Bud Bilanich | The Common Sense Guy

Sonny Lubick -- A Good Guy Who Got a Bad Deal

Today I’d like to pay tribute to a good guy, who I think has gotten a bad deal. 

Sonny Lubick resigned the other day.  If you don’t live in Colorado, or you’re not a college football fan, you probably don’t know who Sonny Lubick is.  Sonny Lubick was the head football coach at the Colorado State University.  He coached his last game the Friday after Thanksgiving; a 36 – 28 victory over CSU’s archrival, The University of Wyoming. 

He didn’t want to resign.  He did so because the Athletic Director asked him to.  He could have forced the issue and made the AD fire him, but he resigned because he though that was the best course of action for the university and the football program. 

Sonny coached CSU for 15 years.  He had a 108 – 74 record.  His teams went to nine bowl games.  When he arrived at CSU, he took over a program that was a mess.  He made it a perennial winner.  However, his teams had three losing seasons in a row.

Many people – me included -- thought that, despite the recent tough go, Sonny Lubick should have been allowed to leave on his own terms. 

An editorial in The Denver Post said it quite well.

• “Lubick’s farewell touched often on a word that sounds old fashioned in today’s world of big time sports: loyalty…The coach who always tried to prepare his student athletes for life after football had special praise for the faculty of CSU and proudly confided that he had never asked them to pass a player who was doing poor classroom work – urging them instead to flunk athletes who neglected their studies… Lubick said, ‘I’ll be a Ram to the end of time.’  Indeed you will, Sonny.  You were classy on the field, and classy in retirement.  It’s too bad CSU officials couldn’t have handled the situation the same way.”

I admire Sonny Lubick.  I liked the way his teams played.  I liked the way he took over a second rate program and mad it a big time program – often beating the much larger and better funded University of Colorado teams.  I liked the fact that he chose to remain at CSU when he was offered the Head Football Coach job at The University of Miami (FL), one of the most prestigious programs in college football.  I liked the fact that the welfare of his assistant coaches was one of his biggest concerns when he was forced to resign.

I liked the way he groomed others – like Urban Myer, Coach of the National Champion University of Florida -- to be head coaches.  Even Joe Paterno, the coach at my alma mater Penn State, hasn’t done as good a job as Sonny Lubick when in preparing others to become head coaches.

Sonny Lubick is a winner and a man of integrity.  He deserved better from the CSU Administration. 

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

More on "We" Relationships With Customers

I love the viral nature of the internet.  On Monday, I did a post on the new book, We: The Ideal Customer Relationship. Yesterday, I got an e mail from Frank Rowe of PeopleMetrics, telling me that he enjoyed the post and sending me a press release of the results of a study his company has just completed.  Check it out…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Frank Rowe – VP
PeopleMetrics
Tel: 215.979.8038
Fax: 215.979.8049
[email protected]
www.people-metrics.com

For Restaurant Chains, Emotional Connection and Profits Do Mix, Study Finds

Philadelphia, November 8, 2007--- For casual-dining chains like Applebee's and Red Lobster to succeed, getting the food right is just the first step.  A new survey by a leading customer research firm has found that the bottom line is often most influenced when these restaurants make an emotional connection with customers.

“These findings are very compelling,” noted Kate Feather, PeopleMetrics (www.people-metrics.com) Executive Vice President who led the study, “restaurant chains that make customers feel emotionally connected to the dining experience far outperform those chains that don’t.”

In its study, PeopleMetrics evaluated Customer Engagement levels of recent diners of nearly a dozen national restaurant chains, including Chili’s, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster. PeopleMetrics measure of Customer Engagement combines traditional loyalty metrics with an emotional component.  The result is that highly engaged customers are found to be loyal, go out of their way to do business with, say good things about, and feel passion, even love, for the brand and experience.

Comparing the Customer Engagement scores of 1,200 recent diners with the financial performance of publicly traded restaurant chains revealed a strong correlation. Restaurant chains with high customer-engagement scores far outperformed low-scoring counterparts -- including an average gross margin of 29 percent compared to -12 percent -- and EPS growth of 75 percent to -50 percent for lower-performing chains. Financial metrics included return on assets and equity, gross margins and earnings per share (EPS).

While Customer Engagement ties to financial performance in restaurant chains, the study also considered what chains can do to build a more engaged customer base.

“We found operators need to do a few things well to increase Customer Engagement,” Ms. Feather noted, “They need to hire and retain employees who make the dining experience fun. But most important, restaurants who can quickly and effectively resolve customer concerns are the clear winners.”

Results from the Casual Dining Sector research are part of PeopleMetrics broader study measuring Customer Engagement and financial performance across the Retail, Banking and Hotel industries.

