Leadership

I witnessed something beautiful Sunday at the Bears game.

The Bears chose Retired United States Marine Corporal Kyle Carpenter (Medal of Honor Recipient) as their honorary captain, which meant that he walked with the other captains to midfield for the coin-flip. As Kyle left the field my friend elbowed me and said, “I flew cover for Kyle in Afghanistan.”

This revelation didn’t shock me. After all, my buddy is a man’s man, a Marine, and a hero. Obviously, I knew he served over in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“An RPG just missed us,” he went on. “It is cool to see Kyle here.”

A few minutes later my buddy leaned over the railing and shouted to Kyle as he made his way to the tunnel. With an assist from our great seats, they were able to connect as only fellow Soldiers can connect. A few words were exchanged, and we both were able to shake Kyle’s hand.

And then Kyle’s dad, having overhead that my buddy flew cover, said something that I have been thinking about ever since…

“Thank You.”

Veterans Day might have been two days ago, but we would be wise to do likewise.

Thank you to all our Veterans.

I write frequently about how leaders need to encourage their team.  So, instead of writing another post about encouraging the team, I thought I’d share a real-life example.  What follows is copy from an actual email I sent to our team.

My goal in writing the email was twofold.  First, I wanted to use a real-life story to illustrate why our customer’s needs matter.  I felt this reminder was needed because our team was working hard, in some cases around the clock, to meet customer needs.  With the extra work, I was starting to hear griping about how busy we were, and how crazy some of the demands were.

Next, I wanted the tone of the email to be encouraging.  I wanted the reader to be reminded of our togetherness, and that I am not “above” the struggle.  As I share below, I can lose my way if I am not careful.

Some of the details were edited for confidentiality purposes.  I included the quote at the end with permission, as my friend Matt sent his testimonial in for our corporate website update (You would do yourself well by buying some YumButter this week!).

---

Good afternoon,

What I am about to write is admittedly idealistic, wordy, and possibly a little cheesy.

I also believe it to be true.

Two weeks ago, I stood inside what was by all accounts a large “freezer” at one of our customers.  As I glanced at the thermometer, the dial read 48 degrees.  How could people work 8 hours inside here, I wondered?  I was shivering, and yet, there were about 10-15 fellow human beings packing yogurt pouches into cardboard boxes due to ship to grocery stores all over the county (all with Trust-T-Lok on them by the way!).

Why would they do such a thing?

Turns out, their customer’s demand was growing.  And as crazy as this may sound to us, the only way to meet their customer’s need was to utilize an old filling machine that had no “automatic packing,” so pouches had to be hand-packed after they were filled.  Given the product being yogurt, the “freezer” was the only safe way to make this happen.

I share this story for two reasons.

First, we primarily exist in the B-2-B world (business to business).  Thus, our job is to make sure that we help our customers (fellow businesses) get what they need so that they can serve their customers (typically consumers like you and I).  As I tell the sales team regularly, these people are the hero.  We simply help them (guide them) to better outcomes.  This hopefully means that our high-quality parts get to their destination when the customer needs them, and ultimately help them increase their efficiency, profitability, and market-share.

I warned this was going to be somewhat idealistic.

Why does this matter?  It matters because we are in the business of improving the lives of our fellow human beings.  Remember how people were inside the freezer working?  They were there because they needed the work (i.e. money) to put food on their table (why else would one work in a freezer?).  Manufacturing matters because it helps people do this.  And because of this, every single job at Hoffer Plastics matters.  Without excellence from everyone, we will not achieve the mission described above.

And all of us, customers included, rely on us achieving that mission!

Second, and I am almost done, I share this story because it serves as an example of what our customers are willing to do to satisfy their customer needs. They’re all in, and when we are at our best, so are we.  We go the extra mile because it is in our collective DNA as a company to go the extra mile.

To this end, I admit that sometimes our customers ask us to do things, that in the moment, may feel crazy.  And even though I believe every single word written above, I confess that there have been situations, especially when I forget that we manufacture for other human-beings, where I complain about those very requests.  This kind of behavior is shortsighted, however, because without customers worth complaining about, we would be out of business.

Once I remember this necessity, and remember that every other Thursday is in actuality “customer appreciation day” (i.e. the day the customer tells us how much they like us when we all get paid), things begin to normalize again.

It is such thinking that convinces one to work in a freezer to begin with.

