3 lessons for leaders from the toxic culture of The Tonight Show

Jimmy Fallon finally gets it: culture matters.

On September 7, 2023, Rolling Stone issued this report about The Tonight Show, headed by Fallon:

Chaos, Comedy, and ‘Crying Rooms’: Inside Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’

The report referred to experiences like...
💥 Show staff joked about killing themselves because of how they are treated
💥 They cry in the guest dressing rooms so often, they refer to the rooms as "crying rooms"
💥 High turnover of showrunners (the production executive) because of Fallon's erratic behavior

On the show, in other media, and on SNL, Fallon is an affable guy. He has a positive public reputation and was surprised by the results of the report.

The day the report was published, Fallon and Chris Miller, current showrunner, had a call with all employees. Fallon apologized to staff for the show's unhealthy environment.

Fallon and Miller indicate they want an inclusive, fun environment. It sounds like they get it and will seek to improve.

Here's what stood out to me in the Rolling Stone article:

Rolling Stone contacted more than 80 The Tonight Show employees, past and present, for the study of The Tonight Show. Not one spoke on the record or said anything positive about working on The Tonight Show.

Not a single one.
Out of 80.

None of the nine showrunners since 2014 would comment on the record either. Not one of them said anything positive about Fallon.

So what does this have to do with business leaders?

Business leaders and owners, here are a few things to learn from this:

◼️ Fix problems early. Fallon’s and the show's have been going on for 14 years. It would have been more efficient to fix these issues before it took a humiliating report full of dirty laundry.

◼️ Set high standards for all and live them. It is confusing when the boss gets away with treating people differently than you would allow others. Or, when the best biz dev person gets to treat people poorly because they bring in revenue. The mental gymnastics required of staff to accommodate for the incongruent standards leads to distrust, bur out, and turnover.

◼️ Assess your culture now. Here is a quick way to learn what your employees think: a word cloud. Invite your employees to share the seven words they would use to describe your company. The words will give a glimpse into what is happening and whether it aligns with what you think and want.

Stay on top of your company's culture before high turnover, poor behavior, or rumors prompt an external investigation. How would it serve your company to be in Rolling Stone like Fallon's show?

Don't assume everything is fine unless you hear about it.

Culture matters, and it will damage your company and reputation if you take it for granted. The good news, however, is that it also contributes to company success.

If you need help, let us know. We can help you nourish your culture so it builds your revenue, retention, and reputation.

Are you All-In or not?

One of the keynotes I share is The All-In Way: 5 Strategies to High Performance in Life and Leadership. The presentation includes the five strategies, along with lots of stories and examples of companies and people who are All-In or out.

One of the All-In examples is Dr. Michael Ackerman, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatric Cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. If you’ve been part of The All-In Way, you may remember Dr. Ackerman’s story and his treatment of my nieces and nephews.

Early in his career, he was preparing an eight-year old girl from Michigan for a heart transplant, and she questioned him about surviving the surgery. He said she would survive and he would dance with her at her high school prom. Ten years later, her mother got in touch with Dr. Ackerman when it was time for her daughter’s prom.

Ten years later?! Don’t you think the mother would have understood if he explained his busy schedule? After all, by then, he was a well-known cardiologist with a schedule full of patients, transplants, teaching, and speaking events.

Dr. Ackerman remembered the promise he made to the little girl, and he made the trip to Michigan for the prom. The healthy patient and her cardiologist shared a dance to Rascal Flatts' Bless the Broken Road. After the dance, the young lady’s father drove the doctor five hours to the Detroit airport so he could catch a flight to Florida where he had a speaking engagement the next day.

Dr. Ackerman showed up.

He kept his word.

He lives and leads All-In, and he has the reputation to match.

Last month, LeBron James’s son, a freshman at USC, had a cardiac arrest during a basketball workout. Bronny was taken care of by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and recovered. The family released an update saying Bronny has a treatable congenital heart defect just this past weekend.

The statement said Bronny had follow-up evaluations at the Mayo Clinic led by Dr. Ackerman and at the Atlantic Health/Morristown Medical Center. (Source: Sports Illustrated)

LeBron James could take his son to any cardiologist anywhere in the whole world.

