Pull It Apart

In order to be an effective leader you have to be willing to take risks and set goals that others might perceive as too extraordinary, too difficult to achieve or too visionary. Today's business and economic climate has created an environment in which an out of the box approach to traditional business as we know it could represent a refreshing approach that would act as a magnet for attracting customers.

In order to explore what this type of approach would mean for your business, you have to step outside of what you do on a daily basis, which is difficult to do. You need a fresh set of eyes to take a look at what you do that will give you the ability to ask the "why" question on everything that you are currently doing. Why do we do this in this particular way? Why are we investing here? Why do we measure this, and why is it important? Sometimes, in order to put something spectacular together, you have to first pull it completely apart.

Our business is structured in a way that we have multiple business units with our parent company. This gives us at The Employment Guide the ability to look at how other businesses approach certain aspects of their business and find what might make sense for us to try. One of our sister companies is For Rent and another is Homes.com. We like to compare notes on what they are doing to give us a fresh perspective on some aspects of our business. It is almost like having a built-in consultant team.

This type of resource is going to be of even greater value in 2008 than in years past. Given the conditions with which we are all faced, including the credit and investment market upheaval, slower job growth (projected to fall to a total of 100,000 in 2008 by Kiplinger), identifying new ways to approach your business will be invaluable. After the innovation process, you have to make sure you have the resources to develop. That in and of itself can be a challenge, especially if you are in an industry that has faced restructuring, layoffs, etc. (such as the automotive industry). Then you have to allow for the proper amount of time for testing, quality control and a trial period before taking your new product or service to market. What is interesting is that while this process takes time, it is the businesses that can compress this time-frame and get their new product or service out to market first within their industry that will typically be looked at as an industry leader. It is my opinion that within the realm of electronic or internet related businesses the understanding that back-end development will need to take place after a product is launched is readily accepted more so than the "make sure the product is 100% before we roll it out approach." This is largely due to the fact that you can measure what your customers are doing with your product and modify the product to better meet their needs as you track usability. In fact, within our electronic media industry, this is now becoming the norm. Typically the website that you are on this week will change in some form or fashion next week. These changes are not readily noticeable, but they are in fact designed to enhance the returning visitor's experience.

So what are you going to do in today's business environment that will change the way you are approaching your business? What are you going to do differently? If you are ever going to take a great risk with the potential for high rewards, now is the time!

Take what you have currently and pull it completely apart. Can you put it back together in a way that so the end result is better than what you currently have? If so, do it.

Any time there is change there is opportunity. So it is paramount that an organization get energized rather than paralyzed.- Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric

What's New No. 2

So what else is going on at The EG that is new and exciting in addition to the recent introduction of video? Over the course of the later half of 2007, our talented product development team and programmers went to work on constructing a new solution for recruiters in the health care industry. Breaking from the platform of traditional job boards, our team, after researching the industry, decided to incorporate a social networking component into our new site. It was clear that people in the health care industry needed their own community online; therefore, we introduced our social networking section of the new HealthCareerWeb.com called, "MedCom."

After the soft launch of the site at the end of 2007, we started to see an influx of medical professionals starting to find their new networking space. As we near the hard launch date, more than 2,000 individuals have already created networking profiles in addition to uploading resumes and actively applying for jobs. We are also very excited to have Denise Tanner leading our HealthCareerWeb.com efforts in the capacity of business development manager. Denise has professional experience within the health care industry and has a great understanding on how to best position our products to meet the needs of both job seekers and recruiters. Denise has already contributed greatly to our efforts in preparing HealthCareerWeb.com for the upcoming hard launch.

At the rate new jobs are being created in the health care industry, we understand the importance of developing a product that can readily meet the needs of the industry. The aging population in the United States is the primary reason for the increasing health care hiring bubble, and when an economic trend is demographically supported, it typically come to fruition.

