It happened last week on my drive from Portland to Spokane, WA.   I was cruising at a crisp 78mph along I-84 thinking about the cool work ahead when I was passed by a teal colored Chevy Cavalier.  Hmmmm…. Upon further inspection I noted that the teal mini-beast was sporting a very unique rear window motif.  Across the bottom of the window, a line of brazen flames adorned the glass.  Centered at the top of the window was a white outline of a little butterfly.  Huge flames and a butterfly.  Hmmmmm…

Then it donned on me: I know the driver.  You do, too.  It’s the boss who torches all that lives on their team with their horrific, biting threats and ego-hot pokes all under the guise of “leading the team to perform”.   Just like a blast from a blow torch, the exchange is one-way, oppressive and destructive.  Incredible talent is scorched by these hot heads daily and often it takes a long time for that talent to grow back.  Oh, and the butterfly?  That is the pin hole of light that shows up when this person sitting in a leadership seat (note: I can’t call them a leader now, can I?) says some ridiculous fib like “we value or people” in some fleeting, politically motivated moment.  Huge flames and a butterfly.  Hmmmmm…

This whole month I have been working with dozens of talented leaders to hone leadership skills that engage the team and their untapped talents.  It’s about conversations, relationships, respect and recognition.  Simple recognition.  So many good things are happening every day in our work environments yet in our stress and haste we often only find time to flame and poke at the mistakes.  Simple recognition.  Get some.

It takes less than 30 seconds to recognize a job well done.  What is the power in those 30 seconds?  In the new book, Closing the Engagement Gap, the authors offer, amongst other gems:  “when workers see their managers really get what they‘re doing to help the company and colleagues succeed and take the time to acknowledge it, employee engagement can soar.  This approach can also help build teams of high performers.”   Only a fool would turn down that return on a 30 second investment.

Yes, we learned how to turn the heat up by engaging team members instead of flaming them this month.  The application of our learning is paying off… with big business results.  The teams are more engaged, the customers are, in turn, more engaged, and the cash registers are ringing in record numbers.  Check that, Mr. Flaming Cavalier.  Your torch-toting days are numbered.

Walk away from the computer now and go recognize a great behavior/ result you want repeated.  Watch what happens to your team…and your scoreboard! 

Help us all get better.  Share your recognition story here.

It is right up there with the trusty Leatherman… the nifty thing you can count on: the 80/20 Rule.  While I am not a fan of “Rules”, this one works well often.  For example, for the past month or so I have been testing my own application of the 80/20 Rule in the field while working side by side with dozens of leaders.  My observations can be summed like this: 80 % of the “coaching” we offer our team members delivers 20% of the results.  Scanning my past 30 (gulp!) years of leadership experience, I found this “Rule” to hold true.  Hmmmmmm.

Reflect for a minute.  When does most of the “coaching” occur in your organization: “pre-game”, “during-game” or “post-game”?  Survey says: post-game.  I offer that the majority of “coaching” in our organizations is done AFTER the event, project, month, etc.  (annual reviews, anyone?)  So, if 80% of our coaching time is delivering 20% of the result, what is possible when we take on the “pre” and “during” coaching with intention?  Goldmine!  The nuggets in sum:

Pre and during

• Clarifies expectations and success metrics
• Defines milestones
• Celebrates small wins
• Navigates obstacles
• Helps team stay focused on the summit
• Results are created

Post

•  Offers recognition
• Identifies behaviors to replicate
• Highlights lessons learned
• Results are in

Don’t get me wrong.  “Post-game” reviews have benefit.  For bolder results, ask yourself this: what if 80% of the possible results your team may achieve is in your “pre” and “during” coaching hands?  I offer that it is.

Look, tens of thousands of hours of coaching take place well before that last minute play of the game.  The magic play drawn on the clip board with 1.6 seconds remaining cannot compare to the countless coaching moments it took everyone to get to that last important play.  I think we have some choices to make.  We can make commentary on the post-game scoreboard (a.k.a. ESPN at 3 a.m.) or we can bring our talent forward and radically improve the readiness and the execution capability of our team… coaching right there, in the mix, beginning well before the tip off.

20% of you will take action here… and that will likely deliver 80% of what’s possible.  I know where I am putting my money.  How about you?

