Earlier this month on vacation, I found myself in Huntington Beach, CA. (better known in some circles as "Surf City").  My visit just happened to coincide with the finals of the U.S. Open Surfing championships.  Curious too see what this kind of sporting event would be like, my brother, who I was visiting, took me out onto the Huntington Beach Pier in time to watch the men’s final event. It had come down to the two top surfers - hometown native, Brett Simpson and South African, Jordy Smith - the number one ranked surfer in the world.

The two highly respected surfers paddled out to see what waves they might catch - as thousands of fans and on-lookers watched from the beach and the pier.  The only problem - no waves.  The ocean offered nothing - or at best very little.  

Smith and Simpson spent the first 15 minutes of their 35 minute heat waiting for something to ride.

I found myself pondering this dilemma and drawing the obvious parallels between these two surfer’s dilemma and what we all face in our everyday lives - waiting and hoping for the right wave.

As the heat wore on, Simpson made his move with whatever decent wave came his way.  From my novice eye, I was amazed at what he was able to do with waves that appeared tiny and impossible to leverage.  Smith waited and waited - finally grabbing, too late in the game, whatever he could and was not able to execute.  Simpson’s heat total of 13.97 our of 20 topped Smith’s score of 8.33 making him the first back-to-back U.S. Open winner since 1985-1986.

The hometown hero edged out the legend and as one commentator said, "He turned garbage into gold - he was smart, not lucky."

This experience has stayed with me as a great reminder that when we are "lucky" enough to get the right waves, things smoothly and seamlessly go our way.  But more often, we have to do the very best we can with the opportunities that come our way - and those opportunities may be hard to see, challenging to surface and require an extraordinary amount of persistence and commitment but in the end, the victory is somehow sweeter.

Work with the waves that come your way.

Former UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden died at age 99 on June 4, 2010.  His legacy as a coach will live on and even in retirement - through speeches and books - he translated the lessons he shared with his championship teams to business professionals and anyone who wanted to discover the champion within themselves.  

To honor the man and create an opportunity to remind each of us what he said, I share a few of the quotes that always struck a chord with me:

"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."

"If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"

"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."

"If you are not making mistakes, you aren’t doing anything.  I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes."

"Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."

"Success is never final, failure is never fatal.  It is courage that counts."

The list of memorable quotes could go on for much longer but I will stop here.  His track record tells us that he knows a thing or two about motivation, success and the meaning of true teamwork.  When his coaching career ended in 1975 his Bruins’ had won their 10th NCAA championship in 12 seasons - a record that will almost certainly never be matched.  Pull out one of these maxims the next time you have an opportunity to coach and inspire.

Many of you have seen the popular new CBS series titled, Undercover Boss.  Each episode follows a senior executive of a major corporation who is working incognito as a new entry-level hire for one week.  Through the experience they discover how the company really works.  The show is well done and sends out an important message to leaders:  You need to experience your company through the lens of the employee to truly understand what is working and what’s not.

Without fail, the undercover CXO identifies corporate policies that unfairly impact employees, costly inefficiencies and unsung heroes.  The leader also discovers how far removed he is from what happens day to day in the business.

I applaud the show’s intention and I want to suggest to the producers the next iteration for this show:  “In the Customer’s Shoes.”  Viewing a business from the employee’s perspective is a crucial first step but would be incomplete without viewing the business from the customer’s perspective as well.  I started to think about this more as I viewed Sunday’s finale featuring 1 800 Flowers President and COO, Chris McCann.  I applaud Mr. McCann’s efforts to better understand his employee’s experience.  It also prompted me to recall an experience I had with 1 800 Flowers a couple of years ago that still makes my blood boil to think about it.  I have not used them since.  Following is an abbreviated version of the letter I wrote to the Head of Customer Service,  Julia Kauffman.

 Dear Ms. Kauffman,

I am writing to share a very disappointing customer experience I had recently with your company.  I contacted 1 800 Flowers on Monday, October 15^th to order a bouquet of flowers to be sent to my mother on her 84^th birthday on October 19.  I began by going to your website and had to spend approximately 30 minutes trying to order a bouquet online but every time I attempted to pay for it my credit card was rejected.  Frustrated, I went ahead and called the 1 800 number.

This time I reached a sales rep who at best I would describe as incompetent.  I found myself repeating the same information over and over to her (her getting it wrong each time and needing to start again). I requested that the flowers be delivered on the 19^th as we wanted them there for a party that would be taking place for my mother.  The rep said she could deliver them on Thursday or Saturday but not Friday.  When I asked why she simply said that was what her computer was saying to her.  She said she’d “try” to get them there on Friday.  I said, if not, Thursday would have to do.  After another 30 minutes, the transaction and order was complete.

The flowers did not arrive on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.  Despite the confirmation I received via e-mail.

When the flowers had not arrived by late Friday afternoon I called 1 800 Flowers to share my disappointment and ask for a refund.  I was told that the best they could do was credit back 20% to my account.  She shared that the only way to get a full refund was to have my mother send the flowers back on Monday.  This, of course, was not only insulting but laughable – I could just imagine my 84 year old mom packing up flowers…  As a last resort, the rep gave me your name and suggested I write a letter. 

Ms. Kaufmann, as you can imagine, this is not about the money – it is about the principle.  Businesses make promises to their customers and trust is built when those promises are delivered.  I have to assume that 1 800 Flowers’ promise is that you can order flowers easily, quickly and can feel confident that they will be delivered on time and be of quality.  Do I have that right?  My flowers were not easy to order and they were not delivered on time – the quality is yet to be determined…

The end of the story is that I did not receive a refund or credit and the flowers finally arrived 5 days late.  I would’ve loved Mr. McCann to witness my experience!

