[DISCLAIMER: I am not retained by Frank Sonnenberg or
receiving any compensation for recommending this book.]
Frank Sonnenberg has published four books and over three hundred articles. In 2011, Social Media Marketing Magazine (SMM) selected Sonnenberg as one of the top marketing authors in the world on Twitter (@FSonnenberg, @A_Conscience). In 2012, Trust Across America named him one of America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior. Industry Week named the first edition of his book, Managing with a Conscience, one of the Top 10 Business Books of the Year. The second edition of Managing with a Conscience: How to Improve Performance Through Integrity, Trust, and Commitment (tinyurl.com/7dv7upj) was released in November 2011.
KIMMEL: Why is your book a must-read for business leaders?
SONNENBERG: In the dog-eat-dog times of the past few decades, many believed that the only way to achieve success was to be unscrupulous. Acting like slumlords, corporations let their assets deteriorate by exploiting customers, mistreating employees, and squeezing suppliers. What they overlooked, however, was that their obsession with short-term results significantly damaged their company’s long-term performance as well as its competitiveness. Today, it is more critical than ever to put an end to these shortsighted tactics.
KIMMEL: What is the premise of your book?
SONNENBERG: In the twentieth century, a company measured success by the number of tangible assets (such as property, plant, and equipment) it posted on its balance sheet. In the Information Age, however, intangible assets rule the day. Soft assets such as trust, innovation, focus, speed, flexibility, relationships, loyalty, employee commitment, and the ability to adapt to change are some of the factors that determine success. Just because these intangibles are difficult to measure and quantify doesn’t mean they’re less important. The truth is, leaders who have a jaded view of intangible assets will never make the commitment required to reap their full potential.
KIMMEL: Can you provide me with concrete examples of how current management practices are hurting the bottom line?
SONNENBERG: Sure. Sometimes it seems like businesses can’t get out of their own way.
Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing? If you randomly selected 50 employees and asked them basic questions about the heart of your organization, would their answers be similar? For example, ask them: What is our organization’s mission? What are our core values? What factors are most important to our future success? What are our core competencies? How does someone get ahead in our organization? How do we differentiate ourselves from the competition? Unless your employees give similar answers to these most basic questions, waste, redundancies, inefficiencies, confusion, and anxiety are likely; the result—employees working at cross-purposes.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Just as pollution damages the environment, an air of fear is toxic to companies. When people believe they lack control over what happens to them, they become fearful. And whether their fears are real or imagined or arise over things that are concrete and immediate, such as loss of a job, or things that are more ephemeral and long term, such as personal embarrassment or damage to personal credibility or career mobility, the results are still the same: inaction, withdrawal, hiding mistakes, misrepresenting facts, or procrastination.
Take this wall down. Bloated corporate bureaucracies crush aspirations, stifle creativity, suppress ingenuity, and slow down responsiveness. Unfortunately, once bureaucracy develops, it is as difficult to control in business as crabgrass on a suburban lawn. It causes people to thirst for power, value personal ambition over team gain, and put paperwork before people. In bureaucracies, people choose the political solution rather than the best answer. Promotions are earned through political savvy rather than performance; the “show” becomes more important than content; and rumor becomes the primary form of communication. This causes organizations to focus inward and lose touch with reality. Do you want more examples, Barbara? How much time do you have?
KIMMEL: Your book introduces a powerful prescription for business. How do people manage with a conscience?
SONNENBERG: Good question, Barbara. Here are some examples:
Talk is cheap. Having integrity means sticking to your principles, no matter what. It means making sure that your actions are consistent with your words. If it’s the last day of the sales month, and the numbers look lousy, are employees still encouraged to do what is in the best interests of the customer or are they asked to sell something for immediate gain? Are managers rewarded for the development of their people as well as for the bottom line? Is a promise made to a customer kept, even though circumstances have changed in such a way that the agreement is now less profitable? The answers to these questions will tell you whether your company values principled behavior over short-term business gain.
People live up or down to your expectations. Companies that search for the best and brightest people must learn that their efforts shouldn’t end when those people join the organization. To retain these employees, companies should invest heavily in them, both personally and professionally. Today, employees demand trust and respect. They want their input solicited, their strengths utilized, and their contributions valued. Furthermore, they want and should be given challenging new responsibilities that stretch their potential. The opposite is also true: Employees who feel like helpless drones perform that way.
Communication isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. Management must accept responsibility for fostering an open and honest environment. This requires letting go, unlearning many management practices of the past. But that is not easy, and it does not happen quickly. It requires managers to leave behind many skills, sources of status and power, and implicit assumptions about the workplace. In the past, leaders assumed the role of controlling the information employees needed to make day-to-day decisions. Leaders who continue along that path will become frustrated as they lose the confidence of employees whose desire for timely, customized information is not satisfied. Leaders must view communication as an avenue to release the creative genius of an organization, not as a bothersome chore. After all, communication acts as a powerful agent of change, a source of continuous improvement, and a catalyst for moving the organization forward.
Lifetime customer relationships. Customers must not be viewed as isolated transactions but rather as the potential lifelong relationship that they represent. Every customer deserves to be treated as your organization’s only client. Companies cannot afford to spend the time and effort that it takes to develop new business only to lose customers shortly thereafter. In fact, companies should be so outraged when they lose an existing customer that they immediately search for ways to improve themselves so that it never happens again. Think about the effort of bringing in new customers; the way they are courted; how you accommodate their every whim. Then, when they become customers, the honeymoon ends. Think about your major customers. When they call, everything else is dropped; when they make suggestions, everyone listens; and when they need something done, everyone responds. Now think about all your other customers. We can’t accommodate them because it’s against company policy; we don’t listen to their suggestions because we know better than they do; we can’t take their calls because we’re in meetings; everything that takes a little extra effort is a bother.
KIMMEL: Are you currently doing any other writing?
SONNENBERG: I launched a new blog a little over a year ago: www.franksonnenbergonline.com. My mission is to spur conversation about the urgent need to reawaken personal values and personal responsibility.
KIMMEL: We’ll have to have you back to talk about the new trust model that you introduced in your book.
Thanks, Frank.
Do you have questions or comments pertaining to this interview. Don’t hesitate to leave comments.
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