Successful businesses are so common today in most industries that it’s easy for them to become complacent just because you’re “making money” or doing better than last year. Because of their ubiquity, successful companies have come to bore me. They’re certainly the rule rather than the exception, and most are so content with how they’re doing they spend a lot more time talking about becoming great or getting to the next level than they do taking the action necessary to make it happen. What excites me today is working with the leaders who aspire for more than success; lots more.

Top leaders aspire to do more; they want to pull away from the pack and create for themselves a league of their own, a category of one. Don’t misunderstand: a category of one doesn’t mean merely becoming number one in your category. Rather, it means creating a different category with you being the only one in it. Going to this level requires both a special mindset and a bold strategy. First, however, let’s look at two key reasons most organizations will never make this happen:

1. Their talk and walk don’t match. They hold meetings where they talk about greatness, create mission statements that say they’ll be great, but never take the consistently uncomfortable action necessary to pull away from the pack. So often in my training and consulting travels the talk vs. walk from leaders disconnects along these lines.

They say, “We want great teamwork”, but have no common vision or mission that unites the team, dividing it by default.

They say, “We love our customers”, but front line people have no authority to solve a customer problem without referring the customer to supervisors, filling out forms, or kissing the ring—or some other part of the anatomy—of a higher-up for permission to make it happen for the customer.

They say, “We want great people”, but have sloppy hiring practices, anemic training disciplines, and poorly trained leaders charged with the development of human capital.

2. They like the status quo more than they’re willing to admit. Just like the guy who claims, “I want to get healthier” and then orders a double-bacon chili cheeseburger, they don’t want to pay a price for their prize. The cheeseburger guy probably does want to become healthy, he just loves cheeseburgers more. Likewise, most companies do want to pull away from commodity status and into a category of their own, they just like the comfort of the status quo more; what’s proven, safe, predictable and not too uncomfortable.

Companies desiring to pull away from the pack may also erroneously think price, product or location alone will get them there; they’re wrong. Margins have become so compressed there is less wiggle room than before to cheap-sell your way into a category of one. Why would you want to do this anyway? It simply makes you a purveyor of commodities, and no customer loyalty will exist for long when the basis of your relationship with a customer is based solely on price.

Product won’t do it either, because there is so much parity in product quality today that there are no longer large enough advantages to propel you into a category of one for long. Even with a superior product, innovations change so quickly today your edge may not last for long. As for location being enough to pull away from the pack, it’s not going to happen as the Internet has marginalized the advantage some locations once had over others.

Without a doubt, the primary strategy necessary to pull away from the pack is by creating extreme differentiation in the customer experience. People pay for better experiences; they come back for them repeatedly, and refer others to enjoy them as well. Extreme differentiation is more likely to mean that you have a number of small differences throughout the sales and service experience than a drastic advantage in any one area. When teaching my Category of One and Simply the Best Customer Experience workshops to clients, I stress seven points necessary to pull away from the pack:

1. Companies who become categories of one can point to an identifiable decision where they decided to go for it. This decision must be reinforced and repeated continuously after it’s made, but until team members decide they’re “in”, the movement to become a category of one is dead before it starts.

2. The process in moving from being a good or successful company into a category of one company is messy. It will require large doses of change, risk, decision-making innovation, as well as the evaluating and possible discarding of what used to work.

3. Category of one companies go beyond a status quo with slogans and create real change throughout the culture of their organization, beginning with the training and empowerment of their front line people. This is because front line team members have more opportunities than executives to create a customer experience, but normally have the least amount of training and empowerment to make it happen.

4. You don’t have to do anything extraordinary to become a category of one company. However, you will need to consistently do the ordinary things extraordinarily well. In fact, when ordinary people consistently doing what others are unwilling to do they will achieve extraordinary results.

5. It requires more than a “program” to pull away from the pack. It requires continual attention, training, communication and accountability because your customers are judging you against everyone they do business with, not just those who do what you do. They compare you to shopping at the Apple Store, buying shoes from Zappos, checking in their favorite hotel, and the courtesy and happiness they encounter at Disney.

6. If the transition from being successful to pulling away from the pack and becoming a category of one seems orderly, under control and comfortable you aren’t experiencing a transition at all; you’re merely rearranging the furniture. When you’re willing to forget a lot of what got you to where you are, throw out the furniture, blow up the old house and move into new digs, the transition is probably for real.

7. If you think this type of change is scary, try not changing. Losing ground, relevance and customers because you won’t lead your organization through the pain and discomfort necessary to pull away from the pack is what’s truly terrifying.

One of the best things about leadership principles is their wide applicability. You can find beneficial leadership life-lessons in sports, business, politics and throughout history. These maxims can be adapted to your personal life, home, church or enterprise. In my new Become a Category of One in-house workshop, I use Vince Lombardi’s success with the Green Bay Packers as a case study in how not to just become the best in your business category, but to create a different category with only you in it. Regardless of whether or not you like football or know anything about it, you can quickly advance results in your organization by applying these five basic, widely applicable principles from Coach Lombardi.

First, some background: Vince Lombardi spent only ten years as a professional head football coach, yet left the game a legend with a record of 105-35-6. He never had a losing season despite inheriting a team with a prior year record of 1-10-1. His playoff record was 9-1, including three straight league championships, (5 in 7 years) and the first two Super Bowl wins. He retired from coaching in Green Bay but returned shortly thereafter as coach for the Washington Redskins, turning around another losing team before he died of cancer in 1970. The following success principles are transferrable and useful in building high performance business cultures.

1. Lesson One: Be crystal clear about what you expect.

Vince Lombardi was a taskmaster for accountability. He was able to excel in this leadership responsibility because he was very clear about what he expected in the first place. Lombardi would begin each year with this expectation: There are planes, trains and buses leaving out of Green Bay every day, and if you don’t perform for me you’re going to find yourself on one of them. I suppose the overly-sensitive type might feel his approach was harsh, but I believe it was fair. Harshness would have been not setting this standard and then kicking someone off the team because they didn’t perform. We’re all wise to remember that ambiguity is the enemy of accountability, and that we cannot do an effective job of holding people accountable until we clearly define what you expect from them in the first place.

