Is “Be Our Guest” Really the New Employment Paradigm?

You’re looking for exceptional candidates who have either just graduated with an advanced degree or are ready to move on from their current employer to seek out their next position in Silicon Valley. How will they choose the best company to work for? What will they look for in their first or next employer? Will they compare cafeteria menus against each other? Will they rate companies on a scale of nap pods per capita? Will they ask if you have a fitness center and access to personal trainers? Will they ask about the broadband capabilities of your clean fuel commuter buses? And the age old question a good friend of mine once asked, “Will the Brie on the cheese trays in the cafeteria ever be the correct temperature?”

It’s no laughing matter actually. I have worked at companies where there are in fact quantitative answers to these questions and they have been asked by more than one candidate at some point in the interview process. Many of those questions are now passé. These perks are fast becoming the norm for companies to offer their employees. Even high-end swag has lost the cool factor. These perks no longer represent a competitive edge for large or even small companies in the Valley. The elite candidates, the cream of the crop, those tech savvy, top tier grad-schoolers or brilliant self-taught coders are not wooed by this window dressing. Those perks may have been the talk of the industry a few short years ago, along with a steady job and a paycheck of course, but what are these candidates really looking for in today’s market? They want more. More?! What more could they want?

It’s actually not so much what they want, it’s what they want to do and how they want to do it. They want to have impact. The newest crop of Silicon Valley recruits want to be a part of that amazing development team that is truly changing the way people interact with the world. They want to know that they are changing lives for the better.

In the 20-teens we could say that this is a real-time interpretation of the “self-transcendence” level of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Need”. I know that you're thinking, "he means self-actualization". Nope, look it up, there is actually a level called self-transcendence and it means almost exactly what you think it means. At it's core it tells us that these candidate long to have a high level of positive impact on the lives of an ever-increasing group of people gives the individual worker of today a greater sense of purpose, more job satisfaction, and far greater self-esteem. Not to say that today’s job seeker is more needy on a personal level than ever before, but that this basic human need couples with the technology today that allows us to reach farther and affect more people in a way that results in even greater self-worth. So the job seeker of today is looking to have that greater, farther reaching affect more than ever before in today’s connected world. While not true for everyone that has come before, generations of the past may have merely sought to meet their own self-actualization by achieving a level of living comfortably and providing for one’s family and being rewarded for good work through praise, awards or additional compensation. That used to be enough for the average job seeker, but all of that has changed.

Today’s new paradigm embraces the broader reach and scope to be able to affect the world at large. It is no mystery that the biggest and fastest growing segment of technology today is in social media. Companies that have a broad reach across all demographics to bring news and entertainment to the fingertips to everyone whether they are sitting in a stroller or a nursing home, in the city or in the desert, or anywhere in between. We have game-ified everything from ordering socks to sitting in traffic. The next gen job market is all about having the biggest impact on the largest audience there is...everyone. Spurred by social media and even to some extent the advent of the gig-economy allows any individual whether through their vocation or avocation to embrace the idea that they can and should be impactful on making the world a better (or at least more entertaining) place. So being able to take part in all of that and to do it in a way that improves people’s lives is a top priority for these candidates. However, the greater impact on others is not the only part of what the job-seeker of today is looking for. Today’s candidates also want to know that they will grow and develop in their new role. That their new role will have an exponential impact on their own life. That they will have just enough autonomy to control their own destiny within the organization, but still be guided towards success by their management. It is not enough to take a job where you know what is expected of you and that you have the tools to do the job. What needs to be discoverable to these job-seekers through the interviewing and on-boarding process is that they will be able to and encouraged to develop new skills, acquire new abilities, and advance their career.

The job seeker of today and tomorrow needs to see that others in the organization are choosing their own path to success and that they will have opportunities to do so in a way that aligns with their personal goals as well as those of the company. They want to be challenged enough to feel a sense of great achievement as they become masters of new technologies, subject matter experts, and leaders in their chosen domain. To have the doors open to become the best of the best of the best. Ultimately all of this, the desire to have impact on the world and grow and develop as an individual, comes together in terms of what they are seeking in their next position. So how do we, as HR and Talent professionals, sell that opportunity to candidates without sounding like some cliché all-hands scene from HBO’s Silicon Valley?

We let them know that they are not just another cog in the wheel or butt in a seat. We show them how to get to the path they know they want to be on. That we can offer a career path that will help them achieve their growth potential through mentorships, education, and development opportunities. We point them in a direction where the challenges are significant, but they can make their own decisions about how to tackle them. Where guidance on those paths is provided more as a safety-net than as a guidebook. We let them know that their personal development is as important to the organization as organizational success. That we understand and embrace the idea that when they are excited about their career they give more to it to get more out of it. We let them know that what they will do matters to people.