A large part of our motivation in developing this new product is to meet the needs of our customers (job seekers and recruiters within the health care industry). Another large part of our motivation is to be a partner in proactively meeting the health care needs of the aging population base within the United States. We have a large group of hourly job seekers that utilize our products and services that represent a great base for educational programs to tap into in order to re-career individuals for new careers in health care. As manufacturing jobs, construction jobs, etc., are on the decline, there are great opportunities for individuals within these respective professions to embark on a new rewarding career within health care.

We are very excited about our newest product offering! A special thanks goes out to all of the individuals who worked together to pave the way for our newest offering, HealthCareerWeb.com.

Professional Resolution

The process of establishing a New Year's resolution is very similar to the goal setting process. Two key aspects of developing a resolution are writing it down and the fact that it is time sensitive. New Year's resolutions are typically personal in nature, but I have found that using this process in business can be an effective means by which to lead individuals to establish personal work-oriented goals.

If you are in a leadership position, you can resolve to mentor or work on the development of the individuals that you lead. You might also resolve to improve one area of your leadership skill set to a new level. This could include the improvement of listening skills, organizational skills, presentation skills, writing skills, etc. If you lead a sales team, you can use this exercise to have each member of your team establish a resolution that would be activity based. Agree to be your sales team's income coach throughout the year to keep each person on track to hit their personal income goals by measuring activity. This can be broken down into individual resolutions in the areas of increasing the number of sales calls being made, number of prospects being called or improving his or her ability to execute a sales call from the opening to wrapping up the sale, etc. This will not only demonstrate your interest in his or her success but your commitment to helping in the obtainment of their income goals. Weekly one-on-one meetings with your team can have a segment in which you analyze each team member's progress towards staying on track to achieve their income goal. This will mean establishing new activity-based targets throughout the year to act as a road map to success against the backdrop of, say, “If you do this you will be on track to hit your income goal for 2008.”

A side benefit of this process is in the fact that each member of your team has a vested interest in following your direction. Weekly coaching sessions do not include, "Your activity levels are too low...make more calls," which in my mind is a lot like a track coach running behind a runner yelling "run faster" (doesn't work). Instead, your coaching sessions now sound more like, "Your goal is to make $90,000 in 2008, and based on your sales and activity levels, you are not on track to hit your goal. However, let me show you that if you increase your efforts (here and here) you will get/be back on track." This is a great example for sales representatives, but this process can also be imperative in developing goals for those in leadership positions who (verses higher commissions, etc.) might aspire to achieve higher levels of responsibility. Therefore, developing a resolution that is focused on their professional development over the year could make this individual a better candidate for any promotional opportunities that might arise in 2008.

I have yet to finalize my own resolutions (professional or personal) for 2008. Professionally, I do know that I am going to continue to be a student of leadership and continue working on my own professional development. Reading a book each month on leadership is a good option and one that I am considering. Attending seminars on leadership is another good option. Personally, I am giving some thought to training for and running in a marathon. I completed my first half-marathon in 2007 and feel as though this could be the year that I could cross "run a marathon" off of that proverbial "life list." I only have a couple of days left to make a decision. The Chicago marathon in October could be the ticket...

What is your professional resolution for 2008? How about your personal resolution? Have you ever used this process in the establishment of goals for those that you lead?

Happy New Year!

Best regards,

Jeff Littlejohn
Vice President and General Manager
The Employment Guide

Core Ideology

I recently had the book Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras recommended to me by a business colleague as a must-read. One of the guiding principals throughout the book, which uses what the authors label as "visionary companies" as examples throughout the book, is that in order to set your organization apart from the competition, you must clearly identify your organization's "core ideology." While this is detailed out at great length in the book, I walked away asking myself the following questions in order to get to the answer for our business. What are the fundamental items that make up your organizational DNA? What are the underlying guiding principals of your company that will not waver in the face of economic or financial issues? Here are the results of our discussions:

• Do what is best for our customers.
• Be honest and ethical at all times.
• Develop our future leaders and promote from within.
• Have high expectations and a low tolerance for poor performance.
• Run lean while maintaining a high level of fiscal responsibility.

