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Strategic Thinking: Beyond Where The Cookie Crumbles

Posted on February 29, 2012 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to sharpen your problem-solving skills.

Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader? Good thing I’m not a guest on that TV show. Turns out I’m about as smart as a third grader. My only consolation is that the third graders introduced me to leader who helped me learn a key leadership lesson. Read on to learn what I did about uncovering hidden resources- especially those hidden in plain view. Let me explain.

These were no ordinary third grades.

No these were the The Third Graders at a North Carolina elementary school who challenged Nabisco’s claim back in the mid 90’s that their Chips Ahoy package of chocolate chip cookies had more than 1,000 chocolate chips in each bag.

The students broke the cookies down by hand and counted 340 to 680 chocolate chips. I remember counting 671 back then. Chances are I may have eaten some of the evidence before it was fully audited.

Feeling cheated out of their chocolate chips, The Third Graders wrote an angry letter to the company. Nabisco sent one of their leaders-a food technician -to visit the school in Wadesboro, North Carolina. The visiting leader planned a demonstration Continue reading →

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It’s Showtime Every Day & You’re the Emcee

Posted on February 28, 2012 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you enhance your talent development skills in others.

Who’s your ideal leader? It’s a question I get all the time in my leadership seminars. My answer always stumps a few people in the audience: Ed Sullivan.

Yes, the same Ed Sullivan who brought us the Beatles and various other talents from jugglers to dog acts into our living rooms in the 1960s. Live. On national television Yes, the same Ed Sullivan, who told millions of CBS viewers about the “really, really, really big show” that was in store for them EVERY Sunday evening.

Ed Sullivan Meets the Beatles

Ed Sullivan shakes hands with Michael Jackson

Ed Sullivan was more than a master of ceremonies was. He was an emcee of the highest order: an MC — a Meaningful Connector- who not only brought a variety of talent together but also gave it a focus and a framework that captured the attention of millions.

As the leader, Ed Sullivan emceed excellence by helping the audience (i.e. customers) connect more fully to the product (performance) and by helping the performers (the employees) more fully develop a total quality production.

As the leader, the emcee, Ed Sullivan was the FOCAL point but not the focus. He always turned the spotlight on everyone else.

As the leader, the emcee Ed Sullivan appreciated Continue reading →

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Meeting Magic: Fire Up the Troops With Passionate Introductions

Posted on February 27, 2012 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to get your meetings off to more productive start.

Most meetings end before they begin. In sheer confusion, frustration and exasperation. “A waste of my time,” they grouse. And no wonder. The meeting agenda skipped the foreplay.

No I’m not trying to appeal to your prurient interests. Only to your persuasive interests as a leader to get the extended attention and retention of others. And sometimes that means blowing your own horn!

Trumpet the treasure to come, much like “Hail to the Chief” commands the audience attention at the entrance of the President of the United States.

Let’s have a little fanfare for the common man at your next meeting. Invest a little passion and energy into enthusiastically introducing your first meeting presenter.

Too many meetings open with a boring statement of the purpose of the meeting or the proverbial toss of the baton “okay now let me turn the meeting over to….”

No, no, no. Boring. Continue reading →

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Personal Communications: Catching the 5:15 Train of Thought

Posted on February 24, 2012 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you better prepare for your weekly staff update meeting.

A 5/15 takes 5 minutes to read and 15 minutes to write

It’s 5:15 on a Friday afternoon. Do you know where your staff is? Of course not. Not in a digital, work any-where, any-time, any-how world.

Yet the most effective leaders I know always knew where their staff was COMING FROM on or about 5:15 pm on a Friday.

A 5:15 is an e-mail that each staff member sends to the team leader by the end of business on Friday. This e-mail update should take no more than:

5 minutes to READ and
15 minutes to WRITE.

Pithy. Pointed. Precise. And often strategically insightful to the team leader who can then use the information -from customer concerns to competitive gossip heard on the street-to better prepare for his or her staff meeting the following week.

In addition to the usual content in a status report- key wins and losses, operational glitches and expected challenges the following week-the 5:15 also asks each staff member to grade their own morale and Continue reading →

Filed under: Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Maintaining Command Over Your Mind’s Automatic Pilot

Posted on February 23, 2012 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you stay focused.

Smash!!! My arm must have morphed into a Paul Bunyan axe the way I pounded on that Pepsi vending machine. I didn’t break anything –except my ego. And all I wanted was a cold Pepsi on a hot summer day.

“Can I help you,’’ snarled the owner of the gas station as his eyes scanned his Pepsi vending machine with the coveted look of Corvette owner committed to protecting his property. “The machine must have jammed,” I opined.

The proprietor unlocked the machine, reached in and retrieved my Pepsi. “Thanks,” I said as I headed for the door. “Sir, that’s 75 cents.”

Oh, Shhh-t! I felt so stupid. It’s not that I didn’t feed enough money into the machine. It’s that I didn’t feed ANY money at all into the Pepsi vending machine. After all, I was used to FREE Pepsi vending machines.

Free Vending Machines at Pepsi’s Headquarters

Back then, I worked at Pepsi-Cola Company’s corporate headquarters in New York. Free Pepsi vending machines dotted the break rooms throughout the complex. I got used to just hitting he lever on the vending machine and out popped a Pepsi. FREE.

Then that hot summer day I stopped to get gas and saw a Pepsi vending machine. I did what I always did at the office when I was thirsty and saw a Pepsi machine. Ooops. My mind was on automatic pilot and flying way off track. I simply forgot where I was.

The most effective leaders I have known may not always take command over their automatic pilot flying around in their subconscious. But these leaders are more apt to be AWARE of Continue reading →

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Relationship-Building: Climbing Down From Your Ivory Tower

Posted on February 22, 2012 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help your stay connected to your staff on and off the job.

The Presidential Bubble of limousines and jets at his command.

The Bubble. That’s what President Barack Obama calls his well protected, highly scrutinized and very privileged lifestyle of limousines, jet planes and just about anything else at his beck and call.

Likewise, in the corporate world, leaders can easily be swept into their own Bubble of sorts.

After all, leaders in the executive suite don’t face the hard realities of every day life that their employees do.

On the job, there are no executive dining rooms in the average employee’s world. And off the job, there are no country club perks in the average employee’s world. Off the job, there are no house keepers, nannies, chefs, chauffeurs and gardeners in the average employee’s world.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised the day I met the president of a billion dollar global company who lived in a middle class neighborhood. No gated community. No well secured condominium. In fact the president himself could be found on a Saturday afternoon mowing his own lawn at home. Why, I wanted to know? I just had to find out. Continue reading →

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Productivity: Heart Transplants of Another Kind

Posted on February 21, 2012 by The Leadership Mints Guy

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you more productively align your staff.

Can I have a pound of smoked turkey,” the customer asked?

WEIGHING IN : You treasure what you measure.

Nourish your staff with more than food at lunchtime

Sharon, a clerk in the grocery store’s deli counter, carefully and confidently clawed a stack of turkey displayed in the glass case. She placed her catch on the scale. The blue digital numbers flashed 1.01 pounds.

The customer was impressed with the precision the clerk demonstrated in selecting the exact amount of turkey.

“Your accuracy must come from years of experience,” the customer said.

Sharon smiled. “No, not really. I work most of the time in the cafe (in the grocery store) but I guess my heart is really in deli.”

It’s 9 a.m. on Monday morning. Do you know where your heart is? The most effective leaders I know do. They and their staffs are Continue reading →

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