It was one of those typically spectacular sunny March afternoons in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Tops were down on many cars and the golf courses were buzzing with activity. It seemed as though everyone was outside. Everyone, that is with the exception of seventeen business leaders engaged in an enthusiastic leadership conversation at the home of Bob Ditta, former President of Dental Services Group.
George Obst and Bob Ditta, former Chairman and President of Dental Services Group
George Obst, DSG former Chairman, and Ditta were there to contribute to The Leaders Institute, a collaboration between the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce and John Hersey International. It’s mission is to provide business leaders with an opportunity to tune into a high level leadership conversation by exposing them to a variety of businesses and business leaders. The opportunity today was for these local leaders to learn from two leaders that led their team to purchase the Dental Services Group business and then grow that business, in a highly competitive category of 14,000 Dental Labs serving 118,000 Dentist, to double it’s size in fourteen years, without acquisition.
When Obst and Ditta, along with two other DSG executives, purchased the business through a leveraged buyout, it consisted of 34 Dental Labs across the United States doing approximately $30 Million in annual revenue. When the group sold DSG in 2005 it’s revenue’s were in the $60 million range.
This Livingroom Leadership session covered topics like:
the 4 original partners are as different, behaviorally speaking, as different could be. How were they able to allow those differences and still run a successful company. George Obst offered that the solution was a clear delineation of responsibilities, largely tied to the individuals strengths. Ditta added that there was a remarkable consistency in values. Each of the partners was committed to growing the business through employee relations and development. Unlike many of their competitors, DSG took on training, at all levels, like no other company. The strategy was to help the employees learn more and achieve higher levels of knowledge and competence in their jobs. The belief was that it would actually lead to significantly lower turnover levels, more loyalty and thereby increased customer support and service. It worked!
Creating Your Own ceremonies. Each year DSG spent gobs of money to put on it’s annual leadership meeting in Scottsdale (where else?). The teams would arrive with great expectation, primarily for the awards dinner. A pretty extravagant affair for nearly 300, the recognition awards always stole the show. Obst and Ditta agree that “recognition has always and will always be the key to motivation and employee loyalty.” Obstencouraged all the Leaders Institute participants to create ceremonies, even if they were solo-preneurs.
Performance accountability and reviews. Everyone at DSG, from the person working on a bench crafting, grinding and polishing the caps ordered by our dentists, to the Chairman and President, had annual goals. And, the leadership team, some 65 strong were trained to manage to those goals. Every employee had an annual review and the subject of goals was always discussed. As Bob Ditta put it, “Goals don’t lie. You either achieved the goal or you didn’t. If you didn’t, the why is relatively unimportant. How we can do better next quarter or next year is the key.”
Educational goals. Everyone in the company had to have an educational goal. What were they going to do to get better at their job? DSG was willing to invest in these classes and seminars because, in keeping with the values of the 4 partners, training and development would pay dividends way beyond the cost.
Listening. Listen to your customer, listen to your prospects, lost customers and employees. Then have a system in place where what you have heard can be acted upon. This is the bullet to excel, be the best. You will hear and observe everything you need to dramatically improve on a regular basis.
Dental Services Group implemented strategies that were way ahead of the competition, at the time. We look at these strategies as sound, basic leadership habits that work every time. Well, I don’t know about every time, but these sure did work for George and Bob and Dental Services Group.
We have an epidemic of people beginning a conversation with “why they cannot” do or accomplish whatever it is they are being asked to do or accomplish. Contagious Leaders focus conversations on “How We Will” not :Why They Can’t”. “Why We Can’t” is a deadly attitude that kills creativity, innovation and contribution from the best employees while driving the weakest for cover behind the noble claims “proving it (the task) is impossible is my job and it’s for the good of the company”.
As Leaders our most important job is to stamp our WWC wherever we find it and not allow the WWC conversation. Here are some tips for stamping out the deadly “Why We Can’t” conversation:
When someone begins a conversation with “Well, why we can’t is ….” we must stop that conversation in its tracks. Tell your team “we are not going down that road. Today, we are going to focus our attention on “HOW WE WILL”, not “Why We Can’t.”
Watch your own conversations and your tendency to focus on “Why We Can’t”
Acknowledge that a particular project may be a challenge while encouraging your team to focus its energy on “How We Will”.
Practice Involved Recognition — acknowledge those on your team who focus on “How We Will”, particularly when they are surrounded with “Why We Can’t.
