and the ten key challenges as he shares the mistakes and successes of others. Click here to learn more or order this book.

Labels: Books, Leadership, Orientation

Retention increased from 27% to 58% with use of the strategic hiring system.


A major hotel management firm operates a reservations call center with a primary mission of customer service, and a secondary sales function. The call center experiences wide seasonal workload fluctuations, and has traditionally begun a major round of hiring each winter. Both performance and turnover have presented challenges in this environment. In 2003, reservations agents hired in the winter campaign had only a 27 percent chance of remaining on the job beyond June 30. This required additional and continued hiring efforts through the spring and summer seasons—times of year that present additional hiring challenges in their employment market.

In midwinter, by contrast, the company had an abundance of applicants for their open positions.

The challenge
The challenge was to design and implement a strategic hiring system, with the goal of increasing retention and reducing the necessity of additional hiring through the spring and summer.

The solution
Click here to continue reading this case study.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Hiring

Labels: Anecdote, Behaviors

Many people fear making public presentations. In fact public speaking is more feared than death and drowning in most public opinion polls.

To offset the fear, some people resort to PowerPoint as a crutch. This week’s video is a humorous look at what not to do when using PowerPoint. We think you will enjoy comic Don McMillan’s insightful review of common PowerPoint mistakes.

Labels: Public_Speaking, Video

Labels: Anecdote, Attitude

Labels: Benefits, Survey

High global petroleum prices are changing the buying habits of consumers, as illustrated by an article by James Hannah of the Associated Press. His story looks at an increase in the demand for push mowers, which is up almost 70% from last year.

Whether we are looking at products that use gasoline or the distance people must drive, the price of fuel is changing habits. Savvy business people are strategizing how they can take advantage of the trend. Are you?

Labels: Strategy

Labels: Anecdote, Communication

If you thought the book “Who Moved My Cheese” was a great illustration of how we handle change you will absolutely love “Our Iceberg is Melting”. It is the story of how a group of penguins must deal with the fact that their iceberg is slowly melting. Everything will change if they are to survive, but who will be the leading change agent and who will try to stick with the status quo.

It uses an anecdotal approach to learning, much like my own "Life’s Leadership Lessons", so I know you will find it to be provocative and thought-provoking.

To learn more or to order this book, click here.

Labels: Books, Change

Unresolved conflict is a major cause of lost productivity, low morale, and high turnover. Even though unresolved conflict is typically easy to identify long-term conflict is seldom addressed by management.

Many employees never get over the unresolved conflict without the efforts of someone equipped with conflict management skills. Instead they use their “conflict personality”. One of the four conflict personalities is passive-aggressive. Here is a story showing how it works:

A couple had a huge argument over dinner which led into a “cold-shoulder” period throughout the evening. The matter had not been resolved by bedtime so the couple skipped their usual verbal “good nights”.

However before going to bed the man, fearing he would oversleep for an important breakfast meeting, wrote a note asking her to wake him up by 7:00 the next morning. He did not think it would be a problem as she left for work each day at 6:30. He placed the note on her pillow and went to sleep.

He was groggy as he became conscious in the morning, quickly noticing the digits on the clock were an 8, 1, and 5. Furious, he lept to his feet and hastily got dressed.

“How could she do this to me?” he thought.

As he stormed through the kitchen toward the backdoor he spied a note taped to the coffeemaker. “It’s 7:00, dear, time to get up.”

Life Lesson: Resolve conflicts or you’ll pay the price.

Labels: Anecdote, Conflict_Management

No matter who you are, if you think you are giving great customer service, Johnny the Bagger will humble you as he shows you what customer service is really about.

Labels: Customer_Service, Video

Tim Russert’s death has had an unusual impact on my life. I never watched “Meet the Press”, or even NBC News for that matter. But the coverage of his sudden death has brought forth a flood of memories.

Tim was a wonderful father, as is evidenced by his books and the remarks of his son these past few days. He was able to absorb himself in the news of the week to put on an outstanding program while still taking time for his dad and family.

Life begins after months of anticipation. Often it ends with no warning.