Our original list of items was about 30 deep. We had to go through a series of eliminations as well as discussions among some of our key folks in order to chunk this list down to the five aforementioned items. While we are still in the refinement process of ensuring this is truly "the" list for our organization, I feel compelled to share what we find through this process and share my own thoughts with you along the way.

You could even do this from a personal standpoint. Ask yourself the same questions about your own person and you can identify your self-core ideology. Pretty interesting. If you are an entrepreneur, you could even incorporate your self-core into your business core. What a great way to keep your passion for your business alive and well.

What I like the most about this exercise is that makes it pretty easy to streamline the decision making process. If something goes against your core, you do not pursue it. While we all live in a business climate of healthy change, it is important for businesses to know why it is that they exist beyond the underlying concept of making money. If you want to build a "visionary company" as Collins and Porras mention in their book you have to exist for a "purpose beyond profit." This will provide for a much more "clear vision and sense of direction" while maintaining a "pragmatic pursuit of profit."

The next step in this process is for us to identify our core purpose as an organization. On the surface this seems pretty easy. We shall see, as I plan to open the issue up for discussion among some of our leadership folks here at The Employment Guide.

While I find these exercises especially intriguing as I just finished reading the book, I also see a great benefit in taking our leadership team through the BTL process. So far, we have benefited from the depth of the discussions and have a clearer sense of direction or vision for our organization.

Did you come up with a list of three to five items that make up your own personal core ideology? If so did you encounter any surprises?

Thanks for your time.

Jeff Littlejohn

The Changing Face of Distribution

As the publishing industry continues to evolve and become predominantly one that is electronic media oriented, so will distribution. The move towards changing the way in which publishing companies look and measure their distribution is being driven by the consumer. As more consumers switch to predominantly online sources for the news and information, publishers will have to follow. Newspapers are no exception to this change, especially given the collapse of the paid subscriber. The questions are: Are they willing to change and can their culture allow for this change quickly enough as to not lose the franchise?

Our organization, The Employment Guide, is a publisher. We publish 80 free weekly employment publications across the United States. Just like all other publishers, we are not exempt from the changing media landscape. Our website EmploymentGuide.com is one of the top ten job boards in the United States (according to the comScore Media Metrix for Career Resources & Development sites, September 2007). We are making a concerted effort and significant investments in leading our organization successfully into the future. One component of our future will include an electronic distribution network that is being constructed to support our print titles in how we are meeting the needs of our customers. We are in the process of constructing this network which will allow for our client's message to be delivered through an electronic means to job seekers in a way that will specifically match the job seekers needs. In addition to distribution directly to job seekers, we are continually building additional distribution channels for our customers' job postings. We currently distribute our content to a multitude of websites, as well as powering a job board for a variety of websites across the internet landscape.

Of note is the recent trend towards publishers communicating their total distribution to include their online distribution. It is about time! Most of these publishers, including us, have made significant investments into developing this side of their business. All of this hard work, investments and the results of the effort should be allowed to be an extension of their distribution. In fact, if you were to take the more than two million copies of our print publication that we are distributing across the country on a weekly basis and add the readership (averaging 2.5 readers per free publication picked up) of the job seekers picking up our titles to our comScore, we would rank as the number four job resource in the Untied States, only outpaced by the three largest general job boards/resources. As far as niche resources for the hourly non-exempt job seeker, we would rank number one.

That is exciting as we strive to deliver quality results for our customers. We will continue to work on the development of an online distribution channel that will be hourly, non-exempt job seeker centric. The results of this initiative will manifest in the upward trend in our traffic over the course of the effort. We love to compete. We are excited about the future. No doubt we are a publisher that is evolving, but we are on the right track to continue our progression as a dominant player online. The Employment Guide is an exciting place to be right now. We are having a lot of fun while working on our own professional development as we continue on our journey of organizational evolution.

How is your organization evolving?

