 Perhaps Tom Peter’s said it best when he declared “upon having thine
leadership crown placed upon thine head, thou shalt never hear the
unvarnished truth again.”
Sound like words from upon high? Well, maybe they really
are. While not chiseled in stone, these words have meaning that
has transcended time and trendy business theories.
Honesty is in short supply within your own organization.
That’s why it’s often necessary to seek objective counsel from outside
the company.
But you must be aware.
It can bruise egos, challenge sacred cows, and rattle the
corporate politicians who have likely been entrenched for years.
And that’s not to say what it can cost a person with enough resolve to
not be the “yes man.” In some companies, it will cost a job at the
least.
If you’re the top brass, think about it.
After you’ve reached the position of “leader,” you forget what
it feels like to worry about giving honest advice on the situation and
direction of the company. It’s easy to forget what that knot in
your stomach feels like when you sit at the throne instead of having to
look up at it.
It can be a scary thing to tell the Emperor he’s not wearing any clothes – especially if he looks funny without them.
I’ve seen some board rooms that look like a game of political
dodge ball. Nobody wants to have the “what do you really think” gun
aimed at them. They scurry about or sheepishly cower. And when
the proverbial deer is in the headlights, you’ll get an answer so
filtered of controversial substance it would even look out of place in
a Disney animation film.
We’re a society that seeks approval and acceptance. To
tell the truth and nothing but the truth, you have to be willing to be
ostracized and ridiculed. This can be daunting to some people -
especially when not doing so can cost you more than peer approval; it
can cost you your job and emotional well-being.
To the members of the nervous “herd” on the inside, it is a
fruitless quest of the naïve and company martyrs to speak up and tell
the top manager what she really needs to hear.
If you ask me, the herd just can’t see the forest for all of the
trees. And the higher-ups are either afraid of being exposed,
putting their head in the sand while assuring themselves the
hard-to-face issues will go away, are inflicted with a self-centered
complex that keeps them grasping their position of authority, or are
just plain oblivious. Often, it’s a combination of each.
That may sound like a harsh characterization, but it is an
intentional effort to shake you into looking hard at your own situation
- for the sake of you, your company and the people that are touched by
it.
Behind every great disaster – from the demise of the railroad
industry and the doomed voyage of the Titanic to the fall of Boston
Market – there were people on the inside that felt they couldn’t speak
honestly. In the end, not speaking up cost them their jobs
anyway. Unfortunately, it cost the companies their lives.
And all because the leadership within these organizations created a
culture of fear - unwittingly declaring “it’s OK to be honest with
management here as long as we like what we hear.”
So where am I going with all of this?
Honestly?
All businesses are dying on a daily basis. Keeping them
alive with perpetuity is a close-to-impossible art to try and
master. Identifying a problem or potential problem is the first
step in fixing it and keeping your business prosperously alive.
One person can’t do it all alone – you need honest feedback from around
you.
Here are a few suggestions to consider when evaluating your own situation:
1. Run a company wide survey – In this survey, use
customers and employees. Comment cards won’t cut it. It’s
amazing to me that companies have a standard comment card system and
think that the information they get has any real meaning. These
systems only capture the most pleased 5 percent and the most
dissatisfied 5 percent of their constituents. You need to know what’s
going on in the minds of the 90 percent in the middle. Give a
safe venue for your key stakeholders to tell you the truth anonymously
and without fear of retaliation. Be prepared to hear some things
you don’t want to hear. Also be prepared to take action in a
positive, meaningful and public way.
2. Launch an anonymous suggestion system – This may sound
like an overlap for the above, but it’s not. Surveys achieve a
high statistical confidence, but they are a snap shot in time.
Put an anonymous suggestion system in place that is recorded, archived
and encourages input from the 90 percent in the middle. Just
looking at the suggestions as they come through and then tossing them
is like going shopping and putting all of your groceries in someone
else’s cart. You may get to see everything, but in the end you don’t
get to put any of what you collected to use.
3. Don’t worry about the “who,” worry about the “what” –
Treat the problem, not the symptoms. This is the most telling
sign if you have a culture lacking of necessary honesty. Do you
frequently hear or speak a stern “who said that” or “who did that” in
your organization? Shooting the messenger is a great way to
ensure cover-up, deception, fear and a company filled with yes-men when
the “who” is always sought after. Fix the systems and you’ll not
have to micro manage the people.
4. Re-wire the company culture – My prediction is that
you’ll be hearing a lot more about “culture” in the coming years.
In my experience, a clearly articulated vision coupled with a
well-refined culture can achieve just about anything. Culture is
defined simply as the practices, beliefs, rituals and ways-of-being
among a community of people. Write a half-page summary describing
the culture you have now; then write a half page summary describing the
kind of culture you’d need to reach your objectives. Identify the
gaps and develop a strategy for closing them.
5. Open the channels – Get the feedback from front-liners
and people several steps down the company ladder. They should
feel they can come directly to you without retaliation. Layers of
bureaucracy create a system of information filters that make leaders a
lot like mushrooms – kept in the dark and fed manure. Make a
point to get front line information on a daily basis. Chances
are, there’s nothing more important on your desk than the daily
happenings on the front lines.
6. Bring in fresh blood - When companies get into
projects that require seismic change, they often focus exclusively on
changing people within the company, some of whom have been entrenched
for years, perhaps decades. This is the wrong place to
start. Evolve the culture by recruiting new people, fuel them
with the right inspiration, and they’ll become the change agents you
need to improve the company as a whole. Bringing in a qualified
facilitator for this process is a first step for many successful
companies.
7. Acknowledge the insights: Let people know the
action that was taken based on their honesty; or if no action was
taken, explain why. This is more important than many leaders
think. Asking for feedback, getting it, and then not doing a
thing with it is at least as detrimental to a culture of honesty and
feedback as not asking at all.
8. Reward: An American Airlines flight attendant had
an idea that worked its way to the top brass and saved the company
millions. She received a $20,000 bonus and plenty of internal
recognition. The idea has since gone on to make case studies for
dozens of learning institutions. Reprimand privately and praise
lavishly in public.
9. Take your head out of the sand – Every business is
riddled with realities that can be painful to face. However, not
facing them will surely cause more pain in the long run. Our need
to avoid pain usually overwhelms our desire to gain pleasure. It
will be important to consider the long-term impact of not soliciting
honest feedback and looking the hard reality in the eye.
Tom Peters gets over $50,000 for a speech these days, and his
consulting firm brings in more than $10 million in annual
billings. A big part of what he sells is honesty.
Be honest with yourself. Do you really have an environment
that people believe they can communicate honestly within? If not,
you may find yourself in the business equivalent of naked in the middle
of a marching band parade.
Contact us to find out how Quantified Marketing Group can help your restaurant.
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