The last post we looked at the stupidity of “Executive Think” and how it is highly destructive to American corporations. This post will examine some new ways of thinking that executives must adopt (if they care to survive).
1). The CEO is the head of a team, not a god or hero. Americans love to put CEOs on pedestals and, recently, behind bars. There is a great old saying, “Never believe your own PR.” Too many executives have forgotten this and are acting as if they are invincible. The Justice Department and dead hand of Adam Smith are showing them differently.
It takes a team to make a company work, and the whole team does not live in the executive suite! This is something that American executives have mostly forgotten, but had better remember in a hurry. I’m completely disgusted by the spectacle of skyrocketing CEO pay while workers are being stiffed. This is immoral. I’m also completely disgusted by AIG’s executives who, after receiving our taxpayer money as a bailout, went on a retreat at an exclusive spa. These people should be fired, indicted, tried and, if found guilty, jailed.
We as executives must remember that we are the leaders of a team, not Oriental Potentates. We shouldn’t have to remind people of that, but, obviously, we do. At least you only had to kiss the feet of an Oriental Potentate. Many CEOs want you to kiss their ass!
2). Layoffs are failures, and should be treated as such. An executive team which has to lay people off should never receive bonuses or reward pay of any kind. Layoffs signify a failure and a lack of integrity on the part of the executive team and the company. The executive team who does that may deserve to be part of the layoff. They certainly do not deserve rewards. It is part of the scandal of American business that executives believe they even deserve rewards when they have failed their employees. In Japan layoffs (which rarely occur) can lead to the suicide of the executive who has to order them, because the Japanese are better people than we are who understand that they’ve let their employees, their families and society as a whole down when they deprive people of jobs. Frankly, I wish that American executives who order layoffs would think about suicide. It would be more appropriate.
3). Executives do not deserve ANY better “perks” than a factory line worker. Executives often think that they are the most important people in a company. They are not. Every person on the team is vital to the company’s mission — the custodian no less than the CEO. While different people should be paid according to their skill level, there is no real reason why executives should receive better health insurance or other benefits that rank and file employees do not receive.
4). The life, health or happiness of an executive is no more intrinsically important than that of any other person in the company…and sometimes a great deal less. American business must change its way of thinking! Just because people have MBAs and dress in nice suits and sit in air conditioned offices, they are not intrinsically more valuable than any other person in the company. The attitudes in American business that they ARE more valuable is causing great anger among the rank and file. There are all the historical signs of a pending revolution, whether a quiet one through laws or a bloody one where executives are taken from their offices (let us hope it is the former, although the latter has occurred many times in history). People are intrinsically important, regardless of their title, salary, or the clothing they wear. We must begin to recognize the intrinsic worth of each individual.
5). Pay must be equalized. The enormous gap between what an average worker is paid and an executive is paid is just plain immoral, unethical, and bad business. This rarely exists in other countries. The fact that it exists here is a great scandal. Executives who wish to survive in the coming world will begin giving up their ridiculously high paychecks and assuring that every person in the company is paid with fairness and justice. There is no logical or business reason for executives to receive 800 times more than the average worker at a company, with additional perks and bonuses. Five or six times, yes. But 800? This is simply abuse of power by those who have it.
6). Executives must practice “walking management.” Every executive should be required to do one of the company’s dirtier jobs for at least a few days a year. I do not know if they still do so, but, in the early days, Grease Monkey made every single executive start by greasing cars, and then work his or her way through all of the company jobs. They then sent their executives back a few days a year to grease cars. Grease Monkey is a very successful company. I think part of the reason is that ethic. Everyone knows that every executive has “been there,” and might be there again for a while. Make executives (including yourself) do some dirty work alongside your employees. I always choose, for myself, the dirtiest job I’m capable of doing within the companies I’ve run over the years, and do it for several days a year.
7). Show compassion. The executive who wants to be successful will be compassionate towards customers, employees and vendors. My wife and I, if we’re not busy and one of our beloved associates is, are just fine with picking their kids up from school, taking them home and feeding them a snack. Treat employees and everyone else with great compassion, and it will pay off.
8). Destroy hierarchy and unnecessary policies. I’m sick to death of “company policies.” When something goes wrong, the reaction of most executives is to make a policy about it. STOP THAT! Deal with the individual problem, and move on.
And why do companies need hierarchy any more? I’ll tell you why. It is a “turf thing.” People like to strut around with fancy titles, big offices and inflated salaries. Fire these people and hire some folks who actually want to get something done for your company and themselves. People don’t need fancy titles, big offices, special perks or inflated salaries. Choose people who have a passion for what they’re doing, love to be part of a team where there is “floating management,” and make up their titles for fun. “Wizard of the Realm” has a nice ring to it.
In my company, and others I’ve run, the person with the most experience on the issue we’re facing is the boss, even over me. This makes sense. If an admin has more experience than me on something, she or he is the boss. The sooner we get rid of false hierarchies and run companies sensibly, the better off America will be.
9). Let employees be themselves…and find their own solutions. Rather than making employees do things the “company way,” let people do things their way. I will lay you dollars to donuts that they’ll do it cheaper, better and quicker than “your way.” Give people a chance and they’ll run with it. Now this means that your enormous ego has to take a vacation. Why should you have thought of it. None of us is as smart as all of us.
10). Have fun. Companies of the future will be companies where people love to come to work. Starkist Tuna — not a company where you’d think it would be fun to work — rather than buying into “do more with less” B.S., hired more people, slowed down the assembly line, and got rid of managers, organizing people into self-managing work teams. What happened? Absenteeism dropped to almost nothing. Ditto Worker’s Comp claims. Productivity went way up. Rather than stripping one half of a fish, the whole fish got stripped. People took responsibility for one another, covered for one another, and got rid of the deadwood themselves. Good for you, Starkist!
This stuff is not just good morality, or pie-in-the-sky, it is good business. Frankly, some of this stuff is about to be mandated by the government. CEO and executive pay has gotten out of hand, and there are increasing calls for regulation on this. “Perks” have also gotten out of hand, and are also being scrutinized heavily. The companies who will be celebrated are those who go beyond the new laws we’re about to see reining in executive abuses and greed. I hope that you and your company will be among those who take this to heart and transform your company culture. If this is already your company culture — good for you! Please let me know about you and I’ll mention you in this blog and tell your story!
