The oddity of the human animal (including myself) never ceases to make me scratch my head. I thought I’d share some examples with you so you, too, could marvel at the human thought process.

Art does not imitate life—just ask any newly minted lawyer what real life is like in comparison to ABC’s new series, The Deep End. Although I can empathize with any new grad in this economy, I can’t say I’m sorry that law firms are shrinking and attitudes are changing—it’s about time.

“What has come to pass is that a law degree is not a ticket to a six-figure salary and a six-figure bonus,” said Matthew A. Feldman, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York.

Distracted driving is a hot topic with many states weighing in with new laws—but those on foot are no different.

Examples of such visits [to the emergency room] include a 16-year-old boy who walked into a telephone pole while texting and suffered a concussion; a 28-year-old man who tripped and fractured a finger on the hand gripping his cellphone; and a 68-year-old man who fell off the porch while talking on a cellphone, spraining a thumb and an ankle and causing dizziness.

The best way to sell your product and company these days is to go green—or at least be perceived as such. People seem to embrace any suggestion of green and this apparently extends to churches, which is good. Our poor planet needs all the help it can get.

A study released in December by the Barna Group, which more typically studies trends among evangelicals, said that older, mainline churches faced many challenges but that their approach to environmental issues was among several areas that “position those churches well for attracting younger Americans.”

In a lighter vein is the subject of passwords. In spite of every horror story of identity theft and trashed computers people cling to their simple passwords. And I do mean simple!

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

Finally, if you’re in LA some Saturday and want to something a bit out of the ordinary, you can spend $65 for a 12-stop, two-hour journey learning about “the history and origin of high-profile gang areas and the top crime-scene locations” in South LA, but book early because it sells out quickly.

Alfred Lomas, 45, a former gang member and the creator of the tour ($65, lunch included), said this drive-by was about educating people on city life, while turning any profits into microloans and other initiatives aimed at providing gang members jobs.

Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr

Out of all the commentary regarding Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts my favorite came from the Washington Post’s Monica Hesse, who pointed out that a woman who had posed nude for a major magazine probably wouldn’t be elected or recalled—even if she wasn’t nude.

The pictorial in question is a much-circulated 1982 centerfold from Cosmopolitan magazine, in which Brown was declared “America’s Sexiest Man.” In a two-page slice of beefcake, the then-22-year-old reclines on a blanket with nothing but a serendipitously-placed wrist covering his manly bits. … Cosmo offered a new campaign slogan: “Vote for Brown. He Has One Hell of a Stimulus Package.” … If Brown had breasts, the media and public response might have been more virulent.

(Hesse also hosted an online discussion here.)

No matter where you look on planet Earth you’ll find a double standard and a glass ceiling and it won’t change any time soon when the only motivating source is hope.

That’s why other countries are using legislation and quotas to move the gender issue forward.

• France’s parliament is considering a law that would force big companies to appoint women to 40 per cent of their boardroom seats.
• Norway introduced a 40 per cent rule in 2002 when women accounted for only 6 per cent of board seats there.
• Spain has also just passed a similar law.

Germany is turning tradition on its head in a move to draw more women into the workforce. The driving force is demographics—one of the lowest birthrates in the world—while the method—extending the school day—may seem quaint to other countries it’s breaking a centuries old tradition and working.

A new survey of 22-35 year-old American women finds an upbeat attitude towards the future in terms of personal satisfaction.

Nearly all, 94 percent, believed they could achieve a balance between a satisfying professional career and a gratifying personal life.

When asked to rank barriers to their careers, 12 percent cited marriage, 19 percent said maternity policies and 30 percent named pay scales.

But that says nothing about the role women will play outside of their own lives.

Across the developed world, a combination of the effects of birth control, social change, political progress and economic necessity has produced a tipping point: numerically, women now match or overtake men in the work force and in education.

Will the convergence of these forces be enough to change the MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) of the men who still control the global business and political arenas?

Or will viable gender parity have to wait until they’re not only retired but dead?