How do we show these fresh recruits this? How do we let them know? We start by giving them a voice in the business. We are straight forward, honest, and transparent about how the business operates, how they fit into it, and what it does for others. We show them those open doors to their growth and development by engaging with the right partners to give them the value add they are looking for in an employer. We encourage them to develop skills that they will carry with them throughout their career. We share the data and the metrics about the business with them so they can see the impact it is having, the impact they are having, on a daily basis. This real commitment to each employee is respectful and it empowers them to make decisions about their career development armed with the information they need. We respect each employee as a whole person. We want them to take time for themselves as well, to be able to grow outside the office and incorporate some of that self-transcendence that doesn’t happen at work. We want to make sure that they allow themselves the time they need to live their life. In that we do not see them as just another hire that pays the business back with productivity, but that they have the opportunity to grow and develop and have impact on the world with excitement and enthusiasm that accelerates their own sense of being.

Any Silicon Valley software startup should understand that employee engagement needs to be based upon the idea that there is a philosophical exchange between the employer and the employee - where both parties understand that they are in the relationship to provide for each other but it must go well beyond, “you do work for us and we’ll pay you.” The company side of this exchange is not to be taken lightly by any means. The organization must have ambitious goals tied to aggressive milestones that require each and every employee to be on their toes and working exceptionally hard to reach those goals and milestones. In most cases that means the business will be driving to meet the needs of an ever-changing and rapidly growing constituency. Most days that means the lights are never turned off and the company expects nearly round the clock commitment from everyone. The opportunity for organizations line these to have global impact by delivering cutting-edge solutions that will enhance and improve the lives of others is immeasurable. So it should be no mystery to anyone that the expectations these employees have of us as their employer are at least as high as our expectations of them as employees.

On the other side of this exchange we we need to respect and actively grow and develop every employee in every stage of their career. Even before they join our companies we need to encourage them to plan on learning new technology, engage in online learning, and order the latest educational materials that interest them. We need to encourage them to embrace the notion of autonomy in order to encourage their creative side, ultimately making it more exciting to join our organization and own our mission as their own. They need to walk in the door focused on learning as much as they are focused on doing the important work to advance our organizations. But it is not just about advancing the business, it is about their development both inside and even outside the office. We should provide a vast technical library and offer access to a wide range of courses and affinity groups inside the company. In a competitive company that might include offerings that include programming classes, Product Management courses, Women in Engineering groups, Scuba Diving instruction, flight school, and Yoga sessions. We might also explore providing fitness trainers who lead off-site activity programs and fun games outdoors during or after office hours. We should bring in technical leaders from across the industry as guest speakers as another way to recognize the broad interests of these new recruits. In terms of global or at least local impact companies can engage with organizations like Second Harvest Food Bank and encourage employees to get involved with organizations like Big Brother/Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, The Family Giving tree, and other community based organizations. Ultimately, it is an imperative for these job seekers that they see and feel a company level commitment to do right by them and the greater community.

As company culture leaders and arbiters of the next generation human resources and people operations organizations we must recognize that the respect of the individual can’t just stop with the employee. We must also place a high value on their family members. It is more the norm today to invite employee’s families, including their parents, into the office to join them for lunch, or to participate in office celebrations. Our organizations should be allowing employees the flexible time they need to spend with their family. Having an awareness of how their work life impacts their home life is another way to genuinely build trust, respect and loyalty with the employee population. This flexibility is fast becoming even more important to today’s job seekers than any of the other perks that are being offered.

So the next wave of hires are not looking at or hoping to be wowed by the additional company perks that surround the day-to-day job like meals and snacks and swing set conference rooms. They are looking for opportunities to contribute to meaningful and impactful goals and objectives over a broader spectrum than ever before. They want strong leadership that is unified across the executive suite and is outlining a clear mission tied to that opportunity to have impact. It is important to them to work in an environment where they will be inspired and motivated by management that recognizes their interest in integrating parts of their life into their work. And they want to see clear evidence of that throughout the recruitment process and their full employee life-cycle. If you can be that employer then even in this competitive market for top tier talent - these candidates will start lining up outside your door.

In this new paradigm the question may never be asked, “Will the Brie on the cheese trays in the cafeteria ever be the correct temperature?”, But just in case, as my good friend Dave Stone found out ... the answer is no.

Randy Levinson, a Silicon Valley veteran with over 20 years of HR and Talent Management experience from companies that include Google, Cisco, VeriFone, and Silicon Graphics, is currently a Vice President of HR and Global Talent Acquisition.

Are you Tactically Strategic or Strategically Tactical?

After spending countless hours (maybe it even adds up to years now) in business meeting that talk about being strategic and being tactical and interchanging those terms and correlating them it seems that for many they have lost their true meaning and purpose. And then last night I was in a meeting that pointed out the true difference in these terms as never before. In the meeting was Director of Manufacturing, a Director of Supply Chain, a Sales Marketing Director and, interestingly enough, a rather recently retired military commander with a lot of practical and field experience who also happens to be a Six Sigma Black Belt. All of these folks have had and continue to have stellar careers and are well respected and recognized in their field. It was great to be able to get them all in one room for a planning meeting.

