The Fruits of Our Labor

It's Labor Day Weekend! The beer is cold, the weather is warm, the grill is ready, College Football is starting and we've got Monday off work. It's a good time to be an American!!!

It is time to celebrate the fruits of our labor. Have you earn it?

This weekend take a minute to reflect.....

Do You Love Your Job?
The boomerang of Reciprocity has never swung with such vigor!

Dear Readers, the Great Recession is over! It's your time now! No longer can employers play the "your lucky to have a job" card. No longer can your Manager mistreat you without being exposed to millions in Social Media. In fact, soon-to-retire CEOs are looking for thought leadership from the trenches to ensure their legacy is intact. Everyone matters and everyone should be treated fairly.

As you smash through the office doors this afternoon, what is your mindset?

Are you launching into the weekend full of pride in your professional life? Do you love the company that you represent? Can you put sunscreen on your children this weekend with a feeling of absolute achievement?

Are you celebrating collective progress to make the world a better place?

Or.....are you trying to outrun your shitty professional life for a few days?

Do You Work Harder Than Anyone You Know?
There is a premise in the professional world that performance reviews should go away. That's not going to happen! Your company needs to document your performance (or lack there of) in the event that they need to fire you. Performance reviews are always demotivating because we focused on the one and only 4 out of 5 on our score sheet. Performance reviews over-shadow our achievements and they invite criticism where there should be praise.

Performance reviews suck: You have a job to do....if you don't do it....you will be fired....sign here.

Of course, I am a proponent of praise over criticism. But, Rules are rules....you can't suck at your job and keep it because people like you. You cannot crowd source performance! People love Tim Tebow, let's see how his fate shakes out!

The boomerang swings both ways!

Have You Forgotten How To Love Yourself?
This weekend I will sit on my deck and analyze my performance. I will thank God for my good fortune and then I will begin to think about what I can do better.

Only you know how great you really are. Only you know the days you've given less than your full effort, how many times you hit the snooze button and if the words you profess are based in authenticity.

How others view your performance means nothing....you should always expect more of yourself than anyone else does. You should always ignore scores that don't align with the reality only you know to be true!

Celebrate....Reflect....and Celebrate some more: Because You Deserve To!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

DOUBT

In every endeavor I have undertaken in my life, I have had my fair share of skeptics. It's probably a necessary evil to see faults in people and seek to correct them. I love being underestimated, it makes it that much sweeter to hear Thank You from those who said you were incapable.

In this life there are those who can (because they believe in their ability) and those who cannot (because they have lost their willingness to try). I feel sad for people who suck and what they do...they know they can they just choose not to.

When you look in the mirror at the end of your career you may ask yourself one of two questions:
1. When did I give up?
2. At what point did it all come together?

Never Give Up
I heard a tale of two salesmen. They were tasked with selling shoes in Africa. The first landed on the foreign soil and saw natives without shoes. He instantly called his boss and reported that the market didn't exist and that their success was doomed. The second saw the same audience and determined that the opportunity was limitless.

You can take to the existing market or you can create a new one.

I am certain that nothing is certain...why wouldn't we see that as a massive opportunity?

Togetherness
There are days that suck. Sometimes you feel like you are climbing up a hill with a rock on your back. It often seems that when work is going well your personal life suffers. It is hard to find the alignment of all things....is that a reason to hang your head?

I have created repeatable success in a wide variety of conquests. This based mostly on the fact that I awake before anyone else, stay up later than anyone else, and get up every time I get knocked down.

As you read this are you raising an eyebrow or nodding your head?

Your limits are only a cause of the doubt that you allow to overshadow your spirit. Our time here is too short to lend credence to those who do not believe in us.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Choose Happiness

The foundation of our lives is built by the choices we make: The career we chose, the person we picked to spend our life with, how we delegate our time.

While the foundation may be built on choice, our future is built by our perception & our attitude. Last week, we identified that with the right resources and the proper motivation we can achieve anything. In essence, we just want to glimpse what is possible. We want to imagine opportunity. It starts with hearing Yes.....then with a mindset fueled by possibility, we are catapulted forward to achieve.

