Ethics Now!

There has been a lot in the news about ethics lately. Or rather about he lack of them. The headlines include students’ cheating, Congressmen lying, CEO's back-dating stock options and executives spying on their boards – among other things. The question is often asked “why do smart people do dumb things?” Let me put it a different way, people who are smart – or not so smart – need to do the RIGHT thing. So what does that mean?

The Right Things…

Do not lie, cheat or steal. Ever. No excuses. “But everyone else is doing it” should have stopped before junior high school.

Treat others the way you would want to be treated. This applies to customers, employees, suppliers and family members.

There are no short cuts to success. Success is the result of hard work over time. Anything less is luck.

Communication. Say what you mean and mean what you say. We are all caught up in double talk, buzz words and spin. Think about what you say – whether it is one on one, to a small meeting, to the board or to an auditorium of people. Put is out there in plain English.

Walk the talk. If you say something – others look to you to live it too. If you expect something from others then you must live it and lead by example.

No secrets. Whether it is over the phone, e-mail, conversation – or even “IM” – there are NO secrets. If you would not say something to your mother – then do not say it to others in the “privacy” of conversation, e-mail or other communication vehicles.

Visibility works both ways. PR is great when you want everybody to know about something wonderful you have done. How about when you do something that is not so wonderful? Think about it. Would you want your actions on the front page of the newspaper or on the 10 O’clock news report?

Don’t forget…

Whether you are in the mail room – or the corner office – or anywhere in between, the way you act every day – in and out of the office – speaks volumes about you. Live your life as an open book. Follow the simple principles outlined above. You may not become a Fortune 500 CEO or achieve FORBES list of the wealthiest people – but you will be able to sleep at night, look your colleagues in the eye and leave a wonderful legacy for all of those you have touched during your life.

George F. Franks, III is the President of Franks Consulting Group – a Bethesda, Maryland management consulting and success coaching practice. George is a member of the International Coach Federation and the Institute of Management Consultants. His web site is:

http://franksconsultinggroup.com

His new e-zine on career and leadership topics is:

http://careerandleadership.com

Six Steps to Effective Meetings

Most people in medium and large businesses, government, non-profits and other organizations spend the majority of their time in meetings. As managers and executives, their most valuable resource is their time and that of their people. And yet more time is wasted in unproductive meetings than all other activities combined. Making meetings more productive is one of the most important thinks and any business or other organization can do. There are six key steps to making meetings more effective.

People. Insure that the right people are at the meeting. That they are there on time and that they focus on the meeting rather than taking cell phone calls and doing their e-mail. As much as people complain about meetings, people hate to feel they are missing something important. They feel excluded. It is critical that only the people who need to be at meetings attend them. Presenters who are not key participants should attend meetings only to give their presentations.

Purpose. While most meetings have a purpose, that purpose must be clearly stated in the meeting invitation and again at the beginning of the meeting. Someone should be designated to keep the meeting focused on that purpose. Any issues that arise that are not tied to the purpose should be noted and captured for another appropriate meeting. Also, at the end of the meeting, the purpose of the meeting should be stated again prior to the attendees leaving. Invitation – Opening – Stay on Topic – Closing.

Meeting type. Within the purpose, there are three types of meetings. Meetings must to be limited to information, decision making or idea floating. Informational meetings are those where people present new information to the group. These meetings need to leave time for questions. Decision making meetings are those where issues have been previously raised, recommended courses of action presented and decisions must be made by the body. The decisions must be documented. The final type of meeting is what we call an “idea floating” session. At these meetings, a pertinent issue or issues are raised and the people attending the meeting provide recommendations to address the issue or issues. These are then documented with owners to take the recommendations the next step.

Time. No meeting should last longer than one hour. Period. Meetings that last longer than an hour are not productive, they lose focus, they take on additional topics and purposes and they become forums for grand standing. People should arrive at the meeting on time. The meeting should start on time. There should be no more than five minutes to review the purpose of the meeting, who is attending and their role in the meeting plus the agenda for the meeting, which should have been distributed in advance. The meeting should cover the entire agenda in the next fifty minutes. The final five minutes should be used to recap the decisions, who will distribute the notes from the meeting and when the next meeting is scheduled. The meeting should end within the hour and not over. It is ideal to keep the meeting to 55 minutes including the opening and closing comments so people can be on time for their next meeting (on the hour) and are not distracted.

Document. Someone should be charged with documenting the purpose of the meeting, who attended it, the decisions made, any open issues and who owns action on them and when the next meeting will be held. Anything else in the notes is excessive. The notes should be distributed electronically within twenty-four hours only to the attendees. There is a habit of forward meeting minutes to the world – up and down the chain of command. This serves little purpose and bogs down future meetings and creates excessive and unproductive work for all involved.

Follow-up. It is up to the meeting lead (or chair) to insure that all items decided at the meeting including the open issues are either closed or a recommendation made by the owners of the issues. Often, issues remain open for months if not years. It is up to the owner of each issue to do whatever is required to bring them to closure or recommended next (action) step.

Considering that meetings take the majority of managers’ and executives’ time during any given day, it is essential for them to take steps to make meetings more productive. By focusing on the critical elements of effective meetings, this can be done immediately. The key elements include: the right people, a clear purpose, a limited amount of time (and on time), documenting decisions and owners and follow-up. These simple but seldom followed steps will make any organization more effective and improve job satisfaction for the participants.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and CEO of Franks Consulting Group, a management consulting and leadership coaching practice based in Bethesda, Maryland. George is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants (USA) and the International Coach Federation. Franks Consulting Group can be contacted at gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com

Franks Consulting Group is on the web at: http://franksconsultinggroup.com

George's weblog is: http://consultingandcoaching.blogspot.com

See our much talked about NEW E-zine on career and leadership topics at:

http://careerandleadership.com

Super-Success: Five Steps

Successful people, whether they are in business, government, non-profit or a professional field have five characteristics in common. These characteristics distinguish them from those who are in the middle of the pack. Some leaders have displayed these since their youths. Others have learned them, in many cases painfully, over the years. With drive, passion, hard work – and a degree of luck (i.e. being in the right place at the right time) anyone can be successful.

The common traits of successful people include:

Passion for the current job or profession. Successful people wake up every day exciting about both the challenges and opportunities facing them in the day ahead. There is no “oh it’s Monday!” or “thank goodness it’s Friday”. Most work, in some way, seven days a week and do not clock in/out”. I one way or other, they are always working. Everyday single day brings new challenges and new opportunities for those who have a passion about what they do to make money.

Balance of work, family and other interests. Successful people do put how they make a living first. But they also find ways to weave their family and their interests into the way they make a living. Whether it is traveling with family, supporting a non-profit cause tied in to a personal (and professional) interest or just relaxing on the beach, successful people find ways to integrate work, family and personal interests together in a way that enhances each and is not to the detriment of their professional objectives. You can have it all.

High tech/low tech. There are super successful people who use pencil and paper. There are super successful people who use typewriters (yes, this IS getting more challenging). And yes, there are super successful people who always have the latest notebook computer, cell phone, PDA device and the other latest cutting edge devices. Does one or the other make one more successful? Wit the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I say “no”. What works for you is the right technology. Now there are some fields and some professions that demand a high degree of technological savvy and tools. That is clear. But in other, more entrepreneurial endeavors, the low tech person may be just as successful if not more so than the one checking their email and answering their cell phone non-stop.

People powered. Successful people thrive on other people. Customers, clients, investors, potential clients, employees and others energize successful people. It is difficult to be successful if your idea of a good time is being in your office or even just with a few close associates. Listening to the thoughts, ideas, needs, questions, issues and concerns of a variety of people opens up whole new possibilities for successful people. And they create situations where they can have these exchanges constantly.

Reading and learning. While there are many ways to learn: classes, TV, radio, CDs and other medium, the one that propels most successful people to the top of their field or profession is reading. Most super successful people read constantly. And they do not just read professional journals and reports. They read everything they can get their hands on. They are curious about the world and they see opportunities and tie-ins for themselves in much of what they read. They devour books, magazines, newspapers, journals and just about anything else they can read that serves to expand their mind and their horizons.