At the conclusion of Undercover Boss, the CXO brings together a large group of managers to share what he/she has learned.  It is easy to see what this endeavor communicates to the employees:

·      Our CEO “gets it”

·      Our CEO cares

·      Our CEO walked a mile in our shoes

·      Our CEO is courageous

For a boss to go undercover it does communicate caring, courage and commitment.  Taking it one step further, I encourage every leader to go undercover and experience what the customer experiences.  Without the benefit of a reality television show, I can make a few suggestions:

·      Work a day in your company’s call center and hear the issues customers have

·      Work on the front line in a customer-facing position

·      Hold a customer town hall and learn directly about what’s working and what’s not

·      Track a customer’s experience from start to finish and see where it breaks down

·      Read the letters dissatisfied customers write 

Follow-up on these activities with your customers through e-mail, blog postings or letters about what you discovered and what you are doing about it.  Just like the employee’s responses in Undercover Boss, your customers will recognize you “get it”, you care, and you are willing to walk a mile in their shoes – and that takes courage.

Leaders out there – get both sides of the picture.  Experience what your employees AND customers experience.  Communicating with your customers in this way will go a long way in building life-long relationships and loyalty.

Greetings Colleagues, Clients and Community Members,

Mari Pat Varga

For a copy of our Spring Newsletter, visit:   http://tinyurl.com/ygcrdkz

I loved Clara’s thought-provoking article about the power of the smile and what it can predict about the future success of relationships  Let me know what you think!

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer

To foster a culture where employee engagement thrives it is important to have a common understanding of what engagement really looks like, sounds like and feels like.  When I am working with a new corporate client I do my best to soak up the atmosphere determine whether or not I see employees who

Talk About – employees who openly talk about and share their company pride with others.

Stay With – employees who stay with your organization and are loyal

Strive For – employees who commit to striving to help the company reach its goals.

For me, those are good indicators that engagement is alive and well within the company.  Communication is one of the keys to creating the kind of culture that drives engagement.  In a recent article by Alan Crozier in Communication World he points out the key principles that communicators should remember when they are working to drive engagement:

1. It is impossible not to communicate - even silence says something.
2. Communication depends on the recipient - they will let you know if you are being effective.
3. The more complex the issue, the greater need for communication to be informal, frequent and interpersonal.
4. Observed behaviors are the most powerful and reinforcing elements in underpinning expectations and resultant actions in the workforce.
5. Employee tolerate management’s logic; but act on their own conclusions.

In other words, everything speaks.  Good communication is an important element for engagement, however, getting people to talk about, stay with and strive for their organization is more complex.  At the core, engagement entails the alignment of policies, procedures and practices with the overarching values, goals and objectives of the company.  Communication certainly complements those efforts and there is much more.  The journey to get there is well worth it.

 As 2009 winds down and the requisite ritual of New Year’s resolutions lies ahead I am reminded of the practice I value most at this time of year.  It is the gesture that requires us to think of what we want to let go of and what we want to bring into the new year.

 I am as guilty as everyone else.  As much as I tell myself I will be conservative this year when it comes to holiday spending - I spend more than I should.  As much as I tell myself to not send cards and save a few trees - I still send them out.  As much as I tell myself to spend time thinking of meaningful gestures for family and friends - I often don’t.

As a leader, you are always looking for new ways to engage and enlist your team.  The following is an opportunity to consider.

With a mature and seasoned team, one of the most powerful and fast, exercises you can take your team through is one where the feedback your team hears is from each other - not you, their leader.

If you have ten team members, as an example, carve out an afternoon where each person will have the opportunity to sit with each team member for 10 minutes.  During their ten minutes, they will each have five minutes to share the following with one another:

• Here is what you do, specifically, that most helps the team succeed
• Here is what you do, specifically, that most stands in the way of success

An example of how this might sound between Susan and Stan (Susan sharing her feedback with Stan during her five minutes) is:

Susan:  "Stan, from my perspective, one of the things that you do that contributes most to our team success is your follow-up.  I don’t know of anyone who is as disciplined and through as you are in this regard.  I always know where the project stands and that saves me a lot of time and worry."

Susan:  "Stan, in terms of something you do that stands in the way of success, I would suggest it might be that at times you tend to over-communicate.  There are days when I receive as many as 20 e-mails from you on the same topic when one summary e-mail would suffice.  I appreciate you considering to make adjustments here.  Any questions?  Thanks for listening. Now, it is your turn to give me feedback…"

For a team of ten, you will want to allow about two hours.  In advance, designate 10 meeting spots and create a list that includes the pairings, the places and the time slots.

The key to this exercise is not to give any advance notice and instead surprise the team with the assignment.  This helps with spontaneity and candor when people don’t spend time in advance preparing what they have to say.

After the fast feedback rounds have all taken place, it can be effective to bring the team back together and debrief.  While no one should be asked to share specifics, general questions can help process the activity.

• How did you like (or not like) the process?
• What did you learn about yourself - others?
• What was the most powerful discovery?

Again, this exercise is for a seasoned team who wants to take their collaboration and commitment to the next level.  The kind of candor and intimacy this exercise produces might not be appropriate for a newly organized team who are still getting to know one another.  

As the new year approaches, this could be a powerful way to enter 2010 with an even stronger team.