Results That Last E-Book

Quint Studer

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 386

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Praise for Results That Last "Quint Studer is a superb communicator with a deep belief in the power of relationships. His informal tone, sense of humor, and real-world stories bring his business principles to life. Results That Last has a vital, optimistic quality that will keep readers re-reading long after other leadership books have been relegated to a dark corner of the shelf." --Nido Qubein, author of How to Get Anything You Want; President, High Point University; Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Company; and founder, National Speakers Association Foundation "Results That Last is long overdue and fills a big gap in effective business management. There are legions of books that show us the way to achieve successful results in business, but very few that teach us how to institutionalize success. In reality, achieving success is the easy part. The real challenge is to achieve results that last. Quint Studer not only proves it is possible to hardwire a culture for lasting results, but lays out a simple, logical, and effective way to do so. Anyone who wants to make success a habit needs to read this book." --Bob MacDonald, former CEO, Allianz Life of North America and author of Beat the System: 11 Secrets to Building an Entrepreneurial Culture in a Bureaucratic World "I have always been fascinated by how the various parts of an organization work together to achieve strategic objectives. In Results That Last, Quint Studer explores the complex subject of performance improvement in a fresh, readable, and easy-to-grasp way. By standardizing certain business practices and leader behaviors, any company in any field can create an environment that allows it to achieve and sustain long-term results." --David F. Giannetto, coauthor of The Performance Power Grid: The Proven Method to Create and Sustain Superior Organizational Performance

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Introduction

KEY TACTICS

CHAPTER 1 - UP OR OUT Deal with Low Performers and Move Your Organization to ...

LOW PERFORMERS COME IN MANY SHAPES AND SIZES

HOW DO THEY DAMAGE? LET US COUNT THE WAYS . . .

REVERSING THE SPIRAL: HIGH, MIDDLE, AND LOW CONVERSATIONS

WHO’S WHO IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE

SCHEDULE THE CONVERSATIONS

SUBTRACTION REALLY IS ADDITION

WHAT YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED

CHAPTER 2 - ROUND FOR OUTCOMES

WHAT EMPLOYEES WANT: FIVE GOOD REASONS TO ROUND

ROUNDING 101: NINE SIMPLE STEPS FOR GETTING STARTED

CHAPTER 3 - MANAGE UP TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

THE WE/THEY PHENOMENON

THE ART OF MANAGING UP

WELL-HANDLED HANDOFFS—AND THEIR PAYOFFS

MANAGING UP TO REDUCE ANXIETY

CREATING THE CULTURAL SHIFT

THE CORE

CHAPTER 4 - BUILD THE FOUNDATION (PASSION AND PURPOSE)

THE ORGANIZATIONAL FLYWHEEL

SELF-MOTIVATION

PRESCRIPTIVE TO-DO’S

RESULTS

THE FIVE PILLARS OF EXCELLENCE

HELPING EMPLOYEES CONNECT THE DOTS

CHAPTER 5 - REDUCE LEADERSHIP VARIANCE

TAKE A CUE FROM YOUR FINANCE LEADERS

CONSISTENCY EQUALS SUSTAINABLE RESULTS

WHY LEADERS DON’T STANDARDIZE BEHAVIORS

SIX WAYS TO REDUCE LEADERSHIP VARIANCE

A PROCESS FOR TRANSFORMATION

CHAPTER 6 - MEASUREMENT 101

MEASUREMENT ALIGNS BEHAVIORS

MEASUREMENT AS A DIAGNOSTIC AND PROCESS-IMPROVEMENT TOOL

WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED

EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AND THE RIPPLE EFFECT

HOW OFTEN DO WE MEASURE?

GOOD TO GREAT: MOVING 4s TO 5s

TRANSPARENCY: HELPING PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE METRICS

FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY IS A RELATIVELY NEW VALUE

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

CHAPTER 7 - ALIGN BEHAVIORS WITH GOALS AND VALUES

HOLDING LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE

HOW DOES THE LEADERSHIP EVALUATION TOOL WORK?