Success, while a state of mind, is also a series of behaviors. And the most successful people exhibit these five behaviors consistently. Even if one does not achieve the stratosphere of the super-success, adopting there habits into daily life will leader to a higher level of success and personal fulfillment in the future.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and CEO of Franks Consulting Group, a Bethesda, Maryland based management consulting and leadership coaching practice. George is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants and the International Coach Federation. Franks Consulting Group is on the web at: http://franksconsultinggroup.com
George's NEW Career, Leadership and Work Life E-zine is: http://careerandleadership.com

10 Steps of Crisis Management

Crises affect the best run companies and organizations. They also spring-up with great frequency in less well run companies and organizations. Generally crises are the result of smart people doing dumb things. Sometimes they are the result of poor quality, greed, corruption or worse. Regardless of the reason for crises, it must be handled with the utmost care, speed and professionalism. The ten point outlined below identify the key elements to success crisis management.

1. Identify the problem
   

What is the crisis? Define what it is - not what causes it or who is to blame. Define it in clear terms. This can also be referred to as the problem statement.

2. Create a team
   

Now that the crisis is defined, what areas does it touch? Assemble a team with the owners of the subject matter experts in each of those areas. For a business this generally means: executive management with a representative, marketing/product management, operations, legal, human resources, information technology, finance, PR or media relations sales and research & development. If any of these functions are not necessary, do not include them in the team just to fill a seat. For other organizations such as non-profits it may include: executive leadership, development, IT, member relations, finance, PR or media relations, human resources and marketing.

3. Set up a command center.
   

Find a place where all the members of the team can meet and updates on the crises can be monitored and tracked. The command center should be manned 7x45 by a representative of each key functional area until the crises has been resolved.

4. Communicate out.
   

The first thing the team needs to do once the problem has been identified is communicate the problems and what is being done about it quickly and clearly to all appropriate media outlets through PR or media relations. Generally, more information is better. The more senior the person providing the updates is the better also. Ideally it should be the CEO of the company or organization or the most senior person directly involved with the crisis. Also update customers, investors, employees, clients, constituents, and members – anyone with an interest in the company or organization.

5. Problem breakdown
   

Break down the problem with the crisis management team. Identify what the problem is, what the potential solutions are and which are the most viable courses of action. Bring in other subject matter experts as needed but do not take the accountable functional areas owners out of the loop or off the hook. They own a successful resolution from their area.

6. Receive communications in.
   

Concerns of customers, employees, shareholders and constituents need to be addressed. Set up phone hotlines and email folders related to the crises. Have knowledgeable people take the calls. If they cannot, have a mechanism so every call is returned with an answer in 24 hours. The same holds true with e-mails.

7. Resolve the problem.
   

Nothing is more important than resolving the problem or crises because it is a disruption to everyday business. It could ruin the reputation of the business or organization. For a company it can destroy shareholder value. For other organizations it can impact membership, causes, careers, lives and worse. The crisis team needs to commit their time, money and energy and also grab the best and the brightest internal or external to the company or organization to resolve the problem or crisis quickly.

8. Provide updates and resolution.
   

Communicate updates through all outlets and communicate final resolution of crisis at the most senior level available. Communicate frequently. Communicate in a timely fashion. Do not hold information back. Make leaders, functional owners and subject matter experts available to questions from the media (all forms). Have all communication controlled through the command center i.e. centrally.

9. Investigate (the post mortem).

After the crisis has been resolved establish a team to investigate what happened, why, who was responsible and what actions need to be taken to insure that it does not happen again (or is minimized). Insure the team has full access plus as much time and budget as they need to do their jobs effectively.

10. Integrate improvements.
    

Integrate the findings of the team into business as usual. Take the learnings from the crises to change the business or organization so there is a minimal chance of the crisis repeating itself. Make these changes know to all the company’s or organization’s stakeholders.

Crises happen – no matter how careful, quality conscience and integrity focused any company or organization considers itself. And when they do, it is up to the leadership to establish a crises team and command center quickly. By following these 10 steps, the best will be made out of any bad situation.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and President of Franks Consulting Group – a growing Bethesda, Maryland management consulting and leadership coaching practice. He is a member of the International Coach Federation and the Institute of Management Consultants. His web site is:

http://franksconsultinggroup.com

His e-zine on career and leadership topics is:

http://careerandleadership.com