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I know the US Senate has a lot of important issues to deal with, like the lousy economy, high unemployment, two wars, and health care, so please forgive me if I winge for a moment about something less important, but nonetheless significant: the conduct of one Senator who knows how to behave well, but chose not to.

According to Politico.com, New York Senator Charles Schumer continued talking on his cell phone after USAirways flight attendants had instructed passengers to turn off all electronic devices.

After issuing the general instruction to all passengers (to include, presumably, US Senators), the flight attendant approached Schumer and told him the entire plane was waiting on him to shut down his phone. The senator argued with her, and was then quoted as saying, “It’s Harry Reid calling. I guess health care will have to wait until we land.”

Puh-leaaaaze…

As a final show of class, professionalism, and maturity, the senator then called the flight attendant a word also used to identify female dogs. In fairness, as one blogger has pointed out, she insulted him first, by calling him a senator. Still…

The incident was reported by a fellow passenger, an aide for the opposing party, but has not been denied by Schumer. In fact, Schumer had a spokesperson apologize on his behalf. I’d love to have someone I could pay to take the heat for me when I screw up. As often as that happens, I probably couldn’t afford one , but thankfully for Schumer, we provide him with a staff budget capacious enough to allow for such a person.

There’s a lot wrong with this incident, if it’s true. For starters…

• Senators are supposed to be public servants. Not public tyrants.
• Every time I fly, I’m warned that “failure to comply with crewmember instructions is a federal offense.” Consider the senator a federal offender. You and I would have been escorted off the plane to visit with two uniformed men with heads disproportionate to their bodies.
• If Schumer’s public language is indicative of the way he regards women, I’m not impressed.

People are looking for authenticity in their leaders. Authentic leaders:

• realize others are watching, and behave as admirable examples, even when no one is watching
• realize rules apply to them just as they do to others
• are as kind and considerate to the person who pushes a broom (or an airline drinks cart) as they are to their fellow country club members
• know that they put their pants and skirts on the same way everyone else does
• apologize sincerely, and in person when they make a mistake

Shame on you, Senator Schumer, surrogate apology notwithstanding.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/rehadden) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

In today’s mail, one item clearly stood out from all the bills and advertisements I dragged in from the daily haul. An envelope, addressed by hand, to my wife, with the return address from a couple we know from our church.

As a hobby and side business, my wife makes handmade decorative soap, with Celtic designs, reflecting her native Scotland. This year, our church choir, to which we both belong, presented a Christmas concert with a Celtic theme. As a small token of our esteem for our fellow choir members, and because the Celtic connection seemed particularly appropriate, my wife placed a piece of soap, packaged and labeled, inside the music slot of each of the 87 members before this weekend’s performance.

Nearly every member came up and personally, and most graciously thanked her for this small gift. One woman, Barbara, sat down, and took the time to write a note, address it, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mail. Barbara is a perfect southern lady, of mature years, and reeking of class. Not snootiness – real class. She has an email account and isn’t afraid to use it. But she knows when not to.

The next time someone at work does something you particularly appreciate, sit down, pull out a note card, and write a note to say thanks. Your small and simple gesture will stand out and be remembered long after your email would have landed in the delete folder.

Thank you.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/rehadden) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Earlier today, former NFL star quarterback, Michael Vick was released from federal prison in Leavenworth after serving most of a 23 month sentence for his principal involvement in a dog fighting ring. The burning question now is, should NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell allow Vick to return to the game?

Were I counseling Mr. Goodell, I would urge him to send the following letter to Mr. Vick, today.

Dear Michael,

I am happy to learn that, earlier today, you completed a key step in your recovery from a tragic mistake in your life. All of us in the NFL are rooting for your continued progress on this journey.

Should you make an appeal at this time to have your suspension from the NFL lifted, thus permitting a return to active player status, I want you to know where I currently stand on the issue.

