"Kevin Kruse Blog" - 5 new articles

My father recently did some housecleaning and stumbled on an old newspaper clipping, from the year 1929. The headline proclaimed, “Mellon, Ford Give Views on Future.”

Wow, what were the predictions of the two of the world’s richest and most successful men?

It turns out, just months before the Great Depression began, and a decade before the start of World War II, Andrew Mellon and Henry Ford predicted that we were entering into “the golden age of humanity’s history.” Ford also predicted that smoking and tobacco would disappear, and machinery would eliminate all “hard work.”

Closer to the mark, Ford forecast the end of the family farm. He predicted that, “Large corporations, whose sole business it will be to perform the operations of plowing, planting, cultivating and harvesting, will supersede the individual farmer…”

In addition to just being a fun read, my takeaway is that in the short term, nobody can predict the future. These were two super smart, well traveled men who had armies of people to help them understand the market, and yet they couldn’t foresee the complete market breakdown that was looming just months away. And yet, they were also right in the long term, that we the future would be brighter than the past. That is a common thread you see from all super successful people, including Warren Buffet, legendary investor Peter Lynch, and Bill Gates. They might not know what is coming in the next decade, but over the next 50-100 years, the march of progress is inevitable.

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Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams. Get exclusive leadership advice and more from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com.

    

Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso

My son, Owen, is one of the best “drawers” in his third grade class. If you doubt it, just ask him and he’ll tell you it’s true.

“Dad, wait until you see my eagle,” Owen said with excitement. “I didn’t even trace it. I’m probably the best drawer in my class.”

Do you remember when you thought you were the best at so many things?

For some reason, as we get older we seem to replace the joy of unbridled creation with fear of criticism. We seem to replace unconditional confidence, with illogical self-doubt.

As we look at the work of children, let’s remember and enjoy that time in our own lives, and try to recapture that spirit.

And you do have to admit, that’s a mighty fine eagle.

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Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams. Get exclusive leadership advice and more from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com.

    

Entrepreneur and author, Gary Brose, recently shared his “lessons learned” on leadership and motivation in his book, The Ultimate Motivated Employee.

In it, Brose lists 7 key elements that drive motivation:

1. Create the right work environment
2. Hire the right people
3. Excel at “Greet and Train”
4. Incentivize, bonus and reward
5. Delink reviews and raises
6. Be the servant
7. Respect and involve

Most of those items align nicely with my own thoughts on driving engagement.

One chapter I found most interesting was on the topic of “bonuses” and performance pay. There is a dramatic shift to variable pay even in big companies. Brose offers an interesting analogy. Every manager/owner gets a monthly P&L which is like the report card for the month. The equivalent “report card” for the employee is their paycheck…but it doesn’t change very often. By offering an objective, performance driven bonus plan, the individual employee’s efforts will not only increase, but they will magically align with the goals of management.

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Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams. Get exclusive leadership advice and more from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com.

    

Even though I write and speak as part of my career, and even council others on communication, I’ve been confused, nervous and speechless in the past when I’ve seen family or friends who were diagnosed with cancer or got other really bad health news.

Do I act upbeat or sympathetic? Do I ask questions or avoid the topic? Usually I say little and feel like I wasn’t supportive enough.

Letty Pogrebin, in a recent Wall Street Journal essay, gives 10 pointers for “how to be a friend to friend who’s sick.” The advice I found most helpful was:

Don’t give medical advice or medical information, unless asked. Your attempts to share everything you find on the Internet—from healing cystals to coffee bean enemas to innovative new medicines—may actually mislead, confuse or stress out your friend. Unless they ask for your help in this area, you should assume their doctors are giving them what they need.

Don’t minimize the bad news. The best thing you can do for your friend is to empathize and provide support. Don’t say things like, “I bet it will be fine” or “Don’t worry, someone at work had that cancer and they cured her fast.”

Don’t keep making it about you. If your friend just received a terrible diagnosis, they don’t need to hear about what a jerk your boss is, or how you have a terrible headache. Talking about you doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking about their own situation, and it can come off as unsympathetic.

Don’t pressure them to practice “positive thinking.” If they want to practice positive thinking, that’s fine, but don’t deny their condition or their own fears and sorrow by forcing positivity. As one hospice patient shared, “All I want…is the freedom to sulk and say goodbye.”

Do talk about normal things. After expressing empathy and support, it’s OK to talk about things other than their condition. If you would normally talk about the Yankee’s game or the latest episode of Mad Men, go for it. Just to use other topics to avoid talking about their condition.

Do let them set the agenda. If your friend wants to talk about other things than their illness, that’s fine, you should encourage the conversation. But it’s also fine if they just want to talk about it and cry. Don’t minimize their feelings by trying to change the subject or cheer them up. Just cry with them, hand them tissues, and give them a hug.

Finally, a great question for your sick friend is, “Tell me what I can do for you to make things easier—I’d really like to help.”

And then just listen.

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Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams. Get exclusive leadership advice and more from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com.

    

Every week I’m approached by someone looking for advice on either how to start a business, or how to sell their business. Each situation is unique but I definitely learned a lot in the process of selling a couple of my own, and being involved in the acquisition of about a dozen along the way, too. When I sold my first company, at age 30, I was so naive and trusting that I really couldn’t believe that there would be buyer-companies who would purposely mislead early in the process so they could get a cheaper price down the road. I was lucky in that I was treated fairly and got a price I actually thought was better than I deserved!

My friend and favorite consultant, Verne Harnish, has a new must-read article on this called, Selling the Business: Games Buyers Play. I encourage you to read the full article but the key takeaways that any seller has to remember is that it doesn’t cost a buyer anything to give you a non-binding term sheet. So as a strategy many buyer-companies will drop a term sheet quickly with a generous valuation (ie, offer price) knowing that it is all subject to change during “due diligence.”  And it’s this long, pain-in-the-ass due diligence process that inevitably uncovers “problems”.   The buyer may say things like, “Oh, we didn’t know such a large amount of revenue comes from one client, that’s risky. We didn’t know such a low percentage of revenue was recurring. We didn’t realize you didn’t have the latest software quality control modules installed, that will cost money. We interviewed your clients and there is a long list of things they say you can do better.” And on on. And with each item they “discover” they’ll say “No problem, but we’ll have to adjust the valuation.”

So why doesn’t the selling-entrepreneur just walk from the new deal. Well, some do. But most of have been dreaming of a stress-free life with new cars and boats, and are completely burned out by the sale process. They’ll just take the new lower offer to be done with the whole thing.

And in a worst case scenario, the buyer-company may just be a competitor, and you’ve just opened the kimono to your intellectual property, your client list and even your employee list.

Not all buyers will use these tactics, but they’re good to be aware of. As a seller, do yourself a favor and share as much information as possible before the term sheet so there are no surprises later, and have your due diligence materials ready to go on a moments notice so it’s a short process.

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Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams. Get exclusive leadership advice and more from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com.