Five Leadership Tactics That Will Make 2008 a Pivotal Business Year

by Quint Studer

December 24, 2007 —

As you look back over 2007, you're feeling
a vague sense of discontent. Business is sluggish. Several key employees have
left. And with new competitors springing up every day, you need to be at the
top of your industry. Oh, things are not terrible—not yet—but they
could be a lot better. You need to turn things around, and you know you need
to make some big changes in the upcoming year. Problem is, you're not sure what
they are. A new improvement initiative? A hot new product? A new executive team?
Quint Studer has a suggestion: Make 2008 the year you focus on leadership. Not
leaders, mind you—leadership.

"Solid business results that stand the test of time do so for one reason
and one reason only: consistently excellent leadership," insists Studer,
author of Wall Street Journal bestseller Results That Last: Hardwiring Behaviors
That Will Take Your Company to the Top. "Products and services change with the demands of the market.
Individual leaders come and go. The key is to create an organizational culture
that ensures great leadership today and tomorrow."

In other words, you need a long-term fix, not a magic bullet or a trendy program
du jour or a charismatic leader. You need a culture built on good, solid, time-tested
leadership principles. Studer urges organizations to institute proven across-the-board
behaviors that don't depend on particular individuals. His book reveals some
tried and true "best practices"—also known as evidence-based
leadership—that enable companies of all types to create results that last.

These practices are not complicated. They're simple, commonsense tactics that
leaders can get their hands around and start doing right away. And you don't
have to adopt every directive in his book to enjoy significant results. In fact,
says Studer, implement these five "biggies" and you'll see dramatic
changes by the end of 2008:

· Get rid of low performers. Now. Let's say your employee Carol
consistently comes in late, gets "headaches" every other (non-payday)
Friday, and spends more time cheerily chatting up coworkers than she does working.
Others will notice—and they will be resentful. But worse than merely causing
contention in the ranks, turning a blind eye to the "Carols" in your
organization squelches profitability. Why? Because middle performers get pulled
down to the low-performer level, while high performers either a) disengage or
b) leave.

"Too many of us give low performers a pass," says Studer, whose remedy
involves implementing a structured series of high-middle-low performer conversations.
"It's easier not to confront low performers, and trust me, a leader can
find a thousand other things to do instead. But until you move them either up
or out, your company will never advance beyond short-term gains. The low performer
is an anchor holding everyone else back. Make this year the year you quit looking
the other way."

· Accentuate the positive. The next time you're having lunch in
a restaurant, listen in on the conversations at nearby tables. Chances are,
you'll hear people griping about their workloads, difficult clients, annoying
coworkers, or the ridiculousness of corporate policy. Everyone does it, but
if they realized how harmful it is to their company, perhaps they'd think twice.
The solution, says Studer, is to hone the fine art of managing up.

"Managing up means positioning your people, products, or company in a positive
light," says Studer, who teaches clients how to hardwire the technique
into their corporate leadership practices. "Managing up doesn't just happen;
you have to make it happen in a systematic way. Help employees understand what
can happen when negativity is allowed to breed—good people quit and customers
leave—and they'll be more likely to stop doing it."

· Make a real connection with employees—every day. Studer
is a big proponent of what he calls "rounding for outcomes." Like
many of his tactics, this critical leader behavior reveals his health care industry
roots. (Think of a doctor making her daily rounds to check on patients.) Rounding
helps you communicate openly with your employees, allowing you to regularly
find out what is going well and what isn't going well for them at the company.
But remember, says Studer, it's not just empty "face time"—it's
rounding for outcomes, which means the process has a serious purpose.

"In the business world, a CEO, VP, or department manager makes the rounds
daily to check on the status of his employees," explains Studer. "Basically,
you take an hour a day to touch base with employees, make a personal connection,
recognize success, find out what's going well, and determine what improvements
can be made. Rounding is the heart and soul of building an emotional bank account
with your employees, because it shows them day in and day out that you care."

· Say thanks. In fact, put it in writing. Studer is a big advocate
of sending thank-you notes to employees who do an excellent job. But that doesn't
mean just sending the occasional note when someone goes far above the call of
duty. It means literally mandating a specific number of thank-you notes for
leaders to send to the people they supervise. "Thank-you notes don't just
happen," says Studer. "If they aren't hardwired into an organization,
they don't get written. And a thank-you note is just too powerful a tool not
to use. People love receiving thank-you notes. They cherish them."
He explains that the best thank-you notes are:

*Specific, not general. A thank-you note that focuses on something specific
the recipient has done is far more effective than one that reads, "Hey,
nice job!"

* Handwritten, if possible. Most people would rather receive a three-sentence
handwritten note than a two-page typed letter. It's more authentic and special.

* Sent to the employee's home. When an employee receives a thank-you note at
home, it feels more personal than one laid on her desk along with a stack of
reports and memos.

· Don't just recruit great employees. Rerecruit them. If you
plan to hire in 2008, here's a relatively easy step you can take that will pay
off in a big way. We all know employee turnover is expensive. But did you know
that more than 25 percent of employees who leave positions do so in the first
90 days of employment? To retain a new team member, the leader needs to build
a relationship. Studer Group has found that scheduling two one-on-one meetings,
the first at 30 days and the second at 90 days, has an enormous impact on retention
that directly turns into savings for your organization.

"If these meetings are handled successfully, new employee turnover is
reduced by 66 percent," says Studer, who suggests using a structured list
of questions to discover not only what's not going well, but also what is going
well. "You can be certain that your new employee is comparing her first
few weeks of work with your company to her last week at her previous job—which
was filled with well wishes, tearful good-byes, and probably a going-away party.
Clearly, your company will get the short end of an unfavorable comparison. These
meetings will help you shore up an otherwise tenuous relationship."

Once you start implementing these tactics, results quickly follow. Your employees
will see that you care about them, which boosts morale, which improves performance,
which leads to happier customers, which leads to higher profits. Incidentally,
the book also offers a "customer tactics" section, but Studer says
creating satisfied employees is the first order of business.

"When things aren't going so well, a lot of leaders panic and start doing
things that make employees less satisfied," he notes. "Don't make
that mistake. Your leaders' job is to create happy, loyal, productive employees.
They, in turn, will create happy, loyal, profitable customers. They are two
sides of the same coin—and that coin is the currency that buys you results
that last."

Studer Group