As we progressed through the planning for what we needed to accomplish something became very clear. Some of us were focused on Strategy and some of us were drawn to being more tactical. As the meeting progressed a pattern emerged that was quite remarkable. We’d lean towards strategy as we planned, but in each phase we’d give in to tactics. This seems fairly obvious and actually quite unremarkable as I write this, but sometimes the simplest most obvious view of something is what we overlook more than anything else. At the start of the meeting our most tactical team member was somewhat frustrated by the fact that his ideas were not taking, were getting no traction or approval, but eventually, as we got into our groove (it took a couple hours to get into that groove) we’d move from phase to phase and turn to him for leadership through the each phase. So here is what was really happening, or perhaps I should say here is what it comes down to.

- Tactics get you out of the situation you are in. You need to be tactical to move forward.

- Strategy is how you either deliberately get into or avoid the situation in the first place, the plan to move from one place to another.

So when a plan is being established (i.e. we need to build these and move them to market) each phase of that plan will need some tactical planning (we need to increase headcount by 12% to meet the demands of the customer demand for the product). Totally not rocket science. What are we gonna do? = strategy, how are we gonna do it? = tactics. As our former military commander repeated throughout the meeting, “too easy”.

But we often fail to see it that way. Many organizations these days want everyone to be strategic in their thinking. Tactical thinking is not so much the focus lately because it is often viewed as reactive rather than pro-active. Anyone in any business can tell you that success rests more on your ability to be reactive than pro-active, such is the nature of the universe. There is more chaos than order; you will always have to be reactive to something no matter how pro-active you are.

Example; even with many lows preventing such behavior there may come a time when a person snaps and goes on a rampage and hurts people or takes hostages. How to the police react to this? They call out the SWAT team. That’s Special Weapons and Tactics. There is a TV show on these days called Flashpoint all about a team like this. They are called in because when it comes to reacting to that sort of situation, they are the best, they are the epitome of tactical thinking. That’s the “getting out of the situation you are in”. In this example, despite all the strategy to prevent the situation (parents, teachers, laws, mental health professionals), the situation still happens from time to time. We need those tactical guys. And after those guys have handled the situation what do we do more than anything else? We try to see where the strategy went wrong. Why did we not catch it before it happened? Why? Because all the strategy in the world can’t prevent the need for tactical thinking. Bottom line: You need tactical people. They may not appear to do much more than waiting around for something to go wrong, but when it does they are the ones who hit the ground running like no one else can.

I recently discovered Wikipedia’s younger sibling Wiktionary. When looking up the two terms Strategy and Tactics I discovered that you can find strategy in the definition for tactics, but tactics does not appear in the definition for strategy. Furthering the point that they are closely related but not interchangeable.

My advice? Help the people in your organizations or teams or among your clients or peers understand the difference between strategy and tactics and drive them to identify where their best thinking lies. Are they more strategic or tactical? Are they both? Which do they enjoy more? You will always need experts in both areas to be successful. Learn to utilize those strengths and then apply them to plan and execute more effectively.

When are we really interviewing?

I am one of those extremely lucky men who has the good fortune to get critiqued by my wife on a daily basis. I am not the only one, you know who you are out there if you're like me, or better still…like my wife. Yes, on a daily basis as I am having what I believe might be a conversation about dinner at the Jones' the night before, or the upcoming Scout meetings for the boys – I am being covertly scrutinized from head to toe about everything from the length of my hair or nails, my weight loss progress, how up to date or clean my pants, or shirt, or underwear, or socks are, or how polished my shoes are. Okay, that's not entirely true; it really isn't all that covert.

Every morning my spouse is kind enough to give me an unfiltered review on my appearance. Filtered would be more like, "That's not what you're wearing is it?" I get more of the "You are not wearing that…period" And here's the interesting part – what she knows instinctively, having not ever been in this industry, is that the second I walk out the door on any given day…I am being interviewed.

Every interaction I have with other people is another opportunity for me to present myself as a professional, personable, intelligent, creative, genuine, modest, confident, successful individual. Whether I am looking for candidates or looking for a job, the way I present myself is a reflection on how I think of myself and how I want to be perceived by others. The perception of other is something we need to do our best to control.

I can feel your eyes rolling. I was even once told by a peer in the workplace that we needed to change the perception that the director had of a given project. Ugh! I replied that we could change reality, but we could not necessarily change another person's perception, that was something they'd need to do on their own. But by changing reality, or in the case of personal presentation, by controlling that reality at a micro-management level – we get in front of people's perception generators and control the input. In order to do that we need to get into the mindset that we are ALWAYS interviewing. Whether it is with other parents when dropping off the kids at school, at the grocery store, at the barber or at the salon, or the drycleaners, and don't even ask me about the impromptu nearly-naked interview in the locker room at the gym. Ugh again!

This idea that one is always interviewing goes well beyond your appearance (even though that is a big part of anyone else's first impression). We need to act and interact correctly, we need to smell right (non-offensive/clean), our body language needs to be right (open, warm, pleasant, engaging) and we have to say and do the right things (listen, laugh, empathize, listen more, reply, assess, share, keep listening, ponder, muse, repeat).

