BUSINESS ETHICS AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE by Allen Laudenslager and Bryan Neva

This Blog was first published on Thought Leaders April 4, 2012
http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/2012/04/business-ethics-aint-rocket-science/#more-6995

The famous U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf once said, “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do… the hard part is doing it!”  Likewise, the answer to most business problems is usually obvious as well.

Consider this – when was the last time you were really stumped for a solution to a problem?  In most cases, the hardest things about solving the problem were the obstacles of personalities, politics, or cost.  Taken together, these obstacles usually make the obvious solution very hard if not impossible to implement.  These are failures of an organization’s values, guiding principles, and ethics.

Twenty years ago, my elderly mother came to live with me due to her declining health.  She sold her home and hired a moving company to move her furniture and transport her car via trailer from New England to Virginia (primarily to minimize the mileage).  When the moving van and car arrived, it was obvious that the car had not been transported but driven instead.  When questioned, the driver admitted that they had driven the car and not transported it as they had been contracted to do.

When I called the moving company’s main office to complain, the representative asked what I wanted them to do about it.  My only reply was “What would you expect someone to do if it was your mother!” Shortly thereafter, the driver came back to tell us that they were refunding the cost of transporting the car.

When a customer calls about a problem with your product or service. You generally know right off hand what the right thing to do is: either fix it, replace it, or refund their money.  But company management may complain that “if we fix every problem for every customer then how are we supposed to make a profit?”  Well, if your company’s product or service has so many customer problems that fixing them impacts profits, then fix the product or service!  It ain’t rocket science!

If the only reason not to do it just like you would for your mother is the cost to the company, where do you think the savings to the company is coming from?  It’s coming from your customer’s wallet.  And if it’s not fair to your mother, what makes it fair to your customer?

The customer’s complaints (whether you like it or not) are a part of your company’s quality control process.  If you’re a proactive company, then you’ll have worked out all the bugs before they even became an issue with your customer.  Unfortunately in their rush for quick profits, many companies out there let their customer’s do all the beta testing for them.

One of the unintended consequences of making unethical or dishonest decisions in dealing with your customers is the message it sends to your employees: that you’ll mistreat them the same way whenever you think its in your best interest to do so.  If you don’t care about your customers, then how can you expect your employees to care about them or the company for that matter?

So here are some suggestions for creating an environment where people just do the right thing:

• If a customer’s product or service failed the answer is simple and obvious; either fix it, replace it, or give them their money back.  If the customer broke it, then don’t!
• Make sure your corporate policies, organizational politics, management personalities, and cost focus don’t interfere with the obvious solutions to most customer problems.
• Generally speaking, if you have to ask yourself if what you are planning to do is the right thing, then it probably isn’t!
• When deciding a course of action, the best question you can ask yourself is, “Would I do it this way if I were doing this for my mother?”

Obviously, no company or individual can live anywhere near perfection, but the real world test is how hard the company or individual decision maker is trying to do the right thing, and how quickly they’re trying to fairly resolve problems.  Remember, doing the right thing ain’t rocket science!

- Allen Laudenslager is a semi-retired technical writer and former defense industry manager and writer on management and business practices.

Bryan Neva, Sr. is an electrical engineer with an MBA and an extensive background in customer field support who writes on improving management practices.

HOW POWER, AUTHORITY, AND OBLIGATION IMPACT YOUR LEADERSHIP ABILITIES by Allen Laudenslager and Bryan Neva

This Blog was first published on Thought Leaders on March 13, 2013
http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/2013/03/how-power-authority-and-obligation-impact-your-leadership-abilities/#more-8155

“Noblesse Oblige” is an old French phrase that literally translates as “nobility obligates.” It means that those who have power and authority, or who are privileged, rich or famous have a moral responsibility to display honorable, charitable, and exemplary behavior towards those less fortunate or to those dependent on them.

