Archive for category: Leadership

Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Failure – Post #4

Mistakes Happen!

Remember all the buzz about e-commerce and e-business? It was before the Internet boom went bust and it seemed like everyone in the tech space was jumping on the e-hype bandwagon out of fear, greed or confusion. I confess that I, too, got a little sucked into the e-hype and made a somewhat hasty decision to split our business into two distinct divisions: one focused on the tech training we have always offered and the other on our consulting services, which we re-branded “go-e-biz.com.”

It was a catchy little name but it confused our customers. Were we abandoning our training business? Was our consulting service changing into a different kind of service? Were we only interested in clients who wanted to sell something over the Internet?

The answer was “no” in all instances, but the very fact that we had changed our name invited questions and confusion. Ultimately, we chose to “un-create” the brand change and returned to our original name – Intertech — for both aspects of our business. This was a money- and time-intensive exercise that could have been avoided if I hadn’t allowed my emotions to pull me into a hasty decision based on the current business climate (I now can wisely recognize in hindsight!).

As part of the “un-brand” process we did come up with a marketing slogan to help clients and others understand both aspects of our business: “Instructors who Consult.  Consultants who Teach” And by emphasizing the connected nature of our business, we’ve been able to build clients and credibility for both parts of our company.

The lesson learned here was to not buy into the hype, to ask more questions before getting into something, and really thinking through the long-term benefits of these larger strategic decisions. I think it also illustrates an aspect of resiliency: not getting stuck or derailed by a mistake.

Epilogue: A few years later we were looking to acquire another firm. I was very realistic about its potential value to Intertech, the long-term potential, and the need to keep the partners of that firm engaged.  All of those things were part of our offer but the other firm wasn’t interested.  Even though I had spent months trying to make it happen, in the end I knew it was best to walk away from the deal versus to push it for emotional reasons.

Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Failure – Post #3

When stuff hits the fan, don’t go mad!

Losing a major client probably is among the most painful of business failures. It happened to my firm in a spectacular fashion about 15 years ago when we were still starting out.  At that point we had six consultants and trainers working for us. When we lost a major piece of business from our largest client we had two choices: lay off four people (decimating our business in the process) or find some new clients – fast! I’m happy to report that we were able to replace the lost business in time to keep all of our people on board, but it was a difficult and stressful time that I hope never to repeat again.

During the crisis we instinctively understood that transparency with our folks was critical and we were diligent about keeping them updated on our efforts to secure new business. We also worked extremely hard to bring in new clients in record time, which included talking with everyone we knew who might possibly help us meet our goals.

After the crisis passed and we were able to think more long-term, we were determined never to let it happen again. Among the ways we used that experience to build more business resilience:

• Diversifying our accounts so that no single client represented more than 10% of our business
• Anticipating “worst case scenarios” and coming up with response plans well in advance.
• Focusing on positive action versus allowing ourselves to be “jumpy” or overexcited. I have to confess that this was a personal lesson for me as well. I was a newer leader during that first major business crisis and let panic dictate my actions. I relentlessly hounded our ace sales leader about the new client situation as he worked around the clock to secure more business for our soon-to-be-laid-off consultants (sorry about that Ryan!).

Looking back now, I can see how this challenge forged growth for my company and me.

While painful, it laid the foundation for the successful business we are today.

Next post: Learning from emotional mistakes.

Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Failure – Post #2

Some ways to deal with stress are not as effective as others

In an effort to help service people cope with negative emotions connected with failure and other difficult experiences, the U.S. Army is providing resiliency training to soldiers and drill sergeants. The goals are to reduce the number of Army service people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to actually increase the number who can grow after experiencing PTSD.

I find it interesting that growth, not merely recovery, is one of the goals. While enduring the trauma of war and losing one’s company (as Steve Jobs did at Apple) clearly are not the same thing, it’s interesting that the U.S. Army is trying to help service members to view difficult experiences as catalysts for improved performance.

