Today is a bit more hectic than normal; we’re having end-of-summer/start-of-winter rainy periods; my garage door leaks and I have to fix it. So, for today’s post, I thought I’d offer two great quotes on success. Give your mind something fun to chew on his weekend.

If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut. –Albert Einstein

Success is relative: It is what we can make out of the mess we have made of things. –T.S. Eliot

Have a great weekend! And remember, don’t get

• sunburned if it’s sunny;
  
• wet if it’s raining; or
  
• cold if it has the audacity to snow!

Yesterday’s post generated several comments, two of which prompt me to clarify what I meant.

Olessya said, ‘… I have a different vision of what happens when you “totally use up” your box content and find its sides. In my opinion, one can’t/shouldn’t (?) form a new box; the BOX, YOUR BOX, remains, it just takes on different shapes, sizes, looks, but can’t be totally replaced with a new one, it would take away TRUE YOU with it. Total replacement DOES take place, but seldom, once/twice in your lifetime, and it’s fundamental. And it’s like reincarnation.’

Gorgeoux said, ‘… the box remains and a new one is formed around it.’

This isn’t about replacement or boxes within boxes, it’s about expansion. Everything that existed in the old box continues to exist, but new dimensions are added, because the box is larger.

And it especially isn’t about ‘using up’ what’s in your box, it’s about choosing to explore beyond what’s known and/or comfortable—but it’s OK if you don’t. We all push our boundaries as we grow, it happens through experience and just plain living—and we’re not even conscious of doing it.

Some enjoy consciously pushing back their boundaries in evolutionary ways, exploring new areas a bit at a time. Still others take a revolutionary approach and willingly leap into the unknown, not knowing where they will land or if they’ll survive. Very scary—but the unknown has always been scary.

Most of us combine all three types, with ascendancy changing depending on what’s happening in our world—as well as the larger world.

What needs to be understood is that the person who leaps into the unknown is not intrinsically more valuable than the person whose box enlarges incrementally through their own life experiences.

All three types, along with their almost infinite combinations, are necessary for life, and Life, to continue on our planet.

Look at this list (incomplete, at best) of great innovators from the past 75 years; then think of all the people who enhanced/changed/added to the original ideas; add on all the lives involved, one way or another, with these ideas.

All have value within their own world—what is different is the size of the innovators worlds, hence the perception of higher value. Not all of us want/can change the world, but each of us can take care of/improve our little bit of it.

As for me, I’d hate to live in a world where all the little bits were a mess because everybody was out changing the whole.

During a conversation on changing the culture in his company, the CEO said, “It’s hard to think about getting outside of the box, because sometimes I forget the box is there.” Don’t we all.

But that’s OK. Actually, I think we all have a box. The creativity difference is in the size of our box. Steve Jobs’ and Steven Spielberg’s boxes are immense, far larger than most, yet they both continue to enlarge them. And therein lies one of the secrets of a creative organization.

It’s not just encouraging your people to “think outside the box,” it’s helping them to think outside their box and then to enlarge it.

That’s how it works. As soon as you get outside your own box, a new one forms. Once you totally use up its content and find its sides you go outside that box, a new one forms and the process begins again.

If you work at it, this process continues throughout your life—although some never start it and some get comfortable in a certain box and retain it.

It’s a matter of choice, your choice, within your control to make it happen.

There will always be a box, but with effort you can enlarge it enough to encompass galaxies—and even entire universes.

It’s all yours for the choosing.

I’ve never trusted things presented to me as “absolute truth,” but during more than thirty years as a headhunter and culture/retention coach, there are two things I’ve found that at least have the ring of absolute, i.e., unchanging, truth.

One is that the best managers, the ones who are good at hiring, superb motivators, world-class team-builders, and caring mentors are, with almost no exceptions, all egalitarians. You can see this at work in their communications and it translates into a simple rule that every manager should follow: Talk to each person with the same respect, interest, appreciation, and consideration that you would want in similar circumstances.

The second is very simple—never lie. Companies and people operate on the same premise—what you see is what you get—starting from the beginning. Managers expect the person who reports to work to be the same person, with the same attitude and interests, that they interviewed and hired for the job. By the same token, if the manager who presented himself as a motivator, innovator, team-builder, mentor-type during the interview is actually a micromanager without an original thought who screams at his people, then he shouldn’t be surprised when they leave in short order.

This translates into an even simpler rule: Never, ever lie!