In addition to establishing clear performance standards for each player, Lombardi coined what is probably the most famous mission statement in sports: Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. No player could doubt what the Packer’s purpose was, or could mistakenly believe that his own personal effort or excellence substituted for winning the game as a team.

In-the-mirror check-up: Do your people know exactly what is expected? Is your mission as clearly defined as Lombardi’s?

2. Lesson Two: Let people know where you stand, and let them know where they stand with honest feedback.

Coach Lombardi created a culture of candor where solid performances were reinforced, and poor performances were confronted; quickly in both cases. Notice the balance of positive reinforcement and tough love in this feedback to talented, but sometimes lazy linebacker Lee Roy Caffey.

Lee Roy, if you cheat on the practice field, you’ll cheat in the game. If you cheat in the game, you’ll cheat the rest of your life. I’ll not have it…Lee Roy, you may think I criticize you too much, a little unduly at times. You have the size, the strength, the speed, the mobility, everything in the world necessary to be a great football player except one thing. YOU’RE TOO D*** LAZY.

In-the-mirror check-up: Can you unwaveringly state that your people know on a consistent basis exactly where they stand, and where you stand on performance issues?

3. Lesson Three: Lombardi took clear expectations and applied tough-love accountability to turn around losing teams and sustain winning teams.

Contrary to the contentions of those promoting today’s failed self-esteem movement, it is never harsh to hold someone accountable. What’s truly harsh is permitting team members to under-achieve, or fail, on your leadership watch because you don’t care enough about them to confront them about performance. Behavioral science teaches that if you want to change a behavior you must change the consequence for that behavior. In other words, somewhere along the line there’s got to be an “or else” for failing to perform as expected or the errant performance will continue. However, it’s important to remember that tough love accountability isn’t a license to become disrespectful or to get personal. Notice Lombardi’s approach with a wayward Max McGee. He practiced the principle of loving the performer, while hating the performance:

After catching Max McGee sneaking out after curfew: Max, I said that will cost you five hundred dollars and if you go out again, it’ll cost you a thousand. Max, if you can find anything worth sneaking out for a thousand dollars, call me and I’ll go with you.

In-the-mirror check-up: Whether you’re turning around a losing team or trying to sustain your success, are you executing the expectations + accountability discipline formula to win?

4. Lesson Four: Lombardi’s teams were brilliant in the basics.

Under Lombardi the Packers had only eight primary plays in their playbook. However, they executed these handful of plays with such excellence that they rolled over teams who were well aware of what plays they’d face. In Lombardi’s words: “It’s hard to be aggressive when you’re confused.” Lombardi knew that the Packers wouldn’t have to do anything extraordinary to win football games; but they would have to do the ordinary things extraordinarily well. He understood that ordinary people doing what others aren’t willing to do can produce extraordinary results.

Each job position in your organization has a handful of non-negotiable disciplines that, if performed consistently well each day, will take the team to a higher level. As a leader it’s your responsibility to coach each team member to identify and execute their handful, and to hold them accountable for doing so consistently.

In-the-mirror check-up: Have you identified for yourself, and helped your team to identify, the handful of basic disciplines that must be executed each day for greater success in each position?

5. Lesson Five: Lombardi treated each player as a unique individual; not like another head in a herd of cattle.

Lombardi knew you had to know people to move people. He often said, “My job is to find forty different ways to move forty different men.” He also knew that not everyone had earned or deserved the same opportunities, discretion or rewards. His declaration that “There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequals.” rocks the world of today’s mental lightweights supporting the disastrous and dishonest philosophy that “everyone gets a trophy.” Lombardi customized his motivational approach to fit the motivational trigger of each man on his team:

• Bart Starr hated to be yelled at in public; so Lombardi confronted privately. He also trusted Starr and didn’t micromanage him. Of the approximate seventy plays called in a game, Lombardi would only send in a dozen; and Starr had the authority to change them if he thought necessary.

• Lee Roy Caffey responded to a harsher, more direct approach; Lombardi was happy to oblige.

In-the-mirror check-up: Do you know what moves and most motivates each team member? Keep in mind that motivations can change over time.

Lombardi’s leadership was so proven and renowned that when he was hired to coach the Redskins, Hall of Famers like Sam Huff came out of retirement to play for him, validating the Law of Attraction which states that you attract into your organization what you are, not what you want. Vince Lombardi’s approach to bringing the best out of players was validated by the fact that 13 of the players on the 1-10-1 team he inherited went out to become All-Pros under Lombardi’s leadership. What a lesson for us all that sometimes the good people we’re looking for are right under our noses, but are diminished by poor leadership.

Lombardi was a believer in an “earn and deserve” culture and was sickened by the growing signs of entitlement he saw in society. One of his last speeches before dying of cancer was to a group of businessmen in Dayton, Ohio in 1970. This excerpt suffices to demonstrate that not only was Lombardi a genius in his own time, he had a clear view of where society’s tendency to pamper people would lead:

I find it increasingly difficult to be tolerant of a society that seems to have sympathy only for the misfit, only for the maladjusted, only for the criminal, only for the loser. Have sympathy for them, certainly. Help them if you can, certainly. But it’s time to cheer for, to stand up for and to pat the back of the doer; the achiever; the person who sees a problem and does something about it; the winner.

A common mistake leaders make when hiring is bringing someone on board because they like him or her. While liking a potential team member is certainly a plus, it is not an accurate indicator of character, competence or team chemistry. In fact, most of us have seen employees who were once likeable become far less so as we discovered weaknesses through performance we should have uncovered during the interview process.  Hiring experts have long estimated that the number one cause of hiring errors is making emotional decisions during the interview process.  Perhaps this sequence sounds familiar:

1. Early on in the interview you decide you like someone based on personal biases, appearance, personality or stereotypes.
2. At the “I really like this guy” moment you begin to lose your objectivity and cease seriously assessing the candidate.
3. After losing your objectivity you’re no longer tough in your assessment of this person and begin looking for a way to include him or her on the team.
4. You find ways to exaggerate the candidate’s strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
5. The interview has now devolved from a fact-finding proposition to a casual conversation, a good ole boy get-acquainted session, or worse, a sales pitch.

