How To Deal With Disappointment

Everyone gets disappointed at some point. Moms express their disappointment at the actions of their 6 year-old when they hit another boy. Fathers express their disappointment to teenage daughters in the hopes that the outward expression becomes a lesson to make better choices. Bosses express their disappointment on performance reviews in the hopes of motivating the affected employee. Teachers express their diappointment because they know the student isn't applying him or herself.

These are all expressions of outward disappointment in someone else. But what happens when disappointment is focused inward - when things don't turn out the way we had hoped?

There are some things in life that you just don't have any control over and there are other things that are within your control. Understanding which is which will help you to bounce back quicker from disappointment - to develop a resilience attitude.

Planning for months to visit the Grand Canyon only to be turned back by a snowstorm, a rained out family picnic, a power outage during your wedding reception or a cancelled flight to an important meeting are all things out of your control. You have no control over the weather, the electric company or the airlines. It's fine to feel disappointed for a short while but it isn't the end of your life. You can try again tomorrow.

However, disappointment about how much you get paid, your job-performance review, your golf score, that promotion you really want, your relationships at home and how your money is budgeted are all within your control. Only you determine how valuable you are to the company, how well you do your job, how much you practice at golf, how you self-improve to be the logical choice to be promoted, how hard you work at your relationship and how you spend your money. No one else is to blame for your results.

You have no control over other people, things or events outside of yourself. But you have complete control over your reaction to those things. You also have ALL of the control over every part of your life that involves YOU and your results.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Greatness Is Impossible To Duplicate

A recent walk through Scottsdale, Arizona this week had me shaking my head a little. Scottsdale's famous "Old Town" is a souvenir-hunter's paradise. There have got to be thirty gift shops within a three block area, all virtually carrying the same Red Dirt T-shirts, turquoise jewellery, Navajo blankets, water-ripple globes of the world and leather belts. All the prices are virtually the same. The hours of each store are the same. The parking issues are the same. The decor of each is virtually the same. All in all, each independantly-owned gift shop is a cookie-cutter version of the gift shop next door.

Did the people who opened the 30th gift shop really believe they were bringing anything new to the table by opening the exact same store as the 29 others on the street? And whose idea was it to make sure that every shop carry the same lines, selection and price? Really, there is no reason for the local residents to shop this area. This is a tourist area whose sole means of survival is by volume of tourists. Get enough tourists through and everyone can do OK - not great - just OK.

And while we're at it, as a tourist, why would you save up and plan a vacation for a whole year only to spend your vacation in the same restaurants you have at home? There are no memories made in eating in ordinary restaurants. The best memories are made when you stretch yourself and experience something different. In fact, the best businesses become successful using the exact same philosophy: be different than everyone else.

Greatness is impossible to duplicate. Copying mediocre? Piece of cake.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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When Board Members Don't Pull Their Weight

When you give your commitment to join a board, committee or volunteer organization, is it because you have deep convictions for the project or are you doing it to give the appearance that you are more important than you actually are?

Charitable societies, social projects or community prosperity initiatives all require brain trusts and people to follow through on decisions, ideas and commitments. All too often, we see people who initially show excitement and support for a project only to lag behind and blame their busyness, schedule or various other commitments to other boards, committees and social projects.

People who sit on volunteer boards can be categorized as either heroes or zeros. The heroes make no excuses for their involvement because they find the time to just get things done. Zeros, however, want to give the outward appearance of caring about something but their level of care is evident in their participation. Zeros are aptly named because other than attending the meetings, their output is a zero.

It's one thing to be involved and to make your commitment to the project you choose to be involved with. It's quite another thing to give the illusion of being involved only so you can use the name of the humanitarian effort to advance yourself, not your project.

Volunteer organizations have a culture just like regular business. As volunteers, you are allowed to fire other volunteers who are not advancing your cause. In fact, if a board member is not advancing the cause by claiming to be too busy to do more than attend the meetings, then he or she is dragging down the cause. Separate yourself immediately from laggards who are "using" you to advance themselves. That board member is taking the space of someone who would be willing to do the work. Get rid of the roadblocks. Sometimes that means removing people.

If you're not prepared to participate fully to elevate your cause to one of greatness, then you are standing in the way of a group of people making a difference. And you become the reason why nothing changes.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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What Doctor's Offices Can Learn From Hotels

There are things that some businesses do badly that no other business should adopt as a service strategy:

• help desks that seem to shrug their shoulders on issues, "Yeah, that problem happens on occasion. Oh well. Not much we can do."
• retail stores whose on-line stock check shows there are several items in stock but when you get there, they don't have any.
• automated reminders that it's time for another visit - phone reminders that call you incessantly until you have to lose your temper with them to have your number removed.
• Costco's "everyone's a potential shoplifter" policy that creates lineups at the exit while someone with a highlighter goes through your stuff to make sure you didn't take more than on your receipt.

But then there are some ideas that other businesses should adopt. Hotels, good hotels, have something to teach doctor's offices, dentists, chiropractors, medical labs, etc. I check into a lot of hotels. At the front counter, I simply give my name and the clerk usually finds my reservation within a few seconds. The paperwork has already been done, keys are ready and I can check in quickly. After all, the quicker I get into the hotel, the quicker they have a captive customer spending money.

"Do you have an appointment?" is a question that shows a lack of initiative. Of course I have an appointment. Otherwise I would say that I don't have an appointment and ask if the doctor can see me today? How hard is it to look at a schedule of appointments and match my name with an appointment on or about the same time?


Here's the rub though: if you do have an appointment, it's because you made an appointment (called in and actually spoke to someone), then had the doctor's office call you back a day in advance to re-confirm your appointment asking you to show up a few minutes early and then when you do finally show up for your scheduled appointment, you get asked, "Do you have an appointment?"

Hotels process more guests an a daily basis than the average doctors office, or chiropractor or dentist. So how come they don't ask if I have a reservation? Remember, we're talking about good hotels here - not the ones whose clerks are standing outside the front doors having to butt their smokes when you stand at the front counter. Most people who check into hotels have a reservation otherwise they ask if there are any rooms available. Unless your medical practice is a walk-in clinic, I would suspect most patients have an appointment. Same could be said of dentists. Those without an appointment would probably call ahead in an emergency to see if they could be squeezed in amongst the appointments.

Most people have appointments when they go to see their doctor, dentist, chiropractor, lawyer, accountant, hairdresser and auto mechanic. OK, let me explain that I rarely get asked if I have an appointment when I get to my lawyer, accountant, hairdresser or auto mechanic. They assume that I do or I wouldn't be there. This really just happens in doctor's offices - but there are a lot of organizations who take their lead from treating clients like cattle. They may not necessarily ask if you have an appointment but they do the bare minimum to impress you on your first impression.

Stop thinking of your receptionist as a receptionist. Change your Attitude. That person at the front counter is the Executive Vice President of First Impressions for your company.

Mediocre, apathetic organizations make it difficult to do business and first impressions are lasting impressions. But then, as I've been saying for a while, there's no effort required in being ordinary.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Engage In Something Meaningful

Managers who spend endless amounts of time sitting in their offices waiting for the next crisis to handle normally find themselves handling a lot of crises.

