THE UNCOACHABLE TEAM MEMBER

"It's hard to help people who don't think they have a problem. It's impossible to fix people who think someone else is the problem." -Marshall Goldsmith

"You can't get better at anything unless you're willing to look carefully at what you've done wrong. Your mistakes and miscues form the foundation of learning and developing as an athlete and a person." -Dr. Alan Goldberg


The title topic is brought up in conversations, small group discussions and large group Q&A sessions in various formats:

• "Can every employee be coached to improve?" (neutral to hopeful)
• "You think you can coach everyone to improve, don't you?" (challenging)
• "Yeah, I tried that coaching thing once and it didn't work!" (dismissive)

I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but coaching ISN'T effective for every person or organization in every situation. While the literature on the topic of coaching is rife with conditions favorable and unfavorable toward coaching, the bottom line is that successful coaching--personal, career and business--requires a willing client and a coachable outcome. Early in my career I naively and selfishly thought that I could "fix" anyone with enough time, energy and effort. Experiencing failure is sometimes the best teacher, and I gradually became aware that the CLIENT (organization, team, employee, athlete, etc.)--NOT the coach--determines the outcome of success or failure in the coaching relationship.

My own mistakes and miscues continue to strengthen me, and lend greater confidence and credibility to my practice. More importantly, like the athlete who locates the sweet spot from which to shoot 3-pointers and then continues to shoot hundreds of them per day during practice, a coach (manager, business owner, parent, pastor) has the opportunity to deepen his/her mastery upon locating his/her own "sweet spot" with each individual he/she encounters.

Coaching involves the formation and development of a trusted relationship that focuses entirely upon the client identifying, working steadily toward, and successfully achieving his/her outcome(s). Implicit in that framework are a coach's steady, assertive and nonjudgmental professionalism toward the client. Equally implicit are the client's commitment, control, focused effort, and accountability with regard to the intended outcome(s). Integrity, confidentiality and mutual respect undergird the relationship between the coach and client.

Returning to the title, we must remain alert to cues that an individual may NOT be the appropriate focus of extended coaching: the uncoachable team member. Let me be very clear that just because you or I may not be able to coach a particular individual does NOT imply that the individual himself/herself is uncoachable. Let's be honest...I am not the appropriate coach for every individual or organization. I trust that you could conclude the same about yourself. Sometimes our professional approach, personality, faith, or other factors simply do not mesh well with our prospective client (individual or organization). Coaching is a very interpersonal and personal undertaking, and I would always want the best for the client--even if that means a coach other than me is chosen.

Uncoachable clients are those clients who demonstrate an unwillingness or inability to engage in the focused, transparent, often difficult work to identify, work steadily toward, and successfully achieve an outcome(s). As in matters of faith and of the heart, personal vulnerability can be scary and introspection and identification of our own flaws can be painful. Though I myself must engage regularly in such self-assessment to admit and correct my own flaws, I will readily admit that years ago such activities frightened even me. I can assure you, as I have assured all of my clients, that such activities become easier to the point where one begins to enjoy the challenge of identifying and rectifying the deeper flaws.

Take comfort in the fact that the uncoachable client is not the norm, since we generally do not retain uncoachable individuals on our teams. Such individuals often remove themselves from a winning team when they sense that personal growth will be necessary for continued team and organizational growth. Leaders and winners seek coaching to incrementally improve themselves and their organizations to be that 1% better that wins hearts, minds and competitions in the marketplace. No one remembers who completed the race .1 second behind the winner. Optimistically assume that each individual IS COACHABLE until he/she stubbornly and emphatically demonstrates his/her aversion to improvement, growth and team success.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Do I have a team member who has demonstrated that he/she wishes to remain uncoachable? If so, am I prepared to encourage that individual to choose another path outside my team?

The Senator, the Lobbyist, and the Debit Card Interchange Rule

DISCLAIMER: As always, this brief policy article represents my own research and opinions and does not purport to represent the opinions of nor was it funded by any third party organization.

"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom."  --Milton Friedman

"In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more so."  --Adam Smith


Q: What do you get when a United States Senator and a seasoned Washington Lobbyist meet at the Drive-Thru Window of Opportunity?