To be sure, we get it right often.  So, I’ll close with this message I received from a customer yesterday afternoon:

“Hoffer plastics is a true expert partner to us, which has allowed Yumbutter and Tribe 9 to continue being a leader in pouch innovation across the nut butter industry and beyond. They are a delight to do business with and highly recommend them to anyone looking seeking out the best injection molders in the market.”

Embrace that comment.

You earned it.

Someone recently asked my opinion about how my local church conducts its weekend services.  I told this person that while I would prefer some changes be made, I take the vow I make every September – to submit to the leadership of the Trustees, Elders, and Staff -very seriously.  Therefore, my opinions are only that, opinions. So, as long as our Church leadership continues to teach God’s word, I can set my preferences aside, and fully submit to the leaders’ authority.

Here is today’s #TuesdayT:

One cannot be an effective leader unless they have areas in their life where they are submitting to the leadership of others. Submitting to the leadership of others is a necessary ingredient of leadership, because submission requires humility.  Humility is the ability to think about yourself less, and others more. It is the realization that others’ ideas, like the leaders at your local Church, or your Executive Team at work, may be better than your own.  Finally, it is the ability to submit even when you don’t think those ideas are.  Or perhaps, especially when you don’t think those ideas are.

This matters in leadership because often the best ideas are not your own.  Without humility, you will miss these, and lose your effectiveness.

So, let’s practice humility this week.

Let’s become the kind of person other people want to follow.

(A friendly reminder: Many of us will have the opportunity to practice this kind of humility as the election results roll in this evening. There is nothing humble about spewing venom on social media.  Nor, is anyone “converted” to your thinking via a social media rant. Post wisely, if at all).

I often dream about managing a major league baseball team. While I imagine the job would be more difficult than most baseball fans think, I’d enjoy the rhythm of the baseball season.  Think about some of the advantages: clear definition around who wins and who loses, the games have a definitive end to them, so do the seasons, and the players all work towards the same result.  Baseball purists may argue that team chemistry is important, and assuredly it is, but managers never deal with players questioning what other players are doing (although they may question their contribution level). For example, the first-basemen isn’t wondering what job the centerfielder is doing out in the outfield.  Not only is it clear that he is playing centerfield, it is also clear that the first baseman needs the centerfielder to play their position so that the team can get three outs and get back to hitting.  Interdependency is a given in baseball, as it is most other sports.

Is interdependency a given in our organizations?

Given the volume written on corporate culture and teamwork, it obviously is not.  Silos, for one, are a symptom of an organization that is not working interdependently   They’re an indicator that group A does not trust group B, and may be even suspicious of them.  “We are better off doing this ourselves,” is a common phrase for this team.  “They don’t get things done on time.” Or, “we are always waiting on that department.  If they delivered on time, we’d really be rocking.”

To be clear, I am speaking from experience.  I have heard those things said at Hoffer Plastics, and it always irritates me.  It irritates me because we have really good people on our team.  People who work their tails off.  So, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Given that it sometimes is, here are two actions leaders can take to help resolve this issue.

First, leaders need to push decision making downward throughout the organization. Craig Groeschel made this point at the 2018 Global Leadership Summit while discussing necessary leadership qualities, and his point resonated with me because our manufacturing culture has historically been built on the “expertise” of the few. In fact, there is a list of “first names” everyone recognizes – a characteristic of an “expert” culture.  To be clear, there are many positives to the “expert” culture – problem-solving, accountability, and performance (you can’t be an “expert” if you don’t perform after all!), and it has worked well for us at times.

Like anything, however, there are problems with it.  For one, it eventually places a lid on future growth.  For if you are relying on a few “experts,” you can only take on so much. It also creates a lack of interdependency.  This happens when groups, even teams, wait to hear what the “expert” has to say about a matter or issue.  The organization can even wind to a halt as it waits for the “expert” to save the day, or simply fix the problem.  God forbid if the “expert” goes on vacation.  Who allowed that!   The point here is that when the team is waiting, the organization is not moving forward.

Ironically, pushing decision making downward in the organization actually creates more experts.  In fact, I’m dying for the day when the famous list is so long nobody can remember the names on it!  It is a sign that we have created a culture of “doers,” or a culture of people making decisions and taking action.  Once they do this, they naturally realize their need of help from other people.  Thus, they become interdependent out of necessity, which is always better than the leader telling them that they should become interdependent.