Managers whose Attitude is that staff need to be watched usually find things to need to watch their staff about. In other words, they will always find things wrong that need addressing right away.

Managers who have developed an Attitude of praising their people usually find that they have much to praise their people about. People work well for managers who appreciate contribution.

There is always much discussion about how to get employees to engage better in their work. Focusing solely on engagement is a mistake. Engagement is what you want the end result to be. It should not be the focus of the strategy but rather the result of implementing the strategy.

The truth is, employees engage better when the work means something. When a manager praises them for their effort, then the work means something. When customers return and are loyal because of the employees efforts, then the work means something. When the company or employee are recognized in the community for their tireless efforts to make their community a better place, then the work means something. When lives are changed, families are helped and problems are solved, then the work means something. When the work is defined as people giving service to people, then the work means something.

You will never get employees to engage themselves in work that doesn't mean anything. Managers need to make their workplaces meaningful if they want to engage their employees. It is not meaningful to find fault with your people or to sit and wait for another disaster to handle. That is how you make the work look futile - not meaningful.

Create a culture of meaningful work and you create a workforce of engaged individuals.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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A Gold Medal Performance

This is going to be the worst day of their lives for a few people who have an attitude of just doing enough work to not get fired. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if a bunch of slackers phoned in sick today - at the Vancouver International Airport.

After the 2002 Olympics, Salt Lake City airport never thought about planning for the tens of thousands of passengers who would be all flying home the same day. Ticket counters, security screening, food service, janitorial and baggage handlers were grossly understaffed. Consequently, lineups went right outside the doors into the freezing cold and many missed thier flights.

But that won't be the case in Vancouver today.

YVR (Vancouver International Airport) has been planning this day for two years. Expectations are that 40,000 extra passengers will make their way through YVR today. That means that a full complement of ticket agents will be on duty, all security stations will be open, there will be more than enough food service workers on duty. Not to mention washroom attendants, janitorial staff, greeters, hosts, gate staff, baggage handlers and more. This will be the biggest day in YVR's history.

So, back to my original thought. Some people who work at the airport, will try to find a way to dodge the heavy work today. They will whine. They will pass the buck and the heavy lifting on to someone else and some will openly show their frustration in front of a world of passengers. What a horrible last impression to leave people with: that you could care less.

For those who will do their best and keep a smile on their face through this busy day, well done. Be proud of your achievement. You will be able to tell the story of the day that YVR was swamped and how you helped make it better. For them, it will be a gold medal performance. For others, it will be a forgetable performance - as it should be.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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What Do You Make?

It's not a question of money. It's a question of how the world is different because you're here.



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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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McLovin' It

Have you gotten caught up in Olympic fever yet? Watching the thousands and thousands of people on the streets of Vancouver daily, seeing the cheering and flag-waving crowds at the events and even seeing the people wearing Canada clothing in every city across the country makes it difficult not to feel a sense of pride that something special is going on.

At the top of Calgary's Canada Olympic Park, known as COP, where many of the athletes prepared and trained themselves for the Vancouver games flies a lone white flag, the five interlocking Olympic rings.

At the base of COP, the legacy to the '88 Calgary Olympics lies a McDonald's restaurant, the official restaurant of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. But there's nary a sign that the Olympics are being hosted in Canada in the restaurant. There's no signage touting their "official" status even though they look right up the slopes of COP. And on either side of the chalet-style four-sided fireplace on the two thirty-two inch plasma TVs there are no Olympics playing. Just the news from one of the non-Olympic news networks.

There are seven television networks broadcasting the games but not one channel is being shown in the official restaurant of the 2010 Vancouver Games. And until I mentioned it to the manager, no one even seemed to notice that the Olympic spirit had left the building.

For the 2010 Games, McDonalds chose 350 servers from across Canada to work the McDonalds in the athlete's village (which doesn't charge the athletes anything for the food). This is a major promotion for the company and one they take pride in.

By the way, my car dealership had the Olympics on in their customer lounge today. They are not an official sponsor. The electronics store I visited this afternoon had almost 100 televisions all tuned to the Olympics. They are not an Olympic sponsor either. Even the Mongolian restaurant I had supper at had the Olympics on in their lounge. They may have been supporting Team Mongolia if there was one but I don't think so.

Apathy exists even in management. It's missing little details like this that makes it a very mediocre place to work and an even worse place to be a customer.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Solving Social Problems

How would you go about improving a sales culture of a small business? You would get all staff to buy into a few new ideas, to focus their attention on ways of turning each customer interaction into a potential sale and to encourage each other to improve their sales ability.

How would you go about improving an environmental culture in a multi-national, publicly-traded company? Likely the same way as a small business just on a larger scale.

So why, if it is possible to improve a company's culture by focusing on the problem and connecting it to the desired outcome, why don't we think we can solvethe social problems that exist in the towns and cities we live in? Why do we throw up roadblocks when it comes to improving the volunteer culture in a small town or the help-the-homeless culture in a small city or making sure every child in every school in a large metropolitan area has enough to eat during the day?

It's not that difficult. It just requires three things: focus, desire and effort. So why do so many of our communities have so many problems? My guess is that the "effort"part is missing.

If it seems like work most turn their backs. Probably the same people end up complaining that nothing is getting done. Those who are making the effort and getting it done are too busy to whine about things not being done.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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No Effort Required In Being Ordinary

I had a quote of mine make its way around Twitter this week. The quote was, "There's no effort required in being ordinary."

Maybe that's the reason why we are overrun with mediocrity, ordinary, sameness. There's no effort required in just being good enough. That's easy. That's why there's so much competition at the mediocre level because almost everyone competes at that level.

The stretch is when an individual or a company makes a decision to move toward "greatness." That's when everything changes. That's when it get s hard. That's when the scrutiny of those who would throw stones (the secretly envious) arises and that's when you hear from the naysayers in your life, all of the reasons why you can't do it.

"You can't increase your business in a recession."

"You can't have a banner sales month in a market downturn."

"You can't risk renovating your house when jobs are tenuous."

"There's no such thing as a perfect relationship."

"Blah. Blah. Blah."

You can do these things and you most certainly will do these things if you have made the decision to stop being ordinary and strive for greatness. The sideline critics are just too lazy to get off their fat asses and do it themselves and they know it. You're embarrassing them and they will complain about it.

There is no effort required in being ordinary. That's why there's so little competition at the "Greatness" level. The people and companies willing to do whatever it takes to be the standard to which every mediocre person and organization will measure himself are very few.

There's hardly been any effort needed to get your results so far, huh? That means you're capable of more but you're not even trying.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Set Your People Up To Win

At the door last week, was a rep from my cable and Internet provider. She introduced herself and displayed her company employee card clipped to the outside of her jacket.

"I'm here to see if I can save you a few dollars by bundling our services," she started out.

The she asked, "So, can you tell me what services you are currently subscribing to from us?"

Huh? Wouldn't she already know what services I subscribe to before she got to the door if her purpose was to actually save me money?

What I soon figured out is that the cable company, instead of using a third-party call center to phone to pester me, sends people out into the field to knock at doors. They probably have a better closing ratio than the phone since no one answers their phones anymore. But why did she have NO information about my account?

