Order of Magnitude CEOs

I hope I make it to Third Grade - Does your staff explicitly know how they are doing?

My older daughter Sarah came home with her report card this past Tuesday.  It was the fourth of the four she received as a 2^nd grader.   At the end of each quarter she got a quantitative score from 1 to 4 in multiple subject areas and subareas like reading, math, language, and a few others.  In addition, she got a few qualitative comments as well related to her performance since the last report card.  Not only did she get these quarterly report cards, we also had two regularly scheduled meetings with her teacher to discuss performance.  Sarah had done successively better on each of her earlier report cards but yet she still asked after I reviewed her report card with an anxious look on her face, “I hope I make it to third grade.”  

Having reviewed Sarah’s report card, I stated to her with confidence that not only did she get promoted to third grade but we knew her areas of strength and which areas she could work on (there was one).  This question though from my daughter got me thinking about business owners who have yet to develop their own report card system for their staff.  Without a formal and meaningful regular review process, your staff is left to ponder or worse, not even know to ask the following questions: 

“How am I doing?”

“What do I do well?”

“What should I work on?”

“How do I get better?”

“What are my goals for the next 6 or 12 months?”

“Am I on track for that promotion?”

And without a structured review process, for the most part you will have no idea what are the dreams and aspirations of your staff and what you can do help them come true or perhaps agree their future should be with another firm.

If you have not instituted a program to quantitatively and qualitatively review individual staff performance, you are missing an opportunity to let each staff member know the conditions of satisfaction in their role and how each one is doing against their own personal goals. 

Yes, formal semi-annual reviews require significant time and resources to set up, manage, and then run, but if you are going to scale and develop your organization to fulfill your own personal ambitions, you don’t really have a choice.

I Know it's Hard but Take Time to Enjoy Your Personal Journey, It Goes Fast

Waking up this morning, I immediately thought about my Dad.  He passed away in mid-April last year. This morning I did not remember everything he had done for me and the lessons he taught me.  This morning I did not remember the struggles. This morning I did not remember the good times.

Instead my thoughts simply drifted to how much he enjoyed being with my brother or me on a day just like today.   After my brother and I had both moved out of the house, whenever one of us would see him and it was time to leave, he would simply ask when he would be seeing us again.  As I was thinking of that memory, my two daughters came into the room to hang out with me.  My wife had already left the room before I woke up so it was just the three of us hanging out on my bed for about 30 minutes.  It was a wonderful, relaxing way to start the day.  Then my wife came into the room and said, “Did you remember to wish Daddy a Happy Father’s Day?”  Although they had made presents for me that they gave me later in the day, they had forgotten, but that was perfectly alright by me. 

They had given me the greatest gift of all, wanting to spend time with me just because they enjoyed my company.  I know that in a few years that may change as my daughters become teenagers but at least for today I am thankful.

Although, it is easy to forget and just focus on the future or what you have to accomplish next, make sure to regularly take a step back to soak in and enjoy your personal journey with your family and staff, it ‘s a wonderful thing and it goes fast.

It Doesn't Just Matter What Gets Said, It Also Matters What Gets Heard

“Why is there cream cheese on one of the bagels?” my wife asked me, “and where is the tub of plain cheese, I only see the vegetable cream cheese?”

We had guests in from out of town over the weekend, and I had just returned home from our local bagel store, where I thought I had ordered a mix of a dozen bagels and two tubs of cream cheese – one plain and one vegetable.

Instead, I had received 11 bagels with the 12^th bagel already spread with cream cheese and a single tub of vegetable cream cheese.

The bagel shop server must have messed up the order (or had she?)

“That’s funny, not a big deal,” my wife replied, “I went to Dunkin Donuts on Friday and asked for a coffee with half sugar and cream and as soon as I tasted it in the store, I knew it was wrong, it was way too sweet.

When I asked, I found out, the server had put double cream and double sugar.”

The Dunkin’ Donuts server must have messed up my wife’s order (or had he?)

