Episode #158: Are You the Chief Mood Maker?

When you are on the executive floor, the carpet is thick, the mood is quiet and the décor is sumptuous. It is a world removed from the scramble going on floors below. Maybe you are in your own President’s office, shielded from the fray outside the door. The further you place yourself away from the troops the harder it is to influence the mood of the team. Of course, you have direct reports overseeing the work and they too should be mood makers in their own right. There is something very powerful though when the boss is also the mood maker.

I visited President Nambu of Pasona at his office a number of years ago and I was super impressed. To get to see him, I had to walk past a large open plan workspace, in the center of which was a raised platform. This housed all the senior executives at their desks. I had to then walk on through the shokudo or cafeteria to get to Nambu san’s office. I was curious, so I asked him about all these snakes and ladders to get to see him. He said he wanted the executives to be in an open plan environment and visible. He wanted people to see him too as he entered and exited his office, again to be visible. When you run such a huge company as he does, it is easy to become disconnected from the troops. He took physical steps to overcome that possibility.

We can’t be a mood maker in the machine if we hide ourselves away. Even if we are physically removed from the troops for whatever reason, we need to make an effort to be seen. Tom Peters and Bob Waterman chronicled the MBWA (Management By Wandering Around) philosophy in their book In Search Of Excellence. They were advocating that the leader leave their office and wander around to where the troops are and engage with them in their workspace. Find out what they are doing, how the team mood is and look for places to have influence.

In Japan, we have the traditional chorei or morning get together. The Ritz Carlton has taken that idea to a great height. I spent a week on their course in Washington DC studying their management methods. They have a highly dispersed workforce scattered around the globe. So how do they wed the whole thing together so that the customer service philosophy is the same, no matter where you stay with them anywhere in the world? They have their principles of service and everyday, everywhere, at every shift they review the code. They make the code the mood maker.

The Ritz Carlton have a template to run the meeting and everyone takes their turn as the leader. The day I joined the morning meeting of the executive leadership team, the CEO was there and yet one of the lower ranked crew was taking the lead to run us all through the rituals. This was done everyday, so again the core philosophy was being driven by the top and was being supported with the high visibility of the CEO participating everyday he was in town.

I adopted this for the Shinsei Retail Bank when I was there and I came up with our banking version of core customer principles. We all took part including all the leaders. We did it in every branch location, exactly the same way, every morning. This was the leadership group leading the charge and everyone was aware of it. This made a tremendous impact on creating a new culture of client focus in the team.

In Dale Carnegie Training Japan we have the thirty Dale Carnegie human relations and thirty stress management principles as the core. The morning meeting is done everyday as long as two people are in the office or online – that is the rule. It is run by a different leader by turn, but where possible always with me participating. We have an open plan arrangement in the office so I can tap the mood of the team all day long.

Now that we are working from home and online, I can check the vibe of the team every morning. I also use the morning “Daily Dale” ritual to rev up the troops. I don’t pontificate everyday, because it loses its power, but I try to do it quite regularly. No matter how I feel that day at work, I have to project energy, passion, commitment to the team. I have to infect them with my enthusiasm for the work. I have to keep reminding everyone of the WHY. I don’t believe we can ever overcommunicate the WHY to the team.

So get with the troops and infect them with your passion and commitment to the cause. If it is not a cause yet, then make it one. As leaders we have to be the key mood maker no matter what our particular mood may be on any given day. We must always be little Mr. or Ms Sunshine!