He took his son to Dr. Ackerman.

💥 It’s not about dancing at the prom. It’s about keeping your word. Even when you’re busy.

💥 It’s not about platitudes like, “Let me know if you need anything.” It’s about showing up with spaghetti dinner the fifth week after the funeral when the freezer is empty of casseroles. It’s about showing up for collaborations and commitments because you said you would.

💥 It’s not about what everyone else does. It’s about your standard of excellence.

A high standard of excellence for skill and care is ideal for a cardiologist, right?

Is less acceptable in your job?

It’s not about the job, it’s about you. It’s about what you choose as your own standard. You set the standard of excellence high because that’s who you are, not because that’s what you get paid or that’s what the boss requires. Because who you are.

Do not lower your standard for your own behavior because people around you have low standards. Or because some out-of-touch geezer boss gets a bonus off your work. Keep your standards where you want them to be because that is who you are.

You’re All-In or not.

Choose what All-In means based on who you are.

Live and lead accordingly, and you will have a more fulfilling life.

Goal-setting (and goal-getting!) with less agony and more PEP

Goal-setting is one of my favorite activities. It ranks right up there with goal-getting.

I love the whole detailed, thoughtful process of narrowing the focus, defining the actions, selecting milestones, and more. Sometimes, it takes hours to plan for big goals. It could start with brainstorming then focusing over coffee, then fine-tuning a day or two later.

Picturing the process, learning, and accomplishments along the way toward a big goal excites me.

If you’ve grabbed My Fulfilling Life workbook, you’ve seen the excitement.

Maybe you get excited about goals too?

It excites me most of the time. Sometimes, the whole detailed process can be overwhelming.

I realized recently that the process can make mountains out of molehills. The fact is, some goals do not need to be thought out for hours. They make sense, the steps are intuitive, and you can just go.

Sometimes, in fact, most of the time, goals can take just a few minutes with PEP: Plan, Envision, and Pursue.

⚫ Plan: anticipate the steps and immediate obstacles.

⚫ Envision: picture the immediate first steps.

⚫ Pursue: take the first step.

Don’t over-analyze to the point of trying to control minutia.

For example, when packing for a trip recently, the goal was to be prepared for events on the trip. I relied on a Packing List, which included an umbrella. Instead of just tossing an umbrella in the suitcase, I looked up the weather at the travel locations. It only took a few minutes, but was it really necessary? No. It took longer to do that than toss the umbrella into the suitcase. In fact, why not just keep an umbrella in the suitcase so it requires no thought at all?

Simplify as much as possible so the focus can be on the elements of the trip that are different—like on-site transportation and scheduling meetings.

Simplify as much as possible.

Another goal-setting example is the goal to build my network. Many of you are business owners and/or business development folks, so you probably have the same goal. We could analyze it for hours. Or, we could keep it simple by reflecting on what we already know about networking, what worked pre-pandemic, and what we want to build now.

Instead, let’s use this method:

1.      Desired state: One desire is to expand my network of women-owned businesses by 100 by December 31, 2023.

2.      Current state: Opportunities coming up include NAWBO KC breakfasts and the National NAWBO Conference.

3.      Steps:

a.      Initiate a LinkedIn connection with members of NAWBO KC. As the new president of the chapter, it makes sense for me to reach out.

b.      Invite new connections to meet for coffee after upcoming NAWBO KC breakfasts.

c.      Connect with people I meet at the NAWBO National conference. (That’s likely to be over 100 in itself!)

4.      Obstacles/Solutions

a.      Time to send invitations: Solution: block time after each breakfast and during the conference.

b.      Remember to invite connections to meet for coffee. Solution: block time to review invitation list bi-weekly.

5.      First Action: Block the time on the calendar.

There could be ten more steps listed, with metrics for each step. But, would those help me achieve the goal? Not in the case of increasing my network.

Every goal does not need to be analyzed to the n’th degree. Here are some goals which can be set quicker, using the simplified method:

• You already know the goal well

• You have done it in the past

• You know why you want to achieve it

• You are ready to start

What else comes to mind for you? Decide which goals need to be more thoroughly thought out than others.

