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Editor: Dr. Wolf J. Rinke
Publisher: Wolf Rinke Associates, Inc.
(c) 2008 Wolf J. Rinke
Vol. 11 No. 5, October/November 2008
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IN THIS ISSUE
1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
2. MONEY SAVING OFFER--FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
3. HOW TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY DURING TOUGH TIMES
4. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
5. HUMOR BREAK
6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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REALITY CHECK
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"You can't downsize yourself to profitability."
-Wolf J. Rinke
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1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
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FIRINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the number of non-farm
payroll employment declined by 159,000 in September, and the unemployment
rate held at 6.1 percent, following a 0.4 percent rise in August. The
number of unemployed persons was little changed at 9.5 million. Over
the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by
2.2 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.4 percent, with
most of the increase occurring over the past 5 months. (Statistics in
many parts of Europe are even worse.)
ACTION STEPS
Stop buying high and selling low. Here is what I mean: Most managers
lay off during times when demand for their products is low. This is
usually the time when employees are plentiful, i.e. less expensive.
Then they go on a hiring spree when demand is high, i.e. when employees
are scarce and more expensive. Since on average it costs between one
to one and a half years salary to replace a typical employee it becomes
rather obvious that you want to use down times to educate, train and
develop your most valuable team members, not lay them off, so that when
demand increases, as it usually does, you will be ready to take advantage
of it. But you protest, my business is slowing down, my profits are
dwindling, the only thing I can do is massive layoffs. Wrong! In fact,
firing may be exactly the opposite of what you want to do. (See "How
to Improve Productivity during Tough Times" below.)
Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
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2. MONEY SAVING OFFER--FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
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FREE BOOK
Don't Oil the Squeaky Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve
Your Leadership Effectiveness,
by W. J. Rinke. McGraw Hill, Price: $14.95.
"Tells you what you need to know to win in the game of leadership
in these turbulent times."
--J. W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman of the Board and President, Marriott
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Organizations, six audio-CD album. Over 5 hours of hard hitting advice
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Both book and 6-CD Album --$69.90 + s/h. SAVE $15.00!
------------------------- Offer expires 11/15/2008 ------------------------------
Log onto www.wolfrinke.com/SpecialSWWMCD.htm or call 800-828-9653.
Mention this ad when ordering by phone!
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3. HOW TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY DURING TOUGH TIMES
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When times get tough many managers get busy cutting people. The only
problem, according to research, downsizing does not work, if you use
long-term profitability as the measure of success--at least not in about
70 percent of the cases. Why? Because you gain the competitive advantage
through people, not by getting rid of them. Here are seven ways to improve
your productivity so you don't have to downsize.
1. Let Employees Cut the Fat
I see it all the time. In fact just recently, one of my coaching clients,
Jon, the VP of IT of a global company in charge of 450 employees was
told to cut 70 full-time equivalents (FTE's) (Names and companies have
been changed to protect the guilty.) When I asked Jon if he had the
option to come up with comparable cost savings elsewhere he was told,
no by senior management! I just don't get it? Why are most executives
missing the unequivocally most powerful strategy to maintain morale,
increase performance and productivity and reduce costs all at the same
time? How do you do that? It's simple, Watson, you involve team members.
There is simply no better and faster way to improve the profitability
of your team, company or organization than by cutting costs. That's
why most managers immediately think of downsizing when the business
is going south. After all typically labor is the biggest expense. However,
you can't downsize yourself to profitability. What you want to do instead
is involve your employees. Announce the severity of the challenges you
are facing. Share with your team members that layoffs are an absolute
last resort, and that your preference is to take advantage of their
creativity to bring costs in line. One of the best ways to do this is
to form "Expense Buster Teams" in each business unit, department
or organization. Establish cost cutting goals for each team. Tell them
that nothing is sacred provided that it does not interfere with the
accomplishment of the company's mission, vision or core values and the
attainment of the Humongous Overarching Goal (HOG). (If you don't have
any of these it's time to devour my book "Don't Oil the Squeaky
Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness"
http://wolfrinke.com/squeakywheel.html). Acknowledge submitted suggestions
within 24 hours, and have them reviewed and implemented as soon as possible.
Add to the excitement by conducting an "Expense Buster Contest"
with prizes for the best cost cutting ideas, make everything public,
celebrate functional ideas in a big way, and watch your expenses shrink
beyond your wildest dreams.
2. Be Visible
Visibility and accessibility help shrink the grapevine and insure that
your team members are working more and worrying less during uncertain
times. Plus, think about it, you're not finding solutions to your problems
when you are practicing MBSITO (Management By Sitting In The Office)!
To do that you have to spend at least 66% of your time with the people
who can help you solve your problems--your employees and your customers.
So this is a great time to develop a powerful habit--the habit of practicing
Management By Walking Around (MBWA). Get started right now by blocking
time out every week on your calendar for MBWA. (And for the skeptics,
research has clearly demonstrated that leaders who focus on their people,
instead of the work, are more productive.)
3. Contact Defectors
This is a great time to have your team members check with your customers,
especially the ones you value the most--your high volume customers,
to find out how you can continue to exceed their expectations. (For
details see Chapter 17 of "Don't Oil the Squeaky Wheel and 19 Other
Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness" http://wolfrinke.com/squeakywheel.html.)