As human beings, we’re easily swayed by the factors outlined in point 1, causing us to give an unqualified, unfit candidate far too much benefit of the doubt. This is why using a pre-employment assessment can help you tremendously. The right assessment will dig beneath the veneer of a candidate’s best interview behavior and detect areas for concern you should investigate further through a second interview, or that may cause you to eliminate the person from consideration altogether; saving you untold dollars, momentum, morale, culture damage and personal credibility. While assessments aren’t perfect, they are an ally in helping you to eliminate hiring errors. Over the years, I’ve heard confessions from numerous managers who “went against what the assessment recommended”, hired the person anyway, and soon lived to regret it.

We are especially prone to developing blind spots concerning a candidate’s weaknesses when recruiting people into our business that we know, or that we think we know.  They may be a friend, a friend of a friend, or an associate you do business with. I fell into this trap several years ago when recruiting Ed from our bank, and compounded the error by ignoring the frightening -46 Ed scored on our pre-employment Anderson Automotive Profile because I liked Ed, and mistakenly assumed that I knew him better than our assessment. The two biggest concerns our assessment red-flagged after evaluating Ed’s twenty-four personality traits were:

1. He would be un-coachable.
2. He would be selfish and unconcerned about the welfare of other teammates; a “law unto himself.”

In other words, according to Eric Samuelson who runs our Anderson Automotive Profile division, we could expect Ed to be late to work, not help others out, and to never take ownership of the company’s mission. Ultimately, he’d be a hired gun who looked at us as just a “job” rather than a career, and would probably keep looking for something better—all the while he was collecting our paychecks.

Considering LearnToLead’s five core values, and how serious we are about team members living up to them, our profile’s assessment should have stopped me cold in my quest to hire Ed.

For example, one of our values is teamwork, which we define as: The good of the team will come before the personal agenda, comfort zone or ego of any one individual. Obviously, someone with Ed’s assessment results would be a dreadful fit for our value that the good of the team comes first.

Another of our values is integrity: We will always do what is right; not what is easy, cheap, popular, or convenient. And we will do so without excuse and regardless of the cost. Naturally, someone so prideful as to be un-coachable would not have the character necessary to live out this value in our workplace.

Urgency and attention-to-detail are two more of our values. Thus, it should have been a no-brainer that if Ed were late to work, as Eric predicted, he’d make a mockery of both.

The Ed I did business with at our bank and thought I knew for the past three years, and who did great during the interview process, proved every dire prediction of the Anderson Automotive Profile true in short order after we hired him. To make a long story short: He was late three times in one week and I fired him. Needless to say, I haven’t second-guessed my namesake pre-employment profile in the three years since I let Ed go. Consequently, I haven’t hired a poor cultural fit since his dismissal.

I still like Ed. He’s a nice guy with a professional appearance and well-spoken manner. He simply isn’t a good fit for our culture, proving once again the words I’ve preached for years but had to eat for the last time three years ago: Like isn’t enough.

Note: If you’d like to protect your dealership from hiring errors—and the “Ed’s” of the world—  take a peek at how the Anderson Automotive Profile works, by calling Eric at 804-798-3355.

In 1965, Pete Townshend of the British rock group, The Who, wrote the blockbuster hit My Generation. The song was later named the 11^th greatest song by Rolling Stone of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Townshend reportedly wrote the song on a train and is said to have been inspired by the Queen Mother, who is alleged to have had Townshend’s 1935 Packard hearse towed off a street because she was offended by the sight of it during her daily drive through the neighborhood. Townshend told Rolling Stone decades later that My Generation was about trying to find a place in society as a young man.

Every generation wants to find its place, to be understood and to make a mark in the world. Today, we hear much about Generation Y/Millennials, and how they prize freedom, creativity, “warm and fuzzies” and technology. This particular grouping, spanning those born from roughly the early 80’s through the early 2000’s are also characterized as the “Peter Pan” generation for their slower transition into independent adulthood. They live at home longer and are often characterized by higher levels of narcissism and by their aversion to organized religion.

Older leaders from the Baby Boomer and Generation X’ ers (those born from 1946 to 1980 or so) are wisely advised to learn about and understand Gen Y/Millennial associates on their team so they know what motivates them, can learn how to engage them, draw the best out of them, and fully utilize their unique talents. There are dozens of books, articles and seminars to help Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers understand and relate to the Gen Y/Millennials. Unfortunately, there is far less information to school the younger folks on how to understand and relate to their elder peers; who in most cases own or lead the business in which they work.

While it’s unwise to generalize or categorize generations of people and label them across the board with a list of traits, and while there are always exceptions to such groupings, common traits and philosophies dominate each generation listed: Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y/Millennials.  While I don’t purport to speak for all in my generation—I was born on the dividing line between the Baby Boomers and Generation X—I’m listing here characteristics that many in my generation have in common. I offer these to enlighten the Gen Y/Millennial tribes on how we think, what we value and what makes us tick; just in case they are as interested in trying to understand others, as they are in being understood.

1. We value team play more than individualism. We believe in troubling ourselves on another’s behalf and work hard to avoid catching “The Disease of Me”—where we expect others to subordinate their welfare to what’s good for our agenda, ego, or comfort zone. We look out for one another and help someone not because we want something in return, but because it’s the decent thing to do. Narcissism with all its selfish, prideful attributes offends us. We realize that we’re not the Center of the Universe; in fact, we believe that God is.

2. We believe in hard work. We don’t mind coming in early or staying late, and are used to doing so without being asked. We consider clock-watching an affront and expect to pay a price for the success and for the life we want.  We believe that when things get tough financially, you get your butt to work; you can’t demand your way out, wait your way out, wish your way out, or whine your way out—and you sure as heck don’t go “occupy” something.

3. We expect to earn respect. We don’t believe others should be awed by how special, unique or brilliant we think we are. We accept that meaningful respect must be earned through the consistent demonstration of character and competence. In these aspects we expect to have to prove ourselves.

4. We expect what we earn and deserve. We expect every bit of what we have earned and deserve; nothing more and nothing less. On the other hand, a sense of entitlement and entitlements in general offend us as they evince a selfish and arrogant mindset we find repulsive.

