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Performance Principles™
Performance Principles is an e-letter written by Eric Herrenkohl that focuses on creating the business you want by building the organization you need. This is copyrighted material. However, you can copy, reprint, or forward these newsletters in their entirety so long as any use is not for resale and the following copyright notice is included intact: Copyright © 2010, Eric Herrenkohl, Herrenkohl Consulting. All rights reserved. www.herrenkohlconsulting.com, 610-658-9790.
Smart Dogs Run Ahead of their Prey
Several weeks ago, a friend and I were cycling on the country roads in Southern Illinois. We turned onto a long road that stretched out for at least a quarter of a mile. To our left was a huge field that recently had been high with corn, but now was just a huge expanse of dark dirt.
Suddenly, we heard the barks and howls of farm dogs. Off in the distance, we saw four dogs running at a complete gallop through the field. The strongest dog pulled ahead to lead the pack, and the others followed. He was not running at us. He was running on an angle, aiming to arrive at the point in the road where we would be in about 60 seconds. In other words, he was not trying to catch us; he was trying to get ahead of us, so that he could then turn on us. This was one smart dog.
Fortunately, we could get our bikes moving up around 30 miles an hour – so we outraced them. If we had been running rather than riding, it could have been a very interesting confrontation.
Performance Principle: Smart people, like smart dogs, run ahead of their prey. This dog was not born knowing how to work the angle of attack as well as an NFL cornerback. But after enough unsuccessful chases, he learned that it is always better to cut off problems rather than run after them.
Questions to Consider:
What is one problem that you and your team need to cut off rather than chase? This could include:
- Weeding out poor sales people before they get hired, because you recognize the huge costs that poor salespeople have created for you.
- Raising your fees because you realize that your value warrants a higher fee and the perception of your team’s value is hurt by lower fee levels.
- Improving relationships on your team, because you know that if you stop trusting one another, there is no way you can compete effectively.
- “Becoming a leader rather than just one of the boys, because my people will not reach the next level if I don’t take them there.”
- “Achieving more balance in your life, because you realize that you are no good to yourself, your family, or your company if you are unhealthy.
Back to Basics
Here in St. Louis, we are all excited about the National League Central Champion Cardinals. Mike Matheny, the team’s catcher, was asked this season how he handles a pitcher who gives up a lot of runs early in the game. He said, “We start the game all over in our minds, and go back to basics. We focus on the pitcher’s best pitch, and make sure he is bringing it in low over the plate and throwing strikes. And we go from there.”
Performance Principle: We all hit times in business and in life when our wonderful plans go wrong. In such times, we have to go back to the basics. Focus on the foundational activities that you know will generate success. Forget trying to be fancy. And remember to be patient with yourself.
This means that CEOs need to re-focus their managers on the top 1-2 priorities of the organization. Managers need to check in with people DAILY to measure progress and give feedback. Sales people need to fill their pipeline through outbound calls and kept appointments.
And remember – the Cardinals have the best record in baseball this season, but even they occasionally get clobbered. Handling and recovering from failure is an important competency. Don’t waste time beating yourself up. Go back to the basics, and you will soon be back to your winning ways.
Until next month,
Eric
Starting a Fire of Effectiveness
Remember being a kid and burning a dry leaf with a magnifying glass? First you caught the sunlight with the lens. Then you focused it on the leaf until it burst into flame. If the lens was dirty, however, or you lacked the patience to focus the light correctly, no amount of time and effort was sufficient to create a fire.
This is a good metaphor for you as an executive. You personally are responsible for creating clarity and focus in your organization. You are the lens that must catch the light (the vision) and focus it into flame (leadership). If you are not clear and focused, you have no chance of leading anyone effectively.
Performance Principle: Clarity and Focus create Effectiveness. If there is an area in your organization that needs improvement, ask yourself if you are modeling the effectiveness you want to see in others.
Questions to Consider:
- Are you clear on what success look like for your team 12 months from now?
- Are you clear on the right actions to take to achieve this success?
- Are you focusing your time on these high-priority actions?
- If you answer NO to anyone of these questions, admit to yourself that until you are clear and focused, you cannot lead your organization to be so.
Trying to Win
Over the past year, I have gotten into bike racing (that’s road bicycles, not motorcycles). So get ready for a new theme in this and future Performance Principles. After a year of training and finishing well behind the pack, I finally succeeded in finishing in the top 10 racers. My goal is now to finish first. So I asked an experienced cyclist what I needed to do to win. He laughed and said that in order to win, you have to try to win. Then he told me about his friend, a professional-caliber rider. This man says that of 100 riders who line up for an elite race, only 15 or so are actually trying to win the race. Everyone else is focused on some other objective such as enjoying the experience or just finishing (no small accomplishment).
