Effective Leadership: Get Your Kicks on Route 66

My family just completed our annual vacation. This year we took an RV to Oklahoma to visit Laura's parents and then swung over to see the Grand Canyon on our way home. It was a great visit. I wanted to share at least one thought I had while driving home - and trust me, we did alot of driving!

If you've ever driven on I-40, which runs across the southwest US, you'll notice that much of its path parallels Route 66. In fact, every few miles you can exit I-40 and actually drive on "Historic Route 66". Perhaps it's because Route 66 has such an iconic presence in our culture or perhaps I was just spending too much time watching mile markers and cacti roll by, but I kept thinking about this old stretch of pavement. I thought about how times have changed since it was originally built. I thought about how the construction of I-40 forever changed Route 66 and the little towns that had sprung up beside it - many of those towns are now ghost towns. I thought about the men (there were probably a few women too) who built the old highway. In all of these instances I was really thinking about a legacy - I was thinking about what was left behind.

The hundreds or thousands of people that built Route 66 are, for the most part, dead and gone now. Yet there is something left behind - some of it good, some of it bad. There's the romantic aspect of Route 66 that recalls a different, maybe cooler and more care free time, that makes us sing songs and think of old TV shows or grainy home movies from the 50's and 60's. But there is also a legacy of lonely stretches of crumbling asphalt running past abandoned gas stations, hotels and restaurants - a street of broken dreams. I guess the true legacy of Route 66 is in the eye of the beholder.

As leaders, what will our legacy be? Will our life's work be left to crumble and decay after it's replaced by "Interstate 40". Or will we leave something behind that will be of true value for all that follow in our footsteps - something that won't be discarded when the next new thing comes along. Again, as so often is the case with leadership, it comes back to that stewardship question: did I leave people better than I found them?

Corporate Culture: The Victory Garden

I've started writing a blurb in Center Partners' monthly newsletter, "Off the Hook". Here's this month's column:

Have you ever planted a garden? Just a generation ago everybody had a garden but, unfortunately, it is becoming a lost art. Gardens are a lot of work! It’s not as simple as throwing some seeds in the dirt and hoping they’ll grow. To have a good, healthy garden you’ve got to have the right kind of soil. You’ve got to till the ground. You’ve got to clear rocks, sticks and other debris from your garden plot. You have to fertilize. You have to rake. You have to sow your seeds. You have to weed. You have to water. You have to keep critters (and in my case, kids) out of the garden. Are you getting my point? Good gardens don’t just happen. They require substantial planning and effective execution on the part of the gardener. And even with all the plowing, planting, raking, hoeing and watering, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have a good yield. No wonder gardening is becoming a lost art!

I think gardening is the perfect metaphor for building a healthy corporate culture. A great work environment doesn’t just happen on its own. Just like a garden, building a healthy, vibrant culture at work requires substantial planning and effective execution. It requires effort from every individual at every level of the organization, and we might not see the “fruits (or vegetables!) of our labors” immediately. But one thing is certain: every organization will have a culture. The question is will it be a culture that we have carefully planned, fed and nurtured? Or will it be whatever culture we allow to take root? Any gardener knows that growing a bumper crop of delicious veggies takes a lot of work but growing weeds takes zero effort on our part. It goes deeper than that though, because weeds will actually choke out the good, healthy plants that we want to grow. So the gardener’s job is not just to nurture the good plants but to pluck out the bad ones as well. It’s a constant fight - The never ending battle of man vs. weeds! (Start dramatic theme music here.)

The folks at the executive and director level of Center Partners are actively engaged in conversations about CP’s culture as we speak. You’ll be hearing and seeing more about this in the coming weeks and months. On a personal level, it has been very exciting to observe and participate in some of those conversations. I have been impressed with the insight, imagination and commitment of the people involved in the process. But everyone, not just the executives and directors, have key roles to play in CP’s culture. My kids get sick of me saying this, but we have a fairly common mantra/question in our home: “Am I being part of the problem or part of the solution?” Maybe, in keeping with the whole gardening theme, we could ask ourselves, “Am I nurturing a nice healthy garden or a scraggly weed patch?”

This past fall my family sat down for a dinner we made from things that came only from our garden. We had potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, raspberries and strawberries. Believe it or not, we felt a great sense of satisfaction knowing that we had “grown” all of those yummy fruits and veggies ourselves. Similarly, I think we can all feel proud of the culture we’ve grown and are growing here at Center Partners. We all have a stake in the kind of environment we have here at CP and it’s up to each of us to decide whether we want a Victory Garden or a weed patch. If we choose the Victory Garden then let’s all dig in and get our hands dirty!

Effective Leadership: Dogs, elephants and snow banks

The area in which I live was pummelled with snow over the past few weeks. Since December 18th we've recieved over 60 inches of snow! Needless to say, that's alot of snow. Most of us lucky homeowners have spent much of the last few days shoveling off our roofs in the hopes of avoiding a collapse. Well all of this roof clearing means nearly all the homes in my neighborhood are encircled by five-foot berms that, after daily thawing and nightly freezing, are now impenetrable, rock-hard mini mountains.

My dog Brandy, a shepherd/husky mix, has discovered that the chank link fence in our back yard which is about 4 1/2 feet tall without snow is now effectively about a foot high. She just scampers up the snow mound and hops right over the fence to freedom. Here's the funny part. Brandy would have never thought of jumping over the fence if the snow mounds had not provided her the opportunity. I've removed all the snow from the part of the fence where she's been escaping but guess what? she can still jump over the 4 1/2 foot fence! She could have been jumping over the fence for the past two years that we've had her but the thought never occurred to her. She WAS conditioned to stay within the confines of the yard. But now she sees that that measley little 4 1/2 foot fence need not keep her from exploring the big wide world! All thanks to the lousy snow!

This reminds me of a little story I've heard about training elephants. (I'm not positive it's true but it's a great analogy so stick with me.) When training baby elephants the trainers will cuff a large chain to the elephant's ankle. The other end of the chain is fastened to a large stake which is pounded deep into the ground. The chain and the stake are so strong that there is no way the baby elephant can escape. The little elephant learns very quickly just how far he can walk until the chain stops him. As the elephant grows he is conditioned to being staked. By the time the elephant is fully grown the trainer no longer has to use a big chain and stake. In fact he can use a flimsy rope barely nailed into the ground - anything to just remind the elephant that they are restrained. That elephant's brain is conditioned to believe he can't "escape" because he's staked - even if that stake is so flimsy he could pull it out with little effort.

Do we as leaders ever negatively "condition" our employees? We probably wouldn't do it intentionally, but I think we probably do it more than we realize. How might we be conditioning our reps? It might sound like this: "Oh, nobody's ever been able to achieve that! Maybe you'd better rethink your goals." Or maybe there are operational or process issues that condition our employees. I remember a former employer of mine would always have a "fire sale" at the end of every quarter. They were always short of hitting their quarterly sales figures so they would offer deep discounts. Both the reps and the customers were conditioned to expect big promos and discounts at the end of each quarter. Why should an agent try to hold top margin when he or she knows the company is going to slash prices at the end of the quarter? Whey should a customer cut a purchase order now when they know they can get a much better price by merely waiting until the end of the quarter?

Think about ways in which your organization might be negatively conditioning its employees and what you can do to help change that trend. Me? I'm going to go find my dog who is roaming the neighborhood at this very moment...