5. We believe actions have consequences. We accept that when we choose a behavior we also choose the consequences for that behavior; we’re not victims. We have faith in sowing and reaping and fully expect that what we sow—good or bad—we will eventually experience. Thus, when things don’t work out we’re far more likely to blame bad decisions than adverse conditions. On the other hand, when we do gain victories, and take home the spoils, we never apologize for our success; nor do we feel inclined to indefinitely subsidize those who can’t figure it out.

6. We believe in absolutes. We believe there is winning and losing; success and failure; right and wrong. We don’t buy into the Pollyanna palaver that life is one big, happy, gray area where you should be appreciated, coddled and rewarded just for showing up versus stepping up. We don’t believe that education, credentials, experience, or one’s alleged uniqueness substitutes for good old fashioned results.

7. We are somewhat intolerant. In a world where sin has become sanitized through and on television, and where what’s immoral has become largely accepted as normal, we have a slightly different take: we believe that one’s character is defined by what he doesn’t tolerate, what he won’t accept, marginalize, trivialize, compromise or defend.

One errs if he claims one generation is “right” or superior, and that another is “wrong” and substandard. There is ample cultural good, bad, credit and fault to be spread amongst all. At the same time there is no greater indictment of one’s self-centeredness than to expect others to understand and adapt to their values and beliefs, without the sincere application of reciprocal effort, and to that end Baby Boomers and Gen/Xers must speak up and offer insight. For you to lead effectively, you must not only seek to understand others, but must also make certain that what you stand for, value, and what you expect, is made perfectly clear.

My friend and mentor Zig Ziglar passed away today. I thank God for his life. Following is an article I wrote in October 2010 about my last visit with him.

We all need good mentors to help us grow as leaders. Like many of you, I have been positively influenced by Zig Ziglar’s messages of motivation and inspiration over the decades. Zig has written twenty-nine books and continues to inspire audiences around the world. I will always be grateful to Zig for endorsing my first book, Selling Above the Crowd, way back in 1998, when I was an unknown author and unable to get the attention of a major publisher. John Maxwell introduced me to Zig, and I instantly knew I had found a mentor to help guide my personal and professional life.

Zig Ziglar suffered a tumble down seventeen stairs in his home three years ago that left him with a brain injury and severe short-term memory loss. He no longer is able to give keynote speeches, but instead brilliantly communicates with audiences in an interview format with his daughter, Julie. Rhonda and I recently had the chance to spend an afternoon with Zig and his family at their headquarters in Dallas. I had been invited to give the Monday morning devotionals for Ziglar employees and invited guests, and to then present a webcast from their production studio to their thousands of subscribers around the globe.

Zig is now eighty-four and has been married to his incredible wife, Jean, for over sixty years! We had lunch at their residence with their children Tom and Julie, who help run their business. As Zig shared wisdom over a great meal, I found it difficult to concentrate on the food! Here are some of the gems I want to share with you from my time with this terrific leader:

“People tell me that they’ve heard I’ve retired. I tell them, ‘Friend, you’ve misunderstood. I haven’t retired, I’ve been re-fired! I’m not going to let up, slow up, give up, or back up, until I’m taken up! In fact, I’m getting ready to step up!’”

“You have to embrace the struggles in your life and live life on its terms. Wherever there is struggle, there is life.”

“I read at least three hours every day. But I read from people who have something to say, because they’ve actually done something.”

“Dave, you and I were smart enough to marry way over our heads. Our wives were in the top half of our classes, and we were in the half that made their half possible! But our ‘home court’ advantage-a happy marriage-gives us the edge when we’re away from home doing our work.”

“I have a wall of gratitude in my office where I display photographs of people who have helped me and taught me throughout my life. Not all of these people were close friends, but I was able to learn from them, and for that, I am grateful.”

“Whenever I autograph a book, I include a Bible verse. It is my life verse: Romans 8:28. It says that all things work out for good for those who love God. For years I talked to others about this to encourage them as they were struggling. For the past three years, I’ve personally experienced the power of these words as I work through my own struggles.”

“I have so little to complain about that I’m not going to complain about any of it.”

Zig Ziglar is a national treasure. I highly recommend his book, Embrace the Struggle: Living Life on Life’s Terms. It details life since his brain injury, and supplies encouragement and strategies for leading yourself and others through struggles.

Special Note: You might enjoy this recentlly-found footage of an interview I did with Zig Ziglar at his Dallas offices in 2010. It was one of the last public appearances Zig made. It runs 16 minutes and includes outtakes; no edits. The footage is rare. I believe you and your team will be inspired by his words. Click here to view.

As one year winds down and another begins soon it’s helpful to fine-tune your leadership skills to prepare for the challenges and opportunities ahead. After all, your personal levels of focus, hunger, and sense of urgency will set the pace for your team.  Perhaps nothing goes as far to either elevate or degrade your leadership credibility than does your responses to the various situations, problems, and “little” people issues you encounter each day. Following are fourteen everyday realities you face as a leader. Your proper response to them will shape your culture, your team, your reputation, and ultimately, your results.

1. The appropriate response to winning is:

Give credit to the team and then spend 20% of your time acknowledging, reinforcing, and learning from what you did right and 80% of your time facing where you still fell short and have opportunities to improve.

2. The appropriate response to losing is:

Accept responsibility for the failure and then spend 20% of your time studying, discussing and correcting task failure, and 80% of your time incorporating those adjustments into your future plans and preparation for what’s ahead.

3. The appropriate response to making a mistake is:

Admit it quickly, learn from it, and don’t repeat it.

4. The appropriate response to a subordinate’s mistake is:

Point it out and in your critique separate the performer from the performance. Use the error as a teaching tool and not as a battering ram. Then redefine your expectation and show what good performance looks like. When all is done encourage the team member to take another shot and to learn that when they hit a wall the best response is to bounce and not splatter.

5. The appropriate response to feedback, positive or negative, is:

“Thank you.” Don’t allow praise to inflate your ego, nor permit your ego to dismiss valid observations about how you can improve your leadership and performance.

