By Ken Keller

Graduates, faculty members, parents, invited guests:

I am honored and humbled to speak to you. Your graduation is certainly worthy of a celebration and some words of thought-provoking advice, encouragement and inspiration.

You have much to be thankful for. You have studied, grown mentally, physically and emotionally, and are now eligible to join those folks out in the “real world of work.”

My goal today is to share five lessons with you.

The first lesson is you will end up working a majority of your life, either for yourself or someone else.

The good news is that you have developed a good work ethic. Employers like to have people on the payroll who see things through to the end.

The bad news is that you will hear about people who inherited money or got a lucky break somehow and in both cases, have plenty of money, toys and time to play than you could imagine.

Life is not fair, get over it.

The second lesson is you will not always know what the score is or where you stand at work. Chances are you’ll end up working at a place that won’t tell you what the score really is, how your performance measures up or what you need to do to improve.

You need to establish your own internal instruments to gauge how your company is doing, what your relationship is with your boss is, how your industry is doing and how the economy is doing.

When you do this, you’ll be more tuned in to reality and can make key life decisions proactively.

Third, the more you make, the more taxes you pay. That is just how it is, no one likes it but you get used to it.

The fourth lesson is that what you studied or majored in is not necessarily going to be your career. Don’t get pigeon holed into thinking that your coursework is all you are. You’re a lot more than that.

Find out what you enjoy doing before you attempt to make a career out of anything.

If you find a job and attempt to make it fit you, you will be miserable. You’ll always be in search of happiness. Your constant unhappiness will make everyone around you unhappy, including those you work with and those you live with.

Take time to write down what you enjoy doing and then try to find a job engaging those interests. When your passion clicks it will energize you.

The final lesson is that time flies. It was just yesterday I was sitting right where you are, waiting for the speaker to finish. I wanted my diploma and to go … somewhere. You know, get on with my life. Get a job; make money; travel.

I did get on with my life and it has been great. But, it has gone by too quickly. You really do need to stop and smell the roses.

Get up early and watch the sunrise and the sunset, walk in the rain, tell people if you love them, call your friends, send birthday cards, sit and watch the birds, watch water flow by, enjoy the silence of a cool night.

These are small things yet they remind us there are great pleasures all around us, everyday, if we only take the time to experience them. Don’t spend all your time at work, take time to enjoy the world you live in, and enjoy it. It was created for you.

No one ever said on their deathbed, “I wish I had stayed later at work.”

Thank you and best of luck in your life.

PS: These same lessons apply to business owners.

By Ken Keller

Right after I joined the company, I realized the owner was doing some strange things. Which made me believe he was, in fact, strange.

Monday through Thursday the dress code for men was suit and tie, and Fridays were “casual day.”

What did this guy do? Monday through Thursday he dressed casually; Fridays he wore a suit and tie. He later told someone he did this simply because he could.

Once he walked into hallway of the office, stopped so everyone could see him and then began loudly sniffing the air. He did this several times, gaining attention, and then announced, to all those watching, “Smell the overhead around here! Smell the overhead!” Then he returned to his office. No explanation was given; this was one of his preferred methods of communicating.

When this owner got mad at someone, he refused to look into the eyes of that employee. I was clued in on this the first time I did something that upset him. It was up to me to guess what I had not done, or done, that got him angry.

He never directly confronted anyone. Instead, he stored up his frustrations and let loose in front of a group. Even in that setting, he never specifically called out those with whom he was angry. People heard about their so-called offenses through the grapevine. The owner preferred to avoid direction confrontation.

Apparently he never forgot or forgave any of these alleged transgressions, and he spent time getting “even” in some very small and petty ways. This gave him the feeling of superiority.

After witnessing these odd behaviors, I nicknamed him “Psycho.” I refer to my tenure at his company as “my time at the asylum.” I’ve since heard from people who work there who want me to explain his behaviors and I respond by simply saying, “I think he is nuts.”

Now, when I meet with owners for an initial meeting, I identify possible passive aggressive behavior by assessing how the owner interacts with his or her employees.

Once I get the CNN sound bite about the company, I inquire about human resources. It’s a fair issue; salaries and burden are usually the single largest business expense category. In a business, employees can be the largest asset or its greatest bane. Which category it falls into is usually a direct result of the owner’s behavior.

First, I ask about the management structure. If there is no published org chart, I assume that, essentially, everyone reports to the owner, which negates the role of all the managers on the payroll.

