‘Tis the holiday season, the season known to make or break more businesses than any other. The tradition of gift-giving is known to have cash registers ringing up as much as 40 percent of a retailer’s revenues and 80 percent of their profit.

With so much riding on these few weeks, it’s not surprising that the commercialism of Christmas drives some organizations to lose faith, supersede common sense and create policies that work against joyful experiences, and perhaps profits.

A Christmas aficionado, I can’t help but relate the Tryptophane Thursday and Black Friday retail practices to a movie classic based upon a customer experience on Christmas Eve in 1944. Writer Valentine Davies went to a busy department store to purchase a gift for his wife. Overwhelmed, he wondered what Santa would think of the hectic scene.

Davies went on to share what he imagined Santa’s reaction to be in the Oscar winning movie, “Miracle on 34th Street,” starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and Natalie Wood.

A miracle itself, the movie debuted in June of 1947, not only having received the necessary approval of the retail rivals, Macy’s and Gimbels, but portraying them as friendly competitors in the film. This summer Christmas film proved so popular it graced the big screen for six months, right through the holiday season.

The story starts off with Macy’s famous Thanksgiving Day Parade, where a man who calls himself Kris Kringle replaces a drunken Santa and rides atop the holiday float. To capture the true spirit of the parade on film, actor Edmund Gwenn took his place as Santa in the actual 1946 parade.

Well-received by the crowds, Santa is hired by Macy’s for the New York store on 34th Street. And Kris, a.k.a. Santa, brings the Christmas spirit to the store, its shoppers and its employees. Putting the happiness of children ahead of commercialism, Kris sends shoppers to other stores for bargains and products not found at Macy’s.

The grateful voices of the customers were heard loud and clear by the Macy’s management, which adopted Kris’s practice as a storewide policy. “Mr. Macy” said the store was going to be known as the helpful, friendly store with a heart, the store that puts public interest before profits.

Of course, as the story goes, great profits came with having a heart. It turned out to be quite the customer loyalty program. And even when Kris’ sanity was questioned in court, Macy’s cashed in on the spirit and belief of Christmas.

The latest version of this story, released in 1994, has a bit of a different twist that is perhaps more in tune with today’s retail competitive environment. The rival stores take on the fictional names of Cole’s and Shopper’s Express. Cole’s needs healthy holiday sales in order to overcome its recent financial woes and keep its doors open. Shopper’s Express is counting on its vulnerable competitor to fail, allowing the purchase of Cole’s for a bargain price and the end of its long-time competitor.

Friendly rivals they are not, as Shopper’s Express plots to damage the reputation of Cole’s charismatic Santa, and in turn kill store traffic and sales. Santa’s sanity is again put on trial, only to grow the support and belief of its employer, New Yorkers and the court.

The underlying business message still applies today. Putting the customer first pays dividends. True, many businesses just pay lip service to this belief, but there are some who are being just as bold as the movie’s department store.

Progressive, in fact, has adopted the exact same practice. The insurance company shares competitors’ rates with potential customers, even when they’re lower, and has done so for years. On the company’s web site you will find rates scrolling across the home page ongoing.

Sure Progressive loses a few customers to lower rates, but gains the trust and loyalty from many more through its transparency. It is the third largest insurer in the United States and has averaged a whopping 73 percent profit growth since 2001. And while that growth has slowed a bit as of recent, the company is not cutting back but rather instituting more customer-focused programs.

Another example, Publix supermarkets, reacted to increasing food prices by giving the customer a break. They cut prices on the essentials like milk and bread. They also staff their stores with knowledgeable employees who among other things make menu recommendations for customers planning special meals or events.

The popular Trader Joe’s honors the local customers and their shopping experience. The store foregoes stocking fees or rent from suppliers, allowing each outlet’s customers to decide with their purchases what stays or goes from shelves. Even individual requests are honored.

So having a heart is still paying off, as some businesses experience bottom-line miracles all year round.

Experience a bit of seasonal magic for yourself. Travel via video ( http://www.youtube.com/user/operaphila?feature=mhum ) to Macy’s in Philadelphia where customers, employees and local choir members fill the store’s many floors with music and Christmas spirit as they sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Now what do you think, did sales increase that day?