Practice makes, if not for perfection (I haven’t heard that anyone’s managed perfect outside of their own mind, that is), certainly for improvement.

Practice has the power to improve athletic performance, singing, playing games/instruments/cards, sex, creativity, management, leadership—the list is never-ending. Any actions/activities large or small will benefit from practice.

Managers need to practice managing, both for the benefit of their organization and betterment of their reviews. To that end I’m listing five big basics (they may not sound basic, but they are) for you to practice, and, although you may not get them perfect, if you don’t practice them, you won’t “get” them at all.

• Listening and hearing, or hearing and listening, if you prefer.
• Walking your talk.
• Communicating—not just saying what you want/think, but saying it in ways that your people can hear.
• Not killing the messenger.
• Celebrating breakthroughs and failures.

How long do you need to practice before the value kicks in and you start reaping your rewards? That depends on how you fill in the blank space in this sentence:

I need to practice the big basics diligently for a minimum of ____ months.

Choose 1, 2, 3, 6, or 12 based on your current management style, recognizing that the further your current style is from the basics the higher the number you must choose.

The good news for those with a high number is that you’ll see some of the largest gains—once your people start trusting the “new you.”

A week or so ago I invited people to call or write me (right column) and I thought I’d occasionally share the substance of the (mostly) calls. Here is a summation of a (roughly) forty minute, no-cost discussion.

Caller: The CEO of a growing startup.
Problem:

• All four current vice presidents receive roughly identical salaries and stock options.
• The CEO is handling marketing, but because of their growth, needs to bring on a VP to take over.
• Viable candidates have been few and far between, both technically and culturally.
• The company can’t go much longer without filling the position.
• The current candidate is excellent and all interviewers (included the other VPs and marketing staff) wanted her.
• She is with a large company with a much higher pay scale.
• The candidate is willing to take a 10% pay cut, but that would still be 20% higher than the other VPs.
• The CEO offered additional stock instead of salary,
• The candidate really wants to accept and said that she would be willing to take an additional 5% reduction for six months, but that was the best she could do, since
• her salary requirements were based on the need to support her family.

The CEO had considered and rejected the obvious approaches—

• to keep looking; or
• make a dictatorial, unilateral decision to give her the higher salary which meant a good chance of alienating the other executives (He knows that it’s not reality-based to believe a salary can be kept secret.),

His goal was to involve his other vice presidents in the process, so they would own the decision.

Here is an outline of the approach we crafted during the call.

I suggested he meet his executive team off-site over a meal, so people could relax and focus sans telephones and emergencies. They should

• Review the entire problem:
  • the company’s critical need to fill the position;
  • what efforts had been made to attract candidates;
  • the difficulty of finding a person who matched both technically and culturally;
  • this particular candidate’s qualifications.
• Discuss her
  • enthusiasm for the opportunity and company,
  • current salary,
  • requirements to join, and
  • the reductions she voluntarily offered to take.
• Arrange for additional interviews if needed (the executive team had already interviewed her)

The CEO was confident that he had read his people correctly and that they felt both the same critical urgency to fill the position and that this was the right candidate, but that following this format would give his execs an opportunity to voice any concerns that they did have.

I asked what criteria had to be met to adjust the current salary scale to market level, when he thought it would happen, and if it was public knowledge. After thinking about this, he said probably not. Although the various pieces were known to each department, he didn’t think it had really been looked at as a cohesive whole—everyone was totally focused on their own tasks and there hadn’t been time or need.

I suggested that he share the “cohesive whole,” that way his VPs would know exactly what had to happen for their compensation to rise and what role the new person would play in accomplishing it. Also, that he consider giving each of the four an additional block of stock to tangibly recognize their value to the company (he liked that idea).

They’re meeting in a few days and I’ll let you know what happens.

Today’s comment may seem a bit abrupt—rather, it’s short and sweet.

I get many queries from senior execs asking for detailed how-to’s and exotic approaches for implementing cultural and other intangible changes, as well as how to encourage (and at times, coerce) their managerial staff into actually doing them.

The most successful method is as simple as one, two, three.

1. Carefully define, in a quantifiable manner, what you want done (not “increase retention,” but “reduce turnover by X%”).
2. Include these well quantified goals in the managers’ annual objectives.
3. Make it clear to your managers that they will be evaluated on these goals and that the evaluation will impact their annual reviews and compensation.

Vested self-interest will do the rest.

