First of all, let’s get something on the table – all succession, particularly in family businesses, will include some emotion.

In a family business, the transition between generations brings forth similar emotions that you see with family members in their personal life transitions, e.g., first day of school, going off to college, marriage, first baby, etc. So, it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine when dad and mom are leaving the business, that it raises a tremendous sense of uncertainty and loss for those leaving the family business as well as those staying.

If you’re in a closely held business that isn’t family owned, there is still a host of emotions. Although there isn’t as strong an emotional tie as when you’re related to a co-worker, close work mates feel very much like relatives.

So, why start succession planning with a “no emotion” rule. The importance is that it’s very easy, too easy, for the parties involved to give in to the range of emotions that accompany big transitions. And fact is, succession done well calls for level heads. If you start succession with raised voices and lack of collaborative spirit, it certainly won’t get better from there.

When your business is engaged in succession, set some ground rules about how everybody is to work together to see the process through. When you get to certain issues, these goals may be more aspirational, but they will serve to ground the succession team reminding them they are a team and are trying to do something good for the business – something above their own, individual agendas. Working that way will take a lot of emotional self-control – which will be hard upfront but will pay off handsomely once the process completes and the next generation of leadership is in place.

Company culture is now the hot topic in the business world. I think one of the reasons culture has become a desired business focal point is that people now see that it’s much more than the “feel good” part of a company. In fact, research shows that culture is a bona fide part of every business and can drive or tank business performance.

Yet, there is still a fair amount of mystery about how an organization goes from an autocratic, Theory X, less collaborative culture, to one that is highly participatory, engaged, Theory Y, etc. There are a number of factors that contribute to such a transformation. But all culture transformations begin with a single person.

In small organizations, particularly in family businesses, the founder/owner is the defining factor of the culture. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs don’t typically lead in a participatory fashion. But, there are still positive lessons about how they propagate their autocratic cultures – lessons that are applicable to growing participatory cultures.

One of the most defining characteristics of those entrepreneurs is that they are single-minded about their vision for the business. And, they are willing to stand up for it, debate about its importance – a “whatever it takes” approach for people to work the way they want them to work.

For creating a participatory culture, it also takes a single-minded approach. And, the change process starts with a single person. For the thoughts of a single person to resonate throughout an organization, things go more effectively if that person is the top executive in the company. Because as the top person, although done more respectfully and supportively, that person can take the approach of the autocratic entrepreneur – a “whatever it takes” approach.

In turn, the top executive can begin to advocate for a different culture with the rest of their senior leadership team – who in turn can cascade the new culture’s values throughout their own parts of the business.

But, this top-down approach isn’t easy to make happen. Even though the top person has authority to tell people to work a certain way, when the day is done, we all work how we want to work. So, a culture change coming from the top of the company still has to win over the hearts and minds of each successive layer of the organization. As the saying goes, all good things are worth waiting for (and I would add, working for). So, over a period of years, the culture does shift – I’ve seen this happen where the vision of the solitary CEO/President one day becomes the culture of the company.

This now begs the question, can a single person change a culture who isn’t a top executive. Absolutely – but the process proceeds differently.

In every autocratic company in the world, there are still people who – as solitary individuals – try daily to bring some civility, customer service, collaboration and thoughtfulness to their jobs. They don’t do it because they have to do it. They do it because it’s who they are. They are often far from the top of the company, everybody knows who they are, and they are generally beloved. They are such good people and treat people so well, that they are, in some ways, the informal leaders in their organizations, but without title or leadership responsibility.

The ideas of these people can become the ideas of the organization if any of the following things happen:

• those with power and influence see that this informal leader adds a lot to both the performance and morale of the organization, so the formal influencers take notice and begin to change how the workforce interacts based upon how the informal leader treats people

• if there are multiple single culture role models in a department and that department performs significantly better than the rest of the company, then the formal leaders might begin to notice this and try to emulate the microculture in that department, across the whole organization

• the informal leaders between departments might casually begin hanging out with each other, comparing notes and ultimately involve a formal leader who then propagates the new culture ideas

In fact, other authors have noted that organizations have the stated organizational chart. But there is also the invisible one – comprised of all the influencers. These are the people most others in the organization admire for the quality of their work and the joy of working with them – so naturally, people gravitate to them and are influenced by them.

Whether the single person culture changer is a top executive or an entry-level person, I have found that all culture changers have something in common. They want a better company culture because it’s just the right thing to do. In some ways, the participatory culture is a natural extension of their personalities, who they are as people. Beyond the techniques useful for culture change, these people already have a fundamental belief that people should be treated a certain way. With that conviction, they live every day accordingly.

