Harley's Blog

An Englishman and an American were walking through the forest one day when suddenly, right in front of them, appeared a very large Grizzly bear.  The Englishman crouched down ever so slowly, removed his heavy back pack and put on a pair of running shoes that he just happened to be carrying with him.

“I am sorry to say this but those shoes are not going to be of any use my friend, that bear can out run you any day” whispered the American. “Indeed it can” replied the Englishman “But with these shoes and without my back pack I can outrun you and that’s the only thing that really matters right?”

I know it’s an old joke but it was re-told to me this week and I think it is so relevant to so many situations. Take for example doing business in our current recession.  Here in mainland Europe many companies are really beginning to feel the pinch of prolonged close to zero growth. Quite understandably, there’s a lot to worry about.  However I believe that too many business leaders are focusing way too hard on trying to out-run the bear of recession that they forget that it is really only their competitors that they need to be quicker than.

Assuming that there is a genuine need for their products or services and they are as fit as they possibly can be then all they have to do is to deploy a long-term survival strategy while retaining the ability to take advantage of the overweight unfortunates along the way.

I know it sounds harsh but, in reality it’s far better being fitter than the rest and surviving than being eaten by a bear. So my advice is to look at every single aspect of your business to be 100% sure that you have done everything possible to  become as fit and efficient as possible, while not trimming too far that you are unable to seize upon opportunities as and when they arise.

Have a good week,

Harley

PS I hope no one takes any offence about me using two different nationalities in this week’s blog, there’s no hidden message here – it’s just the way it was told to me.  If you have a better alternative, I will happily change it. H.

Next week I am having lunch with a friend, nothing unusual about that you might think, but although it is his turn to pay, I feel it’s my turn to come up with a brilliant new idea for him to take back to the office afterwards.

I like my lunches with Philippe, our conversations have a habit of spinning off in almost any direction. One minute we might be discussing the survival chances of the Euro, the next we might be talking about Renaissance poetry or the French presidential elections. However, one of our most reoccurring themes is company arrogance in the form of appalling customer service. I can hardly think of a single occasion where the subject has not come up.  It’s almost as if we feel the need to always outdo each other in our shared misery.

Because of the intensity of our lunchtime conversations, the best restaurant for a meal with Philippe is one where; the waiters are happy to accept that the food is not the center of attention but an important accompaniment, where service is impeccable and the ambient noise level is loud enough to not be over heard but not too loud where one has to raise one’s voice. The food should be, high quality, fresh and not pretentious.

Philippe is a person who can entertain, stretch your imagination and at the end of the meal, feed you with a new business idea that just might be potentially far more valuable than the price of the meal itself, including the value of the business hours lost in getting there and the time eating it! In fact, looking back I can think of a number of potentially great business ideas that have emerged from meals with Philippe. The problem is, that both he and I are always far too busy to follow most of them up!

I believe everyone should know someone like Philippe, someone that can stretch one’s imagination and mirror life from another view point. And if your companion has the same opinion of you, then there’s a healthy balance worth preserving.

All I need now is another example of truly atrocious customer service and a great business idea!

Have a good week,

Harley

Every year thousands of well-meaning managers re-enforce a worn out stereotype that should have been buried away under the road to respect and equality long ago. I guess it might be nice for some secretaries to be given a special day when their bosses are encouraged to show them their appreciation for all the effort they have put in throughout the year. But surely isn’t it about time to move on?

There are just so many aspects to this topic that wind me up that I will force myself to write in bullet points to be sure of keeping a level head: Secretary day is:

• Patronizing at best and outright sexist at worst (perhaps there are even grounds to ban it under European equality law)?
• Not helped by the Dutch language that reinforces the fact that only the female secretaries will receive special attention
• Unfair; why not bookkeepers, cleaners, sales personnel, or even CEOs? If we chose for cleaners we could at least extend it beyond the office and out into the streets and bus stations?
• The role of secretary is a professional position. The incumbent is employed under the law of the land and is financially re-warded for her or his effort so why do we need to single them out once a year for extra special gifts and attention? Or are we implying that the secretary’s tasks go beyond the usual code of employment and therefore need compensating in some other way? If this is true, are a few flowers or some chocolates once a year enough?
• For those secretaries that do not appreciate being singled out – what about their rights not to be patronized by their boss in front of their fellow professional colleagues?
• Degrading the professional status of one group of female employees degrades all women, while at the same time categorizes men, especially bosses, as fitting into the same patronizing group. You cannot impact one without the other.

If I have not convinced you yet, try looking at it this way: If my wife saw me going to work with chocolates and flowers for my secretary on any other day of the year, she might have good cause to question what the hell is going on? 

There can be no question that women are still way behind the equality stakes when it comes to professional careers and it is my opinion that the last thing that we need is to have an annual day legitimizing that image.

Perhaps secretary day should be turned 180 degrees around into a kind of Martin Luther King day, one day a year where we can reflect back, not on racism but on sexism in general?  If we did which female person do you think would be best suited as a role model? Harriet Tubman, Jane Addams, Emmeline (or Sylvia) Pankhurst or…?

You can call me a ‘kill joy’ but quite frankly we need to encourage more women into senior and managerial positions. The spring plank from secretary to departmental manager or even director has always seemed a logical one to me. I have witnessed several situations where the secretary could have done just as good a job at running the department or company as their boss, especially if they had received all the training and support that was offered to their male counterparts.

I can just imagine what Emmeline would do. She would most likely re-establish the 18th of April as ‘patronizing sexist manager day’, where secretaries around the world would be encouraged to politely return their presents with the words “Thank you for your kindness, happy male boss day!”

So on the 19th of April, lucky secretaries all over Europe and even the US will be receiving cards and gifts and even (most likely) an unwelcome kiss from their bosses; just because she is a she and he is a he and she happens to work for him.

Have a nice week,

Harley

Back in the late 1970’s, I was working in London as a junior marketing assistant for a very self important marketing manager. He had an arch enemy George Gardner, the sales director. Neither of them had much respect for each other but looking back I can now see things in another light.

George Gardner was funny, inspirational, charming, sensitive, hard working, caring and results driven. The marketing manager wasn’t. He spent most of his time trying to hang on to his position, regardless of the ridicule he received from almost everyone around him. To be honest he deserved more but that’s sometimes how it is when you have the wrong person in the right seat at the wrong time.

Back to George, he had the ability to identify underperforming individuals and offered them the chance to re-invent themselves. He did this on several occasions and when he died the church was full to over flowing with mourners paying their respects to a really remarkable man. I swore to myself there and then that I would try and do like George.

Now everyone has their own path and everyone has their own way of doing things but the achievements that I am most proud of in my career to date are not the successful construction of a sustainable company, or the books that I have had published or indeed the fees I have earned. It’s none of these things. It’s seeing people that I had once written off but given a second chance, develop, mature and achieve great things.

I have often thought, who would want to be a teacher, to stand in front of a classroom full of pubescent teenagers?  But then I think of the unique opportunity they have to make an impact on a young person’s life and how sometimes with just a few simple words, followed up with support and care, they can truly make a difference to a person’s entire life.  When you reflect on it, can there ever be anything more useful and satisfying?

I think, doing like George, is the best gift one can leave behind. I have never seen it written down in a Change Manager’s job description or assignment briefing, but it should be:

‘Identify underperforming employees and offer them a second chance. Give them a vision of another way and encourage them to follow it’.

Have a good week,

Harley

PS: If you are interested, you can read more about doing like George in my book ‘Making a Difference’