Core Values

What are the core values that define your organization? As a leader your actions and decisions should support your organizational core values. Our core values, which are all in support of our ability to meet our customers' needs and to provide award winning customer service, are to always be devoted to the professional development of our people, to maintain a high level of fiscal responsibility and to grow revenue. All three of these items add up to providing excellent products and services that are of great value to our customers. It is important that those in leadership positions within our organization focus on these attributes as they lead their teams towards accomplishing our goals in a local market in any of our 55 offices across the United States. While the path to accomplishing our goals might be different in each market, the road on which each leader in our organization travels is paved with the same asphalt.

I strongly believe that the core values of an organization define the leaders of that organization. Our core values can also be attributed to the individuals who were involved in the professional development of our current leaders. I for one am reminded of the lessons I have learned from those who have been in a mentoring role over the course of my career on almost a daily basis. It is easy for an organization or leadership within an organization to proclaim that it is devoted to the ongoing professional development of its people. It is much harder to actually execute this philosophy and to keep it ingrained into an organization's culture. I have a high degree of respect for those who are successful in making this a reality. A good barometer is in the number of folks who have been promoted from within an organization. A good leader always promotes the need for ongoing professional development to his or her folks so these individuals can get promoted. One way a leader can make this happen is to never stop working on his or her own professional development. An organization will take on the personality of its leaders. If you, as a leader, continue to work on your development, those that you lead will be more receptive to emulating this practice. Likewise, if you routinely show up late for work, it will become less important to those who work for you to be on time. People emulate their leaders. This is extremely important for those in leadership roles to remember whether at the office, after work, on the weekend, etc.

Every action that you do is, in some sense, like a ritual that celebrates the values that you hold.- Dr. Matthew Basston, Ethics Instructor

What are the core values of your organization? If you cannot answer this question quickly, make time to answer this question. Use your answers as a guide to make better decisions that will always be in support of what your organization is trying to accomplish.

A Leadership Must

There are certain things leaders need to remain mindful of on an ongoing basis that impact the mental well being and culture within their operation. Subtle and common sense things that at times can prove to be very elusive including...

• Always saying "thank you."
  
• Always using the word "please" when asking someone else to do something.
  
• Not playing the "boss card" unless it is absolutely necessary.
  
• Giving recognition for a job well done.
  
• Treating everyone fairly even in the most difficult of situations. (This particular item is of just as much importance to the folks that are in your office and not directly related to the issue at hand because they know however you treat the current situation could be reflective of how you might handle any future situations including theirs.)
  
• Never using unprofessional language.
  
• Being honest with people even if it means telling someone something they do not want to hear but communicating it in a tactful manner.
  
• Stopping whatever you are doing to actually listen to what someone is telling you.
  
• Summarizing back to someone what they just told you to ensure you fully understand what they are saying.
  
• Introducing people by name to your superiors.
  
• Always following through on what you tell someone you are going to do.
  
• Catch folks doing something right, verses something wrong.
  
• "Coach" your people into becoming the winners you perceive them to be.
  

People emulate their leaders. Follow these guidelines and you will improve the morale, culture and effectiveness of your entire organization. A business is only as effective as the mindset of its greatest resources, its people.

"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment." - John Wooden

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions." - Harold S. Geneen

What are you currently doing that could be added to the above list?

Our Strengths

I was recently forwarded a couple of links to comments on a competitor's blog that referred to our organization in a negative fashion. When you are the leader in your industry, you are going to be criticized, especially by your competition. If you were not the leader, you probably would not have anyone making any comments about your business because no one would really care that much. Being out in front of your competition means that you are the one with the target on your back. It is obvious, however, that if your business does not have a lot of strengths or positives things going on, your only way to attempt to build value in the eyes of prospects or to garner attention is to speak poorly of your competition. When secondary businesses within industries try to use this approach, clients either quickly lose interest in their message or are quick to identify a fleeting effort by a struggling business to nip at the heals of an industry leader.