6. The appropriate response to a customer problem is:

Treat it as a gift and seize the opportunity to turn a disappointed customer into part of your unpaid sales force by wowing him or her with your eagerness and ability to make things right without the hoops, blame game or delays.

7. The appropriate response to relational conflict between you and another team member.

Humbly make the first move to address the issue, admit any wrong doing, flush out and deal with hard feelings, gain closure and move forward in unity. Throughout the process remember that in most cases it’s far more productive that your need to be “right” is subordinate to the long-term vitality of the relationship’s health.

8. The appropriate response to a strategic plan that you determine is not working:

Change it. Remain locked like a laser on your desired outcome without becoming attached to how you will get there. Remain focused on results, yet flexible in your approach to securing them.

9. The appropriate response to feeling stuck, burned out, or void of passion for your work:

Read a book, attend a course, engage and pick the brains of those more successful than you in a given area. Learning is energizing and has a catalytic ability to dislodge you from ruts. The better you get on the job, the less time you have to spend there, and more time you can spend away from it pursuing balance in other areas of your life that contribute to your overall well-being.

10. The appropriate response to realizing that your culture has become weak with accountability:

Destroy gray areas by redefining performance and behavioral expectations for both daily activities and monthly results.  Put them in writing, offer fast feedback on performance to keep people on the right track, and apply consequences for failure when necessary.

11. The appropriate response to a growing sense of entitlement from my employees concerning their jobs and rewards:

Establish standards so that team members must qualify to receive perks they currently take for granted: lunches provided on busy Saturdays, the right to participate in contests or monthly spiffs, basing all promotions on performance rather than tenure, and the like. By holding others more accountable, and attaching a qualifying performance metric as a prerequisite for the extras they now take for granted, you strengthen your culture by creating a meritocracy and eliminating your welfare state.

12. The appropriate response to an employee who blames and fails to take responsibility for his or her results:

Turn their head away from the window and into the mirror. Help them to face and focus on the aspects of their job that they can control. This includes but is not limited to: attitude, discipline, character choices, where they spend their time, with whom they spend it, the choice to grow, follow up, hold others accountable, follow prescribed processes, deciding who joins the team, who must leave it, etc. A human being becomes powerless when they give their energy to things they can do nothing about: the economy, weather, stock market, unemployment rate, advertising, what the competition’s doing and more.

13. The appropriate response to an employee who offers excuses for task failure.

Teach him or her that you will accept explanations for task failure, but not excuses. Explanations relate what went wrong, or didn’t get done, along with the acceptance of personal responsibility for the failure and a plan for how to succeed next time. Excuses simply blame. Special note: Lest you become a hypocrite, if you’re going to stop accepting excuses you must first renounce them personally.

14. The appropriate response to realizing that your team is in more of a maintenance than a growth mode:

Acknowledge your role in allowing this mindset to grip the culture during your leadership watch. Increase your daily impact by investing more time on the front line and spending less time in your office. Apply the other eleven appropriate responses listed as necessary to shift away from your own maintainer or administrator tendencies and begin leading again.

Most organizations preach the importance of “satisfying customers” to their employees. In fact, a best-selling book written years ago on the topic of customer service was titled, You Will be Satisfied. While satisfying customers may seem like a worthy goal, you cannot build a great organization around customers who are merely satisfied. When you consider the definition of “satisfy,” it become clear as to why:

Definition of satisfy: to meet a requirement or obligation.

That’s not very inspiring is it? How many businesses that merely meet your requirement or their own obligation to you as a customer do you refer to others? How many of them do you consider as great at what they do; the best in their field? How often do you chomp at the bit to return to said establishments? What is the value of their brand in your eyes? Frankly, a company that merely satisfied you is one that did not impress you. They most likely blended into crowd. Does your own dealership do the same?

Consider these thoughts and fact concerning satisfied customers. Statistics used are from SMG’s What We Learned by Talking to 100 Million Customers.

1. Satisfied customers are not loyal. They are indifference and apathetic.

They are not impressed or wowed. All you’ve done to create a satisfied customer is what you were expected to do; nothing more.

2. Satisfied customers see no positive differentiation or added value in your company over another.

Because of this they are very price sensitive and will beat you up over price.

3. Satisfied customers quickly defect to a competitor who will exceed their expectations, if only in a small way.

It doesn’t require major acts of heroism to move a customer from indifference to wowed. Normally, it is the “little things” like: attitude of your people, diligent follow-through during the sales process and after, keeping all of your commitments, solving any problems that do arise immediately and at the front line level, and more.

4. Satisfied customers often regard some aspect of their experience with your company as unsatisfactory, but only 6% of them tell you about it. However, 31% tell others.

Just because you don’t hear customer complaints doesn’t imply that your customers are thrilled with you. Most customers that feel let down or underwhelmed with some aspect of their experience with you aren’t annoyed enough to complain; but they are unimpressed enough not to return. Remember: silence doesn’t suggest delight.

5. Satisfied customers often have a relationship with you strictly because you are the cheapest. This degrades your business to commodity status in their eyes.

Customer service rule: “No loyalty exists where the relationship between buyer and seller is based on nothing more than price.”

6. Research by Service Management Group indicates that less than half of satisfied customers say they’re likely to return, and only 30% would recommend that business to another.

The reasons are simple: they are not impressed or wowed, and why should they be? All you’ve done is meet their requirements.

7. Service Management Group also found that highly satisfied customers are twice as likely to return as satisfied customers, and three times more likely to recommend your business to others.

The difference between satisfied and highly satisfied customers is simple: you have impressed and wowed a highly satisfied customer. These people will now become part of your unpaid sales force. They are no longer indifferent; they are loyal.

8. You can only transform satisfied customers into highly satisfied customers by providing an experience that consistently wows and impresses them. How you achieve that is up to you; that you do it is not an option.

It is safe to say that you will not accomplish this task with a “business as usual” approach. You’ll need to set clear customer experiential standards, hire people who have the attitude and character to deliver those standards, and provide the training they need to make it happen.

