What biz leaders can learn from astronauts

By Shelley DuBois, writer

Former astronaut Jeffrey Ashby discusses what it takes to make last-minute judgment calls in space and building a solid team.

 

FORTUNE -- The corner office can be a high-pressure environment, but imagine calling the shots in a cramped shuttle in orbit 100 kilometers above the planet.
Jeffrey Ashby made some split-second decisions while space-sick and weightless. He was commander of the shuttle Atlantis on its 2002 mission to bring equipment to the International Space Station. He made the tough choice to manually dock Atlantis to the Space Station, bucking protocol, when he feared the mission might fail.

Yet he felt confident, he says, because of the chemistry he built with his team during the nine months prior to launch. Ashby insisted that his group complete a grueling outdoor course with National Outdoor Leadership School in southeastern Utah's desolate canyon country.

Ashby's resume reads like the dreams of a third-grader: he flew jets in the Navy and commanded a squadron of fighter pilots before he became an astronaut. He's seen our planet from space three times. For now, the career of 58-year-old Ashby has taken a more terrestrial turn. Ashby is the Chief of Mission Assurance for Blue Origin, a company that aims to make commercial space flight affordable. Ashby talked to Fortune about leadership in the Final Frontier at a recent conference at the Wharton School.

Fortune: You don't seem to be afraid of leading in life-threatening situations. So, what scares you?

Jeffrey Ashby: A lot of people ask if I'm afraid during a launch. My stock answer is, not of dying, because you've sort of accepted your destiny at that point, but I am afraid of making a mistake that will either cost lives or cost the mission. Alan Shepard started a tradition where, on the way up to the launch pad, the astronauts recite the astronaut prayer, which is, "Please God, don't let us screw this up."

That is a very team-oriented philosophy to apply in a scary situation.

Oh. I mean, if you put yourself above the cause and your team, you will eventually fail. I see leaders who are screamers, who lead by fear, and that's all ego-driven. You have to be selfless to be a truly great leader. That kind of leader, people will follow, and even if they don't agree with decisions, they'll disagree and commit.

Don't the problems that business leaders face from the safety of their offices seem relatively minor?

No. We all have different sets of talents. I happen to be pretty good at flying off of aircraft carriers and, I like to think, flying shuttles.

Those are inherently more badass than most talents.

Well, they certainly look badass on paper, but you know, I look at my resume, and I'm proud of what I've done, but also recognize that there's a lot of things that I'm not the best person to do. Leaders need to recognize where their strengths and weaknesses are, and where the weaknesses are, they really want active followers to step up and help cover them.

For example, Pam [Melroy] and I were co-leaders one day in the canyons. I got dehydrated. I looked at her, and I said, 'Pam, I feel really bad. You need to be the leader until I can regroup.' Of course, Pam didn't bat an eye. That was a very powerful lesson for me. For a man especially, for a fighter pilot more so. But what a great lesson, to swallow my pride and see how well it comes out, and go, 'Man, maybe I should do that more often.'

You've spoken about how Melroy helped in the crucial decision aboard the Atlantis to manually dock the spaceship at the International Space Station. How did your crew work together?

They key was that she knew me and could tell that I was vacillating. The obvious choice was to do what we were trained to do. She knew it was my decision, and so did every person on that crew. They all fed me information to let me know a) we had enough capability on the crew to pull off a manual rendezvous and b) that it was okay with them. I mean, that is powerful. And it came from a team that had been built only nine months before.

Will you fly again?

I will, but in a new private space vehicle. I'm telling everyone that I'm number one to fly at the little company I work at, and I won't go unless I think it's safe. I'm there to represent the safety of the human beings, so no one else should fly until I do.

Why does space travel matter to humankind?

I think, and this is my personal belief now, that space is written in our DNA as a survival mechanism. It can ignite passion in us when properly incited. I think that we see that passion ebb and flow in society and individuals as they go through their lives and they have other priorities.

Will I go to space?

I would say with near certainty, yes. You'll fly some day. What you should strive for -- because the suborbital thing is easy for you, right? -- is an orbital flight. First of all, you're two to three times as high. You're going to sit there and cross over lines of thunderstorms and the lights of cities and plumes of the Amazon flowing into the ocean. You'll see the Rocky Mountains as a series of tiny little bumps on the surface of the earth. And you'll see the great forests as little strips of green. You'll look at the atmosphere, this thin little band, and you'll say, 'all of human kind lives in that little band?' And you'll think. Wow. First, we better take care of that little band, and second of all, we better have an out. You will be astounded at the fragility of humankind. Life is clinging to the surface of this earth like a little plant would cling to a cliff side in a tiny bit of dirt.