In both cases, it’s hard to be sure what was heard, compared to what was said.

Contrast to the drive-thru experience at McDonald’s I had a couple weeks back where what was said and heard was the same yet there was still a breakdown.  I placed my usual order for my two daughters which included a small Iced Tea for my older daughter. Upon getting home and bringing the food into the kitchen, my older daughter asked for her Iced Tea.  Knowing I ordered it, having seen it on the order screen, I checked the car.  No Iced Tea.  I checked the receipt, and of course, saw the order on the receipt. With confidence I called the McDonald’s back to let them know and they proceeded to do a nice job of addressing the issue.

These are three very trivial examples for me, but I speculate aren’t trivial for the 3 owners (of the bagel shop, Dunkin’ Donuts, and McDonald’s) of what occurs every day in businesses.  Your staff is communicating with other employees, with clients, and with vendors among others, where:

1. Commitments are made (“Yes, we will finish it by Tuesday.” Do both parties agree on what “It” is and when on Tuesday),

2. Offers are made and accepted (“Happy to take that off your plate”, “Why Thank You!”   Does the person making the offer and the person accepting the offer agree on what is actually on the “plate” and have the same standard of satisfaction) and;

3. Assessments generated (“Tim’s not reliable, let’s have Rachel take care of it instead”.  Is the assessment of Tim not being “reliable” credible for the specific item required or is Tim never reliable which has broader implications?)

Commitments, Offers, and Assessments made by yourself and your staff can have a profound impact on the relationships your firm has with these very employees, clients, vendors, and other people you need in order to fulfill the ambition you have for your business.

Actively training staff to be aware of these potential breakdowns and designing systems to prevent these breakdowns can go a long way towards closing the gap between what gets said and what gets heard as well as provide additional opportunities to make your company’s offer standout in the marketplace.

A Great Time at the Dentist? For Ambitious Owners, Having a Great Core Service Is Never Enough

My daughters have been going to the same dentist since they each first got teeth.  A couple of years back, our health provider changed and I (the “decision maker”) decided to switch dentists since their dentist was now “Out of Network.”

Reluctantly, my wife finally agreed, but she was not happy about it.  She was unhappy when I told her and she was unhappy the whole time we used the other dentist.

“How’s our new dentist?” I would occasionally ask her after a visit to the other dentist.

“OK”

“Why only OK?”  I would reply.

“Our old dentist was just sooo much better.”

“In what way?”

“The kids just liked him better.”

I didn’t get it.

In September we switched health providers again.  My wife’s first question, “Can we go back to our first dentist?”  Luckily, our old dentist went from being “Out of Network” to being “In Network”. 

Happy Day for the Silbert Family, although I still did not understand the big deal.   A month ago, I finally found out.

Due to my older daughter getting a palate expander, we have had to make additional visits to the dentist. During one of those visits I got to visit the dentist office and see for myself, although by this time I must admit I had forgotten the issue around selecting a dentist.

Our dentist turned out to be extremely friendly to me and was very kind to my older daughter.  That was neat, but that is all I really thought about it.  It was then time for my younger daughter to get her cleaning from the dental assistants. By the end of her treatment, it felt more like she was with a great baby sitter than in a dentist office. 

Both my daughters had a great time at the dentist.  Words I never uttered, nor thought should go together “Great time and dentist.”

Later, that night, my wife asked, what did you think of the dentist?

“Big Difference, you were right, why didn’t you tell me?,” I said with a huge smile on my face, as I got smacked in the face with a pillow.

What’s interesting, through the years including this last conversation with my wife, the competence of our current dentist vs. the other dentist was never mentioned.  Both offered a core service that as far as my wife and I could tell was comparable. In fact, it didn’t even matter because neither of us ever brought it up.  It was a given for both of us, because if the dentist wasn’t competent, we would have switched immediately. No question.

Don’t forget, as you continue to work on your business, there’s a lot more to scaling it than just having a great core product or service.