Mad Men Management Style (or What I Learned From Don Draper)

image courtesy of AMC

Not all of your best ideas are going to come from the top down.

I was binge-watching the entire season 7 of Mad Men last night.  For those of you who are not hip to this AMC drama is about a fictional ad agency set in the 1960’s.  One character who’s grown over these 7 seasons is Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), who rose from secretary to copywriter to account manager fighting all the way despite the roadblocks erected within the old boy business network of the time.

Peggy is smart and ambitious.  Her old boss, Don Draper (Jon Hamm), recognized her talents and pushed her to get better by giving her the autonomy to come up with her own creative advertising ideas.  She’s an up and comer.  Then at the end of season 6, Don Draper is “placed on extended leave” and Peggy finds herself working for new boss named Lou Avery (Allan Havey).

Lou’s a smug and arrogant old boy who’s been in the ad business so long he’s been relying on reputation to sell and promote his agency and its ideas.  Any creative bone in this man’s body exited him years ago as he’s just as happy giving his clients the bare minimum as long as he can bill it.  This puts a creative Peggy at odds with her boss.

Peggy, with the help of a freelancer, comes up with a phenomenal pitch for their client Accutron watches and she can’t wait to pitch it to Lou in a copy meeting that afternoon.

Lou shoots it down.

It doesn't matter that it’s an ad worthy of a potential Clio award (the ad man’s Oscars) Lou just doesn't care.  Nothing wrong with the old pitch he’s initially approved he says.  Just make it and bill it.  When Peggy pushes back Lou gets agitated.  Over the next few episodes Peggy realizes that the agency is losing its creative edge – something that her old boss Don Draper was (and still is) a genius at promoting.

Don recognizes talent when he sees it and reads it.  Throughout the seasons Don is guilty of ripping all the ads out of his wife’s magazines and newspapers when he sees a truly original and well written ad.  He not only recognizes the talent in Peggy his old secretary but he is able to put aside negative personal feelings for other employees that he knows are a value to the company even as some of them were plotting to take his job.

As flawed as Don Draper is he still understands the value of his employee’s ideas.  Don may always be the best but sometimes an idea comes around that’s better than his.  Instead of pushing it aside like Lou Avery did with Peggy’s monster hit he would have encouraged her - even pushed her to make it better-right into the stratosphere. 

Most of us as managers are not consciously pushing good and creative ideas aside.  We can look at what made the Mad Men’s agency Sterling, Cooper and Partners under Don Draper’s command the best at fostering great ideas from all levels and apply them to any work environment:

Autonomy

                The Mad Men Way: 

                Everybody had a chance to have their ideas heard.  Even Peggy Olson who as Don’s secretary was busy getting him coffee, typing his memos, and juggling his work and social schedule still had some autonomy to work outside of her job description.  It wasn't easy but she had the ambition to become a copywriter and Don did allow her to take on a small project.  That allowed him to see her potential.

                Every Manager’s Way:

                Let them have some time to work on their own projects for the company.  Other companies do this right now.  LinkedIn has InCubator that lets their engineers work on their own projects.  Apple has Blue Sky and Microsoft has The Garage which also allows this freedom to all employees.  Gmail was born because Google allowed their employees this type of freedom.  It doesn't matter how big or small your organization is you can always find the time to allow your employees to come up with not just new ideas but improve existing processes.  Try giving them a problem, set a timeline and give them some deliverables.  Allot a few hours a week and sit back and marvel at how ingenious and intelligent your people are.

Collaboration

                The Mad Men Way:

                Ad man jam sessions.  The artists were all in the same office and when they weren't there they took over a room at the agency where they hashed out ideas.  There was art and copy all over the walls.  They were free to really think outside the box and bounce ideas off each other.  The media department and creative directors would always drop in to contribute.  The collaboration on this show even involved working with a rival ad agency on a major automotive account which arguably ended up saving the Mad Men’s agency.

                Every Manager’s Way:

                Encourage your people in all departments to collaborate in ways that work for your organization.  They don’t have to sit together but you can have them conference in or include in some way different departments or profit centers.  Leaving some employees out of the loop or not including key people in email strings for major projects or ideas can divide your group.  Also, most of us don’t want to work with our competition but you certainly want to lend a keen ear to any of your employees that worked for your competitors at one time.  It’s not trade secrets you’re after but potentially better or more efficient ways of solving a trade problem.

Action

                The Mad Men Way:

                The ad men would come to a consensus and then pitch it to the client.  Sometimes it wasn't Don Draper doing the pitching but his copywriters and account managers were on the front lines.  If you think as a manager you’re always the best person to act on something you may be missing a huge opportunity to let someone else take the reins.

                Every Manager’s Way:

                You’ll see the leaders come out of the woodwork when you give your employees autonomy and let them collaborate on projects.  Even the ones you thought were quiet and didn't have much to contribute will show sparks of enthusiasm.  Use your skills to challenge these people to act – to go out of their comfort zone a little and watch them grow.  As a leader don’t be hesitant to let these employees grow.  Not only will you be fostering a thriving environment for new ideas you’re creating new leaders in the process.  Look at all the all-stars Don Draper left in his wake…

Personalizing Your Management Style So You And Your Message STICK!

