Leadership | Marshall Tarley

May 17, 2018May 18, 2018

The Good & The Great

Legendary songwriter Bill Withers took the stage to be interviewed before an audience of thousands.
It was the ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO 2010, three days of workshops, performances and hands-on mentoring and instruction from the who’s who of the music industry. As one of the organizers, I stood in the back, looking across the crowd at Mr. Withers. A question came to him from the floor.
“As an aspiring songwriter,” the woman said, “what do you suggest I do?”

Mr. Withers took a long pause and with what seemed like great consideration, he said, “Well, if you want to be a songwriter,” pause “I suggest you write songs.”

The crowd erupted in laughter. He continued. “You know,” he said, “every Sunday, all across the country, people crowd around their televisions to watch NFL Football, and everyone thinks they can
play quarterback.” Pause, more laughter, “And, nine of them can.”

Total silence

It was intriguing and uncomfortable, a piercing dilemma. Was he saying enjoy the craft, but you’re probably not going to be a “successful” songwriter; however one may interpret that success – being seen and heard? fame and fortune? Or, was he saying there are a few of you, sitting in this room today, who have the talent and ability to ‘make it,’ so go for it. Or, wisely, was he just allowing each of us to fill-in the blanks for ourselves.

The Good is the Enemy of the Great?

I was at a Passover Seder several years ago. My friend’s father, Michele, was there, an older man, steeped in Jewish mysticism. In a discussion at the dinner break, about our various worldly pursuits,
I said, “You know, there is this saying, ‘the good is the enemy of the great.’ The idea that we should never be comfortable with the good, but be willing to leave it or even destroy it, in pursuit of the great. But, I’ve come to believe that the opposite is true, that the great is the enemy of the good.”

Michele practically leaped out of his chair with a big “Yes” of affirmation. To him, there was haughtiness to the exhortation of the “great,” a haughtiness that makes us blind to what is good all around us. There was so much good right there in that room, in that moment of sharing ideas and tradition and breaking bread with family and friends. It is these kinds of things that somehow get taken for granted, unrecognized, unappreciated, un-enjoyed and, perhaps, destroyed in the pursuit of the “great.” But, where would we be without greatness?

Is this a riddle? Is there an answer?

In this digital polarized world, we seem to demand absolutes, a black or white, a yes or no. Life is richer and more complex, we know that. Yet, some organizations, in pursuit of the great, embark on what they think of as creative destruction, and become the source of destructive destruction. An organization can create a steady stream of innovation by investing goodness in their employees, empowering their workforce and thereby enriching them and all stakeholders. In our personal lives, we may sometimes have to make choices between one step ahead in prestige or money and the effort to continuously grow to be deeper, richer, fuller people.

I’m no Sunday school teacher, but if we go back to the Passover story, Moses did not leave the life of comfort and luxury in the Pharaoh’s palace to aspire to greatness. He was already a prince, a position that could be perceived as greatness. He was moved to action because he was deeply pained to know and see the cruel enslavement of his people and was determined to change their destiny, to bring them freedom. By following his deepest beliefs in pursuing goodness for his people, he achieved greatness…and not for himself, but greatness for his people and for generations to come.

Maybe there is greatness all around us that we fail to see.

The single mom, who rises before dawn, prepares her kids for school, drops them off, works all day, shops, cleans, puts dinner on the table, keeps a roof over their heads and reads to them before they go to sleep. Can you not find greatness in that great goodness? How many generations will benefit from that?

Good To Great

In the bestselling business book from the 1990’s, Good To Great, one of the companies that ascended to become “Great” had enacted a policy that brought forth the scene described below.

“Executives did not receive better benefits than frontline workers. In fact, executives had fewer perks. For example, all workers (but not executives) were eligible to receive $2,000 per year for each child for up to four years of post-high school education. In one incident, a man came to an executive of the company, Marvin Pohlman, and said, “I have nine kids. Are you telling me that you’ll pay for four years of school — college, trade school, whatever — for every single one of my kids?” Pohlman acknowledged that, yes, that’s exactly what would happen. ‘The man just sat there and cried,’ said Pohlman. “I’ll never forget it. It just captures in one moment so much of what we were trying to do.”

That is greatness achieved through the pursuit of goodness.

March 15, 2018

Hanging by a Thread

5 Ways to Nurture Trust and Protect It

Trust is the connective tissue in every personal and in every business relationship. It is tenuous. To thrive it must be cherished and nurtured. To survive, it must be meticulously minded, like a dutiful parent minding their prized child. A single misconstrued statement or action can send it reeling, with immeasurable and often unknown costs.