I have always advocated and will continue to advocate taking the high road when it comes to addressing questions or speaking directly about our competition. As a business, we teach our folks to focus on talking about our strengths. Conducting a thorough needs analysis with a client or prospect will uncover specific requirements to which we can match the features we offer as a business (our strengths). This will result in our being able to quickly ascertain and then satisfy those needs to the benefit of that prospect or client. This approach followed by quality customer service has proven to be a recipe for success over the last ten years. We entered this industry with the approach of being a long-term recruitment solution partner for employers within each of the local 77 markets that we serve with print, online and job fair solutions. Ten years from now our products will have changed because the need of the job seeker and employer will change, but our purpose and focus to meet the ongoing needs of our clients (both job seekers and employers) will remain constant and our passion. As products continue to quickly change via emerging electronic media recruitment solutions, our approach of being focused on meeting our customers needs of today and tomorrow will remain the foundation for our success. We will make this a reality through the combination of quality products in the form of online, print and job fair recruitment solutions. (Did you know that The Employment Guide conducted its 1,000th job fair earlier this year?)



"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." -T. Jefferson



My advice is to always position your business based on your strengths. Know your competition and address questions as they come up while having conversations with your customers or prospects in a way that once again allows you to focus on the value proposition your organization brings to the table in meeting their needs. This is always a combination for success. Who wants to spend time talking about their competition? Especially by name! Leave their branding efforts up to their marketing department. Quite frankly, if you find yourself talking negatively about your competition, it might just mean that you don't have a whole lot of positive things to say about your own business or organization.



"A leader is one who sees more than others see, and who sees before others do." -Leroy Eims


How does your staff handle conversations with your customers about your competition?

Bench Strength

A common trait among effective leaders is in their ability to attract, retain, and surround themselves with talented people. What happens when one of these most-trusted folks leaves? Well, another trait, although not as common is in the ability to successfully execute succession planning. While some companies live and die with this practice and make it a bureaucratic process, others leave this up to the individual managers to properly execute. Let's face it, if you are not developing your replacement you are going to make it a lot harder for the company to move you into a position of greater authority or responsibility. Yes, succession planning is key to one's professional growth.

Our company, The Employment Guide, has a structured MIT (Manager in Training) program that is executed through senior and local management but is administered or measured by our training department. This has proven to be effective since it frees up our leaders time to focus on the actual teaching part of the program verses the related paper-work. We are also very close to the introduction of a new senior manager developmental program which will allow for a more formal developmental process to aid in the future development of our most talented folks. These types of programs are key in setting a cultural direction for the entire organization to be open in embracing the development of our people. This is and will continue to be a critical element in the success of our organization. We understand that our people are what truly differentiates us from the competition. We have great pride in knowing that we are committing resources to aid in the professional development of our people as well as their overall knowledge level about the changing landscape of our industry.

Succession planning is very important to me personally. I have been the benefactor of some great mentors in my professional life that successfully instilled this practice into my core personal leadership philosophy. I, like those before me, will do my best to continue to be an active part of the process and steer our organization in a direction that is people development oriented.

Are you currently working with someone on their development into a leadership role. There is not a better way to gain a greater understanding for a subject than to take on the responsibility of a teaching it. You put yourself in a position to learn more just to stay one step ahead of your student. In fact, by focusing on the development of others you end up truly focusing on your own development. That is a great gift to give yourself, your people, and your organization.

Put yourself in a good position to compete for that next promotion. Get busy developing your replacement. Better yet, develop 3 or 4 people who could step in and do your job tomorrow. This way you can easily move on to assume greater responsibility.

Who on your team is your replacement? Is it a "no brainer" in terms of your boss making the same decision? What about their boss? If you cannot answer that question with certainty you have some work to do. If you do not have someone that is stepping up in terms of being your replacement you best get busy with the recruiting and hiring process.

Good succession planning is good for you as the leader, your people, and your organization. Take it seriously and it will set you apart from the crowd.

Leadership Repair

When times are tough leadership is more closely scrutinized. Once a staff or team feels the impact of a change in a local or office market, for whatever reason, it is up to the leader to lay out a course of action or alternative solutions to get their team back on track in obtaining success. Lack of such action by a leader results in a continuation of negative performance trends and ultimately loss of key personnel. Ultimately, this leads to a loss of confidence among personnel in product, company, and leadership. Once all three of these issues have been allowed to come to fruition it can be impossible to reverse negative trending and performance without new leadership.

