Enriching Lives through Exceptional Service: Putting Employees First!

1. “Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives …

2. Excellence NOW Tom Peters/27 March 2012 Australian Human Resources Institute/Sydney (Slides at tompeters.com and excellencenow.com)

3. “Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives … or it's simply not worth doing.” —Richard Branson

4. People First! People Second ! People Third! People Fourth! People Fifth! People Sixth!

5. “You have to treat your employees like customers.”—Herb Kelleher, upon being asked his “secret to success”Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer,” on the occasion of Herb Kelleher’s retirement after 37 years at Southwest Airlines (SWA’s pilots union took out a full-page ad in USA Today thanking HK for all he had done) ; across the way in Dallas, American Airlines’ pilots were picketingAA’s Annual Meeting)

6. "When I hire someone, that's when I go to work for them.”—John DiJulius, "What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience"

7. "If you want staff to give great service, give great service to staff."—Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman's

8. If you want to WOW your customers then must firstWOW those who WOW the customers!

9. “We are a ‘LifeSuccess’ Company.”Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX

10. “The organization would ultimately win not because it gave agents more money,but because it gave them a chance for better lives.”—Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan, Everybody Wins, onRE/MAX

11. “hostmanship”/ “consideration renovation”

12. “The path to a hostmanshipculture paradoxically does not go through the guest. In fact it wouldn’t be totally wrong to say that the guest has nothing to do with it. True hostmanship leaders focus on their employees. What drives exceptionalism is finding the right people and getting them to love their work and see it as a passion. ... The guest comes into the picture only when you are ready to ask, ‘Would you prefer to stay at a hotel where the staff love their work or where management has made customers its highest priority?’ We went through the hotel and made a ... ‘consideration renovation.’Instead of redoing bathrooms, dining rooms, and guest rooms, we gave employees new uniforms, bought flowers and fruit, and changed colors.Our focus was totally on the staff.They were the ones we wanted to make happy.We wanted them to wake up every morning excited about a new day at work.”—Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm, Hostmanship: The Art of Making People Feel Welcome.

13. EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down Vineet Nayar/CEO/HCL Technologies

14. “No matter what the situation, [the great manager’s] first response is always to think about the individual concerned and how things can be arranged to help that individual experience success.”—Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know

15. People First! People Second ! People Third! People Fourth! People Fifth! People Sixth!

16. Brand = Talent.

17. Our MissionTo develop and manage talent;to apply that talent,throughout the world, for the benefit of clients;to do so in partnership; to do so with profit.WPP

18. … no less than Cathedralsin which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial flairof diverse individualsis unleashed in passionate pursuit of … Excellence.

19. Oath of Office: Managers/Servant Leaders Our goal is to serve our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long haul. Serving our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long haul is a product of brilliantly serving, over the long haul, the people who serve the customer. Hence, our job as leaders—the alpha and the omega and everything in between—is abetting the sustained growth and success and engagement and enthusiasm and commitment to Excellence of those, one at a time, who directly or indirectly serve the ultimate customer. We—leaders of every stripe—are in the “Human Growth and Development and Success and Aspiration to Excellence business.” “We” [leaders] only grow when “they” [each and every one of our colleagues] are growing. “We” [leaders] only succeed when “they” [each and every one of our colleagues] are succeeding. “We” [leaders] only energetically march toward Excellence when “they” [each and every one of our colleagues] are energetically marching toward Excellence. Period.

20. If the manager’s sole task is to make team members successful— then what is your[manager] plan to make each individual more successful within the coming week?

21. And in Rochester NY …

22. Wegmans.

23. Three People!

24. “The ONE Question”:“In the last year [3 years, current job], name the … three people … whose growth you’ve most contributed to. Please explain where they were at the beginning of the year, where they are today, and where they are heading in the next 12 months. Please explain … in painstaking detail … your development strategy in each case. Please tell me your biggest development disappointment—looking back, could you or would you have done anything differently? Please tell me about your greatest development triumph—and disaster—in the last five years. What are the ‘three big things’ you’ve learned about helping people grow along the way?”

25. 2/year = legacy.

26. Promotion Decisions“life and death decisions”Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management

27. “A man shouldnever be promoted to a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknessesrather than on their strengths.”—Peter Drucker,The Practice of Management

28. 53 = 53

29. People are not“Standardized.” Their evaluations should notbe standardized. Ever.

30. Evaluating people = #1 differentiatorSource: Jack Welch/Jeff Immelt on GE’s #1 strategic skill (!!!!)

31. “In most companies, the Talent Review Process is a farce. At GE, Jack Welch and his two top HR people visit each division for a day. They review the top 20 to 50 people by name. They talk about Talent Pool strengthening issues.The Talent Review Process is a contact sport at GE;it has the intensity and the importance of the budget process at most companies.”—Ed Michaels, War for Talent

32. 70/100

33. “Development can help great people be even better—but if I had a dollar to spend, I’d spend 70 cents getting the right person in the door.”—Paul Russell, Director, Leadership and Development, Google

34. “In short, hiring is the most important aspect of business and yet remainswoefully misunderstood.” Source: Wall Street Journal, 10.29.08, review ofWho: The A Method for Hiring, Geoff Smart and Randy Street

35. “When assessing candidates, the first thing I looked for was energy and enthusiasm for execution: Does she talk about the thrill of getting things done, the obstacles overcome, the role her people played—or does she keep wandering back to strategy or philosophy?”—Larry Bossidy, Execution

36. WOW!!Observed closely: The use of“I”or“we”during a job interview. Source: Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman, chapter 6, “Hiring for Values,” Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic

37. Lower Case “d”

38. “Diverse groups of problem solvers—groups of people with diverse tools—consistently outperformed groups of the best and the brightest. If I formed two groups, one random (and therefore diverse) and one consisting of the best individual performers, the first group almost always did better. …Diversitytrumped ability.”—Scott Page, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

39. Diversity … perse … of any flavor … is a key … maybethekey … to effective and innovative decision making.

40. “The Bottleneck …

41. “The Bottleneck … Is at the Top of the Bottle”“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest reverence for industry dogma …Atthetop!”— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review

42. “You will become like the five people you associate with the most—this can be either a blessing or a curse.”—Billy Cox

43. … this will be the woman’s century …

44. “I speak to you with a feminine voice. It’s the voice of democracy, of equality. I am certain, ladies and gentlemen, that this will be the woman’s century. In the Portuguese language, words such as life, soul, and hope are of the feminine gender, as are other words like courage and sincerity.”—President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, 1st woman to keynote the United Nations General Assembly

45. “Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women.” Source: Headline, Economist

46. “AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE:New Studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure”TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek

47. Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives:Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity.Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers

48. Women’s Negotiating Strengths*Ability to put themselves in their counterparties’ shoes*Comprehensive, attentive and detailed communication style*Empathy that facilitates trust-building*Curious and attentive listening*Less competitive attitude*Strong sense of fairness and ability to persuade*Proactive risk manager*Collaborative decision-makingSource: Horacio Falcao, Cover story/May 2006, World Business, “Say It Like a Woman: Why the 21st-century negotiator will need the female touch”

49. “Power Women 100”/Forbes 10.25.1026 female CEOs of Public Companies:Vs. Men/Market: +28%* (*Post-appointment)Vs. Industry: +15%

50. “Headline 2020:Women Hold 80 Percent of Management and Professional Jobs”Source: The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will Reshape the World in the Next 20 Years, James Canton