If I or my colleagues can be of any assistance in transforming company culture to fit the new, post-crash realities, please call us.
To a prosperous 2000!
J.
Showing posts with label career coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career coaching. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Retaining Great Employees
I get fairly disgusted when a CEO says “Our people are our most important resource” and then commences with laying people off. I’ll bet that the CEO who says this doesn’t go to the IT department and throw computers out the window! The reality is that people, for many companies, are to be used to obtain what they want. And this attitude is a large part of the reason these companies are losing money and prestige.
If you want to thrive during recessionary times and kick butt during boom cycles, start with your people. The time and aggravation that goes into replacing one loyal and competent employee that company policies have torqued off one too many times is enormous, not to mention the financial cost of Churn. So start with some basic principles in your business and you will find that you will be a sought-after company to work with.
1). Understand that if your employees ar unhappy, nobody is happy. This includes your customers. Employees who are treated well and are happy help you keep customers. I know this is new and interesting information to some employers out there.
2). Kill bureaucracy. The piling of rules upon rules is unnecessary. The reaction of many companies to something going wrong with ONE employee is to write a rule about it. Kick out he rules-based people at once. Handle the problem with the one employee rather than making it global.
3). Make things easy and employee oriented. There is no real reason why an employee should have to fill out 5,942,853 forms in triplicate to go to the bathroom. It is some idiot on a power trip that puts these things in place. Make it simple as possible to access benefits, take care of family emergencies, and so on. If you have a desire to control other people, you don’t belong in management at all. Go be a prison guard or something where being a control freak might actually be O.K…though I doubt it, even in that situation.
4). Pay your employees as well as you can afford to. I am absolutely disgusted by companies where the difference between the lowest paid employee and the highest paid employee is 9000%. Let that CEO make less, and the people in the trenches make more.
5). Let everyone have the same benefits. Our employees get exactly the same benefits as my wife and I, the principals, do. Exactly.
6). Put management in the trenches. Grease Monkey is a great company. Executives at Grease Monkey have to lube cars, and every other job that everyone does before they can make even one executive decision. Imagine what it would do for morale if the CEO of GM worked on an assembly line a few times a year.
7). Share the pain. If things have to be cut or reduced, make sure that management has AT least as much pain as the lowest paid worker.
8). Share the success. Companies where the employees get a slice of company profits or bonuses based on what the whole company does have employees who really understand the concept of “teamwork.” Many companies talk about “everyone is part of the team,” but what they really mean is “you’re my slaves, now go make me money.” DOGBERT’S MANAGEMENT SECRETS is the most honest management manual on the market. Buy it and do everything the opposite of what Dogbert recommends. Make your employees truly a part of the team. Share the winnings with them.
9). Don’t treat them like children. Most people are honest and want to do a great job. They just discouraged by the office politics, the power-hungry managers, low pay, and gross inequities. Companies that have remedied these things have loyal employees who will do anything for the company. Treat employees like responsible adults and they’ll usually behave that way.
10). Involve them in decision making. Companies who involve their employees in decision making have much happier, and much more reasonable, employees. No one likes to be ordered around or have something forced on them from the top. I’ve found that employees will do things to their own detriment if they’re involved in the process and see it is for the company good.
11). Give them detailed information. In the companies I’ve run, the books are completely open to every employee. When I make a job offer, I run a spreadsheet showing the prospective employee exactly what I’ll make or lose on them, and how much he or she has as total cost to the company. Companies are generally too paranoid and security conscious. While trade secrets should be kept quiet, finances should be generally available to all employees. This will eliminate lots of arguments, unless, of course, employees are getting shafted so management can enjoy undeserved benefits. The more information you give employees, the more involved they feel in decisions that effect them. Be open and above board in every piece of information possible, including what everyone is making in the company. If you’re ashamed to do this, maybe you should evaluate what you’re making a bit.
12). Be generous. Do things for employees that are generous acts of kindness. Google and other companies that do this have very productive employees who never leave.
13). Throw “do more with less” out the window. It is insanity to have employees working 80 hour weeks, or all weekend long. It is also very bad business. Well-rested employees with balanced lives are more competent and more productive than exhausted and burned out employees. Whatever idiot keeps telling companies to make their employees do more with less should be knee-capped.
14). Pay employees for giving back. Hourly employees should be paid their hourly rate for giving back to the community. Companies that have programs like this have very high employee retention, and excellent PR. Pay employees for 25 – 40 a year working for charity, their religious institution, or community service work. This doesn’t cost, it pays. And give them time during the business day to do this community work.
The above are some of the “best practices” that proactive and successful companies are taking. Companies following these best practices have great employee morale, unbelievably low Churn, and higher productivity per employee. If you are still operating in the 19th Century and treating employees like recalcitrant children, get over yourself. Time to come up to the 21st Century and succeed!
J.
If you want to thrive during recessionary times and kick butt during boom cycles, start with your people. The time and aggravation that goes into replacing one loyal and competent employee that company policies have torqued off one too many times is enormous, not to mention the financial cost of Churn. So start with some basic principles in your business and you will find that you will be a sought-after company to work with.
1). Understand that if your employees ar unhappy, nobody is happy. This includes your customers. Employees who are treated well and are happy help you keep customers. I know this is new and interesting information to some employers out there.
2). Kill bureaucracy. The piling of rules upon rules is unnecessary. The reaction of many companies to something going wrong with ONE employee is to write a rule about it. Kick out he rules-based people at once. Handle the problem with the one employee rather than making it global.
3). Make things easy and employee oriented. There is no real reason why an employee should have to fill out 5,942,853 forms in triplicate to go to the bathroom. It is some idiot on a power trip that puts these things in place. Make it simple as possible to access benefits, take care of family emergencies, and so on. If you have a desire to control other people, you don’t belong in management at all. Go be a prison guard or something where being a control freak might actually be O.K…though I doubt it, even in that situation.
4). Pay your employees as well as you can afford to. I am absolutely disgusted by companies where the difference between the lowest paid employee and the highest paid employee is 9000%. Let that CEO make less, and the people in the trenches make more.
5). Let everyone have the same benefits. Our employees get exactly the same benefits as my wife and I, the principals, do. Exactly.
6). Put management in the trenches. Grease Monkey is a great company. Executives at Grease Monkey have to lube cars, and every other job that everyone does before they can make even one executive decision. Imagine what it would do for morale if the CEO of GM worked on an assembly line a few times a year.