Learning How Far Personalizing Got Me as a Salesman

I had learned to personalize well before I was selling concrete colorant and fixing competitor’s admixture machines.  The realization that the power of personalizing came when I stumbled on to my first outside sales position selling pipes and valves.  This first sales job sparked the inception of my management style which I use today. 
  
For the last 3 years I had been working for this company calling on contractors and municipalities.  We supplied pipe, valves, fire hydrants, manhole covers and other exciting utility products.  My wife refused to let me drive because I was constantly looking at hydrants and manhole covers as we traveled.  My observations would end when she’d scream at me as I started driving off the side of the road.  I was a geek about the job and I loved it.

I was good at selling to these municipalities.  Being one step ahead of my competitors and being prepared was critical since there truly was a finite number of cities and underground contractors to call on.  Some of these municipality managers had been dealing with the same salesman for ten or twenty years.  Being somewhere close to 30 years old I was still a pup to a lot of these grizzled guys and I wasn’t taken very seriously at first.

I would drive to each city’s municipal water and sewer department whether I had an appointment or not.  Appointments were rare since these guys were always out and usually taking care of emergency water line breaks or something else deserving immediate attention.  I remember one day very clearly when I arrived at one particular water department.

I recognized my competition's car when I pulled up.  That didn’t deter me and I didn’t give a damn if I was interrupting his sales call.  This water superintendent had been very elusive plus I knew that my competitor, who was now inside, had been doing business with this man for years.  I walked in and saw the salesman jotting some orders down.

“He’s not here.”  He didn’t want to lose his perceived edge as he continued to lecture me.  “You got a lot to learn you gotta earn your place.”  Now he looks at me to drive his silly point home.  “Or in this case LEARN your place.”

“I’ve known this guy for 18 years.  I got his home phone number and even remind him when his wedding anniversary is coming close.  Whenever he needs anything he calls me any time of the day.  I’m afraid you’re wasting your time.”  I remember I wasn’t even pissed.  Now I was just determined.  Bullies are good at personalizing their message.  But I don’t respond well to bullies.

I remember sitting in my truck wondering how I would horn in on this old boy relationship.  My sales manager had no luck getting any business from this superintendent for years and didn’t expect me to get very far.  Obviously I haven’t known this superintendent for 18 years and there was no way I was going to work my way into a relationship with him by reminding him of his anniversary every year.  If I was to finally introduce myself and force a business card in his hand he’d just smile and pick his teeth with that small piece of card stock emblazoned with my name and number.

Observing Will Help You Personalize

That AHA! moment sat me right up in bed that night.  To say it was a revelation in the way I approached municipal sales is an understatement worth publishing.  It was my first real look into what personalizing something could do.  This revelation had the potential to help me make deeper observations of my potential clients.

The revelation was simple.  I could beat the water superintendent's call to my competition because I had his number.  Actually I had his frequency number that was programmed into my radio scanner. 

Ham radio was my hobby.  As nerdy as that was I loved it.  I loved listening to pilots, police, and fire departments.  Occasionally, before everything went digital, an analog cell phone conversation would come through the speakers.  The other chatter I would pick up would be municipal workers.

The next morning I began programming the frequencies of all the water and sewer departments into my scanner.  With the scanner permanently installed in my work truck I stocked some of the basic water line repair components: clamps, saddles, taps and other pieces and parts to fit this municipality’s current specification. I was off to the races.

Surprisingly it wasn’t long before I heard the water superintendent report a water main break outside of town.  They were digging it up to survey the damage and I could tell that they were worried they didn’t have the parts in stock to fix the damage.  By the time I arrived at the break they were just starting to shore up the hole they dug.  The superintendent saw my truck.  I thought he was coming over to tell me to clear the area.  He was soaked to the bone.  Water line break never happen when it’s 78 degrees and it was a bitterly cold day.

“You need some coffee, chief?” That’s as “old boy network” as I dared to sound.

“I need a clamp and I don’t have one at the shop long enough.” He said.  “You got a 6” old iron O.D. size that’d be about 24” long?” 

“I got a Smith-Blair in the diameter that should work but it’s 30 inches long.” I told him. That got his attention.  “How long before you can bring me one?  Toledo’s a little bit of a haul from here.” I was already out of the truck.  I pulled this 50 pound stainless steel clamp from the bed.  At least this thing wouldn’t be clanging around the back of my truck anymore.  I walked it right over to the hole and made sure I got wet bringing over the prize.

It was much easier walking into that water superintendent’s office soon after that.  When he introduced me to other people either at the shop or at the waterworks convention every year I was always the “Clamp Man”.   I always took that as a compliment.

Personalization?  Sounds more Like Planning Ahead

Probably so.  Lots of people think ahead and prepare accordingly.  I could have continued to call and make appointments with that purchasing agent and that water superintendent maybe getting some business at some point or no business at all.  After all, that’s thinking ahead but it’s not getting very far.  Personalization is modification.  It’s coming up with a custom solution to a stock problem.  And I was soon to discover it applied to just more than selling products to somebody.

