Post from: MAPpingCompanySuccess The day before a long weekend doesn’t seem the time to offer up anything heavy, instead here’s another of my Rules.
Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile.
Read them all, you’ll find a lot of wisdom and life help in them—I do.
And since it’s a holiday you’ll probably be seeing people, so here are a couple of good conversation starters. Both are supposedly signs, but you know how reliable Internet stuff is:)
Dr. Jones, at your cervix. (In a Gynecologist’s Office)
CAUTION - This Truck is Full of Political Promises (On the back of another Septic Tank Truck)
Feel free to add a Rule or another conversation piece.
Want to know what people are really thinking about the hottest topics in the workplace? Then check out Business Week’s massive discussion of the top six topics.
The six topics are the result of voting by 8500 people; they are
Work-Life Balance
Staying Entrepreneurial
Time Management
Negotiating Bureaucracy
Toxic Bosses
Generational Tension
“…now we’re looking for solutions. Starting today, you can submit comments, essays, pictures, or videos chronicling the challenges you face in any of the categories—and how you’ve tried to resolve them. At the end of June, BusinessWeek writers and editors will use the material, along with the input of experts, to produce a precedent-setting multimedia package—with content and videos online beginning Aug. 14, the Special Issue in mailboxes Aug. 15, and broadcast segments appearing on BusinessWeek TV Aug. 16 and 17.”
My apologies for bringing this information to you so late, but you still have today. And I will bring you more on the discussion as it develops.
Recently, the conversation at Slacker Manager turned to how a manager bounces back from a bad hiring. Although the five steps Barry Moltz listed are good, I commented that they didn’t include making hiring a priority and core competency, which would do much to alleviate bad hires. (Barry agreed:)
In most instances, the key to a bad hire is poor synergy between the candidate and the corporate culture. Culture is also the culprit in most screwed up M&A.
There’s actually not a lot of difference between hiring one person and acquiring/merging two companies. No matter how complementary the skills, technology and experience, cultural incompatibility usually leads to disaster.
There are dozens of examples to choose from—Alcatel-Lucent is one that’s happening right now.
Good technical synergies, but light-years apart culturally.
“But the cultures could hardly have been more different. One was hierarchical and centrally controlled, the other entrepreneurial and flexible.”
Don’t assume that the first description is Alcatel, it’s not.
[Lucent] retained a command-and-control style, and after years of restructuring, executives were so obsessed with cost-cutting that even the smallest purchase had to be logged into a central accounting system… “It was a slow-moving ship with an entitlement mentality,” says John Wright, a former Lucent vice-president…”
While it may be that the candidate is the ship, it’s just as possible that she’s a speedboat. Either way synergy is unlikely and conflict almost inevitable.
While culture may not be obvious when acquiring or hiring, due diligence/interviewing is able to identify and explore it. The problem is that managers often ignore culture, because they believe they that theirs is ‘right’ and the other will change. But it’s not a case of you/your company being right and ‘her/them’ being wrong, it’s a case of the pieces don’t fit—and 98% of the time you should see it coming.
Don’t you love it when experts and powers-that-be formally study and recognize what the rest of us could have told them—namely that constant interruptions ruin productivity.
Remember years ago when that guy in the next cubicle talked too loudly on the phone, constantly got up for coffee or whatever, popped his head over the cubicle wall (or stuck his head in the office) comment/question and was generally distracting?
The interruptions are still happening, only now they’re in the form of email, instant messaging, texting, twittering and other digital annoyances.
A story in the NY Times tells us that the “biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and I.B.M., are banding together to fight information overload.”
Did you know that “A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times… on average the worker also stops at 40 Web sites over the course of the day…”
So what’s the tab for the unnecessary interruptions? Is it really high enough to warrant the founding of a non-profit group created specifically to combat it?
I guess that depends on whether $650 billion a year gets your attention.
“At the heart of our definition of a great place to work - a place where employees “trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with” - is the idea that a great workplace is measured by the quality of the three, interconnected relationships that exist there:
The relationship between employees and management.