                                                       ###

The common sense point here is clear.  Whether you call it a “We” relationship, or “customer engagement”, it is good business to treat customers as partners in your business.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

Leadership Solutions

Recently, I read a new book, Leadership Solutions, by David Weiss, Vince Molinaro and Liane Davey.  Leadership solutions is a follow up to their book The Leadership Gap.  In this book, the authors suggest that the leadership gap is as big, if not bigger, than ever and offer advice on how to close it.

Their idea on closing the gap is based on the concept of Holistic Leadership.  I like the ideas behind holistic leadership – if for no other reason, they are similar to what I present in my book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations.  According to the authors, Holistic Leadership has six elements:

1. Customer Leadership
2. Business Strategy Leadership
3. Culture and Values Leadership
4. Organizational Leadership
5. Team Leadership
6. Personal Leadership

They also suggest that leaders must have well developed skills in five areas:

1. Sensing
2. Creating
3. Implementing
4. Connecting
5. Advocating

In Chapter 5, they present a “30 Cell Grid of Holistic Leadership Behaviors: The Individual Dimension.”  This is a great concept tied to an unfortunate name.  Basically, the authors created a matrix with the five leadership skills on one axis and the six leadership elements on the other.  Each cell describes an important leadership practice.

For example, the cell at the intersection of “Creating” and “Culture and Values Leadership” says, “Describes the way of doing things that will engage employees and align them with the strategic objectives of the organization.”  An effective leader – one who closes the gap – will be proficient in the activities described in each of the 30 cells.

In Chapter 6, they present a similar matrix focused on organizational practices.  The cell at the intersection of “Creating” and “Culture and Values” says this.  “Leaders articulate a desired culture and values that will support the business.”

In Chapter 7, they present a similar matrix focused on the leadership culture of an organization.  The cell at the intersection of “Creating” and “Culture and Values” says this.  “Leaders understand that culture can be a competitive advantage.”

But they’re not done yet.  The appendix presents three gap analysis questionnaires that can help you assess how well you’re doing on each of the matrices.

Running a business is complex.  Too many books try to oversimplify this complexity.  That’s why I am always on the lookout for books and articles that embrace the complexity of modern organizational life and bring order to seemingly disparate information.  Leadership Solutions does an excellent job of this.  The matrices provide clear snapshots of what needs to be done in a variety of areas.  The gap analyses provide the reader with a clear idea of where he or she is being successful and where he or she needs to improve.

Leadership Solutions is a good book to keep near your desk where you can refer to it often.  It’s a great analytical too.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

We -- An Idea Whose Time Has Come

In my book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations, I suggest that successful businesses and the people who lead them have four things in common.

• Successful businesses and the people who lead them develop and communicate a clarity or purpose and direction.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them engage the full commitment of everyone in the organization.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them skillfully execute the things that matter.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with important outside constituencies.

Customers are an important constituency.  That’s why I found Steve Yastrow’s new book, We: The Ideal Customer Relationship.

I am a big fan of the “We” concept.  My friend, Judith Glaser, wrote an excellent book called Creating We in 2005.  In that book, Judith explored the concept of “We” as it pertains to building an engaged and committed workforce.  If you’re a leader or a small business owner and you haven’t read it, you should.  You’ll get great ideas on how to develop a “we culture” in your organization.

Steve Yastrow applies the “We” concept to building strong customer relationships.  At the beginning of the book, he points out that most businesses think of customer relationships as “Us and Them”.  According to Mr. Yastrow, this type of thinking is adversarial, less pleasant and leaves money on the table.

Here are some of his thoughts on the difference between “Us and Them” and “We” thinking when it comes to customer relationships.

Us and Them Relationships

• Customer decisions are based on price, quality of service and product.
• You are a product or a provider.
• You do things FOR your customer.
• You have similar relationships with other customers.
• The amount of business you do together can go up or down without warning.
• You each devote limited attention to the relationship.
• The relationship’s potential is limited.

We Relationships

• Customer decisions are based on past history of doing business with you.
• You are a collaborator.
• You do things WITH your customer.
• You have a unique relationship with every customer.
• Your future is more predictable.
• You each are willing to devote substantial attention to the relationship.
• The relationship’s possibilities are boundless.

Mr. Yastrow suggests that the best way to begin building a “We” relationship with your customers is to begin having customer “encounters”, rather than transactions.  He says that customer encounters have three basic elements: engagement in the moment, conversation and uniqueness.  He says, “When these three elements are present, a mere interaction can become a lasting encounter, a building block of a We relationship.”

I like this book.  One of the reasons I like it is because for years, I have been practicing what Mr. Yastrow preaches – without having a name for it.  Also, I think that he and Judith Glaser are on to something.  “We” is a powerful concept whose time has come. 