7). Share the pain. If things have to be cut or reduced, make sure that management has AT least as much pain as the lowest paid worker.
8). Share the success. Companies where the employees get a slice of company profits or bonuses based on what the whole company does have employees who really understand the concept of “teamwork.” Many companies talk about “everyone is part of the team,” but what they really mean is “you’re my slaves, now go make me money.” DOGBERT’S MANAGEMENT SECRETS is the most honest management manual on the market. Buy it and do everything the opposite of what Dogbert recommends. Make your employees truly a part of the team. Share the winnings with them.
9). Don’t treat them like children. Most people are honest and want to do a great job. They just discouraged by the office politics, the power-hungry managers, low pay, and gross inequities. Companies that have remedied these things have loyal employees who will do anything for the company. Treat employees like responsible adults and they’ll usually behave that way.
10). Involve them in decision making. Companies who involve their employees in decision making have much happier, and much more reasonable, employees. No one likes to be ordered around or have something forced on them from the top. I’ve found that employees will do things to their own detriment if they’re involved in the process and see it is for the company good.
11). Give them detailed information. In the companies I’ve run, the books are completely open to every employee. When I make a job offer, I run a spreadsheet showing the prospective employee exactly what I’ll make or lose on them, and how much he or she has as total cost to the company. Companies are generally too paranoid and security conscious. While trade secrets should be kept quiet, finances should be generally available to all employees. This will eliminate lots of arguments, unless, of course, employees are getting shafted so management can enjoy undeserved benefits. The more information you give employees, the more involved they feel in decisions that effect them. Be open and above board in every piece of information possible, including what everyone is making in the company. If you’re ashamed to do this, maybe you should evaluate what you’re making a bit.
12). Be generous. Do things for employees that are generous acts of kindness. Google and other companies that do this have very productive employees who never leave.
13). Throw “do more with less” out the window. It is insanity to have employees working 80 hour weeks, or all weekend long. It is also very bad business. Well-rested employees with balanced lives are more competent and more productive than exhausted and burned out employees. Whatever idiot keeps telling companies to make their employees do more with less should be knee-capped.
14). Pay employees for giving back. Hourly employees should be paid their hourly rate for giving back to the community. Companies that have programs like this have very high employee retention, and excellent PR. Pay employees for 25 – 40 a year working for charity, their religious institution, or community service work. This doesn’t cost, it pays. And give them time during the business day to do this community work.
The above are some of the “best practices” that proactive and successful companies are taking. Companies following these best practices have great employee morale, unbelievably low Churn, and higher productivity per employee. If you are still operating in the 19th Century and treating employees like recalcitrant children, get over yourself. Time to come up to the 21st Century and succeed!
J.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Making It Through The “Financial Crisis”
Sorry for the hiatus --- my wife and I have been moving from one side of town to the other. We had sold a loft we owned and lived in about 3 years ago. This was at the advice of our “C” Level clients and a banker friend. We, therefore, didn’t wind up losing tens of thousands of dollars on it, as we would have if we waited any. Developers have been building literally hundreds of new lofts in the Denver LoDo area, many of which are standing empty.
We then, again with the advice of some very money-wise people, moved into a cracker-box (and rented three storage sheds for our “stuff”) to wait out the housing crisis, which, three years ago, everyone assumed would be over in a year or so. Right. Well, to make a long story endless, when it was clear that the housing crisis wasn’t resolving anytime soon, we decided not to camp out any longer in the cracker box, and got a house that we could actually put our furniture, hundreds of books and other treasures in. And therein lies a column…
No one can predict what is going to happen in a financial crisis. I am very against “Wall Street Welfare.” We are, at least for the time being, capitalists, or, to be more accurate due to decades of encroaching government regulation and meddling, socialistic capitalists. Capitalism means that there will be winners and losers. It also means that, while there are winners and losers, no one has to be a permanent loser.
The alternative, except in a utopia, is either that everyone but the government winds up in mediocre circumstances (Socialism) or that everyone but the government is kept in poverty (Communism) or that everyone but the government and the favored corporations is kept in loss or mediocrity (Fascism…look at the actual definition of Fascism, not how it is currently used by demagogues trying to get your vote…and see why there can never be such a thing as “Islamo-fascism.). Now, call me idealistic, but I am a laissez-faire Capitalist (as well as a Libertarian, but that is a whole other Oprah). Let the free market be free and let it decide. Let there be winners and losers, and let that be determined, not by government collusion or regulation, but by hard work, serendipity and wisdom in investing. Unfortunately, my opinion is in the minority in this country of ours — which became great by the majority of those with influence being of the same opinion I am now…both as a pure Capitalist and a Libertarian.
Back to this current “financial crisis” and executive employment, however.
One thing that you never read much about unless you dig is the fact that many more people became wealthy during the “Great Depression” than lost everything. Unfortunately, my grandfather, who was an attorney and heavily invested in stocks, wasn’t one of them, or I’d be sipping Mojitos under a Caribbean sun right now instead of writing to you. But the fact is that economic conditions do not determine whether or not you’re going to be wealthy. Many other factors do.
One of those factors is making wise choices. For example, our company is actually dong quite well right now. We produced the same amount of revenue by the end of the third quarter as we produced all of 2007. And we expect another record year in 2009. The reason is simple. We have set up our company so that it does well in a boom, in mediocrity or in a recession. We’ve deliberately stayed small enough so that we can swap out “modes” in which we’re working in about a month. And I am a “news junkie” and “policy wonk,” so I have a pretty good idea what’s going on in our country and how it is likely to effect our business, at least in the short-term.
But no one can predict the long-term with any degree of accuracy. Hence, our housing odyssey.
Executives need to remember this and make a personal employment plan similar to the way we run our company. Choosing a company to run wisely is, of course, the best way to assure that your position is safe. If you are currently a CEO or COO, or have influence with these folks, it is a little late, but there is still time to ask what you can do that is counter-recessionary. Virtually any company can make money in a recession, or even a depression. While the time to plan this is during a boom, just like it is best to start networking while you’re employed, it is better to start late than never.
Our clients do quite well in a recession (and, regardless of government figures, there have been several over the last 25 years). They also do well in a boom. There is no great secret here — just good planning and a recognition that economic conditions need not be frightening if you are prepared to prosper from them.