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps CEOs and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success and happiness.

The Chilean miners continue to be celebrated for their amazing act of survival. Earlier this month Edison Pena ran the New York marathon, finishing in just under six hours. A satisfying feat for anyone, but more so for a man who knew months of darkness. Without knowing it he was training for this race during the depths of the rescue challenge.

He had lost hope for a while, for the initial 17 days, in fact, when he said he was merely waiting to die. With a connection to the outside world came a new perspective. Life seemed a possibility again and so he began to run 6 miles a day through the dark tunnels. He said it set him free¸ allowed him to forget he was trapped under tons of rock. He had moved from surviving to thriving.

Many a blog talk about leadership lessons learned from the Chilean miners who emerged full of life after a harrowing 69 days spent under ground, unsure whether they would see the light of day again. None of the commentaries, however, tagged each and every one of the 33 men as leaders in their own right.

Just as each miner could have contributed to a disastrous outcome, so did each of them share in the survival of one another. The decisions to participate in rations, work routine and the buddy system were individual ones. No doubt the path to those decisions was as different as each of the miners, and most likely was not without struggle.

Struggle is putting it lightly. Many, like Pena, thought death was on its way. “The 33,” as they signed that first note to the world, have a pact to not discuss what happened in the first 17 days. No one needs to know the details of their weak moments, nor the battles between them. They overcame, that’s the point.

Trust and respect are inherent in their pact. They went into that mine as individuals and emerged a high-powered team, a mighty collective of individuals acting as one. They had bonded under the worst of conditions.

Miner Daniel Herrera confirmed as much. “Some of the miners only got to know each other after being trapped,” he said, adding, “Their bonds will last forever.”

Emerging as a team wasn’t accomplished by joining hands and singing “Kumbaya.” As with all high-powered teams, they did their share of storming, and probably to a much deeper and meaningful level. The value and uniqueness of the individuals were preserved, enabling a more powerful unity.

There is no greater team test than survival with extreme odds. And you can get no more efficient than extending a two-day food supply to 17 days. All were engaged, all had existence at stake. Whether contributing charismatic influence, nursing knowledge, technical skills or practical ideas, all the miners brought something to the task of survival.
All brought value to the team.

The job of a leader is simply to get the desired results. The job of a team is to leverage the assets of the individuals to fulfill a common purpose. The 33 miners did both. Leading themselves, their behavior was conducive to accomplishing survival. Leveraging strengths among the miners, they managed resources and workload for a successful rescue.

“When we found them after 17 days, we found them in good condition because they were able to organize themselves. They managed to not eat all the food, and in a peaceful way,” noted Auturo Fermandois, Chilean ambassador to the United States.

The miners taught us that impossibility isn’t what it seems. We give up so easily in everyday business. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have as much at stake. And maybe it’s because we don’t allow for everyone to be a leader in their own right and contribute to their optimal level.

Truly believing that everyone counts, that every single employee brings value will change your business approach. And it will change your outcomes. The Towers Watson global surveys put real, bottom line numbers to this difference. Enabling employee engagement to the same level that resulted in the miners’ survival, will result in brighter days for your business.

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps CEOS and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success and happiness.

Bigger than life, transcends time, that’s what comes to mind as I recall an evening spent with the words of some past presidents. The occasion was the 50th Anniversary dinner of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation at the Kennedy Library in Boston. It was a night that connected yesteryear, today and the future through timeless wisdom.

We meandered our way through the Kennedy exhibits on the way to dinner as if experiencing an opening act for the night. An established authority on leadership, John C. Bogle, founder and former CEO of The Vanguard Group, was the keynote speaker. He related the economic events and values of the past and present, offering an eternal solution put forth by Coolidge, our 30th president.

Bogle happened upon this solution as a young boy sailing with his uncle. On the transom of the boat were the words: Press On Regardless. That’s the abbreviated and to the point version. The full text of Coolidge’s spoken words was:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unraveled genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved, and always will solve¸ the problems of the human race.