The relationship between employees and their jobs/company.
The relationship between employees and other employees.”
She’s right. The kids who sang “I am special/ I am special/ Look at me…” (set to the tune of “Frère Jacques) in nursery school are still thinking that way in the workforce.
If your kids are young start now by not only eliminating empty praise from your home, but also teaching them how to recognize it and why to discount it.
Praise what they accomplish and instill in them an appreciation of the real value found in the words, actions, deeds, and contributions, both large and small, that they make in the world.
With older kids—teens, twenties, thirties—help them wrap their minds around the idea that life doesn’t offer entitlements to anyone and share with them the real facts of life:
They’re special to you, because you’re their parent and you love them.
They’re special to themselves, because “self” is the only person they will ever truly know or actually have the ability to change.
They’re not special to others, except as a result of their words, actions and deeds.
Being special to you and to themselves does not entitle them to special treatment from their teachers, friends, bosses, colleagues, the guy complaining about their loud cell phone conversation at Starbucks or the cop who tickets them for speeding.
Special isn’t related to self-esteem—self-esteem is grounded in and built from their own efforts and accomplishments.
Self-esteem entitles them to nothing, but provides the strength to not only survive, but thrive, in today’s world—and tomorrow’s.
They may not appreciate your efforts now, but they will be forever grateful as they make their way though the world as adults.
There’s no time to post about all the interesting articles on corporate culture that I find, so I thought I’d offer several up with a few notes.
Wow! A founder who not only knows the front-line people (read: those the customers see) are the key to success, but puts his founder stock where his mouth is. No, not some high tech hot-shot in Silicon Valley, but Robbie Lee, CEO and founder of U.S. Dry Cleaning Corporation, the nation’s fastest-growing chain of dry cleaning operations.
According to Deborah Rechnitz, chief operating officer, “Robbie believes very strongly that our front-line employees are the key to our success. He also wants them to know that the company values their efforts and that they too can participate in the success of the company.”
Michigan isn’t the first place most people think of when cultural innovation is mentioned, but that’s what Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations in Ann Arbor has successfully fostered.
“Inside Menlo’s offices above a coffee shop a few blocks from the University of Michigan’s central campus, there are no walls.
No cubicles.
Nobody working long nights.
Nobody working weekends.
No offshoring of work to programmers in India or other countries.
And nobody telecommuting, sort of counterintuitive for a technology firm in the era of virtual offices.
And if a client is a cash-starved entrepreneurial start-up — is there any other kind? — Menlo might just cut its usual rates for custom software by 50% in return for equity in the client’s business or royalties from its products.”
Casino’s are the last place you expect to find good culture, but apparently Caesars gets it right.
“It’s something you hear over and over about Caesars in its birthplace; good people, the place runs right; the staff make good money. Not the best money, like they raked in back in the good old days . But still among the best.”
Many Canadian companies also have their cultural act together, among them are…
“When people have passion projects or interests . . . there is a culture here that they’re not shy or unwilling to come forward… It’s that kind of flexibility, out-of-the-box thinking and attention to corporate culture that truly differentiates a company from competitors” explains Chris Bedford, president of Calgary-based branding agency Karo Group.
“Creating an open dialogue where employees truly have a voice and are listened to also makes a profound difference. “We’re constantly hiring,” he says. “Not only are we overstaffed, but we’re cherry-picking the best people and it all comes because of the reputation,” according to Bruce Rabik, chief operating officer of Rogers Insurance Ltd.”
There are great lessons to be learned from these cultures and the people who create/enable them. And if you want to implement similar ideas in your company, I’m willing to bet that every one of them would take the time to address your how-to questions.
How do you foster out-of-the-box cultural idea in your company?
Not your spouse’s or your kids’; not your parents’ or your friends’. You live in the reality created by your MAP.
The reason is simple—perception is reality.
We filter our mental, emotional and physical surroundings through our MAP and, like snowflakes, no two people have identical MAP, so no two people perceive identically.