HOW TO ROLL OUT THE LEADERSHIP EVALUATION TOOL

THE MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORT

THE 90-DAY PLAN

RETURNING THE ORGANIZATION TO A SENSE OF PURPOSE

CHAPTER 8 - CREATE AND DEVELOP LEADERS

LEADER DEVELOPMENT IS A MUST

A CRITICAL KEY TO EMPLOYEE RETENTION

PRINCIPLES FOR DEVELOPING LEADERS

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTES (LDIs): THE SECRET TO HARDWIRING LEADERSHIP TRAINING

EMPLOYEE TACTICS

CHAPTER 9 - SATISFIED EMPLOYEES MEAN A HEALTHY BOTTOM LINE

THE POWER OF SATISFIED EMPLOYEES

BUILDING BLOCKS OF EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

NINE WAYS TO GET STARTED

CHAPTER 10 - KNOW YOUR EMPLOYEES’ WHAT

WE ALL HAVE A WHAT

YOUR EMPLOYEES’ WHAT

IN HOT WATER: A STORY OF WHAT DISCOVERY

PURSUING THE WHATS

CHAPTER 11 - IMPROVE EMPLOYEE SELECTION AND RETENTION

THE IMPACT OF SELECTION AND THE FIRST 90 DAYS

PEER INTERVIEWING: A VITAL SKILL FOR HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

THE STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS OF PEER INTERVIEWING

THIRTY- AND NINETY-DAY NEW-EMPLOYEE MEETINGS

CHAPTER 12 - BUILD IN DIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY

THE RICH BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RENTERS AND OWNERS

STRATEGIES TO TRANSFORM RENTERS INTO OWNERS

SETTING REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS

CHAPTER 13 - HARVEST INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL

MOVING BEYOND THE SUGGESTION BOX

CHAPTER 14 - RECOGNIZE AND REWARD SUCCESS

REWARD AND RECOGNITION CHANGE AS YOU MATURE

WHAT HOLDS US BACK?

THE AMAZING POWER OF REWARD AND RECOGNITION

HARDWIRING THANK YOU NOTES

HOW TO SCHEDULE AND IMPLEMENT REWARD AND RECOGNITION

CHAPTER 15 - FIND AND RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCE MAKERS

THE POWER OF HERO RECOGNITION

HOW TO FIND DIFFERENCE MAKERS

CUSTOMER TACTICS

CHAPTER 16 - BUILD A CULTURE AROUND SERVICE

A POWERFUL TOOL FOR BUILDING A SERVICE CULTURE

CREATING YOUR OWN STANDARDS OF BEHAVIOR

WHY STANDARDS WORK

THE POWER OF KEY WORDS

THE LOYALTY FACTOR

CHAPTER 17 - IMPLEMENT PRE- AND POST-CUSTOMER-VISIT CALLS

PRE- AND POST-VISIT CALLS EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THE BOTTOM LINE (PROOF THAT THESE CALLS WORK)

A TECHNIQUE FOR ALL TYPES OF BUSINESS

COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT PRE- AND POST-VISIT CALLS

DEVELOPING KEY WORDS FOR PRE-CUSTOMER-VISIT CALLS

DEVELOPING KEY WORDS FOR POST-CUSTOMER-VISIT CALLS

CHAPTER 18 - ROUND ON YOUR CUSTOMERS Determine Your Customers’ What and Give It ...

THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING

ROUNDING ON CUSTOMERS

THE THREE FACES OF ROUNDING

CUSTOMER ROUNDING REALLY WORKS

CHAPTER 19 - KEY WORDS AT KEY TIMES

DEVELOPING YOUR KEY WORDS

THE AIDET APPROACH TO SERVICE

ABOUT STUDER GROUP

OTHER LEADERSHIP BOOKS BY QUINT STUDER AND STUDER GROUP

INDEX

PRAISE FORRESULTS THAT LAST

“Change is hard for many people. That’s what makes this book so valuable. Quint Studer lays out a formula that tackles one of the daunting tasks a leader must face—changing human behavior in order to improve organizational performance—and makes it feel doable. Reading this book before the next big change initiative at your company will make your job much easier... and infinitely more rewarding.”

—Richard Lepsinger, President, OnPoint Consulting, LLC, and coauthor of Flexible Leadership: CreatingValue by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices

“Anyone can be great once—even blind squirrels find a few nuts to store away. Quint Studer shows you how to consistently amaze your customers, connect with your employees, and outperform your competitors. And if that doesn’t interest you, perhaps you are browsing in the wrong section of the bookstore.”

—Randy Pennington, author of Results Rule! Build aCulture That Blows the Competition Away

“As companies everywhere break through borders and expand across the globe, achieving strong organizational performance takes on a new urgency. Without an unshakable foundation—one based on proven business principles—you won’t survive growth and change. Quint Studer can help. He explains how standardizing your leadership practices sets you up for the kind of consistent, day-to-day, employee-to-employee, customer-to-customer excellence that ensures global success. Don’t miss this book.”

