The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

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.

Another of the excellent speakers we heard at the National Speakers Association convention in New York last week was Bill Strickland, President and CEO of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, Inc.

Talk about someone who does meaningful work! His story is much too long to detail in this blog, and I certainly can’t do him justice. Besides, he’s been written about in Inc, Fast Company, and tons of other publications, and you can read about him there.

In a nutshell, Bill Strickland is a social innovator who runs a company to train and give substantive (not empty) hope to poor inner-city kids, welfare mothers, and others in the Manchester area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He’s taking his highly successful model, which educates people in the visual, culinary, and other arts, and replicating it across the country now.

Here’s just a little of what Strickland said, that stuck in my mind:

• “The only difference between rich people and poor people is that poor people don’t have any money.”
• “People’s behavior is a function of how they’re treated.” (Where have we heard that before?)
• “We have fresh flowers all over the center, because these people deserve to see fresh flowers.”
• When he had his center designed in Pittsburgh, he wanted it to be flooded with light. The people who learn there have lots of darkness in their lives. Strickland knew that light would change their outlook, and their behavior. It has.
• The walls of his center are covered in valuable art. Skeptics told him the art would be trashed within a month. In the 22 years since he started the practice, there’s never been an act of vandalism at the center. Reminds me of a point made by John Houseman in the classic training film, Brain Power, by Karl Albrecht, in which Houseman reminds us, “We get what we expect to get. What are you expecting?”

We heard lots of polished, eloquent speakers at the NSA convention. Bill Strickland was not one of them. It was, instead, his message, not his delivery, that blew me away.

Thanks, Bill Strickland, for being an Extra-Miler.

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.

Tim Russert was not only a highly respected journalist, as a Vice President at NBC News, he was a manager, and a real leader. And by all accounts, he was the kind of leader who did a remarkable job of inspiring OOMPH! from those who called him “boss”.

During all this weekend’s tributes to Russert on his and competing networks, I’ve been struck by the descriptions of the man, not the journalist. He listened to the people entrusted to his leadership. He cared about them as human beings. He recognized that they had lives outside their work, because he had a life outside his work. And he spent time finding out about what was important to his employees.

When you’re gone, or retired, or have moved on to another phase in your career, will people talk more about the quality of the work you did? Or the quality of the person who did the work?

It has been less than a half-day since his passing, and the world is already a less friendly, less authentic, less informed place. Tim Russert will be missed by all who value decency, professionalism, and candor.

Yesterday, one of our favorite organizations, Prosperity Bank of St. Augustine, Florida (also our bank, and a valued client), held its fourth annual Prosperity Bank Foundation event, designed to raise funds for the bank’s charitable foundation. It was my honor to be one of the speakers at the event 2 years ago. This year, the featured speaker was Dr. Ben Carson, a noted pediatric neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins, and author of Think Big!

As a speaker, I’m always eager to hear others speak from the platform, but, I have to admit, I often approach these things as a reviewer, ready to evaluate style, content, and the other things I pay attention to when I’m on the platform.

For the first few minutes of Dr. Carson’s presentation, I found myself in that mode. But I was quickly transformed into simply being a listener, receiving his simple, positive, straightforward message, and being inspired by what I heard.

His style was far from theatrical. No flash. The only time he strayed from simply having a conversation with the audience of 500+ was his rather amazing description of the neuromuscular processes involved in his asking us to raise our hands, and our doing it. With this exception, he didn’t say much I didn’t already know. His message wasn’t particularly prescriptive. In other words, I didn’t leave there with pages of notes of things I could go out and do differently right away that would make a difference.

And yet I left the presentation feeling like I had spent an hour or so with a really good man of admirable character, a genius, a doer, someone who shares my values but has done a better job than I of putting those values into action.

One simple piece of advice he did encourage us to enact was to simply “Be Nice”. I heeded his advice at every opportunity yesterday, and so far today. And I gotta tell you, I’ve felt better because of it.

It took a brain surgeon to remind me of that which I already knew but wasn’t practicing enough. The next time I listen to a speaker, I’m going to focus more on how I can benefit from that speaker’s message, and less on how “good” his or her performance is.

I’m really glad I heard Ben Carson, and I appreciate Prosperity Bank for giving me the opportunity.

