Praise in Public, Coach in Private

Across a business career that now spans well over 27 years, I have had the chance to experience and learn a wide variety of lessons from a wide range of inspirations. In some instances it took me years to realize the power and impact of a key lesson (as described in a recent essay “Execution is THE Strategy) and in some situations I have been applying and sharing a lesson that I learned years ago, the source of which is now lost in the fog of time. Thus let me preface this essay to say that I am certain I owe the following idea to some historic boss, teacher, or peer and I officially apologize for not being able to more appropriately credit the source today.

As you can easily see from this blog, I believe deeply in the power and importance of Leadership and am always working on my craft in this area. It’s an honor and a privilege to lead teams and so often leaders literally blow it by thinking they can “drive” organizations to do their will, execute their strategies, and follow their directives. In my experience successful, engaged organizations are ones where the leaders follow the three simple principles of leadership; to educate the minds, inspire the hearts, and direct the hands and feet of their teams. (Learn more about these principles in the essay “Three Impact Points of Leadership”) it’s in this context that this simple of idea, to “Praise in Public, Coach in Private” comes to life.

There are so many “leadership moments” that occur every day in a leaders work life that it is impossible to pre-plan your message/tone/approach for every high impact moment. Certainly there are key meetings, presentations, speeches, etc. where pre-planning is a must; being intentional about your content, your context and your approach is not optional! It IS a requirement of leadership. My comments today are about all of those unplanned, unrehearsed moments that are high impact situations without the benefit of pre-planning. In my experience keeping the idea of “Praise in Public, Coach in Private” close at hand will serve all leaders well.

Praise in Public: in situations where you encounter positive outcomes or positive actions from your team, don’t shy away from praising the individual or the team publically. Whether live, on a conf call, or on a group email, let the team know WHAT you like in the situation and maybe more importantly WHY you like it! Let it out, don’t hold it in! Your team wants and NEEDS to know what you value and what great performance looks like. Across my years in business I have never been in a situation where I have felt an organization had too much praise, or had “become soft” because of excessive praise. Across all the engagement surveys and team input sessions, the lack of feedback from senior leadership was MUCH more common an issue.

Coach in Private: in situations opposite from the above, where the results and/or the approach to the work did not meet expectations try to avoid public environments for pinpointed/direct/negative feedback. If you really want that individual/team to learn from the moment, the last thing you want them thinking about is their embarrassment in front of their friends and peers. Equally for high performing associates who “got this one wrong”, you as the leader owe it to them to quietly and privately dive into the situation to see where they or maybe YOU got it wrong as well. Berating high performers publically is a typical first step for those associate to actually listen when headhunters call.

While it seems simple enough, I can promise you it is often hard to put into practice. Recently I participated in a board meeting where the leader became energized on a specific issue brought up by one of his direct reports. Rather than deciding to “Coach in Private”, he dove into the individual with a growing stream of critique and reproach. Not only did the other board members feel left out and ignored the individual in question (a high performer in the company) ultimately shut down and the discussion literally stopped. Was there learning? Was there insight? Was there progress?

Now I know there will be moments where all of us will struggle to bring this idea to life consistently. We will be tempted to “Coach in Public” and maybe “Praise in Private” or more likely to not praise at all. Keep the simple idea of “Praise in Public, Coach in Private” present as you go through your busy lives of leadership, and I am confident that not only will you be a more effective leader, your organization/team will be more energized, engaged, and your results will be more successful.

Advance Your Position

So many of us lead hectic work and personal lives, racing from one commitment to another, on one flight to another, one conference call to another, etc., etc, etc.. I am almost out of breadth just describing our normal pace of life! In previous essays I have shared my thoughts on taking a few moments to proverbially “smell the roses” ( Long Look Garden / Ode to a Shunpiker /The Big Spoon ) and while I am certain that I will write more on that again sometime in the future, this essay is about a simple idea that may help you navigate life in overdrive.