The second idea, and something leaders should be talking about, is the organization’s focus.  Leaders need to reset the organization’s focus on “out there” in the customer’s hands and on the store shelves as opposed to the issues “in here.”  Before explaining this point, I want to clarify that I do believe it is the c-level’s job to “work on the business.” Hence, this necessitates that we spend a lot of time thinking about, and even talking about, what is happening “in here.”  That said, the point here is that the leaders need to set the vision so that our team focuses primarily on “out there.”  One way to do this is to always tie the internal discussion back to “out there.”  For example, remind everyone that our new ERP system matters most in how it helps us deliver parts to customers on time “out there.”  All the things it does “in here,” are just bonuses.  We need to continually voice this so that our team’s focus is always on the customer first.  Period.

In the context of interdependency, an “out there” focus helps align different business segments on what matters (serving the customer), and helps them work interdependently to that end, rather than working independently on whatever their department deems important.  See the difference? My experience has been that the more we focus on serving customer needs, the more interconnected we become as a company.  It is the ultimate rally-cry!  In fact, our best successes, often painfully accomplished, are collectively remembered by the customer’s name, and the team that helped solve the customer’s problem, rather than by the names of a few “experts.”

In the divisive world we live in, interdependency will separate the good teams from the bad ones.  Creating an atmosphere of “we are in this together” so that we can help serve those “out there,” is the job of leadership.

In came the invitation to an emergency meeting.  A prideful thought emerged that I was only being invited so that I could “make a decision.”  Isn’t that what leaders do after all?

The situation was that the customer had called with an emergency. In short, they needed parts by Monday morning because of a production change on their end. They were desperate, so it was up to us to determine if we could juggle the competing demands of other customers, and figure out a plan of action to appease everyone?

The meeting was led by an up-and-comping sales person on our team.  He had not only called the meeting, but also had assembled the appropriate team-members to address this emergency head-on. He immediately put the production schedule, and upcoming orders, onto the screen in the conference room, and took the lead in discussing the potential scenarios. The team followed his lead and discussed the implications of the potential changes to the schedule, making double sure that no customer would be impacted.  The plant manager willingly bought into making the change, but asked for help with personnel. So, our young sales person asked for help on their behalf.  The room agreed, and our Director of Operations pledged to use the available resources necessary.  Everything was coming together, and by 1:14 p.m. a plan had emerged.

It had been 14 minutes, and I had not said a single word.

While this story may be a flattering one for Hoffer Plastics, I don’t tell it to make us look good (and I can tell plenty of war stories that are not nearly as pretty or flattering.  We make mistakes, too!)

I tell this story because of what I am about to confess:

I may not have spoken a word, but I wanted to.

I wanted people to know that I had input.

I wanted people to know that my voice mattered.

Heck, that my position mattered.

Of course, I don’t vocalize these internal struggles.  But, I am confessing they’re present. I am confessing the insecurity that often lies within.

In fact, not speaking made me wonder what people thought of me.  Did they think I was disengaged, or an ineffective leader?  (These questions made me realize that I care more about what people think of me than I often think I do. Thank you, Sarah, for reminding me of that the other night…You’re right, unfortunately).

The irony is that not saying a word is exactly what leadership is about.

In fact, leaders are supposed to lead in a way that empowers others to step up and take charge…

Moreover, leaders are to become replaceable.

Being replaceable, however, is never soothing to the ego.

“You’re not as important as you thought you are,” is what goes through one’s head in such scenarios.

Isn’t it strange that one of the ways of becoming more important to an organization is by becoming less important in certain regards?

In the scenario above, our young sales person had taken the lead.

I didn’t say a word because I followed.

Setting my pride and insecurity aside, I have to say that it was beautiful to see the team, including myself, following this person’s lead.

We reached a better result because of it.

I often hear leaders like myself saying things like “what we really need is someone to help us with ____, so we need to go hire someone who does ____.” While hiring an expert is often a good idea, and can even reap tremendous gains for the organization, “more overhead” is often used as an excuse for why the organization cannot address what they need help with.  It can even lead to the organizational mindset of being stuck – “we can’t move forward unless we get our costs in-line so that we can afford person x, otherwise we are stuck.”

There are two problems with this mindset.

