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Jack Welch on Candor and Liz Strauss on High-Trust Culture

October 12, 2010 by Liz

Lack of Candor Is a Killer

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Right at the top of the interview with Jack Welch (former Chairman and Chief Executive of GE) at the World Business forum, he spoke about leadership in many ways. The most interesting to me was his conversation about his famous policy of “Rank and Yank.”

When Jack first took over GE in 1981, America was facing high unemployment and high inflation. GE had 178 people in strategic positions and 3 business showing losses for 20 years. Welch became known as “Neutron Jack” because of the tens of thousands of positions he cut. But that single campaign left the company and the remaining employees with a streamlined organization prepared for future growth.

Hard choices and candor were his management tools. Welch is passionate and straightforward about candor in business. “I would call lack of candor the biggest little dirty secret in business, ” Welch says in his book, Winning. It “basically blockes smart ideas, fast action, and good people contributing all the stuff they’ve got. It’s a killer.” Jack’s deifnition of the difference between candor and abrasiveness is the corporate level from which the words are said. From higher up it’s candor, from lower levels it’s called abrasiveness.

I agree with Jack, nothing can break down trust (and build fear) more than lack of candor — inconsistent truth. People get fired when no one has said a word to them about their performance being less than it might be to be “great.” Then they wonder why no one told them the truth.

At GE, Jack held his managers to a policy of Rank and Yank — that every manager had to rank his or her employees and fire the bottom 10% once a year. When speaking on that at the WBF, Jack Welch seemed to have moved from firing those who might improve to retraining them. In this one minute interview, Jack explains who to keep and retrain and who to let go.

Here’s another one-minute interview with Jack on integrity, learning, and mentorship.

At the World Business Forum, Jack was clear and cogent on what makes a winning team. “You get the right players in the right positions and you will win.” Jack spoke of mentors and leaders and managing from the top, at one point delivering my favorite quote of the two-event.

“Fear as a management tool is dead.”

Jack and I are so aligned in that single statement.

How to Build a High Trust Culture

Fear cannot exist in the same space as trust. Here are a few of my best practices on how to wipe fear out of your organization. Ironically, in this grassroots social business world, developing a high trust culture a process that builds its roots from the to.

  • Leaders build a values system that resonates with everyone who helps the business thrive. This happens when leaders let go titles to be human, get their hands dirty, and invest their hearts as well as their heads outside of themselves — the higher cause of the business.
  • Incorporated core human values into your value proposition. Repeat both the same sentence every time you speak — to every audience.
  • Talk, walk, and live the truth online and offline, inside and outside the company. Trust is the hard truth spoken gently. Leaders are charged with defining the reality under which we serve the cause. Make it easy to see, hear, and understand what is valued and what is not.
  • Invite ideas and diverse thinking. Explore those ideas and thoughts that are different from our own.
  • Celebrate and reward people who live the values as well as the performance goals of the company.
  • Invite people outside the business who exemplify the same values and performance ideals to participate, engage in, learn from, and add to the culture and community you’re building.

Watching Jack it’s easy to see that the world is his natural habitat. He lives his values and feels no need to apologize for what he believes. He knows his losses, learns from them, and makes them part of his repertoire of strengths. It’s a irresistible combination of humanity and leadership.

And that sort of candor is easy to trust.

How will you contribute to building a culture of candor and trust in any business or any size?

You’ll find Jack as @Jack_Welch on Twitter — He does his own tweeting.
Read more about the World Business Forum 2010 at WBFNY.com and WBFNY-bloggershub

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Filed Under: Community, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: #wbf10, bc, Jack Welch, LinkedIn, Organizational-behavior, training, trust

The HUGE Gap Between Reach and Trust

September 20, 2010 by Liz

Do You Trust Yourself?

cooltext443809437_relationships

During a discussion of The Difference Between Begging for and Building Influence a a few weeks ago, @StevePlunkett asked me to do a long think about credibility and reach. I’ve been doing just that and now I’m writing another post his challenge inspired.

The Pulitzer Prize Paper, Reach, and Engagement

Once upon a time, I subscribed to the Chicago Tribune. (I apologize to the New York Times and my friends who Yankees fans. I also live in Wrigleyville.) I subscribed to daily delivery during the period that the Tribune won 11 Pulitzer Prizes. I’m not certain that I read any of the winning articles. Though the paper came as promised, with a job in the city, my schedule often didn’t offer me the time I wished to read it. Even when it did loosen a bit, I didn’t read every word of it.