Does perception influence corporate culture? Absolutely.
Look at Google, since it’s one of the most discussed corporate cultures it’s easy to compare perceptions. Outsiders usually mention the stock options, food, concierge services and in-house massages first, while insiders hottest buttons are the 20% time to work on their own ideas, how well they are heard, opportunity to make a difference, and respect shown at all levels.
Consider the CEO who describes his company’s culture as open, fair and motivated, while the workers complain of regimented work and spend their time on job sites. Aside from CEOs that don’t walk their talk, the difference is often perception, i.e., what is a tight ship to one is micromanaging to the other.
In spite of perceptions, for culture to work everyone needs to be on the same page. That requires the culture-setters/enablers at the top to listen to perceptions other than their own—even when that’s uncomfortable. And not just listen, but act.
How do you address differences in cultural perception in your company?
Serena isn’t a hot growth company, but a profitable 25-year-old company building mainframe software and Burton isn’t a kick-ass Millennial, but rather a 40-year-old veteran of Oracle and Veritas, who says “We’ve got to be relevant to the future. So we instituted Facebook Friday,” and dared his people to participate and learn about each other—to date all 800 of Serena’s 900 employees have accounts. But the real message was “Guys - the world is a different place and if we’re going to stay relevant we’re going to have to wake up.”
He’s also using it to evangelize the software-as-a-service business model he believes is necessary for the company to thrive in the future.
Burton says, “I think we gain rather than lose productivity this way. We have a theme, but I leave it up to them to choose what to do.”
Millennials and many Web 2.0 proponents believe that the most important thing is to incorporate the technology because it’s there, but, as Burton shows, it works better to bring it in with a specific goal in mind. He understands that people worry about, and often fear, change, so wrapping change in a palatable way works faster.
The great lesson to take away from this isn’t about Facebook; it’s a reminder that “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”
Do you think that sugar-coating change is good or bad?
A post on Yielding Wealth asking readers how they defined ‘wealthy’ reminded me of a post I wrote year ago about executive pay, which included having your taxes paid on various perks, and even on compensation.
But the “golden coffins” being made public due to a rule change 18 months ago really blow me away.
This isn’t about life insurance; it’s about really big bucks if they happen to die while still in office. How big?
“Eugene Isenberg, the 78-year-old chief executive of Nabors Industries Ltd… If Mr. Isenberg died tomorrow, Nabors would owe his estate a “severance” payment of at least $263.6 million, company filings show. That’s more than the first-quarter earnings at the Houston oil-service company.”
At 78 there’s a good chance he’ll collect, too.
And then there’s the death-related non-compete clause.
“The CEO of Shaw Group Inc. is in line to be paid $17 million for not competing with the engineering and construction company after he dies.”
We all know that the pay-for-performance principle often doesn’t hold true, but death benefits have to be the ultimate nose-thumbing on that subject.
Shareholders are in revolt and have forced Comcast to scrap its plan to pay the 88-year-old chairman of its executive committee his $2 million annual salary for five years after his death.
In addition to hard cash, stock options are subject to accelerated (read: immediate) vesting resulting in yet more money upon death.
Certainly sounds like a good motive for a murder mystery—unless you’re a shareholder.
Read the article and you tell me, are death benefits fair?
Post from: MAPpingCompanySuccess I write a lot about the importance of communications, written and verbal. Last summer I wrote about the difference just one letter can make to the meaning.
Rarely do I see typos in business headlines, so when a bulletin from Market Watch hit my email I was really surprised. Here it is.
My point? No matter how vigilant you are errors can happen. The important thing is to handle it with care and avoid the blame game. I’ll bet those responsible for proofing Market Watch bulletins were embarrassed enough without anybody saying a word.
A couple of decades (give or take) ago Terry Dial, who eventually became vice chairman of Business Banking at Wells Fargo, told me that“People are 90% of our costs as well as the key to customer service and satisfaction. The only thing that should take priority over hiring a new employee is keeping a current one.”
