A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
This is not about politics, but when I read a description of Karl Rove in an Op-Ed column I found amusement as to how easily you could change the word “consultant” to “entrepreneur” and “buy advice” to “invest in/join the company.”
And yet another is that prophets are people too, blinded by their own self-interest, swayed by their own self-promotion, neither omniscient nor omnipotent. (…) Of course arrogance, or at least self-assurance, is a consultant’s stock in trade. That’s what we buy when we buy advice: not just the content of it but the authority, even the grandiloquence, with which it’s delivered.
Finding needs, taking risks, starting companies is the basis of what entrepreneurs do, but, when they do it has enormous impact on their potential for success.
The problem is that the best ‘when’ is a function of hindsight and history.
But as we all know, success breeds arrogance, not always, but too often.
Martha Stewart, who controls 90% of the voting rights of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and, as the old saying goes, spends her days cutting off her nose to spite her face, is a good example.
Her net worth is inextricably tied to the value of the shares. That would seem obvious to everyone except, perhaps, Ms. Stewart herself. She continues to collect lavish multimillion-dollar compensation and perks while her company teeters under the weight of huge losses, its shares trading for a fraction of their former value.The paradox is that if the stock had risen even $1 a share in recent years, Martha Stewart would be wealthier now than if she had taken only nominal compensation from the company.
And arrogance brings us back to the description above.
Option Sanity™ undermines arrogance. Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system. It’s so easy a CEO can do it.
Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.” Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.
There’s more than money to be made by applying creativity and imagination to innovate the mundane, especially applying creativity to the communications your customers typically ignore.
Adding a liberal dose of creativity can create great buzz and in many instances that innovation goes viral and provides advertising and brand-building value well beyond anything you planned.
Innovating customer instructions may even save lives.
Seriously.
The safety and emergency procedures video shown by most airlines is a great example of something critical, yet so mundane that most passengers pay absolutely no attention to it.
Whereas Air New Zealand’s video grabs and holds passengers’ attention, proving that even the most mundane communication is a platform for creativity and open to innovation.
What do you think? Would you watch?
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1. Give three ambitious humans equal status to compete for the top prize of becoming CEO.
Two years ago Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes created an Office of the President to inspire three ambitious executives into collegial competition for the top job at Warner Bros., Hollywood’s largest film and television studio.
2. Turn a blind eye to any problems that arise.
And although Bewkes said anyone jockeying or politicking for the job of Warner Bros.’ chairman would “eliminate themselves” as contenders, the three men have been maneuvering for position while their subordinates quietly advertise their bosses’ qualities and rivals’ shortcomings.
3. Ignore the fallout from the competition that you instigated.
Morale is low and anxiety is high on Warner’s Burbank lot. Some insiders describe an atmosphere in which executives are hesitant to extend contracts, staffers are afraid to cross department lines for fear of “taking sides” and potential partners are wary of signing long-term deals without knowing who will be in charge.
Actions like this make you wonder what Bewkes was/is thinking or what he’s using, since it’s obviously not his brain.
You don’t have to be running a multi-billion dollar company to learn from this; in fact, the lesson here is for everybody, whether boss or individual, and it’s a simple one with no exceptions.
Never put into action any plan that ignores the most basic traits of human nature.
Ask most people if they hear people or listen to them and they’ll say they listen.
But if you are checking email, doing stuff on your smart phone; thinking about dinner, plotting a date with the hot guy/gal you chatted with while getting your morning coffee, listening to the conversation at the next table or any of a myriad of other things then you aren’t listening.
If you follow any form of news you know that sexual foible has once again reared its immortal head and laid several leaders low.
This time, one of the high-flyers who fell was a woman.
David Petraeus, retired four-star general and director of the CIA, resigned, while Christopher Kubasik, destined to become Lockheed Martin CEO on January 1, was fired.
Their downfall was to be expected; every guy who has been caught playing around has watched his career sink in the harsh glare of the media spotlight.
The difference is that this time one of the women involved is being treated to that same spotlight.
Up to now Paula Broadwell has had the kind of career that positioned her for a stellar path over the next 25 years.