And since business is down, that means that employees are not very busy.
So put them to work to contact defectors--customers who have not done
business with your company for the past year. Have your team members
ask defectors what it will take to have them do business with you again.
Then act on it and watch your business grow to unexpected new heights.
4. Improve Training
Yes, your read correctly, do more training. I'm painfully aware that
education, training and development are virtually almost always the
first thing that bites the dust when things get tough. However think
about it. This "economic crisis", like every slump that preceded
it, will turn around, and when it does you want your people to be ready
to take advantage of the next boom. Besides, this is the best time to
do more re-training and cross training because your people have time
for it. And if you are like most companies I consult with, you are not
doing enough training any way.
Actually, there is not a lot of magic here proving again that the problem
with common sense is that it is not very common: If you want your organization
to get better, your people have to get better! Think about it. With
the economy taking and competition getting fiercer every day, educating,
training and developing your team members will be cost effective over
the long run and assure your organization a more loyal workforce that
has bought into your organizational culture and philosophy. (And please
don't say "it can't be done"--in fact one of my Danish clients
continues to invest heavily in their human resources despite a downturn
in sales--I guess that's why the Danish economy is doing better than
many others.)
5. Practice MBA
You need a powerful strategy to combat "negativities" so prevalent
during these tough times. And the best way to do that is to practice
Management by Appreciation (MBA) as opposed to Management by Exception
(MBE). To get started focus your energy on catching people doing things
almost right, and then let them know about it, publicly if at all possible.
(Need more help, implement strategies detailed in Winning Management:
6 Fail-Safe Strategies for Building High-Performance Organizations www.wolfrinke.com/wmbook.html).
6. Grow People
If you want to increase your power, you must master the art of giving
it away. And if you are not giving it away, you are not "growing"
people. To do that, you have to ask yourself: "Am I behaving more
like a coach or a cop" and then modify your behavior accordingly.
Also make it a practice to always push decision making down to the lowest
possible level! This is the best time for team members to learn new
skills and become more effective decision makers. So coach them to make
that happen. (For specifics see Chapter 16 in "Don't Oil the Squeaky
Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness"
http://wolfrinke.com/SpecialSWWMCDs.html.)
7. Lead by Example
If you must downsize, be sure to lead by example by having the entire
executive and management team take a dramatic real pay cut commensurate
with the level of downsizing. There is nothing more hypocritical than
firing a certain percent of employees across the board without making
any sacrifices at the senior management level. It's simply obscene,
especially since US executives are making an average of 411 times what
front line employees are making--that's up from 85 times in 1990, all
while business results--regardless of how measured--have continued to
decrease. In fact Fortune magazine concluded that about the only thing
CEO pay is tied to is "how much the people in their compensation
committee make in their 'day jobs'--often as CEOs at other companies."
Before you go to an overall reduction in force (RIF) take advantage
of voluntary systems such as attrition and early retirement. If those
don't result in enough savings experiment with other creative initiatives
such as hiring freezes, salary freezes or cuts, shortened workweeks,
restricted overtime hours, unpaid vacations, temporary plant or office
closures or any of the strategies that I will discuss in a future issue
of this eNewsletter.
SOURCE: Based in part on Chapter 18 of my book "Don't Oil the
Squeaky Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership
Effectiveness"." (Get this book for FREE. See the special
offer in section #2, http://www.WolfRinke.com)
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4. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
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12/4/08 Cedar Rapids, IA "Positive Attitude--The Key to Rediscovering
Your Professional Passion", Opening Keynote, IDA
The full day seminar listed below maybe open to you if your company
is a member of the Institute of Management Studies (IMS). Contact the
chairperson for specifics.
Winning Management: Building a Peak Performance Workplace
2/27/09 Washington, DC Jim Henderson, washingtondc@ims-online.com
NOTE: I have other "in-house" presentations scheduled in
the U.S.A., Canada and Europe. Please let me know if you are interested
to preview me or bring me into your organization at reduced expenses
when I'm scheduled to be in your area. That way we can let you know
when I'm coming your way!
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5. HUMOR BREAK
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Boards of Directors have their own version of musical chairs. It differs
from the usual version in one respect. Every time the music stops, they
add a chair.
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6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
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Dr. Wolf J. Rinke, CSP is a highly effective management consultant and
executive coach who specializes in building peak performance organizations,
teams and individuals. He is the author of 14 books including "Don't
Oil the Squeaky Wheel and 19 Other Contrarian Ways to Improve Your Leadership
Effectiveness" and "Winning Management: 6 Fail-Safe Strategies
for Building High-Performance Organizations" available at www.WolfRinke.com.
Wolf is also an internationally recognized management/leadership keynote
speaker and seminar leader who delivers customized presentations that
combine story telling, humor and motivation with specific "how
to" action strategies that participants can apply immediately to
improve their management and leadership effectiveness. Preview a live
demo at www.WolfRinke.com. To take advantage of Dr. Rinke's services
contact us at 800-828-9653 or WolfRinke@aol.com
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7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
===================================================
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