How many times has a member of your team (at any level) had an idea or made a suggestion and your initial response was along the lines of, “I know…” or “I thought about that…” Sounds innocuous, but what the person hears is, “I already thought of/know that, why are you acting like it’s a big deal?” and often that’s actually how you feel.

The problem is that your employees may decide that the idea has no value because you already know/thought of it or, if it is used, that you own all the bragging rights. If this happens several times why bother mentioning their next idea? Employees understand that their ideas may not be used, but that’s different than feeling that it’s not needed. The result is to kill creativity, instead of nurturing it.

I frequently hear from clients and others about their exciting breakthroughs/ideas for motivating their people, for their culture, or whatever, and it’s often simply their rephrasing of ideas we’ve been discussing or that I, or others, have written about, sometimes for years.

It doesn’t matter; and I make sure not to say anything that detracts from their breakthrough—causing them to feel that it’s not a big deal and that they merely reinvented an old wheel.

The big deal is when people think of something independently and that’s what you want to encourage—ideas, creative thinking, thinking beyond their knowledge, not necessarily yours.

To nurture the thinking that leads to creativity you need to acknowledge it, you don’t need to convince them that no one ever thought of it before, they’ll figure that out for themselves or a peer will tell them, what you focus on is the accomplishment.

The critical point is that they came to it on their own, and, because it came from inside, they own it. That makes it far more potent than anything I, or anybody, can say from the outside.

As a manager, you are in a similar position when building your people—you are their coach, so don’t take away their accomplishments, even if they are old hat to you.

Ask any manager, HR person or headhunter and they’ll all say that finding the right person for a position is darn difficult. Talent—the right talent—talent that can not only do the job, but is also a great fit with your culture, rarely shows up knocking on your door at just the right time.

I was a headhunter BI (Before Internet) and I found most of my candidates through referrals, i.e., calling people on the phone (I was very good at it) and asking, “Who do you know…?”

Then came the Net, and, supposedly, it all changed—but it didn’t. It did create giant searchable resume databases, some free and some paid, but beyond tons of resumes everything was the same—and tons of resumes, even when keyword searchable, don’t really cut it.

Next came the first social networking sites, like Friendster, which business people quickly turned into recruiting sites. Then, in May, 2003, came LinkedIn.

Any form of recruiting takes finesse and knowledge, and LinkedIn is not an exception. It’s not enough to send a blast to all your connections, in fact, doing it too often is a great way to alienate them. The trick is to see LinkedIn as a good business tool, not just a recruiting tool, and learn to use it wisely.

I better say right away that I am the last person to consider knowledgeable, let alone expert, when it comes to social networking sites, At present, LinkedIn is the only one of which I’m a member and, being part Luddite, I’m not running around exploring others. LinkedIn seems to offer more privacy, and I’m pretty sure that I qualify as a privacy nut.

It was my virtual business buddy/guru, Scott Allen, who dragged me (kicking and screaming) into the blogging world (aren’t you glad) and said that if I did nothing else I should join LinkedIn Bloggers, so, of course, I did. (If you know any real gurus and disregard their advice, you don’t deserve to know them!)

As I tell my clients, the tiny bit I do know about LinkedIn I learned from a virtual class I took from Scott—and what really stuck was not just with whom to connect (which is not everyone who invites you), but why.

The trouble is that although my clients know that I’m a quasi-Luddite, they still ask me stuff (I hate not having anything at least quasi-intellignet to say), so I was more than delighted when Scott announced that he had launched a new site called Linked Intelligence. Along with Scott’s own deep understanding of LinkedIn, he’s drawing from knowledgeable people all over, people who really use LinkedIn to full advantage.

Scott further said that he had found three other blogs focused exclusively on LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn Notes (including how/why to break connections)
• LinkedIn Business Discussion Index (a digest of the 100+ Yahoo eGroups discussing LinkedIn usage)
• LinkedIn User Manual (general guidance)

So, from Scott to me to you—four links that together comprise LinkedIn for [smart] dummies.

Good grief! It’s already Labor Day and the year’s almost gone. Time’s flies faster every year as each year becomes a smaller and smaller part of my whole life (at least that’s my theory).

As usual, on slow days, I’m posting another my Rules.

People see things as they are and ask, “Why?” I dream of things as they could be and ask, “Why not?” — Robert Kennedy (slightly paraphrased)

I’ll be back Tuesday, in the meantime, have a terrific, safe, and happy holiday!