If you are unemployed now, you are probably a little terrified. Relax. There is no reason to be. If you are well-networked, know where the unadvertised (or even as-yet-not-open) jobs are, and can get someone to introduce you to their fellow board members or executives, you will be employed again rapidly. If you are not well-networked, look at a well-connected Executive Transition Coach who can introduce you to the people you need to meet. If you’re in the Front Range/Denver, Colorado area, I’m happy to meet with you and give you some direction. If you are not, ask around to your friends and golfing partners and find a coach who is well-connected, successful, and experienced in dealing with top executives. Even the best coach will run less than a couple of weeks salary for top executives, and is the best investment in your career you can make — so long as you recognize that there are plenty of scams in this business and choose carefully.
All in all, however, don’t “buy into” the panic and fear that the media is generating. This is how they sell newspapers and news shows. Everything is always a crisis. There is always “breaking news” about some disaster somewhere. The media loves the crisis “flavor of the week.”
Getting through this “financial crisis” is not difficult. It just requires a bit of paying attention, managing attitudes and making wise decisions. As always, please feel free to give me a call if I can be of any help.
To a prosperous year,
J.
We then, again with the advice of some very money-wise people, moved into a cracker-box (and rented three storage sheds for our “stuff”) to wait out the housing crisis, which, three years ago, everyone assumed would be over in a year or so. Right. Well, to make a long story endless, when it was clear that the housing crisis wasn’t resolving anytime soon, we decided not to camp out any longer in the cracker box, and got a house that we could actually put our furniture, hundreds of books and other treasures in. And therein lies a column…
No one can predict what is going to happen in a financial crisis. I am very against “Wall Street Welfare.” We are, at least for the time being, capitalists, or, to be more accurate due to decades of encroaching government regulation and meddling, socialistic capitalists. Capitalism means that there will be winners and losers. It also means that, while there are winners and losers, no one has to be a permanent loser.
The alternative, except in a utopia, is either that everyone but the government winds up in mediocre circumstances (Socialism) or that everyone but the government is kept in poverty (Communism) or that everyone but the government and the favored corporations is kept in loss or mediocrity (Fascism…look at the actual definition of Fascism, not how it is currently used by demagogues trying to get your vote…and see why there can never be such a thing as “Islamo-fascism.). Now, call me idealistic, but I am a laissez-faire Capitalist (as well as a Libertarian, but that is a whole other Oprah). Let the free market be free and let it decide. Let there be winners and losers, and let that be determined, not by government collusion or regulation, but by hard work, serendipity and wisdom in investing. Unfortunately, my opinion is in the minority in this country of ours — which became great by the majority of those with influence being of the same opinion I am now…both as a pure Capitalist and a Libertarian.
Back to this current “financial crisis” and executive employment, however.
One thing that you never read much about unless you dig is the fact that many more people became wealthy during the “Great Depression” than lost everything. Unfortunately, my grandfather, who was an attorney and heavily invested in stocks, wasn’t one of them, or I’d be sipping Mojitos under a Caribbean sun right now instead of writing to you. But the fact is that economic conditions do not determine whether or not you’re going to be wealthy. Many other factors do.
One of those factors is making wise choices. For example, our company is actually dong quite well right now. We produced the same amount of revenue by the end of the third quarter as we produced all of 2007. And we expect another record year in 2009. The reason is simple. We have set up our company so that it does well in a boom, in mediocrity or in a recession. We’ve deliberately stayed small enough so that we can swap out “modes” in which we’re working in about a month. And I am a “news junkie” and “policy wonk,” so I have a pretty good idea what’s going on in our country and how it is likely to effect our business, at least in the short-term.
But no one can predict the long-term with any degree of accuracy. Hence, our housing odyssey.
Executives need to remember this and make a personal employment plan similar to the way we run our company. Choosing a company to run wisely is, of course, the best way to assure that your position is safe. If you are currently a CEO or COO, or have influence with these folks, it is a little late, but there is still time to ask what you can do that is counter-recessionary. Virtually any company can make money in a recession, or even a depression. While the time to plan this is during a boom, just like it is best to start networking while you’re employed, it is better to start late than never.
Our clients do quite well in a recession (and, regardless of government figures, there have been several over the last 25 years). They also do well in a boom. There is no great secret here — just good planning and a recognition that economic conditions need not be frightening if you are prepared to prosper from them.
If you are unemployed now, you are probably a little terrified. Relax. There is no reason to be. If you are well-networked, know where the unadvertised (or even as-yet-not-open) jobs are, and can get someone to introduce you to their fellow board members or executives, you will be employed again rapidly. If you are not well-networked, look at a well-connected Executive Transition Coach who can introduce you to the people you need to meet. If you’re in the Front Range/Denver, Colorado area, I’m happy to meet with you and give you some direction. If you are not, ask around to your friends and golfing partners and find a coach who is well-connected, successful, and experienced in dealing with top executives. Even the best coach will run less than a couple of weeks salary for top executives, and is the best investment in your career you can make — so long as you recognize that there are plenty of scams in this business and choose carefully.
All in all, however, don’t “buy into” the panic and fear that the media is generating. This is how they sell newspapers and news shows. Everything is always a crisis. There is always “breaking news” about some disaster somewhere. The media loves the crisis “flavor of the week.”
Getting through this “financial crisis” is not difficult. It just requires a bit of paying attention, managing attitudes and making wise decisions. As always, please feel free to give me a call if I can be of any help.
To a prosperous year,
J.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Evaluating Your Staff
It is close to that dreaded time of the year again. No, not the holidays, although their impact on productivity is enough to make any of us a bit Scrooge-like. Rather, it is close to time for first of the year evaluations of your staff. While your company probably has a form that lower-level supervisors can use, evaluating executive staff is a whole different breed of cat. Here are some tips to help make it less painful
1). Keep it as objective as possible. Rather than speaking in generalities, speak in facts and evidence of success or failure. Quantify the wins and the losses of your executive staff as much as possible. As Harold Geneen (Chairman and CEO of ITT in its halcyon days) used to say, “The slavery of the numbers will make you free.” Use them here, too.
2). Have specific examples, demonstrations and evidence on hand. Make sure that you take the time to prepare for an evaluation of a staff member.
