ATTRACT AND RETAIN VALUABLE EMPLOYEES

Employees ready, willing, and able to exceed the expectations of your customers are critical. Attracting and retaining them can make the difference between success and failure. In most cases, the problem is a cultural, not a personal or personnel one. Many businesses today are transitioning from a yesterday of autocratic leadership with a command and control structure to a team-driven model “flattened” for efficiency and speed. Here's the reality, as I see it:

People in a command-and-control environment are told what to do. People in teams must think and risk. These are different skills that require different motivations. Although most organizations have good (and potentially great) employees, the system fails to prepare them properly for the new world. If your employees need to improve their skills, offer them development programs.

If they aren't willing to pursue the new that is tomorrow, work on their motivation. The best thing an employer can do today is create a safe haven for employees to take reasoned risks and learn from the mistakes that they make in the process.

REINVENT STRATEGIC PLANNING

Planning is like a jigsaw puzzle. The finished picture is the mission and vision of the organization. The border (the shape and the size) is determined by the situation analysis , your current reality (the capability of your employees, commitment of the leadership, budget, marketplace served, competitors, history, etc.). The pieces of the puzzle are the people in your organization and the functions they perform to obtain the results you need.

The most important first step in puzzle making is finding the surface needed to build the puzzle; it must be stable and conducive to the work at hand, with organizational values as the foundation. My experience indicates that all too often planning focuses on tactics (pieces); in effect, building the puzzle one piece at a time from the center out. This can't work. You must start on a solid surface (values) and fully communicate the finished picture (vision and mission) to everyone involved.

CREATE A CUSTOMER-FOCUSED OPERATION

In my mind this is a potent ingredient. It's like garlic or tabasco; you want just enough to spice it up, but not too much to make the dish inedible. Read the classic poem, “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” With all due respect, your customers are the blind men and your organization is the elephant.

You will be customer defined and customer driven, if you're not already. In a global economy, with the most sophisticated consumers in history, equipped with full information through the Internet, and shopping from any source anywhere, you're no longer in charge — the customer is!

PROVIDE TOUGH POSITIVE MANAGEMENT

Command and control leadership in most organizations is dead! The future belongs to conductors who can blend the diverse workforce and skills needed into a beautiful symphony performance. In such a system, diversity is essential and consensus is good. Unfortunately, too many people confuse the application of these issues.

“Consensus is the absence of leadership,” said Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of Great Britain . She was right. The final vision, mission, and organizational values must be set and embraced by all involved (those who can't accept them must leave or be left). The process to achieve these goals can consider the diversity of the workforce and the consensus that will evolve through the process.

Leadership should invite dialogue, debate, discussions, dissent, etc. during the planning process; but once a decision is made, the only option available to the team is commitment.

IMPROVE LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE

There's a lot of confusion these days between leadership and management. You must lead people and manage things. Leaders must be effective and managers need efficiency. A few roles of today's leader include:

• Dream Catcher — captures the vision
• Environmental Engineer — removes the toxins from the workplace
• Security Guard — protects the vision, values, and mission
• Organizational Architect — designs the foundation/infrastructure
• Coach — recruits develops, plans, scouts, and wins
• Cheerleader — motivates the team

DESIGN EFFECTIVE SURVEYS

I believe the biggest need in business today is to know customers. All too often managers knowabout customers, but they don't know customers. My advice is to “get out more.” Mass markets are the past; mass customization is the future. Surveys are important in learning more about your customers, but I urge you first to know them — build relationships !

My daddy (as many of we southerners refer to our fathers) did mosaics. He'd place the glass tiles in the picture, and once the process was complete, he'd add grout to finish the picture and fill in the spaces between the pieces. Individual relationships (niche of one) are the “tiles,” and the “grout” (surveys/market research) can complete the picture.

The message within: Never confuse numbers with people!