Dana was a talented leader. He worked for an organization that didn’t practice three leadership principles that he believed in: candor, high expectations and walking around catching people doing things right.

He had benefited from any number of first-rate leadership learning experiences, two previous bosses who had groomed him for a bright future in leadership and three overlapping mentors who had shaped and influenced his life in remarkable ways. His first mentor was a leader he met while in high school. Another he met, when he was in his 20’s, at a bank where he was a team leader.  The third influenced him just as he hit 30. Sometimes he mentally nicknamed them as Ten, Twenty and Thirty. He was 33 now.

Shortly after joining Wheeler’s he knew he had made a mistake. The recruiter, Nicky, had promised him a car as an employee perk. Later, he learned the car was available but only after attaining the branch manager title. He had that title now but still he didn’t like being deceived. He had to progress through three steps to become a branch manager: management trainee, management associate and management colleague. Dana put up with the game playing because he wanted his resume to say branch manager when he departed rather than one of the mediocre positions it took to get there. And of course since Wheeler’s had such high turnover it wasn’t long before they needed him and his talents in the role of branch manager.

Dana managed one of Wheeler’s suburban locations. In fact, it was the busiest location in the metropolitan area other than the airport. For Dana, leading the branch was pretty straightforward. There was a lot of pressure to make sales but since Dana was good with people and perceived as credible his numbers were good.

Most of the other branch managers, and many of the up and coming branch managers – those with the mediocre titles – were still trying to deceive the customer into buying the insurance known as a Loss Damage Waiver or LDW. Dana knew that wouldn’t build long term customer loyalty. Instead he relied on another hack to make the numbers.

SUV’s were in high demand by many customers, especially those that resided in his affluent suburban area. Wheeler’s, unbeknownst to most of the other employees, was struggling financially. So instead of buying a sufficient number of SUV’s to meet demand they purchased cheaper, traditional cars and tried to substitute the customer into a sedan, or even a compact vehicle. They were downgrading the customer into something that wasn’t really desired.  

Dana took the opposite strategy. He hacked the system so he was putting the customer who wanted an SUV into the vehicle of their choice. Dana had learned how to play the game and knew how to manage fleet so that he had plenty of SUV’s. When a customer requested an SUV, he didn’t make a reservation for one. Instead, he typically made the reservation for a compact car and then would “upsell” to an SUV in the reservations system. It was something the customer wanted and expected to pay for anyway. The customer was simply unaware of how Dana manipulated the computer.

Dana wasn’t deceiving the customer, he was hacking the system. Still, as someone who valued candor this rubbed Dana the wrong way, but it was company-wide practice for those in the know. The key for Dana was not to deceive the customer; he didn’t. For Wheeler’s he was a successful branch manager. When Dana was candid with himself he knew that he couldn’t stomach this kind of game playing for too much longer. And he suspected that Wheeler’s wouldn’t be around for too much longer anyway. He was looking for another place to land. Now that he had the right title on his resume he’d exit soon.

In the meantime, Dana grabbed some coffee and began to walk around. For the next 30 – 60 minutes his goal was to specifically focus on catching his people doing things right. And he did. He observed their behavior and told them about specific things they were doing well. He avoided saying, “Next time do better by doing it this way.” And he tried to avoid the generic and useless phrase, “Good job.”

Cambridge, one of the newest management trainees, walked out from behind the counter to the entry door and greeted each new arriving customer with a smile, a handshake and a warm greeting. It was an excellent customer tactic that Dana wished more people would do. When Cambridge had a moment without customers around, Dana said, “Cambridge, I’m impressed with the way you are greeting the customer. You are doing this just right. Keep the great smiles a-coming.”

Cambridge expressed his appreciation for the compliment. They talked briefly about other business but Dana made sure not mention any other performance issue because he wanted to end the transaction with Cambridge remembering Dana’s positive contact. Dana wasn’t afraid to coach using his knack for candor, but he knew that walking around catching people doing things right was one of the most powerful things a leader could do.

For Discussion or Reflection:

Do you routinely practice three leadership principles that you believed in such as candor, high expectations and walking around catching people doing things right? Which one of these three do you most need to polish for an even more significant leadership edge?

What is dysfunctional about your workplace that requires you to “hack” the system so that you achieve success? If you are not currently hacking the system, is there something that you could ethically do?

What gets in the way of managers who simply don’t walk around catching people doing things right? In what ways does the simple behavior of walking around catching people doing things right assist in motivation?

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