In other words, whoever claims to be noble must conduct themselves nobly. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. summed it up nicely when he said: every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

The idea of “Noblesse Oblige” was created out of enlightened self-interest. The nobility had serfs who were dependent on them for land to farm, a place to live and protection from bandits. In medieval times all the land belonged to the nobility; the enlightened noble recognized that while he owned the land, without someone to plant and harvest the noble had no income. Seeing to the wellbeing of his serfs was his “noble obligation.”

The good old days of companies treating their employees as their most valuable assets have been set aside in favor of expecting them to work harder for the same pay and fewer benefits. In place of rewards they’re told they should be glad they still have a job. Corporate management has developed an entitlement mentality (like the old French nobility) by remembering their privileges (power, prestige, perks, and pay) but forgetting their obligations to their employees.  So what does this mean for you?

Loyalty always starts with the person who has the power and authority and is earned not given. Power is the ability to grant or withhold rewards, and authority is the power to influence the behavior of a person with less power. And there’s no authority without a counterbalancing responsibility.
Some use their power and authority altruistically; unfortunately, many others use it capriciously or unfairly. Lord John Acton (1834—1902, British historian and moralist) famously wrote: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So what tends to happen is that those in power begin to believe their own press releases and act as if their power is a natural right and their authority is to be unquestioned. After all, they must be right or they wouldn’t have been granted the authority in the first place, right?

The key to avoiding falling into the entitlement trap is simply by learning a little good ol’ fashioned humility. Start by walking over to your company’s customer service center and imagine there’s no one there to answer the phones, to take orders or to solve problems. You’re not going to sell anything.
Next, walk down to your company’s shipping and receiving department and watch the employees loading and unloading trucks. Now close your eyes and pretend that those workers aren’t there… your products are just sitting on the docks and the trucks are not getting loaded. How much money will you make if you don’t ship your products to customers?

It’s easy to think of all these workers as not being important because almost anyone could do these types of jobs. Answering the phones or loading and unloading trucks are cheap but also very critical. In other words, the labor costs are inexpensive but the work is valuable.

Now extrapolate these examples out to your entire organization. How much value are all your other employees contributing to your long-term success? Who really produces and who is overhead? Enlightened self-interest should tell you that without workers you’d have no income.
So while you may not be willing to pay much for a person working in customer service or shipping and receiving, enlightened self-interest should tell you that a relatively low paid employee might be critical to your long-term success and you should begin to treat that worker with the respect their contribution, not their cost, deserves.

- Allen Laudenslager is retired technical writer, defense industry manager, businessman, and Army veteran. He writes on management, business practices, and ethics. He currently lives in Seattle, WA

- Bryan Neva, Sr. is an electronics engineer with an MBA and has over 20 years of engineering, business management, and direct customer handling experience. He’s a Navy veteran and has worked in the defense, medical device and aerospace industries. He currently lives with his wife in Southern California.

BOOK OUTLINE: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1936)

Twelve Things This Book Will Do For You

1. Get you out of a mental rut, give you new thoughts, new visions, new ambitions.
2. Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.
3. Increase your popularity.
4. Help you to win people to your way of thinking.
5. Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done.
6. Enable you to win new clients, new customers.
7. Increase your earning power.
8. Make you a better salesman, a better executive.
9. Help you to handle complaints, avoid arguments, keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant.
10. Make you a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist.
11. Make the principles of psychology easy for you to apply in your daily contacts.
12. Help you to arouse enthusiasm among your associates.

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don't criticize, condemn, or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six Ways to Make People Like You

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interest.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say "You're Wrong."
3. If you're wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Start with questions to which the other person will answer yes.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise every improvement.
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest.

Seven Rules For Making Your Home Life Happier 

1. Don't nag.
2. Don't try to make your partner over.
3. Don't criticize.
4. Give honest appreciation.
5. Pay little attentions.
6. Be courteous.
7. Read a good book on the sexual side of marriage.