I often think about and try to plan out my calendar a few weeks at a time. I have found it a bit unrealistic to try to go much beyond 3 to 4 weeks out with the ever changing landscape of work commitments, customer meetings and the inherent travel related to these commitments. Even with all the best planning, the combination of my family commitments and my work obligations can at times feel overwhelming. I have found that one approach that helps me a lot is looking ahead at my commitments and working to physically and proverbially get one move ahead, e.g., “advancing my position.”
Here is an example of what I am talking about; every Tuesday I hold a weekly conference call with my team across the country. There is not a specific time slot for the call, due to my constantly changing travel schedule, but I have held it every Tuesday for the past 2-3 years. Well on many Tuesdays I have found myself with a morning customer meeting, the weekly call scheduled mid-day, then a flight off to another work commitment. In these situations I have found that if I move quickly from the morning customer meeting to get to the airport, move directly through security, then off to a quiet corner near my gate, I can lead my weekly team conference call with a little less stress…. again “advancing my position”. Sure it takes a few minutes of forethought, but taking the variable of a “backed up” security line and a possible missed flight out of the equation is a major stress reducer for me.

Equally this idea works as I think about flight schedules. Too many times over my career have I been at the mercy of flight delays and cancellations that have impacted my work obligations. In situations where I have an early meeting in a city that requires a flight, I don’t start looking at the flight that gives me just enough time to barely make the meeting. This essay is NOT titled “By the skin of our teeth”, ha! Instead, I have learned to take those variables out of the equation and if I have a significant meeting commitment, I often will fly into that city the night before, or in the worst case, I will work to book my flight one or two flights early JUST IN CASE something happens … because while we like to plan for best case scenarios, it’s naïve/foolish to do so all the time!

Remember we can’t control everything in our lives but we can control our personal controllables! Work to take the risks and variables out of your personal equation, giving yourself more room to execute the myriad of deliverables on your plate and increasing your chances for success. Try to “Advance Your Position” as you dive into the days and weeks ahead and see if this little/simple idea can be helpful to you to reduce stress and enhancing your chances of success!

It's Better to Know !

It was early in 2000, I had just moved back to Atlanta after a few years living in Baltimore, and it was time to get serious and find a doctor. I hadn’t quite turned 40, (that was in September 2001, fodder for a future story) and as a new father I was getting focused on four door sedans, life insurance options , and a full time GP. After a few enquiries with friends, I made an appointment with a highly recommended doctor at Piedmont Hospital who was still taking on new patients.


I had stopped by a week before my appointment to give blood so the doctor could do a full workup for my first visit. In normal fashion I arrived a few minutes early and I was impressed when they took me back to the exam room 5 minutes early. After the required measurements (height and weight of course) a nurse did a battery of x-rays as well as taking an EKG. So far, it all seemed very thorough and I was feeling like I was in the right place. Soon enough the doctor came in, introduced himself very professionally and let me know that we were both the same age and that he liked patients that he could relate to directly and very openly. I quickly agreed, saying that I was looking for a doctor that I could see regularly for my annual physicals and any issues that might pop up over the years.


After a few minutes of taking my family history, he asked me whether I thought with a few lifestyle changes I could get my cholesterol “under control.” Since at that time I had no earthly idea what my cholesterol metrics were, I said with an earnest voice that I was certain with a little exercise and by watching my diet I could get things in check. As if I pulled a trigger of some sort, he jumped up and said very loudly, “Mr. Levisay, you are a liar!!” Well I was ready for almost anything that morning but being called a liar by my newly met Doctor was not on the playlist! He exclaimed that my cholesterol number was 357, and that there was NO way with a little exercise and diet I would or could make a dent in it and that if I wasn’t ready to go on a statin drug immediately he would not take me as a patient! With that, he walked out of the exam room, leaving me bewildered in my boxer shorts.


Well the long and short of the story is that I did start taking a statin daily soon after, my cholesterol is now below 150 with a very good split of HDL and LDL levels, and I have a very active relationship with that same doctor, now entering our 13th year. The lesson that day that is certainly true in one’s health but also in your business life is “It’s better to know.” Sure I was living in ignorance before entering that doctor’s office more than 13 years ago, but it was better for me to actually know my cholesterol levels so I could actually DO something about it. This idea is easy to talk about but difficult at times to practice in business; but regardless if your situation SEEMS in growth mode or in trouble mode, “it’s always better to know!”