9. The best way to provide an outstanding customer experience is to first create outstanding employee experiences. Your ability to do this will depend greatly upon the strength of your leadership, character, training, and commitment to hire carefully so that you can protect your culture from infection.

Surveys show that only 43% of satisfied employees recommend your business to others, whereas 86% of highly satisfied employees recommend your business to others.

10. To create highly satisfied customers you must move variation from the customer experience. You must consistently deliver “wow” experiences, not only once-on-a-while.

An essential step to remove variation from the customer experience is to improve the quality of your people. The wider the gap between top and bottom performer, the weaker your culture and the more variation will exist with how customers experience your service.

Leadership Responsibility: This would be an excellent time to examine, determine, and remedy the processes and people within your dealership’s operation that succeed in merely satisfying a customer’s expectations, and who threaten to place your dealership on the endangered species list.

A decades-old belief system in business is that the deeper one goes in debt with lifestyle enhancements, toys—stuff, the more driven he or she will be to make money. This mentality can start at the top of a dealership and cascade through the ranks.  In fact, I know many managers who quietly enjoy seeing their salespeople overextend themselves financially so they have to work extra shifts and days to maintain their lifestyle. While it may be true that living with high overhead can stir up drive, it also creates stress—lots of it.  Here are some examples of what happens to your stress level when you get caught up in the stuff trap:

1. First, you have to keep track of all your stuff.
2. Then you have to maintain and take care of your stuff.
3. You then have to insure your best stuff against loss.
4. You must also protect your stuff from people without as much stuff as you, who decide they want your stuff.
5. Naturally, the government will want overrides on your stuff, which makes you a slave not only to the stuff but to stuff-taxing bureaucrats.
6. Ironically, once you’ve had your stuff awhile you’re no longer happy with that old stuff and want bigger, better, more interesting stuff. And everywhere you look at your office and home you find valuable space taken up by yesterday’s stuff you no longer want, need or appreciate.
7. It’s also stressful when, despite your efforts to get great stuff, others don’t notice, compliment or fawn all over your stuff.
8. Inevitably, some friends or peers will get better stuff than you, and you then envy their stuff and are no longer content with your now-inadequate stuff. The stuff you once sought and cherished now falls into the category of being not up to snuff stuff.
9. After chasing stuff for years you finally realize that no matter how great your stuff is, or how much stuff you have that there’ll always be someone who has more and better stuff than you. You hate this because you don’t like to play games you can’t win, and the stuff game has no winner; only stressed out and empty losers surrounded by not enough, or good enough, stuff.
10. As you grow older, you start to grasp that you can’t take your stuff with you, so deciding what will happen to your stuff when you’re gone starts to consume you even before you have to give your stuff up.
11. The people you do leave your stuff too will argue because they didn’t get the best stuff, or enough stuff, and will give some of your stuff to lawyers who promise to get them more of the stuff you left to someone else who also believes they got the short end of the stuff.
12. Some of the people you leave your stuff to will squander it, sell it, lose it through incompetence, or just plain screw up your stuff; and the fact that your great stuff will fall into foolish hands causes you anxiety and resentment while the stuff is still yours and you’re trying to enjoy it.

Despite my diatribe on stuff, don’t get me wrong: I appreciate and enjoy nice cars, homes, vacations and the like. Nor, do I believe there is anything wrong with having great stuff. But, over the years, as I’ve watched others become possessed by and obsessed with their possessions and lose peace, health, family, reputation as well as their prized stuff, I’ve embraced a strategy of living beneath my means and generating drive through more productive, enjoyable and fulfilling methods than the quest for the biggest and best stuff. Here are three of my favorites:

1. Live to my maximum potential. The never-ending journey to become more valuable:  knowledgeable, disciplined, and skilled so that I am able to earn more. This drives me because as I become more, and earn more, I am better equipped to help causes and people important to me. This is far more exciting to me than lusting after the latest model Piaget or a bigger beach house.

2. Make a difference in the lives of others. The opportunity and challenge to take what I’m becoming as outlined in the last point and pour it into others; leaving them better than when our paths crossed is a significant driver. It multiplies leadership, expands influence and leaves a legacy.

3. Give to those who cannot possibly give back. This has become my parallel career, especially since starting The Matthew 25:35 Foundation a few years ago and hiring my daughter, Ashley, to run it. We support food banks, battered women’s homes, homeless shelters and prison ministries. But our primary focus is to help those who cannot help themselves: orphans in the US and abroad.

Ashley picked up on my sentiment towards too much stuff and devised a fundraising idea called Loot for Lives, where people could donate stuff they don’t want any more and the foundation would liquidate it and use the money to dig fresh water wells, build soup kitchens and provide shelter for orphans around the world; especially in places like Moldova where street-orphans are killed by organized crime rings and their organs are harvested for profit. Yes, you read that right. It’s perhaps the most disgusting thing I’ve ever encountered, but it happens and its practice is spreading into other parts of Europe.

Loot for Lives gave me an opportunity to put my money where my mouth was on my campaign against excess stuff, so among other things, I donated three gold watches that spent more of their time languishing in a safe. It was easier than I thought to give up my two prized Piaget Polo’s and a rare Concord; fifty-thousand dollars of stuff that no longer did it for me.  (I now wear a $100 Kenneth Cole that keeps better time than the high line stuff.)

Now, lest you think I’ve taken a vow of poverty, intend to pass into monk-hood and retire to some cave, this is not the case.  I plan to continue to grow our business and make even more money than before. Doing so will feed my three drivers as listed prior: becoming more personally valuable, adding value to others, and giving more to those who cannot give back. That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it.

So, what drives you Mr. or Mrs. Leader? Actually, you don’t have to answer a question like that aloud, because despite what you say, it is where and how you spend your time, along with your checkbook and receipts that tell the real story of what drives you and what you value most.

During the summer of 2012, a first time earth-visitor would wonder just what this villain Dan Cathy had done. After all, government leaders, celebrities, and droves of common citizens railed against him and his Chick-Fil-A company threatening boycotts and calling them bigoted, intolerant, discriminatory and other slurs unfit for print.

Could he be CEO of the company that paid a $210 million settlement related to federal charges of deceptive marketing tactics against its customers?

No. That company is Capital One.