First, it fails to uncover hidden talent on the team.  Turned into a question, what skills do some of our team members possess that can be leveraged for the overall benefit of the team?  For example, does a sales person excel in developing new accounts?  If so, shouldn’t I, the leader, help them manage their schedule so that they spend the majority of their time doing this, rather than spending time in day-to-day account management?  While this may sound obvious, what I have found is that leaders are often pressured to bow to what I refer to as traditional role stereotypes.  For example, the idea that the sales person should handle all aspects of their accounts, thus they may have to sacrifice some of their time building new relationships to manage their accounts effectively.  But it doesn’t end there either.  Because the sales person does this, the rest organization stays in its lane – the rest of the sales team acts the same, rather than leveraging each of its individual strengths, and the supporting services (like customer service) stay in their lane doing the “traditional” functions of their roles.  For some individual team-members, this might be the appropriate path forward.  But, and this is a big but, what if there are unhidden talents, like a customer service team-member with an acumen and desire to sell, that go unseen because they are told to stay in their lanes?

Does this mean they have to wait until the next job opening comes up?

This leads to the second problem with the stuck mindset.  Not only does it fail to uncover hidden talent on the team, it also fails to provide the opportunity for that talent to be leveraged.  “More” does not automatically mean “better.”  For example, in the case above, I could hypothetically add another sales person to the roster so that the organization reaches more customers.  But doing so would come at a cost to the organization.  Besides the fixed costs of adding overhead, it would cost others the opportunity to step up and develop their skills.  Conversely, if I challenged the sales person to give up some of the day-to-day account management, the best two options would be to hire another account manager, or find someone else on the team who could contribute.  Embracing the latter not only uncovers the hidden talent on the team, but provides the opportunity to bring it out.  Moreover, it also helps the organization become leaner instead of relying on the traditional ways “we have always done things.”

Ultimately, it is up to the leader to recognize when the organization would be better served by adding the expert.  The point is that is only one path forward.

The organization will need to think differently about how it is already doing things, and how it does things in the future.  Like Major League Baseball Teams embracing more “hybrid” roles (players who can play multiple positions), so too will we have to figure out how to manage escalating costs (healthcare, etc.) by leveraging team members that can do more than one thing.  I believe this will not only make us better, it will also offer more opportunity for our team members to develop and cultivate their own skills.

And seeing people grow may be the best part of leadership.

Last month our sales team had its annual two-day strategic planning event.  The team talked about its strategic goals for not only the next year, but also about where we wanted to head over the long-term.

I love how engaged our team members are.  They’re smart, motivated, passionate, and not only willing to challenge each other, they’re also willing to challenge me. In fact, one of my favorite moments of the two days was when one of our team members openly challenged my views.

The issue had to do with a pricing expectation.  The sales person stated that they disagreed with my expectation. In fact, they thought it was off-base and could lead to us losing out on business.  Rather than leave it at that, I challenged them back.  What would their expectation be if this was their company? (And it is their company because it is OUR company!)  They stated that while they saw where I was coming from, they felt a lower figure would be more apt so long as we were guaranteed the business for a certain number of years.

My response?

I’d take that deal today!

The point of this post isn’t about who is right.  In fact, I am being vague with some of the details above because they don’t matter and they’re private!  The point is that as leaders, we need to be open to being challenged. We can actually benefit greatly by it!

Being challenged matters because no single person has all the answers, or all the information.  In the scenario above, the salesperson actually made some compelling points and offered a perspective that helped improve upon my original assumption.  So, by listening to them, my view improved.

Furthermore, by listening to them I demonstrated that as a team, we listen to each other!  Remember, the entire team was present when I was challenged.  So, if I, the leader, failed to listen, then why should anyone else on the team?  We have to remember that both positive and negative behaviors are mirrored by those we lead.

Finally, the experience demonstrated that we can disagree without having any repercussions. Our culture today sees a disagreement as a personal attack. This is not the way it should be, and we need to make sure we create an environment in our workplaces where this is not the case. I did not hold a grudge towards this individual, nor did they toward me.  How do I know?  Because I intentionally sought them out at our first break and affirmed them, then revisited the conversation later in the day by telling them what I learned from it, and by texting them and another team member that evening to tell them both about my favorite two moments from the day’s events (with this one making the cut!).  All that might sound like a lot, but as the leader, it is my job to ensure that we are “all good” and that we do not silence dissenting opinions. (We aren’t right ALL the time!)

Ineffective “leaders” often crave self-esteem boosts coming from ineffective, and often uninspired team members, who long ago gave up on challenging the status quo.  The more effective path is the one where the leader surrounds themselves with people who will sometimes disagree, and often challenge.  As my experience above reminds me, everyone gets better when this happens.

Especially the leader.