You are tough… you are strong… a business warrior with the mettle to withstand any challenge that does not kill you, right?  Do you really stand alone?  Let’s dig down deep for a minute.

In this week’s ramp up to Mother’s Day, I have been thinking about the confidence, perseverance and support it takes to push ahead.  What is beneath our feet and around us that steadies us when we question ourselves, our unique talent, our capability?  Often it is our Moms, our partners, our best friends, our colleagues who stand for and with us… and there are others.  The silent presence of those who believe in us propels us forward.  There are people who are not there but they are always there.

I submit that there are those who support you whom you don’t even know.  It is possible that you are currently unaware of an interaction you had with someone that impacted them so greatly that they have become a fervent supporter of YOU.  Think about Mitch Albom’s book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  (If you haven’t read it… do).  Unseen connections you are having with people now may be much more powerful than you realize.

Silently, there are people who stand for you.  They are a strength you don’t see.  You are one, too.  YOU are a source of strength for others… a presence of steel they can count on when fear or doubt overshadow them.  You may not know who they are.  It doesn’t matter.  Know this: you are someone’s steel.  Be ready.  Always be ready.

          “A warrior is not something you become.  It is something you are, in the moment, or something you are not.”   – Dan Millman

Remember who you are every moment.

… p.s. thank you, Mom, and others, for being my steel.

 For every time that I plant a seed,

He said, “Kill it before it grows….”

-    I Shot the Sherriff by Bob Marley

It is spring by the calendar.  Is it spring for our economy?  Your business?  What should we be doing NOW as leaders to ensure our future is green and strong? 

This week, I went out to my yard to work and think.  After an unusually rough winter in Portland, I scanned my yard and thought, “what should I be doing here now?”  Weed, seed, feed, and throw down some pre-emergent.  Indeed.  Duh, Melone.  It is the tough work that I do with my clients every day.  It looks a lot like this:

WEED: Toss what does not serve you.  Get lean.  Eliminate dumb processes.  Crank up lower performers or cut them out.  Get down to core business.  Kill business as usual.

FEED:  Engage people.  Recognize creativity, resilience, agility, a will to win.  Celebrate small wins.  “Miracle-Gro” emerging leaders.  Help people see what is possible today.

SEED:  Use this opportunity to plant anew.  Build new ways to grow.  Untap talent that can help you create undiscovered opportunities.  Put people in thriving places.  Build new unlikely partnerships.  Be bold.  Think.  Create.

PRE-EMERGENT:  Stuff that you can do now to grow past the competition…that is my definition of pre-emergent. One of my favorite pre-emergents: learning.  Coolest learning this week: reading Ram Charan’s new book, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty.  In true Charan form, he offers straight up, go-do-these-now actions such as: be visible, set shorter term milestones, change your company’s psychology, and my favorite: be bold!  Clearly, it is about action.  No, ACTION.

Yeah, it’s been a rough winter.  Green fields await for those who step up NOW.  My prediction: only the BOLD will thrive.  You got BOLD?

I am here.  Are you?  Huh?  When was the last time you were across from a person you thought you were engaged in some sort of meaningful exchange with only to discover that the other person was not “there”?  Physically present: check.  Mentally present: checked out.  Think U.S. Postal Service.  Think DMV.  (Sorry, folks… I will quote Ram Charan here: “truth over harmony”).   Heck, it even happened to me this week during a visit to my usually-amazingly-engaged bank!  You know the scene: while you are thinking about your money and the product, service, and experience you expect to receive in exchange for said money, the person “serving” you is thinking “geez, its bad enough I have to actually be here… you expect me to be engaged, too?”  Aaarrgh!

We have slipped.  We are distracted.  We are not showing up.  In the retail world, the team that engages the customer best wins.  We have to, as Susan Scott states in her book, Fierce Conversations, “be there and be nowhere else” for our customers AND our team.   So often our hearts and our souls are absent… we are checked out.  This vacant presence of leaders, sales associates, and cashier team members is nothing short of certain death.  Sadly, certain death is quite prevalent.  Big box home improvement giants know it.  Electronics stores know it.  Banks know it.  So what?  What do we do about it?