A Simple Scenario of Fragile Trust
I was warming up leftovers in the oven. Not known for my cooking prowess, I asked my significant other, “What temperature should I set this on?”

“Two-fifty,” she said.
“Two-fifty?!?” I asked.

I’m very impatient when I’m hungry and would have set it at twice that temperature.
“Yes, two-fifty.” She said emphatically.
“Okay.”

But, I set it at 450. I was in the kitchen. She was in the living room. I just figured it would get warm faster and she wouldn’t be the wiser. Ten minutes later, I was in another room, when she went into the kitchen to check on our leftovers. “You lied to me!”

Now, I have to tell you that she and I are rock solid, completely open and trusting of each other. It was a “white lie,” a tiny misdirection. But, it had impact. She had experienced mistruths in a prior relationship and I can only imagine what came flooding forward. For weeks afterwards, there would be little questions about most anything I told her. I would reference the “white lie” about the oven and joke about, but, at the same time, reassure her. I have been scrupulous about such “white lies” ever since. There was no crisis here, but I looked after the aftermath and cleaned it up.

The CEO and the Loss of Trust
We poured into the boardroom for the end of year department-head meeting. There was a touch of excitement in the air, as we anticipated the announcement of our end of year bonuses. The CEO began reporting results and approximately fifteen minutes into his remarks, he announced there would be no department-head bonuses. He said the organization had missed one of its key revenue goals. There was a palpable deflation in the room. Ouch! That hurt. And, though there was disappointment, there seemed to be some logic to the CEO’s statement. But, a bit later in his comments, he announced that our overall revenue for the year was the best ever in the company’s history and we should all be very proud. Proud!?! Everyone was disillusioned. The CEO didn’t pick up on the reaction in the room.

Afterwards, everyone buzzed about the total incongruity – best year of revenue; no bonuses because of a missed revenue goal. However, there actually was a logic. A great deal of money came in from a longstanding lawsuit. Revenues from regular business did fall a short. And, if it was up to the CEO, he would have given bonuses anyway, but the board of directors voted it down. This absence of transparency caused a major breach of trust that continued for some time along with a big dose of cynicism. What made it worse – this CEO was not open to feedback, so even those closest to him weren’t able to let him know what a bombshell he landed, and he had no opportunity to address it with his management group.

The Human Brain is Naturally Triggered by Questions
The human brain is naturally wired to be triggered by questions – questions that we care about. When that kind of question arises, the brain goes into a persistent and often relentless search mode, trying to fill in the blank and answer the open question, creating scenario after scenario. This happens in your conscious thinking and even more so in your other-than-conscious thinking. This natural brain process even runs in your sleep. If trust is breached, or if there is even a perception that trust has been breached, it triggers this mechanism and it may generalize such that mistrust is present in every interaction and communication that involves the person who committed the breach. This is true in personal relationships, business, professional, work, everywhere.

Perhaps the worst example is the “cheating” spouse. Once discovered and the relationship supposedly reconciled, the calls and texts may continue without end – “Where are you? Who are you with? When will you be home?” Suddenly, the stay at home spouse is travelling with the reformed “cheater” on every business trip. If a breach is bad enough, it may take the rest of time to continue to do repairs.

5 Ways to Nurture Trust and Protect It

1. Don’t Lie
Yes, sometimes it is difficult to say what’s true, but you must be brave. Most of the time, it’s not that big a deal. And, as opposed to what Jack Nicholson said, we really can stand the truth. You can be truthful and kind at the same time. Just tell the truth. It will become a habit.

2. White Lies Can Break Ties
While a “white lie,” in theory, has no evil intent, you can see from my little leftovers in the oven story that it can reverberate with serious consequences. It is unnecessary, a convenience, a habit that breeds mistrust. Break that habit and form a new one – the truth.

3. Pay Attention – Shed Light on Misconceptions
She asked how to turn on the light over the stove. “There’s a button called surface light,” I said.
I watched her searching, confused. “I don’t see any circus light,” she told me.
When I stopped laughing, I enunciated the words surface light more clearly. No foul, no harm. It’s just a small illustration of how often we hear different words than the ones intended to be communicated. How often words, tone, facial expressions and more are misconstrued, and if not corrected, can lead to distrust and discord.
Pay Attention – Watch faces, expressions, body language, responses. If something seems off kilter, it probably is. Ask questions. The best time to make corrections, to amend any discord, is in the moment. If you notice a change in behavior towards you later on, take note of it, find the right time and place to diplomatically ask about it. If there was a miscommunication that caused mistrust and/or discord, you find out about it and repair it.

