Paul Saginaw, co-founder of the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Zingerman’s Deli (home of quite possibly the best corned-beef sandwich in the state), recently spoke as part of an Executive-to-Executive speaker series for nonprofit organizations at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. He focused on the importance of vision—a topic close to my own heart—and told the following story.

Ten years after they started their business, Zingerman’s Deli was flourishing. People were flocking to the deli, and life was good. Yet one day, Saginaw pulled co-founder Ari Weinzweig out of the deli to ask him a question: “What’s Zingerman’s going to look like in 10 years?” Weinzweig was caught off guard: “Why do we have to discuss this right now? I have work to do!” “But this is our work,” explained Saginaw. “We have a responsibility to look down the road 10 years from now as leaders and describe the future of our organization.”

I love this story because it’s an example of a best practice in action. All too often, businesses get so caught up in their day-to-day operations that they don’t focus appropriately on their future vision and strategies. But visioning is so important to an organization. If you don’t know where you want to be, how will you know how to get there (or if and when you’ve gotten there)?

Sometimes you just have to stop where you are—no matter what you’re doing—and think, “What’s next?” And just as important, “Is this the right course of action for my organization?” Because it’s not just about having these strategies—it’s about having and adhering to the right ones.

How about you? Do you take the time to plan for your organization’s future? How far into the future is your plan?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Business Purpose, Leadership, Strategy

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Around noon on April 23, the Associated Press (AP) tweeted, “Two explosions in the White House, and Barack Obama is injured.”  An hour later, the Dow had fallen 150 points, the price of crude oil had fallen, and U.S. government bonds briefly dropped.  Fortunately, there were no explosions, the President was fine, and the Dow quickly recovered.  But that just shows you how powerful a simple hack of the AP’s twitter account can be.

I was talking about this event with Raj Patel, who leads Plante Moran’s information technology security assurance practice, and he told me that the source of many cyber security incidents is a compromised password.  While we may often feel powerless to deter cyber crime, this is something we can all do something about. I thought it merited a quick refresher on password best practices.

Don’t use the same password for all sites.
The key to your office door shouldn’t open the front door of your house, so why should one password access different sites/systems? Just as you use different keys for different doors, you need to use different passwords for different sites (especially financial and e-mail sites).

Ensure passwords are sufficiently complex.
Setting long passwords that contain letters, numbers, and characters for numerous websites can be difficult to memorize. So what should you do? Use simple phrases. For example, “MyBirthDate?June15,90.” It’s long, it has letters, numbers, and characters, and it’s easy to remember.

Change passwords frequently.
When was the last time you changed your password for your online banking account or your LinkedIn account? Ideally, you should change passwords to sensitive accounts at least every 30 days.

These best practices are easy to employ. Sure, it may take a little extra time, but investing a few minutes each month is a small price to pay for protection and peace of mind.

How about you? Do you change passwords as often as you should? Are they sufficiently complex?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cyber security

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg recently wrote her first book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” This was the long-awaited follow up to her TED Talk, “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders,” where she makes a compelling point—that women considering having families often “leave before they leave,” meaning they check out mentally versus taking on the challenging assignments they may have otherwise opted for in the past. Instead, she encourages women to “lean in” to their organizations, take on those tough assignments, and not to leave before they leave.

I know a lot of women who listened to that TED Talk and felt inspired. “Don’t leave before you leave” has been quoted by women on numerous occasions as they deal with work-life balance issues. And it’s a great directive. Many organizations, however, including Plante Moran, are realizing more and more that we need to meet women halfway—that we, too, need to “lean in.”

While we’ve always prided ourselves on recruiting and retaining talented female staff, about nine months ago, Plante Moran upped the ante and rolled out a new program: Women in Leadership (WIL). Our mission is simple: best in class attraction, retention, development, and advancement of women leaders at Plante Moran. One of our strategies has been to increase the visibility of women leaders internally and externally. Internally, we’ve done that through a series of forums and profiles of female partners and senior managers.

I was recently talking with one female manager, and she remarked on reading one of our female partner profiles. “It’s amazing how much she and I have in common—same hometown, similar family situation—and I just really connected to the things she was saying,” she told me. “One tip she gave was that she combines her personal calendar with her work calendar. As soon as I read that, I thought, ‘That’s a great idea. If my son has a soccer game, I can put it on my work calendar so that staff know I have that commitment. It makes it that much easier to maintain a good work-life balance.’”