Making it Personal in Management

It was by accident I stumbled upon the fact that this would transfer to my new life as a call center Operations Manager.   Custom solutions to a stock problem works with people too but you need to do a few things first:

I was a brand new manager with a lot of misunderstood ideas about how to be an effective leader.  I handled all issues with the same canned responses.  I learned in a hurry this did not work.  One incident involved an employee that could not lower her call times on the phone.  The agent's Supervisor was attempting to correct this issue through "coaching".  It was not coaching but simply giving them a goal with no support.  The agent's Supervisor was asking me for help.

"This person hasn't improved their call times in weeks it's like they don't even remember what I told them to do."  the Supervisor said.  I looked at her coaching notes on the agent - basically notes trending the progress of an employee's metrics.  

This scenario was becoming far too common with my agents and my Supervisors were becoming very frustrated with the lack of results.  My initial direction was to tell them to trend the metrics such as average handle time, not ready, and other key performance indicators relative to our business.  If they don't show an improvement trend write 'em up.   

This was coming to bite me in the rear end very quickly.  I recognized this agent as someone who was really trying her best and right then I realized that I was failing my Supervisor and the Supervisor was failing her.

"Let's sit on this for a few days."  I told the Supervisor.  I needed to re-think this whole coaching and feedback process and I was hoping it wasn't too late.

Not Reinventing The Wheel (or Radio Scanner)

Over the next few days I was giving some serious thought about my management style.  I wasn't going to give myself a pass on this since it was my first real management job.  Maybe there was something so obvious and so close that I was missing it.  

     "Don't over-think this." 
     "Stick with what you already know."
     "Amend it and apply that knowledge."
     "Evaluate the results and scrap or amend as needed."

How do I transition this personalization technique from sales to management?  I was personalizing the wrong way since becoming an Operations Manager.  My walking around management style was a turn off to some of my agents and supervisors.  What I thought worked out on the road that got my foot in the door of hostile prospects would work in here.

It will work I was just not doing it correctly.  I evaluated the situation and realized I was on the right track I was just not executing correctly.  Time to change the game.

Drawing the Personalization Parallel between Sales and Management Scenarios

This poor agent wasn't making her stats for the same reason I wasn't able to have any early success seeing that water superintendent.  As I started piecing this together the comparisons between sales/management came easily:

• My sales manager coaching me on this particular water superintendent:
• I don't know how you're going to get in to see that municipality.  I've been trying for years all I can recommend is that you keep trying.  We should settle for getting small things at first - not worry about being their primary supplier.  Just start there.

• My Supervisor coaching their agent on improving their metrics:
• I don't know how you're going to get your handle time down quickly.  I've been telling you for a few months to concentrate on getting it down even just a little bit.  Keep trying.

The thought process had started.  I remember sitting in my office looking at this agent's coaching notes - her measurement of success - and wondering what kind of change needed to take place.  How did I succeed with that water superintendent?  How do I make that translate into success with my agent and Supervisor?

"It's not the radio scanner that got you in the door it's what you decided to do with it.  That water superintendent needed something you had and you were able to fill that need more quickly than your competition."  I can hear the squeak of the hamster wheel in my brain.  Waiting for this to come together.  Looking for a solution.

"Whether that was that pipe repair clamp you had, a competitor's broken colorant machine you could fix for a potential customer, or that conversation you struck up with the loading dock guy it was all because you were being observant.  Observe until you find a way to personalize".  I thought.  

What are the tools I have as a manger that will help me and my supervisors personalize not something we want to sell but something we want to improve?  It was time to get my Supervisor and try a few ideas that might help us observe her agent.

"Let's listen to some of her customer calls." I asked the Supervisor the next day.  " I will take my notes for coaching purposes."  I threw a twist into the monitoring process.  "I'm going to remote monitor in real time from a cubicle and watch the agent as they take that particular call.  You will listen to the recorded version later and then we'll compare notes."  I think the Supervisor was more intrigued by me listening to calls.

It was very enlightening.  The agent was standing and chatting to her neighbors while I was waiting for a random call to patch into.  She finally took one call that I decided to monitor.  Technically the call was fine but she was muting the phone often (probably because she was told get her phone hold times down) and speaking with the agents around her.  I made my notes and met with the agent's Supervisor the next day.

The Supervisor was confused.  "I listened to the call and it was okay but there were long pauses that made this call at least one minute longer than it should have been."  

"Let's go have a coaching session with her now."  I instructed the Supervisor.  "I have some ideas we can try."

Don't Talk About Work For The First Five to Ten Minutes of the Coaching Session

I led the coaching session with the agent.  She seemed worried I was involved thinking she was in some kind of trouble.  The first thing I did was ask her how she was doing.  In fact the first 5 minutes of our coaching session was talking about everything except work.  Just in those five minutes I learned quite a bit about her situation.  Student, new mom, sole provider and also worked a second job.  That surprised the Supervisor since she had been on her team for a while.

I immediately had 2 or 3 different reactions to the first 5 minutes of our session.  Reactions that would help me personalize our session and understand any roadblocks.  This personalization led right into the genuine praise I had for everything she was doing correctly.

"It's tough doing all of those things - school, work and family all by yourself.  I worked with a girl a long time ago when I had one of my first jobs who was doing that." I said.  "We worked in the paint department and I remember asking her one day how she juggled all of these responsibilities.  She told me she saw this job as an escape from school and home because it was the only place she had no drama."  