—Tom Travis, author of Doing Business Anywhere: TheEssential Guide to Going Global

“Here’s what I like about Quint Studer: He gets that the employee experience and the customer experience are intertwined and inseparable. Make the former happy and the latter will follow organically. And as Studer rightly points out, it all starts with great leadership. His book overflows with practical, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that tactics for building a culture around service. You’ll want to try these tactics the minute you read them—and I suspect they’ll fit like a tailor-made suit.”

—Scott Deming, international speaker and business consultant, author of The Brand Who Cried “Wolf”:Deliver on Your Company’s Promise and CreateCustomers for Life

“Not only are the most powerful leaders goal-oriented, disciplined, and passionate, they’re connectors. They’ve mastered the art of human relationships. Quint Studer intuitively knows how to connect with others and persuade them to buy into a vision. If you’re charged with leading others, don’t just read Results That Last; live it. It will change the way you interact with your people, which in turn will change the course of your business for the better.”

—Dennis F. Haley, founder and CEO, Academy Leadership, and coauthor of The Leader’s Compass,2nd Edition: A Personal Leadership Philosophy Is YourKey to Success

“Quint Studer’s new book, Results That Last, is a must-read for anyone who is serious about leadership and the steps that can be taken to help improve morale and productivity in the workplace. He takes the principles he has refined as a distinguished leader in the healthcare industry and applies those to other corporate cultures. Studer bases his commonsense thesis on what he calls evidence-based leadership practices, which he breaks down into three key elements: Aligned Goals, Aligned Behavior, and Aligned Processes. He then weaves all three into a leadership formula that is both practical and attainable and will inspire and motivate anyone wishing to improve their leadership skills. It’s what success is all about.”

—Charles S. Lauer, retired publisher, ModernHealthcare Magazine

“Quint Studer, the foremost healthcare service consultant, has already taught us how to hardwire excellence. His latest book, Results That Last, is sure to be a classic in the annals of business management.”

—Floyd D. Loop, M.D., former CEO (1989-2004), Cleveland Clinic

Copyright © 2008 Studer Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Studer, Quint.

Results that last: hardwiring behaviors that will take your company to the top / Quint Studer. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-0-471-75729-0 (cloth)

1. Leadership. 2. Organizational behavior. 3. Corporate culture. I. Title. HD57.7.S787 2007

658.4’092—dc22

2007014619

To Celia Rocks

June 15, 1959-December 25, 2006

Celia Rocks was a believer. She believed the message you are about to read could make a difference. Celia, here’s wishing we all had more days with you. Thank you for starting the fire.

INTRODUCTION

Evidence-Based Leadership

What truly creates results that last?

It’s not the products and services an organization offers. These can change and, besides, the minute they hit the global marketplace competitors can and do copy them. It’s not particular employees. People leave organizations every day. It’s not even individual leaders. They, like the employees who serve under them, come and go over time.

What creates results that last is leadership—leadership that’s consistently excellent from leader to leader, department to department, division to division. Standardize the right leadership practices and you will find that organizational performance improves across the board . . . and stays improved.

The strategies and tactics in this book have been “road tested” by Studer Group, an outcomes-based firm devoted to teaching its client organizations how to create and sustain service and operational excellence. We know they work, and work well. Our partner organizations attest to their validity.

Evidence-based leadership (EBL) enables us to create results that last. What is EBL? It’s a strategy centered on using the current “best practices” in leadership—practices that are proven to result in the best possible outcomes. The “evidence,” in this context, is the reams of data collected from study after study that aim to determine what people really want and need from their leaders. When leaders apply these tried-and-true tactics to every corner of our organizations, we achieve consistent excellence. Our organization’s success is no longer dependent on individuals. It’s hardwired. No matter who leaves, the excellence remains.

It seems important to mention that evidence-based leadership is a spinoff of evidence-based medicine—a philosophy based on using current “best evidence” to make decisions about the care of individual patients. What works for doctors and nurses will also work for CEOs and managers. It just requires a different way of thinking about how we lead.

Ironically, many organizations balk at standardizing their leadership practices. They standardize all sorts of other (less critical) items, from how they display their logos to what time employees arrive at work to how the phone must be answered. And yet the most important aspect of any organization—leadership—is allowed to be inconsistent.

