In my last post I shared with you why FUN Management can be the best thing for your company's success.

Today I want to share how you can bring FUN back into your workplace and launch you to becoming a global leader.

Because your employees have a passion for their work, they will care about their customers; they will do their best. Your salespeople will not only sell your product, they will also do their best to maintain the reputation of your company. Your employees will keep your customers happy even after they sell their product. They will do follow-up calls, improve products and in general take initiative to keep your customers satisfied.

F.U.N. Management is also the only way you can communicate globally. If you learn F.U.N. Management it will prepare you to become a F.U.N. Management Global Leader. You will have a better understanding of how to develop good working relationships on a global level that will result in improved productivity and increased profits. Some other benefits that result from F.U.N. Management are:

1) People will begin to have confidence and believe that they can do well. You will have better communication with your people, and mistakes within the company will disappear or greatly reduce.

2) You will find it much easier to recruit the kind of people you want to have working for you if your company has a reputation for being a fun place to work at.

3) You will also find it easier to keep your employees. They like coming to work – why should they look for a better job elsewhere?

4) You will have a great relationship with society around you and it will be easier to do business.

Young talented students looking for their first job in America want to work for dynamic Silicon Valley companies because they say they are FUN companies to work for. They tend to avoid companies that have the old traditional management style. Soon I believe that many Korean companies will have the same issues.

A year ago I interviewed some of the employees at Google. Google is a terrific model for FUN Management.

Here are ten comments that Google employees shared with me as to why they LOVE to work for Google.

1. “I get up in the morning looking forward to coming to work.”

2. “I came out of early retirement so I could work for Google.”

3. “I haven’t yet met anyone at Google who is complaining or bitter.”

4. “I am interviewing for FUN people to come to this team.”

5. “The founders, Larry and Sergei, created a work environment that was fun.”

In my past three threads, I have shared some great leadership success stories about two companies, Quicken Loans and Odwalla.

Today let's discuss what we can learn from the stories of Odwalla and Quicken.

It pays to be optimistic. Don’t give into the negative when a crisis happens. Stay optimistic. Keep your mind open to new possibilities. Share your ideas with your employees. Ask for their suggestions.

An optimistic leader keeps communication open. He/she encourages everyone to brainstorm and share his or her ideas.

Top companies reward their employees for a job well done. Employees like to be empowered and get recognition as a team player for their achievements. They like to feel the sense of fulfillment and know that their leaders are aware of the contribution they have given to the company.

In parts one and two of Optimism Begins With the Leader, I shared with you about how leadership can help a company thrive even after hardships. In today's post I want to share with you some more leadership success stories.

Would you like your company to be voted “The Best Company to Work For?”

That honor has been given to the company, QUICKEN LOANS, for three years in a row by COMPUTERWORLD magazine.

Quicken loans, the nation’s largest online retail mortgage loan lender, based in Michigan, has 5,000 employees. The company hires 300 employees PER MONTH for their growing company!

The leaders in the company encourage their employees to be open-minded. Chief Information Officer, Frank Laura, knows that optimism leads to creativity and new ideas.

Team members love working for the company because they have the ability to take ownership in projects and work collaboratively with others from across the company. They love the fact that they can take responsibility for their projects.

CIO Laura tells us that the 360 teams in the technology group know all facets of the business.He says…

"We challenge them to dig deep, looking for things that can be improved upon, from the client's perspective. I think they derive a lot of satisfaction in building solutions internally, and in knowing what they do makes a difference to the company and our clients."

Chairman and Founder, Dan Gilbert, says… “Quicken Loans has created an entrepreneurial spirit that encourages and rewards creativity and innovation.”

The leaders recognize great ideas. It doesn’t matter whether it came from the CIO or the newest person on the team, they run with it. They are obsessed with finding a better way.

The company's culture provides the greatest sense of job satisfaction.

In my last post I posed the question, "What would you do if you are selling a food product, it is linked to a strain of the deadly E. coli, and a 16-month-old child dies 10 days after drinking some contaminated juice?"

This did happen and here is what one company did to move on and succeed.

In 1996, a 16 month old child died after drinking fruit juice that contained the E-Coli virus. The company was the Silicon Valley fruit juice company, Odwalla.

The CEO, Stephen Williamson, ordered a complete recall of all its apple and carrot juice products from the 4,600 retail outlets in seven states and British Columbia.

Here was a company that was built on its commitment to healthy products. Their $90 million dollar business was growing by 30% each year. Morale was down with their 500 employees. And now everything came to a halt. Key employees quit, sales went down, and he almost lost his will to fight this terrible situation.

“People were getting sick with our product,” Williamson said “Our company will never be the same.”

That was 12 years ago. Today, the company is healthy, growing, and profitable! So what did the CEO do to move the company forward?

Mr. Williamson was optimistic. He believed in his company and he believed in his employees.

He brought the leaders of the company together and they developed four immediate objectives:

1. Have constant internal communication so that everyone knows what is going on. Williamson began conducting regular company-wide conference calls. Employees across the organization could dial in to hear Williamson’s overview of what was happening each day.

2. Have personalized customer service. Anxious customers had an 800 number to call to ask questions and find out what was happening each day.

Are you positive and looking on the bright side every day?