Stershic’s written a book called Taking Care of the People Who matter most: A Guide to Employee Customer Care. The meaning of the title hits the nail on the head, “It’s based on the impact employees have on customers; namely, the way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers!”
“To reduce “female brain drain,” global companies such as Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Booz Allen Hamilton, Hewlett-Packard, Best Buy and dozens of others are increasingly offering a variety of flexible work options.”
Don’t get me wrong. These companies aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their corporate heart or caring social consciousness, they’re doing it because it makes financial sense, AKA, vested self-interest.
“Business analysts and executives say talent retention and the forces of demography are the chief reasons large, traditional companies accommodate the needs of female employees. Fifty-eight percent of college graduates are women, and nearly half of all professional and graduate degrees are earned by women…the number of women with graduate and professional degrees will grow by 16 percent over the next decade compared with an increase of only 1.3 percent among men.”
Many small companies are in the forefront, although they skip the language and the programs are more informal—that’s why they’re so often described as “being like a family.”
And although the work-life trend started with, and is being driven by women, the guys want it, too, as do the Millennials.
The economy will turn around—it always does; more Boomers will retire; talent will be scarcer and the companies that already know how to offer balance will have an enormous recruiting edge.
James Heskett is a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus at Harvard Business School and posts some of the most intriguing research questions I see at HBS Working Knowledge (FREE registration),
“According to Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman, nearly all research techniques commonly used today probe humans only at their conscious level, though it is the subconscious level that really determines behavior.
Online forum OPEN for comment until June 26. Jim Heskett asks: What is your organization—and what are you—doing to bring more deep thinking into work and life?”
I hope you’ll take a moment and add your thoughts to the dialog.
Does one really have to be an accountant, lawyer, minister or whatever expert in order to recognize when something is likely illegal or, at the least, unethical?
“That’s not my area of expertise” is the excuse du jour on most of the financial games being played—especially option backdating.
I find it very amusing when I hear high-powered corporate CEOs explaining that they don’t have the financial or legal savvy to understand that backdating is a no-no.
In one high profile case dating back to 2006 involves Dr. William McGuire, former CEO of UnitedHealth Group, who “…relied on others to assess the legality and appropriateness of backdated stock options granted to top executives and new hires. As such, all allegations against him in a shareholder’s lawsuit should be dropped.”
I love this part, “Dr. McGuire has no formal training or degrees in finance, accounting or law,” the brief states. “His only professional training is as a medical doctor with a specialty in pulmonology.”
Maybe no formal training, but please! There’s no way he was hired to run one of the largest health-care companies in the country without good business knowledge and skills.
No formal training, but didn’t he read or listen to the news? The backdating went on for 12 years and there certainly were news stories of other companies that got in trouble doing it during that time. The cost? $1.56 billion downward restatement of earnings.
“Cablevision had awarded 400,000 stock options to a deceased vice chairman, while making it appear as though the options had been granted prior to his 1999 death.”
Cablevision just settled, “…terms of the settlement agreement, certain present and former Cablevision directors and execs will pay Cablevision $24.4 million, while Cablevision’s liability insurer will kick in another $10 million. Cablevision has also agreed to adopt a number of corporate governance changes relating to stock-based compensation awards.”
Who said that greed ends with death?
(To learn why I chose this picture just click it and read.)
Have a quick question or just want to chat? Feel free to write or call me at 866.265.7267. Up to a point it's free, beyond that point it's business. Not sure? No problem:) I'll say something if the line's crossed.
thinks that parents should stop “meaningless, baseless praise,” which may start even before nursery school.
There’s no time to post about all the interesting articles on corporate culture that I find, so I thought I’d offer several up with a few notes.
In April David Kirkpatrick, a Fortune senior editor, wrote about 
A post on 
Stershic’s written a book called 
When the economy slows, it’s easy to ignore retention factors because management kids itself into believing that replacing people is no big deal.
“According to Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman, nearly all research techniques commonly used today probe humans only at their conscious level, though it is the subconscious level that really determines behavior.
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