Category — Performance Coaching

We all know how much it costs to fill up the gas tank. We are frequently shaking our heads when we buy groceries and realize that a sparsely filled basket now costs as much as a bursting full one used to cost. We stay at home instead of going on vacations and we don’t go to restaurants as much anymore to stretch the dollars we have available for living.

Around us we see houses fall into foreclosure, people moving away, banks closing or being taken over by the federal government. In this environment a certain paralysis is growing, and the media keep increasing the fear by constant reporting of bad news.

When we look at one of the biggest issues in this mess, we come to see that the dependence on foreign oil is causing high fuel prices, and the suggested solution of more ethanol derived from corn is causing higher grocery prices. What can be done?

Normally I like to write my own posts and articles, but when one of my favorite authors tackles this situation, I think it is appropriate to let the masters words usurp my own. I don’t like to misuse these issues of highest importance as a forum to voice political opinions. That’s the reason I took as much of those references out of Thomas Friedman’s article (New York times 7/27/2008). I believe the message doesn’t suffer for it.

Friedman writes:
After 9/11, President Bush had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on breaking our addiction to oil. Instead, he told us to go shopping. After gasoline prices hit $4.11 last week, he had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on clean energy. Instead, he told us to go drilling.

Neither shopping nor drilling is the solution to our problems.

We don’t have a “gasoline price problem.” We have an addiction problem. We are addicted to dirty fossil fuels, and this addiction is driving a whole set of toxic trends that are harming our nation and world in many different ways. It is intensifying global warming, creating runaway global demand for oil and gas, weakening our currency by shifting huge amounts of dollars abroad to pay for oil imports, widening “energy poverty” across Africa, destroying plants and animals at record rates and fostering ever-stronger petro-dictatorships in Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

When a person is addicted to crack cocaine, his problem is not that the price of crack is going up. His problem is what that crack addiction is doing to his whole body. The cure is not cheaper crack, which would only perpetuate the addiction and all the problems it is creating. The cure is to break the addiction.

Ditto for us. Our cure is not cheaper gasoline, but a clean energy system. And the key to building that is to keep the price of gasoline and coal — our crack — higher, not lower, so consumers are moved to break their addiction to these dirty fuels and inventors are moved to create clean alternatives.

I understand why consumers think we have a gasoline price problem — because they are immediately hurt by higher gas prices, and the pump is where most people touch our energy system. They tend not to see the bigger picture. But that is why you have a president: to explain that and lay out a response.

Alas, we have a president and a vice president who deny that climate change is hurting our environmental body, who refuse to see the connection between the dollars we are shifting abroad and the rise of petro-dictators, who do not care about biodiversity loss and who are apparently untroubled by the sharp decline in the dollar, partly because of all the money we are paying for oil imports. So, they have chosen to define this as a “gasoline price crisis” — not an-addiction-to-a-fuel-that-is-badly-hurting-us-as-a-nation crisis.

On 7/17/2008 Al Gore delivered  a speech including a plan to the bipartisan Alliance for Climate Protection. Gore, the alliance’s chairman, called for a 10-year plan — the same amount of time John F. Kennedy set for getting us to the moon — to shift the entire country to “renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources” to power our homes, factories and even transportation.

Gore proposed dramatically improving our national electricity grid and energy efficiency, while investing massively in clean solar, wind, geothermal and carbon-sequestered coal technologies that we know can work but just need to scale. To make the shift, he called for taxing carbon and offsetting that by reducing payroll taxes: Let’s “tax what we burn, not what we earn,” he said.” (Friedman, 2008)

I felt it was worth learning a few more details about this speech and the plan, again removing as much of any political retoric (there wasn’t much in it actually) and providing the core points here, to keep the integrity of the argument:

Among other things, Al Gore said: “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal. But 8 years and 2 months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon.

To be sure, reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable and truly clean electricity within 10 years will require us to overcome many obstacles. At present, for example, we do not have a unified national grid that is sufficiently advanced to link the areas where the sun shines and the wind blows to the cities in the East and the West that need the electricity.

Our national electric grid is critical infrastructure, as vital to the health and security of our economy as our highways and telecommunication networks. Today, our grids are antiquated, fragile, and vulnerable to cascading failure. Power outages and defects in the current grid system cost US businesses more than $120 billion dollars a year. It has to be upgraded anyway.