Michael, you are without question a talented player, and I believe at heart, a decent person. That said, I am not presently inclined to respond favorably to such a request, should it to be made. While it is true that you have “served your time” and have every right to earn a living, there are two key principles at work here:

1. You didn’t just break the law and commit a crime against the state. Your actions were also obviously and significantly detrimental to the League, the game, the hundreds of fellow players, coaches, and support staff who today make their living playing professional football, and all those who will take our places in the future. Your actions demonstrated careless disregard for the tenet that it is a privilege and not a right for us to play this game for a living. Further, in addition to the crime for which you were punished, you broke faith with your team owner, Mr. Blank, by misleading him, as you did me (I’m being charitable here), about your involvement in this activity.

2. While my current inclination may seem harsh, especially in light of lenience shown to other players who have run afoul of the law (and perhaps it is), I would hasten to point out that Michael Vick was not just another football player. During your time in the League, you were considered (and paid) as a “franchise player”, someone who in many respects was a key face of the franchise, and indeed the game. In other words, the bar is significantly higher in this case, a standard that, as a top level professional athlete, you are quite familiar with.

Michael, serving your time is but one step on the road to redemption. As I see it, full redemption in your case involves “making it right” for all those who have been injured as a result of your thoughtless actions. Though I cannot at this point anticipate a particular condition or set of conditions that would permit your return to the game, I’m willing to leave that in your hands should you choose to attempt a return to player status. In that event, should you (not your attorneys or agents) wish at some time to make a thoughtful proposal that fully remediates this situation, I promise you that the League will at least entertain it. Bear in mind, however, that the aforementioned bar will continue to be set high, for all of us.

Good luck and Godspeed.

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

This post is not about same-sex marriage. It’s about authenticity. As in telling the truth. Which is exactly what Miss California, Carrie Prejean, did when asked by Miss USA judge and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton (there’s a celebrity blogger?!?) if she thought all 50 states should enact legislation to legalize same-sex marriage, as has the state of Vermont.

Her honest answer (that she doesn’t) almost certainly cost her the job of Miss USA. Mr. Hilton asked her an opinion question, but apparently wanted not to hear her opinion (as he asked), but instead his. Then, according to reports, Ms. Prejean’s own backers, the directors of the Miss California USA pageant, snubbed her after the show, and were infuriated that she gave “the wrong answer” (which is, by the way, pretty much word-for-word how Barack Obama answered the same question from a reporter in August of 2008).

When asked about Ms. Prejean’s answer, fellow judge and former contestant Claudia Jordan said on The Today Show, “In pageants, just as in politics, it’s probably best to just give a neutral answer, where you’re not committed to one side or the other. If you want to win.”

In other words, don’t worry about the truth. Tell people what they want to hear, if you want to get ahead.

The most effective leaders, in business, the military, government, sports, and every other endeavor, know that Claudia Jordan is wrong. Way wrong. Good leaders tell the truth. Even when it hurts. Even when it’s not popular.

This lesson may be even more relevant when applied to job interview situations. The workforce is full of people who answered an interview question with what they thought the interviewer wanted to hear, rather than with the truth. Which is why so many people find themselves working for organizations in which they simply don’t fit.

Miss California knew the politically savvy answer, but simply chose not to give it. Instead she went with what, for her, was the authentic answer. Not everyone entirely agrees with her opinion, including this non-celebrity blogger. But I’m glad she had the moxie, and authenticity, to speak her truth.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Earl Kitchings died this week at the age of 82. He was a legend here in Jacksonville, as a pioneering football coach – the head coach of Florida’s first African-American state championship team – that was back in 1958, when we had white teams and black teams.

During those years, Coach Kitchings helped groom the late Hall of Fame player Bob Hayes, at Matthew Gilbert High School.  Hayes, once known as the “World’s Fastest Man”, went on to win an Olympic Gold Medal, and to play for the Dallas Cowboys. He’s the only man to win both Olympic Gold and a Super Bowl ring.

But more than any of that, Earl Kitchings was simply a jewel of a man. It will never be possible to measure the positive influence he had on the young people of his community, for more than 50 years. Though he and his wife had only one child of their own, he was a father figure to hundreds for at least two generations.