There is a famous quote from Warren Buffet where he suggests that the stock market is highly fueled by greed and fear and that one should “be greedy when the market is fearful and fearful when the market is greedy.” While a deeply wise idea regarding the stock market, this concept holds true in thinking about this idea of “it’s better to know.” My experience is that in business moment s when things seem to be going great, setting records and beating plan, it’s important to go looking for the areas that might show signs of early weakness. Look for markets or products or at innovation that are not meeting their success hurdles, often not easily seen because they are being eclipsed by the broader success. I use the phrase “look for the dark in the light” to describe this approach. Similarly you need to be able to “look for the light in the dark.” In situations where things are tough, maybe you are behind your plan targets and having significant competitive challenges, it’s easy to become myopic on all the things that are not working, rather than looking for glimpses of success and winning within the broader challenged context.


Just like my cholesterol score from years ago, this lesson that “it’s better to know” is a good adage for business and life. Regardless if situations seem very good or very bad, it’s always makes sense to understand them better; to dig deeper into the moment and seek to find the data to help illuminate the dark (or the light!)


Remember …. It’s always “better to know!”

Execution is THE Strategy

Execution is THE Strategy

Isn’t it interesting that sometimes it take us years to realize that the lessons we learned a long time ago are needed today? Well that ‘Insight”, if I can be so bold, is present in my work life today, literally going back to a book, a set of meetings, and some key lessons that occurred almost ten years ago.

It was in late 2003 or early 2004, when I was leading retail sales for North America at The Coca Cola Company, when we invited the famous consultant, business adviser, and author Ram Charan to be our keynote speaker at a leadership meeting held in Atlanta. Ram, along with Larry Bossidy, had just released their book “Execution, The art of getting things done” (http://www.amazon.com/Execution-Discipline-Getting-Things-Done/dp/0609610570) and Ram lead a very focused and energetic discussion around the singular concept of “Execution.” At that time the business world I was immersed in was looking for new strategic avenues for growth, thinking that new products, new ad campaigns, new markets, possibly new categories were all the preferred routes for growth. This idea of Ram’s around building a culture of “execution”, literally focusing on the operating system itself and becoming maniacal around measuring and improving a company’s “execution metrics” seemed too simple, or maybe that we “had been there & done that.” Well little did I know that almost ten years later I was digging out my copy of his book and finding it relevant and highly impactful to my business today!

I have been at Bolthouse Farms for almost three years now and I am so proud of this company, our wonderful healthy products, and the amazing team I get to work with every day! We have had a lot of success growing our business broadly over the past three years and I have had the chance to learn and grow in this role in ways I didn’t always anticipate. As a leader when you work with a talented, motivated, and focused team much of your work is done. Well that is my very fortunate truth! In that light, we have reached new heights in parts of our business not by exploring new team configurations, or new categories but by building our “Execution” muscles.

One specific example came to mind recently when we worked on ways of taking a historic successful promotion to new heights. We followed a few simple pathways that you might find helpful in your business:

1) Expand your “expectations” for success. It’s easy to think that your historic successes are “tapped out” and that your focus as a leader should be on the areas not working as well. Not so fast! Take your best performing situations (markets/brands/promotions/etc) and raise your own expectations for success. If it’s been that good in the past, maybe we could/should expect 10%, 20% or even 30% greater performance in the future.

2) Use your “best in class” performance to guide the average. In any situation the average of any performance is made up of high, mid and low performers, the typical “bell curve” reality. We looked inside of this strong performing promotion and looked for the best performing market in the past. With that as a model, we took the actions and practices form that market and started building the playbook for broader translation.

3) Nurture next phase “best in class” performers. Identify solid performing entities (markets/ reps/distributors) that are in the middle of the “bell curve” but that are open to new ideas/thinking/approaches. Use them as pilots to try ideas from your new “playbook” (see #2) and soon you have multiple entities competing to be the very best.

4) Correct the “bottom of the bottom”. Look hard at the very bottom of the “bell curve” and identify the absolutely WORST performing entities (markets/ reps/distributors). Take personal action; get involved to understand the situation and identify the core barriers of success and take actions to correct some of the barriers NOW. Maybe “best in class” is beyond expectations, but for the lowest performing entities, average performance looks great!