We could further increase the value and efficiency of a Unified National Grid by helping our struggling auto giants switch to the manufacture of plug-in electric cars. An electric vehicle fleet would sharply reduce the cost of driving a car, reduce pollution, and increase the flexibility of our electricity grid.

At the same time, of course, we need to greatly improve our commitment to efficiency and conservation. That’s the best investment we can make.

We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.” (Gore, 7/17/2008)

Long standing statistical research has shown that the American public is interested in the environment and willing to change. In 1988 63% of respondents said they want the environment to be protected and reduce the human impact. This year, the percentage was 65%. A veto-breaking majority wants change even though our current leaders have done just about everything to avoid it.

In the past we could argue that the alternatives are too expensive. With oil at $125/barrel that is no longer true. If we want to act, we can. The recession, the energy crisis, and rising inflation have brought long overdue focus to these issues.

That’s why they are the best thing to start dramatic change for a better, more prosperous future.

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC

We hear and read it everyday. The economy has problems, banks record huge losses, as demonstrated by Wachovia and Washington Mutual for the 2ndt quarter 2008. We read that companies, especially in the banking and real estate industry, as well as building contractors, are cutting jobs in large numbers.

With all this noise in the marketplace and some politicians, like John McCain’s economic advisor, calling the concerned public “Wimps”, we have to ask ourselves: What else can happen?

We have tightened our belts, we don’t go out to restaurants as much anymore, we now have “staycations” (vacation staying at home), drive as little as possible to avoid $4/gallon gas, and wonder if we will be able to refinance our house again (if its not yet in foreclosure), as interest rates climb due to the Fannie and Freddie mess.

Other than the loss of jobs in industries affected by the current downturn, we haven’t really heard much about direct impact at work. President Bush even suggested taking a deep breath and looking at the positive signs for exports of goods to other countries.

Based on my own experience I like to make you aware of one phenomenon that has increased in recent years and is a larger threat now than it was for a long time. It’s the possibility that your company can rob you. How would that work, you ask?

Well, think about all the things which occur and are part of your work that aren’t directly covered by a paycheck. Here is a list of possibilities you might be able to identify with:

• You have a company credit card you use for travel expenses
• You have a cell phone that your company subsidizes because you partially use it for work
• You have unpaid travel expense reports that you are waiting to get paid
• You have made sales and are due commissions that haven’t been paid yet or will be paid as a bonus at the end of the year
• You participate in a stock option plan. (most of your options haven’t vested yet) When did you check the actual value the last time?
• You have a 401K plan and your company promises to match your contribution to a certain limit at the end of the fiscal year

This is just a small list of things that could easily apply for an employee. Do you know what happens when the company folds, goes bankrupt, or otherwise closes its doors? I have been there and I can tell you this:

You are often liable for any items and unpaid amounts on the credit card your company gave you. Your cell phone company will come to you for payment of open bills. Your matching money for your retirement and any stock options will be worthless. Unpaid travel expenses, bonuses, salaries or regular pay, will have to be awarded by the bankruptcy court.

That’s a pretty bleak picture and some would call it robbery. You might take the silver lining and depend on the courts to at least award you the money you earned since the last paycheck, and anything that qualifies as an equivalent to your regular pay….. and you are right.

The catch here is, that you are competing with all the other organizations that your company owes money to. When you look closer, you will find that any unpaid taxes, which is a likely case for a company that folds, have a higher priority than your unpaid salaries. Should you make it around the IRS, you might be lucky to reach the maximum priority amount of $10000. That tells you that you should never have your company owe you more than that amount.

But here is the worst thing of all and the reason why I call it robbery: To go through this process and hoping that the courts will do the socially responsible thing and give you what you worked for is not a seamless and quick process. It can easily take 3-4 years, and if there are enough complaints, it might even take longer.

That means the money that would have bought you 100 gallons of gas 3 years ago will buy you 25 gallons (if you are lucky) by the time you get what’s due to you. The same is true for food, energy, etc.

What should you do? Don’t let your company rob you in the first place. Let them pay you every two weeks and ask for an advance whenever you have to do anything for your employer. Advances have to be paid in cash or check and you can put it in your bank account right away.