Get out of the fog and into the NOW, leaders.  Engagement begins with you.  Period.  Be fully in the game, get in your zone, help the whole team win through your focused action.  Example: we got REAL about engagement this week in a busy retail store.  What was happening?  Leaders were present on the floor physically and mentally.  Their awareness of the customer experience was at a 10.  Leaders were applying quick, laser-focused coaching to keep the whole team highly engaged.  Result: customers went out of the way to smile, make eye contact, and tell us about their experience.  A couple of their stories literally gave me chills.  Chills!  Oh, and we had a killer sales day to boot!

Lest you dismiss the opportunity before you because “I don’t work in retail”, consider this: what is possible when you are “there” for your colleague, shift leader, or potential client?  High levels of engagement work incredibly well in spontaneous cubicle meetings, on the manufacturing floor, and even on the phone.

So, would you rather sweat to a certain death or experience the chills of high engagement?  So what?  What are you going to do about it?

Attention, leaders, citizens, humans.  The most tragic landfill of all is right here, right now, under our feet.  Unique, fantastic, amazing gifts are being thrown in a pile to rot every day.  Ignore the signs if you will but eventually the waste we are creating now will impact every single one of us in untold ways.

You see, just a few more than half of the kids in Portland, OR who enter ninth grade will graduate from high school on time.  The national average is about 70%.   A report that was released in 2008 stated that 17 of the nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50%.  In Detroit, about 1/3 will wear a cap and gown 4 years after they begin the ninth grade.  One in three.  Many emotions and words come to mind here but let me give you just two: SILENT DEATH.  We are killing our city, our state, our country….slowly and certainly.  Is there a doctor in the house?

I know one.  Tony Hopson, Sr. leads a brilliant, bold program that stands for the potential in youth.  Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI) boasts a graduation success rate that is consistently in the 95 – 100% range.  “Every kid has a unique gift,” Mr. Hopson told a group of leaders at a corporate luncheon last week.  His organization executes a zillion deeds every day to help kids find that gift and use it to create a healthy and prosperous life.  SEI is working hard on replication.  Heck, we need 10,000 SEIs right now!  Think our business problems are tough now?  Wait a few more years when talent droughts starve businesses and more of our resources get pulled to address issues like crime, addictions, and unemployment.  Indeed, our future may or may not be sitting in tenth grade language arts class tomorrow morning.  I say again: SILENT DEATH.

Recently, President Obama said “dropping out of high school is quitting on your country….we need the talent of every American…”  That means YOU, high school class of 1969, 1977, 1995 and 2007!  We need YOUR talent.  What can YOU do?

Find a way to put a brick in our country’s foundation today.  Help a kid find their gift.  Support the bold work of those rare few like Mr. Hopson, Sr. who have found a solution that works.  Yes, this is not charity; this IS an investment in YOUR city.  Isn’t it time for some responsible investment?

Do something BOLD today.  Now.

…nub.  Happy February.  I spent nearly a whole chilly day last weekend chiseling my rose bushes down to thorny brown nubs.  No bursts of fabulous color present…just rough, skewed nubs.

Fact is, I am a “nubber”.  Roses are not the only things in my path.   I am tough on leaders, too.  Indeed, members of a fast-tracking entrepreneur group I work with have joked about getting shirts that say “I Have Been Nubbed”.  It’s OK.  No fingers or limbs have been sacrificed for the making of this motto.  So, what is going on here?

It’s cutting to grow.

Cutting back to the core, to where the unique, amazing sap of who we are runs sweet and clear, is work fraught with risk, pain, uncertainty.  In the process we eliminate energy-sapping bulges in our journey and cut off life lines to shoots that bloomed beautifully but will not serve us going forward.  It is going bold and becoming more of who we are by cutting to the core… clean cuts to the gnarly stub.

This time, this day calls for redefining “green,” “growth”,” success”, ”thrive”.  This time, this “now ” calls for belief in what runs through the very core of us.  I offer that you take bold action.  Find your way to be “nubbed”.  Cut down to this:

·         What is at the core of you?

·         What no longer serves you?

·         What does a “nubbed” you look like?

·         What can flourish from there?

Trust that those sparse nubs will thrive.  Know that you will not grow like years past.  This is different.   Do trust that from nubs you will find your true path this season. 

What will YOUR bloom look like?

