The 3 Stages Your Company Must Go Through (and other humorous tales)

Ready! Set! Go!?????????????????The Three Stages Your Company Must Go Through

I know all of us are busy, so I am going to write this article backwards for you.?You will not have to read it through to find the ‘golden nuggets’, I will give you all of them up front. Then, after you have digested the meat and diligently implemented this amazing knowledge, you will have time to come back, with a fine cognac in hand to finish it! The rest of the article covers some interesting topics as well.?I hope you enjoy the many entertaining examples, tales and learned wisdom that has come from a life of observation, experimentation, evaluation, and execution.?Ready – Set – Go!

To begin:?There are 3 distinct stages a successful company goes through to remain competitive and viable beyond the normal five-year anniversary, where most companies either sell or die:

Stage 1:

Where every new company starts.?A new idea or new implementation or innovation springs forth and a champion (read entrepreneur) will step up and run with it.?

Who is this leader??In most cases, this person has a ‘presence’ about them; people notice when they walk into a room; they have a confidence bordering on arrogance; relationships matter most to them; they are driven with almost superhuman powers to succeed at any cost (Bill & Hillary Clinton, George Patton, Elon Musk and Donald J Trump are some excellent examples).

Who do they attract??These special leaders attract loyal followers who’s only desire is to be recognized and used by their leader so they may bask in the glow of their aura.?These followers will work 24-hour days – sacrifice themselves and their lives to gain praise and acceptance from ‘their leader’.?They are perfectly suited for Stage 1 of a company where the mantra is always ‘whatever it takes’.

How does it work? Surrounded by their inner circle, these leaders fantasize, conceptualize, visualize, and strategize.?They are idea machines that take the raw idea through the maze of iterations it takes to successfully create and launch a product or service.?They collect only enough information to justify their gut feelings then charge headlong in that direction until meeting resistance - only to create a new path around the obstacles until finally succeeding.

Results:?

·??????Successful deployment of the product or service

·??????Initial client base dialed into and with access to your company directory

·??????Expensive infrastructure that is the product of all those iterations

·??????Manual procedures and processes that are difficult to maintain and are not scalable

·??????Cost based, rather than profit-based mentality where growth requires resources

·??????Little or no measurement, reporting and forecasting

·??????Loose or non-existent KPI’s

·??????Anxious and distracted leadership team unsure of what to do next

This, my friends are where most companies (or departments if within a company) arrive in three years.?The champaign corks have popped, the certificates of appreciation and accolades have been given and it is time for the grind.?The investors are happy but looking forward to increasing profits and decreasing costs of doing business.?The teams are nearing burnout. Workers are resenting the increased oversight of their daily routines…?If you do not progress to Stage 2 now, it will be a down-hill slide to extinction, arriving on or about your 5th anniversary!?(According to smallbiztrends.com, 50% of businesses fail by their fifth year).

Lots of folks have many ideas on why this happens, but I can sum it up for you here.?Even if your company still has a market for your product or service, your company will likely fail because (in order of priority):

1.??????Wrong management

2.??????Failure to measure, report, analyze and respond

3.??????Reliance on personal relationships

4.??????Failure to leverage technology

5.??????And finally, you do not trust the numbers

You will know you are at the end of Stage 1 when the investors start screaming for profits; your key employees start leaving; your headcount is increasing but your profitability is not; and it is no longer fun to come to work.?If you always do what you always did…?<exhale sharply>?

All the characteristics of the Stage 1 leader covered above are critical to success.??If you are just starting your company, department, or operation, and you are or have that leader, then bookmark here, place this article in your ‘casual reading’ file and go to work.?We will be here when you are ready to grow.?If you are at the end of Stage 1 now, (+/- 3 years in) then congrats and let’s get growing!

Stage 2:

So, you are ready to grow.?Well…?It is probably time to reorganize then.?The crew that stars in Stage 1 – for the most part – need to be replaced to be successful in transitioning to Stage 2 and beyond.?That does not mean you have to fire them – you just need to create another ‘Stage 1’ challenge for them to attack.?Let us compare the leader personalities:

Stage 1 Stage 2

Entrepreneur spirit Organized / regimented / regulated

Confident / arrogant Friendly but intense

Driven whatever it takes mentality Operations mentality

Requires little information to make decisions Requires multichannel information

Quick to react when faced with obstacles Cautious, planned strategic responses

Relationships are king Data is king

Ignore & reject conflicting opinions & data Embraces data & mid-course corrections

Stage 2 is all about Repeatability, Reportability, and Responsibility.?To increase profit, you only need to increase the price or reduce the cost.?Easier to increase the price, but that only works if your clientele does not have a choice.?Assuming they do, then a more enduring way to increase profit is to get better at what you do while doing it for less!

While the charismatic entrepreneur is critical to the success of Stage 1, it is almost certainly not for stage 2.?‘Shoot from the hip’; ‘Just do it’; and ‘I do not care what it costs!’ are all no-no’s for Stage 2.?