Silent Cal, to which he is often referred, was not a man of many words on the social scene, but as his speeches can attest, when the welfare of his country and countrymen were at issue, he spoke with vision, profundity and courage. And as history documents, his actions were born of the same qualities.

Courage seemed to be among the themes of the evening as we sat in a building honoring one president and pondered the words of the other. Both men found their way to the White House understanding that courage could make popularity more than a little precarious. And yet, if not for courage, they may have not crossed the threshold of the Oval Office as its occupant.

The two presidents spoke different words, but expressed the same sentiments, and an underlying theme was none other than “Press On.” To that end, Coolidge dismissed nay-sayers:

I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can’t be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.

And years later, Kennedy echoed Coolidge’s entrepreneurial spirit and unwillingness to be stopped by negativity, saying:

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by the skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were… and ask why not.

As the cliché goes, great minds think alike. And those thoughts continue to be powerful. Coolidge and Kennedy left a legacy of not only courage and leadership, but of inextinguishable inspiration.

As our speaker Bogle emphasized, these two men encouraged all to press on no matter the situation, in good times as well as bad. It takes just as much courage to venture beyond the comfortable, prosperous status quo as it does to deal with the problems of the day. Perhaps even more, as there is a good amount of inertia to overcome with a state of contentment.

At the core of their courage and their ability to press on was an impenetrable belief that their mission was to serve the common good. That is what helped them maneuver the pressures, the obstacles and the crises.

Robert Kennedy, in the foreword of his brother’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, Profiles of Courage, quoted Andrew Jackson as a way of explaining how one man could have such influence: “One man with courage makes a majority.”

The late senator went onto say, “That is the effect President Kennedy had on others.” Clearly Coolidge had the same effect.

So as we go about our days, let’s embrace the wisdom of these two great men, honor them and ourselves, and press on, regardless.

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps CEOs and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success and happiness.

Ever feel out of control because you just won’t let go of any control? For you, perhaps, the circumstances of feeling overwhelmed and overextended are beyond your control. You recognize control freaks, but don’t believe one’s looking back at you in the mirror every morning.

Just for giggles, then, how would you answer these questions:

Will it take less time to just do things yourself?

If you answered “No” to all the questions, you should move on to other fun activities. No need to read further. If you had just one “Yes” you might like to explore a bit more.

Those are the types of questions asked by Cheryl Cran, author of The Control Freak Revolution, as she helps others acknowledge how such behavior can block a higher level of success.

If you listen you can hear a control freak a mile away, or perhaps in the next office. They say things about what they need to do. Here’s some I’ve heard: I need to stay visible to customers because others don’t care as much as I do. I need to be available to answer employee questions so they can get their work done. I need to keep a close watch so they don’t screw up… or screw off. I need to do it myself because they just don’t get it.

These “needs” can stem from a lot issues, but a frequent one is lack of trust. It is no different whether considering the context of work, community group or family. And it’s not something we usually can hide very well. Therefore, it can sabotage any attempts we do make to share the load or delegate.

Think about any time that you were assigned something by another, knowing they didn’t believe in you or your abilities. How did you feel? Doubtful? Stressed? Inadequate? How did you behave? Tentative? Lacking focus? Maybe you even procrastinated a bit?

We can conjure up enough doubts on our own without having the boss, parent or community partner adding to them. If you want to catch your breath, create time and space for other things, or just stop for while, you are going to have to learn to trust. That means letting go, turning over some control to others.

It’s natural to want to maintain control of everything. It’s just not realistic, productive or fun… nerve-wracking most likely, but not incredibly rewarding. And besides, sometimes your better way is really about preference, not quality or efficiency.

I bet you can count on less than one finger how many highly successful people claim to have achieved their accomplishments solo. You have to admit even those who perform individually, like athletes and musicians, have coaches, trainers and other support folks.

It’s not that you can’t achieve a certain degree of success on your own, but at some point you are blocked from going further. Even with the best tools, you can only fit so much in the given 24 hours of a day. That means without help you are limited.

