Follow a 7L Path for True Success

There is a commonly used phrase in our culture that appears on coffee cups, bumper stickers, and wall posters that is offered as a recipe for happiness and success in life’s journey. Specifically, Live, Love and Laugh, or the 3L’s, can be seen in homes and offices across our country. With today’s economic, political, and social challenges, these words of wisdom may seem a bit simplistic and optimistic to some, when they are in fact more important than ever.

With all the devices that keep us connected to the office 24/7, perhaps we need a reminder that a healthy life-work balance doesn’t necessarily start with work. Success is not burnout and living must be more than working. At the same

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time, a changing workforce expects more out of the work environment, just as companies expect more out of their workers. When employees love what they do, engagement and productivity both rise. Leaders at all levels need to raise the bar to create cultures where people excel, where hard work and laughter exist together.

And while I wholeheartedly agree Live Love and Laugh are incredibly important ingredients, I also think there is more to the recipe if the objective is true success.

In light of the number of people currently struggling and the severity of the challenges we are collectively facing, we need more. Specifically, we need to consider adding another 4L’s to the mix to truly create success. To the point, it’s time to consider a “7L Path.” It is time to also Listen, Learn and Lead with Light. Here’s how…

With all the differing viewpoints in the world, one might ask why so many people indicate that nobody speaks for them. Perhaps we all need to develop more trust in ourselves and Listen to own internal voice before we look to others for answers.

With all the different advancements in the world, one might ask why we have not discovered how to solve a large and constantly growing list of problems. Perhaps we all need to Learn to be much more open to new ideas and opinions.

With all the different experts in the world, one might ask why we have so few who are able to show the way for others. Perhaps we all need to exercise our own ability to Lead rather than look exclusively to others.

With all the different religions and spiritual practices that guide us united in their recognition of both a higher order and our inadequacies as human beings, one might ask why so many are so sure that “we” are always right and “they” are always wrong. Perhaps we all need to stay focused on the common Light of truth, respect, service, equality, and connection that unite us.

Live, Love, Laugh, Listen, Learn, Lead with Light. It may be too long for a bumper sticker or to fit on the side of a Grande coffee cup, but it is worth the time and effort. This path can guide all of us to true success in work and in life.

This blog is dedicated to my friend Louige.

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All-In Women Leaders: Just In Time

I first met Susan McKay more than 30 years ago when we were both hired by Sperry Corporation as sales trainees. In 1980, Susan joined Sperry in Philadelphia after four remarkable years at Franklin & Marshall College where she earned an amazing 12 Varsity letters in field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse. She was also a nationally ranked squash player who built an equally strong academic record. Susan and I did not work closely together after training ended, but I was not at all surprised to see Susan repeatedly promoted in subsequent years.

At Sperry, Susan stood out for several reasons. She displayed both strong personal discipline and confidence in spite of a new setting. She seemed to know where she was going and that insight led many to admire her. Susan had an aptitude for team building and liked to support others. She worked very hard to create her future. In addition, Susan’s humility struck her contemporaries as representative of a strong set of values. Susan quickly established a track record of success in a culture that was dominated by men.

Years later, I was running a marketing unit for the company and I had the opportunity to add Susan to my team. I jumped at it. While Susan continued to deliver strong results, it was clear that she needed help to continue her rise up the corporate ladder. There were very few female role models for her to follow. I approached senior executive Joseph Tucci to sponsor Susan for a $10,000 Executive Presence Program specifically developed for women. This was the first request of its kind and Joe agreed. With support, Susan continued to build a successful career and is representative of many other women who are leaders in American business today.

I share this story in part because many organizations are now benefitting from strong leadership by women who started their careers at a time when men dominated corporate leadership positions. While Meg Whitman at Hewlett-Packard and Virginia Rometty at IBM have earned recent headlines, they join a long list of women who are leading major companies. Indra Nooyi at Pepsico, Ursula Burns at Xerox, and Irene Rosenfeld at Kraft are among other women currently leading Fortune 500 companies.

More importantly, as American businesses struggle, the increasing number of women leaders at all levels is perhaps one of our best reasons for optimism. While each story of success is unique, these leaders share common threads. In the face of daunting odds, every successful woman has earned a place of leadership with a combination of strong skills, hard work, personal choices, and the support of others. They have demonstrated resilience and delivered results.

These role models displayed a combination of discipline, insight, support, creativity, and values that positioned them for greater impact. I refer to these actions and attributes as All-In Leadership because they lead to engagement of all the leaders in an organization. Further, these are the essential elements that enabled many women leaders to climb the corporate ladder as they made positive impacts along the way.

Significantly, these very same factors are also of paramount importance in our current volatile business environment where so many organizations are experiencing poor performance. Corporations are facing new challenges and an increasing need for leadership throughout their organizations. In fact, the ascension of All-In women leaders in American business is not only really good news—it may be just in time.

As companies search for every competitive advantage in challenging times, all leaders would benefit from the lessons taught by All-In women leaders. One of them is Susan McKay, who currently works at technology giant EMC in Hopkinton, Mass. EMC’s visionary CEO is Joe Tucci.