Can it not be said that the more we learn, the less we need?

The New Economy
I have been overwhelming impressed by Chris Norton's vision of consumerism in today's marketplace. He ponders how it might be possible that during a recession products that were priced 3x their competitors sold at record highs. It is because of 2 reasons:
1. Consumers are more educated
2. With so much information available our bullshit filter is more active than ever

Therefore, selling and marketing alike are now more about story telling and design than product promotion. If that which you are selling is an extension of your uncompromised vision...people may feel that they cannot live without it.

Is what you have something people cannot live without?

The Road to Success
There seems to be a misconception that "nice guys finish last". As stated, buyers are more educated, so slick talk no longer works. The Wall Street ethos is giving way to The Social Network.

No longer are slick suits and fancy cars a distinction of success. We now drive fuel efficient cars and wear Toms.

It is reality: we now care more about others and less about ourselves. Even our personal brands are bolstered by our unwritten social contact that states:
Generosity is our most valued currency 

The Path to Happiness
Today suits are being replaced by jeans and cubicles torn down to make space for bean bag chairs. Corner offices are giving way to more room in the courtyard.

Success is no longer in tandem with an ability to put up a front. False pretense has given way to authenticity.

You cannot fool anyone, any more!

We don't have to convince others that we are capable. We simply have to allow the reality of our capabilities to represent themselves.

The key to establishing influence lies in a simple mantra:
Be yourself and be OK with that.....

We need not pretend to know what we do not. Speak through your actions.

Choose Happiness!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Candor

In a former life I was in a rock band. It's not as glamorous as you may think. You load in your gear around 7pm (maybe you get a sound check at 8) and then you sit at the bar until your band finally takes the stage at midnight. After the show, you wait until the bar clears out to load the gear back into the van. During one of these long nights I offered the lead singer of a well-known band a shot. After we downed the licorice tasting liquid crack he looked at me and said, "Thanks for the shot, but I don't like your band". Then he walked away.

I was profoundly entertained! I appreciated the man's ability to cut through the BS. Sure...he'd take me up on my offer for free liquor, but he wasn't gonna spend the night on a stool with a kid with which he had no common interests. He also wanted to make it clear that as an established professional he thought my band had a different audience.

Remembering this interaction conjured up 2 distinct questions:
1. How much time do we waste being polite?
2. Are we entertaining the right audience?

Cut To The Chase
There is a film about a man who discovers he is going to die and loses his ability to engage in small talk. He tells those he loves as much and those he dislikes why. How much time do we waste being polite? Is that girl you are with the woman of your dreams? Are your friends people you genuinely identify with? Is that customer you are chasing worth catching?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could cut the crap and say what we really mean? Wouldn't it be great if we could walk up and kiss the girl in HR or tell the CFO he is being an asshole?

Not likely...but hope is not lost! 

Controlling Your Destiny
While we cannot predict the future, we can choose who we wish to spend time with.

You can sit down with an employee and alert him of his bullying nature. You can tell that girl that you love her. You can quit your job. You can tell a customer that their behavior is less than professional.

What have you got to lose?

We often fear the unknown. The only certainty is that if we ignore what we fear we will never know what could have been.

What are you hiding from?

Do you have the job you have because it's manageable? That's no way to live!

Ask yourself a simple question:
Can I do more here than I can anywhere else?

If you have the tools to succeed, you like the people around you, and you trust the organization; then the answer to the question above is: Yes!

...then its on you!

Don't waste your time complaining about a problem, solve it! Don't wait until your life is over to try new things. Don't give your power away because you are afraid of how great you might be.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Make It Easy

There are not enough hours in the day. We often avoid situations for fear of discomfort. Sometimes we wake up at night with the feeling that the world might end. Then we take action...and everything gets better!

I had recently advised a group of young people of their plight to set expectations for themselves greater than those of their predecessors. It is easier to avoid misguided advice if the advice you give yourself is of a higher standard. We have seen that the lack of motivation in human beings is more often an affect of boredom than a disinterest in a challenge.