4. Cultivate Feedback
In your personal life and in the workplace, it is so important to develop and cultivate sources of feedback – people you can trust to tell you when something may be wrong – or when you may have done something wrong without even knowing. Anyone who offers you these gifts is to be greatly appreciated. If you fail to notice a shift or change in attitude of one person or several people towards you, because they believe you’ve violated their trust, your sources of feedback will key you in and you will have the opportunity to repair it. Our CEO (above) would have benefited greatly from this kind of feedback. Don’t kill the messenger, she won’t come back. And, you want that person who can tell you what’s really going on to come back often. Don’t kill them, embrace them and thank them.

5. Give the Gift of Trust
When you’re a manager and a leader, and you give one of your workers an important assignment with significant consequences, and you explain the seriousness of the assignment, and you let them clearly know that you are putting your trust in them, it is a major gift to this person. He or she will cherish this gift. When you invest real trust in someone – a parent to a child, a friend with a friend, a leader with a report or staff-member, you have validated them as a person in a deep and special way. It is a gift that will pay many good dividends.

February 10, 2018February 17, 2018

Currency and Legacy

The currency of our lives is the legacy we leave thriving behind us. It is not the what that we’ve done, it’s the who we have been in each and every moment; the lives we have touched and what we have imparted by our being. Perhaps, it is not for us, ourselves, to mention these things. They may flow so easily and seamlessly through us, we may be unaware.

I watched Sheila Nevins give her “last testament” on the PBS NewsHour the other evening, but she left me out! Now, I wasn’t offended or anything, lol, quite the contrary. I would not expect to be in her last testament, at least not specifically. Sheila, if I can be so familiar, is a towering figure at HBO and in the entertainment business as a whole. President of HBO Documentary Films, producer of so very many documentaries and the most esteemed awards and distinctions. Of course, she talked of none of these in her last testament. Ms. Nevins shared the intimate experience of sitting down with her lawyer and finalizing her will, decisions on remains, organ donations and all, and then escaping into the ice cream parlor for a giant sundae, one of the joys of life. The other exquisite joy, her son, a love she spoke of so eloquently.

So, why would she speak of me? Well, perhaps, we are not the best people to give last testaments of ourselves, because Sheila left out some important things. You see, I met Sheila in the late nineteen-seventies, when she was a rising executive, already quite achieved (though I knew none of that at the time), and I was a twenty-something waiter serving her breakfast many a morning at the Puffing Billy Restaurant on 86th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan. (Yes, I drove a taxi cab, waited tables and did a whole lot of other things in my youth, all glorious experiences.)

Sheila was quite a striking woman, and more than that, she carried an ilk, a certain regal quality, a good thing, but also creating a sort of, “keep your distance.” And, I did, at first. But, as weeks went by, and I shared a word with her here and there, and then conversation, I found a kind, warm and generous person, that special kind of generosity, a generosity of the soul. On some level, I think she saw that I was a searching and struggling twenty-something, and she was encouraging, mentoring and supportive in the most subtle and meaningful of ways.

From time to time, Sheila and her husband Sidney (Koch) would venture into the restaurant for lunch or dinner. Sidney was an investment banker and quite accomplished. He was equally filled with kindness and generosity, no wonder they found each other and have been together so very long. When the restaurant closed and I found myself working at an entry level job in banking on Wall Street, Sidney invited me for lunch at an exclusive and private nineteenth-century merchants club in the area. Who extends such kindness and generosity? These two people do. Some years later, when my first child was born, much to my surprise, a gift from Sheila arrived at my front door. We had barely kept in touch, yet there it was.

So, I think, just maybe, you’re getting the picture here. I am quite certain that I am not the only one to have experienced this exceptional extension of goodness from Sheila, exceptional, yet came so naturally from the being of this elegant woman. This was and is her way of being. And, when our journey is moving towards its end point, and we are looking back over the years and the paths, and the accomplishments and the so-called missed opportunities, we, ourselves, may miss some of the biggest and most important impacts we have had, we have accomplished, in the way we extend our selves, our souls, to the souls of others; not for gain, not with forethought, simply out of the goodness of who we are. And this, as much and maybe more than anything is our legacy that we leave behind, thriving and living as an experiential example.

So, Sheila, I want to say that I hope you’re not going anywhere anytime soon. I’m guessing you gave this last testament because you know you only have a few more decades or so to go. ☺ But, I want it to be complete for you, and hopefully, I have helped to complete the picture.

January 26, 2018January 26, 2018

Hawaii Five-No. This Is Not a Drill! Check & Balance or Bust.

