Learn from McDonald's: A blurry moral compass leads to years of costly issues

When the CEO's moral compass is blurry, you can bet the ethical one is too.

McDonald's, who has access to all the resources in the world, has been dealing with a serious culture breach caused by the failed moral compass of its former CEO for more than four years.

Two days ago, McDonald’s plight was in the news again because the SEC charged the former CEO with misleading investigators about reasons for his firing in 2019.

Let's consider the impact of the issues McDonald's has been facing, so you can be prepared just in case:

⚫ If someone breaks the rules in one area, you can bet they break or bend rules in other areas too. For example, if it's okay to bend the rule about one relationship, like the former CEO did, they are likely to bend the rules about other relationships too.

Beyond that rule, however, you better keep a keen eye on other rules because the relationship rule might not be the only one broken.

⚫ Others look up to the CEO and will follow along breaking rules too. If it's okay for the CEO, others will think it is okay for them to break rules related to relationships, exaggerate expense reports, lie on client project hours, skip recording PTO usage, and more.

⚫ Lies are expensive. McDonald's spent millions of dollars and countless hours because of the former's CEO's behavior. And, they still are! Does your company have either of those to spare?

On a personal note, how humiliating it must be for one’s ongoing moral failures to put grown adults in the situation of having to call the law firm and insurance company to explain the situation.

⚫ The reputation damage to the brand is embarrassing and costly in other ways too. Top talent does not want to work for a company that allowed that kind of behavior. When poor behavior is accepted, people lose trust in the decision makers. They will not bring their A game when trust dissipates.

The message sent to other top employees (and all employees) is that leadership is weak, values don’t matter, and money over purpose. No one brings their best in those circumstances.

In some cases, customers will lose trust and take their business elsewhere too. Now, McDonald's probably did not lose many consumers over the former CEO. Their great french fries far outweigh the impact of the former CEO to consumers. Most companies’ products and services don’t have that luxury.

There are companies out there with very similar issues right now. Here are a few indicators of culture issues.
◼ No women on the SLT. Or, the one or two top women keep leaving, to be replaced by men.
◼ The company's attorney or other leaders lie in meetings about culture. Obviously, there is more cover-up happening.
◼ When asked about a company, and heads turn, eyes bulge and people whisper, "Oh, you don't want to know about that place." In that case, pray for people who work there and move on because the person whispering is probably right.

Company culture goes way beyond people being nice to each other.

We are able to dig deeper and help leaders face the bigger issues that can damage their companies, reputations, and legacies.

We work with leaders to help them avoid the pain of McDonald's. McDonald's has all the resources in the world, and a costly culture breach happened there.

What resources does your company have? Reach out privately if you need one.

In the meantime, be on the lookout for blurry compasses. Don't let someone else's blurry moral compass blur your own.

The 5 best ways to prevent the poaching of your top performers

Poaching…it’s not just for eggs. It’s for your people. Poaching talent is on the rise as recruiters seek to fill vacancies caused by the “Great Resignation.”

Do you know what poaching costs your company? SHRM estimates the total cost to hire a new employee to be three to four times the position’s salary. For example, someone paid $60,000, could cost $180,000 or more to replace them if they get poached. (Source: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/the-real-costs-of-recruitment.aspx)

In addition to direct costs, think about the indirect costs such as morale of the rest of the team when the person leaves, productivity when a role is vacant for several months, productivity and morale when someone has to add responsibilities to their plate until the role is filled, reduced or changed level of service…and more.

Think about the dollars, time, energy—all impact the company’s ability to serve, innovate, and grow.

To combat the poachers, I wrote a few weeks ago about making your top performers less susceptible to poachers. I suggested you keep woo’ing them throughout their employment journey. https://voyagecg.com/observations/2022/4/21/beware-your-top-people-are-being-poached

Here are five more specific things you can do to keep your top people:

1. Cement their bond with you, the team, and the company. When people feel part of something special, it is harder for them to exit.

2. Review your compensation practices. Re-evaluate salary ranges, ensure consistency of pay for the same work, and reward strong performers. Non-performers will probably leave if they don’t get bonuses strong contributors get, so be prepared for their exits. Also consider what it costs you to keep non-performers around.