Do you ask more of yourself than others do?  Does following procedure seem to marginalize your greatness?

Our challenge is not to debunk the system but to sustain and overcome. I have lived in the trenches for 15 years, so I don't need to reference a survey or quote an "expert". Let me reveal to you life's great certainty:

To doubt oneself is healthy. To give up empowerment is a crime!

A Line Around the Block
I commonly refer to the following split scenario....

Post This: "Tell Me What I Am Doing Wrong?"
Inevitable Reaction: People will line up around the block to submit criticism. Whether they know you or not, they will relish the opportunity to crush your spirit.

Post This: "I Need Help"
Inevitable Reaction: Feedback will be sparse and uncertain.

....a good way to discover who your real supporters might be.

Don't Pile On
If everyone else is willing to project their dissatisfaction upon you, why would you add to the madness?

With every ounce of uncertainty comes an opportunity to discover your greater potential. It is not OK to put pressure on yourself to the extent that you cannot perform.

Are you honest about the moments that lack clarity? Are you validating criticism or proving your critics incorrect?

Take Inventory
Are you stressed out because you are annoyed? The things that annoy us are actually very easy to avoid.

Ask Yourself: Is your frustration driven by life altering experiences or has human error fueled your discontent to disabling degrees?  

When we allow others to determine our fate, we give away power. Sometimes the answer can be found without asking for help. We have the power to create answers to unanswered questions.

Everyone has something to teach, most just choose not to. This is an opportunity not a shortcoming!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave 

Community

In a song called Delicate Cycle, Ms. Kimya Dawson discusses the necessity of community. She sights that increased wealth and/or fame create isolation. Furthering the point that money (nor fame) can buy happiness.

I lead a life of varied pursuits: I am a Sales professional, a Marketing professional, an HR professional, a student mentor, a youth soccer coach, a volunteer adult educator, a dad and a husband. The only synchronicity I have equated to the aforementioned hodge podge existence is...

Uncertain interaction fuels our existence!

Stability is boring. Knowledge attained but not shared is wasted. To ignore those who need help is as much a detriment to you as it is to them. Negativity is the result of inaction and inaction creates isolation.

One cannot achieve happiness alone!

Teach
I do not know if there is a better feeling than showing someone how to do something and witnessing their acquisition of a skill. Tom Chatfield proves in his book, Fun Inc, that human beings compete not to see others lose but to engage in a communal activity. It may then be said that those most competitive have the potential to be our strongest corporate citizens.

Share
I have been a strong opposition to generational stereotyping. It is inelegant at best to characterize people's motivation based on when they were born. It is also the easy thing to do. Too often we look for logic in the way we proceed through life so that we can quantify our effort. Measuring every element of our being may be efficient but we have to be careful not to program the romance out of life.

Accelerate
The profound disconnect in human motivation exists in the belief that we have to be hyper-focused on one thing. My belief is that our lives are formed more fully by doing a lot of things well as opposed to doing just one thing really well.

You can be as fascinating as you wish if we are willing to be fascinated. Everyone has something to teach, we fear to do so because we are afraid of being misunderstood.

I have traveled many miles to see people I do not know. I have stood in front of thousands of people sharing what many are afraid to say. I have helped people of all ages become a little bolder. To discover the unknown...or at least to try.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Generational Field Study

"Stay Young & Invisible Because You Know That's What You Are" - The Brothers Gallagher

This weekend again I read an article about about how to motivate Millennials written by a Baby Boomer. This article sited young people as entitled, stating that the "trophy kids" were unable to take on any task without being rewarded. The article also sited a sense of entitlement, remarking that young people were unwilling to follow direction.

One resounding thought crossed my mind when reading this piece:
Bullshit!

Here we are again talking about generational stereotyping and it makes me want to puke!

Reality Restated: Organizations should evolve based on what will make their business more profitable & what helps maximize their human resources.

I remember being at an HR Conference 6 years ago where we were investigating the aforementioned stereotypical motivational strategy. It was based on a survey done somewhere, the evidence was inconclusive at best, and yet we've spent nearly a decade trying to validate this nonsense.

