Month: January 2019

As I have written before in various past Monday Memos — Want to Avoid Dove’s PR Diversity Disaster and Are You Making Google’s Mistakes? How to Avoid Their Current Diversity Dust-up — if you want to increase both profit and creativity, the research shows that diversity is key. New research continues to affirm this assertion.

Increase creativity: Creativity increases when scientists have more diverse teams, as do citations and prestige. The same holds true in music, business, fashion, and other fields.

Increase financial success:  Many different studies have also shown that diverse companies are more financially successful. Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to see better financial returns than their competitors.

In addition, a company’s earnings before interest and taxes rise an average of 0.8 percent with each 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on a company’s senior executive team. Over a three-year period,

diverse companies see 2.3 times higher cash flow per employee than non-diverse companies.

What People Understand About Civility:  When we conduct workshops on civility, people usually agree that it’s a nice thing to do. Sometimes, they even assert that it’s the right thing to do. But rarely do they understand how it impacts the bottom line and the fate of their leaders.

What Does Incivility Cost?  New research has measured the costs of incivility, defined as disrespect or rudeness. Christine Porath, Professor of Management at Georgetown University, studied workers who had been subjected to uncivil treatment at work and found that 66% cut back work, 80% lost time worrying about their treatment and 12% voted with their feet – they left.

After seeing this research, Cisco took those numbers and estimated that they – conservatively – lost 12 million dollars a year because of uncivil behavior.

Bystanders Suffer Also:  In further research, Porath and her colleagues found that with bystanders who witnessed uncivil behavior, their performance was 25% worse and they generated 45% fewer new ideas.

Even Workers’ Reading Comprehension Ability Suffered:  People who received rude emails were five times more likely to miss words in the message.

And Nice Guys Finish First:  Some of our workshop participants worry that nice leaders will lose performance points. Yet researchers have found that the #1 reason tied to executive failure is an abrasive, rude style. While uncivil leaders may be successful in the short run, eventually, they flame out. Respectful leaders were two times more likely to be seen as leaders and performed significantly better. In surveys of 20,000 people around the world, workers wanted respect more than any other perk, including recognition and learning opportunities.

Campbell’s Soup CEO Example:  Doug Conant took over the failing Campbell’s Soup company in 2001 and turned it around in five years. How? Conant emphasized high-performance standards and insisted on civil behavior up and down the ranks. He made sure that he – and other leaders – acknowledged people in the hallways and the cafeteria, thanked people for favors, shared credit and created a friendly ambiance. In five years, he wrote 30,000 thank you notes.

If you are trying to emphasize civility in your organization:

• Emphasize the Bottom Line: Cite these and other studies. We now have a wealth of information that respect adds to the bottom line and that warm and competent leaders succeed.

• Take Small Steps: Thank you’s, learning people’s names and acknowledging good work for small tasks all add to a respectful environment.

• Treat Disrespect Quickly and Firmly: Make sure that leaders don’t tolerate disrespect from anyone. Impose consequences for rude and uncivil behavior.

What does listening have to do with being an effective leader? Almost everything! In his book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?  Alan Alda schools us in the miscommunications we all have and how we can be better listeners. Surprisingly, part of his answer comes from being alert to our own feelings and speaking up when we don’t understand what others are saying.

Alda talks about three common communication blunders and how we can avoid them.

1. Pretending we understand something we don’t.
2. Not being careful to understand the rules or requirements of the situation.
3. Not asking questions based on responding to what the person just said but on whatever our agenda might be.

Check out Alan Alda Wants Us To Have Better Conversations  NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast.

Many leaders we coach seem to think that leading consists mainly of speaking. Yet, when we do 360 interviews with their bosses and staff, their co-workers assert that the leaders need to become better listeners instead.

In all of our leadership coaching and workshops, we focus on listening.

The Kelleher Legend: Herb Kelleher, Founder and CEO of Southwest Airlines, died last week at the age of 87 and the world is a lesser place because of his passing. How could you not love a CEO who settled disputes by arm wrestling, rode his Harley right into and inside the office and helped out the baggage handlers when they were swamped?

As an attorney with no airline experience, he started the company with one small plane and grew Southwest into an international airline empire. His unconventional methods earned the loyalty of employees and the grudging respect of a skeptical industry.

 My Meeting with Herb: I was asked to speak on conflict to a group of 200 of Southwest’s top executives. The session started in the late morning and the group was to be served a buffet lunch. The organizers promised me lunch with Kelleher after my presentation. I tend not to eat before I speak and when I finished, I was famished. Kelleher came up to meet me, waxed with enthusiasm about my presentation and then walked me over to the buffet. Only….we never made it to the food. Herb decided to stop and talk with every person in the room, asking them questions about a son’s graduation, a recent wedding, a stay in the hospital and on and on. He knew the personal details of every employee’s life, including the servers and AV people. After an hour or so of this, I excused myself to grab some food before I fainted dead away. Herb continued to gab.

What Does All This Have To Do With Resolving Conflict? Based on several work projects with Southwest, my experience was not unique. Kelleher was legendary for remembering birthdays, work anniversaries and the details of an employee’s latest project. When a conflict arose, he had already infused the worker with a Kelleher charm offensive and developed a relationship with them. Of course, they were predisposed to want to work things out.

“What helps… is keeping a higher goal in mind to help you through the tough work.”

All our management and leadership sessions cover conflict management skills. We also provide dedicated conflict resolution skills training.

The smartest organizations hire for attitude and train for skill, according to the Harvard Business Review. Now there might be exceptions to this rule, of course, if you’re hiring lawyers and need them to be licensed but for most professions, attitude has proven to be more important.

Take Southwest Airlines, whose over 40 years of success in a challenging industry has been driven by just this premise. When I’ve presented to their groups, I’ve always been cheered by their attitude and by their founder, Herb Kelleher, who was known for handling baggage and serving drinks, not just sitting in the C-Suite.

“…don’t rely on industry veterans but people with the right attitude towards service and fun, regardless of their previous employment.”

When I’ve spoken to Kelleher and other Southwest leaders, their hiring philosophy stands out: they don’t rely on industry veterans but people with the right attitude towards service and fun, regardless of their previous employment.

All of our leadership and management development programs include ideas about hiring and retention that work.