A: The Durbin Amendment, better known as the Debit Card Interchange Rule

As I had undertaken my research these past several weeks into the unconstitutionally confiscatory nature of the proposed rule, I began to more thoroughly question the impetus for the very inclusion of such an amendment to a financial reform measure largely spawned by the challenges posed by the mortgage market. What did debit card interchange fees have to do with protecting consumers from a few unscrupulous and irresponsible former mortgage lenders? And what motivated Illinois Senator Dick Durbin to bring his amendment to the Senate Floor be included in the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 when he did?


Initially it would appear that Senator Durbin, as a member of the Senate Leadership, simply recognized that the Congressional mood for financial reform legislation could easily absorb another "consumer protection" measure. Yet I couldn't help but question who/what had motivated this particular measure, since the public had not been clamoring for it and no definitive study of the debit interchange topic had concluded that it harmed either the consumer public or the sophisticated commercial enterprises that freely contracted to provide or benefit from debit card interchange services.

When a diverse array well-respected public responsibility groups, including the NAACP, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, join together to urge Congress to revisit the well-funded and erroneous legislation, consumers immediately recognize that something is amiss in Washington.

The debit card interchange rule doesn't actually have anything to do with legitimate consumer protection. Financial services professionals have always supported the common-sense market-driven consumer protection measures and licensing requirements that protect the public from the few unscrupulous charlatans who engage in predatory practices. Since financial services professionals are simply honest, hard-working consumers with families themselves, they clearly recognize that protecting the integrity and public trust within the financial services industry has always provided a win-win outcome. The majority of potential misdeeds are squelched before any damage can be wrought due to internal control policies, ethics training, licensing requirements, and the self-policing nature of the industry.

The debit card interchange rule was a pro-business creation born upon a conference room table within Suite 1100 at 325 7th Street N.W. in Washington, D.C., home of the National Retail Federation, the National Restaurant Association, the National Council of Chain Restaurants, and the Merchant Payments Coalition. These trade associations represent corporate retail and restaurant conglomerates that have long sought to unilaterally renegotiate the debit card interchange fees to which they had contractually agreed. Apparently dissatisfied with their own business leaders' efforts employing commercial negotiation in the free market, these organizations turned to trade association lobbyists to continue the effort using Federal Government confiscatory action.

Enter Rob Green, Executive Director of the National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR), who succeeded Jack Whipple last month to manage all NCCR government relations advocacy. Preceding his move within the confines of Suite 1100, Green was Vice President, Government and Political Affairs at the National Retail Federation (NRF), where he served as a senior lobbyist for the world’s largest retail trade association during the influential time leading up to Senator Durbin's introduction of the debit card interchange "consumer protection" rule.

Lobbyist Green immediately recognized that a perfect storm would briefly open the display window of opportunity for the NRF during which time he would propose a government price-fixing rule that would amount to a  72.7% reduction in interchange revenue for the financial services industry that had built the networks and provided the fraud reduction technology that facilitated cost-savings for consumers and businesses. Imagine if the NRF had found themselves on the receiving end of proposed legislation that would have mandated reducing their retail prices by 72.7% to those very same consumers? Would the NRF have simply "embraced" that legislation? We think not.

I am certainly not accusing Senator Durbin or Rob Green of any violations of federal law, but FEC records detail that more than just burgers and fries were in the bag when the honorable Senator and his colleagues met the former-NRF lobbyist and current NCCR Executive Director at the drive-thru window of opportunity. You yourself may follow the money transfers disclosed in publicly-available documents. While some of the world's largest big box retailers represented by Green poured money into organizations associated with Durbin and his former aides lobbying for the rule, the good Senator wove the rule into the larger legislative framework intended to curb the egregious mortgage-related abuses perpetrated by the few.

From a corporate executive viewpoint framed to maximize shareholder returns, one can certainly understand why the investment into lobbying appeared (and continues) to be a prudent investment. But given the certain unfavorable financial impact that the debit card interchange rule would impose upon American families struggling to emerge from the recent financial downturn, I would urge Senator Durbin to assume a new ethical stance and join his colleague Representative Barney Frank to support further objective study of the issue in the light of day and allow the results of such studies to be fully disclosed to non-lobbyists to allow for a proper analysis of the real impact upon the American family's budget.


For leading this effort on behalf of our American families, I applaud the consistent and untiring effort being put forth by Frank Keating (ABA) and Fred Becker (NAFCU) nationally, as well as John Llewellyn (Michigan Bankers Association) and Jordan Kingdon (Michigan Credit Union League) to educate the public about the very real household economic effect that implementation of this dubious rule would wreak. Ultimately, our collective efforts to preserve consumer choice and to protect business from government unconstitutional price-fixing will prevail in the bright light of day.