What do you think?

Image credit: The Political Class

Monday I wrote that so-called leadership skills are actually the skills everyone needs to live a satisfying life and to that end they are well worth developing.

I also said I would share the most important trait of leadership—and life.

It’s Initiative.

Initiative is the number one key leadership ingredient.

More so than vision or influence, it’s initiative that puts you in the forefront of any action, large of small.

Initiative is what

• separates the doers from the observers;
• stokes creativity and innovation;
• drives entrepreneurial activity at all levels; and
• makes the world a better place.

Initiative isn’t about schooling, although education can enhance it; it’s not about birth or clothes or cool. It’s not about networking or connections or followers on Twitter.

It’s about awareness; about noticing what needs to be done and doing it whether or not anybody is around to notice; doing it whether or not there is credit and kudos.

Initiative doesn’t wait for someone else to lead the way, nor does it play Monday morning quarterback to initiative taken by others, instead it actively contributes to that initiative.

Initiative doesn’t wait to occupy a certain position before becoming active, preferring to constantly seek ways in which it can contribute.

I believe that initiative is latent in every person, but it’s up to each individual to make it active.

Image credit: business mans on sxc.hu

Image credit: jenjoaquin on flickr

A client called and during the conversation he complained about his receptionist. He said he was close to firing her, but would prefer a different outcome; he thought a third party could help resolve the problems.

When I asked “Jack” what the problem was he said that “Judy” was disrupting the culture and refused to do her work as expected. For example, she insisted on having two pencil cups on her desk; he preferred organizing his desk based on Feng Shui principles and that two cups were nothing but clutter. He had explained this to Judy to no avail.

This is an extreme example of the puppetmaster mentality, but not counting the micromanager who really believes her’s is the only way, I’m willing to bet you have been on the giving or receiving end of this attitude, if not both, at some point—most of us have.

Whether you consider yourself a leader, a manager or leadager, yours is not the only way—or even the best.

There are many ways to approach a task or goal. Some may seem more efficient, but, in fact, will lower productivity if they are counter-intuitive for a particular worker.

As long as the task is done or the goal achieved ethically, on time and in budget the route to accomplishment doesn’t matter.

Forcing your approach on your team forces them to become puppets.

That makes them dependent on you for all creativity, innovation and productivity—at least until they resign.

Flickr image credit: ZedBee | Zoë Power

The most overused and abused words in almost any language are ‘lead’ and its close cousins ‘leader’ and ‘leadership’.

People are constantly exhorted to “step up and be leaders” and to “cultivate leadership skills” and therein lies my difficulty.

I googled a number of places and here is a partial list of leadership traits; I’m sure you can add many more.

Do you see the same problem I see?

Ignoring how they are interpreted, these are the traits that allow people to be decent human beings, no matter what they do in life.

Of course, the interpretation is colored by ideology and MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™), sometimes so highly colored that a person on the ‘other side’ won’t recognize them—politics and religion are two areas where this is most obvious—but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

If you prefer to see developing these and other ‘leadership traits’ as laying the basis for your emerging as a leader that’s fine, as long as the development isn’t contingent on your advancement to a certain position.

Ever wonder if there is one trait beyond all others that leaders of all kinds have and is obvious in every situation?

Join me Thursday for the answer.

Image credit: lepiaf.geo on flickr

See all mY generation posts here.

There is much talk about how empowering workers juices creativity and hikes productivity.

Some companies claim that the best empowerment comes from eliminating full-time employment completely so that workers can move freely from one company to another.

My own opinion is that while that may work for a small percentage, it will have the opposite effect on the great majority.

Google’s Eric Schmidt says, ”Employees have to feel empowered. That’s what makes people love what they do and where they work,” but if they don’t really work there why should they love it?

Before the turn of the century, Bill Gates said “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others,” but many leaders seem more interested in accumulating, holding and controlling power.

They don’t understand that doing so makes them smaller and weaker, whereas, as Barbara Colorose said, “The beauty of empowering others is that your own power is not diminished in the process.”

