EXPULSION – When Attitude and Aptitude Are Not in Sync

“We hired attitude and trained aptitude,” is what Bob Kierlin, founder of the Fastenal Company, shared with Keith McFarland www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGjkTJj295s  in an interview while doing research for his book, The Breakthrough Company, published in 2008. [Crown Publishing Group]

Those familiar with the Fastenal story and who have known or have had the pleasure of listening to Kierlin talk about the extraordinary success of the company and its people understand what Kierlin meant. The company has enjoyed tremendous growth since its IPO in 1987 and few will disagree that is in large part due to the insight of its leaders but then they will credit the folks they hired with an attitude and aptitude to learn and be trained. But what of the mistakes – those who appeared to have the right attitude but in reality, did not?

McFarland studied 7 thousand companies and chose 9 to highlight as case studies in his book. Most shared Kierlin’s philosophy in one form or another. On this topic the author noted that, “There are times when this filter fails and people who just don’t fit join the organization.”

The Staubach Company (founded by former Hall of Fame quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys) happened to be one of the other eight case studies McFarland undertook. A Staubach official told McFarland that the moment it is clear that an attitude judgment was incorrect on the front-end, leaders must recognize that “If someone pollutes the organization and compromises its values and character, you have to have the courage to make those hard decisions even if, in the short term, it costs the company money. In the end, the organization is better off for it.”

No startling revelation here and yet, making such a move tends to be more difficult than it sounds for many. No one likes to admit the mistake to begin with but you wouldn’t be surprised to learn many find it painfully difficult to expel “the contagion” as soon as they should.

Visiting with Steven Blue, CEO of the Miller Felpax company in Winona the other day, we spent a few minutes on this subject, one dear to Steve’s heart. He’s written about it in his recent book, The $10 Million Dollar Employee.

The book’s cover lead reads, “When you most toxic liability meets your most important customer…”

In the book’s final chapter, entitled, You Deserve the Company You Create, Steve reinforces the idea that, ultimately, it is the CEO that must not allow “bad apples” to hold a company, any company, any size, hostage. http://www.stevebluewebsite.com/steves-books/book-reviews/

Jim Naleid is a Life-long Entrepreneur, Change-Agent and Thought Leader, Managing Director of Naleid & Associates and

Regional TEC (“The Executive Committee”) Chair leading a group of executives to become Better Leaders, Making Better Decisions with Better Results.

Who are the Big-Thinkers on Your Team?

If it’s not obvious, you may want to find out who they are.

It most cases, it goes without saying that CEOs, C-Level Leaders and Owner Operators give credence to the general idea that they would like to have at least one other Big-Thinker on their team. The “general idea” is only that because there are just as many business leaders who, quite frankly, may not be willing to admit that they really aren’t all that comfortable with Thinkers Bigger than they are.

Recently, in an exercise with a group of leaders like those mentioned above, the question that we first put to them was, “If you had the authority, the resources and all of your answers questioned; what direction would you take this company?”

Read and think about that question again. Perhaps like many of those we asked, the first thing they did was question the question. Others wanted to re-word or re-structure it. Convinced we had juxtaposed some of the words, most wondered about having “all of [their] answers questioned” and inappropriately concluded the question needed fixing. It didn’t and that is the way it was meant to be asked.

You may have the authority to decide whatever it is that confronts you, but you may not have the resources. You may have the resources at your disposal, but you may not really have the final say. Perhaps there’s a board, advisers, bankers, a partner equal or otherwise. The point is; have you had all of your answers questioned? Let’s face it, you are smart. You are a risk-taker. You hold a position that calls for leadership and decision-making and you are willing to accept the responsibility and ultimately, the accountability for the results. Even so, there is that lingering apprehension that ought to be present for the purpose of making sure you’ve had all of your answers questioned. There may be a number of methods at your disposal to get that accomplished and yet, far more leaders than yourself frequently overlook the need to do so.

Back to the other Big-Thinkers in your organization – do you know who they are? Do you want to? Let’s assume you do.

[If you are not having regularly scheduled One-to-One sessions with your direct reports, it could very well be that this isn’t going to be an effective exercise.]

We asked our group of leaders to pose the question, exactly the way it is worded; ““If you had the authority, the resources and all of your answers questioned; what direction would you take this company?”

Most gave their direct reports an opportunity to give some thought to the question either by setting it up as an agenda item for their next One-to-One or by memo as a separate item for discussion. As suspected, few of those asked were Big-Thinkers in the context of what is being sought by the question. Most were unwilling to breakout and go Big - go fearless in the quest of leading the company down a path that simply had not been considered. The majority patronized the so-called Mission Statement or framed up previous management topics with new words and colors, but nothing really new or innovative.

The results were as expected. Big-Thinkers are hard to find but they are there. Don’t kid yourself. There are Big-Thinkers all around you but it takes time and effort to encourage Big-Thinking. You’re the only one that can make that happen and if, to this point in time, you haven’t embedded that objective in your corporate culture, the only hope you have of mining the Big-thinkers ideas is to start with yourself and answer the question. Then go mining for the Big-Thinkers in your organization. You’ll find them.

The link to a recent Ron Ashkenas blog posted at the Harvard Business Review online addresses the subject well.

http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2012/07/ten-ways-to-inhibit-innovation.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date

Jim Naleid is a Life-long Entrepreneur, Change-Agent and Thought Leader, Managing Director of Naleid & Associates and a Regional TEC (“The Executive Committee”) Chair leading a group of executives to become Better Leaders, Making Better Decisions with Better Results.

The Innovator-in-Chief

Drawing Big Ideas From The Deep Wells Of Your Team Isn’t So Easy After All

Nine out of ten CEOs think of themselves as the Innovator-in-Chief at their respective companies but not all of them are comfortable with that position while many relish and go out of their way to protect a somewhat iconoclastic perception.

Many I have worked with, in one way or another, bemoan the fact that while they often carry a sense of responsibility and self-induced pressure to take the lead in innovation, they quietly wish they could drive some bottom-up innovation now and then. When asked, “So what are you doing to make that happen?” It is not uncommon to get a blank look in return. After a moment of thought, they might add, “Meetings, round-table discussions, break-out sessions during our quarterly meetings, team building exercises and all the rest, you know; the usual stuff.”

There are two big problems with this; 1) The CEO acts as facilitator in these circumstances rather than a fully present participant, and 2) The sessions are much too infrequent and when real innovative ideas surface, there usually isn’t a participant that has the authority to commit resources or “place the bet.” It is here that innovation atrophies from the bottom and eventually relegates itself to anonymity.

Vijay Govindarajan and Mark Sebel hit the nail on the head. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/who_in_your_company_can_say_ye.html