The Army’s effort is described in the article “Building Resilience” by Martin E. P. Seligman, which appeared in the April 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review. Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He also is the author of the book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being (Free Press, 2011).

In a nutshell, Seligman writes, “Thirty years of research suggests that resilience can be measured and taught—and the U.S. Army is putting that idea to the test with a program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. The aim of CSF is to make soldiers as fit psychologically as they are physically. A key component of CSF is ‘master resilience training’ for drill sergeants—a form of management training that teaches leaders how to embrace resilience and then pass it on, by building mental toughness, signature strengths (such as curiosity, bravery, persistence, integrity, fairness, leadership and self-regulation), and strong relationships.”

A series of specific courses have been developed to help soldiers and sergeants amplify positive emotions, recognize when negative emotions are out of proportion to the threat and to build a variety of relationship skills—including fostering trust, constructively managing conflict, creating shared meaning, and recovering from betrayal.

There’s even a program on “spiritual fitness,” which takes soldiers through the process of building a “spiritual core” with self-awareness, a sense of urgency, self-regulation, self-motivation and social awareness. According to Seigman, “’Spiritual’ in CSF refers not to religion but to belonging to and serving something larger than self.”

There’s much more to the Army CSF program, but these courses alone appear to be a pretty good “starter list” for any organization interested in designing a resiliency training and development module for leaders and employees.

Next post: How losing a client led to increased personal and business resilience at Intertech.

Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Failure – Post #1

Even legends fail (most times, it’s a right of passage)

The sad passage of Apple CEO Steve Jobs has gotten me thinking about failure. Sure, Jobs was a widely successful entrepreneur and technology visionary, but he also was let go from the top spot at Apple when he was 30. Jobs credited that event (in retrospect) with transforming him into the leader of Apple that he ultimately became. In the years between getting fired and returning to the helm of Apple, Jobs developed his vision and his passion for technical and design excellence at a little known company called Pixar. (Pixar was no longer obscure, of course, after Jobs’ tenure and the debut of the delightful movie “Toy Story.”)

What is it about failure that helps propel some people forward and leaves others behind in a bitter heap? Steve Jobs had every right to be bitter after getting bounced from Apple, a company that he co-founded at the tender age of 20. Instead, though, he picked himself and his bruised ego up and moved forward. He realized that he still loved technology and finding ways to make it matter to people. He took on a new challenge and helped pioneer pixel animation technology, creating an entirely new industry in the process.

I think the key can be found in how Jobs decided to accept the blame for what happened. While it certainly must have stung, he obviously didn’t get stuck in blaming others or himself. He accepted the situation, assessed his options and moved on!

That’s resilience and it appears to be a key attribute of most successful people. Harvard Business Review dedicated its entire April issue to the “f” word. I’m going to take a figurative page from HBR and devote my next several posts to failure and what it means in a business context (and even in the U.S. Army). And I’ll share a few of my own less-than-stellar moments and what I’ve learned in the process.

How to Cultivate Engaged Employees – 6th in a series of 6 related Posts

Just because it’s fast, doesn’t mean it’s best!

Guideline #6– Don’t insist that a decision must be made

“Conventional management wisdom holds that a flawed decision is better than no decision,” writes HBR author Charalambos Vlachoutsicos. He goes on to advise that leaders should reject conventional wisdom: “If you can’t get agreement on a decision, don’t rush to impose one. Think instead about putting in place a process that yields decisions, even slowly made ones, that everyone can accept even if agreement is not unanimous.”

As I noted in previous posts, we have a clear process in place for working through issues and coming to agreement at Intertech. Having a process takes time and, more critically, discipline. I do believe, however, that decisions should be made when it is possible to do so without further discussion. “Analysis paralysis” can result when leaders do not feel empowered to make decisions, no matter how small they might be.

In situations where more discussion truly is required, it helps to send out all the information related to the decision in advance. Prepping in advance means people can arrive informed and ready to discuss, versus wasting precious meeting time waiting for everyone to read through long documents. For more on meetings, check out chapter 65 of my book, “Make Meetings Matter.”