Employee Keepers

In a small farm yard there was a mother hen sitting on a nest of eggs. She was somewhat concerned, as one of the eggs was different from the rest. Being a good mother, however, she did not let her worry rule over her maternal instincts and nurtured all the eggs the same.
After a time, the eggs began to hatch and a cute fuzzy chick popped out of each. They were all peeping and yellow and cute as chicks could be. The different egg took several more days to hatch, but the mother hen split her duties between the new hatchlings and keeping the “odd” egg warm. In time, the egg hatched and the mother hen’s worst fears were realized. The “bird” that came out was very different indeed. It was brown not pastel yellow. Its feet were mis-shapen to the point that it had trouble walking like the other chicks. Its beak was bent over so far, it had great difficulty pecking for grain like the other straight beaked chicks .
The other chicks were constantly making fun of the “odd” chick as they all grew up. The “odd” chick had long gnarly toes with big black toe nails that bent under making it impossible for it to run around like the other chicks. Its eyes were big and bulged out which also gave the others much fodder for their teasing. Eating was torture trying to peck grain with a beak that was bent over almost like a fish hook. The mother was kind and loving to the “odd” chick, but could not always be there to stop the teasing and the ridicule of the immature peers. To make matters worse, as the others grew beautiful white feathers the odd chick’s feathers grew black and long and often dragged in the dirt.
The “odd” chick persisted, and kept trying to be like the others. After all, what is more important to a young chick than being accepted by your peers? So, in spite of all the failures and the ridicule, the “odd” chick kept trying to be a proper chicken. Alas, being so poorly equipped to do so, it never succeeded.
When it came time to fly, the ridicule, failure and frustration accelerated. One by one the young chicks flapped their wings furiously and left the ground to fly to their perches several feet above the ground. When the “odd” chick tried to flap its wings furiously it found that that was a real challenge. Its wings, you see had grown so long and gangly that it was impossible for it to get them flapping fast enough to get off the ground. The harder it tried the more ridicule came its way from the others. It kept trying, but like all of the other behaviors it tried to learn to be a normal chicken, this one was impossible for it to master as well. Every day it was separated more and more from the other chicks, in spite of its best efforts to be like them. The mother hen was distraught to the point that she often wondered if it this cruel trick of Mother Nature would be better off taken back by Mother Nature.

One day it seemed as if those idle thlughts might be realized.

Suddenly there was a clamor unlike any that had come before. All the chickens were running and flying to hide. “Why”, wondered the “odd” one? It is such a bright sunny day. The sun revealed the source of the terror. A dark, unmistakable shadow of a predator was circling the barnyard. Not only was it a predator, it was the most redoubtable of all, the great Bald Eagle. The “odd” chick was trying to run for cover like all of the rest. But now, being nearly fully grown, trying to run like a normal chicken was even harder. Flying like one…impossible. From the cover you could hear the others saying in hushed tones, “Maybe this act of nature was for the best”. That bird was just not supposed to be. It could never learn to be one of us; it should accept its fate.”
Of course none attempted to help, fearing for their own lives, as chickens are prone to do. As the shadow of the predator’s talons grew larger and closer to the “odd” chicken, it seemed as if, soon, it would never have to try so hard to be like the others, or to be accepted, or to avoid the ridicule by being a “nice” bird. It would never have to face the deep despair of yet another failed attempt at being something that Mother Nature clearly did not give it the equipment to be; nor the loneliness of being “odd” and being excluded so many times because of it. Maybe the others were right. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe it was time to quit.
Then, as if by divine intervention, the eagle stopped; as if suspended in time. It looked at the “odd” bird and made a large sweeping motion with its wings as if to say, try this. The “odd” bird seemed to know what the eagle meant, even though it was counter to what it had been taught; to try to fly by flapping your wings slowly. After all, everyone knows a chicken has to flap furiously to get off the ground. This, however, did not seem like the time to argue over technique. So the “odd” bird tried to just flap a long, slow, powerful, fluid flap of its wings and…. off it took. Another such flap had it high over the hen house. Higher than any chicken had flow before. One more such flap and the bird was soaring hundreds of feet above those that had made fun of it for its entire existence, and wished for its demise seconds before.
Yes, the “odd” bird was an eagle, the iconic symbol of strength, courage, beauty, freedom and power. It took just a little change in behavior to allow the chicken to soar to it’s rightful place in the sky.
Morals:
• Less is more (when flying high)
• Even a mighty eagle can be brought to its knees by trying to act like others with less potential.
• Knowing who you are is tantamount to success in life. Once you have the courage to accept that, soaring above your peers is nearly automatic.
Please come up with your own…. there are so many in the story.
and, as always,

Let us know what you think,

Curt

Was in the Marriott Airport in Pittsburgh. Kudos to the staff…outstanding job. Specail thank you to Craig in catering. Representation in the seminar was geogrphically and brand…wide ranging. We had representatives from Pa. as well as Ohio and Long Island, New York. I want to extend my thanks and best wishes to Gary over at Cassel GMC Truck GET WELL SOON, BIG GUY. Special thanks to the Generl Motors representation at the class as well. I really appreciate your participation and great insights.