David
It was 1:33 on September 3, 1992, the 1,027th day of his life. Sleeping safely in his cars eat he never saw the SUV or heard the crash. It was an instant, painless passage.

David was gone.

No last kiss. No last hug. No last, "I love you."

So many of us are busy building businesses and careers. We get caught up in the need for one more accomplishment, or an addition to our list of accomplishments. We work diligently to build a future. Tim was the same. But he took the time he needed to build a relationship with his son and to grow relationships with his wife and father. Tim knew the future was not just a destination on the far-off horizon. The future is the very road to get us to the horizon.

Do not forget that the future is tomorrow, and the future is now.

Are you totally caught up in the journey to the horizon or are you enjoying the journey with your family?

Most importantly, have you hugged your child today?

I wish I could.

Labels: Leadership, Strategy

Are you building your legacy? Will you be remembered after you are gone? If so, what will the memories be?

At the turn of the millennium I did some serious reflection, motivated by a quote from the famous yodeling cowboy Roy Rogers, “A hundred from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”

These words struck me and made deeply and now tower over me behind my desk. As my corporate career ended I decided that I wanted to be remembered as some who made a difference in the lives of others.

I truly delight when I see people connect to some life changing golden nugget in a face-to-face workshop or seminar or when they understand how to achieve their goals in a coaching session. It gives me a tremendous feeling of worth in fulfilling my role on this earth.

This last week has been particularly moving for me. It started with a presentation to a local downtown development authority. The community was challenged by as their population was transforming with at least five new emerging cultures. My friend Joe pulled on his experience working successfully in 55 countries and I contributed my knowledge of retail as we showed this group of 30 businesspeople how to connect to the new cultures in their community. I later heard comments from the mayor, city manager, and councilmen that it was the best DDA meeting they ever had. Joe and I had really opened their eyes and together we all saw a vision of success.

A second triumph was a call from a Fortune 500 company in Wilmington, Delaware. My niece had presented my book, Life’s Leadership Lessons, to them for their leadership book club. The book, which gives practical, anecdotal solutions to the 53 biggest challenges of personal and business leadership, was chosen from more than a half-dozen options as the next book they would study. What a great feeling to know that the events of my life will be inspiring others to reflect on the events of their lives in building their leaderships abilities.

The week concluded with my first open-enrollment online class hitting cyberspace. Being on the internet individuals are able to take the class at their own speed when it is most convenient for them. The class is “6 Easy Ways to Beat the Clock”, uses a variety of anecdotes illustrating six practical, proven methods of time management that have positively changed my life. They are secrets to hitting goals more consistently and with less stress – resulting in a higher feeling of personal success and self worth. It will takes a cultural view of time management without pushing people into a to-do-list mentality and will continue teaching and making an impact long after my working days.

Labels: Books, Leadership, Time_management

Members of Generation Y are currently averaging 18 months with the same employer according to Penelope Trunk. The reasons for their bi-annual job jump include:

• The job is not interesting
• Asked to do menial tasks
• Long hours, including taking work home
• Not allowed to pursue life-long learning

Although this may be the average, savvy employers are finding they can retain Gen Y for much longer periods. Surprisingly the route to longer retention is not just a matter of providing the opposite to the four main reasons they leave. After all, if they do not do the menial tasks of copying and filing, who will?

This is the first age group that has experienced the new style of education from preschool through college. They never sat in rows of desks assigned using some alphabetic system. They learned in work stations where group projects were the way of life. Retention of this age group is as simple as remembering what they learned throughout their educational days:

• Collaboration. Seek their opinions and enact some of their ideas.
• Teamwork. Rolling up your sleeves from time to time and joining them on large tasks.
• Gaps. Having a gap between high school and college was perfectly acceptable. Now gaps in employment is equally acceptable. Allow for extended leaves and you’ll get a talented worker back once they have “found themselves”.
• No power struggles. Trying to throw your weight around is a definite turn-off to this generation and they’ll leave before you even know they’re upset. Keep your cool and let them spread their wings. When you do, their wings will take your profits to new heights.

Want to learn more. How about scheduling a presentation of Managing Builders, Boomers, Xs and Ys without losing your Zs?