REMAINING A STUDENT OF THE GAME

"Those who teach by their doctrine must teach by their life, or else they pull down with one hand what they build up with the other."  --Matthew Henry

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” --Albert Einstein

I experienced pure joy recently during what I had believed would be a relatively straightforward meeting. I came away knowing that I had become the Student, and that the student had become the Teacher, though at the time I don't believe that either one of us recognized the juxtaposition. As I drove home that evening, I found myself smiling as I became consciously aware of the lived lessons that the young manager had imparted upon me.

A client had invited me to visit one of its sites to counsel and advise one of its newer general managers (I'll refer to him as "Ron") regarding a sensitive human resource matter that he would soon have to address with one of his employees. The client operates a number of locations of a casual theme dining restaurant under a franchise agreement, and given my employment in the industry for a number of years before entering law school, I naturally gravitate to and identify with some of the unique staffing and human resource management challenges of the larger marketplace. I had not met Ron previously, and we were scheduled to sit down at 8:45 p.m.

Having arrived a few minutes early and not wishing to disturb Ron or disrupt his team as it concluded its weekday dinner rush, I took a seat in the lounge area and ordered a glass of iced tea to catch up on messages while I waited for the appointed time. The restaurant appeared very busy for an evening early in the week, and I began to take notice of the environment and the work going on about me, if it could even be called "work" for it appeared that the team and its two managers were having great fun.

The server who refilled my glass was pleasant and attentive, but not pushy though I declined to order any food. Guests were greeted cheerfully and promptly by the hostess and one of the managers. I observed servers running food for co-workers, and prebussing tables efficiently. I overheard the other manager praising a busboy here and a server there for their thoroughness. As guests were departing, at least one hostess of manager inquired about their dining experience as they held the door open. Smiling people exited, smiling people entered. I had observed a friendly, fun, well-choreographed production that appeared to have left one and all satisfied.

At the appointed time, I asked my server to please let Ron know that I was there. Within a minute, one of the two managers I had been observing came over and heartily greeted me, inviting me back to his office. As we passed through the kitchen, I was pleased to see how clean the stainless steel work surfaces were, despite the busy work that continued. The kitchen team communicated with one another and the serving staff clearly amidst the flurry of hot and cold dishes being served up.

Once in Ron's office, before we began to discuss the human resource matter, I asked him how he was enjoying his promotion to general manager. Ron told me the story of working for the restaurant in high school as a bus boy and dishwasher, continuing as a host and server during college, and how he came to be invited into the management training program as graduation neared. Ron radiated enthusiasm for his company, his location, his guests and his team. He then pivoted to the matter I had come to advise him about, beginning with his take on the situation and his options for resolving the matter. We discussed the options and possible outcomes briefly, and then I left Ron to make his management decision.

Driving home that evening, I smiled to myself, acknowledging that I had met Ron and had observed his history with the company before we had even made our acquaintance at 8:45. Every team-oriented employee, every satisfied guest, every spotless dining and food preparation surface served to exemplify what Ron had lived each day of his professional career. Ron didn't coach with words--he modeled the attitude and behaviors and his team simply followed suit in their own personalities and performances. No ego, no fear, just plain simple alignment between principles, attitude, and action leading to a desired outcome.

I was fortunate to have visited Ron's restaurant and to have met Ron that evening...even a coach needs a Coach each day.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS: Have you developed the confidence of self and the cultivated the utter disregard for your own ego to remain open to the teachable moments that God presents you with in your career, in your community, and in your family?

DISCOMFORT AND DISCOURTESY

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”

- Jim Rohn

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.” -Harvey S. Firestone

No organizational Leader will deny the omnipresent pressure to perform and produce demonstrable results. Regardless of whether I am speaking with for profit or nonprofit Leaders, I often hear common variations on the old cliche' "you're only as good as your last victory." Financial targets, including fundraising and budgets, may lead as the obvious sources, but public perception, growth, and market competition contribute to the array of factors driving Leaders to seek ever better personal and organizational performance.

Historically, there are two basic models of sustainable performance and growth. One variation is built upon personal integrity, leading to strong interpersonal trust among colleagues, and a shared commitment to long-term objectives, respect for human capital, and an integrated approach to how the organization fits into the larger community. The second variation is built upon personal ego, leading to weak interpersonal trust, and a fractured commitment within the management ranks to short-term results and professional survival. This second culture is characterized further by burn-out, turnover among mid-level and senior-level Leaders, further weakening day-to-day trust and commitment within the hourly ranks of the organization.

