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Editor: Dr. Wolf J. Rinke ----- Feel free to forward this eNewsletter to others. ------- IN THIS ISSUE =================================================== =================================================== =================================================== Pride--the chest thumping, I'm-the-best, we-have-all-the-answers, I'm-too-smart-to-make-mistakes type of pride--is the hallmark of ineffective managers. What I learned from Lou Holtz is this: when the team wins the winning coach gives all his credit to the team. On the other hand when the team loses the coach will take the hit. One of the best ways to assess the interpersonal skills of leaders is to observe how they deal with credit and blame. Those who have their head screwed on right realize that it's virtually impossible to get off your high horse gracefully. They also take advantage of the power of planting seeds, and letting their team members nurture those seeds. And when the seeds bear fruit, highly effective Contrarian Leaders make team members look like heroes, ideally in front of their peers or better yet in front of the top dog. Which is of course one of the ways you get people to give you 111%. On the other hand, the interpersonal wimps, hog the credit and fix the blame, and can't figure out the reasons for low morale and productivity. And here is a little secret--drum roll please--listen up, I wouldn't want your competitor to hear this: If you consistently give your credit away, you will--over the long-term--get all of it back and then some! And then you won't have to thump your chest anymore, because you'll be the CEO. Here is an elegant example of the cost pride I'm talking about. About the time the PT Cruiser was released "Superwoman," that's Marcela my wife of over 35 years, and I were car shopping. It was time to replace Marcela's 1984 Mercedes Benz Diesel. Even though it had 180,000 miles, virtually all-original parts--including shocks, exhaust system etc.--nothing was wrong with it. (But that's another story on "Where has all the quality gone.") However, Marcela wanted something new, plus something that would be more dependable in snow and ice. To get ourselves familiar with the current offerings we stopped by the local Chrysler dealer to look at the "hot" PT Cruiser. They had two on the lot, which was very exciting because the other dealers that we had visited had only pictures. First thing that happened, we were totally ignored while browsing on the lot. (It never fails to amaze me how little real customer service there is especially in the auto retail business. By the way, that's why I believe they run all those obnoxious commercials. They constantly have to attract new customers because they have yet to figure out how to generate repeat customers.) Since the car was locked, we walked into the show room to get the keys. The "let's pretend we are too busy game" continued. So we walked up to the first sales desk, which was occupied by a salesman doing--you guessed it--absolutely nothing! "We'd like to look at the PT Cruiser" I said. "They are right out there," the not-so-friendly salesman said, pointing to the cars in front of the showroom. We told him that we had seen the cars, but would like to test drive one, or at least sit in one. "I can't let you do that" he said, puffing-up his chest in a proud--we are #1--manner. Incredulous I asked why. "They are waiting to be picked up by customers," he answered. When we said that it did not have to be those, any PT Cruiser would do. He said, in a hey I'm doing you a big favor manner, "I don't have any. You can put your name on this list. There are about 150 people ahead of you, and when it is your turn, we'll let you know." When we explained that we were not interested to order a car, all we wanted to do is sit in one and possibly test drive it, he told us that he could not help us. (Yes, you read correctly!) Shortly after we got back from this exasperating experience, Rick Maurer, a professional colleague and author of "Beyond the Wall of Resistance" e-mailed me the following words of wisdom from Lester Thurow--professor of management and economics at MIT. Leaders at Nokia told Thurow the 10 reasons they dominate the cellular telephone market. Number one on the list was speed, but that's not uncommon these days. Number six was humbleness and ten was luck. Thurow writes, "Humbleness means that no matter how good you are you recognize that you have a long way to go before you're really good and that you recognize that no matter how good you are, a lot of your success is traceable to good luck. Arrogance--'We make no mistakes' and 'We're on top because we are good'--is the opposite of humbleness and always leads to disaster." Thurow looked at the Bridgestone-Firestone tragedy, Mitsubishi's covering up auto defects for years, and the milk company, Snow Brand, poisoning people by recycling returned milk, as examples. Thurow says, "Arrogance does not just make you sloppy. It also means, when you find a mistake you can't admit it." When's the last time you saw humbleness or luck listed as major reasons why a company was successful? Thurow believes that humbleness is the most important of Nokia's core values, since it is the antidote to the sin of arrogance and pride. Humbleness has obviously not been taught to Chrysler distributors, at least not the ones we dealt with. They had a "hot car" that at the time, primarily because of its newness, had temporary high demand. Today it takes deep discounts to get people to buy 'em. That temporary high demand led the sales team at this dealership to be very proud or even arrogant. So proud that they were more interested to puff out their chest, instead of finding out what other cars we might be interested to look at and test drive. (One estimate of the sales potential of every car customer is--are you ready for this--$332,000 over the life of that customer.) Now whether the lack of humbleness of this one dealership has anything to do with the poor performance of Daimler-Chrysler's stock, I certainly don't know or claim. However, lets put it this way, Marcela and I walked out of the Chrysler showroom less than happy with a commitment that we would never buy a Chrysler. With it we took $332,000 of potential sales next door to the Toyota dealer where we were almost treated like "customers." (WOW, what a shock!) And since research tells us that people have a habit of spreading bad customer service stories to an average of 11 other people--obviously I'm much more prolific--you don't have to be a mathematician to figure out the negative impact on that Chrysler dealer's bottom line. Now before you get too comfortable claiming righteous indignation, let's talk about YOU, your sales team and your employees, especially if you are prospering in this highly competitive global economy. Are you really proud of that performance? So proud that at times you and your team members behavior borders on arrogance? Or, do all of you consume ample portions of "humble pie" on an on-going basis? And is that reflected in the way your customers (that includes your employees) are being treated? If not, you will prove Thurow correct because "arrogance . . . always leads to disaster." SMART STEPS Provide lots of opportunities for your team members to experiment. Because if they do things the "way we've always done it" your team will go into a self-destruct mode. And one of the best ways to do that is to publicly reward calculated risk taking and even making mistakes. (No I have not lost it. One of my clients proudly gives out the coveted GUP [goof up] award.) Remember: Whatever you reward is what you are going to get more of. Publicly admit to your team members when you have made a mistake. Then share what you have learned from the mistake and what specifically you will do different the next time. Banish the "we-are-the-best" syndrome from your organization. Instead share with your team, "that all of us are like red wine, we get better all of the time." Get in the habit of telling stories that demonstrate that you believe that success is a journey not a destination. Get rid of the NIH (not invented here) concept from your team members' vocabulary. Set up an on-going "learn from the competition" program by having your employees mystery shop the competition. When they come back have them report on what the competition is doing right that would enable you to improve your productivity and performance. Take a look at your products and services and put a plan into place
that will begin to either revitalize or if not possible to cannibalize
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