While these four ideas or pathways aren’t exactly found in Ram’s book, our focus on core executional principles rings very true to his principles. Through these four simple ideas, we have continued to create new levels of executional success and thus new levels of results for our business!

While it might indicate certain “slowness” in my leadership capabilities that it took me almost ten years to apply his lessons, I am certainly re-energized around the idea that “execution” in itself can be the central strategy for productive marketplace growth. Be careful not to be tempted to look only outside your business for the keys for growth. It’s is my experience that there are tremendous opportunities for growth and success by looking deeply at your execution metrics today and making that focus a core strategy for your business in the future!

Holiday Recipe Redux

As we close out 2012 I have one more family treasure to pass along. Yes, I promise to get back to the more pressing issues of leadership, performance management & execution in 2013 but for now, my focus remains on family and thoughts of holidays past present and future.

In my last essay I shared Jane’s now famous “Yum Yum Yam’s” recipe and indeed it graced our holiday table again this year. One additional holiday recipe tradition of my mother-in-law Jane (who passed away early in 2011) was her Turkey Stuffing casserole which was made every year a few days after Christmas to use up the leftovers. Earlier today I made that delicious dish, and we will enjoy it tonight for our dinner, with memories flooding back from casseroles made years gone by. The idea of being frugal enough not only to save the leftovers from a big family meal but to have “special” recipes for those leftovers seems a bit old fashioned in these days of excess. Well for my mother-in-law and certainly for yours truly and my family, this tradition while maybe a bit old fashioned is a sensible and delicious way for us to honor and celebrate the memory of a cherished family member. I hope that you have a chance to try this recipe either this year or after some holiday meal in your future, remember leftovers required!


Jane’s Turkey Stuffing Casserole

Ingredients:
4-5 cups leftover turkey white and dark meat (mixed or to taste) chopped
4-5 cups leftover stuffing
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 tsp season salt (Jane always used Lawry’s)
¼ cup sherry
Melt butter in a pot and add flour to make a paste. Add milk over medium heat and add seasoned salt and sherry and let simmer until thick. Add turkey to sauce mix and put aside. Butter a casserole dish and layer leftover stuffing first, then the turkey mix, then stuffing again using all of your ingredients and finishing with a layer of stuffing on top. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.


Enjoy!

Jane's "Yum Yum Yams"

Holidays are often times that bring us closer to not only to those closest to us today, family & friends, children & spouses, but at least for me, the holiday season also brings back the memories of those close to us that have passed away over the years. Each Christmas I cherish the chance to put two small, tarnished metal ornaments on our Christmas tree, two ornaments made by my mother in 1946. These two small cherished items have been passed down in our family; and as my mom died when I was 13, they mean the world to me, and I always look forward to putting them hanging them on the tree each year. Also I think back to my wife Jennie’s sister Carrie who passed away in early 1999. Her last Christmas was actually our son Bryson’s first, and we have a wonderful photo of her holding Bryson as a baby up in Vermont from that Christmas. I miss both Carrie and my mom deeply and am thankful that the holidays bring them back to me with unique images, poignant mementos, and cherished memories.

Jennie’s mom, Jane Saliers, passed in March of 2011 and as I come towards this holiday season, my thoughts have turned strongly to her. Over the years, we made it a family tradition to spend each Christmas with Jennie’s extended family, often in Atlanta and at times in Vermont. Regardless of location, Jane and I made it a tradition to cook the Christmas meal together. While I certainly enjoyed our time on Christmas day in the kitchen, stuffing the bird, cooking the beans, helping Jane mash the potatoes, etc., my favorite memories are from our shopping prep sessions.