Keep your process as simple as possible, and you’re more likely to follow through and accomplish even more in less time.

The wisdom of a mid-year Culture Assessment

Should you conduct a mid-year company culture assessment?

Yes!

Before you groan thinking it’s too disruptive, ponder these reasons for a mid-year company culture assessment.

A mid-year culture assessment can help you...
💥 Handle simmering issues before they boil into gigantic problems. Think of the time, money, and emotional capital saved by figuring it out early!

💥 Recognize new needs your employees and customers have because things change in this dynamic world we live in. You can’t serve what you don’t see. If you see their new need, you can serve them better than anyone else! How would that impact retention of employees? Of customers?

💥 Get better! Continuous improvement on purpose will help operations now so you keep getting better all year.

💥 Course correct before expending resources on strategies that are not working. After all, your 2023 strategic plan was set more than seven months ago, right? A lot has happened since then. Face the facts, and course correct now.

💥 Capitalize on hew opportunities that weren't available seven months ago. Your competitors might not be on them yet, so your ability to jump will give you an advantage.

Of course, those reasons would be useful for company leaders. Right?

But would they be reasons for ANYONE to want to assess their employer's culture?

Would anyone else benefit from knowing how their company responds to simmering issues, new employee and customer needs, continuous improvement, strategic course miscues, and new opportunities?

Would it be in the best interest of your own career to assess those things? And more?

It would be wise to assess for yourself rather than cross your fingers and hope the company assesses, then tells you the outcomes and actions they will take.

That would be marvelous, and many companies will do that; however, you do not need to wait for them to do it. You can assess too.

We will talk about why and how in this month's Culture Matters Conversation.

#CultureMatters is tomorrow, July 21, 2023.

The link to register is below. It's free to join, but sign up to get the link to join.

❗All are welcome because culture matters to everyone, and everyone matters to culture❗

#purposedriven #profitandpurpose #leadershipnow #nodinosaurs #influence #cultureassessment

Abundance or scarcity: pick one

They say you are what you think. “They” because that quote is attributed to several people from Buddha to Emerson to Oprah. Today, Kristin Herman said something similar. In our Navigate Leadership conversation, Kristin  said, “What you think about expands.” (You can see the full interview here.)

We talked for about 45 minutes about living in alignment with values and how that takes knowing one’s values—and knowing one’s value.

Our conversation reminded me of something I did this morning, and it made me wonder whether I have a scarcity mindset.

This morning, as the photo shows, I scrolled the toothpaste tube with my toothbrush to move the toothpaste toward the top of the tube. The intention was to gain access to all of the toothpaste over these next few days before opening a new tube of toothpaste.

Fingers crossed others have done the same. Anyone?!

Uh oh! Do I have a scarcity mindset?! Does everyone who squeezes the last drop of toothpaste have a scarcity mindset? Are we all doomed to pitiful lives of limited opportunities?

Nah. I don’t think our miserly use of toothpaste indicates we’re doomed.

There is a difference between the scarcity mindset and being reasonable and responsible with one’s resources. Using the full toothpaste is reasonable and responsible.

On the other hand, last week, when too much toothpaste accidentally came out, and I tried to get it back into the tube, that was unreasonable.

Taking care of one’s resources, including time, energy, and emotional capacity, is reasonable and responsible. Setting boundaries is not part of the scarcity mindset.

For a company, resource allocation is important too. Budgets, financial planning, talent and team makeup, goal setting, and time commitments matter to successful companies. That doesn’t mean they are doomed. It means they are being reasonable and responsible.

Understanding all of that enables leaders to encourage innovation and to take smart risks. It allows some leaders to move forward faster when the risks don’t pan out exactly as intended, while others wallow and damage their teams and careers.

Pay attention to your actions and words over the next few days.

When you catch yourself doing things like the toothpaste tube scroll activity, check yourself. Are you behaving with an abundance or scarcity mindset? Reflect to see which you live by and how it’s influencing those around you. How is it working for you?

“They” say it will impact the success of your life. They say some other good stuff too. Ponder some wise words below.