This is what makes an organization look dumb, mediocre, ordinary: sending their people (contracted or not) out to represent the company, to talk knowledgeably to their customers, to sway new customers to increase the number of service subscriptions, and yet give them absolutely nothing to go on - no help, no "warm call," no support, no nothing. Any ordinary and mediocre company can do that. Most do. There's no effort required in being ordinary.

If you were an organization of greatness, you'd make sure that the reps you send would at least know a little something about me - even what services I subscribe to. If you're going to save me money, then you had better know exactly how you could do that before you get to my door. This pathetic sales attempt at my door was not about making me, the customer, the focus of the call.


I checked their web site under the "Careers" section. It's where I found their "Values" statement: Together, we designed a value system that will guide us and that will represent to our team and our customers how we do things here. Our values are: Accountable, Balance, Customer Focused, Loyalty, Integrity, Positive, Can Do Attitude and Team Player.

Do you want some advice cable behemoth? How about you walk your talk and actually do what your "Values" statement says you will do: support the people out in the market who deal with your customers by at least giving them a modicum of information and set them up to win instead of finding ways of getting doors slammed in their faces and your company to get a bigger black eye as a company out-of-touch with its customers?

Just another mediocre company paying lip-service to their company values.  It's no big surprise that on the same page of their web site I also found: We are always looking for motivated individuals to fill a wide range of positions in a variety of locations. No kidding.

 

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Why "Help Wanted" Is Not A Good Sign

Coming out of a recession, the last thing that should be cluttering the sides of roadways are "Help Wanted" or "Now Hiring" signs. Here's why: with unemployment rates the highest in years, you would think that people who are out of work would be taking the initiative and applying for jobs that are not being advertised - at companies that they would WANT to work for - not just those that happen to have an opening. If the job-seekers have not taken the initiative to be proactive, are these really the kinds of workers you want working in your organization?

Also, your "Help Wanted" sign sends a message to job seekers and your competitors that you don't have a lineup of people who are clamoring to knock down your door and come work for you. That means that your corporate culture is not attracting the best and brightest minds or you would be flooded with resumes all the time and never have to place an advertisement or a roadside sign.

Do you think Google has a road sign of neon red letters which reads, "Now Hiring?" No, of course not. Google has thousands of applicants everyday trying to join their company. And they have a full complement of HR administrators who sift through the thousands of resumes submitted daily and make contact with each of them. They even tell you on their web site that if you can differentiate yourself, you have a good chance of getting an interview. Does your HR department operate like that?

If your HR department is only accepting resumes when there's an opening, find a new HR director. You don't get the best and brightest minds when you advertise a job opening. You get whomever is available. That's not how you build a strong culture that attracts more of the best. It will simply attract more of the available - you know, the people who couldn't find work elsewhere.

Half of the North American workforce are actively looking for new work in 2010 (according to Right Management Survey results). Just because there may be no openings today, doesn't mean you can't start a conversation with potential candidates today.

Oh, and if you're a job-seeker and you see a big "Now Hiring" sign or big ad in the newspaper on Saturday don't get terribly excited. It probably hasn't got much of a culture of innovation or leadership or people would be busting down the doors to work there. It'll probably be just like the last job you had - kind of mediocre.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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7 Ways To Detect Fake Job References

News that job-seekers are now buying fake references in an effort to jump ahead of deserving candidates struck me as being the lowest of the low. Even the slimy name of the company helping these liars makes my skin crawl - CareerExcuse.com. These guys, for money, will build a great reference for you, create a fake past employment history, create a fake company with accompanying phone number, fake web site, fake logo and even a fake LinkedIn profile.

This is a site for people who don't work well with others, are jerks on the job, get fired often, show up drunk or high and put their co-workers at risk or who have done criminal acts while on the job. In other words, this is a blantant attempt to avoid accountability and personal responsibility.

How popular is this site? Well, they aren't taking any more subscribers at this time because they are full. That means thousands of job-seekers are lying their way into companies and organizations as we speak. Thousands of organizations are falling victim to unscrupulous job-seekers and their accomplices. Possibly, organizations will be stolen from in short order: recruitment and training time, training budgets, deserving candidates and expertise.

But, HR Directors can unite and fight back. Follow these 7 strategies to ensure that liars and cheats are NOT infiltrating your organization and rotting your culture from the inside-out:

1. Build a network of real people on the ground who can check addresses and business licenses to ensure that the companies are real before you accept the reference at face-value. Fake companies don't have real business licenses and real addresses. Google search the address. Google search other businesses in the area and call a business across the street or in the same building to see if they can see the sign on the building from across the street and if it really does exist.
2. Spread the word. When you discover a fake business and/or a fake reference, let your network know about it immediately. Hold nothing back. You would like to know if the business is a fake before you hired wouldn't you? Well, so would your fellow HR Directors.
3. Don't stop checking after the candidate has been hired. There may have been enough window-dressing to keep you distracted while a fake reference made its way through. Follow up monthly while the candidate is still on probationary period and tell the candidate up front about your plan.
4. Stop placing so much emphasis on the reference. If an HR Director is following potential candidates on social networks long before they ever get close to hiring, they will discover the truth and not rely solely on a piece of paper.
5. Track the candidates on social networks like their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and look for things out of the ordinary. Watch how the candidate interacts with others and messages he or she may leave on the walls of others.
6. Watch for job titles that don't make sense in the context of the organization. Question someone who was "director of personnel" for a five-employee company or "vice president of production" for a service organization that doesn't manufacture anything.
7. Trust your gut. If something seems hinky, it probably is. Ask the candidate to provide any personal particulars of their former workplaces (or fake workplaces) like how many worked in the department, the receptionist's name, the name of their favorite co-workers, the name of their co-worker's dog, spouse's name, co-worker's golf handicap, etc. Liars are never prepared for questions like that and get very nervous when asked.

I look at it this way: there are some things that past employers won't tell you (because they are afraid of lawsuits).  So take the offensive. If you have just discovered an employee who falsified his resume, fire him and sue him for the expenses incurred by recruitment and training. And don't forget to sue the accomplices like CareerExcuse.com. Make them feel the pain of consequence too. A good dozen or so lawsuits ought to shut down their motivation to continue to lie. It also sends a very strong message to your employees that you will not stand for lying. A great way to foster a culture of honesty is to toss the liars.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How Managers Can Ruin Culture

Three middle managers who worked for the City of Calgary were discovered to have been making money on the side using City technology (email) and contacts and contractors. This information was discovered by audit of the department. A few others were found to be visiting gaming sites on company time and using the City email account to make money while off on disability.

Management is not a right but a privilege. Those who have been elevated to management need to lead by example. It's hard to do when the manager is obviously devoid of scruples, ethics and morals. How do people like this get promoted?

These managers need to be fired immediately. If you don't, you risk giving your own organization a black eye. Being afraid to do the tough thing is exactly how corporate cultures rot from the inside out. If the leaders are corrupt, they will corrupt culture. Those who are easily swayed will come to believe that this sort of  behavior is acceptable.

Fire those who can't tell right from wrong - especially if they are in management. Then, gladly pay the legal bill to get rid of the offenders. It will be much cheaper in the long run once you send a message to your people.