Second, I inquire about the performance review system. If no such system exists, I determine that the owner decides who gets paid what, who gets bonuses and how much, who gets additional time off, who can leave early and so forth, all based on whether or not he or she likes an employee. Yes, affection, not effectiveness, seems to matter more to some owners.

Third, I verify the actual management authority levels. I ask who has authorization to spend company money, to what limit and for what purpose. I sit quietly until the owner shares that there is only one person in the company permitted to spend “my money.”

No team exists with this kind of employer; it is a group of individuals sharing a single purpose: to get a paycheck. Nothing else matters and employees will do whatever it takes to maintain this income stream, to the extent that employees will fight each other to keep the money and to be in the good graces of the owner.

As you read this, you may think that this column does not apply to you, and it might not. I am willing to bet that “Psycho” believes he is still the best owner on the planet because no one has ever had the courage to tell him differently.

The owner who trusts no one will discover that their employees do not trust them. The owner who shows no loyalty will reap that in return. The owner who pits employees against each other for favors can expect disengagement, low productivity and anger. Do you want this to be your legacy?

By Ken Keller

One magazine article I have read many times for the valuable insight it provides and have passed to prospects and clients is from Inc. Magazine. “Marcus Buckingham Thinks Your Boss Has An Attitude Problem” was published in the summer of 2001.

It’s a crash course in leading people and I believe the article should be required reading for anyone in a position of leadership.

One “ah hah” I had was that within any organization, the employee population can be divided into three categories; people that are engaged (loyal and productive), those not engaged (just putting in time) and those that are actively disengaged (unhappy and spreading discontent). The term “employee” refers to every level of worker, including leaders.

As the leader, assuming you are not disengaged yourself, is to improve the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged, and reduce the number of employees who are not engaged.

It’s a tough challenge, and the work will never be completed. The key is that as the process begins and picks up momentum, the company will see benefits. The engaged people on the payroll are the company’s greatest asset. Unfortunately, those not engaged and those actively disengaged are the company’s largest liability.

How can this be accomplished? How can improvements be made in productivity, focus and business results? It can be done through a system of formal, yet simple, accountability.

It’s a basic system; each person in the company, with their manager, develops a list of not more than five key result areas (KRA) they are responsible for. Each KRA has a numeric or pass/fail monthly goal and at the end of the month, progress is measured towards monthly and annual achievement.

At month end the manager has a one on one session with each subordinate and holds a discussion to review both efforts and results. During this meeting, coaching takes place to determine what help is needed for the employee going forward. Sometimes it is “self help” and sometimes it may be “tough love.”

This type of meeting usually already takes place at a macro level, where the owner reviews actual results to plan for volume, revenue, expenses, costs and other business metrics of significance.

In companies with sales personnel, this system is probably already in use to determine who is achieving goals and who is not.

There are additional benefits to accrue with once this system is in place. The first and most important is that every employee will know what they are responsible for.

No employee will be able to hide behind the excuse that they did not know how they were to spend their time while on the clock.

The second benefit is that this process forces people to either step up, or to step out. It becomes quickly become apparent who is not doing what they need to be doing.

The third benefit is that ownership will quickly realize where there is conflict between key result areas (individual and departments).

Fourth, employees will grow as individuals to achieve KRA. Someone in Accounts Payable may be called on to take new responsibilities in Accounts Receivable. Not having done this work before, they will have to learn new skills and not just take on more tasks.

The most significant benefit is to the company, which is likely to grow as a result of improved internal alignment and focus. The company will also grow because employees are growing and learning and many may become more engaged.

What gets measured gets done. To be sure it gets done, every employee needs to understand that what they are expected to do will be regularly inspected to insure that what is expected, gets done.

By Ken Keller

I have long believed that if you are not growing, you are dying. This applies to both individuals and organizations.

Before the Great Recession, I met owners who had the “Goldilocks Mentality,” which is to say, they had created and built an organization that was “just right.”

Most of those folks are now out of business. They failed to grow their business when times were good, and suffered when times were bad.

If you want to grow your business, you have to grow personally and professionally as the owner and leader. You also need to invest in your people; you need to help them grow too.

I’ve heard owners say, “Our employees are our most important asset,” but do they act with that belief?

I know owners who shun investing in their people out of fear that, once the investment is completed, the employee will leave, and their next employer (often a competitor) will reap the return on investment.