Labels: Employee_Retention, Generation

One brother was tremendously jealousy of his younger brother. Their father was grooming both to take over his small store once he retired. However the father was constantly giving more responsibility to the younger brother and the older brother could stand it no longer. He went to his dad and asked him why it was that his younger sibling was given more responsibility.

“We can talk about it later this afternoon,” said the father. “Right now we are low on hammers in the store. Could you call ABC Supply and see if they have any in stock?”

The older brother did so immediately and returned to his dad. “They have a dozen available,” he said.

“That’s good,” the dad replied. “How much are they?”

“Let me call them back and find out.”

A few moments later the son returned to report the price was $100 for the dozen.

“How quickly they could be ordered if we take them,” asked the dad.

“It’ll only take a moment to call them and find out,” said the older son pleased that things seemed to be progressing so well.

In about ten minutes the son returned to explain they could deliver them the next day.

The father asked him to wait in the office for a minute as he called in the younger brother.

“We are low on hammers in the store. Could you call XYZ Supply and see if they have any in stock?”

The son waited as his dad did some paperwork and in about 5 minutes the younger brother returned.

“Yes, they do have hammers in stock at $100 for a dozen. I also found out that two dozen only costs $150, which means the second dozen would be half price.” I saw our cost for these same hammers is normally $10 each, so I went ahead and ordered them for tomorrow morning. If you would like to get the second dozen they gave me until this afternoon to call them back to modify the order.”

The older brother was really impressed.

“Thank you, dad, I understand.”

Life Lesson: Keep track of your competition – and co-workers are competition.

Labels: Anecdote, Reputation

Indian statesman and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi is noted for his humanity and selflessness. One day he was boarding a train with a number of companions and followers when his shoe suddenly fell off, cascading the train and platform.

Determining it could not be retrieved he took off the other shoe and threw it in the gap between train and platform. His companions were dumbfounded by this action.

Sensing their puzzlement Gandhi explained that whoever finds a single shoe finds nothing of value.

However the person finding a pair finds something worthwhile.

Life Lesson: Turn your misfortune into another’s blessing.

By the way, did you know my book, Life's Leadership Lessons, offers 53 anecdotal leadership lessons? It cover the most important challenges faced by leaders today. If you enjoy the Impact Today blog, you will love the book. Go to www.getmaximpact.com to learn more.

Labels: Anecdote, Attitude

Perhaps you have never heard of Admiral Janitorial Services. It is a company where management discovered a common employee trait: they had dreams. At Admiral Janitorial Services they found that by helping their employees achieve their dreams, the entire company became stronger and more productive.

Matthew Kelly is author of The Dream Manager, an absorbing new book about this fictional company. It serves as a parable of any company in the world and will leave a lasting impression on its readers as they discover people and business truths.

To learn more about the book, or to order it, click here.

Labels: Books, Goals, Leadership

Leaders of a financial services organization in the Southeast wanted to enhance the overall performance of their workers. With the help of Profile XT™, they conducted a study to examine the relationship between employee performance and the PXT’s job match. This portion of the Profile XT™ helps analyze a person’s job-related attributes and compares them to the qualities that person needs to perform well in a particular job.

The result of this study: A customized job match pattern to help the financial services organization in the selection process.

To read the details, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Hard wired phones are becoming obsolete as a growing number of homes no longer have the original wired phone technology. According to a survey by IDC of Framingham, Massachusetts, 16% of Americans have gone completely cellular.

People want the mobility of cell phones and faced with dwindling discretionary income, the stationary phone is being unplugged.

Employers and businesses are finding that instead of issuing company cell phones or walkie-talkies they can subsidize the employee’s existing cell phone. For companies looking for another anchor for the employee, giving a company cell phone and allowing the employee to add family members at their own expense, can improve employee retention.

Labels: Benefits

If you have ever had to deal with an employee that offended a customer, you’ll appreciate this story:

During a cruise to Alaska, a lady was amazed at the beauty of the open field covered with purple wildflowers, the distant snow-capped mountains, the silvery water, playful wildlife on sea and land, and the glaciers. One day while on deck she saw a glacier that was especially beautiful. One of the ship’s crew was passing by so she pointed toward the magnificent glacier and asked what its was.