A few years ago, I purchased a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee. I have absolutely loved driving the car ever since. In fact, the car has exceeded my expectations in terms of reliability and performance.

That said, I doubt I’ll buy another one.

How come?

The customer service at the local Jeep dealer is abysmal.

I was reminded of this recently when I sat for 3.5 hours waiting for two recalls to be fixed. I think Sarah delivered our third child in less time than it took this dealership to fix two recalls! The time sitting there was one thing, the T.V. —and noise accompanying it—was so loud I could hardly think. Worse, the programming was so depressing that it is no wonder Americans are mad at just about everything anymore. Why a dealership would want to encourage such negative animosity while customers are waiting hours for fixes to their high-priced vehicles is beyond me (I’d play something soothing in attempts to keep everyone chill to distract them from the ridiculous wait times!).

My first-world problems aside, what bothered me the most was the lack of communication. As much as I asked for clarity about when the car might be done, none was given: “I don’t know, man, it depends on how long the software takes to download.”

Really?

As my judgmental thoughts continued to fester, I asked myself a sobering question in an attempt to snap out my own negativity: What kind of after-sales experience do our customers have?

Is the information that we share clear?

If there is a delay, is it clear why?

Is it clear when the parts will be delivered?

How often are we in touch with customers after they place the P.O.?

As I sat there—and as I tried to tune out the latest celebrity nonsense that was blaring on the T.V.—I reminded myself of two important realities:

First, much of the customer’s experience happens POST sale. These experiences, as I am learning with my beloved car dealer, can shape the customer’s opinions about the brand.

Second, while I cannot control what the Jeep dealer does, I can influence what we do at Hoffer Plastics. More specifically, I can re-emphasize with our team how vital post-sale customer interaction is.

Creating clarity might not solve every issue, but it is a great starting point! Customers want to know all the answers to the questions they will be asked by their teams, and they want to know with complete certainty that those answers are trustworthy.

Then, it is up to us to deliver and prove our trustworthiness.

It is not rocket science.

Had I been told that the recall would take 3.5 hours up front, I would have probably been annoyed, maybe even upset.

But, my trust would have grown when the car was done on time.

Instead, I remain annoyed a few days later.

Worse, I continue to dream about a sports car (much to my wife’s delight!).

The after-sales experience matters immensely.

Writing to believers in the early Church, James wrote these words in the opening chapter of his letter: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (James 1:19).

I have been pondering these words a lot lately. Many of the leadership books I have read the last few years have had similar pieces of advice in them. Let me be honest, being quick to listen is hard for me. It is hard because I am full of my own opinions and ideas. Therefore, everything in me wants to listen, but I struggle immensely with being fast to speak.  When this is the case, am I really listening? I’m not when I am formulating what I am going to say next.

Can you relate?

While James is speaking to a wide audience, this directive carries significant weight for leaders. Because when the leader talks, people get quiet. Furthermore, when the conversation grows tense, the leader’s words can carry even more weight than they normally do. The leader can even stifle idea creation, teamwork, and discussion, just by speaking at the wrong time.

And what about anger? Angry outbursts are obviously detrimental, but sometimes if we fail to control our anger toward others, it sneaks out in more passive-aggressive ways. James, the writer of the letter, goes on to advise his readers about the tongue a few chapters later. Isn’t it ironic, he says, that supposed Christians offer praise to God and then speak evil of their brothers (James 3:9)? As humans, this struggle continues 2,000 years later —and sadly, Christians are not exempt.

I am not exempt.

As a leader, have I said all the right things publicly about our team and then spoken evil about individuals behind their backs? Have I not demonstrated real love by setting up time to speak directly with them, rather than talking to a third party about them?

I wish I could say that I am past that kind of juvenile behavior. At times, however, I am not.

This is my confession. I am owning it, and working on it.

Back once more to the verse at the opening: How secure do you feel in meetings? In other words, do you feel confident enough that you can be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry?

Or, do you feel threatened when a co-worker disagrees with you?

Do you feel confident enough of your own standing to allow others to share their input, and possibly get the credit?

Or, do you have to always be right and in the spotlight?

These are questions everyone reading this post should consider and reflect upon.

I am.

In closing, I challenge leaders like myself to take an additional step and model this kind of behavior. Trust me, it is hard. It is hard to let others speak, it is hard to stay calm in the midst of a tense situation.

But everyone is watching. Our actions will demonstrate what kind of behavior is acceptable within our organizations.

Let’s choose wisely.