That kind of thinking will keep a company small, regardless of revenue size or headcount. The employees who leave were already planning on moving on; the education provided would have been paid for by you or their next employer, regardless.

Then there are owners who believe that employees should take the burden of development and improvement solely on themselves. Those few employees that rise to this challenge usually end up competing against their former employers.

Imagine the positive impact of having smarter, more productive, more engaged employees in return for investing in their growth.

Which leads to the question, “What are you doing to help your people grow?”

My friend Dave Baney, founder of 55 Questions in Chicago, recently highlighted a story in Fortune magazine with the publication of its list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” These companies make a priority to invest in their employee’s development and have historically grown nearly twice as fast as the S&P 500.

The companies listed in the Fortune magazine provided on average 78 hours per year of training for Manager and Professional level people, and 94 hours for Hourly and Administrative people. This is equal to two weeks of development, education and training each year for every employee.

There are plenty of reasons why an investment in training and developing employees might not take place. There is always a question of cost, concern about coverage of essential operations, and doubt about the return on investment.

When I sat down to write my column this week, I had intended to write about the top 20 risks facing every company. The first thing on my list was if the electricity went out for more than an hour or two; and the second was what if every computer in the company was infected by a hacker or virus, which is what essentially happened to Sony Pictures just a few months ago.

The funny thing is that every owner I know is willing to make annual investments in MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) of equipment and facilities because those are tangible things that are clearly visible and understood to be “mission critical” to daily operations of the company.

Without these things, the company would be out of business.

But each day that goes by that you do not invest in your employees, they are becoming more replaceable by someone who is at the top of their game and can make an immediate impact from Day One on your payroll.

The problem is that the hotshot at the top of their game is going to cost you a lot of money to recruit. And the cost will go up each year to retain him or her.

Instead of hiring superstars, create your own. Making the investment in your people is the wisest investment you can make in your company. This is critical to your short-term and long-term success and viability as a business.

By Ken Keller

The hungry, driven business owner ranks at the top of any list of the “most impatient people on the planet.”

The ones I know walk fast, drive fast, talk fast and think fast. I’m no slouch when it comes to being impatient, but when I compare myself to some of these folks, you can clearly see I am in the slow lane.

Last week I wrote about having a strong second quarter. In my column, I provided five steps to plan and get started down the path of success.

What I did not address was the mindset and tools owners need to make achieving goals a reality.

The first is to spend less time planning and more time executing. General George S. Patton said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

As an example, too many owners fall into the trap of having long, ineffective meetings. There is nothing wrong with, and many things right about, having short stand-up meetings.

There is nothing wrong with telling sales people that they must schedule their first out of the office appointment to be held by 8 a.m. and that they aren’t welcome back into the office before 4 p.m. And, the time spent in-between is to be with clients, prospects or referral sources.

The second is to focus on profitability. Some companies have “loss leaders” that they use to gain market share and then work to make up the lost margin by selling the client other, more profitable products or services.

Many companies can’t afford loss leaders, and even more companies can’t afford to sell anything at a loss.

Given the opportunity to sell something at a lower price, most sales people won’t hesitate to sell as much as they can, as quickly as they can.

To counter this, owners need to reign in discounts, promotional offers and allowances and giveaways.

Surprisingly, many companies do not know what is actually profitable and what isn’t. The analysis can be done by product line or brand, by size, geography, by channel of distribution and by client.

The third is constant cost cutting. Don’t step over dimes to pick up dollars; go for the dimes because they add up quickly.

Finding a few places to negotiate lower costs can save hundreds of dollars a month, leading to thousands of dollars in the next 12 months.

There is nothing wrong with taking the time to look at every invoice before it gets paid. It is perfectly acceptable to question charges.

The fourth is that cash remains king. Personally reviewing the Accounts Receivable list is not micromanaging. It’s being smart about finances when people owe your company for products already delivered and services already rendered.

It’s also smart to see exactly what the AR team is doing to collect money. In many accounting departments, collections is the last task on the “to do” list because no one likes making the calls.

The fifth is to be leaner, meaner, and more nimble by doing a thorough job of spring cleaning the facility. When in doubt about filing cabinets, stacks of paper, and other clutter, put them away, out of sight.

Spend time shredding, dusting, painting, cleaning and rearranging furniture to improve focus and productivity.

No owner or employee I know wants to work in a dark, dirty place; everyone prefers to work in a clean, well-lit and organized place of work where they are proud to spend time every day.