And positive influence seems to run in the family. I had the great pleasure of working with Coach Kitchings’s wife, Elaine, back in the 70’s. I was in high school, and worked part-time at the local branch of the public library. Doesn’t sound like a great job, and in fact, the work wasn’t all that great. But some of the people were.  Elaine Kitchings was one of my favorites, and we managed to stay in touch for many years. She’s one of the classiest ladies I’ve ever known.

On this Easter weekend, one of the things I’m thankful for is people like Earl and Elaine Kitchings.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

For some time I’ve been writing and stumbling on a piece about job interviews (more stumbling than writing, I’m afraid, until now). Given that more people are seeking interviews now than at any time in recent history (some desperately), the piece seems timely. And, there are fewer and fewer interviews to be had. Beyond that, on the other side of the fence, with fewer openings, managers need to make every position count, thus the significance of the interview, something NONE of them have been well trained to carry out.

Some tips from a guy who oversaw the bulk of the recruiting effort during the high growth years of FedEx:

1. Good interviews involve preparation on the part of both parties. If you’re not prepared (i.e., prior study of the candidate’s resume, Google search, pre-identified a few behaviorally anchored questions, etc.) don’t proceed with the interview, as it will be a waste of your time and someone else’s. Similarly, if the candidate doesn’t evidence similar preparation, end it and move on.

2. Practice – that’s right, practice. Both interviewers and interviewees alike. If your job depends on hiring good people (what manager’s doesn’t?) put yourself through some mock interviews. Practice taking notes while maintaining eye contact. Measure how much of the time you’re actually listening, as opposed to yapping or just waiting to talk. Work at asking good, behaviorally-anchored questions. Ask your practice partner for some bone-honest feedback about your technique. If you’re a job seeker, you damn sure ought to practice, for the same reason that Derek Jeter spends time in the batting cage and Tiger Woods on the driving range before every contest. Get a professional coach or even just a friend to hit you with some good job related questions. Know what your top 3 or 4 “selling points” are and practice saying them. Videotape the session, rewind, press play, watch, puke, and reload. Oh, and wear your interview clothes for the practice session, too. That way you’ll be more comfortable when the big day arrives.

3. Read Ben Casnocha’s wonderful piece on “In-Person Conversation Skills.” It wasn’t meant as a primer for interviews, but the conversational techniques mentioned are sound. I especially like his advice to, “Be okay with silence. Don’t rush to fill silence in a conversation. Some people particularly need silent time to think and reflect, if only for a moment. And wasn’t it Aristotle who said that true friendship is when silence between two people is comfortable?”

Good luck and Godspeed!

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

If George W. Bush can plant a smooch on the face of Barbra Streisand, and if she can accept it graciously, couldn’t the rest of us agree, at least during this season of goodwill, to bury our differences, and just all get along?

For those who are open to this idea, here are some specific suggestions:

1. Let’s give Barack Obama a chance. Even those of us who didn’t vote for him. He won. Let’s evaluate his effectiveness as president once he starts the job, and has a few months under his belt. For now, let’s wish him well. We need him to do well. If he does, so will the rest of us.

2. Let’s lay off Sarah Palin. She lost. Until she runs again for national office, she’s not a threat to her detractors. Let’s let her govern the state of Alaska (a job which, by most accounts, she does exceptionally well). When she does again seek national office, then a debate about her qualifications (but not her family or her legal recreational pursuits) is fair.

3. Let’s drop Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The Obamas have. Dredging him up at this point serves no useful purpose that I can find. I’d just as soon not hear his name nor his rantings ever again. I’ve let go of my ill will toward Rev. Wright. If the media will let me forget him, I hope to be able to keep it that way.

4. Select someone, maybe at work, or in another part of your life, who has aggrieved you this year, and give it up. Get over it. Forgiveness has a wonderfully restorative effect on the forgiver. You don’t have to make a big deal of it. I don’t think you even have to tell the other person about it. Just start treating them the way you did before they did whatever it was that made you mad.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Today’s post is another in our ongoing effort to provide some good news and inspiration in an otherwise difficult period.

