Jerry Bellune’s August 2017 Leadership Letter
July 27, 2017
Leaders love their clients
When we took over a failing publishing company more than 30 years ago, we knew we had problems.
It helped that we had tackled several such opportunities before and learned from the experience.
We had not successfully saved all of them. At least two notable ones ended in failure.
But we had given two failing newspapers four more years of life, no small achievement.
One success was a near-bankrupt community newspaper that won lots of awards but lost lots of money.
Their printer had carried them through three months of unpaid bills.
There were other massive payables.
We wrote letters and checks for $20 to each vendor, promising payments until their debt was retired.
That process took six months. But we paid off all debt and reached our first profit in the 12th month.
Our first Wednesday on the job, the staff started to leave at noon. “Where is everyone going?” I asked.
We close the office on Wednesday afternoon, they told me.
They had been working four and a half days a week and paid for five.
“We work five days a week,” I told them.”We will bail out this newspaper and your help is needed.”
Two employees turned in their notices that afternoon. I was relieved to see them go.
Part-time vs. full-time owner
The previous owner had his head in the clouds. He had a full time job teaching.
We could lose those employees without suffering. It also meant two less salaries on our payroll.
Better for morale that they decided to leave than that we had to let them go.
And we didn’t replace them until we could afford to. That was months in the future.
I told the staff that remained that they had a choice:
“You can stay and help us make this a successful newspaper or you can leave. If you stay, plan to work hard. I will be right there with you.”
I knew the previous owner was at his other job at least 50% of the time.
Having a working owner should be good for staff morale.
Two others decided to leave the Love Boat. The rest saw I meant business and rolled up their sleeves.
A calling vs. a paycheck
Not everyone is cut out for the newspaper business. It’s better for them and for you to find this out.
If this is your calling, the rewards are greater than anything we can put in your paycheck.
There are few thrills in life like your first byline, your first big ad sale or scooping the opposition.
These include taking care of a subscriber’s problem or helping a colleague land a scoop or a sale.
In our years in newspapering, we have survived predatory competitors and union organizing attempts.
And the one element that has carried us through has been a culture of calling and commitment.
If you don’t see what you’re working at as a calling, go find it somewhere else.
It’s difficult to be happy at your work if all it means is a paycheck.
Money pays the bills. A calling feeds the spirit.
A former pastor who now runs a retirement community told me he sees this as his new ministry.
He gets up every morning seeing opportunities – not just problems.
That’s the kind of perspective on your work that pays big dividends.
Imagine how you would feel and think if you saw your work as your ministry.
Wouldn’t that bring your skills, talent and purpose in life together into a true alignment?
What’s your secret?
A friend asked me at our local chamber business expo how old I really was?
I asked him how old he thought I was. He named a number 10 years younger than my age.
“Well, I’m actually 19 in my mind,” I said, “but I’m older than you graciously think I am.”
“Then what’s your secret?” he asked. “You act like you really are 19.”
“It’s no secret,” I replied. “Successful people have been doing it for centuries.”
My questioner is a smart, successful business man. He has run several successful businesses.
He coaches other business owners and helps start-up entrepreneurs develop business plans.
Despite that he looked puzzled. “Then what’s their secret?” he asked.
“Successful people do what they love,” was my reply. “They feel it is their life’s purpose.
“You have to have been doing that, too, or you would not have enjoyed your own success.
My people feel that way, too. Or they certainly should. If they don’t feel that way about their work, then it’s just another job.
If you don’t feel that this is what you should be doing, you should be somewhere else.”
Is this a good place to work?
Does your newspaper or business have a healthy culture? Are your people as committed as you are?
Our friend Ruth King of the Profitability Revolution poses these questions for all of us:
1. Is your company a good place to work? How do you know?
2. What do your employees say about work away from the job? Do they brag about it to their friends?
3. Does their spouse or best friend tell them they need to look for another job?
4. What is your turnover ratio? Has someone said that they are quitting for $25 a week more?
If this is the case, money is the excuse, not the real reason that they are leaving, Ruth says.
What if they leave you?
Industry research estimates it can cost up to three times their pay to replace them.
As a former executive recruiter and business owner, I think that is higher than what it really costs.
But recruiting time for highly skilled and experienced talent is a key factor.
So is your time interviewing, vetting them, making an offer and waiting for them to join you.
Add to that orientation, initial training, holding their hands, etc.
It costs time for you and others to do their work until they are replaced.
It’s easier to get a job or walk away from one than to be on the recruiting and hiring side.
Treat your stars like the pure gold they are and always have replacements in mind.
Someone is out there eyeing your top talent right now and ready to lure them away.
Outside and inside clients
As the boss, you have to be good at running a business and good at customer and employee relations.
Answer Ruth’s four questions above. That should give you food for thought.
If you don’t like the answers, change you attitude.
You have to take care of your internal clients so they will take care of your external ones.
Many business owners forget they have two kinds of clients, outside and inside.
Inside clients are your employees, the people who work with – not just for – you.
Outside clients are those who buy the products and services you provide.
Keeping inside clients isn’t rocket science, Ruth King says, but it does take time and attention.
You must set and enforce standards, create career paths, listen to them and do what you promise.
Your Leadership Challenge
1. Ask yourself: Who can I least afford to lose and what can I do to make their work more fulfilling?
2. Ask yourself: What if I lost one of them today? Who would I replace them with?
3. Ask yourself: Who is not fully committed and what should I do about it?
August Takeaway Thought. Do you want to develop your leadership team to do the things you need them to do? Take advantage of a complimentary three weeks of my affordable 18-week “Advanced Leadership & Management” eCourse. You can use it each week as a discussion guide with your leadership team. Offer good for 30 days. Email me at [email protected]
Copyright 2017 The Bellune Company Inc.
Jerry Bellune and his family own and operate online and print book, magazine, newspaper and newsletter publishing companies in South Carolina. Write him at [email protected]