Couple of best practices:

Follow up. The higher up the empowerment ladder the follow up call comes the more impact it has. Some stores the dealer calls after service!!!

Presenting Additional Work: Make sure you tell the customer all that you have completed up to that point before asking for additonal labor and or parts. It really helps the closing ratio and customer satisfaction levels.

Awareness. Dirk made a great presentation that brought awareness to all about the total value of a customer in the service department to the total dealership. The case in point was a customer that represented $5 million in vehicle sales alone. This versus the cost of a loaner vehicle for a day or two. Thank you Dirk.

Special thanks to Rob from Sun Buick Pontiac GMC for all of his fine presentation work.

Until next time, Curt.

Wow just got back from a parts manager traing session in Irvine Ca. then off to a meeting with the good folks at Servco of the Pacific and am now training Saturn service and sales managers in Tucson. Wild couple of weeks. Here are some relevant links.

Servco Automotive
Jaguar
Saturn

Dombecky Interview Excerpts
Excerpts from a research interview regarding Curt Dombecky’s new book.

Interviewer: Curt, how do you? I know you’ve heard many, many definitions of a business culture. How do you define a business culture?
Curt: A business culture is the aggregate of the collective attitudes and resultant behaviors of all the employees of the business. There is a huge difference in profitability and non-monetary viability in identified constructive cultures versus those that have been identified as restrictive cultures. The insidious aspect of a restrictive culture is oftentimes sales figures will continue to grow. Thus putting the business, under what I like to call, the “ether” of a restrictive business culture. Where constructive cultures really shine is the bottom line. In a watershed study of 207 companies over 11 years, companies with identified constructive cultures out-produced restrictive cultures by over 700%.
Interviewer: Curt, I must ask, this is a book about leadership, yet we started off talking about culture. Why is that?
Curt: One’s ability to lead can be impacted tremendously, either positively or negatively, by the culture in which the leadership takes place. In fact, I think it is probably more important that the leader is focused on creating a constructive culture than traditional leadership skills or abilities. I like to think of a leader, when they and their team are at their best, as not really leading at all. If the leader has concentrated and achieved that which is most important to leadership, the leader will actually be following.
Of course, all of this is taken in traditional context. In the high-performance era that we are now entering, leading from “behind” will be the standard. I can tell by the look on your face what you’re about to ask. So I’ll save you the trouble. That which is most critical for the leader to be concentrating on is creating that constructive culture, which I mentioned.
Interviewer: What would you say would be the biggest contribution to a constructive business culture?
Curt: Without question, the biggest contributor to a constructive business culture is the self-efficacy of its employees. Once this status is realized, there is virtually no end to the possibilities for growth, bottom-line profits and the corporate viability that goes along with them. Self-efficacy has a huge side benefit outside of a corporate setting. Once it becomes part of your personality, it creates a positive culture in your personal life as well. If you ever wondered how people who are at the top of their industry still managed to have wonderful family lives, self-efficacy is it.
Interviewer: Aside from personal role models, who are the people who have served as your role models for success in building a constructive business culture?
Curt: Lou Tice, of the Pacific Institute has defined the term “role model” for me. Not only does he practice what he professes, but he is able to teach that which is not easily observable in such a fashion that you can see it through his words. He has impacted my life in a positive fashion for the last 20 years. I literally would not be doing what I’m doing today had I never been introduced to him. He has taught me how to be self-effacing to the degree that I can now help others be the same. Of all the wonderful gifts Lou has given me through his teachings, self-efficacy is by far the greatest.
I owe a lot to Donald Brown, of Situational Services Inc., for his fine work and mentoring me and all of the intricacies of the Hershey leadership model. Don has taught me business philosophies that have helped the professional side of my life to grow and prosper.
I must thank Bob Bolya for the many insights he has given me in using the DISC personality profiling model and his outlook on business as well. Bob has been the source of many tips that have improved my ability to help people change the environment in which they function.
The list would not be complete without including Jim Leslie. Jim is one of the most analytical, yet kind people, that I have ever met. He has mentored me on the ways of creating what I like to call the American dream. That is, taking a thought or an idea and turning it into a revenue producing entity. Jim is a true visionary, and I have been fortunate to be part of that vision.
Interviewer: What do you think are the biggest obstacles people face in trying to build a constructive business culture?
Curt: The two biggest obstacles in trying to create a constructive culture are:
1) The ability to determine the degree to which your present culture is constructive versus restrictive.
2) The ability to create the precise changes necessary to achieve self-efficacious employees throughout the organization. This is not a simple matter of throwing “the self efficacy blanket” over the entire organization. While this method might work over a period of time, it would be very inefficient and have a high chance of failing. In fact, this same paradigm is why culture changes so often fail. No, the answer is precision, science, knowledge, and a profound belief that there is a better way to the goal than that which has been tried so far. The less precise you are in determining where you are, as a culture, the greater chance of you not being able to realize the change.