A colleague of mine told me of a corporate CEO in the health care field who absolutely refused to set an out-of-office message on his voicemail or email. During the engagement, my colleague inquired of the CEO's direct reports about the anomaly which she had discovered when she knew the CEO was away on a Mediterranean cruise and couldn't possibly have been in the office. The Senior Leadership revealed that it was the CEO's practice to appear always "on duty" and that on more than one occasion he had expressed that it was his opinion that every member of the company's management should always be available to engage in work activities.

My colleague further analyzed the effect this practice had upon the organization. Because the message being telegraphed well beyond the executive suite was that work always took priority over personal matters, mid-level managers remained on-edge, since no evening, no weekend, no week of vacation truly every allowed for renewal and refreshment. The human dimension was negatively impacted at every level of the organization. Years later, when the health care concern succumbed to a merger following a sharp decrease in its market capitalization, my colleague wondered to herself what effect the Skinner Box culture had on its downfall.

As Stephen M.R. Covey illustrated in "The Speed of Trust", there is a high cost to an organization, a community, a church or a family when an environment of low trust is allowed to fester. And, yet, low trust organizations continue to exist, seeking to exact profit, growth, and productivity from every other possible source except strengthening the culture of interpersonal trust.


TODAY'S QUESTION: Are you exercising firm and balanced leadership to achieve long-term trust and performance, or has your management style devolved into brash bullying bent on achieving short-term gains at all costs?

SEEK THE OVERLOOKED

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."  --Henry Ford

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."  --Albert Einstein

The outcome was clear: investigate, analyze and document the cause of the disrupted sales volume for the Board of Directors of this historically successful organization.

I began where I generally begin...walking around, listening, observing, open to opportunities to chat. Frankly, my approach causes consternation among middle management, who assume that I will lend my ear and stamp with credence every corporate crank who has an axe to grind against the organization.  The well-meaning human resource folks fret that I'll offend someone, disrupt the precipitous workplace harmony, or stir discord amongst the rank and file.  The employees know I'm on site, whether formally or through the grapevine.

Fear not! While open to all comers, my process is designed to cull and filter the substance from the strange and irrelevant. But initially one knows not what is relevant, as seemingly random and disjointed observations and phrases are often the signposts to the heart of the matter.

Yes, I was prepared that morning for the usual parade of cranks (employees who gripe about every aspect of the organization) and entertainers (employees and managers sent to sell me on the saintly nature of the organization). Every organization has them, much as every organization has an address, so I don't build my research upon the cranks' and entertainers' musings.

The copy machine...the coffee pot...the lunch room...the mail room...now THAT'S where the real dialogue begins to take place. Takes time to build trust. The substantive discussions begin with simple polite openings and simple open-ended questions. A few notes, no names recorded, only generic positions for reference.

• Some of the most reliable employees to begin are in the mail room, the porter and the receptionist--they provide a framework of Who's Who in the organization.
• The valued individual I seek is the "organizational historian", that employee who has been employed there for decades, and is able to provide anecdotal pathways through organizational culture shifts, economic cycles, and senior management turnover.
• My formal scheduled interviews with key senior managers were certainly framed by their knowledge that their Board had engaged me, but my objectivity and good-naturedness served to alleviate most concerns early in our discussions.

Once filtered to remove bias, much insightful data was collected and analyzed. I am cautious to canvas a broad spectrum of the organization before I draw initial conclusions, so as to reduce the myopic tendency to "find exactly what I thought I'd find."  The objective is always to aid the organization toward self-examination and improvement, not to simply write a neat report. As we will explore in subsequent installments, I unearthed some fascinating structural and cultural factors during this research.

TODAY'S QUESTION:  Do YOU have the courage to take YOUR organization down the path of self-examination to remove the impediments to progress and unleash next-generational growth?

THE JOURNEY OF ORGANIZATIONAL SELF-EXAMINATION

"Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people." — Lee Iacocca


“A great leader needs to love and respect people, and he needs to be comfortable with himself and with the world. He also needs to be able to forgive himself and others. In other words, a leader needs grace.”  — Leo Hindery Jr.

