HSAE Association Insight 26-Apr-07 

 

Bob Hale, president and chief executive officer of Houston Association of Realtors, will tell us his recipe for successful association management.  Hale has led Houston Association of Realtors for the past 18 years as it grew to be the second largest Realtor organization in the country with 25,000 members. 

 

He was recognized by Inman News as one of the 100 Most Influential Real Estate People in 2005 and 2006. Inman News stated: "People on the list embody words like leadership, innovation, ingenuity, power and persistence." He also earned recognition from the NAR publication Realtor® Magazine, as one of the 25 most influential individuals in the American real estate industry in 2003.

Time: 11:30, Friday, April 27

Place: Westin Galleria (5060 W. Alabama), 24th floor, Regal Suite

Cost:  $30 members; $35 guests

Register: Online registration is closed, so please email Julie George at jgeorge@absoluteplanning.com to see whether space is available.  

 

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By Toy Wood, CAE
2007 President, HSAE

 

Greetings fellow association managers and industry partners!

 

Another month and more crazy weather! If you missed the March meeting you missed a great presentation from Troy Elmore about making our associations essential to our members. On that note, sometime in the not-too-distant future you will be asked to participate in a short survey for HSAE. Please DO IT! We cannot serve your needs if we don’t know what they are.

 

I have just started reading the much talked about book Seven Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t. I imagine many of you have already read it and know that one of the keys is gathering and using data. We are a relatively small group but we should act and function like we are the biggest and best in town. We can only do that if we all pull together. Many members have stepped up to help with membership and strategic planning. What is your interest? Where would you like to help?  Let us know. My email address is twood@ghba.org. Feel free to send your thoughts.

 

Have ideas for speakers or places to meet? Let us know that, too. All input is welcome. Now don’t miss the April meeting with Bob Hale. And bring your peers. They will thank you for it. 

 

Larry Johnson, business author, speaker and consultant will present Leading with Integrity.  Johnson has been head of his own training and consulting firm, Johnson Training Group, for 18 years and has spoken nationwide and worldwide to over 150,000 businesses and associations. The May luncheon will also be our Staff Appreciation event.

 

The Strategic Planning and Membership Committees will be sponsoring a survey in the near future to gain member input.  This is the first step in a formal strategic planning process.  Contact Jeff Tafel, CAE, for more information or to participate in the planning process at jeff.tafel@ifma.org .

 

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In March:

At right, former HSAE President Russell Hamley, CAE, Associated Builders and Contractors speaks with Jennifer Lindsay, board member, Reliant Center.

 

 

 

 At left, Elaine Overgaard, Houston Hilton Post Oak, listens to opening remarks while Margery Reinheardt, Houston HIlton Post Oak, speaks with former HSAE president Ralston Creswell, CAE, American Diabetes Association.

 

Vance Johnson, Principal Financial Group, speaks with Vicky Aranda, Association Network, while immediate past president Allison Kelley, CAE, Romance Writers of America, works registration as Julie George, Loren Cook & Associates, takes an urgent call.

   

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Member News:

We are sorry to report that the husband of former HSAE president Linda Beverly was the supervisor who lost his life in Friday's incident at NASA.  Linda is vice president for the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) and a friend to many of us.  The Beverlys were married for 41 years and enjoyed working on their Galveston Bay home and motorcycling together.

David's funeral will be Thursday, April 26 at 3 p.m. at Bay Area First Baptist Church (4800 West Main St., League City).  Linda has asked that friends make donations in David Beverly's name to the IFMA Foundation. This can be done online (www.ifma.org) or by mail.  Cards and donations can be sent to Linda Beverly at the IFMA office at 1 E. Greenway Plaza, Suite 1100, Houston, TX 77046.

 

 Use the HSAE Job Bank Jobs posted on the HSAE website bring results. You may want to check the job bank frequently if you are in the market.  A posting is $50 for members for one month of website exposure.  Remember to use the HSAE job bank when you are looking for association staff. The job bank is a benefit of membership enabled by our website, donated by Schipul-The Web Marketing Company.

 

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by Larry Johnson

 

Larry Johnson is a well-known business author, speaker and consultant who will be the keynote speaker at our meeting on May 24. His latest book is Absolute Honesty: Building A Corporate Culture That Values Straight Talk and Reward Integrity. Larry and his daughter, Gen-Expert Meagan Johnson can be reached at 800-759-4933 or http://www.johnsontraininggroup.com .

