In September of 2009, Rene Boer, a colleague of mine in Chicago, wrote a post entitled Good Housekeeping. You can read the entire post here.
The blog got its title from a news story concerning the way three Hyatt Hotels in the Boston area laid off 100 housekeepers to deal with poor financial results. It was a very negative example. Rene followed it up with two examples of companies which faced their problems squarely and were open and honest with their employees. Contrary to those Hyatt Hotels, these two examples were about good housekeeping.
In one case, after its initial efforts to do cost reductions without affecting the field operations, the company actually asked their some of their employees who were General Managers to become part of the solution and find savings in their own operations. The GMs did so and the company began to turn the corner and grow there after. The real plus was that their employees gave the company its highest rated employee satisfaction survey the next year.
Taking actions which negatively impact your employees is very difficult. No one wants to do so, but sometimes there is no choice. To be best prepared for such an eventuality, a company would do well do create and maintain a transparent culture where everybody is expected to be open and honest, even with difficulties. In such an environment, even the individual contributors of the company will believe the company is acting in the best interest of the greatest number of employees.
Does that resonate with you and your company?
Photo: U-g-g-B-o-y-(-Photograp h-World-Sense-)
Mark Tutton wrote an interesting article on March 12, 2010 for CCN recently entitled Why being a CEO should come wiht a health warning. You can read the whole article here.
The challenges he refers to which are faced by CEO’s are discussed in a book by Steve Tappin entitled The Secrets of CEOs.
In private, CEO’s admit to frustration, disappointment, irritation and being overwhelmed a significant part of the time. Much of this comes from the fact there is no training for 1st time CEOs; there is a big travel demand; and no CEO has peers in the company.
The no-peers problem has led to the creation of the CEO Peer Group industry. Major players in this area include Vistage (formerly known as TEC) and TAB (The Alternate Board). There are others like Inner Circle and Renaissance Executive Forums. These are very useful.
The other major issues is work-life balance. “About 90 percent struggle with work-life balance, when they talk off the record,” said Tappin. “Jobs are exhausting and emotional.”
For this challenge a CEO needs to harness the power of his or her leadership team. By building an accountable, cohesive, open and honest leadership team, an owner can spend less time in the business and more time on the business.
Implementing a single operating system, or framework, for running a business which can harness all the moving parts of the business and ensure that everyone is rowing in the same direction can do much to help an owner get more of what he or she wants from their business.
CEO peer groups and business frameworks, like the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), are not mutually exclusive. Both have their benefits.
CEOs and owners need all the help they can get. Don’t you agree?
Photo: David Hernandez
Professor Ron Riggio writes a blog called Cutting Edge Leadership. His June 5th, 2010 post was titled The Leadership of John Wooden. John Wooden died on June 4th, 2010. You can read the whole post here.
John Wooden was a legendary college basketball coach at UCLA. You can read all about his amazing career in his wikipedia entry. His ten NCAA championships are unmatched by any other Divsion I coach.
The four leadership lessons?
1. Be humble. The very best leaders are confident but display great humility.
2. Be transparent. Leaders should be both teachers and positive role models.
3. Present your true self to others.
4. Focus on your people. It’s about them, not you.
Lofty goals for mere average human beings like ourselves, but very worthy ones. Don’t you think?
Photo: JMRosenfeld