3). If you can get away with it, skip so called 360 evaluations. They’re useless and lead to less effective executives. Often executives who are being evaluated on the absurd 360 forms, just like teachers who are facing student evaluations, will make decisions that will make them popular with everyone so they won’t get a poor eval. This means that companies with these monstrosities wind up with less effective executives. While you don’t want a complete jerk in an executive position, you do want a leader who may have to make very unpopular decisions for the good of the company. Let the individual’s superior evaluate him or her, not their staff or peers. 360 evals are nothing but a tool for character assassination, political power plays, and staff grudges. Skip ‘em if you can. If you can’t, begin lobbying for their abolition for the good of the company. (Call me for more on this if you’d like.)
4). Reward long-range thinking even more than short-term success. American companies have a fatal flaw which has led, in part, to the current crisis on Wall Street. American companies are “quarter” oriented. In other words, American companies look at what is produced in a quarter or a year, not in a five year plan.
But five year plans are essential for true, prudent and responsible corporate growth. Long-range strategic thinkers, however, often get stabbed in the back by their CEOs or Boards (not to mention the [unprintable expletive] media!) for not producing $X amount of revenue in a particular quarter. Sometimes, however, as any chess player will know, you must take a few strategic “hits” to gain long-term success. Asian companies think in terms of 2, 5 or even 10 year plans and reward executives who have foresight and strategic planning expertise. They are much smarter than American companies. This is why Asian companies who compete head-to-head against American companies kick our butt time and again. And now, in addition to the excellence of Japanese products, we’re going to have Chinese and Vietnamese products to compete against. Yes, China is having some regulatory problems. But the executives involved in these often get the death penalty. This is not a bad idea for American companies to adopt, at least so far as ending an executive’s career, if not his life.
Take a clue from the people who have had an unbroken 5,000 year plus civilization and business world, and reward strategic, long-term thinking even more than short-term revenue success.
5). Evaluate the ethics and values of your staff, not just their performance. Unless you want to be another Enron, make it clear that “success at any cost” is not tolerated. Put together a strong, but reasonable code of ethics, and demand that it be followed completely. Punish those who do not follow it, especially at the top, with immediate termination. A beheading is always good for morale and productivity.
6). Observe interaction with peers and subordinates. Rather than a 360, get out of your office and observe. Evaluate on real interaction, not on reported interaction. Learn to be a bit sneaky and unobtrusive, so you can quietly observe from anywhere. And get out on the floor rather than hiding in your office. If you aren’t observing the personal interactions of your employees, you’re setting yourself up for trouble down the line. Don’t be a snob. Hobnob with everyone from the custodian to your second in command with equal respect.
7). Evaluate on attitude as much as on performance. It should be clear that each member of your executive is truly on the team, and not a loner pretending to be on the team.
8). Make it a two way conversation. Too many evaluations are one-way conversations. At the executive level it should be a two-way conversation. Put your ego aside and ask for honest and blunt feedback about what you and the company should be doing differently. If you actually get an executive with enough guts to tell you the truth, don’t punish him or her, promote him or her, or, if you can’t promote this person, keep him or her by your side. Someone who will tell you the truth is a rare commodity in American business these days.
9). Don’t B.S. your staff. Don’t tell them one thing and reward another. At the executive level your staff deserves and needs to know what you’re really thinking and what your real goals are, not some press release mumbo-jumbo. If you’re dishing out mumbo-jumbo because you’re concerned about a team member betraying you, fire him or her and replace that individual with someone you can trust. If you can’t fire him or her because he or she is friend or relative of a board member, it is time to call me and let’s get you outta there!
10). Set realistic goals that can be reached with a reasonable amount of effort. Those who set unattainable goals to keep their executives in check are simply fools. Set goals that stretch the weak areas and play to the strong areas of each executive. Then check back periodically. Remember that one of your vital jobs as a CXO is to coach and mentor your staff. If you’re on a “power trip” or find helping your staff to be threatening, please do us all a favor and quit and go be a Tibetan monk or something useful, because you’re a very bad CXO. Good top level executives help their staff reach corporate and personal goals — not play head games with them.
Remembering these ten essential keys to senior staff evaluation will produce a staff with trust and respect for you, and, as well, increased productivity.
One final thing. Please ignore the gloom and doom sayers on Wall Street and our government. If this particular government didn’t discover crisis after crisis we might not keep putting these folks in power. The “Wall Street Crisis,” we will find, is a bit like “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” Choose to opt out of the recession and go out and be prosperous. Think and behave in ways that generate prosperity instead of fear. Remember that three times as many people got wealthy in the Great Depression as lost everything. I choose not to participate in this recession, and I hope you’ll join me.
If you want to speak further about these concepts, please feel free to email me at jheckers@heckersdevgroup.com or call me at 720.581.4301. If I’m not in please leave a message and I’ll get back to you ASAP. Please note that you are a reader of my CEO Skills Corner column.
Now go make lots of money!
J.
1). Keep it as objective as possible. Rather than speaking in generalities, speak in facts and evidence of success or failure. Quantify the wins and the losses of your executive staff as much as possible. As Harold Geneen (Chairman and CEO of ITT in its halcyon days) used to say, “The slavery of the numbers will make you free.” Use them here, too.
2). Have specific examples, demonstrations and evidence on hand. Make sure that you take the time to prepare for an evaluation of a staff member.
3). If you can get away with it, skip so called 360 evaluations. They’re useless and lead to less effective executives. Often executives who are being evaluated on the absurd 360 forms, just like teachers who are facing student evaluations, will make decisions that will make them popular with everyone so they won’t get a poor eval. This means that companies with these monstrosities wind up with less effective executives. While you don’t want a complete jerk in an executive position, you do want a leader who may have to make very unpopular decisions for the good of the company. Let the individual’s superior evaluate him or her, not their staff or peers. 360 evals are nothing but a tool for character assassination, political power plays, and staff grudges. Skip ‘em if you can. If you can’t, begin lobbying for their abolition for the good of the company. (Call me for more on this if you’d like.)
4). Reward long-range thinking even more than short-term success. American companies have a fatal flaw which has led, in part, to the current crisis on Wall Street. American companies are “quarter” oriented. In other words, American companies look at what is produced in a quarter or a year, not in a five year plan.