The perfect Stage 2 leader is an operations-based optimization specialist with a side of finance thrown in.?They need to understand the balance sheet from a cause & effect perspective, balancing capital investment against ROI and long-range forecasting.

The company needs to measure its performance in all aspects with emphasis on adherence to workflows.?Processes and procedures need to be written, implemented, and reviewed on a frequent basis to ensure that they are still driving decisions to the lowest levels of the organization while supporting the business needs.?Individual contributors need unambiguous business driven KPI’s that focus their attention on only those things that drive the business forward.

Technology investments need to be made – but the technology needs to bend to the business processes – not the other way around!?Too frequently, platform decisions are left to the IT department with implementations driven by costs of enhancements and licensing agreements rather than the user benefits.?Reproducing bad procedures or automating broken processes hurts productivity.?Spend the time and money necessary to offload repetitive operations and generate business intelligence.?Use technology to tie it all together.?Data is useless unless gathered and turned into Information.?Information is useless unless evaluated and turned into knowledge. Knowledge is useless unless used to adjust expectations and direction and therefore outcomes.

As much as we would like to believe otherwise, relationships are NOT key to Stage 2 success. ‘Look em in the eyes!’, ‘Pick up the phone and call em’, ‘A handshake is my bond’ are all great strategies for getting that first customer, but as with many of the Stage 1 tactics, who you know is not scalable or manageable in a mature company.?Repeatable engagements with consistent expectations and reasonable terms & conditions are the only way to grow a healthy business with predictable (forecastable) results and decent quality control.?If you have a special deal for every customer or different path through the organization for every query & challenge, you will be stuck in Stage 1 on that slippery slope.?Communications with the client is crucial and key to any relationship, but design scalable, auditable solutions that satisfy the needs of the client and protect the business at the same time without requiring a hands-on touch.?Leverage technology where you can, to optimize and document the engagements.?Automate information exchange where possible.?Lean on our new self-help culture to free your resources and increase your productivity and profits.

Finally, trust the numbers!?In aviation, you are taught to plan your flight and fly your plan.?Overload the plane, you crash.?Misbalance your load, you crash.?Underestimate your fuel needs, you crash.?There are statistical models and charts to let you accurately predict what will happen during your flight from start to finish.?Capturing and understanding your business history and historical data in business models will likewise enable you to accurately predict the future and let you plan for success.

Stage 3:

“Now what…”?When you hear and feel those words, you have successfully completed Stage 2, so where do you go from here??Ideally you now have a successful business focused on optimizing the supply chains, technology, client, and user experiences and can accurately anticipate how all of those pieces will interact when change happens.?Stage 3 is all about diversification.?Taking what makes your company special (technology, service, product) and leveraging that in a repurposed environment to create new lines of business – all starting back at Stage 1, with all the same personalities and tactics required to successfully launch that new something.

Truly successful companies have multiple Stage 1, 2 and 3 operations going at the same time. This allows staff suited for each stage to be able to move from project to project, team to team all the while performing in an environment that stimulates the best in them.

Easy Peasy!

So that is the secret sauce and what this book is about, and as promised – in just a few pages.?

If you are departing now, I wish you well and leave you with three challenges:?

1: Classify those leaders around you as Stage 1 or Stage 2.?Not just those in your company, but your friends and community leaders too.?Think about how ‘who they are’ affects what they can do.

2: Look at your company and see where you are on the curve and how you can continuously reinvent, reinvest, and repurpose your critical resources to create a viable – living entity.?

3: Finally, I challenge you to look in the mirror and decide who you are.?If you are the top dog, big cheese, or arrogant SOB that started your company, are you the right one to be running it right now??Very few leaders can be effective in both stage 1 and 2.?Brilliant leaders are those that know who they are, where they fit and are confident enough to perform where they shine the most.

For those of you who are still reading, we will do a deep dive into this secret sauce, and I will attempt to entertain you as we address some other aspects of corporate life with personal experiences.?Because there is nothing funnier than ‘hindsight’!

A “Scale”able Process???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

First, we need to talk about what a process is.??A process is a workflow that will produce an event or action that supports an objective.??So, what the hell does that mean??Think about it in terms of canonizing how you accomplish something.?

A scalable process is one that specifically considers how the process will react as you increase the rate or volume to ensure that you gain efficiencies as you increase your production throughput.?Scalable processes typically leverage technology to automate repetitive tasks or crunch data without having to add headcount or resources to increase production or returns.

-?????????Someone once said that if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got –

While that statement is usually used in a negative connotation, it is the essence of many of the quality management systems (QMS’) in use today.?ISO9000 for instance (one of the most popular QMS’), is founded on the premise that you need to qualify (read: establish; publish; follow) a set of instructions to generate your result (product, service, delivery).?These instructions are ‘set in stone’ with complex requirements needed to modify or vary them in any way.?This is an excellent way to ensure quality control and adherence to statutory and regulatory requirements.?‘If you always do…’. ?