Cran would advise taking it a small step at a time. Hand just a couple of things off. As a business owner, she had to get over this trust hurdle herself. She hired an assistant and was easily converted after experiencing how much more she could do. Not only was she able to do more, she did to a higher level of quality.

So, once again, it’s up to you to remove the limits, share the load and move on to greater success and satisfaction. Just dip your toe in, so to speak, and let yourself drift to a more sane place.

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm who helps CEOs and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success.

Just as a general attitude of competitiveness in our personal lives tends to get us caught up in matters that aren’t important to us, so is the case in business.
One-up-manship takes the focus off of uniqueness and innovation, and submerges it into incremental changes in cost and quality with very little payback.

This describes what authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne call the Red Ocean. It’s competing in the existing marketplace, trying to exploit the same demand as everyone else in the industry. And in so doing, it forces a value-cost tradeoff, as well as a choice between differentiation and low cost.

In other words, it’s bloody awful with little reward. The tendency to over deliver without much pay back just grows in proportion to the level of competition.

In their book, Blue Ocean Strategy, Chan and Mauborgne share formulas for finding a Blue Ocean, where competition is irrelevant. It doesn’t exist. It’s a new market space, where new demand is created and captured.

A basic premise of this strategic approach is what our authors term “Value Innovation,” where value and innovation are given equal emphasis. The result is increased value at a lower cost. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it’s been done by many.

In the Red Ocean approach, there are two very different outcomes, with which I fear you may be all too familiar. Those that emphasize value tend to achieve only incremental increases. And those companies that put more energy into innovation often overshoot what buyers are willing to accept in product and price.

It will be more believable and easier to understand if we look at some companies that have successfully applied this approach. So let’s start with the wine industry.

An intensely competitive industry, it clocks in at $20 billion. There has been consolidation of wineries, over the top marketing, and domination of shelf space by the big players. At the same time there’s been the usual downward pressure on prices. So in a nutshell, competition is fierce while demand remains flat.

The U.S. has the third largest aggregate consumption of wine worldwide, with California wines capturing two-thirds of the domestic market. They go head to head with the imports, which are increasingly targeting the U.S. market.

Enough said, the wine industry is swimming in a bloody Red Ocean. What company in a sane, profit-minded state would dive into such a business? With a splash, enters Yellow Tail into the industry, but not the Red Ocean.

In just two years, Yellow Tail emerged as the fastest growing brand in the histories of both Australian and U.S. wine industries. It is now the No. 1 red selling wine in the U.S., and its average annual sales exceed 4.5 million cases.

And they did it simply by exploring an alternative industry and applying the lessons learned. In particular, they checked out the beer industry for they wanted to create a wine that was easy to drink, not requiring special knowledge or occasion.

Out the window went the ecological distinctions, aging qualities and above-the-line marketing. At the same time they decreased the wine complexity, the variety and vineyard prestige. Their bottles are simple, with the fun and adventurous kangaroo atop a bright yellow or orange background. No where on the bottle will you find anything about the blend, texture, flavors or finish.

Another success story involves acknowledging an existing external trend, but instead of succumbing to it, participating in shaping it over time. This is the story about iTunes.

In the late ’90s, Apple observed the flood of illegal music downloads. By 2003, more than 2 billion files were being shared each month. And while the music industry worked to stop it, downloads continued to grow. The trend toward digital music was clear, being underscored by the popularity of MP3s and iPods.

So in ’03, iTunes was launched. In the first year, 700,000 songs were offered and 70 million were sold. They offered a legal alternative with better sound quality, easy and intuitive search capability and flexible a la carte song downloads, all at a lower than traditional cost.

These two examples start to give you an idea how to create a Blue Ocean. There are additional ways, including looking across strategic groups within an industry as Curves did in catering to women. Another option is to peer across complimentary products and services, which led Dyson to eliminate the need for the vacuum cleaner bag. Viagra changed their market orientation from a functional medical solution, to an emotional lifestyle choice. And Bloomberg redefined the industry buyer group by catering to the traders, instead of the IT managers.