Performance Principle: Victory is an accomplishment, not an accident. If you are going to win, you have to set your mind on that goal. Your behavior will be subtly but vitally different if you are aiming to win rather than just finish. If you are willing to push yourself to focus on winning, not just finishing, you might be surprised at what you are capable of accomplishing.
Questions to Consider:
- Is your team trying to win or are they just trying to finish?
- How can you as a leader raise the goals and objectives of your team?
- If your goal was no less than victory, how would that affect your actions? What would you do differently?
- What is one immediate step that your team will commit to achieving on the path to winning your overall race?
The Perfect Glass of Beer
I once heard someone describe a bar owner who decided that every beer served in his establishment should have a perfect head of foam on it. More foam on top meant less beer being served, and less beer served meant lower costs and higher profits. Plus, the foam made the beer look great.
This owner mounted a life-size picture of the perfect beer above the tap where only the bartenders and waitresses could see it. That way, all employees had to do was make sure that the beer they pulled from the tap looked exactly like the beer in the picture. Foolproof!
Several months passed by. The restaurant owner could see that the beers being served were consistently topped with the perfect head of foam. His plan seemed to be working until one day he observed a waitress hold a mug of beer up to the picture, and then pour the beer down the drain. The owner was furious!
When confronted, the waitress replied that she had been told to only serve a beer if it matched the picture – and it always took her two to three tries to get it right.
Performance Principle: In order to execute effectively, we need to understand WHY we are being asked to do something. When we understand the reason behind the task, we can make decisions that get us closer to our goal. If the waitress understood that reducing costs – rather than ideal appearance – was the reason behind the perfect glass of beer, she could have adjusted her behavior accordingly.
Questions to Consider:
- What are the top 3 priorities of your team?
- Why are these important?
- Does everyone on your team understand these priorities and the reasons for them?
Note: I have been unable to verify the original source of this story, but it has appeared elsewhere in published form.
Driving Through Your Fears
Last winter I was driving from Vermont to New Hampshire for a meeting. As I headed south, a true New England blizzard set in. The visibility was steadily decreasing. Cars were skidding on the highway.
I still had two hours to go in my trip. So I pulled over and called the hotel where I was heading to check on the weather there. The front desk informed me that the skies there were clear. Thinking that I could drive through the storm, I got back in my car and kept going.
The snowstorm got worse. Now, I was literally creeping along. Again I pulled over, this time at a tourist information office. The staff checked the weather on-line for me. The weather report indicated that the storm should already be moving past us. Yet the snow continued to fall.
I got back in my car, and told myself that I would keep going just a little bit further. Just as I considered pulling over for a third and final time, I drove right out of the storm. Where moments before there had been blinding white, now the skies were clear and the road was wide open.
Performance Principle: Sometimes you have to drive through your own fears. While my fear told me to pull the car over, the facts told me to keep going. In difficult times, our fears try to grab the wheel. But our minds tell us that things are better than they seem. In times like this, the worst thing we can do is to obey our fears. When the facts disagree with your fears, let the facts win.
Helen Keller once said – Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. When your emotions are running wild, but the data tell a more hopeful picture, don’t give into your fears. Drive through them.
Until next month,
Eric
Island Hopping
During World War II, troops under the command of Douglas MacArthur suffered significantly fewer casualties than did Marines under a separate command in the same theater of combat. In large part, this resulted from MacArthur being selective about the battles that he fought. Rather than attacking enemy troops because they were there, he employed a strategy of island hopping – attacking only the larger islands that lay between him and his ultimate goal, Japan itself. Enemy troops on smaller islands were left, as MacArthur famously put it, to “wither on the vine.”
Performance Principle: Pick your battles. Fight battles that are important for winning the war, and hop over ones that are not. Do not allow yourself to be drawn into fights that lack a meaningful connection to larger issues.
Too often, people attack an issue simply because it is there, not because it is important. Then, instead of admitting their mistake and drawing back, a dangerous cocktail of ego, pride, and stubbornness causes them to dig in. There are no victors in such political trench warfare – only casualties.
As leaders, part of our charge is to help others distinguish for themselves the battles that are worth fighting. The next time your troops are ready to engage in a new battle, first ask them if winning this battle will help your team to win the war. The better your people are at discerning battles that deserve to be fought, the more focused your organization will be on winning battles that count.
Questions to Consider:
- Are you picking your battles?
- Is your team disciplined about avoiding fights that have no upside?
- Today, are you engaged in a fight out of pride and ego vs. necessity?
