We all need to continue developing our leadership abilities no matter who we are or what positions we hold. The CEO? Certainly! The guy who makes the coffee and stocks the shelves? Yes again. We all must provide leadership for our own lives. We often are providing some level of leadership for someone else, too: your children, an aging parent, a PTA board, the team you coach, the friend who asks your opinion. We are all leaders; therefore, we all need to be good at providing leadership.
I am blessed to work in a family business founded in 1938 by my grandmother. In my 42-year career, I’ve worked alongside my grandmother, father, brother, nephew and daughter. Our family culture permeated our corporate culture. As I climbed the corporate ladder, I discovered that using a short list of core philosophies throughout our organization (which at one time reached nine states, 100 retail sites and more than 600 employees) rather than the dreaded “operating manual” helped everyone understand our culture and helped our leaders lead by providing a better guide for decision making.
Words to Live By
Our seven core philosophies:
- The Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated. It’s a principle that works for all relationships: customers, vendors, co-workers, family, friends—everyone.
- The 51% Philosophy: We wanted to create a culture of cooperation, a feeling of going a little more than halfway in our relationships. Boy, could Congress use this philosophy. Think of what could be accomplished if each party felt it were doing what was equally fair, and a little more.
Co-mission vs. O-mission: This is an empowerment philosophy that initially was a challenge. What are we paying them to do? Accomplish tasks and make decisions. But we found many were reluctant to make decisions because they were afraid of making a bad decision and getting “in trouble.” We had to foster a culture that preferred a bad decision over no decision. Failures teach. The worst decision is not making one.- Team concept: There is no greater feeling of team than family, so this culture came naturally. Prior to our company becoming an ESOP in 2009, I used to challenge everyone to do his or her best and would say, “We only have one company—isn’t it worth your best effort?” In the end, we win or lose as a team.
- Professionalism: In golf, players are either amateurs who play for trophies, or professionals who play for money. We felt that because we were paying people, they should be considered and treated as professionals. We promoted that understanding and expectation. We inform our current team that they are representing all the people who had outstanding careers with our company in the past. We talk about us carrying the baton from them further into the future with a legacy and reputation to protect by conducting ourselves professionally.
- Communication: I was a junior at Indiana University when a professor made this profound statement: “The No. 1 problem in the world today is poor communication.” I did not believe him at the time, but I’m now convinced I was in the presence of genius. Poor communication can destroy any organization, and none can reach a level of excellence without effective communication. It destroyed the space shuttle Challenger, which was launched on a very cold morning. Seems everyone connected to the shuttle program knew the rubber O-ring seals on the solid rocket fuel tanks would shrink below a certain temperature—except the person who had the authority to launch the shuttle. Today, we include more team members on emails and make sure we all have a mutual understanding of our goals and directives.
- Attitude: Attitude is key to everything. If you don’t agree, try the exercise I do when I teach new-manager orientation classes. I ask each attendee to think of someone they would label as a successful person. I then go around the room, asking each to give a one- or two-word description of what trait they feel makes that person successful. Always on the list: dedicated, trustworthy, passion, friendly, hard worker, honest and dependable. We proceed by asking the group to categorize each word as either an attitude or a skill. I have conducted scores of these orientations and written hundreds of such words on a board. Attitude is the key to success by a margin of about 15 to 1.
These philosophies define our culture and reside in our conversations and decision making. They make us better thinkers, better teammates and, ultimately, better leaders.
Gary Myers is chairman of Kocolene Development Corp. Reach him at gmyers@kocolene.com.
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