All of these exploratory streams led to innovation and increased profits for the businesses, and greater value at a lower cost for the customer. The differences were significant for everyone.

This of course it just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to the implementation of Blue Ocean Strategy that makes the book worth the read.

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps CEOs and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success and happiness.

Ever been told there are some things you just can’t do because of physical limitations? You know, that you should be realistic because the people that are successful in particular field all have certain physical attributes. Maybe you are too short to be a basketball player, or maybe sports of any sort just aren’t for you because you’re blind.

You can believe such things if you want. I’d rather not. There are some amazing people in this world that show us that we can pretty much do what we set our minds to do, despite the perception of limitations by others.

One of the starters on our high school basketball team was about half the height of the other players. Short, indeed, he was. All the other players literally towered over him. So how the heck could he be a starter?

Instead of seeing his shortness as a hindrance to be overcome, he saw it as advantage to be used. He was quick, and though he couldn’t quite fit through their legs, he could whiz around his opponents, dribbling all the way.
His dribbles were so low that those tall guys became a little awkward when they attempted to steal the ball. With basketball being a team sport, our starter would get the ball to his mates to compete at the higher levels.

Ever heard of Mike May? He was just a typical little boy until a garage explosion left him blind and needing 500 stitches. Nonetheless, he’s seen plenty of victory.

His mother insisted he go to a regular school, when that was not usually allowed. And she let him do anything other boys his age were doing. He rode a bike, and when he crashed it, he asked if he could ride his sister’s. The May garage eventually became home to four mangled bikes.

His mother set aside her protective instincts and told Mike that all kids fall down when trying new things. And so it should come as no surprise to learn that Mike also played flag football, soccer and baseball.
That continues to be the spirit with which Mike chooses to live his life. After Mike set a record in downhill skiing, a reporter asked his mother how she had raised her blind boy. She replied, “What blind boy, I raised my son.”

Mike is also a sky diver, lecturer, guitarist, and was the first blind CIA analyst. There’s more to his story, including how he regained some of his sight. It’s all in his inspirational book titled, Crashing Through.
If we look in earnest, we can probably find an example of someone overcoming just about any physical limitation to achieve what others thought they could not. And while that takes determination when from birth you are without all abilities, it takes a special will to move on when physical capabilities you’ve enjoyed are taken away midlife.

A child prodigy, Leon Fleischer made his public debut on piano at the age of 8 after four years of training. He continued on to have an amazing career until one day he noticed that the fourth and fifth fingers on his right hand were curling up toward his palm. The condition, called focal dystonia, worsened until all the fingers on that hand were curled into his palm. He was 36.

The piano and performing were Fleisher’s life, literally since the time he was a tot. So how could this world renowned pianist continue without the use of one of his hands? Quite simply, he played concertos created for the left hand. And after some years and various treatments he was able to play two-handed again.

Inspiration comes from those who dare to do what others think impossible. They make the rest of us think twice about our excuses and so called limitations. Perhaps they understand what Kierkegaard proclaimed so long ago:

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.”

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps executives and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success and happiness.

I’ve been on vacation, seeking a different level of balance and some veg time. I read a couple of mysteries, explored some of Canada’s Eastern Townships, and then lessened the activity to increase the quiet and still time.

Filling up days with places and events is often considered a great vacation. And great it is if not for beginning and ending with exhaustion. Its restorative score could be low, as most often vacations are expected to provide a break from schedules and their pressures as experienced in daily routines. A change in place, without pace, doesn’t always leave the residual effect anticipated with a vacation.

And while a change in pace, and not place, may serve up most of the benefits sought, vacations, we should note, are personal, and preferences as such will vary. The key is balance, something we all need and seem to believe is more achievable while on vacation.

Balance can be as elusive as the universal sought after happiness. And there’s a reason: they are intertwined with our state of mind. So while a change in pace or place seem appropriate for creating balance, neither provide a guarantee for a great vacation.

When I think of vacation I’m reminded of the carefree, imaginative and fun-filled days of childhood summers. Playing was the balance I needed then, and now. From creating our Indian village to spending hours throughout the day and evening at the local pool, to climbing a rock face of one of the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi, I was free to explore, create and experience. Our play was simply accepted, with few boundaries. And the appropriate level of silliness was always balanced with equal seriousness.