Her biography on the Penguin Speakers Bureau Web site says that she is a research associate at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She received a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. A self-described “soccer mom” and an ironman triathelete…
40 is young to have your career cut short, but the American public is unforgiving when it comes to anything that involves sex—especially true in our wired world.
I think women are capable of being just as arrogant, just as stupid and just as conniving as any male out there.
The difference lies more in their survival instinct, which has been honed by several thousand years of pure necessity.
So even as the coercion eases the instinct has stayed strong.
Additionally, it’s a numbers game.
There are far more high-profile males than high-profile females, so the number of men who act out and get stupid is significantly greater than the women who do the same thing.
Well, the election is over and Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but life goes on and work never seems to end. To give you a leg up on dealing with all that here are the best posts about leadership, culture, communication and a myriad of subtopics from Dan McCarthy’s Leadership Development Carnival. Enjoy!
One of our Carnival regulars, Meg Bear has a new blog, Meg Bear. Here’s Don’t Make it about you: “Tips on how to better tailor your professional communication to get the outcome you are hoping.”
John Hunter, from The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog, serves up Appreciation for a System in the Deming Context. “A systems approach to management provides a view of the organization in terms of many internal and external interrelated connections and interactions, as opposed to discrete and independent departments or processes governed by various chains of command.”
Mike Henry Sr. submits this post from Alan Derek Utley, from his Lead Change Group: Playing The Part Of Leader. “Alan makes a powerfully descriptive analogy to illustrate the difference between going-through-the-motions of leadership and actually becoming a leader.”
David Burkus, from LDRLB, reviews some research on how individuals are better able to comprehend relationships inside a hierarchical structure: Why We Love Hierarchies. “It’s been the most popular article on our site for the past week.”
Mary Ila Ward, from Horizon Point Consulting, presents Your Horizon Part 1: Know Yourself. “The first step in making career decisions is to know yourself. This posts helps individuals at any stage in life begin to consider their talents, passions, and values in order to make wise career decisions.”
Anna Farmery, from The Engaging Brand, submits 5 Truths about Profit as a Goal. “We can so easily focus on profit that we make the wrong decisions for the business. Profit is an outcome of great decisions ,not the goal in itself, this post attempts to explain why…”
Jesse Lyn Stoner, from Jesse Lyn Stoner blog serves up To Create an Enduring Vision, Values Must Support. “With examples from companies like Disney, Sony, and BMW, this post demonstrates the importance of and how to look at values in the context of purpose. Test your values against your mission or purpose to ensure your company’s culture is prepared to support your strategic direction. Remember, “culture trumps strategy.””
Carrie Koens (Weaving Influence), submits a post by Julie Winkle Giulioni (Julie Winkle Giulioni blog), called The Fallacy of Focus “This is part one of a two-part post, describing the “two faces of focus” and what that means for us.”
Randy Conley, from Leading with Trust, gives us Ten Signs You Might Be A Frankenboss – “If any of these ten behaviors describe your leadership style then you might be a Frankenboss.” Randy gets this month’s award for best post title. (-:
Wally Bock, from Three Star Leadership, offers up Just for Today. “You can be a great boss if you do the little things that the great bosses do over and over. Do them just for today. Then, tomorrow, do them again.”
Neal Burgis, Ph.D., from Practical Solutions Blog, gives us Engagement of Extraordinary Leaders. “Typically, leaders blame employee disengagement on their employees for one reason or another. Employee engagement begins and ends with engaged leaders. It is these engaged leaders who create great/extraordinary/remarkably engaged employees out of their workforce.”
Chery Gegelman, from Simply Understanding, gives us 7 Tips for Leading Change from The Middle. “Are you convinced that you and your team are capable of making a bigger difference? Do you dream of working for an organization that is committed to Character-Based Leadership? Are you concerned that you don’t have the power or the position to make it happen?”
Guy Farmer, from Self-Awareness Workshops presents Business Ethics and Rationalization. “Leaders choose what kind of organizations they design and whether ethical behavior is part of the equation. Their own behaviors are often reflected in how their organizations function.”
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Last Friday I cited research from Northwestern and advice from John O’Farrell of Andreessen Horowitz on the dangers of flattery and importance of not hiring ‘yes-people’.