The environment is rough and we probably haven’t seen the last collapse or heard all of the bad news yet. Please don’t make the mistake to think that your organization cannot be affected. Remember when Enron was called the greatest gold mine ever, when Countrywide was seen as the mother of all mortgage lenders, when GM was admired for being the largest car manufacturer in the world…

It’s never too early to be careful. Times are challenging and you should do whatever you can to keep your family and your hard earned money safe – so, don’t get robbed!

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC

When the mood in our workplace, at home, or in society in general is subdued, the value of great leaders becomes apparent.

How often have you seen individuals who have been promoted from one level to the next and the next and the next based on need and some extraordinary skills become insecure, controlling, stressed out and un-approachable, especially when their leadership is most needed?

How often have you lived through situations where decisions are being announced without a detailed explanation or reason why?

Have you been craving for leaders who are authentic, well balanced between factual knowledge and emotional intelligence?

Leading from the core is one of those traits that take a lot of development tobecome good at. To get into the right frame of mind, here is a little story I received today from Tom Mathews:

As a leader, do you honor and appreciate the power of WE? Do you stop to thank and recognize the members of your team? Do you consistently show an attitude of gratitude?

I recently read a great story about Captain Charles Plumb, a graduate from the Naval Academy, whose plane, after 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam, was shot down. He parachuted to safety, but was captured, tortured and spent 2,103 days in a small box-like cell.

After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts, and returned to America and spoke to many groups about his experience and how it compared to the challenges of every day life.

Shortly after coming home, Charlie and his wife were sitting in a restaurant. A man rose from a nearby table, walked over and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

Surprised that he was recognized, Charlie responded, “How in the world did you know that?” The man replied, “I packed your parachute.” Charlie looked up with surprise. The man pumped his hand, gave a thumbs-up, and said, “I guess it worked!”

Charlie stood to shake the man’s hand, and assured him, “It most certainly did work. If it had not worked, I would not be here today.”

Charlie could not sleep that night, thinking about the man. He wondered if he might have seen him and not even said, “Good morning, how are you?” He thought of the many hours the sailor had spent bending over a long wooden table in the bottom of the ship, carefully folding the silks and weaving the shrouds of each chute, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn’t know.

Plumb then began to realize that along with the physical parachute, he needed mental, emotional and spiritual parachutes. He had called on all these supports during his long and painful ordeal.

As a leader, how many times a day, a week, a month, do we pass up the opportunity to thank those people in our organization who are “packing our parachutes”?

I can relate to this story, not only because I was a military jet aviator myself and have been with the guys who packed my parachute. I also relate to it because this core from which true, successful leadership comes from is a core of empathy, caring, praise, character, and appreciation.

To develop these traits and live them everyday in every situation, no matter how bad the problem, how bad the economy, how bad the sales, and how bad the approaching recession, a certain attitude is required.

This attitude assumes that every person is good, trying as hard as he or she can, and is willing to improve, given the proper guidance. As the leader we want to be this guide who provides support, creates the environment to excel, and is willing to take the blame and responsibility when things don’t work out as we had planned. That is distinctly different from a manager who takes a leaders’ vision and strategy and converts it into processes, policies, directives, and rules.

If you like to learn more about the development of this core, I recommend Henry Cloud’s book ‘Integrity’, Jim Collins ‘Good to Great’, Richard Boyartzis ‘Resonant Leadership’, and John Kotter’s ‘Our Iceberg is melting’. If you learn better with a story, you might want to start with Steve Farber’s ‘Radical Leap’.

In any case, ask yourself what you can do to develop a positive, resonating, caring core from which you operate, help other people succeed, and conduct your daily life. As you develop this core, you will enable yourself and those around you to come through adversity, recession, health issues, and the challenges of living and working with others with flying colors.

Don’t forget, they are packing your parachute – so you better treat them well and appreciate their focus and accuracy, so you will live another day and have a chance to be the beacon they require for direction in life.

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC

What is the purpose of a teacher, author, consultant, coach and educator?

I think it is to help others find the success they are looking for. That can happen by bringing new information to the table, mixing existing information and data in a new way, creating an environment in which a person can discover new ways to become successful.

In all these cases, some research is required. Based on what was found the teacher, author, consultant, coach and educator then draws conclusions and presents to his/her audience. I had planned to do that for this article when I sat down to write.

