Susan Schneider’s Blog

Values that Leap from the Walls

I am often amazed when we bring on new employees and I ask them to recite the values from their previous company. Generally, this leads to a stumble through some corporate rhetoric, or worse yet, telling me they have no idea. It’s probably a little unfair of me to put them on the spot, but I ask it to prove a point. Without understanding your company’s values, you have no foundation in which to make decisions or follow your vision.

Recently, I read an article that talked about the importance of the “V” word in today’s business climate, which is overwhelmed with corporate greed and poor decision making. The article stressed the importance that in this time more than ever, understanding and truly living by your values will find you victorious in the end. It goes on to say that values are not just created but “uncovered”.

I thought I would share a few ideas that our company has implemented to help our employees not only know our values, but to incorporate them into their daily work.

• Our CEO gives a $2 bill to anyone who can recite our company vision, mission, and values by memory. Recently, there has been a race to see if everyone in the company can achieve this goal.
• We encourage “Value Sightings” within our company. These are revealed to everyone in our weekly internal blog or through simple cards that employees can fill out when they see values in practice. Employees display these cards at their desks with pride!
• When faced with a difficult decision, we will ask employees to stand in front of the values we have proudly displayed in our foyer, and use them as a barometer for finding the solution.

I would love to hear from all of you on how you see your company living out its values. I think we could all use ideas on how to make them "leap from the walls" and cause them to become intentional actions in our offices.

Dog-Leg Right

The timing of this post is perfectly aligned with the fact that my hometown of Minneapolis hosted last week’s PGA tournament. The analogies that come along with the ever-humbling game of golf are plentiful.

Recently, a local executive of a large software company stood in front of his employees and compared the current economic situation with playing a round of golf. He talked about when making a tee shot, you always have to visualize where the ball is going to end up. Business is no different. Not only do we keep our sights on what is right in front of us, but also with what lies far ahead beyond the trees.

So, for those of you who golf, or at least claim to try, you know exactly what his message is. While the distance is far too great to see the flag or in terms of business, what may lie ahead 12 to 18 months from now, our focus to the final target cannot waiver. Depending on your strategy, you might pull a “Tin Cup” moment (Google the Kevin Costner movie if you aren’t sure of the reference) and try to make your shot over the trees. Yet most of us will go for the safety shot and lay it up somewhere short to ensure a clear view of the hole. Either way, you know exactly where you want to be when the turbulence settles.

Failure for individuals and companies is a result of focusing too much on the short-term, without planning for the future. Like they say, golf is all about the last 50 yards. So get your best clubs out of your bag, give it everything you’ve got, stay focused, and aim for the hole. Unfortunately, not all of this worked out for Tiger this week, but we know he’ll come around to impress us next time.

Context is Everything

How often do you find yourself sitting in a group of people trying to solve a problem and you feel like you are the only one who can see the answer so clearly?  Or perhaps the opposite happens and you find yourself void of solutions. Could the answer lie in the simple idea of “context”?

As individuals we often forget that people around us may not have the context they need to make decisions. Not everyone is privy to the all of the dealings of a company or situations including financials, future endeavors, past events, employee issues…the list goes on and on.

I am sure you have heard yourself or others voicing frustration that they feel like it is always “up to them” to find the answers; almost as though others are too complacent to think of creative ideas. As peers and leaders we have to open ourselves to the fact that sometimes information is limited, therefore so are solutions. Instead of assuming that others choose to take the passive approach, let’s suppose for a minute that they might not have the “context” they need to identify solutions. This is where our role as leaders is critical. We are responsible for taking the time to give others the context they need to understand the whole situation.

For me, this means slowing down, helping others to understand how to get to solutions and providing enough information to get them to see the issue from its identification all the way to its answer. What a wonderful mentoring gift we can give to others to help them be part of the journey rather than just citing resolutions.

It's Time to Recombobulate

A few weeks ago, I was going through security at the Milwaukee airport and noticed, as I finished gathering my things, that I was entering the "Recombobulation Area." As I stood there with a look of confusion on my face, nicely coupled with my disheveledness, someone said, “Well, I guess we just got discombobulated, so now it is time to recombobulate.” It made my day…an airport with a sense of humor? I didn’t think it was possible.

This new favorite word of mine has resonated with me since that day. I can’t help wondering if it isn’t time for us to “recombobulate” ourselves. We are finally hearing some uplifting news in the real estate arena (five straight months of increased existing homesales), the stock market is seeing some gains (knock on wood), and mortgage rates are continuing to stay tight. I appreciate that we have a ways to go until we get above par, but it does invoke a slight lift in my stance and surely could give some much needed positivity to the weekly blogs.

So, the real question is…what, if anything, are you going to change or do differently now that the light at the end of the tunnel seems near? Perhaps it is time to take your proverbial shoes out of the bin, put your 3 ounce products back into your bag, and recombobulate yourself. For me, this includes a fresh sheet of paper titled “FUTURE". On it, I will list all of those things that I wish for, but that for the past year or so with a recession veiling my eyes, have not thought attainable. I must say…it feels good.