Interpersonal Business

Vol. XCI

Dear Manager,

Clearly, excellence can be found in all areas of business. But are the examples as apparent as they once were? In the last decade, we’ve also seen dramatic socio-economic changes dictate the dynamics of many business sectors, including both the retail and service economies. We need look no further than the corner drug store (if you can still find one), the “service” counter at the local fast food restaurant, the travel industry, or the challenges facing field sales representatives. Certainly how society operates its service structures has changed.

Yes, there’ve been significant changes in my forty-year professional career. While I believe many, if not most, have been beneficial, others find me longing for former ideals. If, in fact, there are lost priorities, how has their absence transformed the landscape of American business?

Some of these transitions are no longer relevant in this new economy; others will find rebirth in “retro cycles” as brand new concepts (reincarnated from a Business 101 text!). Here’s what I believe deserves further consideration – a “blast from the past”- and a response from management. This is one view from the outside looking in.

Personal Accountability, as a day-to-day standard, seems to have fallen off the top of today’s priority list. Today’s managers are often finding themselves thrust into the role of filling in the gaps of “basic training” that were once taught and reinforced at the family dinner table. Current times now suggest that we enhance our translation skills, provide more clear expectations, and establish a single benchmark for each member of our team. Once this barometer has been formalized, and consistently monitored, much of our responsibility relating to establishing personal accountability can be sustained.

Training and Education has lost some its luster in most service industries; few pursue a four-year degree to prepare themselves for this sector of our economy (this statement offered up by an author with less than two years of college). As managers, we must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our staff fully assimilates, and can orchestrate, the required elements of their position. Whether at the starting gate, or with tenured employees, we must remain diligent in the practice of training and full reinforcement of the fundamentals. The fundamentals are what made us great, and what will always save our bacon in the end result!

The go-go days of the 90’s have long passed. Those days provided significant and sustained growth in the service economy. Expansion came at a time of great velocity; a time when, very simply, less excellence was required. The internal structures historically required to shore up this level of growth of human resources were often abandoned during these freewheeling times. Lack of management structures created a corresponding expansion of individual and field level “freelancing.” This false foundation will eventually show an inevitable vulnerability: weakness due to lowered standards and expectations. A bedrock foundation, with consistent and clear professional standards, is essential to meeting long term, sustainable excellence in the marketplace.

Weakness in mid-level management has provided limited quantifiable rewards for many organizations. While a good number of these individuals wanted to become “a manager,” too often they hadn’t developed the people skills, hadn’t the proper training, or hadn’t enough experience under their belt to fulfill the objectives. Without realizing it, upper management may have inadvertently set them up to collectively fail. These individuals were often sent into battle with no basic training. Mid-level management absolutely has the potential to excel in the areas referenced above, but only if they are first properly mentored to provide the best possible example to those they are being asked to manage.

A mixed bag of economic and motivational priorities within our staff has, in some cases, diminished the potential of the workforce in the service/retail sector. Employees are generally expected to be both loyal and devoted to their profession and employer. For various reasons, including the predominance of second incomes, this is not always true. While many employees continue to exhibit this devotion, it’s also likely that one’s priority has shifted to meeting ones personal needs first.

This is the culture in which we live. Individuals are looking for a full-time job with a full-time salary and increased flexibility. This has certainly become a difficult issue for many industries. As the financial requirements to support “excellence” continues to escalate, the retail and service sectors no longer have the ability to thrive because the competitive margins simply don’t exist. As managers, we must better quantify the “devotion factor” in the outline of job descriptions and in evaluating talent. An all-star can always be found; the best managers “hunt them down” without compromise.

The dynamics of how and who provides goods and services in this economy has been set on its proverbial ear! Think of it in terms of the changes in your industry and your organization, both anticipated and unforeseen, over the past decade. Where does your office buy its supplies, where do you buy your son’s bike, where do you buy your favorite ice cream? The independents in these and hundreds of other service/retail sectors have vanished. Management must now assume its own position of excellence.

Excellence in management will accept, adapt, and flourish in managing and maximizing the potential within these new standards and guidelines

This month’s issue was not intended to be an indictment of the business world we live in. It’s more a reflection of societal pressures and corresponding changes in ideals that I believe have totally and irreversibly changed the retail and service sectors. In the end, excellence will prevail.

Personal Regards,

Keenan

INTERPERSONAL© is published by INTERPERSONALBIZ.COM, Keenan Longcor, Editor, ©2012. Duplication of this publication is permitted for both personal and business use. Excerpts may only be quoted with acknowledgment of INTERPERSONAL/INTERPERSONALBIZ.COM as the source. For re-publication rights, please contact the editor at KEENAN@INTERPERSONALBIZ.COM

Vol. LXIX

Dear Manager,

It can be easy to presume our most favorable and idealistic expectations into a false sense of reality. This is the nature of business (not to mention the stock market), and I would consider myself a card-carrying member of this group. While I’m not suggesting we alter this confident approach to our business future, I am suggesting that our personal history books can teach us much of what we need to know in order to proceed effectively.

