Should You Join The Family Firm? When John decided to pursue his career by coming to work at the family funeral home he thought (as did everyone else) that someday he would succeed his parents and own the firm. John is now 46 and his parents are in their late 60's. In retrospect, [...]
I have a book on my office shelf entitled “Perfectionism...Sure Cure For Happiness”. The reason this is important is that, having performed almost 100 culture assessments in funeral service I know that perfectionism is the dominant industry neurosis. Yes, I agree, “Funeral Service Is In The Details”. But it’s how we measure performance that gets [...]
Funeral directors are notorious for being conflict avoidant. Yet they have a job where they must engage in difficult conversations with staff, vendors and their customers. I used to attend a church with a pastor who would go to bizarre lengths to avoid conflict. He was beloved by the congregation and staff alike. But the [...]
Staff shortages among licensed professions have been successfully addressed by changing the model in the medical and legal professions. The solution is simple: focus skilled licensed staff on the right duties and supplement them with trained lower level staff. The result: Licensees handle more cases, work fewer hours, produce more income and, as a byproduct, [...]
A Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help in the production. They also have a a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people. Yet it is [...]
Equalize Price Points to Crystallize Personal Relevance. This is the first recession to show a measurable impact on DeathCare. Most surprising have been the many reports from rural and "rustbelt" funeral directors that cremation has recently spiked, not because people in their markets want cremation but BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD BURIAL. YIKES!!!! A recent article [...]
Peter Drucker was the first to draw a parallel between Leadership and Orchestra Conductors when he observed: "A great orchestra is not composed of great musicians but of adequate ones who produce at their peak. [A great conductor] has to make productive what he has...the players are nearly unchangeable. So it is the conductor's people [...]
In the near future the difference between winning and losing in DeathCare will be a result of one factor: LEADERSHIP. Yet many owners and general managers are confusing supervision with leadership and are in danger of turning themselves into nothing more than shop foremen. Too many funeral home owners blame their staff for the lack of [...]
I read a lot and sometimes I preorder new books. This Winter I preordered "THE REINVENTORS, How Extraordinary Companies Pursue Radical Continuous Change" By Jason Jennings. I started reading it last week and when I turned to page 60 lo and behold what did I see? My friend Bill McQueen as one of the case [...]
I was visiting with a friend last week and the conversation went, briefly, to some mutual acquaintances. We noted how angry they had become as their careers had progressed and concluded they were really frustrated with the career they had inherited from their parents. Disappointment is a normal part of life. Some respond with increasing [...]