So though the paper reached me. I wasn’t exposed it. I was on their list and I would bet that I was counted in their ad fees based on circulation.

My point is that reach only meant I was paying for it.

I don’t watch television, so I don’t need a TIVO to skip the commercials. On the rare occasion that a television movie or event might attract me back to the huge screen monitor that we usually use as a computer, we end up talking through the ads or channel surfing just because we can.

I know a number of people online who own online tools that charge small fees and send out informational mailing lists. I know thousands more that belong to social sites and read blogs that carry ads. Whenever I ask about the ads, I find that we’re becoming advertising blind … except when we’re shopping or looking to see what sort of ads our friends are using.

So, technically those ads are reaching me, but they’re equivalent to a sales rep who knocks on my door but never gets an answer.

Then a new algorithm emerges from social media. If I pay close attention and “prune” my power network just right, I should be able to connect to the perfect 150 power people who have each also connected to another 150 power people and so on outward. A mere two generations out would be a network of 3,375,000 power people. But just to hedge the bet, perhaps I should connect to 150,000.

Thing is any message I send to my own group only gets read the same as the Tribune did … when they have time. Probably less than that, because I don’t have 11 Pulitzer Prizes behind what I’m saying.

Let’s not even talk about the email newsletters and direct mail that gets pitched without being opened.

Reach is not a guarantee of engagement, participation or even exposure.
Reach is merely a possibility.

Andrew Smith at marcom international points out,

“For decades, PR has been seen by many marketeers as “cheap reach via editorial” – in other words, the goal of PR was to gain editorial coverage that provided the greatest number of opportunities to see – at a significantly lower cost than advertising.”

But even cheap is expensive if no one is paying attention.

And even when I do pay attention, can you assume that I trust what you’re saying?

No. Not unless I know you.

Reach and Trust

We interact with thousands of people through our lives and if we’re a corporation that number of interactions can grow to millions. Still the fact remains that people prefer to work with people we know and business moves faster, more easily, and with fewer micro-decisions when we can depend on people we trust.

The ability to reach millions with our message means hardly anything if they don’t trust the people or place the message is coming from. Now that we work online even Google has been trying to figure out how to trust.

A good marketer should always be able to reach more people. A great marketer knows that ideal customers who share the marketers’ values might actually pay more for products and services that incorporate those values in everything. An irresistible marketer knows and trusts those customers.

Reach is not nearly as powerful as attraction.

What Moves People to Trust You and Your Brand?

Trust … credibility … authenticity … transparency These words have become key terms in the social business lexicon. But they’re not new to business. Relationships have been the foundation of solid partnerships since growing businesses started growing. Ask any number of successful Venture Capitalists, if they have to choose, they will tell you that they will put their money on the team they can trust.

What moves us to trust?

Steven M. R. Covey, who wrote the book on Trust, points to 4 Cores of Credibility — So that’s where I went to start my think on credibility, with his words. integrity, intent, capability, and results. Together they carry the four reasons we trust ourselves, our friends and the people and companies with whom we choose to work.

And we’re finding that social business has made it more complicated than we might think.

It’s no longer about only about how far our message can reach or how many people will receive and consume it. The question is whether a credible message can travel that far and still be believed.

  • Integrity. A guy runs up to you on the beach, opens his coat and says, “Wanna buy a watch?” Your response is likely to be negative. It’s hard to believe that watch is the deal that he says it is. A man of integrity probably wouldn’t choose that form of work.

    Integrity is the ultimate of walking your talk. he etymology of integrity is “wholeness, soundness” from the Latin, *intetritatern* “sense of uncorrupted virtue.” It makes a foundation upon which a person’s true character can stand. It’s a person’s character who gives “his word,” shakes a hand. makes a promise, and signs a contract.

    Integrity is what we rely on when we say that a person (or a company) will never lie to you, that he has no hidden agenda, that her behavior is stellar, that they will always make good on what say they will do.

    Whether we’re acting as a company or an individual looking in the mirror is what we say we believe totally in line with our standards? Integrity is the conviction to stand up for what is true and valuable to you and to trust yourself to always choose for your values no matter what people are around you. Integrity builds trust and respect in its Have we the personal and professional strength to say “no” to deals and relationships with people who stay sitting down.

    Do you show up as the same person everywhere people find you?
    Do you live your company’s message with the people you work with and with your customers?
    Do you ever keep promises to yourself, your friends, your family, and the people you work with?
    Do you tell the hard truth as easily and with as much love as you tell the great things?