I have chosen to deny this trend! I will not read an article written about Generation Y written by anyone other than a member of said generation. Can you image the backlash if a Millennial had written a blog about the stereotypical habits of baby boomers....?

No, dear readers, I am a man of action. So, I will be participating in four different events this week in an effort to dispel the generational divide.

I will be speaking to two different groups of HR Professionals in Northern California. I will also be keynoting a Young Professionals Summit in San Francisco and speaking at a student leadership conference at Miami University.

Here is what I seek to discover:

1. Are young people labeled in an effort to marginalize them to the point that they believe the hype?

 

2. Why does HR seek to categorize everything?

 

3. Why are the stereotypical habits of the exiting side of the workforce not taken into account when succession planning?

None of us can help when we were born. None of us like to be stereotyped. Most of us seek to debunk preformed opinions (not validate them).

So why in God's name do we think it is beneficial to survey a group of people, formulate an outsider's opinion, and spend a bunch of money trying to pretend we understand...?

Being young (or old for that matter) is nothing more than a state of mind.

There are people who are flexible. There are people who are adventurous. There are people who are consistently searching to evolve themselves.

There are people who are grumpy. There are people who are set in their ways. There are people who are too stubborn to change.

...when or where we were born has nothing to do with this!

Grow Up!

My journey to get the facts from the trenches continues. Because surveys never tell the whole story and I never accept anything as the truth until I see it for myself.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Transforming Engagement

My friend Robin Schooling wrote a compelling piece a few days back. She conceptualized a 2 headed HR department:

Head 1: Transactional -  which handles benefits, employee relations, HRIS, new hires/terminations/transfers and compliance.

Head 2: Transformational -  which has responsibility for performance management, talent management, learning and performance, leadership development and business strategy.

Robin is a smart young lady who has been in HR for a good spell. Her notion of splitting the HR function is particularly relevant to the function formally known as Employee Recognition. Simply put, recognition is transactional while engagement is transformational. 

The HR department is split by those who simply want to recognize employees in a transactional way (service awards & performance reviews) and those who seek to actually engage their employees in a transformational way (by designing culturally-centric programs that produce measurable results).

This begs the question: Does your HR Certification amplify your ability to design programs that amplify your culture and produce a return on investment? Is escalation in the HR profession based on transactional skill sets? And if so, possibly the PHRs and SPHRs can lead HR Department #1 and a new set of transformational learning principles are formulated for HR Department #2...? 

We cannot be what we are not....and that's OK. I have a defined skill set like any other professional.

There are many HR Professionals who seek to be in category #1. They are incapable of many of the skills sets required to be in category #2. 

Employee Recognition is a necessary component of many organizations Total Rewards Strategy. There is a skill set to administering a transactional Service Anniversary Program. Said professional may lack the skills to amplify administrative skills into strategic skills....and they may be perfectly OK with that. I would, however, hate to see professionals with transformational skills marginalized by professionals with transactional skills. This is why HR as a department gets a bad rap. If we were to define a path for advancement according to varied skill sets, organizations may fall under one of 2 categories. So, a candidate may then be able to discern where he or she may "fit in". A candidate for any position. 

HR builds companies: Are you building a transactional or transformational company?

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave       

3 Times I Quit!

I have had a ton of jobs since I was just a wee-lad. I've been a gas station attendant, a bartender, a pool man, I sold cigars, and was a professional musician. My time in the trenches tee-ed me up for my post-graduate life. Unlike a lot of today's professionals, I have held just 4 jobs in the corporate world.

I have dedicated the last 6 years to creating culture, engaging employees, and developing tomorrow's leaders. In the forums I conduct we calculate the extraordinary cost of voluntary employee exodus.

Here are the top 6 reasons why employees leave companies:
1. Excessive Workloads
2. Doubts About Leadership's Ability to Manage the Company Successfully
3. Anxiety Over Job Security
4. Boredom and a Lack of Challenge in their Work
5. Belief That They Have No Place to Go in the Company
6. Lack of Recognition

We examine these disengagement factors obsessively. We conduct surveys, facilitate focus groups, interview executives, and conduct in-work process analysis.