A couple of decades ago, I served as an instructor for the U.S.  Army Physical Fitness School… the first female officer to do so.  Surprise!  A key part of our mission was to certify select soldiers to serve as Master Fitness Trainers in their units around the world.  The academically and physically rigorous 4-week class trained up to 60 elite soldier-athletes… approximately 90% of which were men.                                                       

My favorite session to lead was a one hour Pushup and Sit Up Improvement session.  This hands-on learning event was certainly not for the faint of heart or for those who might enjoy a big breakfast.  It was grueling.  In order to maximize the growth of large muscle groups, we did pushups in dozens of permutations of angles and space… arms as wide as possible with one foot off the ground and a fellow soldier pushing on your back, one hand on 2 sandbags and one hand on the ground, and my favorite: hands close together in a diamond shape with your feet up on another soldiers back… yeah!  We didn’t do these pushups in cadence together but rather in timed sets of 60, 45, and 30 seconds so that each soldier could maximize their effort.  Some would do 30 pushups some would do 50 pushups.  The goal for each set (and we did dozens during the session) was to do as many correct pushups as you could… to muscle failure… the point where the growth comes from.  Yes, we cranked them out until muscle failure…set after painful set.  Ouch….but that is what we were all striving for: to get to the growth. 

You see, the first 10 or 30 or 50 pushups served to get you to the point where you could just eek out that one last, correct push up and make your leap in strength.  You had to do the hard work to get to the other side, where the real growth is made.  Indeed, that sweet space that makes all of the difference is right there: Push Up #51. 

Check in with yourself right now.  Things feel tough?  Struggling to help your business survive?   Feel like you have your feet up on a wall and your hands close together with burning triceps and a bit of nausea?  I agree with Seth Godin… it might be time to quit (do read The Dip).  But, if the path is right, push on.  See things through.  Want that other side… that growth.  Breathe.  Crank!   48, 49, 50 …

Where do you stand?  Don’t look down.  Look up.  Look out.  Way out.  Waaaaayyyy out.  Are you standing in uncharted space, beyond what you know, past what is comfortable, so far out that business-as-usual is not viewable with the naked eye?

                Rare.  Bold.  Authentic.  Yeah, I am talking about you.  You are one who stands in compelling possibility… one who declares an impossible outcome and shouts: “it shall be!”.  You put your bold stand out there and you make it so.  It is how you show up, 24/7: in your stand for what is possible for you, your team, your business.

                Says passionate, cutting edge thinker Tom Peters:

·         Leaders THRIVE

·         Leaders are the brand

·         Leaders create opportunities

·         Leaders say “I don’t know”

Crank up your stand for 2009.  Can you stand for something you can’t even see?  Can you deliver results others claim impossible?  Seriously.  If you want amazing results, stand for something amazing.  You can move teams and businesses and customers with your audacity and your passion for what is possible.

                “What you imagine is what you get”  - Tom Peters

Take a stand and tell us what you are imagining.

Finally. We have made the leap. Airborne. Free-falling. Behind us: proper burial of 2008. Ahead: discomfort.

Hurray! Discomfort! Yeah! Bring it on! 2009 will be a year of new rules, new records, new connections, new “whats” and new “hows”.  Halleluiah!

Discomfort has been a long time coming. We have been lounging in the cushy bed of status quo for too long. Months. Years. We saw the warning signs and squelched any voice or activity that might threaten our glass-like sea of contentment. The confluence of a zillion formidable ruts we created and defended for so long hit us like a global avalanche in 2008. We could not break through…. create differently, manufacture differently, sell differently, lead differently… and consequently the weight of all this status quo crushed many of our prized processes and “truths”. Finally.

It’s our time now. Are you bold enough to lead now? Strong enough to stand in a record-breaking 2009? Comfortable with being very uncomfortable? If so, we need you to lead. Now.

Seth Godin , in his new book, Tribes, puts it out there straight up: “leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership invaluable.” Godin then offers this one-two gut punch: “if you are not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain that you are not reaching your potential as a leader.” Gulp.

What might have won us the promotions, awards and bonuses in the past may very well be buried in the debris pile we call 2008. Good riddance. R.I.P.

It’s leap time. No wading timidly into 2009. Dive into discomfort. I’m in. You comin’?