 
I was recently reminded of an engagement I undertook several years ago at the behest of a Board of Directors of a successful organization that had then recently begun to experience declining sales volume. Though revenue and capitalization portrayed a public face of continued market dominance, internally the Directors suspected that the rivets would soon loosen, exposing an otherwise weakened hull.
 
The Directors expressed concerns about strengthened competitors in the marketplace; potential customer service weakness; a mismanaged sales force driven only by incentives; suspected failure to adequately update the product offering; and marketing and advertising miscues. After respectfully listening to their description of the situation, taking notes where appropriate, I was asked if I'd accept the task of investigating, analyzing and documenting the cause of the disrupted sales volume?
 
I responded with the one litmus test I apply to all situations no matter whether I'm coaching an individual on a spiritual journey or coaching a commercial enterprise to achieve market dominance: "Will I be afforded unrestrained access and opportunity to go anywhere in the company, speak to anyone in the company, and assimilate my findings no matter how difficult it may be to receive my message?"
 
Understandably this well-bred, well-educated team of business leaders drew back for a moment, even asking me to leave the room for a few minutes while they discussed the matter of my stipulation. But, upon discussing the relative importance of turning the proverbial ship around, and in light of my reputation for tact and even-handedness, I was invited back into the room to proceed with our mutual discussion.
 
I approach every relationship that I'm invited into by my Friends (my clients) as if we've entered Lent. Much as Lent occurs every year, and is much-needed by sinners such as me each and every year, so, too, do organizations of every size and industry require periodic self-examination, lest they become too confident in their own self-directed path to extinction.
 
We will continue to discuss journey on which this particular engagement led me, the Directors, and their organization, for there were many a-ha moments that have provided many learning experiences for them and me henceforth.
 
TODAY'S QUESTION:  Are you committed to the recurring personal, professional and organizational Lenten journey required to reach your, your employees', your stakeholders', and your audience's full potential?

FAMILY FOUNDATIONS BUILD UPON THE BEDROCK OF FAITH

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. ~Bertrand Russell

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~Barbara Bush



It's been an ironic paradox that the more I have been sought by my Friends, my clients, while continuing to maintain my Family balance and Faith as my core Principles, the less time I have devoted to writing. I jokingly remind myself that there will be time enough for writing when clients cease to engage me.

Reflecting back upon my last article nearly five months ago--and smiling at the mutually-profitable connections I have made with new Friends as a result--I find myself today once again applying those same timeless lessons to myself amidst a Family situation many of us have faced.

...Last evening, following a day focused upon a thoroughly-fulfilling Process Improvement engagement for a corporate client, I arrived home with just enough time to eat Supper and chat with my beautiful Bride before we were to depart for Mass. After Mass, I would have attended a Commission meeting before heading back home for the night.

God had a different plan for me and my Family the moment our six-year-old Daughter called us from upstairs following the sudden onset of a stomach bug. Details can be spared, but needless to say we embraced and comforted our tear-stricken Daughter, then set to sharing duties as my Bride attended to the bath and I to the carpet cleaning.

Without hesitation, I sent word soon after that I would not be in attendance at my meeting, and recognizing that the following day would not avail our daughter of school attendance, I cancelled my schedule for the following day to be exactly where I needed to be. My Bride made necessary phone calls to notify school, teacher, etc. of our Daughter's impending absence, and arranged to take the second day off if necessary.

Yes, we three were awakened several times throughout the overnight...changing bedding, washing up, comforting our Patient. Today I have laundered much bedding, bath linen, and clothing--not quite the project and meetings in which I had engaged the prior day. But today I have persevered and smiled as our Daughter, between uncharacteristic naps, has optimistically and whimsically declared war on the germs that have derailed her.

I am exactly where God, my Bride, and our Daughter need me to be today. We only have today, as there are no promises of tomorrow. In my business, I strive to always stay within the client's budget; to exceed expectations; to execute the deliverables ahead of schedule--BUT above all, I make no apologies for having built my Family's foundation upon the bedrock of our Faith. I am accountable to God today and at my final hour as I stand before Him at Judgment to faithfully recount my Stewardship of his Entrustment to me.

...Yes, I conduct my business with that very same level of Integrity. Tomorrow I will be serving my Friends again in one-on-one and group sessions to achieve their outcomes, but ever at my core will be my Principles of which I have been most fully reminded this day. Thank You, Lord, for a Life: Fully Lived!

TODAY'S QUESTION:  Do we recognize God's Will for us in Life's "interruptions" and "inconveniences"?