Leadership and air traffic controllers

I seldom fly so the delays at our nation's airports this week have not bothered me, but it has been amusing to listen to the gloom and doom reported by the media about the delays and how the sequester has brought our nation's air travel to a crisis.  As I understand it, 10 percent of the air traffic controllers are furloughed each day which represents around 1,000 people.  As a retired union worker I don't like lay-offs for anyone because they hurt the average worker and his or her family, and I really don't like it when such lay-offs are used for political purposes.  These are people that are being hurt, and they don't deserve to be punished because our nation's leaders are incapable of leading.

Both sides accuse the other of being responsible for the air travel problems, and for once both sides are right.  Republicans and Democrats are both responsible.  Congress and the White House are both responsible.  The air travel problems are the result of a complete leadership failure on the part of both Republicans and Democrats and Congress and the White House.  But, I would also place this problem on the back of the American people because we voted these people into office, and we continue to vote such people into office even though they demonstrate time and again they are incapable of leading.  We have people sitting in Congress for years who have never demonstrated one ounce of leadership ability, and yet they continue to be re-elected.  President Obama's first term should have demonstrated that everything his primary opponents said about him was correct.  He is not a leader, but he was re-elected, and he continues to stumble through one crisis after another.  As was once said, a nation deserves the government it gets, so while we can certainly blame our national leaders we also need to take a good look in the mirror to see who is ultimately responsible for the people who sits in those positions.

This air traffic problem is a manufactured crisis designed to make Congress look bad.  First, we had the White House tours eliminated due to the sequester.  How childish was that?  Then it was announced that military fly-overs would be eliminated from large public events because of the sequester.  Who cares?  Why should the public pay for that anyway?  If the organizers of these events want military fly-overs let them pay for them.  But, by impacting air traffic the White House found a way to inflict pain on a lot of people as well as on the airlines and airports.  As this post is being written, Congress is working on a plan that would allow money to be channeled from other funds to keep the air traffic controllers on their post, but the White House has already claimed this is only a temporary fix and doesn't resolve the budget crisis our nation faces.

In 1981 President Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers who refused to end their strike and return to work.  It wasn't 1,000 people being furloughed one day a week; about 10,000 people lost their jobs in  one day because they refused to work.  Within a day or two salaried supervisors and military air traffic controllers manned the control towers and air traffic returned to near normal.  What was the difference between then and now?  Leadership.  Our nation had a president that was not afraid to take a stand and make a decision without wasting time blaming other people for his problems.  Was he criticised for his actions? Absolutely, but to President Reason such criticism was a small price to pay compared to the price the nation was paying over the air traffic controller strike.  There were also no more illegal public servant strikes during his term of office because people knew they would not be tolerated.

Yesterday, a person made an interesting comment after the George Bush library opened.  Despite all the criticism of President Bush's presidency, some of it deserved, one thing could be said about him.  He never blamed other people for his problems.  He did not spend time looking for a scapegoat to blame.  He was the President of the United States and he took responsibility for the decisions he made, and he was not afraid to make a decision.

As the owner of a small business, you must demonstrate leadership if you want your team to follow you.  If you want to inspire confidence in your leadership then you must lead and not waste time looking for others to blame for your problems.  You've got to walk through the door first if you want others to follow you.  I once worked for a boss who always talked about what "he" did when things went well, and when things didn't go well he would talk about what "we" did.  That is how a boss talks and acts.  Don't be that guy.  Be a leader, not a boss.  If you are supposed to be the leader, then lead, and if you can't lead then step aside and let someone who can have that position.  Your company will do much better if you'll do that. 

So would our country.

Acting like a normal human being is not a bad way to do business

A few years ago I was the keynote speaker at a leadership conference.  I was scheduled to speak twice and lead three workshops during the three day event.  There were a number of excellent speakers for the plenary sessions, and I was honored to begin the event with my first message.  On the final day I found my seat to hear the person scheduled to speak before me when one of the organizers came to me thanking me for being there and being so good to work with.  I thought he was just being gracious until he said that one of the comments he was hearing from a lot of the attendees was how much they appreciated me attending the sessions when I was not scheduled to speak.  He said that most of their previous keynote speakers only attended the sessions where they were scheduled to speak and spent the rest of their time in their rooms.  I never dreamed that people were noticing that I was at all the sessions and had even less of an idea that they were talking about that.  The fact was that I felt that I could learn from each of the speakers at that conference (and I did) and had no desire to miss any of the plenary sessions.  They were scheduled apart from the workshops I was leading so there was no reason not to attend the larger group meetings.  Besides, I felt that since I was being paid to be there I had somewhat of an obligation to my hosts to be available to the people who were attending the conference, and who can do that if they remain holed up in a motel room?