    Decide to BE what you believe. Stand for something.

    How do your actions demonstrate what you believe?

  • Intent. Ever get an email or a request from a friend that sounded like it was just for you, only to find out that it was a sales pitch and he or she send the exact words to a whole list of people? A person of pure intent would never set up a situation that would make you wonder about what his or her agenda might be.

    People and companies live with intent. They lean forward and stretch toward building open relationship before promoting self-interest. It’s good intent to understand the power in partnership that is forthright and mutually beneficial. Think of Warren Buffet and the respect he has earned. He’s a great combination of integrity and intent. And through good intent, Warren Buffet accomplishes many things that benefit others and his own companies.

    Do you reflect on what motivates you and how that might work for others?
    Do you move yourself outside the center to get a more balanced view of world?
    Do you make the success of other people mission critical to our own success?
    Do state your true intentions to yourself and to others before you act?

    Share your plan and your purpose. Focus on mutual benefits.

    How do you make it easy to see what you’re up to?

  • Capabilities. Think of the leaders who inspire. They have knowledge, talent, skills, ethics, attitudes, and identity. They’re not just smart and visible, but they attract us to follow them because they know where they’re doing. They have means and the confidence to do the job and the way they talk about their capabilities raises everyone on their team.

    Do you know your strengths, talents, what comes naturally, and why people follow you?
    Do you have the expertise to do what you set out to do?
    Does your style attract and encourage relationships and learning?
    Do you establish a culture that is open and supportive?

    Be constantly learning. Know what value only you can bring. Do the same for others.

    How do you use your abilities to inspire confidence and leadership?

  • Results. Talent and skills are nothing, if we don’t do, produce, and respond to the right things. People and companies we trust focus on delivering the right results to meet the highest expectations. They bring all of their resources to fulfill their promises — faster, easier, and more meaningfully than anyone might have imagined. Their record for results precedes them.

    Do you show up, make clear decision, and put your best work into all you do?
    Do seek out a team of people who are smarter and more experienced than you?
    Do you focus on delivering outstanding satisfaction to every customer?
    Do you look to consistently raise the bar higher?

    Be engaged. Take responsibility with intent to win.

    How do you make outstanding and successful things happen?

The difference between reach and credibility is the difference between sending a message out to everyone who might listen and communicating integrity, shared intent, competent commitment, and consistent performance.

What all of us wish for is to be able to trust without fear or worry of the wrong results. We prepare for negative consequences because positive outcomes don’t hurt us. In those relationships where trust is truly present, we’re relieved of the burden of having to build extra safety nets because we know that you are looking out for our best interests — we know you’ll be standing beside us if something goes wrong.

The huge gap between reach and trust is that with trust I believe …

I will always be able to say I bet on you and I won?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, capability, credibility, integrity, intent, LinkedIn, results, trust

Be What You Wish

August 8, 2010 by Liz

cooltext443809558_authenticity

Trust is simple really.

Trust is knowing …

and believing …

that every minute …

that company, that human being …

will choose for you over his, her, or their own insecurities.

Trust is not wishing anyone will give up anything.

Trust is feeling safe that, when danger or grief is near,
others will have a care to protect what we value and hold it dearly.

Trust is …

knowing I can bet my life on you and I’ll win when the chips are down.

850289_poker_chips_2

It can happen in family, in friendship, in business, with strangers.

Trust is equal opportunity.
It’s all inclusive yet at the same time discriminating and exclusive.

Trust is our cells reflecting an aspiration — a breathing — that could elevate our species.
We cannot trust without being it.

If you wish trust, be trustworthy.

Be what you wish.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Filed Under: Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, relationships, trust, when the chips are down

Trust … We’re All Pretty Enough

March 24, 2010 by Liz

Do You Really Listen?

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Think about it.
All around us are folks who just want to belong.
They’re saying, singing, living the lyrics to a song by Kasey Chambers …

Am I Not Pretty Enough?

Am I not pretty enough
Is my heart too broken
Do I cry too much
Am I too outspoken
Don’t I make you laugh
Should I try it harder
Why do you see right through me

I live
I breathe
I let it rain on me
I sleep
I wake
I try hard not to break
I crave
I love
I’ve waited long enough
I try as hard as I can

chorus

I laugh
I feel
I make believe it’s real
I fall
I freeze
I pray down on my knees
I hope
I stand,
I take it like a man
I try as hard as I can

chorus

why do you see
why do you see
why do you see right through me

….