Sixth, and last, speed up decision-making in your company. This goes back to the Patton quote. What most owners don’t realize is that not making a decision is actually making a decision.

But the “not now decision” is never communicated as such. The owner simply does nothing, and says nothing. This leaves everyone in limbo.

The waiting kills momentum. It frustrates and then kills the spirit and enthusiasm of your team. Do it often enough, delay long enough and people just may go to work somewhere else.

Saying “we need to go faster” and having it actually happen depends whether or not the owner truly wants this reality. If so, the owner needs to step up and lead by not the owner truly wants this reality. If so, the owner needs to step up and lead by example. Every employee will be watching.

By Ken Keller

By this time in April, everyone should be back at work from Spring Break and the related holidays.

Now is the time to take action to have a great second quarter.

The first step is to take the time to identify and celebrate successes earned in the first three months of the year.

Americans are funny people; we set goals, strive hard to meet them and when we achieve them, we rarely take the time to truly appreciate the effort and energy expended for these hard fought wins.

In fact, most people in business (and life) downplay their successes lest they make others feel badly. Don’t do this: celebrate successes!

The process is easy; sit down and make a list of all the things you are grateful for having accomplished between January 1 and March 31. Write them all down, big and small, in all functions of the business.

Be sure and identify any significant breakthrough achievements that might warrant special thanks. Often this kind of progress is identified only in hindsight as a game changer.

Take the time to share the good news, and allow others to share the spotlight. Sincerely thank others, including employees, vendors, clients and business associates. If you can’t do it in person, do it with a telephone call, an email or a handwritten note.

The kindness you display will be remembered for a very long time.

The second step is to take a list of all the projects and assignments that you have begun since the first of the year, but are not yet completed.

Measure the progress and list those that can be quickly finished. This will enable the feeling of success to continue into April and May.

Those projects that can’t be finished quickly need to be prioritized and new focus given to complete them before the end of the first half of the year.

The third step is to review the sustainable, competitive advantage of the business.

Take the time to find out and compare how the company is performing versus the competition. What are the key differentiators? Are they understood within the company and are the differences being communicated regularly to clients and prospects?

What has changed with the competition in the last three months? What are they doing better or worse, what strategies are they using to grow their business?

What can be adapted or adopted from the competition that can be applied to how your company operates?

Fourth, review your own calendar for the last three months. How much time is spent riding your desk and ruling the business versus investing time with clients, prospects, employees, vendors and other business associates?

The more time spent with clients and prospects and the people in the company that generate revenue, the more revenue the business will gain.

Strengthening existing relationships both internally and externally helps.

Creating new relationships is how your future is established.

As an employee, I know from firsthand experience how impactful spending time with the owner can be. It’s a chance to listen, to learn and to understand what is important to the employee. The owner can link the needs of the business to that of the employee, creating a loyalty and a bond that will yield dividends for years.

Fifth, whatever the greatest opportunities might be for your business in the second quarter, make the decision to assign your best people to tackle them to bring the opportunities to fruition. Buy, build or borrow the tools that are needed to make these efforts a success.

These next three months, work on and not in, your business.

By Ken Keller

Last week I referenced radio station WIIFM, which stands for “What’s in it For Me.”

This is a universal station; we listen to it all the time and never tire of it.

There are, however, other business radio stations that are listened to in almost every workplace.

The station of the highest importance to anyone in a position of ownership and leadership is station KTLO, which is “Keeping the Lights On.”

Put another way, this station is all about what needs to take place every day in a business for it to stay in business, not just at the survival level but to successfully satisfy clients, pay vendors and to retain key employees essential to the organization.

If you and your business have weathered the various economic storms since founding and survived to this day, you will remember what it took and how you got through the tough times, Being a veteran of having managed through the dark days, I’m willing to bet you know exactly when to start listening closely again.

Some owners and leaders, however, pay much closer attention to KTLO. They listen to it every single day for two reasons. First, perhaps only in hindsight did these men and women realize just how close the lights were to being permanently turned out in the dark days of the past decade.

Second, they pay closer attention to the basics of their business because they want to insure ongoing client satisfaction and have a strong desire to better enjoy improved profit margins for both personal and corporate security.

Most employees do not know that station KTLO exists. Some may have heard about it from friends or family members who are owners or leaders in other businesses. The only way an employee might truly learn about this station, however, is if they depart and start their own business or if the company they work for shares certain types of information.

KTLO is actually a teaching opportunity for owners and leaders of all organizations; to share with employees just what it takes to keep the business operating every month, what needs to be done every day, and to educate what each employee can do to help the enterprise to stay open.

More importantly, the greater opportunity exists for the company to educate what the employees can do, individually and collectively, to contribute to the continuing life, and growth, of the organization that provides them a paycheck.

Will this impact how employees work, contribute and produce results? It may. No employee truly wants to see their employer fail, no employee wants a friend at work to lose their job, and no employee wants to be laid off, collect unemployment and be forced to seek a new job in another place.

But because leadership almost universally fails to educate and reinforce the concepts of having a team committed to survival and growth, employees listen to another station, KMJH, which is all about “Keeping My Job Here.”

Rather than educate employees to become non-shareholding financial partners in the business what owners and leaders do when they are not listening to KTLO, is to tune into to a second station.

This second radio station has powerful, upbeat messages which loosen the creativity found in all entrepreneurs, something that resonates in their brain very time it is on: WWGR, “What Will Grow Revenue.”

While some owners and leaders spend their evenings worrying about problems and issues in their business, I believe more invest their time trying to figure out how to grow the top line, how to increase revenue from current clients, how to sell to more prospects and which new products to add to sell.

The companion employee station to WWGR is WIMR, which stands for “When Is My Raise.” Employers should know that employees listen to this station more than when they listen to KMJH.

Whatever your favorite station is, whether you are an employer or an employee, it is important to know that the other people you work with are not likely to be listening to what you want to hear.

Getting alignment on the tone, tunes and frequency between the four stations will go a long way to creating a more productive and happier workforce and workplace.

By Ken Keller

My previous two columns have focused on how good employees are being poached away from their current employer followed by the why, how and where to find great contributors to succeed those that have departed.

This column addresses how to mitigate the fact that you have good employees on the payroll that you wish to retain, but you can’t compete against companies offering a larger compensation package. It’s acceptable to admit you simply cannot afford to increase payroll.

Studies have suggested that while pay is important, personal and professional growth opportunities rate higher when employees are asked where job satisfaction comes from.

Are you offering your employees the opportunity to learn, grow, contribute and be part of an organization that is moving forward?

I think every employer wants their employees to do more, to be more efficient and effective. Sadly, I have known some owners who only pay this idea lip service when it comes to providing either the opportunity or the tools.

#b7c3edMany employees today are not only disengaged they have become discouraged. These employees feel they are not heard; they make suggestions and the ideas are dismissed; or the owner is so dominating the employee feels frightened to even make a suggestion.

Often, there is a lack of opportunity for growth and a lack of communication from leadership about the future of the company.

Employees, like everyone else on the planet, listen to radio station WII-FM, which is “what’s in it for me?”

Each person has their own channel on WII-FM, similar to what Pandora.com allows. I’ll once again counsel owners to be careful what you wish for when it comes to asking for people to step up, do the work and then not have you follow through on the recommendations offered.

There is no quicker way to cause an employee to become totally disengaged and walk out the door to work somewhere else than disrespecting the effort and work they have done at your request.

The saying that people may not always remember what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel, is a maxim everyone who manages people should not ever forget.

The growth recipe is fairly straightforward. It starts by allowing individuals to have new experiences in all areas of the company.

The more people know about other departments, and the people in them, the stronger the teamwork will be. Silos will be knocked down, communication will improve, and appreciation for the various processes in each department will make for a better informed and empathetic team.

Second, find out what motivates people. This is simply a conversation between leaders and followers. Taking the time to listen to someone else’s channel on WWI-FM will give great understanding of what that person wants, needs and desires. Knowing this can be a great tool in motivating an employee.

Third, build teams at lower levels. At work, there is usually a management team, and different departments. Lacking any formal management structure, cliques form and people gravitate towards PLU (people like us).

Imagine a team of supervisors from all departments that meet to discuss common issues and projects, working together to address opportunities and obstacles. This helps to build a succession plan and strengthens management.

Fourth and last, make sure that everyone in your company has regular and honest performance evaluations. People always want to know how they are doing but managers sometimes fail to provide ongoing, candid observations to employees, preferring to save it up for the annual review. Unfortunately, annual reviews are often postponed and then forgotten.

A raise? Not at this time. But opportunities to learn and grow? Always.