The Stewardship of Seasoned Leadership

Lloyd slumped in his chair with his head in his hands.  As unusual as it is in today’s corporate world, Lloyd had devoted himself to one organization for many years.  Rising from hourly employee to senior leadership had taken him decades to accomplish, but his heart for business and his organization had always made the journey seem worthwhile.  Recently, he was not so sure.  Over the years, he had assumed ample responsibility and performed well.  It was difficult for him to understand why his expertise was being ignored in making key decisions about the function he leads in the business.   Without clear feedback, he was unsure if it was his performance as a leader, his competency in his field or his inability to manage the ever-present corporate politics.   Whatever the case, Lloyd was growing more frustrated by the day and impacting his engagement as a leader.  His company was missing the opportunity to receive the full return on the investments they had made in Lloyd during his lengthy career.  It had become a lose-lose scenario for Lloyd and his organization.

It’s easy to be attracted to the newest trend, the latest version and the shiniest model.   We forget that the older model might be sturdier and enduring.  In some ways, it is like owning a home.  For years, we might make improvements to the home, updating kitchens and bathrooms, adding additions and investing years in beautiful landscaping.  Then, we see a new home that is clean, fresh and the latest style.  We can quickly forget the years of investment we made in our present home, in our attraction to the latest and greatest.  It’s a stewardship decision.  Maybe the current home has a sinking foundation, a leaking roof and rotting windows and the repairs have become too costly.  In that case, a new home might be a better long-term investment.  However, sometimes, absent significant problems, the better stewardship decision is to continue to invest in the current home.  Such can be the case in decisions about investing in people. 

We hear lots of discussion about selecting leaders, growing leaders and leading leaders.  Organizations invest in leadership development programs and Ivy League executive education for leaders.  “Find more leaders” is often the edict given to human resources professionals from their organizations.  Leadership is likely the key competitive advantage for all businesses, so we constantly seek it and value finding it and growing it.  With so much emphasis placed on having great leaders, it makes sense to be a steward of those leaders.  However, oftentimes, organizations focus only on the value of developing new leaders and neglect the development of seasoned leaders.  A few will take their thinking to the next level and continue to invest in seasoned leaders.  Organizations that invest both in new leadership and seasoned leadership will clearly create the most competitive workforce to win in marketplace.

How can businesses be stewards of seasoned leaders?  Here are 6 ideas to consider:

1.      Enable seasoned leaders to mentor other leaders.  Don’t just suggest mentoring, but make this a key role for tenured leaders to pour their contextual and cultural knowledge of the organization into other leaders.

2.     Ask seasoned leaders their perspective about broad issues in the organization.  Over their long tenure, these leaders have observed many ups and downs and have likely grown relationships throughout the business.  The organization can benefit from their “insider” knowledge.

3.     Don’t assume seasoned leaders do not have new ideas.  Many of these leaders are attracted to innovation and because they are experienced, they recognize whether or not something is truly a new idea, or a re-packaged old one.

4.     Tap into the wisdom of seasoned leaders.  Seasoned leaders have likely experienced many successes, failures and setbacks.  Wisdom comes from navigating successfully through opportunities.   Seek their wisdom when making key decisions.

5.     Continue to invest in the growth of seasoned leaders.  These leaders are often less encumbered by other outside of work responsibilities and available for assignments that serve the business needs.  These leaders often help companies transition new functions.  As long as they work for you, continue to invest in their growth for the greatest return on the investments you have already made.

6.     Respect and appreciate seasoned leaders.  Their contributions have likely been invaluable in building your organization.  Respect and appreciate them late in their careers and they will continue to contribute to the success of the business in intangible ways.

Long career paths at one organization are no longer the norm.  For the few organizations fortunate enough to retain tenured talent, it is important to engage seasoned leadership by leveraging their skills, abilities, experiences and business insights.  Effectively stewarding seasoned leadership will not only contribute to business results, it will strengthen the overall culture, too!

Foster Dreams and Grow Engagement

My boss has been known to say," employees are a gift to be stewarded, not an asset to be managed."  There is so much truth in that statement.  The talent we select to be part of our team brings unique abilities, perspectives, ideas, thinking and insights.  If we are to maximize their contributions to our business, then we have to steward not just the competencies of the team member, but also their interests and their dreams.  In our business, we hire many team members that are on their way to something else.  For some, it is their very first job.  For a few others, they may be pursuing  an opportunity to operate their own restaurant.  However, like the NCAA athletics  commercial says, many will go pro at something else.  To be a good steward of the talent entrusted to us, we need to know what the endgame is for our employees.