Self-expression flowed, and laughter came easy and often as we were loving life. With our laughter, we were releasing plenty of those healthy endorphins, which by the way are 10 times more powerful than the pain-relieving drug morphine. And no doubt we were increasing our little hearts’ rate, as in addition to the physical activity, our endless laughter gave it a boost. FYI, just a few minutes of laughter can double your heart rate, according to Dr. William Fry, Jr.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: As children we laughed on average 400 times a day; by age 35 we’ve reduced that to 15. So creating a more healthy balance truly does require a bit more play and laughter, in both the mental and physical sense.

For me, there’s nothing more fun than wandering and pondering. Wandering to see and experience new things, like dark chocolate enrobed blueberries we purchased at the Saint-Benoit-du-Lac Abbey. A burst of fresh berry flavor surprised us, because it was truly fresh and truly a burst.

As for pondering, time is given to those things that just don’t make their way into my brainscape during the normal course of a week. Topic matters not because vacation offers a chance to twirl anything and everything around and peer at them from different perspectives. My mental escapades are free to involve matters of the farfetched and otherwise inconceivable.

Play, mental and physical, has been recognized as a key ingredient of well being and happiness for centuries. Aristotle and Plato spoke of such beliefs. On through history, these beliefs have gained merit through the studies of the brain pertaining to the development and education of children, problem solving, creativity, relationships at home and work, as well as team performances.

According to one study, Schaeffer 1993, play is as important to human happiness and well-being as love and work. By nature we are born to play. It’s a source of energy and excitement, stimulating our bodies and brains. At the same time it provides for calmness, relaxation and improved sleep. Vacations that incorporate play are downright therapeutic.

It has been said that you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. I suspect the same is true in exploration of our selves. I’ve not happened upon too many down sides to play, other than the occasional skinned knee.

So with a hop and a skip, unleash yourself. Get in the spirit, stay in the spirit, be the spirit needed to jump into a fun-filled vacation. Giggle and laugh as if you’ve never grown up. Let vacation be like skinny dipping, where without hesitation you leap in. No clothes, no second thoughts are necessary as you understand life is not a dress rehearsal. Allow yourself to recapture the carefree feelings and well-being of childhood.

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps executives and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success and happiness.

During a recent visit to Quebec City, we went to the exposition on the Titanic. It was an incredible walk back in time. From the stories of the ship’s creators to those of its passengers, one couldn’t help but be moved by the excitement and grandeur of this maiden voyage and its tragic ending.

It led me to wonder about all the decisions that resulted in this ship, believed to be unsinkable, being broken in two and taking a dive for the ocean floor, leaving the 2,000 some passengers in its wake. And I realized that those decisions were made much like decisions made all the time, every day.

In the case of the Titanic, the focus was entirely on the gains this magnificent ship could achieve for the Star Line Company. Whether we focus on potential gains or losses determines how we deal with risk.

For example, if a doctor tells a patient they are going to die, they will take greater risks with treatments. They feel they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. On the other hand, if the doctor tells the patient they have a certain number of days to live, they are more risk averse. They frame their decisions around the days of life they could lose.

Oddly, the primary factor in decisions concerning the design and operation of this new ship was the perceived absence of even the usual risks. Standard practices, warnings and common sense were ignored.

In 1912, the Titanic was the world’s largest, fastest, safest and most luxurious ship, and the maiden voyage was meant to prove it. Confidence was in abundance as the design included 16 water-tight compartments, leading to the belief that the ship was unsinkable. Star Line management would not conceive of a situation where so many of the compartments would be flooded as to cause the sinking of its newest ship.

The high degree of confidence in the Titanic led to many out-of-the-norm behaviors. The designer was overruled on two critical matters. One, the water-tight compartments should have extended all the way up through the ship. However, that would have eliminated some living space.

The same type of rationale was used when it came to not including enough lifeboats for all the passengers. The decks, it was decided, would be too cluttered. These matters rested on one key factor: how conducive were they to the vision of making Star Line the leader in luxury experience and accommodations.