I am sure all of you have eaten a good cookie before.?Good cookies start with good recipes. ISO9000 says that if you use that recipe and repeat it the same way every time, you will always get the same good tasting cookies.?If you vary anything, you risk changing the quantity or quality or final event associated with that recipe.?So ISO9000 creates an environment where it is very difficult if not impossible to vary the process involved with making a product or delivering a service.?

That is a perfect strategy for some types of businesses.?If you look at McDonald’s as an example.?

I happen to like MickyD’s, and my gym membership also enjoys my frequent visits to that restaurant chain.?

I get a craving for McDonald’s hamburgers and French-fries, and I know that I can get off at almost any exit, go one or two blocks in any direction and find a McDonald’s restaurant that will deliver that same quality, taste, and texture that I crave.?This is no accident!

The entrepreneurs who started McDonald’s first came up with a product that their customers wanted (stage 1). ?Then they focused on how to deliver that same product from multiple locations (stage 2). ?Finally, they leveraged their knowledge of the business to build a franchise network of restaurants all using the same processes & procedures, custom/customized products, technology, support and delivery systems to maintain that network (which they require their franchisees to purchase from them): stage 3.

McDonald’s pioneered the use of standards (repeatable processes & procedures) in their restaurants.?In the early days, these standards were written with employees going through rigorous training.?They even established their own Hamburger University! Restaurant owners were required to use standard floorplans, equipment, technology and food products to ensure adherence to established processes and procedures.?Managers were trained on the use of the equipment and held to zero tolerance for deviation from these standards.

As the franchise grew, they invested in automation and higher levels of technology to optimize the processes and remove as much variance as possible while maintaining the customer's experience (more stage 2).?This evolution built a more scalable solution where adding new stores required fewer additional headcount that had to be trained and managed and scheduled, all the while increasing the ROI of the franchise model.?In many stores now, customers either order on-line for pickup/delivery or enter their own orders through kiosks, further reducing the number of employees and further isolating them from variable labor costs (another stage 2 project).

Take-aways from this chapter are:

·??????Understand your business and look forward to, (plan for) moving from stage to stage?

·??????Find a model that is like your story and learn from their experiences. Is ISO9000 for you??There are many models out there.?The secret is to find one that matches your business model and build off of that for success

·??????Nothing replaces planning.?As you grow your operations, look for ways to leverage technology in your processes to ensure that your profit increases faster than your expenses!

·??????As you progress through one stage, plan for the next in your decision making to minimize excess infrastructure.

·??????Make good choices!

Now for a fish ‘Scale’ story…

Out the gate I must admit that I am not a fisherman.?I have tried many times to master this craft, but alas – with this one exception – I have come up short in patience, technique, and production.

Mike is a dear friend – one of those people that come into your life, and into your heart.?The kind that you can count on for anything, anytime, and anywhere.?The kind that finishes the sentence we started months or years ago as though there were never a pause.?Mike is also a great hunter, fisherman, handyman, drinking buddy, listener, father, son, husband and now grandfather.

This story starts with an invitation to go Crappy fishing.?Since my experiences fishing have almost always been ‘crappy’, this sounded like loads of fun, but it was a great excuse to get out on the lake and spend some quality time with my buddy.?Since most Crappy fishing is at night, we planned to meet in the late evening and head out to Roosevelt Lake, outside Phoenix in Arizona.??We launched Mike’s boat about 7pm and headed out into the lake.?About 20 minutes later, Mike pulled up about a quarter mile off-shore and dropped the anchor.?I was getting excited now and started organizing my fishing gear – readying bait and getting set to start.?Mike, on the other hand, said it was too soon to fish, popped his first Coors Light and settled back to take a nap!

A couple hours later, as the last of the spectacular sunset faded out, lots of other fishermen were taking up positions on the lake.?I noted that none of them were anywhere close to us – with pockets of them forming up on both sides of the lake.?I asked Mike if we were going to be joining them, but he just crunched up #7 and said “nope – not time to fish yet”.

What I lack in patience, I make up for in tenacity, but this was really beginning to test me!?I can see boats with fishermen – fishing – and here we sit – but there I sat…?

At 10pm, I asked again!?More pockets of boats and we could hear whoops and hollers from time to time – still no boats anywhere close to us.?Mike, now well into the 2nd 6 pack, was relating stories of past hauls of 20-30 fish – reminiscing about the biggest and best – regaling me with story after story, but still not prepping or even paying attention to the fishing going on around us.

As the full moon came over the mountains – now almost 11pm, Mike stirred – crushed the latest Coors Light can, stretched, belched, and announced it was now time to fish.?He put out a fishing light – baited his hook – and opened another beer.?The closest pocket of fisherman was at least a quarter mile away.?No boats were anywhere close!?

As I said before, I am no fisherman, but it seems to me that if you see people fishing and catching fish, then that would be the logical place to go fishing.?Mike just laughed and made his first cast.

