What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Welcome to Week 4 of the SOS Leadership Blog Series:

Creating a Positive Organizational Culture

Each Friday for the next 5 weeks, we'll be blogging about engaging employees, boosting morale, and creating a dynamic culture. We have an awesome lineup of guest bloggers, some of the best and brightest HR folks around! Come back each Friday to hear their words of wisdom. If you need to be reminded, followSOS Leadership on Twitter and like us on Facebook, and we'll let you know when the blogs are posted! Happy Friday!!!

Today's thought-provoking blog post, entitled What's Love Got To Do With It?, is by Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative's Human Resources Manager, Jennifer Foery!

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative’s Foundation Values include:

Safety

Reliability

Respect

Community

Courage

Love

Love?

I enjoy watching the faces of people when they read our Foundation Values. All of the other 5 values are relatively standard and unsurprising, though no less meaningful. Of course we work in a dangerous environment so safety is going to be paramount. We are an electric distribution cooperative, and reliability is key to our success; you flip the light switch, you expect the lights to come on and stay on. We respect our members; we respect the environment; and we respect our co-workers and ourselves. As a cooperative, our customers (we call them members) and many of our employees are our owners, and our collective involvement in the community is simply who we are. It takes courage to question the process, courage to step forth and volunteer, courage to care about your work and the people you work with.

And Love.

The word itself is multi-faceted. Of the four words the Greeks used to describe this feeling of “love” (Storge, Agape, Eros, Philia), Philia is probably the closest to what LOVE means at Bluebonnet. There are several employees who are members of the same family (Storge), a few who are married couples (Eros); many give of themselves and their time to volunteer, asking nothing in return (Agape). ALL employees share a special bond because of the organization we work for and the experiences we have in common (Philia).

Beyond brotherly love, Love in a business setting becomes more about doing the right thing. James Autry (www.jamesautry.com), in his book and video “Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership” lists four basic elements behind Love in an organization:

1. Trust - Rebuild a sense of community

"If you mistrust people, you make them untrustworthy."

2, Honesty - Communicate openly and honestly

"If people don't get the information they need, they make it up!"

3. Special Treatment - Dare to give employees special treatment

"You don't have to treat everyone the same."

4. Courage - Be candid and specific

"Anger and intimidation are facades we hide behind."

I would add that organizations need to be passionate about developing their employees because they deserve it. It increases their self-worth, their value to the organization and to your constituents.

Mr. Autry’s list is not easy. It requires organizations to be accountable and to be willing to have the hard conversations. It requires transparency; in numbers, policy and communication. It also requires employees to speak up when the organization and other employees are not holding true to the covenant. In other words, it takes courage.

Now I don’t want you to think that just because all our employees get a Bluebonnet paycheck that we sit around and sing Kum-ba-ya all the time. We don’t always show that we love each other – sometimes we don’t even like each other, but we are all in relationships; relationships with our members, board of directors, and with each other, and relationships are HARD. How many times have you avoided giving a difficult message because you didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings? Or shut down and shut yourself off because you opened yourself up to another person and got burned and it’s just easier to distance yourself than to feel that kind of pain again? Do you think those dynamics only happen at home?

Our charge then, is to take those imperfections, the tendencies to express our humanity, and figure out a way to improve. How do you do that? You work on it. You have the hard conversations and are honest. Admit when you are wrong and when you don’t have all the answers. Tell people the truth so they don’t make up their own reality.

More importantly however, you have to open yourself up to the experience. Allow yourself to be changed by the people you work with, the people you love because in the end, we are all here because we love and are loved. Our General Manager said it best when he said, “We all go on our individual journeys, but we go on them together. That makes Love our most powerful Foundation Value and gives us the greatest strengths as employees at Bluebonnet and as humans.”

Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative is one of the largest electric cooperatives in Texas and has been serving its members since 1939. Bluebonnet serves more than 81,000 meters and owns and maintains 11,000 miles of power lines, located across more than 3,800 square miles within 14 Central Texas counties. Bluebonnet’s service area stretches from Travis County to Washington County, and from Milam County down to Gonzales County. For more information about Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, go to www.bluebonnetelectric.coop and follow the co-op on Facebook and Twitter.

Entitlement Mentality: What if my company won't invest in me?

I was talking to an HR professional last week about one of my favorite topics – the importance of lifelong learning. She and I meet every so often because we challenge each other. We have 4 Master’s degrees between the two of us and our shared love of learning means that every time we get together, we both leave exhausted from thinking so hard. We all need people in our lives who challenge us like that!

When we met last week, we got into a deep discussion about the “entitlement mentality” when it comes to personal and professional development. Some people expect that their company should pay for ALL of their growth – membership to trade organizations, learning and development programs, leadership initiatives, and tuition for continuing education.

We both agreed that it would be ideal if all organizations could invest on some level in the growth and development of their employees, but it’s just not the reality. So what’s a professional to do? Do you sit around and let your skills go soft? Do you let technology pass you by? Do you watch younger professionals pass you as they climb the ladder? Do you spend all of your time complaining about the fact that the company won't invest in you?

Our answer was a resounding HECK NO! You invest in yourself.

• You find ways to learn and grow, regardless of whether your company is footing the bill.
• You make sacrifices, recognizing that both time and money are involved in becoming a better version of yourself.
• You surround yourself with people who challenge you to grow, with people who aren’t afraid to ask you the tough questions and hold you accountable as you strive to achieve your goals.
• You find a way to learn something new every day.
• You ask a lot of questions and spend time reflecting on where you are and how you will get to where you want to be.
• You take action! You set goals and work to achieve them.

One thing is certain – time and money will be limited. They almost always are. But you make choices. You determine whether or not your future is worth investing in. You decide if YOU are worth investing in. You never know…when you start investing in your growth, perhaps your company will follow suit. But even if they don’t, you’ll have learned something that will stay with you forever. And you will certainly be better because of it!

Culture: It’s not about parties and dress code

Welcome to Week 3 of the SOS Leadership Blog Series:

Creating a Positive Organizational Culture

Each Friday for the next 6 weeks, we'll be blogging about engaging employees, boosting morale, and creating a dynamic culture. We have an awesome lineup of guest bloggers, some of the best and brightest HR folks around! Come back each Friday to hear their words of wisdom. If you need to be reminded, follow SOS Leadership on Twitter and like us on Facebook, and we'll let you know when the blogs are posted! Happy Friday!!!

Today's hard-hitting blog post, entitled Culture: It’s not about parties and dress code, is by SOS Leadership's Billy Moyer!

Every organization, no matter the size or the amount of revenue it brings in, has a company culture. A culture really is just the personality of the company. The culture determines how employees act, how motivated and engaged they are, how they contribute to teams, how they solve problems, how they produce results, and ultimately how they serve clients.

Many companies believe that they shape the culture of the organization through a laidback environment where employees can come to work dressed casually. This is something we see a lot in Austin, Texas. Other companies think having companywide events and parties will help build their culture. Too often, I hear people talk about only those things when discussing organizational culture.

But culture is not about parties, a relaxed dress code, or anything like that. Sure, those things can make employees feel more comfortable, but it will not significantly affect their lives or the the quality of their work.

Culture, to me, is about development and growth. Is your company committed to helping employees develop into leaders? Is your organization committed to growth? Not just growth in the numbers, but the individual growth and professional development of each team member? Unfortunately, the answer to these questions is often no.

One of our partners was talking to someone from a company the other day about the work that we do, and the person said that their organizational culture did not support the professional development and growth of individuals. Basically, the company is more concerned with numbers and what people are doing for them, rather than what they can do for the growth and development of those people. Not a great way to show employees that you value them, in my opinion! But, hey, they probably have a quarterly staff party so that makes up for it, right?