In addition, the lookouts stationed in the crows nest were without binoculars. In the hustle and bustle visual aids were forgotten or misplaced. No one seemed too concerned.

Ice warnings from three other ships were ignored. This is a hard one to understand. It was as if, like with youth, there was this sense of being invincible. The Titanic steamed ahead at full speed with the intent to surprise and impress with an early arrival in New York.

Without binoculars, the iceberg was sighted without much time to respond. And despite the quick reaction, the ship was clipping along at such a fast pace that it was almost impossible to safely clear the iceberg. Though the Titanic was saved from a head on collision, skimming within inches of the icy structure, below the surface the berg’s protrusions sliced into its side.

It seems all the world bought into the belief that the Titanic was this unsinkable wonder. For even the captain of the Californian, a ship just ahead of the Titanic that had sent the last iceberg warning, ignored the distress flares sent up. He figured Titanic was enjoying a bit of celebration.

More astounding was the unfailing belief of a passenger as she watched the ship on its descent from a lifeboat. “The first wish on the part of all was to stay near the Titanic. We all felt safer near the ship. Surely such a vessel could not sink,” recalled 40-year-old Elizabeth Shutes.

Like in the launching of the Shuttle Challenger, facts and experts were ignored. Appropriate questions were not asked and important input was simply dismissed. The decision-makers were so determined, it was as if they thought they could will success. Instead, they met with disaster.

It happens every day in business boardrooms and on manufacturing floors. Politics, influencing skills, position and intimidation get in the way of good decisions. Framing around gains or losses plays with our perceptions, and in some cases blinds us to balanced decision-making. Perhaps the error of our ways goes unnoticed; the consequences are not always as visible, nor as painful as our historic tragedies. Costly, nonetheless, they are.

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps executives and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success.

Intuitively it makes sense that transparency with employees allows for greater engagement and more lucrative financial outcomes. Leaders who are transparent evoke trust and a higher level of loyalty.

That newspaper turnaround that I mentioned a few weeks back was accomplished by opening the books and sharing financial results on a monthly basis. It empowered employees to participate in developing new and better processes and products.

I didn’t really think about transparency as putting the employee first, but that’s exactly what it does. And when you take care of the employee, they in turn feel compelled to take care of the customer.

In the latest Inc. magazine, Matt Blumberg, CEO and chairman of the New York company Return Path, talks about transparency and how he has ranked the shareholder behind the customer, who comes after the employee.

Shortly after hiring a Vice President of People to formalize and preserve the company’s culture, Blumberg’s philosophy of transparency and employees first was put to the royal business test. He and his team had decided to sell off part of the company, and proceeded to struggle with what to tell the staff.

The top team was divided, debating about impact from competitors and clients, potential workplace anxiety and talent flight, as well as the trust factor. Blumberg resorted to calling his executive coach, who was able to help him figure out how to maintain alignment with the company’s values and culture. Employees heard it first hand from Blumberg.

In the end, a sale didn’t take place. That portion of the business was broken off into a separate entity, and all continue to prosper.

Prosper and transparency are heard in conjunction more and more. Case in point, the man who wrote the book, Employees First, Customers Second, heads up the fastest growing and most profitable global IT services company. Business Week lists it as one of the 20 most influential companies in the world.

CEO Vineet Nayar, flipped the org chart upside down and made management accountable to HCL Tech’s 57,000 employees five years ago. It’s not just lip service, either. Performance appraisals of all HCL senior managers are posted on the company’s intranet. You can’t get more transparent than that.

Nayar is all about embracing change. He says Gen Y will require high transparency in business. After all it is the generation that grew up in the Facebook community, where they share all.

His implementation strategy incorporates what has been on the business platform for sometime, at least in discussion. It includes creating urgency, sharing the current state so employees can see future possibilities, building trust through transparent communication, nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset, and decentralizing decision-making.

In addition, he transfers the ownership of change to employees. That pretty much gives them license to do some of the driving, or to take the lead so to speak.