Perhaps he ran a government gun-walking, “Fast and Furious” scheme that put weapons into the hands of Mexican criminals, resulting in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry?

No, that would be the United States government.

Doesn’t he produce movies and television programming so violent, virulent and vile that they regularly inspire and encourage sexual immorality, suicide and mass murder?

Nope, that culprit is Hollywood.

Dan Cathy is president of a family-owned chicken sandwich chain of 1600 plus restaurants. The offense he committed was to exercise his free speech right and share a biblically-based view on the merits of traditional marriage. That’s it. Period. End of Story. He didn’t shout, swear, get personal, lie, cheat, flip the bird, steal, embezzle, dodge taxes, commit adultery, father an illegitimate child, threaten or kill. He merely spoke biblical truth from his heart. Secular society’s response: “How dare you!”

“Did he really say that out loud?”

The fact that Chick-Fil-A is owned by a Christian family who lives and promotes biblical principles is no secret. Most know they don’t open on Sundays, and many are aware their WinShape Foundation supports long-term foster care programs, summer camps for more than 1900 kids annually, scholarships, marriage enrichment retreats, and more. What has offended a pagan populace is that Dan Cathy is convicted and courageous enough to publicly articulate his belief in the Bible’s definition of traditional marriage. In fact, someone like Cathy, who fears God more than men has always confounded secularists; they can’t sway, intimidate or control such people; thus they demonize them. His boldness also unsettles two groups of Christians:

1. The “Christians-lite”; a churchgoer who readily confesses Christ with his mouth but denies Him with his lifestyle.
2. The faithless Christian businessperson: he remains silent amidst social controversies fearing it will hurt business, not trusting God to replace what he may lose through his obedience.

“His views are antiquated!”

The outcry over Cathy’s promotion of traditional marriage might leave one to believe his stance is fringe when the opposite is true. Actually, the fact a far-left president, media, and entertainment industry supports same-sex marriage is evidence it isn’t mainstream; a fact proven by polls showing most Americans oppose it. Further evidence of its unpopularity is the reality that in thirty-two states where citizens had an opportunity by ballot to express their preference for traditional marriage, they did so thirty-two times.

The charges levied against Cathy and Chick-Fil-A by his detractors can be summed up in six words: bigotry, intolerant, discriminatory, and not inclusive. Are these accusations valid? Judge for yourself:

Bigotry

“Dan Cathy is a bigot!”

Morality isn’t bigotry. If it were, God would be history’s most renowned bigot. After all, He outlined uncompromising stances on sins like adultery, lying and homosexuality throughout the Bible.

To clarify the bigotry issue, consider that the dictionary defines a bigot as: a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices. Ironically, by definition, those attacking and threatening a Christian like Cathy because of his biblical convictions are themselves guilty of religious bigotry and discrimination.

“Pssst…Christians are low-hanging fruit.”

It’s ironic that celebrities, politicians, and ordinary citizens quick to chastise Christians who promote traditional marriage give a free pass to Persian and Arab countries where homosexuals are imprisoned and executed. Evidently, it requires less courage and risk to bully a Christian and boycott his chicken sandwich than to offend a Saudi and refuse his oil. Perhaps by turning Chick-Fil-A into a high profile piñata, same-sex proponents expect to make the price of opposition to gay marriage so steep others will cower from publicly living their values.

“What does God say about homosexuality and marriage?”

Like all Bible-believing Christians, Cathy bases his values on the word of God, who he believes knows better than us how we should live.  To understand a genuine Christ-follower’s position you must know what the Bible says about both homosexuality and marriage.

The Bible describes homosexuality as a grave sin (Gen. 18:20), declares that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), and labels it a shameful error punishable by a penalty you’ll receive within your soul (Romans 1:26-27).  It also refers to homosexuality—not homosexuals—as an abomination (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13). The definition of abomination is “loathsome and disgusting.” Incidentally, if these scriptures offend you, your argument is with God, not with Christians like Cathy.

God defines marriage in Genesis 2 as being between a man and a woman; Jesus reaffirms this in Matthew 19. This makes clear how God expects marriage to be carried out. Isn’t Dan Cathy permitted to say aloud what his God has declared to be true? Or in America do we now tolerate free speech from everyone except Christians?

Many today—including misguided Christians—argue we must change the definition of marriage to “fit modern culture”. However, Christ-followers who actually read their Bibles dismiss this error based on the words of Proverbs 30:6:  Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar and Deuteronomy 4:2: Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

Clearly, when prideful society attempts to defy its Designer and revise His words to accommodate their lusts, Cathy, and like-minded Christians draw a line. Why? God’s word doesn’t need anyone’s help.

Intolerant, discriminatory and not inclusive

“Dan Cathy is intolerant and discriminates!”

Gay activists want you to believe that to avoid being intolerant you must endorse homosexuality, despite your religious convictions. Total nonsense; the difference between being intolerant and principled is determined by the moral foundation on which one bases his stand.

Example 1: Cathy’s opposition to same-sex marriage is based on a perfect and loving Creator’s infinite wisdom, clearly rendering his stand to oppose God’s wishes as principled.

Example 2: Christians hating homosexuals are guilty of intolerance because their stand has no moral basis; in fact it contradicts Christ’s command in John 13:34: As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Example 3: Cathy accusers, like the mayor of Chicago, who know that Cathy’s position against gay marriage is based on the Bible, but assert “Chick-Fil-A’s (the Bible’s) values aren’t Chicago’s values” and threaten to keep his company out of their city because of their Christian beliefs are guilty of bigotry, intolerance and religious discrimination.

Frankly, the accusations that Chick-Fil-A discriminates against homosexuals are foolish. The press would have you believe there is a separate entrance, dining area, restroom and water fountain for gays, and would prefer you remain ignorant of Chick-Fil-A’s Facebook page which  affirms:  “The Chick-Fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect—regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender.”

As for claims the company’s stand against same-sex marriage makes them “not inclusive”, detractors should try to understand that inclusivity in Christianity means loving all, but not sanitizing, compromising with, legitimizing, accepting or validating sin. They also need to grasp that if, to be hailed as inclusive, a Christ-follower must endorse or promote behaviors God has called abominable the Christian is content to fail completely.