Haley has a dream. She wants to save enough money to pay her way through college and become a chemical engineer.  She has worked since she was 15, earn the scholarship that her company offers and is on her way to be the first college graduate in her family.  Juan has dreams to own his own business, maybe like the restaurant where he is a team leader, or perhaps another opportunity.  He spends as much time with his leader as possible to learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship.  Calvin is retired from his first career, but enjoys extra spending money, especially when he goes to read to underprivileged kids on Sunday afternoons.  He enjoys being able to offer them a candy bar or a soda. Bonita is saving money to buy her first car.  Roderick enjoys his job as a training coordinator and loves to see his team members excel at new skills.  He finds pleasure in seeing them succeed.  Sandy works to earn extra money to provide needed therapy for her special needs child and she takes special joy in helping guests who need some assistance, too. Her dream is to provide the opportunity to mainstream her son at school.

While most people show up to work to earn a paycheck, all employees have options about where they earn it.  We have the opportunity to engage their hearts by fostering their dreams. As a steward of the talent entrusted to his, we receive 100% of our team member's efforts when they know we care about their dreams and desires.  We receive their extra efforts when we help them achieve them.  When their hearts are engaged in their work, our guests reap the benefits.

To foster the dreams of our employees, we must know and understand what the dream is and be willing to encourage the accomplishment of it.  Do you know what each of your employees aspires to be and do?  Are you willing to coach and encourage their dreams?  If so, then you are on your way to being a steward of the gifts entrusted to you in the talent that has chosen to work for you.  The man who fostered my dreams was known for often quoting a popular phrase:  "If you help enough people get enough of what they want, you will eventually get what you want."  It worked out well for my boss.  I think it is a principle that works for all of us.  Let's do a little dream work with our teams today.

5 Important Steps to Selecting Talent

People decisions are, perhaps, the most important decisions we make.  That is true whether we are selecting an employee, a business partner, a mate or a friend.  Who we decide to take on the journey with us can ultimately determine our success in business, marriage and relationships.  Making wise choices in the beginning provides a better chance of success in the end.

Understanding the WHY of an organization through determining the purpose is critical.   Understanding WHAT the organization will produce, serve, sell is crucial.    However, it is the WHO that actually produces, serves and sells.  The WHO delivers!  Purpose, strategy and tactics can be carved in granite and become somewhat static.  The WHO is dynamic, ever changing, depending on the skills, talents, personalities, ideas and thinking involved. 

There are 5 important steps to selecting the right WHO:

1.  Carefully craft the profile of the role you wish to fill on your team. Consider current strengths and weaknesses and staff to the gaps.  Use every hire as a chance to make adjustments of your team to maximize everyone's talent.  

2.  Cast a wide net in search for candidates.  Source candidates from different networks to generate a diverse candidate pool.  Differences can energize a team and introduce new ideas.  Sometimes, fresh ideas from different perspectives can stimulate a breakthrough to a new level of team performance.

3.  Always check references.  When properly conducted, referencing checking can be the most valuable tool in the selection toolbox.  It has been said, "past performance is the best predictor of future performance."  If that is so, then fully understanding someone's past performance gives you great information to choose the best candidate to help your team.  Invest the necessary time to gain this helpful insight.

4.  Encourage the candidate to carefully evaluate joining your team. The best people decisions, are the ones in which both the candidate and the team are certain it is a great fit.    It is not enough for the leader to make a good decision to select talent.  For long-term, successful relationships, the candidate must be sure it's the best choice, too!  Be sure the candidate gets an inside look at your organization . . . the good, the bad, the successes and the failures.  Then, try to talk the candidate out of joining your team.  If the potential team member can be talked out of it today, that is better than six months from now, when you have both made significant investments into forging the relationship.

5.  Commit to success.  Once you have decided and the candidate has accepted, commit yourself to the candidate's success.  Do whatever is necessary to leverage the investment you have made throughout the selection process.  Implement a development plan for the new employee that leverages strengths that help the team succeed.  

Surrounding ourselves with talented people whose character matches our own, whose competency matches our need and whose chemistry matches our team not only sets us up to win, but makes the endeavor much more enjoyable.  

Don't Only Retain Talent, Sustain It, Too!

While in New York this past week, I visited a store that specializes in paper products made from repurposed elephant dung.  Another store nearby displayed products  - everything from bracelets to clocks - made completely from recycled vinyl records.   Reusable, recycled, renewable and repurposed are all words we hear often about precious natural resources.  It begs the question:  what about the sustainability of people?