...ANYWAY by Blessed Mother Teressa

Leadership and Mangement -vs- Married with Children

I've often told others that being a good leader or manager is not much different than being a good spouse or parent.  Often those in a position of authority confuse their position power with leadership.  They believe that because they were put in their position, they can just order their subordinates about and they should just follow without questioning.  Well try that with your spouse or your children and see how far that gets you?  If you use fear and intimidation with your spouse your marriage probably won't last; if you use that with your children they'll grow to resent you and become alienated from you.  Let me give you some examples:

Bad leader/manager: "I'm the manager and in a position of authority around here, my subordinates should just do what I tell them without questioning or else heads are going to roll !@#$%!"  Bob you lazy !@#$%^& I thought I told you to have that update on the XYZ project on my desk this morning.  This worthless team is so far behind on the XYZ project; I'm going to fire every !@#$%^ one of them if they don't start making progress!  I think I'll give them all poor reviews this year and no one's getting a raise.  Lazy !@#$%^!  (Management by fear and intimidation)

Bad spouse/parent: "!@#$%^ Jane, I bust my a** all day at work and the least thing you could do is have !@#$% dinner ready when I get home!  Billy I thought I told you to mow the !@#$%^ lawn today; get your lazy a** out there right now and mow that !@#$%^ lawn!  Suzie I thought I told you to clean up around here !@#$%^&; you lazy good-for-nothing !@#$%^!  You're just like your good-for-nothing mother!" (Management by fear and intimidation)

Good Leader/Manager: "I'm so thankful to have a great team to work with; I hope they all had a good evening.  Traffic was a nightmare this morning.  I'm a little hungry, I forgot to eat breakfast.  Bob looks a bit distressed, and he didn't get that update to me this morning like I asked him to.  I should talk with him latter on after I've had a snack and some coffee.  Maybe he's having problems that I'm not aware of?  We're really running behind schedule on the XYZ project, I'll schedule a meeting with my team latter on in order to understand the problems they face.  Maybe the schedule was a bit too aggressive or maybe they're running into some other roadblocks that I can help remove. What can I do today to help my colleagues succeed?"  (Servant Leadership/Management)

Good Spouse/Parent: "I love my spouse and children; I'm so grateful to be able to work and provide for their needs.  Traffic was a nightmare today.  Man I'm so hungry, I didn't have time to eat lunch today.  Billy didn't mow the lawn again like I asked him to; I'll talk with him about it later on after I've had time to relax.  Maybe he has some problems at school.  Jane didn't cook dinner either and Suzie didn't clean up again.  Oh well, I'll just order out for some Chinese and over dinner we'll talk things over.  Maybe they're overwhelmed with problems at school or work.  What can I do today to help my family succeed?" (Servant Leadership/Management)

There are good leaders/managers and good spouses/parents just like there are bad leaders/managers and bad spouses/parents.  Who do you think is more effective in the long-run?  In the short-term using fear and intimidation will get you results, but in the long-run all it gets you is anger, resentment, lower productivity, and ultimately failure.  Treating your subordinates, colleagues, team-mates, spouses, and children with the love, respect, and understanding they deserve will get you admiration, loyalty, higher productivity, and ultimately success.  If you don't believe me, then pay attention to what happens to a dysfunctional/hostile working environment or a dysfunctional/hostile family.  The results are pretty much the same.

What does it mean to give 110%

What does it mean to give 110%
by Bryan J. Neva, Sr.

On jet aircraft the military rates the engines at 80% of their maximum peak power to preserve longevity. It is often referred to as continuous or rated power.  Full military power is actually 110% of the rated power of 80% which is 88% of maximum peak power.  Otherwise they'll run an extremely high risk of damage to the jet engine.

The Army applies this principle of sustained effort to their soldiers as well.  They know they can't push their soldiers at 110% for long periods of time without permanent damage.  Wars can only be sustained with fresh troops.  The candle that burns twice as bright only burns half as long.  Giving 110% has often been misinterpreted as giving more than the maximum when in fact all they are doing is operating at 88% of the maximum peak power. 

When applied to people you should think in terms of a person's sustainable output versus their maximum output.  Maximum output is ALL that a person is capable of producing without regard for how long they can keep it up.  Think of it as a marathon runner as opposed to a sprinter: the marathon runner can run 26 miles at a reasonable pace while the sprinter can only run short distances at a very fast pace.