It’s that kind of information sharing and support that Plante Moran WIL is all about. Like Sandberg, we’re leaning in so that our future female leaders may lean in as well.

How about you? Have you read Sandberg’s book? What are your thoughts on increasing female leaders in the workplace?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Culture, Diversity, Women in Leadership

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Paul Yoder, a nearly 92-year-old retired Plante Moran partner, at his home in Northern Michigan. Married 71 years to his wife, Winnie, Paul has been an avid golfer all his life, shooting his age at age 78 and frequently thereafter until age 90. He’s an amazing man in good health with a razor-sharp memory, to which he credits good genes and a positive outlook. Spending that time with him was really something.

I’d like to share a couple of stories courtesy of Paul. The first is around the decision of Frank Moran, one of our original founders, to hire Bob Petz, who became the firm’s first human resources (HR) director.  Paul and Frank met Bob through a client, and Frank was taken with him. “I think I’m going to hire him,” he told Paul. “You’re crazy,” Paul responded. “We only have 15 people at our firm, and Bob’s not even an accountant.” “No,” said Frank, “but he’s a really smart guy.”

Bob came to work at the firm and tried to help out on a few audits; it was a disaster. Quickly, however, Frank realized that Bob was better at interviewing staff than he was. Frank sent Bob back to school to get his psychology degree, and shortly thereafter, Bob became the head of HR. This was in line with Frank’s “Wheel of Progress” philosophy, which began with hiring good people who do good work. This philosophy served him well and continues to serve Plante Moran today.

Another interesting fact about Paul: he was among the first group of partners to be promoted at the firm beyond Elorion Plante and Frank Moran. It was natural, then, to consider expanding the name to include Paul and the other new partners. Elorion and Frank were open to the idea, but they ultimately concluded to stick with the brand “Plante & Moran” and see where that took them. In retrospect, it took them pretty far, from 15 people then to more than 2,000 today.

Paul told me several stories that day, and I was struck not only by how different the firm was back then but also how much it was the same. It’s obvious that our culture was as alive and well in the 1950s as it is today (although they didn’t call it “culture” back then—it was just “Frank’s way”).  Toward the end of our conversation, Paul expressed his enjoyment at watching all the firm has accomplished over the years. “I feel proud,” he said, “to think that, in some small way, I was part of building that.”

Thank you, Paul, for your tireless contributions toward building the firm I feel so fortunate to call my home. Here’s to you and Plante Moran’s other retired partners. I hope you feel as proud of what’s we’ve all built as I do.

How about you? How has your organization evolved in the years since it was founded? What common threads exist between then and now, and what’s changed?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Culture, Inspiration, Leadership

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

For the past four years, I’ve been a board member of New Detroit, a nonprofit organization formed in 1967 to identify and eliminate racial disparities in the region by building economic equity, social justice, and racial understanding. Recently, we had a board meeting with a clear agenda in place. Before we got to the meat of the discussion, however, the chairman asked if there were any comments regarding the appointment of an emergency financial manager (EFM) in Detroit. The entire room came alive, and we spent the next two hours focusing on that highly controversial issue.

People argued passionately on both sides. Those in favor of an EFM argued that the city has been trying to fix itself for years now, to no avail. “We need someone to come in with stronger powers under the law and do what we’ve been unable to do ourselves,” was a common argument. Those who were against the decision saw it as a voter’s rights issue. “Opting for an EFM takes away my right to elect my own representatives,” was the common point of view.

As discouraging as parts of that meeting were, I walked out feeling encouraged. Those two hours epitomized exactly why I value being on the board of New Detroit. It provides a risk-free environment to discuss issues that we often avoid because we’re afraid of offending others who don’t share our points of view. Not only did the discussion give me real insight into two diametrically opposed points of view but it also helped me understand the feelings, thoughts, and emotions on both sides.

My point here isn’t to argue for or against an EFM. Instead, it’s to emphasize how powerful these kinds of discussions can be. It’s often surprising when someone doesn’t share your point of view—“How can someone I respect so much have such different beliefs from me?”—but in taking the time to have these difficult discussions, a greater understanding can emerge. That’s the power—whether or not that understanding leads to change in your own opinions and beliefs.