If you want to create a culture of Greatness, stop thinking "ordinary." Nothing gets swept under the carpet. Everything is dealt with. Everything is talked about. Everything is in the open. Set a standard for your people to rise to. They will.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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It Sucks To Go Backwards

When a speed skater or skier shaves a full second off of their personal best time - or a football player scores a new high in season touchdowns - or a baseball player has a home-run record season - or a hockey player scores 50+ goals in a season, will any of them be satisfied with a lower performance in future?

What happens when you discover delicious food in non-franchised restaurants or experience a fabulous stay in an outstanding boutique hotel? It's hard to eat at same-old, same-old franchise restaurants or cookie-cutter hotel rooms. Discovering a great bottle of wine or an outstanding beer makes it difficult to buy everyday ordinary brands once you've tasted something so much better.

Once you set a new standard in your life, you realize what you are capable of. This happens too with sales people. Once they hit a great month they set a new standard. And if they don't set the standard themselves, their bosses will do it for them.

If you don't honestly put a great deal of effort into improving your work performance, then you're, at best, an ordinary performer: average, mediocre. You probably complain about your job, make excuses for your results in life and settle for what you get instead of setting a standard for what you could have.

It's people like you who hold your organization back from "greatness." Sorry, but you will never be part of a "great" organization if you're not willing to work for it. Greatness doesn't happen by accident. Greatness is achieved when all members of the organization are pulling their weight. Great organizations get rid of the dead-weight holding them back. It's how they're able to become "great" organizations.

Once you raise your standards, those new standards begin to seep into every other area of your life: relationships, investments, parenting, vacations, etc. It sucks to go backwards. You can never successfully downgrade your standards. Once you get a taste of something great, it's hard to enjoy mediocre ever again.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Are You Open At 2 A.M.?

If you've got teenagers then you know that they're up into the middle of the night chatting on MSN (Windows Live), watching hour after hour of YouTube videos and doing everything possible to avoid actually having personal interactions with their families because virtual interactions require absolutely no focus.

So a college student who is up most of the night, sleeping until 3 pm wouldn't have much time to reach a dentist to make an appointment if the only way to reach the dentist or the doctor or the chiropractor or the massage therapist or the hair stylist or... well, you get the idea ... was during traditional working hours of 9-5. Most businesses close their doors at 5 or 6 pm just when college students or other Gen Ys seem to be getting going. But not just that: people who work a day job can't get to you during day hours because they're working too.

Think of how many people, not just young people, are up between 11 pm and 2 am on the Internet actually buying things. The number of Baby Boomers on-line at this time is growing exponentially.

Discover Small Business' recent survey showed 46% of small businesses don't have a web site. That's about half of the small business market with no way for your clients to reach you unless you force them to call (on the telephone) when it's convenient for you - not for them. Today's young market has more phones than ever but they don't talk on them. They text on them.

There's a great divide of hours between when customers are available and when businesses are open. And it's only getting worse. The numbers of people expecting to be able to interact (simply send an email) to a business is getting larger. The demand is getting higher and you're losing market share to your emerging (and soon to be dominant) market because you won't give them a simple email address or have a simple web site to do business by?

How much money are you LOSING to competitors because they can be reached after hours? You'd better have a way for this up and coming market to reach you or you're going to lose quickly. 

Any mediocre business can shut it all down at 6. But organizations of greatness will find a way to allow their customers and clients to reach them when it's convenient for the client.

Ease and accessibility for clients is another way of separating the ordinary boring businesses from organizations of greatness.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Savvy Shoppers Are Kicking Your Butt

This week, I went looking for a specific item, an AV cart for my office, but didn't know the name of any stores that would carry what I wanted. For the office supply stores, it is a "special order" anyway. So why not just save a useless trip to the store (only to be again disappointed) and instead just order it on-line - like they would at the store. So I Googled.

I didn't bother with opening my copy of the Yellow Pages because, well, the information in the Yellow Pages is from last year - and besides, there are no prices - and no pictures of the specific item - and no updates - and no way to check if it is in-stock - and no info on new stock - and no way to see their web site - and no interactivity - and no way to compare against others - and no video showing how to use the product - and no recommendations - and no reviews from customers - and no pictures of the storefront - and no interactive maps with directions. And businesses still spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars monthly on their Yellow Pages ad for basically a billboard on paper that only gets seen when someone needs your product immediately and is willing to haul out a big book and you hope they can find your category.

I search on-line. I am a Baby Boomer with no fear of technology. Today I know the name of a great kitchen store because I've read some great reviews on it. Today I know to NOT deal with my neighborhood flower shop because they're out of business - caused by poor service that I discovered on-line. Today I know which restaurants are great, which car dealers to avoid, which hotels have the best view, which second-hand store has that classic guitar I've been looking for and also that people, no matter how great the review, will not put their trust in a hair stylist that isn't recommended by a friend or neighbor. I might use the Yellow pages at 2 in the morning if I wanted a pizza - but then maybe not - unless I were in a strange city.

If you are using the Internet to do your homework before you buy, wouldn't it stand to reason that your customers are doing the same thing? You've got to be on-line and on-line needs to be one of your primary marketing strategies. You can probably forget that big, flashy Yellow Pages ad and go with a simple free listing in the book with your web site address included. Then, make sure you are where everyone else is already gathered - on-line. Besides, if your customers already know your name, they'll find you in the white pages - not the Yellow Pages surrounded by all of your competitors.

I bought the AV cart, not from a local company, but from one in the USA. They had the best web site, the best selection, outstanding pricing, free shipping to my front door (even to Canada) and it was in-stock today and would be shipped immediately. Add to that the fact that their web site was so easy to navigate, didn't ask me to set up an account but automatically set one up for me (with user name and password) once I keyed in the credit card info, gave me a tracking number for my shipment, had hundreds of testimonials from over-the-top satisfied clients who rated each product individually ... and ... they also said "thank you." And I think they meant it.

Stop being ordinary. Start being the standard to which your customers become raving fans and your competitors bristle. Change your Attitude about how you do business. Your customers have just as much knowledge as you do. Don't ever treat them like you're doing them a favor. You're not.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Death To Funerals

A wedding is NOT something you HAVE to do which is why some spend tens of thousands of dollars (and go into deep debt to start their new lives together) on lavish events - because they WANT to. Whereas, a funeral is seen as something not done by choice but by necessity which is why if forced to do it, most will skimp and spend as little money as possible getting it done. Just get it done and forget about it.

How much can people skimp? Costco USA is selling caskets and has been doing so for the past few years. Can you see where the trouble might be for Funeral Directors?

While funeral service market share is shrinking, weddings are becoming more lavish, more expensive and more garish - over the top. Dresses worth thousands, limos, chocolate fountains, decorations, flowers, extended trips, money in envelopes, exotic locations, me, me, me, me, me. Funerals? More "eeeww" than "wheee."

If Funeral Directors want to rebuild their industry, they had better start thinking like Wedding Planners and make the event more of a Celebration of Life than a mourning of death. Funerals need to get to that place where if you buy a Costco casket and spend no time, money or effort on your departed, you should be shamed. Funeral Directors need to shame people for treating their departed loved ones like last week's trash. People who cut corners to keep the balance of money for themselves should be shamed. How we treat people in death is a perfect illustration of how much we cherished them in life. Allowing some distant clergy member to say a few words about someone he didn't know is shameful too. Could you make the whole funeral thing even more impersonal? Not likely.