We have to believe in our How We Will focus. We worked with one company that so believed in this approach that they rose from a ranking of 22 of 28 regions in their company to #2 in 12 months, just by shifting their conversation from WWC to “How We Will”.
As for our leaders they must also root out the proponents of WWC and mentor them. If they wont let go of the WWC conversation we must help them find a new home, someplace more suitable for a WWC attitude.
Nothing stops an organizations forward movement faster or more solidly than a “Why We Can’t” attitude. Allowing the conversation to take place is the same as agreeing with it– agreeing with it will ruin your company, your organization — even your town.
Sometimes even the best contagious leaders find themselves waiting for inspiration even though we know that the best tactic is to just get on with getting it done. Read what our friend and mentor Steve Chandler says about waiting for inspiration– go to http://tinyurl.com/yf2bzg5
How many organizations have failed for lack of leadership focus? Contagious Leaders pick a course and remain focused, even when it is a bit uncertain at first.
We have had a tremendous response and some frustration to last weeks teleseminar, HowTo Thrive in Tight Times . It is not surprising to us that most of
your questions, comments and concerns were around Action 1,
Focusing on the top 20% of your income and/or impact producing
activities.
We never said it would be easy. Nor did we say to not do those
“other activities” that were necessary to the running of your
business.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree
into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your
miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few
points”
We all have necessary and important activities to perform in the
normal course of keeping our businesses going in the desired direction.
However, all too often we do these instead of the critical income and impact
producing activities.
We have heard people say, “I can’t possibly do that top 20%
thing. It is a great idea but won’t work for me. There is just too
much to do around here, and I am the one to do them.”
All true! However, doing many of these activities keeps us from
zeroing in on those that produce big results.
Think of it this way; if you had an emergency that required you
to leave your office and only spend 20% of your time working, what
would you focus on? Who would you delegate those “other important
activities” too? Which of these “important” activities would you
let go off?
We hope you find this deeper dive into the subject helpful. Let
us know by commenting below.
We are always on the lookout for great companies lead by Contagious Leaders. Steve Farber helped our cause through his recent blog post (www.stevefarber.com/blog ) about ING Direct. It is a worthy read.
ING Directs CEO, Arkadi Kuhlmann, outlines a clear vision for his company, his employees and his customers. Such clarity is rare but more importantly, he outlines a culture that employees and aspiring leaders usually only dream about but rarely experience. Bravo, ING and Double Bravo, Mr. Kuhlmann.
Beverly and I had the opportunity to travel to Cupertino, California to spend the day at Apple. More specifically, we met with Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President, Apple Retail. For the past ten years Ron has been the architect of Apple’s retail strategy, a truly remarkable success story.
In May, 2001, Ron and other executives from Apple traveled east to Tyson Corner, Maryland to present plans for Apple’s entree into retail to a large group of financial analysts and representatives from the media. According to Ron, not a single person thought the idea had any merit at all. One attendee was quoted as saying “I give them two years…”
Well, here they are, 7 years later, 250+ stores worldwide, and with an absolute smash hit on their hands. What happened?
Apple defied conventional retail wisdom, launched a retail initiative when others suggested it was foolhardy, shifted thinking about what it is to be in retail, gave us more proof that mission trumps tactics every time, and everyday shows us the massive results that accrue to companies that dedicate themselves to serving customers, rather than selling stuff.
The Apple Retail mission is to ENRICH LIVES. It is very clearly not about selling stuff, although they do plenty of that. And, they do it because they instill an unyielding dedication to the mission in every employee. As we speak, they are developing an employee retention strategy. The goal is to increase the average tenure of store employees by 1 year. We expected Ron Johnson to discuss how that would reduce turnover costs. Nope! The strategy is all about having a more experienced staff in order to enrich the lives of customers. Not once did he mention costs efficiencies or increasing sales margins. In fact, every decision, from location to store design to employee training and retention strategies appears to be held up against the overriding mission of Enriching Lives, customer lives and employee lives.
Ron Johnson, Apple Sr. VP and Beverly Belury
The Apple mission appears quite simple, not easy necessarily, but simple. Apple believes if they can design inviting stores around the life enriching Apple products, engage truly qualified and caring employees who come from a place of serving customers rather than ringing cash registers success will follow. What a concept!
The statistics supporting Apple’s success in retail are jaw-dropping. From sales per employee, to sales per square foot, to increases in year-over-year sales to sales trajectory, the numbers are staggering.