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Leaders Need to D.I.S.C.onnect for Results

Many are questioning the state of leadership today. It’s no secret that the constant struggle in Washington has led to a disconnect between the governing and the governed. Less visibly, companies can find themselves with the same challenge between senior management and the employee base, at the very time they need to pull together to improve results. From my experience as a President of multiple companies focused on turnarounds, the biggest opportunity for leaders today may be our choice to connect the pieces that have been traditionally disconnected. In fact, I developed and deployed a successful strategy to D.I.S.C.onnect for results.

In my judgment, conventional thinking is no longer acceptable.

  1. Conventional thinking disconnects management and leadership. “Managers do the right things, while leaders do things right. Manage things and lead people.”
  2. Conventional thinking disconnects professional and personal pieces of an individual’s life. “It’s just business.”
  3. Conventional thinking disconnects the value of looking for guidance from personal reflection (feeling, thinking) as opposed to taking action (speaking, writing, acting) or relying exclusively on the opinions of others.
  4. Conventional thinking disconnects the power of ALL of the potential impact of the leaders in an organization from the impact of those few at the top.

Personally, I have had lots of success with connected leadership. I developed an All-In Leadership Roadmap when I ran organizations and needed to unlock the potential of all of my leaders. In each case, the key to success was a roadmap that included a focus on actions and attributes, and a D.I.S.C.onnect approach for connected leadership.

Specifically, the roadmap CONNECTS sets of choices, including Discipline, Insight, Support, and Creativity, and asks leaders to self assess their actions and their attributes in these areas. In my experience, the roadmap has led to increased engagement, results, resilience, and the development of cultures where people excel. These include employees, customers, partners, owners, and the communities in which companies do business—which, in fact, are all connected. Here are the highlights:

Discipline starts with a vision. Who are we and what do we stand for? It is followed by a strategic and plan to accomplish that vision. After we plan the work, we work the plan. Discipline is required to build trust. A key to connected leadership is the added focus on the importance of adjustments. Rather than solely relying on strong central control over decision-making, a connected leader will decentralize decision-making and build appropriate controls to make sure the organization has rapid response capabilities to make critical adjustments. While discipline does not guarantee complete control, it improves the probability of success.

Insight starts with self-understanding. A connected leader understands who they are and what they stand for. With all the change that surrounds businesses today, employees are looking for leaders who are reliable and confident in themselves. These leaders can integrate information that comes from others with their gut instincts and trust their own voice. They find that voice when they are focused, present, accepting, generous, and grateful. Connected leaders also understand the downside to the popular concept of multi-tasking. They understand that by devoting all of their focus to a given individual, true communication be enhanced and relationships will be strengthened.

Support for others is effective only after we truly understand their needs. It starts by listening to understand and learn from everyone and every opportunity. A connected leader is always willing to accept the input of others. It can be challenging for leaders who view their role to be confident, clear, concise, convincing, and compelling to also be open at all times to input, but it is an absolutely necessary component of connected leadership. It also includes questioning, inspiring, encouraging, enabling, and role modeling for others.

Creativity is at its fullest for each of us and is unleashed when we connect what we do to who we are. Specifically, when we connect our internal creativity (feelings and thoughts) to our external creativity (our written and spoken words and our actions) we dramatically increase both our effectiveness and our positive influence over others. Connected leaders know their words matter. They connect their email language with the words they use in everyday conversations. These leaders are also able to integrate their personal and professional roles and remain true to themselves and what they believe in.

Finally, the D.I.S.C.onnect strategy is underpinned by a strong focus on the core values of an organization. Whether a connected leader is engaged in managing or guiding others, values are visible in word and action. Truth, respect, teamwork, equality, service, and connection are among sets of values followed by many successful organizations today. Values become the ultimate glue that holds great organizations together when everything else changes.

The bottom line is when leaders choose to connect that which has traditionally been disconnected, amazing things can happen. Most significantly, the potential of leaders at all levels in any organization is released. When applied to a company where results have been going in the wrong direction, it leads to a successful turnaround. When applied to companies already going in the right direction, results improve and resilience grows.

Who knows what could happen if a D.I.S.C.onnect approach was introduced in Washington? Perhaps it is time for our leaders to try the unconventional.

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Young War Veterans Redefine Leadership

Although Veterans Day was celebrated last week, Time magazine ran a great article focused on members of our military on August 29th with a cover story titled: “The New Greatest Generation—How young war veterans are redefining leadership at home.” While November 11th offers us all an important annual reminder of the debt we owe our veterans and the opportunity to say thank you for their sacrifices on our behalf today and in the past, Time’s Joe Klein makes the case that veterans also offer us hope for the future as they bring a new set of skills home—when we need them most. Here are some of the skills veterans offer:

Discipline – “Every military officer was trained to construct an action plan for every mission. We were taught to write a five-paragraph memo…The inevitable military acronym is SMESC…Situation: What’s the problem? Mission: What’s our strategy for solving it? Execution: What tactics are we going to use? Support: What are the logistics? Command: What other organizations will have to be involved?”

Insight/Self-understanding – It is true our completely volunteer military is comprised of individuals who join for varied reasons. Still, common threads of gratitude for freedom, generosity and service run throughout our armed forces. “Public-service warriors” include Seth Moultin, the Harvard valedictorian, who decided to join the Marines because it was the “highest form of service.”

Support – “The First Mission: Taking Care of One Another… Veterans are trained to believe that everyone in their unit rises and falls together. In the military, it’s never about you (according to former Special Operations leader Jason Lewis). It’s always about something larger. ”

Creativity – Military personnel are completely aligned in their speech and action. They create the future effectively with this clarity. “They look you straight in the eye when they talk; they can be funny as hell, but their language isn’t fancy…they don’t mince words.”

Values – Our military has been trained to live a life of values, including hard work, honesty, teamwork, respect, honor, humility, and service. “They tend to view public life through the prism of military values – which are, at times, contradictory.”

As many young veterans come back from war, they return to a country many would say is going in the wrong direction. Economically, socially and politically, it is true we are facing daunting challenges and are in need of effective leadership to turn things around. The article quotes General David Patraeus, who offers a perspective on why these young veterans provide a reason for optimism:

“These soldiers had to rebuild communities and make difficult decisions under huge pressure. They’ve had to show incredible flexibility, never knowing whether they’re going to be greeted with a handshake or a hand grenade. They’ve been exposed to experiences that are totally unique, compared with most Americans. Once they’ve seen the elephant, they surely can help rebuild Joplin. I believe they are our next great generation of leaders.”

Personally, I have never served in the military. I did meet General Patraeus in Iraq and worked closely with military personnel when I was President of Lucent’s Government unit and we installed a wireless communication system to support military operations in Baghdad and other major cities in Iraq. I was always in awe of the leadership skills displayed by our men and women in uniform.

At a time when leadership seems in short supply and high demand, Klein offers a perspective that young veterans are redefining leadership. I am not so sure. Perhaps the military’s definition of leadership has been there all the time and we are just now taking another look at a time when we need it most. Either way, we agree that we can look to our military as a source of pride, inspiration and true

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leadership.

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Business Lessons from a Diabetes Camp

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month and while the national discussion continues around health care costs, perhaps no other disease impacts a business’ bottom line today quite like diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are just-under 26 million people with diabetes in the U.S. and there are an additional 79 million people with pre-diabetes—a condition where cardiovascular deterioration starts. That’s 105 million people, or 1 out of every 3 Americans affected. It is a good bet that many companies have a similar percentage of employees and retirees with the disease. With health care costs rising, many companies are looking to establish Wellness Programs to keep their employees healthier. Where is a company to turn for a model of success? The answer may be a kid’s diabetes camp in central Massachusetts.

Specifically, the Barton Center for Diabetes Education Inc. in North Oxford, MA operates the two longest running camps in the world for kids with diabetes. For almost 80 years, the Clara Barton Camp and Camp Joslin have taught girls and boys with diabetes how to live healthy and productive lives with balance and discipline. While these lessons help young people manage blood glucose levels, they also set a foundation for healthy living and overall success.

Today, the camps summarize their education focus in a program they call “Healthy Stars.” This simple and powerful program emphasizes connected choices to balance for health and life. For good health the program emphasizes a focus on nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, and wellness support (people and products). For life balance the program emphasizes a focus on personal growth, community service, faith, school and work, and family and friends. In both cases, the Barton Center advocates the following principles:

  • Take Responsibility
  • Set a Goal
  • Measure, Measure, Measure
  • Help Others
  • Have Fun
  • Don’t Give Up

The track record of success at the camps run by The Barton Center can be measured in any number of ways. In one way, a study was conducted with 250 campers that proved that those who attended at least 5 years (10 weeks) of camp displayed significantly improved health measurements. In another way, successful campers consistently choose to return to the camp as counselors to share lessons learned with future generations. The Barton Center has created a culture where people excel.

As companies look for new ways of controlling costs and increasing employee health and engagement, perhaps they can look to The Barton Center as a model that has developed a proven program to teach us that balance and discipline lead to good health and life balance and overall success.

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Leading Innovation: AT&T’s First Shared Office

Rick Miller featured in Harvard Business Review, May/June 1998:

START_QUOTE_30t_smRichard S. Miller, vice president of global services (GS) at AT&T, leads some 2,000 sales and support professionals serving major corporations and government clients in the eastern United States. His organization generates $4 billion in annual revenues; its expense budget is about $200 million, of which real estate represents 6%.

In December 1996, Miller learned on a television newscast about a competitor’s initiative to pursue an AW program. Driven into action, he asked the help of AT&T’s global real estate (GRE) organization in developing a new facility. His idea: a shared office that staff members who spend much of their time with customers outside the office would use as needed, without having assigned workstations. The objective: creating an environment in which teamwork would flourish while reducing real estate costs.

The GRE unit, then in the early stages of developing AT&T’s Creative Workplace Solutions strategy, had not yet planned the type of facility Miller envisioned. So he and GRE’s planning director, Thomas A. Savastano, Jr., formed a team to consider the alternatives. The team rejected several scenarios. One would have refitted a building already occupied by Miller’s group, but that would have disrupted existing operations. Instead, the team opted for a three-part plan: redesign vacant AT&T space in Morristown, New Jersey, as a shared office; move 200 employees from five traditional office locations and 25 others from three satellite offices to the new facility; and redeploy the space to be vacated.

The total group included 58 salespeople, 101 technical specialists, and 66 management and support staff. Miller knew that the staff would need full-time space in the new facility. But he estimated that at least 60% of the sales and technical people would be out of the office with customers at any given time and therefore could share work space. At the time, the GS organization was beginning to transform its technical specialists into virtual resources; that is, rather than dedicate individuals to specific customers, these individuals would float from one account to another as needed. That change, Miller reflects, eased the transition from a conventional to an alternative workplace.

The new shared office works as follows: Through their laptops, employees log onto a system to reserve a workstation either before they arrive at the building or when they enter the lobby. Once there, they retrieve their own mobile file cabinet and wheel it to their reserved space. The workstations are six feet square and are arranged in pairs with a C-shaped work surface so that two people can work apart privately or slide around to work side by side. The reservation system routes employees’ personal phone numbers to their reserved space. As one occupant says of the new arrangement, “I don’t know who is going to sit next to me tomorrow, but interacting with different people all the time helps me think about customer issues more productively. I’m always getting a new perspective and new ideas from others’ experience.”

AT&T has installed three low-tech features in addition to its high-tech systems. A café encourages people to mingle for coffee and conversation about new sales, customer solutions, and office events. Two large chalkboards allow people to leave messages for others; this feature also reduces the paper flow within the office. And three types of enclosed space—phone rooms, “personal harbors,” and team rooms—accommodate private meetings and teleconferences.

AT&T’s project shows how significant the tangible and intangible results of an AW initiative can be. It cost $2.1 million to develop, including construction, furniture, equipment, and systems. But the investment was well worth the effort, as the accompanying table shows. Annual savings alone amount to more than $460,000 or $2,000 per person. Over five years, the company will avoid nearly $2 million in costs associated with running a traditional office. In addition, individual space was halved, and team-meeting space doubled. Finally, the project has produced closer teamwork, better customer service, and greater employee satisfaction.

END_QUOTE_30t_sm

 

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A Senior Leader’s Biggest Challenge

Senior leaders in organizations have never had easy jobs. Among lots other tasks, senior leaders are expected to envision, strategize, and plan tactics for their firms after they have thoroughly researched the market for their products/services. Assuming they have developed an appropriate financial plan for their enterprise and have continually updated their competitive profiles, they are also expected to flawlessly implement their plans and measure with quality and speed to produce predictable results. They are also accountable to align their teams by communicating direction throughout their organization where they need to be confident, clear, concise, convincing, and compelling (5 C’s). Taken together, these tasks can seem daunting. Yet, these may be the easiest parts of their job.

The toughest part of their job might be that while they are communicating with the 5 C’s, they also need to be truly open to input and opinions from virtually every stake owner in and around their organization. With today’s unprecedented pace and change, the most successful leaders may be those who can confidently set the direction for a group while intently listening to input from employees, customers, and partners for the changes they fully expect will come.

In Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf describes the approach required of the leader who truly understands that game-changing insight can come at anytime, from anyone. “One must make choices. Perhaps one chooses the same aim or hypothesis again and again. But is always with a fresh and open choice, and it is always under a shadow of doubt.” Leaders open to fresh perspectives are more likely make critical adjustments ahead of others.

Greenleaf also offers a perspective on how a leader can create true communication and engagement. He emphasizes both the exercise of authority and the inner quality of humility that characterize a true servant leader. With a commitment to serve first, a leader is more likely to truly listen. With an underlying belief in equality and respect for every individual, successful leaders appreciate the necessity to learn from anyone and everyone.

With the economic, political, social, and environmental challenges we are now facing, pressure to perform is higher than ever for leaders to perform. Senior leaders will always be looked to for future direction. Their due diligence and the quality of their strategies and plans will continue to be an important starting point for any enterprise. Senior leaders will continue to need to display confidence to their organizations. In light of today’s complexities and uncertainties, however, their long term success balance may hinge far more on the challenge of finding the right balance of confidence and the humility that comes with a healthy dose of doubt.

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6 Secrets of Turnaround Success

Working as a senior turnaround specialist in many companies across many industries, I have come to rely on specific strategies to consistently deliver great results. Inside these strategies are 6 particular areas where focus has made all the difference for the teams that I have been fortunate to lead.

When arriving at a new opportunity, it is critical to establish a level of trust with current team members to enable information to flow. When a new “boss” arrives, s/he should employ a specific 30-day strategy of day 1 speeches, symbols, language, and stories to set the right tone. The most important element of the strategy, however, is a recognition of the importance of “co-mmunication.” Co-mmunication is defined as “the joint construction of meaning,” requires active participation by both parties, and is the only way to ensure you are developing the trust necessary to make real progress.

Operationally, it is critical to establish a culture of disciplined management. Components of a disciplined management strategy include envisioning, strategizing, planning, and implementing and measuring. While leaders work diligently to set plans, the certainty offered by Peter Drucker rings true—plans are right 1/3 of the time, fixable 1/3 of the time, and just flat wrong 1/3 of the time. Organizations that succeed specifically recognize that adjustment is a critical part of their management discipline.

Many organizations that underperform do not encourage support as a specific strategy to increase employee engagement. Components of a support strategy include encouraging, enabling, inspiring, questioning, and modeling. Organizations that turn around quickly, however, are those where senior leaders both employ support practices but also understand and appreciate the opportunity to be guided and supported by members of their employee base.

In turnaround situations, speed is a critical issue. To accelerate necessary progress, individuals in organizations need to be encouraged to connect their internal creativity (feeling and thinking), to their external creativity (speaking, writing, and acting). It is particularly important for turnaround leaders to look for passion in team members as an outward indicator of this important alignment.

In my experience, successful turnaround specialists also start with a good self-understanding and insight. They model presence, acceptance, focus, generosity, and gratitude. These leaders know who they are and maintain internal confidence in the face of adversity. Importantly, they keep their personal and professional lives connected and behave consistently in all situations based on who they are and what they stand for.

It is also critical to ensure clarity about what the organization stands for. Values statements that reference universal themes including truth, service, and connection are critical as are behaviors that are consistent with those values. If there is one value that I have found most critical, it is equality.

Organizations that create cultures with an underlying understanding of the true equality of each member are open to suggestions from all sources, co-mmunicate needed adjustments more easily, engage passionate and confident employees, and deliver breakthrough results.

Practice co-mmunication, expect adjustments, be guided by and look for passion in others, maintain confidence, and stand for equality. Taken together, these 6 “secrets” enable leaders at all levels in organizations and deliver outcomes that define successful turnarounds.

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All-In Leadership

No matter where you turn today, it seems that groups in both the public and private sector are facing tough tests. With the economic, political, social, and environmental challenges we are facing, blame games seem more common in government and business than ever before. More than ever, we need effective leadership to drive much needed change but it seems in short supply…or is it?

I contend we have plenty of leadership potential, but we are looking in the wrong direction. We need to stop looking “up” when we All should be looking In. All-In Leadership is a term I use to remind all of us about our individual choice to lead and how we can best approach this opportunity today.

My hope is that today’s events will serve as a wake-up call for us to choose to stop delegating leadership to others and step up to our opportunity to set a new direction, each in our own unique way. All-In Leadership also advocates we each make a complete commitment to this opportunity utilizing discipline, insight, support, and creativity.

Discipline starts with a vision we create for ourselves. Who are we and what do we stand for? It is followed by a strategy and plan to accomplish that vision. After we plan the work, we work the plan. Adjustments are anticipated along the way to deal with the unexpected turns in the road. While discipline doesn’t provide complete control, it improves the probability of reaching our vision.

Insight enables us to create a vision and a plan that “fits” us. With so many opinions and views constantly bombarding us “helping” us determine where and how to find success, we need to learn to hear our own voice among the noise. We can find that voice when we are focused, present, accepting, generous, and grateful.

The ability to support others effectively comes after we truly understand their needs. It starts by truly listening to understand and learn from everyone and every opportunity. It also includes questioning, inspiring, encouraging, enabling, and role modeling for others.

The power of our full creativity is unleashed when we connect what we do to who we are. Specifically, when we connect our internal creativity (feelings and thoughts) to our external creativity (our written and spoken words and our actions) we dramatically increase both our effectiveness and our positive influence over others.

All-In Leadership also requires courage. The serious challenges we face individually and collectively can feel daunting if they fall to only a few to solve. We need leadership from senior executives, group managers, and individual contributors. Together, our combined leadership capabilities and skills can make the difference. Why not start today?

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Leading Turnarounds: How Lucent Fights Back

Rick Miller featured in Success Today magazine, June 2003:

START_QUOTE_30t_smHis friends thought he was crazy. But then, what are friends for but to tell you you’re nuts for taking on the impossible? And that’s what it looked like when Rick Miller went after the top sales job at Lucent Technologies, a company with a once-golden reputation that had tarnished to a dull brown by the time Miller arrived on the scene.

When Miller took the job of senior vice president global sales at Lucent Technologies last May, the once high-flying telecom’s stock, which had fetched $57 in December 1999, had crashed to under $4 per share. By September 2002 it would dip below a buck a share. Everywhere there was a deathwatch, as reporters, analysts and telecom insiders united in whispering that the once glorious company (a 1996 spin-off from AT&T) was not long for this world. “When I joined Lucent, it definitely made a statement,” says Miller, a onetime president of AT&T Global Services who immediately before coming to Lucent had served as president of Opus360, a dot-com that had provided staffing solutions.

“I chose Lucent; it didn’t come after me. I pursued it,” relates Miller. “I saw that this was a company with fundamental strengths. It’s a place where I knew I could make a difference.”

Has he? Not quite a year into his position, Miller says, “You can definitely see the progress. In 2002, our customer satisfaction rating” – based on an annual survey Lucent asks customers to complete – “was the highest in history. We are helping our customers’ bottom lines. We have been very aggressive about getting our pricing in line. When the telecom market turns – and it will – we will be ready. There have been a lot of misperceptions about Lucent and about our sales team,” adds Miller. “I want to change that.”

Miller backs up his words. He threw open his sales team to interviews by Selling Power – and that’s because he wants to get out a loud message: Lucent is going to be a place where hard-charging sales executives make a lot of money, because this is a new company where selling rules. “A lot of people think we’re about technology,” says Miller, who acknowledges that because Lucent’s roots lie in Bell Labs, the company’s technology heritage is rich. “But this also is a company where selling matters. We definitely know that.”

Proof: Every week Lucent CEO Patricia Russo picks up the phone and calls her counterparts at 10 to 15 major customers. Her calls target whales – the companies that most emphatically determine Lucent’s success. But she is not alone. Just below her is Bob Holder, Lucent’s COO, and every week he, too, makes a dozen or so calls. “The rest of the organization can look up to the very top and see the commitment to selling, to building customer relations,” says Miller.

Another key sales agent in the current environment is Lucent’s CFO, Frank D’Amelio. “Whenever a customer raises questions about our future, our CFO goes in and tells our story,” says Vince Molinaro, senior vice president, North America, for integrated network solutions. “We take the viability of our company right off the table, so we can get the conversation back to how Lucent’s solutions can help this customer.”

When there is good news about Lucent’s finances – and the company insists it is enjoying rising revenues and is cash-flow positive – executives are quick to get out that news, to customers and employees alike. “We share that information with people who would be interested,” says Miller, and he well realizes that in a battle for the hearts and minds – of customers and Lucent employees alike – it’s critical to get out positive information.

“We don’t wait for customers to ask,” adds Molinaro. “We background every customer with the facts. This communication has become part of our daily habit.”

Rebuilding a Team

Commitment to selling from the top executives was a start in reviving Lucent’s fortunes, but Rick Miller knew when he came aboard that he had inherited a shattered sales force. The numbers tell it all. At the start of 2001, Lucent had 106,000 employees. Today it has around 40,000. That’s a lot of bodies cut loose, and the sales team suffered losses too. Miller knew he had to bandage these wounds and get the sales force refocused on making the deals that would keep Lucent alive. How would he do it?

“We have gotten smaller but we also now are putting our money on our sales force,” says Miller, who explains that in 2003 he has put strong emphasis on three key programs designed to pump up the sellers.

Recognition. For several years, recognition programs were suspended – Lucent just didn’t have the money to spend on traditional morale boosters. But in 2003 Miller shook lose money to fund programs (such as a winter trip to Scottsdale for high producers) and, probably just as importantly, the company has taken big steps to engrain low-cost but powerful recognition programs into its culture. Such as?

“I’ve personally sent out around 600 recognition letters to top employees,” relates Molinaro, and you can bet that when a personal thank-you comes from a senior vice president, that carries weight. What makes Molinaro’s output all the more impressive: that output was generated in just the first few months of 2003. “We have a lot of great stuff going on in this company, and as executives we are just beginning to say thank you,” adds Molinaro.

Training. In the lowest months Lucent did little training, but Miller has ratcheted that up: “We have doubled the dollars we are making available for training,” relates Miller. How much training will be involved in 2003? Joe Dymond, a sales rep with Lucent’s BellSouth team, says that he personally is looking at 80 hours of training – mainly in selling techniques – during 2003. Many reps will put in the same number of training hours.

“This tells our salespeople we are investing in them,” says Miller who knows the research is plentiful showing that when a sales team is invested in, it feels more valued, and usually that translates into a harder working, more dedicated group.

Compensation. “We have committed ourselves to providing market-level compensation,” says Miller, who indicates that there has been a broad revision of the compensation program for sales reps. Throughout the revision process, says Miller, reps were consulted with the hope of producing a program that would more effectively motivate the sales force. Did Miller hit his target?

From the trenches, rep Dymond indicates, “the numbers are aggressive but realistic. If we bring the customers in, we can achieve our numbers.” Once a rep’s quota is reached, “multipliers” – as Lucent calls them – kick in and the rep can wind up with generous bonuses. Is the program fair? “We always want more money,” laughs Dymond, but he indicates that to his eyes the new Lucent compensation program offers both incentives to sell and rewards for those who close deals.

Kicking It Up with Customers

Miller may have shored up Lucent’s relationship with its reps, but what about with customers? “We are going back to the basics of selling,” says Miller, and to him that means building lasting relationships that lead to sales.

A methodical, patient approach is still Lucent’s way, even amid the current financial urgencies and, frankly, there probably isn’t any way to speed up the process. Telcos (about 40 mammoth telecommunications providers who have been identified by Lucent as their core customer base) just don’t move fast when making decisions involving many millions of dollars and that will shape the future of their networks.

“We do relationship selling, not transactional,” says Tom Moore, director of optical sales on Lucent’s Verizon sales team. He adds, “It can take up to a year to close a sale. Developing relationships with influencers inside the company is critical.”

This is a deliberate sales process that begins when a customer sends out a Request for Proposal to perhaps 10 telecommunications vendors. “If our relationships are solid we may know a month in advance that an RFP is coming,” says Moore. “That can give us a head start.”

Vendors’ responses to the RFPs, in turn, are screened by the customer and some – perhaps three to five – will be invited in for presentations to the customer’s operating managers. “These talks can take one to two days,” says Moore, and, increasingly, Lucent comes loaded for bear. The company now builds into most of its presentations a so-called “business case,” a thick document that minutely details the dollars and cents payoffs of going with the Lucent solutions. In every instance Lucent wants to show the customer where and how its products will make money for the customer because, without that, a sale simply won’t happen in this market, says Moore.

Pass that stage and one more hoop needs to be jumped through: “A few finalists then are invited in to present to the customer’s senior management,” relates Moore, who indicates that usually Lucent will get one hour, tops two, to talk about the business advantages of its solutions to a customer executive team that may include the CEO. “They want to hear how the Lucent solution will better their bottom line, how it will enhance their operational effectiveness, and also how our solution will differentiate them from their competitors,” says Moore.

That elaborate dance, truth to tell, is little changed from how sales were made five years ago. But there are differences. Telcos today are slower to decide – that’s a byproduct of a financially more reticent industry – “and they absolutely insist we spell out the ROI,” says Moore.

In Lucent’s case, it has moved fast to give customers more in its sales presentations – but inside people have a keen sense that they are doing this more with less. “Our teams now are smaller, leaner,” says Pamela Reilly, a rep on the Verizon Wireless Team – and notes that, although teams have gotten thinner, every major customer has a dedicated team serving its needs. For instance, 48 reps are on the Verizon team, and they can call on another 25 specialists – engineers and marketers – as needed.

There may even be a silver lining in the downsizing of Lucent’s teams. “Sometimes I think so many of us visited customers it could have been intimidating. We’re a smaller group now,” says Reilly. She adds that the prevailing philosophy within Lucent now is staffing teams with multitaskers – “We look for people who can sell but who also understand and can explain the technology.” A few years ago, it was more common for a team to include a few engineers to talk the technology and salespeople to do the closing, but now, with fewer people, wearing multiple hats, “the sales process may be smoother,” says Reilly.

A Paradigm Shift

Three years ago Lucent was resolutely a DIY company – if it wasn’t going to happen internally, it wasn’t going to happen, because Lucent did not reach out for assistance. So if there are skeptics about Lucent’s commitment to change, listen up: the company is knee-deep into a paradigm change with a goal of bringing in resellers and partners who will generate“20 percent of our revenue base,” says Molinaro. For a company that has always been 100 percent direct, this is a massive, wrenching shift. But, says Molinaro, “we call this ‘extending our reach.’ We are trying to make the pie bigger.”

As Lucent got smaller, it realized their were opportunities out there that it simply wasn’t pursuing, especially when the prospects weren’t the large telcos that are Lucent’s core customers. But Lucent also realized it could no longer afford to ignore those opportunities. “We decided to create a competitive advantage for ourselves by bringing in partners who can help us sell into new markets,” says Molinaro.

So far the program is in its early stages – with partners ranging from small resellers in Asia to IBM and Accenture in the U.S. – but Lucent expresses deep optimism that this will help pave profitable future paths for the company.

What about panicking already anxious internal sales teams who might see these alliances as further erosion of their income? “We are working hard to reassure our people,” says Molinaro, who indicates that compensation plans are being tweaked to provide assurances to inside reps that outside reps are not stealing sales out of their pockets. “This strategy will let us make sales we probably wouldn’t otherwise have made,” says Molinaro. “People inside see how this is very good for the company.”

Bell Labs

Yet another paradigm shift is enveloping Lucent’s crown jewel, Bell Labs. Nothing else in the telecom sector rivals the sheer brainy firepower of Bell Labs, but this also is a facility that traditionally operated at arm’s length or farther from the selling process. No more. Big changes have unfolded as Bell Labs fights to make itself a cost-effective component of Lucent. “We have a spectrum of activities that helps our sales teams,” says Wim Sweldens, a Bell Labs vice president. “In the past two years, interactions have become much more frequent. The goal is to intensify the relationship between research and selling.”

A tangible demonstration of this new direction for Bell Labs is that key researchers are buddied up with counterparts at Lucent with the aim of seeing where the Lab’s research can help the sales team get meetings and close deals. Sweldens, for instance, is paired with Molinaro, and each quarter they review each customer Molinaro serves and the question, always, is where can Bell Labs help? This involves lots of communication between Sweldens and Molinaro. “We have phone calls and email, and we may get together in person seven or eight times a quarter,” says Sweldens.

Bell Labs also directly reaches out to customers. “With key customers, our researchers will get together with theirs to review topics of mutual interest. This buys us a lot of mindshare,” says Sweldens, who reminds us of the stature of Bell Labs in its industry: “Many telephone companies see Bell Labs as their research organization,” says Swelden.

This is a two-way street, however. “We get a lot out of meeting with customers. Hearing their problems helps us better focus our efforts. We walk away from these meetings with a treasure trove of problems to solve” – and every problem, potentially, engenders a new Lucent solution or improvements in current Lucent products.

Ramping Up for Tomorrow’s Successes

“It’s not your grandfather’s telecommunications industry any more, that’s for sure,” says Gina Johnson, account manager with Lucent’s SBC team. “We have been through a lot of change.”

Listen to Rick Miller, however, and the changes are just beginning for Lucent. “We’ve made a strong start, but there’s more to go,” says Miller who acknowledges that Lucent still has challenging times ahead. But, he adds, every stock picker knows the strategy for beating the market is to buy low when you believe a stock is bound to rise. “That’s what I tell people about my coming to Lucent,” says Miller. “Of course the stock was low. Of course the company had problems. But this is a company with a great future before it. We are going to sell our way out of this.”
– Robert McGarvey

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Corporate Culture and Performance

“The single most visible factor that distinguishes a successful culture from a failure… is competent leadership from the top.” —Corporate Culture and Performance

We are coming upon the 20 year anniversary of the publishing of John Kotter’s and James Heskett’s Corporate Culture and Performance. The lessons in this classic are timeless and particularly applicable for those who lead groups today. Rooted in research, Kotter and Heskett provide a blue-print of what to do to build an organization that can sustain strong performance. They also point out that it is not easy.

“Culture represents the interdependent set of values and ways of behaving that are common in a community and that tend to perpetuate themselves.” The performance engine of any company is their community of employees. Specifically, the books central message is that it is critical to build an Adaptive Culture, rather than a strong culture, to create long-term economic performance. Adaptive cultures expect and embrace change. To build the elusive adaptive culture, the authors offer the following:

Senior executives must display an uncommon combination of personal attributes and actions at the very top of a business. Internally, executives must be self-assured and willing to work for others. Externally, executives must exhibit discipline, confidence and humility. According to extensive research conducted by Kotter and Heskett, senior executives must also act to:

  • Create a sense of crisis and a need for change as they set a new direction
  • Communicate consistently and broadly
  • Display an “outsiders” propensity to embrace change and new ideas
  • Reinforce the importance of innovation
  • Build and maintain an “insiders” credibility
  • Institute a balanced focus on the success of customers, employees, and share owners
  • Establish leadership or the ability to produce change as an important focus at ALL levels
  • Decentralize decision-making where possible
  • Promote carefully and demote when necessary
  • Celebrate early success

At a time when so many of our private sector institutions are not performing well, we would all be well served to return to lessons contained in this leadership classic. The good news is that the paperback version of Corporate Culture and Performance was released earlier this year. Is that perfect timing? As a practitioner of the concepts included in this classic, I can assure you it is well worth the time.

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Great by Choice

On October 11th, Author Jim Collins released his fourth in a series of heavily researched books outlining “what it takes to build a great company,” titled Great by Choice with co-writer Morten Hansen. This particular book focuses on requirements for sustained growth in a business world characterized by uncertainty and chaos. The book also consciously builds on, but does not actively reference, the key lessons in the prior three books. The authors build a case that their conclusions complement the important learning offered in his earlier books. These include:

Built to Last – including a focus on the importance of Values

Good to Great – including a focus on the importance of Insight of Level 5 Leadership

How The Mighty Fall – including a focus on the intense Support required of leaders to Never Give In

In Great by Choice, the authors share the results of a nine-year research effort focused on determining those characteristics of companies that achieve superior and sustained performance in the most unpredictable of market conditions. Central among their findings are the importance of the connection between Discipline and Creativity as part of a concept the authors describe as 10X Leadership. “Of course, it is not discipline alone that makes greatness, but the combination of discipline and creativity. “(pg. 77)

As a total body of work, Collins four studies include a deep dive on a select group of 75 companies. As a resource, Collins’ books are invaluable. While certain themes (i.e. discipline) are woven throughout the four books, as a career academic, researcher and consultant Collins concludes that people can build a great company based on their actions and attributes…even in the most challenging of times. I think Collins is spot on.

Going forward, however, this blog will come from the view point of a career practitioner. I believe there is value in the insights and observations of a career business leader who has spent most of his time on the front line, accountable for results. Based on experience, at times I may disagree with parts of the research offered by others or I may offer a slightly different spin. At Choices & Success we APPLY the best of these concepts to drive results and resilience. From this perspective, I will offer a practitioner’s view of HOW Discipline, Insight, Support, Creativity, and Values can be implemented to drive sustained performance. The devil is in the details.

In Great by Choice, Collins offers the following summary of his research on building a great company: “Indeed, if there’s one overarching message arising from more than six thousand years of corporate history across all our research—studies that employ comparisons of great versus good in similar circumstances—it would be this: greatness is not the matter of circumstance; greatness is first and foremost a matter of conscious choice and discipline.

On that perspective, we agree 100%!

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