Weddings you get invitations for. Funerals you read about in the paper. Something as simple as mining the departed's email addresses and sending an invitation to a celebration and memorial event seems so much more appealing than reading about a funeral at a church that the departed never went to, officiated by a clergy member he never met who takes to opportunity of a half-full church to try to convert or save some souls and you have a funeral attended by a fraction of friends because they didn't read the newspaper this week.

No, if the funeral service of today is the best you can do as a Funeral Director, then your industry deserves to be shrinking. Complaining about it won't change that. Doing something about it will. Change your Attitude. Make people see the value. Markets change. You had better be able to respond to it or we're all about to attend the funeral for funerals.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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You're Not Addressing The Problem

What would you do with a staff member who almost every month had an encounter with a customer that created a complaint about the staff person's behavior? Would you address the behavior or the cause of the recurring behavior? Read that question carefully.

If you had a snoring problem, would you seek the help of a Sleep Center or would you see a doctor about a possible inflamed liver? If you answered Sleep Center, then you would be addressing the symptom before establishing the cause. Fatty livers, as it turns out, can create awful snoring problems. Bet you didn't know that, huh?

If you find yourself stressed at work and packing on the pounds, would you go on a diet? Cortisol, the stress hormone, stores more fat - regardless of what you eat. The weight gain is likely being caused by stress. Treat the stress. Oh, and depriving yourself (dieting) only cause more stress - thus releasing more cortisol which makes you even fatter.

An amazing thing happens when you get updated information - when you continue to learn and read. You actually start being able to solve problems that once had a poor success rate. Problems that keep cropping up aren't being solved.

Figure out the underlying attitude of WHY the employee treats customers poorly, not THAT he does - fix that and the behavior will fix itself. Figure out WHY you're snoring, not THAT you're snoring - fix that and the snoring will fix itself. Figure out WHY you're stressed, not THAT you're stressed - fix that and the weight will fix itself.

If you're going to solve problems for your clients, customers and co-workers, make sure you're not using old information that is outdated and doesn't work anymore. Always go for the WHY - not just the easy WHAT.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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How To Excel When Business Is Down

Jeffery Gitomer, perhaps America's top sales trainer, said yesterday, "When business is down, it’s likely morale is down. Invest in attitude training for every member of the team FIRST. The best way to get more sales is by creating more friendly and human interaction. The best way to gain loyalty from existing customers, and get more sales (the surest path to survival and growth), is by making service IMPROVEMENTS, not service cuts."

When business is down, there is greater competition for fewer dollars in the marketplace. My audiences always seem amazed to hear that 51% of buyers buy "Attitude" factors like staff, friendliness, approachability, ease-of-business, after-sale service and follow-up. A smaller percentage buy from you because of product knowledge.  

More people buy your Attitude than your knowledge. Pay attention to that. The companies who will be successful when times are tough are the ones who have the right customer-focused Attitude. A buyer expects you to have product knowledge but the competitive edge goes to organizations that address Attitude factors.

Attitude also happens to be tied for second as most popular criteria on job performance reviews: first, quality of work followed by Attitude and productivity. Attitude finished ahead of teamwork, goals, customer service and skills development. Why then do most organizations spend the majority of their training dollars on teamwork, goals, customer service and skills development if the top three criteria for how you judge your people aren't even in that list? When times are tough, you're wasting your money if you're not addressing Attitude.

45% of workers feel "work" is the biggest source of stress in their lives. That's about half of your staff who hate coming to work because they get stressed. Great Attitude to build a successful organization on.

Your Corporate Culture is nothing more than a collection of prevailing Attitudes in your workplace. You will never, and I mean NEVER, improve your culture without addressing Attitude. Without addressing Attitude, you will be never be more than an ordinary, mediocre organization. To go to a "Greatness" culture requires you to do something that none of your competitors are doing - like, change your attitude about Attitude.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture
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70% of HR Reject Applicants Based On Facebook

70% of HR Directors surveyed say they have rejected job applicants because of questionable activity and photos on social networking sites like Facebook.

As part of Data Privacy Day, Microsoft says it conducted a survey of 2,500 people that included, consumers, HR managers and recruitment professionals in the US, the UK, Germany and France, with the goal of learning more about attitudes toward online reputation and how this information can have real life consequences. The survey found that the top online factors for rejecting a job applicant are unsuitable photos/videos, concerns about a candidate’s lifestyle and inappropriate comments written by the candidate. (Techcrunch.com)

That photo of you and your girlfriends in lewd poses with beers in hand - that video of your drunken escapades at the house party - the use of four-letter words when writing on someone's wall - all good ways to get you rejected by an HR Director.

Do you think you're invisible? People are watching you all the time. But then I said that just two weeks ago.

Clean up your drunken photos. Clean up your lascivious behavior. Clean up your language on-line. People are watching you.

Parents, open your own Facebook accounts and start watching what your kids are up to so that when they complain to you that they didn't get the job, you can show them why they didn't.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Crushed on American Idol

"You can accomplish anything you want to." One of the more ridiculous of statements from the motivational speakers. NO you can't. American Idol is proof positive.

I've noticed an interesting trend on the preliminary rounds of Idol in the last few weeks. The contestants who come in to the audition with a pompous attitude and false bravado touting their (ahem) talent aren't making the cut. Kids that have been praised (perhaps even overpraised) by their families and friends for their marginal singing ability are crushed when they don't make it. Tears, swearing and tirades of parents outside the room mockingly offering, "what do you know Simon Cowell?" are commonplace on prime-time TV.

But those with a silent "knowing,"a humble demeanor and a truckload of talent are the ones who are on their way to Hollywood. They don't need to boast about their talent. They let their talent speak for them.

It really seems to be true: the loudest one in the room is usually the weakest one in the room.

Now if only there were a pre-qualifying round to weed out the talentless, the preeners and the delusionals, I might be able to sit through an entire hour without wondering why parents won't be brutally honest with their kids. It's a shame to find out you have no talent in front of millions of people when your parents could have saved you the embarrassment by simply being honest instead of trying to coddle your delicate, little self-esteem - only to have it stomped on and crushed on international television.

Thanks Mom and Dad. Great attitude (wink). And don't get me started on beauty pageants for five year-olds. There's a psych ward waiting for those parents.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Bad Advice From Old People

"Get a good education. Get a good job. Make sure there is a pension. Retire early if you can."

How many of our parents said something like that to us in high school? Parents thought they had the right advice. But now it turns out that advice like this is what is disengaging employees at work.

Get a good education - more importantly get the right education. A degree in astrophysics is a good education, unless your love is in marketing. Then that astrophysics degree was a huge waste of your time even if you could make more money in astrophysics. People get degrees in great-paying professions but hate the work. That's how you become disengaged from your work. Make sure your education is in something that you will love to do for a lifetime.

Get a good job - no don't. Get a great career. You don't want a "job" - you want a career. When you stop looking at what you do as a job and instead view it as a career that you chose (even temporarily), you engage better and find more reward. A job is just a paycheck. Most could give a fiddler's damn about a job. But a career? You will protect that and keep up with changes and your education. You will be inspired to become the best in your field. But a job? Who cares.