3. Update the interview process. Interview people before they start, during their time employed there, and as they exit. Pay attention to the answers so you can be as flexible as possible and so you can fix the issues stifling the bond employees have with the company.

4. Empower people to lead and grow. Give responsibilities that align with growth opportunities and goals. Ensure the employees have the authority to execute the responsibilities too; otherwise, it’s just dumping work and is not empowering.

5. Develop your managers at all levels. People exit because of how their direct supervisor treats them. Reduce their openness to poaching by ensuring managers treat people with basic manners and in alignment with the company’s core values. Develop management consistency for difficult conversations, feedback, rewards, and development.

6. Bonus Strategy! Care. Genuinely care about people. Employees today want their companies to care about them beyond just their performance at work. One of my clients spoke so lovingly about their people this morning. In fact, it’s how this team of leaders has spoken of their people in every conversation. They speak about helping people live a zest for life—within and beyond their jobs.

You can reduce poaching with intentional actions to connect, bond, and engage your people. The six strategies can help.

There are additional strategies in the resource 127 Ways to Influence your Company Culture, available with Voyage VIP membership at the bottom of this page.

Beware! Your top people are being poached!

The issue most on the minds of leaders I have heard from lately is the "Great Resignation." Leaders are afraid their top performers will leave, and they have run out of ideas to inspire them to stay.

Of course, leaders always worry about their top performers, but lately that fear is reasonable. People changed during the past two years, and what entices them to choose a workplace is different for many now. On top of that change, strategies companies are using to fill vacancies have changed too.

The latest strategy to fill all those empty spots across organizations is poaching. Perhaps you have experienced it or even recommended the strategy to your company's recruiters? Going after top talent gainfully employed by a competitor used to be a subversive maneuver. Not anymore.

Now, recruiters pursue top performers like a high school kid asking a date to the prom.

There are big gestures and lots of woo'ing over time.

Poaching entices relatively happily employed people to leave for greener pastures, even when their current pasture is pretty green already. People are flattered by being pursued, and they have more confidence to speak up about what would make them leap firms. People are stating their demands, and companies are delightfully meeting them. Everything from location to hours to salary to equipment to team members and more—it’s all on the table.

Poaching is on the rise, so watch out before it’s too late.

The best thing you can do to prevent poaching is make your top performers less susceptible to poachers. Keep woo'ing them throughout their employment journey.

Companies make a gigantic mistake when they stop woo'ing people once they are on board.

Someone told me recently about her experience with her new employer. Four people who love the company were on the interview team that took her to lunch. They talked about being on her team and working with her. It turned out they are on the company team but not her immediate team. They were on the interview team because of their acting skills and exaggerated the role they would play in her job. Figuring that act out a few days into the job made her question her decision to join the company.

Another recent example was that a manager in a mid-sized company was not ready for the new hire, so the new employee sat in the lobby for an hour waiting for his boss to arrive. The manager said, “I forgot you were starting today.” In the interview, however, the manager spoke about how much he cares about his team.

Those two examples were of companies abandoning their woo practices on day one. That’s when it is most egregious and hard to overcome. It also happens when the business landscape changes and leaders are challenged. Some panic and stop taking care of their people out of fear for their own jobs.

The smart leaders have figured out they need to keep woo'ing after day one for people to stick around.

To identify opportunities to engage with employees, outline your employees' journey. Armed with an understanding of their journey, identify where you can beef up intentional connections. Where along the journey can you offer professional development (which people crave!), skill development opportunities in the work, networking opportunities, and opportunities to contribute to the local community?

Be intentional about your connection and engagement. Tie your actions to what they want.

The Platinum Rule is more important here than the Golden Rule. While the Golden Rule tells us to treat people how we want to be treated, the Platinum Rule is to treat people how they want to be treated. Put the Platinum Rule into effect in good times and bad. People really notice how you treat them when times are tough for the company or for them personally. For example, your company policy may allow for one week of leave for new fathers. How do you handle the new father whose baby needs extra medical attention at birth, so one week with the family is not enough? People > policy. Treat people with care, especially when they need help.

That's the secret to retention: care. It is really hard for a poacher to compete against a genuine relationship of care.

Is your company's career ladder broken?

