Perpetuating the Cycle

Prior to me starting at that manufacturing facility in early 1996, and for the first fifteen years I worked there, one of the largest and most reliable sources for identifying new candidates was a referral from a senior employee. As you can likely imagine, the referrals from the best employees dried up with several new managers on staff mirroring the behavior of the engineering manager I described before. The folks who had previously been some of the most trusted referral sources no longer wanted to bring people they cared about into that atmosphere and the folks who were still willing to refer others they knew weren’t necessarily ones with outstanding credibility. The Law of Magnetism was working double time! A management team made up primarily of individuals with no real ties to the area and unwilling to develop connections with the workforce, looking more at how they could position themselves for the next rung on their career ladder, was attracting far more candidates who were only interested in immediate compensation rather than the folks who wanted to be part of a historically reputable culture.

Through the time I left the organization in late 2014, order fill (the percentage of orders shipped to customers from each business unit) was one of the primary metrics discussed in daily production meetings. If that number fell below 95% in any business unit, it was considered an all-hands-on-deck emergency - and rightfully so! Any business that fails to meet customer demands all but joins their competitors’ marketing teams. In talking with friends still with that company several years later, I learned that it had become common for the order fill rate to be as low as 75% on any given day.

How that handful of new managers modeled their own core values, rather than aligning with the values the workforce had rallied around for years leading up to that, had an almost immediate impact on the discretionary effort their direct reports were willing to contribute to go above and beyond the call of duty; and in some cases, just to meet normal expectations. The lack of quality candidates being referred by our most trusted team members soon made staffing a much more challenging process. Over time, the reputation that management team became known for in the community resulted in that company being a place people applied when they couldn’t get a job anywhere else, despite it continuing to offer one of the best overall compensation packages in the area. 

The challenges in recruiting and drop in discretionary effort, leading to such low order fill rates, contributed to the loss of several large accounts and how the entire company was viewed on Wall Street. None of this occurred right away, but each piece impacted the other, perpetuating the cycle. How we, as leaders in our respective organizations, model the values that matter the most to us will gradually show up throughout our teams, soon after for the customers we serve, and eventually for everyone else who knows anything about us - regardless of the message we share in our commercials or on social media…

While I’ve detailed a company with a once strong reputation that spiraled downward when a group of new managers chose not to exemplify the longstanding values it had been built upon, the inverse has just as much potential for impacting results. Either way, be it through living out our core company values each day or by preaching one thing while doing another, our reputations will eventually reflect our behavior. As leaders, it’s critical that we’re intentional about walking the right walk, recognizing others who do the same, and addressing issues that don’t align with our values - and doing all of that consistently. We’ll look at that next.