Make sure there is a pension - especially if it just a job. Just showing up at work and doing just enough to not get fired qualifies anyone for a pension. You could be the world's worst school-teacher and you will get the same pension as the best teacher. Pensions are not incentive to perform. Perhaps the whole pension idea should be reformed to become commensurate with effort and engagement during the working years - a lifelong performance bonus, if you will. That would force people to give their best all through their work life and to choose something they would enjoy doing.

Retire early if you can - or not. I'm sure Richard Branson and Donald Trump are just waiting for retirement (Branson is 60 this year and Trump is 64). Bet they can't wait to stop slaving at their jobs each day so they can enjoy their retirement years of doing nothing and collecting their pensions. If you love something, you won't want to retire. And if your company forces you to retire, open your own consulting business to keep active. Why is it that we force those with the most wisdom to leave organizations?

Kids, ignore the "advice" of old people in jobs who do just enough to not get fired, who educated themselves in a discipline that gave them no joy (because they thought it was the right thing to do) and who are counting down the days to retirement so they can collect a pension from a job that they really didn't care much about. Look for the people who went against convention, who chose to rely on their smarts, their hearts and their spirit and who defied what old people told them and made their mark in this world. They're easy to find. They're the old people who are still working because they love what they do that much. Take their advice - not someone who can't wait to check out early.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Relationships That Work

Do you have a customer that you speak ill of behind their backs? Do you have a co-worker who you make sure you say things about out of earshot because the things you say are not very complimentary? How about your spouse - do you complain a little about them when they're not around?

How long do you think a marriage would last if both partners spoke ill of the other behind their backs constantly? That kind of relationship is doomed to fail.

A customer that you can't speak well of should not be your customer. I mean, if you're prepared to accept his money while he looks you in the face but you bad-mouth him and his business when he turns his back means you're, in effect, ruining his business - the same one whose money you gladly accept.

How about that co-worker who is just a pain in your butt and, for the sake of not creating workplace conflict, you swallow your barbs to her face but when she's out of the room, you put her down to your other co-workers. How long is that relationship bound to last? Until you get caught?

Relationships that last are built on a foundation of mutual respect - not disrespect, backstabbing and conflict. If that's what your relationships look like then you're really missing the Attitude of Connectedness in your day to day life. The Attitude of Connectedness simply is the mindset that everyone is connected to everyone else - by business, family, marriage or network. You can't badmouth one person and not expect it to come around. Everyone is connected.

You can't just swallow your words and instead continue to think ill of others. What you're thinking is all over your face. People can see it. A fake smile won't make you successful. You have to feel it. You have to live it. People will think and speak well of you if you think and speak well of others - genuinely. But if you complain about your co-workers, your customers AND your spouse, then it's not everyone else. You are the common denominator in every one of those poor relationships.  

You'll never get to "greatness" by putting others down. Tearing others down does not elevate you.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Just Say NO

Question: How do you say NO with out hurting your relationships? At some point, I realize we have to say no to people who are expecting you to say yes out of obligation. So how do you say no to them without it affecting your relationships?

Answer: The only person who absolutely needs to hear "yes" every single time when they expect something out of obligation is a baby who is expecting to be breastfed. Outside of that, you had better learn to say "no."

If your co-workers are expecting you to nod in agreement and say yes to every request, then you've done a great job of breastfeeding them. You have become the "whipping boy" of your organization saying yes to everyone else's requests and have put them all ahead of your own responsibilities. Are you burnt out yet? You should be.

Say yes too often and you'll eventually find yourself picking up the boss's dry-cleaning during the day and getting your work done at home at night. But say yes too many times and you eventually create a toxic culture, one that has no personal or job boundaries, no respects or any consideration for others.

Most people can't say no because they're afraid that if they do they won't be liked. Who cares if you're not liked? You want to be respected more than you want to be liked.

Develop your Attitude of Leadership and learn to say "no" before you burn out and drop dead of a heart attack. Saying "yes" to everything creates too much weight to carry and trains people to take advantage of you.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Somebody's Watching Your Public Conduct

Times are different now. There used to be a time when you could visit another city other than your own and make a fool of yourself and no one would know who you are. But that's all changed now thanks to web sites like YouTube and Facebook. One person's indiscretion can be easily captured and posted for all the world to see. There's not much you, as the perpetrator of acts of future embarrassment, can do.

So you would think that a university student, who probably spends a few hours each day watching YouTube videos, would be cognizant of these facts.

So while I rode the train home last night from the Calgary Flames game, it seemed strange that six male university students from the University of Calgary would get on the train inebriated and shout the foulest of foul language and discuss things that would make a porn-star blush, knowing that anyone could be recording their antics on video-cam. Their testosterone-charged sickening discussions included, within earshot of a packed train car including ladies and children, the size of their genitals, which conquest they had (descriptive) sex with, which girls (by name) preferred oral sex, which former professional football player's daughter had been one of the conquests and how they were heading to another campus bar to find another girl willing to sleep with them tonight.

Had only it all been all caught on video and posted to YouTube so that in a few years, when these clowns finally graduate (or at least apply for a job), an HR director could embarrass them with the video in their job interview and then have security show them the door. Even mom and dad could gather around the computer screen and pay witness to and be proud of their parenting skills when their little angels are on their own.

As we pulled into University Station, a round of applause erupted from the remaining passengers as the six exited the train. I have never seen a round of applause break out for the departure of train passengers. How bad did it have to be to get strangers to applaud?

The HR directors of today are doing background checks on you on-line. They're watching the videos, checking out your Facebook page, Googling your name so that if any photo tags come up, you're busted. When you're at social functions or just spending time away from work, decorum is more important now than ever. Somebody's watching and possibly recording. If there is something you wouldn't be proud of in a year or ten from now, then don't do it today. The Attitude of Connectedness shines a light into every dark corner of your life. We are all connected. Your indiscretion today could be the YouTube embarrassment of tomorrow.

Oh, and if someone applauds when you leave the room, that might be your first clue that you need to pay more attention to your conduct in public. 
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Fire Your Bad Clients

Years ago, when I was selling radio advertising to small businesses, I would ask my potential clients to tell me specifically who they wanted to attract as customers. It helped me to identify whether our audience was also their audience.

"Everybody," was the usual reply.

But you can't have everybody. Not everybody is going to buy from you. For example, for the 50% of the population that doesn't play a sport, they would have no use for a sporting goods store and therefore never enter the store. So everybody is not their customer.

Identify your ideal clients and your market segment, to ensure that you aren't just spinning your wheels out in the marketplace. You can't target your potential clients effectively by targeting everybody.

Everybody doesn't see your one billboard. Everybody doesn't see your Yellow Pages ad. Everybody doesn't visit your web site because not everybody has ever heard of you. You don't have the kind of advertising budget to achieve that..

So who is your ideal client? If you don't have a clear idea of who that is, then you will end up aimlessly taking whatever you can get from whoever will give you something. Change your attitude about just taking what you can get and instead start to focus on what you want.

Do you want to do business with people who will beat you up on your prices just to knock you down to mere pennies in profit and then to have those same people complain because they don't value what you do? Be specific about who you want to business with. Don't think everybody wants to do business with you. Not everybody wants you, needs you or even likes you.