I’m not talking about the kind of change that requires layers of accountability. I’m talking about permanent self-efficacious change that creates results from synergies as one could not even have imagined before. My experience with Lou Tice and the Pacific Institute has shown me that we can do this with the best in the world.
Interviewer: How do you know what you need to build a constructive business culture?
Curt: Knowing what you need falls back on my previous comments regarding precision in measuring where you are now. Once that is determined, the appropriate science and knowledge base needs to be applied and communicated. This can be very time-consuming and frustrating (not to mention unproductive) to the uninitiated regardless of the degree of business acumen. Once, however, all the principles are assimilated, they are almost always duplicative with similar outstanding results. The technique, then, is to employ a watchful, mindful set of “outside eyes” to guide you to areas within your organization that will bear the greatest fruit. Once you have learned the science and the principles behind these principles, you will be able to become the “outside eyes” for your organization. In the greatest benefit, everyone in your organization will become expert in these principles as well.
Interviewer: Could you tell our readers a little bit about what drives you to be successful in changing cultures?
Curt: I take no greater pleasure in life than when I am helping others achieve their dreams. The mere notion that I am able to teach the same principles that helped me achieve all of my dreams excites and energizes me on a daily basis. I have no idea why I was exposed to these principles when I was. Nor do I know why they had so much impact on me. They are so pure and powerful that I know they must be shared with as many as possible. I truly believe that anything we as humans do to create and improve society benefits all. The most incredible part of the principles I profess is they are so empowering in the workplace that they inevitably find themselves being employed at home. This seems to be a natural evolution
Interviewer: Is it important to balance your success in your life? If so, how do you advocate balancing your success with your life?
Curt: Once you’ve achieved self-efficacy, it really is not a balancing act at all. Yes, this concept of self-efficacy permeates all that you do. It is, however, more efficient and effective if you come by the principles in your workplace. And that is for a simple reason: control. The average person has much less control of the culture in their workplace than the culture of the rest of their life. Of course, that is because most business cultures are restrictive in nature. So that the principles can be learned and applied somewhere, where the culture is less than ideal, applying them in a more ideal place is much easier. In fact, it has been my observation that once the principles have been assimilated in the work place to not have them in the rest of one’s life creates dissonance. So this concept of balancing is not really one of balancing at all. It is, rather, “fixing” that which doesn’t seem to make sense anymore. Once your subconscious mind gets a hold of this incongruence, it creates the drive and energy to become congruent. This phenomenon is instantaneous and without effort.
Interviewer: What is the message that you want people to hear so that they can learn from your success?
Curt: When managing your organization, it’s important to create self-efficacious, constructive cultures. It is equally important to be able to recognize when you’re in, and to what degree you’re in, a restrictive culture. Attempting to move your organization from a restrictive situation to a constructive one by one’s self can be expensive and inefficient and doomed to failure. If you take a look at an average organization, one of the biggest expenses is the payroll. Most organizations are willing to invest in those to whom they pay the payroll or employees. Where most organizations’ attempts to invest in their employees to create a constructive culture fail, however, is they attempt to create the change from the outside and have it filter in to the employee. This creates temporary change, at best. It also creates, potentially, another layer of accountability, which can be very wasteful, from an expense, as well as a human resource, perspective.
Interviewer: You talked about people who influenced your life. How can people help other people succeed?
Curt: The two biggest factors in helping people succeed are:
1) Leading by example.
2) Using any knowledge you’ve gained in life to create something greater than income.
Lou Tice taught me this 20 years ago and it’s really nothing new. In fact, I think it’s quoted in the Bible, which is a rather ancient book. It goes something like this: if you would wish to know what’s in a person’s heart, watch what they do, not what they say. Does that need any clarification?
The last principle is just part of my belief system. I do not believe that any of the knowledge that I’ve come by in my lifetime is something that I can call “mine.” How I choose to package and present it, of course, is unique to me. The knowledge itself is something that has always existed. The knowledge itself is something that has helped me live a life beyond my childhood dreams. The knowledge itself, I believe, should be passed on to as many people as possible. This can be done to create revenue or not. I have no views on which is of the greater good. I will say this, however: using knowledge to create revenue severely slows down the dissemination process. I believe that the more the knowledge is disseminated, the greater the quality of the fabric of our society. This comes full circle to the culture in which we exist.