So my wife is kind enough to give me her opinion and some much needed direction on a regular basis. I am not saying that I am an unreflective dolt who does not know how to groom himself or dress himself, in fact I am usually about 15 minutes ahead of her, but since I keep my self-critique in my head (I look in the mirror and think, "hmm, gonna need a haircut soon") she verbalizes it shortly thereafter, "Get your haircut today…and be sure to cut your nails." Yeah, I knew it was coming, but just kept it in my head. Thanks honey!

What she has taught me to consider, yes she is actually a teacher by trade, is that there are a few questions you can easily ask yourself every day that will help prepare you for the day ahead.

If you were meeting yourself for the first time today:
Would you hire you?
Would you want to work for you?
Would you want to work alongside you?
Would you want to buy something from you?
Would you want to sell something to you?
Would you take yourself seriously (wearing that)?
Would you want to get to know you better?

Asking and answering these questions for yourself will help you put your best foot forward as you emerge each day to face the world.

Before I close here I gotta share a story with you on how right my wife really is (and I know she is not the only one folks). Years ago when I was working with a youth group one of the really smart kids stopped by the house on the day of a big dance. We talked about the dance and how excited he was. My wife entered the room and in 2 seconds she assessed and commented, "You're not wearing those sneakers to the dance." She told him. He had planned on wearing his regular day-to-day sneakers to the dance. He had new pants, a new shirt, cleaned the car, gotten cologne, etc. But being a teenage boy normally dependent on his mother to get him footwear, he did not get new shoes. My wife continued, "It's all about the shoes kid. Nice shoes means a lot to a girl. If you are looking to be successful tonight at the dance you gotta get new shoes." He didn't for that dance. But what he later relayed to us is that after hearing her opinion he decided to watch how the girls at the dance that evening interacted with the guys. You know what? He saw that at least 90% of the girls (by his count) checked out the guys shoes within the first 2 seconds. He was sold and bought new shoes before the next dance.

Seven years later we were attending his wedding with friends and family numbering over 200. Shortly after the reception started he very deliberately wove his way through the crowd and approached my wife and me with his new bride in tow. "I've been dying to share this with you both for the longest time" he said excitedly. Turning to his new wife he said, "Honey, on the day we met, when I approached you awkwardly with some lame line in trying to get you interested in talking to me, why did you even bother to give me a chance?" You know what she said without me having to write it here, so this is for the guys like me. She replied with a smile, "It was the shoes."

My point? I just want to make sure that you know that I know just how lucky I am to have the critic so close at hand on a daily basis. Someone who is so in tune with how well I can fit into the styles of the day. Someone who can listen to me snoring next to her for hours on end night after night and still have the wisdom and courage to help me understand how to put my best foot forward when I go out into the world every single day.

I’m sorry; you’re just interviewing me wrong

Years ago I had an interesting interview experience. It was very early in my career and the guy who was going to hire me asked, "What's two plus two?"

I hesitated, but only for a millisecond trying in that brief moment to figure out why he had asked. Then, almost in a 'what kind of idiot do you think I am' tone I replied "Four". Since he did not respond or nod right away I added, "Unless this is the kind of place where if you say it's five, then it's five. Or if the customer says it's five then it's five – but I have to tell you, even if you say it's five – I'm the kind of guy who will work with five but I'll probably still let you know I think it's four."

I got the job, but that answer was not the reason why. In fact about 2 years later the same guy (my boss) asked me to interview new applicants for a position and he handed me his file of interview notes for the past few years. I found his notes on my interview and in particular found the notes on that question. His notes "Answered decisively – then went way too deep."

While I did get the job and one might argue that it was a really great question to ask with layers most people don't ever really think of. He was actually just asking the question to test my reflexes. To his credit, the position I was going for at the time was very junior and with a very shallow resume that was not relevant to the job at all, so it worked in this situation. But that won't fly in every interview with every candidate.

There have been some wonderful discussions lately in the blogosphere and the twitterverse about the candidate experience and how many companies have walked away from caring about that. This is a problem that runs through the online application process, the lack of feedback to inquiries about jobs or submitted resumes, and even through the interview process. It truly does not serve anyone well to have an interview completely tank. The interview, above all else, is where the company can make or break a new customer or an evangelist about what they do, who they are what they sell, etc.

Unfortunately there are many 'interviewers' out there who either take behavioral interview or active listening techniques so literally that they miss the entire point of the interview. Or they wind up evaluating on what is quite frankly illegitimate criteria.

I have been asked countless times in an interview, "Tell me how you got to where you are today?" They ask this as they are holding and reviewing my resume for presumably the first time. As much as my instincts scream for me to say, "I woke up, showered, got dressed, got in the car, got gas (uh – in the car), decided against the candy bar while I was waiting for the car to fill up, missed your turn off about 2 times and eventually was shown through that very door right there by you" I don't. Instead I go into a much less fascinating tale about my career history. However, about 5-10 seconds into my history I can see that the interviewer has lost interest, focus, or is just letting me babble while they now finally get the time to review the resume. This is not unlike when a Radio Station DJ puts on a 4 minute song so they can go to the bathroom but they take too long and you are left listening to dead air. It's just wrong.