“That's some dumb glacier,” he replied.

She was furious. How could someone trivialize the beauty of such a picturesque formation? She ran to the ship’s Captain to complain.

After listening to her he apologized for her disappointment in his crew, reassuring her they loved the beauty offered by Alaska and was committed to making her vacation special. To make it up to her he invited her and her husband to join him at his table that evening.

Although she had been on many cruises she had only dreamed of having dinner at the captain’s table. How lucky it was that she cared enough about nature to be so upset when someone belittled its splendor.

Upon arriving in the dining room, her and her husband were escorted by the first mate to the Captain’s Table. It was elegant, with special flowers, fine china, and perfectly polished silver. A few other special guests were also at the table, each representing affluence, prestige, or some other element of high society.

Soon the Captain arrived. Outranked by social stature, she was delighted as the Captain made her feel comfortable. The dinner was an enchanting experience. As the dinner ended the Captain signaled to his first officer, who promptly brought a wrapped gift. He suggested she wait until she returned to her cabin to open it, a plea she humbly followed.

Her feet could not travel fast enough back to their quarters. As soon as she was inside she ripped off the wrapping paper revealing an inspiring picture of the glacier at sunset. At the bottom of the picture was the painting’s title, which brought a tear to her eye and caused her husband to laugh hysterically.

Click here to find out what the caption was.

Labels: Anecdote, Communication, Customer_Service

As gas prices reach new highs in the United States and Canada, 44% of employees are changing the way they commute, according to a new survey from Robert Half International.

The biggest changes they have made are:

• 46%: Carpool more frequently.
• 33%: Drive a more fuel-efficient car.
• 33%: Telecommute more often.
• 30%: Are looking for a job closer to home.

The survey further discovered that if gas prices break the $5 per gallon mark in the United States, the 56% not already in the process of changing will change.

Employers are also reacting:

• 18% Increased reimbursement for mileage.
• 17% Started ride sharing or van pooling programs for employees.
• 11% Expanding telecommuting.

Another popular idea is getting a lot of publicity but has not been acted upon in large scale is shortening the workweek by lengthening the workday. The major consideration is that holidays, sick time, and vacations are normally calculated in days. Changing the duration of the day typically requires converting to an “hour” mentality on time off to be fair to those that cannot make the change due to daycare or other considerations.

Labels: Benefits, Survey

Did you know that more than 90% of all company thefts are perpetrated by employees?
Are you interested in solutions to recurring employee frustrations that keep you awake at night?

Interested in solutions to recurring employee frustrations that keep you awake at night? Please allow us to offer you a complimentary subscription to our e-newsletter, Impact Today. It is loaded with helpful ideas and solutions to those recurring employee frustrations that can keep you awake at night.

Proven methods to effectively:

• Reduce employee turnover
• Increase sales
• Enhance customer satisfaction
• Reduce employee theft and fraud
• Improve employee morale

• 1 out of 3 businesses will be sued over an employment issue
• 2 out of 3 new hires will prove to be mistakes within the 1st year
• 2 out of 3 employees would rather work somewhere else
• 9 out of 10 employees will “exaggerate” during an interview
• 9 out of 10 thefts are committed by employees

Labels: Assessments, Ethics

Learning from the people, events, and things in our lives is the subject of my book, “Life’s Leadership Lessons”. The principle is demonstrated by this melodic look at teamwork in the paradigm of music.

Labels: Teamwork, Video

The Detroit Pistons fired head coach Flip Saunders in the third year of his four year contract. Some may wonder why, after all he averaged 59 wins per season, which was third best in the league for the period – and most consistent. Each year his team made it all the way to the conference finals – quite an accomplishment considering 26 teams in the conference did not even make it to the finals once during the period.

Although this is a good record, it fell short of the great record the Pistons wanted. You see, even though he made it to the finals, his team was eliminated each year in game number 6.

Jim Collins wrote that the biggest enemy of greatness is being good. After 3 years of absolute consistency Pistons management has determined that Flip is stuck on good. They also know that “good” does not win championships or build dynasties.