Awhile back I was meeting with a leader of a company who told me they don’t invest in training or development for their people because they hire people who are already developed. “We only hire the best,” were his exact words. How do people who are the best stay the best? They recognize that learning is a lifelong process, and they seek every opportunity to grow. How long will those folks last at a company that doesn’t care about investing in their development?

If you want to build a positive company culture, then focus on the development and growth of every employee. Build a development culture! This, of course, starts at the top, but it doesn’t end there. Every employee can be a leader within the organization, but the organization must make that known to them. Investing in leadership development and training is imperative. You may think your employees don’t want more work, so training isn’t an option. But they are craving it; they just don’t know it because you haven’t given them the opportunity.

If you invest in building a development culture, you will surely have more engaged employees who are focused on their own personal growth and in turn the growth of the company. Your people have tremendous leadership potential. Why not empower them to reach their full potential? Why not set them up to succeed in the future?

Don’t just be concerned with the bottom-line. This will only lead you to the bottom. Is that really where you want to be?

"Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose!"

This evening marks the end of one of the best television shows that unfortunately not enough people watched. I have given up on most shows, but you can bet that tonight at 7PM Central, I will tune in to see the series finale of Friday Night Lights on NBC.

I am not sure why I was first drawn to this show. Maybe it was the football or the fact that it was filmed in my city, Austin, TX. But after watching the first episode I was hooked mostly because of the great life lessons that came from the show. It’s not just a show about football; it’s about relationships, passion, and most importantly, leadership!

The leadership aspect in the show is why I can write about it in this blog. Friday Night Lights is about a coach and his wife and how they deal with the many challenges that they face. One of the keys to them overcoming so many things is that they stick together. Too often in our world, couples face adversity and end their relationship. A lot of television shows portray that because for some reason it sells. But the marriage of Eric and Tami Taylor (Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton) is an example for all to follow. Their relationship sold me.

Other than the marriage example, you may be wondering how leadership is present in the show. Well, in the very first episode you have two main leaders. A coach and a star quarterback. Before the end of that episode, you have a coach whose star quarterback has been paralyzed. Only a great leader could lead a team through that, and that’s what Eric Taylor did. Of course, he had other leaders step up like his back-up quarterback, Matt Saracen. He led the team to a State Championship even though no one thought he could. He also did so while juggling school, work, and taking care of his grandmother who had dementia. Everyone he loved abandoned him. But Coach Taylor believed in him and great things happened.

Belief is so important in leadership, and it is clearly present throughout every episode of Friday Night Lights. Throughout the series, every now and then, Coach Taylor would look a player in the eye and tell him “I believe in you.” When he said that, you felt that he really did. You felt that he was saying that to you, the viewer. That’s the sign of a great show.

Friday Night Lights ends this evening, but it will live on. In fact, I think it will have a greater effect now that it is over. I compare it to the movie, Shawshank Redemption. No one cared about it when it came out, but now you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t love it. So if you have never seen Friday Night Lights, I encourage you to catch the re-runs, buy the seasons, or watch in on Netflix (or Blockbuster due to some recent pricing changes). You will not be sorry!

But most importantly, I hope that you remember: “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!” Don’t just watch the show; go out and take action. Clearly define your goals, your vision for the future. Fully believe in yourself and the people around you! And you will WIN in anything you attempt!

“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!”

Communicating Culture: Part 2

Welcome to Week 2 of the SOS Leadership Blog Series:

Creating a Positive Organizational Culture

Each Friday for the next 7 weeks, we'll be blogging about engaging employees, boosting morale, and creating a dynamic culture. We have an awesome lineup of guest bloggers, some of the best and brightest HR folks around! Come back each Friday to hear their words of wisdom. If you need to be reminded, follow SOS Leadership on Twitter and like us on Facebook, and we'll let you know when the blogs are posted! Happy Friday!!!

Special thanks to guest blogger, Kelli Huff, Director of Human Resources at SicolaMartin, for another great post!

