Confidence is the companion of success.

Author Unknown

Humanity is never as beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.

Jean Paul

I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.

Norman Lear

The time is now…..

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy 2013-v43

If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.

Thomas Edison

To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing, that is enough for one man’s life.

T.S. Eliot

The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.

Irving Berlin

The time is now…..

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v2013-42

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

George S Patten

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

Buddha

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Benjamin Franklin

The time is now…..

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v2013-41

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

Dale Carnegie

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Winston Churchill

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

Thomas Edison

The time is now…..

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v2013-40

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

Jim Rohn

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity. Without it no real success is possible.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

He who does not tire, tires adversity.

Author Unknown

The time is now…..

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v2013-39

Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.

John Naisbitt

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Buddha

To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.

William Shakespeare

The time is now…..

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v2013-38

Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.

Dalai Lama

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.

Dale Carnegie

A man is a success is he gets up in the mornings and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to.

Bob Dylan

The time is now…..

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v2013-37

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.

Johann Gottfried Von Herder

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Without initiative, leaders are simply workers in leadership positions.

Bo Bennett

The time is now…..

Filosophy

WH Filosophy v-1.17

It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people; to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.

William Arthur Ward

Expect more than others think possible.

Howard Schultz

If people aren’t calling you crazy, you aren’t thinking big enough.

Richard Branson

Thanks Bill

The time is now.

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v2013-35

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

Walt Whitman

To lead people, walk behind them.

Lao Tzu

Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.

Lao Tzu

The time is now…..

TESTIMONIALS

Protecting, Respecting, Remembering and Building of a Legacy

Guest writer Ron Wilson returns this week with a blog post on family businesses and the honoring of legacies in "Protecting, Respecting, Remembering, and Building of a Legacy."

How does a third/fourth generation family business protect and respect the legacy of previous leaders and apply the lessons learned toward the successes of the future?

While looking back over the history of a dealership there were critical high and low points that shaped the future of the organization. For the most part we can identify those critical points and understand the impact the events had on the organization.

Very seldom can we identify the specific individuals that were the critical influencers. Even more complicated is remembering what actions were taken that lead us in and out of specific events.

Recently I was visiting with a young director at a semiconductor company that was about to go through a layoff. As a leader this young director had not experienced laying people off, what was involved during the layoff, and the repercussions a layoff has on the employees showing up for work after the layoff.

I asked the young director what advise his Vice President (supervisor) had shared based on his previous experience. The response was the Vice President (supervisor) had not been through a layoff either.

Here is an example of one, maybe two, generations of leaders that have not been through some of the most difficult challenges of leadership. In your dealership what were one or two critical events that shaped the organization and who is still around to provide input and share the experiences?

Third and fourth-generation family businesses face unique challenges in preserving and respecting the legacy of their predecessors while adapting to the modern demands of the business.

Here are a few strategies to balance these priorities effectively:

Codify Core Values and Vision

Document the Family Legacy: Develop a written history or mission statement that highlights the founding principles, values, and milestones of the business. This serves as a touchstone for decision-making.

Articulate a Shared Vision: Ensure all family members and stakeholders align on the future direction while honoring the past.

Establish Governance Structures

Family Councils: Create forums where family members can discuss business-related matters, ensuring continuity in decision-making and conflict resolution.

Advisory Boards: Incorporate independent advisors who respect the family’s legacy, provide an external perspective and are aware of the specific challenges the dealership has worked through over time.

Mentorship and Knowledge Transfer

Intergenerational Mentoring: Facilitate mentorship programs where current leaders pass on their wisdom, values, and insights to the next generation.

Storytelling: Encourage leaders to share stories of challenges, successes, and lessons learned to inspire and educate successors.

Convert these stories to action steps taken: Share the critical steps taken in detail that allowed the organization to take on and work through a specific challenge.

Blend Tradition with Innovation

Honor Proven Practices: Retain processes or approaches that reflect the legacy, provided they still add value.

Encourage Modernization: Position change as a continuation of the legacy, demonstrating how adaptation aligns with the founding vision.

Visit the Past and Adapt to the Future: When going through a challenge refer to examples of past experiences to determine what worked/didn’t work and adapt when applicable to the future challenges.

Historical Archives: Maintain archives of important documents, photos, and artifacts to preserve the family’s story.

Education and Development

Train Successors: Invest in the education and professional development of the next generation to prepare them for leadership roles.

Encourage External Experience: Allow younger members to gain experience outside the family business before taking on leadership roles.

Provide the opportunities to Learn from the Past: Before a new project is taken on have the team review the challenges of the past and identify the success and the weaknesses of previous projects. The old saying “don’t recreate the wheel” but learn from the experience and move ahead quicker by avoiding the pitfalls of the past.