I had forgot about that until I began reading Jon Acuff's new book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters.  In one chapter he talks about how people who want to be awesome in what they do should not be jerks.  He relates a number of backstage conversations he's had with various organizers who have told him about some of the speakers and musicians they've worked with who were jerks.  They show up, do the minimum their contract requires, often treat people rather poorly, and retreat to the privacy of their rooms.  Reading that reminded me of the conversation I had with the organizers of the event referred to above.  It also reminded me of a large outdoor Christian concert I attended several years ago.

The concert featured some of the top names in contemporary Christian music.  It was being held in a large outdoor facility in a nearby city.  The individual who was the main attraction was one of my favorite Christian performers so some friends of mine bought me a ticket and went with me to this event.  The day was going great until it was announced the main attraction would not be performing.  It seemed he was upset that the stage was not the size he had requested so he was refusing to sing.  Up to that day I had purchased every cassette he made; I never purchased another one.  It had been a long time since I had been so disappointed in a human being.

It doesn't matter if you are a speaker, a musician, or a small business owner, it's OK to act like a normal human being.  It's OK to be nice to people.  I get tired of trying to do business with people who act like they are doing me a favor taking my money.  I was in a business recently and saw the sign "No public restrooms."  I left, not because I needed to use the restroom but because I see a sign like that and think "Jerk!  What if a mother comes in with a small child that needs a restroom NOW?  Are you going to send her away with her kid dribbling down the sidewalk?  According to that sign you are, so you don't need my business."  My wife and I walked into a local store some months ago.  the owner never left the security of her little cubicle, but she never took her eyes off of us while we were in the store.  She also never spoke a word although we were the only people in the store.  I think I understand why we were the only ones there and why that business soon closed. 

I have owned a business and know how difficult some people can be to satisfy.  Some you will never please.  They are jerks, but that doesn't mean you have to be one.  This doesn't mean you have to let people walk over you.  There may be times you have to stand firm, but even then you can be nice about it.  I have often said that I do not want to be the person who needs to apologize.

One of my first speaking engagements was for an organization that contacted me several months before the scheduled event.  I would lead three conferences over the course of a week in three different cities.  We agreed upon the fee and that they would cover all my expenses.  We shared several communications before the event.  About three weeks before the first conference I received an e-mail telling me that they had made the decision that they would cover my expenses only up to a certain limit, one that I knew would be surpassed.  My first thought was to cancel my appearance when they refused to reconsider.  However, I did not do that.  A lot of publicity had gone into promoting the three conferences I would be leading for them.  I felt if I refused to appear the people who planned to attend would not be told the reason for my decision and would be upset with me.  I went as planned, gave them the best presentations I could give, and covered the expenses they would not pay with the fee I earned.  I also will not speak for that organization again.

You can be a jerk once and get by with it, but eventually it will destroy your credibility as a business owner and eventually it will cost you.  In business, as in all areas of life, the Golden Rule is still the best way to conduct yourself.  If we would all strive to treat one another as we would like to be treated the world would be a better place, and you would probably find your business would be more profitable.

The rise and fall of a small business

Approximately 20 years ago a relative passed away and we assumed ownership of a small business he owned.  Even though we received offers from individuals interested in purchasing the business I decided to keep it.  It had a long history in our community, was profitable, and had great employees who wanted to remain.  Like many Americans I had long desired to own my own business, and this looked like the perfect opportunity.  The problem was I had no experience as a business owner nor did I understand the technology of the business.  Due to the experience of our employees I knew the tech part would be covered, and I felt I could learn the nuts and bolts of running a small business.

The first several years it was everything I had hoped it would be.  Sales were good, profits were solid, we were banking money and moving forward very well.  I made management mistakes during that time, but our level of profitability enabled us to cover those. However, when the economy began to weaken our sales slowed down dramatically.  Our clients would have us repair equipment that normally would have been replaced in an effort to protect their finances.  We started going through our savings rather quickly to cover costs.  Year after year we lost money.  I stopped taking a salary hoping that would allow us to survive the economic recession, but no one understood just how deep this recession was at that time or how long it would take to recover.  My inexperience led to more mistakes which cost us more money, money we could no longer afford to lose.  Although I learned from those mistakes they were costly to the business.

Many small businesses have failed during this recession, and most will blame those failures on the economy.  While there may be a measure of truth in that it is also true that many small businesses continue to do well during this downturn.  It is also true that businesses fail during more prosperous times.  It is not the economy that is solely at fault for the failure of small businesses, it is how those businesses are managed during those times that make the difference.  Good economic times will cover up a lot of management mistakes, but slow economic times magnify the mistakes we make in leading our businesses and make those mistakes much more costly to the company.

I learned a lot about leading a small business from the mistakes I made and from resources I began to gather about leadership and small businesses.  Unfortunately, I did not learn them in time to save our company.  It eventually closed.  All the hard assets and our property were sold at auction for pennies on the dollar.  Fortunately, we made enough to pay off all our bills but there was precious little beyond that to show for 15 years of running a small business.  The first few years of owning our business was a dream come true; the last few years was a nightmare trying to find ways to keep it open.  It was an especially painful time for me in many ways.

