Delivering Results in a Me Too World
by Randy G. Pennington
The marketplace never lies – Results Rule! Great companies and leaders share one thing in common – they deliver meaningful value…year after year after year.
The Big Question
The most pressing strategic issue for every company is gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage in a “ Me To o” world. Your customers are continuously asking, “Why you? Why now? What makes you relevant?”
The most popular approaches are to ...
- Develop and produce a truly unique product or service. This works if you can pull it off, but most companies compete in industries where products and services are viewed as commodities.
- Extend your product or service line. Another possible solution with uncertain outcomes. Does anyone remember Harley Davidson cologne?
- Change your business model. That's easier said than done. Ask Gateway Computers.
- Attract and retain the very best talent. The 2004 Olympic Games serve as a stark reminder that talent and potential do not guarantee a gold medal.
- Become the low-cost provider. This appears to be the choice de jour in many industries. Controlling costs is essential, but ultimately, you cannot cut your way to growth.
A compelling corporate culture is the intangible that provides a sustainable competitive advantage. It is the tool for winning the hearts, minds, and commitment of people. And, it is a key to long-term results in a world where products and services are viewed as commodities.
People make business work. Technology, value chains, distribution models, and even strategic plans have their place, but the culture connects employees, customers, and even communities to the organization. A strong and vibrant culture allows you to successfully implement strategic change, retain top talent, and create a distinction between you and the other guy.
Results Rule! Cultures: More than Great Service
Results Rule! organizations are known for outstanding products and service. Excellent quality is the norm. Details are rarely overlooked. They make people say “WOW!” at every turn.
On the surface, it appears effortless. Behind the scenes, a number of factors make it possible. Results Rule! cultures are characterized by:
- A set of organizational beliefs, assumptions, and values supporting a commitment to results, relationships, and accountability
- Leaders and managers modeling specific behaviors, attitudes, and skills that produce long-term voluntary commitment across the enterprise
- Employees taking ownership for meeting or exceeding expectations and doing what's right
- Mutual respect, cooperation, and a high degree of trust between individuals and their managers, teams, and departments
- Alignment of individual, team, and departmental goals with the organization's strategic business objectives
- A work environment that attracts quality talent and retains top performers who appreciate the opportunity to succeed
Building a Culture that Delivers Results
Culture, for the purpose of this discussion, is defined as "the way we do things around here that communicates what we believe about people, performance, and productivity. An organizational culture cannot be installed like a new software program. Leaders nurture and guide it through a constant commitment to results, relationships, and accountability. We've identified seven strategies for building a culture that delivers results.
- Identify and deliver your valuable uniqueness
Companies producing long-term results identify and deliver a valuable uniqueness in the mind of the customer. For some organizations the difference is service level. For others it is product innovation or being the low-cost provider. There is something that makes your operation unique. You must identify and deliver it to capture attention in the marketplace.
Operating a successful restaurant is tough. The hours are long. The margins are thin, and customers' taste change in a heartbeat. Richard Melman and his partner Jerry Orzoff opened a burger joint called R.J. Grunts in 1971. Today, Lettuce Entertain You owns and licenses nearly seventy-five restaurants in the U.S. and Japan . The company delivers consistent results that make it an industry leader.
Melman's company knows that quality and service are the fundamentals required of everyone. And, it understands its valuable uniqueness in the marketplace. Melman says, "We've had the ability to give people what they want almost before they know they want it. You can call it trendsetting. I prefer to call it the ability to listen to people."
What is your valuable uniqueness in the marketplace that engages your staff and allows you to stand out with your customers?
- Hire "your" people.
It is hard to believe that gourmet ice cream is a commodity product, but the marketplace is crowded and the competition is stiff. Enter Amy's Ice Cream with profit growth of approximately 20% per year. Amy's sells entertainment with a side order of great ice cream. Stepping into Amy's is like attending an improvisational theater where the show constantly changes and the audience always participates.
Amy's Ice Cream could not be successful without the right people. Delivering the Amy's experience requires creativity, spontaneity, and energy. And, those are precisely the traits the company looks for in applicants.
Every company has a right fit for its culture. The traits that make someone a star at Amy's Ice Cream could result in disaster at another company. Nuclear power plants do not hire plant operators who do something crazy just to make things fun.
What are the traits and competencies needed to make your culture work and help your company produce the desired results?
- Focus on performance, set specific goals, and measure everything.
Average call-handling time, customer service level, and grade of service level are three important metrics in the call center industry. George Hess, a veteran telecom executive and client at Sprint, MFS, and CapRock Communications, believed there were others.
George also measured the number and type of conversations supervisors held with employees each month. In the process, he discovered two very important lessons: (1) measuring supervisor interactions with employees reinforced the culture he was working to create and (2) the type of conversations supervisors have with employees this month are a leading indicator of business performance in the months ahead.
Results occur when you inspect what you expect. Cultures that deliver consistent results define the desired performance, set specific goals, and measure everything related to those goals.
Are performance goals and measures communicated clearly in your operation? How about the "soft" goals related to relationships? Are you measuring the results that matter?