I received a couple of emails arguing that it was important in a startup that everyone in a startup was on board with the founder’s vision. Boat-rockers were not welcome; 100% agreement was needed to support the level of commitment required to succeed and without it the company was likely to founder if not fail outright.
“Countries that stifle dissent while attempting to encourage entrepreneurship will end up at a competitive disadvantage. (…) Because without dissent there is no creativity.”
Companies are small countries.
Whether it’s Google or the newest startup on the block, each has its own peculiar culture, mores and MAP.
Its own laws, spoken or not, and law enforcement; its own ways of keeping its citizens in line.
It’s your responsibility as founder to encourage dissent—especially when it’s dissenting from you.
Option Sanity™ celebrates creativity. Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system. It’s so easy a CEO can do it.
Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.” Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.
Developer Auction, which allows companies to bid for the services of high-performance software engineers. It’s a disruptive idea because the San Francisco-based company makes it easier for companies to find workers, which in turn get more money for their services.
It generates revenue by taking 15% of the negotiated salary and then kicks back 20% of that to the candidate.
I’m sure it will make a lot of money, at least in the short-term considering the current hot market.
It also is the absolute stupidest hiring move companies can make, not that that will stop them.
I can think of no better way to find developers to whom money is everything and product passion and loyalty are words in the dictionary.
Not to mention the effect on the current team, company culture and internal salary structure.
But it does offer the wow factor of cutting-edge bragging rights and the fanfare will probably camouflage the hiring manager’s lack of staffing skills.
Take time to read them and feel free to call or email me (contact info on the right) if you need any assistance at no charge—I never charge for doing good deeds.
SUBMIT YOUR STORY Be the Thursday feature – Entrepreneurs: [your company name]
Share the story of your startup today.
Send it along with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.
Questions? Email or call me at 360.335.8054 Pacific time.
I’m writing this long before election results are in, but it doesn’t matter. I can guarantee, without a doubt, that some of you are very happy campers and the rest of you are POed, angry, upset, depressed or scared.
No matter which, I suggest that you focus instead on your personal ikigai—your reason for being. Or, as is said on Okinawa, “a reason to get up in the morning”, that is, a reason to enjoy life.
Few Americans are willing to invest the time to get to know themselves well enough to identify their real ikigai, so they substitute all kinds of prefab things to give meaning to their lives.
“Ray” was amazing. He had all the skills and insights that Craig had, but added a dimension that was grounded in empathy.
Like Craig, he worked hard to help all his people succeed, but his vibe was warm and caring.
He was always willing to listen, whether the problem was work-relate or not. He knew when people needed help finding a solution and when they just needed to vent.
His concern extended beyond their time in his organization, so that he remained a trusted advisor or occasional source of advice throughout their careers.
In fact, he turned down an opportunity in a startup that required relocation and would have made him a multi-millionaire, because of concerns of what would happen to his people when he wasn’t there to shield them from the brunt of the company’s toxic culture.
When he did change jobs locally he was followed by an unending stream of resumes from people who wanted to work for him again.
The difference between Ray and Craig may be summed up in the word empathy.
Empathy is defined as “the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.”
Whereas Craig couldn’t identify with or experience anything beyond his own actual world, Ray could do both, with a feel even for those with backgrounds so different they had no connection to anything he knew.
Ray’s empathy was grounded in the fact that they were both human and that was all he required to connect and care.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
This is not about politics, but when I read a description of Karl Rove in an Op-Ed column I found amusement as to how easily you could change the word “consultant” to “entrepreneur” and “buy advice” to “invest in/join the company.”
Want a guaranteed way to screw-up your company?
Ask most people if they hear people or listen to them and they’ll say they listen.
If you follow any form of news you know that sexual foible has once again reared its immortal head and laid several leaders low.
Well, the election is over and Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but life goes on and work never seems to end. To give you a leg up on dealing with all that here are the best posts about leadership, culture, communication and a myriad of subtopics from 
Have you heard about a 
I’m writing this long before election results are in, but it doesn’t matter. I can guarantee, without a doubt, that some of you are very happy campers and the rest of you are POed, angry, upset, depressed or scared.
Last week I told you about the 