What about your organization? Do you measure what matters so you can improve where it counts? Do not become complacent with being good. You need to and can find great!

Labels: Corporate_culture

Even a team already using a sophisticated and effective method for choosing employees, such as a high-performing fire and rescue unit, can benefit from Profile XT®.

Look at the example of just such a unit operating in a large city. The department operated from a foundation of hiring strength by selecting applicants who had already passed a written exam, a test of physical abilities, and an evaluation that an industrial psychologist performed.

But leaders decided to see if they could refine their selection process even more. They chose the PXT™ Job Match to help identify those with the potential to become top performers.

To read the details, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

The next time someone is close to getting your goat, before you let their anger get to you, consider this wisdom from Buddha, Gautama.

While huddled in a teaching moment with a group of learners a passerby confronted him with an angry rage.

After listening patiently, the Buddha asked the learners, in front of the passerby, “If someone gives a gift to another, who then chooses to decline it, who now owns the gift?”

The learners thought for a while and then answered, “The giver.”

“Any fool can see that,” asserted the complaining passerby.

The Buddha continued, “Then it is also true that, when someone tries to abuse us or pass their anger onto us, we can choose to decline or accept the anger. By our response, we can choose who owns and keeps the bad feelings.”

Life Lesson: Don’t let others get to you.

Labels: Anecdote, Attitude

When Procter and Gamble developed a potato crisp they needed a way to ship it without having the chips crumble. Enter Frederic Baur. He invented the canister that has housed billions of Pringles potato chips while giving teachers a cylindrical object used for class projects such as lighthouses and barn silos.

Baur took great pride in his accomplishment. The design, which seems simplistic to Monday morning quarter backs, allowed the chip to be safely shipped throughout the globe. As a result, Pringles introduced potato chips that had never tasted the traditional chip – quickly allowing it to become the highest selling potato chip brand in the world.

But Baur took his product much more seriously and when he died last month his interment request was granted. He was cremated and a portion of his ashes were buried in one of his canisters.

Wouldn’t it be great if all workers had pride in their accomplishments?

Labels: Attitude

This is a follow-up to Friday's post about leadership in the political parties.

It has been commented that pointing out a problem without offering a solution is a lack of leadership in and of itself. Although I disagree, as leaders should allow their followers to compile their own solutions without having to feel they are being mandated a solution, I will offer what I feel is a viable solution to the problem of Florida and Michigan delegates in the democrat primary.

First, discard the notion that Barack Obama was following the rules when he withdrew his name from the Michigan ballot. The rules stated no campaigning -- if that meant taking a name off the ballot then withdrawal from the Florida ballot would also have been in order.

Second, forget the idea of guessing what voters would have wanted in spite of the actual votes. This reminds people of Palm Beach electors examining chads.

Third, any notion that the delegates be seated in either state as a 50/50 split is insulting to the voters as it is the equivalent of not counting the votes at all.

Finally, forget this thinking that delegates only get half votes. Haven't we learned that counting people as less than whole, or not at all, is Wrong? It is safe to assume that many people today have forgotten about the lessons of our parents when it came to calling former slaves and women as less than whole people in the voting booth. However the lesson of South Africa should be much more memorable.

A solution to be considered would be to seat all delegates elected by the people. The penalty should be limited to stipping away the super-delegate status for each each state in whole or at least from those super-delegates that voted to break the rules.

Liken it to the workplace. Let's say a particular assembly plant told all supervisors they could not come in early as they would be likely to divert the attention of the prior shift's supervisor when that supervisor should be focused on the people of the earlier shift. Further they tell that supervisor if they do come in early the shift will forfeit their entire pay for the day. Now one day the third shift supervisor comes in early. His pay is docked along with the pay of all the people he supervises for the day.

Obviously the workers on the shift would protest. Following the protest management says "Well, everyone knew the rules." After further protesting they decided to give the shift half its pay. Would the workers be happy?

Of course not. The Union and governmental labor agencies would be all over the plant management for unfair practices.

Why then do political parties think they can handle their problems by discounting people?

Labels: Leadership