In fact, while Behavioral, Stress, Technical, Active Listening, STAR, DMAIC, and all other theories and processes of interviewing candidates all have some level of merit in some way in some situations for some people – there is an inherent flaw in following any of those processes to the letter to get a good result out of an interview.

Even in an economy where the supply seems to well exceed the demand and where cynicism runs rampant among those who have the jobs and are interviewing those that do not, and where companies are looking harder at ways to disqualify people than to qualify them there is still a great truth that gets overlooked time and again. The interview is a two way street.

I have interviewed with people who behave like they are standing high atop a castle wall shouting questions down at me in a booming voice, "Who dares disturb the Keep of those that are lucky enough to work here?" and I am supposed shout back as loud as I can, "Tis I, the guy who worked at company A, then B, then C, then …you don't really care about all that do you?" And all of a sudden I am in a Monty Python sketch.

Here is my advice to the interviewer on how to properly conduct an interview.

Step 1. Take the first few minutes to get to know the candidate and find some way to connect. This will put them more at ease and get you more honest and thoughtful responses. Perhaps you know people who live near where they live or grew up; perhaps you have friends who went to school where they went to school, or anything that has less to do with work and more to do with life.

Step 2. Discuss the opportunity (don't run at the mouth or take too long to go over it since the candidate has presumably read the job description hence them finding their way to the chair across from you) and make sure the candidate has some understanding of what you are looking for. Then ask them to tell you how they might perform the job, what is their vision. It is very important here to avoid interrupting, but do take the time to validate that you understand what they are talking about. DO NOT tell them things like, "you won't be able to do that here" or "we're not set up for that". This messes with their energy and enthusiasm and does not help you in how you and your company is being interviewed by them. I mentioned in an earlier post that it is important that the candidate has vision even if it is not YET aligned with yours. This remains true.

Step 3. As they talk about what they would do they'll ask questions, be prepared to answer them, and don't be cagey. When you give up a little info it goes a long way to build trust and that trust will enhance the interview process immensely.

Step 4. Use the dialogue to take you to places you feel the interview needs to go. Between the time the interview was scheduled and the time it takes place the candidate gives a lot of thought to what they want to say, make sure you help them get to the right place to share those thoughts. Interviews often end with the standard, "What else can I tell you?" or "Do you have any questions for me?" or "here is my card, call me anytime with questions" While these are tried and true techniques to get to the end of the interview they often come across as insincere. So instead try, "Did we get to go over everything you had thought about before coming in?" or "Can I call you if I think of something else I wanted to ask you or talk about?" This simple twist may actually solicit some very important info that will help you make a decision about the next step. It will also make sure that, no matter how poorly the interview went, the candidate will likely have nice things to say about you and the company. Not that you need the validation, but it is better than having them badmouth the company based on their 45 minutes in a conference room.

Step 5. Follow up. Even as you jot down your notes on the interview (please jot down some notes!) take a moment to send a quick email while you have the resume in hand. A "thanks for coming in; it was a pleasure meeting you." Also goes a really long way in making the candidate experience complete. That experience is really key to the growth and morale of the company overall. Remember that for every job you interview candidates for one of them will get hired. So these steps not only will help you become a better and more effective interviewer, but will also be instrumental in building the morale of the people that enter the company.

Yes, I have more to say about this topic, but I will save it for another post.

If Not Higher

One of my favorite tales is a short story about 100 years old or more called "If Not Higher" by I.L. Peretz. It is a story often paraphrased to demonstrate that the good work that people do often goes unnoticed. I would love to include the story here but it is so much better when told live by an actual storyteller that I can only encourage you, at the very least, to find it on the web and read it before you continue reading here to get the true feel for the story and its power. http://joi.org/celebrate/rosh/higher.shtml

What I can do here though is discuss the meaning of the story. In short – a skeptic comes to find out that the high praise people have for a man doing good work is not high praise enough, thus causing his skepticism to melt away and offer his own praise of the man only now with far greater understanding.

Why I love this story is because we would all like to be the man deserving of praise, yet we all know that we spend so much of our lives being the skeptic. The longer we are skeptical of the world and people around us the harder and harder it is to get it to melt away. And having it melt away is an incredible feeling. Letting that happen means that in some way you are releasing your own inhibitions and allowing yourself to trust or have faith in something or someone else.

As someone who has been and continues to be a skeptic about a great many things and people on a regular basis, I am also someone who historically has let that skepticism melt away all too easily. But lately that has not been the case. And by lately I mean the past couple years. Don't get me wrong, I actually really want to believe in people. Though it has been tough because in the society we are continuously finding ourselves in it is all too easy to lose faith in people. Whether it is their lack of consideration, their selfishness, their smugness, their elitism or their fanaticism they are too busy or self-involved to "do the right thing".

Now who am I to lay down the gauntlet of what the "right thing" to do is? I'm not anybody other than an observer of the human condition like so many of the rest of us. So please feel free to vehemently disagree with me, I need that.

