What Have You Done for Me Lately? Employees Want to Know

In a recent meeting of Chief Executive Boards International, members considered the implication of a Right Management survey, indicating that 60% of employees surveyed in 2009 said they intended to leave their jobs when the market got better. Link to Article

In cases where salaries have been reduced or frozen, members are considering salary actions. Others are considering a "survival" bonus -- a one-time "catchup" that doesn't get baked into base pay.

An interesting idea that came out of this discussion is creating and distributing a summary, by employee, of the full benefits provided by the company, including such things as:

• Salary and OT
• Bonus
• 401(k) match/company contributions
• Pension contributions
• Employer FICA
• Employer Medicare
• FUTA
• State Unemployment
• Workers Comp Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance (short/long)
• Mobile phones, car allowances, other job-specific perks
• Uniforms, Union Dues, other collective bargaining perks

As you add these up, you'll probably again be reminded of just how expensive an employee is. It's probably a good idea to remind them, too.  More than one member said, "We used to do this -- we just haven't done it in awhile."  

If you've done something to remind employees just how many benefits they're getting from their employment, click "comment" below and share your experience with others. 

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Terry Weaver


CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com

Secure Your Own Mask First Before Helping Others

 

Hate commercial air travel? Despite your aversion, the airlines do teach an important life lesson on every flight. What's that? "Secure your own mask first before helping others." This is extraordinary advice that applies to an amazing number of life's challenges -- things that regularly come up in meetings of Chief Executive Boards International. No, it's not "selfish" or lacking in charity or volunteerism. It's not "don't help others", but rather "Secure your own mask first."

What are some of those situations? I can think of several:

• Problems with kids -- Addiction, acting out, self-destructive behavior, eating disorders, learning disabilities, chronic or life-threatening health issues. The list is endless, and most experts' first recommendation is that the parents themselves get into counseling.
  
  Changing the kid's behavior is challenging, stressful, and full of disappointments beyond the parents' control. What they can control are their own responses and developing the coping skills necessary to deal with a card life dealt them beyond their control. Kid issues can tear a couple apart if they don't find some support beyond themselves.
   
• Addiction of a loved one, significant other, etc. I learned The #1 Thing to Know About Addiction in a CEBI meeting. You can't help the addict at all -- in fact, most anything you try will make the problem worse. What you can do is get to an Al-Anon chapter to help yourself understand, accept and cope with the situation. Secure your own mask first.
   
• Retirement savings vs. college funding -- If you have to make a choice between the two, most experts advise saving for retirement. The kids can figure something out -- many of us had to. They can borrow money to go to college and pay it back after they get a job. Don't try that plan for your retirement -- it's probably a non-starter.
   
• Problem employees -- There's generally a lot of collateral damage around a problem employee. Rather than getting entangled with trying to "fix" the problem employee, worry about yourself, the company and the rest of the employees. Do what's better for them, which is addressing the problem head-on with the problem employee, resulting in either a behavior change or a termination as quickly as possible. The survival of yourself and the company are not worth jeopardizing for any problem child on your payroll.  See "When Do You Decide to Do Something About a Problem Employee?"
   
• Business Failure -- If you even suspect that your business is in trouble, be sure to secure your own mask before helping others.  You need to conserve energy, attitude and cash to fight another day. That means making sure you have financial assets outside the business that are protected from creditors, the bank, etc. Others may have to take a back seat to your own financial survival. After all, you'll never make them whole if you don't conserve some seed corn for your next career adventure, whatever that turns out to be.

This article isn't about being unwilling to help others. It's about keeping yourself in a position to do that. When adversity strikes, the important thing is to be sure you're in the best shape possible to help those affected. In many cases, "Secure your own mask first before helping others" is the best way to do that.


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Terry Weaver


CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com

An Orgy of Ideas

Here's an excerpt from a recent Wall Street Journal Online Article that describes why the "collective brain" of a group of Chief Executive Boards International members meeting regularly to help and advise each other results in both innovation and extraordinary outcomes. It underscores several ideas from Alvin Toffler's book Revolutionary wealth. First, that knowledge is promiscuous. Secondly, that a piece of knowledge alone is trivia -- its value exponentializes when combined with other knowledge. And, finally, it confirms that "innovation is a contact sport".

"Trade is to culture as sex is to biology. Exchange makes cultural change collective and cumulative. It becomes possible to draw upon inventions made throughout society, not just in your neighborhood. The rate of cultural and economic progress depends on the rate at which ideas are having sex.

"Dense populations don't produce innovation in other species. They only do so in human beings, because only human beings indulge in regular exchange of different items among unrelated, unmated individuals and even among strangers. So here is the answer to the puzzle of human takeoff. It was caused by the invention of a collective brain itself made possible by the invention of exchange.

"Once human beings started swapping things and thoughts, they stumbled upon divisions of labor, in which specialization led to mutually beneficial collective knowledge. Specialization is the means by which exchange encourages innovation: In getting better at making your product or delivering your service, you come up with new tools. The story of the human race has been a gradual spread of specialization and exchange ever since: Prosperity consists of getting more and more narrow in what you make and more and more diverse in what you buy. Self-sufficiency—subsistence—is poverty."

Note also the "dense population" idea. Two or three people talking about an idea or problem are one thing. 6, 8 or 10 knowledgeable, thinking people talking about it are a completely different thing. And the results are amazing. If you haven't spent a day recently in the company of a number of thinking people knowledgeable of your field, figure out a way to do so. You'll be glad you did.