"She could do her homework during lunch uninterrupted." I continued.  "She could have adult conversations here and she also saw this job as a springboard to other positions in the company once she graduated college".  Both the Supervisor and agent were listening a little more.  We like stories even if they're not all that unusual just as long as we can relate.  We then transitioned into her metrics.

We found a common denominator between us.  If we didn't get her attention or we couldn't establish any "buy in" then no matter how personal it was it means nothing.  It's the part of the equation that takes the most time and practice to figure out.  

I reminded her of what she was doing very well.  "You've got that covered as far as I can see you're doing a phenomenal job getting here well before your shift starts.  You call quality is very good too.  I can tell you're trying very hard here that's why we want to know what we can do to make this job easier."  That praise was from the heart.

"You've only got a few things to improve on and one of those is your call times."  I said.  "I notice you are speaking with the agents around you sometimes when you're on a call."  I am making sure this doesn't sound like an accusation.  This is news to the Supervisor gauging the look on her face.  But I see the light bulb over the Supervisor's head because she now realizes she has a new observational technique.

Share Your Personal Experience as it Relates to the Issue at Hand 

I asked the agent to remember a time when she was distracted in school or on the job.  Most people struggle coming up with specific examples on the spot so I volunteered my story.  It was about a guy I worked with - another salesman at the time -  that continued to abuse the company's Nextel two way radio while I was on the road.  I told her about one instance I was making a sales call to a potential big customer when he came across my Nextel phone and screamed a very questionable string of colorful language which was heard by the entire office.  I was embarrassed and very upset.  That Nextel two way outburst cost me a lot of business.

After the initial shock the agent and the Supervisor smiled as I started laughing about the incident.  Suddenly they both had similar stories where a coworker or classmate put them in a similar situation.  

"Have you ever been on the phone when somebody close to you says something embarrassing that might have been heard by the party on the other end of your line?"  I asked.  My Supervisor saw where I was going with this which was great. The agent acknowledged she had experienced that.

"I'm sure that when you're chatting with your coworkers on the floor you're not saying anything rude like my salesman buddy did to me." I assured her.  "But it's hard enough to hear on the floor sometimes and it sounds unprofessional when our customers hear a lot of personal talk between agents.  I think just by you limiting your floor conversations to when there's phone idle time will really lower your talk time dramatically and quickly."

This personalization helped this agent buy in to the coaching and feedback we just administered.  It will stick because now every time she sees me walking the floor she'll remember me as the Nextel guy.  It will also reinforce the fact that we did discuss not being chatty with her buddies around her and how unprofessional background talk is to our customers.

My sales background helped shorten my learning curve with this technique.  I took the long way around in this blog entry to illustrate how I got from point A to point B and how I applied personalization to my management style  It's important to show that no matter what kind of experience you have you've got something that will spark your imagination or trigger a memory that you can turn into a personalizing event.  Whether it helps you sell a water pipe repair clamp or help an employee improve a key performance metric it's the same process.  Personalization makes messages stick.

Take some time as a manager to hone the listening skills required to formulate your own personalization techniques.  You're going to make mistakes and act on some bad theories but you need to keep trying.  If you need help ask somebody.  You can even ask me - the Nextel Guy...or the Clamp Guy.  I'll answer to either one.




HOLD THEIR ATTENTION!

Meathead Management Principles: Don't Be Dead From the Neck Up

Look for my publication about management principles by Summer 2014.  I'm excited about bringing my sales management and business management skills together in one manual.  Many of these principles have been around for a while but there will be a few major differences in the way I combine and utilize different techniques.

Here's the outline for "Meathead Management Principles: You're Not Dead From the Neck Up"

(it's a working title in progress.  Not much progress since I'll need permission from Norman Lear and CBS...)

• Give the 5 major principles of management styles that even a meathead like me could follow and thrive.

• How implementing the science of Emotional Intelligence I learned and implemented from my sales management background transferred easily into business management.  

• Every sales example will have a business example correlation.  The examples will relate to every business situation and every business size and climate.

• Specific situations based on the above statement and exercises you can do immediately.

• Quantifying your results.  Prove to your boss you’re not a meathead.

• Wrapping everything together and creating buy in from your team no matter how big or small. 
Maintaining consistency and model pliability – I will illustrate the coaching and feedback system I developed which is modifiable to fit everybody's situation.

Here's a preview of one of those principles titled Personalizing Your Message 

The Birth of the Principle To This Meathead

I’m a big believer in personalizing anything I want to learn, remember, or teach to others.

You’ll see this in any formula for success if this rule is followed.  Memorization techniques that tell people to link otherwise unrelated words or concepts into a silly story so they will remember – that’s asking somebody to personalize.  When you write a book describing the habits of successful people you are reading specific examples of specific people.  The story is one you can relate to yourself or to others you may know – that’s personalizing.  When a politician comes on television, references your town and introduces Mrs. Jones, mother of three, out of work because the factory closed and then tells you to vote for him or her to keep this from happening again – that’s personalizing.