I'll say this – the right thing to do is to actually see and hear and listen to people. We've all heard that most people in a conversation are actually just waiting for their turn to speak rather than listening. We need to be listeners and we need to look for more people to listen to all the time.

It's kind of interesting that as I write this I am thinking about the way technology has integrated into our lives, how many people see it as complicated but all it is trying to replicate what we do as humans. Take the latest craze/wave/innovation of "Cloud Computing" in a nutshell (and let me know if I get this wrong) it is the combination of information one can gather on the internet through multiple sources to create a comprehensive idea or program or application or sales lead or whatever. It is understanding that all the data from all these different companies is on the web (in the cloud) and you can use other web-based applications to pull data from all of them as it corresponds or correlates to the idea or project that you are working on. Simpler. Cloud Computing is like having your own personal Jeopardy Champion in the room with you. The champ has info on everything so if the category is mid-century stamp collecting you are going to be able to pull info on collecting, postal service, stamps and stamp subject matter, the 1950's and 60's, etc. That's the cloud.

Another tech innovation a few years ago was the Network of Workstations or also called NOW. This was a predecessor to the cloud idea in that you would use many brains to create a super-brain. The techno equivalent of 2 or more heads are better than one (without the egos).

So that's what we need to do as people and I believe that using technology to do it is very helpful, but we just can't let it get us away from connecting with people as people. All too often we are now only connecting to people as profiles.

Another crazy example. I worked at a large company and had my office on the top floor of the building. When II chose to take the elevator there might be a few other people in the elevator with me that I didn't know (it was a big company) if I did not know them we would rarely speak for the entire elevator ride. Why? I am guessing that we assumed the other person was too busy to chat, or the ride would be too short to have a conversation, or we were too self-absorbed to want to chat, or assumes that of the other person. At work, in the elevator, we were merely profiles of ourselves, not people. Here is where it gets interesting and this actually did happen to me. My wife and I were invited to a dinner party through her work. I knew no one there but as it turned out another spouse who knew no one there either also worked for the company I did. As it turned out we had even shared a silent elevator ride multiple times. Yet we had never spoken. We were inseparable for the entire dinner party. We barely talked about work but we connected on about 10 other levels and both had a great time. We were now people and not profiles.

Of course by now, if you are still reading, you are expecting me to move into the "do the right thing, volunteer, treat people right, invest in your community, blah. Blah, blah" but once again let me try to make this less preachy and more practical.

By truly tuning in to people, by finding out who they are and not being afraid to reach out and get to know them or give them a glimpse of who you really are – you strengthen your own "cloud". Does that sound self-serving enough for today's environment?

Wait a minute - It pays to get to know people and let them get to know you?

Let's go back to the short story "If Not Higher" (have you read it yet?) Does either the man of praise or the skeptic think of the selfish ways their good work or high praise of another will serve them? The skeptic might as in the end of the story he becomes more pious and his believe and faith are strengthened by his observance of the other man's actions. Perhaps he is thinking now that his faith will serve him better and that he can use it to repent for his skepticism and be rewarded in whatever stage of his life comes next. No one would claim that the other man believes he is being served by this in any way. His service is to a higher power by way of the things he does in the story. And he does not serve that higher power for any greater reward than the satisfaction of knowing that he did a good thing, one might argue "the right thing".

So, if we as human beings who share the planet everyday of our lives with over 6 billion other people can find a way to get to know each other as people, can take the time to listen to each other's needs and see what we can do for each other to get those needs met – maybe, just maybe the society we live in can get a little more connected, a little more inspirational, a little less cynical and self-serving. Go ahead - try it. You may find it lifts your spirit to the clouds…if not higher.

I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

Every day that I pick up a newspaper and see those depressing job headlines I ask myself, "Who is this really for?" Is it really breaking news that more people are losing their jobs and that the ranks of the unemployed are increasing beyond previous expectations? We can bucket the readers of these headlines into a few separate groups.

The first group is those that have lost their jobs. With every headline they inch closer and closer to the edge of the bridge wondering, "Just when is there going to be news that does not push me deeper into despair?" This of course does not help decrease those horrible numbers if the level of despair gets to the point where they can not even bring themselves to be presentable enough to get a job if there were one available. So I am willing to believe that that there is a certain level of goodness in the people who publish the paper and that their intention is not to exacerbate the problem. That means that those headlines are not for the people in this bucket.

The next bucket is the people who are still employed and who read that article and thank their lucky stars that it is not they who have increased the statistic. These are the "at least it's not me" folks. But of course they always need to be aware that it would not take all that much for them to wind up as part of those statistics. So the headlines might be for these people if the media is in fact in cahoots with their employers to try to motivate their workers to work harder, do more, be a team player, and shut up about any adverse conditions because the worker should feel lucky that they have a job. But in fact I do not believe that the people who publish the paper have that level of altruism for the employers (though they do try to get ad revenue out of them) so this one is plausible, but not so likely.