Maybe if we sent our CEOs into orbit, they would put everything in perspective and stop making ego-driven mistakes.

(Laughs) I doubt it.

 

 

Top Level Communications Can Improve Trust, Performance in Companies

The IABC World Conference this week heard from the winner of the IABC 2012 Excellence in Communication Leadership (EXCEL) Award, Irene Lewis, president and CEO of SAIT Polytechnic, Canada’s first publicly funded polytechnic institute.
No stranger to recognition, Lewis was named one of Canada’s 100 most powerful women in 2010. She discussed the transformation of SAIT under her leadership from a “trade school on the hill” in crumbling disrepair with a disengaged workforce to a majestic, award-winning institution that is globally recognized and has received accolades as a top employer in Canada.

Lewis credited communications as a key part of that transformation, emphasizing the role of the CEO in carrying that out. The best things a leader can do are:

• Listen closely and look people in eye.
• Be authentic and lead from the heart.
• Tell and reinforce the organization’s story.
• Acknowledge hard work, never forget to say thanks and give credit where it’s due.

She challenged audience members to create communications structures that help leaders make authentic personal connections and establish relationships. She did this when she arrived at SAIT, when trust was at an all-time low. She called it her “conversation, connection and collaboration” stage, asking employees three simple questions:

• What’s working well?
• What’s not working well?
• How can we fix it?

She read every reply and set up discussion groups, creating a springboard for an employee engagement and participation program that helped define company culture. SAIT compares itself against its own progress and that of other organizations using a survey administered by The Hay Group.

After dismal scores the first time around, SAIT is now at or above the public-sector norm with communications in the best practices category. Lewis credits the success to requiring all departments to submit a plan that addresses weaknesses, is linked to compensation and comes with a commitment to communicate those plans widely.
Lewis says the biggest gains from corporate communications came in 2005, when she separated communications and marketing, as she had yet to see an organization that does both well when they are combined.
Today, SAIT corporate communications’ role is to:

• Provide leadership in telling the SAIT story.
• Safeguard the SAIT reputation.
• Put a face and heart to the organizations’ leadership.
• Tell the employees where SAIT is going and how they expect to get there and how employees can help.
• Recognize organizational and individual accomplishments.

SAIT Communications carries out this role using vehicles such as creative videos and events, a world-class intranet and an ice cream party where the leaders serve up scoops.

The SAIT communications department is able to do this and more because they’ve earned the trust of leadership. As part of earning this trust, Lewis provide resources and makes herself available to carry out communications. The SAIT leadership team willingly participates in innovative communications — including zany things such as parody videos — and they do these things because the communications are authentic and from the heart.

In Lewis’ words, “Employees don’t care what you have to say until they know you care.”

Employee Engagement: 9 Tips to Help

By Timothy R. Clark
Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer conducted an interesting study that looked at what employees are thinking and feeling as they go about their work, and how leaders can use this information to help job performance.
Their research concluded:

The most important managerial behaviors don’t involve giving people daily pats on the back or attempting to inject lighthearted fun into the workplace. Rather, they involve two fundamental things: enabling people to move forward in their work, and treating them decently as human beings.”

Tips to help leaders enable employees

Leaders can have a big impact in helping others achieve by taking those principles to heart. Listed below are tips to help leaders do that very thing and enable their employees to achieve more.