In her piece for the October 6 edition of Nation’s Restaurant News Dina Berta recounted an incredible story about Marcus Gilbert, the owner of a Charley’s Grilled Subs franchise in Orem, Utah helping out one of his employees who needed a kidney transplant. It seems that the employee, Juan Delgado is part time, and Gilbert is only able to provide health insurance for full timers, so he found another way to help, by, get this… donating one of his own kidneys.

Mr. Gilbert’s selfless act reminds us of an expression used by Chick-fil-A’s C.O.O., Dan Cathy in conducting training for managers at new store openings: “When a team member is enduring a personal hardship, we want you to go above and beyond for that person. When you do, you will have their full attention when you talk about going above and beyond for our customers.”

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

Who are these people? Where did they come from? And what have they done with our leaders?

Maybe it’s because I run with a more respectable crowd, but I don’t personally know any unincarcerated adults who behave, as a matter of course, like the members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Their behavior, and by extension, their very characters, especially in the last few days, represent just about the worst we have to offer.

Whether you’re for the now-dead financial rescue plan, or against it, what America’s waking up to this morning is less a financial and economic crisis than it is a crisis of leadership. There are some guiltless in the debacle, but not many.

Bill Catlette and I study leadership, and try to teach others what we learn. Because of that, we’re often asked, “OK, so what exactly is leadership?” Most simply put, leadership is the opposite of what we see in Washington. But to be a little more specific, here are three things that good leaders are, that most of our elected officials, Democrats and Republicans alike, are not.

Decisive. Leaders listen, intensely, to those they’re supposed to lead, and are greatly influenced by what they hear. But, in the end, they make a decision based on facts, judgment and principles, not on wind direction.

Good communicators. They recognize that they have an obligation to make sure people understand the facts of a given situation. They don’t let the news media, the corporate PR department, or anyone else tell their story for them. There are as many versions of this bill in the minds of the American public as there are House seats occupied by mealy-mouthed waffling opportunists.

Emotionally mature. They act like grown-ups. They don’t gratuitously invoke the ire of their colleagues. And their irate colleagues don’t respond to unnecessarily provocative comments, however characteristically odious, by cutting off their noses to spite their faces. My 7-year-old nephew acts better than this on a bad day.

Fortunately, the vast majority, and I do mean vast majority, of Americans, are made of far better stuff than these pathetic characters we’ve elected to serve us. Like a boatload of junk bonds, I wouldn’t give you a plug nickel for the whole lot.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Both Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are being considered for important jobs. Their respective supporters have already spent much time bloviating about how little experience the other candidate has, when ultimately, American voters tend to vote not on skills and experience, but on character, values, and attitudes.

Which is exactly what Bill Catlette and I have long advocated is the way employers should hire, but far too often don’t. It’s what we call “hiring for fit”. The best hires seem to happen when we narrow the field of candidates first on character, values, and attitudes – the potential to be happy, productive, and successful in a given job in a given organization – and then refine our selection on other factors, including experience.

Neither Palin nor Obama have the years of government experience that Biden and McCain have. Governor Palin has held elective office for 13 years; Senator Obama for 10. Arguably, Palin has more experience running a government than the other 3 combined.

But when it comes down to making the choice in November, the vast majority of voters will make their selection based on who they feel the candidates are, what they stand for, and what they believe, rather than what they’ve done.

I wouldn’t know much about Sarah Palin, except that I’ve been to Alaska three times in the last 16 months. Alaska’s the only state I’ve been to (and I’ve been to all 50) where ordinary citizens, from across the political spectrum, spontaneously talk about their governor, and only in positive terms. She beat a guy with lots of experience. Because she wasn’t elected on experience, but on values and attitudes. Palin has the highest approval ratings of any governor in America. On my most recent trip, someone gave me a copy of the governor’s biography, Sarah, by Kaylene Johnson. As of this morning, it was ranked #14 by amazon.com, and is out of stock until September 13.

Obama packed Invesco Field this week with 80,000 fans and has energized and enthused more voters and potential voters than any candidate since I’ve been old enough to vote. Millions of Americans are excited about and committed to him, but it has nothing to do with his experience. Again, it’s his character, values, and attitudes.

Americans are values voters. Barack Obama and Joe Biden. John McCain and Sarah Palin. May the better team win.