YOUR EVOLUTION AS A MANAGER

We all evolve in our role as a manager. The question becomes: are we evolving at a rate similar to that of our company? In other words, are we ahead of or behind our company’s curve? If we’ve surrounded ourselves with top-notch assistants, is our management role challenging them and their expertise, or are they merely floating ahead while we lag behind their level of professional and personal growth? There’s nothing more counter productive than having a manager at the top that is really an anchor to their own team. I’ve seen it happen.

From time to time, all management falls just behind the curve – I know I have! We can get so caught up in the day-to-day operations of our companies that these much higher objectives can become blurred. There were many instances where, while “I was very busy,” I was also wrapped up in areas that should have been delegated, probably years ago.

WHAT WAS YOUR ROLE FIVE YEARS AGO?

If you were to go into rewind, what would your day-to-day routines have been five years ago? In these same five years, your company is likely to be 50% to 100% larger than it was at the time. Has your role, expertise and economic value evolved by an equal or greater percentage? Maintaining a creative and exciting energy as a manager is essential to ones legacy and success in management. In fact, it’s one of the most important aspects and essential traits of good management!

LEARNING vs. LIVING IN THE PAST

Think back on your own most rewarding and valuable times in your business career. It’s very possible that in this review, you would not pick your present circumstances. In fact, I’ll bet it would be much earlier in your career. The memory could be of when you made those very first steps in your business career. You clearly realized how little knowledge you had; there was only one way to find it and that was to experience it.

For many of us these were the most rewarding times. These were the days when we paid our dues, got our hands dirty, and even surprised others and ourselves with our net results. These were the days when we knew much less about failure, and our perceived and legitimate responsibilities were on a much smaller scale than what we have created in today’s climate. Yes, these were much simpler times; they may have been the best of times.

ON REFLECTION …

Could it be time to turn back the clock? Could it be time to recreate this sense of unbridled excitement for yourself and, in turn, for your organization? What’s missing today that pulled your trigger in days gone by?

As managers, our role and value to our organization evolves in the form and functions that best meet the need at any given time. Often this evolution is determined by others, and for reasons and needs outside of our own best interests. Yes, the path of our personal history has clearly led to our current reality. Is this reality meeting your current needs in addition to others, or are these prior decisions now controlling you? It could very well be time to “take back” that which was taken away from you.

GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY (again)

There is no greater satisfaction than getting your hands dirty both individually and with the troops. Management can easily slip into the routine of “what’s expected” of management “types.” While critical thinking is important, all too often there simply isn’t that much to think critically about.

By now, haven’t we surrounded ourselves with capable individuals to take care of most of this “critical stuff?” If this is not the case, do yourself a favor and take care of this first. Now begin to schedule appointments that take you back to those areas that nourish and fulfill your personal and organizational objectives.

I often hear of individuals who haven’t taken a personal vacation for years. They say they simply can’t make the time. Who’s in charge of their schedule? All that’s required is to put it on the calendar and stick to it, period. Use this similar method in meeting your professional objectives, period.

A LESSON LEARNED

Some of the greatest impact I provided my organization was during times of individual sales training (sometimes I trained them, sometimes they trained me!), or simply working with my associates in the field. Where better to learn about the pulse and heart of your organization? Where better to make a significant impact, day in and day out, within ones organization? These were my happiest and most fulfilling days. Looking back, these days should have occurred much more often, leaving the day-to-day operations to my very capable staff. It should have become a much more significant aspect of my management routine.

There will still be those who’ve convinced themselves that the temple will collapse in their absence. There are individuals, trained (by you), to fully anticipate seeing your face each and every day. You may even have established a reporting and justification system as to your ongoing “whereabouts.” Yes, you may have to retrain others as well as yourself! A perfect example comes with the sale of my own organization. They’re doing quite well, thank you very much!

I can’t help but wonder what greater impact and personal satisfaction may have been available for me in a bit different model? How much of our “busy work” would be taken care of, or simply take care of itself, in our absence? NEVER lose your availability, but being just a little less available can be a very good thing. Less can be more. Now, you just have to fight this with a company-issued cell phone on your hip!

Personal Regards,

Keenan

INTERPERSONAL© is published by INTERPERSONALBIZ.COM, Keenan Longcor, Editor, ©2010. Duplication of this publication is permitted for both personal and business use. Excerpts may only be quoted with acknowledgment of INTERPERSONAL/INTERPERSONALBIZ.ORG as the source. For re-publication rights, please contact the editor at KEENAN@INTERPERSONALBIZ.COM