• Ask yourself the following questions about how your employees achieve:
• Do I know the goals my employees are working on in their achieving cycles (personal and professional)?
• What are the roadblocks getting in the way of their progress? What am I doing to remove those roadblocks?
• Is there a clear connection between their professional work and the important work of the team? How can I strengthen that connection and help them understand it clearly?
• Are they overloaded with minutiae or busywork? What can I do to eliminate this type of work?
• Do I know how each employee is motivated? What actions can I take to enhance their motivation?
• Set clear goals with employees. People make more progress when leaders are clear about the link between what they do and what matters to the organization. And successful teams are those that have clear goals, and where people know how their work affects those goals. Help your people gain lineof- sight visibility from their work to the team’s goals.
• Help employees break projects, goals, and work assignments into small victories. Small victories tap into motivation. Achieving is fueled by making small amounts of progress, such as accomplishing a task or solving a problem. Help those that work with you jump into an achievement cycle and experience the benefi ts and rewards of moving through all five steps.
• Teach people how to manage time and energy wisely. Coach employees to fully engage in the task at hand, focus on the important rather than the urgent, avoid distractions, and create balance and renewal in the achievement of the goal. Help them learn to say no to urgent requests or terrifi c ideas that aren’t aligned with the important work of the team.
• Commit resources and remove roadblocks. Enable people to move forward in their work by committing appropriate resources, removing obstacles, helping them work across boundaries, and aligning processes, structure, and systems.
• Help employees engage others. Encourage those you work with to reach out and engage others with similar goals. Remind them that goals can be created independently, but achieving them almost always requires help and support from others.
• Identify specific motivators and adjust accordingly. Discuss with employees their extrinsic motivators, and identify opportunities and implications to bolster the achieving cycle. If they are motivated by recognition, identify ways to give meaningful praise, show approval for their work and team behaviors, or commend them for achievements along the way. Find ways to acknowledge them in front of their peers and express appreciation. If they are motivated by rewards, identify both economic and noneconomic rewards that you can give as a consequence of achievement.
• Discuss achieving opportunities outside of work. Have conversations with employees about what they want to achieve in their careers and in their personal lives. Highly engaged individuals fi nd sources of motivation inside and outside of work. Talk about all aspects of achieving, knowing that the organization still benefi ts whether an employee becomes more engaged from working with an outside volunteer organization or from working on a project to solve one of your biggest customer complaints. Genuine interest and a little fl exibility on your part can go a long way toward increasing motivation, achievement, and ultimately engagement.
• Adjust motivators over time. Stay connected with your employees. Remember that people’s motivations can, and often do, change over time. Have achieving conversations with employees regularly, preferably outside of the annual performance review process. Adjust as they adjust.

Excerpted from The Employee Engagement Mindset, by Timothy Clark. © 2012, McGraw-Hill Professional.

Timothy R. Clark is founding partner and CEO of TRClark . He is considered an international authority in the areas of leadership development and large-scale organizational change. He advises leaders and organizations around the world. A former two-time CEO, he writes the weekly column “On Leadership” for the Salt Lake City Deseret News. He' s also the author of the critically claimed book, "Epic Change: How to Lead Change in the Global Age." You can follow him on Twitter, or contact him directly at trclark@trclark.net..

AUSTIN, Texas, June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- iKey®, the world's premier innovator of rugged computer peripherals, is proud to present the industry's first rechargeable wireless keyboard designed for infection control. To date, the SBW-97-TP™ is iKey's most innovative and flexible user-friendly design.


The SBW-97-TP is the first fully sealed, rechargeable, wireless keyboard on the market using QuickPair™ technology. QuickPair is the unique ability to pair to a USB dongle over a 802.11G wireless frequency without interacting with the host PC. Unlike traditional wireless keyboards, iKey's latest product does not require the user to press any buttons on the dongle or interact with the computer's operating system.

"Pairing the keyboard is only a two-keystroke procedure with any PC that has the USB dongle installed," Dave Huddleston, iKey Operations Manager, said. "This is an exclusive feature that allows the keyboard to be moved across various computers or workstations with ease."

Powered by a lithium ion battery, the keyboard has superior battery life of two weeks with regular use, and is easily recharged with its included micro USB cable. The keyboard only takes five hours to fully charge, and maintains full functionality while charging.

As with all of iKey's medical peripherals, the SBW-97-TP is engineered with infection control in mind. Ideal for use in operating rooms, nurses' stations, medical carts, and patient rooms, its case and silicone rubber keys are fully sealed, washable and compatible with hospital-grade disinfectants. Featuring a CleanLock™ key, the SBW-97-TP can be quickly and easily disabled during cleaning procedures.

"iKey's products are built to withstand difficult environments where standard keyboards will fail," Huddleston said. "A keyboard is one of the most commonly touched objects in any environment. As awareness of hospital-acquired infections grows, so has the need for washable input devices."

Measuring only 14.96" x 5.91" x 0.84" (w-h-d), the SBW-97-TP includes an integrated touchpad and 10-key numeric pad. Designed to be user-friendly, it also has three LED indicators for battery life, pairing and charging.

The SBW-97-TP's case is built from rugged, ABS polycarbonate plastic, and has an integrated VESA mounting pattern on the back. Perfect for use on carts and trays, the unit is also available with an optional magnetic mount, providing a hygienic alternative to Velcro, which may accumulate germs.

For more information on the SBW-97-TP, visit iKey online at www.iKey.com or iKey's YouTube Channel for product demos and features About iKey, LP.: iKey designs and manufactures rugged, sealed keyboards, displays, pointing devices for industrial, public safety, medical and military applications. A pioneer in its industry since 1989, iKey is known as an innovator of industrial computer peripherals. For more information, visit www.iKey.com.

SOURCE iKey

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Electronic Changes Means a Mightier Medicare

By JARED SHELLY, senior editor/web editor of Risk & Insurance®

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- In the old days of workers' comp and liability, Medicare-eligible workers hurt on the job would go to the doctor, then let Medicare pick up the bill. Many times, the employer or another entity would be ultimately found to be responsible for the bill -- however Medicare didn't seem to have an effective way to get its money back.

Those days are now over...

With electronic medical reporting, Medicare now has a terrific weapon that informs the agency if it's owed the money from conditional payments. While Medicare has been around since 1965, the recent developments are quite a change for the industry, according to experts who spoke at Gould & Lamb's Medicare Secondary Payer Educational Conference in Atlantic City, N.J. on June 18 and 19.

"Before 2009, they relied on the insurer to tell them there are owed funds," said Russell Whittle, senior staff counsel at Gould & Lamb in Bradenton Fla. who was reached by Risk & Insurance® a few days after the conference, "Now the law has been given teeth and they can find out whether there is money that they're owed."

And the penalties can be stiff -- $1,000 per claim per day for non-reporting, said Whittle.
But it's no secret that Medicare eligible people (who are either over 65 or have a chronic condition like renal disease) will likely have medical issues going on at the time of an accident or claim. That means that Medicare may actually be responsible for some or all of the payment, even if it contests it.

"We find that about 80 percent [of medical bills] are not related to the accident," said Whittle.
But with its new-found way of gathering data, (Whittle said that cases are now "delivered into their laps"), Medicare has gotten aggressive in its collection process.
"It's easy pickin's [for Medicare]," said Whittle.

Chatting between sessions at the conference, Brian J. Fillion, associate at Ringler Associates, a settlement annuity company based in Aliso Viejo, Calif. said that "Medicare is looking for all the reimbursement they can get their hands on."

While Medicare has been a hot topic in workers' comp for years, it's sure to be a hot topic in the liability arena as well, Fillion said, since many claimants are on Medicare and accumulating liens for their medical coverage.

"How to control the size of the liens and who controls the size of the liens are huge issues because the last thing the insurance companies and the self-insured companies need is to overpay on these conditional payments because the right analysis wasnt applied during the negotiations and settlement of the case," he said.

Medicare is also concerned with future payments. If a claimant wins money in a lawsuit, then gets all the money right away -- rather than a structured settlement -- they may spend it rather than saving it for medical bills. While companies have been setting up Medicare set-aside programs for years, Medicare is "on the verge" of creating new requirements, Fillion said.

"This is not one of those issues that is easy to understand. Insurance companies, TPAs and consulting firms absolutely need to understand this stuff cold before the law comes in, because the learning curve for their employees is huge," he said.
Fillion said several large insurance companies are dedicating staff to work exclusively on this issue -- and he said it's paying off.

"Because the law is still in transition," said Fillion, "because they haven't fully defined everything ... to have one person focused on the issue, talking to Medicare and getting the answers directly from them, it gives you an expert resource within your company to go to."

How to Create a Financial Portfolio

No matter the amount of money that you wish to make from financial investments, the time to start is always now. Financial portfolios can help throughout your life, whether it is during a rough financial spot or to make your retirement plan have a better future. Financial portfolios are important, and luckily with a little bit of effort you can start building yours immediately.

1. First: Set your goals

   The first step is to consider your short-term and long-term goals as this helps to determine how the money is invested. Short term goals include building an emergency fund, purchasing a new car or paying the down payment for a new home. Long-term goals are more than five years away and include events such as retirement or children attending college.

2. Second: Start to save

   To start investing, you need money. Look over your budget and try to cut back to save that money to invest. Anyone can find some extra money, no matter how tight your budget seems.

3. Third: Speak to your employer

   Check in with your human resources department. Your company might have 401(k) or 403(b) plans available, or it may have company stock plans that you can utilize. These simple investments are great because they are taken directly from your paycheck, eliminating the need to set money aside.

4. Fourth: Meet with an investor

   If you cannot invest through your employer or would like to invest in alternate ways, it is best to speak with an investor. The investor can help you find a variety of ways to invest your money and build a diverse portfolio.

5. Fifth: Start investing

   The final step is to set up an automatic monthly transfer of money that is invested. These investments are done through a program worked out with your investor and are based upon the current state of the market.