Change is known as The New Normal at HCL. Employees are put front and center. You can see for yourself at Unstructure.org, where videos from the company’s conference can be seen.

The opening video is all about kids’ perspectives. And from their mouths, we can hear how change is, indeed, the new normal. Internet is listed among the planets, and as for marriage, the chapel will be left behind for a Facebook ceremony.

Why not follow Nayar’s lead and welcome some of this change inside the walls of our business? There have been enough success stories to show it works. It’s time to believe and get on with empowering employees.
Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps executives and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success.

I spent a couple of days last week pedaling my services at a business expo here in Vermont. I wasn’t the only one offering leadership development and coaching. So as good marketing would have you do, I gathered the data on ROI and bottom line impact of my services.

Unfortunately it wasn’t until this week that I read about the “leadership shortage,” as reported by bloggers Sue Ashford and Scott DeRue on the Harvard Business Review site, blogs.hbr.org.

Here are the facts, according to them: 60 percent of companies are facing a leadership talent shortage and another 31 percent expect the shortfall to interfere with performance.
This would lead one to believe leadership development is in high demand, right? Our bloggers tell us an estimated $12 billion was spent last year on said development, which amounted to just under a quarter of the budget allotted for all training and development.

(So I’m sitting here scratching my head, thinking this lack of response is a shortage of leadership in and of itself.)

Ashford and DeRue go on to propose what’s needed to grow new talent. I share some of their views, as do others. Our bloggers speak mostly to cultural values that will allow for the growth of leaders. Keeping the approach simple, they advocate for learning from real life, going beyond skills and knowledge to establish leadership principles, rewarding for growing leaders, and realizing leaders are needed at all levels.

There’s nothing new here, and yet somehow the validity of these notions have not elevated them to a level of common beliefs and practices in business. (Again, I’m puzzling over the current ‘leadership.’)

Leadership comes from within, and thus development rather than training is appropriate. More than general principles, a leader needs to be clear about their personal values. Or in the words of Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, it’s about knowing what you stand for, as an individual. That’s what attracts followers, whether loyal customers or employees, he adds.

According to Peter NG Kok Sung, chief investment officer for the government of Singapore and speaker on “The Contemplative Executive,” the first challenge in achieving this clarity is that of stepping back from the “busyness of business.” An advocate of John Main’s teaching on meditation, Kok Sung quotes Main on the high pressure world of today’s executive: “It’s as though we were rushing through our lives, and in our hearts there is the flame of a candle. Because we are moving at such high speed, this essential interior flame is always on the point of going out.”

Main says a leader must stop being a “busy body,” become quiet, to get in touch with what Jack Welch, former General Electric CEO, called the over-arching quality of a leader, that of authenticity or one’s humanity. Welch further explained it is who we are in our soul.

If today’s executives don’t get it, and aren’t slowing down enough to respond to the shortage they themselves have identified, how will they allow for the development of new leaders? How will they go beyond surface training to a deeper level, one that develops individuals into the leader within, to stand strong in who they are at their core?

Perhaps it would be helpful to contemplate the words of a recognized and successful leader as written in his dying days. Kok Sung relates what he read in Chasing Daylight, a book by the former CEO of KPMG, Eugene Kelly. In his last 100 days, as brain cancer closed in on him, he shares what he learned about clarity and simplicity:

“I had long believed that a successful business person could, if so inclined, live a spiritual life. And to do so it wasn’t necessary to quit the boardroom, chuck it all, and live in an ashram, as if only a physical departure that dramatic would confirm a depth of feeling about larger issues, including one’s soul.

After the diagnosis of my illness, I still believed that. But I also discovered depths to which a business person rarely goes. I learned how worthwhile it was to visit there, sooner rather than later, because it may bring one greater success as a business person and as a human being. You can call what I went through a spiritual journey, a journey of the soul. A journey that allowed me to experience what was there all along but had been hidden, thanks to the distractions of the world.”

Leadership and its development should not be allowed to be lost in the hustle and bustle of the routines of daily business. New leaders, not a crisis, should be the making of the current leadership.

Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps executives and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success.