When Congressional intern Chandra Levy disappeared in the spring of 2001, Congressman Gary Condit at first refused to discuss the case. When he eventually talked, he claimed that his relationship with the young political intern had been strictly platonic. Of course, as anyone who
followed the news now knows, Condit was lying. Not surprisingly, once his deceit was exposed, everything he said about Levy’s disappearance came under close scrutiny. Despite the fact that he had an airtight alibi on the day of Levy’s disappearance and was NOT considered a suspect,
his dishonesty generated mistrust and a desire on the part of many to see him punished. And punish him they did: His constituents overwhelmingly rejected his bid for reelection, leaving no doubts about their opinions of his veracity.

 

As our parents and teachers told us, the worst truth is always better than the best lie. That doesn’t mean that telling the truth is easy or won’t have negative consequences. It simply means that, when faced with a choice of telling the truth, postponing its telling, or lying, telling the truth is the best choice. Here are three reasons:
     
You Create Trust
Several years ago, I bought a used sports utility vehicle. One morning it started making horrible grinding noises while it lurched and shuddered down the street. I was able to drive it as far as a local garage where I expected to pay thousands for what I worried might be a blown front-end
differential. To make matters worse, I feared being gouged because I had never used this garage or mechanic before. That afternoon the mechanic called with the good news: A bolt had fallen out of the brake caliper and was jammed between the brake pad and the rotor. Total cost: $50.

 

I now take all of my auto business to this mechanic, including warranty work on my new car. That’s right! I PAY this fellow for work I could have had done for FREE at the dealership simply because I trust him completely. Such is the nature of trust.

 

Social-psychological research has shown that people are most likely to trust a person when they are in a vulnerable position and the person chooses to treat them truthfully and honorably. For leaders, the lesson is obvious: If you are always straight with people, they will learn to trust you.

 

You Pay a Higher Price for Lying
History is full of political examples of this axiom. It was both stupid and wrong of Richard Nixon to approve illegal break-ins into the offices of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist and the Democratic Party at the Watergate Hotel. Given his overwhelming popularity in the polls, however, it probably would not have undermined his presidency if he had admitted his
complicity when the burglars were first caught. Instead, his lying about having no knowledge of the events, combined with his willingness to sacrifice the people he’d ordered to commit illegal acts, turned public opinion against him and eventually forced his resignation. Almost every
political commentator and pundit of the time said that had Nixon admitted his sins and “taken his medicine like a man,” the nation would have forgiven him and moved on. Bill Clinton discovered a similar backlash when he looked into the camera and told us he did  not have sex with Monica Lewinski. He survived impeachment, but his legacy as the president who oversaw the greatest economic boom in this country’s history is tainted by the perception that he was a liar and philanderer.

 

Faced with embarrassing failures, leaders who choose honesty limit the damage to themselves and their organizations. In the spring of 2002 the media reported that a multistate crime ring had rigged McDonald's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" game. McDonald's responded with extraordinary quickness. Its president immediately admitted that there had been a fraud, made a public apology, and initiated a new game. According to Chris Ryan, who heads Ryan and Associates, a Phoenix-based crisis management firm, McDonald’s minimized the damage from
the fraud because:

 

      “They were not playing a waiting game. You cannot get into that corporate mentality where you run it up and down the flagpole twenty times. From what I saw, McDonald's moved very quickly, and the public was willing to forgive them quickly. And if you think about it, it wasn't in the news very long. They dealt with it and moved on.”ⁱ

Whatever your religious or cultural background, you were probably raised with a list of rights and wrongs firmly planted in your head. “It’s right to be trustworthy, it’s wrong to cheat. It’s right to pay your own way; it’s wrong to steal. It’s right to be faithful to your spouse; it’s wrong to mess around. It’s right to be nonviolent; it’s wrong to hurt others.” Included in this list
for most of us is, “It’s right to tell the truth; it’s wrong to lie.” Not that any of us have never lied. It’s just that most of us consider it wrong to do so, and therefore we often judge harshly those who do. Those who lie to us, especially if they are in positions of leadership, risk their standings as trustworthy leaders. The nicknames “Tricky Dick” and “Slick Willy” say it all.

 

Tell the Truth: You Keep Things Simple
Abraham Lincoln once said, “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” If you always tell the truth, you never have to conjure up excuses or backpedal on your explanations about why your company didn’t make its numbers. You never have to create stories about what
you promised or didn’t promise a potential tenant. Best of all, you never have to remember both the lie and the truth because you know that whatever you said, it will always match the way things really happened.