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.

My daughter Lindsay just Skyped me from her dorm room in Scotland (If you don’t know what Skype is, you oughta find out) to ask me to send her something from home. This is not the first such call we’ve had in the month she’s been away on this study-abroad program.

On this call, she was pleading that I send her as many boxes as economically feasible of Kraft Instant Macaroni and Cheese.

My wife’s a native Scot, and for that reason, all of us, including Lindsay, have spent a fair amount of time in that country over the years. The British have no shortage of scrumptious processed foods, but boxed instant mac and cheese hasn’t made it big there yet. Indeed, Kraft sells its M&C in the UK, but apparently it can’t be found in the part of Scotland where Lindsay’s studying (I’m convinced she is studying.) 

Lindsay said she hadn’t realized how much she enjoyed Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and was surprised at how much she missed it, calling it “one of life’s simple pleasures”. “I’m really not very high-maintenance, Dad,” she assured me.

“I guess I just took macaroni and cheese for granted. This experience has taught me to appreciate it.”

Twelve grand for an international cultural/educational experience, and she develops an appreciation for American staple foods.

I told her I could relate to missing something (someone), and learned that I had perhaps taken her daily presence in the house for the last nearly 20 years for granted as well.

She told a few of her British friends that she was Jonesing for some KM&C, and several of them, having visited the states, remembered it with great fondness, and wanted to get in on the action as well. So they pooled their meager resources and placed an order with me. We’ll be taking it to the post office today.

Is there something - or someone - in your life, at work, at home, or elsewhere, that you’ve taken for granted, but that you would miss if it/he/she weren’t there? Someone who makes your job, and/or your life a little easier?

One thing we heard expressed in clear and compelling terms while we were researching our latest book, Contented Cows MOOve Faster, is this: One of the clearest paths to getting people to withhold a measure of their Discretionary Effort, to power back a notch or two, is to take them for granted.

Before the day is out, do this: think of at least one person you would miss if they weren’t in your life. It doesn’t have to be a loved one. Just somebody you’d miss. You’d miss them even more than my daughter misses Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Tell them so, and to show your appreciation for them, maybe arrange for them to have something really special to eat - something they don’t often get, and definitely don’t take for granted.

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.

The other night, our daughter drove out of the driveway to visit a friend. A minute or two later, the doorbell rang. I figured she had forgotten something (like her house key), and had returned to retrieve it.

It wasn’t our daughter. It was a total stranger, a woman of young middle age, whom I had never before seen in my life. And I could tell it was not a friendly social call.

“Is that your daughter who drives the Beetle?” she demanded, without so much as a greeting or an introduction.

Since I don’t usually identify my children to complete strangers, I asked who she was and why she wanted to know.

Turns out this was our nextdoor neighbor, who had moved in more than six months ago, after our longtime neighbors, Ken and Harriett retired to the Oregon coast.

“Yes, that’s our daughter. Why? Is there a problem?”

“Yes, there’s a problem! How about you teach her to drive and to stay off my grass!”

Keep in mind that this is the introductory conversation between two people who had lived nextdoor to each other for more than half a year.

Apparently, our daughter had been slightly imprecise in exiting the driveway, and had driven her car, slowly, over a few inches of grass adjoining the driveway, which is 18 inches inside our property line.

Nevermind that the trampled grass was, in fact, ours, and not hers. And nevermind that the “damage” was so slight as to have already restored itself in the 3 minutes that had elapsed between her running over it and my “neighbor” dragging me out to examine it, flashlight in hand.

Here’s the point. This woman moved in six months ago, and I had never seen her, let alone met her. She’s completely entitled to, and in fact, most welcome to, her privacy. Some would say she’s been the ideal neighbor. We’ve never heard a sound from her house. She hires a service to maintain her lawn (and, per her instructions, not to mow an inch of our property). Until that night last week, she had been absolutely no trouble at all. Everyone in the neighborhood simply assumed she was in the Federal Witness Protection Program, and left it at that.

However, comma, because she has invested nothing in the relationship with her nextdoor neighbors, she has yet to earn the right to show up on my doorstep and rip me a new one over my daughter driving over our grass, near her lawn.