But five year plans are essential for true, prudent and responsible corporate growth. Long-range strategic thinkers, however, often get stabbed in the back by their CEOs or Boards (not to mention the [unprintable expletive] media!) for not producing $X amount of revenue in a particular quarter. Sometimes, however, as any chess player will know, you must take a few strategic “hits” to gain long-term success. Asian companies think in terms of 2, 5 or even 10 year plans and reward executives who have foresight and strategic planning expertise. They are much smarter than American companies. This is why Asian companies who compete head-to-head against American companies kick our butt time and again. And now, in addition to the excellence of Japanese products, we’re going to have Chinese and Vietnamese products to compete against. Yes, China is having some regulatory problems. But the executives involved in these often get the death penalty. This is not a bad idea for American companies to adopt, at least so far as ending an executive’s career, if not his life.
Take a clue from the people who have had an unbroken 5,000 year plus civilization and business world, and reward strategic, long-term thinking even more than short-term revenue success.
5). Evaluate the ethics and values of your staff, not just their performance. Unless you want to be another Enron, make it clear that “success at any cost” is not tolerated. Put together a strong, but reasonable code of ethics, and demand that it be followed completely. Punish those who do not follow it, especially at the top, with immediate termination. A beheading is always good for morale and productivity.
6). Observe interaction with peers and subordinates. Rather than a 360, get out of your office and observe. Evaluate on real interaction, not on reported interaction. Learn to be a bit sneaky and unobtrusive, so you can quietly observe from anywhere. And get out on the floor rather than hiding in your office. If you aren’t observing the personal interactions of your employees, you’re setting yourself up for trouble down the line. Don’t be a snob. Hobnob with everyone from the custodian to your second in command with equal respect.
7). Evaluate on attitude as much as on performance. It should be clear that each member of your executive is truly on the team, and not a loner pretending to be on the team.
8). Make it a two way conversation. Too many evaluations are one-way conversations. At the executive level it should be a two-way conversation. Put your ego aside and ask for honest and blunt feedback about what you and the company should be doing differently. If you actually get an executive with enough guts to tell you the truth, don’t punish him or her, promote him or her, or, if you can’t promote this person, keep him or her by your side. Someone who will tell you the truth is a rare commodity in American business these days.
9). Don’t B.S. your staff. Don’t tell them one thing and reward another. At the executive level your staff deserves and needs to know what you’re really thinking and what your real goals are, not some press release mumbo-jumbo. If you’re dishing out mumbo-jumbo because you’re concerned about a team member betraying you, fire him or her and replace that individual with someone you can trust. If you can’t fire him or her because he or she is friend or relative of a board member, it is time to call me and let’s get you outta there!
10). Set realistic goals that can be reached with a reasonable amount of effort. Those who set unattainable goals to keep their executives in check are simply fools. Set goals that stretch the weak areas and play to the strong areas of each executive. Then check back periodically. Remember that one of your vital jobs as a CXO is to coach and mentor your staff. If you’re on a “power trip” or find helping your staff to be threatening, please do us all a favor and quit and go be a Tibetan monk or something useful, because you’re a very bad CXO. Good top level executives help their staff reach corporate and personal goals — not play head games with them.
Remembering these ten essential keys to senior staff evaluation will produce a staff with trust and respect for you, and, as well, increased productivity.
One final thing. Please ignore the gloom and doom sayers on Wall Street and our government. If this particular government didn’t discover crisis after crisis we might not keep putting these folks in power. The “Wall Street Crisis,” we will find, is a bit like “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” Choose to opt out of the recession and go out and be prosperous. Think and behave in ways that generate prosperity instead of fear. Remember that three times as many people got wealthy in the Great Depression as lost everything. I choose not to participate in this recession, and I hope you’ll join me.
If you want to speak further about these concepts, please feel free to email me at jheckers@heckersdevgroup.com or call me at 720.581.4301. If I’m not in please leave a message and I’ll get back to you ASAP. Please note that you are a reader of my CEO Skills Corner column.
Now go make lots of money!
J.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Integrity
“The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
We live in a country which has become bereft of honor and integrity. Integrity is a concept about which I should never need to write. In times past a man or woman without integrity would be ostracized by the community. Now, we elect Presidents who consistently lie, whether it be about blue dresses or weapons of mass destruction. We see corporate head after corporate head doing the “perp walk.” And cheating others has become a way of life.
I used to operate my business on a handshake. No more. If I did so now, I’d be broke. My contract, over the years, has grown longer and longer as “loopholes” have had to be sewn up to make it more difficult to defraud me of my fee for work performed. But integrity is the foundation of being a good leader, although, given the “role models” that we have, one would never know it.
I find that, increasingly, “C” level executives are taking honor and integrity less and less seriously. Rather than honoring one’s word, it has become “what can I get away with?”. Many top-level executives do not see their word, or even contracts, as having any meaning. Virtually before the ink is dry on the contract, they’re at their attorney’s office trying to find a way to break it. Here are a few of the things that integrity means to me.
1). Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. This seems elementary to me, but, apparently, is not to many people. If you cannot do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it, negotiate so that you are doing as close to what you said you were going to do and when you said you were going to do it as possible. But only negotiate if there are such overwhelming circumstances as to make doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it literally impossible.
2). Carry through on your word, even if it costs you money, time or other things. No, there is not a built-in clause in every promise or contract that says, at the end of something which must be performed, “if I feel like it.” If you sign a contract or make a promise and then find out that the contract or promise is more costly than you thought, follow through on it anyway.
Of course, I’m leaving out fraud here. If the person you made the promise to or signed the contract with was making false statements to you to induce you to make a promise or sign a contract, you are not, of course, bound by your word. But let’s be sure that we are sure that the other person lied before vacating our word.
3). Leave other people’s stuff and relationships alone. I’m truly amazed at the prevalence of adultery and theft in our society. No society can long survive if the basic institutions of society are not respected.
Marriage is being eroded daily. No, not by gay marriage. Two people of the same gender making a loving commitment to one another does not erode marriage. The incredibly high rate of infidelity and divorce erode marriage. This is an integrity issue.
So is the widespread fraud that is going on in American businesses today. Halliburton, for example, has made its stockholders wealthy by stealing from American taxpayers and not providing our troops with the necessities they were contracted to provide them with. And what will happen? Well, look at the people who own large blocks of stock in Halliburton. Probably nothing will happen. They’ve gotten away with the theft of billions of dollars — billions that we, the taxpayers, have paid them. But just because they won’t be held criminally accountable, doesn’t mean it is OK or make it right.