By combining these strategies, family businesses can honor the achievements and values of past leaders while remaining dynamic and relevant in an ever-changing world.

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December 11, 2024

Does Anyone Know the Skills Required For a Job?

When you first seek employment, do you know all of the ins and outs of the job you're applying to do? Founder and managing member Ron Slee takes a look at skills in his learning post for this week: Does Anyone Know the Skills Required For a Job?

I have been manic about having Organizations Charts and Job Descriptions and Performance Metrics for Jobs for a long time. I have also always been able to have performance reviews with any teams that I led when I was an employee. For one-on-one discussions of performance reviews, I tried to put the employee at ease. I wanted us to be able to be completely honest with each other. It was reflected in my day-to-day activities as well. I was always “on the floor” walking around and talking with everyone. I guess I was interrupting their work but neither the employee nor I ever complained about my presence in their jobs and their lives. We were family from my perspective.

Today as I look around businesses today, I see organizations without inadequate numbers of employees. Push-push-push. More-more-more. People are complaining about the lack of loyalty that customers have toward their suppliers. I am constantly asked that question “What happened to loyalty?” The internet has changed everything. Many people today are writing about the problems with “WFH” – working from home. We have lost something that we will regret. I don’t agree with that comment at all. We are entering into a new era of work. Most small business has to have employees at work. At their place of business. They cannot work remotely at a coffee shop or a warehouse or a service shop. It is the larger corporations that are having the problem with WFH. They don’t like it. They think that the “office” is where life happens. We work collaboratively. We make friends and have adversaries. Sometimes we meet someone that we will marry. Everything happens at the office. Isn’t that something?

Our lives and our society depend on us going to the office.

WOW.

I truly hope that is not true. It is not true with what I do. It isn’t true with my daughter who teaches in the classroom. My grandchildren went to school virtually for nearly two school years. My granddaughter took advantage of it and loaded her schedule with the classes that would have been too far apart (distance-wise) for her to take back-to-back during her Undergraduate Degree. I don’t think that hurt her at all. I think it helped. My grandson learning virtually was something that he did better with than in the traditional classroom. There were fewer distractions. That would have been the same thing with me. Too many distractions. That is why I have been talking about a book titled “Indistractable.” How helpful that has been in how I organize my workload. But my grandson did very well with virtual learning.

Which brings me to what I wanted to talk about in this blog. Who has defined the job skills required for a job? I know. Education. Years of Experience. Gets along well with others. The usual stuff. But what skills are required? Can they use the telephone effectively? Can they solve problems? Can they sell? Can they manage an inventory? Do they know how to set up a warehouse, a distribution center? Can they manage a shop floor? Do they have critical thinking skills? Do they have analytical skills? Can they communicate well in writing and orally? Do they have leadership skills? Who has defined and clearly described the specific job skills required for a job function?

I will suggest to you most people think that those things are supposed to be handled in the interview. Alright I will go along with that for a moment. Who trained the person conducting the interview with the prospective employee? We have a problem here. In my opinion.

This shows itself up in our Job Function Skills Assessments. Experienced and talented people are surprised at their scores. The results that most people get are lower than what they thought they would be. When I discuss it with them, I ask them why they were surprised and they tell me that they do the job and have done the job for years. They are good at their job. They get promoted.

Let’s get specific then and talk about inventory management. I start by asking questions. They give me good answers. They think that they do a very good job. So, I ask them how long it takes to get a part. Their lead time. And everyone now, even during the troubles with the supply chain, says less than a month for most vendors. Then I ask if their inventory turnover is greater than eight times. They look at me as if I was from another planet. The point is that they have been doing the job that has always been done in the same manner. Is that what we want? What we need? Continuous Quality Improvement, CQI, seems have gone away for most of us.

I do the same thing with people in the service department, or product support selling or parts and service marketing. And everyone that got a score lower than they expected. Our assessments are evaluating the skills that the employee has to have in order to be able to perform that particular job function. Not how the job is being done but rather what the job requires. Instore Selling is not Order Processing. Repairs are not conducted in a job shop it is a planned and scheduled repair facility. Marketing is not simply brochures and trade shows. It is everything and anything that influences the customer to purchase something from you.

That takes me to the title of this blog.

We need to write a different description of what is expected of the employee in their specific job. That would help in every area of the employee – employer relationship. The trouble with this is the same as most other issues we face. We don’t have enough time to do it. We are not sure what the skills should be for that job. We hadn’t really thought about it before.

Think about this seriously. I sincerely believe it will make your life easier with each employee and it will really help the employee understand what is expected of them with more clarity. The employees will feel much better about themselves and what is expected of them. However, make no mistake, this is not easy to do. Perhaps that is why we haven’t done it before. It is too much like work.

The Time is Now.

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August 8, 2022