Over the next 4 hours, Mike and I hauled in fish, keeping only the biggest and tossing easily half of them back.?We truly got tired of pulling them in and decided we had enough anyway – hunkering down, we slept the rest of the night out there all by ourselves.

At daybreak, Mike and I motored back to the dock and joined the throng of other fisherman finishing their night out.??As we waited our turn at the dock, we listened to the others touting their successes and comparing their catches with each other.?Mike and I sat quietly and just smiled.?The best reported ‘boat load’ of Crappies we heard totaled 19, from the 4 proud fishermen therein.?“Quite a haul” one said back slapping another.

Mike and I headed back to his house and cleaned 34 ‘keepers’.?You see it is not just knowing how to fish, it is also knowing where and when to fish.?Mike learned that twice a year, on a particular night during the full moon, the Crappies migrated from the warmer shallow waters of the lake to the cooler deeper part of the lake and vis versus.?Then he put us right on top of their freeway!

Mike developed a recipe for success (stage 1).?He has a process for catching Crappies which he continues to optimize through measurement and evaluation (stage 2).?Unlike the other fishermen who ‘always do what they always did’ – Mike took fishing to the next level. ?I certainly learned from this experience – I hope you do too.

How to hire your management team ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

In the hierarchy of starting something, picking your leadership team is right up there with gathering investors, preparing a business plan, or solving world hunger.?Get the right team and leader and it is smooth sailing.?Anything less is a tropical depression up to and including a hurricane!

So how do you sort through the resumes and your Roll-O-Dex to find that perfect candidate??Start with knowing which stage you are hiring for.?As a refresher, here are the leader’s traits for each:

Stage 1 Stage 2

Entrepreneur spirit Organized / regimented / regulated

Confident / arrogant Friendly but intense

Driven whatever it takes mentality Operations mentality

Requires little information to make decisions Requires multichannel information

Quick to react when faced with obstacles Cautious, planned strategic responses

Relationships are king Data is king

Ignore & reject conflicting opinions & data Embraces data & mid-course corrections

I once boasted that I could identify a Stage 1 vs Stage 2 leader in 5 seconds.?here is how I did it:

Hand your candidate a child’s maze and a pencil.?Tell them to solve it.?Wait 5 seconds, then take it away from them.?Ask one question…?“Where did you start?”?A stage 2 manager will start at the outer edge and work their way diligently through the maze, identifying obstacles and changing directions until they succeed in solving the puzzle.?A stage 1 manager will start at the end (solution) and work backwards to the start of the maze. (Did you just figure out which you are?)

This simple test is almost flawless in its prediction.?While there are unicorns out there who can be effective leaders in both stages, most people only excel in one or the other. Inherently, we are either risk takers (stage 1) – willing to cut corners and bet on our gut instincts to carry the day or we are risk averse (Stage 2) – organized, logical and determined in our steps.?We need both to grow but get them in the wrong seat and you will have a disaster!

Assuming you have developed a business plan, start the process of selecting a leadership team with self-evaluation.?Who are you as a leader??Do you need help with ideas or help with execution??Sounds elementary, but it is amazing how many leaders forget this basic step.?If you have all the answers and resent pushback – be careful not to hire free thinkers and entrepreneurs who will challenge your directions.?If you are a big-picture kind of leader, don’t surround yourself with other big thinkers or you will quickly find yourself in a room full of chiefs with no Indians to fill in the details and execute to conclusion.

Part of that self-evaluation should include your management style.?Are you a walk-around manager, back slapping and chatting with your employees or are you a closed door, intense leader that would rather work a spreadsheet than a room??If you are the ‘owner’ this checkbox should lead you to your ultimate title as well.?The CEO of a Stage 1 company needs to be all about relationships, personality, and energy.?A ‘President & COO’ title can generally pull off a grumpy, focused engineering personality even in a Stage 1 environment. Keep your eye on the goal and be honest with who you are and what you need to be successful.

What is your definition of success??Money? Market share? A seat at the table??Again, this sounds basic, but to be successful you need to know what that success looks like and I mean down to the dollar or fraction of a percent.?Success is not a journey, success is a destination, and once you have a destination, the next step is to plan your route.?

Stage 1 leaders stand just across the finish line and look over their shoulder to see how they got there. (Remember the maze? Only one entrance to the final square).??This lets them build their leadership team with the exact skill sets needed for success (i.e.: launching the company).??

If you are in stage 2, you have a product or service and real clients paying for them.?Your destination is responsibility, repeatability, and reportability all leading to profitability.?You stand at the starting line and look at all the possibilities before you, weighing the profit & loss potential of each and building a team of tried-and-true leaders able to avoid the potholes.

Short attention spans ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Everyone knows that quality communications are the key to any form of success for any project - Period.?Quality communications can be defined as the effective transfer of an idea or solution to another person or group.?