The common sense point here is simple.  A “We” mindset opens up lots of potential in customer relationships.  “Us and Them” thinking – whether in dealing with customers, or the people you lead -- is a thing of the past.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers in the US.

I’m posting these greetings one day early because I am going to take a few days off over the weekend.  My next post on this blog will be Monday, November 26.  I hope you all enjoy the holiday.

I have a lot for which to be thankful:

• Cathy, my wonderful wife.
• My health.  I have been cancer free for close to 10 years.
• You, my readers.  I love getting your comments.
• My friends – too many to mention here, but you know who you are.
• My clients (many of whom are friends) – you make it possible for me to live the life I love.
• I’m thankful for people like Brian Kiernan.  Brian lost his younger sister, Christy to brain cancer a few years ago.  He was a loving big brother.  His love continues past Christy’s death.  Last weekend, Brian and his Sigma Nu fraternity brothers at the University of Central Florida sponsored a “Volley for Christy” volleyball tournament to raise funds for Children’s Cancer Clinic in Jacksonville.  Here are some great pictures of the event www.mupsisigmanu.org/vfc.
• Did I mention I’m thankful for Cathy?
• I’m thankful for the people who smiled at me on the street in New York City this morning.
• I’m thankful for Helen Whelan, CEO of Success Television (www.successtelevision.com) who believes in me and what I do.
• I’m thankful for having had the good fortune to be blessed with a wonderful career.  I get to help people while doing what I enjoy.

I hope you have lots of good things in your life for which are thankful.  I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  I'll see you on Monday.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

Zappos and Employee Engagement and Commitment

Last week, I blogged about Zappos.com.  If you recall, Zappos describes itself in a unique way: “We are a service company that happens to sell shoes.  And apparel. And handbags.  And accessories.  And eventually anything and everything.

Gerard Ramos sent me a copy of the Zappos 07 Culture Book.  In the foreword, Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO says, “In order for us to succeed as a service company, we need to create, maintain, and grow a culture where employees want to play a part in providing great service….As we grow as a company and hire new people, we need to make sure that they understand and become a part of our culture.”

If you recall, in my book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations, I point out that all successful businesses and the people who lead them have four things in common.

• Successful businesses and the people who lead them develop and communicate a clarity or purpose and direction.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them engage the full commitment of everyone in the organization.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them skillfully execute the things that matter.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with important outside constituencies.

Tony Hsieh and the people who lead Zappos are doing a great job of engaging the full commitment of everyone in the Zappos organization.

I love the Zappos 07 Culture Book because every Zappos employee got a chance to say what they like about Zappos culture.

Jackie E, who works in Customer Loyalty, is good with anagrams.  She said

• Zealous
• Adventurous
• Positive
• People
• Offering
• Service

• Caring
• Understanding
• Listeners
• Truly
• Understand
• Real
• Embrace

Way to go, Jackie…

Ijeoma I, another Customer Loyalty worker is a man of few words.  He said, “Zappos.com is a cool place to work.”

John F, who works in Creative Services, showed off his creativity in a few haikus for his “fellow Zapponians”.  Here's one of them.

growing, growing, grow!
shoes, bags, sunglasses, watches
we will have it all

All of the other Zapponians contributed their thoughts on zappos culture to the 07 Culture Book. 

Tony Hsieh contributed too.  He says,

• “To me, the Zappos culture embodies many different elements.  It’s about always looking for ways to WOW everyone we come in contact with.  It’s about building relationships where we treat each other like family.  It’s about teamwork and having fun and not taking ourselves too seriously.  It’s about growth, both personal and professional.  It’s about achieving the impossible with fewer people.  It’s about openness, taking risks, and not being afraid to make being afraid to make mistakes.  But most of all, it’s about having faith that if we do the right thing, then in the long run we will succeed and build something great.”

If I were a little younger and just beginning my career, I might sign up to be a Zapponian myself.

The common sense point here is simple.  You know that you have a strong culture and a group of engaged and committed employees when you can get your employees to write a book expressing how they feel about your culture.  Watch out, Aamazon.com.  Here comes Zappos.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

Customer Service

As you know, I believe that successful businesses thrive on customer service.  Recently, I had a customer experience so egregious that I feel compelled to post about it here. 

Some background – I had enlisted the support of an internet marketing consultatn to help me move some of my business on line.  I paid an up front fee.  As I began working with this person, I realized that I had made a mistake.  I tried to exit the relationship early on, but he suggested I hang in there.  I did, and realized my first impression was a mistake.

Recently, I decided to terminate the relationship.  I sent him an e mail informing him that I wanted to terminate our relationship.  I spent a lot of time composing the e mail I sent him.  I tried to be as polite and affirming as possible.  I didn’t want to get into the recrimination game.  That’s why I am not mentioning his name in this post. 

Here is the e mail I sent.

Common Sense Leaders Are Bucket Fillers, Not Bucket Drainers

In my book, 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations, I suggest that high performing organizations and the people who lead them have four things in common:

• Successful businesses and the people who lead them develop and communicate a clarity or purpose and direction.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them engage the full commitment of everyone in the organization.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them skillfully execute the things that matter.
• Successful businesses and the people who lead them build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with important outside constituencies.

I like the book How Full Is Your Bucket?  It makes some great points about how leaders can build an engaged and committed workforce.  The idea is simple, leaders can build an engaged and committed workforce by “filling the buckets” of the people they lead.

On page 15, the authors say:

“Each of us has an invisible bucket. It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on what others say or do to us. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it's empty, we feel awful.

“Each of us also has an invisible dipper. When we use that dipper to fill other people's buckets -- by saying or doing things to increase their positive emotions -- we also fill our own bucket. But when we use that dipper to dip from others' buckets -- by saying or doing things that decrease their positive emotions -- we diminish ourselves.

“Like the cup that runneth over, a full bucket gives us a positive outlook and renewed energy. Every drop in that bucket makes us stronger and more optimistic.

“But an empty bucket poisons our outlook, saps our energy, and undermines our will. That's why every time someone dips from our bucket, it hurts us.

“So we face a choice every moment of every day: We can fill one another's buckets, or we can dip from them. It's an important choice -- one that profoundly influences our relationships, productivity, health, and happiness.”

Pretty good common sense, right?  If you agree, the question becomes “how do I go about filling the buckets of the people who work for me?”

Here are my thoughts on how leaders and small business owners can become bucket fillers instead of bucket drainers.

• Be courteous – say please and thank you.
• Be positive – look for things that are going right and build on them.
• Help others feel good about themselves.  Give praise when it’s due, help people when they are having difficulties.
• Ask people about their goals.  Show a genuine interest in them and their goals.
• Introduce yourself to people you don’t know.  Once you know people’s names, use them.
• Smile.

The common sense point here is simple.  These six simple common sense tips can help you become a bucket filler and not a bucket drainer.  Use them, and watch the commitment and engagement of the people you lead grow.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

Zappos and 4 Secrets of High Performance

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I was at the Blogworld Expo last week.  You can listen to an interview I did with Blog Talk Radio while I was there by clicking on this link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LATE/2007/11/08/Nov-8-2007-404pm.  If you decide to listen, please let me know what you think.

Part of the fun of attending industry meetings is the opportunity to visit the trade show.  BlogWorld Expo was no exception.

Most of the companies exhibiting there were blog and new media related.  However, there were a few that weren’t.  Zappos.com was one of them, and it had one of the more interesting exhibits at the show.  If you don’t know, Zappos is an on line shoe store.  Cathy likes Dansko shoes, so recently I spent some time on their site purchasing a pair for her.  Their site was easy to use and their service was excellent.

My Venture Pad

Big news!  I’ve recently been named as a featured blogger on My Venture Pad.  Here is how My Venture Pad founder, Jerry Bowles describes this exciting new site.

“About six months ago, my partner Robin Carey and I approached Don Bulmer, head of Industry Influencer Relations at SAP, the major enterprise software firm, with an idea: Let us help you increase your visibility and influence in the small business market by sponsoring an online business community that we are building around the needs and interests of small business owners and managers of companies with fewer than 500 employees, and the professionals and experts who advise them.

“Our logic was that while SAP offers a full-range of software for the small and midsize company market and has thousands of customers in those categories, it is still perceived by many as a maker of software "for the big guys." We believed we could help alter that perception by applying some of the lessons of social media and conversational marketing we had learned over the past year or so from developing two prototype communities--Social Media Today and CleantechCollective.”

I was pleased to be added as a featured blogger.  And, I am intrigued by the My Venture Pad concept.  If you’re a small business person, I suggest you log on to www.myventuepad.com.  Look around the site – spend an especially long time reading my posts – and decide for yourself if you want to join the community.

I like what I’ve seen at My Venture Pad so much, that I would have joined even if I hadn’t been invited to be a featured blogger.  My Venture Pad has several communities that small business owners will find helpful:

• Leadership
• Managing Money
• Managing People
• Managing Technology
• Marketing Ideas
• Startups
• Your Tax Advisor
• Finance

In short, My Venture Pad is a good place for small business owners and entrepreneurs to go for good, common sense information on running a business.  Check it out.  I bet you’ll get hooked like I did.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.