What ‘Undercover Boss’ Teaches Us All
With far too many Americans out of work, and employers cutting another 20,000 last month, many people have come to blame chief executive officers for not having the pulse of their own companies. Undercover Boss has done nothing to change that impression.
In the first episode Larry O’Donnell, the CEO of Waste Management, poses as “Randy Lawrence,” a construction worker supposedly being filmed for a story about down-on-their-luck Americans in search of entry-level employment. O’Donnell, who earns nearly $3 million a year according to company filings, experiences the backbreaking work of the company’s frontline employees. He’s even fired during his seven-day stint after failing to fill a trash bag.
During his undercover week O’Donnell sees an employee stretched impossibly thin by performing eight different jobs and also finds that he can’t keep up sorting cardboard and recyclables. “I’m going to approach the whole way I do my job differently,” he says on the show. “I don’t want to be doing things that are going to cause disruption. The things I’ve learned could change the way we do business forever … and make things better for our frontline employees.”
His experience shows why leaders who focus solely on the balance sheet can’t succeed. If executives look only at numbers, they can’t make the most of honest feedback, recognize the limits of their knowledge or avoid repeating mistakes. When leaders see their shortcomings as a chance to learn and grow, they gain the ability–and credibility–to help others do the same.
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It will take a while to see if any of the leaders featured onUndercover Boss fulfill the promises they’ve made on the show, but that the program is on at all illustrates that CEOs are beginning to understand that they’ve got to change if they’re going to truly succeed in a postrecession world.
Read the full story on Forbes
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6 Lessons from Undercover Boss – Week 6
The following are the lessons learned by Dave Sabol from the GSI episode, as posted on his blog:
- Ideas for efficiency come from the floor, not the HQ, if you want to know how to make things work better, ask the employees – especially those that are new(er) not “so-called” experts.
- Attitude, and aptitude, needs to be the key qualities you look for in employees. A good attitude can be contagious, but so can a bad one. Hire wisely.
- Don’t get so focused on growth that you lose track of cultivating what allowed you to grow in the first place.
- Hold employee’s to a high standard, be understanding, but also realize when they are simply compromising company values. It takes just one bad employee to make a great company look not as good.
- Life is so much bigger than business. Don’t think that development has to be professional only, improving yourself at a personal level is just as beneficial. Always be looking at those around you to see what you can learn from them that can help you be a better person?
- Rewards and recognition don’t always have to be direct, you can support an employee by supporting something they feel is important. Get creative and acknowledge them individually. Sure it may be more work but it will also gain you a lot more loyalty. People notice when you care about things that are important to them.
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‘Undercover Boss’ teaches a valuable management lesson
MBA lesson coming from Business Matters:
At Hooters the CEO saw a manager abuse the serving staff, and at White Castle, the CEO observed the lack of teamwork that existed at many of the restaurants. Additionally, White Castle CEO David Rite saw how policies and procedures imposed by his top staff just did not work in practice.
The lesson is that for the CEO, your perception of the business is vastly different from that of your employees. Further, the problems you think staff is having are a whole lot different than their actual problems. In one case, a manager at Hooters thought he was doing a great job because he was making his sales numbers, but his staff despised him and morale was in decline.
It is amazing to me to see entrepreneurs who conduct their regular visits to various parts of their operation, see everything looking great and staff appearing so happy, then leave thinking everything is going well. However, management knew the owner was going to visit, so of course the place was cleaned up and everyone was on their best behavior.
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Local 7-Eleven official discusses reality show
NewSok talked to Jim Brown, CEO of Oklahoma’s 7-Eleven stores, which are separate from the Dallas-based chain, about his thought of the show:
“It resembled a one-hour commercial,” the chief executive said.
The two companies are remarkably dissimilar, he continued. At the end of the show, several employees were given opportunities within the company — in the marketing department or ownership of a new store — that they didn’t think were available.
“Our employees are taught about the opportunities on their very first day with the company,” Brown said. “We promote our operations management staff from within. The positions with the most responsibility are occupied by men and women who started with the company working in stores, including me.”
Read more: on NewSok.com
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Great-Grandson of White Castle Creator Featured on CBS ‘Undercover Boss’
- Image via Wikipedia
Why would the head of the uber-successful White Castle burger chain risk public humiliation by going on the hit CBS TV show Undercover Boss, and possibly bungling even the simplest tasks?
“I wanted to get an honest look at what happens on the front lines,” says Dave Rife, the oldest member of the fourth generation of the family that originated White Castle, the world’s first fast-food hamburger chain, started by Rife’s great grandfather back in 1921.
Among the things Rife learned? That the individual restaurants could be managed better — there were incidents where too many employees had nothing to do and just stood around idly. He learned that even the simplest tasks, like taking a drive-through order, can be difficult.
But most important, he learned that many Americans truly care about their employers and are happy and dedicated to their jobs. They told him some very poignant stories about their lives when he was undercover. One woman who had been with White Castle more than 20 years confessed that she was concerned about her weight and health, and said it was the happiest day of her life, when, after the reveal, Rife set up a healthy living program for her. Another employee who was interested in food science had the initiative to concoct a burger sauce and let undercover Rife sample it. His resourcefulness was later rewarded with a scholarship. And a very engaging and supportive manager was given financial support for the special needs of his beloved son. Viewers find it almost impossible to watch this show with dry eyes.
Read the full story on AOL.
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