A Good Leader Must also be a Good Manager

October 2000. I got into the office early that morning and already had a voicemail to get to an 8:30 meeting. I quickly found out that a distribution system that was running for about a year had maxed out the bank account that drew funds to make these payments. I was put in charge of a task force to find out what happened and get it fixed. It didn’t take long to determine that data from one system was being transferred to another system that was paying the money out. The problem: when the payment system took the records in, there was no confirmation to determine whether the output equaled the input in the number of records or amount of money…nor were there any other validations. While one might expect a check and balance that went to a more granular level, at the very least, there should have been a systematic check at the macro level. And, that was only the beginning. The distribution system was designed so badly, it was making duplicate payments – and sometimes to people who shouldn’t have been paid at all. I came to call it the Chernobyl System*, after the shoddy Soviet-era nuclear power plant that had no containment system. It blew up, contaminating millions of people with radioactivity and creating a forbidden zone with a radius of at least thirty miles that will remain uninhabitable for at least 180 years, and some scientists say 3,000 years.

Hawaii Incoming
Fast forward to Monday, January 13, 2018. Vern Miyagi, the man in charge of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA), standing side by side with the Governor of Hawaii, had the courage to say, “This was my fault.” The procedures in place allowed one single individual to “push the button” to issue a live alert that there was an incoming missile minutes away from impact to Hawaii. What!?!?!! Yes, you heard me right. No checks or balances or confirmations. One person can make this error, and it can go through to strike fear and panic in the hearts of 1.4 million Hawaiians and tens of thousands of tourists.

Hacked to Death
C’mon, stuff like that is one in a million. Really, let’s go back into the ancient history of
September 2017. Equifax, the giant credit agency, announces it has had a data breach of
143 million Americans – including their Social Security Numbers, driver’s license data, security questions and answers and more. Equifax CEO, Richard Smith, who was forced to resign, testified before the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee and said, “The human error was that the individual who was responsible for communication in the organization to apply the patch, did not.” One person – no checks, no balances, only errors…one huge error.

These are examples of inexcusable malfeasance and incompetence, yet it seems to go on more often than we could imagine in the most important organizations. Most managers are competent, but when they are not and when processes are put in place that lacks the appropriate necessary checks and balances, there should be a leader at the top and leaders up and down the line who are asking the right questions.

Check, Check and Double-Check…Really?
So, let’s get a few things straight. Checks and balances cost money. You don’t need to check everything all the time. You need to have the appropriate checks and balances in place. So, how do you know when to check and how often? There is no black and white answer to that, but let’s set down some sound rational ground rules.

When the distribution system I described at the top, the so-dubbed Chernobyl distribution system, was reprogrammed to have the appropriate checks and balances programmed to work systematically, we went forward to use it for the first time. When we did, I put in place manual stops, where we downloaded data and checked it manually in Excel. Each step of the process was manually audited in this way. It was tedious, laborious and time-consuming, but that was the first time we were using the revamped system, and after all, we had already lost millions of dollars, most of which could not be recouped. Think of the financial and political exposure of repeating the mistakes that were already made. We conducted the same validations the second time we ran it, confirming each step of the process, and we were verifying that the system itself was performing the checks and balances correctly. Now, we could have a reasonable expectation that it would run right and pay accurately. We pulled back many of these laborious manual audits and, as we went forward, we did spot checks and a reasonability analysis at the end of a run.

What are the ground rules?
When a process, an operation or a system is in place, here are some criteria to follow:
Criticality, Newness, Reliability
How critical is this?

Criticality
What are the stakes? The more that’s at stake, the more checks and balances you need.
Legal – Are there legal considerations that could make you, your organization or others legally liable if something goes wrong?
Financial – Is there significant financial risk to the organization or are you dealing with monies that amount to a virtual rounding error?
Political – Will there be fireworks in the boardroom? Will a key client, a key board member or the public be negatively impacted in a significant way?
You can add to the list, but these are the main events, and each of these have a scale. You have to balance the scale between the risks and costs.

Newness
How new is your process/operation/system?
When something is new, it needs the checks and balances to ensure that it is running right. This may mean a number of checks along the way. Over time, as you have ensured that it is running correctly and accurately, you can pull back on some, even many of these checks, but you always need some verifications. AND, you must always keep criticality in mind.

Reliability
We’ve run this over and over again without a single problem.
Don’t get lulled to sleep by this. Things change. All of sudden, they’ve replaced the server, or someone new is on the job. If something has been humming along, that’s great, but you still need to beware of the unexpected and still need to have appropriate checks and balances in place. AND, you must always keep criticality in mind.

*Note: In the wisdom of the senior management of this organization, the software designer who built what I called the Chernobyl distribution system was later promoted and went on to build another system with equally disastrous results.