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Terry Weaver


CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com

Start Planning Today for Your Partner's Exit

I was asked a question the other day about the advisability of starting a business with partners. This is a regularly-discussed topic in Chief Executive Boards International meetings, providing a lot of insight into partner-partner dynamics. I've also had personal experience with 2 different partners in the past and I've developed these points of view with respect to partners.

The advice of several business writers and the advice I've adopted is: The day you start talking with a potential partner, start planning for the partner's exit. I've seen a few (very few) partner situations work out over the long term. When they do work, it's great -- partners have someone else to count on, to confide in, and to pitch in when things get tough.

There are a couple of clear-cut reasons partners eventually disengage.

First, it's not unusual, despite their claims otherwise, for partners to fail to understand, appreciate, respect and value the strengths and contributions of each other. What the other guy is really good at, which may be something you're lousy at, looks easy. That's the way it's supposed to look. Never mind that he may have worked a whole career to hone that skill, and puts a lot more time into it than you ever see. Partners have different work styles. Some work best at their desks. Others work best away from the office. Again, those hours put in out of sight of each other are easy to disregard as contributory to the success of the business. Ultimately, this factor manifests itself in one partner feeling like he's putting in all the work, and then splitting the money. Curiously, as the partnership becomes more dysfunctional it's not unusual for both to hold that same opinion.

The second is more complex. Partners naturally grow apart. The drivers, motivations, ambitions and passions that originally brought the partners together don't evolve and mature at the same pace or in the same directions. One partner loses his passion for the business, or develops a passionate interest in something else. One partner decides it's time to change his work/life balance, perhaps scaling back his interest in the business and paying more attention to his spouse, family, health or volunteer/philanthropic interests. One partner wants to continue to grow the business, thereby building his net worth, while the other has his "number" covered and is looking for more of a lifestyle business - one that provides some cash flow but doesn't require 110% effort every day. One partner suffers a health setback, either his own, a spouse's or an aging parent's, thereby recalibrating the priority of the business in his life.  Kids leave and spouse wants to travel.  Grandkids arrive.  The list is endless. 

Ultimately, as these natural work/life priority changes drive the two partners' interests apart, it becomes ever more challenging to keep the partners feeling like each is carrying his share of the load. At that point, partners separate. In my own case, I once had a partner who had been fully retired for at least 4 years before he joined me. He had never owned a business before. He was getting bored with full-time volunteerism and thought my business would be interesting and fulfilling, which I think it was. One day, however, he came in and said, "You know, this is just starting to seem too much like a job." That said it all. We were at different places in our personal lives (partially due to an age difference), and just weren't on the same page as far as how the business fit into the rest of our lives.

So, start planning at the outset for your partner's departure. How? Buy having a fair, balanced, rock-solid buy-sell agreement in place before you start -- something you can live with if you want out or you want your partner out. Stay abreast of your liability to a partner, just in case he comes in one day and announces he's pulling the buy-sell trigger. If the business has been successful, it'll take some cash to take him out -- perhaps even some debt. In cases where the separation is regarded as fair by both, it's easy for the partners to remain friends, despite having decided they didn't want to work together any more.

If you've had experiences with partners, good or bad, please click "Comment" below and share them with others.

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Terry Weaver


CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com

You're the Lead Dog -- Are You Acting Like One?

In the world of sled dogs, if you're not the lead dog, the scenery is always pretty much the same. Goes for business owners, as well. You'd think that business owners were, by definition, lead dogs, wouldn't you? Except that many business owners don't act like lead dogs -- they keep their scenery pretty much the same by working in the business every day. There are 250 days a year when you can go to the office, and most days at the office (working in the business) look pretty much the same. 

According to a very successful member of Chief Executive Boards International:

"If you're not spending a day a quarter on the issues that are important, you're probably not running your business -- it's probably running you" 

                                                  Click here for the complete video interview

Yet many business owners seem to believe that every one of the 250 available work days in a year need to be spent in the trenches, slugging it out with the competition, bank, vendors, employees, etc.  As if doing those same things over and over will somehow produce a different result. 


Successful business owners do act like lead dogs, by controlling and changing their own scenery. They're constantly scanning the horizon for new ideas, and putting themselves in places and situations where they're finding new and different ideas, many times from completely different types of businesses and industries. In fact, there are major limitations to what you can learn from your own industry. When was the last time you heard of a business that failed or underperformed for lack of industry knowledge? Rare. You can probably get good ideas from others in your own industry. You're unlikely to get breakthrough ideas from others in your own industry. Click here to learn the difference between directional (incremental) and intersectional (breakthrough) ideas.


Let's face it. There are 250 days a year when you can go to the office and do the same things you always do when you go to the office. Will the business crater if you're not there 5 or 10 of those? Might those 5 or 10 be better spent getting recharged with some energy and ideas you wouldn't have come by in another day at the office? Get out a bit. Go to an all-day or multi-day seminar. Go to a Trade Show. Join a Rotary Club. Join a CEO Peer Group. Do something to put yourself in front of other thinking people who will challenge your assumptions and provide you some intellectual scenery you wouldn't have otherwise seen.


If you've found sources of good ideas you wouldn't have had on your own, please click "Comment" below and share them with others.

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Terry Weaver
CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com