Hello again. This is part 2 of Communicating Culture. Be sure to check out Part 1 of this topic exploration on corporate culture. In it, I talk about what culture is and suggest ways to help define your company story.

Here, I want to discuss the concept of culture change. I say “concept” because each organization is so unique in its practices and goals that there’s really no easy formula to guarantee a positive culture shift. But I will attempt to lay out a broad roadmap that those not faint of heart might want to travel. But I warn you, it’ll be fraught with danger. Ok, maybe not danger (there’s really no need to be that dramatic) but it will be hard and frustrating and could possibly take a long time.

The first thing I suggest is to get buy in from management. This can be tricky, depending on if the leadership agrees or not with your assessment of the culture. If you feel you might have a challenging time effecting change—due to roadblocks from above—then do your homework and build a case. You don’t want to walk in unprepared. Create informal focus groups and talk to employees and trusted members of your industry. If you can solicit information anonymously, then great, as folks tend to be a bit more honest in that format.

Once you feel like you’ve got a good cross-section of data, analyze it with an eye towards specific improvement projects. And wear your skin thick. You asked for this, so don’t get bent out of shape at all the negative comments. Then buck up and advocate an action plan. Sell it into leadership and move forward, openly communicating with employees. Be as transparent as possible, communicating often and consistently on how these changes will benefit the WHOLE. I can’t stress the importance of this enough because you are going to face resistance.

Remember, your culture is a reflection of your people. There’s a reason your culture is what it is. This is why it’s so hard. But change can happen, as long as you and your management teams are persistent and consistent. You just have to keep moving forward and repeat the exercise with the entire organization in mind. Broaden your focus groups. Get those that are resistant to change in your core group of change drivers. If you can get them on board, the rest will come easier.

Continue to analyze your data and stay focused on a few items that will have the biggest impact. There’s most likely no need to start from scratch, and in fact, trying to do so will probably alienate the very folks you’re attempting to motivate. So, stay focused and take it chunk by chunk, story by story. And if you can, evolve your stories. Get people telling a different, more positive narrative about your organization. In time your culture as a whole will evolve, as well.

Or, you can just come work at SicolaMartin. We have a great culture!

About SicolaMartin
Austin, Texas-based SicolaMartin is an advertising and marketing agency that turns marketing complexities into compelling ideas. For more than 20 years, the agency has created powerful connections between brands and their customers in industries such as enterprise technology, consumer electronics, managed services, healthcare, telecom and supply chain management and logistics. Industry leaders, including AMD, CoreLogic, Dell, McLane and Sybase have relied on SicolaMartin for innovative marketing solutions. The agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of Young & Rubicam Brands, is a Best Place to Work in Marketing & Media and has been named a Best Company to Work for in Texas since inception of the list.

I Choose Happiness

Have you ever met someone that seems really happy all the time? We all know these perky, bubbly types who always seem to be smiling. Ever wonder what their secret is? Ever find yourself wondering what they have to be so happy about? Ever thought to yourself, maybe she's on drugs? It's okay. You can admit it. We've all been there.

(Okay, I'll confess that I've been known to be one of the perky, bubbly types, and sometimes people have asked these questions about me. One time someone even asked me how much Red Bull it took to be so chipper!)

So what is the secret to living a happy life? Aristotle once said, "Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." You want to be happy, right? If you accept Aristotle's definition of happiness, then I bet you do. We all want to be happy, and we CAN BE today. Not someday. Today.

A significant change in my life occurred when I realized that happiness is a choice. I can't pinpoint the exact moment that I had this realization, but I know that is was during the year I spent as a full-time volunteer working with those experiencing homelessness in Phoenix, Arizona. During that year, I met people who had endured unspeakable suffering - extreme poverty, hunger, abuse, and neglect. Some of the folks I met had spent most of their lives struggling to meet their basic needs, yet they were happy. To be honest, all of this rocked my world!

I reflected on all of the people I knew who were unhappy or who were playing the, "I'll be happy when..." game. When I reach this point in my life, I'll be happy. Or when I achieve this, I'll be happy. My question is: why not choose to be happy now?

A number of things that have happened lately have reminded me that life can be painfully short. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. So count your blessings today. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you today. Squeeze your family and friends a little tighter today. Choose to be happy today!

"Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling." - Margaret Lee Runbeck

Communicating Culture: Part 1

Introducing an Exclusive SOS Leadership Blog Series:

Creating a Positive Organizational Culture

During the next 8 weeks, we will post a blog each Friday about engaging employees, boosting morale, and creating a dynamic culture. We have an awesome lineup of guest bloggers, some of the best and brightest HR folks around! Come back each Friday to hear their words of wisdom. If you need to be reminded, follow SOS Leadership on Twitter and like us on Facebook, and we'll let you know when the blogs are posted! Happy Friday!!!

Special thanks to guest blogger, Kelli Huff, Director of Human Resources at SicolaMartin for this fantastic post!

I’m HR so I tend to talk a lot. Communication is a big part of what I do and knowing how to best communicate in a given situation is key. And although most of my conversations are done one-on-one (how I like it), I had an opportunity recently to share our company story with a larger audience…and it was enlightening.

I was invited to speak at an HR conference on corporate culture and to discuss ways that companies can learn to tell their story (I have it pretty easy, because SicolaMartin has a great story to tell). I also met folks from other great companies, like Rackspace and St. David’s, who—like SicolaMartin—score high on the culture scale. But I was a bit shocked to hear from so many whose companies seem to be suffering from an identity crisis. So I am excited to share a two-part blog post on this topic of culture from HR’s perspective. It’s an area I am extremely passionate about. A passion inspired and nurtured by the leadership of SM.

Culture, in its most basic description, is your organization’s personality. Personality can be defined as the visible aspect of one’s character and develops over time based on preferences, choices and exposure to different experiences.

Your company has a personality. A culture already exists. Whether you like it or not is the question.

Before I go any further, let me tell you my point of view on HR’s role in an organization’s culture. We are there to support it, cultivate it, manage it and recruit into it… we make suggestions, offer insights and (if it’s a positive culture) use what the culture offers to inspire. BUT, we don’t create it. Or, in my opinion, we shouldn’t. Culture, at least long-term successfully sustained culture, is created by the top leadership of the organization. If your C-levels aren’t exemplifying the culture you hope to communicate, then it’s going to be an uphill battle to get the employment force to believe in it. We’ve all experienced that, right? Without buy-in from above, it’s very difficult to get a program off the ground. It can be a challenge, though, selling it up because so much of culture is intangible. Sure, there are the things you can see that give you a quick read about a firm. The dress code. The work environment. You can ask about perks and hear about the benefit offerings. But that’s pretty surface.

It’s the things you can’t see that are usually the more powerful, but by nature, harder to define. And it’s these things that truly make up the cultural core of a company. It’s the values and beliefs, the attitudes and standards, the moods and worldviews of the people in the group.

And much of these views are created organically. I’m a big fan of organic growth, and it can be an extremely positive thing. But, granted, there are some risks. On the “pro” side, organic implementation gives ownership to those instigating the change; it allows leadership to be perceived as open to new thinking and ideas. It can create loyalty among employees and most importantly, it creates its own story.

But you want that story to be a good one, so it’s HR’s role to support positive cultural momentum and redirect practices that could lead to opposing the company’s values and goals. And that’s the risk. If you just let it go with no management or cultivation, there’s no telling where your company’s story may end up.

So, first, you have to know what the values and goals are. Does your company have a mission? Do you know what it is? Do your employees? This is how you can support a positive culture—by asking the right questions. Look to your industry. Advertising is fun and creative. We work hard, but we can also have Martians and critters (check out our website if you don’t know what I’m talking about). We make the complex compelling. That’s our story. Every employee knows that we turn marketing complexity into compelling ideas.

But what’s your story? That’s the most important thing. Knowing who you are. Identifying your key talent and asking them what they like about working there. Where are they getting their motivation? Talk to clients and vendors. Get their perspective. Just make sure you’re being authentic with who you are. If the story you’re trying to tell is at odds with the reality, it’s going hurt your culture, morale and perception more than help.

But it’s not good enough to just know it. It has to be practiced and supported by management. If a core value is RESPECT, but a manager is disrespectful to an employee they supervise, and no action is taken on the part of HR or leadership, that value diminishes. That’s why it’s so important that we stay engaged with our employees. Don’t ever underestimate the impact of word of mouth.

You’re not always going to be able to keep what’s repeated about your organization positive. I get that. But as HR, we can certainly manage it with that goal in mind. Even in exit interviews, you can do your best to manage the transition and shoot for a positive result. You see, culture can’t only be good in the good times. Often, it’s in the down times that our true culture is revealed. In fact, it’s a strong culture that may help your company pull itself out of a downturn. That’s another experience SicolaMartin has had. We’re 25 years old…we’ve pretty much seen it all.

And although we have had to tweak our business model over the years to evolve with the times, we really haven’t had to make many changes to our core culture—thankfully—because culture change can be difficult and require a great deal of perseverance. But, if you find yourself at an organization in need of change, we’ll talk about some of the things you might be able to do to get that going in Part 2, which will be posted next Friday. Stay tuned!

About SicolaMartin
Austin, Texas-based SicolaMartin is an advertising and marketing agency that turns marketing complexities into compelling ideas. For more than 20 years, the agency has created powerful connections between brands and their customers in industries such as enterprise technology, consumer electronics, managed services, healthcare, telecom and supply chain management and logistics. Industry leaders, including AMD, CoreLogic, Dell, McLane and Sybase have relied on SicolaMartin for innovative marketing solutions. The agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of Young & Rubicam Brands, is a Best Place to Work in Marketing & Media and has been named a Best Company to Work for in Texas since inception of the list.

If you don't have discipline, you don't have anything!

When I was a teenager, I received a paperweight from my parents that reads, “If you don’t have discipline, you don’t have anything.” At the time, I was slightly annoyed (although not at all surprised) to receive such a gift from my Mom and Dad. When you are taught about goal-setting and leadership while you’re learning to walk and talk, you get used to gifts inscribed with words of motivation and at times “a swift kick in the pants.” I can assure you that the timing of receiving this paperweight was appropriate; this somewhat defiant teenager needed to be reminded of the importance of discipline.

The word discipline has so many negative connotations. Our past conditioning often causes us to equate discipline to being punished. We remember being sent to timeout and having toys taken away when we were kids and getting grounded and all sorts of other creative punishments during our teenage years. Because we tend to think of discipline as a bad word, it’s no wonder it’s something most of us lack.

I’ll be the first to admit that my discipline comes and goes. When I look at my own behavior patterns, I can clearly see that I am the most disciplined when I have clarity about what I want to accomplish. When the finish line is unclear or out of sight/out of mind, my discipline wanes.

Jim Rohn tells us that “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” If you feel stuck, first you have to figure out what your goals are. Do you have clearly defined short-term and long-term goals that you’re working toward? Do those goals include deadlines and detailed action plans? If not, I’d argue that your goal setting process isn’t as effective as it could be.

Once you have clarity about your goals and a plan to achieve them, then you need to be disciplined as you work toward your goal. Most of us get off track from time to time, even when we have clarity about our goals. It’s important to have a system of accountability in place to keep you on track. Think about how you will hold yourself accountable, including how you will keep track of your progress toward your goals. Next, consider who you can ask to hold you accountable. When lining up accountability partners for your various goals, be sure to be specific with each person about exactly how you want them to hold you accountable.

Closing Challenge:

Is there a gap between what you say you want and what you do? That gap can be bridged by discipline! If you don’t have discipline, you won’t get what you want.

If you don’t know how to set goals or want to learn more about the goal-setting process, SOS Leadership can help. Contact us today!