By being completely engaged in their business effective leaders avoid these types of situations. Although it is true that some circumstances can be outside of a leader's ultimate control (economy, weather, etc.), quality leadership finds or create ways to overcome obstacles without allowing excuses to replace confidence or productivity.

How is the confidence level of your team? Do they believe in your cause? Do they believe that you can lead them back to being successful? Are they confident in the products and services, or suite of products your company is offering? Let's face it, especially in a sales oriented business, if you as the leader have allowed the confidence level of your sales team to become shattered your leadership ability will rightfully be called into question and might even be beyond repair.

If you are int his situation, my advice is to have regular meetings and discussions with your team to stay plugged in to what is and what is not working. Demonstrate that you will not allow current obstacles to overcome your success by working on the exploration of alternative solutions until you find the one that works. Work harder and smarter than anyone else in your organization. Become the example of how to deal with a difficult business climate. This could even lead to higher levels of recognition within your company. True leadership and legacies are usually defined when times are tough. When is the last time you read a best selling business book on turning around an already top-performing operation? Always be working on a plan to overcome any obstacles while incorporating the the thoughts and ideas of the leaders on your sales floor to elevate the confidence level of your team. Repairing the confidence level among your team will also repair the greatest obstacle to your success, and ultimately will restore your ability to once again effectively lead your team to success.

Emulation

Have you ever noticed how a business will take on the personality of its leader? Another example is when a leader truly takes ownership over an initiative and his or her staff members follow suit. I see examples of this everyday in our business. What is important to the leader of any given piece of our business is also important to those that report to the leader. Is it due to the anticipation of inspection of results or efforts? Maybe in some cases this applies, but in most it is due to the elevation of the level of passion for a particular piece of the business that the leader has embraced that causes the increase in revenue, income, activity, etc.

Understanding this can give a leader an advantage when dealing with their teams. You can increase the overall effectiveness of your people by not only keeping your message consistent but by the manner in which you deliver the message. Even if you are having a bad day, you need to deflect or filter your inner frustrations from those that you lead so you can keep the environment positive and productive. All too often leaders fail in this regard. An example of this would be if traffic was bad on the way into the office and the leader gets upset, lets this spillover into the workplace and allows it to set the tone for the entire day. Be cognizant of your mind set, body language and verbal communication to your team. This is especially true early in the workday. Sometimes leaders derail their operation without even realizing it. Being keenly aware of the completeness of the impact you can have on your people will elevate your leadership skill set.

Always remember that people emulate their leaders. This can be great if the leader is confident, capable and always able to deliver the right message at the right time.

Start your day tomorrow in a unique way that would be completely out of character. What kind of impact did that have on the rest of the work day? Did anyone else on your team step outside of the norm? People emulate their leaders....

The Run

Have you ever noticed how true leaders will run towards a problem, not from one? The most effective leaders are the ones who have their senses so in tune with the business that they can smell smoke before there is a fire. Problems will exist in every business. There are even people in leadership positions who will ignore problems in hopes that they will dissipate or go away on their own. Typically, what they find out is that the problem or conflict will expand quickly and will end up impacting multiple personnel and departments.

A leader who runs towards problems and spends time seeking out these types of issues will earn high levels of trust and respect from his or her team. If the people that you lead know that you are on the front lines removing bottlenecks and are willing to fight the good fight when needed, they will inevitably charge the hill for you when it's their turn.

When hiring for leadership positions, I will always delve into the reasons why an individual left their previous employers. This is a great way to determine if there is a pattern or history of behavior that demonstrates a willingness or unwillingness to deal with problematic issues. Individuals in leadership positions have no choice; they will have to deal with problems (sometimes severe). In the end, a leader's success or lack of success can be solely determined by his or her ability to sense problems in the making, and by his or her willingness to make "the run" for the resolution.

Smell any smoke today? Is the issue resolved?