Although you’d think that every company would want a highly participatory collaborative culture, such cultures are on the rise but still in the minority. So, it takes people with a vision, people who are determined that the workplace can be a supportive, intellectually stimulating and fun place, to consistently work in a participatory fashion (even those most others in their companies don’t yet work that way).

It begins with a single person.

It’s December 31 and the New Year is almost upon us. So, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest and support throughout 2011.

For those of you who blog, you know it isn’t easy keeping it going. But, it’s much easier with readers like you. Your ideas, encouragement and just plain words of support keep me writing, putting my ideas out there.

This year of 2011 was an important milestone at The Solutions Group – we had our twentieth anniversary. So, as we begin our 21^st year, I wanted to give you some idea of where we’ve been and where we’re going.

The last twenty years have resulted in a growth in our client base – we have now consulted to over 200 companies, and have a growing number of companies using our services outside the Rochester region. Our prehire testing services have grown beyond the executive and mid levels, to entry level and individual contributor positions. And, our ability to influence culture has also matured through the years as I have learned more about what makes a group of people best come together and execute to get a job done, the right way.

This past year I have continued being the usual voracious reader I’ve long been. In particular, I’ve been heavily influenced by a variety of Seth Godin’s books. Being a person who procrastinates, I’ve been struck by two simple truths he’s talked about.

First, the notion of “shipping.” What he means is sometimes you can’t think something to death, you just have to do it. Clearly a similar message to Nike’s “just do it.”

Second, in “Tribes,” he talks about the importance of putting your ideas out there because it’s important for you (me) personally to do so.

In the coming year, my plan is to “ship” more – trying new things (some of which you may see test driven in my blog). And, I plan to write more. Funny thing is that I have no shortage of things to write about – I plan to make a stronger commitment to sharing those ideas with all of you.

One other source of inspiration has been the latest biography on Steve Jobs. You can love or hate his management style (lots of both to go around). But, he did live his credo of being focused doing things because they are the right things to do. In that regard, I plan on doing that with my service offerings. By the way, as always, I tremendously value the input some of you have given me in the last year – both positive and constructively critical (I value both, a lot).

So, in that vein, I plan to examine our testing services for prehire, development and succession – seeing what you all like and find effective in what we offer, and what you’d find more helpful. For our very successful individual executive leadership programs, I plan on looking at what might come after a one year program is completed – some of you have expressed interest in this and I plan on exploring it. Third, I continue having a very strong interest in culture development and enhancement. There is a growing and fascinating literature on culture – I plan on sharing more of that with you as I continue to explore it myself.

And so, as The Solutions Group enters its third decade, I begin by thanking you all as part of the TSG blogosphere, for your ideas and encouragement.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful New Years and a great 2012!

EI – emotional intelligence – can be easy or hard to muster.

Yes, when things are calm, on course, going your way, it’s much easier to step back, take a breath and chart your best course.

How is your EI when your back is up against the wall?

But the true test of your EI is when your back is up against the wall.

How would you rate your own EI when times are tough?

We all know when we are bringing our best to a situation. And, we all know when we’re having an off day. For optimal emotional intelligence (understanding your thoughts and feelings, and in turn, relating in the best ways with others), what are some things you can do for engaging at your best?

Getting Focused

Most times when people aren’t doing their best, most productive and highly creative work, it’s because they aren’t focused. In today’s business environment, it’s all to easy to become unfocused by the many tasks to get done, streams of media coming at us all day long and so forth.

As smart professionals, you have a simple and powerful tool at your disposal. It’s the following phrase:

What am I trying to accomplish?

In the course of a busy and hectic day, priorities become a blur as you are just trying to make your way through the day. Many people are aware of when they are going into overload. At that moment, ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish?” In seconds, the answer will come to you. With that answer in hand, quickly look at what you’re doing, and if it’s not the highest priority task, change gears.

Calming Yourself Down

Ever see somebody spin out of control – panic in his or her eyes, face red, you can feel their sense of desperation. We’ve all been there.

The fact is that when you are panicked, you aren’t thinking logically and objectively (in other words, with high emotional intelligence).

Calm brings focus.

What people forget is that there are a variety of ways to become calm. Since we were all babies, we learned how to calm ourselves and that skill is still in our heads.

So often you hear the advice, “Take a breath.” In fact, using your emotional intelligence to temporarily disengage from a situation, stepping back and quieting down, begins a process of increased clarity.

Combining Calming and Focus

If you look at these two forces as a two-step process, you now have a powerful emotional intelligence tool.

That is, if you begin by calming yourself down, you then are in a logical and objective position to ask, “What am I trying to accomplish?”

(By the way, for teams, “What are we trying to accomplish?” also works well.)

Our minds possess some amazing abilities, if just position yourself to bring your best, forward.

Flying isn’t fun anymore. This isn’t an earth shattering insight if you’ve flown anywhere in the last 3-4 years (really, much longer). Others have written about how the amount of security post-9/11, or the way most airports are constructed as stressful environments, make flying unpleasant well before you’re in the air.

So, I was at the airport this past weekend dropping off a relative for their flight home. It was early in the morning so our local airport was pretty quiet, pretty calm. And, I hadn’t been to the airport for a while, so I approached going there with fresh eyes and an open mind.

But what struck me was the fellow helping us from behind the counter (we needed some special assistance so we couldn’t use the kiosk). For you see, although I hadn’t been to the airport for a while, he was likely there near daily for his job. Unfortunately, it showed!

Now, he wasn’t mean. He wasn’t rude. But, he didn’t do anything to make his interaction with us an enjoyable one. He seemed edgy, mildly annoyed. And, I’m not looking for a greeting like you’d see in a commercial – I don’t need a grin so big I can see all of his teeth. Yet, I think it’s reasonable to expect some courtesy.

Why couldn’t he deliver?

Because flying hasn’t only become drudgery for the traveler – it’s also become a real drag for those who work at the airport. Yes, part of it comes from frustrated (and even rude) travelers. But, it also comes from counter people at the airport really “owning” that they are an important part of the flight experience. In our case, the person I was dropping off was a bit nervous about travelling. So, the counter person could have done a little engaging with us – simple as “good morning” versus “have you tried using the kiosk” (meaning: “I’m kind of busy here and if there’s a way you could go away, that would make it so I have one less person to deal with”).

I’m writing about an airport counter person, but fact is, I see this all the time in a variety of jobs where people are working with the public (that’s you and me!). Too many companies don’t do enough to ensure the people being hired into these roles actually LIKE dealing with the public. And, too many people going into these roles don’t understand how these are service positions – meaning you’ll be expected to interact with, in a pleasant and helpful way, with a whole bunch of people every week. So, if this isn’t your thing, maybe you should seek out something that requires much less contact with people.

If you are in an outward facing role in your job, ask yourself if you’re having fun. If you’re not, see if you can renew your commitment to making interacting with you both helpful and fun.

Trust me, it won’t only be better for the people you assist. It will start to bring the fun back in your job.

Yes, believe it or not, there are still too many bosses out there that don’t understand that they are the captains of their teams. Some are good, even wonderful captains. Some – not so much.

Reinforce, praise, support, coach the team, and people perform well because they are treated well (notice I didn’t say pay them well – I assume pay scales are benchmarked and when not, I advise try to leave that employer when you can). These are bosses in participatory cultures – cultures in which people perform BECAUSE THEY WANT TO PERFORM (and they are accountable, because they choose to be – not because they are being held accountable – more on that another time).

Yell, punish, threaten and be plainly snarky, and performance over the long haul, for the team, will be moderate to poor. No great mystery here – treat people poorly and the emotional clutter created by the boss and resulting culture become an enormous distraction.

So, yes, there are bosses that still yell at their people. I have known some of these bosses. They aren’t mean by nature, and often apologize after the yelling. But the bosses don’t understand that the apologies are meaningless once the boss has gone through the “yell-apologize cycle” more than a couple of times with their team.

Why do some bosses yell – there are a number of reasons. But what I generally observe is that the bosses are frustrated – they feel let down. The bosses feel punished by the team’s (or individual’s) poor performance. So the bosses defensively strike back and the yelling begins.

And in companies with this kind of boss, the culture is never what it needs to be. Because of the yelling, people feel fundamentally demeaned. Once feeling demeaned, people never feel fully motivated – not fully motivated to produce, work horizontally (crossfunctionally), learn new things, team with others, WOW their customers. And in today’s business world, these are all the things that differentiate the great from the good businesses.

In the toxic cultures run by yelling bosses, people come to work and leave “right on the dot” – no coming in early or staying late. They don’t do anything extra and most often have a “why bother” attitude (can you blame them?).

Great participatory cultures are run by “servant leaders” – leaders there for their people, as coaches, resources and sources of motivation and insight.

If you are a yelling boss, start looking in the mirror and figure out why you need to take out your frustrations and then, STOP DOING IT. Find another outlet for your frustration (like a coach for yourself), and beginning building a team that isn’t so frustrating.  Yelling at people is bad for the people in your business, and it’s bad for your business, too.