I learned this early on in my sales career.  It actually becomes easier the more you personalize.  You become better at reaching back into your experiences.  Better at listening and observing your surroundings.  Better at taking a concept or idea and making it easier to teach, sell, or simply remember. Reaching back into your experiences is fairly simple and I'll go over that process later.  Listening and observing and relating this information to a personal part of your life and your customer's life just takes a little practice.  

Observing your surroundings is the key in helping you create that personalizing experience.  If I was going to make a brand new sales call I did much more than research the company.  I asked a lot of questions not just to the purchasing manager with whom I had the appointment but I would poke around the plant or warehouse and take notes of what I saw.  The most valuable information I ever gleaned from a potential customer I learned from the warehouse manager or the loading dock guys of the company in my sights.

In order to make this next point stay planted in your head one thing I might suggest to you is you've done this type of exercise before.  Ever gone into a store to return an item without a receipt?  If you went in expecting something to be done simply by throwing the item on the returns counter and getting your money back I’m sure you were quickly disappointed.  Most of us know what we need to do and are realistic in our expectations about getting a cash refund or getting a merchandise credit.  You start thinking about how you lost your receipt or how you got the item as a gift but it was something you already had.  Maybe it was a sweater that was so ugly Bill Cosby wouldn't wear it.

Chances are you have some semblance of social skills because you’re already a successful manager.  You know being polite with the clerk will get you much closer to your goal of a total refund.  But you also are ready to “personalize” your plight if being polite doesn’t work:

“Bless my daughter’s heart she meant so well giving me this sweater for Christmas.”

“I really was hoping for a different kind of table runner but my son got this one for me as a gift.  It’s not his fault he didn't know my Hummel figures wouldn't stay standing on such a thick runner.”

These may sound silly and obscure but they’re actual situations from people I know.  When you’re faced with this situation you will come up with something and it will be personalized.  

You can expand on that and personalize more than just a story for a store clerk.

Taking that information and using it to my advantage was critical to my success and it will be for you too.  Don’t misread that statement.  I did not take advantage of my customers or prospects just as you didn’t take advantage of the returns counter person.  It just takes a more creative approach to personalize your situation whether it’s as a salesperson, teacher, football coach, store manager, or Weight Watchers coach.  I learned early on this was the key to my sales success.  I had to dig deep and be creative but it worked a lot of the time.  This was something that I learned not from a book or seminar but from some very successful sales managers I worked for.  Here’s an example of personalization in action.

The concrete admixture company I worked for was far behind the competition in terms of having good, large distributors for our products and service.  One particular customer who already had my competition established in their distribution line had been a challenge for our company.  It was almost impossible to get a foot in the door.  I persisted and grudgingly was given time to speak to the purchasing agent.  He was not a lot of help during my qualifying call before our meeting in a few weeks.  This happened before you could “Google” anything.  I just had a company truck and an old Nextel two-way phone in my arsenal.  But I had the appointment.  I was going to return this ugly sweater without a receipt so I better be digging deep for how I’m going to personalize this.

I had been to their business a few times but made the mistake of just knocking on the front door.  I was going to be in the area before my official sales appointment so I thought I would nose around the warehouse and yard a while.  What an eye opener it was to speak to the warehouse manager and some of the loaders.  The personalization started as I started walking through the parking lot.

“Who are you looking for?” the warehouse loader asked.  The personalization started.

“I’m not looking for anybody in particular.  I've got an appointment with Roger next week and I just wanted to get an idea of what you guys do here.”  Or some kind introductory words.  I introduce myself, shake hands and continue on.  I almost told him I wanted to return a sweater.

“I just don’t like coming in to a place without getting a general idea about seeing what goes on behind the sales counter.”  I said.  “I guess I got used to doing this ever since I took my truck in once for service and the service manager let me come back and look at the shop.  I was impressed about how clean it was.  I’m not sure if the insurance company for that Ford dealer liked that I was walking around the shop…”  I interrupted. “…this yard looks immaculate…” Everything I said was true.  I don’t remember the details of the rest of the conversation but we ended up talking about trucks, softball and Ohio State football for a long time.

If you think about personalization it’s no different from when we speak to a close friend.  Sometimes this works sometimes it doesn't.  The only difference is I’m learning new things the more we speak and I’m relating some of this information to a personal part of my life.  On this day it would lead to something pretty amazing.

I walked back with the warehouse manager and we started talking more about the business.  He had a competitor’s color dispensing machine.  Without going into much detail these machines can be a maintenance nightmare – all of our machines not just theirs.  Pigments dry and hoses clog.  Formulas are often inconsistent making each batch a different color.  And it’s not an easy fix making concrete all the same color after this happens.  We started talking about color dispensing machines in general.

“Sometimes these machines don’t circulate the pigments well enough especially if the warehouse is cold.  You guys seem to keep this place nice and warm.” A true statement.  This was a root cause found early on with our machine I was just curious about the competitor’s machine.  I look over and he’s shaking his head.

“This G.D. machine has been nothing but trouble for the last two G.D. weeks.  I can’t get the one red pigment to pump we've had to hand load it in the trucks after weighing it out by hand.” I knew exactly what he was doing.  Not only was I surprised he WOULD he do that, but given the tight tolerances he was actually ABLE to do that.  “And the G.D. rep for this company says he can’t be here until next week.”