Before heading out for the big holiday grocery shopping experience, we would sit down together and make our plan. I can vividly remember the aluminum drip coffee pot being filled, Jane and I sitting at the Saliers little kitchen table piled with holiday cards and Christmas catalogs, and me writing out our Christmas menu and shopping list. Well before I-Pads and smart-phones, I would take my little “Franklin Planner” and write out our lists in the back of my “little black book”, ha! Over the years I actually kept a number of our annual lists in the back of my day timer, now lost in the history of moves and technology. While we would always get the menu and the list completed, those “Coffee Klatch” moments were our way of catching up; comparing notes and Christmas gift ideas, hearing about the latest stories from the library (Jane was a children’s librarian for years, learn more about her in the earlier essay “To my friend Jane”) and all in all just slowing down for a few moments to truly enjoy each other’s company. I deeply miss Jane and those little times together, and as I plan out the menu this year, I will have my friend Jane close at my side!

One of the traditional menu items that Jane made EVERY year was her “Yum Yum Yams.” While we often split the duties on most of the dishes for the meal, one year she would mash the potatoes, the next year I would, …, the “Yum Yum Yams” were her solitary domain. Even for this upcoming Christmas dinner, Jennie’s father Don has the sole responsibility to prepare and bring the “Yum Yum Yams.” I was thrilled when Jennie found Jane’s well used, highly stained, recipe card (above), and since it’s a bit hard to read over the years of use, the following is the re-printing of the recipe, Enjoy!

Yum Yum Yam Recipe

1 1/2 cup Sweet Potatoes
1 cup sugar
2 eggs scrambled
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup scalded milk

Topping:
1 cup broken pecans
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick oleo (butter works as well)
1/3 cup flour (preferably self-rising)

Mix well with electric mixer. Pour unto buttered baking dish. Mix topping ingredients well
and spread over the potato mixture, bake @325 degrees for 35 minutes


I hope as you gather this year with your family and friends over the holidays that you can both enjoy the company of those around you AND find special ways to remember the cherished ones that have passed; whether found in an ornament, a photo, or a delicious recipe.

Merry Christmas!

Ode to a "Shunpiker"

The airport was busy this morning, well before my 7:40 am flight. I was heading out to Bakersfield, then down to LA and back to Atlanta this week. That’s my itinerary after a week that included Bentonville Arkansas, Lakeland Florida, and Edina Minnesota; preceding a week that will include Boise, Idaho and San Francisco California. Wow, I get tired just writing those two sentences! Well it is in this context that I share this story. When I travel, Mondays being no exception, I try to pick up the N.Y. Times not only to catch up on the news and read the editorial pages (which I so love to do,) but to keep the art section and bring them home to my wife Jennie for the crossword puzzles. As I was reading the paper this morning, I spent a few extra moments on the obituary page for no specific reason. There were three large and very interesting obituaries that dominated the page, but one of the smaller obituaries caught my eye; in the first column there was a notice that included the word “shunpiker” in quotes. Well I needed to learn more!


The notice is on the passing of Mrs. Mary Pratt Barringer who had obviously lived a long, poignant, and significant life. Halfway through the obituary, the writer talks about her zest for life,

“Her zest for life was infectious. For her 50th college reunion she wrote: “It’s been
wonderful – aided and abetted by a husband whose curiosity is boundless and who
shares the non-directed way of life. We are “shunpikers”: we follow small roads in the
general direction of our desired destination. We frequently do not know precisely where
we are, and the time is usually longer than necessary, but enroute we see the wonders
on our way. We are not going too fast to miss the beauties of the roadside or the far
horizon, and the time spent covering the road has been worthwhile in itself.”


Powerful and beautiful prose, caught from a much unexpected source!


The combination of my ridiculous travel schedule and the normal frenetic tone of the holiday season has lead me to a funk this year, having a very short-term focus and possibly an even shorter fuse than normal. I certainly feel a long way from Mrs. Barringer’s “shunpiker,” losing track of time and intentionally taking the slower route on the intended journey. Indeed the final sentence of her quote feels like a challenge not only in this holiday season but in this phase of life. When she writes that “We are not going too fast to miss the beauties of the road or the far horizon,” I can almost read the unwritten challenge for all of us, “are you?”

As I head into the weeks ahead, still filled with numerous meetings, contracts, cities and obligations to accomplish before Christmas Eve, I am going to endeavor to keep Mrs. Barringer’s words close to mind. Join with me in the days ahead and find some ways, small or large, personal or professional, to be a bit more of a “shunpiker”