During my research I found three sources who did a piece of what I was looking for, as if magically, for me. I know all three of them and admire their abilities greatly. (Maybe also a little more today because they made writing this piece much easier than anticipated)

On a daily basis we are inundated by numbers and new facts. It started as the glorified information age and has quickly become information overload. When the numbers are unpleasant, we want to get away from them.

For my purpose of brining something new to you regarding how to kill these numbers and still succeed, let’s start with a statement from Dr. Henry Cloud (2008):

If you want to take a car down a road, you drive it straight ahead. It is designed to move that way, in the same direction the wheels are aligned.

You could try pushing it sideways, or rolling it end over end. That is possible, if you have a bulldozer that is big enough. The only problem is that the car will get smashed in the process and you won’t get the performance from the car that it was intended to give you. It will be really slow and messy.

Unfortunately, many leaders lead that way; they set up their people’s work, reporting relationships and culture in ways that are misaligned with their developmental design. This can lead to diminished performance, dysfunctional relationships, teams that don’t work, and high turnover. People are designed to function in some specific ways, and these issues are not complicated. With a little knowledge of how people are constructed, some self-monitoring, and regular assessment of how things are working, a leader can avoid significant problems.

What does research show about how people are constructed and what they feel? First let’s lok at some data from Patricia Drain (2008):

I am sure you have heard about the studies they have been doing for years with 100 people who either graduated at the same time from high school or college, even 100 people born and raised at the same time in the same town.

Here is what has been discovered year after year:

• 60% are living paycheck to paycheck,
• 27% are financially dependent on others to make it in this world,
• 10% are above average in earnings,
• 3% are financially independent.

When asking each of those 100 people if they have ever designed their life by either learning about manifesting, the laws of the universe, or goal setting.

• 60% were aware some tried goal setting but only a couple of times
• 27% didn’t know what we were talking about
• 10% understood and were very aware of the universal principles working in their lives
• 3% not only understood the game of getting what you want, but had all of their aspirations and desires written down.

With that frustrating state of affairs, Steve Denning (2008) wanted to know what people say about their work. Here is what he found

The percentage of people who truly love what they are currently doing at work? It’s 6%! That means 94% of people are in various stages of disinterest, disillusion or despair as to how they are spending most of their waking time on this planet. Is this what several thousand years of civilization ought to be about? Almost universal disinterest or discontent? We are of course much better off financially than we were a hundred years ago, but it doesn’t seem to be making us any happier. All the statistics indicate: the richer we get, the more miserable we become.

Describing the problem alone doesn’t really help a lot. I had planned to tello you what I would do, but as mentioned earlier, Dr. Henry Cloud (2008) did it for me and probably better than I could have. So here it is in a nutshell:

What are the issues a leader must consider? I will be taking a look at four of them in my next few articles. They begin early in life, and stay with us for the duration, no matter what we do. They are important in personal relationships, our health, and our work lives. In this article, we will look at the most basic and foundational need we have.

Our most basic need is to be connected to others by bonds of trust. We all need to feel we are “part of something,” and not isolated. In leadership, some of this is functional and some of it is emotional. When people work, they must feel a connection to the leader, the team, and the “whole picture”. Along with being functionally connected, the relationship with their leadership must be warm, trusting, and positive. They should feel needed, known, wanted, valued, and cared about. When those feelings are present, people give their all. They perform better and with greater satisfaction and loyalty. Connection and trust are basic to all that humans do, including the performance of great organizations.

Some leaders know this. They do things that build this functional connectedness and foster the emotional experience for their people as well. Functionally, they make sure that they have regular team meetings, and that everyone is part of the information loop, ensuring that no person is habitually cut off from key information. Individuals and teams suffer when part of the team is in the know and moves down a path - only to inform other key players later. This causes work-flow problems, alignment problems, and hurt feelings as cliques are suspected and paranoia grows. Good leaders keep people “in the know.” They include them.

Wise leaders also make sure everyone on the team is aware of the work of each team member. That way, everyone feels valued and important, and all the members can see how their work affects another person’s work. They realize that they are all interdependent. This eliminates situations in which one person believes that only their work matters, not seeing themselves as part of a whole. When team members learn to work together, with a common goal in mind, organizations run more smoothly and efficiently.