The Attitude of Service isn't just an outward attitude. The Attitude of Service isn't just about you serving others. The Attitude of Service also includes an honest study of who deserves what you offer. What is your service worth? Who would most appreciate what you do?

Don't do yourself a disservice by thinking that you must cater to price-hungry, high-maintenance customers who have no loyalty to you because it's all you can get right now. You'll never achieve greatness arguing with penny-pinchers who don't value you, your product and your service and who would never give you a recommendation. It's the wrong crowd. Maybe it's time you served yourself a little better a fired your "headache" customers. Let someone else have them. They're dragging you down anyway.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Whiny Complainers and Pointless Meetings

According to survey results, the average manager spends over seven hours per week sorting out personality conflicts among staff members. In addition, that same manager can spend anywhere from 20% to 80% of his or her time in meetings too.

Let's work the worst-case numbers. 80% of an 40-hour week is 32 hours spent in meetings. Add another seven hours per week spent sorting out personality conflicts among employees who can't seem to get along and you have one hour left each week for a manager to get some work done.

Hmm, seems to me that the least productive member on-staff is the average manager.

If these numbers hit close to home for you, then I would suggest that you're doing management all wrong.

How could any manager be involved in meetings for 32 hours each week and be a productive member of the staff. Asking a manager to attend that many meetings is a waste of a good salary. Let your managers do some work.

And managers, if you're sorting out personality conflicts for the same few people bringing up the same few issues about the same few co-workers who annoy them each week, then get rid of them. People who should be putting their nose to the grindstone but instead put their noses in other people's business are a drag on productivity.

I agree that workplaces work best when everyone gets along. But some people don't want to get along. They just want to complain. If they want to complain, let them complain about being unemployed. The longer you let the whiners hang around, the worse your company culture will get.

With that one hour per week that you have left, find a way to get rid of the annoyances like whiny staff and pointless meetings. Start hijacking your own schedule. Change your Attitude and the way you do things.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Where's Service In A Tight Economy?

It's no secret that this recession has hurt many businesses. There are only a handful of businesses who are having, or have had, a banner year over this past 12 months.

That means that more businesses are fighting for fewer dollars from fewer customers in the marketplace.

That last statement begs the question: so if there are more businesses fighting over fewer customers trying to win a larger share of fewer sales, then where is the increased customer service experience you would expect to see in a tight economy?

I'll tell you where it is: it was eliminated (cut) with all of the other so-called "wasteful" programs that organizations felt they could do without as mediocre organizations made cutbacks and sat on hoards of cash hoping to weather the storm. Unfortunately, most organizations think that Service is something to be addressed by only their Customer Service department - when, in fact, Service is an Attitude, not a department

Ironically though, 80% of senior executives have reported they would use this recession to improve their competitive position (Bain & Company Survey 2009). Has your organization done anything about your customer experience over the past year? Hmm, then you must be one of the 20% who aren't doing anything about it (or the other 80% who are simply blowing smoke about re-tooling in a down economy). Service is an Attitude, not a department.

80% of senior executives believe that their companies are delivering an exceptional customer experience (Bain & Company Survey 2005). Only 8% of their customers agree. Why is there so much delusion at the top? Because senior managers believe that by training their Customer Service Department using the same trainers and same training models that churns out the same mediocre service of every other competitor, that somehow it's good enough. "Good enough" is mediocre - not great.

88% of companies view Corporate Culture as important as Strategy for business success (Bain & Company Survey 2009). So why then are 60% of North American workers actively looking for a new job in 2010 (Right Management Work Force Survey 2009)? They're leaving because they feel abandoned by their bosses which creates a terrible corporate culture - the same culture that 88% of companies apparently view as important as Strategy. They work in a culture of "good enough" which obviously isn't good enough to keep their people.

The numbers don't add up. Organizations are becoming so out of touch with their customers that they think they know what is right for their customers and employees but in reality, until you create a two-way dialogue, you will never know. It's arrogant to think you know what is best for people without asking.

There are too many sides not talking to each other - and that makes for a corporate culture that sucks.

The difference between a mediocre culture and a Culture of Greatness is seven distinct Attitudes. Here's a 7-minute video overview of the Attitudes that make organizations "Great."


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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Why Retail Is Wrecking Service

What would retailers do if there were no holidays? In Canada, the average retail store has some sort of gimmicky promotion or sale right year round. Canada Day is followed by Back to School, which is followed by Thanksgiving, then Halloween running right into Christmas. Boxing Day (which runs up to the middle of January for many stores) kicks off the desperation sales followed by Valentine's Day and Easter.

How would your loved one appreciate a new filing cabinet to show your love on Valentine's Day? Nothing says "I love you" more than a wireless Internet router don't you think?

What would happen if we were to abolish all holidays for a full year forcing retailers to no longer try to gimmick their way into our wallets? Would there be a return to an Attitude of Service to capture a customer? What if we were to abolish having a sale and forced retailers to find a fair price for their goods somewhere between the regular price many pay during Christmas season and the 80% off they pay after Christmas?

What if your mechanic were to practice "retail" pricing and charged you $1000 for the service to your car and $200 for the same service on your neighbor's car - because he brought it into the garage after Christmas? Would you return again?

Not much wonder service businesses get hit up so hard by clients and potential clients to adjust their pricing. Retailers have made it impossible to believe that the price is the price.

Set your price. Stick to it. Have some integrity about your product or service and offer us tremendous service, we are willing to pay for that. You really only get to charge next to nothing if you plan to offer next to nothing.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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Comparing Corporate Culture to Homelessness

How is it possible to fix a corporate culture that is good for employees, clients, customers and shareholders? Why would you fix something that doesn't need fixing - not improving - fixing. You wouldn't fix a culture that is working and giving you the results you want would you? You wouldn't feel the need to fix a culture where employees are productive, happy, service oriented and a culture that attracts the best talent and more customers. In fact, you would encourage more of the same to get more of the same. You would build on what you have to go up to the next level. You would move forward - not backward.

A culture that works is the result of a strategy that works. Culture is not the strategy. Culture is the result of strategy.

So if your culture sucks, don't blame the culture - blame the strategy that gets you the culture. Remember, culture is not the strategy. Culture is the result of the strategy.

Let me illustrate: homelessness is not the problem - it is a result of the problem. People end up homeless through a long-term series of choices and circumstances. You see, no one can have everything going for them on Monday and suddenly wake up homeless on Wednesday. In the same way, you don't have a productive and happy workplace on Monday and suddenly a culture that sucks on Wednesday. Nothing happens overnight.

Can you fix homelessness overnight? Sure. Rent each homeless person an apartment. Problem solved - for now. But over time, many of those same people will end up homeless again because homelessness isn't the problem, it is the result of choices. If you don't address the choices they are likely to repeat. Change the choices and you change the results.

Culture works the same way too. Culture doesn't magically shift overnight. You can fire your entire staff and start over and your culture would no longer suck - for a while. But unless you address the long-term processes, policies, management and attitudes, you will end up with the same sucky culture before long.