One on one, this is not much of a challenge.?You key in on the body language and eye contact – taking direct and indirect feedback from the individual to know that you are being effective in your communication.?

Work groups present a bit more of a challenge as the dynamics of who is around the table, what their personalities might be, who is presenting and what your tolerance and style are will dramatically affect the participation.?This can be easily addressed by setting meeting rules, asking direct questions, and pulling participation from each party in a tolerant or neutral environment.

Addressing a large body of folks is where the real challenge lies.?Whether it is a keynote speech, presenting at a conference or trade show, or your companywide meetings; holding those short attention spans is a key to effective transfer of information and quality communications.?

Some folks are blessed with that natural oratory skillset that mesmerizes their audience.?Stage 1 managers can usually leverage their ‘presence’ to hold people’s attention through the sales cycle or quarterly earnings report.?If you are one of those, congratulations and I hate you!?(Just kidding!)?It is part of what makes you work and can be a major source of energy that you need to be successful doing what you do.?

If you are a stage 2 leader with all the traits and such, then your work is cut out for you in holding any audience’s attention regardless of the topic!?Quality communications being a crucial part of your job, you will need to figure out how to accomplish this.?Story time…

I was asked to give a keynote speech at a large convention one time – a wireless convention back when that was a new thing.?The audience was pretty diverse, with CEO’s, COO’s, CTO’s of fortune 100 companies right down to geeks with pocket protectors.?My topic was a particular technology solution made up of several companies’ products to solve my company’s needs using a wireless network to tie them all together.?My problem was how to hold that diverse group’s attention for 30 minutes and transfer some meaningful information in Florida on a beautiful day at a resort located on the beach.

In preparation, I stopped at a local sporting goods store and bought a basketball.?When all else fails… SPORTS!

When it was time for my speech, I was introduced and quietly approached the podium with my notes and the basketball.?I took great care in placing the ball centered on the podium with the logo facing the audience – then stepped in front to make sure it looked just perfect.

I then gave a 30-minute speech never looking at or referencing the ball.?The audience paid an enormous amount of attention to what I was saying, all the while trying desperately to tie my words to the basketball.?

At the end, I took questions, thanked the audience for being wonderfully attentive, picked up my ball and left stage right!

Sometimes you must get creative in your presentation to keep the audience’s attention!?

As a stage 2 leader, your natural inclination is not to work the room.?You deal in facts, you trust the numbers, you never have enough information, and you simply want to shut the door so you can focus.?Not the best way to rev up a room full of sceptics!?

There are some advantages though If you leverage your strengths. Stage 2 leaders are operations focused and therefore not the ‘life of the party’.?When you speak, people tend to pause and listen.?This is your secret weapon!?Speak softly – deliberately (slowly) – confidently, and your audience will not need to be ‘sold’ on the information, they will naturally believe it!?Resist the urge to defend your position or your plan – in most cases you won’t need to!?Your audience will do that for you.?The pros and cons will come flowing out during the ensuing discussion if you wait with patience – let them convince themselves on the merits of your plan.?

Focus your information flows on a consistent pattern of “A”, “B”, “C” - “This is what I said; This is what I did; This is what I will do”, “This is where we are”; This is where we are going”; “This is how we will get there”.?Your data will fill in the gaps and any dissenters will have a difficult time resisting your facts.

Everyone Needs a Ballcock????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Preface - In the old days, most people knew what a ballcock was, but in the interesting days that we live in now, I will start with a definition just to make sure we are all on the same page!?A ballcock is the float valve in your toilet tank.?Perhaps not as interesting as you thought when you saw the title to this chapter, but hang in there, it is a good story!

Ethics… Do you believe in faking it till you make it??I had a partner once that needed to feed his ego.?He wanted to start and run a company to satisfy his need to be the big guy but lacked the knowledge and resources to pull it off alone.?His ‘hero’ was Bernie Madoff, (really!).?He was a classic Stage 1 personality with a ‘who’s who’ Roll-O-Dex and a need for recognition.?Taking this to the extreme, he would temporarily pull money out of his home equity to beef up his ‘cash on hand’ outlook to gain leverage or false representation of his actual financial position.?Fast forward, he did become a successful business owner, but only after running over his partners to do so.?Is it worth it??I cannot answer that for you, but I can say that if karma is real, then folks like that are in for a ride.?My mother had a saying which she passed on to me and in hindsight, she has lived her life by it: “Keep your crap piles small because you never know when you will have to lie in them”.?You can read into that anything you wish, but what I took from that was to try your best to play by the rules, use the Golden Rule as a guide, and meet everyone face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and on the level.?That is my compass, and it has served me well.?

When in business, we often find ourselves in a quandary – do we do what is right, or what is right for the bottom line.?In business, we call this ethics, but as the leader, it all falls under your personal integrity.?I have often told my employees that integrity is like virginity – you only get to lose it once!?Doing the right thing when no one is watching takes courage; is virtually never rewarded; can cause situations and or consequences that are not easily recovered from; and is always the right choice.