Last year, McKinsey and LeanIn.org published the Women in the Workplace 2021 report.

It reveals a broken rung on the career ladder for women. It might not be the rung you think it is. It’s not the one toward the top, but, rather, one near the bottom.

The research says women are not promoted equally in the early stages of their careers. That means, they will not advance or learn at the same rate as men. That means, women will not be as prepared for the top runs as the men who were promoted earlier.

McKinsey shared a article about how that looks in tech companies. Hint: it’s worse in tech than in all other industries.

Why does this really matter?

In addition to impacting the lives of women and their families, fewer women at the top impacts companies too. Financially. Where it matters most to many.

"The most gender-diverse companies are 48 percent more likely to outperform the least gender-diverse companies." according to the article Repairing the broken rung on the career ladder for women in technical roles.

If that data point gets your attention, read the whole article. There's data galore.

McKinsey also includes three actions companies can take to repair the broken rung on the career ladder for women.

"By failing to promote and retain women in technical roles who are in the early stages of their careers, companies end up preparing fewer women for senior roles. This affects women’s lives and livelihoods and could create negative financial and cultural consequences for companies, since companies where women are well represented at the top earn up to 50 percent higher profits and share performance."

Did you see that?

"...companies where women are well represented at the top earn up to 50 percent higher profits and share performance"!

Mic drop!

Representation, promotions, and equality are not just about being fair. They impact financials. They impact people too—for anyone who sees the benefit of caring about people and profit.

What will you do to help repair the broken career ladder inside your company? Worth pondering how you can help impact it. If you can’t, maybe that’s worth pondering too.

5 Leadership lessons from the NFL playoffs last weekend

I have written several times about lessons learned while watching NFL games because of their service as a mirror for business leadership. This past weekend provided an unending number of lessons. Here are the top five that can apply to nearly any leadership position.

Know your competition. When the Bills took the ball to start their game against the Chiefs, they took it all the way down the field. They went for it twice on the fourth down. Both times, the highly experienced announcers were surprised, as were most fans. But, the Bills coach knew his competition. He had a vision of the game and had stated that field goals worth three points would not be enough to win against the Chiefs. Does your vision align with the competition’s game plan and ability?

Show up ready. Last week, and a few other times during the season, the Chiefs were out of sync at the start of the game. There would be no time for getting it together during yesterday’s game. They needed to show up ready to play like champions from the start. How do you show up every day? Can your teammates rely on you to have it together every day?

Use patience as a tool. Patience has not always been my favorite skill, but Chiefs quarterback spoke of it last week. He said he focused on patience instead of rushing plays. So many companies and leaders react and overreact when the market or employees change. Like Mahomes, you can’t take all day to assess before moving forward, but you don’t need to panic either. Where would you and your team benefit from patience? How would deeper assessment position you better?

Build character daily. Competition, like adversity, builds character; additionally, it also reveals it. You need character to lead through today’s all-encompassing challenges. Both quarterbacks in the Bills v. Chiefs game demonstrated strong character all week and all day yesterday. After the game ended, Chiefs quarterback left his team’s celebration to find Bills quarterback, Josh Allen. They showed respect for each other, as both did in the media prior to and after the game. You can’t learn that during a game. How do you build and reinforce your character every day? Is your character strong enough to handle adversity? Would your team at home and work say it is?

Never give up. All four games came down to the final seconds last weekend. Obviously, no one on any teams gave up. Cincinnati’s quarterback, Joe Burrow, was sacked nine times, yet lead his team down the field to position their kicker to win their game. During the Bills v. Chiefs game, both teams scored in the final two minutes. Neither team gave up. The Bills scored with 13 seconds left in the game to take the lead. It would have been understandable, expected even, for the Chiefs to assume the game was over—everyone except diehard fans did. The Bills were celebrating on their sideline, and the announcers were giddy in their booth.

Now hoooooold on thar, Baba Looey!

Thirteen seconds was enough for the Chiefs yesterday. They won the hard-fought game. What’s going on for you that would benefit from some fearlessness and tenacity? Have you given up too soon and could power up?

When asked what he told Mahomes prior to the final 13 seconds, Coach Reid said, “When it’s grim, be the grim reaper.” (Press conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3TSKmStaZ8)

Go win your game today!