In the same way you have sales targets, every organization needs to have culture targets if they want to attract the best talent, retain their good people, lower turnover, raise morale and increase customer spending and numbers of loyal customers. None of it happens by accident. Ignore your culture and it will end up sucking over time. Pay attention to what you want to go right.

If the turnover rates of employees and customers is high, your culture sucks because the underlying attitudes in your workplace suck. Culture never improves by ignoring the contributing factors. Morale never improves because you demand it. It changes because you address the contributing factors.

A culture of greatness is the result of a strategy of greatness. If you don't develop a strategy of greatness then you will, at best, end up as just another mediocre organization whose people could care less about their work and their results. The choice is yours.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy To Greatness Culture


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Service or Margins - Which Is More Important?

A coffee shop that I used to frequent is for sale today. It's the third time in five years that the store has been for sale.

The original asking price of the folks who started the business five years ago was $130,000. Then new owners bought it. After two years, they put it up for sale at a price of $100,000. Now, the store is for sale again but this time, it is closed - out of business. The current owners are asking $75,000.

That means that over a five year period, the business has lost $55,000 in value or about 40% of its original value. Now, because it's closed for business, it's worth nothing more than the liquidation of the equipment. You probably could get it all for less than $50,000 because the current owners are still paying the lease on the building. It's costing them money to stay closed.

When people buy a business, they are usually attracted by the potential cash flow. That's what gets them excited - the possibility of a big payoff without a lot of effort. They don't buy the original dream, the original vision or the excitement of opening a new business. Because of it, most usually end up cutting corners, reducing costs and going "cheap" to find find ways to maximize profits. The original owners invested in their customers. They "built" the business. The new owners usually just want the revenue. New owners rarely have any history with the customers and the customers have no history with them. 

Rarely have I ever seen a business bought out and improved upon. Most either drop in quality or simply maintain status-quo. Yes, there are a few exceptions but over all, most people who take over an existing business do so because they are attracted to the cash-flow without a lot of work. But they soon find out that keeping a clientele is just as difficult as finding new customers. Without a willingness to do the work, the value of the business drops. In this above example, each new owner of the coffee shop lost money over time.

Customers don't frequent your business to make you wealthy. Customers come because of the service and they leave because of a lack of perceived value. You can't "cut" your way to greatness. You can't view your customers as marks to be fleeced. You must cherish and value your customers or they will find someplace else where they feel that.

Service is the key to success in any business. Margins don't matter if there are no customers. Service is what keeps them coming back - not margins. Service is what spreads the word - not margins. Service is what creates long-term loyalty - not margins.

People deal with people. People buy from people. People talk with people. Don't forget about the "people" part of your organization. Develop the Attitude of Service™ if you want to build a strong business. Service first, profits second. There are no profits without customers.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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Putting The Blame Where It Belongs

As simple as this post may seem, there's a real chance you might miss the profound message - or dismiss it as you do most things in your life with a condescending, "I already know that."

We let me help you understand it better: if others don't see you as the leader you consider yourself to be, if you are not considered the best manager in your organization, if you are not the most requested vendor of any of your competitors or if you think that your workplace could use a little improvement, then you don't know it all. Your results don't lie. They only amplify the truth. So put aside your ego and listen up.

How is it possible to be a genuinely effective leader if you have only ever been a lousy follower? How is it possible to be a good manager if you've only ever been a whiny, self-centered employee? How is it possible to improve your organization if you are no better than the collective average working there? How can you become a vendor of greatness if you have only ever been a customer who accepts sub-standard service?

It's the comparison points that separate the great from the mediocre. You need comparison to achieve anything really great.

You can not be a great leader if you have never been a great follower. You can't know what it is like to follow hence impossible to fully comprehend what it is like to lead.

You can't be a great manager if you view all of your past bosses as morons. Unless you have experience as a model employee you will never know how to be a model manager.

You can not improve your organization if you are not among the best in your organization. Average people have average ideas which bring average results. Exceptional people get exceptional results. If you are not constantly self-improving, then your work is not getting any better which means that your organization is not improving either. Organizations can't possibly improve if the people in those same organizations stay the same.

How can you know what outstanding service is if you have willingly accepted poor service and not voiced your opinions? If you won't set a standard of acceptable service for yourself, how can you serve your customers better? When a customer raises his or her expectations, the selling organization is forced to improve or lose the customer. If you have never helped another organization improve their service then you can not know what better service is exactly. You may have an idea but no proof.

So before you think yourself entitled to be promoted, to be followed, to receive an award or think your organization superior to others, ask yourself, "What have you done lately that makes you a better person, manager, leader or vendor?" If you haven't read a book or attended a seminar that improves you then you are the same delusional person you always were.

Greatness doesn't happen by accident. It requires effort. So how about you change your attitude and admit that you don't know it all and crack open a book for the proof. Blaming the economy, your bosses, your customers and your co-workers isn't going to change your results. You are. The problem isn't everyone else. Never has been.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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Giving and Reciprocity

There are just a few more days left until Christmas. Those people with kids especially know the joys of Christmas morning under the tree. Watching those little faces light up like the Christmas tree over their heads, they are excited, happy and thankful.

Getting gifts is great. Kids love it. But parents don't give their kids gifts with an expectation of getting something in return. Kids have no money and rarely have the presence of mind to think beyond what "Santa" is going to bring them. A parent who would give a child a gift only under the condition that the child reciprocate in return would be considered an a**hole by most people. But sadly, that is the same expectation people place on other people when they give. If you are willing to give to your children freely without expectation of return, what's with the expectation placed upon people other than your own kids?

Simply giving a gift without any expectation of return feels good. I mean, if there were an expectation of return every time you gave a gift, after you dropped a couple of dollars in the Salvation Army kettle would you expect to have it returned to you by a homeless person outside the mall doors? Let's be realistic. So why do you place expectations on other people outside of the gift-giving season?

If you serve your customers and clients, do you "expect" them to serve you back? When you go over and above what is expected for your co-workers, do you "expect" them to drop everything they are doing just to do something nice for you? Just because your customers may not fully comprehend how much you go out of your way for them, should you hold back your best effort until you get a little reciprocation coming back your way?

Giving is giving. It's why they call it "giving." There's is no taking when you're giving. There is no expectation when you are giving. If the only reason you give is so that someone else is going to owe you for it later, then you are a sad example of giving without expectation of reciprocity. Giving is supposed to be unconditional.

Sure, some people could offer more of a heartfelt "thanks" when they receive one of your gifts. Sure a client could pass on a referral about you and your service. Sure, you could be considered for that service award if someone would just recognize your hard work and nominate you. But they don't. And they don't because with every little extra effort you might think you're giving, you are also exuding some sort of "expectation" energy around you. People think there must be a catch when you do something nice - because deep down, you need to be reciprocated.

People may want to do nice things for you but not out of obligation. So, if the only reason you're doing something nice is to get something back, then you're not doing something nice - you're doing something selfish. The point of giving is to make it about other people, not yourself. Remember that fact this Christmas - and beyond.

Make a New Year's resolution to do one nice thing everyday - for your spouse, your kids, a co-worker, a customer or a stranger. Change your Attitude of Service to include "giving" as a strategy. You will find that your results in life will tend to change for the better the faster you let go of making people feel like they owe you something.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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