Finally, my last bucket is the high corporate muckimucks who have the power to set budgets, determine the vision and strategy, and ultimately decide to hire more personnel. Do they read these headlines and think, "Oh my goodness, we better hire some people fast because the economy is in trouble." While I would love it if that was the case, I know that it is not true. In fact quite the opposite happens. They think, "Hmm, no one else is hiring and other companies are laying people off, this seems like a good time to do that. We'll save money and won't look too evil in the process since everyone is doing it." So here I submit that these headlines, not intending to do that (I hope), are really not for these people either.

So I guess it's just what we've come to accept as news for the sake of news. But if you really think about it, on some level, this makes me think of a scenario where a man jumps off a 150 story building and as he passed every 25 floors someone shouts out the window to him, "you've jumped off the building" or "you're falling" or "you're heading downward" or "you're gonna hit the ground". Do any of those shouting people really think that the man who jumped did not already know all these things? They are in fact really only shouting for the sake of shouting. And while it may make them feel better for doing it, it really doesn't make him feel any better nor is it helpful in any way.

This is the part where I usually go into my rant about what you can do to be helpful. I'm going to skip that for now. You can read an earlier blog entry if you need that vibe right now. Instead I'm going to focus on what might be good to do now so that you can be more helpful later.

In terms of the unemployment situation. Now is the time for companies to not just look for the cost cutting opportunity, but also look for the better plan going forward. How can a company prepare itself for the upturn (please let there be an upturn) if they only focus on how to respond to a downturn. Companies go from cutting costs to spending out of control on a regular basis. Why does this happen? Lack of effective planning. They've cut costs, scaled back programs, removed vendors, slashed requisitions, cut travel budgets, and laid off numerous workers which has all actually created a high degree of darkness in the workplace and the marketplace. So now what? Now they need to start creeping back towards the light a little bit. Little by little they can create the appropriate and scalable infrastructure. They can establish parameters and processes without business partners that will enable us to scale up slowly and reach plateaus along the way that will allow for them to survey the landscape and decide what to do as they move forward.

So here is what I am saying. Take the time now to get the right people in place to plan for the future. Look through the amazingly large pool of candidates carefully and deliberately to find the people who will hit the ground running but will keep your best interests in mind. Find the people who have been out there under their own frugality plan, who understand how to find scalable cost effective and creative solutions on a daily basis. These are the people who are hungriest not to mess up any opportunity they are given. Do your research, your due diligence. Make sure that you are not just engaging someone with a well written resume, or who interviews like a pro (cause they've had a lot of practice and by the way - why is that?), but someone who has really done the work you need done or someone who can bring a new level of creativity to the table. A Real Person is preferable to a stuffed shirt any day and there are a lot of real folks out there. They may not be pretty, or imposing, or have a commanding presence when they first walk into the room, but take a few minutes to get to know the Real Person inside. Having a real person who is willing to get their hands dirty if need be and work hard to prepare tor whatever comes next is a key component of carefully and deliberately planning for success.

How does all of this help our friend from the 150th floor? We Plan carefully. First we create a situation where he has no reason to jump. Then, just in case let's make sure the windows and doors are locked up there so he can't get out. Then just in case he decides to hurl a chair through the window or door to get to the balcony let's give it a high un-climbable fence or something. Then, if he is still so determined to jump let's put out some nets a few floors down to catch him and set off an alarm so someone will go get him before he climbs out and falls down to the next set of nets or something. Now, if he has done all his due diligence and pre-planning and he's read this article and he feels really prepared for his jump, well...Don't waste his time telling him what he already knows on the way down and …congrats to him on his success.

Bottom line? If you can plan effectively during this time and engage the right people to come up with and implement the plan, then you will not be making the same dark and depressing headline garnering decisions everyone else is down the road. You'll be better prepared for disaster and you'll be growing your business when everyone is cutting back.

ACTUAL LEADERSHIP, PART II

Let's suppose that all the planets align correctly and you wake up on the correct side of the bed (most days) and you are becoming an Actual Leader. This is confirmed for you on a regular basis by people who genuinely smile when they see you coming and also smile and thank you when they depart your presence. Some of these people come to you out of the blue to bounce ideas off of you or report progress because they know that you appreciate it and that they are appreciated. You are even taking the time, as tedious as it is, to at least acknowledge emails and even respond to some of them in a timely manner. Your team is improving their performance because you have inspired them to do so. Feel good about yourself, you deserve it – just don't let it go to your head.

Now that you've got this inspiration thing down, now that you are cultivating followers, what is the extent of this new superpower? Given that your team is working smarter, is happier and is producing more - be it programs or widgets, or services. Your new skills are making a difference…..at work. For many of us, that is just enough. We decide to do what we need to and drive ourselves toward increasing our own paycheck and maybe, if we are truly sincere about being Actual Leaders, we try to do all that for the people who work for us and the people that we work for. It's all good, you've got talent, but it's all still….just at work. What about not "just at work"?

