Back when I worked for other companies I was considered “difficult.”
When I was young I was fired from one job for not taking my 15 minute breaks twice a day and from another for being too honest with a customer.
I spent 12 years working for a manager who never understood that all I wanted was acknowledgment and/or appreciation—without having to ask for it.
“Good job;” “congratulations, hell of a deal;” “good to see you back, we missed you.”
I was one of the top producers in his office, but the only time he said anything was when I brought whatever to his attention.
As most anyone will tell you, positive feedback or compliments are worthless when you need to prompt the source for them.
Often small efforts yield large results. My boss wanted me to move to the next level, but gave me no reason to put out the effort—the money wasn’t enough, I wanted to matter.
I recently told this story to a manager with high turnover in his department. He responded that he didn’t have time to “babysit” and expected his people to act like adults.
Of course today is about mom, but most of the quotes are so saccharine I couldn’t make myself use them, so I decided to focus is on the thing without which there would be no moms—kids.
Right away I want to say that “mom” is a concept, not the female half of a marriage or, as Oprah Winfrey said, “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.”
An anonymous quote makes clear something else about mothers that is frequently ignored, “All mothers are working mothers.”
Aristotle’s words not only predate DNA testing, but the attitude of many modern males, “Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.”
Peter De Vries makes a nice point that is equally true for urban and rural moms as it is for those who live in suburbia, “A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.”
I heard Sam Levenson’s comment many years ago and find it just as amusing (and true) now as then if not more so, “Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children.”
John J. Plomp noticed something that every parent, especially new ones, is very cognizant of, “The one thing children wear out faster than shoes is parents.”
And while we’re on that subject, we’ll let Lionel Kauffman have the final word today, “Children are a great comfort in your old age – and they help you reach it faster, too.”
Rather than leave the future of the convents to prayer and chance, Sister Elaine Lachance has turned to the Internet. She’s using social media and blogging to attract women who feel the calling to serve God and their community. “But I knew I had to go there, that I had to do it,” said Lachance, who turned 70 on Sunday. “You have to go where the young people are. And that’s where they are.”
With 80,000 people surrounded by not much of anything — with no Interstate, no university, and the closest major city 160 miles away across steep and snowy mountains — beer has had room to make a difference. (…) “You have to thank Gary Fish for kind of creating that culture,” said Larry Sidor, a former brew master at Deschutes who left last year to open a brewery of his own this summer, CRUX Fermentation Project. “It’s been kind of a training ground, a spawning ground for the craft movement.”
We’ve put a self-perpetuating cycle in motion. The more anxious, isolated and time-deprived we are, the more likely we are to turn to paid personal services. To finance these extra services, we work longer hours. This leaves less time to spend with family, friends and neighbors; we become less likely to call on them for help, and they on us.
Young couples have long signaled their devotion to each other by various means — the gift of a letterman jacket, or an exchange of class rings or ID bracelets. (…) It has become fashionable for young people to express their affection for each other by sharing their passwords to e-mail, Facebook and other accounts.
Fast forward to adulthood and that tell-the-world social sharing is still creating mayhem, although not because of changing affections.
After a few relationship-testing episodes, some spouses have started insisting that their partners ask for approval before posting comments and photographs that include them. Couples also are talking through rules as early as the first date (a kind of social media prenup) about what is O.K. to share. Even tweeting about something as seemingly innocent as a house repair can become a lesson in boundary-setting.
Enjoy today and have a memorable Mother’s Day tomorrow.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Today is a mental health day.
(Try it; you might be surprised at the difference it makes!)
See you all tomorrow!
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As I’m sure you’re aware I love stories. I believe that stories are the best way to excite and engage people no matter the relationship and definitely the best way to teach.
Today’s story is from Arthur Bart-Williams, a client whose startup involves a masterful story-telling platform.
Arthur’s story is proof that a great idea is worth pursuing—even when there is a six year lag between first thought and market testing.
From Arthur…
I founded Canogle in late 2010. The name—from the words, “can” and “ogle” and pronounced kan-og-uhl—means to look without restrictions; to be fully immersed in and a part of a particular world.
Canogle is a platform on which to tell a story.
People love stories; stories about the natural world and places they visit and stories about things, happenings and the brands they love.
They want curated stories, but they also want commentary from their peers and the Canogle platform provides both.
The idea first surfaced in 2004 when I was honeymooning on Maui and Jess, my wife, was using a paper map to navigate and to note interesting sites.
She said she was paying more attention to the map than to the things around her and I thought someone ought to come up with a way to know about sites as you pass them.
By the time we got home, I was excited enough to write the first version of a business plan and convince my brother to develop a prototype.
Then life happened. We had a daughter, I co-founded Combase, which was acquired by ViaNovus and then by Sword Group, fielded a few of life’s curve balls and had another daughter.
I was inspired again while watching a Silicon Valley technology show called “Press: Here” in mid-2010 and decided to find out if anybody cared about my idea.
I told one friend about the project, her eyes lit up and she introduced me to her friend who introduced me to the Executive Director of the Muir Heritage Land Trust, which became our first beta.
The good thing is that things are changing. Even mighty Google that once hired only 3.7+ GPAs has changed how they recruit using puzzles to identify talent that might fall through the cracks—assuming it even got that far.
Probably the greatest value of higher education—all education, actually—is learning how to learn.
It’s knowing where to find information and how to assimilate, tweak and synthesize it
so it becomes useful in both the short and long terms; more value comes from learning how to focus and think critically.
Skill in the actual major has value for two to four years—less in technical fields that change with radical speed.
From that point on the value of actual degree content goes down 20% or more each year, whereas real experience goes up.
That means in five years specific degrees become meaningless, while specific experience holds all the value.
Moreover, those with the ability to successfully move from industry to industry, field to field, department to department, position to position sans ego and hype truly have a price above rubies—although they rarely think so.
What do Wal-Mart, Dewey & LeBoeuf and NewsCorp have in common?
Cultural deficiencies manifested in bad judgment, lies and executive shilly-shallying.
What was not previously known until the Times report on the bribery scandal is that at about the same time Mr Scott began the offensive to improve Wal-Mart’s image in the United States, he also rebuked the company’s internal bribery investigation in Mexico for being overly aggressive. The investigation was soon dropped. (Wal-Mart)
“The [compensation] guarantees were extremely corrosive culturally because they were divorced from individual or firm performance, which shatters the whole notion of a partnership,” Mr. MacEwen said. “And they were promiscuously awarded.” (Dewey)
The negotiations were so tightly held that only Mr. Crone, Mr. Myler and Mr. Murdoch knew about them, said two company officials. The officials said that even employees who were typically involved in legal decisions did not learn of the settlement until it leaked in a newspaper. (News Corp)
What does Google have in common with them?
Cultural deficiencies manifested in bad judgment, lies and executive shilly-shallying.
The report, which was first published in its unredacted form by The Los Angeles Times, also states that the engineer, who began the project as part of his “20 percent” time that Google gives employees to do work on their own initiative, “specifically told two engineers working on the project, including a senior manager, about collecting payload data.” (Google)
In a March post I asked, “Does Google’s new approach to privacy violate its ‘don’t be evil’ philosophy?”
I guess that question is answered now.
But I have to say, I find it sad to see Google all grown up and playing in the same class as Wal-Mart, Dewey and News Corp; I honestly thought they were better than that.
Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender, presents What Creates a High Performing Organization. Does social media play a role in developing high performance? This post explores the concept. I had a chance to meet Sharlyn recently at a conference, and she is the real deal!
Lolly Daskal is very passionate about the power of heart-based leadership, the value of personal integrity, helping people achieve their potential, and the importance of making a difference in the world. She’s also been a consistent Twitter supporter of Great Leadership. Here’s The Truth About Leadership, from her Lead from Within blog.
Wally Bock from Three Star Leadership presents Magical Bosses. Great bosses get results that often seem magical. But there’s method to the magic.
Last month’s Carnival host, Tanmay Vora, from QAspire Blog, presents Lifelong Learning: Lesson from a Cab Driver. “I once heard Tom Peters saying that if you are a business traveler, you learn the most not from the corporate executives but from the cab drivers. You really get a perspective about life. I experienced it first-hand!”
Jennifer V. Miller from The People Equation presents The KISS Model of Leadership Development.
Worn out by all the complex leadership development systems in your company? Jennifer Miller gives leaders a respite with a “keep it simple” approach to daily leadership development.
Mike Henry and Chery Gegelman from The Lead Change Group, presents Are You Making Choices That Matter? “I grew up in rural North Dakota and would occasionally see movies about events that are a part of our history but were not a part of my reality: Movies about the civil rights movement or the Holocaust. Watching those movies would instantly trigger my adrenalin, raise my heart-rate and make every cell in my 5’2 body feel as courageous as David taking on Goliath. In those moments, I felt invincible and ready to kick some bully-butt…”
Mary Jo Asmus from http://www.aspire-cs.com/, presents What’s Best for Them? Managers everywhere are frustrated that their best employees aren’t moving ahead with the wonderful development suggestions they’ve been given. This post explains a simple way to change this.
Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents Ducks in a Row: When Stupid Invades the Culture. What is going on; are people really getting stupider? No matter the arena, business, political, religious or role models in general, the operative question these days is ‘What were he/she/they thinking’.
Lynn Dessert from Elephants at Work presents Why does executive coaching take so long? The urgency to get it done quickly often produces poor coaching results. When your personal readiness and the coaching process are aligned, your goals can be reached.
Guy Farmer from Unconventional Training presents The Overlooked Leadership Tool. Leaders sometimes forget that their employees have a wealth of ideas to deal with challenges in the workplace. Discover a valuable tool to tap into that brain power.
Tim Milburn from TimMilburn.com presents How To Be A De-Motivational Leader. I wrote this post as a tongue-in-cheek look at what NOT to do as a leader. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed how many leaders do these exact things. Reading about de-motivational leadership is funny. Working for a de-motivational leader…not so funny.
Joel Garfinkle from Career Advancement Blog presents 5 Surefire Tips for Job Advancement .
Professionals who want more from their careers have to seize the initiative. Many of these individuals follow a series of intentional steps to career success to secure promotions.
Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group, presents What is your greatest strength? on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog where she talks about the importance of leaders acknowledging and building upon their strengths, and choosing to use them thoughtfully.
Mary Ila Ward from Horizon Point Consulting, presents Is Your Way the only Highway? In this post, the author discusses problems with the my way or the highway mentality and introduces ways for leaders to avoid stifling creativity and innovation in those they lead.
Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents Out-of-the-Box Thinking About Corporate Culture.” I discuss the unique “no-hour workweek” utilized at investment startup Betterment. They’ve found a terrific approach that honors the hectic, 24/7 pace of a startup and combines the realities of work/life balance – team members share the load, demonstrate trust & respect of each other, and don’t miss a trick. Very interesting culture”
Finally, we’ll end with a last second submission from my friends at Talented Apps: Mark Bennett from TalentedApps – presents The New Crucible of Leadership. The old ways that leaders got to be in their position are being slowly eroded. Is that such a bad thing?
That’s it for this month’s edition!
Welcome to the May edition of the Leadership Development Carnival!
For those of you that may not be familiar with the Carnival, here’s a refresher:
1. A blog “Carnival” is typically a collection of recent blog posts organized around a common theme, in this case, leadership development. Although there are lot’s of places a reader can go to get aggregated free content these days, my readers still seem to appreciate the monthly Carnival collection. Bloggers like them because it’s an opportunity to reach new readers.
2. I’ve been hosting the Carnival for a few years, and for the last couple years, have shared the hosting responsibilities with other bloggers.
3. I have a mailing list of over 60 leadership bloggers that I know and respect that I go to each month and ask for their best recent post. I usually get about 30-40 posts, that are sometimes organized around a theme.
4. I’m always looking for new contributors – if you are interested, send me an email with a link to your blog and I’ll consider adding you to the list. I’m at danmccarth at gmail dot com.
So here’s the May edition – no theme – just all good stuff!
Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender, presents What Creates a High Performing Organization. Does social media play a role in developing high performance? This post explores the concept. I had a chance to meet Sharlyn recently at a conference, and she is the real deal!
Lolly Daskal is very passionate about the power of heart-based leadership, the value of personal integrity, helping people achieve their potential, and the importance of making a difference in the world. She’s also been a consistent Twitter supporter of Great Leadership. Here’s The Truth About Leadership, from her Lead from Within blog.
Wally Bock from Three Star Leadership presents Magical Bosses. Great bosses get results that often seem magical. But there’s method to the magic.
Last month’s Carnival host, Tanmay Vora, from QAspire Blog, presents Lifelong Learning: Lesson from a Cab Driver. “I once heard Tom Peters saying that if you are a business traveler, you learn the most not from the corporate executives but from the cab drivers. You really get a perspective about life. I experienced it first-hand!”
Jennifer V. Miller from The People Equation presents The KISS Model of Leadership Development.
Worn out by all the complex leadership development systems in your company? Jennifer Miller gives leaders a respite with a “keep it simple” approach to daily leadership development.
Mike Henry and Chery Gegelman from The Lead Change Group, presents Are You Making Choices That Matter? “I grew up in rural North Dakota and would occasionally see movies about events that are a part of our history but were not a part of my reality: Movies about the civil rights movement or the Holocaust. Watching those movies would instantly trigger my adrenalin, raise my heart-rate and make every cell in my 5’2 body feel as courageous as David taking on Goliath. In those moments, I felt invincible and ready to kick some bully-butt…”
Mary Jo Asmus from http://www.aspire-cs.com/, presents What’s Best for Them? Managers everywhere are frustrated that their best employees aren’t moving ahead with the wonderful development suggestions they’ve been given. This post explains a simple way to change this.
Miki Saxon from MAPping Company Success presents Ducks in a Row: When Stupid Invades the Culture. What is going on; are people really getting stupider? No matter the arena, business, political, religious or role models in general, the operative question these days is ‘What were he/she/they thinking’.
Lynn Dessert from Elephants at Work presents Why does executive coaching take so long? The urgency to get it done quickly often produces poor coaching results. When your personal readiness and the coaching process are aligned, your goals can be reached.
Guy Farmer from Unconventional Training presents The Overlooked Leadership Tool. Leaders sometimes forget that their employees have a wealth of ideas to deal with challenges in the workplace. Discover a valuable tool to tap into that brain power.
Tim Milburn from TimMilburn.com presents How To Be A De-Motivational Leader. I wrote this post as a tongue-in-cheek look at what NOT to do as a leader. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed how many leaders do these exact things. Reading about de-motivational leadership is funny. Working for a de-motivational leader…not so funny.
Joel Garfinkle from Career Advancement Blog presents 5 Surefire Tips for Job Advancement .
Professionals who want more from their careers have to seize the initiative. Many of these individuals follow a series of intentional steps to career success to secure promotions.
Lisa Kohn of Chatsworth Consulting Group, presents What is your greatest strength? on The Thoughtful Leaders Blog where she talks about the importance of leaders acknowledging and building upon their strengths, and choosing to use them thoughtfully.
Mary Ila Ward from Horizon Point Consulting, presents Is Your Way the only Highway? In this post, the author discusses problems with the my way or the highway mentality and introduces ways for leaders to avoid stifling creativity and innovation in those they lead.
Chris Edmonds from Driving Results Through Culture presents Out-of-the-Box Thinking About Corporate Culture.” I discuss the unique “no-hour workweek” utilized at investment startup Betterment. They’ve found a terrific approach that honors the hectic, 24/7 pace of a startup and combines the realities of work/life balance – team members share the load, demonstrate trust & respect of each other, and don’t miss a trick. Very interesting culture”
Finally, we’ll end with a last second submission from my friends at Talented Apps: Mark Bennett from TalentedApps – presents The New Crucible of Leadership. The old ways that leaders got to be in their position are being slowly eroded. Is that such a bad thing?
That’s it for this month’s edition!
Unless you’ve been off-planet you’ve probably noticed that it’s election time again and if you think it’s been bad so far, well, as the man said, you ain’t seen nothing yet. That said, I thought a little levity now and then would relieve the tedium of listening to both sides lie over the next six months.
Aesop, he of the famous Fables, has a wonderful insight that certainly explains many of those who hold office—past, present and, sadly, future, “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”
Plato did a great job of explaining the difference between those who run and those who vote, “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
Clarence Darrow summed up how many of us feel today when he said, “When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.”
While Mark Twain, in his inimitable style, handily summed up the Legislative Branch, “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”
Finally, Milton Friedman succinctly sums up everything, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
As you may have guessed there is no unifying theme today; just some very interesting stuff.
According to the media today’s college grad wants to either start a company or work in a startup, but is that really true? An article in the The Brown Daily Herald says otherwise, but obviously, the external media probably knows more than an internal college paper.
Of the 67 percent of Brown graduates who entered the workforce after graduation in 2011, 20 percent — 171 students — worked in either consulting or finance. Teach for America was the top employer of graduates, followed by Google and Goldman Sachs.
Next, Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora, shares great career wisdom from Larry Ellison, Marc Benioff and Scott Thompson, the CEO’s of Oracle, Salesforce.com and Yahoo
Larry Ellison, Oracle founder/CEO: “Sometimes, you need to piss off the boss.”
Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com founder/CEO: “Break the glass ceiling in your head.”
Scott Thompson, Yahoo CEO: “Your job is to make people successful”
Those who favor a meatier subject should read new research from Michael C. Jensen, the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, on the impact of integrity in the real world.
Behavior that lacks integrity leads to value destruction. This paper analyzes some common beliefs, actions, and activities in finance that are inconsistent with being a person or a firm of integrity. Each of these beliefs leads to a system that lacks integrity, i.e., one that is not whole and complete and therefore creates unworkability and destroys value.
How do the magazines treat your personal information when you subscribe? Do you have value to them beyond the price of your subscription? That’s what a reporter wondered, so she did an informal test to find out.
“It is revenue-producing for a publisher to collect subscribers’ information and sell it,” said Paul Stephens, the director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer group in San Diego. “It’s just information that is very valuable to advertisers who want to target individuals based on their interests.”
Now that you’ve eaten your meat and veggies here’s a goody for dessert. It’s the best version I’ve seen of images set to Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire. Turn up your speakers, go to full screen and enjoy!
Back when I worked for other companies I was considered “difficult.”
Of course today is about mom, but most of the quotes are so saccharine I couldn’t make myself use them, so I decided to focus is on the thing without which there would be no moms—kids.
Maybe because it is finally spring where I live, but my mind is skipping around topics like a butterfly (although I haven’t seen any yet).
Today is a mental health day.
I founded 
What do Wal-Mart, Dewey & LeBoeuf and NewsCorp have in common?
Unless you’ve been off-planet you’ve probably noticed that it’s election time again and if you think it’s been bad so far, well, as the man said, you ain’t seen nothing yet. That said, I thought a little levity now and then would relieve the tedium of listening to both sides lie over the next six months.
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