We have all heard employees say things like: I will work for this boss but not that one, or The north-side store is so much better than the other ones. And we’ve all heard them ask questions like: Why do that leader’s employees get to interview potential co-workers and we don’t?. . . or How come employees can get away with behavior with some bosses but not others?. . . or Why does this leader get a better evaluation than a higher-performing person who works for another boss or in another division?

The tools and techniques in this book will stop those comments and questions. They will help virtually any organization get its leadership practices aligned.

At the beginning of each chapter you will see this graphic:

It illustrates how the components of evidence-based leadership work together to create results that last. A circled area on the graphic will show you where the tactic addressed in that chapter fits into the process.

As you can see, there are three major components to evidence-based leadership: Aligned Goals, Aligned Behavior, and Aligned Processes. The book goes into detail about how to implement the tactics under each component, but here’s a brief overview:

• Aligned Goals. Organizations must implement an objective evaluation system that tells leaders not only what they’re supposed to be doing, but also what their priorities are. In addition, leaders must be thoroughly trained in order to be successful.

• Aligned Behavior. There are certain behaviors that an organization must agree to implement at the leadership level to ensure that every employee gets a consistent experience—whether it’s the presence of daily rounding or a certain way of showing appreciation. (These aligned behaviors cascade down to employees to create a consistent experience for customers.) Standardizing leader behavior ensures predictable responses from our employees. And aligning behaviors forces us to deal with performance gaps. We must move low performers up or out or eventually our improvement efforts will not be sustained.

• Aligned Processes. We must identify certain processes that are consistent throughout the company—how people are hired, for instance. Consistency in process allows people to move more effectively and opens the door to acceleration—the phase in which results start getting better and better.

Let me take a moment to explain how I’ve categorized the tactics in this book.

Chapters 1 through 3 cover the three most powerful Key Tactics a company can adopt: high, middle, and low conversations, rounding for outcomes, and managing up. Even if a leader takes none of the other suggestions in this book, he or she usually finds that implementing these three tactics leads to big dividends.

You might think of Chapters 4 through 8 as The Core. This section covers the philosophy behind the tactics and explains the intricacies of reducing leadership variance, measuring the important things, aligning behaviors with goals and values, and training leaders. It creates the foundation of an organization so all employees are working toward the same goals and all employees are held accountable.

Chapters 9 through 15 focus on Employee Tactics. We’ll learn how to determine what employees really want from us—which is the heart of evidence-based leadership—and how to give it to them. We’ll also learn how to build individual accountability in people and how to benefit from the wealth of knowledge our employees possess.

Finally, Chapters 16 through 19 reveal critical Customer Tactics. We’ll discuss various tools and techniques leaders can use to build a culture around service. When an organization understands what “great service” really looks like to its customers, it has a much greater likelihood of consistently providing it. The result is that customers keep coming back and refer us to their friends, family members, and colleagues.

Please understand: You do not have to adopt every single tactic in this book to enjoy significant results. Decide which ones make the most sense for your organization and get started on those. However, the foundation described in the Core chapters is necessary if you are to achieve breakthrough.

Likewise, you don’t have to follow a particular sequence. You may want to begin with one of the three very powerful tactics we explain right up front—high, middle, and low conversations, rounding for outcomes, and managing up—because we’ve found they have a tremendous impact on organizational performance.

Figure out what you want to accomplish and dive right in with the tactic that best fits your goals. The sudden improvement you see will boost morale and motivate everyone to strive for even better results. Remember to align these behaviors with all leaders so the results last.

By the way, don’t worry that you’re creating a company of lookalike leaders; each person will always bring his or her own personality into the workplace. What you are doing is creating consistency based on the foundation of best practices. You’re also creating a culture of excellence. A great culture outperforms strategy every time. A great culture, combined with a great strategy, is unbeatable.

And here’s the bottom line: Not only will your customers have consistently excellent experiences with your company, your employees will as well. Happy, loyal customers and happy, loyal employees are two sides of the same coin—and that coin is the currency that buys you results that last.

KEY TACTICS

CHAPTER 1

UP OR OUT Deal with Low Performers and Move Your Organization to the Next Level

Why This Chapter Is Important

MOST ORGANIZATIONS DON’T HAVE TROUBLEGETTINGBETTER RESULTS AT first. The problem lies in keeping them.

Much like marathon runners, companies hit a performance wall. After their initial achievements, they find themselves running with an anchor dragging behind them. And the name of that anchor is often “the low performer.” Until low performers are moved up or out, an organization or department will never move beyond short-term gains. The wall will stop progress every time.