As a leader, you have infinite opportunities to make decisions that will help you overcome objections and obstacles.?As a Stage 1 leader, the decisions made early in the process of startup will have a significant effect on how fast and how far your company can/will grow.?Whether you are a Stage 1 or Stage 2 leader, setting personal standards and defining/documenting decision-making processes for you and your organization, will set the culture your company will mature around.?Ethics, (integrity) matters!?Story time:

When I was 11, I was convinced that there was no money in papers.?I was a paper boy in a cold Midwest city and just could not support my dreams on the $10/week that paperboys brought in.?Being the enterprising and curious boy that I was, after school one day, I walked into the plumbing shop at the end of our block; Acme Plumbing (yes, Road Runner fans, that is the real name!).

The owner was a very tall gentleman with gray hair and a typical ‘plumber’ physique!?From behind his desk, he asked what I wanted, and I blurted out that he needed to hire me!?I can only imagine how I would have reacted in the same situation, but to his credit, he quietly asked me why he would want to do that.?I spontaneously said that I could do just about anything including sweeping the shop, mowing the “very tall grass”, washing his dirty trucks and his dirty windows.?He looked me over, stood up (very intimidating!), smiled and asked me when I could start.?I am sure he called my parents, though I never knew that, but I had landed my first real job making $0.50/hour, and I was king of the world.?

I worked at Acme Plumbing after school and on weekends from 11 years old to 15.?As I learned the plumbing business, I took on more and more responsibility around the shop.?What started as sweeping the floors eventually ended as pulling the parts for the next day’s jobs for the plumbers; re-ordering stock, and eventually going out on jobs to assist the plumbers.

The plumbers all treated me like their mascot, joking and teasing me, but also really taking the time to teach me their trade.?I was also included in the weekly sales meetings where the boss would go over the jobs, planning and scheduling.?I felt like a real member of the team.

As you might guess, I also (on rare occasions) made a few mistakes…?One ‘incident’ in particular happened when we were running low on ballcocks in the shop.?I placed an order for 12 more to replenish the stock.?However, what I ordered was 12 boxes of ballcocks – each containing 10!?In fear of losing my job, I hiked up my britches and headed for the office when the huge order arrived…?To my relief, after showing the boss my error, he smiled and said not to worry.?

That afternoon was the weekly sales meeting.?I was the subject of a lot of laughs, but to my surprise, during the meeting, the boss stated, “for the next several weeks, everyone needs a ballcock”.?You can only imagine how glad I was that I had made that mistake, because we would not have had enough for all those orders!?

It was many years before I truly understood what happened at that sales meeting, but it was my first real business lesson!?The boss overcame an obstacle, one that we literally had to walk around, by pushing the excess stock on unsuspecting customers.?I have had numerous opportunities throughout my career to repeat his tactic, but that one lesson has given me the strength to resist that path.?Again, ethics, (integrity) matters.

?

The Farm team???????Employee retention vs planned attrition

True story…?I was flying back from a conference once and next to me was a senior executive from Gartner Group.?This was before the big ‘dot com bust’ that took out so many small to midsized companies.?We began discussing the advantages of high employee retention.?Her premise was that maintaining an employee long term was the singular most important focus as the costs to replace and retrain employees far outweighed any investments in maintaining them.?In those days, hi-tech companies were providing an amazing list of perks to their employees to keep them happy and ‘there’.?With on-site baby-sitting to hot-tubs, masseuses, meals and even cars as a draw, who wouldn’t want to join in the fun!?My lady at the time worked for Google.?They had playrooms with every kind of video games, coffee shops, ‘nap pods’, free food & snacks…?The sky is (or was) the limit.?Did they ever get any work done??Arguably they did and Google today is still one of the most successful companies in the world and one of the ‘best’ places to work.?Does their model fit your company??It certainly fit none that I ever worked for!?

I grew up with companies trying to protect their people investments for sure, but most could not provide the perks or salaries to match what was happening in Silicon Valley.?Some companies divided their tech resources into silos to focus their ‘talent’ on small pieces of their products to limit transference to other companies.?Some provided dual ladders which allowed talented people to stay in technical roles and still increase their salaries & titles beyond normal caps (not all people are good at or want management rolls).?Still others sought legal paths that prevented employees from moving to competitors or from taking jobs in like industries for a time post-employment.?Still the most common approach in service industries is contract language preventing companies from hiring service provider employees away.?But why?

My simple view is this:?

1.??????The longer you have an employee, the more they cost (promotions, raises, incentives, options, etc.)

2.??????With the speed at which technology and knowledge in general is moving, the longer you keep an employee, the less their skill set is worth without spending a great deal of money and non-productive time refreshing those skills

3.??????The longer you have an employee, the more likely they are to have a significant influence on co-workers around them – both good and bad habits, culture, attitudes, and work ethics

4.??????Fresh ideas and (yes) knowledge transference go stale quickly

So why are we fighting so hard to keep them??I have instituted a ‘Farm Team’ approach in many companies across several industries.?The best fit is in service industries, but it also fits in product companies where their products can be part of a larger solution.?In a nutshell, the Farm Team approach prepares employees for their next job opportunity, rewarding their hard work in ‘learning the ropes’ with a new position rather than a bigger paycheck!?Sound funny??