4). Behave as if everything you did will be on the 6 PM news or CNN. I won’t do business with someone I know is cheating on their spouse. Why? Because if your own spouse can’t trust you, why should I trust you? If you can’t keep a vow, what makes me think that you’ll keep a contract, hmmm?
Integrity is a seamless garment. You either have it or you don’t. You cannot be one kind of person and another kind of businessperson. You can’t be a lousy husband, wife, father, mother, friend, etc. and be, for example, a good doctor. You may be skilled, but you aren’t good, and there is a difference. Give me a man or woman who is less skilled, but a better person over a highly skilled fraud any day.
5). Don’t defend those who are not acting in integrity. Doctors do it. Police officers do it. Men do it for other men and women for other women. There seems to be a growing code that defends those who are not acting in integrity. I see this more and more in the business world. If you cover up for or defend those who have performed an act which is deceitful, fraudulent, or otherwise dishonest, you are no better than they are. I will not do business with nor otherwise trust an individual who defends someone who has been shown to be a dishonest person because they have displayed both personal dishonesty and poor judgment.
Remember, if you defend someone who is dishonest you are “hitching” your reputation to theirs. Do you really want to do that? (Obviously, there are times when defend someone before we know the facts. I’m speaking here of continuing to defend someone when it is clear and conclusive that individual is dishonest or dishonorable.)
6). Don’t “hang” with those who do not have honor. There is an old saying “if you’d steal for me, you’d steal from me.” This is incredibly true. If someone has betrayed a friend, you will be on the chopping block sooner or later. If they’ve stolen from others, watch your wallet. I’m continually amazed at the defensive circle which forms around business or political figures who have obviously cheated, stolen, and so on. It turns my stomach to watch the wives of politicians caught in the act of infidelity standing there smiling at the press conference next to the slime they married. Be careful who you have around you because Mom was right. You will be judged by the type of friends you have.
7). Defend your honor. If you have, indeed, acted in integrity and someone else has not, and you are being tarred with their brush, quietly but firmly defend your honor. This is sometimes costly, and usually inconvenient. But do not allow anyone to tarnish your good name — and they WILL try. Go to court if necessary, but do whatever you must do to defend your name and your honor if you, indeed, have kept it intact.
This certainly does not exhaust the topic of integrity. But it is a start. Every day you must ask yourself if you have performed in such a way that others will look at your integrity and feel reassured that they, too, are in good hands. Integrity is almost like being a virgin. Once it is broken it is difficult to go back. Don’t lose your integrity virginity.
John.
We live in a country which has become bereft of honor and integrity. Integrity is a concept about which I should never need to write. In times past a man or woman without integrity would be ostracized by the community. Now, we elect Presidents who consistently lie, whether it be about blue dresses or weapons of mass destruction. We see corporate head after corporate head doing the “perp walk.” And cheating others has become a way of life.
I used to operate my business on a handshake. No more. If I did so now, I’d be broke. My contract, over the years, has grown longer and longer as “loopholes” have had to be sewn up to make it more difficult to defraud me of my fee for work performed. But integrity is the foundation of being a good leader, although, given the “role models” that we have, one would never know it.
I find that, increasingly, “C” level executives are taking honor and integrity less and less seriously. Rather than honoring one’s word, it has become “what can I get away with?”. Many top-level executives do not see their word, or even contracts, as having any meaning. Virtually before the ink is dry on the contract, they’re at their attorney’s office trying to find a way to break it. Here are a few of the things that integrity means to me.
1). Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it. This seems elementary to me, but, apparently, is not to many people. If you cannot do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it, negotiate so that you are doing as close to what you said you were going to do and when you said you were going to do it as possible. But only negotiate if there are such overwhelming circumstances as to make doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it literally impossible.
2). Carry through on your word, even if it costs you money, time or other things. No, there is not a built-in clause in every promise or contract that says, at the end of something which must be performed, “if I feel like it.” If you sign a contract or make a promise and then find out that the contract or promise is more costly than you thought, follow through on it anyway.
Of course, I’m leaving out fraud here. If the person you made the promise to or signed the contract with was making false statements to you to induce you to make a promise or sign a contract, you are not, of course, bound by your word. But let’s be sure that we are sure that the other person lied before vacating our word.
3). Leave other people’s stuff and relationships alone. I’m truly amazed at the prevalence of adultery and theft in our society. No society can long survive if the basic institutions of society are not respected.
Marriage is being eroded daily. No, not by gay marriage. Two people of the same gender making a loving commitment to one another does not erode marriage. The incredibly high rate of infidelity and divorce erode marriage. This is an integrity issue.
So is the widespread fraud that is going on in American businesses today. Halliburton, for example, has made its stockholders wealthy by stealing from American taxpayers and not providing our troops with the necessities they were contracted to provide them with. And what will happen? Well, look at the people who own large blocks of stock in Halliburton. Probably nothing will happen. They’ve gotten away with the theft of billions of dollars — billions that we, the taxpayers, have paid them. But just because they won’t be held criminally accountable, doesn’t mean it is OK or make it right.
4). Behave as if everything you did will be on the 6 PM news or CNN. I won’t do business with someone I know is cheating on their spouse. Why? Because if your own spouse can’t trust you, why should I trust you? If you can’t keep a vow, what makes me think that you’ll keep a contract, hmmm?
Integrity is a seamless garment. You either have it or you don’t. You cannot be one kind of person and another kind of businessperson. You can’t be a lousy husband, wife, father, mother, friend, etc. and be, for example, a good doctor. You may be skilled, but you aren’t good, and there is a difference. Give me a man or woman who is less skilled, but a better person over a highly skilled fraud any day.
5). Don’t defend those who are not acting in integrity. Doctors do it. Police officers do it. Men do it for other men and women for other women. There seems to be a growing code that defends those who are not acting in integrity. I see this more and more in the business world. If you cover up for or defend those who have performed an act which is deceitful, fraudulent, or otherwise dishonest, you are no better than they are. I will not do business with nor otherwise trust an individual who defends someone who has been shown to be a dishonest person because they have displayed both personal dishonesty and poor judgment.
Remember, if you defend someone who is dishonest you are “hitching” your reputation to theirs. Do you really want to do that? (Obviously, there are times when defend someone before we know the facts. I’m speaking here of continuing to defend someone when it is clear and conclusive that individual is dishonest or dishonorable.)