I once worked for a company that figured out it was cheaper to have their employees consistently work over-time rather than hire more people.  If you work 40 hours in a week, then that comes out to be 2080 working hours in a year.  Now subtract 10 paid holidays a year (80 hours) and 2 to 4 weeks of vacation every year (80 to 160 hours) and your now down to 1920 to 1840 working hours a year.

While working for them, I would typically HAVE TO work close to 3000 hours a year, which came out to be 50 to 60 hours a week.  Sure I earned a lot of money, but eventually I got burned out and my mental and physical health really suffered.  After years of that I finally came to realize that all the money in the world won't do you a bit of good if you don't live to enjoy it.  Eventually, I quit and found a less stressful job.

The lesson here is that good employers are more concerned with the sustainable, long-term efforts of their employees rather than their unsustainable, short-term efforts.  Numerous academic studies have confirmed that any attempt to conistently work more than 40 hours in a week reduces productivity.  If you keep asking your employees to give 110% or more, eventually you'll run the risk of permanent damage just like a jet engine.

The Virtue of Humility

"For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." - Matthew 23:12

If you had perfect humility others could insult you, belittle you, mock you, beat you, and crucify you and it wouldn’t hurt your feelings one bit!  That’s what they did to Jesus Christ.  Few of us will ever learn perfect humility like Jesus, but it’s a virtue well worth striving for that can make a huge difference in your life.

Falling out of favor at work, having a career setback, or losing a well-paying job can be very humiliating experiences.  The mental anguish you and your loved ones experience can cause deep feelings of anger, remorse, anxiety, and depression.  And the stress can be similar to a long-distance move, a death in the family, a bitter divorce, or a diagnosis of cancer.

If you think about, the original sin of our first parents was pride, and to this day pride is still at the root of so many wrongs in our world today.  The remedy for this sin of pride is the virtue of humility!  Humiliation is simply the pain of your pride leaving your soul.  So if you let go of your pride and pretentiousness and embrace humility you’ll be well on your way to mentally bouncing back from the setbacks you encounter in work and in life. 

I once had a friend of mine who early in his working career had quickly risen through the ranks of his company.  He’d come from humble beginnings and was quite proud of his early success.  The only problem was he was absolutely miserable.  He didn’t like the pretentiousness, petty politics, and disingenuousness of the corporate world. 

Eventually his star fell as quickly as it rose and he lost his job.  He moved his family to Tampa, Florida and soon exhausted his savings looking for another job.  Finally he took a job literally digging ditches in order to support his family. 

He told me that through that humbling experience he rediscovered his roots and the dignity of honest hard work.  Much of his pride sweated away during that hot Florida summer, and he’d never been happier in his life.  It wasn’t long before he was promoted from ditch digger to foreman and from foreman to manager.  He'd like to think that God blessed him for embracing the virtue of humility.

Your Work does not define your Human Worth!

Our American culture defines our worth as human beings by Hollywood’s standards: your age, attractiveness, verbal skills, intelligence, education, profession, job, income, net-worth, charisma, etcetera.   The young and beautiful are more valuable than the old and ugly; the living are more valuable than the unborn; the eloquent are more valuable than the inarticulate; smart, educated, white-collar professionals are more valuable than stupid, ignorant, blue-collar workers; those with higher incomes/net-worth are more valuable than those with lower incomes/net-worth; charismatic, extroverted people are more valuable than boring, introverted people.  The list could go on.

All these worldly standards are simply false!  How about adopting God’s standard which defines your human worth as priceless?  The old and ugly are as valuable as the young and attractive; the unborn are as valuable as the living; the stupid and ignorant are as valuable as the smart and educated; blue-collar workers are as valuable as white-collar professionals; lower-income folks are as valuable as higher-income people; the penniless homeless guy is as valuable as the rich powerful man.  Your work and what you have and what you've done does not define your human worth!  In the eyes of God each and every one of us are priceless! 

The world and all its cravings for prestige, power, profit, and pleasure do not last.  But the one who follows God's will lasts forever.

A Boss -vs- A Leader

7 Cardinal Rules in Life