The Employee benefits of a Farm Team approach include:

1.??????Built-in career path for successful employees (just maybe not with you!).?The harder they work and the more they learn, the better prepared they are for being drafted by one of your customers or vendors

2.??????Expectation of how long the position will last and assistance in finding that next position.?By setting the expectations and timing at the start of their employment, your employee understands the benefits of hard work and has a time frame for success.

3.??????OJT, experience, and prep for next position.?(In technology, this has been and still is a resume game changer for people on the move).?Learning is key, but performing is king

4.??????Focus – they know what they need to do.

How does this help the company??Gone are the days when employees had loyalty to a company or that the company had loyalty to the employee!?Few ever hire for life.?Companies no longer focus on proprietary technologies, rather needing to deliver to industry standards, protocols and integrations which limit upward mobility. Let’s face it – the average employee stays with a company for under 5 years now – way under in some industries and segments!?Getting pigeon-holed is the norm rather than the exception, so change is just part of the equation.?If you believe this, then why not capitalize on it?

The company benefits from a Farm Team approach:

1.??????Fresh infusion of new employees with current skillsets and new ideas/technical knowledge transference

2.??????Contractual compensation for passing on a good employee to a vendor or client (negotiated finder’s fee which can offset the costs of finding/training/integrating new employees)

3.??????Lower continuing education expense (hire what you need rather than refreshing old skills)

4.??????Control of retention time frame (set the rules for moving on with the employee and the customer/vendor up front, i.e.: Must complete 2 years before becoming ‘draftable’

5.??????Built-in (non-financial) incentive for employees to be the best so they are the #1 draft choice rather than you competing with your competitors to provide higher salaries and better perks

6.??????Built-in incentive for employees to become more engaged with your clients to demonstrate their skill sets and sell themselves (meanwhile improving overall customer satisfaction)

7.??????Shift focus from financial rewards to career pathing to lower your overall cost of doing business

8.??????Reduction of ‘good old boy’ networks which can torpedo company initiatives and slow required company direction, technology, culture, and product changes

I think you see the picture.?It was a long plane ride and an even longer argument which resulted in a round table discussion in front of several hundred corporate leaders.?Great conference – not sure who won the argument, but maybe you can help!?(Give it a try…)

One throat to choke!??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

If you are a type ‘A’ personality, this title probably really hits home!?When you delegate a critical task; establish a critical team; are hunting a critical customer, you really want to be able to simplify your attention to that one throat to choke if things start to go off the rails.?I completely understand and identify with this strategy!?However, life and business experiences have taught me that it is far more effective to have one back to pat!?

I worked in a startup that had a particularly difficult year.?Lots of learning, tweaking, reworking resulting in a successful year, but only because of the blood, sweat and tears that the troops put into making it a success.?It was time to transition from stage 1 to stage 2 - focus on repeatability, reportability, responsibility.?Reorganization is always necessary at this point – pick the right people for the job; invest in the technology that will maximize efficiency and minimize redundancy.?Measure what we do and ‘get stuff done’.

There was a problem though.?The leader was a Stage 1 superstar! (Shoot from the hip! Whatever it takes!?Just do it!)?The transition needed a Stage 2 leader with a steady hand looking for mid-course strategic corrections, not endless U-turns & massive rewrites.?Instead, the boss announced the new organization, (which had been very flat with access to the top level from almost anywhere in the organization) to a typical matrix organization with several layers of management.?His exact words were, “this new organization structure will give me one throat to choke from each department”.?You can imagine what happened next.?

Understanding the stages your company or department must go through to be successful gives you the opportunity to avoid situations like this.?Take ownership of the process and put the right people in the right seats.?Plan for success and you will thank yourself on your 10th anniversary!?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

How to fire your manager ??Transitioning your team??????????

This chapter really doesn’t fit the subject of this article, but I am putting it in here first, because the story is just too good not to, but also because it may demonstrate that there is always a way to remove an obstacle!

I started my professional career as a programmer. ?Actually, as an associate programmer, level ‘A’.?If you order all things from top to bottom, that will put this position somewhere between whale poop and the Earth’s center core, but I digress!?

As I rose through the ranks, I was eventually elevated to a team leader role for special programming projects.?As part of this role, I would have regular strategic and compliance meetings with my boss, an old-time engineer who had been in the same roll for over 20 years.

During these meetings, I would lay out the programs and routines my team and I were responsible for writing and would dive deep into the structure as necessary to satisfy my boss’s curiosity.?I might inject here that this programming was at the assembly level and for industrial automation applications, so speed and preservation of precious computing resources was an absolute necessity.