How about you? Do you have a risk-free environment where you can have difficult discussions and share honest opinions? How can we create more environments like New Detroit?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Community Service, Diversity, Learning, Listening

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has sparked a nationwide debate with her memo to staff abolishing the company’s work-at-home policy and mandating that everyone work in the office. Those in favor of her decision cite studies that although working from home enables staff to be more productive, it also renders them less innovative. Those against the decision cite that it hampers work-life balance and worry how the decision will affect those who care for young children or aging parents outside of work.

It’s an interesting debate. The internal memo sent by Yahoo’s director of human resources, Jackie Reses, states, “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important….That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings.” She has a good point—in-person contact is critical to an organization’s success, whether it’s formal or impromptu. Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum but from conversation, collaboration, and debate among people of varying skillsets and mindsets. Technologies such as instant messaging and video chat help, but they can’t replace in-person communication.

But that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be room for flexibility.

For Plante Moran, it’s all about balance. Staff can set their own schedules—within reason—as long as supervisors provide approval and client needs are met. For the vast majority of people, this means working from home on occasion. (I’m actually working from home right now.) If someone has a sick child, he/she is welcome to work from home to attend to that need. If a staff member is working on a project that requires significant quiet and concentration, he/she can work from home to attend to that project. If a PMer needs to schedule a home repair—you guessed it—he/she can work from home to accommodate that need.

How did we arrive at this approach? We believe that flexibility is an outcome of accountability, responsibility, and transparency. The more accountable and responsible staff are for their work, making sure they’re as productive at home as they would be in the office, and the more  transparent staff are in communicating when and where they’ll be working, the greater their freedom to enjoy flexibility.

I can appreciate where Yahoo is coming from, but drawing such a hard line in a world where work-life balance has become a key component of creating a great workplace wouldn’t work for us. It will be interesting to see if the debates spur further action from Yahoo or similar actions from other top-notch organizations.

What do you think? What’s your company’s stance on working remotely? Does Yahoo have the right idea?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Culture, Work Life Balance

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” —Ernest Hemingway

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in my professional and private life is the importance of listening. All too often, we’re so preoccupied with the information that we want to get across that we miss out on important information from others. This doesn’t come from a selfish place—we genuinely believe that what we have to share is valuable, and oftentimes it is—but I’ve found that listening allows you to bring even more valuable information to the table.

I think about two of my greatest mentors, Frank Moran and Ken Kunkel. They were known for being amazing listeners. I can remember sitting with them in meetings and watching them take page after page of notes based on what a client or staff member had to say. They would then circle back to these ideas—if not that same day then later on, to offer their advice and counsel. Their clients loved this approach, and why not? Who doesn’t appreciate knowing that someone is genuinely listening to what he/she has to say?

Another good point is that we listen as much with our body language as we do with our ears. For example, a colleague of mine used to have a nervous habit where he looked at his watch a lot. One afternoon, he was with a valued client, and he was listening to every word that client had to say. All of a sudden, the client said, “Do you have to be somewhere?” “Not at all,” said my colleague. “Then stop looking at your watch!” exclaimed the client. My colleague took off his watch and never put one on again. That’s how committed he is to client service and making sure his clients know they’re valued and listened to.

I’ve often heard that the most successful people are those who listen 80 percent of the time and speak only 20 percent of the time. I believe it.

What about you? How much time do you spend speaking versus listening? How important is active listening when it comes to business?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Leadership, Listening, Management

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

For generations, dairy farmers have reported that contented cows give better milk. Bill Catlett and Richard Hadden applied this adage to corporate America in their “Contented Cows” series of books, most recently with “Contented Cows Still Give Better Milk: The Plain Truth About Employee Engagement and Your Bottom Line.”

The book contains a number of case studies linking a contented staff with a healthy bottom line and includes a number of actionable tips for managers at companies of all sizes. For this blog, however, I want to focus on a concept the authors touch on repeatedly: discretionary effort.