 

Telling the truth also helps to control the level of dysfunctional family dynamics that occur in every organization. If you grew up in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s and watched any television at all, you will remember the I Love Lucy show. The essential plot of every episode
revolved around Lucy pulling the wool over her husband Ricky’s eyes to get something she wanted, or Ricky fooling Lucy to get something he wanted. Neighbors Fred and Ethel usually helped out in the deception. In one classic scam, Lucy wanted to get into show business so she
faked a nervous breakdown to convince Ricky that denying her a part in his nightclub act was driving her crazy. It was amusing to watch, but it was also sad. Call me a curmudgeon, but in real life, such shenanigans can seriously damage the trust level in any relationship.

 

Rosemary, an acquaintance, told me this story. Rosemary’s eight-year-old son desperately wanted a dog, and Rosemary wanted to get one for him; she had had a dog as a child and loved it. Rosemary’s husband, Sam, hated dogs, and immediately put his foot down, saying there would be no dog and no further discussion on the matter. After several arguments, they dropped the issue. On Christmas morning, without Sam’s consent, Rosemary gave their son a dog as a “gift from Mom and Dad.” Under the circumstances, Sam couldn’t say much without coming across as Ebenezer Scrooge, but “open and honest” communication was never practiced again in that household.

 

You may or may not find Rosemary’s dishonesty in this situation as distasteful as I did—I hope you do. After all, what kind of marriage can be truly healthy when such deceptive manipulation is standard practice between spouses?

 

Of course, there are two sides to every story. When I asked Rosemary why she pulled this trick, she said that Sam was often selfish and dictatorial. Taking the “indirect” (or deceitful) approach was the only way she could exert any power in the relationship. On the other hand, when I asked
Sam about his relationship with Rosemary, he said that he loved her but she couldn’t be trusted with money or practical matters. Therefore, his strategy was to just say “no” to everything. Was this relationship ever built on truth or honesty? We think not.

 

By the way, they kept the dog but divorced two years later.

 

In business, this kind of dysfunctional game playing can cause enormous losses of productivity and profitability. Here are some examples:

 

If you are a meeting planner who needs to know when a meeting room will be available, you must be able to trust that what the booking agent tells you is true.

 

If you manage an employee who is not performing to expectations, but you don’t have the courage to give her feedback, she will never improve because she believes she’s doing okay. When you finally decide to dismiss her, you’ll find yourself in court trying to explain why you
were never honest with her about her performance.

 

If you are a manager who fails to listen to people’s concerns about their budgets being too tight to meet project goals, and you blindly insist they perform under threat of dismissal, you can expect them to make you think they’re progressing satisfactorily when they are not. If, as a manager, you play favorites with your subordinates, basing that favoritism on whom you like, rather than on who produces, you can expect that people are going to lie and present false faces to you so you will like them rather than judge them on the results of their work. They may even get Fred and Ethel to help out.

 

Each example reeks of wasted effort. To remain a viable entity, an organization must apply as much time, energy, and person-power as possible to the business it conducts. It must spend the majority of its resources producing and selling products or services. It must also spend a large chunk of those resources maintaining a healthy environment where the producing and selling can take place. It can ill afford to have its people waste time and energy playing destructive politics, protecting rear ends, defending turf, and working around dysfunctional relationships.

This article is an excerpt from Larry’s book, Absolute Honesty: Building A Corporate Culture That Values Straight Talk And Rewards Integrity, AMACOM Books, NY, NY, 2003. Used with permission of the publisher.

 

ⁱ Lou Carlozo, “Masters of Disaster,” Chicago Tribune, 29 January 2002 

 Mark Your Calendar

April 27: HSAE Luncheon, Bob Hale, Association Management Success, Westin Galleria

2007 HSAE Officers

Toy Wood, CAE, President
281-970-8970 x 150
Executive Vice President and CEO of the Greater Houston Builders Association

Jo D. Miller, President-Elect
713-783-9225
Executive Director, Houston Chapter Institute of Real Estate Management

Jeff Tafel, CAE, Secretary
713-623-4362
Director of Allied Services, International Facility Management Association

Paula Ruth, APR, Treasurer

281-870-1717

Paula Ruth & Company Public Relations

 

Allison Kelley, CAE, Immediate Past President

832-717-5200

Romance Writers of America

 

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