Leaders need to recognize that it will take some time and intention for people to feel connected to them. In my book Integrity, I wrote about a CEO’s experience in laying someone off because of downsizing. The CEO was surprised to learn that his employee was not as upset over losing his job as he was that his boss had taken so little interest in him throughout his employment. Often, with leaders’ time crunches, it is only the squeaky wheels that get the grease. Good leaders remember that there are key people who need a little one-on-one attention every now and then. It goes a long way, and there are both functional and emotional results.

Check in on your people. Drop by and ask how they are doing. Make regular “rounds” like a doctor does on a hospital floor. Take them to coffee at a time when there is no problem to talk about, just to see how they are. Ask if there is anything you can do to make things better. Send them a clip of an article that you have read that will help them. Send an e mail when you notice a good piece of work. Have a bonding day every now and then where you close the shop an hour early and take everyone out for a few hours, or do an office barbecue for lunch. They want to see you in an apron.

To make them feel valued, listen. Don’t just tell them what to do and what your reality is, but listen to their views, thoughts, and experience. The more you do that, the more connected to you they will feel. You will capture their hearts, which is the basis of leadership. Good leadership needs to come from the heart, and is sustained by heart connections. If you listen and validate the experience and realities of those you lead, your leadership will be on more solid ground.

Driving the leadership car down the road aligned with how it is designed means that you must first consider people’s basic need to feel connected. If you honor that need, you will go much farther. Your people will perform better, be more loyal, and have a much greater experience. Everyone wins, as the biblical value of “unity” is kept first and foremost in the leader’s mind.

I hope this is inspiring to you and helps you to succeed despite the devastating numbers. If you are in a leadership role, take Henry Cloud’s advice. In case you find that you don’t have the right people in the right positions, you can take a look at the solution in the PerformanceIQ system I use to turn the fortune for you and your organization around.

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC

Today I like to educate you about a phenomenon most of us have experienced before. I became aware of the description through an investment newsletter I receive. In it Jeff Clark describes it. It’s called the Puke Effect.

Don’t be mistaken. It doesn’t only apply to investing. It applies to many things and in some cases has become a behavior.

Look at your team meetings:
Have you put meetings on your schedule that you feel are totally redundant or unnecessary, and only waste your time? Ask yourself how many of these meetings just get created because one person wants to impress another person in the hierarchy.

How often do you think it happens because nobody wanted to make a clear decision, so it was elected to have another meeting about a subject?

Here is how Jeff describes the Puke Effect:

“The cruise was going along just fine.”

Captain Bill was describing the worst sailing trip he had ever chartered. “We were about halfway to the island when one of the passengers started to get sick…“He didn’t quite make it all the way to the railing and he threw up on a bunch of the passengers who were sitting right there on the starboard side of the boat.”Captain Bill then went on to describe how the passengers who had been puked upon started vomiting as well. Some of them managed to vomit over the side of the boat. But they were throwing up into the wind, and a good portion of “breakfast shrapnel” blew back into the boat, soaking the clothes, hair, and faces of anyone standing nearby.

At the end of every quarter, portfolio managers dress up their accounts by purging stocks that haven’t performed well. After all, who wants to show shareholders they’ve been hanging on to the worst-performing stocks in the market? So, one by one, the portfolio managers jettison the equities overboard. As the selling pressure mounts and the losses deepen, more and more managers feel the need to purge. Eventually, even the most experienced money managers are throwing up stocks at bargain-basement prices. It happens every quarter.Jeff Clark

It is rather simple:

You need honesty, confidence, and communication skills.

If you are confident to voice your opinion in a clear, non-threatening way, and communicate convincingly, you will avoid meetings that nobody needs. You will be able to make decisions when all aspects have been discussed. You will be in a role that keeps discussions from escalating into a Puke-Fest.

Best of all, you will be respected, maybe even adored, and people will want to work with you and seek your advice. One way of learning to have the required combination of confidence, honesty, and communication skill is coaching. You might want to try it for 3-6 months and see how much you can gain in a fairly short amount of time. This is especially recommended if you find yourself in a position of power and responsibility and recall events that qualify for the Puke Effect.

To get an impression of the materials we use at AMC LLC, you can start with the package we offer at http://tinyurl.com/4hqyzq and then upgrade form there.

On a lighter note, I like to suggest watching the video (link below) and getting a clear perspective on where time has gone – in case you have days you ask yourself: “I did things all day long, but it appears as if nothing got done – other than that stupid meeting with the Puke- Fest in the middle. Where did all the time go?”

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4P785j15Tzk

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC