What's the word? It's ACTION.

I had a boss in the Army, absolutely the worst boss I ever had (and I've had some really bad ones) who I want to reference for my post today. Now, the other poor bosses I've had were just bad bosses, kind of mean at times, thought they were "all that and TWO bags of chips", but this guy...this guy was morally bankrupt, as well...a total sleaze.

Anyway, this colonel used to add a phrase to his signature block, "Leadership is Action", and since I despised him, I despised the phrase. He was the poorest excuse for a leader because he engendered no respect (I wasn't perfect, of course). But, I keep digressing.

Today I heard a phrase at church, "Service is Action" and it made me remember the colonel's phrase. I no longer despise him so I no longer despise the phrase.

"Leadership is ACTION."

"Service is ACTION."

How about that? Both sentences have one thing in common. What is it? Why, you're exactly correct! It's ACTION.

You can't be a strong leader by sitting on your butt and you can't be a servant or of service to others by sitting on that same keester. Action, actually doing something, is the key to being or becoming a solid leader or true servant.

Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

Responsibility versus Accountability...What's the difference?

Don't responsibility and accountability mean the same thing? Actually, they don't.

Responsibility means you have the duty to fulfill a task or an assignment.

Accountability means that, even if you don't have direct control over a task or process or initiative, you still have to show the results.

A boss can pass on responsibility for his or her duties because he or she has many things to do, but cannot pass on accountability; he or she is still ultimately the person who has to account for and show results against the success or failure of a task or initiative or effort.

Bottom line is that the buck stops with the boss and he or she will have to provide an accounting for what does or does not happen. Everything ultimately belongs to the boss.

It's all yours, baby. Enjoy.

Encouraging Outstanding Service

Many times in America, we receive service from another person. The service industry is one of the fastest growing (and maybe fastest growing) industries in the country.

Despite that, or maybe because of it, we often receive mediocre or poor service at a store, restaurant, or business. We're almost conditioned to it because it happens so much.

BUT THEN, all of a sudden, we are the recipients of TOTALLY AWESOME, OUSTANDING service. What do we do with that? Maybe we just hopefully enjoy it to the max since we know it's going to be a while, maybe a long while, until we experience such a thing again.

Or maybe, we provide some encouragement and positive feedback to the person who made our day and to hopefully spur them to provide it again for us or someone else.

There are different ways to provide that encouragement and feedback:

1. We can personally thank the service provider even more than with a "thanks" ("You sure did go above and beyond today and I really appreciate it" or "You know what? You made my day!").

2. We can write a note on the merchant copy of the receipt ("Outstanding service!" or "Because of you we had the best dining experience in a very long time. Thank you!").

3. Tell the boss. One time I gave someone a very strong "thanks" for a service they provided and the person responded, "Thanks, but if you really want to say thanks, tell my boss." GREAT point. If you have the time and can find the manager or supervisor, let him or her know and be specific with the name of the server and what happened. You'll probably knock their socks off...I did this a few months ago and the manager was so used to getting complaints that he began a "pre-emptive" defensiveness. He was shocked when I provided positive comments.

4. Do all of the above

*Just a note that if a tip or gratuity is warranted, the verbal or written thanks should not replace that cash. And if you have the money to be generous, I encourage you to share it...with the economy the way it is, servers are getting poorer and poorer tips.

When you provide this positive experience for your service provider, you may also have the chance to model your behavior for someone else like a spouse, friend, child or grandchild. What a wonderful example you can be for someone else while simultaneously doing something nice.

Think about it...and then do it.

But I want my employees to like me....

Yes, we all want to be liked. It's a natural human desire. We like others and we want them to like us. This is great in a friendship, but it rarely works out in a) parenthood (don't get me started on that) or b) boss / employee relations. Friends do things for each other because of mutual liking.

The problem is that many leaders confuse "like" and "respect". It's not uncommon for leaders to think the way to take care of their people is to do things their troops like or to look the other way when the employees do things they shouldn't do. "If I'm mean to Bob or try to apply some discipline then he won't like me and won't do what I want." Ever heard that before? Friendship can muddy the waters at work.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not at all saying you should be mean or ugly (read yesterday's post). You can be friendly without being friends. It's a little harder when two people are friends and then one becomes the boss. The trick there is for both to know when it's time for "friends" and when it's time for "boss/employee".

The key is to:

1. Set expectations up front. Let your people know the way you do business and what they can expect from you. If you start out with the friend thing and then decide you have to "tighten it up" a little, you're going to be in a world of hurt. If you start out professional, you can always back off some once things are going smoothly.
2. Be fair and even-handed. Treat everyone openly and honestly and equally. Be respectful of your team members as human beings and adults.
3. Hold your team accountable to your expectations and their job duties.

Let's face it; you weren't hired to be Mr. or Ms. Popular. You were hired to get a job done...just like your people were. If you follow the keys above, what you will receive from your team is RESPECT and coupling that with a friendly atmosphere can make work a nice place to be where jobs get done like they're supposed to.

It's not weakness to say "Please" and "Thank You"

There are two very common types of leaders (hopefully mostly the young ones) who either:

1. Want to be liked too much (we'll discuss this in another post)

2. Go to the extreme the other way and think they have to be the tough, hard a**. These folks think the only way to manage and lead their folks is through harsh treatment. "I'd rather be feared than loved." Oh, brother. Get over it. General Patton is dead and gone.

Leaders like this (and I use the term "leader" loosely here) don't have any respect for their teams or think they can engender any respect themselves...unless they're Genghis Khan.

Interesting isn't it? One big way to receive respect from your team members is to show them common courtesy and respect. Weren't most of us raised to say "please" and "thank you"? Wouldn't you rather be respected for being a great boss, for being an empathetic leader than for scaring your folks half to death (if the answer is "no" you'd rather have your folks be scared, then step away from the job and go work in the woods or something).

Saying "please" and "thank you" don't diminish your power or strength as a leader...if anything, they can enhance it because, again, you're showing respect for others and they're more likely going to want to show it to you.

Think about it, "please".

"Thank you."

I HATE leadership, service, and management books!

Most of them, anyway. I find they often have only a few items to cover and do that in a few chapters. Then, in order to have enough chapters to publish a book, they restate the ideas using different examples time and again.

Plus, for me anyway, I feel like I know most of the ideas around leadership, service, and management....I just don't execute on what I know. I don't need another book telling me what to do. I need to get motivated to do what I need to do.

One book that's really different from most is "Monday Morning Leadership" by David Cottrell. This book is short and gets its points across by weaving them through a story. I was asked to facilitate a leadership training session recently with a few managers from my company. The boss of these managers suggested working through "Monday Morning Leadership". I was underwhelmed to say the least. Another management book? Aaarrrgggghhhh.....

But, I agreed to do it and started reading the book (I had the book, but had never read it...because I hate books like these). Boy, was I wrong. Like I said above, this book really hit the spot on how to get leadership principles across.

The points of this book, and the way it is written, make it easy to ask people to pull ideas from because they can relate. We had a very effective session today as we used the material from Chapters 1 and 2 to challenge the group.

If you want a great little leadership book to read or need something to work through with a group, do yourself a favor and get "Monday Morning Leadership".

Memorial Day

This is a gimme, isn't it? It's Memorial Day, the day we remember those who sacrificed (some call it the ultimate sacrifice) for our country, our freedom. Service, it's about service.

I guess what I want to remember during times like these are the really special soldiers. You don't know what I mean, do you?

Well, even though it only lasted 10 years, I was a career Army officer. I made a commitment when I gave my oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Soldiers like I was, those who volunteered, the ones who thought (even though they probably had no idea about how big the sacrifice) that they would be willing to do whatever was asked, well, they are definitely to be commended and lauded.

The special soldiers, though, the special soldiers to me are the ones who didn't want to go, may even have tried to get out of going into harm's way, but ended up going anyway....and then gave all they had. To me, those men and women, they are the special soldiers even more deserving of our recognition.

So, today, remember those not only who volunteered and looked for opportunities to sacrifice, but those great many who did their utmost, regardless of how they felt, because their efforts meant something.

Leaders LEAD

This title is extremely important for leaders. Take a look at a few lines from "Fort Apache", the Henry Fonda, John Wayne Western from 1948. In this section...

[Yorke has ridden in to save the colonel, but Thursday has decided to die with his men rather than face disgrace]

Lt. Col. Thursday: Trouble you for your sabre, Captain.

Captain Yorke: My sabre?

Lt. Col. Thursday: I must rejoin my command.

Captain Yorke: The command is wiped out, sir, and there's nothing we can do about it.

Lt. Col. Thursday: I'm not asking your opinion, Capt. Yorke! When you command this regiment - and you probably will - command it! Your sabre, sir.

[Capt. Yorke hands him his sabre]

Lt. Col. Thursday: Any questions, Captain?

[Capt. Yorke watches as Col. Thursday rides off to rejoin the battle]

Captain Yorke: No questions.

Did you see what Colonel Thursday said? "When you command this regiment...command it!"

That is one shortcoming many leaders experience...the lack of "command". I'm not talking about being a martinette or some kind of crazy hard core leader. I'm talking about you and everyone else knowing that you are the person in charge, the tough decisions are yours to make, and you will make them.

It's fine to have as much concensus within the group as appropriate when things are running smoothly. It's a totally another thing to try to have concensus when a crisis is at hand. Your people need to know, when it comes to crunch time, there is one go-to person who will take charge and see the team or organization through whatever the urgent matter may be.

Another point is that, as human beings, we want to be lead. We look for a strong leader, one who is fair and even-handed. It's ok if the leader is firm as long as he or she is consistent.

So, what am I saying again? Leaders LEAD!

What's my focus?

So I want to focus my attentions in this blog on service and leadership, two things about which I am most passionate. The problem is that I made the mistake of sharing my thoughts with my lovely wife, Lisa.

Maybe the problem wasn't that I shared my thoughts with Lisa, but that it was just after I ranted about someone who was annoying me...a family member...(ok, family members, don't wonder which of you it was because you all annoy me...that's what make this all so perfect).

How can I write about service to others, making another person's day, leadership (which is all about service, in my opinion) and other stuff when I can't even practice it with my own family?

Whew. This is tough. Lisa is as wise as she is short (5'0"). I've got to think more about this.

I'll get back to you.

My first post

This is my first post of my new blog. I guess it's exciting...I'm not really sure. The hardest thing for me to figure out is why I'm doing this. I figure I have something to say...I know I'm a decent writer (from a construct perspective, anyway).

What will I write about? Not sure. I know I have strong opinions about how people ought to live and ought to serve....service...ahhh, that's the key. It's more than about me...it's more than about self. I think I'll hit on that later.

Anyway, I'll be back because I'm a disciplined person and I am making a commitment.

If anyone ever reads this, I'll be amazed, but wonders never cease.

What was I thinking? I can't imagine, but I will.