Coming out of that experience I decided to write a book that would help other small business owners avoid the mistakes I made that could cost them their business.  Because the experience was so recent and painful it did not take a long time to write this particular book, certainly not as long as the other books I've written relating to pastoral ministry.  Mistakes: Avoiding the Wrong Decisions that will Close Your Small Business is available for NOOK devices.  In the book I detail several of the decisions that I made for our company that turned out to be wrong and led to its downfall.  If you avoided even just one of the mistakes I discuss in the book it could save your company thousands of dollars.

Avoid the nightmare of seeing your small business close.  Don't spend sleepless nights wondering if the decisions you need to make are the right ones.  Avoid having to tell long-time employees they no longer have a job due to your closing the company.  Do not live through the horror of watching others drive off with your inventory and equipment after an auction leaving you with bills to pay with no money coming in.  Learn from my mistakes and you may avoid making them yourself. 

How many options are there?

One mindset that often limits our success in any endeavor is to think that we must choose between two options.  As a church leader and as a business owner I would have people ask, "Do you think we should do this or that?" referring to two possible ways of addressing a situation.  Unfortunately, I seldom explored other options and suggested they take one of the options they suggested.  Had we spent more time examining the situation and thinking about other possibilities we may have identified a much better solution.

We need to automatically assume there are more than two solutions to any challenge.  There may not be, but our organizations would often be better served if we at least began with that assumption and spent some time brainstorming what those options might be.  How much better would it be if we could identify seven or eight possible ways to address the issues that challenge us?  We would have a much better chance of identifying the best possible way of dealing with it.

The flip side of this, however, can also be a problem.  We don't want to spend so much time analyzing a situation and pursuing different ways of responding to it that we suffer "analysis paralysis."  If I am on a ship that develops a major leak I am going to do whatever I have to in order to immediately slow down the amount of water coming into the ship.  We can spend time later deciding how to best correct the problem permanently and how to prevent future leaks.  Right now we just to make sure the ship doesn't sink.  If a major event threatens our business we need to throw an immediate fix on it and then take time to study how it happened and determine the best permanent fix.  Fortunately, most of our challenges are not so threatening or immediate, and they allow us the freedom to consider various options before dealing with them.

One of my favorite coaching questions that I use with my clients is, "That's one option; what are some others?"  It's a question you can use to self-coach or to ask members of your team when they come to you with issues.  Refuse to allow yourself to settle for one or two options to any challenge.  Intentionally see if you can find at least ten possible ways to address every issue.  Even if you don't get to ten you'll probably identify more than one or two, and that will make it more likely that you'll find the best solution to your problem.

Home grown leadership

One of the many findings in Jason Jennings' book Think Big, Act Small: How America's Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-up Spirit Alive was that "The companies that do the best job of consistently growing revenues grow their own leaders.  Period!"  They do not hire their top people from outside the company but hire the people from within who have already proven themselves capable and who have bought into the company culture.  Such home-grown talent often results in long-term growth for the company.  Although such growth may be slow it is steady and certainly preferable to the hiring of someone outside the company who comes in with a magical formula that will produce quick results for a quarter or two but in the meantime destroys the culture of the business.  One of the things this means for owners and managers of small businesses is they must constantly be producing quality leaders within their organizations if they want their business to grow.

Jennings studied companies that had double-digit growth in revenues and profits between 1995 and 2005.  What was fascinating to me in reading the book was how each of these companies were doing pretty much the same things such as developing leaders within their organizations.  When someone in the corner office was ready to retire they already had people in the pipeline to replace them.  When the company was ready to expand and open new stores they had people ready to manage them.  There was little concern about whether or not this person would fit in with the company's culture because they had already been operating within that culture for a number of years.  There was also little doubt they could handle the position they were being offered because they had been groomed for that position and had already proven they were ready for it.

The book shares a number of ways a business can identify and develop future leaders, but we'll only address two of them in this post.  Once an individual has been identified as a potential future leader it is essential that this person is constantly evaluated and coached.  He or she must be given broad responsibilities and cross-trained in various aspects of the business followed by regular evaluations and coaching.  An annual performance review isn't enough.  It's also not enough to just evaluate performance.  Attitudes and behaviors must also be looked at.  A business committed to integrity will be just as focused on the values of the potential leader as it will on his or her results.

A second thing businesses must do if they want to successfully grow talent is to make people want to stay.  Many businesses talk about how they value their team members but actually treat them as commodities and not people.  It's very hard to raise talent from within a business if it has high employee turn-over.  If a business wants people to stay they must show by their actions how they value those individuals.  The business must help their team members become excited about the growth and long-term prospects of the company and be shown how they can benefit from that growth.  Jennings illustrates in his book how several of the companies he studied does that, and the actions these companies took are doable for most small businesses.

Few things a leader does is more important than identifying and developing future leaders for the business.  It takes a commitment of time and resources, but when it's done right it will pay huge benefits in the future.