We’re all pretty enough.
And we all try as hard as we can.
I see you.
Let someone know that they are not invisible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Filed Under: Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, trust

It’s True! Unlimited Paid Leave for Employees! Will It Work??

February 1, 2010 by Liz

Change the Question

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In an article in Business Week this weekend, Roger L. Martin and Jennifer Riel explored how approaching new ideas with an eye toward precedent and previous proof could be a killer. They told the story of a bank so risk averse it missed a huge opportunity and then held up the “abductive thinking” of Research In Motion who moved from a pager company to a smartphone contender.

In the mid-1990s, RIM was a modestly successful pager company. But Lazaridis saw potential in the idea of a portable e-mail device. He began to consider what it might look like, what it could do. He imagined something much smaller than a laptop but easier to type on than a phone. Laptops were already shrinking and bumping up against limitations on how small a QWERTY keyboard could reasonably get. Lazaridis stepped back to consider how a much tinier keyboard could be feasible—and he achieved a leap of logic: What if we typed using only our thumbs? He soon had a prototype and concrete feedback from it.

Asking what could be true—and jumping into the unknown—is critical to innovation. Nurturing the ideas that result, rather than killing them, can be the tricky part. But once a company clears this hurdle, it can leverage its efforts to produce the proof that leaders depend on to make commitments—and turn the future into fact.

Social Strata also saw potential and achieved a leap to a what if? of another fashion.

Unlimited Paid Leave for Employees?

Social media brings passionate people together in business relationships. And we look to them to show us how business might be if we work with trust and transparency. At Social Strata in Seattle, President Rose O’Neill, takes that idea seriously. Social Strata has recently surprised employees by announcing a revolutionary plan to offer its employees unlimited paid vacation benefits. At first the employees thought it was a joke.

There’s no maximum, but there is a minimum of two weeks.

From the Social Strata Founders blog post. Unlimited Paid Leave? Oh yes. :

… we decided that, if we have the “right people on the bus,” i.e., people who are passionate about what they’re doing, we don’t need to set artificial limits on the amount of time they can take off, or why they can take time off. Disciplined people will ensure that their responsibilities are handled, and still be able to recharge their batteries with time off. Undisciplined people who take advantage of the system will reveal themselves and be naturally sorted out.

Bruce Watson of Daily Finance points out that the plan relies on

  • an employee/employer relationship of mutual respect
  • and employees with a sense of responsibility to each other.

With those in place, Watson says could make for an energized workforce that feels appreciated and is inspired to loyalty and higher productivity. He also points out that in a workforce larger than Social Stratas 14-person, close-knit team, it might be hard to accomplish.

Here’s an interview Ms. O’Neill had with King5 News Seattle,

The environments we build often shape our behavior. Will this radical move bring the response that Social Strata is after?

What do you think needs to be there for this benefit to work? Do you think the plan is destined to falter at some future point?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Filed Under: Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: bc, Community, Good to Great, LinkedIn, trust, work relationships

What Jim Ericson Had to Say About Corporate Trust …

October 30, 2009 by Liz

A community isn’t built or befriended,
it’s connected by offering and accepting.
Community is affinity, identity, and kinship
that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions.
Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.

When We Trust

Trust is what holds together the conversation on the Interwebs. It’s also what brings me to or leads me to leave a deal. Without trust, I don’t know who is talking, what might be happening where I’m not. Trust is what leads us to communicate even when we have only our computers and our words to connect and protect us.

Here’s what Jim Ericson said about corporate trust …

Hi Liz. The notion that it’s important to be able to build trust with others is one of the latest “silver bullets” ricocheting off the walls of corporate America. As a result, books on trust, seminars on trust, and consultants that say they can help a company create a high trust culture in ten easy steps are in high demand. This is hogwash!

There is no formula or set of skills that you can master to help you build trust with others. Trust building is a raw, organic process that consists of spending whatever time it takes to tell our stories to others and listen to theirs. And,I don’t just mean stories that flesh out our resumes. I mean stories that tell where we came from,and where we dream of ending up; stories that shed light on the paths we’ve traveled – triumphs and tragedies alike; stories that reveal not only what’s on our mind but also what’s in our heart.

Then,at the end of the storytelling, or when we’ve gotten to know each other from as many different angles as possible, we get to decide whether we trust each other or not. And, if we’ve been really truthful with each other, a genuine trust relationship is almost always the result.
Jim Ericson from a comment on October 20th, 2009

A successful and outstanding blogger said that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon2010!

Business in a high-trust environment can change your life.

Filed Under: Business Life, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, social business, trust

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