“You mind if I look at the machine while I’m here?”  He looked at me like I was nuts.  I was in dress slacks and nice shoes and a very white dress shirt.

  

“If you can at least tell us what’s wrong and how to fix it that would be great but you don’t have to.”

  

I tucked my tie into my shirt and popped off the back of the control panel.  These are fairly easy machines.  If they’re not clogged then it’s a pump or switch that’s usually out.  Anything else would involve the main circuit board and you know that’s fried right away.  I went to my truck and got my multimeter, did a resistance check on the solenoid dedicated to the red pigment line in question and found it to be bad.

I replaced the solenoid with one I had in my truck.  You would have thought I brought bars of gold to everybody there.  When I showed up for my meeting with the purchasing manager a few weeks later the first thing he asked me was if my pigments would work in my competitor’s machine.  You bet they would.

Obviously not every sales pre-call ended with this dramatic of an outcome.  But it worked most of the time.  The constant here is looking for a way to humbly and honestly personalize your situation to elicit a positive response or trigger an emotional response to make you and/or your idea memorable.  Top leaders do it.  Top salespeople do it.  Top managers do it too.  

Emotional Intelligence? What kind of nutty professor taught you that?

“Emotional Intelligence?  What kind of nutty professor taught you that?”  Words from a manager from a previous life.  I think he’s still looking for work.

Now I didn’t hear it from a professor but I had been aware of EI since about 1999.  My GOPHER coaching system, which was created not long after then, utilizes all of the principals that make up the core of the EI theory.  But it’s a newer science and has its share of detractors.

Emotional Intelligence doesn’t stand up to certain “old school” managers.  They will argue that people who successfully prescribe EI principals are people who are already highly effective managers.  

                “They made up EI so they could sell more business and management books!” 

                “Hewlett-Packard management training called it “this” and IBM called it “that” back in the day!”

                “EI is just a re-packaging of sound management practices!”

They may leery because they’ve seen some of these management principals die on the vine after a while.  Some of them also feel like EI principals just coddle today’s workforce.  That’s a complete failure in understanding what’s going on here.  EI is not contributing to the “Wussification of the Workforce”.  I’ll show that when I explain the role of EI in my GOPHER coaching later.

There’s no coddling here.  Within our business context we are just trying to understand what makes people tick.  What motivates them.  What upsets them.  It doesn’t mean we are not holding employees and managers accountable.

To those managers resistant to EI – just look at the core principals.  Yes there’s an inherent trait to those people who have successfully deployed EI tactics.  They already have a high EQ and are motivated to implement a process that really has no downside.  How is self-awareness/regulation, social skill, empathy, and motivation detrimental to your workforce?

Every single book on highly successful management practices acknowledges in some form the effectiveness of these processes.  The wheel is not being reinvented.  It’s just being improved.  But is EI truly correlated to success in the work place?

As this theory catches more wind the sentiment is growing among psychologists and other social scientists with more studies that there is a correlation.

Even as I was in the process of studying and implementing EI in my workplace the theory was gaining more credibility as addition research is compiled and published.  The one area of EI that is of interest to us as managers is the relation between EI and success in our world – the business world. 

There’s a great article called “Emotional Intelligence: What Does the Research Really Indicate?”[i] .  The 8 page publication can be found at:

http://alliance.la.asu.edu/temporary/students/katie/MultipleIntelligenceEmotional.pdf

I want to summarize the components of Emotional Intelligence in relation to my GOPHER Coaching and Feedback System since there’s been a lot of interest in how exactly this works.  Look for that in my next blog entry.  For those not familiar with my management process I referenced it in a past blog which is archived here:

http://thegophersystem.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html

And my own management philosophies archived here:

http://thegophersystem.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html

---

[i] Cherniss, Cary; Extein, Melissa; & Goleman, Daniel; & Weissberg, Roger P.; (2006) “Emotional Intelligence: What Does the Research Really Indicate?” EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST, 41(4), 239-245 

Metric Nazi Management

I'm going to veer off my GOPHER coaching and feedback path on this blog entry.  I'd like to share my recent experience with a BPO in Central America I visited a few weeks ago.

My company has been using this company to help us with some of our call volume.  It had been about 9 months since we started operations there.  At the start up phase I stayed behind at our main facility as some of my trainers and I.T. gurus went down to kick off this endeavor.  We had not been back since.  

Despite the great start there were some not so surprising bumps between us and our new partner.  We had done all the right things to kick off our long distance romance.  We called each other a lot during the day.  We brought one of their best trainers up to our house to learn and understand how and why we did things the way we did.  It wasn't enough that we calibrated our Q.A. departments and shared coaching and feedback processes via email and phone but we added a Skype room so we could put a face to our new friends.

Every Thursday we had a formal business presentation via Webex where our new friends told us how attrition, AHT, Quality, Legal Compliance, Occupancy, and other metrics were doing week after week in their house.

I was happy at how well they said they were doing  But I was confounded by my quality teams call audits of their agents over the past few months.  They were way off.  My team had consistently scored them much lower.

Time to take a trip.  

I sing "Come Fly With Me" better than Sinatra

I wanted to see how the sausage was being made.  It sure tasted okay but I was wondering if I was going to be repulsed by how it was produced.  Maybe that is too strong of an analogy but I had my doubts.  Preconceived notions and my experiences on "this side of the business" made me think I was going to be disappointed.  Those notions were still prevalent even after leaving a well known BPO over 12 years ago.

In 1999 this BPO I worked for really did not have any coaching and feedback system or recognition program.  Their Quality department was extremely rigid and their accountability was almost non-existent - they were the Untouchables.  Topping it off was a center Director who was one of the most selfish and wrongly driven men I have ever had the misfortune of working for.  Actually I'm extremely glad I experienced working for him because it solidified how I would never treat another human being.  

Back then we were very rigid with our metrics.  We may have had a very demanding client but handle times, service levels, hold rates, quality, after work times, and average talk times were set in stone.  It didn't matter how close our agents came to making their numbers.  It didn't matter that some of our agents were trending positive improvements with metrics they struggled with in a short amount of time.

We were Metric Nazis back then.  I'm wondering if this BPO is doing the same thing.  

After the first 2 days I'm writing a lot of things down - things I'm sharing with their Site Director, HR manager, QA manager and Project Manager.  Processes to be put in place immediately and others to be put in action after I leave.  I'm ecstatic that they are so quick in getting some of these things done while I'm there and it's already showing some quality improvements.  I'm not so happy with where they moved my project - from the fourth floor with a panoramic view of the mountains to the cramped quarters on the first floor with no windows. 

I'll have one on ones with all of the Supervisors and Agents on my project.  It will take a few days but I'll get the real story on this company.  I wonder if BPOs haven't changed that much in their tactics since 1999.

I've got a set of questions I start asking in my one on one sessions with the Supervisors and Agents.  

What would ya say ya do here?

"How is the company treating you?"  
"Do you feel like you're getting the support from your company?"
"Do you like your work environment?"
"Are you receiving adequate coaching and feedback?"

I expected responses to be varied - some love the company, some tolerate the company.  I thought most would say the training was mediocre or incomplete or that the trainer didn't know a lot of things.  Maybe the coaching and feedback was all Metric Nazi because I didn't see any coaching going on.  I was preparing to really rip into somebody about something.  It had the appearance of my 1999 experience.

After 2 days of these meetings I was convinced we had a Metric Nazi in the house.

It was me.  

Almost every issue that this company was dealing with was due to something I did or didn't do.  Below would be the consensus of the responses collected over those two days. 

How's your company treating you?  
Great - we are working with what we have.  We don't like that they moved us from the fourth floor to the first floor. 
How I deciphered that:
The BPO was tired of waiting for us to forecast FTE so they had to make room for another client who made that commitment.  They are now on the fourth floor with the great view.

Do you feel like you're getting support from your company?
Yes they treat us very well.  This is a great paying job and it's easy - see most of us have banking or I.T. tech support call center backgrounds.  We were wondering if we would see anybody from your company.  The other projects around us are always getting products and visits.
How I deciphered that:
9 month absence.  Shameful. 

Do you like your work environment?
It's OK because we know we'll move out of the first floor as we grow.  But the call volume is extremely high and for 8 hours there's just no break.
How I deciphered that:
I didn't think about the culture of the call center down here.  These guys are used to spending time between calls doing after call work or just haven't experienced such a high occupancy rate.  My North American group deals with this fairly easily.  This also might explain the higher attrition rate here too.

Are you receiving adequate coaching and feedback?
Yes but our Supervisors are not able to play our calls back so it's hard to reference areas of improvement.  The Supervisors also are confused about the Quality reporting format.  They seem very objective and it's difficult for them to coach to that.
How I deciphered that:
Lack of calibration between us and them.  We relied too much on the initial training we did so long ago.  We need to make sure we send a QA team member down here on a quarterly basis and revamp our QA monitor process.  Hell, we had Skype what else do we need?

The bottom line - I was the leader and head facilitator of the Metric Nazi Management initiative and didn't even know it.  I expected a lot because I thought I had everything covered.  The mistake was assuming that because this company specializes in being an outsource call center I should be able to give them my metric expectations and leave the rest to them.  A few phone calls each week should suffice to make sure things are on track.

Despite being thousands of miles away these people are part of my business family and I haven't been treating them as such.  They are a partner and they deserve more than one visit every 9 months from us.  I came back and made some positive changes in processes and protocol.  Some of those I implemented while I was down there.

I highly recommend doing the "Not So Undercover Boss" trips regularly if you have any outsourcing done domestically, near shore or off shore.  Just be prepared to see your previously unseen part in the sausage making process.

Still learning lessons and loving it!

Getting Optimal Performance From Your Team

Getting Optimal Performance From Your Team:

What are we missing as managers when we look for solutions to draw the optimal performance from our employees?  I know the answer will not be a one size fits all solution but I had to step back.  I was too close to the problem and I was stuck.

I did what somebody a long time ago told me to do when I’m stuck.  Walk away.  Forget about it.  Go walk around – go look at something green in color because that will stimulate your brain to sweep out the cobwebs and clear your mind.  So I forgot about it for a long time until one night I had a dream about one of my mentors. 