Curt Dombecky’s book, “Leadership, Helping Others to Succeed” is here. Just click on The Book , and you can get the secrets of the top leadership experts today.

Excerpts from a research interview regarding Curt Dombecky’s new book.
Monday 06 Mar 2006
Dombecky Interview Excerpts
Excerpts from a research interview regarding Curt Dombecky’s new book.

Interviewer: Curt, how do you? I know you’ve heard many, many definitions of a business culture. How do you define a business culture?
Curt: A business culture is the aggregate of the collective attitudes and resultant behaviors of all the employees of the business. There is a huge difference in profitability and non-monetary viability in identified constructive cultures versus those that have been identified as restrictive cultures. The insidious aspect of a restrictive culture is oftentimes sales figures will continue to grow. Thus putting the business, under what I like to call, the “ether” of a restrictive business culture. Where constructive cultures really shine is the bottom line. In a watershed study of 207 companies over 11 years, companies with identified constructive cultures out-produced restrictive cultures by over 700%.
Interviewer: Curt, I must ask, this is a book about leadership, yet we started off talking about culture. Why is that?
Curt: One’s ability to lead can be impacted tremendously, either positively or negatively, by the culture in which the leadership takes place. In fact, I think it is probably more important that the leader is focused on creating a constructive culture than traditional leadership skills or abilities. I like to think of a leader, when they and their team are at their best, as not really leading at all. If the leader has concentrated and achieved that which is most important to leadership, the leader will actually be following.
Of course, all of this is taken in traditional context. In the high-performance era that we are now entering, leading from “behind” will be the standard. I can tell by the look on your face what you’re about to ask. So I’ll save you the trouble. That which is most critical for the leader to be concentrating on is creating that constructive culture, which I mentioned.
Interviewer: What would you say would be the biggest contribution to a constructive business culture?
Curt: Without question, the biggest contributor to a constructive business culture is the self-efficacy of its employees. Once this status is realized, there is virtually no end to the possibilities for growth, bottom-line profits and the corporate viability that goes along with them. Self-efficacy has a huge side benefit outside of a corporate setting. Once it becomes part of your personality, it creates a positive culture in your personal life as well. If you ever wondered how people who are at the top of their industry still managed to have wonderful family lives, self-efficacy is it.
Interviewer: Aside from personal role models, who are the people who have served as your role models for success in building a constructive business culture?
Curt: Lou Tice, of the Pacific Institute has defined the term “role model” for me. Not only does he practice what he professes, but he is able to teach that which is not easily observable in such a fashion that you can see it through his words. He has impacted my life in a positive fashion for the last 20 years. I literally would not be doing what I’m doing today had I never been introduced to him. He has taught me how to be self-effacing to the degree that I can now help others be the same. Of all the wonderful gifts Lou has given me through his teachings, self-efficacy is by far the greatest.
I owe a lot to Donald Brown, of Situational Services Inc., for his fine work and mentoring me and all of the intricacies of the Hershey leadership model. Don has taught me business philosophies that have helped the professional side of my life to grow and prosper.
I must thank Bob Bolya for the many insights he has given me in using the DISC personality profiling model and his outlook on business as well. Bob has been the source of many tips that have improved my ability to help people change the environment in which they function.
The list would not be complete without including Jim Leslie. Jim is one of the most analytical, yet kind people, that I have ever met. He has mentored me on the ways of creating what I like to call the American dream. That is, taking a thought or an idea and turning it into a revenue producing entity. Jim is a true visionary, and I have been fortunate to be part of that vision.
Interviewer: What do you think are the biggest obstacles people face in trying to build a constructive business culture?
Curt: The two biggest obstacles in trying to create a constructive culture are:
1) The ability to determine the degree to which your present culture is constructive versus restrictive.
2) The ability to create the precise changes necessary to achieve self-efficacious employees throughout the organization. This is not a simple matter of throwing “the self efficacy blanket” over the entire organization. While this method might work over a period of time, it would be very inefficient and have a high chance of failing. In fact, this same paradigm is why culture changes so often fail. No, the answer is precision, science, knowledge, and a profound belief that there is a better way to the goal than that which has been tried so far. The less precise you are in determining where you are, as a culture, the greater chance of you not being able to realize the change.
