“Small successes can in themselves boost the morale of anyone in an organization
who might be feeling left out." — Rudolph W. Giuliani
Rudolph W. Giuliani does not need me to promote his book, “Leadership,” or his appearance tomorrow (Tuesday, April 8) at Business Expo 2003 at the Rhode Island Convention Center.
But I’m going to.
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The former mayor of New York City, Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 2001, is scheduled to deliver the event’s keynote address at 11 a.m. from the hall’s Keynote Address Arena.
Seating is on a first come, first served basis – so you may want to get there early. Because of the anticipated size of the crowd, Giuliani’s speech will also broadcast on television screens throughout the Convention Center.
Giuliani’s 380-page book is in fact a good read. The first chapter brings you eerily close to that fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001 and the difficult days that followed. The descriptions are disturbing, though they are balanced by the examples of courage and heroism that so many people displayed that day.
The anecdotes in “Leadership” are real life. And while the Republican Giuliani clearly casts a politically partisan figure, he also comes across as a diplomat who has mastered the art of working with others.
I suspect that his address tomorrow morning will be well worth your time. He is expected to discuss the lessons in leadership that came to fruition in the weeks and months after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
He will also discuss what it was that enabled him to turn around New York City’s fortunes so dramatically during his eight-year run as mayor.
There are simple lessons in the book that could easily be translated to your business (whether it is a huge operation or a mom and pop shop), your nonprofit organization, your classroom – or even your home.
One theme that runs through “Leadership” is that of attending to the little things. Those things that may not seem so significant. Doing so often pays big dividends, Giuliani suggests.
He uses several anecdotes to illustrate that point, but none better than his effort to combat a serious problem – one that was turning away tourists and bolstering the perception that New York City was a dangerous and dirty place to visit.
Upon taking office in January of 1994, Giuliani was determined to reverse the city’s out-of-control crime rate.
Through two terms in office, his efforts met with astonishing success. In 1993, the year prior to Giuliani’s first in office, New York City registered 1,946 murders. In 1994, the number was reduced by 20 percent – to 1,561. By 2001, there were 642 murders in New York City, a 67 percent reduction in eight years.
But as Giuliani explains, solving a series of little problems set the tone solving the bigger ones.
As for crime, he started by banishing the “squeegee men.”
If you have driven into New York City you have probably encountered them. They approach your car while it is stopped in traffic or at a red light, spray your windshield and then wipe it down with a rag or “squeegee.”
Then they come around to the driver’s side window and request payment for “services rendered.” Refuse to pay and you’d likely get an obscenity-laced response. Your car might receive a swift kick to the door.
The new mayor didn’t find this practice at all amusing. He called his police commissioner and told him to work on the problem. At first, Giuliani was told that charging the “squeegee men” would be difficult if they weren’t directly threatening drivers. But he didn’t give up. He came up with the idea of charging them with jaywalking. It worked. The “squeegee men” have been mostly banished.
You may not have “squeegee men” pestering your workers as they pull into the parking lot of your company.
But I bet there are small things that drag on the morale of your employees. Maybe it is a lack of real communication. An employee has what he or she thinks is a valuable idea, but not the sense that anyone would be willing to give it any consideration. Or maybe it is the physical surroundings of the office, an uncomfortable chair or the outdated computer that shuts down on the busiest of days.
And those may not seem like big things, but maybe they cause a solid employee to peruse the want ads on Sunday or return a phone call from a friend who has heard about a job that might make a good fit.
Giuliani got a lot of mileage out of listening to others and addressing the little things. You ought to read his book. Maybe catch his speech tomorrow.
And above all, sweat the small stuff.