Had this been Ken or Harriett, that would have been different. Over the years, we’ve broken bread together, been to family weddings, grieved over the loss of parents, brought in each other’s mail and newspapers, and griped over the backyard fencepost about the other neighbors’ kids.

Had Ken or Harriett brought up an issue, their words would have landed with much more influence than those of this stranger who, having made no deposits in the neighbor relationship now wants to exact a withdrawal of considerable value.

At work, and in life, be sure to do the things - often little things - that are necessary to invest in the relationships with those around you. Before correcting someone, be sure you’ve been an encourager. Before asking for a favor, be sure you’ve done one first.

And before blessing out your neighbor of six months during your first encounter, be sure you’ve at least shown your face and waved over the backyard fencepost. At least once.

Merry Christmas. Peace on earth to men, and women, of goodwill. And to cranky neighbors.

Last week I did a piece written for our management audience about the growing problem of people calling in sick when they really aren’t. Today’s piece is intended for folks on the other side of the issue. Before going further, let’s clarify that this is not intended for those who are calling out for the day because they really are sick. Everyone wants them to stay home because though we enjoy sharing, there are limits.

Just who is it that gets shafted when you decide not to show up for work at the last minute… your boss? Well, not really. Though they go through a few minutes of heartburn, what generally happens is that they rearrange the schedules and priorities of others who are called upon to make up for your absence. In other words, your co-workers are the first ones who get thrown into the breech.

Look, there aren’t any spare parts or spare people any more. When you, at the last minute, announce your decision not to report to work, you inconvenience a lot more than your boss. As I just mentioned, your co-workers are the first ones to be impacted. Next are the organization’s customers - the ones who are counting on the stuff that your are supposed to be doing today… the very same ones who are responsible for paychecks.

Everyone needs a day off now and then, for myriad reasons - or no reason. What we don’t need is to have our day, not to mention our livelihood jeopardized because you didn’t have the courage or decency to make it known in advance that you needed a day off. You see, it’s generally not the taking off that causes the problem, but the fact that the decision to take off is announced at the very last minute.

Many organizations provide vacation, holiday, or personal days off (with pay) for just such circumstances. It is incumbent on each of us to use that time judiciously. Sick days are for when you’re sick. If you’ve used your allotment of personal time off, or your job doesn’t offer it, don’t make your problem other people’s problem by announcing, at the very last minute, under the guise of illness, that you’re going to go visit Aunt Tillie, or get your dog groomed and run errands today. For goodness sake, “man up” a little bit and work it out in advance. Unless your boss is a complete idiot, they will at least appreciate your you’re not getting their day off to a bad start with that 7AM “phony sniffles” phone call that we’ve all made at least once.

If it’s your job that you’re sick of, for your own sake, do the right thing by finding another job, and leaving. Don’t just “kinda leave.” Got it?

A thought leader in the areas 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, motivated, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard, and their work, please visit their website.

Planning to take my dad to Myrtle Beach this week, I was unexpectedly faced with some time on my hands this morning resultant from a last minute decision by an overly officious Marriott timeshare rep to cancel our long scheduled site visit because my wife was unable to accompany us. Grr! (More on this one later.)

Hence, I opted to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, read the paper, and catch a round of cable news before heading to the office. In a span of less than 15 minutes, I saw one of the world’s most famous women put on a virtual clinic on leadership on CNN, and then read in USA Today about a handful of American men who would have done well to heed her lesson.

Whoa! Wait. Full stop! Before you read another pixel, I am not referring to Hillary and the pack of ankle-biters nipping at her Jimmy Choos. No, the woman is Oprah Winfrey; the leadership lesson arises from her actions to investigate and resolve the claims of child abuse at her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa; the men are the CEO’s (former or about to be) of Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Bear Sterns, Countrywide Financial, et. al.

According to Oprah’s public account of the situation, fifteen students at her school recently summoned the courage to go to the school’s CEO and inform him that a classmate was being sexually abused by a staff member, and that others were otherwise being mistreated.

