In my last post I shared that in December I injured my right index finger and it’ll be out of commission for a couple of months. Don’t ask how, it’s embarrassing. A neighbor’s six year old asked me how it happened and I told him, “Fighting a wombat.” His eyes got real big and he asked if there were wombats in our building. I told him, “Not any more.” But I digress.

Losing the use of your most important finger on your dominant hand causes one to have to find new ways to do almost everything. I rely on my right hand for a lot and my index finger more than I do the other fingers. Sort of like the manager who relies too much on one staff member and doesn’t develop the rest of the team.  I’ve had to learn how to do things with my left hand and the other fingers on my right. It’s been an annoyance and an education.

Now what about that manager who relies too much on one staff member? What happens when that person becomes injured from overwork or gets frustrated and quits? This is more than an annoyance or an inconvenience. The manager who relies too much on one superstar performer, no matter how good he or she is, and neglects developing the skills and abilities of the other fingers, I mean staff, is doing the organization a major disservice. My left hand has gotten a crash course in lifting, washing, buttoning button and many other ADL’s (Activities of Daily Living). If there are typos in this post, blame my left hand.

Leaders need to ensure that every staff person is ready to step up and do the job. Waiting until you lose your most valuable performer to start training back-ups is no way to run a business. Take it from me, Ron “Lefty” Katz.

I heard that to fly a plane you only have to know how to do three things. Aviate, navigate and communicate. That’s all. Those are the key elements of a pilot’s job.

You have to know how to keep the plane in the air, know where you’re going and how to get there, and you have to make sure everybody else in the crew knows what you’re doing and what you expect them to do while you’re busy aviatin’ and navigatin’.

Sounds a lot like managing.

When managing or leading a team you have to know your stuff, how to run your business so you can keep it from crashing. You don’t have to know how to do every single aspect of the business, and you may not be, probably aren’t, the best at doing every function. You just have to know how it all comes together and keep it moving forward.

Now we’re onto direction. You have to have one. You need to know how to get where you want and need to be in order to be successful. Your people are looking to you to steer, avoid turbulence and get everyone safely to their destination.

Your people. The third element. Since Lindbergh, pilots aren’t usually alone. At least not on the big commercial airliners. You need to make sure everyone knows what you’re doing and what you expect of them. You need to let them know when there’s turbulence so they aren’t serving drinks when you hit that air pocket. Your role is to keep everyone informed of what they need to do so the entire operation is successful. If you’re going to keep everyone onboard with the direction, you need to communicate what it is, why you’re headed there and what’s the benefit to each one of them.

I know I’ve vastly oversimplified flying. The useful exercise is to see if you can break your business down into the most basic components so you know what you’re doing and as important, what’s missing. And so you can clearly communicate it to those around you so everyone’s doing their job, moving in the same direction and keeping everyone else on the team informed.

Wishing you clear skies and happy landings,
Ron

Being a star gives you one kind of thrill. Karen Ziemba has starred in numerous Broadway shows. And yet as you see in this clip, what she really wants is to be a Rockette. To be part of a team. And not just any team, she wants to be one of the best.

One of the best ways to motivate your people is to offer the chance to be part of a respected, high functioning team. People want to associate with the best, because that’s how most people see themselves.

You can motivate people to do their best, give even more than they think they’re capable of giving and accomplish superior results by giving them a chance to work with the best people in your organization. After a taste of working with staff at the highest level of your organization — and I mean expertise, not necessarily hierarchy — your employees will want to continue to associate and team with those people.

Use the power, the attraction, of the team to motivate superior performance. Watch people raise their game and dedicate even more of their talents to your company because they’ve been exposed to and given the opportunity to work with the best people you have. The added benefit is that soon you’ll find that you have more of these high functioning people to team with and motivate the rest of your staff. Teamwork can actually become a cornerstone of your organization’s culture as staff work harder to maintain that reputation of being one of the best. Nobody wants to fall out of step and everyone will be smiling and kicking just like the Rockettes. And what they’ll be kicking is your competition’s butt!

Like millions of Americans I started my Thanksgiving watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I love the floats, the bands, the balloons and my favorite part, The Radio City Rockettes. Their precision, their style, their dancing, it’s all perfection. I never get tired of it.

I started thinking about the Rockettes. They are all superb dancers. You don’t get to be a Rockette if you’re just good. You have to be more. Any one of them could probably be dancing on Broadway, with one of the world’s major dance companies or in the ballet. You have to be able to do it all to be a Rockette. But these incredible artists give up their individual dreams to be part of something greater. They are part of the world’s foremost precision dance company. They give up a lot.

Are your employees willing to make that kind of sacrifice? Managers I’m working with often tell me they want their employees to be “team players.” I respond by asking, “what does that mean?” What does it mean to be a team player in your organization? To me a team player is someone who’s willing to sacrifice. Someone willing to let their colleagues shine. Someone willing to sublimate personal success and recognition for the good of the department or the organization. It’s a sacrifice fewer and fewer people are willing to make these days. It seems everybody wants to shine, to get their 15 minutes of fame.

Except the Rockettes. They understand the value of belonging to this elite group. They take pride in being part of a tradition that extends back almost 100 years. They feel a responsibility to themselves, the group and to each other to never be out of step. Sure, I’ll bet there’s one who can kick higher than any other. But you’ll never see that happen in a performance. The performance of the group is more important that any one person’s glory. Your job as a manager is to instill the same feeling in your team. Next post I’ll offer a few ways how.

More courage from managers is what I’ve been saying we need. Sometimes, it’s the courage to perhaps look foolish as you lead by example. A willingness to do what others might question.

If you know anything about the Upper East Side of Manhattan, you know it’s a pretty affluent area. Many of the clientele in stores are rather well-off women with the kinds of dogs that you can fit in a purse. Well, one time a well-thought-of client’s poodle left a puddle when he piddled. Okay, you’re the manager, what do you do? Ask someone to take care of it? Order someone to clean that up? A manager whom I know took care of it this way. He cleaned it up himself. Sure, he could have asked, or ordered, a staff person to do it. He cleaned it up himself. He would never ask someone on his staff to do something he wouldn’t do himself.

Maybe he looked foolish on his hands and knees in his suit cleaning up after a little dog. Maybe other customers thought it looked odd to see the manager cleaning up a dog’s accident. I think he impressed the customer whose dog it was and it cemented her loyalty to the place. And I know it said an awful lot to the staff. How could they say, “No” to anything the manager might ask them to do?  Not after he’d courageously led by example. He’d cemented his position as their manager, and had cemented their loyalty to him.

Having the courage to do what others might not, or might not think is something a manager ought to do, is a big part of leading by example. And it takes courage.