In his book, "Outliers", the 21^st Century prolific author on where humanity meets business, Malcolm Gladwell (and that's my take on who he is) talks about what talent truly is. He concludes that talent, no matter how gifted, is all about hard work. What we are motivated (or inspired) to do because we love it, makes us do it a lot, and when we do something a lot (practice music, cook, read, write, play sports) we become really really good at it. In fact, he made popular the assessment in "The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance" that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. Our Normal amount of hours at work in a given year (with an average of 8 holidays and another 2-4 weeks of vacation or sick time off, comes out to less than 2000 hours a year. So even if you were being an Actual Leader that entire time it will still, according to some, take you over 5 years to become an Actual Leadership Expert. But as I said in Part I, we are truly passively Actual Leaders in many other areas of our lives. Where can we get as much practice in as possible so that we can accelerate our rate of expert level acquisition of Actual Leadership?

This is where my discussions on Leadership meet up with my earlier discussion about Karma. When you have embedded Actual Leadership into your character it is time (many would argue that anytime is time) to put those skills to work to make the world a better place.

Yes, I am setting the high and lofty goal of making the world a better place. Many of you have heard numerous tales and anecdotes about how people do something small but it makes a big difference. In one of my earlier entries I relayed the story about the Sea Stars (go back to my earlier post " Raise me up-Don't bring me down!") a case where someone was doing very little, but it was making a big difference to those he was doing it for. We can each take these newfound Actual Leadership skills and do amazing things with them. We can pick a cause that is important to us, and we can inspire people to do the same. We can make followers among the people whose lives we touch every day and we can help them understand and want to work with us to change the world.

I am not talking about starting a movement, nor am I getting on some high horse and trying to preach to you that you need to join me in some crusade. What I am saying here is that you WILL make a difference because it will serve you well. It will make you feel good; it will improve your view of the world and your place in it. It will be wonderful for you because you are practicing your skills; you are using those skills in excess of the minimal amount of hours it takes to gain the expertise. You are embedding it into your DNA so that you may becoome an expert.

There are some folks who, in their respective professions, roles, or offices, finally "got it" as far as Actual Leadership goes and made some game-changing or life-changing choices. One of my favorites in modern times is Warren Buffet (look him up if you want to know more about him). Mr. Buffet, the pre-eminent investor of our time, accumulated a significant amount of wealth. He had a foundation created in his name with every intention of leaving the bulk of his wealth, $44 Billion, to that foundation upon his death and he said as much in a New York Times interview in 1988 when he was a mere 58 years old. Then in 2006, he changed his mind. At the age of 76 and in relatively good health, it seems he decided, "Why wait until I die to be charitable?" Ok, he's been charitable all along, more than any of us could ever dream to be, but noiw he was talking about 85% of his fortune, over $37 Billion. He did not choose to transfer it to his own foundation; instead he decided that most of it would go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Why? Because he was inspired by the mission and the vision that the Gates Foundation has. He was led there by an Actual Leader, his friend Bill Gates. This donation is one major step for Mr. Buffet in his efforts to become an Actual Leader outside his traditional comfort zone. This guy does not have the kind of experience parting with money that we do. His comfort zone is accumulating. So this is a major effort for him to move from his Actual Leadership role as an investor for profit, towards his new Actual Leadership role as a philanthropist .

We can go closer to the other end of the spectrum and look at the often claimed to be "inspiring" accomplishments of some one like Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer who seems to set another world record every time he touches water. Mr. Phelps is nothing short of amazing if not unbelievable. But is he doing the most with his Actual Leadership capabilities? Athletes who inspire other athletes or children to become athletes are definitely embarking down the Path of Actual Leadership. They have drive, interests, and are well able to inspire others. But do they take that to the next level and fold that Actual Leadership into the fabric of who they are as citiizens of the world like the rest of us? Often times they just come so close. For example, before the 2008 Olympic games Phelps' idol, Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe was quoted as saying that it was highly unlikely that Phelps could take home 8 gold medals. While Phelps used that info to inspire him to work harder, Thorpe misses the Actual Leadership opportunity. After Phelps won his eighth medal Thorpe was very congratulatory and proud of the accomplishment. But his public encouragement would have been even more inspiring before the games.

As far as athletes go my endorsement in this regard goes out Athletes for Hope (www.athletesforhope.org) as they are going outside their comfort zone, using the skills they developed as Actual Leaders in their chosen profession and working to make the world a better place.

Now, while you are may not be a high profile investor, nor is it likely that you are a world-class athlete, it is still possible for you to make a difference as an Actual Leader out in the world beyond your comfort zone. That's the karma connection – you get out of something what you put into it, so if you are getting a lot out of something you are obligated to put a lot back in. By doing this you will be able to bring others with you in your endeavors and show them what it means to turn their Actual Leadership into a renewable resource that can help create a sustainable future for everyone.

Summing up this topic here is what I want you to take away. First: Be an Actual Leader, not just a manager. Second, inspire others to do the same and recognize that we can all become Actual Leaders in ways we have not even dreamed of. Third, get out there and practice, practice, practice, so that you can become an expert at Actual Leadership.