People Mirror their Leadership

by Don Harkey

I was involved in an interesting discussion with a client recently. We were talking about important traits of a leader and the trait of character was brought up. While everyone in the room believed that character was an important trait, the question arose as to whether it was important in terms of leadership of an organization. Is high ethics and character really important to a business or is it just a trait that we like people to have? In other words, all other things being equal, does a person of high character make a better leader than a person of lesser character?

Have you ever heard that pets often reflect their owners? If you see a burly looking gruff guy walking down the street with a pit bull, I don't think I would pet the dog. While this isn't always true, the truth is that it is sometimes true. A dog owner who is rough and doesn't treat their dog nicely will often get a dog who is rough and doesn't treat anyone else nicely.

The same is true for management. Workers often reflect their managers. A McDonald's or other fast food place has very tight controls on how the restaurant is to be run. They hire the same people with the same food and the same procedures. However, you might hear someone say, "oh... that's a good McDonald's" or "that McDonald's isn't very good". What is the difference? Simple. It's management.

Have you ever complained about poor service at a business only to discover that the person you are complaining to is even worse? I got incredibly bad serve at a fast food place (there was nearly a riot in the place) and called the manager out who said, "what do you expect me to do?". That's funny... that is exactly the attitude the upset customers were seeing!

One of the largest myths in business is that hiring is search for "good people". The fact is that while people have widely varying strengths and weaknesses, they typically want to do a good job. A "bad person" is probably just someone who lived under bad management. A "good person" is probably just someone who lived under good management. Yes, it takes awhile to get someone to assimilate to a culture, but it is possible and very worth it. The thing is that the "culture" doesn't come from a procedures manual, slogan, or mission statement, it comes from the day to day reality of the organization. It comes from the walk, not from the talk.

This is why character is important in business and why people of high character are so much more valuable. A manager might really like their employees and truly care about what they do. If the manager lies to a client in order to protect the company, this might be considered a "tough decision", but justified. The problem is that employees see this and absorb the culture. They protect each other by not sharing information on mistakes. They hide negative feedback from clients. Pretty soon, leadership is not getting real information from the client that is needed to make good decisions.

Good guys really do win in the end. Hitler was a very strong leader with a clear (and horrifying) vision. In the end, his constant deceptions caught up with him as his people held back information. As the Allies landed on D-Day, Hitler was asleep. None of his people would wake him and none of them would give an order. This was critical in the course of the war.

If your organization has a lot of corruption, look at your leadership. If you have trouble finding the right type of person, first look for the right type of leader.

Modest Millionaire

by Don Harkey

Dr. Thomas Stanley studies Millionaires. His books, "The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind" show common characteristics of people who are financially successful.

An important finding by Dr. Stanley is that millionaires are actually harder to find than you would think. One would think that you could just go knock on the door of the $750,000 house with the BMW parked in the driveway and ask to interview the owner. However, Dr. Stanley found that many of these people aren't really millionaires. They are actually horribly in debt and are scraping by month to month like many people.

I bring up this point first because the people in your life that you might think of as being rich probably aren't. It's not easy to tell. If you drove by Warren Buffet's house in Omaha, you wouldn't notice it. It is a nice house, but it is not the house you would expect from one of the richest men in the world.

So what traits do millionaire's share? The #1 trait shared by millionaires was developed by asking both the millionaires themselves and by asking people who know them and do business with them. That trait is character.

This seems backwards in our society. We are used to thinking of our richest members of society as being backstabbing elitists who will run over their grandmother if it means getting their way. While I'm sure there are millionaires like that, it appears to be the exception more than the rule. So what does the average millionaire look like?

The average millionaire is married with children (by a vast majority). They made their own money instead of inheriting it. They are not workaholics who rise at 3AM everyday and neglect their families. They live a relatively modest existence having found that true joy comes from things like a kid's soccer game or playing cards with friends. Most of all, the strongest characteristic of a millionaire, according to the study, is honesty.

Honesty is something most of us would claim as an attribute, but few (if any) of us practice fanatically. True honesty means being honest all of the time. Most of us know that lying to get something you want is bad, but life has a way of making us see gray.

I once heard a Vice President talk about putting off the truth until it could be properly dealt with. I once heard a manager tell me, "I'm not going to lie unless they tell me to". It seems that it becomes easier to lie when we promise to make amends later or when we blame the situation for "forcing" us to lie. These are the traps that many financially successful people avoid.

This may mean that you must tell a client something difficult. I have sat with business owners who were frustrated with their people and who were asking me what to do. I had to tell them that it all started with them. They were doing something wrong. I have had clients look at me like I had just punched them in the gut. Most business books would tell you that this is not a desired outcome, but it is the honest approach.

A very important point here is that honesty appears to work over the long haul. If most financially successful people have high integrity, then honesty could be considered a key trait in becoming successful. Your reputation is critical. Your coworkers who see you making compromises in integrity will remember that. Your coworkers seeing you make sacrifices to keep your character will also remember.

If you work for an organization that expects dishonesty, my recommendation is to leave. The organization likely has a bad reputation and it might just rub off on you. Surround yourself with people of high character and hold your character as one of your most prized possessions. It is not only the right thing to do ethically; it is also the right thing to do for success!