Improving Visits (#177)
The General landed in a flurry of dust and rocks at the dusty outpost in the mountains of Afghanistan. The Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant met him on the landing zone and rendered salutes as he got out of the Blackhawk.
Even before the helicopter had left, the General was walking around, shaking hands, climbing into guard towers, and pointing out shortcomings. After compiling a list of a dozen things to fix, the Platoon Leader steered the General into their cramped Tactical Operations Center. The Platoon Leader and Squad Leaders used PowerPoint slides to give a quick update on their status, the situation in the villages around the outpost, and the performance of the Afghan Army. At several points during the briefing, the General, like he did at every outpost, made statements about “Clear, Hold, and Build,” “enabling our Afghanistan partners,” and “protect the population.” As the last slide came up, the General stood up, fished several coins from his pocket, and presented them to the squad leaders with a hearty handshake. Within moments the Blackhawk arrived and the General departed in a cloud of dust to visit the next outpost.
The Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant looked at each other and just shook their heads. “That went smashingly. Let’s hope he doesn’t make it back here for another six months.” the Platoon Sergeant said to the Platoon Leader.
As he flew up the valley, the General thought the visit went well — he had inspected the outpost, inspired the group by his mere presence, and left with a better idea about this corner of Afghanistan. The Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant had other ideas. They weren’t especially inspired after working for a week to get ready. Receiving a list of a dozen things to fix at the end of an unresponsive supply system and a unsupportive bureaucracy didn’t help matters.
Who hasn’t experienced a visit like the whirlwind the outpost in Afghanistan went through? I know I have and suspect you have too whether you are in the military or in corporate America.
Visits are a ubiquitous part of every leaders job. During my time in the Army and now in the corporate arena I have watched and performed literally thousands of visits — generals visiting brigades for the latest update on the situation, brigade commanders visiting training, corporate leaders visiting stores, and managers visiting factories. The picture that leads off this post is a picture of one of the most famous visits ever — General Dwight D. Eisenhower visiting the paratroopers of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment the night before the parachute jump into Normandy for D-Day.
Most leaders are familiar with the old cliché: "You must inspect what you expect." First of all, what does this even mean? This cliche’ tells us that if you are expecting a certain outcome, you need to check to make sure the outcome actually happened. For example, if you expect a clean store, you need to go around the store and give it a hard look to make sure it has been done. The bottom line is that you can’t take anything for granted.
Many visits are just that — an opportunity to inspect a location and make sure that it is meeting or exceeding the expected standards. Yet visits should not only be an inspection, but typically try to achieve one or more other goals — get a better understanding of that part of the organization, recognize excellence within that part of the organization, communicate your or the corporate message, and, most importantly for corporate leaders, help that part of the organization improve its bottom line.
With limited travel and hybrid work, visits are even more important now. If you are a leader and conduct visits, I believe that there are some fundamental ways to take your visit to the next level. Here are four big ones:
Purpose
Make sure everyone understands the purpose of the visit. Of course, I am a big fan of making sure the site leader and his or her team understand the purpose or the why of the visit. Is it a P&L review? Is it an opportunity to recognize excellence? Is it an inspection? Is it a combination of all three? Make sure everyone understands the purpose of the visit prior to it happening.
Be Value Added
Most visits consist of a leader showing up, walking around, shaking a few hands, and departing. Nothing changes at the site afterwards. As the leader and visitor (battalion commander or brigade commander) I wanted to make sure my visits were seen as value added to the unit being visited. It is a challenge to not be seen by that part of the team as another “dog and pony show” that didn’t make any measurable impact to their situation. The unit I was visiting was part of the team and I felt I had the responsibility to take on tasks that the unit needed help with. My role was to help them fight the bureaucracy.
So on your next visit, offer to take on one project with corporate that the site hasn’t had any success at accomplishing. Track the task and relentlessly follow up with corporate and the site. You may not make any more progress than the site did, but the help from the boss will be appreciated.
Tailored Communications
During visits leaders will interact with people two, three, or four levels down from them. It is a great opportunity to reiterate a message of yours or the corporate message. But, you have to think this through the message prior to the visit — what message do I need to make sure this part of the team needs to hear? What will resonate? What won’t?
Developing a Visit System
If you are in a corporate role and have 100 stores under your supervision, visits get complicated extremely quickly. You probably visit the store once or twice a year at best. Thinking through your “visit system” is an important exercise and one that can pay huge dividends for you as a leader and your stores. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you develop a visit system:
Have you published what you will routinely inspect or discuss during your visits? Do your direct reports and their direct reports “know the answer to the test?”
How do you capture notes during the visit? Unlike the Army, most corporate leaders don’t have an entourage to take notes for them. Since most visits include some walking around, are you writing down notes in a notebook, on a phone, or on 3x5 cards? Do you ask the site leader to capture notes (Note: I don’t recommend this approach)? How do you then take those notes and inject them into your system for action?
How do you capture the best things that are going on in the organization you are visiting? How do you share these best practices with the rest of the team?
How are you capturing the most important things that need to be improved? A running list of the top 3 things that each store needs to work on can help you see trends at the grass-roots level and can help you understand what might need changed in the corporate system.
Be Value Added — How are you capturing the items you are going to take on to help the store, the unit, or the organization you are visiting? (Hint: If you have more than 10 stores more than 1-2 items are the most you can stay on top of and keep following up on.)
Finally, what I think is the most important question for business leaders — How is your visit helping the bottom line? How are you and your visit helping the store improve its sales? How are you and your visit helping the factory improve its production? What will help move the needle for this part of the business? It may only be 1% but that 1% compounded over the days, weeks, and months until the next visit can pay huge dividends.
As a leader, thinking through your visit system can pay huge dividends in increasing the impact and effectiveness of your visits.
Conclusion
Go on the offense and improve your visits by making sure everyone understands the purpose of the visit, tailoring your communications, being value added, and building your visit system both now and during 2022.