If we are to have the talent we need to be competitive in the future, we must focus on the sustainability of people.  Our talent needs to individually be holistically healthy to position our organizations for future success.   There is not an endless supply of talented people and that is why it is important to sustain the current talent.  An organization's cultural health is dependent on the holistic health of the individuals in the organization.

Sustainable talent is physically healthy. Wellness is a popular benefit in many organizations now.  Fitness centers, personal training, nutrition counseling and on-site medical clinics are highly sought after perks among job seekers.  Leaders must juggle competing priorities, stressful schedules and endless demands. Encouraging good physical health ensures that our organizations are stacked with available and capable talent to produce healthy organizational results.

Sustainable talent is mentally healthy.  Investment in the mental health of our talent pays great dividends.  Rested minds are more innovative and creative.  Stephen Covey's seventh habit of highly effective people is to "sharpen the saw."  Mentally healthy people read, study, listen and observe to refine and perfect their craft.  Promoting time for rest and renewal invites the opportunity for mentally healthy talent.

Sustainable talent is emotionally healthy.  Access to employee assistance programs, programs and activities for spiritual development and emphasis on healthy relationships inside and outside of the marketplace enhances emotional health.  Emotionally healthy leaders manage day-to-day stress better and are more able to inspire other talent.  Emotionally healthy people make better decisions for the organization.  

Organizations that want to sustain, not just retain talent understand the mind-body-spirit connection and nurture all three.  Sustainability is defined as something that is able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed. Retention is simply just holding on to something.  Retained people can be warm bodies.  Sustained talent is competitive advantage.  

Create a Compelling Culture

It's an elusive concept to describe.  When someone asks me how our organization cultivates such an incredible culture, my first reply is "we started there."  

It is much easier to create a compelling culture from the beginning than to rebrand a struggling culture later.  It's an essential beginning, not just to a business, but also to any organization, including families, teams, churches and educational institutions.

A compelling culture begins with a clear purpose for existing.  WHY are we in business?  From early on, our company ownership decided that stewardship and influence were key motivators.  Sure, serving great food in a clean environment by friendly and courteous people is what we do, but what unites an organization is a common purpose; a reason for existence.  For our business, we have a higher calling than just selling chicken.  Selling chicken is a means to glorifying God by being a faithful steward and having a positive influence.  A compelling culture is built on understanding the all-important WHY an organization exists.

The next step to growing a compelling culture is a challenging mission.  WHAT are we in business to do?  Over time a mission might change depending on the goals of the organization.  Once the goal associated with the mission is achieved, it might be time for a new mission.  A mission should be clear as to what is the business of the organization and what it aspires to do and for whom.  The Orlando Magic's mission statement is: "To be world champions on and off the court, delivering legendary moments every step of the way."  They are clear that they aspire to be world basketball champions and deliver special experiences for their fans both on and off the court.  

Determining core values is the next crucial decision necessary to create a compelling culture.   These are the fundamental beliefs that inform decisions and action and sometimes are called the heart of a culture.  Core values answer the questions:  What do we believe in?  How do we express those beliefs?  Do we have experiences in our organization that support our beliefs?  The key to identifying core values is to select a few of the very most important attributes that our families, teams, organizations can remember and live out day-to-day.  Teach for America has 5 Core Values that describe the behavior expected to fulfill their mission to:  "grow leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education."    Their five core values of transformational change, leadership, team, diversity and respect and humility are critical to achieving their mission. (Learn more at teachforamerica.org.)  When the core values of an organization match the purpose and the mission, its members are inspired to be an integral part and help the organization succeed.

With a clear purpose established, a challenging mission before us and a commitment to core values, establish guiding principles that acts as "true North" on the compass of your organization.  The principles serve as a guide of what the organization does, why it does it and how it does it.  Every organization needs key guiding principles that direct its members and shape the behaviors that support the purpose and mission. The ownership of our company decided we would be closed on Sundays and that practice has continued since 1946.  He also decided to remain privately held and family owned.  Another principle for our company is to treat everyone with honor, dignity and respect.  Guiding principles serve to enhance and strengthen the understanding of the overall purpose.  

While creating a compelling culture is an essential beginning for an organization, it's never too late to help your family, team or organization strengthen theirs.  Start your strategy with the WHY through defining your purpose.  Continue with the WHAT in developing your mission and then focus your efforts day in and day out on the HOW through constant commitment to your core values and guiding principles.  With unwavering focus and discipline on the process, you can create a compelling culture for your organization.  Given the great success of organizations that do, why would you not?