Over time, it became apparent that no matter how solid the planning and programming were, there was always something that he latched onto that had to be changed.?If he could not defend it in logic, he would take it to a personal level with something like: “I thought you were a better engineer than that!”.?This did not sit well with the team or me and eventually bubbled up to a real moral issue.?Not being able to effectively argue with him, but feeling responsible for the team’s mental health, I set out to have him removed from our reporting chain.

To accomplish this, I held a team meeting where we built the perfect resume for him.?I then farmed it out to several industrial headhunters, and we waited with growing anticipation.?Within the month, our boss held a group meeting where he apologetically announced that he had been contacted about a new position that he just “could not turn down”.?We held two parties – one with a cake and beer with him – one with pizza and champaign without him!

I guess the moral here is that if you put your mind to it, there is always a positive way to remove an obstacle.?Let your team help you find it!

‘Ready, set, go!’ A story of a child’s trust ???????????????????????????Dedicated to my son, Chris??????

For the final thought in this article, I want to charge each of you with the awesome opportunity and incredible responsibility of being a leader.?We have covered quite a few business challenges in this little reader, but this is the one that captures my heart the most.

As every father knows, being your child’s superhero is both an honor and a burden.?Short of that special hug that only daughters can give fathers, there is no feeling more special than the awe and admiration in your child’s eyes – and no pain greater than disappointment in those same eyes.?That special responsibility is both sacred and humbling.

As leaders, we hold this same responsibility and with Stage 1 leaders this is especially true.?Through your dynamic personality, management style and presence, those working with you will live through you in many ways, mimicking your every action much like a child mimic’s it’s parents.?Be careful with this trust as your team could follow you off a cliff without so much as a backward glance.?Story time…

When my son was 6, we lived in the mountains north of Phoenix.?Our property included many deep desert ravines dropping away into the valley below.?The perfect location for a zip line!?After securing a 500’ cable and engineering an appropriate carriage, our father/son project was ready for its maiden launch.??Strapping an 80lb bag of cement to ‘the chair’, we let her go and watched with amazement as the carriage traversed the ravines and came to rest at the far end. Given the tension on the cable, the carriage moved rather slowly, so we made the appropriate adjustments (taking some of the slack out of the cable by adding tension) and tried again.?Satisfied with the speed, it was time for a live trial!??My son patiently waited for me to navigate to the far end of the line, ready for his first magical ride.

At this point, I should probably point out that my son only weighed 40lbs…?The engineers reading this can probably guess why this is an important detail.

This is where that unconditional trust kicked in.?At the command “Ready” … “Set” … “Go!”, my son, without reservation or thought of self-preservation, dropped the rope holding him in place and started his decent.?

Being lighter than the concrete test bed, the cable did not dip... at all… allowing the carriage, and my son, to continue to gain speed through the entire length of cable.?By the time my son reached me at the far end of the cable (which was secured to a large boulder), he was travelling at what appeared to be bone crushing speed with no sign of slowing whatsoever.?Rushing forward to meet him, I tackled him preventing the inevitable crash that was to follow.?I received several scrapes and bruises, but thankfully, my son was unharmed.?His response??“Awesome, Dad!?Let’s do it again!!!!”?Completely unaware of the catastrophe we had narrowly avoided.

It was my responsibility to consider all the ramifications associated with that zip line the same as it is our responsibility as leaders to do the same for our companies and employees.?Do not take this responsibility lightly.?The futures of your team members may well rest on the decisions you make.?How you plan, prepare, and execute are on full display.?How you respond to challenges, opportunities and your team will shape their futures and your success.?Thanks for reading.

Epilog: Campbell 4:2 (you can disagree with me and still go to heaven!)

I have enjoyed sharing a few of my learnings with you and reliving some of the stories as well.?My hope is that somewhere in here you have found a nugget you can use or at least you had a chuckle at some of the crazy things that have enriched my life.?

It is humbling and in a strange way a release to put some of this in writing.?I once told a boss that he would hear much about my successes but would never know the failures.?As alpha leaders I think we all share that need to blow our own horns when we succeed and to bury those missteps and wrong turns.

If I have any regrets in my wonderful journey it is that I have failed to celebrate my failures.?There is no better teacher than placing your hand on a hot stove or kicking a beehive.?Sharing those formative events with others can change history – and really, isn’t that what we all want to do?

Live long and prosper

If you enjoyed this article, please send me a note.?I would love to hear from you:[email protected]

About the author

Ed Campbell is an operations optimization expert with experience in start-ups to Fortune 100 companies

With more hobbies than most people have socks, Ed is:

PMP Certified

Lean Six Sigma Certified

Entrepreneur

Licensed Insurance Adjustor

Certified welder

Certified diver

Private pilot (Rotorcraft and fixed wind)

Artist, Musician, Craftsman

World Traveler (110 countries and counting)

32nd Degree Mason

Father, son and humble Sailor