Super Jobs for You

I recently ran across an article I had clipped and saved from The Wall Street Journal

(www.WSJ.com) with the title “The Cheater Principle.” It described in great detail how individuals, many of them with the full ability to pay, and possessing the full knowledge that they are doing wrong, are cheating like never before. People were running tollbooths, sneaking into movie theaters, leaving restaurants without paying the tab, returning merchandise to stores soiled and dirty, from stores where it hadn’t been purchased.

For many years the American public has held business in very low regard. Poll after poll indicates that the leaders in business rank somewhere in the neighborhood of politicians. With a slow economy, and even in a good economy, everyone focuses on the bottom line. The greater the profits, the greater our individual share.

However, this comes at a high price. Long ago the scariest words in the English language were “Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes is here to see you.” Now, to criminal, crook and hero alike, it is a badge of honor to appear on a television show where we “bare all” and we do so without regret. We have become a society of the celebrity. As a society we no longer believe in doing the right thing. Our “honor,” if you can call it that, comes from being noticed, from being caught even though we tried to “get away with it.”

During the Tylenol tampering scare years ago, the leader of that company explained his case for dealing with forces outside of his control that threatened to destroy the reputation of his company. That leader received high marks for quickly going on television and asking that the public maintain confidence in Tylenol. The company immediately found a way to solve the problem through tamper-proof packaging, now the norm in consumer products.

Doing the right thing each and every day is an issue that needs to be addressed, not just for those of us in business, but for our customers and clients, and for all of those that look to us as examples. The tone of our business begins and ends with the person in charge. As business owners, we have to make a stand. Doing this may not win any popularity contests, but will benefit all in the long run.

There are four general rules to follow when you are trying to determine if something that you are doing or thinking about doing is the right thing.

The first is whether or not you would enjoy seeing your action exposed on the front page of the local newspaper. How you would face your family, neighbors and business colleagues if your activities were laid out for the world to read in Time magazine? Or see you on “Dateline?” Or on CSPAN in front of a congressional committee as you testify under oath?

The second is whether or not a jury of your business peers would favorably review your activities. Would people in your industry or in business in general approve of your actions?

The third test is whether or not you would like to tell your story to your mother or your minister. The love and affection that they give you is unconditional, but they may also be disappointed in you.

The fourth test is whether or not your actions are legal, within the spirit and letter of the law. While some may argue that this is not a valid test, the truth is that our system of laws and justice, despite flaws, is the best on the planet.

I can’t tell you what to value; I cannot tell you what is right. When I was growing up, my parents used to ask me if I was willing to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge just because “everyone else was doing it.” Once I figured out how high the bridge was, how far the drop was, and how cold the water was and what it would feel like to hit something akin to concrete going very fast, I was able to make up my own mind. I have, with all the courage that I have, charted a course of action for my life to do the right thing. How about you? What course of action are you taking to do the right thing?

The city slicker had purchased a farm in the country and was out on his tractor bright and early that first morning. He was trying to drive his tractor in such a way that his crop rows would be straight and consistent. He wanted to have his farm look just like those of his neighbors. But try as he might, it just wouldn’t work. The rows he was creating were ending up crooked.

After a morning of disappointment, he drove the tractor back to his new home for lunch. He entered the house rather dejected. His wife asked him what was the matter and he explained what he was trying to achieve, how he was doing it, and the results he was getting. He was angry, frustrated, disillusioned and not looking forward to seeing his new neighbors laugh at his misfortune. He questioned whether or not he should have bought the farm in the first place, since he couldn’t even plow the rows straight!

His wife thought about all of this for a few quiet moments and then asked him a question. “At what point do you think your plowing starts to go wrong?” The husband reflected and replied “When I look back it looks okay but that is when I turn the wheel and I mess it up.” After a few more moments of thought his wife made a suggestion that he might want to consider a new tactic during the afternoon.

The city slicker hopped on his tractor that afternoon with a vengeance and drove like a madman until it was nearly dark. He walked into his home with a huge smile and the look of fulfillment. “You were right,” he told his wife, “I looked at a point in the distance and stayed focused on what was in front of me and I didn’t look back once. My rows are as straight as any of our neighbors. Maybe even straighter.”

This may sound like a simple lesson, and perhaps it is. But it illustrates a critical point in business that “we need to be led by a vision of the future as opposed to being pushed by the problems of the present.” The city slicker knew what he wanted (he had the idea that his rows would be so straight that they might be the envy of his neighbors) but couldn’t get out of his own way to see how it could be done. It took the patient listening of his wife, a sincere yet critical question and some candid, non-threatening advice to make a difference.

Successful organizations have a clear understanding of not only who they are but where they are going.

They understand what they know, what they don’t know and what they need to accomplish their goals. Far too many businesses are stuck with the problems of today that they cannot see a future beyond the present. These businesses don’t progress, don’t improve and they deal with the same problems over and over, again and again.

The question is this: will you create your own future based on a vision that you have for your business or will you allow other forces, not of your choosing, to create and deliver it to you?

Half the year is now behind us and if your business is not any closer to your stated vision, perhaps it would be beneficial to take some time to rethink your intent, review your results, and take an objective look at not only what you are doing but how you are doing things to move you toward the goal.

This assumes, of course, that you have some sort of ultimate vision for your business in the first place. If you don’t have that figured out, it would be a great place to start, starting when you finish reading this article.