Almost immediately, Ms. Winfrey was on a plane to South Africa, backed up by an investigative team she’d hired to help local authorities get to the bottom of the matter. According to her CNN statement, she met with every student of the school, encouraged them to cooperate with investigators, met with the children’s parents, and in general, cleaned house. Indeed, the dorm matrons have all been replaced, and one of the school’s employees has already been charged with thirteen counts of criminal behavior. Ms. Winfrey reportedly went so far as to give each of the girls a cell phone and encouraged them to call her personally if they ever felt the need. Consistent with the organization’s core purpose, she made it a point to let the fifteen students who had reported the abuse know that their brave actions were wholly consistent with being a good leader.

Conversely, since early spring, we’ve been hearing about the misdeeds and efforts by “investment bankers” and others to slap lipstick on the rapidly growing pig called “subprime” that is literally about to eat tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people out of house and home. Had Messrs. Cayne, Mozila, O’Neal, and Prince and company been as determined as Ms. Winfrey to get to the bottom of this mess, it is doubtful that their shareholders and employees would still be watching billions of invested dollars and thousands of jobs disappear each week.

Oprah didn’t dodge, duck, delay, or obfuscate. She didn’t convene a task force and give them six months to report back. Rather, acting like someone whose name is on the door (it is), she got her fanny on a plane, went to Johannesburg, and started taking care of business.

While they don’t go off half cocked, at the end of the day, good leaders act decisively because they have two things going for them:

1) an abiding sense of right and wrong, and

2) the courage to face up to tough issues and act once the facts are reasonably clear.

Well done, ladies.

Comments welcome.

Twenty years ago, I had the honor of spending a two year stint as a preceptor at the FedEx Leadership Institute. The preceptor’s role was to design, develop, and deliver leadership and team training for the company’s management team. Together with GE and a few others, we were well out in front of the corporate university parade.

One of my first activities at the Institute was to attend, as a participant, the week long wilderness-based personal mastery and leadership program that I would subsequently be responsible for. As did most other program participants, I found the experience extremely impactful.

The program was held at a U.S. Forest Service camp about twenty miles north of Logan, Utah. As I recall, the program concluded on a Friday afternoon, and we were all bused to a hotel in Logan to await our flights the next day out of Salt Lake City.

As is often the case after a stressful, strenuous, successful effort, many in the group of staff and participants alike felt a need to unwind a bit. That evening, probably 3/4 of the combined group commandeered a conference room at the hotel, and did some serious alcohol-fueled unwinding. Aside from a few bottles that “fell” out of a window, nothing got broken, and no one did any serious misbehaving, but it was a good thing we didn’t have to walk very far.

Upon returning to work Monday, the half dozen or so members of the Institute staff who had spent the prior week in Utah were summoned to a meeting with Dr. Roy Yamahiro, head of OD for the company. Known for his quiet, deferential manner, Yamahiro launched unexpectedly into an angry and emotional tirade which quickly revealed that he had recent opportunity to speak with some of the city fathers of Logan, Utah, who were not the least bit impressed with our little gathering smack in the middle of a quiet, Mormon town.

When Roy came up for air at one point, one guy made the mistake of objecting, on grounds that he hadn’t attended the party. Yamahiro pointed out that since he had obviously known about the party, was likely the only one sober, and had done nothing to stop it, he found him in even greater contempt than the rest of us. It was as painful as those chats with your parents when they let you know how “disappointed” they are in you.

On our next trip to Logan, six alpha male managers who had been deemed some of the company’s best and brightest arrived a day early (on a weekend), paid a personal visit to one of the town fathers to apologize, then spent the day picking up trash in a park. It stung, but I will likely never forget the lesson about team members’ responsibility to, and for one another.

I was reminded of that lesson this week when I saw an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about a similar lesson being taught by Joe Paterno, Head Coach of the Penn State University football team.

It seems that a few months ago, several members of the team were involved in an off-campus fight. In an effort to teach the same lesson that Dr. Yamahiro taught us, and prevent further escapades, JoePa as he is affectionately known, has found something for the team (the whole team) to do on Sunday mornings following the Nittany Lions’ home games. They get to rise bright and early, don rubber gloves, and participate in the clean up of the 100,000 seat football stadium. My bet is the lesson will stick with those young men as well as Dr. Yamahiro’s did with me.

BTW, those looking for good leaders to borrow a lesson from could do a lot worse than observe the behavior of the 80 year old Paterno, who has coached Penn State for 41 years, won more Division 1-A games than anyone, and positively affected the character and careers of a lot of people.