According to the authors, who borrowed the concept from a study linking motivation to productivity, humans can “regulate their involvement in and commitment to” a given task; moreover, the extent to which we do or don’t contribute is governed “more by attitude than by necessity, fear, or economic influence.” In short, the study revealed that there is a measure of effort that we, as individuals, can apply at our discretion. This led to the coining of the term, “discretionary effort,” which is defined as the difference between that minimally necessary level of effort and that which we’re capable of achieving. According to Hadden and Catlett, it’s the difference between obedience and high performance and between those who are managed and those who are led.

So how do we entice people to put forth that extra effort and work up to their full potential? The authors postulate that we create positive cultures that encourage staff commitment, where staff are cared about and empowered, where staff are content like those productive dairy cows. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept of discretionary effort in the weeks since the FORTUNE “100 Best Companies to Work For” list came out. I feel fortunate to work at a company where people regularly go above and beyond, where people want to excel, and where “good” doesn’t begin to be good enough. I say it all the time—we couldn’t be anywhere near as successful as we are today without our staff and their discretionary effort. Like Andrew Carnegie once said, “Take away my factories, and I will build a new and better factory; but take away my people, and grass will grow on the factory floor.”

What about you? What do you do at your organization to encourage staff to work at their highest and greatest potential?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Caring, Culture, Inspiration, Management

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

It’s been an exciting week at Plante Moran! Not only was the firm named to FORTUNE’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for the 15^th consecutive year, but the magazine also included an article profiling Plante Moran as part of its “100 Best” coverage. I’ve never really thought of our firm as “quirky” before, but when you look at the ideas called out in the article, I suppose we are a bit quirky. Turns out, that’s a good thing. 

Fifteen years—it really boggles the mind. So much has changed in that time. Back in 1998, Bill Matthews was managing partner, with Bill Hermann coming on board a couple of years later. Although we had most of our Michigan offices, we did not have offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicagoland, Shanghai, Monterrey, or Mumbai. Since that time, we’ve introduced a number of important initiatives that have helped propel our firm culture forward, from Plante Moran Cares (which better focuses our community service efforts) to our Diversity Council to fun things like PMTV (an internal You Tube-esque communication vehicle where staff can share videos) to introducing the day after Thanksgiving as an annual firm holiday.

In their seminal book, Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras postulate that successful organizations “preserve the core” yet “stimulate progress.” Despite all the progress we’ve made, our core remains unchanged. We’re still a relatively jerk-free firm that cares about our clients, staff, and communities. We’re fortunate that our co-founder, Frank Moran, focused as much on creating a great workplace culture as he did on creating a compelling client service experience, and we continue to follow his example, just as I trust that, many years from now, future staff will follow ours. 

What about you? What do you like most about your company? Is there anything about it that might be considered “quirky”?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 100 Best Companies to Work For, Culture

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Many of you are probably aware that for nearly 85 years, Plante Moran was known as “Plante & Moran.” A year or so back, we made the decision to drop the ampersand from our name in our marketing materials. When we did this, we had some fun at the expense of the character, encouraging staff to write departure memos on its behalf as part of a firmwide contest. With that, the ampersand entered into a sort of retirement.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I entered my office a couple of weeks ago to find a giant illuminated ampersand (the lights are even on a timer!) and the following note:

Dear Gordon,

I’m writing to express my feelings in retirement. I remember fondly the time spent between two great names.  You see, I have been the connection between Plante Moran for over 80 years, until under your leadership, my light was turned off.  Even though I’m rusting now, I’m still a light that shines bright. 

As you continue to lead our great firm, I want to be there for you, like I have been for many years for Elorion Plante & Frank Moran. So here I am, standing close by you, in case you want someone to lean on or someone to bounce your ideas off of, or just a friend to chat with.

                                                                                    Very truly yours,

                                                                                              &

                                                                                    The Retired “&”

It probably goes without saying that this was the most unique gift I received this holiday season and one of my most cherished. The ampersand, which came from a Plante Moran colleague who has requested to remain anonymous, is yet another reminder of our great culture and testimony to the caliber of creative (and fun!) people I’m so fortunate to work with, day in and day out.

What about you? What was the best gift you received over the holidays? When is the last time a colleague impressed you with his/her creativity?

© Gordon Krater for Gordon Krater, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Creativity, Culture, Giving

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh