April? Already? Final Four is almost done, Easter is next week. Taxes to pay. Things to do. What better time to get started?

I had a hugely productive night in the office last night and have a healthy things to do list for today. And it feels great. Last week was an intense week with a great client but now I slow down to 2 days a week on the road for a few months. While this is good for my golf game it can also very good for my business as I can invest time in those capacity building and marketing activities that I know pay off in the long run.

I call these my dental floss kinds of actions. I know I am supposed to do it and I know it is good for me but I don’t always do it. I am sure you have some things like that too. Consider this a friendly reminder to floss today in whatever way works for you but get out of the routine and integrate some value activities that don’t always get done.

I am at a two-day company meeting with a client. There are a number of internal presenters of content. All of them are doing a good job because they went through a process where their content was reviewed, an initial presentation was critiqued and finally they got personal one-on-one coaching the day before the event. A Lot of effort? Yes! Worth it? I think so, and so do they.

These are not professional speakers but they learned how to present better in front of an audience. and like it or not, that is a skill worth having and working for in corporate America. It is true that we find better speakers to be more credible, intelligent, successful, etc etc…While we don’t as readily attribute such characteristics to poor speakers. The actual truth may be different but the perception is what matters here.

One of the single biggest things you can do to improve your visibility and promotability is to get better at speaking in public.  Rehearsals and coaching are a good start.

A little refresher here from the Great Place To Work Institute as reported in USA Today a few weeks ago..

Insurance provider Acuity has been ranked at the top of the medium-sized business list by the Great Place to Work Institute. The institute looks at factors that make up the best workplaces and recently released its first-ever list of multinational companies with the happiest employees. The top five slots went to Microsoft, software firm SAS, data management company NetApp, Google, and FedEx. The highest-ranking firms tended to share three traits: employee trust in management, pride in the company, and camaraderie with coworkers. When choosing the best multinational workplace, Great Place to Work examined applications from 350 firms with at least 5,000 employees worldwide and 40 percent of workers based outside their home country. Applicants also had to have made at least five of the group’s regional “best workplace” lists. Deciding factors included health benefits, employee turnover, use of flex time, and how companies maintained employee trust during rough times, such as the way they conducted layoffs. While pay helps with motivation, it has not been found to be a primary driver among employees. Workers often say that respectful treatment is more important than pay, as is work/life balance, type of work, quality of coworkers, and quality of leadership.

There you have it. Money matters but so does leadership and money without leadership actually doesn’t go very far.

Or any other place for that matter.

Just read this in the USA Today travel section.

According to two just-released surveys….the Hotwire.com discount travel site sent out findings from its “American Travel Behavior Survey” that found the average U.S. employee leaves 6.2 days of paid vacation days unused at year’s end. The survey of more than 2,000 adults was conducted online by Harris Interactive. And another online survey, conducted for the JetBlue airline in late September and reported by Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, found that about 57% of about 1,100 workers polled don’t use all vac days. That survey says the average days left on the table are a whopping 11 and that almost a third of employees are “too afraid to ask for vacation” in a time of high unemployment and job insecurity, according to theDaily Mail.
In a society where people are stressed and over committed on time vacation is an important thing. I know I dont take as much as I might. We do a full week once a year, at least, but I am hesitant to do more. I do a great job of finding time but as my wife points out, “you dont take days off, you take hours off.” Well, at least I do that!

What do you do and what are you doing to make sure your people take time? If they burn out they are of no use to you.

So what about you, readers?

Forrest Lucas, 70, gained national recognition (in name anyway) when his firm, Lucas Oil, became the sponsor of the Indianapolis Colts new football stadium. He went from long-haul trucker to oil company exec. No, not Exxon type, his is a research and retail operation that does maybe a few hundred million a year in revenue.

He recounts at age 21 he often got contracted by Mayflower moving and storage. He often moved succesful people. These were company presidents and senior military officers. I would study them, he says, and all the guys who made it to the top were nice people. So, it’s part of my philosophy to be nice. I dont have a single rude person working for me. Great lesson there. Leadership is a relationship and it is much easier to build a positive relationship if you are not a jerk. Today I am with a client and that very trait characterizes the people at all levels. They are gracious gentlemen who say please and thank-you, who hold the door for you and who go last on line for food. I like working with this client. (Do you run to the chow line first or do you go last?)

A few other pearls of wisdown from Lucas. Be honest to a fault, put your employees first, use products made in the US and be fair. Honesty and take care of people. Sounds like a few chapters from my books – and many others. Read any good leadership books lately?

Was just reading the Marine Corps Gazette. It is the professional journal for Marines. While the technology of the Corps has evolved since my time the principles of leadership endure.

J Doty and D Gerdes in their Military Review article  ”Humility as a leadership attribute” from September 2000 maintain when authentic humility is applied to relationships, mutual trust develops and stirs an abiding sense of loyalty and authentic modesty – creating an environment to achieve great things

Writer J. M. Templeto states humility is not self-deprecation…humility represents wisdom.

Leaders across the country selected humility as one of the 26 words to lead by in my new A to Z series on leadership. Humility recognizes that people are more important than things. Leadership is all about people but too many leaders are too task oriented to get it.

Do you?

David Novak is the Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands. Yum is the parent of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC.

In his new book Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make BIG Things Happen Novak tells us the driving force behind company succcess is its emphasis on developing people.

He states the single biggest thing I can imagine is that we continue to build the top people capability in our industry. If you get that right, you satisfy more customers, and make more money. We make upgrading that capability our highest priority. Show me a great restaurant and I’ll show you a great leader.

There is no doubt he is sincere in this statement in an industry not known for glitz and glamour. We all remember the bad fast food experience but I think there are as many good ones. It is easy to find fault with what he says as we point out people who are not great at leading and developing people. Every organization faces this challenge, so does yours.

You dont have a chance of creating a great culture with great leaders if you dont make it job one. Leaders make new leaders. It is in their DNA, if it isn’t there, they put it there. (what’s in your genes?)

Goldman Sachs and now American Airlines….check out the rants on the web.

What a great time of year! Bonus time. If you are in a firm or position that does them it can be like Christmas. It can be disappointing too. But at least you get a conversation with your manager about what you got and why.

That is unless you are my friend Jared. He was noticeably agitated the other day at the gym and he proceeds to tell me that he figured out what his bonus was when he went to the ATM and had more money than expected. He looked a bit deeper and saw his direct deposit was larger, but not much larger, than normal. He put it together and realized it was bonus money.

The next day he talked with his manager. Oh yes, she protested. I was going to tell you, blah blah blah…I would add pathetic. Sends a great message about how important he it.

I am sure some of you have similar stories. Just don’t let them be about you.

Big day for ESPN yesterday and this AM…

Peyton Manning leaves the Colts and tears up at the press conference. Adrian Foster, an undrafted free agent two years ago, signs a 5 year $40mm contract with the Texans and cries as he thanks his Mom for the sacrifices she made so the family would be OK.

Grown men crying on TV? Go figure. Actually, just real people showing real emotion. Nothing wrong with that.

When is the last time you showed any emotion at work or are you too busy being “professional?” Be yourself, authenticity is what followers really admire.