Grow Your Business

I worked with a fast growing company that had an ex-steelworker for a CFO. Growing up in the rust belt and working in the mills of the late 60′s he developed his management style and approach to employees and life in general: Work hard, play hard and just deal with me being “rough around the edges”.

It was the “rough around the edges” which caused his steel company employer to send him to sensitivity training because of the complaints with his approach. To this day the CFO refers to that as the time he was sent to charm school. When I was hired to work with this new company in developing leadership, I heard this story from him over lunch on the first day I was there. I asked him how charm school worked out. His reply was, “It didn’t do me a G’dam bit of good.” Followed by a hearty laugh. He later confessed he did learn how to better understand how people see things differently and that he needed to have different approaches to managing a workforce, but he was still a man with his rough edges permanently in place, and proud of them.

Focus on Strengths

The old farmerism of “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” also applies to leadership development. You can’t make someone be who they are not. People can modify behavior and learn new techniques and skills to becoming a better leader. The key is setting up the proper expectations and clearly defining the expected outcome. When I coach executives or work on leadership development programs with my clients I concentrate on this piece of leadership wisdom:

People can only change so much

Someone who is not a people person is not going to attend a class and suddenly feel the need to embrace the world and give everyone a hug at the end of the day. These type transformations only happen in the movies, or with celebrities going to rehab (cough, cough) or over decades of therapy. Can someone that is xenophobic learn to appreciate differences in people and modify how to approach them for pinnacle performance results? Absolutely. Just don’t expect it to be accomplished with a completely different personality than the one they currently have. The key is to focus on results and progress toward the desired outcomes.

In talking with a group of managers about the Next Generation I was trying to explain the differences between the generations and this guy from my audience says, “I don’t know what’s up with my younger employees but someone was handing out stupid and they were grabbing all they could get!.” Sure everyone laughed, but he failed to see the joke – because he didn’t have a mirror in front of him.

This new generation of workers is more intelligent, more technologically savvy, and better able to accomplish a multitude of tasks than generations prior. They are not stupid.

They also will not tolerate boorish managers, incomplete information and lack of proper training. There is where the stupid lies – in how managers are treating this generation that have the potential to make your organization soar! Read more »

By Russell J White

The people closest to you in your personal and professional lives will have a tremendous influence on who you become. As a friend of mine told me, “I put people in my life who don’t let anything stop them.”

They have the same success mindset she does, and at her young age she has accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime. How does she do this?

Think of yourself as a bus driver and the seats behind you are occupied by those closest to you. What are you hearing from them? How do they act from day to day? How much of a priority are you to them? What actions are they doing you are proud of? What positive influence do you feel in their presence?

People you want on your bus Read more »