I have always loved Chick-Fil-A’s food, service, culture and leadership. However, in a world where even venerable Christian institutions no longer shape culture, but are shaped by it I more than ever appreciate their unflinching courage to articulate and live Christian convictions—regardless of the cost. I believe God will replace every customer boycotting them and then some. Speaking for my family and myself, we’re delighted to eat their share.

Note: Make copies and distribute freely. For permission to reproduce in a publication email Rhonda@learntolead.com.

Many people believe that forgiveness is solely a religious topic or should be relegated to the subject of sermons. After all, what benefit can a discussion of forgiveness have in the real-world, white-knuckle business arena? To appreciate the scope of possibilities, we are wise to consider what it costs us to have resentment, bitterness, selfishness, envy, factions, grudges, turf wars, gossip, and even hatred exist within the walls of our organization because we, or others, will not forgive, reconcile, and move past wrongs and offenses. The following five thoughts will put the importance of forgiving and reconciling in perspective, and make clear its importance in building and maintaining vital relationships between teammates, associates, partners, vendors, competitors, and more.

1. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that the wrong they did to you is right. It means instead that you are going to release the anger and bitterness you feel about what happened, move past it, and invest your valuable time, energy, and creative flow into activities far more productive than nursing and rehearsing past offenses.

2. Forgiveness doesn’t mean freedom from consequences. Forgiving someone for what they did to you doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be consequences for their actions.

In many cases, you won’t have the freedom or power to apply incidental or legal consequences to those who wrong you, yet you may be tempted to exact vengeance nonetheless. Be careful. I understand and respect that different faiths handle forgiveness and consequences in various ways. For instance, my Christian doctrine tells me that vengeance is God’s because His perspective is perfect. He sees the heart, weighs motives & disciplines as He sees fit. As a result, I’m well advised to let Him do His job.

In other instances, you may have direct control over necessary consequences and will be expected to apply them to maintain a high performance culture. In such instances, you have an opportunity to balance forgiveness with consequences. For example, when an employee repeatedly lied to us about a performance issues we forgave him, but we still fired him because he violated a non-negotiable and clearly stated value that our company holds sacred. Because we forgave him, we weren’t bitter or angry towards him. Rather, we cared enough to confront and coach him to do better in the future, and earnestly wished this young man the best as he left our organization. In other words, we have forgiven him, but forgiveness didn’t mean he escaped the consequences of his actions. If he had committed a lesser offense, we may have given him a second chance. But we couldn’t afford to confuse forgiving this person with allowing him to compromise our engraved-in-granite value concerning lying.

3. Forgiving helps you more than the person you forgive. Sometimes people think they’re getting even with someone by not forgiving him or her, but the sad fact is that the offender may be barely affected by, or aware of, your unforgiveness. On the other hand, what you’re suffering as a result of bitterness, resentment, anger and lack of peace may be severe.

If you go beyond forgiving the person and reach out to reconcile with them it matters not whether they accept or reject your reconciliatory gesture. You will have satisfied your leadership obligation to make the first move even though it was difficult. In the process you will have also strengthened your character, peace of mind, and freed yourself from the distracting guilt or anger associated with leaving an area of offense unaddressed or unresolved.

Think about it this way: if a poisonous snake bites you, what should you do first: kill the snake in vengeance or remove the venom so that you can begin to heal? Many people choose, in effect, to chase the snake to get even, failing to realize that their actions cause the poison to spread faster, guaranteeing a quicker death for them as the snake escapes unscathed. This metaphor holds true for those who fail to forgive in business or life. Rather than begin the healing process by removing the venom of the offense, they hold onto the poison, bond with it, rehearse it over again in their minds, and exacerbate their own inner torment. By seeking vengeance they die faster: emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and even physically.

4. Reconcile immediately. If you offend another, or are offended by someone else, don’t wait for the other person to make the first move. Take the initiative and go clear the air, and do so without feeling the need to prove you are right, or to judge someone else as wrong.

I learned long ago that it was important to forgive quickly, and also recognized that it is easier said than done. I never fully appreciated why speed was so important until July of 2002. I relate my story in chapter 5 of How to Run Your Business by THE BOOK. Here’s an excerpt from that passage:

My mother and I had endured a strained relationship for many years. As her health worsened, and I was able to spend less time with her because of my travels, I had a strong urge to reconcile with her during an evening I spent at her home during a visit.

The evening before I was supposed to leave back for California we sat in the living room alone, she on a couch and I in a chair across the room. It was just her and me. The moment was perfect. I wanted to go over and tell her how sorry I was for the hard feelings we had nurtured for too long and assure her that I cared for her and wanted to start over again in our relationship. But for reasons I still cannot explain, I sat pat. The moment soon passed, and others came into the room, and I determined that I would speak with her in the morning before she and my dad took me to the airport. That never happened. The next morning was hectic as I packed and left for the 90-mile trip to the Knoxville airport. As a result, I resolved to have my talk with her when I called the next Sunday. That never happened either. The Saturday before I was to call her, my mother died. The guilt I carried in the wake of her death was even greater than the resentment and bitterness I felt during the years we were estranged. When I finally said the words I intended to say for so long, I spoke them to her as she lay in a coffin.

Based on what you’ve just read, some of you may wish to stop reading this and make the call, write the letter, or pay the personal visit you’ve put off for too long.

5. Forgive yourself. Sometimes the most difficult person to forgive is you. Maybe it was the bad investment or wrong hire, a poor career choice, an ill-conceived acquisition or some personal character failing that caused loss or pain. Let yourself off the hook, because the same principles of forgiveness apply to you as they do to others. Until you get past your own failings, and move forward free from the anger, bitterness, or resentment you hold against yourself you will continue to suffer undue stress and distress within the depths of your soul. This will distract you, embitter you, cause irritability and make you far less effective in your leadership responsibilities than you should be.

For those of you determined to hold out and continue to begrudge bosses, friends, teammates, vendors, bankers, competitors or family, ponder the veracity of this insightful quote on the matter:

“Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back; in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”—Frederick Beuchner