We were sitting around in a sales meeting and my mentor had boxes of rubber bands in front of him.  He was stretching them to the point of breaking but he was doing it slowly and the anticipation of the snap was bothering some of the others in the meeting.  He didn’t say a word but I knew what he was trying to remind me of.  A long time ago he was travelling with me as my sales manager and he was talking about growth – growing as a salesman and also as a leader; about being happier and healthier and experiencing more from the world around us.  He took out a rubber band for his analogy.

“Think of this band as your comfort zone.  If you don’t leave your zone you’ll always stay this shape – you’ll have no energy.  You won’t grow.  You might as well stay in the box with the rest of the bands.” 

Then he snapped me in the forearm with that rubber band.  “That’s the tension you need in your life.  Rule #1 - Step out of your zone until the tension stretches you to your limit.  Leave a mark on people with your words and actions.  Don’t let them forget you.” 

I knew what he meant but I said it anyway.  “I’m not going to go around making welts on people with loops of elastic.”  He went to snap me again but pulled the rubber band too tight this time – it snapped back in his hand.  “Rule #2,” he said after calling me a smart ass, “Don’t step too far out of your zone.”

I took this seriously.  I used to leave my comfort zone often especially when I was on stage doing plays and musicals.  But then I got lazy.  It started when I got my first sales job and failed miserably (I talked about this experience in a previous blog).  I was bored and not feeling challenged.  The adage that you get out of it exactly what you put into it is an adage for a reason.  How true it is.

How do I as a manager take this principle and mold it to an inbound technical support call center group? Ultimately I got quite a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from applying this practice because it helped me grow, meet new people, make more friends, and generate long term business relationships.  I remember the hardest and scariest times when that rubber band was about to break as some of the best most exciting times. I was still stuck on how to apply this to my group.  Just like last time I demoted this problem to the back of my brain and forgot about it for a while.

The next revelation didn’t come in a dream but by a Kindle download.  The e-book was from one of my favorite social scientists Daniel Goleman – “The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights”.  I have read every article, journal, and book he’s written because he is the king of the emotional intelligence field.  I talk about Goleman as much as a 4 year old talks about Elmo.

Goleman is trying to understand the “flow concept” in relation to optimal performance.  He uses the Yerkes-Dodson model as an example.  Basically it’s a point on a scale (or arc) where one reaches the zone of optimal performance.  Kind of like a performance bell curve.  There must be a way to apply these principles to our management mantra.   

The flow concept emerged from research where people were asked to describe a time they outdid themselves and achieved their personal best. People described moments from a wide range of domains of expertise, from basketball and ballet to chess and brain surgery. And no matter the specifics, the underlying state they described was one and the same.1

I’m theorizing that the basis for this would be to ask somebody about a time they “stretched their rubber band” and went outside of their comfort zone.  It’s one way of prompting a response so a manager can get a better idea on what stimulates their employees to perform at their peak.  The answers can shed quite a bit of light on how we can challenge our employees – even ourselves.

There are three things that Goleman proposes to create this environment in “The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights”.  Armed with the feedback an employee has given about their finest achievements you’ll have a better idea on how to proceed.  This is the core of creating a motivating environment:

                Adjust demands to fit the person’s skills. If you manage people’s work, try to gauge their optimal level of challenge. If they're under-engaged, increase the challenge in ways that make their work more interesting – for instance by giving a stretch assignment. If they are overwhelmed, reduce the demand and give them more support (whether emotional or logistic)²

            

This may be pushing an employee to continue back to school or giving them an opportunity to advance in the company.  Not just telling them to apply for a promotion but actually creating steps for them to follow:  assigning a mentor, nesting with other managers, assisting peers who may be struggling, helping the training department, etc.  If you don’t have a mentorship or nesting program in place get one immediately. 

                Practice the relevant expertise to raise skills to meet a higher level of demand.³

                You should be creating the super agent.  Don’t be afraid to improve the work lives of your employees especially the ones that want the challenge – the ability to reach their optimum performance.  You can do this by uptraining or re-training.  If you demand a higher level of customer service, for example, create a white belt/brown belt/black belt system that people have to train, study and prove their skills to attain each belt.  You get your white belt by getting scored so high on your quality scores for a 6 month period, for example.  You can offer whatever compensation you feel will motivate your employees who attain this ranking.  You can also make it worth something when it comes to promotions.  If it will give them an advantage over somebody else who has applied for the same position without this credential then it will be a coveted and meaningful status.

                Enhance concentration abilities so you can pay more attention, because attention itself is a pathway into the flow stage.⁴

                        Not necessarily in the literal sense.  Sometimes giving your agents time to spend doing those things to raise their skills will be enough.  Any mentoring and coaching should be done off the call center floor preferably in a quiet office or even off campus.

How far you push is up to you as a manager.  Don’t be afraid to challenge your people to stretch their rubber bands.  If this sounds like it’s too much to tackle then maybe you should make yourself step out of your comfort zone.

---

^1,2,3,4  Goleman, Daniel (2011-04-12). The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights (Kindle Locations 588-594). More Than Sound LLC. Kindle Edition