Putting aside the well-studied workforce management statistics. I figured I would examine the reasons I have left companies in the past. I have never had a job I disliked but sometimes we get so caught up in the statistics that we forget the simplicity of human interaction....

Slow Down Buddy
I remember my first high school wrestling practice. A vocal member of the team explained to me that I didn't have to over-exert myself and that I should take it easy. Later that practice, I took his spot on the Varsity squad. I knew right away that the person who advised me to slow down was a loser, I don't keep company with losers.

Too many companies have a guard at the gates that tells the new person "how it's done around here". Advice to young professionals: take aim at those who try to slow you down, and take their job!

Far too many companies protect mediocre talent. This only drives away exceptional talent.

You're Not Ready
See reason number 5. Some companies are still naive enough  to believe that they still hold the cards. Especially in times of recession, great employees have options. The companies who have held the "you're lucky to have a job" ethos are experiencing mass exodus.

It's pretty simple, great talent should be developed and promoted! If you hire managers from outside your organization because you have no faith in the leadership capabilities of your individual contributors.....you are failing in your primary objective as an employer.

You should identify those with potential and help them grow (instead of squashing their motivation).

A Title Does Not Come With Entitlement
See reason number 2. If you are a manager and you are spending the majority of your time talking at your team...they are rolling their eyes, not nodding their heads.

Empathy and Genuine Interest are the 2 strongest principles of leadership. Denial and Pseudo-Confidence are the signs of those in over-their-head. If you think you are faking it well, you are not!

'Tis better to search for answers than to pretend to have an answer to every question.

Companies spend billions upon billions replacing employees. The answers are far less expensive:
1. Replace incompetent middle-mangers
2. Promote from within
3. ...and managers will lead instead of managing

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Little Did He Know....

"I was thinking about how everyone is dying...and maybe its time to live"

- Mark Oliver Everett

 

The story of "Stranger Than Fiction", is one that analyzes a man's life and sends him a warning sign. His life had become so predictable that hearing it's narrative was unsettling. So, he chose to live to the fullest, in the hope his life would be worth saving. 

What Are You Doing With Your Life?

Over the last few days I have heard Blake Mycoskie speak of how a booze-fueled trip to Argentina turned into a mission of philanthropy, I've helped my mother fight cancer (again), and saw a friend leave a job that he loved. 

What Does It All Mean?

Let's revisit a few lessons that our aforementioned hero learned in his quest to escape the calculated journey to his demise. 

Habits Are Meant To Be Broken

I know far too many people who live their lives through a structured plan...that is no way to live! People are not numbers and our motivation cannot be quantified. We want to believe that we can predetermine our way through every decision, but where is the fun in that? People are far more irrational than we care to believe and there is something kind of wonderful about that. 

It kills me to see people who have given up! Action without strategy is a waste of effort, it is far worse to have wonderment escape you. If you are not intrigued by the unknown, you cannot progress. Old habits die hard (and that is not a good thing).

Breaking Form

We are witnessing a workforce transition where the old guard is holding on by their finger nails and the new generation is charging the gates. Generation X quietly awaits in the wings with the work ethic of the Boomers and the flexibility of the Millennials. Soon the generational tug-o-war will be dispelled and we can all get back to work. 
 

Networking sucks because it is uncomfortable talking to strangers and those who talk most seem to have the least to say. Social Media participation only tee's you up to be criticized for being bold enough to speak up. Public speaking is the apex of subjecting one's self to crowd-sourced scrutiny. 

As we age we become wiser and take less chances....and then we die.

If You Knew, What Would You Do

Stranger Than Fiction is a story about a man who seeks to re-write his obituary. Don't wait until your immanent death to decide how to alter your process. If you've made your life a commodity....you should do something stupid, right now!

The people you love will love you no matter what! Replacing the narration of your life story with a spreadsheet will send your daughter to college. She would trade said degree for some provocative insight.

...and so it was, a wristwatch saved Harold Crick...

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave