I spend a lot of time in airports and as a result I get time to people watch and observe folks from all walks of life. One thing is constant despite their background, they are in a rush. Now this could be a symptom of the location, however I think it is a bit wider than that.

I ate lunch with a good friend recently, we used to be colleagues and still keep in touch. One common topic is career progression and job hunting.

My friend is currently looking to move into a new phase of her career and one thing she invested in was professional resume help. She has connected with a service that will rewrite your resume and ensure that it passes the software filters most recruiters use now. In addition it provides a guarantee that you get a call back for an interview within 60 days.

When I asked why she was using a service she said simply, it was a faster way to her next move.

As I thought through these two stories it made me wonder if this is a modern incarnation or a human condition.

I don’t have the breadth of history to know what people 100 years ago thought on the subject. However if I am using an antidote I know that papers were printed with morning, afternoon and evening editions. This was before radio and TV, but it indicates something.

People wanted access to the news, fast. They didn’t want to wait and that sounds very much like our current culture.

So I’m not going to suggest you stop and smell the roses and meditate. I say embrace the rush and love it to its fullest knowing you are fulfilling a human condition that has existed for some time.

Image credit: Jon S

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

I really don’t have anything to add to this one.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

My father turned down a parental deferral and desk job during World War II, instead choosing to fight and served as an intelligence officer in the Pacific. He returned safely.

When he returned he clandestinely took up another cause, helping the Haganah in the fight to establish the State of Israel. He died in his sleep during a gun buying road trip along with two others when the driver also fell asleep.

Both were causes about which he felt strongly; both he was willing to fight for, but in one case he lived and the other he died.

To some he was a hero, to others a villain and to still others a fool, who risked his life when he didn’t have to.

We need more fools.

Heroes

Some Heroes obvious, some unsung,
their lives and health, tempting fate.
Vulnerable in tasks for our civilization,
few glories for their life’s profession.

The Service men in our Armed Forces,
the cause be sure for freedom’s sake.
For their family, strangers, citizens all,
few medals show their life’s duress.

The policeman whose life is in peril,
by high-speed chase, gunfight ensued.
The simple traffic stop may kill,
few medals show the dangers faced.

The man who is trained as a fireman,
to save our lives, our homes from fire.
The first on scene when aid in need,
few medals show each hazardous deed.

The utilities that keep our comfort whole,
power and phone, the men on poles.
Sewage, garbage disposed for health,
no recognition for the civilian fight.

The many others whose work obscure,
performing tasks with risks not yours.
Construction, or the viral flu to cure,
no medals glory for the civilian plight.

Image credit: Ewen Roberts

I had the opportunity to attend PoweredUp 2018 hosted by Tampa Bay Tech. It was an opportunity to meet with others in the Tampa Bay, Florida area that are involved in tech, see the latest trends and learn what is working.

One takeaway from the event that I was not aware of. Tampa Bay is the largest tech hub in Florida and one of the fastest growing in the Southeast.

You may think of Florida as white sand beaches, warm weather, and retirees; and you would be right! However certain parts of the state are changing significantly.

I live in St Petersburg, Fl and learned the median age is 38. We have world-class museums, excellent restaurants, and a thriving arts scene. We also have some of the largest public access to the water in all of North America.

Other things else contributing to our growth is a large university system, thriving downtown and lower cost of living than places like San Francisco and New York. Why do I say all of this? I say it because I live here and I did not know that about my own city.

Tech has been primarily centered in large metropolitan areas along the major coastal cities. It makes sense but times are changing. As markets become too constricted and families grow there becomes a need to look outside of the bubble to see what else is out there.

That is where places like Tampa Bay come into play. They offer all the amenities that one needs and a value-add.

There are many offices opening in our city for companies that are Silicon Valley based and venture backed. Those organizations recognize that there is a talent base here that has yet to be tapped.

So this takes me back to the event I attended. Part of the reason for the event is to educate the tech community here that we are not alone.

We are a thriving part of the economy and its only getting better. Senior leaders in companies live and work here; its no longer God’s Waiting Room and we have a bright future.

So if you’re looking for a place to open an office or move, look at the St Petersburg/Tampa area and I’m sure you will feel right at home.

Image credit: Antoine Gady

I’m here this week in Dallas, Texas for our company’s sales kickoff. Most of my company is remote and this also gives us an opportunity to meet in person for some quality bonding time.

I have found that these face-time meetings can create tremendous value as a company and as an individual rep. As companies continue to find talent from across the nation and world it becomes obvious that some time spent together can make a lasting impact.

Since we’re in Texas there are a few things that we must experience and do as a team. BBQ is top of the list. One of the executives within my company has a ranch in Texas and we had an excellent BBQ on the grounds of his property.

Basically, every cliché you can think of took place. Horses, cowboy hats, country music and great BBQ.

One takeaway that I learned during the evening was this, folks that travel for work get tired of restaurants. When we did the BBQ it was a moment for people to relax, spend time actually talking and not worrying about if we have tipped the server enough to stay longer.

It’s a good lesson to keep in mind when visiting clients as well. Give them some space to roam and you never know what you may find out.

Texas being Texas the week is not complete without going to a gun range. Now I realize that the gun debate is raging right now and even this week we have had another terrible school shooting. However, the experience at this range was able to cross political divides for at least one day. We had folks that are very experienced with shooting and those who have never touched a gun in their lives.

The feedback from the group was they were very happy to have had the experience to learn about gun safety from professionals and build a little confidence in what the weapon can do.

I am of the belief that weapons require respect and I carried that lesson into the events of the day. We conducted this event with clients and many of them walked away with a smile on their face after firing a gun for the first time. My takeaway from this is to get someone out of their comfort zone and you may just see who they really are.

So I went into this week with no expectations but learned three things:

Proximity matters. Give people space to roam. Create opportunities to expand your comfort zone.

They all help in business and in life.

Image credit: bryan…

Originally this post was written for and about founders, but it is applicable to bosses everywhere, no matter the size or age of their company.

However, if one chooses to revisit a post from the past one must admit one’s errors — especially the glaringly obvious ones.

I wrote that “tolerance for bullying may be waning,” which, based on what has happened in the intervening five years was clearly off the mark.

What does seem to have happened is the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mindset has gained more followers, which is a sad commentary.

What hasn’t changed is that, sooner or later, believing your own hype will cost your company talent — or worse.

Bosses are known for the passion and drive that turns their vision into reality. While many are known for their technical brilliance or marketing expertise, fewer are known for their management skill.

Many harbor a secret dream of being hailed as the next Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Anna Wintour, Barry Diller or Martha Stewart.

If those names impress you then consider that they all are in Forbes Bully Bosses Hall of Fame (personally, I’d have included Jack Welch).

“At some point, those we consider ‘visionaries’ become puffed-up creations of their own imagination. When business executives stop looking beyond quarterly reports and stockholder dividends, they start ignoring internal stakeholders. We’re seeing that unravel now.” —Gary Namie, management consultant

American tolerance for bullying leaders may be waning.

There has been a real sea change in what’s conceptualized as good leadership. Americans have become disenchanted with power. Almost daily, they watch as leaders–in government, in business–fail to exercise appropriate restraint.” –Roderick Kramer, Stanford Business School professor.

In four decades I never spoke with anyone who liked being bullied and have watched tolerance for it seep away.

These days people vote with their feet; the question is not ‘should I leave’, but ‘how soon can I leave’.

The focus is how quickly someone can find a position that combines personal satisfaction with the ability to take care of their responsibilities.

Good management/leadership isn’t just about killer visions.

It’s about enabling growth by building up and never tearing down either the people or the enterprise for which you are responsible.

In short, take care of your people; without them there is no company.

Image credit: kowarski

When you’ve written a blog for 12 years (plus a second one simultaneously for two of years) you’ve said a lot of what you want to say. Beyond that, you’ve often said it better that first time than when you are posting on the same subject years later, which is why I started Golden Oldies.

Yesterday’s GO led me to two others and between them they say pretty much everything I was thinking about for follow-up.

I “preached” culture long before it was legitimized; back in those days it was often considered consultant’s smoke and mirrors.

My thoughts on corporate culture haven’t changed much, although the world certainly has.

Definitions of corporate culture come, go and are constantly being refined, but I think my decade old take is still valid.

There are as many definitions and explanations of corporate culture as there are academics, consultants, coaches and every person who works now, has worked in the past or plans to work in the future.

But what about the ‘corporate’ in corporate culture?

What is it other than a piece of paper showing that the government recognizes its existence and it owes taxes?

Is it the office buildings that house it? The manuals that explain it? The stock that represents its value?

Actually, a corporation isn’t an entity at all. It’s a group of people, with shared values, all moving in the same direction, united in a shared vision and their efforts to reach a common goal.

That means that the ‘culture’ in corporate culture is about those people and their MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).

Image credit: Gavriella Fabbri

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

The lesson of these two posts is simple: culture can be good or bad; cults are always bad.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Two Sides Of Cult Culture

Did you do your homework from Saturday?

I asked you to read Heather Clancy’s take on great culture (content isn’t immortal; the link is a 404 error) and said that I’d explain today why I disagree.

The problem I have is with the idea of culture as a cult.

The definition of cult is given as “great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work,” and culture as “set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices;” Heather sees ‘devotion’ and ‘shared’ as interchangeable—and that makes me very uncomfortable.

Another definition for cult is “obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.”

The examples she uses, Apple, Google and Salesforce.com, are superb companies.

But when someone says ‘cult’ to me I think of Jim Jones, whose followers had great devotion, so much that they followed Jones to the death—literally.

Lehman Brothers and other Wall Street banking houses had/have strong cult cultures as does AIG. Their people had great devotion and passion to cultures that were focused on winning no matter what and we all know where that got us. Another enterprise that comes to mind is Enron.

The point I’m making is that cult culture, like most concepts, cuts both ways.

When culture becomes a cult it can lose its flexibility and willingness to grow and change—necessities in today’s fast-changing world.

It’s always tempting to choose examples that highlight the positive view of a business (or any) concept, but it is imperative to avoid assumptions and remember that there are two sides to everything.

Image credit: Gúnna on flickr

Ducks in a Row: Culture Then and Now

Three years ago, in Leadership Turn, I talked about the dangers of allowing your culture to become a cult, but it seems that’s happening more and more.

The same day I explained here the benefits of what I called an ALUC culture.

ALUC is composed of four actions:

• Ask everyone for input, ideas, suggestions and opinions—not just your so-called stars.

• Listen and really hear what is said, discuss it, think about it.

• Use what you get as often as possible, whether in whole or in part, or as the springboard that leads to something totally different.

• Credit the source(s), both up and down, publicly and privately, thank them, compliment them, congratulate them.

The following day I offered some simple advice on implementing ALUC.

All three were worth reading then.

All three are worth reading now.

You want/need a culture, not a cult.

Flickr image credit: Antony Hollingworth

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here.

As you all know, startups are 80+ hour weeks and pre-launch adds at least 10 hours.

However, I wanted to share John Buchan’s words (he was an historian and Canadian politician), because it’s the kind of thing that can easily fall through the cracks when you’re living with intense startup pressure.

But it shouldn’t.

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

It’s what we, as founders, owe to those who dare to take the trip with us.

Image credit: HikingArtist

What do you do when you are bored / broke / dim / greedy?

Especially if you live in California?

File a lawsuit, of course.

Not only do you sometimes win, but 40 years later someone produces a musical about it.

In the 1970s, a 29-year-old woman named Gloria Sykes sued Muni for $500,000 (roughly $3.1 million today) for a head accident on a Hyde street cable car that turned her into a nymphomaniac. The widely publicized event and ensuing court battle brought in psychiatrists and the woman’s lovers to testify on her behaviors, and—as might only happen in San Francisco—she won her case.

These days, cable cars are passé and the focus is on food.

From the vagaries of baked dough in Subway’s Foot-long subs to Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme.

The basis of the donut lawsuits is the same.

Both have blueberry donuts that, gasp, don’t actually have blueberries in them. The same goes for

Krispy Kreme’s raspberry-filled donuts and, horrors, the maple bar is not made with real maple syrup.

This, of course, is a cause of major trauma to the millions of people who buy them for their healthful properties.

Now you know what to do when you are bored / broke / dim / just plain greedy.

Hat tip to CB Insights for alerting me to the Krispy Kreme story.

Image credit: Richard Giles

In 2013 I wrote,

Actually, a corporation isn’t an entity at all. It’s a group of people all moving in the same direction, united in a shared vision and their efforts to reach a common goal.

In other words, they relate.

Relationships are formed when two or more people interact.

According to Todd Davis, chief people officer for FranklinCovey, with more than 30 years of experience,

It’s the nature of the relationships between those people [think culture – Ed] that really creates a team’s or an organization’s or a company’s competitive advantage. I think it’s critical, and it’s really what makes or breaks the success and effectiveness of an organization.

Up until recently, ‘relationship’ was typically used more in our personal world; using it in conjunction with work is relatively new.

For decades I’ve said that people have two sides to their head, personal and professional, and rarely do they use the skills from one side in dealing with the challenges on the other.

People spend time (and often money) learning to improve their romantic relationships, but don’t necessarily think of tweaking what they learned and using it to improve relationships with their colleagues/subordinates/boss, but they should.

Should, because taking time to really understand where others are coming reduces personal stress.

Should, because relationships are the keys to success — yours, the team’s, the bosses’, and the company’s.

In short, should, because it works.

Image credit: Katy Ereira