Watch the videos below. Both of these videos highlight leadership in times of transformational change. How do you relate and make sense of the approaches taken by Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale and Stanley McChrystal compared to the information presented in your textbook? Use Figure 15.4 Relative Strength of Corporate Cultures and Figure 15.5 The Strategy-Culture Matrix in your response. (below the videos)
Organization transformation refers to those drastic changes in how an organization functions and relates to its environment. The story of Gallery Furniture was very inspiring and reflects this drastic change. The company, started in 1981, is owned by Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. After two big hits to the stability of the company (2008's housing crisis and a major fire in 2009), the company realized that the old way of conducting business was not working. Though McIngvale does not go into much detaill about the "old way", he gives some hints to how things may have went, and as a customer, on can assume it went a little like this:
- Customer walks into store, and is greeted by salesperson, who asks what s/he can help them find
- Customer says, "just looking around," and salesperson says, "come find me if you need any help"
- Customer usually has questions but cannot find salesperson, so leaves and never returns
- To change this dynamic, McIngvale read a book called "Influencer" about how to influence the behavior or his employees and himself to interact with customers better and increase sales. For instance, through contacts (addressing the customer who left without a sale), Gallery was able to recoup the interest of visitors by $4000. The tenets which turned Gallery into a more successful and enjoyable business were to institute:
- the love of "prospecting" - employees needed to learn to love what they hated
- sales training - teaching employees how to follow up with visitors and keep interest
- recognition - celebrating the success and using it to show others that the new way can work
- computer coaches/sales coaches
- incentive pay - find a way to encourage change, while assuring the change was legitimate
- post data/ ipads - using technology to show how extended customer service impacts sales, showing the benchmark for recognition and signs of further training needs
I really like McIngvale's sales reality quote, "'Be Back's don't come back". As a customer, he is spot on. If I have decided that one store is too expensive, or does not fulfill my need and I move on to another shop for what I want, the past store is no longer in my mind or in the running for my business. In fact, I may think, "if they were too expensive for X, they are probably out of my range for Y and Z down the line." I do not know how Gallery gets the information from the customer in the first place (if I am just surveying, there's little chance I'm giving up personal information) but the follow up is a great idea. It reenters the store back into my mind. Brown states that “corporate culture is important because of its relation to organizational effectiveness” (Brown, 2011, p. 403). McIngvale seems to had seen a need for change in strategy to effectively change the culture. The strategy culture matrix assessed the employee’s performance, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to improve in those areas. But Gallery workers did not take this as, "meet my demands or get out." Because he told his employees, "I know you don't have all the tools and skills, but I am going to give them to you in order for you to meet my expectations", they have trust in him, and know he will not give up on them if they show effort.
In his TEDx talk on leadership, Stanley McChrystal discusses his more than 20-year career in the Army. He describes the differences in how leadership and trust were built when he first enlisted to
team; he quietly acknowledges that, because he is not present where all of his followers are, he needs to consider their perspective in assuring he is not missing blatant hazards. He also discussed the need to get warm with people who, in the past, you'd punch in the shoulder and call it intimacy. There no longer is that should always there, so he sometimes must get that support across in other ways. It's become harder, because the plethora technology is foreign to someone who came in the military before the internet. The way he bonds with people has to change too, as he realized he was talking to a kid who was a preteen when 9/11 occurred; he was a mid-level commander, showing recruits how to jump out of planes when the recruit in front of him watched the tragedy of 2001 from an elementary school classroom. I feel the same impact as McChrystal at times; while I was sitting in the same classroom when the Twin Towers fell, a kid who told me dead baby and dead hooker jokes on Thanksgiving was just born! It blows my mind how much I have lived through, and how much has changed since the end of the 20th century.
McChrystal then mirrors the same attitude as McIngvale in realizing the benefit of realizing the person as a being, at work. He notes having a conversation with a fellow senior officer while watching a firefight, in which the fellow's son was a part of. The reaction he received when inquiring about the son was the equivalent to, "I'm fine." And we all know that fine never really means fine; someone could be dying inside. McChrystal details that we need to care for that pain, worry, insecurity and helplessness. As an Army baby, I know very well how much trauma service-folk carry, and how that pressure to perform and remain stoic in times of great disappointment, fear and tragedy can impact the person and everyone around them. It is important that those who face consistent stressful situations to know that they, and their feelings, matter.
Rolling back a little in his talk, McChrystal recalls his early years in the military and how important support is in future success. After a training gone poorly, McChrystal sat through an "after action review", an evaluation he describes as "leadership by humiliation".
They put a big screen up, and they take you through everything: "and then you didn't do this, and you didn't do this, etc." I walked out feeling as low as a snake's belly in a wagon rut. And I saw my battalion commander, because I had let him down. (McChrystal, 2012)
However, he is rejuvenated when his commander comes up to him and says, "Stanley, I thought you did great." Lesson? Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure. Just the same, leaders should not be scared to tell you the truth, should care about you inside and outside of the workplace, and understand the multidimensional roles of humanity, enough to forgive and support through disappointment.
Brown writes, leadership in today’s fast-changing world involves developing an innovative corporate culture that recognizesthe firm’s history, the marketplace, and the company’s products and services, and balances those with employees’ needs (2011, p. 409). Both McIngvale and McChrystal are successful because of their ability to reflect and learn about these factors. Sometimes we think that we are so wise, there is nothing we could possibly learn from those more inexperienced than ourselves. I have found that everyone is a master of something. Particularly in reflection of this week's Home Depot drop, fall and recovery before, during and after failed CEO Bob Nardelli, both videos show a dedication to people as paramount to money. The shame of Nardelli is present as soon as you type his name into Google; he is not a leader, but a great manipulator and surveyor of personal gain. One of the reasons why Nardelli failed at Home Depot was because he failed to learn the culture that existed and to respect the things the employees cared about. He wanted to create a structure that maximized profits, and the only profits Home Depot saw while he was in place were due to the savings created by firing people. He did the company a disservice by kicking out their committed and skilled talent. Talent costs money, but lack thereof creates a dearth in quality, which is why Home Deport plunged deeper with his management. He then ended his reign with one last kick to the leg; he walked away with millions of dollars in settlement funds. He saw a way to benefit himself and cared little about the exponential effect of his actions.
On the other hand, respect, trust and support are the foundation of all success. As McChrystal stated, soldiers do not leave each other behind. They sacrifice whatever is needed to get their man back. If all managers had this mantra, workers would be far more satisfied at work (Vanderkam, 2015). "I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal or abandon their comrades. And I still believe real leaders are like that. "
References
McChrystal, Stanley Listen, learn ... then lead. (2011). TED. Accessed at http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal.htm
McIngvale, Jim. Gallery Furniture Case Study. (2012). Vital Smarts. Accessed at http://www.vitalsmarts.com/casestudies/gallery-furniture/
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