Is optimism a part of your company culture?

Do you have a good sense of humor during the day?

If you do, then you are an optimistic leader like many Silicon Valley companies. You are an adventurous, fun leader. You know how to take an element of risk to have a FUN Management company.

You recharge yourself everyday with positive thoughts. You surround yourself with like-minded people. You take action. You are moving and full of energy.

Sometimes you get stuck in the mud. You accept it as part of the excitement and you figure out a way to get out and move on. You have outside mentors that can help you with new ideas when you get stuck. You are always optimistic about the future of the company because you trust your employees and know they will do the right thing.

You know how to visualize your great future and how to bring your company to the best level. You do visualize at least five times a day your great goals.

In my previous post I shared with you seven reasons companies do not excel and why productivity and profits could be low.

In this post I will share with you nine ideas to bring fun back into the workplace.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. First, the CEOs must reinvent themselves. Stop being serious all the time. Wear a bright color tie that might have a fun print on it. Then employees will have something fun to talk about. Practice facial expressions just like actors do. Practice smiling and laughing and it brings passion to the people. Nod with a smile. Maintain eye contact with the people you are talking to. Give a sincere smile and appreciation to others. Say, “Wow!” “I like it.” “You are amazing.” “I’m impressed.” “Can you tell me more?” When you say that, how do you feel? Your praise is giving direct positive impact to your employee.

Practice humor every day. Tell a joke.

For example, three people went out to lunch. On the way to the restaurant they stopped at an antique shop. They saw an old lamp.

The first one, an accountant, rubbed the lamp by accident. A genie came out. “I’m a genie and I can give each of you one wish.” So account said, “Send me to Hawaii. I want to lay down o the beach in the sun and drink unlimited amount of Margaritas.” Whoosh! He’s gone.

Second one, Product Manager, said, “Send me to Florida. I want to spend everyday at Disney World and play, play, play.” Whoosh! He’s gone.

Third one was a CEO. He rubbed the lamp and he told the genie, “My wish is bring the two guys back to the office as soon as possible. There’s a deadline and I need them.”

This is a business joke. People understand and laugh. They would be delighted with you to share a joke like that.

According to the New York Times, February 13, 2008 issue, Gary Kelly, CEO from Southwest Airlines, dressed up like a woman. He walked into the office looking like the mother from the movie Hairspray, just to have fun and make the employees laugh. He was continuing the custom of making the airline a fun place to work.

Southwest has raised fares, packs more people onto airplanes, has passengers line up and board by numbers and consequently this is a lot of hard work for the employees. Mr. Kelly’s dress-up routine is just one of many ways the company put a little fun into the work environment.

“Many times,” Mr. Cerf, the Southwest union officer said, “You have to work fast. Workers who come to Southwest Airlines after being laid up by other airlines often quit. They are not use to working that hard.”

Southwest believes that “fun translates into a lot of productivity.” It has the industry’s highest wages, but because of efficient work habits its costs are the lowest among the big airlines.

Mr. Kelly knows how to have fun at work, yet many companies do not do this. Board meetings and decision-making are important, yet how employees are treated is important too.

I would like to share with you seven reasons why many companies do not excel, or profits and productivity are low.

1. In my experience, many people will do just what they are told and no more. They are not motivated to do anything else.

2. They do not know what their talent is or how to use it.

3. Lack of training.

Today we will finish looking at traits five through seven of the seven traits of a CEO Superhero.

5. EMPLOYEE MOTIVATOR

A CEO Superhero knows how to manage talented people effectively and generate high levels of performance from them. Communication is a key to keeping employees informed. Attractive and unique benefits are provided to employees thus enabling the company to maintain the best employees.

John Chambers of Cisco Systems has a Blog to communicate with employees to encourage employee ideas.

Jerry Yang of Yahoo Inc., hosts monthly Chat’n Chow lunches and answers employee questions online.

Jack Welch, former GE CEO said, “Hire the best and then support them through thick and thin, through failure and success.” The people he hired were people who understood how to think outside the box, people who were creative, energetic and had a vision, and who are willing to turn visions into reality.

Toyota spends a lot of time and effort to support their employees. Employees are considered their most important asset.

Wachovia, one of the nation’s largest diversified financial services companies, is recognized as one of the top 10 best companies for working mothers by Working Mother magazine. Wachovia not only offers essential benefits like flextime and telecommuting—they raised the bar by offering programs and policies for childcare, leave for new parents, opportunities for women to advance, work/life benefits such as elder care and other employee programs.

It would be hard to surpass the benefits that the 12,000 employees receive at the Four Seasons hotels. Isadore Sharp, founder and CEO of the chain says, “How you treat your employees is how you expect them to treat the customers.” In fact at the new hotel that opened up in Hawaii they received 25,000 applications for 600 positions BEFORE it opened in 2006!

They contribute 3% of an employee’s salary to their 40l(K) and another 3-5% to profit sharing. All employees regardless of rank break bread together, free, in the hotel cafeteria. The food is good, and they have staff showers and locker rooms. Everyone is treated like they are someone special. The company provides managers from within and they can offer an employee the world with hotels all over the world. The staff is happy, well cared for, and safe. They feel like they are family and they treat their customers the same way.

6. CUSTOMER LOYALTY BUILDER