I’m not talking about the kind of change that requires layers of accountability. I’m talking about permanent self-efficacious change that creates results from synergies as one could not even have imagined before. My experience with Lou Tice and the Pacific Institute has shown me that we can do this with the best in the world.
Interviewer: How do you know what you need to build a constructive business culture?
Curt: Knowing what you need falls back on my previous comments regarding precision in measuring where you are now. Once that is determined, the appropriate science and knowledge base needs to be applied and communicated. This can be very time-consuming and frustrating (not to mention unproductive) to the uninitiated regardless of the degree of business acumen. Once, however, all the principles are assimilated, they are almost always duplicative with similar outstanding results. The technique, then, is to employ a watchful, mindful set of “outside eyes” to guide you to areas within your organization that will bear the greatest fruit. Once you have learned the science and the principles behind these principles, you will be able to become the “outside eyes” for your organization. In the greatest benefit, everyone in your organization will become expert in these principles as well.
Interviewer: Could you tell our readers a little bit about what drives you to be successful in changing cultures?
Curt: I take no greater pleasure in life than when I am helping others achieve their dreams. The mere notion that I am able to teach the same principles that helped me achieve all of my dreams excites and energizes me on a daily basis. I have no idea why I was exposed to these principles when I was. Nor do I know why they had so much impact on me. They are so pure and powerful that I know they must be shared with as many as possible. I truly believe that anything we as humans do to create and improve society benefits all. The most incredible part of the principles I profess is they are so empowering in the workplace that they inevitably find themselves being employed at home. This seems to be a natural evolution
Interviewer: Is it important to balance your success in your life? If so, how do you advocate balancing your success with your life?
Curt: Once you’ve achieved self-efficacy, it really is not a balancing act at all. Yes, this concept of self-efficacy permeates all that you do. It is, however, more efficient and effective if you come by the principles in your workplace. And that is for a simple reason: control. The average person has much less control of the culture in their workplace than the culture of the rest of their life. Of course, that is because most business cultures are restrictive in nature. So that the principles can be learned and applied somewhere, where the culture is less than ideal, applying them in a more ideal place is much easier. In fact, it has been my observation that once the principles have been assimilated in the work place to not have them in the rest of one’s life creates dissonance. So this concept of balancing is not really one of balancing at all. It is, rather, “fixing” that which doesn’t seem to make sense anymore. Once your subconscious mind gets a hold of this incongruence, it creates the drive and energy to become congruent. This phenomenon is instantaneous and without effort.
Interviewer: What is the message that you want people to hear so that they can learn from your success?
Curt: When managing your organization, it’s important to create self-efficacious, constructive cultures. It is equally important to be able to recognize when you’re in, and to what degree you’re in, a restrictive culture. Attempting to move your organization from a restrictive situation to a constructive one by one’s self can be expensive and inefficient and doomed to failure. If you take a look at an average organization, one of the biggest expenses is the payroll. Most organizations are willing to invest in those to whom they pay the payroll or employees. Where most organizations’ attempts to invest in their employees to create a constructive culture fail, however, is they attempt to create the change from the outside and have it filter in to the employee. This creates temporary change, at best. It also creates, potentially, another layer of accountability, which can be very wasteful, from an expense, as well as a human resource, perspective.
Interviewer: You talked about people who influenced your life. How can people help other people succeed?
Curt: The two biggest factors in helping people succeed are:
1) Leading by example.
2) Using any knowledge you’ve gained in life to create something greater than income.
Lou Tice taught me this 20 years ago and it’s really nothing new. In fact, I think it’s quoted in the Bible, which is a rather ancient book. It goes something like this: if you would wish to know what’s in a person’s heart, watch what they do, not what they say. Does that need any clarification?
The last principle is just part of my belief system. I do not believe that any of the knowledge that I’ve come by in my lifetime is something that I can call “mine.” How I choose to package and present it, of course, is unique to me. The knowledge itself is something that has always existed. The knowledge itself is something that has helped me live a life beyond my childhood dreams. The knowledge itself, I believe, should be passed on to as many people as possible. This can be done to create revenue or not. I have no views on which is of the greater good. I will say this, however: using knowledge to create revenue severely slows down the dissemination process. I believe that the more the knowledge is disseminated, the greater the quality of the fabric of our society. This comes full circle to the culture in which we exist.