Scott Adams has another take on the subject. He says, “I’m slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can’t motivate people to do things, you can only demotivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles.”

While I don’t agree about the motivation, I do agree about removing obstacles—and one way to do that is to empower people with enough authority to do their job.

Image credit: h.koppdelaney on flickr

I learned two amazing things about God today.

First, Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs testified in front of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a group established by Congress to determine the causes of the Wall Street debacle. During his testimony, Blankfein “…likened aspects of the financial crisis to a “hurricane” and similar acts of God…”

And here I thought ‘acts of God’ referred to uncontrollable natural phenomenon as opposed to the outcome of greed-driven risk.

Who knew?

This next item made me ill. Over the years I’ve seen many statements from the far right that dripped ignorance, hate and bigotry, pronouncements often made by Pat Robertson, and the Haitian earthquake is no exception.

Robertson says the Haitian people brought it on themselves by making a pact with the devil [in 1791].

Even if I were religious I wouldn’t believe that God killed 100,000+ in retaliation for an unprovable act that happened 220 years ago.

It’s not the first time Robertson has blamed a natural disaster or tragedy on a group of people he dislikes. He blamed Hurricane Katrina on abortion supporters and blamed the 9/11 attack on gays and feminists.

I’d say that Blankfein and Robertson ought to get together—except that it sounds like they already have.

Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr and CBN on YouTube

Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson started changing the work world in 2003.

That’s when they conceived and somewhat covertly initiated ROWE at Best Buy.

ROWE stands for “results only work environment” and it means just that. No set hours, no clock watching, get the job done and be evaluated based on the results and resulted in a 35% jump in productivity

These days Ressler and Thompson run CulutreRx, teaching ROWE to a variety of companies, such as GAP.

ROWE is a business strategy that’s been proven to profoundly improve workforce productivity (as much as 41%) and reduce voluntary turnover rates (as much as 90%). And, ROWE is a magnet for the talent you want to attract.

Best Buy’s culture is one that encourages creativity and good ideas at all levels, so it’s no surprise that another stand out came along a year later.

Julie Gilbert conceived and started the WOLF initiative in 2004 (she was given full ownership rights including the intellectual property and the right to take it outside anytime in exchange for building it first at Best Buy).

WOLF’s focus is to promote and enhance the role of women both inside the company and outside in their role as customers based on three precepts:

Commitment – to the business, customers and other members of the pack

Networking –  amongst at all levels internally and externally to nurture and support one another

Giveback – giving back to women and girls in local communities.

Sound all warm and fuzzy to you? Are you fighting back a snicker and thinking that there is no way your company would ever mess with that?

If so, try shrugging off Best Buy’s results.

Revenue

• $4.4 billion increase in revenue from female customers (11% increase in total company revenue)

Market Share

• Highest ever female market share in company history
• Females became the majority of the most “valuable “customers

Brand Reputation

• Largest increase in brand perception in company history

Network

• Passionate, global, viral customer networks growing market share and innovating new business offerings
• Over 40,000 members in 40 plus countries

Performance Outcomes

• 5% reduction in female turnover resulting in a minimum of $25 million in savings
• 18% increase in the number of female employees.
• 100% increase in females in the most profitable business unit
• 40% increase in female General Managers & General Managers In Training
• 60%  increase in female Operations Managers
• 30%  increase in female Customer Experience Managers

ROWE and WOLF both came from the same company while Brad Anderson was CEO.

His response to the question “Where do you find new business ideas?” says it all.

I believe that some of our best ideas have come from the people who are furthest removed from the CEO’s office – those line-level employees who interact with our customers each and every day.

Without a culture that encouraged and supported innovation from all levels ROWE and WOLF couldn’t have happened.

The MAP that enables that culture can function at any level no matter the company’s overall culture. Yes, it’s more difficult, but you can create an environment in which your people’s creativity blooms.

Your choice.

Image credit: nDevilTV on flickr