- Build systems to support skills and attitudes.
Ask any Sewell Motors customer what sets the company apart, and the answer will be service. The response will be the same if you ask a Sewell employee.
The Sewell team has created a culture that takes service to legendary levels in pursuit of business results. Their secret is a combination of smiles and systems. Jaquita McKinney is one of the best service professionals I have ever met. Her attitude is outstanding, and she does the little things to make you feel valued as a customer.
Her smiles are important and, ultimately, meaningless without a system to ensure the service is delivered as promised. Sewell operates a state-of-the-art parts inventory and control system to enable Jaquita and her teammates to create customers for life.
Systems create habits in organizations, and habits are a driving force for influencing the culture. Skills and concepts can be taught. You can even create momentum (and a few smiles) through inspiration. But the impact of skills and inspiration is minimal if there are no systems in place to reinforce and support their use.
What systems do you need to support the skills and attitudes of your staff? Implementing them will allow your organization to turn its good intentions into action every day.
Every company, department, and team has a culture. The only question is whether your organization's culture has developed by accident or choice.
- Engage the heart and inspire the mind
Anyone can duplicate your product. Copying your employees is another story.
Results Rule! companies excel at engaging the hearts and inspiring the minds of their staff.
Southwest Airlines' employees are nuts about providing low fares, great customer service, and reliable flights. Amy's Ice Cream employees are wild about providing a unique customer experience. Harley Davidson employees are passionate about building great motorcycles.
The engagement begins with providing a cause. Jobs are a means to collect a pay check. We become volunteer patriots for a cause that excites our ability to accomplish something important.
Mary Kay Cosmetics calls it living the life of your dreams —where you can have unlimited earning potential and the freedom to achieve within a community of women and without sacrificing family.
The leader's willingness to help individuals succeed provides continued motivation and creates an environment where performance is a matter of choice.
Finally, partnerships built on trust and mutual respect allows individuals to take control of their own results and act as owners and stewards of the business.
When was the last time your staff took a collection to buy you a plaque? Did it say, “Boss of the Year?”
That's what happened to Dennis Ross, a front-line leader at CapRock Communications. He provides a great example for a commitment to helping people succeed. Cheryl Swann, Dennis's manager, described him this way, “Employees say, ‘I want Dennis. He treats me like a person. He's fair. He helps me when I'm struggling, and he recognizes my accomplishments.”
Dennis puts it this way, “Employees recognize that I'm here for more than the money. I'm here when they get to work. I'm here when they leave. If I don't have the answer, I will find the answer ... I can encourage someone to do better, and they know we are serious because it is the policy. But you must have a heart as well.”
- Learn and grow or perish.
Past success proves you were right once. You don't necessarily have to change. You do have to continually adapt ... every day.
Bicycle Bill's website proudly announces that Schwinn bicycles are back. This begs the question, “Where did they go?”
Schwinn never really went away. It simply lost its relevance for a while. It was slow to embrace the new expectations in its marketplace. Like many companies, Schwinn suffered from a temporary case of 3-D Vision.
3-D Vision – Denial, Distortion, and Delusion – is a leading cause of failure. Its symptoms are out-of-date products and services, erosion of market share, increased pricing pressures, and an inability to compete.
The cure is simple and often painful – the continuous search for and acknowledgement of the truth.
Does your organization readily accept the truth about its products, services, and relationships? Is there a tendency to shoot messengers? Are incentive systems designed to discourage or encourage people to speak up?
Results Rule! organizations stay hungry. They know they are only as good as their ability to stay relevant to changing customer needs.
- Show the courage of accountability
Respect – Integrity – Communication – Excellence.
These words could appear in the values statements of any organization. They happen to be from Enron's 2000 Annual Report.
The ability to turn intention into action requires accountability at every level.
One manager noted the following about his organization, “The biggest problem we have around here is that no one will take responsibility for anything. But don't quote me on that.”
Results Rule! leaders love winning, and they hate to lose in both the short and long-term. As a result they choose the best over the easiest in their personal performance and in the performance of the organization. They follow-through on commitments. They are interested in building lasting success, and they are willing to confront performance that does not meet expectations.
Jeffrey Garten noted, “Vision without execution is a hallucination.”
The willingness to confront unacceptable performance in a positive manner is the mark of a leader who values both results and relationships. Results Rule! leaders earn the credibility to hold others accountable because they take responsibility.
Charles Prince CEO of Citigroup, sums it well, “Every month you get your bowling score. And you did will or you did poorly. And at the end of a period of time, which is not a long period, we decide whether you did a good job or a bad job.”
That is the reality of competing in a “ Me Too ” world. It is why a compelling culture is the intangible that provides a competitive advantage. It is why Results Rule!
Randy Pennington helps leaders build cultures that leverage relationships and accountability to produce result. For additional information or to discuss this article with Randy, please contact him via telephone in the U.S. at 972/980-9857; e-mail Randy@penningtongroup.com ; or on the World Wide Web at http://www.penningtongroup.com or http://www.positiveperformancemanagement.com .
© 2004 Pennington Performance Group; Addison, TX. All rights reserved.
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