A new year - A new start

Willmar Electric started it's new fiscal year on April 1, 2012.  After a tough year it is great to get a fresh start on things. In addition to getting a new start we kicked off the year with three exciting events. 

The first was the retirement of my father, John.  With the retirement of our long time leader we reach a point in which those of us that remain must fill in the holes left in Dad absence.  So far it seems like although people miss Dad everybody is energetically filling in and moving forward.  It has been fun to be apart of.  If you have ever moved accross county or left an organization you can understand what I am trying to put into words.

The second was in large increase in backlog.  In the last 2 weeks we have double our backlog.  The good news is we doubled our backlog.  The bad news is that it was too easy to do. 

The third was we have an operations retreat that included our Central and Southern Region's leadership as well as our entire Crew Leader class.  It was very energizing to spend time with the leaders of the company and pick their brains. It seems we have a lot of great leaders coming up through the ranks here at Willmar Electric.

I am very excited about 2012.

For the Birds

Over the weekend I watch the movie "The Big Year."  Yesterday the announcers of the Red Sox game talked a lot about birds and then today's video was about birds.  Hopefully my daily Bible reading isn't  Matthew 8:20 or 13:4.

When I watched the video I thought about a recent diversity discussion I had been a part of and thought it provided a great illustration.  The video puts the message that a company that wants to break through to their next level they can't get there without a diverse set of minds.

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Firing a Coach

This Blog is stolen from an author that we are having come address an internal leadership meeting next week.  I think Randy Goruk gets it right with his comments on the Arkansas coaching change.  So rather then bore you with my ideas I am going to highlight his weekly tip.

You can go to Randy's website http://www.leadersedge360.com/ to learn more and to sign up for weekly tips.

Values Matter
      

As you may know by now, University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino was held accountable for his recent actions and behaviors - he was fired from his job as leader of Arkansas football program by Athletic Director Jeff Long.

Although college football is big business and results are important, the results on the field were not a factor in the decision of termination ... and he was delivering very good results for the football program (business) - his performance as a football coach didn't matter.

What mattered was the importance of maintaining the integrity of the character and values of the school. Lying, cheating and abusing power are not part of the schools value system.

Mr. Long indicated during the news conference announcing the termination, "Our expectations of integrity and character in our employees can be no less than what we expect of our students"

I applaud the decision - in fact I'm in for a standing ovation.

For many leaders making the decision to fire a top performer or a long time contributor is hard because there is so much pressure on achieving results that forgiving and forgetting seems so much easier to do.

It may seem much easier; however your organization gets confused by conflicting signals. Your credibility as a leader begins to diminish then chaos and turmoil begin to kick in - stay away from this, because ultimately it's not easier in the long run.

My leadership tip for you this week is to learn from the mistakes made by a leader (Coach Petrino) and learn from the decision to terminate coach Petrino. Specifically; 

• Be mindful and disciplined in managing your actions and behaviors - be strong on unwavering character
   
• The values of your organization are more important than short term results

Coach Petrino isn't the first or last leader to be disgraced and fired because of their actions or behaviors ... be careful, you don't ever want to join that club.

   

Enjoy your leadership journey !                   

Better then Baseball

If you know me very well you know my son plays baseball.  By normal standards he is a very good player. 

In the past he has always been a first baseman and done an excellent job.  This year he is playing for a team that needs a catcher.  Although he has never played an inning at catcher he is giving the position a try.  The coaches tell me that it is going well and he should be able to play the position just fine when the season rolls around.  That will be fun.

In the past he has pitch a little but this year it appears like he has added a lot of velocity to his pitches and he will be a big part of the teams pitching plans.  That will also be fun.

Yesterday after practice the team is required to prep the fields for the next team.  Mike was the first guy to grab a rake and get going on getting the field ready.  He was also the last guy on the team to stop working.  Even though Mike was the first to start he didn't stop until everything was done!  Then after everybody hauled all the gear, about 150 yards uphill, from the field to the parking lot and we noticed a bag had been left behind Mike ran back to the field without being asked grabbed the bag and brought it back. 

He simply started running back to the field once he noticed the problem.

Left me thinking who cares how good a baseball player he is, the an attitude like he showed me yesterday someday he is going to be an awesome husband, father and coworker.  At this point in time who knows who his wife, kids and coworkers are going to be but it appears they will be a very lucky group of people.

By my standards Mike is an awesome son!!

Best place to work

At ABC's Region 2 meeting yesterday we heard from Diane Hendricks of ABC Supply. She has quite the motivating story about starting a business from the ground up and growing it into world class success story. The big take away I got from her story was her husband, Ken, and her desire to become the best place in the world to work at. Everything they did in the past and do today was with that goal in mind. She pointed out that you have to make money to be able to reach that goal but by staying focused for decades they were able to reach that goal.

The weather is nice but I need a better sign of Spring

A few days agoI turned on my TV and right there in my living room was the sweet sounds of Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy announcing the Red Sox-Twins game.  (the Twins lost)

I should have continued reading "the Speed of Trust" by Stephen M. R. Covey but I couldn't resist watching this meaningless game (the Red Sox won) but sure sign of spring.

Watch a joy.

How you treat people

Last month I was visiting with a long time friend and fellow electrical contractor about how things were going within our companies.  I shared with him a story about a past employee that I always got along very well with but now that the employee had left Willmar Electric I was learning more about how co-workers viewed that same person.

My friend shared with me a great story about a past employee of his company.  For the purpose of this story I am going to give the people involved fake names.  Let's call my friend "Troy" and his employee "George."

For years Troy had gotten periodic complaints about how George treated people within the company.  People said that George was arrogant and was solely concerned for himself.  But what Troy saw was a guy that said he was concerned with others and always treated Troy and the other partners in the firm with the highest respect. 

As the incidents of people coming to Troy and complaining about George grew.  Troy discussed the issues with his partners and fellow owners. And after that discussion Troy felt like he needed to address the issues with George.

When Troy went to George and mentioned the complaints, George said that "of course he treated Troy and the other owners differently.  It was only natural.  Troy and his partners were the owners of the company."  Troy said George's face showed that he was confused that it was even a problem.

Troy asked George why he treated others the way he did, George said "are you implying that you think I should treat everybody within the company the same way I treat you and the other owners?"

Troy said "yes I do. You should treat everybody like they are an owner!"

George could believe it.  As a matter of fact George couldn't live out the advice either.  Shortly after being confronted by Troy, George had to leave the company.  He had been exposed and with that everybody within the company, including the owners, know that George wasn't part of the team.  In fact George's behavior had been tearing done the team for years.

Fakes aren't always easy to see but listening to my friend's story sure did open my eyes and perk my ear quite a bit.