6). Don’t “hang” with those who do not have honor. There is an old saying “if you’d steal for me, you’d steal from me.” This is incredibly true. If someone has betrayed a friend, you will be on the chopping block sooner or later. If they’ve stolen from others, watch your wallet. I’m continually amazed at the defensive circle which forms around business or political figures who have obviously cheated, stolen, and so on. It turns my stomach to watch the wives of politicians caught in the act of infidelity standing there smiling at the press conference next to the slime they married. Be careful who you have around you because Mom was right. You will be judged by the type of friends you have.
7). Defend your honor. If you have, indeed, acted in integrity and someone else has not, and you are being tarred with their brush, quietly but firmly defend your honor. This is sometimes costly, and usually inconvenient. But do not allow anyone to tarnish your good name — and they WILL try. Go to court if necessary, but do whatever you must do to defend your name and your honor if you, indeed, have kept it intact.
This certainly does not exhaust the topic of integrity. But it is a start. Every day you must ask yourself if you have performed in such a way that others will look at your integrity and feel reassured that they, too, are in good hands. Integrity is almost like being a virgin. Once it is broken it is difficult to go back. Don’t lose your integrity virginity.
John.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Welcome!
Welcome to the CEO Skills Corner. This new blog will exclusively address the skills and concerns of "C" Level executives in corporate America.
This blog will receive new articles at least weekly on a variety of topics. Of course, I always welcome your questions and comments, and will do my best to address them either personally or in an article. If you're asking a question, it is likely that many of your colleagues have a similar concern.
Who am I and why should you spend the time reading my articles? For the first post, here is my bio.
John Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC is President of Heckers Development Group, LTD, an executive coaching and consulting firm based in Cherry Creek, Colorado, specializing in high level Executive Coaching, Corporate Training, Executive Transition Consulting and Strategic Corporate Coaching. John has consulted to both Fortune 500 and smaller companies, and has trained and coached executives from AT&T, New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, Microsoft Corporation, IBM, Maxtor/Seagate, The Prudential, United Airlines, Children’s Hospital, Concentra Health Systems, Merck-Medco, Hewlett/Packard, Citibank of New York, Corporate Express, Stryker Corporation, Qwest, First Data Resources, FEMA, The United States Armed Forces, and many other organizations. John has over 28 years of experience in helping and counseling executives, professional counseling, executive transition (career) counseling and professional training.
John Heckers is published both nationally and internationally as a business columnist, is featured as an employment blogger for ColoradoBiz Magazine Today on-line, on the Jobing.com website (Jobing.com is a national job board and employment advisory website), has served as an employment expert on the Diversity Website Latpro and served as the internationally syndicated employment columnist for The Denver Business Journal and the national and international online bizjournals.com for over 6 years. His articles have been syndicated in business journals across the United States and Canada, and has also had his articles republished in business periodicals in Europe and Asia, translated into five languages. He has had frequent appearances on numerous television news programs and radio talk shows as an employment expert, including Denver’s KCNC, WB2, and KHOW radio, among others.
John Heckers graduated with his Baccalaureate degree in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1977, did graduate studies at the University of Toronto, Trinity College, in 1978 and 1979, and graduated from Denver’s Iliff School of Theology with distinction with his Master of Arts degree in 1989.
He is past president of the Colorado Association of Psychotherapists, served on the boards of directors of the Jefferson Center for Mental Health, the Rocky Mountain Information Management Association, and the International Attention and Behavioral Institute. In 1995, Heckers was appointed by Governor Roy Romer to the Colorado State Mental Health Grievance Board, where he served for three years. He also has served as a Senior Research Fellow for the Magellan Center, a non-partisan and not-for-profit think tank in Colorado devoted to employment issues.
So, there you have it. You may expect a new post on this blog in the next couple of days. If you’d like to know whenever we update, don’t forget to subscribe via the link on the sidebar.
Thanks, and I look forward to having you as a regular reader.
John H. Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC
This blog will receive new articles at least weekly on a variety of topics. Of course, I always welcome your questions and comments, and will do my best to address them either personally or in an article. If you're asking a question, it is likely that many of your colleagues have a similar concern.
Who am I and why should you spend the time reading my articles? For the first post, here is my bio.
John Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC is President of Heckers Development Group, LTD, an executive coaching and consulting firm based in Cherry Creek, Colorado, specializing in high level Executive Coaching, Corporate Training, Executive Transition Consulting and Strategic Corporate Coaching. John has consulted to both Fortune 500 and smaller companies, and has trained and coached executives from AT&T, New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, Microsoft Corporation, IBM, Maxtor/Seagate, The Prudential, United Airlines, Children’s Hospital, Concentra Health Systems, Merck-Medco, Hewlett/Packard, Citibank of New York, Corporate Express, Stryker Corporation, Qwest, First Data Resources, FEMA, The United States Armed Forces, and many other organizations. John has over 28 years of experience in helping and counseling executives, professional counseling, executive transition (career) counseling and professional training.
John Heckers is published both nationally and internationally as a business columnist, is featured as an employment blogger for ColoradoBiz Magazine Today on-line, on the Jobing.com website (Jobing.com is a national job board and employment advisory website), has served as an employment expert on the Diversity Website Latpro and served as the internationally syndicated employment columnist for The Denver Business Journal and the national and international online bizjournals.com for over 6 years. His articles have been syndicated in business journals across the United States and Canada, and has also had his articles republished in business periodicals in Europe and Asia, translated into five languages. He has had frequent appearances on numerous television news programs and radio talk shows as an employment expert, including Denver’s KCNC, WB2, and KHOW radio, among others.
John Heckers graduated with his Baccalaureate degree in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1977, did graduate studies at the University of Toronto, Trinity College, in 1978 and 1979, and graduated from Denver’s Iliff School of Theology with distinction with his Master of Arts degree in 1989.
He is past president of the Colorado Association of Psychotherapists, served on the boards of directors of the Jefferson Center for Mental Health, the Rocky Mountain Information Management Association, and the International Attention and Behavioral Institute. In 1995, Heckers was appointed by Governor Roy Romer to the Colorado State Mental Health Grievance Board, where he served for three years. He also has served as a Senior Research Fellow for the Magellan Center, a non-partisan and not-for-profit think tank in Colorado devoted to employment issues.
So, there you have it. You may expect a new post on this blog in the next couple of days. If you’d like to know whenever we update, don’t forget to subscribe via the link on the sidebar.
Thanks, and I look forward to having you as a regular reader.
John H. Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC
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