Several months ago we wrote a column for the Phoenix Business Journal titled Leadership: Live your company’s brand out loud. In January we had the opportunity to speak in Cairo for 300 top line managers for Vodafone, Egypt. Never before had we been witness to an organization that was so clear on its mission and, more importantly, drove that mission deep into the organization. The clarity and dedication was evident everywhere we looked at Vodafone. The same is true for Apple.
When the rest of the business world appears to be operating out of total, complete and paralyzing fear and uncertainty Apple has clarity, commitment, and confidence. And, it is not just an ad slogan. As we walked throughout the “Campus” the culture was palpable. We could almost reach out and touch it. Happy, engaged and challenged employees were everywhere. There is an unmistakable pride on the faces of employees that we have rarely seen, outside of Cupertino and Cairo.
According to Ron Johnson there are two things that distinguish Apple. They have become masters at “getting the Big Idea” and they have a “passion for details”. The Big Idea is an uncompromising dedication to enriching lives and a passion for every employee delivering on this mission in every way possible.
The ultimate job of a leader or leadership team is to develop a clear mission and vision, translate that into every decision and then communicate it with an unbending commitment as frequently as humanly possible. As we say, it becomes contagious. It works for Apple (and Vodafone) so why not give it a shot. After all, the fear strategy does not appear to be working.
Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Countrywide, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, foreclosures, sub-prime meltdown, Sarah Palin, and the stock market dropped 500+ points. These are all in the news, emotionally charged and wonderfully interesting distractions, And, they steal our energy, undermine our focus and keep us from doing what needs to be done—our jobs.
We give so much of our attention to these and other distractions that we begin to believe the sky is falling. We become enamored with the distractions and paralyzed, incapable of doing what will make a difference for us, regardless of the story of the day.
In 2002 I attended a gathering of leaders in the professional speakers’ circuit. As you might expect due to effects of 9/11, the leaders discussed the challenges. The discussion was very much like the ones I am hearing now. Whispers of doomsday spread throughout the gathering. Then, the expert we had brought in to make us feel better and tell us how to weather this storm proceeded to tell us that there wasn’t any storm. There were speakers all over the country who were busy, some busier than ever. In this challenging time for the country, clients needed our services more than ever. The busy speakers focused on helping clients succeed when success did not seem possible. Her remarks were like a wonderfully refreshing slap in the face.
Leaders know we create that which we focus on the most. By placing our focus on our challenges, our difficulties, our problems, we draw more of these to us. James Allen first shared this leadership concept years ago in his seminal work entitled “As a Man Thinketh.”
This effect of focus is a universal leadership law, one that Contagious Leaders have trained themselves to understand. It is uncanny — when real estate professionals focus on how bad the market is, it gets worse. It is amazing — when leadership organizations focus on reducing expenses, expenses become more problematic, and sales and revenues suffer. It is astounding — when organizations focus on cutting, more cuts are always needed.
One of our leadership clients had a major initiative to reduce cancellations. They measured cancellations weekly, reported them to the top leadership, and reviewed them on regular conference calls. The fact is our client did not want fewer cancellations, they wanted more renewals. We suggested that the leadership shift the focus to increasing renewals. We recommended they measure renewals, report renewals, and discuss renewals on their conference calls. We encouraged the top leadership to focus on a positive desired result instead of focusing on negative indicators.
Does this mean leaders put their heads in the sand and ignore the natural vagaries in the economy? Of course not! Great leaders are always on top of market conditions. The difference is that truly great leaders do not allow themselves to be distracted by these shifts. They simply remain focused on what they want and what they need to do to accomplish the mission.
Here are some tips:
Surround yourself with people who are focusing on being successful, who are determined to take advantage of the market shift.
Focus on 100 reasons why you will be successful not a 100 reasons why you should worry.
Make every day count, Do something everyday that will further your business.
Get your chemistry working for you by releasing your endorphins.Exercise, deep breathing, walking will help to keep you positive. I just committed to a new exercise class.
Turn off the news. If you feel compelled to find out what’s happening, do what John does. He uses his computer to just bring up the headlines and leave it at that. Sometimes I can actually feel the fear start to come alive when I watch the news.
Laugh every day. Do something fun that will put a smile on your face. John and I regularly go to a Sunday matinee, get popcorn and a great seat.
There will be people who grow their market share and who do incredibly well during this time. If that’s you, please respond to this blog with your tips. Thanks. Bev
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